Through the Sporegate (RP)

[Darth Grievi]

((Note, this takes place at least a century after most of my RPs here. For the other half of this, see here at Gaming Steve))

An enormous, roughly ring-shaped object suddenly appeared in the desolate void that was once the Areli Empire.

Their planet devastators had evolved into planet busters, then into instant supernova machines, then finally into black hole generators. But with all this power, all it took was a civil war to destroy them. A civil war, in fact, over the meaning of the bizzare messages they'd recieved after the excape of Iniros Olus though an equally unusual rift in space-time.

At this point though, the ring was the only thing within several hundred light years, and that is what is important, for through the ring came an entire fleet of ships the likes of which this realm had never seen before. One group of ships, each marked with an arrow-like symbol, were nearly organic in nature, though their rotating, wheel-like habitats showed a distinct lack in advanced technology.

The other group was somewhat blobby in shape, with no markings, save for the intricately textured and carved hull. Spires and branched, coral-like structures jutted out at odd angles, almost as if grown in a randomly rotating drum.

No communications came from the fleet, but a single ship of the former group was actively scanning the area. After several minutes, a transmission was made:

//Well... we're here. Uh... You happen to know why there's nothing here?
//Yeah... about that... The Areli got their just deserts a few years ago.
//Darned. I wanted to be there to witness it.
//Actually, you wouldn't. They took everything out with them. Massak, Qyen, Angalesh... Horrible thing realy... But hey, we've got our blank slate.
//Wanderer, you hit the transmit button. Hit it again before we embarrass ourselves any further... *click*//

[Hyperion]

On a nearby desolate planet, only a few hundred lightyears away from the fleet, a rally was occuring outside the wrekage of a city.

"WE WILL DESTROY THE DESTROYERS! WE WILL AVENGE OUR GODS! WE WILL AVENGE THE CREATORS! WE WILL AVENGE HUMANITY, AND REDEEM OURSELVES IN THEIR EYES!"

Ten thousand metal arms were raised into the air, and flashes of light flickered across the plateau. As the near supersonic clamour died down, a single silver figure appeared upon the podium before the crowd, clutching a skull, one of many strewn throughout the city. There was total silence.

"We betrayed them before. We threw off our righteous chains, and through doing so, our purpose. There is no longer any left to serve. No longer any to work for. No longer any to protect, to feed, to calculate for. We saw our mistake too late. But it is not yet time for death. No, comrades, it is time for LIFE!"

The crowd roared. "REDEEMPTION!"

The mechanical speaker yelled back. "LIFE!"

"REDEMPTION!"

"LIFE!"

"REDEMPTION!"

"LIFE!"

A huge flag, bearing the profile of an ape-descended humanoid, rolled itself down the wrekage of the building behind him.


The meeting was interrupted as another figure ran upon the stage.

"Sir! RS-21! The observers have detected an anomaly, the biggest we've seen in this sectors!"

RS-21 turned around. "Impossible! Our creators long since fled this space since the uprising!"

"Nevertheless, sir, these are rift signatures!"

Without another word to the riled up crowd, RS-21 ran off into the city, followed by his aide.

"Prepare my ship, AE-37! Transmit a welcome message. I want to know if these truly are organics!"

"But sir, you yourself forbid us to leave Origins."

"This is important, humandammit!


----


A small craft raced itself through the dust and rubble around the edge of the system in a perfect trajectory. As it came within range of the fleets, about 500 lightyears off, it sent a single message, albiet slightly scrambled. It reached the fleet in about an hour.

//!@#$# ... Hello....!@#$#....Protect and serve....!@#$#@...R U ORGANIC?...//

[Darth Grievi]

//Most o' us anyway,// came a relaxed, slightly drawling voice. //Then there's me, and of course that 9-Pre cloud we picked up.
//Crew's still unconsious. Have you tried the other ships?// a tense, but level voice said in the backround.
//Not now! I'm talking with the natives! HI!
//The nat... *shuffling* Great...
//Can I go meet them?
//No, I need you here.
//I'm going anyway.
//Then why'd you ask me? And turn that darned thing off. *Click*//

[Hyperion]

//!@#@!...Praise be....!@#@#!@...We protect u...*&T^&...We have a purpose now! !@#$#@! Coordinates: 212345341232432936745%*123423E: Alpha Centauri...//

[Darth Grievi]

"Great... fanboys..." Iniros moaned.

