Random Interstellar Empires/Star Kingdoms

[taalismn]

Hadazad(Thundercloud Galaxy)(Human sept)(United Systems Alliance member)

“The noblest warriors of all stride in the finest armor born of the imagination and skill of the finest minds! The Mechanar carries the dreams, spirit, and honor of the many who support him; the technicians, the engineers, the miners and smelters, the farmers and craftsmen! The Mechanar is their sword, shield and totem!”

The MechanismWarriors of Hadazad are another client of WZTechyards who was brought aboard and introduced to the United Systems Alliance.
It is not clear when or why the native humans of Hadazad adopted giant robots as their combat vehicles of choice(one theory is that the lack of certain easily-worked heavy metals in Hadazad’s crust precluded the production of large armies of conventional vehicles, or conversely the ABUNDANCE of other certain easily-worked heavy metals ENCOURAGED the development of giant war machines ), but their neofeudal culture has been building combat mecha and giant warrior robots, then throwing them at their enemies, for several centuries. The Ijion system has become their martial battlefield and playground for wars of necessity, wars of acquisition, wars of national pride, and battles of personal honor, at least until fairly recently. The giant robot has become almost THE defining icon of Hadazadan culture and technology to outsiders.
The Hadazadans who spent several centuries warring with each other in heavy robot combat have found a unifying challenge in the Alliance. Preparing themselves against the threat of possible alien attack is the more pragmatic motivation, but many Hadazadans see dealing with alien cultures as a new personal challenge. However, there are still some who cling stubbornly to old feuds and the ways of the past.

As stated earlier, one of Hadazad’s most notable social features are the mecha-warriors and their support units(aka the ‘mechanars’). Cycles of ritualized and all-out warfare using giant humanoid war machines have characterized Hadazadan history; there are even records of steam-powered machines duking it out in the planet’s past. Traditionally, though, only those fortunate few sponsored by the feudal/aristocratic lords and ladies with access to the rare heavy elements and metals have managed to build robust robots that prevail in the combats, winning out over hordes of weaker machines fielded by the less privileged mechanars. When the Hadazadans finally broke out into space and began tapping the mineral wealth of their neighboring worlds, they finally had enough materials to equip large mecha-armies, but by then ritualized battle had taken hold, and the Hadazadan governments continued to promote it as a way of avoiding much more destructive war on the homeworld. Contact with Galactic civilization has provided a welcome diversion for the many new mechanars who feel they have something to prove on the field of battle; both service with the United System Alliance joint defense treaty forces and mercenary work.

Solar System( Ijion)
Number of Stars: 1
Types of Stars: Yellow Dwarf
Number of Planets: 5
-Terrestrial --- (Fernus)---Though not quite the equivalent of Venus for being hellishly hot and thick-atmosphered, Fernus comes close. It would be considered a good prospect for terraforming, but the Hadaxa warrior clans haven’t agreed to such long term goals. Instead, though, large deposits of exotic minerals(including Kagerum, an enhancing factor and hardening agent in the production of megadamage alloys) in the planet’s crust have drawn their attention. The mecha-warriors have found that fighting in Fernus’s challenging environment to be a daunting test of machine and nerve, and prime mineral sites are often the excuse given for fighting in such a treacherous place.

-Terrestrial--- (Veskos)---Tiny Veskos sees as much fighting on its surface as Fernus, though mainly for honor and not for mineral rights. Veskos has the distinction of having a single Lord presiding over the planet, but Lord Targin-Veskos(and the Veskosian Lords before him) is recognized as being a neutral whose rules of combat are respected by (most) combatants. These rules include prohibitions on the use of weapons of mass destruction(especially near the Veskos-Demesne habitats), no wanton destruction of ejected life capsules, and no mining/boobytrapping of the Veskos surface. These laws are respected as Lord Targin enforces them with powerful batteries of laser cannons(which, he claims, are really laser-propulsion batteries) well-able to vaporize any mecha(or Hadazadan spacecraft) contesting them. Combats on Veskos are thus scrupulously fair and very profitably televised by the Veskosans.

-Terrestrial (Hadazah)---System lifeworld

-Gas Giant(Hevveto)---Though Hevveto plays host to 8 moons that have been colonized by different Houses(including one dominated by House Shokumi-Shedii ), the moon system is almost wholly absent of the feudalism and infighting characteristic of Hadazah. This is mainly because the Hevvetto Helium-3 barons supply most of the nuclear fusion fuel powering the system, and they don’t tolerate the sort of fighting that might endanger their lunar habitats and fuel refineries. Anybody misusing the industrial mechs, which the fuel-gas trade uses to service its equipment, for dueling is harshly punished(and causing death through such misuse can net the guilty party a one-way skydive into Hevveto’s clouds). This isn’t to say that there isn’t conflict amongst the colonists, only that it’s handled in more personal style; bare-knuckle brawling, knife fights, and the occasional poisoning are the way such things are settled.

-Asteroid(Orlin)---Cold, lonely Orlin is larger than Veskos and much farther out. It’s used as a prison for those who, under the feudal Hadazadan law, have rated exile to durance vile. While it’s possible to be released from Orlin, it’s understood that getting a ticket to Orlin is usually a life sentence.

Planet
Type: Terrestrial
Diameter: Average: 14,000 km
Gravity: 1.7 g.
Temperature: Tropical; Hadazah’s polar ice caps are virtually nonexistent, and the equator is wrapped in large deserts.
Unusual/Special Features:
*Moons(4)
-Telsu---The largest moon of Hadazah, Telsu has been declared ‘public’, and several kingdoms have established colonies on it.

-Aniri---This moon is the private territory of the first private space corporation in Hadazah history, Hadazanymics, which has become a major industrial powerhouse for the united government, with its hands in a number of industries. Aniri has become their primary industrial park. Hadazanymics is in tight competition with the Shedii-Kingdom of Shokumi.

-Shokumi---This moon is the last territory held by the once powerful Shedii Dynasty of the Khydu Kingdom. In the kingdom’s heyday, they managed to launch their own space program and claimed Shokumi as their own. When Khydu collapsed in a civil war, then was divided up by challenge-combats between the splinter-states and outside kingdoms, the last living Shedii fled assassins, domestic enemies, and foreign invaders alike, and managed to find refuge in the still-loyal lunar colonies. Though initially hoping to rally planetside-loyalists and reestablishing their rule, the Shedii have since given up on trying to unscramble the mess that is all that remains of Khydu, and have turned their attention to becoming a space power. Though they’ve been attacked several times, Shokumi-Shedii mechanars have repelled all attackers, and the Shedii have become innovative leaders in space technology. They have begun building WZT-pattern FTL starships, starting with small transports. Though many Hadazahans are relieved that the Shokumi-Shedii have given up all claim to Hadazah-side territories, an equal number are less pleased with their growth as an expansionist star travel House.

-Tiopa--Tiopa is marked by its unusual blue and white color, and swirling surface patterns. Though landings and studies of its geochemistry turned up nothing unusual, Tiopa is regarded as especially scenic by the people of Hadazah, who see it as their equivalent of Mount Fuji. Combat on Tiopa is forbidden under the Hadazadan codes of combat.

Atmosphere: Terrestrial, nitrox mix, Ambient pressure at sea level is slightly higher than Earth-normal, but not dangerously so, and both natives and offworlders can move between Terra-standard and Hadazad-standard pressures without much acclimation or decompression/pre-breathing .
Terrain:
Unusual Mineralogy: Hadazah has substantial deposits of natural megadamage material precursors.
Notable Mineral Concentrations:
- Molybdenite
- Tin
- Scheelite
- Wolframite
- Sulfur
- Nickel
- Barite
- Borax

- Masanite----Precursor mineral in creating megadamage alloys. A black material rich in naturally formed carbon nanotubules.
- Kardinium----Precursor mineral in creating megadamage alloys. It tends to give a green cast to metals.

Hydrosphere: Wet----65% of the surface is covered in open water.
Hadazah’s four moons make for interesting tides, and storms on the oceans can be truly terrible to experience on the open water. Some of the more interesting mecha designs are amphibians designed to cope with these conditions.
Biosphere:
Verdant, and inhabited by the sort of large animals that encouraged the development of heavy weapons and giant robots even if the locals weren’t going to use those weapons on each other. Though admittedly the more dangerous species, such as the Great Crested HellJaws and the MountainEaters, are in danger of extinction.
Civilization:
Settled
Population:
5 billion humans
Technology:
Stellar Age, bordering on Early Galactic. Their space sector has begin producing FTL-capable starships with WZT’s assistance.
Economy:
Industrial. Robotics is the most promising sector, and Hadazah exports a good number of ‘lesser’ robot vehicles(mainly licensed designs; they keep their more powerful and advacned stuff for ther own defenses).
Wealth:
Prosperous---A vibrant industrial sector with access to various megadamage precursor materials, and a history of megadamage metallugery has made Hadazah’s metal products increasingly sought after on the galactic markets.
Government:
Still heavily dominated by the old warrior families(the Houses) and the middle-class-associated guild corporations.
Law Level:
Lawful----There are still occasional bouts and feuds, but the gendarmes of the United Clans and Corporations keep the duels within safe limits and feuds from spiraling out of control.
Popularity:
Ambivalent----Not everybody is happy with the ‘United Clans’ deal, some folks being unconvinced that the threats from outside are serious enough to justify overturning centuries of tradition. Some of the Houses, especially those that ascended late before Galactic Contact was established, are not all that eager to give up any of their hard-fought powers to a central government. There are still feuds and duels breaking out, though not near the scale of the old Clan Wars. Many older warriors aren’t ready to set aside their old grudges, though more of the veterans are willing to make up with old rivals and see what it’s like working alongside them. Just as many younger people are fired by the tales of old glories, and quick to blame ancient family enemies for current setbacks, while many more are eager to embrace the future.
Stability:
Dynastic with regards to the clans/Houses. The Corporations are more ‘democratic’ in that they can rise and fall with their fortunes.
Stable; the current world government is still settling in with people. Fear, uncertainty and anticipation about the galactic scene coming to their star system has many Hadazadans looking to the unified government for answers, protection, or at the very least somebody to blame if things go bad.


Styx(Colonial Protectorate)
“Styx’s forests and shrublands are black, black, black. It’s the reason why the Styxians have taken to wearing really bright colors, so they stand out in the wilderness. You think ‘Hawaiian shorts’ are ugly? A Styxian tunic will scar your eyeballs for life.”

“Styx as a name may sound forbidding to some folks, but to a lot of us it’s heaven.”

Styx is a refuge-world established by the United Systems Alliance to resettle refugees from a number of failed colonies.
For a red dwarf world, Styx is pretty much just short of an ideally habitable world, with a tolerable gravity, breathable air, a compatible local ecology, and just enough liquid water. In many ways, Styx is better than a lot of the homeworlds of members of the United Systems Alliance, most of who would be happy to colonize a planet like Styx. Its convenient proximity to the Cohlanye Dimensional Gap has made it a convenient relocation site, getting often traumatized people off evacuation ships and groundside into a hospitable environment as quickly as possible.
Styx’s biology is adapted to the relatively low solar output of its sun; plants have dark, virtually, black, leaves to maximize solar energy absorption. This extends even to the aquatic plant life; Styx’s waterways and open bodies of water run black with a thick concentration of ominous-looking, but harmless, algae. Though all the dark plant life may look depressing and ominous to the average visitor, the ecosystem is actually quite benign.
Styx has been often compared to Kaxion, another star system under the United Systems Alliance banner, with a low-output red star, but a dense and exploitable ecology. Both worlds’ ecologies, however, have taken longer to evolve than equivalent ones that evolved under more energetic stars., and require careful management to remain viable in the face of introduced offworld invasive species.
A number of AJC volunteers come from Styx, mainly heavily-cyborged(by dint of the catastrophes that made them refugees) personnel looking to earn biosystem clone body credits.

Solar System(Hageleis 357)
Number of Stars: 1
Types of Stars: Red Dwarf
Number of Planets: 4
-Terrestrial----Styx, system lifeworld

-Asteroid(Charope)----Charope is home to an AJC military station monitoring traffic in and around the Styx system. Several Shepard-class cruisers and Concord-class escorts are stationed in the system, and rotate out on convoy missions. Nearby Styx gives crews ample opportunity for shoreleave.

-Gas Giant(Asphod)----Large gas giant with 19 moons of note. It has been developed as a resource world, with shielded outpost stations on the moons harvesting fuel-gases from Asphod’s upper atmosphere. While the standard of living is spartan(few people have chosen to permanently settle on any of the moons) , the work is steady and there’s a steady demand for Asphod’s output.

-Terrestrial(Tantras)---Ice-locked mid-sized rocky planet that is the site of several mining colonies. Home to a sizeable population of ‘belters’ displaced from the asteroid belts of Colpek VII, when the star system’s blue-giant sun began showing signs of accelerated instability.

Planet(Styx)
Type:Terrestrial
Diameter: 11,500 km
Gravity: 0.95 g
Temperature: Temperate and Earth-like.
Unusual/Special Features:--none
Atmosphere: Dense, terrestrial nitrox mix.
Many older and/or chronically-injured refugees find Styx’s atmosphere easier on their lungs.
Terrain: Four+
Notable Mineral Concentrations:
- Manganese
- Amethyst
- Copper
- Antimony
- Emerald
- Calcite
- Quartz
- Arsenic
Hydrosphere:
Balanced; roughly 45% of Styx is covered in open water.
Biosphere:
Moderate; Animal life is primarily inveterbrates, and Styx has evolved at best a number of primitive trilobite-like crustaceans, some of which have adapted to land.
Civilization:
Colonial
Population:
10.7 million
Technology:
Galactic; roughly a few generations behind the Golgan Republik.
The United Systems Alliance has set up several large orbital sollette mirrors to gather and focus additional light on the planet’s surface to grow more energy-intensive crops, as well as provide power for grow-lights.
Economy:
Agricultural----The refugees are concentrating on growing crops to sustain themselves. Thanks to very good management and some good luck with the local plants, they’re producing enough to have some surplus to export.
Wealth:
Average, but for a refugee colony, this is actually quite robust.
One of Styx’s biggest native exports is Styxian Tea(also known as Stygian Black Tea), a native plant that packs a stimulant wallop(it’s considered a repellant-toxin by the local invertebrates) and is proving to be as popular with Greater New Englanders as GFC(though some rumors say Styxian Tea extracts are an ingredient in GFC).
Another popular export is Styxian Nightshine(also known as Styxian Sunshine, depending in how aged it is) a moonshine-like drink that has been formalized as an export item. Styxian Nightshine has, according to liqour connoisseurs, a mellow dark taste culminating in a tingling ice-cubes-down-the-throat chiller afterburn.
Government:
USA-appointed colonial governor. The respective refugee groups run their own ‘town hall’ governments.
Law Level:
Lawful----Styx has a commonsense legal code that the diverse refugees can all agree on. Frankly, nobody wants ‘failed colony by dint of lack of agreement’ to apply to their second chance.
Popularity:
Fanatical; the colonists are more than happy with having new homes and livelihoods. In their eyes, the USA can do no wrong.
Stability:
Rocksteady---Unless something really goes wrong, Styx looks set to be another of the USA’s success stories.

[taalismn]

More United Systems Alliance worlds, capsule sumamries
(Ender's Cluster and the Chor'ii are the reactions of Glitterboy2098, while the scenario is based on cmments by Omegasgundam)

Ex-Cynoceran USA Worlds:(5)
When the Cynoceran Spring spelled the end of the Central Party and the greater Republic, the worlds that composed it discovered that they really didn’ want to remain together as a nation, and split up, many voting to rejoin the Odina Fderation, a very few deciding to continue following the Central Party philosophies, and five electing to join the United Systems Alliance.

*Thelheim
Thelheim was an industrial colony based on a high-gravity world of borderline habitability. When the full extent of the failure of the Central Party became clear, Thelheimers were particularly violent in ousting the Central Party hardliners from office, and tossing(with the assistance of mutinying Cynoceran mlitary personnel) the Internal Security Directorate goons off the atmosphere-plant towers. Yet the Thelheimers were the first to move to join the USA, rather than the Odina Federation. It was in Thelheim’s military shipyards that PS/ASI assembled its first Larna-Pe Heavy Space Destroyers.


*Vanderlund
Thought to be a State stronghold because of its decent climate, breathable atmosphere, and human-safe local ecosystem which attracted the Cynoceran upper crust to establish pastoral dachas and country retreats on the planet, the Vanderlund planetary council shocked everybody by voluntarily and peacefully dissolving the local branch of the Central Party and voting to join the United Systems Alliance. Vanderlund’s revolution was among the most peaceful in the former Republic worlds, with the local government allowing Central Party adherents to evacuate their holdings and take their possessions with them to the still-loyal worlds, even though this cost the newly free government a considerable amount of potential treasure-by-seizure. Vanderlund made it back up in short order, however, by launching a slick and effective tourism campaign to outsiders that was whipped up so professionally and quickly that many exiled Central Party loyalists have expressed wonder about how long the Vanderlanders were planning such a thing.


* Saveoresc
Hot dry mining world. Also used as a prison world, the Cynoceran Internal Security Directorate maintaining several forced labor camps for political dissidents. Ironically, Saveoresc was also home to an aggressive miners’ labor movement that was agitating for better working conditions, despite being painfully aware of what happened to those that the state internal security apparatus cracked down on. It would be this labor union that called for Saveoresc independence from the former Cynoceran state. The USA has promised to provide more modern and safer mining technologies to Saveoresc.

*Orsessn
The citizens of Orsessn actually inhabit underground cities on the two moons of the giant, high-gravity waterworld, and were expecting government assistance in tapping the potentially vast resources of their neighbor. However, the Cynoceran Republic’s Central Party always fell short of providing the necessary resources, which would have taken away from their military build-up. The Orsessners, who believed more in the original colonial Cynoceran ideals of conquering new worlds, not other peoples, kicked their Central Party officials out and asked to join the United Systems Alliance after hearing of some of the things they were doing with other borderline worlds, and of the environmental-adapatation bio-mods the GNE uses.

*Tarkulaam
Site of the Tebeklum Yards, a continent-sized aerospace production facility, once producing war material for the State, but now managed by WZTechyards, which has converted a good portion of it into civilian prodution. Low-gravity, ice-covered Tarkulaam relies mainly on industry to keep going, so new investment in the old military yards has proven salvation to the planet’s inhabitants.


Former Alquision Worlds:(2)
----Alquis Dominion, Thundercloud ---Four world expansionist militocracy until an ill-advised invasion attempt on the NaiBead homeworld resulted in the AD leadership being explosively decapitated during a global fireworks display(the only difference between a NaiBead skyrocket and a surface-to-air anti-ship missile being the former has more colors in the explosion). The Alquis Dominion collapsed soon afterward, with two of its worlds, Silkra and Crosyar, joining the United Systems Alliance.

* Crosyar --- Crosyar is a Thundercloud colony settled by a Corkscrew concern that attempted to go it alone and found a wholly independent world, but when the colony began to fail, they accepted assistance from the Alquis Dominion, assistance that quickly turned to economic and military domination. When the AD collapsed, Crosyar still had its original problems and so turned to the USA for help, figuring they couldn’t be any worse than the swaggering Alquis leadership was. Crosyar is Mars-like, yet possesses a robust(and dangerous) local ecosystem requiring a steady supply of armaments to keep in check. Ironically, the Crosyarians have got a good supply deal on Naibead fireworks, which they use very enthusiastically on their local wildlife.

*Silkra---Silkra was another go-it-aloner Thundercloud colony that was picked off Grand Theft Colony-style by the Alquis Dominion, who simply rolled in and took over. Post-NaiBead Whack, Silkra was looking for some protection from other warlords, and so joined the Alliance. Scoring just below Earth in terms of habitability, and having a thin, but viable, ecosystem, Silkra has potential to be the USA’s commercial hub in the former Alquis Sector.

Ender’s Cluster Worlds
The USA claims several worlds, only one of them habitable, but all of them mineral-rich, just outside the zone of exclusion around Ender’s Cluster. This claim is currently considered tenuous, as the systems lie in the path of several Chor’ii conquest armadas, but the presence of several wormhole gates and the lack of coverage by the CCW interdiction fleets, has kept the USA in the area, rather than scooping up what they can and abandoning the systems. Instead, the USA’s Alliance Joint Command has stationed a substantial portion of its Fleet in the sector to interdict the Chor’ii and keep them from spreading out of their corner of the Ender’s Cluster. Several mobile factory complexes have been sent to the systems to churn out munitions and space mines to supply the interdiction force and fortify the systems against attack. Meanwhile, the mineral mines are in overdrive, using round-the-clock shifts and extensive robot labor to try to get as much material out of the resource worlds, and it’s no secret that everything that can’t be quickly packed up and lifted out is wired for destruction in event the AJC can’t hold the line and the USA is forced to fall back. It’s even rumored that the AJC has several ‘dirty’ packages ready to deploy to long-term deny the sector’s resources to the Chor’ii, should the cannibal-bears manage to seize them.
Working the mines of the EC border is considered hazardous duty, and families are not allowed to accompany the workers. Though much has been made of the technological and firepower disparities between the Alliance ships and their Chor’ii adversaries, the AJC is quick to remind the complacent that the First Contact team that made planetfall on the Chor’ii homeworld thought their superior tech protected them---and they ended up as lunch. All the Chor’ii have to do is get lucky and manage to get around the interdiction forces...and they have many opportunities to get lucky. This has spurred the workers harvesting the mineral resources of the EC foothold and supplying the interdiction forces to impressive output numbers.

*Tatterjay---Red dwarf system. Tatterjay contains what could be the best worlds, habitability-wise, of the USA’s EC claims; Tatterjay-3/Almath, an Earth-sized world with a dense atmosphere and verdant local ecology, and Patermoth; a cold Mars-like world with a thin atmosphere, but occasionally liquid subcrustal water. Tatterjay-4/Patermoth could be a prospect for long-term terraforming, -if- the USA had the time and resources to spend on the effort. Instead, Patermoth is home to Dakkaton and Nitroville, two large factory complexes producing munitions to supply the Fleet.
Almath saw the first Chor’ii fleet that the AJC encountered able to enter the system and make landings to start infesting the planet. Late on the scene and unwilling to ask for ground forces(in what would have surely been a brutal ground campaign) while he still had thousands of incoming Chor’ii warships to contend with, the AJC fleet captain decided to risk Almath’s ecology and czar-bomba’ed the Chor’ii footholds into glass-bottomed craters. The Chor’ii fleet was destroyed to the last living creature, before any ships could escape. The belt of orbital debris still hasn’t stopped falling, though Alliance ships have managed to prevent the worst of the radioactive debris from falling to Almath’s surface and adding to the fallout already present.
Currently Tatterjay remains the core of the USA’s EC efforts. Though there are no settlements on Almath, Patermoth has become a massive military base and supply hub keeping the interdiction fleets in armor, fuel, bullets and missiles.

*Sheerlo---Red dwarf system. Contains a gas giant with several moons containing substantial amounts of Godzillum and kardinium. An Asteroid Cruiser serves as both mothership to the mining operations and as a factory producing mines and missiles for the local space defenses.

*Sergowski--- Blue Giant star, with two massive gas giant planets where USA prospectors found substantial amounts of Skagerite. One of Sergowski-1’s attendant moons poses a problem for the AJC forces because of the recent discovery of primitive life on it. Though not terribly sophisticated, the extremophile moss-like lifeforms could potentially serve as food stock for the rapacious Chor’ii, allowing them at the least to use the Sergowski system as a way station for their fleets, or provide enough food to breed up more soldiers enroute to greener pastures. The hard decision facing the Alliance Joint Command is that in event Sergowski system is attacked full force, does the AJC defend the system, or do they wipe out all life on the planet to deny its exploitation by the Chor’ii?

*Gremin---Though Gremin lies more or less directly in the path of the Chor’ii advance, the Chor’ii have exhibited little interest in the system because it has no planets. The dense ring of dust and rock surrounding a young yellow-dwarf star has yet to coalesce into any planets. That hasn’t prevented the system of being of considerable concern for the AJC, however. The dense asteroid belts are a prospector’s paradise of riches. Therefore USA miners have been playing a game of cat-and-mouse or chicken, using their advanced technology and stealth to hide their presence and mine valuable resources within the dense matter clouds, arguing that the Chor’ii are apparently reluctant to enter the nebula-like proto-solar system and can’t detect the miners operating deep within it. The AJC similarly has been using the sensor-obscuring properties of the dust cloud to hide their presence as they move out of the cloud, FTL-jump to attack the approaching/passing armadas, wiping out entire sub-fleets, then jump back to reload at their hidden bases. The Chor’ii have occasionally sent scouts to probe for enemy forces or look for usable resources, but all such probes have fallen victim to the conditions of the matter cloud, lurking AJC forces, or the many booby-traps mined throughout the system. The worry is that the miners, especially the wildcatters, in their desire for profits, will wait until the last moment to evacuate if the Chor’ii ever decide to investiagte in force what’s been happening to ships that venture too near the proo-system.

*Hathawai---Terrestrial Hathawai poses a big problem for the USA because they didn’t intend to colonize it, but somebody else did. The Hatha sectarians, a religious group, came through following the Alliance exploration parties, and took advantage of the ‘getaway special’ incentive programs offered by PS/ASI/GNE to encourage small businesses and organizations to get a leg up over larger, better financed and entrenched concerns that might otherwise shut the smaller folks out. The Hatha found a small barely-habitable ‘dry Venus’-style world and established a terraforming effort, cooling the planet and raising its oxygen and water levels, while a mass migration of Hatha began streaming through into the sector to establish a foothold on their new world.
The Hatha had just begun to make progress when a ‘small’ Chor’ii fleet arrived to say ‘hello, can we have you for dinner?’. Fortunately, a USA taskfleet arrived in time to utterly destroy the Chor’ii to the last bugger-bear, and none of their ships escaped to tell of what happened, but the effort required the fleet to drop some WMDs on Hathawai to stamp out cannibal bear landing sites. However, where one fleet made it, there’s likely to be another, and the Usans have advised the Hatha colonists to pack up and leave the system, return to the Three Galaxies, and come back only after the Chor’ii have been eliminated as a threat, an effort that may take decades.
The problem is, the 800,000 Hatha do not want to leave! After the amount of effort they’ve invested in getting Hathawai even remotely inhabitable, they’re digging in and doubling down and refuse to give up without a fight. The Alliance has cajoled them to leave, even offered them better worlds to colonize, but the Hatha contend that Hathawai is ‘destined ground’ for their religion, and they site the visibility of all Three Galaxies in the planet’s skies as proof. While refusing relocation, the Hatha have asked for weapons and plenty of them, and have made it clear they intend to fight to the last religionist if the Chor’ii return.
Hathawai puts the USA in a tight spot. Technically it’s not one of ‘their’ worlds, so they needn’t worry about it; it’s none of their concern. But the compassionate side of the Alliance can’t sit back and watch eight hundred thousand colonists get slaughtered when the next Chor’ii wave breaks over the system. And showering them with high tech weaponry has its own problems; if the Chor’ii should capture any advanced technology and duplicate it, dealing with the infestation will became that much more difficult. And if the Chor’ii were ever to become established on Hathawai, they will be in a better position to threaten the Gates in the sector.
So the AJC has established a meticulous watch on Chor’ii movements anywhere near or heading towards Hathawai, and intercepting and blast-mugging any ships that even hint at approaching the system. It is hoped that more tempting targets like the denser star clusters holding worlds like Tatterjay and Sergowski will distract the main bodies of Chor’ii ships, diverting them away from Hathawai. If the Chor’ii should invade the Hatha-held system in overwhelming force, though, the AJC will find itself in a sticky position of how far they should go to try to evacuate as many Hatha/ Hathawaians as they can and risk losing ships before instituting the ‘scorched earth’ protocols they have for the other systems in the sector?

[SolCannibal]

Out of curiosity, where can i find more on the Chor’ii? A search through the forums pointed me out, a Google docs link from glitterboy2098 for a "Chor'ii Totality", but it is from 2011 - and more importantly, broken, so alternate files/sources would be appreciated.

[taalismn]

Out of curiosity, where can i find more on the Chor’ii? A search through the forums pointed me out, a Google docs link from glitterboy2098 for a "Chor'ii Totality", but it is from 2011 - and more importantly, broken, so alternate files/sources would be appreciated.

GB2098's website doesn't appear to be allowing access...you may have to contact directly to see what the situation is. Meanwhile, I'll see if I have a saved file somewhere.

[SolCannibal]

Out of curiosity, where can i find more on the Chor’ii? A search through the forums pointed me out, a Google docs link from glitterboy2098 for a "Chor'ii Totality", but it is from 2011 - and more importantly, broken, so alternate files/sources would be appreciated.

GB2098's website doesn't appear to be allowing access...you may have to contact directly to see what the situation is. Meanwhile, I'll see if I have a saved file somewhere.

Talked with him, we just found out Google apparently added a new sharing settings feature that defaults to "private" with little to no warning.
Glitterboy2098 got things back in order already.

[taalismn]

Talked with him, we just found out Google apparently added a new sharing settings feature that defaults to "private" with little to no warning.
Glitterboy2098 got things back in order already.

Good...I'll have to save a few web page just in cases, because I discovered that I hadn't saved any of that info on my comp, for quick reference.

[taalismn]

Private/Criminal Organizations Inside the United Systems Alliance

Reset
Reset is an environmental activist group that formed on Harrisar after contact was made with the Alliance and GreaterNew England’s history became known to the people of the over-populated planet. Despite the best and ongoing efforts to alleviate the crushing overpopulation of Harrisar and revitalize the planet’s dying ecosystem, many parts of the planet aren’t seeing progress fast enough. The Resetans feel that the GNE/USA isn’t doing enough(whether deliberately to exploit the Harrisarians, through incompetence, or simply because the task is too great even for a galactic power), but they have a plan. Having learned of how great potentials were unleashed on the GNE’s own Earth by the Coming of the Rifts, the Resetans feel that a similar event will ultimately benefit their own world, ‘resetting’ the planet! A massive rift event will kill billios, randomly and indiscriminately culling the population, but will also unleash massive amounts of energy into the ecosystem and purge the planet of its pollutants, parasites, and giving the survivors access to new sources of power and vitality.
To that end, the Resetans are trying to find out what they can about triggering a dimensional rift storm event, along he same lines as happened on Rifts Earth, on Harrisar. Rsetans are trying to learn magic and identify where the ley lines are on Harrisar and what influences could be affecting them. Meanwhile, a number of Resetans gave taken advantage of the Alliance’s offworld trade and training offers to get out into the megaverse and seek means of triggering the catastrophe on their planet. A number of Harrisaran recruits to the AJC are really Resetans learning military skills...and several have used the opportunity on offworld deployments to desert and make their own way to promising and forbidden knowledge.
The USA’s law enforcement agancies have only recently learned of Reset and their catastrophic agenda. Classified as a doomsday cult similar to those still hindering recovery efforts on Tenlen, Harrisar’s Reset worries many in the USAMS. Though Harrisar’s ley lines seem to be pretty much dead, and magic knowledge on the planet pretty much nonexistant, the fear is that the Resetans may, in their zeal and ignorance, blunder across something that could certainly prove catastrophic, but not restorative, or, they may attempt to brute force the issue and create a mass casaulty event to feed a rift opening. The galactically-naive Resetans could also fall victim to any number of criminal organizations willing to sell them dubious ‘artifacts’ or weapons of mass destruction.

Chindar Society
The Chindar Society is a private organization of affluent business interests who believe in a philosophy of social darwinismm and have an agenda of controling the worlds of the Fringe through monopolies on interstellar trade and travel. Little better than pirates in corporate colors, the members of the Chindar Society resent what the United Systems Alliance is doing, especially the ‘uplift’ work of revitalizing struggling worlds. To the Chindarians, such efforts represent an unforgiveable waste of capital resources. The Chindar Society wants to run the Fringe as their own private fiefdoms, supplying the metroworlds with cheap raw materials.
However, being coldly pragmatic, the Chindarians also taken advantage of the USA’s charity to divert resources into their own pockets.
Interestingly enough, the Chindar Society’s most dangerous enemy is not the USAMarshal Service, which remains largely unaware of them, but another secret ‘power behind the scenes’ moving through many of the same realms: the Altess Dynasty. Hot on the heels of their honor debts with the USA, the Altess have been looking to increase their overt and covert investments in the United Systems Alliance, and have dispatched a number of accountant operatives to infiltrate the USA and identify the best places to put Altess money. These double-agent CPAs ahve discovered a number of discrepancies in a number of operations and have tracked the money down to the same source, the Chindar Society. While some of the fraud has been fingered to the proper authorities by the Altess agents(to help build up credibility), other operations have been quietly taken care of by covert action by the Altess, in part to hide their own operations.

WorldRight
Though claiming to be an advocacy group for the sovereign rights of worlds to determine their own destinies without outside interference, and protesting what they claim to be the heavy-handed actions of the United Systems Alliance on several worlds, WorldRight is really a front for several mercenary groups who feel cut off by USAJC peacekeeping efforts. After a number of civilian organizations invited the Alliance in on several worlds where the govenments were duking it out with each other using mercenary proxies, and catching innocent civilians in the process, USAJC peacekeepers settled the situations, much to the dismay of many mercenary groups, who went unpaid when peace broke out. Soon afterwards, WorldRight appeared, claiming that the Alliance infringed the legitimate legal rights of sovereign planetary governments to manage their own affairs, including waging war, and that the USAJC had no right to become involved in such ‘domestic disputes’.
WorldRight constantly battles the USA in various courts and tries to bolster the power of mercenary bonding authorities to penalize the Alliance, trying to treat it as amother mercenary group. WorldRight also works to put bans on Alliance-based paramilitary organizations(such as the GNE’s own state-sponsored security-for-hire units). WorldRight also sensationalizes anything the Alliance Joint Command does on Fringe Worlds in the worst possible light and stokes distrust of the USA in the distant metroworlds of the CCW.
While WorldRight has a few genuine believers in its message, it’s a shell run mainly by propagandists and hired legal hatchetmen sponsored by various mercenary organizations and corporations. Behind the scenes, the original mercenary groups(who, for various reasons, couldn’t get themselves hired by the USA) are trying to stir up additional trouble, to drum up business for themselves if nothing else. This includes backing various dissident groups on Alliance member worlds and protectorates who feel left out or persecuted by the Alliance treaties with their homeworlds.
Given how WorldRight seems to specifically target the United Systems Alliance, USAns with a bigger pespective in the galaxies figure there’s something fishy about the whole deal, but there’s little they can do about it, free speech beng part of their charter values. WorldRight is seen as a minor annoyance, but even a minor annoyance can bleed time and money defending the image and actions of the USA in various legal systems and bonding authorities, that the Alliance would rather spend on more constructive pursuits.

Odessa
Though the Odessa Brigades were formally reabsorbed into the GNE, and their secret factories all taken over and pressed back into service as proper PS/ASI facilities, rumors of cells of this rabidly-Abolitionist group still remain. Though the policies and actions of the United Systems Alliance in campaigning against slavery have placated most of the original Odessan followers, there remain enough hardliners who can cause trouble. Rumors abound of remaining caches of military hardware, third-party factories ‘licensed’ to produce PS/ASI designs, and rogue ships doing vigilante raids. Though the few infield Odessans do free slaves from imprisonment, there’s the danger than their more extreme actions, especially using GNE gear, may lead to the GNE/USA being falsely implicated , or that Odessan equipment may fall into the hands of elements more than willing to conduct ‘false flag’ operations against the United Systems Alliance. The fear is that the remaining Odessans and their followers may attack a nominal ally or trade partner of the Alliance for not reforming quickly enough, or raid a new polity, and drag the USA into an unwanted new war.

Gimridge
‘Gimridge’ is a nebulous organization of hackers and monkeywrenchers who claim to be providing a service by exposing shortcomings in the information and communications networks of various institutions, corporations, and nations, by hacking their security, but they are regarded as little more than softcore infosphere terrorists. Of late, Gimridge has been targeting the nascent United Systems Alliance infonet, stealing information, planting misinformation, spamming mass media with increasingly obscene and derogatory nonsense, and very publicly trolling anybody and everybody in the USA. More dangerously, their actions have jeopardized sophont life, as when hackers claiming to be with Gimridge compromised life support monitoring at the Lada Beta Orbital Medical Annex, and when a ‘freedom of information’ group made public lists of security personnel, some engaged in deep cover operations. Gimridge has also been known to harass the natives of rim colonies, freed slaves, and other unfortunates who have gained the attention of the media. Though the public ‘face’ of Gimridge is that of a generic alien of no specific species, it cannot be taken as representative of any species or individual in the organization itself. Various security agencies in the USA suspect that Gimridge may be acting as infowar mercenaries, and may be using a mobile base of operations, or several, given the way their campaigns seem to progress across USA space. There’s a growing number of sophonts(including many free A.I.s) who’d like to dark-alley any Gimridge agents they can lay manipulatory appendages on.

[Astral Pantheon]

Taalismn, I am amazed by your creativity. Keep the material coming

[taalismn]

Abelon(United Systems Alliance Member)
“Everybody thinks we Atchi are all one happy clone hivemind who complete each other’s sentences, but while it’s true that we do tend to work more smoothly with our brothers, we are individuals and we occasionally get sick and tired of hearing the same familiar voices and seeing the same familiar faces. Fortunately there’s enough open space and enough work on Abelon that we can request temporary assignment to one of the terraforming sites or eco-stations and spend a few months by ourselves. And of course there’s the trinary system to bum around in; plenty of work to be had shepherding comets and cutting up asteroids. For those who REALLY need to get away for a while, there’s service with the USA’s exploration fleet; and for those who feel wanderlust in their alleles, there’s always the GNE dimensional ranger corps; a good number of us have joined that august group and at the very least gone a-wifing into the megaverse.”

Abelon, despite being a human-settled world, is arguably one of the odder members of the United Systems Alliance, even by their standards. The majority of Abelon’s Human population consists of male clones who claim genetic descent from Paul Maris ‘Wander’ Atchison, a name well-known in the interdimensional nomad community, as well as the GNE(who boasts several Atchison-avatars as GNE citizens in their Dimensional Avatar Registration files). The Abelonians trace their history back several hundred years to the work of Doctor Kala Nevis, mad scientist and ‘gene witch’, who became both professionally and romantically obsessed with Wander Atchison, stalking him over several decades, and apparently getting close enough to the ‘extragalactic bard’ to obtain DNA samples. The clone Abelonians were apparently an effort on Nevis’s part to establish an all-male Atchison ‘harem’ for herself, though she disappeared several years after setting the clone colony up. The Abelon-Atchisons have toiled for several centuries, using legacy cloning technology to grow their numbers, and terraforming their world, before contact was reestablished with the rest of the universe. Though some have worried that the protracted isolation was part of Nevis’s plan all along, and that she will one day return to claim her massive male harem after they’ve established a pleasant planet-sized ‘love nest’ for her, more recent evidence uncovered suggests that the mad scientist isn’t coming back, leaving the Abelon-Atchisons to go their own way. However, despite what misgivings they may have about Nevi’s original purpose for them, the Atchi still regard their ‘mother’ fondly enough that two of their major communities are named ‘Neviston’ and “Kalaport’.
In the meantime, the Abelon-Atchisons have been busy building their world, altering its climate and atmosphere, and introducing an ecology. Contact with the outside world has allowed them to acquire additional resources and technology to assist them in this endeavor. The Abelonians joined the United Systems Alliance because of shared values, the USA’s acceptance of the clone community, and the assistance the USA offered its members.
The Abelon-Atchisons continue to produce new clones at a measured rate, to replace attrition losses, and expand into newly developed housing and resources in accordance with their terraforming plans. The Atchi refer to each other as ‘brothers’, with ‘big brothers’ mentoring and socializing younger ‘little brother’ clones. The increasing numbers of other clone lines, especially females, has added a new and welcome dynamic to the sociology of the Abelonians, with some clones being socialized in more or less traditional nuclear families. A representative democracy rules the Abelonians, with voting districts being habitat clusters and terraforming territories(the highlands currently being the most populous, but the lowlands gaining in numbers as the new oceans fill up and shoreline communities established).
One concern of the Abelon-Atchisons is that, despite having a still-viable stock of original(and uncorrupted) genetic material to draw upon, long term genetic fatigue may doom the Abelon culture, as it has other clone societies. To that end, the Abelon-Atchisons have used their renewed access to the rest of the Three Galaxies(and the megaverse) to go seeking fresh blood and genetic diversity to bolster their growing population. Association with the GNE has given them potential access to other Atchison avatar-lines to tap for DNA, though not all such avatars are onboard with the idea. Others have gone a more traditional route, traveling into the megaverse to seek spouses(not necessarily female; many Abelon-Atchisons have expressed bisexuality), aided in fact by the reputation of the Dimensional Atchison clan for being good husband material. Other such ‘gene scouts’ have been collecting promising DNA to add new clone lines to the population back on Abelon. With the assistance of PS/ASI, the Abelonians have acquired the cloning technology of several defunct biotech companies, adding to their tech-base.
Like their gene-father, the Abelon-Atchisons don’t consider themselves warriors, but will fight in defense of what they believe in, and to protect others. They have no aggressive agendas, and tend to their terraforming homeworld as their main focus, but a bit of ‘Wander’ Atchison’s wanderlust seems to be part of their genetic makeup, and the planet has sponsored several USA scoutships manned almost entirely by Abelon-Atchison clones.

Abelon-Atchisons--- Clone Human Sept
“Dude, that’s Evett Abal-Atchi; he’s almost as famous as his gene-daddy the Wander! He’s the one who found the Domtor homeworld in real space for our fleet to put down their little empire of babykillers! And he managed to penetrate their Shades deeper than anybody else ever has! He’s the one behind the Trav-tros Square rescue, not once, but SEVEN times in parallel world-lines! He’s a rock star in the d-rangers; you can’t confuse him with anybody else!”

“I’m sorry, are we discombobulating you with our sameness? We can paste some numbers on our faces or something if that makes it easier for you to tell us apart.”

The Abelon-Atchisons, sometimes known as the ‘Atchi’, are all Caucasoid male humans with ash-white hair, green eyes, and ‘bishonen-good’ looks. Though individuals may vary, they tend towards slim and wiry athletic builds, mild manners, and Good dispositions. Though not believed to be biologically immortal like their gene-donor, they do exhibit signs of extended longevity, and extraordinary good health. Their skeletal structure has also been tweaked to better handle Abelon’s higher gravity.
Abelon-Atchisons are individuals most of the time, but they also exhibit a form of low-level psychic group-mind mentality when working together; they just seem to move and operate more smoothly in consensus working in groups of each other, and seem to engage more easily in ‘group think’, with Atchi quickly picking up on the gist of another Atchi’s line of thought. Whether this can be extended to other Abelonian clone-lines as they become more numerous, remains to be seen.
Atchi Attribute Baselines:
Sex: Male
Height: 6 ft
Weight: 1d8x10+100 lbs
Physical Attributes/Superlatives:
IQ: 18
ME: 18
MA: 18+1d4
PS: 12+1d4(and considered to be Extraordinary)
PP: 14
PE: 18
PB: 18
SPD: 12

(PPE) +1d6

Hit Points: 60
SDC: 50+any from training and experience
Special Abilities/Characteristics/Powers:
-Longevity---Appear to be aging at 1/10 normal
-Resilience: +5 save vs coma/death. +3 save vs poisons and disease, +6 roll with fall, punch, or impact, and a successful roll takes only 1/3 normal damage.
-Cooperative Sense--- Abelon-Atchisons in groups of five or more get a +1 to initiative in group actions, and a bonus of +1d6 % to skill performance, +1d10% for skills requiring interaction and coordination with other Atchi. Abelon-Atchisons also seem to have an instinctive sense of how other Atchi are feeling, or where they’re going with an idea moments before it is openly expressed.

Magic: Fully capable of learning magic as part of an OCC. Many in USA/GNE service gravitate towards the Dimensional Pathfinder O.C.C. in particular.


Psionics: None normally


Other Abelonian Clone Lines

“I’m sorry, you seem to have confused me with somebody else, because I’ve never seen you before. Except....maybe you knew my line’s gene-donor? I personally don’t know much about her, but there are others of my line who might be interested in chronicaling our donor-past. Perhaps you’d like to speak to them and see if we’re related to whoever you mistook me for?”

When they were able, the Abelon-Atchisons began adding new clone lines to diversify their population’s gene-pool. Some of these lines came from volunteers, with the added incentive of the donors being able to provide some supervision to the new clones. Others were Revenants; clones produced from the DNA of deceased donors. The Abelonians have tweaked the basic attributes somewhat to adapt the clones to Abelon’s higher gravity, but otherwise the clones’ genetic diversity is untouched.
Abelonian clones use the donor’s baseline pre-skill/training attributes, plus the following bonuses:
+1d4x10 SDC(strengthened skeleton).
+1d4 P.S. and is considered Extraordinary.
+6 roll with fall, punch, or impact, and a successful roll takes only 1/3 normal damage.


Solar System (Trian 317)
Interesting cosmologically because it is a three-star cluster system, the three stars of the Trian system are actually fairly dispersed, one of the red dwarfs actually describing a far orbit around the other two suns. This orbit occasionally shakes free shoals of comets that should endanger the inner worlds with periodic bombardment, but so far the Abelonian worlds seem to have escaped getting catastrophically shellacked. The comet ‘clouds’, though, make for some spectacular displays, and the Abelonians have also learned to take advantage of them to harvest the sun-grazers for volatiles and water ice to steer to their terraforming efforts.
Number of Stars: 3
Types of Stars:
- Orange Dwarf(Trian A)
- Red Dwarf(Trian B)
- Red Dwarf(Trian C)--Aka ‘Roamer’, ‘Shaker’. The far-orbiting star of the three, responsible for roiling up the system’s ort clouds.
Number of Planets: 5
-Terrestrial (Abelon)---System lifeworld

-Terrestrial (Kable)---This tiny cold and dusty Mars-like world possesses a very scant atmosphere but a sizable amount of sub-crustal water. The Abelonians have established several mining colonies on the planet and have granted the USA permission to construct and staff a naval base on Kable.

-Terrestrial (Edwic)---Not much larger than Kable, but a LOT colder, tiny Edwic is also a likely candidate for future ‘belter’-style habitats, especially since Edwic sports a thick crust of water-ice, even with three suns shedding radiation on it. The Abelonians have landed a small research station on the planet, to study the sub-crustal ‘oceans’ that deep probes have discovered under the ice, and the intriguing hints of organic molecules.

-Gas Giant (Lewis)-- On the small side for its type, blue-tinted Lewis is the Tian system’s sole gas giant. With USA assistance, the Abelonians have established a fairly standard gas mining operation based on the moons of Lewis.

-Terrestrial (Morlan)---Morlan is a huge methane-shrouded outer planet. It remains unexplored and undeveloped.

Planet(Abelon)
Abelon receives just enough solar radiation from its three suns to warm it above the melting temperature of water. The lowlands are slowly being flooded with water brought in by cometary ice bombardments, and there are a growing number of wetlands consisting of algae-covered ponds.
Type: Terrestrial
Diameter: 8,300 km
Gravity: 1.32 g
Temperature: Cool; generally between -120 F and 50 F.
Unusual/Special Features:
-Large Moon(Hue)--Hue is home to several small habitat-stations of Abelonians, as well as a USA communications and rescue ship hub.
-Energy Field---Abelon has an exceptionally strong magnetic field, suggesting a dense active core. The solar output of its three suns leads t some interesting aurora activity.
Atmosphere: Tainted; but breathable with filtration and supplemental oxygen. Still heavy with introduced greenhouse gases, but latter-stage terraforming is reducing that to tolerable levels
Terrain:
Standard range of terranes, plus the Abelonians have triggered a series of both dormant and artificial volcanos to increase the amount of greenhouse gases and raise the planetary temperature.
*Unusual Mineralogy----Abelon has been discovered to have substantial amounts of psylite in its crust. While this is of little use to the non-psychic Atchi, it may benefit future psionic clone-lines and freebirths. It has already been suggested that trace amounts of psylite in the water may be responsible for the transmission of common mental characteristics and traits in clone-lines.
Notable Mineral Concentrations:
- Zinc
- Sapphire
- Gold/Silver
- Antimony
- Gypsum
- Barite
- Salt
- Titanium
Hydrosphere:
24% surface coverage of open water, another 21% polar ice. Cometary bombardments are introducing more water to the surface.
Biosphere:
Mainly introduced species; microbes, fungi, terraforming plants/organisms
Civilization:
Settled
Population:
21 million(79% Abelon-Atchisons, 16% other clone lines, 5% freebirths)
Technology:
Space Age, with an emphasis on cloning technologies. The Abelonian-Atchisons had already some intersystem spaceflight capability that they were using to visit their homeworld’s moon and other neighbors, and had several asteroid-capture missions in progress when they were discovered by the Galactics. The introduction of advanced space technology has led to an explosion of their terraforming efforts, with the ability to more quickly and efficiently haul cometary ice from the outer system.
Economy:
Scientific-Industrial---Most of Abelonian industry is focused on their terraforming efforts and genetics work, but they also do original research and some commission work in genetics for outworld trade.
Wealth:
Can be considered Average. The Abelonians have taken advantage of the USA’s technological ‘uplift’ programs to upgrade many of their capabilities(especially their deep space infrastructure), and they’re acquired a number of scientific research platforms to study the Trian tri-star system. Some of those Abelonian-Atchisons who have gone a-wandering have managed to bank on the Atchison name and reputation to acquire some fairly impressive sophisticated gear for their exploration efforts, and some of that tech has filtered back to their homeworld.
Government:
Representative Democracy---Though mainly Atchi, the introduction of several new clone-lines, notably female ones, has see a spike in these newcomers gaining high offices.
Law Level:
Lawful, despite jokes of facial recognition, identification lineups, and DNA forensics being almost entirely useless on Abelon, the society is almost inhumanly peaceful and law-abiding.
Popularity:
Beloved---Or at least very cooperative.
Stability:
Rock-Steady/Long-Standing---Although a growing number of elections have put newer clone-lines in power(the Atchi ascribe this to the novelty factor of seeing new faces in charge), the government has been consistent and reliable, and the Abelonian population has had no cause to distrust it.

[taalismn]

(based on 89er’s Bhozyari)

Bijeme(Savral System)---(United Systems Alliance member) Homeworld of the Bhozyari
“What to know something mysterious? Nothing can get a Bhozyari talking about exospecies sex faster than somebody asking them about the history of their homeworld. Even if previously the individual Bhozyari indicated they wanted nothing to do with sex. They’ll jump through hoops rather than talk about their species’ history, and they’ll bring out the distractions to get the subject changed if you ever bring it up. Just try it; it’s both disturbing and entertaining at the same time.”

Bijeme is the homeworld of the Bhozyari , a species of near-elf, characterized by symbiotic nanotech growths; the Bhozyari naturally GROW cybernetics in their own bodies. There is also a minority called the Rezzus, in whom the organo-technic generation has run wild, resulting in disfiguring cybernetic mutations. This capability is also evidenced by a variety of flora and fauna on the Bhozyari homeworld, though there is no clear pattern as to which species are affected and how this state of affairs came to be. The Bhozyari themselves have been very reluctant to discuss how their dual nature came to be, and this has only served to fuel the rumors of ancient Bhozyari nanotechnology experiments run amok, ancient alien experimentation or to unearthed Ancient technology.
Despite their friendly and outgoing natures, the Bhozyari rarely let outsiders visit their planet, though those few who have describe a verdant and beautiful world. Trying to smuggle samples of local life ofworld, though, is one of the few seriously enforced laws.
Beyond this seemingly uncharacteristic caginess regarding their homeworld, the Bhozyari are a friendly, outgoing people who have otherwise done much to cooperate with the United Systems Alliance, if only to facilitate their own travel through the Three Galaxies. Though best known for their sexual adventurism, the Bhozyari have also given the Three Galaxies their share of intrepid explorers, mercenaries, scientists, scoundrels, and warriors, with a number joining the United System Alliance organizations in various capacities.


Solar System(Savral )
Number of Stars: 1
Types of Stars: Red Dwarf
Number of Planets: 5
-Terrestrial(Mivas)--Airless, tiny, and subject to frequent solar flare lashings. Like Mercury, its rotation is locked, so the same side always faces the sun. There’s a small science outpost on its shadowside that’s automated and rarely visited(except, it’s rumored, by those in the Bhozyari academic community who have really screwed up and gotten on their superiors’ ****).

-Terrestrial--Bijeme, system lifeworld

-Terrestrial(Large)(Dwayan)---Dwayan is cold, has a surface gravity of 1.3 g, and has a tainted atmosphere, but with some terraforming, could easily become inhabitable, especially by the Bhozyari, who are used to 1.6 g. In fact, a number of settlements have already been established to exploit this promising new range.

