NationStates Jolt Archive

For millennia the distant system of Requiem Nine lay outside of many people’s thoughts. It was barely mentioned in any solar charts and almost no information about the system had ever been bothered to be gathered and recorded. So the few planets circling the young star lay undisturbed and peaceful for eons. A planet called Uthandle, approximately seven hundred billion light years away from the centre of the system, suddenly sprang forth life. They were strange creatures, insect-like in nature, with a hive culture. Later to call themselves, in their own clicking and buzzing language, the Arachnii, they evolved over a course of millions of years. However, they did not change at all physically for a much longer period of time, their minds began to grow keener and sharper. Suddenly the curiosity of the stars drove the species to gather whatever resources they could in order to touch the glowing lights in the dark heavens.

Through years of trial and error, the Arachnii finally perfected a way of travelling through space. It was not through complicated space faring ships or hyperdrives or anything of the sort. No, it was for more…. Simpler. Every solar eclipse, the Arachnii’s pregnant queen lifted herself to the highest mountain on the planet, and shot her spores into the sky. Due to the planet’s thin atmosphere, the spores easily reach out into the darkness of space. The spores, thanks to millions of years of evolving, survive the cold, airless depths of space and simply drift for years. They cling to whatever they can, asteroids, ships, even crashing down to planets, surviving the immense heat and pressure of entry into a planet’s atmosphere. But once heat is applied, the spores begin to grow. They grow and adapt to whatever they had landed on. So now, through years of tossing spores into space, all of Requiem Nine has been colonized by the ever-hungry Arachnii. They seek more planets to spread their spores on. Their spores drift through their system, waiting for a chance to escape into other systems, and begin a new colony. So they wait….

Not all spores, however, were so lucky as to find a planet. A single clutch of spores, against infinitesimally odds, touched lightly against the hull of Hideous Weapon of Mass Pacifism. The Otagian science vessel, being what it was, noted their impact, secured them in a biologics lab, and promptly ignored them. It was, after all, far too busy to dispatch an Avatar to study each piece of space debris that brushed up against it's hull.

Thus it was that these Arachnii spores found a perfect place to grow: Air, light, food, and water, encased in a womb of steel, their unwitting mother far too busy to know that it carried life aboard it once more. A mistake that it would undoubtedly notice once the spores had matured...

The spores onboard the strange vessel, almost immediately began their growth once the warm artificial enviornment was applied. Happy to be ignored, the spores soon developed into eggs. The eggs soon hatched, breaking free from their prisons. The newly-born Arachnii larvae were rather large, being three feet in length. Of course, the larvae took no time in growing at all. Such was an evolutionary trait they gained from years of colonnizing new planets.

A few days after being discovered by the Otagian scientists, the fully grown Arachnii Queen, with a full complement of no less than thirty Warriors, were ready to do damage wherever possible. Whether the scientists had observed their growth was not known to them. It was not likely that they cared either. Being programmed from birth to colonize whatever they landed on, the Warriors set about to securing their limited area, while the Queen layed her spores in a secure 'nest' in the centre of the lab.

bump

There were, in fact, no scientists aboard the Hideous Weapon to check in on the budding Arachnii hive, nor were they needed. The spawning of the larvae had not gone unnoticed, but the vessel still refused to acknowledge them as a threat, preferring to simply observe an unfamiliar species in a controlled environment. The advent of a warrior caste, however, changed this. While unlikely to pose a threat to the vessel, protocol did mandate intervention if threatening activity occurred. After all, it would be horribly embarrassing if word got out that the Hideous Weapon had allowed it's hull to be damaged by what it had considered space junk...

A small hole irised open at the top of the chamber, and a basketball sized orb of dark metal plopped through, stopping a meter above the floor, and began bobbing in a simple Fibonacci sequence. The Avatar tilted, as if cocking it's head to regard the strange creatures.

