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Outcast Explorer Outcast Seeker #4 was engaging Cargo Transport Ban City Trucking on 00:00 1-1-200. read more ...

The people of Unitos seek his guidance to enlighten the universe.

--- By Farsight

It was another grey evening, a sombre mood overshadowed a city of 2 million inhabitants. Looking out from beneath a canopy, the sky threatened rain, it was by all means an average day, yet it wasn’t. From the onset it had been somewhat unique. As if natures uncanny ability to perceive change – even before it happened – were sending warning signals to the inhabitants of the area; to no avail. Feeble minded, self-obsessed members of humanity would, despite their technological dominance, fail to comprehend the nature and magnitude of the occasion.

On the ground, 50 meter high towers dominated much of the skyline around the outskirts of the city. Each one manned by professional crews, they scanned the region for any threats, locally they were better known as the eyes and ears of customs. The gigantic radars were of such a precision that they could detect pebbles floating in orbit around the planet, scrap metal, dumped shipments of marijuana – unclaimed and forever untouchable –, a foreboding sign of the sheer respect, or rather fear these customs cast upon any visitors. Their philosophy was simple; Shoot first, ask questions later and since the paper work when it came to dealing with questions was prohibitive, customs focused its attention on obliterating anything that could take more effort than usual – primarily illicit trade, however certain legal products were at times included –. At times, these practises could become an issue with legal importers, over time, it left businesses no choice but to armour their ships more and more to overcome the increasing firepower of the customs ships.

For those reasons, it was an enormous shock to everyone in customs when that evening – as dusk threatened to settle in – a massive craft, of the magnitude of a small city, broke through the cloud cover only to settled in a restricted zone, completely undetected by radar. Its sixteen engines carefully manoeuvred it down, no sooner had dust settled that a red alert had been sounded, and thousands of military personnel begun to swarm the area.

Ten thousand in all, their petty weapons probably no match for the plasma cannons equipped aboard the craft, the air support was their only real hope, yet neither side used force. A hatch opened, from the bowels of the ship began to descend several men, their appearance very formal. They approached the commander of the force – who had no instructions to communicate with those within – their suits sleek and professional, their smiles out of context within the swarm of stern hostile faces.

Extending a hand as in handshake, they broke the silence with a single sentence, “We are the Unitologists.” No one replied.

At this time, more formal officials had arrived into the midst of uniformed men. They cautiously approached the formal looking men, still smiling in an almost abnormal way. “You have breached several laws and codes, state your business or you and your vessel will be fired upon.”

They extended their hands again in friendship, as if oblivious to the guns. Their statement caught everyone of guard, “We have come seeking your women, your land and your children; comply or we will be forced to obliterate you, those are our humble terms.”

His words were followed by an awkward silence, several thousand guns stood ready to fire upon them, but just instants before the triggers were pressed they were distracted by the commander who had by now broken into laughter and tears. “In the old days, if a man had a sense of humour he was promoted rather than shot. Archie, get the men to lower their weapons.” His words were almost muffled by his incessant laughter, his second in command shouted the order for the men to lower their weapons.

The smiles had not left the newcomers faces, as such the officials soon followed the commanders example and took their statement to be a joke. They smiled in response, “You are refugees I take it. Follow us, we can negotiate an agreement that will supply you with land, away from all this hostility.”

The men shuffled away from the craft, into several black vehicles and drove off into the last wisp of sunset towards the government buildings. By the following morning, it had been agreed that these newcomers would be allotted 50 thousand square meters upon which to build their city. The population had by then been unloaded, resulting in the occupation of a nearby valley, already make shift buildings were beginning to appear, their ingenuity and dedication would complete the city within several months.

A hundred years later, both cities merged into one. The culture and religion these newcomers brought with them has permeated all sectors of society, and the Presidency has, for some time now, become an almost exclusive position, reserved to influential followers of the religion. The legal monopoly of women is flourishing and maintained by a business sector of these same Unitologists and, by presidential decree, all children are indoctrinated in Unitology from birth.

