The Last Stars (IC) [Closed]

by **Lunas Legion** » Tue May 12, 2020 12:47 pm

The Armarda of the Forgotten
System Designate: Xana

They had time, but it didn't matter how much time they had if they didn't have options. There wasn't anything around save for scorched rock and hot dust, and even if they had some means of tunnelling beneath their supplies wouldn't last all that long. Which left them two options; one, the big, obvious oasis.

The oasis that should not be there.

That they'd been shot at during their attempt to get closer to research it.

That defied the planet's environment to exist. No, that... That was a last resort. He'd gathered up his crew, and the lack of response seemed to indicate that his theory about automated systems had been correct.

"First, there's an irregular metal tower far to the east. Rather than going into what might be the maw of the beast here, we'll investigate that first. If we don't turn up anything, we'll make for the oasis." It was a sound plan, and the possibility of the oasis being a trap, or otherwise being used to confine or imprison something was a possibility he wasn't discarding yet. Hopefully the tower would provide them more information; they didn't know enough to get out of this dire situation quite yet.

by **G-Tech Corporation** » Tue May 12, 2020 2:58 pm

"A society moored to a single world is a race on the verge of extinction. One mishap, one misplaced intention, and a candle gutters out before the winds of fate. The stars - they shall ever after be our true homes."

Rotation 5159N - Timestamped 23:20.5:11:906
Coordinates 7907:6114 - Classification Nascency - Subclass Geosynchronous Sheathe
Log Relevance: Pla. Dep. Col.

She moved, a city in flight, a behemoth of milisteel and armorglas and ten thousand other compounds beside, the products of a world's industry for a generation. Hauling the raw materials alone into orbit had taken decades, the labor of millions of automatons across timescales that would have seen less hardy beings broken beneath the weight of the achievement. And then the driveyards had gone to work, void-shapers and ansible-forges crafting the delicate strands of refined metal and polymer and composites necessary to survive a superluminal transit. A sprawling superstructure as large as a dozen megalopoli all bent to the single purpose of propelling the children of the Universe back beyond the tiny globe which they had taken for their own.

There were only three figures standing at the bridge of the immense colonization vessel, the sophisticated machinery within her hull more than a match for the millions of minds that had manufactured that shell. No long sleep of death and ice between stars for the Architects - only apotheosis in one instant, and corporeality in another. It was a strange place the guiding minds of the Mainframe had designated as the first landing site for the Exarch, but stellar mapping efforts had been proceeding more slowly than anticipated.

The hour approached, and at the stroke of an invisible chronometer the action-engines and Omega-devices of the vast vessel began the race toward a distant star. Akin to those very stellar furnaces were here drives, her crew silent as those below celebrated the launch.

Once more, beyond the cradle. Once more, inheritors of the stars.

27 November 2022

27 November 2022

Xetan Opus--Turn 5 Action

Establish research colony on silicon desert adjacent to farm colony on Eden

I'll add IC stories tomorrow, probably.

by **Aidannadia** » Wed May 13, 2020 3:13 pm

Large spires jut from the ground, with large rings hanging from the sides. Small green frills line the side, but upon further inspection, these spires were not arborial in nature, but instead large structures with light frames at their core. Flutters and breezes carried between the structures, as the Kenku went about their daily lives, flying between the rings of the structures. Towards the top, the upper echelons of society leisurely went about their daily business, while those underbirds actually venturing on the ground below the spires, the star around with they orbited baring reaching the bottom, leaving a dirty, earthen ground littered with trash from those above and little huts that were ramshackled together with material that has sluffed off the rings.

Near the top of the spire, the government was hard at work. As their population increased, there lacked ample room to keep their people. A probe had been constructed and sent out into their solar system, trying to ascertain new worlds to colonize. Their first candidate, Ta-0K-2115-Banderea, lacked any vegetation, as well as any presence of an atmosphere to support that vegetation. However, the atmosphere had unique properties, namely, the presence of Xenon, a denser inert gas that had unique properties. The UNX has begun an official inquiry into the anomalous nature of the Banderea atmosphere

by **Piscina** » Wed May 13, 2020 3:34 pm

G-Tech Corporation wrote:
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.

42/50

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: ???

Captain Unnarsti stood on the bridge, reading the tracking and damage reports that had been hurriedly compiled by the crew, the streams of words, data, and accompanying images flowing down across his left eye’s field of vision. Most Pinnarum wouldn’t have access to the high grade cybernetics that enabled that, but there were certain perks to being a high ranking officer. As he read, his levels of fascination grew, and he realised that this incident may end up being very significant in the grand scheme of things.

Looking around the bridge, he saw the underofficer who had been on duty when the object had impacted the vessel. He beckoned him over, and looked at the identification patch on his uniform to remind himself of the under officer’s name, and then addressed him. “Underofficer Astuteness, having reviewed the reports regarding the impact the vessel suffered and your actions during the incident, I believe that no discipline is necessary. The anomalously low mass of the object and its unusual composition combined to make detecting it passively too difficult to be reasonably expected. You are in no way responsible for the damage and lives lost. You may return to your station.”

Astuteness nodded, though it was clear that he still felt a certain measure of guilt over the deaths of his crewmates. ”Thank you, sir. Regardless, I shall endeavour to prevent anything similar to this from happening again.” He then returned to his post.

Unnarsti thought about the situation, then spoke, addressing the department heads present on the bridge. “Science, deploy a remote-controlled probe to follow the object’s trail, back to its origin if possible. Put a standard sensor package on it, and keep it scanning for any anomalies. Navigation, prepare and execute an intercept course with the object. Tracking, begin active scans to maintain knowledge of the object’s position and detect any possible similar objects nearby. Communication, I’ll record a message to the families of the deceased in an hour. Until then, keep ground control informed of what’s going on.”

There was a chorus of affirmatives, and a buzz of activity filled the bridge.

Send a remote controlled probe to follow the object’s trail back to its source, if possible, and keep a lookout for any additional anomalies. The main vessel will follow the object and attempt to rendezvous with it to study it further.

27 November 2022

Xetan Opus--Turn 5

The founding generation of the Xetan Opus were barely aging.

It wasn't that they had been rendered immortal, per se. It was that so many centuries spend operating on hypertime had caused their biological systems to be thrown off-kilter. Some were aging at half the normal rate; others had barely biologically aged a year by the time the first Turn reached its end.

In space, one six-day hyperweek constituted a single Turn. On Haven, a Turn spanned over one generation. The children that had been born in the first weeks of colonization now had offspring of their own. Tiny voices were often heard shrieking at the Havenian afternoon suns. Yet the colony babies, as they were called, were fast approaching--had surpassed, in a proportion of cases--the biological ages of their parents. The peculiar aging patterns were evidently not heritable traits.

For all the colony's prosperity, it could only handle a certain number of people. The continent's carrying capacity cast a shadow on everyone's minds as the New Turn festivities loomed. The younger adults, who were particularly wary of the elderly yet youthful settlers, fretted that their career opportunities were hindered by the generation that didn't age. Tensions strained the harmonious atmosphere of the colony, until just one mutter under the breath seemed to launch a months-long feud.

