The Last Stars (IC) [Closed]

by **Holy Tedalonia** » Thu May 07, 2020 7:28 am

Uvik-Nal
Homeworld, Age of the Siva-Khar.

by **Lunas Legion** » Thu May 07, 2020 10:09 am

The Armarda of the Forgotten
System Designate: F-0

To find a home was a difficult thing. It had required patience on the part of Adral and his crew, and much time spent in cryosleep while they moved between star systems, letting the ship's automated systems handle everything save for the survey itself, which was a trust Adral only trusted his crew with such was its importance. But now, well, they found themselves with a surplus of habitable planets to choose to land their colony cryoship upon.

The first of the worlds they had found was the most fertile with the most water, but in comparison to the other planets it was rather lacking in raw resources. The second had more raw resources, but far less in the way of prime agricultural land and less water, while the third had the most land but the least water but the same amount of fertile land as the first despite the lack of water outside the planetary hydrosphere, even if it had the most raw resources. There was a choice to make, and it was an irritating one with no clear answer.

But, there was that little Garden of Eden that they had found in the first star system, and it bothered Adral. It made his fingers twitch, the desire to find out, to investigate. No, he would investigate that first, just... A little longer before he had to make the decision where to settle their first colony down. Just to make sure he wasn't missing something.

Just a little longer.

27 November 2022

Xetan Opus--Turn 3

The decision to name the System of the Lost's star was a no-brainer for Hieran. Kuro, he dubbed it. After his younger brother, whom he had left behind.

Kuro had been prevented from boarding the Xetan Opus. He was not a scientist, and he'd been recently diagnosed with a terminal viral illness. He would have perished not far into the mission and potentially started and outbreak had he been accepted.

Hieran did his best to blot out his last memories of Kuro. The gaunt, jaundiced man with rust-colored spots peppering his skin was not Kuro. Kuro was thick, lively, always smiling, always quick to lighten everyone's mood. Kuro was the attention-seeking baby brother. The troublemaker. The gregarious restaurateur who loved being in the center of the action.

If he knew Hieran was naming a star after him, he would have snorted and asked Hieran if he wanted more vroffee. Kuro had never believed the Xetan race was about to die. Not until the very end.

The K-system had been dubbed Fortitude. To the Xetanians, that system represented the courage and individualism that had enabled their race to thrive. It embodied the values of their people. Hieran had had no major role in deciding the name, instead opting to respect the wishes of the populace.

The name of the L-system had been selected from the ancient texts of Earth. It was derived from a play, Hamlet, it was called. Hieran had figured he should pay his respects to the long-dead ancestors of the Xetanians. They were, after all, the ones who had made this journey possible.

Regardless of where they settled, New Xetan would remain New Xetan. The other planet had been christened Opus. Hieran wondered if his people would ever set foot on these planets as colonists, or if they would forever be stranded. There was so little time....

by **Piscina** » Thu May 07, 2020 2:14 pm

Turn 3, 64APF-96APF

”The extent to which we are truly from Old Lachrima is debatable. The issue has recently been brought into the public consciousness with the death of Valiance, the last living person who had been born on our old homeworld. Although it is indisputable that we are not evolutionarily adapted for the planet we find ourselves on, our culture has undergone significant changes. Our species is united under one language, one government. This may be both good and bad. Resources will not be wasted on international rivalry, allowing us to focus on meaningful progress and improving the quality of life for all, but in the long term our civilisation may well lapse into some vast equivalent of thought-death without any significant hurdles or challenges to overcome. Still, there is extensive evidence that alien life is quite possible in this star cluster, so hopefully we can find something else to interact with before that becomes a major problem.” -Allara Starlooker-Briskwalker-Quickreader, eighth Chancellor of the Federation

More decades passed. By now, the last of the original colonists had died. No Old Lachrimans were alive anywhere in the universe. Population growth had been high enough to not only replace those who died, but to provide an additional hundred million people for the workforce. Living standards were much higher than they had been for the first generation of colonists, due to an increasing level of familiarity with New Lachrima and the Service Colonies providing IT services, consumer goods, high-quality medicine, and other desirable things. Pinnarum born on the planet also found the bright sunlight more bearable than the original colonists, as their eyes had adapted to it since birth.

New Lachrima now was far more inhabited than it had been in the past, as infrastructure had also been built in the equatorial deserts that collected sand and processed it into usable material that would be sent to the factories in the mountains to be made into computer chips, glass, and other useful items. It would also be useful for a Scientific Colony if one were to be built. As the amount the Pinnarum knew about their new home grew, they found it easier to protect their structures from the local weather, and to exploit the resources the planet held.