"How interesting... Certainly arthropedic in nature. And they certainly grow fast. Wonder if they're sentient. Ah well, might as well proceed as if they were. Hrm... Mandibular structure would seem to indicate a more primitive vocal system, albeit no less efficient. Now, where are those first contact procedures... Ah yes, step one. Develop a means of communication. Mathematics, perhaps. Continuing the bobbing can't hurt there... Ah, might as well expose them to our language. Ahem. 'The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Volume One...'"

The first hint that anything new had appeared on the Setian colony world was the massive corpse brought back by a hunter. It was different from the native biology, and swiftly made the news. The news stopped almost as fast, when the first outpost went out of contact. No one was really sure what was going on, and what small military detatchment there was, a single regiment of Wyverns and not much else, was not nearly enough to cover all the remaining outposts simultaneously. Shenkalai had become a planet under siege overnight, and there was no relief in sight. The next military rotation wasn't for months, and no ship was scheduled for nearly a full year. Whatever had been responsible for the cutoff of their outpost, things were likely to get very hard, very fast.

OOC: I'm more than willing to give this colony up as a writeoff so you can have a planet to work with, etc.

OOC: Much appreciated, I'm sure we can make something good out of that. Would you mind supplying me with a description of the planet's topography? I'd like everyone to note that I won't be posting the individual actions of the Arachnii, but rather simply the overview of what is going on, with some exceptions.

IC: The response was almost immediate. As soon as motion was detected descending down from the cieling, the Warriors went beserk. Long before the Avatar could begin his contact protocols, a nearby Warrior had used its powerful jaws to latch onto the orb. Of course, the smooth surface made it difficult to do any real damage to it, but its intentions were clear. With knowledge that a space outside of the lab was available, the Arachnii quickly set to banging against the walls in an effort to make a hole for their escape.

The Queen's responsibility, of course, was to simply supply a bigger force in order to break free from their prison, so they could claim the corridors outside. Their screeches and growls lit up the ship with a repetoire of noises that would make any organic run mad.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~~**~~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~**~~***~~*

The spores had finally accomplished what they were made to do. They had drifted far enough out of their system to have landed on an uncolonized planet. The first few months after the spores landed were uneventful. They had grown deep within the wilderness of the forests. They had simply grown, both in numbers and in size, and waited. It wasn't until an organic lifeform had trespassed in their territory and killed on of their numbers did they suddenly become hostile.

After months of laying eggs and and hatching an entire colony of Warriors, the Arachnii were more than capable of becoming a serious threat to the planet's inhabitants. Planet Shenkalai would be the first to fall to the Arachnii outside of the Requiem Nine system.

Without warning, the swarms began to move closer to Setian outposts. Savagely and without mercy, they had left none alive. They were creatures without feelings or emotions. Their only thoughts were to killing the inhabitants of this new world. Their new world. Hundreds of Arachnii poured over the colonists like a tide of death and destrction. No quarter was given. They all had to die. It was simply the way things had to be.

As it finished it's speech, the Avatar surged with energy, it's hull glowing cherry red as it was superheated to a temperature that would melt steel. Drifting away from the now-wounded warrior, it spun sadly.

"Oh my. How impolite. Perhaps it would be more appropriate to deal with you as nonsentient until further data is received. Very well. I regret to inform you that we are currently accelerating at approximately eighty times earth gravity, which is twelve point five percent of our maximum thrust. I highly doubt you understand me, but it would be quite rude to do this without an explanation. Now disabling inertial dampeners in Lab Seventy Four."

The entire lab suddenly shifted, equipment smashing suddenly against the floor, shelves and cages crushed swiftly by the massive force of the ship's engines. The Walls groaned softly as the alien hive slammed against the ground with massive force, the Avatar still floating in disappointment at the room's center. Sheets of glass were ground into powder against the floor, and metal screamed in protest. And finally, as suddenly as it had began, it stopped.

Floating amongst the wreckage, the orb nodded in disappointment at any surviving Arachnii.

"I am very upset at your behavior. One would think you do not appreciate my presence. However, it is my duty to continue to attempt to ensure proper communication between our species. Further attempts at hostilities will be met with appropriate measures of force. Now, where was I... Ah yes. 'Something wicked this way comes...'"

