Prologue
Observation Unit 553212 performed the same task it had for its approximately two hundred thousand years of existence since it replaced the previous unit 553212 at the hands of automatic construction units. For these two hundred thousand years, the robotic satellite had spent meticulously recorded every single detail that its sensors received, with the only variations being a few passing fleets of fledgling civilisations (none yet to outlive the device) and the occasional rogue asteroid getting torn apart by the automated defences. Yet, on an otherwise uneventful day of the seven hundred millionth millenium since the fall of the last empire of the creators, this monotony was broken.
--------------------
The bridge of the V.R.S. Kal Kumpuk was abuzz with activity as the homeworld of the Old Ones became visible on the ship's sensors. Countless hypotheses and theories about the homeworld were confirmed and destroyed within an Epit (the time it took for a pin to drop from the extended arm of an ancient Velutarian mathematician ) of the vessel's arrival as the sprawling cities of the system's third world and it's nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere were detected. After she barked a few commands to the right heads of departments, Doctor Perak Tysala was able to bring the rabble of Velutarian and Chek'tal scientists to a state of subdued, quieter work instead of the yells and rush to get a look at the sensor readings.
The Velutarian Confederation and their Chek'tal allies had been planning this joint expedition for almost thirteen orbits of Velutaria. The Old Ones had had multiple civilisations, each of which left their mark on almost every single planet in the galaxy, but their homeworld had not been discovered by the current species of the Galaxy until only sixteen years ago. The first expedition became a disaster when the ship surveying the system was torn apart by the planet's anti-asteroid defences, causing the Confederation's government to declare the system off limits until a safe way could be found to approach.
The enterprises of a crew of a Chek'tal civilian vessel had provided this method when they were able to find an IFF transponder on an ancient wreck of a cargo freighter within the space of the Chek'tal republic, partially buried in an asteroid. This discovery naturally led to a joint expedition between the two nations.
The crew of the Kal Kumpuk were obviously tense as the lasers of the defences tracked the approaching ship, yet - despite the exclamations of doom from a crewmember of north Velutarian descent - they were able to reach the orbit of the cradle of the greatest galactic civilisation without harm.
--------------------
Lieutenant Fern'huss was given the honour of escorting the doctor on her away mission - potentially the first time a living creature had set foot on the planet for countless millennia. The shuttle weaved its way through the giant skyscrapers that covered a massive amount of the eastern coast of the largest continent on the planet. The holographic signs had long ago lost power in almost all of the city - with only one remarkable exception that the Doctor ordered Taras to set a heading for.
The giant structures and industry parted around one strange building that lacked the efficient design of the others. It was designed, it seemed, to be aesthetically pleasing, with a symmetrical structure and visually pleasing, sloping roofs. The building was mostly short, aside from a central tall part of the structure that rose above the rest, yet had the same suspended sloping roof.*
The power in the local area was, for some reason, still maintained by the deliveries of fuel by the robotic sentinels taking care of the planet.
The doctor's expectation of potentially months of figuring out the cause of the local anomaly was revealed to be a severe overestimate when her crossing the threshold was met with the glaring light of a hologram without any sort of visible projector. The figure that stood before the Doctor and her Chek'tal escort was far more similar to her, yet with rounder ears and a far more stocky build. Next to it, or perhaps she, the doctor seemed like a teenager next to an adult.
Without pausing for her to respond, she spoke - somehow in Velutarian.
"Child, you have finally reached my homeworld. I wish I could had lived to see your people spread and grow across the galaxy, yet I fear that my people and yours will be in this galaxy countless years apart. My name is, or rather was Doctor Mài Wen. I was one of what my species called endlings, the last of a species. At our height, we reached over galaxies in immense civilisations, yet now, as I record this, the entire reach of my species is a small part of the capital of the last Human Nation.
I cannot begin to imagine what you expected to find here but what you'll receive is knowledge that will move your people millennia forward. The only price I would ask you to pay would be to simply listen to the history of my people, from the mouth of a dead woman and species. I believe that you might understand why we created some of the devices that we did that had such devastating consequences for our species and the worlds we once inhabited. If you wish to learn more than that which I say, the data banks of this building, once the National Library of China - now the Terran library - will have everything you need to know stored.
To understand who we were, I believe it prudent to begin at the start, when my species lived in an age that both provided chivalry and simple life, but also disease, war and intolerance. At this time, great houses rose and fell infinitely faster than the fledgling civilisations that appeared throughout the galaxies during the time of my species".
As the hologram spoke, the walls of the library's foyer were transformed into a display of maps and information that correlated with the Narrator's tale.
*Rather poor description of the National Library of China.
------------------------------------------------------------
Okay, so, this is my second attempt at an after action report that will hopefully go more successfully than my first. My first involved having to create a mod to support it, which was too ambitious for my knowledge of code at the time - which still isn't great. this, however, won't require that so I should hopefully be able to invest myself more into this without abandoning it.
I'll be sticking to a dynasty until it reaches a strong position of power, then changing to someone else to build them up. I'll probably even lead a few rebellions against my former characters so as to keep the world fractured.
I'm admittedly using this more to tell a story instead of playing a game, so some cheating/savescumming might occur to tell this story, but I'll leave some elements to randomness.
Game Rules:
-Defensive pacts-Off
-Sunset Invasion and Mongol invasion - Random
-AI seduction and intrigue-Off
-De Jure requirement-Required
Mods:
-In Heavens Cartographic Map
DLC:
-All
Contents:
All feedback - positive or otherwise - is welcome.
Hopefully I haven't missed anything, and please enjoy the AAR.
