GalaxyNES- No Horizons

[Luckymoose]

No Breaks From Misfortune

“Mother One!” a frantic Verthomme wobbled into the council chamber. Seated in an circular pattern around the central authoritative figure of One's hologram were representatives to the Republican senate, dressed luxuriously and maintaining a serious tone. The faint glow of her appearance flickered and solidified before him. “News from the exploration fleets!”

She sighed, “What misfortune has befallen us now?” Her long and thick tail curled beneath her, she had slowly been uncovering her true form over the years. Easing the horror on her children.

“Ma'Autran vessels in the Star Forest!”

Mention of Ma'Autra had been forbidden in the halls of the senate for hundreds of years, and the Garv'n government had no knowledge of the annexation of the old core worlds by the resurgent tree-kings as of yet. Chatter amongst the various representatives grew louder and louder behind One and her messenger.

“And worse yet, ma'am.”

“Hmm?” She was becoming infuriated by the chatter and the disarray it caused. Her facial expressions shifted from innocent and kind to something more frightening. The Verthomme was taken aback by her changes, but was in no position to question anything of mother.

“We've intercepted communications on the ancient Ma'Autran frequencies. The fleet in the Star Forest is being pinged...”

“From?”

“...Au'Kalua”

The chatter of the senate grew into shouts. Mumbled noise that had no order or clarity to it. One was beyond her nerves now, as pixelated tears of light flickered from her three eyes at speed, flinging off in three dimensions towards the onlookers, she raised her voice.

“Silence!” with a deafen roar the crowd ceased their words, the lights dimmed as her image grew brighter. She shouted once more in a language unknown to her peers, frightening them all. The lights of the chamber hummed to full brightness, and she calmed her temper, with their full attention on her at last.

“Mo..mother?” A scared little Verthomme attempted to get a word out. “What do you-”

“I will not tolerate these weeds in my garden. My mercy has limits.” He bowed and backed out of the room, leaving the senators in a very confused position. One looked to them all with a smile, “What?”

 

[Lord_Iggy]

Luckymoose... Luckymoose's single greatest enemy.

 

[Masada]

Never trust a Zan

- Things a Wera would say if they could speak.

 

[Lord_Iggy]

To: Alien Collective
From: Njogr Empire

So?!

What do you want?

 

[erez87]

I have been asked to hurry and make a new galactic villain

 

[Lord_Iggy]

Don't feel pressured to try and be a new galactic supervillain, go ahead and do whatever you'd like. Contributions of any sort are great.

 

[erez87]

I know. I just like being galactic villains

Actually, I'll have to discuss it with you this time ahead of time.

 

[Thlayli]

From: The Collectivity of Sanath
To: The Njogr Empire

We are the rimward expedition for this sector of the galaxy. We wish to observe, establish diplomatic contacts with your species, and to learn the intricacies your society. We represent an alliance of many species dedicated to the inevitable union, for the mutual benefit of all intelligent life.

We respect your independence as long as you are willing to have peaceful relations.

Furthermore, we are currently engaged in diplomacy with the entity of Self. We ask that this creature's home planet not be colonized or greatly disturbed, though we believe Self will tolerate a small diplomatic presence.

 

[Luckymoose]

Bored, I decided to combine all my stories for this NES and see what it adds up to be. I was a little disappointed to find I've only written 24,000 words and 46 pages.

 

[Angst]

Oh I need to get my stuff together. I still have a thing ready and planned.

 

[Lord_Iggy]

To: Collectivity of Sanath
From: Njogr Empire

And you're not, say, some lackey for the Zan or another cult out to destroy our way of life, right? We can live with you guys being around.

Self is Self... there's nothing useful to be found there, just let the oddities lie. Bad things happen when you mess around with them.

Oh I need to get my stuff together. I still have a thing ready and planned.

Great to hear!

I'm starting preliminary work on the update at this point. Esteemed three-lettered NESers das and MjM have expressed interest in Hammenammir and the Kadanoff Unity respectively, and I hope to see a little bit from them before the update. I'll be able to add things to the update literally until the moment I post the update, so don't worry that you'll write something too late for it to get in. Hopefully we get a bit more content for me to write about, or this will be the easiest update I've gotten to write in months.

