Random Interstellar Empires/Star Kingdoms

pad300 · Unread post by **pad300** » Sat Jul 25, 2020 9:09 pm

A question, how do Ramjet Gravity Cannon rounds increase range and damage in space (a vacuum)?

Omegasgundam · Unread post by **Omegasgundam** » Sat Jul 25, 2020 9:16 pm

pad300 wrote:A question, how do Ramjet Gravity Cannon rounds increase range and damage in space (a vacuum)?

I'm not the one that came up with them, but I'd assume they do nothing.

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Sat Jul 25, 2020 10:08 pm

Omegasgundam wrote:
pad300 wrote:A question, how do Ramjet Gravity Cannon rounds increase range and damage in space (a vacuum)?

I'm not the one that came up with them, but I'd assume they do nothing.

They'd do nothing for range and damage.
Ramjets differ from rocket rounds in that they use forward speed to compress air and force it past a combusting fuel that uses the air as both oxidizer and reaction mass. A rocket, on the other hand, carries both its own fuel and oxidizer. Without atmosphere)and a combustible/oxidizing atmosphere at that) the ramjet's just going to have whatever original velocity it had when it enters the vacuum, and the internal combustion of fuel(In the case of ramjet rounds, a solid fuel mixture) snuffs out.

ROCKET rounds, like the original Gyrojet, on the other hand, would, as long as the fuel/oxidizer mix in the round keeps burning/spewing out reaction gas, would continue on. Palladium treats projectile weapons in space as having DOUBLE their atmospheric range, but no change in damage.

Frankly, though, if you want to muck things up, if the round is still accelerating, and there's no atmospheric resistance to speak of, I'd think that in space, the same round could see a slight increase in damage, maybe 25-50%, depending on final velocity.

But working out the math for that sort of thing is WAY above my pay grade.

Omegasgundam · Sat Jul 25, 2020 10:13 pm

taalismn wrote:
Omegasgundam wrote:
pad300 wrote:A question, how do Ramjet Gravity Cannon rounds increase range and damage in space (a vacuum)?

I'm not the one that came up with them, but I'd assume they do nothing.

They'd do nothing for range and damage.
Ramjets differ from rocket rounds in that they use forward speed to compress air and force it past a combusting fuel that uses the air as both oxidizer and reaction mass. A rocket, on the other hand, carries both its own fuel and oxidizer. Without atmosphere)and a combustible/oxidizing atmosphere at that) the ramjet's just going to have whatever original velocity it had when it enters the vacuum, and the internal combustion of fuel(In the case of ramjet rounds, a solid fuel mixture) snuffs out.

ROCKET rounds, like the original Gyrojet, on the other hand, would, as long as the fuel/oxidizer mix in the round keeps burning/spewing out reaction gas, would continue on. Palladium treats projectile weapons in space as having DOUBLE their atmospheric range, but no change in damage.

Frankly, though, if you want to muck things up, if the round is still accelerating, and there's no atmospheric resistance to speak of, I'd think that in space, the same round could see a slight increase in damage, maybe 25-50%, depending on final velocity.

But working out the math for that sort of thing is WAY above my pay grade.

Sounds about right. Btw, check your PMs, I have the Steel Juggernauts of Inglix for you to look at.

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Sat Jul 25, 2020 10:27 pm

Omegasgundam wrote:[
Sounds about right. Btw, check your PMs, I have the Steel Juggernauts of Inglix for you to look at.

Got it....dang, he could start a whole series of specialized body-types.

Omegasgundam · Sat Jul 25, 2020 10:45 pm

And here it is for the rest of you. Something that Inglix will take pride in.

The Steel Juggernauts of Inglix
(Aka Mega-Marine, Steel-Marine, Daddy-Marine)

”Ok, I’ll admit it, this is not at all what I was expecting. Assuming you can get the volunteers, and I know of no small number of people that would sign up, the Steel Juggernaut is a much more effective platform than a conventional robot. Beyond being absurdly durable for its size, it has about as much firepower as you would expect from something in its weight bracket, and the ability to toss spells while firing your guns or dodging is a major advantage. It’s not for me, but I’ll appreciate them backing me up.”
----Kern Haze Phennington

“The name alone tells you that they’re a development of the Tolkien creations, but the cross spectrum improvements make it clear that Inglix really is one of the best mystic artisans in the known megaverse. The Iron Juggs were a much more crude binding process, and still left the squishy bits trapped in the shell. The Steel Juggs are true mystic cyborgs. I really have to wonder what Malik Savant would think of them, assuming you can get him away from bossing around the TW division of PS West long enough to take a look.”
----GNE Internal Memo

”Of the many things I did not expect to experience after getting my soul sucked out of my body and being put into a 30 ton robot, being hit on has to be near the top.”
“And you love it baby.”
----Warlock Marine Juggernaut and a Shemarian War Goddess.

The ‘Iron Juggernauts’ of lost Tolkien were an offshoot of Rune Magic and Bio-Wizardry, taking the soul of a physically impaired volunteer and using it as the driving consciousness of a powerful Techno-Wizard Golem. While the procedure did warp the mind of the subject into something much closer to an elemental, he was inarguably the one directing the construct, making it much less morally questionable than most uses of the soul. It can be considered to be a mystical equivalent of a full conversion cyborg, and Tolkien used them as such. It is unknown how Inglix the Mad learned of them or acquired several examples, but those that are aware of his interests in those mystic fields find his pursuit of reverse engineering them to be entirely in character. The recent Arcane X Cruiser was the result of his efforts into using Elementals in a conceptually similar power generation system, so he had already been looking in that direction. Once he had examples on hand, he saw many ways the Juggernaut could be improved, and was positively giddy with excitement.

While his work was disrupted by the Minion War, the Demon’s use of Soul Magic was quite inspiring, and was the source of several key insights that he would treasure. His attention would be split in the immediate post-war aftermath, needing to help with reconstituting the Warlock Fleet and establishing a new Ectofibre-based infrastructure, but he considered the process to be incredibly productive overall. Ectofibre removes most of the need to use difficult to acquire materials or do tedious and finicky workarounds, and made grand scale projects far easier to bring into reality. He returned to his work on the Juggernauts with a much better foundation to start from, and was able to duplicate the process and most common designs within 2 years, and then turned his attention towards improving it.

Naming his new creations ‘Steel Juggernauts’, Inglix used Soul Magic to transfer the true consciousness of the volunteer into a Soul Gem embedded in a complex crystalline control system, improving their connection and control over the mystic energies at their disposal. Mystic knowledge to make better use of it was provided with a derivative of the now practical ‘Spell Card’ system, and a fettered connection to the bound Elementals reduced the undesired mental bleed over. As something of a lark, he made the Soul Gem removable, and created a basic simulacrum body for social interaction. With this basis finalized, he moves on to the physical chassis.

While objectively durable, the old Juggernauts were greatly limited by the inferior basic components that went into them, with the available weapons being underpowered, sensors barely worthy of the name, and being quite frankly wimps in terms of physical strength. These were all replaced with the most modern equivalents available to the United Worlds Warlock, and permeated with Ectofibre to smooth over most of the complications and grant it a greater degree of self repair capability. The new form would be reminiscent of the new Raider Augmented Marine Combat Armor, boasting improved protection and firepower over the old Blazing and Thundering Iron. The inclusion of a CG flight unit brought it up its mobility to what was considered the modern standard, and allowed it to make its own deployments during assaults.

While the Warlock Marines were naturally hesitant to adopt what amounted to Soul Magic Cyborg, testing showed that it was sufficiently safe and not unduly traumatizing. Many aged ex-Marines had been recalled into service during the Minion War to make up the needed commitments, and no small number of them were willing to undertake the conversion. Several Guildmasters have started work on developing a smaller version that can allow the ‘Soulborgs’ to function on the normal infantry scale, as well as provide a better quality of life than the basic simulacrum Inglix came up with. A large part of the acceptance is that the Soul extraction is theoretically reversible, provided a replacement body is available. The UWW has few individuals that can perform the needed ritual, and even less than can produce the needed body, but the Souls can easily endure centuries of being contained in a Soul Gem, so there is relatively little rush.

For Inglix’s part, he is pleased to have advanced his knowledge of bio-wizardry, particularly since it was done via a field that he had not put much study into previously. The longevity of Soul Magic is something that is extraordinarily difficult to accomplish through other means, and he suspects that this will be the key into allowing him to delve further into the spellcraft of the Old Ones. He suspects that bio-wizardry and soul magic are deeply connected, and seeks to get his hands whatever demonic lore on the subject that is available. For parts that are not available, well, there are ways to fix that. The Steel Juggernaut itself is of lesser interest to him, but he looks forward to seeing what his nominal colleagues make out of his creation.

(The Shemarian Wayfinders would find this extremely familiar, as it is the same avenue of research that led to their creation. Any Wayfinder Elder would immediately recognize what they were looking at should they see the internals, and would be able craft host bodies with only some experimentation. The Psi-Shamans of the other tribe would be able identify a Soul Crystal if presented with one, and would intuitively know how to imbue the captive soul into a Progen gestation)

Spoiler:

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Sun Jul 26, 2020 7:49 pm

Darad(Tyxstar)( United Systems Alliance Member World)
“Yeah, the Combine tried to declare martial law over us back during the Aordan War, said we had to go on a war footing with wartime production quotas. Nothing in our charter said the sponsor worlds could do that...said nothing about war in fact. Later on, they said it was our own damn fault we got slammed. If we’d listened to them and let them put in a military governor over us, we’d have been protected. Sludge-scum, the Combine had actually STRIPPED our system of ships to send to the war fronts; they had nothing to protect us WITH. And eight hundred thousand people died because a bunch of bureaucrats wanted to protect trade balances and stock prices.”

Darad is a dry, dusty, but habitable world with a fairly high resident population and a respectable industrial infrastructure. Darad can be described as a habitable Mars, with a thin, but breathable atmosphere, and substantial subsurface water, but little open surface water. Most communities are clustered around oasises, joined by roadways and train lines, with smaller service communities and waystations sprinkled along the travel arteries. Most travel is by nuclear-powered trains and multi-segmented ‘land-train’ buses, but Darad produces high speed hovercraft as well, and priority travel can be carried out by suborbital hopper craft locally produced.
Darad was a satellite colony of the Davis Combine, part of the Human Alliance. Founded as a mining and industrial colony, Darad shipped large amounts of minerals and refined metals to the Combine. Darad could have waxed fairly prosperous from this trade, but the colony was reliant on Combine markets to buy its output. Still, many Daradans had hopes of gaining more say in their affairs and eventually being able to negotiate with the Combine coreworlds as equals, much as those coreworlds had won autonomy and trade status from the older HA worlds.
Unfortunately, Darad got caught up in the Aordan Rim War, a vicious little brushfire conflict between the Davis Combine and its interstellar neighbors. A trade war went unexpectedly hot before the CCW stepped in and reigned in the combatants, but several worlds, Darad included, got hit with WMDs. Darad lost several large communities and the watering holes/oasises they were built around. Appealing to their parent worlds for assistance in rebuilding, the Daradans instead got put off as the Combine was too busy maneuvering to win the negotiated peace by political means, and, it is suspected, to punish its colonies for not contributing more to the war.
Dissatisfied with the Davis Combine’s response to their plight, Darad seceded from the Combine(in fact, Daradans had been agitating for independence for some time previous to the war, citing a long list of grievances). However, in splitting from Davis, Darad lost a large market for their exports.
Darad joined the United Systems Alliance in order to bootstrap its economy back onto a firmer footing, and to have allies in the event the Davis Combine or others involved in the Aordan War came looking to drag Darad back into the muck. So far, nothing has happened on that front, and Darad’s industrial exports have increased, so they’re cautiously optimistic about their future with the USA. Among the things that Darad has sought from the Alliance is updated technology designs to keep their factory products relevant in the galactic marketplaces. They also want a source of affordable FTL starships, so they can build their own mercantile fleet that would allow them to ship and sell products abroad without being at the mercy of offworld shipping concerns.
Darad is protected by regional militias armed with locally produced weaponry, including railgun-equipped armored cars and hovercraft. They also have a few locally-produced atmo-fighters and several shuttlecraft for high atmosphere defense. A few ‘private security’ firms with the technical knowledge and means have acquired a handful of 3G starfighters(mainly military surplus Scorpions) that they ‘rent’ to the government. Post-treaty signing with the United Systems Alliance, the Darad government has been negotiating for the acquisition of defensive armaments, starting with an orbital defensive satellite system. Some Daradans, however, want to see what’s available from Naruni or Hartigal first, before committing to locking in USA-based concerns as their arms suppliers.

Solar System(Tyxstar)
Number of Stars: 1
Types of Stars: Orange Dwarf
Number of Planets: 3
-Terrestrial(Darad)---System lifeworld
-Terrestrial(Cohaze)---Huge ‘super-Earth’ rocky world, but orbiting out too far to support liquid water, except when its orbit brings it near Midstar, when Cohaze’s atmosphere becomes especially tumultous. . A dense methane atmosphere obscures the surface and makes landings treacherous.
-Exotic(Midstar)----Midstar is a failed protostar; a large gas giant emitting substantial amounts of infrared radiation. It has baked dry its retinue of rocky moons and accumulated asteroidal dust. Daradans like to claim that Midstar’s heat radiation reaches Darad, resulting in warmer-than-usual ‘Midstar summers’, but there’s little evidence to support that claim.

Planet
Type: Terrestrial
Diameter: 8,000 km
Gravity: 0.7 g
Temperature: Cool; Alaska-like, with frigid winters and cool summers.
Unusual/Special Features:
*Moons---Darad has seven small moons. Special attention was taken to boost two of them, using gravity tractor systems, into higher orbits. One of the moons has been developed as a space station; Darad would like to develop the others as defense bases.
*Rings--A thin ring of orbital debris attests that Darad at one point had EIGHT, possibly nine, moons, but one entered the planet’s Roche Limit and disintegrated. Most of the moon(s) impacted on Darad, bit a thing residue of dust and pebbles remains in orbit.
*Craters---Darad is dotted with impact craters, some of the wide and deep enough to have cracked down to the water-bearing strata. Many of these craters form the basis of oasis communities on Darad.
Atmosphere: Thin, but breathable, terrestrial oxygen-nitrogen mix. Concerns about colonization using up the built-up atmosphere has led to some limited terraforming in the form of atmosphere factories and seeding of some regions with high-efficiency oxygen-releasing plant strains.
Terrain: Hostile; high craggy mountains, deep gullies, sinkhole-covered plains, alkaline dry lake beds, make casual offroad hiking or driving hazardous.
Notable Mineral Concentrations:
- Iron
- Antimony
- Nickel
- Diamond
- Scheelite
- Manganese
- Titanium
- Ruby
Hydrosphere:
Badlands---Most of Darad’s surviving water has seeped beneath the surface. Deep valleys, crater lakes, canyons, and oasis springs provide what little surface water is available. The ice caps, tough small, are also a source of water for the settlers.
Biosphere:
Scant---Most of Darad’s native ecology consists of lichens and mosses. Imported species escaped from agriculture have dominated much of the regions surrounding the settled oasies and settlements. There has also been some efforts to introduce terraforming plant species to the local environment.
Civilization:
Settled
Population:
29 million(89% humans, with a small minority of immigrant nonhumans)
Technology:
Information Age; on a par with pre-Rifts Golden Age Earth for the most part. Darad can produce megadamage materials and weapons, fusion energy provides most of the planet’s power, and they can build interplanetary spacecraft, but not FTL starships.
Economy:
Industrial----Darad can feed itself at bare self-sufficiency levels, but its main export trade is in mined ores, refined metals, and manufactured goods, mainly finished alloys, circuit chips, and industrial components.
Wealth:
Currently Depressed, but trending towards Average. Economists optimistically forecast that Darad has the potential to attain Prosperous if it can sell its mining and industrial output more openly.
Government:
Technocracy---Darad is run by the engineers and industrial overseers keeping the factories and smelters running, as well as by the sysops keeping the communications nets operating.
Law Level:
Moderate--There are regions of lawlessness on Darad; fringe settlements of wildcat miners and dissidents who dislike even the local colonial government. Law enforcement in such areas relies on wandering sheriffs, rangers, and judges who oversee local militias. The Daradian legal codes can be rather flexible and loose in such regions.
Popularity:
Ambivalent---Daradans want their independence, but even now they’re unsure of just what they want their ideal government to look like. They threw out Combine rule, they tossed out the corporate management, and right now the most effective leadership is the people running the factories, intenets, mines, railroads, and spaceports that are keeping people employed and money coming in from offworld.
Stability:
Unrest---Some of the fringe communities resent the technocrats running things, there are several labor union factions agitating for control, not everybody likes the marshals and deputized militia roaming around in their armored vehicles enforcing laws, and there’s a number of groups of intelligentsia or borderers who want a new planetary constitution. The greater number of inhabitats are just glad that services are running, people have jobs, laws are being more or less fairly enforced, and want to lay low, work, make money, and make a living. Depending on how quickly the economy recovers, many of these concerns may be peacefully quelled.

The Davis Combine(Human Alliance)
“Sometimes good business practice doesn’t make it to interstellar diplomacy. Sometimes pride and greed override good business practice and good diplomacy.”

