“Stand among the blooming creation of a hundred billion souls, and ask them if they care for their own insignificance.”
* Anonymous; In response to a discussion thread which juxtaposed images taken during the initial construction of Triumvirate City with Old World quotes regarding the arrogance of man.
[DATE]
380 Imperial Years [927 Novahome Cycles] Post-Heresy
[PERSONNEL]
Chief of Xenocultural Relations and Research; Agulloz of the Thinker Caste
[BEGIN VOICE LOG]
Following what some call the “First Impression Incident”, many members of the Thinker caste expected relations with the Novahuman Sovereignty to break down, but the contrary has been the case.
It appears the Novahumans and their representatives have redoubled their efforts to build a friendly relationship with our people. Not only have they revoked their trade embargo and begun talks regarding technological exchange, they offered to allow those of us who aren't blessed by Nithor to walk upon their home!
I find it completely bizarre that of all peoples, those who are bathed from birth in the very thing which burns away at our power over reality would become our first allies among the stars. Perhaps the universe does have a sense of humor after all. Perhaps this is all a big joke to make fools of us for our failure to detect the malicious intentions of those that came from beyond.
This is Xenocultural Relations and Research Chief Agulloz, signing off.
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The shuttle roared like a caged beast as it descended into the atmosphere. It was like sitting inside a relic from another age, it had no energy shielding, no anti-grav drive, no kinetic dampening.
Instead it had ablative armour, meticulously tuned plasma engines, and surprisingly comfortable straps to hold those onboard in their seats. The pilot, whose voice was the only thing Agulloz was able to tell due to the cockpit's split-off nature, assured him that the shuttle was specifically built with as little Voidtech as possible, in order to prevent any sort of adverse reaction to ambient Void energy radiation when it docked with the Draconian diplomatic vessel.
Agulloz couldn't quite see out the shuttle's windows from his seat, he just wasn't tall enough. The lighting within the shuttle did, however, change drastically as it passed into the Novahome's atmosphere, and mere minutes later, a titanic Void Field, tens of kilometers tall.
The draconian felt the world around him becoming more concrete with every meter the shuttle descended. It felt as though his mind became completely and utterly empty for a few seconds. An all-encompassing sense of nothing overcame him, only for his senses and thoughts to come rushing back like the crashing of waves upon a black-sand beach in the early hours of the morning.
As he vacantly gazed ahead, he could see the light outside the windows changing, shifting colours. Obvious signs of significant light pollution. One of the neighboring planets soon covered up his only outside view. The shuttle touched down surprisingly smoothly, though Agulloz still felt like he was going to fall out of his seat.
“Final stop. Our representatives should take it from here.”
Agulloz couldn't help but wonder - wasn't the pilot going to try and meet him in person? There weren't any visible cameras on the inside of the passenger cabin, that he was certain - it was specifically stipulated that he wouldn't be recorded without his prior knowledge and consent. Perhaps the Novahumans were more stiffly set in their roles than he'd previously thought?
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Once he finally managed to undo the straps of his seat, the vessel's rear door hissed open without the slightest request on his side. Before he stepped out, the lizardman heard the pilot's voice one final time.
“I'd come out to greet you myself, but I'm hardwired into this thing for security. Can't wait to get back in a body with legs.”
He would've questioned it, but knew he wouldn't understand the answer. A part of him didn't want to understand.
Mid-transit he had felt the gravity of the planet weighing him down, but only now that he was stepping off the shuttle's ramp did Agulloz truly grasp just how massive this planet was - its gravity was nearly twice what he was used to.
The very moment he stepped off that ramp, he heard the shuttle's engines spinning up seconds before it took off. Its silhouette out of the way, the wall in front of him flooded with colorful lights, ambers and emerald greens, all surrounding a shadow that far eclipsed his own. Before he could turn around to witness who he presumed to be the Novahuman's equivalent to his position, a voice he'd heard once before rung out.
“Mr. Agulloz, I presume?”
Her.
The woman behind all this. From the shape of the shadows on the wall, he could tell it was likely her - he just didn't believe it until he saw for himself.
Agulloz turned to finally see eye to eye with his host, prepared to rattle off the speech he'd so meticulously prepared and practiced time and time again… And froze in place.
He expected to meet their representatives in some sort of isolated location, maybe even a city. But what laid before him wasn't a city.
It wasn't a metropolis, a capital, or a city-state.
It was a world in and of itself.
What he at first thought to be mountains were, at a second glance, supermassive buildings flanked by other, slightly smaller buildings, creating the illusion of a natural shape.
Titanic monoliths rose up into the heavens, and yet, from where he stood, Agulloz could see it all from a higher perspective.
Her voice snapped him out of his stupor.
“I'm certain you have many questions, and I'll be more than happy to answer them.”
“...How? All this?”
He stuttered out without even attempting to hide his amazement at the landscape of steel and glass that lay before him. Somehow, the air wasn't filled with smog, the streets weren't clogged with traffic, and as far as the eye could see, the massive city stretched on as if it had no bounds.
To his right he could see the shoreline, and yet the city's buildings extended even into the ocean itself, seemingly unaffected by corrosion or algae. Rays of golden sunlight pierced through gaps in the clouded sky, and above the horizon towered a humanoid monument that dwarfed even the tallest buildings. It had four arms as far as Agulloz could tell, one of which was broken off above the elbow. On its back stood a building almost as its head, resembling an obelisk of old.
“Where there is a want, there is a need. Where there is a need, there is a way. Even I don't know how some parts of this city function, and I had a hand in building most of it.”
Agulloz exhaled in fascinated befuddlement. Of course she didn't. Even mankind's brightest were willfully ignorant. He had forgotten his speech, and had given into the overwhelming sense of awe that overcame him. All he wished at this very moment was to ask questions.
“...Why here? Why name it Triumvirate?”
She outstretched her arms.
A shark-toothed smile spread across her face.
The orange glow within her matte-black eyes came to life like a flame… And the titanic monument that overlooked the city came to life.
Crimson energy pulsed across its surface in lines, almost resembling the flow of blood - the wrong colour, but he supposed to a human it looked exactly like blood. Its empty eyesockets briefly lit up, and its arms followed suit. From an almost protective layout, the titan's limbs stretched out to their full length.
“The city is named after the very monument you see behind me, Mr. Agulloz. It was once a planetary defense weapon, built by the three most powerful corporations on this planet. When assembled, it could wipe out a solar system in minutes, or stop a force capable of doing so dead in its tracks. It had to be used, once.”
“Once?”
She let her arms down. Her voice took on a more somber tone, as if she was speaking of a regrettable tragedy.
“Once was all it took to wipe out their fleet, which made up their entire species. They called themselves the Faith, a young civilization corrupted into a species-wide crusade against our kind by an old and bitter foe. We never did see how they looked, outside of their ships. There just wasn't anything left, nothing but scrap metal and radioactive isotopes. We would've brought their species back if even a shred of DNA had survived. But that's all in the past.”
“Now, Triumvirate serves as a monument to the nature of man. A weapon of absolute destruction, used as an absolute protector.”
A faint, almost somber smile quirked her features. Not nearly obvious to be noticed by one such as Agulloz, especially considering he'd never spoken to a Novahuman who didn't have a mask.
“History aside, I assume you'd like to discuss the terms of our trade and immigration agreements, isn't that correct? If you'd just follow me right this way please…”