THE STARFALL CHRONICLES #1
THE LONG NIGHT AND THE DAWN
Dusk on this planet brings with it a special kind of despair. Our sun disappears for several Earth days at a time, leaving us with a gnawing uncertainty that whether or not we’ll see it again. I don’t believe that many of us will make it through the night. There was an ominous hue to the sky before nightfall, portending misfortune.
Our world is one of many. Humans and other planetary races live wherever they can and rely on hope for their survival. We travel on colony ships that are self-sustaining and beholden to faraway masters, taking us to destinations which could be thousands of light years away from our home worlds.
They take us to asteroid mining complexes, where millions of workers operate machines that extract valuable minerals from asteroid belts. Some of us go to extremophile colonies, where we live in unthinkable conditions; to planets with scorching surfaces, like that of Mercury, or gas planets with extreme gravity like Jupiter.
I am human, but I’ve never been to my ancestral planet, Earth. Our overlords and their slaves live there. The only thing that all these places have in common is that the wealthy rule over the poor like cattle, and the poor resent them correspondingly.
Long ago, peoples from all of the planets were unified under the military and political might of a galaxy-wide alliance of warlords and wealthy merchants called the Senate. After the conquest of space and contact with other planetary beings, all ideologies were reduced to one. When these warlords realized that their combined military strength made them the dominant power in the galaxy, they abandoned any pretense to peaceful coexistence and gave in to their base instincts. This is what led to the rise of the Senate. Those who belong to the Senate benefit from this order, and those who don’t are enslaved to them. Worst of all, every other sentient species in the galaxy was integrated into this cruel society, making the situation universal.
The Senate is not a forum for discussion or representation, but rather a military alliance of the upper classes, protecting their place and privilege. To become a member of the Senate, one must be the direct descendant of a member in good standing. This hereditary principle ensures the unequal distribution of wealth from generation to generation. Each member of the Senate is responsible for the security and prosperity (i.e., the oppression and exploitation) of a zone in the galaxy and its colonies. There are about two thousand Senate members who control a part of the galaxy, posing as benevolent emperors, and committing horrendous atrocities in the name of progress, which is a feeble mask for colonial greed.
In the face of such adversity and oppression, there are three options: escape, fight, or surrender. Escaping is difficult, and fighting is suicidal. Surrender is what we have chosen. We have faced unimaginable hardship, from starvation and thirst to grief and suffering. The Senate’s power was too strong to challenge. But hope is what drives us to endure the long nights on this planet. Even for us, the Dawn is coming.
Even here, we’ve heard stories of Zarek the Rion. When he invented the Storm, he gave a fighting chance to those oppressed and enslaved by the Senate. The Storm creates a corrupted magnetic field around an entire star system, making it inaccessible to communications and travel, as well as disrupting energy-based weaponry. This gave Zarek the Rion the ability to conquer his own planet and star system.
This was unacceptable to the Senate, who considered themselves the righteous rulers and owners of the universe. They readied their armies to take the star system back, but Zarek threatened them with multiple Storm devices, planted throughout the galaxy. To the Senate, this would immeasurably damage their influence, and to Zarek it would create a massive death toll, so they entered into an uneasy truce.
Shortly after he understood the destiny-shaping possibilities of his invention, Zarek the Rion founded the Dawn. At first, it was limited to the underground networks that Zarek formed around his base of operations, where he first made the Storm. It rapidly grew to become the heart of a galactic resistance movement, dedicated to overthrowing the Senate and restoring freedom to the enslaved. Whenever another star system goes dark, it reappears in the Senate’s map again outside of its control — and as a member system of the Dawn.
With such power, Zarek the Rion could have ruled the galaxy, but the key difference between the Senate and Dawn lies in the beliefs of the resistance movement’s founder. Zarek did not wish for power outside his system, and within his sphere of influence he wanted to foster freedom and prosperity for all. Planets that enter into the Dawn do so as voluntary allies, not as unwilling subjects.
Resistance is a hard path to take, but many now believe in the Dawn. In every star system oppressed by the Senate, you can now choose your destiny. Will you fight with the Dawn or surrender to the Senate? Will you live your short life in defiance, or a slightly longer one in servitude? Hope drives us to endure the long nights on this planet. I, for one, am hopeful. Someday, the Dawn will rise here.
