[EDIT 6/17/21] At the bottom of this piece is the subject matter written up to 2,700 words and is the beginning of my work to do this setting completely. Check back now an again so you can easily steal these ideas for your own games!
Using the badly organized but very cool Space Opera game system I am now sketching out the lines for my idea of a Dune-like campaign. Yes, I know I said I would use Classic Traveller for the game mechanics, but I am hungry to run a sci-fi campaign with the venerable, and much shaded, Space Opera system. The Setting Suns Campaign is my attempt at a thoroughly space- opera saturated sandbox with the strangeness dialed to eleven. What I mean by strangeness is that weirdly beautiful experience the original Dune books delivered to millions of readers. I go on in length of what this strangeness feels like to me in this earlier blog post, and I am groping closer and closer to my "This is It" idea. Please help in illuminating what this campaign world is trying to be if so inclined. The universe is a very big place as you know and there are many places to fill with their "proper" pieces.
Setting Suns Campaign World for FGU’s Space Opera
The premise is humans have a path of immortality gifted to
them by the inscrutable Taakar, but in exchange are bound to the Proto-Hyasphere.
This is a collection of habitable systems in the Spica sector of space. These are
the Spica, Tharon and Sardis Systems. Only the Merchant Masters Guild and its members
are allowed to travel between these systems and are responsible for
distributing the Taakar drug which extends life. Everyone else is limited to
their solar system, though travel within the specific system is permitted. Much
like animals in a game preserve, the known human race is quarantined from the
greater universe and are watched by agents of the Merchant Masters. The drug is
claimed to lengthen a person’s life span by tens of thousands of years. This
has not been verified because most people willingly euthanize themselves around
500 years due to paralyzing ennui. No Merchant Master has ever been known to do
this so there is a possibility some members of this ruling class have been
living a tremendously long time.
Spice System
There are two habitable planets in the Spica system. Spica
and Kia Howi. Any character who takes the new
Merchant Master class Sword Mind is automatically from Kia Howi. Kia Howi citizens are recognizable by their
red-copper complexion and coal black hair. Kia Howi is a standard Type 1 Terran
planet dominated by steppe and with about 40% standing water. Most KH rituals
and religious beliefs hold water in high regard. The breathable atmosphere is
contaminated by a fine, razor-sharp silica dust so natives of KH are familiar
with detecting and filtering contaminants and highly knowledgeable in surviving
semi-arid and arid conditions.
The stellar primary, the sun of the system has been replaced
by the Taakar with their “interface” with material reality. It is a luminous,
globe of fusion energy which resembles a giant Type M star. It is here the
Merchant Masters contact the Taakar and acquire the drug necessary for immortal
life.
Tharon and Sardis Systems
Both of these solar systems only have one habitable planet,
and these are busting at the seams with staggering population counts.
New Classes of the Merchant Masters
Sword Mind (Armsman); requires an Empathy score of 15 or
greater. They are the only ones who can take the Combat Training skill. May not
take any Direct Fire skills except for archaic weapons. All forms of melee
weapon skills are available. A Sword Mind has an imbedded HBS Battle Sensor inserted
in one of the character’s eye sockets. Several portions of the skull are
removed, and the hardware of the device is grafted onto the brain tissue. The
cyber “hack” adds an additional eye underneath the main sensing eye. This makes
the Eye of Taaker a Tech 9 device instead of the standard Tech 7 hand-held
device.
HBS Battle Sensor capabilities; picks up and identifies life
forms, energy and heat sources, force fields and radioactivity, giving a rough
direction/distance of these signals. Range is 1.5 km and has no need of a
powercell or rolls for breakdown under normal use. Off planet and in space the
range of the devise is magnified one million percent!
Merchant Master (any class); requires both an Empathy and Psionic
score of 15 or greater. May not use any weapons or learn any combat skills.
Psionic score determines position within the MM guild. Psionic skills may be used
for combat and violence. The only psionic field available is Telekinesis and
the 7-9 level powers are going to be dramatically revised.
