DISCLAIMERS:
- All official Sonic characters belong to Sega. All characters I have personally created belong to me.
- This series of fanfics is based in the Sonic universe of that of the animated movie "Sonic the Hedgehog", which was released in North America in 1999. Now, the movie doesn't even try to stay canon with the games, comics, or TV shows, and I will be doing the same in these fanfics. The only piece of Sonic material that I will try to stay canon with will be the movie itself, and even then I won't stay strictly with it.
As such, expect my own spin on certain plot details (such as Sonic's history) to contradict with facts in other Sonic material. If you don't like that, then I'd strongly recommend you stop reading this now and read someone else's fanfic. For those of you who wish to continue, enjoy my work!
- This fanfic might start off slow, but give it some time. I'm starting slow to set the stage for the plot. It'll speed up once you're about halfway through Chapter 2.
Chapter 1: The Discovery of Planet Freedom
Over the past three centuries since today, mankind on Earth developed highly advanced technology for his society. People lived longer, healthier, and more productive lives than ever before. What's more, this technology continued to advance to make life even easier to live. People had much more leisure time than they do today, and yet a lot of them still have money in their pockets. Who knows, soon technology might even rise to the level where man does not have to do any work except command his machines to do their jobs.
However, it wasn't always like that. In fact, the human race was facing severe problems around the year 2150. Useable resources on Earth were running out at an alarming rate, both due to a boom in the human population and the need for still more resources to construct the latest technology. Because of this growing fear, the worlds' governments funded a significant amount of research into developing spacecraft that could travel far away from Earth, and come back with loads of resources to continue to support Earth's population.
The work soon paid off well. By the start of the 22nd century, space travel became as common as air travel was at the start of the 21st century, and now people were traveling at record speeds in outer space. New colonies were founded on Mars. People gratefully filled these new settlements, since Earth was rapidly becoming overcrowded. Also, new resources from Mars were sent back to continue to supply Earth. Mankind could rest easy, for his problems in supporting his growing population were over, at least for several centuries.
However, with the ability to make settlements beyond Earth, humans got the urge to travel even deeper in space to continue to spread. Unfortunately though, a trip to Mars alone took about two months, and it was even longer to reach many other places in the solar system. This restricted man to the solar system where he had spent all of his existence in. However, the problem was finally solved in 2192, when David Krik invented the hyper drive. For the few spaceships that could handle the hyper drive, it allowed them to travel light years in mere seconds. A few scout ships were immediately dispatched to search the Milky Way for potential new places to settle and explore.
On the morning of February 2, 2204, an exciting discovery was made. The Nika scout ship had found a new solar system that had a striking likeness to the one that humans hailed from. This new system was named the Nika system, after their ship. However, it wasn't the system itself that the humans were excited about, but rather it was what had been detected on one of the planets in it. The one in question was a planet that appeared to have a similar environment to Earth from their scanners, which made it prime for settling. The new planet was named Planet Freedom, due to the fact that humans now had the freedom to settle worlds beyond their own solar system.
Their scanners also picked up a strange pattern of heat coming from the surface, which suggested the possibility of life forms on that planet! The question of whether or not man was alone in the universe might finally be answered! The Nika quickly hurried to this new world to find out the truth, and the question was soon answered with a resounding yes. After touching down on the surface, they quickly experienced contact with the natives. The native inhabitants of this planet were anthromorphic Earth-like animals, or Freedomians. Science is still at a loss as to how to explain why the members of this species are as varied as the animal kingdom on Earth, and how they even came to be.
These beings seemed docile enough to the humans, and so they did not fire upon them. Rather, they decided to befriend them, for these were the first living beings man had seen living away from Earth. It would be such a waste if they died. With the help of special language translator devices, communication was established between the two parties. The Earthlings let the Freedomians know that they had no intention of harming them, and that they simply wanted to explore the planet. As the humans searched this new world, they discovered more about the planet itself and the native inhabitants. What they learned surprised them and baffled them.
For one thing, the planet's sky is full of flying islands and continents, and this area is called the Land of the Sky. A majority of the planet's inhabitants live here, due to the fact that it offers a brighter and more attractive environment than the Land of Darkness, which is what the surface of Planet Freedom is called. Due to a lot of sunlight, and water from rainfall and many lakes and rivers, a large amount of vegetation exists here for the Freedomians to use. The Land of Darkness is the planet's surface, in which most areas are cool and dark, since the Land of the Sky absorbs most of the warm sunlight before it can reach the Land of Darkness. However, since this area is low enough to have an extensive cloud cover, rainfall is frequent and provides nourishment for the plant life.