All in all, things were progressing neatly, and the only thing amiss was a growing knowledge among the population that the polar farms would soon be unable to feed the whole population, and that if farms were built on the remaining lush terrain the emissions produced by the factories in the mountains would no longer be absorbed by the plantlife there...

by **Piscina** » Thu May 07, 2020 3:13 pm

Turn 4, 96APF-128APF

”Colonisation of our planet’s moon is necessary and inevitable. It has the necessary atmosphere, temperature, and hydrosphere to support habitation by our species. However, there are issues. It does not have enough landmass to support a self-sustaining settlement, as the vast majority of it is ocean. There are ways of getting around that, but they require the technology to manufacture and install extensive cybernetics and sea-based energy arrays. As such, an E-referendum will be held to determine whether we should build a scientific colony to rediscover the technology of our old civilisation.” -Requindaer Strongbeak-Tighttalon-Rediscoverer, eleventh Chancellor of the Federation

Over a century since the first colonists had landed, life on New Lachrima had become... routine. Boring, even. There was little strife or discontent, as there were more than enough resources and services for everyone. The Pinnarum and their structures had long since adapted to the local conditions, which by now were second nature to them. Even the fears of food shortage that had loomed in the background of the last few decades had been proven unfounded as population control policies were enacted. Perhaps it was unsurprising then, that they turned to innovation and discovery. There was a general sentiment that building a Scientific Colony was the best way to ensure the progression of the Federation would continue, and the governmental decision to make that the focus of their civilisation until it was done was received with approval.

Of course, the Federation's current food output was insufficient to support the large number of scientists that would be needed for the new colony to actually be of any use, and so it was decided that the remaining untouched Eden continent would be built on. Although developing it in this way would comprimise its ability to absorb pollution, a plan was made to nullify the pollution another way. A system of wind turbines and hydroelectric dams would be built that would provide clean energy for the industrial centres in the mountains, thus removing the need to use fossil fuels, which would remove the need for pollution mitigation anyway. This would take a while to provide power in the necessary quantities though, and in the meantime pollution went unnullified.

The verdant plantlife in the region the Renewable Energy Array was to be built in lent itself handily to the construction of small-scale automated farms alongside it that would feed the Scientific Colony, and the expansion there opened up new opportunities to enjoy the wildlife on the planet, which would offset the increased load on the service infrastructure that the scientists would pose. Construction was swift with the increased production the abundance of silicon for the factories enabled, and work began on the foundations of the new colony soon after.

by **G-Tech Corporation** » Fri May 08, 2020 9:43 am

Having explored the central structure throughly, Violet focused her attention to the surrounding facilities and the graphite reserves below.

Samples of the graphite were studied thoroughly. The first samples revealed nothing out of the ordinary, however, drilling deeper into the anomaly, Violet discovered something outstanding.

Among the carbon sheets, large pockets of sulfate, fluorite, arsenic, mercury and other toxic elements was encased with increasing concentrations.
The industrial exploitation of this resource would no doubt come at an environmental cost, or an expensive purification process.

-

Violet's research was then interrupted by a high priority call from an enthusiastic group of prospectors working nearby. They reported of having just stumbled upon another relic from the past. Covered by meters of Rocks, dirt and overgrown by vegetation.

A massive lanship was unearthed.

The damage to the vehicle was severe, apparently victim of a the ground collapsing beneath its weight, or a sudden avalanche.

There were organic remains on board, and much seemed to be missing from the design. However, the control center was still in good shape and contained a myriad of alien electronics.

Violet has another chance.

The holographic display aboard the vessel was much smaller and triangular. However, there were many similarities in its outward connections. In addition the prospectors had manged to find a kind of chemical-based power cell among the wreckage. It fitted perfectly with the display.

The hologram came to life in form of alien inscriptions. They flashed over and over, and no interaction changed its behavior. Then, in a flash of memory, Violet realized one of the connections were matching that of the artifact she found years ago.

It was soon attached to the display.

The inscriptions vanished, instead was now shown a star and her planets. Nascancy.

But not the Nascency Violet know. A brownish toxic world with an unbreathable atmosphere.

With some interaction driven by intuition, she was able to enlarge the planet and locate the Rust Mountains. Tapping the screen then revealed the 3 dimensional schematics of a monolithic structure. A Few more taps later on an icon resembling a chronometer, she could see it in motion.

Tiny blue particles are mixed into a colorful downward stream at the very top of the tower. The descending particles are then somehow sorted into color coded pipes and fed into the machinery around the complex. From there on, the colors come in only 2 shades of grey, reunited at the bottom of the tower, driving a turbine forward.

New Artifact Found
Progenitor Holo - Display

+ 50% starting chance for research on Gas Synthesis (70 in total).
+ 1% starting chance for breakthrough (2 in total).

by **G-Tech Corporation** » Fri May 08, 2020 9:57 am

The Far Reaches

Far out in the reaches of New Nitor, an inadvertent collision with an icy comet moving at an appreciable percentage of the speed of light has caused a crisis aboard the Explorer from the Lachriman Federation. It was during a routine scan far out in the Kuiper Belt, during off-watch hours, that one of the underofficers failed to note the incoming object and take an evasive course of action. Three crewmembers perished in the impact when their lifepod was punctured and suffered explosive decompression, but the damage to the Explorer is otherwise light...

Discipline the Officer and press forward.
Conduct emergency repairs.
Return to New Lachrima for repairs.
Analyze the tracking records of the comet.
or
Take another action

27 November 2022

Xetan Opus

Three Edens. Three Edens. A hydrosphere, a silocone-rich desert...three Edens. A chance to begin the Xetanian race anew.

The planet was not in the System of the Lost but in Fortitude. However, in a few hypermonths, Hieran reasoned, they would have the ability to settle in New Xetan and Opus. Finally, finally, there was a possibility of survival.

