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Klaatu

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Silver Fox:
The following story, when complete, will be my entry in the Space GB. This is just the beginning, please do not adjust your sets.

Klaatu

The B’aran were an old race, old even for this part of the Galactic core. Their original homeworld had been consumed eons ago, savaged by the sun which had birthed it. The B’aran had a nascent starflight capacity by then and they had emigrated… the entire race had simply left their world and become nomads. It was a massive undertaking for an entire planetary population to pick up and leave, but that was exactly what they had done.

The first stop was a neighbouring star not far from their original. That star too was doomed, but it bought almost four centuries for the B’aran to complete the adaptation to a nomadic lifestyle. Ships were designed, built and tested and then redesigned with knowledge gained. Scouts explored nearby star systems, finding primitive life or no life at all. The Galactic core was a location seething with the energies of stars being born and destroyed… but intelligent life was almost completely missing.

The first time the B’aran encountered a sapient race they were primitives, The B’aran were treated as Gods, a position they took as their just due. In due course they had pillaged everything they could from the star system, leaving the hapless natives to whither on the vine. They would never know there was a larger universe, never know that their “Gods” had taken everything from them… including their future.

A similar pattern would emerge for the next 5 or 6 millennia. The B’aran would encounter a sapient race, appear as gods and pillage whatever of value was to be had. The B’aran learned quickly that having the indigenes worship them and provide the labour for their own planet’s pillage was the easiest course. It was a successful pattern that would govern the B’aran until something better arrived. During this period the B’aran population grew from the 3.5 billion that had fled their homeworld to over 40 billion encamped aboard the B’aran worldships.

The Glotta were a peaceful, almost idyllic race of people. They eschewed technology, living a pacific lifestyle that met basic requirements for life and maximized the possibilities for quiet reflection. They were also powerful telepaths, so powerful that the Glotta lacked even the most basic of auditory cues. A Glotta made no sound when experiencing pain or terror, but all but a mind-blind individual could “hear” the psychic scream.

The Glotta were fully aware of the arrival of the first B’aran scoutship, and later when almost 20,000 B’aran worldships appeared in the skies. They ignored both arrivals. The B’aran landed and demanded tribute, the Glotta ignored them. The B’aran gathered hostages and tied them to stakes, to be burned for their “insolence” in the face of their betters.

The fires were duly lit and the Glotta made not a sound, simply writhed in the flames. Half the Glotta population died in the massive psychic cry of horror and pain which ensued. 34 billion B’aran died in that split second of psychic shock. The incident would mark the B’aran for the remainder of time. The Glotta reflected on the transience of all corporeal life and simply moved on.

It was a lesson the B’aran would take to heart, any future race that even appeared to have psychic ability was to be avoided at all costs.

apophenia:
Star Trek meets the Tudor era! I like it  :)

Silver Fox:
Part II: The Balen

When the B’aran scoutship dropped out of stardrive there was considerable confusion on the bridge. Both primary and secondary sensor stations reported the presence of technologically advanced species… but on different bearings. The two systems were main-sequence stars, and the energy signatures suggested that the two systems were independent. There was little overlap in the frequencies and modulations of the electronic emissions.

The scoutship remained on station for 50% longer than a normal scouting operation, but scouted two worlds in that time. Returning to the fleet of B’aran worldships they duly reported their findings. A large component of the leadership wanted to simply avoid the whole area, fearing that a technological species might be too far advanced to simply cow in the established pattern. There was no evidence that either species was telepathic, and after a contentious battle those in favour of conquest won out. The “avoiders” did win one concession… the less advanced species would be struck first. Once conquest was assured the fleet would leave a caretaker operation in place and move on the more advanced species.

3,000 years had passed since the disastrous and abortive conquest on Glotta, but the B’aran were still unsettled when they moved on the planet of Balen. Glotta had been an unusual situation that had ended badly, and now they faced another unusual situation. A single scoutship crept closer and closer to Balen, finding little to worry about. There were no system defences to mention and little interplanetary traffic. The species was obviously capable of interplanetary flight, but didn’t seem to do much of it.

The scout crept back out system after completing its mission and reported back to the fleet. Strategy was plotted and it was decided that the fleet would drop into the system only a few hours from orbit. The Balen would be overwhelmed with sheer numbers.

It didn’t work that way.

The Balen were well aware of their sentient stellar neighbours, they were also violently xenophobic. They knew they lagged somewhat behind the neighbours in terms of technology, not yet having mastered stardrive. The combination meant that the Balen were also well aware of the approach of the B’aran. The very first scout had generated a powerful electromagnetic pulse on emergence from starflight… and it had been detected.

Most of the Balen had immediately gone to ground; they hid from the invader to avoid detection. A few ships had remained in flight so as not to arouse suspicion. It had almost been too few; the B’aran had started to wonder about the lack of traffic. Had the B’aran looked closer they might have noticed something far more important to their needs… the system was largely stripped bare of easily portable resources.

For over a century the Balen had mined, smelted and gathered resources in their system and hid them away. They weren’t going to have their system stripped by an invader if it could be helped. The arrival of the B’aran wasn’t the threat that they had prepared for, but it was so very close as to make no difference.

12,000 B’aran worldships dropped into realspace just over two hour’s flight time from Balen. Their systems took 140 seconds to stabilize after the jump and for nearly 700… they didn’t have that much time. Balen space exploded as the Balen defences sprang into operation. There were only 6,000 defence ships and almost all of them were smaller than even a B’aran scout, but all were pure warships.

In the opening salvo the ready alert ships had launched 1,000 nuclear tipped missiles. The second salvo was just under 12,000 missiles and the B’aran defences would have been simply swamped except that many missiles had been targeted on the same ships. The opening salvo had crossed the tortured space left in the wake of the mass stardrive jump and homed on the largest targets. The second salvo had almost exclusively gone after scouts, assuming them to be escort vessels. Of 20,500 scouts, just under 7400 died in the second salvo and already commands were racing out from the B’aran flagship to flee the system.

11,207 B’aran worldships and 8265 scouts escaped Balen space. They accounted for 2983 Balen defence ships, but had no idea if more defences were waiting further in-system. In just over 7 minutes the B’aran had learned to avoid not just telepaths, but also space fairing species.

Volkodav:
Loving this, can't wait for future installments.

GTX_Admin:

--- Quote from: Volkodav on January 31, 2014, 08:52:42 AM ---Loving this, can't wait for future installments.

--- End quote ---

Ditto! :)

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