- Long ago the galaxy
had known peace. Paradise was ruled with the hand of
science, and the hand was that of the galactic governing
body known as the Core. Paradoxically it was the ultimate
victory, the victory over death itself, which brought
about the downfall of their Paradise and started the war
which would decimate a million worlds. The process, which
was called "patterning", involved the
electronic duplication of brain matrices and allowed the
transfer of consciousness into durable machines.
Effectively it meant immortality, andthe Core decreed the
process mandatory for all citizens in order to ensure
their safety.
-
-
- There were many who
were unwilling to toss aside their bodies so casually,
- many indeed who
regarded patterning as an atrocity. They fled to the
outer
- edges of the galaxy,
where they banded together to form a resistance which
- became known as the
Arm. War began, though it was never officially declared
- by either side. The
Arm developed high-powered combat suits for its armies,
- while the Core
transfered the minds of its soldiers directly into
similarly deadly
- machines. The Core
duplicated its finest warriors thousands of times over.
The
- Arm countered using
cloning. The war raged on for over four thousand years,
- consuming the
resources of an entire galaxy and leaving it a scorched
wasteland.
- Both sides lay in
ruins. Their civilizations had long since vanished, their
once vast
- military complexes
were smashed. Their armies were reduced to a few
scattered
- remnants which
continued to battle on ravaged worlds. Their hatred
fueled by
- millenia of conflict,
they would fight to the death. For each, the only
acceptable
- outcome was the
complete and utter annihilation of the other. Long ago
the
- galaxy had known
peace, and it would soon know peace again.
