Chapter 3: Prologue

Prologue

What would you do if you suddenly found yourself in a forest, without clothes, your senses going crazy from an overload of information, and with the feeling that you just ate all the stars in the galaxy combined to form the hottest sauce in existence?

Nothing good I would say, and that is what happened to our character, but not so bad, he just fell face first into the dirt.

 

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But first, let's see how and why this happened.

It all starts a long time ago in a galaxy far far away.

In this galaxy, sometime before the events that caused this to happen, several advanced spacefaring species had already divided the galaxy between themselves leaving no system unclaimed.

Strongest amongst them was the Imperial Core, also known as the Valteran Empire, or if you go by a more formal title the Galactic Emperor, though most of the galaxy is only part of the Galactic Empire in name only.

The Valteran Empire directly controlled about a fourth of the galaxy, most of it to the galactic east and south, being the largest empire by far, although many of its star systems were on the edge of the galaxy and had subpar access using FTL drives, all empires in the galaxy were their 'vassals' in name only but they respected the Valteran's role as Galactic Emperors and didn't fight their authority.

The Second strongest empire was the Urzo Shiping Alliance, a union of megacorporations that directly controlled most of the galactic northeast, it bordered the aforementioned Valteran Empire and had several smaller empires to their west being their client states.

The Urzo Shiping Alliance was, economically, the strongest empire in the galaxy, the Valteran Empire having the largest military during most of galactic history, while they had enough energy credits to buy all the mercenary fleets in the galaxy and rival the Valteran Empire alone in terms of quantity of ships, not like they would, as trying to do this would get them condemned by several empires, the Valteran Empire had saved the galaxy multiple times after all.

The Third strongest empire was the Republic of Huxganniga, controlling much of the galactic northwest, being about the same size as the Urzo Shiping Alliance, they were a direct democracy that followed the ideals of equality, freedom, and idealism.

The Republic of Huxganniga was the most powerful democracy in the galaxy, accepting refugees from all around and providing food and shelter for them, in the end, this is why they were in third place and not more powerful, one thing that differentiated them from the rest is that their founding species were latent psionics.

The last and Fourth of the most powerful empires were the M'tok Sovereignty, a lithoid species turned synthetic, they were a dictatorial technocracy that focused solely on the search for scientific breakthroughs and the discovery of the unknown, their technology was on the same level as the Valteran Empire.

The M'tok Sovereignty was not a large empire, being only less than half the size of the Urzo Shiping Alliance, what they controlled though was half of the galactic core between the Republic of Huxganniga and the Urzo Shiping Alliance, where the number of stars was denser than in the outer and middle rim.

All Three empires, not counting the Valteran Empire, were members of the Imperial Council for much of galactic history since the formation of the Galactic Empire and the dissolution of the Galactic Community.

All other empires were members of the Galactic Senate and could be elected to the Imperial Council if they became powerful enough, one possible empire would be the Mandasuran Authority which was half as large as the Valteran Empire, controlling much of the galactic southwest, the Authority is a military dictatorship which was established after the War in Heaven not long ago, their space is still mostly in ruins so it will be a long time before they surpass any of the Imperial Councilors in power.

There are 20 other empires, though most of them were subjects, directly or indirectly, of other empires with only two of them being truly independent, them being the Allied Twax'lhdar Systems to the galactic south, and the Mechanoid Commonwealth to the galactic east.

These empires are unimportant though, the Allied Twax'lhdar Systems was an oligarchic theocracy that had tried to 'enlighten' their neighbors before but had failed every time, and the Mechanoid Commonwealth was just a synthetic version of the Republic of Huxganniga with the same ideals but for synthetics instead of organics.

Not even the two of them combined were as powerful as the M'tok Sovereignty though, only by combining all of their vassals and the enemies of the Authority would they have a chance, and even then the Allied Twax'lhdar Systems would never ally itself with the Mechanoid Commonwealth, them being 'soulless machines' and all of that religious stuff.

The only thing going for them was that there was a large quantity of psionically awakened individuals in the Allied Twax'lhdar Systems.

 

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First a bit of known galactic history.

This may be surprising but all empires started their expansion at the same time, not counting the ancient fallen empires.

This history will be centered mostly on the Valteran Empire, the other empires don't really matter in this story.

In the year 2202 of Valteran Unification, a scientist makes a breakthrough in FTL technology, developing the Hyperdrive, the Valteran peoples of the ruined ecumenopolis Valtera, knowing the ancient legends of them having conquered the heavens before are excited to again rule the stars as is their birthright.

In the year 2212 of Valteran Unification, two colonies are established on planets that have ruins of the ancient Valteran Empire, and exploration fleets are sent in every direction to find more lost valteran worlds, the location of the valteran homeworld is at the edge of the galaxy and makes FTL travel difficult so research and development become more important to the government so their budget is radically increased.

