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1 - We come in peace
The wreckage was approximately over 100 meters long and seemed fairly intact, except it's still smoking engines. A several groups of small humanoids in protective suits were taking care of different duties, one tried to collect all engine parts on the one pile, while others focused on the symbols written on the hull. A military units secured the area since yesterday and continued with interrogations of shocked local, who seemed scared beyond himself.
"Hessef, did you find anything?" asked smaller humanoid in purple hazmat suit, wrestling with heavy piece of destroyed alien equipment.
Without answering, Hessef too off his helmet.
"Are you crazy? There could still be..." Fzzek started to complain, but his colleague hissed in disagreement:
"Level of radioactivity is negligible and whatever toxic residues were here, already dispersed. Come on, it's way easier now to check data from our equipment."
Fzzek knew that once his friend was convinced about anything, it was impossible to argue with him.
Rather, his sight-organs checked the sensors twice before he noticed Hessef with blowtorch. His intentions were pretty clear at this point.
Hissing repeatedly with annoyance, this was way too dangerous to allow this.
"That's enough! Our orders are collect data from this...probe. This can get us into worse troubles than your clan's progenitor is able to fix."
His colleague's right sight-organ focused on handheld device, which Fzzek was now almost crushing in claws.
"We are here for five hours and only thing we know for sure that it's not from this world, nor this star system. We must find out who sent it. What if it's some kind of weapon?" he threw his claws to direction of armored hovercrafts "The Defense Force shares my opinion, you see. I don't need to ask them to know their sentiment."
Fzzek wanted to hiss again, but this time both were interrupted by calm voice of their third colleague.
"I just managed to connect out decryption cube to the vessel's internal system. It should open...now." Ssofeg's claws typed five strange symbols appearing on the screen and then continued with ten more. Nothing happened.
"We already know there are multiple encrypted transmissions emanating from the probe." said Hessef, mockingly coughing to make it clear. "Unfortunately, they are all encrypted. We don't understand their language, nor their alphabet. We could, however, access it's archives from outside." added Fzzek, trying to diffuse possibility of another fight.
"Oh, I know." hissed Ssofeg in most neutral way possible. "I just accessed it. Once I found out the key is a fairly easy game to test intelligence. Did you try universal translator?"
"It's just garbage sold by shameless alien corpos, it doesn't work most of the times." coughed Hessef with dismissal
"This time, however, it did." answered Ssofeg, while Fzzek was astonished to see that armored hull started to open. "Well, more or less. I only know that I activated the primary file." Before Fzzek could hiss at both of them for being dung-eating maggots, a hologram of an old, tall humanoid being appeared like a glowing apparition, in front of large screen full of pictures. Of more humanoids, of planet, of this probe, how it appeared after completion.
The Hessef's hated universal translator couldn't, indeed, keep up with the alien documentary, but the old humanoid in weird colorful uniform started to show different images: of war, destruction and a dead forest. That shocked the trio more than anything else, since trees almost dissapeared from their own planet and only recently some small pieces of ancients wood could be restored to the ecologically least affected areas.
Depictions which followed were even worse. Nuclear explosions. Ocean waves crushing the cities. Orbital lances piercing under the planet's crust. Cities in firestorms. The person, which has kept repeating words such as "calamity" and "hope", that much the translater was able to keep up, now stood aboard a vessel in the middle of the ocean. Perspective changed, and now all three lizards (and by this time, like 50 soldiers and scientists in awe), could see thousands of vessels evacuating people from areas devastated by nuclear fire and earthquakes.
This bleak images were followed by map of the small continent, whose cities were newly built, with large amounts of metal and concrete.
When it ended as suddenly as it started, only Fzzek was able to break the silence:
"Alright, now it's time to crack it open like rigid egg."
The possibilities to study a recently extinct race were truly astonishing. Their galactic neighbours knew about some ancient species, reclusive demi-gods who kept to themselves, or long dead aliens in occasional dusty archeology site on dead worlds...but this! This happened almost yesterday. And it arrived right to their doors.
Quick glance by his left sight-organ assured him that pleasant coughing of military officers is worrying.
Maybe it still contains some interesting technology to be of use, indeed. After all, they managed to developed hyperdrives and really good alloy to make the probe. Who knows what else there might be?
The wreckage was approximately over 100 meters long and seemed fairly intact, except it's still smoking engines. A several groups of small humanoids in protective suits were taking care of different duties, one tried to collect all engine parts on the one pile, while others focused on the symbols written on the hull. A military units secured the area since yesterday and continued with interrogations of shocked local, who seemed scared beyond himself.
"Hessef, did you find anything?" asked smaller humanoid in purple hazmat suit, wrestling with heavy piece of destroyed alien equipment.
Without answering, Hessef too off his helmet.
"Are you crazy? There could still be..." Fzzek started to complain, but his colleague hissed in disagreement:
"Level of radioactivity is negligible and whatever toxic residues were here, already dispersed. Come on, it's way easier now to check data from our equipment."
Fzzek knew that once his friend was convinced about anything, it was impossible to argue with him.
Rather, his sight-organs checked the sensors twice before he noticed Hessef with blowtorch. His intentions were pretty clear at this point.
Hissing repeatedly with annoyance, this was way too dangerous to allow this.
"That's enough! Our orders are collect data from this...probe. This can get us into worse troubles than your clan's progenitor is able to fix."
