Just a little bit of blue R2.0

2.0– War in the Worlds

This Universe was already a very old place when the Earth was formed. Even in our galactic arm, life had risen and disappeared in other planets. Civilizations rose and died. System scale colonization and quasi galactic empires had risen and clashed in wars for resources, powerlust and sheer madness only to be brought back to meaninglessness by the impossibility of mantaining control over the chasmic distances of the Cosmos. The preponderance of magnetohydrodinamic drives for interplanetary travel, especially for the propulsion of military craft, made a specific solution of Natrium Chloride ideal for use as a fuel for these drives. Although time space warping was the preferred method for moving between stars, it was highly impractical for shorter distances and smaller craft, so, in those days, the race was on for salt water of a very peculiar kind.

(Image: sciencesetavenir.fr)

Huge, planetary scale projects were implemented by those Empires militaries in order to source this fuel, and a number of planets like ours, that contained copious amounts of water were targeted for planetary engineering. This meant, in some cases, that adjustments had to be made to rectify the chemical balance of the waters. In order to adjust Earth, it meant hurling a couple of magnesium chloride asteroids into the primordial ocean, and wait for an ice age and the precipitation of excess Bromine and Iodine. They were in no hurry, this Empire had gone for billions of years and would go on for billions more, so, it could wait out another couple of billion for the the build up of a strategic reserve. To protect these fields of galactic fuel, orbital bases the size of small planets were set up and left to their own devices to scan and defend the space around them.

A couple of billion years went by and further needed adjustments were made, like hurling in another rock to kill off the emerging fauna. The military didn't need the excess methane in the atmosphere nor, God forbid, the emergence of a sentient species that made political sensibilities stir up unneeded complications. They liked things to run smoothly, and the extra couple of rocks would also help dropping in one more ice age to further clarify the waters. It was then that it happened. The Scourge.

No Empire lasts forever, and this one had certainly overwelcomed it's stay. From some other forgotten Galaxy, an hive mind race of locust like behaviour that razes entire worlds to feed galactic scale needs of resources, arrived in ours. They had mastered quantic implosion, a far superior technology to the Empire's magnetohydrodinamics, and they were able to instantly jump around the most state of the art military craft the Empire owned. The Scourge took their plunder and moved on to another Galaxy.

The Scourge's million year long destructive action efectively disolved the Empire, as no one had the means for interplanetary travel anymore, let alone intersystem jumps. All machines and refined materials had been reclaimed by the Locusts. Some sentient species that were subjects and slaves to the Empire then, found themselves to fend off on their own. Planets like Earth were left untouched for being so out of the way and technology devoid that the Locusts didn't even bother the waste of resources on a visit.

The garrisons the empire left around these balls of liquid fuel, in due time, died off, for the lack of supplies eventually led to the starvation of anything living and only a few, automatic, surveillance systems, were left online, because they ran on water, and they had a world full of it down below. Effectively out of way for any route into the center of the galaxy, this ancient, ruined, military secret, was eventually forgotten, living only in the legends that turned to myth within the sentient races of nearby worlds in the Arcturus and Alpha Centaury Systems. Then, left to it's own devices, with no one around to hurl rocks at it, as the Ice age at the end of the Proterozoic melted away, life bloomed on our planet.

-To be continued -

02.02.25 - @hefestus

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Disclaimer:
"Just a little bit of blue" is a work of fiction. Every event, character, planet, continent, country, city, street, building, corporation, institution and product mentioned in this work is totally fictitious and has absolutely no relation to reality or real events, persons, planets, continents, countries, cities, streets, buildings, corporations or institutions. Everything is derived from the author's own imagination and no AI products were involved in the planning, writing or revision of this work. Additionally, the story happens in the future, in a time that has not yet come, so, any considerations about the possibility of the occurrence of facts or release of products mentioned herein, in the years to come, are due to mere coincidence and in no way derive from the author's inside or 3rd party knowledge of any country, organization or person's plans to implement actions or release said products into the market.
Just to be clear: All that's written here is fictional and originated by the author's own toughts about what may happen to come in the unknown future.