Five beings sat around a table. One human, three elves, and a dwarf. One of the two elves was from mountain stock so he was often referred to as an orc, the tusks and stronger figure were usually mistaken for that. They were casually sipping on their drinks at the bar after a day’s work as mercenaries for the local empire.

All five were armed and openly carrying. They decked their clothes and armor out in trinkets, insignias, and things that reminded them of home. For now, the empire was home. It was a nitty gritty oppressive regime that was harsh on the common people. Like themselves.

They lived paycheck to paycheck. The ship was beat up and falling apart in places, but it held enough to get the job done and come home. All of them had to learn how to do everything on it in case the others couldn’t.

This time, they were paid to go scout out a potential asteroid field. They found the field and found a number of decent looking ‘roids. Their findings were uploaded to the imperial network and they were paid. On the way out, the crew found a small group of ships. Three armed transports and a small escorting warship. The captain, the human, upon sighting the ships, activated weapons and called to battle stations. He sent a message to the empire of the sighting and his intent to engage.

Being captain on his own ship, his crew reluctantly followed his orders. He promised an explanation once home and at the pub. It helped that he doubled their pay as well for this trip.

The engagement was swift. With surprise on their side, the crew decimated the warship and finished it off before it could react and counterattack. The transports were systematically slaughtered.

When they were at their home station, their bank accounts checked for their pay, and nursing their second drink, Rainus, one of the elves, exploded.

“What the ever-living fuck was that, James?”

The other three crewmates nodded their heads, secretly relieved that they weren’t the one that was going to start this shit show off.

“You had us annihilate those ships. That was murder of the highest degree! Killing of untold numbers of innocent lives!

“I appreciate the extra pay, but really, what the fuck? You promised an explanation. Out with it, old man.”

James looked at his crew with a saddened look on his face. He sighed.

“Yeah, I owe you guys that explanation.

“We’re adventurers working for the local empire. The thing is, it’s not an empire of choice. It’s an empire because it has to be an empire. And not because it has any hostile elven or dwarven nations on its border. We all know that Frentis, Yharia, and Dharv are all friendly nations.

“Our work takes us out to the frontier, a large region of space bordering all four nations and extending inward towards the center of the galaxy and past it until you get out to the edge on the other side. All known civilizations exist on this edge. We call the center area a frontier because no one lives in it.

“It’s not called the frontier because it is a frontier.”

The other four blinked back at James.

“It’s not even a frontier at all. The four nations here, among other ones further away from us all along the galactic edge, all have a secret agreement which I was forced to acknowledge and abide by earlier today.

“The agreement was that any sighting of crafts belonging to a government called the Utopia was to be confirmed, reported, and if possible, destroyed. We destroyed them, fulfilling our end of the agreement. I paid double because the mission’s bounty had tripled from the confirmation and I knew I could pay you all more for our trouble.

“Anyone who has read into humanity’s history will know that way back on our home planet in the Orion arm of Earth, there is a long dead language named Latin. Utopia means ‘nowhere’ in Latin. It means an imagined place that has perfect conditions. Thus, it means nowhere, because utopia doesn’t exist.

“Utopia is the name for a long gone-rogue space faring civilization that precedes all of the known nations. It is the name they use for themselves. They spread outward from the core and engulfed almost everything in the galaxy. Starting a thousand years ago the known nations made contact with each other and organized a defense of each other. Then started the current era of Great Peace.

“But every time Utopian forces are spotted; they have to be extinguished because their goals threaten us all.”

“So why all the secrecy, James?” piped up Levius, the mountain elf.

“The secrecy is because Utopia is not really human anymore.”

His crewmates all looked back with confused glances.

“Imperial research have come to the conclusion that what Utopia is now, is a living, breathing, zombie horde, intent on converting everyone they can to Utopians and then eating anyone else who resists.

“I’m making it sound a whole lot worse than it is,” because his crew’s expressions changed to horror.

“A very long time ago, eons of years, humanity and other races spread to the stars. One space faring civilization took an abrupt change of course towards the deep core rather than to other arms, the edge, or even staging for getting to our galaxy’s smaller nearby satellite galaxies. This civilization built a grand empire. People flocked to it as it established itself and grew. As that empire grew, its leaders got greedier and greedier. On the surface, things were fine, even awesome.

“Heath care was paid for, housing was fair, your voice was equal in law, everyone was tolerated and accepted, and environmentalism was making each new world that joined a paradise. If you wanted to be anything, even change your biological processes down there, you were not only allowed, but were praised and supported. If you wanted to have anything, like a car or ship, you were given one. And it was, by their standards, good specs.

“It was, and even today, still is, paradise.”