Post by redsycorax on Oct 24, 2021 2:30:38 GMT
In 1955, the Justice Guild of America had their first joint case...against a desperate alien species whose last chance for existence was an exploratory probe and subsequent invasion of the Earth. This, then, is that untold story...
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SIRIUS: FORTRON:
Sirius is a binary star system which lies a mere nine light years from Earth, consisting of blue giant Sirius A and its partner, the white dwarf Sirius B. In Universe-109, the system has five planets- Neferis is an uninhabitable dwarf planet, Genthrys is a superheated hellworld akin to Venus in our solar system, and Mortyne and Ricce are gas giants, while Fortron was the only reasonably habitable world between the two extremes. Or, rather, was. The increasing variability of Sirius A had led to serious compromise in its ability to sustain its predominantly maritime lifeforms- echinodermoids who had acquired the ability to utilise two of their five limbs to manipulate objects. Over the course of three thousand years, they had faced an increasingly arduous environment as its seas became increasingly dessicated and uninhabitable and its ecosystem of origin collapsed around it. While Fortron's inhabitants established a Planetary Government in its final decades of existence, it was always a fragile entity and riven with all manner of factional antagonisms due to divergent castes, occupational groups, faiths, ethnicities and political philosophies. And then, one day, the starving and nearly extinct remnants of the once-proud Fortron species detected electromagnetic transmissions from one of the neighbouring planetary systems. Moreover, it was at a distance at which it could send an exploratory probe and a last gasp invasion force.
Three Fortron vanguard assailants were selected- Sta'a, Rho'o and Kynika. Rho'o was a member of the Cerulean Guard, the blue-carapaced elite of Fortron's armed forces, and held his rank seriously and firmly. Sta'a was a Votive Priestess of the Viridianists, the dominant Fortron faith, which believed that the Great Echinoderm had only gifted sentience to Fortron's dominant species. Kynika was a comparatively liberal member of the Scientists Caste. They hoped that they could establish a foothold on the newfound world before their homeworld's orbit became too eccentric and the faltering civilisation that had sent them finally fell apart and disintegrated into anarchy and final extinction. As the Fortron exploratory vessel powered away from their homeworld toward a wormhole and transit to the Earth and its planetary system, the Fortron Legislature was engaged in rancorous debate as the tensions between its myriad differentiations of caste, religion and political philosophy continued to escalate, despite the attempt at cross-factional unity within the crew of its first and only starship.
PROLOGUE:
Seaboard City. All was quiet as the World's Greatest Duo, Tom Turbine and Catman, patrolled the city at night. Thus far, it had been a fairly dull night. They had only managed to scold a group of hotrod enthusiasts doing 'burn up' races on a country back road, and saved a young woman from an out of control truck whose maintenance was faulty. As they watched the embarrassed driver hurriedlky retreat, they saw a green pinpoint of light high above signal to them:
"Hey, that's the Green Guardsman."
"If you say so, Tom. I've never actually got around to meeting him. What's going on?"
"Looks like some sort of airborne situation." Tom touched his powerbelt radio:
"..Green Guardsman to Tom Turbine and Catman. I've detected an unidentified flying object hovering high above the city. Over."
Tom rolled his eyes: "That is, if it is a U.F.O and not an experimental US air force vehicle, or one of the usual ones viewed from an unorthodox angle?"
"...Wait. One of the portals is opening..AIEEEEEE!!!"
"Guardsman? Guardsman!" For the Green Guardsman was now falling rapidly, plummeting toward the ground. Then, a red and yellow blur accelerated through the curbside trees and proceeded to produce a vortex of air, slowing the precipitous descent of the unconscious ring wearer. The Streak slowed, in enough time for his efforts to be appreciated by Catman and Tom Turbine:
"Hey, you must be that Streak guy we've heard about. You saved the Green Guardsman's life. Thanks."
"But what about that flying saucer above us? It's hostile. Green Guardsman wasn't attacking it, it just opened fire."
At that point, Black Siren joined the group. Green Guardsman was about to argue that this confrontation was too hazardous for a woman, until Catman shook her hand:
"Guys, this is the female crime fighter Black Siren I told you about. She's going to join us. Tom? Can your power belt get us up there?"
FORTRON EXPLORATORY PROBE D-119:
"Why did you do that, Rho'o? That creature wasn't hostile. It wasn't opening fire with that weapon on its manipulators."
