Terra Nullius - Free Humans in the Era Indomitus Quest

THE DAWN OF CIVILIZATION ON XIBALBA WAS MARKED BY VIOLENCE, as the misery of the Cybernetic Revolt was replayed on the ancient space hulk known as the Black Cradle. Diminished from the height of their technological might since the halcyon days of the Age of Technology, the megastructure saw cataclysmic battles against hosts of feral robots, vat-grown cyborg death-troopers and xenos auxiliaries led by the gleaming adamantine armor of Autokshatriyas armed with conversion weapons, mono-lattice spindles and powergores. Tunnel warfare against their Smud auxiliaries proved to be further agony, as the flexible amphibians were insensate to claustrophobia and asphyxiation, and brought lethal mechanized warsuits to open combat in the larger chambers of the space hulk.

Generations of warfare quickly hardened the descendants of the waylaid human exploration vessel Arete In Logos into a force capable of claiming large sections of the hulk and contest its mastery against their ancient foes. The discovery of ancient weapons caches quickly equalized the technological advantage of the thinking machines and their clients. Victory came at a price however, as the increased desperation of the fighting had taken a toll on the structural integrity of the hulk itself, and threatened to disrupt its Gellar Field and consign all within to the whims of those true denizens of the Warp.

The dire fates that awaited them ultimately saw all enmities set aside, however briefly, to force a return to realspace. The hulk made a difficult landing on the planetary surface, after which the future of relations between the human explorers and its first residents remained an unanswered question.

THE BLACK CRADLE

What relations will the colonists keep with their former adversaries?

[ ] Ending Old Grudges - The Lesser Men of Iron, primarily consisting of a class of warrior-savants known as Autokshatriyas as well as smaller numbers of engineering, terraforming and navigation units described as Luxminds, are not the terrifying entities that swallowed suns and killed trillions with unspeakable weapons. They are lean tools of insurgency, created towards the end of the Revolt as the resources to forge superweapons grew thin and the fighting fell back to conventional warfare, built to be self-sufficient, adapt and help build xenos they encountered into redoubts that would frustrate human reconquest. The Black Cradle's Sentient Milieu is a clear sign of their evolving beyond these programs, a functional civilization of machines with the peaceful cooperation of an alien client state. The xenos themselves are unimportant- but perhaps the time is right to attempt peaceful coexistence with the Men of Iron.
[ ] Slippery New Friends - While the ancient enmities were set aside long enough to survive arrival at Xibalba, it is too soon to mend fences with the Men of Iron. Accepting a separate existence from them, the attention of the colonists is better turned instead to the ingenious Smud. Resembling brilliantly-colored two-meter long eels with the finned heads of neotenic salamanders, the aliens are extraordinarily well-adapted to the cavern ecosystem under Xibalba and so make natural allies. They are also talented builders and users of tools, with an assortment of mechanized 'warsuits' and 'worksuits' they use to conduct the activities of war and civilization. The only notable concern is that the caves suit them better than any baseline human.
[ ] A New Sentient Milieu - It is a fool's errand to try and negotiate with either part of the Milieu without the others. Given the circumstances, the human colonists should take their arrival on Xibalba as a clean slate and negotiate a new political union with its former enemies.
[ ] Thinking Machines, Unthinking - Weakened and with their birthing facilities exposed, the Men of Iron are in a good position to be subdued. Consider the events on the Cradle to be a fluke, and do not rely on luck and the goodness of their machine logics to ensure the continuity of human life on Xibalba. There will not be another chance.

SETTLE THE CAVES

How will the Xibalban underground be settled?

[ ] Cities in Eternal Night - The larger caves, located in geologically stable zones, can accommodate fairly substantial urban developments. Underground cities host artificial skies and biodomes to reproduce more familiar environments to ensure colonists remain comfortable underground.
[ ] Make Our Own - The natural caves have a slew of issues which make them less desirable in the long term: cave floors and walls primarily composed of soft sedimentary rock, hydrography and the meandering, difficult-to-navigate let alone map nature of natural cave systems. Creating parallel networks of man-made tunnels will allow for more deliberate planning of human settlements and protect the natural caves.
[ ] Be Permissive - The centralizing impulse in settlement planning is going to be a destructive one. Rather than laying down specific settlements or tunnel networks as above, it may be simpler and more cost-effective to focus on charting the tunnels and issuing deeds, allowing groups to build up as they please.
[ ] A Genetic Solution - In the long term, it's fairly clear that human beings are not adapted to the tunnels at all. A series of fairly minor germline edits, primarily cardio-pulmonary, sensory and musculo-skeletal could produce a population better suited to our new home within a few short generations.

EVENT 1: 373.M31, The Warpsun

After a millennia and a half of settlement on Xibalba, a strange phenomenon called the Warpsun changed the spectra of the planet's primary and caused increased rates of mutation, the development of psychic powers and regular coronal mass ejections which were highly destructive to electronics. This effect lasted for almost a century, seemingly related to the warp storms that isolated the planet and its sector at large.

While the circumstances of settlement and its native technology base were sufficient to prevent society from completely collapsing, it threatened social stability and greatly delayed the development of orbital industry. The solutions to the multi-generational crisis limited its scope but would all have lingering consequences in the millenia to come.

[ ] We Must Go Deeper - Dig in, even deeper, and use the planet to shield the population and industry. What lies below can't be worse than what's above.
[ ] Compose the Canticles - The decades under the Warpsun may be far worse than anything that can be imagined. Putting all available resources towards preserving the most complete records of all that was built since planetfall is more important than any of the present living. From those records, someone can rebuild.
[ ] Auctoris Principiae - Revive ancient protocols when dealing with periods of heightened mutation and psychic awakening to curtail social disruption. Put the affected under medical and psychological surveillance, euthanize or sterilize those which are non-viable.
[ ] Harness the Forbidden Sun - Use some of the space hulk materials to find a way to diminish the harmful effects of the Warpsun by channeling its power to other purposes.

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