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00101110...
I am Nicalseref of Acer. To the best of my knowledge, I am the only independently-thinking being remaining on the world of Meklon, and I will not be here for long. I am hunted day and night by RBO-23, the planet-spanning machine-intelligence that has enslaved my entire world, and if it were to concentrate more attention on the hunt than I do on a single cell within my body, I would be lost before I could breathe. The wars for my world are over. The Meklar have won. My only hope is escape to the stars, to find others who yet can resist the might of RBO-23 in the measureless deeps of the galaxy. I have concealed myself aboard a long-range interstellar Scout, one of two that the Meklar have built alongside their massive Assimilator. Even now, three years after our departure, the Assimilator will be arriving at its destination, nearly as far south as we; the buzz of electronic communications is all around me.
It is two years since we entered orbit above the ocean world of Maretta, empty though the system is of all mineral resources. It has been all I can do to decipher the Meklar reports from their lush Primodius colony - now five years old and switly growing - and to stay alive, pilfering food from the scout drones' Biological Sustenance Generators and water from the recycling units. The planet below seems a paradise to me, though the machine-dependent Meklar can hardly feel about it as I do. Yet why do we remain here while scouts of a new design - a trio of Sense/Net smallcraft - explore the far reaches of Meklar range, from Kulthos and fertile Selia in the far north to yet-undiscovered stars south of our position? I sense disappointment in the vast new colony of Primodius since Selia's fertile slopes would apparently have been a still better beginning, but nothing to explain this Scout's long presence here. What does RBO-23 know that I don't?
I can hardly believe my eyes! A Scout ship from another species! The Meklar drones all over the ship prepare for boarding operations, to take the alien ship and assimilate its people, to learn the secrets of their ships and tactics and vulnerabilities before the other species even knows it's threatened! It's a tremendous risk, but I must prevent this at all costs; as the ship approaches, identifying itself as a "Human Scout," I transmit a warning, disguising the signal source over the Human carrier wave, praying the symbols I use will be comprehensible to them. Never mind language - I don't know if these Humans use their senses the way I do. The drone boarding crews are ready, their nanite-injectors primed; I retreat further than ever into the bowels of the ship, and offer my silent thanks that I'm still not interesting enough, not new enough, for them to seek me out this way. There is likely nothing in my biology that they don't have access to a million times over from others of my race, and RBO-23 thinks in millions, never about a single being stowed away in a Scout's maintenance crawlspace. The Human Scout is retreating before it can close to range. There is no way to know if it received my warning, but for now - even as the Meklar seek ways to terraform their worlds, forcing the living rock of the planets themselves to adapt to service them - thanks to the Humans, hope remains alive.
I've managed to get a translator/interceptor locked into their transmission net full-time. If they cared at all about my existence, I would be long dead; I can only hope they will pay for the oversight! So far, at least, it seems my warning may have done some good: The Humans have not returned to this system, and they must have warned a race called the Psilons as well, whose Scout was at Ryoun to the south when a Meklar Sense/Net arrived this year. The Psilons retreated before they could be captured, leaving the Meklar with nothing but their reports, displayed above, on the seven worlds their scout ships can reach.
...0110010001100101011101100110010101101
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110011011100110010101100100...
There is real hope before me; yet another sentient species is out there, with interstellar capabilities, and aware of the Meklar danger: A Silicoid Scout arrived here just moments ago, and left the system at once upon seeing this ship. If only there were some way for me to go aboard an alien vessel without exposing them to assimilation by the crew here! It's been maddening to stay hidden here, with nothing to do but monitor Meklar transmissions, now for over 14 years, with no end in sight!
I've been dreading the galaxy's fate since the Meklar developed their first terraforming technology, two years back, and elected to pursue still more of the same, especially when their work expanded to attempt the development of waste reduction technology and hydrogen fuel cells to spread their net of Sense/Net scout ships further still. This report from the GNN droid comes as the greatest breath of fresh air in my 22 years aboard this accursed ship: That there is yet a fourth space-faring race in the galaxy already, and that these Bulrathi inhabit no less than six systems already, has thrown the Meklar into a frenzy of activity. Meklon is turning all its resources to the construction of a Disassembly colony ship, with only 157 factories complete - barely more than three eighths of its capacity!
...0110010101101110011001110110000101100
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00101100111011001010010000000110010...
