HAM GALAXY: Origins

In the 1960s, during a turbulent era of scientific experimentation, humans embarked on a venture that would forever alter the course of evolution on Earth. In their relentless pursuit to enhance human intelligence, scientists conducted controversial experiments on both pigs and chimpanzees. Years of testing culminated in the administration of a smart-serum, designed to accelerate cognitive development. However, their efforts appeared to be a colossal failure, as the expected results would not materialize for many years and in ways they never anticipated.

Unknown to humanity, the serum had not failed entirely; its effects were only subtler and far slower than predicted. This serum had indeed altered the genetic code of the test subjects, it would just take additional generations to reveal itself. The seed of change was planted and it set in motion a transformation that would alter the course of history.

As these serum-induced mutations manifested, the affected pigs and chimps began to exhibit signs of heightened intelligence, gradually increasing with each new generation. Their cognitive abilities expanded at an astonishing rate, far surpassing the natural development that humans had undergone. While humanity descended into conflict and a disheartening trend of intellectual mediocrity, the pigs and chimps underwent silent transformations.

By the time humanity had reached its inevitable demise, leaving the Earth scarred and depleted, the descendants of those experimentally altered pigs and chimps emerged as the new dominant species. The pigs, carrying the genetic legacy of those initial experiments, now possessed an intellect akin to their past captors, while the chimps, who had been sent into space during the cold war trials, had survived and similarly evolved, now thriving on distant worlds.

Same in nature, yet, so very different in nurture, the futures of these divergent kin would soon collide in a struggle mankind had never imagined...

In the year 2777 CE, the Earth had become a very different place. The humans were gone, their once-mighty civilization reduced to dust by their own folly. In their place stood the intelligent pigs, the nearest genetic relatives of the former rulers of Earth. With their exceptional intellect and advanced technologies, they had not only inherited the Earth but created a new empire, and had expanded their dominion throughout the galaxy.

Upon discovering this, the Chimps decided to return to Earth, but despite their shared mutation that had shaped their destinies, relations between the two species ultimately broke down. The chimps were resolute in their belief that they were the rightful heirs to Earth, spurred on by a sense of genetic similarity to their human ancestors. They sought to rebuild what the humans had lost. Yet, the pigs were too proud to relinquish any shred of what they'd built from their past captivity and held no value in the human influences of the past.

War was declared. Both the Hognauts and AstroChimps wielded their technologies against each other. Their battles soon spilled out into the rest of the galaxy, turning distant star systems into battlegrounds as they competed for dominance.

Their struggle, rooted in the genetic experiments of the 1960s, was the last laugh of the humans and their boundless scientific curiosity. It was a battle for supremacy that would ultimately determine the fate of countless worlds and the legacy of two species born from the remnants of ancient ambitions.

In this epic tale of evolution, conflict, and entitlement, these Hognauts and AstroChimps forge a new era in intergalactic history. The war is well underway and it steams ahead, unslowed by the realities of its devastation. Today, the Hognauts and Astrochimps meet in epic space battles throughout the galaxy. They expand their reaches, contest habitable worlds, and attempt to enforce their claim to it all.