AN: I do not own any part of the Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri universe except the crazy ideas I may write about for your viewing pleasure.
Review Commentaries:
What?, …,Crap:I know you're T-Bird. It really annoys me that your early reviews used different names, but whatever. None of your reviews make sense except the last one. I know it was crappy. I'm working on that.
Numbuhsix-sixtysix:As always I enjoy getting reviews from you, man. I believe the situation is plausible for several reasons. Eric Santiago-Brianbacks is the son of two of the founding faction leaders originally hailing from Earth. He's a second-generation leader in that respect. His parents were also beloved in the United Factions, that little spoken of federation of factions at the end of WhenGaiansThrowanOrgy which was all but destroyed by the time of TheEnd. He has, as you mention, a clear genealogical right to this position. He also has a bureaucratic, or legal, claim to the position when the Chief-Director steps down from power after the destruction of Dragon's Nest. Combined with these two reasons he also has a very good reason found throughout history, and that is the charismatic reasoning. When founding his power basis, Eric Brianbacks is as charismatic as he is ruthless in maintaining that power basis. He is not a first-generation leader like the faction leaders we are familiar with: Yang, Zakharov, Santiago, Miriam, Lal, Deidre, Morgan, or my invented first-generation leaders Mogul and Kurchask. He is, however, by the mean level of merit on Alpha Rhea, the most capable of leading humanity in this time of crisis.
I hope you continue to enjoy my stories, and as always, I love to read your reviews!
(Story)
The dawn of 2696
Man in his very essence is chaotic. He is illogical, mundane, and very jealous. What does not belong to him he makes his own. If he cannot make it is own then he burns it into annihilation. One of the key things he burns, are the bridges between his heart and the hearts of others.
For nearly 60,000 years, man blossomed on Earth. The problem was that he blossomed in four distinctly different ways. Man was fundamentally different on Earth. He could not assimilate into a united being of coexistence. So in the waning days of Earth, the U.N. Unity was the last hope for survival of a diversified species. The Unity careened through the vast black sea of space till it came to Alpha Centuari, and there it found a decent planet that they called Chiron. With all due haste, in light of the assassination of Captain Garland, Chiron was settled by seven distinct human factions.
The difference between the men of Earth and the men of Chiron was that they were fundamentally the same. They had the same background, escapees of the ravages of Earth. Man might have united under the skies of Chiron, if only for one thing. The planet itself was alive, and viewed man like a disease upon its' surface. So there was a struggle between the already weakened man and the long living mindworms.
In the end, under the skies of Chiron, and under the leadership of Mogul Brianbacks, man fell to the ravages of man's internal turmoil and the equally destructive ravages of the Chirote anti-bodies.
Man fell a distance which brought him even closer to the brink of extinction. Now, extinction is a funny thing with man. He'd brought hundreds of creatures to extinction, and thousands more to the brink of it. Yet he himself could not cast the stone and die peacefully for his sins. He wanted a tertiary chance.
It was on the little moon called Alpha Rhea, orbiting Chiron, named after the moon of Saturn that man made his tertiary attempt to survive and prosper. There, nearly 3,000 suddenly felt the bridge to the 40,000 on Chiron extinguish. The wayward winds of Life had cast the bridges asunder. The Heavens had cast Man back beneath them, righting Mogul Brianbacks catch of fame for over 200 years in the pinnacle of utopia.
The communications officer on the primary base of Alpha Rhea, Wosul, tuned every station he could think of. Old cities, old bases, sea bases, land bases, the new air base Dragon's Flight. Nothing but static. He turned to the stations of the satellites. Nothing but static.
The man did not want to believe it. Alpha Rhea was barely self-sufficient. There would be next to no way to return to anywhere outside of this rock. He looked at the screen of the part of Chiron they could see, and he could barely catch the glimpses of the isle of Dexamenus. It looked fine. Of course that was his vantage point, some 2,000 kilometers above it.
When he let word get around there was a panic. What had caused it? Perhaps the mindworms? Perhaps the rogue University-Morganite Confederation had managed to beat back the beasts. Alas none of their known frequencies gave any other noise than static.
In his defense statement among the colonial council, the communications officer of Wosul defended himself by saying that he had become immersed in a sea of depression at the knowledge that his venerated leader, Mogul Brianbacks, had been torn asunder by the mindworms destruction of the First Great Wall and Dragon's Nest.
They were alone: 2,861 of them. That was the human population across the entire Universe that they knew of. They were truly on the brink of extinction now. Once the panic had settled, behind the scenes a meeting was taking place between the top officers, now the leading men of the entire human race and yet never having expected to be placed in such a position. They were all mediocre officers of marginal background who were more exiled to Alpha Rhea while Mogul focused on the defense of his super city-state faction.
At a round table, deep inside of Wosul sat the men who now were in charge of the entirety of humanity; they were not similar in the strength of the character of the seven founding faction leaders in 2100. Wosul's Chief-Director, Jubal Rans. The Communications Officer, Sybil Narso. Alpha Rhea's highest rank soldier, Colonel Mustar Green. There was the drill sergeant for the trainees, Sergeant Hugh Hatter. As well as the Head Technician, Marco Rail.
