The Pletron Ascention

[kerensky]

Okay so here is my first attempt at a story based on an SEIV game...


Back History

The Pletron Imperium is an odd species in the fact that they are neither carbon based or organic life forms, thought they are interdependent of both. The average Pletron is roughly four and a half to five feet tall with tannish gray skin. The Pletrons are dependent on plants as that is how they build anything large. Most of the buildings on Pletron are made of organic matter grown over some sort of frame, usually metal or pLasteel. The only exception to this is the imperial palace, which is one massive plant that reaches into the mid atmospheric level and whose base spans several square miles. Ships are grown in a similar matter at huge, greenhouse like growth yards. A metallic frame or hull is created and the rest of the ship, both exterior and interior, are grown on it. The ships normally appear yellowish-brown, but under different light sources or suns they may change color.
The Pletron have extreme control over the process of plant growing and can even create diverse and complicated color patterns appear on one plant. Several famous examples can be found at the Imperial museum.

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2400.2 ~ A New Dawn

As the massive seed pod of a colony ship RC-LZO-1 lifted off form the planetary growth yards, millions of Pletronians around the planet celebrated and watched via holo screens the launch that would carry millions of their fellow citizens to a new life. The ship eventually became a shimmering star as it continued to burn it’s way through the upper levels of Pletron’s thick atmosphere. Soon the picture on the holo screens shifted to a scene of the main square just inside of the Imperial Palace gates…

“ This is Yjin with the Imperial News Network reporting live form the Imperial Palace. We have just received word that the Emperor himself is going to make a speech to commemorate this event.”

Emperor Trildon XVI walked out onto the massive balcony overlooking the square. The Emperor was taller than the average Pletron, nearly six feet, and had a more greenish skin. This was due to the fact that he came from a long line that was of the royal cast.

“My people, for years we have looked upon an have been fed by the stars. Today, we forge forward to those stars in an effort to expand our empire. This new colony on the world of Ktaria IV is a stepping stone in our quest to conquer the stars!”

The square erupted in cheering as the Emperor finished. The rest of the day was filled more celebration and with long speeches by diplomats and military personnel.

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2400.4

Captain Frok walked towards the command deck on the new Grouilith class frigate. He noted with admiration the well-crafted color panels that had been grown into the walls every few meters. According to psychological studies done on the effects of space flight, these panels were supposed to provide the crew with something to break up the monotony of the mainly yellowish-brown ship. The doors to the command deck opened automatically as he approached them.
“Captains on deck!” Someone on the command deck shouted. Captain Frok saluted back to the officers and they resumed their positions. He took his seat in the middle of the deck and read the tactical readouts on the vid-screen in front of him.
“Comm, stations report.”
“Engineering reports engines and subsystems at full functionality. Life support functioning properly. All hands reported in.”
“Helm, take us out of here. Bearing five-five-niner-two.”

The Pletron Imperial Ship Ghost slowly slipped out of the growth yards and began its ascent towards space. The green arc left by its ion engines in the atmosphere recorded its progress.

*****

The colony ship RC-LZO-1 was not much more than an enormous seedpod with various cargo and engine modules attached to it. As the pod near Ktaria IV, most of the modules broke off and went into orbit. The seedpod continued towards the surface with the engine modules burning at overload. A kilometer from the surface, the remaining cargo modules disconnected form the seedpod and fire their own rockets to slow their fall. The seedpod impacted into the surface of the planet at a speed well over several hundred kilometers an hour, burying itself into the soil. This seed would provide the colonists with the plant life needed to grow a colony.

“This is personnel module one zero delta, we have retrieved the remaining cargo modules and are prepared for surface landing. How does it look down there command?”

Back aboard his own module, General Telfor watched the tactical readouts scrolling across the large vid-screen in his command center. It showed that the seedpod was intact and that the modules containing the prefab structures were also intact. He pressed the comm button.

“This is command. All personnel modules prepare for landing.”

He switched of the comm and turned to the comm officer…

“Hawdril, make sure that a message pod is sent back to Pletron. That should keep the merchants happy.”

The colonization of a new world had been a huge undertaking. It had taken several years, and a promise of a cut in the profits, just to convince the merchant unions to let so many people move to the colony. Yet it would be several more months before the merchants would see anything at all.

*****

Meanwhile, back aboard the PIS Ghost, the crew was preparing for the first warp jump in recorded history. Captain Frock felt the same excitement as the nearly 200 crew members on board felt. As they neared the warp point, its blue light splashed over the ship.

