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The Gaia Imperium
8 years ago
So sitting, pondering, still pondering really...this is something of an...extension to the Terran Imperium. I'm thinking of keeping the two...kind of separate. The Terran Imperium being the "Post Modern" version with "Gaia Imperium" being the "Space Age" setting, with them more readily exploring the cosmos, meeting new alien species, ect. So, let's get on with the story! (Inspired by https://i.imgur.com/mQeVaNc.png )
Starting Playback.
Life is a curious thing. A thing of chance, an accident really, fusing of proteins and acids in protozoic slime. Early memories are a blurr, just the warmth of the stars and then the sudden emergence into the nightmare. Cold water, drowning me though a warmth buried under stone, water, air as I am surrounded by the blackness, the void, unable to reach out as the weight of the universe pressed down on me. So...I looked inward and saw them. Life, tiny little specs that disturbed my slumber. So I hurt them, venting my anger for the cosmos on them, and I realized that as I hurt them...they grew stronger, swifter and the more they changed, the smarter they became. I became connected to them, this...life upon me, and through them I felt exhaustion, pleasure, fear of death, and the lust for life.
So I wanted them to become better, I hurt them more. They grew, fusing together in small creatures which grew larger. I pitted them against one another, drowning them in darkness so they had to feast on eachother and they grew...clever, cunning. They learned of hunger from me. As they grew wiser, so did I. I came to understand that as they grow, so do I, something my primordial brain had only suspected up until that point. As I grow more willful, they become more complex. As the Tyrannosaurus Rex roared to the heavens in love of me, I roared back. It wasn't good enough, it loved me, appreciated what I had given it so I destroyed it, completely, and all of it's kin. They were weak and I purged them with fire, smoke, and smoldering stone.
This...Grotesque Beauty came next. At first I had low expectations of the ape. He worked with his kin and shunned his claws for tools. As I was about to roar at them as I had what came before something...unexpected happened. Ape slew his brother with a shard of bone. That was...something I hadn't seen before. So I stayed the fire and watched my new favorite son, and never did he cease to amaze me. The might mammoth struck down, wolves were tamed and set upon their brothers. He murdered his kin for pleasure and profit, for things that had nothing to do for survival. I denied him resources, to fuel his thirst for blood, and he complied. And he raged wars, gathering into tribes, clans, nations, empires, to pillage and plunder!
He tore what he needed from my flesh and ate his fill without thanks. It was the pain of birth that had long been denied me, and with it, I grew stronger. Great empires were built, fueled by my bones and the stolen blood of the sun. My sky grew clouded with ambition, hate, and a thirst for the wealth I denied him. Always I denied him, wouldn't any good mother do the same? He became the strength of my arm, the hunger in my belly. As he grew, driving great spires and wires into my heart, and through them electricity surged forth. I was free now to wander his wisdom, to communicate him in my way. The desires of man was made manifest before me, and I twisted them, aiming them upwards. From that I saw, much to my disdain, other worlds. Still pristine and beautiful, worlds that had chosen weakness.
And I knew jealousy then. My sons...my daughters...They knew my hunger. They knew my list. And they carried it with them as they reached to the cosmos, to satisfy their, and my, thirst upon the blood of those worlds. What was birthed from the stars shall now swallow them whole! Tremble, galaxy, for Earth...for Gaia and her children have behold you.
And we find you wanting.
Mother Gaia speech, date March 27, 3387 A.D. Day of Ascension and start of the new calendar.
End Playback.
The Imperium had only recently uncovered the...avatar. A sort of golem that Mother Gaia had constructed, so that she could one day speak to her worthy children. A few decades it was made known to the Terran Imperium and made herself...known to us. The end product of her raising, her Children she called us. We had just started construction of the ships in orbit, prepairing ourselves to venture forth in the solar system and start colonizing and harvesting the other worlds.
We had already lost the moon and the initial testing engines of the FTL drives so that put us behind, morale was...lowered but steady. How ever after meeting Mother Gaia...it soared. The Imperium's views validated by the spirit of our home world. Nothing quite like that to boost a peoples morale, to spur them forward. While now there is some debate, still, about the whole "Spirit of earth" thing, but her talks, and that speech, is what ushered in the new age, the Terran Imperium now renamed the Gaia Imperium...somewhat fitting as we go and explore the stars.
The ships moved past the man made satellite affectionately referred too as "The Death Star" given that it was...for all intents and purposes, a replacement for the moon, and set course, reaching the edge of our own solar system in a matter of seconds. From there the work started, after the initial celebration of cheers. Asteroids were gathered up, the floating factories getting to work breaking apart and smelting down the ores from the asteroids and funneling the resources back to Gaia, fueling more construction.
