The Truth about Gerio — Part II: Star Atlas Roadmap Scan #17
A terrible secret is discovered in the forgotten laboratory in the mines of Gerio, and Wenn’s group decides to take action. But before they can do anything, they must first escape the mines where Atoph sleeps.
“Among the ONI races, we, the true Punaabs, align more with the idea of order. Our society is organized under an unwavering trust in our family, our pack, and our alpha. This is our strength, the ground beneath our pawns. Should everything go wrong and the stars start to collapse, there is one thing that you can count on, the bonds between our people. Uphold the pride of the Punaabs; when the time comes, understand your place in the pack, and never betray our kin.” — Memories of a conversation on planet Gerio a dozen years ago
Salty tears fell without resistance from Pawn’s eyes. She longed to see her father, the strong man who taught her every aspect of the pride of the Punaabs through the marvelous histories of the heroes of the Akenat system, who built the order that now extended even to the far colony of Gerio.
Upon seeing his face on the screen, she figured that she didn’t remember the face of her father smiling. He always kept the same straight face and posture, a bastion of confidence and control, leading the family by an absolute moral example, which Pawn used to dislike.
Even as a pup, she knew her father worked harder than everyone else. He was constantly endangering himself to protect others and took too much pride in his work as a defender. This left very little time for Pawn and Fang to be with their father, and she would often watch as he descended the tunnels, fearing for the time when he wouldn’t return.
Unfortunately, that day came after only a few years, when both of them were way too young, even by Punaabs standards, to fend for themselves. She thought that she hated him for leaving both of them so early for some stupid idea of duty, of packs, or tribes. In the years that followed, she could barely count on the help of others from her kin. It was almost as if they were branded and excluded, save for a few furtive helpful actions from her neighbor.
In her eyes, her father tried to play the hero, probably doing something dangerous as usual, and died a stupid death, together with their mother, which left them alone and caused others to stay away from them. Her father was responsible for every hardship in their lives, yet the second she saw him on screen, she had forgotten everything and missed him with all of her heart. The girl who awaited her father to return from the mines every night was there again.
Fang stood perfectly still. Being a bit older than Pawn allowed him to enjoy more of his silent company at home. However, his father always instructed him on what was expected of the older son of a proud Punaab pack. Like every child, he tried his best to be approved by his father. He practiced daily to internalize the lessons passed to him regarding how a Punaab should be and grow the muscles necessary to deserve a place among the security of the pack, where he aimed to be just like the one he admired most.
Yet, nothing was ever enough for his father. It was not out of malice, but it felt as if he never wanted his son to stop evolving. Even when Fang succeeded in something, his father presented him with another challenge or milestone. No achievement yielded more than a nod from him, while failure was met with harsh words and discipline in the form of more training.
Nevertheless, Fang felt lucky. It was like he was the son of a living legend of the stories, a stoic hero driven by duty. Among the other Punaab children, his father’s title as a defender was a reason for envy, and Fang loved that and did his best to make his father proud.
When his parents didn’t return from the tunnels, Fang first denied it, believing that dying in that manner for them was impossible. His father couldn’t be killed, and he would protect their mother until his last breath. However, something down in the depths might have happened, and the fact that none of the other miners knew what happened, aside from them not coming back to the elevator, was evidence of Fang’s theory in his mind.
This mindset helped him take on the role of his father and mother for Pawn. He was sure they would come back one day and congratulate him on his good work. He was sure he would be very proud of him then.
Unfortunately, reality has a way of humbling all good theories, and as the days, months, and years passed, Fang started to accept that they weren’t coming back. He also perceived that the neighbors also evaded them, as if they were not a member of the Gerio pack any longer, and some of them would whisper about his father dying due to his naivety.
Fang wanted to beat them, but he remembered his father’s teachings of not waging violence against his kind. So he held his father’s instructions to his heart, taking solace in the fact that he would uphold his legacy by being as stoic as he was, and Fang worked diligently to get Pawn out of Gerio and find a new pack in which they could prosper.
When he saw his father on that video, it lit a flame in his heart. Finally, the boy who had worked all those years diligently dared to hope to see their father and mother again.
