The Walkers, updated 9-28-03

[Cirvol]

chewy

nice start of a story... its a bit on the 'too close to alegory in real life' type of thing if you see my meaning

(with all the almighty stuff and 2000 years etc

but otherwise, i like trio of powers story line... well done

and im almost guessing they'll be gas / methane based or something ? (from the nuclear line)

anyway, keep it up, nice to see you back

[Fyron]

Mind if this gets archived in the Fan Fiction Archives on SpaceEmpires.net?

[dogscoff]

I like it, it has a kind of Tolkienesque mythos to it.

[primitive]

Primitive likes it. Primitive wants more.

Remember, there are more important things in life than getting an education. Keeping barbarians carrying big sticks happy might also be wise.

[chewy027]

Fyron...be my guest, though i'll probably edit it a bit to make the flow better and such.

Cirvol...yeah i agree with the alegory impressions, though it wasn't intended. I did the graphics for the vandron originally, and used the race description to build the brief history of the story. As for the 2000 years thing, the game starts in 2400 so it kinda fell into place like that.

[chewy027]

2400 ~ The Beginning

It is now the year 2400, and I, Lord Chagnon have been leading the Vandron people for the Last 3 years. My predecessor, Lord Mignon, was a great and wise leader whom led our people for over 10 decades. He guided our great civilization into a golden age of advancement where new technologies and theories about our world and our galaxy flowed like the blood of our sacrifices to the Almighty. There is much that we now know, yet we are wise enough to realize that we do not know all. We know that our system is one of 133 in our quadrant that has the potential to contain other planets, yet we are wise enough to realize that there must be thousands more throughout the galaxy. We also know that those systems are situated around the quadrant in small clusters, yet we are wise enough to postulate that there are many paths through these stars. We know that there are other races to be found, yet we know not where they are. It is for this exact reason that we have made our push to reach the stars and continue our search for our savior. You see, a theoretic view of the Almighty has been growing within our society since before the time of Lord Mignon. When Lord Mignon became the 26th Lord of the Vandron he was one of the primary believers in this theory, and thus steered our great civilization by its tenets. The theory holds that the Almighty was not of the Vandron, nor of the Eldron or Cindron. He was, in fact, a being not of this world. With Lord Mignon championing this belief, it soon permeated our society and gave us the determination to find the being responsible for our survival. This is how we know that we are not alone in this galaxy, and why we have made every effort to discover what lies in the Great Beyond.
From our home world, which we renamed Serenity after the Last Great War, we have seen that there are two colonizable planets in our system. Many believe that we will end our search on one of these two planets as the Almighty could have easily come from either of them. The first we call Hope, as it resembles our home world almost exactly, and many think that this is where the Almighty hailed from. Hope is a large gas giant planet with the same carbon dioxide atmosphere composition that we have been adapted to. Before the final Great War, Serenity was a beautiful rock planet with an oxygen rich atmosphere, but after the Cindron’s final attack and the Changing, we now survive most readily on a gas planet of a carbon dioxide composition. It is for this reason that I believe we will not find the Almighty on Hope. For he came to us as our planet once was but no longer is, and he continued with us many years after the cataclysm that changed our world. Therefore, I, and many others, believe that the Almighty could have come from any planet despite its makeup, and so I am resigned to the fact that it may take many years to see our ambitions realized if, indeed, they can be. Nevertheless, reaching Hope has been our main focus for the Last 50 years.
Under the rule of Lord Mignon, we made rapid advances in propulsion technologies and intra-system travel. It was in his final years that we finally developed a working Ion engine prototype that would allow us to finally reach Hope, and secondarily the planet of Rigil. Unfortunately, Lord Mignon was unable to witness the completion of these ambitions as he passed into the realm of the Almighty three years ago. It was at this time that I, Lord Chagnon, received the honor of continuing, indeed, finishing the work that we have so long been focused on. It was with this in mind that I made our first order of business to reach Hope at Last.
From the years 2397-2400 I commissioned 19 scouting missions to Hope and 3 to Rigil. We learned much about each planet, but there were simply too few Vandron to make an adequate search for the Almighty. It was for this reason that in 2400 I commissioned the construction of our people’s first Comet Class colony ship. Upon completion it will be destined for Hope, carrying 34 million colonists within its confines. It is anticipated that with this many Vandron we can establish a self-sustaining colony on Hope and eventually make this world one of many from which we will continue our search for the Almighty, unless of course we do indeed find him upon Hope. I have also harnessed our people’s broiling excitement and focused it on making new advances in the fields of physics and our own unique religious technologies granted us by the Almighty. It is the belief of Vice Lord Junon, the minister of technology, and myself that if we remain vigilant and steadfast in our research we will be able to more easily facilitate and accomplish our goal. It is at this juncture that our present history is being molded through mine, and my chief Vice-Lords decisions ultimately guided by the wisdom and honor that are central to our people. It seems that our people's future is before us.

