The Undiscovered Frontier (Finished!)

Deuce Traveler · Nov 7, 2012

TD-14 answers, "Sir, I do not know who you are. You have some distinct mannerisms and features to the leaders of the human colony ship that fled from Luna, but you are not completely human, while they themselves were.

They were Melissa Athens, a music and art prodigy. Trevor Sander, the Robotics Programmer, also a noted genius in his field. Major Marshall Potter, Chief of Security. Doctor Sarah Grammerest, Chief Psychologist. Doctor Jacques d'Arc, Alien Biologist. Doctor Yuki Shotenboc, Plant Biologist. Captain Marcus Leazan, Warden Meteorologist. Anya Loki, Chief Physicist. Captain Nara Singhe, Ship Captain and leader of the colony. Commander Kodar Kisharm, Ship Navigator and second in command.

GAIA stands for Geological/Biological Artificial Intelligence and Analysis. If she is not functioning, than life on Warden will be impossible and the Enemy will mostly flee from her with whatever secrets they can use against humanity. Of all the ships that fled, it was our colony ship that held the most advanced information on robotics and genetics. If the Enemy is able to use this information to advance the war, all human life on all worlds touched by them will most likely cease to be."

Shayuri · Nov 8, 2012

"Something went wrong," Mellisande says after listening to all that. "We're supposed to know all this, but right now I only really understand every third word you're saying."

She looks at the others, then back at the talkative golem. It had mentioned being meant for teaching. That would explain why it was so loquacious, perhaps.

"Others have said that I was Melissa Athens, but I'm not human, and I'm not with child. Did she have her baby? And how did her husband die? And why don't we REMEMBER any of this?!"

The last sentence escaped as a sudden burst of frustration and anger.

Queenie · Nov 8, 2012

Lealani nods in agreement. "Also, you mention quite a few people who were... on a ship? There are only five of us. If it is true, what happened to the others?"

Voda Vosa · Nov 8, 2012

"There was the cat-thing that never woke up..." Sarpot recalls. "You seem to know the enemy well, what is it? We need to know about its nature." he asks yet again.

Deuce Traveler · Nov 12, 2012

Oh, I seemed to have upset some of you. Shall we discuss literature instead? I have a large database that includes renowned poetry. Mr. Kisharm's favorite stanza was the following:

Come, my friends,
'Tis not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.

No? Well, I best get back to answering your questions then. I am not sure who you are, but you seem to be later prototype versions of our species experiments. It is likely that you were designed as further experiments into isolating the genes needed for human survival against the Enemy, though I could be in error and GAIA would know more as she can detect DNA in living beings in order to identify them. Once the perfect gene series was isolated, there was much debate to what would have been done with the experiments. One side discussed seeding the different species onto their own worlds to develop on their own, so the Wolfmen would have had their own world, the Myconid a different one, and so on. Another idea would have been to sterilize the species in case there were only limited planets found that could sustain life, so that the experiments would not compete with human life. The debate was never concluded, however, for as you mentioned, something went wrong. The colonial leadership were in hibernation too long, much longer than originally planned. There were more than 10 of them, but the 10 I mention were the highest ranking of the survivors after the initial attack. During the generations that followed, civilizations continued to lose their technological edge, eventually forgetting much of their scientific knowledge and reverting into an agricultural society. Happily, the humans and the experimental species continued to exist in harmony up until the Enemy incursions onto their land.

The Enemy is a generic and unifying term chosen by the Colonial fleet, but of course each culture had their own name. Bogey by the Venusians, Chupacabra by those of Alpah Centauri. Our own Lunarians preferred the term Sathar, for the sound their weapons over viewed news footage. They have the ability to influence minds. Short term exposure causes reduced combat ability in opponents, followed by the cessation of hostilities. Further exposure results in the victims seeing the Sathar as a friend, then eventually becoming a mental slave to Sathar orders and commands. Only the Myconids have shown an immunity to the effects, while pure strain humans had a stronger immunity than the Flind, Wolfmen, and Yuan-Ti. No Sathar has ever been taken alive; no crippled Sathar ship has ever failed to self-destruct. They seem to hate all non-Sathar life and it is likely that even the Yuan-Ti will be disposed of once their usefulness comes to an end.

Out of the ten leaders I had mentioned, their status was as follows at the time of my deactivation:

- Melissa Athens, alive. Was the one to deactivate us until a proper robotics programmer could be found to reverse biological weapon used against us.

- Trevor Sander, deceased. Killed by multiple lacerations and bone fractures from three pleasure droids after modifying them per PM-1's request. This led to PM-1 and the three droids fleeing to Enemy territory.

- Major Marshall Potter, deceased. Died from wounds taken from Enemy fragmentation grenade. Was protecting nursery on ship level 4. Mission partially successful.

- Doctor Sarah Grammerest, deceased. Died from vacuum suit rupture while attempting to lead boarding party intent on lasering into Enemy ship hull. Mission failed.

- Doctor Jacques d'Arc, deceased. Died instantly from high caliber round in that entered from the back of the head. Killer was his wife, Yuki Shotenboc.

- Doctor Yuki Shotenboc, alive. Had to be sedated after Enemy mind control caused her to kill spouse. It was believed that the mind control could be reversed as she would lapse into a realization of her actions and had to be restrained to prevent suicide.