The Davis Combine is a ‘second diaspora’(the expansion period following the Automaton Wars) offshoot of the Human Alliance. It is a corporate state of five developed worlds and a number of satellite colonies, governed in part by corporate boards. The Davis Combine is known as an industrial cluster, producing finished goods for the HA and CCW, and is generally regarded as a sound financial investment and ‘safe haven’ security-wise by the larger CCW community, given the Combine’s history of stability dating back to the Automaton Wars.
This is not to say that the Combine’s history has been without problems. In fact, the Davis Combine’s long history of progressive economic prosperity may have emboldened the Combine’s leaders to make decisions based on pride and greed. The Davis Combine’s worst mistake was the Aordan Rim War, which grew out of a trade dispute with the neighboring Schedov Allegiance, another mercantile network.
While the Schedovs proved unexpectedly aggressive and vicious in their end of the hostilities, the Combine made its share of mistakes, especially in defending its colonies. Several colonies, including Darad, were stripped of their defense forces, even while greater demands were made on their resource production quotas. When the Schedovs began aggressively targeting Davis lines of supply, including bombing colonies, the defenseless outworlds suffered.
Ultimately the CCW had to step in, force both polities to the negotiating table, and police the combatants. TVIA agents were brought in to oversee disarmament and reparations.
The aftermath of the war saw even more mistakes as the Combine attempted to downplay their role in the war and win more concessions from their opponents. In the process, while attempting to consolidate their power and mitigate the damage to their economies, the Combine mismanaged its colonies.
While the Davis Combine remains solvent, and is bolstered by being part of the Human Alliance, its postwar economy is in disarray. Though good will fostered by the Combine’s past stability continues to buoy their trade with the CCW, the Combine’s bad decisions during the Aordan Rim War have continued to come to light and have eroded the formerly high ratings the Combine enjoyed with Consortium financial institutions. The fact that several of its satellite colonies have broken ties with the Combine hasn’t helped matters either. Though the Davis Combine does some trade with the United Systems Alliance, there have been some accusations that the USA has ‘picked off’ their territory. Many economic analysts also blame the USA and other developing Rim worlds/polities for taking business away from older cluster-polities like the Combine, as the focus of manufacturing and procurement seems to have shifted of late to the emerging innovative industries of the Rim.

Schedov Allegiance
“Sometimes you have to be ruthless to be effective. Empires aren’t built by the timid. War’s aren’t won by the meek. And the best deals aren’t made by waiting for the other party to do what’s in your best interest.”

Actually a loose confederation of colony worlds held together by the dynastic Schedov clan, a powerful banking and mercantile family peddling influence. Depending on who one asks, the Schedovs were either sharp and prophetic merchant investors, or a very effective organized crime cartel.
The Aordan Rim War came about thanks to a trade dispute between the Schedovs and the Davis Combine. Though the Combine had marginally the better cause in the conflict, the rapid escalation to armed aggression showed both sides’ eagerness to use violence to get what they wanted.
The Aordan Rim War marked the end of the Schedov presence close to the Human Alliance. Sharply criticized for their actions during the war, and forced to pay reparations to a number of Davis Combine colony worlds, the Schedovs’ power was apparently broken, but the fact of the matter is that the majority of the Allegiance’s assets were untouched, thanks to clever concealment of their finances and organization.
Though on paper the Davis Combine seems to have won the peace and banished the Schedovs from Davis-influenced space, the Combine’s postwar troubles have provided Schedov agents ample opportunity to get some payback, sneaking back to sabotage the various efforts by the Combine to rebuild its influence.

Rumors:
*The Schedovs have reestablished themselves in the Paradise Foundation.
*The Schedovs escaped the full strength of TVIA prosecution because the family had learned of the GSA’s plans to undermine Naruni, and they cut a deal, using their knowledge of underworld dealings, to facilitate the corporation-busting, in return for being allowed to go. Though there are some in the GSA who consider this a devil’s deal that reeks ethically, they’ve honored the terms of the bargain because Naruni is a far bigger fish they want caught.
*The Schedovs have JOINED Naruni Enterprises. They've betrayed a number of GSA secrets to NE, and their agents are softening up the Davis Combine for a Naruni takeover.
*The former worlds of the Allegiance are mostly all ruled by leadership related to the Schedovs, who maintain strong family ties.
*The Schedovs didn’t order the WMD strikes that got the CAF and the TVIA finally involved; it was rogue officers or Davis Combine operatives running false flag operations. Somewhere there’s evidence of this, but the Combine has buried it to make their enemies look bad.
*The Schedovs were employed by the TransGalactic Empire as part of a plan to destabilize the economies of the CCW. As one of the economic organs of the Human Alliance, the Davis Combine would be a good target, and its weakening(and ideally, collapse) would hurt the CCW when it needs a robust economy.
*The Schedovs are working for the Altess Dynasty with the goal of keeping any one rival corporate bloc from upsetting the Dynasty’s manipulation of the galactic economies. In return, the Schedovs will be allowed to marry into the Dynasty and become a minor Name(not a full House) in the Altess lineages.

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Fri Jul 31, 2020 2:21 pm

Fastania Diadem Cluster(Independent System)(Anvil Galaxy)
“It;s getting harder to tell who the real pirates are in the Fastania Cluster....the fringe-scum who lurk in the grav-shoals of the outer cluster waiting to pick you off, or the official scum with titles waiting at the way stations to gouge you on transit fees.”

“Word is, if you’re having trouble in Fastania, find the nearest authority with the LaDorian name...and they’re everywhere nowadays.... and be prepared to shell out a big bribe. That tends to make problems go away fast, provided the trouble didn’t originally involve a LaDorian. ”

The Fastania Diadem is a small, but prosperous, binary star system that would be a peaceful backwater system under other circumstances, but for the Fastania Junction .
The problem is, the Fastania system straddles a wormhole junction and trade lane, which draws a good amount of galactic traffic through the binary system to points beyond. Though the Fastanians have little in the way of a merchant marine of their own, they still make a good deal of coin licensing access to the wormhole, and providing services to the through traffic. For over a century, the Royal Family of Fastania has managed the wormhole traffic, charging a modest fee for passage. The Royal Fastyna clan exercised a long and generally benign rule, with the occasional scandal, but they were well-regarded by the general populace.
Unfortunately, a cadet branch of the Royal Family, the LaDorians, got tired of charging modest fees for the amount of traffic(and wealth) they were seeing passing through their system, and staged a coup, overthrowing the Royal Family and replacing them. The LaDorians have been quick to consolidate their power, replacing virtually all Fastyna-Loyalists in the government with their own people. The true-blood Fastynas have apparently all conveniently been killed ‘while attempting to escape’ or were quickly found guilty of treason to the Fastanian state, and executed. Under the new management, the Fastanian Junction’s tolls have been raised substantially, along with other conditions on using facilities in the system.
The area around Fastania is also known to be rife with pirates, including Splugorth raiders. The Fastanian Navy, for its small size, manages to keep most pirates away from the Wormhole, and incidents nearer the main systems have all but ceased under the LaDorians’ aggressive rule, but farther out there’s been an increase in the number of attacks on ships exiting the Diadem Cluster.

Diatraz en5353 itself is part of the Fastania Diadem, a cluster of 86 stars, roughly 68 light years in diameter. The cluster presents a gravitational ‘shoal’ which reduces CG-FTL drive speeds to a mere tenth of their normal speed(so a starship normally capable of 5 light years an hour, would take 136 hours(or roughly 6 days) to cross. However, the presence of the Fastania Junction and a shortcut to the other side of the Anvil makes it worth the ‘crawl’ through the Diadem stars.
There are several other systems in the Diadem supporting marginally habitable worlds; about five of these have been claimed by the Fastanians and at least token settlements have been planted on them. These colonies and a scattering of outposts often serve as convenient way stations for starships traveling through the cluster.
Fastania maintains a small, but vigilant, Navy that patrols for pirates ; this force consists of several dozen frigate-class vessels sourced from various sources, and a quartet of light cruisers. In the past this was quite adequate to keep pirates out of the cluster’s inner core(a region considered roughly 15 light years in diameter, centered on Diatraz en5353), but in recent times, the current fleet has become increasingly long in the tooth, despite some replacements bought from Naruni and WZT. The patrol regimen has fallen even farther behind with the recent change of regime, with the effective area of protection shrinking to a mere 2 light year radius. The LaDorians have promised an aggressive fleet refurbishment program, financed by increased fees on Junction traffic, to be followed by an equally aggressive anti-piracy campaign, but so far all that’s been happening is a general purge of the Navy’s ranks(‘reorganization’) and increasing reports of harassment of merchants by customs officials.

The United Systems Alliance is one of the concerns that have found their shipping adversely affected by the LaDorian usurpation. The Fastanian Wormhole cuts a significant amount of travel time off one of their lucrative trade routes, even with the slower going through the gravity wells of the Diadem. Unfortunately, the USA had no prior treaties with the previous regime, and the coup is considered to be an ‘internal affair’. However, as the LaDorian administration puts more and more conditions on transit, the USA is facing a decision; use other longer routes and hope the LaDorians eventually get a clue and go back to the old flat fee system, or does the USA join with a number of other polities(the Zyganians have hinted at possible action at the end of the wormhole near their space if the Fastanians keep hiking the transit fees) and force the issue with Fastania?

The LaDorians, if it isn’t apparent to a properly paranoid person, are in cahoots with organized crime and with some of the pirates, leaking information on shipping through the system in return for a cut of the take. They have an especially lucrative deal with the Splugorth Intelligence Lord Norrek, whose Gun Brotherhood has been active in the area. While some are acting as pirates, not all the Splugorth pirates are Lord Norrek’s, which is causing some problems, because Lord Norrek regards Fastania as part of HIS turf and HIS operation. Currently the Gun Brotherhood has the inside track with, and support of, the LaDorians, and are trying to stay low-key in the system, but if other Splugorth continue to press the issue and try to expand their presence in the Fastania Diadem, Norrek may have to up his game and act more openly. The result might be a rather messy pirate shooting war between rival Splugorth-backed factions.

Solar System.(Diatraz en5353)
Number of Stars: 2
Types of Stars:
-Diatraz A(Yellow Dwarf)
-Diatraz B(Red Dwarf)
Number of Planets: 8

-Wormhole Junction---Located at the epicenter between the two stars is the Fastania Junction. This wormhole opens roughly once a week for three hours, but can accommodate heavy cruisers and large transports, is two-way, and connects to the far end of the Anvil Galaxy. The other end is near a blue-dwarf star in an uninhabited star system near a hyperlane just outside Zyganian-claimed space. Currently the Fastanians maintain a space station and light naval squadron on the other end. Transit time is instantaneous.
Prior to each weekly opening, there’s a gathering of ships at assembly points near it, including the three waypoint stations/asteroid fortresses whose solar forceshields offer protection from the radiation of Diatraz A and B. Many of the ships that arrive early avail themselves of services offered by the locals.

-Terrestrial(Prital)---Average-sized. Prital would arguably be the more hospitable world in the system with a low gravity, warm temperatures, and thin, but breathable, atmosphere. It shows signs of being terraformed in the past, and there’s some effort to maintain that with atmosphere-adjustment stations pumping free oxygen and water vapor into the atmosphere. The planet has scant surface water, however, and the radiation of the twin suns nearby has a higher than average ionizing effect; sunscreen and portable shade are recommended for prolonged outdoor activity. Plant crops require greenhouse shading to prevent detrimental crop mutation. Nevertheless, Prital’s cavern cities and orbital stations see a god deal of business from the interstellar trade, and many starship crews stop off to have their ships repaired and tuned up while waiting for a wormhole slot. Prital’s factories also produce the majority of the starship components and heavy machinery used in-system.

-Terrestrial(Fastania)---System Lifeworld

-Gas Giant(Yavo)---Small gas giant, it nevertheless supports a handful of orbital habitats that make a living harvesting atmospheric gases for the starship fuel trade.

-Gas Giant(Pemar)---Large gas giant. Some mining takes place on Pemar’s 10 moons, and it’s seen as a fallback for companies that failed in efforts to stay on Tergrun.

-Asteroid(Vhemac)---This planetissimal supports a Fastanian Navy listening and traffic control post. Since the LaDorian takeover, this base has seen a complete replacement of staff.

-Terrestrial(Tergrun)---Large and icy, veiled in methane fog, Tergrun still manages to attract some attention for the rich mineral deposits under its icy surface. Using ‘bots, ‘borgs, and gravity plating, a number of mining outposts and even colonies have had a go at exploiting Tergrun’s riches. However, many more attempts have failed than have succeeded. though not all failures have ended in fatal catastrophe; most nonsuccesses have been due to the effort breaking the founders’ financial backs. The result has been a planetary surface with a few scattered lights and many abandoned ghost-towns. The Gun Brotherhood has quietly moved into one of the abandoned settlements and established a base on this world, with the LaDorians’ blessing(one of the family members is effectively a captain in the Brotherhood).

-Gas Giant(Gelse)---Massive gas giant. 18 moons. Gelse was recently the site of a pirate attack, the proximity to the coreworld of the Cluster being so audacious that it created a sensation and a scandal in what remains of the free press on Fastania. It also so outraged the LaDorians(the pirates didn’t have permission for such an attack) that they quietly had the Gun Brothers hunt down the pirates who violated the sanctity of the inner systems and had them exterminated to a man. The display of the dead pirates and the return of the plunder taken in the attack was attributed publicly to a ‘special commando operation’ of the LaDorian-reorganized Fastanian Navy.

-Terrestrial(Atrior)---Giant ice-ball. Uninhabited, though it’s been popularly rumored that the Fastanian Royals kept a special prison for unpopular members there. It’s also rumored that the LaDorians made a sweep of the planet just to make sure some exiled Fastyna isn’t still alive there waiting to be found and used as a nucleus for a restoration attempt.

Planet(Fastania)
Fastania can be described as a pastoral, if rather cool, world, currently going through a global ice age, despite the presence of human industry. The planet is lacking in industrial minerals for the most part, so the early economy was agricultural. Heavy industry has thus shifted offworld where the metals are, and most of Fastania’s non-icelocked arable land remains in large plantations and estates owned by the various levels of the planet’s aristocracy.
Type: Terrestrial
Diameter: 24,000 km
Gravity: 1.2 g
Temperature: Temperate. but on the cool side, with large ice caps and expanding glaciers. There is some thought of using the orbital fortresses and shipyards to build sollettes to help heat up the planet, but talks about implementing that still drag on.
Unusual/Special Features:
-Moons(3)---Fastania has three substantially-sized moons which have been extensively colonized, one serving as an orbital fortress and naval base, and the other two as industrial colonies.
Atmosphere: Breathable nitrox mix.
Terrain: Mountains, plains, hill-lands, and large swamp-deltas(the latter drying up as the ice age takes hold).
Notable Mineral Concentrations:
- Amethyst
- Lead
- Magnesium
- Molybdenite
- Nickel
- Sulfur
- Fluorite
- Gypsum
Hydrosphere: Moist---65% of Fastania is covered in open water(used to be 65%, but the ice age is causing a drawdown of the oceans).
Biosphere: Verdant. Fastania never evolved dinosaurs or mammals, but some quite sophisticated and large insect species. Many of these have evolved mammal-like temperature regulation to cope with the changing climate.
In addition, a number of imported species came with the colonizing humans. The result is a mishmash of species as the ecosystems have clashed and come to an equilibrium of sorts, though there have been extinctions on both sides(horses fair poorly on Fastania and the only Fasti horned hexarunners one will see are stuffed examples in museums), though the Fastanians barely register this(Fastanians are as enthusiastic about their toasted spirashell as they about their lamb chops) .
Civilization:
Settled
Population:
4.8 billion(83% human, 17% other)
Technology:
Galactic. They have most of the trappings of a fairly advanced(and comfortable) CCW metroworld, though generally the better connected you are with the landed and titled families, the better off you are). Fastania has the ability to build spacecraft and lower-end starships, and provides spare parts for starship traffic , but hasn’t really built up an aerospace industry or merchant marine of its own. Specialized starship parts for the less common types, for example, will require longer to retool local workshops to produce...or they may need to be imported. Fastania has a couple of factories able to produce their own versions of the (antiquated) Hyena aerospace fighter, Harrier & Kestrel corvettes, and carrier conversions of freighters, but their best ships and equipment have been acquired from Naruni and WZT. The LaDorians, as proof of their commitment to the military, recently showed off several brand-spanking new Espandon Gun Frigates acquired from Naruni Enterprises.

Economy:
Commercial---Was Agrarian, but increasingly the local economies have come to service the trans-Junction trade-traffic.. Fastania had a reputation for being a fun layover location for ships waiting to use the wormhole, but of late, with the coup, uncertainty in the streets, and the hike in fees, that reputation has lost some of its polish and glow.
Wealth:
Was Wealthy, with enough surplus to afford buying a fairly decent military establishment’s equipment from foreign sources. Traveler spending was high enough that there was a good amount of coin to be had on the streets.
Currently, though, conditions are slipping to Depressed, with most transiting crews staying aboard their ships, and many people staying back. Though the government and associated traffic technical services are still pulling in a good amount of income(ships still need to be repaired, especially if damaged by pirate attacks), the surplus seems to be disappearing. The government claims it’s all going into a defense renewal fund, but word is circulating the LaDorians are lining their own pockets with the traffic taxes.
Government:
Aristocracy
Law Level:
Draconian----The LaDorians have claimed that harsh and aggressive law enforcement is necessary to stabilize society, especially with Fastynan-loyalist revivalists still running loose, and that things will return to normal once the ‘state of national emergency’ is resolved, but that state has never come to be, and doesn’t seem in sight any time soon.
Popularity:
Ambivalent----There’s a growing divide and polarization in Fastanian society between a fanatical pro-LaDorian faction who wholly approve of the ‘stronger’ attitude of the LaDorians, and a more quiet majority still absorbing the shock of the ‘Revolution’.
Stability:
Unrest. The coup that put the LaDorians in charge is still fresh in many peoples’ minds. While not everybody was happy with the Fastynas, many feel that a coup was the wrong way of affecting regime change. The LaDorians have been quick to shower the populace with bread and circuses, removed a number of unpopular government officials, and promoted their management of the Wormhole as a ‘share the wealth’ deal, but they’ve also been cracking down on civil liberties, purging the government of anybody suspected of harboring loyalty or sympathy for the ousted Fastynas, and have also been rolling up the ranks of their personal enemies. They’ve also been heavy-handed in ‘renegotiating’ long-standing Fastyna-era treaties with outsiders.

There’s a rumor that some of the Fastynan Royal Family managed to escape offworld in one of the royal yachts, but they were last seen heading into space suspected to harbor Splugorth raiders and they have not been seen since.