The hypersonic crack of hunting rifles split the night, and the occasional flare of a particle gun sundered the darkness, but for the most part, the colonists were helpless to defend themselves. The lightest models of hunting rifles, just about anything under .50 caliber, were simply too weak to punch through the armor of the arachnii beasts without several shots, or plenty of luck. The three or four particle guns that cropped up in every settlement fared better, washing away dozens of the beasts before their owners were swarmed under, or forced to cease fire before their own weapons over heated and killed them. The few settlements that had been founded at all near regimental hq were streaming in, and bringing an assortment of guns, equipment, and some slightly strange devices with them. Trucks laden with colonists streamed in to the division sized base, and a panopoly of equipment, both heavy movers, and high tech, comes with them. Someone, from God only knows where, had brought in a pair of earth movers with...antipersonnel turres mounted on them?

<Sir, isn't that against the game laws?>

<So he's a poacher. One with likely illegal heavy weapons. We arrest him and commandeer his equipment. It's heavy, nearly as well made as a wyvern, and has the ability to evacuate a large number of civilians if it comes down to it. Appropriate everything we can use, and rig the base to detonate on my command. We will hold this location against all comers for as long as possible.>

Thed arachnii rampaged through the colony, but in one place at least, the empire was solidifying, and as best they could, preparing for the coming storm.

*poke*

The few surviving Arachnii aboard the vessel were too mangled to last much longer. They would expire in but a few hour's time. However, in a display of excellent adaptation, the spores survived the immense pressure which was applied inside the labs. As the Avatar continued its recitings of some long dead poet, the spores contented themselves in waiting patiently. They bided their time for a right time to emerge from their slumber.

~*~*~*~*~*~~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~**~*~*~*~*~*~~*

The Arachnii used an age-old strategy while their hostile takeover of the planet continued. Those few settlements that were too heavily defended were simply bypassed. The enormours horde of Arachnii flowed around the settlements, cutting them off from any escape or aid. They could be dealt with after everything was done with. Warriors were what their name made them out to be. They sought prey to kill. After a settlement had fallen, the Warriors moved on to allow the Workers to collect the dead -- both Arachnii and Setian-- and bring them back to the hive.

Along with corpse detail, the Workers were busying themselves with tunnelling underneath the planet's surface. Huge networks of tunnels were already spread out for kilometers in a radial pattern. Those ahead of the swarm would not be safe for long. Warriors would soon be springing up from beneath their feet to cause havoc within their ranks.

The colonizing of the planet was eerily efficient. The Arachnii didn't take any losses that could be avoided. They methodically cleansed the planet of any colonist in their path. Within the year, more than half of the planet would be colonized, and the networks of tunnels would stretch out across the entire world.

Second Seed 2598 (Military Calendar)
Colonial Mining Station Jasper, Echelon system

"Well I don't care what it's going to take," the foreman screamed over the noise of the machinery, straining to make himself heard above the terrible grinding din. His face was red and covered in sweat from the intense heat in the compartment as he stabbed a finger at the gigantic piston above their heads. The one throwing off a shower of sparks as it completed every second or third rotation. "Get that thing shut down and cleaned, before it ignites the ore and we lose half the goddamned plant!"

The men standing with him, both in coveralls that were blackened and dirtied from unending days spent crawling all over machinery down here on the lower decks, eyed him with blatant insubordination and disrespect in their eyes. It was clear that they didn't appreciate being told how to run their part of the plant. But since the foreman reported to the captain, who in turn reported to the company (who paid them for their work), they had to deal with it.

One of them spit on the catwalk, his saliva dripping down onto the pistons, grinders, ore conveyers, and other exposed machinery below them. "We'll get it done ... sir," he said, placing emphasis on it. It was no secret at Jasper Station that the foreman was ex-military, and most of the miners and engineers hated him with a vengeance for his insistence on getting things done with military efficiency. It wasn't as if Jasper was a front-line station, after all.

The engineer spit again and then stalked off down the catwalk. After a glare, his companion followed suit. The foreman watched them disappear into the steam and blowing smoke before going in the other direction, wondering again what had landed him here.