Merchant Masters are only found on Spica in regards to an official home, though they may
come from any of the human races in the greater Proto-Hyasphere. It is very rare to see a Merchant
Quantum Weaver (Tech); requires an Empathy score and GTA
score of 15 or greater. Allowed to take Combat Training for Fusion Guns and ARP
Projectors only. Can take the Street Fighting & Brawling Skill, which is an
additional cost and must be purchased at full price even with Combat Training
for Fusion Guns and ARP Projectors.
Weapons in the world of the Taakar are forbidden. Anyone
found in possession of weapons faces life imprisonment. Anyone found using a
weapon faces the death penalty.
Therefore, the Combat Training skill is not available to any
other class than the Sword Mind or Quantum Weaver, and even these classes have
restrictions to what is available. Everyone else is limited to the Streetfighting
& Brawling skill, which caps off at Level 5.
First Edition Edit and Draft
Setting Suns
Campaign World for FGU’s Space Opera
Intro- Over two
thousand years ago humans within the Spica Sector of space were introduced to
the inscrutable Taakar. An entity (entities?) of ultra-dimensional realities
offering a path to immortality. This incredible gift was offered to the last
known galactic citizens of humanity with conditions. In exchange for their
life-extending drug the Federation of Free Planets was to be dissolved and its
citizens were to be bound to a small collection of habitable systems in the
Spica sector of space. A Proto-Hyasphere the Taakar called it. Refuse and
humanity would face utter and instant annihilation. This Proto-Hysphere are the
life-sustaining planets found in the Spica, Tharon and Sardis Systems. Four
planets total. These would be held in stewardship by a select group of citizens
who would see to the order of this new “enlightened and immortal” society, the Guild
of Merchant Masters. Merchant Masters were first made from the few humans
who survived first contact with the mysterious Taakar and communicate with this
irresistible, weird conscious force.
Only the
Merchant Masters and its members were allowed to travel between these remaining
systems, and they were tasked with distributing the Taakar drug which extends
life. Every fifty Spica years, every fifty revolutions around the Taakar which
had replaced the systems original primary star, the Merchant Masters go out to
the four planets of the Proto-Hyasphere and distribute the Blood of Taakar which
must be repeatably taken to maintain an unnaturally long life. All others are limited
to their solar system, though travel within the specific system is permitted. Much
like animals in a game preserve, the known human race is quarantined from the
greater universe on four planets and watched by agents of the Merchant Masters.
So it has been for the last two thousand years.
The drug is
claimed to lengthen a person’s life span by tens of thousands of years. This
has not been verified because most people willingly euthanize themselves around
500 years due to paralyzing ennui, overpopulation, and an eroding ability to be
fascinated. No Merchant Master has ever been known to have taken their own life
so there is a possibility some members of this ruling class have been living since
the arrival of the Taakar.
The
Proto-Hysphere in Brief
The limits of
human expansion into known space are enforced by a mysterious field
encapsulating the three systems in the Spica Sector. To encompass a section of
space over tens, if not hundreds of light years, to seal it off from the
greater universe, is a technological achievement of mind-boggling proportions.
But this achievement is real. Those, two thousand years ago who found the
Taakar’s ultimatum unacceptable began to flee Spica and nearby settled systems.
Only to find the fence had been raised and all attempts to pass through the
barrier resulted in death and destruction. In less than a galactic standard
year the vast empire of humanity throughout Spica sector, which had evolved
from thousands of years of slow exploration and glacial rates of expansion, was
reduced to these three systems. The ultimate authoritarian rule of the Merchant
Masters assured those in the Proto-Hysphere represented all that was left of
humanity. That any who remained outside the Hysphere were to die at the hands
and immense power of the Taakar.
There was
resistance, to be sure. Those still unwilling to abandon the ideals of a “Free
Federation of Planets”, massed their great fleets of starships and attacked
this thing called the Taakar which now lived at the center of the Spica solar
system. And were annihilated.
So humanity
marched on under this irresistible authority, heeding the mandates of its
administrators, the Merchant Masters, living within their galactic reserve for
reasons unknown. So it has been for two thousand years, unchanged. The only
thing of human invention which has flourished are people themselves. With none
ever needing to die planet populations grew and grew. The technology of Quantum Weavers, those
technicians of impenetrable Taakar tools have always answered this challenge.
