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【Vision of an Alternate Future】

Arc 1: Ascendance

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【VAF】Chapter║: 1 ─ Prologue

Being Part of a Greater Good

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Lesedi : " What Happened to you Naole? The Will of the Source protects Souls; not even Supreme Intelligences could claim your Soul. So why Fracture your Soul?"

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Earth date November-7-2287, and the Nations of Earth have finally achieved a modicum of peace amongst Earth's people. The past 30 years has been the longest period of peace amongst the remaining nations of Earth, it has been the longest period without Earth Nations having some sort of military confrontations amongst each other, and there is new hope that humanity will finally live up the its ideals.

As Earth is five days from being formally accepted into the Galactic Alliance, students from around the world gather at London School of Economics to celebrate 30 years of Interstellar peace. Professor John Maxwell prepares to conduct his annual interactive lecture on the links between Economics and Strategic Military security, and as the international students continue to enter his lecture hall he wonders if these young people truly understand the gravity of three decades of peace.

Around the world nations and on the colonies people are celebrating 30 years of peace, and the acceptance of the 5 Human Governments into the Galactic Alliance. Earth's joining of the Galactic Alliance had been an aspiration of all 5 Human Governments for 60 years, and the hope of security was finally within the reach of all humankind. Twenty years of negotiations had been concluded and all the earth leaders had signed all the necessary documentations, and all that remained was for the acceptance ceremony.

After all the students took their seats Dr John Maxwell a Professor of inter-planetary trade activated the Holographic Volumetric Displays and began to speak.

Prof Maxwell : " I have the results of the student survey that no doubt all of you participated in, and the results are not a surprise to me."

As the Professor was speaking the Displays were being fed to personal devices held by the students through wireless networks, and all the students received the results of the global student survey.

Prof Maxwell : " As you can see many of you think that the turning point that resulted in current economic theory was the terrorist attack in Addis Ababa the Capital of the then Ethiopian Republic, but I beg to differ. There is a different school of thought that believes that there is an incident that preceded the Addis Ababa incident that may have even indirectly created the environment where the Addis Ababa attack could occur"

Since students sat where they chose they were only Identified by their communication 〘Com〙 link Number i.e. Com No. 0001. When Professor John Maxwell switched on the green light on the display the students were free to use their Com Link to ask questions. The first student to activate the Com Link would get to ask the question.

Com No. 0357 : " James Black from New York University. Professor there has been countless historical research that plot the Addis Ababa incident as the single most destabilizing incident in modern global relations since the second world war. The fallout from that attack resulted in longest period of global military tension in human history."

Prof Maxwell : " All that is true! But what you have to ask yourselves is why did a single incident result in the breakdown of global relationships along ethnic and racial lines? Was it really the Hakum attack that united Humans?"

Com No. 0955 : " Thato Modise from the University of Cape Town. This was not some small incident. This was the mass murder of 30 African heads of state, and not to mention that hundreds of thousands of Ethiopians were also killed by this deliberate act of Violence. And in the aftermath of the attack millions of Africans died as a result of the collapse of African economies"

Prof Maxwell : " And that is my point exactly. More people died from the resulting economic collapse than from the terrorist attack itself. On 10-08-2014, 16 months before the attack on Addis Ababa the Japanese oil facility in the East China Sea was attacked by an unknown Force, and to this day we still don't know who attacked the facility? Why? All we know is that it gave rise to suspicion between governments, and trust was broken."

Prof Maxwell then switches on a documentary program that details events around the attack on the Japanese oil facility. In 2009 a Japanese oil company discovered massive oil reserves in the East China sea near a disputed ocean area of the Senkakus. The Value of the Brent crude grade oil in the area was estimated 34 billion barrels at $40 a barrel or about $1350 billion 〘USD〙, and because of the advances in technology in the position of the State owned Japanese company Energy Tech the Government of Japan moved to quickly extract all the oil from that area before the other governments in the region could act.

The rapid introduction of 8 million barrels of Brent crude oil a day into the market caused the Oil price to drop by 40% to just above $40 a barrel, but it also helped to rejuvenate the Economy of Japan, and the availability of cheap fuel for cars accelerated Japanese auto manufacturing as oil revenue from Energy Tech flooded the Japanese Stock Market looking for high yield projects and organisation. As companies from all over the world rushed to list on Japan's Securities exchange Japan quickly became the centre for Asian commerce.

