Comments please. I'm no writer so this is pretty much just log format.
Approximately 98.3% accurate to events that unfolded in the game, with some artistic manipulation/interpretation of certain bits
Names may have been changed to protect individuals involved.
No small, virtual, alien species were harmed during the making of this story (well at least no considerable amount of them)
Birth to the stars
==================
Stardate 2350.0 (Pre-Game)
Being children of a gas giant we, the Daemons, have always lived close to the centre of our planet. The heat and pressure are much more agreeable to our race at that altitude. Over the Last decade we have been forced to colonise above the 1000Km mark and this has led to widespread illness and deterioration in the health of those people living in the said sky-houses. Something had to be done. The Omnicron was summoned (or at least his avatar), a guiding hand from another place with an intellect and understanding far in excess of our own, to give help and advice to the struggling species. Every Last iota of space in our planet has been used; we had no chance to survive unless something was done... and quickly. One thing was decided... Expansion!
"My subjects; My advisors; My friends." spoke the Omnicron, "We have but one choice if we are to survive now that the habitable parts of our planet are all used. I know this goes against everything that your biology teaches, but we must brave the vacuum of space."
A hushed silence hit the speaking chamber (at the centre of the world). No one could believe what had just been uttered. The daemonic empire could not possibly survive the rigors of space. The lack of pressure was such a humongous change that they wouldn't survive.
"It's Madness I say!" boomed a voice from the back of the seating area. A senator stood up. "We cannot survive... 'space', it's impossible!". Murmuring voices of general agreement rippled across the audience in the speaking chamber.
"Not impossible, merely... different." said the Omnicron's avatar. "Everything you are basing your 'scientific' assumptions on is wrong. Your ideals are to keep the pressure in and thus leave the ships habitable for the crew. Every experiment with shallow space vehicles has exploded for these exact reasons. You need to reconsider the position. Change your angle of view and try again."
"More riddles and garbage!" shouted the senator, "For once, dear Omnicron, if you have an idea or a solution just tell us rather than leading us on another goose chase!"
A fiery look took over the face of the Avatar. No one dared speak to him in such a tone lest he become angered and create a low-density helium pocket around the user or some other equally messy death. However, the Omnicron realised he did have a point. If the race were to prosper they would need real help this time rather than a mere prod in the right direction. The look of fire was replaced by one of compassion and radiant glory. "Very well, I shall teach you what you need but no more. Once you understand the concepts I will teach you I will return to my dimension and observe. This is the price you must pay for my service. I will return in the future again, but only in one of two ways. Firstly, I will be there when you are in dire need. Secondly, there is a symbol in your records, far in the deep, buried amongst the archives of the olden times. If you can find and create such a symbol then I will be bound to you and anyone who carries the symbol."
With this, the Avatar drifted quickly over to the senator. As he reached out his limbs he said to the senator "I hope you realise what you have done to this race". A brilliant white glow engulfed both the avatar and the senator. The senator was held, paralysed by holiness and at the same time his face twisted into a hideous visage and pain coursed through his soul. The rest of the council quickly left the room. Tales had been told of those who had been 'touched' by the Omnicron. None were pleasant and no-one wanted to see the result of this encounter.
After a while, people started to drift back towards the speaking chamber when a scream emanated from the centre of the planet. The scream was not carried by sound waves, but soul waves. Everyone on the planet heard it and experienced the feeling of pain and death coupled with the gift of extra knowledge. Simultaneously, the entire race collapsed. Overwhelmed by the pain of the sacrifice given by one Daemon, that the race could survive and expand into the stars.
Stardate 2390.0 (Marginally Pre-Game)
Over the Last 40 years the knowledge gifted to the race had started to emerge. Ideas filled the heads of the scientists, and even the civil servants, athletes, and artists were coming up with ideas way ahead of their time, let alone their speciality
The population had been able to create new, stronger structures. Reverse designed, these new structures were designed to be strong in tension rather than compression. Sky-Cities now floated safely up into the 2000Km mark and designs were being prototyped for the first Space-Ship. A craft designed that could carry a few Daemons to crew it and expand to explore the rest of the solar system.
