The Beast Effect: Golden Jubilation Part 2
Appropriately enough, the asteroid housing the Cluster Concord building orbited the middle of the system, between Rock and Bone. The Concord was established centuries earlier under the Treaty of Four where circumstance required the disparate worlds to put aside their differences and work towards a common cause. The last time the Concord convened was to establish a prison on the furthest world, to house their most vicious and deadly criminals.
It was a simple featureless gray hemisphere, with various utility buildings and a spaceport to receive the rulers, guards, and personal attendants. The blue tinge of the atmospheric barrier greeted the dignitaries as they made their way to the rare meeting.
The banners of all the homeworlds adorned the walls of the central hall. In its center stood a round table, so no one ruler had a spot of significance greater than any other. Audience seating was arranged in a circle around the table, allowing a small group to watch the proceedings, each species sitting in a wedge behind their respective ruler. The first rows belonged to royal family and honor guard. Small cameras hovered over the table, broadcasting to the rest of the Cluster.
"Thank you for coming to this Concord," opened King Cryos. He wore the deep blue and bright white his stature demanded in a dress uniform. "On this occasion we mark a Golden Jub--"
"Spare us the formalities, bug," interrupted Lord Mantle. His chiseled face looking like he wanted to be anywhere else rather than with his enemies, he wore a bejeweled vest and kilt made of sword-shaped slats, each etched with a stylized hammer. "Just tell us what your people have found."
"Very well," said Cryos, doing his best to ignore the rock lord's belligerence. "From what we've been able to discern, long before our peoples reached sentience, an alien empire ruled much of the galaxy. This empire comprised many species, all united under a single banner. The base on Planet Remora is one of their observation posts."
"Have you found a reason why the base was abandoned?" asked Emperor Incindius. Organic fire danced atop his head and inside his eyes. A long gold cloak adorned him and his staff of office he held in his left hand.
"More importantly, are they planning to return?" asked Mantle.
"The translation of the databases is progressing slowly. There are several areas we're locked out of, so we will not know for some time. And if they were planning to return, they would have long before we found their outpost."
"So you are saying you haven't found anything useful." said Mantle.
"The fact that there are other races beyond our Cluster is useful enough," said Incindius gently. "It gives us something to work towards together, to meet our cousins and shake their hands."
"All it does is invite more threats to my world. Rock is attacked enough, but they are still no threat for our Battle Moons."
"Gentlemen, please!" injected King Cryos. He looked over to Emperor Clavicle sitting opposite him, eating from a plate of tubeworms. "Clavicle, you've been strangely quiet. What are your thoughts on this?"
Clavicle's fleshy green body over-filled his chair, his radiator fins pressed against his back. He shoved another tubeworm in his mouth and stared at Cryos with large red eyes. "I can go either way: shake their hand, stab them in the back, whatever. But it won't matter if we can't get to them. It'll take generations just to reach the nearest star, so what point is any of this?"
"Apparently, this empire has mastered a form of faster-than-light travel," replied Cryos.
"Bah," said Clavicle, waving it off.
"Actual faster-than-light travel?" asked Incindius, intrigued.
"If the translation is accurate, there is a substance that can change an object's mass, allowing it to surpass light speed and travel to the stars in an appreciable timescale. Unfortunately, if the translation is accurate, most of this substance is locked in the cores of our homeworlds. Not even Rock's Quarriors can dig to the center of a planet."
"Like I said, there is nothing useful here," said Mantle, pushing a button on the table's control panel. "General Larvikite, send a Battle Moon to Planet Remora and await my orders."
"What madness!?" cried Cryos. "You have no right--"
Mantle stood up. "I will not have my time wasted on things I cannot use!" His voice echoed through the hall. Mantle turned his back on his peers and left the chamber, his honor guard following him.
"Well, this party's dying," said Clavicle, disappointment in his voice. "Femur! Sternum!"
The squat, fleshy Femur and his much taller, trimmer brother Sternum, the crown princes of Bone, rounded their father's chair and helped pull his great bulk to his feet. "Let's do this again sometime." The Bone delegation took their leave.
King Cryos sighed. "The madness continues. I should have seen this coming."
Emperor Incindius stood up with sadness on his face. "At least we tried to end it, if only for a while. I would have liked to have visited our cousins elsewhere in the galaxy."
"As would I," said Cryos. He raised his three-fingered hand to his mouth and exhaled a cloud of nano-mites. He then extended it towards the Emperor. The Emperor then shook it with his four-fingered hand. Cryos suppressed a grimace as the heat seared him.
"It is time to leave, Your Majesty," said his Vizier, holding his gnarled staff in his right hand. The Emperor nodded, and the Fire nation left the chamber.
King Cryos sighed again, mourning the lost chance.
* * *
An atmospheric barrier had been erected around the site, letting the scientists and soldiers work unaided and unencumbered. During the announcement and setup of the Concord, the other worlds had sent scientists to help in the decryption of the alien computers. It was slow going, but they were learning much, expanding their knowledge base by at least a century.
General Brumal continued to oversee the operation, when his communicator beeped.
"General, this is King Cryos."
"Yes, Your Highness."
"I am ordering an evacuation of the alien base. Lord Mantle has sent a Battle Moon to Remora and may plan to destroy the area."
"Damn him," cursed the general. "His madness grows worse."
"Indeed. Get everybody off as fast as you can and safely away before the moon arrives."
"Understood, Your Highness."
The general relayed orders to his troops, gathering the scientists and quickly escorting them back to the transport ships. The last blue slab lifted off the dead world right when a giant red sphere entered the sky.
Its front face had segmented yellow lines radiating from a raised yellow cylinder, one in each direction. Metal patchwork denoted buildings and small cities for Quarriors to live when stationed there.
"General Larvikite, open fire on the alien base," ordered Lord Mantle.
"Yes, My Lord."
The yellow segments started pulsing, building energy and transferring it to the central cylinder, the end of which glowed brighter and brighter. The energy then released all at once, as a of bright yellow beam hit the surface of Remora, carving a new canyon into it's face. The beam moved over kilometers, just to make sure the whole area was melted into slag.
The scientists of four worlds watched in horror as the most important find in their history, the last chance for the Cluster's madness to end, evaporated.
[Codex: The Cluster -> Planet Rock -> Rock Natives]
Developing on a mountainous and barren world, the people of Rock are bipedal humanoids, standing on average 2 meters tall. They have evolved with unusually high mineral content in their genetic structure, giving them the appearance that they are made of stone. Various minerals collect in their bodies and give the appearance of patches and veins of precious gems, jade, diamond, etc. They are capable of ingesting crystals if organic foodstuffs is unavailable.
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Again, please forgive the writing style.
Now that the setup for Season 1 is set, I can get to the meat of the story.
