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Back up Drive; Nothing is ever truly gone.
Topic Started: May 13 2016, 08:29 PM (1,180 Views)
Octoaster
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An asteroid of almost 30 kilometers long strikes the Earth. The impact alone wiped out almost all vertebrates, the clouds of toxic ash and acid rain finished off the rest. Earth was once again dead, and all that once lived had perished...


Almost...



Back Up Drive


The world that was once ours had been left to die. Only those that were the hardiest, strongest and smallest could survive. There were no mammals, no more reptiles, not even the rodents could survive the wipe. The last remnants of humanity walk alone through the dry, lifeless deserts; robots, from a time long gone fuelled by a nuclear core, the last automatons walk with purpose.

They are the Caretakers.

They had a single goal, as the last of humanity perished, they were sent out. To rebuild this world was more than a simple task, you needed to be a god. The Caretakers were created that way. The world is cooling, after the hell that was brought upon our world had passed over; it began to heal.

One of the final Caretakers, 6 remain, takes on his final goal in his artificial life. A hatch's doors slide open, his immense arm reaches within the opening. The metal monster pulls out a small, woven bag. Held within this bag is the salvation of life itself. A seed. The seed of the Mother Tree, within months this seed will have grown fully into a colossus, 830 metres tall, this "being" was designed by the creators of the Caretakers, it is the only hope the world has. The Caretakers have travelled each and every continent in search of the perfect grounds to plant this new god.

For the first time in 2000 years, life had started to begin again.

What location did these saviours choose? The very center of Antarctica. The center of the World. Home to the last endotherm to live... The descendant of the chinstrap penguin. Forced to leave the islands they once inhabited, the chinstrap fled to the coldest remaining part of the Earth, the south pole. There they managed to eek out an existence by feeding on the remaining fish and molluscs that dwelt in the surrounding waters. Now, they had a salvation. Others had survived the impact itself, the Gentoo, the vultures, the ducks and even some of the hardiest parrots had managed to survive the impact, but in the end only the chinstrap remained.

The last warm blooded animal. Though, others had managed to make it through; the fish on which the fed, the cave salamander had survived in some of the deepest caverns, the velvet worms made quick work of the insects that fled to the sheltered rainforsests, the lungfish safely buried beneath the mud, the catfish devoured all that fled to the water, the marine worms thrived in the explosion of fish following the disappearance of seals and cetaceans and of course the tardigrades were the last remnants of life... The Mother Tree had given them salvation, spreding its spore across the globe, new forests engulfed the remaining jungles, deserts became grasslands and the ice caps once again flourished with life. There were endless niches to fill...



And they took them.


Welcome, to the Sileozoic



More coming soon! Stay tuned for one of the the strangest eras in Earth's history.

Edited by Octoaster, May 20 2016, 02:10 AM.
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Dapper Man
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Sounds a little bit like SFTD, although I am interested... :)
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Manitou; The Needle in the Haystack.
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Octoaster
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Yeah, I was afraid people would think that. Just because mine also features cave salamanders doesn't mean I copied it.
I have been thinking of this project for months. If people start shaming me for including cave salamanders, I'll probably need to get rid of them.

BUT. The entire storyline to this project is vastly different. Yes, there are salamanders, YES, there was a huge extinction and YES, there are no mammals.

Though last time I checked, SFTD didn't include and penguins, velvet worms, Bobbit worms, lungfish and a sentient, almost a whole kilometer tall, Antarctic tree. There are essentially 3 or less similarities.
Edited by Octoaster, May 14 2016, 12:22 AM.
"The only thing that would scar me for life would be pics and videos of hetero sex." - Flisch

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Dapper Man
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Sapient Trees??? Now I'm interested.

Edit: Kilometer tall trees? (I thought they were Sapient :3 )
Edited by Dapper Man, May 14 2016, 12:31 AM.
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Victorbrine
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A meteor the size of New Zealand's south island


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So its a 600 km wide asteroid? That's pretty big for a meteor...
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Octoaster
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Uuh... Note taken. I will fix that.
"The only thing that would scar me for life would be pics and videos of hetero sex." - Flisch

"Die" - Arachnus

"though critising misseppls is hypcocresi on my part" - Archeoraptor

"You deserve to be abandoned!" - Arachnus

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GlarnBoudin
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Interesting. I'm looking forward to this.
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Dr Nitwhite
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I like your choice of survivors. Chinstraps as the last endotherm and multitudes of velvet worms sound interesting, to say in the least. I would ask, how far in the future is this? You mention that life on earth starts to get some traction for the first time in 2000 years, but how much time passed between now and the beginning of those 2000 years?
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This past Monday on Discord, famous server Speculative Evolution took a hit in the attendance office when it's offline member list suddenly reappeared. Mods scrambled to rectify the situation, but unfortunately there was little anyone could do. Server member Ivan was asked what he thought of the situation. "So long as Flisch, lord of machines and scion of Urborg lives, all will be well". SE, (in)famous for it's eccentric userbase, has recently been spiraling downward, and now we have hard conformation of the decline. Moderator "High Lord" Icthyander states "There is nothing to be concerned about, Discord is merely changing its UI again", but members are beginning to suspect the honesty of their staff.
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Beetleboy
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Looks very interesting indeed. Given the ingenuity you have displayed in the COMs, I will be following this project with great interest.
Edited by Beetleboy, May 14 2016, 11:27 AM.
~ The Age of Forests ~
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Octoaster
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The time it took for the Caretakers to reach Antarctica was a few years short of 50,000 years. The project will take place 42 million years after the Mother is planted.

It may take some time for me to get this going, due to school.

Also, the penguins may take some time to "take off". HUEHEUHEUEHUEHEUH
Edited by Octoaster, May 14 2016, 09:23 PM.
"The only thing that would scar me for life would be pics and videos of hetero sex." - Flisch

"Die" - Arachnus

"though critising misseppls is hypcocresi on my part" - Archeoraptor

"You deserve to be abandoned!" - Arachnus

Open at own risk.
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Dapper Man
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I see what you did there... nice.
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Manitou; The Needle in the Haystack.
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Corecin
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So, why didn't the humans quickly try and preserve some species? If they were able to build robots I think they can preserve one or two animal species at the least.
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Octoaster
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Oh they did, unintentionally. Two mammals managed to survive in the walls of the the island laboratories. I am not yet revealing what they are.
"The only thing that would scar me for life would be pics and videos of hetero sex." - Flisch

"Die" - Arachnus

"though critising misseppls is hypcocresi on my part" - Archeoraptor

"You deserve to be abandoned!" - Arachnus

Open at own risk.
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Dapper Man
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Will that Chickenosaurus thing that's going on be a survivor?
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Manitou; The Needle in the Haystack.
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Octoaster
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No, sadly, birds will be filled up by beaked, feathered creatures. And they're not what you think.

In fact, feel free to guess what mammals survived at the bunkers, they were based on the Falkland islands.
"The only thing that would scar me for life would be pics and videos of hetero sex." - Flisch

"Die" - Arachnus

"though critising misseppls is hypcocresi on my part" - Archeoraptor

"You deserve to be abandoned!" - Arachnus

Open at own risk.
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