Random Interstellar Empires/Star Kingdoms

[SolCannibal]

Ok, decided to divide things a bit because my ramblings were getting a little too long...


Speaking of Alien Intelligence and other supernatural threats, not every monster will see eye to eye or have the same priorities - some enjoy worship or sacrifice as more "flavourful" sources of PPE than ley lines, others might prefer more indirect or underhanded ways of dealing with mortals where physical confrontation is much less of a threat and raw brute power matters less, plan themselves around access and control to strategic resources like pyramids and other places of power where they might turn MDC with a little fudging of occult architecture or other tricks. Plus the scavengers or gutter trash of the supernatural world like grave or dimensional ghouls, malignous, dar'ota, dybbuks, vampires, gremlins, terlins, witchlings and a number of others. Specifics can add a lot to the enviroment.

Goqua and Sowki for example are two kinds of major (and not so) manipulators that might have not much of an issue with either turning SDC and the presence of high-tech - same goes for a number of critters and groups from either BtS, AU, Nightbane, N&SS or AtB, to name a few who might have little issue with "magic poorer" places and see Androbar as a desirable or convenient target to settle into and exploit.

Sowki in particular have something of a preference for hot and dry places where they can play god or secret masters, from what i remember of the Conversion Book, so having a number of them playing "the founders returned" cult leaders out to liberate their home and favored acolytes from invaders and "traitorous past minions who lost their way" from ruins repurposed as temple-palaces bases, whose troves they loot under the charade of "recovery" to their own benefit, can make a great and quite solid fit, what's nice considering Sowki are a mostly forgotten (little to no love since Pantheons of the Megaverse) but potentially quite respectable threat, having a power level, intelligence and tech to potentially match the True Naruni, imho.


Alternately, entities who are more "rooted" to their bases/place of summoning, such as the Host in Wormwood, would simply accept the hand they were dealt - freedom is better than eternal sleep/oblivion - and simply dig in at their new home, since they are the ones with more of a stake into making the most of whatever place they end upon - not to mention controlling and restricting any sources of power outside of themselves.

Indeed, the fact that once arriving in a world/dimension the Host do not have an option to leave for greener pastures means they have quite a stake in becoming the top dog of wherever they are - and convincing everyone else of being so, for the sake of minimizing opposition to their rule, what can mean an interest in downplaying the relevance of whatever local powers and history might have existed before their dominance, in a curious mirror of the personality cults of countless dictators present or past.

Just that already gives us two rough "power blocs" each with their own powers, priorities and particular modus operandi to jumpstart things from, while not exactly standing as the be-all and end-all of local powers at play. Far from it in fact, since one could add for example the previously cited Goqua - because a race of cheats, manipulators and tricksters with stats to match adult dragons is something one should never underestimate (as some Nightlords can definitely tell you).


Or, for something more off the beaten path, let's say - Temporal Raiders.
What if the mind-boggling variety of ruins of different styles, cultures and periods was not the product of aeons of occupation or the rise and fall of empire but the defunct and somewhat lost legacy of their one forgotten attempt at forming an actual society of their own? A world-sized theme park/resort town formed from the loot of a million worlds, eras and alternate realities, then abandoned to the vagaries of fate and individualism?
And with that we have another possible layer of history or faction to add into the mix and stir things with.

[taalismn]

Tweaked the original posting on Androbar to give some extra flavor to the system's solar orbital dynamics and add a little more definition to the local ambient PPE field.

[SolCannibal]

Tweaked the original posting on Androbar to give some extra flavor to the system's solar orbital dynamics and add a little more definition to the local ambient PPE field.

Any thoughts on the idea of the Host (as described in Wormwood), Sowki and other as some of the brotherhoods and cartels jockeying for power and empire in the dustbin of Androbar?

Head playing a bit with matters of technology and imagery. From what is in the description, the population would be somewhere between 1760s to 1910s equivalent when it comes available technologies that are not imported - or dug from a ruin of some sort or other.

What sounds reasonably good and maybe even a little beyond (or much beyond) the "beast-drawn carts" imagery given early on. Trains, steamships and even ocean liners might be possible.

Until one remembers that Androbar is arid, a place of sand wastes vast enough to swallow Earth countries, dead seas, flat dry lake & riverbeds.
That even its poles are seasonal in their ice covering paints a more complex and nuanced scenario.

Water is uncommon, essential for the continued survival of all life in the planet and protected or disputed wherever it is available. Possibly too valuable to be wasted by turning into steam to move machinery.

Mills and the kind of primitive machinery they use - and that served as essential foundation and inspiration to the processes leading into the industrial revolution - would have to be part of the structure of aqueducts to even be possible since rivers are not easily available or more probably mostly replaced by windmills, that might be almost the norm for what passes for local industry in much of Androbar. And from there it might jump straight into either combustion engines or something using electricity or magnetic forces - if it ever does such a jump anywhere, that is.

The absence of seas, lakes and rivers would also make sea or river travel impossible and anything resembling a boat or ship pretty much useless - though the gigantic canyons of dead seas and the extensions of dry, flat riverbeds might end up as a peculiar natural worldwide network or ersatz roads. At least until the wind and sands of ages cover a number of them that is. I imagine some groups might make good money out of maintaning such paths clean and open for trade, at least in places. Land sailing might also be very much a thing in the absence of combustion engines or anything similar, specially if the exploration of wind power is very much a thing in native cultures as previously suggested.

And well, balloons. Balloons could be quite strategically important from both economical and military perspectives in providing relatively fast and safe air transportation. Most of them probably of the hot air kind, since helium is ridiculously hard to find and extract, while hidrogen is not only anything but safe but also a key ingredient of producing water whrever there is oxygen, ergo a very huge no-no to its use for the locals i dare say.

Alternatively, the lower gravity means that large flying animals, maybe even strong enough to serve as mounts or expensive beasts of (limited) burden could be a possibility, specially when one acounts for much of the fauna and flora being mutated descendants of alien species brought from other worlds or dimensions.


All of that said, i imagine that local drilling/prospecting technology in the planet might be surprisingly advanced in comparison with other areas (maybe mid-20th century even), due to how digging for wells and subterranean sources of water in general can be a major factor pretty much anywhere.

Either that or syphooning hydrogen from the gas giants for water production if you are one of the lucky fortunate few to possess spaceships, interestellar or not.

[taalismn]

Down on their luck Sowki and Host troublemakers looking for a few cheap thrills could definitely be possible behind-the-scenes Bosses for trouble on Androbar.

Yep...those with the industrial survival technology(or magic) can become lords on Androbar...provided they can manage to survive attempts by others to seize that tech/magic for themselves.

But even if you're in charge, is it worth it? Androbar's the back of nowhere. It is still, however, a 'better to rule in hell, than serve in heaven' deal for some folks.

And the fact that, lack of foliage and open water aside, it still somehow has a -breathable- atmosphere, tolerable temperatures and gravity, and the soil can be enticed to grow compatible foodstuffs. Again, though, in a setting with cheap FTL/Interdimensional travel, Androbar suffers because it's easier for most people to go find someplace better to live. And the societal rot it's fallen into, that keeps most others away because developing the planet would mean inheriting the cesspools that the Androbaran communities have fallen into*.

*Though I hadn't originally intended it, this makes Androbar a PERFECT basket case for USA intervention and development.....It's not quite a shatter world., and if the USA devotes the time and resources, they could restore order and even do some mild terraforming....set up moisture-lock regions and bring in cometary ice, etc..... Part of the payoff would be access to the same chain of lower-tech worlds that the Androbaran slavers are raiding...which could become trade partners in the USA network and uplift opportunities.
This sort of interest might make Androbar even more attractive to Sowki and others to seize and manipulate, except that the USA has an earned rep for dealing with the supernatural and horror hunting. SMART supernaturals and Infernals may have heard of this rep and wisely decide to stay away from small ponds where they might be too easily discovered and cornered.

