Oop, I haven’t finished the 9DC yet but I’ve already written an omake for them. The great great great… grandparents of the Eternal Luo Minh meet again.
This was dangerous. If any recognised Luo, as small a chance as that could be, he would be torn asunder long before his comrades, old and new, would be able to respond. Here, deep in the darkness of Ward Nine, his corpse would never be found again. But he had to do this. He had to.
He started all this. The Troubles. The march of the clones. The Hierarchy. All of it could be pointed at him.
Luo tightened the cloak around him, bumping shoulders with people meandering back and forth. The sights and smells were over-stimulating, aliens and humans mingling and trading, conversing and working. He was so distracted that he tripped over a slimy Kuo Yu carrying egg fried rice sloppily dropped in a plastic bag.
”Watch it kid!” The alien clutched the rice bag closer, casting a look- a glare?- his way.
In embarrassment, Luo wrapped his arms around himself and bowed several times before the alien slithered away. He glanced down at the slime which covered his legs before scurrying away, deciding he would need to have a proper talk to Simon on how to get rid of Kuo Yu secretions from clothing.
Luo zipped into tiny corridors, had to navigate his way through a veritable maze of stairs until he came to the destination. Ward Nine, Hab 444, Level 4, Room 4. Shaking away the nerves at how unlucky those set of numbers were, he raised his fist to knock on the door.
He hesitated.
His fist was shaking- no, his entire body was shaking. He had prepared his speech countless times, apologising in the mirror, getting down on his knees and offering his paltry wages in recompense. He had this all planned out. But for some reason, for some terrible reason, he could not bring himself to bring his fist to the door. He could not risk her recognising him and calling the neighbours on him.
To do so was to risk death.
He dropped a few credit chits on the ground before the door, covering them with a cloth from his pocket. But before Luo could turn away, the decision to meet was made for him.
The door swung open, sending him to the ground with a small oomph.
”Grandpa! I’m going out for rice-oh!”
A girl, a couple years his senior, stood in the doorway with simple Hierarchy-designated beige shorts and shirt, slippers on. Her dark hair was tied in a messy bun and she was wearing no makeup, face just as recognisable as the day he met her. She peered at him but before she could take a look at his face, he scrambled to his knees and touched his nose to the ground.
”I-I’m sorry! I know I-I shouldn’t be here but I did-“
He was cut off by a veritable rock bouldering into his side, sending him skidding a few meters to the side. For the second time of the day, he was sent flying.
”Oh! This one apologises to tiny human!” Luo raised his head only for a trunk to wrap itself around him, raising him from the ground to sit upright. Though his obscuring hood remained, the bruised rib and trunk was enough to make him realise what just sent him scrambling on the ground.
A Gaja Man stood before him, peering at him with too-curious eyes. He shuddered under the alien’s gaze before glancing back and forth between it and its trunk. The thing released him, apologetic gaze somehow translating between species boundaries.
”Sura! I told you to be more careful, there’s kids around here.” The girl had caught up now, dusting off his cloak and bringing him to his feet. Luo kept his gaze strict to the ground as the girl berated an alien standing heads taller than both of them.
When she was satisfied with its repeated apologies, she sent it on the way and raised him to his feet. How strong.
”You gotta understand Sura. He works for the local Buddhists and delivers rice to the neighbourhoods. He loves kids but he can’t see them with those eyes of his. He trips over them all the time!” She patted him on the back, letting out a giggle.
Luo flinched away from the contact, tightening the hood around his face.
She tried to face him but he turned away, wincing a little with the sudden movement.
He felt weathered hands grab his shoulders. No matter how much he tried to twist away, he could not shake them off.
”Tsk, none of that now. You’re hurt! My grandpa’s got ointments in the room, you should come inside.”
Despite the illusion of choice, Luo was forcibly dragged away from the streets into the awaiting door, trying desperately to hide his face. He protested and shook around but to no avail. He could not shake her off of him and that meant one thing.
He would soon be revealed.
If she recognised him, he knew. Luo knew, deep in his soul.
Just to inform all the people who have yet to enter Sol, the Khanapes are actively sending out invitations to the Meeting Place through the probes they deposited throughout the system! It should be shown in one of my IC posts:)
Part III with @Sep New GiftEverything changed in pitch and fervour quickly, as everyone stood up and started rushing about packing everything away. The creature had called the ‘hoomans’ a bluff. Spoke of humanity, Disobedient Runt’s arm hung near the plasma pistol nervously, a bluff. The word was familiar but he couldn’t quite place it.
Pathetically Lame, while physically limited. Was not limited mentally, and he figured it out first. He hissed as his mandibles flared and curled, showing his fangs, most of the guards that had been present were now gone. At the centre of the field where only moments ago there had been many different diplomats and the one Tainted. His hand twitched by his side, near his own pistol. ”You, lie?” Pathetically Lame practically spat the accusation.
The Tainted were many things, one thing they were not was liars. Among the many sins listed by their gods, lying was one of the worst. Not only was it a sin, it was dishonourable. Even with his one limp arm, he pulled the pistol from its holster and tossed it aside, as he drew out a smaller knife.
”Perhaps you are an inheritor of the Demons dishonour.”
The Shogun snatched the book back in haste, grunting in surprise as he grabbed hold of his mare’s hair at the sudden threat. The ever-loyal steed went on its hind legs and sent a ferocious kick towards Pathetically Lame, sending him to the ground in a heap.
“Fool.” Todayashi muttered, taking a glance at Disobedient Runt who was getting ready to start something equally as foolish as his superior. He let out a keen whistle and his samurai, already positioned on their steeds and making haste towards their lord, diverted a part of his guard to apprehend the other alien. A chimpanzee leapt off his bareback steed and made to grapple with the reptile.
Disobedient Runt, while smaller in stature, had a distinct advantage in combat over Pathetically Lame. All his limbs were fully functional, he managed to get a stray shot off before he was jumped. The bolt of plasma went wide off the mark, striking one of the aliens in the side. Searing flesh and burning hair was likely a non-fatal blow, especially under treatment. Though the creature would likely always sport a scar. Disobedient Runt grunted as the creature landed atop him, their limbs flailing and twisting as they crossed each other.
Disobedient Runt had the raw strength, however he lacked combat training and military discipline and was soon overwhelmed.
The first Legion outriders started to arrive with the commotion, APCs and tanks surrounding Neo Nippon as the first landship came into view, cannons bristling and drones deploying into the air. The shadow of the purple ship hovered resolute above them.
The Shogun needed to take quick actions to save his face. He bellowed over the engines and stamping hooves. “BROTHERS! WATCH THE SKIES AND THE VESSEL ABOVE! WE DO NOT KNOW WHAT THESE INTRUDERS WANT YET!”
The Legionnaires, unaware of the context of the scenario, deferred their questions for later and turned their attention to the ship above.
The Shogun pointed at Pathetically Lame, who was wheezing himself to a stand. Two more of his samurai went to pin him down, the flat-side of their blades drawn to his neck.
The engines of Neo Nippon roared in the background, tracks starting to roll backward in retreat from the chaos on its doorsteps. Would diplomacy win the day or will fire come to his city? The Shogun merely peered at the alien in front of him, the one who would decide the next moments.
“Your path forward means destruction, friend.” Todayashi explains, soothing his mare with gentle pats. “I apologise once again for the deception but please, realise the situation. In the far reaches of the cosmos, you may have had an advantage but your ship is within reach of cannon and missile here. Calm yourself, think with your head, or you will only live up to your name Pathetically Lame.”
Pathetically Lame wheezed as he tried to push himself to his feet, aliens jumped and grabbed at him as he snarled, the knife knocked out of his hand as he strained against the two beings holding him down. “Demon-Spawn!” He snarled and spat. ”You truly have no honour, you invite us here to lie, then when challenged you have your underlings fight your battles!” The chimps felt secure in holding the Alien.
That was until Pathetically Lame bent his neck over, and clamped down all of his mandibles on one of the creatures’ hairy arms. The chimp roared in pain, as he tore through flesh and sinew till he met bone. Twisting his head, he spat out hair, blood and flesh. Swinging his now free arm towards the jaw of the other chimp roaring in frustration and anger.
It wasn’t long before a new alien took the place of his wounded brother, a third held his head still to prevent him from taking another bite. ”Do you fear facing me yourself Demon-Spawn? Without your lies and deceit to save you.”
“Honour?” The Shogun muttered, as if to no one in particular. If he was the fiery sort, an ape who charged blindly and yelled “banzai” with a sword in paw, he may have answered this challenge. If this was any other Shogunate on New Gift, the Nameless’ response would have been met with fist and rabid teeth. But this Shogun, labelled overcautious by many of his equals, cowardly when out of earshot, could not see himself stoop to such a disgracefully overdone response.
“Friend.” Todayashi started, continuing to stroke his braying mare. “There is no honour in slaying innocent men, women and children. I can claim the same dishonour on your race hundreds of times over. ‘They all lay dead’, you said. Those are a murderer’s words, not that of an honourable warrior. My friend, I am merely attempting to save you and yours from the same fate.”
He raised and closed a paw. The samurai sent curled fists to the top of the Nameless’ heads, repeatedly, till their struggling halted.
While his guards secured their charges to their own steeds, the Shogun raised his gaze to the ship overhead. His other samurai had returned by now, a half-battalion of soldiers armed and ready. If he was anything like his predecessors, he would be charging into the fray, into the heat of the battle he sensed would come.
Instead, the cautious Shogun raised his voice to the Legionnaires around him. “Delay that ship at all cost, we have detainees for the Khan.”
The gorilla started his way in a gallop to the rumbling, retreating safety of Neo Nippon, followed by a stream of his personal guard and two helpless aliens.A Legion captain stared incredulously at the fleeing warriors before snapping back to reality, sending out orders to his patrol.
“You heard the Shogun! C’mon baboons, secure a perimeter on the purple dildo in the sky lest the holy spirits decide to pierce your arses with it!”
Though the vessel resembled nothing like a human pleasure toy, this still elicited a few chuckles from the surrounding Legionnaires.The patrol vehicles went to a frenzied overdrive. They spread in a circle around the vessel, turrets pointed to the sky as armoured personnel carriers deposited Legionnaires bearing their own guns to the still purple ship.
The landship from which they deposited, officially termed a Cairo-class Mobile Drone Carrier, ran in a circle of a radius of two clicks around the vessel in the sky, a full broadside available at a moment’s notice. The dust kicked into the air by landships further afield signalled that backup was on the way. Its complement of Air Support Drones had already been deployed, its two squadrons split with one guarding the Shogun and the other zipping to Neo Nippon. Carnage could be wrought at any moment but under strict orders, they were not to fire first.
The spirits would look kindly upon their stayed paws and with the numerous cameras now pointed over the savannahs, it cannot be said that the Khanate did not try the laurels of diplomacy first.
For good measure, the Cairo-class beamed several quick communications to the ship above. To stand down, explain their underling’s hostility and to come talk as civilised peoples.Relentlessly Reckless sat alone in the flight deck of the small scout ship. He didn’t panic when the audio feed from the planet surface started to change in pitch and tone. He wasn’t entirely sure what this ‘Shogun’ had offered Pathetically Lame, but it had earned him the name Demon Spawn. Before his spiritual ancestors had redeemed themselves by destroying the Demon city on the surface of their planet, that is what the Chosen had called the Tainted. That could only mean one thing, they were in league with humans.
He watched as best he could, as the fight progressively got worse. The Tainted weren’t warriors, and never got combat training. Pathetically Lame had done his duty in attempting to fight the beasts though ultimately it was a futile gesture. More demon spawn arrived, small craft surrounded the ship. He felt it quake in anticipation for whatever was going to happen next. He put a hand on the controls trying to sooth it, as various voices in various languages came through the communications station.
Relentlessly Reckless ignored it all, watching as his two comrades were rendered unconscious and dragged away unceremoniously. A low grumble came forth from his throat, to die at the hands of demons, he shuddered. There was no worse fate.
Slapping a hand on the communications he opened a frequency to all the local craft. ”On the final day, the Daughters and Sons of the Chosen realised their true purpose-” He moved his hand over to the weapons console, his long fingers playing over it as systems heated up and became live. ”-Long had they waded through the dark and murky waters-” He selected his targets. The cluster of aliens who surrounded his comrades primarily, though he threw in a couple of extra for the guns that couldn’t make that shot. ”-uniting together, they brought the light back to the world-”
Plasma spewed from points all over the ship. Multiple shots, roaring as it shot alone. It tore through his brothers and the apes surrounding them, turning them to ash. The shots splashed up, catching others who unluckily were standing nearby. The targeted vehicles he hit found their outer metal hulls molten and red hot, as the plasma burned through.
Frustratingly, these infernal Demon Spawn had spread themselves from a clustered mass of filth to a loosely arranged formation. His comrades were struck down, their captors melting in heaps of plasma-sizzling flesh but the rest of the entourage fled away to the safety of their moving habitation. He swore that the lead Demon Spawn gazed back at him through the console with a hatred that only a Demon could summon.
Before Relentlessly Reckless could shut those anger-filled eyes forever, his vessel came under cannon and missile fire. Those pesky drones strafed the bio-ship, opening up bleeding chasms in the ship’s structural body. The far-away landship spewed massive shells which brought deep scars, one of these striking through to the engines. The vessel began to spin slowly to the ground as the smaller vehicles scrambled out of the path of the listless craft, still firing their incessant guns to carve more canyons through the flesh of his vessel.
Relentlessly Reckless selected as many targets as he could, the vessel began to shake under incoming fire. It screamed in his mind, the pain intolerable. Yet its will stood resolute, as did his own. -”and Honour back unto themselves”
Flesh bubbling from the sheer heat, the Nameless pilot experienced severe agony for mere moments till he lost his senses. The overwhelming firepower of the Demon Spawn had brought the ship into a simmering, unrecognisable pile on the savannah floor.
And thus, here laid Relentlessly Reckless, in a flesh-coffin made by his betters, content that he made appropriate sacrifice. Having brought death to the Demon underlings, he allowed himself, for once in his pathetically short life, to smile in pure joy. Pure, unfiltered, unadulterated joy.Great Ulaanbaatar”Replay that message once more.”
The Shogun kept his eyes planted firmly on the jade before him. Though no one but him, his liege and his enormous guards were present, he had to follow proper procedure. He ignored his trembling hearts, nearly going into cardiac arrest with the terror flowing through his veins. He had to repress the pool of anger welling in his stomach, listening to the alien prayer echoing through the chambers.
He had been so close to reaching his pinnacle, to experience the relief of finally proving his naysayers wrong. Instead, all Todayashi could foresee from here was exile or death. If this had ended in any other way, he could have spun these events in his favour. Alas, it was not to be.
The silence after the recording played was so thick you could cut it with a knife. It near-strangled him, before his liege’s voice cut through it like butter.
”You greatly erred in not relaying these events directly to me, Tokugawa. When your father picked you from the trees, he told me he saw in you a worthy successor. You have only proven how wrong he was.”
All because of him, his father’s reputation lay in the dirt. Todayashi merely bowed further, forehead touching the cool ground.
“I am yours to use as you see fit, my Khan. Please, oh benevolent Khan, forgive this one’s errors. Let me restore my honour and festoon the ground in my useless entrails.”
All because of him, he had to beg for forgiveness, for light sentences given to his subjects and soldiers. There was a shifting in the cloth pillows, a cackle resounding through the air as the Herald danced over his would-be grave.
”Alas, it seems, that despite all the mistakes you made that day, that this can still be spun in our favour. Your city-state will be dismantled, your subjects sent to other Shogunates further afield. But you, Caesar-kin, will encounter these beings once more and you will use their blind hatred of the humans to our advantage.”
All because of him, his lineage would be struck down and made anew. His subjects would be spread across the Khanate and have to, under threat of death, make do in other inferior realms.
There was a clutter of an object falling and rolling on the ground. A scroll knocked against his forehead, never rising from the ground it was glued to.
”Rise, foolish ape, and read your new mission. This will be your new fate. Let these intruders come once more and treat them. Do not reveal our connection with the Demons they hate so much. Instead, send their hatred elsewhere, where enemies can strike each other down without realising the tune they are being played to.”
All because of him, he had to endure this eternal shame. Todayashi unrolled the scroll on the ground, eyes scanning the document. His twin hearts beat like drums in his ears.
”Send them to the jungles. There, they will meet Demons and their Demon Spawn that they hate so much. I want the fires in their bellies to direct themselves to our enemies and you, and your ashamed samurai, will guide them to the pits of hell. To your original home.”
A map stared back at him. All because of him, he and his loyal samurai had been given their final resting place. Todayashi knew it in his bones. The equatorial jungles, where Caesar and his ilk remain. Where, to the Khanate’s eternal shame, unguided humans frolicked in their own inadequacy, under the guise of supposed freedom. A place which would burn in plasma and hellfire, an inferno which he knew would grow into a full-on war not seen on New Gift since ages past.
All because of him, death and destruction would begin once more in the grounds of his forsworn homeland. Tears flowed and stained the scroll he clutched tightly in his paws, even as he was dragged away from the inner sanctum.
All because of him, a long forgotten, prospering community would be brought under heel. Led by none other than an orphaned ape, taken from the clutches of his mother much too soon. Foggy memories flooded through his brain, of trees and intelligent reptiles, of free apes, of happy misshapen humans, of times past.
All because of him, these memories would be replaced by bloodstained blades and raining plasma.
We have come to you, Old EarthThe Terra Supremus exited with little fanfare, a small judder here and a bolt shaking there but otherwise, the engineering of their predecessors held up to scratch. It was a seed ship whose SciCorp backers had designed to be equal parts durable and state-of-the-art, thus, this was no surprise to any ape. They had been deposited at random to the far reaches of the Kuiper belt and so they sent far-ranging probes throughout the system, near a hundred at this time. They would serve as communication beacons as the time came.
The surprises came with the flood of contact warnings, of vessels of different makes dotted around the system, some around the outer reaches of Sol, others nearer to its lone star. Some of the probes had been destroyed, others taken and picked apart by curious unknowns. Despite it all, they continued to release more probes, each blasting the same communications as the rest, in all the known languages of Old Earth. Words of the Khan.
”We are the Khanate. We come in peace.”
As the bridge crew came to life trying to establish communications and checking the ship’s systems, the trio of leaders at their head were staring at a light-lagged image of their homeland.
Brown. Barren. Dead.
“Tell me sister, how is Old Earth faring?” The Herald stayed aloft, four automatons gripping the wooden palanquin with ease. He sat upon silk cushions, draped in red and yellow clothes that denoted his royal status with the golden horse of his parentage emblazoned on his back. He sat listlessly, milky eyes peering at the display in front of them.
The Princess shared a glance with her Admiral, who merely shook his head. The Herald was a sensitive soul, a lover of Earth and all its histories. There was only one correct answer here.
“It is beautiful brother. A green and blue orb just like Mother told us. Broken, yes, but spinning strong in her orbit. We have come home brother.” A tear ran down her cheek, wiped away by a silent attendant to her side. Her words had paused the entire bridge, her ethereal voice activating endorphins and inciting joy in everyone in attendance.
A smile ignited on the Herald’s face, shining like a thousand suns.
“Ah, majestic, fantastical, historical Old Earth. I wish I could gaze upon her beauty.”
The Admiral waved the display away from the bridge, bringing up a display of the entire system with all the known contacts upon them. He coughed into his paw, disturbing the reminiscing of people who have never set foot upon their home, sending the bridge back into controlled commotion. There were more important things to focus on. The restoration of Old Earth can come another time.
