Chapter 2: Galactic History 101

GALACTIC HISTORY 101

***Extracted from the reports of Rezo Hastaru, Galactic Historian.***

Space year 2050, a distress signal from the Sadalmelik system is intercepted in Velushia, head of the Planetary Union, the transmision was the coded signal for invasion alert.

Invisible Stalker

Six hours was the time it took to the Velushian Preventive fleet to arrive to Sadalmelik, only to witness the remaining flames engulfing the Beta Aquarius system fade away. The Planetary Union's Borderline fleet now an orbiting belt of junk and debris around Sadalmelik I and II, their communications apparently jammed so not even a single call for reinforcements could be made. The industrial cities burnt to the ground, the resource extracting factories and mines in ruins... the Roxzhar race extinct, all in less tan 20 minutes according to posterior studies.

Twelve hours passed and all tracking methods known to the Union failed to give results on the perpetrators' whereabouts or where did they come from, the hours became days, and the days became weeks as all of the Union's Borderline fleet kept yellow alert, not knowing if this was an isolated incident, or if it would happen again... and where. At the fourth week, a distress signal came from the Silara star system... too far a distance from Sadalmelik. Again, the reinforcement fleet arrived too late. Again, a complete race met extintion and, again, the crime's peretrator vanished.

Incidents kept happening over and over again over the course of six months and 4 planets were obliterated. Like ghosts, the enemy appears from nowhere, jams all transmitions, wipe out the planet, and vanish into thin air just in the same fashion. However, over the course of that six months the enemy seemed to show a special pattern of behavior that the Union's Intelligence department was able to figure out so they could predict where the next attack would be... and this time... the union would be ready and waiting for them.

One month passed away and, as the misterious attackers started popping out in the orbit of Skat 4, so did the fleets of the Planetary Union, who was already waiting for them to arrive.

However, things were a little... different than the Union expected. Effectively, there were alien ships on the planet, ships that arrived trough unkown means as no lightspeed traveling objects were registered... as if they just happened to pop out in place. But, this small fleet by no means could have the destructive power shown on the previous attacks. In fact, it was as these ships were just...

Minutes after the fleets arrival at the Skat system, a massive number of enemy ships appeared a few hundred kilometers from Velushia's orbit, the ships in Alpha Pegasus being only a decoy to lure the head of the Planetary Union's defense away.

When the Union's fleets realized the trap they fell into, the also realized that their LST (Light-Speed Travel) drives didn't work... the Union's hopes for survival trapped in Alpha Pegasus.

Fortunately for Velushia, the planet's force field resisted the siege long enough for the reserve fleets from Erato and Katakis to arrive. Unfortunately, just as the ships started arriving, they started to be slowly decimated by a clearly outnumbering force of already superior ships.

In a matter of minutes, with the exception of a few scattered (and almost non-operational) Union's ships, it was again only the enemy, and Velushia's force field.

The following siege lasted up to 9 minutes until the barrier's inevitable collapse. However, as the first enemy ships made contact with atmosphere, a big explosion was registered just in the middle of their fleet, the source being the enemy flagship, now engulfed in atomic fire. As the explosion of the huge nuclear reactors jammed all communications and navigation systems, the ships of the fleet began either fleeting as they could in the midst of the confusion of being utterly blinded, or crashing among themselves as the huge shockwave kept expanding. As systems began re-establishing, the first images were from the midst of the flaming wreackages of the flagship, where a lone human figure stood standing. Atomic fire blazing flashes in his crimson cape and costume, eyes burning with determination as he paused for one moment as if apreciating his work, then bolting towards the nearest ship of the now chaotic remnants of the enemy fleet and, after a couple of minutes of the anonymus hero's intrusion inside the enemy ship, this ship also exploded into oblivion. The misterious figure repeated the process on ship after ship after the remaining ships finally fled.

The Gulfer and Captain Omega

Upon arriving on Velushia, the lonesome hero's doing was celebrated all along the Planetary Union as he descended towards the surface of the planet where he was welcomed as their savior. After introducions where made, the name of Captain Omega would be remembered to this day and for ages to come.

Omega declared he was from a system not too far from ours, a star system that was just experiencing similar problems with the Gulfer, as he called our mutual enemy. He stated he was on a mission seeking races with the technollogy and science to understand and put to good use the gifts he was carrying.

Omega brought us an answer, the answer to how the enemy appeared from nowhere and their overwhelming power, and from him we learned the secrets of hyperspace travel and the principles to a new energy source that would not only prepare our ships for the requeriments of hyprespace travel, but would also enable us to increase our battleships's firepower a tenfold. Over the course of their conflict with the Gulfer they were able to gehter enough data from captured enemy ships, but they weren't able to make use of that knowledge, for Gulfer technollogy was by far too abstract and alien for them to undestand. They were also able to see trough their tricks and tactics, but with their inferior defensive capabilities they could only make use of that kowledge to barely defend themselves, and so, under the most critical circunstances, Captian Omega had come looking for someone who can put all that secrets to use and return to save his homeplanet, before it is too late.

The Gulfer technollogical secrets were hard to figure out and took time to decipher, but the tactical knowledge was more than enough to start fighting back.

The enemy still had superior fire power, but now we knew how to predict their every move, and as the first secret to uncover was the basics behind the principles of hyperspace, we were able to develop a device that prevented the enemy ships from escaping trough hyperspace. The war against the Gulfer had begun...

