Following the example of Lorien, the first sentient being in the galaxy, many the races known to the Younger Races as the First Ones took it upon themselves to teach and guide the Younger Races. Most of the First Ones that took up this calling followed a path of a relative balanced approached between Order and Chaos. Two however did not. They were the Vorlons and the Shadows. The Vorlons believed that growth came from Order and Discipline and the Shadows believed that growth came from Chaos and Conflict. At first the two races stayed out of the other one’s way, simply being content with guiding the Younger Races around them. Then one side, no one can remember which, decided their way was the only way and all other ways were wrong. Thus came the wars between the First Ones. Depending on which side of the equation of Order and Chaos they favored dictated which side the other First Ones joined. The result of these wars was absolutely devastating to the galaxy and eventually many of the First Ones pulled out of the debate. With the an increasing number other First Ones no longer fighting with them, and in some case for them, the Shadows and Vorlons came to an unofficial agreement. They would use the Younger Races to decide which way was the best way, and thus the first true Shadow Wars began.
The Circle, as the Vorlons began to call it, continued for countless millennia. The Shadows would come; instigate wars sometimes through proxy, sometimes directly. Then the Vorlons would get involved; forming alliances sometimes through proxy, sometimes directly. Ironically this Circle did actually help the Younger Races as it did promote growth. The problem for the Vorlons and Shadows was that the Circle left no clear winner. This prompted the two First Ones to take their manipulation a step further, actively interfering with Younger Races on a continuous basis. The Vorlons went to the Younger Races as Beings of Light and eventually were worshiped as Gods. The Shadows consequently ended up taking the opposite approach and became the Younger Races demons. Once again the Circle produced no clear winner. So they went to a next step, engineering the younger races to become like them. The Vorlons were a psychic race and started to manipulate the younger races genes to produce other psychic races. The Shadows were a ‘phased’ race, they had the ability to shift between the dimensional barriers, like that exists between normal space and hyperspace. They started to alter the physical structure of the matter of the younger races to make other ‘phased’ races that would eventually lead to the creation of the Technomage Order. These developments would cause the Circle to continue on in a cycle with neither side winning or losing without interruption. At least that would be the case if it were not for another race coming into power, the Radam.
The Radam were unique in the galaxy in that they could neither be classified among First Ones nor the Younger Races. They were kind of an in-between race. They were old, millions of years old, but the First Ones were hundreds of millions to billions of years. The Radam still maintained a physical form that was rooted in normal space like the Younger Races but possessed technology that was equal and in some cases superior to some of the First Ones. In their evolution to a space faring race the Radam had minimal influence by the First Ones and thus developed mostly on their own. They came to a point in their technological level where they could go against the First Ones and keep them at bay but not defeat them. This was a problem for the Radam, for they were by nature conquers and felt no one should be superior to them.
The Radam knew they could not defeat the Vorlons or Shadows and also knew that if they tried to conquer the younger races the two First Ones played with it would make them come after the Radam. So the Radam waited, observed and studied. They saw the Vorlons and Shadows manipulating the younger races to the point where the younger races were essentially weapons to be used in the Circle. This gave the Radam an idea, make their own weapons out of the races they conquered. Cheap, plentiful and easy to replace, the conquered races were the perfect weapons for the planned conquests into Vernon and Shadow territories. Now that Radam had an army they had to ensure loyalty and find a way to supply them that would allow them defeat the First Ones. They went back to observed and studied the Vorlons and Shadows again. The psychic technology of the Vorlons and the phase technology of the Shadows intrigued the Radam. The potential for these technologies was immense and worth the risk of venturing out into the First Ones’ Space. Samples technologies were rather easy to obtain as both the Vorlons and Shadows would leave bits of the technology all over the place. The arrogance that no one but other First Ones would be able to understand the technology and that most of the First Ones did not want to get involved on any level combined with the fact that the each side loathed using the others technology to the idea that these left over pieces were safe from others. With samples of the Vorlon and Shadow technologies in their possession the Radam went about studying and learning how the technology worked. The telepathy and mind control of the Vorlons ensured loyalty and the ability to phase through dimensions allowed for storage and transport of massive amounts of equipment, and that was just the surface of the technologies’ potential. Eventually the Radam cracked the secrets of the rival First Ones and did what no one thought possible, they combined them with their already formidable quantum based technology into a new technology. A technology that would eventually culminate into the Tekkaman Creation Process.
After the development and perfection of the Tekkaman Creation Process and the build up of their forces the Radam felt they were ready to conquer the galaxy. They planned their attack perfectly, it was in between one the Circle’s high points, when the Vorlons and Shadows were still rebuilding their forces, but also relaxed in the idea that the other side would not attack in anyway.
