The Eternal Dawn
| The Undying Dawn | |||||||||||||
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History
The Adharan Schism created two blocs-one moderate, allying with the secular government and then with PACT, and one extremist, which hijacked the long-range exploration ship The New Dawn and left, with its fabricators and rapid-growth systems, ready and waiting to return one day. But they would need to take a few stops along the way, to bolster their strength, to create their armies, and to advance their technology. The slowship took five years, with a then-current database of colonies.
Although a few of the exiles wished to keep going into the Rim, the majority of them were set on finding a stopover point on the edge of unexplored space, a point where they might eventually turn into the first step of their vengeance. Searching for a backwater colony which they could exploit, they chose the colony of Gimlet, and landed their vessel on the far side of their moon, deploying its fabricators. Enhanced exowombs, mind-imprint units, and fabricators produced ready-made soldiers by the batch, waiting for the invasion time.
Gimlet and the Invasion
The colony of Gimlet had been created from a "failed" Longshot, a colony eking out a small safe zone in the middle of a hell-forest, where the predators and biotoxins were no less dangerous than the environments of many hell worlds. In fact, many would have said more dangerous, since radiation is predictable, but a tiger-sized octopod with serrated poison blades, 360 degree multispectral vision, and multiple redundant organs isn't, not in attacking, in territory, or in even dying when shot repeatedly. Even with advanced technology, battlesuits, and armored vehicles casualties were not unexpected as they tried clearing the brush. On the other hand, it created a very hardened group of colonists.
It was rather insufficient when the attacking force screamed through their meager ground-to-orbit defenses, depositing flash-cloned soldiers trained by accelerated VR and mind-imprint, as well as hardened veterans of the Adharan Schism onto major population centers. Despite that, the Gimlet colonists, used to a hard life and a bloody conflict, fought back quite well, but they were outmatched, technologically as well as training-wise. The survivors were forcibly assimilated, enhanced and loyalty-boosted to serve under their new overlords. However, the invaders were not precisely cruel-those who were loyalty-boosted were allowed to become fully serving citizens in the new world order, the Undying Dawn.
The then-Adharans found themselves in control of a world that fitted their ideological preferences-a world where to be king, every man had to be grossly superhuman. The predators there were fast, tough, cunning, often worked in packs, and devastating. The atmosphere was poison, the water tainted. It lacked an ozone layer. It might have been more beautiful than Adhara, but the planet still had plenty of teeth.
And that was exactly how the invaders liked it. A planet that would challenge them, test their bodies to the limit, force them to build better ones.
The Undying Dawn
The sect chose a new name instead of "Singularitan", a name that would hopefully reflect their devotion to the path of continual cybernetic enhancement. Their inspiration came from the vessel that was supposed to be Adhara's first outward light, its salvation during the Breakdown. They would have their salvation-one day.
The Undying Dawn was born on the planet, which they rapidly renamed Rebirth. The Dawnies ventured out into the forests, sometimes to hunt, other times to be hunted. They built and expanded, landing the New Dawn on the planet, allowing the vessel to grow into its new capital city.
Rebirth
The fauna on Rebirth is unlikely to be naturally occurring-many of its adaptations are exceedingly complex, and most of the animals lack legacy code that would imply natural evolution. Even though the higher radiation levels from the blue sun and the lack of an ozone layer and weaker magnetic field make the radiation levels higher and evolution quicker, it's doubtful that something as hostile like this could be natural. It might have been precursors, or an unknown xenosophont, or something altogether more obscure, but few believe it could have been natural.
History Paths
A1) Initial Colonization
- Longshot Colony (+Fabers): The New Dawn was essentially a militarized longshot vessel and during its long flight was further militarized by its own fabricators.
A2) Initial Population
- Dominantly Transgene (++Transgene): They were Adharans after all, with many of the same genetic boosts.
A3) Destination
- Hell World: Rebirth is the worst kind of hell world-one that looks habitable at first glance and then you realize just how horrible it is.
- Adapt (Radical Morphological Change): On the other hand, The Eternal Dawn love horrible.
B1) History of the Colony (Volume 1)
- Military Action (+Military): The inhabitants of the New Dawn prepared their invasion in secret, using fabricators and brain-imprints to create a newly minted army.
- Training Grounds (+Doctrine): A newly minted army of badasses!
C1) History of the Colony (Volume 2)
- Transgene
MigrationInvasion (+Transgene, +Population): Oh my god Adharans in the trees Adharans in the trees
D1) Breakdown
- I'm a Magnate (+Morale): Technically all of the above happened during the breakdown but let's leave that out for a bit. When they found out who their neighbors were, they finally found people with similar ideals. Sure some of them were a bit secular, but agreement was easy.
- Perfected Society (+Pop, +CIP, +doctrines, +transgene): Free from the constraints of the secularists and moderates, the "Dawnies" as the Sphere would soon know them started stealing xenobiology and implementing it in their own citizens.
M1) Socio-Economic
- Exhumanize! (++Transgene, +++Supersoldiers): This xenobiology had some serious teeth.