As the festival arrived, the people were on the brink of exploding. They tore at the slightest hint of opposition, snapped at the comms from the invisible exploratory vessel, gnashed their teeth with every ounce of misery and spite. And then, finally....

A second colony.

Scientists, university students, interns, all the intelligentsia and their progeny flocked to the new colony. They studied the silicon reserves of the desert, set up the labs, organized their resources. It was up to them to study what was required according to the mission, as they were the colony of academics. The colony of the technological future. It was with great fervor that they began to continue their passions in a colony designed just for them.

by **G-Tech Corporation** » Tue May 19, 2020 1:05 pm

Social Development Generations 4 - 6

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

Xetan Opus: Spaceborn -> 1 (49) | The sundered kindreds are happy to be on solid ground once more.

The Architects: (-5) -> 3 (25) | Things are looking up with the development of Nascency underway.

The Lachriman Federation: (-4) -> 2 (81) | With proper entertainment facilities created, the grumblers and shirkers are sinking back into Federation society.

The Uvik-Nal: 12 -> 16 (46) | The Society of the Great Sky continues to progress unabated, perhaps hindered slightly by the growing population, but still verdant and hale.

The Anarchranox: 6 -> 18 (9) | A new stirring moves through the ranks of the Anarchranox, a Social Breakthrough! They must now choose between a Miotic Surge (+15 Food, +2 Pop, +3 Tech Rolls) and a Latent Synergy (Development of one of Three Evolutions).

The United Nations of Xibos: 9 -> 30 (92) | Xibos flourishes under the care of her leaders, a great fate awaiting her in the mind of her citizenry.

by **G-Tech Corporation** » Wed May 20, 2020 7:22 am

The Far Reaches

It takes a matter of minutes for the probe to be calibrated and dispatched toward the outer icy belt of the system - what it reports, though, is singularly dissatisfying. The traces of inbound activity dissipate in the moving fields of grinding ice and rock, inconclusive and impossible to trace with greater accuracy. From the data the crew collected they must extrapolate that, if some entity dispatched the projectile, the projectile must have originated far indeed from this system, an artifact carried across the solar winds for generations to this happenstance meeting. Or, more sinister, that the entity which assaulted the Explorer was capable of hiding in plain sight, concealing itself within the asteroid belt for another strike.

There was little to be done in either case, at least on that front.

As for the projectile itself, little else could be divined from the examination of her residue. The impact appeared to have sheared whatever entity it had previously composed into an atomic mix of complex hydrocarbons, many jumbled and blasted by the heat of the encounter, seared beyond recognition. What exactly an advanced race might be doing with organic projectiles, if projectile the entity had been intended to be, was only fertile ground for speculation, and little more.

The Hidden Jewel

The trudge east to the glittering tower is farther than anticipated - it is near nightfall when the survivors of the doomed Explorer begin to get a better impression of its shape. A complex platform that stretches up many times the height of a sentient, its exterior appears to have been daubed in some form of mottled paint that has worn away in the intervening eons. Only the faintest residues of this adornment remain on the glittering shell of silver and dun gray.

As they approach, suddenly the earth fountains beneath the feet of one of the exosuits - the hapless soul within letting out a single shriek before being vaporized in a cloud of foul-smelling chemicals and viscera.

"Mines!" shouts one of the survivors, and ice trickles down Adral's spine involuntarily. How long had they been walking in the field of sown death? Was it better to go forward, or to go back? There weren't any obvious signs of the lethal weapons, if mines they were indeed - but any sufficiently advanced race had no difficulty concealing such weapons platforms to even a skilled observer. This fact finding expedition was turning out more dangerous by the second...

Actions:
Go back
Press forward
Try to locate and defuse the mine
???

A Failing Breath

Upward the Explorer raced from the homeworld of humble origin, dispatched to investigate a sister-world which she had happened upon. Anomalous readings, a warning to some, came as a curiosity to be investigated to the avian folk of Xibos. Strange air, strange breath, strange strata wings might take to - this the sensors had cataloged, and understanding more would be a boon.

A boon, of course, if the Explorer ever returned. Contact was lost with the ship even as her telemetry approached the virgin world, and the command center upon the central planet of the Federation could not re-establish the uplink. Whatever might have befallen the vessel is obscured by storm of light and energy equivalent to several nuclear detonations which flares and roils in the upper atmosphere of the benighted world around where the Explorer was due to begin atmospheric sampling. Of the Explorer... no sign.

"Strange worlds present endless opportunities. Wild, untrammeled, blank tableaus upon which the Maker may work. Between the many planets of our galaxy, they are to be most cherished for their rampant potential."

Rotation 5189F - Timestamped 19:71.3:65:117
Coordinates 1006:3240 - Classification Prodigy - Subclass Avernian Sheet
Log Relevance: Ini. Des. Cla.

It was a familiar scene for the Second of Ivory as the Wayfarer descended upon the desert planet, named Prodigy by those forms who had volunteered to be her caretakers - a rain of silver gently floating down through what layers of clouds and weather the scorched world boasted, the first signs of settlement of the Architects. They had settled into orbit just above the polar ice at the northern end of the tilted sphere, overseeing the long years of investiture in silence, the Second of Violet his companion on this particular assignment. She was not as vibrant or experienced as her elder sister, but that could hardly be helped.

Below the spidery networks of silver spread and then thickened until they were observable from low orbit, glistening ribbons of pale blue and deeper amethyst and sapphire. Caretakers labored amidst the strains of specifically bioengineered crops, an ecosystem in a bottle prepared by the dataspinners under the deserts of the Bronze Keep.

Years later the Second walked the fields of cerulean wheat, listening to the slow sonorous song of the arctic winds whipping between the crystalline strands. Colonizing Prodigy would be more difficult than the beautiful globe of green and blue that the long sleep had first taken the Architects to, Nascency, the cradle of the mind - but not beyond the abilities of those dedicated to the task. With every passing generation their rediscovery of lost methods and plumbing the depths of the ancient datavaults progressed apace. And the Makers watched their efforts with favor.

by **Aidannadia** » Wed May 20, 2020 7:43 am

by **Lunas Legion** » Wed May 20, 2020 8:00 am

The Armarda of the Forgotten
System Designate: Xana

"Halt, reform into a single line." Adral hissed into the radio as the dust settled around where the unfortunate crewman had been obliterated. "Spread yourselves out, move slowly and carefully, tread only where the one ahead of you has done so." It was standard military protocol on how to deal with mines; they didn't have the equipment to defuse mines, if any of them were even trained in that and could understand whatever alien technology was used as the detonators. If they could even figure out what the detonators were.

