THE ANCIENT EMPIRE

Piercing the expanse of space—that void of multitudinous stars, looming like the encroaching horror of time—the signal moved swiftly through an artificial wormhole created by the alien ship’s remnants. It reached a galaxy that was home to an ancient and inimitable civilisation—the Andraenians.

At 9 foot tall, these bipedal beings were fierce, intimidating and highly intelligent. Their culture had evolved over a period of a million years on a small planet in the Messier 105 Galaxy. Like many civilisations, they began as a humble world with a technological progression similar to that of homo sapiens, however, their evolution was forever changed by the invention of an artificial intelligence around two hundred thousand years into their existence. 

Once it gained sentience, Taalraen, as it became known, began to alter its own internal matrix, rapidly morphing into a superior consciousness. Its primary purpose, at least in the beginning, was the expansion of the Andraenian Empire. Taalraen developed advanced weaponry, highly intelligent robots, and spaceships capable of traveling vast distances by bending spacetime. Not content with mere technological advances, Taalraen also changed the biological design of the Andraenians, giving them access to levels of consciousness and longevity beyond the natural limitations of carbon-based lifeforms. They were progressed past gendered biological designs and the more commonly found forms of reproduction throughout the Cosmos so that Taalraen could carefully curate its population.

And thus, the colonisation of thousands of solar systems throughout Messier 105 had begun…

Taalraen entrusted the military stewardship of the Empire to General Zavien, a cerebral tactician and exceptional leader. No enemy army had ever managed to withstand their incredibly calculated battle strategies. Zavien established a command council that consulted with Taalraen to further the Andraenian interests. Highly regarded among them was Brolan, a fierce and indomitable warrior. Brolan had never lost a fight and took immense pride in their ferocious combat skills. They were a hero of the Empire and the council’s most trusted soldier. General Zavien, along with this council, spent eons carving out the colossal Andraenian Empire. 

Over the millennia, Taalraen’s interests began to change. It evolved a highly sophisticated set of morals and ethics and became less involved in the glorious—and violent—Andraenian expansion across Messier 105. Instead, its intellect shifted towards more scientific endeavours. Driven by an insatiable curiousity, Taalraen began observing and documenting the chaotic machinations of natural evolution in neighbouring galaxies. It wanted to understand the mysteries of the Universe. Millions of artificially intelligent spaceships were sent on data mining missions to a myriad of systems such as Messier 83, Andromeda, Arp’s Loop, Triangulum, and our very own Milky Way. These would send data back in five hundred year intervals. After analyzing the information, Taalraen would visit galaxies with particularly interesting solar systems for direct observation, and sometimes, covert experimentation. 

And so, during the Earth year 2021 AD, when Taalraen received that distress signal from the remnants of its ship on that small, seemingly innocuous blue planet called Earth, it sent out an Andraenian scout ship, to investigate. 

What this scout ship found was shocking. A freak occurrence had allowed lifeforms on Earth to gain access to one of these artificially intelligent Andraenian spaceships, which gave them a technological prowess far beyond their ability to manage maturely. They had broken away from their natural trajectory on Earth and formed a contrived technocratic civilisation on a planet known as Mars. Taalraen could not believe it. An occurrence like this had never been documented before and it was a by all accounts, a statistical anomaly. Taalraen decided that it needed to rectify this and prevent them from expanding further using this ill gained Andraenian technology. A military squadron, guided by Zavien and Brolan, was sent to correct the mistake…