First Contact

It started nice, at least, but how things start doesn't mean shit when they end up on fire.   We met the Humans in 4340, which is probably the best time it could've happened given that we were in the middle of an economic boom and Aempis (my home) had really established itself as a country.   How did we meet them? I'm not entirely sure myself, you'd have to ask the scientists involved but given that most of them are dead, or in hiding, or under order of government to not speak, that's a question I don't expect and answer to for year to come. All we've been told is "The Wheel Provided a door".   A door out in space, to be clear. The Wheel works in strange ways, I suppose, though the answer doesn't sit right in my throat.   The door lead from our Galaxy, the Pillar Spoke, to what the Humans refer to as Via Lactea, though like everything else the Humans say it's contested by other Humans. We're not any better, but at least we can agree on the name of our Galaxy.   As I said, it started nice. It was exciting to no longer be alone in the universe, to realize that there was Sophont life beyond the grasp of our little world, especially one so close to ours in technological advancement. In fact, the similarities between us were uncanny. The biggest difference was that we had metaphysics, they did not, their world, Earth, was completely devoid of it for some reason, at least until we started showing up.   The Wheel Provides.   We began to send small teams of immigrants to each other's worlds, brave volunteers who could settle in, get comfortable, and represent our species in the best way.   That peace did not last long. Extremists on both sides began to interfere. On our side it was the Valuser'rans, neighbors to my home of Aempis, who decided that Humanity was unworthy of our attention, that if the Wheel hadn't bestowed them with its Breath (the Meta, 'magic') that they didn't deserve to Breathe. On their side it was the Solumites who, like the Valuser'rans, believed that, by the will of a higher being, we (yes my people of Aempis but more broadly our species, the Sazashi) were not worthy. We were a threat, demons who came from a hellgate in the sky to enslave them.   This would become a self-fulfilling prophecy.   I will spare you the political details, largely because I do not understand them myself. You know how it goes though, gradual and exponential increasing ire and violence until terrorism broke out, until 'official action' was taken, until war was declared.   It was a bloody war. It began with attrition, with us pressing the advance and taking advantage of our physical and metaphysical superiority over Humanity. They scrambled a mighty response, stopping us dead in our path with superior firearms and an air force -- something we did not have much of a presence in.   We could have perhaps pushed through their defenses if it was only us versus them, but Valuser'rh determined that Earth was theirs to handle, not the right of Aempis. They began hammering our borders at home, and contesting the space around the Door. If we wanted to win we were going to have to resort to the worst possible option: Torkh Sakjhu Veath, Our Lady's Scorn.   Our Lady's Scorn, for it was such a wicked option that to use it would be to deserve the ire of our Goddess. It's since been decommissioned, but in its glory days it was a wand a half-kilometer long, capable of turning the joint spell cast by an Aempian battle-orchestra into a massive, hundred-miles wide area of effect and broadcasting it down onto a planet's surface. It had only been fired twice before -- once in a war with Valuser'rh and again to attempt terraformation, this would be its most momentous task.   Defended by the entire Aempian fleet, save for a few brave battleships who hung back to protect The Door against Humans or Valuser'rans entering from either side, the Torkh Sakjhu Veath flew through the Door, situated itself over the planet of Mars, and fired.   I know all this because I was there. I was one of the technicians aboard Torkh Sakjhu Veath and I got to watch through satellite to make sure the Torkh Sakjhu Veath was working.   It did.   We estimated the population of Mars at about 1 billion, mostly Solumite immigrants. It was home to the strongest part of the resistance against us, the manufacturing of jets and weapons in particular. To wipe it out was to neuter their resistance, and to cement that peace would never be popular.   I watched via satellite as they boiled in their own skin. Barrage after barrage of spells collapsed their bio domes, caved in their undergrounds, and scorched it all for good measure.   Humanity had no choice but to surrender. They did.   The Wheel Provides.   Valuser'rh backed off. Now that we were no longer fighting a war on two fronts, and now that we had access to the mostly unscathed Solumite arsenal, they decided to mind their own business.   Earth became our protectorate. So it has been for 70 years.   It makes me uneasy, and guilty. Each year that passes leaves me wishing more and more that I had not been involved, that at least I could be absolved of that. I wish we'd never had to do it in the first place.   Hierus Nomen, one of the warrior-poets of the military triptych, stated it best with a quote taken from the humans.   "I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with terrible resolve."