“Engage the EMFG.”

The lights aboard the Ghost dimmed slightly as the Electromagnetic Field Generator was activated. The EMFG enabled space-craft to make the inter-system jump without getting torn to pieces from traveling at speed near to that of light. The generators for such a field were long and narrow, running a the length of the ship on both the to and bottom. As the field met the warp point, arcs of electricity played across the field.

“Captain, we have entered the warp point.” Reported the Exec. Lieutenant Commander Suv. “Tactical reports that we will be exiting in roughly fifteen standard minutes.”

As the ship emerged into the Tendriss system, the view was met with a silent awe. Before them on the vid-screen was a view of a star forming, its swirling gases and matter creating a multi-colored display rivaled by nothing the bridge crew had ever seen. Captain Frok broke the silence…

“Tactical, report.”

“Sir, all systems show green. EMFG’s are returning to normal. Crew reports no casualties. Sensors have detected another warp point.”

“Good. Helm, take us to that warp point.”

The Ghost accelerated effortlessly as they moved on to expand the borders of Pletron space.

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[Atrocities]

Awsome read. More..... must have moooreee.

[Starhawk]

Good start keep it up

[kerensky]

Wow, I dropped all the way to teh third page! Must post more often.

Government system

The Pletron government is almost a pure dictatorship. At the head of the government is the Emperor, whose word is law. The rest of the government is divided among several houses or branches. The House of Lords is a house comprised completely of nobles. The members of this house act as regional or planetary governors and as judges. The Military branch of the government is by far the largest and, obviously, is in control of all military operations from full-scale wars to the commissioning of spacecraft. Another house is made up of members form the various trade unions of Pletron. While this house does not directly affect the rest of the government, gaining the support or funding of the trade unions is a critical thing for operations that the government cannot afford to do itself. There are also several other minor houses that deal with smaller functions of the government.

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2400.8

The PIS Ghost had finished scanning several more systems and was headed back for supplies. Meanwhile, its sister ship, the PIS Defender was scanning a system to the galactic west of Pletron…

“Captain, preparing for warp jump. EMFG’s engaged.”

The vid-screen on the command deck switched to an outside view as the Defender entered the warp point. The view before them was one that was now common to the crew. The blue swirling warp point met the EM field with a burst of static and electrical arcs. The vid-screen fuzzed a little as they neared the warp point then went out completely. Shortly after that the ship shook violently and all lights went out. As the emergency power came on, Captain Gou’Ling started barking out orders…

“Tactical, give me a status report. Comm, contact engineering and finds out what the hell happened down there and tell them….”

His sentence was cut short as the ship listed hard to one side and the artificial gravity kicked out. The lifeless Defender , caught on the edge of the swirling warp point, began spinning at high gees.

“Captain, I’ve got engineering on comm channel three, sir. I can bring them up on the main screen.”

A rather young face appeared on the screen as the engineering chief started to speak.

“Sir, we’ve registered some massive fluctuations across the EM field. It seems that this warp point has a different frequency range than the others that we have so far encountered. It caused a massive EM spark that knocked out all power. We should be able to re-calibrate the EMFG’s within fifteen minutes but with my crew fixing other damage…”

“I don’t care what’s wrong with the generators, just fix them now!”

The captain switched of the comm channel. He started to give more order to his crew when the tac officer interrupted him…

“Captain, sensors report that the ship is being pulled into the warp point. At our current rate, we have less than ten minutes until hull instability occurs.”

“Fine. Inform engineering to re-route all available power to the engines. Helm, turn us around and take us home.”

The Defender slowly pulled away from the warp point and headed back to Pletron to re-supply.

*****

Back in the Ktaria system (Pletron home system), the colony ship RC-LZA-02 had successfully “seeded” a new colony on Ktaria II. Governess Italia H’Ful looked out across the domed city from the rooftop of the government building. This building mimicked the imperial Palace back on Pletron in the fact that it was grown from the seedpod without a frame. It wasn’t as large as the palace, but was still the largest building in the colony. Just beyond the protective dome she could see the beginnings of a mining operation being set up. Most of the prefab shelters had now been replaced with larger structures of growth over a frame. Yet now the trade unions were threatening to pull all of there funding from the colonies due to the fact that they were not seeing enough profit yet. Because of this, the Emperor had called a conference today to discuss this matter. All of the houses would be present and the emperor himself would reside over the meeting. She and governor Telfor, a retired general, would be attending the conference via holo projections. The meeting had already been going all day, but the Emperor had not wanted them to “attend” until a certain time.

