[ IP ] The reason we have n't heard from aliens .

First Contact was actually a little underwhelming. It was a simple message. “ Quiet you fools. They ’ re listening. ” 
 
 It came over every television channel and broadcast wavelength imaginable, all at once. The words were copied from various TV shows and movies and cobbled together like an extra-planetary ransom note. We tried tracking the signal back to its source, but it seemed to have come from empty space. 
 
 This told us two things about the galaxy. 
 
 1 ) We weren ’ t alone. We weren ’ t alone in a big way. 
 
 2 ) Dark things haunt the stars 
 
 Earth changed overnight. All broadcasting that reach interstellar space stopped. Sometimes forcibly. The UN started discussions in earnest about forming a United Earth, and defense spending tripled. 
 
 It turns out the warning barely came soon enough. Twenty years after First Contact, we had Second Contact. It lasted for three months, and at the end, half the planet was in ashes. We learned much from our foes, though. 
 
 All would have been lost had we not been warned. A friendly gesture when none was required. That gave us hope. Two sentences from an unknown people, but perhaps that meant there were others in the galaxy who preferred friendship to destruction. 
 
 As goes the saying, Si vis pacem, para bellum. And so we prepared for war. Our fleets now sail the stars, searching for sentience like ours. Sometimes we find them first, and offer them the hand of friendship. Sometimes the Foe finds them first, and all we can offer is vengeance. 
 
 Dark things haunt the stars, aye. But so do we. 

