Guanyu
18-04-2004, 06:58
OOC: Ask for permission to join please! I know this post is long, but bear with me.
IC:
In a secret underground facility on Guanyu Ceta, an experiment was under way that would change the universe forever. Exactly eighteen months earlier, two scientists had been fired from the Research and Development branch of the Guanyan Biotechnological Institute for conducting dangerous and illegal experiments on unwilling subjects. An examination of their personal files had yielded the discovery that they had been attempting to create a Deus Ex Machina, a “god from a machine” who would bring justice and peace to the Empire. Though the two scientists were misguided and acted illegally, their intentions had been good and they were therefore allowed to live. Now, after eighteen months of exhaustive research and testing, the two believed that they had flouted their ex-superiors and finally completed the project.
Dr. Edith Rennox and Dr. Matthew Yabrant stood on opposite sides of an operating table, on which a Guanyan man lay unconscious. The man was tall, nearly six and a half feet, with brown hair and brown eyes. He was strapped to the operating table with steel bindings and his mouth was covered in much the same manner. The two doctors looked at each other over the table, excitement written clearly on both of their faces. All but the final stages of the operation were complete. The man’s muscles had already been replaced with super-strength polymers and his bones with the strongest metal found in the Empire. Instead of blood, he had a nutrient stream that increased his healing capabilities to over twenty times the human threshold, and his regenerative speed to several hundred times.
One does not create a god through physical manipulation, however. The true test of the process came last, the transformation of man to deity. Dr. Yabrant reached down to a button on the side of the table, the activator for the final step of what they called the “Deification Process.” As he pressed it, huge machines buried deep under the soil of the planet went to work harnessing the latent supernatural energies in the fabric of the space-time continuum. A stream of energy passed into the subject’s shuddering form, laced with Order and Chaos, Flame and Void, and every other natural or supernatural property the machines could harvest from the planet.
After what seemed to the two scientists to be eons, but was in fact only a matter of minutes, it was done. The machines had completed their work and the subject had stopped trembling. Now was the crucial part. No mortal’s body, even enhanced as his was, could withstand such energies. His heart had stopped with the ceasing of the flow and if they could not get it started again, all of their work would be for nothing. Electrical jolts flooded into the man on the table as the two worked silently to restart the man’s cardiovascular system. This was where all previous attempts had failed, as it had been too late to resuscitate the subjects.
This man, however, was somehow different. They had known it from the moment they first met him. Where others had perished, he would survive.
After a few agonizing moments, the man opened his dark brown eyes and looked at his creators. Without apparent effort he broke free of his bonds and stood up, keeping his eyes on them. The two were babbling excitedly to each other about the amazing success of the experiment, and it was a few moments until they actually addressed the man, no, the god, who they had named Erantal. Dr. Rennox was the first to speak.
“Welcome to your new life, Erantal. You must be wishing to know our purpose in remaking you as we did. Know then that you are to be God of the Guanyan people, and bring forth an era of eternal justice and-”
Had she had time to speak the word “peace,” many things might have happened differently. Unfortunately, both for her and for the universe, she never got the chance. As soon as the word “justice” left her mouth, the god-thing interrupted.
“In creating me this way, you defied the laws of your nation and sinned against your fellow man. I deem you to be unworthy.” With that, he reached forward and gripped her jaw. He then unhesitatingly ripped her head from her body. Dropping her head and ignoring her falling corpse, he turned to Dr. Yabrant. Yabrant had not progressed so far in biotechnology without being an extremely quick learner, however, and was already on the other side of the reinforced laboratory door, which was closing fast. Knowing that the door would not hold his creation for long, he ran as quickly as he could from the lab, closing any doors he could on the way. When he reached his office, he grabbed his communicator and dialed the code for the Guanyan Biotechnological Institute. He could not save himself, but he might be able to save others.
“Hello, I need to speak with Dr. Arnam immediately. This is an emergency!” Luckily the man on the other end was experienced enough not to ask stupid questions, and only muttered a perfunctory “transferring” before Yabrant heard his old boss’s voice speaking.
“What is the nature of your emergency?”