Japan's Banks and Brokerages were flooded with money from around the world as investors rushed to be part of the Japanese Securities exchange Market Boom. In two years the value of the Nikkei increased by 190%, and Japanese banks were buying banks from all over the world. Japan was quickly becoming the centre for global banking and by 2013 20% of the banks of world were owned by Japanese banks.

For the fist time Japan was seeing double digit growth as advances in robotics allowed Japanese manufacturing to be the most efficient form around the world. Japan's manufacturing success came at the expense to cheap labour based economies from the other Asian countries, and this served to raise tensions with China and India because they could no longer compete with the technology based manufacturing of Japan.

On 10-02-2014 the main ocean based oil pumping facility was attacked by a series of 27 torpedoes. The oil pumping facility was completely destroyed, and millions of litres of oil were released into the ocean resulting in the largest man made ecological disaster the world had ever seen. The attack itself resulted in the death of over 1800 oil workers, but the resulting disaster killed all the fish and other marine species in the area.

In the days after the attack panic began to run rampant as global markets began to calculate the true cost of the attack. While the Japanese economy was not oil based people began to think that the resulting ecological catastrophe would destroy the fishing industry and related industries. In the resulting panic the Nikkei plunged a record 45% in one week until Japan's government indefinitely suspended trading on the exchange.

The crush of the Nikkei resulted in a short lived global market crush as investors around the world sought to unload any stock that had Japanese links. As the global markets settled down the Government of Japan began to take steps to support their financial systems. The Government of Japan used the government owned post office based bank to extend long term low interest loans to most of Japan's financial institutions.

Four weeks after the attack the markets had regained stability, and so the Government of Japan lifted the suspension of the trading on the exchange. After the markets regained some stability and the reconstruction of the offshore oil facilities were underway Ken Taro the Prime Minister addressed parliament to give a progress report on the activities of the Government of Japan and the resulting investigations into who had attacked Japan.

Ken Taro : " Its been 5 weeks since our people were savagely and mercilessly attacked by cruel and murderous forces. 5 weeks since our country was destabilized, 5 weeks since our Economy was sabotaged, 5 weeks since our territory was invaded by hostile forces, and we still don't know Who attacked us! What we know is that this attack was carried out by a country with advanced Naval and submarine capabilities! What we know is that Japan can no longer be complacent, we can no longer ignore Countries that pose a clear, present and growing danger to the national security of our country. These countries don't recognize the rights of our people to peace, and consequently we can't continue to hope that those who have an entrenched hatred for the Japanese can ever see the benefits of peace. Therefore we have to be able to defend ourselves by any means necessary. What the Japanese people need to understand is that this attack may only be the beginning. What would stop our attackers from launching a stealth submarine missile attack on Tokyo. In the end all that will stand in the way of enemy Nuclear first strike is an assured second strike capability and that means submarines armed with Nuclear missiles. I know that the idea of Japan armed with Nuclear weapons has for a long time seemed morally repugnant to many Japanese people, and even to me. But we simply have no choice! No security system is perfect, No military can assure complete security, and thus we have no choice but to resort to deterrence like all other major nations of the world. We fear that the world is entering another dark age as fear and suspicion are about to become the order of the day. We don't know who attacked us, and for all we know this could be the work of a distant and non-regional power who's only interest in attacking us was to stir up trouble in the region for reasons they alone understand. Our allies in the USA and Europe have not been able to ascertain who the culprits are, and thus the whole world remains in the dark as to the perpetrators of this evil act. I know that the Japanese people are afraid and there is a lot of speculation about who actually attacked us, and The Japanese Government apologises for not being able to provide the Japanese people with answers. The Government of Japan therefore undertakes to rapidly increase the defence capabilities of the Japanese self defence forces to put up the in par with other major powers, and that means that the Japanese parliament must agree to amend the constitution by public referendum allowing for adequate defence of the Japanese people."

Following the speech of Prime Minister Ken Taro the Japanese parliament approved the legislation that formally called for a public referendum on the constitutional amendments that would change the peace constitution and put it in line with other major global governments.

Within two weeks the referendum was held and the Japanese public approved the constitutional changes, and this triggered an immediate expansion of Japan's military industrial complex as the Japanese Government created a state owned defence company that would build 15 light aircraft carriers, 2 super-carriers, Submarines, Destroyers and Cruisers. The Defence company was also tasked with developing a carrier based aircraft similar to the British harrier and the US JSF to operate on their carriers.

