NationStates Jolt Archive

OOC: Keep in mind that this RP will open some time in the future, once I set everything up. For those of us not in the know, the link in my sig leads to a explanation of UII.

IC: The Guinevere, foremost among Earth's exploration craft, prepared her Immaterial Drive for jump. It was hardly a momentous occasion, as the crew of the Guinevere had done this hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of times before, every time exploring a star that could possibly house life, or an Earthlike environment.

And now, they would do it again. "Commander, we're preparing to open the secondary rift in link to the Immaterial Drive. Just running a test on all systems first-off". Madlis, the navigator. He was famous as an EarthGuard member, but, after a particulary traumatic experience, he refused to kill, or even harm people. Normally, that would've ruined his career, but, instead, he was transferred to the Guinevere.

He floated up into the air, kicking off lightly, and landing on his seat. He hit the button to the side of it, and automatic straps came into place, as well as a Lyau field. He'd be the first one in, as per normal, as the captain gave orders for the rest of the crew to take their stations.

Captain Chyangyon, one of the heroes of the Las Vegas disaster, had been transferred to the Guinevere because of his mostly-latent empathic abiltiy. It made him a wonderful negotiater, even though he wasn't very good with his words. He hit the comms, and his voice echoed through everyone's earpiece, amplified to be twice as loud. "Allright, men. We're moving through the Immaterium in twenty seconds. Activate the Lyau fields, and get moving! Madlis's has got everything ready, so we've gotta be prepared for system jump!"

He kicked himself over to his seat, and strapped himeself in, as well, the leather-covered straps giving his seat the most official look of all. As he spoke, the other members of the crew on the bridge moved into the fields, and strapped themselves in. It was a rudimentary thing to do, but the Guinevere's Immaterial Drive could take them from system to system in less than a second, and so there was no room for a gravity generator.

A whirring sound sounded through the ship, and then a whining one. It grew higher and higher in pitch, and then the noise snapped, and blew through the brains of those on the ship, sinking them into unconciousness. The Immaterial Drive plans that they'd stolen half-complete from Mars didn't give them the extra safety measures, so they'd worked them out over a series of years, and the whining noise was something they couldn't rid themselves of. It gave them a hell of a headache, but the hell of a headache was nothing in comparison to the ability to travel between systems so quickly.

The noise came again, however, in reverse this time, a whining noise lowering itself in pitch, almost questioningly. Strangely enough, this tended to help the headache, stopping the pain from appearing until it was gone.

However, as soon as the ship was insystem, Madlis awoke, and looked at the display screen. Since they used immaterial scanners, which allowed them faster-than-light communications and sensors, he had a burst of information on the system within seconds. "Captain! Captain!", he screamed, the captain stirring from his seat within seconds.

"What is it man? Are we under fire? Code red?", the captain asked, prepared to give the order within seconds. "Nossir. We've found a Gaia.", Madlis replied.

"...What?! Are you sure? Absolutely sure?!", Chyangyon asked him, his voice showing his clear excitement.

Madlis smiled. "All the signs appear so, sir. Shall we prepare the Rift Drives for an in-system jump?".

Chyangyon simply put his thumb up, his mouth working silently, mouthing the words "A...a...Gaia. A gaia...", over and over again. Madlis accessed his touchpad in seconds, planning the co-ordinates for the Rift Jump. Rift Jumps were relatively slow, but they were immensely accurate, and took only a small supply of the rift fuel they kept on the Guinevere.

"Arthur's queen has found something as beautiful as her namesake.", Madlis spoke softly. It seemed appropriate for the moment. As the rift activated, they simply.. reappeared, without pomp or ceremony, in orbit of the world they had just found.

"Lifeforms, unknown. Environment, check. Atmosphere, check. At least, the information we're getting here indicates an Earthlike environment". Madlis continuned speaking softly, as if to himself. The rest of the crew were gathered around the captain, floating in the air of the bridge, as he whispered to them in an excited tone, presumably not to bother Madlis.

Madlis grinned wildly, and pressed the 'probe launch' command, after having given the rudimentary AI on the probe a set of instructions. It was linked to the Guinevere, so he didn't have to worry about controlling it.

It ignited in the atmosphere, the hard shell heating up immensely, as it sped down towards the planet. Madlis brought the ship's camera up, and enlarged it to a full-screen view. The crew turned around as one to watch, and they saw the probe extend parachutes, cooling itself off with the store of near-solid nitrogen it kept onboard in a EM containment field, turning some of the moisture of the air around it into ice.

It fell gently to the planet, and landed in a valley. Madlis, meanwhile, had sent out several other probes, each orbiting the world. He smiled, and looked up at the crew.

"We've got a check on every Earthlike system. We've got proper atmospheric ratios, seas with significantly less salt, although that shouldn't be too much of a problem, the salt is concentrated elsewhere, a few active volcanoes, but only from what pictures we've got, and we'll be getting back geographic information once the probe collects enough power to send out mini-probes into the ground, into the crust.

