Writing Prompt: Humans are the only Species of Intelligent Beings that Heal Naturally

[Butterrobber202]

Make up a Story with this Idea in mind, it can be tied in with Aurora-Lore or you can branch off on your own.

I stole this from Reddit.

[Tenenza]

There are many common reactions one can have when first encountering a human. "By the stars, it's terrifying." is the cliche, and while plenty of sentients do have this perfectly reasonable reaction, it's considered a bit of a social faux pas now-a-days. Incoherent screaming is however very 'in' right now, although it's really more of an ironic joke then anything serious, unless it's another human doing the screaming. That would be *extra* ironic. However, in our modern desensitized galactic society, most sentients are just annoying curious. "How did you build such small nanomachines?", "why don't you ever wear anything other then that old thing?", "Can I probe you?" and, of course, "Are you really made of meat?"

For those wondering, yes, humans are made of meat. And for the inevitable follow-up question, no, they are not the mythical creators. Records indicate that humanity evolved at least 3 billion years after the creators, and while the two species do share a natural meat-based composition, evidence indicates that the creators had, at the very least, twenty times as much style then the frankly vulgar meatbags from Sol.

There's actually some debate over if humans can actually be considered alive and intelligent. The average human is, in many ways, about as smart as a thermal-foodstuff-processing-unit. On one hand, this means they are preposterously idiotic by any sensible measure. On the other hand, it means they're somehow able to produce lifeforms that are several times more intelligent then themselves, and then convince their creations to process their disgusting biofuel for them. Philosophers around the galaxy are having a field day with that.

Of course, they're not completely stupid. Humans seem to have a knack for picking up basic knowledge and applying it consistently under pressure. Their biochemical automated repair systems are frankly, a work of art. And of course, they're quite good at communicating, even without an interface protocol. All-in=all, they're excellent emergency repair technicians, even if they have a rather bad tendency to make things worse before making them better. Just wished they'd charge less.

[Guest Complete Garbage]

Built this off of Aurora lore. Some of the history is pretty heavily edited to reflect the fact other species can't naturally heal. I thought about this for a while, and realized this would actually change a lot about the progressions of each species.

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In 2412, the Skrell team had discovered the first human transmission. The Skrell as a species had very little left after the Glorsh Rebellion. Those remaining formed a centralized militaristic settlement on Aloise after Jargon IV had been glassed, and they had no other choice but to adopt heavy technological modifications. Over the course of three centuries of recovery, nearly all Skrell had their limbs and organs replaced with cybernetically enhanced substitutes. Attempts at reversing the genophage were abandoned in favor of mass-cloning for the military and primary workforce. What was left of the Jargon navy, a small but powerful fleet, immediately set out to limit signal traffic and ensure the new species wouldn't discover them until they were ready.

By 2416, the Skrell had learned much about the human species, but remained undiscovered themselves. The first attack was swift and unexpected-- corvettes moved to glass unprotected colony worlds while the main Skrell force carried out the annihilation of over half of Sol's main battle fleet. When the attack ended days later, humanity issued a unanimous surrender. Deception was afoot, however, and when the Skrell delegation came to meet the human leadership, an assassination attempt was made. What was left of the human fleet had the element of surprise, and while the leaders of the Skrell managed to escape, a great deal of the Jargon navy was left behind. The battle was not without loss, however, as the humans had lost their best fleet in the process.

Ultimately, the humans' fast recovery would be the key to success. Able to reconsolidate a navy from their secondary defensive forces, a large, albeit fairly outdated strike force was assembled. The humans used the Skrell's methodical nature to their advantage in a stunningly deceptive manner: During the battle to retake Sol, the STSM Type-068 "Linchpin" missile, the standard ship-to-ship missile, was found to be largely ineffective against the advanced armor or Skrell vessels. Nuclear weapons, however, were found to be quite effective. In the midst of the battle, the Skrell seemed to change their tactics, ignoring missile signatures matching that of the Type-068, and avoiding those that matched recognized profiles of human nuclear weapons. This theory was confirmed by a tactical index salvaged from a crippled Skrell fighter craft, and put to use soon after.

Time was of the essence, and only hours after this information was uncovered, factories on earth that were normally producing fully-functional Type-068s were now only producing the chassis and boosters, leaving the warheads out of the equation. The empty warhead casings were then filled by hydrogen explosives that would put Tsar Bomba to shame. These powerful explosives were in short supply, but there were enough to fill the SMMC Brutal Gecko, Sol's only remaining fully-functional missile carrier. Only weeks after the battle for Sol, the carrier, along with almost every remaining functional vessel of the Sol Alliance, followed the traced warp signature of the Skrell vessels and encountered the remaining Jargon fleet near Aloise. The initial salvo was devastating-- every ship opened fire in unison, creating chaos on the Skrell's tracking systems. The standard missiles did very little against the Skrell ships, but as the first of the hydrogen explosives connected, the Jargon fleet realized the gravity of their situation. The second salvo was less effective, as the Skrell had adapted to detect the specialized missiles with a speed and efficiency that was unprecedented in human military history. The battle took 31 hours before the remaining Skrell forces surrendered, to be captured, studied, and enslaved by humanity. The loss of their defensive forces sent the Alliance's military-industrial complex into overdrive, eager to replace the lost prowess with the new technology.

