Standing Divided: Prologue
Prologue
The year is 2956. It has been over twenty years since the end of the Galactic War, a long and bloody conflict that ravaged the known galaxy for over a hundred years and cost the lives of countless trillions. It was the hope of the known galaxy that after fighting a war this large and for this long that the three remaining nations would experience a time of peace, sadly this was not the case. After the conflict, the United Systems, the Kreeban Confederacy, and the Fowlot Empire had all but tripled in size. With their new worlds came new people and with these new people came new cultures. To avoid becoming corrupted by the new cultures each nation took steps to ensure that their newly accrued worlds wouldn't drastically change their way of life, for better or worse.
The Kreebans solution was simple though unpleasant. A warrior nation made up mostly of large reptiles with thick shells and hard bones, the Kreebans used most of their new conquests for target practice, namely those that disagreed with them. Any that refused to fallow the laws of Sher'kenth was forced to work until they either repented or died of exhaustion. This action was less meant to force their new worlds to repent and more to lure them into a fight. As they hoped a large number of their newly acquired worlds started to rebel and the great battle began again. The poorly armed rebels were not as much of a challenge as ether the U.N.S. or the Empire but it at least gave the Kreeban warriors something to do.
The Fowlot Empire was lest pleasant with their solution. The most sadistic and vile of the three nations the Empire enslaved all of their new worlds. Those that resisted died a public and painful death if they were lucky enough not to become a personal servant of an imperial noble. Although this has pacified a large number of worlds the nobles suddenly found themselves to be out numbed by their slaves. Eventually, the slaves realized this and soon slave rebellions became commonplace in the Empire. The Empire was quick to exterminate these rebels with military force and public executions but this only seemed to anger their slaves even further.
But out of all the three nations, the United Systems was significantly less successful in preventing the corruption of their culture though they were nobler with their actions than the other two nations. Being a democracy there was always a risk of the people voting their freedoms away, even more so if a newly acquired world that knew nothing of their culture was allowed to run for office or vote. So to prevent this the locals of all newly acquired worlds were not allowed to vote or run for at least forty years, even for political positions on their own world. However, after the war, the U.N.S. had tripled in size and as a result, over a third of their populous was no longer allowed to vote. This sparked a huge controversy within the U.N.S. as people began to demand that the restrictions on these worlds be lifted. There was some strong opposition from political leaders but as time passed proponents of the restrictions were removed and ones in favor of removing them were put in. Eventually, the restrictions were removed but at a much greater cost than what even the proponents of the restrictions realized. As older, more experienced politicians were removed from office they were replaced by people who took advantage of the people's good nature so they could gain wealth and power. Some didn't even have any political experience but were voted in any way because of their fame. To make matters even worse the people of the U.N.S. had forgotten that they did just fight a war against the concurred nations and for good reason. Now, with the restrictions removed, the monsters that their fathers and grandfathers had fought so hard to remove from power were now in their senate.
It wasn't until the year 2955 when the people of the galaxy realized just how bad things really were. On the Fowlot capital of Eborus, the entire nobility was massacred during the celebration of one of their more sadistic holidays. As the Fowlot nobles drank until they could barely stand, tortured and raped their slaves to the point of death, among other unpleasant activities, a group of Dark Warriors from the Disciples of Ravar stormed into the main hall where the Fowlot were celebrating and killed every living thing in the room.
The Disciples are a group of dark mages that were once allies of the Fowlot nobility and was often used as a counter to the U.N.S.'s light mage allies, the Star Brotherhood. However the Fowlot and the Disciples often times butted head with one another. Before the start of the Galactic War, the Fowlot was quite eager to end the growing power of the United Systems however the Demos of the Disciples of Ravar was insistent that they wait before starting a war. When war finally did break out the Fowlot built several planet killing weapons to help fight the U.N.S. more effectively witch the disciples strongly disapproved of to the point to where they leaked the information on how to destroy these weapons to the U.N.S. Near the end of the war the Fowlot decided to turn on the Disciples, driving them off of their homeworld and later joining the U.N.S. in fighting the last of the Disciples allies.
For their revenge, the Disciples murdered the entire nobility but not before waiting until their nation was nice and unstable. With the leadership gone and slave rebellions running rampant, some of which they started, the Empire descended into chaos as rebels and generals fought to fill the power vacuum.
With the Fowlot Empire in shambles, the Kreeban Confederacy turned their sights on taking their territory. However, there were a few clans within the Confederacy that were afraid that invading the Empire would anger the U.N.S. possibly to the point of war. The argument of rather or not if they should invade the remanence of the Empire and risk war with the U.N.S. became so heated that the Kreeban Clans decided to settle the argument the best way they knew how by declaring war on each other.
