构造年代——0-100sd风暴尘埃落定。斯莱尔终结了冲突年代并获胜。历史书会说冲突种族全都灭绝了,但事实上许多幸存者淘金了真正的虚空之中,它们经过了一个空白的世界,斯莱尔在此囚禁他最黑暗的秘密。
曾经有一个人,他对所有事物都有重要影响,但他被否认了,哪怕在他死亡之后。
这名“沉默合作者”是个年轻人,在刚定义的SLA宇宙疆界之内,他无法被毁灭。他已经死了一次。但他能够被遗忘。
早在SLA工业成形之前就有一份关于这名有争议个体的协定,用来限制他、剥夺他的未来、确保他不会影响公司事务以及进步世界的计划。他被放逐到已知宇宙一个偏远的行星。行星没有名字,大部分土地都是沙漠,除了这个谜样的囚犯之外,其它居住者都是他最恐惧的东西。
——
“Tyde,我花了很多年调节Brent Walker的大脑,让他能够回应特定的刺激、服从一些要求。有些我的病人只需要最简单的鼓励和些许称赞便会有效果,但Brent很固执,只有恐惧和惩戒对他有效。
Brent有被称作Pithecophobia的症状,也就是对灵长类本能的恐惧。我们购买了一只黑猩猩放置在基金会里。这是我们再教育Brent时使用的惩罚工具。 和这个生物一起困在房间里一小时就足够让他满足基金会对他的期望,
现在Brent宁可杀死家庭成员也不愿意和我们宠物在封闭空间里待上五分钟。时候要到了,Tyde,他被移送的时候;无法避免,唯一能限制他的方法是把他放在他最恐惧的生物之中。你无法杀死Brent Walker,但你可以抑制他,靠让他不可逆转地疯狂。”
目录/娜迦7文档 *已删除*
——
进步世界第一次周年纪念时,斯莱尔感到风暴正在肆虐那个遥远的世界。就在公司和部门管理者大笑、互相拍肩、晃晃悠悠地喝着昂贵香槟时,斯莱尔感受到了怒火正在他的领土最远端酝酿。他能嗅到燃烧的沙砾、纠结的皮毛,接着,他感受到了那个存在正在四处寻找。如同盲人摸索失物。
这是斯莱尔第一次感受到胸中灼热的痛苦。痛苦消失了,但从未彻底离开。
建造莫特城 1-56SD纵观整个冲突年代,SLA工业不过是武器和技术产品生产商,但“全局”后,一个全新的图景开始形成。一个将覆盖生活和商业所有方面的商业计划出现。SLA将占领政府、星系,通过长达一个世纪任务,买断已知宇宙所能想到的物品并重新包装为自己的品牌。
这是SLA工业发展到今天的基础,历史记录将这一时期成为构成年代。曾经的已知宇宙被更名为进步世界。这是SLA历史上最血腥的时期之一,更甚冲突年代终结之时。
劇透 - :
The Known Universe was not quite prepared for such a hostile
and grand takeover. SLA was met with some resistance, except
this was not the brutal Conflict Races standing up against the
company; it was just the ordinary folk who knew that this
saviour was going to erase their identity and freedoms, in their
entirety. If the Conflict Races could be taken down so easily, the
citizens of the fading Known Universe would pose little threat
to SLA. Within a generation of the end of The Formation,
historical events of resistance where buried and forgotten.
As SLA entered its greatest years of economic wealth, there
was no question, the company was now all consuming. SLA
owned and ruled every facet of life and that was the new normal.
At the beginning of the Formation, the planet Jeth was the
epicentre of the new World of Progress. Over the previous
25 years, SLA had already set up bases across the planet, but
after the enemy species had fled into what would be known as
Conflict Space (the title of the vast untamed regions beyond
SLA controlled space), SLA would focus much of its efforts on
building the Capital City-state on the planet and they weren’t
prepared to let the indigenous Jethians stand in their way.
SLA Industries maintained a chilly relationship with the
Jethians. The company swiftly set about ravaging the planet of
its resources as it built its first primary city - Mort.