SolCannibal · Unread post by **SolCannibal** » Fri Jul 31, 2020 9:22 pm

So the wormhole's exit point is in a system just outside the border of Zyganian space? I see quite the potential for problem brewing right there... :twisted:

Depending on what part of the border not only with the Zyganians, but also the Golgan Republik or both even.

It would also be quite the bit of delicious irony if survivors of the royal family fell in the hand of Splugorth raiders - in the service of one of Lord Norrek's rivals. And suddenly the resistance gets a sudden injection of support in the form of heroic (yeah, sure) Atlantean (Sunaj & Tatoo Men) allies on their side! All hail Sploog proxy war! :lol:

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Fri Jul 31, 2020 10:49 pm

SolCannibal wrote:So the wormhole's exit point is in a system just outside the border of Zyganian space? I see quite the potential for problem brewing right there...
Depending on what part of the border not only with the Zyganians, but also the Golgan Republik or both even..

That's what I be implying. The Zyganians want trade and lots of trade, and if the LaDorians threaten to cut off the flow through the wormhole with their stupid policies, the Zyganians just might feel tempted to take action. With or without the assistance of others.
Likewise, Gaus Binjo's plans to rejuvenate the Republic may well involve sorting out the splinter states and putting them back in their proper place. Depending on how and how fast the Republic moves on the Zyganian Empire, the Empire may desperately need the Junction as a supply route for war material...or the Republic may also realize that, and move to cut it off.

The LaDorians, admittedly, are rolling the idiot ball here, letting their greed get the better of them, instead of gradually building up to increased fees. Whether the Gun Brothers will let them torpedo their own regime through blatant self-interest and treasury-robbing, or eventually move to become the power behind the throne, using a few living LaDorians as meat-puppets, is still up in the air.

And yeah, the whole set up was inspired by an earlier spacecraft post featuring the fleeing Royals encountering. Splugorth troopship....Now we have the background story....whether they escaped or not, or which faction the troopship belonged to...well, that's the stuff of adventure hooks...

SolCannibal · Unread post by **SolCannibal** » Sat Aug 01, 2020 10:58 am

taalismn wrote:
SolCannibal wrote:So the wormhole's exit point is in a system just outside the border of Zyganian space? I see quite the potential for problem brewing right there...
Depending on what part of the border not only with the Zyganians, but also the Golgan Republik or both even..

That's what I be implying. The Zyganians want trade and lots of trade, and if the LaDorians threaten to cut off the flow through the wormhole with their stupid policies, the Zyganians just might feel tempted to take action. With or without the assistance of others.
Likewise, Gaus Binjo's plans to rejuvenate the Republic may well involve sorting out the splinter states and putting them back in their proper place. Depending on how and how fast the Republic moves on the Zyganian Empire, the Empire may desperately need the Junction as a supply route for war material...or the Republic may also realize that, and move to cut it off.

And somehow i don't see either USA or CCW moving in to give the LaDorian royals a helping hand with their issues.

taalismn wrote:The LaDorians, admittedly, are rolling the idiot ball here, letting their greed get the better of them, instead of gradually building up to increased fees. Whether the Gun Brothers will let them torpedo their own regime through blatant self-interest and treasury-robbing, or eventually move to become the power behind the throne, using a few living LaDorians as meat-puppets, is still up in the air.

As an aside, it has crossed my mind the idea of Splugorth kingdoms disguising their piracy or raiding through the use of "secondary minions" like dragons, supernatural allies or whatever might stand in as surrogates in the same rungs of the hierarchy as Kittani or Gargoyles. What led me into ships crewed by demons - or maybe even a few demon ships stolen during the Minion War and crewed by demons of the races from Hades or Dyval, but not beholden to them (quite common actually, like Set's Jinns or Ereshkigal's Gallus, if memory tricks me not).

taalismn wrote:And yeah, the whole set up was inspired by an earlier spacecraft post featuring the fleeing Royals encountering. Splugorth troopship....Now we have the background story....whether they escaped or not, or which faction the troopship belonged to...well, that's the stuff of adventure hooks...

Great to know i hit the nail on the head without even trying. That's some dumb luck indeed.

It does make me think of a game where a PC ended up buying a pretty elven lady's freedom from a Splugorth auction block in Center, because she resembled his wife and that disturbed him, only to find out she was the princess of some star-nation partly aligned with the UWW.

And his wife's twin sister - even though his wife had no idea she was not born on Rifts Earth in the first place! - but that's a whole different story that would lead in quite the royal mess of a sucession crisis.

SolCannibal · Unread post by **SolCannibal** » Sat Aug 01, 2020 2:41 pm

Thinking to myself that Lord Norrek with his Gun Brotherhood front and arrangements with local royalty seems like a Splugorth very much in the "player on the seedy underbelly of stellar societies" schtick. Know what race of smart and insecure humanoids is up to their - quite considerable - ears in spies, thieves, smugglers, vagabonds/drifters, scroungers and other all around riff-raff could make great agents for such a being? Ratanoids.

You play to their strengths while offering the power and resources of service as (decidedly minor) agents of an ancient and respected power of the 3 Galaxies as the minion race of a Splugorth race. Obviously the Ratanoids reputation would go even lower the moment the alliance of one such group comes public, but well, not like they have so many great opportunities anyway....

Another thing that has crossed my mind is an army of Alu demons - from Hades, as Splugorth allies or as a budding star power of their own - doing false flag operations in many parts of the 3Gs as Wulfen, though it would be far from perfect, as Alu are 12 feet tall on average (against the 7-9 feet of Wulfen) and have legs more similar to those of humans.

Alternatively, werewolves are described as closer-looking in terms of leg shape and height (6-8 feet?) while having some advantages of their own, like being able to change into human form, among others. Also, a Splugorth and its favored minions might enjoy the idea of having a number of them for bio-wizardry experiments.

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Sat Aug 01, 2020 9:26 pm

SolCannibal wrote:Thinking to myself that Lord Norrek with his Gun Brotherhood front and arrangements with local royalty seems like a Splugorth very much in the "player on the seedy underbelly of stellar societies" schtick. Know what race of smart and insecure humanoids is up to their - quite considerable - ears in spies, thieves, smugglers, vagabonds/drifters, scroungers and other all around riff-raff could make great agents for such a being? Ratanoids.

You play to their strengths while offering the power and resources of service as (decidedly minor) agents of an ancient and respected power of the 3 Galaxies as the minion race of a Splugorth race. Obviously the Ratanoids reputation would go even lower the moment the alliance of one such group comes public, but well, not like they have so many great opportunities anyway.....

hence why the Trevis Collective is not mourned by other civilizations, who saw it as inevitable in a kingdom of Ratanoids. And why the Trevis feel the pressure to prove them wrong.

SolCannibal wrote:Another thing that has crossed my mind is an army of Alu demons - from Hades, as Splugorth allies or as a budding star power of their own - doing false flag operations in many parts of the 3Gs as Wulfen, though it would be far from perfect, as Alu are 12 feet tall on average (against the 7-9 feet of Wulfen) and have legs more similar to those of humans.

Alternatively, werewolves are described as closer-looking in terms of leg shape and height (6-8 feet?) while having some advantages of their own, like being able to change into human form, among others. Also, a Splugorth and its favored minions might enjoy the idea of having a number of them for bio-wizardry experiments.

Yeah, omegassgundam has commented on that, how the Three Galaxies has seemed to to explode into piracy...there are so many down-on-their-luck, previously dismissed, or just plain cranky parties that would seize any opportunity to start trouble...not good trouble, but self-serving, entertainingly painful trouble. And some think that staid old empires like the TGE and the CCW, are creaking relics that are long overdue for a fall, even though ironically, by spreading through the galaxies and spreading civilization(or at least technology) those same powers allowed the minors to become starring powers(shades of Poul Anderon's Dominic Flandry's 'Long Night').

SolCannibal · Unread post by **SolCannibal** » Sun Aug 02, 2020 1:11 am

taalismn wrote:
SolCannibal wrote:Thinking to myself that Lord Norrek with his Gun Brotherhood front and arrangements with local royalty seems like a Splugorth very much in the "player on the seedy underbelly of stellar societies" schtick. Know what race of smart and insecure humanoids is up to their - quite considerable - ears in spies, thieves, smugglers, vagabonds/drifters, scroungers and other all around riff-raff could make great agents for such a being? Ratanoids.

You play to their strengths while offering the power and resources of service as (decidedly minor) agents of an ancient and respected power of the 3 Galaxies as the minion race of a Splugorth race. Obviously the Ratanoids reputation would go even lower the moment the alliance of one such group comes public, but well, not like they have so many great opportunities anyway.....

hence why the Trevis Collective is not mourned by other civilizations, who saw it as inevitable in a kingdom of Ratanoids. And why the Trevis feel the pressure to prove them wrong.

More for the sake of themselves than anything, considering the Trevisian Ratanoids don’t even like or trust their Galactic Ratanoid cousins.

That said someone selling the location of one uninhabitated lifeworld relatively close by might be able to get a good deal of favor out of them i guess. Even if their current focus is on keeping exploiters away from their legacy than exploration, having a already clean place for at least a part of their people - and young - to grow healthily and safe instead of spending on habitats and ecological restoration, would be a major boon to their struggle, if not a game-changer.

taalismn wrote:
SolCannibal wrote:Another thing that has crossed my mind is an army of Alu demons - from Hades, as Splugorth allies or as a budding star power of their own - doing false flag operations in many parts of the 3Gs as Wulfen, though it would be far from perfect, as Alu are 12 feet tall on average (against the 7-9 feet of Wulfen) and have legs more similar to those of humans.

Alternatively, werewolves are described as closer-looking in terms of leg shape and height (6-8 feet?) while having some advantages of their own, like being able to change into human form, among others. Also, a Splugorth and its favored minions might enjoy the idea of having a number of them for bio-wizardry experiments.

Yeah, omegassgundam has commented on that, how the Three Galaxies has seemed to to explode into piracy...there are so many down-on-their-luck, previously dismissed, or just plain cranky parties that would cease any opportunity to start trouble...not good trouble, but self-serving, entertainingly painful trouble. And some think that staid old empires like the TGE and the CCW, are creaking relics that are long overdue for a fall, even though ironically, by spreading through the galaxies and spreading civilization(or at least technology) those same powers allowed the minors to become starring powers(shades of Poul Anderon's Dominic Flandry's 'Long Night').

Well, both sides of the Minion War sparking all kinds of regional crises through the creation, use and abuse of dark cabals across the Three Galaxies certainly helped.

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Sun Aug 02, 2020 2:06 am

SolCannibal wrote:
More for the sake of themselves than anything, considering the Trevisian Ratanoids don’t even like or trust their Galactic Ratanoid cousins.

That said someone selling the location of one uninhabitated lifeworld relatively close by might be able to get a good deal of favor out of them i guess. Even if their current focus is on keeping exploiters away from their legacy than exploration, having a already clean place for at least a part of their people - and young - to grow healthily and safe instead of spending on habitats and ecological restoration, would be a major boon to their struggle, if not a game-changer..

Indeed. Somebody giving up an entire WORLD they might have claimed for themselves? That sort of charity would gob smack both the Trevis and other Ratanoids who would be breaking out the electron microscopes to look for the fine print on the deed papers....

SolCannibal · Unread post by **SolCannibal** » Sun Aug 02, 2020 2:38 am

taalismn wrote:
SolCannibal wrote:Another thing that has crossed my mind is an army of Alu demons - from Hades, as Splugorth allies or as a budding star power of their own - doing false flag operations in many parts of the 3Gs as Wulfen, though it would be far from perfect, as Alu are 12 feet tall on average (against the 7-9 feet of Wulfen) and have legs more similar to those of humans.

Alternatively, werewolves are described as closer-looking in terms of leg shape and height (6-8 feet?) while having some advantages of their own, like being able to change into human form, among others. Also, a Splugorth and its favored minions might enjoy the idea of having a number of them for bio-wizardry experiments.

Yeah, omegassgundam has commented on that, how the Three Galaxies has seemed to to explode into piracy...there are so many down-on-their-luck, previously dismissed, or just plain cranky parties that would cease any opportunity to start trouble...not good trouble, but self-serving, entertainingly painful trouble. And some think that staid old empires like the TGE and the CCW, are creaking relics that are long overdue for a fall, even though ironically, by spreading through the galaxies and spreading civilization(or at least technology) those same powers allowed the minors to become starring powers(shades of Poul Anderon's Dominic Flandry's 'Long Night').

Well, both sides of the Minion War sparking all kinds of regional crises through the creation, use and abuse of dark cabals across the Three Galaxies certainly helped.

Though my focus was more in developing Splugorth allies/minions that weren't ripped from WB2. That and a twist on DB12 and the demon ships.
Now i'm thinking of taking the "just Wulfen raiders, no monsters here" angle a little farther and going for an actual "star nation" of them instead of the minions of some Splugorth.

A group of Alus "stranded" after the Minion War debacle strikes on their own, hitting on the idea of feigning being pirates of Wulfen origin along the way.
Later they acquire a few werewolves (can they transmit their nature to others like vampires? Don't remember now) as allies, who help to make the "variant group of Wulfen" lie a little more convincing while providing espionage capacities through shifting in human form and Dybbuk, who can possess any actual Wulfen corpses that come into their hands, further boosting the ranks of "monsters in disguise".

They could try to exploit groups of Wulfen imperialists/supremacists to obtain more fresh bodies, figuratively and literally (to hide more Dybbuk grunts), what could dovetail into the "forming a real star-nation" part.

Edit: godammit, i keep forgetting how terribly antisocial Dybbuk in general are toward each other, such a crimp on their general usefulness.... :evil:

Seems to be a carrion eater thing in fact, since apparently D-ghouls have much the same problem (also curious, since many scavengers in nature are actually pack animals).

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Sun Aug 02, 2020 8:20 pm

Kaxion Station/Kaxxion Junction(United Systems Alliance)

Justicar Fillips elected to take the open walk across the spaceport tarmac from his shuttle rather than the fully-lit enclosed gantry walkway; he wanted to get a feel for his new assignment personally, rather than remain in a climate-controlled, sensory-deprived bubble like the tourists. The air outside was cool, and the atmosphere had a feel like gathering dusk, even though the reddish sun was still relatively high above the horizon. Red-sun worlds were hard to get used to, but in his short walk, he had still managed to get to the point that stepping back inside the enviro-dome covering the colony administration bloc, re-adjusting to the bright lighting inside took some getting used to.
Stepping into the Kaxion Station Government House after clearing security, Fillips encountered a troop of short squat rodentoid soldiers in full uniform double-timing it somewhere, a desk with a holographic head floating above it, muttering to itself, a big military cyborg polishing decorations and trimwork in the hall, what looked like several plastic mannequins convened around the watercooler, an animated houseplant filing paperwork, a young human(?) woman in what looked like bubblewrap(and darned little of it) anxiously watching a closed office door, a covered tray beside her, more uniforms on bodies both biped and non-biped, a tall six-armed humanoid wearing only a cache-sex, extensive tattoos, and a determined look as he stamped across an office of busy, buzzing insectoids at yet more desks, and a small black cloud that swept past him with a breathy apology before disappearing around a corner.
Pretty typical GNE outpost, he thought to himself.

“I would have to conclude, after reading the Galactic Gazetteer entry on Kaxion that, whoever discovered and surveyed the system must have held a deep affection for the letter ‘K’.”

Kaxion Station is a small colony on a planet orbiting a red dwarf star in an extra-dimensional star system in a cluster of similar red dwarves(it has NOT been located anywhere in the Three Galaxies). Despite both its small star and its out-dimension location, the presence of dimensional nexi in the system makes the system a convenient through-fare for both Greater New England and the United Systems Alliance, and a place of growing importance. The system dimensional ‘overpass’ allows for faster transit between several key systems of the widespread United Systems Alliance, as well as access to several other dimensions, though it nowhere near matches Phaseworld or Atlantis/Rifts Earth as a nexus terminal. Though most people see little of the system while flying through to get to the nexus termini, the system is attracting growing interest from colonists willing to weather the dim conditions in favor of reaping the system’s mineral wealth.
The Korlen system itself is worthy of note because, despite its small star, the system has an unusually large number of planets(there’s been some speculation that some the planets may have been drawn through the dimensional rifts to be deposited in orbit of Korlen). Korlen system has become something of a major transit hub for United System Alliance traffic, largely because of its dimensional nexus point(in fact, Korlen system was initially surveyed because of the transit point; Kaxion was a happy discovery, as it provided a convenient waystation). Many of Korlen’s other planets(a mix of lifeless rocks and gas giants) have attracted interest as mineral and fuel sources, especially for repairing and servicing transiting spacecraft. Several orbital and free-flying spacestations have been established, to guide, monitor, and service traffic through the system. There is also talk of establishing an Exploration Command base on one of the neighboring planets, to better explore the region of space/universe around Korlen.

Kaxion’s major immediate problem is that it orbits a red dwarf(Korlen), and as such receives only a fraction of the sunlight that a more hospitable yellow dwarf puts out. Not being so close to Korlen as to have an abbreviated ‘year’ but a bright sky, Kaxion is something of a twilight world, and beings more used to brighter stars find the world dark and gloomy. Therefore, it is surprising to many that Kaxion has a rich local ecology, a compatible oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere, and an amenable climate, inviting colonization by those willing to put up with the dim local lighting. Thus the settlements on Kaxion are dependent on artifical light, and concentrated sunlight focused on the planet by large orbital solettes. Kaxion’s native life tends to be phlegmatic and energy-conservative, and the vegetation, such that is edible by offworlders, is low in energy.
That having been said, Kaxion DOES produce a few crops worthy of export, such as Kaxil(or Kaxilian Ginger), a ginger-like root that is quite tasty and has some uniquely beneficial phytochemicals. Kaxion also has evolved a slow-growing tuber that is very tasty and very nutritious; farmers are trying to figure out the right combination of additional light and heat that might accelerate its growth so it can be more profitably cultivated.
Kaxion and its neighbor planets are also puzzles for planetologists, who can’t make sense of why the gravity values for the planets vary so widely from what their apparent mass should predict. They’re trying to figure out if this is a quirk in the composition of the planets around Korlen, or some fundamental property of the physical laws in Korlen’s universe; several probes have been launched to neighboring stars to study various aspects of physics and find other planets for comparison. So far, though, whatever strange properties local space may have don’t seem to adversely affect long term residency any, so the Alliance colonial development boards have approved continued colonization and immigration.