“John, this is Matthew Yabrant. I don’t have much time. When Edith and I were fired, we were bitter and wanted to continue our experiments. We found an abandoned base under Riann Valley on Guanyu Ceta and set up a new lab there. We just completed the project, John. Edith told him his purpose was to bring justice, but she made the mistake of not defining justice. He decided that she was unjust and,” here his voice broke a bit, “he killed her, John. Tore her head right off her body! I don’t know what his parameters are for justice, but I think he plans to kill anyone he finds who has ever done anything unjust. There’s a mad god on the loose in this base, John, and he won’t stay confined here long. He’s almost to my office now; I can hear him breaking down the doors in the hallway. You have to tell the government, something must be done. I’m going to try shutting down the life support. I don’t know if he needs air to survive, but this is my only chance to stop him. Waste no time, the government must be informed! Goodbye, John!”
John Arnam finally came out of his shocked stupor and called his old friend’s name, but the line had gone dead. After a few moments of mourning for both of the doctors who had once been good friends of his, he told his secretary he needed to be connected to the office of the Administrator-General.
Two months later…
Administrator-General Karhoff of Guanyu hadn’t felt this tired in years. He hadn’t had any food in two days because sending raiding parties up to the surface had become too risky. If the enemy found out where they were hiding, not a man, woman, or child would escape. They had learned all too well that Erantal’s definition of “unjust” meant anything alive that was not a god-creature like himself. He had taken over the base where he was created and made an army of lesser deities in his own image. The only good news was that the things could be killed, though only by decapitating them or using special poison bullets that a few of Guanyu’s remaining biotechnicians had developed to fight the creatures. The war had not gone well for Karhoff. His people had been slaughtered on Guanyu Ceta, though luckily the creatures had not yet spread beyond the planet of their creation. They seemed to have no wish to leave.
Finally, after two months of war, Karhoff had finally managed to devise a way around the jamming that had prevented them from calling for help. A message went out to all systems that he could reach, telling them of the horrible events on Guanyu Ceta and asking for any help that could be given. Karhoff knew that his people could not continue to fight this war alone.
IC:
In a secret underground facility on Guanyu Ceta, an experiment was under way that would change the universe forever. Exactly eighteen months earlier, two scientists had been fired from the Research and Development branch of the Guanyan Biotechnological Institute for conducting dangerous and illegal experiments on unwilling subjects. An examination of their personal files had yielded the discovery that they had been attempting to create a Deus Ex Machina, a “god from a machine” who would bring justice and peace to the Empire. Though the two scientists were misguided and acted illegally, their intentions had been good and they were therefore allowed to live. Now, after eighteen months of exhaustive research and testing, the two believed that they had flouted their ex-superiors and finally completed the project.
Dr. Edith Rennox and Dr. Matthew Yabrant stood on opposite sides of an operating table, on which a Guanyan man lay unconscious. The man was tall, nearly six and a half feet, with brown hair and brown eyes. He was strapped to the operating table with steel bindings and his mouth was covered in much the same manner. The two doctors looked at each other over the table, excitement written clearly on both of their faces. All but the final stages of the operation were complete. The man’s muscles had already been replaced with super-strength polymers and his bones with the strongest metal found in the Empire. Instead of blood, he had a nutrient stream that increased his healing capabilities to over twenty times the human threshold, and his regenerative speed to several hundred times.
One does not create a god through physical manipulation, however. The true test of the process came last, the transformation of man to deity. Dr. Yabrant reached down to a button on the side of the table, the activator for the final step of what they called the “Deification Process.” As he pressed it, huge machines buried deep under the soil of the planet went to work harnessing the latent supernatural energies in the fabric of the space-time continuum. A stream of energy passed into the subject’s shuddering form, laced with Order and Chaos, Flame and Void, and every other natural or supernatural property the machines could harvest from the planet.
