Humans (Origins)

Humanity, also known as Earthlings or Terrans, are a race of hominid primates who inhabit the planet Earth and the protagonists of Star Control Origins. Humans also exist in the Kessari and Ur-Quan Masters timelines, where they are also the protagonists. In Origins, humanity is new to the galactic stage and considered a potential rival for the local Scryve Empire.

Culture

Human culture has long been dominated with different ideologies and religions, with cultures vastly different from one another, depending on the nation it belongs to. However, during the last century or so, humanity managed to come together and begin to develop technology of largely mutual interest.

After the exodus of the Lexites, there was a global effort to re-establish humanity’s presence in space. This led to the creation of Star Control and the Vindicator Deep Space Vessel. Upon meeting with other alien species, humanity has been largely welcoming of their new allies, although a small number of people take issue with this and wish to remain isolated from the galaxy at large.

This is a minority however and efforts are being undertaken to colonise as much of space as possible, whilst gaining a technological edge on the Federation’s other species so humanity isn’t forced to rely on them so much for support.

Technology

Humanity originally had extremely advanced technology, thanks to their relationship with the Lexites, a sect of post-humans and artificial intelligences who helped humanity grow and develop. However, with the loss of the Lexites, humanity’s technological level had dropped significantly, being forced to rely on old nuclear weapons technology for armament of their ships.

Originally, humanity was a pre-hyperdrive civilisation, but they have since managed to acquire a series of hyperdrives from their Federation allies and have reverse engineered these for their own ships. Terran Cruisers and Scouts make up the bulk of their fleet, whilst the Vindicator-class Deep Space Vessel are the flagships of the fleet, highly adaptable and used in deep space exploration.

Humanity also possesses a space station in orbit, where Star Control is based and able to resupply the Captain and his fleet fairly quickly, as well as manufacture new ships based on schematics provided to them. Most human technology is still below others in the sector by quite a wide margin, though efforts are being made to rectify this.

Eventually, humanity gains enough technology to build their own battlecruisers, powerful ships capable of devastatingly powerful destruction with their primary weapons. These ships are more than enough to clash even with Scryve ships and emerge victorious. In addition, humanity begins mass production of the Vindicator-class vessel, powerful and dangerous deep-space ships.

History

Human history has been a mixture of periods of dire conflict and imperial expansionism, mired by ideological conflict and slavery. However, in recent decades, humanity was forced to commit to a larger concept of peace as they were faced with nuclear annihilation. Despite teething troubles, humanity came together to begin colonisation of their home system in the 21st Century.

This led to great technological advancement and the development of the technological singularity. The emergent Lexites were manufactured as a result of this singularity, with some humans becoming augmented and other artificial constructs being generated in its place.

The Lexites worked together with humanity for the next few decades, even assisting in the clean-up of the Mars colony after humanity’s ships were hit by solar flares and the colony began to starve. Eventually, there were too many casualties and the colony was left as a memorial to those who had died.

In time however, the Lexites came to learn of a threat to their existence coming from the W51 Giant Molecular Cloud. They warned the leaders of the nations of Earth, but their warnings were ignored. As such, the Lexite Exodus began, taking the majority of humanity’s ships with them and one faction of Lexites leaving a weapon on the moon to help defend the humans from the phenomenon.

Star Control was founded a year later to find the Lexites and try to find what their reasons for leaving were. It was also founded to increase humanity’s presence in space, founding colonies and entering into alliances with alien species where possible.

Humanity would have a leading role in defeating the Scryve Empire by becoming one of the founding members of the Federation of Allied Species, making many other alliances along the way. Eventually however, the Captain of the Vindicator would unleash the Xraki on the galaxy and cause a war between them and everyone else in the sector. Upon the defeat of the Xraki and the retreat of the Scryve to their homeworld, humanity became the unofficial governors of the sector.

In time however, humanity began efforts to expand and develop their technology to catch up to their allies. They founded a colony with an orbiting space station known as Deep Horizons that acted as an outpost of humanity and the Federation at large in the area. This expansion however caused some friction in the Federation, in addition to the attacks from the Lexite Vanguards in an effort to destroy the alliances humanity had spent so long cultivating. The Captain was able to re-establish connections within the Federation and keep it together, whilst also expanding their territory. However, humanity had also begun to fracture under all this change with a number of humans growing increasingly weary of the aliens they had been dealing with and wishing to stop this, they gathered a small fleet of their own to attack Deep Horizons. These isolationists were crushed by the Captain of the Vindicator with relative ease.

Humanity is currently recognised by multiple species as a true power emerging in the sector and is treated with caution by allies and enemies alike. This caution doesn’t stop the Federation from functioning and indeed, many of humanity’s allies see it as better to keep them on side, rather than make enemies of them.