Prologue.


In the midst of the 23rd century, the situation for Earth and its inhabitants had reached crisis levels. Centuries of neglect and plunder by the human race had drained Earth of the majority of it's natural resources and global warming had threatened nothing less then total and outright extinction. With now a human population exceeding 40 billion, Earth was long past being capable of harboring the human race and even by this point, nearly 30% of the human race spend the most their lives in orbital science or manufacturing stations, nearly nations in their own right or the frontier colonies such as the mining camps on Mars or the floating spires of the gas refineries Jupiter. The fate of mankind had become nearly a daily battle to feed it's ever growing population. Food, water, energy and basic minerals had nearly become the currency of the new age and with no sign of a sustainable, long-term answer, the human race was on the verge of annihilation; not from war or disease but from the silent and dark fate of starvation.
In desperation, the remaining super-powers formulated a plan to save their race. In most likely the first and only global effort of such a magnitude, they created Project Exodus; a risky and desperate plan to colonize a new habitable world before humanity's time ran out. With the recent discovery of the "fold-drive" travel to other star-systems was indeed possible but had never been attempted due to the cost in resources. Now, having little other choice, each of world's current superpowers, The U.SA, The Oceanic Union, Europe/Russian Alliance, The Asian Combine and Africa all contributed some of their last remaining resources and some of the most talented of their populous in to the gambit. With a mighty ark-like ship build for the project, it was populated and supplied to not only colonize a new world but to return and supply earth with their discoveries.

Sadly, the project was not fated to succeed. The fold-drive of the time was indeed still experimental and a slight fault during their journey to Alpha Centauri had  what was thought to be catastrophic failure. The colonists were not heard from for over a decade and by this time, mankind was nearly on the brink of self-destruction, on the verge of global war for the last scraps of what Earth could offer. An eleventh hour discovery however provided hope and most likely saved Earth; A new method of hydrogen mining directly from the Sun itself. While only partially coming even close to solving mankind's dilemmas, it was a building block on the road to a recovery. With this new fuel source, mankind could launch expeditions to the edge of the Solar System and beyond. With new mining and colonization options, humanity had pulled itself out of the pit of extinction. Despite the misgivings of Project Exodus, mankind continued to survive and indeed, was progressing along the first steps of prosperity once more.

But the fate of Project Exodus was nothing like anything the humans of Earth had foretold or predicted. While their ship had indeed never reached Alpha Centauri system or anything even remotely close to it, they did indeed survive the fold-jump. With their fold-drive badly damaged however and beyond repair or refit, the ship was reduced to conventional travel and was reduced to doing so for 18 more years. With supplies dwindling however, even with what the crew could salvage from whatever they passed though, a ship-wide civil war was threatening to consume the colonists. Accusation was made, blame was cast and the officials of each of the five races seemed powerless to stop the decent. However in this dark hour, a fortunate turn of fate or perhaps dumb luck had the ship in the path of a previously unheard of star system. Though it took several years to arrive on their limited speed, the colonists indeed, against all odds, discovered a habitual planet.

The planet was named Terolan by the colonists. The name was actually subject to rather intense debate and even approaching the point of conflict, with several parties believing the planet should have a name significant to their religion or culture. It was after a rather hot-blooded gathering of the colonists leaders that a rather low ranking and unremembered clerk to one of the Oceanic Union officers suggested, abet rather jokingly, that the planet should be simply named after who discovered it first. The idea was passed around and eventually presented to the council.  Despite the rather simple and unotherdox idea, the council who, likely out of sheer fatigue with the in-fighting and debate considered the proposal. When the ship's logs were checked, the sensor operator who reported the first contact was an officer by the name of Magnus Terolan.  After receiving the news the planet would possibly become a namesake to his family line, Terolan was granted the honor to be among the first humans to enter the atmosphere for environmental studies. Like the aging mothership however, the shuttle fleet aboard it were also suffering badly from the years of voyage. On the exploratory mission, Terolan's shuttle suffered a catastrophic failure to the power plant just prior to atmospheric entry and never recovered. While two of the crew made a successful evacuation, Terolan's life pod was struck by debris from the stricken shuttle and plummeted catestrophicly with it in the atmosphere. Sadly, and perhaps ironically, Terolan became both the first human to make planetfall and first man to have his remains buried on the planet.

