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[color=#cad1d2]Ｃ[/color][color=#b6b0ab]ｈ[/color][color=#9a9a91]ａ[/color][color=#a7a7a7]ｐ[/color][color=#b8b8b8]ｔ[/color][color=#eaeaea]ｅ[/color][color=#cad1d2]ｒ[/color] [color=#9a9a91]Ｔ[/color][color=#808980]ｗ[/color][color=#949494]ｏ[/color] 
[color=#cad1d2]Ｆ[/color][color=#b6b0ab]ｉ[/color][color=#9a9a91]ｒ[/color][color=#a7a7a7]ｓ[/color][color=#b8b8b8]ｔ[/color] [color=#cad1d2]ｃ[/color][color=#c0c1bf]ｏ[/color][color=#b6b0ab]ｎ[/color][color=#9a9a91]ｔ[/color][color=#808980]ａ[/color][color=#949494]ｃ[/color][color=#c3c3c3]ｔ[/color] 


[sub]We are [i]most definitely [/i]not alone.[/sub]

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[center][img]http://i.imgur.com/qeIg3wU.png[/img][/center]

It had been a few years since I first entered service now - the Earthly year was 2200 when I entered service as the advisor and assistant, and now it was 2202. Much had changed in these two years. Some might even be brazen enough to say that these two last years had provided us with more insights than the last 2200. They would not be wholly incorrect. 

However, there was also much we had yet to learn about Earth. It was about 8AM when the Chancellor called me into his office, wishing to speak about urgent matters. Obedient as ever, and blind to what I was about to be told, I entered that room. “Sit down,” Chancellor Gorney told me, as he beckoned towards the chair I usually sat in. Obediently, I obliged, and sat down. “We need to speak about.. something relating to Earth. Since day one, you have been heavily involved with our spacefaring projects, and I commend you for it, but it is time we combine Earthly matters and galactic matters.”

“Some scientists have argued that.. well, that Earth is on it's last legs. Not us, humans. We're fine. But Earth itself is dying, the planet is.. slowly decaying. For some time I have ignored them, but as of late the charts show that they have been right - and we need to do research. They will inform you about the rest of this all, but I just want you to know that.. well, the fate of Earth depends on this.”

Well, that was something I had definitely [i]not[/i] wanted to hear. When did I become 'Commander Shepard?' This videogame that was ancient by now spoke of a hero that could save Earth, no, not even just Earth, [i]the galaxy.[/i] But I wasn't so sure I could do it this time. It was bad enough when I left the room, but when I saw the star-charts that the scientists gave me with locations for planets we had to research, I just about gave up. They were far apart. I disregarded it all and just ordered the scientists to 'slowly explore their way to these sectors and survey anything in their path.' It had worked so far - it would have to work again.

By now, we had received the reports on [b]Alpha Centauri.[/b] A nearby system with presumed habitable planets. When we arrived and surveyed, it seemed that the reports were correct - the planet was habitable. Immediately the plans for a colony ship were put in motion - gargantuan sized ships, that could house a few hundred thousand if not millions of people, in order to colonize a new planet. 

[center][img]http://i.imgur.com/blyyhqz.png[/img][/center]

And to top it off, we also received new reports from an expedition we had sent into some discovered remnants of a First League precursor cruiser. Little of use was found - we had hoped for.. valuable technology to reverse engineer, but it seemed like the ship had gone into battle. This was valuable intelligence in and of it's own - we immediately began researching new ways to arm our own fleet, as seemingly warfare was a threat even in the vacuum of space. 

Besides this knowledge, we also found a Manifest of the ship, detailing who was on it and who they were. Seemingly, the First League cruiser contained... many different people - not humans, but.. different. They were long dead, but the logs showed that they were definitely from different species. Some type of alliance, perhaps, or a world where different species could cohabit and cooperate? What a goal to strive for! The Chancellor was less impressed, and had asked them about the minerals these species mined. There was no definitive answer. 

[center][img]http://i.imgur.com/GqfNUX5.png[/img][/center]

Not much more than a year later, we received a distressing call from a system not too far away - Ozzagamum system. They reported seeing 'strange cystal like entities' and were ordered to return to a friendly system at once when they reported that 'the crystal seems to be shooting shards at us.' If these crystals were anything like the Tiyanka, we would have to investigate them first, so that is what we did following the discovery of these things. An investigation was launched soon, and the reports were promising, but also indicated it would be some time before we'd receive results.

[center][hider=Crystals][img]http://i.imgur.com/tBJ9tj0.png[/img][/hider]

[img]http://i.imgur.com/SARiLeF.png[/img][/center]

As the research on these new entities progressed, yet another distress call came in from a system on the other side of Earth, namely Jabeth system. There were eerie reports of 'a wormhole suddenly opening' and 'ships coming through.' Before the order to retreat to a friendly system was given, the ship then reported that the ship had come through the wormhole, clearly spotted them, but continued on it's way to survey the system, just like the science ship of the United Nations of Earth had been doing.

Attempts to hail the ships on the comms system went ignored, and in one attempt, were returned with a garbling mess of what we presume to be a language of some sort. I shook my head when I read this report, and wondered just what the hell was going on - space whales, space crystals, and now wormholes opening at will and summoning ships that do not answer our communication with anything other than angry gorbl's and garbl's. Thinking back, perhaps it had been foolish to assume that all aliens spoke the Queens' English, but what else was I going to think?

Never the less, the science ship continued surveying the system, this time with a new found wariness for the other ship. No incidents were reported, not even as the ships flew by each other more than once.

[center][img]http://i.imgur.com/gOTXsxs.png[/img][/center]

Although one would come to expect a large amount of new information and events to occur upon traveling to space, one would not imagine they would occur this frequently. New reports came in, this time of [i]sentient life on another planet.[/i] Due to the reports of the space faring entities in the Jabeth system not yet being completed, this was the first [i]public[/i] knowledge of sentient life on other planets and, as a result, caused a surge in the biological and sociological fields. Sadly for these people, the sentients we found were not quite as advanced as we were, and were merely primitives. Still, it was a large gain for science.

The species, which appears to be related to some sort of snake, was described as 'nomadic,' traveling from place to place even in communities. They were also said to be extraordinarily strong, some lifting rocks with great ease. They lived primarily in the desert or arid areas, as was evident from their 'choice of planet'. Years of evolution must have done that. For a moment we considered taking the planet for ourselves, seeing as it was able to sustain life, but a quick survey provided us with the information that we could not expect humans to live here unless we terraformed the planet - which was out of our scope at this point.

I also asked myself the question as to whether we should uplift them or not. Surely they would benefit from having us swoop in and teach them science, rocketry, weaponry, and greater things? The idea was discarded by the Chancellor, who said it was too costly, and that we could not expect them to be friendly to us. Still, the idea lingers. One day we will try it - and we will succeed. 

[center][img]http://i.imgur.com/Bqopizb.png[/img]

[hider=Vun-Okon Species and their planet][img]http://i.imgur.com/UqRvFEQ.png[/img][/hider][/center]

There is much more to discuss, my dear journal - but I am afraid that duty calls. Tomorrow I will spell out the secrets of our discoveries for you even further - I will talk of our first contact, [i]Project Atlas[/i], and the fabled [i]Ceramic Pot Project[/i]. 

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[sub]The post was getting too long, and I have a lot more material to cover for the first ten years. The rest will come tomorrow - please enjoy![/sub]