When the world stopped fighting, no one took into thought the consequences of having a whole society built around fighting, well, stop. As horrible as it sounds, war and fighting had kept the people from worrying about where the money went. It also kept the economy circling around, you need to pay people to build weapons, to fight, to patch those fighters up. It was that careful balance that kept the elites and old money ontop, and kept the rest of humanity at each other's throats.
Of course, when the war they started took out a whole entire continent, well...everyone just sort of stopped. It was through that tragedy, through the hundreds of people lost to unnecessary violence and greed, that treaties were signed and world peace was "achieved".
It was through this peace that major reforms were made to our way of life. With world peace came a boom of scientific discovery, as whatever money wasn't going into rebuilding and rehabilitation was going into medical, mechanical, and other types of studies. Diseases were cured, we were able to figure out teleportation, and most importantly, the typical standard of living increased by twenty percent in the first five years. It was, for all academic purposes, a great time to be alive.
Yet there were other underlined factors that people seemed to neglect. With the boom of success and wealth, the population was increasing at a rapid rate as well. Not to mention multitudes of people who primarily fought in the war had mixed successes at integrating back into society.
It was during this time that, with a world almost completely explored, many astronomers were considering space travel. The technology had finally caught up with the hopes and dreams of any science fiction loving nerd out there, as well as the funding and workforce needed to create the ships. All it would take would be people willing to go out into space with the possibility they'd might not come back. With that, the Intergalactic Exploration and Recordation Program, or the IERP, was born. Being a program filled with both public, private, and government influences and funding, the system was a mix of all sort of people.
Sending out forms and interviewing countless applicants, people from all over Earth applied for roles amongst the crews, wanting a taste of adventure and life beyond the stars. Incentive, such as a wonderful check each month and excellent retirement benefits, also sweetened the deal. Yet not everyone was picked, and even then, not everyone made it towards their launches…
Many ships discovered countless things, planets both inhabitable and not, yet not a single one had discovered intelligent life. Well, not unless ours did…
The Chaotic was christened it's name after it's shaky creation as well as its crew structure. Four teams would be set up as a way to check and balance each other, forming four councils for the medical, scientific, escort, and engineer sectors. This was mostly done due to two of the teams having strong ties with two privately owned companies, and the deep rivalry that had transpired between them. The belief was that with two government run teams, they would balance out and prevent any infighting and possible sabotage. Yet the even was more for show then anything. If they had meant anything by it, they would have screened the them more clearly.
Instead, Escort leader and Ex-military general Charles "the Inferno" Kiru managed to piss off his co-workers, effectively turning the teams on each other in an effort to compete for the best discovery. All this, of course, happened from the time we were aware of the ship, to boarding and liftoff, straight to us arriving in Orbit of our target planet. To make matters worse, I'm stuck with his section….
Not to mention, upon entry to orbit, our long travel engines fizzled out, meaning it would take another three years to recharge and return. So if we needed to jet back incase something happens, we ether have to find a faster way to charge the engines or just say fuck all and die…
Well, it's a good thing no one's found my private notes on this. I don't know what i'd do if these got out. Honestly, it's a little embarrassing that I hadn't been able to write more about this, but i have a feeling no one would want to hear about my rambles as a low level field scientist. I mean, i'm pretty great, but they'd rather hear the science about it rather than my personal feelings about it all. Plus, well, who knows. Maybe one day when i'm old (if I make it off this crazy planet), I'll publish these, or leave them for my future kids to discover. But the major reason why I'm recording these is, well…
We found some.
We found intelligent life.
Now we just have to make sure we live long enough to tell the world...
Sincerelyyour's
Harold Brogan,
Field scientist for the UW division.