His colleague's right sight-organ focused on handheld device, which Fzzek was now almost crushing in claws.
"We are here for five hours and only thing we know for sure that it's not from this world, nor this star system. We must find out who sent it. What if it's some kind of weapon?" he threw his claws to direction of armored hovercrafts "The Defense Force shares my opinion, you see. I don't need to ask them to know their sentiment."
Fzzek wanted to hiss again, but this time both were interrupted by calm voice of their third colleague.
"I just managed to connect out decryption cube to the vessel's internal system. It should open...now." Ssofeg's claws typed five strange symbols appearing on the screen and then continued with ten more. Nothing happened.
"We already know there are multiple encrypted transmissions emanating from the probe." said Hessef, mockingly coughing to make it clear. "Unfortunately, they are all encrypted. We don't understand their language, nor their alphabet. We could, however, access it's archives from outside." added Fzzek, trying to diffuse possibility of another fight.
"Oh, I know." hissed Ssofeg in most neutral way possible. "I just accessed it. Once I found out the key is a fairly easy game to test intelligence. Did you try universal translator?"
"It's just garbage sold by shameless alien corpos, it doesn't work most of the times." coughed Hessef with dismissal
"This time, however, it did." answered Ssofeg, while Fzzek was astonished to see that armored hull started to open. "Well, more or less. I only know that I activated the primary file." Before Fzzek could hiss at both of them for being dung-eating maggots, a hologram of an old, tall humanoid being appeared like a glowing apparition, in front of large screen full of pictures. Of more humanoids, of planet, of this probe, how it appeared after completion.
The Hessef's hated universal translator couldn't, indeed, keep up with the alien documentary, but the old humanoid in weird colorful uniform started to show different images: of war, destruction and a dead forest. That shocked the trio more than anything else, since trees almost dissapeared from their own planet and only recently some small pieces of ancients wood could be restored to the ecologically least affected areas.
Depictions which followed were even worse. Nuclear explosions. Ocean waves crushing the cities. Orbital lances piercing under the planet's crust. Cities in firestorms. The person, which has kept repeating words such as "calamity" and "hope", that much the translater was able to keep up, now stood aboard a vessel in the middle of the ocean. Perspective changed, and now all three lizards (and by this time, like 50 soldiers and scientists in awe), could see thousands of vessels evacuating people from areas devastated by nuclear fire and earthquakes.
This bleak images were followed by map of the small continent, whose cities were newly built, with large amounts of metal and concrete.
When it ended as suddenly as it started, only Fzzek was able to break the silence:
"Alright, now it's time to crack it open like rigid egg."
The possibilities to study a recently extinct race were truly astonishing. Their galactic neighbours knew about some ancient species, reclusive demi-gods who kept to themselves, or long dead aliens in occasional dusty archeology site on dead worlds...but this! This happened almost yesterday. And it arrived right to their doors.
Quick glance by his left sight-organ assured him that pleasant coughing of military officers is worrying.
Maybe it still contains some interesting technology to be of use, indeed. After all, they managed to developed hyperdrives and really good alloy to make the probe. Who knows what else there might be?
- 2
2 - All good things
Once upon a time, Darwin, Northern Territory, used to be a quiet place. Now it was loudest place on the whole continent. Loudest on the planet, more likely. A mundane thoughts like this instantly gave world some resemblance of sense. At least that's what always worked for Albert Richardson, one of the few old residents of the city.
"Do you have some cigarettes, Bertie?" asked voice flavoured by a Polish accent.
In times of his youth, question like this would come likely from a homeless person or someone similarly unfortunate. Sometimes he still misses the goofy gym apps and ads promoting healthy beverages with vitamins. Along with so many small and big things, it's gone.
"Sure, take it." answered with smile, and gave his co-worker a whole package. Everything was rationed, but not the cigarettes. Or home-made alcohol. In times of despair and rampant nihilism, how else to keep people happy? And this place way infinitely better than any other he could think of: aside from Commonwealth strongholds and member states, only Chinese warlords kept things running smoothly. If they were not wrecking each other's hovercraft fleet at the moment, naturally.
"Is there a reason to be that generous?" asked Janusz Kwiatkowski with lethargic curiosity. Fourteen hours of work in the docks is rarely fun.
"Look on the sky."
Both dock workers were now looking on two bulky metal objects, floating barely a few hundred meters above. One accelerated and dissapeared from atmosphere in matter of seconds.
Indeed, the activity on the Earth's orbit was easily visible even during day, more so since the invention of sublight engines. Old-fashioned rocketry no longer existed. Every spaceship could take off and land whenever and however it wanted, compared to clumsy and fragile shuttles of bygone era.
Although the facilities of Darwin were by far the finest of the Commonwealth's effort to produce spaceworthy vessels, it remained impressive how much resources and technology were secured so far on planet where anything which resembles civilization covered barely half of the planet. Superpowers of the past were ruled by anarchy, warlords or changed into irradiated wasteland. Indians were able to save half of their country and third of their population. They got more luck than Americans or Russians, clearly.
Janusz, however, seemed unimpressed. His perspective was way different from Albert's, as he was much younger, desperate to have some success on the world which seemed to do everything to kill him or keep him depressed. Of course he would love to leave this rock one day, but that probability seems pretty low, just as much as probability to ever return to that green-glassed crater where Warsaw once was.
"I'd rather fix different issues than day dreaming about stars. Most people need help here. But I guess rich schmucks onspace stations or Lunar Colony stopped to care."