Cities burrow deep into subterranean crust and reach into the sky. Miracles of
agriculture and food growth supply enough to eat, stations orbit in space
harboring more humanity than has ever been known to exist in the vast expanse
of the universe, free to pursue their interests, of which the what, where and
why of the Taakar is most popular, if they do not violate the mandates of the
Merchant Masters, the voice of the Taakar. These are unwavering and unchanged
since the beginning of the Proto-Sphere; no space travel beyond one’s solar
system and no study, practice, or creation of the means to war and mass-scale
violence. Possession of weapons is prohibited and results in life-time
imprisonment, considered by many a crueler fate than death as none are allowed
to refuse the immortality drug of the Taakar. Many believe humanity is being
raised like cattle for eventual consumption by the Taakar, but the Merchant
Masters which interact directly with this other dimensional entity assure the
alien life form means no harm and its reasoning is beyond the comprehension of
humanity.
Law Index
Weapons in
the Proto-Hyasphere of the Taakar are forbidden. Anyone found in possession of
weapons faces life imprisonment. Anyone found using a weapon faces the death
penalty. Attempting to learn, train or instruct the Combat Skill by citizens of
the Proto- Hyasphere is a crime punishable with life imprisonment or death if
attempted with others. A group of citizens caught combat training, with or
without weapons, can be executed immediately by authorities.
Therefore,
the Combat Training skill is not available to any other class than the Sword
Mind or Quantum Weaver, and even these classes have restrictions to what is
available. Everyone else is limited to the Streetfighting & Brawling skill,
which caps off at Level 5.
Spica
There are two
habitable planets in the Spica system. Spica and Kia Howi. Any character who
takes the new Sword-Mind class is automatically a native of Kia Howi.
Kia Howi citizens are recognizable by their red-copper complexion and coal
black hair. Kia Howi is a standard Type 1 Terran planet dominated by steppe and
less than 40% standing water. Most KH rituals and religious beliefs hold water
in high regard. The breathable atmosphere is contaminated by a fine,
razor-sharp silica dust so natives of KH are familiar with detecting and filtering
contaminants and highly knowledgeable in surviving semi-arid and arid
conditions.
The stellar
primary, the sun of the system has been replaced by the Taakar with their
“interface” with material reality. It is a luminous, globe of fusion energy
which resembles a giant Type M star. It is here the Merchant Masters contact
the Taakar and acquire the drug necessary for immortal life.
Tharon and
Sardis Systems
Both solar
systems only have one habitable planet, and these are busting at the seams with
staggering population counts.
How are the
rules used in Setting Suns?
Space Opera
is the Complete Science Fiction Role Playing Game, and the flexibility
of the rules bears this out when I decided to use these rules for Setting Suns.
The Setting Suns campaign universe has unique features which will
require players to be aware some changes to the character creation process,
different representations of tech and space travel, even the socio-political
structure may appear different to players familiar with more traditional “ray
gun and a rocket ship” space opera games. But these changes are few and minor regarding
the rules of the game. There is no change to how combat is run or world
creation procedure. Skill and action resolution have no changes. Psionics have
a prominent place in Setting Suns, but fields are limited, and
high-level powers are changed to serve the requirements of the setting. The
biggest change, and challenge, for both Star Master (SM) and Players (PCs) is
roleplaying within the bizarre realities the setting conceits rest on and how
to succeed in their desires and goals. We will start with the changes to the
standard character creation process.
Character
Creation for Setting Suns
All the
regular classes of the game are available. The universe still needs astronauts,
engineers, and scientists. Armsman are impacted by the new restrictions on the
use of weapons and the availability of the Combat Training skill, but still
there is nothing from creating a straight up Armsman. The “career paths”
presented in Space Opera needed to generate a PCs starting wealth, equipment
and skills are very generic. This is done on purpose by the writers of the
original game. It is a feature, not a bug. This is so that a Star Master is not
wedded to an official game setting by the publisher. Just because there is no
such thing as BRINT or BOSS in Setting Suns there are still agents, spies,
and policing authorities. This is space opera, and there is nothing in the
rulebook which does not fit or cannot fit the most exotic ideas of science
fiction. In this game world, changes to the rules are stylistic only. The
underlying rules are left intact. So, 3.0 PC Career Experience, 3.1 PC Initial
Enlistment and 3.2 PC Employment procedures can be used as written right out of
the Space Opera rulebook. The Player Characters and Star Master are left to
fill in any blanks remaining by this all-to brief book.
