Torpedoes

The Draconians followed the Primates
into the unfamiliar stars, dogging their
steps. When the Primates found a race that
refused to enter their renewed Confederacy,
the opportunistic Draconians swooped in
and subjugated the planet. Even those planets
that did join up with the Primates found
themselves under attack by Draconian
forces. The battles were kept to a bare minimum,
but they occasionally awakened
Clutchworlds. When they did, they Draconians
simply left their battered opponents
behind to be destroyed by the Grubs.
Eventually, the Primates reached beyond
the boundaries of their galaxy and into our
own. It was there that they were discovered
by the refugee arks from House Devon.
The Primates offered to lend their assistance
to the Terrans in their battle
against the Hatchlings. With all due speed,
the arks, accompanied by a small Primate
scouting force, sailed back toward Old
Earth to discover what had happened since
the Devons had left their ancestral home
behind so many years ago.
Friends and Foes
The Devons and the Primates were welcomed
by the survivors of the Terran-
Hatchling war with mixed emotions. Some
were happy that another starfaring race had
been discovered, particularly one with experience
against the Hatchlings. Others
were mistrustful. What did these creatures
have to gain by lending the Terrans a hand?
Their motives were unclear.
This didn’t change the fact that the Primates
were in Terran space now, seemingly
to stay. After several months, it became
clear that there were certain benefits to be
had by setting up strong relations with the
newcomers. The Primates traded heavily
with those they called friends, completely
ignoring those that treated them poorly.
Soon, nearly everyone was clamoring to set
up strong relations with the Primates. Still,
there were those who just didn’t trust them,
including the few remaining members of
crafty House Colos.
The Conflict Resumes
The next year, in 5 AL, another starfaring
race made its way into Terran space—the
cold-blooded Draconians. The Terrans had
heard of the creatures by way of the Primates’
tales of their home, and most of
them had already made up their mind about
these particular aliens: they were no good.
Others, though—those that had held something
against the Primates from the start—
were happy to finally have a powerful ally
against the partnership the Primates had
already formed with some of the Terran
states. First among these was House Colos,
which had originally led the Draconians
into Terran space.
Promethean Diplomacy
In the beginning, the Draconians were
nothing but pleasant to the Terrans, although
they rarely had anything good to
say about the Primates, decrying that
society’s demarcations made along well-defined
lines of class. True, the Draconians
did have a number of races they “controlled,”
but these were people who were
paying their tithes to the Draconians for
use of their technologies, which were much
more advanced than their own. If a few
races didn’t prosper under the Draconians’
rule, such was the Law of Nature: survival
of the fittest.
There were many Terrans who, for various
reasons of their own, sided with the
Draconians immediately. This set up a
strong dichotomy in Terran space, with almost
every one of the Twelve choosing to
ally itself with one Promethean power or
the other. The rivalry between the two factions
was a strong one, at least as serious
as it had been in Prometheus and fueled by
the aching resentments the Terran states
had for each other as they scrambled to
carve homelands for themselves out of the
wreckage of the Empire.
War by Proxy
The Draconians and the Primates rarely
come to direct blows with each other. In
fact, there are few Promethean military
forces to be found in Terran space. The
Prometheans seem to be content to settle
their differences by proxy, using their Terran
allies to strike at the friends of their
foes—at least for now. Still, the threat of
Hatchling intervention limits any military
actions to relatively small-scale skirmishes,
although matters among the Twelve become
more and more exacerbated.
For the first time in
history, the legendary
Millennia Warriors,
humanity’s last best
hope, had failed in their
mission. Most people
didn’t know whether to
pity them or shoot
them.
Some of the surviving
Warriors have
managed to form
mercenary units dedicated
to the art of war.
The secret hope of most
of these men and
women is to someday
vindicate themselves
and their compatriots
in the eyes of those they
risked their lives to
save.
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