First Many

The First Many was the name used by the United States of America, and later the United Federation, to refer to the first Alyssian nomads to make contact with the people of Earth, paving the foundation for the Federation itself. The First Many, who refer to themselves as the Voyagers (Val'kar in vintage Alyssian dialect), consisted of over one million Alyssians of various species and sex, and are the direct descendants of the original refugees of Alyssia.

Though initially kept at a distance, the First Many eventually landed on Earth in 2023, against the wishes of several government leaders, and successfully integrated themselves into society, bringing with a treasure trove of advanced technology, essentially sending humanity into a spaceborn Golden Age. In 2028, the United Nations passed laws allowing member countries to allow the immigration of the Alyssian people into their societies, with nearly all of them granting the Alyssians full citizenship. In 2029, the first live birth of a Alyssian/Human child was reported, and laws preventing relationships between human and Alyssian individuals were overturned, which caused a massive population boom over the next twenty years.

## Origin

### Fleeing a Dying Star

The First Many were descendants of a band of Alyssians known as the Light, an underground organization that wanted to unite and overthrow the oppressive regime the Empire fueled itself from. Members of the light came from all walks of life: servants, doctors, priests, slaves, soldiers, politicians, engineers, and even a few members of the Emperor's death squad were with the Light, voicing their opposition to the oppression that the Empire condoned every day.

Although the Alyssian Emperor at the time was aware of the presence of the Light, and waged numerous campaigns to root out and destroy it's members, it was one of his key intelligence officers, who was a member himself, that helped hide the identities of those who committed acts of violence or preached against the Empire's regime. His aid to the Light was eventually discovered, and he was publicly executed by ejection into space, a move that the Emperor had hoped would quell any further rebellion. However, the Light responded in force to the execution, staging a number of coordinated attacks and bombings in Alyssian Upper Class establishments, killing a large number of high level military and economic personnel.

The Light attempted to warn the population of the weapons research that was ongoing on the Whitegold Star, which Alyssia orbited around. When the star began to deteriorate, it would discharge Coronal Mass Ejections, which proved to be heavily damaging to starship and space station electronics. Though this caused a number of starship crashes and accidents, it also allowed for members of the Light to infiltrate Alyssian security networks and access control codes for the Empire's massive fleet of warships, including it's colony evacuation vessels.

On the Day of Reckoning, the Whitegold Star began to shrink and discharge high levels of gamma radiation and energy, alerting the Empire to it's upcoming destruction. The Empire made plans to evacuate the entirety of the Upper Class aboard thousands of colony ships designed to host them in luxury and comfort for generations until they were able to establish a new home. Light sympathizers within the Empire's Intelligence departments passed this information along to it's ground members, and the plan to commandeer many of these ships was hatched. Despite the spreading of this information to many members of the Lower Class, alerting the Empire in the process, the Light continued to remain underground, avoiding the Emperor's wrath thanks to the contributions of sympathizers within the military and Emperor's Council. Many high ranking individuals even agreed to assist the Light in their plans in exchange for a spot aboard the colony ships after their hijacking.

When the star eventually began the process of collapsing on itself, the evacuation order was initiated, with military forces deploying to the slave ships most of the Lower Class were contained in to prevent them from attempting to board the colony ships. However, given the chaos of the situation, the military were unsuccessful in countering all resistance, and approximately 1,500 colony vessels were remotely accessed, locking out numerous loyal members of the Empire. Numerous warships were also commandeered by their Lower Class service crew, and were used to escort and protect colony ships as they loaded up those who sought to escape the Empire. Within 48 hours, over a million Alyssians were placed aboard the fleet of colony vessels, disappearing into deep space before an Empire pursuit fleet could respond. When the Emperor was eventually notified of the mutinies, the ships were already well on their way out of the system and headed towards the galactic edge of Andromeda, where they planned to make the multi-generational journey across dead space towards the nearby Milky Way galaxy in hopes of finding a new and permanent home. The Emperor commissioned a fleet of colony vessels, chartering them to the Hunter's Guild (the Empire's 'bounty hunting' authority), and sent them after the Light to bring them to justice and reclaim the ships, which contained a number of the Empire's most advanced technologies, which the Emperor refused to see fall into the hands of others. Unfortunately, a few remaining members of the Light were captured and tortured, before revealing their plans of escaping the galaxy to the Emperor. The information was relayed to the Guild, who agreed to continue pursuing the Traitors until they caught them, or were unable to pursue any further. Despite the quick response of the Hunter's Guild vessels, however, the Light was able to escape the galaxy and continued their journey towards the Milky Way, unaware of the pursuing Guild vessels.

