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While Harrisar may not provide particularly GOOD troops, the USA has picked up more than a few 2nd/3rd tier occupations that needs boots on the ground more than anything else. Given them militia gear and a few quality formations to stiffen them and they can prevent problematic local revenge purges and recidivist behavior.

Omegasgundam wrote:While Harrisar may not provide particularly GOOD troops, the USA has picked up more than a few 2nd/3rd tier occupations that needs boots on the ground more than anything else. Given them militia gear and a few quality formations to stiffen them and they can prevent problematic local revenge purges and recidivist behavior.

Not to mention 3rd or 2nd rate troopers can be trained into better drilled ones if provided with the right conditions and motivated, if given time.

In fact i think those Harrisar natives who are distrustful about the USA and its policies because of things like the "no return before 5 years of service" and the newness of it all, might get quite the shocking surprise if a number of those soldiers, quite changed by their experience of the greater cosmos, ever return to home. Though the local government might get a much more rude one.

SolCannibal wrote:In fact i think those Harrisar natives who are distrustful about the USA and its policies because of things like the "no return before 5 years of service" and the newness of it all, might get quite the shocking surprise if a number of those soldiers, quite changed by their experience of the greater cosmos, ever return to home. Though the local government might get a much more rude one.

Indeed.....Nationalists who expect to have Galactic(or Golden Age)-tech equipped and trained troops to fight their wars or throw up the more cutting remedial measures urged/forced on them by the offworlders find that the returning veterans )those who decide to return) have new outlooks and are bringing new ideas back. The majority of them identify more with the species, the Alliance, or the Service more than 'Region 6 of the Northern Continent' or 'The Agro-Political Bloc'. Oh, there will be those who want to come back to settle some scores back home, and there's the Resettans to contend with, but by and large most of the returnees are going into the new orbital professions, the planetary rehab business, or even terraforming other bodies in the Harrisar system. And a lot of them have been talking with generational Belters, who understand how to handle closed ecologies and resource management.

Oddly enough, the cramped conditions of Harrisar's overpopulated cities with little privacy actually prepare many Harrisians for Belter life, what with the economy of space and closeness of people in spacecraft and small habitats...but then zoom out and realize that beyond the walls of your immediate domicile, your nearest neighbors might be thousands, or MILLIONS, of miles away across open void.

For some, that prospect is TERRIFYING, and many almost drop out of the training programs because of fear of the EMPTINESS and a lack of the sidereal herd-sense, and that's why combat psychologists, working hand in hand with multimedia and psych war-ware developers, have been 'adjusting' attitudes. Even simply playing low-level background noise of crowds is proving effective at helping many Harrisarians venturing into space(or training for it) acclimate better, until they can be weaned off such measures.

Lukusa----Elan ‘Homeworld’
“Respected as the Elan are, not everybody wants a species of genetically-engineered biologically immortal, fast-breeding, and genetically-adaptable superbeings living next door to them. Yet, they have to have their space; Elan Norse wouldn’t abide by being anybody’s puppet, and she wouldn’t want that for her descendants, either. So they have to have a place of their own, where they can just be themselves. I’m not sure where exactly that place is, because for the reasons I just cited, the Elan don’t like to advertise where it is they let their hair down and put their feet up.”

Lukusa is the headquarters world of Norse Security Services, the defacto family business of the genetically engineered Elan bioroids. Its location and state are not well advertised, as the Elan know they have their share of enemies. The Verun 326 system is listed on stellar charts as being held as a ‘climatic baseline test reserve’ by the Sharratech corporation, which most casually curious travelers interpret as meaning ‘planets with atmospheres too turbulent to bother with’. This has afforded the Elan, for now, peace and quiet on their sanctum world, though many of them would like a nicer world to call their own. Lukusa itself is the sort of world that Sahrratech is well-known for terraforming, what with its superdense atmosphere, tolerable gravity and , so those who actually see data on the planet assume that the terraforming company is saving the planet for their own eventual use(little suspecting that the planet IS gradually being terraformed for use by one of the company’s sophont creations).

Few outsiders know about the Verun 326 sanctuaries, and even only a few of the highest rank Saharratech executives even know of the Elan hold on the system. As noted, the Verun 326 system is listed in their database as ‘thoroughly surveyed, not worth developing until we all spontaneously develop god-like powers’ with only automated systems collecting climatic baseline data.

Solar System(Verun 326)
Number of Stars: 1
Types of Stars: Blue Dwarf
Number of Planets: 6
-Terrestrial(Verundi 1/Lukusa)---’Cold Venus’-style world. Secret settlement world of the Elan.

-Asteroid(Verundi a1)--- This asteroid conceals a passive sensor system to detect contragravitic activity in-system.

-Gas Giant(Verundi 2)---Huge Verundi 2 has no moons, but an intense radiation belt that makes approaching it dangerous, even for shielded ships.

-Terrestrial(Verundi 3)---Tiny and ice-covered Verundi 3 sports the only major sign of an artifiial presence in the system. Sharratech maintains an automated life station, materials depot, and chemical harvesting refinery on the planet which sees the occasional drop-off/pick-up of basic materials, but this is a lie; the station’s sensors and inventory system are completely suborned to conceal the Elans’ comings and goings.

-Gas Giant(Verundi 4) ---Huge gas giant Verundi 4 has no moons to encourage gas mining operations.

-Terrestrial (Verundi 5)---Enormous Verundi 5 sits at the edge of the system, cold and dark Unless one likes sitting in a global ocean of cryogenic murk-slush, under crushing gravity, there’s nothing to attract the casual visitor.

Planet(Lukusa)
Type: Terrestrial
Diameter: 16,000 km
Gravity: 1.5 g
Temperature: Temperate, but on the cool side
Unusual/Special Features:
-Rings---- Lukusa is a ringed planet, courtesy of a small moon that disintegrated.
-Sensor Interference----Something about Lukusa’s atmosphere interferes with orbital scans of the planet, making it impossible to get accurate data of ots surface. It’s believed that a combination of intense electromagnetic activity in the planet’s atmosphere and several layers of fine metallic particles belched up by a super-volcano or three, and/or material dropped into the upper air by the rings are responsible for this interference. Natural causes account for only part of this; the rest is deliberately generated by Elan installations, to hide their presence. The Elan can open up brief ‘windows’ over remote regions of the planet, so unwelcome scanning will see the lifeless and forbidding planetary surface as it is, and the scanners will be persuaded to leave.
Atmosphere:
Super-dense reducing atmosphere; one practically needs a bathyscape just to make landfall.
Terrain:
Unusual Mineralogy---Only recently have the Elan discovered that their planet hides a veritable gold mine in the form a substantial lode of the ultra-durable metal Kisenite. If the Elan could figure out how to work the exotic metal, or cut a discrete deal with somebody else who can, the Elan would have another source of income, and/or a home source for very durable weapons and armor.
Notable Mineral Concentrations:
-Manganese
-Copper
-Iron
-Magnesium
-Quartz
-Titanium
-Emerald
-Asbestos
-Kisenite

Hydrosphere:
Badlands----Most of Lukusa’s surface is arid waste, with moisture locked below the planet’s crust. Ice infall from the rings is contributing some new moisture to the atmosphere, but it would take both deep well drilling and sustained cometary bombardment to make Lukusa a ‘wet’ planet.
Biosphere:
Lifeless, outside the underground Elan refuges.
Civilization:
Settled(covertly)
Population:
120,000 Elan
Technology:
Galactic---The Elan are wealthy enough as a clan to afford good Galactic technology to line their nests. As hostile and forbidding as the environment may be outside, th Elan are pretty snug and comfortable in their underground settlements, relaxing when they aren’t out in the Galaxies troubleshooting for their employers.
The Elan settlements are concealed underground and shielded from both detection and(hopefully) attack, but while the Elan are hoping that the illusion of Lukusa being lifeless to deter unwelcome visitors lingering in the system, they’ve also laid in some insurance. Several defensive outposts around the planet mount surface-to-space weaponry to counterattack hostile forces, and the same sites can also deploy decoy systems to give the impression of being larger complexes. It is hoped that in event of attack, would-be invaders will be drawn to attack the decoy sites, buying the Elan time to move to deeper shelters or to evacuate the planet altogether.
Economy:
Agricultural----The Elans’ business in their home warrens is growing enough food to sustain themselves. Lukusa currently does not openly trade with anybody else.
Wealth:
Rich---The Elan can be considered to be rich, thanks to their role as high-price troubleshooters, and their own profitable investments.
Government:
Matriarchy---The original Elan Norse is still alive, and she presides over the Elan people as the Grand Matriarch
Law Level:
Lawful---Mama’s House, Mama’s Law
Popularity:
Beloved--Elan are a close-knit loving society that listen to their elders.
Stability:
Dynastic---The Family sticks together, and though the Grand Matriarch is not always right, she is intelligent enough to listen to her children when they can prove the validity of their standpoints.

The Tattered Fringe
“The worlds of the Tattered Fringe are where Manifest Destiny runs smack into galactic reality, where the smooth streamlining illusion-dream of coreworld civilization is yanked away to expose the jagged id. Social experiments go bad in the absence of controls. Runaway technology gets in the wrong hands. Greed overturns caution. ”

“Some shatterworlds you can blame on alien invasions, previously undetected biological incompatibilities, cosmic disasters, and just pure dumb bad luck. Others...well, at the end of the day, they’re somebody’s damn fault.
Sometimes you can fix the problem with a fleet of ships, a squad of marines, a freighter of supplies. Sometimes not all the hammers in the galaxy can fix the situation. Only geological-scale time can bury the past and heal over the damage.”

The ‘Tattered Fringe’ are worlds that for one reason or other face crisises, often of their own making. These are worlds in the making, or rather unmaking, forgotten, discarded, or ignored by the larger cultures, and not all of them are reachable or redeemable even by the likes of the United Systems Alliance.

Nagana-----(Anvil Galaxy)
“Nagana is the epitome of ‘corrupt corporate state’. The local megacorps, who are small fry by comparison with the Galactic organizations, can pretty much do what they want with the civil authorities being authorities in name only. Oh, there are plenty of good honest people on Nagana, but they lack the pull and the power to do much in the face of corporate checkbooks and executive privilege.
Really, Nagana should be held up as an example of the sort of corporate state Paladin Steel and the Vermont Free State ALMOST became and COULD become if we aren’t constantly vigilant about the limits and abuses of power.”

“Sokkacorp is my patron and my great-parent. My family has served Sokkacorp for four generations since the Founding. Each generation has helped build Sokkacorp into what it is today. And in retirn under Sokkacorp my family has prospered. Sokkacorp is the ideal under which we live; to question it is to betray the very heart of our family and what we stand for.”

“Cleaning up the mess on Nagana would require the sudden and simultaneous deaths of a few thousand high-ranked corporate, political, and authoritarian officials, and a subsequent quick purge of the ranks down to street level. We’d then have to find enough honest Naganans to fill the vacant slots.”

“The galaxies weren’t colonized by bleeding hearts. Wars aren’t won with sappy sentiments. The universe bows only to those willing to make hard decisions and implement decisive strategies with clear objectives, by whatever means necessary.
And those willing to make such decisions and carry out those strategies should be able to reap tangible rewards for their superior perspective.”

Nagana is a human-settled world and former member of the Human Alliance. It is fairly advanced, prosperous, and civilized, with a strong techno-industrial ecoonomy.
Nagana’s problem is rampant corruption; especially in the corporate tech sectors. Nagana left the Human Alliance, in fact, to avoid interference with its tech businesses. Ironically, their stated purpose for leaving the Human Alliance was alledged corporate corruption and suspect practices(including the supposed use of the CCW’s TVIA by older established HA megacorps to stifle any smaller competition), but once free of the oversight of HA standards, Nagana’s corporate sector seems to have made up for bad business ethics on their own. Despite this(or perhaps BECAUSE of their cutthroat methods), Nagana has become an industrial powerhouse in their sector, and was ambitious to expand their business horizons further.
Nagana was on the verge of becoming a United Systems Alliance member, but recent events have put their application on indefinite hold for the forseeable future.

The Pleasutec Affair
Given public revelations of the Peoples’ Republic of Contoon’s abilityto produce Sensoids, the already well-known ability of PS/ASI to manufacture lifelike androids and sapient AIs, and the generally liberal views of the United Systems Alliance toward Artifical Intelligence, Pleasutec of Nagana thought the situation was ripe to expand their sales of their bioflex pleasure-units to galactic markets. Sales representatives made contact with a number of exclusive trade groups operating around the edges of USA space, and began to arrange sales.
Catching word of another android/AI manufacturer entering the market, albeit a very exclusive market, PS/ASI acquired several (through third parties) for study.Using non-invasive psychic and technowizardry methods to get around the ‘no-tampering’ and ‘no-servicing’ clauses of the usage contracts, PS/ASI engineers took a look under the units’ hoods, as it were.
They were apalled by what they discovered. The ‘Bioflex Pleasure Units’ were not manufactured hardware or cloned organics, but kidnapping victims subjected to partial cyborg conversion using biosystem implants to produce certain robot-like traits, cosmetic surgery(including tattooing false seam and joint lines), and electronically lootomized so as to appear to be well-programmed robots. Pleasutec was selling slave-borgs.
Pleasutec had gotten away with their scheme by dint of rampant corruption on Nagana that allowed the company to acquire their human materials through burying missing persons reports or crooked employment contracts that allowed people to effectively disappear. When ‘overfishing’ of the local population threatened on occasion exposing the company’s operations, they used their growing offworld contacts(which had prevously supplied them wth offworld technologies) to provide them with slaves as well.
Armed with an Immense-class freighter-load of warrants, the ITC came down hard on Nagana at the same time as USAMS agents, reinforced with detached AJC units, raided Pleasutec’s factory moon. The raid freed hundreds of captives being held for processing, and over a thousand pleasure units awaiting shipment. Protests that the USA had overstepped its jurisdiction in storming the Pleasutec factory on sovereign Nagana soil were met with charges that the Naganese government was assisting pirates.
As it currently stands, Nagana’s status as a prospective USA member is very much up in the air. It’s also been rumored that the USA’s ITC wanted to do a LOT more than just cleaning out Pleasutec, but that the CCW stepped in and reminded the USA that such would violate extraterritorial jurisdiction agreements. Other rumors whisper that elements in the CCW are protecting Nagana because of its usefulness in certain covert ops, including ‘sanitizing’ weapons shipments to the FWC and other gray conflict zones. Nagana also does a good amount of bsuiness selling cyberware to the Central Alliance, and the Naganan corporations count on the protection of a number of CA politicos and governors to keep that trade open. Thus, depsite the Naganan goverment’s assurances that those Pleasutec officers that escaped the ITC dragnet were/would be brought to justice, the USA ITC and USAMS don’t give them much credence, in the face of rumors that ‘retired’ Pleasutec officials have appeared in such places as the Paradise Federation worlds.

Nagana maintains a system defense militia commanded nominally by the federal government. Though equipped with advanced weaponry and a number of second-hand ships acquired from Naruni and the CCW surplus, this military is generally considered to be a lacklustre fighting force used as a last-resort dumping ground for those who can’t land a good position with one of the policorps. The militia is meant for dealing with threats to the entire system, but the real elite fighting forces are the corporate security mercenaries, considered roughly analogous to the USAJC’s Irregulars. The corpsecs are well-equipped and experienced from eventful duty(and, it’s rumored, plenty of grey/black ops in corporate espionage). Nagana is a favorite hiring source for ‘cyberninjas’ by less lawful elements in the Central Alliance and CCW.

Solar System (Ngota)
Number of Stars: 2
Types of Stars:
- Blue Dwarf(Ngota-A)
- Yellow Dwarf(Ngota-B)
Number of Planets: 7
- Terrestrial----(Heke) Tiny rocky body baked dry by Ngota’s binary stars. Aside from some automated solar weather observatories landed on the planetoid, there’s nothing much of interest on Heke.

- Terrestrial---(Ttomeh) Microscopic Ttomeh supports a small industrial habitat nestled behind a large sunshade that protects the colony from the worst of the Mgota binary’s radiations. Ttomeh-colony harvests high energy particles from the two suns and refines isotopes from them. Ttomeh’s recently acquired some competition from several free-orbiting spacestations that also harvest the solar wind, though they can only match Ttomeh’s quantity production by engaging in unsafe practices such as altering therihorbits to skim closer to the binary stars to havest richer concentrations of particles. This requires a fine balancing act of calculating fuel expedited in such maneuvaring versus what they can grab on the fast inbound parts of their orbits. This also carries the danger of greater radiation exposure to the stations’ crews, and it is the high incident of health dangers and turnover of station crews versus that of the sheltered Ttomeh complex. Nevertheless, Ttomeh’s competitors claim that they pose such a threat to Ttomeh’s near-monopoly that the latter has been engaging in covert sabotagem citing the recent and mysterious loss of the Kolsaki VII platform when its propulsion system failed at a critical moment and the station death-spiraled into Ngota-B with a loss of nearly all hands.

- Gas Giant----(Kusas) Microscopic gas giant trailing its companion Koya. There’s evidence that larger Koya may have stolen much of Kusas’ atmosphere through several near-catastrophic encounters in the past. Gas mining around Kusas is safer than around Koya, but the quality of the gases harvested is lower.

- Gas Giant----(Koya) Enormous gas giant. Its gravitational relationship with companion Kusas is sometimes used as a joking lesson in the Nagana businessworld, with the larger planet likened to a sensior business partner or rival opportunistically robbing its smaller neighbor and growing fat and wealthy in the process. That having been said, Koya is the site of several gas mining operations, though the thick band of trapped solar particles and radiation makes such work dangerous. Many of the gas workers have subcutaneous radiation shielding implants or are full conversion cyborgs.