Colonial Mining Station Jasper was one of more than several dozen frontier settlements that had once upon a time dotted the Outer Colonies of the Colonial Authority. There had been small farming hamlets, asteroid colonies set up by political exiles, mining colonies that eked out an existence scrabbling over scraps of ore left behind by larger mining operations, pirate and smuggler bases, corporate factories set up to escape prying eyes ... you name it, you saw it. With the coming of the war though, the majority of these had either been overrun by the enemy or simply disappeared overnight.

Jasper was one of a handful that had managed to escape the conflict, although for how much longer was questionable. It had a decent defensive grid, or so the ex-Navy engineer had heard, had a couple ships and a squadron of fighters for security at a low-orbit converted supply depot, and in general was a pretty low-key place. It certainly wasn't disciplined and run like a military facility: the fights alone accounted for that. The resident mercenary population was an unclear bunch of savages as far as the foreman was concerned, foul-smelling and always fighting with the miners who made up the other sizeable portion of the station's resident community. Administrative types and a handful of overworked security officers made up the rest.

Clearly Jasper had seen better days. Now most considered it to be a shadow of its former self.

Yet the spore drifting through the system could have cared less about Jasper's history. What it did care about was the lukewarm kiss of the metal as it came to rest on the floor of a cracking plant at the long-since-disused arkonor processing facility on the planetary surface. Good ore was just so hard to find sometimes. Good company and a place to call home ... now that was something else.

Yet another planet had been founded upon by the Arachnii spores. And what a find it was. Glorious heat graced the spores than landed on the surface, and in no time at all the spores began to develop and evolve. Adapting to the temperature around them, the Arachnii birthed in the processing facility would differ greatly from their kin on their other planets. The spores immediately registered their surroundings and began to form to cope with the environment.

The Queen, once matured and able to produce eggs, was a dark red in colour. It had large 'vents' that peppered its back, exhausting steam and other gases every now and then. The DNA of the Arachnii was now set for the planet, and soon, just as Shenkalai had, so too shall the mining station. Since the area was secluded and expansive enough, the Queen gave birth to Workers to tunnel under the surface and begin the first stages of a network. Once a sufficient amount of Workers were created, Warriors were produced. Like the Queen, the workers were a crimson red. Their vertical jaws were slightly more elongated, and their mandibles were stubbier, almost as if its anatomy were changed to compensate for the longer jaws.

Another type of Arachnii was created as well. A new species within the limited race of bug-like creatures. These eggs were by far the biggest in the new hive. But what lay dormant in them, and what sort of gains could it reap for the colony? No one could know until the large eggs hatched.

Second Seed 2598 (Military Calendar)
Colonial Mining Station Jasper, Arkonor Plant

The former armored personnel carrier, a two-story ten-wheeled monostrosity, rumbled its way into the loading dock and jerked to a stop. Here it was safe and protected from the elements, namely the snowstorm that had battered it all the way up into the mountains. The weather was much more wild and unpredictable here, even with a pair of satellites in low orbit to keep an eye on the string of abandoned mines and factories that lay up here in the mountains.

On the upper deck of the APC a door hissed open, allowing an occupant dressed in a yellow vest and hardhat to emerge. He kicked a chunk of snow off the upper deck, then looked around as his breath billowed in the air. "Damn, it's cold. I forgot how much I hate this duty."

"It ain't fun," his companion agreed as the two climbed down the side ladder on the vehicle to the ground. Their boots rang hollowly in the air, which seemed as cold and oppressive as a tomb. "Let's get this problem fixed and get the hell out of here. I get the willies every time I'm up here."

The first speaker tapped a code into a keypanel encrusted with snow and ice as some new activity developed at the rear of the APC. A roof hatch opened, allowing a lance of five combat drones to float out into the air. They paused, glowing blue scanners mounted at the front of each one checking the air around the vehicle, before floating towards the now-open door into the plant.

