Sertian
25-08-2008, 17:54
[OOC: Note that I am retconning the Sertians until now. That means any prior relations to them have been removed from continuity. This shouldn’t be to major, as they haven’t been very important besides ‘oh them’. As for the reason behind the retcon? They were straying to far from their original conception as military expansionists, in short: They were being to goody goody. Anyway, for those interested in the military capabilities now within the system, there are twenty-three vessels, most of which are frigates and destroyers with two light scout cruisers and one heavy cruiser. Have fun. =D]
[PS: OOC: First person to claim to have been the nation to scout the system a century ago and place the marker-buoy gets it. ^^]
In a vast sea of millions of stars, with thousands of planets orbiting them, you’d imagine that despite the best exploration efforts, it would take hundreds of years to find, map, and explore every planet. So you would naturally assume that a planet at the very fringe of the galaxy, hanging around an unremarkable star with a planet remarkable only by the fact it contained life, would be virtually unknown to the intergalactic community. Which is what it was, always on some nations list of ‘planets to explore when we get the time.’
Unfortunately, by the time that some half-assed explorer came to that planet .9 Astronomical Units form the yellow star, a comet had already smashed into its surface. The planet was assumed dead, the news was spread, and the system was left alone for just over a hundred years.
That’s when the planet became slightly more remarkable, not for any obvious reason other than the clouds of dust and sulfer from the long ago impact started to settle, allowing sunlight to once again illuminate the surface, allowing dormant seeds to spring upwards and spawn a forest of grass and shrubs. No, it became important because for one civilization, it was the first spec of red in that small pool of unknown yellow.
For outwards of the galaxy, several million of light years away from the Milky Way, something was arriving…
“Scans of the planet complete sir, both Drift and EM. It appears that the planet’s rather cool, just above freezing. There’s glaciers scattered across the entire planet, and most of the water is frozen in gigantic oceans of ice. But, it seems to be thawing… Some of the ice chunks have shrubs growing out of them, and areas of land are starting to grow entire forests of planets,” spoke a soft spoken voice in the dark bridge, the lights dimmed for the large hologram of the planet in front of them. The hologram casted little light, so it was up to the soft glow of various consuls to illuminate the populace of that bridge, features ranging from fur, snouts, and opposable ears to the vast majority that appeared to be human… At least, mostly…
“Did our scans pick up any animal populace?” another voice spoke out from the darkness, originating from what might be considered the center of the bridge. As a response to his question the hologram turned, the planet seeming to undergo a complete revolution around its axis as a bright golden light wave flowed about it.
“Negative, no animal life large enough for us to detect. It’s also unlikely, scans reveal the atmosphere is 50% Nitrogen, 30% Carbon Dioxide, 9% Oxygen, 5% Sulfur, and 6% trace gases. Given that the plants appear to be the standard photosynthetic variety, it seems like most animal life would be poisoned on the surface.”
The voice that spoke the question was quiet for a while, and in the darkness no one could see that the man it belonged to was leaning forward, thinking as he weighed his options. “Any evidence of a past civilization?”
“Errr… Yes,” the first voice spoke again. Now various points appearing on the globe as slowly spun. Bright red markings that seemed to pulsate in a two dozen different areas, while weaker, fainter, markings of bright white shone up all along the planet. “These indicate where we’ve picked up radiation akin to the that of waste products from fission reactions. We show two dozen sites with high concentrations and nearly a hundred minor locations.”
“Odd… Why is it that those two dozen sites stand out more?” the voice that must have been the captain asked again, his eyes racking across the globe as it spun. There was something odd about those major sites as well, most of those seemed to have been built on top of high mountains, some tall enough to poke through the glacier skin. In fact, as he continued to look those major sites seemed to be propped up into areas where a surface city would be impossible, “The locations of those major radiation signals aren’t in a place where you’d expect a major city to be built.”