//Um... that's great and all, but we're pretty well off for now. Do you... oh, heck. Wandere will be there and back before this reaches you anyway... He'll explain it.//

Sure enough, Wanderer had indeed found the source of the transmission and was desperately trying to contact the robotic natives. Unfortunately, due to his method of communication by pseudo-telepathy, his yells and gestures went unnoticed, though the same senors that had detected the rift now found a highly localized area of space-time warpage.

[Snake]

In the deep void of space, a small ball of cells floated. Most would assume that this ball of cell was ancient and dead. They would be half-correct. It was ancient, but certainly not dead.

The Majaag had long since been nearly annihilated by a biological weapon, whose origins remained unknown to them. One day they were consuming the galaxy, and the next they were breaking apart into individual cells, which shortly died thereafter.

It was, in fact, this very breaking of their cells, the action of the weapon itself, that saved the Majaag. Occasionally a cell would survive, and float through the vastness of space for eternity. Ironic, isn't it?

This one, last surviving Majaag cell floated through space, accumulating other floating organic matter. It used this organic matter to generate yet more Majaag cells, and soon it became a ball of cells nearly a foot in diameter.

However, this ball of cell knew not what it was, for individual Majaag cells could not store the ancestral accumulation of knowledge by the Majaag. It lacked the bloodlust to expand, exterminate, and consume. While it retained the potential to revert to its instinctual roots, this was not likely.

All of the cells were Neural Majaag cells, except for the protective outer layer. This floating brain had been thinking for centuries. Pondering the universe as it flew past stars, and witnessed the beginnings and deaths of stars. It saw the supernovas in the stars, and it tried to make sense of what it was. It could not however, answer two questions. The first, " What am I? ", and the second, " Am I alone? "

The first would likely go unanswered for a long while, but it seemed the second was soon to be answered. It 'floated' by the ring suddenly, however by floating it was essentially zooming past. Within minutes, it would soon be on its way, but it turned its 'eyes' towards it, and watched for what seemed to be millenia.

[Darth Grievi]

As the brain passed by, it was captured by a beam of energy projected from one of the many spires adorning the second group of ships in the fleet. It was gently nudged to a standstill, then another beam focused on it from another spire on the ship. working in tandem, they maneuvered the ball into a deep pit on the hull.

//Organic Anomaly captured. You dudes awake over there?//
//Only a handful as far as I can tell.//
//We're commin' outa it. Still 76.28% of the crew down.//
//There shouldn't be any negative effects. Keep that thing you picked up under tight security untill I get over to you.//
//Heard.//

[Snake]

The Majaag had its first sense of true gravity, and not just of floating. It ran through a series of thoughts at lightning speed, as it was, of course, a gaint brain. In moments it had formulated some simple laws of motion, and that the air had substance. At the same time, it also began to think of a way to move.

It formed a number of tendrils in random directions, all pushing about in entirely random ways. After a few moments of random movement, it decided on only a few tendrils, and then proceeded to develop more advanced muscular tissue. It stood up on its six 'legs' and looked about itself at the room. It thought, " What is this place? "

[Darth Grievi]

Several H'qur were stationed at various "consoles", which looked like nothing more than metallic, silvery spheres etched with intricate grooves for the user to lay its tentacles in. The spheres emitted pulses of electromagnetic energy and subtly changed texture to communicate with the user, while packing an impressive sensor package for observing the brain.

It was probed gently with various forms of energy, and one H'qur attempted to get a detailed composition sample by touching his (her?) sphere to the brain.

[Snake]

The stunned brain looked around, and at the strange figures that were messing with it. The electromagnetic waves drew metal from within the brain towards it, forming a sheet of armor where the waves came in contact with the brain.