Yet their growth has not been limited to a sole planet. In this day and age, Unitologists publicly pursue universal dominion through force of arms, yet their true art is not the vanquishing of foes or the forceful conversion through arms. It is and all has been, the subtle art of integration and social manipulation. For this reason, the hordes of the faithful – these relentless armies of the Unitologists – will only achieve true victory the day they are accepted into the social hierarchy of other factions. It is said that that day has long been coming. Religious leaders assure us that the wait is almost over.

What knowledge was mankind never meant to hold?

These radical eugenicists were becoming a problem, the damage from the riots and crime was trivial, barely a drop in the rapidly growing pool of the nations economy.

The potential social damage on the other hand was an annoyance, it was nothing more than that, he had overcome more serious problems than this countless times before. But he was unwilling to let his millennia of social engineering be delayed by a few ambitious demagogues.

He could remember his first shaping, the initial impetus that he used to guide the collective mind of society where he wished it, it had seemed much more impressive when he had first achieved it, now such manipulations were common. Almost mundane really.

Sitting at the desk he quickly keyed up the relevant data files, encrypted the data streams, and utilizing some carefully chosen puppets ordered the removal of the offending radical thinkers from the gene pool.

It had only been 700 years ago that he had successfully guided his culture towards purity, the sterilization of those with genetic defects and disabilities had finally put a stop to the genetic decline of the species which still drew the majority of the human race into obscurity, devolving itself out the game of life and leading inexorably to the eventual snuffing out of its light when science couldn't make up for its inherent lack of adaptability left in the stock of humanity.

Not that he considered himself or his people human anymore, or perhaps they were the only true humans left, the point was moot.

This new uninvited shift was unwelcome however, whilst preventing the passage of deleterious genes to the next generation was law, perhaps even a basic value now, expunging them was not.

It wasn't from any squeamishness on his behalf, he was more than welcome to employ death as a tool, but it was a short sighted policy. Many of the greatest thinkers would not have passed the genetic screening for reproduction these days, but they earned their right through their actions, proving the current genetic theory wrong and earning the mark of purity through their works.

It was another form of stagnation this radical eugenics, something he was constantly on guard for, in fact it was one of the few concepts he wasn't willing to try in his refinement of the society. It had the habit of being self perpetuating and his few attempts at being conservative had almost proved the end of him.

His sub conscious took this time to brand him the hypocrite he had become, taunting himself with his immortality, the gravest crime in crimes against evolution. It was a necessary sacrifice, their needed to be a guiding consciousness, an unwavering Will to see the path was never lost.

The secret of immortality came to him millennia ago, but was shared with only a select few of his closest allies and his eternal partner. The effect of it upon culture would easily shatter all he had worked for and he knew that the countless deaths, the unremembered trillions, were upon his shoulders but it did not give him pause.

This new reality offered new opportunities for experimentation, for refinement of the new proto-culture established here and the roots of his influence had already taken root in the so called democracy established to keep the masses content.
His identity was the most closely guarded secret, known to only 2 people in the universe and this government would simply be another cover for a while, used and disposed of like almost all things in his existence.

Determined to spread his ideology more forcefully than he had on other occasions fueled by his need to see his experiments on a larger scale before he could properly evaluate them he keyed into his data files.

His sub conscious prodded him again, yes he saw the flaw in cutting himself of from the rest of species completely, it was just another form of stagnation.

The data display flashed with the intelligence he required and he prepared the statements to his contacts quickly and efficiently, drafting the media reports, carefully placed statements and rumors that would facilitate the upcoming military action, steeling the population for the inevitable losses and focusing their work ethic.

Pushing back from the desk he lent back in his chair and massaged his temples, the hard bit was done, now came the wait, he seemed to spend most of his life waiting.

One day Feckinotter hoped the all this waiting would be over.

