Origins of the Colony of Former Citizens of the Nimbus System

The origins of the Colony of Former Citizens of the Nimbus System are intrinsically linked with that of the Nimbus System itself. Existing in a universe with different physical laws and two separate systems of matter, one based on hollow cuboids with cylindrical projections and the other similar to the quark-lepton system, the Nimbus System was made up of the remnants of Planet Crux, a planet that had been shattered by a Maelstrom.

Planet Crux was previously host to this universe’s source of Imagination, a mysterious element that allowed those controlling it to manifest their will upon the world and formed the basis of all life, creation and technology; this source was known as the Imagination Nexus and had been lost to history, fading into the pages of legend and leaving the Imagination that remained weak and dilute. A group of four explorers made it their goal to rediscover the Nexus; they came upon Crux and were jubilant, knowing what pure Imagination could do for so many across their universe. One of the four, however, a scholar known as Baron Typhonus, had darker designs at work; he sought not to use this source of incredible power responsibly but instead to unleash it without constraints, rules or limits. Events spiralled out of control and eventually led him to become one with the Imagination Nexus, corrupting it into the Maelstrom, a sentient force of chaos that twisted and transformed everything around it.

The remaining explorers - the noble warrior Duke Exeter, Doctor Overbuild, scientist and engineer, and notorious space pirate Hael Storm - attempted to seal the newly-formed Maelstrom within Crux to no avail; unable to bear the strain, Planet Crux exploded, fragmenting into countless planet chunks that would collectively become known as the Nimbus System. Finding the last fragments of the Imagination Nexus still intact among the chaos, the three founded the Nexus Force to protect what remained and defeat the Maelstrom once and for all; they were soon joined by the apprentice of Typhonus, a mystic called Vanda Darkflame. They then called upon those across the universe to aid them.

The Nexus Force quickly gathered in strength and numbers; recruits rallied from places far and wide, carried on Venture-class transporter spacecraft of the kind that the explorers had used themselves, and were rapidly equipped with Imagination-enhanced weaponry and armour to take the fight to the Maelstrom. Their success was immediate and notable, establishing havens and strongpoints on the six greatest planet chunks of the new system and liberating one entirely. Recognising this threat, Typhonus (who had been in control of the Maelstrom from the beginning) began assaulting the transporters en-route to the Nimbus System; the most famous of these, the Venture Explorer, was attacked in this way, with the lives of those on board only preserved by the quick thinking of the crew and the availability of rocket parts. Others were not so lucky.

The response of the Nexus Force’s leaders was to organise the craft into convoys, each one protected by its own contingent of soldiers. This system worked well until what became known as the ‘43rd Convoy Disaster’; an armada of Maelstrom warriors descended upon a convoy of six ships, destroying them utterly and leaving no survivors - or so the Nexus Force believes. In reality the engineers on board the convoy managed to rebuild some of their ship systems into a portal. Lacking a destination in range even if they had had time to create a link to one, the Nexus Force soldiers simply ordered through as many of those travelling in the convoy as they could before entering themselves and closing it off from the other side to prevent any Maelstrom influence from following them.

Within days it had become clear that something was very different about the environment that the ten million or so wayward travellers had found themselves in. The area that would become the site of the Colony’s city appeared to be an environment that many of them had encountered before - grassland with some rivers surrounded by sea - but several aspects were fundamentally physically off about it. Gradually the energy of the weakest among them began to drain away, leaving them lethargic and eventually almost lifeless. Searching for a way to stop this while simultaneously realising that something about their own forms rendered them incapable of survival here, one group of many which had been assigned to scout the area ran into a group of Krypton Novan biologists; an exchange of hand gestures and expressive noises communicated the location of the larger camp.

A former linguist among the survivors was able to make more sense of the strangers. They apparently were living in a small camp a short distance away but their homeland was far to the South-East. After several took it upon themselves to accompany the strangers to their camp and saw that their technology was relatively advanced, much of it even on par with that of their home universe, it was concluded that these beings were the dominant species of wherever they were. A second conclusion was quickly reached: they were also the key to the travellers’ survival.

Gathering everyone together (no easy task), a desperate plan was announced: almost all of the Imagination that had been transported through the portal would be used to reconstruct their very biology, which would become akin that of the strangers. Some immediately reacted with bitter and reluctant acceptance, knowing the consequences of not adapting to their surroundings; others, terrified, indignant and shocked, outright refused. After a few days, however, it had become clear to almost everyone that this was the only option that would not result in death and, as such, the future populace of the Colony of Former Citizens of the Nimbus System became human in the year 1164.

By this point Krypton Nova had clearly taken some interest; after all, a group of ten million people appearing in a previously-uninhabited area isn’t an entirely normal incident. After the biologists had informed the university sponsoring their expedition of the newcomers and the university the government, it was decided that an ambassadorial delegation (including several top Novan linguists) would be assembled to greet them. Upon arrival, they discovered a rudimentary collection of basic stone buildings that were the beginnings of a city as the newly-transformed citizens went about setting up a civilisation using what equipment they had that didn’t require additional Imagination to operate (which essentially restricted them to hand tools); they hoped to preserve the last of it in order that it might be studied and eventually reproduced. The ambassadors were greeted warmly, as far as both sides could figure out, and invited to stay.

With the presence of the ambassadors, the Krypton Novans were the only foreign witnesses to the establishment of their future allies’ nationhood. A gathering of the people at the city’s centre decided upon its name; not wanting to abandon their goals and ideals from what were only a few weeks before, they retrospectively declared themselves to be ‘Citizens of the Nimbus System’ and named themselves not independent but instead a colony of their own universe, which they pledged that they would never cease to attempt to regain communication with. The nation was to be, therefore, the ‘Colony of Former Citizens of the Nimbus System’. Their government would be democratic, using a party-less, Single Transferable Vote system to elect a parliament every four years.

The Novan linguists had now progressed in their understanding of the newcomers’ language sufficiently that conversations could be held between the ambassadors and those who had temporarily assumed the role of leaders for the colonists. The ambassadors quickly discovered that while many aspects of their knowledge base - city planning, literature and the arts, physics and electronics - were almost identical to theirs, others - the chemical and biological sciences, mechanical engineering - were almost non-existent or warped in some way due to something about have come from ‘somewhere else’. As such, a deal was struck; in exchange for the support of the Colony in the future, the Krypton Novans would provide technological and scientific advice and military protection to them so as to allow them to develop.

For the next six decades, aided by Novan knowledge, the Colony of Former Citizens of the Nimbus System increased the size of its population many times over and vastly improved every aspect of its civilisation from its stone beginnings; it now forms a city-state that controls the peninsula above what has become known as ‘Nimbus Bay’. It stands on the threshold of destiny; with its only city gradually becoming overpopulated, the opportunity to expand and take new lands has not escaped those in power. Furthermore, the people have not forgotten their pledge to rediscover their own universe. Whether it achieves either of these remains to be seen.