Alliance

"All Introduction teams, the hypergate matrix on floor 12 is now open. Please be ready to depart in 10 minutes. Repeat: The hypergate matrix on floor 12 is now open"

The Intercom was barely heard over the trudging of a thousand footsteps, some belonging to bipeds, some tripeds, some quadrupeds. This was to be expected as the Alliance's core-world, conveniently named "Coreworld", never truly shut down. A man in a white lab coat, grey pants, black shoes, and very messy hair, paid little to no attention to either the footsteps or the intercom, continuing to blare out information and commands. Over his eyes, he wore what looked like a pair of goggles with no strap to possibly keep them on. He was hunched over in front of a computer, carefully observing the display upon the screen before him.

This was no ordinary man, and yet he was still quite ordinary, save for one thing: despite his body showing little to no signs of age, his hair was white as his lab coat and his grey eyes glimmered through the goggles. This man has lived a long time. one can tell easily from the way his eyes glinted with age.

Another man soon joined him, greeting in a cheery tone. Some talking followed, and three more people joined. They discussed topics of exploration with each other excitedly, and soon walked out of the room. They walked down the hallway by the sides of thousands of other beings.

The people entered a doorway to a matrix of gates. each one stood perfectly rectangular, and in perfect rows and columns. The people walked up a stairway leading to the top of the matrix to one of those such gates. Standing in front of the last gate in the matrix, the man pressed some buttons on a console, and the rectangular frame began to glow. With a buzz of an alarm, all the gates opened at once, with a blinding flash of red light. The group winced, covering their eyes. One of the men boldly stepped through, and the others uncertainly followed. The gate closed behind them with a loud clap similar to thunder. then all was quiet.