Humanity
Thy sky blazed in deep rippling agony, purplish red clouds convulsing, changing, thundering their defiance. Drop ships pelted down like rain, swooping in at the last second to unleash their cargo before veering away from Moslin's mighty defense batteries. Codian was pleased to note that many did not make it back to safety. A brilliant white city remained, Humanity's last refuge, the origin, their very capital was all that was left. Orbital bombardments bashed against its shields, after days the enemy gave up and knew that they would have to come down and fight them on their terms. They would have to assault the one opening to the city, the massive highway and there they would die.
Codian spat on the ground in disgust, the Unity, a collective of races that had single handedly brought all life in the galaxy to its knees. But he could not understand why, they had tried to come to peaceful terms with all races they met, when forced to fight they won, and then they conquered, and showed that the Human race was perfect. But the Unity would not, could not accept a new dominant race, and so they created the virus, it was perfect, too perfect, and it evolved, and it turned on life itself. But the thing that bothered him most was that the Unity, their own race dieing, would send what scraps they had left to finish off the Human race, and for this, for this very blood crazed whatever it was emotion he detested them. It was dishonorable; it was reckless, before their own separate races faded into the shadows of history they wanted to see Humanity die, to somehow show that they, the great Unity, were better. He would relish killing every single one of them.
The highway was a mile in width, cratered with constant bombardment and previous assaults, behind this last mighty defense line lay the city, women, children, all but helpless. They were going to die, inevitably they would, inevitably they all would, and the Human race would be a shadow. Grimly Codian wondered whether some far off race from another Galaxy, or perhaps in time this one, would ever see their city, wonder about humanity, excavate the shattered ruins, and wonder and guess at what they were. Or would everything simply be forgotten till the end of time? He knew that somewhere the two Titans listed out in space, their crews killed off by the virus, or did they self-destruct, whatever happened to many of the fleets? So many magnificent, so many beautiful things had been snuffed out near instantly, all because of one races cowardice, their hate, their inability to adapt.
Codian looked down on the fifteen year old by his side holding a wand in one hand and a pistol in the other, and he trembled in rage. The boy looked up at him, his courage having long left his delicate features. Codian's scarred face grinned back at him. "Do not be afraid of death. For I am the reaper. And today we are all brothers."
The boy nodded back, some small facet of courage and defiance returning. He turned to look out on battlefield, twisted and burned out hulls littered the dry arid surface, disfigured bodies lay strewn about like rag dolls as far as the eye could see, mingled indiscernibly together. More flyers and drop pods crashed down in flame, searing the living and the dead alike. The boy watched a large drop pod get clipped by a bright lance of magic, it veered off course, slamming into a drop ship that was unloading its troops. He watched those that were outside get caught by a series of explosions, he imagined those trapped inside burning to death, screaming as they died, hands flailing helplessly against melted doors, trying desperately to escape. He had watched his parents die as the virus took them apart cell by cell, the long integrated breaking down, magic running wild, he had seen people burn to death, he had seen people's skin peel off as they died from within. Somehow he had survived, somehow he had escaped the virus.
Now he stood side by side with a legendary warrior, the pinnacle of human evolution, the perfect integration of technology and magic. He knew that given a mere thousand years all of humanity would achieve this final peak, but that would not come to be…the bastardly Unity had seen that nothing would come to be, that everything would simply die. He watched as the snipers and heavy weapons pounded into the sky, bringing down the pathetic wretches in droves, but still they kept coming.
"This is Codian." Codian spoke into the vox to the entire assembled forces. "If this is to be our last hour, if we are to be remembered, then let us be remembered for this, let us make this a most glorious end. Do not fear them, for they fear us, look at them over there, assembling their pathetic forces. Look at them cower behind their own twisted wreckage, I say they are taking too long, I say we take the fight to them." He looked about him, there would be an ocean of blood on this desolate death soaked land before the day was up.
"Brothers and Sisters…" He paused for a second. "Die well." And he charged, a mighty roar erupting behind him as they followed. His squad, his family, they had all died honorably, he only wished he would be able to as well.