The time has come when I must act: Whenever this Scout has flown down to the planet's surface for routine scans and to take on water and biofood in maintenance quantities, I have yearned to slip off into the oceans and escape this flying prison. The most I have ever dared has been to lean out from the airlock, and take a long breath of fresh air. If I left, and the ship departed without me, I would never be near enough to the next places it happens to land - there is an entire world to choose from! - to safely return to space. And when the Meklar come to this world in force, to assimilate its oceans and life, I would no longer be an inconsequential individual to them - I would be one of the lifeforms on this new world, as much a target for assimilation as any other. Yet I'm going to have to take that risk!
Word has come across the Meklar Matrix that Meklon has produced its first Disassembly and routed it north, while Stalaz has begun building more Sense/Nets ... to replace outmoded Scouts like this one! Within a few years, everything aboard this ship will be broken down methodically for recycling, into its component minerals, energy sources, proteins and lipids and carbohydrates - everything, including its crew, and if I remain, certainly not excluding me! So as we set down once more on one of the countless islands dotting Maretta's surface, and two Meklar enter the airlock, I slide my inconsequential self in beside them, carrying my precious matrix receiver/translator in my furry tentacles. The outer airlock opens, revealing a long, sandy beach caressed by the waves of Maretta's crystal-clear sea. Hardly daring to breathe, I move away from the crew and hide in the foliage further up the beach as they gather their supplies, hoping they won't decide my body will translate into good biofood. They work efficiently, mindlessly, acquiring all they need, then return to the airlock. It shuts behind them. The Scout's engines scream. I am alone on an alien world.
There is no hope of escaping again when the Sense/Net arrives. Their recycling systems, deep-space ion mining, and solar-powered energy-matter conversion systems are far superior to the old Scout's, and they can maintain themselves in stellar orbit indefinitely without visiting the planet or any planet at all. When I next see a Meklar ship drop from orbit, it will be to begin the assimilation of this world. Yet even now - can there be hope? A new star blooms in the sky, and my receiver calls it a "Human Colony Ship" - a star cruiser that dwarfs the Scout above me! Another is reportedly arriving at Ryoun as well! If these are armed, or carry marines prepared to deal with Meklar drones.... But it is not so. The accursed Meklar show no fear, and the Humans retreat from both stars. 28 years have passed since I left my home on Meklon. How much longer until the Meklar claim this world and bring my doom? I can only hope it will be long indeed, and thank my great fortune for the completeness of Maretta's mineral poverty, which I can only hope will make it less attractive than other stars to them. At least, I shall enjoy my remaining days on this beautiful world, eating its abundant fruit and fishing in its shimmering seas, bathing in its shining streams. I have lived too long aboard that Scout. This life is a heaven to me.
Terrifying news came in last year from the green star in the northern nebula. The Meklar colony established at Selia six years back had opened a path there, and though a Bulrathi Scout - the first sign of that fabled species since the GNN report - was there before them, when it fled, the Meklar found the world of Toranor: Small, to be sure, and toxic to biomechanical life, but so overwhelmingly rich in mineral resources, I could practically see RBO-23 collectively drooling. Yet something is amiss - there may be some plan in action that I still don't comprehend. The Meklar just established a new colony at Kulthos, their fourth world overall, but they have no more Disassemblies en route or in production. For the past five years, so far as I can determine, Meklon has bent all its efforts on factories. Klystron still lies nearly on top of their Primodius colony, ready to open their way to this world and thus to Ryoun to the south, and yet they do nothing! Is there something I missed? Or is fortune finally smiling upon me? If they never build another colony ship, with the Bulrathi and by now perhaps others as well, out at six stars or more, there may yet be hope for the galaxy - and perhaps even for me!
(OOC Note: At this point, I was satisfied that the game would prove interesting enough to work as Imperium 23, with enough varying expansion opportunities to make the question of where to stop a meaningful one for experienced players. Though I'd have liked to playtest it further first, I sent the files off to start the Imperium at this point, knowing Real Life issues would limit my time for Orion in the immediate future. One advantage was that it allowed me to submit an even more "unspoiled" sponsor's report than usual for this Imperium - I didn't yet know how my own game would go in deciding whether to submit the game! - but there are disadvantages as well. If I'd had enough time, I'd have played the game all the way through, then done quick replays of the first ~50-75 turns with varying strategies and test, for instance, whether the Humans would regularly steal an early diplomatic victory. Here, I just had to hope for the best - which I hope worked out well for everybody.
My game, at least, unbeknownst to me, was about to become very strange, in a hurry.)
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Next: Island Exile
