Ulysses 1994XF04

This information was gathered from Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies, Ace Combat 04: Distant Thunder and the official Ace Combat 04 PROJECT ACES Website.

Summary
In 1994, the International Union of Astronomists (IUA) sights a large Asteroid on a collision course with the Planet. It was estimated to make planet fall sometime in the year 1999. First labeled '1994XFO4', and later renamed 'Ulysses'; the Asteroid was large enough to, 'theoretically' wipe out life on the planet.

The Stonehenge Project was created to stop the Asteroid. It was the first Super Weapon built, funded or supported by almost every Nation on the face of the planet, involving scientists from across the world, such as Belka.

On saturday 1999 July 3rd, 03:30pm USEA eastern standard time. Ulysses finally reaches earth's vicinity. On July 8th 1999, five years after being identified, Ulysses passed the Roche limit and split into more than a thousand pieces, many of which then plummeted to Earth. The World's nations did not expect this happening, but reacted quickly. Stonehenge engaged the larger fragments of the Ulysses 1994XF04 Asteroid and did it's best to protect the Planet. Still, Hundreds of Asteroid fragments smashed into the Usean and Anean Continents, directly killing over 500,000 in the first few days of the planetfall, although countless others died over the following years due to starvation and disease linked to the devastation caused by Ulysses and the subsequent collapse of order in several areas.

The amount of damage caused by Ulysses was mixed. Some nations, like various East Usean states and the Anean Republic of Emmeria came out of castastrophe well, while others, such as the Federal Republic of Erusia in Usea and the Federal Republic of Estovakia in Anea were devastated, throwing their nations into disorder and civil unrest. Thus, Ulysses 1994XF04 is often consider the catalyst of both the Usean and Anean Continental Wars. In 2003, using lack of support by the other Usean nations to its civil crisis as justification, Erusia forcibly took control of the Stonehenge Rail gun, and used it as a seemingly unstoppable Anti-aircraft weapon, starting the Usean Continental War. 10 years after it ended in 2005, Estovakia, which had also been going through civil unrest, suffered a military coup, and launched an Invasion of it's neighboring Anean state of Emmeria. Thus began the Anean (or Second) Continental war.