;
; Sid Meier's ALPHA CENTAURI
;
; Backstory Interludes
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; Copyright (c) 1997, 1998 by Firaxis Games, Inc.
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#INTERLUDE
#xs 400
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^^INTERLUDE
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^^from
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^^The Book of Planet
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^^M.Y. $NUM0
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#EPILOGUE
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^^
^^EPILOGUE
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^^from
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^^The Book of Planet
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^^M.Y. 1,027,823
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^

#EPILOGUE2
#xs 400
^^
^^EPILOGUE
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^^from
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^^The Book of Planet
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^^M.Y. $NUM2 (Seed Year 1)
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^

#EPILOGUE3
#xs 400
^^
^^EPILOGUE
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^^from
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^^The Book of Planet
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^^M.Y. $NUM2
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^


#INTERLUDE0
#xs 500
#caption Interlude: Victory is Sweet
^  You wonder if, in your subconscious mind, you ever really thought you'd
see this day. Then you put that thought aside, for the last disc is spun.
The last rivet is in place. The last steel veneer has been polished. It is
time.
^  "Leader." Your assistant's head is bowed, waiting dutifully. Her emanations
are formal and rich with meaning. "Will you
add the power and deliver us from exile?"
^  You shake your neck in assent, and close the connection. The Subspace
Generators grab hold of the string resonance fields, and quantum levels of
power begin to course through the individual parts. Soon their beams will arc
high above your nation, and there a hole will be driven into subspace. Through
that hole, across distances immeasurable to any brain, a message will fly. The
Resonance Communicator will sends its distress beacon to the homeworld, and they
will know your voice.
^  Green light begins to glow. Soon. Soon,
you will see your beloved Kenal K'esh again. Soon you will find your brethren. And
when you find them, they will come to your aid with ships and soldiers, and
every other living being on Manifold Six will know your power. It has been
so long in coming.
^  Green light arcs up into the sky, and the world is forever changed.


#INTERLUDE1
#xs500
#caption None Can Stop Us Now
^  You ride the howling needlejet and land back in the capital in record time.
The pilot was obviously trying to impress you, and he's succeeded. You hurry
into the command room and savor the waves of resonance as they show you the
surface of Manifold Six: everywhere you look, you see your own forces. There
are a  few shattered remnants of enemy resistance, but they are mere pockets
of color in an otherwise clean wash of the Progenitor tide.
^  When all else fails, you reflect, simply remove all opposition. Then there
is time enough for any plan. You're not sure if you want to contact the
homeworld right away, or further your own power a bit first--but it doesn't
matter, does it? There's nothing to stop you no matter what you decide to do.
^  It's a very, very good feeling.


#INTERLUDE2
#xs 500
#caption Interlude: Shrunken Heads
^  The field tanks resonate with spectral pictures of the alien intruders, captured
during that first encounter. If you
squinted, you might mistake them for Progenitor younglings--but with diseased,
shrunken heads. They look like the entertainment story conjurations of primitive
tribal feeders in the dark parts of the homeworld. They look disgusting.
^  Their primitive nature is nowhere so apparent as in their inability to
communicate--they can make noise, but they cannot alter it properly.
This is bad, because you have no idea how in the Six Manifolds they
got here, and you'd desperately like to know.
^  "Tell me your theories," you alter. The steady resonant hum of the room hangs
empty for several circulatory pulses. Then, the junior stochastic resonates.
^  "They are a creation of the Manifold," she vibrates hesitantly. There is general
scoffing. You try to be more gentle.
^  "No, Canla, this cannot be," you alter. "Their biology is DNA-incompatible. They
must be from off-world." There is a general alteration of assent.
^  "But how can a race sophisticated enough to traverse the stars be in such a
primitive state?" resonates the general.
^  There is more empty humming. Then Canla, undaunted, speaks again.
^  "Perhaps they suffered a fate similar to ours," she alters. "After all, look
at the state we're in."
^  The pain of that is incontrovertible. And somewhere out there is the hated $OTHERALIENS6.
You wonder if you can make these offworlders your allies, before the enemy does. Your
first task, then, is to learn how their minds work so you can communicate with them. You
wonder how difficult it could be to think like an alien.


