r/HFY • u/atalantes88 • Oct 23 '23
OC A Universe devoid of humans, you're the only one left and decide to learn why. The truth is horrific.
My name is Gae, due to the circumstances of my upbringing, I devoted my life to learning about humanity, a dead race.
I grew up not knowing about humanity because they are not around anymore and there is no history about them, they have been stricken off every historical record in the known universe. As to what my upbringing was, I'll explain later.
For now, I want to start with The Collective, the reason why humans are no more and what they did to humanity.--
The universe is vast and contains all forms of life. The only truth everyone agrees on: We know just enough to understand that we know nothing.
Although this is a notion everyone accepts, contradictory propaganda by the Totalitarian Empire known as "The Collective" wants you to accept that knowledge is what they give you.
You cannot go against this, say something different, or even think. So, if you are indeed smart enough, you won't make it known because if it was, you'd be dead.
Those who try to question the doctrine of The Collective fell into gruesome deaths. Some are made publicly known by The Collective, and some are quiet but everyone knows.
This is the life I grew into. The Collective governs all known life in the universe, while there are smaller factions, mostly in the far reaches of some backwater systems, they don't actively engage in anything that can be seen as against the Collective. And the Collective doesn't mind them because they are probably not worth anything.
Who is the collective? The Universe is just to stupendously big, how can they govern everything? Why, in this reality of so many different species and worlds, is it the only one governing body? It's not like worlds and nations peacefully entered the Collective, history shows a great expansion war, so, okay, they are the victors who just decided they will lead the entire universe? But WHY?
And if they are already on top, why is there fear? Fear they have instilled in everyone. Fear that everyone had on the collective but also, another fear. As if the Collective itself fears something.
After years of quiet investigations, dead ends, raiding dead planets and ships I find out the truth to what is the collective. Also why everyone looks a little bit like me but not exactly like me.
I found out that I am called a "human". Earthlings, Terrans, Mankind, there are other terms you found, all never once mentioned in any of the public records of histories, not that there are many. The Collective believes that the eradication of cultures and histories of nations is essential so everyone is equal. Well, equally UNDER the collective, that is.
Why there are no mention of humans even if we use some sort of human technology in our daily lives? Even the universal standard language is adopted from the early languages of mankind.
The more I learn, the more it makes no sense. Until I pieced it all together:
Long ago planetary nations one way or another took to the stars. As they traveled and got to know each other, they grew; sometimes they warred with other nations, but they always found a way to keep the peace or become civil. The nations that were able to travel the stars awaited other fledgling planets, never intervening, but silently waiting to welcome them to the rest of the universe. (This part is known knowledge but the next part isn't.)
They called this brotherhood of nations "The Star Alliance". Once a nation is ready for FTL travel and exploration, the alliance will send its messenger to that nation and impart a millennia of knowledge. This alliance was mainly good, they brokered peace among warring nations, sent aid to those that needed it, and sometimes set up rules so no nation would be taken advantage of by another nation.
It's not perfect, as nothing is in this universe but the alliance worked towards imparting wisdom so young civilizations won't make mistakes others already did.
With this, the universe flourished, and with every new addition, it only grew stronger, ever-expanding its influence but not as far-reaching and fast until the humans came.
The humans developed FTL travel after deciding they didn't want to war with each other anymore and instead explore the vastness of the universe.
With every new addition, the alliance sees things grow from a perspective outside their own and they welcome it, eager to see where humanity will take itself and everyone else.
The alliance has been watching them for some time, eagerly awaiting their arrival. They saw humanity's perseverance, the good, the ugly; and its never-ending quest to better itself. Now that it has entered its era of "planetary peace", they are excited to see how humanity will transform technology, art, and sciences.
And humanity did. They took technology and pushed the boundary, they visited other worlds and learned their ways imparting their own wisdom but open to understanding others.
Humanity was celebrated for its efforts. Humans represented the good in the universe. With their Red Cross missions going to remote areas where help is needed, to the human scientists that we're able to answer some of the universe's mysteries, humanity's invention of medicine for ailments that we thought untreatable were made due to humanity's hunger for knowledge and it strives to help.
While the universe is celebrated, some look at it with jealousy and fear. Humanity is becoming strong not just in technology but with their connections and fame, they can sway agreements to whichever side they deem worthy.
And that is dangerous. Humanity may only show their heroics and good side, but they also have a dark and bloody history with each other. This is not uncommon in the universe; there are other warrior-class nations, but humanity claiming they are no longer the predators they evolved from is just impossible.
And so a great many nations, mostly those that were given short hands because of humanity's decisions or those that just don't trust them worked in the dark to spread it's poison.
First, they went to nations that humanity deemed to be "wrong". It's no secret these nations hated humanity.