His plan for colonization was simple: establish a farm colony on an Eden. The second colony, whenever the Xetanians reached the point of requiring it, would be for research, while the third...well, the third would likely be a second farm on another Eden so that a fourth colony could be supported. This plan would likely alter over time, especially if problems like famine or overpopulation occurred. But it was nice to have a guideline.

Some of his officers, like Lin, for instance, believed settling in Fortitude's planet was the ideal option. Others insisted they would be perfectly fine on Opus or New Xetan. Already, Hieran could sense a growing rift amongst his people--they were anxious, desperate. Exhausted from all this travel. Hieran did not know how this would manifest in the future, but he could fathom there would be long-term consequences depended on how he responded to the dispute.

The insomnia that had resulted from his obsession over designing the first colony was worsened by this nascent political instability. His appetite, which had started to recover after the deep scan of the Fortitude planet, waned again. The hair at his temples was beginning to gray. Now Saian was no longer the only one worried about him, for his officers and children had taken notice of his deteriorating state. Svennosław brought him lunch every hyperday and refused to leave until Hieran ate every bite. His son Xian often woke up in the wee hours of the hypermorning, and, finding Hieran entrenched in dossiers and blueprints, escorted him to bed.

Hieran had no idea what hyperday it was anymore. Time seemed irrelevant in the midst of this chaos, this new horizon. Xetanians would live to walk on solid ground once more. Was that not more important than trivial matters such as food or rest? He was the leader of a lost people, which meant it was his duty to ensure their prosperity.

The people were thrilled when he unveiled his model for the first colony. If they noticed the dark, puffy circles under his eyes, they paid little heed, for here was their future. This planet was to be their haven from the death of the universe. While the exploratory ship remained in space, they would forge their destinies on a farming colony, knowing their world contained three Edens. Three glimmers of hope.

by **G-Tech Corporation** » Fri May 08, 2020 3:00 pm

"The ability to coordinate matter in the manner a society desires is, fundamentally, the difference between savages and the civilized. The extent of that ability, the degree of civilization."

Rotation 5069L - Timestamped 72:17.0:44:670
Coordinates 0270:5408 - Classification Nascency - Subclass Salithan Wastes
Log Relevance: Cho. Dev. Eng.

The central spire of red stone lay undisturbed, the twining network of bronze that coiled about it like some great living thing making a distinct effort not to trouble the beautiful skyscrapers of rock that had been molded by uncounted millenia of erosion and weathering. Or, at least, that was what it looked like to the Third of Ivory as it paced across the pale red desert at this distance. Closer up, even feeble organics might have realized that the network of bronze was in fact no such creature, but an immense matrix of buildings, towers, modules, and entryways.

That was not the interest of the Third though. He turned away from the tableau, back toward the endless wastes, and continued walking. Another few weeks and he might reach the great Sundering Sea that separated the Salithan Wastes from the more verdant regions beyond. Most creatures would be dead of exposure long before then, but the Third cared little. Along behind the scientist an affectionate tendril of flowing bronze followed like a dog, stretching, straining forward, guided by the Voidborn's path. Back into the interminable distance the eye could follow it back toward that tall spire of learning, each meter stretched forward another extension of the neural net that the research collaborative would rely upon for introspection and advancement.

There were a thousand mysteries to be assessed, a galaxy worth of knowledge to be rediscovered. The Age of Night had seen only one in a thousand of the learned men and women of the Architects survive the cataclysm, and they had forgotten more than most other races had ever learned. It was frustrating to many of those who walked Nascency to not even be aware, in truth, of how far they had fallen. In times past the arcane terraforming machines discovered beneath the Rust Mountains might have a simplicity to comprehend, crude even to the explorers who had stumbled across the great edifices.

Not now though. There was much work to be done.

by **Piscina** » Sat May 09, 2020 7:59 am

G-Tech Corporation wrote:
The Far Reaches

Far out in the reaches of New Nitor, an inadvertent collision with an icy comet moving at an appreciable percentage of the speed of light has caused a crisis aboard the Explorer from the Lachriman Federation. It was during a routine scan far out in the Kuiper Belt, during off-watch hours, that one of the underofficers failed to note the incoming object and take an evasive course of action. Three crewmembers perished in the impact when their lifepod was punctured and suffered explosive decompression, but the damage to the Explorer is otherwise light...

Discipline the Officer and press forward.
Conduct emergency repairs.
Return to New Lachrima for repairs.
Analyze the tracking records of the comet.
or
Take another action

Captain Unnarsti listened to the report that the first mate was giving him, and sighed. Three crewmen dead due to an avoidable incident. He wondered how the underofficer involved had failed to notice the comet with millions of kilometres of nothing but empty space surrounding the ship. Surely it would have been easy to detect the light reflecting off it against the background of deep space? Fortunately, the damage wasn’t too bad. In fact, it was far lighter than would be expected from such an impact...

He continued to listen to the first mate’s report. Things were fairly normal, until...

“How fast did you say this comet was going?” Unnarsti asked incredulously. “As I said sir, cursory examination of tracking records indicate that the comet was moving at five percent of lightspeed. It’s a miracle we didn’t suffer more damage.” The first mate replied. Unnarsti shook his head. “Miracles don’t exist, first officer Watchful. There’s something off about this. An object of significant size goes unnoticed, despite the ease with which it would normally be detected, impacts our ship despite the astronomically low odds of doing so considering the millions of kilometres of empty space around the ship, and then doesn’t do much damage despite its extremely high speed. Send a radio message back to New Lachrima detailing the situation, and then analyse the tracking and sensor data we have on the ‘comet’ in detail. Make sure nothing is overlooked.”