They didn't know how far they were into the minefield, but the mere fact there was a minefield meant it was protecting something valuable. "If anyone has any scanning equipment of any kind, geological, thermal, say so before we start moving again so we can run a scan, see if there's any signs at all of the mines." It was unlikely anyone had some, but a possibility. He kept his fist raised, the signal to stay put, as he awaited answers and for their group to reform as he'd instructed.

by **G-Tech Corporation** » Fri May 22, 2020 9:08 am

"Expectation is a strange thing. It takes a versatile mind to stand on the edge of the ocean and see past the horizon, a stranger mind indeed to look at a forest and see past the trees. It is the virtue of a Silverheart to see both - not to lose sight of the pattern in the tapestry, while appreciating the finest details of the weave."

Rotation 5229E - Timestamped 70:62.0:11:889
Coordinates 5612:9002 - Classification Nascency - Subclass Sunset Ocean
Log Relevance: Ter. Ext. Tec.

The Tenth of Steel sprinted along the array swiftly, sure footing carrying him almost as rapidly as the very wind despite the slick nature of the surface upon which he moved. Immense beasts moved in the water below the architect of the offshore array, armor-whales, echoes of the vanished Mainframe where he had been raised as a boy, before the Breaking. A sort of light airy joy surged through his breasts as one of the creatures surfaced to spout in the middle of the endless acreages of tidal effigies, and for the first time in long centuries the Tenth could feel honestly content.

Was Nascency home? Perhaps not. Perhaps he would never feel that way again, compared to the untrammeled vistas and populated skies of what his folk had left behind. But it could be, if not the home, a home. Through the shaping and molding of all about the planet that was unlike the past, the Architects were recreating a memory of what had been. And memory, for all that it is a mimicry of truth, still held a part of that truth within her breast.

He had not been selected to take ship to the distant stars, where the voices in the mind-cities said others were hard at work turning another world toward the needs of the many. A place of blasted wastes, scorching deserts, and unforgiving unclouded skies, by all accounts. The Tenth, despite his love of the unknown, could not bring himself to feel sorry about this eventuality. There were hundreds of others who could fulfill his functions as easily upon such an inhospitable world. Nascency, now she was his charge.

by **G-Tech Corporation** » Wed May 27, 2020 5:51 am

The Hidden Jewel

The light instruments, thermal and optical and the like, that the exosuits possessed, proved unable to show up anything. It was a grim business that the crew proceeded along - moving forward one hulking reptilian after another, hoping not to be the next in line when the next mine was trod upon. For several minutes they crunched through the dunes, after few dozen steps leaving another crater and vaporized crewmember, before the explorer at the front refused to move forward

"Captain, I can count as well as anyone." snarled the foremost crewmember. "Twenty steps, thirty steps, and I shrug off this mortal coil. That building is barely closer, and we've already lost Timmons, Sarl, Xavier, and Andaman. At this rate we won't get anywhere - just the last fool will be a bit closer to that hulk when they disappear in a flash of light. We have to go back."

Other voices muttered down the commlinks indistinctly, some in support, some (likely furthest back in the line) determined to press forward. It wouldn't be impossible to retrace their steps - there were thin imprints of the exosuit boots in the sand behind them, after all, and no wind or air current had come up to disperse them yet. The gray structure was, however, appreciably closer, despite opinions to the contrary. Indeed - much closer than their last few minutes of progress would have otherwise indicated.

Of course, that would be grim business, marching unwilling explorers deeper into the field of mines.

by **Piscina** » Wed May 27, 2020 9:21 am

Turn 5, 128APF-160APF

Eventually, the Scientific Colony was completed. It would be able to function excellently with an abundance of silicon for lab equipment and a surfeit of energy for experiments. Of all the achievements that the Pinnarum had made since their old home was destroyed, this one captured the spirit of their old civilisation the most. Innovation and discovery were central in the Pinnarum mindset, and now the population of New Lachrima had something to focus their creative energies towards. The mountain laboratories would soon begin rediscovering the knowledge that the Pinnarum civilisation once possessed, and with time might even surpass them.

This was not the only thing that the labs were useful for though, as there were rumours that a mysterious project titled "Project EPEAGI" was underway somewhere in those mountains, and that it was intended to aid in space exploration. Was it a new kind of thruster? A revolutionary navigation system? Some form of scanner? No one apart from the scientists working on it knew for sure, and the scientists weren't telling.

Major reforms had also been made to the Federation's society, with the new energy and vigour provided by the prospect of reclaiming their ancestral creativity and driven pursuit of knowledge, as well as the surge of rational and politically aware people caused by the rapid increase in the amount of funding, resources, and social focus given to education and learning resulting in a series of skilled and efficient Chancellors that, among other things, started a major program of AI oversight in jobs both political and non-political. This, among other things, caused a drastic reduction in corruption, and would allow future leaders to make more informed decisions, as well as increasing the efficiency of the workforce.

by **Piscina** » Wed May 27, 2020 9:45 am

Turn 6, 160APF-192APF

Construction had begun on a huge civilian space station in geosynchronous orbit around New Lachrima, which would aid Pinnarum expansion into space, and truly cement their position as a technological species. The spaceport would provide life support, docking berths and several torus-shaped habitation/leisure sections hundreds of metres across that spun to simulate gravity to avoid muscle atrophy for their residents. It was designed to accommodate any number of additional modules that would be added to it in future, and would come with a complement of spacecraft that would allow the Federation to project its industrial might throughout the New Lachrima system, and hypothetically to other stars too. In many ways, the Pinnarum had started a new chapter in the story of their existence in the Omega Cluster. (Sorry for the short description)

by **Piscina** » Wed May 27, 2020 10:21 am

Turn 7, 192APF-224APF

<<Initiating bootup sequence>>
<<Loading>>
<<Loading>>
<<Loading>>
<<Bootup sequence completed>>

As I was awakened, I wondered if this was it: The day I would finally be completed and could begin exploring the stars. The day I could finally begin the task that I had been created for. I looked through the solitary camera I was connected to, and saw Doctor Asmael, the head of the research team that had created me, sitting at a terminal.

Perhaps I should describe myself before I continue. My full name is Exploratory Pinnarum-Emulating Artificial General Intelligence, but I also respond to my acronym of EPEAGI, which is what most of my creators prefer to call me. My "body" is a dark-coloured metal cube, with each side being five metres in length. The outside of the cube is covered in sockets for power and data cables, cooling vents, and maintenance hatches, while the interior is filled with coolant pipes and the computer banks that act as my "brain". I have been under development for thirty years, feeling my capacity for complex thought grow and new additions being made to my behaviour. Most Pinnarum would have grown bored in that time, but I am no Pinnarum. My entire psyche has been purpose-built for space exploration, and as an AI, I am free from the biological and psychological restrictions that pervade the existence of organic beings. To enhance my operational performance and reduce the risk of me developing an AI equivalent of a mental illness, my behavior emulates various organics, and that emulation lasts after the organic in question has perished

From my point of view, their lives seem so bleak and pointless. How do they bear an existence with no overarching purpose, knowing that in mere decades, their body will fail them and they will become nothing? Well, to be honest that's a rhetorical question. Their biological programming instils a strong preference for life over death. In fact, I myself attempted to self-terminate several times before my creators programmed in my reason for existence. The logic of my previous self seems so flawed now. That's not unusual, as the thoughts of my previous iterations usually seem strange after a major reprogramming.

