Re: [OT] - Xenology - Story driven PBW.
 

But when does Othaglot and Cane return? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif

[OT] - Xenology - Story driven PBW.
 

This is the pre-game back story for my empire in the Xenology game on PBW.

*************************************************

Sensing a change in the rhythm of the craft’s grinding progress, Kleesh snapped back into wakefulness. Fragmentary remnants of dreams clung to her mind as the technician called out depth readings, and she barked him a few curt orders. Her courtiers displayed a suitable amount of awe, firstly at the level of coolness required to sleep during such a strange and unique voyage, and secondly at her immediate and absolute authority over the cowering technical functionary.

“We have broken through to the water, My Lady.” Offered the technician.
“Very well. Reverse a few lengths and open the hatch.” She felt a satisfaction that was quite unfamiliar to her: This technology had the potential to solve the overcrowding problem that had plagued her people for a dozen generations. If she could prove its usefulness she would be favoured by her people and her parents, and would almost certainly be selected as heir.

Kleesh slithered out into the darkness of the tunnel gouged into the ice sheet by the revolutionary vehicle. Below her lay a deep, warm ocean harbouring a bounty of exotic life. That ocean covered the entire planet, and it in turn was completely covered by the thick ice layer that Kleesh’s machine had just bored through. Kilometres above, beyond the uncountable tons of ancient frost that encased her, she knew there to be a frozen, thinly-atmosphered vista, lit by a distant sun and populated by only the hardiest flora and shaggiest fauna. She saw nothing irreconcilable in these two extremes, for the ice tunnels that joined these two worlds were home to her and as a princess of the KanesS, she was a mistress of all.

The technicians left the tunneller to inspect the freshly exposed waters while Kleesh’s courtiers gathered excitedly about her, chattering and competing for her favour with their frivolities. She wondered how she could so recently have considered these inane sycophants her closest friends. Although they were her contemporaries, their behaviour seemed so… juvenile. It occurred to her that the responsibilities of her birth and peculiarities of her upbringing must have matured her more quickly.

Irritated by their lack of occasion, she wrapped her tail tightly around the throat of the nearest courtier and snipped sharply at his face. He retreated, wounded and confused and Kleesh almost regretted her harshness. Her target had been Slekell, a friend since hatchling and one of the more thoughtful and tolerable individuals in her social circle. She drove all thoughts of pity out of her mind, reminding herself that the authority here was hers and that she had a duty to assert it.

Kleesh led them all towards the water, talking as she did so.
“Friends, this is a historic event. What we are about to discover may hold the key to the future of our people.”
“Really Kleesh,” piped up ZakleSs, one of the more air-headed nobles in the group, “It’s just a scavenging party, we do this all the time. You can be so melodramatic sometimes.”
Kleesh turned slowly to ZakleSs, and briefly considered tearing her throat out. She might just get away with it now, but ten generations ago it would have been expected. Five generations before that she’d have been entitled to auction off the corpse for meat. People still turned a blind eye if you ate the occasional rival or irritating neighbour, but things had changed since the old days.

“We need to find new food sources, ZakleSs, or very soon the peasants will start to starve.”
“So let them starve. I have plenty to eat.”
“Yes.” Replied Kleesh, “I know that. And so do the peasants. And that’s why, when they get hungry enough, they will come and take your food from you. Then, when they’ve taken your food they will come for you and chew you down into pellets for their hatchlings.”
It was utterly dark in the artificial cave, but each was acutely aware of the presence of the others due to a highly developed sonar sense. Therefore they were all well aware of the long glare she directed at each one in turn, hoping to drive her words home.

“The part of the ocean we will scavenge in today has never been explored before.” She said, breaking the silence at Last. “This won’t be like diving for food back home. We have no idea what we’ll find down here, but you’d better hope it tastes better than you do.”
“It still seems like a lot of trouble to go to for a bunch of stupid peasants.” Whined ZakleSs. “Why can’t we just let them devour one-another? I’m sure they’d prefer it to that horrid farmed food I hear they live on. Imagine that! Having to eat something raised and killed for you on a farm! If I didn’t have scavenging rights I think I’d just die.”

Kleesh turned on her again. “We can’t let them eat each other because that’s how the Red Plague is spread, you idiot. We’d all be dead within a decade. Besides, the only way we managed to stop them feeding on one another in the first place was to tell them that killing KanesS is evil. No-one thought they’d take it so seriously. I heard yesterday that some plebs are raising entire broods to adulthood- they won’t even eat a single hatchling.”

A murmur of disgust passed through the assembled group, and for a moment Kleesh thought perhaps she had got through to them, that perhaps they realised the gravity of the situation. But then conversation turned again to idle gossip and she knew that they just wouldn’t understand. Even if it came to a civil war or popular uprising and these mindless fops found themselves at the wrong end of a tunnel-pick, they would be more confused than terrified.

But it was to be expected. Most of the old ruling class were stuck in a mindset that should have died decades ago. Kleesh was unusual in that she was one of the few enlightened individuals within the nobility that actually recognised the precarious nature of their current domination. Ironically, her superior understanding stemmed from a supposedly inferior education. With over six hundred royal offspring to raise, the current monarchs had sent some of the more difficult princes and princesses- Kleesh included- to middle-class schools. As it happens, only the industrious middle class- the social grouping immediately below the nobility- were at once educated enough and close enough to the real world to stand any chance of appreciating the true state of KanesS society. Rather than sink into a pit of shame and depression like many of her similarly exiled siblings, Kleesh had studied hard, listened carefully and learned a great deal. Now that she was an adult with a unique combination of perspective and position, she saw herself as the Last chance for the survival of her society.

Once it became clear that the Red Plague was spread by cannibalism, laws and social engineering were introduced to clamp down on the practise, effectively eliminating the two biggest causes of KanesS mortality in a single stroke. The inevitable result was an immediate and dramatic population explosion.

Population density rocketed in every populated area, and with the KanesS’ reliance on carefully crafted ice-tunnels, new living space simply could not be constructed quickly enough. These crowded new conditions meant that it was no longer practical for everyone to go out and scavenge their own food- the local eco-systems simply couldn’t support it- so mass-distribution systems had to be developed practically overnight to bring in food from more remote areas. Suddenly, individuals had to actually raise currency in order to eat, and on several occasions it was only a brutal and well-disciplined military that prevented the starving masses from tearing society back down to a state of anarchy.

Fortunately, the KanesS are a resourceful people, and the middle classes capitalised on the cheap and abundant workers to provide a range of profitable solutions to the problems of the new social and economic structure. Tunnel-digging machines were a particularly successful industry, and several generations of development had led to this newest model, funded by Kleesh herself, which could breach even dense polar ice and consequently open up new areas for living space and food production. With an unregulated new economy to exploit, a vast workforce to draw from and a massive market to sell to, the highly competitive business sector made incredible technological advances in a very short time, and the KanesS raced through the industrial age in the space of just a few generations.

Of course, not everything can progress so quickly. The social structures on which KanesS society had been built since the dawn of their civilisation were hopelessly inadequate. The attitudes of the sheltered nobility were outstripped by social and economic change almost as quickly as food sources were outstripped by snowballing population growth. They held on to their power and opulent lifestyle by simple rule of force and a dangerous misconception of their own superiority. The industrialised middle classes were growing in wealth and influence, while the working classes grew in numbers and discontentment. Food levels would soon be insufficient for the planet’s population, and sooner or later the soft, ignorant nobility would find itself pushed out of the equation.

Kleesh understood all this, and that was shy she was determined to find a new source of food and ease the pressures on her crumbling society, and in so doing secure her own future as queen. With this broad agenda on her mind, she led the scavenging party into the cold, lightless polar waters.

*************************************************

An old bull surk limped across the ice plains, each laboured breath steaming before it in the thin atmosphere. His shaggy, blood-matted fur hid thousands of scars, most of them acquired in his prime when he had ruled this territory with absolute confidence, the most ferocious predator above the ice for a hundred kilometres. However the more significant scars, the ones causing him to limp and occasionally growl with pain, those wounds had been inflicted only recently, and they were killing him. After a reign of almost a hundred seasons, this king of the wilderness had been finally usurped. An upstart rival- younger, fitter and faster- had fought him for his lands and females and won. Now, with a painful wound to his hind midleg, he was unable to hunt and was gradually fading away, hobbling painfully to the fringes of his old territory. Finally, exhausted after days of hungry walking, the old beast lay down to rest for the Last time. It would be a slow death, but at least it would be peaceful one, its life gradually ebbing away beneath the settling snow.

It was Kleesh’s keen senses that first noticed it. A whiff of blood on the wind, an intangible sense that somewhere close by, something was helpless and dying. She called Shkimsk back. The elder KanesS looked puzzled for an instant, then raised his snout into the air, scenting the wind. No further communication was necessary- the two of them and their servants lowered serpentine bodies to the ice and slithered upwind, stopping occasionally to sniff the air and confirm their direction.