Be careful to
note there are no changes to the reenlistment rules of the game. If a character
on creation whishes to remain in the service chosen, they must actively seek to
remain or will be discharged. Those who do not must seek their fortunes in
other adventurous pursuits.
As has been
mentioned earlier, the standard Space Opera careers are still available. If a
player wants to have served in “Starfleet” or “Planetary Defense Force” for a
career background have at it! Such trades will have to be drastically
reevaluated in light of Setting Suns social, political and intergalactic
structure. Any “Starfleet” (any martial order for that matter) will necessarily
be a clandestine, underground force unless working directly for the Merchant
Masters.
Interstellar
Survey and Survey Scouts will be in high demand to find hidden, undiscovered
and overlooked systems for habitation by those who wish no longer to be under
Taakar rule. While Planetary Police Forces will be subsumed under the authority
of Quantum Weavers, such organizations arise organically on the crowded worlds.
“Turf” is still expected to be taken and protected, customs of mutual
convenience need to be enforced, advantages over your neighbors need to be
maintained to enjoy the best parts of the world, and black markets must be
maintained to satisfy the lusts of an indolent populace.
Contact
Service and Diplomatic Corps still remain to negotiate and politic with
Merchant Masters on a city or society’s behalf. Contacting other human and
alien races beyond the Hysphere is still desired for any number of reasons, and
the Merchant Master’s commercial fleets still need to be flown and maintained.
New Classes for
Setting Suns Universe
The new
character classes offered represent powerful citizens in the ruling classes of
the campaign and each one of these classes have Attribute requirements to
attain them at character creation. These new classes represent the circle of
people in the game world which have a monopoly on some aspect of power needed
to rule this future-tech, speculative science fiction setting.
Sword Mind (Armsman);
requires an Empathy score of 15 or greater. The Sword Minds are the martial
order of the Merchant Masters. They are the Merchant Masters “Pretorian Guard”.
They accompany Merchant Masters as their personal bodyguard when they travel to
the Taakar. Highly ritualized, trained at birth and held to strict codes of
behavior they are like Samurai during dynastic Japan. They have the natural empathy
needed to survive contact with the Taakar and have lived through the procedure
grafting powerful technology to their brain.
They are the
only ones who can take the Combat Training skill at character creation. This
skill must be bought at the highest level. They may not take any Direct Fire
skills except for archaic weapons. All forms of melee weapon skills are
available. Unarmed, and Vibro-Blade/Force-Blade/Monofilament Blade are two required
and must be bought up to the highest level.
Sword Mind
characters must take Contra-Gravity Harness at the highest level and receive
Survival, Steppe level 5 at no cost.
A Sword Mind
has an imbedded HBS Battle Sensor inserted in one of their eye sockets. Several
portions of the skull are removed, and the hardware of the device is grafted
onto the brain tissue. The cyber “hack” adds an additional eye underneath the
main sensing eye. This makes the HBS Battle Sensor an Eye of Taaker, a
Tech 9 device instead of the standard Tech 7 hand-held device.
The Eye of
Taakar’s has the same capabilities of a HBS Battle Sensor; picks up and
identifies life forms, energy and heat sources, force fields and radioactivity,
giving a rough direction/distance of these signals. Range is 1.5 km but has no
need of a powercell or does not need rolls for breakdown under normal use. Off
planet and in space the range of the devise is magnified one million percent!
All Sword
Minds are from the planet Kia-Howie. They have skin of a red-copper complexion
with coal-black hair color. A “retired” Sword Mind should find many Patrons who
would seek their skills and some who have experienced the true nature of the
Taakar may desire to further their “research”.