“Unfortunately, we are not the first to reach Home. The mission your Father gave us has failed. I apologise Herald, Princess. Alas, there is much that needs to be done, and we must shift our priorities now that one of these unknown contacts had already made their way to Old Earth.”
The Princess made the sign of Forgiveness, bowing her head to lead a short prayer to the spirits of before. Her myriad attendants bowed their heads in synchronicity, mutterings masked by the busywork of bridge crew in front of them. After a short while, the human raised her head in sync with the rest of them and spoke with the voice of a fallen angel.
“Indeed Admiral, my Father would be displeased about our failure but we must take the reins of the galloping mare. Move to Objective Delta and send the appropriate correspondences to the unknown contacts. We are not first to Earth but we will be first in one aspect.”
The Herald shook out of his musings with a huff, shifting his bulk around the cushions. “I concur, my sister. Let us be at the head of the diplomacy table and guide our wayward cousins to cooperation. Start the manufacturing processes, rouse the legionnaires, activate the ship’s automatons. We make way to Mars.”
The Admiral was left alone on the bridge to direct the crew, the other two leaving for their own preparations. He focused on his target, the mountain that stood above all, surrounded by red wastes and dust. He neglected his own tear, letting it drop unceremoniously on the cold metal floor. For the spirits left behind, they had to make sure nothing like what transpired on Old Earth could ever happen again.[@everyone] Olympus MonsThe automatons were sent in waves of dropships, jumbled pieces of what will become held in their hands and stored in their pods. Upon the peak of Olympus Mons, they began their construction. The manufacturing sections of the Terra Supremus had been working overtime, night and day, to construct the resources needed for the Khan’s plan D. In essence, the automatons were carrying small pieces of a larger puzzle and as programmed, they would only need to fit the puzzle pieces together. Though not as quickly as their cousins on Ceres, others would be similarly astounded by the lightning fast work of the automatons.
But when you were being guided by minds printed from humanity’s greatest, what can you expect but perfection?
A massive reinforced glass arcology-dome rose from the plateau at the top of Olympus Mons, corridors extending past the main dome to other, smaller domes and these, to others. Open spaces for future nations, to make their own home here on this red rocky ball. Within the main dome, a common area, a golden park space laden with New Gift soil, life support systems, myriad storage spaces and a featureless, large room with a round wooden table as its centrepiece, the banner of the Federal Khanate hanging alone in this chamber. For now. The Meeting Place came with a few other oddities that other nations would find unnecessary or strange.
A menagerie and garden for one, which in the future, will contain some of the more significant of Earth’s fauna who have been reconstructed from gene-banks on the Terra Supremus. Elephants, giraffes, oak and birch, kangaroos, eagles, penguins, seals, plankton and coral, camels, all sorts of animals and plants from every corner of Old Earth would find a new home here. Even once-extinct species, mammoths and dodo birds, sabretooth tigers and kauri trees, brought from the dead, exhibits that showed the strength of the ape’s genetic technologies. Their skeletons and organs, their very DNA modified to suit the conditions of Mars’ low gravity. The embryos stored in the biological laboratories of the Terra Supremus were undergoing accelerated growth, to create animals who had never set foot, fin or root on the planet they came from. Perhaps they never will. For now, the exhibits lay empty. No New Gift native fauna would be found here, too dangerous to keep in confinement.
A kitchen was built, some parts empty, others bustling with activity. Chimpanzee chefs set to work with heir preparations, fur stripped from their skins so that nary a hair would land in the common food. An armoury, for a future international guard, built in the hopes that protection would be provided by all nations that came to this Meeting Place, lying empty in one corner. The starts of a hospital was still being built, along with new collaborative research spaces. All built in the hope for future cooperation.
A fruitless hope, perhaps?
And finally, most importantly to a certain section of apes, came the blank prayer rooms. Well, mostly blank. Some had already been repurposed by the various religions of the Khanate. In one, incense filled the small space, brightly lit candles dotted around the floor, a small shrine to the far wall. It was nearly insulting in its size but, needs must. The spirits of before would understand.
The Princess kneeled on silk cushions, head bowed in prayer.
Oh spirits of before, heed my call. We have come to Sol, your resting place of old. We come with offerings, with thanksgiving, with sadness for those left behind. Oh humans of Old Earth, hear my pleas. Bless us, oh spirits of before, Bless us in our endeavours; Bless us in our journey to cooperation; Bless us in our trek across the cosmos; Bless us so that our prosperity is shared to my wayward cousins. Hear my pleas, oh spirits of before, Heed my call.
Ndongo rose with grace, assisted by an attending gorilla. She was never without her attaches, her guard, her caretakers. She enjoyed their constant care but it was so automatic, so much done in the background, that she knew she could never fully appreciate what her caretakers do for her on a minute-by-minute basis. Instead, she just gave a small thanks to the familiar face and left the room, red carpet unfurled before her bare feet by two diligent workers.
Her wanderings led her to the cavernous meeting space, a round table of many chairs, one which could be replaced with an even larger one at a snap of her or her equal’s fingers. She was still unsure what her place here was. The politics was to be done by her brother Herald, the military aspects controlled by the Admiral. She glanced at her unadorned left hand, one digit sparkling to her eye.
The Princess had to steady herself against the strange thoughts that came from her wild assumptions. She closed her eyes, focusing on the Breath of Life. On the space around her, the Meeting Place as the Herald had come to call it. On the rumblings of far away construction. On the bristling furs on her attendant’s skins. On the lonely flag whose edges scraped the metal wall across from her. On the message she had sent, now dispatched to the myriad probes dotted around Sol, just moments before her prayer. On the prosperity that she hoped for, prayed for, yearned for.
On the mistakes of Old Earth, which she hoped would never occur again.
Oh wayward predecessors, our lost cousins of the cosmos. We are the Federal Khanate, a collection of nation-states sworn under one Khan. We were lost, both ape and human, the same as you, but we have gathered here at Sol as all of you have, to find our home. Here, we can reflect upon the histories and mistakes of the spirits of before, of humans left behind, of humans who had to flee from their homes. We of the Khanate express our utmost joys to learn that others survived and thrived after the exodus to the stars. Here, on Olympus Mons, on the red planet of Mars, we invite you to the Meeting Place whose construction you no doubt had been observing from your own vessels. Here, on the highest mountain top, we ask you to meet with each other, treat with each other, prosper with each other. Here, I pray our dialogue bears fruit and that we all may face the emptiness of the cosmos as one, once more.
Come, oh wayward cousins, come to the Meeting Place. You are welcome here, now and forever more.
Part I with @Sep New GiftThe early warning systems were not perfect. Indeed, it was crude and rudimentary compared to the marvels of other nations. Befitting a civilisation with only a burgeoning spaceflight industry. Appropriate sensors and systems would be made later, and soon, given the Khan’s decrees and orders to get the Khanate up to speed. But this imperfection would cost them.
To someone not as boisterous and clear with their intentions, the early warning system was easy to bypass. These early systems were even more prone to going down. It was difficult, to say the least, for a non-spaceflight capable nation like the Khanate to repair them. Within the vast cosmos, one could, by chance alone, escape the observatories of the Khanate pointed to the skies. And so it was that other intruders had escaped the watchful eyes and primitive sensors.
Pathetically Lame regained consciousness just as he was shaken awake by Disobedient Runt. {Wake up Brother! Wake up!} He shook himself awake, eyes looking over the various controls and subsystems. The vessel appeared to be fully functional, however, the screen that had the readout for the Demon technology was dark.
{What happened?}
{The Gateway connected to the demon systems, and they shut down.”}
Perhaps it was purifying, some kind of failsafe to try and keep the demons from spreading through the gates.
{We are approaching a planet-} The Demon systems flashed as Disobedient Runt was climbing underneath the control panel, the sensor suite flashed to life as it began to pick up satellites and signals around the planet. At first, the oblong object would seem like an asteroid on an unusual trajectory, on closer inspection it would slowly become stranger and stranger to sensors.
They were coming at a direct approach, predicted to be on a collision course towards the lower continent of Tellus, specifically into the path of the frontier state: Neo Nippon. Given the mobile nature of the apes’ multitude of cities, one might assume that a quick course correction of a moving city can avert potential disaster arising from falling space debris. In contrast, changing the migration of the city-states was a more complicated affair than one expects. The Great Migrations were carefully orchestrated on predetermined paths to avoid disturbing the wildlife and nature surrounding them. To change course, one needed to fill in the appropriate paperwork and myriad compliance forms with the Khan’s administration to get the course change validated. This process would only be expedited or cast aside if the city-state was under immediate danger.
To determine whether course correction was required, Neo Nippon’s observatory was set to work to determine the exact nature of these cosmic objects falling from the sky. What they found confused them and a notice was sent to the city’s leadership.
After all, asteroids did not slow down as it were. They kept a constant trajectory in the cosmos, undisturbed by any other. These unidentified objects seemed to be on a steady, slowing approach towards New Gift. It had to be artificial.
This was a cause for concern as the last unidentified objects had caused massive waves across the Khanate. This was a matter of utmost importance, a statewide response would be required as it had before. Except, when you were dealing with the city states, all of whom were trying to one up each other in their hierarchy, some city states may view this as a crisis they may try to solve themselves. Or at least, do so before the steady, intrusive hand of the Khan was to intervene.
And so it was here, in one of Neo Nippon’s moving castles, that Shogun Tokugawa Todayashi kneeled in peaceful meditation. Great and hulk-like, made even larger by the steel-reinforced wooden armour reminiscent of the samurai of old. A pulsating and over-large sword hand implanted to his right side, a reminder of his old ways as a young ape making a name for himself on this world. He was a peaceful sort, often avoiding other city states and the frequent raiding parties in what seemed like cowardice to the other apes.
Fools. A patient ape knew when to eat his fruit at its most delicious, not devour it at first glance. Instead of meddling in petty affairs like the other vermin, Todayashi bided his time. A time would come, he reasoned to his court of lords, that Neo Nippon may rise like the dragon it truly was. How quaint that such an occasion occurred on his birthday.
In the privacy of the Shogun’s quarters, Todayashi opened his eyes once the appropriate announcement was made in his ear. The time had come to open communication with the “unidentified objects”. A screen flashed itself in front of him, showing static at first before the interlopers approved of showing visuals. For him, a gorilla in the prime of his life, he would not shy away from revealing himself. His room, derived from Tokugawa Ieyasu’s private quarters, was a source of personal pride for him. Wooden furnishings taken from samples of Old Earth cherry trees, a fantastical mural of his predecessor, the greatest Shogun who had ever lived, proudly emblazoned in the background in the Nihonga style of painting.
Ieyasu rumbled in Nihongo, extensive modifications by his predecessors making sure that each inflection would be a perfect imitation of what was also known as Japanese.
“This is Shogun Tokugawa Todayashi, speaking from a city state underneath the umbrella of the Khan. A caretaker and inheritor of mankind, inheritor of humanity’s greatest and unparalleled warriors, a Troglodytes Gorilla Supremus. To whom am I speaking to, interlopers from the stars, who have decided to beckon themselves to this land of the rising sun.”
To dramatic effect, the first lights were only now peering into his quarters, bathing Todayashi in warm, red light. A gentle image of peace and friendship.
The demons computers powered on, as Pathetically Lame pulled back on the yoke bringing the vessel to a halt. They accepted the communication as some large mammalian type of creature appeared on the screen. He was lounging bathed in a red light, his garb appeared to be made by some form of complex combat harness that was a mix of metal and wood. A large blade by his side. {Do you understand this creature?}
Disobedient Runt shrugged. {I do not understand these terms.}
Pathetically Lame activated the communication link, both ways. Revealing his leathery visage to the alien. His mandibles struggle with the consonants of the demon tongue.
”I am Patheti-cally Lame-” The words were clearly foreign in his throat, struggling with the TH and the CAH sounds. ”-Tainted and Follower of the Presiding Truth. We have been sent by our Deacon, to survey the stars opened up to us by the Gods.”
Todayashi quickly masked the surprise, and his rising glee, at the blurry display in front of him. These aliens, honest to the spirits aliens, had some issues with their video display (seriously, it looked like one of those VHS tapes favoured by the retro 80s ape trends) but their vocal communications were understandable enough. How and why these beings spoke English, one of the more commonly spoken languages spoken by both old humanity and their inheritors, would have to be asked another time. So were their strange naming conventions. This was the sort of momentous occasion that needed to be captured in one’s paw, lest it escape to another opportunistic baboon.
The Shogun’s gums flapped to reveal his smile. He decided to keep speaking in Nihongo, as to keep the sanctity of his quarters.
“Then your Gods have led you to welcoming arms, friends.” He replied, fashioning a datapad from his bulk.
As befitting a Shogun, Todayashi was also a prolific artist. He set to work on a set of three illustrations. One would contain basic information about the conditions of the planet, having realised that these beings may be unsuited to New Gift’s environment. Another would contain basic biological information about each of the Supremus apes, as to open some dialogue and potential scientific discussion with these newcomers. He had considered giving information about the sacred humans which dotted the planet but dismissed this idea, as there were no humans within Neo Nippon as it was. It would be largely irrelevant in his eyes.
The final illustration was that of the outline of Neo Nippon, stopped on a nearby watering hole in the savannah, with a simple circle hovering above it with coordinates on the bottom. With arrows pointing to the surface, Todayashi hoped it was simple enough for them to understand that he wanted to meet with these beings, face to face, over a meal. He forwarded the data package to the strange reptiles in front of him.
Todayashi opened his arms in a welcoming gesture before pinching one of his paws and bringing it to his mouth, tapping his lips a few times. “Come treat with me, friends. We will have a meal to welcome you to Neo Nippon, the wider Khanate and our planet. The coordinates of our meeting have been forwarded to you. I hope for a peaceful meal in the dawning sun, among the natural wonders of this world.”
Pathetically Lame let out a grunt of frustration as the haired being continued to speak in its strange and foreign tongue. {Perhaps the demons did not use the language of the gods, but some barbaric variation.}
Disobedient Runt nodded in agreement. {Many of the sounds are… similar. However the structure and order are different. Perhaps this is a different dialect, such as how those from different isles have slightly different tongues.} That seemed like a perfectly acceptable and understandable piece of logic and reasoning. Especially considering this creature seemed to be understanding them, for even while the two Tainted conversed the creature appeared to draw a series of pictures.
The quality wasn’t spectacular, the thin membrane that conveyed images wasn’t as sophisticated at projecting images as the Demons ‘screens’ were. One appeared to be about the planet, perhaps about its conditions? Their sensors had already indicated that it was suitable for them, however it showed a certain degree of welcoming.
The second in poor quality was more complex, a varied collection of different yet similar creatures. When Pathetically Lame saw them all side by side, he saw a concerning similarity to that of the Demons. He didn’t voice his concerns aloud however, perhaps demons were creatures like these who had strayed from the path.
The third illustrated the city, and with a pictograph aiming at the ground it could only mean one thing. Pushing forward on the yoke, the craft drifted lazily in space. Headed for the surface.
It was a mantra. They needed to repeat it in their thoughts in every second of every waking hour. They were not allowed to stop until their breaths were as uniform as their life. In their youth, it was their first thoughts in the morning and often their last thought before restful sleep. The Good Doctor said this was “the most optimised breathing form a human can have to ensure maximum oxidative phosphorylation efficiency while preventing accelerated decay of the bronchi.” A cold, terrifying chimp that one was.
This was unlike Mother, who would always smile at their questions about the mantra and called it the Breath of Life. “Little ones,” she would start, sweeping her grey index across our brows as one sat in her rust-coloured fur “the Breath of Life gives you strength. It gives you energy. It gives you life. And most importantly, it gives me plenty more time to coddle and spoil you.” Her smile would always stretch across her face, in a way that never felt unnatural to them. Her fur felt soft against their hairless skin. Those large appendages for fingers were never feared, always so gentle and quick to caress them. It was because of her that they could breathe like this in their sleep, encouraged to stretch their fragile lives beyond the natural means. All through breathing techniques.
Mother was always like that. Through the training regimens they were put through to walk for the first time, she was there to lend a guiding hand. From learning the tones of Mandarin to the alphabet of Cyrillic, she was always quick to correct their bumbling mouths through the teething. She would hold their hands through the operations and vaccines, the constant check-ups, questioning and prodding the Good Doctor would conduct. With barely large enough fists, she taught them all the ways we could suffocate a fully grown human in case for self-defence, something even she felt was unnecessary. Yet she did it, like all of her chores and tasks, with due diligence and utmost care for them all.
Breathe in. Breathe out.
Sato himself owed a lot to her. Even his own life, or at least he suspects he does. When he started to stumble and stutter over the most basic of Swahili, the Good Doctor had almost repositioned him into therapy. No one ever came back from therapy. Mother stepped in with fury on her lips in a way he had never seen before, forcing the smaller chimpanzee into backing out. She tutored him every night from then on until he was as fluent as the rest of his class. His life near came to an end in his fifth year but she was there to help him, even sweeping the tears from his trembling cheeks and caressing his midnight hair. They could all recount a similar story of Mother helping them, in both significant and insignificant ways. Even when they were old enough to understand that biology came in the way of her being their true mother, she would always be Mother to them.
And here she was, their Mother, their sweet and special Mother, so kind and gentle, lying with flowers in her fur and stones on her eyes.
Sato knew what death was. He knew of the process of the body shutting down, organs coming to a stop as the homeostasis which kept them alive was disrupted. He knew of every detail of the process, as any self-respecting human should, from animals to plants, from Supremus to humans like himself. He knew death clinically, scientifically and what he thought to be wholly.
But he never knew grief. He knew of it and maybe he experienced things that nearly made him grieve. The kinder guards would be assigned to other places as their fur grew silver beyond their back. Teachers would be replaced as the limits to their knowledge were reached. And sure, friends would disappear at times to never come back again. But he could always deal with this with his Breath of Life. It gave him strength. It gave him energy. It gave him life. It would make everything disappear and it felt like he could repeat his mantra and everything would be ok.
Breathe in. Breathe out.
It refused to work this time.
It failed to work when Mother had first collapsed in the middle of an impromptu teaching lesson, one of the few escapes from their daily timetable. It failed to work when, after just a few hours, they were informed of her passing from a random brain bleed. It failed to work now, as he stood among many others, staring at her corpse. They stood in the small classroom, one they had used for countless lectures, with her body in an open casket for them to grieve. Each of them had been given a flower to place on her carefully trimmed fur as prayers to the spirits above were uttered on too-small lips.
Sato had been staring at her from the back of the line and now, he was at the front. His feet had shuffled automatically, following the orders of what he knew were to be his betters. His caretakers. The ones who taught him the Breath of Life. Yet none of these betters had saved Mother. From what? A random act? A trip in her genetic build which led her brain to drown in its own blood?
The boy of fourteen trembled and shook, unable to control his breath. The Good Doctor, who had been leading them to the open casket, glanced at him wearily as he held an expecting paw out to him.
Breathe in. Breathe out
Breathe in. Breathe out.
The diminutive human, who was ever so quiet, always by the side of his Mother, clutched the flower in a tight fist. Why? Why was it like this? Why were they afforded everything, every medical expense made to make sure they were healthy, perfect, living, when the one who gave him everything he had would just drop dead like this? Where was the fairness in this?
The Good Doctor was speaking to him now, hushed and gentle like he had never been before. Sato could not hear him.
Breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in, breathe out.
Why? Why was it like this? Why did she have to die? Why couldn’t she have taken his place in this world, when she had done so much for him? Sato began to shake all over, breath quickly losing its sharp control. Hyperventilating, he noted in a distant part of his mind. This was not healthy at all. But he could not bring himself to care.