已知宇宙没有准备好接受如此强硬而全面的占领。SLA遭到了一些抵抗,但此时不是暴力的冲突种族对抗公司;仅仅是普通人,他们知道这个救世主将要抹去他们全体的身份和自由。如果冲突种族能够被如此轻易地击败,那么正在消失地已知宇宙地居民对SLA来说几乎不算威胁。在构造年代结束后一代人之内,抵抗活动就已被掩埋、被遗忘。
随着SLA进入它最伟大的经济繁荣之年,毫无疑问这家公司已经占领了一切。SLA拥有并统治生活的所有方面,这正是新的常识。
构造时代之初,Jeth行星是崭新的进步世界的焦点。最初的25年里,SLA已经在这颗行星上建满了基地,但在敌对种族逃往被称作冲突空间(指SLA控制之外广阔的蛮荒区域)的区域后,SLA专注于在这里建造首都城邦,他们不打算让本土的Jeth人阻挠自己。公司很快开始掠夺这颗行星的资源以建造自己的主要城市——莫特。
SLA把任何保护Jeth自然栖息地的签署协定弃之不顾,当Jeth议会试图阻止极其靠近神圣聚居地的核反应堆修建工作时,被派去抗议的代表直接蒸发了。他们能做的只有静静关闭对这个工业巨头的边界,努力保护剩余的文化和传统。
进步避无可避,气候急剧变化,自然灾害频发。Jeth行星很快变得和它最主要的城市,也就是SLA工业的总部同名。Jeth行星变成了莫特行星,Jeth这个名字消散在了时间之中,仅有少数学者和图书管理员知晓。
曼德拉另一位SLA工业最有前途的Ebonite弟子——曼德拉,搭乘了Ebb折叠船Yung号,并记录了2sd它在冲突空间的航行。这次旅行被归类为探索任务,但实际上是为了进一步调查离开的冲突异星种族。曼德拉本应在五年内传回报告并向总部传达发现,但Yung号刚离开SLA宇宙的边界,就在希罗多德门的位置,这艘折叠船要么迷失要么被摧毁了。它将在900年后回归,这时携带着曼德拉的后代以及他们的Momic奴隶。
——
“我们直击未知,为未提出的问题寻找答案,期待我们本不希望的回答。
我们的目的是寻找彼方存在之物;为了进步。”
曼德拉,折叠船Yung号出航演讲,2sd
———
劇透 - :
The Whistling Bridge Protocol
SLA Industries was fully aware of all the dreadful things it
had done in order to rise victorious and perhaps also knew of
the evils to come. The company had already begun limiting
information going forward and erasing what had come to pass.
Despite these efforts, it could not wipe the Conflict Races from
its history, nor the power that was growing on White Earth,
from reality. Their presence would always remain, in some shape
or form. White Earth was left to fester and all survivors of the
previous conflicts had fled into the lawless Conflict Space.They
were all gone, for now at least, but ignoring the possibility of
retaliation, even centuries in the future, was imprudent. SLA
Industries’ field of influence now encompassed the Known
Universe. Their old adversaries had fled to deep space.
Two plans were set in motion. Aethermen, under the employ
of Naga 7 Division were sent into Conflict Space to watch,
evaluate and report back findings, then secondly, a set of orders,
based on the likelihood of future reprisals, were drawn up. This
agreement would come to be known as the Whistling Bridge
Protocol. In 5sd, it was simply a first draft of proposals, but
every 50 years up until the present day the Protocol has been
revised and reassessed, based on the changes and advancements
of the World of Progress.