-Gas Giant(Vitracor)---This small gas giant has been developed as a transit hub and refueling stop for ships transiting the sector. The Bhozyari operate several space stations on the moons of Vitracor. One of the stations operates the infamous ‘Red Sun Lights’, a club that caters to those adventurous Bhozyari unwilling to leave the system, but wanting to meet equally lusty travelers.

-Gas Giant(Elket)---A tiny gas giant that barely makes the cut. Location of a small scientific research outpost manned by Bhozyari whose kink is monotonous science.

Planet(Bijeme )
Type: Terrestrial
Diameter: 9,000 km
Gravity: 1.6 g.
Temperature: Temperate
Unusual/Special Features:
-Unusual Axis---Bijeme has a more profound seasonal ‘wobble’ than most worlds, leading to more extreme seasons; the planet’s ice caps nearly completely melt, leading to the formation of vast flooded swamplands(that are grasslands the rest of the year)
-Moons(4)----Bijeme sports four small moons; Eld, Flef, Aiyf, and Zora
-Rings---Thin debris ring that tells of a small moon or captured cometary fragment that hit the Roche Limit and disintegrated. Bijeme’s rings are part of why the Bhozyari had considerable difficulty with their space programs; getting through the obstacle course of the rings without shredding their spacecraft required considerable effort.

Atmosphere: Breathable terrestrial nitrox mix.
Terrain:
Exotic--Large tracts of Bijeme’s surface are covered by ‘nanitecologies’, swaths of wilderness hybridized with free-evolving nanotechnology. Though most of this growth is harmless, and even useful in that it sequesters minerals and cleans pollutants from the soil, a few strains of hybrid are dangerous and can destroy unprotected equipment and fatally infect biologicals, and must be kept contained or eliminated altogether by ranger patrols with flamers and EMP generators.. Some of these ‘technowildernesses’ are inhabited by enclaves of Rezzus.
Notable Mineral Concentrations:
- Lead
- Colombite
- Sapphire
- Magnesium
- Graphite
- Fluorite
- Arsenic
- Platinum
Hydrosphere:
Badlands---Most of Bijeme’s open water is in the form of oasises, large lakes, and bogs. Only about 25% of the surface has any open water big enough to sail ships. During the wet seasons, an additional 30% of the land is covered in shallow swamp.
Biosphere:
Verdant and Diverse---Despite the lack of open water, Bijeme has a rich and diverse ecosystem. Its ‘deserts’ tend to be covered in thick, elephant grass-like savannah growths that seal the water in the soil(and travelers are warned to be careful in the tall grass, as, given some of the grasses sequester metals, wandering through the grasslands can chop the unwary to pieces).
Civilization:
Settled
Population:
4.9 billion Bhozyari
Technology:
Late Information Age: The Bhozyari enjoy advanced technology, particularly cybernetics/bionics(though few full conversion cyborgs exist in their population), and a sophisticated global infonet. They had already advanced into their solar system using their own space technology when they were discovered by scouts from the Three Galaxies.
Since then, they’ve been debating how best to integrate galactic technologies into their own, and how best to trade for what they want without wrecking their economy. This hasn’t stopped more adventurous individuals from trading what they have, including their services, for equipment, especially starships and entertainment gear.
Economy:
Industrial. Cybernetics and organo-electronics are a given product in which the Bhozyari have an exploitable edge. The Bhozyari acknowledge that they had megacorporations in the past, but the norm now is small sophisticated workshops and mini-facs producing products on demand, rather than speculation.
Wealth:
Consider themselves to be well-off, and the planet is self-sufficient. By Galactic standards, the Bhozyari would be considered Depressed. Right now they have bought a lot of advanced technology on credit, and there’s a fear among many that doing so was a rash move. Part of their signing with the United Systems Alliance was protection from galactic loansharks and chiselers, with the USA’s assistance offering both education in galactic affairs and bootstrapping programs at ore affordable terms.
Government:
Nominally a Pedocracy of the learned, but it’s more like a meme-game technocracy, run by those with the skills to anticipate and manipulate social trends.
Law Level:
Lawful--- Bhozyari subscribe to a comprehensive codex of commonsense laws that still leave a lot of leeway for personal choice and behavior.
Popularity:
Beloved---Despite the chaos sweeping the planet on a regular basis, the government is actually pretty well loved. Though many people call for its replacement, and indeed it does frequently turn over, transitions of office tend to be peaceful and amiable, with the understanding that the ex-office holders just might be back in office the next turnover. It’s all part of the spectator sport that is Bhozyari techno-politics.
Stability:
Rebellion----There’s widespread call to open up the planet to Galactic trade, or exercise more restraint in buying Galactic.. However, on Bijeme, there’s ALWAYS rebellion, in the way of disruptions across the global internet, cybernetic tweaksters pulling hacks on communications and even some of the biota, sysops rushing to erect firewalls or track down the hackers, and a sort of nonviolent cyberpunk mass-media meme-war always going on. Outsiders find it disturbing, but the Bhozyari regard it as rather fun.

Anduv---(United Systems Alliance member)(Thundercloud Galaxy)
“’Random pirate activity’? Hah! See those big swathes of knocked down forest and churned-up muck? That’s surface-mining rigs at work, digging up rare earth sands and titanium. Ever hear of pirate miners with space-droppable strip-mining gear able to do that? No, this was organized corporate resource stealing! We even have a half-dozen wrecks we managed to put heavy cannon rounds into before the rest of them skeddadled offworld. Pretty much brand-spanking new and came from the same factory-yards. Even if the workers were recruited from the dregs of Meljor or Phiso, the rest of this raid was crafted in Devaran corporate offices. That’s why we need more than swamp-skimmers and thud-guns to fight these planet-thieves.”

Anduv is a moist, hot, marshy planet with a rich ecosystem, mineral rich crust, and a bit of a pirate problem.
Anduv was settled by ethnic Serissians, a variant-sept of Seljuk. The Serissians felt that the Dykstar system’’s lack of easily-accessible gas giants would deter development of the system due to a lack of starship fuel. This would prevent them from being bothered by more intrusive stellar concerns. This mainly worked out with regards to the mains tream Seljuk and coreworld cultures, but left the settled-in Anduvians high and dry and with little support when trouble came from another direction.
Unfortunately, Anduv’s problem is that it lies too close to the Denevan Comdomate, which would like to add another resource world to its fold, even one already claimed by non-humans. Citing reasons such as the ‘underdevelopment’ and ‘poor land usage’ of Anduv by the Serissians, several Comdomate-backed Denevan ‘development’ corporations have taken it upon themselves to force the issue and take what they can grab off Anduv. The result has been a series of thinly-disguised ‘pirate’ raids, illegal settlement, and harassment accompanied by veiled threats/offers of ‘protection’ from the Denevan government towards the Anduvians. However, the Anduvians have proven tough, and have put up a stiff resistance, adapting their technology to produce weaponry to resist the encroachment. It became quickly apparent, though, that the Serissian-Anduvians could not be everywhere at once, and the Denevans have employed some fairly advanced and vicious proxies(mercenaries) to raid Anduv. Swallowing some pride, the Anduvians began seeking allies to counter the Denevan edge in numbers and technology.
Already in a state of cold war with the Comdomate over their attempted seizure of Tmelain worlds, the United Systems Alliance has extended its help to the Anduvians. This aid started with the acquisition of more modern aerospace fighters and orbital defense sats, but has also included the establishment of a small USA naval base in the star system.
It is hoped that the presence of USA warships in the Dykstar system will be sufficient to deter further Denevan aggression, but the Anduvians are prepared to fight, bolstered by the infusions of new technology and weaponry.
Though not confident enough in their planetary security to contribute to the USA militarily, the Anduvians do produce several of their domestic military vehicles(mainly hovercraft) and weapons(especially autocannon and mortars) for export to other Alliance members. A number have also reportedly appeared in the hands of rebel worlds and FWC affiliates in the TGE. Anduv engineering has a reputation for being reliable, especially in humid and swampy conditions, with virtually corrosion-free components and clog-free directed-thrust hover systems.

Solar System(Sykstar)
Number of Stars: 1
Types of Stars: Blue Dwarf
Number of Planets: 3
-Terrestrial(Anduv)---System lifeworld

-Dwarf Planet(Midros)---Midros was discovered to have a pirate base on it. The USA’s first order of business was to smash the base and build their own facility on Midros. Midros, however, is mineral-poor, so materials and consumables must be supplied from either Anduv or imported from outsystem
.
-Dwarf Planet(Ekops)---Small, distant, and ice-locked, Ekops barely qualifies as a dwarf planet. It’s suffciiently distant from the other bodies in the Sykstar system to be of any influence. Its very isolation, however, makes it ideal for establishing a communications and sensor array station. Hpwever, even the threat of piracy does little to break the motony of a tour of duty on Ekops, and manning the station is one of the least-desired jobs in the AJC units assigned to guarding the Sykstar system. Several tech-trained Serissian monks, though, have volunteered to serve extra-long hitches monitoring the station, finding its very seclusion and lack of excitement just what their religious contemplations need.

Sykstar also has several large asteroid belts. There is evidence that several large terrestrial worlds formed, then collided and shattered each other, forming the belts.
Midros Base has deployed a number of automated scout probes to survey the asteroids for resources.

Planet(Anduv)
Type:Terrestrial
Diameter: 14,000 km
Gravity: 1.9 g
Temperature:
Hot and Humid; just on the edge of being uncomfortable for baseline humans.
Unusual/Special Features:
-Moons(8)----Several of these moons now play host to military bases, part of Anduv’s growing orbital defense network.
Atmosphere: Dense, terrestrial nitrox mix. The atmosphere tends towards humid and foggy.
Terrain:
Anduv is covered with archipelagoes, volcanic islands, and vast marshlands.
Notable Mineral Concentrations:
- Sapphire
- Chromium
- Molybdenite
- Aluminum
- Titanium
- Thorium
- Quartz
- Emerald
Hydrosphere:
Moist; 70% of Anduv’s surface is covered in open water
Biosphere:
Dense and Diverse; Anduv has a rich local ecology with many exploitable species.
Civilization: Settled
Population:
32 million(Seljuk)
Technology:
Information Age, with the ability to produce megadamage materials and weaponry(mainly explosives).
Economy:
Agricultural, supplemented by some industry.
Wealth:
Prosperous, as long as the Comdomate stays away. USA-escorted shipping has allowed the Anduvians to ship their produce across the adjacent sectors, and there’s a growing offworld demand for many uniquely Anduvian foodstuffs, such as swampig, marsh-figs and fering root extract.
Government:
Gendocracy----The Serissians have long believed that only females should hold high government office, and Anduv gave them an opportunity to set this belief as law. Anduv’s highest echelons of civil government are Councils of Matriarchs. This isn’t to say that males cannot hold important positions(indeed, the military command is notably heavy with males), but Anduvians look to their women for leadership.
Law Level:
Overbearing---- The Serissians practice both secular and theological policing, with neighborhood clergy-proctors monitoring the activity and morale of the population. This can become a bit overbearing to outsiders, especially when the more zealous proctors butt into private(but in public) conversations to object so some borderline taboo or questionable issue.
Popularity:
Fanatical----The Serissians are devoted to their way of life
Stability:
Solid---For the foreseeable future, Anduv seems set in its current ways. The depredations of offworlders is seen as simply another test of the Serissians’ resolve.

[taalismn]

(expanding on some events presented into the PS/ASI/United Systems Alliance worlds-line by Omegasgundam)

Ripples In the Galaxies: The Zyganian Front

“We saw the Golgan invasion of Altess space coming, but I’m ashamed to admit we had very little warning on the Zyganian targets. Sure, trouble’s been brewing there for decades and the Zygs have had plenty of time and reason to fear Golgan retaliation, but the sucker punches at Telomar and the mines of Vestegas came as a shock to everybody. Those strikes showed both long planning and sudden decisiveness on the part of somebody smart in the Argosy’s strategic planning offices.”
---Valger Roberts, Alliance Joint Command Strategic Intelligence

The debacle of the Golgan invasion of Altess space may have destroyed a fleet, but it didn’t destroy the Republik, though there were many who feared that would be the case. Bloodied by the defeat, the Golgan Argosy retreated to regroup. Though confident that the CCW and USA forces deployed in Altess space were not about to counterattack into Golgan territory, but fearing that the Altess might use their economic leverage to incite trouble along its borders, the Argosy looked to send a message that the Republik was by no means weak. Though the ransom of Altess Prime was to be the first and critical step in his greater strategy, Gaus Binjo is desperately flexible, and has accelerated subsequent parts of his plans to buy time.
Using already assembled reserves and supplies that were to play follow-up and reinforce the Altess space invasion, and using long-laid and -gamed plans for just such an eventuality, the Argosy switched targets and executed a near-brilliant deep strike against the Zyganian Empire, bypassing the Zyganians’ frontier forces and hitting at industrial targets at Telomar and Vestegas. The Golgan strikes destroyed most of the Zyganian Navy’s graving and refit yards and scattered almost all of Vestegas’ orbital warehouses and stockpiled mineral production into space. Lesser strikes also destroyed a number of Zyganian civilian and military communications relays, disrupting communications across the realm. Though not as extensive in scope as the Altess strikes, the Golgan attacks have still dealt a considerable blow to the Zyganians’ indigenous arms industry, greatly hindering their rearmament programs. Furthermore, it’s thrown the Zyganian interstellar economy into chaos, cast doubt on the Zyganian Royal regime’s ability to defend the Empire, and encouraged a renewal of unrest on Zoestes V.
While this move may seem set to backfire on the Republik by angering an already aggressive antagonistic power on their borders, it actually seems to have worked in getting the Zyganians to back off. Faced with having to secure their worlds against future sneak attacks and dealing with the ever-volatile situation on Zoestes, the ZE is faced with a tough decision; rebuild their devastated local arms and aerospace industry, or buy foreign-made to quickly rebuild their strength? With much internal argument, the Zyganians are trying to do both, and fumbling around as a result. In the meantime, despite howls of rage from the Zyganian populace for retribution, the Zyganian military is ill -prepared to launch any sort of offensive into Golgan space. At present all they’ve been able to do is up the shooting on the contested worlds they already invest.
Much as the Zyganian General Staff may fear a new Golgan invasion and re-conquest fleet, the fact of the matter is the Argosy isn’t prepared to launch a major operation against the Zyganians any time soon, not without overextending itself. The Argosy has withdrawn its Sylnor battle groups back into Golgan territory to regroup, rearm, and await the latest word from the Antitelephone. Binjo and the Assemblage are holding their currently deployed frontier forces against the need to perform any more hobbling attacks on would-be troublemakers, or who they perceive as potential trouble. Who that might be has many border states and former Golgan satrapies suddenly worried for their own safety, and watching their own space in trepidation.

*Chukta Star Empire
Interestingly enough, though a resurgence of Chukta aggression would be yet another potential headache for the Zyganians, the Golgans have NOT tried to stir up this particular pot. In fact, a Golgan Sylnor battle group actually blew through the Zyganian blockade surrounding the Chukta worlds and bombarded select targets known to Zyganian intelligence as industrial sites. This raid further crippled Chukta efforts to get back into space and rebuild their empire, which, ironically, was facilitated in the first place by the discovery ad reverse-engineering of a mothballed Golgan fleet depot. It is unclear if the attack was specifically ordered by the Golgan Assemblage or whether it was an Argosy commander acting on his or her own initiative.

[taalismn]

Reasons for Joining the United Systems Alliance(Background Generator)

The Ghawdeen militia sergeant looked down the line of her assembled squad, then squinted again at the ship in the blindingly bright red and gold gracing the end of the landing apron. If she knew her ships at all, that looked like an ancient Suraflite long range shuttle groaning under the weight of that paint job and an elaborate assemblage of utterly superfluous fins and wings that must have added a third more to the small ship’s mass. As she and the honor guard watched and waited, the ship’s cargo bay doors groaned open and a gilded stage platform squealingly extended out on tracks on the lowered ramp. A fanfare of brass music blew...played, the soldiers could see, by LIVE musicians along the back of the stage, as two figures in nearly as much cloth-of-gold and ornamentation as adorned their ship, stepped forward. The taller of the two stepped up, unrolled a large scroll, and began to intone in a loud voice that carried the undertones of electronic amplification:
“WE, THE SOVEREIGN PEOPLE OF THE GRAND VORARCHY OF PANMANDU, DO GREET OUR STAR-KIN OF THE UNITED SYSTEMS ALLIANCE, AND HONOR THEM WITH THIS, OUR EMISSARY PARTY, TO BESTOW UPON THEM OUR FAVOR WITH OUR APPLICATION TO JOIN THEIR MOST AUGUST COMPANY AND LEND THEM OUR GREAT STRENGTH IN INTERSTELLAR HARMONY!”
Each sentence of that proclamation was punctuated by the shorter, but broader, figure standing next the crier and very solemnly shaking a very elaborate rattle staff that must have weighed as much as a crew-served rail gun.
For her part, the sergeant kept her eyes forward, and her ears alert for anybody in the ranks snickering at the display. All they had to do was behave dignified, while being quietly alert for anything suspicious. Just keep up the ‘honor guard’ front until the politicos could take over, take this bunch off her hands, and then she and her men could gratefully fade back to guard positions behind the spaceport buildings and the heavy fighting vehicles stationed there under cover. Just like the other times ‘diplomatic envoys’ had arrived to announce themselves on the doorstep of this outpost of the Alliance. Like the two last week, and the one last month..
But damned if it didn’t seem to her that they were getting -weirder-.

“Raiders of a half-dozen species we don’t have any info on picking around our outer systems, , Consortium too far away to bother sending anybody this far out on the rim to care, not enough know-how and resources to fund both infrastructure development AND a standing military of ay worth, any merc companies asking too much money to stay and guard us, and along comes the Usans with both bootstrap programs AND a defense plan? Of COURSE we’re going to give it a go! Not like we had much to lose! ”

Why would anybody join the upstart United Systems Alliance with so many other factions(some much more powerful) around? Here’s a random roll table to USA world generation; why they’re a part of it, or want to become a part of it.

01-10% Economic---Wanted to tap into a new or local trade network. Planet may, for whatever reason(location, economic rivals, embargo), have been shut out of regular avenues of trade. Eugenia , a wealthy world on its own, joined the nascent USA because of the investment possibilities it offered, and the promise of security the AJC promised to the shipping lanes on which Eugenia based much of its wealth.

11-20 % Military: Protection---The planet has some looming threat that scares it, and they figure they can’t handle it alone. Having allies sounds like a good idea. Anduv is a good example of this, asking for assistance with resource-raiders.

21-30% Rescued World---The planet was saved from some threat or catastrophe by the timely intervention of the United Systems Alliance. In gratitude for the USA’s relative selflessness, the planet’s natives have decided to support it by becoming members. Genahser is a good example of a Rescued Protectorate, having been liberated from the Splugorth. New Vita, rescued from rogue war machines and cowardly corporations, is another.

31-40% Refugees---Same as above, only it was too late to save the planet. However, at no small expense to themselves, the USA has saved and resettled most, of not all, of the survivors. The new planet/homeworld is likely to considered a protectorate until the refugees can establish and support themselves. Styx is a good example of this.

41-50% First Friends----The USA was the first stellar polity to greet a new planet into the galactic community. Unfamiliar with the other factions in the megaverse, or else having heard things about them from other sources, the new world has decided to join the USA, if only until they have a better handle on the galactic-political situation. New Columbia is a good example of this, being d-stranded and having no prior experience with aliens or galactic technologies.

51-65% Better Perks---The planet decided to join the USA because it offered better perks(access to new markets or technology, looser banking laws, cheaper prices on raw materials, etc.). The planet hasn’t necessarily completely cut all its ties to its previous affiliations, but is maintaining a dual(or multiple) membership in several galactic organizations. This may allow the planet to act as a gateway port between the polities involved, or the planet’s authorities may be simply holding out for a better deal. Mazah’s a low end example of this, with their nakedly-obvious ‘shopping around’ for better deals, while the independently wealthy Kai-Shem like the better deals on advanced materials and technologies made available to their shipbuilding industry.

66-75% New Colony----The planet is a new colony jointly developed by existing members of the USA, and is by default part of the USA. The planet is likely to be considered a territory or a protectorate until it can stand on its own economically. Kaxxion is a good example of this.

76-87% Desperation---The planet has some dire internal problem, such as a damaged ecology, failing economy, deteriorating infrastructure, global health crisis, or collapse of law and order, that they just don’t see themselves as being able to extract themselves from without assistance. They’ve turned to the USA for a bailout, a bootstrap, and help finding their balance again. Tenlen is an extreme example of this, bordering on Rescued/Refugee world status. Bazora is an upper end example, being on their way out of a supernova-created ecological collapse.

88-90% Protective Custody---In a few rare cases the USA is the invader; worlds that support pirate havens, or particularly odious regimes that can’t be toppled by more low-intensity means. The Alliance military has neutralized the local military capabilities, garrisoned the planet, taken control of infrastructure, and is reeducating the locals into being properly law-abiding and sophont-rights-respecting. Without exemption, these worlds are considered to be protectorates until their situation has been stabilized, and the USA feels confident the natives can manage their own affairs without backslidding into the sort of situation that landed them in hot water with the USA in the first place. Ferendao is an outpost/protectorate example of this, with the remains of the planet's only extent democracy devastated by bioweapons deployed by the other nation-states, and the USA punishing the offenders for it, while Tavaza is a more sedate example, with the warring amazon clans being forced to peace talks by Alliance peacekeepers.

91-95% Donated---The planet was previously part of a private estate(rare, but possible) or a corporate territory, or perhaps claimed territory by another interplanetary or interstellar polity. For whatever reason(debt repayment, treaty terms, charitable gesture, act of keep-away from others) the deed-holders decided the USA could use the planet much better and signed it over. May or may not already be inhabited/colonized.

96-00% For the Fun of It---The planet has no major threats or crisis endangering its well-being, but the inhabitants heard about the United Systems Alliance, thought it sounded interesting, and applied for membership. The planet might be a warrior society/species, and thinks the wars the USA gets involved in are a good opportunity for adventure and glory. Or maybe the natives respect the humanitarian efforts of the USA, and want to contribute. Or maybe the planet’s ruling theocracy thinks the gentiles from outer space could use some friendly religious guidance on hand. Bijeme, homeworld of the hedonistic Bhozyari, is a good example of this.

[Omegasgundam]

Before I dump my latest analysis, here's an update on the characters writing it.

CAF/GSI ‘USA Department’ Update
The USA’s explosive rise in prominence during the Minion War led to the USA Room being grown into a full Department, with a great deal of attention being paid to it. As a side effect, it has also become the effective authority over the entire Frontier Overwatch Division, and has resulted in a substantial increase in actual intelligence being found and developed. The Frontier in general is seeing a massive increase in attention, with the ongoing clean up of the Alphabet Soup leading to more getting done rather than being smothered. The GSA has patched itself together far more quickly than anyone expected, which has no end of implications going forward.

Jeneene Selcris has managed to navigate the political storm in excellent shape, and has maintained complete control over her staffing and allocations, giving her a historically rare degree of independence in the convoluted sprawl that is the GSA. The department as a whole has become loosely affiliated with the rising ‘Shaw’ wing of CCW politics, resulting in a large number of staff that are both progressive and aggressive entering its ranks. The involvement of the Altess in both the CCW’s reform effort and the USA’s current wave of development means that the department is even further isolated from political pressures, leading many of Selcris’s peers to be envious of her position.

Department Head: Jennene Selcris, GSA Main Office, Human
When the dust settled, Selcris was found to be one of the more senior members of the GSA left, with the main administrative offices being one of the casualties of the attack on Terra Prime. Personal demands resulted in her being unofficially responsible for the entire Frontier Overwatch Division, which she executed admirably. It is widely rumored that no small number of her departed peer’s deadman’s caches found their way into her possession, meaning that she has a truly envious amount of blackmail at her disposal. The post-war reorganizations leave the GSA’s command structure deliberately opaque, but Selcris has a voting seat at the Directors Table, which puts her in the top 10 most influential people in the organization. Politically, she is seen as a moderate that slightly leans towards the rising progressive factions, which makes her approachable for the conservative ‘Old Guard’.

Personal Equipment Analysis: General Vlar Reltish, CAF Ground Forces, Catyr.
Reltish has gained trans-galactic fame and infamy as the man that brought down Galactic Armory. With that sort of heat, combined with having his best years behind him, Reltish was promoted out of field ranks to head up CAF Special Forces in Thundercloud. While technically not part of the USA Department, jurisdiction overlap and his connections with the AJC mean that he is still part of the overall leadership. Sanitized versions of most of his reports have been leaked to various news sources over the past few years, leading to him being a widely respected authority on modern personal combat equipment development.

Planetary Vehicle Analysis: Colonel Philip Fredette, CAF Ground Forces, Human.
The reform of the CAF’s Ground Forces has led to Fredette rising to prominence, being one of the first voices attached to the movement. During Gut Cutter, he was a roaming troubleshooter for the General Staff, and rubbed shoulders with a lot of the future movers and shakers. This has led to him having notable influence on the direction of CAF vehicle development, and his experiences with the USA allow him to identify what sorts of mentality look for. As the USA remains involved in several sprawling ground campaigns, he is still formally assigned to look over them.

Naval Analysis: Captain Jacky Kelson, CAF Fleet Officer, Human
An understudy of now Captain-General Vicen Trancluw, who was assigned to the CAS Champion as the first captain of the CAF’s first modern Heavy Cruiser, Kelson shares many of the same opinions. During the Minion War he commanded a Warshield as part of Battlegroup Restoration, and took part in Shaw’s defense of the Altess. The connections he forged in the aftermath with the AJC make him one of the leading CAF authorities on their naval forces, and he is also the man most familiar with the UWW’s reconstituting fleet, which leads to him having a far greater say in the Anvil Galactic Task Force than his rank would suggest.

Bioscience Analysis: Senior Analysis Awidat, CAF Field Scientist, Noro
The USA’s dramatic use of biomods has made Awidat an even more highly valued voice, which he has used to gain access and expand his knowledge base. Awidat has become quite familiar with the Paragon Progress’s methods and organization, and has personal contacts with most of the leadership in the Three Galaxies. While he has not yet made a trip to Rifts Earth yet, a diplomatic mission is in the works, and he hopes to begin a dialog with the Cambridge Jungle Tribes.

[taalismn]

How did the United Systems Alliance Joint Command know of the direness of the Altess situation?

“As long as we aren’t carrying thermostellar nuclear planet-crackers, most customs patrols don’t give us more than a cursory look-over. Passive surveillance and signals gathering isn’t exactly hard to do, and there are plenty of ways to disguise the hardware, even from internal inspections. In fact, sometimes the patrols help us out; they fly in close to look us over and we return the favor. We can gather loads of data from their comm chatter and engine emissions. We got some BEAUTIFUL firsthand intel on some new Black Eagle variants when a squadron gave our ‘tramp freighter’ a casual buzz-by.”

The USA maintains a surprisingly sophisticated intelligence network for a rim nation. The covert operation arm of this evolved from PS/ASI’s corporate security/espionage desks, which lent experience in quiet-ops to Greater New England’s Office of Positive Outcomes which worked hand in hand with the intelligence-gathering apparatus of the Outstep program. Early on, eager to gather as much intelligence as possible on the Three Galaxies, GNE used captured vessels operating out of the Rum Bay facility to scout merchant ports. Later on, as they built up their trade network and acquired more commercial ships they could infiltrate far and wide on information-collecting missions, the OPO could cover more territory.
While the Ranger-class ‘task’ cruisers are the best-known (in-house) of the GNE spyships and the type preferred for troubleshooting missions, the more numerous and effective information-collecting vessels are modified commercial hulls, especially WZT-built ones for their sheer variety and ubiquity. Once PS/ASI began building and selling their own commercial hulls on the open market, this became an even better arrangement, especially after it was noted that PS/ASI ships’ engines were built to milspec performance levels; vessels modified to be able to RUN would appear less conspicuous by their highly tuned drive signatures. Bulk freighters like the Immense are particularly useful, as multiple sensor pods can be disguised amidst legitimate cargo...and conveniently lost in ‘accidents’ in the event suspicion fell on the vessels(”Gosh, what a waste! Those mislabeled canisters of diatomic solvent leaking into the adjacent cargo module! Luckily nobody was hurt, but that entire section’s a loss!”) . The spy program also benefitted from PS/ASI’s biotech programs; at least one MISTY EYE Quantum Communication Bio-Mod node-recipient, linked back to the generator ‘switchboard’ operative at a GNE intel center, would be stationed on a spyship, providing them with instantaneous, unjammable, and virtually undetectable communications. The ‘Space Yankee Traders’ are using their growing trade network to keep tabs on friends, enemies, competitors and neutrals alike, and though their network is far from comprehensive, the GNE/USA has managed to get ships into a number of areas of interest, with the exception of the TransGalactic Empire(though there several border worlds have been staked out).
The carat in the spy program was the discovery of the Altess situation, a combination of dutifully logged and carefully screened psychic premonitions and onsite intelligence gathering was used. For months, at least one GNE/USA vessel disguised as a tramp freighter was lurking around Altess space on station, passively looking for anything of interest. As soon as the Golgan invasion fleet was detected crossing into Altess space, the AJC was aware of it and plans began to be drawn up and fleshed out from contingency planning drawn up on the strength of ‘just in case’ scenarios and psychic hints. A scratch taskforce was assembled from what was readily at hand and from what expeditionary reserve forces were closest and could be mobilized the fastest. As the Golgan fleet was rolling up the satellite worlds of the Altess, and bashing the CAF relief force, the AJC taskforce was threading its way through Alliance space, picking up elements, and making the leap to Altess space through several neutral systems and (after scaring several local defense flotillas) bluffing their way through several spurs of CCW territory.
The AJC hasn’t revealed to anybody just how they managed to come to Captain-General Shaw’s aide with such timing, but while CAF Intelligence suspects the Alliance has been listening in on comm channels and that some of their mercantile ships and military ‘courtesy caller’ tours have been intelligence-gathering, they remain unaware of how extensive the ‘fringe union’s’ operations really are.

Of course, the CCW has its own covert spyships and the occasional ‘courtesy call’ warship cruising through the United Systems Alliance’s open territories, but the AJC knows and accepts that as part of the cost of co-existing with the Consortium. TGE, Golgan, and Naruni spy efforts on the other hand are more worrisome, and a good amount of the USA’s emerging joint defense intelligence organization is preoccupied with watching out for surveillance and espionage threats(part of the reason Network Omni News’ interest in the USA, though, or because, it is so blatant, is that the nosey Splugorth’s newshounds might air sensitive infomation) .

The network has its limitations, of course, and the USA’s intelligence network can’t cover all its allies, trade partners, and potential trouble spots. Despite being in the area and anticipating trouble, the Altess-sector scriers didn’t anticipate the quick re-targeting by the Golgans of their reserves to hit the Zyganian Empire and several other threatening border states.

[Omegasgundam]

The network has its limitations, of course, and the USA’s intelligence network can’t cover all its allies, trade partners, and potential trouble spots. Despite being in the area and anticipating trouble, the Altess-sector scriers didn’t anticipate the quick re-targeting by the Golgans of their reserves to hit the Zyganian Empire and several other threatening border states.

You win some, you lose some. Altess was a situation where winning resulted in historical gains, and Zyganian is hopefully going to have limited blow back.

Also, consider this my poke to do some work on the Derecho and Irpull, or at least send me what you have on them so I can write some fluff around them. And while we're on poking, the Micro-Missile Launcher Rifles (McMLR-13 to -16) have been absent forever, and the PSAGL-40B grenade launcher and the KTH-65 32mm Assault Rail Gun both lack man/cyborg-portable entries. Wellington can serve as a substitute for for the launcher if need be, but if Raven posted the gun it's vanished into the ether.

[taalismn]

Also, consider this my poke to do some work on the Derecho and Irpull, or at least send me what you have on them so I can write some fluff around them. And while we're on poking, the Micro-Missile Launcher Rifles (McMLR-13 to -16) have been absent forever, and the PSAGL-40B grenade launcher and the KTH-65 32mm Assault Rail Gun both lack man/cyborg-portable entries. Wellington can serve as a substitute for for the launcher if need be, but if Raven posted the gun it's vanished into the ether.

The Irpull and the Derecho are undergoing some serious revision to deal with some contradictions and desires not to re-invent the wheel and fit them better into the emerging scheme of things. especially with the recently revised versions of older designs. Plus the Pikeman PA is getting some love, from some strange places.

As for the rest? Yah, I'll get them to you soonest(or at least by tomorrow).

[taalismn]

Styvantsan(Anvil Galaxy)
“Styvantsan is clean, well-ordered, disciplined, and well-mannered, despite being just short of being poor as dirt. Styvantsians abide by the law, the LOCAL law, but they don’t abide by any outside lawmen sticking their noses in local matters. If you walk Styvantsan’s streets and you see something criminal going down, it’s because under the local laws it’s ALLOWED to happen. Anybody protesting things like that are just as likely to wind up with the criminals who did things illegal under the local ordinances and found themselves in the corpse cages on the edge of town. Unless you’ve survived ten or more Styvantsan winters, they really don’t appreciate outworlders telling them about what’s right or wrong. ”

“Wolf-mols are twenty feet of hungry blood-sniffing wyrm that can burrow through three meters of solid ice in less than three seconds, bite through plasleath, and tear a man apart before the damn sod knows the predator’s there. Having seen no less than three attacks in the two days I was out on the ice of Styvantsan, and learning about the packs wandering around(and UNDER) the outlier settlement domes, I can well understand the grimdark attitude of most of the settlers. Compared to the local wildlife, having a few crazy genemods is easy living.”

“Styvers are crazy. Tough, fast, and cunning, but bug-ass crazy. Not reliable in the long run, but if you got specific targets you can point them at and let them go, and you don’t have to worry about extra damage, they’re great value. Just keep feeding them missions you don’t wanna waste a WMD on and you don’t mind losing them on, and you might come ahead on the deal.”
---Garvus Liemot, Personnel Recruiter, Guyndyth Security Associates

Styvantsan is a Human-colonized world in the Anvil Galaxy. Like the Manifestans of Rullof’s World, the colonists who settled Styvantsan were willing to undergo minor genetic modifications to adapt to conditions on their new home. However, when conditions became progressively worse, the colonists had to make the hard decision how far they were willing to go to adapt. Though the original gene-mods had been relatively minor, what they were contemplating required potentially more radical changes. The Styvantsans retained the services of Gylan Genetics( GylanGen), to oversee any genetic modifications.
To this end, GylanGen spliced DNA from a number of species, including Wolfen, into the egg cells of colonial host mothers. The results, when the children were born, were very promising; the children were possessed of robust health, enhanced reflexes and senses, greater inner energy, and physical attractiveness, all of which would breed true in subsequent generations.
What GylanGen either didn’t know or didn’t tell was that the children born of the splice operations also had a marked tendency towards violence and a predilection for insanity. As the children matured, many showed sociopathic behavior. While a fair number of them found fulfillment in challenging Styvantsan’s harsh environment, many more chaffed against the restrictions of colonial life and the settlements’ authorities. In the worst cases, the children born of the GylanGen experiments began lashing out against other colonists with aggression culminating in violent murder. Others simply abandoned their homelands and jumped ship to seek adventure offworld. An increasing number showed signs of mental instability, such as increased aggression, irritability, wild mood swings, paranoia, and suicidal depression.
In the end, over 60% of the gene-spliced Styvan children and their descendents left Styvantsan, most joining criminal organizations or the military.
Ironically, GylanGen’s experiments HAVE insured the future of the Styvantsan colony; of the Styvan who remained, several formed their own faction and led it in a coup to take over leadership of the colony, and seize GylanGenetics’ on-planet assets. The highly-intelligent and very driven new leadership has managed to keep the colony afloat and independent, although its economy continues to be in the doldrums, and some of the measures taken to maintain law and order and continued survival have been rather harsh.
Today, Styvantsan is well-known as a pirate and mercenary reruiting ground. Interestingly enough, both Naruni Enterprises and Hartigal Combine have branch offices selling weapons both to the locals and the visiting paramilitaries. The Styvan government accords both organizations equal respect and leeway in conducting their business as long as it doesn’t threaten the settlements. Betting amongst the offworlders is rife about when one or the other of the arms dealers will try to off the other, or try to arrange things to frame the other for crimes against the colony.
The CCW occasionally sends CAF patrols through the area, just to prove that they still have a presence in the sector, but short of committing a full battle group to seize the planet and sweep the system, there’s little they can actually do, and the locals have gotten very good at concealing obvious criminal activity from the fly-bys. During the Minion War, even the regular fly-throughs ceased, and that’s led to a rather more bold pirate presence in the sector, at least until the United Systems Alliance started its own convoy escorts through the region.

Solar System (Sorvel)
Number of Stars: 2
Types of Stars:
-Sorvel A--Orange Dwarf
-Sorvel B--Orange Dwarf
Number of Planets: 7
-Gas Giant(Mayveps)---Small gas giant. Its streamers of gas being blown off by the solar wind from nearby Sorvel A provide a convenient sensor screen for ships to hide from the occasional patrol in the area.

-Gas Giant(Arlev)---Small gas giant, also being eroded by Sorvel A’s solar wind.

-Gas Giant(Chaor)---Small gas giant, also being eroded by Sorvel A’s solar wind. Together with Mayveps and Arlev, the three outgassing and orbitally-locked gas giants describe a unique formation that puts out enough scrambled sensor readings as to make long-range scans of the region between them inaccurate. Though not as dense as a planetary nebula, the ‘Miszone’ is a popular lurking place for ships not wanting to be immediately identified. There are rumors that the Miszone may conceal plasma tubes linking the three gas giants.

-Terrestrial---- Styvantsan, system lifeworld

-Dwarf Planet(Gedric’s Haven)---Formerly known as Asphonese, this minor planet has since become the homebase of Lavis Gedric, a feared Styvan ex-pirate who decided not to stray far from home, but far enough that he can maintain a business away from the acquisitive leadership on Styvantsan. Gedric now makes a comfortable living trading in fuel and repairs, and fencing loot brought to him. Three times in the past six years he’s had to fend off attacks that he’s sure originated in Styvantsan boardrooms, though there’s no hard evidence that the homeworld authorities have tried to eliminate the competition for illicit trade. Still, Gredric surrounds himself with the well-armed protection of his pirate crew, the Serpent-Hawks.

-Asteroid(Carash)---This minor planetoid has little to interest the casual visitor, though it’s rumored that infamous ex-TVIA rogue Agar Laif once boasted that he hid a stash of antimatter munitions along with the body of his murdered ex-partner, a Star Marshal, somewhere in a crater on Carash. Unfortunately for those seeking to verify this story, Laif was assassinated in a Paradise Foundation bar soon afterwards, and what searches that have been conducted of Carash have turned up nothing.

-Gas Giant(Sorval B3)---This distant gas giant hasn’t even gotten a full name, as it’s too distant to merit much attention. However, it’s rumored to be a dumping gtound for the remains of ships captured by pirates in the sector, who strip the vessels of anything of value, then drop the hulls(and, it’s rumored, any inconvenient or useless crew) into the gas giant’s atmosphere.

Planet(Styvantsan)
Despite having two suns in its sky, Styvantsan is a cold and hostile world.
Type: Terrestrial
Diameter: 14,000 km
Gravity: 1.8 terrestrial gee
Temperature: Cool, bordering on Mars-like.
Unusual/Special Features:
-Unusual Orbit--- Styvantsan describes an odd barbell-shaped orbit around its two suns, leading to two summers(First and Second Thaw) and two winters(First and Second Chill) in the course of a year.
Atmosphere:
Tainted----Breathable, but with filtration. One of the ongoing efforts of the original Styvantsan colonists is to modify their atmosphere into a more suitable and comfortable configuration(and ideally one that would kill off, or at least curtail, the larger native predators), but that plan has fallen into delays as the gene-mods for toxin-resistance spread through the population and the more toxin-tolerant Styvan grow in number.
Terrain: Three terrain-types dominate; craggy highlands, tundra, and desert.
Notable Mineral Concentrations:
- Chromium
- Magnesium
- Gold/Silver
- Manganese
- Emerald
- Nickel
- Barite
- Borax
Hydrosphere:
Badlands; most of Styvantsan’s available water is locked in the form of permafrost. Liquid water can be had at a few oasises and hot springs.
Biosphere:
Dense, and Hostile. Plant life tends to towards low-shrub or dense wiry tree-like growths. Many animal species on Styvantsan tend towards long periods of slow metabolisms to see them through lean times, then explode into high-mode when food is readily available. Most of the larger lifeforms are vermiform predators or indiscriminate omnivores, many of which like to tunnel to reach water, excavate smaller prey, or ambush larger prey. Exterminating the larger and more aggressive of the local lifeforms is a goal of the government.
Civilization:
Settled
Population:
12 million (humans, with roughly 43% being of Styvan descent)
Technology:
Galactic----At least the original founding organization didn’t stiff the colonists on technological support, and the new government has made sure they they get value for their money and trade of services.
Economy:
Commercial---- Styvantsan makes most of its revenue off providing a place to transfer cargoes, especially illicit ones, and providing mercenaries.
Wealth:
Poor, but arguably up from when the colony was at near-collapse.
Government:
Technocracy---Those who know how to keep things running are in charge, and the planet has bred a militant technocracy.
Law Level:
Moderate with Draconian Elements----The government allows a lot of wild behavior, but anything that threatens the well-being of the colony brings down the ax. Gambling, drinking, dealing in contraband, stolen goods, and even slaves are all tolerated, but assault a life support technician or food factory worker, and the local law will beat you within an inch of your life. Rape or murder a local worker and your death will be slow and painful. Steal from a local worker and you could possibly get away with it, but if they track you down and demand their stuff back, you better cough it up, or they can kill you without consequence. Steal public/government property and you’ll hang with the rapists and murderers.
As long as you’re of value in keeping the settlements warm, safe, and fed, the law accords you favored status. That has been known to extend to offworlders who serve the local government in arranging tech exchanges and imported supplies. Currently the representatives from Naruni Enterprises and Hartigal Combine both enjoy such legal immunity up to ‘license to kill’ level for supplying the local and visiting ‘tradesmen’ with weaponry.
Popularity:
Popular. Not everybody’s happy with the Styvans running things with an iron fist, but at least they’re locally-born mini-tyrants. The rest of the population has gotten used to some of the neighbors being inarguably insane at times, especially since the Styvans are just as hard with their fellow gene-mods as with the non-styvs.
Stability:
Long-Standing---Unless something really drastic happens, like massacres or invasion, the current regime is likely to stay in power for the foreseeable future.


Styvans(Human Sept)
“Nacyssa Nocture Blackmane, one of the crazier ‘zon pirates. Real maniac; led her raiders right into the teeth of the security flotillas at Paldrus to hijack the antimatter shipments . Lost an eye fighting a Brodkil enforcer for Blacksky hand to hand. Ran the head of the LaVesis right through the guts when he wouldn’t pay her full due for ‘jacking the TransReli Porter. Cold as ice; real cold, sharp as her sword and dark-willed as her long hair. Terror of the spacelanes up and down the Faydor Gulf. Then she fixated on one of the cops chasing her and goes utterly haywire. Couldn’t reconcile her criminal actions with any sort of future with the guy, figuring he could never love somebody like her, so she abandons her band, turns herself in to a state-run suicide-clinic on Chargo to be cut up into spare parts, figuring at least she’ll go out helping people. One of the euth-tecs on duty recognizes her from offworld media he likes to watch, and instead aborts the auto-abattoir disassembly-program just as she’s locked down on the table, coldboxes her, and sends her to the nearest MDF base COD to collect on the reward. So we check off another pirate, Officer Lenziler gets another fangirl in the cooler, the psych-techs get another of GylanGen’s mistakes to study, and the attorneys get to argue Styvan genes being a mitigating factor in determining criminal guilt. Easy capture on this one, complicated paperwork afterwards.”

-Styvan is the name given to the genetically-modified humans born of Gylan Genetics’ experiments.
Styvan are characterized by their robust health and good(one called them ‘roguish’) looks(though it is unknown if this was incidental to the other modifications or deliberately done by GylanGen to help sell their work) and light yellow or pale blue eyes.
Attitude-wise, Styvans are for the most part intelligent, perceptive, aggressive, and driven. On the minus side, that aggression can become paranoia, recklessness, egomania, and short-temperedness. Styvans tend to become creatures of their lusts and appetites, be it hunger for material trappings, power, attention or prestige. Many begin to see the ends as justifying the means and think little of the consequences or costs to anybody else. Amorality and sociopathy mark the extremes of Styvan behavior.

Bonuses: +1d4 on Initiative, +1d4 I.Q., +1d6 P.B., +1d6 P.S., +2d4 P.E., +1d6 P.P., +3d6 Spd ,+2d4x10 SDC, +3d6 Hit Points, acute senses of smell and hearing, and +7 save versus poisons and disease. Take NO damage from regular SDC cold.

Penalties:
60% of Styvan suffer some form of insanity; roll every 4 levels of experince:
01-20% Affective Disorder: BiPolar
21-25% Born Again
26-45% Random Obsession
46-65% Random Psychosis
66-90% Random Neurosis
91-00% Homicidal Rage

Sidenote: Rogues’ Gallery: Agar Laif
Agar Laif was a Noro TVIA agent who had a spectacular rank-rising career as a diplomat and lawman(including several harrowing missions in which he lost his partner or team), and who seemed destined for either important political office or at least a TVIA Cluster-Directorship. Instead, an audit of some of his past cases showed a suspicious pattern of inconsistancies that led to an official inquiry. Rather than report back to Noro-Gor upon completing his most recent field mission, Laif disappeared, but not without, it was later learned, taking full core downloads of several clusters’ worth of TVIA operations files. Besides publicly compromising every TVIA investigation over several sectors, Laif used his inside knowledge of the organization’s procedures to stage several heists of data and impounded contraband, and jeopardize the lives of hundreds of undercover agents.
Agar Laif became one of the most sought-after criminals in the CCW and caused a sensational scandal when news of his running rogue broke. Though the TVIA attempted to sit on the news, or at least spin it to make it look as if the rogue agent was really involved in a sting operation(there was speculation that the Noro officer might be under something else’s influence), the affair gave the Anvil Galaxy TVIA a public relations black eye. All over, branch offices scrambled to update their security and change their access codes, while other agents tried to hunt down the rogue.
Becoming infamous as a criminal underworld fixer and dealer in high-level contraband, Agar Laif ultimately met his fate while sitting incognito in a bar on one of the Paradise Foundation worlds. Someone put a g-gun round through his head; the responsible party has never been identified(though rumor has run the gamut from disgruntled clients, TGE operatives tying off a loose end, to vengeful TVIA death-squads).
Much controversy and mystery continues to swirl around Agar Laif; why did he do what he did? Had he always been corrupt, or had something changed or possessed him? Was he assisted by others, or was he working alone, for himself? Why was he in the Paradise Foundation, in that bar, that fateful night? And who ultimately killed him? There’s a small industry in speculation, but nothing yet has satisfactorily answered all the questions about Agar Laif.

Chargo(Seneky Caliphate world)

“If you can’t pay the hab-taxes and gang-tithes, you can always try cutting your own ice for water and air. Better have your own envirosuit though. You could try tunneling your own ice-mine off one of the pressurized shafts under the ice, but the air gets pretty thin, and there’s always a risk of hitting a gas pocket or a crack. If you’re lucky, you’ll only need a few spare parts...fortunately with the suicide-shops there’s a ready supply of transplants...IF you can afford anything that isn’t diseased or damaged. Odds are, though, you hit a pressure-pocket or vac-point, it’s YOU who’s going to be scraped up and sold as discount skin.”

“Given how many, if not most, Senekese believe life is just a stepping-off point to a greater after-existence, it doesn’t surprise how high the suicide rate is on Chargo; easy to make for the exit if the living is hell.”

One of the border worlds of the Seneky Caliphate. Though the Caliphate is considered to be fairly enlightened and a future United Systems Alliance member, Chargo is one of the corners of the Caliphate where the light hasn’t shown fully yet. While the planet itself is virtually uninhabitable, it is home to several dome-and-cavern cities. Despite several actve asteroid mining operations in the nearby rock clusters, the largest body in the solar system is rifen with poverty and corruption.
Chargo is considered something of a dead-end political dump for the Caliphate, and being assigned there is a commonly-voiced threat to Senekese bureaucrats. Chargo’s governors are, sadly, often disgraced politicians who have been virtually exiled for whatever reason from the courts of the Caliphate coreworlds. Chargo has thus slid into corruption, with Chargo’s ports becoming gray ports for organized crime, including pirates and mercenaries. Besides trafficking in contraband and even slaves, there’s a great deal of profiteering off the misery of the less fortunate. Euthanasia-clinics are a thing on Chargo, where the truly despondant can go to sell their bodies in return for painless termination(though it’s rumored that some of the less-ethical ‘suici-shops’ cater to death-media), no questions asked(though the state-run clinics are obliged to run sanity checks on applicants, to discern and intervene if they detect any signs of involuntary coercion). The Senekese have already been regarded as cavalier with their own lives(owing to strongly held beliefs in an afterlife), but on Chargo this approaches ‘life is cheap’ levels.

Chargo is a blot on the Seneky Caliphate that polite Senekese in the know don’t talk about because it shows the failures of their star nation in addressing social ills and policing their own. That inattentiveness, though, may be coming to an end; under increasing pressure from their allies in the United Systems Alliance(and to a lesser extent the CCW and Altess Dynasty), the Caliphate has begun cracking down on the court interests covering for the corruption on Chargo.

Solar System(Chemese)
Number of Stars: 1
Types of Stars: Orange Dwarf
Number of Planets: 1
-Terrestrial(Chargo)
-Also possesses six distinct asteroid belts/clusters

Planet(Chargo)
Type: Terrestrial
Diameter: 2,000 km
Gravity: 0.06 g---Chargo’s communities must use gravity plating to compensate; the poorer habs and their residents suffer from distinct microgravity disatrophy.
Temperature: Cold; mean surface temperature is -250 degrees F
Unusual/Special Features: None
Atmosphere:
Trace---Mainly argon and methane.
Terrain:
Hostile; Chargo’s surface is covered in rocky crags, deep canyons, and a thick layer of water ice shot through with gas pockets and fracture/fault lines
Notable Mineral Concentrations:
- Manganese
- Lead
- Colombite
- Chromium
- Gypsum
- Sulfur
- Barite
- Talc
Hydrosphere:
Chargo has a good covering (74%) of water ice in its favor, which led to it being settled in the first place.
Biosphere: None. However, some of the poorer-ventilated ice-shafts and hab-galleries suffer from imported and mutated mold and mildew; various forms of ‘wet lung’ maladies afflict those who don’t wear respiratory protection.
Civilization:
Settled
Population:
11 million.
Technology:
Early Galactic---The Senekese arts of building luxury goods and spacecraft missed setting up shop on Chargo, and central services and life support are in the hands of the local cartels. Though the government is supposed to provide free essential services, the fact is, the farther one lives from the core settlements, the more hard to come by are the essentials, and living in the cores is just as expensive.
Economy:
Services & Information----Chargo provides nechanical, resupply, and medical services to passing spacers, as well as the miners in the local asteroid belts. The more conscientious Senekese mining firms avoid going near Chargo, but for less well-funded operations, Chargo provides cheap support and entertainment.
The dark side of the Chargoese economy is traffic in vice, contraband, and no-questions-asked-as-long-as-the-money-is-god businesses.
Wealth:
Depressed; the vast majority(95%) of Chargoese live under depressed conditions, while the top 5% live lives of outlaw luxury, financed by graft and the misery of others.
Government:
Bureaucracy, overseen by a politically-appointed Governor.
Law Level:
Minimal---The law enforcers are generally recruited locally and are all on the take, and most of the assigned cops have been sent there for some infraction and see no reason to shape up.
Popularity:
Unpopular---The locals know their appointed government officials aren’t the most noble or altruistic, or even reasonably competent, in the Caliphate. However, simply overthrowing the government will possibly result in somebody worse taking the ousted regime’s place.
Stability:
Unrest---There’s grumblings going on about social upheaval, but not for the reasons one would expect. If the rumors of the homeworld government finally coming to clean house on Chargo is true, those who have become comfortable with the current situation will find themselves in dire straits. Some of the Chargoese syndicates and crimelords have considered openly taking over the government and declaring independence, trusting that the generally pacifistic and nonconfrontational Caliphate won’t forcibly try to reclaim the planet.

[taalismn]

Out-Dimension Worlds

“You didn’t really think we limit our shennanigans to only three galaxies and two universes, did you? Did you?”