The message of Arfrentos Silver Claws continued:
“For a long time, some circumstances regarding this planet, the creature lurking below, and the overall state of affairs on this planet have been troubling me. But my initial blindness, born from the unwavering confidence that I had placed on my alpha, governor Berector Golden Fur, as a leader of our kind in this “mission” on Gerio, required indisputable proof even to get me to start researching the situation, which, to my dismay, caused the loss of hundreds, if not thousands, of lives.” The Punaab kept talking without flinching in a paused tone.
“Nevertheless, I will answer for this prevarication at the correct time, as the lives of the whole pack, especially my children, demand the deposition of the governor and immediate action.
With the help of my mate, Ammarena Star Sight, we have been step by step connecting the clues of the mystery of this planet. I’m afraid I’m imposing a terrible burden on her, whose only joy is the children and her research. Hopefully, I will manage to amend it when all of this is over.
“From what I could gather so far, Gerio’s colony was given to the Punaabs to build during the period of the war of convergence more than 120 years ago due to our race discipline and strength among the ONI’s. We were the only ones with the will to create a prospering world out of this frozen desert. My father, one of the pioneers, used to say that this planet, although always covered in ice, was a good place to build a strong pack, with plenty of prey and food inside the mines. We were taught that this place, as part of the supply route to Iris, was paramount to the success of Akenat and the ONI Consortium in general and took pride in developing it.
So, like my father before me and many others, we endured the harsh conditions of this world to help the war effort and forward the prosperity of our kind. We all hoped that as soon as the minerals of the depths had been sufficiently mined and the war won, we would be transferred back to our homeworld and awarded recognition for the services done for our kind.
Yet, a few years before the war ended, a new substance was found in the depths of Gerio and seemed to be unique to our planet. It was named Ethyfol, and later tests discovered that, once it was mixed with other organic components, it would turn into one of the most efficient forms of fuel.
It was so fantastic that our elders told us that even the Busan Last Stand MK VIII flew using our energy, born from the sweat of our work deep in those mines, and this filled us with joy.
Nevertheless, while the new material started appearing in the tunnel, the animals, which were abundantly found in the depths, were diminishing, as if a recent sort of predator had been attacking them relentlessly.
The research at the time couldn’t explain this curious phenomenon. A black liquid was left at the dens where the animals used to live, but no one understood what was making the wildlife of Gerio disappear.
Finally, the situation reached a point when, by the time the war ended, most of the food of Gerio was now imported, brought by merchants that used the supply routes of the high-risk zone and traded all sorts of goods for the hyper-efficient Ethyfol fuel.
The end of the war and the signing of the Treaty of Peace profoundly impacted the High-Risk Zone dynamic. My father told me that during the war and the decade that followed, they would watch the news about the front and neighboring worlds in our homes, but slowly the news channels started to dim, to the point where Gerio was basically cut off from external communications, with the exception of the governor who was still in touch with our homeworld.
This was also the time that Berector Golden Fur became our leader at Gerio. After his father, who was most beloved, passed away, no one challenged his child’s right to rule, so he started leading the Punaabs of Gerio.
My father explained that the factions had retreated back to their home systems due to the toll of the convergence war, collapsing the supply lines that enabled the colonies in the high-risk zone to prosper, and this caused massive chaos. Gerio had to start trading Ethyfol with the neighboring planets to feed its population with whoever could supply the food, and all the news we received from the governor’s palace was that order in the neighboring star systems had started to collapse.
Everyone feared the day we would be the next target of our neighboring warlords, the Tufas, or another organization such as the Jorvik.
What we never dreamed was that the true enemy was already within Gerio.
In what seemed to be a stroke of luck, new veins of Ethyfol kept being discovered day after day, the substance was abundant in the depths of the world, but something else also made itself present, the creature Atoph.
For the last fifteen years, I have, together with my fellow defenders, been fighting an uphill battle against the monster. For the first decade, we thought it was some sort of small worm mutation that was barely a treat for a Punaab pup, only dangerous when together in great groups. But for the last five years, the creature has been… evolving.
Now, it can manifest tentacles at the size of a full-grown Punaab, and those who get in touch with the black liquid that it emits get dizzy and sick for weeks while having strange dreams full of painful visions and emotions. In other words, the creature was getting stronger.
I asked the governor for reinforcements and a task force to research the creature, which he eventually allowed after we pointed out it was starting to disturb the mining operations.
