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SPACE  JAM

(cue theme music)

In the year 2714 A.D., Earth faced overpopulation and depletion of resources. scientists worked around the clock to solve these problems, but to no avail. The Greater European Union was the first to send off colony ships that were equipped with experimental oxygen generators and solar sails. Each ship had between 200,000 and 500,000 people in cryosleep on board. 6 ships were sent to 6 different planets. Only 2 planets were colonized. Hope and Reach, both small, earth-like worlds, untouched by the hands of humanity.

During the colonists’ 500 year sleep, many things had changed back on earth. Unregulated population growth was brought under control, global warming was reversed, and resource shortages were solved. The only problem was, earth’s communication systems had advanced beyond simple radio signals, which was the only type of long-range communications the colonies had. According to ancient calculations from earth’s past, the ships should have made it by now, but there was no evidence that they had arrived. Messages were sent, but not received. To earth, the colonists were dead.

As the colonists arrived at their distant locations, they, in turn, worried about earth’s welfare and wondered why none of their messages back to earth were being answered. All three planets, Earth, Hope and Reach, feared for the worst about each other, convinced that their messages were being sent to nothing at the other end. But there always was. That wasn’t the problem. There was something in between.

There they sat, preparing for the fiery doom that awaited the helpless humans. They waited for nearly 10 years, swatting human signals out of space like slow flies. The fleet’s cleansing flame was ready to complete its holy duty and eradicate the heretical humans from existence.

Still hopelessly attempting to make contact with earth the colonists were too blind to see the flaming death coming their way from the stars. Eventually, it was realized, but too late to save themselves. They descended from the night sky, killing most while they slept, but many others were awake for their fate, sending desperate transmissions that somehow made it through the alien blockade, making their way towards earth.

Hours later, earth received Hope’s urgent cries, and realized they couldn’t do anything. They watched the events that had transpired on Hope, watched the helpless civilians burnt to a charred crisp, and finally, watched the aliens find the transmitter and stand in front of it, chittering at Hope’s fate. Many claimed they could understand the aliens’ language, but no one needed help, the message was apparent. “You’re next, Reach!”.

Reach had figured it out, too, so they prepared, prepared to fight. All inhabitants were outfitted with the latest weapons and armor. And in time, Reach changed, changed and became a strictly militaristic society. The colonists’ name for their beloved new home was changed into New Sparta. The planet’s fear had been throttled and warped into hate. Hate for aliens, Hate for Earth.

Earth received a message from Reach, telling of the military takeover and New Sparta. They were horrified of what had become of what once was an innocent colony. The Spartans’ leader, Leonidas, formally declared war on Earth, claiming that “the holy Faazite will morph your planet into a suitable realm for the Spartans!”. During the video link of his message, it was noticed by many earthers that his eyes were a most unnatural luminescent green color and the faint glowing green lines of his facial veins didn’t make anyone feel better about the message. The Phaazoids were born.

Earth was troubled – it now had two fierce and extremely powerful enemies. Fortunately for them, the Phaazoids had a hard time find the Sol system, as in their corruption, their intelligence was diminished. At one time, earth had the great misfortune of being discovered by a Phaazoid scout ship. Even though Earth’s home fleet outweighed the tiny ship by millions of tons, the battle was slow to finish. The Phaazoids were named as such because they could phase out of real space for short times, allowing them to dodge the heaviest fire from the fleet.

Eventually the ship was able to be boarded when a stray missile scored a hit on an engine. Many Phaazoids were captured and vivisected, to find a weakness in their powers. While scientists studied the live specimens and the highly radioactive mineral, Faazite, a group of fleet troopers made a discovery that may have changed the scientists’ minds. Faazite was alive.

It was discovered when the alleged “scout ship” suddenly sprouted a mouth and arms and took a bite of an Earth cruiser. The creature was quickly and efficiently incinerated and the wreckage/carcass was taken care of likewise. Many people panicked at the thought of an entire fleet made of these living battleships and their phasing abilities.

However, solutions were found.

Datalog entry #382: Faazite

Our science teams have found that the form discovered by Phaazoids, Faazite is not a mineral, but an organic composition of heavily radiated plant forms. They generate a significant genetic mutation in themselves, and given time, any other beings that come in contact with it. When in large forms it gains a faint sort of sentience, and can be shaped by Faazite-injected beings into any form, depending on how much is present. In addition to these abilities, any bioform with a Faazite content of over 5% can temporarily phase in and out of existence, moving through the matter in our dimension as if it weren’t there, and that unfortunately for humans, includes ballistic projectiles. However, this ability can be counteracted by hyperkinetic projectiles. When a hyperkinetic projectile enters a Phaazoid’s phase field, it is practically absorbed by the field, being sucked into whatever god-awful dimension the green freak is cowering in, entering the portal and exiting right through the Phaazoid’s chest or head, killing it, phase field and all. This weakness comes with a downside, though. When another energy field enters a phase field, there is a fair chance of a phase field collapse, creating a small rift in the dimensional field. In other words, there is a small quantum explosion, taking anything within the blast into whatever dimension the phase field was centered to exit in, usually with no way back to a dimension that doesn’t result in instant death to humans.

After the scout ship attacked, many more small Phaazoid vessels stumbled upon Earth, none bigger than a destroyer. All were eliminated, but not destroyed, fleet troopers made sure to leave enough Faazite for science teams. The mysterious material revealed very few more answers, but then there was a breakthrough. A clumsy lab assistant accidentally spilled a pot of coffee on a Faazite sample. The reading on the sample changed dramatically, all signs of radiation ceased, the semi-sentience vanished, and most importantly, the energies that corrupted other life forms existed no more, allowing humans to control its phasing ability. The light speed barrier was no longer a problem.

After the accident, a physicist, working late one day, hunched over his sample of caffeinated Faazite, thought of home, his wife, his kids. Suddenly, a voice in his head spoke “preparing for transit… “ there was a soft pinging noise and his vision went green. Suddenly, he was at home, wondering what happened to the lab. The only familiar thing was his Faazite. Realizing what had happened, he thought of the lab again, holding the Faazite close. The voice came back again, signaling his teleportation and ping, he was back at the lab again. So began the Phase age.

The very same man developed the first multidimensional phase drive, which consisted of a web of Faazite built into a vehicle, usually a starship. The web is designed to touch every part of the outside of the ship, creating almost a sort of armor plating. All mass inside of the vehicle is phased along with the Faazite. However, if the Faazite plating is damaged or removed, there is a large chance that not all of the ship will be phased at once, usually forcing warships to go for an all-out fight, for risk of partial phase, and what is called “phasuum” where the dimension the ship travels to sucks all matter from the ship, inside out.