- Terrestrial----(Nagana) System lifeworld

- Asteroid--(Tetsu)This dwarf planet was, for a time, the anchorage of the CRUSS Repilicant EROR, a ‘factory ship’ belonging to the Clones-R-Us franchise. Clones-R-Us cleared out of the system shortly before the Pleasutec Affair because, depending on who one asks, the biotech company was either selling clones of celebrities to Pleasutec, or because they REFUSED to sell celebrity clones to Pleasutec . In any event, they abandoned the system and haven’t been back since. The dock facility they left behind on Tetsu has since been taken over by a local shipping firm.

- Gas Giant----(Tvano) Huge gas giant on the edge of the Ngota system. The Naganan corporations aren’t desperate for materials enough yet to exploit Tvano or its eleven moons, but they had surveyed the planet in passing.

Planet (Nagana)
Type: Terrestrial
Diameter: 11,700 km
Gravity: 1.6 g
Temperature: Cool, with Alaska/Siberia-averages. Short hot summeers, short and viciously cold winters, and lomg cool springs and summers are typical of Nagana.
Unusual/Special Features:----
Atmosphere: Thin, but breathable, nitrox mix.
Terrain: Varied, but limited in scale by the small dry land acreage. Dry hot deserts are unknown on Nagana.
Notable Mineral Concentrations:
- Antimony
- Cobalt
- Amethyst
- Scheelite
- Barite
- Platinum
- Nickel
- Titanium
Hydrosphere:
Roughly 82% of Nagana’s surface is covered in open water. This has necessitated ‘floating cities’, artificiial reefs and atolls, and dome cities in some regions; these communites are particularly hardcore corporate neighborhoods.
Biosphere:
Sparse, and mostly marine. Imported species have been squeezing out the native lifeforms rapidly, and most xeno-ecologists predict that native Naganan lifeforms will be extinct within another two centuries at most.
Civilization:
Settled
Population:
4 billion; 61% Human, 21% Dwarves, 18% other
Technology:
Galactic, with an emphasis on cybertech.
Economy:
Commercial and High-Tech Manufacturing---Nagana prides itself on being a high-tech capital, but much of what it markets is disguised knockoffs of other peoples’ products, slickly repackaged in designer aesthetics. Among others, Naganan corporations have been knocking off PS/ASI designs, and Naruni designs(plasma cartridges and few small arms mainly, which hasn’t yet caught NE’s attention).
Agriculture is based around aquaculture, with fishfarms and seaweed harvesting providing most of the planet’s food.
Nagana is also home for a branch shipyard of Nosan Cirporation; many Naganan executives own higher-end/quality Nosan-built personal yachts.
Wealth:
Prosperous---The various legitimate and illegal businesses of Nagana have made it Wealthy, but a slew of legal problems have begun to erode the planet’s fiscal security. While money is still coming in, the corporate and governmental authorities have been talking up continued prosperity, and the citiizens continue to overspend, the corporate inhouse analysts are seeing a different picture. Rising costs, declining revenues as customers find new suppliers amidst a rising tide of legal actions paint a dismal picture for Nagana’s future, and some corporations have already been looking under the boards for new customers. Whether or not the same CCW agencies that warned off the USA will allow the CCW-based legal actions to go ahead, or whether they will offer the Naganans a bailout deal, in return for certain favors, when the economy begins to tank, remains to be seen.
Government:
Democracy, at least on paper, but the fact is government on Nagana is really run by the corporate sector buying votes and rigging elections. Federal service is regarded as a dumping ground for people who can’t hack the higher-powered performance quotas and office politics of corporate employment.
Law Level:
Authoritarian----Under the corporate sector plan, Naganan daily life is regimented and monitored. Despite the many weapons manufacturers on the planet,
citizens are not allowed to own or carry firearms(certain exceptions apply). Of course,
this also means that the system can be gamed by people in the right places with the right influence, and if one has the right connections, they can get away with a great deal of illegal activity that will be erased from the public record. The same stiff laws make it virtually impossible for outsiders to penetrate the layers of corporate security and secrecy to get justice unless they know who to bribe(and lavishly at that).
Popularity:
Fanatical---The average Naganan wage-earner is zealously loyal to their home corporation. Despite a tendency to overwork under incentive plans, people feel safe and cared for. This has also engendered something of a superiority complex in Naganan citizens, who feel themselves more cultured, educated, and overall advanced that almost all of the Fringe and even some of the metroworlds. They tend to explain away and excuse the less scrupulous practices of their corporate leadership as either others’ propaganda or as the price of doing business in a fiercely competitive universe.
Stability:
Stable---There’s just enough balance between corruption and productivity that, for now at least, the Naganan corporate culture seems stable.

And here I go, converting more of Kitsune’s work for the post-Reform CAF. There may be some fine tuning at some point.


I’m combining the Smasher and the Sniper into one hull for simplicity’s sake. There’s art, and I’m confident he used the M22 Jackson of the Aliens franchise as a base.

Consortium Armed Forces MBT-GT3 ‘Slammer’ Main Battle Grav-Tank
“The Slammer is everything we wanted out of a true next-gen MBT, and the size reduction makes all the difference. Modern systems make it way less of a pain to keep operational, and don’t even get me started on how much time we wasted fixing the damn lift fans. It's a bit sad there wasn’t the volume to fit VF-PBCs, but it's not a huge loss given the updated volley patterns the TGE is pushing. Other than that, the only nominal failing is the lack of active anti-detection defenses such as smoke and decoys, but you can order working sets from ASI if you think they’d be useful.”
----Colonel Philip Fredette, CAF

“The Slammer may currently be a 1-to-1 replacement of the Phalanx, but there’s a lot of people betting they’re going to push it up to 2-to-1. Even without stacking, you can fit a pair of Slammers in the same deck space a Phalanx would hog, and if you have a rack system you can fit 4 or more. Add in the fact that it both doesn’t need and is faster than the Assault Shuttle, you have a recipe for first wave landing forces being a lot larger and more effective than previous. The size difference also comes in handy on the ground, with the Slammer being ‘small’ enough to at least try to use cover and avoid detection. Only so much you can do on a fast moving grav-tank, but it's lightyears better than the old Dinosaur or even the Dark Slayer.“
----Sgt. Niirah Zaazh, 5th Armored Brigade, CAF

”The special armor is only in the front, but the CG drive is made to let you fly sideways at full ground speed. It takes a lot of practice to get right, but it's a massive advantage if you can get the hang of it. Similarly, it doesn’t matter what angle you make reentry in, and most crews do it upside down so that they have 2 PD turrets pointed at the ground rather than 1. I also know some guys that figured out how to use the auto-mortar as a screening method, but you need a bunch of them working together to be worth the effort. ”
----Sgt. Colin McGraw, 3rd Armored Brigade, CAF

The replacement for the long derided Phalanx, the Slammer is a pure CG vehicle, shedding over 100 tons of mass and more than 2/3rds the volume while increasing the overall protection and effective firepower. Overall crew count has been reduced to 3 thanks to automatic systems, and the switch to fully CG propulsion increases normal surface speed by 50%, which further increases to supersonic when flying. Just as importantly it is fully capable of both atmospheric reentry and exit, removing the need for a (slower) Assault Shuttle to bring it to the ground.

The primary weapon of the Slammer is a mighty GR-1000, featuring the boosted range of the Scorpion effect, and is supported by a new and more powerful HI-Laser Cannon. Close range ‘crunch strength’ is provided by a fixed forward medium ship grade Plasma Cannon, allowing it to quickly take out strong points or slow moving vehicles. Secondary weapons consist of twin detachable MRM pods, most often used for air defense, and a small auto mortar in the rear of the turret to suppress infantry. Defensive weapons consist of 3 Pulse Laser mini-turrets and 2 sets of side mount MMLs, tied to an improved automatic targeting computer to reduce crew burden.

The Slammer is also better protected than the Phalanx, even in its Phalanx II configuration. As the crew is fully enclosed in the main hull the turret can be smaller than normal, with the reduced durability being accepted for a greatly reduced profile. To compensate, the forward facings have been specially treated to be more effective against kinetic strikes (such as the TGE’s Kinetic Rocket Cages) and particle beams (and the TGE’s Pulse weapons). With the PD turrets taking care of missiles this only leaves lasers, which are countered by simply outranging them. The tank’s forcefield is a duplicate of the Black Eagle’s, whose discontinuation in favor of the more advanced Warbird means that there is a very large supply of spares.

Auxiliary systems are also extensive. The improved sensor suite of the Phalanx II has been carried over, although the Neutrino Detector has turned into an expanded optional attachment. The automated Combat Computer of the Phalanx II has been upgraded to be more discriminating and more accurate, further reducing friendly fire concerns and partially compensating for the reduced coverage area. The vehicle’s higher speed and off-axis thrust capability make it more capable of dodging focused anti-armor warheads, and the TGE has already added spacing protocols to reduce the effectiveness of VF-PBCs against missile volleys at stand off ranges. The final protective measure is the camouflage system, which greatly reduces the odds of being detected first.
And the related IFV, which there is also art of indeterminate origin

Consortium Armed Forces IFV-GV3 ‘Boxer’ Infantry Fighting Grav-Vehicle
”I’m proud of the work we put into the Boxer, even if it was essentially a side project to the Slammer. It's far more capable than the Maniple in every way other than raw troop count, and tactical shifts have made stuffing 36 straight leg infantry into a single vehicle a poor idea if you have a choice. Current doctrine is to put up to 18 CEPA in it for general use and to fill the rest of the space with whatever equipment is most useful for the expected theater conditions, with the full 36 or higher count capacity being for picking up strays that have lost their ride. It's also a better choice for VIP transport than anything nominally civilian.”
----Colonel Philip Fredette, CAF

“The attrition on the CAF’s Maniple inventory during the Minion War was ferosus due to the number of lesser raids that occurred everywhere. While ultimately pin pricks, cumulative damage resulted in almost half the pre-war fleet being written off for one reason or another. This gave room for a speculative full replacement, and the post-war budgets and reforms meant that it would be something better. The Boxer may be $20 mill more per unit, but the logistical benefits combined with the much greater survivability means that they’ll last much longer, which is enough to keep the bean counters happy.”
----Anonymous, CAF Logistics Command

”You have to keep the ‘rattled eggs’ problem in mind with the Boxer, which means that there are some limits for what maneuvering you can do when loaded. It doesn’t come with any Compensator setting macros by default, so you’ll have to add and practice them yourself. There are dummy passenger rigs floating around the logistics system, so I’d advise getting a full set of them when you break a new chassis in. You might not notice errors, but the troops in the back will, and they have the long arms, so best not to make them angry.”
----Sgt. Zebulon "The Zeb" McGee, 2nd Light Brigade, CAF Ground Forces

As with the Slammer, the Boxer is the intended replacement for the ancient Wolven holdover that had served the CAF for so long. In the name of logistical simplicity the Boxer shares many components with the Slammer, reducing long term costs and improving sustained readiness rates. The shift to fully CG propulsion allows it to make unassisted combat reentry, which is helped by the further increase in point defense capability. This also compensates for the greater physical dimensions, making the nominal decrees in Dropship capacity a null point.

Beyond ease of deployment, the most appreciated feature of the Boxer is the point defense systems, expanded from that of the Slammer. Beyond gaining an additional mini-turret, the system is now programmed by default to protect the area around the vehicle, providing cover to the attached infantry. This is often augmented by the IFV’s MMLs and SRMLs, although the crew usually keeps the latter on manual control. The primary offensive weapon is a 200mm Flechette Gun based on that of the Phalanx, which has utility beyond simple anti-infantry duty. The Auto-mortar of the Slammer has also been retained, although it is now mounted on a rotating base in the forward hull.

The biggest failing of the Boxer is the relative lack of physical durability, having only moderately more armor protection as the Maniple. This is easily compensated by the inclusion of a VFF, but is something that the crew needs to be aware of. If the vehicle is unable to use it’s mobility to limit incoming fire, it can also use the integrated camouflage systems to comprise the enemy’s aim, and the Boxer makes substantially more use of it than the Slammer.
Kitsune’s art is serviceable enough, assuming the head is customizable.

Consortium Armed Forces PA-14 ‘Stormer’ Infantry Support Power Armor
“The Stormer was a surprise to me, but it makes sense. If the CEPA is going to replace the normal grunt, then it needs a pig-man equivalent, and the Stormer provides. It's more fragile than the Pounder, but unless you're in the direct assault the reduced size is going to come into play much more often. You’ll need to look out for the shoulder mounts catching on things, but that’s normal unless you come from using cleaner suits. It's not a Pounder replacement, but it's going to push it from roles that it’s not well suited for.”
----Colonel Philip Fredette, CAF

“Assuming you don’t need deniability, the Stormer is way handier than the Pounder in Spec-Ops. If you can do the prep work, spare mounts can be stashed to give you a source of replacements, and it only takes a minute or two to swap them out. The armorers have whipped up attachment rigs for the more common/practical heavy weapons if you need a specific damage pattern, and the power blade gets used a lot when we do room clearing. The only downside is the fact that it's so new that spares can be hard to come by at times and maintenance procedures are still being ironed out, but those just need time.”
----General Vlar Reltish, CAF Ground Forces

“PSA-11 comparison jokes aside, the Stormer is an opportunity for us to score some more field sales with the CAF. Grapevine says there’s compatibility patches for most of the simpler mounts already, so there has to be interest in the more complex ones. Particularly if they can get them on a budget.”
----Internal ASI Marketing Memo

The Stormer was developed as a lighter alternative to the Ground Pounder, primarily intended to provide heavy weapon support to squads of CEPA-equiped troops. At less than half the base mass, the Stormer is significantly smaller than the Ground Pounder in its clean state. While only moderately armed by default, it can be equipped with a range of shoulder and backpack mounted systems, granting a large amount of versatility. Beyond weaponry, the armor can be equipped with a moderately powerful CG flight pack for enhanced maneuverability and a powerful shoulder mounted reconnaissance array.
Use Kitsune’s art with a more CAF looking helmet.

Consortium Armed Forces PAH-16 'Phoenix’ Super-Heavy Power Armor
(aka ‘Caffie Glitter’, ‘Consortium Guardsman’)

“The USA’s showing at the Battle of Center made it clear there was room for a super-combatant PA, particularly one that can go toe to toe with most Greater Demons or equivalents, such as Royal Kreegor. The Phoenix is clearly inspired by the Minuteman, although the internals are all CCW sourced. I heard the ASI had a hand in starting the development process for the armor material, but it amounted to a brief description of something they tried from the big shot pilot incharge of the AJC detachment. Clark or something like that. Haven’t met him, but the recording I’ve seen pin him as one of those bittervets with BS levels of talent and experience. The Protheans were familiar with him, and that says things.”
----Colonel Philip Fredette, CAF

“The Phoenix is the best conventional ground PA that can currently be produced without going into exotic territory, which includes things like out-dimension materials or techno-magic. Command is still working out how to use the things, but they’re currently deploying them as crisis responders. The pilots chosen are the best of the best, and have started acting like ground bound Cosmo-Knights. There are far more problematic mindsets to have, and as long as they’re willing to go toe to toe with the same sorts of foes they’ll be tolerated. Being semi-experimental, they have the discretionary budget to burn, so all of them with any serious use have been modified one way or another. It's actually unsurprising how many have gained TW mods.”
----General Vlar Reltish, CAF Ground Forces

“The CCW figured out how to make the next-gen Moly-Chrome, so all KLS needed was a tech base half a millennium more advanced. It's actually understandable that they cut back on systems, being forced to use ‘normal’ fusion rather than the Lucerin-boosted hot rods we can get away with. They’d need to use Antimatter to get the same density, and that’s an instant no-go given their cultural standards. As it is, they only had to downgrade the forcefield and off-shoulder mount, but the lack of PD pauldrons is the biggest loss. With any luck they’ll develop a useful weapon to fill the niche, but it's going to take a while for the fading anti-AI bais to fully trickle down to the soldier level.”
----Colonel Wilson Clarke, NEMA (Seconded to the AJC)

An unapologetic clone of the Paladin Steel Minuteman, the Phoenix is based solely on Consortium technology, although drawing heavily from the original USA-G10 Chromium Guardsmen. A purely conventional design, the Phoenix has some notable downgrades from the Minuteman, but this is accepted as a general trade off. Naturally, it is quite expensive for a Power Armor, but it fills an important niche and is not truly prohibitive to produce. At present, the CAF aims to have a company attached to every PA battalion.

Proper air defense weapons range on the Slammer; makes CAS and SSM attacks that much harder, especially if you got over the horizon warning(like from a hovering drone platform or orbital).

Have any of you bastards ever run your campaign from a city in space?
Or a city floating over the ocean? Or a gas giant? Or an artificial planet?

Shorty Lickens wrote:Have any of you bastards ever run your campaign from a city in space?
Or a city floating over the ocean? Or a gas giant? Or an artificial planet?

Ah, a large space3 station, aerostat, or float platform(like Tritionia)?
I've designed them, and collected a few from speculative engineering books, but the only atmosphere floater I ever played on was a Star Wars campaign, and we were more engaged in shooting our way out than taking in the sights.
Word to the wise; don't drop armed thernal detonators in a helium-hydrogen atmosphere. Seriously, don't. While sustained fusion was not achieved, it didn't change the fact that we barbecued an entire planetary atmosphere with a device smaller than an Alpha-Omega bomb.

i've considered doing a robotech game where the player's home base is a mobile city of sorts.. a zentreadi landing ship converted to human scale crew and given an interior city ala the SDF-1. so whenever they aren't assigned onto a smaller ship from said city-ship's escort fleet for some mission, they'd be on said ship and could encounter stuff there.

glitterboy2098 wrote:i've considered doing a robotech game where the player's home base is a mobile city of sorts.. a zentreadi landing ship converted to human scale crew and given an interior city ala the SDF-1. so whenever they aren't assigned onto a smaller ship from said city-ship's escort fleet for some mission, they'd be on said ship and could encounter stuff there.

