Andromedons: History

The Union Wars

"The Union Wars are not part of our history, they are our history."

- V'Thrask of Union Viarior

Operation: Backstabber Ascension

Division: Andromedon Counter-Intelligence

Report Author: Zar'poliala'dakka

Authorization: Zar'Chon

A lot of reports on the Andromedons recently. Zar'Chon, is something going on that I should be aware of? Believe me, I know quite a lot about the suited aliens, but so far haven't seen anything which would make you worried. Wouldn't say it's your sudden interest in their history either, since we would have gotten all of this way back when they first arrived.

Sure, got it, classified and all that. So, aftermath of the Union Wars, or as far as what you're interested in: "How much more dangerous were they at their peak before they stupidly antagonized a species more powerful than them?"

The answer is complicated from what I've found. Was able to talk with a few members of Union Oaila, which is the closest thing the Andromedons have to historians, or at least who make some kind of effort at all to document their history for non-Andromedons to understand. One thing you need to know about Andromedons and history is that it is viewed strictly through the eyes of their own Union.

Let's take Viarior as an example. Andromedons are going to know a great deal about the history of the Union, the wars fought, the allies and enemies, the rivalries and friendships, and this will extend back to the beginning because for all their faults, the Andromedons are thorough record keepers. But anything beyond that? They don't care. If history doesn't relate to their own Union, it's not important.

Wait. Viarior was a bad example. They're involved in everything. Irriaran is a better one.

This makes putting together any sort of history on the Andromedons, let alone the aftermath of their wars, a difficult task. Not the least of which is because the Unions are very, very protective of their history since it was valuable intel back during the wars. The winding trail of alliances, betrayals, victories, defeats, and more were all things the Unions wanted to exploit over each other.

They still haven't dropped this habit, and even Union Oaila has only the most basic of knowledge that's common across all Unions.

So the question: Were the Unions more powerful during that period of history?

Yes and no, from what I can gather. Yes in that each Union was major, and ones like Viarior, Irriaran, and Apear were the size of the modern Federation. The Unions individually controlled entire planets or systems, and had massive fleets and legions of soldiers. So in that sense they were more dangerous.

This was offset by the fact that the Andromedons were constantly at war with each other. Unions rose and fell with alarming frequency; Andromedons died by the millions; planets were destroyed and fortified every day in pursuit of victory over their rivals and directing the course of their species.

It must be made completely clear that the Andromedons never once negotiated a permanent ceasefire. The Andromedon Federation was strictly a means of survival, although one which they seem to have settled into at this point, and now it seems like it's gone on too long to be broken, especially with the Collective keeping their backstabbing tendencies in check.

But it is extremely clear that the Union Wars ultimately ensured that the Andromedons fell against the Kett'Tasira. The Union Wars claimed trillions of lives, destroyed multiple alien species encountered, and set a good portion of the Andromeda galaxy on fire. The Andromedons might have had the technology to fight the Kett'Tasira, even not taking into account this power they call Biomanipulation (Couldn't verify whether this was actually psionics or something else).

I have wondered at times what the Andromedons would look like if the Union Wars had never taken place at all. With how much progress they made in such a short amount of time, imagine what they could have accomplished pooling their resources together and then waged war on the galaxy.

Perhaps it is better for all involved that this never happened.

The scars of the Union Wars haven't faded, and the War against the Kett'Tasira did little to endear the Unions towards each other. The spying, backstabbing, and plotting of the Unions has definitely not faded, especially in recent years. The rivalries you see and have me watch? Directly from the Union Wars.

I've wondered about this, because from other research, the Andromedons never really had issues reconciling or moving past their rivals and enemies before. In fact, they usually became allies at points. But not here. After thinking about it some more, the only conclusion I can come to is that the forced peace between them is making it impossible to move beyond.

For some Unions, the Federation is a purgatory for them, which they can't break for fear that everyone else will turn against them. So instead they have to keep plotting behind the scenes while Chernior tries to actually push the species forward and break these tribalistic mindsets. Will that actually happen?

