Noman...human or alien????

[bionicbob]

Something I am not clear on....

Are the Borellian Noman human or aliens who live within the Colonies? They kind of look like Klingons with their bumpy eyebrows.... what are your thoughts?

[Charybdis]

They are a different type of human, perhaps a different species? but they are outcasts and keep to themselves.

[jewels]

I think they were meant to be a more primative human society that held themselves apart from the rest of the colonies. Their world may have been furthest distant or somehow more isolated from the rest of the colonies and their culture kept to itself.

[JLHurley]

Didn't they often refer (with disgust) to Colonials as "human"? I always had the impression that they were not regarded as human.

I always thought that a great explanation for the nomen are that they are Neanderthals. If the 13th Tribe came here with some Nomen, it could be explained in the fossil record. Neanderthals had a comparable brain size to homo sapiens, and also used tools which would explain how Nomen could use technology. In addition the fossil record shows them to have coexisted until neanderthals became extinct.

[ernie90125]

Exactly what I was going to post JJ. I 100% agree.

[jewels]

JJ, you said it much more clearly and better thought out, than I.

[Charybdis]

The Colonials did view them as "savages" for the most part. T

[Viper 1]

Being of the Neanderthal species of human, the Nomen probably coexisted with the Homosapien species on Kobol, and obviously migrated to the 12 colonies with the tribes during the exodus.
Then there must have been a break in relations and the Nomen set up thier own seperate colony in isolation.
There would have had to been Nomen with the 13th tribe that migrated to Earth.
For what ever reason the Nomen on Earth could not adapt to the climate, or bacteria, and became extinct. Where as on the 12 colonies they thrived and evolved...(to an extent) along with the Colonials.
This would be why they exist with the Colonials and not here on Earth.
Just my thoughts.

[bionicbob]

OR maybe Neanderthals were the original species on EARTH and were discovered my the 13 Tribe on their arrival and some were taken back to the 12 Colonies later. Then the Neanderthals were wiped out on Earth during whaterer conflict or diaster happened that caused the 13 Tribe to lose contact with the other Colonies and lose most of their technology. This would explain some of the fossil record and why no "Missing Link" has ever been found. What do you think????

[Viper 1]

Naahhh. ... that just doesn't work with the background concept of the story line.
Since the 13th tribe left Kobol after the original 12, all they know of the 13th was legends and myths. There was obviously no contact between them after the exodus, so the Nomen were a coexisting human species that made the exodus with the 12 tribes.

[Dawg]

Nope.

I won't say any more than that, but maybe, one day, the Nomen's full story will come out.



I am
Dawg

[Damocles]

Hypothesis;

The Nomen are as speculated, Neanderthals.

I will explain why as I figure it out.

As always;

To be more clear, I didn't mean that Nomen are Neanderthals, instead I meant Neanderthals are Nomen.

Basically if a few Nomen were littered throughout the fleet, I think it might stand to reason that a few Nomen might be littlered throughout the Tribes including the 13th. Having landed here in ancient times, the Nomen would have eventually become extinct. Later archaeologists would have uncovered the Nomen's bones, not knowing of Nomen or even of the name Noman, they would have given them, or their fossilized remains, the name Neanderthals.

But sounds like Dawg may have something better up his sleeve.

does anyone have any idea many Noman there are in the the fleet? I always thought it would be a good idea to recruit them into Colonial military service to be formed in assault or special forces units, something along the lines of the Gurkhas

[Damocles]

I promised to suggest why Nomen might be Neanderthals in this thread.

https://www.geocities.com/sjpaxton/glosb.html

BORELLIAN NOMEN The nomen are incredibly tough and merciless warriors, the only people who could survive on their planet, “the land of the mega sun and the endless sands.” The nomen are sustained by their iron-bound Code, which determines their conduct. The nomen believe that only they will survive the exodus from the Colonies. Physically they appear to be human, but with bony ridges above their eye sockets. They have the ability to make their hearts appear to stop for short periods. Mature nomen are bearded. They wear rough cloaks and carry the feared laser boles on cross belts (MN, BE).