Now with the Fowlot and the Kreebans tearing each other apart, refugees started pouring into the U.N.S. mostly settling on New Eden and Tyus. Tyrus, famous for being one of the most overpopulated systems in the known galaxy, was not happy with the new arrivals. They demanded that the U.N.S. government move them someplace else, as they were overcrowded enough as it was, but all they did was demonize the Tyrusiens for wanting them gone, again taking advantage of the people's good nature by making themselves look like the heroes. As the Tyrusiens became more and more alienated from the rest of the United Systems, they unsurprisingly began demanding independence, which again the government demonized them for. Meanwhile, other worlds that were receiving refugees were starting to feel the strain of having so many different races piling in on their worlds as well. Earth only had a few places they could put their refugees and they were barren wastelands. Also, due to the fact that not all of Earth was part of the U.N.S. the other nations that lived on Earth saw this as a U.N.S. invasion. The Governor of Earth, Gerard Leonard, asked the U.N.S. if they could send the refugees to space colonies where they could change the atmosphere to suit the diverse alien races they were receiving. Instead, the U.N.S. government claimed that Gerard was a racist for wanting to, "Kick the aliens off his world." This was a mistake.
Gerard was still widely regarded as a hero to the people of the known galaxy, not only for bringing victory to the United Systems during a war that they were losing since the start but also for bring the Confederacy and the Empire, two nations that not only hated the U.N.S. but each other as well, to their side. It was because of him that the Disciples were no longer considered a superpower, let alone a nation, and it was him who defeated the most powerful dark mage in the known galaxy, Demos Hoth. After the U.N.S. government started demonizing him over half of the U.N.S. populace turned on them, calling them hypocrites and traitors. Never before has the U.N.S. been so divided. The government did their best to keep the division from growing out of control but things would only get worse before they got better.
Finally, after mouths and mouths of refugees from multiple different worlds settling in on the overpopulated world of Tyrus, the Tyrusiens had finally had enough. After their repeated demands to remove the refugees had gone unanswered the Tyrusiens decided to take matters into their own hands by hunting down and eating any Non-Tyrusien they could find. Afterward, Governor Rogeth of Tyrus ordered the Tyrusien defense fleet to blockade their system ensuring that no more non-Tyrusiens came to their world.
The next demand the Tyrusiens sent to the U.N.S. government was to be allowed to separate from the union while keeping the lands that they currently occupied, which spanned over twenty U.N.S. controlled star systems. In response, the U.N.S. sent the southern fleet to Tyrus to try to prevent the system from leaving, however, once they arrived they were greeted by a large number of Tyrusine starships, far more than what Tyrus was supposed to have. Upon further investigation, it was discovered that the Tyrusiens had reactivated shipyards that had been dormant since the Tyrus and Earth War and was now producing starships at an alarming rate.
After seeing that the Tyrusiens were more than willing to fight to keep the U.N.S. off of their worlds, and not wanting to spark the largest rebellion their nation had ever seen, the decision was made to move the Southern Fleet to New Eden. New Eden is a military-focused world so they could maintain their ships and personnel their while they tried to decide what to do about Tyrus, and it wasn't all that far from the Ryus system so the U.N.S. could keep a close eye on the Tyrusien fleet. However, due to the Tyrus and Earth War, New Eden was mostly inhabited by Tyrusiens, Tyrusiens that weren't too happy to see a large U.N.S. fleet that was ordered to take their homeworld floating above their heads.
In an attempt to end tensions between the Tyrusiens and the United Systems, the Star Brotherhood sent their knights, the Star Warriors, to try to peacefully end the conflict. However, this hasn't proven to be easy as the people of the U.N.S. has started to blame them for all the problems they have had during and after the Galactic War, claiming that the Disciples or Ravar wouldn't have attacked them if they weren't trying to get to them. Still, the Star Brotherhood knew that an unstable U.N.S. could lead to further suffering of its people and was willing to risk their lives, and reputation, to protect them.
***
Gomoo was in temple's meditation chamber along with his master Neloros. The young and slender Hybrid sat cross-legged opposite of his aging master as he tried to focus on a bottle filled with water that sat just a few feet away from him. Tapping into his spirit's power he slowly lifted the cap from the bottle then gently levitated the cool water into the air and gracefully orbited the droplets around his body.
Gomoo is part Altide and part human, taking up most of his looks from his Altide mother. He had smooth white skin, suitable for swimming underwater with ease and resisting the cold of the depths, golden blond hair that was often times fluffed up around his brow from the amount of running and jumping he did during training, ocean blue, probably the only part of his father that he took, long pointed ears with black tips, a rounded dolphin like muzzle, and a long thin tail with a fluffy tuff of blond hair on the tip.
Gomoo was nineteen years old and was nearing the end of his training to become a Star Warrior. He had been a monk ever since he was thirteen and was quite eager for the day when he would become a knight. Becoming a knight wasn't easy as only a handful of monks were ever knighted per year out of over ten thousand. Most Monks are never knighted such as his father who trained alongside the star brotherhood until he was in his early twenties before leaving to join the military. It was Gomoo's hope that by becoming a Star Warrior himself he would finally gain the attention and respect of his father. So far he had been passed over twice. The first time he was heartbroken and almost wanted to quit but his master was able to encourage him to stay and try harder next time. The second time the brotherhood council actually took notice of him and stated that his power was on par with some of their younger knights but feared that he didn't quite understand what it meant to be a Star Warrior. Today Gomoo was quite hopeful as the Brotherhood was about to announce who was to be knighted this year. Today's meditation was more meant to calm his nerves than to hone his skills. It did little to help the excited teen.
