08/04/2020 - The Chariot of the Gods

History of the Ancients

Grandfather begins to project the history of his past. It begins with him being bored some 300,000 years ago as a statistically almost impossible mutation of the Droyne race with super intelligence and will. His incredible intellect lead him to develop new technology and powerful technology. He also rose to become the leader of the Droyne race. This lead to a period of intense scientific and technological advancement for his people, but it was also a strain for him.

He soon discovered he was also immortal and would not die of old age. This allowed him to take a step back and plan for the long term. He passed a lot of day to day running of the civilisation to a hand-picked High Council, while he spent more time researching ever more complicated scientific theory and planning the social expansion of the Droyne Empire, as well as experiments with some of the fledging indigenous populations on certain planets in the Galaxy.

Abduct 500 Humans!

The Travellers find themselves on the bridge of a ship that is similar to the one they found abandoned in the orbit of Komesh, though less advanced. They are in the bodies of Droyne, though they recognise each other. The crew are also Droyne, but the four Travellers are in charge, commanding a special mission. The computer gives them an audio-visual briefing of their mission.

They are on board the Imperial starship Krinyaoth, a standard transport ship. They have been tasked with collecting 500 members of the species called Humans from their birth world and transporting them to another designated world, as part of an experiment that the High Council has ordered.

The Human birth world is on the edge of Droyne space and there is the possibility, although low, of encountering problems nearer to their destination.

Allocating Modules

The ship has 20 changeable modules and their first decision must be how to allocate them. A Human Habitation Module can accommodate 50 Humans. A Robotic Soldier Module comes with 50 advanced Robotic Soldiers.

They decide the following allocation:

11 x Human Habitation Modules

2 x Weapon Modules

3 x Shield Modules

1 x Stealth Module

1 x Gas Module

2 x Robotic Soldier Modules

Cyrus suggested the Gas Module to produce enough gas to subdue 500 Humans. Del suggested the Robotic Soldiers in order to round up the Humans once they have been subdued.

The journey commences and the ship begins to jump across Droyne space towards the Human birth world. It will take about a month to travel there. During the journey time passes quickly.

Del attempts to break out of this illusionary world. By concentrating very hard, he is able to perceive that he is still stood on the space station near to Grandfather, who is projecting these images into their minds while continuing to supervise the construction of the station and several other tasks. It takes all of Del’s concentration to break the illusion and he is unable to do anything else, so he relents and reverts back into the projection.

Thao Trouble

As the Krinyaoth gets near to the Human birth world, it jumps into a system and there is a ship nearby. t is a Thao ship, an insect species that has recently challenged the Droyne Empire. The Thao ship is technologically inferior to their ship, but is a war ship bristling with weapons. Tactical analysis by the computer suggests the ships are matched in combat strength.

The Thao contact them and demand that they hand over 10 of their advanced modules for their technological study. The Travellers consider and refuse, triggering a space battle. Almost immediately, the Thao take out the Stealth Module, neutralising any advantage that gave them.

The Thao manage to damage one Shield Module and two Human Habitation Modules before being driven off. The ship has capacity to repair one Module before they arrive at the Human birth world, which they choose to make a Human Habitation Module so that they still have capacity for 500 Humans and can fulfil their mission requirements.

Prehistoric Earth

The Krinyaoth resumes its journey and arrives at the Human birth world – Earth, around 300,000 years before the era of the Travellers. The planet has several scientific observation satellites in orbit around it, which synchronise with the ship’s systems. They have been observing the activities of the Human tribes on the planet and has identified a tribe of over 500 Humans living in a cave complex on one of the main continents.

The computer recommends all the Humans be members of the same tribe to ensure optimum social cohesion and limit the possibility of conflict and strife while having 500 specimens ensures sufficient genetic diversity for the experiment to succeed. The analysis of the Humans shows them to be early Neanderthals.

Catching Humans

After some discussion, the Travellers resolve to try to capture the tribe. Their plan is to deploy gas to knock the tribe out while they are sleeping and then use the Robot Soldiers to round them up and bring them via shuttles back to the Krinyaoth. The operation is mostly successful, but as the Humans are in a cave complex covering several kilometres, inevitably some are warned and able to escape the caves and avoid the incapacitating gas. They end up with around 480 Humans, which computer projections suggest is not enough.

The next day they deploy the robots again and in combination with the gas, are able to 25 more Humans, meeting their quota.

Cordillion

With their cargo aboard, they set course for the planet that the High Council has designated as the new home for the Humans. The Travellers are vaguely aware that while non-Human sentient life is rare in the Galaxy so far, there have been anomalies with Humans being found on worlds where no Human from Earth has ever travelled before, but DNA analysis suggests they originated from Earth. Perhaps they have found out the answer to that puzzle.

Their journey to Cordillion is uneventful as they cross Droyne space, stopping to get repairs and they replace the damaged Stealth Module with another Weapon Module and the damaged Human Habitation Module with another Shield Module.

When they arrive at the designated planet, they discover it has a number of disadvantages. Its oxygen levels are too low for Humans to survive except in very low altitudes. It has limited vegetation required for Human survival. It has limited surface water required for Human survival.

Planetary Squatters

Computer analysis of the surface has identified an optimum location that has sufficient water, vegetation and at a low altitude. However, when the ships sensors are directed to that area of the planet, they show that the location is already inhabited!

They check the computer and the planet is designed as uninhabited and reserved for the experiment of the High Council. These are unauthorised squatters.

Further computer analysis shows that while there are other locations that could work as settlement areas, only this zone allows for maximum probability of success.

Cyrus suggests that they should bombard the area from space and destroy the squatters. The others, especially Drent, suggests first communicate with them and Grant opens communications with the city.

The Consensus

After a while, he is put through to someone in charge. It emerges this group is called the Consensus. They do not like what has happened to the Droyne race since Grandfather took over. He has corrupted their culture with technology which they reject. They also believe that Grandfather died long ago and the High Council merely use his name in order to perpetuate their control over Droyne society.

The Consensus spokeswoman rejects any suggestions that the High Council has designated this planet for an experiment, they reject the authority of the High Council and they were here first. What are they going to do, blast them from space?

Threats of Destruction

The Travellers confer and again Cyrus suggests that they do exactly that – blast the colony from space. Drent says their first option should not be to resort to genocide.

A message is sent to the High Council asking for clarification, who confirm that legally the planet is designated for the experiment and the Consensus are illegally occupiers. The Travellers have full authority to deal with them as they see fit.

Still rejecting Cyrus’s suggestion to bomb them from orbit, Drent contacts the Consensus spokeswoman again and this time he is more aggressive, says they have two choices, either leave the planet immediately, or face bombardment from space.

The spokeswoman is shocked and disgusted, pointing out this sort of behaviour only confirms their fears about the corruption of the Droyne race. Then she says they do not have enough transports to evacuate the planet. Drent tells her they can help them dismantle their settlement to build transports.

That will take a long time, months at least. Drent agrees to give her a month. The spokeswoman initially rejects the proposal, but after consulting with other leaders, they agree to accept the terms.

Conclusions

The Travellers become aware that their first mission has succeeded. After a month, the Consensus are removed from the planet and the Humans are settled. The settlement is a success and the Humans thrive, especially once the atmosphere of the planet is terraformed to be closer to that of Earth.

However, Grandfather has not finished with them and he has another mission for them.

End of Episode One