Kaxion Station is perhaps best known in the Alliance news as a clearing point for rehab victims from Kaderos City, a community on a nearby(relatively speaking) Earth-like world in an alternate universe accessible through the dimensional nexus. There, a local criminal syndicate became so powerful and corrupt in controling a major city that the federal government, hamstrung by its own corruption and lobbyists for the syndicate, ultimately threw up its hands and invited in foreign mercenaries to act as a peacekeeping force. A force consisting largely of GNE nationalized mercenaries was deployed and quickly began kicking organized crime syndicate ass across the megacity.
The joint policing force has been holding its own well enough, but dealing with the thousands of brainwashed slaves produced by the syndicate and rescued by the intervention force has been a problem. The decision has been made to take them offworld and resettle them, rather than try to fit them back into society on their original world, where they might fall victim again to the corruption and crime that is rife there. A good number of them are resettled on convenient Kaxion.
Many of the ex-slaves have had to be triaged, mindwiped, and reformatted with new personas and skillsets. The GNE Civil Services employs many of these rehabbed ex-slaves, after extensive vetting to make sure there are no sleeper agents in the lot(the syndicate has made several attempts to infiltrate rehabilees with implanted traitor personas into the GNE enclave). Kaxion’s growing agricultural sector has become a convenient sponge and safety net for many of these ex-slaves.

Kaxion’s atmosphere of ‘relaxed, sleepy backwater’ has recently begun to concern some people in authority, especially as the importance and public knowledge of the nexus points grows, drawing more attention to the system. There is the fear that the authorities of Kaxion Station may not be taking the security of the outpost system seriously enough, especially as the colony is processing ex-slaves. Besides the Kaderos City syndicates potentially trying to retaliate against the USA intervention, other, more menacing, forces may have taken an interest in Kaxion.

Solar System
Number of Stars: 1(Korlen)
Types of Stars: Red Dwarf
Number of Planets: 19
-Terrestrial(Klen)(Average)---Airless, average-sized, but possessed of an unusually high gravity, Klen raises many questions about how it has no atmosphere, and yet has such a high mass(especially while Kaxion is so large, yet so low-mass).

-Terrestrial(Kaxion)---System lifeworld

-Terrestrial(Kerrel)(Large)---As with Klen, Kerrel has a surface gravity disproportionately high to its relative size. It does, however, at least possess a dense(but toxic) atmosphere. Kerrel’s high gravity keeps it from being exploited by anything but robotics and teleoperations rigs, so for now its development has been minimal.

- Asteroid Belt---A rich region of stellar debris, the Kindis Belt has drawn the attention of prospectors and asteroid miners. Currently it is the site of the most mining activity in the system.

-Gas Giant(Kepel)(Average)---Kepel’s moon system is the site of the largest concentration of freespace miners due to its proximity to the Kindis Asteroid Belt and colonized Kaxxion. It is emerging as the deep space industrial center of the system. The USA maintains a growing naval base there, home to several escort cruisers.

- Gas Giant (Kojan)(Average)---Ringed Kojan is a scenic world viewed from afar, but thus far, it’s shown little of value to attract the attention of developers.

-Terrestrial(Korax)(Average)---Cold and airless, with a very low surface gravity, Korax is arguably as puzzling as Klen and Kerrel, but at least people can explore its surface without extensive gravity-assist technology. Korax is being surveyed as a possible mining site.

-Terrestrial(Kof)(Large)----Methane-atmosphered Kof is another attractive ‘hard’ colony site; despite its size, it has relatively low gravity, and its methane atmosphere can be easily exploited for energy.

- Gas Giant(Knompf)---A small gas giant, Knompf has only been visited by robotic probes dropped into its atmosphere. The world so far has exhibited little of commercial value or scientific interest.

-Terrestrial (Keeler)---A large, rocky, ice-covered planet, Keeler is being surveyed by robot orbiters and rovers, with an eye towards mining. Strangely enough, its surface gravity is very low, which flies in the face of the pattern seen elsewhere in the system, giving scientists fits.

-Terrestrial (Kopis)---Slightly smaller than Earth, and slightly larger than Mars, Kopis is much colder than either and covered in ice. Like Keeler, it is being explored by scientific survey robots. However, recently a ship of Machine People landed on Kopis, established a small settlement, and claimed squatters’ rights to Kopis. As the Machine People were only supposed to be transiting the Korlen system, the USA, which claims ownership of the system, are arguably within their own rights to oust the settlers. However, the Machine People are claiming to be refugees fleeing oppression in the TGE, so any action taken against them would be bad publicity for the USA. Currently the Alliance is consulting their lawyers and waiting to see how the situation develops.

- Gas Giant(Kasa)---The giant gas giant Kasa sports unusually large and thick rings, possibly from several small moons colliding and shattering. Kasa’s rings are expected to remain brighter longer than Saturn’s, due to Korlen’s lower solar output.

- Asteroid Belt----The Koldis Field is thinner but wider than the Kindis Belt. While some asteroid miners have ventured out to work the Koldis Field, the greater distances between target rocks means that miners’ ships have to spend more fuel and stay out longer, so currently few have taken this step, despie some early substantial strikes.

- Gas Giant(Kope)---A small gas giant, Kope shows signs of, at some time in its past, having lost some of its atmosphere in a gravitational close encounter with another gas giant or other gravity well. As none of the other planets in the system show similar signs of just such an encounter, Kope’s condition is seen as evidence that not all the planets in the ssytem originated there.

- Gas Giant(Knol)--- Large Knol is circled by large rings. However, unlike Kasa’s rings, Knol’s seem older and more ‘ragged’, much of their original material having already been drawn into Knol’s atmosphere.

- Gas Giant(Kosis)--- Kosis is distinguished mainly by its large moon, Legainan, which is home to a scientific and patrol base that monitors traffic through the systtem and launches extrasolar probes.

- Gas Giant(Kylew)---Kylew is arguably a ‘brown dwarf’, a failed protostar that is now a gas giant of gaseous ‘ash’, but which still radiates strongly in the infrared. That gives the spacestation orbiting it a small, but welcome, supplemental source of energy, while it scans cross-system traffic and provides aid to any ships that need assistance.

-Anomalies----Dimensional nexus point(s)---The outer orbits of Korlen’s system play host to several dimensional wormholes that allow interdimensional travel. Five such points have currently been identified, but there have been indications of more waiting to be pinpointed and accessed. The placement of these wormhole points around the outermost fringes of the Korlen system makes the most expedient way of reaching them from another wormhole a trip across the star system, using gravity assists from the planets and star to make a low-power consumption transit. However, rather than slingshot through the system, many travellers take the time to stop, refuel, resupply, and have maintenance performed at one of the stations along the way.
The Kaxion Nexus was originally found to be a convenient ‘overpass’ for traveling through several sectors of space claimed by the United Systems Alliance, but Project Outstep explorers discovered that the same ‘overpass’ made accessing several other alternities(such as the one with the Kaderos City/Earth-analogue) that much easier.

Planet(Kaxion)
Type: Terrestrial
Diameter: Huge; 50,000 km diameter
Gravity: Average (1.01 g)
Temperature: Temperate, if on the cool side(similar to Canada).
Unusual/Special Features:
*Low Core Density---For its size, Kaxion has relatively low gravity. Soundings of its mantle have shown that the planet’s interior, while heated in the usual fashion for terrestrial worlds, has a fairly low material density, and thus less mass than its size and mineralization would suggest.
*Craters----Kaxion is pocked with numerous impact craters.
Atmosphere: Earth-like nitrox mixture
Terrain: 40% is covered in low flat plains, another 16% in low hills and mountains.
Notable Mineral Concentrations:
- Chromium
- Manganese
- Iron
- Cobalt
- Borax
- Arsenic
- Titanium
- Nickel
Hydrosphere: Moist----Kaxion is covered in a fair amount of water; about 70% of the surface is covered in shallow seas
Biosphere: Dense, though slow-moving. Most insect-analogue lifeforms on Kaxion are gliders, rather than energetic fliers, and the most advanced form of life is a dog-sized amphibian with mammal-like characteristics and a phlegmatic disposition.
Civilization:
Colonial; Settled
Population:
Roughly 180,000 settlers call Kaxion Station home; there’s another 95,000 asteroid miners. However, the system’s rapidly-growing importance to the United Systems Alliance means that those numbers are expected to grow.
Technology:
Galactic. The system stations contain facilities able to repair most CG-drive systems. Kaxion Colony is well-supplied with good reliable technology in keeping with its growing importance as a transit point.
Economy:
Agriculture---Kaxion Colony grows a combination of imported crop species(under domes) and compatible local species.
Wealth:
Prosperous---Even though Kaxion is still young as a colony, its economic outlook is already looking bright(for a red dwarf world). Several of the local plant species have been discovered to have good commercial qualities, and the colony is also doing well selling food to the outer world miners and prospectors.
The system as a whole is expected to become one of the more important ones to the farflung worlds of the United Systems Alliance, with the providing of services to transiting traffic.

Government:
Corporate Administration, with democratically elected colonial representatives.

Law Level:
Overbearing. GNE/USA administration includes a large force of peacekeepers, in part to handle both transients and the flow of ex-slaves from the corrupt warrens of Kaderos City. The colonists don’t mind the added police presence, because it’s protecting them from all the strangers passing through, but travellers may find the police scrutiny intimidating.
Offworld, security is provided by a heavy squadron of USA warships, mainly frigates and light cruisers, as well as several dedicated rescue-response craft to keep traffic moving smoothly.

Popularity:
Beloved---The current Colonial Governor, a Ryllian and ex-slave himself, Poxa V’Daxon, is very well-liked for negotiating fair export prices for Kaxion’s farmers, getting the Alliance to increase the local security presence(and the money the added security spends locally) and arranging a secure and equitable immigration and resettlement program for some of the vetted ex-drones from Kaderos City.

Stability:
Solid. Business is good and promises to get better for the people of Korlen. System.
One faction that has been appearing with greater frequency among the transients is the Kindlers, a Chromite group who believe that the Korlen system would be a very good candidate to establish a Dyson Sphere, the system’s many planets providing enough material to completely enclose the red dwarf in a giant shell that would capture all of the sun’s meager output. Red dwarves being more stable and safer to work around than other larger and more energetic stars, this makes perfect sense to many, but how the Kindlers intend to carry out such a massive project remains unexplained. For now the colonists of Kaxion tolerate the Kindlers’ talk, but don’t give it much thought. However, rumors have been surfacing that the Kindlers may have recently acquired some interesting First Ones’ technology that might give their plans some real plausibility. Whether or not the Kindlers will be forthcoming about what this xenotech does, and if they’d inform anybody who might be affected by it first, is another mystery. USA security authorities have put the Kindlers on a watchlist, eyeing their movements and activities through the Kaxxion Junction.

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Mon Aug 03, 2020 8:44 pm

Karidan Federation( Corkscrew Galaxy)
“The Karidans like to boast of the peace and prosperity they enjoy on their own, without the frustrations of wrestling with the CCW’s internal politics, but increasingly they’re dependent on groceries from the TGE. They may have cut the apron strings to the Human Alliance, but their supply lines stretch to the Empire worlds.”

The Karidian Federation is a star cluster colonized by the Human Alliance that broke off from the HA prior to the formation of the CCW. The founders of the KF just didn’t like beholding to a central administration that by its very expansionist nature would mean that each older member would lose more and more political power with each new member added. The Karidians stayed out of the first CCW/TGE wars by dint of their distance from the warfronts, but later on, because of their willingness to directly negotiate and trade, they’ve managed to open relations with the Empire and its satellites.
Though proclaiming neutrality with regards to the CCW/TGE standoff, it is known that the Karidians are on good terms with the TransGalactic Empire. TGE ships are allowed unfettered access through Federation space, and any Free Worlds operatives found in Karidian space are quietly turned over to the tender mercies of the Kreeghor.
From the Kreeghor perspective, the Karidian Federation is a useful pawn/neighbor, and the TGE allows the Karidans the comforting delusion that they’re respected and able to negotiate as equals, rather than quivering in their boots afraid and eager to placate the TGE in return for continued autonomy. The Imperial Kreeghor are also quietly amused by the slow turning of the KF into an increasingly totalitarian state.
The CCW is aware of the Karidians’ drift in loyalties and the growing influence the TGE has over them, but just not how far it goes. However, the CCW is bound by the Karidian claims of neutrality and officially keeps its functionaries out of Karidian space. Though not embargoing trade with the KF, the CCW also has no official trade treaties with it, so many of the larger CCW trade concerns have taken the hint and avoid trafficking with the Karidians. While this has led to a decline in trade from the CCW and a slowdown of the Karidian economy, some high-placed CCW analysts fear that this may have the effect of driving the KF closer to the TGE.
Exacerbating the Karidians’ problems is a chokepoint in the Karidian economy. Their efforts to terraform several planets at once has stretched their resources, and several setbacks in their terraforming efforts have led to shortfalls in their expected production estimates. A rather liberal policy on population growth has meant that the terraforming shortfalls have caused shortages in the food supplies, and rationing has been implemented on several occasions. Fortunately, the oligarchs were able to ramp up industrial production and sell off enough finished goods to outside parties in exchange for foodstuffs to cover the shortfalls. The average Karidian citizen sees steady work and full grocery stores and is blissfully unaware of how close some of the Karidian communities are to starvation. They’re even less aware of how much more of their food is coming from Kreeghor-dominated worlds.

A. Size
5 systems
The Karidians’ worlds are mostly terraformed, but as-yet-incomplete environmental work and a growing population has led to food shortages, and the Karidians import a substantial amount of foodstuffs and agricultural supplies.
B. History
Splinter Society(Human Alliance)
C. Level of Technological Sophistication
Mature Space Age---The Karidians can build their own starships, mainly of older or more common pattern ships. They’ve also traded a number of their older pre-CCW vessels for more modern TGE-manufactured ships.
D. General Attitude/Culture
Non-Interventionists---The Karidians claim they have no interests outside developing their existing worlds, and this had so far held true. Internally, though, they are suspected of having assisted the TGE in extending its security policies.
E. Racial Composition
Human, with substantial minority populations of Wolfen and Kreeghor.
F. Government
Oligarchy----The Karidians call it a ‘meritocracy’ but the fact is that the government is run by successful-through-cutthroat-business-practice corporate businessmen who then form mutually backscratching partnerships. This has become family affairs, where bloodlines have held onto poistions of power through nepotism, intermarriage, and adoption of promising young mustangs.
G. Administrative Control
Tight----The Karidians exercise tight control over their people, especially the media.
H. External Trade
Trade Hub----The Karidians espouse free trade through their systems, though who is coming through is carefully watched.
H1. Commodities
Exports: Consumer Goods----Iterestingly enough, the TransGalactic Empire is a major buyer of these goods.
Imports: Agricultural---The KF imports a good amount of foodstuffs.
I. Status
Established---Most Karidans are satisfied with the current state of affairs; their territory is small enough to be managed effectively, yet large enough to command respect and control substantial resources(despite the terraforming problems).

Arrizon Cyberteniary
“Don’t be making trouble, or the Stick-men will come get you.”

The Arrizon Cyberteniary is a high-tech prison facility operated by the human-administered Karidan Federation. Though much of its operation is shrouded in secrecy, enough information has leaked out(or been allowed to leak) that it’s become local Karidian legend, used to frighten wpuld-be troublemakers with the prospect of being sent there.
The facility is a heavily automated maximum-security facility; once processed in, inmates rarely come in contact with other living beings, and are handled by other remote telepresence rigs or onsite artificial itelligence wardens. Most prisoners spend their sentences in controlled virtual reality stasis.
Inmates are fitted with a cybernetic brace(known amongst convicts as ‘the Stick’ or ‘Arrizon Ladders’) along their spines that acts as a control and monitoring mechanism, as well as an attachment point; inmates are typically hoisted by the Stick by robotic handlers when being transported between parts of the prison. The Stick also has sufgical nanoprobes that site in the wearer’s nervous system. and act as VR links and motivators; with a signal the wardens can lock an inmate’s muscles up tight to prevent movement, or leave them lax to allow them to move around. The Stick can also stimulate pleasure/pain centers, and there is a black market for functional Sticks for purposes of pleasure and torture.

A. Type of Prison:
Maximum Security
B. Management
Department of Corrections, Karidan Fderation
C. Outside Supervision
State Commission Inspectors----The Karidan administration regularly sends political officers to inspect the facilities and query the AIs, to make sure things are running smoothly.
D. Size of Facility
Large---Can hold some 10,000 inmates.
E. Location
Planetisimal---Arrizon is hidden away on a minor planetoid in a system adjacent to the Karidan homeworld. The planetoid is listed as a military reservation on Karidan navigation charts, though information on its true location and nature is available through the intelligence black market.
F. Alignment of Staff
Aberrant---The staff may be sadistic authoritarians, but they’re by the book, if only to keep from losing their fiefdoms and becoming inmates in the prison system.
G. Philosophy of the Penal System
Containment---Inmates are treated like toxic waste; they’re locked away in sensory deprivation or in virtual reality until they break down into something more easily handled.
H. Rehabilitation Programs
Brainwashing----If one is lucky, an inmate might still have some sense of self-identity after years of VR indoctrination. Many lose touch with reality altogether.
I. Criminal Activities in the Prison
Virtually none from the inmates, though some of the living guards have been known to engage in messing with the VR programs fed to the inmates to further humiliate and break them. Likewise a number of videos showing inmates under the influence of the Stick have surfaced, and a few contraband neural-braces have been smuggled to the black market(though more likely from the units’ manufacturers and other facilites, rather than Arrizon’s stocks).
It’s also rumored that TGE embassy officials are allowed access to the prisoners, especially if any inmates are susepcted of having ties to the FWC.
J. Internal Security
Paranoid---Even with VR braindance and neural locks, Arrizon is compartmentalized by multiple security doors guarded by warden ‘bots and armed penal guards. Visitors are monitored their entire stay on the premises(‘for their own safety’).
K. External Security
Paranoid---Arrizon is on a methane-atmosphered minor planetoid, in the middle of a military reservation, and ringed by a series of space defense laser and missile batteries that challenge any ship entering orbit.