“Perhaps they were weapon testing sites?” the first voice spoke again. “If they tamed nuclear power, it’s likely that they also had nuclear weaponry.”
“Yes… Perhaps… But, Lieutenant Dia, this world was most likely one inhabited by a sentient population with a diverse ecosystem before the comet impacted it, right?”
As if to answer him, the hologram moved and zoomed in, slicing away a large area that must have been a sixth of the planet. The view focusing, revealing a huge crater that had scared the planet, now filled with the largest of the glacier-oceans. Around this crater various measurements showed up in text pointing at various areas, measuring latent heat that was cocooned underneath the ice, the depth of the huge cliffs, other meaningless details. “It appears that way, we can’t be certain what their astronomical tech was at, or if the comet looped around from the sun. But, it is seventy-five percent likely that they had a few months, perhaps even a year of warning.”
“Tell me… Do you think that would be enough time for a race to set up multiple bunkers deep beneath the surface, containing self-contained ecosystems?”
“…You think that those major activity sites could be live reactors..?”
“It’s the most likely theory, and it’s something I want to test out. Zoom to the site that was near the planet’s equator, the one underneath the largest mountain.” The map zoomed out and locked onto the area he wanted to see, the hologram panning down to show a flat surfaced view of the mountain and the location of the radiation as best as they could. By their best information, it appeared that the radiation was several kilometers bellow that mountain. “I want our first surface team to land as close to that mountain as possible.”
“Yes sir, your orders have been conveyed to the rest of the squadron.”
“Good… Now, let’s get down to business… Switch the hologram to a system-wide view.” Quickly the hologram blinked out, putting most of the room into darkness, until it reappeared again as a gigantic map of the system they were in. A medium sized star, two rocky planets, and one gas giant that swept away most of the outer solar system in its birth. Non-remarkable in any way, except for the twenty-three bright red dots that showed the locations of their ship, most of them seeming to be holding orbit around the thawing planet.
“Any signs of any ships since we arrived?” the commander asked again.
“No sir, no space-objects have been detected since we vaporized that buoy upon entry into this system. It’s completely uninhabited.”
“Good… Keep the ships on tactical alert, there’s no telling when the people that marker-buoy belonged to will be here to find out why it was blown to half a million bits.
[PS: OOC: First person to claim to have been the nation to scout the system a century ago and place the marker-buoy gets it. ^^]
In a vast sea of millions of stars, with thousands of planets orbiting them, you’d imagine that despite the best exploration efforts, it would take hundreds of years to find, map, and explore every planet. So you would naturally assume that a planet at the very fringe of the galaxy, hanging around an unremarkable star with a planet remarkable only by the fact it contained life, would be virtually unknown to the intergalactic community. Which is what it was, always on some nations list of ‘planets to explore when we get the time.’
Unfortunately, by the time that some half-assed explorer came to that planet .9 Astronomical Units form the yellow star, a comet had already smashed into its surface. The planet was assumed dead, the news was spread, and the system was left alone for just over a hundred years.
That’s when the planet became slightly more remarkable, not for any obvious reason other than the clouds of dust and sulfer from the long ago impact started to settle, allowing sunlight to once again illuminate the surface, allowing dormant seeds to spring upwards and spawn a forest of grass and shrubs. No, it became important because for one civilization, it was the first spec of red in that small pool of unknown yellow.
For outwards of the galaxy, several million of light years away from the Milky Way, something was arriving…
“Scans of the planet complete sir, both Drift and EM. It appears that the planet’s rather cool, just above freezing. There’s glaciers scattered across the entire planet, and most of the water is frozen in gigantic oceans of ice. But, it seems to be thawing… Some of the ice chunks have shrubs growing out of them, and areas of land are starting to grow entire forests of planets,” spoke a soft spoken voice in the dark bridge, the lights dimmed for the large hologram of the planet in front of them. The hologram casted little light, so it was up to the soft glow of various consuls to illuminate the populace of that bridge, features ranging from fur, snouts, and opposable ears to the vast majority that appeared to be human… At least, mostly…
“Did our scans pick up any animal populace?” another voice spoke out from the darkness, originating from what might be considered the center of the bridge. As a response to his question the hologram turned, the planet seeming to undergo a complete revolution around its axis as a bright golden light wave flowed about it.