https://www.sf-worlds.com/galactica/people.html

But perhaps the most rabidly insular and conservative people among the Colonials were the Borellian Nomen, who were feared by the other Colonial peoples and who held themselves as special, elitist, and as sort of a Promised People. The Borellian Nomen were clearly based loosely on desert Arabs or Berbers, with a mix of Jewish mysticism thrown in. Unlike other ethnic groups, the Borellian Nomen held themselves as superior to all other humans. They may have had a breeding program, selecting for specific physical traits and personality types.

https://en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/Th...ives_%28TOS%29

That episode gives me few facts that I can use to extrapolate.

1. The Nomen are stocky robust humanoids with skulls that have pronounced superorbitals and massive cheek bones.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neanderthal

2. Problems with the Nomen.

a. The Nomen planet is described as a desert world of sand lighted by a mega sun. What is a mega sun? The only main sequence star I know that fits the vague description is a red giant;

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_giant

That givesa me a start point on Borallay, the planet.

b. The planet has to be within a 50% +/- of Earth mass for a recognizable form of human without major physical modification to exist. I expect the planet to be more massive than Earth to account for the robustness and the apparent physical strength the nomen possess.

c. Described as a desert world, that means the planet will have a ocean/land ratio that is lopsided by our standards, maybe 50/50 ratio land to water.

d. The atmosphere must be less dense than Earth's. Why? Light penetratesd sufficiently to create a swarthy people. Actinic light shielding from a red giant star? That is a lot of blue light from a red star to produce a suntan.

d. It must be a colder world as a mean average than Earth. Why? Deserts are widespread. Large stretches of flat terrain and open unimpeeded wind convection produces swaths of desert. You need mountain chains and huge amounts of warm oceans to produce surface heat trap features like forest and grass belts. CF Africa.

e. The planet must be metal impoverished. Why?
-old world; 8.5 billion years old, the plate tectonics that churn up metals in the crust is done. That planet's core has given up its radioactive heat.
-mined out; if the Nomen evolved in that star system, they are OLD-older than the beings of light. Implication? Devolved.
-gas giant leftover; the only type of worlds that will survive a red giant star phase in a starsystem, are the outer gas giants. They will undergo the same atmospheric boiloff in that red giant phase that the inner rocky worlds underwent eight billion years previously. The Nomen ancestors who would settle the newly minted rocky cored husks of the boiled off gas giants will find these "raisins" to be iron and aluminum poor. They will find sufficient CHON and trace metals, though, to bronze age their way along. They will, however, find it hard to make STEEL.

f. devolution; large mass planet, thin atmosphere, less water, poor metals, deserts everywhere, means that the Nomen will have a hard time establishing a city civilization. If you have to chase your food all over the place, and hunt water all the time, you will simplify. That doesn't mean you will be building battlestars. You will be raising goats. Over time, as the planet's ecology fails, you will fail with it.

g. Expected effects from a-f; Stocky robust humanoid, who sunburns easily. Tends to be a hunter gatherer/meat eater. Primitive social organization based on nomadic tribalism and a water scarcity culture. The bolo is a weapon used for dropping fast animals from ambush, while the hurler is either mounted, or on foot. You use it in an environment where you are either a plains or desert dweller, and where you have animal sinew or some other material to make a string, and where you lack compression bow spring technology, or material to make bows, or spears-which are the traditional Human ranged hunting weapons.
-the Nomen are used to hunting prey not much larger, but much faster than themselves.
-this means cameloids, or some kind of desert loper.
-pack hunting and scavenging are the outcomes I expect.

What can I expect when I meet a Noman?

He will be strong, but not as enduring as me. I can outrun him and outlast him. I am a member of a pursuit hunter, and agricultural farmer species. He is an ambush hunter, and a scavenger/gatherer.

I have better aim. He uses a weapon that is inherently short-ranged and which by its physical properties and limitations, just needs to be flung at an animal's legs to bring aforesaid animal down. I hurl spears, draw bows, and I have to aim/lead my targets to bring the fleeing food, in a denser and more dangerous forested plains environment, down at longer ranges than he does.

