The Starward Exiles Entry 4

The End of the First Nordic War

My name is Hieromonk Nicholas Petrov, and I’ve been recounting Earth’s history from the initial alien reconnaissance to the present year, 2723 AD. Last time, I recounted in some detail the Nordics’ surprise attack, which began during the Day of Introduction and led to the First Nordic War. As stated before, there was a long back-and-forth between the Nordics and the humans once the Nordics attempted to salvage Earth’s minerals. They struggled to secure oil, metals, and other such substances, and they had to leave their ships to do so. It was during these excursions that the humans chose to attack. This and their continued insistence on conducting abductions through the Reptilians and Grays prevented them from securing the planet, and during those long years, the initial wave of human slaves first delivered to other alien nations began to climb the ranks in their respective societies. These slaves began to find a voice in their various governments and began to persuade the other alien nations that it was time to launch a long overdue counterattack against the predominant force in the Milky Way galaxy.

The grudge between the Nordics and some of the other races ran deep, and here I must take a brief moment to explain the galactic turmoil that had been taking place without the Earth’s knowledge. It turns out that our solar system, which is called the Terras System, was a sort of intersection for the various races as they traveled from one galactic region to the next. Since we were one of two sentient races in our system, most of the races were content to leave us be, save for a few instances of reconnaissance or even tourism. The Venusians, the other sentient race out of Venus, were largely responsible for this, convincing races like the Baavi and the Cetians to help enforce our protected status. However, the Nordics and Reptilians, who had also publicly agreed to this treaty, began sending ambassadors to our planet in secret. I’m sure this was primarily to establish the lore I’ve spoken of in previous entries.

The Nordics had been conducting their imperialist campaign for some years by the time the Venusians had established the treaty, but it was publicly agreed that the Terras system would remain a neutral territory regardless of what wars may arise among the various races of the Milky Way. But the Nordics were simply biding their time, knowing that if they could secure the neutral zone in the Milky Way, they would finally have predominant status in the galaxy. There were other empires, but the Nordics would have primary control of trade. This gets into the mechanics of space travel, which I won’t pretend to understand, but suffice to say that the conditions of space are not uniform. The aliens’ various forms of wormhole and anti-gravitational technology can be affected by the competing gravitational forces and solar turbulence found within the other regions of space. The end result was that the other races would lose a considerable amount of time if they were forced to travel around the Terras system. Basically, the Nordics could charge a certain amount of money to guarantee safe passage through the Terras system.

Unbeknownst to the people of Earth, during the Day of Introduction, a large campaign was conducted to annihilate the Venusians. This was, to my understanding, the largest invasion launched to date. It was a brutal and brief war. While there are some Venusians scattered throughout the Milky Way, that race has been destroyed. Their domed cities were decimated by the Nordics and eventually wiped out by Venus’s hostile conditions. In fact, I can safely say that I have never met a Venusian during all my travels. As an aside, a legend has sprung up over the years, claiming that the Venusians became the Nors, an ethereal race that transcended the need for a physical body, but in my opinion, this is simply a sad attempt to come up with a happy end for those poor people.

The Nordics’ brutal tactics were enough to frighten the Baavi and the Cetians away from the Terras system, but they left with a deep resentment for the Nordics, and this betrayal, along with the Nordics hefty fee for continued travel, created a similar resentment among the other races as well. It was bad enough that the Nordics had been uncommonly aggressive towards the planets closest to them, but now they had resolved to antagonize every race in the galaxy.

But their brutal campaign against the Venusians was also part of what I meant when I said the Nordics spread themselves too thin. They are a vast empire, but at the time, they had to maintain control of their existing vassals as well as conduct an organized eradication. Given these conditions, the campaign on Earth was almost a second thought. This gave humanity valuable time, not offered to the other conquered races.

And there is another point that needs to be explained. While the Reptilians were mostly sending their human victims to planets already captured by the Nordics, they were also selling abductees to different races they encountered as they crossed the Terras system. Scientists or not, the Reptilians are also pirates, and if they thought another race could pay them more for their bounty than the vassal planet they were traveling to, they would stop and inquire about making a sale. This was what enabled the humans to not only convince some of the Nordic vassals to revolt but also to persuade some other races powerful enough to help to come to our aid.

