Redemption

We are the Bentusi, and we are Unbound.

We are different; we are one with our vessels.

But are we that different?

We transcend the Bound; we perceive that which is beyond their senses.

But are we really above them?

We watched as the lesser races progressed through the times, making leaps and bounds in technological capability. For hundreds of years, we remained the superior beings in this Galaxy, with no equal to speak of.

Secluded solitude.

Then the Second Core was found. With it, came the rise and fall of a fledgling empire, a civilization with the potential to break our solitude and sail the stars alongside our extended bodies.

We were responsible for their fall.

We cruelly wrenched this new-found power from them, bringing absolute annihilation down on their fragile ships. Was such punishment really necessary for a horrific but merely immature act?

We mourned. We mourned the defeat of the Hiigarans. We mourned because we too could have committed the same mistakes.

And so we repented, vowing never to go to war again. Yet we only sinned further by repenting.

We watched as the Taiidan exacted their revenge, razing the worlds of Hiigara and ending countless songs, countless lives. We could have stopped the madness, yet we chose to look on as the war reached Hiigara itself. By then, the void had become a quieter place.

Perhaps our only redemption was the agreement of Exile.

Once again, we watched as the Children of Hiigara disappeared into the west. We believed their Core to be lost forever, but we were to be proven wrong.

Four thousand years later, we hoped that the sands of time would have buried our past. Could we find redemption at long last?

Four thousand years later, we were sinners again.

Once again, we witnessed the destruction of a people, and did nothing to stop it. Countless songs extinguished yet again.

We heard the wails of the mourners echo through the void. We heard the silence of those who pushed on.

As the Exiles began their new odyssey, we realized they were no longer the people of four millennia ago. They had changed.

And so did we.

No longer will we stand back and gaze as innocents are slaughtered. No longer will we remain aloof while atrocities are committed.

The wheel has come full circle. We must now redeem ourselves.

"We are the Bentusi, and welcome you among space-faring cultures, the Unbound."