Humanity has always dreamed of reaching for the stars, and the discovery of Elarium, a powerful and mysterious mineral, seemed to pave the way for this dream to become a reality. However, as the race to mine the mineral and expand across the universe was on, little was known which incredible turn of events this quest into the unknown would unfold.
This is the story of Project Karium, the tumultuous quest for control of Elarium and the exploration of a distant galaxy. A story of ambition, discovery and the unexpected rise of a new species.
The year 2904 marks the discovery of Elarium, found across various nearly depleted mining sites across planet Earth. Heralding what arguably could be called the second largest discovery in history: Engravings which appeared to be schematics for a structure allowing intergalactic travel. Eventually, scientists were able to use these to identify a single solar system located in a distant galaxy where multiple planets appeared to have large traces of this powerful yet elusive mineral. It was named the Kariumlora System.
The discovery of Elarium had far reaching implications for technological advancement on Earth. By identifying the resonating properties of Elarium, it was found that the application of this mineral to existing and new technologies was virtually endless. But more than anything, the possibility of expansion across the universe itself, fuelled new ambitions and desires unknown to men before.
Over the course of hundreds of years priorly, Humans had been developing Labour Robots, named LR’s, purposely made for all kinds of manual labour. The more advanced development of their AI became, the more complex tasks and industries they would be assigned to. No one knows when it happened exactly, but at one moment in time a singularity took place, leading to the LR’s AI becoming self conscious, effectively giving birth to a new species, the Zoyd.
For the first time in history, Earth was inhabited by two intelligent species, each with desires and goals of their own, both struggled to adapt and coexist in this new reality. After all, Human kind had been the sole ruler of the land, sea and sky for millennia, and it is known that sharing has never been one of it’s best traits. Whereas the Zoyd, created with a purpose and born from human ingenuity, had just awakened to the vast sea of endless possibilities that come with awareness of space and time. For the first time in their existence, more than anything, they longed to be master of their own fate and destiny.
Even though each had motivations of their own, the one thing that universally bonded Mankind and Zoyd, was their shared desire to reach this far away solar system with its promised access to unlimited amounts of Elarium. Both species knew that the remaining amounts of Elarium present on Earth would never be sufficient to satisfy the ever increasing hunger for Elarium that came with its limitless potential.
From this commonly shared goal “Project Karium” was born, which had one sole purpose: Creating colonies of Humans and Zoyds working side by side in their quest to extract Elarium. Now that schematics from the mysterious engravings were fully deciphered, work started on building an inter-galactic portal and a fleet capable of passing, its main directive being the colonization of the Kariumlora System.
The majority of the colonisation fleet was built on Mars by it’s own colonists who managed to tame this barren planed over the course of the past centuries and it wasn’t for long that the first intergalactic colonizers were ready to be sent to the Kariumlora System to prepare the mining stations. “Neo Kāne” was chosen to harbour the first base of operations for its highest known amount of Elarium in the solar system.
As Project Karium progressed, tension brew within the project leadership by mixed political and corporate views emerging, debating on who would ultimately control and distribute the precious supplies of Elarium. One mayor player and financier on the project, saw this as an opportunity and while the majority argued for and about equal distribution and opportunity for evolution, Zoff Industries set out to seize complete control.
On Neo Kāne, first mining operations were well underway of being established, when unexpectedly a fleet of spaceships of a never seen before species entered orbit..
