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Post by Insano-Man on Sept 22, 2018 21:20:20 GMT -5
This topic is a child of the Paleworlders article directory.ALONG FOR THE RIDEThere is absolutely no information on the paleworlders' origins. They have forgotten as a species, and arrived without historical records of any kind. Few are educated enough to even consider the subject. How they evolved into their present-day selves, what society - if any - preceded them, and where their homeworld is - if they had one - are all unknowns. Even the exact date of their arrival on Set is vague. The conditions, social climate, and various other details of the time are all open to interpretation. What little is accepted is that the paleworlders were an unwelcome surprise. CHAPTERS- 1. Discovery- 2. Infection- 3. Expansion- 4. Revelation- 5. Acceptance- 6. Integration- 7. Present Day
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Post by Insano-Man on Sept 22, 2018 21:20:29 GMT -5
DISCOVERY
Somewhere between 500-600 OSC, ships in orbit detected a derelict craft drifting past Set. Ordinary practice at the time was to ignore passing ships unless they were actively transmitting a distress signal. Whether or not the ship was abandoned was not a concern. For the most part, the craft was left alone, and it is guessed that it remained within sensor range for roughly a decade. If another few years had been allowed to past, the derelict would have passed by Set and been entirely forgotten.
That was not the case. Some time after the derelict had been discovered, redworlder ships arrived to begin unsanctioned salvage operations. It was hardly much out of the ordinary; moving resources to orbit was an expensive process that was usually tied up by multi-species supply demands. Passing salvage was difficult to ignore for expansion-hungry habitation platforms. Likewise, the Pioneer Network rarely objected. Most understood the need. Others simply didn't care.
Salvage work on the craft went as anticipated. The ship was explored, documented, and stripped of its cargo before it was eventually cut apart. During the process, corpses were found strewn about the ship, believed to be paleworlders. Surviving records suggest they had starved to death or been killed by environmental system failures. Little else is known. What they looked like, how the bodies were disposed of, or what the craft's computer systems might have carried are all missing information. In the end, the ship was rendered down into a drifting cloud of miniscule detritus.
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Post by Insano-Man on Sept 22, 2018 21:20:39 GMT -5
INFECTION
It was only weeks before the redworlders involved started to suffer mysterious ailments. Ineffective decontamination procedures led to infections and autoimmune complications that went unexplained for months. Some were natural consequences of salvage work; chemical contamination, pressure suit breaches, and occupational stress working together. Others were more sinister. Some reported the development of inexplicable tumors that, over time, simply flaked off on their own. Medical crews were baffled.
At the same time, security teams were swarmed with rumors of stray animals in the ships' vents. The salvage flotilla was mostly made up of aging, poorly-maintained craft, which only served to complicate matters. Hiding places were easily accessible and everywhere to be found. Internal sensors were unreliable. By the time the flotilla had returned to Set's orbit, roughly several months later, the majority of its ships had reported the same. There was only one choice left; to dock with Unity Station, ask for help, and hope for the best.
In the end, it was viewed as the worst mistake they could have made. Only a day after the ships had docked, Unity residents started to suffer their own problems. Mysterious rashes, self-autotomizing tumors, and strange creatures in dark spaces. Anywhere else on the station, the crisis could have been contained. Instead, it was in the worst place possible; a construction offshoot not much different from the flotilla itself. Places to hide were everywhere. Security was sparse. Medical centers were nothing more than basic clinics.
The epidemic continued for months until unionite observers were alerted to the problem. Orbital representatives for the Pioneer Network followed on their heels. The salvage flotilla was forced to expose its operation in the process, but little headway was made in resolving the crisis. Illnesses plummeted, but sightings of creatures continued. More worrying still was an uptick in unexplained deaths across the construction zone. Many were found with bite marks - or already partially eaten. For every corpse found, another person simply went missing.
When the deaths had finally hit their peak, the Loonies put their foot down. At the time, no one disagreed; there were monsters on the station. The only solution was to treat them in kind. Initial objections by unionites were largely drowned out by residents. By the end of the year, Loonies arrived with tunnel fighting equipment. Fighting started in earnest on the same day as their arrival. By the end of the first week, six hostile creatures had been killed and dragged from the vents. Killings and disappearances rapidly tapered off. Roughly three months later, the station was deemed free of monsters.
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Post by Insano-Man on Sept 22, 2018 21:23:37 GMT -5
EXPANSION
It was roughly a month afterwards that more problems cropped up on other stations. Most of them were redworlder habitation platforms, visited by the same flotilla that had docked with Unity. Many of them had the same story. A poorly-secured population center was under attack by monsters hiding in the dark. Attempts to repeat the Loonies' success only seemed to exacerbate the problem. The creatures withdrew and refocused their efforts. The weak, sick, and helpless became their preferred prey. Children were among the first to be targeted. For every twenty people attacked, only one person was able to escape.
On the few occasions someone survived an attack, their account was just as troubling. Some were lured into ambush sites, others were attacked without warning by a pack of monsters. Some used primitive weapons fashioned out of stolen supplies. Most were coordinated assaults that skillfully applied basic, simple tactics to every maneuver. Even attacks by lone creatures demonstrated a level of environmental awareness that went beyond animal instinct. Every person that returned usually came back with the same rashes and growths clinging to them.
Begrudgingly, the Loonies went back to action. Teams arrived on each station with the same orders; if it was hostile, they killed it. Initial encounters were markedly more difficult than action on Unity Station. Ineffective attacks by local security teams had wisened the creatures on the stations. Some had stolen weapons from unsecured armories or retreating security teams. When the Loonies arrived, expecting unthinking beasts and onrushing horrors, difficulties mounted.
