Fan Fiction ❯ Broken Nebula ❯ The History ( Prologue )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

A distant galaxy, newly born worlds glide gently through the cosmos on a graceful orbit around the tiny lights of their young stars. Three of these planets attract the eye.
The first, Keplon, is a miniature arboreal world. An entire planet of lush rainforests, with an extremely warm and humid environment. The inhabitants of this planet are a tribal species named the Chamaels, they believe in gods and magic and rightfully so, these creatures now run the highly influential Order of Mana. On this world, even the whispers on the wind suggest that a handful of this reptilian species posses eerie powers, almost on par with that of the strange deities they believe in. Maybe there is a grain of truth in their rumors.
The second planet is a harsh world, the small second moon orbiting an exceptionally large gas giant by the name of Mab. Mab II is in a state of constant ice age, whose population consists of human like creatures named the Terrans who feed on the aquatic Soor'ka, hairy bottom feeders who are protected from the devastating cold by a thick layer of organic fat under a solid bone exoskeleton. These people are adapted to any environment that an organic species could possibly tolerate and despite their lack of anything more complex than a silicate rod, they are surprisingly intelligent, each individual possessing a brilliant tactical mind. However they are usually nothing but peaceful, preferring to live out their lives happily with their families.
And finally, there is Vangelis. This is a magnificent place, containing the technology and wealths of knowledge from all peoples across the solar system. This world is a glorious planet wide city, created to be in perfect harmony with the beautifully preserved nature below. The Kra'zak designed their home to protect the creatures that dwell there, no technology could be legally implemented if there was a single chance it could harm any of the native species in any way whatsoever. As you can imagine this drastically hindered their development but they used this time to nurture their conscience and improve their mental and moral abilities. These creatures display thousands of artistic masterpieces but strictly forbid any single exhibit to be copied. They believe that by creating multiple images of something you reduce its value, take it for granted. These species, contrary to popular opinion, do not disregard violence. They believe that it is a necessary evil that occasionally must be exacted upon ones who would choose to do wrongs against others. These benevolent creatures form the bulk of the Order of Machines.
But what they didn't realise is that there was a fourth world. Two billion years before the coming of these beings, on a strange nameless planet, a small invertebrate crawled from a puddle. It was the first of its kind to overcome its instinctive fear of leaving the mineral blackened water. But this individual had a gene the rest of its species lacked. It was also pregnant. Once it had birthed its offspring the gene it possessed caused it to form a hive. Its children became its underlings and their entire purpose turned to the protection of the mother. Despite its size the prime creature found a way to overcome its lack of intelligence. After its grandchildren were born it fused its body with those of its children. They had become so mentally integrated to it that they're bodies became one. Their barely conscious minds were erased and the Prime at the centre of its new body suddenly found itself with a mind more intelligent than that of even the creatures that will one day evolve into the Kra'zak and even obtained a psychic link to all of the individuals of its species. It now realised its potential. As long as the genetic material could be acquired by a single individual of the hive, its psychic link would allow it to analyse the genes and its highly mutable body would be able to recreate and grow the new D.N.A codes into itself. It also realised its dilemma. It had become in a mere century the most advanced life form in its solar system. It could indeed preserve itself long enough for an alternate species to evolve, but it craved power. In the decades it had taken the being to come to terms with its new mind it had calculated and experimented fast enough and precisely enough to bring itself as much knowledge as was necessary to achieve space flight. The creature immediately set its colony to mining all available resources on the entire planet. But it was not enough. It settled down and slowed all its bodily functions in order to bend its entire will to solving the problem at hand. The creatures it had spawned to serve it were set to harvesting food and encouraging the evolution of its water dwelling cousins. A billion years later the Prime awoke. It could feel the disturbance in the atmosphere, something huge was coming closer and closer to the planet. After half an hour of waiting the dust had settled. And what it discovered made it overjoyed. Its mental abilities were advanced enough now to recognise individual elements and it was sensing four times more metal than it had been able to extract from its worthless homeworld. The feel of the metals more rare than platinum invigorated it. This was its time. It was still not invigorated enough to risk its own life though. After its billion year hibernation some interesting sub-species had developed and been harvested by its minions. Now was its chance to test its selective breeding abilities. It spawned an elite team of invertebrates. Instead of being mere bugs like the Primes other Workers, these monsters were the first breed of Warriors. They now utilised an endoskeletal structure to reinforce their fragile innards as well as a hardened exoskeleton to prevent surface penetration. Their legs thickened and developed digits for grasping and they fused their thorax to their abdomen which itself had elongated into a tail like appendage to provide balance. They were also granted a special gift by the Prime. A taste of the creatures intelligence. They were born with an enlarged brain case and were the first serving sentients of the hive. The Prime, recognising the importance of its warriors task implanted into them one last trait. The leading monstrosity had devoted its mind to one other task over the billion years it had spent in its half life. It had attempted to create an entirely new piece of genetic material. It had had only a single success. The alpha gene allowed its minions to adjust their body structure aswell. However the gene would need to be recreated from scratch each time it was implemented into a clutch of eggs. It could only be used once and the Prime decided that it should be used now. This elite squad was named Team Alpha. The Prime laid a clutch of one hundred and four eggs of which sixty five hatched. The sixty five young then grew into a mere twenty one beings. Team Alpha headed off on its mission. During the journey to the crash site another two members died prematurely reducing their number to nineteen. The nineteen surviving creatures found that the unidentified object was in fact a space craft, cultivated by some alien species. It had been marvelously defended as the ancient robotics continued to function after the death of the crew. Team Alpha decided to enter at a point of their own choice rather than the entry hatch or damage holes. The first creature to penetrate the hull was instantly slaughtered by a dozen defensive machines. After this demonstration of tactics however Alpha Team calculated the best course of action and cleansed the entire craft with only five more losses who were later returned to the Prime for consumption and re-integration into its body. The remaining thirteen telepathically presented their findings to the Prime who deduced that the creatures who had designed this craft had been long extinct except for a handful of survivors who had sought a new home on a different world after destroying their own. They had referred to the Primes home as 'Mars' and their planet as 'Earth'. After a brief analysis the Prime decided that all this was inconsequential and now it should focus on repairing the craft. What it did decide was of consequence though was the aliens lack of discovery of any other alien life form in the solar system. It had to get out of the solar system which the craft did not have the power to do. And so the first invertebrate craft was constructed. The Prime grew organic matter into the machinery, transforming it into a spacegoing cyborg. The Primes Flagship. The putrid insect that had defected from the water aeons ago had reached its time and was free to ravish the galaxy. After almost a billion years it had left twenty solar systems blackened and dead. Any creature the Prime encountered that could not be twisted into a foul, mutilated horror, was slaughtered out of malice and hate. The hive grew to a size that could not be controlled, and so the Prime split the colony into thirteen parts and Alpha Team were reawakened.
And now, in a small nebula brimming with new lifeforms, ready and innocently waiting to see what the universe had in store for them, an Alpha lurks.