He then turned to the underofficer who was on duty during the incident. “I’ve already read your report. Discipline will be postponed until we know exactly what happened.”

Analyse the tracking records of the comet

by **G-Tech Corporation** » Sat May 09, 2020 9:38 am

Social Development Generation 1-3

The Armada of the Forgotten: Voidborn, and thus static.

Xetan Opus: Voidborn, and thus static.

The Architects: -5 (29) | Though all is not proceeding exactly to plan in the eyes of the colonists, some setbacks must be endured for the cause of progress.

The Lachriman Federation: -4 (57) | There are some mutters of discontent amidst the colonists, but recreation facilities have just been completed, and things are looking up.

The Uvik-Nal: 12 (56) A burst of enthusiasm for the unification of the system has not gone unnoticed - pro-government demonstrations can be seen intermittently.

The Anarchranox: 6 (33) With the first stirrings of evolution in the Manifold once more, great things are promised as the world is brought to heel.

The United Nations of Xibos: 9 (24) The United Nations continue the development of their world, untroubled by civil strife.

by **G-Tech Corporation** » Sat May 09, 2020 9:48 am

The Hidden Jewel

As the Armada Explorer descends toward the strange planet, more or less lifeless, but with a bauble of verdant life apparent from orbit, her electromagnetic scanners fill with jargon. The broadcast origin is apparent - it is coming from the planet - but exactly what it is saying, or indicating, or indeed trying to do, is unknown.

Indeed, after several minutes of running the signal back and forth through the theoretically 'universal' translators which the Armada possesses, it seems to be more of a gobblety-gook nonsense than it first appeared. All form of recognizable patterning has been lost, and the Explorer descends none the wiser for the broadcast.

None the wiser, that is, until the thermal blooms from the surface give them a sudden cold clarity - that EM band must have been a target designator of some sort.

There are missiles rising from the surface of the devastated world - missiles and, it soon become apparent, incoming kinetic rounds. None are of particularly advanced make, but their sheer numbers pose a rather salient threat to the Explorer. Adral barked out harsh commands demanding evasive maneuvers, and the Explorer vents reaction engines, random-walking across the lower atmosphere as the weapons streak toward it...

They dodge most of the fusillade - but most is not a good word for any after action report involving weapons. Especially weapons that detonate in obvious nuclear fireballs when they pass within a small radius of the ship. The Explorer's hull is bathed in radiation, luckily something she is well shielded against due to proofing for interstellar flight, but she takes four impacts from the planetary railguns, and the overpressure from a few near-misses by the nuclear warheads have caused several structural damage across the vessel.

They were going down. The fuel tanks were venting, crew were uncommunicative on several levels, and the engine containment units were fully ruptured. Bugger.

Actions: ???

by **G-Tech Corporation** » Sat May 09, 2020 10:05 am

"The greatest pity of the void is how empty it is. Not full of light, beauty, and order like so many hoped. It is the sacred charge of our Makers to change this state of affairs."

Rotation 5099Q - Timestamped 08:77.3:52:309
Coordinates 2390:6745 - Classification Nascency - Subclass Salithan Wastes
Log Relevance: Nov. Dev. Asc.

The pits reached downward, deep, immense tendrils disappearing into the darkness. The Fabricator, the Second of Steel, stood on the side of the abyss, assessing. Intermittently gusts of the winds that swept the wastes away from the central processing node send small showers of sand down into the inky blackness. As the Second looked up, his eyes of swirling orange and emerald took in a half dozen other pits within range before the horizon of their adopted homeworld obscured his sight again. Here and there vast capillary nodes from the distance wormed their way down into the soil, carrying the energy of a continent to a new home.

A new home. Yes. A fortuitous coincidence had presented itself in the reshaping of the disordered desert sands of the Salithan Wastes, vast deposits of silicon which might be exploited for a ten thousand reasons, alongside the utility of providing energy to the gargantuan dataspinners and neural nets of the Bronze Keep. The Second stepped forward into the pit, and swiftly daylight faded overhead as it hurtled downward.

Closer to the molten core of the world it nestled, a languid dragon asleep atop a wealth of materials fit to reforge systems. The Sleeper in the Depths, a warren of industry and extraction where uncounted millions labored in near pitch-blackness to feed the furnaces of the crawling skin of Nascency. As the Second raced downward it passed silent halls, gaping chasms where labor-forms moved in unconscious synchrony in the gloom. Here and there the warm glow of forges and smelters disturbed the near mirror-smooth walls of the great pit that descended downward, growing in numbers as the Second fell, each a city in its own right devoted to pulling the mineral wealth of the million layers of stone and invisible years from the bosom of the planet.

Eventually the Second's eyes sighted the depths of the pit, where the great boring machines each as wide as a metroplex slowly ground into the blackness. Pillars of light and soot and fumes raced upward, buffeting the course of the Voidborn overseer, internal gravitics whirring lightly as they compensated for the alterations in trajectory. A small platform in the cavernous breast of the city-machine beckoned, and ere long the Second of Steel alighted on the platform of lustrous milisteel like a leaf born on a summer wind. Other forms knelt and inclined their heads as he paced away from the platform, one striding forward to pay particular homage.