The first test was heralded as a major success for the species as a whole. The craft was named 'Daemon-Poustar' after the senator who sacrificed all to give his race a shot at survival, and following it's launch came a celebration unlike any ever seen before. The entire population was brought up to the safe-'surface'-level and the ship zoomed back and forth in a spectacular atmosphere friction-style skywriting event. Next on the agenda, the ship flew away a distance and fired missiles at the planet. Caught firstly by the atmosphere the missiles flared bright yellow-orange, then exploded into cascade of air-flow induced waves and streams.
Stardate 2390.1 (Still Marginally Pre-Game)
Reports hit Cebalrai star that the scout craft encountered difficulties while scouting the star. Apparently, the star (previously thought to be 'heaven' as an intensely dense, hot, burning gas giant... just what the race likes
) had a huge gravity and swallowed the ship whole.
Stardate 2390.5 (Still Still Marginally Pre-Game)
Since the loss of the 'Daemon-Poustar' a travel company has organised what they call 'quick trips to heaven'. Although deemed by the senators to be the ultimate scam in the history of this race, somehow people keep buying it. The company charges a phenomenal fee, bundles the customers into a small ship, and launches them at the sun!
Later that year, the CEO and managing directors of the company were 'accidentally' caught in a freak accident with one of their ships and ended up getting their own 'Quick Trip To Heaven'. No-one knows what happened but the 'W.A.N.L' group were seen protesting about how the company were merely faking everything, taking Daemon's money and then killing them in the Cebalrai Star.
(Note: WANL? er... We Are Not Lemmings?
)
Stardate 2398.5 (Oooooo Almost the game not)
Since the closing down of 'Quick Trip To Heaven', the production facilities and finances of the company were seized by many new companies, all turning out to be trying one scam or another, the new Daemonic Government (company) titled 'Heading for Ever Long Life' (HELL) have finally taken control of the assets.
Despite their company name, because of which most thought it would be another scam company), this company seems to be genuinely aiming for the best for the race. The production facilities have been improved to the stage where proper colony space-ships can now be produced and even weapon bearing space-craft have been holding up fine under tests.
Improvements have been made in all areas and now research is just starting to proceed into different types of construction.
Designs have now been completed for a cheap, high-speed, long-range scout; a short range, very high quality, lower speed guard ship; and a very slow, cheap, short-range colony ship.
Preliminary indications given from the other planets in the system class a mere 3 of them as habitable. The others are blocks of rock and ice for which we have no idea how we could use...?
Out of the habitable planets we expect we can breathe on one of them. The others will have to have atmosphere transferred from our own planet and then the population can live in some sort of energy field, separating the two atmosphere types from each other.
Stardate 2400.0 (Game start)
Construction has begun for the first ever colony ship at our homeworld of Cebalrai III. We intend to have the planet of Cebalrai I colonised within 30 days after the construction of the ship (which will take about a month) and construction started on the planet to extract minerals and organics shortly after that. We have queued 2 more ships for construction after the first is finished. We can use these two as prototypes for colonising non-breathable atmospheres. This year we noticed for the first time, spatial anomalies around our system. Our eyes are badly developed from always living in very dense, hot, atmospheres and so we could not see them until we developed automatic system sensors. The computers believe they are small rips in the fabric of the universe. Currently, they do not seem to be hostile so we are concentrating on filling our system's planets before we examine these phenomenons any more. Research now really taking off on different types of construction. Ideas of floating mechanoids and explosive space-mines are being toyed with as well as small, incredibly quick strike-craft. We shall have to watch the researchers very carefully as this knowledge could unhinge the balance of power in this planet.
Stardate 2400.1
Construction for the first colony ship proceeded a lot faster than expected. Finished way before schedule we were able to establish our first off-planet colony. The empire erupted in celebrations when we could read the sky-writing on the nearby planet. "Do you want to come over for a dinner party?" Heh. those captains are sure weird
Anyway, with the first colony well established, construction continued on the second colony ship and plans were made for the use of Cebalrai I. This planet was much larger than our original one, and a moment started in the population to just relocate there and forget all about space travel. The people still remember and feel the fear we once bore for space so it's understandable that they just want to stay where they are, however we have larger things in store for the species.
