"The Izanian War" - Part 1

Eagle Has Landed

The Izanian War

"Greetings Stranger, I am Cram Nayawt."

"Greetings, my name is Essdy Yarnspinner."

"Yarnspinner? That is a strange name. Are you a story teller?"

"As a matter of fact, yes I am."

"I'm in the mood for an epic. Have you got a good one for me?"

"Are you willing to pay my price?"

"Sure, whatever you want."

"If you pay my bill I will give you a grand story."

"It's a deal. I will have the tender fix you up here."

"Fair enough, here is the story:"

It was the seventh millennia of the Galactic Calendar. The time was approximately 10.00.00.00.00 Galactic time. The Izanian galactic ships were just outside an unknown solar system. The beings of this solar system called themselves 'Humans' and they called their planet 'Earth.' Earth is the planet that is now called Nimrov 3 to the Galactic Commonwealth. These humans had built a substantial colony on Nimrov 4, which they call 'Mars,' or the Martian Colony. They were in the process of constructing colony on a moon of Nimrov 5. They called this moon 'Ganymede,' and were nearly finished with its construction. These humans were in the very early stages of space exploration. They had only sent probes outside of their own solar system. They were completely oblivious to the vast civilizations that populate the galaxy. They were completely vulnerable to a more advanced and imperial minded civilization.

The Nimrovs governmental structure evolved into a structure much like the Galactic Commonwealth. Each continental land mass is divided into smaller and smaller political entities. They call the largest political entity a 'Country.' Each of these countries is free to have any type of government that they wish as long as it follows a basic set of principles written up in the global political document they call a 'Constitution.'

These countries will vary in the way their politics are organized, but their system is a good balance of country rights versus world responsibilities. With the various divisions, the world government can pass areas of responsibility down to smaller subdivisions. In many ways this is a good system, but it can be difficult to get together and agree on world interests.

Thus, any group in need of vast oxygen resources or any group ruthless enough to exploit the underdeveloped culture of these Humans could attempt to take advantage of a brief time of indecision and destroy this civilization. Naturally this group would have to have the resources to completely ignore the laws and customs of the Galactic Commonwealth. This group would want to seize the resources of this world for their own benefit. I am speaking, of course, of a civilization like the Izanian. They would do such a thing, and it was they who sent a message that was received by the Nimrovs some days later. The text of this message was the following:

'Happy Nimroville! We are the Izanian, and I am Nek Nam
Retek, the iron fisted slayer of all things weak and
contemptible! I have discovered this solar system,
and I claim it on behalf of the Izanian Empire! You
must leave now or be destroyed!

If you do not have the capability to leave this solar
system, then you should make peace with your deity
and be prepared to join the dead. Enjoy the rest of the
Nimroville Holiday!'

The message was received and seen by most of the human population, and everyone asked the same question, 'What did they say?' The Earth was not aware of any of the Galactic standards, and could not decipher the gestural or spoken language that the Izanians used. Further, at the time they did not detect the translation program that normally accompanies galactic communications.

Each of these Nimrov countries sent a representatives to a greater council. This council was responsible for the well being of the world as a whole. It mediates disputes, and establishes codes of conduct. It also is responsible for the distribution systems. It was more well defined than the Galactic Commonwealth, but it worked well for the years after it had been established.

The unsuspecting Nimrovs had no clue as to the meaning of the message that the Izanians sent. Of course, this could have been part of the Izanian plan. If the Nimrovs debated long enough, and spent their time attempting to decipher the message, it could be advantageous toward the Izanian goal.

However, the President of the United Nations of Earth called a special council meeting to speak to his people. President is what they call the leader of the 'Earth'-wide government. He was responsible for all of the resident's safety and well-being. He was democratically elected by all of the countries of the Nimrovs.

The President started,

'My fellow leaders and peaceful people of our United
Nations, we have received our first message from a
non-human race. It is a time of great excitement.
For the first time, we know that we are not the only
complex society in the galaxy. However, there is
much concern over the meaning of the message that
we have received.

'Although we have our top linguists working on
deciphering the gestural and aural meaning of the
message, we may not learn of its meaning any time
soon. Thus, we must prepare.

'The first assumption that we are making is that these
beings are headed here. It could have simply been a
message of greeting, but my top advisors and I feel that
whatever the meaning of this message, they will want to
meet with us. We have no reason to believe that they
have hostile intent, but without much more information,
we cannot be sure.

'Since we do not know whether they plan to do us
harm, we must prepare for any eventuality. I will
outline a plan that will allow us to be minimally
prepared for any action hostile or otherwise from
whatever alien space craft we may encounter. A
complete text of this plan will be sent to each
member of congress and will be viewable on the
various information outlets. I will summerize
this plan now.

'We have at our disposal, a fully functional colony ship.
It was to be used to carry passengers to the new colony
on Ganymede. It is my intention to convert this colony
ship into a space battleship. The colony ship has
several hundred emergency escape pods. These escape
pods will be refitted to act as fighter crafts. We
will use our existing missile technology to create
projectile weapons that we hope will be effective
against these beings in the event that they are
indeed hostile.

'We shall recruit pilots for these fighters from the United
Nations Airforce Academy. These young men and
women are the most properly suited for this particular
mission. However, it will be strictly on a volunteer
basis only. No cadet will be forced to take on such
a potentially dangerous mission.

'Further, although research in this technology was
abandoned with the establishment of the United
Nations of Earth government, we still have particle
beam technology that can be quickly readied. It is
unfortunate that the energy consumption of these
weapons is too vast to be placed upon the battleship,
but it will make a fitting planetary defense weapon.
Thus, we will place as many such installations as
can be made ready in time at the Martian colony
site.

'We do not wish to appear hostile towards them, but
it is in our best interest to meet them in a neutral
location. That is, we want to put as few lives at risk
as we possibly can. Thus, the plan is to ready this
ship as quickly as possible and to intercept their fleet
beyond the Martian colony. This will take a great deal
of planning and plenty of hard work by all sectors of
our great civilization.

'We have done some quick calculations, and it is our
belief that they will be at the Ganymede colony in a few
weeks, and they will be at the colony on Mars in about
a month. That gives us very little time to prepare, but
prepare we must. Fortunately, the colony ship has been
docked at the Martian space station for a few weeks now.
We have workers there that can begin refitting the ship
immediately.

'We will give the pilots some rudimentary training in route
to Mars, and hopefully run a few exercises before
intercepting the incoming fleet a few thousand kilometers
from our comrades on Mars.

'We must all work together in this time of need. We must
put aside our differences, and join together to avoid any
possible catastrophe. We have little time to spare, so let's
get going!'

The governmental body broke into a large ovation, and they all scrambled out to rally support behind the President.