As Gomoo focused on controlling the water around his ears twitched at the sound of snoring. Putting the water back into its bottle, Gomoo opened his eyes and glanced up at his master. Neloros was in the same posture he was but his head had drooped down into his chest. The Sailon was quite old, over a hundred years of age. The thick hair around his scaly reptilian skin had turned all but pure white, he had very visible wrinkles on his long, lion-like muzzle, and his once large antlers were starting to crumble and shrink.
Gomoo let out a soft sigh after seeing his master dose off in front of him, remembering how Neloros used to get onto him for dozing off during their meditation session, sometimes even pushing his slouching body over with his cane until he fell onto his back to wake him up. Gomoo had often had thoughts of doing this to his master as a way to get back at him after all these years but decided against it as did have an excuse for dozing off.
Gomoo lightly placed his hand on one of his master's bird-like legs making him jump a little. Neloros' gray eyes jerked open and he glanced around the room. "Huh!" he said with a light grunt. After focusing his eyes on the white blur before him he started to remember where he was. "Oh," he said striating himself out, "Sorry, Brother Leonard, I must have dozed off." He then let out a long yawn.
"Are you alright, Master?" Gomoo said with a worried tone.
Neloros roiled his shoulders until the let out a loud pop. "I'm fine," he replied with a grunt after feeling his bones crack, "Just something else you have to look forward to when you reach my age."
Gomoo let out a soft sigh as he watched his master readjust himself on his mat. He was about to go back to meditation when he heard the sound of someone entering the room. Looking behind him he noticed a messenger droid floating up to him.
"Excuse me, sir," it said in its overly cheerful, robotic voice. One thing Gomoo couldn't stand about modern droids was how cheerful people tried to make them, "I have a very important message for a Go-moo Leonard. Is he present at this location?"
Gomoo groaned when it spoke his name, or at least tried to. "It's pronounced Go-moe," he said with a slight sneer on his lips. Neloros couldn't help but chuckle at this. "And yes I'm him."
"The following message is text only for privacy and legal reasons," said the droid as it started to print out a strip of paper. After Gomoo took the note the droid responded with, "Your delivery has been prepaid. Have a pleasant day, Go-moo."
As it floated off Gomoo let out another, even louder groan. Neloros covered his mouth to hide his laughter but failed miserably. Gomoo glared at him, "I'm glad you find this funny."
"A wise man once said that God has a sick and twisted sense of humor," Neloros replied with a smile, "it just so happens that the joke he played on you was making the Altide word for golden son translate out to the sound Earth livestock makes." Neloros couldn't help but laff as he said this, "So disciple, care to share what you just received?"
Gomoo sighed as he looked down at his letter, trying his best to ignore the elder. However, as he read the not his eyes started to light up and a large smile appeared on his lip. "I'm on the list!" he told his master with an excited look on his face.
"Hmm, twice in a row, not bad," said Neloros as he stroked his long beard.
"W-what does this mean for me?" Gomoo asked Neloros as he tried to contain his excitement, "How likely is it for me to be knighted?"
"About the same as everyone else I'm afraid," Neloros replied, "I think I was...twentey three...maybe twenty-four years old when I was finally knighted. Long after my master felt that he had nothing left to teach me that I couldn't learn on my own." Neloros looked up at his disciple and noticed that his ears were starting to droop. "A chance is still a chance, disciple," Neloros told him in an attempt to calm him.
This didn't seem to help much as something else appeared to be on Gomoo's mind. "Master, how close are you to being finished with me?"
Neloros arched his brow after hearing this, "What do you mean?"
"You keep saying that I'm your best student," Gomoo replied, "and that soon you would run out of things to teach me. What will become of me when that time comes and I'm not knighted?"
Neloro sighed before answering his student, "That's up to you, Brother Leonard. As a monk, there are still many things you can do within the Brotherhood. I served under another knight for a while before I was knighted myself. I still got to see the galaxy, and I had quite a few adventures, I just didn't have the rank or, the prestige that a Star Warrior had."
"Do you think I will be knighted, Master?" said Gomoo.
Again Neloros stroked his beard as he tried to think of a proper response. "If you are asking if I have confidence in you or if I feel that you have what it takes for you to be a knight, then yes. However, it is not for me to decide. There are hundreds of monks on that list and only a handful are chosen. When the choice is made, regardless of if you are chosen or not, respect their decision s any honorable man would."
Gomoo sighed before bowing his head before his teacher, placing his hands and brow to the floor. "Thank you for everything master. I will remember what you taught me and...I will miss you when it is time for me to go."
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