NationStates Jolt Archive


Kinduran Migration

Kindura
02-03-2005, 06:51
Scene: High above a world. A world much like earth, bathed in the light of a blue sun.

Scene: Cityscape, deep blue light. All is deserted; machinery lies derelect. Wild dogs wander the streets. In the open city center, men, machines, and cargo vanish underground. The tunnels extend directly downward for half a kilometer.

Scene: The loading chamber. For the last time, the ascent vehicle is loaded for orbit. The people are not of a race that any earthian would recognize, but they are clearly human. Close up, the nature of the "cargo" becomes clear: human faces can be seen though transparent windows in their life-support coffins, stacked one on top of another to be placed in the ascent vehicle. At length, the last supplies are loaded onto the ship. Those still walking and animate now lie back and prepare for liftoff.

The magnetic accelerators hum with life; the ship gathers speed and emerges from the shaft. The atmosphere is soon left behind. At apogee, the ship's rockets are burned to finalize the orbit. A massive fleet soon comes into view.

Scene: Aboard the fleet. The people gather in small common areas. They stare with rage, longing, resolve at television screens focused on the homeworld. Even those locked in a semblance of sleep still watch, connected to the fleetwide information network. In a simple office, a uniformed man leans back in his chair, switches off his monitor, and takes a long pull from his cigarette.

In every ship, every screen is set upon the same view: a peninsula on one of the smaller continents. Dead center, a patch of artificial grey. A counter slowly times down in alien symbols: 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0-

There is a bright flash: the city vanishes in a sphere of burning red light. This quickly fades to reveal a tiny mushroom. The view switches, the counter times down for several seconds, and again the same red flash, sphere, and tiny mushroom. Slowly the tempo increases, until the surface of the planet is sprinkled with the bloody brilliance of thousands of nuclear detonations.

Scene: A glass-domed chamber. Seven men and women in ordinary clothing survey the destruction of their world. Their faces betray no passion whatsoever. They could have used hydrogen devices, but that would be too clean. Hydrogen could destroy, but only the fission of heavy elements could desecrate the cities and poison the atmosphere with radioactive ash. The enemy would be denied any use of the planet.

For 13 years they had waged futile war against a nameless invader. Planet after planet had been seized, it's population enslaved, and it's infrastructure turned against the homeworld. No more. Every world they took would turn to ashes in their mouth. Not that it mattered: with the homeworld gone, the colonies would fall also. And so, 500 million men and women, the entire population of Kindura, would be loaded onto the arks and sent into deep space.

It was intended at first that they land on an easily habitable world. This was lacking both in imagination and in discipline. The useful resources of a large planet would be mostly locked within it's core, and strenuous efforts must be taken to overcome the powerful gravity well and construct ships for a counterattack. Distant probes had returned telemetry of a young star whose acretion disc had yet to coalesce into a set of planets. The asteroids could be easily mined for whatever was required, and the liftoff requirements would be next to nil. Additionally, the free-floating gas in the system was rich with deuterium, allowing the easy gathering and refinement of fuel.

The voyage would require five years, 2/3 of the ships' mass in fuel, and the comprehensive reorganization of their society. Common comforts would be abandoned, social institutions abolished, and 99% of the population put in suspended animation. Done

These seven plainly-dressed men and women turned away from the ruins of their world, crossed the domed chamber, and began to plan the future of their race.
Xeraph
02-03-2005, 14:22
Greetings from Xeraph!

The Emperor wishes to extend aid to the Kindurans in the form of shelter and sustenance. Should you need to dock for any reason, Xeraph will guide you to one of our OSS's.

regards,

Gen. Strickland, CMDR EX Forces, in the Name of the Emperor
Kindura
02-03-2005, 23:07
OOC: I posted a huge reply about how my fleet is supposed to be minimizing it's hyperspace "footprint" to avoid detection, and how the brass was therefor rather alarmed about your transmission, and how we didn't even know what it meant, and how you must be far more advanced than we are to either detect us and send a targetted seignal, or send an omnidirectional signal that would require a unimaginably large amount of power. Then it got deleted. In any case, suffice to say we believe the transmission came from about 300 LY away (we may be wrong) that we can travel about 15x light speed while minimizing our signature, and that our destination is 75 LY away.

EDIT: Also assume that my reply was really cool. thnx
Kendari
02-03-2005, 23:22
[snip]Also assume that my reply was really cool. thnx
OOC: A safe assumption, judging from that first post. Wow!

I look forward to watching this...
Kindura
05-04-2005, 23:03
Scene: A dim, red, broiling sun lights a vast array of dust. The camera shows the infant solar system from several distant angles.

Perhaps five light-hours directly above the solar plane, a tiny region of space distorts and turns itself inside-out, revealing an oddly aerodynamic craft of about 30 meters. It hovers in space for several minutes, motivated only by the slow gravitational tug from the distant sun. Then, without any apparent thrust, the cross-winged craft orients itself towards a point just off-center on the disc. The engines begin to glow as the ship accelerates.

…months pass…

Scene: Countless small planetoids sway in the gravitational and magnetic tides. The cloud of gas and dust has reduced the stellar fire to a vast, dim, oppressive glow. Tiny objects pass among the asteroids. The camera shifts to a closeup. They are aerodynamic craft of various shapes and sizes, but they all betray the same essence in design.

Scene: A man sucks a nutrient solution from a clear tube. He is strapped to a chair within a bright, blue-tinted interior. An attractive woman sits behind him, staring at a series of instruments. They are wearing loose, casual clothing.

Man: “Ah, yo, this is Egg-man. My lovely co-pilot informs me there’s a niice pile of Iridium in sector 2-G-B. If I could get one of the deep survey units to check that out, I’d be much obliged.”

A clipped, electronic voice comes over the communicator: “Roger that. Fornicator headed to 2-G-B, eta seven minutes.”

He turns back to the woman and they share a brief moment of knowledge. Their shift would end in less than an hour, but for now they must work. He returns to watching the viewscreen. It is bright and slightly blue-tinted.

…months pass…

Scene: More ships survey the cloud. The camera changes to show many groups at various distances from the star. Hundreds ply the vast proto-planetary disc.

Five light-hours above, a wide region of space distorts and turns itself inside-out. Fifty massive, utilitarian ships emerge from hyperspace. They hang for several minutes, then they turn, without any apparent thrust, and engage their massive engines towards a point just off-center on the disc.