Imperial Palace
Main Conference Room

The Emperor looked around the vast circular room at the nearly one thousand people gathered. At the time, several people form the Trade Unions were arguing with several of the members of the military branch. He was vaguely listening, since they were arguing over the same thing they had been all day, the funding of the colonies. An aide slipped up and whispered something in the Emperor’s ear. He nodded and the aide left. The Emperor stood and addressed the assembly…

“Gentlemen, I thank you for attending this meeting on such short notice. Now that we have heard all of your views and opinions on the matter of funding the colonies, I do believe that it is time to hear from the governors of the colonies themselves.”

His statement caused a hushed whisper to go through those assembled because none of them had yet to see either of the governors at the meeting. The Emperor smiled to himself as he watched, then he nodded to a technician standing at a control panel to the right of his chair. In the middle of the room, in a size slightly larger than that of real life, appeared a holo projection of Governor Telfor and Governess H’Ful. Most of the delegates present had no idea that live holo vid was possible between planets. The Emperor once more resumed speaking…

“Greetings Governor Telfor and Governess H’Ful. The Trade Unions are still refusing to fund the colonies any more and after hearing the rest of the houses on this matter, I am ready to make a decision.”

The room became absolutely silent except for the occasional buzz of a light or someone coughing. The Emperor stood to his full height…

“As of this day forth, the functions of the Trade Unions in this government are dissolved. Form henceforth, all colony and off world functions will be upheld and supported by the Empire.”

The Emperor once more took his seat as a loud uproar went up form the section of seating were the Trade Union representatives sat. As they became more unruly, the Emperor pushed a button on the arm of his chair. Shortly after, hundreds of security personnel ran into the room. The buzz of stunners could be heard for the better part of a half hour before he riot was ended. After the Trade Union representatives had been escorted out, the Emperor retired to his personal living quarters, consisting of the top ten floors of the palace.

[kerensky]

nest installation...

2401.2

With the dissolution of the Trade Unions power, colonization went on at an accelerated rate, with several more worlds being added in just a few months.

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24002.0 – The Pletron New Year

The Pletron Empire celebrated this new years wit more excitement than usual. Along with all of the partying and celebration came the launch of the new Nightshade class destroyer, the PIS Saheal . This new ship size had nearly double the fire-power of the lighter frigate sized ships and was more heavily armored. As it launched, thousands of fire works lit up the sky, splashing diverse color patterns across the hull of this new ship.

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24002.6

Sergeant Hwa’Ful stopped just inside the airlock with the five troopers in his squad. He snapped the visor down on his pressure suit and waited for the suits HUD to activate before opening the outer door of the airlock.

“Sarg, why do we have to go out like this every morning?”

Hwa’Ful sighed. The trooper did bring up a good question. If it weren’t for these large, slug-like creatures that seemed to enjoy eating the Stecrete foundations to the dome, then these several times a day trips would not be necessary. He didn’t see why they couldn’t just exterminate these pesky creatures, but the science labs wanted to study them. As the air lock finally slid open, Hwa’Ful and his team stepped out into the bright oxygen atmosphere of Ahug I. He addressed his team…

“Okay boys, lock and load. Let’s move out.” He could hear faint clicks over the comm system as his team snapped in the clips that held organic matter for their meson bLasters. He thought back to the training classes he had had when the weapons were first issued to planetary militia. If he could remember right, a meson beam was simply a stream of quarks and anti-quarks forced together. This combination gave the wonderful effect of frying a victim he remembered as he watched one of his troops fry one of the eversized slugs. The meson bLasters did have a clip limit, but it was somewhere in the thousands.

“Sir, approaching northern air lock.”

Hwa’ful glanced up at the small holo map on his helmets HUD display. The dome that the colony lived under was a small one by colony standards, only holding about two hundred million people, but was still huge in comparison to an average sized Pletron. That’s why patrols such as his used open topped hover transports for this kind of work. The transports sat six and had various mounts for adding on heavier weapons or other equipment. As they went, several more slugs were bunt off of the domes foundation. At the northern entrance, his team would switch off with another that would complete the loop around the dome. As they drove up, the other team was already waiting outside the air lock. Hwa’ful checked the time before speaking to them…

“Are we late again?”

