Challenge #02704-G147: The Dying of the Might
They were wealthy. Beyond wealthy. They owned two space stations and an entire solar system, and ran these places harshly. Those that displeased them lost their jobs and were often left in ruin, even for the smallest infractions. Entire families sent into desperate poverty and isolation just because a single member made a mistake on the job.
And for them? Life was excellent. They had everything they could ever need or want. They lived in utter luxury. They had more Time than they could ever spend and had a devil-may-care attitude toward the rest of the universe. But you know what they say about how all parties must end? The people, tired of mistreatment, refused to work. Found other jobs. Some who knew the products they produced found a way to make knockoffs that were just as good, in fact in some ways better, than the original, and sold them for far less. Business partners and trade deals began to dry up as people found other ways to live.
Even the solar system they owned, the sun suddenly going unstable and the people that lived there all desperately fleeing until no one remained on the one inhabitable planet. The unstable sun flaring out, it had a previously unknown 20,000 year cycle of stability, then severe solar storms that lashed the entire system, before returning to a stable, calm, course. This sudden stormy period ruined them. Their finances slowly dried up, the life of luxury and constant spending suddenly curtailed, they began having to sell many of the luxuries they took for granted. Now, they had to live the life they had forced upon so many others. But could they? -- Anon Guest
My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:/ Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair! -- Percy Bysshe Shelley.
It's a conspiracy. It has to be a conspiracy. Those losers in the CRC were behind it for sure. They stole my living resources. They took everything away from me. I'd sue them, but... listen. If you listen, you'll see how unfair things were.
I owned the system. I made the rules. It was mine. I was the law. I had all the "immortality" treatments and gone corporate. I had every Second of Time. I used the rules, then I made the rules. It was mine I could live forever and own the universe if I wanted.
Then those idiots stole it all.
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