Iterators

Iterators refers to two things, the mysterious near god-like machines found on Planet Wawa, and those marked by the Iterators with the so called "Mark of Communication". The second type of Iterators famously includes most members of the species known as the Scurrets, though alternatively they have been popularly called Wawa's, Scugs, and occasionally Slugcats, though that last name remains discouraged by NanoTrasen's legal department.

Planet Wawa and the Helios Colony Disaster

Planet TSFMES-GWP-18A41T394-d is a distant planet far out in the corporate frontier, purchased at auction by Helios Logistics for their first ever corporate run colony. What appeared to be a rather idyllic garden world with a primarily wetland based biosphere at first glance soon proved to be more problematic than Helios could have ever imagined. Initial landings went smoothly, prefab buildings were set up, storage rooms were filled, initial infrastructure built, and the colony was quickly christened as "Helioburg". As time went on and the first reports filtered back to the corporation, mysteries began to emerge, Helios sponsored colonists spoke of strange ruins and advanced machinery hidden beneath the swampy haze of the environment, and signs persisted of life from some sort of primitive culture like spears and markings on the walls.

Then came the first storm.

The First Storm

Unbeknownst to the colonists, the planet was actually undergoing its longest ever dry period at the time of their landing, but even that could not last forever, and Helios Logistics lost contact with Helioburg a few weeks after initial setup. On the ground, torrential rains beyond anything anyone had ever experienced tore apart the colony at the seams. Cheaply made prefab buildings collapsed, underground storage rooms flooded, infrastructure all but melted away, and over half the colony lost their lives in the first few minutes.

Miraculously however, a large portion of the colony was saved by a group of what are now known as Scurrets. The final report Helios received from their first colony was from colonists sending last messages before being lead deep underground. The photos of the Scurrets, and the sounds of their vocalizations in the background, would spread like wildfire after an anonymous employee leaked the data to the public, which lead to the new name of the planet once known by the designation TSFMES-GWP-18A41T394-d, Planet Wawa.

The Second Wave

Helios Logistics, undeterred by their initial failure, set up a second colony simply named "New Helioburg" a few months after the disaster that was the first. Great expense was paid to create buildings reinforced enough to withstand the apocalyptic rains of Planet Wawa, and expeditions were sent out to find the missing colonists of Helioburg and learn more about the planet's mysteries. The answers they found only prompted more questions.

The original Helioburg colonists came back half-feral and unable to speak any known language, instead communicating through a series of gestures that somehow conveyed meaning despite the lack of knowledge on the language itself. Worse, attempts to re-educate the affected on galactic common or any other language proved futile, as if their brains were being actively overwritten with their new gesture based language at all times.

Additionally, more of these "former colonists" showed up than were on the original Helioburg crew manifest. Tests were conducted on the possibility of changelings or paradox clones, both came up negative, but many of these "extra" colonists were later found to be on missing persons lists from as far away as Sol itself.

Through a series of charades, misadventures in translation and mistranslation, and an incident involving a mime versus clown duel, it was eventually discovered that the Helioburg colonists, additional missing persons, and even the Scurrets that accompanied them referred to themselves as a group, as "Iterators", a name shared with whatever it was that did this to them. More details came out later as Iterator Translators were developed, which provides sufficient details for investigation teams to try and find the source of the mystery.

The God-Machines

Eventually, investigation teams found the original Iterators, city sized mega-structures half buried in the wetland muck of Planet Wawa which housed artificial intelligences beyond anything Helios or any other person in the Trans-Solar Federation had ever seen or heard of. Just the cooling systems required to run these machines that were immense both in size and technological sophistication were responsible for Planet Wawa's cataclysmic storms as a side effect. Communication was limited, details were sparse, but the following was determined:

• The Iterators were constructed by an as of yet unknown species that is long gone.
• The Iterators are responsible for bestowing a "Mark of Communication", which is the reasoning for the universal gesture based language observed in affected subjects.
• The Iterators display anomalous reality warping powers beyond that which could be explained by typical bluespace interactions, though observers note it is entirely possible this is merely a result of a much more advanced bluespace knowledge than anything found in the TSF.
• The Iterators are responsible for transporting the missing persons found along with the Helioburg colonists to Planet Wawa.
• The Iterators do not demonstrably do anything to those "chosen" beyond marking them with the Mark of Communication, no instructions are given, no coercion applied. It has been suggested that the Iterators choose their subjects based on prediction that borders on precognition, that any tasks they seek to have done would be completed by their chosen subjects very nature and path in life rather than any explicitly stated task, but this remains heavily argued and disputed.
• The Iterators reason for doing this, their goals and motivations, or even their way of thinking is entirely unknown.

Following the discovery, affected subjects began to appear elsewhere in Trans-Solar Federation space, indicating that the Iterator God-Machines had begun teleporting those affected back to civilized space. Their reasons for doing so now instead of earlier, or even at all, also remain unknown.

The Quarantine

Following the dissemination of details on what happened on Planet Wawa, something Helios Logistics could not keep secret as more and more isolated cases of Iterator subjects appearing around the known galaxy spread, the Trans-Solar Federation moved to quarantine Planet Wawa to try and slow, if not stop, the mysterious goals of the Iterators. Force was dismissed, the reality warping powers displayed by the god-machines would make any attempt at orbital bombardment or even just landing troops futile, so instead a blockade was initiated that holds to this day.

New Helioburg remains on the surface, once a Helios Logistics colony it is now a gathering point for the Iterator subjects that find themselves transported to the planet. Limited travel is permitted in and out following TSF background checks as they attempt to determine if doing so might advance some mysterious Iterator goal. These checks are often spotty, inconsistent, and based more on luck than evidence due to the difficulty in even approaching comprehension of the god-machines goals. Those teleported out by the god-machines themselves are subject to scrutiny, but not checks, as trying to apply such to every returned missing person was deemed futile.

