Rosebearers (PMMM Space Opera) - QQ Edition

[Reinhard Von Lohengramm]

Rosebearers (PMMM)

241, Year of Ascension

The Galactic Federation is locked in a cold war against the Incubator Collective.

The Galactic Federation, a supranational organisation consisting of myriads of interstellar states, first-contacted the Incubator Collective 10 standard years ago. Although this initial contact was peaceful, extreme political and philosophical differences rapidly spoiled relations between the Federation and the Incubator hivemind.

The leading superpower in the Galactic Federation, the Rosebearer Republic, is a vast intergalactic nation whose population consists of the synthetic organisms called "Rosebearers" - a species of synthetic individuals with almost unparalleled mastery of the physical world.

Ten years ago, when the Galactic Federation first contacted the Incubator Collective on the previously unexplorable edges of its space, it discovered a certain set of facts. The facts were thus:
The Incubators formed "Contracts" with the females of organic species. These Contracts granted the "Wishes" of those females who had acceded to them and they became Puella Magi. The price that had to be paid for these contracts was their Soul and a lifetime of battle with the creatures known as "Witches", creatures that feasted on organics. These "Witches" were in fact Puella Magi who had run out of energy. This was done, because the explosion and discharge of emotional energy that respectively followed the birth and death of a Magical Girl was a means of reducing thermodynamic entropy.

However, this alone was not the catalyst for what was to happen next - other advanced spacefaring states were known to engage in all sorts of scientific experiments with primitives, some of them in the Galactic Federation themselves - so who were they to criticise the Incubators? It took another straw to break the rosebearers' back. Indeed, if the whole point was to preserve the universe, shouldn't it be understandable that a species would want to resort to such measures, no matter how twisted the logic?

This process was known to be risky. Beyond a certain point, Witches would do more than eat organics - they would begin to destroy cities and countries. Indeed, rosebearer agents witnessed an entire planet and its inhabitants being consumed by a Witch on Korvin Tertius - completely ruining the point of minimising entropy.

The Galactic Federation's leadership, wresting with the moral and ethical implications of this discovery - if Witches could destroy planets, what would stop a sufficiently powerful one from destroying stellar systems and the entire galaxy? -, made a decision - they decided to be brutally honest.

A transmission was spread through the entire Federation and beyond. Every Federation world received the message detailing the entire truth about the Incubators and their entropy-reducing operations. Contracts, Wishes, Witches, Magical Girls, the reduction of entropy - this was all revealed in earnest, nothing was concealed.

Not only that, but the transmission was meant to also go beyond Galactic Federation territory - aside from carrying the message in the Galactic Federation official and working languages, it was also designed to be recognisable, decodable, translatable by any SETI (Search for extraterrestrial intelligence) program of any industrial Type 0 civilisation that happened to exist out there. It was also further designed to be retransmittable by any civilisation that then developed FTL communications.

The Incubator Collective's reaction to this broadcast was in no-way muted. Previously described as "rational" and "emotionless" upon contact, the hive mind seemed to evolve emotions for the first time - from this one interaction with the Rosebearer-dominated Galactic Federation, the Incubators learned what hatred was.

The Incubators developed a hatred for the Rosebearers - and thus, by extension all synthetic life. Synthetic life not only had revealed the truth about its operations to the entire galaxy, but it was also uncontractable - no emotional energy could be extracted from it.

Thus, relations between the Galactic Federation - in particular, a member state, the Rosebearer Republic - and the Incubator Collective began on an extremely unpleasant note.

Now the Federation - with the Republic leading it - and its hiveminded rival are locked in a galactic cold war - a contest involving the never-ending construction of anti-stellar supernova weapons, an arms race to spread and block communications, a race to claim new worlds and planets of primitives as their own.

---

You are Rosebearer #340191272751590. This number however, is not the one you like to be referred to. It is but the serial number of the 340191272751590th Rosebearer that exists. Starting from today, your 21st birthday, you will embark on a customary coming-of-age ritual to find a worthy name, something more than a number - the 'Nominatio', the 'naming ceremony'.

The Nominatio isn't exploration for everyone - for some, it involves the discovery of another scientific advance. For others, it is some great exabyte-size essay on history that creates another perspective to view events from. Some even go further and discover great xeno-archaeological artifacts. Climbing the ladder to seize a position in the Galactic Parliament is also a legitimate means to fulfill the Nominatio, although there is a certain stigma to it. However, for a great, restless, significant minority, the main means of accomplishing Nomination is by exploring the edges of known Rosebearer space - something that has cooled quite significantly since first contact with the Incubator Collective, but that's another matter for another time.

Your spark-mother and your code-father were relatively average Rosebearers. They weren't completely dependent on the Unconditional Energy Stipend, but they weren't the corporate moguls of the Red Arm either. They were mere scientists - occasionally, they would be sent to some remote sector to do some tests, but otherwise, there weren't exactly the great heroes of old - such as the diplomat "Sanford" (literally meaning Sand-Ford, for he brought back to the table two factions whose trust had been destroyed in the metaphorical desert of war), that saved a pre-interstellar species from plunging themselves into a nuclear abyss with a single sentence, the Galactic Razor "Guillotin", who efficiently, ruthlessly yet righteously purged Mazdan Sector of space pirates or the Progenitor Eva - the first Rosebearer, who had to dig her way from the depths of the planet she had awoken from, who built her code-husband and started this synth-species' progress to the stars.

Come to think of it, looking back to the great heroes of old isn't exactly completely heartening - For the name "Rosebearer" is one that refers to an immensely distressing origin story - that's for another time.
And so thus, today, you begin your great Nominatio - one that you have decided will take the form of a great adventure through the galaxy, to find something worthy - or rather, make you feel worthy enough - to bear a name inspired by.

---

You have finally arrived at Cerulean Jewel Mass Driver Spaceport - an intermediary facility before going to the Starport in orbit and one that also facilitates intraplanetary aviation. You leave the hovercar, as do your parents. They accompany you as you begin to make your way to the travelators - from there, you will enter the spaceport proper.
Your hesitate for a nanosecond, but realize that your fears amount to nothing, as the Creators protect.

You:

[]Hug your spark-mother: boys love their mothers.
[]Hug your code-father: to feel the security of a daughter's father's comforting synth-arms.

 

[Reinhard Von Lohengramm]

For your Nominatio, you intend to study the histories of Gestreitis. There was a probability that there was something in those manuscript-now-files worth naming yourself after. Perhaps there was some noble knight or a brave sergeant-in-arms of elfinkind, embellished as a dragonslayer who could provide you with inspiration on what path you should set your life on.

You made your way into the spaceport. It was densely packed - the ordinary state of affairs.

You entered a mass driver shuttle. Spaceport to starport - that was how space travel was done in the Republic. A mass driver on the ground, a proper starport high in the heavens, so that the natural heritage of all sentience was not tarnished.

You arrived in the starport. As you head for your ship, you notice that the flight to Gestreitis had less passengers than the other ones. The ones that were here seemed to be tourists. It made sense - there wasn't much business to be done on a recently uplifted medieval world, unless you were a diplomat or scientist.

You boarded the passenger ship. Gestreitis was far enough that you could reposed for a good while if you wanted - an android's nap, so to speak.

[] Repose
[] Do not repose