Tomorrow in History

3832.5432 – Galactic Council disolved

The Galactic Council was a conglomerate of representatives from all intelligent space traveling species. Among them they made laws, figured out Galactic policy, and ran the Galactic games.

With the renewed hostilities of the Kree (a warrior race of bug like beings,) the Council was caught unprepared. Large scale war was one of the things the Council had never been able to reconcile in their long history. A combination of pacifism and unwillingness to tie economies together enough to create a Galactic Navy kept such a project from ever launching.

The wide scale invasion of the Kree changed that. A non-space traveling species before the brutal insect warriors had some how come into possession of a modern naval fleet. Spreading out from their quarantined planet, all other planets were easily conquered and their inhabitants turned into slaves and food.

Within a standard light year the Galactic Council’s indecision caused member planets to pull out of the council. Much smaller factions sprung up and old rivalries spilled over into armed conflict. As the Council fell apart more, hostilities increased and the Kree conquered more of the Galaxy.

On 3852.5432 the Galactic Council was officially dissolved despite heavy lobbying from the remaining members. The Kree invasion achieved what 10,000 years of history could not.

2105.1993 – Nano-Genocide in Sol System

On 2105.1993 it was discovered that a race of semi-intelligent single cell organisms called the Nederjungan lived on Iaeptus, the 18th Moon in orbit around Saturn. Unluckily for the Nederjungan Iaeptus was a stop over and refueling point for out-system bound transports. Deep Surface water mining provided the needed reaction mass for the transports. The same underground water reservoirs provided habitats for the Nederjungan. Like so many other times, Humanity was unwittingly destroying the Nederjungan’s habitat by draining the reservoirs.

The existence of life on Iaeptus came as quite the shock. Previous searches had failed to penetrate deeply enough and reveal the Nederjungan’s precense, nor had any known mechansim or evidence pointing towards their existence been revealed. We now know that several hundred thousand years in the past a meteor plunged deep into Iaeptus’ neighbor Hyperion. Iaeptus was showered with dust and debris from Hyperion. It is thought that amino acids came to Iaeptus this way, but science is not positive if they originated on Hyperion or the meteor.

Either way the basic building blocks were there and nature took over and the Nederjungan came into existence. Their presence was undiscovered until a young boy named Thad Smith accidentally intercepted their communication signals during an ultra low band radio wave experiment for a Boy Scout badge. He showed his father, who was a researcher in IBA&TT’s moon labs, the unexpected signals and the two of them were able to devise a primitive communication array.

Today the Nederjungan are one of many known nano-species. They have replaced nano-robots in many industrial and medical uses as their higher intelligence makes it easier for supervisors to direct their actions.  Iaeptus and many other moons have been set aside as home worlds closed to outside development under the Galactic Council Directive 111.32.

The discovery of nano-species  showed us that the Galaxy still has a lot of surprises left for it’s inhabitants. Lets hope we do not destroy more in our ignorance.

7123:5645 – Saint Hoolian’s Day first celebrated

7123:5645 – Saint Hoolian’s Day first celebration was a grandiose affair. Created by King Hoolian himself to celebrate the 50th year of his reign, the celebration turned into a three week event. To keep his World from suffering too greatly economically, every third day was given off to all citizens. This day was marked by gift giving from the King himself who rode through the city streets in a plas-steel chariot gilded in platinum and studded with gems.

His presents were varied and extravegant to the extreme. Gold coins containing a hologram emiter were scattered to the crowds. Once picked up a DNA scanner registered the reciever, matched their name against the central database and presented their gift that was already pre-programmed. Most the gifts were simple sums of money. Other gifts ranged from seats at concerts or the Triallian Opera to commisons in the military, government jobs, even the Barony of the North Beach. The Barony was collected by a 13 year old girl named Cidney Jarovich, later to be known as Baroness North Beach, the Warrior Queen of Debian VII. In addition, the coins were programmed to only allow a person one gift, but despite that some more valuable coins were still horded and bought or sold for heafty sums.

