The Aurora Project

Chapter 1

                  For years, the people of Earth had noticed a warming trend to the global climate.  Some said it was simply a natural cycle of the Earth, and therefore, no one should worry about it.  Others said that man was responsible for it; that man was slowly killing the planet.  They were both right, but alarms didn’t start going off until the Great Ice Melt.  Over the course of a year, the temperature of the Earth rose enough that both the North and South Polar ice caps began to melt, and sea levels started to rise.  Sea levels peaked on July 14, 2097 at 10 meters above their current level, and Earth was changed forever.

                  Globally, the ramifications were enormous.  The huge inundation of fresh water into the ocean caused the delicate balance of ocean currents, driven by their salinity and temperature, to come crashing to a halt.  And with the collapse of the oceanic conveyor belt, global climate changed dramatically.  Europe, long dependent on the warm currents off its western coast, was plunged into a freezer.  London, Paris, Dublin, and many other European cities, which long enjoyed fairly temperate weather, starting seeing snow in August and their waterways froze solid for over four months.  That is, they would have.

                  The ten-meter rise in sea level flooded most major cities in the world.  Paris, London, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Cairo, Berlin, Calcutta, Beijing, Tokyo, Sydney, and every other major city that is either along the coast, or along a low lying river valley within the ten-meter rise is either fully or partially submerged.  Several hundred islands simply slipped into the ocean, never to be seen again.  The world overall was devastated by the reshaping of the coasts, and the loss of shipyards and ports caused the global collapse of trade and shipping.  Famine sprung up around the world, and then came the chaos.

                  For over fifty years, the world fought.  World War Three, some called it.  Others simply called it Armageddon.  But historically, we know it as the War of Ruin.  After the first few years of the war, no capital was left standing.  The strained resources of the world, including the loss of over eighty-five percent of the petroleum reserves, caused the great nations of the world to crumble as oil shortages shut down power, travel, and infrastructure.  As a last, desperate effort, nuclear war began.  Started at first by the third world countries that had run out of traditional arms, it soon spread to every nuclear country on the planet.

                  At the end of the turmoil caused by the First Great Ice Melt, mankind was in ruins.  Before the Great Ice Melt, mankind numbered over ten billion.  After the War of Ruin, and during the ensuing nuclear winter, the population of the planet was reduced almost ninety percent.  A scant two hundred million people remained on the planet, and they were reduced to almost a stone-age level of living.

                  The years after the War of Ruin are somewhat hazy.  Isolated places on the globe had electricity and basic services, but most of the globe was reduced to a gang based society.  Over the years, the planet began to recover.  It happened much faster than anyone anticipated, and life began to reassemble into identifiable bodies.  The old nations were gone, but new nations sprang up out of the ashes of the world.  For over three hundred years, nations began to grow, and global infrastructure began to reassemble.  Technology was rediscovered, and new and better means of accomplishing tasks began to take shape.  The path of rediscovery followed much the same path as the original cycle, but this time the people of the world remembered the mistakes of their forefathers, and did not make the same mistakes twice.  The use of coal and petroleum products was banned, and laws requiring recycling sprung into existence everywhere.  Solar power was the standard, but first nuclear fission, then fusion, and finally anti-matter reactors began to go online.  Once the countries of the world had achieved internal stability with their own people and external stability with their neighbors, it was decided to hold a conference to decide how to proceed.

                  The nations of the world assembled in the ruins of what used to be Lake Geneva, Switzerland, in what would become the Council of Unity.  Over the course of forty days, the Council debated, argued, threatened, and negotiated many issues.  The first of the issues was the date.  No one really knew how many years had passed since the end of the War of Ruin.  Everyone knew of it, by one name or another, and knew that it had been many years since then, but they did not know the exact number of years.  However, during the Council, an archaeological expedition in the former United States city of Denver, Colorado found a remarkable book.  It had the position of stars marked down, and was remarkably well preserved, especially considering the pelting that Colorado received from atomic weapons.  The book was analyzed, and finally the scientists figured out that the date was sometime in the year 2574.  Due to the position of the sun and the season, the council decided that the date was sometime near the summer solstice.

                  Since the Council had no way of figuring out the exact date, they decided to create a new calendar to be used globally, and to start on the day of the first summer solstice.  They worked for many days on the calendar, finally settling on a system surprisingly similar to their ancestors.  A system was devised based on the three hundred sixty-five and one-quarter day solar year.  It was divided into fourteen months, each with twenty-six days.  The summer solstice was set outside any month, and every four years, a day was added after Solstice Day to adjust the calendar.  For the names of the months, the Council chose to use was ancient writings they had, and honor the past.  They used the names of long dead Greek and Roman Gods, and came up with the fourteen—Zeuth, Herth, Apoth, Nepeth, Venth, Areth, Vulcath, Cereth, Merath, Bacath, Arteth, Junoth, Vestath, and Maith.  With that settled, the first day of the new calendar started on Solstice Day, 477 years after the Great Melt.