[SolCannibal]

Down on their luck Sowki and Host troublemakers looking for a few cheap thrills could definitely be possible behind-the-scenes Bosses for trouble on Androbar.

Yep...those with the industrial survival technology(or magic) can become lords on Androbar...provided they can manage to survive attempts by others to seize that tech/magic for themselves.

But even if you're in charge, is it worth it? Androbar's the back of nowhere. It is still, however, a 'better to rule in hell, than serve in heaven' deal for some folks.

Oh yeah, that certainly applies to certain folks and tenfold in the case of Host - "better to rule in hell than entombed in darkness, forever" is part and parcel of their deal. Once they manage to free themselves by possessing the right kind of desperate &/or vengeful people they have no way out but conquest of whatever new world or dimension they got settled into. As overlords go they are forever backed against the wall - no escape through dimensional teleport for them.

Or there is, though? It just crossed my mind that, in this particular case, relocating to other celestial bodies in the Androbar's star system or neighboring ones might be a viable escape route for any members of the Host, what should be a welcome respite indeed for them - damn, if they become more aware of the possibility of space exploration even they might consider the option to just skedaddle and search for better worlds much like other powers of darkness, at least in the same corner of cosmos (what could lead to the improbable scenario of a branch of the Host turning into a world-marauding invader army, a whole new can of worms for heroes and nations of all sorts to deal with).

All of that said, i would guess there are none of the Host present in Androbar (yet), since enviroment alteration and control is one of their major powers, something that would make an arrival by the Host very noticeable indeed as they proceeded to make the most out of it for influence over the natives, who might be all too tempted indeed to just accept the idea of takeover by beings capable of reshaping the planet into more tolerable form.

And the fact that, lack of foliage and open water aside, it still somehow has a -breathable- atmosphere, tolerable temperatures and gravity, and the soil can be enticed to grow compatible foodstuffs. Again, though, in a setting with cheap FTL/Interdimensional travel, Androbar suffers because it's easier for most people to go find someplace better to live. And the societal rot it's fallen into, that keeps most others away because developing the planet would mean inheriting the cesspools that the Androbaran communities have fallen into*.

*Though I hadn't originally intended it, this makes Androbar a PERFECT basket case for USA intervention and development.....It's not quite a shatter world., and if the USA devotes the time and resources, they could restore order and even do some mild terraforming....set up moisture-lock regions and bring in cometary ice, etc..... Part of the payoff would be access to the same chain of lower-tech worlds that the Androbaran slavers are raiding...which could become trade partners in the USA network and uplift opportunities.
This sort of interest might make Androbar even more attractive to Sowki and others to seize and manipulate, except that the USA has an earned rep for dealing with the supernatural and horror hunting. SMART supernaturals and Infernals may have heard of this rep and wisely decide to stay away from small ponds where they might be too easily discovered and cornered.

But in the Sowki's case there's something of a twist - one sapient's hell is another's prime real state. They as a species prefer hot climates and they simply relish opportunities to acquire great power, wealth and the worship from lesser creatures. A place with layers upon layers of lost treasures to repossess and an enviroment pleasant for them but harsh enough on the locals to make those lesser creatures somewhat more accepting of some harshness from above for the sake of survival? That's nothing short of ideal for your typical sowki in search of beings to manipulate and lord over as a cult leader or god returned!

Doubly so if their typical rivals, goqua, mindolar (attracted to places with large communities for them to secretly control and dominate), spider demons (who are more into tropical, jungle enviroments) & vampires (sowki hate vampires) are not around. So, from the particular perspective of the "serpents", a world like Androbar is pretty much the efinition of a lucky find on its own, made only more appealing by the potential of the Gulf as stomping grounds - and fight that much harder than almost everyone else in the Megaverse (beside members of the Host with nowhere else to go - maybe) to keep it because of that.