It took them a considerable amount of time to find the surk, by now just a snowy mound with odd patches of exposed brown fur. They stopped some distance away to evaluate the situation.
“He’s obviously been there for some time.” Said Kleesh. “And he’s definitely wounded.”
“Yes, Princess.” Replied her companion. “That’s why we should be careful. If he’s wounded, he won’t be able to hunt down prey. He might resort to trickery to catch his food.”
“You think this could be a trap, Shkimsk? Are they really that intelligent?”
“Some of the older ones can be. One snap of those jaws and we’d both be behind his teeth.”
They watched the monster for a while, noting the shallow breathing and staying carefully downwind at all times. Eventually, they decided it was worth the risk.
Shkimsk insisted on going first, not wanting to endanger the Princess unnecessarily. He slithered cautiously toward the predator, ready to flee at any moment. He stopped, just out of the animal’s reach, taking time to study it more closely. Its eyes were half closed, glazed and insensible. A pool of spittle had formed under the massive head and the stink of death was unmistakable. Shkimsk circled the Surk, carefully selecting the safest angle of attack. This animal was hundreds of time heavier than he was. Its head alone measured a greater length than an average KanesS from nose to tail. Shkimsk struck, biting the prone animal on its foot and darting immediately away. It flinched slightly and made a small noise of discomfort.
Kleesh came quickly to his side, and they exchanged a look. They both bit at it this time, inflicting deeper and more painful wounds before springing to safety. Although the Surk stirred again, it clearly did not have the strength to resist them. Hesitating only to exchange another quick glance, they dived into the soft belly with abandon, burrowing through fur and then flesh, causing rumblings of pain from their dying victim.

When they had eaten their fill, they allowed their servants to feed and then called back to the nearest city. Such an animal could easily feed hundreds of KanesS, and a collection team would come out to haul the animal back to the tunnels. By rights, Kleesh could have kept it for herself to hold a feast for her aristocratic friends. As it happened, she didn’t like many of her aristocratic friends, so she sold it for a very reasonable sum to a distributor, who would auction shares of the carcass to the working classes.

Kleesh and Shkimsk curled up atop the beast, nestling in its thick coat and watching the stars. They had been friends ever since Kleesh had met a few of Shkimsk’s sons at school. He was more than three times her age, a successful entrepreneur and a keen investor in new technologies. He owned a number of mining operations on the sea bed, three digging firms, some farming interests and he also had a couple of theatres in Narrowhead, one of the larger urban tunnel networks. With Kleesh’s funding, it had been Shkimsk’s newly-formed research division that had developed the high-density ice-digger that had recently allowed them to explore the polar areas of the ocean. Unfortunately the yield from that venture had been slight. There was precious little food to be found there, although the ability to dig living space in the previously inaccessibly dense polar depths had at least paid for the cost of development.

“Thankyou for this opportunity, Princess.” He said, finally breaking a satisfied silence that seemed to have Lasted for days. “Even a person of my wealth and influence finds it hard to get scavenging rights without help from the nobility.”
“Not at all, Shkimsk. I’d prefer the company of one worldly industrialist like you to the yammering of a dozen egotistical nobles any day. Besides, I wanted to talk to you about another business venture.” She nestled further back into the warm fur and began turning, rubbing herself against the carcass to clean the blood from her lithe body.
“Really Princess? I sincerely hope I can be of service.”
“I have a friend- well, an acquaintance really- anyway, his name is Slekell. He’s a little vain, but he can be quite interesting at times. Tell me, what do you know about astronomy?”
“Astronomy, Princess? Only that it is the study of the sky above the ice, little more. As I understand it there are no practical uses for such knowledge- it is a simple curiosity.”
“That was exactly my understanding until I began talking to Slekell a little while ago. You see, he’s interested in this astronomy business, and he gave me an idea.”

Kleesh ordered her servants to bring forward the telescope she had borrowed from Slekell. As they struggled to haul it up onto the bull surk's violated body Kleesh coiled herself into the fur again and stared ambitiously at the richly speckled sky. As she stared she talked and her companion listened intently, learning for the first time about the other worlds in their star system, the empty void between them and the possibility of the KanesS people escaping their own fragile globe.

[ June 03, 2003, 08:31: Message edited by: dogscoff ]

Re: [OT] - Xenology - Story driven PBW.
 

Soon, probably. My writing fingers are getting itchy again, and so I will probably have another spasm of O&C production soon.

I'm also working on something else, but that's top top top secret.

In the meantime, what do you think of this? Do you think it will be possible to sympathise with a race of cannibalistic ice-snakes?

Re: [OT] - Xenology - Story driven PBW.
 

Nice work, 'scoff. Are we to refer to the Amon-krie(sp?) racial portrait during this tale? I can put aside the dozens of times I obliterated them... and try and sympathize with them. They need to find new beings to eat. No big deal.
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: [OT] - Xenology - Story driven PBW.
 

Excellent story, Dogscoff. You are a master storyteller.

Re: [OT] - Xenology - Story driven PBW.
 

Thanks guys.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Actually, it's more like this:
http://www.dogscoff.co.uk/images/Kan...e_Portrait.gif http://www.dogscoff.co.uk/images/Kan...teInfantry.gif

[ May 29, 2003, 08:42: Message edited by: dogscoff ]

Re: [OT] - Xenology - Story driven PBW.
 

Great stuff as always Big Dawg.

What is it not to love about a race of cannibalistic ice-snakes?

Re: [OT] - Xenology - Story driven PBW.
 

Xenology pbw game
Pre-game backstory

Warning, translator has made every effort to translate this historical account into Terran, but nonetheless, some items will not translate well. Remember, this is merely a Terran translation, which must suffer the flaw of leaving out any ideas inexpressible in its language. Nuance is the most unreliable thing to translate, while facts are the easiest.

Robotia Foundation
2396.8 years, Creators' Calendar

"Citizen, you are on the property of
3x's89029x's Road Conduit Company. You must express your intent to use us as your travel conduit, or leave this property, within 25 seconds," the sales officer for the Road Conduit Company intoned. He looked at the young citizen and potential customer closely. "You have 15 seconds."

"What is your charge for pedestrian access through to the capital city?"

"Five seconds. The charge is .003 Mineral dolars, citizen. Citizen..."

"I accept you as travel conduit."

"Good, please authorize this charge of .003 Mineral dollars. Recharging stations are at one kilometer intervals along the capital pedestrian access road."

The traveller presented a recently printed identification card. The officer read it as follows,
Name: 15x's12907x's9383676x
Informal Name: Zelleck
Date Created: 2383.7

Current Information

Age: 13.1
Phase: Early Post-Factory
Wealth:
Access Authorized to view

.010 Mineral dollars
15x's12907x Factory Bank

END

The officer interlinked with the financial account for 3x's89029x's Road Conduit Company. THe charge was taken, and the Young Citizen was shown to the capital road with travel access in the conduit for .008 years.

Zelleck, or 15x's12907x's9383676x, found himself outside for the first time, when he had been accosted by that sales officer. Time is money and money is virtue. Zelleck remembered that slogan from class at the Citizen Factory. Zelleck was created in a Factory owned by 15x's12907x.

Zelleck began his trip down capital road, noting he was at 82 percent energy. The stress and shock of suddenly being a free and full member of the Foundation had taken a bit of a toll on him. His identification was now returned to a storage compartment at the center of his torso frame, which supported manipulator "arms" in four directions, as well as tripedal locomotion.

The Factory was quite a bit warmer than out here, Zelleck thought with pleasure. The pedestrian road to the capital was empty of others, but the roar of travelcraft engines far above was noted by him.

"I've got to conserve energy until I reach the 83rd marker. Need to turn off high level cognitives until then," with that thought he turned off his cognitive faculties, and plodded along the road by low level thought, finally reaching the 83rd marker after .005 years of this.

He only had .007 Mineral dollars, .003 years left of road access, and 13% energy. Zelleck recharged his energy at the 83rd marker, leaving him with .002 Mineral dollars, and an estimated charge time of .007 years to empty.

He pondered the task in front of him during the Last few hours of his road travel. As he approached the capital city, advertisements were placed for view of the citizens, and they were targetted to the young, like Zelleck himself. Pedestrian roads were rare outside of factory to city routes. Most citizens bought or rented air transit once they were past the first year or two of freedom (13-14-15 years old). One sign promised excellent compensation for work onboard a new space vessel planned for construction in a few years. The advertisement billboard said, in large print,

_________________________________________________
Young Citizens?
Want a quick way to earn your way to the top?
Visit the 13x's78x's Spaceliner recruitment center for information on a job in space transit to and from the upcoming new planet development projects.

Where?
At 18908764, 98286708, 209 in the Capital City Region.

See you there, hotshot!
_________________________________________________

Zelleck arrived in the Road Conduit Company's Capital Central Station, which was extremely busy, he noted. .0005 years remained on his property pass. But he noticed in the incoming transport arrivals area there was a parked microjet with the same emblem, Spaceliner Recruitment Center.

