Augustus

General Info

Augustus is a large J-Class gas giant with aerial life. It is the 4th planet of the 1st star in the Tolkien Binary System, Template:InfoboxPlanethome to 13 planets.

Life

The atmosphere of Augustus is unique than most gas giants. It is made of oxygen, not the typical helium and hydrogen. But bands of hydrogen still exist in the planet's atmosphere. Strange flying creatures have adapted to life there, but the planet is not the life's orgin. The life came from the neighboring planet Nocoma, a warm E-Class world with basic unicellular life. A massive asteroid impact crashed into the planet, sending debris everywhere. The life on the planet was wiped out. But some of the life was hiding in the asteroids that shot out from the impact, and one landed on the gas giant. The others that didn't land there ended up starving to death in the asteroids. The gas giant was seeded with life from the impacts. The bacteria evolved to float, and eventually became multicellular organisms. The many creatures there are similar to whales or dolphins, but also have a slightly bug-like appearance. They breath in the small amount of helium in the planet's atmosphere, and use it in large bladders to stay afloat. Some also have wings, though it is hard to fly through the dense atmosphere. Some life has adapted harder exoskeletons and have migrated to the lower regions of the gas giant where the pressure is so high that the gas turns into a liquid of oxygen and helium. The creatures 'swim' through the honey-like substance, and produce bioluminescence.

Discovery by Humans

A human ship discovered the planet in the 73rd century. They colonized the planet, and built a research lab there to learn about the strange creatures that lived there. The research station also used helium to stay afloat. They finished researching, and were planning to return to Earth and leave the planet in peace. But Theodore Musk, the great-great-great-great-grandchild of Elon Musk, decided something else. He wanted to build a large city in the clouds, connected to other cities. And so construction began. They leaved the flying creatures in peace, and some even were tamed to help build by transporting supplies to construction sites. The project was finished in the early 74th century. Billions arrived at the planet and started up a civilization there. The oxygen atmosphere allowed it to be breathable to humans. But as they all arrived there, a horrible thing happened. Humans exhale carbon dioxide, and carbon is toxic to the hydrogen-helium based lifeforms that lived in the clouds. Mass die-offs occurred as carbon dioxide built up. Theodore had to do something before these rare creatures went extinct. Thankfully, a gas giant with similar properties existed orbiting the other star in the Tolkein system. Large teams captured all the creatures they could find and transported them to the planet, where they lived away from humans. They started to recover, and humans continued to rush into the mega-cites that floated on the planet. But something was happening to the creatures on the gas giant. They were evolving.

Evolution

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