“Negative, no animal life large enough for us to detect. It’s also unlikely, scans reveal the atmosphere is 50% Nitrogen, 30% Carbon Dioxide, 9% Oxygen, 5% Sulfur, and 6% trace gases. Given that the plants appear to be the standard photosynthetic variety, it seems like most animal life would be poisoned on the surface.”
The voice that spoke the question was quiet for a while, and in the darkness no one could see that the man it belonged to was leaning forward, thinking as he weighed his options. “Any evidence of a past civilization?”
“Errr… Yes,” the first voice spoke again. Now various points appearing on the globe as slowly spun. Bright red markings that seemed to pulsate in a two dozen different areas, while weaker, fainter, markings of bright white shone up all along the planet. “These indicate where we’ve picked up radiation akin to the that of waste products from fission reactions. We show two dozen sites with high concentrations and nearly a hundred minor locations.”
“Odd… Why is it that those two dozen sites stand out more?” the voice that must have been the captain asked again, his eyes racking across the globe as it spun. There was something odd about those major sites as well, most of those seemed to have been built on top of high mountains, some tall enough to poke through the glacier skin. In fact, as he continued to look those major sites seemed to be propped up into areas where a surface city would be impossible, “The locations of those major radiation signals aren’t in a place where you’d expect a major city to be built.”
“Perhaps they were weapon testing sites?” the first voice spoke again. “If they tamed nuclear power, it’s likely that they also had nuclear weaponry.”
“Yes… Perhaps… But, Lieutenant Dia, this world was most likely one inhabited by a sentient population with a diverse ecosystem before the comet impacted it, right?”
As if to answer him, the hologram moved and zoomed in, slicing away a large area that must have been a sixth of the planet. The view focusing, revealing a huge crater that had scared the planet, now filled with the largest of the glacier-oceans. Around this crater various measurements showed up in text pointing at various areas, measuring latent heat that was cocooned underneath the ice, the depth of the huge cliffs, other meaningless details. “It appears that way, we can’t be certain what their astronomical tech was at, or if the comet looped around from the sun. But, it is seventy-five percent likely that they had a few months, perhaps even a year of warning.”
“Tell me… Do you think that would be enough time for a race to set up multiple bunkers deep beneath the surface, containing self-contained ecosystems?”
“…You think that those major activity sites could be live reactors..?”
“It’s the most likely theory, and it’s something I want to test out. Zoom to the site that was near the planet’s equator, the one underneath the largest mountain.” The map zoomed out and locked onto the area he wanted to see, the hologram panning down to show a flat surfaced view of the mountain and the location of the radiation as best as they could. By their best information, it appeared that the radiation was several kilometers bellow that mountain. “I want our first surface team to land as close to that mountain as possible.”
“Yes sir, your orders have been conveyed to the rest of the squadron.”
“Good… Now, let’s get down to business… Switch the hologram to a system-wide view.” Quickly the hologram blinked out, putting most of the room into darkness, until it reappeared again as a gigantic map of the system they were in. A medium sized star, two rocky planets, and one gas giant that swept away most of the outer solar system in its birth. Non-remarkable in any way, except for the twenty-three bright red dots that showed the locations of their ship, most of them seeming to be holding orbit around the thawing planet.
“Any signs of any ships since we arrived?” the commander asked again.
“No sir, no space-objects have been detected since we vaporized that buoy upon entry into this system. It’s completely uninhabited.”
“Good… Keep the ships on tactical alert, there’s no telling when the people that marker-buoy belonged to will be here to find out why it was blown to half a million bits.