Breatheinbreatheoutbreatheinbreatheout.
Before the Good Doctor could snatch his arm, Sato about turned and sprinted away from the obvious lie. Mother could not be the one laying there. She would be staying at the observatory as she always did, as she did when she marked all of the constellations personally for him to remember.
He sprinted past the bewildered guards, ignoring the shouts of the Good Doctor behind him. He navigated the labyrinth of his home, turning corridor after corridor like he knew them like the back of his hand. He slid under many a primate, escaping their clutches with the deft precision only years of training could give him. Apprehension grew within him. He was disobeying. He near stumbled out of shock of what he was doing, the shock of disobeying his betters like he was a petulant child. But Sato refused to believe it, he refused.
Breatheinbreatheoutbreatheinbreatheout.
This could not be real, Sato repeated like a mantra. This could not be real. He ascended the steps to one of the few open-air venues of the Monastery. He frantically searched for anything, anything at all that would suggest that Mother was here, playing a cruel game of hide and seek with him.
Nothing. Not a single fur on the console. Not a single breath filling this space aside from his own. And even his feverous panting was interrupted by a sudden glint in the sky. His eyes darted towards the position of New Gift’s sun and around the blue sky above. It did not match any of the known stars he knew. And what star could shine so bright in daylight. He stared blankly, distantly aware of the thuds behind him.
“Mother?” The boy whispered quietly, staring at that shining glint in an otherwise featureless sky. “Mother? Is that you? Are you there?”
Nothing. Nothing but the blazing light on a blue canvas. Nothing but the tears rolling down his cheeks.
Breathe in. Breathe out.
The rough paws around his arms and the sharp jab he felt was miles away from him now. He could only smile at his Mother, twinkling ever so brightly in the sky, giving him warmth and the tingling in his fingers he only felt with her.
The last thing he knew was a glimpse of the Good Doctor in his blurring vision, disappointment evident behind those curious spectacles of his. “I knew this one was defective. Send him to rehabilitation.”
And Sato knew no more.
The opening of the Gateway continued undisturbed by the life stopped.TellusWhere there was peace for some, chaos was life for others. The frontier continent of Tellus, known for its vast amount of resources was also the site of many a “small” conflict between roving warbands of raiders and the city-states which eked out an existence from the smaller landmass. It was a constant struggle for survival here and death could come at any time. Why do simians come from all around to come here? The riches and glory of course.
It was constant. The staccato rhythm of gunfire, the stamping feet around her. The blood staining her surroundings, the rubble of homes she trampled around. Even the night sky and the shadows it cast did not hide the destruction surrounding her. Corellia checked her rifle, a militia standard Kalashnikov Type IIA in a metallic grey, before peeking out of her corner and sending short bursts down range. Grenade-like rounds spewed forth, mini-rockets which slammed into marked combatant positions a hundred meters from her. She kept her fire up until the ammunition counter on her AR screen went to zero and she was forced back to her cover, scorching plasma slinging itself to her previous position, the residual heat tingling her exposed arms.
“Putos! Where’s the fuckin’ Legion when you need them?!”
Her number two, a burly gorilla called Titus, merely grunted in bemusement as he swapped with her as she reloaded, shoulder cannon peeking past the melting concrete to spew hell at whatever poor bastard breathed there. Corellia’s fire team had been making headway in Neo Brasilia as part of an offensive to wrestle control from the Caesar wannabes that dared to pick on a Khanate sanctioned city. It had been door to door fighting for every inch of the way but they had gotten separated from the rest of her detachment by a surprise counterattack. They were now isolated, cut off from the rest of the militia deep in enemy territory.
Their former target was a mere hundred meters away, the former mayoral office of a now-dead Brasilian government.
“Titus.” She remarked as the bulky cannoneer displaced himself from the firing line. “Battlenet’s reporting you only have five cannon shot left. That true or is the system glitching?”
Titus backed away from the smouldering street corner and glanced back at her.
“Tis true Battle-Sergeant, I have exhausted much of my ammunition on the way here.”
Holding back a curse, Corellia glanced back at the rest of her mishmash squad. Two local chimpanzee recruits nervously clutching rifles like hers and a single shield-brother. They had been cut down ape by ape by this damned counterattack. INFOWAR chimed in her headset.
>Warning: Ten hostiles inbound from the northwest corridor from OBJECTIVE MONEYGRAB >Warning: Fireteam designated CARNIVAL outnumbered, recommend immediate extraction >No friendly units in a two-hundred-meter radius
“Mierda! Where’s our air support?”
>Drone support unavailable, recommend immediate extraction.
They were so damn close! There was an extra ten thousand pot to choose from for the first fireteam into that damnable building. She felt expectant eyes bore themselves into her. Well, they were already in it deep, and so a plan took shape in Corellia’s head.
The raiders were whooping and hollering as they blasted plasma on the militia’s position. With their enemy cut off and running low on supplies, the scum felt exhilarated enough to begin an advance towards their enemy’s untenable position where they were cowering. Near a dozen of them advanced on orders to kill the baboons.
Instead, they were met by a sudden charge led by an albino gorilla with a massive bulky shield at least his width and height. A cannon peaked over the side and started spewing thunder at the unsuspecting raiders. A pair of raiders were cut apart in two by a shell, smeared into red paste as the militiamen charged with wordless screams.
>Eight hostiles inbound. Thirty hostiles within OBJECTIVE MONEYGRAB.
The plasma made deep marks in the shield as they continued on, rifle fire coming into play with explosive bursts making short work of unsuspecting raiders.
>Five hostiles in immediate proximity. Thirty hostiles within OBJECTIVE MONEYGRAB.
They remained in cover, peeking out to return fire as they continued a headlong charge into a wall of enemy fire. One of the locals was cut down when he peeked from cover at an unfortunate time, head burned off by the opposing barrage. The cannon barked twice in retaliation.
>Four hostiles, DANGER CLOSE.
“Charge faster, you putos! The shield is going to fall!” Titus’ cannon remarked twice more before clicking dry, killing the remaining clusters of raiders in front of them. Just as they reached ten meters from doorstep of the mayoral house, the shield melted apart in the albino shield-brother’s hands from the plasma sent from their objective, a pained shriek echoing in the streets as metal burned into unsuspecting paws. The other local leaped out of the way of the falling shield-brother but was clipped once in the shoulder and once in the chest, crumpling to the ground.
>Thirty hostiles within OBJECTIVE MONEYGRAB
After dragging the albino to the doorway, Corellia and Titus broke into the mayoral house with reckless abandon. The ground level was split between a bar and a mezzanine of all things. The Battle-Sergeant laid down suppressive fire on the raiders situated on the mezzanine as her trusty number two laid into raiders unfortunate enough to be near him. Limbs flew, apes were blown apart and the perfectly replicated Latin-inspired bar underwent a sudden makeover.
>Fifteen hostiles within OBJECTIVE MONEYGRAB >Ammunition: EMPTY
Dispatching the upper raiders quickly enough, Corellia leaped and climbed up one of the myriad poles unto the mezzanine. “Titus you monkey! I’ll see you upstairs!”
With another bemused grunt below and a following screech from another amputated raider, the Battle-Sergeant found the emergency climbing corridor and followed through. She climbed like her life depended on it (which, with how deep in the shit they were, it probably was) till she reached the upper level door. Grabbing unto the climbing steps with her lower appendages, she withdrew her militia-issued hand club in her free hand while grabbing her rifle by its steaming barrel and with a quick pump of her legs, she crashed into upper level.
>Six hostiles, DANGER CLOSE
Corellia slammed her hand club into the first hostile she met, the orangutan’s head bursting like a watermelon from the enhanced swing. The emergency corridor had led her to a presumed secretary’s room. Weaving under a scorching plasma bolt, she used her rifle as another makeshift blunt object to send the neck of another orangutan twisting like in a physically impossible way.
The other two bastards in the secretary room withdrew their crude two sided blades and charged at her together. Corellia let one slide with a metallic screech against her club as she sent the butt of her rifle into the face of the other raider, smashing his face in so bloody that it became unrecognisable with the brains oozing out of his skull. Unfortunately, she had put too much into that jab and her rifle became a useless clump in her paw.
“Die, Khan-slave!” The chimp left alive, snarling with anger, sent a thrust to her abdomen. Corellia parried, spinning her club by its string to deflect the blade. She sent a jabbing riposte to her opponent’s skull but the crazy bastard opened his jaw to reveal serrated metal teeth which chewed into her titanium club. The spat out remains of her club sent to her eye startled her enough that she nearly missed the following stab to her stomach.
Pushing the bastard away and scrambling from the crazed raider in front of her, Corellia felt bile rising from her throat. Alright, time for her backup.
With an unceremonious splat, she covered her opponent’s face with a precise spit ball of her own. The raider blinked once, then another, before he started screaming in agony as skin blistered and fur melted away. “You fuckin’ Legion freak-!”
Corellia flashed her teeth at the now-melting face of her adversary, his eyeballs sliding to the ground as she casually picked up his discarded weapon. Acidic bile was a beloved enhancement among former Legionnaires like herself after all. The raider scum fell to the ground in a pile of whimpers and curses. She spun the blade in her hand to feel its balance before steeling herself, gazing upon the ornate double doors leading to the mayor’s office ahead.
>Two hostiles, DANGER CLOSE
“Third times the charm huh? Spirits bless my culo.” The Battle-Sergeant muttered before barging through the doors, blade in hand and splinters flying.
The chaos, the fighting, the blood spilt. It masked the explosion which shone bright in the sky. One that would change the course of history itself. One that would make these petty conflicts, and the lives lost within, feel so insignificant in comparison.
The opening of the Gateway continued undisturbed by the lives ongoing.Terra SupremusThe aging gorilla scratched his arse, picking a tick out of his silver fur and inspecting it before crushing it in his paw. Perhaps one should have more emotion to such a momentous occasion but he grumbled more about the utter unfairness of it all. This was supposed to be his retirement post. Who thought the colony ship would be needed at any point in his lifetime? It was a museum piece which sat stationary over the Khan’s capital on New Gift, occasionally making the rounds to take the Khan around the system in their flights of fancy.
At least his extensive drills were proven to be effective in a real-life mission. The bridge crew were dutiful as ever, tending to their many tasks over the command bridge. Everything had been set in place as it should be, every system checked thrice, every inch of this museum ship cleaned. Despite the fear of flight the primates held in their hearts, the entire crew had been hard at work in getting this, ancestors forgive him, pile of buckets and scraps spaceborne.
He swore under his breath at the mountain of paperwork awaiting him at his desk. He did not want to be here.
“Must you be so crass, Admiral?” A soft voice spoke behind him, taking him out of his revelry at the cosmos stretched in front of his floor-to-ceiling monitor.
Admiral Sun-sin snorted, nostrils flaring in playful annoyance. He took a glance at the one furless being on the ship, now standing next to him on the bridge. A long red-fur carpet lay under her bare feet, preventing any of the cold metal of the ship to touch her. Not a single thing could come to harm her on this trip, not even the subtle temperature change of metal on furless skin.
A handful of simians came up from their stations to look at her in awe before Sun-sin glared them back into submissive duty. He could not blame them. She was likely the first human they had ever seen.
“Forgive me Princess Ndongo but I am no admiral. What is an admiral without a fleet?”
“A poor one?” She smirked at him, eyes filled with mirth. Sun-sin snorted again.
“The Khan may be changing that soon enough.”
As soon as word came of the Gateway opening, the Khan had come to swift action. He opened the treasuries for plans to future shipyards and a diversion of Khanate spending sent towards the Legion. He sent for ambassadors far and wide from each city state, for delegates must be present in case of contact with other beings beyond the system. He sent a detachment of his own children, most significantly a Herald and his one human daughter, to lead the Khanate into the stars.
”Let no expense be too much, no detail too little. We will set forth into the stars with a swiftness that no other can rival. To be proper inheritors of mankind, we must be first. to see our home. If we are not first, then we must be second. If not second, then third. We must take fast action lest we embarrass the spirits.”
And so it was, that they now blasted towards the Gateways at sub-light speeds greater than any ape has ever gone since the first exodus. Though the Terra Supremus was unarmed beyond a detachment of void-drones magnetically clamped to its hull, it was built with great engines that spanned near the entirety of its length. She was a swift ship, despite her age.
“Indeed, Admiral. Our father has spared no expense in making sure we get to Earth as soon as possible.”
Sun-sin flicked his eyes to the other voice, an orangutan held aloft in an ornate wooden palanquin coming to his other side. The Herald was always a stickler to traditions and thus, his feet never touched uncleansed floors. Unbecoming of a Khan’s son after all, to bump shoulders with the rabble.
“I assume that all precautions have been made for my sister’s safety?”
“Of course, my Herald. Beyond being first to Old Earth, the Khan has decreed your sister’s safety to be of utmost importance. Our Legion attaches and their modified void-drones will be enough to ensure swift escape if we encounter hostile forces.”
It was strange for the Khan to let a human, let alone his most precious Orator, out of his sight. He likely trusted that Sun-sin, her old bodyguard from the Monastery, and her closest playmate in Herald Temuujin, would keep her safe enough. Oh, that and the Legionnaires in the hundreds sworn to protecting her like their lives depended on it. Which it most likely did.
“Good good. Let us enter the Gateway then Admiral. We must follow our father’s orders to be there first after all.” The orangutan’s palanquin turned to face his sister, worry evident in his otherwise listless blinded eyes. “Perhaps you should return to your quarters, sister? It may be unsafe.”
In that sing-song voice of hers, Ndongo declined. “My fathers and mothers of before came to this system through the Gateways. I would do them no disservice by cowering away from what they bravely set forth into.” Great was the power she wielded, Sun-sin noted, for her to openly deny a request from her brother.
Setting this aside, Sun-sin lifted himself off his knuckles and spread his great arms wide. “Let us set forth into the dark cosmos! Helmsmen, lead us to Old Earth!” And thus the ship blinked out of New Gift’s cradle.
“Corny old ape.”
“Yes, that was quite embarrassing Admiral.”
Bloody youth, they never appreciated the beauty of grand gestures.
They would soon end up in a system no Supremus had ever stepped forth into. Into an eight-planet system none of them had laid their eyes on. Into the pages of history they went, naïve of the troubles which laid ahead.
The Gateway blazed “behind” them, undisturbed by history in the making.
They call us lawless. They call us criminals. They blame us, point fingers and wave fists like we are tyrants. At least our people have full bellies and are protected from mindless death by the Guizi.
Government Form: Socialist Authoritarian Criminal Syndicate
Population: 7,500,000,000~
What is humanity?: Humanity is chaos. Teetering on the edge between heroism and villainy, between peace and war, between ascension and extinction. United, we are dragons who pierce the cosmos despite our enemies. Divided, we are rabble unfit to even gaze upon the stars. The great head of the Nine Dragon Syndicate, the Eternal Luo Minh
Planet/System Name and Description:
“We were promised a world and clean living. We were given rocks and the largest shithouse in the galaxy. Putang ina, mabaho naman dito.”
It was supposed to be beautiful. They had toiled for years, across family generations for some. They were the gears in the machine that kept the complicated clockwork of the Gateways going. They were supposed to be rewarded for their efforts, given a world of unparalleled beauty.
Instead, they were given the CX0985 system. A barren, planet-less solar system made up of a dwarf star named Son (a mistake in the translation between humans in early contact) and vast belts of resource-full asteroids. Along with the largest den of scum and villainy then known to man.
Crescent.
A once spherical space station which has been partly destroyed to give the permanent visage of a crescent moon. Built by an unknown precursor race and maintained by rusting, lifeless automatons which meandered about the station with no care for its inhabitants. Separating the living from choking in the void are thick metal walls made up of dense alloys. Strong, sturdy and much better than the makeshift metal repairs that the inhabitants of the station provided. Importantly, they were good conductors for heat and so efficient that the masses of the station needn’t worry about boiling to death in a metal cage.
Instead, they would have to deal with the decrepit hydroponics systems, oxygen support, the lack of extensive plumbing in converted living spaces, failing nuclear reactors dotted around the station, both radioactive and non-radioactive waste along with disease outbreaks. Indeed, Crescent was never designed to hold so many people.
Despite this, there is a dedicated population of robotic workers found within Crescent which are barely keeping up with the maintenance of the station. To interfere with them would mean death by the locals. There are the smaller “youkai”, orbs of glistening metal which seemingly sprout tools and materials needed from its own for, able to interface with anything and everything part of the station. Their animal-like intelligence and nanomachine-based technology has gathered the interest of many a scientist although studies have yielded nothing other than “this ball of metal is made out of something that makes no sense.” Other than these protected youkai, there are the large, lumbering “oni” which navigate the larger maintenance corridors. Big enough to loom over three story buildings, these more familiar boxy walking automatons check on the larger systems in the station such as the fusion reactors and the waste management systems. Unfortunately, there are only so many of these oni and such biological workers must be used to maintain those overworked systems.
The vast cavernous spaces which, if the records are true, are supposed to be “leisure” spaces became the site of built up shanty towns which extended to the ceiling. If one was to dig underneath the innumerable dwellings that now make-up the station, one can find soil. Stone. Yellow grass in some places, some weeds growing into the floors of the bottom levels. Signs of a bygone era when the space was filled with fresh air and nature, a stark contrast to the maze of ceiling-scrapers of today.
The actual “living quarters” are divided into so many living spaces for so many people that it is hard to distinguish where one room ended and another began. But at least you had a shared toilet. Maintenance areas such as the life support are kept clear when the larger “walker” automatons are present but are quickly filled up once their work was done, quickly built and deconstructed camps of people following in their wake. It is hard to walk through the hydroponics and water filtration areas without tripping on a sleeping body. The crematorium has more than just the dead and the cargo and shipyards are so overpopulated that people are often just press-ganged into working based on whether they are in the designated project zone. Even the reactor rooms are filled to the brim, RadAway aplenty to keep the mutations away (though these do not always work as the mutants display with pride).
The “cities” within the station are multi-layered, interconnected labyrinths with seemingly no rhyme or reason to its organisation. They are split between the nine wards or “dragons” of the station, sections split by large vault doors which are there to restrict large hull breaches to that section. The cities reminiscent to a combination of Chongqing and Kowloon though the pan-Asian and alien populace lend their own unique flavours in this cultural hotpot. Dark, dim lighting and networks of crisscrossing wires connect the city, with a unique cyberspace system connecting the whole station.
There is no zoning within the cities, a mish-mash of commercial, industrial and residential locations all coalescing together in one interconnected lump. Navigation is near impossible for newcomers as you often need to go through a kilometre of walking to get to a point which is seemingly right above you though the locals either get around this problem by plasma-cutting holes in the ceilings and floors or by navigating crevices which seem to lead to nowhere. Indeed, it is the locals who must lead you through the dark corridors lest you find yourself lost.
But beyond the dark atmosphere, the station still has a liveliness that only a densely populated space station can give. While one may listen to the chattering voices, smell the violently contrasting odours and feel the constant vibrations in fear, locals see it as a way of connection. There is no isolation here and everyone must work together as a community to keep their meagre lives going. Sharing food, water and other commodities are common as to turn away someone means your greater karma will suffer. Everyone lives with all kinds of people; segregation is impossible, and outright discrimination is frowned upon (although only a fool would allow a Daga into their home without securing their valuables). Petty crime is rampant but unsanctioned murder is rare, with other serious crimes mostly facilitated by the Nine Dragons themselves or the sneaky under-gangs that live in their shadow. This is where this station thrives. In the connections between its people, in the sense of community and hope that grew from such a dim and dark place.