During the evening, immense parties were put on all over the world. Every city played host to one, and some citizens traveled over 100 kilometers to attend. The food consisted of delicacies from all over the Galaxy and is said to cost 1/10th of the GWP alone. The World Guard was on hand to keep the peace, but amazingly only had to respond three times. Once turned out to be a false alarm to find a missing child (the child had fallen asleep on a park bench,) another to help with a broken leg, and the third time to stop an accidental fire.

Saint Hoolian’s day continues to be celebrated, two thousand years after it’s creator’s death in another spectacle that merits an episode by itself. The gold coins are still passed around and gifts vary from the mudane to fantastic depending on the wealth of the giver. The tradition has spread to many other worlds, but has been shortened to one week in most places. Important infrastructure and security works are no longer given the entire time off, but most other citizens do.

In the immortal words of King Hoolian “Be Happy!”

2954.7743 – Nano-Zombie Plague

2954.7743 – Ryian Corporation Level Two Research and Developement Lab – Theta Draconis III near the Helaspont Nebula., Nano-Zombie Plague.

The Nano-Zombie Plague as it is now known has gone down as one of the Galaxies greatest scientific follies and examples of Military mismanagement. Threatened with a large funding cut, Ryian Corp approached the Theta Draconis Fleet with a proposal of nanobot augmented soldiers. Their proposal was quite ambitious promising a 230% average strength boost, 175% speed increase, 300% endurance along with a host of abilities such as quick healing, low-light vision and even a neural interface for remote commands. This proposal glossed over the fact that Ryian Corp did not even have the plans for a prototype nanobot, much less one that was capable of these claims.

Theta Draconis Fleet Command jumped at the possibilities of a so-called super solider and quickly funded the project. Critics have pointed out that there was a lack of oversight and investigation into the funding process, especially in regards to any kind of timelines and mileposts. Military supporters point out that sometimes funding needs to be poured into “Black” projects without oversight or the “Enemy” would be able to surpass them in technology.

Instead the Ryian Corporation’s lax project controls and lack of safety procedures heavily contributed to it’s ultimate failure and disaster. Coupled with Fleet Command’s lack of oversight, the disaster loomed closer then anyone thought.

As can be pieced together in the mop-up report, at roughly 1:30 pm local time one of the researchers named Dr. Gidoen left the newest batch of nano-samples, NF-233 on the a quantum recorder. NF-233 was already an anomalous sample. Previous lab tests had shown a unexpected high replication rate. In addition the gobbit (a small rodent native to Tau Ceti Seven,) test subject’s brain activity ceased with in 15 sections of activation, and the gobbits began exhibiting severe cases of cannibalism. This problem had been removed by sample NF-238, but Dr. Gidoen was heading up a team to re-examine some of NF-233 properties for reintegration into the main sample line.

Unluckily for Dr. Gidoen a momentary power flicker in the nano shields on the quantum recorder allowed several of the microscopic robots to escape and start executing their primary function. It’s estimated that 45 sections later she reentered the room and immediately was infected by sample NF-233. 2nd Technician Rimmer found her and succumbed to NF-233, but he left the way open for their animated corpses to begin feeding and infecting others.

Accounts differ as to the rate of spread and order. But what is clear is that 90% of the facility’s personnel had been infected by the close of the day. Several survivors escaped the building which did not have nano deactivation fields, only to be taken to a nearby hospital for treatment. This spread NF-233 into the general population and escalated from there. Within 10 standard days over 5 million beings of many races were infected.

Wide spread panics led to a declaration of martial law. Public buildings became armed fortresses and the Nano-Zombies as they were now called were destroyed in large numbers. Before the cause was known, bodies were burned in great piles to attempt to get rid of them. Unluckily the insect like intelligence of NF-233 made the Nano-Zombies swarm to the nearest concentration of living beings. Within a standard month it is estimated that less 2% of Theta Draconis III’s population were left alive and uninfected. Most were in rural areas, isolated islands, and survivalist outposts.
The orbiting habitat colonies survived, but only due to a accident that completly destroyed the space elevator and closed off all ground to orbit travel. There is some suspicion that the Military had a hand in this, although they claim the loss of over 4000 of their own troops on the elevator at the time would make this impossible.

