[CN-SR] The Splinter Supremacy

[Subtleknifewielder]

Gentic modification. Selective breeding. Such were, in the vast majority of 21st century nations, highly illegal, at least to perform on humans. Of course, that didn't stop more, and more, from doing it anyway. Seeking to improve upon the human race, people made themselves, or their children, or copies from their own genetic codes, stronger, faster, smarter. More durable. More adaptable. In short, a physically superior human. And such humans passed those traits on to any offspring they had. They thought they had been discovered when the near the end of the century, rumors of their existence were beginning to leak. However, the fleeing of the Flonyards bought them the time they needed, relieving the humans of the pressure to eliminate them, as everyone thought all the modifieds had left. They had time to secretly gather their strength, their resources, and their supporters...and launch a global war of conquest.

And that brings to the Third World War. Not as devastating as those in the Cold War had feared, but more widespread and destructive than anyone could have predicted. Everything short of Nuclear weapons were used. Biological, chemical, even selective planetary bombardment from space-based weapons facilities...and the tactics were brutal. Since the genetically enhanced humans already viewed themselves as superior beings, they weren't afraid to show it...treating their fellow men and women as one would animals--to be exterminated, used, or controlled. They became despised, but above all, feared, by those on the front lines of the conflict, not necessarily for what would be done in battle, but what would be done against those the defenders sought to protect.

They sought to rule the planet, but even in the height of the war, they were planning for every contingency, stripping the territories they conquered of every resource they could use...and it was just as well. The 'lesser' beings, outraged at the atrocities commited, banded together and summoned the courage, and the will, to drive the conquerors back, to liberate the oppressed...but they weren't quick enough to punish their antagonists. The modified had, in secret, been contstructing the means to leave the planet...stockpiling food, weapons, fuel...and as the humans closed in, lanched themselves into space in hundreds, nay, thousands, of ships, meeting up at a rendezvous far to the north of the orbital plane.

Again, their forsight came into play...their ships were modular in design, allowing for each and every one to combine into a single, massive ship, and before the forces of humanity could organize themselves for pursuit...the newly formed generation ship [i]General Douglas MacArthur[/i] sped out of the system at the swiftest speed it could manage, fleeing far from the range of any sensors available to their race at that present time.

For years, they continued fleeing to the Galactic North, seeking to simply leave the Galaxy, leave Earth behind long enough to build up their forces unmolested and return when the time was right, to take their place as the rightful rulers of humanity. They would be much longer in returning than anyone could have foreseen.

Five years out, in the year 2100--despite occasionally dispatching smaller pieces of the ship as scouts--they stumbled through an anomaly in space...somehow, emerging more or less intact a year later, they found themselves again on the galactic rim in another Spiral Arm of the Milky Way...on the side directly opposite Earth's location, well away from anything even remotely conceived as 'known' space.

Of course, this did not stop the intrepid crew of the MacArthur. Never let it be said that these people were cowards--they set to exploring their new vicinity with a will, and before long, stumbled across an inhabitable planet. The fact that it was already occupied, concerned them not at all. It was only primitives, not even as strong or adaptable as a normal human being. They were no match for these...super-humans, much less their weapons, and it was over very quickly.

Surprisingly, with little bloodshed, as well. The natives, calling themselves the Em'ree, saw their conquerors as gods, and were more than eager enough to serve in any task their new masters would have them do.

For many hundreds of years, left to their own devices, the humans, and their subjects, breed, and reproduce at a phenomenal rate, threatening their world with overpopulation even as they build massive quantities of ships and weapons, and research new technologies at an astonishing pace. Also, during this time, they begin to explore the phenomenon that brought them there. Though no one can retrace the 'slipstream' (as they have taken to calling it) route that got them there, they so manage to explore further out from their intial base, not only spreading out into the rest of their current system, but other inhabitable systems. These new systems are turned to once the overpupulation reaches a critical point, and in droves, they reach out, colonizing system after system, continuing to reproduce at phenomenal rates, and spreading out, and out...and not always peaceably.

Either through subjugating or exterminating any natives they encounter, or through the inevitible internecine warfare that began to spring up between rival groups calling themselves clans, these people became used to an almost constant state of warfare...