I do not think so.

Telling the Andromedons to just 'move past' the Union Wars is close to telling the families who've been victims of Nulorian to 'just ignore' the terrorists walking down the street free. It's like you having to see an agent who's betrayed you walk free every single day. It's like telling the Cobrarians that the males leaving them is something they should just deal with.

Perhaps you could get past it, but in all seriousness I ask if you'd really want that? Would you move forward for the perceived good of the species or the Zararch? Can't answer for you, but I can't say I would be that restrained. The point is to illustrate why going to Federation territory feels like stepping into a room rigged to blow.

I wish I had a solution to fix this and make the Union Wars suddenly disappear from their minds, but I don't. It's not the Sectoids we should be watching for problems, it's the Federation, because that is a bomb that is ticking down. It is going to explode one day, and the sooner we start preparing for that inevitability, the better.

The histories and stories of the Andromedons are shrouded in frustrating complexity. There is no one single compilation of Andromedon history, as the structure and cultures of the Unions exalt their own actions at the expense of all others. There is much of the species that will be forever lost or slanted from the perspective of one Union or another.

There have been hundreds of Unions that no longer exist, and despite my own extensive research, there are clear and obvious gaps from the beginnings of the species to the War against the Kett'Tasira, and the Exodus to this galaxy. Perhaps this is because the Andromedons refuse to give access, even to an Ethereal, but I suspect few care about the knowledge that others collect.

Yet through speaking with all Unions, I found enough to put together a proper collection on not simply the Unions themselves that shaped the Union Wars, but also the individuals who brought change, conflict, and victory. They are engineers, explorers, and soldiers. They are leaders and pariahs. They encompass the best of the Andromedons, and also their most ruthless.

Some are of Unions which no longer exist, but their names should nonetheless be recognized by history.

B'Salis, of Collective Buicah: This was one of the first Unions to exist on the home planet of the Andromedons, then called Collectives, and this was when the majority of Andromedons were confined to small tribes, and there was an overall atmosphere of tense peace. While conflict between these Collectives was not uncommon, the Buicah were the first to specialize and master a certain craft or skill.

Curiously, this was in agriculture. B'Salis himself was the first Andromedon to successfully manage large-scale farming operations, as well as a primitive understanding of logistics to distribute harvests. More importantly, he kicked off what could be called the true start of the Union Wars. In addition to his vast understanding of agriculture, he also utilized this to the opposite effect.

Insects, diseases, and land poisoning were all understood by him and his Collective, and employed to devastating effect. They were first used against Collectives which were trying to emulate and learn from their methods, and then soon spread to those they considered their threats. Famines and diseases were spread through their land, with Collective Buicah remaining suspiciously unharmed while their rivals and enemies suffered.

This did unfortunately make many enemies, which eventually culminated in the combined efforts of then-Collectives Viarior and Hila to invade their lands, ultimately resulting in the execution of the vast majority of the Union, with their secrets of agriculture stolen. Viarior was content to acquire the knowledge, and allowed Collective Hila to decide the ultimate fate of the Collective.

Readers may find it interesting to note that Collective Hila spared many of the farmers and primitive biologists (Although not B'Salis), and eventually reformed into the Union known as Haruma.

R'Teslas, of Union Reinarm: Andromedon physicists are not especially uncommon, but R'Teslas stands out even among the leaders and engineers of the Andromedons, for he was the pioneer of the first Andromedon atomic weapons, and did not hesitate whatsoever to utilize them against the other Unions. Most of the Unions destroyed were minor, and no records still remain of their names, but other larger ones such as Irriaran were severely damaged, and vast swaths of the world were irradiated by uncontrolled nuclear fallout.

