This is the second part.

A year later and the leader and his crew arrive back on earth to very mixed feelings. The world in general accepts the fact that aliens exist but are still coming to terms they were created for a purpose. The UN are called for a meeting and told of what has transpired, and the UN is dissolved to form the Earth Unification Commitee. The EUC consists of the leader of each continent, and is led by the leader and his crew. Each continent was tasked to pool the resources under their control to start building space ships and exploration ships. The bigger 'powers' like america and china are reluctant to work together but after a few political changes and disputes, they work together although still reluctantly. The first phase of the plan is to spread throughout the solar system to the moon, mars, some of jupiters, saturns, uranus and neptunes moons and pluto. Each planet and moon was to be mined for the raw materials. The moon is to be used as a last line of defence and mars is for the construction of more ships thanks to the low gravity. A probe is sent to each of the closest systems with planets designed to discover any minable materials. The original ship is able to communicate with the other races and they maintain monthly updates. Another year later and each planet and moon has been set up for mining and the ship yard is almost complete. Construction begins of the first battleships while more exploration ships are sent to the systems scouted earlier. As the humans spread out from earth their numbers grow. Small settlements are created on the few planets close to earth which can hold life. The human population gets to the ten billion mark four years after the leader gets back to earth. At this time one of the warrior races cease contact with the others. Fearing the machines have started their attacks, the other races hasten the building of their fleets. Six years after the leader returns, the humans have spread out to over twenty different worlds, with many more ready for inhabiting. The battle fleets begin patrolling areas of the milky way. Listening posts are set up on various systems on the outer edge waiting for the first sign of attack. As the years pass by nothing is heard and the tenth year anniversary looms closer. Almost one hundred worlds, excluding the listening posts, are now inhabited by between 1 million to 30 million people. With so much space now available on earth, much of earths original cities have banded together. While various old religions and newer ones still exists, the hatred shared by plenty of humans has mostly subsided, with only a small handful still highly rascist. Each different world has there own customs and such, and with spaceflight still limited to the needy, all worlds remain apart. Each world is required to have a certain percentage of their available population ready for war, with each planet also having a small fleet. Although all the planets inhabited are mainly easy to life on, there are a few worlds that are too harsh to live on, but humans use them as training worlds to train special forces, and some of the worst ones are reserved for prisoners. Most of the original crew have seperated and have families, some with each other and some with others. They live on earth still and are highly regarded in the public image. With over half of the population gone from the planet, food becomes easier to produce, and most of the earthlings live in comfort, close to the equator. Each planet has a simple governing system and over the last ten years, much of the wealth and power has returned to the goverenment. On the eve of the tenth anniversery, with many celebrations planned, one of the listening post detects a very large fleet moving directly towards earth. Knowing this is the first attack from the machines, the leader warns the other races. Although the fleet is moving fast, it wont reach any planets for many months. The leader orders all available fleets, planetary defence fleets, and all other private ships to make haste to the projected exiting point of the machines.  A massive fleet awaits the machines and as time goes by, the machine fleet doesnt exit and proceeds on to earth. The leader sends a message back to earth and orders the human fleet back to earth. While the machines are travelling fast, the humans can travel faster. They get back to earth and just have enough time to form a defensive line when a massive fleets appears. They outnumber the humans almost three to one, and instantly they can see they are not the machines. A vast and destructive battle erupts, and the earths defence guns coupled with the moons defences help bolster the defence. Through intercepting communications of the enemy, the humans realise it was another warrior race. A plan is devised to send some of the elite forces to what is believed to be their command ship. As the force boards the ship, they fight their way through. They suffer heavy losses with only one man getting to the ships bridge alive. He engages the ships command crew and kills most before being wounded. He retreats but not before destroying most of the ships controls. Wounded, the man rests in a hidden area and waits for the end. Outside, the command ship was silenced. Suddenly, the warrior race begins a withdrawel, and leave. With the enemy gone, only half of the humans ships are able to fly and only thirty percent are able to fight. They begin repairs, and all ship yards are ordered to full capacity. The ship yard on mars begins the construction, and the three other construction sites also begin. Forgotten and alone, the sole survivor aboard the enemy ship decided to sabotage the ship. With training on how to fly earth ships, he decides to try and hijack the ship as the systems are quite similar. He begins a guerilla style attack throughout the ship and through sheer luck he stays one step ahead of the enemies attacks against him. He destroys most systems then decides to take the command deck. When be arives, he sees a group of the warrior race talking and recognises what he thinks is the leader of the race. He plans an attack and takes the leader hostage. Sealing the command deck he sets a course for earth. He steers the ship near the planet but deliberately misses trying