Combat drones were easily manufactured, cheaper than training a security officer, obeyed orders without question, and carried a powerful armament of a single heavy plasma beam weapon in an underslung turret. In short, they were the perfect weapon for use at most underdeveloped outposts and installations that weren't important enough to justify an around-the-clock marine presence.

Both engineers watched them float into the plant before venturing inside themselves. Occasionally, as they walked deeper into the building, one stopped to check a status panel on velcro straps around his left arm. It kept him appraised of their progress as the drones swept ahead of them and to the sides, finding nothing of interest in the process. Eventually, as they progressed farther and farther between the empty freestanding buildings under the mountain where the plant lay, the streets became narrower.

And then they found it. More specifically, a drone found it first and called them to it.

"Well, that explains it," one of the men remarked to the other. They stood there eyeing the generator, seeing its destroyed condition. It looked to have been a playtoy for a giant baby, having been smashed and mangled beyond recognition. Equipment and parts were scattered all over the room, floor panels ripped up near the giant pedestal that had once held the generator. Without this device in place the main colony couldn't communicate with the satellites that provided infrared detection, electro-optical, and and synthetic aperture radar capabilities on the planetary surface.

The other one let out a whistle of amazement and shined his flashlight over the wrecked generator. "Damn ... what the hell did this?" His companion didn't answer, having approached the floor panels and tapped a glove to it. It came away sticky with a substance that dripped to the floor. It was sticky. And it smelled bad. Real bad. He shook it off his hand, splattering the wreckage of the generator.

Something rumbled nearby, a strange sound effect that had no place in the arkonor plant. All five drones suddenly went into combat formation as something moved in the darkness outside, their turrets dropping from their bellies. One fired, heating metal outside the room in the corridor with a bluish glow, and missing its intended target. Shields snapped into existence, primitive devices whose usefulness was doubful against whatever had done this. And both engineers looked at each other with pale faces before shining their lights outside again.

"Aw shit man," one whispered to the other. "We're humped man. We're humped."

OOC: Bump

OOC: Sorry about the delay. Exams and whatnot are a bitch
IC:
A worker had been busily chipping away at a piece of metal pipe before the vibrations in the air lit up its senses. Something had intruded in the colony's entrance. The long antanae on the Arachnii worker's head twitched in anticipation. Whatever it was, it certainly wasn't another one of the workers or a Warrior. Something... Different had approached. Scuttling down the wall where it had been perched, it deftly moved its away in a zig-zag pattern across the floor. Its six legs danced across the floor, creating only the faintest of scratching sounds as it scuttled towards the disturbance. Its large bulbous eyes, unable to see colour, were useless in the dim light. Its antanae did most of the work, feeling around and sensing the vibrations in the air.

Two bipedal figures stood in front of the large machine the worker's kin had just days ago escavated for any useful resources. All they had stumbled upon were a few useless 'strings' and more metal components. Escorting the two bipeds were... Things. It was hard for the worker to comprehend what it was looking at. Floating objects emitting a high degree in temperature. A possible resource for the heat-deprived colony? It clicked its mandibles and made its way toward the intruders.

Suddenly, the floating objects turned on it and began excreting extremely hot blobs of engergy at it. Emitting a high-pitched squeal, the worker skuttled for cover behind a piece of machinery. As it was programmed to do, its abdomen suddenly flared, and a strong pheremone was created. Its scent would not be picked up by the two fleshy beings, but the others inside the complex would immediately pick it up. The message in the pheremone was all too clear and precise: INTRUDERS! INTRUDERS! INTRUDERS! PROTECT THE QUEEN!

Seconds later, several loud screeches and roars shook the complex. The colony had been alerted. The swarm was coming.

Second Seed 2598 (Military Calendar)
Colonial Mining Station Jasper, Arkonor Plant

Gulp.

There was definitely something in here. A lot of somethings, the engineer reflected to himself as he cautiously looked outside. A drone over his head fired again at something outside, evidently missing judging by the shadow that jerked and scuttled backwards into the darkness.