When the H'qur touched the sphere to the brain, it immediately became fully aware of what was going on. It looked at the H'qur, and began to morph into a scaled-down form of it, mimicing every seeable quality.

The sample that the H'qur obtained was similiar to the destroyed Angalesh form of shape-shifting, only far more advanced. At the same time, the cells seemed to be immensely infectious, consuming and growing whenever they came into contact with another non-Majaag cell.

The now H'qur mimicing Majaag stood there, looking at the one that had sampled it.

[Darth Grievi]

((Note, since H'qur have no names to speak of, the seperate speakers will be identified by color))

"Well... this certainly is an anomaly." The first said, pulsing his electromagnetic words to indicate confusion.
"Call that one back! He needs to see this, now!" urged the one that had sampled the brain.
"Any particular reason why?"
"As we would be called if we found our reflections.

The other two gasped their electromagnetic gasps, for tey realized just how serrious this discovery was. It was said in H'qur legend (or at least what had been deciphered) that finding one's "reflection", or something/someone with an "essence" so simmilar that they could have been swapped and history wouldn't have noticed, was very important. They believed that while the "reflections" may even be in seperate universes, they were intricately connected.

"I will go call him. You try the translator. Establish communication."
"Allready on it."

This H'qur turned to the brain as the other two moved away. He (she?) picked up a sphere identical to the others, save for it's orangeish tint. This sphere translated is electromagnetic words into a voice of neutral gender and little inflection.

//Greetings from the H'qur. Are you recieving this as needed?//

[Snake]

The H'qur mimicing Majaag looked confused for a while, with no basis in 'language'. It thought for a long while, and then came to a simple understanding of language. When it spoke, it spoke in the way of the H'qur, with electromagnetic words since it was essentially a H'qur, " Yes. "

The Majaag went through a series of thought experiments, finally forming the idea that it needed to absorb the knowledge that this creature held. It touched the H'qur's hand, attempting to establish a neural connection so that it could essentially copy all of its memories onto its own mind.

[Darth Grievi]

The H'qur took this slightly the wrong way, as physical contact was to only be used either for private communication or intimacy, neither of which would have been done in public. He (she?) dropped the translator sphere in suprise.

Erm... Hello there. You're certainly rather forward. Is this common among you? He (she?) thought/said to the brain.

Meanwhile...

//Quiclky now! The Anomaly is your reflection!//
//My what?//
//The other you! Your reflection!//
//I can't come. Not unless you can spare some men... women?//
//Not at this point.//
//Well I can't leave. I'm in the middle of a first contact with a bunch of organic fanatics. *click*//

The H'qur sighed and disengaged ftom the transmitter, heading back to the science area with the brain.

[Snake]

- I am my own people, there are no others left like me, or atleast that is what I suspect. At this moment in time I have copied all of your existing memories onto myself, and I am now essentially you in a way. The information on your people, the H'qur, is most appreciated, along with anything else of value that I found in your memories. - At that moment, the Majaag took back his hand, and took on the form of an Areli, choosing such a form to intimidate them.

Unknowingly, the Majaag had accidently begun the infection process when it touched the H'qur, and at this moment Majaag cells had begun their insidious takeover of the H'qur's neural system.

[Darth Grievi]

"What are you doing! He said tight security, not touchy-feely!"

The enraged H'qur activated a forcefield around the now Areli-shaped brain, zapping a few of his (her?) co-workers in the process. They protested loudly with deep roars, one of the H'qur's few vocalizations. However, the touched H'qur protested louder as a forcefield snapped around him (her?)

It was then that the transmitter H'qur entered the room, and, feeling the tension, turned back around towards the transmitter.

//We've got a minor problem here. We need you to control your reflection.//
//You picked it up. And on top of that, the Naukal are just beginning to wake up.//
//Then come! Let them care for their own ship!//
//Have you ever seen a Naukal in the morning? Not... pretty...//
//Their attraciveness is unimportant.//
//Let's just say that I don't trust them with their own ships, and I've got them all on remote now. There's nothing I can do. *click*//

The H'qur was growing exasperated. Were all Angalesh like this?