History: (The Early Years) Humans are the ultimate contradiction as a society in whole. They prosper through cooperation, yet are drawn to conflict. Throughout their early history, humans have built entire empires only to have them torn apart by war. They are constant rebuilders, creating advanced civilizations through trade, diplomacy and cooperation that later crumbles due to hostile disputes. This is how life remained for mankind’s first six-million years. Then, as advancements in technology progressed and a desperate need for natural resources increased, humans began to leave their home planet of Earth in search of other worlds.
In the human year 2113 AD, Terrans finally began to colonize other planets. They embarked on building city sized compounds along their own moon, then moved onto the nearest inhabitable planet, Mars (150 million miles away). Later, in the year 2208 AD, humans finally found affordable ways to convert galactic gases and minerals into precious materials, causing several governments and corporations to compete for cosmic assets. The race to explore outside of earth’s natural orbit sparked both constructive development and setbacks to all human kind. Amazingly, humans finally colonized the moons of both Jupiter and Saturn (two of their Solar System’s largest planets), using the moons as a base of operation to harvest natural fuel sources from both worlds. The lucrative industrial industry began to boom, creating a high demand for laborers, and high profit for multiple governments and corporations. These events however, also casted a dark shadow over the momentous occasion, triggering infighting between factions.
Political scuffles turned to physical fighting, and soon, the great Solar War was underway. The first ten years were filled with overzealous campaigns that wiped out numerous nations and conglomerates. Eventually though, a large gap between government and corporate loyalists emerged, and the first great alliance was born. Terran Allied Forces, or T.A.F. for short, united out of need from dominant human governments in order to defeat their adversaries. The “T.A.F" overcame dozens of competitors, absorbing or obliterating them in the process. Those small nations and companies who survived the initial onslaught decided to merge as well, forming Prometheus Enterprises. Prometheus was the largest association of corporate individuals in human history, and together, the business based faction was able to hold off an overbearing T.A.F. until an agreement could be made for peace. Not long after, the T.A.F. and Prometheus agreed to work in harmony (The Mutual Aid Act), contracting territories within the galaxy for both organizations to claim as their “region of responsibility”.
(The Galactic Renaissance )Not long after the war, humans reached an age of introspective enlightenment. They began to expand their horizons, and together, outline a new generation of ideals. The Galactic Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned the period roughly from the 23rd to the 24th human century, beginning on Earth and later spreading to the rest of the Solar System. As a cultural movement, it encompassed innovative flowering of galactic literatures, beginning with the resurgence of learning based on classical sources. In politics, the Renaissance contributed the development of the conventions of diplomacy, and in science, it gave way to Science-based-philosophy. Although the Renaissance saw revolutions in many intellectual pursuits, as well as social and political upheaval, it is perhaps best known for its development of the House of Veneration.
The House of Veneration was born out of the ideals of old Earth religions, but cultivated through new and innovative systematic facts. It initially refused to be labeled as a religion, gravitating towards a type of philosophy. However, because the system believed in an almighty creator, it eventually accepted its title as a system of faith. The House of Veneration believes in homage and respect for the Universe, which they believe was sparked by a “Creator”. The House, as it has been dubbed, does not claim to understand who this all powerful sentient being is, but does give credit to this maker for sparking the initial explosion which caused the universe to erupt and expand.
The House slowly evolved into the dominant human belief system by accepting discouraged followers of traditional religions into their ground-breaking faith. Like most religions, it believes in a good natured deity who wishes nothing but kindness and love for all creation. The House also believes that humans (and other races as time went on) can best show their admiration to the Creator by regarding all things with respect. These agreeable and carefree principles helped the House of Veneration dominate human worship, acquiring 80% of the human population’s support by the year 2330. This large backing helped The House of Veneration to create thousands of churches throughout the Solar System, and most notably, several massive mobile space stations (called Itinerant Chapter Houses). This enormous backing helped make The House of Veneration the third most powerful organization in Earth’s Solar System, outsized fiscally only by only the T.A.F. and Prometheus enterprises.
