• Registered: 2006-10-01
  • Posts: 912

Topic: Lore: The History of the Colonization

Journey to the Stars

((Note for those who've already read the Seed backstory: There is some new information hidden here:))

Having successfully colonized the Moon and Mars, Earth was looking further away for the purpose of spreading humanity wide across the universe. The recent development of ram scoop propulsion made the bold vision possible.

During th course of decades, five huge starships were carefully designed and, finally, built. Each a kilometre long and filled with machines needed for terraforming a suitable planet into a habitable environment for humans. To act as shields against meteors and other hazards, giant icebergs were mounted to the front of the ships. The ships were named after the five virtues, valued highest in the Technocracy: Liberty, Wisdom, Creativity, Patience, and Solidarity.

The humans themselves were not to populate the ships. Instead, DNA codes, sperms and eggs were carried along in cryocoolers leaving it to the TAU computers aboard to hatch the colonists at the right time.

TAU was also to contain any relevant Earthly knowledge. This proved to trigger a long and heated debate about what to store in the database. At the end it was decided to include knowledge about all aspects of human life, including violence and wars, but to train the colonists to avoid those to a greatest extent. Thus, no detailed instructions on weapons and warfare tactics was included.

During the centuries before the ships were finished, several suitable planets had been identified. The five most promising ones were picked for the first five missions. Liberty set off for HO Librae, Wisdom to Alpha Centauri, Creativity to 51-Pegasi, Patience to 47 Ursae Majoris, and finally, Solidarity began its journey towards a planet orbiting the star Beta Hyi, 24.4 light years away. Probes indicated an atmosphere, water and living micro organisms.

The year Solidarity launched from Earth was, by the calendar of the Da Vincians, 913 BA (Before Awakening).

A giant leap towards a glorious future was taken.

  • Registered: 2006-10-01
  • Posts: 912

Re: Lore: The History of the Colonization

The Perfect Planet

702 BA: After travelling for over 200 years, Solidarity arrived at the planet in the Beta Hyi system. To kick off the terraforming process, the remains of the protective iceberg was slammed into the surface of the planet.

686 BA: In the crater TAU constructed a tower to house the terraforming machinery, and everything seemed to go according to the plan that had already worked on Mars.

610 BA: Soon, however, the weather on the planet started to get worse. In the beginning it was just a matter of frequent showers and windy weather, but during the following years it gradually became more devastating. Maybe the iceberg ramming had changed the planet a bit too much.

600 BA: 80 years after landing on the planet, the storms and hurricanes jeopardized the tower and the entire colony project. TAU determined to build a new tower further south and deep down in a canyon for additional protection.

The old tower was stripped down and the ruins left as a reminder of the fragility of the project.

  • Registered: 2006-10-01
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Re: Lore: The History of the Colonization

The Human Factor

0 AA: As years went by TAU tried to keep the environmental hazards at bay around the new tower. After another 600 years, now 913 years since Solidarity left Earth, it was clear, that something extraordinary was needed, if the colony project should have any hope of surviving.

As a last resort TAU hatched 100 humans from the floatbeds. They were speed-grown and speed-trained in every known aspect of planetary engineering and all were full of enthusiasm and ideas.

The colonists named their new home planet Da Vinci in honour of human ingenuity. However, the ingenuity soon resulted in ideas and projects working counter to one another. The half-measures ended up causing even more disturbance in the planet ecological system.

30 AA: Microbes and bacteria began infecting the tower, and the first colonist fell victim to the alien environment. The culprit was believed to be an unchecked mutation of a terrestrial bacteria released into the environment.

And more casualties were to come.

  • Registered: 2006-10-01
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Re: Lore: The History of the Colonization

The Downward Spiral

960 AA: It began with an enormous flash flood thundering down through the canyon and ramming the tower, flooding the lower levels. It turned out that a black alga designed to raisen overall temperatures through greenhouse effect unexpectedly had climbed a huge glacier to the east and managed to melt it. As the alga spread, flash floods became an annual event, and warning systems had to be constructed and put in place.

998 AA: A few decades later a storm-of-the-century slammed a huge rock into the tower top taking it almost clean off. The tower dropped almost a kilometre in height, and many colonists, as well as valuable space and machinery, were lost. It was feared that the incident caused substantial internal damage to TAU, soon to be indicated by an epoch-making event in the colony history.


(??? Change this ???) Large clusters of floatbeds suddenly began growing humans at a rapid pace. Another result of the rock was the apparent damage to floatbed column 6 in the speedgrowth chamber, causing one of six colonists to be hatched either in a vegetative state or with severe brain disorders. At fist, the 17 last remaining first colonists were relieved to get more help to develop the tower that was rapidly deteriorating despite their best efforts. But when it started to seem the flow of new colonists would not stop, people started to worry. It was calculated that in 7 years the floatbed capacity would run out, but no solution to the problem has been found as of yet (May 4th, 104 AA (After Awakening). The population of the tower is now over 1200.

  • Registered: 2006-10-01
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Re: Lore: The History of the Colonization

Decision time

Almost 20 years after the tower top being ripped off, 750 years after landing on Da Vinci and 1000 years after lauch from Earth, the colony is in a sinkhole of trouble.

The environment is running amok, the population count is increasing without end in sight, social systems are outdated and creaking, resources are strained, flash flood warning systems are deteriorating, machinery and critical life-support systems are wearing down. The colony has yet to figure out where exactly TAU's presumed damage is, and meanwhile new humans keep popping out.

Meanwhile, the colonists forget to coordinate their efforts, or the efforts become political issues. Everybody is devoted to their own ideas and work, and resources are wasted as people fail to co-operate.

Should they terraform or not? Make a habitat underground? Attempt to get off the planet? Try to build new floatbeds to ease the overpopulation? Alter their genetic structure to be more resistanc to the alien environment? Keep living in a suspended state unable to eat and have children? Time is running out?