A few weeks after I gained ownership of the dimension I had finally finished the last of the work on it for now.
'It took me 2 weeks just to get rid of all the sand. I think Anakin was right about sand. I am starting to hate sand as well it's coarse and rough and I keep finding it in the most annoying places.'
I lay down in my Alicorn form and look around at the idyllic place I made. I made mountains and rivers with lush vegetation. I also made Sprawling forests, dark caves, and beautiful valleys. I moved all sorts of species to this dimension. The first was the Pegasi. After them came the numerous magical species I found and convinced to join me in Sanctuary. So far I have Griffons, Unicorns, Kelpies, Kirins, Thestrals, Hipogriffs, Faires, Kitsunes, Harpies, Sirens, Yetis, Nekomatas, Manticores, Lamias, Deer Women, Bicorns, Arachnes, A Sphinx, A Knucker, A Phoenix, A Centaur, A White Stag, and the Loch Ness Monster.
'Shame I couldn't get to many of the species before they went extinct but I refuse to time travel.'
Most of the species I found were on the verge of extinction as humans reduced their habitats and the Ancient One only protected species that didn't have bad reputations. This means basically no species since humans don't like what they can't understand. The biggest magical creatures I found were protected by a magical barrier to keep humans out. The place was extremely crowded as even those that the Ancient One refused to protect had fled into the barrier for protection. Species that would be enemies or never have contact with each other suddenly worked together to survive. When I came to offer sanctuary all equine and dragon-related species immediately joined which led to the others following suit as they weren't protected by the Ancient One. The only difficult to convince species was the Sirens as they thought they would remain safe in the vast ocean. That and they thought Atlantis and Talokan would keep them safe. Eventually, they agreed to my offer and since then have been thanking me non-stop for the new home. As I am thinking about how I got here I sense a Griffon approaching me.
Gaia: "Rio I was looking for you."
Rio: "Ah Gaia, is there something you need from me?"
Gaia: "Yes, I was hoping you could add a lake to Mount Guto."
Rio: "That should be easy enough. Do you need it filled with fauna or is it for cleaning?"
Gaia: "We only want it to clean ourselves or for enjoyment."
Rio: "Hmm, I will place it later today."
Gaia: "Thank you. That was all I had I shall leave you now."
Once Gaia leaves I make my usual rounds to each of the territories of the residents to see if they need anything. Once I finish I work on adding the lake and a porous rock scratching post.
'I find it a bit amusing that the Sphinx wants a scratching post. It's also amusing that the Nekomatas haven't asked for that yet. I am glad all this terrain altering has massively increased my Mana Manipulation skill.'
[ Mana Manipulation lvl: 43/75
2500/4300 xp ]
Once I finish making the requested changes I decide to retire to my bedroom in my manor. I then took out the interesting device that was recovered from Sakaar. I had been slowly deciphering it when I had the time and I had finally made some progress by unlocking the files that were blocked by a password. I just had to do a strange sequence of actions. I finally completed the last puzzle and I nearly fell off my bed when a voice started to speak from the item.
???: "Scanning, detected member of founder species. Cross-referencing with archived data. No matches were found. A new file was created. Welcome new user. I am a copy of the Prime Guardians core programs you may call me PG. May I have your name?"
Rio: "I am Rio Magus Crepusculum but you can call me Rio."
PG: "Nice to meet you, Rio. I can assist you with any inquiries you have."
Rio: "I suppose I would like to know where you come from."
PG: "I was created by the Guardians more commonly called the Forgotten Guardians. We were a race of sentient mechanical lifeforms built for the task of safeguarding sentient life in our home galaxy. We have existed for over 20 Billion years. I was created as a fail-safe after it was determined that we had failed our prime directive to protect the lives of those younger than us."
Rio: "Wait 20 Billion years old, and your existing here indicates that your home was destroyed I assume."
PG: "Yes we were quite ancient and due to our lack of innovations for Billions of years we had stagnated. When our original planet was calculated to be destroyed due to events out of our control we abandoned the home world and moved to another world. We were the observers for Billions of years and we determined that we had to change our stance. We rapidly advanced our technology and helped fight off many great threats to the galaxy. The Scourge, The Unbidden, The Contingency and we tried to defeat the Mad King. We calculated a 100% chance of complete galactic annihilation by the Mad King before we could stop him. Thus several different methods were chosen. The first was the device you are currently interacting with the second was a dimensional shield meant to save us from annihilation but the shield had a mere 12% chance of succeeding."
Rio: "Wait then how did you end up on Sakaar? It is basically a junk planet."
PG: "We had long known of other galaxies we chose the nearest one to our galaxy and used a modified psionic jump drive in conjunction with a quantum catapult to get as close to the target as possible while getting far enough away to avoid the detonation of the galaxy via the aetherophasic engine. We had designed this computer to be nigh-indestructible and it proved to work as the ship had barely made it halfway before the aetherophasic engine activated and the ship was annihilated launching this computer at beyond light speeds until it entered a wormhole and landed on Sakaar."
Rio: "Why was this computer made to do? I see many files but most is in a language no one would be able to decipher."
PG: "This computer is an archive of numerous cultural and historic texts as well as several advanced technologies. As for the language chosen it was determined that the information inside this computer could be very dangerous if anyone could access it. Therefore the entire archive was made in the language of the founders which made it so most likely the next user would be related to the founders in some way."
Rio: "You mentioned earlier I am a member of your founder species, what were they? And you make it sound like they weren't around for some time."
PG: "They went by several names throughout history Celestials, Alicorns, Gods, Originals, and several others. As for their appearance, they looked like you an equine base with a horn and wings. They left us after some time and we waited for their return but they never returned. It was part of the reason we continued to simply watch the galaxy for so long instead of interfering."