This is notable as many different Unions state that was one point where the Union Wars were almost concluded, with Union Reinarm led by R'Teslas deciding the future of the Andromedon species. Unfortunately for him Viarior decided that having such technology just in their hands was an issue, and forged an agreement with the newly declared Union Zacarrim, covertly funding their own experiments which soon surpassed the technology of Union Reinarm and destroyed the nuclear projects of R'Teslas and stole the blueprints.

R'Teslas was also killed shortly after in what is now believed to be an assassination. How this was performed is still up for debate.

V'Rezzas, of Union Viarior: The Viarior have at heart always been shrewd aliens of business, and have always worked to integrate themselves as a neutral and intricate source for all Unions. Too valuable to turn against, and too widespread to ever trust. From the beginning they developed contingency plans after seeing many smaller Collectives be wiped out in surprise raids or strikes, and even up to the nuclear strikes of R'Teslas.

V'Rezzas revolutionized the Viarior war machine during the industrial development of the Andromedons. Unique throughout history as one of the few female Andromedons to rise to prominence, before the unigender transition, she was a manipulator without equal, charismatic enough to convince dozens of Unions that they would forever be supported, and ambitious enough to make Viarior the most powerful Union in existence without firing a shot.

The Viarior before V'Rezzas were influential, but only in certain parts of their planet. She expanded their influence globally, and made agreements and deals with every Union that existed, big or small, regardless of if they had been ally or enemy. Her intent was to establish a clear hold over goods and services processed throughout the species, and from there would influence the direction of the species no matter who was in charge.

The Viarior have never, ever been permanently targeted or even close to driven to extinction. This is because of V'Rezzas, and all leaders of the Viarior emulate her strategies and philosophy.

I'Zuris, of Union Irriaran: Perhaps the most infamous and sadistic Andromedon to ever exist, as even Andromedons have a very emotionally-charged reaction to hearing the name. I'Zuris was the leader of the Union, and without a doubt one of the most gifted geneticists, as well as having a surprisingly strategic mindset.

Union Irriaran soon stumbled onto the species which is now known as the Havarilians, and I'Zuris immediately saw a use for the primitive alien species. Without any hesitation, he ordered the species be captured and their genome sequenced for modification and uplift. There were no negotiations or initial contact. The ships and warriors of Irriaran covertly gathered information on the species, and then invaded en-masse.

Their leaders were publicly and brutally killed by I'Zuris himself to impress upon them the importance of submission to the Andromedons, and the military resistance of the Havarilians posed no threat to the gene-modified Andromedon soldiers who butchered them with ease. With the species pacified, I'Zuris began leading the project to modify them as a slave army to use in the Union Wars.

The sudden attack of Irriaran together with a genetically-modified race of aliens shook up the dynamics of the war completely, vaulting the Union to the top of the list of most powerful Unions. Many made alliances with the Union, while others then backed Union Apear, the other major Union at the time. Viarior as usual stayed neutral, and they would have stayed neutral had I'Zuris not made the fatal mistake of refusing to trade specimens with them, knowing before long Viarior would be selling thousands of them to other interested parties.

As we know now, that was enough to force Viarior's direct hand, and their economic clout was enough to collapse the power base of the Irriaran, and ultimately led to the eradication of the Havarilians, and the sterilization of their world, as I'Zuris himself was supposedly killed in battle, or captured by Union Viarior and thrown into a sun.

The records are unclear.

S'Calus, of Union Stuirah: This is another figure of Andromedon history which is often overshadowed. While not even the leader of Union Stuirah, S'Calus was the primary designer of the first Andromedon spacecraft, and changed the course of the Union Wars forever. Almost all Andromedon spacecraft are at least partially based on his first designs, and as well as thousands of more abstract concepts that he never lived to fulfill.

He was soon promoted to command of the flagship of Union Stuirah, and oversaw the expansion of his union and the bombardment of his enemies. A note of interest is that despite the inevitable downfall of Union Stuirah, S'Calus never lived to see it and died of natural causes, a rare peaceful death.