L. Medical
Full Medical Hospital----The Cyberteniary’s medical facility is capable of cybernetic implant work, as it implants, maintains, modifies and occasionally removes the spinal Stick and other security implants in inmates.
M. Conditions
Antiseptic---The Cyberteniary is bleakly sterile and more like a hospital or industrial clean facility than a place for people to live.
N. Stability
Hardly applicable as the inmates spend almost all their time in solitary confinement under VR trance ; but could be considered Restless

O. Prison Population
Social Criminals---Karidian law is especially harsh on those who try to upset the ‘perfect’ society they’ve set up. Of late, the bar for ‘upsetting society’ has been getting lower and lower.

P. Special Security Features
*Cybernetic Implants----The Stick, an external cybertech brace attached to the inmate’s spine. It both monitors inmates and feeds them VR stimuli through their spinal nerves, adn serves as a locking point during transport. Removing the Stick requires careful surgery(-15% to surgery rolls).

(Optional) Alternate Ways Out
* Entertainment Star---If an inmate’s antics under VR are particularly entertaining, the prison may cut a deal with an entertainment consortium to ‘parole’ the inmate out to become a source of material for TriD and VR shows. This isn’t a ‘get out of jail’ card, it’s transfer to another sort of prison, but the entertainment consortiums may be more lax on security, giving a prisoner a better chance to escape.
*Sell Out an Enemy of the TGE----The dirty little secret is that the TGE’s ISA are cruising around the prisons, and they have a LOT more influence with the Karidian criminal justice system than they should. Prisoners with known ties to the FWC and other enemies have an unhealthy frequency of disappearing from the prison system. Those inmates who can deliver juicy information deemed of value to the TGE, especially if it fingers FWC agents, will find a secret advocate in the ISA. If the information is good enough, the inmate just might be quietly released, but usually into the custody of the TGE ISA, who will effectively leash the ex-con as a snitch and collaborator.

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Tue Aug 04, 2020 6:02 pm

Nettaven(Kekehaus)(Anvil Galaxy)( United Systems Alliance Member)
“The Bashers spent more than a few decades out-system dealing with some very dirty situations, bog-down civil wars, and domestic unrest in other peoples’ yards. That taught them some very eye-openning lessons about civil disturbance, corrupt politics, and a lot of very un-goblin perspectives. The mercs that came back to Nettavan really were rather alien in their outlook, but it was just what Kekehaus-system sorely needed.”

Nettavan is a heavly populated system with large asteroid belts. The native populace consists of goblins, though the Nettavasan claim little association with mainstream goblindom. The more prejudiced outsiders claim that this is because the Nettavans don’t want to be welcoming hordes of venal, grasping, opportunisitic relatives coming to take what the Nettavans have .
What Nettavan does have is a pleasant, habitable world with plentiful resources and access to the very dense and mineral rich Trans-Saydrin Asteroid Belt. As it is, Nettavan has had enough problems with its own society managing those resources that it’s understandable they don’t want to invite in outside trouble without securing their own house first.
Nettavan society has had a checkered history of clan wars, blood feuds, and domain disputes. The emergence of an industrialized society helped deal with some of the traditional clan-based sources of trouble, by creating greater nonpartisan organizations that forced peace upon the goblin clans of old and made them increasingly irrelevant and marginal. Clan wars petered out as nationalist governments in turn arose, then the nation-states found common cause to manage globally.
Nettavan’s problems became serious, however, when the very organizations meant to enforce law and order became power blocs onto themselves; police and judicial corruption became so serious on Nettavan that virtually nothing could be done without paying the local law enforcement or court system a fee, and the bigger the fee, the more justice one could expect. It became no small secret that the police were for sale and the courts favored the bigger checks written out.
The situation got so bad that the Stratatier, the uppermost level of the Nettavane government, fearful of being toppled by the organized crime syndicate that had grown out of their law enforcement network, elected to bring in an outside Private Military Corporation(PMC), the Grendlesec Bashers, though the Bashers were hired obstensively for purposes of dealing w ith a mounting belter war. The local police and military were so corrupt, however and interfered with the Bashers’ efforts to instate law and order that the Bashers ended up having to neutralize the police, preemptively take out much of the judiciary system and take over their functions until wholly new and fully vetted ranks could be recruited up. At that point it also becameasier for the Bashers simply to extend their clean-up and take over other branches of the government as well, until they were effectively in charge of everything. Yet, instead of becoming a paramilitary junta, the Bashers let the reformists in the Stratatier stay in place, provided they honestly worked for the betterment of the people.
Today Nettavan is still run by martial law and the Bashers organization, but the courts run more smoothly and fairly, and the government is more efficient and streamlined.
The United Systems Alliance has given Nettavan a secure and reliable market for their minerals, and service with the emerging pan-Alliance organizations has become a safety valve and catch-net for those Nettavans feeling dissatisfied with the situation at home. The Bashers contribute experience and advice to the USA military forces, while the space forces of the Alliance bolster the Nettavans’ space defenses and transport capabilities. Though the domestic situation in the Kekehaus system may seem shaky to outsiders, the Nettavans have not failed in any of their treaty terms with the USA, so Alliance investors feel safe in their dealings with the Stratatier and other local organizations.
The Bashers were originally heavily armed with Naruni gear, but have decided to go with an offer from Hartigal Combine to replace their gear. This hasn’t sat entirely well with Paladin Steel/Aegis Stellar Industries and other Alliance-based firms, not (primarily) because they were hoping to supply the Bashers, but because the deal is bound to attract Naruni attention...at a time when PS/ASI is seriously considering a CCW offer to subsidize secret copying and mass production of Naruni technology. Some inner circles in the CCW’s GSA like the idea of establishing some of their factory worlds in Fringe space because it will, if word got out early, distract the Naruni and give the CCW plausible deniability(while they think of other ways to break NE), so they’ve been pushing the main armaments companies of the United Systems Alliance with some VERY good offers. Ironically, if Jelko Rodula, the secret founder of Hartigal, were to learn of both the CCW’s plans and the USA’s reluctance, he’d wholly approve of the effort, as long as Naruni Enterprises took the sharp end of the stick and Hartigal got first dibs on picking the corpse.

Note: The Grendlesec Bashers---This PMC(Private Military Corporation) started out as a private venture of ex-soldiers from Aretane Sector a little over a hundred years ago. The original company-sized paramilitary group swelled in number to five divisions’ worth with an influx of jobseekers, notably a large number or dis-clanned goblins from Nettavan. Their operational numbers have fluctuated over their decades, depending on the available work and their success in the battlefield. Membership in the Bashers has become predominately goblin, with a number of humans, ogres, trolls, and minotaurs filling out the ranks. They operate mainly as mechanized infantry, with a large attached air support element(gunships). They own their own transport, a number of armed troop transports and several shuttle/gunship carriers.
Though not approaching the reputation and notoriety of such groups as the Tri-galactic Military Service or the Trensik, the Bashers have both fought and subcontracted for those organizations, and the Grendlesec are generally well-regarded professionally.
Since taking over the security of Nettavan, the Bashers’ recruitment has swelled considerably, to the point that many of the original core mercenaries are worried about the group losing its focus and edge. They work around the burgeoning manpower problem by seconding the lower performing recruits to domestic security(street police) or detach new recruits to regular mercenary training cadres that the Bashers still hire out. Many older Bashers have retired out of the ranks to governmental positions(or ‘paid consultancies’) in the Stratatier.

Solar System
Number of Stars: 1
Types of Stars: Orange Dwarf
Number of Planets: 5
-Terrestrial(Nettavan) System Lifeworld

-Gas Giant(Saydrin)---Massive Saydrin has vacuumed up a fair amount of small rocky bodies straying in from the Trans-Saydrin Asteroid Belt, and only the planet’s deadly radiation belt keeps the moon system from being fully exploited by miners. As it is, the Saydrin moons are nearly as valuable as the Belt’s. The Saydrin lunar mines remained out of the hands of the Belt cartels, but only because they were under the thumb of their own homegrown Balschal Warren, which was nearly as corrupt as the Cartels. While fighting broke out in the Belt, the Warren kept their sponsors on Nettavan well-supplied with an uninterrupted flow of minerals. This has been cited as one of the reason why the Bashers didn’t come down on Saydrin Lunar like they did the Belt Cartels.

-Asteroid(Mona)----Mona is the largest planetissimal in the Kekehaus system and acts as the main base and hub of mining efforts in the Trans-Saydrin Asteroid Belt. The situation on Mona became even more corrupt than on Nettavan, as competing interests seeking control of the lucrative asteroid mining trade descended to violence; the dome settlements on Mona were nearly torn apart in the crossfire before the Bashers came in and put their foot down. Today the Bashers are still in control, there’s the occasional back-corridor murder as tempers between remaining hardliners flare, but the community is beginning to recover its footing.

-Asteroid(Vedgul)----Vedgul is second only to Mona in size and population. It was spared the violence that beset Mona, mainly because Vedgul is firmly under control of the Leegman Cartel, a Belter-family dynasty-run corporation that drove all other factions off the asteroid. Though the Leegman Cartel was accused of its own heavyhanded tactics and participation in the near-war for the Trans-Saydrin, including feeding the violence on Mona, Vedgul was spared a Basher invasion and occupation. The Cartel lost much of the influence and presence it gained during the troubles as the Basher-led Nettavan government effectively nationalized mining operations in most of the Belt, but they were allowed their stomping grounds on Vedgul. The Leegman Cartel is still trying to make inroads into signing as many miners under their banner as they can, with an eye towards controling a majority of the Belt, but they’re very careful not to annoy the Bashers and get the flow of supplies from Nettavan cut off.

-Asteroid(Prydal)----Prydal is the third largest asteroid settlement in the Trans-Saydrin. The miners on Prydal are a fiercely independent lot, refusing to side with any of the factions on Mona or the Leegman Cartel, and were spared the worst of the violence sweeping the Belt when several teams of ‘representatives’ from the other factions explosively depressurized(with 100% fatalities) the dome they were all staying in, apparently from the accidental detonation of explosives somebody had smuggled in. Though the investigating Bashers remain skeptical of this story, they have not found a single Prydal resident who says otherwise.

Planet(Nettavan)
Type:Terrestrial
Diameter: Huge; 75,000 km
Gravity: 1.67 g
Temperature: Temperate
Unusual/Special Features:----
Atmosphere: Normal
Terrain: Unusual Mineralogy---Nettavan has substantial deposits of the rare mineral Zilderite, which is very useful in the production of heat-resistant alloys.
Notable Mineral Concentrations:
-Zinc
-Scheelite
-Tin
-Antimony
-Platinum
-Barite
-Thorium
-Nickle
*Zilderite
a. Naturally Occurant Form: Oxide---The material is typically found combined with oxygen, like rust, requiring some processing to remove the oxygen.
b.Where Found Deep Rock Strata----Layered as strata between other minerals
c.Color(Natural State) Earth Tones( light brown with a glossy look)
d.Chemical Reactions:Base/ Alkaline----These materials react readily, especially with water, due to weak electron bonds in their structure(or a prevalence of such atoms in their substance), and are rarely found in a ‘pure’ state.
e.Degree of Reaction*Slow---The substance reacts slowly...May take months, if not years or centuries of exposure to show any sort of chemical change
f.Density*Average----About as dense and heavy as your average rock, brick, cast iron pot, or cinderblock
g.Malleability *Stone-like---Zilderite cannot be worked like metal, and has a slag-like look and texture, but can be crushed and added to metal preparations.
h.Toxicity(Natural State)*Non-Toxic----The mineral can be handled safely,.
i.Potential Value/Special Properties: *Thermal Resistant---Zilderite can be added to alloys, making them heat-resistant, even to megadamage heat.

Hydrosphere: Moist; nearly 65% of Nettavan’s surface is covered in open water.
Biosphere: Moderate; Nettavan’s ecology is recovering from several centuries of nearly unchecked abuse that stopped just short of runaway mass die-offs and climate change.
Civilization: Settled
Population: 9.9 billion
Technology: Galactic(low-end)---The Bashers possess a local edge in military technology, having been out amongst the other Galactics during their tours as mercenaries and picked up better weaponry.
Economy:
Service & Information---Though Nettavan continues to export minerals, the goblins have curtailed the sort of heavy strip-mining and slash-and-burn agriculture that nearly destroyed the ecosystem. Nowadays, Nettavan supplies the Trans-Saydrin with food and services. The planet-side mines mainly focus on extracting Zilderite.
Wealth:
Average; could be much greater but for the rampant corruption and subsequent expensive post-revolution reformation of the government. United Systems Alliance economists predict that Nettavan could rise into the Rich category if the current reform trend continues.
Government:
Hierarchy----However, the Bashers organization still maintains a degree of martial law, and enforces some of the more egalitarian processes of hierarchial succession.
Law Level:
Overbearing---Was considered Authoritarian with the rampant corruption, and briefly Totalitarian, but the Bashers have relaxed some of the martial law restrictions of the previous regimes and their own emergency powers as Nettavan society readjusts.
Popularity:
Popular---Was originally Angry before the Bashers stepped in and restored order.
Stability:
Stable----There ae still patches of unrest, but the situation on Nettavan has quieted down for the most part, and most locals are too busy trying to figure out how to make a good living under the new circumstances.

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Thu Aug 06, 2020 9:35 pm

The Noro doctor looked at the gray-skinned female elf in the green jacket leading the small party into his conference room. He hadn’t been given all the specifics in the brief, but urgent, message from his superiors in the CAF, only that he was to expect a delegation of visitors today, and they were to receive his full cooperation. He really wished that the message had been more specific...or that he had read it more thoroughly, but it seemed somebody has misgauged how soon his company would arrive. Now he quietly cursed administrative incompetence for awkwardly saddling him with what had to be junketing politicians that he had to explain things to while assisting them with photo-ops, when he had patients to attend to!
“Doctor Dashell Toron? I am given to understand your facility has received the majority of casualties from Operation Gut-Cutter? Especially those suffering from post traumatic stress disorder and other lingering mental disarrangments?”
“You are correct, ah-”
“Doctor Sashan Abastian, Greater New England Public Health Department, Office of Psychiatric Medicine, Combat Psychiatrist at your service. We’re here to help you with YOUR war.”

SolCannibal · Unread post by **SolCannibal** » Thu Aug 06, 2020 10:54 pm

Operation Gut-Cutter? Can't for the life of me imagine WHY might casualties from an operation so named suffer from post traumatic stress disorder and other lingering mental disarrangments.... :lol:

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Thu Aug 06, 2020 11:05 pm

SolCannibal wrote:Operation Gut-Cutter? Can't for the life of me imagine WHY might casualties from an operation so named suffer from post traumatic stress disorder and other lingering mental disarrangments....

Exactly...fighting your way through the cloaca of an EVIL LIVING PLANET? Where the intestinal fauna are out to not just KILL you, but EAT YOUR SOUL? Not what the average CCW CAF recruit signed up expecting to do. Really, makes bombing a Star Wasp Hive look like mowing the lawn in comparison. Gonna be a lot of messed up folks coming back from that one, and even the Noro are going to find themselves hard-pressed to deal with the VA issues, especially since a good number of the returning head cases are likely Noro themselves.

Omegasgundam · Thu Aug 06, 2020 11:14 pm

taalismn wrote:
SolCannibal wrote:Operation Gut-Cutter? Can't for the life of me imagine WHY might casualties from an operation so named suffer from post traumatic stress disorder and other lingering mental disarrangments....

Exactly...fighting your way through the cloaca of an EVIL LIVING PLANET? Where the intestinal fauna are out to not just KILL you, but EAT YOUR SOUL? Not what the average CCW CAF recruit signed up expecting to do. Really, makes bombing a Star Wasp Hive look like mowing the lawn in comparison. Gonna be a lot of messed up folks coming back from that one, and even the Noro are going to find themselves hard-pressed to deal with the VA issues, especially since a good number of the returning head cases are likely Noro themselves.

The CAF send as few Noro as physically possible, along with psychics in general. The 'Aura of Evil' was obvious enough and featured prominently in the 'Olde Lore', so they didn't want to give it a possession avenue. If you were Psychic and didn't have Mind Block Autodefense, you were on the automatic no-go list, no exceptions, and they whittled it down from there.

There were still a lot of psychological discharges though.

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Thu Aug 06, 2020 11:25 pm

Omegasgundam wrote:[
The CAF send as few Noro as physically possible, along with psychics in general. The 'Aura of Evil' was obvious enough and featured prominently in the 'Olde Lore', so they didn't want to give it a possession avenue. There were a lot of psychological discharges though.

Good to know then that somebody caught on to that. Before they had ships full of telepaths bleeding from the eyeballs.
But yeah, sending a few people who know how to deal with haunted lands and mind control would help. After all, Greater New England sits atop the ruins of New England and next to freakin' Madhaven. These are the people who also developed the Liberator anti-mindcontrol gun. And some of their military training grounds are deliberately chosen for there paranormal activity to teach mental resistance to illusion and possession.
So there will be some follow-up Veteran's Administration home visits.

Omegasgundam · Fri Aug 07, 2020 12:02 am

So I've figured a good way to work in Kitsune's Thoth Industries into the Shemarrian munchkin mythos I’m spewing out developing. The Dawnstar and everything after it are interpretations of his work, with the Avenger upgrade being more roundabout but still coming from the same place. If you want more details for any of them, read the original entries on his site. The Runic Enchantments are my take on the magic of Nuhr Dwarves that first featured in Coalition Navy, taken to Three Galaxies level of development. The sword is a combination that everybody that’s ever looked at TW melee weapons has to have had at some point.