(New Worlds) Late within the 24th century (2398AD), humans finally achieved a critical objective by honing a stable form of “Faster-than-Light” travel. Modeling their ambition from the “Alcubierre Drive” hypothesis, scientists were able to safely travel great distances by exploiting the curvature of space. The key component of incorporating “negative mass,” was finally solved by utilizing antimatter engines. Exploration crafts were immediately sent out in all directions of the galaxy, using this advanced technology to collapse one point of space in order to fire them off into another point safely (also called worm holing).
Within months, human explorers were able to search far reaches of the Milky Way galaxy in search of other intelligent beings. What they found was that other life forms were much closer than humans had assumed. Only 10.5 light years away (roughly 10 days through Alcubierre Travel), the Solar System of Epsilon Eridani lingered in the darkness. Hidden by a pair of comet belts (which masked Epsilon’s goings-on’s for millennia), the small solar system revolved around a dull, K-type star. Three planets in all rotated around Epsilon’s sun, two of them remarkably exhibiting signs of intelligent life.
By rites of the Mutual Aid Act, the T.A.F. inherited responsibility of introducing mankind to both exotic races. After constant observation and careful deliberation, Terran Allied Forces decided it would be best to present them to these new species one planet at a time. The first planet, Epsilon Eridani B, circled the outer limits of its Solar System and was little more than a diminutive planet made of ice. Remarkably however, a race of brawny, savage humanoids managed to survive through potent environmental adaption. These powerfully built beings, three times the size of an average man, had evolved to become more resistant to frigid temperatures than any known species on earth. They were made up of nothing more than tribal hordes, and their intelligence averaged that of a ten-year old human. Researched decided that because of their powerful physical stature and indifference to the cold, they’d call the creatures “Ullitors” (after the Norse god of winter “ULL”), a name that inadvertently stuck with the species.
As time went on, the Terran Allied Forces felt it would be best to take an apprehensive approach, trading their advanced technology in order to win the Ullitors over. At first, this courtship went well, as the natives were fond of fire, modern shelter and advanced weaponry. After a few years of courting however, the massive tribes chose to use human weaponry against their human visitors. The Skalla-Grim Massacre was a devastating blow for humans’ pursuit to peacefully unite with Epsilon Eridani B inhabitants. Nearly six-hundred scientists from the Skalla-Grim Center were murdered due to what was speculated as an unannounced land dispute. T.A.F. would try to take measures in order to extinguish the animosity between the two races, but found that the Ullitors refused to negotiate. At first, T.A.F. leaders decided to just vacate the planet, but because of precious resources under the icy surface and bad blood from the Skalla-Grim incident, officials would ultimately decide to forcefully annex the planet and integrate the Ullitors into human society.
The invasion went without a hitch for the humans, who were far more militarily advanced then the Ullitors. After only seven human casualties and nearly one-hundred-and-eighty-thousand Ullitor deaths, the inhabitants of Epsilon Eridani B finally surrendered. T.A.F. members tried to bring round the Ullitors, doing their best to educate the primal species while cultivating their planet. In the eyes of T.A.F., the fiscal gain far outweighed the minimal loss of life and was chalked up as a victory. For Ullitors however, the same could not be said. Nonetheless, even though a black mark would always be stained into the history of these two species, nearly a half-century later, young, human-schooled Ullitors would finally be allowed to join the Terran Federation as full born citizens. In the meantime, large T.A.F. cities and military installations were constructed on Eridani B, and soon, T.A.F. top minds were aiming their sites on the second species of the Epsilon Eridani’s Solar System.
(Solins) The unfortunate war with the Ullitors of Epsilon Eridani B lead the human public to question the T.A.F.’s approach on colonizing new planets. However, with both Prometheus Incorporated and the House of Veneration supporting T.A.F. during these difficult times, human civilians had little choice but to accept another attempt by the Alliance to introduce itself to a second planet’s inhabitants.
Helios 13 (named so after the Greek Sun god), the innermost planet in Epsilon Eridani’s Solar System, has been circling it’s nearby star for nearly three billion years, with only a distance of 149 million km between them. The relative proximity from its sun makes Helios 13 blisteringly oppressive, with average temperatures floating above 43 degrees Celsius (110 degrees Fahrenheit). The surface is littered with violent volcanoes and solar winds that fiercely bake the terrain below. Luckily, the star Helios orbits is relatively cool compared to most others, allowing life to sustain itself on the planet’s scorching landscape.
The Solins, natives of the heated planet, have lived on Helios’s soil for the past twelve million years. They evolved out of endosporic bacteria and slowly progressed into a sentient, humanoid species. Although their black flesh, colorless eyes and featureless faces make their race appear menacing, the Solins have existed peacefully on Helios for millennia due to physical resilience, stamina and durability. Much like the Ullitors, Solins continued to exist in their violent atmosphere by genetically adapting to extreme temperatures and radiation.
After observing Helios 13 for sometime, humans finally decided to make their presence known. By the time the Terran Allied Forces elected to send diplomats to the stifling planet, the Solins had already reached an advanced level of technology comparable to the humans’ 19thcentury. They were great philosophers and inventors, who humans were stunned to find out, had already created geological vehicles, which could travel throughout Helios 13’s cool soil. They did so by recovering Earth launched time capsules nearly three hundred years ago, which introduced Terran civilization, tools and organization (long before Terrans arrived in Epsilon Eridani’s solar system). Solins had also perfected ways to live on both their fiery surface and vial underground while maintaining an ethical way of living. They were honorable, intellectual and cunning. However, as highly developed as they were, it would be their atheistic ways that would ultimately wedge a gap between themselves and the humans.
At first, human introduction went well. Both races highly valued the advancement of their society and the Solins were fascinated by Terran knowledge. For fifty years, Terrans, Solins and Ullitors all lived in harmony. Ullitors and Solins were even transferred to one another’s planets and to Earth to be cultivated into the planet’s populace. Human technology helped Helios 13 become more manageable, as temperature resistant cities were erected and space stations assembled. However, tensions between Solin theorists and human clergy from the House of Veneration were beginning to rise. Solins, who refused to believe in any god or religion, were beginning to tire from human insistence that faith was essential to everyday living. Counselors of the House meanwhile began to run a media campaign against Solin’s atheistic beliefs. So after fifteen years of living peacefully with humans, the Solins began to protest.
It started with nonviolent demonstrations at each of the House of Veneration’s churches that were located on Helios 13. The Solins, who highly outnumbered their human visitors, used scare tactics to intimidate the Terran faithful. Unfortunately, their tactics would backfire, as word reached outside faithful, who responded by rallying to Helios’s streets. Soon, human worshipers were rioting on the streets and the two races were at odds.
For six months the aggression would continue, until finally the Terran Allied Forces intervened. Against the recommendation of many of their leaders, the T.A.F. council forced House of Veneration demonstrators to evacuate the planet until order could be restored. Afterwards, the Alliance passed orders, which outlawed both assertive religion practices and the interference of worship among any races. This decision damaged the T.A.F.’s reputation throughout the galaxy, but ultimately ended the religious dispute.
(Conquering the Milky Way)- Though humans had found, and integrated, two races into Terran society, the rest of the Milky Way galaxy was relatively unexplored. So together the Terran Allied Forces, Prometheus Enterprises and House of Veneration collectively funded new initiatives that would promote the investigation of nearby space. They began to map out the rest of the galaxy, searching for new life, economic potential, and practical natural resources.
While the T.A.F. was spending a majority of their assets cultivating Epsilon Eridani B as well as Helios 13, and the House of Veneration were probing for new life in nearby solar systems, Prometheus Enterprises was heavily active in mapping out the outer rims of the Milky Way. In their short period of exploration the Corporation found twenty-thousand different planets (2,000 which could support human life), 15,000 new non-intelligent species, and trillions of capitals (dollars) in resources. So while the T.A.F. and House of Veneration were losing wealth on their personal projects, Prometheus was becoming the wealthiest faction within the galaxy. With an abundance of income, Prometheus decided to launch several new fringe projects. Some of their leading ventures included reverse-aging techniques, black-hole travel, and genetic manipulation.
