[2006: NOV-DEC] On their own

[Nerreht]

The utopias developed for a long time about spatial conquest were far from reality. In its constant quest for power and domination, the human race had made itself a nasty reputation at a galactic level ever since their first warp flight. And things didn't get better with time. Wars followed one another, conflicts taking huge proportions including many species in territorial disputes. Simply put, every single problem the Earth had known yet were transposed to a galactic scale.

Many would say that all of this had brought the humans closer together, but knowing that Mankind had more enemies than ever was far from rejoycing. Like the black sheep of the galaxy, Terrans found ways to continue the fight, associating themselves with many belligerant species to reach their goals. The power-driven Man had not evolved for millenias, except perhaps on a technological level which simply gave him more destructive power.

The Corporation was created out of those dark alliances and human decadence reached new heights, just like the ambition to control everything and rule as masters of the galaxy. The Corporation fleet had impressive firepower and it took over many territories despite the efforts of those who stood up to them.

The human race that had been described for so long as peaceful, refered to as being sophisticated in every story and that were mentioned as living in harmony with other alien species was far from those ideal characteristics. Human nature being as it is, nobody asked any questions and just followed the example of the strongest one, following like sheep in what had seemed to be a global brainwashing that occured over time. Humans were now created genetically to become entities with specific functions, cloning that had been banned for so long now being used at large to compensate for the casualties of war.

Earth was heavily industrialized, an atmospheric shield had to be placed around the human homeworld to counteract the catastrophic degradation of the ozone layer. Nobody was poor in exchange of devoting their life to The Corporation. Those who didn't want to serve were exiled or simply killed, the second option becoming automatic since the exiled had started to join other species to fight back.

Thos who accepted to serve The Corporation were living like royalty, mankind's materialistic nature being exploited to its maximum to seduce people to serve. That way, nobody ever reconsidered The Corporation's policies and actions, too busy to roll in riches like pigs in a mud pond. All of that simply gave the humans a bigger will to fight if only to protect their possessions, even more so that Corporation propaganda was telling them that other species wanted to take away their riches.

Mankind and its allies, The Corporation, had become the galaxy's most feared and hated entity. Many worlds had been conquered or had surrendered and on every one of them, military patrols were looking for any sign of opposition. Of course, any resistance was eliminated right away; that was the Corporation's policy.