Date:         Sun, 8 May 1994 00:16:31 EDT
Sender: Mythus Fantasy Roleplaying Game List <[MYTHUS L] at [BROWNVM.brown.edu]>
From: "Rodney W. Morris" <[c s c 3 r w m] at [CABELL.VCU.EDU]>
Subject:      ABYSS 1: Introduction

Abyss

A role-playing game of the far future using the Dangerous Journeys
Multi-Genre Role-Playing System

Recorded dialogue from Milios Simmons, Free Trader
        The year, Old Earth reckoning, is 5125, or so.  Its been
around two or three millenia since the humans of that world first
left their atmosphere to see what they could find.  You see, they'd
conquered just about everything they could find on their own world,
and needed something else to control.  Eventually, they pretty much
moved across their small system, destroying every planet there with
just as much ease as they had destroyed their homeworld.  Alas, they soon
felt constricted even by their nine worlds (and an asteriod belt,
I'm told) and countless moons and sought ways to move to other
systems, so they could conquer and rape them for all they're worth,
too.  It wasn't until about a millenia or two ago that they finally
met another sentient race just as bent on domination and destruction
as they were.  From what I read, it took those Prepharmi's quite by
surprise to be attacked from what they thought was "Secure Space."
News of the new players on the rock spread fast.  Suddenly, everyone
was interested in what these previously undiscovered primitives had
to offer.  Most who sought out the Earthers were disappointed.  The
Terrans had evolved just the same as any other race...through
conflict and war...and, in the end, their technology ended up being
pretty much the same thing.
        The Terran humans were quite upset at finding intelligent
life.  They'd pretty much destroyed all non-human sentient life on
their homeworld (except for one species of marine life...called a
dauphin or something like that...that they discovered years before
was smart enough to be cybered into sentience and used as slave
labor), and thought they were at the center of the universe.  Having
other species to deal with on a peer basis was difficult for
them...still is, sometimes.
        It wasn't until about 3500 Ad (that's what the Old Earthers
called their time, for some reason no one can really figure out
anymore) that anyone really paid attention to Earth and its
subsidiary systems.  It was about this time that a Daalquere
scientist discovered a new plutonium-based FTP engine that was
vastly more efficient and powerful than the former hydrogen-based
system.  It was also about this time that a Hekalmi archaeologist
working on Earth, the only system with great amounts of plutonium,
noticed some ruins that resembled some found on the Hekalmi
homeworld.  He published his findings in a scientific journal, and
three months later, Hekalmi agents were crawling all over Earth
looking for remains of its legendary "Lost Colony."  They discovered
exactly what they were looking for.  Pyramids and statues of
legendary heroes constructed on two continents on completely
different sides of the world.  The Hekalmi government established an
embassy on Earth, despite the misgivings of certain nations, and
began leering greedily at the small world.
        Archaeologist from all over Known Space overran the planet,
looking for hints that might give them similar claim over the Terran
worlds.  When some Devian warriors discovered the ruins of one of
their colonies there, the argument began.  It was well-known that
the Devians and the Hekalmi didn't appreciate each other's
existence, and each produced a map of their systems at the time of
the colonies and both showed them as owning the Sol system.  The
small spark sent off by this discovery sent the two cultures into
war.  Within the next two-hundred years of battles and treaties,
Earth was raped of all its life.  Most of the colonies in the system
were destroyed.  Even Earth's only moon was thrust from its orbit by
a huge Devian battleship careening out of control and was sent
crashing through the planet's thin crust, destroying any possiblity
of life existing.  In 3754 Ad, the United Peoples of Old Terra
returned to their system, to find it in shambles.  Only one colony
existed, though they wouldn't find out for another twenty years.  In
3775 Ad, the a colony on the second planet that had been in
existence for over a millenia and a half sent a message out.  The
message explained that the algae-reclaimation of Sol II had
been successful.  It was now prepared to support human life.  The
government of Neuva Terra administrated the peace talks between the
Devians and the Hekalmi, which left the Terran government as a
sovereign system.  It has been termed a coincidence that the process
for creating anti-matter, thus anti-matter/matter-based engine
drives, occured four years previous to the signing of the
Treaty.  Regardless of the reason, the planets of Sol faded into
obscurity.  For the next few thousand years, wars raged and ended,
empires came and crumbled.
        In the year 4676, exactly a millenia and a half after
sovereignty was granted to the government of Neuva Terra, a
representative from the "Terran League" arrived on Gimali V, asking
for admittance to the Interstellar Peace Organization.  The IPO
refused, claiming that the Sol system (and its nearby brothers)
were too primitive and isolationist to be recognized as a
contributing member.  The Terran representative was offered
"observatory" status, though, to watch how the IPO fuctioned and how
other governments worked.  The representative was angered and
claimed that the IPO would pay for its arrogance.  Five months
later, huge battleships of unknown configuration appeared over
Prepharm, the Prepharmi homeworld.  The ships were greeted, but they
didn't answer.  For a whole month, they hovered above the world,
observing.  A couple of ships attacked it, but they seemed unable to
do damage to the monstrosity.  Eventually, the entire Prepharmi
fleet was called to the homeworld to rid it of its visitor.  As they
aimed their weapons at the ship, preparing for battle, it turned toward
the planet.  Despite attempts to prevent it, the ship, known among
Terrans as Armageddon, fell to Prepharm, exploding mere kilometers
from the seat of the government.  The ship sent out powerful clouds of
radioactive gas from its plutonium engines and burned for months.
It wasn't until five days after the Armageddon had crashed into
Prepharm that theyrealized what had happened.  While the Prepharmi
fleet was protecting its homeworld, the Terran League unleashed its
massive fleet and took ten of the fifteen Prepharmi systems.  Within
a decade, the Prepharmi surrendered to the Terran Fleet Admiral.
The same Terran representative approached the IPO and offered for it
to join the Terran League.  The new Jerrrakliv presider scoffed at
the Terran representative and had him executed.  After a bloody,
century-long war, the Terran League agreed to a Treaty.  It became a
full member of the IPO (which disbanded two decades later) and
released claim to ten of the original fifteen of the Prepharmi
worlds (it is notable that the Prepharmi's themselves had little say
in the Treaty...they had lost their membership due to inability to
prove soveriegnty).
        Things pretty much haven't changed in the last half-millenia
or so.  The Terran League doesn't exist anymore, but the United
Corporate Systems of Sol is pretty much the same sort of thing
they've been doing for the last four millennia.  Three or four
incarnations of the IPO have arisen since, and all have fallen just
as easily over some minor squabble.  A few new civilizations were
discovered (or, rather, they discovered us), a few old ones fell.
We're still using the same old anti-matter/matter drives that our
great-great-great grandfathers used and we're still using the same
lasers that most people have known for millennia.  The galaxy is
still run by whoever's in power, and its usually the businesses men
who do the ruling.
        Like I said, not much has changed.