Humankind colonizes the galaxy- and happens upon disturbing revelations about the nature of existence.



I declare FTL is invented and early colonization efforts under a united world government begin. as the focus for this pass.

Humanity's first endeavor at the colonization of an extraplanetary entity, the Buenaventura began its expedition into the Alpha Centauri system, searching for Earth-like planets suitable for settlement, armed with a team of diplomatists and linguists, and perfunctory tech for the establishment of outposts.

[Light][-100]

The Expedition of the Buenaventura bore fruit. Not only were many Habitable planets found in the long voyage in many star systems, but signs of life were discovered in an unassuming star system, relatively close to where the light of the birthplace of humanity shined millions of years ago.

[Light, -80]

Under the command of fleet admiral William Darry, the Navy of humanity detects unknown shapes just outside the path of the Buenaventa, sending the data back to Earth, scientists begin work on the mysterious transmissions picked up during the expedition.

[Light, -78]

In the not too far future, a man by the name of Spinoza Whitgel finishes the first prototype Jump drive initiates and successfully tests a jump drive mission to Pluto in a outdated spacecraft of Isreali origin rigged with the engine.

[Light, -145]

@Ironparrot - It is time for the legacy.

While more powerful and streamlined designs will be produced in later times as humanity find their galactic bearings, this imposing machine has catapulted an entire civilization in a direction they will never be able to turn back from.

[Light]

The last Emissary of the Giants has left the United Front embassy at Mixcoatl, for unknown reasons.

"You cannot understand," the strange Qetunid murmurs through an automated translator. Perhaps an exopscyhologist might have recognized in its body language something like fear or amusement.

"You have aroused their anger. They come."

The remnants of the UF attempt to re-establish relations with their rivals, the Anthroascendants, to no avail. They fortify their planets, build up their fleets, but cannot know what lies in store for them.

Who are the Giants? No one knows.

[Dark][211]

As a result of the quickly encroaching war, the president of the Earthen government, Andrea Richards, attempts to pull the forces in Vektri and the government's other possessions back to the capital. Her own seatholders, hysteric, cross the floor, joining the splintered opposition, as a result, the opposition has enough members to pull a vote of no confidence on Richards, the resulting election is savage, completely shattering both parties. A coalition government manages to pull together enough votes to take the presidency, but no army movements were authorized in the previous months, bringing more hysteria to the populace

[Dark] [212]

A science vessel (the "UFR-SO Xenoanthropology") and her escorting fleet (2 cruisers, the "UFR-C Reaper Crow" and the "UFR-C Officer's Greeting", lead by the commandship "UFR-COM Fractured Diplomacy") encountered what the crew of the escorts thought was a hostile unidentified fleet. Being jumpy after being given a warning about a possible invasion from Sarra Dry-dock, they moved in to identify the fleet and engage if necessary. The unknown ships opened fire on the Reaper Crow with odd plasma weapons. Only after both sides were grievously wounded did they see what the unidentified ships were: Vektri Darkwater long-mission battleships. The remnants of the human battlegroup were told that the skirmish was Maximum Classification by the higher ups of Sarra, but some details leaked through the shroud, souring Vektri relations on the border. The Vektri Darkwater Battleship design would not be seen again for years.

[Dark, 213]

On the outer reaches of known space, sudden reports emerge of an entire planet, the once promising colony world of Victory with its cosmopolitan outlook in human-xeno relations being essentially 'devoured'. That is the only word the report used to describe it. Given the foreboding warnings of the Qetunoid, it is quickly assumed that these are the giants that it was referring to. The task force Trajan 8, with its 7 frigates, 3 destroyers and siege cruiser (meant for the big guys) is sent out to investigate and potentially eliminate the potential hostile. However, by the time Task Force Trajan 8 gets to the once moderately colonized world of Victory there is no one there but a world that quite literally has been ravaged off all life. A infantry group is dispatched to investigate what happened on the surface.