Before the formation of the United Ssytems Alliance, Greater New England had Project Outstep. They also, for a time, had two parallel dimensional scouting orgaizations, the other being the illegal Odessa Brigades, who were scouting for resources and targets for their cross-dimensional abolitionist campaign. Though the Splugorth were their primary target, the Odessans were happy to compile a list of other target scoieties as well, for their activism.
Embezzzlement of resources from Outstep and Paladin Steel caused the end of the Odessa Brigades, and they, and their assets, were re-absorbed into the GNE. Their cross-dimensional scouting records in particular, were of great interest to Outstep, and the GNE’s dimensional rangers have been going over the Odessa files in detail, and revisting some of the worlds the Odessans only touched upon. Some of these worlds merited contact, and even membership in the United Systems Alliance. Others warranted caution, ir not outright avoidance.

'Empire Stars'
These worlds are distinguished by being dominated by imperial powers: dynastic political structures based on economic or military power. There was also an element of body-horror in their application of science and technology: on one, the former ruling class had bred for exceptional health and longevity, and were now being hunted for it, in another debts of honor or money could be paid for in blood and organs, while in yet another, it was the lower classes who were being bred to provide the ruling classes with stolen health.


Syvdid(Outdimension)
“The egalitarianism of the so-called ‘Republic’ is nothing like our own, and their claim that they’re serving ‘justice’ for centuries of mistreatment under the previous imperial system is undermined by the fact that in the short time they’ve been in power, they’ve managed to come up with quite a few new atrocities of their own to add to what they inherited from the Ceravivs.”

Syvdid is an independent human-settled Earth-analogue world in an alternate universe. Syvdid possesses a single moon, Dian, which is 25% smaller than Earth’s Moon, and TWICE as far out in its orbit. Syvdid was settled by baseline Old World humans either as part of the Atlantean Exodus or transplanted by a god. A tribe of Etruscan/Romans soon established a powerful nation-state that began to aggressively conquer or dominate their neighbors, and established a millennia-long dynastic leadership, the Ceraviv, ultimately controlling nearly 68% of the planet, before finally being being overthrown only fairly recently by a global revolt. Currently a ‘Republic’ of sorts rules the old empire, passing various reforms and working to restore confidence (or at least obediance) to the new authority.
Unfortunately, the new regime has proven itself even worse than the Ceravivs in may ways, particularly in its hunting down and elmination of any of the Ceraviv bloodline who could be used as the seed of a counter-revolution. Known Ceravivs are either outright killed or harvested for their blood( the royal families having bred for vibrant health and longevity backfiring by making them prized tissue donors). The ‘Syvdid Republic ’ looks set to enjoy at most a century, by conservative offworld analysts, of progressivelt degenerating global authority before collapsing into a welter of regional, ethnic, and nationalist factions.
General global technology is equal to early Information Age(technology being heavily controlled and hamstrung by the late Empire to better control its territories) with a few areas of advanced tech such as medicine, and without megadamage materials or nuclear weapons. The Syvdians have made little effort to pursue spaceflight, the Empire generally squelching non-terrestrial sciences, though with the disruptions and loosening of restrictions(whether deliberate or accidental) caused by the establishment of the Republic, a few fringe groups are beginning to experiment with rocketry.
The USA has little contact with the Syvdid Empire(or the Republic, as it is now calling itself), but has a few trade contacts with outlying societies. The offworlders are simply known locally as strangers from the less developed/trafficked regions of Syvdid. The USA doesn’t trade sensitive technologies with the locals, and remains aloof from meddling in local politics, but the unofficial word is to offer surviving fugitive Ceravivs sanctuary(though not to assist them in regaining power). The USA’s main concern is maintaining a small waystation in the outer system for passing Alliance traffic.

(Adventure Hooks: This is an opportunity to brush up your Latin. PCs could be agents of the Republic trying to root out counter-insurgencies, or Loyalists trying to hide fugitive Imperial family members. Offworlder characters may be trying to cut deals with local concerns while avoiding being outed as something other than locals. Or perhaps an offworld starship has mechanical difficulties and is forced down, and Alliance personnel have to rescue them without tipping their hand to the locals.
There’s also rumors of ancient artifacts...advanced ancient technology or divine objects, possibly left by whoever was responsible for bringing humans to Syvdid in the first place. This could be enough to lure offworlders to come treasure-hunting...and possibly run afoul of the locals )

Avanadra(Outdimension)
“The only time I’ve been on Janhi soil, or Avanadra at all, was a dark ops drop in a transatmo disguised to look like a local airbreater. We came in using air traffic transponder codes that were provided by some local contact, though we were told to treat this as a potential combat situation and an unsecured LZ. We landed at a private airport, lights turned down low, taxi’ed into an off-the-main drag service hangar, kept the enginees running while we met our contact, and exchanged enough medical spares to make a squad of frankensteins for the local tech equivalent of a biostasis pod. We returned to the mothership and turned over the cargo to the medtechs and stasis-operators and were told good job, nothing else. I’m not entirely sure what was going on, but I feel pretty good about it regardless.”

Avanadra is another extradimensional Earth-analogue world dominated by humans and an imperial system, only this one with a Nihonese flavor. The dominant world power, the Janhi, is an expansionist empire that currently controls, or at least influences, nearly half the planet. The rest of Avanadra is divided up among various other nations, including monarchies, constitutional monarchies, and a few true democracies.
The Janhi won their place by steadily copying and adapting the best technological and management practices of their neighbors, building a strong professional military, and exploiting trade. That they also applied a vigorous ruthlessness and underhanded espionage in the past also worked in their favor. Though progressive in its expansionism, however, the Janhi have also promoted a class system that allows, even encourages, abuse of class privilege and institutional slavery. A High Diet of aristocractic clans controlling the government and the economy rules, with the blessing of a dynastic Imperial Family, said to draw its hereditary authority from divine ancestry.
The Imperial Family has, of late, begun to exhibit buyers’ remorse, as the militant aristocracy has taken more and more power for themselves. Janhi society has little in the way of social nets for those who falter and fall, and the usual outcome is either Suicide, Slavery, or Surgical Donation(giving body tissue to state-run organ banks, though this often is effectively the same as suicide in the more extreme cases). Of late, the Imperial Family exercises less secular authority and has assumed more of a spiritual role in Janhi society, though in reality it’s practically a token figurehead position, and they have been apalled by the excesses some of the more influential aristocrats and bureaucrats have taken, gaming the system to eliminate rivals, silence critics, and grievously exploit the lower classes.
Avanadra has a technology roughly equal to baseline mid-20th century Earth, the more advanced power-blocs have a token space capability, but are aware of aliens and extradimensional travellers(X-files level ), though the common people have little knowledge or interest in such.
Avanadra is one of the extradimensional worlds accessed by the Kaxxion Junction. The USA has some contact with non-Janhi polities on Avanadra, doing some trade, though the Janhi are scrupulously avoided. The Office of Positive Outcomes was therefore surprised to be contacted, via back-channels, by the Janhi Emperor, who wished to discuss how the extremist Janhi Empire might be subtly undermined and made more inclined to move towards more moderate and compassionate policies with regards to both its neighbors and its own citizens. Though tradition, honor, and local law prevent the Imperial Familiy(and their government) from directly soliciting foreign assistance(or meddling), the OPO has been providing the Emperor’s small reformist faction with useful technologies, such as communications tech to spy on their own internal power blocs, and medical technologies that reduce the horrid influence of the State Organ Banks. The OPO has also provided cloned organs to substitute for individuals the Emperor feels have been wrongly pushed into terminal donor agreements, the individuals being swapped out of surgical processing and smuggled offworld before they could be cut apart(again, under the laws of the Empire, the Emperor cannot ask the OPO to simply give these people sanctuary, but can justify ‘moving assets to more secure facilities, provided equivalent assets of equal or greater value are provided in event of need’---without revealing that the ‘secure facilities’ are offworld and under the supervision of an organization philosophically opposed to the Empire’s corrupted laws) .

(Adventure Hooks: It’s Ninjas and Superspies in a world where Japan didn’t turn insular, but went empire-building. PCs could be agents of the Empire fighting to keep the empire strong, or working for reform. Or maybe the PCs are offworlders trying to do some good(or just escape offworld), while remaining undetected by the locals.)

Odeefor(Outdimension)
“She wanted to use the indoor track...late at night, past bed-down and lights out in the dormitories. -One last run before the knives-, I think I could hear her thoughts.....not all the donor-breed cassers are happy oblivious chatterboxes pleased to go to slaughter and some of them can tell when their harvesting is coming due. So she wanted one last night of free running before somebody else got to use her heart, lungs, and other parts. It took all my fieldcraft training not to break my cover as the new-hire somatistician-coach and tell her that her run was going to be a lot farther than she imagined....one of the Marine raider landing boats was going to ground right outside the end of the gym hall tonight, which meant that she was going to be first up its ramp, if I had to carry her myself.”

It’s actually called ‘Earth’, but this alternity was discovered by Odessa scouts during their scouting in advance of their megaversal abolition efforts, so it got tagged as ‘Odessa Earth Four’ when the Odessa organization was folded back into the GNE’s Outstep program. On Odessa Earth Four, a late 20th-century tech-level society had become stratified in the face of growing ecological depletion, and mild bio-engineering had led to a minority elite lording it over successive degrees of caste-bred peasants. Contact between these Earthers and their more individualistic and freedom-loving Rifts Earth cousins become cool, if not openly hostile, when the Rifters realized that the system was more self-serving to the upper classes than necessary to deal with the resource management issues of the planet, and in fact the gross genetic engineering PREDATED the ecological crisis.
The Odessans had already liberated an air transport of Casserine caste workers, who would eventually be resettled on Atium to build their own society. The GNE would be arguably even more aggressive in its policies, in a rare case of being on the offensive. In a case of ‘we have no Prime Directive’ the OPO would continue to try to subvert Odeefor by introducing thinking and technologies(such as medical and bioremediation) that would undermine the eugenic caste system. In the more extreme cases of gross abuse of sophont rights, such as the disovery of ‘organ farms’ where Caserine-class humans were raised for tissue transplant sources, the OPO has used GNEAS assets to conduct large-scale raids and mass extractions. While this may seem to be uncharacteristically aggressive of the GNE, in the face of evidence that the ‘cassers’(or lower caste eugen-humans) are fully sapient and sentient, and capable of creating their own societies given half a chance, Abolitionist pressure has arguably pushed the GNE to get involved.
Declaiming the raids as ‘endangering or killing thousands of innocents’(through theft of valuable organ transplants), the local Odeeforan political blocs have been attempting to secure or hide the breeding camps from future raids, but OPO keeps coming up with new tricks(including some straight from the infamous Trickster Legion’s playbook) to neutralize the local military forces and swipe the human livestock out from under them. Several thousand ‘cassers’ have been liberated in this fashion and resetttled elsewhere in the United Systems Alliance, while the OPO continues to back reformist groups and less privilaged/unengineered nation-states in Odeeforan society.


(Adventure Hooks: An interesting turnaround HLS might be to have the PCs, traveling through dimensional rifts, arrive on ‘Earth’-Odeefore and become involved in the action there. They might be captured by local military forces who think they’re associated with the GNE, then interrogated for information.
Or perhaps, especially since the PCs may know NOTHING about Paladin Steel and Greater New England(alternate universe, hello?), but the local Odeeforans see an opportunity, recognizing the PCs’ superior firepower and technology, and persuade them to help defend against the alien invaders who are attacking their planet and kidnapping people for nefarious purposes. The PCs could be simply well-intentioned, but misled, unaware that they’re working for a society that has engineered an entire segment of the human population into the equivalent of livestock. Or maybe the PCs are utter total mercenaries who are being well-paid to even the odds.)

[taalismn]

(For the original info on Ungersoll, see Rifts Dimension Book Five: Anvil Galaxy, pg. 122)

Ungersoll---Central Alliance World/ PS/ASI Industrial Outpost

“Pardon my grinding and creaking. My damn leg actuators. Never worked right and quiet as they should. And if you smell something burning, let me know; last month I burned my pants through when the electrical connections in my pelvic frame shorted out. I got the wires replaced, and the shop-doc assured me it wouldn’t happen again, but that’s what the crank who sold me the defective connectors told me. Godsdamn mud-mechanics, godsdamn yu-em.”
--Common Ungersoll resident

“Ewww...look at all that nice new SHINY!”
---Anonymous Ungersoll resident, on seeing the first production rollout from the new Ungersoll Cybertech Annex.

Though a world of the Central Alliance, and not of the United Systems Alliance, Ungersoll is still greatly influenced by the latter, or at least by the virtually GNE/USA-nationalized Paladin Steel/Aegis Stellar Industries group, which has a major, if not STRATEGIC, presence on Ungersoll.
It is not entirely clear when Ungersoll was first settled, but likely during one of the early diasporas of the Human Alliance, The settlers gave up much of their advanced technology, especially space travel, to focus on making the planet more habitable. Sometime afterwards, the planet came to the attention of other groups of prospective colonists or refugees(fleeing the Automaton Wars or other conflicts), some of them nonhuman. Though some of these groups were peacefully assimilated, others, especially those with more advanced technology than the established Ungersollans, decided to set themselves up as rulers over the rest, and the planet played unfortunate host to a number of Immigrant Wars, which saw the Ungersollans win out over the latecomers, but at the cost of being knocked even farther down the tech-tree. By the time scouts from the Central Alliance arrived on the scene, the Ungersollans were GLAD to hear of somebody trying to put down the various warlords and roaming refugee and brigand flotillas plaguing the region.
As documented in Rifts Dimension Book Five: Anvil Galaxy, Ungersoll enthusiastically embraced the cyberculture of the Central Alliance, but lacked the technology to do so on a global scale. The Ungersoll Motors debacle, in which an industrial equipment manufacturer went into cybernetics and bionics production with little prior experience in either, destroyed the company, left hundreds of thousands of citizens with malfunctioning implants, and ruined both the economy and spirit of an entire planet. Ungersoll became a basketcase even by the standards of the many hardluck worlds of the Central Alliance. “Made on Ungersoll’ became an Alliance-wide euphemism for shoddy and defective, and the only surviving viable major industry on Ungersoll, the mining and smelting of tin, led to further jokes about ‘tin can bionics’(in stark contrast to Xleena’s popular ‘crude, mean, junkyard canine’ ‘borg aesthetic).
As such, without the surplus to provide relief to Ungersoll, General Noldek saw opportunity with the signing of a trade deal with the Paladin Steel/Aegis Stellar Industries group to provide his forces with their advanced cyborg designs. Having heard of the Paladins’ practice of assimilating and refurbishing old companies and promoting the welfare of their workers and their adjacent communities, Noldek decided to offer them a chance to prove they could do it on a larger scale. With a reliable source of affordable replacement cybertech available to them, and a factory producing cutting edge designs the Cyberhawks WANT to provide offworld income, Noldek figures that the move will be able to turn around the situation on Ungersoll. With his new trade partners and bionics suppliers occupied in planetary renewal, Noldek reckons, they’ll be less likely to meddle in local politics, unlike Naruni Enterprises.
Just to make sure, though, Noldek had written into the trade deal that several of his trusted lieutenants would be on the board of administration of the new Ungersoll Cybertech Annex, in part to make sure that his forces are getting quality equipment, and to remind the PS/ASI staff that Ungersoll is NOT to become part of the USA.
Meanwhile, the Ungersoll government has started a big public relations campaign promoting the ‘new era’ and ‘fresh start’ coming upon the planet. The PR blitz notably downplays the foreign origins of PS/ASI, instead focusing on the ‘rebirth of domestic industry’, the sweeping away of the bad reputation of Ungersoll , and its replacement with a more positive take on ‘Made on Ungersoll’ denoting quality.
A good sign of the UCA’s effect on the region is that there’s been an uptick in regularly scheduled travel to the planet. That, and the other suppliers of bionics in the Central Alliance are feeling the ripple effect of the UCA’s new designs and mass production. The UCA is part of the reason the cybertechs of the Cybernary are stepping up their efforts to copy and ideally outdo proprietary PS/ASI designs like the Darkhammer and the Kishru.

Solar System(Yalen)
Despite Ungersoll’s thousand years of recorded settlement, the rest of the Yalen star system is fairly unexplored, owing to most interest being on habitable Ungersoll. While the inner system planets, which could be studied with telescopes and fairly crude space probes, were fairly well known, the outer system was virtually unexplored. Once Noldek determined to put in a new factory supplying his forces in the system, and at the insistance of his trade partners in the USA, the Central Alliance sent an Avila -class destroyer, accompanied by a pair of GNE-flagged Piecemeal -class exploratory ships, to do a ‘grand tour’ of the system, looking for anything of interest.

Number of Stars: 1
Types of Stars: Blue Dwarf
Number of Planets: 9
- Terrestrial ---Banen is a large hot ‘super-Venus’ smothered in a toxic atmosphere.

-Terrestrial ---Malkin---Slightly smaller than Ungersoll, but possessing a dense reducing atmosphere, Malkin would be a good prospect for terraforming of a more extensive sort, if anybody had the resources in the Central Alliance. Nobody does, so Malkin is left alone. Its single large moon, however, has attracted attention as a possible mining site.

-Terrestrial ---- Ungersoll, System lifeworld

-Gas Giant ----Telstoy--- This large gas giant is easily visible with the naked eye from Ungersoll. There are indications on one of Telstoy’s moons of an attempt to set up mining operations, likely during one of Ungersoll’s earlier period cycles when they had space capability. The workings came to naught, either abandoned due to failing interest, or destruction of the supporting infrastructure back on Ungersoll during one of the planet’s Immigrant Wars. Detecting the same mineral deposits that drew those earlier developers, PS/ASI has begun exploring setting up their own operations on the moon to shorten the supply lines for certain materials feeding into the Ungersoll Cybertech Annex. Ungersoll’s military government is enthusiastic about this plan, seeing it as another step up in the system’s tech-base.

-Asteroid---Myrton. This planetissimal is of interest because of the remains of an ancient colony ship that has crashed on it. Part of one of the waves of colonization that swept Ungersoll, the ship suffered a catastrophic engine failure soon after emerging from FTL. According to old records, a few survivors were able to abandon the ship and were picked up by others in its group continuing on to Ungersoll. The ship’s technology is long obsolete(even by Central Alliance standards), and the wreck is heavily radioactive from its unscrammed fission reactors going critical, but some parts of the habitat section landed far enough from the propulsion units that perhaps some crew valuables might be salvageable, if anybody were to undertake the risky task of approaching the wreckage-strewn planetoid.

-Gas Giant---Rafus. This small gas giant has little to interest most cosmic settlers, though its lack of an intense radiation belt and low gravity(for a gas giant) make it fairly easy to harvest atmospheric gases from its upper atmosphere layers, so there is some potential for commercial gas mining.

-Terrestrial ----Kamus---This large cold methane-swathed outer planet hardly warrented much attention during the thousand years since Ungersoll was frst settled, and the planet hasn’t garnered much attention since. The Cyberhawks, once word had gone official of a major cybertech factory being established on Ungersoll, have done a more thorough sweep of the system, less for scientific reasons and more to update their charts of the region and look for possible security threats, like pirate hideouts or bootlegger jumppoints.

-Asteroid---Paknor’s Moon---Initially mistaken for a moon of Kamus, this small planetoid has an eccentric orbit that periodically sends it slingshotting around Kamus every 350 years, a moon only temporarily. The next such encounter is to occur within the next decade, according to calculations, and this time there will be much more in the way of scientific scrutiny to record it.

-Gas Giant --- Yalen IX(aka ‘Bromelon’s World’); a tiny ball of gas approaching ‘ball of slush’ state. It has only recently been surveyed and named by the Central Alliance destroyer crew doing a more thorough security sweep of the system.


Planet(Ungersoll)
Type: Terrestrial
Diameter: 12,000 km
Gravity: 1.3 g
Temperature: Warm/Tropical, with average planeatry temperatures ranging around 60-70 degrees F.
Unusual/Special Features:
- Rings----Ungersoll sports a set of thin debris rings
Atmosphere: Dense, but breathable nitrox mix
Terrain: Four+ terrain types
Notable Mineral Concentrations:
- Magnesium
- Molybdenite
- Tin
- Manganese
- Samarskite
- Titanium
- Asbestos
- Quartz

Hydrosphere:
Balanced: about 47% of the surface is covered in open water.

Biosphere:
Diverse, the result of multiple generations of terraforming packages at work, and waves of settlers and refugees bringing new plants and animals , some of which escaped domestication and have run feral. The ecology is a motley mix of several worlds’ ecological representatives, some of who are running unchecked. The Gratchian SeaRat, for example, is currently wreaking havoc on coastal fisheries along the Great Southern Bay, especially after long-overdue efforts to curtail them were hamstrung by the UM fiasco(the eco-rangers assigned to cull the searats suffered a spate of accidents, some fatal, attributable to malfunctioning, typically due to poorly waterproofed, bionics).

Civilization:
Settled. Ungersoll was settled over a thousand years ago by one of the great diasporas, lost its original star-travel technology, was swept by several subsequent waves of immigration(using faster technologies). They were subjected to several wars in the region that knocked down what advanced technology they were able to build up, and thus the planet enthusiastically welcomed the stability General Noldek’s Central Alliance brought the galactic area.

Population:
795 million(51% Human, 49% other)

Technology:
Late Information Age---With an ill-fated initial foray into advanced cybernetics/bionics. The establishment of the UCA is bringing more advanced Galactic technology to the planet’s infrastructure.

Economy:
Industrial---Prior to the UM collapse, Ungersoll made industrial machinery, including some solid powerplant equipment and vehicle systems. The remaining anywhere near profitable businesses that survived the collapse were the tin smelting operations and titanium mills, and even those were tottering due to worker pool falloff and competition from abroad.
The ‘Fresh Start’ or ‘Supercharged!’ (‘We’re not calling this the ‘Make Ungersoll Great Again’ initiative, period!”) campaign aims to make the planet a source of GOOD cybertech, and the halo effect is reviving the older industries.

Wealth:
Was Average before the UM debacle, then collapsed to the high side of Squalor and Poverty. The fresh injection of investment in the Ungersoll Cybertech Annex has pulled the local economy back up to Poor, and improving.

Government:
Was an Oligarchy before UM collapsed, then became a Militocracy enforcing martial law, though even the Cyberhawk-appointed military governor could do little to turn the situation around with what resources the Central Alliance could spare him. With the establishment of the UCA and the subsequent upswing in the economy, martial law has been relaxed somewhat, but the military governor remains, and who is grateful for any sort of economic relief.

Law Level:
Overbearing----The place could be more lawless, but with so much malfunctioning cyberware around, most people are too afraid to engage in strenuous crime for fear of a critical systems failure at an inopportune time. A good percentage of the existing crime is cyberchopping; gangs stealing working parts from people to sell to others with defective implants. Another part of the local crime scene is dealing in medicines, especially those for treating implant-associated infections, painkillers for dealing with associated discomfort and narcotics in general(opoid addiction is a regular problem on Ungersoll).

Popularity:
Unpopular, shading towards Ambivalent. This is up from the Rage that tore down most of the old oligarchs and industrial barons who embraced wholesale cyberization. While not everybody is happy with the military government currently in place, and not all that certain of the ‘new deal’ promised by PS/ASI and General Noldek. the populace has decided to wait and see what comes of the promised outreach programs.

Stability:
Unrest. Those people not utterly dispirited by the economic collapse are chafing at the bit with anger. There’s concern that the new investors in the planet may be ‘flashes in the pan’ who promise great things and fail to deliver, and that the promised economic revival will fall flat. If the UCA experiment fails, the people of Ungersoll will have regained enough of their spirit that bloody uprising is likely, though the end result will likely be an even more catastrophic collapse.
That’s IF the economic revival fails. So far, with the growth of offworld sales, the spreading of the replacement parts program, and the reopening of several more local industries, local economic analysts are cautiously optimistic about Ungersoll’s future.

Note: The Altess, who even before the arrival of the United Systems Alliance/PS/ASI on the galactic scene, were playing secret guardian angels to the Central Alliance, have taken advantage of the situation to take a more active role, and have quietly invested some money in the UCA and its spawned programs, including the growing number of local operations supplying the UCA with raw materials. Chump change really, even with the Altess doing a lot of expensive repair work back home in the wake of the Golgan invasion, but it’s substantial money by anybody else's reckoning, and it’s helping grow industry in the region.


Corporate Outpost: Ungersoll Cybertech Annex
“Yeah, the UCA’s pretty impressive, but those big brand new factoris are just the top of a very large iceberg of layouts and counter-concessions. Like the squadrons of brand-spanking new F102s the local planetary militia are flying, the license to build more using locally-produced engines given to the local industries, the Paladins promising to renovate the steel mills and train and employ local workers on the new machines, the Annex getting a percentage of the new materials coming out of the mills, and so on. Noldek might have wanted our cyborgs, but he drove a hard bargain to get as much as he could for the coin he was putting down. Still, we’re looking to make a good profit and we get another company outpost smack in cyber-warrior territory in the bargain.”

This is a sprawling new state of the art cybertech production facility. It’s actually several industrial parks and research campuses dotted across the same general geographical area. These facilities include a new MDC-factor materials fabrication mill and orbital factory satellite(for space materials processing). To power these complexes, PS/ASI also helped renovate an old Ungersoll Motors fusion powerplant factory and turned part of it into a power farm, while the restored lines continue to turn out new reactor systems.
Part of the complex is a new medical wing and depot for the community outreach program; hovercarriers fitted out as mobile cyberdoc clinics move out into the surrounding communities to repair or replace defective implants. There’s also a new engineering training campus teaching local cybertechs how to troubleshoot the new ‘ware and design future systems RIGHT.
There’s also been a lot of work on improving the local spaceports to move material, and Noldek’s people have been busy constructing a few ‘off the grid’ bases for their aerospace forces.

Size: Massive: 13,000 employees, plus at least three times that in local support businesses.

Type: Industrial---The outpost is a factory, with some R&D

Security: Heavy--- Besides a strong PS/ASI corporate security force, General Noldek has assigned an augmented regiment’s worth of Mechanism troops to protect the new investment. The local military governor’s also been encouraged to recruit up a Small Machine force using the new designs from the UCA.
The main facilities are heavily fortified against both surface and space attack, piracy being a consideration, with the usual PS/ASI paranoia and gun-happy attitude meaning hardened bunkers and abundant air defense systems.

Contact: Monthly---The outpost gets 1d4 visits a month from PS/ASI’s USA main branches, bringing in components, materials, and updates unavailable(as yet) in the Central; Alliance, and taking what production isn’t utilized/bought locally. Of course, the UCA is in constant FTL radio communication with PS/ASI HQs and suppliers, and courier ships are available for special messages.

Products:
Cybernetics/Bionics--- The main purpose of the UCA is to produce PS/ASI cybernetics and bionics for the Central Alliance. The plants also do some weapons manufacture, especially of ‘borg-class weaponry, but the focus is on cybernetics and cyborg chassis.
Some of the existing cyborg designs being produced at the UCA:

PS-FC- LAOC12 ‘Angelina’ Cyborg--- Second only to the Turin in popularity, this flying frame with killer good looks is all the rage with female humanoids in the
Central Alliance.

PS-UB-FC-02 Ganton Full Conversion Cyborg--- Sniper ‘borgs are a new thing in the Central Alliance, but they’re also happy to boast that the ones being manufactured at the UCA are the first to have 50-shot micro-missile launchers
as a n alternative to the large forearm mini-missile launchers. The chest multiplexor, being magic, is less well-received due to the lack of experience with magic, and most buyers do without it, but those who take the TW device and learn how to use it are making waves in CA units.

PSW/UB--FC-03 ‘Beetleborg’ Mining Full Conversion Cyborg--- Considered very useful in expanding Ungersoll’s mining industry.

PS-Ut-FC-6 Hazard Full conversion Borg -Industrial/Hazmat bodies are in big demand as the worlds of the Central Alliance seek to modernize and clean up the mistakes of previous big industry. They’re also handy firemen.

PS-FC-15 Maczek Full conversion Borg---Though crude in appearance and design, the Maczek has the advantages of being easy to maintain and looking enough like a pre-rust Xleena design to draw attention.

PS-FC/R-017(FC-18) Rhobar Full conversion Cyborg--Lots of options, lots of firepower, and easily maintained to boot. Not all that impressive aesthetically, but a lot of Small Machine warriors with experience fighting the Splugorth and the Golgans are asking for this chassis.

PS-FC-33 Maveli Full conversion Borg---What’s not to like about four arms and attitude?

PS-FC-34 Minotaur Full Conversion Cyborg---Bad, bad, and ugly. Another design the Xleenans are rushing to copy.

PS-FC-40 Reaper Full Conversion Borg ----Again, multiple arms and gruesome good looks are selling points.

PS-FC-44 ‘Scimitar’ Full Conversion Cyborg ----Lots of powered blades made this an early must for the cyborg gladiators of the Central Alliance, and just as many ‘combat sportsmen’ as combat personnel are lining up to get theirs.

PS-FC-45 ‘Scorpio’ Full Conversion Cyborg ---Multiple limbs, heavy firepower, heavy armor, and serious rough country performance; the rougher worlds of the Central Alliance love’em!

PS-FC-55 ‘Neutralizer’ Full Conversion Cyborg---A disposable cyborg body for dealing with hazardous situations sounds about right for the Central Alliance. For once, ‘Ungersoll Cheap’ actually becomes a selling point with these things.

PS-FC-60 Arachnist Full Conversion Cyborg---Same as for the Mavelli; multiple arms and carve’em up action!

PS-FC-61 Turin Full Conversion Borg----PS/ASI launched production at the UCA with this new cyborg, which, because of both its advanced design and local manufacture, has literally taken off with Central Alliance warriors.

[Omegasgundam]

PS-FC- LAOC12 ‘Angelina’ Cyborg--- Second only to the Turin in popularity, this flying frame with killer good looks is all the rage with female humanoids in the Central Alliance.

Well, yes. Of course it would be popular and sell to women. It being useful is a major plus.

PS-UB-FC-02 Ganton Full Conversion Cyborg--- Sniper ‘borgs are a new thing in the Central Alliance, but they’re also happy to boast that the ones being manufactured at the UCA are the first to have 50-shot micro-missile launchers as an alternative to the large forearm mini-missile launchers. The chest multiplexor, being magic, is less well-received due to the lack of experience with magic, and most buyers do without it, but those who take the TW device and learn how to use it are making waves in CA units.

Doesn't hurt that being a sniper forces you to learn a degree of subtlety and restraint. I'm sure the CA could do with a large heaping of both.

PSW/UB--FC-03 ‘Beetleborg’ Mining Full Conversion Cyborg--- Considered very useful in expanding Ungersoll’s mining industry.

I'm sure the big draws are the standard sized cost and consistently available numbers. Artisan work is a bit problematic there.

PS-Ut-FC-6 Hazard Full conversion Borg -Industrial/Hazmat bodies are in big demand as the worlds of the Central Alliance seek to modernize and clean up the mistakes of previous big industry. They’re also handy firemen.

Again, the big thing is that they're available in numbers with regularity.

PS-FC-15 Maczek Full conversion Borg---Though crude in appearance and design, the Maczek has the advantages of being easy to maintain and looking enough like a pre-rust Xleena design to draw attention.

Yes, it does fit the dieselpunk ascetic.

PS-FC/R-017(FC-18) Rhobar Full conversion Cyborg--Lots of options, lots of firepower, and easily maintained to boot. Not all that impressive aesthetically, but a lot of Small Machine warriors with experience fighting the Splugorth and the Golgans are asking for this chassis.

That's the shared small-kin gun boat right? Its a bland heavy, but being able to use labor bot parts if need be does simplify upkeep. The PS options list is as extensive as the normal borg one, and notably more effective in my opinion, so it comes out ahead in a equal cost match-up.

PS-FC-33 Maveli Full conversion Borg---What’s not to like about four arms and attitude?

Weird ascetics in a different direction, but they're also in the Attitude Era aren't they? I half expect their NPC to be Stone Cold Steve Austen and/or The Rock.

PS-FC-34 Minotaur Full Conversion Cyborg---Bad, bad, and ugly. Another design the Xleenans are rushing to copy.

That whole "head first ram" mentality really is the CA isn't it.

PS-FC-40 Reaper Full Conversion Borg ----Again, multiple arms and gruesome good looks are selling points.

I imagine it doesn't hurt that it just feels a bit more 'practical' than the other melee heavies. For a given definition.

PS-FC-44 ‘Scimitar’ Full Conversion Cyborg ----Lots of powered blades made this an early must for the cyborg gladiators of the Central Alliance, and just as many ‘combat sportsmen’ as combat personnel are lining up to get theirs.

People just love chainsaws, and the CA gladiator scene is in the same ballpark as R-Earth.

PS-FC-45 ‘Scorpio’ Full Conversion Cyborg ---Multiple limbs, heavy firepower, heavy armor, and serious rough country performance; the rougher worlds of the Central Alliance love’em!

Again, the CA going in head first gets them over the hump with acceptance of trans-human concepts.

PS-FC-55 ‘Neutralizer’ Full Conversion Cyborg---A disposable cyborg body for dealing with hazardous situations sounds about right for the Central Alliance. For once, ‘Ungersoll Cheap’ actually becomes a selling point with these things.

'Most Expendable Outfit' takes a new meaning with cyborgs.

PS-FC-60 Arachnist Full Conversion Cyborg---Same as for the Mavelli; multiple arms and carve’em up action!

Doesn't hurt that it draws from some popular CA fads, so it has more base popularity right there.

PS-FC-61 Turin Full Conversion Borg----PS/ASI launched production at the UCA with this new cyborg, which, because of both its advanced design and local manufacture, has literally taken off with Central Alliance warriors.

As far as an introduction to 'standardized cyborg bodies' goes, a better SAMAS is a good start. It being relatively smaller means you don't expect it to face tank as much, which in turn makes you think about different tactics.


As for Ungersoll itself, pushing the 'local built' angle has the natural problems at first, but it stops resentment from building up. Its going to take major and extremely obvious external events to force PS to pull out or the building economy to collapse again, so odds are quite good the reconstruction will win people over. And as an opening to the CA market, PS is willing to take a notable loss in the set up.

EDIT: One of the things I think Noldek added in with the overall lump was as a factory to build minor shield systems to protect the brain cases of his soldiers from Gravitic Munitions. That seems like something he would want to be as far ahead on as physically possible.

[taalismn]

[
EDIT: One of the things I think Noldek added in with the overall lump was as a factory to build minor shield systems to protect the brain cases of his soldiers from Gravitic Munitions. That seems like something he would want to be as far ahead on as physically possible.

Of Course! And it will be standard mil spec cyborg gear on all PS 'Borgs(refit and new construction).

Yah, Ungersoll was tailor-made for this sort of industrial revolution. Once it really starts going, you'll likely see other new industries cropping up on the planet, and Noldek will start thinking of stationing a few of his warships as protection in the system, since it will start paying for itself.

Noldek will also be seeing a good amount of foreign currency coming into the CA, because with more cyborg chassises available, there will be more warriors, not all of whom will be satisfied bumming around the CA waiting for trouble. There will be mercenary work to be done, and, while Noldek may lend the USA some of his forces in specific circumstances, there will be a lot more for-pay work available, facilitated by the United Systems Alliance's transportation network. Noldek will be able to siphon off some the tension and aggression in the CA with hotheads going off to seek glory and pay outside the CA, and the survivors will return with money and experience. Provided he can spot any would-be returning revolutionaries in time to deal with them, he'll be getting additional bonuses out of the deal.

[Omegasgundam]

Noldek will also be seeing a good amount of foreign currency coming into the CA, because with more cyborg chassises available, there will be more warriors, not all of whom will be satisfied bumming around the CA waiting for trouble. There will be mercenary work to be done, and, while Noldek may lend the USA some of his forces in specific circumstances, there will be a lot more for-pay work available, facilitated by the United Systems Alliance's transportation network. Noldek will be able to siphon off some the tension and aggression in the CA with hotheads going off to seek glory and pay outside the CA, and the survivors will return with money and experience. Provided he can spot any would-be returning revolutionaries in time to death with them, he'll be getting additional bonuses out of the deal.

Turning an internal problem into an external one is an age old tactic. 'Get them out of the house' may create problems, but they're of a sort he knows how to deal with.

[taalismn]

(Another old Fan Race thread entry reformatted in the Random Interstellar Kingdoms format)

Crysallian Combine(Thundercloud)
(aka Aerys Combine, Crysalid Cluster)

“It’s rather ironic that the people who sent our ancestors in here to die, and abandoned them to rot, are now less than a third-tier backwater, while we’ve acquired what amounts to immortality and invincbility, and are sitting atop more wealth than we know how to use. Funny how the cosmos works, isn’t it?”

“There’s an inordinate amount of traffic in exotic metals in the Grelan-Aeryes sectors; economic activity like what hasn’t been seen in eight hundred years. Somebody’s making money, and plenty of it, over there and it’s not any of the usual suspects. Has anybody taken a closer look in those sectors?“
----Altess galactic economic intelligence report

The CC is a stellar nation based in the energetic and irradiated Aerys Cluster is a large, fairly dense stellar cluster in the Thundercloud Galaxy, a complex stellar nursery crowded with hot-burning, newborn stars, and the remnants of older, decrepit stars being recycled into newer solar furnaces. Several hundred years ago, the Cluster was mined, at great expense and risk, for its great mineral riches, efforts that reaped tremendous profits go those who backed the effort, and the operations showed signs of only scratching the surface of the vast potential wealth to be had in the Cluster. That the mining efforts were a convenient means of disposing of prison labor was an extra bonus, and many unpopular and inconvenient sophonts were disappeared into the irradiated hell of the Cluster.
Then word of a vicious and seemingly unstoppable ‘silicon plague’ ravaging the mining operations. Fearing the spread of the ‘Crystal Ripper’ outside the Cluster, the mining op sponsors imposed a n absolute quarantine, enforced by nuclear fire. NO ship was permitted to leave the Cluster and any suspected infection site was obliterated. This quarantine was enforced for over a century, well past the last known attempt to leave the Cluster. Eventually the effort bankrupted the nations maintaining the quarantine, collapsing without the outflow of treasure that allowed them to prosper. However, the reputation of the ‘Star Cluster of Death’ persisted, keeping the idle curious or opportunistic from trying to venture into the Cluster. Those who did, disappeared.
Meanwhile, the victims of the ‘Crystal Ripper’ virus, transformed into crystalline beings able to survive in vacuum and live off the radiation permeating the Cluster, were busy building a new society, protected by the reputation of the star cluster as a ‘man eater’.
Fast forward another few hundred years.
The transformed descendants of the original Aerys miners have snuck out past the deteriorated quarantine defenses into the greater galaxy and have begun using their immense mineral wealth to leverage control over a growing number of worlds around the Aerys sector. Disguised using psuedo-flesh skinning and other prosthetics, the Crysallians have been quietly scouting out the changed galaxy and determining their next moves.
The Crysallians could rival the infamous Altess for immortality and wealth, but the Crysallians prefer to keep the truth of their origins, the source and extent of their wealth private. Though they have financed a few rather colorful mercenary and paramilitary organizations, they keep their own military in reserve to protect their Cluster homeworlds. They did make an exception when one of the backwater worlds near the Aerys was invaded by star-traveling parasites. Immune to infestation by the parasites, the Crysallians, who had been secretly doing business on the world, surprised the other aliens with a fleet of their own that annihilated the parasites. Though the locals didn’t know it, their saviors hailed from the ‘Death Cluster’ that hung in their skies.

A. Size
The Crysilians claim about eighteen planets within the Cluster and about five hundred asteroid outposts and space stations of at least 50 permanent residents. Crysilian worlds, however, all tend to be uninhabitable by normal human standards, being airless(or having very thin and unbreathable atmospheres) and typically subject to lashings by radiation storms and intense solar wind.
Outside the Cluster, the Crysilians have claimed six worlds and have substantial business and industrial enclaves on several dozen more.

B. History
Splinter of Older Civilization---Survivors of the now-fallen Domins Consortium

C. Level of Technological Sophistication
Advanced Space Age--- Galactic. Though they initially started out with technologies several generations behind the current norm, the Crysallians have had uninterrupted time to develop their own, with a vast amount of raw materials and energy to use. Since emerging from the Cluster, they’ve been quietly buying advanced technology to keep themselves updated.
Their military is small, but potent. Though initially based on industrial equipment and what weapons platforms they scavenged from the defunct quarantine lines, the Crysalians have been improving the tech, aided by their access to some exotic materials found only in the Cluster’s stellar cauldron. Their now-natural resistance to g-forces, and greatly reduced life support requirements, means that Crysallian ships can be faster, require less radiation shielding, and can incorporate more energetic systems without fear of killing the crew.
The Crysallians have also developed a number of small arms that take advantage of the unique properties of several exotic crystals found in the Cluster(the Spectral Sword, one of the signature weapons of the Crysallian Rangers, in addition to having a plasma-sheathed blade, can also project x-ray lasers and gravity waves).

D. General Attitude/Culture
Peaceful Expansionists---The Crysallians ideally want to buy leverage on the worlds around the Cluster(easy enough given how the region has economically collapsed).

E. Racial Composition
100% Crysallian(96% Human descent, 4% other)

F. Government
Technocratic Confederation w/ Socialist leanings.

G. Administrative Control
Tight---The Crysallians discourage their citizens from haring out into the greater galaxy(ies) and jeopardizing what they’re building.

H. External Trade
Raw Materials, some finished products and high tech goods
H1. Commodities
Exports: Minerals, especially power metals
Imports: Organics)carbon-based foodstuffs are considered a delicacy by the Crysallians) and High Tech

I. Status
Ascendant; the Crysallians have been quietly increasing their influence in the Aerys and adjacent sectors.

[Omegasgundam]

Based on Kitsune’s creations.

Kittani ‘K-Standard’ Light Combat Exoskeleton
”The exoskeleton the Kittani are peddling is a good example of the low end, being cheap enough to be bought in mass and far more capable than a normal suit of EBA. It's still a number of times more expensive, but when you’re working at the squad level the difference is often enough to save lives. It doesn’t have the bells and whistles of the one Naruni is peddling these days, but it isn’t back ordered for six months to forever by the policy level organization like that the Super Trooper is. The CEPA is naturally better, but it's a full suit of PA so it's much more expensive on the open market.”
----Colonel Philip Fredette, CAF

“There’s a lot of people making light exoskeletons these days, but the Kittani lucked out by being the first to get real attention and thus have the X for the ‘X-equivalent’ comparisons. The CEPA has about twice the production cost generally for the most stripped down models, but the additional features are generally well worth it. The lack of sensors also causes the helmet of the K-S to be a lot flimsier in comparison, but CEPA’s honestly has a real monster of an assembly that demands that the exoskeleton be working if you want to turn your head. The chest plate doesn’t have the right shape to use a CEPA’s McM boxes, but you can split one of PS’s 24-count Rifle launcher boxes over the shoulders. Speaking of PS, they’ll probably roid up their Starman for their equivalent, and Forge knows they’re going to get creative with what they put in the gauntlets and shoulders.”
----General Vlar Reltish, CAF Ground Forces

”When is the VEBA-13 coming out again? It's just a spiffed up NG Gladius right? Or did they go with the Roscoe as a basis?”
---- Anonymous, GNE Procurement

The post-Minion War Three Galaxies have started shifting towards using exoskeletons as the primary form of infantry protection in frontline combat, with normal EBA being insufficient protection against the level of firepower regularly used by their opposition. The lighter non-powered suits still have a role to play in counter insurgency and garrison roles, but only the most callous of non-supernatural races find it practical to rely on them solely. Market terminology has settled on using the CAF’s CEPA as the benchmark for the higher end offerings (much to Naruni’s dismay), but the lower end has become defined by the Kittani’s new ‘K-Standard’, attributed to the forces of Lord Splynn. There are many firms producing equivalent designs, so they are increasingly available.

Spoiler:

Type: Kittani LCES, Armored Infantry Light Exoskeleton
MDC/Armor by Location:

• Arms (2)-----------------------100 each
  Legs (2)------------------------120 each
  *Head----------------------------100
  Main Body---------------------200

Statistics:

• Height: The suit is four inches (10.1 centimeters) taller than the wearer. Armor is designed to be worn by individuals for five feet (1.52 meters) to seven feet (2.13 meters), although it usually has to be custom fit for the race.
  Width: Variable
  Length: Variable
  Weight: 85 lbs (38.6 kg)

Speed:

• Mobility: Good, -10% to physical skills
  Running: Triple normal running speed. Leaping distance is increased by 20% or 10 ft (3m), which ever is higher.. Running does tire the operator but at 30% of normal rate. Armor is well suited for most terrains, including underwater.
  Flight: With an external jetpack only.
  Underwater: The K-Standard can swim by using the same types of paddling leg and arm movements as a human at a maximum speed of roughly four mph (6.4 km/3.4 knots). It can also walk along the bottom of the sea at about 25% its normal running speed.
  Maximum Depth: 500 feet (152.4 meters).

Physical Strength: Equal to Robotic P.S. 25. Can lift and carry up to 625 lbs (283.5 kg).

Cargo: Very limited, but it includes a mount for a Powerpack or an ammunition drum on the back. EBA compatible strap harnesses are also commonly used. The operator can wear a Skinsuit underneath.

Power System: Electrical, has a 96 hour battery (Can change out battery in two minutes or recharge battery in thirty minutes). Stored in the hips, two batteries can be used at once.

Market Cost: 250,000 credits for a new, undamaged, full powered suit complete with a battery. Batch cost is often closer to 190,000 for regimental or higher orders. Each battery costs 25,000. It can take any additional (non-redundant) EBA customization.

Systems of Note:

• Standard Phase World EBA features, as well as the following;
  
  *Minor Interface and Sensor Systems: As the CA-6C (see WB 11, pg 102)
  
  *Bonuses: As RPA Combat: Basic, and +1 initiative. It does not have an Elite skill due to its limited features.
  
  *Counter Crush Field Emitter: Gravitic munitions only do half damage to the armor when powered, and the wearer only takes SDC damage divided by 10.

Weapons: None integral, and energy weapons would drain the battery dry quickly. Melee combat is as Robotic PS 25. If not using a jetpack, a power pack or ammo drum can be fitted on the back, and the suit can use light cyborg portable weapons.

[Omegasgundam]

And now I'll be going back to Rift's Earth for a bit. Or at least Paladin Steel.

Lorthrain Mageworks ‘War Wagon’ Light Hover Tank
With a number of spacecraft under their belt, Lorthrain Mageworks decided to do something simpler and more utilitarian; a hover tank. The needs of the UWW are quite different from those of other nations, so unexpected ground actions are a constant concern for many. The Minion War was only different on the scale of which they happened, so it was felt that an economical and predominantly domestically built combat platform would be of substantial interest. The resulting War Wagon is a reasonably capable platform with a refreshingly low cost, so many of the local garrisons have found reason to acquire them.

In terms of format, the War Wagon is quite conventional, with the main novelty being that it is made of Ironwood augmented Great Banner Oak. The material is on par with most modern materials, so protection is not lacking in the least, and the vehicle is constructed of cast offs from larger scale uses of it. Propulsion is provided by domestically produced GMR plates, with the material making a massive comeback after ASI reintroduced it to the galactic market. While limited in many ways, it remains far cheaper and easier to maintain than full Contra-Gravity engines, and they are perhaps ASI’s single largest grossing product. With even the FWC fabricating them, Lorthrain needed no help in setting up their own orbital foundry, and as usual their technowizards were taken in by its possibilities.

Reasoning that if buyers wanted an even cheaper vehicle they would buy an ASI Kodiak, the War Wagon comes standard with a modest Fusion plant, granting effectively infinite endurance. The default weapon is a simple and easy to maintain electrothermal 120mm cannon, but can be replaced with an equivalent 100mm mass driver or a number of energy weapons for additional expense. A number of missile launchers provide additional firepower, with both MRMs for general utility and mini-missiles for air defense. Anti-infantry mounts consist of a coaxially mounted TK machine gun and a heavy infantry weapon in the remote pintle mount, most commonly an ex-Warlock Marine Volcano Rifle. A number of defensive smoke launchers are also included, but are somewhat situational due to the tank’s speed.

Most of the War Wagon’s cost comes from the TW features, which is to be expected from a Mageworks product. While relatively modest, they consist of the most popular features in modern UWW vehicles. A reasonably deep PPE battery powers a capable ‘Invincible Armor’ forcefield, with the options to use ‘Shadow Meld’, ‘Invisibility Superior’, and the ever popular ‘Immune to Energy’ rounding out the other major features. The sensor systems include the normal UWW combination array, and the hull has been enchanted with a number of protective ‘Amulet’ features. Finally, there are slots for up to 4 advanced Talismans.

Since its introduction, the War Wagon has become very popular among the UWW members. While falling short of what the Warlock Marines desire, random incursions from other dimensions are a fact of life among the Warlock worlds, and the War Wagon stands head and shoulders above the vast majority of what comes through. It has also proven to be useful in attacking cultist safehouses, being able to ignore most of the common defensive measures and anti-supernatural shells being one of the better options for the normal summons. Lorthrain itself uses them to patrol its Ectofibre fields, with the mutations of the local wildlife meaning that no small number of freakish monstrosities grow by eating the planet’s cash crop.

Spoiler:

Type: QT-1 War Wagon

Class: Light Hover Tank

Crew: 3 (Commander, Driver, Gunner)

MDC/Armor by Location:

Turret---------------------------------------------------300
Primary Cannon-------------------------------------160
*Coaxial Mount---------------------------------------80
*Pintle Mount------------------------------------------80
MM Launchers (2, turret sides)-------------------80 each
MRM Launchers (2, sides)------------------------150 each
Main Body---------------------------------------------650
Reinforced Driver Compartment-----------------100
Reinforced Turret Compartment-----------------150
‘IA’ Mystic Force Field------------------------------ 300 (3/day for 30 minutes)

The ‘IA’ forcefield takes half damage from energy attacks. It may be restored after it’s third use of the day for 30 P.P.E. and 30 seconds of focus.

Statistics

Height: 9.6 feet (2.93 meters).
Width: 11.50 feet (3.51 meters).
Length: 25.4 feet (7.74 meters) for the main body.
Weight: 38 tons (34.5 metric tons).

Cargo: Minimal Storage Space, place for a rifle, handgun, small survival kit, signal flares, and food rations.

Powerplant: Advanced Fusion with a 30 year life span. The Tank also has a P.P.E. generator that produces 10 P.P.E. per hour and can hold up to 240 P.P.E. in storage.

Speed:

Altitude: 1-10 ft of the ground normally, but can reach altitude of 300 feet if necessary.
Hovering: 240 mph (386 kph)
Underwater: The War Wagon is NOT designed for underwater operations

Market Cost: 15 million credits fully equipped with an Electrothermal Cannon.

Systems of Note:

Standard (PW) Robot Vehicle Systems, as well as the following;

*Magic Sensors: Globe of Daylight, Presence Sense, See the Invisible, Sense Magic, Sense Evil, and See Aura. Permanently active

*Amulets of Protection: +3 to save against magic (including anti-magic cloud and other forms of dispelling magic), +1 save against psychic attacks and a bonus of +2 to save vs Horror Factor. Permanently active.

Weapons Systems:

1) Primary Cannon:May mount one of the following.

a) 120 mm Electrothermal Cannon

Range: 8,200 feet (2,500 meters)
Damage: As Sovietski 125mm rounds
Rate of Fire: 3 per melee
Payload: 50 rounds
b) 100mm Mass Driver

Range: 8,200 feet (2,500 meters)
Damage: As Sovietski 125mm rounds
Rate of Fire: 4 per melee
Payload: 80 rounds
Cost: 2 million credits
d) Hi-Laser Cannon: As on the Black Eagle. 2 million credits.
d) Ion Pulse Cannon

Range: 6,000 feet (1,830 m)
Damage: 3D4x10 per blast
Rate of Fire: 4 per melee
Payload: Effectively unlimited
Cost: 2 million credits

2) Coaxial Mount: Either a SPA Cannon or a TK Machine Gun.

a) Sub Particle Acceleration

Range: 1 mile in atmosphere, 2 miles in space
Damage: 1D6x10+10.
Rate of Fire: ECHH
Payload: Must be recharged with 400 PPE and 20,000 credits every two months.
b) TK Machine Gun

Range: 1 mile in atmosphere, 2 miles in space
Damage: 6D6
Rate of Fire: ECHH
Payload: Must be recharged with 400 PPE every two months.

3) Pintle Mount: This mini-turret can be remote operated from the interior, and can be equipped with any heavy infantry weapon.

4) Mini Missile Launchers (2):

Rate of Fire: 1, 2, 4, 8
Payload: 16 MMs each, for a total of 32

5) MRM Launchers (2):

Rate of Fire: 1, 2, 4
Payload: 4 MRMs, for a total of 4

6) Smoke Launchers (2): One on each side of the turret.

