Stories of the Vex

[size=150]STORIES OF THE VEX[/size]
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[b]Story #1[/b]

- [b]90 MILLION YEARS AGO[/b] Far beyond the scope of TUF, beyond both of galaxies and all of their civilizations was a rouge star drifting through space. This star was a entering its later stages of life, it started to fuse heavier metal elements, it expanded, and started to become a proto-giant star. Far from the fury and chaos of the inner-system was a cold frozen rock the size of Earth, orbiting on the outskirts. From this planet, the star was nothing but a bright blueish-white dot

Life had evolved under the oceans, when the planet was ejected from its home system billions of years ago. By extreme chance, it managed to fall into the orbit of the outskirts of the other star. Over the years, life started to evolve into more complex creatures, fueled by the residual heat from the core of the planet.  It began evolving bacterium, and other simple microorganisms, all without the heat of the sun.

As the star began to hear up over billions of years, the ice thinned, eventually, it got to the point where light began to penetrate the shell of ice over the oceans. In the upper layers of the water, plants began to evolve. As the iced thinned more and more, more Earth-like life began to evolve. And eventually, when the star itself began to evolve into a giant, the ice got thin enough, anf life bursted from the oceans. With an extremely rapid pace, life colonized the surface. First came bacteria, then algae, then plants, and eventually animals. Over 80 million years, the animals rapidly evolved into more complex and intelligent creatures.

- [b]430,000 YEARS AGO[/b] the culmination of millions of years of evolution would lead to the most modern and successful version of these beings, the Vex. Agriculture was discovered 30,000 years ago for these creatures. By that time, they had spread across their world, along with other forms of these creatures. Civilization began to rapidly advance for these species. Farming communities began to develop, copper-use and the domestication of animals started to happen 20,000 years ago. The bronze age was ushered in at 17,000 BP. Numerous civilizations amongst these species began to form. They began to progress the planet from the Bronze-Age, to the Iron Age, and eventually to the Industrial Era. The population began to grow, wars became more numerous and extensive. Advancements in technology began to rid the civilizations of illness, and began increasing the output of the planet. By 11,900 BP, the Vex had learned to split the atom. Space became more accessible to the civilizations of the planet. By 11,750 BP, the Vex and other intelligent species had begun to travel and colonize the moons of their homeworld.

However, this species would not travel into travel into the inner system, as the heat their was too great for them. Over the course of their history, the Vex and other species began to notice a pattern — the planet was warming up. Ice caps were shrinking century by century, the temperature was on the rise, and they noticed their ancestors from long had adapted themselves to a much colder environment. As history went on, they began to wonder what was causing this warming up. By 11,940, the Vex had finally, with the help of astronomy and observations formed a solid scientific conclusion. The star was warming up. Over the course of their evolution, the star had transformed into a red-giant, and turned the ice-world into a hot world of rainforests, arid plains, and deserts with little oceans.

The Vex knew their time on the world was limited, and they needed to find a way to survive the death of their star. This would occupy the minds of the Vex and other species for the next 200 years.

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[b]Story #2[/b]

- [b]11,750 BP[/b] the Vex have only a few thousand years before their star goes supernova, and a few hundred until their planet becomes uninhabitable. The average surface temperature on the planet is 50 C, all the ice has melted. Biological adaptation can only go so far, and the various species have genetically modified themselves to live in the heat. By now all the nations of the Vex and other species have unified to try to save themselves.

The population was jubilant, and productivity skyrocketed. Moon and asteroid mining increased, and many orbital stations were created to make the armada that would transfer the Vex to their new home. A plan namedPROJECT STARSHOT was created, which planned that over the course of many decades, the 14 billion Vex and other species would slowly transfer themselves onto massive ships, where they would be cryogenically preserved and sent on a trip through subspace throughout the TUF galaxy. However, this plan would not come through fruition.

