Warcraft: Arrival from the Stars Redux
Disclaimer: Warcraft by Blizzard Entertainment, Civilisation by Sid Meier's, Firaxis games and 2k
How will the people of Azeroth deal with an entirely new branch of Humanity, one with advanced technology that rivals anything seen by both the Alliance and the Horde. At least one thing is true, the destiny of mankind on earth relies now on this one planet.
28/04/2758 C.E
General Kozlov and his newly awoken, newly assembled advisers looked down on the planet, the planet for which they had known as Kepler-186f in their databases. The analysis from earth, back in the 21st and 22nd centuries had said that the Planet would be roughly earth-like, with perhaps a variation making it roughly 10% larger than earth. This old database information was about to be either confirmed or denied momentarily, the seed-ship's various sensors not being able to work in FTL, but once back to sub-light speeds, would again be able to function, barring that any problem had occurred in the five hundreds years or so in which the ship had been near-dormant with the colonists in cryo-stasis.
From what Kozlov could see of the great orb, this new planet, this Kepler-186, it seemingly featured three continents, and what must have been a few island chains here and there.
General Kozlov sighed, putting his lips to a straw as synthesized coffee came out in spherical bubbles that floated around in Kozlov's mouth. The aroma and the flavour, but most importantly, the caffeine helped to remove the ever-present, heady feeling of the long cryosleep. Inwardly, Kozlov couldn't help but feel joy at the concept of a new place to live… a new planet to call home, but he also felt home sick as well.
In fact, he couldn't help but to remember the deep and heart-felt patriotism of his now-old speech, the one that felt like he had spoken only a day ago, back just near the lauch pad on a hastily constructed podium, on the same date that four years earlier, the ARC had set forth for Kepler-186f.
Citizens of the Slavic Federation!
Fearless pioneers of the Outer Space! Hard-working settlers and scientists who have devoted their lives to the genetics, engineering or cybernetics!
This is the final day of the last year we entirely spend on our home planet. In a few months we shall leave and venture on a quest for happiness for all nations of Mother-Earth.
For many years unnumbered we have been torturing our planet, thoughtlessly plundering its wealths. How many animals and plants have been erased from the face of Earth forever? The IUCN Red List comprises more pages than all issues of Encyclopaedia Britannica & Great Soviet Encyclopedia combined together, and we are the only species bearing the blame.
Do you remember the day when the last drop of gas was devoured by the last car in the Russian Federation? So many people have died since then. Yes, this has been the last drop, because only then did the Eurasian nations regain their senses and form a union, which later became the Slavic Federation.
We have survived countless woes. Is there any nation on the planet who had to face such trials? No. Three revolutions in one century, four world wars raging across our lands – and still we survived. We stayed afloat, when the water levels rose higher than the stock market, and the rest of the world sank. Nobody but Slavs could do it. Nobody.
Let us remember the legacy of the Golden Age. We were the first ones to launch a satellite, to send a man into space, to establish an extraterrestrial colony, to cross the Kuiper belt. Our history is one of the triumph of reason over ignorance, malice and greed. Since the very moment of birth our nation has been destined to go forward. And further up!
Many hardships lie ahead. We know little about the planet we have chosen as our home. What secrets does it hold? Never fear! We are ready to face anything. Our microbiologists can overcome any extraterrestrial viruses, our ecologists can build any number of prosperous colonies, and our astrophysicists will conquer the alien planet and present it to the mankind. Other expeditions will fail in the struggle with the hostile world, but we will prevail, and we will save their lives, and we will give them shelter.
The time has come to forget past grievances. We know the power of the Slavic Federation. Our orbital stations surpass those of other nations, our machines produce equipment of unrivaled quality. But can we survive without the help of our fellow earthlings? Are we to forget the past without the knowledge of the Franco-Iberian historians? Are our defenses to succumb to the alien wildlife without the support of the hardened soldiers of Buenos Aires? Are we to wallow in vice without the wise guidance of Kavithan Protectorate preachers? No, we should unite our efforts for the sake of the future.
They have been comparing me to the great Yuri Gagarin, the most courageous space pioneer in the history of Earth. I am honored, and yet I must acknowledge the truth of these words. Yes, I am a working class guy, who grew up dreaming of the distant stars and galaxies. Like the Soviet Union, we are about to enter the new, truly cosmic era. Yuri Alekseevich has made the first step towards the space travel. But we must make the last.
This is a solemn moment. A beginning of the first year of the new era. I wish you all a happy New Year 2210!
Let's go!
General Kozlov cleared away his mind, massaging his temple with his left hand.
"General Kozlov, are you feeling alright?"
Kozlov shrugged his shoulders before replying. "I am fine, just feeling bad from the cryosleep."