And so it begins ...

It came from amidst of the Iota nebula. The rigid superstructure, a glimpse of a time gone by. From a time of great technological achievement and even greater social change. The battered remains of a massive ‘self-sustainable transportation device’, its charred carcass approaching a single solitary system, in the midst of a new uncharted galaxy. The remainder of the last mass exodus carried out by the human race, before their timely destruction.

The corridors were dark and cold, no life had shuffled through its passages for eons. Moss and bacteria had developed from the seeds and humidity carried into the craft by it's inhabitants.

A million year old technology still in operation. It’s task; that of sustaining it’s inhabitants in a cryogenic state, whilst sensors continuously scanned entire galaxies for planets deemed capable of sustaining life.

The task had lead the souls aboard ‘Esperanza’ through turbulent galaxies, dangerous nebulas and awe astounding supernovas. It had endured it all, the epitome of technological achievement had proven its overwhelming durability against the tools of the gods themselves, but now the end of it’s epic journey was fast approaching.

The once mighty frame had suffered intense structural damage, and it was a matter of time before on-board systems begun to fail critically. As it finally approached the an adequate star -a new system for a new beginning-, the cryogenic containers prepared to enter a phase of intense de-frosting.

The process had to be prompt, anything longer than five seconds -to de-freeze a body- and the susceptible and ancient human life forms would be shredded internally by the water crystals within their frozen cells.

It was an energy consuming process, one which it’s designers had estimated required the dedication of all the energy systems to achieve. It had by passed the outlying planets of the system as the first millions of megawatts were diverted to produce the necessary heat at the necessary speeds. However, there was a malfunction in one of the generators, the failsafe mechanism, designed to divert all power to de-freezing in such a situation kicked in. As such, the navigational systems went temporarily off-line.

The planet ahead was already visible, the trajectory pointing straight towards it. It’s dominating figure, fast increasing in size from the mere spec it had been just several hours before.

The temporary loss of navigational instrumentation meant that the very necessary deceleration would not occur on time.

A crash landing was inevitable. Now, as thousands of susceptible bodies left their cryogenic chambers and became accustomed to the faint sun light, which emanated throughout the vessel, there came the horrible realization that the navigational systems had ceased to be in an operational state.

Unaware as to the cause of this, the vessel erupted into a free for all frenzy, as thousands of men and women consumed their few remaining energies to reach escape capsules. There were still hundreds of thousands of bodies in a cryogenic state, unaware of the looming crisis.

Escape pods were activated, crippled bodies following through with the escape mechanism in hundreds of minority groups. They would escape the crash landing, and make use of the life-sustaining devices aboard their pods to expand into appropriate systems. Half-dead thousands ejected from the superstructure in all conceivable directions. They lacked the energies to input adequate coordinates, and so, their fragile bodies left the superstructure behind and headed to the stars.

The situation aboard ‘Esperanza’ was severe. Thousands were now leaving their cryogenic state every minute to enter a world in crisis. The pods were depleted, those few who had reached them first, had evacuated with only a fraction of their maximum capacity aboard.

Engineers and a body of specially trained officers made for the control deck. Their only hope was to suspend the cryogenic de-frosting and focus all power on minimizing the damage of an unavoidable crash landing. Meanwhile, in the main gallery, thousands of disputes had erupted and created a rupture between the people.

‘We have little time, we must cancel the cryogenic de-frosting and sacrifice a few, so that we may live! All power to the engines!’ exclaimed one man.

‘No!’ Interrupted another, ‘They are fellow human beings, they have the right to be treated with dignity and respect. Let them de-frost, lest a crash landing render our generators useless!’

Yet another intervened, ‘We can do both! But we must focus our attention on the generators, they have no doubt malfunctioned, there is still hope!’

