08-24-2018, 02:54 AM
I'm still outlining at the moment, but it concerns a small fleet of extremely early O'neill cylinder habitats / generation ships that have been in flight since they left Solsys in 440 a.t. They originally planned to settle in the Kuyper belt of Procyon, but as they were only able to do 1%C by the time they got halfway there they realized it had been taken by the anti-biont AIs. They rebuilt their magnetoplasmadynamic engines and diverted to go around at a safe distance, ending up heading roughly toward New Gaia. Given their way of life and what they've been able to pick up during the years, they've remained isolationist and steered way clear of inhabited systems. They've managed to pick up small asteroids and comets along the way for resources (they left with only 1 cylinder, they've managed to build another and a combination ship/cylinder for their AI), but now they are running EXTREMELY low on resources. To the tune of "if something unexpected happens to bump this house of cards, we're all dead". Their AI wasn't even a real AI when they left, just a superbright with a lot of automated systems running the cylinder. Now, she's been resisting ascension to S2 for a couple thousand years. So she's holding on by the skin of her virtual teeth, trying her damndest to keep all the balls in the air and keep her people alive and flying without losing it herself. In the middle of all this, a diplomatic task group shows up as a "first contact" representative... and it all starts falling apart.
There's more but I don't want to give it all away.
There's more but I don't want to give it all away.