[chewy027]

2400.1 – 2400.6 ~ A Simple Decision

Our construction on the first of two comet class colonizers is moving along exactly as planned. It should be completed within the next tenth. At the same time, Vice Lord Junon tells me that he feels that we have indeed reached a new level of expertise in physics and in religious technology, and that this new understanding will allow us to research such wondrous things as energy shields, advanced sensors, and even energy based weaponry, though this final area, that of weaponry, is the least appealing to us Vandron. It is for this reason, and after much deliberation, that we have decided that we will indeed forge ahead in the area of energy shielding to give our vessels greater protection from whatever may lay ahead of us. For this is the way of the Walkers. We have always been slow to aggressive action, but have been content with defending ourselves from the aggressor. Indeed, it is because of this that we were called the Walkers by the Cindron and the Eldron, for we accomplished our ends through the use of wisdom and application instead of brute force. And it is this philosophy that we will continue to use as we venture out into the Great Beyond. The Almighty has taught us that we should be slow to action, however, when action is necessary, we should move swiftly, wisely, and honorably. Ironically, it was during our deliberations as to what we should next focus our research on, that the twelfth of our deep space probes relayed information to us from the edge of our system that demanded immediate and swift action.
We quickly put aside our research deliberations, to the consternation of Vice Lord Junon, and focused our attention on this new information that had been brought to our attention. The following is a recording of some of the discussion that took place immediately thereafter:

“It seems” explained Vice Lord Exnon, the minister of space and exploration, “that the twelfth deep space probe that was sent out in the second tenth of 2398 has discovered a strange anomaly on the far eastern part of our home system.”
“What sort of anomaly?” asked Vice Lord Junon. “Is it of any special significance?”
“Well,” continued Exnon “The anomaly seems to be some sort of elliptical disturbance in the fabric of space itself. While we have seen strange anomalies akin to this before, none produced the same results upon further examination by our probes.”
“What do you mean by that?” asked Vice Lord Defcon, the minister of defense.
“Yes, explain the significance of these ‘results’” Lord Chagnon demanded.
“Of course Chagnon, it seems that as our probe approached the anomaly for closer readings, as it is programmed to, it somehow vanished.” replied Exnon.
“Vanished? What do you mean vanished?” asked Defcon.
“Well, ah, we were tracking the position of the probe from our sensors here on Serenity when the probe suddenly disappeared from our scanners. It doesn’t appear to have been destroyed, nor does it seem that its systems went offline.” answered Exnon as manner-of-fact as possible. “It simply vanished.”
“I see,” replied Defcon “and do you have any possible explanations for this occurrence?”
“Yes, Exnon, what did happen then?” asked Chagnon.
“Well, to the best of our calculations and observations it appears that the probe went inside of the anomaly. That is why it went off of our scanners, but we don’t know if it was indeed destroyed once it entered the confines of the spatial distortion. I think it would be best if we received Lord Junon’s incite into this.” replied Exnon trying to deflect some of the attention from himself.
“Is that what you think?” replied Junon, “Well then I suppose I could make some educated postulations as to what may have happened.”
“Please do,” said Chagnon, “perhaps you can shed some light on this matter.”
“It appears,” Junon went on, “that there are two likely scenarios as to the fate of the probe. The first is that it was indeed destroyed by this anomaly. If that is the case then we should make note of the coordinates of the distortion and avoid it in the future. The second scenario is that the probe was not destroyed, but was affected in some different way by the anomaly. In either case action must be taken as to ascertain the correct outcome of the probe, and the exact properties of this anomaly.”
“Yes, I agree.” said Chagnon, “the question is, what is the wisest course of action to proceed with? Should we continue to send more unmanned probes through, and continue to collect data from here on Serenity or should we commission a manned scout ship to approach the anomaly and give us a precise explanation as to its effects. What do you think Exnon? This seems to be your department.”
“Yes of course Lord Chagnon,” a somewhat shaky Exnon replied, “I would think that the wisest and safest course of action would be to continue to send probes to the anomaly. We could easily outfit some probes with our new ion technology so they would reach the destination within a few tenths.”
“However,” cut in Junon, “while I agree that would seem to be the wisest course of action, we do not yet have the capability to equip these engines on small probes.” Junon’s interest was beginning to pique as to the possibilities of such an anomaly. He went on, “besides, we don’t even know if the probe was initially destroyed.”
“But we don’t know it wasn’t destroyed.” added Defcon.
“Exactly,” put in Chagnon, “I do not think it wise or necessary to endanger the lives of any of our people. However, I also do not believe that the probe was destroyed.”
“Why is that?” inquired Defcon, “There is no evidence indicating it was or wasn’t destroyed.”
“True,” replied Chagnon “yet something leads me to believe that it was not destroyed, and therefore, I have a proposal as the action we should take.”
“Your intuitions have not been wrong before Lord Chagnon,” said Exnon perking up a bit, “perhaps the Almighty has given you a unique insight into the situation.”
“Perhaps,” Chagnon replied with a slight smile, “In any case, I believe the wisest course of action would be to commission a manned scout ship to investigate the anomaly. However, I also believe that the ship should be equipped with its own probes to send into the anomaly before it takes any such action itself.”
“As long as my men aren’t endangered I see no case for objecting to this course of action.” agreed Defcon.
“Yes, I agree as well,” quickly replied Exnon, not wishing to be the Last to speak up “that is a wise decision.”
“If this is the will of the council then I have no qualms against it.” answered Junon as he rolled his eyes.
“Then it is settled then,” Chagnon said as he stood up from the table. “As soon as the second Comet Class colony ship is built we will begin construction on a scout ship to examine the anomaly.”
“May I make one suggestion,” Defcon put in, “perhaps it would be wisest to commission the scout ship before the second Comet. We know what lies ahead of us on Rigil, but the anomaly may hold something completely unexpected. Speaking from a strictly defensive state of mind, I believe we should know what exactly this distortion is before we make plans for anything else.”
“A wise insight Defcon,” Chagnon replied slowly sitting back down, “So it shall be. The scout ship shall be commissioned before the second Comet is built. And if there are no further details to discuss then I believe this meeting is adjourned.”

And so it was. Upon the completion of the first Comet, a Revelation Class scout ship, derived from the escort chassis, was commissioned and built. It was immediately sent to the coordinates of the anomaly to discover once and for all what secrets, if any, this distortion held.
Meanwhile, Comet 1 safely arrived on Hope and the construction of Hope Colony was immediately begun. In addition to the construction, teams of scouts began to scour the land in search of any signs that the Almighty may presently be or may have previously been to this world. Hope was designated a Research World as the initial scans showed that its resource levels were particularly low, a fact that Lord Chagnon was not pleased with. Since the end of the Last Great War, resources had to be closely monitored so as not to waste anything. As it was, Hope would serve the Vandron well in their search for the Almighty, and boost their glorious civilization’s research capacities, which had been performing wonderfully.
The research for the energy shields proved to pass very quickly as an adequate level was reached within only two tenths. These new shields would now be included on the designs for all of their ships, a detail that Vice Lord Defcon saw to personally. At the same time, it was decided, albeit grudgingly, that the best defense would now be a stronger offense, and so a new level of expertise was sought for the projectile weapons currently in use, and the ability to build larger chassis for the fleets starships. Though it was projected to take nearly a year to accomplish these goals, it was decided that it would be the wisest course of research to pursue, in the event that someone or something should meet them.

[ September 02, 2003, 02:36: Message edited by: chewy027 ]