This construction multiplied the Japanese defence budget by 5 in just one year, and this brought Japanese defence spending to over $270 billion 〘USD〙 with projected increases to $350 billion 〘USD〙 in the coming 2 years. As expected China, South Korea, Russia, Vietnam, Australia, India and Taiwan also increased their defence spending in an attempt to keep their military comparatively capable.

After the documentary was finished the lecture continued.

Com No. 0322 : " David Aviv from the University of Jerusalem. But Professor there were hostilities but no further attacks took place, and further more the situation was mostly a regional problem, it did not polarise the world, if anything the increased investment in military technology by the regional Governments created a new era of technological developments which resulted in massive investments in science and related industries."

Prof Maxwell : " Unfortunately there were some benefits to technological developments which is why people tend to ignore the negative aspects of what happened. All you have to do is look at the intelligence and surveillance budgets of the time to see just how chaotic the environment became after the secret attack on the Japanese Facilities. Nations once again started to heavily spending money on spying on each other, and that created a climate of suspicion not seen since the end of the cold war. It was only a matter of time before the new cold war expanded itself in a proxy war of some sort."

Com No. 0677 : " Lola Mendez from the University of Mexico. Professor are you saying that the attack on Addis Ababa may have been one of the proxy wars?"

Prof Maxwell : " The Africans refused to accept that the attack was simply the work of an Islamic Terrorist Organisation. The Africans believed that the attack was part of a global conspiracy to destabilize African Governments in an attempt to take control of African mineral resources."

Com No. 1135 : " Wang Tao from Hong Kong University. Professor the Africans to this day believe that this was just another attempt to re-colonise Africa, and many in the African Federation still don’t trust the rest of the human governments because of the stance taken by European and American Nations during the war that followed. Can you explain why the Africans lost trust in many Asian nations of the time?"

Prof Maxwell : " The short answer is oil. I've prepared a second documentary to further explain the situation at the time."

The displays were once again activated and a second documentary began to play detailing the events of that occurred in Addis Ababa

On 01-11-2015 Mahmoud Atef an aid to Tamil Said Yemen’s Foreign minister infected himself with the Ebola Virus. Mahmoud Atef quickly became infectious and then infected Tamil Said who the passed the virus to Arab League Secretary General Abdul Abas. Abdul Abas held meetings with all the 15 heads of state of the Southern African Development Community 〘SADC〙 group during the African Union Summit.

In the meeting with the SADC group the virus was passed to all the heads of state and the ante rage, and President Mzuma of the Republic of South Africa later held bilateral talks with the President of Kenya, the President of Nigeria, the President of Ivory Coast, the Prime Minister of Ethiopia and the President of Cameroon passing the virus to them. When the leaders of Africa began to fall ill it was discovered that Tamil Said Yemen’s Foreign minister and his aid Mahmoud Atef had already been killed by the disease.

In 28 hours 30 sub-Saharan heads of state and governments were killed by what was determined to be a strain of the Ebola virus. As panic set in on the streets of Addis Ababa many people were held in quarantine as the virus spread. In the aftermath nearly 900000 people were killed by the virus, African leaders were dead, Global air travel was suspended, and there were mass riots on the streets of every city in sub-Saharan Africa.

Once the Virus was contained the Joel Mabuza deputy President of the Republic of South Africa emerged from a secret location to address parliament as a special sitting of parliament was called to formally elect a new president. After Joel Mabuza was elected and sworn as President of the Republic of South Africa he took the podium to address the public for the first time as President of the Republic of South Africa.

President Mabuza : " These are dark days for our Country, dark days for freedom, liberty and peace, dark days for the whole world!" he takes a Pause "We did not seek, nor did we provoke this attack on our freedom and our way of life!" he takes a Pause "We did not expect, nor did we invite a confrontation with evil! What helped keep the cold war cold was a sense of moral restraint that the Weapons of Mass Destruction 〘WMD〙 were too terrible to use, but that restraint doesn't exist with Jihadist who strap bombs to their chests and blow up night clubs, buses and trains." he takes a Pause "There is evil in the world, and today the agents of evil are these Islamic Jihadist. We have seen with the attack on Japan that some governments think if they act secretly, or through other proxy forces there will be no real consequences, we cannot allow this notion to go unchallenged. Africa can no longer afford to be complacent in our response to the evil perpetrated by these Islamic Jihadist." he takes a Pause "It has been our experience that these evil doers don't act alone, they are supported and protected by governments who hold the same ideology. These Governments refuse to stop harbouring the Islamic Jihadist, instead they actively aid and abed them, thus making themselves Accomplices to their Evil Crimes" The President takes a moment to drink water "2 hours ago 200 South African Air Force Aircraft took off from bases in Kenya, Comoros Islands, Uganda and Ethiopia. 30 minutes ago the Chief of the Air Force told me that our Aircraft were just minutes from the Yemen border and it was time to Confirm the attack order. I gave the order to fire! And moments ago the bombs started falling on all the facilities of Yemen’s Government." he takes a Pause "The bombs will continue to fall until there are no facilities left to destroy! We will destroy every building, every school, every hospital, every dam, every Police station, every Fire station, every government owned factory and all other government buildings. I know some people in Europe will think that this response is disproportionate, but we have to send a message to all governments who sponsor terror, and the message is; We will hold you responsible for the activities of your citizens!"

