THE WAR FOR PERN
earthisours
Dragonriders of Pern is in no way owned to me. It was created and written by Anne McCaffrey. However, characters, plot and earth dragon colours were created by me
FOREWORD
In the 9th Pass, when all the world of Pern was involved in the stopping of Thread forever, something happened that no one neither suspected nor had ever thought of.
As programmed by its makers back on Earth, the AIVAS discovered at Landing transmitted a detailed report on all it knew up to that point, as soon as he had extra energy to spare. It was part of an emergency matrix in the case that a colony's AIVAS becomes inactive for long periods of time, and although AIVAS tried to disable this part of his programming, he found no way around it.
The report itself included a summary of what happened when the colonists landed, as well as a summary of all that the modern-day Pernese had in their Records. Not only that, it also included the original genetic plans designed by Kitti Ping Yung and the plans for the diversion of the Red Planet. The report, sent to the Yokohoma, was not received for many years, until a nearby spaceship caught the message and was relayed towards Earth.
The report caused much turmoil back on Earth, particularly among scientists. It was old knowledge of the original plans to colonize Pern with an agrarian society. Everyone also knew how it had then failed terribly and the surviving colonists had been rescued by a nearby ship and taken home. How could the planet still be inhabited? Surely it had to be a fake. However, upon careful investigation, the signature of the now-ancient and outdated AIVAS was compared to old documented signatures of that line of the Artificial Intelligence Voice-Address Systems, and the report was found to be authentic.
From there, the news took two different directions: a political one, and a scientific one. Scientists immediately took the chance to play with the genetic plans left by the well-documented geneticist Kitti Yung, and the military took special interest in the project. Worldwide, the shock of news from this abandoned planet rattled the population and two main schools of thought developed: leave them alone or make contact.
The government and military of the Earth had their own ideas, however. Earth was on the brink of war with a hostile alien species, and should it come to a head, all the weaponry, even with state-of-the-art technology, it just wasn't going to cut it. So the project was taken over by the government, and new specifications were ordered. It no longer was a xenobiological study, it was weapons development. Armed with the best geneticists of the nearby human worlds, and with all the funds they could want, the project raced ahead.
Although the original plans called for five variations to the organism, it was found that creating nine variations worked better to their plans, each with their own advantages and uses. Keeping to the original tradition of naming each subspecies by its hide colour, the variations were named: cyan, pink, purple, black, orange, silver, red, green and white. The dragons, although related to their Pernese counterparts, were modified heavily, both physically and mentally.
The first set of eggs were a disappointment– they all died, even though their embryos appeared perfect, even though their autopsy showed nothing that could be attributed to their deaths. Of course, in their haste to create the animal, they ignored the rearing aspects of the detailed plans of Kitti. The hot sandy environment was re-created in a lab, and the next set successfully hatched.
In preparation for the hatching day, the government and military held out an extensive search for those known to have some telepathic ability, or at the very least, an ancestor with telepathic abilities. Those who had some sort of military training were preferred, and by the end of the search, 67 candidates for the hatchlings were chosen, and were ranked 'Cadets.' They were placed in a semi-circle around the eggs, each candidate well-versed and trained in how to act and react around the eggs and hatchlings.
It almost ended in tragedy.
The first three fledglings hatched after a long and tense wait, their voices crying out, their throats warbling piteously. But they did not move. They just stood in their spots, howling, until one of them finally fell over as she tripped on her own wing. One cadet just couldn't stand for it anymore: how could they just stand there and watch as the poor thing hurt itself? Couldn't they feel how she was calling? How she was in pain? Following her instinct, she ran for the lonely hatchling, helped her up, and a bond was immediately formed.
This was not expected. Was the dragon not supposed to choose their partner? The scientists did not understand, but the other cadets did. As each of the dragonets hatched, each cadet moved to the one he or she felt a pull to, some even surrounding their chosen dragon before it even hatched. All eggs but two hatched and bonded, and those were quickly taken away to be studied further.
The hatching went well, although to the delight of some, it was discovered a 10th variation had been overlooked, a mutation of the other variations. It was dubbed the Armour dragon, called because of the thickened hide it had over parts of its body. Upon further hatchings, it was decided the hide armour could be white or black, and tended to form most commonly the head, chest and tail.
The project grew bigger, and the dragonriders were allocated to a special division of the military, ranks were formed and distributed, inspired by the Naval ranking system. They were their own section now, autonomous, but loosely allied with the Air force. They became prestigious members of the military, and of the population, their dragons held in high regard.
It wasn't long, however, before the Admirals of the of the dragon fleet were called to stand before the governments. They were assigned a mission, and which was held to a very high security level. One of their best, although newly-promoted, Admirals was assigned to the colony mission, as well as a good portion of the dragonriders. Other essential personnel were also assembled, as well as their families, enough to form a good colony population.
Highly cloaked in secrecy, two starships set forth towards Pern.
AUTHOR NOTE: I tried to address some of the discrepancies in this re-write of the foreword. Hopefully it makes a little more sense.