 

[Thlayli]

From: The Collectivity of Sanath
To: The Njogr Empire

What.

 

[Lord_Iggy]

To: Collectivity of Sanath
From: Njogr Empire

We're not stopping you from looking at Self man, we're just giving advice.

 

[Thlayli]

To: Collectivity of Sanath
From: Njogr Empire

We're not stopping you from looking at Self man, we're just giving advice.

Not SELF.

You have contact with the demons? That is to say, the Zan? We have fought them for centuries coreward. We require your data on them immediately.

 

[Lord_Iggy]

To: Collectivity of Sanath
From: Njogr Empire

Zan are Zan... much like Self, it's just best to pay them their due respect and leave them be. Sure we know they're there, but doing anything to catch their attention is just asking for it. Mentioning that you used to fight them though... thaaaaaat probably nudges you a good distance further down the crazy scale.

 

[Lord_Iggy]

Dominion of the Machines

The Navartine Warmaster surveyed the vast, flat landscapes of Wairt. A black, glassy expanse. The Navartine wore, as he often did, an environmental suit, bedecked on the exterior with all of the accoutrements of his rank.

Wairt-Mother slept the dreamless sleep. Her once-living surface, once covered with oceans, continents, life and civilization was a vast, featureless expanse. Toxic fibrous dust blasted through on the dry winds, wreaking havoc with any equipment and respiratory tissue it happened to encounter.

The job of repairing the biosphere would be a formidable one. Huuluudof mused that there was probably already a committee of climatologists working on it somewhere on Naellae. Ever looking to the future, they were.

The Navartine, however, was trapped in the past.

The Great Advance had gone so well. World after world wrenched away from the cold, mechanical clutches of the monster Shamai. At the time, it had felt unstoppable. Huuluudof recalled his youth, fighting the campaign on Koraft. The intensity of battle, the quiet elation of victory, the camaraderie amongst fellow soldiers. He recalled Pekille and Gando. Where were they now? Gando was dead twenty years, fallen in battle alongside the previous Warmaster. Pekille... he had not seen her in years. Had she ever built her promised home on Koraft?

Hmph. He would never get to build a home on his homeworld. For the campaign, great as it had been, was already over. Not from defeat, not from any failure on the part of the Collectivity. Shamai had fallen, but his stars had slipped straight into the grasp of another Zan. Huuluudof was not a creature prone to swings of emotion, but the mere thought of it made him fume. Oh, how he desired to continue onwards, to liberate Navart, to revive the dead god of his lost homeworld. But it was not to be. His duty as Warmaster was complete. So said the Collectivity Council, at least, for this Zan was ‘different’. Bah! They had made an alliance of convenience with a beast no less monstrous than Shamai himself- it had been Kena’s hand that condemned Navart to its pointless destruction! Now, Huuluudof surmised, his homeworld didn’t look much different from this glassed wasteland.

Huuluudof was a soldier of the Collectivity. He knew his duty, and to respect the wisdom of the Council. It had been their firepower and technology that had enabled the breakthrough against Shamai. The Navartine understood this, but at the same time, he resented the fact. He resented the dependence on, and the control by some distant power. He was the Warmaster of the Branigan Corps! Warriors of his rank had not answered to superiors since the dark days of the Zaff Dominion, and now it seemed that such days had fallen upon the Branigan again. In some ways, Huuluudof mused it was even worse- slave soldiers could resent their commanders, but willing volunteers to a cause could resent only themselves.

It was all the doing of that damned Nitha, Chee. A lifetime of combat training had taught the Navartine to trust his gut instincts, and his digestive organs clearly disliked the Collectivity’s beloved figurehead. Chee had lived for far too long and embraced his technological reconstruction far too much to be fully trusted. How different was he now, from any of the Zan? Perhaps that was why the monsters tolerated him.

Huuluudof frowned at the consideration, before clearing his mind of disloyal thoughts. He knew his duty, and he wouldn’t stray from it. But he definitely didn’t like it.