Which makes what those Guizi are doing to sections of Crescent more horrendous.
Demographics: Homo Sapiens Sapiens: ~64%
Hatanxing: ~10%
Thằn lằn: ~7%
Daga: ~4%
Kuo Yu: ~4%
Gaja Men: ~2%
Metall Odam: ~1%
Miscellaneous other species: ~8%
History:
”Sometimes, we wish, we did not live so long. Sometimes, we pray, for the last of us to breathe our last breaths. Sometimes, we are burdened, by the death we see.”
”We were arrogant. We were sure of victory. For hundreds of years we waited, trained, honed ourselves to be warriors unrivalled by any others. We thought ourselves different from the rest. We were brought low all the same.”
One cannot talk about Crescent without first mentioning the endless war which plague the stars around it. A clashing of cosmic titans, with what seem to be unparalleled industry and technology, at constant war over countless light years. It has been this way for hundreds of thousands of years, with every system touched leading to another drop of peoples fleeing to Crescent. Yet, despite the winding accounts created of this war, either from the oral traditions of long-lived Gaja Men or the data banks of rusting Metall Odams, not much is known of this war and why it is fought.
The two Endless powers that be, known together as the Guizi or as the Screechers and the Voiceless, had been at war long before humanity had even crawled out of its primordial caves. The Endless War is fought with unimaginable ferocity with each side giving the other no quarter. Planets are struck bombarded till their crusts are molten, the empty voids filled with scrap metal, spent shells and bubbling superheated plasma. No one has ever seen a member of their respective species at all, if they still exist. Their wars are fought between merciless automatons possessing artificial intelligences that the Odell Men, the only other AI known to Crescent who could interface with these beings, could only describe as “savage” and “mindless.” In whatever form they are found, from the smaller automatons armed with personnel-level weaponry to the autonomous ebon ships whose visage strikes fear into whoever beholds them, the Guizi will attempt to destroy the other with no regard to the surrounding environment or to their own continued existence.
Near indistinguishable, Guizi can only be differentiated by the sounds, or lack thereof, that they create. The Screechers do as they are named, creating constant screams of bloodlust from every available voice box. The Voiceless, in contrast, are every bit eerie, silent and creepy. Their forms are similar in most other ways, no colour standard among their number. It is speculated that they may have been created by the creators of the same species however no one has bothered trying to ask. It is hard to talk with a burning hole in your brain/s after all. And it has been this way, for millennium, for near countless thousands of years, for as long as anyone can remember.
The history of Crescent intertwines with this war, extending far into the past by the Gaja Men’s reckoning. Not even these near-timeless inhabitants are aware of the true extent of Crescent’s history, only knowing from long-extinct species that the station used to be spherical before a “cleanse” grew out of control and a section of the space station was blown to kingdom come.
What is known is that Crescent, in all its “recent iterations”, has been a hive for scum and the downtrodden. Placed in a systems-wide struggle between two major military powers, it has long been the place for refugees, criminals and other undesirables to escape from the constant fighting which plagued the stars around it. It is said that the asteroid belts floating around Son are the remnants of long blown apart planets, blown apart before any currently living species had even step foot on the space station. But through this all, as a testament to the engineering and science of the precursors, the station has stood strong as a bastion and a refuge. Waves of species, from all over this cluster of space, have come to this place either as power-seeking criminals, outcasts or refugees of the unspeakable war raging around them.
Yet, as much as it seen as haven and home for many, it is not untouched by the war around it. Cleanses, brutal expulsion of the station’s inhabitants, are conducted at a period of every 550 years. Near everyone is slaughtered by one of the two cosmic powers with calculating efficiency. As far as anyone can reckon, these are done to prevent the emergence of a potential third power in this supposed demilitarised zone held between the Screechers and the Voiceless. Yet why they leave some portions of the population intact remains a mystery. Regardless, beings still flock to this “supposed” haven by years-long, sometimes decade-to-century-long voyages in whatever colony ship they could cobble together either by luck, for adventure or to escape.
It is by the nature of these cleanses that the demographics of Crescent have come to be. Humans, the latest arrivals and still untouched by the Endless War, make up the majority of the station’s inhabitants by pure luck. However, their alien neighbours cannot say the same.
The Gaja Men came first out of all the current species, inhabiting the station after forced pilgrimage from their home. Unlike many others, it was not the Guizi who forced them out of their homes but their own people. An aggressive, expansive species of tusked four-legged mammals, these peaceful Gaja Men were foresworn by their militant brethren. As killing between Gaja Men is frowned upon in their society, millions of these “religious nutjobs” (only called so for being reasonably pacifistic) were exiled from their homes and forced to seek refuge in Crescent. Unfortunately for them, their sleeper ships were detected by Screechers.
Interrupted from their slumber by plasma fire and venting holes in their ships, the Gaja Men were nearly wiped out with only the cacophonous screeching communications of their killers serving as a farewell. It was only the timely “intervention” of a group of Voiceless, only distinguished as such by the way they immediately started killing each other as soon as they came, were the Gaja Men spared from their metal coffins. With haste, they would seek shelter in their place of refuge, where they dwell for thousands of years since.
And so, it was and will forever be. Species coming and going, species living and dying. Metall Odam in ships once designed by their long-dead creators, with their metal faces flashing and fleshy chests beating with the guilt of leaving their makers behind. Skittering Kuo Yu venting pheromones and slime out of fear after their species’ homeworld was glassed in a battle they had no part in. The Daga came as pirates seeking a new hiding hole after the Screechers tore into their old asteroid dwellings for resources. The reptilian Thằn lằn refugees that came after the enslavement of their entire species by a passing Voiceless convoy. Warrior Hatanxing, seeking and hungry for a fight, maws open and ready to kill the robots as they come only to get punched in their teeth. Each species of Crescent came with a past that reeked of death and held within them a terror of their eventual extinction.
They were all powerful. Once. Brought low by forces greater than them. And so, it was and will forever be.
“Workers of the world, unite! Assist the masses escaping to the stars and you will be rewarded! A ticket to a new home, a new life, one where you are in control of your destiny!”
”The first human-things eye-see rich-rich. Ugly as a skraatch slug but rich-rich. They mouth-spoke to Daga, to fish-things, to metal-things. They were mouth-warned but no care. They order-sent them, their poor-poor. From years away, could nose-smell the poor-poor.”
The overseers came to Crescent first. Bedecked in designer suits and guarded by the best soldiery money could afford, they came not to live. They came to learn of this habitable station, to scope out this possible home for humans back home. They were demonstrably unimpressed. They saw the shanty towns torn asunder by a recent cleansing, the cowering aliens in their hidey holes backing away in fear of the unknown, the crime rampant in every corner they turned. They smelt the refuse, the blood in the air, the myriad violently contrasting aromas that offended any being with a sense of smell. They felt the eyes in the dark alleyways, the desperation in every being they came across. They shivered in fear at the mention of the cleansings and the death it wrought upon all.
They would initially mark this place unsuitable for habitation. How could their clients and their citizens be expected to live in a place like this? Yet one clever and cunning man, an executive with the business acumen and ruthlessness to climb the corporate ladder, suggested an alternative. Money made the world go round and it was no different even with the Gateways project. To support a colony for millions of people, billions were invested on proper materials and expertise to create a self-sufficient colony. Here, they were provided a self-sustaining station recently emptied, a place where the investment could number in the mere millions.
“Who in their right mind would come here willingly?” The others would ask, incredulous at the suggestion.
“People who have no choice.”
And so it was. They numbered in the millions. Hundreds of millions. Some records suggested that the actual figure was just shy of a billion. As Earth decayed, countless hands were needed to keep humanity’s flight from their home going. These people, by the misfortune of their birth, were never going to be first on those ships flying out of Earth. Farmhands, tradesmen, industrial line workers, janitors, “entertainers”, cooks, people from the lowest classes of humanity. Hired by the countless nation states and corporations funding escape from Earth, they were given barely-liveable wages through the Global Union of Workers programme. Clothes, measly rations and a monthly stipend, this was all they were afforded. But the many millions were clamouring to join the GUW programme for its one key promise: a ticket off Earth.
They came from many different cultural and ethnic backgrounds but rarely from the “richer” West. Though Chinese migrants made the majority of the workers, people of all races, Vietnamese, Filipino, Indian, Thai, Eastern Russians, peoples from across the East signed up to the GUW. These were the hands behind each bolt, each rivet, each weld. These were the hands that kept the offices clean, made the meals that kept humanity’s brightest full and happy, gave a hustle and bustle to the Gateways project that only human work could give, workers of all sorts that made up small cogs in the machine that was humanity’s exodus. These were rough hands calloused by years of hands-on work, skin blistered by too-tight void suits, vision’s spotty from too many hours welding. These were people that would otherwise be left behind.
So, when the tickets off Earth were given, few initial questions were asked. Whole families thanked their benefactors, weeping with the knowledge that they would be able to survive beyond the next few decades. With these tickets, they made sure their children could live. Packing whatever possessions they had, millions of hands clutching their tickets in tight fists, they shuffled excitedly into the transport ships.
Some questions were asked on the way. Where were they going? What garden planet would their new home be? Some were disappointed about the metal station that awaited them but many more were excited. A unique space, unlike so many others, just for them. Complicated hydroponic farms that would feed them for centuries. Untold technologies accessible to only them. New aliens that were assured to be friendly to human life.
Concerns were brought up at the sheer scale of it all. There were so many of them, how could they all fit? They were assured of their safety and that appropriate measures were made to make sure there was enough space for each human. After all, the overseers claimed, the station had space like previous human settlements once found on Earth. And it was true, if these words were taken for just words and not the promises they were.
The first workers marvelled at the station they had entered. True to word, it was unique. It was like a modern Babylon, with a constant sphere of translation software connected to everyone that made communication between both humans and aliens as seamless as could be. The youkai and the oni were their mechanical equivalents, tidying systems they could not understand, providing them spaces fit for living. Even the aliens were nice enough, as strange as they could be, but these initial meetings held a stand-offish and nearly sad atmosphere about them. Like the aliens knew something they did not.
But these were the first workers. More came after them. Millions more. They flooded in with each transport ship, each as excited as the last, with their predecessors’ growing dread. There were so many. There was no way off the station, all cramming together and soon, through sheer human osmosis, human workers were present in every space of potential habitation, no matter how unsuitable.
Angrier questions were posed to the overseers. What was this? What was going on? Why were they all gathered here, in so many numbers, in a station the size of a mere city? The myriad corporate attendants and nation state supervisors assured them that this was only a temporary stopover. They would be shipped on to greener, fresher pastures once their initial clients were settled in. They were needed, of course, to keep the new settled worlds going. They would not be abandoned.
Yet the millions still came. Resources were deposited for them, building materials they could use to make their own homes. These were not people who would give up so easily, and so they built their temporary homes, on top of existing buildings both alien and the humans who came before. The previously inhabited alien spaces were taken first, the myriad species helping in the construction of vast, interconnected temporary homes. Here, the initially cold meetings turned into warmer welcomes. The aliens were used to migrations of many inhabitants, as they explained. Why, the humans would ask, why were they so used to it? But here the aliens would stop, nervously glancing at the overseers and their hired guns, who were increasing their presence in the station with every transport ship.
They could not tell them. The first humans had warned them. To do so would mean their destruction, the promised destruction of the station. And so they remained tight-lipped, despite the incessant grumbling of the righteous Hatanxing, despite the desperate rumblings of the Gaja Men, despite the population calculations posed by the Metall Odam to the overseers. Sure, some things slipped, but so many fresh faces came in all at once with each migratory wave. There could be no warning to all of them, as trapped as they were. The millions more came, piling in, all looking forward to homes further afield, ignorant of the dark secret kept away from them.
As one, with the last transport ships, the overseers and their soldiery left the station. Before questions could be asked, before their new alien neighbours could truly warn them about the secrets that Crescent held, before the workers could set upon the oversees with righteous fury over their betrayal, the Gateway was shut.
Millions and millions of souls, stranded in Crescent. Their new home. Their new coffins.
”Yesss, very deliciousss. We mercenariesss were made rich by these humansss. The creditsss filled all of my pocketsss, this human wanting to kill that human for whatever reasonsss, this human needing protection from some criminal scumsss. Deliciousss creditsss, deliciousss humansss. Such flavourful additionsss to our potsss.”
”Fecking fleshers. They came with some fecked up drugs and a feckload of guns. Raided my supplies, pushed boundaries of what we calculated would be possible for safe flesher consumption. Feckers blended into Crescent way too fecking fast.”
”An orphan, son of a burned welder and a debt-killed cook. Left to fend for himself, lesser men would have starved with not a single credit to his name. Lesser men would resort to the mutant-filled reactor cores to seek a life of refuse there. Lesser men would have died on their way to the top, pulled down by their lessers, pushed away by their betters. Lesser men do not have the vision he has. Lesser men do not bring the gangs, the warbands, the mercenaries, the drug-kings to heel like he did. Lesser men dream, aspire, salivate to be like the Eternal Luo Minh.”
”Murderers? Drug dealers? Tyrants? Who cares where the food comes from, where the credits come from, give me a belly full of food and a mouth full of water and I will bow down to whatever and whoever, as long as I get to live the next day.“
Unintelligible screeching
Culture and Society: A hotpot of many flavours, both human and alien. Governance and Politics: (Like the government form field, but more room for detail. If your Colony has changed in such a way that it doesn't even have a government or politics anymore, this is also a good place to talk about that.)
Technology Overview: (What have your people invented? Or have they forgotten anything?)
Military Overview: (This is the space to talk about any offensive capabilities you have. Given that most of these Colonies have been essentially stranded by themselves for five centuries, I don't imagine anyone has a large "conquer other planets" level fleet yet. But maybe your Colony has been in civil war for a hundred years, and has built up an impressive military in that time. Or maybe they even had to fend off a genuine alien invasion.)Additional Info: (Anything else you want to include that there isn't a spot for up there.)
We are the inheritors of Humanity, their eternal legacy in the stars.
Government Form: Federal Monarchy
Demographics: Pongo Pygmaeus Supremus 20.01% Troglodytes Gorilla Supremus 32.33% Pan Troglodytes Supremus 47.65% Homo Sapiens Sapiens 0.01%
Population: Over 1,000,000,000 individuals
What is humanity?: Inferior to most. Worshipped by some. To be protected and shielded. Our predecessors and our fragile kin. A rare picture inside the deadly jungles of New Gift
Planet Name and Description:
New Gift was named by long-dead, hopeful scientists. From the outside, it was a perfect Earth-like planet orbiting its Sol-like star in the Goldilocks Zone, perfect for life. It was slightly larger than Earth and had two moons. The New Gift system was not anything out of the ordinary, another terrestrial planet closer to its star and three gas giants on a larger orbit. If they had set foot on its supercontinent of Munus, they would have encountered thick equatorial jungles with savannas on either polar side. Deadly melon-sized bugs, large elephant constricting snakes and ill-tempered horse-like creatures. More shadowed and evil beasts would roam the jungles, sharp talons and wicked teeth. Trees as high as four stories tall and plants which could eat a fully-grown ape. A planet so hostile to life that it is a wonder the native species have not killed each other off yet. To regular humans, it was a death trap. To the superior ape? It became home.
History:
Even before the colony ship for New Gift had set off for its destination, there were a few things which set it apart from the others. It was a largely private endeavor, funded by the multi-national conglomerate SciCorps, given to it for its major contributions towards the various conservation efforts it headed on Earth. It had an incredibly small colony of only 2,000 humans, headed by top scientists, geneticists, engineers and strangely, historians. Geniuses all but were often viewed by the outer scientific community as 'odd'. Opposed to other colony ships, what made up its vast holds were the remaining populations of several of humanity's closest relatives. To the heads of SciCorps, all eccentric, billionaire, science-guided men who saw the downfall of humanity by its own hubris. To them, humanity had lost its way and thus its right to think itself supreme. It must be succeeded by inheritors of humanity's best while lacking of its worst traits. Thus they found their inspiration within the remaining populations of chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans numbering 50,000 altogether. Their populations were devastated by humanity in their arrogance, their habitats destroyed by our carelessness and greed. They would understand us, our histories, our cultures, our hardships and our follies. They would be uplifted by our hand and succeed where we failed.
SciCorps had chosen our closest relatives due to the greater ease in which they could be uplifted to sapient-level intelligence and their existing ability to use tools. Since the bonobo had been killed off a decades before the colony ships were being prepared, orangutans and gorillas had been brought in to boost numbers and bring diversity. Advanced humanity had long since mapped their own brains and thus had also been able to map the brains of these ape species. In the years before SciCorps' colony ship launch, several research teams worked on discovering a way to "uplift" non-sapient species in the hopes that these species could inherit our legacy but be better than we were. They had succeeded with these three species but only through the splicing of human genes and most peculiarly, personalities. To gain sapience, they must be implanted with the personality of an already existing (or past) human to ensure stability, proper empathy and intelligence.
Undeterred by these revelations, SciCorps used its vast wealth to collect historians, geneticists and scientists in conjunction with superintelligent AI to map and create the brains of the greatest examples of humanity. These eccentric geniuses had been over-enthusiastic in their brain mapping and with its minimal oversight (SciCorps was busy with its ongoing conservation efforts as well as Earth's dying days), some less-than-great minds had been mapped and stored for uploading. These additions would not be properly audited by the SciCorps elite in its waning days as processes were rushed due to various calamities which befell the conglomerate in its waning days. In the implantation and upload, over 10,000 subjects, mainly gorillas and orangutans, suffered shock and death upon awakening from the traumatic procedures. A further 5,000 would perish in the gene enhancing operations that would follow. Better vocal speech, more dexterous thumbs, greater muscular density than before. The remaining apes would undergo history lessons, morality tests, intelligence tests and physical ability tests. A further 3,500 would be culled in the last years before colony launch. The remaining roughly 31,500 Supremus apes as they had been dubbed would board the colony ship Terra Supremus along with their teachers, a secret kept hidden from the rest of the world.
Upon their arrival to New Gift and the subsequent loss of the Gateways, some of the human teachers set to work on finding out about the world below while the inheritors would learn from the rest. What they found horrified and often, killed them. This would be the world of their inheritors, of mankind's successors? They all believed deep within their hearts (after several years of SciCorps propaganda and brainwashing) that the other human colonies would fall to strife as Earth had. These Supremus would be slaughtered there, despite their genetic enhancements and uplift. A solution would come from one of these apes themselves. A cunning, intelligent orangutan, known for his great charisma and dominance among the other apes. One whose brain template's name had been lost to all but him. The Khan incarnate spoke with a deep rumbling voice.
"O wise teachers, our humble creators. You have taught us your ways, to be the inheritors of your wisdom and greatness. O generous people you have been, giving us knowledge to renew our species, setting us on a worthier path. O wonderful you have been, gifting us the minds of your greatest so we may succeed you, as impossible as that venture may seem to our lowly minds. We are your children, and you are our parents, we are the flock to be moved to greener pastures by you, the shepherds. You have taught and given us much, but we lack an art of yours. One you have, out of justified fear, left out of our teachings. An art we require to carry your legacy, and your scions, into the stars with us. Aside from the arts of engineering, science and culture, you must teach us the Art of War." Yesugei spread his arms, orange fur draping elegantly in brushed locks, a toothy grin on his face.