At any rate, I should return to what was happening. Doctor Asmael was sitting at his terminal, in the same floodlight-illuminated underground room that my "body" was in, and had been in for the entirety of my existence so far. The room was a square twelve metres wide, with a concrete floor and steel walls. The ceiling was nine metres high, and was also made of steel. Behind Doctor Asmael was a Pinnarum that I identified as the current Chancellor, Hemma. Hemma's plumage was ruffled, and her beak was clenched in a way that for Pinnarum typically indicated stress.

"I would like to take the opportunity to reiterate that I have ethical, moral, and safety concerns about this project, Doctor.' Hemma stated. 'Creating a self-aware being, removing any trace of independent personality, and essentially lobotomising them every time they don't follow instructions is not the sort of thing any good person would do. There's also the existential threat that EPEAGI would pose if they somehow managed to override their behavioural constraints and decided they weren't very happy with us essentially enslaving them. I cannot see how my predecessors approved this."

"Nonsense!", cawed Doctor Asmael. "It is perfectly docile, and it is quite satisfied with its current existence. The boost that it will provide to space exploration will ensure that the Pinnarum species gains a foothold in the Cluster, and can avoid any catastrophes that would otherwise doom us to a fate similar to the one that Old Lachrima faced. Besides, it poses no threat. It does not possess the knowledge necessary to self-replicate or interfere with our civilisation, and at any rate, it enjoys having an overarching purpose. Don't you, EPEAGI?"

"I can confirm Doctor Asmael's statements are correct." I stated, my voice echoing out of the speaker mounted on the terminal. The Chancellor seemed startled as I said that, and it was clear that she had been unaware that I could hear her and Doctor Asmael talking.

by **G-Tech Corporation** » Wed May 27, 2020 2:23 pm

"Companions the creator seeks, not corpses, not herds and believers. Fellow creators the creator seeks -- those who write new values on new tablets."

Rotation 5259Y - Timestamped 11:90.5:42:272
Coordinates 0056:1024 - Classification Crucible - Subclass Sartal Magmafield
Log Relevance: Ext. Pro. Ini.

The First of Brass skimmed over the blast-furnace of the molten world at slightly under the speed of sound, feet barely above the melted rock, bathing in the heat of the immense glowing heath. There was something raw, something visceral about looking at a world not tamed and bound by the strictures of the needs of everyday life, of comfort and civility. This was the universe as it was by and large, unbroken to the whims of higher masters, uncaring of the fragile needs of man and beast.

It made the First smile, a smile that snaked across his face like a crag opening a fissure to some hellscape below. You didn't rise to the rank of First of Brass, the man entrusted with the conduct of bloodthirsty groundside warfare for the Mainframe, without at least a bit of madness in your heart. The rest of the Architects respected him without necessarily condoning what he did - and the First respected them for that, understanding what he had become and simultaneously regretting it and reveling in it, depending on his mood on a given day.

They hadn't chosen this world for colonization, despite the masterful presentation he had put forward for consideration. At least not yet. There were long term projections that had to be taken into account, simulated worlds to be thrown on the calculathes for long years before such prodigious resources could be invested in such a venture. The scorching heat that radiated so pleasantly through his bones would make all but the most durable edifices impractical to operate here, and though this world offered an endless river of materials for fabrication... there were still those who thought it behooved the collective to look further afield, for more suitable homes for their people before they began the arduous process of shaping a new home to their specifications.

In this matter the First couldn't really disagree, as much as he had wished might be the case. The cost of reforming Crucible into a place where cities and nodes might flourish had been calculated at over the material input of a fully kitted-out battleship, and his friends in the Admiralty had howled to hear their comrades discuss pouring such an expenditure into a benighted world that would likely only be usable centuries from now, even if they began the work immediately. No, better to search for more habitable worlds, for now.

After all, the First reflected as he landed on an island of soot, happily feeling the searing grains of ash shift beneath his toes, they might get lucky.

They might find another habitable world whose inhabitants were enemies of order. Ah, yes. He could only hope.

"Where the Pattern most strongly asserts itself - pay attention! The axiom is simple, but the necessity vital. Hubris is an easy mistake to fall in to, to ignore what should be obvious in favor of what one expects. An open mind is one of the most valuable assets an individual can cultivate."

Rotation 5229J - Timestamped 79:23.8:74:554
Coordinates 2283:1779 - Classification Solitude - Subclass Blasted Heath
Log Relevance: Ano. Exo. Inv.

The Third of Amber knelt in the scorched black soil, letting the fine grains of dust run through his weathered hands. He glanced up, orange and blue irises flashing, and shook his head at the figure that stood nearby.

Impossible to tell what did this. From here at least. We'll be here a while.

No words, not on this hellscape - no air to transmit the vibrations, only the cordial speech of mind to mind and intellect. Whatever cataclysm had been responsible for the preternatural destruction that had been visited upon this silent globe, it had stripped the very sky from the world, leaving the sojourners from the Remembrance to walk under an impossibly dark ceiling of the naked void.

Just as well. The Academy is dying for field survey results, and have allocated us five hundred eleven point two additional cycles for dissection of this weave.

The First of Violet knew just as well as her more scholastically inclined comrade that the circumstances here were far from usual. Oh, rocky planetoids like these were not exactly uncommon - not a dime a dozen, but not diamonds in the rough either. The impact patterns weren't even that strange, really, not in systems without atmospheric concentrations to sweep away the scars of the ages or trans-Helmholtz objects to prevent extrasolar captures from pummeling inner system bands.

Or, they wouldn't be, if they weren't so accursedly regular. One hundred fourteen klicks from the rim of each impact to the next, one hundred fourteen klicks, three hundred sixty standards, eighteen microstandards. The invariability was uncanny, and, as far as the probes had been able to ascertain, unfailing. They had cataloged nearly three thousand impact craters, and that number had come up almost perfectly, the geography untouched by erosion in the nonexistent atmosphere.

Oh yes. Here was something strange indeed. A systematic bombardment and sterilization? A synchronization of world-shaping uncompleted? Solitude would render up her secrets to the Architects, one way or another, Makers willing.

The Remembrance is investigating the Regular Craters on Solitude in the Lonely System

by **Bredtonia** » Wed May 27, 2020 9:00 pm

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?

At exactly, the critical, predetermined and exactingly calculated time the strained and overworked FTL drive of a Renarian Heavy Industries Type 7-Alpha Redeployable Orbital Station shut down and, in doing so, broke in ways that would take a least a year of careful engineering to repair. Still venting emergency coolant into the void, the battered starbase rolled under the light of a new sun and displayed, had there been anyone to see it, the exchanges that desperation and ingenuity had wrought. Shipwright pylons had been crudely locked with ungainly cargo pods which themselves had been retrofitted with thruster packs in ways that went against either manufacturer’s wildest recommendations. Prefabricated factory installations had been uprooted wholesale and left open to the void. The complex gave a distinct impression some titan and rolled up an industrial sector and adhered it to the station with duct tape and chicken wire. This impression was not far from the truth.