As it turned out, despite being unified under a government, the Vex and other species were not unified as a people. Various tensions between religions, ethnicities, species, political groups, and many more groups had divided them. The Vex, who were the primary species of the nation, and who basically controlled the government and space colonies, were hated by another species called the Teth. Terrorist attacks by the Teth occurred across the space colonies, but mostly in civilian centers. In addition, other species and groups wanted independence. Revolts, terrorism, and even plain protests slowed down progress on Starshot, and increased fear, paranoia, and hate between different groups within the unified nation. To stop the destruction of the nation from within, the country let groups secede from itself, on the condition that it would help progress Starshot. Many nations left the Federation, but work on Starshot still progressed. All seemed well until 11,734 BP.

- [b]11,734 BP[/b] Nature had proven hard for the Vex and other species to cope with. Droughts and wildfires were common in the ever increasing heat. Hurricanes and great thunderstorms were also becoming more common, however, none of those would compare to what happened on that year. In 11,736 BP, a massive volcano twice the size of Yellowstone was predicted erupt. Mass evacuations and preparations occurred, as well paranoia consumed the populace of the planet. However due to corruption and an unwillingness of some countries to cooperate, many of the evacuations were botched or didn’t occur, and many other preparations were made. The evacuees and other refugees that did manage to leave the affected area were not taken too kindly by the natives of the area they moved too, and massive internal conflict ensued.

External conflict also happened. Some nations still had border disputes with each other, and went to war over it. Other countries attack each other due to a general distrust of one-another and thousands of years of ethnic, racial, species, and religious discourse.

- [b]11,733 BP[/b] Paranoia consumed the planet. Groups and countries were shifting further from each other; unity was lost. Progress on Starshot all but stopped. Alk the natural disasters. infighting, doomsday groups and the ever looming threat of the dying sun made it appear as if the world was ending. All of this fear and stress [b]would[/b] eventually end the world. One paranoid leader of a nuclear-nation had launched a preemptive nuclear strike on an enemy nation they had a border conflict with. The nation retaliated with more nuclear strikes. Allies of the nations would be brought into this nuclear cascade. Eventually, nations not even involved with the struggles of the original nation would get nuked, and would be nuked back. Other forms of WMD were used. The weather was manipulated, earthquake bombs, artificial tsunamis, chemical warfare, and biological weapons were dropped all across the planet. Conventional warfare occurred across the planet, atrocities were committed. Over the span of 18-hours, the planet of the Vex would be annihilated.

The only remaining species of the planetary system were the Vex on the moons of the planet and in non-destroyed orbital stations. Now seeing their homeworld, covered in volcanic and nuclear ash, and marred by nuclear creators, gas clouds, turbulent weather, they new it was beyond saving. The planet was gone, all the other species, and most of their own were dead. The only way they could continue their legacy was to leave their home world once and for all. They went on the remains of Project Starshot — a few dozen cryo-ships and a Sub-Space Opener; opened the portal through sub-space, and went through. They left behind a destroyed civilization, and they were now on their way to create a new one.

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[b]Story 3[/b]

- [b]11733 BP[/b], the remaining Vex have entered subspace. Starshot was planned to cross to the TUF galaxy in a matter of decades. But at the speed they entered it, they would have only been travelling at twice the speed of light in real space, meaning travelling to the TUF galaxy would have taken an entire millienia. That was a problem, since the computers and cyropods were only rated for a few centuries. Still, with no other option, the Vex left their home system, never to return to it again. To conserve power and their longevity, the computers were set to go into hybernation every few hours for 12 hours at a time. They entered cryosleep, and hoped that luck was on their side, and that they would map it.

- [b]10,720 BP[/b] Luckily, their luck had finally turned in their favor. After a millenia of cyrosleep, they awoke a few weeks before they would leave subspace. After a few weeks of getting used to being awake, the Vex eagerly, and fearfully awaited for their exiting. They wondered which system they would land in, if at all. After all, shooting for a precise location from 2000 ly away using primitive ftl is rather difficult. Many possibilites could occur. They could exit far before or shoot pass the galaxy. They could’ve entered into a Black Hole, star, or just crash into planet. Then, the exiting date came, the Vex hoped once again that luck would be on their side. 

In fact, it once again was, for they exited Sub-space on the outskirts of a star-system that would eventually be named “Vogol”.