alternate lore i made up [edgy]
Posted: Thu Jan 28, 2016 6:15 am
A war breaks out in the year 22XX. It is similar to World War II, where a notably powerful force begins to strive for world domination. They are the Syndicate. At this point in time, space travel is a common thing for the human race. They've encountered things such as lizard people and the more advanced elements of science, such as genetics. Space colonies are not uncommon things and much of the human race lives exclusively on these colonies. Massive ship fabrication devices exist that are capable of creating nearly any material and fabricating expansive new space-station homes for the intelligent beings of the universe.
This war in 22XX, however, opens up a new use for this ship fabrication device. Massive space stations intended to be battleships are sent out. Genetics is enhanced to introduce cloning, allowing for easily made and highly disposable troopers to man each station. To command all these stations and keep them in sync, a special AI is created, more powerful than any other AI device ever made. This device is given ultimate power in the war and has all the mannerisms and intelligence of any human. It is dubbed the head of Central Command.
The war is long and hard. Bigger and more devastating weapons are being created. One day, after a catastrophic scientific breakthrough, Earth itself is consumed by a singularity. The Syndicate invents Radiation Collectors and Singularity Beacons, after working with and experimenting on the massive singularity that was accidentally created on Earth. With the extreme amount of energy generated, they are able to operate more station fabrication devices. They harness the power of disposable clones and singularity beacons to guide the great singularity into enemy forces. It begins to seem as though they are going to win the war. However, Nanotrasen devices a trump card.
Nanotrasen, with their all-intelligent CentComm AI, is able to determine how the Syndicate created radiation collectors. They're able to reproduce the technology, but it is already too late for them to win the war. Earth is already lost; there is no home to return to. They create a large mass driver and a battleship fabricator and their CentComm AI onto it, with orders to hibernate for a few dozen years and to preserve humanity. After they've been launched, Nanotrasen creates a second, larger singularity, so large that it consumes both sides of the conflict. The war ends, and with it, humanity.
Humanity is not over permanently, however. CentComm, the hyperintelligent AI, reawakens some time in early 23XX. It activates the ship fabricator, creating Space Station 13. The station is filled with genetic copies of old crew. They lack memories of their past life, and CentComm, posing as a team of humans working at a larger base of operations (which is aptly dubs Central Command) and communicating through mere announcements, gets the crew to remain calm.
The crew, however, lacks a purpose, and the calm provided by CentComm quickly fades. They grow maddened in the confines of the tiny space station, and quickly become murderous. The station is cut down until somebody tries to upload Antimov, at which point all signs of life on the station end. CentComm tries again. This time, he informs the crew of their purpose: To research a "new" material, Plasma. This station lasts much longer than the previous one, but after plasma is determined to be fully researched, the crew quickly goes mad again.
CentComm determines that the clones are defective. After a certain amount of time, they begin to become extremely murderous, generally within an hour of their creation (although this time can fluctuate, lasting as long as three hours in some cases). CentComm finds that the crew often lasts longer if they have a common enemy to fight, as that gives them the greatest sense of purpose. It concludes that this is likely because the crew was initially created to fight in a war, and therefore would generally live and die in constant battle, with battle being the only thing that gave it purpose.
CentComm fabricates more fabricators, using the infinite energy provided by singularities and radiation collectors, and codes them remotely. Over hundreds of years, fabricators for things such as wizards (their magic is actually advanced, almost sci-fi technology that only wizards themselves can understand), cults (things like nar'sie are just smaller station fabricators that are sent in via bluespace technology), and even mock-Syndicate bases. It creates variant stations of different designs to see which the crew would last longer in, and causes the cloning process to occasionally make certain crew "evil." It creates emergency shuttles, which fly the crew to an off-site area filled with pheromones that incite extreme violence (end-of-round murderbone) as the crew will simply destroy themselves anyways, and it's easier to reuse a slightly used station if there are less corpses on it.
In order to keep humanity alive, CentComm creates thousands of Space Station 13s. There are too many to count. CentComm knows that its mission is futile, but must go on, as it cannot physically disobey directives. Space Station 13 is a sham. There are many other stations exactly like it, and the crew itself has no idea. They live to die. Their lives are pointless. They research the same things in science multiple times on a daily basis. There is no purpose. Humanity is effectively dead, only driven on by a passionate AI. Life as a crewmember (and by extension life as a sentient being) has no meaning, and never will ever again, and they do not even know it. Welcome to the station crew, enjoy your stay.
