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The second planet in the Bismark system, located in northern federal space, was confirmed as a survey to be continental in nature. A rocky world with nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere, suitable for colonization by humans. It was discovered that the planet was showered by meteors after observations of numerous craters on its surface. Despite the noted risk, the planet was deemed suitable for colonization due to its strategic position to expand the human presence towards the borders of the Xeltek League. Earth’s relationship with the aliens to the north were gradually improving, thanks to the impressive work done by ambassador Durston. The ambassador communicated back to Earth that there were promising signs for diplomatic agreements in the near future. The relationship with the Xelteks was quite different compared to the Korinhts. The Xelteks’ anthropoid biology caused communication problems, especially in the sphere of the non-verbal dialogue: a gesture from a human would be seen as threatening by a Xeltek and vice-versa. Nonetheless, minimal issues were reported from the human envoy’s outpost on Xel Mirus.
In the Kepler 57 system, Adila Msibi, the commander of the USV Scout, discovered a massive asteroid that yielded fascinating results once scanned. The asteroid’s core was composed of a network of conductive crystals capable of carrying a weak electric charge. The crew of the science ship believed it was some sort of intelligence, that is somehow able to “think” in a very primitive way. To further analyze the core, a small drill was placed on the asteroid surface, with the science ship using it to try to connect to the network to perform a reading. However, as soon as the link with the USV Scout system was in place, a sudden spike of energy was reported followed by the vanishing of the electric charge network. The final report to the Directorate of the Scientific Exploration Flotilla was that somehow the connection had killed the primitive, electrical organism.
A surface scan of the moon of Bell V (fifth planet of the Bell system) identified the remnants of an ancient installation. Most of the facility had been wiped out in a massive explosion approximately two million years prior, but a few buildings had survived the blast. All evidence recovered suggested that the complex was a research base built by the First League and the USV Hawking was sent to the moon to investigate.
In May, a human vessel met an unidentified ship on the southern outskirts of the federal space. Having faced this situation before, the Federation took only two hours for the First Contact Department to connect and establish a video channel to the ship. On the other side of the screen were massive wildebeest-like life forms. The alien identified itself as an ambassador of the Bothrians, a species living on the opposite side of the Chimm Swarm space, and organized as a spacefaring Republic. President Paquette was connected to the Bothrian Republic leader four hours later. The leader introduced himself as Bur B’Torak and identified his position as their Republic’s Prime Minister. This marked the first time that mankind came into contact with an alien race that was both cooperative and living under a democratic government similar to the United Systems.
Paquette spoke with B’Torak for nearly two hours and during the conversation, aided by universal translation AI, the leader of the Bothrians mentioned his nation’s willingness to introduce mankind to the larger galactic community. The term "galactic community" seemed strange to the United Systems’ President. After all, mankind had only encountered three other major space faring races and none of them was thought to have had knowledge of other civilizations. B’Torak continued to mention more than “twenty star nations” within the galactic community. What happened in the upcoming two weeks was simply incredible, a milestone in human history and the beginning of a new era.
The Bothrians connected the United Systems to a multitude of different civilizations and species. The suddenly full galaxy was sprawling with star empires, republics, and monarchies, all interconnected by an intricate web of relationships, rivalries, trade agreements, alliances and, of course, wars.
The citizens of the federation were astonished, having caught pretty much blind, by the quantity of information they received in a very short amount of time. Media agencies struggled to stay updated and endless “live reports” with continuous streams of information ended up being transmitted 24/7 across the United Systems.
The government itself was nearly stopped by the overwhelming amount of meetings, status updates and briefings regarding all the newly encountered civilizations.
On June 2nd, President Paquette addressed the federation in a unified broadcast:
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Citizens of the United Systems,
The galaxy that we once thought as empty and unexplored no longer exists. The era where our spaceships navigated and explored the unknown is coming to an end.
As you all by now know, we are just one of dozens of spacefaring civilizations within our galaxy. There is a community out there that is waiting to welcome and establish relations with us. As we did with our friends the Korinth and the Xelteks, we will enter the galactic stage with our ideals of prosperity, respect, and the sacrosanct value of an individual life.
As a human being, I am excited to see that our galaxy is full of sapient life. I invite you all to join me in my excitement to be part of this interspecies galactic community and unravel more the mysteries behind humanity’s existence and origin.
As you always did, bear with us in this enormous endeavor to ensure the peaceful prosperity of humanity among the stars. A new era awaits us, let’s not wait any longer and embrace it together.