After what seemed to the two scientists to be eons, but was in fact only a matter of minutes, it was done. The machines had completed their work and the subject had stopped trembling. Now was the crucial part. No mortal’s body, even enhanced as his was, could withstand such energies. His heart had stopped with the ceasing of the flow and if they could not get it started again, all of their work would be for nothing. Electrical jolts flooded into the man on the table as the two worked silently to restart the man’s cardiovascular system. This was where all previous attempts had failed, as it had been too late to resuscitate the subjects.
This man, however, was somehow different. They had known it from the moment they first met him. Where others had perished, he would survive.
After a few agonizing moments, the man opened his dark brown eyes and looked at his creators. Without apparent effort he broke free of his bonds and stood up, keeping his eyes on them. The two were babbling excitedly to each other about the amazing success of the experiment, and it was a few moments until they actually addressed the man, no, the god, who they had named Erantal. Dr. Rennox was the first to speak.
“Welcome to your new life, Erantal. You must be wishing to know our purpose in remaking you as we did. Know then that you are to be God of the Guanyan people, and bring forth an era of eternal justice and-”
Had she had time to speak the word “peace,” many things might have happened differently. Unfortunately, both for her and for the universe, she never got the chance. As soon as the word “justice” left her mouth, the god-thing interrupted.
“In creating me this way, you defied the laws of your nation and sinned against your fellow man. I deem you to be unworthy.” With that, he reached forward and gripped her jaw. He then unhesitatingly ripped her head from her body. Dropping her head and ignoring her falling corpse, he turned to Dr. Yabrant. Yabrant had not progressed so far in biotechnology without being an extremely quick learner, however, and was already on the other side of the reinforced laboratory door, which was closing fast. Knowing that the door would not hold his creation for long, he ran as quickly as he could from the lab, closing any doors he could on the way. When he reached his office, he grabbed his communicator and dialed the code for the Guanyan Biotechnological Institute. He could not save himself, but he might be able to save others.
“Hello, I need to speak with Dr. Arnam immediately. This is an emergency!” Luckily the man on the other end was experienced enough not to ask stupid questions, and only muttered a perfunctory “transferring” before Yabrant heard his old boss’s voice speaking.
“What is the nature of your emergency?”
“John, this is Matthew Yabrant. I don’t have much time. When Edith and I were fired, we were bitter and wanted to continue our experiments. We found an abandoned base under Riann Valley on Guanyu Ceta and set up a new lab there. We just completed the project, John. Edith told him his purpose was to bring justice, but she made the mistake of not defining justice. He decided that she was unjust and,” here his voice broke a bit, “he killed her, John. Tore her head right off her body! I don’t know what his parameters are for justice, but I think he plans to kill anyone he finds who has ever done anything unjust. There’s a mad god on the loose in this base, John, and he won’t stay confined here long. He’s almost to my office now; I can hear him breaking down the doors in the hallway. You have to tell the government, something must be done. I’m going to try shutting down the life support. I don’t know if he needs air to survive, but this is my only chance to stop him. Waste no time, the government must be informed! Goodbye, John!”
John Arnam finally came out of his shocked stupor and called his old friend’s name, but the line had gone dead. After a few moments of mourning for both of the doctors who had once been good friends of his, he told his secretary he needed to be connected to the office of the Administrator-General.
Two months later…
Administrator-General Karhoff of Guanyu hadn’t felt this tired in years. He hadn’t had any food in two days because sending raiding parties up to the surface had become too risky. If the enemy found out where they were hiding, not a man, woman, or child would escape. They had learned all too well that Erantal’s definition of “unjust” meant anything alive that was not a god-creature like himself. He had taken over the base where he was created and made an army of lesser deities in his own image. The only good news was that the things could be killed, though only by decapitating them or using special poison bullets that a few of Guanyu’s remaining biotechnicians had developed to fight the creatures. The war had not gone well for Karhoff. His people had been slaughtered on Guanyu Ceta, though luckily the creatures had not yet spread beyond the planet of their creation. They seemed to have no wish to leave.
Finally, after two months of war, Karhoff had finally managed to devise a way around the jamming that had prevented them from calling for help. A message went out to all systems that he could reach, telling them of the horrible events on Guanyu Ceta and asking for any help that could be given. Karhoff knew that his people could not continue to fight this war alone.