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Aaron Blackwell
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Brussels Belgium
Nov 2002
time: 05:23
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Out of character :
Hi everyone, being a single SMAC and SMAX player, I recently discovered the apolyton site. I found the idea of a "Democratic SMAC game" to be great 
So I would like to join and hope we can teach the evil yang a lesson or two 
Being a regular and avid roleplaying gamer, I would like to make a "in game" introduction if you don't mind. Of course, I realize it is a SMAC game but hey, we are here for fun, aren't we ? I Just hope you'll as much pleasure reading it than I had writing it. I am just writing to add some entairtaining value to the game.
As a side note, as I am not a native english speaker, feel free to correct me in case I make spelling error.
It is quite long but anyway, here it is and enjoy
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In the gargantuan deserts of the Alpha Centauri planet, a man was walking ... vulnerable, alone.
Planet was not kind to stranger and he had to struggle to stay alive in the gigantic forest of fungus that was covering the planet.
Struggling to escape the natural hazards of the planet,
Struggling to avoid being eaten by the land worms,
Struggling to find food,
Struggling to find shelter from the planet storms, Struggling to stay alive.
There were often times when he was regretting what he was doing. And then, the memories of what happened to him while he was at the hive came back to his mind.
Yang can talk all the time about his so-called philosophical views on how society should be managed for the good of the human race, but his hive was nothing more than a brutal, selfish slavery system that was stripping the body, mind and even soul of all its inhabitants and turn them into mindless drones ... except that his were so closely controlled that they could not revolt.
Falling from charybda to scylla was an expression that came to his mind. Sure He had to go through the fungal region to avoid Yang patrols, but he would rather die in freedom than live a single more day as a slave from the hive.
All in a sudden, these frightening memories became very strong, so strong that he had the impression that someone or something was trying to tear his brain apart .... Mindworms !!!!
Gathering all his mental strength, he tried to keep his nightmares away and saw a mindworm boil just a few metres away.
He only had a small gun, stolen from a hive guard, barely enough to fight a few worms and certainly not a full boil, even if it only consisted of larvaes. Running was his only option.
Both the boil and the nightmares started to pursue him and both were getting closer and closer. The situation looked really hopless. In fact, he realized that he could be even worse when a heard a voice screaming in front of him.
" In the name of the Hive, Stop right now and lay on the ground !!!"
They had not noticed the boil which was closing on his back. Filled with despair he laid on the ground, waiting for death to release him from his pain and fears.
He heard terrible screams coming in front of him, and the sound of bodies falling on ground and being devoured alive by the mindworm boil .... but he was still alive.
And while he was wondering why in hell the mindworms sparred his life, a telepatic voice echoed in his mind :
" Concerned by your petty human wars, we are not.
Your worth by surviving in the fungus, you have proved.
Proceeding with your travel in peace you may.
Very soon, the freedom you seek, you'll find."
Still amazed by what he had live, seen and heard in his mind and not really wanting to find out if the mindworm was needing another meal, he quickly moved away.
A few days of walking later, the fungus started to be more parse in the area he was exploring. But the neverlasting days of struggle for life was taking his tool.
He had not properly eaten for days ( not that he really was during his 'vacation' at the hive), had not found water for a seemingly long time and he was completly exhausted both physically and mentally.
Then suddenly, from the top of the hills, he saw his salvation just a few miles from his position. The sight of a big and beautiful city was laid down before his very eyes.
A big holographic flag was showing the symbol of the community of the people living, the symbol of the united planet. The peacekeepers !! So this was not a legend after all, there were really other people, other civilization out there in this planet and most certainly other ideologies.
And he was the first one to have been able to escape from Yang's iron grip and make it to other colonies on planet !!
In the holographic flag a name was written saying " Welcome to New Apolyton capital of the United nation of the Peacekeeping assembly."
He started walking toward the city when he encountered a few people who were seemingly studying a bunch the fungus from planet.
" Please help me ...." These were the only words he said before falling unconscious to the ground.
Days later, he woke up in a fresh and clean room, in a hospital bed. He was recovering strength. Then these people came asking him loads of question, trying to figure whether or not he was a spy from the hive.
Their methods , though certainly less efficient than Yang's one for that matter, were certainly less brutal, and he openly told them all that he knew. The brutal serfdom, the police state, the might of the hive industry, the way babies were born ... placed in genetic vats after being removed from their mother wombs to increase population growth ... as well as the strange event that occured when the mindworms let him escape with his life.
A few weeks later, the UN inspectors were satisfied of the numerous conversation they had with him and he managed to convice them that he was not a spy.
- Please I do not want to go back there. Do not send me back to the hive !! I want to become one of your people. I can help you as I already have when I revealed all that I knew about the hive.
- Easy friend there , easy. Nobody said you could not join but there are quite a few formalities to make before that. You must make a naturalization demand, provide us with forms number ... blah, blah,blah ....
The guy then started to show dozen and dozen of forms, so many that the refugee suddenly felt as if he was going to drown in a sea of papers.
- Huh... I thought you valued freedom above all else. Then why overloading your people with this paper crap. Besides I have never done this .... bureaucracry thing before ( he only heard about the word a few days ago). Why forcing people to go through all of this ? Isn't that against the basic idea of freedom ???
- Oh ! I see . Well How am I am going to explain that to you ....
" He had a moment of hesitation before going on, carefully thinking about each of the words he was going to say."
- ... Hum. There were a lot of debate about this bureaucracy when the UN peacekeeping assembly was first formed. And not everybody agreed upon it. I could spend countless hours to try to explain you in detail why we choose to adopt such a method of government.
But I will just tell you this : This is the price of freedom. Do you understand ?
- Well .... yes .... At least I think I am starting too.
- I tell what, I like you and after all you went through I think you deserve a little help to go through all these papers. So I will give you hand. This will help you gain citizenship more quickly.
- Oh .... thank you !!
- Okay, let's start with the very basics. Give me your name, date and place of birth please.
- I am worker Dzeta9807ZKE676, born from the Gamma facility in .....
He suddenly stop talking. He was only repeating the words he said, just like replaying an audio tape. He was so used to repeating this to the hive guards that he had not realized how tightly he was controlled when he was there.
But more frightening, he realized he never had a name ... a real name, much less a real identity. Time to solve this problem he guessed.
- Hum. Can I ask you a question ?
- Of course. But you are still required to give me your name, date and place of birth for the XIV- XV and XVI forms for citizenship appliance.
- I ... don't have a name. And , well, I more or less don't have a place of birth, I mean a real one, much less a true identity. Would your government mind if I have to create one in order to be able to apply for citizenship ?
If I understand correctly, every citizen should be free to choose such things.
- EUh .... Well. There are no precedent of this kind of situation ... at least not that I know of. Still .... I guess that should be possible. But that will generate more paperwork, you should know that. So ... How do you want to be called then ?
He started to think. All the hazards and dangers he had to go through. It was like escape escaping very dark time. As if he was doing some speology and coming back to the surface again.
- I want to be called ... Blackwell, Aaron Blackwell .....
Finally, he had what he was always longing for, without ever knowing it, an identity, a place within a society that accepted him from what he was, a life .... a real one ....
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19-11-2002 21:55
) and most everything else you need to know is in there, or in a "topped" thread.
You went through a lot to get here...
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