I am more graceful than he is. I have superior ability to jump, am faster, can climb better, and most definitely have better eyesight. That is the result of two million years of throwing things at fast animals.

I am probably smarter than he is. Why? Envionmental complexity. His desert world, Borallay, would have to be relatively stable and environmentally uncomplicated to produce a simplistic tribal specialized hominid creature like him. No competition. Earth, which produced me, is a lot of things, but stable and environmentally simple? The Earth kills stupid people-quickly. This is a lot tougher planet than most people realize. The life here is incredibly dangerous to us. It has only been within the last five thousand years that we weren't food for the wildlife.

The Nomen don't look like the sophisticated end product of a highly competitive environmental sorting process. They look like the specialized losers of a niche ecology that was/is slowly dying with their ancient sun. As they were/are.

On Earth the type that fits that profile, that died out when their niche geographically defined artic similar environmental condition changed, was the Neanderthals.

As always;

[Damocles]

Originally Posted by Wildcard

does anyone have any idea many Noman there are in the the fleet? I always thought it would be a good idea to recruit them into Colonial military service to be formed in assault or special forces units, something along the lines of the Gurkhas

If they have a ship, then I would need to see the ship. Source that, and I could make an educated guess.

Otherwise, NED.

As always;

[Dawg]

According to TMWNL, there was one ship that was populated exclusively by the Nomen. They were secretive, arrogant, did not mix with the other Colonials - unless on a Blood Hunt.

Their belief in their own superiority means they would not have made good Colonial Warriors - or would be willing to fight for the survival of anyone other than themselves.

The Nomen had space-travel technology, or they would not have had a ship of their own. Which is no surprise if, as Adama mentioned early in the episode (if my memory serves me correctly), the Nomen were from Caprica - rather than the Nomen home world.

I am
Dawg

[Damocles]

Originally Posted by Dawg

According to TMWNL, there was one ship that was populated exclusively by the Nomen. They were secretive, arrogant, did not mix with the other Colonials - unless on a Blood Hunt.

Their belief in their own superiority means they would not have made good Colonial Warriors - or would be willing to fight for the survival of anyone other than themselves.

The Nomen have space-travel technology, or they would not have had a ship of their own. Which is no surprise if, as Adama mentioned early in the episode (if my memory serves me correctly), the Nomen were from Caprica - rather than the Nomen home world.

I am
Dawg

Did The Nomen have space travel technology, did they acquire it through contact with the Colonials, or were they just imported immigrants into Colonial space?

I don't see anything in their culture that indicates to me that they have the capacity, or possess a "native" space technology. Otherwise they would have more than one ship and would be distributed throughout the R/T fleet.They look more to be an ALIEN as in nonhuman subculture within Colonial civilization, that they are along for the ride-especially in the light of;

According to TMWNL, there was one ship that was populated exclusively by the Nomen. They were secretive, arrogant, did not mix with the other Colonials - unless on a Blood Hunt.

Their belief in their own superiority means they would not have made good Colonial Warriors - or would be willing to fight for the survival of anyone other than themselves.

To quote my favorite Vorlon;

They are alone. They are a dying race. We should let them pass. ...

Being the kind of guy, I am (see Avatar) I would not hinder their passing.

As always;

[WarMachine]

Below is part of something I wrote for the intro/backstory to a non-BSG RPG that may yet see a prinitng press.

Thoughts?

***********************************

Prologue


Translated into English from the Book of An'un'ki, completed on Day 137, 2013CE, by the Office of Information Recovery and Historical Research, Imperial Archival Service:


From a note attached to the Book of A'n'un'ki by Chief Librarian Hr'yam, Royal Archives of Hjalik, At'Landa, c.1824CE:

"...It is with great regret that we cannot locate any copy of The Book of the One Jewel anywhere in our records. We beseech the Throne to extend all efforts to locate a copy..."

**********
**********

"IT IS WRITTEN that in the days of the Reign of the Zepto Piton, the Great Smoking Mountains did lay great destruction upon the Home of Man, called T'Rah.

