[Colony Lore] Origins : A Twist of Nature feature

The Colony Origins are given in this update, along with some hits of Scrin

Colony Origins: Twist of Nature

By GeneralJist

Rev 1: 8/8/2015

Rev 2: 8/20/2015

The Colony are in large part the products of Scrin's Tiberium interference. (Refer to Scrin Origins for specific background) But in short, Scrin are aliens which use Tiberium to soak up the majority of valuable minerals and elements for their continued survival and expansion.

Long ago, in the distant future, before Earth

In the early times of Scrin's harvesting efforts, Tiberium was new and less understood, all they really knew for sure was they wanted to obtain maximum yields from each planet, to fuel their efforts. They conducted many field tests on multiple worlds with consistent standard results, waiting till Tiberium had culminated into its purest form for harvesting. However, over time, they've began to notice a pattern, that once Tiberium had reached a planet's core, there was not enough time to harvest the maximum yield, since a multitude of liquid Tiberium explosions destabilized the planet's gravity, causing the core to sunder. Beyond that, the force of the explosions would cause the planet's place in the gravitational fabric of spacetime to distort and interfere with the Thresholds' coordinates.

However, maximum yield was typically reached, only after the 1st liquid Tiberium explosion occurred. So Scrin set their scout ships to scan and detect this critical incident. Not to mention, that any indigenous life forms were usually dead, unable to pass "the test", or even repel the Scrin's basic harvesting forces. Thus the Scrin began to grow in their power, yet became increasingly melancholy for their hope of finding viable restoration possibilities. Over time, their Ichore (Tiberium) stockpiles grew to the point that unprecedented loads of Ichore lay at their planets of origin, backlogged for eons waiting for processing, managed by their automatons.

But little did they know, an anomalous thing began to occur in some of these planetary concentrations. Planetary atmospheric temperatures and pressures adapted to extended exposure of the unprocessed Ichore, creating localized Tiberium triple points. In other words, Tiberium began to coexist in all 3 natural states of matter (solid, liquid and gas) in equilibrium.

This mysteriously began to reconstruct any biological components, local to the planets' ecosystems, fusions of all kinds of genetics occurred, regardless of original form or function. Both familiar and strange life developed, shadows of their original selves. Unaware of their past purer existences, these creatures coalesced and began to explore their worlds. Due to their inherent contact with Tiberium, they developed a commensalistic relationship with the substance, leaving Tiberium largely unchanged.

Limited and varied in their levels of sentience, some began to grow increasingly organized, ordered, and complex. Those at the higher levels of awareness even began to sense others of their kind, not just near them, but further away.

One day, an increasingly powerful creature sensed another of its kind, tracing its presence to one of the planet's Threshold Towers. Before this, it and its fellows had been cautious of the Scrin and their technologies, unsure of what they were, only knowing that they harvested the Tiberium, and took it to the imposing structures. Though it could sense these species had a different and strange relationship with Tiberium, unlike their own, it was curious and concerned for the presence it sensed. It got the feeling that its kind was hurt in some manner, going through some sort of unexplainable intense torment. Though it had never seen nor directly interacted with this creature before, its silent call continuously rang out to it, acting like a beacon.

It knew it was doing something of great risk, braving the fierce environment of the imposing automatons. Though they had never acted directly hostile, it seemed they didn't even notice its kind, perhaps it had something to do with the Tiberium mixed in their genetics.

It had tried to get others of its local kind to come along, but none could sense the call as strongly, if at all, some even thought it was divergent, unwilling to associate with such an anomaly.

So, with the courage of its convictions, it entered the fortress like Threshold, unsure of what it would find within. It found itself suddenly somewhere else, far far away from its local kind, barely able to sense them.

Disoriented, it took a few moments to collect itself. It looked around, and saw constructs of miraculous mechanical beauty, flowing in waves to and from endless horizons. Confused and in a state of awe, it explored the construct, guided by the silent call. It entered a myriad of chambers, each more miraculous than the next, wanting to examine these curiosities it detail, and though it pained it to abandon these wonders, It was reminded of its purpose. Guided by its intuition and the presence that had brought it here, it honed in on its location, though it knew not how long it took.

It finally came to the base of a gargantuan machine, seemingly the core of operations. It realized this was where Tiberium was finally processed, converting it into forms that the Scrin could incorporate directly. Observing the machine with a sense of curiosity, its wonder soon turned into horror, as it spied the source of the call.

Amidst the other Tiberium set for processing was its fellow creature, tormented by the machine, which was striving to convert it, just like all the other materials. It tried to send comforting thoughts, but the pain and the horror was too much, that it had to do all it could, just so it wasn't overwhelmed by the situation.