Now Albert Richardson, a proud Australian citizen he tried to be, seemed annoyed.
"Yes, world is unfair, and some people are more lucky than others. Welcome to the reality, mate."
It still baffled him how some people moaned and whined about things they couldn't change. He never did. As far as he was concerned, everyone failed everyone. No one was happy with what they had, and now everyone had much less. Every survivor of Silicon Age Collapse, that is, or how it's already called in history books.
Russians seemed to always hate everyone, especially after third Civil War. Chinese hated everyone too and themselves even more. Americans fluctuated all the time in waves of isolationism and interventionism, only to just implode and stopped to exist in matter of five years. Europe was finally federalized, only to collapse into city-states, small republics and smaller princedoms and dictatorships.
At that point, only Royal Navy and the forces of the Commonwealth were able to organize convoys, humanitarian and industrial support, while maintaining safe sea lanes corridors. Remnants of Japanese Self-Defense Forces and USN also accepted their command, after all. Civilian administration proved utterly useless, when decisions were no longer how to help but who should be helped. With limited resources, only those who could be saved, were saved. Grim decisions not many politicians were eager to make.
So yes, things were pretty bad, and will remain bad, but in the end, some people found strength to do what can be done. That gave Albert hope for the future of his kids. There had to be more than survival in the future. Everything can be made better. If their planet was no longer good place to live, now there were millions of stars opened for them. He didn't need to be an admiral or scientist to know how good that is.
Resigned, the Polish man waved his hand in dismissal. This is not the first he heard something like that. In any case, there was nothing he could do but argue about it. Sure, he could quit his job, then join now popular doomsday cringe and start a cult. Problem was, he was not that miserable and hopeless. Yet.
"I expected of you to say that. Possibly because you're not really British, then you'd be more gloomy. That island was never sunny, but now it could overdark Mordor."
Ah, a hint of humour. Good, smiled Albert.
"Gloomy? That's the new word from you."
"I don't really have much time to improve my verbal skill, Aussie."
As if the grass was the most interesting thing to watch he silently said:
"I was pretty gloomy, in fact, after I witnessed first nuclear terrorist attack in the world."
Janusz turned to him, cigarette almost falling from corner of his mouth. But Richardson continued.
"At that time, half of the countries had orbital weapons, accelerators, earth-shakers or nukes, but no one really believed there is any inherent problem with that. Every crisis will be ultimately solved, every threat contained, every strong speech just a bluff. Until it wasn't."
The eternal pesimist studied his face, trying to figure out if that can be true. He didn't look that old.
"You never told me that."
Albert sadly smiled.
"I didn't tell that to my family either. It's not exactly good memory, you know. Not the explosion, or shockwave. But screaming afterwards. Everything and everyone around me screamed. Or it was just me? I don't know anymore."
Perhaps he went too far. Sayings about never opening old wounds are that old and that often repeated for a reason. Now everything came back. It's not he had any survivor guilt or crisis of faith. Nothing of the thing. But unlike Janusz, he had quite sudden wake up call to see the collapse of Human civilization as he knew it. No silly apps. No goofy products. Everything's gone. Rationed beans, population control and smuggled Chinese cigarettes is what sustained him.
But he glanced at the sky again.
"What I meant, my dear Polish Watson, that nothing is that bad as it seems. Sure, environment is damaged beyond repair, but we have both work, people we love, and you got cigarettes for free. I call that a good day."
Janusz shaked his head.
"Maybe you had one, but those scientists clearly didn't. Since you so admire them, did you watch those government produced documentaries about exploration of space? Pretty photos of the stars, but after few years of flying here and there outside, few worms, frozen rocks and maybe few pieces of junk."
Now Albert had to roll his eyes and shook his head himself. Oh my God. If Human scientists found 'few worms' on Io or Ganymede a century ago, it would be called greatest discovery in entire history of Mankind.
"All right, if I'll see some laboratory coat, I'll ask if there is any tropical paradise with edible trees and parfumed air."
"Tropical paradise would be enough, thank you, Mr. Richardson. Now old chap, I'd like to engage in amorous congress with some nice lady." Janusz Kwiatkowski said, butchering his own accent with bad attempt at British accent.
Albert started to laugh. That was so bad.
But perhaps he should practice it himself. After all, now we are all Brits. Staring at Union Jack on ribbon of his uniform and then seeing them all around Darwin, it just made sense. Not mentioning the fact that Australia never removed it from their own flag anyway.
Next day, shift was cut short. All workers, guards and sailors were intently watching the giant screens, usually informing newcomers about newly introduced laws or mandatory activities in the Commonwealth in many languages, showing propaganda and news. But now, the news were way more important than all other things combined.
Albert and Janusz were among the lucky ones with a good view, many others had to rely on their ears only.
"KING-EMPEROR HENRY XIII. OF UNITED KINGDOM AND THE COMMONWEALTH, LAST KNOWN MEMBER OF HOUSE WINDSOR, DIED SHORTLY AFTER MIDNIGHT. FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE FOR SOLAR SYSTEM'S COLONIZATION ELECTED AS A NEW MONARCH IN AN EMERGENCY SESSION OF ADMIRALTY AND THE SENATE."
"What do you say about it?" asked Janusz, still unsure how to feel about it. Elected monarch with very limited number of eligible voters.