Honored master. Welcome to Dis.

by **G-Tech Corporation** » Sat May 09, 2020 10:14 am

The Far Reaches

The bridge staff busy themselves with the work of ascertaining exactly what happened to their vessel while they were all busy sleeping or relaxing in the off-shift hours. Scanner logs are dissected, the impact damage compared to known signatures, and before long a picture begins to emerge.

It was not a comet at all! Or at least, not a comet as the people of the Federation understood it. The residue samples retrieved from the impact sight bore almost no traces of silicate or frozen materials, a near improbability given their distance from the nearest star - but rather, remarkably, displayed complex biological marker. That explained the lack of damage, at least. Despite the speed the object had been traveling at, it had barely had enough mass to pass the thin distortion shields the Explorer used for protection against incidental interstellar debris, let alone penetrate the reinforced hull.

But who would be out here throwing around organic material at an appreciable percentage of the speed of light? The trail of the 'comet' reached back into the frozen asteroid belt at the edge of the system, but there disappeared in the dappled refraction patterns of the ice-worlds. A mystery without a solution, it seemed, and a tragic one, given the four crewpeople thrown free into space after the impact.

Action: ???

by **Lunas Legion** » Sat May 09, 2020 11:03 am

The Armarda of the Forgotten
System Designate: Xana

Adral had the uncanny feeling he'd been in these circumstances before. Plummeting towards a planet, sensors running haywire, levels of the exploration ship depressurising... It felt like he'd been in a situation like this before, in some half-remembered memory lost to the darkness of the countless years of cryogenic stasis.

"Abandon ship." He said simply, standing up calmly. It was a simple matter of calculation. Attempting to bring the ship down in its current state would likely result in their deaths, especially given that the anomaly, whatever it was, was also heavily armed and might choose to finish them off. "Prepare the environmental suits, drop a beacon down for the escape pods to converge on after launch." He added, voice echoing over the ship's speakers, distorted by the damage to its systems.

Survival was the top priority currently, not that they had very good options. The colony ship would, hopefully, find somewhere to settle without them sooner or later. It's crew might be cryogenically frozen, but the loss of the control signal from the explorer ship would cause the automated systems. They plummeted downwards, metal creaking and groaning as Adral made his way to one of the escape pods. They were one person each, metal cylinders with the bare minimum of supplies to last one a few days, but the ship had enough for all of them. He stepped inside, the metal plate hissing shut as it sealed itself. His world was a few inches of padded compartment that he smacked into as the pod was launched, automated guidance systems adjusting his course. It would be a rough landing, but a survivable one. Unlike with the main ship, and it's potential to explode catastrophically.

by **G-Tech Corporation** » Sun May 10, 2020 8:35 am

"Knowledge is the truest distillation of power. Might directly incoherently is mere entropy. Agency without wisdom is error. Only through right thinking can right action be achieved."

Rotation 5099P - Timestamped 19:43.8:90:411
Coordinates 2385:6691 - Classification Nascency - Subclass Salithan Wastes
Log Relevance: Pre. Art. Dis.

The Third of Ivory tossed her red hair in annoyance after the latest readings from the neural nets. Whatever civilization had come before the Architects upon the face of Nascency had used archaic methodology based on strangely degrading tech to store the vital information the dataspinning operation here in the Bronze Keep was working to unravel. They had reached a crossroads, it seemed, where the pursuit of knowledge would necessarily entail surrendering a part of the information of the universe to degradation and destruction.

This called for a consultation.

From the Star Chamber near the apex of the Keep, the Third opened her mind to the waves of the Mainframe which remained in the fragmentary ether of the fabric between souls. Explaining the situation to those of the First Choir who had time to listen took mere moments, but their contemplation far longer. A fact the Third did not begrudge those who oversaw the wellbeing of all.

It was a difficult contemplation, but ultimately one which reached an inexorable conclusion. From the fragmentary retrievals the Architects had already seen about Nascency and her relation to this past, the star charts would likely be outdated by millenia. An opportunity for learning more of what had been, of vanished infrastructure and ancient plans - but what had survived across those eons would be unclear.

The records, on the other hand, might tell the Architects more about what the creators had intended, about those who were behind the mapping and creating of the machines that had been found here. Comprehending their insights, their rationality, could also be of great value. Pursuing both pieces of information seemed likely to degrade the drives too much to actually retrieve complete data from either side, and so a decision was made.

The Third rose from her position of repose in the pitch-black spire, emerging once more into the cacophony of light and noise that was the Bronze Keep. Here and there figures looked up curiously, unvoiced questions in their gaze.

We press forward. The records first, then the starcharts. A supply of silicon is en route for secondary charge dispersal.

The Architects extract the Side B records first, then attempt to download all they can of the starcharts as the drive degrades. 1 Silicon will be used to moderate the degradation fluctuations in an attempt to extract as much information as possible.

27 November 2022

Xetan Opus--Turn 4

"Hieran. HIERAN."

Hieran sat bolt upright, disoriented, and hastily scanned his surroundings. He was slumped in his captain's chair, papers strewn across his lap, and at his feet. "Wh-who's there?"

"Hieran, we have a problem."