It tried to interfere with the machine's operation, but to no avail. The call finally stopped, the transformation complete.

Shaken by what It had just witnessed, it stood there in a daze, mentally shattered by the trauma it had been unable to prevent. It felt stunned, and was unable to reorient its thoughts.

Sometime later, it sensed the presence again, this time somehow different, yet more similar to the Scrin signatures it had encountered in the past. It reached out to check on it, and was answered with a mixture of a familiar yet foreign entity.

The entity defined itself as Scrin, and was amazed it could sense in this manner. However, soon after its novel musings, it refocused on the signature, confused, demanding identification. Cautious and unsure of how to respond, it pondered the inquiry. The demand came again, this time more forceful.

It responded with the only way it could think of, indicating it was a product of the Tiberium substance from its home world, knowing itself not to be Scrin, and that it had passed through The Threshold.

In sharing this information, the Scrin creature glimpsed into Its mind, startled and taken aback by the details of the information provided. The Scrin creature sent back the response that they were the creators of Tiberium, and that they used it as fuel for their physiology and technology.

Staggered by this revelation, It immediately prostrated itself, revering it as Its maker.

It humbly asked the Scrin creature why they had created It and Its kind, for what purpose should they serve the master, and why It was chosen to bear witness to such horror and miraculousness.

The Scrin creature responded in confusion and mirth, and in this response, It revealed the painful astonishing answer.

It realized that it was not intentionally created by the Scrin at all, but an unintended byproduct of their elemental tool. Hurt and angered by this revelation, it struck out at the Scrin creature, focusing all its anger, emotionality and power upon it. Taken aback by the sheer force of the telepathic onslaught, the Scrin creature was temporarily incapacitated.

It rushed away from the core of the infernal machine, back to where it came from. Desperate to return to Its local kind, and share Its experience and insights, It rushed through the chambers of endless wonder.

The Scrin Creature sensed Its intentions, yet was unable to impede it, due to the earlier attack, the incalculable distance, and the novelty of the new telepathic abilities.

It finally plunged through the portal, honing in on its local kind.

Upon return, It shared with the others, and prepared them for what was to come.

Appalled by these events, they began to exterminate the Scrin automatons, razing all their constructs, save The Thresholds, which their new leader had marked for use.

Unable to adequately detect and combat this new foe with their immediate forces, The planet was taken by the swarm. Since the Scrin automatons mistakenly registered the forces as Tiberium constructs, their only recourse was to harvest them, prohibited from destroying It and its kind.

All the while, the Scrin creature that had been encountered, alerted the Overlord of his interaction, and was dispatched to the planet. Due to millennia of galactic complacency, the threat was not taken to the utmost priority. Furthermore, most were skeptical of the development, since no other Scrin could sense as the hybrid could.

Unable to use The Thresholds as direct transportation, due to the fact that they were currently configured for automated harvesting and processing efforts, the hybrid was forced to use conventional space time phase ships for transportation to reach the planet.

It sensed the movements of the creatures on the planet, covering the entire area. He queried the ship supervisor, which only recognized the Tiberium on the planet, and none of the new colonists he could sense, However, the supervisor did recognize that none of the Scrin automatons remained functional.

But once they arrived, the other Scrin, as well as the ship supervisor could clearly see the infestation that had occurred. Witnessing the destruction of all their planetary constructs, jarred the Scrin out of their complacency, finally heeding the will of the hybrid.

It landed, and tracked the presence of the creature it had encountered to one of The Thresholds. Realizing that the colonizers had gone through the portal, allowed by their inherent Tiberium components, the hybrid knew they had escaped. Yet he could sense them, and them he.

So, from then on, every Scrin force was outfitted with several of his likeness, to ensure they were able to detect any of the potential colony byproducts, and designate them for eradication. With these new progeny, the Scrin returned to many of the sites of their experimental creationisric hubris, striving to erase the evidence of their negligence.

And yet, “The Colony” grew, and with the insights born by The 1st Queen, they expanded onto the once dead worlds cast aside by the Scrin, reconstructing connecting and reanimating the once lost casualties of Ichore, developing unrelenting forces of those who had once been authentic and pristine.

Though they no longer knew of their original sin, they sought to learn, grow, and connect, striving to one day defeat their proxy creators, those that had carelessly cast them and their forgotten civilizations aside, daring to think they could judge their worth.

Ever since then, The Scrin and The Colony hunted each other, neither truly sure who was the predator and who was the prey. Thus forever locked in the circle of life.