Stig Ranes
Legendary martyr
of the planet Hibra in the Crucis Corridor.
|
|
|
|
Stig RanesLegendary martyr
of the planet Hibra in the Crucis Corridor.
|
Not much is known of Stig Ranes' early life. It is known however that he was born and spent his early life in Santana Habitat, Joden.
Born in 5485 Stig Ranes was the only child of JoMar Dailey Ranes and Joshua Ranes. Both of his parents were Civil Engineers building dams and reservoirs wherever the need arose. After the age of five the family left Santana Habitat and Stig spent his childhood virtually in isolation from other children his age. Civil Engineers were not considered to be well educated people in this period of time. Stig aspired to rise above the educational status of his parents.
Training at the Institute of Art located in Nuisweden, the Sondheim Academy gave Stig Ranes the validity he needed to excel in his profession of Architecture. Working as an assistant for small minor companies he quickly gained a reputation for neat and trustworthy designs. Hired as an Architect by the Sandhill Habitats Development Company Stig was able to develop his dreams into reality. Although a loner he was a guiding light to his team workers. Never asking of his team what he wasn't willing to do himself.
His personality was phlegmatic. He willingly did his assigned task until pushed into a corner. Then he would come out fighting using all of the resources at his command. Stig had several enhancements that gave him an impressive demeanor. He was handsome in a rugged and uncut way. He drew attention when he walked into a room his 2.5 meter height alone aroused interest. He had augmented hearing because he was slightly paranoid, a result of the trauma he suffered as a ten year old when tortured by a gang of splices on the planet of Nevro. He escaped from the hole they had him in and turned them into the police. The gang leader Darthen swore that they would make him live to regret that action. The hearing enhancement and the height was his way of protecting himself from this threat.
By 5520 Stig Ranes had become an Architect on relativistic assignment from the Sandhill Habitats Development Company, (which was an up and rising fortune 700 company based on Omega S). At the time the Crucis Corridor had just been connected to the rest of the wormhole nexus, and Sandhill Habitats had been awarded a lucrative contract at Hibra, an isolated and barely hospitable world of blinding sandstorms and an an eccentric orbit that gave it extreme hot and cold periods.
Stig was the team leader, and using subturing biomachines they had exactly 21 local months to construct a greentubar-resined city for the Company, before the hot season made any unprotected life impossible. His agreement with them guaranteed him a prime piece of real estate on every habitat that was developed on Hibra. He envisioned tall spires rising upward and circular structures spreading outward, a green panatella lending an air of permanency to new structures.
The biomachines were CVS33311H-2 subturings, the template by Mineb Bionics, with Sandhill's inhouse modifications. Their function was to help with the development of the planet Hibra along with five hundred humans and other species.
The biomachines were designed to work in developing urban settlements. They could plow through trees and vegetation and undergrowth and they were functional at building and secreting the raw products for building materials such as greentubar resin that was harder and more damage resistant than ordinary diamondoid.
Unknown to Stig and the Corporation, the local Hibra Net-matrix had been seeded with malicious aioid viruses by a radical anti-ComEmp Disarchist faction, the Kala-Draux. These viruses were harmless to most devices, but would totally subvert anything containing ComEmp protocols, such as the company biomachines.
The laboratory that produced the biomachines was always experiment with updating knowledge chips. The virus affected the wetware, resulting in a mismatch of operons in the DNA making the transcription miss the corresponding markers, resulting in a hormonal dysfunction, causing them to react in a distorted hallucinatory way.
On the seventh day of the 20th month the regenerating period for the biomachines was just beginning when one by one they left their lifechairs and gathered together and formed a v-shaped army. They marched through the newly built town stampeding anyone who was in their way. The more humanity and other bioids that they hurt the better they marched in unison. Hurt became their mantra. Humming as they marched into a newly risen structure and destroying it.
Stig was across the street eating his nourishment at a stand. He saw this unbelievable sight and before he could think about what he was doing he ran to the mob of biomachines trying to get their attention. They were destroying his babies, his dreams, his ideas. His normally slow anger rose up suddenly. He looked down the street and saw bodies laying prone and several trying desperately to move into shelter. Bloody mouths screamed out cries for help. The fallen were pleading with someone, anyone to help them.
The biomachines grabbed at Stig as he darted away from them they ripped a piece of his tunic top. He ran to a boy laying in the street the boy held up a hand to him. The hand moved involuntarily because the boy exhaled his breath and was gone. A non-uplift dog lay next to him and a whistle was wedged in the boy's hand. He had been training his dog with the whistle to respond to commands.
As the biomachines cornered Stig with the bodies of the boy and dog his panic was real. Nothing came to his mind at first. He was frozen in place like a rabbit that trembles before his hunter. Right before the blow came towards his head he raised his hand and put the whistle to his lips and blew on it. It was a silent whistle but one that the biochips responded to. The biomachines stopped, stared at Stig and came to attention.
Stig realised the only way he could destroy the biomachines would be to lead them into the desert, environmental conditions they were not adapted to. The sandstorms would stun them and the sun which blind them.
Like the pied piper of Hamelin, Stig started his march of the biomachines to the desert. It was gruelling and relentless. He had to keep ahead of the biomachines and blow the whistle at the same time. Once on the trek he thought maybe a little rest just for a moment and he could continue onward. The whistling stopped the biomachines rushed at him. Quickly he began whistling again. On and on they matched towards the shimmering rays of the sun and the glow of the sands.
By the end of the march, hungry, thirsty and drained of all energy the whistling came to an end. Stig was crushed to death by the biomachines who grabbed his hands and ripped them off of his arms. Slowly they pulled him apart. By the time they had finished with his bleeding carcass the heat and the sand had reacted on their mechanisms and they all turned rigid and wound down to a halt.
Many saw with wonder the ménage marching toward the desert. All were too frightened to come to Stig's aid. After several weeks some ventured out to the desert and found the rigid biomachines and the picked apart pieces of Stig. The company ship then in the outer solar system was notified and help came within a week.
Stig was glorified in song and verse, fathers told their sons the story of Stig to produce a sense of pride and nationhood in their souls. Mothers raised their daughters to think of Stig's characteristics as the ideal mate.
On the anniversary of his death the population would celebrate the man with fireworks and the blowing of silent whistles.