Merchant Master
(any class); requires both an Empathy and Psionic score of 15 or greater. They
are the ruling elite. They and only they directly trade and negotiate with the
Taakar for the life extending drug. They are forbidden to use weapons or learn
combat skills. Psionic score determines an individual’s position within the Merchant
Master guild, and all are considered “awakened”. The higher their psionic
abilities the more authority they possess. Psionic skills may be used for
combat and violence. The only psionic field available is Telekinesis and the
7-9 level powers are dramatically revised. Read the Psionics chapter for all
the details. A Merchant Master will be called on to suppress insurrection,
pacify cities groaning under population strains, see to the distribution of
immortality, maintain political order and most of all, deal directly with their
other-dimensional masters. A feat of deadly and dangerous proportions.
Active Merchant
Masters reside on overpopulated Spica, though they may come from any of the home
planets in the greater Proto-Hyasphere. Retired Merchant Masters, like their
Sword Mind cousins, are free to settle wherever they choose, but can expect
unique opportunities of employment and adventure offered to them by potential
patrons. Or find they are targets of citizens out for revenge against Merchant
Master totalitarianism.
Merchant Masters
Class Requirements (any class); requires both an Empathy and Psionic score of
15 or greater.
Skills required; none.
A Merchant
Master is defined by their level of Psionics. The field of psionics practiced
is Telekinesis and the Psycho-Kinetic Crystals are a physical object they all
possess. The PK Crystal is what the Taakar have provided to make them what they
are, possessors of advanced science which represents only a minute fraction of
the power coursing through the otherworld entity of the Taakar. Merchant
Masters begin the game psionically awakened and have access to their full
talents.
The psionic
talents level 6 and above are changed in the following ways:
Morass/6; is
now called Dissolution, and instead of making physical materials “soft” it
destroys the material entirely. The percentages and volume figures should be
interpretated as the amount of material terminated as the atomic structure is
unwound.
Mind Touch/6,
Life Sense/6, and Psychic Force/7 remain unchanged.
Energize/7;
is now the ability to bring any type of powered equipment to full charge/power.
Magnetoscreen/8,
Negafield/8 and Radshield/8 remain unchanged.
Battlescreen/9;
is now called Cosmicscreen, a protective shield which provides a complete life
support system for the adept against electromagnetism, anti-matter, radiation,
and the cold vacuum of space.
Power/9; is
now limited to increasing the power of a Crystal Ship.
Maneuver
Drive/9; is now the ability for a Merchant Master to set an interstellar course
with 100% accuracy, subject to the standard modifiers. Since this is a level 9
talent there are only two standard modifiers, +100% for Maneuver Drive/9 and
+200% for Maneuver Drive/10. Well, then how do they fail? As far as a Merchant
Master is concerned, they do not. It will be up to the PCS and SM to create
such situations. The actual translation into tachyon hyperspace is completed by
Quantum Weavers.
FTL Drive/10;
is now the ability for a Merchant Master to transfer into the Taakar at the
center of the Spica solar system and conduct audience. This is usually only
every fifty years when they need to be infused with the drug of immortality,
but they may have to make this translation at any time based on the will of the
Taakar or a Merchant Master’s current needs. If transfer is attempted within
the Spica system from a Crystal Ship success is automatic. If transfer is
attempted withing the Spica system not on a Crystal Ship, there is a 3%
chance of failure. Transfer attempts within the Sardis system while on a
Crystal Ship has a 5% chance of failure. Without being on a Crystal Ship chance
of failure is 11%. Chance of failure from Tharon are 9% and 18% respectively.
Quantum
Weaver
(Tech); requires an Empathy score and GTA score of 15 or greater. They are
technicians specialized in using and maintain the technology created ages ago
to allow interaction with the Taakar. They are required to take Combat Training
to qualify for Fusion Gun and ARP Projectors skills. Quantum Weavers may
take the Street Fighting & Brawling Skill, which is an additional cost, and
must be paid for at full price even with Combat Training for Fusion Guns and
ARP Projectors.