Stardate 2400.4
The colonisation of our second two planets took place without events. The first was about the same size as our own homeworld, but it contains some sort of toxic atmosphere and as a result, we have had to transport large quantities of our own atmosphere here to make at least a small area breathable. On the plus side, the compounds in the air here are full of radioactives which we can refine, the offproducts from the process can then be turned into a valuable organic source.
The second of our two planets was larger than the first. Larger than our homeworld but not quite as big as Cebalrai I. This could just be a misconception thought because as with Cebalrai IV, Cebalrai II has an atmosphere toxic to our species. It's infuriating that we have space to develop 30 mining stations on Cebalrai I but on this planet we are limited to construction in our energy field. We can fit, at most 6 stations in this planet. And to top it all off there is *nothing* OF *ANY* value on this planet. It makes me wonder sometimes why we didn't just stay home. We have designated this planet as a research base so as to at least try and make some use from it.
Still there is bound to be something of interest in this great expanse of space.
Construction has now started on fast scout ships. These cheap craft with explore the phenomenon throughout the system and report back as soon as they figure out who/what they are.
Stardate 2400.5
Emergency Log Entry. Our scout has been destroyed.
We watched it approach the closest of the phenomenon (only 2 Spatial Units away) upon which it simply disappeared! Whatever creature that is in our system it has engulfed our ship and destroyed it. Our top scientists have formulated several hypotheses, the most likely of which is as follows...
These blue swirls in the sky are actually creatures. We didn't notice them before because they hadn't arrived. Now they lie dormant, like a Genebian Aark waiting in a helium eddy. Waiting for something edible to come close so they can swallow it up. Unfortunately this theory also includes the worrying fact that there are 4 of these creatures in our system so we may have become a nest for them or a breeding ground or something!
Our military tactician believes it may be possible to destroy these creatures but to do so would require firepower far in excess of our own.
Many of our population have started praying to the Omnicron again... something not done since the great squeeze of 2350. We will keep the population informed of any events however; at the moment even I am considering praying again.
Addendum: we have received a transmission from the scout. They are intact and well. A bit shaken up but otherwise they are fine. It seems that this creature swallowed them and excreted them in some other system. I do not know how a creature that long could possibly exist but according to their GPS (Galactic Positioning Sensors) they are currently 5.099 light years away in a system they have named Z’Ha’Dum. If they were to turn around now and head back towards us with their standard engines, assuming they find a continuous source of fuel, their ETA will be 34820512 solar years.
We do not know how, or why, they have ended up where they are, but we wish them all of the best in their new life across the galaxy.
Addendum 2: It appears that metals such as we have used to create our ships, are indigestible by these creatures now termed 'worms', and also it seems that they are able to eat from any direction at once. Something can go in what we have tentatively called the 'head' and emerge a bit shaken at its 'tail'. From this side, the craft can enter the 'tail' and emerge on the 'head' side. These creatures are surely very curious and a proper in depth study will have to be done on them. In the meantime, our scout ship can return home at any time (much to the relief of them and their families) so they are continuing to explore.
We have developed a technology called 'Star Charts' to track the systems encountered by our scouts. We have decreed that our home system is the centre of the universe, as is said in our sacred texts by the Omnicron, and so all systems will be described by relative coordinates to our system. Y-axis will be increasing towards the top. X-axis will be increasing towards the right. Cebalrai will now be known as Cebalrai(0,0). Z’Ha’Dum is now known as Z’Ha’Dum(-1,-5).
Our next test is to try and send a colony ship through one of these 'worms' and establish a colony in a foreign system. Despite all of the chaos in this Last month we have now a record of a potential planet for this colony. Z'Ha'Dum I appears to be made up of the same structure as our own homeworld. I only hope we can find a volunteer to test this colony for our species.
Addendum 3: After more study, it has been discovered that these 'Worms' are a very widespread species. Perhaps they are an ancient race now in hibernation (hence not actually eating us as we pass though them) or perhaps they are mere pets for another race whose size we cannot even begin to imagine. Some scientists have likened them to the single-celled organisms in our atmosphere, moving space debris though their systems without impact. But I refuse to listen to that train of thought because it really confuses me to think that we might all be about the same size as the space debris, in a *huge* planet like our own somewhere in a bigger universe...