There were protests at first. These were to be our peaceful inheritors, our greatest legacy. How could we give them the knowledge of our greatest folly? But even to the most idealist of the teachers, they could find no other answer. The colony ship had been armed with science and industry, not advanced weaponry. Mine excavators, modular industrial complexes, great agricultural machines. They were a mere 2,000 souls, many of whom felt they were bound to die on a planet as harsh as this one. They must teach their children how to defend themselves against this harsh world of theirs. To carry, what they felt, were humanity’s last vestiges in the galaxy, into the stars. They must teach their successors humanity's greatest folly - war.
Thus the colony ship landed a year later with supplies running low, in the largest savanna in the supercontinent Munus. The combined Supremus population had grown to 60,000 apes, many of the children inheriting the forced genetic tampering easier than expected. Here, many of the human caretakers, now dwindling in numbers and long rendered infertile by age, let their successors choose their own fate away from their tampering and holed themselves up in the stranded colony ship. They were confident that despite the mistakes along the way, their "children" as many had started to see them, would grow to be their betters. And in the beginning, as they observed the various projects of a growing ape population, their optimistic views were proven correct. A sprawling town would grow around the fallen ship, a "Neo-Earth" as its denizens began to call it in homage to their creators. An egalitarian democracy in which all could have their say. The pursuits of science, technology and the arts ruled supreme. Industry began to pop up around the town, solar panels and wind farms providing energy to prevent the wounds give to the old Earth. Automated mining and farming began nearby, feeding resources to the great minds within the city. Defensive automatons were built with supplied military knowledge, defending Neo-Earth from its harsh surroundings aided by Supremus’ most physical specimens. Separated from their inheritors, the last humans felt content with their success.
So much so that they were blinded by it.
By the time of the last caretaker’s death, the many great inherited minds from Humanity’s history had fractured between political camps. The scions of scions of those caretakers young enough to have had children were closeted and protected by these camps. To have a human under your care was an ape’s greatest honour. To be a human was to live as a trophy, cloistered away in monasteries and only appearing rarely in public. No freedom, worshipped almost as gods, taken care of by inhuman caregivers. Humanity was too precious at this point to be given their freedom. Or perhaps too outnumbered to know any other life? They would take a backseat in the history of New Gift, given little power and whispered about almost as gods.
The once-children were divided in how they should carry humanity’s legacy to the stars. To have True egalitarianism could not work with the growing population. And thus, four bickering camps of political thought formed.
Aristotle argued that although democracy did work, they needed to make sure that the officials that are elected are learned apes of intelligence, selflessness and most controversially, a past life of serving the public good. He represented many of the reborn scientists and philosophers. Many of these would primarily be older first-generation Supremus.
Rousseau passionately countered that democracy must be indiscriminate of one’s background and thus one’s past “life” was akin to their genealogy. Judging an ape for their mere “blood” went against what they were taught. He represented many of the great democratic leaders and many others who came from democratic states, valuing freedom. A significant minority of Rousseau’s followers would be made up of the youngest second-generation.
Caesar intoned that democracy had ultimately failed Humanity. Once bloated bureaucratic machines came to be, it only served to fracture and slow nations, the chimpanzee explained. If they kept to choosing strong, just leaders who in turn chose strong, just successors. This way, the Supremus could move forward faster and under stable rule. He represented the military men, kings, queens, and others disillusioned by democracy. Almost all these would be younger first-generation Supremus. They would hold the greatest number of humans under their care, controversially letting their predecessors walk among them freely as if they were not an endangered species needing protection.
The final school of thought was led by Temujin, son of Yesugei, the dark horse and only second generation Supremus to represent their own camp. He would only come near the end of the debates, giving his proposition. They had been implanted with Humanity’s greatest minds but of different philosophies, politics, and time periods. How one group of Supremus would want to be governed could be vastly different from another. Let each group rule their own in the way they want but have a sort of intergovernmental union which connected them. A confederation of sovereign nations with the ceremonial position of Governor-General who constitutionally held little power. They served to act as mediator between nations, would be its figurative head, represent Supremus in its foreign affairs and only maintain a modest, non-automated self-defence force as a deterrent versus power hungry nations seeking to topple the Governor-General. Nations would keep to themselves with internal affairs and resource allocation by the Governor-General would be dictated strictly by needs and population. This was supported by the late Yesugei’s closest confidantes and the outsiders who disagreed with the other camps and sought to do their own way. Many of the latter were second-generation Supremus. Let us unite to safekeep the last of humanity’s genealogical children, they would say.
The other three camps would vehemently disagree outwardly towards this proposal. Going for this sort of compromise could weaken their political position in the eyes of their supporters and enemies. However, the debates had made many tired and thus many behind the scenes deals would be made towards these compromisers. Rousseau proposed the addition of elected sovereign officials who would serve as representatives of their nations in a parliament, which could make changes to the federal constitution or hold a supermajority vote of no-confidence upon the Governor-General to check his power. Temujin accepted these terms with passionate chest thumping and nods.
Aristotle, through his subordinate chimpanzee Theophrastus, would propose that those officials must have a certain level of intelligence and selflessness, as indicated by the scores previously tested by the humans. All second generation Supremus and those following generations must submit to these tests to check their eligibility. The testing must be done by a representative body of learned men from each nation, separate from the Senate. This Oligarchy would ensure stability and be a counter to the powers of the Senate. Temujin accepted with grace, bowing his head.
The only detractor remaining at the end of the talks would be Caesar and his camp, eyeing the son of Yesugei with obvious suspicion. No representative seemed to come from him and his. The message was clear. Aristotle, followed by Rousseau again, stated their proposals and Temujin accepted them publicly. Caesar’s followers walked out of the talks, with Caesar himself last to leave. “Blind baboons” he spat “the lot of you! You do not see what he is doing!” Him and his followers would disappear the following day with stolen resources and arms, last seen over the horizon in the direction of the jungles. Certain genetic templates and tissue would be stolen that night, records of it wiped from the colony ship's computers.
Disregarding the threat of Caesar due to the hellish jungles of New Gift, the three leaders would set to establish the New Gift Federation. The loss of so many humans to Caesar’s camp was a harsh political blow to the new government and only served to tighten the restrictions of the remaining humans under their care. They would be treated as closely guarded secrets, with their movements controlled each day and only appearing in public on the rarest of occasions during holidays of great import. To be human was to serve as a trophy, a political tool. And sometimes, a god. Several other nations would be formed by other individuals only to join the N.G.G. There would be a mass exodus from Neo-Earth township, many of the modular industrial complexes and mobile shelters splitting in a diaspora around the newly named Neo-Earth diaspora. Rousseau’s Republic of Freemen and Aristotle’s Polity of Philosophy would form the largest city-states while the others would form townships or smaller villages. The most significant of these smaller governments would be Thunberg’s Conservation League and Lincoln’s democratic Reformed States of America.
The old colony ship would serve as the Governor-General’s seat due to its central position. True to the constitution, Temujin did not do anything to interfere with the governance of the states. In truth, despite the initial fears within the Republic and the Polity of the Governor-General turning into a dictator, this was seen to be largely unfounded. The Senate and Oligarchy would become a ruthless political arena between the Polity, the Republic, their different sovereign allies, and the independents. These two city-states would dominate the political sphere of the N.G.G. and be the most powerful, dubbed the informal title of “Greater States”. Despite their precious fragility, humans could be found across the states in their monastery-schools, Supremus guards given to each as protectors no matter what state they were found in.
The many military automatons of Terra Supremus, the colony ship’s name and the new name of the old Neo-Earth township, would go to these powerful states. Thus the defence of many of the smaller independent town-states and villages would be given to Temujin and his self-defence forces. These would be made up of individuals from all the nations, to ensure equality and an image of unity. Universally, within the Polity and the Republic, this force would be looked down upon when compared to the advanced military automatons. Thus the conscripts sent to the Federation SDF from these powers would mainly be the Supremus who did not fit the mould.
Temujin would form a strict meritocracy within the ranks of the SDF, creating an effective fast response force which could mobilise quickly to any threats towards the weaker states. Heavily drilled and with strict punishments for slacking, the SDF would become a premier military force second only to the advanced automatons of the Greater States. No human would be found in their number for their lives were too precious. Or maybe, they were treated as an afterthought? \
Their popularity would only grow among the independent nations. The Federation Senate and Oligarchy became fiercer political battlegrounds as time went on, serving as a representation of power between the Greater States.
Upon the birth of Temujin’s first son, Ogedei, a Cold War would ensue between the Greater Powers after a series of political advancements by the Republic when it seduced several nations to its power bloc. With the addition of nations, came the safekeeping of more humans. To be a caretaker of a dying race was seen as a great honour and only elevated their political power. Automatons were advanced, walls were raised and for the first time, war machines would be sent in support of ally sovereigns. Pre-empting this, the Governor-General called forth the first negotiations between the two powers, acting as mediator. He was an excellent orator and convinced the leaders of the Greater States to set aside their weapons, reminding them of the reason behind their uplifting and creation.
”Learned ape, free ape, this humble one must remind you that we are all Supremus. We were created as inheritors of Humanity’s legacy and tasked to be their successors. We know not about the other colonies but going by anything our wise caretakers taught us, they would be in strife and conflict. This is why we keep the scions safe, no? We learned of war to fight our deadly surroundings, to protect the scions of our caretakers, not to fight each other. We are better and we must prove ourselves to be better, lest we disprove our own species’ names. Whether chimpanzee, orangutan, or gorilla. Whether Politician, Republican, Reformed American or others. We stand better united and at peace. We must prove ourselves supreme, as caretakers of the last vestiges of humanity.”
The subsequent stop on the development of war automatons would serve to be the greatest achievement in Temujin the Peacekeeper’s life. A new age of prosperity and unity would rise within the Federation, one that Ogedei would inherit once he was appointed as Governor-General, upon Temujin’s death. The supposed nepotism was ignored due to the late Peacekeeper’s popularity and the relatively powerless position kept even avid conspiracy theorists at bay. To suppress the jealousy among the growing states about the amount of humans cloistered within the different states, the honour guards were replaced by SDF detachments to keep them away from the political wills of the senate. It would be early in Ogedei’s tenure that plots would begin to unravel themselves.
Tiberius Caesar, son of Augustus, son of Julius, had come. Hardened by three generations within the jungle, the Emperor’s Followers had returned from their long exile to prove themselves worthy as leaders of the Supremus. They sat atop great war beasts and fought alongside tamed monsters, having long gotten used to and conquering the deadly denizens within the jungle. To many a Supremus’ disgust, they had humanity’s direct scions fighting hand in hand with them, most assuredly blinded by Caesar’s propaganda. To be so reckless with the last of our caretaker’s seed? Abhorrent to the extreme.
Targeting the southernmost city-states and townships, they raided these frontier nations with glee and were only pushed back once the SDF had reached them, many an ape weeping as they cut down both fellow ape and human alike. It was clear that they could not be reasoned with, even the human descendants had come with weapon in hand with an unexplainable rage about them.
These year-long raids would only prove as a distraction as a great war host came from the jungles circled a two prong attack upon the East and West. Amassing a truly terrible host of monsters, hardened Supremus and curse-spouting humans, these were the proverbial daggers to the hearts of the Federation – the Greater States. As the SDF was distracted to the south and its numbers limited by constitution, it fell to the Polity and the Republic to defend Neo-Earth’s heartlands. Automaton fought beast, Supremus fought Supremus in bitter conflict and rivalry.
The fighting was fierce in the south, east and west of the Neo-Earth savanna. The Emperor’s Followers were backed by their war-beasts, savage poisons and chemical artillery which inflicted heavy casualties upon Polity, Republican and ally conscripts. Only the automatons fared better, metal resistant against claws, large ammunition and explosives proving deadly against flesh. The east and the west saw the bloodiest of the fighting, back and forth offensive manoeuvres on both sides, probing the other to find weaknesses. Deep trenches and fortifications would be set up against each other, carving up the earth of a once beautiful continent-sized savanna. The south found more success with Ogedei’s forces, a more tactical type of warfare which saw constantly changing battle lines, ambushes, and false flag attacks. The SDF was aided by its supreme manoeuvrability and its QRF-based military doctrine.
As the war went on and weeks turned into months which turned into years, the nations of the Federation grew desperate. Seemingly unending hordes of wild beasts would crash into their lines nearly daily. Endless chemical bombardment and brutal poisoned fangs or blades would see to plummeting morale. A great depression that cast itself upon Supremus warriors who had slain too many humans to count, the blood of those they were to shelter and preserve staining their fur. Everyone had gotten involved in the war at this point, Polity and Republican conscripts running low as their populations were stricken low. And everyone had noticed that the only front in which they could be called gaining non-pyrrhic victories was on the southern front.
More emergency powers would be given to Governor-General Ogedei in these desperate dozen years of war, passed through the Senate in record breaking speeds. With every major victory he gained in the south, the more power he was given. Accentuating this, Ogedei’s swift action to transport all humans to the capital of Terra Supremus was lauded as a decisive action to safeguard their charges. Detractors would be swiftly dealt with under cries of carelessness for humanity’s seed, and for some, with cries of heresy. To turn the war around, a hopeful Federation turned towards its seemingly greatest leader. Despite the weak protests of the once Greater States, who had now long since diminished in power and influence with their crippled populations, defeats in the east and west as well as the rising assassinations of various humans of import in supposed safe places, the Senate passed several constitutional amendments to give the Governor-General the power as a Supreme Leader. The Khan.
Ogedei Khan, as he was now known, set to finish the war. To stop the heresy of human blood staining Supremus fur. To stop the madman, the crazed, the scion-killer Caesar. The probing back and forth within the south became a lightning fast counteroffensive, the Khan's newly dubbed Legionnaires smashing through the weaker southern Imperial battle lines and circling back to bolster the east and west.
At the siege of Roma-Greek, the Polity city-state, among the broken pillars of a new Parthenon, the first siege would be broken and the Imperials would be pushed back on the eastern front for the first time in years. These Legionnaires would be lauded as heroes, beleaguered conscripts with decrepit automatons witnessed these disciplined legionnaires toeing with beasts, weathering chemical storms and fighting against the harshest poisons. They were lauded as merciful and kind, with every human encountered taken away from their careless Supremus allies for re-education. Unknown to them, as the years went on, the Khan had further genetically enhanced his personal soldiery to have greater resistance against their foes. The stage was set and the war would reach its final stages. Suffering crippling defeat after crippling defeat, often retreating at the mere sight of the Khan's forces especially when Imperial humans were among them, the Imperials were routed back into their jungle. The free apes would celebrate the announcement of the war's final battle, with Ogedei hailed as a hero and protector. Ogedei the Merciful.
Upon victory, Ogedei the Merciful released several quick reformations with his ascension as Khan. The Senate would be kept as council to him and every Hegemon following, thus keeping each nation as sovereign entities which would stay in charge of their own domestic affairs and governance. Even the idea of a supermajority ruling of no-confidence was kept in place but the Oligarchy as an institution was done away with. The Khan is kept in check by the Senate but has larger powers with controlling foreign affairs, greater executive powers in vetoing laws passed by the Senate and control of a Federation-wide Legion which could attack as well as defend. The Khan would finalise the transfer of all humans into Terra Supremus, writing this into the newly formed Khanate’s constitution. Safeguarding them. Protecting them. Restricting them?
Individual militaries would be allowed for each nation but limited to a certain percentage of the nation's citizen population. Terra Supremus would be refitted into a mobile capital and home of the Senate. The Khan will only be focused on matters of foreign affairs and domestic peace, having a large military legion with an oath to defend the rights of each sovereign nation if breached (with exceptions). A Federal Monarchy as it were, with all leaders swearing upon the Khan and the Khan swearing to protect each of their ape peoples and their sovereignty. Technology could be kept individually between city-states but trade was encouraged. Minor conflicts can occur between nations but is kept in check by the overview of the Khan. Tribute is sent regularly to Terra Supremus by eager nations seeking the approval of the Khan, to gain better standing in the Senate and hold better sway as advisors. The Khan is made essential to protect against threats foreign and domestic, those who seek to undermine the continued freedom of the Supremus to largely govern themselves. The Khan is made essential to protect their charges, to educate humanity’s direct descendants, to fill their bellies, to keep them away from threats known and unknown.
And thus a new age of prosperity began. With the Khan's legions protecting against possible incursions from the jungles, another age of rebuilding, expansion and innovation could begin. With the end of the War to End All Wars came a large population boom and great confidence in the protection of the Khan. The scars of war were removed from the vast Neo-Earth savanna, replaced by carefully planned, permanent cities, environment-conscious agriculture and improved solar and wind farms. Mining projects would bring greater resource wealth, fueling inventions and architectural wonders from humanity's histories. Competition between nations would fuel these great leaps forward, under the wise and guided tutelage of the Khan of course. Education would continue as the caretaker's had taught them but with increased focus on the history of the nations under the Khan. Under the Khan’s wise rule and careful hand, the withering population of Homo Sapiens Sapiens were cradled into greater numbers. Pride in being a Supremus was at an all time high.
The title of Khan would pass through another two generations, staying focused on developing New Gift and quelling dissidents to the peace. Space technology was theorised and reverse engineers but ignored to focus more on their new home. Cultural works of humanity would continue to be redeveloped in painstaking detail, copies of old landmarks and large historical libraries serving as tourist destinations. Developing light but highly durable alloys, more effective modular cities and industrial complexes which could move quicker than before. Sprawling city-states would dot the northern savanna of Gaia and eventually as this crowded, some others would move to the southern savanna of Tellus. These states would be few and far between due to presence of roving bands of former Imperial bandit-kings, having fake claims of sharing blood with the Caesars of old. No true son of Caesar has come out of the jungles. No Imperial human would be seen again.
It would seem reasonable to destroy the jungle or make a final crusade against the Imperials. And many state-heads did pose the question to their leader. But as every Khan would reason, such an effort would be resource-draining at best and cause permanent ecological damage at worst. Let the outsiders sit in their uncivilised jungle dens, obviously failing to safeguard the humans they had with them, until they starve themselves out or revert back to a more primitive nature.
For Khublai Khan, second son of Möngke the Builder, his eyes were set to new horizons. As with many Khans before him, he was ambitious and looked to set himself apart from his predecessors. He could approve of the conservation and infrastructure projects set by his father but he felt greatness can be found further afield. On the 500th Year since Landing, an opportunity came with the sudden opening of the gateway.
Culture and Society: A number of different cultures and societies are under the Khan's purview, making the Khanate seem as fractious as the old Austro-Hungarian Empire. Many apes of the many different nations call their ancestry back to a first generation Supremus whose personalities were based on 31,500 different great minds from across human history. Their creation and uplift was so the Supremus could be humanity's legacy to the stars, thus the variety respects that. City-states within the Federal Khanate are largely self-governed and citizens are bound by the rules within those city-states. Societal and cultural norms can vary largely. Sometimes, it appears that the only things binding the nations together is the oath to the Khan, an equal respect and feeling of supremacy for humanity and a fear of flying. The vast majority are based on human examples throughout history.
The title of "Greater State" is a largely informal one, referring to a city-state's abundant wealth, technology, standing with the Khan and ability to influence other states. Often, the more you have of one, the other attributes will follow. The ability of a state to attract citizens only increases with age, standing and increased opportunities. This title is not held forever though and can be torn away quickly. Ways a Greater State can lose its standing can include political mishaps in the Senate, scandals, significant loss in approved conflicts, declaring conflict with another state without approval of the Khan, bloody coups or an outbreak of ape-eating snakes, among many. Once one state is brought low, there will be five others trying to take its place. As of present time, the Greater States are:
The Republic of Freemen - A democratic republic founded by Jean-Jacque Rousseau and the only continuous Greater State since the old Federation. Republicans are often seen as a very free people with liberal and radical views as in line with the city state's founder. European architecture of the Enlightenment era dot the cityscape, green parks and regularly held festivals interspersed within. Art and the exploration of Enlightenment era beliefs and culture is taught within their schools and French revolution-era clothing has recently taken to the apes there. Citizens have disdain towards the more brutish and unenlightened states, preferring the intellectual and "modern" ones. Republicans have a "social contract" in which citizens should be held to the general will of the people in the city so despite their apparent freedom, conformity is more the norm here. They use the greatest amount of automatons within their military and in their society, holding the largest power-bloc in the Senate. Though some outsiders claim that their greatest contributes to the Khanate are their powdered wigs and itchy clothing, it is their automaton technology which is the backbone of their industry. No finer, more ape-like automatons can be found and they range from purposes in war, service, guarding, transport and labour.
