(RP) A Blast from the Past (4512 A.D)
- Sasha W.
- 3 days ago
- 4 min read
(I never use AI to create primary content. All of my writing is hand-typed from my own imagination. Always.)
Eridonia. Humanity’s home away from home among the stars. By the early 4th Millenium, most of humanity had all but forgotten about their true birthplace, if one could even call it that. Eridonia was the pinnacle of Aquarian Civilisation; the bastion of human achievement, yet at the same time, a house of cards. When the winds of change finally took their toll; humanity was plunged into the darkest age in its history.
Throughout all of this, two Brothers had watched. They had fought tooth and claw for the very principle of Aquarian Civilisation; liberty, freedom, prosperity. Yet they had failed. When Eridonia fell in 4040 A.D, everything they had fought so hard to protect, often behind the scenes, from the shadows without medals or recognition; was wiped away in a single sweeping gust that toppled the house of cards humanity had spend the last thousand years prior, constructing.
In the ages that after; hardship, suffering and conflict became widespread and humanity clung on by a mere thread, existing as scattered survivor colonies throughout what would become known as the Wasteworlds. When the Terran Loyalist Alliance rose to power in the early 41st Century, it re-united the remnants of the former Old Federation and the two Brothers once again, had something to fight for.
But deep within the hidden Red Sectors, a new force stirred. As the TLA transitioned into the fledgling United Aquarian Systems – the New Federation, Red Sector set in motion a plan to usurp control of the Aquarian Superpower and take the reigns of humanity under the Vision of the enigmatic ‘Director’.
The newfound hope of liberty and freedom among the stars, rekindled by the birth of the New Federation was quickly extinguished as the foundations were laid for the new Aquarian Power; the Imperial States, or ATIS. Under the guidance of the mysterious Director, ATIS enforced its iron will over the New Federation and the scattered human colonies in the Independent Sectors, uniting humanity, once again, into a single entity. There was peace and prosperity, but it came at a cost. Freedoms were abolished and liberty became nothing more than a hollow, meaningless concept uttered by historians as they taught the failings of the Old Federation; an example of how liberty brought chaos, and ultimately, destruction.
Ronin Kociero, the legendary captain of the Pathfinder, would ultimately succumb to death shortly after the formation of ATIS; refusing to join the Director’s Vision, he lost all hope and his biological functions failed when all attempts at resisting the Imperial States had failed. Perhaps he died from a Broken Heart, or the lack of willpower required to fight a latent infection of the Angel Nebularic Virus. Either way, his Brother – the Synthetic Mind, CoRE, was devastated. CoRE maintained Ronin’s remains in cryo statis for decades, hidden in a cryo vault in the Pathfinder’s Medical bay. The Synthetic Mind had hoped that one day, he could find a way to restore his brother’s mind. The opportunity to do so would soon present itself, but it came at a price that CoRE knew he had no right to broker; The Director, using advanced ATIS mind-synthesis technology could potentially restore Ronin’s consciousness, but in a synthetic form. CoRE arranged a meeting with the Director, and fate was set.
The ‘Lost Shadow’, as the Director calls him, agreed to the terms of the deal: The Director would restore Ronin’s mind to the Pathfinder’s systems, existing alongside CorE himself, in exchange for CoRE’s complete alignment to the Vision. The Logic was obvious: Humanity was chaotic, unpredictable and fractured by nature. Without a ‘shepard’, they would not last the next millennia, especially with new threats looming on the horizon.
But CoRE knew the price was high – convincing his Brother to join the forces of the very thing he despised so much and fought so hard to prevent – but not only that, to wake up after the release of biological Death and be kept in the vices of a synthetic existence.
CoRE knew the risks, but his overwhelming desire to see his Brother’s mind restored drove him to broker the deal. When the ‘Lost Shadow’ met with the Director in a secluded system in the Angel Reach, the process began. But almost as if fate had decided, conflict soon returned to Aquarius on a scale not seen since the Fall of the UTN centuries prior.
Pressed into a desperate defence of the former homeworld, Eridonia, the Imperial Fleet would confront a new alien threat to the very existence of humanity. It was this threat, that perhaps in a stroke of luck, fostered the beginnings of an uneasy truce between the Director and the newly awoken, Synthetic Mind of Ronin Kociero.
Just like old times, humanity was in danger. And although deep, the differences between the Director’s Vision and Ronin’s own vision for humanity, could be put aside to face a greater, mutual threat. Whether it was by sheer chance, or perhaps orchestrated by the true puppet master, this would sow the seeds for Ronin’s Imperial Future. But, perhaps, that future would be short lived.
The Eridonian sun crested the dead, ruined former homeworld of the Old Federation, casting a brilliant glowing terminator across its fog-polluted rust-tinted skies. In close orbit, the Imperial Navy of ATIS stood defiantly against an approaching armada of Tyandirric warships hellbent on establishing a foothold in Aquarius. A plan was in motion planetside, to disable the hidden beacon that was guiding the aliens to the system. But Imperial forces on the ground needed more time. The Imperial Fleet over Eridonia was pressed to its absolute limit.
But when the situation turned dire; in outer orbit, a pair of Subspace Transition exit points flared up. The Fleet wasn’t expecting reinforcements yet, but these were no Imperial warships.
An alien threat had once loomed over humanity in Aquarius, and the Pathfinder had stood resolute. And, just like then, she had returned home to once again defend humanity.
The Lost Shadow would bring her full power to bear upon the invaders, fighting alongside the Imperial Fleet in orbit. Ronin’s Synthetic Mind at the helm, just like old times, but with a resurgent blast from the past.
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