"What can I say? As a matter of fact, long live the Queen-Empress, of course." answered Albert, an eternal optimist
Once upon a time, Darwin, Northern Territory, used to be a quiet place. Now it was loudest place on the whole continent. Loudest on the planet, more likely. A mundane thoughts like this instantly gave world some resemblance of sense. At least that's what always worked for Albert Richardson, one of the few old residents of the city.
"Do you have some cigarettes, Bertie?" asked voice flavoured by a Polish accent.
In times of his youth, question like this would come likely from a homeless person or someone similarly unfortunate. Sometimes he still misses the goofy gym apps and ads promoting healthy beverages with vitamins. Along with so many small and big things, it's gone.
"Sure, take it." answered with smile, and gave his co-worker a whole package. Everything was rationed, but not the cigarettes. Or home-made alcohol. In times of despair and rampant nihilism, how else to keep people happy? And this place way infinitely better than any other he could think of: aside from Commonwealth strongholds and member states, only Chinese warlords kept things running smoothly. If they were not wrecking each other's hovercraft fleet at the moment, naturally.
"Is there a reason to be that generous?" asked Janusz Kwiatkowski with lethargic curiosity. Fourteen hours of work in the docks is rarely fun.
"Look on the sky."
Both dock workers were now looking on two bulky metal objects, floating barely a few hundred meters above. One accelerated and dissapeared from atmosphere in matter of seconds.
Indeed, the activity on the Earth's orbit was easily visible even during day, more so since the invention of sublight engines. Old-fashioned rocketry no longer existed. Every spaceship could take off and land whenever and however it wanted, compared to clumsy and fragile shuttles of bygone era.
Although the facilities of Darwin were by far the finest of the Commonwealth's effort to produce spaceworthy vessels, it remained impressive how much resources and technology were secured so far on planet where anything which resembles civilization covered barely half of the planet. Superpowers of the past were ruled by anarchy, warlords or changed into irradiated wasteland. Indians were able to save half of their country and third of their population. They got more luck than Americans or Russians, clearly.
"I'd rather fix different issues than day dreaming about stars. Most people need help here. But I guess rich schmucks onspace stations or Lunar Colony stopped to care."
Now Albert Richardson, a proud Australian citizen he tried to be, seemed annoyed.
"Yes, world is unfair, and some people are more lucky than others. Welcome to the reality, mate."
It still baffled him how some people moaned and whined about things they couldn't change. He never did. As far as he was concerned, everyone failed everyone. No one was happy with what they had, and now everyone had much less. Every survivor of Silicon Age Collapse, that is, or how it's already called in history books.
Russians seemed to always hate everyone, especially after third Civil War. Chinese hated everyone too and themselves even more. Americans fluctuated all the time in waves of isolationism and interventionism, only to just implode and stopped to exist in matter of five years. Europe was finally federalized, only to collapse into city-states, small republics and smaller princedoms and dictatorships.
At that point, only Royal Navy and the forces of the Commonwealth were able to organize convoys, humanitarian and industrial support, while maintaining safe sea lanes corridors. Remnants of Japanese Self-Defense Forces and USN also accepted their command, after all. Civilian administration proved utterly useless, when decisions were no longer how to help but who should be helped. With limited resources, only those who could be saved, were saved. Grim decisions not many politicians were eager to make.
So yes, things were pretty bad, and will remain bad, but in the end, some people found strength to do what can be done. That gave Albert hope for the future of his kids. There had to be more than survival in the future. Everything can be made better. If their planet was no longer good place to live, now there were millions of stars opened for them. He didn't need to be an admiral or scientist to know how good that is.
"I expected of you to say that. Possibly because you're not really British, then you'd be more gloomy. That island was never sunny, but now it could overdark Mordor."
Ah, a hint of humour. Good, smiled Albert.
"Gloomy? That's the new word from you."
"I don't really have much time to improve my verbal skill, Aussie."
As if the grass was the most interesting thing to watch he silently said:
"I was pretty gloomy, in fact, after I witnessed first nuclear terrorist attack in the world."
Janusz turned to him, cigarette almost falling from corner of his mouth. But Richardson continued.
"At that time, half of the countries had orbital weapons, accelerators, earth-shakers or nukes, but no one really believed there is any inherent problem with that. Every crisis will be ultimately solved, every threat contained, every strong speech just a bluff. Until it wasn't."
The eternal pesimist studied his face, trying to figure out if that can be true. He didn't look that old.
"You never told me that."
Albert sadly smiled.
"I didn't tell that to my family either. It's not exactly good memory, you know. Not the explosion, or shockwave. But screaming afterwards. Everything and everyone around me screamed. Or it was just me? I don't know anymore."
But he glanced at the sky again.
"What I meant, my dear Polish Watson, that nothing is that bad as it seems. Sure, environment is damaged beyond repair, but we have both work, people we love, and you got cigarettes for free. I call that a good day."
Janusz shaked his head.
"Maybe you had one, but those scientists clearly didn't. Since you so admire them, did you watch those government produced documentaries about exploration of space? Pretty photos of the stars, but after few years of flying here and there outside, few worms, frozen rocks and maybe few pieces of junk."
Now Albert had to roll his eyes and shook his head himself. Oh my God. If Human scientists found 'few worms' on Io or Ganymede a century ago, it would be called greatest discovery in entire history of Mankind.
"All right, if I'll see some laboratory coat, I'll ask if there is any tropical paradise with edible trees and parfumed air."