[Dark, 213.1 (this happens at basically the same time as the fracturing)]

Task Force Trajan 8's infantry detachment, under the command of one Lieutenant Gerhald-Uchida, is dispatched to reconnoiter and investigate the surface of Victory. It is, in a word, a hecatomb. No signs of life remain, and the once thriving cities appear as if they've been abandoned for a thousand years, so thoroughly have they been eroded. The world is dying; even the sky looks ill, cast over with a veil of moldering sickness and decay. In the ruins of the city of New Windhoek (or what Trajan 8 surmises must have been the city, once, ages upon ages ago), the detachment encounters a curious Qetunid which had, they learned, been following them the entire time. They interrogate the exot, who claims that the Giants had sent it to deliver a message. It is as follows:

"We despise you, and have despised you in every moment and flash of history that has ever been known. We have watched you, and you have disgusted us..." The Qetunid trails off, for it says that no analogues exist in Anglot to express what is being said. Language lacks the "dimension" to convey its meaning. It warns them to go to their governments and leaders and tell them that this was only the opening feint of a long, long war.

It walks off, then, into the dust of the dead planet.

What have the humans done? Who are the Giants? What does any of it mean? No one can guess.

The Giants did not show themselves for another 100 years.

[Dark][213.2]

With the war of the Giants having been initiated and a humiliating encounter with the Vektri in such a short span of time, a state of paranoia would come about the United Front's populous leading to increasing militarism to levels unprecedented. The worst part perhaps being that the second attack would be suspiciously absent for nearly a hundred years as a state constant fear roamed the UF. A rising trend of xenophobia did not help either- for there would come radical groups who believed the Giants did not exist and that the Exot are behind the whole charade and all matter of hostility within the United Front's sphere of influence.

@Bluetommy2 - You are the new lens.

As a result of the newly instated Cabal rule, xenophobia was at an all time high, withdrawing all external embassies, the Cabal preached for unification of the human spirit against the alien aggressors, Observer One, the mysterious head of the Cabal, launched the fleets using a year old plan called "Operation Legion". This grand fleet was lead by the newly constructed dreadnought, the Purifier. Reaching Exot space, the fleet quickly moved to the capital, destroying any resistance met.

The new dreadnought received its fateful orders two hours before reaching Farren II, the homeworld of the Exot race.

Upon reaching the Exot home system, the navy began massive orbital bombardment, and the Purifier dropped its special payload, powerful chemicals, entering through gaps in the Exot carapace and hardening in their joints and respiratory system, this chemical killed what the bombs missed, and after a few months the luscious home of a once great race was lifeless, the land salted and worthless, a warning to any who dared step in the path of a united humanity. The once powerful Exot Commonwealth was crippled, and Observer One became one of the most hated men amongst the extraterrestrial community.

[Dark][422]

Almost 5 Time units after the the start of The Exot War, the Purifier was caught in an ambush and crippled out in deep space by a known ally of the now nearly-extinct Exot, the Iq'na. While the Purifier and the Iq'na Leviathan were almost equally matched, their escorting fleets turned a hit and run into a bloody standoff. Unknown to the crew of the Purifier, however, a notorious crew of terrorists opposing the Cabal violently sabotaged one of the 5 power cores that powered the main weapon batteries. The resulting explosion left the Purifier open for attack long enough for another 2 cores to be taken offline before the Leviathan was driven off. The crippled Purifier had lost a quarter of her escort fleet to the super-starship Leviathan and limped into port almost ready for the scrapyard. It would take a very long time before the Cabal fielded the Purifier alongside more powerful ships designed to make sure that only humans will survive the coming wars.

It was unknown how the terrorists came to be on the Purifier, but the official reports said that a mole smuggled them on the dreadnought, signature weapons and all.

[Light, 427]

At the eve of the war, one of the people part of the Cabal by the name of Janssen protested the war for weeks, culminating in his use of his position to start a public protest of the war claiming it to be all a farce and that instead of destroying relationships they should be mended while there is still time to do so. However his words fell on deaf ears and he would be swarmed by the crowds who dragged him off the center square, beating him to death for thirty minutes until he bled out. His augmentations only drew out the violence of his death. The police didn't even step in to save Janseen.

