These are some of the people who did not necessarily pioneer new regions of Space, but who have completed various operations out in it as part of the classified portions of their homeland/world’s Space organizations.
- Julia Mackey: a special kind of exobiologist
- Samus Aran: bounty hunter who defeated the Metroids
- Heinrich Abel: Admiral overseeing Germany‘s SSP
- Vladimir Kuznetsov: Admiral overseeing Russia‘s SSP
- Stephen Preble: Admiral overseeing Solar Warden & the rest of the U.S.A.’s SSP
- Spencer Barry: Admiral overseeing all SSP forces (in training) on Earth
- Wade Ellis: General overseeing all SSP forces (in training) on Earth
- Marcelo Stevens: General overseeing all SSP forces on Ariel (moon of Uranus)
- Terrance Griffith: General overseeing all SSP forces on Ganymede (moon of Jupiter)
- Reece Murray: General overseeing all SSP forces on Mars
- Samuel Robertson: General overseeing all SSP forces on the asteroids of the Inner Asteroid Belt
- Logan Stewart: General overseeing all SSP forces on the Moon
- Ben Heath: General overseeing all SSP forces on Titan (moon of Saturn)
- Regenald Norton: General overseeing all SSP forces on Triton (moon of Neptune)
- Jack Alston: General overseeing all SSP forces on Pluto
- (and millions more spread out across multiple galaxies)
Beyond those listed above (featured in this saga/disclosure), there are said to be millions more.
Most of them (at least from the modern human nations) are recruited clandestinely, sometimes via “alien abduction” (or what is designed to appear to be), they then receiving specialized training and being deployed for various amounts of time (similar to a normal enlistment, though some are required to complete at least one “20 and back”; 20 years; the equivalent of 5 normal enlistments, making each recruit a careerist/lifer).
Upon returning to Earth (after completing whatever their prescribed/needed period of enlistment turned out to be), most are then given partial, if not full, memory-wipes, some even reinserted within seconds after their abduction; time-dilation is rumored to be used so that their natural lives don’t end up getting too interrupted –although some begin to recover hidden/wiped memories, thus considerably changing how their thinking and development progress. These memory-wipes/alterations help maintain OPSEC, making it more difficult for natural or trained mind-readers (telepaths, etc.) to notice thoughts as curious/useful as those about secret programs, Space-related ones or not. Humans tend to want to seek attention, brag, and exaggerate, anyway, so it is generally best to make it difficult for them to come up with any springboard for that primitiveness.
The ‘good’ ones are grateful for these incredible experiences, much like how a magic-capable child invited to Hogwarts would be. They tend to be the ones who remain stable, or at least make timely recoveries if any such healing is needed, as their default is on the positive/benefits, leading to gratitude and pride.
The ‘bad’ (default-negative) ones, perhaps due to being mentally damaged/fragmented at some point in an SSP enlistment/training/process, instead tend to demonize the whole program, calling for its complete exposure and punishment.
Hav-Musuvs were one of the first groups of people from/on Earth to have a Space program launched from that world.
Mayans were one of the next.
Germany started its SSP during WWII, if not WWI.
By the time the USA and Russia started their own, Germany’s was making all the rules for them –and forcing them to donate “volunteers” to its own, helping maintain its huge head-start.
For all of them, the majority of their people are naturally-inclined (due to their blood/genetics) to do certain types of work SSPs expectedly need in order to function; some are great at management, some at designing, some at engineering, some at logistics, some at intelligence gathering, some at piloting, some at defense/fighting, some at healing, etc..
SSPs are secret Space programs not because they are doing anything bad/evil, but because of the same reasons anyone keeps any secrets; it helps protect them from those who are quick to judge and prematurely attack. A lot is at risk when you are millions of miles down in The Abyss, nowhere near an atmosphere, gravity, food, water, or shade. Secrecy is just a normal critical part of the equation.
As always, all of these are kept tech’-dependent; humans aren’t usually meant or allowed to know how do be superhuman… like the gods.
Being out in Space so much, these people fairly regularly encounter people from other worlds, including humans who are ‘native’ (native-enough/ish) to those worlds, and people who are not human.
What these people do in secret helps pave the way for public campaigns/missions into Space; they clear out the stuff that sometimes results in loss of life and other disasters, so that when the mainstream/masses start going… there isn’t budget-killing bad-press (or, at least, not nearly as much).
Salute those who have been involved with an SSP –including those who make the ‘tough decisions’, such as who to administer the memory-alterations to.
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