Chapter 1

By the year 2298, the United Nations of Terra had made massive strides in both technology and infrastructure. The planet of Sol was completely industrialized and the Terrans had begun constructing star bases in the nearby systems. the agenda for the Terran leadership consisted of territorial expansion and technological enlightenment. In 2301 the United Nations of Terra contacted the first alien civilization ever recorded in human history. Initial reports were spotty in detail, mainly reporting tall, reptile looking creature. According to UNT databases, these creatures were too fast to observe from a distance, so all information recorded on them were marked as questionable. It took until 2302 to finally catch a glimpse of the elusive species. Scientists stumbled upon a wrecked starship in the Systol System in orbit of one of the planets they had been eyeing for expansion. There was only two crew members onboard and one of them had been killed in the accident and the other one was mortally wounded and bleeding out in the bridge of their ship. A retrieval team was sent to the site of the wreck to recover the aliens and their ship and bring them back to Sol for treatment and conversation. The procedures were touch and go at first but the Terrans slowly learned the anatomy of the creatures and the wounded alien slowly began to get better. 6 months after the retrieval team returned to Sol with the aliens, an unknown spacecraft rocketed into Sol's atmosphere and made landfall in the capital. Three reptilian aliens disembarked the spacecraft and moved towards the Embassy. One was adorned in elegant robes of crimson and gold and atop its head was a crown made of some type of metal never seen by man. It was flanked by two much taller aliens dressed in some type of power armor also colored crimson and gold and carrying large laser rifles. The first attempts at communication were difficult as the aliens spoke an entirely different dialect. With the technology the Terrans possessed and the injured scientist, a translation software was hastily thrown together, and diplomatic relations were established. The aliens called themselves the Raxian War Clans. The Raxian adorned in robes was the War Chief and the two who flanked him were his personal escort. He was sent by the Raxian King to negotiate the terms of release of their scientists.

At first there was a tenseness to the negotiations as the Raxians had initially thought that the Terrans had been the cause of the accident and the abduction of their scientists. Luckily the scientist that survived was brought to help smooth things over and the real story was relayed to the War Chief. The Raxian scientists were attacked by an unknown enemy while surveying the moon above the planets the Terrans were surveying. Before they could identify the spacecraft, their shields were taken offline, and they were bombarded. When the story had been retold, the Raxian War Chief expressed his gratitude to the Terrans and demanded that all materials be returned to the Raxians along with their injured scientist and the body of the fallen. The Terrans were reluctant at first to release the wreckage back to the Raxians as they had made great advanced to their own systems since they began deciphering the data onboard. Fearing retaliation from the Raxians and not knowing the full power of their military, the Terrans turned over everything from the incident. In return the Raxians promised continued diplomatic conversation and potential cooperation in the future depending on the King's whims. Satisfied with the transaction, the Raxians departed Sol to return to their home territory. To the Terrans, the Raxian Clans was proof that they were not alone in the galaxy. And the potential for further advancements in technology if the Raxians were willing to cooperate.

The next 50 years saw an increase in Raxian Terran partnership. Mutually beneficial treaties were signed including a commercial pact and a migration treaty. The Raxians were much more technologically advanced and for years Terran leadership had tried to make a deal with the King of Ra'ax to form a research agreement. The Terrans saw an opportunity to advance their research efforts potentially leading to breakthroughs in genetic modification as well as terraforming and habitability technologies. The Raxians believed that if a research agreement was struck, the Terrans would use the advanced knowledge to increase their military power and thus increase in military capacity. To the King of Ra'ax, this was a threat to his clan's way of life and an unacceptable risk. Finally, on May 21st, 2365, King Gorax of the Raxians agreed to share portions of their knowledge to aid the growth of the Terran population. By now the Terran populace had reached the low 9,000 range and though they had a whole planet to settle upon, their major cities were becoming cramped. Unemployment was on the rise and the Terran government knew that soon they'd have to find somewhere else to start settling their people. Just 5 years after the research agreement was made, Terran scientists had mastered the terraforming technology unlocking the ability to turn whole planets into the same composition as Sol. With this newfound knowledge, Terran scientists and engineers began the process of turning the nearby desert world of Tangir. The process was estimated to take roughly 10 years to complete so the Terran government set about making the necessary preparations for transport shuttles and the necessary materials to start a new colony. In total, 2500 Terrans would make landfall on Tangir in the year 2380. Again, the Raxian Leaders made their concerns aware to their King of the growing Terran power and how someday, the Terrans may start a war against them to expand their borders even further. To the King of Ra'ax, this was a distant concern and not one he felt he needed to take seriously.

Terrans didn't set foot on the newly terraformed world of Tangir until October 20th, 2381, a whole year after they were projected to be able to settle the planet. Due to unforeseen economic issues the colonization program had been delayed as resources were allocated to fight the first space war humans had ever participated in. Not long after the Raxians had gifted the terraforming technology to the Terrans, the King of Ra'ax decided it was beneficial to form a non-aggression pact and a defensive pact with the Terrans. These pacts simply stated that the Terrans would not make a move against the Raxian War Clans and vice versa. It also stated that if either empire was declared war on, the other would come to their aid. In 2371 the Raxian War Clans fell under attack from their neighbors, the Galactic Machine Assembly. At first the Terrans were furious that the Raxians had withheld vital information about other spacefaring civilizations and accused them of trying to hinder the Terran progress. After a very heated diplomatic conversation, the UNT agreed to donate their fleets to the war cause to hold off the advancing fleets of the GMA. At this time the UNT only had a small fleet of Interceptor Corvettes totaling out at 15 ships. When the Grand Terran Armada arrived at the borders of Raxian territory they were quite discouraged to find GMA fleets consisting of a mix of corvettes, destroyers and cruisers all equipped with higher grade weapons and defense mechanisms. The Grand Terran Armada was forced to begin their attacks in a series of guerrilla warfare like tactics. Slipping in one system and taking the star base and then slipping out before the larger GMA fleets could catch them. After almost a decade of these attacks, the Grand Terran Armada was defeated in a surprise ambush in allied territory. Two Galactic Machine Assembly fleets conducted a pincer movement from either side of a star system where the Terran armada was docked for resupply. Due to their early warning defense systems, the Terran armada only took 50% casualties but the defeat was enough to knock them out of the war for the time being. They spent the next year reinforcing and outfitting their fleets with new technology given to them by the Raxian War Clans. However, before they could send out their newly fitted armada, the war had ended. The Raxian War Clans accepted defeat, losing over half their territory and planets to the Galactic Machine Assembly.

The months following saw a huge decrease in trust with the Raxian War Clans and an increase in anti Raxian propaganda. The Raxians assured the Terrans that they would no longer withhold vital information from them and later gave a list of all known empires logged by the Raxian's. On that list was the Galactic Machine Assembly, the Mah Ock Feudal States, an empire simply known as The Keepers, and what the Raxians described to the Terrans as a Fallen Empire by the name of Elithion Protectors. According to the Raxians, the Elithion Protectors were an empire of millennia past. Once a massive and powerful empire, they had resigned into dormancy awaiting the day when they would awaken and rule the galaxy once more. No one was ever allowed into their territory and anyone who entered never came back out. They were said to possess technology that could only be dreamt of in the wildest of dreams and were feared by every empire in the galaxy. Armed with this knowledge the Terrans began a two-part expansion plan. One consisting of the colonization of the planet Tangir, and the other consisting of and a new armada completely retrofitted with the latest technologies of the Raxian War Clans. With the plan laid out, the Terrans got to work with their plans to one day hold an important position in the galaxy.