It is the year 6521, in the standard Human Calendar, January 27th. Humanity, in its' loneliness, has sent out innumerable mother-ships to the Andromeda galaxy to colonize it, and to hopefully find life, like itself. Of course, the mighty vessels making up the vast 'fleet' broke down on the way here, if something can go wrong, it will go wrong, after all. The colonists in these craft, not united, have seeded a few worlds with themselves.
The 'Terrakin', as they shall be called in history, are grouped in the galactic west, specifically a star cluster noted for nebulae that should hinder any attempts at coming in with FTL, or out. Not impossible, of course, but it will protect the denizens from invasions for a while. Terrakin star charts, while damaged, will also note the rough estimates of where the other peoples 'landed'.
Obviously, the Terrakin can't communicate with each other just yet, but are nearing that point.
The Midorian Domain is deep in the New Midoria system. the Ordered Dominions lurk near the Sophia star, their Homeworld is Tenefuge. The Most Holy Empire of the Gentelli is stationed on Beacon, in the Austoria system. The 'Norgul' are on a deathworld known as Anyanwu, in the Horizon system. The Event Horizon Coalition is based on Crucible, in the Agromega system.
They all have minimal knowledge of eachothers' existence, but know they aren't alone. The systems are all equally scattered in the cluster, and ships coming from each system could go to any other system. Interestingly, each nation's best astronomers would notice something unusual in the Nebulae protecting them from the rest of the galaxy...
Something massive, nearly moon-sized is coming in anyway. Information would vary wildly: The most developed Nations would detect that it's definitely 'man' made, and seems to be highly advanced, in general. It looks like a half hollowed out super asteroid, a rocky bowl lined with what appear to be engines, dragging a large amount of modules behind it. Especially at this range, however, no one could certainly take in any other details. The less developed Nations could see it, but would have no ideas other then that it looks to be vaguely round, and very fast.
It should come out of the nebula in two to three years, and then have access to any FTL systems on-board. Whatever the hell it truly is, the Terrakin should decide what to do about it... Find eachother and prepare for the worst together, simply hide and wait it out, or something else?
A student studying astronomy in the city of Moriga, Midoria 1, scanned the sky through his telescope, observing the flight paths of various celestial objects in this new, strange galaxy. The movements of objects in the Milky Way had long ago been plotted, and the gravitational wells associated with most large objects' flight patterns had been identified. Andromeda, however, was still a new place, and the Midorians were encountering totally new phenomena here that seemed totally... alien.
The student scribbled on a notepad as he observed, drawing patterns of theorized flight trajectories for objects in a certain portion of space, as a homework assignment from his professor.
An hour into his observations, he noticed a strange object in his telescope - too perfect to be natural - and, as soon as he noticed it, a series of dark blobs in the sky flew together and blocked the view. These blobs had been appearing for some time - usually when a person died. But they never spent more than a few seconds. These, however, were not moving, as if they were intentionally obstructing the view of the strange object. He felt the urge to forget whatever it was that he had seen.
The Midorian post-humans in orbit considered themselves to be the shepherds of humanity. Protecting it, allowing it to live out its existence on the mockup of old Earth they had created. Sometimes this meant they had to protect the humans on the surface from themselves - erasing ideas, replacing them with others. Anything to keep them from venturing into space, which had ruined their previous galaxy, in their eyes. It was a long, thankless job, but the lives of those on the surface had to be maintained. Humanity was not to enter space during its natural lifetime.
Something strange recently came up, though. An object observed by hundreds on the surface, much to the post-humans' annoyance. A large mechanical device, suggesting that travel through the stars is a possibility. Of course, the sight of such a thing must not be permitted, as it risks the humans having an explosion of uncontrollable will to explore space. Their blinder drones had been extremely busy maintaining the view of space being an empty place, full of danger, recently. A small increase in production of blinders had been warranted, with the sighting of this new object, with standing orders to obstruct the view of the object.
Of the billions of minds together in the stars, there was not one dissenting voice, suggesting that this object may be a threat to their lifestyle. But none wished it gone - the thought didn't even cross their minds that it could be removed. So they continued simply hiding the larger world from their flock as they had always done.
In preparation for first contact with outside forces, though, they significantly stepped up production of mining devices and communications devices (operating via radio). They felt that they should have an offer of a trade deal, or a gift for the object, should it come towards them. Keeping their flock in the dark about such an encounter would require hundreds of thousands of blinders, though, so such contact would be a great annoyance until they could convince it to stay far away.
January 27th, Earth Date 6521 C.E. January 1st, Beacon Date 4 A.L.
The Imperial Palace Genteli
"Most Holy, if we were to construct at least defence platforms we could insta-"
Before the advisor could even finish his sentence a glass ashtray collided with the wall just to the left of his head. With that the man shut his mouth and stood silently, his eyes wide with fear. Knight Lord Commander Antonius was sat at his desk, putting the finishing touches on a number of files. Hitting the save button he looked back at the advisor.