Range: 1200 ft
MD: varies by munition
Rate of Fire: 1, 2, 3
Payload: each has 12 grenades or smoke shells

Active TW Enchantments: Usually 5th Level equivalent

*0-4 Advanced Talismans: Commonly equipped with Sustain, Tend the Whole (variant of Mend the Broken for maintenance tasks), Expel Demons, and Negate Magic. (5th level)

Recharge Cost: 50 PPE for one cast.

*Shadow Meld: 10 PPE to activate, 3 minutes/level duration.

*Invisibility Superior: 20 PPE to activate, 3 minutes/level per activation. As spell.

*Impervious to Energy: 20 PPE to activate, 2 minutes/level per activation. As spell.

Variants:
The most common modification is to add a number of ramming spikes to the front, as the War Wagon often finds itself hitting supernatural beings at speed for one reason or another. Its shear mass and propulsion system means that it can often easily run them over, but many of them are too durable to be banished by it.

It is likely that IFV and APC versions will be produced soon.

[taalismn]

Davasgar(Thundercloud)(United Systems Alliance Protectorate)
“The Davasgarans may be peaceful types who have embraced the ways of compassion and coexistance, giving up the powers of their demonic ancestors to assume the ways of the mortal world, but they discovered their lost teeth in a hurry when the Infernals came to set up camp. Mind you, the Infenals were rolling over them and they would have lost badly but for our intervention, but apparently on several occasions the Davas pulled out all the stops and hurt the Infernals real bad, bad enough to draw some serious ichor. There’s rumors that they either remembered or discovered enough Elemental magic to cause a catastrophic subsidance of an island one of the Demon Lords invading them was using as a base of operations. Whole island collapsed into its old subsurface caldera, Caught most of the Infernals offguard and they either drowned or were boiled to death.
Of course, the Demons cursed and burned two densely-inhabited islands to extinction in retaliation, and would have wiped out more if we hadn’t dropped in, but it goes to show you what the local fisherfolk and scroll-academics could get up to when their ire started running hot.”

Of the many worlds of the United Systems Alliance, small, lightly-populated Davasgar seemed to attract an unusual amount of attention from Infernal forces, puzzling USA analysts. The planet had no great ambient magical energy fields, magical minerals, or ancient ruins on it, which were the usual reasons for the Infernals to make repeated stops on it. Nor was the planet strategic in any way, or even heavily populated. Nevertheless, it seemed to have become a popular stop for both sides in the Minion War’s extension in the Three Galaxies. It wasn’t until the USA had enough time, after beating back attacks on the planet, to settle in and start making inquiries that they learned the truth about the humble fisherfolk and island-dwellers of Davasgar.
It came out that the human(oid) inhabitants of Davasgar are the blood descendants of a group of Enlightened Demons, refugees from the Yama Kings and the Seven Hells, after the demonic guards were corrupted to embrace mortality by their human slaves. These ‘tainted’ demons fled their former masters, taking with them their mortal teachers, servants, friends, and lovers, as their human captives had become to them. After fleeing cross-dimensionally, they found a sanctuary on a planet in the Three Galaxies, and settled down to make lives for themselves. Though the demons had shed almost all their powers and physical traits, their mixed-blood descendants, especially due to interbreeding with other demon-hybrids, manifest various physical and metaphysical attributes of their ancestors, if not their former evil dispositions. The Davasgarans lived in peaceful isolation until the Minion War came to the Thundercloud. The Devyls and Demons recognize the demons of the Yama Kings as rivals and finding an isolated colony of depowered psuedo-demons proved just too tempting. The Infernals started raiding Davasgar for sport, food and slaves and might have done so until the settlement’s extinction, had not the United Systems Alliance been checking worlds along their own borders for Infernal activity and followed rumors to Davasgar. Detecting an inordinate amount of Infernal activity in the same sector as JurenA/B(Davasgar’s dual suns), the Alliance Joint Command launched a number of attacks both in space and on Davasgar’s surface that pushed the surprised Infernals out of the sector.

The grateful Davasgarans cheerfully applied to join the United Systems Alliance though they currently only enjoy staus as a self-governing protectorate. Despite the still raw ravages of the Infernal attacks on their world, the Davasgarans have offered what they can to the Alliance protecting them. This trade has been mainly in marine foodstuffs, minerals, and agricultural goods, but a few Davasgarans have joined the USA as recruits, or have simply taken advantage of the newly established offworld trade to adventure and see the megaverse.
While there was some concern from some quarters about the Davasgarans’ ancestry(just as quickly countered by arguments about how many existing members of the USA would have to be disqualified by their own peoples’ checkered histories), the Davasgarans have proven exemplary members of the USA for their limited capacities.


Davasgaran Society Notes:
- The Davasgarans practice a form of Confucianism, though Taoism is more prevalent in their daily lives.
- The Davasgaran trade language is recognizable as a mix of various Chinese tongues and Demgogian. Speakers of any of those languages will be able to understand it, but are at -20% to skill rolls due to island dialects and local cultural references.
- Between its odd orbit around Hauli, odd axial tilt, and Hauli’s odd orbit around the Jur-aka binary, Davasgaran clocks and calendars tend to be complicated affairs, and timekeeping a real skill, bordering on an art, as the length of a day can vary over the year. The Davasgarans have never developed a workable wristwatch as others know them, and many offworlders believe that this has contributed to the rather laid-back attitude most Davasgarans affect.
-Owing to the unusual orbit around the planet’s twin suns, Davasgarans often speak of ‘red’ and ‘blue’ seasons(giving them a total of eight seasons altogether), and speak of the season and season type one is born in determining in part what special abilities one has. There’s little hard evidence of this having any truth to it, but the Davasgarans still believe.

Davasgaran Physiology(Effectively Variant Human Sept):
Davasgarans appear as generally Human(and are able to interbreed with humans), with Human stats, but are distinguished by having some residual or vestigial demonic features and traits(roll on the following tables):
Alignments: Any
Dispositions:
While Davasgarans show as wide a range of emotions and attitudes as normal humans, in general they can be typified as loving their liberty and lifestyles. Tjey take exception to anybody trying to take that away from them, and only the most disgruntled and blackhearted Davasgaran rogues ever considered, let alone actually went ahead with, betraying their people by cooperating with the Infernals.
Physical Attributes:
Fall within the human range of 3d6 for all attributes, unles otherwise modified.
Hit Points: As per human norm
SDC: As per human norm
MDC: Unless otherwise noted, Davasgarans are SDC beings.
Psionics/ISP: Standard (Rifts Earth) chance of psionic abilities(this is still better than most of the Three Galaxies)
PPE: Higher than the Human norm; 5d6

Ancestral Traits:
Roll 1d4 times:
01-10% Perfectly Human Appearance---Ignore all other rolls
11-18% Unusual Eyes---Unusually colored; 01-11% Yellow, 11-20% Glowing Green, 21-30% Flaming Red, 31-40% Completely Gray, 41-50% Completely Light Blue, 51-60% Stark White 61-70% Completely Dark Blue, 71-80% Coal Black, 81 -90% Purple, 91-00% Orange
19-20% Unusual Eye---Rather than both eyes being exceptional, one eye is slightly larger, unusually shaped and colored, and possesses special abilities: 01-20% Clairvoyance(known locally as ‘Weather Eye’), 21-40% See Aura ,41 -60% See the Invisible, 61 -80% Hawklike distance vision(2 miles), 81-100% Night vision(2,000 ft)
21-30% Odd Skin Color----- 01-11% Yellow, 11-20% Green, 21-30% Red, 31-40% Gray, 41-50% Light Blue, 51-60% Stark White 61-70% Dark Blue, 71-80% Coal Black, 81 -90% Purple, 91-00% Orange
31-35% Ears----01-75% large and pointed, or 76-00% animal-like, like a pig’s or a canine’s. 10% chance of having enhanced hearing.
36-40% Disproportionately Large Body Feature---This could be a nose, hands, ears, or sexual organs.
41-45% Hair----01-30% Exceptionally hairy with abundant body hair, 31-60% ‘Big Hair’; has an exceptionally large and unruly mane that seemingly moves of its own accord, or 61-00% totally bald. 20% chance of any hair being unusually colored;
46-55% Horns---1d4 horns adorn the head
56-60% Vestigal Tail-----25% chance of it being prehensile(+1 APM)
61-65% Vestigal Wings---A small pair of wings sprout from the shoulder blades; these are small enough to conceal under loose clothing. They are completely nonfunctional
66-85% Sharp Teeth---The person either has enlarged fang-like canine teeth or a mouth full of many smaller sharp teeth.
86-95% Muscular---The Davasgaran is built like a brick ####house; increase body mass and weight by 1d4 times, +3d6 to P.S. and +2d4 to P.E. , reduce Spd by HALF.
96-00% Willowy---The Davasgaran has an exceptionally thin and attenuated build; almost skeletal. Reduce body mass by HALF, increase height and reach by 1d10x10%. +2d4 to P.P. and Speed.


Metaphysical Traits---Some( 30%) Davasgarans have inherited metaphysical traits from their demonic ancestors:
01-05% Weapon Master---The Davasgaran has an innate proficiency with melee weaponry;+2 strike, +1 parry with any melee weapon
06-15% Bio-Regeneration---2d6 per melee round
16-25% Immune to Cold---The Davasgaran never suffers from chill or frostbite, and cold-based attacks, even megadamage ones, do NO damage.
26-45% Immune to Heat---The Davasgaran takes no harm from heat, including heat prostration and fire. Megadamage heat and fire, on the other hand, do FULL damage.
45-50% Environmental Adaptation--The best of both worlds; the person is effectively immune to extremes of hot and cold.
51-60% Hot Touch---The Davasgaran’s touch can burn like a lit cigarette or hot iron, and can be used to light fires. 1 SDC damage.
61-70% Wind Runner---In a brisk wind or stiff breeze, the character gets a boost of speed and agility: increase running speed by 50%, leaping distance x10, and + 1d4 to Dodge and Roll.
71-75% Magic----The Davasgaran has a natural talent for magic, and instinctively knows 1d6 spells from levels 1-4. Gets a bonus of + 1d4x10 PPE.
76-85% Superhuman Strength--- +1d6 to P.S. and is considered to be Superhuman
86-90% (Super)Natural Linguist---The Davasgaran can understand and speak any SPOKEN language with 1d4 melees of listening to it being spoken, though they may not be able to understand any colloquialisms, codewords, or cultural references.
91-95% Psionics---The character has acquired extra psionics. +1d4 powers from ONE class, except Super, and ISP is ME +1d6 per level of experience. Saves as a Minor psychic. If already a psychic from the random chance roll, move up a psychic class and increase ISP by 50%.
96-00% Metamorphosis----01-30 Land Animal(typically goat, pig,ox, horse or monkey), 31-60%-Avian(typically a falcon or sea bird ), 61-90%-Fish(typically a shark ), 91-00%-Mist.

Vulnerabilities: ---Some( 30%) Davasgarans have also unfortunately inherited certain vulnerabilites from their ancestors:
01-50% Silver---Takes DOUBLE damage
51-60% Bone---Takes DOUBLE damage
61-85% Fire---Takes DOUBLE damage
86-00% Magic---Takes DOUBLE damage


Solar System(Jur-aku )
Number of Stars: 2
Types of Stars:-Blue Dwarf(Juren)
-Red Dwarf(Saku)
Number of Planets: 5
-Gas Giant(Huali)----This enormous ‘warm’ gas giant supports five sizeable moons, each the size of a small planet. Davasgar is the largest of these. Hadu, Falsis, Shazen, and Kolki are the others. Falsis and Shazen support USAJC naval bases. Halu and Kolki show atmospheres of their own, though too thin or tainted to support human life, as well as show signs of low order life, attributable to panspermia drift from Davasgar.

-Asteroid(Tzu)----A minor planet that was almost shattered in fighting between AJC and Infernal space forces.

-Asteroid((Shen)----Another minor planetoid

-Gas Giant (Calide)----This enormous gas giant is home to eight major moons, though so far it has only received cursory scientific interest.

-Gas Giant(Chialas) ----Large gas giant on the far edges of the Jur-aka system.

Planet(Davasgar)
Davasgar is actually an inhabitable moon of Huali. Despite being small, the moon possesses Earth-like gravity and a strong magnetic field, suggesting a core rich in heavy elements. It may actually be a captured planet.
Whatever its origins, Davasgar is large and warm enough to support a substantial amount of liquid water and a breathable atmosphere. It has a molten core and a strong enough magnetic field that it can weather the solar radiation of its twin suns and the radiation belt around Huali.
Davasgaran culture is focused mainly on agriculture, farming the island archipelagoes and fishing the planet’s globe-spanning oceans. Trade between the various atolls and island chains has led to a rich and varied island culture, with each island-state developing its own traditions. This has further led to much cultural interchange as the Davasgarans are very fond of inter-island competitions and festivals.

Type: Terrestrial
Diameter: 6,000 km
Gravity: 1.06 terrestrial gees.
Temperature: Temperate
Unusual/Special Features:
-Strange Orbit---Davasgar has a convoluted orbit around its gas giant host, leading to some long ‘total nights’ and ‘total days’ as the moon orbits behind or in front of Huali. Other times, Davasgar assumes a polar orbit. Equally oddly, this property is shared by Huali’s other moons, so there seems to be no danger of collision.
-Unusual Axis----With Davasgar’s odd orbit comes some odd axial tilt. As a result, Davasgar has irregular polar ice formation.
-Craters---Davasgar has some fairly big crater-atolls on its surface
-Strong Magnetic Field---Davasgar has some rather spectacular aurora activity
Atmosphere:
Thin, but breathable. Carbon content of the air is slightly higher than Earth-normal, and oxygen content peters out fairly quickly with altitude, so Davasgar lacks high-flying lifeforms. Newcomers to the planet may need supplemental oxygen and an acclimation period, even at sea level.
Terrain: Unusual Mineralogy---For its size, Davasgar has some surprising concentrations of minerals and crystals.
Davasgar is volcanically active, with a good deal of subduction and new island building
Notable Mineral Concentrations:
- Iron
- Chromium
- Scheelite
- Pitch Blend
- Salt
- Diamond
- Ruby
- Borax
Hydrosphere:
Wet; roughly 80% of Davasgar is covered in open water.
Huali’s gravitational pull on Davasgar’s world-ocean, combined with the secondary influences of the other moons, means that Davasgar is subject to some unusual tides and weather patterns.
Biosphere:
Rich and fecund, with many diverse species, especially in the ocean. An important plant species is a sort of aquatic bamboo-kelp that is harvested for both food and building materials(especially for boats, as the thick cork-like branches are naturally bouyant, and the bamboo-like stems can be used for structural members). Kondo-cane is anothr bamboo-like plant that sequesters water, and produces a sugary and palatable sap like coconit juice that can be fermented into a local drink.
Civilization:
Settled
Population:
125 million Davasgarans
Technology:
Industrial Age(Steam)---Though most Davasgarans happily live in largely agricultural or fishing communities, there’s been developments of steam engines, trains, and steamships, gas lighting, electricity(with telegraphy having just been introduced), and early airships. Industrial chemistry has begun producing synthetic dyes and fuels from coal tar and seaweeds. The Davasgarans also have firearms, cannon, and black powder rocketry.
Trade with the Alliance has seen the spread of various high-tech items, though the Davasgarans do not yet have the ability to repair or produce them on their own.
Economy:
Agricultural/Fishing
Wealth:
Still recovering from Infernal invasion, but the local economy is Average
Government:
Pedocracy, with Theocratic undertones. Davasgar’s government emerged from the original Yama Demons’ enlightenment at the hands of Buddhist scholars, the Davasgarans have placed their trust in learned, experienced, scholars to lead them. They call their system of government the Enlightened Path, and it is as much about practical matters as religious doctrine. One of the first things the Davasgarans have asked of the United Systems Alliance is access to knowledge, and the United Systems University has entered talks about opening up a branch campus on Davasgar.
Law Level:
Overbearing---Rather harsher than it was previously, but the Infernal invasions and occupations brought out the worst in some Davasgarans, some of whom refused to put down their weapons afterwards.
Popularity:
Ambivalent---Post-Infernals, there’s been some call for reforms in the government, which waffled on an appropruate response to the invasions until it was almost too late.
Stability:
Despite the recent contretemps, there’s a very strong feeling of camaraderie amongst the Davasgarans. While there’s some disagreements as to who specifically should be in charge, the Davasgarans all agree that the Enlightened Path is the best way of governance for them.

[Borast]

Hadazad(Thundercloud Galaxy)(Human sept)(United Systems Alliance member)

-Terrestrial (Hadazah)---System lifeworld
Planet
Type: Terrestrial
Gravity: 1.7 g.

Atmosphere: Terrestrial, nitrox mix, Ambient pressure at sea level is slightly higher than Earth-normal, but not dangerously so, and both natives and offworlders can move between Terra-standard and Hadazad-standard pressures without much acclimation or decompression/pre-breathing .

Speaking as a trained diver...the only way this can happen is if the atmosphere is thinner than Terran normal, or has a LOT less Nitrogen in it. All things considered, I do not know know of any other gasses that could bubble up in the blood stream like Nitrogen does. (Not included in the training, since we only dive on Earth... )
As you increase the power of gravity, the harder it pulls on the column of air over it...the denser the air is...the higher the partial pressure. If you spend several hours diving in the 10 metre range, you *will* have to decompress on the way to the surface.

One Atmosphere of pressure at sea level is just over 103kPa (14.7ppsqi). For a terrestrial mix at 1.7g, you would have about 175kPa (just under 25ppsqi).
Without some sort of super med tech, you would need to engage in some form of decompression protocols similar to what NASA have their astronauts perform prior to a space walk, since the soft EVA suits are almost at half the pressure of the cabin.

Outside that...love the write-up!

[taalismn]

One Atmosphere of pressure at sea level is just over 103kPa (14.7ppsqi). For a terrestrial mix at 1.7g, you would have about 175kPa (just under 25ppsqi).
Without some sort of super med tech, you would need to engage in some form of decompression protocols similar to what NASA have their astronauts perform prior to a space walk, since the soft EVA suits are almost at half the pressure of the cabin.

Outside that...love the write-up!

Ah, reality, the bane of the fantasist.
Well, I could claim that since Hadazah is the Land of Giant Anime-Style Robots....the natives probably have stupidly rubber anime physiologies that free-flow pressure as it changes, and nothing short of explosive decompression is going to kill them(since narrative requirement needs them to be available to be killed by other things like aforementioned giant robots.)

Still, that's good to know for future reference; Maybe I'll rely less on random roll tables in that respect if and when I'm generating atmosphere stats...or have larger and more complex spaceports and acclimation periods if the characters don't want to suffocate or pop like a balloon on fast approaches/exits.

Come to think of it, though orbital elevators might be super-tech, they also offer convenient decomp periods if the trips up out of atmosphere take several days

[Borast]

Ah, reality, the bane of the fantasist.

Ever so true... Especially when you consider the Irony of the advice given most people who wish to write by people in the industry... "Write what you know."
The problem comes in when you consider that the author wants X then Y then Z as a natural result with no interior steps...but, since (s)he was a professional "Career" for 20 years, knows that to go from X to Y, you need to A, C, and F, then B, D & E from Y to Z. Doesn't always work as well as they say. (Sometimes it does... Elizabeth Moon was a Marine, and the "reality" shows in her Paksenarrion, Familias Regnant and Vatta books.)

Well, I could claim that since Hadazah is the Land of Giant Anime-Style Robots....the natives probably have stupidly rubber anime physiologies that free-flow pressure as it changes, and nothing short of explosive decompression is going to kill them(since narrative requirement needs them to be available to be killed by other things like aforementioned giant robots.)

Or, they all have the power of Immune to Pressure.

Still, that's good to know for future reference; Maybe I'll rely less on random roll tables in that respect if and when I'm generating atmosphere stats...or have larger and more complex spaceports and acclimation periods if the characters don't want to suffocate or pop like a balloon on fast approaches/exits.

Y'mean like how a space ship traveling at more than a critical speed will implode like a soda can if it hits the right depth into an atmosphere?

Come to think of it, though orbital elevators might be super-tech, they also offer convenient decomp periods if the trips up out of atmosphere take several days

Well, here on Earth, with a car traveling at 300kph, it would take 5 days to reach geosynchronous orbit...plenty of time to decompress...and start to rot if you died. (Sorry, I watch various CSI and NCIS shows, and decomp has a specific meaning there!)

In any case...it's after midnight, I'm starting to blather...but by all means, as I inferred, keep-up the good work!

[taalismn]

[
Well, here on Earth, with a car traveling at 300kph, it would take 5 days to reach geosynchronous orbit...plenty of time to decompress...

Ah, but what an incredible view out the window, no?

[Borast]

To die for, friend...

Just so long as you make sure it's not you in the cabin that blows out due to a debris impact.

If they had one today, I *would* pay the $20k for the round trip... Saving for Retirement is for losers anyway!

[taalismn]

To die for, friend...

Just so long as you make sure it's not you in the cabin that blows out due to a debris impact.

If they had one today, I *would* pay the $20k for the round trip... Saving for Retirement is for losers anyway!

Good point. Anybody wanting to build an orbital beanstalk would want to clean up their low-space environment seriously, even if they had insanely tough building materials to create their elevator.
Of course, once you had one or more geo-synch beanstalks, you can start building orbital rings, which takes care of all but the highest latitude surface coverage satellites tracks. Your orbital ring takes care of communications and weather sat coverage.

[taalismn]

Jovenis(Probationary United Systems Alliance Member)
“If you’re going monster hunting, it’s rude not to let any resident Jovenians know about it; they kinda get off on that sort of thing. Several centuries of tradition handed down from their warrior ancestors makes them want to join any soul-sucker extermination party to make sure the job gets done RIGHT.”

“If I didn’t know any better, I’d swear these people were some dimensionally-misplaced clan of Scotsmen; the clan behavior, the warrior traditions, the kilts....but they’re not.”

Jovenis is a world founded by magic soldiers.
The Jovenians claim that they are the descendants of a military unit that once served a powerful magical kingdom(possibly an Atlantean offshoot) in another universe. Said kingdom was engaged in a life and death struggle with forces of darkness, and the Jovenians’ ancestors were in the thick of the fighting, when their enemies used a reality-bending WMD on their position. Many of the soldiers died in the horrifically powerful dimensional storm unleashed, but the majority, after suffering through what seemed an eternity of warping and battering, found themselves deposited in another universe, unable to return to their starting point. The survivors, a mixed bag of front-line troops, their support elements, and some civilian refugees they were protecting, found themselves stranded, with little hope of finding a way back. Given the dire circumstances of the strategic situation back home at the time their position was blasted, however, the military commanders decided that at the least they could establish refuge for the civilians and their wounded, lick their wounds, and resupply, so that if they COULD return, they could field a refreshed and combat-ready force.
The impromptu colonists and exilees have managed to make a living for themselves. Though they lost much of their equipment in the dimensional transposition, and much of what survived had to be repurposed into survival gear, the soldiers kept their martial traditions and training central to their emergent society, with the hopes that they might one day return to their homelands and continue the fight.
The Thunderbolts are the elite of their militia society, expert combat mages and demon-slayers.
Contact with galactic society allowed the Jovenians to apply their long-honed military skills. They initially had to beat off pirates, but soon made contact with United System Alliance forces pursuing those same pirates. The pursuit force was very pleasantly surprised to discover the pirates they had been running down broken at the feet of the local militia.
Though the USA has no idea of from where the Jovenians originally came from, they’ve happily helped the Jov build themselves up, trading with them and bootstrapping their techbase. Jovenian state mercenaries, modeled after the Greater New England National Contract Security Forces, have gone out into the Three Galaxies and megaverse as magic-specialist soldiers and horrorhunters, gaining experience, earning good coin, and gathering intelligence(including rumors on where their original nation might be). Since learning of the GNE mage-training programs, the Jovenians have become dotty about sending applicants to learn, and would very much like to establish a training school on their world.
Though the Jovenians still lack starflight of their own, they have acquired a few spacecraft and supporting technology from the USA. They are also keen on the Crystal Trade, as their world is deficient in the types and amounts of natural mineral crystals needed to rebuild their ancient technowizardry.

Solar System(Tempesis)
Number of Stars: 1
Types of Stars: Red Dwarf
Number of Planets: 5
-Terrestrial(Vicis)---Though small, Vicis is actually quite temperate, has plenty of surface water, has a dense, but breathable, atmosphere, and even has a thin biosphere related to that of Jovenis. The existence of Vicis in the same solar system as Jovenis has raised questions as to how random the dimensional jump that landed the Jovenians’ ancestors on their refuge world really was. If Vicis(and possibly Jovenis as well) was terraformed, the accidental dimensional jump of the ancient pre-Jovenians may have tapped into an ancient wormhole transportation network, though no ruins or other obvious signs of a precursor civilization have yet been found in the system.
Vicis is being developed, with USA help, as a potential Jovenian colony. Special care is being taken to prevent any of the Jovenian adversarial energy-vampires from reaching Vicis as well, and either destroying the fragile ecosystem there, or establishing a new foothold themselves and making the planet contested ground.

-Terrestrial (Jovenis) ---System lifeworld(primary)

-Gas Giant(Teramar)--- This large gas giant has attracted the usual belter activity, with gas miners wanting to become established to service the growth of space travel through the system and sector. Discovery of primitive microbial lifeforms on several of Teramar’s icy moons has increased speculation that some earlier civilization may have come through and attempted to introduce life as part of a larger terraforming effort.

-Asteroid---(Elsal)---More of a large comet, this eccentric planetoid sheds a visible and massive tail of ionized gas as it rolls through theTempesis system, and is visible from Jevenis’ surface for much of its thirty year cycle-orbit around the sun. It features in much Jovenian lor and iconography, and is generally regarded as a talisman of great cosmic beneficence, even with the rediscovery and advance of Jovenian science.

-Gas Giant(Vidac)---Another large gas giant, Vidac is dark and cold, with a low albedo, making it difficult, but not impossible, to find with telescopes on Jovenis. Even so, the Jovenian scientific establishment, crude as their scientific instruments were, were able to find it and describe it. The same scientific establishment was overjoyed to get the chance to visit it aboard USA spacecraft, and see how right(and wrong) their speculations were. These astronomers were probably the only people to get worked up about Vidac; the jaded USA spacers were less impressed with ‘just another cold gas ball’.


Planet (Jovenis)
“Jovenis has a particularly large coverage of limestone formations covering its surface...makes the Great Barrier Reef on Earth look puny in comparison. These spongelands underpin a good portion of the usable surface land. Makes for a great water filtration system with underground rivers percolating through the formations. Combined with the doozey-powerful frequent thunderstorms they get on the planet, sinkhole formation is a constant hazard to Jovenian communities. Also makes for a rich subterranean ecology...and that includes the monsters that came with the Jovenians’ ancestors. Over half of their wars of extermination took place underground, fighting cavern to cavern, and the combat was hellacious. The Jovenian war-houses train arguably some of the best combat cave-divers and spelunkers in the galaxy because they HAVE to.”

Jovenis is a jungle world, warm and humid. Much of its surface water is locked in marsh, swamp, and a vast network of uderground waterways permeating the thick limestone crust covering much of the planet. Though rich in metals like nickel, titanium, and cobalt, the planet is lacking in the quantities of mineral crystals that were important to the Jovenians’ ancestral technowizardry; this lack contributed to the loss of much of their original technology and science.
One of the early hurdles the Jovenians had to overcome was a contingent of the same enemy they were fighting when they got Rifted; the life-sucking energy-vampires managed to survive as well, and fed off the local life while multiplying. Exterminating the old enemy before they could render the Jovenians’ new home lifeless proved a major undertaking that took over a century to accomplish, and even then there were scattered accounts of holdouts or hibernating monsters posing a hazard to the unwary over the following centuries. There are still occcasional rumors of deep-hidden lifeforce-vampires emerging from centuries-long dormancy and attacking the unwary.

Note: Jovenians are human in physiology, but possess a +2 to save versus magical energy draining and possession attacks(including vampire attacks), take HALF damage from regular electrical and ion attacks, and megadamage electrical and ion attacks do SDC damage to them. Electrokinetic Shockers are unusually common among Jovenian psychics.

Type:Terrestrial
Diameter: 3,000 km
Gravity: 0.8 g
Temperature: Warm and Humid, tropical.
Unusual/Special Features:
-Rings---Jovenis is surrounded by a set of rings composed of fine dust; these rings seem to be electrically charged, trapping radiation and taking the edge off Tempesis’s worse solar flares, but also making orbital space travel through/near the rings hazardous without extra radiation shielding. Jovenis also suffers some very impressive aurora activity.
Atmosphere: Dense, terrestrial nitrox mix; Jovenis has some very impressive thunderstorms.
Terrain: 3; swamp, hill-lands, and crag-lands.
Notable Mineral Concentrations:
- Zinc
- Cobalt
- Antimony
- Wolframite
- Calcite
- Titanium
- Barite
- Nickel
Hydrosphere: Wet, but only about 27% of the planet’s surface possesses open water in the form of rivers and lakes.
Biosphere: Dense; Jovenian evolution has reached the stage of saurians, albeit the largest is only the size of a large cow, and a number of wolf-sized predators.
Jovenis has a particularly varied and prolific variety of coral-like lifeforms that have contributed to the widespread layers of limestone deposits blanketing the planet. These corals seem very temperature-resistant and even thrive in slightly acidic waters.
Civilization:
Settled
Population:
1.2 billion humans
Technology:
Roughly equal to Victorian-era Earth with a few advanced items of surviving magitech. The Jovenians have what can be called ‘’steampunk’ with some technowizardry.
Economy:
Agricultural---Jovenis continues to still rely heavily on agriculture as the basis of their economy. The local jungle ecology has given them a wealth of exploitable plant and animal species, as likewise the rich underground ecosystems(which yield, among other things, rich fungi, shellfish and arthropod harvests). The greater United Systems Alliance trade economy is just starting to discover and tap this bounty, to the enrichment of the Jovenians. Jovenian mushroom-steak and cave-crab are becoming popular export delicacies, reaching, it is rumored, as far as Altess Dynasty tables.
Wealth:
Can be considered to be Rich; the local economy is stable and booming, everybody gets more than enough food, and growing interstellar trade promises to keep the good times rolling.
Government:
Monarchy---Jovenis is ruled by a constitutional monarchy descended from the few officers of aristocratic blood among the original troops. These bluebloods of necessity established a monarchy system of government that would serve as a Regency of their growing refuge-colony until they could reestablish contact with their homeworld, and presumably rejoin their former kingdom. As time passed and it became more unlikely they would be able to find a way back, the Regency become the established government of the land, though it still paid its respects to their ancestors’ rulership. The Low Throne(the High Throne is the position of the original rulers the Jovenians’ ancestors were sworn in service to, and the title and empty Throne are maintained as symbols in the Jovenian House of Government) is open to males and females, though there have been more Queen-Regents than King-Regents as the primary rulers of Jovenis.
Law Level:
Lawful---Between the Regency and the Houses of War, Jovenian society is pretty law-abiding, following a very efficient and comprehansive code of law based on military and civil strictures dating back to the original army unit.
Popularity:
Fanatical----The popularity of the monarchy has only gotten greater with Galactic contact; the traditionalists are seeing the long millenia of adhering to the ancient ways paying off, what with Jovenian soldiers fighting supernatural evil on the galactic marches, just like in the olden days.
Stability:
Long Standing. There have been one or two incompetent leaders, which led to royal familis being changed, but the Jovenian government has been long-lived and smooth-running.

Jovenians possess a warrior culture that values discipline, courage, principles, and prowess of arms. Jovenians of both sexes grow up in communal warrior lodges learning what military lore and weapons techniques have survived the millenia. While much of this has devolved to the level of superstition, other parts of Jovenian lore clearly originated as practical magic and supernatural defense techniques. When they reach adulthood, they join the common Jovenian militia and pledge themselves to the defense of their culture and the eradication of evil.
Most adult Jovenians carry around a fetish or medicine bag containing various items thought to carry spiritual importance, such as lock of hair from a loved one or fallen comrade, stones from a sacred place, animal bones, magic charms, or other personal relics. Jovenian warriors LOVE electrical weaponry, and have taken to ion weapons with a passion, despite their limitations. Magical electrical weapons are ideal.



Jeheel---United Systems Alliance outpost system
“Belters like lots of space, but at the same time they’re rather tight-knit. Neiighbors might be millions of miles apart and hardly talk to each other, but if something hits the fan, they’ll pull together to help each other out in an instant. It’s gotten a lot easier and faster with contra-gravity drives, but the mutual assistance still holds true. You hold your peace, not grudges, in the Deep Black.”

Jeheel System is home to a large population of ‘belters’, space colonists who eschew seeking habitable worlds in favor of making their own from the asteroids and rocky airless bodies that are much more abundant throughout the cosmos. Most Belters are followers of the ‘Adapt and Occupy’ movement, which advocates making artficial habitats to utilize even sub-optimal systems, and the Jeheel system is a good example of this philosophy. Its location along the Thurian Path hyperlane and on the edge of the Turaken Gap, makes it a good place to station a rapid response force, in this case the 9th Frontier Defense Force(FDF) Fleet, which sends frequent patrols out to systems up and down the Thurian Path. Jeheel is also home to a military refit yard and to the Jeheel Medical Annex, a station colony dedicated to serving the emergency needs of frontier medicine.
The 9th FDF consists of 45 ships of the line, plus numerous support vehicles and vessels. It is built around a core of two Perdition Command Assault Carriers, and supporting heavy elements of Shiva Heavy Missile Cruisers and ‘Ramey’ Heavy Transport Carriers, escorted by multiple squadrons of light cruisers and destroyers. The Fleet facilities are also capable of handing 150% extra in numbers of ships in the event the system has to act as an asembly area, though it normally generally acts as a stopover for units of the Merchant Defense Force, so there’s usually 4-10 MDF frigates or light cruisers in slips at the 9th’s docks on Cristof, one of the larger moons of the gas giant Petamof.
Currently the 9th is slightly understrength, due to operational losses and damage suffered during the battles for Davasgar.

None of the planets in the Jeheel system are habitable without extensive artifical habitats, so most settlement is in asteroid habitats or domed cities.

9 million belters call Jeheel System home. While some of their mining output goes to support the military yards in the system, the majority of material goes to supporting the settlers themselves, with some surplus being exported. The system is governed by a democratic congress, with electronic voting from the various habitats. Numerous small political blocs, mainly based around the larger and more heavily populated habitats, petition for services and price controls mainly. The congress also appropriates resources for common utilities, such as cycler ships that travel on regular courses through the system, picking up and dropping off passengers and cargo from the various settlements, and public gas refineries, that provide emergency assistance in the form of fuel, air and water to those in dire need.

Notable Habitats on the Jeheel system include:
-Kodamo City---Arguably the single largest community in the Jeheel system, Kodamo City consists of a web of linked habitat modules and hollowed-out asteroids that supports some 450,000 people.

-Rifrafflan---This is actually a colony of Karmatorg---space-adapted cyborg ‘gypsies’ from the Central Alliance. The Karmatorg enclave is built around the cannibalized remains of the three large transports that brought them to the Jehel system, plus a large carboneous asteroid they found. It’s since been added to over time, with smaller metallic asteroids clumped on for reinforcement.

-Endefcor---Bernal Sphere-style space colony. It is run by the Rebecc Group, a well-known extended ‘super-family’ of belters regarded amongst the asteroid-dweller communities of several systems the same way the Vanderbilts and the Rockefellers were once regarded in American history; filthy rich, well-connected, and frighteningly business-savvy. It was initially seen as bad luck when the Rebeccs showed up at Jeheel, because it was feared that the clan would try to dominate the local economy, but the Jeheel Rebeccs have been uncharacteristically quiet, apparently content to run several mining and refinery operations, and host merchants in the system. Speculation is now that the Jeheel Rebeccs are a black sheep branch of the clan, and came to Jeheel to avoid their more affluent and pushy kin. The fact that the habitat has been populated mainly by refugees from several small failed colonies in distant sectors has also raised eyebrows and fueled more rumors that the greater Rebeccs may have had something to do with those colonies’ failures.

-Radan’s Stoop---Asteroid colony owned and run by the Fedor family, whose grandsire, Radan, led and founded the colony expeditin to Jeheel. The colony is some 9,000 strong, nearly half of who are related by blood or marriage to the Fedors. Best known in the Jeheel belts for being the home of Radan Vacuum Breweries, producers of some of the best-tasting alcohol products in the system.

-Idian I & II---These two Bernal Sphere-type stations are not colonies as such, but antimatter factories using the powerful solar energy put out by Jeha and Jebe to power arrays of supercolliders. Their total output is paltry compared to what the CCW’s energy production facilities can churn out, but as the USA is less dependent on antimatter power systems, this isn’t seen as a serious issue. The AM plants are run by the USA and protected by the USAJC, but over a quarter of the production output goes to civilian purposes. Most of the rest keeps the 9th FDF fueled and powered up, though the facilities do not produce AM ordnance (these are delivered by Asteroid Cruiser).

-Daisy---An asteroid colony focused almost exclusively on agriculture. Daisy trades travelers through the system metal for seeds and plant cuttings, and trades food to other belters for water and organics. Daisy maintains a number of satellite ‘gardens’ on smaller asteroids in its vicinity. Interestingly enough, the inhabitants (some 18,000 of them) of Daisy are Machine People who just like growing things.

-Jeheel Medical Annex---Established on the Petamofian moon Pevian, this domed colony was established to provide the system with advanced medical care. Besides serving the locals’ medical needs, the 32,000-strong JMA services emergency medicine to vessels and smaller colonies on the Thurian Path. Because, even with FTL propulsion systems, most patients brought to the JMA are either on extensive life support or in stasis, the facility has state of the art regenerative and reconstructive capabilities. A number of smaller satellite facilities act as quarantine habitats and medical research labs.

Solar System(Jeheel)
Number of Stars: 2
Types of Stars:
- Blue Dwarf(Jeha)
- Orange Dwarf (Jebe)
Number of Planets: 7
-Asteroid/Planetissimal---Raydee---Radiation-blasted by both of Jeheel’s suns, Raydee nevertheless is the site of a colony, Sunburn, sheltering 14,000 mainly Catyr colonists burrowed deep under Raydee’s rocky crust. Raydee’s surface is covered with solar collectors and particle traps harvesting some of Jeha and Jebe’s energy output. Microwave-beamed energy, refined metals, and exotic solar particles are Raydee’s exports, in return for volatiles and water, which are in scarce supply on the plantoid.

- Gas Giant---- Esvis, a small gas giant with nine moons. Its magnetic field has trapped a high amount of radiation around the planet, making it hazardous to approach too closely, so the moons remain tantalizingly out of reach for all but the most heavily-shielded astro-miners.

- Terrestrial ---Morloy, an enormous high-gravity(10 gs) rocky world with a dense atmosphere and a planet-covering toxic ocean. Too hazardous to colonize, though its atmosphere is scoop-mined for its gases.

-Gelflin Belt----This is a dense asteoid belt between the orbits of Morloy and Tregis, and where the majority of Jeheel system’s colonists can be found.

- Gas Giant------Tregis, another small gas giantm but lacking Esvis’s deadly radiation belt. Its seventeen moons all sport colonies or industrial sites, making it one of the confluence points of activity in the system. Several massive state-run gas collection and refinement facilities orbit Tregis, providing air and fuel to system colonists and visitors alike.

-Gas Giant------Petamof, a Jupiter-sized gas giant with nine substantially-sized moons of note. The 9th FDF maintains its primary base on Cristof, one of the larger moons. The Jeheel Medical Annex is on a nearby moon, Pevian. More gas refinery stations orbit Petamof, servicing the traffic there.

-Terrestrial ---Shomel, a large high-gravity cold world. It sports a single large moon, Calvis, which is the site of a large water-ice mine and adjacent colony, appropriately named DeepDrink.

-Terrestrial ---Adviskol, a huge and cold rocky outer body. Its intense gravity and poisonous cold atmosphere, as well as its distance from the systems’ two stars, means it is less than ideal for colonization . It does, however, act as a ‘gravitational tug’ on several clusters of asteroids on the edge of the system, and makes a convenient gravity slingshot and atmosphere braking site for belters making homes in those clusters.

[taalismn]

Some cultural color to pass time waiting for the big snow storm to hit....

‘Syngy Ale’
The result of United Systems Alliance cross-pollination; mashed Mestos moho-fruit, fermented with a Mantician-bred yeast, and aged in barrels of Nersaugan oak. A Skensian brewmeister developed it from a Mestoan rotgut recipe.
The result is a light translucent green alcoholic drink Inexpensive to produce, with near universal metabolic compatibility, providing a sociable buzz, and producing only a mild hangover afterwards, Syngy is gaining popularity as a social drink amongst Usan travelers. It does tend to loosen tongues, though, so the military and diplomatic corps tend to avoid it.

‘Slugh’
Slugh is a beer-like drink that is virtually the state booze of Nettavan and the goblin population there. Despite its name, which the drink’s proponents vigorously defend by espousing its philosophy of ‘keeping it simple, in recipe and name’, Slugh is a surprisingly tasty drink if one’s objective is to get royally slammed in short order.
Dark green in color, syrupy in viscosity, universally metabolically compatible, and possessing an alcoholic kick like an ethanol-fueled rocket, Slugh is widely available in the Nettavan system. Though it tastes good to a wide range of palettes(which lures first-time drinkers in, little suspecting that they’re about to be alcoholically mugged) Slugh isn’t for everybody, as it can do long-term liver damage without proper care. Most establishments that serve Slugh to non-goblins also provide buffer drug tabs and chemicals to blunt the damage. Head-pounding headache hangovers tend to keep most social drinkers away from Slugh, but those with enhanced metabolisms have taken to the stuff, and Slugh is becoming a common feature on many hardcore bar drink menus throughout the United Systems Alliance.

‘Slaff’
Slaff is Slugh’s less drinker-friendly cousin. Though even more flavorful than Slugh, Slaff has even more profound intoxication effects, killer hangovers, and temporarily(like several days) kills sex-drive in anybody other than goblins and orcs. Slaff is thus often considered to be the ‘she-done-left-me-with-nothing-but-suicide-on-my-mind’ drink for serious depressive drinkers. The real danger(besides organ damage) is that less scrupulous drinking establishments around Nettavan will substitute the cheaper and lookalike(except for a more watery viscosity) Slaff for the milder Slugh, putting down unsuspecting drinkers even faster than the good stuff. Slaff is controlled more vigorously than Slugh, with multiple warnings on the label cautioning anybody but goblins and orcs of the dangers of the drink.
It’s rumored that during the Balanite War, a GNE special forces team infiltrated a Travesdeen field-brothel posing as camp follower merchants and introduced the slavers to an ‘exciting local drink of the conquered territories’(Slaff), and managed to incapacitate an entire company of Travesdeen soldiers lined up to use the slaves. When the Travie field commanders finally sobered up over a day later, they found their unit combat ineffective, virtually chemically castrated, a good portion of the troops down with acute alcohol poisoning, their equipment sabotaged, and all their loot and sex-slaves gone.

Krartree
Krartree is a thin, reddish and lightly carbonated liqour from Silkra. Again, universal metabolic compatibility make it a pan-USA distributable commodity, sociable intoxication levels, and side effects that include creative fugues and an ‘aura effect’ that increases the drinkers’ charisma to others(+1d6 to MA, +1d4 to PB, for 2d4x10 minutes). Considered the ‘artist’s drink’ by many on Silkra who drink it to boost their creative energies, it has the unfortunate side effects of being mildly toxic and inducing painful hangovers(regarded as the ‘price one pays for prompting the inner muses’). Still, Krartree is gaining its share of imbibers across the United Systems Alliance and beyond, similar to Terran absinthe.

[taalismn]

Extradimensional Territories/Regions(United Systems Alliance Territories):
It’s hard to describe as static extradimenional space, but some pathway-sequences of Rifts have suggesting a sort of topography. The Greater New England Dimensional Ranger Corps makes a point of exploring and charting such sequences, seeking a greater understanding of the megaversal metastructure and how best to exploit it.
The following are the few ‘metastructures’ that the GNE has thus far discovered and explored in any depth.

Kaxxion Dendrite
“If the Dendrite wasn’t intriguing enough with its dimensional wormholes, there’s a whole universe beyond it that has our physicists happily puzzled. You don’t often hear that from our people; usually it’s ‘we don’t know yet how to kill it’ or ‘this could be bad, very bad’.”

The Kaxxion Dendrite is the series of extragalactic/extradimensional/non-Three Galaxies worlds directly accessible through the Kaxxion Junction. Besides connecting points in the Three Galaxies, the Junction/Dendrite also links to the alt-Earth hosting Kaderos City and several shatterworlds, making the Junction a busy throughway for the movement of refugees. The Kaxxion Dendrite is an invaluable economic asset to the United Systems Alliance, allowing many of dispersed worlds of the USA to remain in close contact with each other and greatly facilitating both trade and defense between them.

Sobel Sequence
“The Sobel Way shows the potential great profits, immense resources, and unclaimed new territories available through the Rifts. It also shows how vulnerable basing a trade and travel network on them can be.”

The Sobel Sequence(named for the explorer who mapped them) is a series of interconnected dimensional rifts from established Greater New England territory to a number of new unclaimed worlds and already inhabited low-tech worlds amenable to contact. Part of the Sobel Sequence runs through the dimensional gates of Dedek, a lower-end ‘hub’ world for interdimensional travel. The worlds at the end of the Sobel Sequence have few other (current) alternative connections to them, so when Dedek was invaded by the Infernals during the Minion War, those worlds were effectively cut off from major resupply and easy communication with the rest of the GNE/USA. Dedek’s recent troubles have put new impetus to efforts to finding other ways into the Sobel Sequence.

The Balanite Structure
“The Trevasdeen, a nasty little bunch of chest-thumping village-burning genocidal **** who the Fleet could roll up inside of a week if it wasn’t for the unfortunate cosmological freak chance of them infesting a megascomic anomaly that means instead we have to do the equivalent of going garden to garden and door to door to root them out. The dimensional studies eggheads are going gaga about the Balanite, but we’d rather they figure a way for us to bring our heavy iron straight to their overhead, so we can bring the sky down on them and finish this bloody little affair.”

This is a series of small worlds and pocket universes accessible by leylines through the quasi-solid medium surrounding them. At first believed to be simply a series of randomly associated universes linked by a common interdimensional ‘fold’, it is now suspected that the worlds are part of a larger megacosmic and possibly artifically-created structure. Due to a number of quasi-technological artifacts found within the various realms of the Structure, it is suspected that lost Atlanteans may at least have visited the Structure in the past, though whether they had any hand in creating it remains uncertain.
The dominant power of the Balanite Structure cultures is the Travesdeen Empire, a rapacious Human warrior society who have conquered over a dozen of their neighbors in the name of imposing order through brutality, ethnic cleansing, and eugenic pressure.
Part of the network of linkages in the Balanite Structure appear to have ‘bled out’ or ‘backdoored’ out into the greater megaverse, and it was through one of these weaknesses that a Travesdeen raiding party popped out and attacked a USA world, one that had also discovered the dimensional weakness and was in the process of contacting one of the pocket universe cultures in the Structure, with an eye towards trade. Between the two contacts, one peaceful agrarian community was almost wiped out and two Travesdeen war parties -were- wiped out.
Total numbers of inhabitants within the Balanite Structure are estimated as not exceeding that of a regular well-settled terrestrial planet, with the Travesdeen Empire being arguably the most industrialized and densely populated, but not exceeding the numbers of a nation like the pre-Rifts Soviet Union. However, the nature of the Balanite Structure poses unique problems for standard deployment of military forces from outside it, hampering the USAJC’s response.
While the USA Exploration Corps tries to find any ‘real space’ coordinates for the Travesdeen homeland/world, the Greater New England Regular Army has become involved in a grinding ground campaign against the Travesdeen Empire, in a war that has been compared to ‘house to house’ fighting through the various mini-verses of the Balanite Structure. Though the Travesdeen have a high tech war machine with an emphasis on combat mecha, leavened with a few repurposed examples of Ancient technology, the GNEAS has proven more than equal to the task of slamming the empire down whenever the two forces meet, with the Travesdeens’ stupid brutal aggression countered by the Regular Army cheerfully and regularly pulling dirty tricks. The problem is getting enough forces to where they can do the most good, and ending the conflict quickly. If the GNE could only find a reliable and sizable backdoor directly into the Travees’ homeland and can bring their full arsenal to bear, it’s estimated they could end the whole war inside a week. As it is, the GNEAS has to fight its way through ranks of cannon fodder, including conscripts from conquered kingdoms. That, and dealing with traumatized refugees who, seeing a way out of the attentions of the seemingly invincible Travesdeen military machine, have been streaming out of the worlds of the Balanite Structure.
The ‘heating up’ of the Northern War against the Arzhur would prove a distraction for the GNEAS, but Central Alliance mercenaries and Celsian peacekeepers would take up the slack in making sure that liberated territories in the Balanite Structure remained free, allowing dedicated GNERA forces to concentrate on destroying the Travesdeen.


The Galian Flow
“A fast and easy transit along the Galian Flow makes for quick passage; Company ship captains try not to do anything that would get them kicked off the Flow-runs. It’s an easy life cruising the Flow, compared to other routes.”

A sequence of alternate Earth-worlds(Syvdid, Avanadra, Odeefor and Truon among them) strung along an extradimensional travel ‘corridor’, though none of the D-jump points actually touch any of the worlds(but instead lie just outside their solar systems) . The Galian Flow makes up part of the path used by supply convoys to the Free Worlds Council.
Part of the Galian Flow is the Tensor Arc, a sequence of ten solar system systems joined by jump points describing an arc around the rim of a small galaxy, which, as far as anybody can tell with long range sensors, is nowhere near the Three Galaxies, and contains no sign of native lifeforms. The conditions of space around the Tensor Arc allow contragravity drive systems to operate at speeds of x50 their normal maximum, greatly facilitating the use of Three Galaxies’ style CG drives. Exploration continues beyond the Tensor Arc, but still no signs of life or life-bearing worlds have been found in the galaxy, as yet.
The Galian Flow gained its nickname due to the ease of travel along it, leading GNE/USA transport crews to comment how things just seemed to ‘flow’ when taking the route.

[taalismn]

On another USA star system binge.....


Paloii---(United Systems Alliance member)(Anvil Galaxy)
“ Paloiians want to spend their lives growing things, making handicrafts, drinking wine and making love. Their government kept a soft hand on things, and they were all, for the most part, happy. Now they’re learning to deal with outworld traffic, growing a military, and administering offworld territories. The traditional tragedy scenario here would normally be that the Paloiians have lost their innocence, but instead they seem resolutely bent on maintaining their way of life in addition to shouldering the aforementioned responsibilities. I sure hope they can do that, because I’d hate to lose the best place for shoreleave in six sectors.”

“For a people who have been isolated by choice for over three centuries, the Palloians have sure been welcoming to offworlders. You’d have to go to a place like Cybolyte to meet so many high-brow bluebloods slumming on the shoreline, hoping to snag and shag a nice offworld husband or bride and get some new blood in their Houses. Word to the wise if your visit the Palouan tropics for a break and you meet somebody wanting romance; check for a marriage ring, then check for a sigil ring.”

An idyllic ‘paradise world’, Paloii was founded by an early Human Alliance expedition several centuries ago, and was established in a (at the time) peaceful and fairly uninteresting sector of space...which is exactly what the colonists wanted. As the first ones in the sector, the HA expedition got first pick of the systems, and they settled for peaceful Paloii. With a minimum of terraforming, the planet soon proved an idyllic backwater on which the colonists could leisurely grow a new society.
The same economic disaster that devastated their neighbors on Danager left the Paloiians untouched, as they were already self-sustaining and largely unconcerned with the outside galaxy. Aside from the occasional system tramp astrofreighter dropping by, there was little contact with other systems.
The Paloiians might have continued in this pleasant pattern had not Racken Jacken the Jackster established a base on impoverished Danager and begun raiding pastoral Paloii. Even possessing only five ships, pirate Jacken presented a very real threat to the Paloiians. Worse, Jacken was ambitious, and as it became apparent how potentially wealthy Paloii was, there was every chance that Jacken would expand his operations in the future and add more ships to his marauding band, possibly with an eye to eventually making a bid to conquer and rule Paloii itself.
Fortunately, the United Systems Alliance had begun expanding its influence in the sector, and the Paloiians were amenable to contact. After over four centuries of blissful relative isolation, King Akesian of Paloii thought it a good opportunity for Paloiians to reach out and re-acquaint themselves with galactic affairs. Though out of contact for over four hundred years, the Paloiians shrewdly negotiated very good terms for trade, including access to galactic education databases. King Akesian’s son, Crown-Prince Tessan, actually did a tour of duty with an AJC squadron as a middie, and when the AJC smashed Jacken’s base on Danager as part of its anti-piracy campaign, ‘Midshipman Tessan’ piloted one of the landing boats that transported marines to the planet’s surface,.
The (so far) childless Crown Prince and Princess recently astonished and delighted the Paloiian public by adopting several refugee children from Dowtrer.
Today, Paloii is on an upward trend as the sector hub. Immigration has opened up, with a stream of relocated refugees from Danager and elsewhere, and the Paloiians administering the Galrents system in addition to their own expanded insystem operations. With AJC help and material support, the Paloiians are building a small, but professional, military.