I'Himlas, of Union Irriaran: Another one who revolutionized the Union Wars, this geneticist was the first to develop cloning technology as well as designing an Andromedon template for mass production. Originally simply researching a means to clone limbs and animals, a brief collaboration with Union Haruma led to the breakthrough of true cloning.

He also inadvertently led to the inevitable disappearance of female Andromedons, as once Unions adopted this technology they began modifying the gene sequences and producing exclusively males due to their biological advantages of size and strength. The slight intelligence advantage held by the female gender was considered irrelevant and was subsequently surpassed as the Andromedons became more and more proficient with the technology developed by I'Himlas.

Z'Mallis, of Union Zacarrim: The Zacarrim are known for their extensive use of cybernetic modification, far beyond anything the modern Andromedon does to themselves, but they were far more than merely masters of cybernetics, implants, and augmentation, they also comprised some of the greatest of the Andromedon strategists and tacticians. Z'Mallis was perhaps their greatest.

He near-single-handedly brought the Union from a disastrous defeat into a force capable of challenging the major unions. Over the course of decades he attacked and assimilated smaller unions, reforged alliances with Union Viarior, and slowly began winning victory after victory, his scientists and engineers pioneering new and more intrusive technology which enhanced their physical and mental capabilities.

Union Zacarrim was engaged in high-profile conflicts for many decades after their return to the galactic stage, and despite their smaller power base, their technology allowed for punching far harder than comparable unions. Z'Mallis himself was capable of warding off, predicting, and executing attacks from Unions Reinarm, Irriaran, and Jamoiar at the same time, and it was only the intervention of Union Apear which finally broke the Zacarrim hold over the war, and Z'Mallis himself was killed in a battle while vastly outnumbered, his systems under siege by the machine intelligences of Apear, and still managed to destroy half of the fleets and took out even more as he overloaded the cores of his own ship and went out in a final defiant blast.

Figures of the Union Wars Part I – By Archivist Cogitian

XCOM File 4988

Subject: The Union Wars

Category: Historical

Assessment Authors: Andromedon V'Thrask of Union Viarior; Andromedon A'Darrah of Union Apear

OVERVIEW: Something quite curious I have come to realize about your species is your desire to know what came before you. An obsession and interest in history which, while understandable in certain instances, often seems to not be for a purpose other than the knowledge itself. It is understandable to query information on an enemy by looking to their past, or look back to a formula to see how it can be improved, but hunting the past for the sake of it is a curious expenditure of energy.

I say this because of being asked to write my own understanding of the Union Wars, and I do not entirely believe you understand how we view such an event. I have stated before that you should have simply asked for our history, for that is what the Union Wars were. The reasons they started are the same now as they were then: Because only one group can lead our species into the future, and to compromise on that vision is viewed as impossible.

But in truth very few of us care to learn the countless wars and battles which stretched over millennia. Constant war is something few species could tolerate, but for us it was how we evolved; how we developed; the Wars themselves ensured that our species spread far and wide throughout Andromeda. But a significant portion of this period is unimportant, and we do not care to remember outside of records. As a member of Union Viarior, I am in a more privileged position to know more about the Wars than many of my brethren, but I should caution you that my knowledge is still finite. I will summarize the important moments throughout the Wars, but this is by no means an exhaustive account.

THE COLLECTIVES: I will first go back to the very beginning. Our evolutionary background is a different subject entirely, and where the first beginnings of the Union Wars began was back when our tribes were known as Collectives. Unions were a name adopted during our industrial era, and Collectives were used until this point. Collectives were comprised of Andromedons, and early on the majority attempted to just do enough to survive and slowly expand.

But it was not long until Collectives began specializing in certain trades. Armorers, weapon smiths, pseudo-scientists, farmers, certain Collectives rose above the rest, and began exploiting that to their own advantages. Alliances were natural in the beginning, or tentative agreements at best. War had not broken out yet, not truly, but it was on the horizon.