In the year 2224 of Valteran Unification, there is a first contact situation with unknown aliens to the south, there is an incident and the valteran exploration fleet escapes with heavy damage, the empire declares a state of emergency, and the military budget increases exponentially each year since the incident, the valteran species becomes slightly xenophobic towards alien life.

In the year 2243 of Valteran Unification, after twenty years of expansion many more ancient valteran worlds are recovered and the imperial navy is heavily expanded, with more than a hundred starships divided between two fleets, with the increase in budget to research many new technologies are developed, the hyperdrive is upgraded and energy deflectors become common in every starship, nothing is heard from alien space.

In the year 2258 of Valteran Unification, the current emperor dies and a more bellicose emperor ascends the throne, the navy increases in size, and for two years the economy is focused solely on building starships and supplies for a war on a scale never seen before, after the two years the emperor and most of the admirals go on a crusade with hundreds of warships and close to ten million soldiers, they are never heard of again.

In the year 2259 of Valteran Unification, the materialistic faction of the senate wins the imperial elections and their candidate becomes the emperor, this emperor is not merely a puppet and is very focused on the advancement of science, the expansion of the empire, and the defeat of the aliens to the south.

In the year 2261 of Valteran Unification, a valteran exploration ship discovers that the former emperor's fleet succeded in defeating the aliens at the cost of their own destruction, the alien homeworld was glassed by them and no alien survived, the emperor was satisfied, and exploration fleets were sent south to find more ancient valteran worlds.

In the year 2311 of Valteran Unification, for the past fifty years, most of the colonies have been developed into self-sufficient worlds, and the ancient ruined ecumenopolis that is Valtera is repaired and repurposed giving purpose to structures millennia old, the navy is expanded and five more fleets are built with the latest technologies, the empire has more than a hundred colonies at this point in time.

In the year 2325 of Valteran Unification, an exploration fleet sent north establishes first contact with an alien species resembling a snake with three heads and many arms, this species calls itself the Urzo and is at a level of development similar to that of the empire, diplomatic relations are established and a valteran envoy is sent to represent the empire and its goals.

In the year 2329 of Valteran Unification, after a trade deal with the Urzo Shiping Alliance, they share their galactic maps and provide assistance with first contact situations with species they already have contacted, at this point in time much of the outer rim of the eastern part of the galaxy is under valteran control and expansion inwards is starting.

In the year 2346 of Valteran Unification, contact is established between the empire and the Zatrkpor Progenitors, a fallen empire, the valterans are awed by their advanced technology but also greatly disappointed by their stagnation and lost knowledge.

In the year 2348 of Valteran Unification, a small part of the inner rim bordering the Zatrkpor Progenitors is colonized and connected to the rest of the empire preventing the expansion of the Urzo Shiping Alliance southwards, they are annoyed but with some commercial treaties benefiting only them, it doesn't become a diplomatic incident.

In the year 2362 of Valteran Unification, after a wave of exploration fleets is sent west to cover all of the galactic east other less powerful empires are found and have their first contact with the empire, many of them join the empire willingly but others don't and become isolated as the rapid valteran expansion encloses them on their own space.

In the year 2394 of Valteran Unification, the era of expansion stops, more expansion would have overextended the empire and caused it to collapse in on itself, only the remaining isolated empires are conquered or subjugated to be integrated later, at this point most of the galactic east is part of the empire.

In the year 2431 of Valteran Unification, the prominence of the military faction stopped expanding, they are still strong but can't force the emperor into wars he doesn't want anymore, the empire becomes slightly more authoritarian due to this, and contact with most other empires in the galaxy has been established by this point and there are plans to start a galactic community between the empires of the galaxy.

In the year 2447 of Valteran Unification, the galactic community is established with its headquarters on a planet at the edge between valteran and urzo space, all other empires join the galactic community, and incidents that could have ended in war before are resolved peacefully now, mostly in favor of the party with more political power, that being the Valteran Empire and the Urzo Shiping Alliance.

In the year 2462 of Valteran Unification, the start of the Gray Tempest crisis, an unknown empire activated the L-Gate network and an uncountable number of rampaging nanobots in the form of starships passed through the L-Gates spread across the galaxy, talks started on the formation of a galactic council to oversee the empires of the galaxy and make sure this doesn't happen again.

In the year 2469 of Valteran Unification, after seven years of brutal fighting the Gray Tempest was pushed back into their home cluster, the L-Gate network has its nexus in a star cluster outside the galaxy so-called the L-Cluster, it was impossible to access without passing through an L-Gate.

