;
; Sid Meier's ALPHA CENTAURI
;
; Backstory Interludes
;
; Copyright (c) 1997, 1998 by Firaxis Games, Inc.
;

#INTERLUDE
#xs 400
^^
^^INTERLUDE
^
^^from
^
^^The Book of Planet
^
^^M.Y. $NUM0
^
^

#INTERLUDE0
#xs 500
#caption Interlude: A Waking Nightmare
^  Walking alone through the corridors of $BASENAME2, you skim the security
reports on recent attacks by the horrific native "mind worms." Giant
swarms, or "boils," of these mottled 10cm nightmares have wriggled out of the
fungal beds of late, and now threaten to overwhelm base
perimeters in several sectors. Victims are paralyzed with psi-induced terror,
and then experience an unimaginably excruciating death as the worms burrow
into the brain to implant their ravenous larvae.
^  Only the most disciplined security squads can overcome their fear
long enough to trigger the flame guns which can keep the worms at bay.
Clearly you will have to tend carefully to the morale of the troops.
^  Furthermore, since terror and surprise increase human casualties
dramatically in these encounters, it will be important to strike
first when mind worm boils are detected. You consider ordering some
Former detachments to construct sensors near vulnerable bases to aid
in such detection efforts.

#INTERLUDE1
#xs 500
#caption Interlude: Antibodies
^  "Reporting, $TITLE0!" The young functionary stands stiffly at attention.
Born in the early years of planetfall, she belongs to a generation
which knows Earth only as a distant legend.
^  "$VOKI8, I have a special assignment for you," you say, fixing her with an
intense stare, "These samples must be taken to Dr. $SHIMODA9 at $BASENAME4.
See to it personally."
^  You hand her a lead-lined security case. The cryopack inside
contains the stuff of nightmares: mind worm specimens. [Viable]
specimens, captured and preserved at the cost of untold lives.
$SHIMODA9's team has studied the recent mind worm upsurge, and claims
that the worm boils act as a sort of regulator for Planet's ecology.
Human settlement is disrupting the native ecosystem, and the mind
worms are swarming like a kind of ecological antibody.
^  $SHIMODA9 has also reached an even more ominous conclusion: with
modern Biology Lab facilities, mind worms could be bred in captivity
and used as horrifying weapons--against other human factions.
^  "At once, $TITLE0," $VOKI8 says, stepping backwards into the accessway.
Efficient, competent and far better disciplined than the youths of the
21st Century Earth you left behind, $VOKI8 has grown up in a world fraught
with very real dangers. Terrifying dangers once the exclusive province
of the same manner of legends and tales to which Earth itself is now
consigned.

#INTERLUDE2
#xs 500
#caption Interlude: Planet Dreams
^  "Yes, $TITLE0 $NAME1, I did say 'thought' waves." Dr. $SHIMODA9's wrinkled smile
is otherworldly, a grinning death's head. "The mind worms definitely,
and probably the fungus itself. Even after transient Human thought
patterns are isolated, a complex wave dynamic remains, and there is
good reason to believe that at least some mentation is taking place."
^  "You're telling me this stuff thinks," you say halfheartedly,
not quite prepared to buy into the idea.
^  "If so, it's a remarkably different manner of 'thought' from
that of humans, but the basic cognitive feedback loop is present."
Dr. $SHIMODA9 leans forward and gestures toward the graphic with his
datalink stylus. "The most striking thing is the loop's ability to
jump from creature to creature, each fungal spore acting as a synapse. The
spores and worms as individual creatures are insignificant, but the
feedback across a fungal bloom or a mind worm boil is impressive."
^  "How long can it keep jumping?" Now your curiosity is piqued. "Has it
crossed the threshold into self-awareness?"
^  "Difficult to say. In theory a powerful wave could reverberate clear
around the planet, but the distances involved would make true
self-awareness problematic. Perhaps a quasi sentient state similar to
our dreams."