哨桥协议SLA工业完全了解自身为了胜利所做的一切丑陋之事,或许也清楚即将到来的邪恶。公司早已开始限制信息扩散,抹去过去之物。尽管如此,他们无法将冲突种族从自己的历史中抹去,也无法将白地球上壮大的势力从现实消除。它们将永远以某种形式存在。白地球独自恶化,之前冲突中的所有幸存者逃往法律不存在的冲突空间。它们全都离开了,至少现在如此,但无视它们卷土重来的而可能性,哪怕是在许多世纪之后,都是不明智的。SLA工业的影响范围如今包括了整个已知宇宙。他们的宿敌逃入深空。
有两个计划被实施。以太人计划,娜迦7的雇员被派往冲突空间进行监视评估,并传回发现,随后基于未来发生报复行动的可能性,一系列指令被拟定。这个协议被称作哨桥协议。5sd是,它还仅是第一版草案,但随后直到今日的每隔50年,协议都会基于进步世界的变化和发展被被修订、重估。
莫特得名在剥光Jeth的自然资源上,SLA没有浪费时间。公司抽出石油、挖掘矿藏、砍伐大批森林和雨林。Gartto冻原上建起无数工厂和厂房。这里可以算是Jeth最早落入SLA贪婪胃口中的区域。公司用毒雾和黑烟污染了天空,上层大气被永久性地毁坏了。
随后的几个世纪里,Gartto冻原变成了一片被污染的荒地,它原本的Jeth语名字被人遗忘,被简单称作“无人区”。
掠夺是全球性的,6年内,SLA工业就榨干了这个星球;行星上所有植物资源都被利用,一点不剩。Jeth的动物遭到了同等的毁灭,仅有少数最好战、最有适应性的种族存活。莫特将会把它们视为区区害虫。
莫特首支警察力量对从进步世界各处蜂拥到莫特、渴望在一个快速扩张的帝国找到工作的公司和无数工人来说,那是个刺激的时代。所有公司生活的希望和梦想必然会产生后果。莫特街头犯罪激增,SLA需要努力处理法律缺失状况,于是在SLA足智多谋的特工乔纳森·贝尔伍德的帮助下,莫特城出现了第一支合法的警察巡逻队。这些男人和女人都穿着绿色的制服——他们是颤警。
从58sd至今,颤警部队都是莫特城最常见的景观,一代又一代的新警员在危险的街道上巡逻。他们在对公司的忠诚和莫特那咄咄逼人的资本主义社会中诞生的腐败之间割裂。
——
“我是莫特最暴力的颤警。”
杰克森·克莱德,颤警部队
——
Jeth人转变莫特将成为SLA工业的行动基地,这里需要能源,很多能源。公司打算在这个星球建造核反应堆。曾经茂密的丛林很快被工业化抹去。此时公司重新遭遇了Jeth人。他们并不乐见公司入侵他们的星球、毁灭他们的森林、铲平他们的圣殿。
Jeth人不是好战的种族,面对SLA的侵蚀,他们的抵抗十分无力。他们选择了祈祷而不是抵抗。全体Jeth人拒绝战斗,更糟糕的是,拒绝融入不断扩大的公司,而是逃进了他们位于赤道的城市和庙宇,祈求半人半兽的神带来救赎。他们乞求没有得到回应,这些神明智地逃往了冲突空间。
劇透 - :
The Fission Belt, a gargantuan ring of nuclear reactors
encompassing Mort’s equatorial line erupted to life in 80sd. The
Belt’s positioning was strategic, far enough away from Mort
City to mitigate radiation spill, but close enough to power Mort
City and the new emerging city states across the entire globe.
In 87sd, just one year after the last nuclear reactors were
completed, a catastrophic meltdown occurred. A lethal gulf
stream of radioactive winds encircled the planet. SLA secretly
hoped that this ‘unfortunate accident’ would finally kill off the
Jethians, but their fate turned out to be much, much worse.
Now ravaged by lethal doses of radiation and yet still left alive,
the Jethians fled their crumbling ancestral homes and crawled
northwards, mutating, distorting and eventually transforming
into a broken and animalistic species. Their past forgotten, the
newly shaped species was driven by little more than hunger and
the instinct to survive.
80sd,裂变带,即沿着莫特赤道线地巨大核反应堆环诞生。裂变带的位置是精心选择的,离莫特城足够远,能够消解辐射泄漏,但又足够近,能为莫特城和整个星球上的新兴城市供能。
87sd,就在最后一座核反应堆完工后一年,发生了一次灾难性的堆芯熔化事件。剧毒的辐射蒸汽云进入了大气循环。SLA暗中希望这次“不幸的意外”会杀死Jeth人,但他们的命运比这悲惨得多。
Jeth人承受了致命剂量的辐射,但还活着。他们离开了摇摇欲坠的古老故乡,爬向北方,变异、畸形最终将他们转化为一种扭曲、如同动物般的种族。新形成的种族遗忘了过去,几乎只凭饥饿和生存本能活着。
The people of Mort City would come to know them as the
Carrien. The first horrific sightings of these beings filtered back
through to Head Office in early 88sd. They thought it was
merely a small band of mutants that could quickly be wiped
from the face of Mort. Instead, the Carrien scourge would
endure and still be plaguing the sewers of Downtown and the
debris of the Cannibal Sector for another eight centuries.
逐渐莫特城的人把他们叫做卡伦。88sd初,这些东西的可怕目击报告首次传回总部。他们以为这不过是一小群变异生物,能够迅速把它们从莫特地表清除。但卡伦之灾一直持续,它们将继续肆虐下城的下水道和互食者区的废墟长达8个世纪。