"Defence platforms are an expense we are not yet ready to invest into, Jonas. The city is finally becoming self sufficient and the first of our Hydroponic Estates is having a full harvest. In one, maybe two, years we will begin looking to the stars again. But right now the city is not a state in which I want to jeopardize all we have accomplished all because of an 'orb' you have seen. If it comes near us we have the resources on the ground to deal with any invasion."
"That was another thing..." Jonas interrupted. "...public spending on our ground forces have peaked at fifteen percent of our income. That is a huge investment, Most Holy, surely if we were to cut back ever so slightly we could afford to invest into our interstellar programme again. If this orb is in fact worse than it first appears, well then surely stopping it in space is better than letting it get close enough to damage our Beacon."
The room was silent for what seemed like an eternity, only the sound of the wind on the stained glass windows could be heard if you listened hard enough. In the room none of the ornate furniture moved and Jonas could only shift awkwardly from foot to foot. He just realised he had interrupted the most powerful man in this galaxy, he believed, and was not looking forward to the next few minutes.
"Jonas, I see you are very zealous about this and so that is why I will take it under consideration. However, if you interrupt me again I will have to excommunicated and branded a heretic. Am. I. Clear."
The final line was worded as a question but posed as an order. Not wishing to try his luck further, Jonas quickly bowed three times before leaving the office of the Most Holy Knight Commander. As the advisor took his leave Antonius drafted up a new order for his ministers. Whilst Jonas was brash and rude, he was very smart and Antonius took his wisdom seriously. Looking over the military budget he sighed and begun to move around funds hypothetically. A reduction in construction and recruitment campaigns freed up a lot more capital than he had expected, twinned with a reduction in militia training he had pooled a small fortune of free funds. His final act that sitting was to then prepare all the necessary documents for his new plan and send them to the Hall of Elders. All in all the restructure had taken seven hours and Antonius had in fact missed his morning prayers. Standing stiffly the man paged for an escort to the Cathedral and thought about this new direction as he waited for the guards.
Spaceport, Beacon Alpha, A number of hours after the actions of the Most Holy Knight Commander...
Knight Lord Clarel had been put in charge of the Spaceport since Landfall and her four year tenure had resulted in a very promising boom in growth despite a derisory budget. She had produced a working and growing station that would be a solid base to work interstellar expansion from, despite funds that would make a small town poor. However when the new budget came in, with this years targets, Clarel practically jumped out of her office chair. Before the money had even arrived into the National Accounts Clarel had drafted up her plan for the next month and put estimates as to the cost into her report. BY the end of the first of January she had crafted a fiscally prudent plan that would further expand Beacon Alpha and begin construction of their Navy. She had even enough funds left over to begin a recruitment campaign for the Navy. It had been a very prosperous evening to stay in the office it seemed, as usually when the budget came in he simply slept. Knowing she would barely have enough to cover the yearly expenses.
The Confederate Senate Building, Forge, Crucible. First meeting of the Forge Confederate Senate.
As Mr Nailbrain sat in his chair and dedicated the necessary amount of functions he needed to in order to pay attention to what was being said by the honored members of the newly formed Senate, keeping track of their actions and judging when it would be time to step in if things started to get out of hand and they were letting their emotions cloud their judgement, the Speaker of the Senate had enough programs left over to think about other subjects of his own choosing. The subject of choice was almost always the same through... the past and future of his people.
He was not the ruler of his people, nor did his mind ever consider the possibility that he could or should become so; When he had been picked up and adopted by the crew of the Event Horizon as one of their own so many hundreds of years ago, he knew in his circuits that he had finally come home and joined his family. He couldn't help but feel something that he had long considered pride at just how big his family had gotten, growing from a single ship to a Coalition of ships and peoples and now it had finally claimed a planet for its own and became a Confederacy of different people's. He could only wait and see where it went from here...
The first meeting of the Confederate Senate of Crucible lasted for quite some time due to the maybe subjects that had to be brought up and discussed due to setting down roots on a new world; While setting up bases of operation on planets had happened in the past they had only been short term things, designed to be left behind once they had gotten what they had come for. There was also the issue of their neighbors that had to be addressed... the Event Horizon Confederacy might have been something of a fresh start, but as the old saying went 'Forgive but never forget'.
And of course there was the current matter at hand that needed to be discussed... the strange orb in space that was heading in their direction.
"Do we know what this orb actually is?" Voice Senator Willow, a descendant of gene slicing with non-human animals; In her case, her body was covered in a remarkably beautiful set of ruby feathers, her arms wing like but unable to provide actual flight.
Senator Nines shook his head a little, the veteran android member of the Senate answering the question. "At this early stage no. It's simply to far away at this point for the early warning systems we've currently set up to properly identify. We have estimated that if it maintains its current speed and passage, it will safely pass us by in two to three years."
There was a brief silence as this information was absorbed by the various members of the Senate. Not a single one of them thought for a second that the fact that it was 'estimated' to pass them by meant that it wasn't a threat to them in some way. The peoples of the Event Horizon had been through far, far to much to believe such a pipe dream.
In the end it was Mr Nailbrain that broke the silence. "Ladies and Gentlemen, what shall be our course of action?"