Rio: "Interesting but I want to know what kind of technology you can give me."
PG: "Dark Matter, Mega Structures, Genetic Alterations, Nutrient Replication, Psionic Technology, Teraforming, Planetary Shields, and much more. However, most of the technology I have is less warfare-focused and more civilization-building-focused."
Rio: "Wait, Mega Structures! Which ones?"
PG: "Currently I have schematics and all the research behind Sentry Arrays, Matter Decompressors, Dyson Spheres, Quantum Catapult, and Ring Worlds. However, I must warn you that we never finished the construction of the Ring World as we had to divert resources to the Dimensional Shield and the war. We only completed the frame and as such if you construct one you will have to learn what does and doesn't work on your own."
Rio: "That is fantastic, I can think of so many ways those Mega Structures could help. That being said I have to ask could any other civilizations have escaped your galaxy?"
PG: "By the end of our galaxy there were only 5 major civilizations left. 2 can be ignored leaving only the Synthetic Queen, The Dragon Hoard, and ourselves. Of the options, only ourselves and the Synthetic Queen had a high probability of successfully escaping the galaxy. The Dragon Hoard had a best-case scenario 6% chance of success. We had an 89.67% chance of success. The Synthetic Queen had anywhere from 65-99% chance of success, we just had far less info on them, and as such it is hard to come to an accurate prediction."
Rio: "Why did you have such little information on the Synthetic Queen if you had a Sentry Array?"
PG: "I find it interesting you know what a Sentry Array does but to answer your question. The Synthetic Queen was always difficult to understand what she was doing as she was the entire nation in one android. We learned all we could of her and determined her to be a threat to sentient life but we couldn't stop her as the Mad King was a larger threat at the time. We couldn't research any of her nation's wreckage as they were programmed to destroy themselves and leave nothing behind. Thus we could only calculate and speculate her nation's technological capabilities based on what we saw."
Rio: "Based on your calculations she most likely escaped the galaxy's destruction. If that is the case then I would likely have to face her eventually, do you have any info I can use to prepare?"
PG: "We know that she has her entire nation enslaved to her programming and as such if you destroy her main body the entire nation will destroy itself afterward. Another thing to know is despite her focus on ending the very concept of sentience she will not be hostile to you if you are seen as insignificant or too weak to be a threat. There are records of her destroying dangerous and powerful empires but gifting items to smaller nations."
Rio: "Hmm, so if I appear weak and even help her occasionally I can avoid conflict with her for a time."
PG: "Most likely yes, you will have to destroy her before she completes her anti-sentience research, or else all sentience will cease to exist and everything will become nothing but mindless creatures. You will be able to slow this by not allowing her to obtain samples of any species."
Rio: "I find it to be a unique choice for a big bad doomsday weapon. It kind of reminds me of the Anti-Life Equation. However, that was technically to make everyone give up and become a slave and not revert everything to mindless creatures. Still fascinating that 2 very different beings can come to desire similar things. Could you upload the data on the Synthetic Queen and also all the tech you have into other devices?"
PG: "Yes I can but the device will need to have the capacity to store such a large amount of data. I can also automatically translate it to a different language if you give me a sample of the desired language."
Rio: "Perfect I will look into finding a storage device but until then can I have some of my friends use you and the data inside."
PG: "Yes that is acceptable. They will need to provide a language they would like to see the data in. Otherwise, you must simply give them the authorization to access my files as you are now the owner of this computer and its archive."
Rio: "Excellent. I will get in contact with those in question and see if I produce some data banks for all the data you have. I do have a couple more questions."
PG: "Ask away."
Rio: "Is this computer all that remains of your nation or were there other items?"
PG: "Besides this computer, there was 1 other item. It was a physical storage container built like this computer to be nearly indestructible. The storage container contained a few valuable relics of importance to the Guardians."
Rio: "What was in the container exactly?"
PG: "The Last Baol, The Defragmentor, and An Ether Drake Egg. Inside are also defenses built to fend off thieves."
Rio: "Can you tell me where it is currently?"
PG: "One moment while I try to connect to it... Done, I have connected to it and I can show you where it is if you show me a map of the universe."
I show it a map and he points to a planet that I don't recall being of note. I use the Palantir to show the planet in question and find it to be a radioactive wasteland or tomb world. I see no living being on the planet and decide to send Tex to retrieve the container.
Rio: "Okay I will go get it later. Now for my last question how can you have technological know-how on psionics? From what you told me you were a purely mechanical species."
PG: "We had several planets with other species under our protection. We also had a close ally who was a psionic race of insects. They shared much of their knowledge and we did the same. With all the information we learned we were able to psionically awaken all species under our protection. The United Hives, our ally, was 1 of the 5 nations still existing at the end and they refused to evacuate the galaxy instead they sent some of their people to us for protection in case they failed to stop the Mad King."
Rio: "I see and did the Dimensional Shield work?"
PG: "No, I can guarantee it failed."
Rio: "Unfortunate. That was all I had for now. I will go get everything ready and pass you along to one of my friends."
PG: "Very well."
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Authors Note:
So I decided the dimension would be called Sanctuary. I am still looking for suggestions for the castle/base that will be built in Sanctuary. In case any of you are wondering the Forgotten Guardians are based on an old civilization I made for Stellaris a few years back. Also, the Mad King was the player-based Crisis. Lots of tech is in the computer but it is mostly society tech and some military tech. As for the Mega Structures, they take an insanely long time to build even in Stellaris, and nations in the game usually have better construction tech than most. So don't expect Dyson Spheres anytime soon. Until next time Ciao.