Solar System(Liyvar)
Number of Stars: 1
Types of Stars: Yellow Dwarf
Number of Planets: 6
-Terrestrial ---Caslell---Huge ‘super-Earth’. Its 1.9 g gravity field is at the upper limits of human tolerability. Surface water coverage of 44%. Oddly enough, the planet’s chemically exotic (and toxic) atmosphere seems to keep the planet unusually cool for a planet of Caslell’s size and orbital position. These anomalies didn’t become apparent until fairly recently, when the Paloiians renewed their interest in extraplanetary science. Now there’s talk of mounting a more exhaustive scientific study of Caslell.

-Terrestrial---Paloii, system lifeworld

-Gas Giant ---Etnu; an enormous gas giant, As with other gas giants in developing systems, plans have been put forward for gas mining and Belter-style space infrastructure around Etnu, especially with talk of Liyvar becoming the defacto sector hub .

-Asteroid---Toisay, a dwarf planet; there’s evidence thatToisay collided ar some time in the past with a large icy body that left a very large and deep ice-filled crater. More recent and thorough scans have detected pockets of liquid water deep inside Toisay.

-Gas Giant---Oyail. Modest-sized for a gas giant, but possessing a large set of rings.

-Terrestrial---Teden, Earth-sized ice-covered rocky planet. Its surface is covered with large cracks and eruptiions, suggesting very active plate tectonics(and by extension, a molten core).

Planet
Type: Terrestrial
Diameter: 13,000 km
Gravity: Low; 0.75 gee
Temperature: Cool; Icelanders would feel at home on Paloii, what with the average temperature being 50 degrees F.
Unusual/Special Features:
-Moons---Paloii possesses five small moons the size of Mars’ Phobos. Known locally as the Sparoi(sparrows), they are a frequent subject of local poetry and art, More pragmatically, the Paloiian space agency has established space stations and sensor platforms on all of them.
Atmosphere: Breathable terrestrial nitrox mix.
Terrain: 3 terrains; high craglands, rolling hills and valley-zones, and large plains.
Notable Mineral Concentrations:
- Zinc
- Titanium
- Wolframite
- Ruby
- Lead
- Barite
- Copper
- Quartz
Hydrosphere:
Balanced; 61% of Paloii’s surface is covered in open water.
Biosphere:
Sparse; the locally evolved life is being crowded out by introduced terraforming species. There’s been some contention that several of the larger island continents should be set aside to preserve the local lichens and weed species, but ecologists fear it may be too late, as sanitizing the proposed preserve territories of non-native plants and fungi would be too expensive and insufficient.
Meanwhile, introduced species are flourishing.
Civilization:
Settled
Population:
82 million
Technology:
Information Age with limited orbital capability, but reconnection with the rest of Galactic civilization has caused the average level of technology to trend upwards.
Economy:
Agricultural---Now that it’s been rediscovered, Paloii is gaining some notoriety in outsystem markets for its Glennriver Vingreen wines.

Wealth:
Rich---Besides being self-sufficient, Paloii has enough agricultural surplus to export, including a promising trade in luxury liqours. Added to that is some high-value mining, and lucrative licensing of mineral rights to other bodies in the Liyvar system)

Government:
Constitutional Monarchy

Law Level:
Lawful; Paloii has a comprehensive legal code that has served its people well over the centuries.

Popularity:
While there have been some grumbles over changes made in Paloiian policies and in slowly ending their isolation from the rest of the galaxies, most people support the changes.

Stability:
Dynastic, the currently ruling Modrid Family has held the Paloiian Crown for over 300 years, and shows no signs of stepping down or being deposed anytime soon. The fact that there are non-Modrid bloodline heirs in the line of succssion doesn’t seem to bother the populace, who just love the idea that the Crown Prince has adopted children from Danager.



Danager-----United Systems Alliance Protectorate(Anvil Galaxy)
“They were selling kids and body parts off the street, and kids’ body parts, not even the complete child; even we heard of it on Paloii! Of COURSE we had to do something!”

Danager is a settled world in a binary star system, Galrents, adjacent to the Liyvar system, originally settled in hopes of becoming the center of an industrial colony profiting off the local abundance of gas giants in the system, and mineral wealth, especially platinum, locked in the planet’s crust. The Feysted Stellenomic Development Corporation sank a fortune into attracting colonists and setting down a colony on Danager, believing that they were smartly positioning themselves to take advantage of a travel route expected to form through the sector.
Despite optimistic initial estimates, however, colonizing Danager proved more expensive than first estimated, and the expected profits from gas-mining failed to materialize after the establishment of an artfificial wormhole connection several sectors over diverted trade traffic from running through the Galrents/Liyvar sector. FSDC, despite a protracted effort to make Danager profitable, failed, and ultimately abandoned the colony effort, leaving those already in residence to fare for themselves. An effort to start an independent home-based company, Dowtrer Minerals, also failed to attract investors, crippled in part due to a lack of starships.
The main port and community of Dowtrer fell into lawlessness not long after the last FSDC personnel left. Administration soon fell into the hands of rival gangs. Infrastructure soon began to fall apart, and control of such amenities as electrical power, fresh water, medical care, and transportation began to become the objectives of the vicious gang wars. Some offworld trade continued, mainly in what platinum could be prized from nearby mines, traded for weapons and narcotics, and Dowtrer soon had a reputation as a low-end ‘dark port’ where the locals would look the other way and do just about anything for contraband or a ticket offworld.
This failed colony port of 3.1 million souls became a hellhole where anything was allowed. 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. Martial law was declared, and the USA began defusing the local lawlessness problems through the use of force. Nasty as Dowtrer’s street-gangs might have been, two detached companies of Grendelsec Bashers went through them like a laser-bladed harvester through hay-grass, and left little for the deputized Paloiian Guard to do but mop up.
Danager currently is administered by its closest interstellar neighbor, Paloii. It was decided that the existing main community on Danager, Dowtrer, was too far gone to be worth reconstructing, and so the USA began a program of relocation, breaking up Dowtrer.
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 team making the cross-continental trek to try to sneak in and grab back their contraband) just add to the ‘Dowtrer experience”.
Currently, Danager is seeing something of a renewal under the enlightened leadership of Paloii and economic investment by the United Systems Alliance(though the Altess have been presented as the facemen for the ‘economic redevelopment’ of Danager). While most immigration has been AWAY from Danager, it is expected that soon the trend will reverse itself, with job seekers and colonists streaming TO Danager again.

Solar System
Number of Stars: 2
Types of Stars:
-Galrents-A :Blue Sub-Giant
- Galrents-B : Orange Dwarf
Number of Planets: 8
(Galrents-A)
-Gas Giant - Tomant. Tiny for a gas giant, and steadily evaporating away under the unrelenting solar winds of Galrents-A and -B, Tomant’s lifespan is estimated at another fifteen thousand years. Rumor has it, the company astronomer who named the planet, named it for a colleague he knew was going to be fired soon.

-Gas Giant -Goris---Not as far advanced down the evaporation scale as Tomant, Goris is still not likely to survive more than another twenty thouand years or so. Also like Toment, it’s rumored that the namesource Goris was a FSDC manager unpopular with the astronomers. Current astronomers are watching to see what becomes of Goris’s three small moons, to see if they end up spiraling into the planet, get drawn off into Galrents-A, or are ejected into the outer solar system.

(Galrents-B)
-Terrestrial -Danager, system lifeworld

-Terrestrial--- Felsus--- Enormous Felsus’s heavy gravity( 9.7 gees) and toxic atmosphere keep it from being exploitable by anything other than remote control.

-Gas Giant -Ultod--Enormous gas giant. FSDC originally built a HUGE gas refinery on one of Ultod’s moons, but the complex was never made fully operational before Feysted backed out of the Danager venture. In an attempt to recoup some of their losses, FSDC scavenged what valuable parts they could, leaving the complex unable to fulfill its function(as both Dowtrer Minerals and Racken Jacken discovered when they surveyed it).
Over the years, the complex has lain abandoned, aside from a few scavengers venturing in to cut metal and pull anything else of value they could find from the site. When the United Systems Alliance arrived, they too looked over the refinery complex and determined that it would be cheaper and easier to build a new refinery than refurbish the old one. There has been some thought of using the refinery as another military training facility in the system, this time for Stelmarines and space infantry.

-Gas Giant -G-B4; tiny gas giant. Nobody bothered giving formal names to the outer gas giants because they were so far away from the action in the inner system(though it was rumored that executives at FSDC were keeping the slots open in case anything worthwhile was found near the gas giants, so they could name them after company worthies).

-Gas Giant -G-B5; large gas giant.

-Gas Giant -G-B6; modest-sized gas giant.

Planet -(Danager)
Type:Terrestrial
Diameter: 11,000 km
Gravity: 0.98 g
Temperature: Temperate, but on the cool side(Alaska/Greenland-cool)
Unusual/Special Features:
-Unusual Orbit---Danager is some 70 degrees out of alignment with the rest of the system’s orbiting bodies.
-Craters---Danager is pockmarked with craters telling of a past history of meteor bombardment. Some of these craters have been turned into convenient rural enclaves, trapping air, warmth and water with large overhead canopies or atmospheric iversion effects. Danager’s unusually high orbit angle may explain why it’s received a heavier than usual plastering by meteor showers.
Atmosphere: Thin, but breathable, especially close to the cities and the atmosphere modification plants pumping out O2.
Terrain: Unusual Seismology----Danager experiences ‘scratcher quakes’; low-level tremors accompanied by subsonic ‘groaning’ that sets people on edge when they occur, similar to ‘scratching a chalkboard’.
Notable Mineral Concentrations:
- Scheelite
- Antimony
- Tin
- Barite
- Mercury
- Gypsum
- Platinum
- Fluorite
Hydrosphere: Badlands, with five small oceans/large lakes. Three are too saline to be easily potable, while the two largest bodies of water support the settlements. Elsewhere, small pockets of water and permafrost can be found, with work, and prospecting for water is a major task for those who have taken to the wildlands to make their livings.
Biosphere: Thin---The imported terraforming ecology didn’t take as well as hoped, but it still has managed to spread.
Civilization:
Settled, but barely.
Population:
The largest concentration of population is the newly established community of Relief, with 1.8 million in residence. Another 35,000 live in smaller communities scattered about the badlands.
Technology:
Information Age(if you’re one of the wealthier residents). The rehabilitation efforts are slowly bringing the level up to Early Space Age.
Economy:
Was intended to be Industrial/Commercial, but now seems trending towards Agriculture and Mining.
Wealth:
Was Impoverished short of Squalor, has upgraded to Poor.
Government:
Colonial Governor; Duke Fessroi of Paloii now oversees the redevelopment of Danager.
Law Level:
Overbearing; make no bones about it; Danager is effectively under probation. Relief may be a law-abiding model community, but any signs of backsliding into the bad old days of the Dowtrer gang-bosses is met with government force.
Popularity:
Ambivalent; in the wake of the AJC police action, given the opportunity more than 25% of the resident population immigranted offworld. Among those who stayed are a good number of ex-gang members who still think it’s possible to re-establish their own kingdoms, even with Usan peacekeepers and Paloiian Watchmen looking over their shoulders. And then there are those who are willing to give Danager a second chance or who have come to regard the planet as home.
Stability:
There are still ocassional flare-ups of gang trouble, as well as retaliations against the former ruling families of Dowtrer(those who haven’t already packed up and left)



Truon(Extradimensional)(Protectorate, United Systems Alliance)
Truon is an Earth-analogue world accessed along the Galian Flow sequence. On Truon, nationalism, and especially monarchies, continued unabated. In particular, one kingdom, Scintella, through several generations of diplomacy and military conquest, came to dominate the planet. Scintellan leadership was dynastic, and as Scintella’s imperial power grew, so too did the arrogance and ambition(and some say deterioration of the mental faculties) of the ruling dynasty. Finally, Queen Kathori IV(‘Mad Kath’), particularly rapacious and arguably unhinged, decided to have it all at once, and launched a series of military campaigns to seize control of the rest of Truon. By this time, several of the smaller nations had developed WMDs to counter the Scintellan military advantage in numbers. When one of these lesser kingdoms deployed tactical nuclear weapons against a Scintellan armored division, an enraged Queen Kathori had her own nation’s strategic nuclear arsenal unleashed on the cities of the opposition in a disproportionate retaliation. What followed was a chain reaction escalation that saw global nuclear war sweep Truon.
Though most of the nucleonics used were of the short-half-lived neutron variety, the cumulative effect of so many weapons used has greatly damaged Truon’s ecosystem, to say nothing of the cost in human lives. Nations ceased to exist in the chaos that followed(Mad Kath herself fell victim to a massive nuclear decapitation strike that destroyed the Scintellan leadership---the still-glowing crater is known locally as The Mad Queen’s Lake or Kath’s Cauldron) leaving scattered and shattered, mainly rural, communities to try to rebuild from the ruins.
Drawn by detection of a mass casualty catastrophe fold event, GNE explorers along the Galian Flow came across devastated Truon. Making contact with the survivors, the GNE offered assistance in restoring civilization, or evacuation for those who wanted to leave their war-haunted world and try elsewhere. The Truonians said yes to both offers and accepted USA help in getting back on their feet.
Today, Truon is slowly recovering as a probationary/protectorate member of the United Systems Alliance, Their solar system plays host to a waystation along the Galian Flow. Socialism and democracy are now pushing aside what little remains of the aristocratic power structures of Old Truon, and a unified resource-sharing organization among the surviving communities has been set up. A number of Truonians have immigrated offworld rather than tough it out on their still -bleeding homeworld, and of those, several have joined the USA militaries. Truonian humans tend to have a general dislike of monarchies, and are more specifically distrustful of queens.

[taalismn]

Cybolyte----United Systems Alliance World(Anvil Galaxy)
“The waters of Cybolyte themselves have curative properties of their own; the beaches are places of peaceful convalescence for the weary, and the climate kind to the world-worn. “

“There’s a number of beaches frequented by tourists and shore-leave rotation service personnel alike. Some come as friends and family of patients at the AMMC, others come for the scenery itself, and there’s no end to the stories of lovers’ groves or coves along the shores. Aside from a few tales of couples coming to the AMMC seeking cures for reproductive issues, here’s rumors that many minor aristocratic house women from some of the more feudal societies in the USA come looking for a chance to pick up a husband or just a bastard child with those infamous GNE genes; to hear some of the stories, more than a dozen new royal and high house bloodlines have been conceived on Cybolyte’s beaches. Of course, some of the pregnancies have been rather strange, given some of the barely-compatible human septs, but with the Alliance’s premiere medical research institute nearby, that’s not seen as a problem of biology, more of discretion.”

“Ah, it is telling that no sooner do we open a new ICU ward, then we get new patients to fill it. Welcome, Miss Amagane, Miss Ella, though you may not be able to hear or comprehend my words in your current state; you are our first patients here. Do not worry, though, we will take very good care of you during your stay here.”

Cybolyte is one of the United Systems Alliance’s better-off colonial ventures. The original system was unexpectedly donated to the USA by an eccentric and wealthy Star Elf cosmic adventurer, Trovus Trreeder, who briefly had a private estate on Cybolyte. Trreeder, however, found the planet too sedate for his still-wanderlust-hungry peace of mind and so, before setting out on an expedition(regarded by many as effectively one-way) to the next local group of galaxies, decided to contribute the whole solar system to the United Systems Alliance. provided they put the worlds to ‘good purpose and do good things’. This magnanimous gesture astonished many in galactic circles, but rumors have surfaced that the donation had another angle as well; Trreeder was looking to keep many of his discoveries out of the hands of greedy relatives. Regardless of the reasons for the system’s provenance, the United Systems Alliance was happy to acquire the system, even more so since the small colony(brought in by Trreeder) already there were equally happy to see the USA come in. The USA has also made good on their promise to ‘do good things’ with Cybolyte.
Cybolyte is home to the Advanced Meta-Medicine Center, a medical research campus dedicated to finding new medical means of saving and extending life, part of the tentative United Systems Interworld Health Organization launched by the United Systems University. The presence of multiple magic pyramids on the campus also hints of collaboration with a number of United Worlds of Warlock associations. It’s been boasted among those in the know that what the Hedoro research facility is to PS/ASI/GNE dark ops, Cybolyte is to ‘light ops’; humanitarian actions. And while the Azimuth Point Academy may turn out combat butlers and battle-maids, the AMMC will turn out healers and body-menders.
Cybolyte’s other two strengths are a high ambient PPE level on several worlds in the system, and very large deposits of red agate, an invaluable crystal in the creation of technowizardry medical devices (Red agate crystals feature prominently in Cybolyte’s planetary government seal).
Cybolyte is already considered one of the USA’s gem-worlds(and not just because of its agate and sapphire deposits), witha growing reputation for medical innovation bordering on miraculous(especially with magic resurrection). Naturally, the USA is rather protective of the system as a result, so in addition to a steady stream of medical transports in and out of the system, there’s also a good number of less obvious heavy patrols by military vessels.

Solar System
Number of Stars: 1(Cydlyne)
Types of Stars:
- Orange Dwarf
Number of Planets: 4
- Terrestrial----Avand----’Super-Earth’ with a dense atmosphere. Avand possesses five sizable moons, two of which exhibit ley line activity. One of these moons is being developed as the dimensional travel nexus for the system and potentially the sector.

- Terrestrial----Cybolyte, system lifeworld

- Gas Giant ---Temoth. Enormous gas giant with an attendant cloud of 24 substantially-sized moons. Already, several of these moons are being prospected for mineral riches, and the USAJC has a gas-mining and fleet depot established there.

- Gas Giant --- Pufa. Miniscule ‘gas-mote’ of a world. It still managed to snag 5 moons. One of the moons is being developed as a quarantine facility for dealing with contagious medical conditions.

Planet(Cybolyte)
Type: Terrestrial
Diameter: 11,000 km
Gravity: 0.85 g
Temperature: Temperate, within terrestrial/Terran norms.
Unusual/Special Features:
*High Ambient PPE---though no ley lines or nexi have been discovered. Natural rift formation on Cybolyte is virtually impossible, so only deliberate efforts to open dimensional portals are reliably possible.
Atmosphere: Thin, but breathable nitrox mix. There has been discussion of increasing the density of the atmosphere with artificial adjustment/terraforming efforts.
Terrain:
Varied, but Cybolyte has unusually quiet seismology; tectonic stress seems unusually regular and smooth, resulting in constant low-level (sub-level) tremors, but not violent quakes. Beings with exceptionally acute hearing in the subsonic tone levels remark about a low-level ‘purring’ or ‘murmuring’ that some found calming, and others find distracting.
Notable Mineral Concentrations:
- Antimony
- Gold/Silver
- Sapphire
- Pitch Blend
- Platinum
- Graphite
- Calcite
- Quartz
-Agate: Cybolyte is best known mineralogically for its substantial deposits of agate, which brought the attention of stone mages and technowizards, and especially red-orange agate, favored for its medical applications.
Hydrosphere:
Moist; roughly 69% of Cybolyte’s surface is covered in open water.
Biosphere:
Moderate; diverse plant species, but animal life consists of a number of small invertebrates.
Some terraforming organisms have been introduced, and a number of pharmacological crops have been cultivated
Civilization:
Settled
Population:
4 million
The original settlement of was of low-tech elves who Trovus Trreeder had rescued from their dying world(collateral damage, caught in the crossfire of two more technologically advanced cultures duking it out with interplanetary weapons of mass destruction). Later immigrants included a number of Poluznik, Iborians, and Vinobe drawn by the establishment of a medical campus on Cybolyte.
Technology:
Galactic, with an emphasis on medical technology and technowizardry
Economy:
Service-oriented, particularly medical.
Wealth:
Prosperous---Besides medical grants coming in, Cybolyte has a thriving medical drugs and equipment business going for it, and a growing tourism industry as word gets around.
Government:
Democracy, though the original elven settlers still continue to practice a dynastic headsman-style ‘village’ government in their communities.
Law Level:
Lawful----Cybolyte is governed under the comprehensive Systems Alliance law codes.
Popularity:
Beloved; the economy is booming, beings are being healed, the future looks even better. What’s not to love about things?
Stability:
Solid. There’s nothing on the horizon that suggests trouble. Oh, some of the visiting medical professionals may have chips on their shoulders and get into arguments with their colleagues, but that’s hardly a threat to planetary stability, and instead shows a rich and active academic culture.

[taalismn]

Medeseaed(United Systems Alliance member)
“Despite having a massive amount of surface area on which to spread out and settle, the fact remains that Medeseaed is not equally friendly to human life, and the most productive agricultural regions have thus served as concentration and choke points for the Medeseaedans to brew their tensions over. If they can get the galactic technology, or at least get enough hints to develop their own means, to fully exploit their planet, they could easily become one of the more populous worlds in the Alliance.”

“The Medesiis’ ethnic warfare problems tend to overshadow their strengths; the fact that they didn’t go all-out apocalypse mode as has happened on other less fortunate worlds, and that in spite of it all they were still able to cobble together a global government that seems to be working. Compared to how it might have played out, Medeseaed is VERY fortunate.”

Medeseaed is a Human-settled world in the Anvil Galaxy. The planet itself is a ‘super-Earth’; giant, but with a curiously-low gravity and habitable by baseline humans. Still, planetary conditions have posed a challenge for the settlers, on top of which have been heaped social problems.
Medeseaed has had a history of ethnic tensions, which only fairly recently have calmed down, in part due to the installation of a progressive coalition government which is working to redress some of the problems of the past. The Progressives still face opposition from conservative elements on one side, who fear the costs of liberal social polices, and the opposing radicals, who want such things as historical reparations for their respective discriminated-against ethnic groups.
Medeseaed joined the United Systems Alliance in hopes that interstellar trade and secondary colonization will open up their economy, generate more opportunities for its people, and improve the standard of living on Medeseaed. They have pledged full support to the USA, but haven’t, due to their current economic situation, been able to contribute much overall. Still, they have allowed basing for USA military forces in their system, have sent observers to the USA’s military academies and training facilities, and have sold the USA some exclusive crystal-based computer technologies. They hope to acquire galactic technologies that would allow them to fully and more efficiently utilize the resources of their homeworld. Very large deposits of ruby in Medeseaed’s crust have attracted the attention of PS/GNE’s techowizards, who see the world having a prosperous future as part of the Crystal Trade.

Solar System(Sauddell)
Number of Stars: 1
Types of Stars: Blue Dwarf
Number of Planets: 5

-Terrestrial(Nemed)---Tiny Nemed is home to a mining colony that was started after geochemistry surveys found large amounts of germanium and other useful rare earths in the planet’s crust. Though large and profitable, the Nemed mining colony was established during the early years of the Directorate, and ethnic politics still dominated what groups got the concession to control the makeup of the colony and its distribution of profits. Thus the Nemed offworld colony wasn’t quite the showcase of inter-ethnic cooperation the Directorate might have liked. While the Nemed colony has, over the decades since its establishment, been diversified more, the Directorate went ahead with giving settlement rights to its first extrasolar colony on the joint-development world of Tennison to one of the more underprivileged groups.

-Terrestrial(Medeseaed) System Lifeworld

-Gas Giant(Dremizid)---Dremizid is a Jupiter-sized gas giant notable for having two diametrically-opposed giant storms in its atmosphere. As long as the planet has been observed, the two mega-cyclones have maintained positions on the other side of the planet from each other. This has given rise to a rather pessimistic saying on Medeseaed to describe the futility of anything happening; ‘When the Dremizid Twins meet”.

-Gas Giant(Taikos)---The Medeseaed have recently allowed the United Systems Alliance to establish a naval base on the largest moon of Taikos. Taik-Station is mainly used to accommodate patrol and escort craft, but the facilities are large enough to service larger vessels such as cruisers and battlecruisers.

-Gas Giant(Frobishan)---Cold Frobishan plays host to a large moon, Metcaf, which shows signs of helium-based lifeforms living under its surface ice. The Medeseaed have thus declared Metcaf off-limits to exploitation, pending closer study of whether the moon supports a cryogenic ecology.


Planet(Medeseaed)
Type: Terrestrial
Diameter: Huge; 75,000 km
Gravity: Average; 1.03 g
Temperature: Cool; roughly equivalent to terrestrial Scandanavia
Unusual/Special Features:
-Unusual Rotation---Medeseaed has a slow rotation(days are 36 hours long)
-Moons( ---Medeseaed has eight small moons, three of which sport sizeable habitat stations handling space manufacturing and spacecraft traffic.
-Craters---Medeseaed is pockmarked with large craters
-Unusual Density---for its size, Medeseaed has a curiously low mass, yet has deposits of heavy metals in its crust, leading to headaches for geologists and palentologists trying to figure out how this came to be.

Atmosphere: Earth-Normal nitrox mix.
Terrain:
Unusual Mineralogy---The odd dustribution of metals in Medeseaed’s crust, its huge size, and relatively low gravity, have all combined to make a world that is both a planetologist’s delight-puzzle and head-banging frustration.
Notable Mineral Concentrations:
- Tin
- Amethyst
- Colombite
- Antimony
- Titanium
- Ruby(especially plentiful)
- Salt
- Platinum
Hydrosphere: Balanced; roughly 51% of Medeseaed’s surface is covered in open water.
Biosphere: Dense---Medeseaed has a rich ecosystem, but much of it is unexploitable by the human Medeseaeds.
Civilization:
Settled
Population:
Settled; 7 billion. mainly concentrated around the most fertile and exploitable agricultural regions.
Technology:
Information Age---Medeseaed has gotten most of its Galactic technology through trade. Fortunately, their eth-wars never went nuclear, but their conventional arsenals were destructive enough.
Economy:
Agricultural---Most of Medeseaed’s global economy is agrarian, though the richest farmlands have been long held by the dominant ethnic groups(which is a point of contention from the less well-off groups).
Wealth:
Average; up from Poor, as a result of galactic trade
Government:
Democracy----Medeseaed’s only had a working global democracy for the past fifty years or so that people have begun voting past their own ethnic groups/social classes.
Law Level: Moderate---Though the global law code attempts to address inequalities and promises fair justice for everybody, its full implementation still lags, and problems still beset parts of the planet, especially with regards to ‘soft’ laws regarding employment and opportunity discrimination. Still, it’s an improvement from the open lawlessness of just a couple of decades ago.
Popularity:
Ambivalent---There are still some raw wounds in Medeseaed society, and not everybody believes the Directorate can solve the root causes or successfully bandage over the wounds. They regard the comparatively peaceful period of the last few decades as a breathing spell, but one very much subject to change.
Stability:
Unrest, shading to Stable. There’s still a lot of doubt about whether some of the social experiments that the new global directorate is attempting will pay off, as some are obviously high stakes gambles. But so far the Directorate seems to be working.

[taalismn]

(.....yeah, I used Cape Cod as the basis of a solar system. Take your inspiration where you can...)

The Gosnold Cluster

“It’s a slow-paced life in the Gosnold, once you get past the obvious tourist traps around the transit ports. There’s cutting edge tech to be had at the ports giving folks a safety net, but it’s possible to find a style of quaint and un-rushed colonial life without the dangers of a wild world. There’s even a bit of magic to be found, though the real magic is in how relaxed one can get once you find your special place in the Cluster.”
----Excerpt from Halsei’s Haven Guide to the Corkscrew , entry on the Gosnold Cluster.

“The Gosnold Cluster’s just on the edge of the Barnast Spur, overlooking the Alanic Gulf between the Eastern and the Cospian Arms. One third of the night sky, you’re looking at the heart of the Corkscrew, and the coreworlds of the Consortium, while the other two thirds you’re looking at the next arm over, or into intergalactic space. Nice contrast of spectacular starscape and dark void.”

The Gosnold Cluster is a binary star system on the Eastern Arm of CCW space in the Corkscrew Galaxy.
Though officially ‘discovered’, explored, and cleared for settlement by CCW Explorer Simisims Gosnold roughly 450 years ago, the system has been settled before. There are extensive signs of terraforming and stellar engineering in the system, and ancient records in the archives of Phaseworld’s Center tell of the system being one of many visited, some 250,000 years ago, by a Titan and/or Atlantean bio-scientist(s)named ‘Moshap’ seeding lifefoms in the Eastern Arm. A previous ancient human colonization/exploration effort some 9,000 years previous to the Gosnold expedition crash-landed crew members on two of the worlds. The survivors backslid into primitivism and tribal society, but survived to become aboriginal peoples on Nanatuc.

Despite its providence in having no fewer than seven human-inhabitable worlds, the Gosnold Cluster remains much undeveloped industrially; despite several bids by outside developers to heavily industrialize and colonize the multi-system, the current settlers, aided in part by industrialists who have already established havens on the worlds, have fought off encroachment. The system still has a booming tourist industry, however, the planets enjoying near-proximity to more densely-settled worlds in the Eastern Arm, easy access, and a slower-paced life than more exotic and developed getaways such as Tau-Xanadu, and the Paradise Foundation.
The Gosnold Cluster is part of the Consortium of Civilized Worlds, as an offshoot of the Human Alliance. The discovery of a wormhole connection to United Systems Alliance space has raised the issue of membership in that body, tentatively fielded by the USA itself, Though the idea of secession from the Human Alliance has been raised by local Gosnoldians from time to time(usually in threat to some HA regulation or lack of assistance), not everybody(especially those with strong ties to the Human Alliance and CCW politics) is enthused with the idea of association with the United Systems Alliance, which has a reputation for being rather rough and tumble in overall attitude. The sticking points seem to be that the USA membership consists largely of Fringe worlds and needy outliers almost on the verge of collapse, that the USA is frequently involved in armed ‘interventions’, and that joining the USA will likely involve getting involved in supporting both the hard-luck case worlds and the military actions. However, the economic benefits of tapping into the USA’s expanding market network and innovative industries are MOST tempting to local Gosnoldian businessmen. Dual membership, dipping a toe into the USA pool, while retaining strong ties to the CCW, seems the most attractive option, and is gaining ground with the recent spate of political trouble roiling the Human Alliance.

Solar System
Number of Stars: 2
Types of Stars:
-Gosnold A(yellow dwarf)
-Gosnold B(orange dwarf)
Number of Planets: 13

Gosnold A(yellow dwarf)
A-1-Fisches---Asteroid---This innermost planetoid of the Gosnold A system is a ‘sun-kisser’ , well-cooked by the system’s primary. Despite this, Fisches is routinely visited by the wealthier and well-equipped residents of the system for ‘rim parties’; social gatherings in the shielded shadow of the asteroid, with occasional trips to the shadow boundary to gaze at the looming nearby sun. The local Stellar Guard maintains an emergency shelter and automated navigational beacon/solar weather station inside the asteroid.

A-2 Falmar---Average-sized Earth-like world with standard terrestrial gravity, a dense atmosphere, and dry, badlands-style climate that supports no native life(but terraforming has introduced some scant flora and fauna). Has a few scattered envirodomed settlements on its surface, but is underdeveloped as a colony world.

A-3 Catahuncc---Small, low-gravity world with an Earth-normal atmosphere, moist climate, and sparse native life. It has a few small communities on its surface, but a lack of easily accessible mineral resources has thus far discouraged development and colonization.

A-4 Hyancishas----Earth-sized world with high local gravity, Earth-normal atmosphere, soaking wet hydrosphere/climate, and thin local ecology(primarily imported species). Hyancishas been in part developed by several aristocratic, political, and industrial heavy-worlder clans. Its shipyards build many of the starships and transports used in the Gosnold Cluster

A-5 Mazeren’s Vineyard---The gem of Gosnold A is Mazeren’s Vineyard, a large temperate Earth-like planet with average gravitation, a terrestrial atmosphere, and 75% water coverage . Native life is mid-range, with some imported species(mainly fish and planet life). Tourism is the major interstellar industry, followed by aqua- and agriculture; true to the planet’s name, the limestone-rich highlands of the planet produce ideal growing conditions for wine grapes and other cash-crops.
Mazaren’s illustrious rings also hide a number of private estate habitats owned by some of the Gosnold Cluster’s celebrity residents. Its single large moon, Chavie, also has a thin breathable atmosphere, but a badlands-style environment, and is only scantly settled, mainly around the few open bodies of water(mainly crater lake-ocasises) on its surface.
In recent years, a wave of immigrants(mainly refugees from the TGE and FWC zones) arriving to serve the blooming tourism industry has raised concerns both about security and local resource management. The issue of housing and services for the estimated 20 million+ refugee workers has divided the local native populace, who both want the labor and income the extra population could bring, but worry about the impact their presence will have on local resources, demographics, crime, and the ‘pristine’ conditions of the Vineyard’s ecology.

*Evest-Trinium(aka ‘The Great Grove’)--Evest-Trinium is a Dreamwood, a space-going Millennium Tree, that has recently taken up residence in orbit of the Vineyard. The massive green lifeform, with its thick frond-branches playing host to groves settled by mages, has become a tourist attraction in itself. It’s not known precisely why Evest-Trinium chose to come to the Gosnold Cluster(“The Tree follows its own heart” as its residents proclaim), but it’s stayed around for the past 80 years, and shows no signs of leaving anytime soon. Occasionally it leaves Mazaren orbit and describes a complicated orbit around other worlds and bodies, affording its inhabitants some spectacular views, in the Cluster before settling back into orbit around the Vineyard.

A-6---Novardy---This large asteroid serves as a fleet gunnery range and targeting facility for starfighter exercises conducted by the CAF flying in from neighboring system bases.

*Lysbeth Asteroid Belt---Occasionally, debris is pulled/disturbed by the gravity of nearby Gosnold B, resulting in spectacular(and well-monitored) meteor showers in both systems. A number of small Belter habitats are sprinkled throughout the Lysbeth Asteroids. It is rumored that Asteropids, Space Whales, and even Agala Dimensional Serpents are occasionally sighted in the rocks of the Lysbeths.

*Provin Habitat---Provin Habitat is one of a number of ‘niche’ communities in the asteroids and moonlets in the Gosnold Cluster...communes given away to social experiments and specialized lifestyles.

Gosnold B(orange dwarf)
The outer reaches of the Gosnold B system attract large numbers of StarWhales and other deep space fauna, and tourism to view these creatures is a major draw to the Cluster.

B-1 Exotic(’Enten’s Hole’)--- Planetissimal containing a wormhole nexus----The discovery that this space/time gate links to the Kaxion extradimensional ‘overpass’ star system has led to the United Systems Alliance(who holds the Kaxion system) approaching the Gosnold Cluster governments about becoming a member, or at least close trade ally, of the Alliance. At the very least, the USA will want to secure/use Enten’s Hole as a transit point, facilitating its trade with the Corkscrew Galaxy. The planetoid also plays host to a multiple-discipline scientific studies station and visitor center.
A.) Location: Planetoid-based
B.) Size:Giant---Battleships and Dreadnoughts can enter the wormhole with room to spare.
C.) Frequency:All the Time---As long as transit initiation conditions are met, the wormhole can be used at will.
D.) Direction:Two-Way---Traffic may proceed freely in both directions, at the same time
E.) Range: Extradimensional---Connects to alternate universes(Kaxion system)
F.) Transit Initiation: Direction---The starship has to enter the wormhole at a specific angle
G.) Duration: 1d6 minutes
H.) Special: Turbulence---Vessels transiting the wormhole are subjected to considerable turbulence that can wreak damage on the ship. Make a piloting roll at -15% to keep the ship steady and on an even keel. On a failed piloting roll, roll a d20; the resulting number is the amount of damage, x10, that the ship takes in running the wormhole.


B-2-Terrestrial(Monhuag)---Huge ‘super-Earth’ with a thick carbon dioxide atmosphere. Monhaug’s heavy gravity keep it from being developed in any meaningful way, but occasionally atmo-scooping operations lift gases from its upper atmosphere. Orbital scans have at times registered the movement of large masses on the surface, suggesting either geological subsidence or, some have ventured, some form of life, possibly silicate or Elemental), though no evidence has been found to support the latter claim, and scant little to verify the former. Many of the Nanatucans claim that Monhuag is “Moshap’s workshop’ and the giant’s artifacts can still be found on the planet. This has prompted the occasional (and fruitless) probe of the planet by the curious and fortune-seeking.

B-3-Gas Giant(Zeb)---Zeb is a large gas giant that is used mainly as a rendevouz point for interstellar shipping, gravity sling assists for slowboats moving through the cluster, and for gas tanking from its upper atmosphere. Its proximity to Gosnold-B means that the gas giant is subject to solar winds, and the planet’s atmosphere can be seen with the naked eye to ‘stream’ with gases blown off by the solar wind.

B-4 Terrestrial(Nanatuc)----This world is claimed and inhabited by the descendants of an earlier ‘slowboat’ colonization ship that crashed there over 9,000 years ago(some time/space warping may have been involved). The survivors lost almost all of their technology and records while trying to survive, but gradually acquired a new social equilibrium. Nanatuc is a large world, with heavy gravity, a normal density terrestrial atmosphere, 45% water coverage, cool temperatures, and a dense local ecology.
There was some dissent between the Nanatuc and the later generations of colonists who arrived via FTL drive; the Nanatuc felt that having arrived first, the choicer worlds of the Gosnold Cluster were reserved for them, even though they were unable to reach them with their primitive technology. The matter has since been resolved, but some lingering ill-will remains among the more ardent hotheads.

B-5-Asteroid/Planetissimal(Tykstra134)--- This normally unremarkable small rocky body gained notoriety for a space yacht accident involving the scion(and later CCW sector senator) of a prominent Consortium political family, who was the only survivor. Though there were allegations of some sort of cover-up involving the exact circumstances, officially the book was closed and the incident ruled an unfortunate accident. Currently the asteroid is the site of an automated mining operation, which has reduced the mass of the rock some 30% and rendered it nearly unrecognizable.

B-6-Asteroid/Planetissimal(Memesh)--- Memesh is an ice-covered minor planetoid that is site of a Stellar Guard station(several cutters and tugs are based there). Memesh’s other distinction is that it was the site of the filming of the old-school schlock(but cult classic) holodrama “Teeth’, about a mutant free-space vangor eating unwary space travelers. Some of the abandoned free-space sets and filming rigs can still be seen (though only with permission of the local SG base) on the planetoid.

B-7 Gas Giant( Wasatecg)---Named ‘Wasatecg’ by the Nanatuc people, this gas giant is better known in modern times by the unimaginative, if aptly descriptive, ‘Deep Blue’.
Deep Blue supports a thriving gas-giant atmosphere ecology of floating and flying forms that inhabit the upper reaches of its deep atmosphere. Some of these lifeforms have proven edible and/or commercially viable, and the planet draws both commercial harvesters and private sportsmen to its deep blue cloud layers.
The local moon system supports a number of small ports, resource mines, and resort colonies, as well as an outpost of the prestigious Consortium National Stellagraphic Research Institution.

The Starship Authority
The GCSA is the large, publicly-owned organization responsible for mass-transport into and inside the Gosnold Cluster. Originally part of the original colonization effort, the GCSA continues to carry the bulk of cargoes and passengers in the region. They also have their own shipyards, turning out their own designs, mostly for short-range in-system freighters and interplanetary shuttles, some of which proven robust enough to be sold out-system. The Star-Islander is one of their more successful designs.
MagSails and Solar Sails are common means of propulsion for recreational spacers around the Cluster.

Stuffer Fuels
The Stuffer Family has had a virtual monopoly on fuels and fuel processing since the colonial days. Their deuterium-cracking and hydrogen storage tank stations are a common sight in every major port in the Gosnold Cluster, and they supply pretty much the full range of fuels, from hydrogen substrates for ground cars to deuterium for starships and fusion powerplants. Stuffer also dabbled early on in fissionables, but got out of the trade as a more eco-conscious colonial administration took hold...However, rumors persist that the main Stuffer Fuels refinery sits over a massive underground reservoir of radioactive wastes. Stuffer has had no comment on these allegations.

Crammer Energy
Crammer Energy is owned by a, some say disgruntled, cousin of the Stuffer Family. Though CE has no foot in the Gosnold Cluster energy marketplace, they have attracted a fair amount of attention and controversy recently by their proposal to build massive positron and anti-positron refinery stations in Gosnold space, tapping the solar wind for energy to produce the antimatter substrates. Though antimatter is a compact and potent energy source, and the refinery complexes will be far out in space, away from inhabited worlds, many Gosnaldites are worried about the stations becoming navigation hazards and cluttering the local space lanes/solar sailing regions. Crammer Energy has survived several referendums on the proposal, however, so the project is still lurching along.

Defenses:
The Gosnold Cluster plays host to a number of Stellar Guard bases throughout the systems(s). These bases host a number of patrolcraft, cutters, and light transports servicing the various navigational and sensor platforms around the system.
The CAF maintains a stellar gunnery range on one of the larger asteroids/minor planetoids in the Cluster, sending in regular exercises in stellar navigation and planetary attacks...typically nothing larger than a Scimitar frigate or two with attendant fighter squadrons.
The main defense of the Gosnold Cluster lies in the proximity to the CAF Starbase Otillian in the nearby(2 light years) Barnast-Maapaa system. There, the CAF maintains hundreds of FTL-capable fighters, and dozens of warships.
Of course, if the situation got bad, the United Systems Alliance would most likely deploy forces through the wormhole.

[taalismn]

* Arnoth---(United Systems Alliance members)
(aka ‘Adracnoids’)

“The Golgans, themselves hailing from modest and unassuming roots, might have been more sympathetic towards the Arnoth, who were, on the whole, a timid people. But the Golgans at that time had their war-blood up, and saw a xeno under the boot as the only good xeno. Worse yet, they delegated a lot of their policing of the Sothis system to collaborator minions who were themselves chafing under Golgan rule, and took it out on the locals. Sothis was one of the worse occupations under the Golgans.
Perhaps the Golgans realized that late, and that was why they let the Arnoth slip out of their grasp so easily. Or maybe because after over a century of occupation, the Golgans were certain they had the Arnoth pegged for a broken people who would be too afraid to ever bother their former overlords again. They didn’t figure on Arnothian passive-aggressiveness.”

“I hate this posting; the food’s lousy, air’s too thick, temperature’s too cold, the water’s rationed, the station’s lousy noisy in the work areas, and the damn labor-spidos WON’T STOP SINGING. I’d give just about anything for a good honest rebellion so I can break some heads and shut the damned locals up, and to hell with what the Argosy High Command sez about rules of engagement!”
---Anonymous Auxiliary Guard Nev-Gromek Overseer, Republik Occupation Forces, Scobeth

The Arnoth are a sophont species of omnivorous reptilians native to the planet Sothis in the Scobeth system, in the Anvil Galaxy. Until fairly recently, they were a puppet state of the Golgan Republik. The Arnoth are only the second former Golgan buffer-state species/polity to join the United Systems Alliance(the Rebliss were the first), bringing the two star nations into direct geopolitical proximity with each other.
The Arnoth were a peaceful people, inhabiting their arid homeworld, and just entering their industrial age when the galaxy came knocking; the Golgan Republik was in the opening century of their explosive expansion, and Scobeth just happened to be in their path.
The Arnoth proved particularly susceptible to intimidation by the Golgans and their superior technology, and the Republik soon had the cowed Arnoth working to support the Argosy warmachine running along the Republik’s marches. Unfortunately, the relative docility of the Arnoth made their Golgan overlords and their minions fairly contemptuous of the natives. After a number of particularly assertive prime-bulls tried to put up and lead resistance to the alien invaders, and were readily identified and killed for their trouble, the rest of the population of Sothis caved to the inevitable and bowed to the invaders. The fairly quick capitulation further amplified an already sneering disrespect of the locals on the part of the Golgan forces.
Sothis was too cool and dry to be comfortable for the Golgan occupation force, and the Republik relied on mercenaries to police the system. Nevertheless, the Republik still saw fit to station a number of warships in the system to guard against incursions from the then-powerful and nearby Daivcur Federation(an offshoot Keleth-led polity that briefly bulled the spinward marches of Golgan space before the Golgans eventually unexpectedly turned out and rolled over them). Sadly, directly policing the locals was handed to the nonnative Auxiliary Guards, who ruthlessly executed the directives of the Golgan high command. This led to a gross exploitation of local resources by the offworlders, with little consideration for what it would do to the natives. However, the Golgans could technically claim they had no hand in the direct deforestation and strip-mining of resources, pollution of water, and poor treatment of the natives.
Despite the harshness of the occupation, the Arnoth were technologically uplifted by it. Though a timid people, the Arnoth were not stupid, and the many conscript laborers(the Golgans would not use the word -slave-) called up peasant labor-style were given training and familiarity with advanced technology. As the number of resistance attempts declined(it could be argued that the occupation forces were culling the stupidly aggressive prime-bulls from the gene pool), the Golgans became more complacent about sharing high-tech with their drafted labor, and allowed them to apply what they learned to improving their communities. By the time the occupation came to an end, the Arnoth were flying jets, had space travel, nuclear power, and computers.
Scobeth would be abandoned about two hundred years after it was invaded when the Golgan Republik decided that its interests lay elsewhere. The worlds of Athmar Sector, where the Scobeth system lay, had all been either pacified or used up, the Daivcur Federation had ceased to exist, and the Republik wanted to concentrate its forces on sectors along its intended path to its new Thundercloud holdings. Rather than go to the trouble of cleaning up the mess they had made of the system, the Golgans simply took out a few parts of their complexes and left the rest as not worth the trouble of hauling back to their core systems. The Arnoth were handed the keys to what remained operational, with orders to maintain refitting stations for any Golgan interests still operating in the area.
Instead, the Arnoth, whose new generations of more introspective and cautious prime-bulls had been quietly biding their time, took over the facilities, booted out the remaining colonial overseers, and declared independence. They confiscated arms from the few security troops left behind, hurriedly affected repairs to the naval refit yards, and formed a planetary government, albeit one along Golgan lines.
Though some may have predicted that the Arnoth, after their experiences, would emulate the Golgan example and become raging xenophobes out for revenge, the Arnoth did not take that path. Nor did they fort up and become heavily-armed isolationists. Free of the Golgans, but still at risk from other polities and opportunists like the Molo pirates, the timid Arnoth began casting around, looking for allies. The Zyganian Empire was at one time considered, but Zygania was on the other side of the Republik from Sothis, and the Arnoth were afraid of what they had heard(mainly through Golgan sources) of the Zoestes IV Massacre. When they heard what the United Systems Alliance did over Altess Prime, they saw an alternative potential protector.
The Arnoth would ‘inherit’ a substantial amount of military equipment, including three old colonial battleships , when the Golgans hurriedly abandoned the system. Admittedly, though, most of these warships had been effectively decommissioned after service in other sectors, and had been hauled to the Scobeth system for a last tour of duty before being scrapped in situ. The Arnoth have managed to cannibalize the worst of these ships and make repairs to the better vessels, cobbling together a small, but determined, Navy to protect their system from opportunistic pirates and rogue states. However, they are painfully aware of how vulnerable they still are, and that their Navy can only offer a token shield against more advanced and determined invaders. The Arnoth are hoping that the Alliance and their WZT/ASI industries can help them refurbish their scrapyard Navy and teach them how best to use it.
The Arnoth are currently very cautiously watching their borders, while aid from the USA begins trickling in to the new member-state. A few Arnoth have traveled to the USA to study galactic affairs and train with the Alliance Joint Command, so it is possible to encounter Arnoth with USA affiliates.

Resource-wise, the Arnoth are sitting on several MASSIVE boneyards of obsolete Golgan space-tech, and the junked remains of many of the Republik’s early opponents’ space forces. The Arnoth themselves are adept ship-fitters, salvagers, and juryriggers who have managed to pull together a respectable(in numbers, if not quality) commercial space fleet and modest space Navy from salvage and mothballs. Already, WZT has begun upgrading the former refit yards.

The Arnoth have managed to assemble a small, but impressive, at least on paper, fleet of three restored colonial battleships(little better than heavy cruisers by modern standards), six Bindas-class cruisers(two of them fleet tender conversions), ten Auntin-class frigates, and a number of armed auxiliaries patched together from various other vessels. In general, though, these ships perform at 30% less than optimal performance due to older parts and Arnoth tinkering to adjust the ships to their own physiologies. The Arnoth also have a number of older hulls in various stages of work-up, with the aim to adding them to their fleet later, or selling them to other polities also using older Golgan equipment and looking for a spare parts supplier.

Besides their home system, the Arnoth have ambitiously staked claim to two neighboring desert systems and established mining colonies.

Alignments: Any(though prime-bulls have the greatest variation, from Principled to Diabolical)
Lifespan: 75 years. The introduction of advanced Galactic medicine promises to extend that.
Size: 8 ft long/tall, and mass, on average, 300 lbs.

Gender: Heterosexual, with distinct male and female genders. Females bear a single live offspring after an 8 month gestation period. Reach sexual maturity at 14 years of age.

Physical Description/Appearance:
Arnoth resemble large eight-limbed lizards that can stand upright, walk centaur-like, or run along on all eight limbs. Their body is long and slender, and their limbs thin and multi-jointed, ending in dexterous five-toed foot-hands.
The head is set on the end of a long neck. The blunt-snouted head features a set of spikes jutting with the sides of the jawbone, and another set of horns on the upper skull. Skin is thick, leathery, and plated with tough segments of armor. Skin colors are generally tan, with light swaths along the stomach, and darkening around the upper chest, nose, and palms. Eyes are large, eagle-like, and vary in hue from gold to red.
Arnoth are considered to have very impressive vocal talents, with a strong oral tradition of herd-songs and story-chants.
Arnoth adapt well to micro-gravity conditions, though their need for denser, higher-pressure atmosphere does cause some problems with systems traditionally using reduced pressures.
Despite their low-gravity origins, Arnoth are actually wiry-strong, and have great endurance, traits which endeared them as a conscript workforce to their Golgan overseers.

Disposition/Attitudes:
Arnoth are intelligent, but fairly timid. Though they prefer to follow, rather than lead, there are limits to an Arnoth’s timidity, beyond which they will show courage. Despite their fearsome looks, they tend to be very polite, soft spoken, and deferential, even (or maybe especially) to strangers. Prime-Bulls, those males with higher M.E.s, tend to be more self-confident, aggressive, and self-assertive.
Arnoth are painfully aware of their self-confidence issues, so many of them are attracted to using chemical means to bolster their confidence(traditionally, mate-seeking bulls have used herbal ‘bull-rush’ preparations to get their blood up before confronting more established prime-bulls), with the modern pharmacopeia providing a much larger array of choices. This is regulated in the armed forces as ‘combat drugs’, but it has become a growing problem in the civilian sectors, with substance abuse on the rise.

Physical Attributes:
IQ: 3d6
ME: 2d4
MA: 2d6+10
PS: 2d6+12(1d6+12 in a 1.0 g gravity field)
PP: 1d6+10
PB: 1d4+2
PE: 3d6+20
SPD: 3d6+6(HALF in a 1,0 g gravity field)
(ISP):----
(PPE): 3d6
Hit Points: 40+1d6 pe level of experience
SDC: 120 + any gained from skills and training
MDC:---
Horror Factor: 12
Natural Abilities:
*Resistance to Cold; Arnoth take half-damage from cold, and even megadamage cold does SDC damage to them.
*Multiple Limbs--+2 APMs
*Small Retractable Claws---Inflict 2d4 SDC damage
Vulnerabilities:
*Light Gravity Worlder---Arnoth are virtually crippled under regular 1.0g, requiring special accommodations and equipment to survive and move around, such as gravity-suits, g-tanks, and supportive exoskeletons. Prolonged exposure to what is to them heavy gravity can cause eventual organ failure and death.
Psionics:----
Magic:
Arnoth do not believe in magic, having not exhibited any in their known history(aside from myths), but they actually have the potential. If shown that magic exists and works, Arnoth could conceivably learn magic.
Cybernetics/Bionics:
Cyb/ionics were introduced as concepts and reality by the Golgans. The Arnoth are generally neutral about them, but some see the benefits of them and will accept them for both medical and augmentative reasons.
Available OCCs: Any, except those requiring psychic abilities.
RCC Skills:
Climbing(+15%)
Singing(+10%)
Skills of Note:
EVA skills get a +10% bonus
Recycling and Slavage skills get a +10% bonus
Culture:
Armoth evolved from hunter-gatherer herd animals, with large harems of females and their offspring being gathered under the watch of the more assertive male ‘bulls’. This continued on into their sophont stage and civilization, with society being predominantly patriarchal. Large families presided over by a single senior male are still the norm amongst the Arnoth. Fights over harem-mates and leadership are still common, but not fatal, and most modern prime-bulls find other ways of conflict resolution, including defering to the judgement of senior females. Male Arnoth typically take leadership roles, including heavy labor, martial professions, and command slots in the growing space infrastructure, with females taking on domestic, technical, and roles, but with the Golgans effectively weeding out many prime-bull bloodlines, female Arnoth have taken on many formerly male-exclusive professional roles.
Music, especially song, plays an important part of Arnoth culture. Arnoth herds typically sang travel chanties to keep the pace of the nomadic wanderings, and bulls frequently sang to declare territory, woo females, and challenge competitors. Arnoth work crews are known for singing while on the job, calming each other, setting work pace, and communicating how work is progressing. An attentive overseer can gauge how work is going simply by listening to workers’ singing.
The hard resource-scarce nature of life on Sothis between its watered ocasises has also engendered a strong sense of thriftiness in Arnoth. Arnoth attempt to make the most of what they have, recycle zealously, and anything they can’t use, is set aside for others to make use of. This served them in good stead as the custodians of the Golgans’ scrapyards.