And amid the Chaos, the Warriors of the T'Rah did many great and heroic deeds, saving many, many multitudes; and the multitudes blessed the Warriors.

And the Warriors of the T'Rah did bear these Multitudes of Man by their great starships to a place called Far Home, and there did place them into safety.

And it came to pass that the Aten, he who held Kingship over all of the other Kings of Men, did from His Throne at Far Home divide the Multitudes of Man into the Twelve Tribes of Man.

And to rule over these Twelve Tribes, the Aten did place the Sixty Families, Husband and Wife, over each Tribe, and there were Five Families to rule over each Tribe.

And of the Sixty Families, Husband and Wife, the names of the twelve most honored were: Ad'am, No'tah, At'r'us, Da'v'ud, M'oy'say, M'B’ng, Chi', Am'r't'su, 'Han, Prin', Bel, and S'ing. And these Twelve Families did lead the Tribes of Man at Far
Home.

And of the Twelve Tribes of Man, so each was divided thrice into the Warriors, the Workers, and the Learners.

And in all of the Tribes of Man so divided thrice, the proportions of the Multitudes were one Warrior to every two Learners to every five Workers; and thus were the Tribes of Man of T'Rah divided.

.....

"...And hence, after many multitudes of years had passed, the Warriors of Man, called among themselves the Seraphim, did grow restless in peace. And thus did they quarrel with the Aten, the fifth who had ruled since the coming to Far Home of the Tribes of Man of T'Rah.

The Warriors did demand of the Aten, "Let us return to our True Home, green T'Rah, for our hearts ache to see that verdant land."

And the Aten bade the Warriors to have patience, saying thus, "The Great Smoking Mountains may have become quiet since our leave-taking, but the skies and waters will not yet have cleared. Be patient, and in time, we shall return Home."

And the Warriors did take this counsel, but in their hearts of hearts, the Warriors still yearned to see T'Rah.

.....

"...And it came to pass, that the sixth Aten to rule Far Home came to a vision of the Great Design that he named the Precious Jewel. This vision claimed that the many Gods that the Twelve Tribes worshipped were but shadows, or different facets, as are the facets of a diamond, of but one God, and further, that the worship of many Gods should be replaced by the worship of the One God by all of the Multitude. And he did write this vision down as the Book of the One Jewel.

And while the majority of the multitudes welcomed this view, the vastly greater number of the Warriors and many of the Learners as well, were most wroth, and made great imprecations and threats against the very life of the Aten.

And verily did the people tremble in fear, for the Warriors were powerful and terrible in the ways of battle, and none of the leaders of the Tribes, nor any of the Sixty Families, Husband and Wife, were able to ausage the rage of the Warriors.

And it came to pass, that as disaster loomed - for the people, and yea, even the Aten, feared that the Warriors would seize power - a Warrior Commander of the House of Ad'am stepped forward with a solution.

Standing before the other Commanders of Warriors, he did most strongly chastise them for their wroth, saying that they should be humble and not proud of their skill in destruction, for destruction neither created nor maintained any thing of value.

But the Warrior Commanders Tiamat and Marduk, who had been chosen to represent the Warriors, and their Warriors - who watched from afar through their far-seeing plates - although humbled, were unrepentant. They said, "This is intolerable! We will not give up the worship of those Gods who Light our way! And, yet, the Aten will neither yield! Yea, verily, are these evil times! Come, Brother, let us unseat this Usurper - who would most evilly change our Society so!"

But the Warrior Commander C'in replied thusly, "It is YOU who should be unseated for your profanity and treason! But, if you truly are at odds with this ruling of the Aten, then as free-will people, you have no choice but to withdraw yourselves from the Body of the Multitude. Take thee then hence, you and all those who would follow you, and harm not the Body of the Multitude, for verily, you have abandoned your own Tribes and would make violence against them. You are no longer of the Twelve, but have become, all of you together, a Thirteenth Tribe. Go ye then Home, if it please you, for you have made no place any longer for yourselves here."

