In the early 21st century, humanity was given the answer to one of its longest held questions: Are we Alone in the Universe?
A runaway experiment at a university in northern Florida resulted in a sundering of reality, tearing open portals in the fabric of space itself. They looked like mirrors, floating in the air and oddly serene in appearance.
They spread across the surface of the planet, connecting Earth and humanity with other worlds across the galaxy - perhaps even beyond.
Within days, these worlds affected human life and safety. Hostile environments and life forms began to spread their influence, causing a danger to the lives and well-being of the people of the various countries and communities where the mirrors - as they had come to be known - had come to rest. The situation was already public knowledge, as the spread of the mirrors was random and had not been able to be tracked, and the sheer scale of the destruction wrought in the wake of the experiment gone wrong - especially since it was at a civilian facility in the middle of an urban area - had not been missed.
The worst was yet to come, as by the end of the first month at the original rift in space at the Florida site, the place becoming known as
‘Point Zero’, the fabric of space tore even greater. It became a yawning void that grew until it was large enough that it stretched high into the air.
Through this rift in space, marched an army. They quickly overwhelmed the forces in place, monitoring the area, and expanded into the surrounding cities, towns, villages and countryside. Their intent seemed obvious, as they stripped and consumed the surrounding resources, tearing buildings apart with automated drones and machinery, while bringing through more from the other side. Everything they consumed went toward reinforcing their positions and numbers. They started to capture and enslave the people as they spread out further, while building an ever increasing tower at the point of their origin, that seemed to have control of the rift, interacting with it and taming its’ wild energies.
Soon, within weeks, other mirrors in other parts of the world started to expand in the same way, and more of these same aliens emerged, acting in the same way.
It quickly became apparent over the months that followed that no one nation on Earth could hold them alone. While human weapons worked against them, the casualties taken in such efforts to fight them in both lives and materiel were unsustainable, and worked only as a holding action. Only overwhelming firepower and numbers seemed to do anything to hold them, and even then; it was to buy time - as there always seemed to be more of them, as they consumed resources, both non-organic and otherwise, to manufacture more of their own. Especially disturbing was the revelation that their ‘line troops’, their basic soldiers and fighting forces, were surgically and chemically altered, brain-washed beings and even humans that had been captured earlier.
As they advanced, the aliens, having absorbed many humans and their technology into their own ranks and forces, started to issue broadcasts of their intentions: the occupation of Earth and the integration of its resources and people into
the Totality as part of their Empire, to serve their ‘beneficial expansion’. With them, the enemy finally had an official name.
Messages fitfully began to come from those trapped behind the advancing wall; the Totality had occupied the cities and lands they advanced, moving people into contained settlements and putting them to work as slaves in building more of their armies and producing more weapons, equipment and devices; processing the consumed resources, and other such menial tasks. Some were inducted into their occupation forces as police for the others, and seemingly indoctrinated by brainwashing, and by chemical and surgical alteration to be more ‘compliant’. And any resistance discovered was crushed, ruthlessly, and totally in brutal police actions.
As these hostile forces spread out further and further, the situation grew more and more desperate. It wasn’t long until the use of nuclear weapons came into the equation, and it was Russia that utilised theirs first, as the portal that had opened in Eastern Europe and the area occupied by these hostile aliens threatened more and more of their territory and people.
The nuclear strike halted the advance - for several weeks, at least… and then the invaders responded with their own powerful weapons, something that tore matter and reality itself asunder and obliterated a massive swathe of the opposing forces.
The first break came almost a year into the conflict, when through another of the portals, contact was made with other sapient, sentient alien races. It was a shock, and there was miscommunication at first. But soon enough, it was realised that they had a common foe.
This loose alliance of species called themselves
the Coalition. Composed of races that The Totality had already invaded and either fought and defeated or were still fighting against, they were the interstellar resistance.
They were fighting to retain their very existence as independent races from the Totality’s empire, and their assimilation of their racial identity, culture, and individuality and reclaim their freedom from the oppressive and dominating influence and power of The Totality.