Out of respect of the dead officer and perhaps to stave off the ever decreasing morale which the incident surely did not aid, the council named the planet Terolan and proceeded to land and settle. Dubbing their collective group as "Terrans" Each of the 5 groups founded their own cities and  named their new nations after their original leaders. The U.S.A founded their nation of Agison on the flatlands of the central continent. The Africans, who in the late centuries had brought their people from poverty to near first-world conditions in some areas with breakthroughs in geo-thermal energy and later, space mining chose the north-western nation and bore it the name Joultan. Further north the Euro-Russian Alliance settled in the cold lands of what was known to be Sergeiol. Despite the harsh climate and lack of major resources, the alliance chose it land well. Terolan was plagued with atmospheric storms and their land seemed to exist in a near perpetual eye of calm. Their lands became a critical hub for space travel and any space-planet exchanges. The Asian Combine choose a remote island continent of Haliao and focused mostly on oceanic farming and research. Perhaps the most unusual choice was the Oceanic Union. Their selection was a southern continent named Thaerin. The land, despite its access to useful tradelanes in both aerospace and sea was mostly hostile desert. The logic of their decision was only uncovered several years later when their amazing advances in research and technology was partially responsible to artifacts of a long dead xeno race. The fact this information was not revealed to the council before the planetfall in full lead to a level of distrust to the Thaerins. This discontent, however soon faded when the fruits of their discovery were marketed world-wide. That said, there was always the muttered rumor that the Thaerins kept the best discoveries to themselves. Just in case...However the most staggering discovery was yet to come.

In the 4th year after the first planetfall, the Agisons discovered made first contact with another sentient race. Not in the busy space above the planet but on the western expanses of their growing territory.  They called themselves the Driaka and were bipedal like the humans but that was about all they had in common. They were winged and stood between 7-9 feet tall, towering over the tallest human. They were also scaled and to many of the Terrans, resembled dragons of ancient human myth who started using the term as a nickname (which was surprisingly tolerated by Driaka, abet, barely.) for their new neighbours. However the Driaka had little wish or desire to forge any sort of alliance or even maintain contact with the Terrans, despite the speed that they mastered the human languages. They saw their total reliance on their technology as almost blasphemous   and downright reckless. Indeed while the Driakas themselves maintained a surprisingly capable of technology themselves, it was totally alien to the style and form of the Terrans. The planet itself seemed to power not only the Driakian devices and technology but the Driaka themselves seemed to be able wield such energy. The Terrans quickly grew suspicious of the rituals known as "Maniria" to the Driaka and labeled it with many superstitious   names such as "witchcraft" or "magic. When it was reveled that the Driaka used their power to shield their colonies which were later found to be set mostly in the southern continents of the planet from the eyes of the Terrans before their planetfall, relations became strained and bordered on hostility. The final straw happened when the Driaka refused to teach the Terrans the way of the Maniria and labeled them little more then "invading parasites" and threatened that their consuming ways would be the doom of them and their race. Seeing the statement as challenge, the council of the Terran leaders put aside their differences with each other and prepared for war.

The did not need to wait long. While history of each race reports the opposing side of casting the first stone, the war that was later to be known as the War of the Powers waged for the best part of 20 years. The length of the war was mostly due to the elusiveness of the Driaka forces and several instances were a ceasefire was nearly called. Each time however, the intolerance of both sided burned though such deals and the war was rejoined. The Driaka proved to be impressive natural fighters, especially in the arts of close-combat and long range barrages. The Terrans had indeed underestimated them. However, several breakthroughs in the field of PSI and psionics gave the humans are rather unusual edge. Formed by a mutation in the human brain which seemed to have been far more common on those born on Terolan, some humans began to be able to manifest paranormal energy manipulation and production. With training and research, the Terrans soon learned how to harness this mutation and those with it learned how to turn a unusual instinct for danger to a near second sight, a unexplained "nack" to an almost unnatural boost to their abilities. Indeed, many of the new "Psionists" mastered the ability to use their own mental energy as a deadly weapon but it was the innate ability for the psionists to manipulate energy that the Terran lords and generals held the most interest in. The Driaka technology while not as direct and forceful as the Terrans was deadly none the less with those skilled in the art of Maniria able to use everything from incendiary balls of energy to weather and elemental control as a weapon. As powerful and greatly efficient it was, the bold plan was to use the Terran psionists as a literal jamming device in battle to distort and if possible, deny the Driaka use of their terrestrial energy. The plan was surprisingly effective but was thwart with the sheer math of the situation; while a psionist was a dangerous opponent for a skilled Driaka Maniria artist, the fact that the very mutation that allowed a human to harbor such ability was still rare. By comparison, any Driaka could, with training, learn the art of wielding the Maniria. The war ground to a stalemate when the Terran repulsed the Driaka thrusts and formed an invasion of their own, only to be held fast by the natural fortress of their lands that the Driaka knew how to exploit every inch of. Despite the futility of the conflict, both sides remained adamant that the existence of the other was an outright danger to their species and the war carried on. That is, until a third party forced its conclusion.

