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The
ships of the armada leaving Earth slowly slipped
past the great space station orbiting the
planet, blood already shed within them. The
United Nations had authorized the exodus from
the planet in light of the catastrophic
environmental changes. Peoples from all over the
planet were gathered and placed in the massive
ships as the first wave to depart left Earth
orbit. The "Gateway to Paradise" held
500,000 people and they were going to a planet
dubbed "Eden".
Some
amongst the passengers noticed how odd their
companions were. Fights had broken out while
boarding and the journey did not seem likely to
be a peaceful one. Those who had met before, at
terrorist training camps, immediately move to
safer locations and whispered conspiratorially.
The brutes from the prisons reveled in the
limited freedom of the great ship and strode
like giants among those they disdained.
An
announcement blared out, in several different
languages, apparently a few small groups had
independently arrived at the same information -
the ship was designed to not survive! While it
had everything that could be expected of a ship
to make an interstellar trip the hackers had
found that a good bit of a hanger was devoted to
a bomb, it had a nuclear charge strong enough to
rip the ship apart and that would set off the
full fuel cells; nothing would remain. They all
came to one conclusion, although with various
parties to blame. The entire movement to leave
the Earth was a lie, a great lie to remove the
worst dregs, the most disruptive influences from
the planet completely.
The
most brilliant minds amongst them worked
together, the sole focus on survival, fueled by
a desire for revenge on those who had placed
them here. They found small vessels, suitable
for movement within the solar system and
gathered those most likely to be able and
willing to go on a suicide mission in them. The
youngest of the terrorists, barely in their
teens would need less oxygen and so could
survive the journey to drag the massive bomb
back on that straight line next to the space
station. There it would be detonated and destroy
any ships capable of pursuit.
The
more scientifically minded of the passengers
hacked the navigation and paused behind Jupiter;
they began to operate the tremendous scoop
gathering in gas for processing. Hundreds died
within the first hours; it would grow to
thousands as the journey progressed. Soon it
would be entire groups of people, who thought
they had been oppressed before, now were forced
into labor that was certain death. More than a
hundred thousand died in the battles to see who
would work and who would live.
All
the beauties, all the scientific wonders were
lost on these brutal voyagers as they made their
way to Eden. The landing was quick and
efficient, only a few tens of thousands died as
a result. They spread out from the wreckage,
carrying what they could, assaulting those who
they met in this paradise. Humanity swept across
the planet like a virus, conquering where they
could, destroying what they could not. The
denizens of the planet, in a tenuous peace that
led them to call their home "Laghaim",
the Peaceful place, were dismayed by the fury of
the humans. They took such a dangerously long
time to respond and begin to fight back, but the
battle had begun and went on in earnest. The
smartest of the humans returned to the ship to
scavenge the technology for weapons. Eventually
they were able to develop great missiles and to
use the small ships once again as orbital launch
platforms. They armed them with the most potent
explosive devices they could conceive of; they
were ready to die, to kill the entire planet to
lay waste to their enemies!
But
this development did not go unnoticed. An
aggressive race from another system, slightly
closer than Earth decided now that the
inhabitants were ready to be harvested. Their
need for intelligent minions, for slaves strong
of mind and back was insatiable and this was a
nearly inexhaustible pool to draw from!
The
armies of the four races were gathered for what
was to be the final confrontation when the
Progmare invaded. The plan the aliens had was to
strike a blow that any intelligent slaves would
wither under. Unfortunately, the natural
aggressiveness of the humans was unparalleled in
their experience. Humans would rather die than
be slaves and the other races much preferred
that the humans were attacking someone else;
since that happened to be a race they despised
they joined in the war against the invaders.
The
battle was brief and bloody. The enemy retreated
from the battlefield but did not leave the
planet. The former foes knew they could not
fight each other any longer without becoming
slaves themselves. A most uneasy truce ensued,
breached often, patched inadequately. This is
the Savage Eden, called Foretold Strife.
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