He fired from the hip, bullets and spells whizzed by his head, impacting with the enemy. A salvo of artillery fired, shaking the ground as the rounds hit, throwing up bits of concrete and shredded enemies. Tanks and skimmers fired off, making a mockery of what little fortifications the Unity had set up. They had seen them coming, they were getting ready for their assault, they would not be.
"Apparate." As one the human forces apparated to within feet of the Unity and fired at point blank range, mowing them down like grass, cutting through with the vengeance of an entire species. Searing red Basilisks plowed through infantry and armor alike, a mad bloodlust upon them, their hunger for revenge insatiable.
The Unity soldiers flew backwards, hit with spells, or were simply obliterated by heavy weapons. Codian drove deeper and deeper into their ranks, using the warped hulks around him for cover as return fire chipped away at his armor, his helmet had been destroyed long ago, a searing pulse round reminded him of that fact. But nevertheless he drove on, oblivious to the pain, oblivious to the explosions shaking the very earth beneath his feat. Throwing his rifle down he transfigured the wand at his hip into a fearsome jagged sword, pulsing and crackling with blue energies, the perfect union, magic and technology combined. Hefting the mighty weapon he clove a gray skinned monstrosity in two, kicked off into the air, rounds, friend and foe whizzing by him, with the help of a spell he landed in the midst of a heavy weapons squad. He relished butchering every single one of the frightened bastards, his body a mass of blood and gore when he was through with his righteous task. A massive dark gray creature suddenly smashed into him, throwing Codian into the side of some twisted tank, jagged splinters penetrating the weak spots in his armor. The creature's stupid face looked down on him, the lower half of his rider still dangling from it back it went back, the top half was no where to be seen. With a roar of cannibalistic rage it reared up on its hind legs and prepared to smash him into a pulp. A hail of bullets shredded its pathetic skull, ending its miserable life.
"Sir." It was the fifteen-year-old boy; before Codian could say his thanks the boy's head exploded in a violent shower of bone and brain matter. They were beginning to counter attack. An assault squad came at him, regal red capes flowing behind them, staves raised to strike him down. Codian gladly met them, adrenaline pumping through his veins he clove the pathetic bastards to shreds, he was faster, smarter, stronger, and without fear, while the assault squad, even with their fearsome look were scared, they were hesitant. And so they died, limbs and bodies separated in powerful slashes, one thrown into the air to be hit by a stray rocket.
It would never be known that Codian Thramasurius died under waves of enemy soldiers, the bodies of those he slay piled high around him, the body of a fifteen year old boy behind him, he never once took a step back. Humanity fought with its back to a wall, and even managed to win the battle. Ultimately the Unity were all selfless cowards, and before the battle was over a sustained orbital bombardment washed over them, shockwaves penetrating the planet's very core, not a trace was left of the Unity or its defeat, nor that of courage warriors that fought there.
Ultimately the rest of the population was all massacred, and to the best of the galaxy's knowledge the human race was no longer in existence.
---One hundred thousand years later---
"You might all want to sit down." Alos said conjuring up some chairs. "This will come as a shock to you all, but it will make perfect sense, so please do not interrupt until I am done."
The gathered people took a seat around the spacious laboratory and looked at the man before them.
Alos thought for a moment before beginning. "Human DNA as you know it is divided into twenty three chromosomes as you know it." The large screen behind him gave a three-d representation of this. "However it was not always so, originally human DNA had twenty four chromosomes, with a twenty fifth emerging just before our near extinction."
Homir Munn opened his mouth to say something but Alos held up his hand and he did not. "Chromosome twenty three and twenty four are the techno and the magio chromosomes, so called because they deal with magic and technology. You may think it odd, but the techno chromosome was very much responsible for the ingenuity, and thinking that is required when inventing and working with technology. The magio chromosome gives humans the ability to manipulate magic, which is actually a form of energy that lies parallel to our dimension, encompassing it if you will. So originally we had both, and we flourished like you could not imagine today. When we arrived on the galactic scene, and yes there are aliens out there, we found out that in comparison to other races we had come from nothing to everything in the smallest fraction of the time that it took the other races to get to the point of where they were.
