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When they first made contact, humans were elated. We weren't alone! We could bond with new species, learn even more about the worlds beyond our reach. For the first few years, things were incredible. Humans began to travel to other planets in search of work, and aliens started integrating with humans. However, that peace didn't last very long. The Outsiders, as they were generally called, quickly took the reins for anything regarding the planet itself, claiming they could save us from all the destruction while providing corporations with new ways to make money, thus preventing them from fighting against the cessation of oil and coal mining.
They began implementing new rules across the planet, and it became apparent that humans were to be used as a workforce. Our endurance was especially sought after, but even under this technical oppression, humans thrived. Every human on Earth had food, shelter, and clean water. Their health was thoroughly taken care of. Objectively speaking, humans were better under the Outsider's rule. The few other species that visited said they'd never seen a species so happy to be enslaved, but humans were a fragmented group. Getting into space, but never forming one planet-wide government like almost every other species, yet not fighting back against the Outsiders when they came in. It confused the so-called "Galactic Council."
Nearly four years after the Outsiders took over, however, NASA released an article. The organization had primarily gone silent about research, as its primary focus was now on translation and education. But this article was different. It was structured as a scientific paper, but the information it portrayed wasn't a lesson. It was a simple paper. Its contents stated that Curiosity and Perserverance, the two Mars rovers that were still in action, even after all this time, were "put down" by the Outsiders. They showed images of the two rovers, which were little more than scrap metal by that point. It seemed as though the Outsiders had blown them up.
Most revolutions start quietly. This one didn't. Worldwide, humans began to riot. Not many, but the fervor grew. Plenty of people were attached to the rovers, to be sure, but most of the masses were swept up in the flow of the rage. Humans were content to live under the Outsiders' rule, but there were subtle hints for a long time that they'd prefer to be free. Humans wanted to leave Earth, to explore the outside world, and with this final push, they would.
While the Outsiders had taken over control of most of the planet, they let the veneer of the government and military stay. That was their first mistake. Their second was forcing humans to learn their language instead of knowing any of the languages humans spoke natively. Their third mistake was leaving the humans their weapons and giving the humans Outsider technology. Within a year, humans had stolen countless pieces of Outsider technology and integrated it into their jets, ships, and missiles. They fired rockets at the Outsiders and brought out the nukes they never talked about. Humans broke from their slavery in less time than most of their large wars, with limited human casualties. The Outsiders never expected the humans to revolt so suddenly, or so cleanly. By the time they had gotten their bearings, humans had already begun to reach out to other parts of the galaxy, contacting the Galactic Council and announcing themselves to the universe in a loud and public manner. They pleaded for aid from the Council, although they did not need any.
The Outsiders were a force all on their own, and the humans were mowing through them. It wasn't just the element of surprise, either. Rumors began to spread of single humans killing their oppressors, even though many of the aliens were twice the size of humans. However, it was Outsider territory, so journalists rarely made it into the nation to begin with, much less during wartime. By the time any news organizations could get coverage of the fighting, it was already clear who was going to win.
The Council even knows what set the humans off. They assumed the tours they were given around Earth were faked, as they were with so many other slave planets. But when humans eventually freed their planet entirely, they didn't stop. They kept going after the Outsiders. Any slave planet they ran into, they liberated, and any civilian planet, they destroyed. The weapons of mass destruction they had even before they reached for the hand offered to them, nukes as they called them, rendered entire planets inhospitable to anything but the most resilient creatures.
Eventually, the humans drove the Outsiders out of the galaxy and back to their own home, where they remained. Humans settled after that. Many species still feared their anger, and it took a long time for them to integrate into the Galactic Council. Still, once they did, they became integral parts of the galaxy, just like every other member of the Council.
Hundreds of years later, after a few generations of humans had passed, the Council inquired about what had prompted the humans to act. When they answered, the councilmembers laughed. They had to be joking, driving an entire species out of the galaxy for two underdeveloped rovers? The humans' answer to the laughter was not as happy. Their expression shifted, and they slammed a hand onto the table, their posture suddenly aggressive. It was that moment, that instant, that reminded every member of the Council that council members were so feared in the beginning.
"They were not just rovers. They were our rovers. Do not make that mistake again."
When ambassadors finally arrived on Earth for the first time, the aggressive stance was finally explained. While it took a long time for Earth's government to feel comfortable allowing aliens onto their planet again, they acquiesced after the aggression in the council chambers. In the capital of Earth, a massive statue stood of the two rovers, and a museum dedicated to every piece of them was on display for free to every human (and now alien) who wished to see. The rovers were recognized as catalysts to humanity's freedom and heralded as heroes who finally "kicked the human into gear." It was this trip that sparked the curiosity of many alien scientists to learn about these supposed "pack bonding instincts." After all, it was the thing that made humans so ruthless in the first place.