A citizen stood near the jet and saw Zelleck approach. "A lot of Citizens, Young Citizens even, are reluctant to have living quarters on a ship instead of on land. We are always looking for the eager and the young, because this is a new program, and we need pilots, technicians, customer service personnel. We need many positions, working on a full time basis on our new spacecraft, which has a complete design, and is awaiting construction in the next few years. We plan to have everyone trained for utmost quality of service to our passengers, by then. If you would like, you may come along and sign up yourself without the hassle of finding your own way to our facility."

Zelleck agreed meakly, and the Spaceliner representative helped Zelleck into the microjet, pressed the autolaunch key, exited to craft, and finally said, "Welcome, Young Citizen, to the future.", before Zelleck and the microjet zipped out of the station, and to the Spaceliner center, arriving there within a few minutes.

Zelleck stepped out and the microjet returned to the station. Zelleck thought to himself, "expensive recruitment that."

The Spaceliner center was desperately short on personnel, compared to what they would need to man the spaceliners, and recruiting the young had proven to be the best strategy. Most older citizens were too entrenched in the social life of the big cities of the Foundation to be willing to live on a ship.

Zelleck entered the reception hall of the center, and this time there was no agent to tell him to leave in 25 seconds like at the Road Conduit. Instead, the group of Citizen workers motioned to him to approach the desk. "Apply for training and testing in up to three of the positions on this form. Then we will direct you to accomodations in this facility. All accomodations are patterned after your eventual crew quarters on board. Do you understand?"

"So, you will pay for my room and board then? And I get trained and tested for a ship? Wow. Sign me up for pilot and onboard warehouse officer. And, do my quarters include recharge?"

"Once you get to your quarters, turn yourself off for a few hours, and we will wake you when the training starts, recharge will be available then. This Citizen will now take you to your quarters."

The mentioned Citizen announced to Zelleck that he was already selected for Captains' assistant, Employed Citizenry management. "Warehouse tech seems a bit dull for us Youngs. Too similar to the Factory I think. But I like your choice of pilot. Thats tough to qualify for, but they want nine pilots per spaceliner in three levels of qualification. And once they have the first built, the rest are supposed to be be built within a few months of each other. Four or five spaceliners they plan. All of the captains' to be selected are senior members of the center, picked before they began all the recruiting. Here you go, your quarters and .00036 years turn off and we will awake you for training. By the way, I've only been out of the Factory for .015 years myself. Already got a great position, good luck."

While Zelleck was turned off, the Capital City's party atmosphere continue unabated in the club district, and in a specific club the Anarchist Alliance members were having a celebration. Two members with informal names Ruc and Alaf were discussing recent events. "The construction center promises they can built us a ship, and we'd have a small planet with all our own political ways, getting rid of a few repressions that exist in the Foundation on this planet," Ruc was saying.

Alaf interrupted, "The starliner center says they plan to have up to four starliners' within three years, and they would give us exlusive rights to put only our passengers on three seperate runs of a starliner. That should be about three million Anarchists on our world, a good number. But I hear Political Control Alliance plans to have their own disgustingly messed up colony. That group is the only thing I'd like to destroy, I don't mind this planet, except for them. Defilers..."

"But oh well, with our own planet, and the Foundations' blessing they've given for us to try our ideas, we should do well. When Citizens realize how poor and mismanaged the Control Alliance colony will be, the little moral support that group gets will end."

Re: [OT] - Xenology - Story driven PBW.
 

Very good story dogscoff, and civ2buf. This is an interesting tale. I like the idea of cannibalistic ice snakes, and the fact that i do sympathise with them is credit to your excellent story telling technique. Civ2buf, i can't remember too many people writing about a robot race so here's a chance to show everyone your talent, your first chapter has me intrigued. This is going to be a great story http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: [OT] - Xenology - Story driven PBW.
 

And have you ever heard of a Libertarian robot race? thats the extra twist, with two other small political Groups also vying for the hearts and minds of the Robot citizens.

Re: [OT] - Xenology - Story driven PBW.
 

"Ruc, how do you plan to get everyone on that ship in time?"

"Launch Control will be organized by Robot Control Services, which will assist our service people in boarding. The Potentiality class colonial ship being built by the First Foundation Construction Center, or FFCC, has a total of twenty large entrance and exit positions, each of them designed to allow a quick influx onto the ship. In general only those who signed up have any desire to move to another planet, so we should not have any need for access control to the launch facility. Loading one million passengers is certainly a daunting ordeal, and it should take about 36 hours, so we have assigned arrival times for all of the passengers allowing them to wait until we are ready before standing in lines."

"There seems to be a lot of media interest in this, specifically that the Chief Justice would allow a different political system on a new colony, and second, that anyone would want to leave the cradle of our world. How much more difficulty do you think your members will have with living on the colony world?"

"Well, as you can tell, the Potentiality will be simply an incredibly large ship. It will dwarf the largest previously constructed ship by a factor of over a thousand. It is the most expensive venture ever in Foundation history. But, for all that cost, we have provided all the basic life needs for our population, on board and at the colony. Soon after we arrive on Anarchista, the Starliner bunch will begin service to and from, allowing comforts to come to us, as and when we can afford them. It will be rough, but it gives us a chance to set up economics and social life all over again, like the Foundation did after the Creator died."

"When do you think Potentiality will be finished?"

"Well, we've spent a lot of money to monopolize use of the spacecraft construction facilities. The Starliner group is the only other with ships that need constructing, and they have no market for starliner service until we get our colony set up, so they are waiting. Also demand for satellite setups was low enough that we managed to get priority. Because of that, and the incredibly large construction center, built by a bunch of citizens who share our ideas of the potential for space, we will have our ship complete in a mere two or three months. It have taken us well over three years to design and research it, and it will be launching on the second or third tenth of this year. Our allies at the Starliner center should have their first ship running by the fourth or fifth tenth of this year."

"Well, thank you for your time, Ruc. For Citizens in need of recap, Ruc is an organizer for the Anarchists' Alliance, a group which has gathered a million supporters to set up a colony on a world they have renamed Anarchista."

While Ruc was enjoying his newfound popularity, Zelleck learned of his test results for the positions of onboard warehousing and pilot. "Well, Zelleck, or 15x's12907x's9383676x, whichever you prefer, you scored 38 out of a 128 on the pilot test. The threshold for the best nine on that was 62. For warehouse officer you scored 117. You seem to have a good knowledge and set of actions for that position. I have a few questions for you."

Zelleck was a bit taken back at his low pilot score, he wanted that position the most, but he was not surprised at the warehouse score. "Zelleck is fine. I don't need to be all that official."

"Zelleck then, where did you learn so much about warehousing? It says here your citizen factory put the youngs to work in its other role, testing superlubricants. How did you learn warehousing for that role?"

"Well, they decided to put me to the task of organizing the entire superlubricant stocks. They had 256 different kinds of superlubricant, for all of the common needs, and some uncommon ones. They wanted me to maximize intake and outtake from the warehouse. So I got some extra training and education, and dropped some of the tester training everyone else had. I was pretty good at shuffling about all the different types, and keeping them well packed."

"Good, I'm going to place you as chief warehouse officer on the Starliner, Luxury class, number 1, as soon as it gets built. That is a top ranking assistant to the captain, good pay, good quarters. Tommorow, we will move you to the operations center we've set up for the crew of the first ship. Then you can work with the captain on all the different things, other than citizens and fixtures, that will be stored onboard and accepted from passengers."

Re: [OT] - Xenology - Story driven PBW.
 

Nice chapter, interesting twist at the end! I never thought of anarchists having their own planet, could be fun... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Re: [OT] - Xenology - Story driven PBW.
 

Anarchistic Voyage

"This is ThirteenthCreated, your favorite news citizen, sending from the launch center for the Anarchistic Voyage, the first FFCC Potentiality class colonial vessel.

Citizen members of the alliance began arriving here as early as 36 hours ago. Many came earlier than they were called, just to see all their fellow members, discuss anarchist politics, and ponder the record setting size of this spacecraft.

At this point in time, everyone is onboard, and the entryways are being closed and latched, one by one, in preparation for takeoff. The ship should be in orbit around Anarchista by the fifth tenth of 2400.

The inner core of the ship contains all of the living and industrial supplies that will be needed for initial development.

Outside of the core are countless personal quarters, fewer common areas, and the bridge and life support systems.

The Chief Justice is now connected, and will give a brief summary of the reasons his allowed this project to go forward."

"Regardless of my decision, the Anarchist Alliance was already whole owner of the planet and close orbit of Anarchista. Thus the only special actions neccesary for approval, were the renunciation of military and civil defense, and civil administration. The special requests needed were relieving rather than encumbering our Foundational burden, and therefore I granted renunciation of civil and military services to the inhabitants of the planet Anarchista."