He swiveled around to face whoever had shaken him from his slumber. "What's the matter?" Numbly, he noted that the culprit was Svennosław.

"You fell asleep on duty again. You are neglecting your post, Captain."

"How is that...related to the future of the Xetanians?" Had he actually fallen asleep? That did not seem plausible, for he was still so tired....

"The future of the Xetanians depends on you doing your job. If you do not pull yourself together, I will have the Board of Officers review your ability to run this mission and potentially remove--"

"NO!" Hieran leaped to his feet, eyes blazing. "I am not shirking my duty. I've dedicated my entire life to this cause. I am working day and night to ensure that we have a stable society in a planet that exceeds what we require to survive. Do not question my competency when you are hardly losing a second of sleep to this."

"Sleep has nothing to do with this, Hieran! You are not taking care of yourself, and it is reflecting on your work!"

"My work is the only thing that is keeping me going." Hieran jabbed an accusatory finger at Svennosław. "I am trying to ensure that our very existence will not be for nothing. Is that what you want? To never matter to anyone? For our entire world to be forgotten as though it had never happened?"

The bridge was swaying, swaying, and his vision was hindered by dark and fuzzy blobs. He couldn't make out Svennosław's face....

"We are on the verge of extinction. We could be...the only living things left besides what we discovered in New Xetan. There is no time to look back on past mistakes. We need to move forward." Why was everything so indistinct? Why were his eyes heavy, so heavy, why did he feel so lightheaded...?

Svennosław was speaking, but Hieran wasn't paying attention. He was staring at his hands, wondering why they were trembling, blurry, wondering why he couldn't maintain his balance. It was difficult to remember the last time he'd eaten a full meal, the last time he'd slept through the night.

"I need to be alone," he mumbled. There were strange shapes swimming before his retinas. "We are beginning construction of our colony, after all."

"Yes, Captain." Svennosław inclined his head, then left.

Finally. He was by himself. No one breathing down his neck. The surface of Haven looming just beyond the window. He strolled toward it and pressed his hand against the transparent surface, studying the small Eden that bordered the silicon desert. Was it his imagination, or could he make out the foundations of vast buildings from all the way up here? No, he was seeing things. The colony's initial population would only be 250,000; the size of a small city. If that. No need to build structures visible from space.

His reflection was visible as a specter between him and vastness of space. It was difficult to ignore the sight of his hollow face and stubbled jawline, his puffy, red-rimmed eyes. His hair was beginning to appear unkempt. Hieran let his forehead thud against the window, let his eyelids flutter shut, because he couldn't stay awake any longer. He needed to sleep. This job...it was killing him. Literally.

You can't fall asleep. You have to stay awake. Stay awake so the Xetan will not die.... Hieran slumped against the side of the Xetan Opus, losing consciousness just as his knees hit the floor.

by **Aidannadia** » Sun May 10, 2020 9:39 am

by **G-Tech Corporation** » Sun May 10, 2020 2:38 pm

The Hidden Jewel

The crew of the Explorer raced to their lifepods as the ship shuddered down through the atmosphere, flames gathering about the ruptures in her hull. Away from that very hull they spiraled like silver seeds - none too quickly either. Fortunately the order had gone out rapidly, for it was not a minute or two after the order to abandon ship had been given that one of the missiles scored a direct hit on the flaming hulk and turned it into so much falling debris.

It was a rattling descent, one made rougher by the ground defenses apparently being up to the task of tracking the falling lifepods as hostile targets. Outside Adral's window he noted a few, not many, but a few of the other lifepods disappear under direct impacts from the planetary railguns. Who would target survivors of an obviously stricken vessel? Not a good omen for who might be waiting on the ground, really.

But these thoughts rushed away as the fall from orbit slowed, fins flaring to control the lifepod's descent, and an eventual parachute carrying Adral to the safety of the planet surface. Small alarms began flashing as he landed, prompting him to don an additional pressurized canister to compensate for the rarefied atmosphere of the world, before emerging under the glare of the harsh sun.

Luckily for Adral, the Explorer had managed to make it most of the way to the strange anomaly's location on the planetary surface before the ground defenses had opened up. From where the reptilian scientist stood in his exosuit it was perhaps only a dozen kilometers to the edge of what appeared to be a stretch of very verdant landscape, opening up suddenly from the blasted heath upon which he stood. Immense tropical trees stretched toward the sun, and dense foliage defied the near-airless environment he found himself in.

Action:
Try to regroup the crew before doing anything
Solo exploration time!
Jury-rig a beacon to the colony ships to inform them of the disaster
Walk away from the obvious mirage

by **Holy Tedalonia** » Sun May 10, 2020 3:05 pm

Uvik-Nal
Homeworld, Age of the Siva-Khar.

by **Ralnis** » Sun May 10, 2020 6:37 pm

The Anchronox,
Gen 4-6,
Neo Tokyo

The Manifold grew in beauty this generation. With more of the nutrients that had blossomed across the mountains and valleys into another growth-city. This was the first beacon of their culture, one that was broken and shattered by the near destruction of their kind. These centers, while sculpted in flesh from the load of biomass that came to shape their city. The city had what was similar to schools for humanities, history museums, and even the development of pet drones that many of the Anchronox adopted.

