Once, humankind walked on a planet called Earth; today, it walks here, on The Wonder.

The Wonder is an engineering work that, thanks to the passing down of what knowledge remained from Earth, to study, and to dedication aboard the vessel, was created over 8 generations of humans specialized in mechanical, chemical, energy, and computer engineering.

As the first humans on Earth once tried to light a fire to keep themselves warmer, we did the same here, in space: we lit the fire of knowledge to obtain everything we needed to survive as well as possible.

For the first 50 years, we remained in orbit around the Sun to exploit its energy, until one day a woman gave birth to the messiah: yes, a genius who, at only 16 years old, found a way to literally take the entire energy of the Sun and channel it into a core, modulable, adjustable... the turning point of humanity.

At last, humankind could set out in search of a new planet on which to settle.

People were already thinking about what wonder of a world could be created on a habitable planet, given the new energy possibilities, possibilities that could prevent precisely what had happened on Earth.

The world aboard was directed toward a form of social management devoted to order and efficiency.

That child was its sign.

Artificial insemination was used to transmit the boy’s gene and create a population that, according to that technocratic dawn, would save the human race.

Humankind travelled for over 600 years in search of a planet, meanwhile increasing technology and the modular infrastructures connected to the mother ship, building around it and around the energy core a gigantic structure, a unique engineering work that, had the humans of Earth seen it, would have left them stunned.

This growth was also due to what humankind found during that long journey: asteroids full of resources, clusters of ice... everything except habitable planets.

We had the power of a star, and we were able to survive thanks to a closed-loop system for generating resources, developed from the terrestrial seed bank we had brought with us.

At that point, humankind faced a new choice: abandon the search for a habitable planet and continue living there.

Aboard, there was everything necessary and every possible comfort, and we had enough energy for another 3 billion years... all we had to do was keep creating habitable modules using the resources offered by space to expand the human population.

Technocracy won.

And so, thinking back to the thoughts of the humans who had orbited the Sun, hoping to find a new habitable planet and longing for a wonderful life, we decided to give this technological complex a fitting name: The Wonder.

We had created what humankind was searching for.

Humankind lived in peace for another 150 years... until one day...

No human would ever have imagined finding, after about 750 years of space travel, other intelligent life forms... by then, the chances were minimal!

We had travelled for 300 years at speeds almost close to the speed of light without ever finding anything.

Unfortunately, those life forms were hostile.

They attacked us. Many died, but we managed to escape to the upper levels of The Wonder (we had recreated gravity 80 years after the escape from Earth).

Unfortunately, thousands of Sectors had already been invaded because of the tranquillity humankind had grown used to over hundreds of years... we had lowered our guard.

We reactivated the security protocols after about 100 years of pause, to isolate the hostile creatures inside the Sectors, also excluding other Sectors that had to remain clear for safety.

Technocracy ordered us not to detach the modular blocks that made up the invaded Sectors, but since the creatures could not escape, we decided to study them.

In this way, we made The Wonder technically invaded.

It has now been 10 years since we were invaded, and about 2 years ago we noticed a considerable increase in the number of creatures compared with the previous 8 years, even though we had left them isolated.

What do they feed on?

How do they reproduce?

While we were looking for answers to these questions, the answer revealed itself before our eyes: Energy.

All of us, blinded by our thirst for knowledge and by the study of these creatures, focused all our strength on trying to study them as thoroughly as possible, forgetting, however, one very important thing.

We had isolated roughly 30% of our structures, but the energy consumed by The Wonder each year kept increasing, year after year, even though demographic growth was regular and we had lost 5% of the total population during the attack.

Once again, technocracy was a double-edged weapon.

It made us lose control of the problem, but it helped us find the answer by weakening the hunger for knowledge.

The creatures, by feeding on energy, risk putting The Wonder in serious danger if they begin to grow exponentially, so we must destroy them.

Separating the modular block of the invaded Sectors is not enough, because after various studies and tests we suspect that these creatures are able to continue feeding on the core even at enormous distances, condemning the human race to a very early extinction.

We now know a great deal about these creatures, except how they reproduce.

Unfortunately, our internal sensors are active only up to Sector 5, so we do not know what lies beyond, but we imagine these creatures come from there.

They are well organized, and their objective is certainly to consume as much energy as possible in order to reproduce.

Here, the Technocratic Order of Machines is born.

Our objective is to Purge the lower outposts and end the threat!

We will continue producing remotely controlled Mechs to purge the invaded Sectors. We need many pilots, and we must recover many useful pieces of equipment inside the Sectors... do you want to be one of us?