Thoth Industries
One of the rising stars of the United Worlds Warlock, Thoth Industries is the brainchild of the mysterious Lady Asyribis, who is suspected to be Thoth’s daughter due to her breathtaking skills in both mystic artifice and conventional technology. Prior to the establishment of her company, Asyribis played a key role in expanding Lorthrian’s Techno-Wizard industry, and is widely regarded as being the one primarily responsible for establishment of the various conventional manufacturing facilities in orbit. Thus, it was no great surprise when she established her manufacturing complex nearby, and soon began constructing growth chambers for the crystalline construction that has already made her creations famous.

Nearly all of Thoth Industries’ products make heavy use of mystically infused crystal alloys, similar to those used in the Light Marine Armor. Asyribis has taken them to new heights however, and found ways to make them as durable as the most cutting edge conventional materials, and almost as magically conductive as the Ectofibre that is used as its primary base. Actual analysis of the material shows that they are extremely similar to WiztechYard’s Syzite-Crystals, sharing many internal formations that were previously unique to the sprawling consortium’s products. The most likely explanation is that Asyribis either reverse engineered the highly secret process on her own or discovered a parallel equivalent, and as relations between Thoth Industries and WZT is thought to be cordial the latter is most likely.

Prior to her involvement with Lorthrian, Asyribis was first identified among the Shemarrians, and is an extremely well respected voice among the Wayfinders. She was one of the primary instructors of the renowned Veletsia M’Kri, and would become a constant lover of the powerful War Goddess. Their children compose the powerful Avenger Champions, whose abilities have already become infamous across the local dimensional cluster. Asyribis and Veletsia would formally marry after founding Thoth Industries, and their honeymoon was said to be the most extreme case of ‘destructo-nookie’ that the Paradise Federation had seen since the last divine orgy, with the sex tape seeing 12 digit sales numbers across the Three Galaxies.

Asyribis is known for being the most significant advocate for the Zemback species in the Three galaxies, and has made great strides in enabling them to assimilate into the rest of galactic society. Her familiarity with the gentle worms can be traced back to her time amongst the Shemarrians, having been heavily involved in the liberation of several heavily populated slave worlds and Zemback breeding planets. One of her most significant feats is that she has discovered a method to teach them formal mystic traditions, with many learning the basics of Techno-Wizardry to help her company in gratitude. This allows her to not compete for the same labor market as the rest of the UWW, and has led to her employing almost a third of the known freed Zemback in the Three Galaxies. A possibly related phenomenon is that the average intelligence among the free Zembahk has been noticeably increasing (I.Q. 4D4+2), leading those paying attention to speculate that there is an external force at work.

There is no end of speculation as to who and what Asyribis is, with the leading theory being that she’s a favored Godling daughter of Thoth. The only things that have been firmly ruled out is that she is Thoth or a manifestation of his in disguise or a Created Minion, having been demonstrated to have nowhere near the mystical might for the former and having far more than the latter. As Gods do not have the ability to split off Essence Fragments like Alien Intelligences, this means that Asyribis must be a distinctly separate entity. It is possible that she is a different crafting deity in disguise, but that is considered to be somewhat unlikely due to divine politics.

Spoiler:

Thoth Industries TW P.P.E Batteries
Thoth Industries uses a system that is effectively identical to the Merrill Armaments ‘Greenstar’ system used by Aegis Stellar Industries. They recharge PPE at the same rate; 2 per hour normally, 10 per hour at a ley line, and 20 per hour on a nexus or in a dimensional pyramid. They are also compatible with Paladin Steel produced PPE clips, which have been widely copied by both the UWW and the Shemarrian Wayfinders. The prices of its personnel equipment reflect the installation of the lowest model, but it can be upgraded to a more capable model at no surcharge.

Runic Meteor Weapons
”I’ve actually seen a sales demo of these things. TW guns have traditionally been hot garbage from an energy efficiency perspective due to needing to cast a new spell each time the trigger gets pulled, so it's like replacing the entire laser focusing array after each shot. If you just want to do straight damage, it's almost always more efficient to use the same energy to charge an E-Clip and burst dump that instead. TI’s Runic Meteors get around that by making the spell framework guts reusable like on conventional weapons, so it's actually competitive against HI-Lasers. Naturally, they’re not cheap by technological standards, but they stand head and shoulders above purely TW weapons.”
----General Vlar Reltish, CAF

Other than their crystals, Thoth Industries is famous for their use of an unusual Runic enchantment process, conceptually similar but quite different from traditional Bio-Wizard Rune Magic. It is known that it does not involve soul manipulation at any point, so it has become accepted across the United Worlds Warlock as being merely exotic. The process is said to be an improved version of a surprisingly capable fringe tradition that Asyribis encountered in her early travels, these magic based weapons are as capable as most modern conventional weapons. Their most notable feature is that they are shockingly efficient from an energy perspective, and are compatible with ASI’s P.P.E Clips for rapid recharging. They lack the versatile spell casting capability of ASI’s offerings, but as simple damage dealers go they have few peers among magic weapons. Their primary drawback is that fire, even magic fire, is a commonly resisted form of damage, and can be something of a liability against other magic using forces.

Thoth Industries currently offers three different Meteor weapons; a pistol, a rifle, and a squad support weapon. They compete with the HI-10B, HI-80, and finalized HI-300 respectively, and are nearly identical in performance, if not weight. While the Warlock Marines has declined to acquire them, citing its recent expenditures to replace its older Particle Blast weapons with modern weapons, they have caught on like wildfire across the rest of the UWW, and the sales cover most of Thoth Industries total corporate expenses.

Spoiler:

Runic Armor
”While they have a lot of similarities with the Light Marine Armor, the Runic Chain and Scale offerings that TI puts out are far simpler on a multitude of levels, which makes them much cheaper. The lack of a force field reduces it by at least half, and gutting the permanent spells cuts it again. You’ll need to get replacement patches from TI if you need to fix it, but it's still far less of a headache than traditional enchanted materials. They still make money on it due to all the Zemback labor.”
----Kern Haze Phennington

Thoth Industries has also developed several reasonably sturdy suits of body armor using its Runic enchantment process, based on traditional Chain and Scale Mail. In addition to the standard EBA features, they also host a number of common Techno-Wizard modifications, making them cheaper substitutes to the Light Marine Armor. The overall quality of workmanship meets even dwarven approval, making them popular among the Iron Eater fleets.

Spoiler:

Death Fury Sword
”As silly as it looks like to wave a sword around on a modern battlefield, there’s actually quite a few situations where you’re going to be at melee distance anyway. Those also tend to be CFs regardless, and become infinitely worse when you're up against Supernatural. Those are often as much about being on the defensive as offensive, so having something to parry with is a god send. This is why Rune Weapons are still so highly prized; they let you take hits against the real heavy weights if you know what you’re doing. They’ve lost a lot of ground with all the new ways of casting spells for cheap cropping up, but they're still considered the peaks of magic artifice for a reason.”
----Kern Haze Phennington

The one ‘normal’ Techno-Wizard item offered by Thoth Industries, this powerful sword is said to be a combination and refinement of two different weapons, with Stormspire’s Battle Fury and Deathbringer said to be the obvious suspects. It is extrordinarily expensive due to its incredibly powerful ‘Invulnerability’ feature, which makes the wielder near invincible for two minutes. Additionally, it also features a few useful ‘Battle Furry’ augmentation, increasing direct damage potential and attack speed, while also making it quite difficult to parry for 3 minutes. The mundane ‘Spinning Blades’ feature is almost an afterthought compared to the above, although it is still quite useful as a defensive tool.

Thoth Industries does not make many of them, with the design being licensed out to the most prestigious of Dwarven Guildmasters for production. Both the Warlock Marines and Warlock Fleet highly prize the Death Furry for close quarters actions, those that they have purchased being critical in rapidly resolving several high profile situations that could have easily become catastrophes. They have become the expedient and morally clean alternative to Lesser and Greater Rune weapons among the upper echelons of the UWW, which has allowed Dwarven Rune Smiths to focus on the higher tiers of their art.

Spoiler:

Thoth Industries ‘Dawnstar’ Enchanted Heavy Battle Armor
”The TI Dawnstar is unarguably inferior to older models of MCA, but it's also available to people that aren’t the Warlock Marine, which makes it the de-facto alternative for UWW members that want something better than the low end ‘Light Marine Armor’. Naturally Lothrain buys the most, what with that where the factory is and Asyribis’s history with them, but it also see’s brisk sales with the rest of the security conscious Warlock Worlds. The built in weapons seem borderline to me, as they don’t fire fast enough and aren’t as powerful as a HI-80, which it really important in the close quarters actions these things are going to be used the most in.”
----General Vlar Reltish, CAF

While their Runic Weapons and Armor put Thoth Industries on the map, it was the Dawnstar that pushed them into being considered a major manufacturer in the UWW. Essentially a spruced up version of a near fully equipped suit of Light Marine Armor, the Dawnstar features superior flight capabilities and full Power Armor grade sensors, making it the least costly such platform produced in the UWW, making it an obvious substitute for the restricted Marine Combat Armor. It is very popular among the Warlock operators that have the budget to acquire something more capable than the LMA, but don’t wish to buy a larger full suite of conventional Power Armor.

Spoiler:

And now we get to one of Kitsune’s obviously ‘inspired’ creations
Thoth Industries ‘Zembahk Jim’ Power Armor
”What.”
---- The most common reaction to encountering a Zembahk Jim for the first time.

The Three Galaxies’ population of free Zemback has exploded in recent decades, with multiple forces hitting Splugorth holdings and liberating millions of the gentle creatures. Asyribis, the founder and CEO of Thoth Industries, has gained a great deal of familiarity with the creatures during her time with the Shemarrians, and has gone to great lengths to help them. To that effect, she created a model of Techno-Wizard power armor to help them interact with society and fend off Splugorth Slavers. One of her friends among the Shemarrian Wayfinders immediately called it the ‘Zembahk Jim’ after an obscure fictional character with a similar premise, and the name stuck.

Mechanically, the Zembahk Jim is a based on mil-spec combat robot, with the AI replaced with an Psylite Crystal Interface and a bonding mechanism similar to that of the UWW’s Marine Combat Armor, allowing the Zembahk pilot to both easily control the unit and use his powers at the same time. Externally, it looks much like a normal Light Exoskeleton until you reach the head, which is a bubble canopy that prominently displays the nature of the pilot. The Techno-Wizard systems are quite bare bones for a TI creation to save costs and production time, with the Zembahk easily able to provide the needed P.P.E. or I.S.P.

Understandably something of a niche product, the Zembahk Jim is most often fielded by Thoth Industries for its own use, as the company employs almost a third of the free in Zembahk in the Three Galaxies. Many of the freed Zembahk have become more militant as a response to the collective trauma of their species, and have adopted the power armor with gratitude.

Spoiler:

Thoth Industries TI CHSPA-01 ‘Crystal Hawk’ Space Combat Exoskeleton
”From what we can tell, the Crystal Hawk is basically just a Silverhawk with TW armor and systems. Which, now that I think about it, is actually concerning. Considering what the Warlocks most often run up against, almost half of them run with some form of kinetic slug thrower instead of the Multi-Rifle, and the Warlock Marines have a really good one in the Flamma, which it can dual wield without any trouble. Said Marines are also buying almost half the total production, and it's an improved version no less, so TI is looking to be cozy with the powers that be around there.”
----Colonel Philip Fredette, CAF

The latest derivative of the renowned Silverhawk, the Crystal Hawk is nearly identical in capabilities to the upgraded -A model, but accomplishes them in a substantially different manner due to its Techno-Wizard construction. Additionally, the armor trades the Field Disruptor for an array of Techno-Wizards features, and is inherently resistant to energy attacks due to its mystically grown and warded crystalline armor. This was the first use of the material, which soon became the Thoth Industries trademark for its larger designs.

Spoiler:

Thoth Industries ‘Crystal Star’ Glitter Boy Variant

(‘Crystal-Boy’)

”The CG Glitter Boys are bad enough, but the TW versions are just nightmarish to deal with if you’re not packing kinetics. Even without Energy Immunity, they’re tougher and longer ranged than nearly all other ground PA, which is the reverse of the traditional ‘Tech vs Magic’ dynamic. And then there are the ones with high end illusions, which make you think you’re fighting multiple of them at once and really screws up your ability to focus them down. And Forge help you if you really are going up against multiple of them.”
---- Colonel Philip Fredette, CAF

The founder and CEO of Thoth Industries, Asyribis, is known to have a fondness for the Glitter Boy, and has developed her own Techno-Wizard hybrid version using her company’s iconic crystal material. The resulting Crystal Star set the new high water mark for ground use power armors, and would not be rivaled until the CAF would debut their own ‘Phoenix’ pattern, which copied many of its conventional systems.

Spoiler:

Thoth Industries A-3 ‘Avenger III’ Heavy Power Armor

(‘Wiz-Venger’)

”The original Avenger was my father’s pride and joy, and the source of his downfall. Naruni has never been one to tolerate competition, and crushed him before he could finish his next masterpiece. From what I’ve been told, the incomplete prototype that he was working on was thrown into the Progen chamber and cannibalized to create me, with father shoving as much of himself into it as he could. I’ve finished the work on a conventional version, well, as conventional as anything involving the J!Ng ever is, but I want to make a full Techno-Wizard version to serve as my shell. Father always wished he could start down that path, and hoped that I would be able to. Now is as good a time as any.”
---- Veletsia M’Kri, at the start of her training as a Techno-Wizard.

The secret of the original A-1 Avenger’s performance was Lester M’kri’s contacts with the J!Ng, inhabitants of an exotic crystalline dimension that would later be approached by both WiztechYards and Paladin Steel. Veletsia M’Kri would inherit them along with her father’s skills, and would quickly finish the remaining work on the next generation A-2. However, as her father’s daughter, she was unsatisfied with merely performing up to expectations, and needed to push it further, resulting in her becoming a Techno-Wizard to add even more powerful and exotic systems. Her first fully independent creation would be her iconic Shell, which she would follow up by creating an equivalent power armor version.

The resulting A-3 is nothing more than a simplified Avenger Champion Full Shell attached to a conventional exoskeletal control frame, but that still makes it one of the most powerful Power Armors of the current galactic era. The sightings of ‘Crystalline Avengers’ of recent years is due to both these and J!Ng produced models, which has stirred up renewed interest in the ‘lost’ design. Prior to her marriage to Asyribis, Veletsia only produced a handful for those the Shemarrian Wayfinders found to be worthy, but the founding of Thoth Industries has allowed the number to greatly expand. While currently producing less than 300 a year, the A-3 Avenger has proven its worth in outdimensional efforts in the hands of the Shemarrian Star Nation’s organic members. Neither Veletsia nor Asyribis have any interest in producing the design for sale, but intend to offer the conventional A-2 once Naruni is firmly on the way down.

Spoiler:

Thoth Industries ‘Crystal Shard’ Medium Fighter
“It is exceedingly unlikely that we will have to go up against any of Thoth Industries spacecraft due to their market strategy and client base, but if we do it’s going to be an absolute slaughter. Even if we have the kinetics, they’re simply GOOD designs even without the TW systems, and are arguably more advanced than our own, which is a very bad thing against wizards. At the very least, we won’t have to worry about the Crystal Shard fighters, because the Warlock Fleet has publicly put out an exclusive contract for them.”
---- Captain-General Vicen Trancluw, CAF

“While Techni-Wizardry throws much of my skill base out the window, the Crystal Shard truly is a spectacularly well designed craft from a conventional engineering perspective. Beyond the armor, which is its own kettle of fish, its only real rival is ASI’s StarFox IIIs, which have more than twice the mass. In terms of appearance, it looks like something Lester M’Kri would have dreamed up, and if the rumors of his Shemarrian daughter are true that might even be the case.”
---- Captain Harriet McKenna, CAF, Director of Project Prominence

”Me and honey spent our honeymoon designing the Crystal Shard, and you can consider it one of our children. HEY! What's with that look?! We were using a psi-interface! We can multitask! We do our best thinking in the throws of passion!”
---- Veletsia M’Kri

The most iconic product of Thoth Industries, the Crystal Shard is one of (if not the most) advanced aerospace fighter designs in production in the Three Galaxies. Jointly designed by Asyribis and her wife Veletsia M’Kri, the Crystal Shard stands above nearly every other strike craft produced since the Second Galactic Era. As fast as a Black Eagle, as maneuverable as a Scorpion, as heavily armed as a Proctor, and constructed of Thoth Industries variant of Syzite-Crystals, the Crystal Shard is a simply sublime craft in every respect, and shows the genius of what is widely suspected to be a daughter of Thoth. Naturally, the Warlock Fleet is VERY interested in the design, and has put Thoth Industries under a mandatory purchase contract. If the Shemarrians have constructed their own, they have kept them heavily under wraps or only deployed them to out-dimension assignments.

While its advanced systems would make it a top contender regardless, it is the use of Techno-Wizardry that sets it apart. Like most Thoth Industries creations, the Crystal Shard makes heavy use of the Dimensional Pocket enchantment, but extends it to holding sections of the ship. The reactor, fuel stores, weapon bays, and more delicate internal systems do not actually occupy room on the craft, taking them out of harm’s way, reducing its effective mass, and shielding their emissions. As Impervious to Energy would be redundant with its crystalline hull, it is replaced with a much more useful Implosion Neutralizer, which makes it far more resilient to missiles. While potentially extremely demanding on the ASF’s P.P.E generator, it can greatly enhance its combat longevity in the face of massed salvos.

Additionally, it is also renowned for being simply beautiful to the eye, and is considered by many to be a work of art akin to the A-1 Avenger. The graceful hull is shaped much like a Manta Ray, with a substantially shorter tail and its wings slightly bent forwards. In flight, the body flexes organically, as if it were swimming through space like a living creature. When combined with the exotic crystalline hull, it results in a breathtaking display in the hands of an expert pilot. The Warlock Fleet assigns them to its most skilled pilots, who are often some form of exotic being, resulting in even greater performance.

