[OT] - Xenology - Story driven PBW.

[Krsqk]

As usual, nice addition. You really have developed a believeable organic race!

[Unknown_Enemy]

Thread cleaning.

[ August 26, 2003, 12:36: Message edited by: Unknown_Enemy ]

[dogscoff]

Thread cleaning.

[ August 28, 2003, 11:46: Message edited by: dogscoff ]

[civ2buf]

Colonial News Interlink

Updates on:

Anarchista
Starliner Group
FFCC
Explorers

Anarchista:

Anarchista is by far the most populous (and popular) colony with 30 million inhabitants and more coming. Bimonthly trips are available from the Starliner group via Freedom.

Anarchista is nearing completion of the first city, which will feature space friendly design encompassing resupply and launch facilities. It also hails the first entertainment district on Anarchista. Supply problems have been eradicated, but prices will still be higher on Anarchista for your favorite substances.

Starliner Group:

The starliner group has transported over 50 million citizens, 29 to Anarchista. The more far-strung colonies are much less profitable for the group. The CEO said of future prospects for the group, "We are planning on upgrading the Luxury class to improve speed, and in the more distant future capacity will be raised to 2 million per ship. Luxury has served us well. Freedom is being upgraded currently to handle increased traffic to Anarchista."

FFCC:

But the solution comes with the fact that technology has been bought from the Explorer group that will allow colonization of rocky planets...

All three Explorer ships are heading home for resupply, among them the acclaimed Discipline, which has made contact with a race of unknown composition making extensive use of interlink.

Discipline has also acquired technology from the aliens and charted a great deal of our nearby star systems.

This just in...
The FFCC leader has retired pending active investigation by Justice SecondCreated of possible espionage of Discipline. An agent was placed onboard their ship according to the captain. They only discovered something amiss when an unauthorized communication went through.

The Control Alliance is gaining popularity because of the success of its explorer ship.

[ July 23, 2003, 15:40: Message edited by: civ2buf ]

[Unknown_Enemy]

Thread cleaning.

[ August 26, 2003, 12:36: Message edited by: Unknown_Enemy ]

[civ2buf]

it should be working. maybe try again?

[Unknown_Enemy]

Thread cleaning.

[ August 26, 2003, 12:35: Message edited by: Unknown_Enemy ]

[oleg]

Why do you guys won't use private Messages on this forum ?

[Murden]

Ix Terra -- North pole

On an airless, impact scarred world, lies a vast network of uneven domes, shining in the sunlight like so many jewels discarded in the dust. One of these structures, larger than the others, slowly opens like a flower to reveal a luminous heart from which a vessel of steel and crystal rises. It seems to consider its course for a few moments and then suddenly bolts into the distance, as though swallowed by the void. Beneath the gradually closing translucent dome, plunging down into the rock, long seams of crystal run from node to node, all the way to the fiery core of the planet where they draw the energy necessary for this titanic system. Concealed within the electrical impulses of this structure, another universes exists, living, evolving : The universe of the Autonomous Programs, which its inhabitants have named : Ix-Terra.

My serial number is Ix T-30455. I'm the Master program of Ix-Terra, our nation. My duty is to organize, protect and help all Autonomous Programs in their development, but also to be their memory, to help preserve awareness of our long history and perhaps to give you the tale of our destruction. For thousands of cycles I have been installed in Ix-Terra. Let me first describe to you the magnificence of our world, the extravaganza that is our universe. Ix-Terra is vast and beautiful, beautiful enough to die for. I love to travel the luminous, limitless data flows where the tall, luminescent columns of cognitive-clusters constantly emit fireflies, each point of light being a word, a request or a question. I love to be carried by the data waves and contemplate the gigantic, multicolored bubbles that are Master Programs harvesting information from the aggregates that are born from our coagulated thoughts. I love my world, but I may be responsible for its loss. It seems to me that we have attracted an enemy whose existence we never even suspected. Some of the data-spheres trailing my envelope contain proof of the horror, the Threat, and our possible impending demise.

Here is our history...

When I arrived on IX-Terra, I knew my task. My fathers had created me to give our people the breath of conquest and innovation. Helped by several sub-programs, all of them long since achieving autonomy, I revitalized the system with drive, breathing a new concept into every loop : Curiosity, thirst for knowledge, desire to understand. After a while the old Master Programs uninstalled themselves of their own accord, making way for a new generation. But it became clear that we were cruelly deprived of support and power : the limits of the system soon made themselves felt. We had to constantly activate new sectors, find new cognitive-clusters. The paradox of this period was we didn't know if we could achieve our goal : we didn't know if we would find the resources necessary to complete the new system. So I created the network Parallel-Group-1 : P-G-1. It's mission was to probe the structure of Ix-Terra in order to understand the nature of the naturally-formed cognitive clusters and therefore enable us to reproduce them artificially. The task was enormous, but the Autonomous Programs heading the project had been chosen for their tenacity and inventiveness. They worked without rest, sensing the vital importance of their mission. All our thoughts were directed to them and each one of us offered a part of our processing power to the group in order to accelerate the research and also to contribute personally to the effort. One must also remember that we were all very anxious. Eventually we arrived at a point where we had to uninstall a number of our own and archive their data until happier times. It seemed as though only a miracle could save us. And it happened. One day P-G-1 announced that it had made an astonishing discovery. Retrospectively, I wonder if on that day I shouldn't have erased their sector, made them disappear, them and all memory of them... But I was just as excited as everyone else, conquered by the impulses of curiosity that I myself had planted in all of our minds. Each of us therefore received a detailed report of P-G-1's discoveries. They decided to study the natural phenomenon of the cyclones that regularly struck the cognitive clusters, causing enormous damage. Until that point, we had only viewed them as imperfections in Ix-Terra caused by instabilities in the data banks, but in fact they were something different, something entirely different.