- Captain Marcus Leazan, deceased. Died from blood loss after receiving multiple wounds from beam weapons during mission to retake G.A.I.A. Mission failed.

- Anya Loki, alive. Was working to rescue Flind elders from their younger gnoll generation. The younger gnolls were turned by Enemy brain washing and had become a threat to their elders. Mission partially successful.

- Captain Nara Singhe, deceased. Died instantly from shrapnel in the brain from Enemy rocket propelled grenade during attempt to retake G.A.I.A. Mission failed.

- Commander Kodar Kisharm, alive. Was working a plan to use remaining personnel and resources to fight a battle of attrition against the Enemy. Final stand would take place by reactor pool. Mission status unknown.

GlassEye · Nov 13, 2012

Arkos feels his stomach twist as he hears the sordid list of the causes of death of their progenitor-selves. He doesn't understand the means of death but that so many are dead in the golem's tale and by the evidence seen by his own eyes makes him weak and weary.

"So much of what you say we don't understand. So, our enemy is the General-Golem Peeyim-Wan, the Yuan-ti slaves, and the Sathar? Who are the Sathar?"

[sblock=Mini Stats]Arkos Stoneborn
Initiative: +1
AC: 12 (11 flat-footed, 12 Touch) [15 w/ Barkskin]
AC: (Predator) 16 (15 flat-footed, 12 Touch)
AC: (Aerial) 14 (13 flat-footed, 12 Touch)
HP: 56 Current: 35
Fort: +8 Reflex: +3 Reflex: (Aerial) +5 Will: +9
Speed: 30 ft., burrow 10 ft.
Speed: (Predator) 50 ft.
Speed: (Aerial) fly 40 ft. (good)

Current Weapon in Hand:
Current Conditions in Effect:

Attacks
Spear +9 (1d6+7 /crit. x3)
Sling +5 (1d3 /crit. x2)
Bite (Predator) +13 (1d4+8 /crit. x2; as magic)
Talon (Aerial) +12 (1d4+7 /crit. x2; as magic)
Breath Weapon (1d8; bludgeoning; Ref 15 for half dmg.)
2 Tentacles (while in Predator) +11 (1d8+7) 10 ft. reach

Spells Prepared:
Spell Save: 14 +SL
3rd level: 3; cure moderate wounds, evard's menacing tentacles (PHB2), evard's menacing tentacles
2nd level: 4; barkskin, bull's strength, ~~heat metal~~, resist energy
1st level: 4; cure light wounds, faerie fire, goodberry, produce flame
orisons: 5; create water, cure minor wounds, detect magic, ~~light~~, purify food & drink

Backpack: healer's kit (x2), sunrod (x2), thunderstone (x2), tanglefoot bag (x2), smoke stick(x2), bedroll, 2 wand CLW, 19 pebbles of CSW & 5 pebbles of Remove Disease. food and water.[/sblock]

Shayuri · Nov 13, 2012

"Psst. They're the ones in charge of it all," Mellisande rebukes Arkos. "Weren't you listening? Those reptilian things, I think...we saw some bodies outside the cave we woke up in."

The golem's words had mostly been gibberish to her, of course, but she had teased out a few interesting tidbits. For one...the god Arkos had supposedly been had apparently died before Arkos was born. What did that make him?

"How long has it been since you were last awake?" she asked. Many of the gods had been alive then...she wondered if they might still be, perhaps in hiding.

Also...one other thing poked out at her.

"Also, why was Melissa Athens even there?" she asks. "Most of those names have titles in front of them. Doctor and Captain and Major and so on. Melissa is just...Melissa. Trevor was there because he made the golems, and Anya turned against everyone, but Melissa seems out of place in that group."

Voda Vosa · Nov 13, 2012

"Like yer outa palce here, among normal height people." Sarpot teased the gnome, laughing at his own joke.

Deuce Traveler · Nov 14, 2012

TD-14 answers, "I lack sufficient data on the Sathar, but they have been enslaving and killing us since first contact. At first we lost ships after receiving distress signals from them, such as the CS Charles De Gaulle in 2182, SS Bonnie Brown an unknown year after, and the SS Beagle in 2243 after it reported contact with the hull of Bonnie Brown. Then we began to lose outposts. Then far off colonies. Then we fled.

The Sathar look like snakes or lizards, but we have found through autopsies that they are actually more similar to worms. Pity the Yuan-Ti have yet to look past form and understand this important difference.

I currently lack sufficient knowledge to give a dependable timeline of events. If we have a teaching droid with proper star chart databanks we would be closer to knowing what year we are in. Of course we would also need a view of the stars, which is impossible at our current location, and would still be impossible if we are still not out of the worm hole, as time acts differently while inside.

And Melissa Athens was quite important to the colonial effort. If we were to establish a new home survival would be the primary goal in the first decades, not art or literature or science. The larger group of colonists were supposed to work the land, establish settlements and populate. A smaller group of colonists were our greatest minds, put into hibernation so that they might teach the rest when suitable conditions came to pass. This second group which Ms. Athens was a part of would have focused on bringing man back to a high level of sophistication and knowledge. A third and smallest group of military personnel was also put into hibernation in order to pilot the colony ship and shuttles once a proper world was found, and to provide armed protection. As you noted, things went quite wrong. Before I was shut down there were only a handful of unsabotaged shuttles left."