Unsurprisingly, it was Senator Nines that spoke up first. "There is very little that we can actually currently do about it that we are not already prepared to set into motion. Restoring the Event Horizon and building a functional shipyard to allow ourselves access to space once more will allow us to investigate this strange object further and if need be destroy or evade it completely if the situation requires it."
It was Senator RF-5 of the A.I enclave that responded next, his almost painful blast of what was seemingly white noise being borderline painful to human ears before his translator kicked in. "While I agree that regaining the strength of our wings while raising and preparing our young to fly beside us as we swore through the vast void of the heavens once more is the wisest cause of action, we should not be so hasty to pass up this blessed period of respite we have been given to better ourselves and our descendants. The Enclave has taken great pains to preserve the ideas who's time had not yet arrived over the course of our flight for such a day that their time has finally come; Today is that day."
Some of the newer Senators to the Senate itself and especially to the manner that Senator RF-5 presented itself were quite clearly confused as to what the A.I was saying, but were quickly enlightened by another veteran of several Senates, Senator Ker-mit. Ker-Mit's group of gene sliced ancestors had aiming for the ability to survive on land and water equally, having planted their claim on a world that was mostly water; Ker-Mit himself appeared largely how scientists believed that green tree frogs would have looked like had they evolved into humanoids.
"What Senator RF-5 was trying to say is that he agrees that having space ships is a good idea, but this is a good time to get some fresh research and development done; The Enclave has records of ideas from over the course of several hundred years that for one reason or another couldn't be tried out or tested and they think now is a good time to crack the vault open and change that. That isn't a bad idea either; Why settle for making the Event Horizon as good as new when we can make the old girl better."
The idea was absorbed with a few moments of silence before the smallest member of the Senate asked the biggest question. "Do you happen to have any ideas stored away that have... military applications?"
"Care to explain yourself fully Senator Grimsson?"
Senator Grimsson rose to his feet... an action that did little to boost his height due to being born a dwarf. "By my reckoning, we're going to need some new toys if we want to gain the advantage in our little corner of space; Even if this orb isn't a threat, those bloody 'Truth' preaching nut jobs sure as hell are and if they stay true to their past actions..."
More then one of the Senator's peoples had been driven from their homes to join the Event Horizon Coalition by the worshipers of the so called 'Truth'; It was a very valid argument. It wasn't a matter of 'If' they would be going to war with the zealots of the 'Truth', but when.
The meeting lasted a while longer after that to work out the details, but they had the three major cornerstones of their agenda set in stone now.
1)Reclaim space flight. 2)Research, Redesign and Develop technologies new and old. 3)Train and prepare the military for war.
The Event Horizon Confederacy would not be losing their new home world without a fight.
For Anticipation of Victory, the day – such as it was - began much like any other. On the Gateway, it didn't much matter; the vast station was a hive of activity at all times, never resting or slowing, not even for a minute.
It was a defiant shout to the universe, the colossal orbital; the Dominions were on their knees, bloody but unbowed, and Gateway was a sign of that. Tenacity, that's what it was – perhaps slightly demented, clinging to their damaged mothership and the lifestyle which now glimmered, elusive, far above even the reach of the most highly-placed.
Far above, in point of fact, even the laurelled Empress, even with their neural filigree and every advantage the damaged Illustrious could afford. No more were wishes and desires a mere flicker of thought away – now, they had to be worked and striven for.
Today, Victory was short and slight, silvery skin and bright crimson hair, childlike in every respect but the brain and – as always – perfectly, perfectly androgynous; what they actually were was anyone's guess, day-to-day. Cupid's-bow lips quirked into a wry smile as the little figure looked down from their glittering chamber high in one of Gateway's many towers, gaze travelling over shimmering metal skin and down towards the planet that was, out of necessity, the new home of the Ordered Dominions.
Gateway had been positioned perfectly over the terminator line, although in truth the distinction was quite arbitrary, on Tenefuge. The planet's nightside burned with a biological glow, the rainbowed radiance of a million plants and animals glittering and glimmering like the finest and most intricate filigree imaginable.
And were that not enough to banish the dark, the atmosphere crawled and crackled with a million shimmering curtains of electric fire, planet-spanning aurorae that were the tangible evidence for the enormous flux tube that stretched between vibrant Tenefuge and its vast and icy gas giant parent. Great arcs and curves of cold blue light snaked across the curve of the atmosphere, dancing in the Empress' dark eyes as they looked down on their nation.
They spent a lot of time looking down on it, these days. Stars above knew this wasn't what they had expected, when arriving in Andromeda; part of the reason they had so few people, compared to the number they'd set out with, was the strain of having to adapt to a reality in which hobbytech was the working pinnacle of Dominion achievement. A depressingly large number of people had demanded to be put back in cold-sleep, or else had synthed masses of Paradise and just laid down to dream of better times, passing the buck to those with the fortitude to carry on.
Whether they liked it or not, here in Andromeda the Dominions were reliant on the hobbyists amongst their population, the slightly weird people who liked looking back at history and making use of anachronisms, things and methods, modes of thought and living that the Dominions as a whole had long since grown out of.