The adviser obviously was feeling from the same sickness as he nodded his head in understanding.
A second or so later, a shout issued through the room. "General Kozlov, Me and my friends have compiled up our combined scans. I'd like to say that what we have now is very, very rough."
Kozlov quickly began to smile. "The data, is it sensitive?"
The scientist, seemingly understanding what Kozlov meant, nodded his head. "Nothing that would get me hung up for treason, anyway. Just general information, as well as some quick readings... nothing like 'Oh, we've got aliens' here or anything like that, though that would be amazing. I'd be like you sir, being the first to summit Olympus mons... but with aliens, and no climbing."
Kozlov grinned at the scientist's joke. "Speak up then, what have you got."
"We've got an atmosphere here made up of what we normal people like to to call air... with all that oxygen and nitrogen, its carbon dioxide and all the other trace elements like back on earth, just less of the carbon dioxide... to be honest, it's what you'd expect to see with pre-1700's records for the most part, as found in the antarctic drill samples of the time-period. There should be roughly one standard G of gravity. If our scan's are right, there ought to be a temperate climate at the equator with varying, cooler climates the further you go from the equator. It seems we have an error with out surface scans, either it is being blockaded by something, or our equipment is faulty, however we have managed to glean on some valuable information... we have early readings consistent with natural elements that on earth are quite valuable. We've got a feed, if you'd like to see what I mean."
Kozlov sighed. "By all means, send it to the main screen so that everyone can look. This is a historic occasion, I'm sure of that, let us share in this together."
The scientist linked the feed from his videopad through to the main holo-screen.
After a brief waiting time, a combination of preliminary images and data compiled back on earth appeared alongside the new data that was just gleamed roughly an hour ago.
The scan then zoomed in, showing scattered and sometimes contradictory images where it was hard to observe or pinpoint any graphical features aside from what looked to be a gigantic tree that Kozlov rapidly dismissed as error.
"Can you get a clearer feed?"
The scientist moved his head side to side, the universal bodily symbol for no.
"No, this is the best our sensors can get. We've observed readings saying that there are areas rich with petroleum. Spectroscopy scans have revealed that rutile ore... which means titanium is very likely at some points. We've also got likely readings for ores bearing..." The scientist quickly cleared his throat for a moment, quickly looking back on his notes. "uhhh, iron, copper, tin, zirconium, lead and other elements. There are also what appears to be alluvial gold in trace amounts. There's fresh water at places, but the planet otherwise mostly consists of salty sea water. We can desalinate the water, not to the same level as we could back on earth exactly, but the process would use up a lot of power."
Kozlov looked closer. "So, these resources, can they show up... I mean, be highlighted?"
The Scientist simply reached out his left hand to press a button on the Videopad before replying back to Commander .
"I have already done that General. We also found hot spots of geothermal energies as well." the scientist then pointed to several locations on the videopad.
Kozlov quickly walked over to the scientist and grabbed him by the shoulder.
"Your name, sir?"
The scientist quickly went into a defensive posture, unsure of Kozlov's intent, which earned him a quick laugh from Kozlov himself.
"My soldiering days are mostly gone. I want your name."
"My name is Arany, from Bulgaria."
"Arany... man seemingly from Bulgaria." Kozlov grinned at his joke. "This is a historic occasion, Arany. Do you know that years from now, children will speak about this, about how we got here. They will say that Arany was the man who is responsible for getting us up off the ground here. You sir, and your dedicated team are what makes the Slavic Federation proud. You make me proud, Arany."
"Sir." Was all that Arany could say, before tearing up and averting his eyes.
Kozlov quickly turned to face the rest of the assembled group. "We are now at an impasse, where do we land? We must make a decision and quickly, we're not exactly a great democracy here, but we all must make a decision. Scientists are going to tell us a bunch of stuff, I'm sure... It is out job to make a decision on where to land, and from it, reap the benefits. We must decide carefully, the Slavic Federation rests on us today to survive."
An adviser quickly raised his hand, raising his voice as he did so.
"What of the American Reclamation Corporation's own Seed-ship, isn't it due to arrive soon? How did we manage to be faster than the Americans?"
A scientist quickly raised his voice. "Yes, we managed to make minor improvements in the four years between our respective launches, remember that our own ship is based on ARC designs, and we even had some of our people on that project. Our ship is more streamlined and features slightly improved engines... not much of an improvement really, but I think that it was enough that we may have arrived before the ARC, but only slightly. If they are right, they should be here within a few months. We might be seeing the Indians... I mean Kavithan protectorate, as well seed-ships from China and Africa, I've heard that they have began progress towards their own seed-ships."