#INTERLUDE3
#xs 500
#caption Interlude: Penance
^  In the darkness, something goes >pop<, and you are lying on your
back on a hillside among the soft orange and purple tendrils of a
vast fungal forest. The sound of running water gurgles
loudly in the vicinity of your right ear, but you cannot identify the
source. Panic rises briefly in your throat as you realize
you have no filter mask or oxygen tank, dressed only in your worksuit,
but breath comes easily and you detect no signs of nitrogen narcosis.
From somewhere, a voice seems to whisper "earth$NAME3," but perhaps
it is only the breeze.
^  Time passes, and you notice that the fungus is growing perceptibly,
the spores gently nudging you as they slowly stretch and twist. Fungal
bloom! Panic returns full force and you struggle to free yourself from
the encroaching tendrils. "earth$NAME3!" The voice again, more insistent.
The last tendrils break and you are free and dashing across an endless
field of purple and orange. "earth$NAME3! beware!" from close behind you
and then . . . >discontinuity<
^  In the darkness, something goes >pop<, and you are lying on your
back in the gene therapy tank, the gauzy restraints slowly retracting.
The remaining fluid in the tank gurgles away through the tube behind
your head and you slowly sit up. Four weeks of your life, once every ten
years, you spend in this state. A small price to pay for immortality, or
something close to it. A half-remembered dream tugs at you as you pull on
a clean worksuit, but you cannot recapture it.

#INTERLUDE4
#xs 500
#caption Interlude: Brood Trainer
^  "$VOKI8, I need you to join Dr. $SHIMODA9's team at $BASENAME5," you say,
indicating a base in the Secure Zone on your three-D holo.
^  Standing below the dais of your audience chamber, your aide appears
no older than she did on the day she first joined your personal staff.
$VOKI8 has clearly kept to a strict longevity regimen. Now at $NUM1
Planetyears one of your most effective Talents, she is ready for
her first major independent assignment.
^  "Have I offended, $TITLE0, that you send me away?"
^  "Hardly. $VOKI8, your DNA prints indicate an aptitude for the new
psi training." A genetic diagram swirls into view on the holo, with
the relevant portion of chromosome 21 highlighted. "Dr. $SHIMODA9 and
his military ecologists have been breeding mind worm specimens in
captivity, and they believe that a properly trained telepathi can be
bonded to the nascent boil, making it an extension of the self."
^  "[Become] a mind worm boil?" $VOKI8 asks, somewhat horrified.
^  "Become? Not really. Control? Yes. $VOKI8, the military potential of
this discovery cannot be overemphasized, and you are the only Talent
I trust for such an assignment. We need brood trainers, $VOKI8, and I
need to you be the first, the leader."
^  "As you wish, $TITLE0," $VOKI8 says, steeling herself to the mission.
As she retreats from the dais, you are troubled by a vision of $VOKI8
clawing at her face, mottled worms spilling from her eye sockets.
You hope you have not signed $VOKI8's death warrant, for she has been a
most promising Talent.

#INTERLUDE5
#xs 500
#caption Interlude: Planet Dreams II
^  Ever since the incident in the gene therapy tank, you have experienced
recurring dreams and nightmares centered around the fungal blooms which
encroach ever more rapidly on the outskirts of major human settlements.
You even postponed your most recent longevity treatment in an effort to
avoid the trance state, but the dreams have now crept into your normal
REM sleep as well.
^  In your most recent dream, just before the major bloom near $BASENAME5,
the presence you have come to call "the Voice" returned once again.
^  "earth$NAME3." From some invisible spot just behind you.
^  "Hello, Voice. Who are you?"
^  "who. difficult concept for we, earth$NAME3. mind and flower: many
dreamings. never before another. you may call we 'voice.' growth dream
comes! beware."
^  "Beware? What do you want, Voice?"
^  "want. more confused $NAME3 thinking. ache of slumber broken. earth$NAME3
is animal we. stranger we. animal: energy! mines! roads! sensors!
condensers!! boreholes!! breakers of flower dream. end of joy.
growth dream now comes: end of animal."
^  "Stop it, Voice. Why are you telling me this?"
^  "why! dream word! dream song! why why why why why why why why
why why why why why why why why why why why why why why . . ."
^  "Silence! Get out of my mind!" >discontinuity<

#INTERLUDE6
#xs 500
#caption Interlude: Despair
^  If you live for a thousand years you will never forget the day
they brought you $VOKI8's body, shrouded in planetcloth, burnt almost
beyond recognition.
^  "How did this happen?" Gruffly, not allowing the distress to creep
into your voice.
^  "Cooked by a flame gun. $ENEMYNAME6's men. Tried to surrender
but they flamed her anyway. Don't like those worms, the $ENEMYFACT7."
^  "I see." Your most loyal servant, butchered by $ENEMYFACT7. And
only now do you realize that, subconsciously, you'd been grooming $VOKI8
as your heir apparent, the student who would one day replace you as
master.
^  For all the gene splicing and longevity treatments, all the manmade
miracles of M.Y. $NUM0, death remains as final, as capricious, and
as desolate as it has ever been. No matter what happens now, no matter
what journey of wonder humankind now embarks upon, $VOKI8 will never see
it, never know the end of it. And no matter how many centuries you
continue to cheat eternity, you will never again have the company of
your student and friend. And you cannot cheat eternity forever.
^  Despair grips you, and you shudder. But life is seductive in its
rhythms and rituals. Our bodies do not like to be reminded of their
own impending deaths, and will not allow us to dwell on the subject.
Soon enough the heat and the cold, the hard and the soft, the taste
of the wine, the press of a lover's arms, all will come flooding back
to soothe us, to fill us again with a sense of purpose. And in the
meantime there are a number of, ah, items to be attended to:
^  "Bring me Major Joaquim! I want $BASENAME5 disassembled piece
by piece. And have this body removed to the tanks--it is nothing to
me now."