In the year 2471 of Valteran Unification, the Gray Tempest is defeated after the destruction of the nanite factory, the Galactic Council is formed with the Valteran Empire, Urzo Shiping Alliance, and Lypian Imperium being the galactic councilors for the next 20 years, the Valteran Empire claims the L-Cluster and the other empires can't do anything about it, the valterans lost several fleets and without them, the galaxy would have fallen.

In the year 2513 of Valteran Unification, the galaxy knows peace for the next 42 years, two elections have happened and the council has not changed, resolutions are passed faster and incidents are resolved in less than a decade, valteran technology has advanced enough to be able to build megastructures, a hyper relay network is being built on the most important valteran worlds.

In the year 2548 of Valteran Unification, the hyper relay network was finished in the year 2528 and a few years later the Urzo Shiping Alliance requested assistance with building their own hyper relay network while the Valteran Empire started the first of many megastructure projects, the first Dyson Sphere was completed this year in the Hyshma system close to the Val system providing energy to most of the core worlds.

In the year 2572 of Valteran Unification, several more Dyson Spheres are built around high-energy stars while the construction of a Matter Decompressor is started on the Faranis black hole, one of the largest black holes outside of the one at the center of the galaxy, the hyper relay network is expanded to encompass all inhabited worlds in the empire.

In the year 2580 of Valteran Unification, the M'tok Sovereignty with valteran assistance builds a Dyson Sphere on one of their systems, the valteran empire finds the Cybrex ringworld after a search that has lasted since the start of the empire, this massive ringworld has some of the lost technologies of the ancient Cybrex Exterminators that terrorized the galaxy millennia ago, the ringworld was heavily damaged and it would take a long time for it to be repaired without the right technology.

In the year 2671 of Valteran Unification, nothing much has changed in the galaxy, wars are uncommon now, and technology advances as slow as ever, the only interesting thing would be the new prototype jump drive developed by the Lypian Imperium, a much better version of the hyperdrive, the Cybrex ringworld was rebuilt and the Valteran Empire is transferring their capital there.

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In the year 2721 of Valteran Unification, the Extradimensional Invaders commonly called the Extradimensional Unbidden, appeared from a dimensional breach in the middle of Lypian space, this surprise invasion caused panic and the Imperium only lasted a few months before their collapse and their remnants integrated into the Republic of Huxganniga.

In the year 2724 of Valteran Unification, the Unbidden conquered in every direction, these energy beings from another dimension ate souls to survive, they called the galaxy their 'feeding grounds', not all empires in the galaxy sent help and even with most of the valteran fleet many planets were consumed before another dimensional rift opened in the southern galactic rim, from this rift came the Extradimensional Aberrant, a variation of the Unbidden that fought them for their 'feeding grounds'.

In the year 2725 of Valteran Unification, the Valteran Empire is declared Galactic Custodian by the Galactic Community and starts a counterattack on the Extradimensional Invaders while they fought themselves, this is a success until another dimensional rift opens between the other two extradimensional invaders to the galactic southwest, the Extradimensional Vehement had come to steal the 'feeding grounds' of the Unbidden and Aberrant.

In the year 2731 of Valteran Unification, the Extradimensional Invaders enter a stalemate with the Galactic Community and start fighting among themselves causing untold destruction wherever they battle, the Galactic Custodian gathers the strongest fleet in galactic history yet, with tens of thousands of ships gathered in a Grand Fleet to defeat the Extradimensional Invaders and push them back into their dimension.

In the year 2742 of Valteran Unification, the Grand Fleet goes directly to Unbidden space to destroy the dimensional anchors keeping the rift open, after a great battle with the destruction of half the fleet the anchors are shattered and the dimensional rift closes.

In the year 2744 of Valteran Unification, the Grand Fleet is repaired and sent to fight the Aberrant, using newly developed weapons of the null void, weapons using pure entropy to disperse energy, the Aberrant are defeated much easier than the Unbidden with these weapons as all the technology of the Extradimensional Invaders is composed of pure energy.

In the year 2747 of Valteran Unification, the final Extradimensional Invaders, the Vehement, are destroyed and their dimensional rift is closed, after more than 20 years of constant warfare and the devastation of the galactic southwest all the Extradimensional Invaders are pushed back into their dimensions and the galaxy is at peace one more.

In the year 2748 of Valteran Unification, with a charismatic speech, the valteran emperor, Valerian XIV declares the reformation of the Galactic Community into the Galactic Empire with the support of the Urzo and many other species, he becomes Valerian I, first galactic emperor, and the Valteran Empire becomes the Imperial Core.

"To ensure the continued survival of the galaxy against external and internal threats, the Galactic Community will be reorganized into the First Galactic Empire, for a safe and secure galaxy!" - Valerian I, first galactic emperor in his declaration of a new order.