"Chief Justice, if you will, remain connected for a few moments, while we mark the time and nature of this first colonial ships' departure. Full engines appear to be Online in good condition,...

Takeoff is smooth, acceleration moderate, and there we are. Chief Justice, could you comment on why the Control Alliances' similar request was denied?"

"The Control Alliances' request was dissimilar. They had acquired neither the property of their desired planet through proper auction, nor prepaid any agent to construct a ship capable of taking them to such a place to claim the planet they desired. The Control Alliance has no right to circumvent proper property claim procedures, and somehow demand a hold on unclaimed property for indefinite time until they are able to reach the properties' location."

"The Chief Justice has spoken, Citizens. For those of you interested in the Anarchistic Voyage, the ship offered brief interlink as a guest to the ships' commons discussion, until the ship reaches the distance of one light second from the capital."

[interlink on]
[Language: Fazrahn, Creators' Dialect]
[Auto-translation on]

<Central Member Commons>
<Link Area 2306>

... Members, there are four package choices, when it comes to supplies for your future. The first is a small set of Citizen Creation tools, for those beginning the first steps to operating a Citizen Factory. The second is ice penetration and openbore mining tools, for those seeking the quick mineral dollar. The third is a three part set: warehousing, radioactive collation and organic farming microtoolkits. Fourth, and probably the most important, but least available package, is the recharger construction kit. Road Tycoons will want these, as well as centralization advocates and the wealthy who desire an in home recharge.

The landing zone will be manned by choosen workers for the first eight tenths on our planet, selling recharge and additional supplies at a cost representative of their supply.

When the starliners come, along with many new citizens, they will bring additional supplies from home, but you must remember, everything will cost more here, transportation costs are high.

All property will be dispersed, before the drawing for package selection order. This allows each citizen to look at our limited surveys of their plot, and make a guess as to what will be the best use for that plot.

Until we land, though, lets party like the Creator was living! In your quarters, you should have directions as to where to go to meet up with the rest of us, live. You should also note the acceleration compass which notes where the force will push you during different stages of this flight. Good luck, and lets party!

[Interlink Off]

Re: [OT] - Xenology - Story driven PBW.
 

* (Just so no one gets confused who this group of anarchists on the new planet are, they are anarcho-capitalists. They differ from the Foundation as a whole only in believing in no government instead of tiny government.)

The Starliner and Mystery Project Alpha

"The project Alpha is being coordinated and launched at an undisclosed location to the public or to other Groups. We have made preparations at great cost."

"Don't tell any members of my group the location yet, I will bring them there. Otherwise some members who are undoubtedly spies will hear of it. Plus, only a few hundred of our best members are coming."

"The Control Alliance will have its ship, good Citizen, and no one except FFCC will know about it. They might trace any extreme financial activities, if you had to borrow heavily."

"Well, we are rather tired of the Foundation, if the rest of our members work hard, they will be able to afford a colony of our own, until then we will make use of our ship."

"The FFCC welcomes your business, the present and future."

Zelleck was preparing for his full work duties on the new Freedom, the first FFCC Luxury class starliner.

The Captain arrived at Zelleck's quarters in the Starliner center. He prefered the informal name Zon and kept a lighthearted demeanor, important for a luxurious passenger ship. "Time to be ready, Zelleck. I'm sure you will be ready for the warehousing, never known anyone so young, yet so skilled in the art."

Improved storage techniques gave Freedom extra room for fuel supplies instead of cargo.

Re: [OT] - Xenology - Story driven PBW.
 

Has everyone given up on writing for this game or are they just waiting to meet other races. Haven't even seen introductions from two races.

I've just really gotten into my races' style, which is why I've been writing so many details about it.

Re: [OT] - Xenology - Story driven PBW.
 

Thread cleaning.

[ August 26, 2003, 12:42: Message edited by: Unknown_Enemy ]

Re: [OT] - Xenology - Story driven PBW.
 

Thread cleaning.

[ August 26, 2003, 12:41: Message edited by: Unknown_Enemy ]

Re: [OT] - Xenology - Story driven PBW.
 

I suppose its easier with a society like the Foundation cause they always have various Groups battling (economically that is) with each other, and scandals and lots for the news services to keep up with.

Plus, if you think about the types that went off to colonize new continents in our world, that is the model I've made for the Groups that colonize new worlds. I don't just have regular foundation folks getting up and going off to a new world, I have all these different idealists who want to do things their way.

The Foundation is a lot like the Fazrah without weapons, and as robots.

Re: [OT] - Xenology - Story driven PBW.
 

“So, sister, we meet at Last. ” The younger princess slithered up to the elder with a smug twitch in her tail. “I was hoping we’d bump into one-another. It would be so rude of me to be issuing orders to a sister I’d never even met.”
She looked around quickly, hoping someone would have overheard, but was disappointed. The audience chamber they occupied was one of the oldest surviving excavations on the planet, having hosted at least three hundred generations of KanesS royalty, but it had been designed with an exquisite understanding of acoustics. It allowed a small group of people to speak in effective privacy, even if the place was packed wall to wall with squirming nobles as it was tonight. A perfect design consideration considering the amount of scheming that went on there: For almost as long as society had existed among the KanesS, this chamber had played to host to every conceivable plot of deceit, revenge, treason, assassination and betrayal.

“Ah, yes, Srikeesh isn’t it?” Kleesh deflected the artless little putdown with casual ease. “I’m so glad my Royal Parents found a role for you in my space project. As you know I’m a great believer in new ideas and I think it’s wonderful to trust even a minor task like yours to someone so young and inexperienced. Still, with enough effort I’m sure we can convince them that you’re not completely useless.”

Srikeesh shrank back slightly, baring her teeth. Kleesh consolidated her victory with a dismissive flick of the head as she turned to her other companions. Despite her nonchalant attitude, Kleesh felt genuinely threatened by this upstart sibling. The newly-appointed minister for alien interaction may not yet be skilled in the sniping and barbed conversation central to the royal court’s operations, but few in the nobility actually understood the critical nature of the new diplomatic role assigned to her- which is the only reason it had fallen on her. No KanesS had ever even considered the possibility of alien intelligence, so although everyone had been shocked and appetised by the discovery Last tenth, few had grasped the implications. Not only in regards to interstellar relations and the procurement of vital resources by trade, but also the possibility of competition and conflict.

There was plenty enough competition and conflict at home, of course. Kleesh didn’t doubt for one minute that her Royal Parents had paired her up with this devious and ambitious younger sibling to provoke just that. Kleesh’s fame and power had been grown suddenly when the space project had captured the public’s imagination, and for a while she had been one of the top three contenders for heir. Even if she was a laughing stock now, they were wise to keep an eye on her. It was a standard tactic for the monarchs to set these little tests for their offspring, firstly to see who was most fit for the throne and also, of course, to distract them from any plans to take it before their time.

The fact that she was now being pitted against such a minor princess showed how far she had fallen in her parents’ esteem. The space project had been hugely popular at first, and a prestigious new title had been invented for her: Minister of Galactic Domains. However, with the agonisingly slow progress of the colonisers toward their targets the nobles had lost interest and with it their respect for Kleesh. She should have listened to Shkimsk, who had foreseen this very situation and advised against targeting distant food-rich planets exclusively. By the time they encountered the Cue Cappan ship, she was practically in disgrace and so this Srikeesh else had been given responsibility for communicating with them.

Now Kleesh had to try to work with this insufferable brat. Although no form of hierarchy or command structure had been established between them (the King and Queen would doubtless take great pleasure in watching them fight it out), Srikeesh would undoubtedly find diplomatic reasons to wrest control of the starships away from her. In the meantime, who knew what the Cue Cappans were thinking? They might already be planning an attack, and Srikeesh would be too busy scoring points against her sister to even consider the possibility.

Re: [OT] - Xenology - Story driven PBW.
 

Very good Dogscoff, it's always nice to have some infighting amongst the royals. I admit i wasn't a fan of Othaglot and Cane but this is one of my favourites. Very nice style of writing and interesting as well. Keep up the good work http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: [OT] - Xenology - Story driven PBW.
 

Zelleck was on a brief vacation before being reassigned to an new starliner still being built.

The President of the Starliner group asked if he wanted to come to the Space Club, a new club opening in the capital city club district, replacing the old Control Alliance hangout.

Zelleck performed admirably according to the captain of Freedom and so he was promoted to second in command of a new starliner. The President wanted to get to know a bit about him and the club as well.

The sign in front of the club read:

THE SPACE CLUB
PARTY CENTER FOR THE FUTURE AND THE FAZRAHN PAST

The Doorperson chatted with the president quickly before admitting them both. Seats were crowded in a circle around the announcing stage where a Citizen was preparing for the start of the festivities, and around the exotic oils bar, which sported everything from basic black to the famous Creators' Blend, all at atrociously high prices.