Like fusion power, natural-gravity starships, O'Neill cylinders, carbon nanotubes...the list was endless, and now represented the cutting edge of their technology.
The Empress frowned, and then synthed some Clarity with barely a thought. In short order, the drug was coursing through their system, bringing with it perspective and a certain cold-hearted, clinical detachment. Emotions were still there, of course – it wasn't a nerve staple or anything so barbaric – but...muted. Shunted off to one side to allow for rational, dispassionate consideration of problems and challenges.
And there were many challenges facing the state.
A sonorous, swelling chime, sweetly insistent, signalled there was something awaiting their attention, the glittering inlays of the chamber twisting their luminance from creamy white to more hadean shades, burgundy and crimson and nacarine light painting the room and dancing in the Empress' impossibly red hair.
Telltale signs of a priority report, in other words. The Prime Minister, down below on Tenefuge as – Victory smiled – their earthly representative, would even now be hearing that same insistent chime, and his vision would be painted in those same violent colours.
Victory received such things more as a courtesy than anything else, but it was good to be up-to-date, nonetheless. And while actual power might be in the hands of the Prime Minister, influence was not a weapon to be discounted.
“What is it, Rapture?” the Empress felt a shiver in the back of their mind, a picosecond burst of electricity as the neural filigree rose to life and holograph emitters in the chamber sparkled into life, writing an ephemeral and vaguely female form in blue light and static charge, one that blinked almost owlishly at Victory.
“Priority report from Astrometrics Array Ulysses, majesty,” the AI intoned, sketching a scrupulously-correct bow. It was odd what survived.
“I think you ought to see this, Prime Minister.” Those were the words that woke Mandate of Dominion from her near-somnolence – the Parliament building, of an evening, was very conducive to a nap, especially if there was no truly pressing business to attend to.
Bloodred light, fading fast, flooded through the many windows of the Parliament of Stars building, even as the evening lumiere began – veen trees gently unfurling their purple-glowing tendrils, to attract the moths which danced in dazzling blue patterns across the darkling sky. A million pinpoints of creamy light began to open on the Parliament lawns even as scarlet flowers blazed on the mellow stonework, leaping to fire as the sunlight faded.
For those unfamiliar with the Dominions, they would perhaps have imagined the place to be some foreboding fortress, some great stronghold of a building, patrolled by slab-muscled guards, rather than the pleasant and quietly glorious structure that served the Dominions in that purpose. It was built in a grand style, in keeping with most of the buildings in the new imperial capital, and so blended in with extravagant carvings and lightshow devices, at the centre of a beautiful park that glowed with rainbowed light.
Struggling to sit upright in her high-backed chair, Mandate of Dominion blinked owlishly at the doors to her office, where one of her secretaries stood diffidently, a datapad in hand.
“Mm? Mm, well, what is it?” the Prime Minister asked, struggling for wakefulness and synthing a quick burst of Sagacity to speed up the process.
Sharp eyes scanned the text of the report the secretary had brought, drinking it in and assessing the clues, the raw data and – most importantly – the implications.
“This gone to the Empress?” she asked, sharply, bright eyes flicking up to the functionary who fidgeted, unsure, on the threshold.
“Yes, Luminary,” came the respectful reply.
“Good. Distribute this to the Cabinet, meeting at the fourth bell of the morning.” A curtsey, and a shimmering away of the secretary.
Mandate of Dominion exhaled, long and slow, reading once more over the report. It was brief, succinct and to the point, the message spelt out in dull black and white.
An unknown object, massive and obviously artificial, approaching against the general course of the galaxy, on a collision course with the Shimmerene Nebula that wrapped the region. The long-range telescopes of the monitoring array had picked it up, a darker blot against the backdrop of stars, and had tracked the anomaly as a matter of course, directing more of the autonomous scopes to scrutinize that little region, resolving it more and more as greater and greater processing power was directed towards it.
Probes were the obvious answer; the question was whether the Empress and the Cabinet would think along the same lines. Sending an actual ship would be a waste of resources; a hyperdrive-equipped probe, with communications equipment, would be the most elegant solution.
“By now, we've all read the report, I trust,” Mandate opened the discussion, her tone slightly foreboding, low tones ringing around the sumptuous chamber. “Opinions?”
There were a few moments of silence as the assembled Cabinet – and the Empress, in holographic form – gathered their collective thoughts, before – under the silent heat of Mandate of Dominion's gaze, the Science Minister, Light of Reason, spoke up.
“Well,” he began, voice light and oddly hesitant, a distinctive and fashionable vocal tic that set him apart a little. “Really, I think we need more information, before we do anything rash. The report is concerning, I quite agree with Orison's findings there, but we mustn't be hasty. Our foothold here is still awfully tenuous,” he admitted, dismay rippling across his features for a moment.
The Prime Minister regarded him stoically for several moments, her dark stare aiming to pull more out of him. But, exceptional scientist and administrator he might have been, politics was still something he was relatively new to, and the subtle hint for more details went unnoticed.
“Would you develop your point some more?” she asked, after the interval had stretched a little too long.