"How can you be sure, Kynika? Look, the Fortron Planetary Government entrusted us with this mission. It also entitled us to use deadly force if threatened."
"If that creature intended to attack us, it would already have done- oof!" The three Fortrons were abruptly buffeted by the attack they had feared, as the Streak accelerated away, forming another vortex of churning wind around it, forcing it to lower altitude.
"I'm not waiting here like a prone elder! Rho'o is correct! These primitive creatures are hostile!" Sta'a gasped, protectively clutching the sunburst emblem of her Viridianist faith to ward off the alien unknown that 'threatened' outside the vessel.
"If they can generate an atmospheric disturbance like the one that is now engulfing us, they are decidedly not 'primitive.""
"Our species survival depends on the success of our expedition. I know my duty, Kynika. Do your own." Rho'o snapped at the other Fortron crewer.
"Evasive action initiated. Returning fire...now...creature is accelerating...gunnery console cannot obtain targeting profile in current conditions!" Sta'a replied.
"I suggest caution." Kynika persisted.
"You suggest surrender! Not while I command this expedition!" Rho'o hissed at the Scientist Caste member, showing his razorteeth in his belly.
"You are succumbing to facile xenophobia! This is psychosis!"
Any further discussion between the Fortron triad was rendered academic, as the metallic walls of their vessel bulged outward and then gave way, as five of the planet's mammalian natives entered it without invitation. Frantically, Rho'o turned toward the gunnery console, but a female mammal kicked the echinodermoid away from it, while a second, darker clad, male mammal sent it spiralling across the floor. Sta'a was panicking and held blasters in two of her five limbs, but a more muscular male mammal rushed her and slammed one of Sta'a's manipulators into the wall. Kynicka stood by, not assisting its colleagues and indicated that it would not resist the actions of these natives:
"I mean you no harm! This is a misunderstanding. We are from the third planet of the blue giant star that you call 'Sirius A'. Our world is doomed. It is suffering from the prodigal stellar development of our star and a destabilising orbit. It is dying. We do not intend conquest."
"Yeah? Well, you have an odd way of showing it!" Green Guardsman snapped.
"I'm sorry, but this is an inhabited planet. We have the right to sovereign development and peace. Is there no way that you can colonise any other adjacent worlds in planetary systems that surround your own?"
Kynika motioned with its manipulators: "Our species is vulnerable to the gas argon. It is not present in your atmosphere to the same extent as it is on otherwise compatible worlds that orbit the stars that you call Barnard, Tau Ceti, Epsilon Indi or Epsilon Eridani. You are our last hope-"
But tragically, they had left matters too late. Nine light years away, Fortron's volatile political, religious and social tensions had reached the point of no resolution. The Planetary Government disintegrated into its constituent plethora of dissenting antagonistic factions and one of them responded in fear and paranoia to 'provocative' military action from a hostile rival faction over its territory through the use of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. As the conflict escalated, Fortron became a blinding ball of light as its inhabitants began a final, fratricidal war over its remaining habitable areas and resources. It lasted only three minutes. And on the exploratory vessel that still hovered high above Earth, Rho'o and Sta'a keeled over, committing the Sacred Rite of Fortron Communal Suicide. Kynika was now the only surviving member of its species:
"I will take our vessel into space and scuttle it there."
"No," gasped Black Siren, "no, we can't let that happen! Your species will become extinct. You aren't hostile. You're welcome to live out your days here."
Kynika bowed: "I accept your kind offer. I will be no burden. I am suffering from what you would call apoptotic cellular growth...'cancer', due to our world's environmental degradation. I will only survive for a short time interval as this world knows it." And for the first time, the five Terrans witnessed the tracery of discoloured red veins within its lemon yellow carapace and how widespread they were.
Tom Turbine nodded: "Welcome to Earth, then. And we will try to make your last days here as bearable as you can tolerate."
As it turned out, Kynika only survived the final demise of Fortron by a fortnight before the last survivor of his homeworld joined it in oblivion. As the newly formed Justice Guild filed out of the newly built brownstone headquarters that they had purchased, Black Siren said to Catman: "There had to be a better way."
He nodded: "I know. But they boxed themselves in with their prodigal consumption of their resources and use of lethal radiation weapons."
"So why do we deserve to survive and they end in extinction, Ted? Are we any better? Really?"
