Previously on the Janus Adventure:

"I have decided"

Said Bob.

"Decided what"

He asked back.

"I have decided you are to be the Captain of this Cruiser you have named Xerxes"

Chapter Six

"Wait, what, why"

"In the last two months we have sent out numerous intergalactic probes searching for other Ustrian ships, bases and most importantly planets but our searches have found nothing. Only abandoned planets, destroyed bases and ghost ships drifting in space. We have deduced that we are the last remaining functioning Ustrian warship/research vessel and since you are distantly related to our old masters. We tested you to see how well of a Captain you would be, we decided you would be best to lead us"

"I am honoured"

Lazarus replied, not sure what else to say, he was now the leader of two hundred and fifty Replicators and an amazingly advanced ship. I mean what would anyone say with that dropped suddenly in their laps.

"So now will you answer my questions?"

"Yes Captain, anything we know will be available to you and all the consoles will be made available to you as well, your wish is our command"

"Good to know, now I will ask again then, what did you mean that day months ago when I awakened you, the cousin bit to the Lanteans"

"It is as you deduced earlier, The Ustrians were from the Pegasus galaxy. They were a small colony named Ustria with only ten thousand plus Lanteans run by an amazingly intelligent and gifted man called Janus. The colony was a secret one that housed his scientists and their families and many others there to run and feed the settlement. They worked on his secret projects there in larger scales. The shielding and stealth technology there was so advanced the Wraith never paid any attention to the colony, as they could not sense them. As the war escalated Janus could not come back to the colony in fear either the Lantean council or the Wraith would find out about Ustria. He knew they were safe, so when the Lanteans evacuated Atlantis, Janus sent his goodbyes to his colony and left with the others back to Earth knowing that his colony would survive and thrive in the aftermath of the war"

Lazarus was now fully awake, he was sitting up against the backboard, his attention fully focused on Bob as he began to continue.

"After the Wraith were sure the Lanteans were gone the majority went to sleep in their huge hives. This was when the Ustrians came out of their colony and began setting up bases on other planets and doing small trade deals with the surviving humans of other worlds. They even assimilated in many different cultures and humans with Ustrians being the dominant culture. Soon followed a great expansion in Ustrians, with the advanced medical technology the Ustrian population increased exponentially for decades until there were millions of them on a multitude of planets surrounding their original star system and many more bases and smaller colonies on planets further out. They kept up their expansion for hundreds of years until they were nearly as numerous in the Pegasus galaxy as the Lanteans had been. They nearly completely exterminated the wraith as they spread out, only the most secret wraith hives survived. That was when they decided to colonise other galaxies as well, they expanded to galaxies left and right. They knew they could not go to the Milky Way galaxy in large numbers though, the ascended ancients would sense them and let the surviving ancients know about it. The Ustrians did not want that hassle, even hundreds of years after Ustria became independent they still disliked the ancients because they had taken their beloved Janus away who was almost worshipped as a God now in their society and it was their fault that the Wraith had even been a threat in the first place."

Bob had stopped his tale to leave the room and quickly returned with the Captains morning meal, still smoking hot. As Lazarus started eating his large English style breakfast Bob continued his story.

"As the Ustrians continued to grow and expand they met other alien races that they peacefully incorporated into their society, they also met some hostile aliens which they destroyed swiftly and took their technology. They met some hostile races that they thought would be useful, so they subjugated them with chemical mind control technology. It was a mostly peaceful golden age for the Ustrians. It lasted that way until a few thousand years ago when an exploration probe discovered an alien Empire called the Grrlok Empire in the Zymillan Galaxy as immense or if not larger than the Ustrian one. The base that had sent the probe, had sent out hundreds already and found nothing, so they were quite complacent and lazy there as they were a frontier base. The majority of the time no one was there to record probe findings, when the Grrlok Empire were found, was one of those such times.

