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Balrog of Morgoth.

March 2021 February Burpee Bootcamp

Fightshark Miller

Pheonix originally posted in the year 2009

Pheonix 

The year was 3797 the Earth and several other planets in the solar system had all their natural resources mined to depletion. Pollution was high and the suns rays emitted high levels of ultra violet ligh through the deadly thin blue line of the ozone layer.

The remainder of the surviving population lived in huge biosphere tents protected from the suns deadly shine and the polluted atmosphere. There was little hope left for the people of earth.

However the human race had one last chance. Seven spaceships were built with all of the remaining precious resources. Vast amounts of gold and rare metals were used and each ship was coated with a layer of magnetised gold nano particles. This enabled the ships to withstand extremely hot temperatures. Advanced technology was installed on each ship with super computers holding the entire history of earth and every fact and figure discovered since the dawn of man.

Edward and Hannah were two scientists working on one of the seven ships in a place called Ellesmere Port in the northwest of England. The ship was called Escape and the two were working on the Pheonix project. The problem with space travel is the unimaginable vastness of space which poses problems to even the most advanced civilisations. Generations of humans living on a spaceship for thousands of years until they reached there destination was not yet possible with the resources left on earth. Edward and Hannah were perfect, humans had started genetically modifying themselves for about a thousand years. Being perfect they were two of the five hundred people chosen to be copied, cloned, frozen and placed in test tubes to be packed off to space. Each of the seven ships were to be sent to seven of the most promising goldilocks zone  planets in the Milky Way. The hope was that at least one should strike it lucky. The ships were to be piloted by the most advanced robots and androids yet created. On arrival the robots or 'parents' as members of the Pheonix project referred to them, would then grow the clones into children. 

The children would then remain in the care of the robots until adults and then be educated and prepared for life on their new planet. They planned to teach the children how to create an Eco system of there own utilising all of the advancements of technology and science available. Thus having a sound infrastructure and the benefits of the knowledge of thousands of years from earth.

"So we can start over again Hannah." Edward said as he worked on the twenty or so entangled wires hanging out of Fred's wrist. Fred was a state of the art android, a technological form of wizardry. There was just about nothing he couldn't do he was built to be the perfect guardian. Fred never got hungry, never got old, never got tired. 

Fred was in charge of the ships robotic crew and was therefore programmed with some safety protocols to ensure the missions success. These were hard wired into his system as rules but not as laws as he was free to adapt and survive in extreme difficulties.

The planet they were visiting was almost an unknown, but with research they had worked out a sixty seven percent chance of it being habitable. The problem was if a planet was alive it usually meant it had life already. The question was though was what kind of life? Were there primitive beasts roaming the surface or advanced civilisations which posed even more of a problem. If the land was densely covered in vegetation, areas would have to be cleared and also secured. If indeed advanced civilisations existed the mission success would of course take a different route depending on the inhabitant’s reaction to sharing their planet with alien life. Surviving under hostile conditions from a modern alien world would be almost impossible and would inevitably lead to conflict a route Fred would wish to avoid at all costs.

 Fred's ship had been steadily cruising for 602 years when he was awoken. As he looked out of his stasis pod he noticed how dark it was. The lights on the ship were dimmed to preserve power. He climbed out of the pod to check on his coordinates. Sure enough as he looked out from the ships viewport there was the planet. It was a beautiful blue and green planet with two satellites, one greyish the other ice white and a yellow star that could have been the suns cousin. The planet had been named Phoenix by the project managers and the star Mg797. They were in the constellation of Canis Major and the blue star Sirius shone aloft in the night sky like a great lantern. Even in space it seemed to cover everything with a blanket of thin blue light.

The ship seemed in good order considering its age and it had held up very well. After a few routine checks on the ship were done stage one of the projects would take place. They would stay in orbit around the planet for about twenty six years until the kids had grown up a bit and they had been trained and educated. Also Fred could research the planet and formulate the best plans and solutions for colonization accordingly.

Twenty one years later and Fred had not realised how difficult looking after five hundred twenty year old human clones would be. They had all been educated and trained but increasingly a few of them were becoming restless. The problem was many of them wanted to get off the ship and visit the surface. A few of them had begun to spread rumours that they were being lied to by Fred and the other androids and in some way being held captive. The truth was that they were not ready yet. A few more years and Fred could put the final stages of the project into practice.

There was also another problem and that was the planet. It turned out the planet itself was home to alien life. Not quite the advanced alien civilizations that Fred had envisaged but actual Dinosaurs. There were  monsters of every description roaming the planet including dragon like flying reptiles with razor sharp teeth the only difference being is that they didn’t breathe fire.

 Now Fred in his infinite wisdom had worked out ways they could set up secure camps to start construction, mining and farming projects to make successful self sufficient eco systems. Fred had precisely planned the logistics to the last details and he was nearly ready to start moving the colony of clones to the surface.

What happened next was catastrophic. A group of about thirty clones began to rebel. They took control of the ship against Fred’s will. Fred could do nothing to stop them as he would not hurt them. One of them then commandeered the main cargo ship with all the supplies and technologies on board and attempted to fly it to the surface with his thirty fellow rebels. His attempt was not a success and he crash landed on the surface killing about half of them and leaving about twelve of them with nothing but a few food supplies. Meanwhile Fred was left on the ship with four hundred and seventy clones no food supplies and no way of landing on the surface. They were doomed to die and Fred knew it.

So it seemed the human race had turned full circle. Hope was now left to about twelve clones learning to survive like cavemen on a prehistoric world with a burnt out cargo ship, no technology and a few crates of food.