NationStates Jolt Archive

http://img91.exs.cx/img91/7884/pin8zp.png

Anchorwoman: Good evening. This is Plutonian Imperial News, and I'm Persephone Stauffer, and we bring you breaking news. The President has ordered an immedieate evacuation of the city, amid concerns that another quake could strike within the next 12 hours. Again, the President has ordered an immedieate evacuation of Deneb Centauri. People will be evacuated to the innermost moon, Hadea Alpha. PIN headquarters is being evacuated immedieately. We will broadcast again in Hadea City. Good luck, and farewell.

*Immedieately, the populace filed onto waiting spaceships, to evacuate them to Hadea City.



*11 hours later, it happened. As the final 3rd of the remaining 50 million people (many died from smoke inhalation, CO2 poisining, and other cases since the SuperQuake) filed onto the waiting spaceships, the ground began to tremble. The President and PIN were already in Hadea City. People started to panic as the shaking increased rapidly.

*Ships and PlutoCons already full took off immedieately, and empty ships and PlutoCons took their place rapidly.

*Quickly, the magnitude of the quake exceeded the previous superquake's, and was heard as a loud roar, like a million freight trains. Skyscrapers, again, fell to the ground.

<CCCRRRRAAAAAACCCKKKK!!!!!!>

BOOOOOMMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmm............

*Suddenly, the ground erupted, in the same place as that lava geyser from the previous quake, but with a LOT more force. This time, there was more than just lava going up. Shooting out were very large, red-hot rocks with molten cores, also known as "lava bombs." They were shooting out by the hundreds, but most were very small. For a minute anyway...

*Soon, the geyser started spewing out larger bombs, and over a larger area. This was bad news. The shaking was now as powerful as most other quakes on Denebia Hadea, and the dome was beginning to fail.

*Deneb Centauri was doomed. The geyser suddenly exploded, literally blowing house-sized boulders all over the place....

<CRASH!>

*A particularly large boulder smashed into the dome. There was now a very loud sucking noise, as the air gushed out of the dome, pulling anyone and anything unlucky enough to be too close to the hole. More followed, within moments, the dome collapsed. Millions perished instantly. A dozen spaceships, and even more PlutoCons, were destroyed if they hadn't left the city's airspace by now.*

**The next day.**

Male Reporter: What you're seeing, is what's left of Deneb Centauri.
*TV screen switches to images of devastation and lava-filled streets. Nearby, is a cone that is still erupting.*

Male Reporter [continues]: With the destruction of Deneb Centauri, the Empire's capital is officially moved to Hadea City.

**It takes a few days to tally up the total losses: 8 million dead. 4 hakurabi ships destroyed. 30 civilian plutocons lost. Deneb Centauri "totalled."**

OOC: YOW! 4 construction ships! Sure hope they weren't the Oxygenator carriers... Just so you know, after the surviving 5 have offloaded the people, they should be sent back to the surface to pick apart the wreckage and search for any salvageable goods and survivors. The construction vessels should have survivors, being large scale construction facilities, and may have crashed somewhere else. Even if everyone died, they still contain large amounts of valuable equipment that could be used in reconstruction.

OOC: YOW! 4 construction ships! Sure hope they weren't the Oxygenator carriers... Just so you know, after the surviving 5 have offloaded the people, they should be sent back to the surface to pick apart the wreckage and search for any salvageable goods and survivors. The construction vessels should have survivors, being large scale construction facilities, and may have crashed somewhere else. Even if everyone died, they still contain large amounts of valuable equipment that could be used in reconstruction.
OOC: We'll assume one was, to avoid Godmoding. And watch out for those aftershocks once we start picking things up. ;)

Thirty tunneler class frieghtors, fully loaded with 600,000 people, their cargo holds filled with refugees and condensed oxygen, left just minutes before the quake. They had been on Deneb Centauri distributing condensed oxygen after the last disaster, but had filled their holds with people as the evacuation order was called out. The ships were now making their way to the moon where people were planing on staying.

