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| Back up Drive; Nothing is ever truly gone. | |
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| Topic Started: May 13 2016, 08:29 PM (1,181 Views) | |
| Octoaster | May 13 2016, 08:29 PM Post #1 |
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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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| Jasonguppy | May 16 2016, 09:22 AM Post #16 |
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Cardinal
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Rats, maybe? They are pretty good survivalists. |
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I do art sometimes. "if you want green eat a salad" Projects: Amammalia: A strange place where mammals didn't make it and the land is, once again, dominated by archosaurs. Oceanus: An endless sea dotted with islands, reefs, and black holes. Literally endless, literal black holes. ❤️❤️~I'm not a boy~❤️❤️ | |
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| Octoaster | May 16 2016, 08:28 PM Post #17 |
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Close, yet... Not in the right order. |
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"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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| Corecin | May 16 2016, 08:59 PM Post #18 |
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Prime Specimen
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Rabbits? Cats? |
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| Octoaster | May 17 2016, 12:27 AM Post #19 |
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Correct! In fact, you got both right! The two surviving mammals of the island were the pet rabbits and cats of the scientists. Sadly there will be no flying penguins, though there will be a creature with an uncanny resemblance to birds. |
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"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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| Corecin | May 17 2016, 12:31 AM Post #20 |
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Prime Specimen
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Yay, I finally got one question right. I feel really proud of myself. Wait did they also die out or are they still alive in this project? |
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| Octoaster | May 17 2016, 03:01 AM Post #21 |
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They're alive, that's for sure. Though they'd be almost unrecognizable compared to what they look like today. They will be the first official post related to the topic. The rabbits that is. |
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"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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| El Dorito | May 17 2016, 06:32 AM Post #22 |
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chlorinated opthalmic trigonometric shape of conspiracy and dank memes
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bU1QPtOZQZU The asteroid in this video is a full 100 km smaller than the one in your project.... In short literally nothing except lithospheric subterranean bacteria will survive this impact. Im not sure how much you thought about how truly monumental of an impact an asteroid the size of the south island of New Zealand would be. The temperature of the impact blast wave of an impact such as shown in the video has estimated to be almost 4000 C, technically making the earth the hottest known planet in the galaxy.... You would have a better chance of surviving on the surface of most stars than on the earth in such a scenario. The boiling point of silica (which makes up most of the earth) is more than 1000 C below the temperature of the atmosphere within the first few months of the impact. As a smaller note, chinstrap penguins don't live in the center of Antarctica. Edited by El Dorito, May 17 2016, 07:45 AM.
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I REGRET NOTHING What if denizens of the United States call themselves 'Americans' so as to avoid being called USAliens? DeviantArt: EL-D0rito My Projects: Atlantis: The Next Union On hold until I regain interest. Argus: The Cyber-Planet Will be rewritten and redone almost completely | |
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| Icthyander | May 17 2016, 12:11 PM Post #23 |
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I am also a little curious about the penguins. Typically because of the dust thrown up, I would think asteroid impacts would be associated with falling temperatures, and I doubt that we'd see chinstraps faced with colder than normal weather migrate somewhere even colder without some other explanation. Are we looking at a different timescale with the penguin migration? If global temperatures in the future were to climb higher than they are now after the effects of the impact dissipated it would explain why the penguins moved south and how they are eating aquatic animals in the center of Antarctica. It looks like an ice-less Antarctica would have ocean much closer to the center, and could have rivers and lakes. Is that what you intended? |
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Movie Monsters- It Came from Beneath... Legend of Zelda- The Creatures of Zelda We have a discord. If you want to join, simply message me, Flisch, Sphenodon, or Zorcuspine. It's All About Me
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| Octoaster | May 18 2016, 01:31 AM Post #24 |
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Well, the penguins fled to Antarctica to escape the dust itself. With Antarctica being very far away from the impact site, the dust had not really touched it. Leaving it a precious time capsule. There have been complaints about the size of the asteroid... I will change it to be smaller.
