Fleets of the Three Galaxies
Posted: Wed Nov 23, 2005 9:33 am
Just to prove that, now that my family is nicely moved into our new digs, I am working on finnishing up my Rifter "Fleets" article.
"Fleets of the Three Galaxies" will take a look at definitive classes of starships, where space battles take place, what space fighters are good for (and what they cannot do). It will also include notable facilities and commanders for the CAF, the TGE, the Golgan Argosy, the Warlock Navy, and the Altess Armoria.
Below is a sample taken from the section on the Golgan. Enjoy.
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Notable Facilities:
Feynman Radio Array, Mekanik.
As the Kultural Revolution begins attacking its list of targets, the other power blocs in the Anvil Galaxy are all wondering the same thing: how in the hell did the resource-poor Golgan manage to upgrade their fleet with so much new technology in such a short period of time? The Golgan’s natural paranoia means that, ultimately, they trust only their own race. So their technological upgrades cannot be the product of an alliance with some other power. No intelligence agency has yet been able to come up with the real answer. Few would believe it even if they did. The technology in fact is entirely of Golgan design; just that it comes from several hundred years in the future.
Sixty-six years ago, the Coucil Scientifik abandoned the planet of Mekanik, leaving it entirely run by machines. The Council was curious to see what would happen when all of the machines were left to make their own decisions. When two robots walked into the government buildings on Gologo Maxus, and claimed to be the new delegates from Mekanik, the founders of the Kultural Revolution saw their chance. A bloodless coup was staged, and in the course of a single afternoon, the Golgan Republik became a militocracy under the leadership of Gaus Binjo. The new government’s first order of business was to make Mekanik a full member planet.
Then the robots and the Revolution leaders got to work. The Argosy needed a complete overhaul, but the technology gap was too great between the Golgan and their neighbours. Obtaining outside help was impossible, and there was not enough time to develop all the needed systems. So a massive device was built on Mekanik that would allow the leaders of the Revolution to receive information from the future: a Feynman Radio.
The mathematics that allow the Feynman Radio to work were developed almost entirely by the robots of Mekanik. Their theory goes like this: you jiggle an electron, and it makes a radio wave. That wave travels outwards into space. It’s also traveling outwards in time; that is, leaving its source and traveling to a receiver in the future. However, if there is an equal and opposite reaction for everything in the universe, then that jiggled electron is also sending a kind of "inverse wave" that does the opposite of the first: it travels backward though time, to arrive at a source. Thus, a weapon schematic completed four centuries from now can be “faxed” back in time, and used by the Golgan living in the present.
The very idea of gaining information and intelligence from the future is something no one else has even dreamed of. It is generally accepted as a fact, even by the magic-using cultures of The Three Galaxies, that the past cannot be altered. One cannot travel back in time, nor change was has already happened. But with the Feynman Radio, the Golgan seem to have found loophole in the physics of the universe. They are not changing the past, but merely altering the future to one more preferable to the Republik.
The Radio is not without its limitations. Firstly, communication is one-way: backwards. The present-day Golgan get whatever the future Golgan feel like sending. And although they should be able to receive messages from any point in the future, they have been doing almost all of their “talking” with Golgan who claim to be living four hundred years from now. The future Golgan have been very sketchy with descriptions what their life is like. The directors of the Radio project believe that four centuries from now, the Republik is either in complete shambles, or does not exist at all, and that the future Golgan are directing the present-day Golgan in ways to avoid this fate.
The future Golgan will often send intelligence of things that have happened to them, but have yet to occur in the present, allowing the Argosy to prepare for large battles before they are fought. However, with every altered present event, the future (where the Feynman transmissions are being sent from) is also altered. So this information is not always correct, as it might have applied to an event that no longer will happen. Or which has no longer happened.
Confused? So are the men and women in charge of the Project. They simply take it on faith that they are doing the right thing, and blindly trust the voices on the other end of the line.
Notable Commanders:
Gaus Binjo, First Citizen of the Republik, Leader of the Kultural Revolution.
Gaus Elia Binjo is now doing what he was groomed his entire life to do: lead the Republik to a new era of greatness and security. His mother, Littain Twenik Binjo, has been head of the Council Scientifik for the past 200 years. It was she who ordered Mekanik turned entirely over to machine control, and it is she who now heads up the Feynman Radio Array.
When he was born, Elia Binjo was immediately identified as having all four heightened Golgan senses. He was educated in the finest state-run private schools, and trained from a very early age in the art of rhetoric and political maneuverings. It was assumed by all that he would go on to serve on, and perhaps even lead, the Council Politik. So when he joined the Republikan Guard at age 50 (after finishing 35 years of bureaucratic study), only his mother was not surprised.
His education and ability to command others should have allowed him to quickly rise to the rank of Gaus. But when the Army never sees any action, elevations in rank are hard to come by. Elia and a dozen select others were then organized into a special “investigative task force” under the command of the Council Scientifik. Binjo’s task force was sent on missions of study and exploration far from the boarders of the Republik, bringing them into hostile contact with all manner of alien races. By the time he turned 90, Binjo had seen more combat than any member of the Republikan Guard, and his underlings were a small but finely honed fighting force.
Upon returning to the Republik, Binjo’s group came to see that the Republik was disintegrating through its own apathy and inaction. With every world that left, the buffer zone around Gologo Maxus grew smaller and smaller. Binjo came to believe that action must taken to save the Republik from itself, even if it meant a complete societal overhaul. The Kultural Revolution was born.
Binjo’s group of fighters, now calling themselves the Assemblage, began to find like-minded Golgan. Their numbers grew into a well-organized underground movement. When the robots of Mekanik presented themselves to the Council, it was Binjo’s group who secretly entered into talks with them, asking what they could provide in return for full membership and protection. One hundred days later, with production of the Feyman Radio already underway (and Binjo’s mother leading the construction), and the Council Politik still unsure what to do, the Assemblage announced that they were now taking over as the ruling party.
So far, the Revolution has made great strides. Using the future information from the Feynman Radio, Gaus Binjo has delivered on what he promised: that the Republik would rebuild its crumbling buffer zone. The majority of Golgan see this as a new golden age, and are going along with the militocracy for the time being. They are used to having their civil liberties stepped on in the name of increased security. However, Binjo is playing a desperate gamble that few are fully aware of. The coffers of the Republik have been almost entirely emptied with the construction of the enhanced Argosy, and should the Revolution be somehow thwarted, the entire thing will collapse into economic anarchy. Binjo knows that the Republik was doomed anyway, and that he only has one shot to save it. He has become increasingly dependant on the intelligence provided him by the future Golgan, to the point where he often cannot make an important decision by himself.
Quick Stats
Alignment: Scrupulous Good
OCC/Experience Level: 10th level Golgan Administrator
Atrtributes:
Hand to Hand: Basic
Special Powers: has all four enhanced Golgan senses (see Anvil Galaxy, pg. 57).
Notes: Can often be found living aboard one of the new Sylnor Dreadnoughts, and is growing ever more dependant on the Feyman information to direct the course of the Republik. If the situation continues, the Republik will in fact become a chronocracy, ruled by Golgan from 400 years in the future. Gaus Binjo enjoys music, even though he cannot sing a note and is totally tone deaf.
"Fleets of the Three Galaxies" will take a look at definitive classes of starships, where space battles take place, what space fighters are good for (and what they cannot do). It will also include notable facilities and commanders for the CAF, the TGE, the Golgan Argosy, the Warlock Navy, and the Altess Armoria.
Below is a sample taken from the section on the Golgan. Enjoy.
_______________________________________________
Notable Facilities:
Feynman Radio Array, Mekanik.
As the Kultural Revolution begins attacking its list of targets, the other power blocs in the Anvil Galaxy are all wondering the same thing: how in the hell did the resource-poor Golgan manage to upgrade their fleet with so much new technology in such a short period of time? The Golgan’s natural paranoia means that, ultimately, they trust only their own race. So their technological upgrades cannot be the product of an alliance with some other power. No intelligence agency has yet been able to come up with the real answer. Few would believe it even if they did. The technology in fact is entirely of Golgan design; just that it comes from several hundred years in the future.
Sixty-six years ago, the Coucil Scientifik abandoned the planet of Mekanik, leaving it entirely run by machines. The Council was curious to see what would happen when all of the machines were left to make their own decisions. When two robots walked into the government buildings on Gologo Maxus, and claimed to be the new delegates from Mekanik, the founders of the Kultural Revolution saw their chance. A bloodless coup was staged, and in the course of a single afternoon, the Golgan Republik became a militocracy under the leadership of Gaus Binjo. The new government’s first order of business was to make Mekanik a full member planet.
Then the robots and the Revolution leaders got to work. The Argosy needed a complete overhaul, but the technology gap was too great between the Golgan and their neighbours. Obtaining outside help was impossible, and there was not enough time to develop all the needed systems. So a massive device was built on Mekanik that would allow the leaders of the Revolution to receive information from the future: a Feynman Radio.
The mathematics that allow the Feynman Radio to work were developed almost entirely by the robots of Mekanik. Their theory goes like this: you jiggle an electron, and it makes a radio wave. That wave travels outwards into space. It’s also traveling outwards in time; that is, leaving its source and traveling to a receiver in the future. However, if there is an equal and opposite reaction for everything in the universe, then that jiggled electron is also sending a kind of "inverse wave" that does the opposite of the first: it travels backward though time, to arrive at a source. Thus, a weapon schematic completed four centuries from now can be “faxed” back in time, and used by the Golgan living in the present.