(ooc: conditions of the moon would be needed.)

(ooc: conditions of the moon would be needed.)
http://img84.exs.cx/img84/9958/hadeaalpha9tc.jpg
With the volcano, it's obviously gonna get crowded, so some flights may be diverted to the second moon. (Denebia Hadea has 3, the third a very large captured asteroid.)

After finding out about crowding on the first moon, the diplomat in charge of the freigters makes a communication to the president of the Plutonian empire. "It looks like things are getting crowded down there. Maybe we should divert the 600000 passengers we have to your second moon. With your permission, of course."

The ISF fleet flagship ISF Devastator Entered the system, intending to aid those that were wounded in the first quake. They were astounded at what they saw. The relif items were offloaded at Habeus city, and then the massive craft took orbit around the planet that seemed intent on destroying itself.

Several Tornado-class ground-to-orbit shuttles have been upgraded with sensors capable of picking up wreackage, and survivors. They have begun sweeping the area of the formerr city, loking for anyone still living.

@Cyrian
Granted.

@Stellar.
All the oxygen was sucked out, and the place is covered in lava. Although someone may have managed to survive underground, but that is unlikely. And it's "Hadea City," assuming you were talking about the lunar city.

@All
Since the moons are not geologically active, there are definitely more than one cities on them, so there is plenty of room to expand. :)

(ooc: I need conditions of the second moon then.)

(ooc: I need conditions of the second moon then.)
http://img91.exs.cx/img91/6144/hadeabeta9fv.jpg
I have yet to give any city names for that moon.

well, I mean what kind of climate does it have? Breathable atmosphere? what is the current population? Siesmic activity? What does the surface look like?

Neither of the moons have breathable atmospheres (EDIT: actually, no atmosphere at all), so no clouds on any of them. Nor do they have geological activity, so they're really safe. Right now, I'm assuming the population for Alpha, 100 mil (with the refugees), and 2nd moon at 50 mil. (Assuming I got my math right.)

Hence the special sensor arrays. To see underground, if limitedly. And those construction ships are pretty damn big, so taey can't be sestroyed as fast as other ships

The 5 ships (the comms cruiser has modified thrusters now) descended to the surface, flying high over the surface to scope out the survivors, all hands on deck, listening for any radio transmissions or life signs. Another quake could happen at any time, or the life support on the ships could fail.

~~TRANSMISSON FROM 25.3:59.1~~
~~WARNING - SIGNAL EXTREMELY WEAK~~

Thi~~ is Ca~~~in Ch~~~~~~ W~ ~~e ~~ ~~~ent n~~~ ~~ ~ood an~ sup~~~~~ P~~~~ ~~ ~~~~~ng ou-
~~SIGNAL LOST~~

Channing repeated his message one last time in the desperate hope that someone would hear it, before the last of the air ran out. PQ-CI4392 had already shut himself down (Everyone thought of it as a him) to save power for the life support systems. He sat down on what was left of a control panel and sighed. The engineers had done their best, and all that would be left of the once great Halogen would be a rotting hull. Most of the engineers had survived, being in vac-suits already, and anchored down whilst creating new ventilation systems. Still... over two hundred engineers dead, and over a million Plutonians. And now, those who survived were doomed to a slow, painful death. He remebered when he first recieved news that he was chosen to Captain one of the Construction starships, the pride he felt, as he recieved his insigna. His memories were cut short by a cheer, and an excited lieutenant rushed into the room to announce that ships had been sighted approaching the wreck! He at first passed it off as a delusion, but when the other people in the room rushed to the windows and began pointing, he realised. The message must have gotten through! He gave the order to blink the landing lights, as the shapes became larger. Soon, a construction ship had clamped itself onto the side of the hull, and began cutting through the walls. As a rush of fresh air flowed through the wreck, vac-suited engineers began walking. They must be searching for survivors! Soon there was a throng of excited survivors running into the ship, every last one of them grateful to the captains and their respective deities. The engineers began the difficult task of "rescuing" the resident AI, stripping it down to personality, memories, and self programmed processes. Everything that made PQ-CI4392 what he was. The extensive star charts and ship control functions that were placed into a ship's databanks when an AI chose to be part of a starship were left behind, and shrinked the required size to fit the AI dramatically. Other engineers were constructing a reasonably small mobile "body" for PQ-CI4392 to be copied into.