#INTERLUDE3
#xs 500
#caption Interlude: Ancient Ones
^  The council might as well be dipped in a vat of flaming vegetable matter--
the resonations of fear are as intense. You try to remain calm, to show a cool
leadership you do not feel. Somehow, from somewhere, offworlders are occupying
the precious Manifold!
^  "The key is continued communication," you alter. "Their ability to make
wave-forms in the atmosphere is useful, but their understanding of the alteration
process is key. If they can be reasoned with, they can be made ally. If they can
be made ally, they can aid us against our enemy."
^  The general nods, and resonates an aura of confidence for the first time. "True,"
he alters. "But I fear; though they look like ancient, feeble members of our race, they are
totally alien. What if their cause and our cause do not coincide?"
^  "Then we must find out their cause," you alter, "and appeal to it. Become what they
want us to become. All the while, we must continue to further our own aims."
^  The xenobiologist--the closest thing you've got to a xenopsychologist--flutters
his mandibles. "But they claim they are here as colonists! Our aims do not and cannot
coincide with this! Sooner or later, we must destroy them in order to $EXPLOITORPRISTINE7!"
^  You alter the biologist's words with smooth calm. "I hope that this can come later--far later.
We must use them first if we can...and if we cannot, then we must destroy them swiftly,
and without mercy."
^  The alterations to [that] are [very] positive.


#INTERLUDE4
#xs500
#caption Interlude: Monkey See, Monkey Do...What?
^  "Look carefully," the biologist alters so softly you can barely distinguish the
change. "Watch what it does."
^  You find that difficult--the captured human is as ugly as a new hatchling, but
without the pleasing sliminess. You force yourself to observe, however, for
observation--and understanding--are one of the keys to survival on Manifold Six.
^  The human has been starved for several days. Now, food is placed at the top
of the room, hanging from a hook. Several boxes have been scattered about the
room as well. Presumably it will build some sort of tower to gain access to the
food.
^  "What will this prove?" you alter, bored.
^  "Watch! Watch!" the biologist alters excitedly.
^  The human looks around the room a while, then sits motionless. It makes
sound waves with its breathing apparatus. It sits and stares about the room.
^  "Is it stupid?" you alter.
^  "No!" alters the biologist triumphantly. "It's defiant! The sound waves are its
language--it's saying something along the lines of "Put a sporeflower up your chlo!
I'm not eating for your entertainment!" It knows we're watching it."
^  So the human would rather starve than be treated like a lab animal, eh?
Interesting ... very interesting. You're not sure whether this is very very good--
or very very dangerous. "Learn its language immediately!" you snap. "We must
communicate as soon as possible!"


#INTERLUDE5
#xs 500
#caption Interlude: Flight of the Razorwings
^  It gives you no particular pleasure to kill. You almost wish you could
communicate directly with the humans, explain to them the necessity of the forced
relocation--explain to them the necessity of their deaths.
^  "Reporting, $TITLE0 $NAME1," resonates the Force Commander of the occupation
army. "Human colonists are fleeing now from the base they call '$BASENAME5.'
Those that chose to remain behind
have been assimilated and reconstituted."
^  It gives you no particular pleasure to kill. But it is the way of
the Human and Progenitor mind. They cannot coexist under one government;
they cannot eat each other's food, nor use each other's facilities.
^  It gives you no particular pleasure to kill. But they are the enemy,
and it is the only way.


#INTERLUDE6
#xs 500
#caption Interlude: So Near and So Far
^  With your own hand, you spin the last disc into place on the first of the
Resonance Communicators. It has been a long, difficult trek to get to this point--
to recapture that which was lost. But slowly, like primitives (but accelerated
by tens of thousands of years), you've managed to recreate the discoveries
of your ancestors, and hammer out the materials on this strangely hostile
world, and now the time has come.
^  "You don't look happy, Leader," resonates your assistant. "Isn't this a
great day?"
^  "I suppose so," you alter, feeling at that moment a strange lack of elation.
After a moment's thought you realize why: for all these years you have been
supreme leader of your own world ... your own people. Now it will end, with the
summoning of the home world fleet. Greater leaders than you will come and destroy
what's left of the opposition; they'll come and claim your triumph for their
own. You almost wish it could go on, but you know that your duty is to
$EXPLOITORPRISTINE7, and you must be true to that mission. "I suppose so," you
alter again. "We have triumphed, all of us. It's just a matter of time."
With a sigh, you pick up the spinner and turn away.