The local fauna and flora haven't been seen, aside from two pictures the probe sent us, at which point Madlis brought up a picture of a deer-like animal, except with canivorous teeth, and its skin stretched back over its head, leaving a furless, slimy expanse over its eyes, mouth, and nose, and a large bird, almost six times as big as the Earth's largest bird, although it didn't seem to be a carnivore.

"Overall, gentlemen, we've found ourselves a Gaia. Not much more to it. We'll release the last of the Guinevere's probes, including the geological and atmospheric ones, not to mention the deep-sea ones, and make sure that we can get all the pictures we can. We'll also release two of our crewmembers inside a single Eiga fighter, and we'll bring back a satellite-station in two weeks."

The captain looked at Madlis, and nodded. Madlis normally hated giving orders of any kind, and since, if it wasn't for his abhorrence of violence, Madlis would've been the leader of the EarthGuard, or the admiral of Earth's fleets, Chyangyon figured it was best to let him have his moment of excitement. But then, he had to assert himself constantly as captain.

"Madlis, we're going to conserve two of the deep-sea probes, as well as a single geological one, so that the team we leave here can send them out if they find better locations, and leave the Eiga team here, detach one of our generators and a set of resupplies, as well as our secondary docking bay and its series of rooms, so that they have somewhere to go if needed. We'll also leave a second Eiga fighter here, and a third EarthGuard member, so that if the first team's in trouble, he can pick them up. However, the rest of the actions you requested have been approved."

He took a deep breath. A Gaia-class system! It was enough to make him tremble in anticipation. He began speaking again, this time to give orders.

Genn, Sarah, you two are the main away team. Secondary sensor officer Joel, you're on the home duty, making sure our away team isn't eaten, or stranded. I want away teams dispatched every second day, if you're up to it in terms of physical and mental health, and if anyone is incapacitated, you're to come topside, and stay there until you're fit to go planetside again. Furthermore, every time the away team leaves, you're to switch, as you're all competent with all facets of this operation, but this is to make sure no-one suffers any physical or psychological harm"

He hit the switch, and parts of the Guinevere started detatching themselves. The Guinevere had this capability, mainly because exploration teams needed it, and the simple fact was that it was easier to carry detachable parts for when you needed them, rather than tow a ship full of spare parts around all the time.

The three he had ordered rushed down to the fighter bay, skillfully maneuvering themselves along the walls, which were fitted with handles to make zero-gee movement easier. They leapt into the two fighters they'd been assigned, and moved off, the sub-light drives they were using powering them along to the position in orbit they'd been assigned to.

Chyangyon smiled. It had been a long time since he'd seen his team crack a wide-open grin like these ones. When you served on the Guinevere, failure after failure, as well as the minimalist environment got you down. But this.. this was what exploration was all about. These were the moments he treasured, the ones that were worth as much as the six-figure payment he got a month.

He sat back. After all, it'd be a few hours before the team verified that they were good and ready. Before that - well, they had engines to cover, and shields and weapons to run a few checks on. Nothing special, but did you really need fun when you had.. this?! He grinned. Finding this planet was, without a doubt, the best moment he'd ever had in his life..

"What?! A Gaia? Do you have complete scans? We can begin converting a station into a colony craft at once!"

Madlis nodded. It was the First Senator of Earth who spoke to him, now, as well as the Councillor for Extraterrestrial Activities. The two of them were madly excited; after all, colonisation was something that would help relieve the Earth of its minor overpopulation problem, but, more importantly, it would aid their approval ratings through the roof; once they showed the spaceship funding did something; well, they were made.

Madlis spoke. "Sir, we're getting I-scans back right now. Do you want them? Or do you want me to summarize them, and pass them over to your experts?" He had been speaking, not because of his skill at diplomacy, Chyangyon outclassed him in that, but because, as the navigator, he was well versed in the study of planets, and so describing what they had found fell to him.

The First Senator spoke. "Navigator Madlis, summarize it. We'll look over the advanced scans later".

Madlis's face stayed impassive, a skill he had learnt when dealing with the various senators and councillors he knew. It was that, or burst into near-hysteric joyful laughter, and crack a grin that would split his face open.

He spoke, his voice remaining fairly impassive, as well. "Senator, we've found that the planet contains no hostile bacteria or virii that cannot be dealt with with either antibiotics, or immunization, no hostile lifeforms at all, however, keeping the ecosystem on this planet in check will be markedly harder than that of Earth's, as there have previously been no predators on the planet, and the atmosphere is almost exactly earthlike, although with a slightly higher concentration of oxygen, and the sea covers 76% of the surface. We've found that 84% of the sealife is edible, and is harvestable on a wide-scale process, and we've also found that the world is geologically stable, for the most part. The various plates are found to be in non-important areas, and geological-caused errata, such as tsunamis, will not affect the majority of the liveable landmass. Overall, it's a paradise."