At first the Radam met no resistance. The Vorlons and Shadows did not concern themselves with the ‘new’ conquers, they would just be used in the next high point of the Circle and the other First Ones simply did not care. Without the First Ones the Younger Races easily fell to the might of the Radam giving the Radam more slaves to turn into Tekkamen and increasing their military might. But before long the Radam forces started to encroach directly into Vorlon and Shadow as well as some other First One’s territory drawing them into the conflict. When the First Ones encountered the Radam they thought the victory over the Radam would be assured, they were mistaken.
To the surprise of the First One’s the Radam defeated their ships in combat. This was because of several reasons. Many of the First Ones had not fought a war in thousands and in a couple of cases millions of years and their combat skills were rusty at best. The First Ones that were in constant conflict, the Vorlons, Shadows and those few that still sided with either one, were weakened from the previous Circle. But the largest reason why the Radam defeated the First Ones was because they were not united in their efforts. Shadows and Vorlons would equally fight each other as they would the Radam. The First Ones that isolated themselves from everyone refused to fight with anyone and just concentrated on defending their own territory, with minimal success. For hundreds of years this conflict continued. Some First Ones learned their lessons, united and quickly became students of war and drove the Radam back. The two strongest First Ones, Shadows and Vorlons, however were still refusing to work with the other. They held their own but were slowly losing ground to the powerful Tekkaman of the Radam. Even their prototype weapons that would later known as the Vorlon Planet Killer and the Shadow Death Cloud could not stop entire armies of Tekkamen.
Finally after seeing so much destruction and death the one being that Vorlons and Shadows respected enough to listen, Lorien, to stepped in. He spoke directly with the Vorlon and Shadow leadership telling them to stop bickering and unite against the Radam. The Vorlons and Shadows listened but the cooperation came too late. The Radam had amassed a massive Empire that the already weakened forces of the First Ones could not defeat. Another solution was thought up however, isolate the Radam from the rest of the galaxy to give the First Ones and Younger Races enough time replenish their forces. Using the technologic might of the all the First Ones, they created massive hyperspace storms that were strong enough destroy even First One and Radam ships and thus block the Radam off from the rest of the galaxy.
With the conflict with the Radam settled there was peace among the First Ones and they went back to guiding the Younger Races but also keeping an eye on the hyperspace storms. Unfortunately old arguments came up and the First Ones returned to the states they were in before the Radam invaded. Eventually the future threat of the Radam fell out of the minds of the First Ones as some went beyond the Rim, others isolated themselves once again and the Vorlons and Shadows went back to bickering like spoiled children.
Inside Radam Space, the Radam were furious at their loss but there was nothing they could do about it, at least for moment. Their next collective drive as a race went away from conquest for a time, as they had already conquered all in their now isolated area, to finding a way to break through the hyperspace storms. This lead to the discovery of a small area within their space that seemed to fluctuate in time. This system was the second Sol system that formed as a result of the Vorlons messing with time.
The Radam sent a scout/scientific research ship to the system to investigate the anomaly in hopes that it would yield answers to breaking through the hyperspace storms. When the ship entered the system the temporal disturbances severely damages the ship and made it crash in the outer part of the system and the Radam lost contact with the ship. As the Radam thought their ship was destroyed and the fact that research was being done in another form of FTL travel that was showing promise. The system was forgotten and the second Earth was free to develop without interference, at least for a time.
On Minbar, the Vorlon known as Kosh was looking over the data a recently destroyed Tinashi sent back. Its curiosity was peeked by overheard discussions about a new Human weapon that defeated a Tinashi and requested the data. The Grey Council complied and sent it the data. It knew that the war between the Minbari and Humans was needed and would eventually lead to the next Circle as that was what the time traveler Valen from one thousand years ago said.
This Vorlon was different from most of its brethren in that it actually cared about the younger races, not just seeing them as tools. It used the Vorlon ability to separate parts of is mind and place it in another’s mind often in the younger races. This gave it a distinct insight in the thoughts of the Younger Races. It also had the distinct honor of being one of the last Vorlons to speak with Lorien directly during the Radam War all those thousands of years ago.
As it viewed the data, Kosh paused the image of an armored being flying past the Tinashi’s hall at close range, the image disturbed the Vorlon as it new of only one race that used such a ‘fighter.’ It brought up the data on the space suit fighter and when it came to the analysis of the weapons it used and the suspicions the Vorlon had were confirmed, it would have sucked in its breath it were required to breathe. “The Radam are returning.”
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(Posted Sun, 17 Dec 2006 22:11)
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