Brainstorming Story Ideas:::

[Mr. President]

Same here.

[WotanAnubis]

I'd just like to say that I too like this idea and may, perhaps, possibly, join in if it gets off the ground.

[Hydro]

Transcendi Interrogation

Hi all,

To get things going I wrote a little short story to explore how Sprayber's theme might work. See what you think.

Hydro

*~*~*~*

Transcendi Interrogation

The deviant transcendi was apprehended while engaged in actions that were, in the opinion of the office of the Prime Investigator, a threat to the state. As such, this individual was forcibly encapsulated, pruned of unauthorized energy and information sources, and given into the custody of the Prime Investigator for interrogation. This memory transcript is the most intriguing of all the memories or information that was extracted. The time period of the memory transcript indicates the deviant was an original Unity colonist from the long extinct Gaian faction. As such it may have bearing on the ongoing historical imperative that the Justice Ministry has announced.

At this time the memory transcript from the deviant transcendi is considered suspect. The reference frames and locations synch with known places, although most of the individuals mentioned in the memory engram are unknown to the Prime Investigator and cannot be corroborated. It is highly unlikely that any Gaian of that era would have survived long enough to become a transcendi, been undiscovered by the Hunter Algorithms, and evaded the periodic purges to become a transcendi. However, if this is true then it is critical that such methods be known to the Prime Investigator so that greater security can be affected. If the memory is false then the fact that this apparent falsehood has withstood intense scrutiny is also of interest.

Unfortunately the transcendi did not survive the ministrations of the Prime Investigator and additional force queries are not possible. Additional analysis is currently being performed, and in particular additional extrapolations are being completed on non-standard references within the memory transcript.

Transcendi Sam-sul Sighn, non-corporeal collective entity
Senior Prime Investigator Operative

*~*~*~*

The sun is so bright it hurts my eyes. At the horizon the sky is an intense blue green. It contrasts so much from the deep blue sky of a clear day on Earth. I miss the blue so much and even after all these years the blue green of Planet seems somehow wrong. The white puffy clouds are mostly the same, although the clouds seem thicker and higher here on Planet. That probably has something to do with the thicker atmosphere, or that’s what the self-appointed climate expert Randal said a few months ago. For once that sounded reasonable so I didn’t pick another fight.

That isn’t to say that I saw the sky much before launch. I was so busy, and when I did look up there was a pall of gloom over everything. All that I loved back in Rennes was falling apart, so maybe being consumed by Unity was a blessing since I was distracted from the latest nuclear conflagration in southern Asia, vicious factional fighting in the North Americas, and terrorist gas attacks at home. The sky was almost never seemed blue anymore. I guess I can learn to love the blue-green of Planet.

All around me the land is a virulent red and somewhat disturbing blue. Bright sun makes the red waving fronds and bulbous of the xenofungus look like they are beckoning to me, almost friendly and inviting. I’m not even sure why it seems so hospitable to me since I know the fungus is very dangerous. Maybe it is the promise of something new and unknown, and of an understanding that just barely within my reach. All I need to do is open my mind and let the red whisper its secrets to me. Everything else on Planet is merely physical, like the climatology blather Randal keeps droning on about or the sterile prattle of the geologists and engineers. Heavy gravity blah, blah, blah; nitrogen narcosis, blah, blah, blah; load bearing structures, blah, blah, blah – as if I don’t know that already, or that I care. Insufferable twits. The living fungus is a true treasure, a breathing ecosystem that is complex and wonderful.

But the deep blue of shadows all around the fungus give me pause and, to be honest, I don’t like it one bit. Blue is lurking beneath and around the red, always out of sight of the bright blue-green sky. I just heard that my good friend Ruby was found dead yesterday. Ruby wasn’t his real name, of course, but that is what everyone called him. In fact, I kind of gave him the nickname when he came home from one of the first expeditions after landing; he had found a lode of red-colored fruit that had given him a distinct pinkish hue. He loved the fungus just like me, but it killed him anyway. It didn’t just kill him; it partially ate him – alive. Even in rigor mortis his face showed that he died in stark, sheer terror.