The Senator looked at him, and laughed, but not cynically, or mockingly, as was the tendency for laughter these days. This was laughter for the sake of joy, and for the sake of happiness, something that was not often that heard.

"Good job, Madlis. We'll begin construction on a colony ship already. We've got several asteroid habitats with hydroponic farms, and rift drives, we'll link ten or twenty of those together to form a colony ship, and.. well, you know. Take the Guinevere to the Earth-held portion of the asteroid belt, and access Station Perseus. Get the Guinevere refitted, and, well, search for more stars! Leave your investagatorial team there, we'll promote them to temporary research and exploration specialists, as they're no doubt itching to explore this new planet in full".

Madlis nodded. The Senator knew how to keep his followers happy, at least, as well as make use of resources well. At any rate, the colonisation of this new planet would soon begin...

"Oh, and Madlis!". The Councillor's voice rang out, and Madlis snapped to attention, well, he didn't salute, but his body 'snapped', one quick movement as he prepared to listen. "What have you named this new system, and planet?".

Madlis thought for a moment. The captain looked at him, and gravely nodded. He'd been given the go-ahead, although he rarely wasn't. Words echoed through his mind, solitude, purity, love, fulfillment... none of them fit.

"Beta Zomicrom, sir!". It was the correct answer. Despite their excitement, the system would be named according to military protocol. The Councillor nodded. "Good to see your head hasn't been muddled by the excitement of the situation. Over and out, captain".

The screen shut off, and the view of Earth below them looked almost like the planet they had found, which Madlis personally called Hope, in the far recesses of his mind, as it represented a hope for him, personally..

OOC: This is set before the Guinevere enters the Black Crusade to scout out the Chaos fleet, but some weeks, maybe even months, after my last post.

The first set of habitats were prepared to move. As they were equipped with the most basic of rift drives, it would take them hours, possibly even days, to make the journey the Guinevere had made in mere seconds.

However, first, Madlis had to give his report to the colonists. It was strange to imagine that navigator was, by far, the most important position on the ship, but, as the person who handled the information, and called where to go, based on the captain's instructions; he was. He even got paid more than the captain, his skills at sensor management were invaluable, and, the fact was, he was the de facto leader of the Guinevere. He wasn't sure how that had come about, nor did he relish it, but it was something he was naturally good at. He was off the Guinevere, now, but would go on in a few days, in order to help refit the ship.

He addressed the colonists, not face to face of course, but over the intercom system, so that his voice would sound out through every part of every ship. "Welcome. I am Acting Administrator Madlis. I'll be shepherding you to your new home. You're all adults aged twenty-three to thirty-six, the age in which your bolstered immune systems will have the most effect against any alien bacterium. Although we haven't found anything on BZ, as we call it, there's always a high chance of alien viruses and bacteria infecting you. Thus, you'll be released into domes, and you'll be quarantined if you wish to leave."

The colonists were silent, as Madlis took a deep breath. "We've got a escort of almost forty fighters, and the Pacific will also be heading along with us on this trip. We're safe, in terms of space safety. Keep in mind that your modified colony ships are not specialised ships, and, since they've only taken a few days to create, they're not perfect. Note that any areas designated off limits have been done so for a reason, and we are not taking responsibility for any deaths, wounds, or maimings as a result of entering those areas. Said areas have been sealed off, and there is nothing of interest in them, I can assure you."

Madlis waited for five or so seconds, breathing lightly. He had been given this assignment to let the junior navigator on the Guinevere get a bit of experience, without his interference. He was a bit overbearing at times, in a way, he admitted to himself.

"Finally, you will be relegated to 'cells' whenever we are about to embark on a rift jump. We will give you twelve minutes warning per jump, but, as you have been briefed, entering these environments will be vital for your survival between jumps. In this fleet, we have some twelve million of you. You signed up for this, and so, if you fail to enter a designated cell, we cannot ensure your safety. Finally, there are a certain number of law officers on this ship. Anyone interfering with their authority, or attempting to 'rebel', so to speak, keep in mind that our law enforcement officers are reinforced with EarthGuard members, and both types of law enforcers have been authorised to use whatever level of violence they deem fit to deal with any trouble. Thank you".

Madlis didn't like it, but he saw the necessity of it. The rich, the powerful, the well-educated.. they would come later, on personal transport ships, buying their own property, their own homes, they would spend immense amounts of money buying themselves luxury on this new world, and what they desired. Here, they had the dregs of society, the criminals, the poor, the under-educated, the thugs. These people would form the experimental basis to make sure the planet was entirely safe - and, if it wasn't, well, these people wouldn't be a great loss to society.