Macross II deck plans is a good place to start...they mention some of the decks of the UN Spacy landing ships having parks and malls for the micronian crewmembers.

Valshaun (Anvil Galaxy)

“I don’t have anything to contribute genetically to the future of my world, thanks to my curdled DNA, and with my bionics, I may live centuries. And hanging around the old homestead is proving just too difficult; too many harsh memories. So I may as well ship out and serve with either the Cyberhawks or the Usans, and send my pay home to help in the reconstruction... And who knows, I may find something out there, a cure maybe, or something else, that will change my outlook. In the meantime, howevver, I’ll keep busy, hopefully too busy to think about what my people lost.”
---- Captain Velshoi Tomak, former Valshaunian United Nations

Valshaun is a Human-settled world on the edges of Central Alliance space. The planet is considered a classic example of the perils of exogenesis medicine wrongly applied.
Valshaun was on the edge of the Central Alliance’s economic blight zone, far enough from the thick of the chaos in the region that it wasn’t sucked into regional disputes or tainted by association, but close enough to be in touch with the happenings in what would become the Central Alliance. Valshaun was also close enough to the outside that they benefitted from trade around Central Alliance space. With the stability brought on by General Noldek and the Central Alliance becoming increasingly a military and economic engine to be reckoned with as a peer, Valshaun seemed poised to benefit from redrawn trade routes INTO Central Alliance space.
The problems began when the Valshaunians acquired the technology of artificial wombs able to gestate new human lives outside natural biological processes. Though initially seen as a boon to curing infertility problems and making growing the population easier on the workforce, the technology was soon abused. This quickly led to two factions favoring genetic engineering of superior human beings in monogender cultures. However, instead of the two factions splitting from the mainstream Valshaunian culture to pursue their own social experiments in peace, each monogender group felt that their ‘perfect human societies’ could only exist in the absence of the other, which they set out to eliminate from Valshaun. In what a visiting Tane diplomat would later compare to her own people’s Change Wars in miniature, each faction seized control of enough territory and resources to attempt to make good on their schemes; armies of male and female clones marched against each other in a global war of the sexes. WMDs, especially biochemical weapons, were used prolifically, and while the casualty numbers of each respective faction were horrible, the death toll of the unaffiliated ‘naturals’ caught in the crossfire was simply hideous. Efforts of the baseline culture to stem the factional violence resulted in the ‘old order’ being targeted by both sides. The final nail, however, was the use of chromosome-targeting bioweapons that specifically targeted victims by gender.
By this time, though, word of the looming Valshaunian apocalypse had reached outside ears. The Central Alliance sent a Cyberhawk force, augmented by United Systems Alliance units close to the region. Upon arrival, the CA force did not challenge any would-be champions to duel for leadership, but used their high ground advantage to raze any factional ground forces they could spot, and threatened to do the same with the factions’ leadership who didn’t surrender to Alliance justice. When the fem- and male-factions refused to immediately comply, their leaderships mysteriously died in their secret holdouts, and not by suicide. The survivors immediately surrendered; curiously nobody wanted to martyr-deify their late leaders, given the circumstances of their demises(The Cyberhawks would refuse to publicly disclose the details of what they found in the faction bunkers, but increased communications between the Cyberhawks and the Usan force in orbit before and afterwards suggest to some conspiracists a connection).
Nearly sixty percent of the prewar Valshaunian global population had been killed in the fighting, most belonging to the neutral baselines, and almost all due to biological warfare. The survivors , many who were genetically damaged or sterile, faced rebuilding a shattered culture on a planet with a war-damaged ecology. Ironically, those who had advocated sticking to the old and natural way of reproduction, now had to resort to the same technology that had almost destroyed them, and clone new citizens to prevent their society from collapsing for lack of a future. Others required extensive cyberization, thanks to genetic damage preventing regenerative medicine from taking hold. While some feared that the reestablishment of exogenesis machine-womb facilities might lead to a revival of the Monogender Wars, the hovering presence of Cyberhawk and USAJC peacekeepers made it clear that any remaining unrepentant factionalists hoping to make a comeback would be sadly mistaken.
Currently, Valshaun is a shatterworld in recovery. With assistance from both the Central and United Systems Alliances, the survivors are slowly pulling their society back together. A few Valshaunians have sought to pay back their rescuers by volunteering to serve with the two outworld governments. Valshaun continues, though, to be a world under Level Three Quarantine, in that casual travel is prohibited to and from the planet, and travelers must undergo extensive decontaminatiion and provide proof of being infection-free before being allowed offworld. A good many Valshaunians who go offworld don’t bother returning to the planet, instead settling on one of the offworld colonies or immigrating to other star systems. While this offworld immigration doesn’t yet threaten a ‘brain drain’ of consequence for the homeworld government, it is watched with concern.

Solar System(Sizack)
Number of Stars: 1
Types of Stars:
-Red Dwarf
Number of Planets: 9
-Gas Giant (Petil)---Miniscule Petil is being steadily eroded away by Sizack’s solar wind.

-Gas Giant (Voyna)---A tiny gas giant suffering the same solar erosion as Petil

-Terrestrial (Valshaun)---System lifeworld

-Terrestrial (Evist)---Tiny rocky body with a dense nitrogen atmosphere. Its moon, Tenyec, was the site of a space colony outpost that was largely self-sustaining. When the Monogender Wars broke out on Valshaun, the administration of Tenyec Colony closed up and refused to break quarantine of the homeworld. For a time it looked as if the colony would weather the crisis(and might be the only viable refuge) but for a bioweapon smuggled aboard that wiped out all 7,000 inhabitants. Post-War the Cyberhawks have sealed off the Tenyec Colony, while the Valshaunian government debates whether they should try decontaminating and reclaiming the station, or ask the Cyberhawks to incinerate it.

-Asteroid(Tauser)--- Surprisingly, an experimental mining outpost established on Tauser was spared the fate of Tenyec Colony; the 800 miners and their support crew were able to hole up, and using emergency biostasis systems, extend their supplies. Overlooked during the Monogender Wars, they would be discovered and reawakened by the incoming peacekeeper forces. As a whole, the miners have elected to stay with the outpost and turn it into a proper colony with outworlder asistance, while continuing to send ore shipments and fuel isotopes to help with their homeworld’s reconstruction.

-Gas Giant (Keran)---Another undersized/tiny gas giant. With very little in the way of collected orbiting bodies(the largest is only 3 miles long), there’s not much to interest the casual visitor to Keran, though if trade starts up again through the Sizack system, Keran would be a good choice for a gas-mining site, given its relative low gravity and ease of operations around it. There has been some discussion of possibly modifying Tauser’s orbit to make it a moon of Keran, but such long raneg plans are currently on hold until the situation in the Sizack system stabilizes.

-Gas Giant (Volteen)--- The true giant of the Sizack system, enormous Volteen sports a massive system of rocky rings of captured material. Volteen has yet to be fully surveyed and exploited.

-Terrestrial (Dolmes)---This virtually microscopic worldlet is notable for the massive almost crystal-clear monoliths of water-ice that jut up thousands of feet over 30% of its icy surface. Nobody is quite certain about the hydrological mechanics that have made these features possible(and artificial origins are not off the table), but just about everybody concedes that they are wonders to behold. It’s been proposed that if the Sizack system were opened to even limited tourism, Dolmes would be at the top of the list of sites to visit.

-Asteroid(Sededa)---Sededa is leased from the Valshaun government as a Galactic FTL radio relay. Though the small manned outpost was considered a corporate punishment detail by those assigned there, the Sededan station personnel had the unfortunate and nail-biting experience of being in effect ringside witnesses to the disaster of the Monogender Wars unfolding just a light hour away. It was Sededa Station that got first word out to the rest of the Anvil Galaxy about the disasters unfolding on Valshaun, after putting themselves in quarantine lock-down to prevent any chance fo infection spreading to the station or from it(this turned out to be unnecessary, as the station’s outside operators did very little resupply from the Sizack system itself) . For their efforts, the crew manning the comm-station during that trying time were generously rewarded (by order of the Central Alliance) and given better assignments elsewhere.

Planet(Valshaun)
Type:-Terrestrial
Diameter: 15,000 km
Gravity: 1.6 g
Temperature: Temperate, but on the cool side
Unusual/Special Features:
-Craters---Valshaun shows evidence of past meteor bombardments in its pockmarked surface
Atmosphere: Breathable terrestrial nitrox mix.
Terrain: Hostile: Valshaun’s crater-pocked surface makes for rugged going, and even after millenia of weathering, not all the debris fields have settled.
Notable Mineral Concentrations:
- Mercury
- Cobalt
- Gold/Silver
- Scheelite
- Graphite
- Thorium
- Ruby
- Sulfur
Hydrosphere: Balanced; roughly 46% of the planet’s surface is covered in open water.
Biosphere: Moderate, with a range of species roughly analogous to Earth’s period.
Civilization:
Settled
Population:
4 billion Humans. 20% of these are clones born of exogenesis technology.
Technology:
High Interstellar w/ some Galactic technologies
Economy:
Was Commercial Services, facilitating trade and communications for the sector, but that has fallen apart.
Wealth:
Was poised to become a major services hub for the Central Alliance’s expansion, with optimistic predictions of revenues in the Rich(and even Super-Rich) category, but has fallen instead to Poor; the Monogender War and its aftermath has beat the stuffing out of the infrastructure and spirit of Valshaun.
Government:
Monarchy---The largest surviving intact nation of Valshaun was the monarchistic nation of Tillwillo. Though pre-war, the Tillwillans were considered a bunch of old-fashioned eccentrics paying homage to an obsolete system of government(and even the Royal Family figured they were just marking time as figureheads until the people eventually deposed them), the Tillwillans have emerged as the head of the reconstruction. Part of this seems to stem from a genetic disorder inherent in the Tillwillan dynasty bloodlines that rendered them more resistant to the war plagues. As the Tillwillan Royal Family had a history of sowing their wild oats in a number of scandals, and paying off their bastards with good educations and minor posts in government, this meant that a good chunk of the Tillwillan government survived what annihilated other nations. The Tillwillans were thus better organized than many to head up reconstruction efforts. More and more, Valshaunians look to the King and Queen of Tillwillo, and their many offspring and titled blood relations, as THE central government on the planet.
Law Level:
Authoritarian---Many regions of Valshaun remain under martial law as not everybody is sure that all the weapons of the Monogender Wars have been foudn and deposed of, or that there aren’t still extremists waiting to strike again.
Popularity:
Popular----The surviving Valshaunians are grateful that there’s SOMEBODY in charge and actively working to make things better.
Stability:
Stable---As long as conditions continue to improve, or at least not deteriorate any more than they already have, the government and the global situation are on an even keel for the foreseeable future.

glitterboy2098 wrote:i've considered doing a robotech game where the player's home base is a mobile city of sorts.. a zentreadi landing ship converted to human scale crew and given an interior city ala the SDF-1. so whenever they aren't assigned onto a smaller ship from said city-ship's escort fleet for some mission, they'd be on said ship and could encounter stuff there.

That was partly the premise in a Robotech game i made, set in a slightly divergent line of the events after the "rain of fire" over Earth and the survivors have to deal with decidedly Mad Max-esque resulting enviroment among other complications in process of just getting by and maybe forming a new kind of society.

In the case the story centered around a considerably damaged but still operational zentraedi ship that ends up becoming a sort of "Fort Apache in the Wasteland" for the community of human soldiers & civilians rescued trying to live along with the eccentric crew of "protoculture addicts" of both genders that maintain it.

Unfortunately had to interrupt it due to time constraints - and the pandemic - but it turned out quite engaging as we both exploited and veered wildly from either Robotech, or Macross for that matter, chronologies in the process. Fun times and possibly far too many Captain America memes or karaoke jokes through the "Geektraedi" crew.

taalismn wrote:Valshaun (Anvil Galaxy)

The problems began when the Valshaunians acquired the technology of artificial wombs able to gestate new human lives outside natural biological processes. Though initially seen as a boon to curing infertility problems and making growing the population easier on the workforce, the technology was soon abused. This quickly led to two factions favoring genetic engineering of superior human beings in monogender cultures. However, instead of the two factions splitting from the mainstream Valshaunian culture to pursue their own social experiments in peace, each monogender group felt that their ‘perfect human societies’ could only exist in the absence of the other, which they set out to eliminate from Valshaun. In what a visiting Tane diplomat would later compare to her own people’s Change Wars in miniature, each faction seized control of enough territory and resources to attempt to make good on their schemes; armies of male and female clones marched against each other in a global war of the sexes. WMDs, especially biochemical weapons, were used prolifically, and while the casualty numbers of each respective faction were horrible, the death toll of the unaffiliated ‘naturals’ caught in the crossfire was simply hideous. Efforts of the baseline culture to stem the factional violence resulted in the ‘old order’ being targeted by both sides. The final nail, however, was the use of chromosome-targeting bioweapons that specifically targeted victims by gender.

That kind of reminds me of Macross: Do You Remember Love, the movie adaptation of the original Macross series, where the it becomes an alien gender civil war of sorts with humanity in the crossfire, instead of the gender-segregated but mostly united army of the original tv series, for reasons. Though i suspect 80s japanese pop idol music might be a kind of war crime even the Central Alliance might blanche at resorting to.

taalismn wrote:Valshaun (Anvil Galaxy)
The final nail, however, was the use of chromosome-targeting bioweapons that specifically targeted victims by gender.

I must admit to this part confusing...logically any such weapon would *only* attack males, since to release an "X" hunter would be to kill both genders.
Would make more sense for it to be nanos, but; programmed to attack specific genetic snippets unique to the intended clone line.

Mind, the difficult part would be programming a robust enough nano to turn itself off after a certain duration / # of actions/replications RELIABLY! (Otherwise you end-up with a "grey goo" situation.)

Outside that, nice back story!

Borast wrote:

taalismn wrote:Valshaun (Anvil Galaxy)
The final nail, however, was the use of chromosome-targeting bioweapons that specifically targeted victims by gender.

I must admit to this part confusing...logically any such weapon would *only* attack males, since to release an "X" hunter would be to kill both genders.
Would make more sense for it to be nanos, but; programmed to attack specific genetic snippets unique to the intended clone line.

Mind, the difficult part would be programming a robust enough nano to turn itself off after a certain duration / # of actions/replications RELIABLY! (Otherwise you end-up with a "grey goo" situation.)

Outside that, nice back story!

Gah, you're right! MY bad...bad science, I mean.
And if/as nanos were used, it would be held up was another reason why nanotech should be more closely watched in the Three Galaxies, given the opportunities for abuse. And why there are so many betting pools on when the T'Zee homeward is going to disintegrate into grey dust.....

Susoda---United Systems Alliance Colony System (Anvil Galaxy)
“Aside from dust and rock, there’s not much of interest in Susoda; it was a place everybody passed by on their way to marginally more interesting systems like Ambercirn. Then the geeners appeared on Amberjin and started their shipworks, and somebody began noticing that a lot of their traffic was coming from and going in the direction of Susoda. Well, by the time anybody decided to go and take a second look, the United Systems Alliance was a thing, and their ships started appearing and asking pointed questions of anybody approaching Susoda, and that was that; the door was closed. Oh, everybody now knows the geeners got a wormhole there and they’re limiting access, but that’s okay with most folks around here, as long as they keep sharing the wealth around the sector.”

Susoda is a desert system that would be/was of little interest to anybody else in the Three Galaxies until Greater New England of Rifts Earth discovered a dimensional anomaly openable from the other side(Milky Way) that is cosmically a hop and a skip from Rifts Earth, giving them easy access to the Three Galaxies. With the discovery of the first of several alternate routes to the Three Galaxies that DIDN’T go through Phase World’s Center, PS could expand into Aegis Stellar Industries, and they established a ‘foothold’ industrial colony in the Ambercirn system, eight light years away.
Though initially PS/ASI took some pains to conceal their use of the Susoda system so as not to tip others off about their extradimensional origins, the growth of PS/ASI and the subsequent rise of the United Systems Alliance has increasingly rendered such need for secrecy moot, especially as increased traffic between the Amberjin shipyards and Susoda became evident. As the USA’s clout increased, PS/ASI quietly filed claim to the Susoda system(along with several other desert or ‘resource’ systems) with the appropriate organizations, and has begun more overtly developing the star system.
Though the Susoda system contains no habitable planets, PS/ASI has acquired enough experience with freespace ‘Belting’ that it’s been able to attract Belter colonists to colonize the handful of rocky bodies in the system.
Though Amberjin has fallen off in importance as a PS/ASI-USA industrial site(the shipyards of Kai’Shem and the Rebliss are far larger), the corporation has no intention of abandoning the colony(as others have in the past) and the Amberjin spaceyards continue to pump out starships(mainly civilian transports) that sell well. The development of Susoda emphasizes that continued investment in Amberjin, providing protection and market support.
Because of PS/ASI/GNE’s position in the United Systems Alliance, the Susado system has seen a necessary amount of militarization; besides a garrison flotilla of guardships, facilities for servicing and supplying larger force formations have been constructed in the system. This is partially in anticipation of, if the GNE’s explorations of their own celestial backyard were to turn up a threat to their home system Sol, Susado becoming an important conduit system for the movement of reinforcements from the Three Galaxies to Earth, or the evacuation of people and other assets from Earth to the relative safety of the Three Galaxies. Exact details of the system’s defenses remain classified, but the Susa-Dee naval station maintains a permanently assigned cruiser squadron, and the Susado-Teljing Fold Station has been seen mounting rapid-deployment racks for dozens, if not hundreds, of battlering weapons platforms that could form the equivalent of a minefield around the Fold. Other defense assets are likely.