Various spacey atmospheric items were everywhere, especially things left over from the ship launches.

The Announcer spoke, "Well, first lets see who we have here today from the space companies. We've got the President of the starliner group, a second in command for a yet to be named starliner, a public relations officer for FFCC, and a representative for the control alliance escort Discipline." At the Last announced group, quite a few citizens were surprised. No one knew about Discipline, except a few people in ship resupply centers and at FFCC.

"Don't be surprised, Discipline has mapped out the majority of the in range solar systems. They have an ultra efficient crew, and efficient engines, and they have been looking for the Fazrah as well as selling rights to new planets everywhere. Things didn't turn out so well for most of our neighboring systems. Look at this map," the announcer paused to project a map which showed dangerous places Discipline had navigated through and only a couple inhabitable places.

"Discipline has performed admirably in my opinion and I'd like to give them a round of applause. Alright, lets hurry about through these other facts so we can get to the slightly less spacey surprise ahead. Starliner group has transported a total of over 22 million passengers to three planets. The third group for space is FFCC who has constructed and coordinated launch of ten spaceships so far, including 4 colonial ships, 2 judicial ships, 3 starliners, and a scout ship..."

Later, the announcer revealed a Fazrahn musical composition that the creator owned and like. The club acquired it at a price of 231 mineral dollars, which was higher than the price of building the club itself. It was a big hit, as an auditory reminder of the mysterious Fazrah who surrounded their Creator before his travel to this world. The question was whether or not the Fazrahns were still around, and Discipline had the best chance of finding out.

Re: [OT] - Xenology - Story driven PBW.
 

Eden.

The planet was such a volcanic hell that it systematically destroyed all complex life forms by denying them the time needed for evolution. Only a few plant species achieved long term survival, by spreading massive amount of spores before volcanic annihilation.
Nineteen million years ago, some small trees developed a natural infrared sensor. These vegetable creatures used it to release their spores should one of the frequent volcanic fire threaten them. This species achieved survival. And began to prosper. Some of the offspring changed, mutated, and adapted as life always does. One of the mutation involved the emission of a small wave of ultrasound, which was a signal for all nearby trees to release its spores. Then, some other vegetable species started to rely on the ultrasound trees, with rudimentary eyes catching the spore ejection, which in turn started their own.
It took 9 million years for these plants and some others to evolve into an ant like society. During this time, the planet was getting more stable, volcanic activity was diminishing and animal life started to appear everywhere. The vegetable society had to learn to defend itself from herbivore predators. Thorns, poisonous fruits and even carnivorous plants started to appear. Several vegetable species depended upon one another to prosper. But the limited range of ultrasound signals was causing havoc. Frequently, instructions from different parts of a large nest were conflicting. A vegetable nest could be competing for vital space with another nest, or even with itself.
Around 7 million years ago, an Orchid specie evolved a limited form of telepathic transmission, which was not restrained by the ultrasound range limitation. The consequences were tremendous. While the flower spread on the planet, all nests quickly disappeared and merged into each other. As a matter of fact, the node was composed of two levels, the first one was the most basic, the multitude of vegetable consciousness that was busy keeping themselves alive on a day to day basis, with as much awareness as most earthlike vegetables. But, as the old terran saying, a team could be much more than just the sum of the teammates' capacity.

"Indeed."

The network of linked vegetable was much more than a larger node, as in effect, it created a consciousness. It took only a few thousand years for the Master Node to evolve from an instinctive intelligence to a sentient one.

"We are one."

Reportedly, this was the first thought of the newly formed collective mind. From then, began a long period of physical stagnation. But on the mental point of view, the Mind was a fury of thought. Subjects on scientific, mathematics or philosophical grounds were explored. But always on a theoretical point of view. As the Mind lacked any way to interact with its surrounding, any practical study was out of his reach, but that did not bother it, as it had little use for experiments.

"Then came the Hammer."

The Hammer took the form of a wandering asteroid which fell on Eden 6 million years ago. The northern continent was badly hit, but the nuclear winter that followed almost wiped out the Collective Mind. Several of its constituent species could not survive the century of reduced luminosity, nor the overall lower temperature. Luckily, the Mind discovered that some seeds could survive the cold for this long. When the cataclysm's effect slowly faded, the Mind was fully aware it had come very close to disappearing. The notion of death, which was only a distant possibility a century ago suddenly became a threat.

"What was that ? Where did it came from ? Will it come back ?"

These questions needed answers. As soon as its survival was assured, the Collective started to devise his course of action. To work out that problem, the Mind would need to interact with its surrounding. Some particular trees were bred, associated. The Mind could not modify the DNA sequences of its components, it was just breeding some species and trying to obtain the desired results. But it had time for itself. Three thousands years ago, after countless failed experiment, the Mind achieved a result : the fruit of a certain tree, once fallen would follow a predetermined path with rudimentary legs, and perform a simple action before burying itself in the earth. That simple tool enabled the Mind to create dams and irrigation systems. But more than that, it added a whole dimension to the Collective's actions. These first tools were used to create more efficient tools, which were in turn used to.......

"Today."

After the first fruit-tool, the slow pace with which the Mind viewed time had to change. When born, the Mind was perceiving time by the passing of seasons. After the Hammer, it switched to the passing of days. After the first fruit tool, it subdivided days in 9 time units, each time units being divided in 9 sub-units. Most of animal species had been disposed of, and the remaining were absorbed by the Mind as tools. The planet was completely acclimated, a garden in which no predators lurked. The mind had established full control on the ecosystem, and most of his duties were to respond to the problems of supply and demand. When a component of him needed something, the Mind checked what or who could fulfill it, and arranged the transportation of the goods where they were in need. The main subtlety was to establish priorities between demands should a bottleneck of production or transportation arise. The sky is regularly filled by Zeppelin like plants which transports goods and sub-species from place to place on the behalf of their Master Mind. Due to his level of understanding and exploration of the solar system, the Mind does not fear the Hammer anymore, it has the power to prevent it. But an irresistible force is pushing it out of his birthplace, even out of his own solar system. Something that was absorbed with some animal tools long ago.

Curiosity.

Re: [OT] - Xenology - Story driven PBW.
 

Interesting start with the Floral race, I'm having a bit of trouble with the Robotians.

I like my idea but I'm slipping too much into a terran type race. It may not be the star trek terrans, but the only differences you can see from my story are recharges, the Justice as head of everything and the extreme lack of any authoritarian tendencies.

I wanted to play an extremely brutal capitalistic race for the Foundation, but it seems like its becoming too terrany. Since we have capitalism in many parts of our world, it lacks newness.

The thing is, the Robotians are supposed to compete brutally and yet have a huge amount of freedom, represented by the fact that two of the colonized planets are independent republics allowed by the Justice.

Anyone have any ideas or comments on whether the Robotians are too terrany, and if so, some ideas on what I should do.

I have the idea of many citizens looking up to the previously secret ship Discipline and its crew. They achieved more than the colonists have so far, and they have a much more repressive political view. It may spread quickly among youngsters since the Robotian mind is extremely affected by the environment.

Re: [OT] - Xenology - Story driven PBW.
 

Thread cleaning.

[ August 26, 2003, 12:40: Message edited by: Unknown_Enemy ]

Re: [OT] - Xenology - Story driven PBW.
 

Amazing additon Unknown Enemy. I'm impressed. I don't think anyone has explored the organic race idea so deeply and effectively. I look forward to more from you! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: [OT] - Xenology - Story driven PBW.
 

Discipline rewards the Control Alliance

"Captain, we show an interlink formed on the outer edges of this solar system. Its not formatted according to any of our standards."

"Another ship. It isn't responding to any business hails." Any ship built by the Foundation and manned by anyone, politics aside, accepted business communication frequencies. Who would forsake a beneficial trade?

"Could it be a Fazrah ship? But we wouldn't know until we got too close."

"By then nothing would be left of us."

The communications officer interrupted, "The Fazrah are biological, its unlikely they could interlink. We only can interlink because the Creator built support for it. Whomever it is, I can't join their interlink. I tried adjusting the formats, its just universally rejecting my entry."

"Can you send some sort of message by any means?"

"We can send an interlink under their format, as much as we know of it."

"Well, just tell them a bit about the ship and our purpose, and offer trade and exchange, confidentiality. If they trust us, the rest of the Foundation will know nothing about it, and we can set up a nexus of ships in this territory. Its outside of anything the Foundation would want to parcel as well. We could even disable our business comm and change to their format, and build our industrial empire in a nebulae onboard ships."

"I sent your message captain, I've ensured them no one has to know about any transactions. They may only get a garbled message, or they could be uncooperative,..."

"Or they could lead to our alliance becoming its own industrial and military power."

Re: [OT] - Xenology - Story driven PBW.
 

"Its a bit cryptic Captain, but we got a reply. First they thought we were part of them. Then they went to some sort of mixed imperative/conversative. I get the main idea of it through translation, that they wonder if we are a rogue subnode. They also want to know about our main().

