NationStates Jolt Archive

Planet Othron was a world of stretching deserts, puncuated by the occasional acidic sea. There was little rainfal, little plant life, and little animal life. The gem of Othron were the Althe. Tall, dark skinned, and graceful, they wandered the deserts.

The Althe had a language, and a culture all their own. They left records, and great works of art on small crystals which fed their contents directly into the 'reader's' consciouness.

The Althe were also doomed. Twenty revolutions ago, a small Cyberman scouting party had landed on the moon. Eighteen revolutions ago, it had been followed by a mining force. Five revolutions ago, the first conversion unit had been constructed on the moon's surface.
&&&
Three revolutions ago. The heat from the landing pod's thrusters turned the sand beneath it into glass. For a moment, the surrounding canyon, previously pitch black, appeared in uncanny light, similar to a lightning flash, only prolonged.

As soon as the thrusters had switched off, a ramp descended. Their metal boots clanking on the ramp in perfect step, down marched ten figures. Raising their eyes to the western horizon, they began to march, towards the nearest Althe settlement.
&&&
The Althe were nothing if not hospitable. Seeing the strangers, they offered them food, and even some of their precious water. These nicities were lost on the Cybermen, who neither ate, nor drank. The Cybermen chose ten of the healthiest looking Althe, and each laid a hand on their target's shoulder.

Before the Althe had a chance to react, each Cyberman let a low level electronic shock emanate from their palms. The ten Althe collapsed. The rest drew back in shock and alarm.

Two Cybermen stepped forward, and light struck out from their chests. One of the Althe fell with a shattered leg, while another simply collapsed. This was too much for the peaceful Althe, who broke and ran. Each Cyberman picked up the Althe they had shocked, and marched back to the ship.
***
The captured Althe, shortly afterwards, ceased to exist, as such. Their minds, limited by an emotion inhibitor chip, were used, as were other parts of their anatomy. But the end product was more machine than Althe. In short, they were converted into Cybermen. The Conversion continued, with the Cybermen's numbers growing in each 'battle'.

One revolution into the 'conversion', the war truly began, as the splinters of the Althe tribes upgraded by the Cybermen combined with those not yet touched. Still, they had no advanced weapons technology. With the exception of a number of ambushes involving steep canyons and heavy rocks, they were unable to gain any significant military victories.
***
Present day:

Message to All:

The Cyberman Hegemony hereby declares the planet Othron officially inducted into the Cyberman Hegemony. This planet, and it's three satellites are officially Cyberman territory. Thank you for your time.

OOC cool you got the thread up. What exactly do we do in this thread?

OOC: Up to you, really. If you have an FT nation, figure out how they would react to something like this.

OOC hmm ok Ill wait a little bit, see where this takes us.

OOC: Sounds interesting. I think I'll drop in with an expedition party.

IC: Aboard the Hakekan expedition vessel Endeavor, the ship's AI picked up a signal on communications channels. It was coming from fairly far away, in a star system several hundred light-years from their present location, surveying a dying star in its last throes. Still, it was not unreachable, and the expedition team was curious to find other sentient life out there.
Of course, the Hakekans had no idea who or what the Cybermen were. They could guess - the name sounded strangely human - but they did not know.
But they would find out all too soon.

As soon as they had alerted the two Altotan cruisers flanking them, they were off. The Hakekan drives powered up and readied themselves for a brief few seconds, working up enough energy to create a gravity wave to sufficiently bend spacetime and punch a wormhole into its fabric. Then, inertial suppressors came online and the ship accelerated to a fraction of the speed of light going into the tunnel. The vessel was gone.
And just as suddenly as it had vanished, it reappeared in orbit around the planet apparently known as Orthron. Just as it did, it proceeded to cloak itself by activating the thin layer of metamaterial wrapped around outside of the ship. Now they would be undetectable, unless the inhabitants had scanners that could detect small gravitational fluctuations or tau-neutrinos.
Endeavor scanned over the surface of the planet. It was, for the most part, lifeless - a desert world with little life in general, much less sentient life.
But then, there were small flashes on the scanners. Flashes of metal, moving metal, silvery hunks. Androids. They were undoubtably signs of intelligent life, or at least remnants of it. Every so often the Hakekan expeditions had encountered signs of sentient races long dead, but whose servitors had still managed to stay running after hundreds of years, tending the cities and towns. In some cases, they had allowed the Hakekans to learn a great deal about lost civilisations.
These androids were undoubtably the "Cybermen" described in the transmission. But what would have driven them to take over a planet? Were they military machines of some sort gone wrong?
No, it couldn't have been. There was no sentient life, and thus no planet to conquer in the normal sense of the word.
So what had happened?
The crew decided to find out. The ship's AI sent out a message to the Cybermen below: "Hello. This is the Hakekan expedition vessel Endeavor. We are peaceful and will do you no harm; if you have any weapons and such directed at us, please lower them. Though, might we inquire who you are and your doings on this planet?"

The screen flickered to life. The background was a gleaming steel wall, covered with various instruments and meters. In the foreground, on the other hand, was a gleaming metal figure, who's chest contained several meters.

The voice was odd. A buzzing monotone, it sounded more like a computer delivering an analysis then a sentient being greeting explorers.

"We are the Cybermen. This world has been added to the Hegemony. The organic lifeforms have been upgraded into Cybermen. So advances the universe towards perfection."
***
Meanwhile, several dozen missile launch bases on one of the three moons was prepared, and the location of the Endeavor inputted. The Cybermen were anything but trusting.