Solar System(Scobeth)
Number of Stars: 1
Types of Stars: Orange Dwarf
Number of Planets: 8
-Terrestrial (Duneth)---Inhospitable tiny Duneth features in many Arnoth legends as a sort of hell to which rogue herd members go in death.

-Terrestrial (Tegh)-- Miniscule Tegh zips around Scobeth twice per Sothic year. An airless rock ball, it nevertheless plays host to a small research outpost that has assumed the status of being the sort of tedious hell rogue(or at least insubordinate) Arnoth spaceforce officers are sent in life to learn humility. In Arnoth legend, Tegh is associated with a divine messenger figure, usually heralding storm seasons.

-Terrestrial (Thothtee)---Small Thothtee has a thin carbon dioxide atmosphere and a nearly nonexistent gravity field. It is tide-locked, one side always facing the sun, the other perpetually in shadow. With Golgan assistance(mainly so they could exploit Thothtee’s large deposits of molybdenite), an Arnoth colony was established, tapping the ice fields of the shadowside for water, and massive solar furnace arrays on dayside powering the foundries.

-Terrestrial (Sothis)---System life world

-Terrestrial (Bramis) ---Enormous rocky world with a thick carbon dioxide atmosphere. Its heavy gravity would kill any Arnoth trying to set foot on it. The Golgans couldn’t be bothered to explore Bramis, but the Arnoth have considered using robots to survey and potentially exploit the planet.

-Gas Giant (Gayath)---Miniscule for a gas giant, Gayath is scoop-mined for its gases. Its radiation belt is weak enough that the Golgans could build a permanent orbiter habitat to facilitate operations. The Arnoth would end up running the facility.

-Terrestrial(Trunsdal) ---Gargantuan Trunsdal is another world too big, too heavy, and too cold to explore in person.

-Gas Giant (Megat) ---Enormous, dark, and cold, Megat is believed to be Scobeth system’s ‘ort bulldozer’, pulling comets out of the fringes of the solar system and setting them on sunward coures...or deflecting them out of the system. Aside from a few astronomical sensor buoys put in place by some long-forgotten Golgan science bureau and maintained in desultory fashion by the Arnoth, there’s little to interest the casual visitor about this brooding dark giant on the edge of Arnoth home-space.


Planet(Sothis)
Type: Terrestrial
Diameter: Small, 7,000 km
Gravity: 0.4 g
Temperature: Cool; average is 40 degrees F.
Unusual/Special Features:
-Moons(2)--Sothis has two large moons, one of which(Arath) became, under the Golgan occupation, a massive starship scrapyard where obsolete equipment was hauled, stripped, and recycled.
Durn is Sothis’ other large moon, and it is honeycombed with mining tunnels, many of which have been air-sealed and turned into habitats. Some 4 million Arnoth call Durn home.

Atmosphere: Dense, but breathable nitrox mix. Arnoth traveling offworld will often need breather masks to provide supplemental gases.

Terrain: Varied terrain, but mainly dry arid plains, canyons, and island-like ocasis-pits holding surface water.
Unusual Mineralogy----Sothis hosts large untapped deposits of corminium
Notable Mineral Concentrations:
- Iron
- Zinc
- Wolframite
- Colombite
- Talc
- Diamond
- Fluorite
- Nickel
-Corminium--- Though two centuries of geological scans were made, the Golgans failed to discover that Sothis holds substantial deposits of corminium, a compound mineral of rare earths, useful in manufacturing high-capacity energy storage systems and e-clips. With more advanced mining technologies at their disposal, the Arnoth could become quite wealthy extracting and refining this mineral, without doing further damage to their ecosystem.

Hydrosphere: Badlands---Open water is found only in deep canyon beds, oasis-pits, and large caverns.

Biosphere: Moderate; bad management prior to Occupation, followed by less-than-sterling environmental management under the Republik(who exploited local resources) has damaged Sothis’s ecosystem. Many of the smaller niche species have disappeared, leaving a relative handful of more generalist species. The Arnoth hope that USA help can reconstruct their ecology.
Civilization:
Settled; Native Species Homeworld
Population:
4 billion Arnoth
Technology:
Early Galactic; the Arnoth have bootstrapped themselves using castoff Golgan tech.
Economy:
Industrial--Arnoth industry was geared towards serving the Republik’s fleets, and with the Golgans deserting the sector, that’s left many of Sothis’s factories without their traditional buyers. The Arnoth have found some new markets, especially in other ex-Republik systems needing spare parts for their older Golgan-designed/manufactured spacecraft. For example, despite being a desert world, Sothis produces its own copy of the amphibious Kasori P.113 light interstellar transport. initially from reassembled scrapyard parts, but the Arnoth now produce new(unlicensed) spacecraft.

Wealth:
Depressed---The Arnoth are dealing with a sudden shift from having a dictated economy run by foreign bureaucrats to an independent free market looking for customers.

Government:
Parliamentary, with representatives from the various regions, stations, and greater herd-pacs meeting in council to decide matters of national policy.

Law Level:
Moderate---Though the Arnoth retain most of the Golgan law code imposed on them, there’s been some chafing and unrest; herd-pacs are reforming under emergent prime-bulls who are testing the law. This has led to a drive to recruit up a new police force to enforce the new normal.

Popularity:
Beloved---Despite some problems with the old herd-pacs and rogues flexing their long-dormant muscles, everybody agrees that the current Parliament is a lot better than the Golgan occupational government....it just needs to have some adjustment to make it uniquely Arnoth.

Stability:
Stable---Again, with the Arnoth feeling their traditions again, but also aware of the realities of the galaxy, they don’t want to upset and change things until they KNOW they have something better.

[taalismn]

Hiveworld (United Systems Alliance Member)
(aka ‘Bugon‘)
“Planet stinks like an over-chlorinated swimming pool, the sky’s lousy with floating scuzz, and there are cockroaches in the basement. BIG cockroaches .”

Hiveworld Yeltzar is a planet settled by a contingent of Krakyt(see Aliens Unlimited Galaxy Guide, pg. 48) that became dimensionally lost, their small flotilla of starships having to make forced landings on the nearest habitable world. Yeltzar turned out to be borderline, with heavy gravity, tainted water, and a poisonous atmosphere. However, with little in the way of alternatives, the Krakyt had a go at establishing a colony, breaking down their starships to provide tools and materials. The insectoids have managed to establish themselves, building large underground burrow communities, filtering the air and water(or tapping unpolluted freshwater aquifers), growing foods hydroponically and vat-cultivating those edible native microorganisms, and using the planet’s geothermal heat to power their communities. Still, life was hard and the living spartan compared to how the Krakyt lived as starfarers. One of the technologies they retained, however, was deep space monitoring, and so on day they detected other starships entering the solar system.
The Amberjin-flagged prospectors were surprised when they were hailed from the surface of the yellow fog-shrouded world they were scanning for minerals, but not so shocked that they couldn’t intelligently follow through on First Contact. Diplomatic relations were soon established, and the Krakyt were once again part of a galactic community as members of the United Systems Alliance.
Despite being called a ‘hiveworld’, Yeltzar is only sparsely inhabited, and despite the fearsome reputation of the Krakyt as warriors(even in the Three Galaxies), the Yeltzarans have contributed little to the mutual defense of the Alliance, though due mainly to the aforementioned scant numbers they have available. Currently their main focus is on stabilizing their environmental and food supply security, but they are also building up some galactic trade in minerals, as a happy side effect of the expansion of their burrows. There’s currently little to attract bandit attention to the Quimer system(no easily raided stockpiles of riches, ransomable surface communities, or readily identifiable population centers to begin with), the Krakyt have established a powerful planetary militia equipped with USA-provided weaponry- here the warrior traditions of the Krakyt people become readily evident. That having been said, there ARE a few Yeltzaran Krakyt who have voyaged offworld with diplomatic and trade missions, and who have become embedded as military observers in the USAJC.
Though other Krakyt exist in the Three Galaxies, the Yeltzar colony has made little effort to contact them.

Solar System(Quinmer 34)
Number of Stars: 2
Types of Stars:
-Blue Dwarf(Quimer-A)
-Blue Dwarf(Quimer-B)
Number of Planets: 4
-Terrestrial(Yeltzar)---System Lifeworld

-Gas Giant(Kozphem)--- Small gas giant, Kozphem nevertheless possesses intense radiation belts from collecting energetic solar particles from the Quimer system’s binary suns. The planet’s five moons are thus too saturated in radiation to be of much use for traditional gas giant exploitation.

-Asteroid(Helmer Station)---This planetoid has been made over into a USA waystation and communications post.

-Gas Giant(Mokazuk)---Saturn-sized gas giant, complete with rings and a moon system.

Planet(Yeltzar)
The impression one gets of Yeltzar is of a world of vast desolate plains, broken by rising towers or ridges of volcanic stone, shrouded in a thick yellow-green fog. Yeltzar seems to be in the midst of a microbiological war, with an earlier generation of oxygen-spewing microbial life being shouldered aside and suffocated by a strangely hardier poison-spewing biochemistry . For their part, the Yeltzarans have considered using some of their wealth of thorium ores to fuel fission-powered atmosphere processors that would irradiate and kill the chlorine-algae and reverse the trend to favor friendlier carbon-oxygen cycle life.

Type: Terrestrial

Diameter: 122,000 km

Gravity: 2.0 g

Temperature: Temperate, within terrestrial/Terran norms.

Unusual/Special Features:
-Craters--- Yeltzar is pockmarked with impact craters.

Atmosphere: Yeltzar’s atmosphere is breathable but for the constant presence of vast dense clouds of airborne algae that both reduces visibility, and which is poisonous to breath, thanks to the algae’s ability to concentrate chlorine compounds. Without filtration, anybody breathing Yeltzar’s atmosphere must make a save versus lethal poison or take 1d4 hit point damage per minute of exposure.

Terrain: Yeltzar’s landscape is dominated by vast dry plains broken by the upthrustings of extinct volcanoes and spreading ridges. Craters are also a prominent feature of the landscape.
Notable Mineral Concentrations:
- Cobalt
- Copper
- Manganese
- Colombite
- Ruby
- Thorium
- Gypsum
- Borax
Hydrosphere:
Balanced: 42% of Yeltzar’s surface is covered in open water. However, most of the water is brackish, or otherwise tainted.
Biosphere:
Dense, but life on Yeltzar has not evolved much beyond the algae stage. and several different biochemistries are competing. Currently, oxygen-spewing photosynthesizing life, having knocked down earlier chemotropic lifeforms, is now on the losing side of an evolutionary war with a hardier poison-eating/breathing biochemistry.
Civilization:
Settled
Population:
18 million Krakyt
Technology:
The Krakyt cannibalized their starships and high tech to establish their first burrow communities, which has left them at an Information Age level. They are slowly working their way up to recreating some of their previous technology. They have traded for Galactic tech, and received other tech infusions as part of bootstrap programs.
Economy:
Agricultural---Currently the Krakyt have focused their attention on expanding their food supply. Mining is a secondary focus, in order to get the metals needed for habitat construction. with enough surplus for export, now that offworld trade has been established, being a happy side-effect.
Wealth:
Can be considered to be Impoverished, but only because the Krakyt are focusing all their time and resources on just basic needs and survival, without much thought to luxuries.
Government:
Matriarchy, with Queens ruling over communities.
Law Level:
Disciplined and Lawful; the Krakyt are NOT a monolithic hive-mind, so there is some crime, especially when it comes to stealing food and other survival resources, but the Yeltzaran government has a firmly-established legal system and law codes for dealing with such behavior.
Popularity:
Fanatical; not only have the Yeltzaran Queens’ decisions managed to keep the castaways alive, but their numbers have grown substantially.
Stability:
Long-standing: the Krakyt have faced their uphill battle for survival with military discipline.



Venhest IV(Skaron)(United Systems Alliance Member)
“Bleeding heart eggheads the Venhestians are not; their scholar-soldiers whipped up a most effective resistance even in the face of Broctile air supremacy. Book learners they might have been, but they practiced what they read, and and it paid off.”

“Now that Venhest has joined the United Systems, we now have to consider the ramifications of the Alliance having unlimited access to the closest thing to a war college on the Fringe. Rim-folk they may be, but the Venza take studying military affairs as seriously as any metroworld Rampart or Claw’s Den scholar.“

“Yah, Old Man Torenzo, the man they called the General in the old days, thought there was something special about the Trinary. Even pulled some strings to have one of the High Guard Coristers pull some close look-see orbits of the inner worlds before the Old Man died. What he was looking for, nobody really knows.”

Venhest IV is a planet orbiting the Sakatoron Trinary Cluster, an unusual coupling of blue, yellow, and red dwarf stars. Nevertheless, the system produced a habitable planet with a rich ecosystem, that made it ripe for colonization, and both human and seljuk colonists soon migrated to the fourth planet if the system.
Venhest IV is notably home to the Venza Scholar-Soldiers, the descendants of an ascetic order of warriors who were originally brought in to quell violent civil war between feuding colonists. Soon after colonization, among the humans ethnic tensions flared, exacerbated by land conflicts with the seljuk, who had their own internal problems. Soon, it seemed as if the colonization effort might fall apart to internal squabbling. The condottieri quashed the ethnic violence, straightened out the land disputes, then decided to stay, establishing their College. Using their superior military technology and small fleet of warships, the Venza maintained a hammerlock on trade to Venhest, and policed the planet. Their membership, their descendants and students, became a class of warrior-police, keeping the peace, mediating disputes, and protecting the public welfare. For centuries, the Scholar-Soldiers controlled technology imports to the planet, especially those that could be turned into advanced weaponry. The Venza wanted a low-conflict world to prevent any relapses of the violence that once beset the planet. In this they were successful, after the original colonists went through the expected phases of laying aside their hatreds for each other to a common hatred of the mercenaries, then to an acceptance of the enforced peace, especially after the first generations of locally-born, College-educated, Camp-bonded Scholar-Soldiers began policing Venhest. Peace and prosperity came at last to Venhest IV.
That changed when the neighboring Broctile Hegemony invaded, using StrideGate wormholes to funnel troops directly from their coreworlds to the invasion zones. Having lost their handful of Semestra and Corrister corvettes to the Broctile space forces, the Venhestians were forced to engage on a savage guerilla war against Broctile troops with orbital support. Fearing that they would be overwhelmed, the Venza authorized buying of advanced weapons systems. Despite having a picket force of their own warships in orbit of Venhest, the Broctile were still caught offguard when WZT and ASI freighters ran the blockade and delivered weapons to the planet’s defenders. The Broctile had apparently thought that the Venza would NEVER violate their own prohibitions on advanced weapons, and were shocked to discover how proficient the ‘backwoods primitives’ were at using the artillery and gunships they’d bought. So viciously effective were the Scholar-Soldiers in surprising the Broctile that they learned an important fact; the Broctile did not actually understand how the StriderGates worked enough the produce them, but were instead using irreplaceable Ancient artifacts to generate the invasion gates. A commando unit was subsequently able to infiltrate the central control center for the gates on the Broctile homeworld and destroy it with a strategic magical weapon. With the help of various offworld space-based PMCs(actually the space forces of the then-nascent United Systems Alliance), Venhest was able to see off the last of their invaders, though raids by Broctile warships would continue for some time to come.
The Venza would ultimately direct their adopted people to join the United Systems Alliance, in the process becoming a thorn in the side for the still-aggressive Broctile Hegemony who tried to hold on to their crumpling dominion by more conventional means. Even as the Venza rebuilt their space forces with USA help, they were lending their own expertise to opposing the Hegemony and hurrying along its collapse.

Solar System(Sakatoron)
Number of Stars: 3
Types of Stars:
-Blue Dwarf
-Yellow Dwarf
- Red Dwarf
Number of Planets: 8
-Terrestrial (Athak)-----Arid well-baked small rocky world

-Terrestrial (Riminj)-----Large Venus-style hothouse planet

-Terrestrial (Ceban)---Small Venus-style hothouse planet

-Terrestrial (Venhest)--- System lifeworld

-Asteroid(Clouvver)--- This Ceres-sized planetoid has

-Gas Giant (Chonadazar)---Jupiter-sized gas giant. Its radiation belts keep all but its outermost moons from being economically exploited, but two of them HAVE been taken over by USA licensees mining for minerals.

-Gas Giant (Revolds)---This ‘microscopic’ gas giant barely makes the cut for qualifying as one. On the plus side, it’s easier to scoop atmosphere from it, so it remains a popular fueling post for spacecraft in the system. The Venhestians maintained a fueling station on Revolds’ sole tiny satellite, and it became an early victim when the Broctile invaded. With the help of United Systems Alliance blockade runners, Venza Scholar-Soldiers cut off outsystem by the invasion, organized a commando raid that disabled the facility and denied its use to the invaders, until the siege of Venhest could be lifted and the Venhestians re-occupy the station.

-Gas Giant (Reedan) ---Small gas giant on the edges of the Sakatoran system. Though of little economic value, the Venhestians have nevertheless placed monitor probes in orbit of the planet, citing numerous historical accounts of hostile space fleets establishing assembly and depot points at a system’s outermost planets.

Planet-
Type:-Terrestrial
Diameter: 13,000 km
Gravity: 1.11 g
Temperature: Temperate
Unusual/Special Features:
-Moon---Drayfur was the site of the Venzas’ offworld warning outpost. It was destroyed during the Broctile invasion. The Venhestians have recently rebuilt and re-staffed the complex, and expanded it to accommodate USAJC basing and a transit traffic stopover station/depot.
Atmosphere: Breathable nitrox-mix
Terrain: Exotic; Venhest has the normal range and variety of terrestrial terrain, but 20% of it is covered with vertical forests----thick, tough, arboreal gowths that climb and cling to mountainsides, rock ridges, and even cliffs, with particular density. These growths made guerilla warfare on Venhest especially difficult for the Broctile invaders to root out, and part of the success of the Death Moth gunships the Venzas imported was because they could hover, and even park, in the thick overgrowth unnoticed, until they could pounce on the occupation forces.
Notable Mineral Concentrations:
- Amethyst
- Iron
- Lead
- Chromium
- Calcite
- Graphite
- Titanium
- Salt
Hydrosphere: Balanced; roughly 40% of the planet’s surface is covered by open water.
Biosphere:
Dense; Venhest has a rich and diverse ecology, including a good number of exploitable species. Evolution seems along saurian lines, with a strong, but small, psuedo-mammalian line in symbiosis(this is often jokingly pointed out by the seljuk locals to their human neighbors).
Civilization:
Settled
Population:
2.8 billion(roughly 38% human, 62% seljuk)
Technology:
Information Age for the most part, with Galactic technologies being administered and regulated by the Venza College.
It’s a sign of the College’s good influence that the people of Venhest aren’t being spoiled by the influx of new technologies, but have chosen to hang onto their simpler agrarian lifestyle.
Economy:
Agricultural, including some timbering(drill-vine and great-ivy in particular).
Wealth:
Rich; between agricultural exports and a small, but profitable, publishing industry(mainly military history) run by the College, Venhest is rolling in money. Another reason the Broctile decided to invade. Venhest has recovered quite quickly from the invasion.
Government:
Theocracy---Parallel to the militant efforts of the Venza condottieri to impose order, the religionists of both the human and seljuk colonists met to coordinate humanitarian relief for victims of the civil war. This grew into a merged church organization(the Greater Church) that became the basis of a unified civil government. Today, both human and seljuk priests serve as civil administrators, preaching a surprisingly loose and liberal social code to both species, but with divine disapproval waiting in the wings for those who sin. Of course, there’s also the Venza waiting in the wings as the secular enforcement arm of the government.
Law Level:
Lawful----Between the Greater Church and the Venza, an acceptable and comprehensive civil law code was hammered out that has stood the test of time. Now rather than take up arms, people with grievances against their neighbors complain to their local proctor-barristers or Venza law-keeper.
Popularity:
Popular
Stability:
Stable----There’ the occasional grumble and renewed feud, and not everybody feels the Greater Church is a good idea, but nobody wants to return to the bad old days when civil war was running rampant and the Venza was ready to bomb villages to keep the peace.

Venza Scholar-Soldiers and the College of Venhest(Warrior House)
“Study War to Learn Peace.”

The Venza started out as a veteran mercenary PMC brought in to quash a nasty little colonial brush war building momentum. The mercenaries did the job, but elected to stay and settle, influenced perhaps by the war-wariness of their senior members and the growing spirituality of their commanding officer, who felt drawn by the three suns of Venhest to contemplate the nature of conflict. Though, far from ‘ain’t going to study war no more’ as other ex-mercenaries have done, the Venza became academicians of the martial sciences. They established an organization they called simply the College, which would teach war-related subjects, disciplined with monastic order self-control in students. ‘War by other means’ would extend to business, diplomacy, and medicine.
Now the purpose of the Venza Scholar-Soldiers is to protect the peace of Venhest IV. Students of both the human and seljuk populations are recruited, and expected to pass through Camp, boot camp-style initiation and training alongside their studies. Graduates of Camp are expected to serve as citizen-soldiers, on call when the need arises. Only those vetted by the College are allowed military training and access to military weapons on Venhest. This effectively became a peacekeeping hammerlock on weapons technology and the skills to use it on Venhest.
After Venhest joined the USA, the College announced that it would be accepting a limited number of offworld candidates as students.

a)Size: Sprawling--- There is an estimated 75,000 active service members of the College

b)Sponsoring Group: Government---- Planet of Venhest.

c)Alignment: Scrupulous

d)Nature: Special Forces----Graduates of the College are trained to be the protectors and policemen of Venhest.

e)Recruitment: Open Door---Anybody can join the College, provided they pass the physical and philosophical requirements.

f)Funding: Prosperous---They can make available 2d10x1,000 credits in loans or gifts.

g)Perks: Special Training---- Graduates of the College get History: Five Galaxies(specifically military matters) 35%/30%+5% PLE, a +5% bonus to Military skills, +1 on Initiative in combat, and get an extra W.P. that starts at second-level of proficiency.

h)Quirks: Arms Collection---The College also collects weapons and conflict-associated paraphernalia. As such, it’s amassed an impressive museum collection of various weapons, armor, and artifacts. Students and Graduates are encouraged to contribute specimens of weapons (and their documented use) to add to the reference collection.

i) Facilities: Training Camps/Campuses---- The College maintains dispersed training campuses /military bases. The moon Drayfur also maintained a training facility for the space-based defenses, but it was destroyed by the Broctile Hegemony fleet that invaded . The lunar base academy has been re-established in the aftermath of the Broctile Hegemony withdrawing.

j) Reputation: Feared---- The original Venza PMC was feared and respected for their efficiency. When they settled on Venhest, though they were still highly-regarded and sought after for ‘consultations’, many in the PMC community thought that the Venza were effectively washed up and retired from the soldiering game, with each successive generation fading in martial prowess. The Broctile Hegemony military planners thought that the Scholar-Soldiers were exaggerated, a hopped-up planetary militia with a few elderly light warships that had managed to scare off some low-end pirates. Though they lost their orbital cover early in the invasion, the Venza proved they still had fire in the guerilla war that met the Hegemonic landings. Properly re-equipped, the Venza reversed the situation, discovered the Broctiles’ secret, and blew it wide open. They also re-established their reputation in the process.

k) Twinks: Secret Lore(?)--- Some claim that the Venza’s founding officer believed there was something more to the Sakatoron Trinary than a chance gathering of stars. His (leaked) later personal papers hint at Ancient cosmological secrets, though no hard evidence. The general consensus(politely worded) is that there were the ramblings of an old man well into his dotage, but there are believers who think the man was unto something greater. Conspiracy theorists(even Venhest has them!) maintain that there is, in the College, an inner organization dedicated to researching and hiding the truth behind those claims.

l) Secret Agenda: None, except the stated purpose of keeping Venhest’s peace. Occasionally, however, ‘graduate-students’ would be allowed to make ‘field trips’ to offworld conflict zones to ‘observe and study’, ‘gain experience in the changing modes of conflict’, and acquire ‘samples’ of offworld weapons technology. Likewise, the College has been suspected of allowing its instructional faculty to take ‘sabbaticals’ to act as military advisors and ‘consultants’, in return for unspecified compensation fees.

[taalismn]

Some more world-building, via another perspective...

United Systems Alliance Economics:
(Some information on who is trading what in the USA)

Excerpted from an Altess Dynasty Outworld Trade Report:

<<“Since the United Systems Alliance came to our aid against the Golgan Republik, it behooves us to take a closer look at this new power that has since exploded on the galactic scene from humble beginnings in the Fringe. As it is now regarded as a good thing to keep this new polity around as a buffer state, if nothing else, doing an in-depth evaluation of ifs driving economies will enable us to better assess its long term stability and viability, and take the necessary steps to preserve its benefits, with regards to the Dynasty. In this we are fortunate to have been invited in as partners in a number of economic uplift programs; this allows us to overtly offer advice, make suggestions on fiscal and economic development policy, and invest aboveboard in the USA’s trade network. More covertly, our evaluation and audit studies will allow us to invest more secretly in other aspects of the USA, and more subtly guide it.”>>
<<“The following capsule summary cover looks at the main trading worlds/members and economically-linked protectorates and outposts, describe their main contribution to USA trade, and their overall Economic Rating on the Kauffin Scale. General output data will also be provided on those known/substantially-sized outposts and territories that do not, as yet, merit ER scores. Finally, ER scores will be tallied and averaged, and an assessment of the USA economy made.[“>>

*Class-1 Shatterworlds are considered to be ‘rehabs in progress’ , incapable of contributing significantly to the galactic USA economy(they’re on the receiving end of humanitarian aide).

**Economic Rating--Rated on a scale of 1-10, with 1 being the lowest(equivalent to Squalor/Poverty), and 10 being the highest(equivalent to Utopia), and “+” and “-” indicating predicted economic prospects in the near future.

*(Annotations)
-Blue---Planets showing marked upward trends/potential, with strong investment possibilities. ---
-Green---Planets with notable improving conditions
-Red---Planets with conditions that may negatively affect/hamper their economic rating status---

Member Worlds:
Abelon(Member)--Biotech. ER: 5+
Anduv(Member)--Livestock/Foodstuffs, Vehicles. ER: 6
Balsar(Member)--Livestock/Foodstuffs. ER: 6+
Bijeme(Member)--Industrial. Cybernetics and organo-electronics.. ER: 4
Calcid(Member)--Actuarial services. ER: 3+
Crosyar(Member)-----Minerals. ER: 4
Darad(Member)--Ores, Metals, Manufactured goods(finished alloys, circuit chips, and industrial components). ER: 4+
Eugenia(Member)-- Banking services, Trade hub. ER: 8+
(The Eugenians have profited even more by becoming the de-facto financial center of the USA. They remain a good investment and regional commercial development headquarters, As we already have some investment there, expanding them can go safely unnoticed.)
Gevadan(Member)--Livestock/Foodstuffs. ER: 7+
(Since shaking off the Solex Federation, Gevadan is trending upwards as a commercial center selling the products of their high-output dome-farms. The only issue is the proximity to the ongoing Solex Civil War and the flood of refugees coming out of the region, but the USAJC seems to have matters well in hand with regards to Gevadan’s security.)
Gwyer/Api-NorDwyri (Member) --Biotech. ER: 8+
(Pharmaceuticals manufacturer of growing importance. Their enhancement drugs and potions are also making a good showing in the combat drug markets)
Hadazad(Member)--Heavy machinery, Robotics. ER: 6+
(Giant robots are a thing on Hadazad, and once they get hold of Three Galaxies tech, they’ll likely improve on their designs, provided they don’t lose their enthusiasm and ape the rest of the 3G in adopting a more vehicle-centered approach. It could be worth watching developments here, especially if the CCW starts looking for a replacement for the Battleram in the next century or so.)
Harrisar(Probationary Member)(Extradimensionally located)--Manpower. ER: 2+
( Class 1 eco-collapse shatterworld undergoing bio-remediation. Long-overdue social reforms will likely slow and possibly even stop their rampant overpopulation trend, even with encouraged offworld immigration and settlement, making their manpower-based economic contribution uncertain long-term. Their extradimensional location makes them less likely to have any effect on our Three Galaxies interests, however.)
Jovenis(Probationary Member) --Agriculture. ER: 8+
Jorgmundson(Member)--Minerals. ER: 7+
Kai-Shem(Member)--Spacecraft/Shipyards. ER: 8+
(Expect Kai-Shem to continue to ride the uptick in trade and the increased demand for both commercial hulls and military escorts.)
Kellest(Member)--Agriculture/Aquaculture/Foodstuffs. ER: 5+
Kessyb(Member)--Consumer electronics. ER: 5
Kestra(Member)---Agriculture. ER: 6+
Lakye(Member)--Mercenary services, Spacecraft/Shipyards. ER: 4+
(Now that the Tmelain have reestablished themselves with new homeworlds, their shipbuilding programs are recovering quite rapidly.)
Manticus(Member)--Biotech. ER: 6+
(Aside from the GNE’s own biotech, Manticus is the second most advanced of the commercial biotechnology concerns in the USA. They are greatly involved in bioremediation efforts of other USA worlds, so investment in Manticusan biotech works two ways for us; direct commission profits and long term humanitarian benefits. )
Mazah(Member)--Heavy machinery,. ER: 4-
(Technological shock has stymied economic growth, pending integration with Galactic tech-standards. Aggravating the situation is loose government control over local corporations in their offworld dealings, leading to allegations of fraud and contract noncompliance. If the Mazahans play to their strengths in life support and recycling technologies, as well as tap their mineral wealth, their current economic downturn can be turned into a shallow dip, provided they listen to offworld advisories.)
Medeseaed(Member) --Consumer Goods. ER: 5+
Mestos(Member)--Agriculture/Foodstuffs(Moho fruit). ER: 2+
(Since being opened up to resettlement colonization, Mestos is showing a marked improvement with great potential as an agricultural world. The discovery of how to transform bland moho fruit into the universally metabolically-compatible Synergy Ale is making this backwater a surprise hotspot for development)
Nettavan(Member)---Mercenary services, Minerals. ER: 5+
Orsessn(Member)--Atmospheric Gases. ER: 3+
Paloii(Member)---Agriculture(Glennriver Vingreen wines). ER: 8+
Res’shel(Member)---Spacecraft/Shipyards. ER: 8+
(Rebliss homeworld; the Golgans lost big now that the Rebliss are on their own and making a profit selling hulls to the commercial market. Expect them to increase their profits neck and neck with the Kai-Shem yards.)
Saveoresc(Member)--Minerals. ER: 3+
Scothis(Member)---Spacecraft/Shipyards. ER: 4+
Ser-Chai(Member)--Manufacturing. ER: 6+
Silkra(Member)-- Agriculture/Foodstuffs. ER: 6+
Skensi(Member)--Livestock/Foodstuffs. ER: 6+
Tarkulaam(Member)--Spacecraft/Shipyards. ER: 4
Thelheim(Member)--Spacecraft/Shipyards. ER: 4+
(The updating of the former military shipyards and the reemployment of the local work force has showed marked benefits to the USA’s ability to produce new ships)
Valkos(Member)--Heavy machinery. ER: 4
(Could be considered a Class 1 shatterworld, but they have cleared the bar for self-sufficiency and are paying their way)
Vanderlund(Member)-- Foodstuffs, Tourism. ER: 7
Venhest IV(Member)-- Agriculture/Foodstuffs. ER: 8+
Yeltzar(Member)-- Agriculture, mining(ruby, thorium). ER: 2+
(Borderline habitable world with the dimensionally-stranded Krakyt colonists focusing on establishing self-sufficiency. However, conditions ARE improving with a growing trade in mineral exports)

Cybolyte(Colony)---Minerals(Red agate)/Manufacturing(medical technology and technowizardry). ER: 6+
(The establishment of Cybolyte as a center of advanced frontier medicine and manufacturer of TW medical equipment make this system a hotbed of medical innovation. Investment in medicine is always a good way to quietly make profits and overtly reap good public opinion...there’s room for a few named hospital wings in this.)
Jeheel(Colony)---Minerals. ER: 6
Kampadow(Colony)---Agriculture, Manufacturing(military vehicles). ER: 6+
(The ChaiChuk have been turning their first extrasolar colonial holding into an agricultural silver mine, and their new land warfare school seems poised to attract more than USAn militia trainees.)

Danager(Protectorate)---Minerals(Platinum). ER: 3
Davasgar(Protectorate) --Seafood. ER: 5
Ferendao(Protectorate)(Extradimensionally located)-- ER: 1
(No exports; reparations by the other nation states on Ferendao go towards rebuilding/rehabilitating the bioweapon-ravaged democracy there.)
Genahser(Protectorate)-- ER: 1-
(Rehabbing former Splugorth slave-world receiving humanitarian aide.) .
Styx(Protectorate)--Agriculture/Aquaculture/Foodstuffs(Styxian Tea). ER: 5+
(Now that the resettled refugees are establishing themselves, Styx is marketing a surprising variety of good quality agricultural products, Styxian Black Tea is becoming a household name throughout the USA. )
Tenlen(Protectorate) --Currently leases basing rights in its solar system. Some small trade in cultural goods. . ER: 2-
( Class 1 eco-collapse shatterworld undergoing bio-remediation.)
Truon(Protectorate)(Extradimensionally located)-- Currently leases mining rights to its solar system. ER: 2+
( Class 1 shatterworld undergoing bio-remediation.).
Veranan(Protectorate) --Robotics. ER: 1+
( Class 1 nuclear war shatterworld undergoing bio-remediation.).



GNE territories(by extension USA-affiliated)
Sorcorus ----Trading and Manufacturing Outpost(defunct)
Tenshan IV/Tusau City---Trading Outpost
Idland---Mining Outpost--Minerals(psi-crystals)
Tscheka---Trading Outpost
Reno IV---Mining Outpost--Minerals
Delucca Flats---Mining Outpost--Minerals
Mulray---Mining Outpost--Minerals
Tesgold (IV)---Mining Outpost--Minerals
Tijike---Mining Outpost--Minerals
( Class 4 cosmic shatterworld; discovery of still-viable hibernaculum in the planetary debris are leading to the system being declared a disaster relief zone).
Talden Station---Mining Outpost--Minerals
Agasar IX----Mining Outpost/Scientific Research Outpost--Minerals
Azimuth Point/Juxtapa XXII---Outpost/Training Camp---Personnel
Turquoise Haven---Outpost/Training Camp(Extradimensionally located)--Tourism


Amberjin---Industrial Colony--Spacecraft/Shipyards. ER: 8+
Atium---Agricultural Colony--Agriculture/Aquaculture/Foodstuffs. ER: 6+
Cenax---Mining Colony--Minerals. ER: 5+
Comaugh---Mining Colony(Extradimensionally located)--Minerals. ER: 5
Gentiswan---Mining/Military Training Colony(Extradimensionally located)--Minerals. ER: 4
(Gentiswan’s ER is provisional, as it is currently serving as the forward assembly point of the USA’s Balanite War campaign against the Travesdeen Empire. As such, it is a major military staging area)
Giland---Agricultural Colony(Extradimensionally located)--Foodstuffs. ER: 7+
Kaxion Station----Transit Colony(Extradimensionally located)--Agriculture. ER: 6+
(Increased USA and outside trade traffic, as well as the development of the worlds in the Kaxxion wormhole system make this system of increasing value to the USA and a number of other shipping concerns. Establishing a few front branch offices in the system would not be a bad idea.)
Lefow----Trading and Manufacturing Outpost/Colony. ER: 5
Masumi Station----Transit/Resort Colony. ER: 5
New Holland---Industrial Colony----Vehicles, Equipment, Weapons. ER: 8+
New Stratford---Industrial Colony----Vehicles, Equipment, Weapons. ER: 7+
Pheniston----Trade Outpost/Colony--Minerals, Aquaculture. ER: 6+
(This literal backwater moon is making a splash with its very slick promoting of its small gemstone-mining operations. Using an exiled Accalian ex-military commander as their breakout spokesmodel has rehabilitated both her and the colony’s image. )
Synthar---Industrial Colony---- ER: 6+
(Synthar’s role in repelling the recent Sorm invasions has earned the USA respectful attention by the Chedive, who have stepped up their trading with Alliance concerns. As the nearest USA outpost, and one straddling a valuable wormhole junction, Synthar is expected to expand its production lines and output.)
TemsenSkoya----Transit/Resort Colony---Beetle fur, Tourism. ER: 6+
(Our research has uncovered that TemsenSkoya is also producing small amounts of psylite, though it all seems to be going to GNE special projects. We may wish to use the tourism aspect to investigate what those projects are.)
Tennison---Agricultural Colony. ER: 5+

Auspen---Protectorate(Extradimensionally located)--Foodstuffs. ER: 3
(Auspen’s ER can be considered provisional, as it is a recently-liberated conquered territory of the Travesdeen Empire, and is part of the frontlines in the Alliance’s Balanite War campaign against the Travesdeen. As such, it is receiving humanitarian aide.)
Dahaz---Protectorate(Extradimensionally located)--Petroleum, minerals. ER: 5
Ghawdeen---Industrial Colony/Refugee Protectorate--. ER: 3+
(The cooldown in the T’ghari Domain/Brualli Alignment conflict has allowed the local area economies to rebound slightly)
Ilovona---Protectorate(Extradimensionally located)---Spare parts, domestic wares, and textiles. ER: 6+
Kaldia/New Providence---Colonial Protectorate(Extradimensionally located)--Minerals, foodstuffs. ER: 2
(The depressed local economy has been rendered chaotic by the global war raging there, but has been stabilized by the New Providence colony’s intervention)
Kendelson----Agricultural Colony/Refugee Protectorate--Foodstuffs. ER: 3+
New Columbia---Protectorate(Extradimensionally located)--Minerals. ER: 3
New Vita---Colonial Protectorate--Livestock, timber. ER: 6+
(Their reverse-engineering of the Ancient tech that nearly destroyed their colony is beginning to pay off, and their combat -augmented domestic help is hiring out, with some intriguing potentials. The ones employed by the Dynasty have gotten only glowing performance review reports, and the rumors of the Azimuth Point Academy starting a branch campus there promise to only further improve the quality of their graduates. )
Tavaza---Colonial Protectorate(Extradimensionally located)--Minerals., Foodstuffs ER: 3+
(The peace imposed on the warring Amazon tribes is holding, and mining operations have begun in earnest. There’s also a growing trade in handcrafted melee weapons, and local agricultural specialties, plus a hiring out of Amazons eager to see the megaverse. Hiring a few of them may be a good idea.)


Overall Economic Health Assessment of the United Systems Alliance:

(Using 73- rated worlds, and a provisional scoring of 364)

Average Rating: 5.1----Average
The United Systems Alliance is rated as having an Average Galactic economy. However, it should be factored in that 48 of the evaluated worlds show a marked upward trend in economic activity since being inducted into the United Systems Alliance, sowing a general improvement in their economic situation. Only two member worlds show a downward trend, one owing to an preexisting slow-motion ecological collapse, and the other a depressed economy due to technological obsolescence in the face of the introduction of Galactic technologies. Another two are involved in an ongoing war, and yet another system is becoming involved in systemwide search and rescue operations, leading to intermittent work stoppages for the foreseeable future.
Agriculture: 23
Manufacturing: 22
Mining: 14
Trade: 5
Other: 9

Agriculture accounts for 30% of the United Systems Alliance’s economic activity, though most of production is consumed domestically. Still, a good amount of trade , especially in luxury goods/foods unique to their worlds, is conducted with outside markets.
(* The Fringe is actively promoting the exoticness of many of their agriculture products. While most of them fall into the ‘tastes like chicken’ category, there’s a growing number of truly exceptional finds for the experienced gourmand, and tables in Thraxus’s and the Dynasty’s dining halls are being graced with the Taste of the Fringe. We could do far worse than to promote in the Dynasty an ‘Eat Atium Atuna---It’s Good for You, and Good for the Fringe’ campaign to more subtly support them.)

Manufacturing accounts for another 30% of the USA’s economy. Spacecraft manufacturing is a large percentage of the USA’s manufacturing export income, with at least seven major shipyards under their control. This large number of local spaceyards is also what is fueling the recent economic growth of the Fringe, as those shipyards, besides providing military hulls for local protection, are also pumping out commercial vessels, eroding the coreworld aerospace corporations’ market share.
Weapons systems manufacture is also a large and important part of the USA’s export trade, with PS/ASI as the primary local arms supplier to both the USA’s own armed services and to numerous clients.
(*Anyone who’s invested in an Aurora can tell you the Fringe does good work, though they’re not afraid to collaborate with our own craftsmen on commissions. Their military equipment, as inelegant as the bulk of it is, at least has been well and thoroughly combat-tested under some very demanding and unusual circumstances.)


While only 14 of the listed 73 worlds are listed as major mineral supply sources, mining accounts for a substantial percentage(40%) of export trade, owing to the vast numbers of mining outposts and resource worlds claimed and developed by the USA. The untapped fresh mineral wealth of the frontier makes for lower prices that the coreworlds are eager to pay, with the fact that the Fringe nation is able to provide its own transports to carry ores and refined metals more than halfway being another cost-saving benefit offsetting transport costs from so far away.
Of special note is the so-called Crystal Trade, which extends into the UWW, and deals with the trading and traffic in mineral crystals. The emphasis and intent here is less on gemstones for aesthetic value, and more for their use in magic-related industry. While the USA does practice some gemology for jewelry, gemstones and crystals seem less valued for their aesthetics, and more for their potential utility. While it might seem extreme to say that usans don’t value a well-cut sapphire brooch or dar-diamond necklace, seeing them as wastes of war material, it’s not too far off the mark.
(*However, Sy’mons in the External Trade Office can relate a very amusing anecdote about his USAn companion at a trade expo that was raided by pirates revealing that her opulent sapphire choker had other more useful properties as well---we may want to follow up on that and consider similar reinvestment/refurbishment of some of our Family heirloom jewelry).

Trade Transportation is one sector in which the USA is above par, and which has greatly facilitated the economic growth or recovery of member worlds. Though widely dispersed, the various worlds of the USA are being linked by an independentally-supplied transportation network. Though several key transit points(such as Kaxion) within the USA’s territories contribute, two factors are particularly outstanding; the ability of the USA, through its practically nationalized industries, to produce its own transports, and second of all, the growing ability of the USA to use dimension-hopping to get around the usual hurtles of distance and cosmo-geopolitics. On those trade routes where piracy is a concern, the USA has proven quite capable of defending its merchantmen(after all, that was what the USA was originally founded to DO).
Safe and reliable transport has allowed the USA to dependably service its member worlds, as well as open up new markets in areas that have traditionally lacked steady commerce.
(*A good number of backwater worlds that relied on the occasional wandering tramper for semi-regular contact with the rest of the megaverse are now able to afford their own space transit. Of course, this means a lot more smalltime traffic and businesses that attracts more pirates looking for easy pickings, that in turn leads to more anti-piracy patrols.)

Military expenditures by the USA are proportionately larger than for other polities like the CCW or Golgan Republik, but as the USA produces most of their own equipment, they are not in debt to outside concerns nor dependent on outside suppliers for their defense needs. While the growth of a joint military organization and various foreign adventures is a drain on the shared treasuries, the confidence and security generated by the USAJC amongst the Fringe states has led to increased trade in the regions and a growing number of new members signing up, either out of gratitude for past protection or wanting to be part of the new regional strongmen. The continued success of the USAJC in dealing with the various small, but still concerning, problems such as pirates, rogue states, and regional threats , as well as actions in the Minion War, have engendered a great deal of Fringe world pride in their militaries, enough to forgive the ongoing costs of supporting them.
(*Our own enthusiastic popularization of the USA’s actions on the Dynasty’s own doorstep have helped encourage this. Though our aura of invincibility took a hit, at least it’s a lesson in humility we survived without too many welts, and the Armoria has learned considerably from. Though we may be at odds with our own investments in Naruni Enterprises, bolstering the USA’s continued military growth and efforts is currently a good thing, as it secures the economies of the Fringe and provides a crucible for an experienced combat personnel reservoir that we can tap into through their nationalized mercenary boards and Irregulars programs. As long as they don’t abuse their newfound martial prowess, backing the USAJC remains good for our business.)


Overall cash reserves could be greater, but the USA has plowed a good deal of its economic surplus into relief operations and uplift programs, helping out its poorer members and extending charity and disaster relief to outsiders. While this has not helped fill its coffers in the near-term, its long term karmic benefits could be incalculable(and another reason why we should be grateful the USA is letting us share top billing in their PR campaigns).
(*We can also confidently predict a 0.07% increase in the USA’s cash reserves thanks to our recent actions against the Chindar Society and the quiet reinvestment of recovered embezzled funds into higher-yield accounts.)

One part of the economy that the USA is weak in is high-end energy production, specifically antimatter. This is balanced, however, by the fact that the USA economy relies mainly on nuclear fusion, and virtually every inhabited system that has gas giants, plays host to at least one atmosphere-mining operation harvesting fusion fuel. The slack is taken up by use of locally-mined fissionables and renewables(solar especially) and growing, and not insignificant, PPE collection/generation. AM production still continues to be concentrated in itinerant mobile Asteroid Cruiser fac-ships, but an expansion of local AM production remains a likely future direction.

Overall, the economy of the United Systems Alliance is healthier than expected for a coalition of Fringe worlds, with several strong sectors in their shared economies and a growing balance of trade with the more developed metroworlds. The USA worlds continue to bolster each other and strengthen their individual economies, creating enough surplus to support their colonial development efforts and charitable works. Military spending continues to require some balancing, as it is a major part of their overall joint expenditures, even with the healthy discounts having effectively nationalized miltech corporations affords them, though this isn’t adversely affecting their private sector, and in fact is ENCOURAGING commercial sector growth. This in turn has generated many potential openings for the Dynasty to quietly invest and establish an economic foothold in the USA.

Recommendations:
- Continue to monitor the situation; the United Systems Alliance is in a growth phase, with new members applying or being admitted on a continual basis. Some are looking for charity, or at least low-interest assistance, while others are seeking to take advantage of the same benefits as we are. The balance of the overall USA economy can fluctuate depending on what new members bring to the table, or expect to take away from it.

-Find out more about the USA’s extradimensional holdings; we have little hard data on what they’re doing there, and that could be just the rest of the iceberg. The more complete a picture we have of the USA’s assets and deficits, the more accurately we can model their economy.

- Continue with the terms of the Honor-Debt; the good will from visibly participating in humanitarian and economic renewal efforts is paying handsomely for us. Discrete polling is showing that a significant portion of the Three Galaxies that previously regarded the Dynasty as aloof, arrogant, and apathetic, now view us in a more positive light. They are more inclined to give us the benefit of the doubt, and less likely to condemn any actions we may take in the future against the Republik and other adversaries. That we are partnered with the United Systems Alliance in our outreach makes us appear more humble by association.

- Invest in their research and development programs. The energy sector at least, but getting in on the ground level of their other R&D initiatives will give us a better idea of where they might be going, and possibly head off trouble if we see, with our own long experience, any disturbing trends.

- Find products produced in the USA that will sell in the Dynasty, especially luxury goods. If we build up a good flow of trade with the USA worlds, they’ll be less inclined to annoy us and threaten the trade. Also, by aura effect, we’ll be promoting their products.

- Double-check the money flows. The USA is getting to the point where it’s attracting its share of skullduggery in the numbers. Applying our accounting weaponry to the USA’s economy is one way of gaining their gratitude by exposing theft and other fiscal chicanery...or of more subtly coercing their compliance through our own hidden actions.

-Find out more about the USA’s intelligence apparatus; they had a better idea about the Golgans attacking us in advance before we did. We SHOULD have figured it out ahead of time and laid contingency plans, even with the rude surprise of our arsenal world suddenly disappearing. We know that the USA uses psychic and magic resources in their intelligence work, just as the Golgans use their Ultrovian vassals, but the USA seems to get it right more often than wrong(though they do admit to being wrong sometimes; the Republik attacks on Zygania and other border states came as a surprise, and may have been overshadowed in whatever auguries by their move against us) . Finding out what they have, how they’re processing and sifting their raw data, and whether it can be applied to economic and political endeavors, could be another wild card we can adapt to our advantage.

[Omegasgundam]

Some more world-building, via another perspective...

United Systems Alliance Economics:

And now it's my turn to react to a list. How exciting.

USA Member Worlds
(Almost) All of these have proper entries, although many of them can stand to have a post-war update.

Spoiler:

Abelon(Member)--Biotech. ER: 5+

Clone world with a ‘GNE Strange’ history. Trying to stay ahead of the usual genetic decay issues. Interesting concept though.

Anduv(Member)--Livestock/Foodstuffs, Vehicles. ER: 6

Has problems with the neighboring Devar Comdomate, which are jack asses. Has some low level military and explosive manufacturing, and has a plot hook to the FWC.

Balsar(Member)--Livestock/Foodstuffs. ER: 6+

Mostly pacifistic ogres. Had trouble with pirate elves. Don't talk philosophy or politics with them though.

Bijeme(Member)--Industrial. Cybernetics and organo-electronics.. ER: 4

Real oddball nanite infested planet with a history that they’re trying to avoid. Well behind the curve in relative tech, but once they catch up they will be a major cybernetics source.

Calcid(Member)--Actuarial services. ER: 3+

Waterworld inhabited by squids. They’ve found their niche, and it's their OCD. Physical wimps but immense ME and MA as well as above average IQ. They do well in marketing.

Crosyar(Member)-----Minerals. ER: 4

Mars-like with a number of unspecified wildlife problems. Could stand a more in depth entry.

Darad(Member)--Ores, Metals, Manufactured goods(finished alloys, circuit chips, and industrial components). ER: 4+

Former colony of an HA splinter. Was in the crossfire for a stupid corp war, and the region is still a mess.

Eugenia(Member)-- Banking services, Trade hub. ER: 8+
(The Eugenians have profited even more by becoming the de-facto financial center of the USA. They remain a good investment and regional commercial development headquarters, As we already have some investment there, expanding them can go safely unnoticed.)

Wolfen variant, living in underground cities on a lifeless ex-mining world. Military contribution is mostly paying for other people’s ships. 'Wolf of Wall Street' joke ahoy.

Gevadan(Member)--Livestock/Foodstuffs. ER: 7+
(Since shaking off the Solex Federation, Gevadan is trending upwards as a commercial center selling the products of their high-output dome-farms. The only issue is the proximity to the ongoing Solex Civil War and the flood of refugees coming out of the region, but the USAJC seems to have matters well in hand with regards to Gevadan’s security. )

Basically on the firing line, but will probably be key to ending the mess. The OPO is pulling a lot of broken people out of it, so the local attitudes are hardening. OPO are also the ones that triggered the civil war as a preemptive defense, but it was going to happen eventually.

Gwyer/Api-NorDwyri (Member) --Biotech. ER: 8+
(Pharmaceuticals manufacturer of growing importance. Their enhancement drugs and potions are also making a good showing in the combat drug markets)

Druggy lemurs. No small amount of culture clashes, but they’re working on it. Legit magic potions will always have a niche, and their a ready made justification for a Super Hero.

Hadazad(Member)--Heavy machinery, Robotics. ER: 6+
(Giant robots are a thing on Hadazad, and once they get hold of Three Galaxies tech, they’ll likely improve on their designs, provided they don’t lose their enthusiasm and ape the rest of the 3G in adopting a more vehicle-centered approach. It could be worth watching developments here, especially if the CCW starts looking for a replacement for the Battleram in the next century or so.)