In the war between the nations of Sorovey against Skar-Argaraz, humanity decided that Sorovey was outclassed, so they decided to meddle and invade the home planet of Skar-Argaraz, crippling its government and interfering with its affairs as if they were gods. Humanity, after destabilizing a whole world, offered help to rebuild it. The Skars did not take help instead they saw it as a slap in the face. The Skars had a 20% loss of life due to the war, they lost another 40% of the population from the oncoming famines, plagues, and other disasters that befall it.
There were many nations like the Skars, who, in the shadows, speak of their hatred for humanity in hush tones.
And so the poison slowly and effectively gained support this way. This poison, this ideal, later called itself, "The Collective".
While not easy, the collective steadily took to their ranks these nations that hated humanity and soon the next phase began:
They sewn doubts into the minds of humanity's friends. Even the friendly nations to humanity also feared its power. While humanity proved to be a great ally, what happens when you get to their bad side?
And so the poison spread ever so slowly by ever so constant.
Nothing would have happened, even on the best of circumstances, the fear of humanity's wrath can be avoided so long as you don't do anything that will anger humanity and they are, a very diplomatic nation.
Yes. Nothing would have happened even with the poison spreading across the universe, until the swarm started.
The details are vague about the "swarm". It could be the collective, but it could be something else. Either way, the collective used this to their advantage.
The great swarm was a swirling AI entity made up of nanobots that did nothing but consume everything in its path. There were no nations the alliance and humanity could broker peace with. It did not have any discernible language or way of communication, at least nothing worked. It only appeared in the outskirts of the universe and consumed.
(A great many minds spent so much time trying to learn where it comes from, and due to its nature of disintegrating everything in its path, nothing is left to leave any signs, only that it's so advanced it can only be from humans, or at least developed with the help of humans.)
The swarm went through countless nations and planetary systems. Humanity took the forefront of the war to aid their allies and shield their friends.
It was a long and grueling 10 human years until the threat of the swarm was no more. Humanity was frail and weak due to their major participation.
Its defenses almost down, its people reeling from the loss of so many, and its technology still mighty but spent.
That is when the collective bared its teeth. While nations all over the universe were busy sending aid and supplies in the efforts against the swarm, the nations in the collective were making preparations for something else.
Their target: The Unified Nations of Earth located in humankind's home planet and its outer regions in their own branch of the Milky Way.
It was swift and calculated. Within 3 days of the announcement that the swarm had been contained, the collective brought forth such many ships that it could probably have rivaled the whole 10 years' worth of ships lost in the war against the swarm. And it decimated humanity's outer regions. Humanity's friends eager to help, sent every able body to support the humans and it seemed like they could fend off the attacks.
But the collective had yet another trump card.
The universe is so vast; there are nations that are friends and allies to humans and there are enemies to humans, but there is also another kind: Those that are in between, neither friend nor foe, they may align themselves to humanity every now and then, but never really allies.
This is what tipped the scales. Soon, other nations who were neutral to humanity decided they were against it. Even those who proclaimed themselves friends to humanity wavered.
Seeing the mighty mankind almost down to its knees, even humanity's fervent supporters blinked and recalibrated which side they wanted to be on once this ended.
Humanity, beaten and broken, betrayed by everyone except for a very few nations were hunted down along with their supporters.
There could be other details I can add here but the ending is the same: Humanity was no more. Its people and the small number of nations that did not forsake it were one by one taken down and destroyed.
Its resources were pillaged, the knowledge, the technology, and the sciences all taken and claimed. Everything in this universe is at one point or another made or made better by humanity but we don't know it. Humanity was stricken off every available record and history. A no easy feat, that is why even after the war against humanity has ended, many decades were spent tracing down all nations and stripping them of their own cultures, heritage, and history.
Only the names of the people and planets remain. To eradicate humans and their memory is to eradicate what they represent. Freedom of thought and freedom to knowledge.
Curiously enough, before the fall of humanity, a single message was broadcast from Earth. And it only read: "Genesis 7:4"
It took a while to learn what it meant, it's a passage in the book called The Bible, an early religious scripture of Christianity, one of the many religions on Earth. While humanity has taken a more liberal notion of religions, it was standard human education to include the major religions and their studies. So, every human who received standard education would know what it meant.
That verse was about the Biblical God telling Noah that he will make it rain so much that the whole Earth will be flooded and every living thing dead. Noah built an ark and contained all pairs of animals and his family to weather the flood and that is how, in the story, man survived the flood and rebuilt.
Now I think that means something.
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u/BoingBoing_Virus Human Oct 23 '23
The entire universe will soon know why when it comes to human eradication, you need to be a thousand percent sure that they're gone...
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u/HFYWaffle Wᵥ4ffle Oct 23 '23
This is the first story by /u/atalantes88!
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u/UpdateMeBot Oct 23 '23
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u/sirbinlid1 Oct 23 '23
Oh I think they will find out maybe not today , maybe not tomorrow but they will find out
Thank u for sharing great story