It was inevitable.
In the darkness of the cold womb of infinite space, it was unavoidable.
Something, somewhere, was alive out there. And it was just a matter of time before we met them.
But we weren't completely unprepared. We had seen them before, or at least a portion of their technology.
That was back in 1974… we were barely understanding the barbaric forces that our own tech would lead to. Then they appeared, over the desert in the skies. Launching wave after wave of missiles and weapons fire.
Fortunately we had already created crude atomic weapons… something they hadn't expected. It was luck then that saved our collective butts. This time promised to be different, this time promised to be more deadly. The atomics fended them off, destroyed their ships… and left remnants of their power scattered across the Nevada landscape.
We used those remnants to learn, to grow, and to create even more devastating tools of war. Now, well into the 21st century, all that knowledge and supposed power has been put towards the only hope mankind has before we destroy the environment here: fleeing into that cold, dark sea in hopes we can find another planet that will support us.
It is hope that drives us, a desire to live, a need to expand, and the expectation that we can make the future ours. We never expected to run into trouble so quickly. We never expected they would still be there, waiting, biding their time.
Now, as our time runs like sand through an hourglass, we are out there with them. Fighting whenever we met, scrounging for resources, hiding when needed, and striking when an opportunity arises.
"May the mercy of His Divine Shadow fall upon you." - Stanley H. Tweedle, Security Guard class IV, The League of 20,000 planets
