NationStates Jolt Archive

OOC: http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=562627
Perhaps not the best opening, but the best I could come up with at the time. You can consider me to be an OOC admin sort of type, with creative input. I think that Godular is going to come upon this first, and I hope to involve Otagia and Fenix in a big way.

Any request to join should be posted in the above OOC thread with good reasons as to why you want to get involved, to be considered by me and those I consider as being "in charge" once the situation takes off.

IC: The ship was like an immense diamond, both in composition and shape, as it hovered above one of the largest craters of the anomoly. Tizzak Farr, captain of this glorious vessel, the Inheritence, still marvelled at these majestic constructions. He stood upon a vast balcony set in the side of his ship, gazing across the ridged surface as the green-blue light of the star Espherius caught it, illuminating it to his pale silver eyes.

Monumental constructions, beyond the science and understanding of even their finest. For years they had fascinated Tizzak, held his rapt attention with something approaching awe. True they had lost countless men to them in the early days, like men digging inexorably for treasure might sometimes be swamped by their intent...But such days were behind them now, such days were a distasteful memory. His light emerald skin pulsated with a flush of colour, pale ruby blush spreading across his smooth cheeks. A number of implanted star-forms had been activated, cracking into existence like caged lightning, bound orbs of thermonuclear flame, casting their light upon one of the higher levels. Travel-orbs had been emplaced in the majority of tower-tubes, land and water graced the first level along with a nitrogen-oxygen atmo-mix. They would thrive in such a setting, as would many lifeforms they had thusfar encountered.

Tizzak had pauses, raising one gentle hand to stroke at his chin, pondering their future work. There was yet more to be done here, the process could be largely automated, drone-forms and artificial constructs could carve out the necessary arrangements.

They had intents for some to be pure vaccuum, others to be filled with gas-giant equivalent atmospheres. Another oddity had presented itself in the knowledge that something was already present, living within the core of the world itself, as sometimes was found to happen. Developmentally eccentric beings known as the Xinthian Tensile Aeronatheurs. Curious creatures, some of the lesser species they had transplanted, upon coming to know of the thing, almost worshipped it.

In time, perhaps, they would return, behold the glory and the scale of their works, and know that they had brought this world to the galaxies light. They had opened it that they might one day exploit them, sealed habits, like fallout shelters, incase of some vast catastrophe. They had known nothing that equalled the defensive and multi-purpose potential of the Anomolies.

He smiled lightly, turning with a flutter of loose diamond-weave clothing. He strode through the shimmering, almost liquid wall of the vessel and into a vast rounded space, gleaming with crackling energy conduits and crystalline ornamentation. “We have done as we need and as we must, brethern. We move on to the next prospect.”

The great ship shuddered, it's surface seeming to sporadically pulse as it lifted from the surface of the world, smaller ships fluttering about it as though they were fish startled by the emergence of some larger predator. They were automated craft, able to seek out what was required in the system proper and prepare it as to their masters edicts.

Time passed. Days bled into months, months into years, years multiplied into decades which bred into centuries, millennia emerged from this fertile muck of linear, inexorable progression...

Anomoly, <Nameless>
Espherius System.
Arithmetic.
Mottled.
Godded.
Primarily uninhabited.
Thousand-year safe.

Surface- Vacuum
Level1- Land, N02.
Level2- Sea, 02mix
Level3- Vacuum, stars.
Level4- Gas giant atmo.
Level5-Vacuum
Level6-Vacuum, stars
Level7- Land. 02mix
Level8- Land, 02mix
Level9- Sea, sporadic land, 02mix
Level10- Vacuum
Level11- Vacuum
Level12- Vacuum
Level13- Vacuum
Level14- Vacuum
Level15- Machinery, Xinthian.
Level16- Core, Xinthian.

