Zeo Genesis Travelogues
Greetings, star-nomads! You can call me Trev. (You can also call me Trevallion Franklin-Ridgeway III, but I’d rather you didn’t). I’ve left behind my shallow executive existence to explore the Hundred Suns, to re-connect with insignificant voiders just like you. These are my travels. You’re welcome.
“I’m not saying they were ghosts… but they were wearing hundred-year-old explorer suits... and missing some or all of their faces… and translucent. But that was last episode, and my camper and I are far from Chemical Valley now.”
“I’ve been unable to convince anyone that the Overgrowth region exists, a sealed-off sector victim to explosive, destructive flora and fungi growth. Here in Sul city, though, I’ve struck luck. I’m seated in the spaceship of Idalia, who’s prepping for blast-off. Not only does she know of Overgrowth, but she’s agreed to take me! For free!”
“Here we go! I love this part…”
“We’re away! A simultaneous launch with dozens of ships, ‘guided by the angels,’ Idalia tells me. Like all Suliis, she worships their sun deity, She The Disc Who Burns. They have no word for their religion, so closely entwined with their life is it—it is synonymous with just being alive. Their whole city is built with the designs and colors of traditional sun depictions and associations, as are these ‘sunships.’ To be fair, they can actually see and feel their god.”
“She’s shown me her holy headset, never removed even for showering, explaining the smell. Through them, Suliis see solar activity, which they interpret as auguries. I’ve politely declined the edible crystals, which enhance what they see even more.”
“Annoyingly, every conversational topic with Idalia, she steers back to her religion, Overgrowth or otherwise. For example, she thinks the disappearance of the Periphery slipway is due to it being repurposed to create ‘a new passage to imminent ascendency.’ I’ve a sinking feeling she’s just got me onboard to evangelise and knows nothing of Overgrowth.”
“Wow, a colossal solar flare I can see through the windows’ Hydrogen-alpha filters! Idalia’s vision must be going crackers. I think she’s going crackers, actually. Raving about this ‘long-prophesied moment’ and the ‘Great Portal Into Everlasting Radiant Peace and Blazing Glory.’ Uh-oh, we’re accelerating sunwards, as are the other ships. Beneath us, massive explosions are ripping through Sul, toppling towers and engulfing the landscape in debris clouds. No landing there again. It’s like the whole city is committing ritual suicide.”
“Right, I’m taking command. Come here you scrawny… This is not the deathtrap we agreed upon! Stand over… Wait, no, don’t set yourself on fire! You need to tell me how to steer this!”
“Stay zippy, star-nomads…”
- Sun Sacrifice Tragedy
- Location: Sul city, Steeland county, Hawley planet, Hawley Prefecture, Stib heliosphere
- Deaths: 350,000 approx.
- Survivors: 0 (known at time of writing)
- Causes: (1) high-yield explosives at key structural points throughout city causing casualties from immediate blasts, structural collapse, debris clouds, toxification of atmosphere, starvation, disease. (2) Spaceships flown directly into nearest star She The Disc Who Burns (temporarily known as the Great Portal Into Everlasting Radiant Peace and Blazing Glory by Suliis)
- Motivation: Citywide cult belief that on the simultaneous fulfilment of four of twelve “prophecies,” their sun would become a portal into a paradise for “those who surrender their physical shell.”
- Trigger: Simultaneous fulfilment of four “prophecies:” Category 101 Max-Ultima solar flare, extinction of Shamash river, news of the Periphery Slipway disappearance, “Coming of the Unwise Man” (specifics unknown)
These journals were recorded via Tymphony Aural Augmetics… TAA: Listen Up!
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