The Desverians
(By: Jed Anderson)
The story of these people begins in their year 1 BD (Before Doomsday). This will chart their history and the foundations of their empire…
A violet star sped through the void of space, alone; almost…its companions whirled around its vast body at moderate speeds, 5 lovely followers. The first a gray ball devoid of anything, the second was a warm green sphere of life, its atmosphere holding a species capable of intelligent thought. It was the prize of the star, the third a deep blue hydrogen ball of gas, the fourth an icy chunk of mineral rich waste, and the last a sulfuric sphere from hell.
On this morning, the second planet, Rah’ Drakit would never be the same again.
Almon Gazere stood looking at his telescope readouts, he was puzzled, in all his life he had never seen such strange gravitational fluxes. He called over his assistant, they talked awhile, and neither could see what was causing this.
Later that day, around 3:30pm Almon went back, he was perplexed. When he went to look at his telescope readings once more he was shocked. They showed a small object distorting space around it heading for their sun at a velocity he had never thought possible. He estimated it would hit their sun in 4 hours…7:34pm.
Almon proceeded to call up the planetary government and inform them of the situation, they called him on a train to their main office immediately. Upon arrival he was escorted to the leader’s office.
After a thorough discussion the leader decided to dismiss the object, “It’s to small to cause harm, distorted space can’t destroy a sun!” Frustrated, Almon returned home under orders not to mention the subject. He did anyway, to some major friends in space vessel research; he asked them if they would give him a small ship with the new Lightspeed 1 Drive. They wanted to no why first, and he told them, terrified, they spread the word. After an hour riots began in the cities, and he and his friends rallied up 24,000 people to join them in their decision to depart Rah’ Drakit with 48 ships each holding 500 occupants. They gathered all their supplies and belongings together and left took off at 7:24pm, as the population jeered and laughed at them, after climbing about 2000 feet the thing entered the system, it was discovered to be some sort of off course missile or probe of alien origin. And it was trailing Absolute Zero behind it…gravity was pulling it toward their violet sun. As the ships gathered speed the population on the planet’s surface began to go crazy with fear. At 7:32pm the people in the ships were passing the fourth planet when the missile struck the star, the planet was at the same time demanding they return to pick up the leader.
The missile made the tiniest impact and seemed to do nothing…then after a few seconds a massive crust of ice spread over the sun freezing it whole, then it shattered, pieces flew off smashing into planets dissolving them and blowing them to pieces. As Almon shook his head the 48 ships disappeared into the deep and icy void of space.
The 48 ships which left Rah’ Drakit were under supplied, lost, and very chaotic. After the first month 6 of them starved to death and simply were lost behind in space, over 3000 people, dead. So naturally when the ships found an inhabited world they got over the shock of initial discovery faster, because of their need of supplies. Fortunately for them this race was very hospitable, equipping their ships with some thing called Hyperjump 10, replicators, and transportation devices. The ship populations were overjoyed and formed a lasting treaty with this race known as the Rumii. Unfortunately they would never meet again, not quite realizing the speed that they had just acquired the Shiplings (as they called themselves) simply kept on flying on their old course, when one morning they awoke to find themselves racing through the dead void between galaxies….they kept going.
In 308 SY (Ship Years) the Shiplings arrived in a new Galaxy, their ships had gotten a plague during the transport, and nothing seemed to have changed population wise. Upon entering the new Galaxy which they named Rae’ Seak (New Hope), they were attacked by an unknown race, which destroyed 6 more ships. This horror was not to be forgotten the Shiplings became hard to death, and cold to aliens, seemingly forgetting their old friends. They became extremely xenophobic, not wanting any alien contact of any kind. Upon flying almost to the other side of the galaxy, avoiding aliens very well, they utilized cloaking, a technology that they had discovered, when they were attacked. They only were contacted by 7 species along the way, all of which were ignored. In 348 SY, ship populations numbered around 18,050 people, they were running out of room, just that month they had decreased their speed as to the fact that this half of they galaxy seemed devoid of space faring people, a desolated place. They began searching for a world which to call their home, they soon found out why there were so few people, the worlds here were harsh, and deadly, for the large part. In 351 SY they were almost out of the galaxy again when they found a solar system tucked between 2 nebulas which intrigued them, they flew into it with all 36 ships to investigate, and to their amazement, it was uninhabited. When they found a hospitable fourth planet they were ecstatic, and after finding that there was a hospitable forest moon on the third planet, they decided, that colonization was a definite decision. They voted that the planet (though less beautiful and warm) because of it’s size and resources be chosen for their new home.