Sadly, the Justice Guild found that out themselves only seven years later as their own world underwent a political crisis and irrevocably shattered into fire and dust amidst misunderstanding and miscalculation.
THE END
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SIRIUS: FORTRON:
Sirius is a binary star system which lies a mere nine light years from Earth, consisting of blue giant Sirius A and its partner, the white dwarf Sirius B. In Universe-109, the system has five planets- Neferis is an uninhabitable dwarf planet, Genthrys is a superheated hellworld akin to Venus in our solar system, and Mortyne and Ricce are gas giants, while Fortron was the only reasonably habitable world between the two extremes. Or, rather, was. The increasing variability of Sirius A had led to serious compromise in its ability to sustain its predominantly maritime lifeforms- echinodermoids who had acquired the ability to utilise two of their five limbs to manipulate objects. Over the course of three thousand years, they had faced an increasingly arduous environment as its seas became increasingly dessicated and uninhabitable and its ecosystem of origin collapsed around it. While Fortron's inhabitants established a Planetary Government in its final decades of existence, it was always a fragile entity and riven with all manner of factional antagonisms due to divergent castes, occupational groups, faiths, ethnicities and political philosophies. And then, one day, the starving and nearly extinct remnants of the once-proud Fortron species detected electromagnetic transmissions from one of the neighbouring planetary systems. Moreover, it was at a distance at which it could send an exploratory probe and a last gasp invasion force.
Three Fortron vanguard assailants were selected- Sta'a, Rho'o and Kynika. Rho'o was a member of the Cerulean Guard, the blue-carapaced elite of Fortron's armed forces, and held his rank seriously and firmly. Sta'a was a Votive Priestess of the Viridianists, the dominant Fortron faith, which believed that the Great Echinoderm had only gifted sentience to Fortron's dominant species. Kynika was a comparatively liberal member of the Scientists Caste. They hoped that they could establish a foothold on the newfound world before their homeworld's orbit became too eccentric and the faltering civilisation that had sent them finally fell apart and disintegrated into anarchy and final extinction. As the Fortron exploratory vessel powered away from their homeworld toward a wormhole and transit to the Earth and its planetary system, the Fortron Legislature was engaged in rancorous debate as the tensions between its myriad differentiations of caste, religion and political philosophy continued to escalate, despite the attempt at cross-factional unity within the crew of its first and only starship.
PROLOGUE:
Seaboard City. All was quiet as the World's Greatest Duo, Tom Turbine and Catman, patrolled the city at night. Thus far, it had been a fairly dull night. They had only managed to scold a group of hotrod enthusiasts doing 'burn up' races on a country back road, and saved a young woman from an out of control truck whose maintenance was faulty. As they watched the embarrassed driver hurriedlky retreat, they saw a green pinpoint of light high above signal to them:
"Hey, that's the Green Guardsman."
"If you say so, Tom. I've never actually got around to meeting him. What's going on?"
"Looks like some sort of airborne situation." Tom touched his powerbelt radio:
"..Green Guardsman to Tom Turbine and Catman. I've detected an unidentified flying object hovering high above the city. Over."
Tom rolled his eyes: "That is, if it is a U.F.O and not an experimental US air force vehicle, or one of the usual ones viewed from an unorthodox angle?"
"...Wait. One of the portals is opening..AIEEEEEE!!!"
"Guardsman? Guardsman!" For the Green Guardsman was now falling rapidly, plummeting toward the ground. Then, a red and yellow blur accelerated through the curbside trees and proceeded to produce a vortex of air, slowing the precipitous descent of the unconscious ring wearer. The Streak slowed, in enough time for his efforts to be appreciated by Catman and Tom Turbine:
"Hey, you must be that Streak guy we've heard about. You saved the Green Guardsman's life. Thanks."
"But what about that flying saucer above us? It's hostile. Green Guardsman wasn't attacking it, it just opened fire."
At that point, Black Siren joined the group. Green Guardsman was about to argue that this confrontation was too hazardous for a woman, until Catman shook her hand:
"Guys, this is the female crime fighter Black Siren I told you about. She's going to join us. Tom? Can your power belt get us up there?"
FORTRON EXPLORATORY PROBE D-119:
"Why did you do that, Rho'o? That creature wasn't hostile. It wasn't opening fire with that weapon on its manipulators."
"How can you be sure, Kynika? Look, the Fortron Planetary Government entrusted us with this mission. It also entitled us to use deadly force if threatened."
