P R E M I S E

After many wars, humankind dispersed into the stars, some more peacefully than others. A few of their groups survived, some more comfortably than others. Eventually, many unlocked the deepest secrets of the universe...

Time-travel led to incomprehensible wars and invincible utopias. Entire lineages were prevented to undo mild inconveniences. Paradoxes that brought both morality and reality into question became routine. Genocides killed endless masses to assure tyrants that their own displeasure simply never occurred.

Entire dimensions could be created, first a simple, random universe like their own; Most initially spawned with just thermal, electric, or kinetic energy and simple elements. Eventually complex self-aware multiverses that were crystaline and mechanical could be conjured in nanoseconds. Interdimensional sub-space God-Machines were like pennies to a True God.

Once these Universe-Machines were capable of creating atom-by-atom replicas of themselves, Identical-Parent-Machines, they could essentially create endless numbers of realms expanding infinitely in every direction. Hells filled with Ice or Fire, Heavens brimming with Life, and Voids of Nothingness- no more than a child's plaything!

As these humans- and aliens they encountered- became immortal gods, able to create new forces, shoot infinitely hot flames, teleport anywhere, and be threatened by nothing except their own kind, they had only their desires and a new plane of science and philosophy to contend with, if they so chose.
______________________________________________________

The Landing

Several large moons came into view, though no living creature knew it. The colossal ships slowed into orbit, measuring dozens of miles tall, hundreds wide, and thousands long. Their cargo was millions of humans with endless tons of colonization tools.

Fluid drained from the waking denizens' stasis-chambers, flowing through pipes and misting into the atmosphere. Having sustained the vessels' inhabitants, it now fertilized the soil and moistened the air. Seeds were strategically launched in massive numbers, followed by glass jars with extremophile worms

Ten-thousand shuttles descended from each intergalactic ship. Though they magnitudes smaller, each was larger than most buildings from where these colonists originated; a half-mile wide and a hundred meters tall. They were also shaped differently, being circular and flat.

Their powerful jets greatly slowed their still-rapid descent, stabbing the ground deeply on impact. The first wave of colonists were shifted upwards and slammed down into their seats, caught by harnesses, but it would've been much worse if there weren't springs to soften the blow.

As they secured the area, the shuttled they landed with rocketed back towards the sky, leaving trails of invisible but smelly gasses instead of smoke. The shuttle pilots ferried other colonists with various specialties from orbit to frontier.

_______________________________________________________

The BioServant Factories

Androids were plentiful at first, but expensive to create. Factories that grew humans in artificial wombs were more expensive initially, but the massive numbers of humans that could be grown for plentiful materials quickly made up for the cost.

Pregnancy was a nightmare of the past. A year would pass, each fluid-filled chamber being cleaned for a season, and thousands more infants were assigned to capable trios who were allotted child-rearing resources. There was never more than 1 synth for every 15 trio of volunteers grown in a year, since it took ~15 years to raise them. No trio could have more than a single juvenile at any one time; If they had kids of their own, they were barred from raising synthetic humans, who were taught all necessary skills and trained to understand their place as tools.

The millions of colonists, once allies of desperation, were now free to move away from each other. Several cities were erected, from which separate settlements evolved. Not all believed in the rights of synthetic humans, and a dark remote place in particular was renown for harrowing stories of synths being raised in pain over their growing period, just to be slaughtered for sport in arenas when they reached adulthood- if not sooner!