And the Warriors rejoiced at this admonition saying, "Let us hence away from here, and return to that Place we all desire, and be quit of those who would spurn us so!"

And verily did ninety and five of every one hundred Warriors, and four of every ten Learners, and two of every ten Workers did board ships of the stars to bear them home to T'Rah. And the number of all of these was three hundred and seventy thousand, with all of their goods and animals.

.....

And it came to pass, by and by, that the Great Fleet of ships did return to T'Rah.

And from on high, they did see how much had changed on T'Rah, for the destruction wrought by the Great Smoking Mountains had created new coastlines and seas where none had been before. Verily, even the beautiful valley north of the great inland sea of the northern hemisphere was flooded as a sea unto itself.

And the Warriors and Learners and Workers of Man, now called the Thirteenth Tribe, did resettle T'Rah, in many places.

And on a verdant island opposite the great inland sea, did the greater part of this Thirteenth Tribe place their capitol, and it was called At'ln.

.....

And great were the accomplishments of the Thirteenth Tribe. Among these was the Great Ark, which completely changed travel to other stars.

And the Thirteenth Tribe did prosper as they rebuilt T'Rah, and verily did they exceed even the greatness of their ancestors, who had fled to Far Home. And the Thirteenth Tribe did rejoice in their success.

.....

And many were the colonies of the Thirteenth Tribe, verily forty and eight in number. And the jewel among them was called At'Landa, and it was twelve light-years from T'Rah.

Great were its shipyards, and great were its cities.

.....

But the jealousy of Man did come upon the children of the Thirteenth Tribe.

After many multitudes of years, the Lord En'Ll, who was Chief among the Learners, did come before the leaders of the Thirteenth Tribe, who were called the Council of Thirteen, and spake thus, "Lo! I have viewed the Heavens above and verily have I seen a great destruction that comes upon us! We must take ship and flee from this world, or we will surely die!"

But the Council of the Thirteen scorned the Lord En'Ll, saying thus "Your vision is addled and clouded by Ambrosia! Return ye home to sleep!" And the Lord En'Ll was so shamed in public.

But two Commanders of Warriors and two Councilors, who were the Warrior Commander Marduk, the third child of the Marduk of the Great Trek, and the Warrior Commander Tiamat, fourth child of the Tiamat of the Great Trek, and the Lord-Commander Atreus and the Lord En'Ki'i of the Council of the Thirteen did hear the words of the Lord En'Ll and did take heed of them.

And these four leaders did prepare their own Houses and Commands for the Great Destruction to come.

.....

And the Seven Mountains crashed down from the sky, and verily all but one crashed into the seas.

And the seas did boil, and the skies darken, and much woe and torment was visited upon the Thirteenth Tribe of Man. And many, many places, great and mean, were laid waste by fire and dust and water.

And the Great Fleet of the Thirteenth Tribe saw this destruction being wrought, and cried out most piteously, saying "Vile Fates! We are struck down! We are doomed!"

And the Warrior Commanders Tiamat and Marduk and the Lord-Commander Atreus did go among the Warriors of the Fleet and did spake words of comfort to them and heard their piteous cries and calmed them.

And the Warriors of the Great Fleet did many great and heroic deeds in those dark days, and saved many lives.

.....

[WarMachine]

And it cam to pass, as T'Rah healed itself from the Crashing of the Great Mountains, the Warrior Commanders Tiamat and Marduk did quarrel with each other, and their quarrel was most wroth with vile insults.

And Tiamat did spit upon Marduk and curse him for a fool and turned her back upon him, a great insult.

And Marduk, in his rage, did draw his Blade and struck Tiamat most cruelly in the back, and she fell, mortally wounded.

But as Marduk stood over the fallen Tiamat and gloated in his triumph, Tiamat, who was not yet dead, did strike Marduk with her Staff of Thunder, and he was mortally wounded.

And the Lord-Commander Atreus, coming upon this evil scene, was horrified, and tried to save the life of Tiamat, who still lived, but her wound was too great and she died in his arms.