The Conservation League - An oligarchy founded by a group of like-minded, environmentally conscious individuals aiming to prevent the destruction wrought on Earth finding itself on New Gift. This state is focused on the preservation and conservation of native fauna and is incredibly single minded in its task. The oligarchy-system of governance was formed to rid of the ineffective slowness of democratic human nations in addressing climate change. They have the most efficient solar and wind technology, distributing to many of the other city states in the Federal Khanate. The Conservationists are also adept at genetics and sustainable agricultural efforts, creating more efficient crops and advanced procedures to make lab-grown meat for the more adventurous ape. Surprisingly, they hold the highest number of approved conflicts out of any present Greater State. They go, for the lack of a better term, "apeshit" at any perceived attempts to hinder their efforts in conserving the planet. They use genetically enhanced ape soldiers to great effect, second in advancements only to the Legion. With holding much of the moral high ground to the eyes of the Senate, enemies of the League fall quickly. The only reason they have not been denounced by an annoyed Khan is because of their enthusiastic support for the regime due to its own conservation efforts.
The Lost Humanist Theocracy - Some religious inclinations made their way to humanity's inheritors but the largest of these religions are of Human-worship. In particular, remembrance-worship of those who could not be afforded the "Path to Reincarnation" as the first generation Supremus had. Thus followers of this religion are absurdly focused on the positive features of human nature, revering the spirits of those left behind. Walking through Humanist architecture is akin to taking a step backwards in time, as they largely look down upon most forms of ape-made technology and they forsake many of the regular genetic enhancements given to Supremus simians. "For how useful were they, for those spirits left behind." This guilt-type of reverence and "lost" spirit worship is shared among a number of apes outside the Theocracy's limits but their more radical ideas (forsaking genetic enhancement and ape technology) are largely frowned upon. They claim to not view the current humans as literal gods yet speak about them in hushed whispers, with many a worshipper making pilgrimage to Terra Supremus to see the last vestiges of some of the greatest humans. The scions of their parents, the direct descendants of their caretakers, the final untouched humans. They have many missions throughout New Gift as free teachers, healers and advisors, seeking to atone and relieve their guilt, appeasing their Human Spirits. This is counter to the usual trend of supremacist views among Supremus. Their current standing comes from the spread of their religion to outside of the city's borders and the recent addition to their clergy, the third son of Khublai Khan, Sartaq along with the patronage of the Khan’s own daughter, the Greatest Orator. They deny and outwardly revile the idea of a "hidden inquisition" which protects missionaries outside their borders, keeping only an unarmed police force for visitors and a small dedicated team of bodyguards. Despite their recent rise in popularity, this cult-like city-state is still viewed with suspicion by other states of greater or equivalent power.
The Frontier Nations - Not a single state per se but a term collectively referring to nations that reside in untamed Tellus. These frontier city-states are attractive to the young, adventurous and foolhardy, seeking to escape the more "crowded" civilisation of Gaia. Frontier nations which last are hardy, bloodied and resourceful with a grudging camaraderie between nations who also last. Moving in mobile minor cities, they can pack up and run quickly once they spot bandits or rivals coming at them. Life in the frontier is hard but can be rewarding, with much of the savanna left untouched and resources aplenty. Often times, fallen city-states who seek to gain their standing once again become a Frontier Nation. A significant example of this is the Polity which, after the misfortunes that befell it in the Great War, sought to regain its status as a Greater State once more. They form a small but not insignificant power bloc in the Senate, with many apes respecting their hardiness and drive to survive. Some view them with disdain.
Humans – Oh to be Human. What a strange thing to be. A million souls, a mighty number indeed but nothing compared to the untold millions of Supremus with unmatched virility. To be human in the Khanate is to be protected. Safeguarded. Worshipped. Controlled. Restrained. Beyond their teachers, monastery-mothers and guards, many of these humans will not touch another’s fur. They will not reside in anything other than the vast Terra Supremus monasteries they are born in, live in and die in. To be Human is to be fed till their bellies were full and to be taught by the greatest minds in all of human history. To be Human is to be treated as trophies, a testament to the strength of the Khan. Their daily lives are controlled to the minute, ensuring that each human will be as perfect as genetically possible, for to be any less would bring shame to the Khan. To a normal ape, to see a human is a rare occasion, only on planetwide holidays would the greatest orators among them appear on the myriad States, speaking affection for their Supremus caretakers and inheritors. To be human was to be loved. To be human was to be caged – ultimately having no power in this nation of apes.
The banner of the Khan, as chosen by Ogedei the Old
Governance and Politics:
"We swear ourselves to the Khan and they swear their selves to us."
The Federal Khanate describes itself perfectly; a federation consisting of nations which swears itself to the Khan. The Khan has ultimate control over foreign affairs and defence, enforces the rules of the constitution, the largest military and swears to uphold the sovereignty, supremacy and rights of the people. The title of "Khan" is not hereditary, though most past Khans have chosen their firstborn sons as imminent heir as matter of preference. Instead, a Khan will name their list of successors within their will in their order of preference. There is no choice for the chosen as the Khan's will is granted constitutional rights. Thus a Khan will often groom their successor over many years, preparing them for their rule. The title cannot be passed down to any current or past leaders of city states and thus Khan's have all come from the bloodline of Yesugei. In the horrid event that none of the chosen successors are alive at the time of the Khan's death (unlikely because the list of successors have often become over a hundred names long), the Senate will hold a vote to choosing a prominent ape to succeed.
There are some federal guidelines for apes seeking to found their own nation, to join the 1,738 already present. Some semblance of order must be established as anarchic states have the tendency to crumble in on itself thus the Khan requires a set of written laws and an official banner to represent itself. Conflicts should be avoided but are allowed as long as both parties seek the approval of the Khan and the matter is isolated. Yearly gatherings of the Senate, times when the Khan calls for a Senate hearing and gatherings in times of emergency (such as when a Khan dies) are mandatory sessions. The title of senator cannot be bestowed on any current leader of a city-state to prevent disruption. Coups must be contained and trade agreements made by the defending government must be made until the coup is sorted out. Any disruptions to the rest of the Khanate is met with the swift boot of the Legion. Speaking of, a certain detachment of Legion forces must be present within the city perimeter at all times and any attempt to coerce, eliminate or impede them is treated with extreme prejudice. The leader/s or most prominent figure must swear upon the constitution and swear to the Khan, similarly to any new senators otherwise their state is considered to have ceded from the Khanate. States are also constricted to a set amount of territory and can petition the Khan for more land only during the yearly Senate gatherings. Otherwise, the laws of the land can vary greatly between city states.
Individual crimes can be punished differently between states. Thievery can result in the loss of the hand or a pat on the back. In some corporate states, white collar crime is punished more severely than murder. In many religious and theocratic states, sins are the law equivalent and in some, are seen as an affront to their God-King or Goddess-Queen. The difference in governance between the different states can create cutthroat politics, with seasoned Senators becoming expert politicians and some grudge lists becoming long enough to circle the world (see: The Conservation League). Some states even actively take in escaped prisoners as an insult to another, as long as the Khan approves. The aim of every Minor State is to become a Greater one and the aim of every Greater State is to stay in their position, creating conflict.
Order is maintained by the Khan but small approved conflicts or dueling between ruling classes are common enough to be seen as normal. This chaos results in significant changes in the Senate regularly and can confuse outsiders. The only official federal land claimed by the Khan is Terra Supremus and the equatorial jungles of New Gift. Only approved citizens and soldiers are allowed to visit the latter though that does not stop the Imperials, bandits and runaways. The only federal crimes that an ape can commit is attempted assault/murder of a Khan and his successors, any criminal offence against a Khanate-protected human, infiltration of a monastery, bringing harm to any monastery staff, federal treason, secession, disruption of the common peace/trade and slavery. These crimes are met with the appropriate force to extinguish it from existence.
Technology Overview: As with everything in the Khanate, technology can vary greatly as well. With the vast number of states come different wealth, technology and sometimes, acceptance of technology. The apes have tended to neglect space technology until recently, having only communication and weather satellites due to the focus on developing the land of New Gift. Overall, the technology level is similar to what they started with some developing trends over the years:
Conservation - The influence of Earth's downfall affect the Supremus apes greatly. They have an extensive genetic library of old Earth fauna stored but no cloning, beyond infertile pets such as dogs and cats, have occurred to preserve native fauna. Every ape conserves this legacy and intends to conserve their current home as well. Great attempts have been made to conserve the natural ecosystem of New Gift with very few permanent cities being established, many states opting for moving, modular cities atop trusty tracks to prevent disruption to animal migrations (despite the active hostility of many of these animals). Similarly, most agriculture is kept limited and genetically enhanced to be as productive in as small an area as possible, kept in mobile greenhouses to prevent cross-pollination with native plants. The term "conservation" generally means the conservation of environment, human history and culture.
Genetics - With the availability of each species' DNA map and the technology to modify it, genetic manipulation is common among the apes and even among humans. It is widely acceptable to modify oneself or offspring to be better though greater advancements are often closely guarded secrets of states (except to the Khan). Modifications to humans within their fortified monasteries were seen as natural, to ensure their survival and allow them to have perfect lives. Enhancements can range from increased physical attributes, an ability to stay awake longer, better senses, an inability to feel pain (for the crazy) to even enhanced fertility. The latter seems to be utilised by the Khans heavily as they foster many children.
Variety - The sheer variety of different states means technological focus can vary drastically. With encouraged trade between states, nations are often sharing their own specialised technology in exchange for something they need. For example, the Conservation League are experts at conservative and environmentally friendly power sources but lack some of the knowledge on the automaton labourers found in a state such as the Republic. They could try to reverse-engineer their own but this is seen as a more expensive endeavour compared to simply trading for the most advanced goods. That is to say, most minor city-states enjoy a mediocre set of technologies and are viewed as more "standard".
Military Overview: Conflict has evolved drastically since the lumbering automatons, mass wave tactics and trench warfare of the War to End All Wars. Every significant enough city-state has a military, otherwise having to rely on detachments of the Khan's legionnaires for defense. But the focus, tactics and ability of said militaries can vary significantly. They do focus on an important factor in the conflicts which pepper the Khanate: mobility. The ability to strike first, fine manoeuvres around the enemy, ambushes and changing battle lines. The modern Supremus simian soldier is armed with a truckload of communication and infortmation technology and any military worth their salt will have a BattleNet to highlight enemy troop movements, possible false flag attacks and lay out orders instantly. Sometimes, organic soldiers are replaced by advanced automatons capable of accepting orders instantly at the behest of a detached Commander. Clashes occur often in the lower streets of moving cities, in mobile savanna outposts and often, between moving military command centers. The defeat of an opponent is usually marked either by a significant destruction or capture of an opponents asset, death of the main military commander or taking the conflict to the point that it is seen as costly for the opponent to continue. As varied as the individual states' militaries are, there is serious standardisation among the Khan's personal military arm - the Legion.
The Khan acts as the supreme commander of the largest and most advanced military on New Gift. There are over 1,000,000 active duty Legionnaires split between the 100 different divisions of the Legion, with a further 110,000 strong auxiliaries as part of the Expeditionary Corps. Each division is generally made up of a mixed-troop of mechanised, mobile forces each with their own air and armor support. Led by a Divisional-General, each legion must be able to be largely self-sustainable for at least a year, with Expeditionary Corps needing to be fully self-sustaining for upwards to three years. Doing so increases the mobility of each legion and its divided military organisations so that they are able to operate as one. They have the most advanced mobile command centers and BattleNets available, the Legion priding themselves upon their individual soldier's intuition. Consequently, they often look down upon automatons in their rigidness, only using them in aerial combat and support because of the innate fear of flying simians have. Their warfare is that of constant movement to encircle, ambush and outmaneouvre, having mainly been focused on eliminating bandit-kings and the like. The standard genetic enhancements of a Legionnaire include heightened senses, increased endurance, agility and intellect. To become a Legionnaire one must survive these procedures as well as pass several difficult physical and mental team challenges known colloquially as the Grid. To become a Legionnaire was to be a Supremus, for no self-respecting Khan would ever allow the shedding of human blood like the foolish Caesar. Upon becoming a Legionnaire, they are typically stationed to the different nation-states, most in the smaller states to defend it from hostile fauna or bandit simians.
Eleven divisions, as well as the entire Auxiliary Corps, are labelled as Expeditionary Corps. These are aspects of the Legion focused on actively engaging within the equatorial jungles and frontier-states in Tellus. Both the divisions and the Auxiliaries, who are volunteers from militaries across the states, are tasked with defending the sovereign rights of the frontier states as well as seeking those who intend to subvert them. Targets include Imperial remnants, Bandit-Kings and extremely hostile native fauna. They actively seek these targets frequently, often sending expeditions into the jungles to get to the source of the problem. This is the most dangerous job in the Khanate as it takes the Legionnaire out of the civilisation of northern Gaia and into the rougher parts of Munus where anything can be hostile. Often, the jungle canopy can be too thick for command to reach squads thus many are lost on patrols. Their lives in the hands of vengeful imperials, bandits and vicious beasts, are met with a brutal end. The goals of these expeditions is to ultimately exterminate secessionist activity within New Gift and tame the jungles, through the establishment of Mobile Stability Bases to patrol throughout these hostile lands. Great strides have been made but to many others outside the Legion, the Expeditionary Corps are more like respectable glory hounds.
There are whispers of muscle-bound soldiers, equal in mass of even the elephants of old Earth, prowling in Legionnaire armour and wielding weapons of unspeakable power. An open secret of the Khanate's Legion. A breed of super-warriors with muscles on muscles, a vision of perfect martial might and unparalleled military acumen. For each would be seen as worthy of scores of Legionnaires by their lonesome. There are rumours of street orphans being taken from the poorest city states. There are rare glimpses of the black ships which ship them to the isolated city of Terra Supremus. There are obvious signs of death, with many small caskets shipped to the capital on a daily basis. To connect those whispers, rumours and signs was to be associated with treason and so many, even children of the Khan himself, kept their jaws shut tight in public. But to the military-minded apes of the Khanate, their forums would be filled with speculation, profiles hidden from the ever-watchful eyes of the Khanate with virtual private networks. Allegedly, at least. But even the most conspiratorial of these apes dismissed the most ridiculous of claims. Humans, walking among these giants, armed and just as muscle bound as the rest. How ridiculous.
A standard Legionnaire in their modern-age armourr Two examples of Legionnaire Heavy Weapons support. From left to right: Antipersonnel and anti-armour An example of an Expeditionary Corps Legionnaire Reformed American rangers A typical ape automaton Modern samurai chimpanzee with a genetically enhanced sword-hand, keeping the peace in New Nippon
Legion Armoured Personnel Carrier. The turret can be replaced by an armoured dome on the top for a Heavy Weapons Legionnaire to put their turret through Legion Main Battle Tank Standard Legion Air Support Drone
Terra Supremus on approach towards New Gift
On Humans and Gateways: To most apes, there is the opinion of great paternalistic respect, sometimes worship, for humans. To the Supremus, they inherited their legacy and were created to continue it and to safeguard the last of their seed. There is, however, a certain supremacy every ape holds over the presumably fragile humans. They believe themselves superior, as they are taught they are. The existence of other human colonies is widely known but dismissed to be inferior and genetically diminished from the carefully orchestrated lines of Khanate human descendants. The only “true” humans left were cloistered in their monasteries, given untold riches and services a normal Supremus could only dream of. The Gateways merely represent an opportunity for the Supremus, to take the true legacy of the humans to the stars. For less hostile frontiers and chances to expand. The first step to Earth is merely to see their ancestral homelands, seen as culturally significant but not in other ways. A dead world gives no bounty to them.
The Theocracy's city-state wandering Gaia Conservation League on the move The Monasteries, one of the few permanent structures on New Gift. Extensions of Terra Supremus itself. The beautiful abodes of the final true humans.
Beijing-class Legion Mobile Military Base Cairo-class Legion Mobile Drone Carrier Standard Legion Mobile Artillery Standard Legion Gunship Drone Revolution-class Heavy Support Automaton Standard Legion Mobile Mechanised Support Ship Nzinga Ndongo, the Greatest Orator, cherished as the Khan’s own daughter.
We are the inheritors of Humanity, their eternal legacy in the stars.
Government Form: Federal Monarchy
Demographics: Pongo Pygmaeus Supremus 20.01% Troglodytes Gorilla Supremus 32.33% Pan Troglodytes Supremus 47.65% Homo Sapiens Sapiens 0.01%
Population: Over 1,000,000,000 individuals A rare picture inside the deadly jungles of New Gift
Planet Name and Description:
New Gift was named by long-dead, hopeful scientists. From the outside, it was a perfect Earth-like planet orbiting its Sol-like star in the Goldilocks Zone, perfect for life. It was slightly larger than Earth and had two moons. The New Gift system was not anything out of the ordinary, another terrestrial planet closer to its star and three gas giants on a larger orbit. If they had set foot on its supercontinent of Munus, they would have encountered thick equatorial jungles with savannas on either polar side. Deadly melon-sized bugs, large elephant constricting snakes and ill-tempered horse-like creatures. More shadowed and evil beasts would roam the jungles, sharp talons and wicked teeth. Trees as high as four stories tall and plants which could eat a fully-grown ape. A planet so hostile to life that it is a wonder the native species have not killed each other off yet. To regular humans, it was a death trap. To the superior ape? It became home.
History:
Even before the colony ship for New Gift had set off for its destination, there were a few things which set it apart from the others. It was a largely private endeavor, funded by the multi-national conglomerate SciCorps, given to it for its major contributions towards the various conservation efforts it headed on Earth. It had an incredibly small colony of only 2,000 humans, headed by top scientists, geneticists, engineers and strangely, historians. Geniuses all but were often viewed by the outer scientific community as 'odd'. Opposed to other colony ships, what made up its vast holds were the remaining populations of several of humanity's closest relatives. To the heads of SciCorps, all eccentric, billionaire, science-guided men who saw the downfall of humanity by its own hubris. To them, humanity had lost its way and thus its right to think itself supreme. It must be succeeded by inheritors of humanity's best while lacking of its worst traits. Thus they found their inspiration within the remaining populations of chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans numbering 50,000 altogether. Their populations were devastated by humanity in their arrogance, their habitats destroyed by our carelessness and greed. They would understand us, our histories, our cultures, our hardships and our follies. They would be uplifted by our hand and succeed where we failed.
SciCorps had chosen our closest relatives due to the greater ease in which they could be uplifted to sapient-level intelligence and their existing ability to use tools. Since the bonobo had been killed off a decades before the colony ships were being prepared, orangutans and gorillas had been brought in to boost numbers and bring diversity. Advanced humanity had long since mapped their own brains and thus had also been able to map the brains of these ape species. In the years before SciCorps' colony ship launch, several research teams worked on discovering a way to "uplift" non-sapient species in the hopes that these species could inherit our legacy but be better than we were. They had succeeded with these three species but only through the splicing of human genes and most peculiarly, personalities. To gain sapience, they must be implanted with the personality of an already existing (or past) human to ensure stability, proper empathy and intelligence.