Technician
skills required to be purchased are as follows, Scientific Programming,
Cybernetic Brains, Alien Computers, Anti-Matter Generation Systems and Beamed
Power Transmission.
They are
frequently performing tasks in the alien and hostile environment surrounding
the Taakar at the center of the Spica system, see to the operation of the
complex ships of the Merchant Masters and are used as soldiers in any
large-scale conflict the ruling class may face.
Quantum
Weaver Class
Requirements (Tech); requires an Empathy score and GTA score of 15 or greater.
Skills required
Computer Tech:
Scientific Programming, Cybernetic Brains, and Alien Computers.
Power Tech:
Anti-Matter Generation Systems, and Beamed Power Transmission.
Combat
Training to qualify for Fusion Gun and ARP Projectors skills.
FTL Pilot.
Quantum
Weavers may take the Street Fighting & Brawling Skill, which is an
additional cost, and must be paid for at full price even though Combat Training
for Fusion Guns and ARP Projectors has been purchased.
Ranks of
Command among Quantum Weavers is set by their level of FTL Pilot:
FTL Pilot 3rd
Class, Weaver of the Watch/1-6,
FTL Pilot 2nd
Class, Tachyon Weaver/7-9, and
FTL Pilot 1st
Class, Quantum Weaver/10
Unless a Quantum
Weaver is onboard a Crystal Ship, they are headquartered and trained on Spica. Primary
duties planet side are evaluation and recruitment of potential Quantum Weavers,
administration of limited martial training, and debriefing Sword Minds and
their agents.
The World of
the Proto- Hyasphere
Kia Howie is
a rugged, dry planet with 7.5 billion souls living on its surface. A vast expanse
of steppe girdles the equatorial regions of the planet which give way to short,
thick coniferous forests and rolling hills which cover the planets temperate
zones. The “arctic” zones of the planet are high alpine tundra which rapidly
transition into tremendous mountain ranges all the way to the poles. Intermittent
rivers arise when during seasonal changes as the frost and snow in the arctic
melts and sweeps through the tundra and into the steppe. A Kia Howie day lasts
66 hours while a year is 157 days.
The year’s
length is identical to Spica, and this kept the planet was unknown to the
humans on Spica until Tech levels of 4 and greater were achieved. Once noticed it was not long before colonists
would leave Spica and brave the unknown grasslands and steppe of Kia Howie. The
first danger encountered by the citizens of Spica was the unusual nature of the
Terran-like planet and its deadly dust contamination. This silica-laced dust is
the significant, defining feature of the planet’s surface. It is contaminated
air. A continuous wind drives clouds of dust filled with microscopic silica
which filets lung tissue in a day. The earliest settlers on Kia Howie had to
become proficient in filtering dust from the air which led to larger and larger
sealed cities. Traveling the surface requires elaborate breathing filters to
avoid long-term lung damage and death.
Water is
scarce, a mere 38% of Kia Howie is covered in surface water. The largest bodies
of water are found in shallow seas along the equator.
Spica was and still is the capitol of the human race as far as history
will allow a look into the dark past.
Space Travel
All
in-system, sub-light starship designs are available, and the TISA Maneuver
Drive is in common use. It will not possess defensive armaments or armor but
may have shields to protect the ship from fast moving debris. Of course, if PCs
want to try and get a ship with defensive armaments and battle armor they
should be allowed to try. Building an armed starship would be a dramatic
adventure arc in itself filled with all sorts of dangers and excitement.
Ships with
FTL capabilities are the province of the Merchant Masters and these ships are
designed around schematics drawn up two thousand years ago by the first Quantum
Weavers after their contact with the Taakar. More correctly, after their
contact with the Taakar they became the first Quantum Weavers who were capable
of building what they had been given. These ships are shaped like globes
consisting of clear, facetted crystal. They are the size of a small asteroid, 21
miles in diameter. They are not affected by gravity wells, and they are 21
times faster than terrestrial jump ships. A ship rated at a 21Warp factor will
travel 21 LY in 24 hours. The ships made from the knowledge of the Taakar
travel this same distance in an hour. They do not appear to have sub-light
capability, the Crystal Ships appear in orbit of their destination, a
systems’ Primary. From this orbit the sub-light ships of the system approach to
receive the goods the Merchant Masters have delivered. Cavities appear on the
surface of the Crystal Ships which become the berths for the terrestrial ships.