Solar System
Number of Stars: 1
Types of Stars: Red Dwarf
Number of Planets: 7
-Asteroid/Dwarf Planet(Susa-Uon)-- At 180 miles in diameter, Susa-Uon isn’t much as terrestrial bodies go, but it lies close enough to Susoda that the red dwarf’s meager solar output is worth tapping. Thus, the sunward side of Susa-Uon is covered in vast swathes of solar collection film and sun-traps. However, the planetoid is also close enough to the star that solar flares present a real danger, so the 12,000-strong settlement on Susa-Uon, Dovchek, is underground and protected by extensive shielding. The colony is dependent on water and volatile shipments from the outer planets, but in return its tank farms and agro-silos produce a variety of naturally-grown foodstuffs that get sent to the outer worlds.

-Dimensional Anomaly---The Susado-Teljing Dimensional Fold is a ‘weakness’ or ‘fray’ in the fabric of space/time that, with a little techno-magical cajoling, allows rift access to the Milky Way galaxy of Rifts Earth, through a point in the Bernard’s Star system. An accretion disk of attracted dust and debris gives the anomaly the appearance of a dwarf planet on long range sensors, and for many years, ships of the Three Galaxies mistook the object as exactly that; a dwarf planetoid in the process of breaking up. It was only when the dust cloud opened up from the inside and ships(the ex-Gorang Iron Island Paychuk’s Revenge/VFSS Edward Salamanca was the first) began emerging from a dimensional gateway that the truth was discovered. This transformed the desert system into an important travel nexus for the nascent interstellar/interdimensional GNE and later for the United Systems Alliance.
The USA has since moved an Asteroid Cruiser that has become a semi-permanent station in the vicinity of the Fold. The AC has been ingathering other asteroids and linking them into a larger space station monitoring and guarding the Fold. Already being refered to as Keyhole Station, the facility is expected to be heavily fortified against hostile forces assaulting the Fold from either side.

-Gas Giant (Susa-Cee/Three) -----Enormous gas giant and site of several gas mining operations supported by several colonies(totalling 11,000 residents) on the gas giant’s moons. Its ice-rings are harvested for water, most of which goes down the gravity well to feed Susa-Uon’s cavern farms.

-Gas Giant (Susa-Dee/Four)---Enormous gas giant. Susa-Dee’s moons play host to an expanding USAJC naval yard with the capacity to handle capital warships and heavy transports. Gas mining off the upper reaches of Susa-Dee’s atmosphere provide fuel and atmo-supplies for Fleet units.

-Terrestrial (Susa-Eee/Five)--Large rocky world. Susa-Eee’s high(1.4 g) gravity is something of an impediment for easy colonization, but within tolerance for gravity insulators. A lack of abundant water on the other hand is a more pressing issue. However, more recent and indepth surveys have found indications of substantial deposits of Colal Crystals( Rifter #0-1), making at least mining operations a viable proposition for future exploitation of the planet.

-Gas Giant (Susa-Eff/Six) ---Small gas giant with only a few very small moons and not much else to interest the casual traveller.

-Terrestrial ( Susa-Gee/Seven) --Large icy planet on the edges of the system. Aside from several scientific and deep space scan platforms placed in orbit of it, there’s not much to see out on Susa-Gee.

taalismn wrote:Susoda---United Systems Alliance Colony System (Anvil Galaxy)
“Aside from dust and rock, there’s not much of interest in Susoda; it was a place everybody passed by on their way to marginally more interesting systems like Ambercirn. Then the geeners appeared on Amberjin and started their shipworks, and somebody began noticing that a lot of their traffic was coming from and going in the direction of Susoda. Well, by the time anybody decided to go and take a second look, the United Systems Alliance was a thing, and their ships started appearing and asking pointed questions of anybody approaching Susoda, and that was that; the door was closed. Oh, everybody now knows the geeners got a wormhole there and they’re limiting access, but that’s okay with most folks around here, as long as they keep sharing the wealth around the sector.”

Nice to finally get a glimpse of the elusive Susoda system that would serve as ASI's foothold in the region since it's first mention (wow, almost 12 years ago) in the initial blurb on the Ambercyrn system.

SolCannibal wrote:[

Nice to finally get a glimpse of the elusive Susoda system that would serve as ASI's foothold in the region since it's first mention (wow, almost 12 years ago) in the initial blurb on the Ambercyrn system.

Yep, it's nice to, instead of creating new systems whole cloth when one needs a new location or filler, be able to instead pull up an already mentioned place and flesh it out.

Galaxies, even THREE Galaxies, are BIG, but they're not INFINITE. Most of the solar systems are likely lifeless and interesting only to the astronomer...so this makes use of one...

Garren IV---(United Systems Alliance Intervention Zone)
(aka ‘Greengare’, ‘Greenpitt’)

“Garren IV’s dangerous enough if you’re not paying attention, but apparently the locals had enough free time that they started killing each other. I hate domestic disputes like that; they always get messy. Fortunately, they were down low enough on the tech-tree that what they had could hardly scratch what we had, the Contoonese were bright enough not to trade more advanced weapony to them, and neither did anybody else in the area. That just left the problem of finding the feudists in their jungle and driving home the point that their bloody little brush war wasn’t going to be tolerated. We spent far more time trudging or skimming through the vegetation than actually shooting at anybody, praise be the Powers.”

“The Contoonese may be amphibious frogfolk, but they sure did their research on the human form when they were making their Sensoids, ‘cause I couldn’t find a single anatomical flaw in the one assigned me...and believe me, between Roral’s lack of modesty and my exhaustive scouting efforts, there wasn’t any terrain on his body that went unexplored.”
-Sargeant Alyce Brandeswen, Able Company, Third Battalion, 19th Division, United Systems Alliance Joint Command Regular Army, Garren IV Pacification Taskforce.

“The peacekeeping mission on Garren IV coulda been a meatgrinder; jungle worlds are seldom easy battlezones, what with hostile terrain, hostile ecosystems, hostile locals, and high tech weapons. Garren IV in particular; the landscape’s a maze, the locals had the homefield advantage, and some of them had offworld weapons, including Naruni junk they’d traded for. By all lights, the usa should have demurred on going in, because it was a domestic dispute the locals had to handle themselves, but we went in. Thing is, a lot of usan troops come from hellworlds that make Garren IV look like a petting zoo, and we had some tricks that could see through forest like clear water. The Garrenite clans might have thought they were hot shyt in their forest haunts, but many of our lads have been bounced by the Nightmares on Moyanon, and know how to handle jungle claustrophobia just fine.”

A jungle planet (actually a large moon of a gas giant) with problems: the USAJC was invited in to perform peacekeeping duties to keep the two most prominent local factions from killing each other. Garren IV was colonized by humans who settled into the rich ecosystem to create themselves an agrarian society with enough industry to meet the challenges of jungle life. For several centuries they did just that, working hard and enjoying the fruits of their labors, and having enough surplus to occasionally trade with offworlders, selling unique local delicacies for a few offworld luxuries, information from the rest of the Three Galaxies, and a few vitals that they couldn’t produce on their own, like specific medicines and horsehair(while horses do not fare well on Barren IV, it was discovered that horsehair is a very effective repellent to the vicious Garrenite bloodmite).
The trouble began through a combination of arguments over the control of offworld trade and a growing Hatfield-McCoy-style bloodfeud between several large clans of the jungle. These feuds quickly spread along tribal lines like a brushfire until much of the planet was involved. Even if parties were neutral, many tribes took to forting up and havig to defend themselves against wandering warbands.
Alarmed by the growing violence on formerly peaceful Garren IV, and the threatened loss of trade, several offworld groups with business interests in Garren IV asked the United Systems Alliance to intervene, hoping that their reputation for (inspired) mediation and judicious use of firepower could settle matters on the troubled worldlet.
Interestingly, the People’s Republic of Contoon had major trade relations with the Garrens, who are humans(proving that the Contoonese/Lo-Ting War was more a matter of politics or national rivalry, not species bigotry). Though unable to substantially support their trade partners on Garren IV, the Contoonese DID supply the USAJC peacekeepers wth humanoid Sensoid androids as both laborers and entertainment(that in itself proved an eye-opener with regards to revealing much about Contoonese biotech capabilities). Despite some messy skirmishes, the well-trained and better-armed offworld USAn peaceforce beat expectations and quickly imposed a pax-usa on the major regions of the planet. Normal commerce is beginning to return and offworld trade resuming.
Garren IV’s future is up in the air; there’s currently no central government on the planet to decide against or for formal alliance with any larger offworld polity, and nobody offworld, aside from the USA, wants to take over handling the situation as it stands. Most observers predict that Garren IV will likely become a USA protectorate until a unified local government emerges to formally apply for membership or asks the USAns to leave.


Solar System(Senafin)
The Senafin system is arguably a binary star, with an orange dwarf sun and a massive gas giant/failed protostar that possesses its own solar system of large moons; Garvec borders on being a brown dwarf.
Number of Stars: 1
Types of Stars:
-Orange Dwarf
Number of Planets: 1
-Gas Giant(Garvec)---- Garvec is a massive gas giant and failed protostar. It actually radiates enough heat energy that its moons receive enough heat even during their time in the gas giant’s shadow that temperatures remain warm. Garvec possesses fourteen moons, of which five are arguably planet-sized:
-Garren I---- Airless and rocky, this small worldlet receives enough heat from Garvec to be cooked on one side, and only slightly cooler on the side facing away from the gas giant.

-Garren I I---- Covered in an exotic atmosphere, Earth-sized Garren II sometimes glows in bright shifting patterns when solar wind strikes the moon. The same atmospheric effects make landings and surface travel nearly impossible, due to ‘glow-outs’ that blind organic senses and badly interfere with technological sensors. A few sophonts who have landed and experienced being caught in these ‘light storms’ claim the experience to be inspiring(and some claim to have communicated with ‘light ghosts’, though scans have failed to turn up any proof of local local lifeforms, physical or energy), while medical researchers are more concerned with the long term effects of sensory deprivation and incidents of permanent blindness caused by the storms. Landing on Garren I I is restricted to a single privately-funded research station and tourists are currently discouraged.

-Garren I I I---- Tiny Garren III shows signs of having skimmed its unusual atmosphere from Garren II, as it exhibits the same gas mix, albeit at a lower concentration. Roughly half of Garren III is covered in water, with polar ice caps. Old dense ice from Garren III is prized because it has trapped some of the atmosphere in its water crystals and glows when subjected to certain energy frequencies(the Altess and others have begun buying lamps made of cryostabilized GarrenThree ice). It is rumored, however, that an enterprising outworlder entrepreneur has figured a way to duplicate the effect freezing ‘new ice’, prompting the development of authentication techniques to determine the true age of suspect GarrenThree glow-ice.

-Garren IV---- Jungle moon, and the focus of activity in the system. Garren IV has several small spacestations(mainly weather and communications platforms) in orbit, including the recently established PaxPlatform Alpha, which serves as an orbital asset for the peacekeeper efforts.

-Garren V----Thorium-rich Garren V almost started a war in itself, this time between offworld mining interests. Part of the peacekeeping tasks of the USA is to negotiate a suitable plan for the exploitation of Garren V.

Planet(Garren IV)
Type: Terrestrial
Diameter: 9,000 km
Gravity: 0.9 g
Temperature: Tropical, temperatures ranging between 65-100 degrees F. And then there’s the humidity to contend with.
Unusual/Special Features:
-Rings---Amazingly, Garren IVpossesses a thin set of rings of its own, though these aren’t expected to last more than another few centuries as various gravitational influences pull them apart.
-Craters---Numerous craters pockmark the surface of Garren IV. The many smaller ones are concealed under the thick jungle canopy, but make for treacherous surface travel by creating small deep ponds and depressions. The larger ones have razor-sharp rocky rims that protrude through the leafy overhead, and make for natural fortifications,
-’Magnetic Wells’---Rather than have regular magnetic poles, Garren IV possesses a number of apparently randomly scattered ‘magnetic hotspots’ that would drive conventional compasses(and those that navigate them) nuts. At first these were thought to be generated by large concentrations of metal in Garren IV’s crust, but geoscans have proven otherwise. They are now thought to be the result of Garren IV’s molten core interacting with the coplex magnetic field around Garvec.
For a time, criminal elements(and the more recent feudists) on Garren IV thought to use these ‘magnetic wells’ to hide their activities from tech-scanners...but peacekeepers simply lay seige to the locations and interdicted anything going in or coming out. Hopes that the welter of misleading signals would screw up offworlders trying to find their way through the thick jungles using conventional magnetic compasses were foiled by the establishment of GPS beacons in orbit and the issuance of portable EM sensors able to distinguish individual ‘wells’ by their EM emissions.
Atmosphere: Breathable Terrestrial Nitrox mixture
Terrain:
Hostile; the thick over-cover conceals the many steep canyons, gullies, sinkholes, and rils that corrugate the surface. Land travel on Garren IV is a difficult proposition, so those with access to the technology favor hovercraft or light aircraft to get around.
Notable Mineral Concentrations:
- Lead
- Pitchblende
- Scheelite
- Cobalt
- Arsenic
- Samarskite
- Talc
- Emerald
Hydrosphere: Balanced; roughly 40% of Garren IV is covered in open water. The rest is locked underground beneath the jungle.
Biosphere:
Verdant----Garren IV’s land masses are covered in thick lush jungle. The major income of Garren IV comes from the exploitation of the diverse ecology. While most native species have been evaluated and catalogued, the planet has a number of dangerous plant and animal species fo note, such as the six-legged zyter-lizard, that hunts in packs and can take down adult humans. Kyopes are large hexapod mammals large enough to knock down and browse on entire trees. Tangs are kite-like fliers, some species of which possess poisonous bites or stings, and others that can grow to 3x human size. Honsha are large salamander-like ‘water dragons’ that inhabit the planet’s many waterways and water bodies.
Garren IV’s real treasures are its plants and fungi, and the planet has many commercially exploitable species.
Civilization:
Settled
Population:
318 million Humans. There were/are several small trade enclaves of other species(no more than 800 of any one species) such as the Contoonese. Currently there’s spme 10,000 peacekeepers on duty in the system.
Technology:
Industrial Age---The locals are able to manufacture SDC firearms, but not large MD explosives or energy weapons. Still, locally-made dynamite is a thing and the locals can turn out some pretty impressive long-rifles that can take a person’s head off if they aren’t wearing good protective gear(M-factor ideally).
The concern is that the belligerents may be able to smuggle in enough offworld weapons that it will start a local arms race, making things more difficult for the peacekeeping efforts.
The peacekeepers are equiped with Galactic technology, magic, psionics, and, it’s rumored, some of the GNE’s biotech(so Splicers-style weapons and OCCs might be being deployed to the jungle zones).
Economy:
Agricultural. Garren IV’s rich deep jungles produce a variety of commercially valuable plants, from foodstuffs to medicinal phytochemicals. Several Contoonese pharmaceutical organizations buy certain jungle plants that have yielded drugs useful in curing, or at least abating, various Contoonese ailments, including cancers. Rital, a drug derived from a native Garreniv jungle plant, is especially prized for its ability to stave off senility and Alzheimers-like disorders in Contoonese.
Wealth:
Prior to the civil war, Garrenites could be considered to be Prosperous, with the areas handling offworld trade arguably being Rich. The disruptions caused by the clan wars dropped the overall rating to Poor, with those communities not directly involved in the fighting hoarding their cash crops for sale for weapons to protect themselves. The economy and offworld trade are recovering under the USA-imposed peace, but the cclimb back up to pre-civil war levels of prosperity is taking time.
Government:
Tribal. There are several dozen regional governments, mainly established along family or tribe lines. There have been several efforts to create a unified planetary government, but the best that’s emerged is a loose trade union and mercantile standards network.
Law Level:
Overbearing---Between the feuding clans looking to destroy their rivals and intimidate others into either helping them or staying out of things, and the rest of the population holing up, local law’s become pretty strict as to anybody violating the peace, such as it is. Ironically, the peacekeepers are trying to ease up some of the restrictions on local trade and travel, so the local economy can get back a healthy normal.
Popularity:
Beloved; most Garrenites love their local leadership, given how tribal most of the planet is. That’s part of the problem; among the feuding tribes, ‘my family right or wrong’ is keeping the conflict smoldering.
Stability:
Uprising. The situation on Garren IV was deteriorating into open violence before the offworld peacekeepers arrived. The situation has calmed down somewhat since then, but there are still pockets of violence flaring up in regions where the USA isn’t operating. Old feuds die hard among the Old Clans in the deep woods, and a few offworlders aren’t about to tell them to ‘live and let live’, no matter how much better the offworlders are at beating up troublemakers.

Adventure Hooks:
*Fighting the Feud---The most tumultous period of Garren IV’s recent history is the civil war. Whether as locals, foreign mercenaries, innocent bystanders trying to stay out of the way(or get off-planet), or peacekeepers, keeping track of who’s shooting at whom with what, can get pretty hairy.

*Bending the Peace---Even with peace imposed from outside, old grudges die hard. Unrepentent feudists may abuse their offworld contacts to hore mercenaries to assassinate their rivals, while having plausible deniability.. Meanwhile, security forces and USAJC peacekeepers are hunting down war criminals and weapns caches, while tryig to secure farmlands and get trade up and running again.

*Narco-Busters----It isn’t just exotic foods and curative pharmaceuticals, the jungles of Garren IV are also a source of narcotics...some of which make more money per unit than the legal cash crops. Finding the sources of these narcotics in the dense jungles and getting past those who zealously guard the garms producing them can be a deadly adventure. Smuggling the product past ever-vigilant rivals or law authorities even more so.
The greater money to be had from narcotics trade also raises the problem that it can attract the attention of offworld criminal cartels, who could provide the growers with advanced weaponry, and even mercenaries, to drive those pesky meddlesome peaceforcers off the planet. This could include strikes against PaxPlatform Alpha.