Once out in space our advancement continued at a pace that was normal to us, but was mind boggling to other races. There were some that were scared, other envious, while others still accepted us as the up and coming natural leaders, unfortunately the latter was very much in the minority. But for the time there were wars and no one gave us much thought, we weren't in anybodies way and at the time we didn't pose much of a threat. It was at this point in time where certain individuals began to advance into a second stage of human evolution; it was a form of adaptation that was on the cellular level. These exceptional individuals began to replicate the nano technology within them through birth, up until that moment in time nanites had to be injected at birth and while very adaptable they were still a foreign matter. But with these people the nanites were part of them, they had them upon conception, and here we found the development of the twenty fifth chromosome, one that bridged all the gaps between magic and technology, fused it so that it was one and the same.
The numbers of these individuals was very small, but they grew steadily, little by little. We grew as an empire and the War grew as well, escalating into a full galactic affair. The Unity, a conglomeration of races was setting themselves up as the natural rulers of the galaxy in a very brutal manner, if you did not join them you were killed. Our first skirmish with one of their splinter fleets proved disastrous for us, we did not have the resources for such fleets, our magiotech was on par with their technology, even better in some cases, but we simply did not have the numbers or resources to build a fleet that could stand up to them. With no other option left we consolidated, we took a beating, we learned how they fought, but we could not see a plausible way out. Diplomacy failed, the other races were having their own troubles and could care less about us.
A military group finally came up with the answer. We could not beat them with out fleet, but what if we could take over theirs? As far as we could tell they had no boarding actions or infantry so to speak of, who needs it when you can just threaten to blow a city from orbit or starve a planet into submission? Boarding actions in the physical sense were impossible, shields prevented it, but we could apparate. I still do not know how you chose the same name as the original military group, but somehow you did. Many of the individuals who had the twenty fifth chromosome volunteered to make a special strike force called Exodus. They were the best humanity had to offer, they could feel each others emotions, communicate on another level, squads grew up together, they almost became one organism, they worked so flawlessly. They trained for years, and they had the best support that humanity could offer, to be able to say that you were related to an Exodus Marine was a great honor, and to become one even greater. There were a hundred squads in total, each operating independently, they consisted of nine members, eight human and one Basilisk." Bessy slithered in and stared intently at Alos.
"Like that one." He pointed at Bessy. "To say that Exodus teams were invincible would be a lie, they were incredibly good, but they could go down when enough bodies were thrown at them, or an engine core detonated as was the case on a number of occasions. We did not stop with Exodus, not by a long shot, the back bone of our forces were our infantry and normal military, think of Exodus as a scalpel and the other military forces as a sledge hammer. After our first few skirmishes we were left alone, beaten back and bloodied Exodus developed, our strategies changed, our military forces strengthened and plans to build two Titan class warships began, and so did the building of our fleet. With the help of some neighboring allies we were able to secretly build up a heft force, far from anything major but better then nothing. Long story short by the time the Unity decided it had a fleet to spare we had changed a lot, and when they attacked we beat the crap out of them and took their fleet. The Unity attacked with four ships, we attacked with four very small very quick and stealthy ships that each carried an Exodus squad. The squads apparated aboard, took out any attempts of resistance and we got ourselves four new ships. We refitted the ships to meet our needs and waited for the next attack. The next attack came and we did the same thing, and so we did the same thing for the next ten consecutive months. The time the Unity figured out no one was helping us and actually came to really investigate we had amassed a hefty fleet, all for free and with no casualties. That is when we were taken seriously. We retook our few systems, and pushed ever outwards, whenever we fought we only got stronger. We helped out our allies and in this way as the War escalated even further we grew ever larger. The Unity eventually caught on, attempted to sort of resistance, their first successful one was denying us the opportunity to take a ship, they simply hit the self destruct button and took out one of our squads.
Soon enough we were conquering planets, then systems, our allies grew, and we pushed the unity back. When it came to attacking a planet a couple Exodus squads would take out the centralized leadership and our normal military forces rolled over all resistance. It was more beneficial then annihilating a city, and it was far quicker then starving a planet. Over time it was becoming obvious that we were the new dominant race in the galaxy, the Unity could not simply self destruct every ship they had, and they had next to nothing in terms of ground troops. All this time more and more people were born with the twenty fifth chromosome, the human race was well on its way to fully hitting the next stage of it evolution, and our little black Exodus ships were rightly feared, sometimes all we had to do was have one there and the enemy would simply surrender." Alos paused for a moment composing himself, a great sadness came over him.