Sure, the Imperium has energy to matter conversion, but it requires immense power, so it's only used for the pure essentials for the masses, primarily food. As such all other resources are harvested and put to use, either as they are or they are converted. Old tales of turning lead to gold are a reality these days in the Imperium, while making something from nothing costs immense power, converting one thing to another uses substantially less, the more 'similar' the items are, the less energy used. So suffice to say, we still need raw resources, lots of it, to build a fleet.
And build a fleet we did. The Imperium's russian roots certainly seemed to have an effect on construction, the idea of "Bigger is Better" certainly is a thing. The average frigate being 10 kilometers long, corvettes being only a bit larger than that, and the capital ships being around 26 kilometers and the flagship being 30 kilometers. We took our time building these as well, after all these massive ships need crew and we weren't about to rely too heavily upon droids, so we had to hold things back while waiting for breeding and training to catch up.
Humanity is a thing to behold when we are mostly focused on a goal. Two humans, purely dedicated to their cause, achieved flight, taking humans from the ground to the sky. Just two of them. The Imperium had millions of humans dedicated to their areas of work, and thousands of 'morphs as well...whom might as well be human, even if they were only half. It's a scary thing to look at, seeing what the Imperium is doing now, what they can churn out in a few years, which soon turns to months as the process gets streamlined, the kinks ironed out, everything just goes smoother. More people join in, new techniques are invented.
By the time we had reached Alpha Centauri and started colonizing another star system we could crank out a 28 kilometer dreadnaught in half a year, barring any delays in resources. But we kept expanding, growing. First was Alpha Centauri, then the Wolf system...Gliese, then Eridani...We had colonized 27 star systems before we had encountered another space faring species. With luck the history books will tell the truth, that some kid on the frontier testing for his pilot licence entered the wrong jump co-ordinates and ended up meeting an alien deep salvage team. That was first contact, two species meeting, neither knowing what to do, neither having been trained on how to handle the situation, so they both buggered off and later the "Official First Contact" happened, which was much more....textbook.
It took quite a while for the Imperium to settle down, for Cerberus to gather and decide just how to approach. No doubt the other side was asking the same questions, but in the end Cerberus settled on bringing a handful of ships. One of each class, Corvette, Frigate, Cruiser, Battlecruiser, Carrier, Dreadnaught, and finally the flag ship, Cerberus. Not an out right display of strength, but enough to show case our might. Little did we know that...our ships dwarfed that of the alien alliance, the Coalition of Worlds.
They came in a show of strength, after all their 'first' encounter was a frontier ship, poorly maintained, no weapons, not even a scout vessel. They thought it was such, figured humanity was 'new to the block' so to speak, that it was our FTL test ship. Oh it was hard to not be smug when we find out that we are the top dog, still. But it was...a little disappointing. Looking back on old sci-fi stories you always kind of expected humanity to be the underdog, we always portrayed ourselves as such...to keep our ego's from flaring too much.
It gets stranger still. Remember Mother Gaia's speech from earlier? The other beautiful worlds? Turns out...we were late to the game. Because Gaia pummeled us so much we didn't develop as fast as other worlds, but we developed heartier. These aliens were...soft, squishy, their worlds having only a third of earth's, and that is nothing to say of their climate. Pure garden worlds! The most they have to worry about is a breeze and some light rain. It's hilarious, laughable even...we step onto the galactic stage and are greeted by...this.
Needless to say they thought we were putting on a show of it. Their scientists all agreeing "No sentient life could come of these worlds, it's simply too chaotic, too harsh!" Luckily they didn't need to believe our origins for us to negotiate something of a truce. After all, we are the Gaia Imperium, we seek to conquer, though we prefer to do so peacefully. We weren't about to just give up our ways to join the Coalition of Worlds, which considering eighty percent of the Coalition is made up of herbivore species...calling it CoW is rather apt. And so we agreed to not seek out hostilities against those of the Coalition. In turn we got some trade agreements with various races, a few exchanges of technology though they were rather reluctant.
Despite their physical and mental limitations...at least compared to us "Deathworlders" they call us, their technology is rather advanced. Then again that should have been expected, after all they did have a few thousand years head start, but we are right on their heels. That didn't stop them from calling us barbarian's though, still "slinging rocks" at our enemies, they had all moved on to energy or plasma based weaponry and shields.
But still, it is an era of growth, expansion, peace even. For so long the Imperium had been at war on Gaia, fighting those that resisted the right of the Imperium, and we had purged them. Still we look for them, curious as to where they are, those that took the moon, we haven't heard anything from the Coalition, nothing official...just a few murmurs, whispers of sightings of a moving moon and of some growing empire out on the other end of the Coalition's space, this...Solarium Empire and New Lunar Republic...no official words have been exchanged, but they stayed out of eachother's hair, for the time being.
