The Alid and First Contact (World Building Notes)

For this post, I wanted to talk about the Alid, and run through a few ideas I've had for their people and history.

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The Alid were the first people to discover space travel, and they were able to do this thanks to their home world's gravitational pull. It was about half as strong as a standard world, this gave them a very fortunate opportunity, as they were able to load up more fuel than most other worlds, and by the time they broke through their worlds exosphere, once they broke out into space, they would be left with enough fuel to take extended trips around their solar system.

Since they were able to start their first voyages, their scientists learned much about space travel, and during the trials and tribulations, they made many breakthroughs and discoveries.

One discovery they made was A.G.E, or Anti Gravity Emitters, which were devices that were able to lower the weight of an entire ship, but this came with a problem; the emitter didn't know how to stop at just the ship and became a nuisance due to the damage caused during launches.

Because of this, they knew they needed some sort of barrier, to block the emitter from acting beyond the hull of a ship it was installed on. This is where barriers came from, they would create an energy bubble of sorts around a ship as a way to lock the emitter in a fixed area. It was many years later, when barriers turned to shields and deflectors, to be used in combat situations.

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The Alid In Space
They were spindly creatures, and much taller than the average person due to their world's gravitational pull, this look meant they made poor warriors, and this mindset made them perfect for exploration beyond the borders of their local cluster because it meant they were cautious observers. Some people theorised the possibility of one of the more aggressive races being the first to discover space travel, and what the ramifications that could have made for Galactic History.

Jex was the first habitable world discovered by the Alid, and it was a while before any contact was made between the two races. The Juxians were peaceful, and they focused primarily on their economy, and living in abundance and luxury for all of their citizens. While they had previously experimented with space travel and living their world, their scientists gave up on the prospect of traveling to other worlds, due to it being nearly impossible in their eyes. Because of this, they never focused outward and instead looked back at themselves as a people, and aimed to create the best life for themselves and their world.

First Contact
When first contact was made with the Juxians, after much observation - their entire philosophy on life was brought into question and instantly shattered. It's not every day that your brightest minds are proven wrong in an instant, and this lead to much upheaval on the micro level, in their society, which rippled and disturbed the balance of their world on the macro level.

The Juxian government was torn between keeping their people happy or moving forward in a strange world, where nothing felt right.

They decided to keep things as they were, and to do this, they declared war on the Alid.

The ambassadors were slain, and the ships they arrived in were seized by the government, to be studied in secrecy. The Jex Government were lucky that they never studied space travel or low orbit launches, because they never launched satellites, thus their world was never inter-connected, meaning it was easy for them to suppress information.

Soon, the talk of aliens ended, and while there were small pockets of people who knew they were being lied to, they didn't pose a threat, and their whispers in the dark weren't seen as a threat.

While the Alid were displeased that they lost people and ships to this primitive race, they opted against retaliation and instead, they left a small team to observe the world and gather any and all information. The admiral of "The First Intergalactic Fleet" order the team to contact the bulk of the fleet if anything of note happens.

It was only 1.6 years, before the Juxians made their first successful launch, using a spacecraft that bore a striking resemblance to the ship that was seized during first contact.

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Off-World Stand-Off
They watched as the ship made a successful re-entry, and two more practice launches, before going on their first voyage. By the time they set out for their nearest planet, the Alid fleet had a chance to re-enter their solar system and make their way to intercept the lone ship.

The Juxians were 2/3rds of the way to their nearest world when they spotted something they weren't expecting, the main bulk of the Alid fleet, which was 6 ships strong. The moment the Juxians knew they were in trouble, it was too late. In true Alid fashion, they watched, and then moved to surround the ship when they thought it was going to try to escape.

Even though they could of, the Alid didn't attack, instead, they escorted the ship back to Jex and they all landed together in full force.

This time, negotiations went much better, and the Alid decided to strike a deal with the Juxian government. They would trade information with their scientists, so long as the government came clean and made a public announcement about the wider Galaxy, and along with that, a public apology for the lives lost during first contact.

The Juxian government agreed and was surprised about how hospitable this alien race was. Soon, the whole world knew the truth, and over the next twenty years, the Alid and Juxians worked closely on exploration; as well as this, they set up trade deals and learned much from each other in their pursuit to find more worlds.