Warhammer 40,000 – Novus Imperium
Disclaimer: I do not own Warhammer 40,000 and all things related to it. These are owned by Games Workshop, Inc. However I do own all OC's and fictional races in this fanfic.
Author's Note: This does not contain anything related to Warhammer, yet. As will my next few chapters, but don't worry, I'll get to them soon.
I am planning to add several Dawn of War characters into this fic, more specifically Blood Ravens, but any of the races would be fine, except Orks (I am having trouble creating Ork speech). Please nominate some characters in your reviews, and if I have enough requests for a character, I just might add them in.
Prologue
Space; beautiful, vast and majestic. The universe itself is all but unending in its expanse. Billions upon billions of stars and galaxies inhabit our own universe, and with them, countless more planets and moons. Early in humankind's history, we became fascinated with the universe, and soon we sought to reach the stars.
When we were able to advance to a sufficient degree of technology, we were finally able to take a small step forward, with the historic Moon Landing in the year 1969. After this event, due to mankind's divided nature, small progress was made. Soon, mankind became more and more individualistic, caring less and less for the greater good of our race as a whole.
Finally, this individualism soon led to wide spread anarchy and chaos within nations themselves, tearing apart the only bastions able to unite us under one banner. Brothers fought brothers, fathers fought sons. After this period of relative civil disorder, worse was to come. The sudden lack of fossil fuels and the near-exhaustion of natural resources prompted various nations to aggressively secure lands rich in them. This "Resource War", as it came to be known, soon escalated into an all out nuclear exchange between global superpowers. Former allies became bitter rivals, as they fought each other for the precious resources. It is said that, in the opening exchange alone, millions died. Millions more would follow.
Finally, after our stockpiles of bombs were finally exhausted, the war finally ended. Amidst the anarchy and chaos created by the bombs, man began to return to some semblance of order and unity, finally realizing that we needed to unite in order to survive. Soon small bands of humans began to appear. At first they were miniscule, but they grew larger and larger, eventually merging with other groups, until only one remained. This change did not happen overnight; in fact it took three hundred years, for man to get its act together.
For the first time in human history, there were no borders, and there were no races. No longer did whites, blacks, and browns matter, as did the terms that signified our ethnicity. From that moment on, we would be universally known as Humans. Ever since that fateful day, humanity worked hard to return our society to its former glory. In time, we eventually surpassed our ancestors in every way we can imagine, everyone was simply working for the betterment of all.
Under this unshakable unity, we were soon able to reach further and further towards the stars. Colonies were established across numerous worlds thanks to our newly developed terraforming and faster-than-light technology. These colonies soon became prosperous, and the foundations for the first Interstellar Human Empire. This human empire was soon reorganized into the Interstellar Republic, a democratic entity, dedicated to the betterment of mankind as a whole.
For the first 400 years of the Republic, everything was good. Annually, an average of several dozen colony worlds are established every decade, resulting in the Republic's territory encompassing the almost the entire Orion Arm of our galaxy. Alien species were also encountered on the most habitable of these worlds; however, none were intelligent enough to advance technologically. In the best of man's interests, we tried to adapt them into our environment. Some of these experiments failed, resulting in some species totally extinct, while most were able to successfully adapt to an Earth-like climate. Additionally, during these 400 years of peace, now known as the 1st Era, technology continued an unstoppable advance.
We also experimented with our selves, producing faster, stronger and smarter humans. Little did we know how much these enhancements would aid us in the future. On the 15th of March, year 2946 C.E, the unthinkable had finally happened. A previously unknown species of alien, who had been covertly observing our development, decided, in a show of force, to attack and completely annihilate one of our frontier colonies, New Goddard. The small fleet defending this world was also completely annihilated. The death toll ran in the millions, and the world was little more than a lifeless ball of rock. This prompted Republic Command to declare an all out war with these aliens, in the name of avenging our fallen brethren.
These aliens, through an encrypted transmission, introduced themselves to us as the Xian. Accompanying the transmission were the coordinates of their homeworld, and a demonstration video of their scorched earth tactics. They prefer to bombard whole planets after the destruction of all orbital defenses, thus eliminating the need for a planetary assault. Shocked by this development, Republic Command immediately ordered a huge attack to be carried out at the Xian homeworld. This attack was an utter failure, resulting in nearly 70% of all Republic ships mobilized for the attack, destroyed. It crippled us for years to come.
After that debacle of an attack, all we could do was to fight delaying actions on worlds against the Xian counter-attack. Thus world after world fell to the relentless Xian onslaught. When enough time had been bought, and the fleet was somewhat back to it's original strength, we counter-attacked all across the front. We reclaimed entire lost sectors from the Xian, although at a heavy cost. Truly the war was turning more and more towards our favor.
Then the day finally arrived. A huge force, rivaling the one first sent to attack the Xian homeworld, was poised to strike again at their homeworld. This time, the Xian defenders were utterly exhausted from the war, and were only able to send out under strength fleets against us. In that day, one could say that the war was won. In an act mirroring the New Goddard incident, the fleet bombarded the Xian homeworld, utterly destroying it, in the name of revenge. To this day, scholars debate about the justification of the attack.
After the war, we were faced with a huge reconstruction effort. We needed to replace those worlds destroyed, and reconstruct a lot of our infrastructure. It was clear that we needed to expand further into the galaxy. Fortunately, there was little to no civil unrest during the war, and it was simply a matter of time to rebuild the Republic.
Another 1500 years have passed, mankind stretches across the Milky Way. Currently, the Interstellar Republic, now known as the Galactic Federation, occupies around several thousand worlds, and covers nearly 30% of the entire galaxy. Now at the threshold of a new era, a new challenge will come upon the Galactic Federation, and in it another bloody chapter of our universe.