.....

And Atreus strove mightily to keep the other Warrior Commanders of one mind, but his arguments fell on deaf ears, and the other Warrior Commanders - chief among them Os'rs, Ba'al, Ash'k, Kw't'zk’l, and Ch'n - soon fell to warring amongst themselves.

And great and terrible were their wars, for there were none to restrain them. And the wars continued, for the Warriors fought not for land or food or power, nor even for glory, but for the sheer love of battle.

And Atreus saw this and wept.

.....

..... [Text broken] .....

And Atreus gathered together those of his followers who survived, and journeyed to At'Landa, to settle there while T'Rah healed itself.

But forces of Os'rs did pursue him to that place, and although Atreus was victorious in the Heavens, the forces of Os'rs did terrible things to the world of At'Landa.

And Atreus, until the end of his days, renounced the Sword Way, even to the extent of disabling his starships, until his descendants learned a better Way.

.....



**********
**********


Summary in English of the Video File: “The True History of The Cataclysm, and the Fall of The People”
Found inside the Tomb of Atreus


Earth was settled by a group of “Neanderthals” c.220, 000BCE as part of an evacuation from a dying world in the Andromeda galaxy, named “Nibiru”. They arrived at a system in the Megellanic Cloud – a barely habitable desert world, it suited their purposes as a temporary way-station – in a “world-ship”; nearly 900mi in diameter, the “Great Ark” was the size of a small moon. They launched several recon missions through the Transit Accelerator to seek a better world, while mining the way-station’s asteroid system heavily.

The Neander’s lucked out: where most star systems only had one habitable world, if that, their recon ships had located a system with two worlds that could easily be made habitable.

The problem was that Neander scientists knew that their birthrate was falling – possibly as a consequence of their over-long exposure to deep-space – so they made the difficult decision to engineer a subspecies better-adapted to their chosen home on the system’s third planet. In the meanwhile, the Neander’s set up a base on the chilly and too-small – but still-habitable – 4th planet.

Everything was moving right along – their DNA-mixing experiments with chimps, baboons and gorillas had eventually resulted in an inter-fertile species (Humans) – and their “terraforming” program was moving forward apace, when disaster struck.

Roaring in on a highly-obtuse angle came the rogue planet that would eventually be named Venus. As it swung through the solar system, it was captured when its course was diverted by Jupiter. The stress of the capture eventually brought it into Bode Orbit #2, but the sheer-forces of its passage tore apart the system’s fifth planet, located between Mars and Jupiter.

The result of that terrific explosion sent Australia-sized chunks of matter whirling through the system like fragments from a hand grenade. Mars, being right in the path of the 5th planet, took the brunt of the hit, nearly becoming an asteroid belt of its own. Nearly 20% of its mass was stripped away, including most of its atmosphere and surface water.

An even 90% of the system’s population of 3 billion – Neanderthal and Human – were killed outright; the only survivors were dispersed on spacecraft throughout the system and around Terra, including the Great Ark.

The Aten (Leader) of the Neanderthals gathered the shattered survivors together, and after a quick reassessment, made the decision to return temporarily to Far Home. There, they could rebuild their numbers, while survey and maintenance teams traveled back and forth, continuing the maintenance on the planet.

During the several generations spent on Far Home, the Neanderthal’s demographics entered the negative-growth range – and stayed there – while the Humans’ began to increase exponentially. As a result, an increasing number of Neanderthal’s began taking Humans as mates, producing a shorter-lived third species. This caused consternation among hard-line, conservative Neander priests – this is where the first real cracks developed in Neander culture. Also during this period, the second Aten to rule there restructured Neander culture into the Twelve Tribes, both to streamline the society and to give a greater voice to the Humans, who were proving to be vital to the Neander’s survival.

During the reign of the fifth Aten at Far Home, a secondary scouting mission discovered a binary star system in the Megellanic Cloud that appeared to have been engineered by a Precursor race, having 12 planets spaced around the life-zone. The worlds were capable of Neander/Human habitation with very little effort, and allowed for a huge expansion in population.

