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

The creatures were evolving to become smarter. They now had the intelligence of a 3-year old human. They befriended each other, and had feelings. A tribal system was set up. As the humans continued to expand their floating cities on Augustus, the flying creatures were evolving without them knowing. They then began to peer out at the stars and wonder what was out there. But they were stuck floating around on this gas giant forever. No land to build cities on. No materials to build floating cities. Just stuck in gas. Then, a mutation occurred. A creature was born with a harder exoskeleton then the normal creatures, and could store the helium for long trips instead of constantly having to breath in more. The creature was fascinated by the stars, attempted to fly out of the planet's atmosphere. He succeeded. He stared down at his world from space, and saw how small it was compared to the universe. But he was running low on helium. He quickly flew back down to the planet's atmosphere. He told his friends about the discoveries he had made. They were fascinated. They wanted to fly in space too. The creature eventually had 3 children, and they had carried down that gene of strength exoskeletons and respiratory endurance. He took his young out for flights around the planet. They were amazed. Eventually, they grew up and passed on their genes to other creatures. The genome spread throughout the planet. The creatures were no longer bound to the atmosphere. They could experience the cosmos at will. But they still couldn't go that far out, and needed to return to their planet for more helium. Then one named Aydo. flew to one of the planet's moons. A temperate selena. She was the first of their kind to go to a different stellar object. But she did not make it back in time to get more helium. Aydo was remembered as a very strong figure in their culture. Then, after the humans had pretty much covered Augustus's surface with mega-cities, they decided to return to the creatures and check on them. They were amazed to see how they had evolved in such a short period of time. They decided to give them a proper name. The Perambulantes, Latin for 'skywalker.' They helped the perambulantes, by building them a large city to live in floating on the atmosphere of Peram, the recently named planet that the perambulantes were sent to after the carbon dioxide crisis. They then had the intelligence of 21st century humans, and formed a peace with the humans, but under one rule. The humans should not interfere with their evolution beyond this point. And the perambulantes were left alone to live on the city. They then invented the first rockets, and were able to fly to Peram's largest moon, the same moon that Aydo had discovered and died on. They then built base there. Their technology continued to improve, and eventually they colonized a few other planets in their half of the binary system.