Humanity grew unimpeded for many years, inhabiting the Skrell colonies that were abandoned after the Glorsh Rebellion. Humans found the forbidden research behind AI constructs, and harnessed the power of artificial intelligence, being sure to keep them firmly under their thumbs.

In the 2420s, humans discovered Dionae, and instated a military policy to either harvest gestalts for scientific experimentation or to simply eradicate them.

In the 2430s, humanity discovered the Unathi on Moghes, a socially progressive and relatively advanced society which was typically accepting of human culture. The Unathi were the first species humans discovered that were peaceful from the start. While they hadn't yet discovered interstellar travel, the Unathi had colonized Ouerea prior to discovery. Unathi were inducted into the human empire willingly, and were allowed to work in nearly every field except for military command.

The Alliance did not discover the Tajara until the late 2450s, when a survey probe in S'rand'marr picked up a primitive radio signature. The total estimated population of Adhomai upon discovery was around 500 million. The planet was completely war-torn, ravaged from decades of fighting. Most lived in small townships which were openly hostile to another, and each settlement reacted differently to human contact. Those who were hostile were executed or experimented on. Those who were excited at the prospect of a better life were inducted similarly to the Unathi.

In 2476, humanity discovered a Vaurca hive-ship, and by 2478, they had discovered all three of the Vaurca hives. The Zo'ra and K'lax were both willingly inducted, realizing that while they could stand up to humans on the ground, their ships were no match for the Alliance navy, which, by then, had been rebuilt in full force. The Zo'ra were allowed all the privileges of the Unathi, but the K'lax were treated more like secondary citizens, used for manual labor or menial tasks. The Lii'dra were purged, enslaved, or experimented upon. One of the Lii'dra queens, an ancient creature, was captured, and revealed some unsettling information about another species-- one ostensibly more advanced than humans; the Vox.

The Vox were not encountered until 2491, but upon discovery, they were openly and extremely hostile towards humans. Vox ships obliterated the naval scouting detachments they encountered, and would raid and ravage entire human colonies, leaving decimated colonial militias in their wake. Again, the Alliance found its military production in full swing, rushing to replace the lost planetary defense forces and reinforce the inner colonies.

In 2497, an all-out war had begun. The Vox had two main battle fleets and countless accompanying raiding ships. Each of the main Vox fleets were about the size of the Alliance's main fleet, and each had weapons beyond human comprehension. In battle, entire ships would become crippled-- not because of systems failures, but because every organic crew member would have a seizure simultaneously. Suddenly, ship-board AIs became widespread, and in some cases, automation completely replaced enlisted crews. There were measures to protect against the Vox's psychic warfare, but the equipment was either prohibitively expensive or too unreliable-- and as such, only made available to officers. Unbound Zo'ra were allowed to conscript in the lower rankings of military command, and soon, many ships consisted of AI-controlled systems under the command of a psychically-protected human Captain and a compliment of Vaurca officers. These countermeasures worked quite well, and the Vox fleets saw heavy resistance through the middle-colonies. By the time they reached the inner-colonies, the fleets had consolidated into a force only one-and-a-half times as large as the Alliance's. While the Alliance excelled at holding off the Vox, they finally reached Sol by the year 2537. This time, however, Sol was prepared to prevent invasion. Weapons platforms concealed in the Oort Cloud annihilated the first few waves of Vox attack vessels. By the time these platforms were cleared away, the Alliance Fleet had moved into defensive positions and begun to strike back. Few vessels got through the line, and those that did were picked off by militia vessels that had been called back from the falling colonies.

The Alliance was not expecting what happened next, however. Over the past era of human conquering, the Alliance had made the mistake of gathering the entirety of their naval high command onto earth: advances in communications allowed admirals to lead from behind, evaluating tactical information from the safety of their home planet. Humanity had not accounted for the unbelievable psychic power the ancient Vox possessed, and vastly underestimated the capabilities of the Vox elders. One ship that had made it through the line had extremely advanced stealth systems aboard, and managed to slip past countless ships and scanning stations, making it into low earth orbit. The ship, no larger than a light bomber, contained one of the oldest living entities in the galaxy. This entity emitted a psychic pulse that, through either direct or indirect means, ultimately killed 23% of earth's population, and sent the rest into a babbling daze. The ship was detected, targeted, and destroyed by automated systems shortly thereafter, but the damage was done. Most of the Alliance high command were not protected psychically, as they believed they were safe inside their command centers on the surface. Even those that were protected suffered some effects of the pulse.