These aliens were huge ape like beings as dumb and brutal as Orcs of old fictional tales, they had somehow advanced to space age through sheer dumb luck and swiftly began conquering alien races and forcing them into slavery. With even more dumb luck one of the most recent conquests had landed the Grrlok Empire a race of peaceful super intelligent bipedal feline-like aliens, these aliens traced the probe back to the base Lynn that launched it. The Grrlok attacked with a large fleet numbering in the hundreds, Lynn's small dozen defence ships were instantly destroyed under the onslaught of so many enemy attacks. They kept up this attack method undetected for the next few bases until they came upon an Ustrian home world. The enemy attacked in the hundreds again but even though the defenders were caught unawares they managed to survive as they had fifty plus defence Frigates, a few Cruisers and defence satellites and not to mention the energy cannon on the surface, it was a close victory for the Ustrians. After that battle they knew they had an enemy to deal with, the Ustrian Council mobilised the majority of their navies and armies to the galaxy to deal with the new threat.

Little did they know though that the Grrlok fleet of hundreds was considered a small insignificant raiding fleet. When word reached Grrlok High Command that the fleet had been lost. They sent hundreds of thousands of ships in waves at the Ustrians, they did not want revenge. No, not revenge. They wanted a truly glorious war and the bounty of slaves and worlds that came with it."

As the story had continued Lazarus had gotten up, dressed and was now perched on end of his bed listening intently, trying to remember every detail for further reference, an enemy that could send so many ships truly troubled him, were they still alive, had the Ustrians won, had this been what had destroyed their great civilization.

"The Grrlok armada utterly destroyed dozens of Ustrians worlds, fleets, bases and anything they came into contact with, within a year the Ustrian presence in that galaxy was non-existent. The Grrlok were not as powerful as the Ustrians but they made up for that with sheer numbers, they outnumbered what the Wraith had by at least fifty to one. The long Ustrian mostly peaceful expansion had left their Empire decadent and with one of the smallest forces in recorded Ustrian history, if they had encountered the Grrlok a hundred or two or even three hundred years earlier they would not have had such trouble. While the Ustrians were focused on the Grrloks they had the majority of their fleets and army on the border with them. This movement of forces lead to revolts and attacks by enemies they had once traded with but upon sensing weakness had attacked, more than two hundred planets were lost that way and it looked like civil war was brewing as well, the Ustrians inability to deal with the scourge that was called the Grrlok was destroying the once bountiful empire. Piece by piece, planet by planet the Ustrians were being worn down on all sides.

Reports indicated that the enemy were massing for an attack on a frontier planet in the next closest galaxy. The Ustrian Council ordered the forces set up a defence there, they believed they could take out the enemy in one large battle instead of an extended campaign that would further stress their currently fragile Empire. Little did they know they were as foolish as the Lanteans taking on the Wraith, they majorly underestimated the Grrlok and their lust for battle. Even with the majority of the Ustrians forces at the planet it counted for nothing though when the Grrlok fleets jumped out of hyper space. The enemies came in innumerable waves, no matter how many hundreds each Ustrian battlegroup took out more Grrlok were there to throw themselves and their ships into the onslaught. It was a slaughter. Not even a fraction of a fraction of Ustrians survived that battle, it was the darkest day in recorded history for them. In history books of the planets that had once belonged to the Empire this was listed as the day the Empire fell.

That was the final straw for the Ustrians, with no significant forces left the Empire fell apart, civil war took hundreds of planets, aliens seceded and took their planets back, others reverted back to primitive cultures from lack of outside trade and influence. Without an enemy force to oppose them the Grrlok sacked the Empire and left soon after rich with slaves and dozens to hundreds of new worlds, that was the end of the great and bountiful Ustrian Empire.

This ship is only left standing because it had belonged to a planetary governor who kept it for his protection, but his planet was one that rebelled and he was killed. With him dead this ship was left just to drift in space until you arrived, the ship had awoken upon sensing you nearby, for you have the both the ancient gene and the more recent Ustrian gene which is why you can see the doorways that a person without the gene could not and why you are learning the language so fast. When that console had zapped you before it took a sample of you to confirm you are truly an Ustrian descendant, maybe even the last one alive today"

This was a lot to take in, as he sat there silently Bob stared at him silently waiting for him to speak, when Lazarus did not, Bob asked for any orders.

"I'm fine Bob, I just need time to process this, please come in later and drop off all the relevant data on Xerxes though"

With a bow Bob left.

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Authors Note: Well there you have it folks, finally the backstory of the Ustrians. I wanted to spend more time on it but I figured I would always find something wrong so better post it now while currently happy with it. Hope your also happy with it. please point out if there is a plot hole I missed. Yet again I thank my beta Bayleigh. Reviews would be appreciated