Kozlov smiled. "Ahhh, I'd like to speak to Suzanne when we have the opportunity, she's a great woman... a little too cold and business-like, but a remarkable woman."
Chapter 1: Stars descent
Lymelaen Treewind, alongside his striped Frost Saber companion and mount, Lorik, were busy travelling from the road that followed on through Ratchet and onwards to the Crossroads, the reason was to patrol the region and possibly to kill any orcs along the way, revenge for the fallen Cenarius.
The day would have passed completely normally. Except, to Lymelaen's dismay, on the fouth-way mark to the Crossroads, the night sky was illuminated for a brief period of time by a large fireball streaking through the night sky. It appeared to be coming a little too close for comfort.
Too close was right, he soon found out as a moment later the falling star like object fell down to the earth and crashed in the distance, about twenty kilometres away.
With nothing better to do and against all of Lymelean's common sense, he decided that he would go on to observe the crash site.
Even within the caverns of time was the meteor observed through the eyes of Nozdormu's son, Anachronos.
He quickly made up his mind to leave his duty for a short while to investigate the phenomenon.
'What a strange sight.' he thought. 'I hope that a quick scouting out of this will be all that I need to do. If this meteor is from the scourge, this could bode very badly.'
Dorolak Thunderrage sat on the stump of a freshly-hewn palm tree, alongside several other orcs and a Tauren with the name of Ohanpa Earthtalon.
Dorolak wiped the blood of a Human captive off of his axe when he saw the night light up. He craned his neck up to an uncomfortable degree to see the star scape, there was a large meteorite heading down for Azeroth, and its trajectory suggested that it would land not too far from the crossroads, maybe twenty to thirty kilometres away.
Dorolak hefted his axe in the air, gave it a simple swing to ensure that all the blood was wiped off, then placed his axe on his back.
"Hmmppff, something valuable might be there" spoke a gruff voice.
Dorolak turned his head to face the Tauren that spoke and nodded his head.
"You heard Ohanpa, let's find that meteorite before the Alliance or the Goblins from Ratchet get there first. I get first share of the prize."
The other orcs in the group shouted out their agreement, despite their dislike for Dorolak's unfair stake with the loot.
"Zug-Zug"
General Kozlov straightened out his well-fitting three-piece suit whilst he stood on the podium to address the colonists, soldiers, technicians, engineers, scientists and advisers on the hanger bay, all 10,000 of them huddled together around the vehicles, cranes and military ordinance.
It was General Kozlov's duty to issue commands and instructions to the assembled populace before he could open those doors, and that was what he was going to do.
"Earth is past history, and while we will always remember that our mission is to find a solution for the problems of the dying planet that was humanity's cradle, we shall also never forget that our future lies before us on this planet among the stars, for one cannot live in his cradle forever."
General Kozlov then paused for a moment to catch his breath and clear his head before speaking back to the crowd.
"This planet is now our new home… Those back on earth would kill for the chance to be here. Remember, and let this never leave your minds that you, all of you represent Humanity's golden will to survive… Let us claim our home, though it may not be easy, but it will be done!"
General Kozlov palmed his hidden switch to open the hanger door whilst with his right hand he did a dramatic swaying motion.
The dramatic display not lost on anyone, everyone was anxious and excited to be on their new homeland.
"Welcome to our new home people of earth, we…"
The hanger door stood fully open, and the view that greeted everyone was a clear night sky, two moons stood high in orbit, and blackness was all around…
General Kozlov uttered his final section before the crowd of colonists.
"We people of the Slavic Federation have suffered enough… Tomorrow we claim this new land, and we will make it fit for the survivors of Earth to claim… tomorrow we will revive… we will thrive… AND WE WILL SURVIVE!"
Everyone in the room raised their hands and shouted out their Patriotic reply.
"We will survive!"
General Kozlov held out both his fists in the air before shouting out to the crowd with a fervor that came from deep within his heart.
"We are the Slavic Federation… we can tackle any challenge… it is within our veins to survive… from Russia's cold steppes to Poland's rugged exterior, when the seas rose, did we cry…? No, we survived. When America withdrew from the UN… did we collapse…? No, We rose up. When the revolutions started… When those World Wars raged through our lands, Did we give in…? NO!… We fought back up… We fought for what is right, the survival of mankind… We have all fought to be here… And I will punish any man who squanders his or her opportunity on our new found planet, squandered on your ability to save those back home by our actions not only for today… But for tomorrow and in one thousand foreseeable tomorrows… we will work hard, but from your labour will we raise a new Eden in a galaxy that is pitch black and cold. I ask here that you will remember those back on earth who paid the ultimate price so that we could all be here on the new horizon. Let us never forget that, let us all strive with a purpose towards our chosen destiny as man."