“No sir, we’re just out looking for the science expedition that went a few weeks ago. They’re supposed to be returning today.”

Just then a large group of militia came out of the large airlock used for vehicles. One of them wlaked up to Sergeant Hwa’ful and saluted. Hwa’ful saluted back and the man continued.

“Sir, the governor has put you in charge of a task force to retrieve the science team that went out two weeks ago. We lost contact with them early this morning. We believe that they may have been attacked by some of the local life forms. They did have a squad of about ten militia with them. You are authorized to take whatever vehicles that you think you may need.”

“Good. Inform the garage technicians to mount the heavy repeaters on a few of the transports, we may need them.”

Shortly after, Sergeant Hwa’ful set out with a hundred militia in search of the missing team.

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2402.7

Hwa’ful was flipping through the stations on his radio trying to find something to listen to when squad captain came into his tent.

“Sir, we’ve found signs of the expedition. They’re not good sir. “

Hwa’ful followed the captain to the transport outside. As they drove to the site, he questioned the captain.

“Did you find any survivors?”

“ ‘Fraid not sir. But we did find someone.”

As they drove up on the site, Hwa’ful noted that this was the camp that they had been searching for over the Last three weeks. The only problem was that the camp looked like it had been put through a shredder. He walked over to one of the pLasteel temporary shelters to get a closer looked and was surprised by gouge marks nearly two inches deep in the hard material. From what he saw, whoever was trying to get into the shelter didn’t quite make it.All that did remain were a few bones and some rotting flesh.

“Sir, DNA analysis has shown that this is, er, was one of the scientists on the expedition. So far we have found about half of the people, the other half are still unaccounted for.”

“Very good captain. Do we have any idea what did this?”

“They believe that it was a pack of Vorporaptors.”

Hwa’ful shuddered as he thought what a death like that would be. Vorporaptors were a reptilian species that stood about five feet tall. The walked mainly on their hind legs but could just as easily travel on all four. The creatures were very fast and had claws several inches long. The only way they killed their prey was to rip it to shreds.

“Fine. Let’s widen the search pattern and…”

He was interrupted by a scream from the far side of the clearing. He looked over and saw a single person being ripped apart by several of the lizard like creatures. Normally Vorporaptors only traveled in Groups of three or five, but this pack seemed to number in the hundreds.

“Everyone! Back to the transports!”

The five squads of militia that were at the site ran quickly back to the transports awaiting them at the edge of the clearing. Several were torn apart as they lagged behind. Once they reached the transports, the heavy repeater meson bLasters kept the creatures at bay long enough for the team to escape. The sergeant radioed ahead to the main camp.

“ This is Hwa’ful. We have a pack of Vorporaptors numbering in the hundreds following us. Prepare a welcome for them boys.”

As the scouting party drove across the clearing to the camp, the thick woods behind them exploded as hundred of Vorporaptors chased them. The gunners on the back of the transports swung around and opened fire, emptying hundred of energy beams into the creatures every minute. As the team crested the hill ever looking the camp, several explosions sent the lizard creatures flying several meters into the air as they triggered the land mines. Hwa’ful noted that his men had been busy. The entire camp had been packed and stowed away on the transports. He pulled his transport up next to his executive officer.

“Sir, we’ve radioed back to the base and they said that they would send some heavier fire power. We are to fall back to the base.”

Hwa’ful nodded. The convoy of transports speed back towards the base as quickly as possible. Their gunners were kept busy picking off any Vorporaptors that got too close. As they approached the north gate, several odd looking transports pulled out. It took Hwa’ful a few seconds to realized that they had fitted the transports with small cannons. The explosive shell that they fired made little work of the Vorporaptors.

Later that day, Hwa’ful was summoned to the governors palace. As he walked through the large halls of the structure, he notice the intricate lines of color that had been grown into the walls. He step into the governors office.

“I have heard of your actions over the past few weeks, Sergeant Hwa’ful, and am happy to inform you that you have been promoted to a the position of section commander. Aerial reconnaissance has found the rest of the expedition and they weren’t in much better condition than the ones you found. We have made plans to clear the forest around the dome for a space of half a kilometer for safety purposes. I am trusting that you can handle this assignment?”

Hwa’ful was ecstatic as he replied.

“Yes sir! I will begin planning at once.”

As he walked back out of the large building and back to the barracks, Hwa’ful thought over all that had happened in the past month.