These drones are a multitude of eldritch beings, each specific to fit the needs of the people. These drones were the manifestation of the joy that the Anchronox put forth through the Manifold. It was a feedback loop that they all enjoyed and helped them direct their energies to more sophisticated work. From their direction to cultural and even spacefaring. The excess amount of biomass was enough to start the production of an explorer drone. One that can finally give them the sight that they need to explore their homesystem.

It was something that hasn't been seen ever since they gotten to the planet. The very ship and sight wasn't there, the energies of the Manifold were focused on preserving what people it could before the crash landing. The very form of a hatchery had started to breed the lifeform needed for its task. All ships were like domesticated animals in intelligence, doing random things like normal animals would do but they were all under the control of the collective Manifold.

Those quirks are the individuality that came from being part of the consensus and no doubt that each mind of the drone was unique by itself. The people wondered what traits it would carry as it grows in its form.

Gen 5

The sight of a new generation came with the birth of the drone. It was a strange, multilimb thing that was the size of a normal scoutship. It was still going into its growing phases as it's body was transparent and looked more like a jellyfish there was nothing but the thrashing of the tentacles and no form to it. Eventually the hatchery was reformed into a cradle as it needed to mature and shape itself into a proper ship. Of course this was more than enough for the Ancrhonox as they look forward to seeing the stars once again.

The other news was that the Anchronox had decided that it was time to start trying to recover their lost technology and history. To them, this was one and the same as the Manifold collectively allowed all of the networked modified humans to share in the prospects of history and research. Now they had the prosperity of food and collective happiness to try and expand to a rememberance city-growth.

This was more advanced than any sort of food cities or even the culture ones. Biomass can be gathered by nearly any sort of world, culture only needed the environment to adapt in. Rememberance city-growths needed silicon in order to function at a sufficient rate. This came with their own tentrals digging into the earth to eat at the silicon veins in order to keep to reactivate the use of evolving the Manifold by creating new ideas and advancements for the Ancrhonox. They use this to also remember their history beyond their culture, more pragmatic knowledge that the consensus couldn't provide being advanced understanding of what they used to be.

An intergalactic consensus, a light of trillions upon trillions in the stars now extinguished to only a small decimal of their potential. They are nothing broken, shatter to near irreparability and now the try to scavenge and adapt as the last of their kind. Now they watch with some splendor as their minds see the growth of new recovery of their people's knowledge and nation within the Manifold.

Gen 6

The growth of the newest generation had came with the groan of the Manifold as the hundreds of millions of voices as they started to debate about the newest issue. They're running out of space. The experiments to trying to build extension growths into the ocean but the workers couldn't build as Neo Tokyo's oceans are stronger than what they thought were before hand. This goes back to the idea that they couldn't call back on the memories and adaptions they use to have. This was their burden if they were to expand beyond this new home of theirs.

Thus, with the rememberance city-growth came into maturity. It was a symbol that they knew would be a good start to rebuild from their crippled position. The first thing they will focus on is rebuilding the Colony Seeds and have the drone explore the home system to see if there's anything that can be a boon to them as it is launched by gas igniters and sent throughout the system riding on the solar winds to chart the planets and what mysteries that it has to offer.

27 November 2022

Xetan Opus--Turn 4

They surveyed the alien foliage, a slight wind rattling the leaves and ruffling their clothes. The foundation for the main farm had already been laid, and various buildings for essential functions were being assembled. Power plants, water purification systems, a med center, and government outposts were among the facilities being constructed, in addition to multiple apartment towers and basic homes.

Officially, Xetan's first colony had no local leader. The closest thing they had to a mayor was the sole politician who had been considered useful enough to permit apocalypse survival, and that was because the state leaders had decided the mission needed someone who was familiar with lawmaking. His name was Hoko Niro Gin.

Gin, as he was referred to by the colonists, was an overweight congressman from the formerly powerful nation of Grid. He was fond of arguments and political doctrines, and had the distinction of being the oldest colonist at 69 biological years. His wavy hair was the shade of iron, though he could have used modifications to restore its original color if he wished. Appearing older, he felt, would increased his authoritative persona and convince the masses that he could be trusted with arranging a new government.

Gin was the primary contact for the higher-ups in the exploratory vessel. He released daily reports every evening and answered the rare message, knowing the perception phenomenon of hypertime made entire months pass in what felt like the blink of an eye.

After five years, the colony was officially completed. Workers began utilizing the Eden's farms to produce Food, and a societal order began to emerge. Government officials formed the top echelon, followed by the colony's top scientists and medical professionals. They were held in similar regard to the pocket of historians that had journeyed into the stars. Those who pursued the arts, as well as educators and most of the scientists, formed the third tier along with religious leaders. Then came the entrepreneurs and artisans. Farmers and plant workers were the bottom tier.

Over time, comms from the leader became less and less frequent. One month, they stopped altogether. The colonists were still receiving updates from the chief officers and scientists; it was the communication from Hieran that had stopped.

Many colonists recalled how their leader had seemed unwell at the unveiling. They assumed he had fallen ill, possibly with the xetanflu, and had taken a few hyperdayss off to convalesce. Some of the more radical theorists believed he was dead.