Whilst the ships were searching for survivors, twenty freighters dropped from hyperspace, carrying prefabricated domes and large amounts of food, water and air.

~~TRANSMISSION TO DENEBIA HADEA I~~
We have brought small prefabricated domes along with large amounts of food, water and air for the refugees, along with two construction crews to construct buildings and tubes for the excess population. We place our ships at your disposal.
~~TRANSMISSION ENDS~~

OOC: The construction vessels are unlikely to be simply destroyed, as they are armoured for normal space collisions, and as such, they probably will have crashed somewhere. So, I'm looking for them now. 1 down, 3 to go.

(ooc: Ack, what would the cities look like? Should I even land in a city?

OOC: They are described as: domed biospheres. They essentially have a spaceport that can be accessed from outside, and large enough to allow heavy ships to fly around within the city.

(ooc: Ack, what would the cities look like? Should I even land in a city?
A typical city:
http://img103.exs.cx/img103/9866/s1ipiscescentauriv10.png
(But with a dome over it, of course ;) )

OOC: They are described as: domed biospheres. They essentially have a spaceport that can be accessed from outside, and large enough to allow heavy ships to fly around within the city.
Actually, the domes currently don't have any doors for a spaceship to fly through. But there are ideas as to how this can be done...

OOC: Might as well continue with the search and rescue.

IC:
Channing and the remainder of the bridge crew watched the Halogen dissappear into the distance. The nightmare was over.

Later that day...

We have detected an energy signature around 200km NNW of here. Adjusting course.

When they arrived, the ship had been horrendously mangled. The engines had exploded, and the entire construction bays had been destroyed. The Acnitium had been carrying an oxygenator, but only the bridge and its emergency systems remained. As the same construction ship picked up the bridge in its bay, others were picking through the wreckage for anything salvageable. Nothing save a lietenant, the skipper and a single engineer survived. As the ships left, an earthquake ripped through the wreckage and destroyed the remains.

**Weeks pass. Many spaceships remains on the planet were destroyed by earthquakes or lava flows (from the new volcano), but there were some survivors and salvageable debris. Deneb Centaurians eventually got reunited with friends and families, and population numbers gradually settled down to a less chaotic mode (people found new homes, more cities build on the moons, etc.)

**Science teams studying Denebia Hadea came across something extraordinary. For some reason, quakes all over the planet began to weaken, and even more astonishing, the planet was actually growing in size, about a mile a day. It was theorized that there was a lot of energy bottled up in the planet, and is like a cork ready to pop. Scientists are eagerly waiting to see what will happen next...**

With the news of the geometric growth of the planet, the crew realised that time was running out. No asteroids had run into the planet recently, and the pseudo-even inflation was bad news. The core must have destabilised. They had no time to lose. The other two ships are still out there, and - WAIT that was it! A radio brodcast was sent to the moons, asking that anyone who saw the ships plummet please inform their nearest radio station of the speed and direction of the ships.

With what happened last time, with large chunks of rock destroying ships, their FTL drives were primed and set for Deneb II. The nature of the drive should allow the ships to escape immediately should the planet begin to detonate, as fairly large amounts of power were already being diverted to the capacitors that triggered the jump. In the meantime, the ships continued hunting for wreckages.

With the revelation of a potential planet explosion, the frightening concept of having to evacuate the entire Denebia Hadea area could have to be evacuated, or at least heavily shielded, as the explosion of Denebia Hadea was bound to release huge amounts of material and energy.