Mech-knights. Robots aren’t really my thing, so I’ll let taalismn handle them.

Harrisar(Probationary Member)(Extradimensionally located)--Manpower. ER: 2+
(Class 1 eco-collapse shatterworld undergoing bio-remediation. Long-overdue social reforms will likely slow and possibly even stop their rampant overpopulation trend, even with encouraged offworld immigration and settlement, making their manpower-based economic contribution uncertain long-term. Their extradimensional location makes them less likely to have any effect on our Three Galaxies interests, however.)

They provided a key manpower boost early on, although just what direction they’re going now is up in the air.

Jovenis(Probationary Member) --Agriculture. ER: 8+

Ex-dimensional mystic castaways. Cultural cave fighting monster hunters, and high interest in TW. Their sea-cave food is exotic, and they export substantial numbers of mercenaries. Rifts Earth has to be a popular location for them

Jorgmundson(Member)--Minerals. ER: 7+

Space Scandinavians. Have some key minerals and a curious dimensional history.

Kai-Shem(Member)--Spacecraft/Shipyards. ER: 8+
(Expect Kai-Shem to continue to ride the uptick in trade and the increased demand for both commercial hulls and military escorts.)

Minotaurs with a blade fetish. Ships have lots of volume for their mass for obvious reasons. Lower tech systems used as intentional frontier choice for the most part.

Kellest(Member)--Agriculture/Aquaculture/Foodstuffs. ER: 5+

Post-plague survivors. USA was the only people willing to talk to them, so they jumped. Substantial population as well.

Kessyb(Member)--Consumer electronics. ER: 5

First mention.

Kestra(Member)---Agriculture. ER: 6+

Ex-castaways that really benefit from good nutrition, likely going to be a source of high attribute manpower in a few decades.

Lakye(Member)--Mercenary services, Spacecraft/Shipyards. ER: 4+
(Now that the Tmelain have reestablished themselves with new homeworlds, their shipbuilding programs are recovering quite rapidly.)

Ex-Nomad mercenaries that want to stay settled. Most experience building super-capital ships in the USA.

Manticus(Member)--Biotech. ER: 6+
(Aside from the GNE’s own biotech, Manticus is the second most advanced of the commercial biotechnology concerns in the USA. They are greatly involved in bioremediation efforts of other USA worlds, so investment in Manticusan biotech works two ways for us; direct commission profits and long term humanitarian benefits.)

Of critical importance given the USA’s problem children. Likely looking into the biomod screen.

Mazah(Member)--Heavy machinery,. ER: 4-
(Technological shock has stymied economic growth, pending integration with Galactic tech-standards. Aggravating the situation is loose government control over local corporations in their offworld dealings, leading to allegations of fraud and contract noncompliance. If the Mazahans play to their strengths in life support and recycling technologies, as well as tap their mineral wealth, their current economic downturn can be turned into a shallow dip, provided they listen to offworld advisories.)

Bit of a mess to say the least. Not particularly well liked by other members either.

Medeseaed(Member) --Consumer Goods. ER: 5+

Would be Balkan-level ethnic hell hole that has managed to stick together long enough to make contact. Almost certainly has some sort of geological backstory that’s going to cause a problem later though.

Mestos(Member)--Agriculture/Foodstuffs(Moho fruit). ER: 2+
(Since being opened up to resettlement colonization, Mestos is showing a marked improvement with great potential as an agricultural world. The discovery of how to transform bland moho fruit into the universally metabolically-compatible Synergy Ale is making this backwater a surprise hotspot for development)

Was a boring dirt ball, but the booze has serious potential.

Nettavan(Member)---Mercenary services, Minerals. ER: 5+

Goblin world with historical problems. Hired out mercs to the USA, who came back and started cleaning things up a few decades later. They're getting better, but things are still in flux.

Orsessn(Member)--Atmospheric Gases. ER: 3+

Ex-Cynoceran developing mining colony. Cities on moons that orbit a high gravity waterworld, so aqua mods and platforms are highly desired.

Paloii(Member)---Agriculture(Glennriver Vingreen wines). ER: 8+

Surprisingly wealthy, but is staying ahead of the curve for the related problems. Formerly isolationist.

Res’shel(Member)---Spacecraft/Shipyards. ER: 8+
color=#0000FF](Rebliss homeworld; the Golgans lost big now that the Rebliss are on their own and making a profit selling hulls to the commercial market. Expect them to increase their profits neck and neck with the Kai-Shem yards.)[/color]

I’ll go over them in a bit. Their designs need an upgrade.

Saveoresc(Member)--Minerals. ER: 3+

Ex-Cynoceran prison colony. Teching up right now, so production will increase substantially.

Scothis(Member)---Spacecraft/Shipyards. ER: 4+

Ex-Golgan buffer state with lots of scrap yards. Former sector base. Not a lot of quality yet, but providing relative cheap and functional hulls.

Ser-Chai(Member)--Manufacturing. ER: 6+

Chai-chuk homeworld. Lots of man power and will to use it.

Silkra(Member)-- Agriculture/Foodstuffs. ER: 6+

Shaping up to be the commercial hub of the Alquis sector. Has some nice booze too.

Skensi(Member)--Livestock/Foodstuffs. ER: 6+

Has historic ‘issues’ with pirates, and gets bloodthirsty regarding them. Relatively high population means that they’ll have notable manufacturing eventually.

Tarkulaam(Member)--Spacecraft/Shipyards. ER: 4

Ex-Cynoceran shipyard, run by WZT and has an increasing civilian focus. Continent-sized facility, but not much to it other than the into blurb.

Thelheim(Member)--Spacecraft/Shipyards. ER: 4+
(The updating of the former military shipyards and the reemployment of the local work force has showed marked benefits to the USA’s ability to produce new ships)

Ex-Cynoceran shipyard, and does a lot of work handling the less advanced USA ships. Pumps out a lot of lower end craft.

Valkos(Member)--Heavy machinery. ER: 4
(Could be considered a Class 1 shatterworld, but they have cleared the bar for self-sufficiency and are paying their way)

Post-super nova survivors, and have an aura of grim/creepy. Surprising go getters though.

Vanderlund(Member)-- Foodstuffs, Tourism. ER: 7

Ex-Cynoceran tourist trap, and likely planned how to leave for years. Only has the blurb.

Venhest IV(Member)-- Agriculture/Foodstuffs. ER: 8+

Also shaping up to be a formal military academy, or at least serve as a nucleus of one.

Yeltzar(Member)-- Agriculture, mining(ruby, thorium). ER: 2+
(Borderline habitable world with the dimensionally-stranded Krakyt colonists focusing on establishing self-sufficiency. However, conditions ARE improving with a growing trade in mineral exports)

Castaways that managed to play the hand well enough to survive and not screw themselves over long term. Need to deal with the chlorine problem sooner or later, but they have enough time to talk to galactic experts on the subject before committing.

USA Colonies/Protectorates
Because the members have their own interests. There’s also some obligatory pickups that would have been worse otherwise.

Spoiler:

Cybolyte(Colony)---Minerals(Red agate)/Manufacturing (medical technology and technowizardry). ER: 6+
(The establishment of Cybolyte as a center of advanced frontier medicine and manufacturer of TW medical equipment make this system a hotbed of medical innovation. Investment in medicine is always a good way to quietly make profits and overtly reap good public opinion...there’s room for a few named hospital wings in this.)

As a mystic heavy planet, it also has a multitude of Stone Pyramids, which makes it far more connected that most expect. It'll be a Member sooner or later.

Jeheel(Colony)---Minerals. ER: 6

Belter system. Home of a major fleet node due to its location.

Kampadow(Colony)---Agriculture, Manufacturing(military vehicles). ER: 6+
(The ChaiChuk have been turning their first extrasolar colonial holding into an agricultural silver mine, and their new land warfare school seems poised to attract more than USAn militia trainees.)

Not much to say.

Danager(Protectorate)---Minerals(Platinum). ER: 3

Former failed colony/gang land that's now barely inhabited. System is as much a training ground as a mining outpost. Honestly doesn’t have much of a long term future, but it's likely not going to get worse.

Davasgar(Protectorate) --Seafood. ER: 5

Founded by Enlightened Chinese Demons, so came under Minion attack. Has caused some throwbacks that are causing trouble.

Ferendao(Protectorate)(Extradimensionally located)-- ER: 1
(No exports; reparations by the other nation states on Ferendao go towards rebuilding/rehabilitating the bioweapon-ravaged democracy there.)

Effective non-entity that only has an into blurb.

Genahser(Protectorate)-- ER: 1-
(Rehabbing former Splugorth slave-world receiving humanitarian aide.) .

Self explanatory, and doesn’t even have a formal into blurb.

Styx(Protectorate)--Agriculture/Aquaculture/Foodstuffs(Styxian Tea). ER: 5+
(Now that the resettled refugees are establishing themselves, Styx is marketing a surprising variety of good quality agricultural products, Styxian Black Tea is becoming a household name throughout the USA. )

End spot for many shaterworlders, it’ll be a Member eventually.

Tenlen(Protectorate) --Currently leases basing rights in its solar system. Some small trade in cultural goods. . ER: 2-
(Class 1 eco-collapse shatterworld undergoing bio-remediation.)

Basically a plague pit, it’s going to take a long time to heal if ever.

Truon(Protectorate)(Extradimensionally located)-- Currently leases mining rights to its solar system. ER: 2+
( Class 1 shatterworld undergoing bio-remediation.).

Key feature is that it’s on the Galian Flow, which means transport costs are rock bottom.

Veranan(Protectorate) --Robotics. ER: 1+
(Class 1 nuclear war shatterworld undergoing bio-remediation.).

HA AI phobia casualty. Have a chip on their shoulder due to it. Almost certainly going to be a major player eventually.

GNE Territories (by extension USA-affiliated)
Only a few of these have anything significant attached to them. Otherwise they’re just PS corporate outposts.

Spoiler:

Sorcorus ----Trading and Manufacturing Outpost(defunct)

Some ******* nuked it as part of the Terapin’s fluff.

Tenshan IV/Tusau City---Trading Outpost

First mention.

Idland---Mining Outpost--Minerals(psi-crystals)

First mention.

Tscheka---Trading Outpost

Forced low tech world. Mentioned as an NPC’s plot hook.

Reno IV---Mining Outpost--Minerals

Boring outpost that might not be quite so boring after all.

Delucca Flats---Mining Outpost--Minerals

First mention.

Mulray---Mining Outpost--Minerals

Multi-party mining world that's always at risk of a fire fight.

Tesgold (IV)---Mining Outpost--Minerals

Primordial world with some valuable materials.

Tijike---Mining Outpost--Minerals
(Class 4 cosmic shatterworld; discovery of still-viable hibernaculum in the planetary debris are leading to the system being declared a disaster relief zone).

Not much to say.

Talden Station---Mining Outpost--Minerals

Mentioned in fluff for JOYUS MARATHON.

Agasar IX----Mining Outpost/Scientific Research Outpost--Minerals

Found itself next door to a cross-dimensional shatterworld, and they’re shipping the remaining people as fast as they can.

Azimuth Point/Juxtapa XXII---Outpost/Training Camp---Personnel

You had entirely too much fun with this one taalismn.

Turquoise Haven---Outpost/Training Camp(Extradimensionally located)--Tourism

Tourist trap is a cover for a covert bio-mod facility for OPO.

GNE Colonies
Almost all of these have a proper entry.

Spoiler:

Amberjin---Industrial Colony--Spacecraft/Shipyards. ER: 8+

Wasn’t a colony originally, but it may as well be now. Where PS first publicly opened up shop in the 3G.

Atium---Agricultural Colony--Agriculture/Aquaculture/Foodstuffs. ER: 6+

Waterworld. (Relatively) substantial pop from dystopia that did servile gene-mods.

Cenax---Mining Colony--Minerals. ER: 5+

Venus world that is well underway to being terraformed because of unknown Shemarian reasons. Interesting mineral deposits, and a rehab colony in orbit.

Comaugh---Mining Colony(Extradimensionally located)--Minerals. ER: 5

Aztex ‘War of the Flowers’ natives with a minor deities edging them on. Palladium Fantasy level magic, so they’ve likely been squashed since.

Gentiswan---Mining/Military Training Colony(Extradimensionally located)--Minerals. ER: 4
(Gentiswan’s ER is provisional, as it is currently serving as the forward assembly point of the USA’s Balanite War campaign against the Travesdeen Empire. As such, it is a major military staging area)

Mining colony with delusions of grandeur without the war aspect.

Giland---Agricultural Colony(Extradimensionally located)--Foodstuffs. ER: 7+

It's been mentioned, but this is the most detail we’ve had sadly.

Kaxion Station----Transit Colony(Extradimensionally located)--Agriculture. ER: 6+
(Increased USA and outside trade traffic, as well as the development of the worlds in the Kaxxion wormhole system make this system of increasing value to the USA and a number of other shipping concerns. Establishing a few front branch offices in the system would not be a bad idea.)

Major dimensional transit hub that likely gained several planets from it. Crops were a surprising bonus. Going to be one of the major nodal points and a full Member in time.

Lefow----Trading and Manufacturing Outpost/Colony. ER: 5

Long abandoned cityscape in the boonies. Boring retirement world really.

Masumi Station----Transit/Resort Colony. ER: 5

The rehab station that’s in orbit of Cenax. Lots of plot hooks.

New Holland---Industrial Colony----Vehicles, Equipment, Weapons. ER: 8+

First mention.

New Stratford---Industrial Colony----Vehicles, Equipment, Weapons. ER: 7+

Maine-esc world, and that’s not a compliment. Significant colony growth, and origin of the Derecho.

Pheniston----Trade Outpost/Colony--Minerals, Aquaculture. ER: 6+
(This literal backwater moon is making a splash with its very slick promoting of its small gemstone-mining operations. Using an exiled Accalian ex-military commander as their breakout spokesmodel has rehabilitated both her and the colony’s image.)

Transit point that's become increasingly important. Neighboring strong men had to have been disciplined by now.

Synthar---Industrial Colony---- ER: 6+
(Synthar’s role in repelling the recent Sorm invasions has earned the USA respectful attention by the Chedive, who have stepped up their trading with Alliance concerns. As the nearest USA outpost, and one straddling a valuable wormhole junction, Synthar is expected to expand its production lines and output.)

All the industry is in orbit, and the location is a dimensional transit point. Technically shared with the CCW, so lots of contact.

TemsenSkoya----Transit/Resort Colony---Beetle fur, Tourism. ER: 6+
(Our research has uncovered that TemsenSkoya is also producing small amounts of psylite, though it all seems to be going to GNE special projects. We may wish to use the tourism aspect to investigate what those projects are.)

The Kretig have been slapped by the CAF, so it's under less immediate threat. Home to a stellar level psi-probe effort.

Tennison---Agricultural Colony. ER: 5+

Multi-group colony effort, and subject to a weird alien drone attack. GNE had their act together and has become much more prominent as a result. Looks to be a major cash crop source.

GNE Protectorates
Do gooders they are, the GNE has been forced to pick a good number of places up as collateral.

Spoiler:

Auspen---Protectorate(Extradimensionally located)--Foodstuffs. ER: 3
(Auspen’s ER can be considered provisional, as it is a recently-liberated conquered territory of the Travesdeen Empire, and is part of the frontlines in the Alliance’s Balanite War campaign against the Travesdeen. As such, it is receiving humanitarian aide.)

In the pits, but can hopefully provide Gentiswan with the food it needs later. Sub-million population, so its not going to be very relevant without imigrants.

Dahaz---Protectorate(Extradimensionally located)--Petroleum, minerals. ER: 5

Accidental kingdom acquisition (PC shenanigan BS really), iron age/PF magic planet that they’re trying to work up.

Ghawdeen---Industrial Colony/Refugee Protectorate--. ER: 3+
(The cooldown in the T’ghari Domain/Brualli Alignment conflict has allowed the local area economies to rebound slightly)

Ex-Golgan territory. Makes a lot of lasers, and they’ve hopefully used the opportunity to beef up the defenses. The Altess likely look at it as a way to poke at the Golgans.

Ilovona---Protectorate(Extradimensionally located)---Spare parts, domestic wares, and textiles. ER: 6+

New Abolitionist action that ended up with a client kingdom. Steadily working towards being a voting member state.

Kaldia/New Providence---Colonial Protectorate(Extradimensionally located)--Minerals, foodstuffs. ER: 2
(The depressed local economy has been rendered chaotic by the global war raging there, but has been stabilized by the New Providence colony’s intervention)

Local Middle Age barbarians made noise at the wrong time, and were run down by a Colonel that was miffed about missing the Minion War on Earth. I would like to know how it's shaped up since then.

Kendelson----Agricultural Colony/Refugee Protectorate--Foodstuffs. ER: 3+

Settled by the refugees from Agasar IX. Substantial Killaryte deposits, and with the post-Minion War mess and Naruni on the backfoot it might be exploited.

New Columbia---Protectorate(Extradimensionally located)--Minerals. ER: 3

I have to wonder what’s happened to it, because it's a weird story.

New Vita---Colonial Protectorate--Livestock, timber. ER: 6+
(Their reverse-engineering of the Ancient tech that nearly destroyed their colony is beginning to pay off, and their combat-augmented domestic help is hiring out, with some intriguing potentials. The ones employed by the Dynasty have gotten only glowing performance review reports, and the rumors of the Azimuth Point Academy starting a branch campus there promise to only further improve the quality of their graduates.)

‘GNE Special’ background, not a major asset but they have an interesting niche.

Tavaza---Colonial Protectorate(Extradimensionally located)--Minerals., Foodstuffs ER: 3+
(The peace imposed on the warring Amazon tribes is holding, and mining operations have begun in earnest. There’s also a growing trade in handcrafted melee weapons, and local agricultural specialties, plus a hiring out of Amazons eager to see the megaverse. Hiring a few of them may be a good idea.)

Other than exporting Amazons, there’s not much of interest other than the Sunji plot hook, and they almost certainly have more significant concerns.

Overall Economic Health Assessment of the United Systems Alliance:
And here we get to the meat.

Spoiler:

(Using 73- rated worlds, and a provisional scoring of 364)
Average Rating: 5.1----Average

The United Systems Alliance is rated as having an Average Galactic economy. However, it should be factored in that 48 of the evaluated worlds show a marked upward trend in economic activity since being inducted into the United Systems Alliance, showing a general improvement in their economic situation. Only two member worlds show a downward trend, one owing to an preexisting slow-motion ecological collapse, and the other a depressed economy due to technological obsolescence in the face of the introduction of Galactic technologies. Another two are involved in an ongoing war, and yet another system is becoming involved in system wide search and rescue operations, leading to intermittent work stoppages for the foreseeable future.

Agriculture: 23
Manufacturing: 22
Mining: 14
Trade: 5
Other: 9

That a frontier/fringe power can claim to be average is an accomplishment, and they have justification for the ones that are behind the ball. Just having so few problem worlds should also say things.

Agriculture accounts for 30% of the United Systems Alliance’s economic activity, though most of production is consumed domestically. Still, a good amount of trade , especially in luxury goods/foods unique to their worlds, is conducted with outside markets.

(* The Fringe is actively promoting the exoticness of many of their agriculture products. While most of them fall into the ‘tastes like chicken’ category, there’s a growing number of truly exceptional finds for the experienced gourmand, and tables in Thraxus’s and the Dynasty’s dining halls are being graced with the Taste of the Fringe. We could do far worse than to promote in the Dynasty an ‘Eat Atium Atuna---It’s Good for You, and Good for the Fringe’ campaign to more subtly support them.)

Good for marketing to stay on top of things.

Manufacturing accounts for another 30% of the USA’s economy. Spacecraft manufacturing is a large percentage of the USA’s manufacturing export income, with at least seven major shipyards under their control. This large number of local spaceyards is also what is fueling the recent economic growth of the Fringe, as those shipyards, besides providing military hulls for local protection, are also pumping out commercial vessels, eroding the coreworld aerospace corporations’ market share.

Weapons systems manufacture is also a large and important part of the USA’s export trade, with PS/ASI as the primary local arms supplier to both the USA’s own armed services and to numerous clients.

(*Anyone who’s invested in an Aurora can tell you the Fringe does good work, though they’re not afraid to collaborate with our own craftsmen on commissions. Their military equipment, as inelegant as the bulk of it is, at least has been well and thoroughly combat-tested under some very demanding and unusual circumstances.)

The yards are fueling expansion, and expansion is fueling the yards. Fully local production causes this to cycle the economy, and keeps them from having to deal with apathetic core world firms.

While only 14 of the listed 73 worlds are listed as major mineral supply sources, mining accounts for a substantial percentage (40%) of export trade, owing to the vast numbers of mining outposts and resource worlds claimed and developed by the USA. The untapped fresh mineral wealth of the frontier makes for lower prices that the coreworlds are eager to pay, with the fact that the Fringe nation is able to provide its own transports to carry ores and refined metals more than halfway being another cost-saving benefit offsetting transport costs from so far away.

Of special note is the so-called Crystal Trade, which extends into the UWW, and deals with the trading and traffic in mineral crystals. The emphasis and intent here is less on gemstones for aesthetic value, and more for their use in magic-related industry. While the USA does practice some gemology for jewelry, gemstones and crystals seem less valued for their aesthetics, and more for their potential utility. While it might seem extreme to say that usans don’t value a well-cut sapphire brooch or dar-diamond necklace, seeing them as wastes of war material, it’s not too far off the mark.

(*However, Sy’mons in the External Trade Office can relate a very amusing anecdote about his USAn companion at a trade expo that was raided by pirates revealing that her opulent sapphire choker had other more useful properties as well---we may want to follow up on that and consider similar reinvestment/refurbishment of some of our Family heirloom jewelry).

Raw material makes the galaxy go round, the USA digs up more than it consumes, allowing it to import things it still needs. Gemstones having utility likely increases their effective price, and Techno Wizards are fully capable of making artisan jewelry if desired. Depending on the Sapphire, the choker mention likely had either Shadow Meld or Horror.

Trade Transportation is one sector in which the USA is above par, and which has greatly facilitated the economic growth or recovery of member worlds. Though widely dispersed, the various worlds of the USA are being linked by an independently-supplied transportation network. Though several key transit points (such as Kaxion) within the USA’s territories contribute, two factors are particularly outstanding; the ability of the USA, through its practically nationalized industries, to produce its own transports, and second of all, the growing ability of the USA to use dimension-hopping to get around the usual hurtles of distance and cosmo-geopolitics. On those trade routes where piracy is a concern, the USA has proven quite capable of defending its merchantmen (after all, that was what the USA was originally founded to DO).

Safe and reliable transport has allowed the USA to dependably service its member worlds, as well as open up new markets in areas that have traditionally lacked steady commerce.

(*A good number of backwater worlds that relied on the occasional wandering tramper for semi-regular contact with the rest of the megaverse are now able to afford their own space transit. Of course, this means a lot more small-time traffic and businesses that attract more pirates looking for easy pickings, that in turn leads to more anti-piracy patrols.)

Yes, they had to be good at this by necessity. Its enabling the economic engine, and being able to work around nominal neighbors is its own reward. Sooner or later the overall piracy levels will reduce as the recruiting pool dries up, but that’s just pushing it off to the next generation.

Military expenditures by the USA are proportionately larger than for other polities like the CCW or Golgan Republik, but as the USA produces most of their own equipment, they are not in debt to outside concerns nor dependent on outside suppliers for their defense needs. While the growth of a joint military organization and various foreign adventures is a drain on the shared treasuries, the confidence and security generated by the USAJC amongst the Fringe states has led to increased trade in the regions and a growing number of new members signing up, either out of gratitude for past protection or wanting to be part of the new regional strongmen. The continued success of the USAJC in dealing with the various small, but still concerning, problems such as pirates, rogue states, and regional threats, as well as actions in the Minion War, have engendered a great deal of Fringe world pride in their militaries, enough to forgive the ongoing costs of supporting them.

(*Our own enthusiastic popularization of the USA’s actions on the Dynasty’s own doorstep have helped encourage this. Though our aura of invincibility took a hit, at least it’s a lesson in humility we survived without too many welts, and the Armoria has learned considerably from. Though we may be at odds with our own investments in Naruni Enterprises, bolstering the USA’s continued military growth and efforts is currently a good thing, as it secures the economies of the Fringe and provides a crucible for an experienced combat personnel reservoir that we can tap into through their nationalized mercenary boards and Irregulars programs. As long as they don’t abuse their newfound martial prowess, backing the USAJC remains good for our business.)

The GNE is an old hat at this balancing act, and the military spending results in no end of justification. The Fringe likes the idea of smoothing future problems while they’re still small, and has been at the wrong end of enough snow balls to know it when they see it.

Overall cash reserves could be greater, but the USA has plowed a good deal of its economic surplus into relief operations and uplift programs, helping out its poorer members and extending charity and disaster relief to outsiders. While this has not helped fill its coffers in the near-term, its long term karmic benefits could be incalculable (and another reason why we should be grateful the USA is letting us share top billing in their PR campaigns).
(*We can also confidently predict a 0.07% increase in the USA’s cash reserves thanks to our recent actions against the Chindar Society and the quiet reinvestment of recovered embezzled funds into higher-yield accounts.)

Cash is there to be used, and the USA’s judgement call is to employ it this way.

One part of the economy that the USA is weak in is high-end energy production, specifically antimatter. This is balanced, however, by the fact that the USA economy relies mainly on nuclear fusion, and virtually every inhabited system that has gas giants, plays host to at least one atmosphere-mining operation harvesting fusion fuel. The slack is taken up by use of locally-mined fissionables and renewables (solar especially) and growing, and not insignificant, PPE collection/generation. AM production still continues to be concentrated in itinerant mobile Asteroid Cruiser fac-ships, but an expansion of local AM production remains a likely future direction.

Lucerin is ultimately something of a stop gap, as it relies on cross dimensional trade. They’ll have to bite the bullet on AM eventually.

Overall, the economy of the United Systems Alliance is healthier than expected for a coalition of Fringe worlds, with several strong sectors in their shared economies and a growing balance of trade with the more developed metroworlds. The USA worlds continue to bolster each other and strengthen their individual economies, creating enough surplus to support their colonial development efforts and charitable works. Military spending continues to require some balancing, as it is a major part of their overall joint expenditures, even with the healthy discounts having effectively nationalized miltech corporations affords them, though this isn’t adversely affecting their private sector, and in fact is ENCOURAGING commercial sector growth. This in turn has generated many potential openings for the Dynasty to quietly invest and establish an economic foothold in the USA.

The USA doesn’t have any critical economic flaws, and the public thinks the military budget is justified. The feeling of safety is necessary for the economy to function, and that's not common in the fringe.

Recommendations:
- Continue to monitor the situation; the United Systems Alliance is in a growth phase, with new members applying or being admitted on a continual basis. Some are looking for charity, or at least low-interest assistance, while others are seeking to take advantage of the same benefits as we are. The balance of the overall USA economy can fluctuate depending on what new members bring to the table, or expect to take away from it.

The group is still in flux due to relative size and age, so things can see major shifts quickly.

-Find out more about the USA’s extradimensional holdings; we have little hard data on what they’re doing there, and that could be just the rest of the iceberg. The more complete a picture we have of the USA’s assets and deficits, the more accurately we can model their economy.

While the 3G is the lion’s share, Rift’s Earth has its own ‘quirks’ that lead to it still having top billing.

- Continue with the terms of the Honor-Debt; the good will from visibly participating in humanitarian and economic renewal efforts is paying handsomely for us. Discrete polling is showing that a significant portion of the Three Galaxies that previously regarded the Dynasty as aloof, arrogant, and apathetic, now view us in a more positive light. They are more inclined to give us the benefit of the doubt, and less likely to condemn any actions we may take in the future against the Republik and other adversaries. That we are partnered with the United Systems Alliance in our outreach makes us appear more humble by association.

The pay off for the Altess, and they really need any credibility boost they can get.

- Invest in their research and development programs. The energy sector at least, but getting in on the ground level of their other R&D initiatives will give us a better idea of where they might be going, and possibly head off trouble if we see, with our own long experience, any disturbing trends.

The GNE has its own experiences with ‘disturbing trends’, and knows how to keep the real nut jobs they have on payroll in a blast proof box in the middle of nowhere. Having to clean up after other people’s mistakes also helps.

- Find products produced in the USA that will sell in the Dynasty, especially luxury goods. If we build up a good flow of trade with the USA worlds, they’ll be less inclined to annoy us and threaten the trade. Also, by aura effect, we’ll be promoting their products.

Usual rich people economics, but it's important.

- Double-check the money flows. The USA is getting to the point where it’s attracting its share of skullduggery in the numbers. Applying our accounting weaponry to the USA’s economy is one way of gaining their gratitude by exposing theft and other fiscal chicanery...or of more subtly coercing their compliance through our own hidden actions.

The old Altess tool kit. Thoth has his hands in them as well though some intermediaries, so the compliance part is unlikely.

-Find out more about the USA’s intelligence apparatus; they had a better idea about the Golgans attacking us in advance before we did. We SHOULD have figured it out ahead of time and laid contingency plans, even with the rude surprise of our arsenal world suddenly disappearing. We know that the USA uses psychic and magic resources in their intelligence work, just as the Golgans use their Ultrovian vassals, but the USA seems to get it right more often than wrong (though they do admit to being wrong sometimes; the Republik attacks on Zygania and other border states came as a surprise, and may have been overshadowed in whatever auguries by their move against us). Finding out what they have, how they’re processing and sifting their raw data, and whether it can be applied to economic and political endeavors, could be another wild card we can adapt to our advantage.

Yes, this is a big deal. Mystic sources tend not to care too much about economics, but political events are fair game. My head canon is that the GNE managed to get its hands on Poor Yorrik and is host to several groups of Grey Seers, and have put a lot of effort into filtering and interpreting massed reports.

[taalismn]

Yah, there's a lot of worlds without much detail, but I hope to be fluffing some of them out(starting with Jorgmundson, which will require a crashcourse in pidgining Scandanavian languages for the right feel).

I'll also be updating the USA relations, and for those wanting to see something OTHER than USA-related stuff, I'll be profiling some of the organizations and polities around the Golgan Republik.

I'm going back over a lot of my older posts to give flesh to what were one-shot cast-off names, so I'm not constantly generating new names and not making full use of their potential. Why invent new worlds when old ones could use some love?

There will be some new worlds, and new species(random roll tables have handed the USA a lot of weak-end low-gravity types...but hey, all the more reason for them to band together and figure out equalizing technologies and thaumaturgies.

[taalismn]

(reposting this for the sake of completeness...or maybe I only THOUGHT I'd previously posted it...anyways)

Genahser(United Systems Alliance Protectorate)(Thundercloud Galaxy)
“I don’t care if you are an Alliance soldier-boy with a shiny new energy rifle! I know you just got off the ship, so you’re new around here! And around here we don’t go walking on the other side of that there barrier! That forest may look nice, even after the blight, but the damnsplug left other calling cards! One of them...well, nobody’s got a look at a complete one yet, but it’s got tentacles and moves damn fast...fast enough to take a grown man, let alone a stripling like you, and kill him ugly before the watch tower sentries can do anything about it!”

Genahser is a former human colony world that was taken over by the Splugorth and made over into a plantation and slave-breeding world. Genahser was liberated by USA forces as collateral damage to the Splugorth of their defeat at the Battle of the Eight Gates at the hands of the Shemarrian Star Nation. Genahser is currently trying to mend its broken society and shake off an unwelcome reputation for being a ‘bad luck’ planet.
Part of Genahser’s problem is the damage left behind by the Splugorth. Before they retreated through sacrifice-powered rifts, the Splugorth Minions thoroughly trashed the local infrastructure and set loose a number of biowizardry-made spoilers into the local environment. Alliance ‘exterminators’ have had to do several continent-wide sweeps to hunt down and exterminate all of the creatures.
Genahser was originally illegally settled by members of the Menovisian Collective, a religious sect seeking to distance themselves from the politics and homogenization, including secularization, of their homeworlds. They thought(correctly) that Genahser’s hot blue sun and high gravity would keep most other humans away from seeking to settle the system, though the Menovisians themselves hailed from a high-gee human-settled world. However, because their settlement was illegal and unregistered with the CCW, it was some time after the Splugorth invaded that anybody outside the system realized that there were people in peril. It took the leaking of captured documents by Shemarrian Star Nation sources to clue the United Systems Alliance of the existence of a captive human population not far from the then borders of the Alliance.
Fortunately, the Splugorth presence in the system was weak, and further weakened by their loss at Eight Gates, that they didn’t put up much of a fight when Alliance forces pounced. Because the largely GNE forces had had little experience attacking Splgorth-held worlds before, a surfeit of caution and a hefty dose of overkill were the orders of the day. Several Splugorth bases were obliterated, mainly by kinetic energy weapons, in the opening phases of the invasion.
Now the Alliance has the job of rehabilitating Genahser, rebuilding infrastructure, mopping up the various predators and microorganisms the Solugorth unleashed on the planet, helping the slaves the Splugorth brought to the planet and left behind to integrate into free society, and addressing the needs of the surviving original colonists(and their descendants). As the Splugorth were creating bioborgs and, perhaps more horrifically, breeding plantations to force-grow populations of bred slaves and slave stock, the liberators are facing a complicated uphill battle.

Solar System
Number of Stars: 1
Types of Stars: Blue Dwarf
Number of Planets: 3
-Terrestrial(Genahser)---System lifeworld

-Gas Giant(Polcoyif)---A dwarf gas giant. Polcoyif nevertheless has one sizeable moon (Mogoy)that played host to a Splugorth spacestation. Not eager to find out what the Splugorth had based there, the Alliance fleet made smashing it a high priority. Little remains of the mainly Kittani-manned facility, though salvagers continue to sort through the wreckage. Mogoy also plays host to a growing Alliance military base with two light cruisers based there.

-Gas Giant(Vocus)---Jupiter-sized Vocus pays host to several deep space listening arrays in its scant moon system, as a hedge against any returning Splugorth trying to use the gas giant as an assembly point for mischief against Gensahser and its liberators.

Planet(Genahser)
Type: Terrestrial
Diameter: Average; 12,000 km
Gravity: 1.7 g----The original colonists came from a high-g world of their own
Temperature: Cold; average temperatures hover around 3-5 degrees celsius and frequently dip below freezing. There is some thought that the planet may be moving into a mild ice age or cryogenic period.
Unusual/Special Features:
*Craters--Genahser is dotted with the remains of earlier meteor bombardment; crater lakes and valleys. The Splugorth used some of these to make contained plantations.
Atmosphere: Thin, but breathable
Terrain: Mixed variety of terrains, with large craters a particularly noticeable feature of the landscape.
Notable Mineral Concentrations:
-Antimony
-Scheelite
-Zinc
-Pitch Blend
-Fluorite
-Arsenic
-Ruby
-Gypsum

Hydrosphere: Moist---72% surface water coverage.
Biosphere: Dense---One of Genahser’s attractions was a vibrant ecosystem that the colonists(and later the Splugorth) hoped to exploit. However, the Splugorth in retreat decided to launch an attack on the ecology, setting loose various blight organisms and predators.
Grenahser’s ecology is notable being self-heating; even its plants generate their own heat against the frequent drops in temperature, or else possess various forms of organic antifreeze to keep their vital fluids from freezing solid.
Civilization:
Colonial, Established, but only by virture of forced immigration and breeding by the Splugorth.
Population:
980,000
Ironically, Genahser’s population grew substantially under the Splugorth occupation, due to addition slave stock being brought in, and the establishment of slave breeding pens.
The original population was wholly human, but now humans make up only 60% of the overall numbers, followed by 20% ogres, and another 20% of various other species such as Wulfen,
Technology:
Genahser lays claim to some surviving Splugorth equipment that the Allance hasn’t taken for study.
Economy:
Was meant to be agricultural. The Splugorth wanted to breed stronger slave stock on the planet.
Wealth:
Impoverished---Not as bad as it might have been, as the colonists/natives have managed to make use of captured Splugorth property, but the Splugorth in leaving managed to wreak a good deal of the local infrastructure and easily accessble resources. The Genahserians are dependent on offworld assistance in repairing their world...those that want to stay and not leave to take their chances elsewhere.
Government:
Pedocracy---Genahser is run by a hastily set-up government of the best educated ex-slaves who have tried to create a means of taking care of the needs of the many liberated.
Law Level:
Moderate, but strained. The Alliance military are acting as police, but some of the more excitable locals have taken to hoarding resources or trying to get their hands on weapons of their own.
Popularity:
Unpopular---Despite the pedocracy’s best efforts, the adhoc government is not popular with everybody. Some of the ex-slaves feel that the ones currently in charge are those who suffered the least under the Splugorth. The more militant want a paramilitary organization to take power and gird the colony against a return of the Splugorth, others(not trusting ANYBODY local) want the USA to take over and administer the planet directly.
Stability:
Unrest---Though everybody’s grateful the Splugorth are gone, not everybody’s in agreement what to do next, or what shape the government should take. The original Menovisian Collective is extinct as an organization and belief, and a sizeable proportion of the population(35%) is under the age of adulthood for their respective species(the result of the breeding farms).




Kessyb(United Systems Alliance member)(Anvil Galaxy)

"The Kes have been badly hurt by the plague that wracked their world, and it's left them insecure and shaky, but you can't ignore that they've still reached out to outsiders despite their reservations about outside contact. They want to get back to what they once were as part of a galactic community ; they're just unsure about how they want to go about it, so it's best to let them proceed at their own pace, and get comfortable with each stage of their recovery, before they make the next step."

“The Kes and Kellestans make such an almost ritualized show of the decontamination procedures they go through before and after their in-person meetings with each other, including showing their delegates showering and bathing, that it’s hard to believe that the two planets are actually good friends. Given their respective experiences, however, they can be a lesson to us all; nobody wants a friendly handshake to launch the next Blood Plague.”

Kessyb is a world back from the brink of becoming a shatterworld; in Kessyb’s case it was a Lurgess-borne pandemic that wiped out 58% of the global population and wrecked a good portion of their ecology. The Kes, a Seljuk offshoot, barely survived, and the pandemic left its mark on the survivors. The Kes have emerged from a century of quarantine both physically and mentally scarred.
Kes (also known as Kessybi) are distinguishable from baseline Seljuk in having a coarser-scaled, mottled-colored skin and a small crest at the back of their heads.
The Kes want to rebuild their world to be better prepared against future incidents like the Lurgess. That means they’re interested in trading for high technology, especially medical tech and military hardware. The USA seems to be a means of entering the galactic community on a safer entry level than dealing with big power blocs like the CCW or Naruni. While the Kes are willing to give other alien species the benefit of the doubt, they maintain rigorous protocols for visiting their world, and in fact would prefer that any visitors stick to special offworlder sections on the new orbital space stations set aside for offworld trade(it’s rumored that they nuked their previous stations because they had become contaminated by infected refugees fleeing the mass die-offs on the planet, and that the current stations have nuclear ‘sanitization’ charges built into them) . The Kes both fear and abhor the Lurgess, and will always try to keep track of any known to be in their vicinity.
Because their experiences with pandemics are so similar, the Kes have had, once they got over the fear of coming in contact with ANOTHER suspected plague-carrier, cordial, if distanced, and occasioned by much handwashing and decontamination) relations with the Kellestans. The ‘Two Ks’ of the USA often provide experienced consultation about matters of health to various USA committees on interstellar medicine.
More to the point, the experience of having THREE species in the USA that have been dramatically impacted by xeno-plagues(the Kes, the Kellestans, and the Cheral/Averi) has provided grist for USA scientists who have been composing a study on such illnesses, wondering if there’s a pattern. While mutated terraforming organisms have been cited as the cause of the Kellest outbreak and the Lurgess have been implicated as the culprits on Kessyb, some Alliance scientists have wondered if a common outside agency, such as the Gene Splicers, or an as yet unidentified Ancient source, may be to blame.
Because of the limited resources in the Cartenaiz system, interstellar trade is restricted in many ways. Without a convenient gas giant or in-system icy bodies to supply gases and water, the system cannot easily supply certain starship fuels and materials. Kessyb obtains some ores and minerals via slow-boat robot miners and freighters from its Krojan asteroid fields and the more distant ort-belt, but much of its orbital infrastructure has had to be rebuilt and resupplied with materials painstakingly brought up from the lifeworld’s surface. The Kessybi do NOT allow alien vessels to atmo-scoop gases from their planet’s atmosphere. The United Systems Alliance has offered to sweeten future trade deals by providing their own space stations in-system, including fuel refineries(such as a solar-powered particle-accelerato antimatter production station), but the Kes want to thoroughly inspect and modify any such structures first to prevent future infections from reaching their homeworld.

Solar System(Cartenaiz)
Number of Stars: 1
Types of Stars: Orange Dwarf
Number of Planets: 1
-Terrestrial(Kessyb )---System lifeworld

Cartenaiz system also possesses three asteroid belts of note; two solar Lagrange concentrations preceding and trailing Kessb in its orbital track, and a larger, but much more distant belt at what would roughly b Saturn-equivalent orbit. The two ‘Krojan’ belts have been explored and are currently being mined(mainly via robotic spacecraft).

Planet(Kessyb )
Type: Terrestrial
Diameter: 13,000 km
Gravity: 0.8 g
Temperature: Temperate
Unusual/Special Features:
-Slow Rotation---Days on Kessyb are 3.2 Earth days long
Atmosphere: Exotic ---Kessyb has a high oxygen content(30% higher than Earth’s); high enough that Earth-humans could grow dizzy nd lightheaded after only a few minutes of breathing it.
Terrain: Three terranes; mountains, plateaus, and coastal plains.
Notable Mineral Concentrations:
- Molybdenite
- Pitch Blend
- Zinc
- Magnesium
- Platinum
- Sulfur
- Fluorite
- Nickel
Hydrosphere: Balanced---Roughly 45% of Kessyb’s surface is covered in open water
Biosphere: Moderate
The same plague that swept through the Kes population also proved able to jump species, and wiped out a good amount of the larger Seljukoid-reptilian species, Dealing with the loss of so many animal species(especially as the hardest hit were domesticated species) has contributed to the Kessyb economic freefall and dip in Kes morale(the dog-like Kespian Hooptail, a favorite pet species, is considered effectively extinct, though it is hoped some specimens may survive offworld). Ecological recovery technology is part of the assistance the Kes hope to acquire from the USA.
Civilization:
Settled
Population:
2.8 billion
Technology:
Galactic, roughly equivalent to the Central Alliance, but more advanced in the field of projective holography.
Economy:
Was, at one time, Commercial, but the Lurgess-spawned plague has soured the Kes on being a trade hub, at least until they instate better bio-screening protocols. Industry, and the export of consumer electronics, especially holographic projection systems(fear of actual physical contact with potential infected parties has encouraged a good deal of remote interaction, and many offworlders who meet Kes ‘face-to-face’ are surprised to learn they’re really talking to a hologram, so good is the definition of Kesan 3D projection), has become their main source of offworld trade.
Wealth:
Average---- Between the loss of Galactic trade and the costs of recovery, Kessyb boasts only modest wealth.
Government:
Gendocracy---Only females are allowed to hold high government office on Kessyb. Though not a true Matriarchy, as the officeholders are elected via democratic processes, the Kes gendocracy is born of the belief and respect that egg-laying females, especially those that have raised one or more offspring, are simply better leadership material mentally.
Law Level:
Overbearing----Law is very strict on Kessyb, especially public health ordinances(and in extreme cases, have been enforced with ordnance).
Popularity:
Ambivalent---Could be worse, could be better, but at least nobody’s slinging bombs. Not every elected official or passed law meets with the wholehearted approval of the general populace, who take their grievances to the polls.
Stability:
Stable, thanks to a generally trouble-free electoral system and recall system. There is some concern about what direction to take the planet; some Kessybi want total isolation from the outside, while others, citing the planet’s limited resources and lack of substantial offworld sources of resources, see at least limited interstellar trade a necessity.



New Holland Colony(Falket 37)(GNE/United Systems Alliance world)(Anvil Galaxy)

“You like mud? New Holland’s got plenty. You can hardly step outside without stepping in some of it.”

“PS/ASI’s never stinted on the quality of its weapons, but if you’re still picky about where your guns are coming from, look for the ‘New Holland’ stamp, especially if you’re buying Sharkeys, Astra-Omegas or GrAR-03s. They were practically developed at the Havelon Labs, and are still manufactured there as well. They haven’t lost the laboratory-level quality and inspection standards, so you can be assured of that little extra care going into fabricating your shooting irons.”

Another one of Greater New England’s more prosperous outworld colonies, New Holland serves as a shipping hub for Paladin Steel/Aegis Stellar Industries goods from Rifts Earth. Like New Stratford, it boasts a large residential industrial infrastructure able to produce a variety of goods, such as ammunition, that sell well and rapidly. True to its name, New Holland makes a good living off mercantile trade. It’s also very wet; most of its available surface land is low-laying flood plains and marshlands, so colonists have had to drain and reclaim land, or else build elevated or floating structures that can handle storm surges and seasonal flooding. The coastal communities are mainly involved in fishing, farming, and harvesting mineral-rich mud. Much of the planet-side heavy industry, though, is based near the volcanic mountain ridges, tapping geothermal heat.
Though Blue Sub-Giant stars are generally considered to be too bright to be good colonization prospects for terrestrial life, New Holland is far enough away from its primary that the more intense solar output doesn’t pose a risk. And though New Holland has a higher surface gravity than Baseline Earth’s, it also has a temperate climate, plenty of surface water, and breathable air. Most colonists get gene-tweaks or cybernetic implants to counter the deleterious effects of the heavier gravity.
Equally important to New Holland’s success is the large belter-presence in-system, working the numerous local asteroids, moons, and small bodies. New Holland’s space manufacturing infrastructure would not exist but for the belter population, and there’s little of the subdued chill that typifies many ‘dirt’ and ‘rock’ relations. In both manufacturing and galactic trade, the mixed community in the New Holland system provides for both segments of the population, and to offworlders as well(travelers can be assured of finding a welcoming planet or a welcoming belter hab, depending on their preference).
During the Minion War, New Holland’s dimensional Gate was temporarily cut off to prevent the spread of Infernal forces through the GNE extradimensional network. The move also cut off New Holland’s trade and supply from many other GNE industrial worlds ‘downstream’. Once the warehouses were cleared of existing orders of equipment, New Holland’s resident PS/ASI agents knew that they had only their dwindling overstock supplies to fulfill new orders. To meet the demands of new customers, old clients, and the local militia, the Colony’s factories had to do some quick retooling to adapt several older designs they had to produce warmachines.
The Falket system in general is assuming a greater importance as asteroid mining, gas harvesting, and orbital manufacturing becomes a greater part of the system economy.

Solar System
Number of Stars: 1(Falket 37)
Types of Stars: Blue Sub-Giant
Number of Planets: 13
- Asteroid(Ciano)---Ciano is home to a solar weather observatory. Despite important in warning of solar storms and being well-equipped for the task, the Ciano Solar Observatory has a nickname; ‘Blue Purgatory’, and is considered something of a gulag tour of duty for GNE SpaceGuard members and space sciences academy graduates, due to the tedium of duty and strict regulations in place.

- Terrestrial(Follat)---Miniscule Follat just barely qualifies as a planet, rather than a planetissimal. However, it is on the warm(Venus-warm) side, yet has a compatible Earth-like atmosphere and substantial surface water cycling between pooling on the surface and boiling off to form steam clouds. Why Follat hasn’t lost all its water to space puzzles scientists.

-Asteroid(Henri)----Henri is nearly as big as Follat, but falls into the asteroid classification, being airless and arid. This hasn’t stopped it from being colonized by determined belters who have established a small, but ambitious, antimatter cracking plant.

-Terrestrial (Skalstrom)---Skalstrom is an Earth-sized rocky world, but it possesses nearly no gravity, has a hot temperature that is at the border of habitability(with protection), and an exotic atmosphere prone to spectacular towering cyclonical glowing storms and temperature inversions. Skalstrom has attracted some colonization, the colonists erecting massive cooling towers to keep their enclosed settlements cool. Large deposits of Colal Crystals( Rifter #0-1).

-Terrestrial (New Holland)---System lifeworld

-Terrestrial (Ogland)--- A huge ‘super-Earth’ with punishing intense gravity, cold temperature, and violent weather, Ogland is of little interest to colonists, though probes have found traces of simple microbial life suspended in its atmosphere and its surface ices.

-Gas Giant(Norange)---Second to New Holland in population in the New Holland system, the fourteen moons of this massive gas giant are home to a large community of belters. Norange’s moon mines and atmosphere scooping operations provide materials and fuel for shipping through the system. The Norange moons are also home to PS/ASI’s new Soloma aerospace fighter and small combat craft factory works.

-Gas Giant(Frebarge) ---- Large Frebarge isn’t as well belter-settled as Norange, but its three moons have seen settlements pop up on them.

-Gas Giant(Vameer) ---- Gargantuan Vameer plays host to a moon system with 22 substantial moons, which have recently been opened to exploration and exploitation.

-Gas Giant(Feylan) ---- Large for a gas giant, Feylan is still dragged along by its gargantuan neighbor Vameer in an orbit-locked arrangement. In fact, they share a moon, Faldes, which initially was regarded as a separate planetissimal/asteroid until the astrophysicists ran the maths and discovered that Faldes maintains a constant distance between Vameer and Feylan. It’s now suspected that Faldes was a former regular moon of Feylan, but got snatched from orbit at the same time Vemeer hooked Feylan along their solar orbits. As the gravitational midpoint between the two gas giants, Faldes is home to an astronomical research station.

-exotic---Dimensional Wormhole----This apparently natural phenomenon gives the New Holland system a step up in interstellar trade. With New Holland’s interdimensional Gates closed down during the Minion War, the wormhole became New Holland’s trade lifeline to the rest of the Three Galaxies.

-Terrestrial(Skodin) ---- Tiny icy Skodin is home to a Skywatch base monitoring traffic approaching the New Holland system and coming through the wormhole. Skodin orbits the wormhole. Because of its strategic position, Skodin is heavily fortified, with several batteries of capital warship-grade energy cannons and missile launchers.

-Gas Giant(Calvon) ----Microscopic as gas giants go, Calvon barely generates enough internal heat to avoid freezing into a snowball.

Planet(New Holland)
Type: Terrestrial
Diameter: 14,000 km
Gravity: 1.3 g
Temperature: Temperate
Unusual/Special Features:
-Moons(4)
-Hansec---Hansec is the site of Havelon Labs, PS/ASI’s gravitic small-arms research laboratory facility. A small prototype production facility adjacent to it has since been expanded into a full commercial production works for producing PS/ASI’s g-weapons.
-Haguland---The moon Haguland is home to a large lunar colony that provides New Holland with orbital support and factories.
-Roran---Roran is the main orbital spaceport facility that also acts as a quarantine station for incoming starships.
-Mitlan ---- Mitlan has been made into a foundry and factory moon, with a steady stream of belter tugs bringing in ore and metal ingots to be made over into PS/ASI products.
Atmosphere: Normal and breathable nitrox mix.
Terrain:
Lowland flood plains and rocky mountain ridges dominate the landscape
Notable Mineral Concentrations:
- Mercury
- Antimony
- Titanium
- Aluminum
- Calcite
- Sapphire
- Quartz
- Barite
Hydrosphere:
Soaking wet; 70% of New Holland is covered in open water, including large swamps. Amphibious vehicles are a must for getting around on New Holland.
Biosphere:
Sparse---The local plant life has discovered photosynthesis and the land is covered in sprawling fern forests and peat bogs. Animal life is limited to a few large invertebrates, while the oceans are rich in fish and fish analogues. Several strains of local seaweed are important to the local economy, either as sources of fiber, fodder, or industrial feedstock(one type has proven useful in providing chemicals for the production of synthetic rubber).
Civilization:
Settled
Population:
132 million
Technology:
Galactic
Economy:
Manufacturing, Galactic Trade. New Holland itself also does a large amount of agriculture.
Wealth:
Rich; between trade and manufacturing, New Holland is doing VERY well.
Government:
Democracy---Even before a colonial governor could be selected, the belters insisted on a good old-fashioned belter electoral system. Knowing how fractious belter-run democracies could be, the GNE almost demurred, fearing possible future political splits along corporate/private lines or planet-dweller/belter lines. Instead, the democracy has worked out quite well, with elected ‘mud-wadders’ being fair to their offworld constituents, and ‘rock-born’ belter officials educating themselves on the mores and concerns of their planet-dwelling citizenry. Still, there’s the occasional ‘exciting’ outburst in the system congress, but that only encourages the citizenry to watch congressional proceedings with the same avid interest(and reasons) as they do New Holland swamp-hockey games.
Law Level:
Lawful; the GNE has imposed a comprehensive legal system that just about everybody agrees with, with punishments compassionate enough to give the truly repentent second chances(usually after labor stints on muc-farms) and harsh enough(the GNE hailing from Rifts Earth after all) that the belters can respect(The jokes about belter justice involving airlocks? They aren’t jokes).
Popularity:
Popular----Prosperity has bought the government the loyalty of the settlers, belter and planet-dweller alike. Nobody’s quibbling, and if they have complaints, there’s due process for registering them.
Stability:
Solid--New Hollanders, like the Terran Calvinist Dutch they seem to emulate, like making money, so they’re not going to upset the current setup. There’s enough work for everybody, so there’s little unemployment, and enough turnover between people wanting to hitch a ride out to the rest of the Mega, and immigrants wanting a place to settle down coming in.