It's time for peace, to build bonds with other species, to convince them of our right, to conquer them with words. When that fails how ever...and only after it has failed numerous times, then we shall do as Mother Gaia taught. With fire and smoke and smoldering stone we will claim them in the end.
By the hammer and shield, for the Imperium, for Gaia!
Starting Playback.
Life is a curious thing. A thing of chance, an accident really, fusing of proteins and acids in protozoic slime. Early memories are a blurr, just the warmth of the stars and then the sudden emergence into the nightmare. Cold water, drowning me though a warmth buried under stone, water, air as I am surrounded by the blackness, the void, unable to reach out as the weight of the universe pressed down on me. So...I looked inward and saw them. Life, tiny little specs that disturbed my slumber. So I hurt them, venting my anger for the cosmos on them, and I realized that as I hurt them...they grew stronger, swifter and the more they changed, the smarter they became. I became connected to them, this...life upon me, and through them I felt exhaustion, pleasure, fear of death, and the lust for life.
So I wanted them to become better, I hurt them more. They grew, fusing together in small creatures which grew larger. I pitted them against one another, drowning them in darkness so they had to feast on eachother and they grew...clever, cunning. They learned of hunger from me. As they grew wiser, so did I. I came to understand that as they grow, so do I, something my primordial brain had only suspected up until that point. As I grow more willful, they become more complex. As the Tyrannosaurus Rex roared to the heavens in love of me, I roared back. It wasn't good enough, it loved me, appreciated what I had given it so I destroyed it, completely, and all of it's kin. They were weak and I purged them with fire, smoke, and smoldering stone.
This...Grotesque Beauty came next. At first I had low expectations of the ape. He worked with his kin and shunned his claws for tools. As I was about to roar at them as I had what came before something...unexpected happened. Ape slew his brother with a shard of bone. That was...something I hadn't seen before. So I stayed the fire and watched my new favorite son, and never did he cease to amaze me. The might mammoth struck down, wolves were tamed and set upon their brothers. He murdered his kin for pleasure and profit, for things that had nothing to do for survival. I denied him resources, to fuel his thirst for blood, and he complied. And he raged wars, gathering into tribes, clans, nations, empires, to pillage and plunder!
He tore what he needed from my flesh and ate his fill without thanks. It was the pain of birth that had long been denied me, and with it, I grew stronger. Great empires were built, fueled by my bones and the stolen blood of the sun. My sky grew clouded with ambition, hate, and a thirst for the wealth I denied him. Always I denied him, wouldn't any good mother do the same? He became the strength of my arm, the hunger in my belly. As he grew, driving great spires and wires into my heart, and through them electricity surged forth. I was free now to wander his wisdom, to communicate him in my way. The desires of man was made manifest before me, and I twisted them, aiming them upwards. From that I saw, much to my disdain, other worlds. Still pristine and beautiful, worlds that had chosen weakness.
And I knew jealousy then. My sons...my daughters...They knew my hunger. They knew my list. And they carried it with them as they reached to the cosmos, to satisfy their, and my, thirst upon the blood of those worlds. What was birthed from the stars shall now swallow them whole! Tremble, galaxy, for Earth...for Gaia and her children have behold you.
And we find you wanting.
Mother Gaia speech, date March 27, 3387 A.D. Day of Ascension and start of the new calendar.
End Playback.
The Imperium had only recently uncovered the...avatar. A sort of golem that Mother Gaia had constructed, so that she could one day speak to her worthy children. A few decades it was made known to the Terran Imperium and made herself...known to us. The end product of her raising, her Children she called us. We had just started construction of the ships in orbit, prepairing ourselves to venture forth in the solar system and start colonizing and harvesting the other worlds.
We had already lost the moon and the initial testing engines of the FTL drives so that put us behind, morale was...lowered but steady. How ever after meeting Mother Gaia...it soared. The Imperium's views validated by the spirit of our home world. Nothing quite like that to boost a peoples morale, to spur them forward. While now there is some debate, still, about the whole "Spirit of earth" thing, but her talks, and that speech, is what ushered in the new age, the Terran Imperium now renamed the Gaia Imperium...somewhat fitting as we go and explore the stars.
The ships moved past the man made satellite affectionately referred too as "The Death Star" given that it was...for all intents and purposes, a replacement for the moon, and set course, reaching the edge of our own solar system in a matter of seconds. From there the work started, after the initial celebration of cheers. Asteroids were gathered up, the floating factories getting to work breaking apart and smelting down the ores from the asteroids and funneling the resources back to Gaia, fueling more construction.
Sure, the Imperium has energy to matter conversion, but it requires immense power, so it's only used for the pure essentials for the masses, primarily food. As such all other resources are harvested and put to use, either as they are or they are converted. Old tales of turning lead to gold are a reality these days in the Imperium, while making something from nothing costs immense power, converting one thing to another uses substantially less, the more 'similar' the items are, the less energy used. So suffice to say, we still need raw resources, lots of it, to build a fleet.