We took months creating this lab to research the creature, and as soon as we were done, we prepared an ambush with some livestock and managed to lure the creature close. As soon as it perceived us, it started trashing the whole cave as we tried to imprison it in a special glass case developed by Ammarena.
The creature went mad, trying to fight for its freedom, and just before we managed to seal it, it emitted for the first time a terrible and otherworldly scream that still echoes in my dreams.
After finally capturing it, my wife and other scientists started to investigate the specimen, and to our surprise, we discovered that it was the origin of the Ethyfol, and worst, it had some sort of consciousness.”
Weekly Project Report
Project: UE5 Showroom
Concept Art: DONE /// Art: DONE /// UX/UI: BUILDING /// Game Design: DONE /// Blockchain: DONE /// Game Play: DONE
Updates: Product distribution works in progress.
Upcoming activities: Finish product distribution works.
Project: SCREAM v1.0
Game Design: PROTOTYPING /// Blockchain: BUILDING /// UX DESIGN: PROTOTYPING UI: PROTOTYPING /// Game Economics: BUILDING /// Web: BUILDING /// Art: BUILDING
Updates: Continuing to define explicit requirements for core gameplay mechanics and game systems design, with a focus on defining the combat mechanics through prototyping. Working with the economics team to define R4 emissions formulae, including game variables, level variables, and output variables. /// Integrating crafting and cargo programs. Continuing to develop fleets program and Sector program. /// Continuing wireframes and interaction flows, with a focus on the HUD system, structure system, and inventory system. /// Continuing building SCREAM screens and elements. /// Started economic modeling of R4 emissions, including game variables, level variables, and output variables. /// Added Calico Guardian metrics into SCREAM to playtest, and added updated Action Hub and Action Menus. Added higher fidelity mining functionality. /// Working on starbases and planets.
Upcoming activities: Continue to define explicit requirements for core gameplay mechanics and incorporate feedback from SCREAM stakeholders. /// Build, peer review, and test programs on testnet, then audit. /// Review wireframes with Project Stakeholders. Continue to iterate until wireframes are approved. Hand over wireframes to UI team. /// Continue to build out UI screens and elements. /// Determine game balancing tactics/ contingency + scenario planning. Model levers for starbase crafting and upgrading. Economic modeling for hangar spaces, LP, XP, fleet configuration, econometrics, and SCORE to SCREAM transition strategy. /// Build towards playtesting and validate gameplay loops that require higher fidelity game. /// Convert into 3D assets to be added into Playcanvas.
Project: Star Atlas DAO — Pre-alpha Improvements
Product Design: R&D /// UX design: BUILDING /// Web Team: BUILDING /// Blockchain: STANDBY /// Economy: DONE
Updates: Proposals R&D /// Periphery views for ATLAS locking /// Feature complete on ATLAS locking /// Audit ongoing; Rewards refinement in process
Upcoming activities: Gathering requirements for proposals. /// Locker refinements for POLIS locking. /// Wallet updates and Faction PVP developments. /// ATLAS Locking Devnet deployment Proposals: Assessing program changes
Project: Play.staratlas.com
Features/Bug fixes: Star-atlas-portal Live updated to v0.5.27 PRE-ALPHA
- Filtered improperly formatted orders from the marketplace
- Made a change to prevent future improperly formatted orders from being placed
- Dropped support for Sollet wallets
- Support for Exodus and Coinbase.
- Ongoing: working with users to remove ships locked in SCORE. Ships were locked in SCORE as a result of connecting their wallet and approving a malicious transaction on another website.
Features in pipeline: Mobile improvements. /// User-driven improvements (survey and interviews). /// Various sorting refinements. /// Table changes throughout the marketplace /// New Homepage / Landing Page.
Status: In progress
ABOUT STAR ATLAS
Star Atlas is a next-gen gaming metaverse emerging from the confluence of state-of-the-art blockchain, real-time graphics, multiplayer video games, and decentralized financial technologies.
Using Unreal Engine 5’s Nanite, real-time graphics technology allows for cinematic quality video game visuals. In addition, blockchain technology using the Solana protocol establishes a largely serverless and secured gameplay experience. Non-fungible tokens obtained and traded within Star Atlas create an economy that replicates tangible world assets and ownership. To learn more, visit StarAtlas.com, join a faction at Play.StarAtlas.com and send your spaceships on a deep space mission by enrolling them in a Faction Fleet.
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