Projects were put on hold as construction vessels from around the republic were sent to Denebia Hadea's moons in a bid to erect a powerful enough shield to save the moons when the planet exploded.

Those who had just been rescued were in hysterics about this, as they had just escaped one crisis, only to run into another.

**Amid panic that the planet could explode, the Prez goes on TV**

President: My people, let me assure you. the planet is NOT going to explode. It takes 2 day's worth of Sol's energy production to destroy this planet. Denebia Hadea has NOWHERE near enough energy, so most likely, there will simply be a mass of volcanic eruptions breaking out all over the planet. Again, I assure you, there is NOTHING to worry about. Nothing. :)

Having offloaded the 600000 people at Hadea Beta, three of the freightors were now working to ferry people back and forth between the colonies to reunite families. The other twenty seven had headed back to Cyrian Space, and were returning with all the food, materials, water, and oxygen that Cyrian space could spare. A second shipment of ten freightors had already arrived and was distributing food and water. And one Cyrian Science Vessel had been brought to observe Deneb Hadea's geological changes, and also to lend assistance as a hospital.

OOC: I don't like how you say that... I'm going to go ahead with the shielding. Still... Huge amounts of matter could be released.

IC:
With calls from refugees who had seen their loved ones go down and others who seen where the other ships crash, rescue came along smoothly. The smaller PlutoCons mostly exploded, though the other two wreckages were more or less in good condition - One lost two engines and a cargo bay, whilst the other had its bridge crushed against the face of a mountain. However, as the main reactors and cargo bays are near the aft of the ship, the Plutonians survived with minor injuries, with only one or two dead. Unfortunately, the entire bridge crew, along with AI was killed.

**A month has passed, and the planet has grown 26 miles in diameter, slowing as it reached 20 miles wider. Quakes were practically non-existant on the planet, but people have been ordered to not build anything on Denebia Hadea, because it is still very dangerous. Limited 3 hour land explorations are allowed, however. Much more was learned about the planet in one month than in the century that has passed since arriving here.

**Ever since its formation millions of years ago, Denebia Hadea was one heck of a quaking sphere. Volcanoes were extremely rare, usually only 3 volcanic mountains exist, 2 of which are extinct. With no atmosphere or water to erode, the mountain ranges from colliding plates simply got higher and higher, many crumbling after simply becoming too large. Never before in its history has the planet stopped quaking. Until now...**

http://img91.exs.cx/img91/7884/pin8zp.png

Persephone Stauffer: Good morning, this is Plutonian Imperial News, and I'm Persephone Stauffer. Our top story this morning is Denebia Hadea. For nearly a month now, Denebia Hadea has been slowly growing about a mile a day in diameter, and scientists are expecting something to happen possibly today.

*TV screen switches to a skycam view of Denebia Hadea, as seen from Hadea Alpha. (there is no need to move the camera as the day progresses because the same side of each moon always faces Deneb Hadea)*

http://img167.exs.cx/img167/5484/denebiahadeafromhadeaalpha5qt.jpg

Persephone: For the entire day, the camshot of the Planet will be displayed in a small box in the lower right corner of your TV screen. In other news...

OOC: I'm not going to fast with the plot-line, am I?

The ships were now helping to build accomodations for the freshly rescued Plutonians, though everyone was on edge, with the Deneb Centauri Eruption still on their minds. The engineers refused to leave the ships without hyperspace beacons, which would send them directly to a designated unique air lock, and a queue system (hyperspace is similar to a second dimension, but the same. Just a strange phenomena) to prevent messes. The ships themselves were primed to warp if the planet exploded, with the AIs constantly watching and ready to send a warp signal which would extract all people wearing a jump unit to a ship.

**For the first 6 hours of being on tv in the lower right corner, the planet did nothing.**

*On the surface, local night time.*

Male Scientist 1: Tom, hurry up. We'v only got 5 minutes left on our 3-hour time limit.