The very idea of gaining information and intelligence from the future is something no one else has even dreamed of. It is generally accepted as a fact, even by the magic-using cultures of The Three Galaxies, that the past cannot be altered. One cannot travel back in time, nor change was has already happened. But with the Feynman Radio, the Golgan seem to have found loophole in the physics of the universe. They are not changing the past, but merely altering the future to one more preferable to the Republik.
The Radio is not without its limitations. Firstly, communication is one-way: backwards. The present-day Golgan get whatever the future Golgan feel like sending. And although they should be able to receive messages from any point in the future, they have been doing almost all of their “talking” with Golgan who claim to be living four hundred years from now. The future Golgan have been very sketchy with descriptions what their life is like. The directors of the Radio project believe that four centuries from now, the Republik is either in complete shambles, or does not exist at all, and that the future Golgan are directing the present-day Golgan in ways to avoid this fate.
The future Golgan will often send intelligence of things that have happened to them, but have yet to occur in the present, allowing the Argosy to prepare for large battles before they are fought. However, with every altered present event, the future (where the Feynman transmissions are being sent from) is also altered. So this information is not always correct, as it might have applied to an event that no longer will happen. Or which has no longer happened.
Confused? So are the men and women in charge of the Project. They simply take it on faith that they are doing the right thing, and blindly trust the voices on the other end of the line.
Notable Commanders:
Gaus Binjo, First Citizen of the Republik, Leader of the Kultural Revolution.
Gaus Elia Binjo is now doing what he was groomed his entire life to do: lead the Republik to a new era of greatness and security. His mother, Littain Twenik Binjo, has been head of the Council Scientifik for the past 200 years. It was she who ordered Mekanik turned entirely over to machine control, and it is she who now heads up the Feynman Radio Array.
When he was born, Elia Binjo was immediately identified as having all four heightened Golgan senses. He was educated in the finest state-run private schools, and trained from a very early age in the art of rhetoric and political maneuverings. It was assumed by all that he would go on to serve on, and perhaps even lead, the Council Politik. So when he joined the Republikan Guard at age 50 (after finishing 35 years of bureaucratic study), only his mother was not surprised.
His education and ability to command others should have allowed him to quickly rise to the rank of Gaus. But when the Army never sees any action, elevations in rank are hard to come by. Elia and a dozen select others were then organized into a special “investigative task force” under the command of the Council Scientifik. Binjo’s task force was sent on missions of study and exploration far from the boarders of the Republik, bringing them into hostile contact with all manner of alien races. By the time he turned 90, Binjo had seen more combat than any member of the Republikan Guard, and his underlings were a small but finely honed fighting force.
Upon returning to the Republik, Binjo’s group came to see that the Republik was disintegrating through its own apathy and inaction. With every world that left, the buffer zone around Gologo Maxus grew smaller and smaller. Binjo came to believe that action must taken to save the Republik from itself, even if it meant a complete societal overhaul. The Kultural Revolution was born.
Binjo’s group of fighters, now calling themselves the Assemblage, began to find like-minded Golgan. Their numbers grew into a well-organized underground movement. When the robots of Mekanik presented themselves to the Council, it was Binjo’s group who secretly entered into talks with them, asking what they could provide in return for full membership and protection. One hundred days later, with production of the Feyman Radio already underway (and Binjo’s mother leading the construction), and the Council Politik still unsure what to do, the Assemblage announced that they were now taking over as the ruling party.
So far, the Revolution has made great strides. Using the future information from the Feynman Radio, Gaus Binjo has delivered on what he promised: that the Republik would rebuild its crumbling buffer zone. The majority of Golgan see this as a new golden age, and are going along with the militocracy for the time being. They are used to having their civil liberties stepped on in the name of increased security. However, Binjo is playing a desperate gamble that few are fully aware of. The coffers of the Republik have been almost entirely emptied with the construction of the enhanced Argosy, and should the Revolution be somehow thwarted, the entire thing will collapse into economic anarchy. Binjo knows that the Republik was doomed anyway, and that he only has one shot to save it. He has become increasingly dependant on the intelligence provided him by the future Golgan, to the point where he often cannot make an important decision by himself.
Quick Stats
Alignment: Scrupulous Good
OCC/Experience Level: 10th level Golgan Administrator
Atrtributes:
Hand to Hand: Basic
Special Powers: has all four enhanced Golgan senses (see Anvil Galaxy, pg. 57).
Notes: Can often be found living aboard one of the new Sylnor Dreadnoughts, and is growing ever more dependant on the Feyman information to direct the course of the Republik. If the situation continues, the Republik will in fact become a chronocracy, ruled by Golgan from 400 years in the future. Gaus Binjo enjoys music, even though he cannot sing a note and is totally tone deaf.
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