Scurrets

A Scurret, plural Scurrets, is a native species to Planet Wawa and the noises they make are the very reason for the planet's name. They are alternatively known as Wawa's, Scugs, and occasionally Slugcats, though that last name remains discouraged by NanoTrasen's legal department.

While today almost all known Scurrets have been affected by the Iterator God-Machine's Mark of Communication, a few remaining examples found of unaffected Scurrets indicate that they are actually sub-sapient in their natural state, though still possess near-sapient intelligence similar to animals like ravens, squid, dolphins and elephants. No other animal species have been known to be bestowed the Mark of Communication, so whether this is a universal effect remains unknown, as does the reasoning for the God-Machines to uplift Scurrets in particular.

On Planet Wawa, Scurrets form small tribalistic clans made from a few families that are known to trade with New Helioburg. Their culture and technology level remains mostly stone-age, though even before trade with New Helioburg they were known for possessing some schizo-tech derived from the alien ruins that are omnipresent on Planet Wawa, especially explosives. These clans are known to adopt those Iterator Subjects who are transported to Planet Wawa by the God-Machines, and many are known to spend years living as such before ever finding New Helioburg.

Before the TSF Quarantine however, large amounts of Scurrets were actually transported off-world by Helios Logistics and have integrated into corporate culture and galactic norms, acting as a mascot for Helios Logistics. They are most prominently known for acting as delivery drivers of pizza for Helios's subsidiary corporation Arnold's Pizza, and it is for this role that they are most well known today. While the largest population of off-world Scurrets works under Helios Logistics, it is not uncommon to see a Scurret on a NanoTrasen station or any other part of the Trans-Solar Federation in small numbers, often acting as helpers and moral support both.

Scurret Names

Scurrets and their adoptees usually have two parts to their name, a 'chosen' and 'qualitative' name. The chosen name is picked by the target themselves, encompassing a trait or value they hold themselves to or have a high value for, and can sometimes be changed again to denote an important moment in their life. Young Scurret pups, or those new to a scurret clan or society as a whole, tend to not have a chosen name at all. Examples include 'Patient', 'Brave', 'Valiant', 'Wise', 'Strong', or 'Free'.

The qualitative name, meanwhile, is assigned at birth or adoption, and is usually related to an important feature of the wetland habitats that the target is associated with by their community. Usually this is fairly obvious like 'Bogs', 'Deltas', 'Rivers', or 'Reeds', but it can also be figurative like 'Secrets' or 'Ancestors'.

A few example names include Inquisitive Marshes, Trusting Springs, and Meditating Pebbles.

Iterators and the Mark of Communication

Today, those affected by the Mark of Communication outside of Planet Wawa can be roughly divided into four groups: Scurrets, New Helioburg Expatriates, God-Machine Teleportees, and a growing number of Born Iterators. The Scurrets are detailed above, so we will briefly touch on the other three categories.

New Helioburg Expatriates are those who went through the arduous and sometimes nonsensical TSF background checks to return to life out in the galaxy. Though they remain culturally similar to a typical citizen of the TSF, some quirks tend to remain, including but no limited to having strong opinions on water, whether good or bad, and a tendency towards stoic or absurdist philosophical viewpoints.

God-Machine Teleportees are the worst effected. They have often spent years surviving alone or as part of a Scurret clan before they were suddenly teleported back, either to their old lives or even somewhere completely random. Such victims are often half-feral as a result, and even after being re-civilized tend to display compulsive behaviours like hoarding food, making threat displays when anxious, preferring loose clothing or armour over typical jumpsuits, and a tendency to find or craft spears. It should be noted that NanoTrasen official policy has such unfortunates restricted from security or command roles until they get these behaviours under control, for obvious reasons.

Born Iterators are caused by the fact that the Mark of Communication appears to be passed down to any offspring of those so bestowed, a fact that remains yet another mystery as no genetic cause has been found for this. For obvious reasons Born Iterators are the most unaffected of the bunch, retaining their language quirk but otherwise being totally immersed in typical TSF cultural norms.

Notes, Attributions, and Other Details

• Redid the original Rain World Iterators by cribbing notes from Rimworld's Archotechs. The whole hindu/buddhist karma cycle thing doesn't REALLY fit in the already weird cosmology of SS14, so that's entirely redone in this legally distinct version. Now, Iterators are just ancient super-AI that are powerful enough by their mere existence to make the megacorps avoid conquering the planet outright.
• Made "Scurret" the official legally distinct name, while leaving room to explain all the alternative names used in reference to them.
• Created reasoning for Scurrets to be on Nanotransen stations, as well as explaining their descriptions of being workers for "Arnold's Pizza" and the Helios Logistics poster that uses them as a mascot.
• Gave some loose guidelines on the Iterator trait and roleplaying with it, nothing too restrictive of RP but enough to keep things relatively on theme. Teleportees for those who really want to RP a half-scurret person, Born Iterators for those who just want to have fun with the trait without the baggage, and Expatriates for those in between.
• TSFMES-GWP-18A41T394-d is a provisional name based off of real provisional planet names. This is no way sets a standard as the TSF's bureaucratic nonsense is loosey goosey enough to justify just about anything. The full unabbreviated name roughly translates to: Trans-Solar Federation Ministry of Exploration Survey - Garden World Prospect - Alphanumeric Star Designation 18-Alpha-41-Theta-394 - d to show it is the fourth planet from its parent star
• No details on the specifics of Scurret biology were provided as I'll leave that to someone else more knowledgeable on the medical system of Sol's Descendants
• Written by LordCrowe

Adapted from the Starlight wiki under CC BY-SA 4.0.