Prologue
It is the year 2200. The planet Earth is no longer divided into countries, but rather into five geographic regions, called sectors. Scientific advances have enabled space travel to all parts of the Milky Way galaxy. Many of the stars in the galaxy were found to contain solar systems similar to the solar system of the Earth’s own Sun, with inhabited planets. Some of those planets were hostile, and had developed weapon systems far beyond those of Earth. As a result, the world leaders of Earth agreed to set aside all religious and political differences in order to protect their planet. By 2125, through the development of a new planetary defense system, Earth had avoided any takeover by other planets and had developed a united society.
The entire population came under the command of one leader, the President of Earth United, who was the Supreme Commander of the military and head of State, both domestically on Earth and intergalactically.
By 2150, all diseases and cancers on Earth and throughout the galaxy had been wiped out through the discovery of hilaetite (pronounced hill-a-e-tight) crystals. Hilaetite crystals were discovered in a small number of places throughout the galaxy and used in different forms for medicinal purposes. These crystals were also very volatile and could cause massive explosions without being mixed with any other elements or compounds, thereby leaving behind no aftereffects, unlike the old nuclear weapons used on Earth. So planetary governments began using them in their weapons systems. The possibilities were endless. The larger the hilaetite crystal, the more power it had. Given a large enough crystal, it was thought that weapons could be developed that could destroy entire planets.
Hilaetite crystals grew similar to living organisms, like a fungus, but they were not alive in any sense. They were classified as a rock. No planet was able to reproduce them or grow them domestically, and once a crystal was picked, no new one ever grew in its place. Once removed from their host rock, they stopped growing. For these reasons, by the year 2180, all known deposits of hilaetite crystals in the galaxy had been depleted.
Given the far greater need for their use for medicinal purposes than in weapons, in the year 2185, all inhabited planets in the galaxy agreed to an intergalactic treaty, known as Treaty 5274, which banned the use of hilaetite crystals for any use other than in medicine. Treaty 5274 required all remaining stores of hilaetite crystals and any new discoveries to be sent to the planet Pergan, a formerly uninhabited planet in the center of the galaxy. Two representatives of each planet were to make up the Council, which was to oversee the medicinal processing of hilaetite crystals and the storage and distribution of the resulting refined powder.
While all planets in the galaxy agreed to the Treaty, some were more reluctant to sign than others. However, no planet opposed Treaty 5274 as strongly as the planet Craton and its young ruler, Romalor Leximer. Long before its discovery by Earth and the signing of Treaty 5274, Craton had a proclivity for war. Romalor and his people saw the unlimited potential for the use of hilaetite crystals in weapons. If they could develop the super weapon before any other planet, they could rule the galaxy.