During the 18th year of the War of Powers, a Terran armored unit was reported under attack by an unknown force. Clipped and desperate cries described them as "ghosts of lighting" or "killing phantoms"and by the time a rescue force had arrive, the entire crew of six machines were found dead or dying, most suffering extreme physical and mental shock as well as horrific internal burns. Thought to be a new Driaka terror-weapon, special forces and agents were dispatched to identify and ultimately formulate a plan for the destruction of its means of production. It was however, only a week later when a Driaka front base of operation was witnessed by a squad of Terran saboteurs to be attacked by identical means. The third attack upon a Terran supply convoy was captured on the instruments of Dr. Olotir, an expert in the studies of the Maniria and other Driaka phenomena. It was both this attack and those that soon followed that pieced together the clues for the Terrans to the logic behind them; The bursts of energy used to kill and destroy were not a weapon at all but an actual sentient life, one that was utterly and totally unlike any lifeform ever encountered. The energy-creatures attacked like predatory beasts, burning, shocking and consuming the bio-energy of their prey. More then just mere animals though, the aliens were soon found to display intellect at least on the human level, capable of setting up surgical strikes and ambushes to all out tactical warfare including raids on supply lines and even the assassination of key army officers.

It was this new threat, one that both sides were utterly unprepared to deal with that saw the end of the War of Powers. Resources were desperately diverted to find an answer to fighting a race that was more alien then most could even imagine. Being mostly insubstantial, physical attacks were nearly useless. Though the aliens could assume physical forms for a short time, most of their combat could be executed in their energy state. Interesting enough, the Terran "Legion" project proved to be the most effective. A special forces group made up of combat-psionists, they were originally designed for the assassination of key Driaka personal. However the psionics turned out to be the most effective weapon against the new aliens. Though energy weapons and some forms of Maniria attacks were also damaging, they were only somewhat effective compared to the psionists. Grudgingly, both sides formed a lose alliance of sorts to strike at the aliens before they could make a firm foothold. Reluctantly, the Driaka reveled information which lead to the alien's "base" of sorts. Along the remote Phanralou Range, a rugged formation of land to the far east of the major Driaka settlements, the two sides found a massive formation of catacombs.

The initial decent turned out to be nearly disastrous. The aliens, which became to be known as the Phanralous, swarmed at the invaders. However the Phanralous came to Terolan, the answer was in the underground caves as was proven when the Phanralous seemed to be able to draw upon nearly unlimited reinforcements. Beaten back and in fear of waking a whole proverbial hornet's nest, the commanding officer of the Terran forces, General Brakworth ordered a massive air and orbital strike on the entire mountain range. Though utterly disgusted at the callus destruction of a natural formations, the Driaka added their own weight to the bombardments when the reality of the situation sunk in. Between them, the entire mountain range was reduced to ashen rubble and the catacombs totally collapsed. Deep scans after the siege shown no remaining Phanralous energy signatures and for a while it was thought their threat has been exterminated. The Driaka and Terrans settled to an uneasy truce and set about to rebuild their shattered lands.

But the threat was far from over or even close to removed. The Phanralous killed in the attack had only been a vanguard for their race and war had not only attracted them to the planet but covered their movements as they seeded many lands of the planet. But beyond, that the more frightening aspect was yet to come...

Following the war, rebel groups of both Terrans and Driaka were witnessed to have formed pacts and alliances supporting the Phanralous. Some saw them as a divine race and the next step of evolution. Others saw the Phanralous as better answer to the tough fronteer life they were enduring, even if under their rule. The governments of both races outlawed such groups and the followers were quickly swept up. But many escaped before this took place and moved to underground operations. Eight years after the war and the cells of Phanralous followers, who had been mounting increasing violent acts of terrorism, had reached a dangerous size and were capable of launching military actions. Several major attacks had already been launched and the two races, the Terrans especially had braced themselves for the new war. The Legions had become a full part of the Terran armed forces but with one key difference; total independence of other chain of command. Fears of Phanralous infiltration had reached crisis levels and no one other then the iron-willed psionists, the utter bane of the foul race, had been above corruption. Because of which, a safeguard law was put in place that in the event of Phanralous corruption any and all forms of Terran command could be superseded by a Legion. Because of which, the Legions became the respected but also awed and feared enforcers of the Terrans.

But even despite the best efforts of the Legions, the Phanralous forces grew in size and strength. They planned and prepared, still launching attacks on the other races of Terolan but also holding the bulk of their force in check, as if almost waiting for a signal. A portent with significance unfathomable to anyone but the Phanralous.

A symbol. A sign. One made with the best of intentions, but would end up being the herald of judgement for Terolan and beyond.