Six generations after their return to Far Home, the stresses within Neander society became open and nasty, with the dissident faction of Neander’s called the “Seraphim” (those who had taken Humans as mates) and their children, the “Nephilim” – and many Humans as well – demanding a return to Earth, saying that it was now habitable enough to return – and opposing the religious reforms of the sitting Aten.

Just when it seemed that there would be an internecine religious war, one of the military Commanders of the Tribe of Adam faced the dissidents down, and took the bull by the horns, telling the Seraphim, Nephilim and their Human supporters to go back to Terra if they wanted – but that they would not have access to the new multi-planet system. The Seraphim and their supporters were happy to go.

Of the c.370, 000 people who returned to Terra/T’Rah permanently, roughly 5% were Neanders, and c.15% were Nephilim.

***

Arriving in-system c.20, 000BCE, the Seraphim and their charges set up shop on a much-changed Earth. The axis had shifted to what is now Hudson Bay and the Black Sea now existed where a very small inland sea had been previously.

All in all, though, the planet was now thoroughly habitable.

As time passed, the major discovery was the development of the “Ark Drive”. This was a comparatively tiny, portable power source that allowed interstellar Transits to be made by previously too-small vessels, and which significantly increased real-space speeds. This caused a rapid expansion in the population of Humans (who were proving highly – even “hyper” – adaptive) via the creation of colonies – forty-eight of them – that could be accessed rapidly.

Everything looked rosy…which, of course, is when it all fell apart.

[WarMachine]

Bangs and Whimpers

Lord Osiris – one of the few remaining Neander’s - was trying to maximize his Clan’s mining business. He wanted to do this by towing a Texas-sized chunk of the former 5th planet into a geo-synced orbit, to shorten his transit time.

Lord Enlil – a Nephilim – objected to the scheme after looking over the plans. He didn’t object so much to the mining operation, so much as the scheme to tow the rock into orbit; by his reasoning, the rock was too unstable for the forces that would be exerted on it. When Osiris wouldn’t listen to him, he took his complaint to the Council of the Thirteen.

Osiris thoroughly wrecked Enlil’s career, virtually destroying his reputation before the assembled Council, who laughed the unfortunate engineer out of the chamber…except for Atreus and Enki – who both sat on the Council – and the Warrior Commanders Tiamat and Marduk, who were willing to trust the expert.

Everything that Enlil said would happen, did: the stress of the towing scheme not only tore the rock to pieces, it accelerated the fragment cloud on an impact course for Earth.

Osiris went insane, blaming Enlil for sabotaging the tow; this actually got quite a few factions on his side in the Council, as everyone began arguing. However, the Council could not reach a consensus – because the Councilors Atreus, Setesh and Enki did not attend, there could be no quorum. They were not there because they were getting their own fleets and personnel out of the way. The multiple impact events laid the planet waste, and actually caused the planetary crust to shift almost 2,000 miles, all in one piece, moving the poles to their present positions.

In the aftermath, the Fleet began fighting amongst itself almost immediately, with Osiris’ ships firing on anyone who had opposed him. Atreus, Setesh, Tiamat and Marduk managed to fight him to a standstill, but many targets on Earth that had survived the impacts fell to orbital nuclear weapon’s fire. With his base aboard the “Great Ark”, now the Saturnian planetary system’s moon of Iapetus, Osiris fired on anyone or anything that came within range, and occasionally shot mass-driver rocks at space stations throughout the system, as well as Earth.

The allied Commanders soon fell out with each other as well, with Marduk and Tiamat mortally wounding each other in hand-to-hand combat. Atreus withdrew his surviving forces to At’Landa, to preserve them until he determined his next move. Osiris, thinking that he had the advantage, pursued Atreus to At’Landa, intending to finish him off.

Atreus – another of the few remaining Neander’s – was a true Battle-Commander: a brilliant tactical SCM fighter, talented fleet commander and excellent grand-strategist, he decisively defeated Osiris’ main fleet during its attack on At’Landa, but missed the invasion/bombardment squadron – he destroyed it before it began landing operations, but not until their prep fires were complete. At’Landa was almost completely destroyed.

