====== Briareos ====== ===== The Old and the Young ===== "We hope to declare the dichotomy and the division of the last decades dead and buried. We come here not as old, not as young; nor as Manager or Expedionaires; but as Briareans. All that is green, all that we can place two solid feet on, should be our right to own and to share. We cannot share as two strangers, but as one family. So I offer a hand of friendship to all that have gathered here that we may heal these wounds and forge something better." "The Council of the System will hear from all Briareans regardless of age, creed, or any other factor. We know of the old grievances, and we know what lines we may break upon. We shall //not// break on those, and we shall grow a Briareos from that barren soil." --- From the opening of the first Briarean Council of the System, spoken by Thalia Letts ===== Reclamation ===== In the twenty years after the return of the Prometheus, the institution known as the Expeditionary League exploded in terms of size, and prominence. What began as a simple way for the youth to escape the stultifying age of the cities and Gasbags and travel out into the world became the second great cultural institution on the planet. And as the League grew and spread, so too did the fertile green land they left in their wake. The green, safe land grew and the barren wastes receded, and so the Briarean young went from strength to strength. The planet still turned lazily on its axis, so simple plants designed for a short day/night cycle couldn't survive in the extremes that were still so often generated. To account for this, a more growth-inclined version of the old Foodless tech was developed, based on many improvements done by Charlotte Letts, which could store up a great amount of energy during the blazing day, that would allow it to survive through the hostile night. These dense, energy-rich foods would prove unnerving to the members of the other systems at first, but the Briareans took to it with zeal. Now the planet has reached something akin to total coverage by this miraculous plant. The waste lands which for so long defined and codified the imagination of Briareos are no more, and a new age is dawning for the planet. The Expeditionary League now finds themselves asking "where next?". Some claim that their work is done, and that they should disband in strength, rather than wither into obscurity. Others claim that a second Reclamation should begin, to transform the biodiversity of the planet. Still more claim that there are a few places the Reclamation hasn't yet touched... the cities. ===== Undiscovered and Close ===== "Alyssa - I've found it. "You laughed, and... well I can't really blame you for that, but I //found// it. You'll need to come meet us, because words cannot express just how much city there is. Obviously you can see it, but it goes down really far, and it is accompanied by plants all the way down. It's kind of beautiful, in a weird way. "But right down at the bottom there is... I don't really know what to call it. It's some sort of repository of information, built into the genetic coding of some biological samples and stored under a deep freeze system. This //has// to be from before the destruction of the planet the first time. We're working on it now, and it's going to take a while, but I think they may have been working on a way to speed up the rotation of the planet again. "That. "Would. "Be. "//HUGE.// "Bring your Expeditionaires with you - we'll need all the hands we can get on this one." --- A message from Leane LeClaire, of the Expeditionary League