embers in the organization, the First Many were able to commandeer several hundred colony ships and use them to pick up and rescue a large number of Empire slave cities across the system, leaving the majority of the Empire's ruling class behind. The First Many then departed at warp speed, hoping to leave the galaxy. Alyssia went supernova, and the Empire evacuated with a majority of it's fleet intact. However, due to the First Many's deception, the Empire lost almost half of it's population in the explosion, as many people no longer had a designated evacuation vessel. Angered at the betrayal, the Empire blamed the detonation of their sun on the First Many, stating it was a terrorist attack and an attempt at wiping out the Empire to form a new one.

### Journey To The Milky Way

Over the course of almost 1,500 years, the Nomadic Alyssian refugees continued through deep space and traveled to the neighboring Milky Way. The conditions aboard the colony vessels were phenomenal, with waste byproducts being reconstructed at an atomic level through matter conversion technology. Diseases and illnesses were ultimately eliminated within the first decade of the transit, and the refugees aboard the colony ships saw long and fulfilling lives. With access to the entire Alyssian database, the refugees continued along their journey. An unknown number of vessels withdrew during the journey, with their inhabitants opting to search for their own journeys, something that was encouraged by the Light prior to their launch. Some returned to the Andromeda Galaxy, searching for a new home there, while the majority continued on. It wouldn't be for another 4000 years that the current generation of Nomads would find themselves arriving in the Milky Way galaxy. One of the first disembarking locations for the Nomads was the Cygnus constellation.

### Kepler-22b

In the year 1922 (Earth Time), the Nomads found themselves several astronomical units away from Kepler-22b, which orbited the sun Kepler. An exoplanet almost twice the size of Earth, Kepler was inhabited by a species of anthropomorphic beings who shared a surprising similarity to the Alyssians, prompting them to monitor the planet for several months, learning their languages, their routines, and their conflicts. As the planet was not yet space-faring, the Nomad Council, who determined the next course of action for the refugee fleet, opted against making first contact out of fear of the local's response. The Council decided to maintain five ships in the area, monitoring and continuing their studies on the Keplerians, while the rest of the fleet continued along.

### The Sol System

It would take almost 20 years for the Nomads to begin detecting the various radio signals expelled from planet Earth, prompting the Nomads to investigate. Arriving in the Sol System in 1940, the Nomads successfully hid several observation vessels within the Kuiper Belt, monitoring the actions of the planet Earth. Similar to their response to the Keplerian people, the Nomads began studying the planet. First contact was voted against, as the planet was in the midst of World War II, and the Nomads were hesitant to intervene, mainly due to not knowing what ramifications could arise.

Unbeknownst to the Nomads, a scout vessel belonging to the descendants of the Alyssian Hunter's Guild also arrived in the Milky Way, intercepting a secret capsule that was launched by Nazi Germany that year. The capsule kept documents, propoganda, language texts, and lore written by Adolf Hitler. The hiding Nomad vessels were able to detect the Empire ships as they approached the Sol System, and relayed the information to the rest of the fleet, who immediately fled the area. The Council formulated an evasion plan to lose the Empire vessels. The first step was to use all vessels equipped with older model FTL drives to alert the Empire ships, prompting them to pursue, while the remainder of the fleet, using newer engines designed to mask flight paths, would travel in the opposite direction. All of the ships used as a diversion were empty, piloted via remote, and debilitated to the point of being scheduled for scrapping to build new vessels. The plan was initiated while the Empire ships were patrolling the outer sector of the system, and worked without issue. The Nomad vessels immediately left the area, detecting the ships' discharge, and moved to investigate. After they left the System, the remainder of the Alyssian fleet ventured off to the opposite direction to find a new location to land and hide. Thanks to research conducted during their journey across dead space, the Nomads possessed advanced technology that aided in masking the starships various signatures to prevent tracking.