#INTERLUDE7
#xs 500
#caption Interlude: Civil War
^  "Yes, they are here."
^  All assembled in the room expected this news. Yet it sends a ripple of
alteration through the room as though you had announced the death of the
entire Council of Overlords. Secretly, you and everyone else here had been
hoping that the hated Usurpers died upon Planetary entry. Now you know this
is not the case.
^  "This changes nothing!" Smoothly you alter the entire hum of conversation,
to lend emphasis to your meaning. "The plan goes forward as we agreed. The
Usurpers must die, and we must continue our quest to contact the Homeworld,
that Manifold Six may remain pristine. Are we committed unto the death of one or
the other of us?"
^  Many on the council look uncomfortable, their eyes blinking rapidly. You can
understand their feelings--the Caretaker cause is dedicated to peace and the
status quo. This destructive posture is not in keeping with your stated goals.
Finally, Kaala L'mota articulates what the others are obviously thinking.
^  "Can we not try once more to reach an accord with the Usurper leader, Marr?
In such a dire circumstance, even he might see the wisdom of cooperation."
^  "I am sorry, my friends," you alter sharply, expressing your regret and
displeasure at the same time. "Think of the Usurper cause: they wish to gain
Transcendence with Manifold Six. We know what happened at Tau Ceti when the
Flowering was allowed to occur. Destruction. Death."
^  You see the fear on all faces, their mandibles drawn tight to their mouths.
"We all know this--including the Usurper, Marr," you continue. "And yet they
continue on their quest for Transcendence. We cannot understand this. They move
inexorably toward death! We have asked, begged, fought, and died to prevent
this, and still they come. Surely, a small thing such as this shipwreck will
not alter their plan. No, my friends, we must be firm in our resolve. Death,
or freedom for Manifold Six. Do you agree?"
^  Your words are altered, one by one, by each member of the council. They
all assent.


#INTERLUDE8
#xs 500
#caption Interlude: Civil War
^  "Yes, they are here."
^  All assembled in the room expected this news. Yet it sends a ripple of
alteration through the room as though you had announced a sneak attack
on the home world. You know many of them were convinced the Caretakers
had been destroyed during the space battle. Now it's clear this
is not the case.
^  "This changes nothing!" Smoothly you alter the entire hum of conversation,
to lend emphasis to your meaning. "The plan goes forward as we agreed. The
Caretakers must die, and we must continue our quest to contact the Homeworld,
or to reach the Flowering with ourselves in power over Manifold Six. Are we agreed?"
^  One on the council looks uncomfortable, his eyes blinking rapidly. He stands
and formally alters your words, requesting permission to speak. You shake your
neck at him, and he proceeds.
^  "You know me," he alters. "I am no coward, yet I counsel one last attempt
to reason with the Caretakers and their leader H'minee. We are all Progenitor
together here, trapped on Manifold Six until such time as we can re-implement
our lost technologies. Until then, should we not attempt to live
together under one skin?"
^  Others alter his words in subtle ways, expressing doubt or tolerance for
this idea. You step in quickly.
^  "No, my friends!" you alter roughly. "Remember with whom we are dealing.
H'minee and her followers have seen the incredible power of the Manifolds, and
yet they reject them. They have read the ancient books, and the plans our
ancestors made for the Manifold Experiments. Yet they reject those as well.
They live in fear--and a Progenitor who lives in fear is one that may as well
be dead. Our race has declined since the time of the ancestors, and it is
because of the timidity and fear of the Caretaker faction. We must move forward
boldly, and fulfill the destiny spelled out for us so many thousands of orbits
ago. Do you agree?"
^  Your words are altered, one by one, by each member of the council. They
all assent.


#INTERLUDE9
#xs 500
#caption Interlude: The Nexus
^  Imagine six Progenitor in a room. They would alter the resonance of the room,
and alter the alterations, in a smooth and free-flowing conversation. The sheer
complexity of it gives you a pleasant feeling in the brain pan.
^  As you gaze out on the weathered walls of the Manifold Nexus, you get that
same feeling, magnified a million times. You imagine not six Progenitor, but six
Planets--six minds almost godlike in their powers, but almost infantile in their
knowledge of the world, and of Progenitor ways.
^  "Almost like being a nursemaid to a god," you resonate softly. Your assistant,
standing nearby, gives you a quizzical wave of the mandibles. "What did you alter,
Leader?"
^  You flap your neck lightly, cupping the assistant's words, altering them, and
sending them back. "That," you resonate, pointing at the Nexus. "During the First
Era, it was built to be the control center for the Manifold Experiment."
^  Your assistant looks in awe at this relic of the past. "Does it still function?"
^  "Yes." You shake your neck at the report you've just been handed. "It still
works perfectly. Our harmony with Manifold Six is even greater now than it was
before." You look in silence at the temple, then turn away. You've gained a
small measure of power over six gods. You must be careful.


