Humanity first encountered other human civilizations apart from them 1513 years before the establishment of the Galactic Empire.
It occurred when a planetary survey ship from Adele, the third planet of the Asaport System, made its rounds exploring the distant Gaia Star System.
The crew of the ship from Adele was initially ecstatic after discovering a planet which could possibly support human life, but as the survey progressed, they discovered that the planet housed flora and fauna similar to the ones on their home planet, and was even home to life forms uncannily similar to them. They were shocked to discover another distinct human civilization which possessed a similar genetic structure to their own.
As each civilization"s exchange progressed, scientific evidence surfaced which suggested that their two civilizations had evolved independently from each other. But why did they possess a similar genetic structure then? It was thought to be impossible for two life forms which have evolved independently from each other to possess identical genetic make-ups.
This led to various heated discussions on both planets; the most accepted theory being humanity not evolving independently but was instead brought to a planet with an environment suitable for them to live on and was left there to develop on their own by an unknown "third party".
The theory admittedly had a lot of holes, but nothing apart from it could properly explain the perplexing situation of both civilizations.
As the years pa.s.sed and the investigations of the Adele authorities progressed, this "Third Party Theory" finally became official after it was found that the situation was exactly similar to the second and third human civilizations they managed to discover.
There were a couple instances where the encounters ended on a bitter note, but the exchanges between the various civilizations were generally peaceful as a whole.
The scientific development of the other civilizations discovered by Adele was lower than their own, but the Adele government helped raised their level by providing various technologies, though not without cost, to the other planets.
1023 years before the Empire was founded, the Adele government proposed to inst.i.tute a "Galactic Alliance" with the various planets housing the other human civilizations which they had discovered. The condition for joining the Alliance was limited to [those connected to Humanity]. The rules were quite loose and no particular objections were raised, so all of the other human planets ended up joining.
Some time pa.s.sed, and 33 years before the foundation of the Empire, the Galactic Alliance had already managed to discover 151 planets housing human civilizations all throughout the galaxy. The positions of the various planets were not densely packed in a particular sector, but were instead evenly distributed.
And in the same year, the Human Galactic Alliance entered into a war and won against a human civilization sporting technology more advanced than Adele. The newly discovered civilization introduced itself as the Saiyan Imperium and immediately declared war on the Human Galactic Alliance.
The gap in technology wasn"t overwhelmingly large, but the Saiyan Imperium still enjoyed a major advantage due being two to three steps ahead in the tech development race.
The Adele government, which was considered the de facto leader of the Alliance, called for a gathering of all Alliance forces and planned to counter the tech gap with overwhelming numbers. But the Human Galactic Alliance"s rules were too loose and ineffective to practically implement. Each member planet chose to protect their native star systems instead.
As a result, the planned countermeasure of the Adele government fell through, and one system after another got occupied by the Imperium.
But ten years before the Galactic Empire"s founding, the Adele Starfleet was able to obtain a variety of critical information, including the coordinates of the Saiyan Empire"s home planet, from a Saiyan Imperium ship they had luckily managed to capture intact.
According to the info, the Saiyan Imperium hasn"t managed to discover other human civilizations apart from itself before encountering the Human Galactic Alliance. They didn"t have that many active colonies either. In other words, once their main star system was destroyed, the state of the war could be reversed immediately.
The Adele government spent several years organizing a fleet which could destroy the enemy"s home system, and commenced a.s.sault operations.
The strategy was simple yet utterly chilling: total planetary destruction instead of occupation. Planets were to be destroyed by Nova missiles. A direct hit by one or two Nova missiles would completely annihilate each planet on the enemy"s home system.
The Adele fleet first fired off thousands of Nova missiles which would head to their designated targets at a pace close to the speed of light from a sector outside the enemy star system. They then launched a simultaneous a.s.sault soon afterwards.
The Adele Starfleet managed to successfully destroy all the planets housed inside the enemy"s home system using only missile attacks. The main Saiyan Imperium s.p.a.ce Fleet suffered catastrophic damage from the raid, and those who managed to survive were scattered all throughout the occupied human planets.
Many human planets that were members of the Human Galactic Alliance felt utter terror from the ruthless operation initiated by the Adele government which resulted in the genocide of billions of humans.
In the first year marking the start of the Galactic Imperial calendar, the Adele government declared the destruction of the Saiyan Imperium and the abolishment of the Human Galactic Alliance. It then proclaimed the establishment of the Greater Human Galactic Empire.
The rules binding the former Human Galactic Alliance being loose was because of considerations regarding the continued survival and development of the human race as a whole.
On the other hand, the Greater Human Galactic Empire was primarily established by the human civilizations first discovered by the Adele government which have been working closely with it during the war and the planets formerly occupied by the Saiyan Imperium whose citizens were subjected to exceedingly harsh treatment.
