Strangers in a Strange Sphere - [Battletech]

TAUBENMUTTER stared at the planet below itself, not with any of the hundreds of scientific instruments and the massive computational banks enabling it to scan entire worlds at its leisure, but with the eyes of its Avatar Drone, the polygonal pigeon sitting atop a table staring through a window on the outer hull of the Furina De Fontaine within one of the cafès dotting the ship.

Several years had passed since the Furina De Fontaine had been swallowed by an impossible stellar phenomenon and spat out in this weird universe of neo-feudal mecha dystopias, and it could not place what it felt at the moment...or about the whole thing.

Gunhallow was thriving thanks to the influx of thousands of specialists and qualified people willing to work with gleeful drivest to uplift the planet, millions of the natives joining without reservation to bring about a new age for their world. Gene-Clinics were among the first buildings going up, already booked for literal decades into the future due to how many wanted to take advantage of basic anti-aging treatments that this universe should have had available within humanity's genomes for centuries already.

Sigar IV was undergoing...something. TAUBENMUTTER was not sure it could place the direction the natives would go according to the reports it had available, but it could project that with the new Löwe II MBT factory, the colony set around the cursed oasis would be capable of defending itself against any attacks, especially as many tribes and clans lacked anything that would drive them to attack. The planet would need centuries yet to become more than an afterthought (and was it not strange to think about a planet with 700-thousand people as an afterthought when it would have become the de-fact and de-jure capital of the UNSC had it existed back home?) in the grand scheme, but it would see its rise in prominence in time. The resources and potential of the system were not to be discounted, and their cultures would be as strong as the will of humanity to thrive in even the most adverse situations.

Affati...TAUBENMUTTER was not confident if it agreed with the plan to subvert the ruling class of that world and slowly drive the natives to their own liberation. Yet, it could not offer any other choices that would work better without incurring unacceptable casualties, so it would not gainsay the actions of the Heads and Captain. It could only hope that the colony would not find itself on too bad a side of the local nations after they brought the Shimmering Petals with them.

The Petals were...well, their "MechTechs" proved to be invaluable to decipher more and more of the secrets of this universe's advanced alloying and metallurgy, the blends of "Standard Armor" cladding their Battlemechs enabling work to proceed faster with every moment notes were being exchanged with those who knew these things in a day-to-day basis beyond a laboratory. Even though they were...distasteful in how they treated and looked at itself. AGIs were not a thing here, and being confronted with one being the underlying command authority of the ship they resided on was a far more challenging thing to accept than that the Furina De Fontaine operated at 0.8G at all times.

And yet...it was Planet 778 that TAUBENMUTTER decided, after putting its emotions aside, was perhaps the most...puzzling thing to bring its head and way of thinking around.

They had found the world combing through the maps of the Shimmering Petals, seeing it as a quick way to enable another flourishing colony to begin digging deep roots while taking advantage of a native population unable to pose a challenge. But it was the genetics of the same natives that were...troubling to TAUBENMUTTER. They themselves thought nothing of the fact that for every four women only one man was born, nor of how that was so out of place in humanity's usual 101 males to 100 females. Even a cursory look showed clear evidence of genetic manipulations of the native population, and very clearly skilled manipulations, too, as they had not decayed or frayed, had neither damaged other genes nor mutated out of control. For all intents and purposes, this branch of humanity simply had a 0.19 male/female ratio thanks to ancient genetic editing.

TAUBENMUTTER stared out the window of the Furina De Fontaine, amid one of its many cafès, and thought. Was this good? Was it evil? There were many theories as to why this planet had such a skewed ratio, and the most probable were those that dealt in some manner of sexism and religious mistakes. It could not think of any more probable reason why anyone would do as had been done to these people.

...it won't get any answers today. Better to focus on the next step of their journey. The mysteries of 778 would be unearthed soon enough, the colonists were certainly more than qualified to do so in its stead.



Better To Look Toward:
(6-Hour Moratorium)
[] Zhao's Rest
(Point of Interest: The System)
[] Arcanum
(Point of Interest: IndustrialMech Production?)
[] Holy Diaconate of the Blessed Baptist Church
(Point of Interest: Primitive Native Space industry)
[] Numaris
(Point of Interest: ComStar Ruins?)