to set a course that would make the humans curious and not attack. Something happens aboard and the man has to make a decision to sacrifice himself and give the leader to the humans as a prisoner or kill him. He sacrifices himself. When the humans get hold of the prisoner they torture him for information and find out the race hates humans because they were the favoured race. If the humans hadnt shown up when they did, his race would have been the leader of the alliance. At this the humans where surprised, they didnt know they were the leaders. They learn what else is needed. They send a message to the other races. The human leader decides to go back to the citadel as it shouldn't yet be destroyed thanks to the time distortion. With some upgrades to the original ship, it is able to make the trip in a 1/4 of the time. The galaxy is void of all machines, and the citadel is on the verge of being crushed by the black hole. The leader, with a couple of the original crew are aboard, and the leader decides to enter the citadel himself. It is a very dangerous task but he finds the central data core. Sensing his presence it comes to life. It fills his mind with memories. Humans where created well before any other race as a child race to the ancients. The humans became aggressive towards the ancients and they were left alone for a while. Upon returning to the humans home world, they discovered that humanity had been wiped out by a race of machines that had become sentient, and the machines had wiped out the humans. When the ancients tried to make contact they were utterly destroyed. Learning about space travel the machines construct a space fleet. When the ancients investigate they find a system under the total control of the machines. Unable to do any damage with the small fleet they had, and not having a major military force, they devise a plan to keep the machines confined to the system. With experimentation and new discoveries, they realize the machines have to be in a certain proximity to their home world to get their orders, other wise they revert to a limited control system with which they could be easily destroyed. The ancients then start the creation of the warrior races, and also began another human world as they needed all the races they could create. At this the remains of the citadel begin the final orbit of the black hole before entering the point where it would be crushed. The leader leaves and just manages to escape before the citadel is utterly destroyed. The leader concludes the machines would be trying to turn a planet into another signal booster in the milky way or any other galaxy. They then head home in hope they would be able to come up with some way to stop the machines.

The fourth part, and also my favorite 'Chapter'

Three years later, the humans have all began to populate three fold bringing the number of humans to almost 30 billion. Both the humans and the race that helped them have sent ships to the other galaxies to assist with rebuilding. Most of them are at the strength they were when the machines attacked. Scout ships have been sent out to determine the size of the machine force, but they havnt been heard from since. Many more planets have been colonized and many more have ship building facilities. Earths population again reaches stretching point at 9 billion. Much in fighting has begun with several worlds turning rebel and rejecting earth as their governing leader. Such rebellions don't cause too much trouble and are left alone with a loose agreement to leave other planets alone. Two years later with the population gaining momentum, a group of people unite the rebels under the cause that earth doesn't recognize them as proper citizens and should be forced to. One of the planets is a ship making facility. With the ability to make ships, the UEC see the threat and take action. They send an attack force which is never heard of again. Alarmed, one of the greatest admirals is tasked with amassing a fleet to destroy the usurpers. He gathers a mighty fleet and embarks in his mission. When the fleet makes the jump to the ship making facility, they find a machine armada which open fire with everything they have the moment they complete the jump. The first volley inflicts severe damage wiping out a third of the fleet. Unable to jump the general sets about to continue the mission. With the remaining ships, he sets a course for the planet. Seeing he won't be able to fight his way out he decides to sacrifice the fleet to destroy the construction facility. As they get closer, his ships are destroyed one by one leaving only a couple as they enter the atmosphere. The terrible strain being inflicted upon the ships threatens to tear them apart as they pick up more speed. They collide with the centre of the facility causing a massive explosion, digging a sizable gouge of the planet out with it. The shipyard is destroyed. Meanwhile the UEC has no clue what has happened. They call every available ship to meet at a rendezvous, and they send their most advanced scout ship to approach from a long distance. The intel they gather tells them that the planet has been ripped open, and an inert machine fleet drifts lifelessly amid a massive graveyard of mixed ships. A science team is dispatched to discern what happened. While they study the machine ships, a new problem arises with pirating becoming more prominent. Shipping lanes are being targeted by nasty people. More escorts are being employed and the rise of mercenaries with ships is here. Around this time the UEC looses most control of the humans. Most worlds still report in but are becoming withdrawn and obey their own rules. With the UEC unable to exert control the leader decides to dissolve it and sets about to bring a peace across the galaxy. He gathers most of the old crew and travels to each planet and tries to get each planet to appoint a representative  to gather a galaxy wide summit. This takes a long time to travel to each planet. In this time the scientists discover some startling facts. The machine fleet was part of the original main force that had been overlooked. Some how they managed to convince the humans of these worlds to rebel against the other humans. The transmitter was destroyed meaning no more machines could