*Honest Salesman----While Garren IV’s war may be small potatoes, relatively speaking, it’s still a market for weapons. One young enterprising Naruni Industries salesbeing figures some sales are better than NO sales, and has arrived in the conflict zone to cut out the middlemen and sell direct to the customers. Though technically illegal, the presence of NE has the possibility of re-igniting and escalating violence on still-unstable Garren IV, if everybody starts buying higher-end weaponry.
The USAJC would like the problem to go away, permanently ideally, but simply killing the NE rep could turn Naruni’s attention more fully on little Garren IV and escalate it into a feud of a larger sort. Countering the NE agent’s offers with weapons of their own make runs counter to the USAJC’s de-escalation agenda. And yet another thing to contend with; where NE goes, Hartigal often follows, to counter them, with violence often breaking out between the two corporations. The peacekeepers need a way to get the NE rep off the planet before a new arms race or proxy war begins.

*Sensoid Scare---While robot sexdolls are not unknown in the Three Galaxies, the ones produced by the Contoonese have a growing reputation for quality, especially in their programming. That the Contoonese delivered a large number of them to the USAJCis unusual. That the USAJC also produces its own AIs and recognizes them as citizen-sophonts rings alarm bells in some parts of the Three Galaxies. There’s also rumors that the Contoonese are dumping previously unknown and unused combat-modified sensoids, especially on the USAJC. Thus, a variety of organizations may be descending on Garren IV; criminal elements out to steal sensoids or GNE androids, anti-AI activists wanting to smash the machines, associated religious fanatics wanting to save the souls of the peacekeepers from ‘corruption by mechanical jezebels’, pro-AI supporters wanting to liberate the poor AIs from ‘abject slavery’, Chromites wanting to make new friends, etc...

I would not blink at the Cambridge tribes having a small outpost, with the environment being close enough to home.

(Note: The term ‘sensoid’ and connection to ‘pleasurebot’ originally appeared in the TMNT supplement Turtles in Space, but the Hav’lesh sensoids were given only a quick gloss-over treatment. However, here in a case of parallel development across the megaverse is a more detailed treatment of the concept.
Some of this material also appeared in earlier form on the Rifts forums with regards to the cost of ‘pleasurebots’.)

Cultural Notes: The Contoonese and Sensoid AIs
“The Contoons weren’t the first or only culture to figure out how to frankenstein up biomech replicants from cloned artificial organs and bio-emulation parts, but for their tech level, they’ve proven surprisingly sophisticated in their programming of neural nets. They might have gone into vat-brain computers, but for military purposes they found regular digital systems less expensive, more robust, and easier to build. The GNE’s a lot more varied in capabilities with its CILAs and MARIs, but the Contoonese seem to have really hit the mark when it comes to the erotic arts, according to those who have had...ah, ‘close contact’...with the sensoids.”

“Once word got out that the Contoonese were making cybersex dolls, they got no small amount of heckling from Lo-Ting. Then the Lo-Tingians began congratulating the Contoonese on their previously unsuspected hedonistic side.”

“Either the Contoons are xenophiles, in which case calling them ‘cold fish’ is wildly inaccurate, or they’ve really pegged their outside customer base, which should not go over well with those who think human psychology isn’t so shallow and superficial.”

“The Contoonese are experts at programming their hybrid organo-synthoids, and it provides a glimpse of what might have happened if the Contoon-LoTing war had gone to extremes, with the Contoonese potentially fielding armies of assassination ‘roids with tactical psychology programming modeled on their intended Lo-Ting targets. Of course, the Lo-Tingians had potentials of their own, and likely would have countered with combat drugged Juicer-analogues and toxic bioweapons. Postwar intelligence assessments must have had the governments of both nations both shaking in their boots at what might have been, and breathing sighs of relief that it hadn’t.
But the Contoonese trade in sensoids also betrays some cultural blindness. It seems not to have occurred to them the potential for true sentience that could develop in their manufactured neural network AIs. Unlike Paladin Steel and Greater New England, who foresaw that their own neural network development was reaching potential critical mass with regards to the sophancy question, the Contoonese don’t seem to have set in place the means of identifying emergent sophants or policies to accommodate them in society. The Contoonese representatives on Garren seemed genuinely surprised that the GNE’s own Compandroids were, more often than not, full USA citizens and treated as such, or that the USAJC troops were willing to extend at least the prospect of that distinction to the synthoid companions they were provided with.”

The Contoonese are a species of amphibious humanoids native to the planet Contoon, but some xenobiologists suspect a link to to the Zaranceti(see PFRPG Land of the Damned 1: Chaos Lands, pgs 82-83). Despite having been at war with their cosmic neighbors, the human Lo-Tingians, for several decades, the Contoonese actually get along just fine with humans and, now that the war is over, there are even signs that the Contoonese may be moving to normalize relations with their former adversaries.
Despite having a technological and space capability several generations behind the Galactic median, the Contoonese have a few fields of technology that they are arguably ahead in. One is the ability to build sophisticated biosystem androids equipped with neural negwork AI brains.
How the Contoonese attained this ability is unknown; they haven’t come out and said that they developed it completely on their own, and there are rumors that they reverse-engineered the technology and techniques from ancient ruins found on their world. Verification of anything related to the Contoonese biotech programs is difficult because the current Contoonese military government, fearful of revelations of just how far the previous regime was willing to go in their war with the Lo-Tingians, went on a spree of destroying or burying their military projects and many aspects of their biotech.
However, enough has survived and substantial word has reached the outside world that people have begin asking questions...or making requests. As desperate as the new Contoonese regime has been to clean up their reputation, the new regime also needs money, so they’ve agreed to take commission sales or rentals of new biotech.
The Contoonese chose to pursue biosystems over hard cybernetics and bionics.
The most well-known of the Contoonese biosystem products is the Sensoid, a vet-grown and assembled replicant. Sensoids could be optimized and programmed for labor, but they are best known as being sexual , by which function they are also known as ‘sensualoids’, ‘passionoids’, ‘joyroids’ and ‘sexatrons’. Sensoids were a well-known secret in Contoonese culture, as only the elite could afford to own them, though
Interestingly, non-Contoonese were the most often replicated as sensoid models, as it was considered boorish in Contoonese culture to conduct premarital sex, but not to conduct non-binding affairs with aliens, which would not be seen as not threatening the strong family traditions of the Contoonese. And as creating artificial Contoonese-pattern sexual partners for pre- or extramarital affairs would be seen as especially insulting, bordering on heretical, Contoonese biotechs became quite adept at modeling their biosystem androids after other species .
Though the old Contoonese constitution laid down that sensoids were not to be deployed as weapons of war(easy enough, given the difficulties of mass production on a war footing), the regime of Generalissimo Mucuis was secretly working around that legal limitation, and was developing advanced assassination sensoids. The most (in)famous result of this program was the set of gynoid joygirls sent as a peace offering to the then-leader of the arch nemesis Lo-Tingians, the High Mingu. Each and every one of the twenty-two ‘gene-modded’ harem girls was a programmed assassin, though their original mission was never fulfilled, thanks to the Fuzzinon Incident that, ironically, also saw an end to the same regime that initiated the assassin-gynoids’ creation.
Despite the efforts of the Contoonese junior military regime to ‘clean up’ its reputation, word has gotten out, and there has been a flood of requests to purchase sensoids. The Contoonese have been cautious, steeply limiting the number sold and to who, though they did supply United Systems Alliance Joint Command peacekeepers on Garren IV with several hundred sensoids as part of Contoon’s support of the intervention.

Sensoids can appear as perfectly normal examples of a humanoid, but tend to be optimized as physical specimens and are supposed to have some distinguishing mark designating them as artificial humanoids. They need to take nourishment(though not as often and can consume a variety of substances), excrete, shed heat, and take rest like other biologicals, but they generally have greater endurance and physical toughness than comparable beings. Though it’s rumored that the Contoon military programs were even more sophisticated to the point of endowing their creations with psychic abilities, proof of these abilities was likely wiped by the junior officers’ ‘sanitizing’ efforts, and the sensoids currently marketed to the Three Galaxies are not that advanced(but still quite sophisticated).

*Consortium of Civilized Worlds----Sensoid sales are banned in the CCW, and ownership frowned upon. This hasn’t stopped the less scrupulous from trying to commission models from the Contoonese.

*Paradise Federation---Since word got out, there’s been an effort on the part of some elements in the Paradise Federation to woe Contoonese cyberneticists away from their homeworld and set up shop creating joyroids for ‘discriminating clientele’ in the PF. Of course, standards of what constitute ‘discriminating’ and the specifications expected to satisfy such may vary wildly from what the Contoonese are familiar with.

*Golgan Republik---The Republik has had little contact or even knowledge of the Contoonese or of their sensoid products, but despite both species being amphibians, the Golgans would ban imports of sensoids, especially if they learned of their potential history as weapons. Outside Golgan territory, the Golgans could care less what non-Golgans have sex with.

*TransGalactic Empire---Like the Republik, the TGE has had little contact or even knowledge of the Contoonese. If they learned of the sensoids, they likewise would ban imports of the organoid pleasurebots, but would also look into the military applications, especially with regards to infiltrating the ‘decadent’ CCW.

*United Worlds of Warlock---Again, little knowledge of the Contoonese situation. The UWW likely first learns of the sensoids through their dealings with the United Systems Alliance, and initially mistakes them for different models of the familiar CILAs and MARIs. The UWW will accept the USAn policy that some are truly sophont-grade and won’t be particularly alarmed or disquieted by sexroids, given how the UWW likely has a history of pleasure-golems, and summoned/ensorcelled spirits for carnal pleasure, or even literal sex-demons.

*Central Alliance---The Central Alliance prefers hard cybertech to ‘soft’ biotech, so they generally look down on the Contoonese infatuation with biologicals. While sensoids are technically not illegal in the Central Alliance, they’re regarded as expensive playthings of those with more money than sense. Oh, and there’s already plenty of cybernetically-tricked out pleasure-workers up to full-conversion ‘joyborgs’ out in the Central Alliance already. Frankly, Machine People have more rights and acceptance than sensoids.

*United Systems Alliance---Technically not illegal, but the Contoonese don’t understand why the Alliance registers sensoids legally as equivalent to pre-sentients, and with upgrade, upon satisfactory testing, entitled to full sentient rights, including citizenship. Though initially the ANP(Associations of Negotiated Pleasure; the sexworkers’ unions) objected to the retention of the sensoids in USAJC service, once sensoids were judged sophont and eligible for citizenship, the ANPs dropped their objections as long as the sensoids were paid appropriate compensatory stipends to balance any potential fee loss to the unions.

*Ulcha-Unita----Ever since the Fuzzinon Incident and Tanar Shey, sensoids of proven sentience can become citizens. Of course, nobody wants to tell Pudah-Pleasure-King-of-the-Feista-for-Life Tanar Shey that his twenty-two sensoid wives are anything less than fully recognized sophonts, especially as they somehow command the loyalty of the fully operational AI-run Ancient Dreadnoughts in the system.

Example Contoonese Sensoid:

-Juril Vida #53
“Shortly after we set up on Garren, an extee trader from outside the sector came down and tried to sell us the services of a brothel-load of bio-mechs, but he took one look at Juril sitting in my office, freaked, and took off running. I figure he recognized Contoonese bioengineering and
realized he’d been outclassed already and didn’t stand a chance of setting up shop. Or maybe there’s something to the rumors that the Contoonese were flushing a war inventory of assassin-roids on us.”
--Captain Riett Halsey, Greater New England Regular Army, 19th Colonial Guards, attached to the United Systems Alliance Joint Command Garren IV Peacekeeping Mission.

“Isn’t it time that you made use of my PRIMARY functions? Stimulate my pleasure plexes, please.”

Juril Vida #53 is one of the sensoids provided to the USAJC peacekeepers on Garren IV, and was designated as a ‘logistical support servitor’, but both her appearance and demeanor made it clear that was only at best her secondary function. She is a ‘soft-skin’ android, with a covering of realistic faux flesh and cloned organs over a power-actuated cermaplas skeleton. While her performance parameters are overall better than than the average human’s, she is not superhumanly attributed(unless one counts anatomical features).
Juril was gifted by the Contoonese representatives on Garren IV to the peacekeeper company under Captain Riett Halsey, a GNE colonial, assigned to pacifying the Kaltrem Valley region of the planet. It was made clear to the USAJC troops that Juril and her accompanying sensoids were to be considered ‘full use’.
Though Captain Halsey was initially put off about being assigned a ‘pleasure doll’, he quickly put her secondary functions to work as an office actuarial, once she had been vetted by his company’s other AIs. In time, though, the military captain and the sensualoid have grown close, especially after a local terrorist attack on the peacekeepers’ base camp had the two trapped in a bunker together for a time. Jurll continues to be puzzled by Halsey’s mostly standoffish attitude towards her, almost to the point of frustration for the eager gynoid. However, when she has been able to persuade him to join her in some ‘stress relief’ she considers her waiting well-rewarded.
Juril has no specifically military or combat training, but she does have enhanced reflexes to at least get out of the way of danger in a hurry if she has to. Given the still-unstable situation on Garren IV, this is considered handy. Since she started working as a communications clerk-assistant, she has learned how to pilot a hovervehicle(the Contoonese didn’t feel that ‘joyroids’ didn’t need trasportation skills), and some proficiency with energy pistols.

Level of Experience: 5th Level Neural Intelligence
Rank: Servitor
Race: Human Biosystems Replicant(Neural Intelligence)
Alignment: Principled
Land of Origin: Tjkoni Vitalabs, Contoon
Age: 8(but appears to be in her 20’s)
Sensoids generally have lifespans of 50-60 years, but they can be ‘rekindled’ for extended lifespan.
Sex: Female
Height: 5’7”
Weight: 160 lbs
Physical Description/Appearance:
A tall, buxom humanoid female with light skin and ash-blonde hair. Light green eyes. She prefers tight skinsuits if she must go dressed, regulation overalls to keep ‘strac’ for official duty.
Disposition:
Juril has been programmed to be loving, loyal, uninhibited, and eager to please(either/any gender). She will, however, take orders only from Captain Halsey, so anybody seeking her services has to have been approved by direct command of Halsey. While this is a hardwired security measure(the Contoonese after all are a military society and well understand operational security), as Juril’s neural AI had grown in experience, she has acquired a true love and loyalty to Captain Halsey, and she will report or sound an alarm at any suspicious activity, such as anybody trying to subvert her.
She’s also been communicating with some of the CILAs and MARIs attached to the 19th; some of what they say, especially the ‘free-contracted’, confuses her, but also intrigues her. She’s also puzzled by Captain Halsey’s insistence that she regularly talk with visiting cyberpsychologists who seem intent on evaluating her ‘progress’.

Physical Attributes/Superlatives:(figures in parenthesis are general attribute range for human-based sensoids)
IQ: 16 (3d6+1)
ME:----
MA:----
PS: 16 (3d6+4)
PP: 22 (3d6+4)
PE: 25 (4d6+5)
PB: 20 (4d6)
SPD: 15 (3d6+4)

(ISP):----
(PPE): 3(1d4)

Hit Points::----
SDC: 150 (50-300/5d6x10)
Armor Rating: 11
MDC:----
Horror Factor:----
Special Abilities/Characteristics/Powers:

*Enhanced Hearing----Equivalent to a dog’s; +1 parry, +2 dodge, +3 on initiative in darkness.

*Bio-Scanner---Sensoids can, with a touch, scan their partners, reading their general health and responses to stimuli.

*Molecular Analyzer---This gives the Sensoid a highly developed artificial sense of taste, but also a good capability as a food taster and poison detector. 90% effectiveness in identifying chemicals.

*Heightened Sense of Smell----Accompanying the ability to detect poisons is a heightened sense of smell; can identify individuals by smell 60%+3% per level of experience, track by smell 40%+3% per level of experience, and sense aromatic clues(arousal, fear sweat, etc.) with 60% accuracy.

*Heightened Sense of Touch----As anybody who’s experienced a massage from a sensoid can attest, they seem to have ‘magic fingers’. Sensoid tactile sensitivity also translates into a +10% bonus for cardsharp skills, picking locks and pockets, forgery and other skills requiring a delicate touch.

*Motion Detection----Sensoid skin serves as a motion detector, sensing air currents and kinetic activity transmitted through the atmosphere. Effective range of 60 ft and +1 on initiative, parry and dodge, but only as long as at least 30% of the Sensoid’s skin is left uncovered.

*Night Vision-----90 ft range

*Electro-Empathic Sense----Rumored to have been derived from native Contoonese sharks...or from military computer espionage systems...this is a network of electromagnetic sensors in the Sensoid’s skin that allows them to sense at short range(30 ft) the electromagnetic activity associated with most animal-sophont species. This allows the Sensoid the ability to make educated guesses as to a person’s emotional state(whether they’re calm, agitated, interested,etc.), act as a polygraph, and identify nerve points(useful for pressure points, nerve strikes--- +1 to strike, or erogenous zones; +5% to Massage and Seduction rolls). +2 on initiative in conditions of darkness.
It’s possible that this sensory capability led to the rumors of psychic sensoids, but the jury is still out for lack of hard evidence that psychic sensoids do or do not exist.

*Control Body Temperature----Sensoids can control their radiant body temperature. Although this was originally meant to make them more comfortable companions in bed, the ability has its obvious survival and stealth applications. Sensoids can alter their radiant heat as much as 80%.

*Limited Regeneration----Sensoids can heal cuts and contusions in their synthn-flesh integument, but not regenerate amputated limbs or destroyed organs. Can heal 2d6 SDC per hour up to a maximum of 75(or half their rated SDC) before needing more extensive assistance to repair/heal the rest.

*Eidetic Memory---Sensoids have near picture-perfect memories; 66% chance of remembering things in perfect detail.

