Chapter 00 - 1: Prologue Part 1

The year is now 3021 AD. The structure of the Terran race society is deceivingly simple. Two major corporations control the entire Terra System and all Terran ventures. Behind these two major corporations are the majority of the Terran population descended from a planet in a solar system in the Milky Way Galaxy called Earth. The two corporations are well known by their acronyms: GMTi and TRi. They together control more than several thousand space stations scattered along the galaxy, and control the largest military forces among the small alliances that it has formed with other races from different regions of space. Terran advancement in technology was accelerated by thousand fold when a small expedition leaving the Solar System found a traversable wormhole. Further expedition through the wormhole yielded communication with other races, mostly more advanced races which had been connected by travel gates.

These more advanced races were part of a group called the Arlt Alliance. After several months, the Arlt Alliance agreed to build a travel gate closer to Earth in order to facilitate trade between Terran and Alliance worlds. While the trade arrangements had been beneficial to Earth, the Alliance had declined to divulge any technology to Earth. This eventually resulted in Earth forming a phantom corporation to acquire technology from the black markets within the Arlt Alliance. This venture succeeded and led to the creation of several smaller corporations to continue research and development of such technologies.

However, all did not go well for Terrans as Earth eventually became far to dangerous to live on. A major move to new planets in the Terra system was made. This became known as the Terran Exodus of 2753AD. This sparked a major revolution as the entire multiple nation system of Earth crashed and each colony started its own small corporation to manage the colony and trade on behalf of the colony. As time passed, a few colonies merged their corporations into larger ones to form the GMTi. Not long after that, the TRi was formed. Eventually, these two corporations took over every other Terran colony. The only ones that remained independent were those who refused to work to their capabilites. These people joined rogue foundations started by the GMTi and TRi to fuel mercenary operations in the underground of the Arlt Alliance. The phantom corporation which handled this eventually became a superpower also, monopolising the information and communication networks of the Terrans.

This third corporation, however was small and had little power compared the two major ones. In 3020AD, it was agreed that it would also control the transportation networks between Terran worlds. GMTi and TRi has acquired technology to build travel gates in order to speed up the advancement of all Terrans. This corporation would come to be known as the Terran Meganetwork Corporation. The corporation had been given more responsibilities over the past decade, as tension has risen around the GMTi and TRi.

Most employees of the two corporations are already preparing for an onslaught as conflicts over trade territory rise as the number of contracts with worlds within the Arlt Alliance and other worlds discovered during exploration diminish. Uncertainty and doubt rule the colonies, but one thing is certain - dark times are coming.

- to be continued -

Chapter 0-00: Prophecy Part 1

"As the gods fight in the sky, the rain of fire and ice will begin - and the end of the war will follow. Some people will survive, and some will die. For most, these gods will never be known to be gods, but more as mortals that will eventually fade away. Yet, these great ones will have enough power to end the universe - although they will never use that power. However, their war will spread - and no other than this planet on which this stone sits - will the destructive rain fall from the sky. The winner is already known, it is none other than one whose strength is the embodiment of all the races within the future alliance of beings - and it is this united strength together with the one known as the gatekeeper which will triumph."

Chapter 1- 03: Time to Go

The truth behind everything hadn't changed. I was still a lowly engineer working on a high class project and stumbled on to some gold mine. However, from what I had gathered, the TRI already had such technology around 3 years ago. I've seen the effect of the devices. A missile suddenly appears out of nowhere, roughly 10 kilometres away from its target - making it nearly impossible to miss. I decided to replicate the method using the teleportation technology we were working on, except that it didn't work as well. About 60% of the time, the weapon detonated as soon as it was reconstructed, giving it little time to function correctly. I eventually converted the weapon into something that latched onto the target, allowing it to detonate immediately. The problem of stealth still became a problem. That was the only huge discovery I made, and it was more of plagarism rather than an original. After that, the GMTi promoted me to this position, I suppose with the hopeful thinking that I would capable of making the technology viable for transport. I had been researching subspace and hyperspace for years, hoping that there would be some guideline for me to use to form this new ship. It was already time to go. I decided that walking would be safer, since the station would come under attack any time now.

I decided to grab Kamal and Jill along for the ride. The ship I intended to steal needs a few crew members anyway.

Chapter 1 - 02: Something New

Nothing changed today. Absolutely nothing. All of our calculations led to null. We knew we were going nowhere. Time was running short - if we didn't complete at least a theory of such an engine, we would be transferred to another project. We all wanted to do it, but it just wouldn't work. We all went home with exhaustion. My room was dark. The moment I walked into it, it lit up. The console in my room was flashing and dutifully informed me that I had a new message. I wondered who the message was from. It could be from the upper ranks, maybe to remind us of our deadline, could also be Kamal inviting me out for some tennis in the games room. I decided it could wait - maybe a shower would be good to freshen up first. In less than several seconds, my screen started flashing a different colour - another message had come. It had to be important if I had two messages. I decided to grab my remote control device and play them. They were both from an unknown address - it only had one familiar-looking section - Takamatsu-Ran Industries in the 'from' tag.

I played the first one. It said that there was a pirate headhunt for me. It said that I was being hunted for creating the most dangerous device yet - a high speed weapons transporter. I was shocked to find such reports attached to the message. The next message was stated that a worker from the Raumfalte network would come to help me leave the station before it was attacked for the bounty - me.

The reports look fabricated, but verifying it with the release signature I had illegally obtained decades ago - I was convinced they were real. Things sounded like they were going to change really quickly.

Chapter 1 - 01: Another Day at Work

"All employees are reminded to go for regular health checks every week. Please keep in mind that your safety is our priority," the speakers on the rail transport system bleared into our ears.We heard those words at least once a week while in this facility. "Don't they ever get sick of using that dang message?" one of the workers complained. The rest of them nodded, and told him that they changed it every year. Last year, it was drumming into their ears the importance of using a protective suit. A voice came from behind. It was Kamal. "Alten, why do we even bother taking this train around the space station?" I replied, "Apparently, it supposed to be the most cost-efficient. Teleportation is apparently too expensive." We all knew where we were headed: the transport labs. We were actually a team put together to study a new way of transport. A more logical way of teleportation was found when zero point energy became practical, but it still required massive amounts of power to generate the molecular pattern as well as quantum pattern for a person. It worked now, but only one person could be transported at a time, and after that the machine would need to be charged for roughly one hour. We were supposed to build a system to compete with Takamatsu-Ran's system. Takamatsu-Ran intended to make a new leap in motion engines, apparently enough to surpass the 'hyperspace drive' engines from the Kanrians. The 'hyperspace drive' engines were merely engines capable of moving roughly 200 megametres per second, or one third of light speed. Of course, these would do for simple travel to wormholes and other planets we inhabit within the Milky Way Galaxy. According to industrial spies within Takamatsu-Ran's labs, the current person in command of operations ordered that an engine capable of travelling several lightyears per second be created. All scientists have long pondered how to build such an impossibility, and so have we. We were now calculating the possibility of using a long considered fictional method of hyperspace travel. We had been doing this since we were assigned to GMT Station 2G9I. Others in the facility were assigned to simpler duties, we thought, such as researching new alloys and construction methods, as we were assigned to do something that might not be possible in our universe to begin with. Our dependency on wormholes has increased tremendously over the past few years, causing TRI and GMTi to form a company to manage this wormholes - the Raumfalte Network. "You there?" Jill called out to me. We had already reached the station - we alighted from the train to meet the door on the other side of the corridor. It had projected on it: Theoretical Physics. Another day of work has begun.