Based on a story I was writing.
In the late 21st century, humanity was overpopulating the Earth. With 12 billion people on it, Earth's resources were running out. Mankind looked to the other planets in the solar system to provide it with the resources it needed to survive. In order to move the resources throughout the system humans built coil guns to shoot goods to their destination. Eventually, the magnetic coils were replaced with artificial gravity coils, allowing for even faster and more energy efficient launches. They continued to improve on these gravity coils, lowering the travel time of ships by more and more, until the gravity coils started distorting the fabric of space around them, even tearing it, launching the ships into "subspace", for lack of a better word.
Humanity learned to build subspace anchors to keep ships in subspace for longer, effectively letting them decide how quickly they wanted their "depth" in subspace to decay, which controlled when they reemerged from it into normal space. These subspace anchors allowed ships to be sent to other star systems, though they were unmanned and had to communicate with Earth via messenger pods sent from a Hyper-rail built at their location.
Where these probes reported planets that humans could live on, ships of a few thousand humans were sent there. They were to build infrastructure for the waves of ships that would follow, doubling the planet's population every two years.
In orbit around one of these worlds a hyper-rail was built, and the all-clear message was sent. Enough oxygen, life, and gravity, correct temperature range, and no signs of intelligent life detected. When people from Earth arrived, however, their ship developed numerous, inconsistent problems and they were forced to land. Within hours they were surrounded by thousands of alien warriors, and those that survived or didn't fight back were enslaved. They managed to get off a warning to Earth, but the bureaucrats simply changed the planet to "not suitable" status and stopped sending colonists to it.
The aliens forced the humans to reproduce technology for them, setting up electricity, computers, and communications for the rich and powerful, many of them part of the priesthood.
The Earth people came to realize that these aliens were human as well, or at least something close to it, when they started reproducing with their slaves. Investigation lead to a startling truth, they were the descendants of the people of Camelot. From the Sacred Story told in the temples, Merlin was half demon, his father being a summoned being that was forced to impregnate his mother. When he was in his sixties he began communicating with his father, who promised him his own world. They told him of one far away and taught him to create a portal to it. When the time neared, he urged Arthur and his knights to go quest for the San Grail, a mystical artifact of great power. When they left, he told the people that they had a choice. Either come with him to create a new society where they would all learn magic, or be destroyed. Those that chose the later were used as fuel of the spell, along with all other life in the area he didn't intend to take with him.
On their new world they formed a new society, under Merlin as high priest, and to this day they say he still lives. The conditions of the new world, along with breeding with demons and other spirits changed them. They grew so that even the shortest adults were over six feet tall. Their skin took on an orange tint, and they became much stronger, both physically and magically.
Eventually, the slaves formed a resistance, along with those of their population that had problems with the priesthood or simply craved power for themselves. They taught the slaves magic and, along with the technology they could salvage from the ship or create, they use it to wage war against the priesthood that had enslaved them.
We are part of the resistance, made up of former slave, half-breeds, and natives. We live in an area that the Tarsh beetles have made fertile, but the people of the world have yet to settle. We use sonic generators to keep the Tarsh beetles out of our camp, and a cloaking device to hide the camp from the natives. While a shortage of raw materials has prevented us from recreating all of earth's technology, we do have the most advanced tech on the planet, and have even captured a probe sent from Earth, telling us how to build a new type of communications device.
In the late 21st century, humanity was overpopulating the Earth. With 12 billion people on it, Earth's resources were running out. Mankind looked to the other planets in the solar system to provide it with the resources it needed to survive. In order to move the resources throughout the system humans built coil guns to shoot goods to their destination. Eventually, the magnetic coils were replaced with artificial gravity coils, allowing for even faster and more energy efficient launches. They continued to improve on these gravity coils, lowering the travel time of ships by more and more, until the gravity coils started distorting the fabric of space around them, even tearing it, launching the ships into "subspace", for lack of a better word.
Humanity learned to build subspace anchors to keep ships in subspace for longer, effectively letting them decide how quickly they wanted their "depth" in subspace to decay, which controlled when they reemerged from it into normal space. These subspace anchors allowed ships to be sent to other star systems, though they were unmanned and had to communicate with Earth via messenger pods sent from a Hyper-rail built at their location.
Where these probes reported planets that humans could live on, ships of a few thousand humans were sent there. They were to build infrastructure for the waves of ships that would follow, doubling the planet's population every two years.
In orbit around one of these worlds a hyper-rail was built, and the all-clear message was sent. Enough oxygen, life, and gravity, correct temperature range, and no signs of intelligent life detected. When people from Earth arrived, however, their ship developed numerous, inconsistent problems and they were forced to land. Within hours they were surrounded by thousands of alien warriors, and those that survived or didn't fight back were enslaved. They managed to get off a warning to Earth, but the bureaucrats simply changed the planet to "not suitable" status and stopped sending colonists to it.
The aliens forced the humans to reproduce technology for them, setting up electricity, computers, and communications for the rich and powerful, many of them part of the priesthood.
The Earth people came to realize that these aliens were human as well, or at least something close to it, when they started reproducing with their slaves. Investigation lead to a startling truth, they were the descendants of the people of Camelot. From the Sacred Story told in the temples, Merlin was half demon, his father being a summoned being that was forced to impregnate his mother. When he was in his sixties he began communicating with his father, who promised him his own world. They told him of one far away and taught him to create a portal to it. When the time neared, he urged Arthur and his knights to go quest for the San Grail, a mystical artifact of great power. When they left, he told the people that they had a choice. Either come with him to create a new society where they would all learn magic, or be destroyed. Those that chose the later were used as fuel of the spell, along with all other life in the area he didn't intend to take with him.
On their new world they formed a new society, under Merlin as high priest, and to this day they say he still lives. The conditions of the new world, along with breeding with demons and other spirits changed them. They grew so that even the shortest adults were over six feet tall. Their skin took on an orange tint, and they became much stronger, both physically and magically.
Eventually, the slaves formed a resistance, along with those of their population that had problems with the priesthood or simply craved power for themselves. They taught the slaves magic and, along with the technology they could salvage from the ship or create, they use it to wage war against the priesthood that had enslaved them.
We are part of the resistance, made up of former slave, half-breeds, and natives. We live in an area that the Tarsh beetles have made fertile, but the people of the world have yet to settle. We use sonic generators to keep the Tarsh beetles out of our camp, and a cloaking device to hide the camp from the natives. While a shortage of raw materials has prevented us from recreating all of earth's technology, we do have the most advanced tech on the planet, and have even captured a probe sent from Earth, telling us how to build a new type of communications device.