The Allanean vessel approached the gigantic sphere. It was bizarre in its design – like a large flat steel plate, topped with a semi-cylinder painted in blooming white. It was oddly remininscent of a 19th-century settler wagon – and indeed this was what it was, a Conestoga Mark III colony vessel. It was escorted by a small fleet of Hughie Mark II combat ships – tiny vessels, like the fire wasps of outer space.

From the Allanean vessel, a simple message came, broadcasted upon multiple frequencies:

Dear friends!

This is captain Kim Messenger speaking. I am in charge of this ship, the SS Stake, and this expedition.I would like to receive your permission to settle a part of this construct with the settlers aboard this ship, 7,000 in number.

Please communicate your reply to me as soon as possible.

"After realizing no response would ever come, the Allaneans began to descend to the surface."

OOC: Allanea, you don't mind me fluid timing a bit of stuff wouldja? I'd hoped to fire off a post afore I went to work today, but alas time was too short.

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Godulans did not tend towards deep scouting missions, so one actually being sent out was something of an occasion. The vessels always had such a large itinerary of things to look at and experiments to conduct that such missions rarely ended within a two-year span. Luckily, communications capabilities were such that when something truly monumental was stumbled upon, everybody knew about it... immediately.

Wow. That thing's large. Do you see how large that thing is?

Uninhabited too, by the looks of it. Apart from one strange reading that's messing up our sensor readings closer to the center, it doesn't look like there's really any sentient creatures on that thing. Automated thingamajoobers all over though, sophisticated enough but nothing really special... 'cept for the fact that there's several billion of them...

Did I mention that thing's large? How many levels are there in that big bastard?

At least six... if there are more we would have to go in and find out firsthand. There is something about the core that is preventing us from looking further in.

How did anybody BUILD that damn thing? The layers are solid! One piece! Not even Chamber Central goes that far.

Can we land? Huh? Can we? I wanna look at it and poke it and prod it and call it George...

Normally, the scout ship itself would have been sufficient to mount an expedition to study the 'anomaly' that was the reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeally big artificially constructed series of concentric spheres held together by some sort of transit-support superstructure and maintained by swarms of mechanized groundskeepers of a sort. The size of the object alone was enough to warrant a dedicated expedition, the aberrant nature of the construct's architecture was sufficient to warrant a significant dedicated expedition.

So the arrival of a Godulan Replication Array was really just par for the proverbial course. By the time another vessel had arrived in the vicinity with several thousand settlers as though they somehow knew what it was they were encountering, the Godulans had already spread themselves out through several of the uppermost layers, progressing with something of a peremptory walkthrough to ensure not only which parts of the construct were suitable for organic life, but also that people wouldn't get shot at on sight by the automated mechanical 'thingamajoobers'.

That would be 'inconvenient'.

As it was, the arrival of the Allaneans was a bit of a surprise, less because of their presence and more because they were asking permission to land from an object that had been uninhabited prior to the Godulans' arrival. Never mind the humor in asking a parking space if it was amicable to having a car sit on it for several hours, some things just raised more questions than they answered.

And so, a response to the Allanean Vessel's transmission emanated forth from the gargantuan replication array presently hovering in whatever counted for geosynchronous orbit. Though it was on the far side, so the fact that the Godulans had not yet been spotted by the other vessel had not been discounted.


Hi! We represent the Godulan Legion, we're presently trying to begin various studies on this object. It looks like this place is uninhabited, and we found some little transit ports for you to get into the lower layers. You would be advised against trying to settle the surface. It is kind of... airless. The next level down is fine though, and the one after that... the other two that we've been to are what might be termed 'oh god oh god we're all gonna die' levels. We're still working on getting further in. Feel free to come down.

The NKS Ki-rin, a Neo Kirisuban pioneer class starship was on its long range exploration mission. It was like a large white pancake only slightly ovoid with straight wings which supported the pair of warp nacales.

A small ship compared to other nations it had 70 souls aboard and was well armed for an exploration craft. Space was a dangerous place after all.

Earlier that day its sensors had picked up an extremely large artifical construct and now they could see it for real as they uncloaked at the edge of the system dropping out of warp.