Each one had a claim to be the leader. Not all of them wanted to be the leader. Colonel Mustar Green had no desire to lead the quintessential amount of humans left. While Sergeant Hugh Hatter was up and roaring to do so and claim rankage over the colonel. The problem was he was outranked by the Colonel. Wosul's Director, Jubal Rans knew how to keep a single base running, but he had no experience in maintaining an entire network of bases, much less the political beauracracy necessary to do so. The Communications Officer, Sybil Narso was too easily panicked, and had absolutely no clue on how to lead anyone, and this was before he was placed on trial. Just as the Head Technician, Marco Rail had no experience with that either and only managed a staff in Wosul of some 30 men.
As such, three of the five were trying to convince Jubal Rans that he was the one who should take the head, while Hugh Hatter tried to get them to see that he could do the job. At length, Jubal Rans stepped down as Chief-Director, and his assistant, who was just ten years old, took reign as Director. His story was a tragic one.
His father and mother were powerful and of quite some prestige. Yet, his mother was assassinated when he was four. Being the son of two very prominent people, he was given some priority in being given the position Assistant Director of Wosul in order to start his career in the management of the United Factions in addition to giving his a safe harbor during the turbulent times on Chiron. Now, it seemed even his father was dead too. His name was Eric Santiago-Brianbacks. He did not suffer from schizophrenia like his father. Instead he was a strong young boy. Even at his age he held firm. When he became the Director of Wosul by default, the meeting came to a quick close as he was determined to lead the leftovers of human kind.
He took the stage to address the entire Alpha Rhea colony shortly after that crucial meeting. He barely stood above the podium he was delivering his address from. His dark brown hair reminded the people of his father. His black eyes and tanned skin reminded them of his mother.
"It seems we have come a very long way from 'civilization'. Around 700 years ago, human kind was made up of six billion men, women, and children. Around 300 years ago, we made up some 810,000 men, women, and children. Now, today, and in the present, human kind is made up of 2,861 men, women, and a single child. The cradle of our life is some 4.3 parsecs away and none of us have ever even seen it beyond pictures. Earth means nothing to us. Chiron is our home. Alpha Rhea is our nest. Even when things get darker than anything out in space where there are no stars, the light is always coming at you. When the Universe began, and a million light years away from where it all began there was nothing, even as something was being born, there was no light. There was no sound, or air. Just a vast, cold, emptiness. Then the light came forth, and even though it might not end up anything there, it still saw the light!" His little hands smashed into the podium.
"We have a chance to see that light despite all our suffering. I say we unite! No more stalling. No more waiting. A final all or nothing measure!"
There was naught but silence. People were speechless. Here was a little boy telling them they could survive. No, here was the son of Mogul Brianbacks and Corazon Santiago telling them they could survive! In a desperate time the people turned to what naturally was supposed to be their leader in the event of the Chief-Director's resignation and that person just happened to be the son of their dearly dead Great Ones. If anyone could bring them to salvation, it was the boy in front of them. In an instant, the silence turned into cheering. Cheering that found its way onto a station, and careened off in all directions. Only to be caught by the pysche of the planet. It could see its enemy, but it couldn't do anything...yet.
(Story)
AN: December 7th, 2011: Hey guys! I hope you're appreciating the effort I go through to revamp this entire series! I'll be returning to working on Tails Combined pretty soon so there won't be any more edits for After Mogul for a little while after this chapter. As always, I encourage you to review my stories while I fix my lack of commentaries for the reviews on The End which I just noticed in posting this edit.
Goodnight New Cleveland!
Author's Announcements:
I know hardly anyone reads my profile (which wouldn't matter since it's out of date anyway), so I have posted these following announcements in all of my stories to let you formally know that I will be attempting to write chapters for most of my stories once again. I cannot guarantee anything, but I am most willing to make the effort.
That's the important part. Here come the details (your queue to leave if you want).
Reasons Why I Haven't Been Writing:
Well…geez, put me on the spot without time for cookies or milk. I haven't been writing mostly because of the combined dedications my life has required of me. In the time since I wrote MemoirsofaTimeTraveler I have done the following things, each further complicating my life as a burgeoning adult:
1. Began a polyamorous relationship.
2. Managed to get my girlfriend of five years pregnant.
3. Fought with the parents of the newest member of our 'Triad' in the Triangular relationship.
4. Finally given up the idea of trying to treat both of my girlfriends equal in public status and married my pregnant girlfriend (to avoid the evil state of Indiana's bureaucracy).
5. Had my mother-in-law move in to help us with bills.
6. Had a child whom we call Alex.
7. Managed to obtain a 35 hour job (which previously had been 20 hours since after #3 but before #4).
8. Have continued my undergraduate education throughout the entire process.
Reasons Why I Will Begin Writing Anew:
These are the reasons why I'm more optimistic about a renewed writing!
1. Resigned from my job since my boss is a douche and was probably going to fire me anyway.
2. Finals are over!
3. Looking for another job and taking care of Alex, but still plenty of free time from the additional hours (some 70 in my week) which have been freed up recently.
4. Because I hate to see 'abandoned' on my stories!
I look forward to presenting everyone with wonderful new material on old ideas. Let it be known, however, that not all of my lack of posting is from a lack of writing. I have written three chapters for various stories when my computer crashed around seven months ago. Don't blame me, blame the elves.
So, without further ado, I bid you welcome into a new age of writing by Ultimagu.
