Space au starring Virgil, a succulent from outer space.
Characters: no one mentioned specifically
Warnings: mention of war, poaching, smuggling, in a sort of academic paper sort of way
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History and developments of environmental protection on Aerth: How war, economics, and technology have changed the perspectives on person-hood and value of anomalous alien species
Abstract
The planet Aerth was named by early humans when the planet was discovered soon after intergalactic space travel became feasible. It was nicknamed “Aerth” by combining the name of the human home planet Earth and the human word for aesthetic (from the human language English). The nickname has since remained as the common name for this planet.
The early humans thought the planet resembled their own due to the prominent number of “plant-like” beings. Many early accounts of the planet described it as “beautiful,” but humans were initially careful to avoid contact with the planet to avoid destroying its ecosystem. Early humans had a history of introducing different animal species from different ecosystems on Earth which resulted in the balance of such ecosystems to be destroyed.
The human scientists that studied the planet have long since discovered that on Aerth are many different species of electroplanta beings. Although the concepts of “plant” and “electronics” inaccurately described the fundamental biology of the planet’s inhabitants, the words remain to be the most accurate descriptors in human language.
In recent years, the planet Aerth has been mostly destroyed. Some islands and small continents are still habitable and some electroplanta have continued to survive. The scarcity of life on the planet, coupled with their usefulness in technology and electronics, has made the inhabitants of the planet extremely valuable on the DarkMarket, even though the smuggling and poaching of the species from Aerth has been made illegal by the TSUU.
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