With increasing pressure from the Galactic Council’s Security Bureau, the government in exile eventually authorized the use of proto-neutrionium bombs after repeated hacks into the nano-bots failed. This eradicated almost all life on the planet and most of NF-233. The resulting global EMP field gave technicians enough time to slightly alter the nano-bots original programming and put them into a dormant state.

Today Theta Draconis III remains a quarantined and mutated wild life preserve orbited by colonies. Occasional heavily armed scientific missions visit the planet to monitor the remains of the nano-bots. Their original programing has finally been modified to reduce their reproduction rate, and remove the cannibalism factor. Further modifications may make it possible for the planet to be habitable again someday.

With over 7 billion beings dead this disaster modified the view on nanotechnology and laws regarding it’s use across the entire galaxy. Even to this day it is still highly regulated and controlled to prevent such disasters, despite the fact that it is used in just about every industry.

2063.9934 – Human first Contact

In Late December, 2063 the Human Orbital Habitation and Manufacturing Colony of New London on Wolf 359 recieved an odd signal from outside the system. At first it was mistaken as a corrupted radio location signal from a wrecked mining ship. But triangulation soon proved it was coming from the opposite side of the system. The next guess was that it was as yet undetected radiation from one a nearby star or pulsar. This was quickly dispproven when the signal began modulating with precise measurements.

An asteroid tug, the EAS Gray Goose II under Captain John Westsmith was quickly dispatched from it’s duties of capturing asteroids from the belt and sending them in system for processing. It took nearly two and a half days of travel under Van Gussen drive to reach the source of the signal. What the Gray Goose found was beyond all expectations. An unknown ship floated in space while a coolant leakage near the engines spewed gases behind it. Westsmith and his crew quickly identified it as an unknown contact, a conclusion confirmed by New London’s Defense Force once they recieved video and telemetry on it. Already suspecting a first contact scenario, NLDF commander Admiral Kyler ordered the Gray Goose to back off but to retain visual contact as much as possible until an official first contact team could be put together.

Captain Westsmith disregarded orders and closed to grapple range. Unoffical transcripts and records from the period mention a recent incident in which the NLDF had arrested several of Westsmith’s brother captians during a routine Union strike. Disregarding any thoughts of contamination, his crew mated the two ships and opened the airlock to not only render aid, but also to gain fist claim on any possible salvage rights. What they found inside was outstanding, mysterious, and so ordinary that it’s belivabilty is still questioned today by certain conspiracy theorists.

The wrecked ship contained an unconcious crew of seven aliens who later turned out to be 99.98% DNA compatible to humans. Their skin coloration was an uniform dark shade. Their basic weight and height specifications were 22% higher of those on Earth. As such the Gray Goose’s auto-doc was able to stabalize 3 of the crew. The rest had sustained to many injuries when the engine failure happened. Captain Westsmith immediatly ordered a return to New London and a full spectrum broadcast of what they had found, and a registered claim on the ship wreck.

Upon return, the Gray Goose was impounded, Captain Westsmith and his crew arrested by NLDF, and the aliens taken into protective custody for examination. By this time news was already hitting Earth. Kept under observation two of the aliens eventually woke up. Translation programs started working on a common language, while sociologists and xeno-biologists went over them with every observation device known at the time. Eventually enough information was collected to identify the surviving crew members as Jexon Illard, Sub-Commander of the Bright Hope, Opandgaerd Hesslemant, Medical Officer and still unconcious Qaraft Bazca the Electronics Collector who’s switched modulation of the communication array provided the emergency signal. Their home planet was Eta Cassiopeiaea Four or simply Home.

By this time public reaction was such that the Eta Cassiopeiaeans could no longer be kept secret, despite Earth Confederation’s wishes. Admiral Kyler’s iron-fisted handling of the situation was resoundly critized by the public, even though he was following standard regulations. Several years later, demoted to a non-critical post and demonized in the public eye, he committed suicide via an air lock. Captain John Westsmith and his crew’s salvage rights were bought out by Earth Confed, making them very wealthy. Several of the crew wrote best selling books and the Captain went on several speaking tours even once ending up on Eta Cassiopeia Four itself for an audience with the Emporer.

