BOOK III: Chapter 1 Eric

CHAPTER 1

Nifleheim, where I was born and raised was the fourth planet in the Alfrodull System. A cold Type III Garden world, with long harsh winters, 98% Water and only 2% Land.

Nifleheim was colonized during the first Terran Exodus in 2200.

A religious movement started by Havard Gustavson of Norway grew rapidity in popularity and members. Havard preached the return to the old ways, the religion and culture of an ancient Terran tribe known as the Vikings. He and his followers abandoned the predominant Christian religion and worshiped the old Norse gods. His sect promoted a lifestyle less depending on technology. Preparing and cooking food from raw ingredients rather than have Nanite food assemblers provide the meals; building houses out of wood, settling disputes in duels and simple tribe councils instead of courts. The sect’s life style clashed with the modern laws and customs in many ways.

Earth was still over populated even after the spreading of humans thru ought the solar system.

But faster than light travel and the defeat of the Xunx opened them an entire sector of space unclaimed by anyone else and with many Garden worlds deprived of live by the Xunx but perfect for colonization. Terrans did not just settle on Garden worlds like other civilizations did but spread out to every conceivable environment using the new leap in technology to make even the most inhospitable places their own.

The new Terran Government heavily promoted colonization and supported any group that wanted to leave with free transportation and colonization equipment. This was called the First Exodus where thousands of groups with hundred thousands of members left Earth almost weekly for almost 2 years.

Gustafson’s Neo Vikings where among those leaving Earth during that time, they  selected a water world with only one small continent 712 light years from Earth, named it Nifleheim and sixty thousand Swedes, Norwegians, Finns and Germans made their new home on that water planet in 2212.

Those who left Earth had to undergo mandatory genetic alterations, to better acclimate to the new worlds. The Neo Vikings also accepted some genetic tailoring (this caused a long discussion about purity, but common sense and the harsh conditions on the new world won the argument. Besides the Neo Vikings did not have the resources to fund their own exodus so they had to rely on the Government and accept their conditions. The genetic Engineers added gills allowing Neo Vikings to breathe and live under water for extended periods.

The first years where quite harsh, Nifleheim was an unforgiving world and someone got the idea to raid space lanes and other colonies much like the Vikings of old had done (At least in the romanticized way the Neo Vikings believed they where) and this idea was readily accepted and so the Neo Vikings of Nifleheim started to raid other colonies and became feared pirates in that sector of space.

That didn’t last very long however,  the new United Stars navy put an end to it and gave the Neo Vikings two options: Orbital bombardment and utter destruction or quit the pirating and join the United Stars and become a lawful member. As proud as they where, the choice wasn’t to difficult with a fleet of orbital bombers with planet busters in the bomb bays orbiting overhead, ready to vaporize the oceans and everything else with it.

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I was born to Swen Olafson, a rich patriarch and clan chief of the Trondheim Clan. My mother died when I was just five.

He had then chosen another wife and had 2 more sons with her, my half brothers. As the first born I would have been my duty to follow the lead of my father and become a Tyranno Fin hunter, pilot the family sub and fight with other Trondheim men for the honor to be clan chief when my father died. It didn’t work out and my father almost killed me twice for what he felt where transgressions against honor and tradition. Everything was always a transgression against honor and tradition with him anyway. He disowned me when I was 15, declared me unfit to be his son and heir, making my second brother the heir.

I had spent the last 2 years not living with my father but with my uncle in Harstad Fjord. There was not much of a future for me on Nifleheim and there weren’t many career options open to a disowned son of an old family, so the decision what to do with my life was an easy one. That is why I boarded a space bus 17 days ago, after seeing a Navy recruiter.