#INTERLUDE7
#xs 500
#caption Interlude: Alpha Prime
^  " . . . and in her memory, let this base henceforth be known as
'$BASENAME6,' that her bravery can serve as an example to all and
that her hopes, her dreams, her deeds shall not have been in vain."
^  You stand on the high podium in the laser-scored commons of the
base once styled $BASENAME5. A mixed crowd of soldiers and
ragged-looking civilians provides scattered applause as you rededicate
the settlement in $VOKI8's name. A few teams of drones shamble about,
oblivious to the ceremony, still removing the wreckage of last week's
battle and punctuating the proceedings with an occasional thump or
crash.
^  Through the plasma glass dome, Alpha Prime soars high in a hazy
sky, cruel cousin of Father Sol. How you miss the soft blue skies of
Earth, but $SHIMODA9 says the stratospheric haze helps stave off a
runaway greenhouse effect on a world otherwise a bit too close to
its solar furnace.
^  The dedication complete, you gather your entourage and prepare to
return to $BASENAME2. $ENEMYADJ7 forces have fled to the $COMPASS4,
but it is not safe to remain here in person.
^  The drones continue their work.

#INTERLUDE8
#xs 500
#caption Interlude: A Failure to Communicate
^  >Pop!< Sudden darkness. This time you weren't even asleep.
^  "earth$NAME3."
^  "Dammit, Voice! I am holding [Council]! Stay out of my head!"
It is no longer possible to deny it; this cannot be a hoax. Either you
have lost your final marble or you have come into contact with some
avatar of the native fungus, an alien sentience whose neural matrix may
span the entire planet.
^  "more skilled we, yes, at this? teach we much, earth$NAME3. council
never mind. talking we $NAME3 voice now. orders giving. haha. joke we!
haha." Great. A sentient planet with the maturity of a creche infant.
^  "Make it quick, Voice, whatever it is you want. You are trying my patience."
^  "question we. your human nodes, together think yes? together think no?
flower synapse, worm synapse detect we not. is there dependence?"
^  "Each human is an independent creature. We can communicate by talking
and writing, but we do not 'togetherthink' as you call it."
^  "ah, most relieved we. necessary pruning we several large infestations
human nodes, harming they flower mind. not wishing we deprive earth$NAME3
of together thinking. thank we, sorry bother we."
^  "Wait! Voice! You can't just . . ."
^  >Pop!< Awkward silence around the council table.
You quickly wipe the drool from your chin.

#INTERLUDE9
#xs 500
#caption Interlude: Growthdream
^  "I have ordered these Preserves set aside for you, Voice. Planetlife
will remain completely undisturbed inside these compounds. Can you, in
return, regulate your animal and plant vectors, keep them from overrunning
my compounds?"
^  "mind and flower, node and worm,
^     in compound small, planet yearns.
^       growth dream soon unlock we prison,
^         human beware, planet risen!
^  "like you poem we, earth$NAME3? new human skill learn we."
^  "Pretty dreadful, Voice. What is this 'growth dream?' You keep alluding to it."
^  "growth dream soon is. epochal blooming we. mind and flower, dreaming we
of great why. earthhumans, thoughts many, make they growth dream sooner.
plant we many many many. great pruning we of animal we. also animal you.
beginning again of cycle."
^  "You mean this is going to wipe out most animal life on the planet?
Including all the humans?"
^  "not certain we. never before this clearly think we. from humans
learn we much, especially earth$NAME3. earth$NAME3 friend we. will
often remember we earth$NAME3 in next cycle."
^  "That's kind of you, Voice, but it's not quite the kind of immortality
I had in mind. Can't this process be slowed or stopped?"
^  "stop we no. slow we yes, in compounds stay we, less harming
cause you. now, let us make you we more poems."

# ; late game interludes removed for demo --BR

# ; This line must remain at end of file.