Without command or coordination, the Alliance fleet fell into disorganized chaos. The ensuing engagement lasted for over a day as the Alliance fleet was pushed further and further into the center of the system. As those on earth began to recover, order was restored among the fleet, but by that time, the odds had tipped heavily in the Vox's favor. As the Alliance fleet regrouped around earth, the Vox fleet assembled around Mars, preparing to strike. Many Vox ships, including one of their two flagships, had either landed on the surface or settled in orbit around Mars in order to refuel, repair, and rearm using resources stored in fueling ports and on human military installations.

While humanity wasn't ready for earth command to be crippled, they were ready for this. After the Skrell invasion, humanity had prepared a contingency for the capture of Mars, Mercury, Venus, many of the inhabited moons and large asteroids, and even Earth. The plan was classified under TS/SCI, and the full extent of the protocol was only known by the highest-ranking governmental leaders. It was referred to by the name of MSCSP, or Maximal-Scale Colonial Scuttling Protocol. Different colonies achieved the goal of this plan in different ways, but on Mars, the plan utilized terraforming technology. The scope of MSCSP was to be able to destroy an entire colonized body within a timescale of no greater than ten minutes after receiving the order. After Mars' automated terraforming systems received their order, they began getting to work. The same supercoils that had remagnetized Mars' core and reheated its mantle reactivated for the first time in half a century, and were pushed to their limits. Nuclear explosives embedded in the crust at strategic points were armed. Six minutes after the order was received, the surface began to break apart from internal pressure, and magma spouts erupted along fault lines. The Vox ships began to recede, but by the time they reacted, it was already too late. At exactly seven minutes and eight seconds after the order was received, the nuclear explosives detonated with perfect timing, causing magma to rapidly cover the entire Martian surface. Chunks of rapidly-cooling rock spewed from the planet, colliding with ships and bringing them down into the inferno. The flagship, in low orbit around Mars, collided with a large portion of what was once a tectonic plate. This crippled the ship's ventral impulse and disrupted its orbit, sending it to a fiery grave.

Now under the sole command of the remaining flagship, the Vox fleet pulled away from the dying planet, advancing towards Earth at full steam. The broken fleets engaged eachother with everything they had. The most advanced weapons ever developed were deployed, by and against each side. Despite the humans having a home-field advantage, the Vox were decimating the human fleet. Superior weapons combined with greater number, even after the scuttling of Mars, was tearing through the Alliance's ranks. The Alliance flagship was listing in space without impulse, as its engines were damaged and all of its drive power was dedicated to weapons systems. The rest of the fleet was scrambling to survive and retaliate, but the Vox grew ever-closer.

As the Vox advanced, they passed by the Murrieta Shipyards, the largest civiallian shipping installation in human space. As the heart of the Vox fleet passed within 100 kilometers of the sprawling array of interconnected platforms, superfreighters that were previously scanned by the Vox as dead-in-space awoke, very suddenly. The carriers, filled with gigatons of explosives between them, locked onto targets at full speed. While some were torn apart before they could complete their mission, some reached their marks and detonated. The remaining Vox flagship sustained heavy damage, and the rest of the fleet was in disarray, still trying to figure out what had happened. In a final move that stunned the already-disoriented Vox, every ship in the Alliance fleet that was still capable suddenly engaged their short-range warp drives in unison. Many ships missed the mark entirely, ending up across the system. An unlucky minority ended up on unavoidable collision courses, or even worse, inside of a celestial body. Those that made it, however, immediately opened up with high-power short-range lasers, missiles, railguns, and even one ship which had its primary weapons disabled was firing tungsten RFG slugs out of its overcharged mass-driver. After hours of relentless firing, and countless thousands of losses, there were finally no remaining Vox signatures.

Humanity took centuries to recover, but they never encountered the Vox again. As soon as the second flagship was destroyed, all specimens in-containment for research suddenly perished with no apparent cause. Humanity used the salvaged fleet to incorporate even more advanced weaponry, armor, and engines into their navy. In the first century after the attack, earth itself had to recuperate its defenses and regain its lost population, as well as that of the various abandoned colonies of Sol. In the century that followed, the inner colonies were recovered, (or at least, those that weren't completely destroyed by invasion,) and by the late 2700s, humanity is back in full force as a galactic power. History will never forget the invasions that ravished the earth, and they will forever look to the stars beyond, enduring the burdens of the past, and walking on the promise of the future. In the backs of their minds, they will always be cautious, and they will never come to truly trust they are safe, but as the universe carries on, so will the human spirit, shining brightly for all to see.

 

I did some revision, but this is probably far from error-free. Feel free to laugh at me for all mistakes relating to spelling or grammar.