When Zack, the ship's AI, heard this, the first thing that popped into his optronic mind was "Nazi wannabes". Despite a time gap of more than 800 years, the Nazis were still remembered, especially so by the Hakekans.
Zack had not always been a machine mind. He had once been human, though he decided to give up his physical body as payment for immortality. He was no longer a commander running the ship. He was the ship.
It made for fun sightseeing, too.
Deciding that the cloak was no longer an effective defensive ploy, he deactivated the metamaterial shield around himself. A brief scan of the planet's moons revealed military strongholds and factory installations. Optical telescopes revealed that there were, indeed, weapons aimed at him. He raised his own defensive force field. "Perfection, hmm?" Silently, he sent a courier probe to the Altotan cruisers waiting in the supergiant system. "That would be quite an achievement. You propose to achieve utopia how, may I ask?"

"When all have been upgraded. When all emotions have been purged from the universe. When pain, mortality, grief, and despair have been abandoned in the endless march. Then shall there be perfection."

Another Cyberman walked on screen. There was a series of low buzzing and clicking noises, and then the new Cyberman walked off. The one whom had been talking turned back towards the screen. "You are intruding in the space belonging to the Cybermen Hegemony. You will evacuate outside of the designated limit immediately. This is non negotiable. Comply."

"'Upgrade'? How do you 'upgrade'? When one's body is changed, the person changes. There is no simple upgrade for emotional beings. I myself have been 'upgraded', as you might put it - I have become a machine. Though I retain my human memories, I am no longer the being I once was.
"Perfection has long been a goal of man, my former race - to create utopia as they saw fit. But of course, the concept of utopia varies from person to person - or rather, mind to mind.
"These varying definitions of paradise often come into conflict with one another. I, for one, believe that nothing is perfect, wheras you believe that through revolution perfection may be achieved, your definition of which being the purge of all emotion.
"So for that matter I must question your perspective. If there is such a thing as perfection, and it is as you put it, then what will the universe be like when - if, rather - you achieve this goal? Boring and bland. For our imperfections are what give us character - they are what make us. Our universe is imperfect. Sentient life was a mistake. The creation of stars, planets, galaxies, all was chance. We could have had a universe of floating triangles, or for that matter no universe at all. Admit it - you are imperfect. No matter how much you strive, perfection would never be achieved unless you annhilated the entire universe. And even then there would be other universes. Infinite others. Let me tell you, the only thing that is perfect is absolutely nothing, so you might as well give up.
"Of course, on the off-chance that you decide to be stubborn, allow me to let you know that there are other ships out there, ships that could easily slip into this system and bombard the hell out of your installations." He was bluffing - the only ships he could order were the two Altotan cruisers, with the homeworld so far away. Still, they would be able to put up a considerable fight. And, if all went wrong, the singularity drives were the most heavily armoured sectors of any Altotan vessel - they always did have a talent for running away when the situation called for it.
Still, Altotan drives were considered grossly inefficient - it took ten times more power to run a singularity drive than a Hakekan wormhole/inertia system. Then again, Hakekan drives were far easier to track. Bitches, he thought to himself.

Afar from the commotion at Othron, there was something watching with great intent...

The massive ship glided towards the potential battle. The ship was ornate, a massive pyramid-like vessel called the Mausoleum with four Obelisks surrounding the ship. Aboard the corridors were busy with the race of creatures that were aboard.

The Xjhum'bi.

The workers to any average human looked like a walking cadaver and have thus been named the Cadavers. Moving slow yet efficiently, they did the menial tasks that the soldiers didn't do.

On the bridge was the Fateseer, a more powerful grotesque creature that ruled over the army. It watched what was going on with the Cybermen. Normally anything that dealt with robots and cyborgs were of no concern to the Xjhum'bi. But these being had messed with something of their value:

Their food

The Fateseer turned and spoke "Computer, begin manufacturing of all units available..." it continued listening to the convosation between the Cybermen and the unknown race. "These robots will not give up at all...we must be prepared for battle."

The Crematorium Cavern aboard the Mausoleum turned online as the carcasses from other races that were kept in reserve were placed into the four chambers of production: Cacodaemon Chambers, Alchemy Chambers, Cirque Chambers, and Transmutation Chambers. The production of the army commenced as the Mausoleum drew closer.

"We cannot allow these robots to survive..." it bowed its head "Yet I must also not allow my race to go any further than the Cybermen's destruction."

"Your logic is flawed. Imperfection is grief, despair, pain. Emotion is imperfection. To purge emotion is to enhance perfection. The Cybermen are not perfect. We merely bring the universe closer to perfection. Your ship's presence is a gross violation of sovreignity. You will vacate immediately. This is your final warning."

The chambers were active, busy assembling a large task force to deal with the Cybermen. In the Cacodaemon chamber, several Aswangs, Consumed Ones, Ghouls, and Succubi were being assembled from the carcasses in storage. The symbiote was sprayed on the bodies, causing the Xjhum'bi mutation within the dead bodies. Inside the Alchemy Chamber was a similar story. The machines were creating the clones that would be sprayed to create the Homunculi and the Golems. The Cirque Chamber was a special chamber for the usage of the dead with robotics, creating an undead cyborg army of Harlequinnes, Manniquinnes, and Calicos. Finally was the Transmutation Chamber. In this chamber were the elites, soldiers taken from the previous units and mutated into horrific squads of terror, striking fear and death into all races. These were the Raithes and Geists, both capable of phasing out of this universe for temporary periods of time.

The Fateseer oversaw this and it was good. But he knew of the voracity of these creatures and thus installed a program that would create a commanding unit for each type of creature. This would help keep some sort of check against their ferocious ways.