Coasting in on half impulse Captain Mari Takeda looked at the sphere from her command chair. All around her were women and there was no males on this ship unless you counted the various pet tribbles crew members had on board.

"Number one continue scans on the sphere and pipe results to my terminal. Tactical, bring me a threat evaluation given we're already picking up space craft round the object" she ordered adding "I'll be in my ready room if I'm needed."

"Hai, Captain San" was the reply from both women she talked to. She'd get this information soon enough.

ooc:
http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a354/nihongaz/pioneerclass2.jpg

[If i could be even more cheeky and be reasonably established already on lvl 9 that would be immensly helpful. I've got a complex and entirely new society/nation to set up down there, arriving on the boats just now would make it a lot more difficult. I'll leave this post as a lengthy tag to put my Intro in after i've finished FCing]

Two Godulan Avatars stood in the midst of the swirling atmospheric chaos that was the inner layers of what seemed to be a gas-giant. The awesome pressures would have been sufficient to crush any normal mortal into a filmy paste of bone and flesh, but the Godulans' unique 'construction' made them significantly more resilient to pressure consideration.

Why?

Why what?

Why in the bloody blue hell did... whoever it was... put THIS in here?

Fuel, maybe?

What, you think that something like this is powered by FUSION?

Well, they DID build each layer as a one-piece affair, which would leave the entire structure vulnerable to collapse with a relatively small amount of infrastructural destabilization. Maybe they threw in some other wholly impractical features just to be dicks.

I doubt whoever built this thing did so just to be assholes to whoever found it after their departure from this sector of mortal reckoning.

Chamber Central is nothing like this.

Chamber Central is still being built. They just thought the modular habitat approach was better suited to 'providing for constantly shifting cultural paradigms'. These folks likely just took the minimalist approach in order to accomodate the same issue.

But a gas giant? Really? Is that necessary?

Eh, best not to dwell on it... come on, they're making their way into the seventh layer now. Lets go see if they threw in a candy land level just to be annoying.

>>Hey guys, another ship just showed up.<<

Ow.

Volume man. Volume.

>What did the fleetlord say again? I couldn't hear him over my mind being blown...<

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Scanning attempts from the new ship would reveal two vessels already hovering above the shellworld. One small colony vessel and one colossal 'something' that seemed to bear a resemblance to a lovecraftian nightmare of metallic tentacles and claws, the latter generating a power signature of overwhelming magnitude despite showing no real sign of armament.

OOC:I like the comedy lol.

The Ki-rin's tactical officer was quick to pick up the two ships ahead of her and Ensign Toda reported this to the first officer Commander Fujiko Nagamura. The blonde first officer stood out from the crew given most of the women the ship had dark hair.

She studied the ships hovering over the shellworld and gave orders to approach at 1/4 impulse with shields down. One was a colony type ship and the other she wasn't too sure what to make of it.

Captain Takeda was in her office looking over the scans on her terminal as they got some results back. The second ship could well be considered a threat given its size and energy output but for now this ship was content to cruise closer and to not appear threatening herself. When they got closer the usual communications would start.

Hyacinth, Neo-Roman Colony World

"Mother of Creation, look at the size of that thing!" Quintus breathed, awestruck. He reached over a control tech's shoulder and slapped a key on his console. Six holoscreens showing the massive construct in varying electromagnetic spectra obediently popped into being in the center of the room, allowing the Neo-Roman scientists and technicians to gather around and look at what their remote drone was feeding them.

"It has to be artificial," commented Fabius Catulus, the astronomer.

"Obviously!" Ahenobarbus the astrophysicist retorted. "Look at the density readings! Far below what they should be. At least part of the object is hollow."

"Can we get an age estimate yet?"

"Not unless we move the drone to the surface and take a sample. Marcus, check the astro-catalogue and see if there's an entry on it already."

