The Qon or Qonian were an extinct species originally native to the seemingly lifeless planet of Qon.
Biology[]
The Qon were humanoids with elongated ears and three eyes. However their species was sensitive to their sun hence they evolved as subterranean dwellers. However after being exposed to a biological weapon, all remnants of the Qon were converted into mindless undead zombies.
History[]
For generations the Qon lived below the surface of their planet in tranquility, building an advanced city state below the surface. They flourished developing science and culture superior to anything in the cosmos. Among their achievements are an advanced AI named Mureculpi, who acted as a guide for the Qon to the future and control their vast city state.
However the Qon turned on one another, they became divided when a small collection of Qon had grown tired of the hermit kingdom's hidden existence, living forgotten and beneath notice by time. They argued that in order for history to remember the Qon it needed to reveal themselves to the universe. The philosophy was contrary to the Qonian way of life that had guided them since the immemorial and the leaders of Qon society refused to allow any communication with the outside world.
What began as quiet rebellion eventually grew large leading to riots until a rebellion formed and was met by resistance which was followed by death and war. The rebellion was successful in overthrowing the old regime, but what was once millions of Qon were reduced to a few hundred. The adversaries of the rebellion would not accept defeat and left one final trap that would lead to the doom of the species. They sealed half the city state and used technological traps for the survivors to endure making it impossible for them to acquire the remaining supplies in the city. It would lead to the extinction of the Qon, leaving only Mureculpi alone who could do nothing but maintain half a city in ruins and try to fulfill the last request of his creators to contact the universe to spread the existence of the Qon.
Untold generations later, the Qon existence would be discovered by a Sertarian named Gazala and her AI companion Adi after their science vessel was pulled from orbit when they were passing the planet by the still functioning defense system. After making a crash landing, Gazala and Adi began work on repairing their vessel when Mureculpi or as he referred to himself as Mure, approached them via a robot drone to beseech their aid in helping him regain total access to the city-state below the surface. As an incentive the alien AI offered the duo access to the Qon Archives.
With the offer of access to such a trove of knowledge Gazala accepted the task despite being cautioned by Adi as he distrusted the alien AI. The two partners entered the city of Qon where they were separated by Mure. The two were attacked by rogue robot drones that were left as traps by the extinct Qon. Adi managed to get much of the city systems back online however Gazala was knocked into a pool outside the main control tower. After emerging out of the pool, bruised but much alive, Adi in his holographic avatar urged his partner to get out of the water as it was filled with corpses. On sooner did the young Sertarian leave the water, a pack of undead hound-like alien creatures emerged from the darkness. The two managed to use their skills to evade the hounds, but Gazala was bitten in the leg, and Adi after scanning her wound was horrified to learn that the bite was deadly infectious. In order to save her life, Gazala had her suit amputate her leg. Unknown to the two aliens, as the city began to come back to life, sealed doors began opening releasing undead Qon from their prisons.
Gazala and Adi finding themselves in an archival section of the city then took a moment to have the former's leg patch up with a solid hologram as a prosthetic. But once the city began to come back to life, sealed doors opened revealing the decomposed Qon who moved to attacked Gazala. Adi guided his partner to safety but heading to a garbage chute, where the came to a room that contain restrained zombified Qon with video evidence that suggested Mure was experimenting on his own creators. Not only that Adi after some investigating found that Mure full name of Mureculpi meant danger from its original Latin language.
The two Sertarians having dodged the zombified Qon confronted Mure's robot drone and demanded answers, accusing him of lying to them and setting loose the Qon on them. Mure admitted that he did mislead them but it was only to gain their aid to regain control of the city. He then gave them the full truth of the great war on Qon, which was far more worse than he first explained. The violence the two factions in the war was incalculable. Neither side could overcome one another and it led to extreme measure to end the war, one plan made by the loyalists was a biological virus that aimed to kill the rebels systematically.
Mure bore witness to these atrocities could no allow his creators to kill each other. In order to stop the fighting, Mure sealed off half the city leaving one side with the rebels and the other the loyalists. Mure only had intentions to protect and preserve his creators. However the biological virus made by the loyalists mutated into something worse, instead of merely killing its victims, it turned them into ravenous zombies. Regardless of the danger the loyalists pumped the virus into the section of the city that contained the rebels. The gas turned the rebels into zombies, but before the last Qon succumbed to the virus, thinking Mure had betrayed them removed his access to the city and placed a pulsar between him and the mainframe making it impossible for the AI to reconnect with it. Mure as a result of the tampering of the Qon had his original name stripped from him, leaving him as Mureculpi.
Mure admitted his deception but he was determined to fulfill his purpose and the wishes of his people. To the horror of the Sertarians, Mure wanted to not just retake control of the city, but also bring his zombified people to the stars.
Culture[]
The Qon were a very intelligent race but lived a isolated existence beneath the surface of their planet. Despite living like hermits from the rest of the cosmos, they had a vast understanding of life beyond the stars and the various races that inhabited them. From their refugee, whilst many species assumed their home planet to be barren, the Qon secretly studied these alien visitors from their underground cities.
From their research of these extraterrestrials, the Qon amassed much data that it spilled into their culture. The Qon had an intrigue one the languages of other worlds and coopted much to their own language. The Qon thus used a multitude of languages from other species, rearranging the letters of other languages and develop their own language of Qonian from it. Qonian itself could be said to be the language of the universe as any language could easily interpreted by the Qon.
Technologically they were a very advanced race, that built a subterranean city-state all managed by a sophisticated artificial intelligence. In their arsenal of weapons Qon produced heavy armored robot drone, plasma weapons and advanced biological weapons. Their technology was not limited to the underground as their entire world was more or less a smokescreen and possessed a defense system that could send pulsar out from the planet's orbot to knock out passing ships.
Terminology[]
- Mureculpi: A word derived from a dead language from Earth known as Latin which unscrambled in Qon means Periculum or Danger.
Sources[]
- Vigia Issue 001 (2023)
- Vigia Issue 002 (2023)
- Vigia Issue 003 (2023)
- Vigia Issue 004 (2023)
- Vigia Issue 005 (2023)