NationStates Jolt Archive

On a rutine scouting mission, Diamond D-1478282 discovered a planet seemingly prime for assimilation. They were about to call in a coloniser when they discovered an intelegent lifesign. They decided to make first contact in the most populous area. They beamed down a queen and 4 security drones.

To the northeast of the borg patrol, a skittering stampede could be heard. As the noise began to grow louder, blades cutting through flora could be heard. Soon, the first of the creatures came into view. It seemed like a mosquito, but it was the size of a wolf and had an extensive array of needle pincers. It lept at the nearest Borg as others broke through the brush.

A slurred hiss shouted out from the vine-like branches overhead, and a net of seaweed leapt up to entrap the swarm of verminous predators. They tried to cut loose, but the weeds wrapped around their claws. As more and more of the bugs broke through the brush and into the net, the stampede was slowly crushed to death by its own weight.

Once the stampede had stopped, large figures descended from the trees. They were exceptionally large humanoids, with fin like wings protrooding from their backs, causing them to hunch over. Their scaly skin was as smooth as that of a fish, but their faces resembled that of a snake. Their hands had four fingers, two on each side of each palm. Their lower bodies were serpentine in form, ending with a smaller set of fin-wings.

Each of them wielded a weapon, either a spear, a bow, or an array of the weeds fashioned like a cat-o-nine. Their weapons ready, they soon began hissing and whispering to one another. Soon, the Borg translators kick in.

"...could be friendly. The Razorfaces did try to eat them."

"The Razorfaces will eat anything. Think they can understand us?"

The Queen was the first to speak. Untill her universal translator had adapted to their unusual language she relied entirely on a universal communication wave and as such the Mantikans understood her but her lips seemed out of sync.
"We Are representitives of the Borg Collective of Blackgrue. We come in peace. We wish to speak to whomever your leader is."

One of the great creatures slithered forward. The tallest Borg present was a few centimeters below his bulky shoulders, upon which he lugged his quiver of arrows.

"I am the leader of this hunting party. Once my team is able to carry the bounty, we will escort you to the village, where you will meet with our council." He turns toward his troops and hisses. "Pack it up! We're going home!"

The hunting party snarled their response, and half of the dozen assembled to lift the net of vermin, apparently Razorfaces. They hoisted it with ease, despite being the size of an adolescent whale, and the party began to make their way toward the village, waving for the Borg to follow.

The borg queen bowed and she signalled her security escourt to return to the ship. They beamed away in a flash of green that surprised the hunters. The Queen allayed their fears by simply stating that that's a standard mode of transportation for them. The walk to the village was eneventful. The village was reasonably primitive but what had intregued the queen was the biological capibilities of these creatures. Her internal scanners registered un parrallelled healing capibility. If this planet were found within the real collective's grasp they would have assimilated it from orbit... my how far they've sunk.

Despite some minor distress from the sudden and rather distinct disappearance of the queen's escort, the trip home did not receive interruption. They could have gotten there in a fifth of the time, but they did not know if the stranger was able to swim, let alone breath water.

When they arrived at the village, other members of the species came forth from the trees. It probably would not have been noted as a village if the vines of the trees did not form hollow spheres within the perimeter. As the others came forth, the hunting party dispersed to divide the food amidst the villagers. The leader of the hunting party, however, lead the queen further into the village.

Soon, they came across a tree that had a noticeably thicker trunk than the others, and its vine branches formed a cluster of spheres. Inside, slowly moving hulks could be seen.

"Elders! There is a visitor representing a sentient race other than our own!"

The hulking figures within slid out of the treetops. Aside from being slightly slower and wearing pale yellow body paint on their face and upper back, they were no different than the hunters. Some, notably, were females. One of the male elders slithered to the head of the council.

"Tell me, outlander, from where on Mankita are you from? And if not from Mankita, what brings you to our world?"

The Queen dropped to one knee in an inter-galacticly accepted display of both respect and subserviance.
"I Represent the Borg Collective of Blackgrue. We are actually a splinter from a much larger inter-planitary empire within another universe however a freak accident forced us here. There are much larger empires then us here which is against what we are used to and have thus decided (against our original nature) that negotiation is far more useful then conquest for now. We detected your bilogical capibilities from orbit and we wish to incorperate them into our collective in exchange for some of our technology."