Collective Buicah was known for their mastery over farming and agriculture, but had unfortunately made the mistake of using their knowledge to threaten, blackmail, cajole, and starve other Collectives, many of whom depended on them. This had the effect of turning all of the Collectives in the region against them, and Union Hila, who were specialists in medicine, together with the backing of then-Collective Viarior and several other Collectives stormed their farms and villages and executed many, took their own secrets, and employed the few survivors that remained.

This was the first major conflict of many, as the Collectives realized that they could not rely on outsiders to survive, and that only those who were masters of a craft or trade had a chance of surviving. And so the Collectives began expanding to swell their own numbers. Smaller, less skilled Collectives were assimilated or executed.

There are estimated to be thousands of Collectives which were assimilated or eradicated, no one knows the complete numbers, but almost all of the modern Unions can directly trace their history to these more primitive Collectives. However, these were largely isolated incidents on what I shall simply say is Andromeda Prime. The name of our homeworld is unknown to myself, and is truthfully no longer important as it has almost certainly been destroyed by the Kett'Tasira now.

THE CONTINENTAL WARS: Andromeda Prime had four distinct continents, each of which had a mass of land connecting them together. You can imagine that this inevitably led to the wars expanding beyond the confines of the local continent, but much further into intercontinental warfare. The shape the wars took during this period was typically several major Unions would have tentative alliances with other Unions on a continent, and they would be fighting against a similar group in another continent.

This was beset by its own problems and advantages. Very rarely did these conflicts ever result in the conquest of a continent, for there was a far higher chance that one or more continent alliances would dissolve due to betrayal and infighting. The stronger the alliance in question, and the more numerous their victories, the greater the chance that one or more of the Unions in the group was preparing for a coup.

This led to the conditioning of all Unions to pay just as much attention to their allies as their enemies, for they would stab them in the back or sell them out if they saw an appropriate opportunity; assuming it was strategic of course. Betrayals did not happen in crucial periods where a defeat would harm the alliance as a whole, including the Union in question.

It was not uncommon for some Unions to merge to form a new one if they realized that their vision and ideals were the same, but there was a reason they never kept the original names. Doing so would imply that the other Union was lesser in some way, and carried a stigma and history which could have powerful enemies. The births of new Unions were seen as a blank slate, and new opportunities.

Basic technology and sciences were spread and propagated by Union Viarior during the industrial and nuclear eras of our history, even if Unions continued to specialize in one field or discipline. Alliances were more common, and the Union Wars had settled into a predictable exchange of victories and losses, yet it was stagnant.

Union Reinarm were the first to develop nuclear weapons, and they came fairly close to ending the war, though they were not thorough enough during their first launch of nuclear missiles, and as a result soon united the world itself against them momentarily. I believe it speaks to the practicality and our self-preservation that we have an unconscious tendency to work together if our very existence is threatened. Union Reinarm threatened the interests of all Unions on Andromeda Prime, therefore they needed to be removed. The Kett'Tasira threatened our entire species again, and therefore, they needed to be removed. Perhaps we failed against the Kett'Tasira, but the point I find interesting is that we appear to have an inclination to put the interests of our species, be it for selfish or unselfish reasons, above our conflicts when appropriate.

I am curious what will be seen as the next threat. But I shall continue with the story.

THE EXPANSION: There are a few periods that are actually important in the war. The first is the Expansion, which led to the Union Wars expanding beyond the confines of Andromeda Prime to the wider galaxy. Union Stuirah were the pioneers of the first Andromedon spacecraft, and this put them on a level Union Reinarm had been, as they now had a head start in colonizing and fortifying new worlds.

The Unions similarly began a unified campaign against this larger threat, and ultimately succeeded in acquiring and reverse-engineering the spacecraft of Union Stuirah, and soon the combined efforts of the Unions not only allowed their own to go beyond the planet, but Union Stuirah was effectively dismantled, with the survivors being assimilated into other Unions or killed.