Goods are then marshaled into their holds by crew in contra-grav harness under
the watchful eyes of a Sword-Mind. If there is to be a meeting between leaders,
they will be received within the halls of the Crystal Ships. The Merchant
Masters only leave the Crystal Ships when home, on Spica, the seat of their
power under the unblinking flame of the Taakar. These transits are completed in
sparkling sub-light ships which have been built to the Quantum Weaver’s
specifications.
The Crystal
Ships have no apparent weapons, why would they need such things? No screens or
EW/ECM energy have ever been detected from the Crystal Ships.
History of
the Merchant Masters
Avodad Evuu
was the first Merchant Master come the arrival of the Taakar. It is recorded he
and a scientific team of 20 boarded the Naval vessel Kliest Rain and
set out to investigate anomalies on the sun’s surface which had been picked up
by Spica orbital satellites. The Kliest Rain took orbit around
the stellar primary at 6 million kilometers and Evuu’s team launched probes
into it.
21 days prior,
routine satellite scanning beamed back to Spica City unusual sunspot activity
which grew daily into gigantic circles of blue radiance. By the time Spica
authorities had decided who and what would go an investigate these changes to the
sun had turned completely into a blue radiating surface. No changes in
temperature from this anomaly, no changes to Spica’s atmosphere could be
detected as this transformation completed. Outside of the optical change in
appearance the system’s sun behaved as normal.
On the third
day of close observation the sun increased in visible magnitude 1,000 times and
knocking out all communication between the Kliest Rain and Spica. When
the sudden explosion of light cleared away the Kliest Rain was no more.
In addition, the original M Type star which stood sentinel over the Spica
system for billions of years was gone. Erased in an instant and unbelievably…
replaced! What was once the life-giving sun of the Spica system was a swollen
globe of blue purple twice the size of the missing primary. The citizens of
Spica were horrified to see in their viewing platforms spiraling arms writhing
out for a million miles in all directions. Purple flesh like appendages as
thick as a small moon coated in a viscous milky-red liquid. The pliant
undulations traced by planet-side recording devices showed these liquid
structures were both unaffected by the cold void of lifeless space and the
apocalyptic heat which radiated from the large globe’s surface.
Leadership
was paralyzed, floundering for what to do. Thousands of years humanity had
poked, prodded, and explored the unfathomable reaches of space encountering all
sorts of strange and terrible sites and alien entities, but this explosive
transformation of a star into something so alien had never been encountered.
Never recorded in the annals of creation by themselves or any other species of
the universe. The system’s full force of might, Federation Starfleet, ringed
the monstrous thing, massive batteries of towering Nova Guns charged, Megatorp
warheads activated. Historical records tell of the miracle which, after an
impasse of 21 days, the “Anomaly” released 3 gigantic, brilliant crystal
globes, equidistant from each other and rotating in a steady triangle
formation. Avodad Evuu returned to Spica, appeared it is agreed, in the council
halls of the Federation, much changed and full of the radiance of Taakar.
He had come from “the Heart of all things” and gave the Taakar’s message of
hope and its terms.
The council was horrified at the change in
humanity’s destiny Avodad Evuu declared was inevitable. But once the armada of
the Federation was vaporized in a crystal rain of plasma from the alien orbs,
humanity’s acquiescence was assured and a course of peace, harmony, and eternal
life was delivered to Spica by Avodad Evuu and the transformed members of his
team which first contacted the Taakar. These are what would become known as the
Merchant Masters and Quantum Weavers.
Of course,
there was resistance, and the incredible psionic powers of the Masters, and
Weavers could only resist so many forces arrayed against them without resorting
to planetary annihilation. The fierce natives of Kia Howie were courted,
converted, and made into the spear of the Masters. The Sword Minds were born,
and with the technology of the Quantum Weavers all Federation resistance was
destroyed.