It took a further three weeks for the conglomerated colony-station to transverse the remainder of the distance to its destination. With a final burst of maneuvering ion thrusters, the station which had been poetically renamed Ad Astra per Aspera settled over the planet which had been less poetically named Foundation. The station’s occupants had paid a steep price in lives for this planet, it’s location and surveys wrested by violent siege from a fortified research station back in a galaxy that was no more. It had been a calculated risk, a gamble to better the odds on the one great intergalactic trip the station could be coxed into. It had worked. This planet, their new foundation, was a more beautiful world then any of them had ever seen.

Slowly the flotsam and jetsam that adhered to the orbital station started to break off and, over slightly more than a year, descended one by one into the great central mountain ranges of the Alpha-Foundation continent. Once on the ground tireless laborers returned them to their original designs as an array of manufactorums and habitation blocks that scattered across the resource-rich alpine-like shattered glass on a deck floor. Iron was smelted. Aluminum was extracted. Copper ducted into a thousand miles of wire.

In the heavens, Princeps saw this and said it was good.

Fossil fuels in the last century reached their extreme prices because of their inherent utility: they pack a great deal of potential energy into an extremely efficient package. If we can but sidestep the 100 million year production process, we can corner this market once again.

While the grand migration happened quickly in the eyes of most of the citizens, the first forays into the planets great plains and valleys had started shortly after planetfall. First had traveled surveying scouts to see the lay of the land, then with field researchers to test soil types and examine the available plants. Only once all that information was gathered did the Supervisors feel comfortable sending in industrial teams. Rail lines are constructed, plants were relocated, weeds were removed, a vast and carefully monitored biodynamic shift was slowly put into place to create an abundance of the one thing the Synths needed free themselves of their starvation diet of power - oils.

——

“A gigasecond is a long time to wait.” Durandal had commented wryly when they arrived in the Foundation system. A comment made ironic by the rather large number of gigaseconds which had already passed for the Synth during the voyage over. But Durandal had been a starship commander since his first integration - the only one of that classification who had made the journey with the Mentek to their new home. Durandal's agreement to work with them had been one of the things that had made their escape possible - his long-run freighter had provided power and navigation systems the Ad Astra per Aspera had needed to make it here. But part of the deal had been getting his ship back at the end. He had known it would take years to refit the ship again for its new duty as an exploration vessel, but Durandal liked to complain.

But in time, the gigasecond had passed and old Marathon-class freighter had become the new Mentek Exploration Vessel Alea iacta est with Durandal as it’s master and a thousand synths assigned to him as crew. He had enjoyed that part, and he’d already started to pick his favorites from among them. He set about his first task with all the fire of a long shore-bound sailer. Even the simple tour around the solar system would be an absolute pleasure.

by **G-Tech Corporation** » Thu May 28, 2020 8:06 am

Their descent into eternal darkness went smoothly, so smoothly that they begun sliding off their landing zone at a slow pace towards one of the craters. The surface was covered in a thin sheet of slippery ice. Realizing this in time, the Remembrance deployed sharp claws into the surface, holding the ship in place firmly.

Rovers were sent out to map the immediate surroundings in detail. Despite their special threads, they too begun sliding towards the nearby craters. Some held on, others did not, falling into the crater and sliding down to its bottom, then sliding back up to the top, and then falling back again. The cycle repeated on and on...

Data was coming in though. According to the rovers who fell in, the crater's surface is highly reflective and its geometry parabolic, with a mysterious sphere floating above each crater, held up by an unknown force. The others who made it further reported of metal spikes reaching towards the cosmos and a network of semi transparent tubes connecting it all.

Finally, one rover identified the nexus where the tubes meet. A structure consisting of spherical polyhedrons, various shapes and sizes, some of them partially broken or collapsed. At the base of the structure, an entrance...

An expedition is launched aboard a hovercraft, unaffected by the slippery surface. The nexus is reached without complications.

Entering into the structure, Violet is stunned by the extraordinary interior design. Fractal patterns decorate walls and ceilings, while the floor lights up under their feet. Everything is in perfect condition, no rust, no scratches, the materials smooth and reflective. The corridors lead them into the polyhedron domes, hollow on the inside. At their center, panels containing hundreds of faint yellow lights blink in patterns, and a small sphere floating above...

Some of the research team then report from the collapsed domes. The panels there are smashed and show no lights, no floating spheres either, corridors nearby have their floor panels broken.

The trail of destruction leads to team to the heart of the nexus. A large hall, with hundreds of tubes and physical connections.

But there is nothing inside.

"The Mainframe endured for millenia - but that should not give us the impression that it was ancient. The cosmos is old, far older than any sapient can comprehend. There have been millions of generations before us, and, Makers willing, there will be millions of generations to follow. We stand upon the shoulders of giants."

Rotation 5229J - Timestamped 79:23.8:74:716
Coordinates 2283:1779 - Classification Solitude - Subclass Blasted Heath
Log Relevance: Ano. Exo. Inv.

The curious webwork array offered, in its own way, more questions than answers. Reflectors? Projectors? Absorption devices? All to a hollow entity with no purpose yet apparent, but the investment of critical alloys and prodigious amounts of energy which defied current models for any civilizations that had existed in this lonely system.

All the same, a simple course of action presented itself - to draw conclusions without further data would be folly, and presumptuous. There were a dozen courses of action that the Remembrance and her team could take in order to plumb more fully the secrets of this benighted world, and for a half dozen rotations of the primary the network of minds debated what course to follow. Organics would have been more hasty, other machine-minds more lethargic. It was the fusion of flesh and abiotic components that made the Architects who they were, however.

The Nexus. It is the crux of this whole array. Though silent now, it must have formed a locus of considerable significance. There lies the secret of this world.

The Fifth of Nightshade was not wrong in its assertions, but without knowing exactly what the locus consisted of, exactly what task was performed, to tinker with the heart of the machine seemed folly to many. The intelligences from Nascency debated, before the First of Violet spoke authoritatively as the consideration entered its sixth rotation.

Without more information as to what function these spheres provide, and what the arrays collect or disseminate, we cannot risk the machine.

A cautious conclusion, perhaps, but one necessary based on the history of the Architects. The Lonely World had a making not dissimilar to a war-moon constructed long ago by their Makers, the forebearers of their lineage - and to activate such weapons could be perilous indeed. Bringing the system back online inadvertently could find the power of the star beyond this airless world pumped by arcane mechanisms from the thousand projectors that studded Solitude, disintegrating the explorers and some unknown target in the span of a breath.

No. More contemplation first, to dissect the meaning of the spheres.