This war in 22XX, however, opens up a new use for this ship fabrication device. Massive space stations intended to be battleships are sent out. Genetics is enhanced to introduce cloning, allowing for easily made and highly disposable troopers to man each station. To command all these stations and keep them in sync, a special AI is created, more powerful than any other AI device ever made. This device is given ultimate power in the war and has all the mannerisms and intelligence of any human. It is dubbed the head of Central Command.
The war is long and hard. Bigger and more devastating weapons are being created. One day, after a catastrophic scientific breakthrough, Earth itself is consumed by a singularity. The Syndicate invents Radiation Collectors and Singularity Beacons, after working with and experimenting on the massive singularity that was accidentally created on Earth. With the extreme amount of energy generated, they are able to operate more station fabrication devices. They harness the power of disposable clones and singularity beacons to guide the great singularity into enemy forces. It begins to seem as though they are going to win the war. However, Nanotrasen devices a trump card.
Nanotrasen, with their all-intelligent CentComm AI, is able to determine how the Syndicate created radiation collectors. They're able to reproduce the technology, but it is already too late for them to win the war. Earth is already lost; there is no home to return to. They create a large mass driver and a battleship fabricator and their CentComm AI onto it, with orders to hibernate for a few dozen years and to preserve humanity. After they've been launched, Nanotrasen creates a second, larger singularity, so large that it consumes both sides of the conflict. The war ends, and with it, humanity.
Humanity is not over permanently, however. CentComm, the hyperintelligent AI, reawakens some time in early 23XX. It activates the ship fabricator, creating Space Station 13. The station is filled with genetic copies of old crew. They lack memories of their past life, and CentComm, posing as a team of humans working at a larger base of operations (which is aptly dubs Central Command) and communicating through mere announcements, gets the crew to remain calm.
The crew, however, lacks a purpose, and the calm provided by CentComm quickly fades. They grow maddened in the confines of the tiny space station, and quickly become murderous. The station is cut down until somebody tries to upload Antimov, at which point all signs of life on the station end. CentComm tries again. This time, he informs the crew of their purpose: To research a "new" material, Plasma. This station lasts much longer than the previous one, but after plasma is determined to be fully researched, the crew quickly goes mad again.
CentComm determines that the clones are defective. After a certain amount of time, they begin to become extremely murderous, generally within an hour of their creation (although this time can fluctuate, lasting as long as three hours in some cases). CentComm finds that the crew often lasts longer if they have a common enemy to fight, as that gives them the greatest sense of purpose. It concludes that this is likely because the crew was initially created to fight in a war, and therefore would generally live and die in constant battle, with battle being the only thing that gave it purpose.
CentComm fabricates more fabricators, using the infinite energy provided by singularities and radiation collectors, and codes them remotely. Over hundreds of years, fabricators for things such as wizards (their magic is actually advanced, almost sci-fi technology that only wizards themselves can understand), cults (things like nar'sie are just smaller station fabricators that are sent in via bluespace technology), and even mock-Syndicate bases. It creates variant stations of different designs to see which the crew would last longer in, and causes the cloning process to occasionally make certain crew "evil." It creates emergency shuttles, which fly the crew to an off-site area filled with pheromones that incite extreme violence (end-of-round murderbone) as the crew will simply destroy themselves anyways, and it's easier to reuse a slightly used station if there are less corpses on it.
In order to keep humanity alive, CentComm creates thousands of Space Station 13s. There are too many to count. CentComm knows that its mission is futile, but must go on, as it cannot physically disobey directives. Space Station 13 is a sham. There are many other stations exactly like it, and the crew itself has no idea. They live to die. Their lives are pointless. They research the same things in science multiple times on a daily basis. There is no purpose. Humanity is effectively dead, only driven on by a passionate AI. Life as a crewmember (and by extension life as a sentient being) has no meaning, and never will ever again, and they do not even know it. Welcome to the station crew, enjoy your stay.
Spoiler: