It was the year of 2117.
It was the year we found them.
In truth, it was they who found us, but such details hardly matter, not anymore. It’s been less than a decade, yet those who still can find it hard to remember. Truth can be denied. Fact can be diluted by fiction. It’s all easy when you’re the sole government of entire planet, with entire libraries of propaganda hailing your name. Sometimes, it’s easier to question your sanity than to keep believing what you believe. As one soon learns, some things never change.
And those that don’t, are often doomed to oblivion.
In the end, it doesn’t matter who discovered whom, or even who initiated the bargain– all that matters is that somebody did. As technologically inferior as we were, it was us that ultimately changed the fate of the galaxy. We had fantasized for ages over our destructive capabilities – global warming, nuclear fallouts, bird flu – but none could compare to what really happened – good old military conquest. Mass genocide on the largest of scales.
The ultimate ego trip fulfilled.
This is not to say that we meant too, no – our intentions were, for all intents and purposes, noble. After all, with the discovery of fusion power, we’d long since passed the age where poverty, strife and terrorism ran rampant – or at least, that’s what they told us. We were different from the ruffians that occupied the early twenty first century. We were the Terran Alliance, a beacon of all things morally good. In truth, we’d never been able to eradicate such undesirable elements, of course, but for the vast majority of the human race, we believed it to be so, and thus it was. In reality, unlimited energy could only do so much. Dig deeper, and you’d certainly find the darker side of humanity. It was the side that had enabled us to rise above all others to become the dominant species on Earth. As Charles Darwin had put it, it was the survival of the fittest, and we would survive, by whatever means necessary. For all our propagation of peace, we were ultimately creatures of war.
And in time, it would lead to just that.
They called themselves the Arceans, a space-faring race both more powerful and advanced than we, having been exploring the galaxy for years – albeit rather haphazardly, through the use of unreliable structures known as Star Gates, massive devices used to facilitate space travel. However, travel was limited between existing Star Gates, making the process unreliable at best, and outright dangerous at worst. And so it came to be, we had the one thing they didn’t already have, the one thing their ships lacked – unlimited power. Coupled with existing Arcean technology, we could revolutionize space travel, eliminating the need for Star Gates, whilst retaining the ability to travel across great distances in minimal time.
And so, Hyperdrive came to be.
Everything would have been fine, if we had just stopped there. In fact, we could have easily monopolized the good, using it to our advantage. We could have saved the lives of billions had we begun our path of conquest right there. But years without exposure to violence had turned our people into soft advocates of peace – unable to see the consequences their actions would cause. Blinded by their notions of xeno rights, we distributed it for free. The greatest invention of the human race – given out like candy. And thus began the beginning of the end.
But for a time, there was peace, just as they said.
But not for long. Despite claims to the contrary, the Hyperdrive had not brought about the proposed age of intergalactic peace and trade. Rather, it couldn’t have been any further from the truth. Almost overnight, the galaxy witnessed a hundred percent decrease in trade, while experiencing a sudden boom in military production and technological research. There was only one explanation for this bizarre turn of events – they were preparing for war.
They tried to cover this up, of course, but we knew better. And so we took our chances.
In 2178, they sent us out into space, to spread our influence upon distant worlds. The Human Colonial Project – us. Into the vastness of uncharted space, the blank spot on the map between us and the Arcean Empire. For the billions living on Earth, we were heroes, leading the way into a new age of exploration. For the five hundred million of us on board that transport, it was a different story. We would be heroes, but not in the way the citizens of Earth could ever imagine.
For several years, we – the citizens of Tarsonis, the first colony of the Terran Alliance – lived quietly under the rule of our Earthly brethren, listening docilely to their fabricated news reports, while keeping our own, careful watch upon the galaxy. Things were becoming worse – in the final preparations for war, a race to colonize as much planets as possible had begun. Meanwhile, the Terran Alliance, still oblivious to the looming threat, continued to wave banners of peace, even as the first stones were already being cast. To stay with them, would be to die. If not today, then the millennium after. Peace and pacifism could only get you so far. We had to survive. We had to trust our instincts.
We had to kill.
As 2224 drew to a close, we made our choice. For the first time in hundreds of years, man was once again free. In a planet wide revolt, Tarsonis cast down the chains of propaganda, the manacles of thought control, and declared our independence. We were no longer part of the passive Terran Alliance – we became the Terran Dominion, sworn to ensure the survival of the human race – and the human race alone.
War had come to our galaxy.
And we were going to be the last ones standing.
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