[SolCannibal]

And... one little thing that has been nagging at me for some time finally bloomed into a question:

Where is Androbar's damn moon? The absence of one is a very peculiar thing for an earth-type habitable planet.

And some funny thoughts and hypotheses:

- Lots of ruins, tombs and other buried places full of old dead bodies - and no full moon nights to compel them into coming to walk into the surface.
This place is a virtual godsend for grave ghouls (who must infest many of the larger locales to a positively disturbing degree).

- Could whatever enviromental change lead to the drying out of Androbar's ocean floor and seas be somehow connected to the present absence of a natural satellite around the planet? That's distinctly possible, not to say probable even....

[taalismn]

I've had a lot of habitable planets without moons...though most of those have been in turn moons of larger planets....

But, yeah.....Imagine being given the task of, as part of a terraforming project, assembling or guiding a suitable moon(or moons, of you're figuring on using smaller, more easily shepherded masses for a net effect) around a planet to make it more livable......

"Hey, what's that up there?"
"Haven't you heard? It's our new moon."

[SolCannibal]

I've had a lot of habitable planets without moons...though most of those have been in turn moons of larger planets....

I think you implied something of a similar dynamic between Androbar and the Golrich gas giant, though their arrangement is also not quite that and at least a little askew it seems. Either way, there's the potential of a connection to whatever caused Androbar seas' to die out.


But anyway, the combination of the planet possibly having more lost or buried cities of the dead under the sands than living ones in its surface combined with the absence of a moon to compel them into coming to the surface against their will could mean the place of chockfull of ghoul packs if not whole tribes existing in many of these same ruins to periodically feed on the dead, be they ancients of a variety of species or groups of explorers to be baited into all kinds of pittfalls and traps for the sake of periodically replenishing their larders.

But, yeah.....Imagine being given the task of, as part of a terraforming project, assembling or guiding a suitable moon(or moons, of you're figuring on using smaller, more easily shepherded masses for a net effect) around a planet to make it more livable......

"Hey, what's that up there?"
"Haven't you heard? It's our new moon."

There are some signs of irregular or unexplained things involving almost all of the gas giants, if i'm not mistaken. How any of that might help or further complicate things, it's utterly up for grabs.

[taalismn]

[quote="SolCannibal"]

I think you implied something of a similar dynamic between Androbar and the Golrich gas giant, though their arrangement is also not quite that and at least a little askew it seems. Either way, there's the potential of a connection to whatever caused Androbar seas' to die out./quote]

My Great Question is...Where do ANY of the desert planets in science fiction get their oxygen from? Without forests or ocean plants to liberate oxygen, those planets' inhabitants should be asphyxiating(unless they're already living on borrowed time). Barsoom at least had a few valley jungles , but still needed a giant (and vulnerable) atmosphere factory that processed the atmosphere.
I remember reading a Barroom comic that had the previous dominant (human) species on its last breaths, racing to perfect the atmosphere plant, having seen that their more oxygen-efficient creations(the Red Martians) weren't enough to survive the dying of the seas and the thinning of the atmosphere(The Black Martians retreated to their underground sea, the Yellow Martians to their domed arctic cities).

As for Arrakis....maybe a side product of spice blows was free oxygen....though nothing was mentioned as such...only that waste gases from the process of melange-formation in a pre-spice mass were being released and exchanged.

[SolCannibal]

I think you implied something of a similar dynamic between Androbar and the Golrich gas giant, though their arrangement is also not quite that and at least a little askew it seems. Either way, there's the potential of a connection to whatever caused Androbar seas' to die out.

My Great Question is...Where do ANY of the desert planets in science fiction get their oxygen from? Without forests or ocean plants to liberate oxygen, those planets' inhabitants should be asphyxiating(unless they're already living on borrowed time). Barsoom at least had a few valley jungles , but still needed a giant (and vulnerable) atmosphere factory that processed the atmosphere.
I remember reading a Barroom comic that had the previous dominant (human) species on its last breaths, racing to perfect the atmosphere plant, having seen that their more oxygen-efficient creations(the Red Martians) weren't enough to survive the dying of the seas and the thinning of the atmosphere(The Black Martians retreated to their underground sea, the Yellow Martians to their domed arctic cities).

