…there is one tragic event that can further explain the stigma against aliens, even centuries after the Great Tunnel War. Of course, I use the term “Aliens” as a rather broad word, but I only mean to define differing sentient species which share no common planet, culture, or ancestor, in an unbiased fashion. In order to understand the modern world and its ongoing conflicts one must understand how they were first rooted, and to say that this event did not inspire the ever-present vitriol of today’s society would be foolish at best, and a lie at worst.
Anyway, it began with the celebration of flowers; ironically, an annual festival dedicated to the unity of different peoples through nature, which lasts for five days. While the holiday is celebrated everywhere, it is especially prominent in the Postaton planet of Flux, where (due to the planet’s rotation) the days are longer, thus, the celebration is as well.
Though, as the fifth day turned to night mobs began to form at the Postaton capital of Mirrelm. This could have only been the result of a controversial bill that was passed during the celebration, in an attempt to avoid hostilities on the Postatons part. Specifically, the bill had to do with the conservation of sentient species, through the capture of a few dozen randomly chosen citizens. That may not sound so terrible, but the manner of containment is widely considered… unethical. The captured citizens are put under a medically induced coma and are essentially dissected in order to store genetic samples and such, should the species ever go extinct. These captured citizens range from Lilarianads, Sterges, to even many nomadic peoples like the Buboes, Erucians, or Nule.
As the night went on, the mobs turned into riots and even a few vigilantes broke into the Postatons storage facility to free the captured citizens. This is the falling domino that spurred off the Postaton’s next drastic move.
The Postatons, who had long warned against any mass upheaval in their lands, had finally kept their word. With their complex knowledge of metallurgy and electronics, they set their Titan Enforcers loose on the crowds and the whole city of Mirrelm. While said vigilantes were killed, so too were the captured citizens and 207 rioters. The carnage made in the midst of the festival of flowers would earn the notorious name “Night of Red Petals”
In the following years, this event was used as an arrow in the quiver of many isolationist groups, denouncing the holiday of unity as a demonstration of how different sentient species should never be intertwined.