Our scout has continued to travel through these 'Worms' and is sending charts through as it explores. Alrisha(6,-4) and Aludra(0,-11) are two systems found by travelling the 'worms' from Z'Ha'Dum. Alrisha(6,-4) has a few gas-giants we may be able to use, and Aludra(0,-11) seems to be one *HUGE* gas giant in itself. There is only one problem with Aludra(0,-11). Although it has the consistency of the gas giants we know and love, it lacks the gravity we need and the heat and pressure we enjoy. Also, there seems to be large amounts of radiation... which could be a good or a bad thing. Again more 'worms' have been detected in both of these systems.
On one of the ice planets in Z'Ha'Dum we have noticed something very similar to one of our own ice planets in Cebalrai. We have noticed some sort of structure. When we develop technology up to a level where we can examine this structure, perhaps we will learn more about the worms from it.
Stardate 2400.7
The scout has continued to explore, travelling through 1 worm further from the Aludra(0,-11) System into a new system called Wasat(-4,-13). This system has, surprisingly, the same makeup as Aludra(0,-11) but without the radiation. Light also seems to be refracted differently through the gas makeup causing a nice purple wave effect throughout the system. 3 more worms have been sighted in that system.
Last month (2400.6) a colony ship set off for the arduous task of travelling to the habitable planet in Z’Ha’Dum(-1,-5). It arrived this year and our first Extra-Cebalrai colony was established. Celebrations took place on all of our worlds, though it was not as magnificent as the celebrations from our previous colonies. It seems less real to colonise somewhere that you can't see to our people.
This month our research team had a breakthrough. We have decided to split the research they have started into several fields of work. Fighters, Troops and Mines are now all available for our scientists to consider. We have set them to work on larger ships. We have all decided that we need to be prepared in case the worms become angry at our usage of their guts.
This month our scout ship discovered the system of Volans(-7,-5). It has 2 planets we can live on comfortably and one other suitable for habitation so for now our colony ships destined for Alrisha(6,-4) are being diverted to take advantage of the better planets.
Stardate 2400.8
Discovery of Vulpecula(-5,-1) with 5 planets available for colonisation. None are ideal for our race but we can make them work. We have discovered that one of the 'worms' in this system is in fact the same as one of the unidentified 'worms' in Cebalrai(0,0). After further testing it was confirmed that the 'worm' does in fact link Vulpecula(-5,-1) to Cebalrai(0,0). At this stardate our scout has been recalled for fuel reasons. Due to poor planning from the captain, his thirst for exploration has left the engines thirsty. It will take approximately 1.2 years for the ship to return home. He has no-one to blame but himself. In the meantime, more colony ships are being constructed, and a new scout will be ready before the old one returns.
This month also saw the ordering of our first Weapon Platforms to be constructed (on our domed colony of Cebalrai IV). A statement to our current weapons technology. These are high altitude, submerged eddy missile launching systems with backup depleted uranium auto-cannons. Packing quite a punch at any range, if anything closes to within auto-cannon range it then gets peppered
The planet of Z'Ha'Dum I has now had it's construction orders set. A new development for our empire is the prospect of a packet-material streamer. This device (know to some as a Spaceport) relays materials around systems through the 'worms' it will take a few months for the construction of this device, but at the end we will be able to properly use the mineral resources on these Extra-Cebalrai planets. After the streamer is constructed, mineral, organic, and radioactive mines will be built, followed quickly by a fuel base and Spacecraft factory.
Stardate 2401.0
And so, one year has passed since the start of our great move. Plans and views have changed quite a lot, and never again will our species look at the stars in the same way. The new scout discovered the system of Tania Australis(6,-1) with a few planets, one of which looks very nice, and yet another small ice planet with a strange structure on it. Colony ships are well on their way towards both Tania Australis(6,-1) and Volans(-7,-5). Research is picking up a bit, but since the planets we have recently colonised have been rich in one or more minerals we see no major need to advance our technology.
Maybe when we approach more planets and find them less than satisfactory we may create more research colonies.
Logs will continue, but will be entered less often, probably covering 0.5-1 years at a time.
If you hadn't guessed the race is Religious with Advances Storage Techniques. They have an interesting view of everything and are impulsive, but peaceful. Researching for immediate needs rather than planning for the future this could lead to some problems when they encounter other races, but they are off to a good start with a bunch of planets and wealth accumulating quite nicely.
Asteroids Champion!
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