"Hey man, did you -"

"I saw it. Looked like a beetle with legs. A giant cockroach. We need to get the fuck outta here man," the other man said as he eyed the arm-mounted control screen. It was liberally colored with red dots that moved in between sensor sweeps from the drones. Another drone fired, this time resulting in a loud and very pronounced screech that reverberated in the deckplates and bulkheads. It made the engineer's skin crawl with a million invisible ants.

There was no thought now of taking the toolkits with them. They were left sitting near a window and closed doorway, respectively. Both men looked at each other before one tapped on the control panel, adjusting the combat drones to provide cover for them. And then they took off running.

Boots slammed on the deckplates as their pulses raced, light from the handlamps casting new shadows everywhere they shined. They were breathing heavily as the sounds began to close in on them. Creatures could be seen in the darkness, scuttling around behind buildings and metal panels before vanishing. A drone fired again once, twice, casting orange light behind them.

The doorway, beyond which lay the loading dock and the armored personnel carrier, came into sight for a moment as the trailing engineer stumbled. His feet were heavy, feeling like they were cast in lead, and he was breathing heavily. It felt like his chest would burst, and the sweat running into his eyes made them sting. Somewhere in the run he'd lost his hardhat. But as he stumbled up off the floor something slammed into him, a black shadow that launched itself out of the darkness at him.

There was a yell of pain as the other engineer vaulted himself out through the door and onto the loading dock. Face covered in snow and scrapes from the bulkhead he'd scraped against during his desperate run to the dock, he picked himself up and bolted for the APC. Inside he could hear what sounded like a radio crackling. "Come in ... -ictor-22 to car- .... -ome in."

He bolted around the corner and started to climb the ladder up to the APC's second deck. But something above him moved as he hit the third rung ... and he froze.

OOC: I know the feeling. Caught in the same situation here, myself.

FSWS Hell's Gates, Astrid-Class Ship ((OOC: This is my first FT RP, I'm used to PMT and people constantly bringing up budgets and whatnot))

The massive Astrid-Class ship was floating through space, surrounded by many ships much smaller than it's own. It was the flagship of the Fleet, carrying thousands of Marines and other personnel. It was near the Arachnii system, doing a standard patrol for other fleets, as a GGO system was nearby. Surely it had to be unknowingly attracting spores...

((OOC: GGO = FT version of GWO. It's short for Grand Galactic Order.))

The war drums of a thousand hardened legs smashing against the metallic floor drew the colony into a fevor. The intruders threatened their colony with their machines and weapons. They must be elliminated before they would bring the rest of their hive to compete with the Arachnii's. Growls and screeches echoed across the caverns of the complex as the entire colony awoke from its slumber.

A Warriorm happening to be close by near the area, was the first to come to the call. Its elognated vertical jaws snapped in anticipation, and the side mandibles waved in the air frantically, searching for something to hold onto while it would tear with its jaws. The Warrior was not a dumb animal, it had rudimentary intelligience. So when it saw the two bipedal figures running towards the exit, it reared on its back legs and gave chase. It saw its chance to strike when one of the figures fell. A deafening screech blasted from the powerful Warrior before it smashed into the intruder. Before it could have a chance to react, it snapped its jaws around its waist and brought it up into the air with the tilt of its head. Another screech was emitted before the pressure on the jaws tightened. Seconds later, a gruesome crack and snap was heard as the victim in its jaws blew apart, both halves sailing in opposite directions. It had tasted the blood and juices of its victim, and it was delicious. The Warrior let out a victorious screech to signal its success.

Outside, a number of workers and climbed aboard the APC. The ever-curious insectoids were scurrying across its surface, trying to find a way inside the vessel. It could serve as a potential nesting area for another colony, perhaps... One of the workers had gone to the edge of the massive vehicle and peered down. Oh, whats this? A vistor. Antanaes wiggled in front of it try and get a sense of what it was staring at. Hmmm... Internal skeleton. How inefficient. The thing seemed to fragile. And whats this? Water was pouring from its body! To the worker, it had found another resource for the colony. And so, as any other excited worker would, it began to crawl towards the figure on the ladder.