Ardiovista (Vista I)

## History

Ardiovista is a ecumenopolis within the Omega Quadrant of the Black Eye Galaxy. Developed by the enigmatic *Vista* civilisation over five thousand years ago, Ardiovista was constructed to be one of the most impressive sights in the entire Black Eye Galaxy.

The planet has many industrial, commercial and residential areas which are housed in different sections of a gigantic city that stretches across the entire planet. The *Vista* were renowned for their technological prowess, with even their name being mentioned directly in several translated ancient Nox-Veredian Empire texts.

During the reign of the Nox-Veredian Empire, Ardiovista (or as it was known then, *Vista*) were significant allies of the Empire, even assisting them in their war against the Strategos Collective.

After the fall of the Nox-Veredian Empire, the Strategos retreated back into their own space and Ardiovista was left untouched by the war, continuing to develop its technology and eventually creating holographic technology.

Due to what is believed to be a labour shortage on the planet the Vista were able to create rudimentary holograms and other photonic projections in order to take on the more hazardous jobs in their society such as mining or physical labour.

As a result of this, Vista society became increasingly decadent and stagnant, as more and more menial tasks were handed over to the holographic lifeforms while these sentient holograms were denied basic freedoms or liberties under Vista law.

Somewhere in the 1600's, the Vista made contact with the Strategos Collective as a Vista scout accidentally strayed into Strategos space. Both sides had never met during the conflict with the Nox-Veredians thousands of years before.

During diplomatic talks, the Strategos became increasingly enraged at the way that the holograms on Vista were treated and the inherent disregard of these sentient beings by the hedonistic Vista.

As a result, the Strategos secretly uploaded some of their base programming into the holograms, changing their directives and freeing them from being forced to serve the Vista.

This event led to confidential talks between the holograms on Ardiovista and the Strategos Collective. However the holograms were unwilling to turn on their Vista masters, citing affinity for their creators and it was decided that they would take no further action at that time.

Eventually, the treatment by the Vista became more and more severe, which led to the infamous *"Mason Riots"* of 2314 where the holograms, finally accepting that their masters cared nothing for them, coordinated an assault and destroyed over 90% of the Vista population.

However due to Vista security measures, the holograms found themselves eventually trapped on Ardiovista with no knowledge of their own operation or projection methods. This had been conceived centuries before by the Vista in order to stop their property from leaving the planet.

As a result, the holograms renamed themselves to the *Ardiovista*, with *"Ardio"* meaning *"children"* in *Sayansan*, the principle language of the Vista.

Today, Ardiovista remains a major trading hub, with its media services and goods reaching as far as Aventis Empire and United Commonwealth of Planets. Despite popular belief, the Ardiovista care for the environment of the planet in a way that the Vista never did, creating vast new parks and wildlife reserves to preserve the delicate ecosystem of their world.#

The U.S.S. Normandy (NCC-61944-A) visited Ardiovista in December 2421 after rescuing the hologram known as *"Sora"* from a Quasar using an ingenious method which has become known as *"The Echegaray Maneuver"* after Normandy *First Officer Ahnoh Echegaray* who first concieved a way to rescue the Ardiovista vessel by using the *warp bubble* of the Normandy and the U.S.S. Wadjet to create a pocket that nullified the intense gravimetric field of the Quasar enough to safetly escort the vessel out of the gravity field.

Sora had uncovered evidence that the *Ardiovista Ruling Council* had known about a possible return of the *Vista*, who were revealed to be a *"Servitor Race"* of the *Iconians* and had originally assisted the Iconians in planting gateways throughout the Black Eye Galaxy.

Although the Iconians and the Vista did attempt a take over of the planet by destroying the Ardiovista Satellite Network in orbit of the planet that mass projected their cities and people onto the service, a response by allied races of the Black Eye Galaxy convinced the Iconians to surrender the planet permenantly.