Ancient Luna
569-M3
location: Neil Armstrong memorial
"500 years ago. On this exact spot. The first man to walk on the moon made his world changing speech. 130 years later, the Chinese republics created the first permanent human settlement only 5 kilometers away. 200 years after that, we had colonized the entire solar system. And now 200 years later, we have finally completed the first extra-solar ark. This ark will make the long travel to the alpha centauri system and prepare it for our arrival, carrying with it over 5 million colonists.."
the grand marshal of the federation looked at the assemblage before him. Leaders from all across the system stood before him. United in the goal of seeing humanity dominate the stars.
He smiled.
"this new stage of our existence will be fraught with dangers unlike any we have ever faced before, not even the infamous third world war will come close to how difficult our future will be."
he looked to the stars.
"for over a century now, we have been aware that this galaxy is home to a myriad of different races, some like us, only just beginning to stand on their feet and look to the skies. And some that which the word ancient does not even come close to aptly describing them."
he looked once more to the crowd.
"but this will not stop us! We are humanity! We will not bow down and we will not BACK down! When our ancient ancestors hunted in the primal jungles of Terra, they didn't allow anything to threaten them, they raised their heads, bared their teeth and roared a challenge to their would be attackers. WE WILL NOT BACK DOWN."
the crowd began cheering
raising his fist into the air the leader of humanity continued.
"HEAR US GALAXY. WE ARE HUMANITY! WE ARE DEFIANT AND WE ARE STRONG. THROW WHATEVER YOU HAVE AT US AND WE WILL RETURN STRONGER THAN EVER BEFORE. THIS IS OUR CHALLENGE TO YOU. SHOW US WHAT YOU'VE GOT!"
the crowd was in a frenzy now.
Slamming his fist over his heart in the federal salute, the grand marshal spoke.
"we are the federation of mankind! And this galaxy shall be OURS!"
569-M3
humanity launches it's first interstellar ark to the neighboring system of Alpha Centauri. Marking the beginning of human interstellar expansion.
000-M4
the federation of mankind has colonized 300 star systems surrounding the SOL system.
268-M5
trans-humanism becomes the new normal.
Better, faster and stronger than their baseline counterparts, these 'men of gold' mark a new stage of human evolution.
668-M9
humanity has colonized over fifty thousand stars systems at this point. First contact with a species of fungoid based creatures are made. Calling themselves the Orks, they are a hyper-violent and hopelessly stupid race. The federal council declares them a potential threat to humanity and orders that any conclaves of the greenskins are to be vaporized wherever they are found.
696-M11
first contact with the Aeldari empire. Shocked at the similarities between the two species, the Eldar and humanity are eager to know more about one another. The council notes that the Eldar are incredibly arrogant and borderline speciest, but in the name of peace ignore the issues. Likewise the Eldar view humanity as incredibly dangerous but with incredible potential. The leaders of the empire decide that humanity must be guided down the correct path lest they destroy themselves and any caught in the wake.*
725-M11
combined efforts between the men of gold and the Infinity-Tech corporation* result in the creation of a new type of Super AI. Dubbed the Men of iron, these new machines will go onto be used all across the federation, to the point that humanity does not need to do manual labor anymore.
103-M14
relations sour between the federation and empire after an Aeldari pirate attack kills one of the council members of the federation. The empire responds by saying that the pirates come from the webway port city of commoragh. They have no jurisdiction there. The empire says that the druhkhari faction will not listen to the empire and because they do not wish to damage the webway in the case of invasion, they leave their darker cousins alone. Humanity is not happy with the answer but leave the discussion for another time.
343-M15
hedonistic cults begin to pop up all over the Eldar empire, with nothing to do and no threats to their existence, the Eldar begin to dive into the realm of pleasure, marking the beginning of the 'downfall'.
236-M16
warp based scrap code is detected in the men of irons central intelligence. Technomancers attempt to purge the contamination to no avail. The central intelligence goes insane and begins sending kill orders to all men of iron.
A state of emergency is declared across the federation.
The age of strife has begun.
720-M17
the iron war comes to an end. After a thousand years of war, humanity has defeated the men or iron.
It is a phyrric victory.
3,789 plantes were rendered inhospitable to human life and over 89,0000000000000 humans were killed. The councile declares that AI is illegal and any who attempt to create one will be executed.
145-M18
human civilization begins to collapse, growing warp storms caused by the increasingly frenzied Eldar has made long distance interstellar travel impossible. Understanding that the federation will not survive the coming centuries, the council begins operation 'long sleep', 30 billion candidates are placed into cryogenic sleep and sent out of the galaxy at light speed, once the ships reach dark-space, they will initiate a shutdown of everything but vital systems. A heavily shackled VI* will monitor the galaxy and once a criteria has been met, will bring the ships back home. Among these sleeping people is the hero of the federation. Grand marshal Auron Borealis.
543-M20
Slaanesh is born. And with it's birth, the Eldar empire dies. Scattered and broken, what remains of the once proud people live on the craftworlds or retreat to commoragh.
The federation of mankind is dead. Humanity no longer able to even send messages to other systems has been cut of from one another. Anarchy, chaos, fear and destruction is the new way of life for the galaxy. No longer able to communicate with one another, the systems split into sub empires, each with their own rules and laws. Some worlds manage to retain the peace and lawfulness of the federation, while others fall into neo feudalism.
245-M30
the emperor of mankind reveals himself to the people of Terra and launches the reunification war to bring humanity back together under a new banner.
The Imperium of man is born.
350-M30
the great crusade is in full swing. And at it's head is the god emperor and his sons. the primarchs.
But all is not well. Soon an ancient foe will rear it's head, and a forgotten hero will return.
TO BE CONTINUED.
*this was before the Eldar started thinking with their crotches and not their heads.
*just a random corporation I made up to explain the creation of the men of iron.
*virtual intelligence, essentially an incredibly dumbed down version of an AI. is also called a machine spirit in modern 40K
This is an alternate universe of 40K, as you may have guessed from the last line, the Horus heresy is going to be much, much different.
Next chapter will be posted when it's finished. See you then friends!