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Post by Insano-Man on Sept 22, 2018 21:23:46 GMT -5
REVELATION
Time and casualties dragged on with the extermination effort. It did not end in the way anyone had expected - or hoped. Unionite researchers had captured several live specimens aboard Unity Station. Every corpse the Loonies dragged back was sent straight to an affiliated lab for study. Their reproductive patterns were quietly documented. Their behavior was analyzed in depth. Virtual simulations modelled every aspect of their biology and psychology. Eventually, the revelation was announced; the child-hunting monsters were sentient.
The Loonies were not amused. Redworlders across orbit shared the same sentiment. Operations continued despite unionite objections. For somewhere close to two years, Loonies were involved across orbit in rooting out the creatures. "Noktam'lonas", Qashanish for "hulk stalkers", entered into common usage at roughly this time. As time went on, it became a common feature of Set's orbital life. On poverty-ridden platforms, there were monsters in the corners no one visited. Loonies passed through on a regular basis on "bug hunts" for the terrors in the dark.
Initially, the other species over Set had paid little mind to the subject. Most were simply unaware of it; the problem was largely confined to redworlder infrastructure, and only those that were already in poor condition. Even redworlders who lived on better-developed stations were only aware of the problem in passing. As the two years of bug hunts came to a close, Pioneer Network representatives announced they had nearly resolved the crisis. The hulk stalkers were close to extinction.
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Post by Insano-Man on Sept 22, 2018 21:26:00 GMT -5
ACCEPTANCE
Immediately, the announcement triggered a shock. Unionites leveraged their research into a political tool. Ecological parties formed to halt what was swiftly deemed a genocide. Chief among them were political factions of the orscruft and sorassan. Non-Looney elements of Set's human majority joined in. The hulk stalkers were renamed the "paleworlders", acknowledged as intelligent by the interested parties, and dissent jolted into action. Continued predation on redworlders went largely ignored, especially as paleworlder numbers fell.
Political rifts bogged down Pioneer efforts to continue extermination work. Looney attempts to board stations were blocked by protesting ships. Crowds formed on habitation platforms to harass Looney strike teams. It all came to a head when a Looney gunship opened fire on a craft attempting to prevent it from docking with a redworlder trade platform. Several were killed onboard the ship as a result. The unrest took on a renewed militancy in the wake of the incident. Favor tipped strongly against the Pioneer Network.
It was with no shortage of frustration that the Loonies gave up. Redworlders across orbit were infuriated. Even communities on the ground were sent into an uproar; paleworlders had reached the planet's surface and begun ambushing people in the wilderness. In spite of the reign of terror inflicted on their people, the monsters in the dark were deemed worthy of preservation. Redworlders, often backed by Loonies, continued to argue in favor of their extinction. By and large, their efforts were unsuccessful.
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Post by Insano-Man on Sept 22, 2018 21:28:56 GMT -5
INTEGRATION
Over time, the paleworlders were tentatively integrated into Set's daily affairs, sponsored primarily by unionites. Ferals were captured and placed into education programs. Attempts were made to uplift packs through remotely-operated drones. Most efforts were failures, accomplishing little more than identifying problem populations. Begrudgingly, Loonies were often selected for the task of containing them. Elsewhere, larval paleworlders were abducted for transport to Unity Station. Most were eventually incorporated into the Endangered Species Survival Enclave program.
Affairs surrounding the paleworlders continued without many significant changes for several centuries. They contributed little to Set's daily life; by and large, efforts to uplift them were unsuccessful. Socialized paleworlders made little impact. When the Native Uplifting Agreement was put into effect, it placed a lens over the paleworlders' history. When it failed, and hundreds died to raging crab warbands, the Loonies were not amused. The redworlders across the planet shared the same sentiment.
The arrival of the blackworlders was of muted impact for the paleworlders. They were contacted just as every other species, but did little to welcome the mysterious creatures in. They were named the "Betrayers", but held the title in little regard. Most were entirely unaware of it. Even other species hardly recognized it. For the Loonies, the title was simply too formal. For redworlders, it acknowledged them as intelligent. To this day, usage and knowledge of it are scarce.
When the Third Invaders and the Splinter Wars arrived, there was still little to be seen of paleworlder involvement. Socialized paleworlders were still rare and limited in authority. Most were civilians entrusted with paltry duties. Most died in orbit as the war raged on. Bombardment campaigns shattered feral packs below. The Big Split followed swiftly after, and Loonies across the planet were unchained from the Pioneer Network's obligations. Genocide returned again, quietly carried out in the background of a catastrophic war. No one paid it much mind. Even the unionites were silent.
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Post by Insano-Man on Sept 22, 2018 21:29:49 GMT -5
PRESENT DAY
In face of everything, the paleworlders survived. Packs below adapted, found new ecological niches, and new hunting grounds. Paleworlders in orbit flourished on damaged stations and isolated derelicts. The damage to the garbage hauler network afforded feral paleworlders new opportunities to expand. Socialized paleworlders clung on through sheer narcissism, surviving by exploiting or abandoning others whenever available. Time rode on and the Loonies' second attempt at extermination fell through. The paleworlders were here to stay.
Today, things are largely unchanged. Paleworlder packs continue to cause difficulties for ships, stations, towns, and travellers. Their reputation as child killers and vent lurkers remains unabated. Socialized paleworlders are brought up in much the same way; through kidnappings of larvae and demeaning education. Most live as primitives, rarely living longer than ten years, and accomplish little in their lives. They are hated and feared by all, and their old rivalries have stood the test of time. Despite commanding no end of animosity from other species, the paleworlders have continued to persist and adapt - and no one thinks they'll ever go away.
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