Observation Unit 553212 performed the same task it had for its approximately two hundred thousand years of existence since it replaced the previous unit 553212 at the hands of automatic construction units. For these two hundred thousand years, the robotic satellite had spent meticulously recorded every single detail that its sensors received, with the only variations being a few passing fleets of fledgling civilisations (none yet to outlive the device) and the occasional rogue asteroid getting torn apart by the automated defences. Yet, on an otherwise uneventful day of the seven hundred millionth millenium since the fall of the last empire of the creators, this monotony was broken.
--------------------
The bridge of the V.R.S. Kal Kumpuk was abuzz with activity as the homeworld of the Old Ones became visible on the ship's sensors. Countless hypotheses and theories about the homeworld were confirmed and destroyed within an Epit (the time it took for a pin to drop from the extended arm of an ancient Velutarian mathematician ) of the vessel's arrival as the sprawling cities of the system's third world and it's nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere were detected. After she barked a few commands to the right heads of departments, Doctor Perak Tysala was able to bring the rabble of Velutarian and Chek'tal scientists to a state of subdued, quieter work instead of the yells and rush to get a look at the sensor readings.
The Velutarian Confederation and their Chek'tal allies had been planning this joint expedition for almost thirteen orbits of Velutaria. The Old Ones had had multiple civilisations, each of which left their mark on almost every single planet in the galaxy, but their homeworld had not been discovered by the current species of the Galaxy until only sixteen years ago. The first expedition became a disaster when the ship surveying the system was torn apart by the planet's anti-asteroid defences, causing the Confederation's government to declare the system off limits until a safe way could be found to approach.
The enterprises of a crew of a Chek'tal civilian vessel had provided this method when they were able to find an IFF transponder on an ancient wreck of a cargo freighter within the space of the Chek'tal republic, partially buried in an asteroid. This discovery naturally led to a joint expedition between the two nations.
The crew of the Kal Kumpuk were obviously tense as the lasers of the defences tracked the approaching ship, yet - despite the exclamations of doom from a crewmember of north Velutarian descent - they were able to reach the orbit of the cradle of the greatest galactic civilisation without harm.
--------------------
Lieutenant Fern'huss was given the honour of escorting the doctor on her away mission - potentially the first time a living creature had set foot on the planet for countless millennia. The shuttle weaved its way through the giant skyscrapers that covered a massive amount of the eastern coast of the largest continent on the planet. The holographic signs had long ago lost power in almost all of the city - with only one remarkable exception that the Doctor ordered Taras to set a heading for.
The giant structures and industry parted around one strange building that lacked the efficient design of the others. It was designed, it seemed, to be aesthetically pleasing, with a symmetrical structure and visually pleasing, sloping roofs. The building was mostly short, aside from a central tall part of the structure that rose above the rest, yet had the same suspended sloping roof.*
The power in the local area was, for some reason, still maintained by the deliveries of fuel by the robotic sentinels taking care of the planet.
The doctor's expectation of potentially months of figuring out the cause of the local anomaly was revealed to be a severe overestimate when her crossing the threshold was met with the glaring light of a hologram without any sort of visible projector. The figure that stood before the Doctor and her Chek'tal escort was far more similar to her, yet with rounder ears and a far more stocky build. Next to it, or perhaps she, the doctor seemed like a teenager next to an adult.
Without pausing for her to respond, she spoke - somehow in Velutarian.
"Child, you have finally reached my homeworld. I wish I could had lived to see your people spread and grow across the galaxy, yet I fear that my people and yours will be in this galaxy countless years apart. My name is, or rather was Doctor Mài Wen. I was one of what my species called endlings, the last of a species. At our height, we reached over galaxies in immense civilisations, yet now, as I record this, the entire reach of my species is a small part of the capital of the last Human Nation.
I cannot begin to imagine what you expected to find here but what you'll receive is knowledge that will move your people millennia forward. The only price I would ask you to pay would be to simply listen to the history of my people, from the mouth of a dead woman and species. I believe that you might understand why we created some of the devices that we did that had such devastating consequences for our species and the worlds we once inhabited. If you wish to learn more than that which I say, the data banks of this building, once the National Library of China - now the Terran library - will have everything you need to know stored.
To understand who we were, I believe it prudent to begin at the start, when my species lived in an age that both provided chivalry and simple life, but also disease, war and intolerance. At this time, great houses rose and fell infinitely faster than the fledgling civilisations that appeared throughout the galaxies during the time of my species".
As the hologram spoke, the walls of the library's foyer were transformed into a display of maps and information that correlated with the Narrator's tale.
*Rather poor description of the National Library of China.
------------------------------------------------------------
Okay, so, this is my second attempt at an after action report that will hopefully go more successfully than my first. My first involved having to create a mod to support it, which was too ambitious for my knowledge of code at the time - which still isn't great. this, however, won't require that so I should hopefully be able to invest myself more into this without abandoning it.
I'll be sticking to a dynasty until it reaches a strong position of power, then changing to someone else to build them up. I'll probably even lead a few rebellions against my former characters so as to keep the world fractured.
I'm admittedly using this more to tell a story instead of playing a game, so some cheating/savescumming might occur to tell this story, but I'll leave some elements to randomness.
Game Rules:
-Defensive pacts-Off
-Sunset Invasion and Mongol invasion - Random
-AI seduction and intrigue-Off
-De Jure requirement-Required
Mods:
-In Heavens Cartographic Map
DLC:
-All
Contents:
All feedback - positive or otherwise - is welcome.
Hopefully I haven't missed anything, and please enjoy the AAR.
Last edited:
