• Nobles of Null is a forum based roleplay site where sci-fi and magic collide. Here, Earth remains fractured and divided despite humanity reaching out to the stars. Worse still, the trans-human slaves of one major power have escaped, only to establish their own Empire, seething with resentment at abuses of the past. Even the discovery of aliens, though medieval in development, has failed to rally these squabbling children of Earth together with its far darker implications. Worse still, is the discovery of the impossible - magic. Practiced by the alien locals, nearly depleted and therefore rare, its reality warping abilities remains abstract and distant to the general populace. All the while, unseen in the darkness of space, forces from without threaten to press in. For those with eyes opened by insight, it is clear that an era is about to end, and that a new age will dawn.

Prologue 2: Mission Initiative

Ray of Meep

Ray of Meep

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Co-authored by: Ray of Meep (GM)

23XX A.D, over a century after the Zhongzhi event

Li Ming Star System, Planet Zhuque, Yunwang City

Li Shi Cheng watched helplessly as his neighborhood in the Beijing megalopolis was turned into a warzone. Due to reasons far beyond his understanding as a child, the kids and their parents of the other apartment block, folks who he went to school with and celebrated the holidays together, were throwing Molitav cocktails at those in his own apartment block, who responded in kind with firearms. How did they get firearms anyways? Shi Cheng would've thought, if his small body wasn't trapped under a pile of rubble, and if his left arm wasn't in so much pain that he'd rather cut it off.

There was a cry from the other room, his parents, familiar and ensuring. They entered, their faces covered in soot, panicked, crying, but they were there. Or so Shi Cheng thought, before more rubble and flames well between them.

"AAAHH!" Shi Cheng immediatley sat up from his bed, startling his wife, Shu Yang, besides him. He gasped for air as he looked around him. It was the familiar, small bed room in the institute's housing complex. The Zhu Moon let light in softly through the windows. Below on the campus grounds were the dwindling lights of student protestors, while the rest of the city hummed along peacefully. In the distance was the seemingly infinite expanse of the planet's red vegetation and all its natives and wilderness, yet to be tamed by the new order.

"Nightmares again?" Shu Yang asked softly, one hand on Shi Cheng's clothed chest. He looked at his left arm, currenly with the size and strength of that of a five year old child, then looked back his wife, whose cybernetics were exposed on the left hand side of her face.

"Yeah... yeah. The usual." Shi Cheng looked down and nodded.
 
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Six hours later

Shi Cheng found himself in a conference room, sitting on end of a U-shaped table. At the bottom of the "U" sat the head of the Xenobiology department, his boss, a grey-haired and ultimatley kind fellow who paraded his work around the building too often at times. Such was the nature of their field of study and the egos participating in it. They were both starting at the large monitor in front.

A middle-aged woman showed up on screen, with her black hair going down to the shoulders and wearing a simple, dark grey suit.

"Governor? To what do I owe the pleasure speaking to you?" Shi Cheng looked surprised at first, then asked flatly.

"Good morning to you as well, Dr. Li." The governor nodded. "I don't have much time, so I'll keep this short. Dr. Wang here said you were familiar with the Jing inhabiting this planet?"

Shi Cheng titled his head. "Well, they call themselves the "Aos Si", but that's besides the point. Familiar would be an understatement. I pretty much raided the entirety of the Zhuli's database regarding the species. You can look at my high-doctorate thesis for proof."

"That won't be necessary." The governor waved her hand. "Given your knowledge of the... "Aos Si", I ask you lead a program to incooporate some of them into Yunwang society. An uplifting project, if you will. Dr. Wang will provide the necessary funds to complete the project."

Shi Cheng's eyes widened, then crossed his arms. "That's quite the bomb you dropped on my lap in the morning. You do understand the cost for even a few Aos Si to be incoorporated successfully, right? Not to mention the social unrest that this'll bring, at least in the first few months? I may be out of my field here, but isn't Yunwang---"

"The currently situation in Yunwang, and in HFR as a whole, is precisely why I'm authorizing this project." The governor cooly interrupted. "As you know, the Unity party is struggling to deal with the AU spreading its influence on Earth, and the rest of the colonies are clamoring for independence. We need ways to show the government's ability to unify disparate groups, and taming xenos will be one avenue we're going down. Do you understand the stakes, Dr. Li?"

"Yes, governor." Shi Cheng whimpered.

"Good. Have a good day to both of you." She nodded, then cut off.

Shi Cheng slumped into his chair and looked at Dr. Wang with a difficult face, who sat silently and only shrugged.

"So much for just being a researcher." Shi Cheng muttered to himself.
 
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