"Tropical paradise would be enough, thank you, Mr. Richardson. Now old chap, I'd like to engage in amorous congress with some nice lady." Janusz Kwiatkowski said, butchering his own accent with bad attempt at British accent.
Albert started to laugh. That was so bad.
But perhaps he should practice it himself. After all, now we are all Brits. Staring at Union Jack on ribbon of his uniform and then seeing them all around Darwin, it just made sense. Not mentioning the fact that Australia never removed it from their own flag anyway.
Next day, shift was cut short. All workers, guards and sailors were intently watching the giant screens, usually informing newcomers about newly introduced laws or mandatory activities in the Commonwealth in many languages, showing propaganda and news. But now, the news were way more important than all other things combined.
Albert and Janusz were among the lucky ones with a good view, many others had to rely on their ears only.
"KING-EMPEROR HENRY XIII. OF UNITED KINGDOM AND THE COMMONWEALTH, LAST KNOWN MEMBER OF HOUSE WINDSOR, DIED SHORTLY AFTER MIDNIGHT. FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE FOR SOLAR SYSTEM'S COLONIZATION ELECTED AS A NEW MONARCH IN AN EMERGENCY SESSION OF ADMIRALTY AND THE SENATE."
"What do you say about it?" asked Janusz, still unsure how to feel about it. Elected monarch with very limited number of eligible voters.
"What can I say? As a matter of fact, long live the Queen-Empress, of course." answered Albert, an eternal optimist
The Commonwealth as a whole survived?
What happened to America? It looks like the Russians have been fighting in Civil Wars...
What happened to America? It looks like the Russians have been fighting in Civil Wars...
I am going to say something of a political civil war between isolationism and what we have nowadays.
3 - The Colony
In comfortably heated laboratory, a four reptilians kept hissing with excitement. After so many days, an important breakthrough was achieved: a full translation of alien language, with text and voice records fully analyzed by rudimentary AI of their facility. In their large yellow-painted room, only unusual objects were the out of the place looking memory cores, wired to the computers and decoders. It wasn't everything salvaged out of the wreck, of course. Another facility took care of biological samples, which were later found inside the probe, mostly of most common species of plants and animals. He couldn't speak for others, but Fzzek definitely hated anything which involved biological samples, of any kind. Taking care of desert flowers he watered in his office this morning was as far as he was willing to go.
"So, it's true this race never truly united and managed to destroy most of their homeworld. Sad, but unsurprising." said Keffesh, who missed initial research on the crash site. More to himself than anyone else, he added "So boringly common, in fact". It was just so unnecessary to go anywhere, everything he really needed was in this building. Self-aware of being born from lazy egg, field trips were never his favourite activity, completely going against his genetic heritage of hunters and warriors. Some of these "Humans" after fall of their civilization, however, quickly returned to their ancient roots of being hunters and gatherers, according to the audiovisual database. Mammalians in dirty rags living under irradiated surface. Nomadic tribes and refugee convoys trying to scavenge relics of the old world. Bastions of militaristic alliance of surviving nation-stations, stubbornly maintaining semblance of order.
"We would replayed those records to you immediately, if that Gods-damned file didn't lock itself afterwards." hissed through his teeth the ever grumpy Hessef, his claws wrestlings with his data scanner.
Fzzek on the other side of the room was too lost in his own thoughts, trying to comprehend the circumstances under which this race developed hyperdrives: which itself wasn't an ideal solution for interstellar travel. His own people used jump engines only, to limit possibility of destructive encounters with lifeforms and anomalies. An evolution taught them more than anything else that hunters can become hunted at any time, so careful approach was valued over risky endeavours. If war couldn't be solved by two or three battles, it wasn't worth the devastation. No lizard was insane to excessively waste water or livestock just to prove a point.
These people, on the opposite claw, were aggressive go-getters. If resources or land could be obtained, it was targeted and conquered, typically by a more ambitious and resourceful cultures. The waste of lives and resources in such competition must have been astonishing, more so in wars which weren't about anything else but petty differences in philosophy, it seemed.
In their own slow and careful surveys of star systems, they found many remnants of fallen civilizations. Some fell to natural disaster, some to nuclear war or devastating pandemic. Some to pure hubris, like in this case.
Ssofeg's normally calm and analytical thought process way more favoured these aliens with unusual passion. They fiercely tried to overcome all their overwhelming struggles after fall of world's order and when planet itself started to disintegrate, which is another virtue the lizards respected. When the one is pushed into corner, and all the caution is pointless, a warrior must fight to the last limb, tooth and claw.
"So the probe was still in contact with their planet for years, is it confirmed?" he asked, just to be sure about accuracy of dating. Multiple records were apparently made many star years after probe's initital launch.
"Yes, the subspace communication remained active both ways until it reached the galactic core and subsequently deactivated most of it's systems." answered Fzzek, looking to the opposite side of the room, amused by Hessef who just destroyed second scanner in two days and who cursed three different gods in one minute.
"Is there any entry with explanation of this?"
Now Fzzek turned back to his own work station and notes.
"There are some layers of security protocols we haven't been able to access so far. I'd assume it was around same time it deleted all the records about planet's location."
"Seems likely, indeed." hissed Ssofeg with agreement "After their failed experiment with democracy, the most orderly society in existence was able to secure enough resources for space travel. And expansion. Such society will be foremost concerned with survival just as much as with secrecy."