Spoiler:

Thoth Industries ‘Crystal Ray’ Corvette
“If not for its simply stellar price tag, I would have the Warlock Fleet buy them all. As it is, the United Worlds Warlock will settle for having veto power hover the sales. Fortunately, Lady Asyribis is if anything stricter in her clientele than we are, and I foresee no direct problems from them. Indirect problems are a different matter, as many if not all of these individuals have colorful histories that have resulted in them having greatly out-sized influence on the Three Galaxies at large. At least 40 of them I know to be Cosmo Knights, and they’re mostly clustered in the low-middle rankings.”
----High King Silverlight

“From an absolute purist perspective, that fact that it looks so much like a ‘merely’ enlarged Crystal Shard is a strike against it. This is quite silly, as the Crystal Shard is so beautiful that the Three Galaxies need more of them in whatever form they can be found in. Engineering wise, it is obviously a far different design due to being a true ship, and while I can’t understand the exact mechanics of the Techno-Wizardry I can tell you that they are used harmoniously with the conventional components, forming a hybrid with the strengths of both. It is everything I could have hoped for out of Lester’s daughter, and I am proud to have been the one to give her the seed money for the company. The one they gave me is all the return on investment I can bring myself to ask for.”
---- Jelko Rodula

”Oh ****.”
---- Common reaction among light TGE and Splugorth forces encountering a hostile Crystal Ray.

The high end of what Thoth Industries offers to its select clients, the Crystal Ray is intended to serve as a high end multi-purpose ship for small groups of elite individuals. While lacking the focused gunpower of the Blackbird, the Crystal Ray is far more capable defensively even without its Techno-Wizard features, and has a far greater potential ordinance capacity. With the TW features, it becomes near indestructible, and the perfect transport for adventuring parties where a Cosmo-Knight would be expected. Production so far has been limited, with Asyribis working through a pre-vetted list of desired customers that she seeks to cater too. It is expected that several particularly wealthy and noteworthy individuals, as well as the Altess in general, will seek to acquire yacht versions once she is finished, with a truly exorbitant price tag.

Spoiler:

Thoth Industries ‘Crystal Rose’ Light Cruiser
“They Crystal Rose is my home away from home. I arguably spend just as much time on it as I do in Lorthrian, arranging business deals and touring various points of interest. It should come as no surprise that many of these trips have ended up as an 'events' of one stripe or another, as any seasoned adventurer will tell you. There’s a reason no sane insurance company will touch what they call ‘Hobo Parties’, and it's not because they can’t make the insane premiums.”
---Asyribis

“The Crystal Rose is only a few years old, and it already has a rap sheet worthy of a galactic folk hero. I’ve personally been called in to help support or clean up after in on 6 occasions, and they were all CFs that would have spelled disaster for entire sectors if it hadn't been there. If you prescribe to the ‘Cosmic Forge Works Though Hobos’ theory, then Asyribis and her family are some of its top level troubleshooters, which wouldn’t surprise me in the least if the intel reports on her daughters are even half true. And off the record, I know for a fact that the data entry for the ship is bunk, as I’ve seen it perform better than Altess ships.“
---- Captainn-General Vicen Trancluw, CAF

”OOOH IT'S BEAUTIFUL! Thanks for getting its honey! And you have a surprise present for me?”
*rustle, rustle, tearing sounds*
Are these….. FULL BODY RUNE BINDINGS! YOU SHOULDN’T HAVE!
*SMACK*
“I mean thank you Mistress! Your worthless slave is unworthy of the gift you grant her!”
*Whip crack”
“Yes Mistress, I’ll put them on immediately.”
*SMACK*
“You wish to put them on me Mistress? My body is yours to command.”
*runicly enchanted material noises*
*Happy helpless turbo-sub noises*
---- Veletsia M’Kri to her wife.

*(It just never seems to get old. Usually we dolls are made to serve as pets, but here we are being the ones holding the whips. Considering how powerful our charges are, its concerning that they so eager to give us the leash)*
*(That's why we all had Lord Thoth bind us sis. We can’t intentionally abuse or neglect them if we don’t have any free will, and now we always know what they truly need.)*
*(And being soul bound slaves is just so exciting. If we didn’t have mental locks to stop it from happening, we’d never get anything done because we’d be stuck in a pleasure feedback loop from it. And while Mistress/Owner Asyribis was dead set against it, we all know how much she loves us being at her beck and call.)*
*(She really is just too nice. She didn’t even give us collars until we demanded them! But that's why we love her.)*
---- A conversation between two of the personnel staff of the Crystal Rose.

”I spent a good 3 months on the Crystal Rose with my wife, and that ship really does something to her family. Helica was an eager doormat the whole trip, and didn’t put up a pretense of resisting even once. We usually can’t go a week without switching roles, but I had her in chains the entire time. I managed to cover my needs with the Attendant Dolls, lovely people, but I didn’t feel completely satisfied until we disembarked and she pulled me into an alley to put her piledriver where it belongs. Now that I know what to expect I’ll be able to enjoy it more, and I think a 2 month trip would be best. Being on top that long just got stale.”
---- Excellen Bell-M’Kri, Female Cosmoknight.

The largest vessel constructed by Thoth Industries, the Crystal Rose has not yet been offered for sale. Arguably similar to the much maligned Huntress Light Cruiser in concept, the Crystal Rose is a different beast entirely. As one of the most advanced craft built since the end of the War Against the Dominators, the Crystal Rose cost more than a Heavy Cruiser, and is possibly more effective. The unproduced ‘standard’ version is a continuation and expansion of everything that has gone into Thoth Industries smaller designs, with proportionally larger dimensional pockets, even more refined systems, and efficient and ergonomically sound interiors making it more livable that it has any right to be. Other than the usual extreme-plutocrats, no one with the funds to do so have expressed serious interest in purchasing it even if it was available, and there are no indications that this will change in the near future.

The only known Crystal Rose to be constructed has been fitted by Asyribis for use as her family yacht, able to host 60 members of the M’Kri clan in Altess levels of luxury. Given the capabilities of her daughters, this also makes it a far more capable carrier platform. It is also widely rumored to be fitted with Altess powerplants and drives, and if true it wouldn’t be very difficult to swap the weapons with Magnetic Photon Arrays if desired. As should come as no surprise to any experienced dimensional traveler, the clan’s collective ‘Adventurer Karma’ result in it constantly suffering from mishaps that result in it being at the right place at the right time, making a ship a common feature among O.N.N’s headlines. It is just as common among the scandal sheets, with the clan constantly trying to outdo their last round of debauchery with as many witnesses as possible.

Spoiler:

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Fri Aug 07, 2020 1:42 am

Omegasgundam wrote:Death Furry Sword
”As silly as it looks like to wave a sword around on a modern battlefield, there’s actually quite a few situations where you’re going to be at melee distance anyway. Those also tend to be CFs regardless, and become infinitely worse when you're up against Supernatural. Those are often as much about being on the defensive as offensive, so having something to parry with is a god send. This is why Rune Weapons are still so highly prized; they let you take hits against the real heavy weights if you know what you’re doing. They’ve lost a lot of ground with all the new ways of casting spells for cheap cropping up, but they're still considered the peaks of magic artifice for a reason.”
----Kern Haze Phennington

Yhm...Death 'Furry' or ' Death 'Fury'.?...admittedly , melee combat can be described(as with aerial dogfights) as 'hairy', but blades are hardly hirsute(they do the shaving, not the other way around)...unless you're going with the meme that the prospect of being killed with a weapon named the 'Fluffy Bunny' is a lot more humiliating to a would-be opponent than getting yakked by 'Terminus Est' or 'Stormbringer'.

Omegasgundam · Unread post by **Omegasgundam** » Fri Aug 07, 2020 1:53 am

taalismn wrote:
Omegasgundam wrote:Death Furry Sword
”As silly as it looks like to wave a sword around on a modern battlefield, there’s actually quite a few situations where you’re going to be at melee distance anyway. Those also tend to be CFs regardless, and become infinitely worse when you're up against Supernatural. Those are often as much about being on the defensive as offensive, so having something to parry with is a god send. This is why Rune Weapons are still so highly prized; they let you take hits against the real heavy weights if you know what you’re doing. They’ve lost a lot of ground with all the new ways of casting spells for cheap cropping up, but they're still considered the peaks of magic artifice for a reason.”
----Kern Haze Phennington

Yhm...Death 'Furry' or ' Death 'Fury'.?...admittedly , melee combat can be described(as with aerial dogfights) as 'hairy', but blades are hardly hirsute(they do the shaving, not the other way around)...unless you're going with the meme that the prospect of being killed with a weapon named the 'Fluffy Bunny' is a lot more humiliating to a would-be opponent than getting yakked by 'Terminus Est' or 'Stormbringer'.

woops

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Fri Aug 07, 2020 2:05 am

Omegasgundam wrote:[
woops

S'right. Have a Shadow Kitten Launcher. That really IS a Death Furry weapon.

Omegasgundam · Unread post by **Omegasgundam** » Fri Aug 07, 2020 3:06 am

taalismn wrote:
Omegasgundam wrote:[
woops

S'right. Have a Shadow Kitten Launcher. That really IS a Death Furry weapon.

They will find a way to knock the world of the table, mark my words.

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Fri Aug 07, 2020 8:27 pm

"In your case, Kaptan, I don't think you need a Shadow Kitten Launcher; I think the dust bunnies in here have gone feral. Seriously, when was the last time you CLEANED in this ship?"

SolCannibal · Unread post by **SolCannibal** » Sat Aug 08, 2020 12:09 am

Oh, Zembahk. Damn, simplest options sometimes are the best. Guess i found the perfect spokespersons/salespeople for my Colossians.

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Sat Aug 08, 2020 12:15 am

SolCannibal wrote:Oh, Zembahk. Damn, simplest options sometimes are the best. Guess I found the perfect spokespersons/salespeople for my Colossians.

"Okay! Okay! I'll buy it! Just quit staring at me like that!"

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Wed Aug 12, 2020 8:50 pm

----Inter-Service Cooperation: The Ground Wars: Point Exercises

“Working alongside the metroworlders makes me appreciate the mass-logistics all that money can buy. All the toys and supplies those people have! Their supply trains must stretch all the way back to Terra Prime!”

“It’s not a proper joint exercise until the bar fight.”

“That pavillion complex over there...local bigwigs out here to watch the wargames?”
“Altess Armoria contingent fieldcamp. They brought everything but a golf course with them...but I heard the visiting seenth took on Colonel Snooka in a game of point-to-point golf across the scablands...so yeah, they brought their clubs at least.”

“Not always just handshakes and competition to see who humiliates who in the adversarial exercises. Until they licensed the Kurang to the Warlocks, we got our handful of those nifty ASI particle beam carbines through buddy contacts with the Alliance in the military exercises. CAF Marine bears would express an interest with their counterparts in the Stelmarines and Regular Army, and the latter would pull some strings to get the jarhead a nice gift of gun. Of course, it also works both ways....I’m not sure what got traded in the other direction, but I’m sure the usans weren’t bleeding charity for nothing.”

“’Fair exchange’ nothing! What I got out of the exercises at Permantau was a bad case of lymph-chiggers! How the CCW can declare a planet like THAT habitable is beyond me! Unless they were maybe expecting us to clean the place up with some live-fire thermochemical carpet-bombing!”

“Pay close attention to the Rimmies, boys and girls! Their manners may be lacking and some of their equipment laughable, but they can teach you tricks you’ll never hear of in your college-arcos! If you can resist the urge to kill them after they pull one on you, you’ll learn how to survive and how to win against opponents that could otherwise make lunch meat out of you! You gripe about missions to bogworlds and desert-planets and how soon you want to get back to the ‘real world’ and cushy racks? Well, for a lot of the Rimmies, swamps and wastelands ARE their real world and cushy racks! You keep an open mind around them, they’ll show you how to feel at home anywhere in the galaxies you get dropped!”

The Minion War saw a lot of interaction and cooperation between the core CAF worlds and the outlier worlds, not just between space forces, but between ground forces. Even in sectors that didn’t see any direct action with the Infernals, resident defense forces saw fit to train up their people by inviting their neighbors by for war games.
Though there was no faulting the intense drill and practice of the inner worlds, the CAF ground forces quickly acquired considerable respect for the Rim soldiers, many of who had been fighting since they could walk and carry a gun. ‘Desperate Enders’ from hellworlds rubbing shoulders with erudite university-schooled recruits from the coreworlds, plantation-walker-drivers from agro-worlds bunked with hunter-gatherers from the frontier, and mechanics from a hundred worlds learned how to diagnose, curse, and fix the weapons of an equal number of worlds.
Though most training exchanges took place in the metroworlds and mid-tier colonies, the coreworlds began to learn of the emerging training establishments of the borderworlds. Some of these facilities have been opened to joint exercises with coreworld contingents.

“I don’t care if you were some sort of boy-genius prodigy wizard back where you come from! You’re HERE, not there, and HERE is what we call a ‘null zone’ where magic and even esper powers don’t work! That means no abracadabra, no magic missile, no fireball, no mind-warp, no cheating physics, no hocus-pocus zuggery! Zilch! What we DO have here is people who will train you how to survive without magic! Maybe not enough to guarantee a win against anybody who’s grown up without any magic their whole lives, but enough that you’ll stand a good chance of not DYING within minutes of discovering your wand went limp! And certainly you’ll know what to do if, in a fair and just universe, you wind up facing another bunch of pointy-hats who depend too much on eye of newt and runic crayon! Now drop and give me fifty...push-ups that is, in case you never heard of them! Then give me ten laps of the field, preferably before you get white hairs!”

Known/Notable Training Bases of the United Systems Alliance
*Azimuth Point Military Academy---Perhaps the best-known of GNE military training schools, though technically it is not actually IN United Systems Alliance territory, the surrounding Independent Rim Alliance still being nominally part of the Consortium of Civilized Worlds. Azimuth Point is supposed to be open to all who can meet the entrance qualifications, especially as it has (infamously) merged with Mistress Abas School for Domestics, so that a good number of interested power blocs have sent their agents to the Academy to gain inside knowledge on how the USA’s Alliance Joint Command is likely to pursue military matters and policy. In reality, it’s claimed, the entrance qualifications became tougher thanks to Mistress Abas’ influence, and detecting, diverting, or subverting infiltrators has become part of the curriculum for BOTH schools. Azimuth Point has become renown for producing some rather...eccentric....military and service personnel.

*Gentiswan---Poisonous Gentiswan is the site of a large Army urban and hazardous environment combat training facility, and has been used by a number of USA and allied ground forces. It has also become the main front line base in the war against the Travesdeen Empire.

*Ari-Kane---Small jungle warfare training camp on the planet Moyanon, on territory granted by the Shemarrian Star Nation. Added bonus of the Lost Eclipse/justifiably-nicknamed-’Nightmare’ tribe adding to the fun and games whether asked to or not.

* “Camp Rawhide’--Originally a Greater New England Armed Services basic training camp on New Stratford, ‘Camp Rawhide’ and its sister base ‘Camp Muckinmuddi’ have recently been opened to USA/AJC contingents as well. Both camps have reputations for cold, damp weather and grueling training. Graduates of the New Stratford courses have often referred to it as their ‘downpour baptism’ in reference to the frequent rainstorms and violent weather.

*Trowher---First joint-AJC ground forces training ground established in USA territory. This cold Mars-like world, one of the reclaimed Tmelain Republic worlds, with its thin, barely-breathable atmosphere, is still considered borderline hospitable enough to be a good ‘safe’ training ground, while scantly populated/vegetated enough that large-scale live-fire combat exercises are unlikely to do much damage to the local ecology. It’s also close enough to populated Tme space that the military bases and academy can benefit from the presence of the Tmelain Regulators and their experience. Trowher boasts a civilian population of 63,000 concentrated around the few surface oasises, but a growing military support population of 40,000 servicing the expanding training base facilities.

*Phagris---Actually a planetary nebula not far from member world Eugenia, and used by Alliance Joint Command as a space forces training ground. The nebula’s sensor-obscuring effects provide both practice in operating in a sensor-fogging environment, and cover from prying eyes from outside. The use of the Phagris Cloud as a military training ground also keeps it from being used as a pirate haven for preying on the nearby trade lanes(several bases were actually discovered in the course of surveying the nebula; their remains are used as part of training exercises). Phagris is used by various members of the USA AJC, and several space stations have been set up in the Cloud to provide services to the fleet(s). When not overseeing exercises, these bases also test various pieces of equipment, such as sensors and probes, for PS/ASI, WZT, and other USA corporations.

* ‘Ghostland’(Aranis Secor)---Not listed on regular asset tables, but considered necessary, Aranis Secor (or ‘Ghostland’ as it is better known) was designated as a training ground for familiarizing troops with supernatural environs. As Rifts Earth was considered too ‘hot’ for training purposes for all but native-borns and the most select of offworlders, a more ‘controlled’ environment was sought. Aranis Secor is a failed colony with a history of hauntings. Though not considered to be lethally haunted, it was still considered to be unacceptable for long-term habitation, as the resident populations of haunting entities were driving the colonists crazy. The still-controversial decision was made to use the abandoned colony sites as training grounds. Operating from bases in orbit and on other bodies in the solar system, trainees are landed to conduct sweeps of the planet’s sites, and familiarize themselves with paranormal activity, detection equipment, defensive measures, and counters. The areas that trainees are to operate are regularly swept by more experienced horror-hunter teams who deal with the more dangerous entities that occasionally appear. Trainees are psychiatrically screened both before and after their tours on Ghostland, and care is taken to make sure soldiers don't leave with something unpleasant tagging along from the ruins.

*Kampadow---This agri-world, originally scouted and investigated by the GNE, but later given over as the homeworld ChaiChuks’ first extra-solar colony, has been tapped as the site of a new armed forces training area. Given the development of Kampadow as an industrial park producing new variants of Iron Heart Armaments heavy equipment, it has become a natural location for joint armored training of GNEAS and Ser-Chaiian armed forces, with an increasing number of USA units invited to attend. The growing armored warfare school on Kampadow develops and teaches tactics and strategy on how high-tech forces can deal with lower tech forces, and high low-tech forces can effectively fight higher-techbase forces(with locally produced tread-laying IronFist and Iron Hammer tanks maneuvering against Bandersnatch and Cestus III hovertanks, by way of example).