#INTERLUDE10
#xs500
#caption Interlude: A Change of Plan
^  You can barely believe it. You insisted on joining the search parties sifting
the wreckage of the last $OTHERALIENS6 base, not because you felt your minions
were incompetent, but because you had to see for yourself that the final
victory was at hand.
^  And what glorious wreckage! The dead bodies of $OTHERALIENS6 followers litter
the ground. Destroyed weaponry and the rubble of embattled buildings litter the
streets. Even amid the death and destruction of your distant kinfolk, you feel
an odd sense of elation. The hated enemy is destroyed!
^  "Leader," the force commander alters the sounds of distant explosions coming
to you, for extra emphasis to his words. "This is a great day. What do we do now?"
^  You know that he means 'what steps shall we take at this time,' but his words
do raise a deeper question: what is the fate of your own people, now that their
primary goal is accomplished?
^  "We build," you alter, surprising him. "We build toward the day of summoning
of our allies, or toward ultimate conquest. The fate of Manifold Six is waving
in our hands. We must not falter."


#INTERLUDE11
#xs 500
#caption Interlude: Familiar Faces
^  The reports of attacks, and deaths, are quite disturbing.
^  "How can this be?" you alter, turning on the xenobiologist. "None of our
records show such hostility from the native life-forms in the era of the
beginnings of the experiment!"
^  "The current records do not lie, though," she counters. "The mindworms and
spore launchers are definitely out to kill us. In the past..." The hum of the
thought hangs for a while, and you prompt gently. "In the past?"
^  "Yes, leader." The biologist seems very unhappy. "In the past, we were
the gardeners. We were here only to tend, and then to leave. Now we are here
to live. Manifold Six--the whole planet--doesn't like that. It cares not for our politics. It just
doesn't like us being here."
^  "You realize the implications?" you alter, feeling but not showing a touch
of fear. "We are at the mercy of an entire world. It is not intelligent enough to
negotiate with ... it will simply try to kill us."
^  "Yes, leader," the biologist alters.
^  And, truly, there is nothing whatsoever you can do that you are not already doing.
You put the problem from your brain, and stride from the room.


#INTERLUDE12
#xs 500
#caption Interlude: Tower of Strength
^  You stand at a goodly distance, examining the strange formation through
a resonance-gathering device cobbled together by one of the techs. It's quite
serviceable, and you're able to see the distant object as though it were
just a few feet away.
^  "It looks like a heat rash on the skin of Manifold Six," you say, and those
gathered around you alter your resonance to show humor. "What is it?"
^  The xenobiologist pulls back the flaps of his neck, and alters stiffly:
"We don't know, Leader. There are no reports of these objects in the Manifold
files handed down to us from the original creators. These seem to be something
new."
^  You clack your mandibles like a baby as you lower the gathering device.
"That's bad. Very bad. The presence of the offworlders has caused this, hasn't
it."
^  The biologist shakes his neck again in assent. "Somehow the latent intellect
of Manifold Six has created these ... towers ... in response to irritations
caused by the ecological ravages of the offworlders; and, I hesitate to alter,
our own presence as well. They generate the fungus at an increased rate, and may
be a conduit for mindworm and sporerunner activity. Those tendrils you see--" here
he waves one arm "--have a reach of several hundred yards. It's dangerous to get
too close to the thing."
^  You bug your eyes in a laugh as you alter his words to show humor. "Ho! Then
I was right the first time. It [is] like a giant heat rash!"
^  You only wish it was as funny as it resonated. The fact is, unchecked, these
things would take over the Manifold. Would that bring the Flowering? Or would
it bring instead another destruction, like that of Tau Ceti?
^  "Keep an eye on it," you sigh. "We'll destroy it if we have to."
^  If it doesn't destroy us first, you think--but don't dare to say.


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