function unless they had built another. The old UEC decide to regather, and fortify the solar system. Each moon is transformed into gun platforms, and they begin construction of a massive fleet. Gun batteries drift in space, undetectable but ready to react to any threat. The old UEC rename themselves The Sol Empire. Not tyrannical in nature they do police the rest of the galaxy. Almost ten years pass since the first machine attack, and even with all the instabilities and fractured alliances, the human population starts to look toward the empty void instead of each other. Fleets amass and alliances are made, and the humans are ready for another war. The twentieth anniversary passes with little celebration, as tension is high. Days turn to weeks, which turn to months. No fleets are detected. Still waiting, the first sign is spotted. Several massive machine fleets are detected, and the fleets rush off to battle. The machine fleets seem endless and human losses steep high. Still the machines come. The leader, now getting old, sees no end to the fighting unless they can sever the connection to all machines. The other races are also in similar positions. The second race that helped them in the first machine war are fighting much better thanks to a better social structure. Overall things are looking bad for the defenders. The scientists discover that the worlds the machines convert for their transmissions receive their own from the machine home world. Their home planet is sending out transmissions from across the void between galaxies. The scientist come under attack from the machines and their small defence force is overwhelmed. They manage to send out a message before they are destroyed. A passing courier picks up the message and resents it to the leader. He gets it and sets a course for the machine home planet. The defenders are left to try and stop the machines from taking over too much of the galaxy. The leader and his crew are having fond memories of their first trip to the galaxy. Within a few months they arrive at the machine home galaxy. They realise they have no idea where the planet could be. Feeling crushed and helpless, they wonder from system to system in search but find nothing. Despairing, they jump one more time and land in the middle of the machine fleet. They are surrounded by it but not destroyed. They travel towards the planet and as they get closer it looks to be a massive machine ship. The surface appears to be covered in power-grids connected to a mammoth building. The leader gathers it is the relay. Arming weapons and preparing to sacrifice themselves to destroy it, they are warned not to. They are escorted to a side building. They disembark and are guided towards a central chamber. When they arrive, hideous and disfigured creatures sit in chairs  around the outside. Not knowing whether they can understand him, they leader asks why they are attacking. They creatures answer. First they took over the galaxy to protect themselves.  They were content with existing in the one galaxy. The machine in control of the rest began a downloading process to another machine, and with each one it began to feel emotions. Before they were driven to kill to survive, but now the new machine felt hatred and anger which drove them to spread to other galaxies. The citadel still stood, and over the space of a few weeks, ships began to arrive. When they dispersed, the shields were momentary weakened which caused the citadel to fall. Predicting the direction of each ship they gathered their targets. They then began construction on this planet to be able to transmit across vast distances. Not too long after they began to build their fleets. They then sent the ships to attack. They learned that their creators had survived and were determined to destroy them again. The leader was told they were going to be held captive for examination and torture. They are lead away.

In the milky way the machines seem to march on endlessly and it seems they are poised to wipe away the rest of the defenders and destroy humanity, when suddenly they all go still. Somehow their link with the command node had been severed. Wasting no time the humans set about to destroy the machine ships. No one knows what has happened to the leader but as there are no contacts in the coming months, it is assumed that he has perished. Humanity rebuilds and spreads over the next few years. As humanity spreads the Sol empire has less control. Generally it is a rule to not start wars because the sol empire does have many ships and can cause a lot of damage. The solar system becomes the centre of a massive armed fortress as they spread slowly outwards. The years pass and the humans spread further. The average population of a planet is higher then the 20 million mark. Systems become segmented and form alliances, pirate attack shipments that arnt protected and the rich control the poor. Life in the galaxy becomes much like life on earth at the current time but expanded. The other races arnt able to communicate to the human because the original ship is with the leader. No aliens check up on them as they are tending to their own galaxies. 50 years pass since the second machine attack, and all of the people who fought in the wars are now retired. There are vast advances across every field, mainly medicine. Although there is still no cure for a cold, many other types of diseases are cured and people live up to forty years longer. The Sol empire now polices the whole of humanities territory, and havnt had too much to deal with, apart from minor rebellions. Systems must pay the Sol empire to receive their protection and most do. Life is generally good. Around 70 years after the last battle, a strange ship appears on a sparsely populated world. The small defence force intercepts and from old historical data they see it's an old machine ship. It looks very battered and old and looks like it might stop functioning any moment. They hesitatingly approach and board. In the cockpit, connected to the ship through many cables and wires is a half cyborg, half human. As they approach, a host of other creatures appear from the surrounding walls. They look the same and are half machine. The one sitting turns and his voice is raspy. He begins his story.