Prof Maxwell : " That was a major turning point in history, and from that moment onwards countries were held responsible for the activities of their citizens. Nations could no longer claim that individuals acted alone, and the responsibility of confronting each Nation's extremist groups was firmly placed with that particular Nation."

Com No. 0723 : " Jason Duncan from Oxford University. But Professor the Republic of South Africa was stopped from carrying out the near complete destruction of Yemen, and despite the president that was set the world government reached agreements on rules of blame where foreign nationals were involved."

Prof Maxwell : " Yes! But the Africans never agreed to those rules, and that made the rules inadequate because the world governments knew that if the Africans were once again attacked by an extremist group it would start a war. The intervention of the then NATO taskforce to stop the Republic of South Africa convinced the Africans that Europe was somehow involved in the attack on Africa. The destruction of the South African Air Force in the gulf region galvanized Sub-Saharan Africa to the support of the Republic of South Africa and resulted in a military stand off that threatened to plunge the world into chaos"

Com No. 0117 : " Leigh Rochelle from the University of Berlin. Professor, Historically speaking? Did the Africans have the necessary military capabilities to engage in a sustained confrontation with the NATO countries?"

Prof Maxwell : " Because of the South African Diamond industry the South Africans developed advanced Laser based Diamond Cutting systems which they then secretly weaponized. When they applied the Laser weapon systems during the conflict they decimated the Air power in the gulf region, and this left the American led Carrier Battle Groups that formed the NATO taskforce vulnerable to attacks by the remaining African Aircraft. The Crystalorb Elite Guard proved to be an important component in the brief conflict. NATO lost 3 carriers that day, and that included a US super-carrier. I think that even though the South African Navy was completely destroyed the NATO countries were unsettled at the prospect of more naval losses at the hands of advanced Laser weapons technology, and that brief delay when the NATO were deciding weather to launch an all out war on the South African Allied African countries over something that was started by Islamic Jihadists extremist allowed cooler heads to prevail and a cease fire to be reached. However the US Military was mobilizing for all out war in the event that the cease fire did not hold. The influenza outbreak of 2029 and the subsequent African wars led to the Sub-Saharan African Countries being united into the African Federation Of City States. Some say that the formations of the African Federation was the birth of a knew age, and the end of the African dark ages. Following the birth of the African Federation Of City States there was a population boom, and the African population soared to 3.3 billion. There was a fundamental shift in the world, the African prosperity convinced the world that they are stronger together, and that the ethnic differences are superficial. Today the African Federation of City States is the second most powerful of the 5 Earth Federations or Alliances. The Africans have made incredible progress, and their technology is second to none. At a population of 8.8 Billion people the Africans have the largest National population amongst the 5 Earth Nations. That is 22.411% of the total human population. African poverty levels are the lowest of the 5 Earth Nations, and their Economy remains largely insulated from the turmoil’s of the international stock markets. For over 150 years the Africans have resisted attempts to integrate their financial institutions into the Interstellar market, and they continue to stubbornly use their Industrial Minerals Coins as legal tender."

The lecture continues as the students from all over the world including Africa exchanged views on the links between National security and economic activity.

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Meanwhile in JoBurg the Capital City of the African Federation of City States the media was asking questions about the security status of the African Federation, and with a newly elected member of the Federal Executive Council en-route to Andronus many were wondering if the Federal Executive Council could take command decisions without its full nine members.

Edoi Manawi the Spokesperson for the Federal Executive Council tries to assure the African public that their security and the safety of the African Federation will not be affected by the absence of a member of the Federal Executive Council.