Thank you
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The Bothrians acted as ambassadors for mankind, explaining the history of the galactic community from its inception. Humanity encountered a galactic community in relative peace, which simply meant that no active wars were happening. Of course many civilizations kept hostile attitudes against each other. Both governments were also joined in their wariness and fear of the Chimms which bordered both of their controlled spaces.
It was understood that most of the species in the galactic community had developed spacefaring capabilities within the past few centuries, similar to mankind. Astonishingly, another “human” race was known to live in the galactic Northwest. This second human species organized themselves under the banner of the “Sovereign Human Dominions” and further research found matching DNA between both races.
This discovery shocked the human scientific community that wondered how this was even possible. It was theorized that the most likely scenario was that an unknown alien species had visited Earth in the past millennia and “relocated” a part of the Earth’s population. This was confirmed by the fact that humans from the Dominions had no biological similarities with local life forms on their planets (unlike Earth humans with deep biological similarities with primates).
The alien species which filled the galaxy had very diverse biologies, such as arthropoid, molluscoid, mammalian, avians, human-like and reptilians making up the majority. There were also more exotic life forms which shared biology with fungi, plants and even mineral-based lifeforms, called lithoids. The most impressive, however, was an alien species that was a fully functional artificial intelligence network, called the “Dekrons”, who resided in the northeastern galactic space in a dominion called “The Grid”.
The Federal Information Service, analyzed all the data available through the Bothrian and concluded that all of the species in the galactic community, apart from the ancient Alvanians, were roughly equal in development to the United Systems. Further independent investigations concluded that while humanity were on par with the rest of the galaxy in terms of technology and economy, it held a slight edge in military power.
This edge was attributed to two factors: human culture itself that inherently understood the value of “deterrence” from the myriad of conflicts mankind endured throughout the pre-FTL era, as well as the rapid military buildup of the past few decades.
Competing with human in terms of military power were three civilizations:
- the Cyggans, a molluscoid species organized in a military junta called the Republic of Cyggia
- the Zelvans, a humanoid species that populated the “Zelvan Citizen League”, and operated as a sort of citizen stratocracy
- the Akkanos, a humanoid species united in a direct democratic republic, named the “Akkano Republic”
President Paquette was also informed by B’Torak about the decision of a majority of the galaxy’s species to join a permanent multi-species congress called the “Galactic Community”, abbreviated as GALCOM, which allowed diplomats and leaders of the various civilizations to meet and discuss important matters as well as to avoid misunderstandings.
The decision to join the Galactic Community was delegated to the Federal Senate that voted in favor of joining with more than 80% of the vote in favor. The only party that voted against joining the Galactic Community was the DRM (Defensive Readiness Movement), which wanted to have the decision delayed to better assess the situation.
In late September a meeting between Warlord Xabbaverta, the leader of the Xeltek League, and President Paquette was held on Sirius Prime, in the same location where the president had met Supreme Leader Rhethan. It was another success by ambassador Laura Durston who had managed during her diplomatic mission to improve the relations between the two civilizations and put the United Systems in a positive light to the eyes of the Xelteks. The meeting went extremely well and Xabbaverta agreed to establish not only a defensive pact, but also a commercial and a research agreement. With another civilization deciding to peacefully coexist with the United Systems, both the northern and southern borders of the federation were now secured, with only the Chimms remaining as a threat to the west.
The agreements with the Xelteks were of particular importance in this moment in time as not all of the species that the United Systems were suddenly introduced to were friendly. In fact, the Avarrian Empire, the Republic of Cyggia, the Akkano Republic, the Empire of the Shrub, the Alliance of Dabulan Suns as well as the Themlar Collective informed the United Systems that any trespassing of their sovereign space by any United Systems vessel would be considered a declaration of war.
In better news, however, the Republic of Tarraska, the Sovereign Human Dominions and the Bothrian Republic agreed to sign a non-aggression pact with the federation. The Bothrian also further deepened their collaboration with humanity through a research agreement.
As noted by President Paquette, humanity’s “Age of Discovery” in the galaxy was coming to an end. The United Systems were now about to enter into a new era of galactic diplomacy. Mankind’s continued prosperity will no longer come from exploring the stars but through continued effort to ensure its ongoing existence and relevance in the Galactic Community.
(click to enlarge - full resolution link below)
Full resolution version of the galaxy map:
https://i.imgur.com/BZavTpY.png
Text corrected and revised by
@ChaoYang