The Great Abyss: Before Dark

[Tyo]

I can't find Thuban on the map?

I couldn't find coordinates on your signup.

That's pretty impressive, given that they assume direct control before the initial shock of being attacked by a psychotic snake wears off.

They actually blow themselves up if they come within vicinity of a Goa'uld.

 

[Polyblank]

FIRST CONTACT​

It was the dawn of a new age for the descedants of Antalos, for they had finally reached the place they called Spirelus. And what a glorious journey that was. Most Antaleans do not ever leave the confines of their planet, let alone that of the whole Ingeria Domus, as Andromeda is called by them. But there was no time for rest, as the proud people had to establish a proper colony in Spirelus from where future invasions could arise.

If there was one thing more exciting than travelling to foreign grouinds for Antaleans, then that was meeting its inhabitants. While the ships of the expedition were scouting the surrounding areas of their arrival for fertile grounds and any possible civilisations, extinct or otherwise. However, they were more or less disappointed, as their first contact was not exactly an advanced civilisation the likes of those back in home.

It seems that the primitive civilisation they had encountered had just begun to expand outwards. In fact, they were even more suprised than the Antaleans to see alien ships. The Antaleans iniated communication, and Commander Molius began speaking. " This is Leader Ogaden Molius speaking from the Antalean Refugees. We are the last survivors of our species, coming from a far away galaxy. Please respond. "

 

[spaceman98]

Species/Empire Name: The Brotherhood
Species Description: Originally, fourth dimensional entities from the "lower astral dimension" whose true form could not be comprehended by human eyes. They currently reside in the bodies of humanoid reptilians (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Dinosauroid_Reptoid.gif). These reptilians are strictly carnivorous, and live by drinking the blood of other lifeforms. Their vision allows them to see ultraviolet, and their stare is hypnotic for lifeforms with weak minds. They are cold blooded, and are 5 to 12 feet tall. The natives resided in underground cavern systems, going to the surface to feed. Now, these caves have been expanded, to include surface cities and deeper catacombs.

Homeworld Details: They now reside on a planet that orbits the star Thuban, also known as Alpha Draconis (randomly chosen to be in determined via highly precise, scientific methods to be in row I8, column M8). Their current home, known as Nibiru, is the third planet from the star, out of thirteen planets that orbit it. The sky of Nibiru is bright turquoise, due to specific mix of helium, neon nitrogen and oxygen in its atmosphere (OOC: This should produce turquoise http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helium–neon_laser). Most of its landmass is covered by desert, due to the searing heat of its home star. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha_Draconis#Properties Thuban is a white giant star, which is no longer burning hydrogen, but has begun fusing helium and is nearing the end of its life. Nibiru's oceans are thus slowly evaporating as its star's outer layers expand, consuming the inner planets and steadily heating the outer ones. At the poles however, Nibiru still has lush jungles of plants similar to earth's ferns, but much larger. The poles also have comfortable, tropical seas and extensive areas of swampland. It is at these polar regions that the Brotherhood's cities largely reside.

Species History: Their old homeworld was a solar system that appears as dark matter to human observers, since it is in a higher dimension. They lost a war there, when they tried to challenge a conspiracy of fifth dimensional entities that controlled it. This forced them to flee to the third dimension, as the technology which permitted them fourth-dimensional travel was destroyed in the conflict.

Disembodied, they wandered, their consciousness barely sustained by their crumbling worldship, until they found the doomed planet of Nibiru. Its locals, a tier 7 civilization that had barely developed animal husbandry, were clearly going to perish with their dying star, before they developed the technology to escape. So the Brotherhood seized the local's bodies, to serve as new homes for their own minds. They have some artifacts left over from their Tier 0 homeworld, but they don't know how to operate them, and they are in a state of considerable disrepair. Overall, what they have managed to reverse-engineer places them at Tier 2, technologically.

Starting Situation: The Shapeshifter population is itself rather small (several million individuals). There were two billion locals on Nibiru, of which the Shapeshifters have merely taken the bodies of the elite (priests, rulers, etc.). The rest of the low technology natives worship the shapeshifters as gods. The shapeshifters have provided the natives with electricity, mass production, and plants genetically modified to be suitable for their consumption, allowing them to create agricultural societies, which utilize dwindling resources more efficiently than meat eating. In exchange, the locals labor slavishly for the shapeshifters, producing new infrastructure, and new starships to take them off of this dying world. The work is harsh, but who would dare question the gods? In the meantime, the shapeshifters struggle to maintain the polar regions wet and livable climate, against the overall drying, dying world. To maintain the northern oceans of Nibiru, they use Cloud Seeding (colloquially known as “chemtrails”) to increase precipitation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_seeding, to counter the overall evaporation of the planet’s seas.
Nibiru is rich in Helium 3, a compound that is useful for fusion reactors (which are the Brotherhood’s primary system of generating electricity). However, its home star’s low metalicity means that the planet is lacking in heavy metals like gold, silver, uranium and osmium. Lighter metals like copper, silicon (yes, I know, its a metalloid, but still) and iron are also scarce, though present for now. Thus, the Brotherhood plans to send out probes to nearby star systems, to see what resources may be obtained there, and to search for a more permanent home for them and for the native reptilians.

OOC: Yes, this is a shameless rip-off/homage to David Ike (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babylonian_Brotherhood#Reptoid_hypothesis and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reptilians), re-written from the POV of the Reptilians, before they find Earth. The name Nibiru comes from this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nibiru_cataclysm conspiracy theory, and most of the other details are also references to various conspiracy theories.

I edited them in some time ago. I guess I should have made them more clear, as they are somewhat buried in the wall of text. Sorry.

 

[J.K. Stockholme]

Where might we find the stats Tyo? or have they yet been posted?

 

[Tyo]

The stats haven't been made yet, but they just tell everyone relative strength. This game can be played without stats, but I'm gonna make them for your convenience.

 

[Tyo]

FIRST CONTACT​

It was the dawn of a new age for the descedants of Antalos, for they had finally reached the place they called Spirelus. And what a glorious journey that was. Most Antaleans do not ever leave the confines of their planet, let alone that of the whole Ingeria Domus, as Andromeda is called by them. But there was no time for rest, as the proud people had to establish a proper colony in Spirelus from where future invasions could arise.

If there was one thing more exciting than travelling to foreign grouinds for Antaleans, then that was meeting its inhabitants. While the ships of the expedition were scouting the surrounding areas of their arrival for fertile grounds and any possible civilisations, extinct or otherwise. However, they were more or less disappointed, as their first contact was not exactly an advanced civilisation the likes of those back in home.

It seems that the primitive civilisation they had encountered had just begun to expand outwards. In fact, they were even more suprised than the Antaleans to see alien ships. The Antaleans iniated communication, and Commander Molius began speaking. " This is Leader Ogaden Molius speaking from the Antalean Refugees. We are the last survivors of our species, coming from a far away galaxy. Please respond. "

After a long silence, the scouting party the Antaleans came across made a sudden break, entering FTL faster than anyone in the fleet could react. What the home systems of these aliens will do in response to first contact is yet to be known.

 

[GreekAnalyzer]

Send a landing party to the world that was discovered.

 

[mrrandomplayer]

Can I play and take my application from the old thread?

 

[mrrandomplayer]

Species Name: Terrakol
Description: Mostly robotic. Nobody remembers the true form of the Terrakol. For details on why, see history. Physically, most Terrakol have humanoid-shaped robot bodies measuring 6-7 feet in height and 200-400 pounds in weight. They usually have some sort of a retractable ranged weapon built into one hand. Their legs usually contain jets, but they cannot fly more than a few feet off of the ground for more than a few minutes due to weight.

Homeworld Details: Devos Treta is a planet seemingly completely man-made planet. All true life died out on the planet long ago, and metallic buildings line the entire planet.