As you can imagine, the initial conflict for the Prime system was one just as expansive and bloody. No longer were the Unions stuck on continents, now they had moons and planets as their warzones. There were a half-dozen major conflicts that raged across the entire system, with even more skirmishes and space battles above them, on the planets, for mineral resources, and even the sun was a source of conflict.

The fractured nature of the Union Wars means that there are conflicts only certain Unions have records of, as planets that were important to Unions Apear or Zacarrim were not important to Reinarm or Irriaran. There was no central battleground, there was no one single faction. There was no kind of order or organization. We did not have the entertainment and luxury your species has; each Andromedon contributed to their Union and helped achieve their goals. This would be their mission until the day they succeeded or they died.

The conflict would only escalate from there.

THE GALACTIC WARS: I struggle to put a more accurate label on this point, because once the Unions spread beyond our home system, the Union Wars had reached their final stage. The battlegrounds grew from planets within a system, to systems themselves. The fleet numbers grew in the thousands instead of hundreds. Casualties grew from millions to billions. The Wars had spread to the galaxy at large, and there was no going back, and it would not end.

The advent of certain technologies, such as standard gene engineering and cloning permanently changed how wars were fought, and ensured that no major Union would ever run out of soldiers, and each major Union soon settled comfortably into their niche, only growing more and more skilled in their chosen craft.

As strange as it may be to say, this was our own golden age. During this period we were unmatched in our technology and power. The dreadnoughts of our fleets dwarfed anything the Sectoids could dare to think up. Our genetic modification was not looked upon with the stigma that exists today, and I believe it would even rival the Ethereals in some areas. Our weapons silenced stars and could destroy planets. Apear themselves had fully working AIs which they used without mercy against us, and we needed to know at least some basics to combat them.

We lost more against the Kett'Tasira than just our galaxy and much of our species; we lost knowledge, schematics, blueprints, our best and brightest of the Unions, and the most advanced of our technology. What exists in the Unions now is some of what we had, but each Union is trying to reclaim what we had known during that time.

But we ultimately grew through conflict. Through the Union Wars. That conflict has been denied to us, and as a result we have stagnated.

UNION VIARIOR NOTES: A casual observer reading this may wonder how the Andromedons as a species managed to consistently advance at the steady rate despite the various Unions specializing in different fields and disciplines. There was always a certain standard of self-sufficiency and understanding required for any major Union to succeed, and this was not learned by accident.

This was a goal of Union Viarior. We did not just forge agreements with other Unions because it protected us and allowed for more influence, but also to gather information which could then be sold to other Unions to give them a greater chance of self-sufficiency, and in return, loyal and new clients for us. Union Viarior is responsible for ensuring that extremely important and useful technology and blueprints were propagated throughout the Unions, at reasonable prices of course.

Our enemies were not necessarily decided on the threat they posed to us, for all knew that we were too interconnected with the major and minor Unions to ever be threatened, but on how open they were with their knowledge. We respected that they had their own trade secrets, but when it is something which gives such an important and essential advantage, that is something that cannot be ignored.

The nuclear weapons were not necessarily important to share with us, Reinarm could have kept those without issue, but they refused to share any aspect of nuclear research or theory that we could sell to offset the disparity. So we helped destroy their power base. When Union Irriaran introduced the Havarilians into the war, we saw that it had the potential to affect the course of the war and merely wanted several specimens which others could clone and use, and it could become another advancement of our species. Sadly they refused, and unfortunately the Unions decided using aliens in such a way would cause more harm than good, and a repeated incident never happened.

Similarly, thanks to this mutual understanding between Viarior and other Unions, we are responsible for ensuring that basic AI theory was easily available, and the development of the cloning chambers was also spread by us. The transition to an unisex species was also helped brought to fruition, as the template in question was able to be more easily grown, capable of being mass produced, with a fully modifiable genome for the Unions to experiment at will.

It is fair to say that Union Viarior helped shape the course of the Union Wars, and the advancement of our species as a whole, a fact that we are proud of.