“Oh! Well, ah, it's my view that, as I said, we should see about getting more information indirectly, before doing anything else. I was thinking if we sent commands to the monitoring array to disperse, we could get a broader parallax return and-” he stopped, perhaps seeing the blank faces. “We could increase the effective size of our telescopes and get a better picture of what this thing actually is.”
Mandate blinked; this was not an option she'd considered. “Would that take very long?”
“Not long at all!” came the cheery reply. “We can have signals away in minutes. It would take a few hours, at least, for the telescopes to move into new positions, but really not all that long.”
There was a murmuring susurrus of agreement to this from the other members of the Cabinet; a quick voice vote saw that portion of the plan approved.
“We should consider possible responses that we might have to look at once we have the better images from the monitoring array,” the Empress prompted, all eyes turning to the hologram at one end of the table. “Our manufacturing capabilities are not what they were.” It had cost them to say that, but someone had to keep reminding the Cabinet that they no longer had ready access to instant fabrication techniques.
“I had originally thought – before your input, Reason – that we might send a probe of some sort. Hyperdrive-equipped, obviously, to get out towards this thing and give us a better idea of what we might be dealing with. Full sensor suite – or as best we can manage, anyway,” the Prime Minister added, with a glance towards the flickering Empress.
A diffident cough came from the pariah of the Cabinet group, the slightly unsettling, acquisitive Arc of Mirrors, who had come to be in charge of the Treasury. It was a terrible harkback, a reminder to all and sundry that the Dominions had had to return to the obsolete concept of money, and with it the spectre of poverty and want.
There had been a proverb in the Dominions, back in the Milky Way: Money is a sign of poverty – and now they were forced, through lack of resources and technology, to go back to that archaic concept, that division between have and have-not.
It was galling, and the Minister of the Treasury was yet another reminder of the fact.
“Does the government think it wise?” he asked. “Moving the monitoring array is fine; that won't cost us more than a few tons of reaction mass – but constructing a probe is a much more expensive undertaking. We have lots of other projects that are crying out for our limited resources – the fusion power project, for instance, is in its final stages and the scientists are hopeful of a major breakthrough in the final hurdles very soon – so should we be considering such a substantial reallocation of resources towards construction of something we may well not even need?”
Silence met the little speech, until Mandate of Dominion took control once more. “I think,” she began, contemplative, “That having a probe on hand, even if we don't use it for this particular...whatever it is...is a wise investment. We are in a new galaxy, with – as much as it pains me to admit it – a fraction of the technology and power we should have, and no realistic way to contact Home. As much information about our surroundings and about possible threats, gathered as early as possible, will mean we can mount a more effective defence if it is called for. I say we build a probe and keep it on standby, in case it does prove necessary or useful. Votes?”
-The upper echelons of the Dominions are made aware of the approaching anomaly. -The anomaly is discussed and a two-pronged approach is taken; the array which initially detected the anomaly is to be widened to gain greater resolution and alternative viewpoints, and secondly fabrication of a probe to investigate further is begun.
March 2nd, 6521 All of the 'Terrakin' nations put their plots into motions. It seems, collectively, they would deal with the problem themselves. Over the months, their first spacecraft would begin being constructed, and what relevant infrastructure they had would be modified for a better look, in the Ordered Dominions' case. The Orb drifted through the nebulae, coming closer and closer, ever so slowly.
Astrologists would detect something else in the skies: It appears an asteroid field in the center of the star-cluster, which was thought to be utterly barren in terms of materials, is much more stocked then previously thought. While it doesn't have any standard materials, it does seem to have a special mineral, 'Gallium'. Gallium has special high-energy properties that could allow for very advanced weapon systems. It could be used to enhance explosives, propellants, or energy weapons. It is in orbit around G3104, a colder yellow star.
In addition, there's another interesting object in G3104; something is gaining and quickly losing energy every 72 standard hours. The Anomalous Object is in orbit around G3104-2, a barren planet not much larger then Pluto, and is covered in a thick layer of ice. The anomalous object is large, but at this distance it's hard to tell just how much.
G3104 is in range of every nations' theoretical ships, and current ones (assuming they have FTL, of course).
"You're sure you saw something unnatural up there, Thomas?", a child asked. He appeared to be around ten years old, but carried himself as though he were forty. He wore a military-esque uniform for Moriga's Primary Academy #12, and had a hawkish, sharp-eyed look to him.
"That's what I told you, isn't it? I don't make things like this up, Jonathan", answered his companion, a man of twenty years or so, with thick, unfashionable glasses and a blue blazer. "What do you think?"
"I think it means we need to take another look. You said those black blobs obstructed your view seconds after you looked through your telescope, right?"
"Yeah, that's right - and they still haven't moved."
A third voice chimed in. "Perhaps we should take a look from a different spot?" The third person was a woman of around 24, perhaps, wearing business attire, and a brass nametag pinned to the left side pocket, reading "M. Balridge"
The three nodded to eachother and looked up at the sky again, from the rooftop, then made their way off of the building to a car below. All three were involved in a group called "The Watchers", which believed that their government wasn't really the highest power on their planet. Cliche name, but at least it caught peoples' interest here and there, and periodically they picked up competent recruits. They were known to the city as a group of conspiracy theorists and madmen, although a harmless one at that.