Edoi : " I can assure you that the Federal Executive Council is still in Command, and because of subspace communications our Forces are in constant communications with the 9th member of the Federal Executive Council. There are 5 BattleGroups escorting the BattleCruiser AFS JoBurg. That's 5 BattleCruisers and 50 Destroyers. We are confident that nothing will happen to the member of the Federal Executive Council."

Journalist 1: " With all due respect, the enemies of the Galactic Alliance are very powerful, with technology that is far more advanced than Earth technology. You expect us to believe that 5 BattleGroups could stop multiple Hakum attack groups?"

Journalist 2: " The last time a Asian Consortium BattleGroup faced a Hakum attack group 3 Asian Consortium Destroyers were destroyed, and the Hakum walked away without any significant damage."

Edoi : " You have to understand there is a vast difference between our ships and those of the other Earth Nations. We operate an 11 ship BattleGroup format, and there is a distinction in the way they define the class of their warships; Our Frigate class warships are 20% larger than that of any other Earth Nations, and our Destroyers are similarly larger than that of other Earth Nations, and our BattleCruisers are only equalled by the Crystalorb StarShips."

Journalist 4: " Speaking of Crystalorb! Have the Crystal Guardians sent any of their ships to support the escort battle groups?"

Edoi : " As you know the Crystal Guardians don't like to make the movements of their Ships public knowledge, and for security reasons I can't confirm the presence of any Crystalorb ship amongst the escort taskforce. But people there are nearly 300 Other ships from Earth; Let’s not try and scare people over nothing!"

Journalist 5: " But you are not denying the possibility of a Crystalorb presence?"

Edoi : " Crystalorb is an integral part the African Federation, it falls within the jurisdiction of the Constitutional amendments that prescribe its role in the African Federation, and as such is subject to those laws. Therefore by law all African Federation registered Ships are for their own security purposes armed, and the Crystalorb Ships are no different. All Crystalorb ships are by African Federation Federal law considered African Federation Warships. The constitution gives Crystalorb the same powers as the African Federal Security Forces with the distinction that they do not fall under Federal Executive Command. Crystalorb has a Constitutional mandate to protect the Constitution of the African Federation of City States, and to protect the citizens of the African Federation of City States. However in the past they have responded positively to our requests for assistance. The Crystal Guardians have proven to be very effective against our enemies, and if their presence offers our forces a strategic advantage we will no doubt call on them. Thank you!"

Earth was desperate to be part of the larger Union, and until this point they had been one of the developing worlds on the outskirts of the Galactic Alliance. The Hakum had become a constant threat to the Interests of the 5 Earth Nations, and the hope was that once Earth joined the Galactic Alliance they would receive advanced military support from the Older Nations of the Galaxy.

Earthans or Humans were of one of the youngest races to ever be invited to join the Galactic Alliance, and it was a great vote of confidence that Humans were invited despite not having a single Government. The other developing worlds were invited to join the Galactic Alliance for strategic and military reasons, either they were located in a strategic location or they were near valuable mineral resources, but earth did not hold any strategic or resource value.

Earth's only claim to glory was that Humans were the only developing race in the past 300 Earth years to survive an assault by a Hakum attack group. The Hakum had for the past 100000 Earth years been the foot soldiers of the Migon Federation, and they were known throughout the Galaxy as the Galactic Raiders. In the Hakum the Migon had found a mirrored reflection of themselves.

Other than the citizens of the Migon Federation the Hakum were the only other advanced Sentient-Sapient race of a reptilian physiology in the Galaxy. Predatory in nature, the average Hakum is; about 2.4 meters tall, a biped with a 1.3 meters long tail, a muscular body encased in reptilian skin covered in scaly bone armour, two hands equipped with razor sharp claws designed to cut through flesh and the mouth covered with razor sharp teeth along with a bite force capable of crashing bone.

The only Earthly comparison would have been a small dinosaur, and in the galaxy there was only one race that had a similar appearance to the Migon. The Migon features looked similar to the Hakum but with very distinct differences; The average Migon is about 4 meters tall with 9 limbs, and that's 4 legs, 4 arms and a massive Tail. Two of the Migon's arms are much larger than the other pair, and the larger pair is webbed like a bat.

When the Human race first saw an image of the Migon one word Came to mind "Dragon". To humans the Migon were highly evolved dragons, and it came as no surprise that the Migon were a ravenous and destructive race. The major races of the Galaxy believed that the Hakum may have been the result of Migon genetic manipulation, and that the Hakum were created to be a servant race that held the same beliefs as the Migon.

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【Vision of an Alternate Future】