Revenge

On March 3rd, 2241, the colony on Europa was attacked and swiftly destroyed by alien forces of unknown origin. Colonial military forces mobilized quickly, and the next attack was defeated. However, over the next five years, a barrage of other attacks followed; pseudo-mammalian hiveminds, nanotechnological warmachines, animate vegetation and a single, colossal worldship attacked. Each were destroyed, but at great cost. Half of humanity's colonies were utterly obliterated. Hundreds of millions had died. The surviving nations found their navies left in ruins, and were forced to band together in the so-called Sol Defense League. In 2247, when it was clear that the waves of enemies had ceased - for the moment, at least - the leaders of the Sol Defense League began planning a retaliatory expedition, to attempt to destroy the source or sources of the attacks. The wrecks of the alien attackers were dissected down to the molecular level; recordings were analyzed in an attempt to backtrack their courses. At last, on March 3rd, 2251, the first of the seven Protector-class extrasolar warvessels was launched. Their mission: to find and exterminate the enemy at the root. Earth must be kept safe.

This is their story.

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The ships of the Sol Defense League wandered the stars for years, searching for those who attacked Earth. Most of the stars they visited were barren and lifeless; often lacking any planets at all, possessing no life nor capacity to support it. In 2253, the Vengeance found an alien colony around Epsilon Eridani; pre-industrial hexapedal xenomorphs, possessing no technology more advanced than the wheel. Upon examination, the Vengeance's scientific complement concluded that these aliens were dependent on certain herbs found on their world; were any removed from these herbs for long, they perished. Having satisfied themselves that the hexapeds were incapable of ever attacking Earth, the Vengeance traveled onward and outward.

Three years later, at 82 Eridani, the Retaliation found a complex, spacefaring civilization spanning five planets, two species and uncountable inhabited asteroids and space stations. As the Retaliation moved insystem, it was attacked by craft very similar to those which had destroyed the colony on Charon, back in 2242. After the alien warships were destroyed, the Retaliation's scientists worked for a week, analyzing the wreckage and corpses. When they concluded that the inhabitants of 82 Eridani were one and the same with those who attacked Charon, the Retaliation acted according to protocol: first capturing a dozen prisoners of each species at the demand of the xenobiologists, and then systematically destroying the entirety of 82 Eridani's spacefaring capability. Every offworld habitat was reduced to dust; the five planets were bombarded with asteroids until a shroud of dust rose up for miles above the surface, plunging each into an ice age. Having satisfied its mission, the Retaliation moved onwards.


It should be noted here that, en route to its next destination, the Retaliation found a strange relationship between the two species of the 82 Eridani civilization. One species was dependent on the other, addicted to a chemical that only they could produce. The other species had grown equally addicted to the treasures and trinkets that they acquired through spacefaring conquest. Without them, both species grew wan and thin in captivity; several died. This, as with other matters of interest, was duly noted in the Retaliation's next dispatch to Earth.

At Sigma Draconis in 2257, the Chastisement found another alien colony, a small group of hydrogen-filled, balloon-like creatures on a small moon around a gas giant. Unlike the Retaliation, the Chastisement was not attacked on approach; though the floating aliens had a spacefaring civilization and warfaring capacity, they chose to send out envoys rather than missiles. The Chastisement lingered over the moon of Sigma Draconis II for a Terran month, attempting to communicate with and study the inhabitants. The floating aliens, they found, had an extremely nationalist culture, filling their attempts at communication with propaganda and prideful declarations - whenever that was possible with the limited lexicon of communication between the aliens and the Chastisement.

One month after the arrival of the Chastisement, they discovered that the aliens were of the same species that had attacked Charon; the aliens denied, in faltering attempts at communication, to know anything of Earth, interstellar warfare, or of humanity before the arrival of the Chastisement. The crew of the Chastisement, furious, pulled back to a safe distance, destroyed the entirety of the aliens' warfleet, and bombarded their moon into radioactive rubble. After figuratively spitting on the planetoid, the Chastisement continued on its planned course.

The aliens of Epsilon Eridani were addicted to herbs. The floaters of 82 Eridani were addicted to drugs, and their masters were addicted to treasure. The floaters of Sigma Draconis were addicted to nationalistic pride. But the most dangerous addiction of all was not found in the aliens that the ships of the Sol Defense League found, but in themselves. Humanity had grown addicted to hatred. It was an addiction that had destroyed entire civilizations in the past; and might yet destroy one more.