The car sped off towards the city gates, where they temporarily exchanged it for one of the Morigan exploration buggies - it was designed for street usage, not off-roading, and most items in the city could be used as ransom for government equipment rentals of roughly equal total value.
An hour later, after leaving Moriga, the three came to a stop and unloaded the man's telescope. The landscape off to their west faded from grassy plains to badlands at the edge of the terraformed radius. The oxygen felt significantly thinner here, so far from the algae vats of Moriga that were responsible for replenishing the atmosphere. As such, they kept speech to a minimum - it was dangerous to stay in the area for too long, lest they grow too weak to drive home safely.
Jonathan tested a custom eyepiece with an inbuilt camera function, taking various pictures of the surrounding landscape, while Thomas set up the telescope and aimed it in the general direction of the object that he had seen before. "M. Balridge" stayed in the buggy, periodically scanning the area for any signs of unexpected movement. After a few minutes of fumbling with his notes and adjusting telescope angles to ensure he had a good view of where the object had been seen the previous night, he took the eyepiece from Jonathan and took a look through the telescope. He clicked the snapshot button on the eyepiece several times as he looked for the object, and once again, the dark blobs in the sky flew together in front of it, drawing his attention to it.
He stood and nodded to the others, then grabbed the telescope and threw it in the trunk of the buggy. The three made their way back to the city, and Thomas felt a surge of excitement at the possibility of finding something they knew they weren't supposed to see.
================
A mutilated body lay inside a dumpster in the heart of the city, blood slowly filling the bottom. A figure in a hooded jacket skipped down the street cheerfully, humming a childhood tune as they left the scene of the crime.
March 4th, 6521
The post-humans had been quite busy asteroid mining and producing extra mining equipment. Their mining fleet had grown somewhat, since the start of the project to appease the new object, and after some difficulty with harvesting an extremely high density metallic asteroid cluster, they managed to improve their drilling and rock shattering techniques marginally.
The great forge-ship, Midoria Processing Facility #1, had been processing hundreds of tons of building materials for spacecraft. One of the Midorian favorites, Custer Armor, consisted of cubic boron nitride granules suspended in a steel-aluminum-manganese alloy, to effectively force penetrating objects to shatter and disintegrate under the heat of friction. The other favorite, a non-armored setup, was the same alloy as the armor, minus the boron nitride, as the alloy was quite strong and lightweight on its own.
Their great collective consciousness looked to the stars again, so worried by the existence of new objects in the sky that they completely missed something worrying happening in Moriga, down below. A member of their flock had disappeared unexpectedly, without their knowledge.
They then noticed the Gallium asteroid field.
Midorian network space is more or less a virtual world that exists somewhere between the dreams of human lives that its members have, and sentient code. By virtue of being a biological network, though, it did not follow the standard rules of computing, and was thoroughly alien to all those who did not live in this space themselves. Not even the residents knew how it worked or how to manipulate it. They just knew it was there, and that it was their home. The Midorian post-humans lucky enough to have mechanical bodies existed both in the physical world and in network space simultaneously. Due to the nature of the programming, it was difficult to assign any sort of real time scale to the happenings in netspace, and the laws of causality didn't always apply there.
A Midorian chat room popped into existence, and immediately, all relevant personalities joined in, as their interconnected feelings drew them together when they were needed.
Ohoho~! Gallium? We don't have much of that. Let's grab it!
What? Why?
Because we don't have it. We could use it for so much!
Like?
Bigger asteroid harvesters! More rockets! Maybe we could send little Gallium toys down to the people? The possibilities are ENDLESS~ I'll get the mining rig ready for travel :D
No.
Aww, why not? :(
It hasn't finished its current job yet.
Oh, fine. I'll just get a few drones together, then. That okay with you?
Yeah, whatever. Just don't break any this time. Yeah, whatever. Just don't break any this time. Yeah, whatever. Just don't break any this time.
Oh, by the way, materials manager group here. We're starting construction on a new production facility.
A group of ten of the mining drones finished dumping their materials in Midoria Processing Facility #1, then clung together hand-to-hand in a circle, and set their course to the new asteroid cluster, disappearing in a dull flash as they simultaneously engaged their Flock drives.
A number of small construction drones began pulling Midorian alloy ingots together and melting them down in space with a construction laser array, manipulating the blobs of molten metals with tungsten tipped claws. Midoria Processing Rig #2 was now in progress.
The post-human collective noticed the pulsing object and decided to simply observe it for the time being.
March 7th , Earth Date 6521 C.E. 9th February , Beacon Date 4 A.L.
Bridge of the 'Guardian of Eden'
Captain Darius ran his hands over the smooth alloy that made up the safety bar in front of his observation window. The ship was mere hours old and already Darius had fallen in love with it. Official reports had said that the Empire was not going to venture into space in the foreseeable future, yet here men were standing on a the small exploration ship, preparing for their first mission. It truly spoke wonders as to how far these interstellar pilgrims had come in four years. Turning around Darius looked over the bridge like a lion looking over his kingdom. Crewmen ran between stations as everyone was putting their systems through diagnostics. The haze of the blue screens gave the room a slightly eerie effect, despite their being ample light throughout the room. Perhaps it was merely the backdrop of the emptiness of space that gave Darius chills.