*Pheromone Generation----Being amphibians, the Contoonese appreciate the effects of pheromone triggers, and were sure to include cloned glands producing them in their creations. Identical to the Eugenic Hero implants in Powers Unlimited Two(pg. 20); for two hours per day, can secrete subtle chemical cues that effectively raise the sensoids M.A. and P.B. by +10 and +10% to Seduction rolls.

*Advanced Digestive System----The sensoids given to the USAJC need to eat regularly, but can take in a greater range of foodstuffs, including tainted or even toxic foodstuffs.(no alkalines, corrosives, or radioactives, though) Can also go without drinking for as many days as they have P.E. points.(some customized examplles require specialized diets as a control).

Magic:----
Psionics:----
Cybernetics/Bionics:
*Universal Headjack
Skills:(5th Level Neural Intelligence)
-Basic Domestic
Cooking 90%
First Aid 90%
General Repair & Maintenance 90%
Housekeeping 90%
Preserve Food 90%
Radio: Basic 94%
Recycling 92%
Sewing 92%
Wardrobe & Grooming 92%
-Physical
Juggling 90%
Climbing 95%
Swimming 90%
Prowl 30%
-Aerobic Athletics
-o2 Gymnastics
Sense of Balance 65%
Work Parallel Bars & Rings 69%
Climb Rope 66%
Back Flip 76%
-Entertainment
Singing 80%
Dancing 90%
Seduction 78%
Sexual Techniques---Advanced 60%. Adds a +5% to Seduction skill
Massage 70%
*Accelerate healing rates from muscle injuries by 20%
* Restores 1d4 PE points after heavy exertion, or accelerates recovery from heavy exertion by 20%
*+1 to save versus stress-induced insanity
*Relieve chronic pain from muscular maladies for 4d6 hours
Base Skill: 30 % + 5% per level of experience.
Other Bonuses: +5% to Advanced Sexual Techniques and Seduction

-Communications
Computer Operation 92%
-Computer Programming 86%
- Inventory Systems 86%
- Laser Communications 82%
- TV.Video 82%
- Optic Systems 82%
-Read Sensory Equipment 82%
-o Performance 55%
Military Etiquette 88%
-Language/Literacy:
-Language/Literacy:Trade One 82%/90%
Trade Three 82%/90%
Trade Four 82%/90%
Trade Five 82%/90%
Dragonese 65%/55%
- Language: Tav’Tak(tribal trade lingo of Garren IV) 65%

-o Sign Language 50%
-Calligraphy 80%

-o4 Research 55%
-o Appraise Goods 45%
-o Barter 50%

-o Navigation: 65%
-o2 Pilot Hovercraft 65%

-o4 W.P. Energy Pistol(+1 strike)


(Has a skill program slot available for future upgrade)

Actions/Attacks per Melee: 4
Strike: +4
Parry: +4
Dodge: +5
Roll: +2
Pull Punch: +1
Disarm: +1
Damage: +1
Kick +2
Saves:
Vs Coma/Death +25%
Vs Magic +5
Immune to Horror Factor
Vs Poison +6
Vs Food Poisoning +6
Notable Possessions/Equipment:
Wardrobe(considerably expanded from what she started out with) and some personal jewelry
Skinsuit(Arachsteel IV) 16 MDC
Light Body Armor(equiv, Plasticman, 35 MDC) for emergencies
Energy Pistol---Given the still-present threat of Garrenite guerillas, Captain Halsey has trained Juril in handling an energy pistol and obtained for her a PS(Mc)LR-9 “SunSting’ modified for human use.
Comm Bracelet---50 mile range
ID Tags
Juril also has 3,700 credits in an account set up for her to collect her ANP-mandated paymment stipend.

Vehicle:
None specifically assigned to her, but she has permission and access to the 19th Colonial Guards’ general motorpool.

And now for some extra updating on Mayberry one of our favorite dustballs.

**Mestos:
The planet's growth as a colony proceeds at leaps and bounds, as the discovery of a dimensionally transposed d-bee community setting up their own colonization initiative through the massive but then unihabitated and mostly unexplored Peat Sea brought with it massive changes in know-how and available resources dedicated to developing the planet.

The new arrivals would turn out to be part of a "make a home away from home, just in case bad turns to worse" exploration project, not unlike the ones from GNE and PS that would eventually lead to the United Systems Alliance, of the Lorrain League, a minor alliance of city-states in their homeworld. In fact, while exchanging notes and presentations it would be found out that, irony of ironies, though completely ignorant of each other up to this point, the League comes from the same homeworld of the GNE, existing as a minor power in Europe's atlantic coast though ever more pressured by the escalating war between Gargoyle Empire and NGR, each in their own right a major threat to their sovereignity and continued existence.

After a few days of negotiations USA diplomats agreed to concede the Peat Sea for colonization and exploration in exchange for trade concessions and treaties of mutual defense and support in Mestos at least. While personally very interested in the USA's idea and its charter, Solomon "Sol" Ganival, the representative leader of the community in the "New Lorrain colony" says he does not have power to speak for any of their leaders back home, leaving the matter of actual direct contact with the Lorrain League on Rifts Earth open to further diplomacy in the future.

What has not stopped him and his people in Mestos to do a lot of business and colaborations with the USA in coordinating and expanding the development of Mestos, not the least among them helping to establish portal connections, firstly to Agasar IX, but later on to strategic nexi in "Shute-1", leading to the relocation of a significant fraction of the refuges, survivors coming mainly from nations inside or bordering the siberian steppe, tibetan plateau, andes, Alaska, Canada, the nordic countries and regions of similar climate, directly to Mestos instead where those people may now start new lives in an enviroment somewhat analogous to their previous homes. While still nowhere near what might be called a crowded world, this has resulted in a definite population spike for the colony.

In the process a number of flora and fauna from those temperate or circunpolar regions has also been moved to Mestos, resulting in the formation of herds of llama, tibetan yaks, bactrian camels and a variety of other creatures, domesticated or not. Druids working alongside USA researchers keep a constant watch for not only the degree of adaptation of the foreign flora & fauna to the local ecosystem, but how those species coming from somewhat analogous but geographically separate earth enviroments might compete or interact with each other in their new circunstances and growing terrain.

This initiative, a number of projects related to study, preservation and potential business exploration of local natural resources, along with the establishment of "crystal farms" centered around their city of Cypriania and negotiations related to the production of their particular brands of magical artifice, that use a combination of herbs, amber and carved wood in place of many of the crystals and machinery typical of "mainstream" TW, Xoana-type "wood golems" and regenerative mysticweave or plate armors have contributed to make Sol into pretty much unnoficial Chief Economic Redevelopment Officer for Mestos in the eyes of new settlers and locals.

Yhey, Mestos, the little backwater that could!

taalismn wrote:Yhey, Mestos, the little backwater that could!

Added mention of mysticweave, the lorrainians brand of "mageplate wood" and the Xoana.
Might try my hand at better sketching out those things in the future.

SolCannibal wrote:
Added mention of mysticweave, the lorrainians brand of "mageplate wood" and the Xoana.
Might try my hand at better sketching out those things in the future.

I'm planning on adding some additional color with the concoction of a potion-tea that stops bone loss in the low gravity field(because otherwise, you'd have to set up public gravity plates, build lots of centrifuges, impose mandatory exercise regimens on people, and/or have them on steady and regular doses of drugs and steroids, or else inside a couple of generations, the residents won't be able to leave the planet and walk around in a. regular terrestrial one-gee field without support exoskeletons.

Mind you, even with the potion as a regular part of their diet, the Mestosians will still have to exercise and take calcium supplements to prevent muscle atrophy and rebuild already lost bone mass, but it won't be a rearguard action.

taalismn wrote:

SolCannibal wrote:
Added mention of mysticweave, the lorrainians brand of "mageplate wood" and the Xoana.
Might try my hand at better sketching out those things in the future.

I'm planning on adding some additional color with the concoction of a potion-tea that stops bone loss in the low gravity field(because otherwise, you'd have to set up public gravity plates, build lots of centrifuges, impose mandatory exercise regimens on people, and/or have them on steady and regular doses of drugs and steroids, or else inside a couple of generations, the residents won't be able to leave the planet and walk around in a. regular terrestrial one-gee field without support exoskeletons.

Mind you, even with the potion as a regular part of their diet, the Mestosians will still have to exercise and take calcium supplements to prevent muscle atrophy and rebuild already lost bone mass, but it won't be a rearguard action.

Yes, gravity diferential can be quite an issue in the mid to long run and would require some serious public space and health investment to get around.
It does cross my mind that "going orbital/belter" while the populace is relatively small and bringing a second wave of settlers, this time from an actual low-gee world, like the Arnoth from Sothis (that also happen to be a world of cool temperatures) for example, might be a possible practical alternative.

The Belters are mining the adjacent system(s) for the metals that Mestos lacks, so their representatives, provided they don't do all their liaison work by teleconferencing, are likely a common sight around Mestos's trade center/government house.

taalismn wrote:The Belters are mining the adjacent system(s) for the metals that Mestos lacks, so their representatives, provided they don't do all their liaison work by teleconferencing, are likely a common sight around Mestos's trade center/government house.

Hmmm, considering Mestos original population were miners and their descendants, setting up things for them to make the jump to belter culture boosting the numbers of people in habitats and ships extracting minerals from neighboring systems shouldn't be too hard and the belters might welcome the extra hands to work.

The Shute-1 emigres might not exactly be up for such a jump so quickly, but then the gravity diferential while a issue is not so urgent, not like they have been under its influence in the planet for decades like the Mestos natives, so work into further relocating them (or the transfered earth fauna) can wait much longer, i guess.

Meanwhile resettling a population of Arnoth - along with some native fauna & flora - who come from a planet that while more arid has many qualities in common with Mestos, might be a very interesting line of business to look into, depending on how amenable and trusting would communities and the authorities from Sothis be of such an offer.

SolCannibal wrote:And now for some extra updating on Mayberry one of our favorite dustballs.

**Mestos:
In the process a number of flora and fauna from those temperate or circunpolar regions has also been moved to Mestos, resulting in the formation of herds of llama, tibetan yaks, bactrian camels and a variety of other creatures, domesticated or not. Druids working alongside USA researchers keep a constant watch for not only the degree of adaptation of the foreign flora & fauna to the local ecosystem, but how those species coming from somewhat analogous but geographically separate earth enviroments might compete or interact with each other in their new circunstances and growing terrain..

A bit of brain gas that just rose to the surface of the swamp of my mind: given how much of Mestos is marsh/wetlands, cattails, either introduced or a native case of parallel evolution, could be an edible plant of no small value.
Imagine if Mestos become known for Moho-fruit and cattails(cranberries were my other vote for a cash-crop, but that displays bias on my part, given my liking of the wetlands of southeast Massachussetts...because they were on our summer vacation migration route---and the cranberry bogs there.).

taalismn wrote:

SolCannibal wrote:And now for some extra updating on Mayberry one of our favorite dustballs.

**Mestos:
In the process a number of flora and fauna from those temperate or circunpolar regions has also been moved to Mestos, resulting in the formation of herds of llama, tibetan yaks, bactrian camels and a variety of other creatures, domesticated or not. Druids working alongside USA researchers keep a constant watch for not only the degree of adaptation of the foreign flora & fauna to the local ecosystem, but how those species coming from somewhat analogous but geographically separate earth enviroments might compete or interact with each other in their new circunstances and growing terrain..

A bit of brain gas that just rose to the surface of the swamp of my mind: given how much of Mestos is marsh/wetlands, cattails, either introduced or a native case of parallel evolution, could be an edible plant of no small value.
Imagine if Mestos become known for Moho-fruit and cattails(cranberries were my other vote for a cash-crop, but that displays bias on my part, given my liking of the wetlands of southeast Massachussetts...because they were on our summer vacation migration route---and the cranberry bogs there.).

Considering Technycorp's monofocus in mining to the expense of colonization or any other business ventures during its tenure of Mestos, i find the idea of anything being introduced into the local ecosystem (except perhaps incidentally) before the United Systems Alliance's arrival to the planet quite improbable. But convergent evolution is a definite possibility and while you were thinking of cattails & cranberries, i had in my mind that Mestos's native arthopod fauna could hide a variety of crab-like species, since mother nature (at least when it comes to examples Earth) seems to be always coming up with excuses to recreate some variant of them.

(Maybe some mostly unknown MD fury beetle-sized "trench crab" or a race of dwarf crab warriors even for a bonus)

SolCannibal wrote:[ i had in my mind that Mestos's native arthopod fauna could hide a variety of crab-like species, since mother nature (at least when it comes to examples Earth) seems to be always coming up with excuses to recreate some variant of them.

(Maybe some mostly unknown MD fury beetle-sized "trench crab" or a race of dwarf crab warriors even for a bonus)

Go full crayfish or CRAWDAD so we can develop Mestosian Cajun cooking.

Ah, file the giant trench crabs under 'myths of Mestos'....every now and then somebody claims to have seen something BIG in the waters but never when they can record it.

taalismn wrote:

SolCannibal wrote:[ i had in my mind that Mestos's native arthopod fauna could hide a variety of crab-like species, since mother nature (at least when it comes to examples Earth) seems to be always coming up with excuses to recreate some variant of them.

(Maybe some mostly unknown MD fury beetle-sized "trench crab" or a race of dwarf crab warriors even for a bonus)

Go full crayfish or CRAWDAD so we can develop Mestosian Cajun cooking.

Fair indeed.

taalismn wrote:Ah, file the giant trench crabs under 'myths of Mestos'....every now and then somebody claims to have seen something BIG in the waters but never when they can record it.

The Bigclaw, ever so elusive, hiding somewhere in Mestos rare deeps....

Bretona-Victoria Imperium(Human Alliance, Corkscrew Galaxy)

“If you’re going to immigrate to the bee-vee-iee, get used to drinking tea and lots of it. It’s practically the national drink, second only to water. Fortunately the Imperium imports teas from all over the Three Galaxies, so boredom from lack of variety is not going to be an issue. And there’s always fortifying the drink with the third most popular liquid in the Imperium, alcohol, of which the Bretona-Vics make a lot of locally.”

“The Bret-Vics are an eccentric dotty lot, but they have a steel under the affectations that comes out when crisis looms. Their military’s professional and sharp; they may not engage in ‘extraterritorial expansion events’ like the Kreeghor like to do, but they drill constantly and realistically. Part of it’s the disgrace their officers would feel for performing badly during exercises. Another big part of it’s the acknowledgement of the fear that if they ever lost majorly in real combat because of their foppery, history would NEVER forgive them. They came damned close to megadeath in the Automaton Wars, and they haven’t forgotten it.”

“One can appreciate Bretona-Victorian courage and aplomb uder fire, but it’s a case of having to have them under constant fire all the time to bring it out for appreciation. I had an Imperium army officer assigned to my CAF marine platoon in the Thundercloud, and I wanted to strangle the pretentious damn fop half the time. He was rude to the lower ranks, almost always questioned my authority, and knew I couldn’t simply turf him for insubordination like I would one of the regulars. I don’t know if it was blue blood in his veins or a general Utopian disdain for colonials, but he near pushed all the wrong buttons. Damn calm number, though, when we came in hostile contact with the vas-crabs and the acid-spit started flying.”

The BVI is a subculture state of the Human Alliance. Many consider Bretitan. the capital world fo the Imperium, to be a Utopia-class coreworld.
Though Terra Prime claims to be the homeworld of Humanity in the Three Galaxies, the Bretona-Victorians contest that, claiming that -they- are the original world from which Humans spread into the Three Galaxies. The Terra Primes claim that the Bretona-Victorians are the result of a time/space-lost Terran colony ship or the descendants of kidnappees snatched from Terra Prime by aliens during the planet’s ‘dark ages’. Though most follow the Terra Prime explanation and conduct business as usual between the two worlds, the controversy continues to be argued in some academic circles.
To the worldly dimensional traveler, the Bretona-Victoria Imperium has a distinctly ‘British’ feel to it in its language, mannerisms, social traditions, and politics. It is run by a constitutional monarchy with a parliament. There is a distinct sense of social class, with a hereditary aristocracy very much in evidence, but what is unsaid, at least in polite circles, is that it is possible to rise in social class, either by Royal elevation or by the cruder means of buying one’s way up the ranks.
The BVI weathered the Automaton Wars better than most, largely because their military was tradition-hidebound resistant to embracing wholesale automation of their warships like the rest of the Human Alliance, though this did not extend to private operators. As a result, those who invested in networked automation for their households and private yachts became up-close graphic examples of the dangers of NETWORK. Fortunately, the Royal Navy was in a position to intercept most of the compromised yachts and burn infected estates from orbit, before turning to lend their strength to the anti-AI resistance. However, if the Bretona-Victorians were expecting to be lauded as the saviors of the HA and ushered into position postwar as the leaders of the Human Alliance, they would be disappointed. Political infighting over postwar direction cost the BVI their momentum and by the time they straightened out their house, a new centralized administration had been established over the Alliance. The BVI continued to support the HA as a member, but retained their own political and cultural identity.
The Bretona-Victoria Imperium is Human-dominated, but generally tolerant of nonhumans. They are notably vehemently anti-AI, however, and greatly opposed granting sanctuary to the Machine People. The BVI encompasses some extremes of opinion; some of the more vocal Human supremacist(as well as the long-historied anti-AI Extur Society lobbying group) organizations have interests in the BVI, just as many pro-nonhuman humanitarian groups are headquartered in the Imperium(though many have a ‘Humanity’s Burden’ attitude towards helping nonhumans).