M2) Socio-Military
- Series VII Replicants (++ Ground Tech, ++Ground doctrines, +supersoldiers): The Adharan contribution to the war was primarily the Series VII Combat Morph, a grossly superhuman fusion of xenobiology, cybernetic skeleton, and superhuman brain, trained by brain-induction and flash-cloned. Although the early variants had some troubles with lateral thinking and could be easily entrapped or ambushed, the later ones did not, as many League and ZOCU fighters found out to their dismay.
L1) Government
- Future Government (++Morale, +Transgene): The Loyalty Chip is a beautiful invention-everyone knows the laws, knows they support the government, and knows their role in the order that god wills. Free will is an illusion, after all. Why not take your blinders away and show you the truth?
X) Development Hell (+Techlevel, -Tech): You know that little "Building God" project? Yeah, it's currently scheduled to be released in a twin-pack with Duke Nukem Forever. On the other hand, some of that interim research is pretty nice.
Magnate: +Ground Tech, +Aerospace Tech, +5 Shipbuilding, +Cruiser Construction, +Armor Tech, +Railgun Tech
Path Bonuses
(Does not include base tech)
+Fabers, +++++++Transgene, ++++Supersoldiers, +Techlevel, ++Ground Tech, +++Morale, ++Ground Doctrines, ++Doctrines, +CIP, ++Pop, +Military, -Tech, Radical Morphological Change
Technical Advancement
General Tech Level: 18
- Railguns +4 (22)
- Materials +4 (22)
- Transgenics +32 (50)
- Ground +7 (25)
- Xenotech +14 (32)
Biology and Biotech
The Eternal Dawn does a healthy black-market trade in biotech, as Dawn-built machinery is often absolute bleeding-edge in this category if nowhere else.
Series VII Combat Replica
The Series VII is, no better than anything else, the 'face' of the Magnate war, battle-armored League or ZOCU troopers fighting brutal urban combat against an enemy which does not think, does not feel, does not second-guess. Deployed nearly as soon as The Eternal Dawn became a co-belligerent with the Magnates in the quest to acquire Theta dust, the VIIs were to phase out imperfect transhuman soldiers with a machine that did not have the same problems. It did not hate the enemy, it could not fear, it could not concern itself with trivialities except for this battle. It was an organism engineered for war, nonsapient, mating a highly edited human brain to a powerful cybernetic implant computer, the brain being trained by neural induction instead of physically learning in its new body. Its body was similarly hybridized, a reinforced skeleton and cybermotors supporting living xenobiology, artificial computer implants managing hormonal levels as well as its complex augmentation system.
Physically the Series VII stood approximately 1.8m tall and massed 120 kilograms without its nearly-symbiotic suit of battle armor, heavily built to carry greater loads into combat and survive greater injury. Every survivability augmentation that had been pioneered by the Adharans and enhanced by the Dawn had been packed into its frame, creating a machine that could survive significant organ trauma and blood loss before its biological systems shut down-and even then, its cybernetics could often at least let it get its revenge. VIIs virtually lived in their battle armor, with bioelectrical organs to recharge it when not in combat, and could live off the land by consuming virtually any organic matter for fuel due to their toxin filters and powerful digestive system.
The initial deployments of the VII were overwhelmingly successful-their tactical deployments had not been mapped, their combat responses new and not trained for. Without knowing how to fight them, how to exploit the flaws that cropped up in their tactical programming, they were devastating foes with expert-level marksmanship, a complete lack of fear, and a strongly developed altruistic sense. However, once the initial shock wore off, post-combat analysis quickly started finding flaws in their design. Their brain was limited in complexity to increase thought speed, and paired with an advanced computer to provide tactical and decision-making assistance, but this made them predictable. It was easy to lure VIIs into an ambush if one knew how to set it up, and it did not take long before the tables had turned.
To counteract this, two projects were initiated. The Series VIII and IX projects, the latter being a full successor and the former being an "officer" design with sentience built back in. Series VIIIs (or Series VII Officers) have their skulls, which were originally heavily reinforced with armor plate, thinned significantly to allow the use of a brain which is significantly larger, although still smaller (but more efficient) than a human one. VII Officer-types are generally roughly equivalent to Alphas or other common transhumans in intellect, although they still have the same instinctual mastery of combat tactics and marskmanship common to all VIIs. VII Officers were fully sentient and capable of advancing past their station, and as such did not have the same "terminator" genes built in as they were not war materiel. The consequences, however, of the VII Officer and the IX are interesting as they are not volunteers, which means that their slavery is unconscionable in the Dawn religion. Therefore instead of being fully engineered they are mind-patterned after willing volunteers, who in return gain additional respect and reputation. After the mindstate's fixed military service, it is free to take any career it wishes, change its body, or do anything it wishes to.
Proliferation
The VII had been quickly adopted throughout the Magnates before its flaws came to light, but even then it was more than adequate if properly employed, whether with Magnate officers there to keep them from running into traps, or with the officers designed to lead them. Their success, as well as their programmable loyalty, precision, and lack of sentience to question its orders, made them desirable for several other nations in the Sphere as well. It's always nice to have some bodyguards who will never question you, or think for themselves, or do anything but watch out for you.
A black market trade rapidly developed in this advanced combat bioroid, causing the design to proliferate throughout the Rim, although only a handful of powers have the technical know-how to do more than maintain them, as their complex genetic code is prone to failure if edited, and their birthing requires significant high-tech infrastructure that most Rim powers do not have.