Species History/Stengths and Weaknesses: Devos Treta was not always a dead planet. A long time ago, nature was abundant on the planet, just like Earth. However, over time, massive industrialization and urbanization took its toll on the planet, and it eventually became clear that in a few years, Devos Treta would be uninhabitable, and no planets able to sustain life were nearby. However, several scientists, through dark, mad scientific rituals, discovered the secret of life energy. They had learned how to store a person's consciousness in a small orb filled with gold liquid, called "life energy" and put it in a robotic body. Some of the species turned to that and became robots in all but soul; the rest perished and the real Terrakol species became extinct.

Thus, the greatest strength of the Terrakol species is that it is not truly alive. As a result, they do not need to eat, drink, sleep, or breathe, and biological threats such as poison and disease do not affect them. Their robot bodies give them great strength with surprising (on par with human) speed, and they feel no pain. In fact, they can repair any injury to their bodies and even transfer robot bodies if their life orb is intact. However, their greatest strength is their greatest weakness; if even a tiny crack appears in their life orb, they will almost certainly die nearly instantly. Also, any attack that would interfere with a robot's mechanical system is just as powerful on a Terrakol. Their other great weakness is that they cannot reproduce. There are roughly 5 billion Terrakol alive, and that number can only go down. As a result, the Terrakol tend to rule areas very indirectly, and the indigenous species of a planet is usually left to govern itself within reason.

Technology: The personal (usually built-in) weapons of a Terrakol usually consist of a standard ranged weapons and a retractable electroblade. Space fighters are not much bigger than an actual Terrakol and pretty much act as an extension of the Terrakol. Basically, the Terrakol body is inserted into the fighter, and through a few cords, the Terrakol directs the ship through his force of will from the life orb rather than controls. They can also eject the pilot at high speed towards the nearest planet (or Terrakol spaceship), since the Terrakol do not need to breathe. The weaponry of the spaceship is relatively standard ion cannons, as well as other weapons (I don't know much about sci-fi weaponry, sorry!). Because of the way they are piloted, Terrakol fighters cannot be hijaked or stolen by non-Terrakol. Terrakol warships are much more similar to regular warships; they have similar design, though they require fewer pilots, and are armed with ion cannons and rail guns. Both types of ships are armored relatively strong but lightweight armor, allowing for lots of mobility. Non-military technology is roughly average Tier 3 besides the life orbs; space navigation is pretty efficient, and the Terrakol use nanotechnological storage and mass drivers. The Terrakol have not made any food or medical advancements because they are robots in that sense.

Starting Situation: The Terrakol rule their homeworld and 1 or 2 other planets, but are still looking to expand. The environmental crisis and robotic transformation has only happened within the last century, so they are still dealing with that problem.

Location: Anywhere on the map is fine for me.

 

[J.K. Stockholme]

The Sepheran empires of Obos continue every year to claim and begin the exploitation of new surface-territory, many analysts believe at this rate it shouldn't be too many years before the entire surface of Obos is under the control of one of the planet's four colonial empires.

World Map as of the middle of the Sixth Era (lighter shades are surface-holdings, the borders of which are not fixed due to very few permanent settlements, while darker shades are underwater holding):

Spoiler :

Though peace reigns for now, colonial competition for surface-territory are heating up among the great powers. The development of mechanized surface extraction equipment is bringing new valuable resources underwater to the industrial heartlands of the Laurans in particular - who are making huge strides in automation, opening up huge amounts of manpower for their increasing armed forces.

 

[Tyo]

Sorry guys, I've been busy.

In any case, none of you should really need NPCs or stats to get started, only a few of you would be around npcs at this time, and it's probably a generous "around." Stats are also only for comparison purposes. If you have any questions about what specific things you want to do, don't hesitate to PM me.

Orders soft lock Friday, hard lock early Saturday morning. EST time, by the way.

 

[NinjaCow64]

DISCOVERY OF NOVA BYZ:​

Rejoice! Our exploratory fleets have discovered a habitable planet nearby our system. We have dubbed the system "Nova Byz" and the planet "Nova Impra" in honour of this discovery. After a brief ecological survey we will begin sending colonization ships out. Our fleets have not found anything else of note in the two lightyear (OOC: Assuming those squares are 1x1 lightyears) radius around our system, but we will continue looking.