"Domine, there are multiple power signatures orbiting the object." This was from a sensor tech directed at Centurion Marcus Ahala, who had been a silent observer thus far. "Several torchship class, and one... one I do not believe we have encountered before."

The scientists went quiet as Ahala rose from the console he had been leaning against. They were the brain power behind this segment of the Neo-Roman Republic's exploration and colonization program, undoubtedly, but Ahala was the conduit to the real authority behind the project: the Praetorium, the military-governmental complex that was directly managing Neo-Roma's nascent expansionism. Ahala was a pragmatist, and did not interfere with his charges and their techno-chatter, but the moment unidentified contacts appeared on a scanner was the moment it became a military matter.

"Approach," he said simply with a nod to the tech. The man nodded back and tapped in a command, and trillions of kilometers away, the unmanned drone scooted towards the gathering foreign craft.

Quintus, the head scientist, had some trepidations. "Centurion, should we not gather as much data on the object as we can before risking the destruction of the drone by these aliens? I do not wish to sound paranoid, but neither do I wish to gamble this opportunity on the assumption that they are friendly..."

Ahala listened tolerantly. Quintus was not in his chain of command, strictly speaking, and had the right to speak out. "By all means, Quintus, keep recording data while we approach," he said, gesturing at the console. "But there is no point in being tentative, as they are likely already aware of our presence. You have reported this to the Castra?" he said this last with a pointed stare at his Optio, Samael ben-Curianus.

"Of course, domine!" Ahala was easy enough to serve under, but he held his subordinates to the highest standards of competency and efficiency. The report was already in the hands of a secretary at the Praetorium's planetary headquarters, and would be relayed to the highest levels of Neo-Roma's government for deliberation.

In the meantime, however, there was a first contact situation for which Ahala was the de facto MC. In classic Neo-Roman fashion, Ahala decided that a simple and concise opening hail was the best way to go. The message was broadcast on many frequencies, in many types of encryptions and many languages, including the Neo-Romans' native Latin.

To you foreign vessels, In the name of the Neo-Roman Galactic Republic, hail and greetings.

The replication array twitched for a moment, then began to drop down towards the edge of a tower gate poking up from the surface of the shellworld, splaying its clawed tentacles out to grasp at dusty ground and untouched tower alike. With a surprising display of agility for a ship its size, it 'sewed' into existence a number of structures before disappearing into an open portal like some form of octopus.

All power readings from the massive Godulan vessel vanished with its entry into the shellworld, seemingly blocked by whatever material it was that constituted the layer's fundamental superstructure. The structures put out a nearly imperceptible power signature, and were made to nearly match up with the rest of the environment.

So we're bringing in the array? Where?

The Gas Giant layer. Having so much hydrogen on hand will improve the efficiency of our replication by at least three fold. We should be able to establish a more effective presence here with the resources at our disposal after that point.

Ah. So are we actually going to colonize this thing?

At least the places that are hostile to typical organic life. The Vacuum layers and whatnot... we would be getting a significant land advantage over the other folks.

And there's another ship. Incoming transmission...

To you foreign vessels, In the name of the Neo-Roman Galactic Republic, hail and greetings.

Are you thinking what I'm thinking?

That you're thinking I'm thinking what you think I'm thinking?

Uh...

I think so. I'll establish a channel...

And so, in response to the 'Roman' hail, a transmission lifted forth from the smaller structures, presenting to the 'Neo Roman' vessel a somewhat odd response:

Define Irony: While investigating an unclaimed object in unclaimed territory, one refers to others conducting investigations of their own under similar circumstances as 'foreigners'.

We're all just folk here.

Ahala raised a somewhat amused eyebrow. This was more interesting than a plain response in kind.

It seemed more appropriate than 'unidentified,' 'unknown,' or 'alien,' all of which are just as dependent on perspective as 'foreign.' Next time we'll open with a 'Hey You!' instead. We're mostly all just soldiers here.

You've been here longer than we have, so just what is this object exactly? We know that it's filled with largely hollow space, but not much else.

