Primordial Expanse: I have the Strongest Talent!

At first, humans conquered the biting cold, with the discovery of fire.

Then came agriculture, leading humans into conquering hunger.

And from agriculture, civilisation bloomed.

The growth of humans was exponential, only getting bigger as time flew by.

From barely surviving day by day in the wilderness, to becoming the dominant species of the Earth, they had slowly built up over time.

Humans had gone from nothing but small specks of matter that had nearly faced extinction dozens of times throughout their pitiful existence, to the dominators of the Milky way galaxy.

And this was all before the Primordial Expanse opened up its metaphorical doors to the human race.

And in all this history, not once had humans ever come across another sentient species like them, who had their own civilisations and had maybe even spread out into space to conquer their own star systems.

Not a single one.

Of course, one might ask about the Primordial Expanse.

Were there no foreign species in there?

The answer was no, or at least no one from the federation had ever seen one.

Nor did the native humans seem to have either.

When humans first invented warp travel, they had expected to come across hundreds, possibly thousands of equally or possibly even more advanced sentient species of all different shapes and sizes spread out across the milky way.

But the most they ever found was animal and plant life on other planets.

At first, they thought \'Maybe there was once another sentient species that had died out somehow?\'

But nope, there were no ancient ruins, or abandoned dyson structures etc.

It was almost like the Milky way was a sandbox set up specifically for the Human race to play with by some higher being.

But they had found no evidence of that either.

Eventually, they had just given up trying and had come to the conclusion that they were alone in the universe.

That was, until this day.

***

"What is that…"

"Oh my god…"

"Blegh-"

The reactions from the trillions of people watching varied quite a lot, with some even throwing up immediately at the scene of Ciril\'s lifeless, dismembered body laying there.

This came as quite a massive shock to the citizens of the federation, as figures like him, the higher life forms among the awakened were almost idolised like gods.

And seeing one of their idols fall to such a gruesome fate, live on TV was like the ultimate reality check.

The non-human figure in the broadcast turned around to face the camera, revealing its full image for the human race to see.

The being stood tall, its form both alien and terrifying. Its skin was a dark, mottled texture, almost reptilian, and its eyes were a piercing, glowing yellow.

The figure\'s body was muscular, exuding a sense of power and dominance, especially while standing over Ciril\'s body.

The trillions of viewers could barely comprehend what they were seeing.

"#\'@|}{-=~@##\'"

The figure seemed to have spoken.

It was a harsh and guttural language, not one that humans would be able to understand, sounding like an odd beast.

The sounds were abrasive, sending a grating shiver down spines across the federation.

Then, almost as if it were adjusting to the broadcast, the language shifted, becoming clearer, more structured.

"Humans," it began, now speaking in the universal language of the human race, the one adopted as the official language by the entire federation.

"Pathetic, weak creatures. You think yourselves the masters of this galaxy, the rulers of the stars. Yet you are nothing but insects, crawling in the dirt."

The figure sneered, its yellow eyes narrowing into slits. "You idolise your so-called awakened ones, but look at them now. Feeble, broken. They are but weaklings on the grand scale of the universe."

A hush fell over the viewing audience, a collective intake of breath as the alien figure continued.

"I am Zorath, and I come from what you call the Andromeda Galaxy."

Zorath leaned closer to the camera, his reptilian face filling the screen. "And now, I know your location."

A sinister smile spread across his face as he let that sink in for all the people watching.

The broadcast ended there, for real this time.

But nobody got up from their seats, nobody went back to what they were originally doing.

They were all too stunned by what they had just watched.

Alex and Mira included.

Panic quickly began to spread as people regained their senses, a ripple effect across the federation as the reality of their situation sank in.

The human race, thinking themselves invincible in their domain, had just invited a new, unknown enemy into their doors like a trojan horse.

The peace humans were used to wouldn\'t last much longer…

***

Soon enough, system messages started appearing in front of every awakened, regardless of if they were in the Primordial Expanse or in the federation.

They all received the same thing.

[Announcement: The Protection period has come to a premature end.]

[The veil has now been lifted.]

[The fated day has come. You simple creatures have finally figured out that you are not, in fact, special. The universe is not yours alone, and there are an uncountable number of races out there, much stronger than your own. To your misfortune, one of these races found you before your culmination period was able to finish. Good luck, humans. You will need it in the coming future.]

[The system graciously gifts 200 years of free, uninterrupted time to adapt to the Primordial Expanse, and your new status as an awakened race.]

[However, due to your own hubris, always hungry for more resources, constantly fighting each other, you ventured outside of the protective veil placed around your galaxy, hiding you from the outside races.]

[You brought this upon yourselves, humans. You may think the Primordial Expanse is a dangerous place. But the real danger has been hidden in your own domain this whole time, your leaders were just too arrogant to realise it.]

"..."

"..."

Alex and Mira were both lost for words.

Their faces were expressionless as they read the system messages as they came one after the other.

"The federation really fucked up big time…"

But their emotions were in turmoil.