Zaigu: Part One

Problems arose rapidly. Nearly all worlds under The Laru Empire had been made to be habitable. In preparing them for human occupancy, they had destroyed each of them to a degree. Nothing was real anymore; nothing was natural. Even the heavens were now only a manipulated creation of Man. There was no "out there" anymore, only an "in here". Nature had for the most part become a thing of history books and the imagination.

People had to choose between breathing the processed air under domes, or breathing the thick mucky mush of polluted air out of the dome. Water was artificially created in labs. Plants, animals, and all of the other beautiful things of nature were cloned and genetically engineered to be put in intergalactic zoos, because they no longer flourished naturally. Life and the universe as Man knew it had become a human creation. Everyone was innately unhappy. People yearned for something, but they didn’t quite know what. There were, however, more immediate issues.

The Laru Empire was strong at first, but had gradually declined to the brink of collapse. For fifteen thousand years it had been maintained, despite the occasional holes that appeared in the galactic alliance. The topple occurred when a string of catastrophes that became known as The Yeuru Wars erupted between Traeche and the newly formed Gildzar sector. The Laru Empire had been quite reluctant to permit several star systems to expand into the Gildzar sector, but the population was exploding, and one empire could not possibly rule from such astronomical distances. So Gildzar had named itself a sort of child of Traeche and The Laru Empire. At first, the people of Gildzar had sworn they would not proclaim themselves as a whole entity separate of Traeche. But eventually, tensions grew and the Gildzar sector declared independence. Traeche, in a desperate attempt to avoid total galactic war, set out massive attacks on the Gildzarian mega-bases. In time, another area of Traeche joined Gildzar. War went on for decades. Another group of Gildzarians and Traechians split off to form Anad, a new sector. These three sectors never let off fighting. Ultimately, The Yeuru Wars became known as The Galactic Battle, and nearly every single star system of each sector was at war with one another.

In time, The Galactic Battle waned, due to the fact that resources had been completely drained on almost every star system. There was simply nothing left to fight with. A new rule was established, called the Hijil. It was weak and could not hold the crumbling galaxy together, but it was all there was. The universal peace had been restored in a sense, but everything was old and worn. Transportation between star systems became more and more rare. Eventually, every single planet was in a sense on its own. Contact nearly vanished between worlds. Individuals on every world struggled daily for food, water, and oxygen. Only the strongest survived. The once powerful Laru Empire, the only real galactic empire that humanity had ever seen, had become an intergalactic wasteland. What chance did humanity have now?

But there was something left. Three orbits outward from the Noiarah star located on the edge of the Hoplan region, there was a young and pristine world. That world was Zaigu. On the edge of nothingness, in a humanity of such prodigious proportions, Zaigu was completely hidden from the lands of the center. It had not seen the many horrifying results of weighted human establishment. Unlike nearly every other colonized habitable planet of Xaizier, it had not been exhausted and overused. While other worlds dried up and died, Zaigu propogated and thrived. While other peoples choked on contaminated air and struggled for bare minimum resources, Zaigans had a surplus of food, water, and fresh air. Zaigu was a young beauty; a virgin planet.