On the main deck, officers were busy making the best of the situation. The looming planet was dead ahead and there was little to no time for the captain to blurt out his decision. ‘Divert power to the engines, if we’re going to crash land we’ll have to minimize the force of the impact.’. Slowly, the ship turned its nose towards the planet’s horizon. It was now at a scant three hundred kilometres above the planetary surface coming in at over 50 kilometers per second and decelerating fast.

The time till impact read twenty seconds. Over the loudspeaker a sharp voice spread through the corridors ‘Prepare for impact in ten seconds and counting.’ The valleys and mountains were now distinguishable down below. As the counter read, 2 seconds till impact, the captain ordered for all power to be diverted to the shields... then it happened.

The devastating impact was felt throughout the ship, thousands of men and women suffered the pull of 6 G from their secure crash landing positions. Buckles straining under the momentary pressure. The entire inner compartment of the vessel detached, shields failed and 10 million tons of heavy minerals dug into the solid, lush terrain.

It was quiet, for sometime. The life sustaining compartment had been built sturdy. It remained in one piece, the rest of the vessel was scattered over hundreds of miles, a mighty wreak.

As the survivors emerged from the compartment in their thousands, they grasped the solid ground, breathed in fresh oxygen and set about to do the basic necessities. Some attended the felled, others went scavenging for food and water, yet others congregated into minor groups.

They begun to discuss the future divisions of land and social hierarchy. Once again, the people divided into three distinct groups. They endured the night divided at a distance.

The following morning -at sunrise- a meeting was arranged between the leaders of each group, to set out political boundaries and with the underlying hope of amending the now growing rift. As the three leaders arrived at the dominant rock -where said meeting had been arranged- they sat down in three distinct corners along with their escorts.

The first to speak was the leader clad in green, ‘Brethren let us put aside our differences, we survived the wars of the past and are now the last remnants of society, should we not be grateful to the goddess for that? As everyone here, I am disappointed with the outcome over the last day. Many lives were lost, both in cryogenic state and during the landing. But for the sake of peace, let there be no more divisions between us.’

A second man, clad in red stood and gazed at the first. ‘We are in this mess because of your group. Had we focused power on the engines we could’ve saved tens of thousands, instead many able bodied men died because of your ethical antiques. We will not co-exist with religious minded fools such as yourself. I swear, we will maintain a pure bloodline free of your pathetic kind...’

As the tension between them grew, the third leader, clad in blue interrupted. ‘Gentlemen, we are all in this together, forget the mistakes of the past, I agree that we should unite. But I am skeptical about this religious convictions you plan on plunging society into once again. It was the cause of much pain in the past, and will no doubt be so again. Besides, I fear we have stumbled on intelligent life. Within the lush vegetation around us, my scouts have indicated the presence of something else, watching us.’

All three men took glances at each other for several minutes with uncertainty. Finally the man clad in green made to leave, ‘I hope to see you around, if there truly is intelligence on this planet. Then they will see the light of the goddess, my people will crusade our cause to the ignorant.’ He walked out, promptly followed by his escort.

As he left the other two men turned to each other. The man clad in blue spoke first. ‘I would like to work with you, however I disagree with your ruthless theories.’ The other simply gazed back. His words were concise. ‘My society will be of one bloodline, I don’t know about you, but we will destroy these barbarians that inhabit our new land.’ He extended one hand to the man clad in blue.

The third man turned away. ‘I’m afraid I cannot agree with your destructive ideas. I hope that someday we will be able to unite for the better, and cast away the destructive conceptions of the past. Myself and my associates will await that day.’

Nodding to each other the man clad in blue stood and made to shake hands with the man in red. They did so and then departed back to their groups.

That same day, provisions were gathered as all three groups set out on their own ways to explore the new planet and set about to put their own stamp on this new world. After they had gone, and as the sun begun to set, figures inundated the former campsites and the wreckage, they extracted the technology that could be salvaged and then withdrew. Leaving the remnants of the past in peace, and the bodies of fifty thousand dead to be consumed by the land.

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