The Michiyo Empire
31-05-2007, 04:02
TWO THOUSAND YEARS have passed since the colony fleet Invictus first entered orbit above the clear blue skies of Michiyo III. The young star shone bright over rolling green hills and sparkling clouds untouched by the corrupting hand of civilisation. Sleek, silver ships descended gracefully from the upper atmosphere, smashing through the virgin forest canopy with unstoppable force, and snapping trees millenia-old like dry twigs.
The colonisation process lasted sixty years. Nearly a billion sentients were deposited on the new world over that period and their cities towered above the trees. The forests and predators were annihilated in a growing hunger for living space and raw materials. The green hills were broken wide, becoming vast strip mines to feed the factories. The forests fell to create arable land in massive quantity, farmed by hulking agri-droids that never slept. Seven centuries of growth transformed the planet.
http://images.wikia.com/starwars/images/0/01/Kashyyyk.jpg
MICHIYO III, THIRTEEN hundred years before the present day. Almost ten billion souls live, work and die on this world, their cities stretching from sea to sea. As in the greater galaxy, humans number the majority - almost half of the planet's population. The cities are now segregated, with the southern hemisphere almost barren of non-humans. Every viable planet in the Michiyo system has now been colonised.
Damon Knesos is dead.
Little information regarding Knesos himself survived the nuclear holocaust that his death set into motion, but it is underestood from a selection of ageing holos and data-records that he was the political representative for nearly three-quarters of the human population. Knesos was shot twice in full public view by a Gran wielding a hold-out blaster, during a parade in the planetary capital, Voda'kai. Knesos was hit in the chest and head, killing him instantly. The shocked silence was replaced by screaming rage as the alien was rushed by a wave of humans from the crowd, who beat, kicked and punched him into unconciousness before someone blew his face away with his own weapon. The body was thrown into the Vodan River.
The assassination was universally percieved as the work of anti-human interests among the alien population by both the public and media alike. Months of public speaking and attempts to quiet the aftermath of Knesos' death by northern politicians failed terribly, and the two hemispheres eventually became more defined as seperate, opposing nations, falling quickly into a state of war.
The conflict between north and south lasted for sixteen years, with more than a billion dead even before the missiles left the silos. The humans were first to utilise their nuclear arsenal, though the automated reply was fast. The majestic forests of Michiyo III vanished in a conflagration that engulfed the entire planet's surface, spreading from a hundred thousand blast zones. Lakes and rivers boiled as the air temperature reached 10,000°, and almost every sentient above ground died in an instant.
The humans, hiding from their own weapons in colossal 'vaults' built to withstand this very event, survived. For two centuries, they lived by artificial light in holes under the scorched earth, scratching an existence from vast, dried food reserves and edibile fungi cultivated in thousand-acre subterranean growth units. Less than a billion survived the bombs.
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ON THE TWO hundredth anniversary of the purging of Michiyo III, the first reclaimers emerged. Pale-skinned men and women clad in bulky radiation suits, armed against all possibilities. From a thousand bunkers, they made their way through the haunting, ruined cities of their forefathers. Ravaged skyscrapers, gutted by the shockwaves. Thousands of civilian vehicles littered silent streets, their owners' dessicated remains still at the controls.
Following the first, the reclaimers resurfaced in the millions. Tempered by the military discipline, structure and efficiency of the vaults, they surveyed the wasteland and squared their shoulders for the task ahead. The task of recovery, and reconstruction.
---
TODAY, THE MICHIYO system is the centre of an expanding interstellar military state that spans seven star systems and tens of billions of sentients. The Imperial Army and Navy are the largest organisations in the Empire, with past and present membership exceeding 70% of all able-bodied citizens. Michiyo III still bears the ancient scars of war, though conflict has not touched her surface for more than half a millenium, and her twelve billion inhabitants live in peace and prosperity. Voda'kai is restored, her silver spires again reaching to the clouds and her streets filled with bustling life. Michiyo is reborn, and her sons and daughters strive to bring her peace to far stars.
By any means.
The colonisation process lasted sixty years. Nearly a billion sentients were deposited on the new world over that period and their cities towered above the trees. The forests and predators were annihilated in a growing hunger for living space and raw materials. The green hills were broken wide, becoming vast strip mines to feed the factories. The forests fell to create arable land in massive quantity, farmed by hulking agri-droids that never slept. Seven centuries of growth transformed the planet.
http://images.wikia.com/starwars/images/0/01/Kashyyyk.jpg
MICHIYO III, THIRTEEN hundred years before the present day. Almost ten billion souls live, work and die on this world, their cities stretching from sea to sea. As in the greater galaxy, humans number the majority - almost half of the planet's population. The cities are now segregated, with the southern hemisphere almost barren of non-humans. Every viable planet in the Michiyo system has now been colonised.
Damon Knesos is dead.
Little information regarding Knesos himself survived the nuclear holocaust that his death set into motion, but it is underestood from a selection of ageing holos and data-records that he was the political representative for nearly three-quarters of the human population. Knesos was shot twice in full public view by a Gran wielding a hold-out blaster, during a parade in the planetary capital, Voda'kai. Knesos was hit in the chest and head, killing him instantly. The shocked silence was replaced by screaming rage as the alien was rushed by a wave of humans from the crowd, who beat, kicked and punched him into unconciousness before someone blew his face away with his own weapon. The body was thrown into the Vodan River.
The assassination was universally percieved as the work of anti-human interests among the alien population by both the public and media alike. Months of public speaking and attempts to quiet the aftermath of Knesos' death by northern politicians failed terribly, and the two hemispheres eventually became more defined as seperate, opposing nations, falling quickly into a state of war.
The conflict between north and south lasted for sixteen years, with more than a billion dead even before the missiles left the silos. The humans were first to utilise their nuclear arsenal, though the automated reply was fast. The majestic forests of Michiyo III vanished in a conflagration that engulfed the entire planet's surface, spreading from a hundred thousand blast zones. Lakes and rivers boiled as the air temperature reached 10,000°, and almost every sentient above ground died in an instant.
The humans, hiding from their own weapons in colossal 'vaults' built to withstand this very event, survived. For two centuries, they lived by artificial light in holes under the scorched earth, scratching an existence from vast, dried food reserves and edibile fungi cultivated in thousand-acre subterranean growth units. Less than a billion survived the bombs.
---
ON THE TWO hundredth anniversary of the purging of Michiyo III, the first reclaimers emerged. Pale-skinned men and women clad in bulky radiation suits, armed against all possibilities. From a thousand bunkers, they made their way through the haunting, ruined cities of their forefathers. Ravaged skyscrapers, gutted by the shockwaves. Thousands of civilian vehicles littered silent streets, their owners' dessicated remains still at the controls.
Following the first, the reclaimers resurfaced in the millions. Tempered by the military discipline, structure and efficiency of the vaults, they surveyed the wasteland and squared their shoulders for the task ahead. The task of recovery, and reconstruction.
---
TODAY, THE MICHIYO system is the centre of an expanding interstellar military state that spans seven star systems and tens of billions of sentients. The Imperial Army and Navy are the largest organisations in the Empire, with past and present membership exceeding 70% of all able-bodied citizens. Michiyo III still bears the ancient scars of war, though conflict has not touched her surface for more than half a millenium, and her twelve billion inhabitants live in peace and prosperity. Voda'kai is restored, her silver spires again reaching to the clouds and her streets filled with bustling life. Michiyo is reborn, and her sons and daughters strive to bring her peace to far stars.
By any means.