The lead counciler nodded over this as he gestured for the queen to stand. "Such gestures are not needed here, representative. Our people are not as formal as those you may have encountered in the past." He looked toward the elders behind him, then nodded toward the tree from which they came. Nodding, they all slithered toward it and pulled themselves upward with their long arms.
"You are not the first to visit our world, representative. However, you are the first, at least to my knowledge, to offer trade instead of bloodshed. As such, you will also by the first to leave without a casualty report, something we have hoped our visitors could do without ever since they first started coming.
"You say you offer technology, and by such I assume you mean the means to create it. I believe it is in the best interests of my people that the means to generate such items is our first interest, as none is available on Mankita. As for the... biological capabilities you wish to incorporate, would you be so kind as to be more direct in your wording?"

The queen looked up at the massive creature, "It would be counter-productive to do other then demonstrate. I would require a volenteer to do so."

The coulcilers wings shifted impatiently. Looking around, he spotted a young male who was squirming in pain. He was going through his trial of maturity for another village and thought he could get away with seeking shelter in this one, and was punished accordingly. The counciler hissed loudly as he pointed at the youth.
"Bring him. He is needed for our guest's demostration."
One of the hunters from before heaved his net and slapped it over the youth's body. The weeds constricted around him, locking him in as he was dragged along the mossy ground to the counciler and queen.
"Thank you, Faashruchrii. Go back to your business now."
"Yes, counciler."
The hunter dove off into the water and the counciler lifted the boy out of the net.
"Will he suffice?"

The queen smiled. "He will do." She extended her arm and two tubules lept out. Nano-robots lept through and entered the young man's body. The young man lept in a new kind of pain as his insides began to twist becoming the metal of a borg drone. The queen, true to her word, made the implants non-functional so that they would not transmit the young man's biology into the collective but it was an impressive display. The queen injected more nanites to de-assimilate the young man.

As that process was occurring the queen spoke up. "Our entire race is created like that. We have no natural reproductive capibilities instead we either must assimilate other races or clone genaric people to assimilate. Whenever we assimilate a new race we add their biological and technological distinctiveness to our own in order to achieve perfection which is our goal."

The counciler struggled to maintain his grip as the youth writhed in pain, but did not show any sign of compassion. As the nanites were negated, he let the boy drop into the shore-moistened moss, stunned by the experience. "You wish for volunteers of my people to be added to your race in exchange for technology? What sort of numbers and technologies did you have in mind?"

"We would only need about ten and even criminals would do. As for the types of technology..."

A small device appeared in front of the queen in a green flash.

"This holo-cube generator is linked into our collective. It has pictures of all of our technologies and eventually you will be able to have full access to them."

A cube appeard above the device. It began to show a number of examples of ship-to-ship combat and nano-technology. It even showed a cube regenerate 50% of it's mass in the speed of a few minutes.

"Any alliance is a useful alliance. And our technology can give your people an edge. It will take some time of course but after a few years you will be ready to build your own spacecraft. And will join us as an interstellar power. But first, a little gift."

The queen concentrated very hard and in a green flash appeared a few drones and a number of large devices.

"My drones will set up a food replicator, scanner and power supply for your village. If you let it scan a prepared food it will store the pattern and can re-create it for your people. Noone in your village will starve again."

The counciler nodded as he took this all in. "Your offer is most ideal, especially now. The Razorfaces have grown in number and have thus made it difficult to attain meat foods. They just don't make a very good meal. Hunter! Bring me a Slitherfish! This alliance will see to it the new herds will not starve us again!"
A few hunters and villagers heard the counciler and cheered. One of them eagerly ran to the storage area. He soon came back, holding an eel-like creature about a foot in length, wrapped in moss to preserve it. The counciler grasped it and held it ready for whichever Borg would receive it.
"This is our main source of meat, and has been harder to get lately due to Razorface herds. Since you came back with the hunters, I assume you've already seen one such herd.
"As for the 'volunteers,' I will have the shames of our race in the village gathered. With the one at my feet, it totals to seven males and three females ranging from youth to middle age. Will that be appropriate?"

The Queen grinned ear-to-ear "That is most acceptable, These drones will stay behind and build a permanant embassy here. I must return to my ship and continue our survey mission. Untill a new queen is constructed for this embassy you will have to speak to the drones... engeneering drones are a little simple but they're honest. I bid you farewell."

The queen bowed and dissapeared in a green light.