Humanity in the milky way spreads further and further out. Many planets now inhabited, any more systems form together for trade and such. Relative peace lasts for almost 200 years after the leader passes away, with only minor rebellions and wars being fought for rich people. How ever, as time goes on, a single man unites many star systems under his control and wages war against any that don't join him. His fleet and army are on the other side of the galaxy to the Sol empire, meaning word doesnt get out to them untill it's too late to crush it. By the time the mighty Sol fleet is able to counter, the rebel leader has many systems to his name and has also wiped a couple of planets out. The first engagements are small with the rebels fleeing before any serious damage is done. The sol fleet tries to blockade the rebels, but attacks behind the lines mean the rebels have fleets already placed behind them. The rebel leader had placed fleets in certain star systems with asteroid belts and waited for the sol fleet to attack. Out maneuvered, the sol fleet tries to attack anything they can but the rebels are too quick and well informed. They leave nothing behind to be captured and any man left behind commits suicide before they can interrogate him. With the sol fleet feeling hapless the commanders try different tactics still with no success. A young tactician of the sol empire devises a plan to try and get ahead of the rebels. Because of his age, no one listens. He manages to convince a small fleet to try his plan. Disobeying an order from their commander, the fleet jumps away from the small planet they were tasked with defending and jump right in the middle of a rebel shipping lane. They destroy or capture all the ships which has massive repercussions on the rebel leaders plans. Unable to supply his army as quickly, he is forced to change his tactics, which the sol empire are able to counter half the time. The fleet responsible and the tactician are all exiled from the empire for disobeying the order and condemning the population of 100,000 on the planet they were guiding to death, which they did die, however, because of their actions in the war they were not executed but were given the hero medal. The rebels still fight but now they can be countered with out the supplies being shipped so readily. The war lasts for 15 years before the rebel leader is found. His army was slowly beaten back as more systems fled his tyranny and joined the sol empire. He was tried and executed, and the remaining rebels were routed. The rebel leader was in fact a member of the sol empires command circle, but was disgruntled when his decisions weren't listened to, so he decided to rebel. The Sol empire claims the territories that the rebel had turned and with the additional ships and manpower are stronger then ever, and have additional reach having a base on each side of the galaxy. After the war another peaceful era begins. Although still peaceful, pirating is on the incline again, and they are more vicious then ever. Although the sol empire deals with a fair amount of pirates, they seem to keep coming from anywhere. The pirates don't attack inhabited planets, only going after science ships or other smaller ships. A planet near the centre of the galaxy is turned into a hell world and used for the worst criminals. The surface has been blasted apart, and little oxygen remains above ground. There are small pockets of habitable areas deep underground. If someone is able to get off planet they are allowed to do so, but in the 70 year history only two have managed it. Even though the humans have populated many worlds, they still have yet to explore the vast galaxy to the fullest. Most of the machine wars and the great rebellion were fought in a seemingly straight line across the galaxy, with very little deviation. However some exploration ships have skewed of the path. Nothing is noted too much other then more planetary bodies capable of holding life. Almost 50 years after the great rebellion, the humans have a massive population boom with it doubling to 100 billion people. As they spread in search of new planets to mine and settle on, a disease strikes many human worlds. Many elderly people die as a result, and almost all other age groups are affected. It bears a resemblance to a disease in ancient history, when humans were confined to just earth called the 'plaig'. The sickness knocks the population down to 80 billion before the Sol empire is able to counter it. It takes 20 years for humanity to recover. Back on earth, the sol empire has done a remarkable job on restoring earth back to pre-industry levels of beauty. Land on earth is the most expensive in the galaxy, with only a small handful of dedicated beauty planets close to the price. Only 500 million people live on earth now, although another 100 million live in orbiting hotels and such, and 600 million living on the moon. Many times that number live through out the solar system. More years pass with little incident, and the sol empire expands further and the human population grows also. Centuries pass and as the human territory grows, the sol empire decides to break down the human controlled systems into segments, which are ruled by system leaders who report directly to the aol empire. Through this system all rebellions have ceased as at the first sign of deviance the sol empire replaces the leader. As the systems become wealthier, the sol empire decides on a expeditionary force to travel to the unknown areas of the galaxy. Ten massive fleets are organized and are ready to set out. Just before they leave, one of the fleets disappears. Noone save the sol empire knows what happened to it. Regardless the fleets set out.