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| There Ain't No Justice |
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| #92 |
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Foundation of Empire
By Tal Meta
In 1953, a Drallim scoutcraft crashlanded in the New Mexico desert. Military
authorities recovered the wreckage and four bodies from the craft.
In 1956, the scientists studying the wreckage accidentally activated the
ship's distress beacon, bringing another scout to close proximity with the
secret installation where the first craft was being studied. This craft was
shot down. Four more bodies were recovered.
In 1957, the Drallim opened tentative contact with the United States. The
bodies of the 4 Drallim were returned to their people, in return for a
nonaggression agreement between the US and the Drallim. The two wrecked
scoutcraft were deemed to be complete losses, and the US was allowed to keep
them for further study.
In 1965, the Drallim returned to offer the US government a new treaty. The
Drallim were at war with another race, (the Saathik) and were losing. Because
the Drallm were not a warlike race, and Humanity understood war only too well
(in the opinions of both races, let it be known), in return for the use of
Human mercenaries, the Drallim would continue to supply Humanity with
advanced technology as well as setting aside several of the nearest habitable
worlds for Human colonization. Since the offer was valid only to the WHOLE of
Humanity, the secret was kept by the United Nations Security Council. Earth
agreed.
In the years between 1965 and 2008, Human mercenaries piloted Drallim built
starships, fought ground battles with Drallim built weaponry. The war which
the Drallim had been losing slowed, then eventually began to reverse itself,
as Human scientists among the UN Expeditionary Force studied and improved
upon the Drallim's weaponry. The Drallim, who for the most part were a race
of philosophers, were first pleased, and then slowly began to grow
apprehensive as their Human allies showed more and more adeptness in
improving the weapons the Drallim gave them.
Veterans of the Drallim-Saathik War were not allowed to return to Earth. By a
unanimous UN vote, they were given the right to be the first settlers of the
new Human colony worlds. (The secret of the Drallim could obviously not be
kept quiet if the millions of people who simply "went missing" every year
suddenly began returning home with fantastic stories of wars among the stars.
While the governments of the Earth were slowly acclimating their populations
to the idea that aliens might indeed exist, none felt that the world was
ready for THAT much of a revelation.)
Study of the Drallim technology at home was stalled by several factors. Local
wars, economic upheavals, and a simple stagnancy of ideas among the American
scientific community stifled breakthroughs. It was not until UN pressure
forced the United States to give up their monopoly of the Drallim ships that
true progress began to unfold again.
In 2047, The UNSS Pathfinder, the "first" Human built Jumpship left the
vicinity of Sol and jumped to Alpha Centauri. There it was met by the
Drallim, who hailed them and offered full contact between their two peoples.
The two ships then returned to Sol, where the crew of the Pathfinder were
acclaimed as heroes.
In 2048, the TRUE story of the Drallim-Human Treaty was made known. There
were few riots. Most people had expected as much for decades, anyway. Drallim
starships that year also made contact with a race known as the Z'thar, who
introduced them to the Vorsk, and the Yezzrim. The Z'tharii homeworld,
situated near the center of the four expanding races, became a hub for
interstellar trade.
Over the next century, Humanity continued to expand, both in terms of
colonies and knowlege. Human innovation led to a stardrive half the mass of
the ones in use by the other races, and this, coupled with continued human
mastery of weapon systems made them the natural organizers of a unified
military force to protect the world of the burgeoning Confederation from the
Saathik.
All was not peacefull in the Confederation, however. While the Drallim, a
race of physically amorphous beings capable of limited changes in general
shape, had ceaded several worlds between themselves and the Z'thar to Humans,
three worlds settled jointly by Humans and Dralllim remained in Drallim
control, effectively cutting off direct trade between Earth's colonies and
any of the other races. Any Human ship wishing to trade on Z'tha had to pay
tarrifs at each of the stopovers. More; as the Drallim are a race whose
primary field of study had always been philosophy, peace left them with an
extended period of time to study their new neighbors. Many were alarmed to
discover that Humanity was a race of thousands, if not millions of
philosophies, while others rejoiced. Drallim Philosophers, studying Humanity,
sometimes went mad, others, embracing Human ideologies, went rogue.
