The Evolved:
Prologue
57 BTD (Before Terran Dominion)
-By, The Dark One
The Confederate Senatorial Hall was filled with the voices of fourteen senators, each representing their home planets or moons; now coming into the Senatorial Hall for a meeting which had been declared by the Senatorial High Councilor Michael Narakos. One of the only members of the Senate with any actual power, he was, in truth, the complete and absolute leader of the confederacy. A small number of other senators refused bribes and naively believed that by speaking the truth they could have their opinions noticed and used.
They were wrong, the Senate no longer even existed except in name. Nearly all of the senators were naïve, foolish, or in High Councilor Narakos’s extremely rich palm. Most senators of the old Senate, which had given true power to its members, were either retired, or dead… not all of whom naturally.
In its current stage, the Senate only existed to make the citizens of the Terran Confederacy believe that they had the power to choose who would represent them fairly and well. They were wrong of course, but having them think that kept the number of revolts and rebellions down. The votes were engineered so that only those who could be manipulated the easiest and cheapest would come into power, leaving Michael Narakos in absolute control.
Councilor Narakos stood and raised his hands for quiet, most of the senators ignoring or not seeing him
“Silence!” Tarsonis’s High Councilor Michael Narakos demanded, causing the other senators to instantly become quiet. “Good,” Councilor Narakos looked down at his speech, out of the corner of his eye seeing the news reporters recording the exchange for the viewing of the Confederate citizens. “The purpose of this meeting is to come to a decision about the completion of the ghost program. Here to introduce the ghost program, General Artellius Daniels.”
The enormous general stood, his colossal muscles rippling under his clean and full uniform, abundant medals and symbols of bravery on the chest. He walked to the podium at the front of the Senatorial Hall stopping to look out at the Senate members.
The military man cleared his throat as he prepared to speak, “Ahem. The ghost program was originally created when it was discovered that humans in the marine corps had begun to manifest psychic, as we in the military have begun to call it, abilities. Intrigued by this, we investigated to see if this was the result of the rigorous training of the marine corps, or if it was widespread among the populous. We soon learned that certain civilians had also manifested these special abilities, and we began testing of these people, to see how psionic ability would affect their capabilities.
“We designed and built a powered combat suit which we named the Hostile Environment Suit. It was made specifically for psionically powerful individuals, meaning that while a psychic would find the suit relatively easy to handle, anyone else would find it near-impossible to use. This suit is built to increase the strength of a human so that they can lift approximately 275 kilograms more than they could otherwise, and to increase their speed until they can run up to approximately 60 kilometers per hour. While not providing the extreme strength or protection of the CMC-275 marine suits, the Hostile Environment Suit allows for far greater speed and stealth.
“When we trained one of our marines with psionic abilities for one year to use this suit and replaced his eyes with cybernetic optic enhancement implants, he was able to hit a target perfectly in the center at one-hundred-fifty meters eight out of ten times, while with the same weapon a normally trained marine could only hit dead center four out of ten times. This, in combat, would make an extremely large difference. Although while the suit does improve upon a normal humans aim, that is all it does, improve, one person could still have better aim than another. Testing also showed that the suit also allowed for quick hand to hand fighting without restricting or slowing movement at all.
“Our tactical experts believe that if we could have soldiers trained from a very young age, it would drastically increase performance levels to even higher levels of proficiency.”
He walked slowly to his seat and sat down, moments before an uncontrolled outburst from a senator who held radically opposed views.
“What? Are you mad?” Kason IV’s Senator William Goldman bellowed, his enraged voice reverberating through the confederate high council chambers, causing the more sensitive senators to cover their ears.
“I don’t believe you fully understand how powerful the ghost program could make us if it were given the opportunity to blossom to its full potential. I understand your concerns, but I believe that the pros outweigh the cons in this matter,” Senator Narakos said, being careful to keep his voice pleasant and even, so that when compared with Senator Goldman he would appear as an kind, understanding man trying only to help against a raging madman, a manipulative ploy designed to make civilians believe he is right in this matter.
“You cannot be serious!” Senator Goldman sputtered, trying in vain to keep his emotions out of his voice, “These are people we’re talking of, not animals or machines! The ghost program is not so important that we should force parents to give up their children to us merely so that we might have young recruits with psionic abilities to turn into soldiers! Our forces have quelled all insurrections against us so far, and without the help of ghosts trained from babyhood!”
Yaseem Trelovy of Mar Sara, and one of the many in Narakos’ palm stood up to say his opinion, “You say: So far? What should happen if a new enemy arises; one for which we should need fully-trained ghosts? Nearly all of our military strategists agree that if the ghost program were to become completed the ghosts’ would become far more useful than they are now. And also, what if these children with psionic abilities were to challenge us? Think of that, yes?”
Varkeen’s Senator Hubert McBarton, a senator who did not know of the bribery or unfairness of the council stood, “I agree with Yasseem, if there were war it would be good to have an ace up our sleeve.”
Murmurs of approval echoed throughout the chamber, with only the slimmest minority protesting. Three of the senators believing in completion of the ghost program actually started a brawl with one of the larger senators against it. An armed guard pulled them apart, with the three in favor of the program all sporting broken lips, throbbing eyes, and bruises while the one they were against only had a bump on his forehead and a bruised eye.
“Stop this at once!” screamed Sirius Mengsk of Korhal. He was by far the senior of the Senate and had been known to have actually changed over half senators in the old council to his viewpoint once, causing his opinion to become a law. “How is it that we can think of taking babies out of their parents arms? It is nothing short of criminal, and is no way for a person, let alone a government to act! There must be other ways of bringing ghosts to their full potential. Although in the short term it may benefit us, but what of the long term? Rebellions, uprisings, revolts, insurrections, it would cost us billions of dollars, not to mention millions of lives. I believe that it is shameful that we even speak of such actions.”
Mengsk sat down, expecting applause, or at least a subtle nodding of heads, but there was only a strained silence. The few senators against the policy glared at those senators for it, many of whom didn’t really care whether the policy was passed or not, but were being paid to support Narakos.
Narakos shook his head, “Sirius, I think you are forgetting to take into account that they may rebel themselves if they are not controlled and brought into the confederate arsenal. If they were to rebel they would have everything we would and probably more… we would stand little chance against them and would likely be destroyed. I hereby declare that the policy shall be put into motion, since the difference of opinion is quite obvious.”
He sat down and walked out of the chamber, the other senators following after him but not before those who believed they had been so greatly wronged eagerly told the reporters of the stupidity of Narakos’ and the rest of the council.
Driving away in his limousine, far out of hearing range of the senators or meddlesome reporters, Michael Narakos laughed.