OOC: Hope discovering something this early is okay, I just thought that it would be a good idea to get to interesting stuff sooner rather than later. Nova Byz is located two diagonal southeast from Byz. I would post coordinates but I am tired and afraid that I'll get them wrong. I will post more interesting RP next update, I just ran dry of ideas this turn. Sorry. :/

 

[spaceman98]

A railway swam on pontoons floating upon a swamp, near the North pole of Nibiru. This had once been the center of a polar ice cap, only a few thousand Nibiru years BA (Before Arrival, as the locals referred to all of the time before the shapeshifters had come here). The rails, made from a carbon nanotube structure, and the pontoons from plastic, were designed to use as little metal as possible, to conserve the scarce resource for places where it was indispensable. A hooded figure sat upon a hovercraft, that awkwardly floated in the mud near the tracks. It was late morning, and the nocturnal reptilians who were building this railway had long gone back home, to a system of caves being dug in a nearby mountainside.

With heavy machinery "bestowed" by the shapeshifters upon the natives, new cave-cities could be dug on demand, wherever an appropriate mountain presented itself, allowing a great increase in living space, and, along with the agricultural revolution brought by shapeshifter biotechnology, a great rise in the local population.

This was good news, in terms of labor for projects such as this one, which were aimed at industrializing Nibiru, but bad news for getting all of them off of this planet. A triangular insignia with an eye printed upon it marked the Foreman as a shapeshifter, and hence one of the few million who were in the know about the true state of matters. Nibiru would not be habitable for long. We needed to extract as much as we could from here, and to find another habitable world to go to. One with a star that wasn't in its death throes.

Sirebard Beardris (OOC: all names in this piece taken from this David Ike forum, with no context http://www.davidicke.com/forum/showthread.php?t=110661), as the Foreman called himself, gazed now at the orbiting worldship which had been his home for untold eons of wandering. It was comforting having a body again, even if it was a feeble, three-dimensional form. He had many memories in connection with that floating device, few of them pleasant. The war against the Fifth Dimensional Ones, which he and his superiors and followers had lost so utterly. The horror of being denied any access to the fourth dimension (akin to what a human would experience, if he or she was unable to look up or down!). Finally, the eons spent hanging disembodied in that crumbling craft. Nibiru was a crumbling world, but at least it was a world we controlled. Beardris for one, was just happy to be somewhere off of that ship. The higher-ups, who commanded from there, of course, had more power by virtue of the instruments upon it, but for him, the feeling of having escaped its walls, if only for a few thousand short years, was much preferable. Perhaps that is why they led, and he merely relayed their commands to the natives, who worshipped him as a god. The locals gave him far too much credit.


From the wordship, clearly visible from the ground, appearing as a small semi-spherical light, another point detached. Serpentina had been busy, it seems. She was the Brotherhood leader tasked with preparing satellites to monitor staller activity upon Thuban, and report it to all orbiting and ground installations. Beardris knew her from the wars, and it comforted him to know that someone of her experience was watching over that raging star, which had become their home.

His view of the worldship was temporarily obstructed by an aircraft, which released a mist of fine particulate into the air as it flew past. As the morning mist of evaporating water rose from the marsh, these particles would fall to meet it. They would allow the water to recondense, and return to the swamp, where it would eventually be used to irrigate fields, for the new native dwellings in nearby mountain peaks. This chemtrail particulate had the secondary purpose of obstructing some of Thuban's rays, further slowing the process by which Nibiru dried.

The foreman diverted his eyes from the morning sky, and surveyed the tracks. They were unfinished, but already, a thing of organized beauty. He munched on a large, reddish plant, engineered to be palatable to otherwise carnivorous reptilian mouths. Satisfied with his work, he programmed his hovercraft to return to the mountain. There, he would join his native workers and worshippers for a good day's sleep, so as to resume work promptly next evening.

 

[mechaerik]

Rhathazhu Empire​

The ship floated above the skies of an alien world, awaiting the return of an exploratory party. It was not a pretty ship; ot lacked any real style and to any observer, it looked like a patchwork assortment with jagged spires jutting out every here and there.