Their worlds having been stripped and processed for resources and their peoples having been enslaved and consumed to further the forces of the interstellar empire, working as cogs in their machine, components in part of the much larger Totality system. They had been fighting the same resistance tactics and striking minor blows against their oppressors for decades, or even longer. They had knowledge of how they worked; of their technology and how it worked, and of their weapons and their various troops and forces, and how to fight them effectively.
Humanity was still free; they still retained much of the control of their world, and were still able to manufacture weapons and technology en masse. They still had access to other worlds freely that were not occupied by the Totality’s forces, and had managed to slow down the advances of The Totality - even if briefly.
By combining their knowledge with humanities’ resources, as well as advanced aspects of their own indigenous technologies, they could forge more effective weapons and organise a strategy to fight back.
But all the while, the battle still ranged worldwide, and countries and governments had had to band together to even stand a chance, but constant frictions and disagreements made this difficult. Some powers and nations refused to work with others, or to co-ordinate their strategies and share their knowledge, or act on what had been shared.
Those nations that were allies and had made peaceful contact with the friendly extra-terrestrial Coalition carefully orchestrated a plan. Already, information provided by their new allies had given them more success in battle, managing to strike several critical victories with less loss of life, and even turn back assaults.
But this had all been buying time for new weapons and systems to be in place, and for plans to reach full fruition.
It took months of planning, but eventually; three years after the first contact with The Totality, and eighteen months after first contact with the Coalition, the operation commenced.
Utilising their new weapons systems and daring tactics and strategy, the allied forces co-ordinated a massive attack on the monolithic tower at the centre of The Totality’s held territory in Florida. The battle was tremendous, and involved members of militaries from numerous nations, and even races, as well as hundreds of non-military resistance fighters, people who had fought back during the spreading occupation.
The battle raged for hours, but the end result was that the Monolith at the centre of the occupied area was destroyed, collapsing from its tremendous height - much taller than any previously existing building or structure on Earth - in a massively destructive event. The resulting release of exotic energies caused repercussions for the rest of the portal network across Earth’s surface. Some opened wider, some closed, and some were altered and shifted.
The success of the attack, paused the advances of The Totality around the world. Some of them were cut off from their homeworld or other worlds, and the armies facing them used the opportunity to push back. In many cases, they regained territory, though others were not so lucky, and faced further defeat.
But in all cases, the expansion stopped. For the first time, an enemy of The Totality had stopped them in their tracks, dealing them a blow that they had noticed.
The world - and many other worlds - held their breath as they waited for the next step, the next act in the ongoing story.
And elsewhere, other eyes were drawn to this event, summoned by the energies unleashed by the disruption in reality, and the blow against such a powerful force. And they took an interest…
Humanity joined the Coalition in full; at least, the allied nations that had fought alongside them did. Some nations stubbornly and petulantly refused, citing all manner of reasons and excuses for their own self-interest. The presence of alien life became an accepted part of life - and many went on to try and find out how they could take advantage of it, and use it to their benefit.
All the while, many still lived under the oppressive regime of the Totality, in cities and communities still occupied by the empire and its’ forces, biding their time and communicating with the Coalition as they acted as a resistance - and avoided informants and the ‘Pacification Forces’ of the Totality.
It was clear that this situation couldn’t last for long. The Totality would always be expanding, and it wouldn’t be long before they went into action again. And while the Coalition had managed to catch a break, it had been by the narrowest of margins, with much loss of life and with a great risk and an even greater deal of luck.
If they were going to win, they’d need more than luck and risk. They would need more and better weapons, more information, more knowledge, and more advantages over their enemy. And besides The Totality, there were other issues: hostile flora and fauna that spilled through the portals, other alien races or organizations that were causing issues, and even internal conflicts to take care of. All of these were things that took resources from the bigger battle and issue at hand, but still needed to be dealt with.
The Coalition had to get organised, put to work its’ best people for a fighting chance for all their races to not just survive, but to win and defeat their enemies.
That was six months ago, and six months after
operation: Shattered Mirror, where the tower finally fell.
Now, the first of the new units are about to take to the field, and that’s where this story begins, and the next chapter of history is about to start.
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