### First Contact

First contact with humanity was actually an accident. In 2020, during a return from a 60 year voyage through the outer arm of the Milky Way, the Nomads returned, sending a few scout and research ships to the Sol System to run a check on humanity. The scouting operation went south, however, when one of the Nomad vessels collided with a NASA Deep Space Telescope, destroying it and alerting humanity. The United States of America was the first to spot an Alyssian vessel on their long-range scanners, and the President was notified. Numerous attempts to reach out and communicate to the Alyssians were made, many of them warnings that the planet was habited and that they were not open to interstellar affairs, as they were unsure how to contain the information until a proper plan was formed to reveal the discovery to the general population. Eventually, the Nomads sent a shuttle to Earth to make official contact with humanity. The meeting went surprisingly well, with the Nomads possessing a great knowledge of the Earth's history and languages. A number of medical and scientific studies were conducted on the Nomads, who openly provided samples of blood, tissue, and DNA. The Nomads also supplied several cadavers used for their own medicinal research, allowing the government to determine that their biology did not pose any radiological, biological, or viral threat.

In late 2020, an Alyssian colony vessel intercepted a significantly sized asteroid, sustaining moderate damage to it's hull, but nearly destroying it's life support systems. As no other life-supporting planets were within range of the ship's rapidly draining oxygen, the Nomads decided to land the vessel on Earth. NASA and the United States invited the Alyssians to 'bring 'em down'. Though they were referring solely to the damaged ship, the Nomads landed many in various areas surrounding Groom Lake AFB in the Nevada desert. This alerted the general public to the discovery of extraterrestrials, and the entirety of humanity stopped for a moment to take in the news that they were not only NOT alone in the universe, but that the aliens were landing on Earth.

### Initial Reception

Due to the worlds rising political tensions, and a worldwide pandemic underway, many countries expressed concern over the USA allowing the Nomads to land. Several heads of government voiced their opposition to the landings on news and social media, claiming that the USA had 'overstepped' by allowing extraterrestrials to land a large number of starships on Earth. The United Nations hosted a series of emergency summits to determine a course of action. Out of respect, the Nomads were invited to sit in and present their case. Representing the Alyssian Nomads was an older wolf, Domingo, who had been the Admiral of the Nomad Fleet years prior. A master of speech and de-escalation, he set forth the proposal to lay out the foundations of a new superpower, with a desire to unite both the Nomads and humanity. Though the initial response to their proposal was met with scorn, the Nomads showcased a number of technologies they had perfected that they believed would solve a number of humanity's issues, including the mass use of drones for the rapid construction of large projects, technology geared towards the terraforming of other planets, and advanced medical equipment capable of healing nearly any wound within a 24 hour period.

### Formation of the United Federation

By the start of 2025, the Nomads had settled on Earth, with a vast majority remaining aboard the colony ships in orbit to prevent overcrowding. PLans were made to begin field testing the terraforming technology the Nomads possessed, with a number of spaceborne construction facilities being built. Resources were harvested from asteroids, stellar objects, and a number of dwarf planets outside of Sol by drones and automated transport vessels, before being brought to the construction station for assembly. Within ten years of testing, both Mercury and Mars had been successfully terraformed to the point that each planet had it's own sustained, breathable atmosphere. After the colonization of these planets began, terraforming efforts for Saturn and Jupiter were planned, with both planets requiring an artificial surface in order to sustain life. Saturn was begun first, and was marked complete in 2073. Jupiter, being significantly larger and with a greater gravitational pull, was delayed several times. Saturn and Jupiter's various moons were also targeted for terraforming, with Europa and Io being converted into dwarf planets with their own atmospheres.

By 3022, the Nomads were all but gone, their descendants continuing to live within the Sol System. Contact had been established between the United Federation and the Republic of Kepler, allowing diplomats to establish an allegiance.