                  The council discussed a number of other things, but the biggest shocker came at the end of the event.  As the council unlocked the doors, the world was stunned to find out what the Council had truly been about.  In forty days, the numerous small countries of the world had merged to become one Terran Federation.  Riots immediately broke out all over the globe, and a global civil war broke out shortly afterwards.  However, on 15 Vulcath, 482 AGM, peace ensued, and the Terran Federation became a true reality.

                  For the next five hundred years, mankind expanded his influence.  First, he colonized every habitable section of the planet, including much of the sea and even the sky.  Then, he turned his eyes toward the stars.  First, colonies on Earth’s Moon sprang up, followed by colonies on Mars, and finally on one of Jupiter’s Moons.  However, efficient interstellar travel proved to still be virtually impossible due to the light barrier, until 14 Venth, 996 AGM.  On that fateful day, a small craft finally survived the hyperspace transit with her crew intact.  The Terran Federation Ship Starbound successfully navigated an in-system jump from just beyond the orbital path of Neptune to near Mars, and the results were astounding. 

                  It was discovered that though the light barrier was still there, it operated differently in the alternate reality of hyperspace.  Light traveled much faster in hyperspace, letting any craft in hyperspace bend the light barrier.  A trip to Alpha Centauri A, which had in another expedition taken nearly 5 years, only took two minutes of hyperspace travel.  This revolutionized space travel, and allowed interstellar travel to not only be plausible, but highly effective.

                  Space exploration and settlement absolutely exploded.  Within a couple years, mankind had settled sixteen planets outside Sol System, and over a dozen moons.  One system in particular showed remarkable promise.  The Procyon system, a binary star located about eleven and a half light years from Earth, contained three planets and eleven moons suitable for human habitation, and none of them were currently inhabited.  It was perfect.  One of the moons, dubbed Eden, became the most famous travel destination in the galaxy.  A planet composed of giant, shallow oceans teeming with species of fish and whale-like animals never before seen, and millions of islands.  A contemporary travel journal of the time called it a “Planet of Paradise.”  Mankind turned it into the most luxurious planet in the galaxy, and made it the only place to have any kind of party.  And so, mankind expanded.

                  Man had slipped into a peaceful existence with their planet and with each other.  Each planet was allowed to govern itself the way it saw fit, and five representatives from each planet were sent to Armstrong Arboretum, a massive complex located in New Geneva, where the central government of the Federation met.  Government operated much like the old United Kingdom and United States had operated.  Representatives were elected to a term set in their constitution, while a monarch was elected to serve until death.  In order to control the monarch, a checks and balances system was set up to not only allow a check on the monarch, but also on the Parliament and the Council of Judges.  A monarch was also not allowed to form dynasties—by constitutional law, a member of the same family as the current monarch couldn’t serve as King or Queen until the longer of either three generations or one hundred years had passed.

                  For their internal security, the law enforcement agency of the Federation was the Peacekeepers.  This group of law enforcement officers was the most elite law enforcement agency mankind had ever seen.  By having one group, communication was not a problem, and everyone was always on the same page.  Though crime was fairly low, the Peacekeepers trained constantly in both lethal and non-lethal law enforcement.  Any crimes that did happen were mostly quickly caught, and the accused were quickly brought before the Council of Judges.  Trials were swift, and punishment was carried out swiftly.  Capitol punishment was outlawed, but for the very few crimes that were severe enough—murder and treason, for example—a special moon was colonized.  The moon only had the technological achievements of the early 1900’s Earth and was strictly patrolled.  Prisoners were dropped off at a random place on the moon and left to fend for themselves.  No ship but Peacekeeper drop ships were allowed to enter the moon’s atmosphere, and they only landed in random areas and only when depositing a prisoner.  Four Federation cruisers stayed stationed in orbit to keep pirates from recruiting from the moon’s population.

                  The Federation Navy, and by association the Marines, was one of the only debated points in the Federation.  Some said that having a standing military was pointless.  Others said that it was necessary.  Despite settling fifteen star systems since the invention of the hyperdrive, mankind had yet to encounter any other intelligent life.  The forward thinkers in the Federation realized that it was only a matter of time until first contact, and that the life mankind encountered maybe friendly or it may be hostile.  Just as a precaution, they said, the Federation should have something to defend itself.  So several ship classes were designed and constructed.  A cruiser, a destroyer, and a carrier class ship were designed, as well as three types of fighters and bombers.  Their numbers were kept in moderation; it was, after all, just a precaution.

