When the Senate learnt of Crown Emperor Adam Lorenzo's intentions to begin freeing star systems that had been forcefully absorbed into the empire, and whose citizens still campaigned fiercely for freedom, Senior Magistrate Maximilian Tyler-Brett became angry at what he saw as the beginnings of devolution. And although he strongly opposed the action and petitioned the emperor a number of times against it, Lorenzo III overruled his suggestions.

In the week that Tigris and Sampi-Persei VII were granted independence, the senate abandoned the Forum and departed for Hyanik, where they reconvened. From there they plotted the overthrow of the emperor, intending to replace him with Tyler-Brett until the issues of independence were resolved.

Tyler-Brett planned the assassination attempts of Lorenzo himself, putting an assassin in place of one of the waiting staff and attempting to kill Lorenzo whilst he ate dinner. When the attempt failed, he instead had a bomb planted on the emperor's personal shuttle. This attempt failed too, but succeeded in killing Margaret Lorenzo, the emperor's wife.

Following this, a civil war was triggered, matching the senate and its loyalists off against the emperor and the entire imperial navy. Against such a force, the senate were quick to lose and many surrendered at Hyanik. Tyler-Brett was arrested, put on trial and locked away.

Despite losing their initial battle against the emperor, the surviving, exiled members of the senate prepared a contagious nanobot virus, that targeted the citizens of Mitikas themselves (using DNA template matching to ensure that only "pure-bred" imperial citizens were affected). The program would make those infected completely loyal to the senate (and only the senate).

After successful trials on a number of volunteers, the nanomachines were seeded into various cities throughout Mitikas, transforming the citizens into the super soldiers that would go on to become known as the Pandoran army.

In his attempt to prevent the Pandoran army from totally destroying the empire, Lorenzo targeted the remaining members of the senate, hoping that with them dead the soldiers would cease their attacks. The action failed, and with no one left to give them orders or tell them to stop, the soldiers simply continued with carrying out the last order they were given - the termination of all those who opposed the rule of the senate.