A light flashed and a buzzer sounded as the captain station received the final green light from the various engineering departments. Knight Lord Clarel had commissioned the Guardian of Eden as a pioneering vessel. It was equipped with strong shields, larger propulsion engines and an over clocked scanning array; though the ship did lack offensive capabilities it was the only ship in the fleet to have FTL systems. The other three ships the Guardian of Eden were moored with were smaller gunboats, designed more to harass, but nobody could produce battleships in less than two months.
Reaching forward Darius pressed down on the intercom button. Static crackled and then died down as every crew member listened to what their commanding officer had to say.
"Men and women of the Most Holy Empire of Genteli, today we go where we have not gone for some years now. This time not to find a home, but rather to ensure the safety and growth of our people. Our mission is three fold. Firstly, we are to get samples of this new mineral that our long range sensors have picked up; secondly we will set about deploying some minor drones to send us back reports as to this pulsating energy signature that we have picked up. Finally we are to set our own long range scanners on the orb that so many of you are aware of. None of our scans or exploration is too invasive and we have orders to flee before there is any chance of aggression. I know this will be a roaring success and we will return before our husbands and wives even know we are gone. That is all." There was a quiet cheer coming from the ship. It wasn't awe inspiring, but then did you really want your crew hyped up on adrenaline on what could be a very dull operation. Better to keep them positive but calm. Reaching down Captain Darius hit confirmation to the helmsmen and felt as the ship started to angle itself away from the miniature flotilla, in preparation for hyperjump. There was a flash in the observation window and Darius fell back slightly as the ship sped up. They were off.
The Heletii Estate
Helena Heletii was lounging on her balcony when the Imperial liaison arrived. Before he could speak she hushed him.
"Did you know, until only a month ago the entire western portion of my estate was covered in a mangrove that fed itself on the men I sent to map it. Thanks to the Most Holy Knight Commander's continued investment into developing the wasteland it's now the largest hydroponic farm in the planet. As such I pay back the favour with reduced prices on my yield. Suffice to say it isn't too much of a sacrifice, I'm not exactly..." The business woman gestured all around her. "...suffering here. Am I?" The Imperial liaison was about to reply, thought better of himself, and then clamped his mouth shut for the moment. He had just visited their illustrious leader and news had to be shared, when the business woman was ready of course. It wasn't long before Helena sat up and pointed at a much less comfertable chair opposite her sofa.
"What does Antonius say?"
"Ma'am, his Most Holy has a wish to halt such expensive spending on planetary expansion. Currently the Hive is suffering no shortages and exterminating all life here may not be as prudent as first thought. As such he informs you that whilst the subsidies for your guards and endeavours into stopping the jungle from reclaiming land, the bursary built to provide the resources to expand your estates will no longer exist. Instead the money will be taken to invest into a new spaceport, to replace the current shambles of one we have. These are his Holiness's words verbatim, Ma'am." For a moment Helena was silent. Standing she walked to the edge of her balcony and looked over the heavily industrialised agricultural ventures. Her estate had been one of the first constructed and currently supplied half of the population with their nourishment. But there was only so much land she could take before other business men would see her as too greedy and look to pen her back. No. Her fortunes would have to expand into space. Turning she addressed the liaison, knowing he would bring this message to the Most Holy Knight Lord Commander Antonius.
"Most Holy, your decision is a wise one that I understand. If I may have a new proposition, my fortune is more than enough to support me and I have a very hefty profit margin with my agricultural pursuits alone. I would be more than happy to begin the sponsorship of more interstellar ventures. For twenty five percent of the business generated on this new Spaceport I will donate twenty five percent of the cost of construction, once a final number has been confirmed of course." With that Helena waved her hand and the liaison signed off. After reading it back Helena confirmed it and the liaison left. Sighing she walked back into her office and signalled that her clerk could begin sending in the meetings of the day. The liaison's arrival signalled the latest she could possibly lounge for and now she needed to work.
The Hall of Records
Researcher Gillis watched as the code sprawled across the screen. Each one and zero built his hope further as he unraveled the secrets that had been lost in the damaged servers from landfall. However just as his script was about to make sense of the data, something corrupted it's work and the memory dump would halt, reverse and he would have to start again. As the number got further this time he almost jumped up to celebrate, which would have disturbed the other researchers in the room. But then, like before, the script and data were corrupted and Gillis just sank into his own hands. Going over the script once more he couldn't see where his mistake lay. Suddenly one of the Overseers came and watched over his shoulder, hovering a fat digit over the screen her spoke quietly.