Ahala's immediate reversion to informality did not do much to ease Quintus' apprehension. Call him a stuffy urbanite from Nova Roma, but surely diplomatic dialogue should be more formal than that?

The response was as short as it was confusing:

It is... 'George'.

Now it was time to hail the large sphere as the Neo Kirisuban ship got even closer.

"Send this in all languages and standard binary code.

This is Captain Mari Takeda from the the NKS Ki-rin. We're explorers and we would like permission to assume an orbit of the sphere.

Our intentions are peaceful and we mean you now harm."

Already the science team was building up a computer model based on the scans and although they had only picked up three layers so far this had the potential to be so huge a project. Already Mari could see the potential of this sphere as a stop over for shipping of all types and already a colony was seeming to be established.

Well well. That's interesting.

The mind of the science vessel Not Taking You Entirely Seriously drifting through the BattleNet, tendrils of its code delving through the hundreds of thousands of datastreams pouring in from ESUS vessels across the universe. A portion of its sentience paused to examine a feed from an Allanean colony vessel and its escort fleet, and promptly diverted almost its entire self to the data.

A huge unknown object, interesting aliens, Godulans making jokes at the expense of others... Well, nothing better to do, so why not?

The vessel's corporeal body shuddered slightly, its gravitic drives kicking it from its dock and matching velocities with its destination, quickly bringing the Not Taking You Entirely Seriously up to nearly half the speed of light in relation to its berth on the Orboros Band. Stirring its resident Guilder from stasis, it fed the raw coordinates into his brain, and the human obliged it by vanishing the ship from existence.

____________

A few thousand kilometers above the surface of the immense sphere, Not Taking You Entirely Seriously existed again, as if it had always been there. Reading the Allanean's sensor data again, it oriented itself bow towards one of the structure's openings. A ripple of lightning, and a barrage of railgun shells departed the ship, streaking silently towards through the vacuum towards the thing's surface.

It is... 'George'.

"Are they trying to put us off or something?" Ahenobarbus said, not knowing what to make of the Godulans' humor.

"Nescio, but we're gonna hang around until they give us a better reason not to." Ahala had tried playing along but was now done. He dictated an equally short reply to the communication tech.

Roger that.

The tech had nudged the probe into an orbit that whipped the machine along with the help of the Shellworld's gravity. The probe's course took it close enough to pick up the Neo-Kirisubans' message.

"Haven't we met them before?" Quintus said somewhat excitedly. Ahala had already ascertained as much through his soldier's hardlink to the Praetorium's military database, and had another message ready for the comm tech.

Hail, NSK Ki-rin. We are Neo-Romans, also on an exploration and surveying mission. I believe our people have met once before. As we seem to both have an interest in this object, would you like to collaborate?

A clear shimmering cloud began to drift through the stars. Within it, thoughts were being passed back and forth, wether it be about what would happen to them, their thoughts, or even how the stars looked from this view, it was all instantaneous. For, they were Satapkme. An alien race that had lived within the gas giant we called Saturn, feeding off the radioactive particles, and growing. They went on like this, learning, and growing, until they came to evolve sentience. They began to become much like human beings, but without much of the conflict. It was a peaceful time, a happy time. That is, until the ships came. Human ships, filled with refugees from the war that consumed the world. Because of these humans, they had been forced to leave, for they began to destroy the gaseous planet, using it for energy. They began to float throughout the stars, searching for a new planet, a new home. Suddenly, they came upon a world, that was not of gas or dirt, or rock, but of metals. It was a Shellworld.

OOC:I'll leave it there. Basically, they are floating towards the planet. They are a blue tinted smoke type of creature, that is an empath. They can read your thoughts!

Hail, NSK Ki-rin. We are Neo-Romans, also on an exploration and surveying mission. I believe our people have met once before. As we seem to both have an interest in this object, would you like to collaborate?

Commander Fujiko Nagamura heard this message and moved over to the command chair where she activated visual communications.

