salansar:

Search for Humanity

Humanity. One of the biggest enigmas in our history. They disappeared into the memory of time leaving a giant hole where they once stood.

Their home world was lost in time that followed the great frenzy. A weaponized form of rabies virus created by the Rash’lic, an ancient enemy of the humans, was released into their biome. It was spread harmlessly by the humans through physical contact. When the virus was finally activated it drove the humans to a frothing, raging madness until their brains cooked in their skulls.

The council worlds, who had large populations of humans, were thrown into turmoil by the outbreak. It took only 10 years for the disease to sunder the majority of humanity. The council, now dealing with a crumbling supply chain and economy, turned their back on humanity to devote their resources to things they could salvage. In the following century humanity became a distant memory swept under the rug by peoples who wanted to forget their shame. Over the next 5 centuries humanity is almost reduced to myth… Until now.

I am writing this report from orbit around Sol 3. It took many years of searching dead ships and buried colonies to find the chart back to Earth.

When we arrived in orbit the planet had been almost completely reclaimed by nature. The once great human cities had crumbled to the ground leaving only a few steel skeletons dotting and eroding concrete paths marking the landscape. During our scans of the surface we found small energy signatures from old fission powered systems that had not burned out yet. Once we checked the atmosphere and got the green light we took a shuttle to the surface.

I must admit I was more excited about the expedition then I let on. To be the first sentient life on the home world of one of the most diverse species in the old council! I could barely control myself.

When set out to land on the continent of North America in the ruin of New York. After touchdown we immediately set up a defensive perimeter around the ship to protect from the legendary fauna of this planet.

We had been on the surface for a couple of Earth days before we realized we were not alone. After a group of us went to check one of the power signatures we came into a man made cave (I think they were called subways) when we were trapped. Both ends of the tunnel collapsed around our group. We began to panic when we heard a voice telling us to be silent. The part that grabbed my attention is it was said in the council tongue! Then my heart sank because I assumed pirates or slavers had set up camp here.

That was when the most extraordinary thing happened. A hatch opened above us and there was a human looking down at us! A human!!! I assumed I must have been hallucinating until the human female said again for us to be quiet.

We eventually complied. She asked what we were doing on their planet. One of the expedition members explained we were there looking for remanence of them. She responded crossly, “Why? The council already abandoned us when we needed them. What makes you think we want you here?”

I was deeply hurt by this remark. I had spent my entire life learning of the injustice done to humanity. Most of us here had. I tried to explain this but the woman just shook her head and dropped a rope down to us and walked away. Once we had climbed out of the tunnel we were escorted by the woman and three other humans to their settlement.

The humans were wearing garments that appeared to be hand made from old synthetic material and newer natural material. Their weapons however were outdated but fully functional gause rifles. They all seemed to be in good health despite their rugged appearance and two of the men were cleanly shaved.

When we reached the settlement we were told that it was a Doomsday shelter built when Humanity first went to war with the Rash’lic. The facility housed both cryogenicly frozen people and cloning technology in the case of an event such as the great frenzy. The system had been set up to keep these people in stasis until it seemed that humanity was no longer under threat then it would reanimate those frozen cryogenicly then they could complete the cloning process for all the others and be able to educate and raise the children.

That event took place 200 years ago and the humans had converted the facility into a small town. They had people farming and starting domesticating new livestock as well as hunters and foragers out collecting food and supplies.

When we were brought to their leader he explained that there were a few hundred of these facilities that were operational around the world with a total population of just over 2 million people.

When I asked if there was anything he needed he just smiled and said, “No, we survived our extinction without your help. We will retake our world without your help. Then when we are ready to claim the stars we will do it without your help.

“You are free to observe our progress but do not interfere. Humanity has a very large chip on its shoulder and we show the council what it has lost. We have already recovered from extinction once. Keep that in mind”

After this we were escorted back to our ship. We left the planet and then orbit soon after. Once we reported our findings fear spread across council space. There are still written records of what happened to the races who crossed humanity. The last thing the council needed was to get any more on the bad side of a race that seems to be impossible to exterminate. They decided to monitor humanity from a distance until further notice.