These conditions slowly boiled as humanity struggled for survival until one day a massive armada appeared in the sky, filled with too many races to name here. I can’t say that the Nordics were overwhelmed; their power at that time is hard to be believed, but after another three years of conflict, they were driven from Earth and forced to return to Erra and Temmer to secure what little of their empire remained to them. Those human exiles had acted as if they were of one mind, convincing nearly a dozen planets to revolt and multiple races from different parts of the known universe to put an end to the Nordic threat. It wouldn’t be fair to say the Nordic Empire fell in a day, but a few years is a rapid decline by galactic standards. The Grays were all taken back to the Nordic’s home planets, and the Reptilians slithered back to their homes to find another race lacking in scruples to do business with.

Then something truly interesting happened. The other races realized that with the Venusians gone, someone had to secure the Terras system against future opportunists like the Nordics. A treaty was established, and Earth was given a portion of the aliens’ technology, enough to patrol and secure the Terras system against future threats. They were to answer to the Baavi and Cetians for a time, but our dependence on them quickly withered, and in a few years, fifty to be precise, humanity was its own independent force in the Milky Way. But humanity didn’t stop there.

While mankind had struggled to find its way into space—much longer than most of the other races—our prolonged grounding had allowed us to develop other skills far superior to our alien counterparts. We became masters of diplomacy and trade. Through the next two centuries we slowly accumulated planets and territorial control, but not through conquest as the Nordics had done. We built what became known as the Terras Confederation. Oh, we had our battles, but by the other aliens’ standards, they were few and far between. In the year 2500, the Terras Confederation was every bit as powerful as the Nordics had ever been. It was a true golden age, and humanity was able to recognize every dream ever predicted by their primitive televisions. For the next 200 years, the Terras Confederation ruled the Milky Way, but in 2680, something terrible happened.

The year I was born, the Nordics returned. They wanted to join the Confederation, but they had certain conditions. Before then, the Confederation and the Empire had been in a sort of historic standoff. Being Russian Orthodox, I feel confident drawing a parallel between the Russians and what was then known as the United States, now known as the United Provinces. Over time, the other races had either allied with the Confederation or the Empire, and a situation had developed where a war promised mutual destruction. Claiming to seek an end to the grievous situation, the Nordics agreed to join the Confederation provided that they had a prominent seat in our counsels. Their vote was to count as two instead of one during every proceeding. They had other stipulations, all of which amounted to antagonizing our allies and isolating us under a delusion of power, but in the end, the stipulations hardly mattered because the true goal was to gain access to Earth.

In the year 2700, they launched a surprise attack on our planet. I remember the battle. In fact, I fought in it, and all I can bear to say is that the conflict was fierce. Humanity drove the Nordics back, but it was a near thing. And since so many of our bridges were burned, humanity found itself all but alone as it waged war against a coalition united in a single goal: our destruction. The abductions returned, now taking place on multiple planets instead of one. Over the last twenty-three years we’ve lost planet after planet, system after system, and now only the Terras system is left to us. The Nordics have reconquered all their previous solar terrain and then some. Their rule has been harsh. One of their first decrees was to ban Christianity in every region they control. This tyrannical reign has been so harsh that I suspect some of our previous allies will return, but that hasn’t happened yet, and if it doesn’t happen soon, I fear Earth will finally fall. If only our rulers hadn’t been so cruel to our allies when they thought the long stalemate with the Nordics had finally been won.

We have a strong hold on the Terras system, but nowhere else. My part in all of this has been to continue spreading the Gospel despite the Nordics’ decree. Some might consider this a small thing, but I do not. However, if prophecy is to be fulfilled, it might be carried out in part by some other race if we don’t find a way to drive the Nordics back to their planets. So, there it is. The story as quickly as I can tell it. I hardly need to mention that I left a great deal out. Alas, I cannot say more for the present. My flight has ended, and I must speak with the ambassador of another race, the Drogludai, to find out where I am going. I suppose I shall record the events of this meeting in my next entry, Lord willing.

May God grant you peace.

Hieromonk Nicholas Petrov

“If you’d like to read more of my work, The Familiar (a dark urban fantasy) comes out February 3^rd, 2026. Gerome is a Familiar who gave his blood to a vampire. But now the vampire wants his wife. This book is the first of a larger series called Annals of S.O.L.M. If you’d like to support my work, The Familiar can be found on Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, and more, and if you feel inclined to leave a review on Amazon, that would be much appreciated. I hope you enjoyed this entry of The Starward Exiles.”