With the Milky Way mapped out, and Prometheus viewed as the innovative genius behind human society, an era of corporate superiority filled the air. Humans, Ullitors and Sollins flocked to join Prometheus Incorporated, swelling its ranks to a record breaking 1 billion employees by 2430 A.D. Nonetheless, with company egos swelling, Prometheus took the liberty to secretly begin its much desired secret project, creating an entire race out of genetically altered humans. The Nāga (named afterBuddhist/Hindu serpent deities), were a hybrid race of human and earth reptiles. They were placed on the distant planet of Phaya 2 and Phaya 3, a set of small planets resting on the edges of the Milky Way.
At first, Prometheus attempted to keep their undertaking a secret, but as the Nāga population swelled and countless amounts of capital disappeared from Prometheus’s finance accounts, the company eventually was forced to go public. Unsure on how the community would react, Prometheus made an effort to falsify records and introduce the species as a newly discovered alien race. In spite of their attempt, both the public and Nāga, were far too intelligent to let the masquerade last for long. The House of Veneration and Terran Allied Forces established a full scale investigation and found that records did not match what Prometheus was proclaiming. Meanwhile, Nāga informants, who were fed up with corporate policies, bled information to the T.A.F., exposing the company for what they were.
Almost immediately did Prometheus begin to lose public support. Hundreds of judicial reprimands and fines were charged to the company, dividing its yearly gains in half. Meanwhile, the House of Veneration denounced Prometheus, calling for its followers to leave the corporation all together. Prometheus did its best to defend itself, but it wouldn’t be enough. The company was forced to surrender planets, territories and rites of the Nāga (nearly 10 million in existence at the time) over to Terran Allied Forces. The company meanwhile, decided to keep a low profile for the next decade, quietly balancing their company while placing all their focus back onto the sales of natural resources. The Nāga meanwhile would be accepted into Terran society, but not without discrimination. Their unnatural creation made many people uneasy, and though The House of Veneration asked its followers to accept the hybrid-race with friendship, clergy refused to associate them with the “True Creator”.
(Worlds Collide) With tempers cooling and the past pardoned, the powers that be looked to the future. They’d had achieved many astounding cosmic accomplishments, including mapping out the Milky Way galaxy. Now though, it was time to attempt something they’d never tried before, intergalactic travel. Due to the relatively vast distance between the Milky Way and its closest neighbors, the venture seemed far more demanding than interstellar travel. The energy required to worm-hole between galaxies would be enormous, and navigating a spacecraft through possible obstacles would require extreme technological coordination. So scientists and engineers looked to the cosmos once more for help.
The answer was black holes. Solin Physicist, Dr. Lowshin Natara, developed a method that converted powerful trajectories from the energized black hole centered at the core of the Milky Way galaxy. Using positive kinetic propulsion, spacecrafts could be slung through worm holes with enough force to send them past the immense gap between star clusters. Unfortunately, Dr. Natara and his team were unable to fully master a form of navigation that would entirely outline the trip, so they instead routed courses through mathematical estimations. While this proved to be exceedingly dangerous, it was the one chance that human kind had to finally enter an entire new galaxy.
Scientists spent months calculating a safe route from the Milky Way to its next closest neighbor, Andromeda. After prepping up the flight, a team of thirty-three Humans, Solins, Ullitors andNaga, readied for the dangerous trek. Though the ship would be traveling at unimaginable speeds, it would still take nearly six weeks of travel before the crew arrived at their intended location. Terrans at first rejoiced, as the launch of their intergalactic voyager had successfully begun its way towards Andromeda. However, experts would later be terrified, as reports showed that the amount of energy used from the Milky Way’s black hole was far above what was needed, and the team had passed up their destination by nearly a hundred light years. Even worse, Terran command centers had lost all contact with their exploration team, and now could only sit back and wait, hoping the crew could manage a way to return home.