"If that creature intended to attack us, it would already have done- oof!" The three Fortrons were abruptly buffeted by the attack they had feared, as the Streak accelerated away, forming another vortex of churning wind around it, forcing it to lower altitude.
"I'm not waiting here like a prone elder! Rho'o is correct! These primitive creatures are hostile!" Sta'a gasped, protectively clutching the sunburst emblem of her Viridianist faith to ward off the alien unknown that 'threatened' outside the vessel.
"If they can generate an atmospheric disturbance like the one that is now engulfing us, they are decidedly not 'primitive.""
"Our species survival depends on the success of our expedition. I know my duty, Kynika. Do your own." Rho'o snapped at the other Fortron crewer.
"Evasive action initiated. Returning fire...now...creature is accelerating...gunnery console cannot obtain targeting profile in current conditions!" Sta'a replied.
"I suggest caution." Kynika persisted.
"You suggest surrender! Not while I command this expedition!" Rho'o hissed at the Scientist Caste member, showing his razorteeth in his belly.
"You are succumbing to facile xenophobia! This is psychosis!"
Any further discussion between the Fortron triad was rendered academic, as the metallic walls of their vessel bulged outward and then gave way, as five of the planet's mammalian natives entered it without invitation. Frantically, Rho'o turned toward the gunnery console, but a female mammal kicked the echinodermoid away from it, while a second, darker clad, male mammal sent it spiralling across the floor. Sta'a was panicking and held blasters in two of her five limbs, but a more muscular male mammal rushed her and slammed one of Sta'a's manipulators into the wall. Kynicka stood by, not assisting its colleagues and indicated that it would not resist the actions of these natives:
"I mean you no harm! This is a misunderstanding. We are from the third planet of the blue giant star that you call 'Sirius A'. Our world is doomed. It is suffering from the prodigal stellar development of our star and a destabilising orbit. It is dying. We do not intend conquest."
"Yeah? Well, you have an odd way of showing it!" Green Guardsman snapped.
"I'm sorry, but this is an inhabited planet. We have the right to sovereign development and peace. Is there no way that you can colonise any other adjacent worlds in planetary systems that surround your own?"
Kynika motioned with its manipulators: "Our species is vulnerable to the gas argon. It is not present in your atmosphere to the same extent as it is on otherwise compatible worlds that orbit the stars that you call Barnard, Tau Ceti, Epsilon Indi or Epsilon Eridani. You are our last hope-"
But tragically, they had left matters too late. Nine light years away, Fortron's volatile political, religious and social tensions had reached the point of no resolution. The Planetary Government disintegrated into its constituent plethora of dissenting antagonistic factions and one of them responded in fear and paranoia to 'provocative' military action from a hostile rival faction over its territory through the use of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. As the conflict escalated, Fortron became a blinding ball of light as its inhabitants began a final, fratricidal war over its remaining habitable areas and resources. It lasted only three minutes. And on the exploratory vessel that still hovered high above Earth, Rho'o and Sta'a keeled over, committing the Sacred Rite of Fortron Communal Suicide. Kynika was now the only surviving member of its species:
"I will take our vessel into space and scuttle it there."
"No," gasped Black Siren, "no, we can't let that happen! Your species will become extinct. You aren't hostile. You're welcome to live out your days here."
Kynika bowed: "I accept your kind offer. I will be no burden. I am suffering from what you would call apoptotic cellular growth...'cancer', due to our world's environmental degradation. I will only survive for a short time interval as this world knows it." And for the first time, the five Terrans witnessed the tracery of discoloured red veins within its lemon yellow carapace and how widespread they were.
Tom Turbine nodded: "Welcome to Earth, then. And we will try to make your last days here as bearable as you can tolerate."
As it turned out, Kynika only survived the final demise of Fortron by a fortnight before the last survivor of his homeworld joined it in oblivion. As the newly formed Justice Guild filed out of the newly built brownstone headquarters that they had purchased, Black Siren said to Catman: "There had to be a better way."
He nodded: "I know. But they boxed themselves in with their prodigal consumption of their resources and use of lethal radiation weapons."
"So why do we deserve to survive and they end in extinction, Ted? Are we any better? Really?"
Sadly, the Justice Guild found that out themselves only seven years later as their own world underwent a political crisis and irrevocably shattered into fire and dust amidst misunderstanding and miscalculation.
THE END