His final act was returning to T’Rah and destroying Osiris’ main base on the Iapetus moon, and towing the Great Ark into its current orbit as a trophy; he then dispatched commando teams to strip the Giza power-supply complex, as well as several other sites, before Horus’ forces could secure them. He was forced to kill Enki and Enlil, who opposed him on religious grounds in now-Mesopotamia over his actions with the Great Ark. Osiris’ body was never found, but his Nephilim mate, Isis, swore revenge on Atreus, his progeny and all of his supporters, then fled the system with Osiris’ remaining troops.

She has not been seen since.

Atreus determined to make sure that Humanity – who he felt had played too large a roll in the Cataclysm – did not regain the tech base to go into space until it had matured, so he kept his fleet in being for a long time, occasionally knocking down attempts at restarting a hi-tech base. Around 120yrs after Cataclysm, Atreus decided that Humanity was sufficiently blown down to return to At’Landa and scuttle his remaining FTL ships.

Sickened by the bloodshed, he withdrew to rebuild At’Landa, but never got it above about TL6. At the age of 314 (Terran years), he committed ritual suicide in one of his auxiliary command stations after being sealed in by his officers.

[Damocles]

1. There is no genetic confluence among the great primates that allows the genetic reconstitution of Humans from orangutangs, chimpanzees, or the various species of gorilla. That popular science published nonsense about Humans' and Chimps' genetics being 99.9% similar, ignores one important fact-that there is a 10% difference in the way those genetic instructions are punctuated by non functioning alleles. Humans have denser genetic instruction per sentence, it appears.

2. Human and Neanderthal interbreeding is impossible. Too much species differentiation among the form types.

3. Neanderthals are a niche ecology outcome that failed. You will see the same or similar event in east Asian Hominids where the various Java, Peking, and other east Asian subtypes failed for exactly the same reasons locally, against the Africa originated Homo sapiens as the Neanderthals did. They were dumber than we are, and we left children that lived after us. They didn't.

4. One point, that modern people don't like to confront, is that like the Wooly Mamoth, we killed and ate the other hominids on their way to extinction.

5. No civilation, as extensive as ours. can fail to leave artifacts that we would discover thousands, nay millions of years after the event. Except for Minoan civilization and Thera, we have no evidence for Atlanteans.

6. No evidence for an extra-solar intrusion into our range exists. We've looked our solar system over rather well. The events of moving a moon, or even small scale planetary engineering, we would see and know IMMEDIATELY.

7. Bode orbit? Do you mean the Roche tidal limit?

8. The asteroid belt is there for the same reason that the gas giants have rings-the Sun has a Roche tidal limit for low density objects which prevents the formation of small gas planets.

9. Moving a mars-sized normal matter object in our spacetime through an inflated wormhole is impossible. There is not enough localized virtual matter to concentrate for a gravity lens big enough.

10. Can you explain how Neanderthals can build spacecraft?
Neanderthal;

Cro Magnon;


Liked the story though. Well written.

As always;

[Damocles]

Who has been posting the superman logo on these latest threads?

As always;

[WarMachine]

LOL....Thanks.

I wasnt' actually proposing that as an actual series of events - that's just fluff for a backstory.

Originally, it was written to tie the game into CBSG, but with all the copyright issues, it was easier to separate the CBSG stuff out and make it a stand-alone.

The "Iapetus" ref comes via Hoaglund's -- that's too good of a story background to pass up. And, as always with sci-fi, I try to keep the "handwavium" quotient to a minimum....It's annoying from a hard-sci POV, I know, but most people just don't find hard-SF that entertaining, unless it's "conventional fiction with extra stuff attached".

[WarMachine]

Originally Posted by Damocles

Who has been posting the superman logo on these latest threads?

As always;

Wasn't me -- I rarely use them, although they're kind of neat...if used appropriately.

don't look at me. I don't even how to do that. I'm just reading.

[Senmut]

Moral to the story...Humans do not behave well.