March 2103 – Concordis attacks Olympus resulting in the destruction of the Olympus station in Earth orbit and a Concordis warship.
November 2103 – Olympus leaves the Solar system, taking all of their technology and people with them.
October 2109 – Lack of resources and animosities between world leaders result in Earth being engulfed in a fourth world war between the three factions: the Coalition, the League, and Concordis.
May 2129 – End of the Great War, the Earth population decimated, estimated population 4.5 billion.
February 2159 – Ra’a’zani, an alien race arrive and conquer Earth enslaving the population.
November 2160 – Ra’a’zani execute one third of the human population in retaliation against actions of human resistance fighters. Estimated human population 3.5 billion.
May 2164 – Olympus arrives at their new home, they name the planet Sanctuary.
August 2169 – Human resistance in Sol finds Olympus Scout ship left in the asteroid field.
November 2169 – Olympus Explorer Ship Voyager encounters unknown alien ships and is attacked. Ship Master Eric Donaldson triggers the ship’s self-destruct sequence.
December 2169 – Olympus Explorer Ship Traveler encounter an alien race called Nel, at a planet called Nuva.
February 2170 – An alien race called Sowir attacks Nuva – the same alien race that destroyed the Voyager. Olympus sends aid, resulting in the battle for Nuva.
March 2170 – Message from the resistance in Sol reaches Olympus.
Map
Prologue
Jun 2170 – Earth
Aileen no name walked down the streets of what was once Rome. The once great city was now the Ra’a’zani base. As she walked, she couldn’t fail to notice the state of the city. It was a ruin even before the Ra’a’zani came, the Great War took its toll. But when the Ra’a’zani chose it for their base, they simply moved in the few buildings still standing or cleared the rubble and built new ones. Or rather their human slaves did the work. Aileen had no idea why they chose this place to make their base, but the more time she spent with the Ra’a’zani the more she realized that it was probably random. They had beaten us completely and had no need of making a fortified base. They destroyed our technology and killed those who knew how to use or make it. Although the Great War did a lot of the work for them. And there was really nothing humans could do. They had no weapons, and even if they did, it would do them no good. They had no way of fighting against the five Ra’a’zani ships in the system. Aileen had abandoned all hope of freedom long ago.
With a few more steps Aileen arrived at her destination. She passed through the security checkpoint at the entrance, her red armband sending a signal to the guards identifying her as a personal slave to the Overlord. As she walked down the hallway of the base she noticed other humans moving about. At a glance she could see that they were ‘thralls’, it was the name that the other humans used. Thralls were those that were very young when the Ra’a’zani came, babies and small children, or were born after. They were raised separately from the other humans, by Ra’a’zani Taskmasters. They were different to the point that most other humans didn’t even consider them one of their kind. The oldest thralls were about thirteen to fourteen years old now, and had never known anything other than the Ra’a’zani, or if they did they were too young to remember now. They might have looked human, but Aileen knew that they were not. They were taught only the language of the Ra’a’zani, their ways and customs. They even wore custom made metal gloves that gave them sharp claws. They moved differently, their movements tense, always ready to lash out and attack. Aileen saw the looks they shot her way and knew that to them, she was nothing but a slave. There was no recognition that they were the same species, no mercy or compassion. They believed they were better. Aileen had been with the Ra’a’zani long enough to know that even though thralls were above the other humans, they were still nothing but slaves to Ra’a’zani. They had more freedom and could advance through Ra’a’zani society, but no matter how far they reach Ra’a’zani would never look at them as equals. And the worst thing was that they were fanatically loyal to their masters. Even Aileen, who had already made peace with the fact that she would never be free, still made small acts of defiance. A moment stolen, a heartbeat of hesitation to an order, small things. Thralls on the other hand were not only willing to obey, they craved approval from their masters. They would do anything asked of them.
She finally arrived at the command room and entered. Six Ra’a’zani were inside, four standing in front of various stations in their relaxed positions with their four crab like legs locked in place, a Ra’a’zani version of sitting. The other two, one gray scaled and the other brown, stood in the middle of the room by the holo of the Solar system, talking. Aileen approached slowly and took her position behind the gray scaled Ra’a’zani.
“… to expand our mining operations Dakar. The convoy from clan Uunaran will arrive in two years. We won’t be able to meet their order with the current output.” The brown scaled Ra’a’zani – Taskmaster Tra’r’an – said.
“We will need to send more slaves to the asteroid belt.” The gray scaled Ra’a’zani – Dakar Vit’r’an Overlord of Earth – said.
“It would mean taking more from the breeding programs. The others are too weak to survive for long.” Tra’r’an said.
“The next shipment of breeding groups is in three years, by then the other breeders will reach maturity.” Dakar Vit’r’an said.
“As you say Dakar, I’ll send out the orders.” Tra’r’an said and then left.
Dakar Vit’r’an stayed looking at the holographic representation of the Solar systems. The holo showed all Ra’a’zani assets in the system. There were five total Ra’a’zani warships in the system, three that were on patrol duties near the hyperspace limit, covering the approaches from Ra’a’zani space. The fourth one was on guard duty in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter where all Ra’a’zani mining operations were. And the fifth – Dakar Vit’r’an’s flagship – was in Earth’s orbit. There were a few other ships in the system, transports that took workers from and to the asteroid belt. Every few years a convoy would come to Sol to take the materials and slaves back to the Ra’a’zani space, those ships usually stayed for a few months while Ra’a’zani exchanged personnel and everything got loaded.
She knew that the original Ra’a’zani force, the one that conquered Earth, had more than 20 warships plus support ships. But such force wasn’t needed. They took Earth easily. They had arrived at the worst time possible, just as Earth ended the Great War. It had decimated humanity.
If Ra’a’zani came in the opening of the war, they would have had a lot harder time taking Earth. If there was one thing humanity excelled at, it was fighting. But they came after, when humanity was barely a shadow of what it was during the war. Aileen was young when Ra’a’zani came, barely fourteen years old, and everything she knew about human history came from the stories of those older.
After the Ra’a’zani took her, Aileen had heard a story of Earth before the war and how things would have been different if Ra’a’zani came then, it was told by a young slave that was killed for trying to attack a Taskmaster. No one had believed him when he spoke, taking his words for the ravings of the insane. But sometimes when she slept, she dreamed of Earth free and strong. She hated those dreams, she knew that she would never be free. She had seen the wickedness of human spirit in the breeding camps, she knew that they would never free themselves. Too many had accepted the Ra’a’zani rule, too many had turned against their own for no more than an extra piece of bread. They will be ruled by the Ra’a’zani forever.