"Naturally." agreed Fzzek, noticing something in particular by his left sight-organ "Crucial for such success was maintenance of world's trade, so resources could be accumulated and exchanged for benefit of whole race. They never stopped trade with their facilities and small colonies within star system, not even in the middle of most devastating war. These electromagnetic catapults throwing supplies and industrial parts into space, were ingenious idea in particular. Usable and easy to maintain under most circumstances. We deemed space elevators to be better idea, but only because our world is united for thousands of star cycles."
"It also explains their stupid distrust and anger towards their closest neighbours. Fear of extinction and limited resources, I get those, but one would think that seeking help from every possible source is wisest approach." hissed and coughed Hessef in too theatrical revulsion
Keffesh suddenly joined the debate by putting holographic emitter on the floor first:
"Let's just see it from their point of view. This is their overlord. A female of their species, I may add. In all the previous vids, we apparently saw only males or their young." added Keffesh, subtly insulting Hessef, who mistook lizard female director for male twice in the past.
"Our first contact protocol remained identical since 2035, therefore a many generations ago. A product of failed organisation called United Nations, it was nevertheless deemed both careful enough while still opened to any required deviations, since there could be...unforeseen consequences. The possibility of extraterrestrial life, more so of advanced civilization was purely theoretical." explained Human female in grey uniform, hands behind the back. The hologram towered over all four of them, in the same size as original being.
After more than several recordings, all scientists learned to distinguish difference between mutiple Human emotions. This species, unlike their own reptilian race, used many different facial muscles to show happiness, anger or displeasure. As far as any one of them could say, talking hologram showed none and continued with more than interesting piece of information:
"We had hoped there is habitable planet close as much as possible to save some of our people. A year passed. Then another. And another. We found some exoplanets which could be made habitable in the future, but we currently lack the technology and resources to do it. More importantly, we lack the most precious resource, time. Our population is well aware that atmosphere is damaged and seismic activity is becoming worse every month. What do they can't know, yet, is that pressure in planetary core will cause planetary-wide disaster. Human life, a survival of any life on the surface will be absolutely impossible, whether only the planetary crust will disintegrate or planet will cease to exist...completely."
Fzzek, who was more perceptive towards alien appearances than other researchers, noticed the faster breath, possibly a show of stress.
"After our initial contact with Mirovandians, the first extraterrestrial civilization we found, there was a valid discussion, whether a call for help was a valid option to consider. In previous century, during less critical times, it would be approved. However, we couldn't be sure what would be reaction of the public and the military. For the first time in Human history, we were largely united species, aside from anarchists and foolish dissenters, who will very soon have no choice but beg our Commonwealth and Royal Navy for help, which now they stubbornly refuse."
"What are those 'anarchists' she speaks of?" asked Keffesh "I saw that word before already."
"From what I could understand, people who refuse any central authority and want to run wild and without control." answered Fzzek with sight-organs fixed on hologram, who seemed to study them. Which was of course impossible. It was just recording, after all.
"Like packs of wild animals. Disgusting. I am not surprised they sought to cull their numbers. A bonus point for them, I guess." hissed Hossef aggresively
"We managed to lay claim on multiple star systems and built space facilities for production of transport ships and surplus food to solve famine, rapidly spreading over our homeworld at the same time."
Another recording. A different Human female in different clothes. Scientist? Clerk? Clothes held significance for those aliens just as it was known in multiple other societies lizards knew so far. Typically only races from colder planets used clothes in any significant capacity in general. Their races preferred to colour their scales, metallic accessories and leather equipment, both for work and decoration. Although it was clear that those "Humans" marked their hairless pelts or appendages in similar ways as well.
A much newer recording, clearly. The female also stretched opening of her maw slightly, which was likely a sign of happiness, if Fzzek remembered correctly.
"After a whole six years, we finally found habitable planet in system we call Barnard's Star. Very large exoplanet, with strong gravity, but with atmosphere sufficiently rich of oxygen and with largely non-threatening small lifeforms. Only three systems away, it was there the whole time, while we were sending science missions to the all sides of the Outer and Mid Rim of the Galaxy."
She sighed with a gesture remarkably close to how researchers would show annoyance themselves, even a showing her teeth a little.
"There are few more potential candidates for a colony...no, for The Colony we desperately need, to move as many of our people as possible before will be too late. Thankfully, our cryotech is advanced enough so we can preserve alive as many people as possible, before first or next colonies will possess any sufficient infrastructure, to save more time and lives. It's possible that many people would be forced to remain in stasis outside the Earth for years, before they will be moved elsewhere. We are talking about hundreds of million living beings that must leave this system. Asteroid belt, so far, provided enough water and energy to, hopefully, keep them all alive before that will be possible."
"Are there any later transmissions recorded by the probe, or that was all?" asked Ssofeg, deactivating holoprojector.
Fzzek's sight-organs checked the probe's database.
"There are three more, who were previously encrypted. Strange, as if it arbitrarily decided which data to unlock first. Now I see thorough list of political differences of ancient Human nation-states. Did you look for them now Keffesh?"
"Not me."
The cameras in the room targeted reptilian scientist for the few moments, before the security algorithm returned them to slow rotations again.