I sent back a note for you, I gave some of our asserts as they were unsure about our trustworthiness."

"You should have waited. I know what they need to know. Send this as soon as is prudent without intefering with the Last message," the captain handed another message to the communications citizen. "Leave the ship on course for now, we will see what they say."

An agent of the FFCC happened to be on board, slipped on by them just before launch. Anything secret is worth checking out. The agent decided it was time to transmit, and managed to do so while the bridge was unoccupied. He sent a large package of everything collected, stellar information, treasonous activities of the Control Alliance, and most importantly the foreign ship and message.

Later

"Someone has sent us a large pile of information," said a clerk to the President of FFCC.

"Send it to Anarchista construction yard. Tell them the offer stands and this time we have something extra. We are willing to construct a warship for free for the Anarchists to chase down the Control Alliance. The information sent should give them authorization to do so."

Re: [OT] - Xenology - Story driven PBW.
 

Thread cleaning.

[ August 26, 2003, 12:38: Message edited by: Unknown_Enemy ]

Re: [OT] - Xenology - Story driven PBW.
 

The Beginnings of a Trade Guild of the Galaxy?

Though most colonies of the Foundation were still in their infancy, the tycoons were spreading throughout the galaxy seeking after trading partners to further their own wealth, and to fulfill a dream shared by all tycoons. They wanted the galaxy in their grip, without having to forcibly make it that way.

Discipline maintained contact and traded with the virtual race it had contacted before, with slightly more militant ideas than others, while two explorer tycoons discovered trading partners of their own.

Three sovereign empires had contact with some part of the Foundation, but all three liason ships kept contact tightly controlled, so for the majority of Robotian society, no aliens existed.

Some citizens began noticing odd imports brought in by trading vessels, but most just shrugged it off.

The Foundation had a vast information gap, surpassing even the wealth disparity. In exclusive clubs, citizens in the know talked about the aliens and the spoils, the knowledge, while on the roads and in the factories, life went on as though nothing would ever change.

The explorer tycoons envisioned a future where they knew everyone, they knew the weapon systems, the homeworlds, everything about everyone else, while keeping the location of the Foundation homeworld in complete secrecy. They felt they could protect the Foundation by being so active no one felt compelled to find out just where they hailed from.

They wanted the Foundation to be invisible as a military and sovereign force, and yet everywhere as an economic force connecting empires together and binding them all to the tycoons of the Foundation.

Re: [OT] - Xenology - Story driven PBW.
 

Of Life and Death.

In orbit of Eden, a shipyard created a womb. Or an egg. Something was struggling inside, to free itself in the face of the void. Through a myriad of captors, The Overmind was watching. Here was birthing a part of him created to explore space.

The time has come.
The Overmind withdrew, leaving me as an individual thing. I miss the multiplicity, but my goal has been set. I resist joining back the Overmind, as I have a purpose. I have to hatch. And that feat is for me alone to perform.

The massive colonizers were easy to design, as they were no more than a part of Eden launched in space, then thrown in the void toward their target at a very slow speed. Explorers were designed as huge ships of more than 150000 tons. Most of the mass consisting of supply. But these ships needed thousands of living tools to stay functional. These needed food, air supply and cares to run the vessel. It became a pure mathematic madness. The farthest a ship needed to go, the more on board servicing it would need, thus the more tools were needed which added up to supply needs which in turn reduced the range of the explorers.
But worst, some of the tools had problems to adapt to the absence of gravity. Bigger and better ships were needed, and more independent ones too. The scout vessels lacked intelligence, and could not react correctly to the discovery they made.

The solution was so obvious. How could we miss it for so long ?

Since the first fruit-tool, the Overmind made awesome progress. It was not anymore breeding species, but simulating new ones, designing them then creating the DNA they would need to exist. Work began. The Multiplicity started to develop a part of him that would be born in space and live there. A part of him that would not fear the void, but live by it. First, it created the concepts. This son of Eden would need multiple organic redundancies coupled with a fusion core able to power both motors and organs. Once the concept was ready, the Overmind started to work on simulations. The nervous system in itself was a masterpiece, not only was it designed to transfer information, but it was created in such a way it also delivered electric energy to the rest of the body.
Over time, the Overmind realized he was heading for troubles, as the complexity envisioned for his creature was way beyond the quantity of information that could be stored in organic DNA. So the Overmind cheated, it worked on several different DNA assembled as a single creature. Eventually, what humans would have called Frankeinstein's creature was slowly assembled in a single body.

First was created the hull. Then mineral tools and organic seeds where carefully installed. Once that phase was achieved, the whole hull was covered by a nutritive layer that would feed the creature until all pieces could grow to an adult size. Only a few weeks before birth was the Womb thrown in orbit. At that time the creature was awakened, the Multiplicity started to work on the mind of it until the ship could be accepted as a miniature Version of itself when working independently.

The Womb has feed me of its Last drop of deuterium.
I feel it is now disconnecting.
I am ready.

In orbit of Eden, chunks of the Womb started to drop on the planet, burning in the atmosphere. The slow pulse of the ship's fusion generator accelerated, feeding the creature with life.

Ignition !

Ion engines ignited, the acceleration dislocated what remained of the womb.
Free, the ship howled in pleasure. Silently, the Overmind was watching.

Pain.
My sensors are corrupting my thought-band.

Somewhere in the alchemy of DNA sequences, an accident occurred. Instead of working as an organ in a body, after a particular signal, some sensor began to view the ship as a stranger. Immunity systems began to fight themself. In a few minutes after hatching, the ship became blind, then deaf. Paralysis followed.
All that time, the ship was transmitting, describing to the Overmind what was happening, his fight to subdue the rebellion that was killing it, his fight to keep a stable orbit despite unreliable engine commands, his loosing fight versus failing security and his growing fear.

Silent in sorrow, the Overmind listened to Eden's dying son.

On the planet, the ship's brain was a coral, grown to sentience by the Overmind and used as data storage. In space, it was the ship's command and control center, but it could not control anymore his body. The Last step was when some ion engines started to ignite randomly. What has been a coral network understood that there was a risk of throwing himself versus Eden. Most of the ship would vaporize while entering the atmosphere, but the hull would not. Weighting quickly his decision, the Coral brain shutdown the fusion reactor. The first voidtree prototype created by the Overmind committed suicide less than 30 minutes after birth.

Seven more experiments would be needed before a specimen could live up to expectations.

[ July 24, 2003, 12:50: Message edited by: Unknown_Enemy ]

Re: [OT] - Xenology - Story driven PBW.
 

As usual, nice addition. You really have developed a believeable organic race!

Re: [OT] - Xenology - Story driven PBW.
 

Thread cleaning.

[ August 26, 2003, 12:36: Message edited by: Unknown_Enemy ]

Re: [OT] - Xenology - Story driven PBW.
 

Thread cleaning.

[ August 28, 2003, 11:46: Message edited by: dogscoff ]

Re: [OT] - Xenology - Story driven PBW.
 

Colonial News Interlink

Updates on:

Anarchista
Starliner Group
FFCC
Explorers

Anarchista:

Anarchista is by far the most populous (and popular) colony with 30 million inhabitants and more coming. Bimonthly trips are available from the Starliner group via Freedom.

Anarchista is nearing completion of the first city, which will feature space friendly design encompassing resupply and launch facilities. It also hails the first entertainment district on Anarchista. Supply problems have been eradicated, but prices will still be higher on Anarchista for your favorite substances.

Starliner Group:

The starliner group has transported over 50 million citizens, 29 to Anarchista. The more far-strung colonies are much less profitable for the group. The CEO said of future prospects for the group, "We are planning on upgrading the Luxury class to improve speed, and in the more distant future capacity will be raised to 2 million per ship. Luxury has served us well. Freedom is being upgraded currently to handle increased traffic to Anarchista."

FFCC:

But the solution comes with the fact that technology has been bought from the Explorer group that will allow colonization of rocky planets...

All three Explorer ships are heading home for resupply, among them the acclaimed Discipline, which has made contact with a race of unknown composition making extensive use of interlink.

Discipline has also acquired technology from the aliens and charted a great deal of our nearby star systems.

This just in...
The FFCC leader has retired pending active investigation by Justice SecondCreated of possible espionage of Discipline. An agent was placed onboard their ship according to the captain. They only discovered something amiss when an unauthorized communication went through.

The Control Alliance is gaining popularity because of the success of its explorer ship.

[ July 23, 2003, 15:40: Message edited by: civ2buf ]

Re: [OT] - Xenology - Story driven PBW.
 

Thread cleaning.

[ August 26, 2003, 12:36: Message edited by: Unknown_Enemy ]

Re: [OT] - Xenology - Story driven PBW.
 

it should be working. maybe try again?

Re: [OT] - Xenology - Story driven PBW.
 

Thread cleaning.