Undeterred by these revelations, SciCorps used its vast wealth to collect historians, geneticists and scientists in conjunction with superintelligent AI to map and create the brains of the greatest examples of humanity. These eccentric geniuses had been over-enthusiastic in their brain mapping and with its minimal oversight (SciCorps was busy with its ongoing conservation efforts as well as Earth's dying days), some less-than-great minds had been mapped and stored for uploading. These additions would not be properly audited by the SciCorps elite in its waning days as processes were rushed due to various calamities which befell the conglomerate in its waning days. In the implantation and upload, over 10,000 subjects, mainly gorillas and orangutans, suffered shock and death upon awakening from the traumatic procedures. A further 5,000 would perish in the gene enhancing operations that would follow. Better vocal speech, more dexterous thumbs, greater muscular density than before. The remaining apes would undergo history lessons, morality tests, intelligence tests and physical ability tests. A further 3,500 would be culled in the last years before colony launch. The remaining roughly 31,500 Supremus apes as they had been dubbed would board the colony ship Terra Supremus along with their teachers, a secret kept hidden from the rest of the world.
Upon their arrival to New Gift and the subsequent loss of the Gateways, some of the human teachers set to work on finding out about the world below while the inheritors would learn from the rest. What they found horrified and often, killed them. This would be the world of their inheritors, of mankind's successors? They all believed deep within their hearts (after several years of SciCorps propaganda and brainwashing) that the other human colonies would fall to strife as Earth had. These Supremus would be slaughtered there, despite their genetic enhancements and uplift. A solution would come from one of these apes themselves. A cunning, intelligent orangutan, known for his great charisma and dominance among the other apes. One whose brain template's name had been lost to all but him. The Khan incarnate spoke with a deep rumbling voice.
"O wise teachers, our humble creators. You have taught us your ways, to be the inheritors of your wisdom and greatness. O generous people you have been, giving us knowledge to renew our species, setting us on a worthier path. O wonderful you have been, gifting us the minds of your greatest so we may succeed you, as impossible as that venture may seem to our lowly minds. We are your children, and you are our parents, we are the flock to be moved to greener pastures by you, the shepherds. You have taught and given us much, but we lack an art of yours. One you have, out of justified fear, left out of our teachings. An art we require to carry your legacy, and your scions, into the stars with us. Aside from the arts of engineering, science and culture, you must teach us the Art of War." Yesugei spread his arms, orange fur draping elegantly in brushed locks, a toothy grin on his face.
There were protests at first. These were to be our peaceful inheritors, our greatest legacy. How could we give them the knowledge of our greatest folly? But even to the most idealist of the teachers, they could find no other answer. The colony ship had been armed with science and industry, not advanced weaponry. Mine excavators, modular industrial complexes, great agricultural machines. They were a mere 2,000 souls, many of whom felt they were bound to die on a planet as harsh as this one. They must teach their children how to defend themselves against this harsh world of theirs. To carry, what they felt, were humanity’s last vestiges in the galaxy, into the stars. They must teach their successors humanity's greatest folly - war.
Thus the colony ship landed a year later with supplies running low, in the largest savanna in the supercontinent Munus. The combined Supremus population had grown to 60,000 apes, many of the children inheriting the forced genetic tampering easier than expected. Here, many of the human caretakers, now dwindling in numbers and long rendered infertile by age, let their successors choose their own fate away from their tampering and holed themselves up in the stranded colony ship. They were confident that despite the mistakes along the way, their "children" as many had started to see them, would grow to be their betters. And in the beginning, as they observed the various projects of a growing ape population, their optimistic views were proven correct. A sprawling town would grow around the fallen ship, a "Neo-Earth" as its denizens began to call it in homage to their creators. An egalitarian democracy in which all could have their say. The pursuits of science, technology and the arts ruled supreme. Industry began to pop up around the town, solar panels and wind farms providing energy to prevent the wounds give to the old Earth. Automated mining and farming began nearby, feeding resources to the great minds within the city. Defensive automatons were built with supplied military knowledge, defending Neo-Earth from its harsh surroundings aided by Supremus’ most physical specimens. Separated from their inheritors, the last humans felt content with their success.
So much so that they were blinded by it.
By the time of the last caretaker’s death, the many great inherited minds from Humanity’s history had fractured between political camps. The scions of scions of those caretakers young enough to have had children were closeted and protected by these camps. To have a human under your care was an ape’s greatest honour. To be a human was to live as a trophy, cloistered away in monasteries and only appearing rarely in public. No freedom, worshipped almost as gods, taken care of by inhuman caregivers. Humanity was too precious at this point to be given their freedom. Or perhaps too outnumbered to know any other life? They would take a backseat in the history of New Gift, given little power and whispered about almost as gods.
The once-children were divided in how they should carry humanity’s legacy to the stars. To have True egalitarianism could not work with the growing population. And thus, four bickering camps of political thought formed.
Aristotle argued that although democracy did work, they needed to make sure that the officials that are elected are learned apes of intelligence, selflessness and most controversially, a past life of serving the public good. He represented many of the reborn scientists and philosophers. Many of these would primarily be older first-generation Supremus.
Rousseau passionately countered that democracy must be indiscriminate of one’s background and thus one’s past “life” was akin to their genealogy. Judging an ape for their mere “blood” went against what they were taught. He represented many of the great democratic leaders and many others who came from democratic states, valuing freedom. A significant minority of Rousseau’s followers would be made up of the youngest second-generation.
Caesar intoned that democracy had ultimately failed Humanity. Once bloated bureaucratic machines came to be, it only served to fracture and slow nations, the chimpanzee explained. If they kept to choosing strong, just leaders who in turn chose strong, just successors. This way, the Supremus could move forward faster and under stable rule. He represented the military men, kings, queens, and others disillusioned by democracy. Almost all these would be younger first-generation Supremus. They would hold the greatest number of humans under their care, controversially letting their predecessors walk among them freely as if they were not an endangered species needing protection.
The final school of thought was led by Temujin, son of Yesugei, the dark horse and only second generation Supremus to represent their own camp. He would only come near the end of the debates, giving his proposition. They had been implanted with Humanity’s greatest minds but of different philosophies, politics, and time periods. How one group of Supremus would want to be governed could be vastly different from another. Let each group rule their own in the way they want but have a sort of intergovernmental union which connected them. A confederation of sovereign nations with the ceremonial position of Governor-General who constitutionally held little power. They served to act as mediator between nations, would be its figurative head, represent Supremus in its foreign affairs and only maintain a modest, non-automated self-defence force as a deterrent versus power hungry nations seeking to topple the Governor-General. Nations would keep to themselves with internal affairs and resource allocation by the Governor-General would be dictated strictly by needs and population. This was supported by the late Yesugei’s closest confidantes and the outsiders who disagreed with the other camps and sought to do their own way. Many of the latter were second-generation Supremus. Let us unite to safekeep the last of humanity’s genealogical children, they would say.
The other three camps would vehemently disagree outwardly towards this proposal. Going for this sort of compromise could weaken their political position in the eyes of their supporters and enemies. However, the debates had made many tired and thus many behind the scenes deals would be made towards these compromisers. Rousseau proposed the addition of elected sovereign officials who would serve as representatives of their nations in a parliament, which could make changes to the federal constitution or hold a supermajority vote of no-confidence upon the Governor-General to check his power. Temujin accepted these terms with passionate chest thumping and nods.
Aristotle, through his subordinate chimpanzee Theophrastus, would propose that those officials must have a certain level of intelligence and selflessness, as indicated by the scores previously tested by the humans. All second generation Supremus and those following generations must submit to these tests to check their eligibility. The testing must be done by a representative body of learned men from each nation, separate from the Senate. This Oligarchy would ensure stability and be a counter to the powers of the Senate. Temujin accepted with grace, bowing his head.
The only detractor remaining at the end of the talks would be Caesar and his camp, eyeing the son of Yesugei with obvious suspicion. No representative seemed to come from him and his. The message was clear. Aristotle, followed by Rousseau again, stated their proposals and Temujin accepted them publicly. Caesar’s followers walked out of the talks, with Caesar himself last to leave. “Blind baboons” he spat “the lot of you! You do not see what he is doing!” Him and his followers would disappear the following day with stolen resources and arms, last seen over the horizon in the direction of the jungles. Certain genetic templates and tissue would be stolen that night, records of it wiped from the colony ship's computers.
Disregarding the threat of Caesar due to the hellish jungles of New Gift, the three leaders would set to establish the New Gift Federation. The loss of so many humans to Caesar’s camp was a harsh political blow to the new government and only served to tighten the restrictions of the remaining humans under their care. They would be treated as closely guarded secrets, with their movements controlled each day and only appearing in public on the rarest of occasions during holidays of great import. To be human was to serve as a trophy, a political tool. And sometimes, a god. Several other nations would be formed by other individuals only to join the N.G.G. There would be a mass exodus from Neo-Earth township, many of the modular industrial complexes and mobile shelters splitting in a diaspora around the newly named Neo-Earth diaspora. Rousseau’s Republic of Freemen and Aristotle’s Polity of Philosophy would form the largest city-states while the others would form townships or smaller villages. The most significant of these smaller governments would be Thunberg’s Conservation League and Lincoln’s democratic Reformed States of America.
The old colony ship would serve as the Governor-General’s seat due to its central position. True to the constitution, Temujin did not do anything to interfere with the governance of the states. In truth, despite the initial fears within the Republic and the Polity of the Governor-General turning into a dictator, this was seen to be largely unfounded. The Senate and Oligarchy would become a ruthless political arena between the Polity, the Republic, their different sovereign allies, and the independents. These two city-states would dominate the political sphere of the N.G.G. and be the most powerful, dubbed the informal title of “Greater States”. Despite their precious fragility, humans could be found across the states in their monastery-schools, Supremus guards given to each as protectors no matter what state they were found in.
The many military automatons of Terra Supremus, the colony ship’s name and the new name of the old Neo-Earth township, would go to these powerful states. Thus the defence of many of the smaller independent town-states and villages would be given to Temujin and his self-defence forces. These would be made up of individuals from all the nations, to ensure equality and an image of unity. Universally, within the Polity and the Republic, this force would be looked down upon when compared to the advanced military automatons. Thus the conscripts sent to the Federation SDF from these powers would mainly be the Supremus who did not fit the mould.
Temujin would form a strict meritocracy within the ranks of the SDF, creating an effective fast response force which could mobilise quickly to any threats towards the weaker states. Heavily drilled and with strict punishments for slacking, the SDF would become a premier military force second only to the advanced automatons of the Greater States. No human would be found in their number for their lives were too precious. Or maybe, they were treated as an afterthought? \
Their popularity would only grow among the independent nations. The Federation Senate and Oligarchy became fiercer political battlegrounds as time went on, serving as a representation of power between the Greater States.
Upon the birth of Temujin’s first son, Ogedei, a Cold War would ensue between the Greater Powers after a series of political advancements by the Republic when it seduced several nations to its power bloc. With the addition of nations, came the safekeeping of more humans. To be a caretaker of a dying race was seen as a great honour and only elevated their political power. Automatons were advanced, walls were raised and for the first time, war machines would be sent in support of ally sovereigns. Pre-empting this, the Governor-General called forth the first negotiations between the two powers, acting as mediator. He was an excellent orator and convinced the leaders of the Greater States to set aside their weapons, reminding them of the reason behind their uplifting and creation.
”Learned ape, free ape, this humble one must remind you that we are all Supremus. We were created as inheritors of Humanity’s legacy and tasked to be their successors. We know not about the other colonies but going by anything our wise caretakers taught us, they would be in strife and conflict. This is why we keep the scions safe, no? We learned of war to fight our deadly surroundings, to protect the scions of our caretakers, not to fight each other. We are better and we must prove ourselves to be better, lest we disprove our own species’ names. Whether chimpanzee, orangutan, or gorilla. Whether Politician, Republican, Reformed American or others. We stand better united and at peace. We must prove ourselves supreme, as caretakers of the last vestiges of humanity.”
The subsequent stop on the development of war automatons would serve to be the greatest achievement in Temujin the Peacekeeper’s life. A new age of prosperity and unity would rise within the Federation, one that Ogedei would inherit once he was appointed as Governor-General, upon Temujin’s death. The supposed nepotism was ignored due to the late Peacekeeper’s popularity and the relatively powerless position kept even avid conspiracy theorists at bay. To suppress the jealousy among the growing states about the amount of humans cloistered within the different states, the honour guards were replaced by SDF detachments to keep them away from the political wills of the senate. It would be early in Ogedei’s tenure that plots would begin to unravel themselves.
Tiberius Caesar, son of Augustus, son of Julius, had come. Hardened by three generations within the jungle, the Emperor’s Followers had returned from their long exile to prove themselves worthy as leaders of the Supremus. They sat atop great war beasts and fought alongside tamed monsters, having long gotten used to and conquering the deadly denizens within the jungle. To many a Supremus’ disgust, they had humanity’s direct scions fighting hand in hand with them, most assuredly blinded by Caesar’s propaganda. To be so reckless with the last of our caretaker’s seed? Abhorrent to the extreme.
Targeting the southernmost city-states and townships, they raided these frontier nations with glee and were only pushed back once the SDF had reached them, many an ape weeping as they cut down both fellow ape and human alike. It was clear that they could not be reasoned with, even the human descendants had come with weapon in hand with an unexplainable rage about them.
These year-long raids would only prove as a distraction as a great war host came from the jungles circled a two prong attack upon the East and West. Amassing a truly terrible host of monsters, hardened Supremus and curse-spouting humans, these were the proverbial daggers to the hearts of the Federation – the Greater States. As the SDF was distracted to the south and its numbers limited by constitution, it fell to the Polity and the Republic to defend Neo-Earth’s heartlands. Automaton fought beast, Supremus fought Supremus in bitter conflict and rivalry.
The fighting was fierce in the south, east and west of the Neo-Earth savanna. The Emperor’s Followers were backed by their war-beasts, savage poisons and chemical artillery which inflicted heavy casualties upon Polity, Republican and ally conscripts. Only the automatons fared better, metal resistant against claws, large ammunition and explosives proving deadly against flesh. The east and the west saw the bloodiest of the fighting, back and forth offensive manoeuvres on both sides, probing the other to find weaknesses. Deep trenches and fortifications would be set up against each other, carving up the earth of a once beautiful continent-sized savanna. The south found more success with Ogedei’s forces, a more tactical type of warfare which saw constantly changing battle lines, ambushes, and false flag attacks. The SDF was aided by its supreme manoeuvrability and its QRF-based military doctrine.
As the war went on and weeks turned into months which turned into years, the nations of the Federation grew desperate. Seemingly unending hordes of wild beasts would crash into their lines nearly daily. Endless chemical bombardment and brutal poisoned fangs or blades would see to plummeting morale. A great depression that cast itself upon Supremus warriors who had slain too many humans to count, the blood of those they were to shelter and preserve staining their fur. Everyone had gotten involved in the war at this point, Polity and Republican conscripts running low as their populations were stricken low. And everyone had noticed that the only front in which they could be called gaining non-pyrrhic victories was on the southern front.
More emergency powers would be given to Governor-General Ogedei in these desperate dozen years of war, passed through the Senate in record breaking speeds. With every major victory he gained in the south, the more power he was given. Accentuating this, Ogedei’s swift action to transport all humans to the capital of Terra Supremus was lauded as a decisive action to safeguard their charges. Detractors would be swiftly dealt with under cries of carelessness for humanity’s seed, and for some, with cries of heresy. To turn the war around, a hopeful Federation turned towards its seemingly greatest leader. Despite the weak protests of the once Greater States, who had now long since diminished in power and influence with their crippled populations, defeats in the east and west as well as the rising assassinations of various humans of import in supposed safe places, the Senate passed several constitutional amendments to give the Governor-General the power as a Supreme Leader. The Khan.
Ogedei Khan, as he was now known, set to finish the war. To stop the heresy of human blood staining Supremus fur. To stop the madman, the crazed, the scion-killer Caesar. The probing back and forth within the south became a lightning fast counteroffensive, the Khan's newly dubbed Legionnaires smashing through the weaker southern Imperial battle lines and circling back to bolster the east and west.
At the siege of Roma-Greek, the Polity city-state, among the broken pillars of a new Parthenon, the first siege would be broken and the Imperials would be pushed back on the eastern front for the first time in years. These Legionnaires would be lauded as heroes, beleaguered conscripts with decrepit automatons witnessed these disciplined legionnaires toeing with beasts, weathering chemical storms and fighting against the harshest poisons. They were lauded as merciful and kind, with every human encountered taken away from their careless Supremus allies for re-education. Unknown to them, as the years went on, the Khan had further genetically enhanced his personal soldiery to have greater resistance against their foes. The stage was set and the war would reach its final stages. Suffering crippling defeat after crippling defeat, often retreating at the mere sight of the Khan's forces especially when Imperial humans were among them, the Imperials were routed back into their jungle. The free apes would celebrate the announcement of the war's final battle, with Ogedei hailed as a hero and protector. Ogedei the Merciful.
Upon victory, Ogedei the Merciful released several quick reformations with his ascension as Khan. The Senate would be kept as council to him and every Hegemon following, thus keeping each nation as sovereign entities which would stay in charge of their own domestic affairs and governance. Even the idea of a supermajority ruling of no-confidence was kept in place but the Oligarchy as an institution was done away with. The Khan is kept in check by the Senate but has larger powers with controlling foreign affairs, greater executive powers in vetoing laws passed by the Senate and control of a Federation-wide Legion which could attack as well as defend. The Khan would finalise the transfer of all humans into Terra Supremus, writing this into the newly formed Khanate’s constitution. Safeguarding them. Protecting them. Restricting them?
Individual militaries would be allowed for each nation but limited to a certain percentage of the nation's citizen population. Terra Supremus would be refitted into a mobile capital and home of the Senate. The Khan will only be focused on matters of foreign affairs and domestic peace, having a large military legion with an oath to defend the rights of each sovereign nation if breached (with exceptions). A Federal Monarchy as it were, with all leaders swearing upon the Khan and the Khan swearing to protect each of their ape peoples and their sovereignty. Technology could be kept individually between city-states but trade was encouraged. Minor conflicts can occur between nations but is kept in check by the overview of the Khan. Tribute is sent regularly to Terra Supremus by eager nations seeking the approval of the Khan, to gain better standing in the Senate and hold better sway as advisors. The Khan is made essential to protect against threats foreign and domestic, those who seek to undermine the continued freedom of the Supremus to largely govern themselves. The Khan is made essential to protect their charges, to educate humanity’s direct descendants, to fill their bellies, to keep them away from threats known and unknown.
And thus a new age of prosperity began. With the Khan's legions protecting against possible incursions from the jungles, another age of rebuilding, expansion and innovation could begin. With the end of the War to End All Wars came a large population boom and great confidence in the protection of the Khan. The scars of war were removed from the vast Neo-Earth savanna, replaced by carefully planned, permanent cities, environment-conscious agriculture and improved solar and wind farms. Mining projects would bring greater resource wealth, fueling inventions and architectural wonders from humanity's histories. Competition between nations would fuel these great leaps forward, under the wise and guided tutelage of the Khan of course. Education would continue as the caretaker's had taught them but with increased focus on the history of the nations under the Khan. Under the Khan’s wise rule and careful hand, the withering population of Homo Sapiens Sapiens were cradled into greater numbers. Pride in being a Supremus was at an all time high.