The solar system they had discovered had a giant green star with a white pulsar orbiting it. It had 7 planets and asteroid belt between the 5th and 6th planets. The 1st planet consisted of a large black rock, lifeless, but full of nickel and titanium, the 2nd planet was a burning volcanic hell zone, with a scorching planet temperature of 460 degrees Celsius. The 3rd planet was a small purple gaseous planet, the 4th; their new home was a large desert planet, with small subtropical regions dotting the landscape, and 2 yellow moons in orbit. The 5th planet was another gaseous planet, greenish blue in color with thick rings, and the 6th planet was a barren huge planet of ice fields. Last of all the 7th planet, was a medium sized green house, but it was so far from the sun it was a somewhat average temperature of around 32 degrees Celsius, this interesting planet was blessed with life, almost habitable, and with a little technology, would be.
When the 36 ships landed they all clustered with in 10 kilometers of each other for security and government. Disembarking with celebrations and joy they immediately began to build a city from their ships, they striped them down and built a massive power core, to feed a city 30 times the size of theirs, they replicated mining drills, and began mining the rich ore of their planet’s crust. They built large farms and irrigated them from the fresh water oceans on the nearby coast. They named the planet Desveria (Gloryland), and called themselves the Desverians (children of the Gloryland), they started a new era, it was year 1 NL (New Land). Once they had established themselves, they buried Almon Gazere, as it was his wish to be buried on a planet, he was 435 years old when he had died. They established a stable government, which went through its decisions and came out as an Empire Monarchy, hence the Desverian Empire was created, their first Emperor Vel’Adoff Iolck was elected into power. They took the chance to make their new home as perfect as they could, correcting as many old problems as possible, abolishing money, crime and starvation.
In 54 NL the planet’s population was in a booming time, flourishing because of the new food and atmosphere, it reached 79,000, in 136 NL it hit 837,000, the second city of Marthon was built 30 Km from Uburon, (the capitol). In 223 NL the two cities merged as one gigantic city of 3.2 million. In 230 NL 75 defensive, communicative, and astronomical satellites were launched into orbit around Desveria
In 356 NL the planet had a population of 26.8 million, in 477 NL it hit a huge amount of 67.3 million, and an alien race entered their system of Dalc, the seemed insistent on contacting Desveria, then they raised shields! They scanned Desveria and the asteroid belt, then they left. Angered by this outrageous act of intrusion the Desverians immediately began construction of 450 small fighter like craft capable of Hyperjump 0.5, they could be launched from Desveria in 30 seconds, and were armed with one antimatter projectile missile launcher each. In 480 NL the alien intruded on their territorial boundaries again, (the Dalc system alone) warning them with a written message to their ship. After 10 minutes the alien ship had not moved obviously doubting the defenses of the planet, the Desverians released the fighters, and annihilated the vastly out gunned destroyer. In this experience the Desverians discovered that the aliens had some interesting technology, they decided they would have to capture the next ship that entered their territory. In 481 NL they laid mines through out the system, ensuring that they next ship would at least be destroyed. When in 482 NL a small task force of 12 ships entered the system and was instantly obliterated my thousands of mines.
In 500 NL the planet’s population reached 182.9 million, and started to spread over the globe. In 550 NL the aliens had most certainly forgotten them, the population had climbed to a vast 557.8 million Desverians, in 629 NL the planet reached 1.4 billion. In 675 NL the population reached a mark of 2 billion people. Then in 683 NL a large colonizing ship departed for the priceless moon with 70,000 people on board, after making 10 runs it landed permanently on the moon, which was now inhabited by 700,000 people strong. The Desverians were flourishing putting outposts on all their moons, and beginning to mine their mineral rich asteroid belt, building, probes, fighters, and a massive Space Dock by their home planet. The Desverian arts and sciences were excelling, new engine speeds were uncovered, shields, and better weapons, such as the CAEB (Concentrated Antimatter Energy Beam). The Desverians had created an efficient industrial system; they built a massive space yard in orbit around the colonized moon. They now had 3,800 transports, 560,900 fighters, 90 escorts, and 15 frigates. In 710 NL the Desverians established the Star Navy, their space fleets were formed. When in 792 NL the Desverians had populated everything in their system, mining at a constant rate, they were pumping out ships like crazy; their system was getting very crowed.
In 832 NL the Desverians raised a large shield grid around their system, and sent out 20 long-range probes to look for another in habitable solar system. The Desverians, were becoming truly interstellar, an Empire of the Stars.