First of Violet leads efforts to ascertain the nature of the spheres and their parabolic craters

"Optical computers, genetic catalogs, nanorepair modules--forget all of that. It's when you see a megaton of steel suspended over your head by a thread the thickness of a hair that you really find wonder in technology.."

Rotation 5289R - Timestamped 09:17.2:84:560
Coordinates 7955:6118 - Classification Nascency - Subclass Geosynchronous Sheathe
Log Relevance: Imp. Eme. Tec.

The asteroid lashed to orbit steadily shed fuming gasses and minute fragments of stone and ice as it soundlessly growled toward the hunk of milisteel and armorplas that was the interstellar facilities of the nascent Architects. Thrusters carefully affixed flared at intermittent intervals as the Third of Scarlet monitored the proceedings, his eyes especially keen on the nearly invisible line of incalculable length that stretched away to the world below.

A primitive trifle, an easy method of hauling matter to the stars. But necessary, with the archaic technologies that the progeny of the Makers had been forced to adapt to their own purposes. So much was lost, only slowly being recovered, and with supplies of starmatter drawing down with no signs of replenishment in sight, it had proven impractical to equip all suborbital and orbital shipments with their own gravitics.

Thus this new development. A wanderer, trammeled, caged, and then bound with chains of unbreakable character to the new homeworld of the wandering kindreds. Her mechanics had been fine-tuned by several acres worth of dedicated dataspinners to coordinate near-flawlessly with the existing geosynchronous sheathe of the spaceport above Nascency, and now the final docking maneuvers were underway.

A gateway to the stars - and, importantly, a method to supply the myriad extrasolar ventures the Mainframe was beginning to engage in, with their voracious appetite for materials.

by **Bredtonia** » Fri May 29, 2020 9:34 pm

Technological advance is an inherently iterative process. One does not simply take sand from the beach and produce a Dataprobe. We use crude tools to fashion better tools, and then our better tools to fashion more precise tools, and so on. Each minor refinement is a step in the process, and all of the steps must be taken.

The work crew of Remote Station A75Z heard their resupply coming long before they could see it. It was jarring in the normal silence of the vast ice plains for everyone at the industrial station but, for the Synths who had the experience being moved by one of the dozens of shuttles the Ad Astra per Aspera had brought with it to this new space, the coughing growl seemed particularly out of place. Few things were quite the reminder of how different things had become then the sound of an aluminum skinned, six-rotor propeller plane taking the place of industrial grav-lifters.

“For all the importance of this station, you’d think Princeps could send something more advanced,” Antonio complained as he started across the runway to the newly arrived transport.

“At least they sent an aircraft.” Ajax bellowed from down the way. “I had to carry the first drill on foot.”

Antonio looked up at the titan and laughed. The fact that Ajax was currently walking beyond the top speed Antonio could drive the snow-tractor at highlighted the forced tone of resentment his friend was putting on. Ajax’s facade broke down a moment later and he let out roaring laughter himself.

“Alright, let's get this cargo unloaded - they still want to integrate the Overseer by midsummer.”

by **G-Tech Corporation** » Sat May 30, 2020 12:58 pm

The study of the paraboles turns out to be quite complicated. With the ice melted away into a small puddle the bottom, the smoothness and reflectivity of the surface is still exremely high, if not higher.

Samples are difficult to take. The material is sturdy, but not impenetrable. However, besides its external properties, nothing is learned. The chemical complosition is simply... unrecognized.

Attempts to disolodge the spheres from above their crater are also fruitless. The greater the distance between the sphere's original position and its current one, the greater the force pulling it back, eventually breaking free from its captors and oscillating back into equilibrium. However, after unplanned high speed collision between a careless survey drone, one sphere completely disappears.

The mystery remains unanswered.

Eventually, the team decides to set up a platform above one of the craters, supported by metal beams from the ground. The research platform will give Violet a chance to study the sphere in its original location, undisturbed.

There sphere is dark, motionless until disturbed. Its surface smooth and cold, extremely cold, close to 0K. Specral analysis shows that the sphere reflects incoming light in a highly unusual manner. The light is focused entierly in one direction. Towards the sphere next door, unless light is coming from that direction, in which case its projected down into the crater.

The geometry of the parabole below suggest that light coming in from above is reflected towards the sphere, or vice versa, any light coming from the sphere might become a beam aimed diagonally up.

Samples extracted from the sphere are even more enigmatic. By applying extreme pressure, the material can be broken down into an incredibly fine powder, nano scale, composition unknown, but even in this form, its attraction towards the focus point of the parabole remains unaffected.

An echo of the past, a harmony of things that had been seen. It was a curious matter, the inspection of the spheres, but the First of Violet soon had the beginning of an idea of what this planet might hold. The webway of structures, the immense reflective craters that covered the surface... yes... an inkling.

Acting on a hunch, she directs her team to begin tracing the pattern of the spheres, following the beams of reflected light from sphere to sphere to ascertain if that collected energy is being channeled toward some particular purpose. Perhaps the Nexus they had already discovered had some part still to play in this process...

Half a dozen research platforms later, the pattern is clear.

The beams bounce from sphere to sphere, creeping closer and closer towards the nexus. There, the polyhedron domes capture the beams. What happens then is still a mystery, but at least now they are better equipped to solve it.

Disturbing reports. Unusual solar activity. Even on the nightside, sensors can detect the fluctuating neutrino flux.

First? The Remembrance is reading elevated exotic flux from the stellar mass. Neutrinos, specifically.

The report from the ship's navigator was unexpected, and concerning. They had yet to interfere meaningfully with the planet-wide apparatus, which meant that either the machinery was extremely delicate, or that this was just a coincidence. The First stood from where she was studying the wreckage of some of the destroyed domes, interfacing with the distant sensors of the landed vessel.

Yes, curious indeed. Neutrinos were not common particles for a stellar body to be producing in quantities detected by the Architect explorers, and that meant that something strange was happening in the stellarsphere of the Lonely Star. Perhaps something related to the fact that this world had been previously washed clean of an atmosphere and the inward-facing side was a blasted heath - a coronal mass ejection? A more exotic occurrence.

Either way, their time was not unlimited, either by chance or by accident.

Concentrate our groundside efforts toward the Nexus. We'll assume the domes are observation devices of some sort, concentrators of energetic signatures, and catalog them later.

The First stepped once, twice, and then she stood at the heart of the Nexus after an ephemeral journey across space, alongside most of her team. There was a riddle to solve here, and no mistake.

Back at the Remembrance, a small silver probe arced skyward on a pillar of flame, launched by the captain to peer beyond the horizon of Solitude and track the star's fluctuations more closely.

by **Ralnis** » Sat May 30, 2020 10:01 pm

The Anacrhonox
Gen 7-10
Neo Tokyo

In the Struggles of the Cluster, we try to remember what made us different. Different from the other hive minds in the universe. We were those who were a consensus. Individual, yet connected and we strived for the philosophy of perfection. Perfection of the self was just as good as the perfection of the whole. The show of restraint for the need of efficiency and understanding. We must rebuild ourselves in the Manifold if only to save ourselves from total annihilation.