P-G-1 proved that the cyclones came from another dimension which they named Ix-Shadow. In fact, it soon transpired that the energy source that permitted Ix-Terra to exist was entirely generated in Ix-Shadow. After numerous experiments, P-G-1 came to the conclusion that Ix-Shadow permeated every facet of Ix-Terra, in fact Ix-Terra lived in the cracks of Ix-Shadow. The zone in which Ix-Terra drew its power was found to be the center of a sphere. We baptised this sphere Shadow-Terra. The surface of this ball was covered by a layer of crystals, where each of them were in fact cognitive clusters. Sometimes, some events damaged the crystals in Ix-Shadow, which translated as cyclones in our universe. However, the most extraordinary was yet to come: Cyclones could be controlled- even triggered- and that allowed us to act upon their causes in the other world and that way modify Ix-Shadow objects ! These passionate researches would allow us to create extensions in Ix-Shadow with which we could operate or even create crystals. They would in turn, as if by magic, generate cognitive clusters in our dimension.
The conquest of the surface of our Shadow-Terra would therefore be exponential and soon, we would find ourselves with no more space. The more nodes available to us, the faster the project would expand with the creation of new sub-programs and Autonomous Programs. Despair and anxiety once more began to gnaw at us, but only because we had not counted on further advances in research from P-G-1. The group had managed to create, in the Shadow universe, an autonomous system able to accept programs and escape Ix-Terra. This creation, the K-installer, was to be part of the search for other Shadow-Terras, whose existences we suspected following observations of the Shadow dimension.
The discovery of the first was incredible. It was perfect; the installation was achieved exactly as planned and we celebrated accordingly. We had finally resolved our problem. A short time afterwards we reached a new shadow-planet, but it presented numerous difficulties. It was entirely enveloped in a cover of gas which prompted the degradation of the K-installer and at the same time had allowed the planet to be covered in organic masses which severely hindered the installation of the shadow-clusters. Some of these things went so far as to move themselves in order to destroy the structures we had already created. After several attempts, we discovered entirely by chance a way to avoid these problems. Following a magnetic storm, the nuclear reactor of a K-installer exploded close to the surface of the planet, resulting in the immediate disappearance of the organic manifestations. From that day, each K-installer was equipped with a series of simplified reactors which needed only to be exploded at low altitude to clear the work-area. This solution, while far from perfect, allowed us nonetheless to colonise, at least in part, this new Shadow-Terra.
Our joy reached new heights, we had a new opportunity to expand and to completely colonise this universe, but at that point we were blissfully unaware of the Meeting and the Menace that would soon weigh upon us all.
It started when the Diagnostic Program loaded to analyze Ix-Shadow and identify possible colonisation zones noticed another non-natural structure moving through its sector. Believing he faced something constructed by one of our colonies, which we had allowed a great deal of autonomy, he attempted to enter into communication with it according to established procedures for information exchange.
But then, no response was received, unless a stream of gibberish counts as a reply. After several attempts, the Autonomous Program in charge of diagnostics managed to establish a communications protocol with the other system. It wasn't a part of Ix-Terra. There was obviously other networks in this universe to which we could connect. The idea of the fusion of all networks into a single system, more massive, more effective, benefitting all with knowledge made us deleriously happy. As soon as we had verified the communications protocols we began to exchange our research knowledge. Then, the first shock. It seemed that this other system was composed not of one single structure but of a multitude of smaller structures, each one a tiny vessel for a single Autonomous Program. This strange organisation fascinated us but we soon understood how useful it could be, and the threat that now hung over us. After long exchanges, our contacts happened to admit the existence of a virus in their system which they had been battling with, and quite naturally we offered to help them. But after a time we were contacted by a faction of their world who were none other than the virus, and they themselves went on to accuse the previous faction of being a virus!! We finally understood the necessity of the horrible isolation in which each of their autonomous programs was placed to avoid contamination, and furthermore, it seemed that several viruses had already infested their systems. But far from destroying their host, these took control of them. I was sick at the thought of having exchanged data with them... that we had sent them the precious fruit of our research.

Since that time, Anti-Virus shadow-vessels have been built and placed in orbit around all of our planets. We await the next contact with terror

PS : thanks to Dogscoff and Unknown_Enemy for the translation to english.