As for Arrakis....maybe a side product of spice blows was free oxygen....though nothing was mentioned as such...only that waste gases from the process of melange-formation in a pre-spice mass were being released and exchanged.

Well, truth be told, Africa and Australia are there to show almost continent-wide desertical landmasses in a world where 3/4 of the surface is covered in water.
Because unless you are a fish, you can't expect to live off seawater...

Geology and continental plates positioning play a huge role in ocean current formation and weather patterns across the whole planet. Just a few dominoes in the right/wrong places and one could end with a planet superficially nice but where available surface freshwater is actually very hard to come by.

Add in a few wannabe planetshapers with more ambition than care, one or more waves of immigrants/refugees with much more immediate priorities than long run sustainability (or listening to armchair ecologists whose languages they can't even understand without AI or magical help), two or more groups of emotionally-charged people with greater firepower than patience or trust.... and things can go very pear-shaped, very fast. Cyclically even.

[taalismn]

...Giving thought to developing the Swayhzan as a distinct human sept and tallying up points of interest for a Tourism Guide t the United Systems Alliance....

[SolCannibal]

...Giving thought to developing the Swayhzan as a distinct human sept and tallying up points of interest for a Tourism Guide t the United Systems Alliance....

Up to you - by the figures you threw initially the planet might have something like half a dozen distinct human septs at least and that covers only half the population, covered between possibly twice as many "D-bee" ones.

[taalismn]

Since I already mentioned and stated the Panmanduans as a desert-adapted branch of baseline Humanity, I'm thinking the Swayhzan will go a more mystic route to surviving in a desert environment....a combination of psionics and inherent magic to regulate their body temperature and moisture, as opposed to the Panmanduans who look like desiccated mummies.
(I find myself growing fonder of the Pandmanduans...they started out as something of a Keith Laumer-inspired species but the joke became part of their culture and their culture began to evolve into an energetic and ...well, for want of a better word, joyous...such that I've taken a liking to them and hope to feature them more often. And maybe the Swayhzan will too...

[SolCannibal]

Since I already mentioned and stated the Panmanduans as a desert-adapted branch of baseline Humanity, I'm thinking the Swayhzan will go a more mystic route to surviving in a desert environment....a combination of psionics and inherent magic to regulate their body temperature and moisture, as opposed to the Panmanduans who look like desiccated mummies.
(I find myself growing fonder of the Pandmanduans...they started out as something of a Keith Laumer-inspired species but the joke became part of their culture and their culture began to evolve into an energetic and ...well, for want of a better word, joyous...such that I've taken a liking to them and hope to feature them more often. And maybe the Swayhzan will too...

I would say bombastic might be a good word to describe the Pandmanduans. And well, you'll have to shake up a little with their little nest in space if you intend to feature them some more.

About a mystic/psychic route to surviving in a desert environment - weird as it may sound, you might want to take a look into the Gargoyles, i think.

[Borast]

My Great Question is...Where do ANY of the desert planets in science fiction get their oxygen from? Without forests or ocean plants to liberate oxygen, those planets' inhabitants should be asphyxiating(unless they're already living on borrowed time). Barsoom at least had a few valley jungles , but still needed a giant (and vulnerable) atmosphere factory that processed the atmosphere.

It is possible that chemovores in the sand, or deep underground could release molecular oxygen as farts...
It's what actually killed almost all lifeforms on Earth a couple billion ago...a waste gas that was toxic to the anoxic bacteria and single cellular organisms.

Alternatively, molecular disassociation - no magnetoshpere, allowing high energy particles to break H[sub]2[/sub]O molocules into radical hydrogen and free oxygen.