And so the first seed of Xetanian life was sowed in the Omega cluster. It was hardly stable, it certainly was not powerful, but it was there. That spark of life in a universe torn apart by supernovas. That tiny kernel of hope.

by **G-Tech Corporation** » Mon May 11, 2020 1:11 pm

Despite the industrial quantities of silicon dedicated to the project, the disk did not survive the intrusive reading process. In addition, the data gained was often faulty due to unforeseen overheating causing further damage. The records were only partial, but still offered some astonishing insights.

Thousands of orbits worth of records. Atmospheric data, gradually shifting from a toxic atmosphere to a breathable one, temperatures dropping, solar activity stable. At some point, the "Seeding process" was initiated, rapidly accelerating the terraforming project.

Finally, at a specific threshold of temperature, ocean levels and atmosphere, The process was ended, and a powerful signal broadcast once every rotation.

Millions of rotations later, there was still no answer. An increasing amount of error messages were filling up the logs. Maintenance drones malfunctioning, components out of stock, mechanical failures... Meanwhile, solar activity was decreasing sharply, to the point of complete blackout. All other indicators were following in suit.

The final entry noted that the planet is no longer habitable, the process failed, shutdown imminent.

"And so we return again to the holy void. Some say this is simply our destiny, but I would have you remember always that the void EXISTS, just as surely as you or I. Is nothingness any less a miracle than substance?"

Rotation 5129B - Timestamped 52:98.4:32:403
Coordinates 7900:6192 - Classification Nascency - Subclass Geosynchronous Sheathe
Log Relevance: Off. Act. Ind.

The Foreman shoved off of the surface of the rotating spindle of gossamer-steel, body swimming lithely across the vacuum toward the distant edifice of the Driveyard. A steady stream of launchcraft from the sparking ribbons of black and silver below manifested a blinking trace-ray toward his destination, and the Second of Obsidian merely soaked in the tableaus of Nascency immobile below as the minutes turned into hours. It would be more efficient to take most other forms of transportation from the Foremost to the Lathe, but today the Second wasn't concerned with efficiency, but rather more epicurean pursuits.

For the Foreman's senses were being broadcast via entanglement-relay to nearly two thousand other forms which teemed across the face of Nascency alongside hundreds of millions of labor-forms. All wished to know about the steps that the Architects were taking back toward the stars, and it warmed the Second's heart to feel the joy re-radiated that he felt, passed along to most of his brothers and sisters which breathed the free air below. Whistling a soundless tune out into the void, the Foreman crossed his arms behind his head, and merely allowed the drifting trajectory to carry him languidly across the dozens of kilometers to the shipyards.

It was astounding, really, from the perspective of what the Architects had landed upon Nascency with, what had been achieved. To go from one pod of crashed survivors bearing the gestalts of millions, to the Tamed World that best described Nascency now, her resources harness and harvested, her surface criss-crossed by gentle restraints of civilization... bless the Makers, and their coming and going, and the weft and weave of the World.

by **Lunas Legion** » Mon May 11, 2020 1:49 pm

The Armarda of the Forgotten
System Designate: Xana

Adral stumbled out of the pod, his panting making the clear visor of the pressure suit to fog up as he emerged. He'd been lucky enough to land near, well, relatively near given they'd been coming in at an unplanned and unguidable angle, and he could see the area that they'd scanned from orbit from the top of the hill of wasteland he'd crash-landed on. Now, though, he had a choice to make about what course of action to take.

The colony ship would figure out what had happened sooner or later; it didn't take a genius to figure it out, and no doubt one of the ship's other surviving officers would already be handling a transmission beacon to the colony ship. No, his job was finding out how they were going to last longer than the emergency rations in their pods. It didn't matter if the colony ship came to rescue them, given he wasn't about to chance bringing it into range of the same surface to space weapon systems that had brought down his own exploration ship.

Instead, he started forwards, a hypothesis forming in his head as he walked. That garbled static they hadn't made sense of was a warning of some form, likely to not approach or be fired upon. The only question then was it a manned system, or an automated one? Firing upon survivors from an already stricken vessel seemed to indicate the latter, or that they were shooting towards the stricken vessel and simply missing. He stopped at the bottom of the hill, and made his way back up to the pod. No, he had a better plan.

It didn't take much fiddling; the pods could communicate, as could the suits, so survivors could coordinate and find one another after ejection. Ut was a simple transmission he recorded; the geographic coordinates of his pod, according to the survey data from when they'd originally surveyed the planet, and instructions to report, sent once to every suit and pod that had been aboard the ship. It would assemble the crew, and in the meantime, he would go and scout out the mysterious landscape he could see before returning to a hopefully assembled crew.

by **G-Tech Corporation** » Tue May 12, 2020 10:46 am

The Hidden Jewel

The trickle of crewmembers coming in was slower than Adral had anticipated, but they came, nonetheless. Either the ground defenses had been less effective than the surface-to-orbit batteries, or nobody who had designed these systems had cared to hunt down the survivors. Both were good on the ledger of the Explorer's crew. His exploration of the immediate region turned up little, save a lot of hot dust and scorched rock. Far to the east there was an irregular building of some sort, metallic and towering, and of course the immediate verdant oasis. Aside from that, Adral's search concluded with only one fact: staying here would be the death of the crew. With no ability to tunnel beneath the baking surface, and the exosuits already burning power like candy maintaining liveable temperatures, it wouldn't be a matter of weeks before the crew were all sizzling corpses - it would be a matter of days.

The Last Stars (IC) [Closed]

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