The Bretona-Victorians accept psionics as part of the natural orders, but are less tolerant of magic, which at best is seen as ‘dangerous hoodoo’. This impression hasn’t been helped by a history of ‘secret societies’ that have dabbled in the arcane, often with unfortunate results(madness and even death). While the Imperium has its small share of arcanists, it has many more charlatans and outright madmen who have in general poisoned the public perception of magic. More often than not, paranormal specialists employed by the Imperium government come from outside the BVI and have to contend with official apathy and street-level scorn. A higher than normal ratio of nega-psychics are born in the Imperium and, unlike on Rifts Earth, most of them genuinely don’t know they have actual psychic powers. So, despite the generally cosmopolitan view of the Imperium and ample evidence from such star nations as the United Worlds of Warlock and the events of the Minion War, a majority of Bretona-Victorians believe that magic doesn’t really exist, or is the misinterpretation of other phenomena.

The BVI continues to be a staunch supporter of the Human Alliance, and the CCW in general, though they don’t always see eye to eye with CCW policies. Though considered rather stuffy and archaic in manner and ways, the BVI understands Galactic technology well; they’re just rather more selective about what parts they accept. The Imperium has produced its share of notable innovators, statesmen, soldiers, and explorers. Though many of its worlds have been directly developed and colonized from the Imperium’s coreworlds, they’ve absorbed just as many other diaspora colony-cultures that were struggling and willing to accept becoming part of the Imperium in return for much-needed help.
The BVI has a love-hate relationship with the Paradise Federation. On one hand, the PF is a source of luxury trade goods and a good employer of the Imperium’s merchant marine. Many of the Imperium’s aristocrats and wealthier citizens vacation in the Paradises. On the minus side, the PF is backed by Naruni Enterprises, with whom the Imperium wishes to avoid entanglements with(though they’ve bought from them in the past), and more than a few prominent figures in the BVI have been caught in scandals involving the Paradises.
The Bretona-Victorians are sympathetic towards the Georgia Protectorates, but cannot condone their attempts to seize CCW assets.
Interestingly, the BVI was among the first Human Alliance members to formally recognize the United Systems Alliance and sign formal trade treaties with them, though the USA’s embracing of AIs remains a point of contention between the two polities .
The BVI Royal Navy may not be used as a tool of territorial expansion, but they are at the service of the CAF, and have taken part in several joint actions, including campaigns against the Infernals during the Minion War. Though considered almost excessively tradition-bound, the BVI Royal Navy is also considered to be professional and disciplined, and respected for their courage. Likewise, the Imperial Army, though somewhat less straitlaced, is respected for their professionalism, and has distinguished itself in a number of CAF actions.
The BVI has, over time, spawned a number of splinter worlds and cultures; the Duchy of Harwinton-Sachs, Raxe-Saxtony, and the planet Gilbert among them.

The most recent shakeup in the Bretona-Victoria Imperium has been the deaths of the much-liked Crown Prince Landrau and his twin brother Ramsey, both killed when the Infernals’ attack on Terra Prime coincided with the Royal Twins’ diplomatic visit to the Human Alliance’s capital. This has left Landrau’s daughter Haman as the heir apparent, and very likely to assume the throne soon, especially as her 297-year old grandmother, Queen Elsa, is in declining health, especially after the latest Royal tragedy(her own son, Prince Gerrold, was forced to give up his place in the succession after one of the scandals linked to the Paradise Federation). Being only 27, Haman is considered by many Royal-watchers to be a mere babe and perhaps unsuited to assume the responsibilities of the throne at such a young age. Especially since some see the current turmoil in the Human Alliance as an opportunity for Bretona-Victoria to make another bid for leadership of the Human Alliance. That’s seen as an uphill battle, given the revelations that have rocked the Human Alliance and its place in the CCW, and perhaps one that some of the more concerned Bretona-Victorians would like to avoid. However, medical technology(and psionics) is running out of options(and some, such as uploading the Queen’s mindstate to an AI matrix are right off the table) to keep the ailing Queen Elsa alive and a day of decision is looming rapidly.

A. Size
Extensive: 57 star systems
Capital Star System: Sol-Victoria
Capital Planet: Bretitan
B. History
Splinter of Terra Prime(?)
C. Level of Technological Sophistication
Galactic, though they shun higher-end AIs. The Royal Navy uses common HA/CAF ship designs, although some may lack all the automation of the more advanced member worlds’ warships.
D. General Attitude/Culture
Enlightened Imperialists bordering on Peaceful Expansionists---While the BVI hasn’t been engaged in any aggressive empire-building of late, they do occasionally launch some new colony effort or enfold an associated world into their domain. However, they LOSE worlds just as frequently to independence movements and secession. They tend not to get upset about these things, though, and the Royal Navy is rarely used in offensive operations to gain (or take back)territory in such cases.
E. Racial Composition
75% Human, 25% other(predominately human-like species, such as Elves, Dwarves, Ogres, Atlanteans)
F. Government
---Constitutional Monarchy
G. Administrative Control
Loose---Though the BVI has a reputation for being hidebound traditionalists, social gamers, and staid bureaucrats, the truth is there’s plenty of legal loopholes for all social classes, and the government either can’t or doesn’t bother trying to plug them all. While many outsiders complain about being unable to penetrate the Bretona-Victorian bureaucracy, the truth is that the natives are running circles around them on their own home ground.
H. External Trade
Trade----Several important hyperlanes cross through BVI space, and facilitating trade is a major source of revenue for the Imperium.
H1. Commodities
Exports:
Spacecraft---A significant percentage of the Human Alliance’s merchant marine starships are built in the Bretona-Victoria Imperium. Though not the most cutting edge, BVI designs are a good balance of cost, efficiency, and reliability. Even giants like General Galaxy lease dock and yard space in such BVI systems as New Glasgow and Alpha-Aberdeen.
Imports:
Raw Materials---Like many of the older metroworld cultures, the BVI’s industries are constantly in need of fresh adn cheap raw materials, especially elements and minerals lacking in their planets and solar systems.
I. Status
Established; the Bretona-Victoria Imperium has reached a comfortable state of break-even with regards to the expansion and contraction of their territory. Their economy, while it could improve, is thriving.

taalismn wrote:
Bretona-Victoria Imperium(Human Alliance, Corkscrew Galaxy)

I remember them being cited as the parent-polity the Duchy of Harwinton-Sachs would originate as a splinter from. Imagine a lot of people must be watching the events in Thundercloud since the incidents involving the Duchy and the Dadalane Jihad, not to mention rumors of a re-aproximation, maybe even reunification with much greater attention and interest.

The dim from the clash between national pride & worries about the potential administrative & economic complications of reasserting such a presence may become deafening in time, if it's not already. Not to mention their current sucession almost-crisis or the Human Alliance's own ongoing leadership crisis post-Minion War, for some extra noise/stress.

Speaking of splinter worlds & cultures, Raxe-Saxtony and the planet Gilbert are new entries not cited before afaik, so i'm kind of curious if you already have anything in mind with either of them.

SolCannibal wrote:

taalismn wrote:
Bretona-Victoria Imperium(Human Alliance, Corkscrew Galaxy)

Speaking of splinter worlds & cultures, Raxe-Saxtony and the planet Gilbert are new entries not cited before afaik, so I'm kind of curious if you already have anything in mind with either of them.

Again, why create something whole-cloth when I've already made mention of something, and can/should expand on it. Then one thing led to another, shades of actual events nosed in, shout-outs and thoughts of conspiracy(I've even toyed with suggesting that it was BVI ships the nuked the human-AI culture of a now-USA protectorate). Yeah, Bretona-Victoria may seem stuffily-civilized, but England also produced such cults as the Golden Dawn and anti-tech movements like the Luddites...not to mention Jack the Ripper.

Raxe-Saxtony is new and whole-cloth I'm afraid, and sounds, I admit, like Yakkity-Sax. Maybe I'll come up with something novel about it.

Gilbert I'm pretty much almost finished with; it's the homeworld of PS/ASI affiliate Locke-Snye Industries, and its affiliation to the BVI came when I randomly rolled up 'aristocracy' for its government, and from there a tale unfurled.....

taalismn wrote:

SolCannibal wrote:

taalismn wrote:
Bretona-Victoria Imperium(Human Alliance, Corkscrew Galaxy)

Speaking of splinter worlds & cultures, Raxe-Saxtony and the planet Gilbert are new entries not cited before afaik, so I'm kind of curious if you already have anything in mind with either of them.

Again, why create something whole-cloth when I've already made mention of something, and can/should expand on it. Then one thing led to another, shades of actual events nosed in, shout-outs and thoughts of conspiracy(I've even toyed with suggesting that it was BVI ships the nuked the human-AI culture of a now-USA protectorate). Yeah, Bretona-Victoria may seem stuffily-civilized, but England also produced such cults as the Golden Dawn and anti-tech movements like the Luddites...not to mention Jack the Ripper.

I think i remember which human-AI culture you're talking about. And yeah, the isles have a longstanding legacy of icons for one to draw multiple inspirations from.

taalismn wrote:Raxe-Saxtony is new and whole-cloth I'm afraid, and sounds, I admit, like Yakkity-Sax. Maybe I'll come up with something novel about it.

Well, it did remind me of something else....

taalismn wrote:Gilbert I'm pretty much almost finished with; it's the homeworld of PS/ASI affiliate Locke-Snye Industries, and its affiliation to the BVI came when I randomly rolled up 'aristocracy' for its government, and from there a tale unfurled.....

Waiting for what comes out of this bit of crosspolination.

Well, if you want to write something for Raxe-Saxtony , be my honored guest....

taalismn wrote:Well, if you want to write something for Raxe-Saxtony , be my honored guest....

Thanks, i'll give it a try then.

SolCannibal wrote:

taalismn wrote:Well, if you want to write something for Raxe-Saxtony , be my honored guest....

Thanks, I'll give it a try then.

Have fun with it.

The BVI's worlds can be played with as a parody of the classic British Empire, or the whole idea can be stood on its head. Maybe the BVI is more enlightened towards its constituent worlds than the canon British Empire in its heyday, or crueler in some aspects. There's enough room for saints and dunderheads in the set-up.
The constituent worlds can be similar to the historical satrapies, colonies, and territories(South Africa, India, China, Australia, Bermuda, Ireland, Scotland, etc...) of the BE/C, or tweaked to not-so-similar in surprising ways....maybe the pseudo-Masai tribes of the South Africa analogue are influential and affluent technocrats that saved the BVI during one of its internal crisises, the Hong Kong analogue is a massive space station or asteroid colony in a contested region of space with a neighboring polity, the Opium War equivalent was fought over software, Space Egypt is a former Atlantean colony world, and there's a secret government ministry dedicated to the use of magic(and it's nothing like J.K. Rowling's mess) in defense of the Realm.

taalismn wrote:

SolCannibal wrote:

taalismn wrote:Well, if you want to write something for Raxe-Saxtony , be my honored guest....

Thanks, I'll give it a try then.

Have fun with it.

The BVI's worlds can be played with as a parody of the classic British Empire, or the whole idea can be stood on its head. Maybe the BVI is more enlightened towards its constituent worlds than the canon British Empire in its heyday, or crueler in some aspects. There's enough room for saints and dunderheads in the set-up.
The constituent worlds can be similar to the historical satrapies, colonies, and territories(South Africa, India, China, Australia, Bermuda, Ireland, Scotland, etc...) of the BE/C, or tweaked to not-so-similar in surprising ways....maybe the pseudo-Masai tribes of the South Africa analogue are influential and affluent technocrats that saved the BVI during one of its internal crisises, the Hong Kong analogue is a massive space station or asteroid colony in a contested region of space with a neighboring polity, the Opium War equivalent was fought over software, Space Egypt is a former Atlantean colony world, and there's a secret government ministry dedicated to the use of magic(and it's nothing like J.K. Rowling's mess) in defense of the Realm.

Definitely taking those points to mind.

Hell, Rifts Thundercloud art-wise clearly had British colonialism in mind...or at least the artist had watched 'Zulu!' too many times.

taalismn wrote:Hell, Rifts Thundercloud art-wise clearly had British colonialism in mind...or at least the artist had watched 'Zulu!' too many times.

Not to mention the Adze and a number of beings that wouldn't feel out of place in a revised edition of Rifts: Africa.

I suppose to balance the Brits in Space, we should contemplate Napoleonic France in Space(or just about any walk-through of an issue of Heavy Metal magazine will provide attmosphere, or watching the psychedelic Gankutsuou: Count of Monte Cristo anime), Chinese Empire or People's Republic in Space, Space Germans(though the TGE is effectively both Space Nazis and Soviet Evil Empire). Golgans are Italians(and the Wulfen are post-Romans) and of course the CCW is the United Nations with a big dollop of America.

taalismn wrote:I suppose to balance the Brits in Space, we should contemplate Napoleonic France in Space(or just about any walk-through of an issue of Heavy Metal magazine will provide attmosphere, or watching the psychedelic Gankutsuou: Count of Monte Cristo anime), Chinese Empire or People's Republic in Space, Space Germans(though the TGE is effectively both Space Nazis and Soviet Evil Empire). Golgans are Italians(and the Wulfen are post-Romans) and of course the CCW is the United Nations with a big dollop of America.

As an aside i tend to think of Golgans as somewhere between North Korea and Russia transitioning from Yeltsin to Putin than fascist Italy, though that's a quite fair comparison too - but really thinking about the subject, perhaps Portugal under Salazar or Spain under Franco could be even better parallels to play with.

Though all your examples make fairly good sources of imagery and events to draw bits of inspiration from to twist and extrapolate with.

Gilbert(United Systems Alliance Member)(Anvil Galaxy)
“Making fun of the leadership on Gilbert is the national sport. Indeed, the Gilbertian aristocracy seems to go out of its way to provide the popular media with enough grist for gossip, and some blue-bloods seem to specialize in putting on entertainment for the masses.
However, the Gilbertian economy rolls along just fine thanks to the aristocratic leadership, so there must be some brains in the bunch, even if it’s just enough to recognize talent in the middle management and the wisdom to let them do their thing without interference. ”

“Locke-Snye may not be the biggest employer on Gilbert, but they’re attracting a lot of attention. Their Go-Anywhere contragrav bus, which is essentially an armored flying submarine, is selling VERY well, both off-the-line production models and commissioned custom jobs, filling their order books. And the fact that so many bigger metroworld motor-corps are still screaming bloody murder about why they didn’t think of the idea first is music to Locke-Snye’s executive board.”

“There’s a good number of upper class Gilbertans signing up with the usan armed forces these days. Contrary to what one might think, they don’t all expect to be automatically made officers. In fact, a lot of them insist on serving with the ranks. They just feel they have to prove themselves somehow, aside from running banks or making runs with the merchant marine.”

Gilbert is another ‘interface world’ with dual membership in the Consortium of Civilized Worlds and the United Systems Alliance.
Gilbert is considered a ‘just right’ world; right star, right gravity, right atmosphere composition(after some simple and rapid terraforming), right amount of water, and good location. Though on the cold side, the planet is easily warmed by geothermal activty, and stabilized by the introduction of cold-tolerant terraforming biota. And as it is, Gilbert turns out to be well-placed to take advantage of the increased trade between the Rim and the metroworlds.
Gilbert is notably the headquarters world of Locke-Snye Industries, an eccentric and formerly troubled vehicle manufacturer whose fortunes turned around when they entered into a partnership with Aegis Stellar Industries/Paladin Steel. Originally on the verge of filing for bankruptcy, LSI is now expanding operations on Gilbert. Their vehicle assembly lines still pump out eccentric designs, but now people are -buying- them, and in quantity.
Gilbert was founded by another offshoot of the Bretona-Victoria Imperium of the Human Alliance, like the Duchy of Harwinton-Sachs , but the colony’s founders went farther afield and had less official recognition and financial backing. It’s rumored that this was so because the founder was a minor member of the Royal Family of Bretona-Victoria who was caught (or caught up) in a scandal and politely asked to leave the Imperium(or else was paid off to go into exile) with enough money to start their own world. The founding of Gilbert was also seen as an opportunity of the BVI’s Great Houses(and many not-so-great Houses) to quietly offload a number of inconvenient bastards, bureaucrats, and just annoying relations that couldn’t be shipped to a colonial outpost or penal colony out of sight and out of mind.
At least that’s the -romantic- version of the planet’s founding. Others just claim disenchanted industrialists and other social climbers who couldn’t buy their way into the Imperium’s aristocracy decided to create their own society and install themselves as the nobility. It just so happened that the disenfranchised just had a high percentage of disinherited and disowned minor aristocrats to give some heft to the emergent society on Gilbert.
Whatever the reason, neither the Bretona-Victoria Imperium nor the Duchy of Harwinton-Sachs seem to want to have any dealings with Gilbert. Though physical distance, a lack of common borders, and a lack of common interests present a more likely explanation, rumors persist that the government of Gilbert just seems to be deliberately snubbed by the diplomats of the BVI and the DoHS. Though this hasn’t hurt Gilbert’s interstellar trade any, the whole ball of rumors is grist for the common populace’s heckling of their leadership(there’s an entire line of live satire theatre dedicated to lampooning the upper class, which, oddly enough, has as many writers from the upper class as from anywhere else).

Solar System(Neven’s Star)
Number of Stars: 1
Types of Stars: Yellow Dwarf
Number of Planets: 4
-Asteroid(Xerun) ---Rocky planetoid. Its innermost position in the solar system makes it a convenient location for solar observatories and an experimental solar-powered energy transmission system.

-Terrestrial (Gilbert) ---System lifeworld. Small, but quite hospitable.

-Gas Giant (Zidan)---Miniscule gas giant. Its small size and weak radiation belts makes it a convenient gas harvesting location, feeding the spacedocks around Gilbert. Zidan’s one small moon is the base of gas-scooping operations, though the mineral- and water-poor moon provides little more than a convenient anchor point and rock shelter for the space station built on it; all other materials have to be shipped in from elsewhere in the system.

