LIONS OF TERRA

Background

After the Invaders had come and gone, erasing all evidence of Humanity from the Sol system and the few colonized systems, very few humans remained. By the end of the first year, perhaps less than one thousand. Of the thousand, the largest group numbered seventy-one. The smallest, one solitary individual.

Stealthily, terrified, mad with grief and impotent rage at an unstoppable and implacable foe, the survivors fled as best they could. Some groups fled to the numberless icy worldlettes of the Oort comet cloud, some beyond to the dark and smoldering brown dwarf stars lost between the bright burning stars. Some fled into Sol itself, hiding inside its upper atmosphere, cloaked by radiation, cooled and shielded by desperate technologies. Others sank into the lightless sea beneath the ice of Europa and Iapetus, while others drifted into the clouds of the giant planets in the outer solar system.

Gradually, as time crept by, the Invaders ceased their/its efforts to destroy humanity and the other Terrans mechanical and biological. Perhaps they were showing mercy. Perhaps they felt Terran life and mechanicals had been eradicated. Perhaps they were drawn elsewhere. Whatever the reason, the Invaders disappeared.

Meanwhile, in the darkness and in the fires, or in the abyss between the suns, humanity hid and waited, biding their time until they grew strong enough to re-emerge and wreck a terrible vengence upon the Invaders.

Over hundreds, then thousands of years, humanity and its creations survived and began the long climb back from the brink of extinction. And gradually the groups, many now changed unrecognizably in all but heritage, began once again to tentatively peer out from their shelters. And spread. Always quietly. Always wary. Always searching.

It was almost five hundred years before the Invaders were detected. Only after hiding so long and so well could the Terrans know where and how to look.  The faintest of elctronic signals, virtually invisible against the roar of suns and the inferno at the center of the galaxy, was all that was needed. Three Terran groups detected the electromagnetic signal.

And their vengence was terrible indeed.

Stars were extinguished. Planets were left as barren as Earth. And still it was not enough. For thousands of years the engines of death roared unceasingly, the galactic night split by the electromagnetic deathcries of dying worlds amidst the flickers of dying suns.

And when the War was over, only the Terrans remained...

TIMELINE

Late 21st Century - SHEEP TO THE SLAUGHTER

Humanity established throughout the Sol System. Extrasolar outposts established at Proxima Centauri, AC+70 3888 (Addler's World), Barnard's Star and Gliese 229.

The Invaders arrive in December of 2099. Projectiles massing thousands of tons, accelerated to 90%+ the speed of light (c) strike Earth, the Moon, Mars, Triton, Ganymede Orbital Facility. No survivors. Earth is laid waste as the oceans boil and the atmosphere burns. No evidence of human habitation remains. Total number of survivors in the Sol System is estimated at less than 500,000 out of almost 16 billion.

New Years Day, 2100AD.

Invader ships cross the orbit of Pluto/Charon in seach of surviving Terrans. Less than 1000 survive.

Contact lost with Sol system.

Contact lost with Addler's World.

Contact lost with Proxima Centauri Station.

Contact lost with Barnard Station and Gleise 229 Station.

2100AD - ~5000AD - RATS IN THE WALLS

2144 - 68 survivors reach GP+4 004 Quasi-Stellar Object (a brown dwarf) after almost 50 years of travel. Ship is reconfigured into an orbital habitat in the upper atmosphere of the brown dwarf. Passive detection probes deployed.

2145 - 60% decrease in luminosity of Sol. Addler erupts in a nova, as does Proxima Centauri.

2146 - 32 survivors reach AC+79 008 Quasi-Stellar Object.

2153 - 16 survivors establish habitat in orbit around uncharted QSO near LG8-28.

2170 - contact lost with survey ship inbound from GP+4 004 entering Sol System.

~2200 - 2400 - small colonies established by survivors on 16 brown dwarf stars within 50 light years (ly) of Sol. Several dozen tiny habitats pieced together on interstellar cometary objects.

~2400 - Invader ship outbound from Sol System passes LG8-28. Ship picks up several miniature probes in the magnetic field of its Bussard-Ramjet-Type drive engine. These probes are carried by the Invader to an unnamed star in the constellation Sagittarius nearly 500ly distant.

~2900 - Signals from the nanobot probes detected by 53 of 291 Terran enclaves within 79 ly of Sol system. Four groups release multi-ton relativist unmanned ships toward signal source. Acceleration of these ships reaches >95% c before the signal source is acquired and targeted.

~3400 - The ships reach the signal source, a small icy planet orbiting a dim red star. All four ships reconfigure into a hail of slugs ranging in weight from hundreds of tons to hundreds of pounds, striking multiple electromagnetic sources in the target system. The sources are obliterated in the same manner as Earth. Absorbic (energy to matter) bombs detonated in the red dwarf star result in the stars collapse into a neutron star, rendering the system unlivable.

~3410 - Crewed starships following on the heals of the relativistic bombs begin mopping up Invader survivors in the target system and other nearby solar systems.

~3420 - Invader habitats in Sol system destroyed by Terran relativistic attacks. Crewed ships and probes entering the Sol system find no trace of humanity except a small enclave on the floor of the sea of Europa. Invader colonies on Mars, Earth and Mercury destroyed with atomic weapons.

~3500 - 8000 - Human colonies established on hundreds of worlds. ECM/ECCM technologies are employed to prevent escape of electromagnetic signals from all colonies. All traces of the Invaders are eradicated in a fierce genocidal war.

~8000 - 15,000AD - THE LIONS OF TERRA

With very few exceptions, Humanity has evolved into a predatory and warlike race. A few alien species exhibiting tool-using technology are detected. All are interdicted and contained, or destroyed.

Humanity and its creations, both organic and inorganic, have fragmented into thousands of species and philosophies, many now completely unrecognizable as human. Cultures rise and fall, with many having forgotten or recreated their origins. First Terran-Terran wars as different Terran descendants are deemed "too dangerous", meaning "too alien" to be allowed to survive.

Humanity becomes the Invaders...

Part 1 of the Technology of Lions of Terra

Cyberpunk 2020 Rules Modifications for Lions of Terra

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Lions of Terra © 2001 eviloverlord668@yahoo.com