All seemed grim for nearly three months, and the Milky Way public went into a state of mourning for their lost astronauts. Then, miraculously, the medium-class exploration ship returned with not only its entire crew, but a fleet of escorting alien craft. Apparently, the explorers had found themselves in a far off galaxy known to Terrans as Caldwell 70, a mysterious spiral galaxy in the constellation of Sculptor. The galaxy of Caldwell 70 (called Hexisan by its inhabitants) was far too distant for humans to accurately study. If they could have however, they'd have learned that Hexisan species were hundreds of years more advanced than Terran civilization. The aliens had already begun colonizing several other parts of the universe, overlooking the Milky Way galaxy because of its vastness between the two star systems. However, when human explorations crews surprised the Hexisan civilization with their unannounced arrival, the aliens were beyond enthused, and eager to introduce themselves to the rest of mankind.
Terrans learned that the Hexisan union was compiled of two major and three minor races. The Altarians, the oldest of them, were ancient creatures whose intellect not only made them the most technologically superior, but also the most authoritative of the species. Their lifespan reached the thousands and many of them had learned how to master the great ability called Psionics, a power only thought to be make-believe by humans.
Their allies, the Novicon, were just as formidable, but for many different reasons. They were obsessed with technology and body augmentation, altering their anatonomy with synthetic upgradesfrom birth . Known to be great warriors, they respecteddominance, following a distinct hierarchy based of one’s power. They'd waged war with the Altarians for hundreds of years,eventually submitting to their adversaries and joining their government.
The Balidar, a once-savage, carnivorous race, were discovered by the Altarian/Novicon alliance nearly six centuries ago. Much like humans, the alliance integrated the Balidar into their galactic coalition, using Psionics to avoid tense introductions like T.A.F. underwent. Within a matter of decades, the canine-like creatures were no longer living in large, tribal communities, but on galactic ships and alien cities. Their territorial instincts make them some of the Hexisan Union’s best defenders, knownthroughout the galaxy for fighting viciously until the end.
The Elashani, the most mysterious of the races, are life forms composed of gas vapors. Their discovery was only by accident, when Hexisan miners trying to farm precious gases from theElashari home planet stumbled upon them. The Elashani, who were unable to speak with physical life forms, sent stowaway ambassadors onto Novicon mining ships, where they foundways to commune through technology. Once Hexisan intelligence established contact with the Elashari, they were able to invent resourceful techniques in order to communicate with the rest of Elashani kind. Together, the races created physical shells that could both protect the Elashari and allow them to interact with the rest of the physical world. Though their bodies are fragile (high freezing, liquefying and vaporizing levels), theElashani are some of the top minds in the Hexisan community due to their open minded methodology.
Finally, the Rasari were a water based species who were inducted into the Hexisan Union only one-hundred years ago. Their hydrogen enriched water planet teemed with life, and was overseen by the water breathing race until the Hexisan arrival. Already relatively advanced, the Rasari exchanged their highly biological aquatic technology in order to gain admission into the Hexisan Union (and all of the advancements that come with joining). Though they have helped the Hexisan Union develop a better understanding of aquatic existence, Rasari motives are still suspect. Signs of outside intelligent life have been found on the Rasari’s home planet, but the natives claim they know nothing of other worldly visitors besides the Hexisan.
With so much to take in, the humans began diplomatic talks with the Hexisan Union while preparing the people of the Milky Way Galaxy for a new dawn of time. Though it took many decades, not only did Milky Way civilians adjust to the new technologies, cultures and ways of life that Hexisan communities introduced, but they also provided an enthusiasm to join the new galaxy’s government. Within fifty years time the people of the Milky Way had joined the Hexisan Union with little, to no cost. Milky Way leaders were able to keep their planets, resources and territories (as the Hexisan had no interest) so long as Hexisan citizens could visit freely. The only request by Hexisan officials in return was that the main entities of the Milky Way power send representatives to aid the Hexisan military, government and exploration branches. So began the new era. The time of man, for all of its effort to cultivate the great heavens and stars, had ended and the time of the Hexisan Union had begun.
Sun Aug 12, 2012 5:40 pm