When her reply was picked up The Neo Roman ship would see the all female bridge and the stunning average sized blonde asian in her early 20's. She was wearing the red jacket and black skirt uniform with thigh high black boots. As usual she wore a tanto dagger on on her left hip.

A quick run of their library computers confirmed what the Neo Romans also knew. That they'd met during a exploration mission a good while ago and established friendly relations.

"This is Comander Fujiko Nagamura of the Neo Kirisuban Starship Ki-rin. We would be agreeable to your request" she replied with a little cute smile on her face.

As exchanges by discoveres were made, the shapes began to drift towards the surface, the shimmering of the stars distorted through their gaseous form. They picked up many thoughts from the surrounding ships, but picked up nothing that interested them, for the concerns of the creatures of solid shape did not concern them. They quickly drifted down, and entered through a small opening, no more than the size of a large bomber craft, by todays standards. As they headed downwards, the opening got smaller and smaller, but that was not a problem, for their bodies, or what could only be considered a body, were contouring to the sides of the smooth metal tube.
Now, they were to explore.

Several Entities observed the admittance of yet another species into the Experiment. These would make interesting subjects indeed for the superstitions of the Solids could be manipulated into thinking these newcommers were angles, demons, ghosts, or even bad gas.

The Entities continues to watch, noting the progress the gaceous creatures was making while safely remining behind their strong mindsheilds remaining virtually undetectable.

OOC:Very nice writing!

They continued drifting, deeper, and deeper, into the recesses of this giant. They soon came to the first level, coming out of a small oval hole. All around them was dark metal. And stars. Lots, and lots of twinkling stars. It was a whole universe within this thin metallic structure. Thye began to drift about, investigating each of the stars. A few they could go up, and touch, but most were that of which much of our stars are. They were untouchable, looking like you could reach out and grab them, but never getting any closer. As they began to search around, they realized it was not metal at all, but instead a universe, trapped within this small confinement. No matter how far they dirfted, the only wall they found was where the tube was. It was a true marvel.

The Allaneans listen to it all, and then shrug and then send another message to the Godulans:

Is the first level, internal, inhabitable in the long term? We understand it has air – but does it have stuff like, say, soil? If yes, we're going to be coming down and lookin at it more closely We're preparing landing pods as we speak.

The Godulan beacon left behind on the surface sent a tight-beam transmission back to the allanean vessel in response to their query:

The layer has soil, though we have not been able to do any agricultural surveys of the layer. We can only assume that since there are plants about that the soil can sustain crops.

As they continued to float around, exchanging thoughts, they began to pick up on interesting knowledge from the creatures above.
Perhaps they are coming down?
I would hope not. If they do, we shall have to descend deeper.
Yes, that is true. I shall go and learn of their thoughts Said a pair of the creatures, speaking through eachothers mind. The first began to shoot towards the tube, and began to race up it, shooting out like a connon ball into the dark recesses of space, skimming through each of the other creatures thoughts. It began to watch, and listen, learning about the other discoverers.

OOC:Would someone please post? This is killing me...

If no-one minds, could I turn this into a story? I would finally sit down and write one of my ideas....Not gonna be selling it at this point.

Sorry for the crappy one above. It was just to get something out there.

While the Ki-rin's XO waited for a reply they kept coasting towards the sphere.

The scans that were building up into a computer were only three levels deep but already this promised to be the discovery of a decade. But what to do with it since the Neo Kirisuban's didn't have the woman power or resources to do much with it.

It was obvious that one world couldn't claim the whole thing so it would be a joint project regardless. A friendship message was also sent to the Allenean flag ship.

#

The creature trying to determine the thoughts of the visitors would pick up professional curiousity from these warrior women. That as well as calmness and a devotion to duty. They also existed harmoniously with the rest of the universe as well.

OOC:I will write something pertaining to your post tommorrow. I am wiped, all thanks to school. I apologize for the OOC.