OUTCOMES AND CASUALTIES: There was no definitive ending to the Union Wars. The only acceptable ending would be the domination of one Union over all others. I suspect it would have inevitably been several major Unions forming a new Union, and this cycle would repeat until there were only two or three similar Unions left, and the winner would come from a pool such as that.

But at the point the Kett'Tasira arrived, we had not come close to the endgame.

For some Unions the outcome is defeat. I expect that thousands of Unions have been dismantled, dissolved, assimilated, or destroyed over the course of the Union Wars. Similarly hundreds more have arisen from the ashes or formed from alliances of similarly-minded Andromedons. It was a constant cycle of destruction, reformation, advancement, and ascension, that was the loop which pushed our species forward as a whole.

Speaking from the perspective of time, the Union Wars lasted more than six thousand years from roughly the first attack, to the incursion of the Kett'Tasira. It is perhaps a miracle that instead of destroying ourselves during this time, we instead grew stronger. The constant warfare during our history will nonetheless seem incomprehensible to your species, but for us it was a way of life, and as a result many find this so-called peace false and unsettling.

If you are curious about the number of casualties over the Union Wars, I suspect no such accurate number exists. However just from Viarior records, over seventeen trillion were killed in battle or related injuries, and even though our numbers are the closest, I do not believe they are even close to an accurate approximation of the true Andromedon cost extracted by the Wars.

PSYCHOLOGICAL BASIS: I will attempt to be brief here, as I have addressed Andromedon psychology in other documents. The question that you will likely have is why we continued what to your kind appears to be a series of self-destructive and petty conflicts. It appears illogical and a waste of life when peace is instead supposedly more appealing.

It comes down to a matter of vision. Humans are short-sighted creatures, who think in decades at most. Even in our early days we had a vision of what we wished our species to be. The primitive ideals of a grand army, masters of the planet, or hunters without equal soon was refined into a species who had unrivaled military power, or gene-shaping without equal, or an independent state, or to subjugate the galaxy under our armies. Each Andromedon has a dream for their species, we do not think in terms, necessarily, of personal gain or selfishness. This vision can be imprinted on Andromedons at a young age, or arise naturally as they learn more about themselves and the world.

Ask yourself, would you be comfortable watching someone else lead your species in a way you viewed as fundamentally wrong? Would you go along with it, or would you contest their vision and prove your own superior? The Union Wars, contrary to what some may believe, were not fought for the personal power of the Unions; they were fought to determine the direction of our entire species.

Those were the stakes. Such cannot be higher than that, and I am well aware that in Human history, your own wars are fought for much, much less.

That our species is naturally suspicious of those they do not trust contributes to this. A Union is the rare collection of beings who can be trusted with your life. Everyone else can, will, and has betrayed you. It is not a flaw, it is simply a way of life for us, and one should not take offense over these kind of slights. Betrayal can be justified, it can be understood, because remember the stakes are the direction of our species.

I will highlight something important here. Unions never have betrayed their own. They have betrayed each other, but no Union has ever fallen from betrayal within. For if one cannot trust a Union, then who can they possibly trust? This is not to say Andromedons do not leave Unions they grow up in, but they will leave of their own volition, and always under peaceful terms.

This is a line Andromedons have not, and never will cross.

CONCLUSION: While I said at the beginning that we are not necessarily concerned with irrelevant history, I believe that knowing the Union Wars provides other species an insight into who we are and what we think. I will not go as far as to say that one will understand our species if they know of the Union Wars, but they will know more than if they simply look at the Federation as it is now.

Peace is not our natural state. It was achieved artificially and only through necessity, and perpetuated by aliens who do not understand us. Little was resolved with the Federation, and that is because the Union Wars were similarly never resolved. With the threat of the Kett'Tasira gone, we wonder why we exist in this false peace, and only continue as such because the Ethereals are a power greater than us.

The Union Wars must continue, and then definitively end. Only then can our species continue moving forward.