The title of Khan would pass through another two generations, staying focused on developing New Gift and quelling dissidents to the peace. Space technology was theorised and reverse engineers but ignored to focus more on their new home. Cultural works of humanity would continue to be redeveloped in painstaking detail, copies of old landmarks and large historical libraries serving as tourist destinations. Developing light but highly durable alloys, more effective modular cities and industrial complexes which could move quicker than before. Sprawling city-states would dot the northern savanna of Gaia and eventually as this crowded, some others would move to the southern savanna of Tellus. These states would be few and far between due to presence of roving bands of former Imperial bandit-kings, having fake claims of sharing blood with the Caesars of old. No true son of Caesar has come out of the jungles. No Imperial human would be seen again.
It would seem reasonable to destroy the jungle or make a final crusade against the Imperials. And many state-heads did pose the question to their leader. But as every Khan would reason, such an effort would be resource-draining at best and cause permanent ecological damage at worst. Let the outsiders sit in their uncivilised jungle dens, obviously failing to safeguard the humans they had with them, until they starve themselves out or revert back to a more primitive nature.
For Khublai Khan, second son of Möngke the Builder, his eyes were set to new horizons. As with many Khans before him, he was ambitious and looked to set himself apart from his predecessors. He could approve of the conservation and infrastructure projects set by his father but he felt greatness can be found further afield. On the 500th Year since Landing, an opportunity came with the sudden opening of the gateway.
Culture and Society: A number of different cultures and societies are under the Khan's purview, making the Khanate seem as fractious as the old Austro-Hungarian Empire. Many apes of the many different nations call their ancestry back to a first generation Supremus whose personalities were based on 31,500 different great minds from across human history. Their creation and uplift was so the Supremus could be humanity's legacy to the stars, thus the variety respects that. City-states within the Federal Khanate are largely self-governed and citizens are bound by the rules within those city-states. Societal and cultural norms can vary largely. Sometimes, it appears that the only things binding the nations together is the oath to the Khan, an equal respect and feeling of supremacy for humanity and a fear of flying. The vast majority are based on human examples throughout history.
The title of "Greater State" is a largely informal one, referring to a city-state's abundant wealth, technology, standing with the Khan and ability to influence other states. Often, the more you have of one, the other attributes will follow. The ability of a state to attract citizens only increases with age, standing and increased opportunities. This title is not held forever though and can be torn away quickly. Ways a Greater State can lose its standing can include political mishaps in the Senate, scandals, significant loss in approved conflicts, declaring conflict with another state without approval of the Khan, bloody coups or an outbreak of ape-eating snakes, among many. Once one state is brought low, there will be five others trying to take its place. As of present time, the Greater States are:
The Republic of Freemen - A democratic republic founded by Jean-Jacque Rousseau and the only continuous Greater State since the old Federation. Republicans are often seen as a very free people with liberal and radical views as in line with the city state's founder. European architecture of the Enlightenment era dot the cityscape, green parks and regularly held festivals interspersed within. Art and the exploration of Enlightenment era beliefs and culture is taught within their schools and French revolution-era clothing has recently taken to the apes there. Citizens have disdain towards the more brutish and unenlightened states, preferring the intellectual and "modern" ones. Republicans have a "social contract" in which citizens should be held to the general will of the people in the city so despite their apparent freedom, conformity is more the norm here. They use the greatest amount of automatons within their military and in their society, holding the largest power-bloc in the Senate. Though some outsiders claim that their greatest contributes to the Khanate are their powdered wigs and itchy clothing, it is their automaton technology which is the backbone of their industry. No finer, more ape-like automatons can be found and they range from purposes in war, service, guarding, transport and labour.
The Conservation League - An oligarchy founded by a group of like-minded, environmentally conscious individuals aiming to prevent the destruction wrought on Earth finding itself on New Gift. This state is focused on the preservation and conservation of native fauna and is incredibly single minded in its task. The oligarchy-system of governance was formed to rid of the ineffective slowness of democratic human nations in addressing climate change. They have the most efficient solar and wind technology, distributing to many of the other city states in the Federal Khanate. The Conservationists are also adept at genetics and sustainable agricultural efforts, creating more efficient crops and advanced procedures to make lab-grown meat for the more adventurous ape. Surprisingly, they hold the highest number of approved conflicts out of any present Greater State. They go, for the lack of a better term, "apeshit" at any perceived attempts to hinder their efforts in conserving the planet. They use genetically enhanced ape soldiers to great effect, second in advancements only to the Legion. With holding much of the moral high ground to the eyes of the Senate, enemies of the League fall quickly. The only reason they have not been denounced by an annoyed Khan is because of their enthusiastic support for the regime due to its own conservation efforts.
The Lost Humanist Theocracy - Some religious inclinations made their way to humanity's inheritors but the largest of these religions are of Human-worship. In particular, remembrance-worship of those who could not be afforded the "Path to Reincarnation" as the first generation Supremus had. Thus followers of this religion are absurdly focused on the positive features of human nature, revering the spirits of those left behind. Walking through Humanist architecture is akin to taking a step backwards in time, as they largely look down upon most forms of ape-made technology and they forsake many of the regular genetic enhancements given to Supremus simians. "For how useful were they, for those spirits left behind." This guilt-type of reverence and "lost" spirit worship is shared among a number of apes outside the Theocracy's limits but their more radical ideas (forsaking genetic enhancement and ape technology) are largely frowned upon. They claim to not view the current humans as literal gods yet speak about them in hushed whispers, with many a worshipper making pilgrimage to Terra Supremus to see the last vestiges of some of the greatest humans. The scions of their parents, the direct descendants of their caretakers, the final untouched humans. They have many missions throughout New Gift as free teachers, healers and advisors, seeking to atone and relieve their guilt, appeasing their Human Spirits. This is counter to the usual trend of supremacist views among Supremus. Their current standing comes from the spread of their religion to outside of the city's borders and the recent addition to their clergy, the third son of Khublai Khan, Sartaq. They deny and outwardly revile the idea of a "hidden inquisition" which protects missionaries outside their borders, keeping only an unarmed police force for visitors and a small dedicated team of bodyguards. Despite their recent rise in popularity, this cult-like city-state is still viewed with suspicion by other states of greater or equivalent power.
The Frontier Nations - Not a single state per se but a term collectively referring to nations that reside in untamed Tellus. These frontier city-states are attractive to the young, adventurous and foolhardy, seeking to escape the more "crowded" civilisation of Gaia. Frontier nations which last are hardy, bloodied and resourceful with a grudging camaraderie between nations who also last. Moving in mobile minor cities, they can pack up and run quickly once they spot bandits or rivals coming at them. Life in the frontier is hard but can be rewarding, with much of the savanna left untouched and resources aplenty. Often times, fallen city-states who seek to gain their standing once again become a Frontier Nation. A significant example of this is the Polity which, after the misfortunes that befell it in the Great War, sought to regain its status as a Greater State once more. They form a small but not insignificant power bloc in the Senate, with many apes respecting their hardiness and drive to survive. Some view them with disdain.
Humans – Oh to be Human. What a strange thing to be. A million souls, a mighty number indeed but nothing compared to the untold millions of Supremus with unmatched virility. To be human in the Khanate is to be protected. Safeguarded. Worshipped. Controlled. Restrained. Beyond their teachers, monastery-mothers and guards, many of these humans will not touch another’s fur. They will not reside in anything other than the vast Terra Supremus monasteries they are born in, live in and die in. To be Human is to be fed till their bellies were full and to be taught by the greatest minds in all of human history. To be Human is to be treated as trophies, a testament to the strength of the Khan. Their daily lives are controlled to the minute, ensuring that each human will be as perfect as genetically possible, for to be any less would bring shame to the Khan. To a normal ape, to see a human is a rare occasion, only on planetwide holidays would the greatest orators among them appear on the myriad States, speaking affection for their Supremus caretakers and inheritors. To be human was to be loved. To be human was to be caged – ultimately having no power in this nation of apes.
The banner of the Khan, as chosen by Ogedei the Old
Governance and Politics:
"We swear ourselves to the Khan and they swear their selves to us."
The Federal Khanate describes itself perfectly; a federation consisting of nations which swears itself to the Khan. The Khan has ultimate control over foreign affairs and defence, enforces the rules of the constitution, the largest military and swears to uphold the sovereignty, supremacy and rights of the people. The title of "Khan" is not hereditary, though most past Khans have chosen their firstborn sons as imminent heir as matter of preference. Instead, a Khan will name their list of successors within their will in their order of preference. There is no choice for the chosen as the Khan's will is granted constitutional rights. Thus a Khan will often groom their successor over many years, preparing them for their rule. The title cannot be passed down to any current or past leaders of city states and thus Khan's have all come from the bloodline of Yesugei. In the horrid event that none of the chosen successors are alive at the time of the Khan's death (unlikely because the list of successors have often become over a hundred names long), the Senate will hold a vote to choosing a prominent ape to succeed.
There are some federal guidelines for apes seeking to found their own nation, to join the 1,738 already present. Some semblance of order must be established as anarchic states have the tendency to crumble in on itself thus the Khan requires a set of written laws and an official banner to represent itself. Conflicts should be avoided but are allowed as long as both parties seek the approval of the Khan and the matter is isolated. Yearly gatherings of the Senate, times when the Khan calls for a Senate hearing and gatherings in times of emergency (such as when a Khan dies) are mandatory sessions. The title of senator cannot be bestowed on any current leader of a city-state to prevent disruption. Coups must be contained and trade agreements made by the defending government must be made until the coup is sorted out. Any disruptions to the rest of the Khanate is met with the swift boot of the Legion. Speaking of, a certain detachment of Legion forces must be present within the city perimeter at all times and any attempt to coerce, eliminate or impede them is treated with extreme prejudice. The leader/s or most prominent figure must swear upon the constitution and swear to the Khan, similarly to any new senators otherwise their state is considered to have ceded from the Khanate. States are also constricted to a set amount of territory and can petition the Khan for more land only during the yearly Senate gatherings. Otherwise, the laws of the land can vary greatly between city states.
Individual crimes can be punished differently between states. Thievery can result in the loss of the hand or a pat on the back. In some corporate states, white collar crime is punished more severely than murder. In many religious and theocratic states, sins are the law equivalent and in some, are seen as an affront to their God-King or Goddess-Queen. The difference in governance between the different states can create cutthroat politics, with seasoned Senators becoming expert politicians and some grudge lists becoming long enough to circle the world (see: The Conservation League). Some states even actively take in escaped prisoners as an insult to another, as long as the Khan approves. The aim of every Minor State is to become a Greater one and the aim of every Greater State is to stay in their position, creating conflict.
Order is maintained by the Khan but small approved conflicts or dueling between ruling classes are common enough to be seen as normal. This chaos results in significant changes in the Senate regularly and can confuse outsiders. The only official federal land claimed by the Khan is Terra Supremus and the equatorial jungles of New Gift. Only approved citizens and soldiers are allowed to visit the latter though that does not stop the Imperials, bandits and runaways. The only federal crimes that an ape can commit is attempted assault/murder of a Khan and his successors, any criminal offence against a Khanate-protected human, infiltration of a monastery, bringing harm to any monastery staff, federal treason, secession, disruption of the common peace/trade and slavery. These crimes are met with the appropriate force to extinguish it from existence.
Technology Overview: As with everything in the Khanate, technology can vary greatly as well. With the vast number of states come different wealth, technology and sometimes, acceptance of technology. The apes have tended to neglect space technology until recently, having only communication and weather satellites due to the focus on developing the land of New Gift. Overall, the technology level is similar to what they started with some developing trends over the years:
Conservation - The influence of Earth's downfall affect the Supremus apes greatly. They have an extensive genetic library of old Earth fauna stored but no cloning, beyond infertile pets such as dogs and cats, have occurred to preserve native fauna. Every ape conserves this legacy and intends to conserve their current home as well. Great attempts have been made to conserve the natural ecosystem of New Gift with very few permanent cities being established, many states opting for moving, modular cities atop trusty tracks to prevent disruption to animal migrations (despite the active hostility of many of these animals). Similarly, most agriculture is kept limited and genetically enhanced to be as productive in as small an area as possible, kept in mobile greenhouses to prevent cross-pollination with native plants. The term "conservation" generally means the conservation of environment, human history and culture.
Genetics - With the availability of each species' DNA map and the technology to modify it, genetic manipulation is common among the apes and even among humans. It is widely acceptable to modify oneself or offspring to be better though greater advancements are often closely guarded secrets of states (except to the Khan). Modifications to humans within their fortified monasteries were seen as natural, to ensure their survival and allow them to have perfect lives. Enhancements can range from increased physical attributes, an ability to stay awake longer, better senses, an inability to feel pain (for the crazy) to even enhanced fertility. The latter seems to be utilised by the Khans heavily as they foster many children.
Variety - The sheer variety of different states means technological focus can vary drastically. With encouraged trade between states, nations are often sharing their own specialised technology in exchange for something they need. For example, the Conservation League are experts at conservative and environmentally friendly power sources but lack some of the knowledge on the automaton labourers found in a state such as the Republic. They could try to reverse-engineer their own but this is seen as a more expensive endeavour compared to simply trading for the most advanced goods. That is to say, most minor city-states enjoy a mediocre set of technologies and are viewed as more "standard".
Military Overview: Conflict has evolved drastically since the lumbering automatons, mass wave tactics and trench warfare of the War to End All Wars. Every significant enough city-state has a military, otherwise having to rely on detachments of the Khan's legionnaires for defense. But the focus, tactics and ability of said militaries can vary significantly. They do focus on an important factor in the conflicts which pepper the Khanate: mobility. The ability to strike first, fine manoeuvres around the enemy, ambushes and changing battle lines. The modern Supremus simian soldier is armed with a truckload of communication and infortmation technology and any military worth their salt will have a BattleNet to highlight enemy troop movements, possible false flag attacks and lay out orders instantly. Sometimes, organic soldiers are replaced by advanced automatons capable of accepting orders instantly at the behest of a detached Commander. Clashes occur often in the lower streets of moving cities, in mobile savanna outposts and often, between moving military command centers. The defeat of an opponent is usually marked either by a significant destruction or capture of an opponents asset, death of the main military commander or taking the conflict to the point that it is seen as costly for the opponent to continue. As varied as the individual states' militaries are, there is serious standardisation among the Khan's personal military arm - the Legion.
The Khan acts as the supreme commander of the largest and most advanced military on New Gift. There are over 1,000,000 active duty Legionnaires split between the 100 different divisions of the Legion, with a further 110,000 strong auxiliaries as part of the Expeditionary Corps. Each division is generally made up of a mixed-troop of mechanised, mobile forces each with their own air and armor support. Led by a Divisional-General, each legion must be able to be largely self-sustainable for at least a year, with Expeditionary Corps needing to be fully self-sustaining for upwards to three years. Doing so increases the mobility of each legion and its divided military organisations so that they are able to operate as one. They have the most advanced mobile command centers and BattleNets available, the Legion priding themselves upon their individual soldier's intuition. Consequently, they often look down upon automatons in their rigidness, only using them in aerial combat and support because of the innate fear of flying simians have. Their warfare is that of constant movement to encircle, ambush and outmaneouvre, having mainly been focused on eliminating bandit-kings and the like. The standard genetic enhancements of a Legionnaire include heightened senses, increased endurance, agility and intellect. To become a Legionnaire one must survive these procedures as well as pass several difficult physical and mental team challenges known colloquially as the Grid. To become a Legionnaire was to be a Supremus, for no self-respecting Khan would ever allow the shedding of human blood like the foolish Caesar. Upon becoming a Legionnaire, they are typically stationed to the different nation-states, most in the smaller states to defend it from hostile fauna or bandit simians.
Eleven divisions, as well as the entire Auxiliary Corps, are labelled as Expeditionary Corps. These are aspects of the Legion focused on actively engaging within the equatorial jungles and frontier-states in Tellus. Both the divisions and the Auxiliaries, who are volunteers from militaries across the states, are tasked with defending the sovereign rights of the frontier states as well as seeking those who intend to subvert them. Targets include Imperial remnants, Bandit-Kings and extremely hostile native fauna. They actively seek these targets frequently, often sending expeditions into the jungles to get to the source of the problem. This is the most dangerous job in the Khanate as it takes the Legionnaire out of the civilisation of northern Gaia and into the rougher parts of Munus where anything can be hostile. Often, the jungle canopy can be too thick for command to reach squads thus many are lost on patrols. Their lives in the hands of vengeful imperials, bandits and vicious beasts, are met with a brutal end. The goals of these expeditions is to ultimately exterminate secessionist activity within New Gift and tame the jungles, through the establishment of Mobile Stability Bases to patrol throughout these hostile lands. Great strides have been made but to many others outside the Legion, the Expeditionary Corps are more like respectable glory hounds.
There are whispers of muscle-bound soldiers, equal in mass of even the elephants of old Earth, prowling in Legionnaire armour and wielding weapons of unspeakable power. An open secret of the Khanate's Legion. A breed of super-warriors with muscles on muscles, a vision of perfect martial might and unparalleled military acumen. For each would be seen as worthy of scores of Legionnaires by their lonesome. There are rumours of street orphans being taken from the poorest city states. There are rare glimpses of the black ships which ship them to the isolated city of Terra Supremus. There are obvious signs of death, with many small caskets shipped to the capital on a daily basis. To connect those whispers, rumours and signs was to be associated with treason and so many, even children of the Khan himself, kept their jaws shut tight in public. But to the military-minded apes of the Khanate, their forums would be filled with speculation, profiles hidden from the ever-watchful eyes of the Khanate with virtual private networks. Allegedly, at least. But even the most conspiratorial of these apes dismissed the most ridiculous of claims. Humans, walking among these giants, armed and just as muscle bound as the rest. How ridiculous.
A standard Legionnaire in their stark-white armour Two examples of Legionnaire Heavy Weapons support. From left to right: Antipersonnel and anti-armour An example of an Expeditionary Corps Legionnaire Reformed American military propaganda A typical ape automaton Modern samurai chimpanzee with a genetically enhanced sword-hand, keeping the peace in New Nippon
Legion Armoured Personnel Carrier. The turret can be replaced by an armoured dome on the top for a Heavy Weapons Legionnaire to put their turret through Legion Main Battle Tank Standard Legion Air Support Drone
Terra Supremus on approach towards New Gift
On Humans and Gateways: To most apes, there is the opinion of great paternalistic respect, sometimes worship, for humans. To the Supremus, they inherited their legacy and were created to continue it and to safeguard the last of their seed. There is, however, a certain supremacy every ape holds over the presumably fragile humans. They believe themselves superior, as they are taught they are. The existence of other human colonies is widely known but dismissed to be inferior and genetically diminished from the carefully orchestrated lines of Khanate human descendants. The only “true” humans left were cloistered in their monasteries, given untold riches and services a normal Supremus could only dream of. The Gateways merely represent an opportunity for the Supremus, to take the true legacy of the humans to the stars. For less hostile frontiers and chances to expand. The first step to Earth is merely to see their ancestral homelands, seen as culturally significant but not in other ways. A dead world gives no bounty to them.
The Theocracy's city-state wandering Gaia Conservation League on the move
Beijing-class Legion Mobile Military Base Standard Legion Mobile Artillery Standard Legion Gunship Drone Revolution-class Heavy Support Automaton Standard Legion Mobile Mechanised Support Ship
Member
esqueleto
Tortoise
Enigmatik
Megsychan
Izurich
Venus
AlteredTundra
Timemaster