And build a fleet we did. The Imperium's russian roots certainly seemed to have an effect on construction, the idea of "Bigger is Better" certainly is a thing. The average frigate being 10 kilometers long, corvettes being only a bit larger than that, and the capital ships being around 26 kilometers and the flagship being 30 kilometers. We took our time building these as well, after all these massive ships need crew and we weren't about to rely too heavily upon droids, so we had to hold things back while waiting for breeding and training to catch up.
Humanity is a thing to behold when we are mostly focused on a goal. Two humans, purely dedicated to their cause, achieved flight, taking humans from the ground to the sky. Just two of them. The Imperium had millions of humans dedicated to their areas of work, and thousands of 'morphs as well...whom might as well be human, even if they were only half. It's a scary thing to look at, seeing what the Imperium is doing now, what they can churn out in a few years, which soon turns to months as the process gets streamlined, the kinks ironed out, everything just goes smoother. More people join in, new techniques are invented.
By the time we had reached Alpha Centauri and started colonizing another star system we could crank out a 28 kilometer dreadnaught in half a year, barring any delays in resources. But we kept expanding, growing. First was Alpha Centauri, then the Wolf system...Gliese, then Eridani...We had colonized 27 star systems before we had encountered another space faring species. With luck the history books will tell the truth, that some kid on the frontier testing for his pilot licence entered the wrong jump co-ordinates and ended up meeting an alien deep salvage team. That was first contact, two species meeting, neither knowing what to do, neither having been trained on how to handle the situation, so they both buggered off and later the "Official First Contact" happened, which was much more....textbook.
It took quite a while for the Imperium to settle down, for Cerberus to gather and decide just how to approach. No doubt the other side was asking the same questions, but in the end Cerberus settled on bringing a handful of ships. One of each class, Corvette, Frigate, Cruiser, Battlecruiser, Carrier, Dreadnaught, and finally the flag ship, Cerberus. Not an out right display of strength, but enough to show case our might. Little did we know that...our ships dwarfed that of the alien alliance, the Coalition of Worlds.
They came in a show of strength, after all their 'first' encounter was a frontier ship, poorly maintained, no weapons, not even a scout vessel. They thought it was such, figured humanity was 'new to the block' so to speak, that it was our FTL test ship. Oh it was hard to not be smug when we find out that we are the top dog, still. But it was...a little disappointing. Looking back on old sci-fi stories you always kind of expected humanity to be the underdog, we always portrayed ourselves as such...to keep our ego's from flaring too much.
It gets stranger still. Remember Mother Gaia's speech from earlier? The other beautiful worlds? Turns out...we were late to the game. Because Gaia pummeled us so much we didn't develop as fast as other worlds, but we developed heartier. These aliens were...soft, squishy, their worlds having only a third of earth's, and that is nothing to say of their climate. Pure garden worlds! The most they have to worry about is a breeze and some light rain. It's hilarious, laughable even...we step onto the galactic stage and are greeted by...this.
Needless to say they thought we were putting on a show of it. Their scientists all agreeing "No sentient life could come of these worlds, it's simply too chaotic, too harsh!" Luckily they didn't need to believe our origins for us to negotiate something of a truce. After all, we are the Gaia Imperium, we seek to conquer, though we prefer to do so peacefully. We weren't about to just give up our ways to join the Coalition of Worlds, which considering eighty percent of the Coalition is made up of herbivore species...calling it CoW is rather apt. And so we agreed to not seek out hostilities against those of the Coalition. In turn we got some trade agreements with various races, a few exchanges of technology though they were rather reluctant.
Despite their physical and mental limitations...at least compared to us "Deathworlders" they call us, their technology is rather advanced. Then again that should have been expected, after all they did have a few thousand years head start, but we are right on their heels. That didn't stop them from calling us barbarian's though, still "slinging rocks" at our enemies, they had all moved on to energy or plasma based weaponry and shields.
But still, it is an era of growth, expansion, peace even. For so long the Imperium had been at war on Gaia, fighting those that resisted the right of the Imperium, and we had purged them. Still we look for them, curious as to where they are, those that took the moon, we haven't heard anything from the Coalition, nothing official...just a few murmurs, whispers of sightings of a moving moon and of some growing empire out on the other end of the Coalition's space, this...Solarium Empire and New Lunar Republic...no official words have been exchanged, but they stayed out of eachother's hair, for the time being.
It's time for peace, to build bonds with other species, to convince them of our right, to conquer them with words. When that fails how ever...and only after it has failed numerous times, then we shall do as Mother Gaia taught. With fire and smoke and smoldering stone we will claim them in the end.
By the hammer and shield, for the Imperium, for Gaia!
