Prologue

Ignorance is the root of all calamities!

At an indeterminate time, humanity began to send signals of various frequencies into outer space. Behind these so-called scientific experiments lay the human desire and hope for discovering intelligent life. If the vast universe held only Earth as the cradle of intelligent life, humanity would indeed be profoundly lonely.

Yet, sometimes loneliness is not necessarily a misfortune, especially when one is unprepared to welcome more powerful visitors.

The universe is not confined to a single galaxy. And as humanity had hoped, Earth is not the sole possessor of intelligent life. Two years after the predicted apocalypse of 2012 had passed, in late October, the heat still lingered on the west coast of the United States. Amidst the ongoing beach scenes of bikini-clad women and surfers, a young boy built a crude sandcastle with his small hands at dusk. Proud and content, his innocent eyes gazed up at the expansive sunset sky. And then he saw them. Dots of light, suddenly appearing in the firmament, near the crescent moon. As he observed these points of light, the boy was puzzled, oblivious to the waves collapsing his sandcastle. That evening, NASA discovered an unusual cluster of meteors. By the following noon, these meteors had entered the atmosphere, calculated to plunge into the Pacific Ocean. But upon entering the atmosphere, some of these special meteors altered their trajectories, ultimately landing in the capitals of over a dozen countries including Washington, Ottawa, London, Paris, Moscow, Beijing, Tokyo, and Cairo. The precision of their impact sites revealed this was no ordinary meteor shower, but a meticulously planned military operation!

The invasion from outer space had begun. When the "meteors" shed their exterior, revealing roaring steel bodies, menacing advanced artillery, and weapon systems emitting blue electric fire from their engines, Earth finally welcomed the visitors from the depths of space. These visitors, however, did not bear the olive branch of peace, but the declaration of war.

War erupted simultaneously across the globe on that fateful day! That day marked the clash of two disparate civilizations; that day resounded with the echoes of bloodshed and firearms. Cities turned to ruins, millions perished overnight. The earth groaned, rivers ran red with blood, and corpses piled high. The world governments, caught off guard, failed to initiate a nuclear strike before the battle ended. People fled to the wilderness outside cities, hiding in mountains and forests, reverting to a primitive state.

Two years passed before humanity learned the name of their visitors. They called themselves the Nim, hailing from a distant galaxy named Jotun. This was Earth's Dark Period, where the Nim controlled nearly 70% of the land and seas. Humans were enslaved, forced to toil in scalding factories extracting Earth's resources for the Nim. The unrestrained exploitation by these extraterrestrial invaders showed no regard for Earth's survival.

Yet where there is darkness, there is light, where there is chaos, there will be order. In the third year of Earth's Dark Period, another group of extraterrestrial visitors entered the galaxy, bringing hope to Earth's humanity. Faced with extinction, the vital force of life surged forth, mechanical puppets powered by cube energy emerged, the first human to activate gene circuit tattoos was born, and the first brutal yet determined counterattacks commenced. Humanity began to resist, pursuing light and freedom with their lives and blood!

This was a fierce collision between native planetary beings and invaders, a collective outcry of rage from the remaining millions of humans! In the end, humanity triumphed. As the remnants of the Nim fleet vanished from Earth's sky, a ray of dawn appeared on the eastern horizon. Future scholars would name this conflict the "Battle of Dawn."

The Battle of Dawn was a crucial turning point for humanity, breaking free from colonial rule and marking the entrance into an era of advanced cosmic warfare. And all this, thanks to those extraterrestrial beings who brought hope to Earth.

They called themselves the Adahans! In the summer of 2031, Earth ushered in a new epoch. The surviving humans united to form the Earth Federation Government. This year was also the first year of the Dawn Era.

The story does not end here; on the contrary, it has only just begun.