It was a sudden reversal of fortune. Humanity had creeped across the Milky Way, colonising one world after another in a seemingly unstoppable wave. Many aliens had been encountered previously but they had easily been destroyed or assimilated. But now real frontiers were beginning to form; first the Mullinarians and now the Zeyons.
The Zeyons appeared to be nothing more than a curiosity at first; robots that had apparently turned on their indigenous masters. Humans thought they were too few in number to mount a serious threat. But it was a major mistake; all their assumptions were based on an outpost of the Zeyon civilization. They didn’t realise the number of planets and the quality of the spaceships under their control.
It was Corporation Zang who made first contact on the barely habitable planet Moros, a recently discovered planet which was now seen as being ripe for colonisation and exploitation. It was a carbon world located just outside the galactic centre of the Milky Way which developed from a protoplanetary discs that were carbon rich and oxygen poor. Oceans of liquid methane flow on its surface covering approximately three fifths of the planet. The remaining dry ground consists of frozen tar around each pole. Carbon monoxide is the most abundant gas in the atmosphere and humans would quickly suffocate if not for their bio suits. The lack of water was the biggest obstacle to human colonisation but it could be created in sufficient quantities through various chemical transactions.
The ship Zorn was dispatched. Interstellar travel could still take decades at this point. On board one thousand female embryos and a massive sperm bank which was kept cryonically frozen until required.
It was a sudden reversal of fortune. Humanity had creeped across the Milky Way, colonising one world after another in a seemingly unstoppable wave. Many aliens had been encountered previously but they had easily been destroyed or assimilated. But now real frontiers were beginning to form; first the Mullinarians and now the Zeyons.
The Zeyons appeared to be nothing more than a curiosity at first; robots that had apparently turned on their indigenous masters. Humans thought they were too few in number to mount a serious threat. But it was a major mistake; all their assumptions were based on an outpost of the Zeyon civilization. They didn’t realise the number of planets and the quality of the spaceships under their control.
The humans had by now perfected their technique of colonization. As the ship approached the mid-point of its journey to the planet, the first female embryos would be planted into artificial wombs. They would be born on board on the ship and have reached early adulthood by the time the ship landed. They would then be fertilised and begin the construction of the first base.
During construction one of their autonomous flying scouts spotted the first Zeyon. They immediately recognised that there was another advanced civilization on the planet. This one was different to anything humanity had encountered previously. It was an android civilization. They made no attempt to hide their non-biological nature with silver metallic bodies and piercing red eyes.
Although they had two arms and legs it was obvious that they were not modelled on humans. Two small artificial horns protruded from their head and their jaws protruded forwards. Each Zeyon had strength and resilience many times that of a human.
For many years the two colonies developed independently on different hemispheres of the planet. The humans eventually sent a small group to make contact but they were obliterated. The humans retaliated with a nuclear strike but it was ineffective against their shields much to the amazement of the human colonists.
The planet went quiet for a time. Then it was the Zeyons turn to attack. Their tanks obliterated the human ground forces and they outnumbered the humans in the air where the two sides were more easily matched. As the Zeyons marched into the cities, they tore the soft human flesh to pieces and the roads of the city became rivers of blood.
Only a few humans managed to escape off the world. But their tales of horror went unheeded. Other human worlds reasoned that this defeat was on a carbon planet, one that humans were maladapted to and that the outcome would be changed on a different world.
Some also thought that the Zeyons had a specific interest in carbon worlds and they would only be interested in inhabiting the inner galaxy which was a poor area for human colonisation anyway due to the intense radiation from neutron stars, black holes and the massive stars found there.
Centuries passed and there was no contact between Zeyons and humans. Then an armada of Zeyon ships entered human space. Gerta was the first human world to be attacked. It was a frontier world and its defensive capabilities were poorly developed. In places the entire blue sky turned black from the mass of Zeyon fighters. Its cities were obliterated in the first few hours of the attack and then the Zeyon ground trooper hunted down and annihilated the survivors.
This time humanity took notice. But it soon became clear that it was too late. The Zeyons cut a swathe through unprepared human worlds. The machines could not feel pity and showed no mercy as they slaughtered humans begging for their lives. If their lasers jammed they would tear them apart with their hands.
Eventually though the Zeyons cut through the less militarised frontier worlds and came up against more established human worlds which had initially become heavily militarised to deal with threats from other humans but which could now turn their guns on the alien machines. After much bloodshed the Zeyon advance had been stopped.
But there was to be profound repercussions. The main body of human worlds now joined the Galactic Human Treaty. It was a common defence treaty ensuring neither Zeyons nor Mullinarians could pick off human worlds one by one again.
The rapid Zeyon advanced led to many individual and groups of human worlds becoming totally encircled by Zeyon space. The different groups of worlds tended to band together to fight off any possible invasion.
The individual worlds that were completely surrounded were in a much weaker situation. Most were quickly invaded and their inhabitants slaughtered. Some surrendered to avoid bloodshed and became the Zeyons biological slaves. The few remaining worlds in human control were heavily militarised and of poor economic or strategic value.
Beta 7×95 was an exception. It ended up very deep in Zeyon space with the nearest human world many systems away. It was a world that the Zeyon war plan had for millennia seemed to forget. It was an oxygen world with oceans of water that covered five sixths of the planet in orbit around a yellow star. There were two large continents on the planet on opposite hemispheres of the planet called Aba & Cohort.
Aba was the first to be colonised. It was originally covered by lush forest which would prove to be excellent agricultural land. The temperate climate increased its habitability and the human population soared as was originally planned.
Cohort was never to achieve the same population density. There was a huge mountain range called Gubak at its centre and its climate was arid and hot. Only a few mega-cities managed to develop along its coast benefiting from its bountiful seas.
Mark's Writing Corner 