The Maltrothans

The Maltrothans were not a particularly violent species, on their home world they had a bloodless revolution to unite the world under a single banner. The first alien species they encountered might make a different claim, however, that is if they still were alive. They met this alien race with curiosity and peace but soon found out the other was physically superior to themselves and had far more advanced technology.

This was something they could not tolerate, for while generally peaceful, they had an obsession with being the best. It took many years but they held their contempt inside and slowly made plans to destroy the other. After one hundred years of peace they had acquired all the technology they wished to have and, in a single day, wiped the other species out. Fleets destroyed, planets decimated, they even detonated the alien's home star, destroying the entire system.

After this was done they contented themselves and their society reached a point of stagnation. Until Alexander Gorsik was born. He was called an anomaly, a freak, a monster. In truth he was simply the first in a new evolution of the species. He was not the same of those before him, he was smarter, stronger and more resilient than the others, and at a young age was wise enough to understand and hide his differences. Alexander had the desire to explore the universe, not to prove he was the best but simply because he wanted to know more.

It took most of his life but he managed to convince a few thousand other to join him in leaving the galaxy for another, away from the persecution and violence of his kin. The distance was too great for them to remain awake for the journey and so they developed sleep pods that would stop all body functions for the journey.

The ship, called the Archimedes, was programmed to enter the new galaxy and find a suitable world for them to inhabit. In the time it took to reach the other galaxy the computer file for the specifications became corrupted, among other things, and had lost a valuable piece of data. The gravity requirements of their species. The computer redundancies allow the Archimedes to select a world and simply ignore the lack, however, on approach to a suitable planet the ship failed to respond to an asteroid belt and took major damage as it passed.

The Archimedes crash landed on the planet, damaged but not destroyed. Alexander was the first to awaken and survey the damage. Half the colonists and much of their supplies had been lost. The government they had planned to establish could not be accomplished with more supplies to power their technology and they tried to scout out the world. They shortly discovered that the planet was nearly twice the gravity they were used to and exploring was made even more difficult due to the planet being inhabited by a variety of species both strange and wonderful. Many were also hostile and attacked those who ventured outside the range of the ships weapons, most of which had been destroyed but a few had survived.

Alexander, after setting up a provisional government, began working on a solution that took him nearly five years to complete. A genetically modified life form, based off his own DNA that would be able to withstand the different in gravity.

What Alexander could not have predicted was that the planet was also home to something that had never been seen in his galaxy, a mystical energy source that allow people and beast alike to tap into their primal nature and unleash fantastic results. Some of the genetic lines he created were affected by this and were able to tap into the primal power. Alexander tried desperately to calm the people he was voted out of his own government and exiled. Alexander's fate is unknown, except that he left the Archimedes in tears fearing he had doomed this new world to his people's cruelty.

The leaders of the new government knew that they could not simply kill off the workers Alexander had created and set them to task building mining and drilling for oil, not that these powered their technology but it would have to suffice until they could find something better.

Thirty-eight years passed since Alexander's disappearance and the use of magic became so obvious to the government that they would issue special permits to those who excelled in the use of it and allow them to be raised to almost the same level of citizen as natural Maltrothans. The only difference being? A special tribunal could take the permit away if the government became displeased with them.

Most of the people were tolerant of the new species albeit fearful and a ten mile radius around the Archimedes had been modified with the gravity plating on the ship to reduce the effective gravity in that area. The advanced technology many had taken for granted was gone without being able to secure new resources and the area they landed in was beginning to be used up.

The government setup a new program offering to give any of the Lexians, as they were called, an elevated position to full citizen, including the chance to hold public office, that would be passed on to their children and not able to be taken away. All they had to do was find a source of the element they needed to power the Archimedes or the element used to construct its hull. They also made the call and offered reward to any Maltrothans who were willing to go and aide in this endeavor.

This story begins the same day this announcement was made.