-Gas Giant (Carth)---Jupiter-sized ringed gas giant possessing 7 sizable moons.
Carth’s largest moon, Sullovan, is home to a large colony of 400,000 residents, most involved in mining and manufacturing. It is run by a technocracy-based labor union. The ‘fizmos’ of Sullovan get almost as much heckling as the Gilbertian aristocracy for their nerd-culture, but they are recognized for their innovations. LSI has several new factories in the Carth moon-belt, producing components for assembly into vehicles on Gilbert. WZTechyards is also contemplating a local yard.

Planet (Gilbert)
Type: Terrestrial
Diameter: 10,900 km
Gravity: 1.3 gs
Temperature: Cool(and up from Cold) with Alaska/Siberia-like averages; most habitation is done under heated domes, though an increasing amount of agriculture is done in the open as the planet is warmed.
Unusual/Special Features:
Atmosphere:
Dense terrestrial nitrox mix with a high carbon dioxide content. As terraforming progresses, atmospheric density is dropping, but a high greenhouse gas portion is being retained to trap heat. Newcomers might have some problems adjusting to the pressure, so some decompression is recommended when leaving the planet, and breather masks are suggested when venturing outside the domes.
Terrain:
Varied surface terrain.
Unusual Geology---Gilbert is unusually dense for its size. leading to speculation that its core may have a higher composition of heavy materials than usual.
Notable Mineral Concentrations:
- Tin
- Cobalt
- Magnesium
- Manganese
- Nickel
- Samarskite
- Diamond
- Borax
Hydrosphere:
Moist; roughly 68% of Gilbert is covered in open water.
Biosphere:
Was effectively Lifeless, but has risen to Sparse, thanks to the introduction of terraforming biota. Many aristocrats spend their time and money developing their country estates into biological oasises and private parks with various imported species(this sometimes causes problems with the government-run Terraforming Bureau who is supposed to oversee and approve what foreign biota is allowed to be loosed on the developing environment.
Civilization:
Settled
Population:
3.8 Billion(97% Human, 3% other)
Technology:
Galactic
Economy:
Commercial---Gilbert conducts a balanced mix of trade in light industry, agriculture, and services, but they also facilitate trade through their sector. The banking houses on Gilbert are almost as extensive as those on Eugenia.
Wealth:
Rich. The increased flow of trade between the metroworlds of the CCW and the Rim United Systems Alliance has benefitted Gilbert TREMENDOUSLY. Add to that Locke-Snye’s expanded operations and the government(and workforce) on Gilbert couldn’t be happier.
Government:
Aristocracy, through a parliamentary Council of Houses, though it’s argued that a large class of public servants really runs the show by telling the nobility what forms to sign or stamp, what to spend their money on, and what to eat for lunch.
Law Level:
Overbearing; there’s a strong law enforcement presence on Gilbert, and a lot of laws to trip up visitors. Fortunately, the court system is swift, but fair, though the time spent in legal wrangling can prove an annoyance and an inconvenience. If the charge is mild enough, a little bribery or connections with the right aristocrats(or their servants) can smooth things over with the law.
Popularity:
Ambivalent, the populace generally vacillates between mild-to-aggravated disgust at what some of their leadership does(scandals , law-dodging, or simply sitting on their arses) and putting up with them as ‘better than nothing’ or ‘better than what other people have’. There might be better systems of government, but most Gilbertans are willing to put up with what they have rather than risk the uncertainties in adopting an alternate form of government.
Stability:
Dynastic--- The Old Money on Gilbert seems able to keep it in the family, an many of the upper class have been holding their positions for over two centuries or more. The Gilbertan aristocracy is made fun of on a regular basis, but the people are rather enamored of them; they’re tolerated because they’re mostly entertaining, easily buffaloed, or good bosses(by being either decent or simply absent and not meddling). There’s some turnover in the upper classes as some aristocrats simply go too far and Gilbertan law catches up with them, or public outrage forces them to be arrested or into exile, and some affluent or influential middle/upper-classer gets bumped up to replace them. While this should mean the upper class is slowly being improved by fresh blood and perspectives, the newcomers can just as often be as bad or worse than those they replace, in what as been sometimes referred to as ‘aristobozo syndrome’.

NON will just have so much to chew upon on this place....

SolCannibal wrote:NON will just have so much to chew upon on this place....

Meh, since it's a one-ring pony show, NON probably uses only local talent or at most sends cub reporters to soak there until they learn patience. The big scandal hotbeds are the Utopias and more populous metroworlds with more offworld pull.

taalismn wrote:

SolCannibal wrote:NON will just have so much to chew upon on this place....

Meh, since it's a one-ring pony show, NON probably uses only local talent or at most sends cub reporters to soak there until they learn patience. The big scandal hotbeds are the Utopias and more populous metroworlds with more offworld pull.

I guess you have a point that plentiful of small change while steady and useful still is just a lot of small change, so to speak.

As an aside, is Locke-Snye limited to the civil transports sector or does it produce military ordnance, spaceships or other stuff too?

SolCannibal wrote:
As an aside, is Locke-Snye limited to the civil transports sector or does it produce military ordnance, spaceships or other stuff too?

Locke-Snye's a planetary vehicle designer and small manufacturer...they're similar to auto design houses on Earth like Bertrone and Rinspeed, rather than Fiat or Ferrari(though they might be comparable to Mazda). In the past their designs that sold well were little distinguishable from the mass-market vehicles churned out on hundreds of other worlds(which meant they couldn't match the metro worlds for sheer output), and their really stand-out designs were too weird for the mass-market....at least until extra dimensional traveller found they LIKED driving around inside a 10 ft diameter armored wrecking ball and began buying.
From there they began making military vehicles(often with an eccentric edge) with PS/ASI sourcing the weaponry and techno wizardry. Then they got into hover/contragravity in collaboration with PS/ASI and things starting taking off literally. They still have a ways to go before they could ever think of competing with the likes of the Neo-Chryslers, Kreigwugons, Hundas, Ferrarris, Land Rovers, or even Citreons of the Three Galaxies, but they're finding a niche for themselves in a growing market.

I have been working on this for a little while and thought I would share it. Be nice.
----

Principality of Ironholm

Settled centuries ago in the days of the Ancient Wolven Empire, this colony was somewhat far-flung being several hundred light years from the next closest Wolven world, at least till they founded their own colonies much later. Initial plans were for this world to be a staging area for a new wave of expansion but policy changed and they remained isolated by distance. Being on the very periphery of society left them ofter as not to fend for themselves. Over time as the economy grew they became a larger target of the various threats in the region. The empire always placed a picket in the system and a garrison on the planet but there were always raids and attacks from more hostile neighbors.

Home to two large asteroid fields there are plenty of resources to utilize. Already home to a small commercial shipyard, House Silvermane expanded to start building military craft for system defense and later export. In the later days of the empire, they were a major producer of military products constructing everything from small arms to the massive Packmaster supercarriers.
When the empire fell they remained loyal to the royal family. They luckily were far away from the Kreeghor and refused to join the new Wolven Republic or later the CCW. This was initially a major blow as the Empire was their major client for export goods. It took them a while but they soon adjusted and began to build their own trade networks and their biggest single export was military hardware. They can produce the entire catalog of military hardware from the old Wolven Empire. There is not as much demand now as the CCW will not buy from them but there are plenty of independent Wolven worlds that occasionally need to replace their hardware and want reliable Wolven military hardware. There are also several Wolven majority worlds in the CCW that prefer Wolven-made equipment in their SDFs. Now they are not dependent on the Wolven worlds and have diversified over the years and have developed or acquired plans for ships from other races and either build them or integrate them into existing designs in the form of upgrades or refits. Also, the commercial market has become much more important. Other major industries are consumer electronics, banking, pharmaceuticals, and biotech.

The Principality of Ironholm is a 9-system polity with a governing Aristocracy. Virtually all aspects are governed by the Great Houses. There are 12 Great Houses at the top and another 40 minor houses all jockeying for influence and power. Virtually everyone is connected to one of these noble houses either directly or indirectly. Political patronage and nepotism are common but the system is not completely rotten as one has to prove they can handle the job. If they cannot then the appointee looks bad but more importantly the patron that provided them the job looks bad which in turn can cause them to lose status. Also, honor is highly valued in society so while it could be easy to have the short-term satisfaction of embarrassing someone with some intercession or another, more is gained by trading favors, one of the most valuable forms of currency on Ironholm.


Systems
Ironholm - home system with about 6 billion on the planet and another 200 million throughout the system
-Capital of the Principality

Hortus - garden world - 600 million in system
- the first colony of Ironholm is a major producer of agricultural products for the Principality
- exports many varieties of Alcohol

Mignar - 400 million in system
- lots of ranches and light industry
- the largest city Gilar has about 5 million people while there are hundreds of large townships and small cities.

Jacto - 30 million in system
- there are no settled planets just one massive asteroid field in between 2 Gas Giants
- Jacto station is the central refining nexus with a population of about 12 million
- Because of the importance of the refining stations there is a much larger military presence in the system than their population would otherwise warrant with a large central fleet and several pickets keeping an eye on key installations throughout the system.
- there are a few Asteroid Eaters in the system
- aside from mining harvesting water from the ort cloud comets and ice asteroids and selling it to the stations in the system and elsewhere is a big business

Advena - 150 million in system
- no settled planets except for 1 barren planet
-When Ironholm moved to claim this system they found a small colony of Noro Mystics on a barren planet. Living in a series of domed cities the Noro was mining Psylite. They were marooned there centuries ago while on a mining expedition. They found what they were looking for but their ship was knocked out by an ion storm so they landed as best they could and slowly over time converted its material into the city. Since then other cities were developed. The Noro decided to stay and generally keep to themselves but there is the occasional Noro Mystic Warrion in Ironholm system defense forces.
- The Wolven wisely leave the Psylite to the Noro
- Collectively the Noro make up House Psylite, one of the leading minor houses

Highshadow - 500 million in system
- was the 2nd colony of Ironholm settled long ago.
- A planet in almost perpetual twilight. As a moon orbiting a gas giant they almost always other moons of the planet blocking the sun.
- In the days of the Empire a colony of Silhouette settled on this planet but Iromholm was already mining the systems asteroid field. They were sworn citizens of then Wolven Empire and now the Principality. With about 400 million it is one of the largest colonies of Silhouette outside of the TGE.
- The unique Flora and Fauna of this planet make it a center for pharmaceutical and biotech research and development
- There are several prominent magical schools located here.

Nimius - 3 billion on the planet and another 300 million throughout the system
- World is much like Ironholm in planet and climate but is a little more visually stunning with
- Primary industry is consumer electronics and tourism
- Small community of magic users on the southern continent with a magic tower built on the largest ley line nexus point on the planet. Variety of Races. The total population of magic users is about 400000. The largest concentration of magic users not counting the Silhouette's on Highshadow.

There are 2 active colonies claimed by the Principality, the colony of Klinart in the Fanitr System with about 3 million people and the colony of Gurthar in the Zaver system with a population of about 750000 people. The colonies are actively supported but there is no special rush for rapid growth. Like all worlds in the Principality, the population has grown in proportion to industry, and heavy industry is kept in orbit. Klinart is a general colony with no particular emphasis while Gurthar is intended to be an agricultural world. The Principality is eying a few other worlds for potential colonies in the future but there is little pressure to do so and there are only 5 inhabited worlds within 100 light-years of principality space, 3 of which are fairly hardscrabble propositions. The other 2 are average worlds with populations under a billion each. Both are good markets for Principality goods and not a threat. The next closest significant power is the CCW which is about 500 light years away and is a thinly populated territory of the CCW.

Demographics
Wolven - 82%
Human - 6%
Silhouette - 3%
Noro - 2%
Dwarven - 2%
Other - 5%


Government

The Principality is an Aristocracy. The leader the 1st Prince/Princess is chosen from the High Council as the first among equals. The 1st Prince is supposed to put aside personal issues and even family for the sake of the good of the people. Over time some have been able to do this better than others. The most successful Princes had been selected by the assembly member of the Council as compromise candidates. Each of the 12 Great Houses and one from the Assembly sends a representative to form the High Council. The Assembly is comprised of the 40 Minor Houses, various professional groups, trade unions, religious organizations, and the Magic Guild. The Magic Guild member of the assembly by law can never ascend to the position of 1st Prince. The Magic Guild representative represents the guild in the Assembly and has additional duties as an observer and advisor to the High Council.

Religion

There is free speech and freedom of religion in the Principality with several being present. There is no one dominant faith and over half of the population identifies as atheists.

Medicine

Medicine and medical care are generally available with universal healthcare but money talks and people with money and influence can get the very best treatment. There is a big investment in preventative care which has led to numerous savings on the treatment side. There are no restrictions on birth control and family planning services are generally available. Cloning services are legal but heavily regulated and monitored to prevent abuse.

Education

Education is to a high standard with mandatory education for children. As an exporting nation dependent on manufacturing and research and development there are dozens of institutes of higher education churning out the trained professionals needed for a functioning society. The average citizen has access to a high level of education but like anything, those in the Aristocracy and from the wealthy can get a slightly better education.

Military

Employs a entirely volunteer military, though the High Council reserves the right to institute conscription in times of crisis. This has only ever been done twice in all their history. Unlike many other small polities, the Principality produces virtually all its own military hardware through the domestic company's Ironhold Defense Solutions and a few other smaller outfits. IDS started as a satellite yard when Ironhold was a remote colony of the Ancient Wolven Empire. When the Empire fell they were far enough away to not get swept up into any larger governments. At the time the yard was capable of producing most of the current ship classes utilized by the empire. The yard eventually morphed into IDS and under the sway of House Silvermane who now own it. Over time they have released their own lines of military hardware as well as meeting the needs of the Principalities military.

Industry

The Principality is dependent on foreign trade to survive exporting massive amounts of goods to others systems ranging from agricultural products to starships. Most industry is dominated by great houses with each of them being prominent in significant areas of the economy.

House Shadowfist is prominent in pharmaceutical and biotech research and development and sales. They are the dominant house on Highshadow. Mostly composed of Silhouette making them the only Major House not composed primarily of Wolven.
House Silvermane owns Ironhold Defense Solutions and is the primary defense contractor for the principality and export a large number of products.
House Goldhorizon is prominent in banking and finance.
House Darkfur is prominent in industrial and consumer electronics.
House Greenleaf is a major player in agriculture. One of the leading powers on Hortus and a primary sponsor of the colony of Gurthar.
House Copperfur is prominent in mining and owns all the industrial portions of Jacto station, and one of the Asteroid Eaters in the system.
House Dolphus is significant in media and broadcasting with some banking interests.
House Fenris are large players in consumer vehicles, farming equipment, and industrial equipment.
House Nuntis own the largest merchant marine fleet in the Principality. With centuries of good reputation, Nuntis Shipping has contracts all over the Three Galaxies.
House Sköll is the dominant house on Nimius. They are perhaps the most widely diversified major house. They have their fingers in virtually every pie on Nimius and many elsewhere.
House Bjomolfare big player in ranching with significant influence on Mignar. Members of this house are naturally a bit bigger and stronger than the normal Wolven norm with some (20%) being close to or over 10 feet tall.
House Kiyiya is like house Sköll very diversified in the holdings except for having large holdings in consumer electronics. They also invest heavily in foreign companies doing business in the Principality. They are also good public speakers and singers. More than one member of the House has become a famous actor or singer outside the principality as well as within. This gives their house a unique advantage in some up-and-coming social trends and foreign electronics popular in other markets.

Magic

The Principality generally has a live and let live policy regarding magic. While the Principality's society is heavily technologically based, Magic is not shunned, the High Council is wise enough to acknowledge magic exists but used properly is nothing more than a tool to accomplish a task. All the great houses have at least one of their scions trained in magic and will adopt promising youngsters from time to time. There are several institutions of magical instruction throughout the Principality with the majority on Highshadow and Nimius. The magic users of the Principality are licensed through the Order of Cosmic Influence, the Principalities magic guild. All magic-using citizens are members. The guild is an umbrella organization for most types of magic though there are several sub-factions between the various magic traditions. Necromancy, Witchcraft, and most forms of Blood and Soul magic are outlawed and practitioners are banished for life with a second offense executed unless granted special permission to return. Visiting foreign practitioners of magic are not required to register but any intending to stay for a prolonged period are required to register with the guild.

The guild appoints a member to represent them in the National Assembly and also appoints a member to act as an advisor to the High Council. This frequently is the same person but not always.


Psionics

There are no restrictions on psionics in any form. It is just accepted that some will have it while others may not.


Culture

Culturally they are very similar to other worlds founded during the days of the Wolven Empire. They are proud of their heritage but have a stubborn independent streak. This largely stems from their experiences being on the frontier for so long. This is much more pronounced on colony worlds. That is not to say other species have not influenced culture because they have but their society is culturally dominated by Wolven.


Foreign Relations:

CCW: The Consortium is a large trading partner for the Principality. Relations are friendly and the CCW will occasionally try to woo them into joining but the members of the Principality know this would be bad for them economically as it would just put numerous trade restrictions on them. They remain friends, however. No need to anger the diplomats who could arrange to have punitive tariffs placed on them.

TGE: Given their distance, there is little official contact between them. Trade is limited to cultural goods like literature, and music mostly to the billions of Wolven in the TGE. The Kreeghor for the most part doesn't care as long as the imported goods are of a non-political nature.

FWC: Friendly relations but little trade because above all else the Principality is a mercantile power and the FWC cannot afford much. That said several IDS ships found their way into the FCW fleets in exchange for technical schematics for TGE ships and some samples of their military hardware.

UWW: Due to distance there is little contact between the two governments. Like the TGE there is limited trade of cultural products between the various Wolven elements of the UWW. There is some trade and IDS has sold some support ships to the Warlock Navy in the past.

Splugorth: No official contact. Any sighting of Splugorth ships provokes an immediate response from the Principality SDF.

Paradise Federation: Limited relations and limited trade.

Other: There are thousands of small governments out there that do not have a well-established industrial base. These are the bread and butter for Principality corporations.