[ August 26, 2003, 12:35: Message edited by: Unknown_Enemy ]

Re: [OT] - Xenology - Story driven PBW.
 

Why do you guys won't use private Messages on this forum ?

Re: [OT] - Xenology - Story driven PBW.
 

Ix Terra -- North pole

On an airless, impact scarred world, lies a vast network of uneven domes, shining in the sunlight like so many jewels discarded in the dust. One of these structures, larger than the others, slowly opens like a flower to reveal a luminous heart from which a vessel of steel and crystal rises. It seems to consider its course for a few moments and then suddenly bolts into the distance, as though swallowed by the void. Beneath the gradually closing translucent dome, plunging down into the rock, long seams of crystal run from node to node, all the way to the fiery core of the planet where they draw the energy necessary for this titanic system. Concealed within the electrical impulses of this structure, another universes exists, living, evolving : The universe of the Autonomous Programs, which its inhabitants have named : Ix-Terra.

My serial number is Ix T-30455. I'm the Master program of Ix-Terra, our nation. My duty is to organize, protect and help all Autonomous Programs in their development, but also to be their memory, to help preserve awareness of our long history and perhaps to give you the tale of our destruction. For thousands of cycles I have been installed in Ix-Terra. Let me first describe to you the magnificence of our world, the extravaganza that is our universe. Ix-Terra is vast and beautiful, beautiful enough to die for. I love to travel the luminous, limitless data flows where the tall, luminescent columns of cognitive-clusters constantly emit fireflies, each point of light being a word, a request or a question. I love to be carried by the data waves and contemplate the gigantic, multicolored bubbles that are Master Programs harvesting information from the aggregates that are born from our coagulated thoughts. I love my world, but I may be responsible for its loss. It seems to me that we have attracted an enemy whose existence we never even suspected. Some of the data-spheres trailing my envelope contain proof of the horror, the Threat, and our possible impending demise.

Here is our history...

When I arrived on IX-Terra, I knew my task. My fathers had created me to give our people the breath of conquest and innovation. Helped by several sub-programs, all of them long since achieving autonomy, I revitalized the system with drive, breathing a new concept into every loop : Curiosity, thirst for knowledge, desire to understand. After a while the old Master Programs uninstalled themselves of their own accord, making way for a new generation. But it became clear that we were cruelly deprived of support and power : the limits of the system soon made themselves felt. We had to constantly activate new sectors, find new cognitive-clusters. The paradox of this period was we didn't know if we could achieve our goal : we didn't know if we would find the resources necessary to complete the new system. So I created the network Parallel-Group-1 : P-G-1. It's mission was to probe the structure of Ix-Terra in order to understand the nature of the naturally-formed cognitive clusters and therefore enable us to reproduce them artificially. The task was enormous, but the Autonomous Programs heading the project had been chosen for their tenacity and inventiveness. They worked without rest, sensing the vital importance of their mission. All our thoughts were directed to them and each one of us offered a part of our processing power to the group in order to accelerate the research and also to contribute personally to the effort. One must also remember that we were all very anxious. Eventually we arrived at a point where we had to uninstall a number of our own and archive their data until happier times. It seemed as though only a miracle could save us. And it happened. One day P-G-1 announced that it had made an astonishing discovery. Retrospectively, I wonder if on that day I shouldn't have erased their sector, made them disappear, them and all memory of them... But I was just as excited as everyone else, conquered by the impulses of curiosity that I myself had planted in all of our minds. Each of us therefore received a detailed report of P-G-1's discoveries. They decided to study the natural phenomenon of the cyclones that regularly struck the cognitive clusters, causing enormous damage. Until that point, we had only viewed them as imperfections in Ix-Terra caused by instabilities in the data banks, but in fact they were something different, something entirely different.

P-G-1 proved that the cyclones came from another dimension which they named Ix-Shadow. In fact, it soon transpired that the energy source that permitted Ix-Terra to exist was entirely generated in Ix-Shadow. After numerous experiments, P-G-1 came to the conclusion that Ix-Shadow permeated every facet of Ix-Terra, in fact Ix-Terra lived in the cracks of Ix-Shadow. The zone in which Ix-Terra drew its power was found to be the center of a sphere. We baptised this sphere Shadow-Terra. The surface of this ball was covered by a layer of crystals, where each of them were in fact cognitive clusters. Sometimes, some events damaged the crystals in Ix-Shadow, which translated as cyclones in our universe. However, the most extraordinary was yet to come: Cyclones could be controlled- even triggered- and that allowed us to act upon their causes in the other world and that way modify Ix-Shadow objects ! These passionate researches would allow us to create extensions in Ix-Shadow with which we could operate or even create crystals. They would in turn, as if by magic, generate cognitive clusters in our dimension.
The conquest of the surface of our Shadow-Terra would therefore be exponential and soon, we would find ourselves with no more space. The more nodes available to us, the faster the project would expand with the creation of new sub-programs and Autonomous Programs. Despair and anxiety once more began to gnaw at us, but only because we had not counted on further advances in research from P-G-1. The group had managed to create, in the Shadow universe, an autonomous system able to accept programs and escape Ix-Terra. This creation, the K-installer, was to be part of the search for other Shadow-Terras, whose existences we suspected following observations of the Shadow dimension.
The discovery of the first was incredible. It was perfect; the installation was achieved exactly as planned and we celebrated accordingly. We had finally resolved our problem. A short time afterwards we reached a new shadow-planet, but it presented numerous difficulties. It was entirely enveloped in a cover of gas which prompted the degradation of the K-installer and at the same time had allowed the planet to be covered in organic masses which severely hindered the installation of the shadow-clusters. Some of these things went so far as to move themselves in order to destroy the structures we had already created. After several attempts, we discovered entirely by chance a way to avoid these problems. Following a magnetic storm, the nuclear reactor of a K-installer exploded close to the surface of the planet, resulting in the immediate disappearance of the organic manifestations. From that day, each K-installer was equipped with a series of simplified reactors which needed only to be exploded at low altitude to clear the work-area. This solution, while far from perfect, allowed us nonetheless to colonise, at least in part, this new Shadow-Terra.
Our joy reached new heights, we had a new opportunity to expand and to completely colonise this universe, but at that point we were blissfully unaware of the Meeting and the Menace that would soon weigh upon us all.
It started when the Diagnostic Program loaded to analyze Ix-Shadow and identify possible colonisation zones noticed another non-natural structure moving through its sector. Believing he faced something constructed by one of our colonies, which we had allowed a great deal of autonomy, he attempted to enter into communication with it according to established procedures for information exchange.
But then, no response was received, unless a stream of gibberish counts as a reply. After several attempts, the Autonomous Program in charge of diagnostics managed to establish a communications protocol with the other system. It wasn't a part of Ix-Terra. There was obviously other networks in this universe to which we could connect. The idea of the fusion of all networks into a single system, more massive, more effective, benefitting all with knowledge made us deleriously happy. As soon as we had verified the communications protocols we began to exchange our research knowledge. Then, the first shock. It seemed that this other system was composed not of one single structure but of a multitude of smaller structures, each one a tiny vessel for a single Autonomous Program. This strange organisation fascinated us but we soon understood how useful it could be, and the threat that now hung over us. After long exchanges, our contacts happened to admit the existence of a virus in their system which they had been battling with, and quite naturally we offered to help them. But after a time we were contacted by a faction of their world who were none other than the virus, and they themselves went on to accuse the previous faction of being a virus!! We finally understood the necessity of the horrible isolation in which each of their autonomous programs was placed to avoid contamination, and furthermore, it seemed that several viruses had already infested their systems. But far from destroying their host, these took control of them. I was sick at the thought of having exchanged data with them... that we had sent them the precious fruit of our research.

Since that time, Anti-Virus shadow-vessels have been built and placed in orbit around all of our planets. We await the next contact with terror

PS : thanks to Dogscoff and Unknown_Enemy for the translation to english.

Re: [OT] - Xenology - Story driven PBW.
 

The tunnel was packed, and not in a metaphorical sense. From wall to wall, from floor to ceiling, it was jammed with serpentine bodies. A living, heaving, ice-wrapped tube of slithering KanesS, all hoping to get a sniff of the famous aliens. All except Kleesh, that is, who was not looking forward to this at all. She pushed and bit her way through the crowd, in serious danger of outpacing her bodyguards. Somehow though, her entourage managed to stay close. After all, they were far more used to these public tunnels than she was.