 

[Lord_Iggy]

Preliminary Report on Species ‘Njogr’

Behaviour
Seem to be decidedly informal- possibly an artefact of translation, or perhaps a lack of formality in their culture? Difficult to determine. Seem to be decidedly cautious or withdrawn from interactions with other species, although this does not mesh with their apparent gregariousness towards our expedition. Perhaps they are not a species of risk-takers, perhaps they are more comfortable dealing with a civilization of individual organisms than with a single superorganism... or maybe they know much more than we do, and really do know when do leave well enough alone. Food for thought

Technology
Seems to be quite advanced. Have observed vast amounts of robotics working on and around their ships. Massive variety of different forms. One may even suspect that the Njogr are a robotic civilization, which brings up a whole battery of questions. The only other known robotic races are the Zan (debateable, as they seem to be more singular biological organisms commanding groups of remote-controlled drones) and the Mechaniforms, neither of which seem to be particularly sociable, so the Njogr might be unique, or simply a demonstration of the diversity of life, mechanical or not. Weapon status is unknown, drives appear to be a jumping system vaguely similar to our own.

Biology
Alright, scratch the ‘Mechanical Race’ thing, the Njogr are organic, possessing a large number of robots to do their bidding. Odd looking creatures- four legs, with a long, arching torso that gradually curves forward to an end, where you find two lanky, muscular arms, and an armour-capped head. A bush of bristly tendrils stretch down right beneath the ‘cap’ at the top of the head, leaving only a very thin strip where their ‘eye’ is, stretching 180 degrees around the curve of the face. The body’s structure is difficult to determine by images alone, it shows features of both endoskeletal and exoskeletal construction. On a personal note, they look very menacing, although judgements based on appearance have tended to be misleading in the past, so I’ll not make further conjecture.

Culture
Very unclear and hard to make anything but the broadest of assumptions. They might have... an emperor? That’s all I’ve got. Hopefully we’ll know more soon.

 

[erez87]

Cracking sounds start from more than a km under the surface. A planet awakens. Within a few moments the planet is filled with holes, small creatures digging up out of the ground, as if answering a call.

The horror has slept for so long, yet now it is time to awake. Under the ground the great mother of all begins to move again, the smell of life forms awakens her. Bug like creatures with gigantic satellite dish-like organs leave the ground through great tunnels suddenly open by the tiny borrowers from before. They aim their organs far into the sky, listening, and learning. Information flows in their small underdeveloped minds and leaves it behind, flowing directly to the great mother.

Life has been sensed, she has not sensed life for countless eons, since this planet was alive. It had vegetation and life forms, even a small race of somewhat intelligent beings existed when she just arrived. Yet that was small life compared to what her senses bring her now. A small growl sound is heard when she lifts her body on her many many legs and out of hundreds of tiny holes under her body small eggs begin to drop. Billions of eggs are produced within a few days, and the small diggers that dug out of the ground not long ago come down again and take the eggs away into grand chambers under the ground, each egg goes to others of the same shape, and color and smell. A few more weeks pass and the first eggs begin to hatch. First vast numbers of more digger-helpers appear and continue to build the vast tunnel system. More rooms are added, more egg types as well.

A month passes quickly enough, and the first new creatures appear. They seem to have the satellite organs as well, but they are different, they are shaped so strange. They have no legs, only a body and a great number of satellite dishes connected to it. Diggers arrive and take the creatures up to the surface where their bottom halves explode in a ferocious explosion sending them high up into the skies, to disappear into the darkness. Like small satellites they sense better, much better...

Mother is pleased. So much life awaits her. So much food to feed upon and create more children from. She screams in her caves of joy, stopping to give eggs for a moment. Changing the chemicals, the genetic construction of her children with a whim. New eggs begin to fall. Vast numbers again.

The horror has awakened and a new smell of food is eagerly awaiting.

ooc: new villain ready to go. should start somewhere next to bottom right Fehan expedition tentacle. Maybe somewhere in the middle of that tentacle.

 

[Luckymoose]

What...

 

[Lord_Iggy]

*broad grin*