The Eta Cassiopeiaens eventually became part of the Diplomatic Corps and helped create the first diplomatic treaty between the two worlds. Scientists on each side immediately seized on the sameness of both races and eventually which eventually became the first evidence of Precursor influence in the Galaxy. They also collaborated on the Hawking-Dweaveran drive which eventually became the first practical FTL-drive and opened up both races to further contacts and memberships on the Galactic Council.

5236.6843 AD – C15 Multi-Purpose Field Rifle

5236.6843 AD the C15 Multi-Purpose Field Rifle was released into production. The staple of Alliance small arms for well over 2000 years, it’s main components were a K3 “Cerigan” Micro-Reactor, a standard off the shelf quarter size material reducer and a newly upgraded Mark II combat designator. All of these components were relatively easy and cheap to produce across most worlds making it also one of the cheapest combat ready fire arms in well over 800 years. Protected by the standard Quarsteel stock they were also fairly robust under extreme combat conditions. The overall design of the rifle changed very little. Major improvements included a K7 Micro-Reactor and a small combat nano-repair module. Both of which were added about 350 years before the end of it’s combat life.

The real break through by the Hessen-Glock Arms Company was figuring out how to narrow the reducer’s output to a useable form. The final product, a simple in-stock mold in the shape of the 3.4 centimeter long, 1.2 millimeter wide ammo turned out to be a real “Jafataugh!” moment. Any loose material nearby was simply shoved into the receiver input on the stock. The micro-reactor provided the needed power to the material reducer which superheated the materials into base gases which were then squirted into the mold. They then formed the round which was ready to fire .3 seconds later. 500 rounds could be stored internally, while a seperate external magazine held another 1500. Both storage compartments could be refilled via the reducer by using the firing chamber as a pass-through.

Using power from the micro-reactor the rounds were accelerated down the barrel much like a rail gun via sub-audible electron pulses at roughly 2.4kilometers/s. Which was fast enough to pierce most forms of hyperceramics and many energy fields. The rate of fire could be selected via the combat designator. One or two round shots were usually reserved for sniper situations or when ammo was getting low. A twelve round selection was usually used during normal combat. The last selection was a one-hundred round rate of fire for suppression fire tactics. In addition a longer 1.3 meter barrel was available to change the C-15 into a long range, high velocity sniper rifle.

Pre-made ammunition is also available. Most is for specialized circumstance, such as anti-infantry, anti-armor, anti-shield, anti-missile, etc. Other variations include field expedient detonation ammo for quickly creating holes in walls, to dig trenches and other minor engineering feats. Several variations existed for intelligence gathering, but amazingly little is known about them.

The C15 saw usage by the Royal Marines and the Colonial Ground Forces during it’s tenure in every action they played a part in. Notable actions included the hold out of a company of Royal Marines at Hanner’s Pass during the 2nd Xceronalian War. Cut off from reinforcement and running low on supplies, the 67th Royal Marines held the pass against the Xceronalian assault for 43 days. The insect-like Xceronalian’s exoskeleton provided one of the best materials for conversion into the C15’s ammo.

During the Yatean Revolution a Recon team of the Colonial Ground Forces were able to get into position 2.3 kilometers away from the People’s Parade Grounds. Using the sniper barrel of the C15 they were able to insert a microphone near the General Gurnyvale, positively identify him, and then assassinated him in front of a crowd of two hundred thousand citizens and thus ending the General’s genocidal programs.

Some strategists and military-industrialist saw it a step backwards in technology from gravity based weapons which were just then being developed into single soldier portable versions. Ground General Ash-Polinsky pushed the development of the C15, siting the need for “a cheap, field repairable, self-sufficient rifle.” 11 years of development and testing later the first C15 were issued to combat troops and field tested under live conditions. The C15 performed better then expected, and a legend was born.

About Tomorrow in History

Tomorrow in History explores different topics of history before the year 10,007 A.D. From Wars to important (or interesting figures,) to ancient technology and the more modern, we’ll cover it all. If there is a topic you’d like to know more about, feel free to post about it in the comments, or email me!