Jump 143: Endless Space

Jump 143: Endless Space

Identity: Drop-In
Drawbacks: [+1000] Weak Hulls, Dustophage, Cravers Consumed My Comrades

[Free]      No Fly Bys!
[50/2000]   Xenobotany
[150/2000]  Isolaton Shielding
[350/2000]  Fuck This, We're OUT
[550/2000]  Thinking With Portals
[700/2000]  N-Ways Fusion Plant
[1100/2000] Purification
[1500/2000] "Pocket" Portals
[2000/2000] All Are One

When I opened my eyes after launching from Auriga, I looked around and found myself on the starship I'd cobbled together after helping build the other ships for the purposes of exodus for the rest of the planet's inhabitants. It seemed I'd been out for ... some time, however that works; the ship was built to be state of the art with local tech, but from the looks of things it'sdbeen hundreds of years since it was launched. Perhaps even thousands. Difficult to say, really.

The important thing was that the ship, no matter its state, was coming into a civilized system. In fact, judging by seeing the Argosy in orbit... the world belonged to the Vaulters. Considering I'd helped with the bulk of the work getting the Argosy spaceworthy and helping get them off Auriga, I'd hoped they remembered me; fortunately that was true, even if it was half forgotten.

No longer the trader who aimed to uplift the civilizations of Auriga without giving any single one of them an untoward advantage, however, I could concentrate my efforts with them. Help their sciences leapfrog forward, build more efficient portals for colony-to-colony transport, bootstrap their industrial capabilities so that even the newest colony could have a full world's output in a single year. A pity these didn't so much carry over to how well their ships held up, but... well, even if the hulls aren't as strong as many other civilizations', evasion is king and hyperium engines do a fantastic job of making sure you're fast enough to dodge incoming fire.

This was rather important, considering a genocidal civilization was making its way across the stars, but I could at least use my position within the Vaulters' civilization to press back at them. And it made sense - they were not only a threat, but one that most other civilizations agreed needed to go, even if they had no intention of any sort of cooperation to make that happen. Leapfrogging technology far enough ahead, however, ensured that the Vaulters' fleets could not be contested; the Cravers' heavy bombardments in space warfare were shot down by the kinetic point defenses, bombers strafed their targets with Hellraiser torpedoes, and in the wake of pressing the war to completion, dreadnoughts with annihilator beams saw to the destruction of any who stood against the Vaulters.

They were many, jealous of their growing power, of the sudden expansion of their empire after settling the Cravers' former worlds and working to rehabilitate them. The plague of crimson dust that seemed to strike some worlds was even more horrid, though, and taking decisive action earned the Vaulters more enemies - which only meant that they could claim more worlds as they conquered more empires, guilt-free.

In time, they rediscovered Auriga, now nothing more than a frozen wasteland. But that is a story for another time, for their story continues, but by then, mine was moving on to a different place.