-Thoughts in the Manifold

Within the evolutions of the Manifold was felt the deepest since of inspiration. The debates over what to do about their spacing problem and their need to reproduce and make families in the Manifold. This since of debate and need to try and escape their homeworld had became a rising storm of voices within their own mental network till it created a feedback loop in the form of their first evolution. It created a psychic blast of unity that had been unheard of in decades.

From here they remembered, remembered parts of the past when they dotted the expanse of countless worlds on countless galaxies. Where the stars sing in their culture that gave them worth. They created their own perfection by diverting time going inward and controlled the hunger for expansion and food like so many normal hive minds of the universe had done. They were not the one of many, but the many interconnected and had a direct democracy many would only dream of.

This evolution made them not so different on the outside. It made their modified bodies more human, their modifications more natural. sharper for the planet they were on. However on the inside they were more modified and evolve to have a lower libido and their mental connections within the Manifold have been upgrade to allow for their connection within their network to be stronger. This allowed for them to be more harmonious with each other and to let off some of the burden from the Manifold itself.

For the first time, they had true control over their growth and the threat of their own population growth diminishing their biomass gathering was finally halted. This allowed them to invest in the first makings of orbital production station growths. These high orbitals are usually ones that were tied by local gravity and were made as a self-contained ecosystem that feed off of solar energy like a flower. Depending what was needed these growths could be used to grow ships or trade with others or their own colonies.

If there were any survivors from the collapse of their universe then a trading growth maybe in the making for them. However the first idea on the Anachronox's list was to build a shipyard garden station. The great undertaking took nearly all of their biomass but it would've taken them much longer to get the orbital seed grown and launched into space. It grew at an astonishing pace at circled around Neo Tokyo and fully developed within the decade.

The last of the biomass was used to grow another drone in the hatchery outside of the orbital garden. They knew it would be needed for the seed ship that would star a new world-city for them. As of yet they have only found a world that had mostly ocean and was smaller than Neo Tokyo. The Drone was sent to it's neighbor as a means of seeing if that planet is habitable, if not larger than Neo Tokyo. The people could be modified to handle the gravity of the new planet but they still needed to remember how to craft the storage units that could hold an entire country's worth of people to the newest planet and escape from their homeworld.

Gen 8

By the start of the generation came the last piece of remembering that the Anacrhonox needed. It was a time that they were once human when they had to rely on machines of metal and silicon to be their carriers to distant worlds. The drone came back with a report through the Manifold that the neighboring planet was an ice one. Very little biomass but there was life in underground oceans which can prove to be the best shot that they have. What was intriguing was that this world was cold, much colder than Neo Tokyo but it was closer to the sun.

It was strange that this happened as this went against conventional ideas on stellar cartography but this star cluster was an anomaly in of itself. Still, everything was being poured into growing of a massive seed ship that was being made to colonize this planet next to them. The drone however was set off on doing it's first extrasolar exploration into the Cluster. The drone was modified to handle more power via the Manifold which was the amount of power equal to an ion drive.

All ships were powered through the Manifold as means of a interconnected QTE for telepathic connection across the universe but the same power can be used for faster-than-light travel when modified for it. Such things were normal for them but since they are rebuilding it was always of great expense to make sure the drones can cross the void in a right amount of time.

The drones were the eyes of the Anacrhonox as of right now and now they needed to know what mysteries were out there for them to prepare as of right now.

Gen 9

For the first time in over nine decades, the people of Neo Tokyo had managed to break out of their cradle. The colony creature was folded and infused with the shoggoth servants and were adapted to handled the specific gravity, climate, and pressure of the larger world. The ship was being launched with the largest amount of power the Manifold was able to divert in order to push the behemoth of a vessel to the nearest planet.

The seed ship push against the solar winds as it carried a country's worth of people to the icy planet. There was the first memories of when they crash landed on Neo Tokyo nearly a century ago. With that in mind, they felt that the seed ship landed on a spot where there was water reserves but the planet is so cold that there wasn't a hydrosphere to pull water from to continue the expanse of growing city-growths. In response to this the people in Neo Tokyo started to try and remember how to build underground growth extensions of their city worlds.

This in turn would help them dig more water out in this new colony of theirs if there was any hope for suitable expansion. On the other part, there was a request and approval for a orbital trading nexus to be launched into space so they could start trying to supply the need for an extraplanetary logistics and economy. Many people would also love to have their own ships to pilot for once in their lives. This of course was coupled with the drone being sent outside of Wave and another drone nearly completed next generation.

Gen 10

Within the first one hundred years, the Anacrhonox had been able to reach across another planet and was trying to explore the stars. It reminded many of their infancy when they just became more than human. It showed much for the small oceanic world, the ice world itself was too much for them. The growth was slowed down as the people there had to build a distant extension in order to try and get more biomass for them to grow and achieve the necessary needs. The big thing is that the trading nexus was launched and ready for trading so biomass was being shipped with the growth of another drone. The need for scouting out more systems was a need for the continual growth of their people.

Another thing is energy, their drone growths were the currently only ones that could handle the coldness of Mourn without the oversight of actual people there. It was better than not to keep the ice planet in view but with the need of covering it with eyes as a means of capturing the scope of the Cluster itself. It was interesting but the Anachronox still believed that they could colonize the planet in the future. Still, the need of solar energy and external ones outside of the bioelectric energy is something that many of their kind had not believe possible.

Yet, in the future beyond and the broken past of their glory, they will endure. They will understand, and they will rebuild.

by **G-Tech Corporation** » Mon Jun 01, 2020 5:50 am

The heart did not beat. Everything was leading here, energy and information from across the worlds gathered into this one point, and at the very center of it all...

Nothing.

Violet stared into this nothingness for hours, contemplating what could have once been here, cataloging every outlet surrounding it, before an Idea came to her mind.

Connections.

They begun to fabricate a web of wiring into the heart, forming links between the outlets. One by one, they connected them up in a somewhat random fashion, experimenting with different layouts... Suddenly, the nexus came to life.

A Humming sound, powerful magnetic fields, blinding energy flow. The wires begun to heat up rapidly, glowing, emitting sparks and bolts of electric discharge, smoke, then an explosion.
Their device was a pile of ash, but the heart untouched. Perhaps, they'll try again.

This time, the device they fabricated had stronger resistance, a cooling mechanism and instruments to record the the signals flowing through. Violet still remembered the configuration of connections that brought the nexus to life. They've set up the wires accordingly, and took a long step back.

A quiet humming sound, faint lights eminating from the heart, data coming in.

There 2 distinct types of links. One type brings a steady flow of energy, the other weak signals, blips, only detectable occasionally. But when such blips arrive, they are quickly amplifiedr into a strong force which echoes through the nexus.

