I can barely see how far the building stretches beyond the cloudline. And yet, it has become normal by now to see a Control Tower standing in the center of every capital city on this planet.
I live on Zeraph, the first and central governing planet of the human race.
Roughly 800 years ago, aliens landed on our planet for the first time — a moment that entered history as Point Zero.
Until then, the governments of Earth were consumed by resource wars. Alliances collapsed, power changed hands constantly — humanity was fragmented, driven by greed, desperation, and the hunger for survival. Nations no longer acted as guardians of their people, but as warlords hoarding water, metals, and data. Skirmishes over mining belts, orbital platforms, and atmospheric zones became routine. The skies were scarred with smoke trails from burned-out satellites, and cities were swallowed by droughts and riots.
And then the Behime came.
A massive interstellar transport ship, crewed by various alien species, crashed in the deserts of Zeraph. It belonged to a roaming trade or pirate consortium — specialized in capturing and selling rare lifeforms they called Exotics.
These Exotics — wild creatures, some tamed, some mutated or controlled through technology — were held in high-security energy cages. Some were intelligent. Others were pure killing machines. They came from countless worlds: swamp beasts with acidic breath, feathered shadows that could mimic any sound, crystalline serpents that fed on electromagnetic fields.
At that time, our planet wasn't marked on any known interstellar chart — a blind spot in the universe, likely hidden by a cosmic anomaly or some form of energy shielding. The Behime crew became stranded, unaware of their exact location. It's possible they thought they had found a secret frontier — a chance to rebuild or refuel in peace.
Their advanced technology outclassed all of our scanning systems, allowing them to remain undetected — until they tried to send a signal, announcing their discovery of an uncharted planet. That signal gave them away. We intercepted it. And for the first time in centuries, humanity focused its strength on a common goal.
Our governments reacted immediately. A rapid coalition of intelligence agencies and military units tracked the signal's origin to the Wastes of Zeraph. What happened next is buried under layers of secrecy. Officially, it was a peaceful first contact. Unofficially, it was a silent extermination. The Behime crew disappeared.
What remained were their technologies. And their Exotics. Caged. Confused. Abandoned.
Reverse-engineering the alien tech began immediately. Human scientists unlocked compact fusion cores, neural synchronizers, and genetic stabilizers. Weapons evolved overnight. Medicine advanced decades in weeks. And the Exotics... were studied. Tested. In some cases, weaponized.
This marked the beginning of a new era — a war for knowledge and power.
Over the following decades, everything changed. Around 650 years ago, only three major governments remained, having absorbed the rest through violence or strategic compromise. At the same time, powerful Houses emerged — founded by entrepreneurs and visionaries who exploited captured alien technology and genetics. Some of these Houses operated like corporations, others like dynasties. A few were both. They built their own fleets, funded private armies, and established colonies.
Some even began trying to tame Exotics.
But the alien presence brought even deeper consequences.
Through the so-called Worldbreak Event, Zeraph became visible on a galactic scale — and foreign energies began to alter human biology. The barrier that had once cloaked our planet vanished. We were now part of something bigger — and more dangerous.
400 years ago, human life expectancy increased to an average of 150 years. Some individuals developed the first psychic abilities: precognition, empathy, kinetic distortion. Others discovered something far stranger — what some called "magic," a chaotic fusion of willpower and ambient energy. And then there were the anomalies. Children who glowed in the dark. Teenagers who could walk through walls. Adults who remembered past lives.
Humanity was mutating.
300 years ago, we succeeded in building interstellar ships. The expansion into space began — and with it, a new era of exploration and conflict. Colonies were established on habitable moons and terraformable planets. Trade routes were opened. And the Houses? They became empires.
The remaining governments tried to regulate them. They failed.
Power struggles between the Houses and the planetary authorities escalated. A series of proxy wars erupted, culminating in the downfall of the Cryus Federation — one of the last stabilizing forces in the outer sectors. With its fall, an entire political era ended. Countless noble families vanished, absorbed or destroyed in the chaos.
But where there's war, there are always winners.
From the ruins of the old system, new names rose — powerful, ruthless, and hungrier than ever.
Today, humanity has conquered four planets and, over time — despite heavy losses — has achieved military parity with neighboring systems and alien factions. We are no longer an isolated species. We are a force.
A key role in this rise was played by a small group of humans who, through the Worldbreak and the influx of alien energy, developed extraordinary abilities. They became commanders, scientists, assassins, icons. The Houses sought them. The governments feared them. The people worshipped them.
Within just half a millennium, humanity adapted to this new reality — and managed to stabilize the surrounding regions through strength, diplomacy, and fear.
Currently, humans inhabit four planets as residential zones, and maintain one exclusively as a military and training world. Social stratification has become the norm. The contrast between castes is not just cultural — it's systemic. Natural selection, enhanced by economics, politics, and genetics.
Zyrus is now the central planet. Two surviving supergovernments have formed a nominally democratic planetary alliance — fractured into factions, puppeteered by the Houses who truly rule from the shadows.
Ragnet, the first colonized world, was originally uninhabited. It now houses the high castes and major Houses. Then come Alpha, Beta, and Gamma:
Alpha and Beta are mixed-class worlds, though Beta is largely seen as a slum planet — overcrowded, underfunded, and raw. Gamma, on the other hand, is a military and educational world — a crucible. At the age of 14, every human child is sent to Gamma, regardless of birth, background, or blood.
And tomorrow... I turn fourteen.