In the year 2896 of Valteran Unification, the galaxy is at peace when three of the four fallen empires awaken at the same time, each of them demanding the subjugation of the galaxy to themselves and no one else, the Galactic Empire refuses and the War in Heaven starts.

In the year 3019 of Valteran Unification, after more than a hundred years of constant war, the War in Heaven finally ended with an imperial victory, many technologies are developed or stolen from the awakened empires in these hundred years.

In the year 3421 of Valteran Unification, this year is when the events leading to the start of the chapter begin with the coronation of Valerian IX, the new emperor of the galactic empire.

 

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Valerian IX was not a normal person, he was insane, absolutely, completely, unreasonably, totally insane, this was a secret, of course, no one knew he has insane, only Valerian himself knew he was insane, at the start at least.

It started with his studies on valteran history, when you read the wall of text above you may notice something, the Valteran Empire had saved the galaxy multiple times, without them it would have fallen to a nanobot swarm and many more threats, so Valerian, in his insanity, thought the valterans deserved to rule above everyone like gods, he was incredibly xenophobic basically, he was also a once-in-a-universe genius and had an unbreakable will so he learned to hide his thoughts from others and was selected as the next emperor without anyone knowing about his strange thoughts.

For the next few years, all political factions in the empire were purged or assimilated into his own faction, it didn't take long for him to gain absolute power over the empire with his unparalleled genius.

When he was searching for a way to make the valteran species gods he awakened psionic powers, it was surprising as the psionic potential of the valteran species was especially low, but it didn't matter, Valerian IX had plot armor, and with the teachings of the best Huxgan psionic masters, from the Republic, he became what is called a Chosen One of the Shroud, said to bring balance to the psionic energies of the galaxy, ha! as if that would ever happen...

Psionics are a powerful tool, with enough psionic energy anything can be done, truly a godly power fit for a valteran.

Valerian with his unparalleled genius developed a way to turn every valteran in the galaxy, from the foundation of the empire to the present into psionic gods, the Shroud has no concept of time after all.

What he developed was the Aetherophasic Engine, the perfect tool for a galactic-scale genocide.

The emperor ordered the secret construction of Star-Eaters, moon-sized Battlestations capable of destroying stars while materials were rerouted from their intended destinations for the construction of the Aetherophasic Engine.

After three Star-Eaters were finished the emperor declared his objective in a short speech given to the imperial senate.

Valerian with his arms spread out a manic smile on his face "Let us be the gods of a new era and smite and purge all the impure and weak-willed from our galaxy - HAHAHAHA" he falls on his throne laughing like a madman while the loyalist senators kill any opposition with hidden weapons Brutus style.

The entire galaxy declares total war against the empire while the empire itself falls into civil war, the emperor doesn't care and sends the Star-Eaters against the neighboring empires.

In the next month, the galaxy falls into chaos, the Aetherophasic Engine is being built in the old valteran capital system of Val and Valerian had his spies kill the leaders of all the interstellar nations in the galaxy.

As the Aetherophasic Engine was being built using the dark matter harvested from the newly formed black holes fleets from across the galaxy were advancing on the empire.

It took fifty years to finish the construction of the Aetherophasic Engine and the destruction of hundreds of stars, billions died on every imperial planet that was occupied by alien forces and billions more died every time a Star-Eater blew up a star that had inhabited planet.

In the end, the fleets from the alien species finally reached Val, the old home system of the Valteran Empire, now hell manifest as the infinite psionic energy of the Shroud tried to pass into the material plane through the Aetherophasic Engine.

Then in an instant local reality was shredded, annihilated, destroyed, completely and utterly ripped into pieces as the Shroud, a dimension of infinite psionic energy, was merged with the universe.

In the next second, a sound as if an uncountable number of demonic beings were being burnt alive echoed through the universe, then the universe Shattered like glass and was devoured by a hole in reality, that being what the Aetherophasic Engine had become.

hahahaha...

The universe ceased to be, the Shroud ceased to be too, the two combined with the souls of every valteran and turned into a Psionic God, a being with psionic powers comparable to that of a True God, being truly omnipotent in power, omniscient in mind and omnipresent in body.

Argh...

Then like it was a joke a loud crack was heard from this newborn god, it seemed it would shatter at any moment.

No... It... Can't... Be...

Like a glass of water filled to the brim the body of this new god was overflowing with power, too much power, and it seemed its consciousness didn't want to die.

Why... My... Power... No...

Another crack was heard, and light was starting to escape from the great fissures that had appeared on the body.

My...

Dream...

Will...

Succeed...

No...

Matter...

The...

Price...

The consciousness of the newborn god died at that very moment and the immense soul that was the body of the god was catapulted into the void between realities.

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