                  And so, for over three hundred years, the Federation expanded.  First contact with another intelligent species finally came on 23 Areth, 1014 AGM, and the event was fairly strenuous for a moment.  A scout ship entered a previously unexplored star system, only to discover that it was already inhabited.  Almost immediately after they exited hyperspace, alarm klaxons were blaring as three ships locked weapons on the small scout ship.  The scout ship was very lightly armed and armored; it was intended to defend against asteroids and various astronomical phenomena instead of against another space faring civilization, and so the scout ship did the only thing it could do—they went dead in space.  They shutdown their engines and started broadcasting their identification in the official language of the Federation.  It was a very tense half hour as they sat there, and then suddenly the weapons from the other ships powered down.  One of the other ships moved in front of the scout ship, and hailed the ship.  The captain of the scout ship, in his dress uniform, accepted the hail, and was a little surprised at the image that met him on the view screen.

                  The being that greeted him first in their language, and then in Common, was a tall, lithe humanoid woman with long purple hair, very fair skin, and ears with long pointed tips.  She made some sort of gesture with her four-fingered hand that the captain of the scout ship did not understand, and then started speaking.

                  “Peaceful greetings to you.  My name is Ch’aria and I am the Captain of the Royal Alfari Naval Ship HMS Th’al.  His majesty King Shalamari the Third would like to invite you to peaceful talks and a celebration of the meeting of our two peoples.”

                  “Captain Ch’aria, it is with great pleasure that I accept this invitation on behalf of myself and the Terran Federation.  I hope that this is the beginning of a long and beneficial friendship between our two peoples.”

                  The dinner went off without a hitch, and Captain Ch’aria was appointed to be the first ambassador between the Terran Federation and the Alfari Empire.  For the next fifty years, peaceful trade ensued, and four other species met the Federation, but none were openly hostile.  Trade agreements and non-aggression pacts were signed, and ambassadors were exchanged.  And so life went on.  The Federation continued to expand; its population eventually numbering over two hundred billion souls.

                  Finally, the inevitable happened.  A large expedition of twelve scout ships was sent to the Andromeda Galaxy.  Over a year of hyperspace travel later, the longest time ever spent in hyperspace without stopping, the ships emerged at the outskirts of a star system in the galaxy.  As had happened several times in previous first encounters, immediately after exiting hyperspace alarm klaxons started blaring in the ears of the bridge crew.  Standard procedure had been established years earlier, and immediately the admiral of the fleet ordered all the ships in the group to drop to minimal power and he started broadcasting friendly greetings in every available language.

                  It only took moments for the sensor operator to get an image of the ship on the main viewer, and the image made the admiral’s heart stop.  The ship on the viewer was twice as large as anything the Federation had, including the other five races known in the Milky Way Galaxy.  It was bristling with weapons ports; one of which was roughly the size of the scout ship itself.  Then came the communication from the ship.

                  “Admiral, we’re receiving an audio hail from the alien vessel,” the communications officer said.

                  “Let’s hear it, Ensign,” the Admiral said.  It was evident by his voice that he was worried about this particular encounter.

                  “Piping it through now, Admiral.”

                  “Attention Alien Vessel.  You are hereby ordered to drop your shields and prepare to be boarded.  You ships are now property of the Kropellian Empire and the Empress Grothala.  You have 30 skala to surrender or you will be destroyed.”

                  The Admiral hit the emergency communication button on his chair.  “Attention all ships, red alert, repeat, red alert!  Emergency hyperspace jump!  Get home if you can,” letting go of the button, he turns to the helmsman, “Get us out of here Lieutenant!

                  “Ensign,” he said, turning to the communications officer, “Prepare and send a data burst via hyperspace to Earth.  If we don’t make it, they have to be warned.”

                  Just as the first ship was preparing to make the jump to hyperspace, the Kropellian ship opened fire.  The first blast cut the engine section off the lead scout ship, closing the jump gate and blocking the small fleet’s escape.

                  “All ships, this is the Admiral.  Turn and open fire.  I repeat, fire when you have a lock on them.  Ensign,” the Admiral said, turning to the communications officer, “Did you get that message off?”

                  “Yes sir, just barely.  Sir,” the ensign turned to the Admiral, “It’s been an honor.”

                  “You too Ensign…you too.”

                  In its next salvo, the Kropellian vessel’s lasers tore the remaining eleven scout ships apart.  There were no survivors.