I know... It doesn't say they live there. They migrated there to escape the whirling evil of the dust coughed up by the impact. Edited by Octoaster, May 18 2016, 01:32 AM.
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"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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| El Dorito | May 18 2016, 06:29 AM Post #25 |
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chlorinated opthalmic trigonometric shape of conspiracy and dank memes
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I'm not trying to start a hostile argument, but for Antarctica to avoid being covered by dust this whole thing wouldn't be even close to causing a mass extinction, asteroids of this category have hit the earth several times since the K-Pg boundry. And if there was a mass extinction, I would highly doubt penguins would survive when, among other things, rodents went extinct. Also migration isn't something everything can do, and it refers to the deliberate movement of animals to escape harsh conditions, and is very predictable. I doubt penguins would be able to migrate in that fashion to a place they have no memory of. |
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I REGRET NOTHING What if denizens of the United States call themselves 'Americans' so as to avoid being called USAliens? DeviantArt: EL-D0rito My Projects: Atlantis: The Next Union On hold until I regain interest. Argus: The Cyber-Planet Will be rewritten and redone almost completely | |
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| Nyarlathotep | May 18 2016, 06:38 AM Post #26 |
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The Creeping Chaos
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The video posted is a bit outdated and gas quite a simplistic view of an impact IMO, though there are some good alternatives. This video shows a simulation of what a 50km asteroid would do to the Earth. An asteroid much bigger would be terrifyingly powerful. EDIT: Fixed video link - Holben Edited by Holben, May 18 2016, 08:49 AM.
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| Octoaster | May 18 2016, 07:35 AM Post #27 |
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Look. The whole asteroid thing was entirely an aesthetic choice. I do not want to change it. And to add, the dust did reach Antarctica, the sheltered central mountains (nesting grounds for skuas and other birds) were relatively unaffected, due to being so far away from the asteroid's impact site, which touched down in Norway. Penguins were another aesthetic choice, they were original and haven't really been touched much on this site, as with many other surviving creatures; velvet worms, bobbit worms, rabbits, lungfish ect. I am new to the forums and I would rather be seen as a creative artistic addition to the community than yet another hardcore science dweeb*. If people dislike the aesthetics of this project so much I can change them if you so wish. *I however, am one of those. Edited by Octoaster, May 18 2016, 07:39 AM.
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"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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| El Dorito | May 18 2016, 08:11 AM Post #28 |
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chlorinated opthalmic trigonometric shape of conspiracy and dank memes
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Not to be that sort of annoying persistent person, but that asteroid is way bigger than 50 km in diameter, you could see by the size of its shadow on Japan that it is probably big enough to be classified as a small dwarf planet as opposed to an asteroid. Anyway assuming the asteroid in the video is 50 km wide (which it's not), making it 8 times bigger is not really worth making a believable case for the survival of any life whatsoever. anything more than 30 km wide is probably too big for multicellular life to handle. |
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I REGRET NOTHING What if denizens of the United States call themselves 'Americans' so as to avoid being called USAliens? DeviantArt: EL-D0rito My Projects: Atlantis: The Next Union On hold until I regain interest. Argus: The Cyber-Planet Will be rewritten and redone almost completely | |
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| Holben | May 18 2016, 08:54 AM Post #29 |
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Rumbo a la Victoria
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Hey forbidden, you put a shortened youtube URL (ie, youtu.be) link into the flash code, which unfortunately means the video does not show up. It's best to copy the URL straight from the address bar if possible. I edited your post with the full URL ![]() BTW, universe sandbox is a very simplistic physics simulator, after all it's a toy. If you want a useful tool for estimating how unpleasant an asteroid impact would be try this: http://impact.ese.ic.ac.uk/ImpactEffects/ |
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Time flows like a river. Which is to say, downhill. We can tell this because everything is going downhill rapidly. It would seem prudent to be somewhere else when we reach the sea. "It is the old wound my king. It has never healed." | |
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12:03 PM Jul 13