(Posted on 08-15-2000)
Important Pre-Story Note:
This is a carry on story. It was made specifically to have no exact story line, but to have many choices open to you. I have stolen a few names, ect. from EV and EVO, but don't let that worry you. If you make a sequel, then either take my title and make a rough story line out of that, or just ignore it and make your own.
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I begin my story at the time when interstellar flight had just been discovered. Many Pioneers flew their slow, bulky ships to find and explore new frontiers, planets, species and cultures. They were very brave people, and many never returned. Either they found new homes on strange and new planets or.... well, no-one really knows what else, but a few good guesses could be made.
After Interstellar flight became more popular, the Human race started to build colony ships. Huge, harmless ships, filled with thousands and thousands of men, women and children, all eager to explore the stars. The first colony ship built was the ship class Apollo. It explored for weeks looking for habitable planets to colonize, until finally, it found one; Alpha Centauri.
It was a truly beautiful planet, with strange life-forms, and sufficient food to hold the population of Earth twice over for many, many centuries. From then on, many colony ships were built, all shipping people to Centauri. As technology prevailed, bigger colony ships were built. With the first colony ships only being able to hold a few thousand people, they could now hold well over one and a half million colonists.
As Centurai flourished, Earth slowly fell. The human race had over-polluted their home planet. The surface of the earth slowly turned to a desert-like form. Ice melted from the North and South Poles, causing gigantic floods, and as a consequence, massive casualties. A lot of food had to be shipped from Centauri to Earth, in a feeble effort to maintain the once beautiful planet and its inhabitants. Because of the huge economic downfall, no colony ships were built. The inhabitants of Earth were doomed to live on a planet with fatal floods, hostile deserts and a very harsh climate.
Centurai sent colony ships to pick up as many civilians as possible. By then Earth had changed. The planet was ruled by a world democratic government. Currency was changed. So called Credits replaced all Earth currencies. A new language was developed. Galactic Standard was the only language humans spoke, thought, and were taught when children. Centauri followed these rules. The one government, one currency, one language system quite suited the government and its people. But as more and more food was exported to Earth and more colonists were imported from Earth, the fate of Centauri lay in the balance. The inhabitants made a ruthless, resourceful and, in the eyes of Earth, cruel move. They rejected all colonists. They sent no food. Earth was desperate. The rule of tyranny began.
The Earth government built an army through bribery and deceit. A fierce war was fought between three highly powerful military dictators. This war spelled an even worse doom for Earth. The unknown alien force struck Earth with frightening speed and extreme force. As Earth had only a primitive land army, they were quickly crushed at the hands of the Alien menace. Many humans were made into slaves or made to pay huge taxes to keep from becoming slaves.
Centauri had known of this for a long time already when they started to build a defence fleet. Using its moderate technology, it built a huge space fleet. By then Centauri had explored the neighbouring systems and had colonised three luscious planets. Centurai built smaller defence fleets for these planets, yet hopefully large enough to fend off an attack. The Aliens had explored the system of Centauri and scanned the planet. They decided it was good enough to be conquered. Thinking that Centurai would be as easy to conquer as Earth, the Aliens gathered a medium sized fleet and made an invasion. They were crushed by the Centurai ships. Although they had better technology the humans had size, and more importantly defiance, on their side. They beat their opponents with ease. The Aliens then made another four attempts to invade the planet, each bigger than the last. All of them failed.
It was then that the Aliens discovered the colonies which Centurai had owned. They decided a full scale attack on these colonies would strike a decisive blow against the humans. They were wrong. They sent another large fleet to invade the Java system, and the colony of New London, the smallest of the Centurai colonies. The Aliens were again repelled. When it seemed clear the Aliens would get only the desolate planet of Earth, they decided to make life on Centurai as hard as possible. They started by attacking all colony ships that led from Centurai to its colonies. Centurai then started to build escort warships for their ships protection. When the Aliens persisted in attacking colony ships and supply convoys, Centurai started to build general patrol ships. Warships such as the Centurai fighter and destroyer. They made fleets in which to blast any Aliens sky high. This triggered the raids. The Aliens would send large fleets of ships to destroy conveys, colony ships and warships.
At that time all of the colonies had been declared independent by default unless stated otherwise. The Centurai government decided that, at least for the time being, all the colonies should unite and form a mutual alliance called the United Centurai Alliance (UCA). It consisted of Centurai, New London, Virgo and Deneb III. Together with all of their resources, the four planets started making raids on Earth. Many Alien and UCA ships were destroyed by doing this, but eventually the Alien raids stopped, and they were left to desperately try to defend Earth.
Then all was quiet. For five years, no raids, attacks or invasions were made by either side. All UCA colony ships and supply freighters were left alone. No one knows knows why this deadlock was reached. Because the need to build endless warships to fight the Aliens was gone, the UCA expanded. New colonies such as Rigel, Opal, New Scotland, New Ireland and Jadzia all prospered. New technologies were made. An enhanced laser was made. Laser turrets were invented. A UCA Carrier was designed and built to hold and transport the UCA Fighter. Supply ships, light shuttles, couriers and scoutships were made available to the public... for a price.
This is where the introduction ends, and the real story begins. For I, Greg Hedric, was born at that time: the 5th of August, 2487. I had been a businessman on my home planet of Rigel. I had made many credits, and thinking that the ordinary life as a rich businessman did not appeal to me, I decided to put a small sum of money, about 5,000 credits in a bank. Then I took my remaining 10,000 credits and bought myself a shuttlecraft, the smallest, weakest ship in the UCA. It was also the cheapest, and therefore most popular amongst people like me. I will start this story from the time I bought my shuttle, arriving at the spaceport and on my way to get my first ever cargo mission.
(This message has been edited by moderator (edited 08-15-2000).)