In comfortably heated laboratory, a four reptilians kept hissing with excitement. After so many days, an important breakthrough was achieved: a full translation of alien language, with text and voice records fully analyzed by rudimentary AI of their facility. In their large yellow-painted room, only unusual objects were the out of the place looking memory cores, wired to the computers and decoders. It wasn't everything salvaged out of the wreck, of course. Another facility took care of biological samples, which were later found inside the probe, mostly of most common species of plants and animals. He couldn't speak for others, but Fzzek definitely hated anything which involved biological samples, of any kind. Taking care of desert flowers he watered in his office this morning was as far as he was willing to go.
"So, it's true this race never truly united and managed to destroy most of their homeworld. Sad, but unsurprising." said Keffesh, who missed initial research on the crash site. More to himself than anyone else, he added "So boringly common, in fact". It was just so unnecessary to go anywhere, everything he really needed was in this building. Self-aware of being born from lazy egg, field trips were never his favourite activity, completely going against his genetic heritage of hunters and warriors. Some of these "Humans" after fall of their civilization, however, quickly returned to their ancient roots of being hunters and gatherers, according to the audiovisual database. Mammalians in dirty rags living under irradiated surface. Nomadic tribes and refugee convoys trying to scavenge relics of the old world. Bastions of militaristic alliance of surviving nation-stations, stubbornly maintaining semblance of order.
"We would replayed those records to you immediately, if that Gods-damned file didn't lock itself afterwards." hissed through his teeth the ever grumpy Hessef, his claws wrestlings with his data scanner.
Fzzek on the other side of the room was too lost in his own thoughts, trying to comprehend the circumstances under which this race developed hyperdrives: which itself wasn't an ideal solution for interstellar travel. His own people used jump engines only, to limit possibility of destructive encounters with lifeforms and anomalies. An evolution taught them more than anything else that hunters can become hunted at any time, so careful approach was valued over risky endeavours. If war couldn't be solved by two or three battles, it wasn't worth the devastation. No lizard was insane to excessively waste water or livestock just to prove a point.
These people, on the opposite claw, were aggressive go-getters. If resources or land could be obtained, it was targeted and conquered, typically by a more ambitious and resourceful cultures. The waste of lives and resources in such competition must have been astonishing, more so in wars which weren't about anything else but petty differences in philosophy, it seemed.
In their own slow and careful surveys of star systems, they found many remnants of fallen civilizations. Some fell to natural disaster, some to nuclear war or devastating pandemic. Some to pure hubris, like in this case.
Ssofeg's normally calm and analytical thought process way more favoured these aliens with unusual passion. They fiercely tried to overcome all their overwhelming struggles after fall of world's order and when planet itself started to disintegrate, which is another virtue the lizards respected. When the one is pushed into corner, and all the caution is pointless, a warrior must fight to the last limb, tooth and claw.
"So the probe was still in contact with their planet for years, is it confirmed?" he asked, just to be sure about accuracy of dating. Multiple records were apparently made many star years after probe's initital launch.
"Yes, the subspace communication remained active both ways until it reached the galactic core and subsequently deactivated most of it's systems." answered Fzzek, looking to the opposite side of the room, amused by Hessef who just destroyed second scanner in two days and who cursed three different gods in one minute.
"Is there any entry with explanation of this?"
Now Fzzek turned back to his own work station and notes.
"There are some layers of security protocols we haven't been able to access so far. I'd assume it was around same time it deleted all the records about planet's location."
"Seems likely, indeed." hissed Ssofeg with agreement "After their failed experiment with democracy, the most orderly society in existence was able to secure enough resources for space travel. And expansion. Such society will be foremost concerned with survival just as much as with secrecy."
"Naturally." agreed Fzzek, noticing something in particular by his left sight-organ "Crucial for such success was maintenance of world's trade, so resources could be accumulated and exchanged for benefit of whole race. They never stopped trade with their facilities and small colonies within star system, not even in the middle of most devastating war. These electromagnetic catapults throwing supplies and industrial parts into space, were ingenious idea in particular. Usable and easy to maintain under most circumstances. We deemed space elevators to be better idea, but only because our world is united for thousands of star cycles."
"It also explains their stupid distrust and anger towards their closest neighbours. Fear of extinction and limited resources, I get those, but one would think that seeking help from every possible source is wisest approach." hissed and coughed Hessef in too theatrical revulsion
Keffesh suddenly joined the debate by putting holographic emitter on the floor first:
"Let's just see it from their point of view. This is their overlord. A female of their species, I may add. In all the previous vids, we apparently saw only males or their young." added Keffesh, subtly insulting Hessef, who mistook lizard female director for male twice in the past.
"Our first contact protocol remained identical since 2035, therefore a many generations ago. A product of failed organisation called United Nations, it was nevertheless deemed both careful enough while still opened to any required deviations, since there could be...unforeseen consequences. The possibility of extraterrestrial life, more so of advanced civilization was purely theoretical." explained Human female in grey uniform, hands behind the back. The hologram towered over all four of them, in the same size as original being.
After more than several recordings, all scientists learned to distinguish difference between mutiple Human emotions. This species, unlike their own reptilian race, used many different facial muscles to show happiness, anger or displeasure. As far as any one of them could say, talking hologram showed none and continued with more than interesting piece of information:
"We had hoped there is habitable planet close as much as possible to save some of our people. A year passed. Then another. And another. We found some exoplanets which could be made habitable in the future, but we currently lack the technology and resources to do it. More importantly, we lack the most precious resource, time. Our population is well aware that atmosphere is damaged and seismic activity is becoming worse every month. What do they can't know, yet, is that pressure in planetary core will cause planetary-wide disaster. Human life, a survival of any life on the surface will be absolutely impossible, whether only the planetary crust will disintegrate or planet will cease to exist...completely."