One may think that it would be difficult to get around in Planet Freedom, since a good portion of the communities are on islands up high in the sky. However, this is not the case, because the planet provides its own natural highway system. Throughout the planet, blue warp zones are scattered around, and through these the user can easily reach just about any place he or she want to go. However, the kinds of warp holes are extremely varied. Some are so small they can only transport one or two people at a time, while others are big enough to handle a major city's traffic. Also, some may vanish for hours at a time after being used, while others are in place continuously and never vanish. The only things consistent among all of them are that each one of them has a predetermined location where it appears, and a specific destination.
The technology level of the Freedomians in their communities was about the level of that of the ancient Egyptians on Earth. Also, thanks to the warp holes, strong bonds and trade rose up among all of the ancient nations on the planet. Thus, the planet had seen very few wars and hostility among the residents, instead offering a spirit of cooperation. They also treated their planet with respect, trying as hard as they could to minimize pollution and waste.
In 2205 the humans gave the Freedomians Earth technology that existed around the start of the 21st century, as payment for allowing the humans to explore the planet for resources. They were deliberately given outdated technology, since it was thought that current technology was too complex for them to learn to use. There was also another more...strategic reason for giving them outdated technology. The humans feared the possibility that the natives would rebel against them, and the outdated technology ensured they would still be outmatched by the latest Earth technology. The Freedomians were kept in the dark about this newer technology, and still happily assisted the humans when they needed help searching for resources on the planet.
Freedomians turned out to learn surprisingly quickly, about one and a half to two times faster than the average human. A Freedomian that was twelve years old could easily have the knowledge of a human that was eighteen, for example. They easily learned how to operate computers and other machines, and how to speak Earth languages like English. This generated fear among the humans that the Freedomians might soon become a superior race. And so, the Earth's governments forbid the supplying the Freedomians with more futuristic technology.
To police this new law and other human interests on the planet, the Earth's governments established a human ruling council there. Ruling over this council is the President and his two Overseers. While the President commands the council, the two Overseers watch over the Land of the Sky and the Land of Darkness, and provide the President with their reports. A human army of about one million men was stationed on the planet should trouble arise among the natives.
However, the next 100 years passed without any terrible incident. Over that time, the humans got the resources they wanted, including various valuable metals and fossil fuels, while the Freedomians' culture became more and more influenced by the human culture of the early 21st century. By the end of the first century of humans on Planet Freedom, the natives were practically fully integrated into the old human culture. Things such as cell phones, cars, and computers became commonplace in their lives. During this time, several new nations were also founded out of the different Freedomian tribes, each one of them having a specific role in the new economy of Planet Freedom.
Tneicna was a nation that was founded out of those Freedomians who refused to accept human technology, and so their nation remained as the planet had been before humans had arrived. Cictra, a nation around the North Pole of the planet, produces gold and other wealthy metals. Tresed, the desert nation, produces oil and other fossil fuels, in addition to having strange ancient ruins of a lost civilization (which are currently being examined by archeologists). Elona is the least populous nation, but it is needed to produce food for the planet. Farms are scattered throughout its fertile land.
While much of the Land of Darkness is still unpopulated (since Freedomians have mostly stayed away from there), the humans set up a few nations there to continue to bolster the new economy. Zeraw is a nation that produces software for the computers of the planet, but it is also a rampant place for software piracy and other computer crimes. It also became the world capital of video games and online gaming. Ronoh, the most technologically advanced nation, produces factory equipment, cars, and other kinds of machinery for the rest of the planet. Naeco is a nation that runs along the coast of the Dark Sea, the largest body of water on Planet Freedom. This is where goods from the sea are produced, including fish to eat. Lufetsaw is the largest nation on the planet, and it harvests and processes most of the precious metals on the planet to provide material to make machinery and other items.
Spanning both regions is the small South Island, which is where the seat of the Earth's power on Planet Freedom rests. From here the Earth's small ruling council oversees the activities of the planet, and ensures that the Freedomians don't turn rebellious against humans.
As said before, all of this happened over the 100 years after the humans' first contact with the Freedomians, without any wars or other terrible incidents. However...on March 3, 2305...a new Overseer was appointed to watch over the Land of Darkness. His name was Ivo Robotnik...