All the other human planets which were formerly members of the now-defunct Alliance greatly feared the newly formed Empire"s technology and the merciless slaughter of the Saiyan Imperium, and were absorbed into the Empire one by one. Eventually, all discovered human planets were fully incorporated into the Greater Human Galactic Empire.
Ever since the successful establishment of the Galactic Empire, Adele treated all the member planets fairly and ruled for the sake of all humankind, so the Empire developed greatly and prospered. The bond between member planets became even stronger after the advent of the Bug threat.
In the year 2248 of the Imperial Calendar, the member planets increased to an impressive 276 - with the number of planets which could support human life, including the colonies, exceeding 200.
Greater Human Galactic Empire Navy Heavy Cruiser Zapata Gougan Commander Ahim Add was pleasantly surprised after receiving a certain report from Zapata.
"So, am I correct in concluding that we"ve actually discovered the 277th human civilization?"
[There is no mistake in the a.n.a.lysis. Even now, we"ve been intercepting various radio waves and signals from the aforementioned planet. We"ve finished deciphering the waves. They appear to be an outdated form of digital signals.]
A video was displayed to Ahim. In the said video, a young human woman was seen cooking food. It seemed to be a cooking show.
Ahim was beyond overjoyed. He"d gone and done it! His ship discovered the planet home to the 277th human civilization. His name and his ship were sure to be immortalized in Empire history!
This was a great discovery! A digital signal you say!? Just how many years has it been since the discovery of a planet housing a human civilization with this much technological development? He checked using his nanoms. Three hundred twelve years!? The Empire citizens would surely make a huge fuss. They made such a racket from the discovery of that planet with a primitive civilization fifty years ago after all.
"Start data collection procedures. Send a high priority communique to the home country after 72 hours through the special high-speed channel. And be sure to indicate myself as the one responsible for formal negotiations. I"ll leave the exact contents to you."
In this particular sector, sending out messages through the FTL method would take roughly a year for it to reach the Empire. Utilizing the specialized high-speed channel would be several months faster.
"Can the locals from that planet detect this ship?"
[That"s improbable. We immediately switched to stealth mode after discovering intelligent life.]
"Good. Excellent work! Please proceed. I want to take this slowly but surely if possible."
[Well then, would it would be fine to use the drones?]
"Drop all units and place them on stealth mode. I"ll leave the landing points to you."
[Understood.]
Ahim then updated his personal log with the details regarding the discovery of a new human planet.
Five years later, the Greater Human Galactic Empire announced the incorporation of the human planet "Earth" as a member planet.
The imperial citizens all rejoiced at the news of Earth"s successful addition. Each expansion of the human domain would mean additional strength to repel the Bug threat. And it had been over three hundred years since the incorporation of a planet with such a developed civilization. The entertainment-starved imperial citizens clamoured for information regarding Earth.
The Earth was treated as an Imperial territory with limited autonomy. In order to lift the restrictions, it was necessary to meet several conditions brought forth by the Empire.
These were the sufficient enhancement of technology to acceptable levels, reaching a certain ability to defend against the Bug threat, sending a number of local citizens to serve in the Galactic Empire military relative to the planet"s total population and so on.
In other words, Earth needed to actively partic.i.p.ate in "foreign exchange". The Empire usually treats the buying and selling of certain types of cultural information, tourism and trade as types of "foreign exchange".
Even though humanity had the same genetic structure and lived in similar environmental conditions, the process of development for each particular civilization was very different, and from that arises a unique way of thinking and culture. The Imperial government secures this information and then sells them to other interested human planets.
This was especially the case with Earth, which housed a wide variety of races and cultures.
The demand for tourist trips to Earth quickly ballooned to shocking levels, and the Imperial government decided to implement a lottery system in response. The probability rates for successfully winning the lottery increased to over 2000 times, and the price of buying and selling said tourist rights also increased accordingly. The price was roughly equal to two times the annual income of regular imperial citizens on a planetary scale.
Of course, the only ones who could afford such a steep price for the tourist rights and travel fare to the frontier sector were a handful of major celebrities and the rich and famous. As a result, sightseeing on Earth has become a major proof of one"s wealth and status.
The general ma.s.ses usually follow whatever those famous celebs get hooked on. Although the average citizens could go on a sightseeing tourist trip to Earth, they could at least get things like Earth-based ingredients and cooking recipes. The Empire imposed harsh tariffs on these things, resulting in the acc.u.mulation of foreign currency on the planet.
After enough information spreads, it eventually leads to the public demanding more regarding the Earth. Thus, whatever fads were currently trending on Earth ended up trending in the entire Empire as well, and the planet established itself as the origin of all things hip and cool.
TL Notes: Too bad the Saiyan Imperium didn"t have Prince Vegeta or Kakarot. They could have won otherwise. Darn shame…
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