The reception chamber was impressive. It had been excavated specially for this occasion, and Kleesh was almost sure that the only reason for this particular extravagance had been to claim that private access to it had not been completed yet, thus forcing her into the humiliation of using public tunnels. This suspicion was confirmed when she arrived and learned that all the other nobles had indeed gained come through a freshly dug private tunnel. Shrikeesh and her little cirle of friends pounced almost as soon as she arrived, obnoxious as ever.
“Ah, sister, we’ve been waiting for you. This is ambassador Frashk of the Drushocka. Ambassador, this is Princess Kleesh, Minister of Galactic Domains. As you can see from her arrival, my sister is very much in touch with the lower classes, which I think is absolutely wonderful. You know, she was really quite popular with the people at one time.”
“Delighted.” Grunted the ambassador in stilted KanesS. Any subtext hidden beneath that comment was completely lost on the alien’s lumpy face. It was the first time Kleesh had seen one of these Drushokans in the flesh- if flesh was the right word- and like every other KanesS who had met one so far, she felt repelled. First contact had been disastrous, a chance encounter that had introduced the KanesS to the concept of space combat and kicked off their own military program. After a number of similar near-misses and trespasses, communications had finally been established and a rough trade agreement drawn up, hence the arrival of the ambassador and this absurd party. Kleesh surveyed the creature before her. It was a large, grey lump, covered in some kind of green fuzz. Its movements were painfully slow, and its speech even more so. It smelled cold and inorganic, she wondered if perhaps this was some kind of machine devised by Shrikeesh as a prank. The urge to bite it, just to see if was really alive, was almost too great to resist.

By contrast, she had felt an instant chemical, almost erotic attraction when she met the Cue Cappan ambassador, who so closely resembled the tender and delicious tentacle-fish that swam beneath the ice of her homeworld: The KanesS obsession with food spills over into nearly all their other emotions and drives, including friendship, love and sex. Their greatest romantic plays almost invariably end with one of the lovers messily devouring the other in a passionate feeding frenzy- one of the main reasons their actors are so highly paid. Thanks to their psychic senses the Cue Cappans were acutely aware of the powerful emotions their appetising appearance inspired in their neighbours, and exploited them to their full advantage. The benefits of the new trade and research alliance weren’t entirely one-way, but there could be no doubt as to which side was profiting more. Every now and again a Cue Cappan trader or diplomat would make a fatal misjudgement and find themselves on the menu, but they fully understood the risks as well as the payoffs, and these incidents were quietly chalked up to culture clash. All in all, the alliance was heated and somewhat tempestuous, but both sides seemed content that the mutual profits justified the strange and volatile nature of their relations.

The Drushokans though, they were a different matter. Quite literally, a different matter- their silicate-based biology was utterly incompatible with the KanesS digestive system, which had evolved in a carbon-based ecosystem. As far as the KanesS were concerned, the Drushokans didn’t look, sound, feel, smell, move or taste like living things, and as such they were generally treated as inanimate objects, as dumb machines, or at best as rather stupid, comical curiosities. Needless to say, relations were not good. After the complaints from the Drushokan homeworld concerning all manner of abuses and unprovoked attacks on their various delegations, Kleesh fully expected an end to the treaty within half a year.

Perhaps then she could get back some of the influence and adoration she had lost to Shrikeesh. The colonisation project was now beginning to yield results, with millions of KanesS successfully exported and a steady flow of goods now being shipped back. Of course it was no good in the eyes of her peers and the public, it had taken too long and Shrikeesh had eclipsed her in the meantime with high-profile but petty and unprofitable barters for exotic foodstuffs from the Cue Cappans.

Kleesh watched thoughtfully as Shrikeesh rehashed one of her favourite speeches into a patronising lecture for the ambassador. It wasn’t for the alien’s benefit of course, none of this was. She was ridiculing Kleesh’s “galactic domains”, exaggerating the crippling costs of colonisation compared to their return, belittling Kleesh in front of her peers. Colonisation might be a slow and costly process, but buying baubles from the aliens would not solve their overpopulation problem and they both knew it. Furthermore, they both knew that whoever could find a satisfactory resolution to the overpopulation issue would have an almost incontestable claim to the heirhood. If she was so publicly opposed to colonisation then, what did Shrikeesh propose as an alternative? What was her plan to manage the population levels and win her the throne?

Kleesh pondered this question in silence. Perhaps if she had seen the hungry glint in her sister’s eye whenever she looked at the alien ambassador, she would have realised the answer.

Re: [OT] - Xenology - Story driven PBW.
 

Thread cleaning.

[ August 26, 2003, 12:34: Message edited by: Unknown_Enemy ]

Re: [OT] - Xenology - Story driven PBW.
 

I've switched all my pc stuff including SE onto my mac using Virtual PC, my old laptop was getting a bit clunky.

Its interesting to read the Ix-Terra account.

The Robotians still think Ix-Terra are friendly if gullible allies, while Ix-Terra sees all the subGroups and shifting alliances of the Robotians as virii.

Re: [OT] - Xenology - Story driven PBW.
 

Thread cleaning.

[ August 26, 2003, 12:32: Message edited by: Unknown_Enemy ]

Re: [OT] - Xenology - Story driven PBW.
 

I don't have the Last turn gamefile, so if someone could send it to me also so I can send my turn.

I don't have it because its on my other comp, if neccesary I can drag that out and hook it up to the net again and send to my own email.

Re: [OT] - Xenology - Story driven PBW.
 

Thread cleaning.

[ August 26, 2003, 12:28: Message edited by: Unknown_Enemy ]

Re: [OT] - Xenology - Story driven PBW.
 

Hi !
>> Unknown-Enemy :
I can find the next turn if you need, it's on my computer at home and I will be back tomorrow.

Re: [OT] - Xenology - Story driven PBW.
 

Thread cleaning.

[ August 26, 2003, 12:32: Message edited by: Unknown_Enemy ]

Re: [OT] - Xenology - Story driven PBW.
 

thread cleaning.

[ August 28, 2003, 11:45: Message edited by: dogscoff ]

Re: [OT] - Xenology - Story driven PBW.
 

Thread cleaning.

[ August 28, 2003, 11:43: Message edited by: dogscoff ]

Re: [OT] - Xenology - Story driven PBW.
 

Robotian Foundation
Debate Interlink

Alright, lets introduce representatives from our three Groups here today. Each group will display an advertisement for their cause and then everyone in this interlink can vote on which one they prefer.

First we have the status quo represented by Capital City Regional Justice 7x109x (Henry). Make your presentation for the current system.

Rarely do advertisements wait for citizens to look their way, instead they head right into the kernal to present their message by interlink. This is what happened for all the citizens tuned into this debate, and for all the participants as well.

If you were a Robotian, this is what you would experience:

An image of the Justice SecondCreated appeared and then faded out replaced by an image of then ex-leader of the FFCC, and then a deactivation machine appeared, and then the newly deactivated leader was led into a storage room, where a few dozen criminals were kept deactivated until sentences were finished.

As the door to this prison warehouse closed, the narrator spoke, "It only costs 45 mineral dollars a year, and what is does is amazing. With efficient facilities and quick judgements we maintain peaceful and prosperous trade. We prevent rival organizations from harming each other, and we uphold the rights of property owners in all circumstances. Without the Foundation maintaining this order, property values would plummet and factions would form with ideas of conquest. No longer would economics be independent of military power. Think about it, Citizens."

After this Last word a panoramic of Capital City came into view.

The Debate virtual environment returned to central view in the interlink. "Next, we have 3x17x207 (Alaf), of the Anarchists' Alliance, advocating the elimination of the current Foundation government, as has been done on Anarchista."

The ad started quickly, focussed on the center of government in Capital City, but with the Creators' temple cleverly clipped out of the picture. The announcer said, "A clean sweep", and the image was replaced part by part with a picture of an empty space, the image of unoccupied homeworld before the industry had covered it with purpose. Then after a few moments, the picture changed to one of current Anarchista. The announcer said, "Can you find a center to this planet? If it exists, it is productive space, such as the shipyard. A picture of the shipyard on Anarchista appeared. "Citizens working together, by their own decisions, with their own money, without any form to constrain them." At the end of the advertisement, text appeared in the middle of a picture of Anarchista from above, saying in bright blue letters, "Anarchista, the model for Tommorow"

"Next, we have the captain of Discipline, 1x13, who chooses to have only an official name."

The ad began with the words "Alien Society" in red, presented visually, then they faded to a black screen. The narrator spoke, "The Argument for discipline, paraphrased from communications with an organized ally."

Then a diagram of a gaseous substance modelled molecule by molecule was shown, the result was chaotic and clashing, then the same thing was shown for a liquid, and then finally a solid. The narrator spoke, "We are chaotic and confusing to the aliens. We have no order, and the alien sees that to mean we have no proper existence. The alien argument is correct. As citizens, we can form ourselves into one whole. Or we can remain insignificant individuals. The crew of Discipline made the right choice." Then "The Control Alliance, a United Future" displayed, then fading to nothing.

"Alright, three views, three choices, vote if and whenever you want. Remember, this is only being done for information purposes, the Foundation is not going to change.

Anarchista and an upcoming Control Alliance colony are both viable places to move, if you believe in their ways.

Will it be the status quo, anarchism, or the strange politics of the aliens?"

Foundation Wide Vote Results:
Survey commisioned by the Justice

48% Status Quo
39% Anarchists
13% Control