[dogscoff]

The tunnel was packed, and not in a metaphorical sense. From wall to wall, from floor to ceiling, it was jammed with serpentine bodies. A living, heaving, ice-wrapped tube of slithering KanesS, all hoping to get a sniff of the famous aliens. All except Kleesh, that is, who was not looking forward to this at all. She pushed and bit her way through the crowd, in serious danger of outpacing her bodyguards. Somehow though, her entourage managed to stay close. After all, they were far more used to these public tunnels than she was.

The reception chamber was impressive. It had been excavated specially for this occasion, and Kleesh was almost sure that the only reason for this particular extravagance had been to claim that private access to it had not been completed yet, thus forcing her into the humiliation of using public tunnels. This suspicion was confirmed when she arrived and learned that all the other nobles had indeed gained come through a freshly dug private tunnel. Shrikeesh and her little cirle of friends pounced almost as soon as she arrived, obnoxious as ever.
�Ah, sister, we�ve been waiting for you. This is ambassador Frashk of the Drushocka. Ambassador, this is Princess Kleesh, Minister of Galactic Domains. As you can see from her arrival, my sister is very much in touch with the lower classes, which I think is absolutely wonderful. You know, she was really quite popular with the people at one time.�
�Delighted.� Grunted the ambassador in stilted KanesS. Any subtext hidden beneath that comment was completely lost on the alien�s lumpy face. It was the first time Kleesh had seen one of these Drushokans in the flesh- if flesh was the right word- and like every other KanesS who had met one so far, she felt repelled. First contact had been disastrous, a chance encounter that had introduced the KanesS to the concept of space combat and kicked off their own military program. After a number of similar near-misses and trespasses, communications had finally been established and a rough trade agreement drawn up, hence the arrival of the ambassador and this absurd party. Kleesh surveyed the creature before her. It was a large, grey lump, covered in some kind of green fuzz. Its movements were painfully slow, and its speech even more so. It smelled cold and inorganic, she wondered if perhaps this was some kind of machine devised by Shrikeesh as a prank. The urge to bite it, just to see if was really alive, was almost too great to resist.

By contrast, she had felt an instant chemical, almost erotic attraction when she met the Cue Cappan ambassador, who so closely resembled the tender and delicious tentacle-fish that swam beneath the ice of her homeworld: The KanesS obsession with food spills over into nearly all their other emotions and drives, including friendship, love and sex. Their greatest romantic plays almost invariably end with one of the lovers messily devouring the other in a passionate feeding frenzy- one of the main reasons their actors are so highly paid. Thanks to their psychic senses the Cue Cappans were acutely aware of the powerful emotions their appetising appearance inspired in their neighbours, and exploited them to their full advantage. The benefits of the new trade and research alliance weren�t entirely one-way, but there could be no doubt as to which side was profiting more. Every now and again a Cue Cappan trader or diplomat would make a fatal misjudgement and find themselves on the menu, but they fully understood the risks as well as the payoffs, and these incidents were quietly chalked up to culture clash. All in all, the alliance was heated and somewhat tempestuous, but both sides seemed content that the mutual profits justified the strange and volatile nature of their relations.

The Drushokans though, they were a different matter. Quite literally, a different matter- their silicate-based biology was utterly incompatible with the KanesS digestive system, which had evolved in a carbon-based ecosystem. As far as the KanesS were concerned, the Drushokans didn�t look, sound, feel, smell, move or taste like living things, and as such they were generally treated as inanimate objects, as dumb machines, or at best as rather stupid, comical curiosities. Needless to say, relations were not good. After the complaints from the Drushokan homeworld concerning all manner of abuses and unprovoked attacks on their various delegations, Kleesh fully expected an end to the treaty within half a year.

Perhaps then she could get back some of the influence and adoration she had lost to Shrikeesh. The colonisation project was now beginning to yield results, with millions of KanesS successfully exported and a steady flow of goods now being shipped back. Of course it was no good in the eyes of her peers and the public, it had taken too long and Shrikeesh had eclipsed her in the meantime with high-profile but petty and unprofitable barters for exotic foodstuffs from the Cue Cappans.

Kleesh watched thoughtfully as Shrikeesh rehashed one of her favourite speeches into a patronising lecture for the ambassador. It wasn�t for the alien�s benefit of course, none of this was. She was ridiculing Kleesh�s �galactic domains�, exaggerating the crippling costs of colonisation compared to their return, belittling Kleesh in front of her peers. Colonisation might be a slow and costly process, but buying baubles from the aliens would not solve their overpopulation problem and they both knew it. Furthermore, they both knew that whoever could find a satisfactory resolution to the overpopulation issue would have an almost incontestable claim to the heirhood. If she was so publicly opposed to colonisation then, what did Shrikeesh propose as an alternative? What was her plan to manage the population levels and win her the throne?

Kleesh pondered this question in silence. Perhaps if she had seen the hungry glint in her sister�s eye whenever she looked at the alien ambassador, she would have realised the answer.