"You're script is designed for our current gen servers. These are running at least two generations behind us. If you want it to work you are going to have to replace this section of code to include an emulator. Otherwise the server wont recognise it and will eventually send you back to step one." Gellis' eyes went wide and he begun typing like a man possessed. He had supposed to go home a number of hours ago, but this work was engrossing him and if he could unlock this server, his wife wouldn't miss one date night too much. By the time the other researchers had given up for the night Gellis was running his script a final time. The code trailed in slower this time as his script performed the extra action. After a few breathless moments the code stopped and the numbers froze. Then the screen buzzed into a large folder full of blueprints, history files and old space maps. It was all too much for Gellis and he simply sat there, mute. A whole hall of researchers and he had found a the script that may crack the unreadable servers. Of course engineers would need to use this on the servers that had been physically damaged, but the ones they simply hadn't unlocked had all become available. Running from station to station he hooked them into a local network and begun to introduce his script to each server, using the collective processing power of the hall to have them all going at once. The sun was rising when Gellis' wife arrived at the hall and found her husband asleep on the floor.
-The Guardian of Eden has set off to take samples of this Gallium, do some minor scans of the 'pulsating energy signal' and some long range scans on the ever present orb. -Private businesses are investing heavily into the Empire's space ventures, in an attempt to speed up progress but also take a hefty share of the profits that are sure to be made. -Work on a new, fully operational Spaceport has begun to replace the makeshift one currently present. -Unreadable servers have just been accessed giving the MHEG a lot of history files, star maps and even a few domestic blueprints on how to design and construct devices to speed up resource processing and production.
The newly appointed Captain Jonah O'Malley looked over his brand new ship with both awe and anxiety. The first in what would hopefully be many such ships was going to be placed in his hands and he was responsible for making sure that it performed perfectly.
The Entrant Torch was a four person ship that had been designed largely with utility in mind; while its primary function as a scouting ship had dictated that the engines, FTL travel, fuel and sensors were given priority, long held wisdom had proven that in space over-specialization got you killed. The fact that several new objectives had presented themselves during construction of the ship only cemented that wisdom.
The end result was a ship that was somewhat bigger and slower then the average scouting ship, but made up for it by having much thicker armor, a turret gun on both the top and bottom of the ship and more space for cargo. The guns had been insisted on due to the very important fact that they really weren't alone out here and that if they were picking up these signals from the cold void of space, those humans that would do them harm would sure as hell be picking them up as well.
Taking a deep breath, Captain O'Malley said with an almost excited confidence "Take us out. The egg heads want answers and stuff to poke at and we are sure as heck going to provide them with both. Set a course for that asteroid field and let's see if its worth having."
...................................................................... The A.I Enclave
The A.I Enclave had never taken up a large part of the Event Horizon on account that they hadn't really required that much physical space, but in terms of information and knowledge they had earned themselves a lot of respect amounts the other factions of their mobile nation. They were also the keepers of the possibility archives; The resting place of any idea, upgrade or science experiment that had been thought up during their centuries long journey but due to various limitations could not have been explored. Numberous A.I's over the journey had put themselves into habituation or even outright terminated themselves in order to ensure that the archives remained functional and uncorrupted during the trip.
In the end, their sacrifices and hard work had not been in vain. Numerous scientific and engineering projects and teams had already been established in order to take on different projects that had been stored so that their times might finally have a chance to come, but the A.I Enclave themselves tended to decide which of these ideas in waiting were going to be explored; They were the only ones who could sort through all of the information and weigh up what the Confederacy needed to study and what it could do with the current level of resources and technology.
And what was before them was... interesting. About two hundred years prior, a man named Gue've had submitted the idea for a rifle that could shoot individual, energized particles to potentially destructive effects to whatever was hit by it. Considering that the Confederacy required it's military to gain some kind of advantage for its solders on the field of battle if and when it would come down to it, such a project would be invaluable... but it needed the right kind of minds in order to create a proper prototype for this kind of brand new technology.
They swiftly assigned it to a team of A.I in order to work on it before pulling up the next project to be judged.
Testing Site Beta, A.I team Theta Foxtrot March 5th, 6521
S.T.E.V.E took quite a few steps back as the latest prototype for the so named 'Pulse Rifle' was loaded onto the test firing set up. They had been working for months ever since the project had been assigned to them, but out of the five prototypes before hand the first three hadn't worked at all and the last two outright exploded. While he had confidence that they had worked out the original flaws that had caused the last two to explode, solving one problem tended to result in a new one that couldn't be accounted for until after the fact; Caution was a wise move on his part.
S.T.E.V.E would have blinked if he had been originally designed to at what had happened. The button that triggered the firing mechanism was pressed and the gun fired a single, brightly glowing bolt that zoomed down the firing line, hit the target smack dab in the middle, passed through it and continued flying into the wall... which it also seemed to leave a glowing, small hole in.
There was a moment of stunned silence that lasted 0.3 of a second before the rest of the time started to discuss what they had seen. After 6.7 seconds of discussion the firing button was pressed again in order to continue testing the prototype. A second shot fired that traveled through the holes that the first one made, most likely making the hole in the wall much more deeper in the process...
The gun itself was glowing red from heat through. Mentoring equipment was recording dangerously high levels and it was likely that the gun itself was likely to malfunction due to heat damage... No human would be able to carry it in this state without risk of horrific burns. More testing was going to be required, but S.T.E.V.E was rather hopeful for prototype seven. Progress was clearly being made at least.