[Dark, 422.2]

The Exot War had by now dragged on for a staggering 11.33 time units, and grown not only into a vast and bloody interstellar war, but would come to be, in time, a civil war as well. The human species had, since their first contact with extraterrestrial life, been torn between rejecting (and, consequently, human supremacizing) and embracing the strange and wonderful new races they encountered. The Anthroascendants, although unrelated, had preluded the rise of the Cabal, who had been launched into the highest courts of human power, and with that power dealt terrible destruction. But they had not managed to stifle dissent in its entirety, though they had tried. A liaison of human diplomatists, spies, and soldiers meet in secret with the surviving remnants of the Exot Commonwealth, the Iq'na Estates, and the Hassat Mandate, to discuss the terms of a truce. By some accounts, they would later come to be known as the greatest traitors to their race in all of history. By others, as righteous truthbearers. The result of this rendezvous would be titled the Mau-Tong Concordat, after the two leading dignitaries of the conference.

Its aim? To tear down The Cabal brick-by-brick, with shock and awe, and ruthless violence.

[Dark, 433.33]

The result of the Mau-Tong Concordat would be the rise of a group known as UWA, the United World Army, who attempted, with the aid of Exot remnants and the funding of the Hassat and Iq'na, to return democracy to the planet. Unfortunately, the Cabal was incredibly popular amongst the common folk, and the UWA had virtually gone by un-noticed, despite a few bombings in Colcord, the capital of Cabal rule, little had been done to initiate full out civil war. The Cabal police force had been quick to arrest members of the UWA as domestic terrorists, torturing the men into revealing all they knew about their sponsors out in the Exot-aligned territories.

After the death of former leader, Ambassador Harwin Cree, leadership of the UWA went to former Cabal member Jericho Cruz, who, years prior, had been ousted due to his refusal to agree to Operation Legion. The Cabal, careful to ensure it didn't become public knowledge, captured Cruz and tossed him in a federal prison. Cruz's popularity with the army lead to the newly formed UWA to free him and use him as a spokesman. Realizing the danger of this, Observer One pulled all his fleets back to Earth and suspended Operation Legion. Cruz's charisma allowed the UWA to gather an immense new army, which assaulted Colcord, a huge Cabal crackdown ensued, but the fighting continued for months, with no end in sight, this event shattered public confidence in the Cabal, resulting in similar rebellions across Cabal territory.

[Dark, 436.12]

The issuing of the Mau-Tong Concordat began a nearly century long insurrection against the Cabal. This rebellion was ostensibly spearheaded by a human government-in-exile, but numerous ad-hoc terrorist cells and vigilante hosts would aid in undermining the Cabal's authority. Despite their efforts, however, this insurrection would end inconclusively, and even during the period in which historians usually allocate to the resistance it was not contiguous. An armistice was signed in [539], called the Liu-Völl Truce, that brought a momentary halt to the conflict, although it technically was ongoing. Hostilities would not commence again until [587].

[Dark]

With the high that comes with a fledgling intergalactic civilization comes technological progress on a scale unseen before. Science once thought impossible is now being shown to a captive audience and broadcasted to nearby colonies from the Terraformed world of Sarra. Jennifer Warpwell starts the event off with a gadget that she claims could revolutionise zero-g shipyards: the Architect Gauntlet, a device that can "Project" physical objects into a framework using microrange teleportation in order to build large scale zero-g projects. And that's only one of the items shown off at the Expo!

---

What kind of technology is being shown off at the Expo, and what can it be used for?

[Light, 148, not long after the Vektri colonization]

Scenes of various space craft designs from around the solar and colonial manufacturers are seen lined up around the planet hosting the event, docked all around a massive space elevator where the expo itself is used for transition to a very well dressed bald, middle aged man with a silvery suit and dark blue, white speckled tie that shifts colors organically.

"For this year's expo, I, the Spokesperson for Ishq Industries Loki Kusnet at the moderate age of one hundred has been selected as the host of this year's Space Engineering Expo which for the past fifty years has been broadcasting across all of civilized space the finest in aerospace developments to the galaxy. The Space Engineering Technology Expo to this day has been of great expediance to civilization, especially with our allies out in deep space having cooperated with our best minds to ensure superior, more effective and clean space travel all around. The year round expo has many highlights to show for all, be it the mysterious technology Jennifer Warpwell will start this event with, the cold fusion energy systems being developed by the Keplerian Cooperative's finest triplets- Lan, Kun and Tai or the aerodynamic land-space exploration shuttles brought to you by the quality engineering of Ishq Industries and more that will revolutionize the relationship between the stars and us!"

---------

How did Jennifer Warpwell's claims of a zero gravity, object teleportation gauntlet get revealed as a fraud?

[dark, 148.6]