Nonetheless, they were people, still. Even if Earth was overcrowded, with ten billion people, they could still afford them basic human rights. He opened up a secure channel to the EarthGuard members, and the standard law enforcement members onboard. "This is an announcement from Administrator Madlis, Priority Three. Keep in mind that extreme violence will be viewed with disfavor, and, as the Administrator of this fleet, I can ensure that any wanton measures, or crimes, will be met with severe penalties. Only take measures required to keep the peace - If you have to kill to save your own life, or that of another, fine, otherwise simply knock them unconscious. We can still offer these people basic human rights, they might be poor, but they're still members of the Earth Republic. End announcement".

He sighed. It wasn't something he looked foward to, but all assignments in the EarthGuard were made arbitrarily, and he wasn't sure who by. He opened up a final line, there were over six hundred ships in this ragtag fleet, but this was to the captains of the various ships. "Keep in mind that my announcement doesn't apply to you various captains, in terms of saving your own life. If someone even so much as threatens any of the ship's systems, use whatever means necessary to disable or kill them".

And finally, he opened a line to the escorts. "Greetings, fighter pilots. This is Administrator Madli-", he was cut off by a loud and boisterous voice. "Hey, Madlis! How ya been, man?! This is Jimmy, it's good to see ya!". Madlis waited patiently for the man to finish speaking, and then opened up a private line, typing in messages to Jimmy as he spoke. Friendships needed to be cultivated, but that was no reason to abandon his authority.

"Keep in mind that any attack on the fleet, or any approach by non-Earth ship is unacceptable. I have allowed you to attack any enroaching craft whatsoever, if they cannot identify themselves. Madlis out."

Meanwhile, he typed to Jimmy. Hey, Jimmy. I've got a crapload of stuff to take care of, systems and all, y'know, but I'll be online once we make our second rift jump. I'm only the overall Administrator, I don't have to deal with anything regarding actual techspecs, thankfully, I have no idea how they make these rustbucket craft run.. Let's hope it's an uneventful trip, eh?

He shut the channel, and rubbed his hands together, because they were cold. In fact, his entire room was cold.. It was funny.. He had only been expected to administrate the sensor parts of each craft, and give information to them, and let the captains do as they liked. Or, at least, that was the impression his assigner had given him. Nonetheless, he did what he felt was right, within the law, and the scope of his assignments..

Strange, his cabin was so chilly. He looked over at the cabin readings - it was around ten degrees, not freezing, but hardly a nice temperature. He flicked a few switches, and typed in a command "HEAT = 17", and then shut the console off. He'd have to prepare to deal with the deluge of angry comments in a few minutes, so he was resting up to do so...

Hmmmm. This wouldn't be anywhere near Arcturus or Beta Canum, would it?

Remember, my homeworld is Gamma Serpentii, about 15 parsecs out from Earth; and we currently occupy an sphere of about 6 parsecs in radius around that.

(Guess I better get my species bio (http://z14.invisionfree.com/UniverseII/index.php?showtopic=48) up to date...)

I will comment that we don't have anything like your “rift” drive (which I would classify as a “hyperspace” drive). We employ something called “stutterwarp”, which is a primitive version of the warp drives you see in ST. Currently, our vessels travel at speeds of up about a parsec a day, with a required stop every other day to discharge radiation from the hull (similar to “degaussing” a submarine); since that stop must be in a gravity well, we are forced to “star hop”, with the range between hops being a tad over two parsecs (7 LY, for all intents and purposes). That’s why Arcturus is so crucial; it represents a “choke point” for expansion in your direction, so it’s a star we would like to have in order to open up expansion into the rich Beta Canum mini-cluster (which is right next door to Earth, although at this time we see no particular value in that).

I’ve always thought that a “hyperdrive” vs. “warp” war would be fascinating, since each has advantages over the other. You can slip around me and outmaneuver me on the strategic level, but tactically my ships can fly spheres around yours (because we’re exceeding lightspeed in normal space). The overall advantage will probably be yours, but it will prove to be a real dogfight if it happens.

Anyway, back to writing…

Beta Zomicron is.. well, I haven't decided where it is yet. The Immaterial Drive, as I've currently defined it, isn't actually understood by human scientists, but trial and error has led them to construct a safe version of it.

I'd be putting the system as one fairly close to Earth; however, humanity's (annoying) knowledge of astronomy means that making up a system was easier than finding one that fit what I wanted to write about, and then later finding out that I was wrong.

I'd be putting the system as one fairly close to Earth; however, humanity's (annoying) knowledge of astronomy means that making up a system was easier than finding one that fit what I wanted to write about, and then later finding out that I was wrong.OOC: Ah, the advantages of a canon set in real space; I have a map of every system out to some 20-25 parsecs (70-90 LY) or so. Want a link? ;)

Let's keep our comments from here on out in the forum, 'k?