The flashes of alien high intensity lasers and nuclear warfare roared all across the Aquarius constellation as the Planetary Union's strongest armies from Velushia, Katakis, and Erato, waged war against the enemy, pressing them over the course of the 6 following months to that which would be the final confrontation in Captain Omega's homeworld... Omega Aquarius 2.

The battle seemed eternal. In the end, we won, but the price to pay was high indeed. Several planets burnt to cinders, including the very own Velushia, which fell victim to a Gulfer terrorist attack towards the first hyperspace experimental drive. In the same fashion, countless lives were lost to the enemy, including the hero Captain Omega, who sacrificed himself destroying the Gulfer mothership's reactor from the inside so the rest of the enemy fleet could fall as well.

The Times of the Reconstruction and the Galactic Pact

After the fall of Velushia, the Planetary Union was reduced to a bunch of bickering planets with a lots of ideas about how to re-organize the Planetary Union, but no intention of organizing themselves. It was only the coming of a new "foreing visitors" that got their common attention after 3 months of poor bickering, specially now that Katakis and Erato were fiercely disputing for the colonies formerly belonging to Velushia.

The Airu was a race that came from the Andromeda constellation seeking to establish contact with us. From the outside, they witnessed the whole conflict with the Gulfer, and were deeply interested in stablishing relations. As a non-belicous race, they had a non-intervention policy; however, as the conflict ended, the were willing to assist us in every way they could to re-establish our position, economy, and their science, from which we were greatly benefited. In exchange, we shared with the Airu our data about the Gulfer Hyperspace technollogy, which was finished in a mutual effort of cooperation of scientists from both the Airu and Erato.

With Erato's scientists deciphering and adapting every new scientific and technollogical wonder coming from the Airu, and Katakis superior diplomatic skills in charge of public relations, the relationship with the Airu ran smoothly. Soon, we were already sending scouts to the deepest corners of the galaxy in order to stablish contact with as many races as we could.

Counting already with 30 races, the organizational capabilities of an individual planet to deal with the other 29 started proving insufficient. We needed a specialized organism to put us all together, it was in these times specially when Katakis diplomatic skills and willingness to interact with other races proved vital, for their efforts forged what is now the Galactic Pact Organization.

However, there was still misteries to be solved. For starters, as Omega Aquarius 2 was destroyed before we could arrive to confront the enemy there, we may never know how many of it's inhabitants shared Captain Omega's formidable abilities. �Is he a one-in-a-million case or was it a realtively common attribute? If that is the case �Will we be ready for the day we have to confront beings of such power?. Whatsmore, the expedition we sent decades ago searching for the Gulfer's homeworld is still searching... and recently, all contact with them was lost.

G.U.A.R.D.I.A.N

Space year 2060. A terrorist force of unknown origin shuts down Katakis' global defense systems just enough time for an A-Bomb to drop on the planet's capital. In the midst of confusion, agents from the Katakis' Intelligence department located the terrorists on katakis' 4th moon. The finest division of operatives was sent ASAP after the perpetrators and reached them just as their escape ship was arriving. Years of training, conditioning, sleep teaching, all was worthless as the operatives were dismembered, limb by limb, by a vastly stronger oponent. The terrorist were what is now known as "extraordinary individuals", members from an alien species with unusual abilities that augment them beyond their race's capabilities, the first specimens we had contact with since the dissapearance of Captain Omega, and they were clearly an enemy we weren't ready to face.

However, as our last operative, left for dead by the enemy was watching the enemy ship part, its engines blew as four misterious figures were getting near. The strangers, in spite of their human-like physiollogy, didn't need space suits to survive the conditions of open space, they also seemed quite confident of themselves, since they just stood there waiting for the terrorists to come out. The display of confidence was not bluff however, with inhuman speed, strenght, and strange abilities, the four strangers made short work of the wreckers as soon as they were coming out of their ship. As soon as the enemy was defeated, the misterious benefactors parted to vanish.

As the first individuals with such abilities since Captain Omega, It was needed to know who they were, however, we had more important problems to take care of, we had one nuclear strike on the frontyard of our newborn Galactic Union and 6 unconscious terrorists to extract information from. Further interrogatory lead us to a not so distant asteroid where we found an improvised temporary base that was taken out with realtive ease. The attacker was from a race enemy of the Airu.

The Situation was quite tense, 6 of these "individuals" was all that took to threaten the security of a whole planet! It was obvious that, unless we started gathering data on these guys (and some in their ranks), we were at a serious disadvantage. Jhor A Mistalak, 3rd Counselor, took himsielf charge of the mission and, in an impecable display of efficience, passed 6 months, the state department was provided with enough information about the "extraordinary individuals" (in fact, it was until then that the term was stablished) to safely recruit was is now known as the Katakis Elite Operatives (KEOPS). However, because of a fate's twist, there was no such thing as this kind of beings on Katakis (nor ANY known territory), Mistalak saw himself in need of importing them from outside, and so, he started stablishing treaties with as many planets as he could. The deal was simple: a steady supply of promising extraordinary individuals in exchange for protection coming from the elite of the galaxy. Also, there was the problem that, even with all their raw power, it could be probable that these recruits needed to be properly trained for optimum results in combat, and a place to train them.

To this day, G.U.A.R.D.I.A.N counts aproximately with 100 operatives and 300 recruits coming from over 30 planets.