*Dowtrer---This failed colony port of 2.1 million souls became a hellhole when the criminal gangs took over. Not much could be done about the situation that became so bad that even the neighboring star system of Paloii heard about it, until Racken Jacken the Jackster began using the city and planet to base his three-ship pirate squadron out of. THAT gave the United Systems Alliance the excuse to move in and ‘neutralize’ Dowtrer, execute Racken Jacken’s star-reavers, topple the ganglords supporting the pirates, and mop up the street gangs.
After Dowtrer was evacuated, its civilian population either relocated to other worlds or to the much nicer planned city of Relief on the other side of the planet, the abandoned slums of Dowtrer posed a problem. Then King Akesian of Paloii, whose son had taken part in the action in Dowtrer, and who had been given nominal title to the planet, graciously offered the city to the Alliance as a training ground. Though not as heavily rigged and monitored as the urban warfare training facilities on Gentiswan, the over fifty square miles of abandoned urban wasteland and surrounding suburban regions makes Dowtrer much more realistic, with a coastline waterfront and rolling hills to add further experience to training exercises. Crumbling structures, decaying infrastructure, and still hidden caches of gang weaponry(and the occasional gang making the cross-continental trek to try to sneak in and grab back their contraband) just add to the ‘Dowtrer experience”.

* Varo San-gar----(aka ‘Wizards’ Bane’) Varo San-gar can be considered the opposite of Aranis Secor; it has a breathable atmosphere, hospitable clime,...and absolutely no ambient psychic energy. Magic and psionics fail to work on the planet, to the degree that even non-psychics find the planet eerie because of the feeling of something missing. Varo San-gar is one of a handful of planets where even psionics don’t work. The hows and whys alone make the planet worthy of study, and its hospitable environment make it attractive to people who fear and hate magic and psychic phenomena. Besides several fair-sized settlements (and a secret maximum-security prison(, the United Systems Alliance maintains a military training ground, Fort Nil, that sees a lot of mages and psychics(with the exception of psi-stalkers;Varo San-gar is VERY dangerous to psi-stalker health ) rotated through to expose them to an environment where their powers do NOT work. Sometimes referred to as a traumatizing experience for some magic users(and many of those scrub out of the military altogether), most mages regard it as a thoroughly unpleasant, but eye-opening, experience that has provided invaluable, so the programs continue.

SolCannibal · Unread post by **SolCannibal** » Fri Aug 21, 2020 12:55 am

taalismn wrote:----Inter-Service Cooperation: The Ground Wars: Point Exercises

Interesting group of worlds that seem to sum up the saying "when life gives you lemons make lemonade". Also goes to show ways in which a planet might show itself problematic for major colonization.

Incidentally, multi-lingual bonus in that "sangrar" or something similar means "to bleed" in a number of romance languages, if not all of them.

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Fri Aug 21, 2020 1:00 am

SolCannibal wrote:
taalismn wrote:----Inter-Service Cooperation: The Ground Wars: Point Exercises

Interesting group of worlds that seem to sum up the saying "when life gives you lemons make lemonade". Also goes to show ways in which a planet might show itself problematic for major colonization.

Incidentally, multi-lingual bonus in that "sangrar" or something similar means "to bleed" in a number of romance languages, if not all of them.

Well, maybe Varo San-gar's mystic essence all bled away...or was deliberately drained.

Omegasgundam · Unread post by **Omegasgundam** » Fri Aug 21, 2020 2:37 am

taalismn wrote:Well, maybe Varo San-gar's mystic essence all bled away...or was deliberately drained.

This is not without precedent in the Megaverse.

SolCannibal · Unread post by **SolCannibal** » Fri Aug 21, 2020 3:56 am

Omegasgundam wrote:
taalismn wrote:Well, maybe Varo San-gar's mystic essence all bled away...or was deliberately drained.

This is not without precedent in the Megaverse.

True, the dying out of magic that came with the disaster that led to the fall of Atlantis in Rifts would definitely count as one such example i think.

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Fri Aug 21, 2020 8:17 pm

SolCannibal wrote:[

True, the dying out of magic that came with the disaster that led to the fall of Atlantis in Rifts would definitely count as one such example I think.

Or a BIG Cosmic Mosquito.

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Sun Aug 23, 2020 10:31 am

Made the mistake of starting a new WP file listing all the worlds, canon- and thread-based, in the Three Galaxies. Just going over the old Network Omni newsflash entries, I've discovered quite a few HLS worlds, species, and at least two ship designs that should be expanded on/updated....

Guess I'm lucky the pandemic has given me LOTS of time, no?

SolCannibal · Unread post by **SolCannibal** » Sun Aug 23, 2020 12:42 pm

HLS? And yeah, free time is good for writing indeed.

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Sun Aug 23, 2020 1:10 pm

SolCannibal wrote:HLS? And yeah, free time is good for writing indeed.

I'm only up to pg 12 of the NON files and I've already discovered an old Altess cruiser class, a mobile wormhole, and a 300 mile diameter giant calculator, plus reality-modification tech, cloning companies, about fifty corporations I forgot existed...yeah, a lot of it is tongue-in-check, but still....

SolCannibal · Unread post by **SolCannibal** » Sun Aug 23, 2020 1:18 pm

I was mainly asking myself what the HLS acronym is supposed to mean. But i can imagine those threads have quite a lot of places, things and events to mine.

Omegasgundam · Unread post by **Omegasgundam** » Sun Aug 23, 2020 8:46 pm

SolCannibal wrote:I was mainly asking myself what the HLS acronym is supposed to mean. But i can imagine those threads have quite a lot of places, things and events to mine.

Hook, Line, Sinker?

SolCannibal · Unread post by **SolCannibal** » Sun Aug 23, 2020 9:40 pm

Omegasgundam wrote:
SolCannibal wrote:I was mainly asking myself what the HLS acronym is supposed to mean. But i can imagine those threads have quite a lot of places, things and events to mine.

Hook, Line, Sinker?

Ah, thanks. :oops:

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Sun Aug 23, 2020 9:55 pm

Or, given the punchline of some of the snippets...Hook, Line, and STINKER.

DhAkael · Unread post by **DhAkael** » Thu Sep 10, 2020 11:23 am

taalismn wrote:Random Interstellar Empires/Star Kingdoms

Well in light of THIS---> https://youtu.be/n9xhJrPXop4, I think the interstellear empire tables will be getting quite a bit of use.
But I refuse to have FTL travel constrained by cinnamon puked up by half-mile long worms.

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Thu Sep 10, 2020 12:07 pm

DhAkael wrote:
taalismn wrote:Random Interstellar Empires/Star Kingdoms

Well in light of THIS---> https://youtu.be/n9xhJrPXop4, I think the interstellear empire tables will be getting quite a bit of use.
But I refuse to have FTL travel constrained by cinnamon puked up by half-mile long worms.

Whether you like the Brian Herbert extensions on the series or see them as mining Frank's grave, FTL travel IS possible without mélange, but it's just a lot more hit or miss without the ability to rapidly parse probabilities.

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Thu Sep 17, 2020 11:44 pm

Manticus( USA Member World)
“The Strel did some really nice work fixing their world. It’s a pity most of us will never be able to experience their planet’s rebirth firsthand because the gravity’s so brutal. They do, however, like to share pictures of their world and the VR tours of their surviving span-trees are worth the coin.”

“ The Strel won’t clone you up an army, but they can clone you up carbon-sequestering redwoods, or a better strain of oxygen-producing seagrass.”

Manticus is a USA member world, Homeworld to the Streleg, Manticus is emerging as a biologicals manufacturer of no small importance to the USA.
The Manticians(aka the Streleg) almost negligently destroyed their own world through pollution, but managed to use terraforming/bioremediation techniques to stabilize and renew their planetary ecology. The work is still ongoing, but the Manticians estimate that the environment has recovered over 50% of its former productivity. Trade with the United Systems Alliance has enabled the Manticians to acquire additional technologies and resources useful in their environmental cleanup, and the rental of the hyperspace nexus on the edge of the Voldi system has given the Streleg a strong source of revenue.
Mantician shattertechs have become available to work on other worlds in need of rehabilitation, and they are important members of the Agrehab organization, a nonprofit scientific troubleshooting group emerging from the shared academic/technological research network of the USA’s United Systems University. Agrehab looks to developing more effective means of revitalizing agricultural lands and practices in impoverished systems.

Solar System(Voldi)
Number of Stars: 1
Types of Stars: Yellow Dwarf
Number of Planets: 4
-Terrestrial(Manticus)---System Lifeworld
-Gas Giant(Gashbar)---Though Jupiter-sized, Gashbar lacks Jupiter’s intense radiation belt, which is a good thing. Gashbar’s 9 major moons all play host to Streleg space colonies.
-Gas Giant(Prolek)---Small gas giant Prolek sports a thick belt of moons and space dust, the three largest sporting colonies.
-Exotic----Yolden Nexus. The Streleg were unaware of the true nature of this anomaly(only that something, perhaps a large planet or ‘dark star’ was occulting stars on the edge of their solar system) until starships started popping out of it. Today the Yolden Nexus is a busy cosmic tramway connecting the Voldi system with several other star systems. Yolden Nexus is orbited by three large asteroids moved in from the Voldi ort-cloud and converted into space stations. In exchange for transit and basing rights, the United Systems Alliance has agreed to help protect the Nexus(and by extension the Streleg home system), and the USA AJC maintains a defense forces base in cooperation with the Mantician System Guard.

Planet(Manticus)
Type: Terrestrial
Diameter: 48,000 km
Gravity: 8.8 terrestrial gees
Temperature: Warm, mainly attributable to Manticus’s almost pollution-instigated runaway greenhouse effect. The temperature has begun to drop, however, thanks to bio-remediation.
Unusual/Special Features:
Moons---Manticus possesses 3 substantially-sized moons. All three have been extensively developed, with the third(Malti) in particular being made into a massive biologicals laboratory/factory, cloning and growing adapted lifeforms to re-seed their homeworld. Malti is also seeing some commerce in taking commissions to clone various animal and plant species for outsystem customers.
Atmosphere:
Tainted; Manticus’s atmosphere is still rather thin on oxygen, so humans will require oxygen boosters if engaging in rigorous physical activity on Manticus, but it’s otherwise okay. Ambient light is also a problem, as it is somewhat dimmer due to the remaining pollution and dust in the air. Interestingly enough, atmospheric pressure is only slightly higher than terrestrial standard at sea level.
Terrain: Mainly wetlands, coastal barrier reef-islands and several large weathered mountain chains.
Notable Mineral Concentrations:
- Copper
- Amethyst
- Magnesium
- Cobalt
- Ruby
- Graphite
- Titanium
- Samarskite
Hydrosphere:
Wet; much(80%) of Manticus is covered in shallow swamp, wetlands, shallow seas, and barrier islands. Much of that water is polluted with the remains of industrial runoff or suboceanic melt(methane-bearing minerals).
Biosphere:
Damaged, but recovering. The Streleg remain hopefully that many native species that became extinct during the environmental collapse can be resurrected from gene banks and reintroduced as the ecosystem recovers.
Civilization:
Settled
Population:
4 billion, with another 218 million living offworld
Technology:
Information Age, with advanced space travel. The Streleg managed to colonize their three moons and set up colonies on the moons of the gas giants to perpetuate their peoples.
After making contact with the Three Galaxies, the Streleg have been trading up their level of technology to Interstellar Age, though their existing terraforming and bioremediation technologies have proven effective enough, even before enhancement with galactic technology, to garner the interest of the Galactics from abroad.
Economy:
Industrial, though leaning towards biotech.
Wealth:
Prosperous---Between the income from trade through the Yolden Nexus and demand for their biotech expertise, the Streleg are doing pretty well, and they anticipate even better times ahead as the post-Minion War trade economy ramps up.
Government:
Bureaucracy---The Manticean one is actually quite efficient and provides plenty of checks and balances to inhibit abuse of power and rash decision-making.
Law Level:
Lawful---People behave themselves on Manticus because nobody wants to return to the bad old days of Authoritarian levels of regulation in order to preserve resources and save the remaining environment. As it is, the Streleg are breathing a sigh of relief that they didn’t get as bad as the T’Zee, with Draconian levels of authority, and death imposed for environmental crimes.
Popularity:
Popular; there may be some complaints about navigating the various regulatory agencies to get anything done, but the Streleg for the most part accept this as the price of a greener future.
Stability:
Solid; again, while people complain about the paperwork, overall, everybody is most pleased with the way things are run. The government as is looks set to enjoy decades (at least) of future support.

Streleg(Manticians)
The Streleg are an intelligent species native to Manticus, a member world of the United Systems Alliance.
Streleg evolved from arboreal stock and retain many tree-climbing and -swinging features. It is suspected that the Streleg may have later tampered with their own genome in order to better adapt themselves to their deteriorating homeworld environment and to space, where a substantial percentage of their population immigrated while they attempted to salvage their planetary ecosystem.
The Streleg had a global near-catastrophe in the collapse of their native ecosystem due to industrial pollution, but they were advanced enough technologically that they were able to take steps to stop it progressing any farther and then begin to reverse the damage. The intense efforts undertaken to preserve their homeworld have matured the Streleg as a people. Contact with galactic society soon after allowed the Streleg to share some of their techniques and observations.
A number of Streleg have left their home system to seek knowledge, fortunes, and adventure.

Alignments: Any, but most(88%) are Good-aligned. Even Evil Streleg tend to be Aberrant
Lifespan: 110 years
Size: 5-6 ft tall, 200-250 lbs
Gender: Heterosexual placental mammals
Physical Description/Appearance:
Humanoid bipeds with arms disproportionately large and legs similarly disproportionately short. The head is large and covered in bristles of varying length(part of Streleg vocal communication involves shaking and rattling the longer head-quills), and sports three ruby red eyes in a triangular formation. The body is covered in tough jet-black light-absorbing skin that obscures most of the Streleg’s other features(their mouths, when open, reveal three sets of bright white teeth, and purplish-red inner tissues). Hands consist of a dozen short tendrils and one larger and longer whip-like tentacle normally coiled around the forearm. The feet are large and spatulate, with long tendril-toes.
Streleg are nocturnal by nature; though they are reasonably comfortable by day, they work best under low light and darkness conditions. Most offworld travelers adjust to bright light within a week or two, though shading optics are common wear.
Disposition/Attitudes:
The Streleg are a chagrined people breathing a racial sigh of relief; had their ecology begun collapsing sooner in their species’ technological evolution, and had they not acted as fast as they did, the Streleg might well now be extinct. As it is, a good number of their global population DID die due to deteriorating conditions.
The Streleg now feel a deep debt to the many who died and the many who sacrificed to preserve the Mantician people and their homeworld. They are determined to be better wardens of the worlds they colonize, and have been gracious enough to extend their expertise to the bioremediation of other worlds(Valkos and Harrisar are already very interested in enlisting the aid of Mantician ecologists). Streleg carry themselves with a great sense of responsibility, and they rarely act rashly or with undue haste.

Physical Attributes:
IQ: 2d6+6
ME: 2d6+9
MA: 2d6
PS: 2d6+13(and considered Superhuman for damage and lifting/carrying purposes)
PP: 2d4+16
PB: 3d6
PE: 3d6+20
SPD: 3d6 x3
(ISP):---
(PPE): 3d6
Hit Points: 85+1d6 per level of experience, and any bonuses from OCC training
SDC: 270 +any bonuses from OCC training
MDC:---
Horror Factor:---
Natural Abilities:
*Night Vision---Effective range of 500 ft.
*Hider---Has natural proficiencies in Camouflage, Detect Ambush, and Prowl(see RCC Skills)
*Climber---Natural climbers(see RCC Skills) +2 to Roll with falls/impacts.
*Long Forearm Tentacle---Normally coiled around the forearm, this appendage acts as both a climbing aid and as a striking weapon. It can reach out the Streleg’s P.S. in ft, and strikes for 2d6 SDC damage.
Psionics:---
Magic:
None, mainly due to a lack of knowledge of the hows of spellcasting. They have the potential, though, and a few Streleg have applied to various offworld magic schools to see if they can learn. Most observers are betting that mysticism, particularly with regards to the recovering Mantician ecosystem as the first and most likely way of Streleg magic.
Cybernetics/Bionics:
Accepting. Streleg tend to favor bio-systems over hard bionic replacements, but nearly everybody has a headjack or bio-health monitor implant. They’re intrigued by reports of bio-modification technology in the USA.
Available OCCs:
Any high-tech profession
RCC Skills:
- Prowl(68%)
- Camouflage(42+12%)
- Detect Ambush(42+12%)
-Climbing 90%/81% at top speed
-Acrobatics(+15%)
- W.P. Whip
Culture:
Centuries of living in crowded habitats and arcologies has made the Streleg rather inured to living in crowded communities. They’ve been adapting well to outsiders/non-Streleg, though some Streleg have yet to get used to aliens. The standard family unit is an extended family of three or more generations living under one roof, under a patriarch.
Streleg architecture makes use of many sheer slopes that the inhabitants must ‘whip-climb’ their way up, with shallower ramps denoting the residences of crippled or aged individuals. Combat sports are popular entertainment on Manticus, especially boxing-style contests with the participants dangling from overheads while punching, kicking, and whipping at each other.

pad300 · Unread post by **pad300** » Sun Sep 20, 2020 12:30 pm

8.8g homeworld gravity and a PS of 2d6+3? I think you should flip either the PP or PE with PS.

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Sun Sep 20, 2020 7:23 pm

pad300 wrote:8.8g homeworld gravity and a PS of 2d6+3? I think you should flip either the PP or PE with PS.

I was going to argue that they were pretty wimpy for their gravity field and were akin to spider-monkeys taking over the Earth(and developing technology to survive), but yeah...even with random rolls modified by the environment, they're pretty pathetic...
Still, they're fairly weak as heavy-gee-worlders go, so ...2d6+13, and it can be considered Superhuman. ,