[taalismn]

Qoulkarg------(United Systems Alliance members)(Outdimension)
“The Qoulkarg spacers managed to get a good look at one of our transports just as it jumped in, and before it could jump out. The Qoul’ aren’t a stupid people, despite their limitations, they know somebody else is out here now and they’ll be determined to find out more. Since we aren’t so advanced that we can consistently pull off the ‘enigmatic elusive super-alien’ schtick, and because we really need that hyperlane, we better introduce ourselves and bring the Qoulkarg up to speed before they start blundering around and get themselves hurt bad. That, and they might just decide to start laying traps for Santa Claus, get lucky, and capture one of our ships. Space may be a big place to search, but the Qoulkarg now know that it’s worth looking.”
----Captain Willard Martinez, Greater New England Project Outstep

“Much as you others think I can stick my trruez into dark narrow spaces to see if there’s anything nasty lurking there, might I point out that if there IS something nasty lurking there, it will undoubtedly go after my trruez first, as my trruez is part of my body, it’s still going to hurt like hellz, so I would greatly appreciate it if you’d come up with some other way of checking those dark narrow spaces, instead of constantly asking me to volunteer.”

The Qoulkarg are a humanoid species hailing from Repti, a planet in extradimensional space along one of the travel lanes pioneered by Greater New England to service their trade and defense network.
Qoulkargian government is by syndicracy, federal governments on Repti having decided to farm out, for the sake of efficiency and cost, most functions to private enterprise until the businesses just took over the running of global affairs, The remains of the old nationalist regimes remain as much diminished shadows of themselves, though they continue to exist as record-keeping, heritage-preservation, advisory, and regulatory bodies regarded as safely neutral and useful in arbitrating negotiations between business-blocs.
The Qoulkarg were just breaking out into space from their homeworld when they were visited by aliens. Fortunately, the aliens were explorers from Greater New England and the United Systems Alliance. Wanting to establish friendly relations (and waystations) along one of their extragalactic travel corridors, GNE diplomats laid out the state of the megaverse to the amazed Qoulkarg and presented them with options. The Qoulkarg agreed to a tentative membership treaty as part of the expanding GNE trade and mutual defense organization.
Qoulkarg are members of the United Systems Alliance, as they feel their way into the greater galactic community. A few adventure-seeking members of the species have joined various organizations, including the GNE military and Foreign Legion, for the experience.

Alignments: Any
Lifespan: 70 years, though their high-tech society has been pushing the maximum lifespan as far as 100 years.
Size: 5-6 ft tall, 100-160 lbs
Gender: Sexual, with males and females. Give birth to a single live offspring after a seven-month gestation period. Reach sexual maturiy at 12 years.
Physical Description/Appearance:
Gangly humanoids with large ears and four yellow eyes. The nose is a series of three slat-like slits running up over the mouth and between the eyes. The mouth has broad grindstone-style teeth and a strong masticating jaw. Males develop two sets of short crystalline fins or spines on either side of their jaw. Females develop a crystalline ‘shield’ o their lower abdomen, protecting their internal organs. The head sports a long tendril from the top of the head that ends in an extra eye(known to the Qoulkarg as a trruez). Skin is stiff and leathery, with crystalline spines and eruptions along the sides of the face and limbs, and tends towards ruddy colors, with darker skin around the face, extremities and genitals. Qoulkarg often wear decorative rings around their head tendril. Their arms end in large hands with long fingers and two opposable thumbs.
Disposition/Attitudes:
Evolution on violent Repti has bred a fighter attitude in the Qoulkarg. They are mentally tough, highly confident, calmly logical, and cool under pressure. They are constantly looking for danger, but also challenges, especially when young. Older Qoulkarg become more conservative and protective of what they have, especially their families, as they Harden up.
Physical Attributes:
IQ: 3d6
ME: 3d6+12
MA: 2d6+10
PS: 3d6+12
PP: 2d4+18
PB: 3d4
PE: 3d6+12
SPD: 3d6+6
(ISP):---
(PPE): 4d6
Hit Points:---
SDC:-----
MDC:
Minor Megadamage beings, with a base MDC of their PE+1d6 per level of experience
Horror Factor:---
Natural Abilities:
*Minor Megadamage Beings---Qoulkarg flesh is shot through with crystalline growth, that makes them very tough. Their diets also tend to be rich in heavy metals and minerals.
This does have a drawback, however; older Qoulkarg suffer increasing diminishment of their mobility due to the growth of the crystalline threads in their flesh interfering with movement. Starting at around age 50, older Qoulkarg start experiencing arthritis-like swellings and stiffening of the joints and muscles, a process known to them as Hardening, that diminishes their P.P. and Speed with age(-1 to P.P., -1d6% to fine motor skills, and -1d4 to Speed every 3 years). Without advanced medical treatment, elderly Qoulkarg stiffen up into almost statue-like immobility, their skins stiffening into a confining carapace.
There are some drug regimens that prevent this stiffening, bt these come at the cost of preventing further MDC accumulation/growth, and in some cases REDUCE it.

*Poison Resistance---Qoulkarg can tolerate heavy metals and poisons(like chromium and arsenic) in concentrations that would kill other beings, as these materials are part of their regular diet. They are immune to heavy metal poisoning and +6 to save versus ingested poisons in general. Worlds like Gentiswan would make good colony sites for the Qoulkarg(if not for the current war situation involving Gentiswan ).

*Tendril-Eyes(trruez)---The most distinct physical feature of the Qoulkarg is their head tendril, a prehensile appendage 2-3 ft long with a sensory cluster at the top. Though visual acuity using the eye(s) at the top of this appendage is only half that of those in the skull, the tendril can be used periscope-like to look around corners and from behind or under cover.

*Excellent Hearing----Qoulkarg possess excellent hearing with their large ears, and hear equivalent to a Terran dog. +1 on Initiative.

Psionics: None; Qoulkarg are actually vulnerable to psionic attacks; -2 to save vs psionics(after ME bonuses)
Magic: None; but have the potential. However, they cannot take any magic OCC that requires psionics or confers psionic abilities.
Cybernetics/Bionics:
The Qoulkarg are not opposed to cybernetic or bionic augmentation, and had already been developing their own systems at the time of First Contact. Sensory enhancements of their trruez are particularly common, as are artificial augmentation implants to fight the onset of the arthritis-like stiffening of the joints that afflicts older Qoulkarg.
Available OCCs: Any, including Magic, but cannot take Psychic OCCs.
RCC Skills:---
Skills of Note:----
Culture:
Qoulkarg tend to be aggressive, competitive and frenetic in their youth, before they start to slow down and become more conservative and defensive. They seek to establish themselves quickly, setting themselves and their families up for their later years of decreasing mobility and energy.

Solar System(Yelnar)
Number of Stars: 1
Types of Stars: Yellow Dwarf
Number of Planets: 9
-Terrestrial ---VVepas. Huge ‘super venus’ hothouse world that is uninhabitable. It has a number of moons, though, that have attracted attention as mining sites. Several well-shielded colonies have been established on the more promising sites.

-Terrestrial ---Repti, system lifeworld

-Exotic---D-point cluster surrounded by an unusually dense asteroid cluster. The energy discharges of Galactic spacecraft transiting this region of space drew the Qoulkargs’ attention. Once they confirmed the discharges were of artificial origin, they staked the region out and soon afterwards Contact was made. Today, several space-habitats have been constructed in the region, providing navigational aides and assistance to space travelers.

-Terrestrial ---Lodum. Huge heavy gravity rocky body world shrouded in a poisonous atmosphere. The Qoulkarg have landed robot probes on Lodum’s surface to study its unique lower atmosphere chemistry.

-Gas Giant --- Tgelo, a tiny gas giant. The Qoulkarg space program, pre-Contact, was using Tgelo both as a gravity slingshot and an atmoscoop refueling point for travel to the outer planets.

-Terrestrial ---Gepta. Miniscule minor planet. The pre-Contact Qoulkarg landed several probes on Gepta to study the early evolution of their solar system.

-Terrestrial ---Norus. Enormous methane-shrouded cold planet. It sports thin rings of ice particles.

-Gas Giant ---Gamaptoris. Enormous gas giant with two sizeable moons with their own methane atmospheres. One of the moons was declared off-limits after an early Qoulkarg manned mission was lost after making the unfortunate discovery of a form of metal-eating’ice bug’ that destroyed the mission’s propulsion system and life support. Though it was discovered that the ‘ice-bugs’ were susceptible to high heat, the moon has been effectively quarantined to prevent them from spreading to other space structures.

-Terrestrial--- Strome. Enormous methane-shrouded cold planet. As soon as the Qoulkarg acquired fast contragravity drives, one of their tech-entrepreneurs made good on a dream to establish a resort in orbit of Strome, as the farthest-out outpost in the Yelnar system.

Planet (Repti)----Qoulkarg Homeworld
Repti would be considered poisonous by most other human septs, due to the high concentrations of heavy metals in its water and ecosystem. And, until fairly recently, the ecosystem was very aggressive, with a variety of lethal megafauna forcing the ancestral Qoulkarg to cooperate with each other in order to survive against predators.
Type: Terrestrial
Diameter: 11,000 km
Gravity: 0.9 g
Temperature: Temperate, within Earth normal averages.
Unusual/Special Features:------
Atmosphere: Tainted; breathable nitrox mix, but only breathable by most human septs with filtration. Slightly higher percentage of oxygen, but a high particle count of toxic dust, such as lead and chromium.
Terrain: Varied
Notable Mineral Concentrations:
- Lead
- Magnesium
- Chromium
- Aluminum
- Arsenic
- Thorium
- Graphite
- Titanium
Hydrosphere:
Badlands---Only about 25% of Repti’s surface is covered in open water, though water is plentiful underground. There is evidence that at some point in the past the planet possessed much more open water, but something caused the planet to lose its larger oceans.
Biosphere:
Diverse and violent; competition for resources on Repti is fierce amongst its lifeforms, and a large percentage of the higher order animals developed predatory abilities.
A notable part of the ecosystem are the lineage of skycleavers, giant roc-like avians that are large enough to prey on adult Qoulkarg. Though the advancement of the Qoulkarg technologically has led to the extinction of virtually all the skycleavers, their effect on the Qoulkarg remains in the trruez and the danger-checking of the Qoulkarg culture. Some lesser species of skycleavers survive in nature preserves, and some recent initiatives in the Repti science community have proposed setting up giant envirodome habitats on other worlds in the Yelnar system to clone back the larger species.
Civilization:
Homeworld
Population:
7.3 billion Qoulkarg
Technology:
Has just reached Early Interstellar Age, albeit with the help of their Galactic trade partners.
Economy:
Agricultural---Despite Repti’s Badlands state, the Qoulkarg are adept at cultivating food. The Repti ecology has also evolved a number of plant and animal species that have proven to be successfully transplantable to artificial growth mediums and other worlds. as well as safely digestable by other non-Yelnarian specis. Of note are Krag-melon, a round, tough cactus-like pod whose moist and nutritious contents are very stable and long shelf-lived stored at room temperature (Qoulkarg traditionally use their forearm spines to break open the pods), and sanhawg, a large fat worm-like animal that is easily digestible, especially after cooking.
Wealth:
Average; the Qoulkarg are adjusting fairly well to the technological shock of Galactic trade.
Government:
Syndicracy---The Qoulkarg are governed by the Compact, a world-council of gllobal and regional syndicates that manage various regions and industries. Services too, as there are a number of security syndicates that cover various aspects of security, from information security to military power projection. The most powerful syndicates on Repti are the agricultural, water, and power syndicates.
Law Level:
Moderate; outsde the syndicates there’s a lot of jockeying and positioning for advantage, by nearly whatever means. Ir’s been compared to Renaissance Italy, the Gangs of New York, or perhaps the ‘cyberpunk era’ of Earth’s pre-Rifts ‘Golden Age’, with the unclaimed parts of society and the landscape being fought over by informal syndicates formed at street level. Some of this lawlessness has drifted offworld with private concerns acquiring spacecraft and wildcatting to worlds like the VVepasian moons or the D-Point asteroids. Some USA officials have expressed concern that with access to Galactic starfaring technology, some of these groups may become freebooters.
Popularity:
Popular---Most Qoulkarg LIKE their government and how it works for them. Between loyalty to their syndicate and the overall Compact, the majority of Qoulkarg feel they are on the right coirse into the future.
Stability:
Solid---Barring some unforseen crisis, the Compact seems to be on firm political ground.



Scova Novanna----( United Systems Alliance Member World)

“’Eat lead’ has entirely different and literal meaning on Scova Novanna. The stuff is everywhere. Either bring your own food and water, or hire a local skedek....that’s the Scovan equivalent of a kosher grocer and cook...to thoroughly purify your meals and beverages to the local point of blandness.”

“Are those meteor craters I see out there?”
“No, that was where the Brodkil beachhead WAS.”

Scova Novanna was a client world of Paladin Steel, trading through dimensional rifts, before it became a member of the United Systems Alliance, and was thereafter accessed by starship routes as well.
Scova Novanna is home to the Scova Gnomes, an offshoot gnomish sept. Though Scova Novanna is a small-diametered planet, it possesses a dense core and heavy gravity. The Scova are thus exceptionally strong for gnomes while the prevalence of heavy metal contaminants has forced them to become physiologically very tolerant of metal toxicity in their food and water(+2d4 P.S., and +5 to save against heavy metal poisoning).
The Scova originally came to Paladin Steel/Aegis Stellar Industries seeking to buy advanced weapons technology to help them in their fight against invading Brodkil looking to mine the planet’s abundant pitchblende deposits and snack on the locals. Though the gnomes lived literally underfoot and were waging a hard-fought guerilla campaign against their demonic invaders, the Brodkil were proving proficient at strip-mining both for minerals and for gnomish communities. The gnomes thus turned to their seldom-used dimensional shifters to bypass the Brodkil orbital blockade and get help.
For a small-statured people, the Scova made some large orders of some very big weapons which they very enthusiastically and effectively used on the Brodkil. The end result was that the Brodkil were bested and blown away in the ensuing free-for-all.
With the Brodkil effectively blasted off their planet, the Scova wanted to insure that if there was ever a repeat invasion, the gnomes would have backup. The Scova tentatively joined the United Systems Alliance, trading minerals for high-tech.
Though there has been some cultural shock and reluctance as the Scova exchanged many of their traditional ways for those of a high-tech galactic world, they believe that the alternative, extinction, is unacceptable. To their credit, though, the Scovans are finding ways of smartly integrating their folkways with high tech living. The fact that the United Systems Alliance already had adapted to hosting smaller-statured sophonts(the Smallkin) has made the Scovans’ relationship with the USA that much easier for the gnomes to accept and adjust to. However, few Scovans are currently inclined to leave their world, though a number are enrolled in various offworld schools to learn how to use and maintain high-tech systems.

Solar System(Gammen-Ree)
Number of Stars: 1
Types of Stars: Yellow Dwarf
Number of Planets: 6
-Terrestrial----(Scova Novanna) System lifeworld

-Asteroid----(Gertree)---This large asteroid/small planetoid raised considerable interest with the discovery of structures carved out of the living rock deep inside caverns off a crevasse on Gertree. The structures are gnomish in form, but are much larger in ratio scale and were apparently hewn with hand tools over fifteen thousand years ago. The Scovans deny any knowledge of who might have carved the structures, though they confirm that the architecture is gnomish in its design and motifs.

-Gas Giant----(Gunderus) This tiny gas world, known by the Scova as ‘the Green Star’ for its distinctive green color as seen from Scova Novanna, is a safe stopover, due to its lack of a dangerous radiation field, for starships looking to stock up on reaction mass and other volatiles. The USA has established a gas-harvesting operation in orbit of Gunderus, and pays a small lease-fee to the government of Scova Novanna.

-Gas Giant----(Nevgali) Jupiter-sized Nevgali shows promise as a future mining site, due to substantial mineral deposits found on its six sizable moons. Several USA companies are negotiating with the Scovans for rights to start tentative assays of the moons for operations.

-Gas Giant----(Orthug Pyla) Tiny Orthug Pyla would be unremarkable but for a dimensional energy field surrounding it that is conducive to rift-opening. While the USA used this to move starships into the system and into a position to break the Brodkil occupation from space, they are wary of other, potentially hostile, factions using the same region to transit in. Free-space fauna appearing through micro-rifts have also been detected, and so the USA is setting up a scanning cordon to detect any dangerous lifeforms that might appear. Low-energy microfauna found in Orthug Pyla’s atmosphere are believed to have originated from outside the system ad were rifted in this fashion.

-Terrestrial----(Reeze) Known by the gnomish word for ‘cold’, small gas giant Reeze lives up to its name. This distant world takes a lonely 285 year orbit far around Gammen-Ree

Planet(Scova Novanna)
Type: Terrestrial
Diameter: 9,000 km
Gravity: 1.7 g
Temperature: Cool----Average temperatures on Scova Novanna hover around 48 degrees F, with recorded highs of 78 degrees and lows of -30.
Unusual/Special Features:
-Rings---Scova Novanna has several thin rings of space debris
-High ambient magic field--Though not equivalent to Rifts Earth’s, Scova Novanna’s ambient magic field is still slightly higher than PFRPG’s PPE field, and allows for magic use, including Shifting and Summoning.
Atmosphere: Breathable terrestrial nitrox mix.
Terrain: Exotic; amongst the varied terrain of Scova Novanna, nearly 40% of the land surface is covered in distinctive ‘metallic mesas’; large geological upthrustings and domes of metal-rich rock. These large concentrations of lead, zinc, and manganese make for easy mining of such metals, but also hamper efforts to reach deposits of the native pitch blend. The Scovan gnomes took advantage of these natural formations to hide from Brodkil technological sensors, and also used them as natural fortifications. Conversely, when the Brodkil tried to use those same formations as fortified mineheads, the Scovans infiltrated the diggings and turned the encampments into blast pits to incinerate the invaders.
Notable Mineral Concentrations:
- Zinc
- Pitchblende
- Manganese
- Lead
- Ruby
- Barite
- Emerald
- Graphite
Hydrosphere:
Balanced; roughly 54% of Scova Novanna’s surface is covered in open water.
Biosphere:
Dense; Scova Novanna has a rich and dense ecosystem. Many of the plants and animals, however, contain high levels of lead and other toxic chemicals that would sicken, if not outright kill, most offworlders who tried to consume them. The Scovans have evolved to tolerate these toxins, and use magic rituals as part of their regular daily practices to render local foodstuffs safe for them to consume(Almost all Scovan gnomes know the spells Negate Poisons & Toxins and Purification(Food/Water)).
Civilization: Settled
Population:
794 million gnomes
Technology:
WAS effectively early Industrial Age at the time of the Brodkil invasion, but quickly jumped to early Interstellar with the influx of imported technologies.
Economy:
Commercial--The Scovans are earning a pretty penny from licensing their outer planets as transit points for trade. They are also doing well selling minerals, especially gemstones and crystals.
Wealth:
Rich---The Scovans have rebounded quickly from the privations of the Brodkil occupation and have turned the tailings from their shelter excavations into money. Their licensing agreements with the USA are already making them plenty of offworld credits, so they have both paid off their initial big armaments purchases, but have also enough surplus to upgrade their military and bootstrap their society.
Government:
Mageocracy---The most powerful magic users tend to rule, with Shifters/Summoners down at the lower end of the mage ladder(owing to some historical past tyrants who attempted to use summoned monsters to intimidate the populace...until the other mages ganged up on them and virtually outlawed the practices).
Law Level:
Overbearing. Perhaps surprisingly, the Scova Novannan government still hasn’t lifted martial law, and the people are still expected to maintain wartime discipline. The militia haven’t been stood down, and in fact are still being trained up.
Popularity:
Beloved. Despite continuing martial law, the people LOVE their government. There’s still a jingoistic sense of anger and pride at having faced down the much-larger Brodkil invaders and blown them to smithereens, and the gnomes see their government as having led them to that victory.

Stability:
Dynastic---The ruling mages more often than not pass their positions on to family members, and will adopt promising apprentices if the mage-lords don’t have children of their own. As the most powerful magics are taught only to family members, this insures that the mages have remained powerful and in charge for generations.

[taalismn]

Let's look at Golgan space for a moment...

Molo Pirates(Anvil Galaxy)
“The Molo were perfectly willing to break heads for the Golgans as long as they were paid. Once the Golgans stopped paying them, the Molo discovered the only skill they had was breaking heads, so they became self-employed, breaking heads and taking their pay direct.“

“There are those who want to recognize the Molo as a proper galactic state because of their size and organization, and that they should be negotiated with from that dubious legal standpoint. That belief speaks of defeatism, desperation, or deliberate collaboration. The Molo are no more a galactic state than any of the criminal cartels of the Three Galaxies are ‘states’. They are criminals, plain and simple, who should and will be held accountable for their actions, not able to hide behind ‘galactic statehood’ as an excuse for their depredations.”
---Star Marshal Tesses Droveneer, CCW Quatoria

A large and well-organized criminal organization active around the edges of Golgan space, the Molo consists mainly of private military company troops left high and dry when the Golgan Republik withdrew from the satrapy states. Formerly employed as mercenary peacekeepers and enforcers by the Golgans, association with the alien regime meant that there were few secessionist polities willing to hire the PMCs, and without job security, many of them drifted into lives of crime. The better disciplined of these desperados formed the Molo organization.
The Molo were large and powerful enough to take over several planets that were abandoned by their Golgan protectors, yet not wealthy enough(or unwilling) to hire the Golgans’ ex-enforcers.
The Molo operate like a franchise; groups bid for territories, or are assigned them, and are expected to make the most f them(in terms fo tribute). Those that perform well get access to better equipment and an increased chance of being able to succesfully bid for a better territory. Especially effective groups may rise to the ranks of troubleshooters, favored to be assigned to lucrative sectors, or paid directly to enforce Molo code on less successful pirate sub-groups.
If a group fails to perform to the leadership’s expectations, a more experienced enforcer team comes out to evaluate the situation. If the problem lays in growing resistance in a sector, the Molo leadeship may decide to grant the assigned band extra personnel and equipment, if the potential profits outweigh the risks. If it’s decided that the fault lays with the personnel assigned to a particular region, the enforcers eliminate the underperformers, bring in new people to take their place, and whip the survivors into shape. In some cases, this means eliminating an entire band, their remaining equipment confiscated, and their sector assigned to a new group, or put up for new bid.
Though the Zyganian Empire did much to smash the Molos’ power in their sectors, the organization continues to be a problem in the ex-Golgan zones. The recent turmoil caused by the Republik’s lashing out at their borderers has only created more opportunity for the Molo, who have become very active again of late. The chaos spread through the former Golgan buffer states as the Republik again shows its teeth has afforded the Molo cover to strike targets left defenseless by shifting local military forces. Also, a number of Golgan military apparatchik have been quietly issuing letters of marque to the Molo to spread further chaos.

The Golgan stance on the Molo is ambigious; the Golgans dislike piracy as much as other polities, and hate them especially when they are used as a weapon against the Republik. Gaus Elia Binjo personally loathes the idea of using pirates in the Revolution’s war to restore the Republik’s greatness, seeing it as going against the ideals of the Revolution(the Republik should owe its success to Golgan law and order, not barbarian bandits). However, he is pragmatic enough(and has been persuaded by some of the Assemblage) to turn a blind eye to those Golgans dealing with the Molo as long as the pirates do all their raiding outside Republik space and do not claim sanction by the Republik. Binjo’s government will execute any pirates caught raiding Golgan space and officially will not issue letters of marque to any(though it’s an open secret that there are elements in the Revolution who will), and any Molo caught hitting Golgan interests will be treated with the same ruthless and impartial efficiency as any other pirate scum.

a) Size---Effectively a Pirate Armada, estimated at over a thousand ships, and nearly a million personnel. However, they are spread over several galactic sectors adjacent to Golgan space in the Anvil Galaxy, with some groups ranging farther afield in search of prey(and escaping prosecution). They rarely come together in groups of more than a dozen vessels.

b) Sponsorship---Self-funding. It’s been rumored that the Molo have been receiving SOME support and funding under the table from warhawks in the Golgan Council Politik and from elements in Naruni Enterprises, but the majority of their money comes from what they extract from their victims.

b2) Background---Ex-internal security contract-troops(PMCs) for the Golgan Republik

c) Alignment---Aberrant and Miscreant

d) Technology Level---Galactic, but generally three or four generations in tech behind the CCW or the TGE. In general, the more successful bands in the Molo have the most advanced equipment, either due to having the contacts and prestige to acquire the better gear, or by stripping less successful sub-bands.

e) Weapons and Equipment--- Well-equipped., though not to any common standard. The Molo have established factories on their slave-worlds to produce common-domain-pattern MDC armor and weapons such as HI-lasers, but not in any great quantity; priority distribution goes to those sub-bands that can rake in the most loot to pay for their equipment, or at least show that they’re good for credit. Most Molo bands make do with military surplus.

f) Ships---Effectively a Pirate Armada, totalling over a thousand ships. Most of these vessels are frigate- to light cruiser -sized, but the Molo also have a half-dozen Colonial battleships(considered by modern standards to be little better than heavy cruisers), some carriers, and various ships they’ve captured and pressganged into service as stalking horses and support craft.

g) Communications--- The Molo have relocated several old Golgan Republik Argosy Fleet FTL station arrays swiped from colonies and former buffer states. These powerful comm station can transmit over large interstellar ranges with good signal speed(95 ly/hr). This allows them to cmmunicate with appropriately equipped vessels(60% of their ships can recieve FTL comm signals, but only 20% of their ships have full 2-way communications of any value), so they rely on couriers and shorter-ranged ship sets to keep in touch with less advanced or more far-flung units.

h) Headquarters--- The Molo have managed to take over several small worlds to sereve as refit and relaxation camps. Some of these planets have enough industrial capacity(either at the time of occupation or brought in later from other looted sources) to manufacture small arms, ammunition(up to medium range missiles), and spare parts for the more common ship systems.

i) Intelligence---Pigeon in Every Port------ The pirates have low-level informers watching every substantial port facility in their sector. This network evolved from the networks of snitches the colonial enforcer PMCs cultivated when they openly worked for the Golgans.

j) Internal Security --- Tight------ Crucial ships’ systems are alarmed and monitored from a security station, and communications and weapons systems are locked down, requiring key codes held by the respective crew members to operate.

k) Criminal Activity--- The Molo are large enough an organization that they have their fingers in several criminal enterprises:

* Smuggling ---Especially to the detriment of the new governments of the nations they once policed for the Golgans. Ironically, in some cases, the Molo are feeding local vices that they once tried to stamp out at the behest of the Golgan authorities. However, in the process, the Molo learned the locals’ weaknesses, as well as the contacts to supply the appropriate contraband.

* Gunrunning--Again, running firearms to dissident factions opposing the new governments that drove the Molo out is good businss and sweet revenge.

* Slavery---- ‘Tribute’ from the planets they’ve taken over and ships that they’ve seized.

* Prostitution--- The more attractive captives that the Molo have taken from their worlds and prizes are frequently pressganged into sexual slavery.

* Merc Team--The Molo frequently rent out operative teams for small scale conflicts.

l) Level of Experience----Experienced---People who are competent, with enough experience under their belts that they can cope well with most any situation. Levels 5-10 on average.

m) Contacts---The Molo sell their loot to a variety of criminal organizations both inside and outside Republik space. Of course, it’s rumored that certain special interests in the Republik are paying the Molo for goods looted from worlds that were once Golgan territories back in the day.

n) Resources---Nickels and Dimes--- 1d6x10,000 credits

o) Pay--- Varies wildly; the better-performing sub-groups that have the favor of the Molo leadership. ---Fair---Roughly 50% of any profit is shared amongst the officers, and the rest paid out to the crew.

p) Reputation--Well-Known/Feared; the Golgans’ colonial PMC jackboots were arguably hated even more than the Golgan regular military authorities, and the Molo have continued that tradition of inducing string emotion. The better-off worlds and starfaring organizations in the regions around the former Republik biffer states can afford to hate the Molo, but the less well-off worlds still quake in fear of what the Molo can do to them.

q) Special Quirks--- Favors---Many in the Molo leadership still have a few markers they can call in from their former relations with the Republik or their loyalist lackies. While many in the Republik blame the PMCs for either leaning on the satrapy-worlds too hard and inciting rebellion, or not leaning on them hard ENOUGH and permitting rebellion to rise, and there’s more than a few Molo who blame the Golgans for abandoning them, there’s still enough good will(or blackmail) that the Molo can call on a few high-level favors every now and then. This can translate into some military intelligence slipped to the Molo, some first-rate front-line equipment ‘misplaced’ where the pirates can find it, or a loyalist state offers them refuge from pursuing law enforcement.

r) (Optional)Preferred Targets----Colonial Outposts---The Molo started out as colonial enforcers, and they still like to hit settlements and space stations just to prove they’re better than the ‘dirt-diggers’ they or their ancestors rode herd over. However, they’ll take just about any target of opportunity.

s)Species Composition---Varied; the Molo represent a broad cross-section of former Golgan Republik buffer-state miscreants


Bulgin Hegemony(Anvil Galaxy)
“The Bulgies want to roar like a great galactic warrior-clan, but the fact of the matter is they’re more like posturing mokrats fighting over patches of dry swamp-weed. Rather than weapons design, their main industry is cheap visophones and comp-monocles. On the plus side the ‘Hunt Club’ gaming app they include on most of their personal-comms is really good if you need to pass time.”

The Bulgins are a small star-polity bordering the Zyganian Empire. The Bulgins are a splinter of the old Human Alliance, part of the early colonization efforts into the Anvil Galaxy. After losing their starfaring technology in their efforts to survive, the Bulgins managed to climb back the technology tree enough to attract passing starfarers who gave them the means to travel amongst the stars again. Feeling suitably toughened-up by their colonization of Bulgros, the Bulgins felt confident enough to try carving themselves out a bigger piece of their stellar neighborhood, but discovered they already had several more powerful neighbors, including the Golgans. Determined, they made the mistake of trying to claim-jump several Zyganian resource-colonies while the latter were preoccupied with confronting the Golgan Republik. The Zyganian Imperial Space Forces responded in numbers, and the Bulgins lost over a third of their small Navy(publicly, the Bulgins announced the loss as a ‘tragic navigational error and freak meteor storm’, but the truth has gotten out much to the Bulgins’ disgrace).
The Bulgins, fearful of continued Zyganian reprisals, haven’t forgotten the Battle(or as they call it, ‘ambush’) of the Ulnu Nebula, and have been laying low ever since. Though arguably it’s only the proximity of the Zyganians who kept the weakened Bulgin Hegemony from being picked off by other ex-Golgan possessions, and though not wanting to be a possession of the Republik any more than the Zyganians, the Bulgins have been known to sell intelligence on the Empire to the Republik. In return, the Golgans have sold/given the Bulgins surplus military equipment and some tech exchanges.
The aftermath of the Golgan reprisal raids on Zygania have put the Bulgins in a quandary; do they take advantage of the Zygs’ distraction and try for some payback, or remain laying low try not to be noticed and caught in the crossfire between larger star nations with grudges?

A. Size
Small; 4 worlds, though only one of them (Bulgros) can be described as being truly habitable. Humid swampy Bulgros being the sort of world the Golgans might find attractive, except for the fearsome local wildlife, the Bulgins are uncomfortably aware that that makes their homeworld a good prospect for annexation if the Golgans ever decide to expand again.
B. History
Splinter of the Human Alliance
C. Level of Technological Sophistication
Mature Space Age, but their starfaring capability uses older designs five or six generations behind what the CCW is using.
D. General Attitude/Culture
Warrior Society--- Warrior Houses, that grew out of hunt lodges protecting the early Bulgin colonists from the vicious megafauna, Between fending off thresher-jaws and avalanchoids, and fighting other Bulgins, ultimately becoming the dominant political factions, the Bulgin lodges came to claim a warrior tradition, complete with coming-of-age hunts, duels of honor, and exclusive weapons training(in this case the bulnacht spear/polearm).
E. Racial Composition
Humans
F. Government
Confederacy of Warrior Houses, who spend as much time fighting amongst themselves as deciding national policy.
G. Administrative Control
Loose---The Warrior Houses like to assert their martial rights over the central administration, so laws are more strong suggestions than anything else. Though this is irritating to the more ambitious Bulgin politicos(who want a stronger, more unified Bulgin nation to lead), it also provides a lot of plausible deniability for the actions of Bulgin citizens abroad.
H. External Trade
Raw Materials---The Bulgin worlds trade a lot of minerals to outsiders, while Bulgros also exports timber and animal skins.
H1. Commodities
Exports:
Consumer Electronics---Bulgin factories churn out (VERY) cheap personal electronics such as portable vid-phones and field binocs.
Imports:
High Tech---The Bulgin have recently been importing cybernetics and bionics, some of it bought from the Central Alliance black market. Some analysts fear that the Bulgin may be trying to build their own ‘super-warrors’ or ‘super-hunters’ as a prelude to another go at empire-building, or at least mercenary work.
I. Status
Stagnant; hemmed in as it is by larger and more powerful stellar polities, the Bulgins’ opportunities for growth are limited, and they’re pretty much stuck with what they have currently. Politically, while the Bulgins would love to erase the ‘Dishonor of Ulnu’ by inflicting some hurt on the Zyganians, the ZE, lamed as it may be currently, still has enough economic clout to make good on their losses and eventually retaliate. Jumping in bed with the Golgans would seem to be the Bulgin trend, but the Bulgins don’t like the idea of being dependent(and dictated to by) the Republik much either. It’s been suggested that the Hegemony apply for membership in this new United Systems Alliance that’s been helping out the poorer planets, but since the Battle of Altess Prime, it’s become common knowledge that the Republik and the USA are now fighting each other, so Alliance membership would invite a drubbing by the Argosy.

[b]Republik of As-than Golgan Republik Slador Alliance(Anvil Galaxy) [/b]
“As-than’s kept its links to the Republik, hedging that as the Republik shrinks, the Golgans will be more grateful to their remaining allies. It’s a risky strategy to play, but it seems to be paying off, given the support the Golgans have been funneling to them. Of course, with the big forces buildups in the Argosy, it might be simply a matter of time before some Council Politik bean-counter decides to make some budget cuts and turns off the spigot in favor of building a few more battle-carriers.”

“The As-thans sure don’t fight like school teachers, unless their school districts were in war zones. I really hate the pop quizzes they’ve been springing on my boys; I’ve had to send too many of them home early already for medical reasons.”
---Anonymous Zyganian Army sergeant, Gribnarc II

One of several still-loyal satrapy-states of the Golgan Republik, the Republik of As-than borders the Zyganian Empire, which has been fighting the AtRk for possession of Achprex VIII. The Slador Alliance is a Warsaw Pact-style mutual defense treaty amongst border states of the Golgan Republik, though its real purpose is to provide a buffer zone for the Golgans. As-than is one of twenty-five signatory star systems that are part of the Slador Alliance treaty. In return, the Republik favors the Slador-pact worlds with trade, technology exchanges, and less stringent oversight. The Republik of As-than, in particular, has proven steadfast in their support of the Golgans, emulating them in many ways(Golgan is considered a second languagem the lingua franca of the greater galactic polity, as taught in As-than schools), without sacrificing their cultural identity.
The As-thans’ strong ties to the Golgans keeps the Zyganians from advancing farther into Republik space, for fear of being flanked by the As-thans, who possess a small, but respectable, Navy that’s subsidized by the Golgan Republik, who recognize the As-than as one of the better Auxiliary Guard forces. As-thanian troops and military advisors have shored up local Republikcan-sympathizer resistance to Zyganian encroachment on Republik fringe-worlds(such as Achprex VIII and Gribnarc II), and countered efforts by the ZE to sway local sentiments to secession from the Republik. It’s suspected that As-than merchants, flagged under neutral registration from the other side of Golgan space, have been supplying insurgents on Zoestes with armaments.
As-thanans are not limited to their own Republik; a number of As-than enclaves exist throughout the rest of the Three Galaxies, some loyal to the home culture, and others choosing their own path.

A. Size
Modest; 9 worlds/systems. The As-than homeworld and seat of the AtRk’s government is Selesto, an Earth-like world(albeit on the dry side).
The As-than also consider themselves the guardians of two sapient pre-spaceflight/pre-Industrial Age aboriginal species living on worlds in the AtRk. The As-than have NOT made contact with these peoples, but discretely monitor and guard them from a safe distance. Though some in the Golgan Republik have questioned this policy(given how many, if not most, expansionist polities wind up enfolding lesser cultures into their fold), the As-than have demurred in the grounds that it is best if the natives develop their own unique societies and outlooks before they should be approached by more advanced ones, and that the ultimate union of cultures will be the richer for such enlightened restraint.
B. History
Newcomers---The star kingdom started on its own, from a single colony of independents, possibly a rifted Human colony ship from elsewhere. They have since populated and evolved to adapt to their homeworld.
C. Level of Technological Sophistication
Advanced Space Age, but still three or four generations behind the Golgans. The Golgans have provided the As-than Navy with second-class/echelon war gear and ships, including older Bindas-class cruisers.
D. General Attitude/Culture
Peaceful Expansionists shading to Enlightened Imperialists, they’ve tied their fortunes to the Republik, seeing them as the best force for stability in the region. They see their actions in resisting the Zyganians as preventing the spread of disorder and halting the advance of a rogue state. Similarly, their provision of aide to guerilla groups on worlds like Zoestes are justified as supporting legitimate freedom movements.
E. Racial Composition
Variant Humans---As-Thanans are distinct in having tough rough-textured skin that adds +30+2d6 SDC.
F. Government
Pedocracy---The As-thanans are governed by an academic meritocracy known as the Intellectum, which strives to be well-educated on all matters civic and political, with ‘enlightened’ and ‘scientific’ principles guiding policy. The As-thanans pride themselves on their education systems as being the source of future leadership in a very real way.
G. Administrative Control
Loose; there’s still a lot of leeway in As-thanan rule for various regional experiments in economics and self-governance. There’s also room for plausible deniability with regards to some of the AtRk’s actions abroad.
H. External Trade
Trade: As-than maintains a large commercial mercantile fleet(rigorously standardized to Republik regs).
H1. Commodities
Exports: Luxury Goods/Agriculture----The AtRk makes a pretty galactic credit shipping luxury foodstuffs to the Golgans.
Imports: Agriculture---In return, the As-thans have acquired a taste for various foodstuffs and plant species grown elsewhere in Golgan territory. For example, the As-than consider Golgan hydro-roses to be both breathtakingly beautiful and delicious, but have been unable to successfully grow them commercially in their own worlds.
I. Status
Established---The As-thanans are comfortable with their current real estate. They feel threatened by what they see as the encroaching Zyganians, and so endeavor to help the Golgan Republik hold contain such rogue states.

[taalismn]

Deluca Flats(Tsi-Eta McGeri)---A Paladin Steel/Aegis Stellar Industries Outpost World

“Tee-Ee-Gee’s a case of grabbing what we can; ANY world capable of sustaining life as we know it’s going to be valuable, and compared to many, Gamma’s a paradise. There’s open space, breathable air, potable water, and a lack of anything native in the environment actively trying to kill us. Right now, everybody’s zipping into the Three Galaxies, looking for ‘perfect’ worlds to settle, and bypassing a lot of marginal ones. Sooner or later all the green and blue worlds are going to get claimed, and people are going to start looking at the next ones down the list, like Tee-Eta-Gamma. That’s why we’re staking claims even on dustballs like this one. Might not look like much now, but we expect the real estate prices to go up in the future.”

“We’re not entirely sure what the ‘DarcLord’ was doing in our sector and lurking around Tee-Ee Gamma with his flagship so far from his home space. The few surviving bridge officers haven’t been much help owing to the rather paranoid ‘need to know’ culture of the Dominion and the DarcLord regarding his command decisions. Supposedly, he was chasing fugitives, but it’s possible our own activity drew him here expecting to pick off our ore shipments. Claim jumping didn’t seem his style, and there are no indications he knew about the true extent of the mineral potential on the planet, otherwise we might have found more mining gear packed aboard his big ship, unless he was expecting to work our sites with slave labor. Too many questions, too few answers, too many heavily-armed pirates suddenly popping up for my peace of mind.”
---Colonel Forrstene Delaney, Commander, Fort Thurston

“Corminium’s to modern starfaring tech what lithium was to previous lower tech levels; perfect for the sort of high-capacity energy storage systems we use daily. Finding a good source of it greatly facilitates a lot of manufacturing in the sector.”

“Anybody who thinks postings to desert worlds like Tsi-Eta Gamma need something to liven up the boring, just better shut up. The universe has a nasty habit of listening in to such wishes.”
---Marree Alisiton, Scraper Driver, Deluca Flats, Tsi-Eta Gamma

Deluca Flats is the name given to the ASI mining operation on Tsi-Eta Gamma, a dusty, borderline habitable world in the Anvil Galaxy.
Tsi-Eta Gamma would be an attractive world to settle, but it hasn’t really caught anybody’s attention yet. Though a largely dry, arid world, it supports enough of a robust local ecology in the form of dense algae mats on its few shallow seas and a form of ‘sand algae’(photosynthesizing bacteria) that the planet has a breathable oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere. Its days are blazing hot and its nights freezing cold, but aside from that, the planet is better than many worlds declared fit to settle. It just happens to be far enough out of the way that nobody’s bothered with it until recently.
Tsi-Eta Gamma has been surveyed periodically and passingly over the centuries, but an in-depth mineralogy survey wasn’t done until fairly recently by a Ne’R’Mar prospector crew, who sold their findings to Aegis Stellar Industries.
ASI sent their own survey crews to confirm the Ne’R’Mar report, and discovered to their pleasure that the findings were correct in their mineral assessment, as well as several finds not on the Ne’R’Mar scans, and an initial outpost and workhead was set up, while ASI/PS organized a larger mining op. Soon, a heavily automated and cyborged mining base was set up, with both subterranean drill bores probing for mineral-rich strata, and surface scrapers filtering the sand dunes and dry lake beds for fossil algae deposits. A geoscience team also began doing surveys for colonial prospects.
The Tsi-Eta Gamma operation ran into some trouble when a subsequent convoy of freighters, with a large troop complement along for security and training, while passing through the system to deliver some more geo-survey satellites, was attacked upon orbital approach by a massive warship under the command of a previously unknown ‘starlord’ who claimed dominion over several worlds in the sector, and demanded that the ‘trespassers’ prepare to enter the service of the Dominion as punishment for their ‘crimes’. Startled and spooked, and trapped by the giant ship’s tractor beams, the Rifts-Earth trained crews did the only thing they could; they attacked! Apparently having no experience with magic users, the warlord’s largely cyborg crew were taken off guard when angry mages and supernaturals began appearing inside the ship’s defenses. Despite the massive size of the battleship, it turned out to be something of a paper tiger; undermanned and ill-equipped for its size, and substantial damage was done to it during the fighting that followed(having a company of heavy armored soldiers and vehicles teleported directly aboard will do that). The affair turned into an entangled knife-fight, the convoy still caught in the battleship’s clutches, but the pirates unable to do much of anything while big chunks of their ship were being blown off from the INSIDE in the intense fighting taking place in its internal spaces. This stalemate lasted until warships, hurriedly dispatched from ASI’s other operations in the sector, rushed to the scene and reinforced the beleaguered convoy. The warlord himself was killed when a sizable chunk of his ship’s prow was blown off(unfortunately also wiping out the bridge and most of the ship’s command computer databases), and the remaining portion of crew and vessel seized by ASI.
Now aware that the area was prone to SERIOUS pirates(and that a number of the warlord’s crew had bailed out in lifepods to the planet below), ASI has had to revise the security estimates for their new mining colony. Deluca Flats now sports a fairly large security contingent with provision for expansion. There is also the matter of securing the orbital assets from both within and without.

Deluca Flats was established actually in the foothills bordering one of the desert regions, to cut into one of the ancient lava extrusion ridges in the area. This gives the settlement access to fossil water in the mountain strata and to several veins of minerals brought up by the lava extrusions. The operation is heavily automated, consisting mainly of an oversight team of mining engineers and technicians overseeing a large complement of robots and drones spread over several promising resource sites. Several colony sites are being surveyed and prepared in anticipation of future settlement.
The mining settlement has something of an ‘Old West’ feel, especially now that the miners have to worry about “indians”...the surviving pirates... roaming out in the wastelands, growing increasingly desperate and vengeful.

Solar System(Tsi-Eta McGeri)
Number of Stars: 1
Types of Stars: Blue Dwarf
Number of Planets: 6
-(Alpha)---Sun-braziered rockball, and airless. Its large size(and proportionately larger shadow zone), but average gravity(low for its size) mean that it might be possible to exploit any mineral resources there using subterranean shelters to shield workers and equipment. PS/ASI is taking a closer look at Tsi-Eta-Alpha with this in mind following some promising orbital geo-scans.

-(Beta)---Rocky, Terrestrial, Large, but Venus-like with a thick hot atmosphere. Possible future terraforming site, heavy gravity aside, if the USA wants to invest more heavily in the system.

-(Gamma)---Rocky, Terrestrial, (Lifeworld)

-(Delta)---Rocky, Terrestrial, huge and swathed in thick methane clouds. Its punishing heavy gravity(x7.3 gs) makes development very unlikely.

-(Epsilon)---Rocky, Terrestrial, airless and small. Epsilon is getting a second look as a possible mining prospect. Its scant water-ice, though, would put a damper on development.

-(Eta) ---Small Gas Giant---Tsi-Eta-Eta orbits far out from the primary, but its lack of moons has curtailed any commercial interest.


Type: Terrestrial
Diameter: 9,000 miles
Gravity: 1.2 Earth normal
Temperature: Temperate, but tends to range diurnally between a scorching 110 degrees F in the daylight, and -10 degrees F at night.
Unusual/Special Features:
-Moon(TEG-a)---Tsi-Eta Gamma’s single moon is a Deimos-like captured asteroid, small and heavily cratered, that exerts a minimal gravitational effect on Tsi-Eta Gamma’s few large open bodies of water. It has recently become the site of an ASI installation(some are speculating that ASI may turn the moon into an Asteroid Cruiser, but an asteroid station or fortress seems more likely).
Atmosphere: Terrestrial breathable oxy-nitrogen mix; on the thin side, but perfectly breathable without additional equipment.
Terrain: Mainly desert, with a few low mountain chains
Notable Mineral Concentrations:
-Magnesium
-Gold/Silver
-Zinc
- Amethyst
-Asbestos
-Titanium
- Diamond
- Ruby
-Corminium---A compound mineral of rare earths, useful in manufacturing high-capacity energy storage systems and e-clips. Large deposits of the material, mixed with lithium, have been discovered.
-Detzerite---A reddish-pink mineral, actually a fossilized form of the local ‘sand algae’, that has proven useful in creating passive PPE sensor systems.

Hydrosphere:
Arid; the sand covering much of the surface quickly absorbs available rainfall(though there’s a substantial subterranean water table that has colonial planners quite excited at the prospects for future colonization tapping that water). Has several small lowland ‘seas’(equal to the Great Lakes or the Black Sea in size) and many dry lake beds and sea bottoms.
Biosphere:
Local life has not risen above the algae and lichen stage(or, conversely, it has fallen to that state)
Civilization:
The only civilization on the planet is the mining operations and a few suspected survivors from the pirate battleship, who have gone to ground in the wastelands.
Population:
Between Deluca Flats and nearby Fort Thurston, there are about 1,300 people on the planet. It is unknown how many pirates are hiding in the wastelands, but estimates range between 50-600.
Technology:
Three Galaxies standard
Economy:
Mining, but a future civilian colonization effort is also being developed.
Wealth:
In terms of overall living conditions, the miners can be considered to be Well-Off. The accumulated ore and crystals(industrial- and gemstone quality) would make the settlement Rich if they sold it themselves(the accumulated material would also make the settlement a tempting target for bandits and space pirates, if they knew about it).
Government:
Corporate Outpost; local government is run by appointed company officers. In the event of a crisis, overall direction falls to the military.
Law Level:
Lawful inside the corporate colony; with the element of the pirate survivors in the wastelands, can be considered to be Minimal
Popularity:
Popular; the miners and staff LIKE the current arrangement
Stability:
Solid


Size: Large: 750 employees, mainly cyborg miners. ASI is expanding the facilities with an eye towards increasing the current number of employees. There is also a small number of ex-slaves and ex(impressed)-pirates(about 180) who have not yet been sent offworld, preferring instead to seek employment in the mining colony.
The support staff includes two cyberdocs, a bodyfixer, six Stone Mages, a Technowizard, and a seven-person ‘recreation’ team(stewards and physical therapists).
The numbers of workers onworld are expected to increase, both as the mining efforts expand, and as PS/ASI develops potential colonization sites.
Type: Mining
Security: Tight, especially with the pirate threat. Between the recent trouble with the DarcDominion and the growing importance of the lithium/Corminium mining operations. A company of security ‘bots has been deployed to patrol a security perimeter, and the aerospace contingent flies constant patrols over the surrounding desert.
Contact: Used to be Monthly, but owing to the changed situation with the pirates, contact is now Weekly.
Products:
-Minerals

Fort Thurston
Nicknamed ‘Fort Thirsty’ by the miners, Fort Thurston is home to the security contingent protecting the mining facility. It employs some 550 personnel and a rotating contingent of another 400 or so aerospace personnel involved in supporting the operations in orbit. It supports a shuttle base moving locally-harvested material up to the orbital repair work on the pirate dreadnought, and also has a two squadron fighter unit attached to it(the latter mainly involved in chasing down satellite surface scans for possible pirate surface activity) .
The fact that so many of the DarcDominion personnel were cyborgs has caused a security headache for the GNEAS presence on the planet, as it means that those pirates(the GNE/USA refuses to recognize the DarcDominion as a legitimate state) that crashed on Tsi-Eta Gamma are fairly tough and durable and able to survive out on the planet’s wastes without supply for some time.

Orbit
ASI has a presence in orbit, based on the heavily damaged pirate warship orbiting there. ASI workcrews are working to restore as much of the ship’s primary systems as they can so they can quickly get the ship out of the system and elsewhere where it won’t attract any more attention to the system(ASI wants Tsi-Eta Gamma to be as ‘sleepy’ a system as possible). To support this effort, ASI has brought in two Brunel-class supertugs and three light cruisers. The orbital complement also includes a half dozen battle-ring weapons platforms, and a growing aerospace complex on Tsi-Eta Gamma’s small moon.
Nicknamed the ‘Tiger’ (it was originally called ‘Star’s Bane’) by the ASI personnel working on it, the giant warship is indeed impressive in scale, but it took a serious beating during the boarding action by its intended victims. Almost the entire prow was blown off from the INSIDE taking out the primary hangar bays and bridge, the ship now being run from the auxiliary bridge and engineering section.
Despite the Tiger’s impressive size, some of those working on her wonder if the ship was originally meant to be a warship or has been repurposed from some other primary role. All evidence seems to point towards the giant ship having originally been a spacegoing factory complex or industrial park.
Despite efforts to repair and beef up its armament, the Tiger seems destined to return to its former role as a mobile industrial platform, as ASI technicians are clearing out many of its cargo and hangar spaces, and installing/refurbishing foundries and fabricators. The first role of these machines will be to support the repair and refitting of the Tiger, but they will be retained to give the ship the capability to process materials onsite.

[Omegasgundam]

Looks like the entry is REALLY dated. As in pre-USA founding dated. How long has it been in your drafts?

[taalismn]

Looks like the entry is REALLY dated. As in pre-USA founding dated. How long has it been in your drafts?

Quite a while, I'm afraid. However, as the USA is more a confederation than a political mono bloc, it's entirely possible to have member nation states like the GNE having troubles that don't always involve the USA....or the USA comes in later as a supporting element.

Current Relations to the DarcDominion will be part of the updated diplomatic standings to be posted soon, but it amounts to this; the Dominion is tearing itself apart, or on the verge of, like so many pirate groups, so odds are, the DarcLord bought it over Tsi-Eta Gamma for real.