Once there was a large human colony on Windswept; the impressive ruins of their great cities can still be seen on the northern continent. The humans have come to Windswept centuries earlier on a huge spaceship that contained not only advanced technology but also thousands of embryos in cryogenic units. They were looking for a new world to colonize, and the Furies – at that time the only sentient species of the planet – who had so adapted to a life in the desert during the warming period of their world that they had no use fort he colder northern continent let them settle there.
The humans built cities and searched the ocean for resources. Unfortunately, they were divided from the beginning. One group, the Technocrats, wanted to turn their entire colony into a high-tech lab, to develop never-before-seen technologies, with an emphasis on cybernetics and weapons. They experimented with the blending of man and machine, as they believed that cyborgs were the next logical step in the human evolution.
The other group, the Earth-children, wanted to settle on biomechanics. They didn’t want simple bionics, but to *grow* actual, live technology, including organic, sentient buildings and starships. As the resources were limited, a bitter fight began between those two groups, and in the end, under still somewhat undefined circumstances, the conflict ended in a terrible war, involving nuclear bombs on one side and biological warfare on the other one.
Today, there are only a handful of humans living still on Windswept, like rats among the ruins of the cities on the northern continent. But even there, they are not safe. The sea creatures leave the water to hunt them, and slavers from the original ship – that gave the planet its current name – are visiting the planet regularly to capture them.
Because the original colony ship, the Windswept, is still out there, looming somewhere in orbit, manned by cyborgs and controlled by an AI that had somehow gained self-awareness. It’s badly battered, but still functioning well enough to sustain a large population. Thousands of human slaves are kept on the lower decks to do the more mundane tasks, as the cyborgs aren’t numerous enough to maintain such a huge vessel on their own. Due to a cruel joke or their creator, or because of their construction hasn’t been fully finished before the war (the true reason isn’t known), all cyborgs are male, with functional male organs and the needs that go with those. Many human slave girls are separated from the rest to serve the needs of their cyborg masters.
Winswept outline, Part 2
The humans built cities and searched the ocean for resources. Unfortunately, they were divided from the beginning. One group, the Technocrats, wanted to turn their entire colony into a high-tech lab, to develop never-before-seen technologies, with an emphasis on cybernetics and weapons. They experimented with the blending of man and machine, as they believed that cyborgs were the next logical step in the human evolution.
The other group, the Earth-children, wanted to settle on biomechanics. They didn’t want simple bionics, but to *grow* actual, live technology, including organic, sentient buildings and starships. As the resources were limited, a bitter fight began between those two groups, and in the end, under still somewhat undefined circumstances, the conflict ended in a terrible war, involving nuclear bombs on one side and biological warfare on the other one.
Today, there are only a handful of humans living still on Windswept, like rats among the ruins of the cities on the northern continent. But even there, they are not safe. The sea creatures leave the water to hunt them, and slavers from the original ship – that gave the planet its current name – are visiting the planet regularly to capture them.
Because the original colony ship, the Windswept, is still out there, looming somewhere in orbit, manned by cyborgs and controlled by an AI that had somehow gained self-awareness. It’s badly battered, but still functioning well enough to sustain a large population. Thousands of human slaves are kept on the lower decks to do the more mundane tasks, as the cyborgs aren’t numerous enough to maintain such a huge vessel on their own. Due to a cruel joke or their creator, or because of their construction hasn’t been fully finished before the war (the true reason isn’t known), all cyborgs are male, with functional male organs and the needs that go with those. Many human slave girls are separated from the rest to serve the needs of their cyborg masters.
TBC below