Fzzek, who was more perceptive towards alien appearances than other researchers, noticed the faster breath, possibly a show of stress.
"After our initial contact with Mirovandians, the first extraterrestrial civilization we found, there was a valid discussion, whether a call for help was a valid option to consider. In previous century, during less critical times, it would be approved. However, we couldn't be sure what would be reaction of the public and the military. For the first time in Human history, we were largely united species, aside from anarchists and foolish dissenters, who will very soon have no choice but beg our Commonwealth and Royal Navy for help, which now they stubbornly refuse."
"What are those 'anarchists' she speaks of?" asked Keffesh "I saw that word before already."
"From what I could understand, people who refuse any central authority and want to run wild and without control." answered Fzzek with sight-organs fixed on hologram, who seemed to study them. Which was of course impossible. It was just recording, after all.
"Like packs of wild animals. Disgusting. I am not surprised they sought to cull their numbers. A bonus point for them, I guess." hissed Hossef aggresively
"We managed to lay claim on multiple star systems and built space facilities for production of transport ships and surplus food to solve famine, rapidly spreading over our homeworld at the same time."
A much newer recording, clearly. The female also stretched opening of her maw slightly, which was likely a sign of happiness, if Fzzek remembered correctly.
"After a whole six years, we finally found habitable planet in system we call Barnard's Star. Very large exoplanet, with strong gravity, but with atmosphere sufficiently rich of oxygen and with largely non-threatening small lifeforms. Only three systems away, it was there the whole time, while we were sending science missions to the all sides of the Outer and Mid Rim of the Galaxy."
She sighed with a gesture remarkably close to how researchers would show annoyance themselves, even a showing her teeth a little.
"There are few more potential candidates for a colony...no, for The Colony we desperately need, to move as many of our people as possible before will be too late. Thankfully, our cryotech is advanced enough so we can preserve alive as many people as possible, before first or next colonies will possess any sufficient infrastructure, to save more time and lives. It's possible that many people would be forced to remain in stasis outside the Earth for years, before they will be moved elsewhere. We are talking about hundreds of million living beings that must leave this system. Asteroid belt, so far, provided enough water and energy to, hopefully, keep them all alive before that will be possible."
Fzzek's sight-organs checked the probe's database.
"There are three more, who were previously encrypted. Strange, as if it arbitrarily decided which data to unlock first. Now I see thorough list of political differences of ancient Human nation-states. Did you look for them now Keffesh?"
"Not me."
The cameras in the room targeted reptilian scientist for the few moments, before the security algorithm returned them to slow rotations again.
- 2
I wonder what these aliens are like? They seem to be more unified and less democratic, but are they materialist or spiritualist?
Is the human delegate still present here and actually communicating with them? Or has humanity passed its glory days?
Is the human delegate still present here and actually communicating with them? Or has humanity passed its glory days?
Sorry for delay, now I am trying to make all screenshots I can save on the sd and external hdd first, so I wont be forced to end AAR prematurely due to third dead computer in five year this time it will be saved on multiple places.
Just last time when I played, mods started to act strange and all DLCs appeared corrupted. I feared of corrupted Ironman save if I was forced to download game again.
this time it will be saved on multiple places.Just last time when I played, mods started to act strange and all DLCs appeared corrupted. I feared of corrupted Ironman save if I was forced to download game again.
Now stuff like this makes me paranoid and save my own ones on various devices.Sorry for delay, now I am trying to make all screenshots I can save on the sd and external hdd first, so I wont be forced to end AAR prematurely due to third dead computer in five year
Just last time when I played, mods started to act strange and all DLCs appeared corrupted. I feared of corrupted Ironman save if I was forced to download game again.
So thank you Paradox for this experience. I dont know how your update broke this game, but it did.
I will remember this next time when Ill try to write something.
I've made it to 2390 and just finished Quantum Catapult when this happened.
I dont know how your update broke this game, but it did.I will remember this next time when Ill try to write something.
I've made it to 2390 and just finished Quantum Catapult when this happened.
1. I've seen it usually when it saves into the cloud. From what I remember. So try to see if you can access those online saves.So thank you Paradox for this experience.
I will remember this next time when Ill try to write something.
I've made it to 2390 and just finished Quantum Catapult when this happened.
View attachment 926112
2. What version are you using? If it's prior to 3.6 you can easily reverse the game version.
3. If you are using mods, well...this can be quite the issue. Assuming you use steam, well, the workshop is absolute garbage, in my humble opinion with their forced update policy, games too etc, but that's derailing the issue.
4. See if you can scramble, some mods that don't completely break the game, I started to use a custom launcher for mods (ironmymodmanager) since it allows you to make local instances of those mods, so updates shouldn't be able to affect you.
However if you aren't using any mods I suspect its a cloud issue. Do you have only 1 save? Is it iron-man or normal?
I'm usually, as I said before lol, paranoid when it comes to stuff like this and have hundreds of saves, heck even saves that don't go beyond the same month.
5. Unfortunately when writing long AAR's stuff like this is way too common so I usually makes copies of my saves folders once I while.
I really hope some of my advice can help. It's sad to see an AAR die.