The Vorsk, an insectile race comprised of several forms designed for
individual functions, the primarily visible ones are called "Mediators".
Their culture is based extensively around trade; each hive is in effect a
corporation, with markets and agreements stretching back centuries. The
sudden influx of two new trading partners created... opportunity, as well as
conflict. Drallim philosophies were easily adapted as tradegoods, as were
Human innovations in technology. Humans bought Vorsk bioengineering
techniques extensively, at first, but then began encroaching on Vorsk markets
with improved methods of doing things.
The Yezzrim, a race who physically had the most in common with Humanity (they
resembled a cross between a monkey and a flying squirrel), were perhaps the
most diversified race in the mix. Like humans, they excelled in many areas,
but they often tended to become obbsessive in their endevours, a racial trait
burned into their delicate biochemistry. Yezzrim scientists often died of
starvation, Yezzrim warriors ignored orders to retreat, so enraptured were
they with the tasks at hand. With the aid of Human computer technology,
(widely acknowleged as better than anything the other races had ever created)
and several breakthroughs in Human biotechnology, a Human scientist learned
that the Yezzrim "Monomania" had in fact been increasing slowly over the past
centuries, with a cause linked to bio-agents planted in Vorsk trade goods.
Tensions between Yezzrim and Vorsk increase, making for several violent
incidents. (Meanwhile, Human attempts at reversing the damage was in fact
making it worse, causing certain elements of the Yezzrim to become violently
monomaniacal.)
While at home, the synthesis of Human computer technology and Vorsk
biotechnology has resulted in a melding of man and machine. On some of the
Human worlds, these developments, coupled with Drallim philosophical
principles, have resulted in Humans and other bioforms designed from the gene
up for one purpose: cheap biological labor. Earth's governments, united at
last, are now faced with the fracturing of the colonies into individual world
and system states. In an effort to present a united front to their neighbors,
an independant Militia is formed to police the space surrounding Human
worlds. The Militia goes on to found its own, independant chain of colony and
outpost worlds, hidden not only from the collective Human member states but
their alien allies as well. Human shipwrights are double dealing as well,
selling the Confederacy allies "Cruisers" that are so lightly armored and
underarmed that the lightest of Militia's Corvettes could destroy them in
minutes.
In 2203, just as the Human Coalition's ships were silently gathering in an
uninhabited star system a single jump away from one of the contested Three
Worlds, the Saathik struck at the heart of the Confederation, Z'thar. Only
now the Saathik starships were of a radical new design. Previously, the
Saathik used ships of a design similar in principle to those of every other
known starfaring race... ships requiring a huge, supercooled hyperdrive
engine, that moved by jumps of at most 30 light years at a time between
recharges. These new Saathik starships appeared to use a completely new
principle, freeing them from the need to re-enter the physical universe a
discreet distance away from any gravity source. It also allowed them to
strike anywhere, without tripping the standard Jump-Signiture sensors every
inhabited solar system kept watch over. Their new starships were also larger,
more heavily armed, and carried defensive energy screens, a technology
unknown in the Confederacy.
The Second Saathik War lasted four years. While the Saathik had a
technological edge, they had chosen precisely the wrong moment for their
invasion. While their first tentative probes along the edges of the
Confederacy had brought them in contact with Confederate Navy ships, those
battles had all been with the ships supplied to the Confederacy by the Human
Coalition. With the bulk of the Human Militia's TRUE strength scattered in a
narrow arc merely two jumps away from their initial point of invasion, their
technological superiority was rapidly crushed by ships easily their equal in
armor, and in most cases outmatching them completely in firepower. While
their defensive screens easily turned away missiles and naval autocannon,
they only partially deflected lasers and actually ATTRACTED the Human
Militia's new particle cannons.
Eventually, the Saathik retreated to wherever they'd come from, leaving the
Human Coalition to explain why they'd had that kind of strength so close to
the Drallim Expanse. A new balance of power and position was struck in the
Confederacy....
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