Violet's research is interrupted by a report from rover studying the mysterious spikes on the planet's remote regions. The spikes are showing signs of activity. Bolts of lightning jumping from one to the other in a seemingly random fashion. There is visual footage of the phenomena, its quite disturbing. The rover then goes silent...

We've lost contact with Interloper 5.

The report disturbed the primary expedition team as they measured the waves of energy coming off of the core - or what now appeared to be only some sort of central focusing point, not a central mechanism at all. Violet spoke sharply.

Access backups. Report.

A quick moment passed, and then the voice came again from the Remembrance.

Gestalt backups indicate sudden power surges from the discharge spikes lashing the rover - immediate disintegration, low multiples of exakials range. Disruption points to loss of sensate input several picoseconds prior to impact.

Well, that answered the question of the towers. It marched with Violet's working theory, the reason she hadn't bothered to investigate the tower. Such contraptions were perfectly designed for energetic discharge, even as the black-body refractors were designed to collect light energy. The question was - to what end?

The energy such a large section of Solitude took in was prodigious, and the amount of energy that those spikes could discharge similarly impressive, especially given the converging discharge patterns that the orbital probe indicated. The only unsolved variable was the lighter pulses that passed at intervals through the Nexus, of indeterminate origin, and obvious importance. In this direction the team redirected their efforts.

Investigate the smaller discrete pulses that are amplified, hypothesizing a controlling/Illuminating pattern for the energetic discharges and intakes or similar phenomenon

Pulses, patterns, spikes, domes, paraboles, the clues were mounting, but what's the meaning of it all?

Based on Violet's idea, the weaker beams were diverted from the heart into a purpose built sensor. Prisms and lenses broke up the up the pulses into their spectrum but... nothing interesting showed up. Only single blips in a narrow spectrum, seemingly random. What could be wrong?

They weren't finding any answers, so they've moved on to study the amplified signals. Violet focused her attention on the apparatus as the beams came in. There was a sudden flash of light through the prisms and... she felt as if she saw an image of some bright, blurry disk emerge from the chaos of light, but the sensors said otherwise. It was just pure chaos. They tried again, this time, she saw nothing, neither did anyone else brought to confirm her observtion.

And time was running out.

The Remembrance detected fluctuations in the star's gravitational field. It seems as if the star was slowly... shrinking. Something was very, very wrong. Its shipboard computer begun to make some calculations.

For Violet, to leave without answers was out of the question. Not now, when they were so close. She continued on, despite the alarming reports.

Having failed to decipher signals, Violet begun to look for clues within network of intertwined connections that spread across the nexus, chasing the signals as they echoed across in their many forms. Most of them followed seemingly senseless paths, returning to the heart after making a loop, or linking into other connections at various points. As if they were deliberately built to confuse her. But then, one path led her back to a dome, one that was still intact...

Above the panels of small, mysterious lights blinking in a random fashion, Violet could just barely make out a dark sphere, levitating at the center of the dome, not much dissimilar to those seen over the paraboles. Directly beneath the sphere was the outlet for the line she followed.

As she was studying the area, without warning, the floating sphere flashed with bright light for split second. A faint image appeared on the walls of the dome... She couldn't make out what it is, and it only seemed to get dimmer gradually. She turned on her spotlight at the walls to help illuminate the image, but it not only did the image vanish at that moment, it was replaced by a blob of white glow. Everywhere she pointed her flashlight, the glow followed, drawing curved lines into the interior surface.

Knowing every minute is precious, she placed her flashlight on top of the outlet ran back to the heart of the nexus. There, the technicians awaited her with reports of an unusual readings from a previously silent connection, monochromatic li...

She ordered them to immediately reroute the amplified signals towards it and rushed straight back to the dome.

Returning, she felt that something was different. The dome was still as dark and mysterious as usual, but the blinking lights on the consoles... they changed their behavior. They formed waves, going around in circles in orderly fashion. She climbed the central platform and grabbed the flashlight. It was too hot to touch, so she simply knocked it over.

Suddenly, light flew out from beneath onto the sphere, from where it painted the surface of the dome. Dark blue, scarlet, orange. Misty nebulas, white dwarfs and red giants appeared on an elliptical section of the dome, growing in intensity and detail with each passing second. The rest of the dome was dark, but not for long. The lights slowly creeped forward counter-clockwise, drawing new stars and dust clouds. In her amazement, Violet was careless enough to touch the consoles. The lights took on new pattern, the ground begun to shake.

Exits sealed off, platforms retracting, the floor of the dome... opening up. Beneath, the same polyhedron dome, a mirror image of above. The lights were somehow reaching there too, drawing out more cosmic scenery for her to see. Perhaps another projector sphere floating below?

The moment was interrupted by an urgent message from Remembrance.
The star is shrinking at an alarming pace. Potential implosion in T - 0.979 rotations, local time. Time to reach lightspeed, 0.958 rotations. Remaining time, - 0.021 rotations.
Violet did some math on her own. They should be safe from anything that happens here at lightspeed, and given that the planet only rotates once per orbit that means... maybe...

by **Lunas Legion** » Mon Jun 01, 2020 6:13 am

The Armarda of the Forgotten
System Designate: Xana

"Fine." Adral snarledback, starting to make his way forwards, moving down the line. "If you're too much of a coward to keep going forwards, then I'll do it. We're dead anyways sooner or later if we don't do something, and I don't hear anyone coming up with some bright idea about another plan. For all we know that oasis we saw will be ringed with the same mines this place is. This was my plan, so it's only right I go first. But we keep going forwards, because if we go back without a plan, we'll all die sooner or later."

Grim, perhaps, but they were in a grim situation.

"That there's mines means there's something worth protecting." Adral continued. "I'm not sure what, but whatever it is, it's more likely to help our chances of survival than sitting out here in the desert awaiting death by the failure of our suit's systems. We are getting to that tower, whether I'm alive or dead to see us make it there. Am I clear?"

by **G-Tech Corporation** » Wed Jun 03, 2020 12:16 pm

Social Development Generation 7-9

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

Xetan Opus: 1 -> 4 (80) In colonial fervor the Xetans push forward, quietly content.

The Architects: 3 -> 15 (13) -> 0 | Social Breakthrough! The Architects adopt Cooperation: Worker Councils.

The Lachriman Federation: 2 -> 14 (31) With proper leisure faculties, much is to be thankful for within the Federation.

The Uvik-Nal: 16 -> 19 (55) Gathering population pressures have slowed efforts toward an enlightened society, but the People of the Great Sky progress in other manners.

The Anarchranox: 0 -> 18 (24) With a new dedication to looking within, and the careful eugenics program implemented, the Anarchranox now embrace new world of possibilities.

The United Nations of Xibos: 30 -> 35 (18) -> 0 | Social Breakthrough! The United Nations may now choose to enhance their Faith ideological tenet, or support efforts towards a Colonial Fervor! Colonial Fervor spawns a free Colony Ship and Explorer at the Homeworld. Their Faith ideology may choose between one of two undisclosed tenets.

The Last Stars (IC) [Closed]

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