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The original was posted on /r/hfy by /u/Moravian_descendant on 2024-12-25 23:22:35+00:00.

First part

“I am Kristina Biela pleased to make your acquaintance,” She said with almost childlike excitement, which took Voorhas aback, but it was certainly a welcomed change as the room suddenly looked brighter.

“I am Captain Voorhas of Ulurian hegemony, the pleasure mutual.” Voorhas slightly grinned as he perceived that it was a friendly gesture, but still tried to not show too much of his fangs. “So… you are a specialist in Human history?”

“Not only human, but I am also interested in xenohistory which is the history of foreign things. In modern days it means other species like you, so once you are comfortable sharing something about your civilisation I would be excited to hear it.” Kristina spoke with quite the excitement which resulted in strain on the translator. “Also I saw that Séthanta barely offered you anything. I already got the info from your crew about your dietary standards so I brought you some steak with baked potatoes with spices that should not contain thiosulfates or other toxic substances. Also, I am sorry but we do not know your reactions to caffeine so I cannot offer you anything but water.”

“T-thank you, that is… extremely kind of you, but excuse my rudeness, could you perhaps answer a personal question while I eat?” His tone sounded ashamed and he awaited a possible backlash for rudeness, but it did not come. On the contrary, Kristina radiated with jolly.

“By all means, ask away.”

“So are you from a different culture than Séthanta, you have a different accent, or is it because you are a female?”

“Oh yes, I am not from Celtic Union like he is. I do not know to what extent Séthanta explained how our government works, but I will gladly explain.”

“I know that you are divided into areas according to your places of origin of your culture groups and I was told that not all are represented because there was some event called The Great Diaspora. Also, he explained that your government works like our Galactic council, but only for your species.” Responded Voorhas between bites of the food.

“Great, he made my job easier then. Well I come from the western Slavic Union, so we are from different backgrounds, cultures and our languages are completely different. But here on Terra, humanity as we call our species, is the closest to being as united as possible. Terra is a neutral ground and it no longer has political borders, only cultural.” After this sentence, her smile broke into a grim expression briefly as she muttered something under her breath from which the translator only caught “Extinction of planet.”

“Extinction of Planet?!” Voorhases fur suddenly bristled.

“The translator caught that?!” Kristina was startled. “Well, I guess I will start explanation of our history at the worst time of human history.” She sighed. “Before I start, you need to know that this year is 2898 of the current Era, Latins will say ‘of lords age’ but I will not burden you with religions of humanity.”

“So at the end of the 21st century apparently in the year 2084 an alien ship crashlanded in the area that was then known as the Western Carpathian mountain range, nobody knows how it was not detected by anyone, but the theory is that its cloaking device worked until it crashed. It happened in an age where there was extreme world tension and every superpower of Terra wanted to get something for themselves and everyone expected that there would be a Third World War, which would result in Nuclear war and annihilation of …” She was suddenly interrupted.

“You had three world wars and nuclear weapon?!” Voorhas almost yelled which startled Kristina to the bone for a bit. “Oh I deeply apologise, please do not take it as hostility. Please.”

“N-no problem, it is understandable.” She still spoke shakily but recovered after a minute. “And they had a lot of them each superpower had from 30 to 5000 warheads.” Voorhas did his best to not interrupt from shock again, but he was still visibly shaken by the thought. “Well, the war was close and the area where the ship landed was a tripoint between West Slavic states known as Polska, Česko and Slovensko. It also happened to be the countries that would be in the middle of the war if it started the three states then had split opinions and had failed to negotiate at first, but the fear of destruction by other nations was too great and the countries decided that instead of preparing for an incoming war they will try to reverse engineer the ship, as they found a universal translator in the ship and discovered that it was a terraforming ship that was hit by a meteor and the crew did not survive because they suffocated in our atmosphere.”

“Interesting and considering you are from Western Slavic Union I assume they succeeded” Voorhas smiled.

“Indeed they did, but it was not easy and without problems, they had to do it in complete secrecy which was extremely costly and almost destroyed the nations economically and drained their resources, which were covered as costs of preparing for the incoming war. Then they had to get colonists in a program disguised as a Program for cultural and intellectual safekeepers in case of apocalypse. It was later discovered what it really was, but then it was too late and the ships were ready. It was ready by 2092 it took 8 years, which is extremely fast and to this day we cannot comprehend how they did it. The mission was successful and the ship landed on Mars, which is the planet we are orbiting right now.” Kristina smiled

“So this is your first colony?”

“It gets more complicated, but in theory yes, this was the first planet terraformed by humanity.”

“What happened after that, did the world war happen and your species almost died out?” Voorhas was now invested in the story.

Sadly yes, the war happened, but nuclear war was mostly prevented. West Slavic Oddysey as the colonists named themselves had time to establish themselves to a sufficient enough level to be able to stop the nuclear war, it was only 12 years and the colony risked a lot by it, but they decided they had obligation to help humanity not destroy itself. We call them ‘The Brave 5000’ They shot down and disabled most of the missiles, but 30 missiles still hit their targets.

“This was still catastrophic and it destabilised many regions, but thanks to the terraformation technology nuclear autumn was averted. Unfortunately, The Oddysey could not do much for many years as it had its own challenges to take care of. But they inspired many and were a beacon of hope for the human race. It was a miracle in catastrophe. Many nations were reshaped in the face of the Apocalypse. It is also the reason why the cultural unions exist, many mimicked the West Slavic people. Many nations saw that with unity and heart at the right place, our greatest weakness could become our foremost strength.”

“What was it, the great weakness?” Asked Voorhas.

“Differences, Historical hate of each other and many other problems. It is painful to speak about it, but the truth is, that humans are a very flawed species. There is an ancient quote that is above the Politheia senate’s entrance: Igni probatur aurum, virtus miseria, which means Gold is tested by fire, bravery by misfortune.”

“Interesting, so what happened next if my calculations are correct we are in about the year 2104. That is still more than 700 years and you said there was some kind of extinction.” Voorhas inquired some more.

“Alright, I guess I delved too deep into philosophy anyways, straight to the point then.” She smiled and poured herself some water. “So after about 20 years situation on Terra stabilised and many nations joined the West Slavic Union on Mars, which became a diplomatic hub of humans. Then in the year 2182 we first encountered aliens, they called themselves the Council of Attia which is the area around what we call the Centaurus constellation. They were friendly at first, but after 8 years they stopped communicating with us. 10 years later in 2200 CE, they invaded us with the full military force of their alliance. We stood no chance and all life in this system was annihilated. Later we discovered we were deemed deathworlders and that we were crime against life itself.” Kristina’s face was wrinkled, her mouth curled and her head lowered which Voorhas recognised as some kind of sadness.

“I am deeply sorry if I pushed you too hard” He tried to sound as sincere and regretful as possible for his species.

“No… it’s… it fine, I am just what we call overly empathetic, so I tend to feel emotions and pain for other people. And yes it is possible, but it’s not physical pain, just mental. Just give me a minute.”

“Take all the time you need, I am grateful for all the information already.”

Some time passed and Kristina got back to normal and continued telling the story of Terran history.

“Well we survived only because many have embarked on the great colonisation in the year 2196, some other colony ships managed to escape before the Council of Attia destroyed us. They failed to detect them luckily. But most of our species and history was erased from existence.” Kristina sighed. "And then after 20 years the colonists that have returned to make contact with their home only to find it devoid of life, the Armies of Attia did not even colonize nor destroy any planets, they just killed all sapient life and left a single message with a map.

"This syst…

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