Male Scientist 2 [30 feet below the surface]: I know, but this cave is awesome!

(OOC: On earth, caves are created by water. On Denebia Hadea, caves are really just dead, ancient fault-lines)

IC:

Male Scientist 1: Tom!

Male Scientist 2: All right! I'm com.... [Bloodcurling scream, static]

Male Scientist 1 [in full fright]: TOM!
*Looks down the hole (dug manually) only too see fast flowing lava.*
Oh shit!
*The ground starts to shake as he runs for the PlutoCon, recently installed with chronopowered vertical thrusters. He climbs the rope ladder into the plane (all PlutoCons have mandatory rope ladders)*

*He powers up the plane, and takes off just as lava erupts from the man-made hole.*


*On Hadea Alpha*

Persephone: ...and the planet. Wait... Okay, we're starting to see some action!

*The cam view of Denebia Hadea was enlarged to full screen just as the planet started to act up.*

**Suddenly, a bright dot appeared on the surface, on the night side. It quickly turned orangish-red, and then dissappeared in seconds. There was a little bit of twinkling expanding from the dot. It was sunlight reflecting off the debris. 10 seconds later, on the day side, a bulge quickly grew, then exploded.**

Persephone: What we see happening before our very eyes--Ooh! another one! What we're seeing are events called "explosive upwellings," which are gigantic, larger than life volcanoes, and on terrestrial worlds, spew enough material to create entire continents in a matter of years. It is theorized that Earth experiences those as well, especially in the early years.

**By the time she finished talking, five more "explosive upwellings" occured, three on the far side of the planet (the side not currently visible)**

Persephone: Wow! What we are seeing here is history unfolding right before our very eyes!

**All over the surface, volcanoes blew, spewing untold amounts of material into space, some which very quickly returned to the surface, some entered orbit, and some flew into space to fall back at a far later date. The supervolcanoes erupted with full force for hours on end, and additional volcanoes blew into existence, releasing 4 weeks worth of the planet's energy in just a day, resulting in Denebia Hadea rapidly reducing to its normal size. The entire region was just glittering with volcanic debris, most which would fall back to the ground in the same amount of time it took on the way up, some of them occasionally impacting the moons. Other debris entered orbits that would last for years. Near the surface, the planet was just cluttered with volcanic clouds, filled with tons of gasses...**

Persephone: Well, ladies and gentlemen, I believe we have just witnessed the birth of a new atmosphere.

OOC: Now, was that so scary? :D (j/k)

The crew breathed a sigh of relief, as the inflation ended up just being built up gases. However, when, some weeks later, some of the crew plucked up the courage to suggest returning to the surface, high-sensitivity tectonic and heat sensors were installed in the suits, along with heat shielding. If anything gets anywhere near too hot, the warp will kick in, and the ships will jump back to Denebia Hadea I.

Finally, most of the work being done, 35 Tunneler class freighters have returned to Cyrian space. The other five have remained to finish assisting relief efforts, but those too are scheduled to leave within the month. The Science vessel remains, observing the planet and being used as a docking station for ships making planetfall. The High chancellor gives a stirring speach praising the efforts of all those involved to return peace to the lives of the Plutonians, and in remembrance of the lives lost. The freighter crews reunite with their families at last, after spending the last months helping others reunite with theirs. All are duly compensated by the government, and freed of their tax burden for one year.

With the new planet studied, and details gleaned about it, the ships returned to Upsilon Andromedae, where there were many tearful reunions, a speech applauding the brave crew members (medals given), and a memorial held for those who had lost their lives in the disaster. Fresh vessels were sent to Denebia Hadea to construct a new space station - equipped to retrofit ships with emergency warp pods that automatically trigger and send ships to Deneb II.

~~WARNING~~
Do not attempt to tamper with warp pod - or it will engage and send you to the center of the nearest star.