"The Unity created a Virus, a perfect Virus, one that they must have known would eventually turn on them, but not before it was done with us. They made a biotechnological Virus, one that was conscious, all evidence points to this fact, that it had to have a consciousness of some sort. Its first programming told it to attack the specific human DNA pattern, it did…it was so effective." He talked slowly now, each word bringing back painful memories. "It also attacked technology, shutting down infrastructures, traveling through communication signals, destroying everything. Whole planets literally died over night, and The Virus as it was known changed, it was too good, it had its own agenda, its own consciousness, and it began attacking everything living, stripping worlds bare of all life within days. It traveled through the air, through signals, through anything. Before anyone or anything knew what was happening uncounted billions had died, decomposing at the cellular level they literally fell apart. You could peal off muscle with the least bit of effort, a slight breeze would skin you alive. Within a month the Galactic population was down approximately forty percent, within a year ninety percent of all living things were dead. And not just humans, EVERTHING, even plants died. The only way to escape it was to not send, receive or in any way come into contact or communication with those infected. There were things that slowed It down, and they worked, but they only bought time and agony… The Unity attacked Gaia, humanity's last refuge, they attacked and they killed them all, and then they died. The Unity's cowardice, their pride, went so deep that even when we repelled their attack they bombarded the battlefield from orbit to hide all traces of their defeat. My son was there, he led that last defense…" Alos stopped again, motioning not to be interrupted.
"I led a team to save humanity. We worked with what little resources we had. We gathered those that were not infected, spliced their DNA to make it unrecognizable from normal humans, found two planets and lay the seeds for a future humanity. We broke up our original team into two, one responsible for one planet and the other for the other planet. We monitored the progress, waiting for the time when the human race would begin to recover, waited for first available chance that signs of the Exodus would show, and then whoever was left would come down and tell you all about the true history of the human race, lead you to the brink of the cliff from which we through you to protect our race. The reason that the magio gene and the techno gene are separate is because of us, we did it to make sure that nothing would be able to follow us, to recognize us, that enough time would pass for the Virus to die out, as it has. And so I am here."
The room stared at him shocked.
"The Exodus gene, why has it come up so quickly in us?" JJ asked. "You make it sound like we should be farther ahead, we do not have the magio and techno within the whole population, and now the final stage of our evolution is upon us, how is that possible?
"Good question. The Exodus gene was already imprinted in your DNA, even if it wasn't there the blueprints were. You are the most direct descendants from a Exodus squad. Basically evolution has had to write and come up with the correct sequencing, the blueprints are already there, it is merely a matter of building according to these blueprints." Alos answered. "Does that answer your question?"
"I think so, but what about the rest of the population?"
"What about it?"
"Shouldn't they have the magio and techno gene in them?"
"They do. Are, what's that word…muggles, not showing signs of magical development? Do you not take `muggles' to become wizards and witches as you call yourselves?"
"We do." Dumbledore replied.
"Then there you have it. Muggles are becoming more wizards and witches, and I do say that there are two gentlemen who have been working here that are not of `muggle' descent, and if you looked you would be hard pressed not to find wizards witches not capable of interacting easily with technology. The foundation is all here, its all about to spring up and show itself publicly."
"How quickly are all of these changes going to take place? Will we be able to do magic?" Homir Munn asked.
Alos turned to him and brought out a wand that had thin wires running down its length. "This is a training wand, swish it around." He handed the wand over to Homir.
Looking at it curiously Homir Munn gave it a twirl, and to his utter astonishment the end began to glow and a holographic representation of the their solar system appeared in mid air.
"That answer your question?" Alos asked.
A/N. If you have question ask them now and I will answer them through the story if possible. And if I missed something please tell me so I can clear it up. As a side note, for once I have not been threatened with toothpicks, feels kinda funny.
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