Our ancestors had told stories of the stars, named the planets of our solar system after Gods and became assured that what lay beyond the black, abyssal void was Heaven. Maybe it was Heaven, but if it was then it had changed beyond recognition.

The Milky Way was home to trillions of aliens, differing cultures, technologies, and species. It was everything we dreamed it would be, it was everything we could have ever thought of. In our fledgling years dreaming of the stars, the stars dreamed back, but their dreams were cut short - now we know why.

All the information we've obtained is from what we recovered from a derelict monitoring station established just beyond our solar system. The station was a part of a small network, a series of outposts dedicated to keeping the galaxy a secret from Humanity. We now believe this was done to protect us.

Every planet, every drone, every light, starship and station had lost power a handful of decades ago. A strong, all-encompassing blast from a dying magnetar had reduced the entire galaxy back to the stone age. The advanced but now aging alien deflectors arranged around our solar system proved to be Humanity's saving grace.

According to the database of a long dead but recently rebooted alien computer, the galaxy, like Mankind in many aspects, was completely reliant on technology. Billions of dying, elderly aliens were on constant, permanent life support. Hundreds of thousands of shipping companies delivered vital goods to planets and stations that couldn't sustain themselves. Machines similar to our freezers on Earth kept food safe to consume, to store - but all of those completely necessary activities were stripped away in a terrifyingly fast yet slow process.

The magnetar blast swept through half of the galaxy within the first decade, billions would have their fate sealed with no ability to cook or store food - let alone procure medicine, water, or other necessities that could be otherwise received via the interstellar market. Hundreds of aliens living in luxury resort hotels would suffocate as life support systems were taken in the night.

The other half of the galaxy would face a slow, agonizing end as their technology was rendered absolutely inert. Humanity, hidden behind its weak yet stable alien deflector shields, would retain its ability to grow and prosper, and to uncover the fate of those who had protected us.

The aliens the public now calls, 'the Protectors,' were a race which had dedicated itself to protecting and uplifting primitive life. In a last ditch, purely altruistic, effort - the aliens had attempted to save Humanity. Now, we would try and return the favor.

Chaff pressed a button on his holopad, typing a period as he finished off the first new entry of his new journal. He gently laid the device on his desk, leaning to turn off his lamp. Light from an alien star streamed into his room as he grabbed his ID card and then his white helmet. A red cross adorned the top of the helm, with his red, white suit having, on his upper shoulder, the symbol of caduceus. Chaff adjusted the helmet, sparing time to take one last, long deep breath before he set foot on an alien world.