Astronius
Icon for Astronius
Summary
The original settlers of Astronius had the impossible dream to stop a star from dying. They failed. In the end, their descendants were forced to evacuate and leave those dreams behind. Though the planet will soon be consumed by its star, the Astronian people live on. Some with a new impossible dream.
Up In Flames
The planet Astronius lies vacant and baking in the heat of its dying star. It was officially classified as uninhabitable in 3220, with its red giant star expanding and heating the planet to unlivable levels. But stars don't die quickly, and even when the planet was colonized in 2453, it was clear the planet's days were numbered. Its original settlers were there for the impossible challenge to stop a star from dying. When The Scream ended those dreams, they then had the impossible challenge of escaping before it was too late.The Dream
There's no way to stop death, whether a human's or a star's, but the Golden Age of humanity was a time of hubris. The brilliant minds of Astronius' settlers believed their collective intelligence, and that of their descendants, would find a solution. They would either save the planet from its star, or its star from death. After all, necessity is the mother of invention. Perhaps they could have succeeded had the Scream not destroyed the technology and killed the people necessary for their death-defying dreams. It also destroyed their means to evacuate the planet or even call for help. They were left unmoored, and for the first time since their ancestors colonized the planet, they had no defined goal.The Nightmare
With minds and funds split between recreating old technology or developing new, and between building the means to evacuate or the means to survive, generations of Astronians didn't make enough progress in any one field. By the time the Protectorate rediscovered the planet, evacuation was the only solution. Vacating an entire planet is its own impossible task, especially when greed enters the picture. The Protectorate offered ships, but Astronian officials auctioned tickets at exorbitant prices and pocketed the profits. Meanwhile, other planets found infinite reasons to not accept Astronian refugees. Protests erupted across the planet despite the risk of heat stroke. People died while the rich got richer.The Astronius problem is often cited as another failure of the Protectorate, but I disagree. The Protectorate completed its side of the agreement, but Astronius didn't put people on the provided ships, and other planets refused to house the refugees. It took protests and other efforts from everyday people before governments showed some humanity. Once planets were willing to cooperate, the Protectorate could do its job. They could have done more and sooner, but the blame doesn't rest entirely on them. Especially when we remember that not all protests were pro-refugee.
Spark of Hope
A solution came in 3208. The Night Knights, then merely mercenaries with the Unchained Armada, were able to reactivate a pre-Scream manufactory. It had instructions and materials to build one last ship. The result was a colony ship, able to house tens of thousands of people and potentially settle an entirely new planet.
Over the years it took to complete, the ship exchanged hands several times as various levels of corrupt or Legion-manipulated government bodies sought to take control. It eventually returned to and remained in the hands of the people. It made evacuation possible, even without the desired intervention from the Protectorate.
Did you know?
Tavari Zima accompanied the Night Knights on this excursion. At the time, she was merely a strong-willed
Icon of Biopsionics by Rin Garnett
From the Ashes
Today, Astronius is a graveyard. A testament to generations of failure to stop the inevitability of death. Now death is all that remains, both of a society and of an ecosystem, heralded by dry lakes and burning trees. More and more species go extinct every day with no one to acknowledge their passing, while human Astronians make new homes on planets like Devali, Mithorous, Xeros, and Talmar.
Some ambitious Astronians saw the potential in the colony ship, now named the Hope, and chose to stay on board. They founded the Astronius Collective, and like their ancient ancestors, they also have an impossible dream: to satisfy the ship's purpose and one day colonize a new planet.
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Timeline
2453
Colonists arrive and settle the dying planet
2665
The Scream destroys all pretech and research
3121
Astronius joins the Protectorate alliance
3150
Astronian leaders profit off of evacuation attempts
3208
Night Knights initiate Pretech ship manufacturing
3213
Most Astronians brought to safety
3220
Protectorate classifies Astronius as uninhabitable
3222
Astronius Collective founded
Rotted Through
Astronian governments were notoriously corrupt. Not only were they using evacuation to line their pockets, but they also accepted bribes from the pirates of Parala to turn a blind eye to their operations. One issue of The Adventures of Captain Hawk has an exaggerated story of true events, in which the pirate captain destroyed an Astronian prison to free unjustly-held political prisoners.The worst part was the pets. What animals were allowed, and on which planets? Did we have room for them on the ship? Could we feed them? We said we never broke up families, but anytime we told someone they couldn't bring a beloved animal, that's exactly what we did.
Author Commentary
Cut from the teamOnce I made Astronius officially uninhabitable, its purpose overlapped too much with Geotera, and I ultimately removed both planets from the main roster. The more I developed the setting, the more it made sense to focus on habited planets.
I removed several paragraphs in my rewrite that had specifics on what the Night Knights' involvement was. I hope to move it to a plot article about that mission, but it will take a while to get there.
Stunning art, stunning article
Thanks! Annie did an amazing job on the ship :D
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