-The Intro

They say that Christmas was the time of miracles, peace on Earth, good will towards men, and a bunch of advertisements meant to separate the populace from their hard earned money to buy materialistic goods that had no baring on the first 3 things mentioned. I had always thought of getting presents as a way to show that, yeah you're thinking of the person and that you care enough that you wanted to show your appreciation for what they have done for you over the past year. The main idea to me is that Christmas is meant to spend time with your family and friends and to be there for others. Basically, be a better person than you were normally.

At least that was my line of thinking when I was still on Earth.

Growing up, I heard the stories and read the history lessons about the past, like the two great wars, as well as the story of how humanity made their way to the stars. I had also listen to both my parents and the news reports talking about the current events, namely what would later referred to as the Colonial Segregation War, a war that dragged on for over 50 years before it had ended, not because of how bloody or any kind of actual stalemate, but because human technology was only so advanced that it was years between skirmishes and full on fleet battles happened. There was only 14 actual battles and 30 some skirmishes by the end.

I was in high school when it was announced that the war had ended. But what shocked everyone, was the fact that humanity was now at war against a new, mysterious alien aggressor and that all the different human factions were now uniting under some new Terran Alliance to try and face this new threat. At the time, I honestly didn't pay much attention, just the fact that the President of the Sol Federation made a long, droning speech that announced the aliens and the new alliance. Personally, my mind was in all the action and such from watching them old sci-fi movies.

The next 3 years of school flew by for us, most of us had plans to join this TAFT military to get out into the universe and kicked some alien butt. However, four months before I could graduate, the war ended. After graduation, instead of joining the military like I had aspiration of becoming during the wars, I instead entered the workforce. I had became a “factory drone," even though there was still plenty of robots doing things, and eventually climbed up the ladder in a few short years.

One night, while staying over and helping out the next shift, my boss approaches me an tells me he heeds to talk to me. In private. While I wasn't too worried, I was still nervous, going through several possibilities. What was said in that office changed my life from that point on. During and after what was now referred to as the First Contact War, the Alliance had gotten a hold of new planets and the company that I worked for wanted to send me to one of these new worlds to over see a new project. I was left shocked and speechless. I was given a few days to give my answer, but I'd bet real money that they already knew what I was going to say.

Yes, I'll take the position.

I will admit here and now that I was born on Earth, grew up near the eastern part of the Great Lake regions of what used to be the US. I haven't traveled very far in the scope of things, but I've seen some of the country side that was left at this point, And there's more than what you'd expect. But this will be the first time I'd be leaving Earth, my home, my world for what laid beyond the stars.

That was two years ago.

Some would say that I was privileged and a bit of a snob for being from Earth. Its just a stereotype hold over from the propaganda used during the Segregation War, and sadly, people from the colonies still thinks it true to this day. When I first arrived on Severa, I was faced by all sorts of bigotry and animosity by almost everyone. The human workers, since most of them were either from other colonies or refugees from having their homes destroyed by the war. The aliens that was on my work force were... not what I expected.

The Caushae were feline in appearance, ranging from looking like Earth's house cats to lions and leopards. While they weren't physically imposing nor that strong, they were very lithe and acrobatic. They could probably dominate the Olympics easily as limber as they are. Add to that quite a few of them usually had a good degree of intelligence hidden underneath their feline features. Its kind of hard to believe that Humanity was able to win the war against them.

The Lycan on the other hand, they were a contrast to the Caushae. Most of them that I seen were wolfish in nature, if not similar to other long nose canines like foxes, huskies, or even german shepherds and coyotes. While not as limber as their feline counter parts, they made up for it in raw strength and imposing stature. Most of the females were almost as tall as me and I stand at about six foot two. Now, just imagine having to stare down a male Lycan that slightly over seven foot without adding in their pointed ears. Brrr.... At least they were actually more friendly than the humans most of the time. Sadly though, the Caushae and Lycans got along like the proverbial cats and dogs. Never knew when you had to stop a fight between the two groups.

There were a few others that weren't as common as the other two, like the smaller mouse like Mauluse and the lanky rabbit like Almedha. I only had one Almedha on my workforce and seen a few Mauluse around the town that was being rebuilt.

I was glad that most of the issues that I started out having with my workers were now more or less ironed out, cause as I said, there was a lot of flack that I got from being from Earth. But once they seen that I was more than willing to “step into the trenches" with them and worked with them with the issues they had at the job site. I wasn't trying to be their friend, but a boss that was trying to make sure that the job went smooth for everyone.

Now, you're probably wondering why I'm giving this history lesson after starting this story by talking about Christmas. Well, I wanted to explain some of why people's mindset are the way they are. At least from my perspective. Plus, I didn't realize that my life would soon change a second time.