The Rhathazhu were essentially sightless. Normal aesthetics meant nothing to them. However, they did like the feeling of the way a jagged object cut through the air in atmosphere, leading to a cultural preference for spires and towers amongst the dominant parts of society. And the designers of the ship in question were definitely in that part of society, as well as the ship's captain.

As the exploration ship docked with the mothership, crew members went to the docking area to help the surface operatives and to get the information they were sent to acquire.

The planet did indeed have life; there was no sentient lifeform on it, but there were simple fauna in a complex ecosystem. However, the planet's atmosphere was indeed suboptimal. While liveable, it wasn't comfortable. Several examples of local fauna were onboard in quarantined holding containers. Some would be dissected and stuided to learn more about the planet's biological processes. If it proved at least relatively compatible, other specimens would be eaten by the ship's higher-ups.

The ship stayed above the planet for an extended period of time while studies were done aand results were processed. Eventually it was revealed that the ecosystem would not bbe able to adapt at all to the changes required to make it an appealing habitat for Rhathazhu colonists. The animals, while edible, proved to have an uninspiring and unappealing taste. With results in hand, the captain issued the orders.

Chemical and biological agents were deployed onto the planet's surface, beginning the not-so-delicate process of making the planet more appealing. New flora was introduced, designed to change the atmospheric composition. Large segments of the planet were hit by chemicals designed to wipe out the native life. Within several years, the ecosystem would be destroyed and the process to improve it could truly begin. Then, colonists could start settlement. A better world.

After deploying the equipment, the ship prepared to leave the system and continue its campaign of finding or creating suitable colony worlds for the rapidly expanding Rhathazhu Empire.

Orders: Explore and claim the area around the intersection of the NO/KL borders (towards the Core)

 

[Tyo]

So I've decided that until I get 75% of orders in, I'm not working on the update. Sorry to those of you who did turn them in, but I don't feel like running a game for a handful of people.

 

[Double A]

The High Council of System Lords was doing councilly things.

I demand to know our plan of action!
We only just got here.
DEMAND, I SAY.
We could always throw you at them. Your host's massive cranium would no doubt destroy them all.
THAT IS NO WAY TO TREAT A SUPERIOR.
I'm not even going to dignify that with a proper response.
Shut up already, this is serious. Well, not really. We are clearly too amazing to truly be bothered by this trifle, but we should still nip it in the bud. We need to infiltrate their ranks.
They die whenever they're near a symbiote, which makes me think they somehow managed to adapt or synthesize those curious stones we destroyed. I kept a few samples, so I could probably rig up some sort of countermeasure.
Then all we need is an assassin, and I know just the fellow. It probably couldn't hurt to send in a few aspiring Honor Guards either, absolutely loyal to our cause, as well as their families.
This plan is terrible we should just kill them all.
Nothing's stopping you from doing scorched earth in your own domains, because you're too idiotic to talk down, so go ahead. I can't wait to see you fall.
We'll see who is right and who is a fool in good time, FOOL.
Eyeroll of sass.
If you all are quite done, I think it bears mentioning that a massive cluster of stars has been discovered widdershins of our confederation's upward extremity, and that I shall be taking advantage of this fact. Interference will not be tolerated.
...
Excellent.

MEANWHILE SOMEONE WITH GREEN SPEECH EXPANDED RIMWARD AND SOMEONE WITH RED WENT HUBWARD.

Goa'uld exploration typically consists of flying out wherever and throwing symbiotes at anyone they can't cow with displays of might and terror. It's basically the Tarquin Doctrine, except instead of blowing up your planet if you resist authority, they put a snake in your head.

 

[GreekAnalyzer]

Orders: Send an exploration team to the ruin.

 

[Thorvald of Lym]

So I've decided that until I get 75% of orders in, I'm not working on the update. Sorry to those of you who did turn them in, but I don't feel like running a game for a handful of people.

You can pass on me for the foreseeable future since odds are I'm going to be doing entirely internal affairs for God knows how long. I'm back at my main computer, so I'll try to post some sexy maps in the next couple days.

 

[Tyo]

Just letting it be known I'm in the process of update. We'll call it update 0.5.