And I get to go in there every day. Oh, I know that I volunteered and that old Emanuel Phillips wouldn’t let me weasel out of it. We’ve fallen into a pattern with my whiney complaints and his stern rejection of my whiney complaints. He tells me to ‘suck it up’ and ‘get my ass in gear’ and I sputter in indignation. Through it all there is an undertone of humor, although Dee once asked if we had a problem. I told her no and then took the opportunity to fill her in on our latest finds on the razorback and glowworms. She actually spent almost half a day listening and asking questions! Her handler was none too amused, but Dee shushed him and eventually he left in a huff. Officious putz. Just like Randal.

My scouting efforts have gone well. My Companion is always amazing and is my partner in every way. I’ve taken to calling it ‘him’ or ‘he’ and whenever I do I get a mental equivalent of a laugh and a gentle reminder that denizens have no equivalent of gender. I swear, there are times I think my Companion has bonded with me simply for his amusement – typically at my expense. I’ve always wondered what the Companions get out of the partnership between humans and denizens, other than a detached amusement, that is. When you get right down to it we are totally different in all ways except that we share a higher form of thinking, and even that is totally different! I mean, human have an organic-based singular intelligence and the best we’ve been able to parse is that the Companions are nodes or offshoots of a collective intelligence. Even stranger, they remain individuals even while being part of a larger whole. The more I delve into this the more alien it becomes for me – and more intriguing. If humans can only open our minds enough to learn from our Companions then we will be much better for it. Could humans one day have their own collective intelligence? Could we develop new ways of sharing information, or even forming bond-pairs with each other or with denizens? Imagine the possibilities!

Anyway, in the last ten years I’ve scouted huge tracts of the northern territories. Moving through the fungus is natural for all the Companions. The closest analogy I’ve found is that they partially disaggregate and flow through and around the native flora and even fauna. What is odd is that when I travel with him the flora and fauna seems to help him by moving out of the way (unless they are sessile, of course) or even providing him a lift here and there. It is very rare to see any active or even passive opposition to our travel. The only examples of what might be called opposition are the vast fungal towers, which have been impervious to all forms of empathy or communication. Most Companions avoid them and refer to them in a strange third person, which leads me to believe they are either a unique part or isolated from the semi-group consciousness the Companions seem to share. We all know the towers do not like humans at all and react, shall we say, most negatively to any intrusion on their space. Towers aside, traveling through the fungus is a joy for both of us. I get to examine the ecosystem in detail and share in his interaction with it, and my only gripe is that he travels so fast I have to do my work quickly. I’ve collected tons of samples and terrabytes of data and I’ve only scratched the surface. My Companion does seem to enjoy my observations and comparisons to Earth-based life and asks such odd questions. Some literally make me stop in my tracks, either because they are so off the wall or painfully insightful. I can feel that I do the same to him at times. So it seems we are expanding each other’s point of view, and that is a very good thing. Perhaps that is the key to our companionship – mutual learning, understanding, and growth of abilities and function.

One of the most interesting finds we’ve made recently was a huge tract of fungus in the northern portion of the continent we inhabit. We’ve colonized most of the southern area of the continent, which is fairly friendly to humans since it has abundant rivers and lands that are fairly free of xenofungus. Very little standard terraforming is needed to make it productive for humans. What lies to the north is fascinating, and I find it endlessly amusing that the other factions would find this territory to be useless and hostile in the extreme since it is almost completely covered with fungus. The idiots! Little do they know! All around there are strange alien monoliths, each of which act on the Companions like moths to a light. They even make my hair stand on end (assuming I had any hair left after being with my Companion for so long). As far as we know this is the only portion of Planet that is like this and it has to be there for a reason. So much on Planet seems too harmonious, and when I ask my Companion about this he shrugs it off or responds as if the answer were obvious and I am too thick to understand – and perhaps I am. The Council should consider a greater expedition to these areas, and perhaps…

**!!DISCONTINUITY!!** The deviant terminated during this portion of the recording, and the termination itself was non-standard. As far as can be ascertained, the transcendi simply ceased to exist. Evidently the deviant did not want this portion of this memory to fall into our hands. Removing a memory so completely that there are no remaining links or traces that would allow a full or partial memory reconstruction is extraordinary and is far beyond the ordinary transcendi. This implies that this memory is either an exacting forgery or that the late transcendi had abilities we did not record before termination during memory extraction. The termination itself is another anomaly since the complete dissolution of the entity and all of its energy-based memories violate known laws of the conservation of energy and, therefore, it is of great interest to the Office of the Prime Investigator.

[Rand Al'Tor]

Oooh, nice. With an evil ending even. The dark future sounds sufficiently 'inhuman' for a 1984-ish feel.

I'll let it stew a bit and see what I can come up with.

[Sprayber]

Good going Hydro

I wrote this up tonight and wonder what everyone thinks. Perhaps we could do a combination of net postings and memory thefts. Follow the attempts of authorities to hunt down deviants and net postings of dissidents.




---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Office of Prime Investigator
Report --Suspicious Message on Central Plaza Net
Recorded off Central Plaza Net
date: message first appeared 10.02.66 at 23:42:01 CST
repeated every hour until CP-Net Administrators rebooted entire system. No trace could be performed.

Message resurfaced 10.05.66 at 23.42.01 CST and again repeated every hour until another reboot performed. CP-Net administrators noted increased difficulty in removing message.

Special consideration has been given to the words
Chiron
Sparta
Morgan Inc.
Believers,
Gians,
Peacekeepers
Hive
Defeat
Protectorate fleet
Kell
Eto
Lydia
Genru
Sanders
Attia
Nameless Ones


Text of Message Follows
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Things were not always as they are now. History as is downloaded from the central plaza net has been polished to suit a specific purpose, that is to glorify the Protectorate and the Protector. Some things we see as truth but always distorted to suggest that history flowed smoothly into the modern Protectorate instead of stumbling as we so ingloriously did into our current condition. How could I know this you ask. The Protector has been around for centuries, should he not know best how history has proceeded? But you see the Protector is not the only one who has witnessed the flow of time. We have been here also waiting for the correct time for our revelations. The defeat of the Protectorate fleet at the hands of the nameless ones proves that the Protectorate is not invincible and may not be able to stem the tide of the alien advance. You see we know the face of the nameless ones fore we were there when they first visited the foster world centuries ago. When names such as Sparta, Morgan Inc. Believers, Gians, Peacekeepers and Hive meant something to every single human. A time when humans weren't jacked into the central net during every waking moment or take orders from the shadows that haunt the networks. The Protector knows these times well for he was apart of that world as we were. Now our voice will be heard, our history will be told even it means the end of our lives. What follows is a true account of the history of humanity following our landing on our Foster World of Chiron. A little corner of the Protectorate that the Protector knows all too well.

Kell-Eto-Lydia-Genru-Sanders-Attia


Conclusions:
Threat Level is classified as T-1
Special attention has been shown by the Protector himself. The Protector is to be informed personally by the Office of the Prime Investigator of any breaking information immediately

[Illuminatus]

What happened to University? Did it unite the Planet under its banner?

[Rand Al'Tor]

Seems so: I'm writing right now, though we might need to get a few things agreed on. Do we use the standard 'Huge Map of Planet' or the Alien Crossfire one?

Also, I am curently writing from the perspective of a 'historian' who performs rogue investigations into the Believers. This does demand of course that, despite everything, the Protector's grip on the population is not absolute. Of course, if it was, than the whole 'look here!' thing of Sprayber's post would be of little use, so I'm going to assume that there are ways to get around being 'plugged in'

[WotanAnubis]

OK, so, before I begin, I have a few questions:

Who won (since I don't seem to recall any faction with the word 'Protectorate' in its name)? And what kind of society have they running in terms of Social Engineering?

And did they win? Or are they just the dominant force on Planet while fringe factions are still out there waging war or just trying to survive?

[Hydro]

I kind of like the idea of a history that develops from chaotic sources. As more information is available more clarity is achieved. Much will contradict, but that's OK.

As WotanAnubis noted, we do need to establish 'now', however. I think it might be less limiting if there is a clearly dominant power that is reaching for ultimate power with a bevy of minor players struggling under their heel or trying to bring him or her down. This would allow a myriad of points of view – and lots of conflict (play the Star Wars EMPIRE theme here).

By who? An easy way to create conflict is to have one of the militaristic factions be the lead, or perhaps a 'good' faction that has lost its focus - such as the PKs who choose Thought Control or Power as SE choices. Imagine if it was the PKs that conquered the Gaians? But then, I’ve always liked the cool malevolence of the Hive, the heel-clicking impersonal gory death inspired by the Spartans, and sticking swords in abdomens of children to save their souls.

To follow Sprayber's lead, Protectorate could be the government of a captive/submissive faction. Captive populations are restive for 50 years, so this would be an ongoing source of trouble for a conquering faction. This is especially true if they have a lot of conquered bases (woe to the PKs with poor efficiency!).

There are lots of possibilities: short stories, snippets, episodes, or even play-by-play vignettes.

Hydro

[Rand Al'Tor]

CP-net
Worker, you have 35 minutes of leisure time
You have 1 new message
Open message?
Yes
Remember to report any suspicious message to the Prime Investigator. The Protectorate thrives thanks to your obedience and caution.

Historical essay

It is important that we step into things with both eyes open. The truth is someone to be sought, not to be thrust upon someone. It is also dangerous. I do not wish to harm anyone, hence this warning. If you do not wish to learn things that are not approved by the protectorate, and are not in possession of some mods to have some moments of privacy and leisure time, I advise you to stop reading now, and forward this message to the Prime Investigator, or better yet, delete it entirely.

You didn’t, so you’re interested in learning more about the past of Planet. I am not an oracle though, merely someone who tries to sift through the sands of time and get some kernels of truth. Until now, I merely performed solitary research. A dangerous hobby born of curiosity. It is that peculiar message on Plaza.net that convinced me to share my findings with the rest of the world.

What I will not do in this essay is give you a complete history of Planet. I do not have enough sources. I cannot even give you a timeline. Rather, I will present some sources as I have found them, the story of how I found them and the interpretations I have given. I hope others will combine this with their own information and that together we may get closer to the truth.

Then again, the authors of that message promise a first-hand account, so perhaps this is just a fool’s errand. We shall see. For now, here’s more on those who called themselves Believers.

[picture]

This one gets put first, as it was the start of my own research.. A few hundred miles to the south-east of Planetneck there has been some terraforming to equalize the land but as you can see, the differences in soil composition suggest that there has been a deep hole there, similar to Garland Crater, but much smaller, and it has been there for some time. For some time I thought it was merely a man-made hole that was filled later, but later findings suggested the hole was caused by the impact of an object.

At the time I was getting moderately interested. For the sake of my credibility I must add that my place of residence at that time was far from the capital, and while we were all plugged in, network administrators had their hands full making the colony run with some efficiency, and had little time to investigate every stray thought. This is why I could continue my research despite being plugged in.

I proposed to perform a reconnaissance mission to check for possible mineral deposits in the area and acquired permission. This makes me believe that if the Protectorate knows of these other Factions at all, such knowledge is reserved to the higher echelons. With the help of some genejacks I began to dig. On the seventh day we found pieces of metal. One of them was of particular interest.

[picture]

The image has been partially wiped away with time, but on a molecularly scan it shows that it depicted the map of a world. But it is not the one we know. When I first saw it, I started shaking. I was looking at a map of Terra! It was badly detailed, and the picture of a the leaves around causes me to consider the image decorative rather than functional, but it was enough to rouse my curiosity. The object that had landed here was manmade, and it came from Terra! Age-analysis confirmed my suspicions. The amount of metal we found could not have been enough to cause the crater, but I suspect most of it has been removed.

I took the pictures you see here and then… regrettably, I had the metal melted to scrap. Not only did I need to justify the expense I made, but I knew that the Protectorate is somewhat rigid when it comes to history, and it was unlikely they’d let me investigate this further. And so I decided to take risks. I started taking illegal drugs that cause my brain to emit a steady stream of banality-surface thoughts to hide further thinking, and managed to remove all traces of my ‘dig’. The team of genejacks I reported were lost to a mindworm attack. Actually, I kept them idle near the place of the dig. With a supply of food, and the inability to get bored, they waited.

For weeks I didn’t dare to return there. I was afraid that any day the Admins would come to arrest me. Only after that time did I dare to make sure I got sick, leave a dummy signal of me shivering in my private med-bay and returned to hopefully uncover more hidden treasure. We found more metal, but the next great discovery was somewhat away from the impact site.

[Picture]

A set of roughly made boxes made from the same material as the object that landed here. I suspect they were improvised shortly after the time of landing. This caused even greater excitement. Not only had I stumbled upon a relic from Planetfall itself, but here were traces of the first colonists, of the seeds of what would become the Protectorate. Or so I thought. I had to restrain myself from commanding the genejacks to crack open the boxes that instant. What treasures would I discover? After the necessary precautions, I finally opened the first and I found… a corpse.

[Picture]

To say I was shocked would be an understatement. My distress caused the genejacks, plugged into my thoughts, to become restless as if a mindworm was nearby. At first I thought I had come across some barbaric punishment, that this person was buried alive! After I calmed down and gave the corpse a critical look, I abandoned that hypothesis. The corpse is in a position of rest, and investigation of the corpses show they either died of illness or injuries. But why have they been put in boxes and put in the ground? As it is, they’re not even useful as an inefficient fertilizer. Possibly it’s some kind of ritual? An unanswered question for now.

Autopsy shows some differences between these people and us. There is a great variation in size and build among them. DNA scans show astounding differences in genetic make-up among the dead. The genome is rife with errors and hereditary afflictions though, compared to our own. The people were longer and more fragile, and they must have had a hard time arranging a colony. I have read that Terra had lower gravity than Planet, and this suggests that might be so.

[picture]

Several of the corpses had an object in their hands. Most of them were made of wood, and regrettably in a sorry state. But I found a few made of materials that doesn’t occur naturally on Planet. Terra artefacts, perfectly preserved. I still carry some of them with me, even if they are rather morbid.

They are rather similar in design, though the amount of detail varies. The size is between five and twenty centimetres In length, three and twelve centimetres in width and one and two centimetres thickness. It depicts a cross with a man affixed to it in what seems like an execution. The more detailed ones show he has been nailed to it in fact. The figure varies slightly among the examples, but I presume it is meant to be the same one. The figure is lean, bearded and dressed only in a rag of cloth covering the genitals. He also wears an odd headgear, which looks like it’s made of barbed wire. Many instances show him to have a wound in the side. Sometimes there is engraved INRI above his head. I assume this is his name.

Who is this Inri, and why is he punished? Why were these people put in a box with a likeness of him. Was it to remind them of something that happened on Earth or on the way here? A curse on this Inri, wishing such a fate on him, or a warning against some kind of crime? Or perhaps such a symbol is the sign that the deceased person committed some crime? I have no further clue at this point.

[picture]

Also found was this inscription on a piece of metal near the boxes. We’ve done our best to decipher it, but age has not been kind to it.

Ther… Lord God sent them [away?] from the Garden of…
…out the ma[n] and pl[ace]d at the east of…
… flaming sword whic[h] turned every…
To keep the way to the Tree of…

This cryptic message, as things before, caused more questions than answers. Lord is an ancient term signifying authority. Lord God is presumably some kind of leader. The capitalization of Garden suggests emotional attachment. Is it possible this Garden was the name these early colonists had for Terra, and Lord God was the ruler who told them to take to the space. The rest of the story has too many hiates for any conclusions.

In the meantime, several days had passed, and I had been gone longer than I had planned. But just before I left, one of the Genejacks gave a signal it had found something.

[picture]

An ancient piece of electronics, that had amazingly survived the ages relatively intact. Carefully putting it in a container, I took it with me. It looked like it held data, and I would need more advanced tools to extract…

Download interrupted
Disruptive contents detected.
Activating paralytic implant
Prime Investigator alerted

[Hydro]

Looks like we're rolling! How about we post these in a separate thread and keep misc discussions here?

Hydro

[Rand Al'Tor]

Sounds good. One concern I have is that we all should talk of the same history. Can we perhaps draft a rough timeline in the discussion thread, so that one person doesn't describe the war between the Morganites and the Gaeans while someone else describes how those two allied against the Believers in the same timeframe?

Also, as the idea of the thread was to write about the history from the perspective of latecomer/historian, perhaps we should be careful not to have the survivors from the age say too much. It would take kind of the fun of historians try to piece together these old Factions if someone who was there just tells them how it all really was.

[Mr. President]

Yes, I agree. The history thing will shoot us in the head if we aren't careful. Even if it's just as simple as "This faction still exists, that one doesn't", it'll at least give us something to work with.

One other comment - I like the snippets in this thread and the dystopian Thought Control implications. Great potential and I'd like to contribute if I can*.



*Given that I wrote the 20-page prologue to my novel over the last year, I'm feeling excited but less than 100% confident.

[Hydro]

How about this?

*~*~*~*

Anthology Title: Protectorate

Back History: The history of Chiron has been one of ceaseless struggle and brutality. Ever shifting alliances and betrayals lead to chaos and no clear dominant faction until the use of six planetbusters against the core bases of the Peacekeepers shattered the Planet Axis alliance in MY2284. The Federal Alliance absorbed many of the remaining bases of the Believers and eliminated the Gaians before its members fell out with each other in bloody war in 2319. The resulting exchange of planetbusters, nerve gas attacks, and razed bases blasted the core of Morganite territory, destroyed most of the core bases of the Spartan Federation, and vaporized seven core cities of The Hive.

This destruction and the resulting ecological disruption became known as The Spasm. Planet erupted into massive fungal blooms, destroying a hundred years of terraforming. The seas of Chiron rose, and the bickering remaining powers of the Planetary Council were not able to form a consensus to stop the catastrophe. By 2344 more bases had been inundated by rising seas and remaining prosperous bases of the three independent empires suffered population crashes and were devastated by worm onslaughts.

The year is now 2369 and The Hive almost reigns supreme. The Hive better survived The Spasm and gradually exerted its control over the remaining independent powers and subject factions. It established The Protectorate to administer its vast holdings, and metes out punishment to those inside and outside of its direct control in its effort to gain ultimate power over Chiron. However, all is not well with The Hive. Chairman Yang has not been seen in public in over five Chiron years. Numerous inexplicable events such as revolts, thefts, and security breaches are occurring on a regular basis. Hivean ministries struggle to understand the causes for these events and delve into the shattered and murky past in their efforts to find answers. The ministries are well aware that their lives are forfeit to failure; the Hivean Supreme Council is not known for their mercy. And the fate of humanity on Chiron hangs in the balance.

Setup: Large Map of Planet, arid, heavy fungus (not friendly)

Factions: SMAC – Peacekeepers, Gaians, Morganites, University, Hive, Spartans, Believers
Faction placement:
* Morgan – Isle of Deiriana
* Gaian – NE of Monsoon Jungle (share with Spartans)
* Spartans – center of eastern continent, share a small portion of the Jungle with the Gaians
* PKs – southern half of eastern continent
* Hive – central continent
* University – southern portion of western continent
* Believers – northern portion of western continent

Faction Status in 2369:
* Morgan – submissive to Hive, most of island destroyed
* Gaian – eliminated
* Spartans – independent, Jungle destroyed, most major bases destroyed; some captured PK and Gaian bases
* PKs – submissive to Spartans, devastated
* Hive – independent, recovering; core of continent eliminated (a donut hole due to PB attacks); many captured Believer and a few PK bases; many Hivean sea bases
* University – independent; some captured Believer bases
* Believers – submissive to University; almost eliminated

Remaining Secret Projects – many were destroyed; it remains TBD to see which ones are still present

Tech level – tech advancement essentially stopped after the Spasm since most core bases and terraforming were destroyed; tech level is advanced with rough parity between University and Hive, Spartans slightly behind; submissive factions are stuck with mid level techs (their masters are not generous)

Political status – Chairman Yang is Planetary Governor; very tense peace between Hive, Spartans, and University; submissive factions are at permanent war with all other factions (forced on them by their masters); University, Spartans, and their submissive factions actively oppose all Hive proposals resulting in deadlock

Ecological status – sea levels have risen 250 meters, which inundated islands and destroyed the Monsoon Jungle; approximately half of all continents and seas are covered with fungus due to the high fungus at landing and the numerous fungal blooms; some has been removed, but not much, by terraforming; this results in fairly small bases due to lack of terraforming (the biggest are size nine or so)

[WotanAnubis]

Hmm. Personally I would've liked to see the SMAX factions (except the aliens - although... there aren't that many humans VS Progenitor stories out there, are there?) in there as well. Mostly because my short story idea was about an underground Data Angel run information network operating in all Protectorate bases, freely accessable by even the lowliest Drone yet frustratingly untraceable by even the most vigilant Investigator.

I was even working on something of a slogan, or opening statement when accessing the network:
Welcome to the Data Angel Information Network
Freely giving you the info your leaders don't want you to have...


Of course... I prefer to see Planet and the SMAC/X games as ultimately hopeful rather than a bleak display of humanity's darkest excesses.