Chapter I
In Xal We Trust
"Supreme Lord Xaluan-Dath'Eck ..." The slight Advisor-Drone stammered on, "You haven't answered my questions."
"You haven't yet piqued my interest." Supreme Lord Xal continued to look mournfully out of one of his many audience room's great windows. The crystalline forests of Terrakia, barely visible over the towering structures of the planet capitol, glimmered in the light of the sister stars Ferus and Aris.
"Supreme Lord, these questions are of great importance. The people of Terrakia grow increasingly apathetic. They are content to toil in your factories, in the vast farms. There is no dream for the future! There is no innovation! Our people continue to stagnate, economically, culturally, technologically ... The continuous warring of years past has left recent peace-times on Terrakia dull. This is an issue that has been growing in seriousness and yet you do nothi-"
"What would you have me do, welp?" He glared at the Advisor-Drone, who discretely winced at his roaring voice. Xal once again looked out upon his planetary domain. It is true, the industrious Terrakin are nearing the end of what beautiful Terrakia can provide them. All but the deepest ore deposits have been dug, every meter of land has been constituted and reconstituted to fit the needs of his people. The vast seas have been explored, the freezing poles mapped. There is essentially no future for the Terrakin, an idea that has been realized and globally accepted. This is a problem that has been troubling the Supreme Lord for some time.
"Forgive me, my liege, but your father, after having united the warring peoples... His sudden death was a shock to us all. The Council understands that it was not always your desire to rule. Perhaps it will be in the interest of the Terrakin that you cede rule to the Council so that we may better ..."
The mentioning of his father even still fills Xal's head with memories of the past. Figures in time and the home of his youth swirl and cloud his vision.
Today is your birthday Xaluan. As the sister stars eternally dance and play about each other, I am your father. As the three Kaspa moons endlessly race around Terrakia, in competition for night and day, you are my son. As each life is reborn anew and drinks from the souls of the stars, we are one. Today is your birthday. Today I give you the gift of the Terrakin, so you may lead them to a brighter future than I ever could. One day you will meet Ferus, dance with Aris. But that day is not to come for some time. You were born for greatness Xaluan.
"... by which we may end the dependence on our limited supply of- Supreme Lord, are you not listening?" He looked about in annoyance. Even the colourful holograms detailing days of glory past could not cheer the solemn Councilman up.
"Drink from the souls of stars..." Xaluan murmured under his breath.
"Pardon, m'lord?" The Advisor-Drone's auditory implant struggled in vain to decipher the Supreme Lord's words.
"Councilman," He announced with renewed vigour, "Assemble the Council. Fetch to me our greatest minds. If our people worship the heavens ... Perhaps the future of the Terrakin lies among them. So as the mewling infant is born from the stars, so shall Terrakia be reborn."
Ah! Space. About bloody time. All that reading has made me want for pictures of nothing. Absolutely nothing. Perhaps, if you're interested you'd like some information on the Terrakin I've been droning about? Well lucky you! That's pretty much all you're getting this chapter (It's late, biatch).
First off, our Racial Profile. The Terrakin are small in stature and make up for what they lack in physical ability with implants and an exoskeleton built by LowestBidder Co. Their favorite colour is green.
Next up, the Biology. We Terrakin have a high metabolism which doubles both our food consumption and population growth. We eat and hump at the same time. Awweeeee yeeeeeah.
Society. We Terrakin don't shy away from enslaving the semi-sentient beasts of our native planet, or indeed, our defeated foes in battle, as is tradition. This doubles our labour capacity.
Our Mentality. Our government and economic structure is rigid and inflexible. This prevents us mandating production of certain goods. However, this streamlining affords us 25% less fuel and ammo usage. Not that we need ammo, we banned and penalised Ballistic and Missile type weaponry. The common laser rifle was invented a quarter of a millenia ago due to the refining of Terrakia's native crystals, resulting in the general populace viewing these outdated weapons as cruel and barbaric. But it's still nice that we have the logistics. The slow 'death' of Terrakia has caused the Council to subsidize and enforce efficient recycling and technology for a renewable future. This lowers all construction costs by 10%.
The great Terrakian history. AKA "Background". As we are just getting into this whole space thing, we are classed as a fledgling empire, which causes our home planet to not have any structures or developments. Due to our urgency to get into aforementioned space, we have a colonialism bonus which increases the size of new colonies. The constant warring in the past has lead to a 10% increase in our offensive weaponry. The strange environment of fair Terrakia and our love for science-y things have made us natural researchers, which halves the cost of researching new technologies.
And finally, our beloved Technology. The Crystal forests of our homeworld have led to early shields which absorb 15% more than our foolish spesh-brethren. The limited space on Terrakia had influenced our agricultural techniques, increasing their efficiency. Our farms and Biology tech both start at level 2. Our people, being light themselves, believe in building light ships as well, reducing the mass of all systems by a third. Our highly tuned sensors increase our weapon's range by a nice 15% (Numbers number numbers, eh?). The hatred of barbaric shooty-slugger-bullet-explode weapons causes them to perform poorly, decreasing the damage of AoE weapons. Bah, who needs 'em. We do like science, however, so we have some efficient energy conversion technology which increases the killing power of our favourite energy weapons.
Now that that is all out of the way, let us examine our immediate surroundings.
Terrakia takes it's first steps towards space travel:
Concluding his audience with the Council and the brightest minds his planet had to offer, Supreme Lord Xanual sat alone in the room. His eyes jumped from holo-mural to holo-mural. His ancestors bear down upon their enemies. His Drone-Brethren settle far off lands. "One day I too shall adorn these walls..." he thought to himself, as the hologram he was admiring flickered momentarily, "That bright future is upon us father... May Terrakia drink from the souls of stars."
I will drink from your DSM!
Well played sir, well played ...
Dibs on commanding the first assault wave. Preferably in the most outdated hardware.
Hrm. You can certainly be a commanding Terrakin. But about the outdated thing ... I'm a little OCD when it comes to that .
I shall try my best, however.
Poll