                  Thirteen months later, a data burst was intercepted at the Mars Listening Post.  Its message was quickly spread among the various races known races of the Milky Way, and the Terran Federation started preparing for war.  All construction of civilian liners was halted and production in the shipyards was shifted over to warships.  Within four months, fifteen heavy destroyers, twenty-five cruisers, twelve carriers, and over four thousand fighters and bombers were built and deployed to the majority of Federation planets.  The forces, though spread thin around the galaxy, were within a few hours jump of each other, and it was determined that if the Kropellian’s attacked, they could be intercepted quickly enough.

                  Two months later, a signal was detected traveling through hyperspace.  The distortion of space-time within hyperspace, which allows faster than light travel, also distorts the sensor readings within it.  The cruiser that first detected the signal immediately communicated the detection of the signal, and started plotting its course.  It appeared that the signal was headed to the Ganymede System.  It was a small system on the very edge of the galaxy with only one inhabited planet.  Immediately, the Federation dispatched ships to the area, hoping to stop the invasion, if it was one, before it could get started.

                  On 14 Zeuth, 1058, the few ships that had managed to arrive in the Ganymede system were making routine sensor sweeps of the system when a hyperspace event was detected.  The sensor office on duty had to double-check his readings before he contacted the Admiral.

                  “Admiral, I’m detecting a hyperspace event forming.  Bearing 056 mark 015 degrees at twenty-two million kilometers.  Ma’am, it’s huge.”

                  “All hands, Red Alert,” Admiral Theresa Clancy turned to the sensor officer, “How big is it Lieutenant?”

                  “Sir, sensors confirm.  It’s five hundred kilometers in diameter,” the sensor officer glanced at his panel.  The color drained from his face as he turned to the Admiral and said, “Ma’am, there’s something coming through.  Ma’am, it’s three times the size of the Nebula.”

                  The Admiral’s face lost all color.  Seven years ago, a new class of carrier had been launched from the Mars shipyards, dubbed the Nebula class after the first ship.  It carried six hundred fighters and one hundred fifty bombers, twenty medium particle beam weapons, twenty medium laser turrets, and fifty Hydra class light missile launchers.  It was the biggest ship the Federation had ever produced, and carried almost ten thousand men and women.  If this was just the first vessel of a fleet of ships that size…

                  The Admiral thumbed her communications button and contacted the fleet.  “All ships, now hear this.  Bring all shields and weapons online, however you are to hold your fire until intent of the incoming ships is determined.  All carriers launch all ships.”

                  The fleet hurried to answer the orders of the Admiral.  The destroyers TFS Intrepid and Dauntless moved into flanking positions of the TFS Napoleon, the only carrier that had managed to arrive in system.  As fighters started pouring out of the Napoleon, Admiral Clancy turned to the sensor operator.

                  “Give me a report Lieutenant.”

                  “Yes ma’am.  Three more ships have come out of hyperspace; fortunately none are those big mother…sorry ma’am, those large ships.  Two are similar in size to our destroyers and the other is similar in size to a cruiser.  Ma’am,” the sensor officer looked at his console again, “It appears that the hyperspace event is closing.”

                  “Very well.  Communications, broadcast friendly greetings, all languages please.  Let’s make sure that we exhaust all peaceful solutions.”

                  For several minutes, the bridge crew hardly moved.  Then the communications officer spoke up, startling several of the crew.

                  “Admiral, I have an incoming message from the large ship.”

                  “Let’s hear it Lieutenant.”

                  “Attention Alien Vessel.  You are hereby ordered to drop your shields and prepare to be boarded.  You ships are now property of the Kropellian Empire and the Empress Grothala.  You have 30 skala to surrender or you will be destroyed.”

                  “Admiral! That large ship is launching small vessels.  They look like fighters!” the sensor operator exclaimed.

                  “All ships, looks like we’re at war.  Lock on and fire at will!  Gold squadron, you’re assigned fleet defense; all other fighters, engage at will!”

                  For the next several minutes, things were quite chaotic.  The three smaller Kropellian ships engaged the Federation vessels, while the largest ship stayed behind, inactive in the battle.  For a moment, it seemed that the combatants were equally matched.  Both sides had losses, but there was no clear advantage on either side.  Then the big ship entered the battle.  After that, it was over quickly.

                  The large ship’s first salvo made one of the carrier’s escort destroyers disappear.  There wasn’t an explosion.  There was no breaking up.  It was just simply gone.  The ships started concentrating on the big ship, but their weapons just couldn’t cause enough damage to make a difference.  The large ship then started firing lasers, particle beam weapons, and missiles all at once, destroying what was left of the Federation fleet.  The four Kropellian ships then jumped into hyperspace.  The first battle of the new war was over.

                  But the fight for the galaxy had just begun.