The counciler nodded his farewell as the queen vanished in teleportation. Unlike the hunters, the counciler had seen it during a previous visit, and thus was not caught off guard. He turned toward the drones, which were arranging equipment as it was teleported in.
"I suggest you build it on the moss. It can hold great weight, and there isn't any solid ground near the surface of the water."
Turning toward the hunter as he handed the Slitherfish to a drone that was working on the device used to create food. "Bring the other coward, the thieving sisters, the foolish hunter, and the four murderers. They will be offered as samples to be made part of their empire in exchange for their technology. They are building an embassy within the village perimeter. Tell the rest of the council and have couriers sent to villages nearby. I want the whole planet to know we will be among the stars before the next generation."
The hunter nodded, sneering in a manner that is the Mankitan equivolent of a smile. Slithering toward the elder tree, the coulciler looked over a device the drones had quickly set up then left alone.
"And what is this?"
Without stopping its work, a drone replied. "A hologram generator, used to display requested images."
The counciler nodded. "Show me my planet."
A sphere hovered over the generator, appearing to be made of green-gray filth with flecks of gray-blue and dark brown. Nodding, the counciler spoke to the device again.
"Show me my planet's system."
The solar system was a unique display. Mankita's orbit was off-center from its cingular sun, and none of the fourteen planets were on the same plane as one another. Most, especially nearer the sun, were desert planets. There was also Mankita, a trio of gas giants, and a small ice planet with a broad, shallow ring.
For the next few days, Mankitans would come and go to learn from the hologram device or get Slitherfish from the machines.

The Borg embassy was finally completed. The ship had left long ago leaving the Borg drones (now numbering 20 including the new assimilees) to fabricate the new structure.

The structure itself was a tall monolithic tower. It stood out amung the natural buildings, but it left the villigers with a sense of awe. A large solar panel stood promenently providing power for the building untill a fusion reactor could be built. Inside, 2 occupied Borg regeneration stations flank the entrance as guards. The entirely un-borg like spacious rooms decorated with holo-images taken by the survey ship from all over the planet to create a beautiful effect. The Borg sense of openness in the equipment is maintained throughout the building.

http://www.ditl.org/gpaf/GDecent2Building.jpg

The main feature is the main conference hall. Enough conference tables (built extra tall for the mantikans) to accomiidate an emmisarry from every tribe circle a borg queen construction booth in the center of the room the floor before the construction booth in the four cardinal directions is embrazened with a large version of the Borg emblem. A holo-cube display above the queen's speaking area allows all the ambassidors to see the Borg queen while she is speaking no matter where she is facing.

http://www.personal.psu.edu/users/j/m/jmt279/_private/Borg%20Queen%20Spine.jpg

Before an embassy is truely completed it needs an ambassidor. Two of the humanoid drones worked tirelessly for days to perfect the queen's organic components The moment she was completed she assembled herself and headed towards the village.

The queen emerged from the monolithic embassy to an outpouring of awe from the Mantikans using the replicator or the holo-generator. The queen made a mental note (effectively a command to the drones on the planet) to construct another replicator and holo-generator to improve the effieciency of distribution. She quickly became annoyed by all the attention from the locals and actvated the guard drones to disperse the onlookers.

She quickly made her way to the councilor's tree and shouted out "Elders! I am Borg Queen 7215. I am your new ambassidor from the Borg collective of Blackgrue. I wish to invite you into our new embassy as honored guests."

The councilers present nodded. Their numbers were nearly triple today, as they had brought together the representative councilers from all the other villages on the continent. The respective councilers got up and slithered down the tree, following the Queen. A notable majority was female, about 1.618 to 1. The males wore capes made of the seaweed.

The queen nodded and escorted them inside. There was a brief reception, and then they headed into the large conference room. The concilors were seated and the borg queen took to her podium.

"Elders. I am here to discuss terms of alliance. Our mighty collective and your diverse sociaty could gain much mutual benifit from such an endevor. Our terms are resonably simple... You give us a steady stream of drones in the form of your unwanted as well as pemenant non-agression, economic, and millitary assistance pacts and we offer you technologies beyond your comprehension. The mass food-replicators and holo-graphic generators outside is but a sample, within a few years you will join us in the stars. Granted we may need to construct a number power facilities near your villages but we will respect your way of life in the process."

OOC: the guy who ran mantika has decided to abandon it, I have his permission to annex him, this post is semi-secret IC

The councilors looked at each other and burst out laughing. "we don't NEED your 'technology' it will only destroy the forests."

The queen smiled. "Then live with your decision as one of us."



A pyrimid silently went to work, in 6 hours the planet now belonged to the collective.