[NMI]

Is the USA empire in this topic? Can someone post a link to it if it is?
I see it mentioned a few times in the ship building topic.

[SolCannibal]

Is the USA empire in this topic? Can someone post a link to it if it is?
I see it mentioned a few times in the ship building topic.

Here is the gist of the United Systems Alliance as a star-nation.

More info on member-worlds, protectorates, regular civil & military tech, partnerships with other stellar polities and so on you'll find peppered all across this topic, along with the ones in Starship Designs and Paladin Steel Storefront.

[taalismn]

Law and Order in the United Systems Alliance
“Law in the GNE has been dictated by the needs of survival on a hellworld. The GNE tries to make the most expedient use of limited resources, including manpower. They don’t have the desire or the means to waste resources holding people who in any legal conscious law system would or should never see freedom again essentially forever, fed, housed, clothed, and protected while others on the outside are suffering for want of those essentials. Once they’ve ascertained beyond a shadow of a doubt what you did, you are either freed as innocent, or convicted if guilty. If you are useful, you are put to work and expected to cooperate. If you don’t, they have ways to make you cooperate. If you are useless and irredeemable, you are disposed of. Many of the Fringe worlds have similar legal codes. Waste not, want not.
Many, but not all. The member worlds of the United Systems Alliance maintain their own legal systems and punishments. Fraud on Eugenia’s a soft time sentence, while on Valkos it’s a capital offense for stealing public resources and gets you hard time or execution. Get found guilty of murder on Crosyar and they throw you over the wall for the local wildlife to play with. Cybolyte may not have a death penalty as such, but if your crime’s serious enough, you could get mindwiped into a dull-witted farm drone. Pretty much everybody hates pirates and slavers.”

“The USA tries to be fair-minded, but there’s a lot of bias in the Fringe when it comes to the law. The USA is open and tolerant of sophonts, organic and inorganic, but the GNE regards vampires the same way they see the Sorm; monsters to be exterminated. Others, like werewolves? There’s a current effort to handle things on a more case-by-case basis, but committing crimes while were is asking for a silver bullet. Trying to broadly define things by ‘living’ and ‘unliving’ gets even more gnarly, because we got a few intelligent mummy-reifications and ghosts, transferred intelligences, and haunted objects that qualify as sophonts. Lawyers on the Fringe really are on new ground here.”

A good part of the United Systems Alliance Marshals’ Service’s(USAMS) work is dedicated to ironing out legal issues between the legal authorities of the various member worlds and deciding what law framework applies to the colonies and protectorates.
Another important part of the USAMS’s job is coordinating punishments across the USA, especially when an offworlder is convicted of a crime. For some species and cultures, the punishments handed down on other worlds may be inappropriate, unusually harsh, or ineffective. Serving ham sandwiches to a member of an Ulmahd sect is an invitation to war by the cloven-hoof-fearing group, regardless of what the prisoner was convicted of. A comfortable solitary jailhouse stay in a Rebliss lockup would drive a human mad with sensory deprivation. Human calisthenics in a human penitentiary would be unhealthy to a Kai-Shem minotaur, who regard proper exercise to include near-deadly pummeling and roughhousing. The USAMS tries to provide information and guidelines for proper and appropriate punishments for each species and ethnic group.
The general codex of legal law and conduct is known as the Uniform Legal Code, and while it is still very much a work in progress, it is seen as a good general guide for law enforcement in the Fringe.

Regardless of their OCCs, officers of the USAMS are increasingly being looked up to by the peoples of the Fringe as agents of law and order. Many are referred to as ‘Usams’ or simply ‘Sams’, and they are becoming a presence on the Rim.

Punishments:
Capital Punishment:
“The minotaurs of Kai-Shem may drug death-row convicts before they ax them to pieces, unlike the old days, but the end result is the same. The Nettavanans, however, don’t bother; they feel that if your crime merits death, you should FEEL it.”

The Fringe being the Fringe, and the GNE coming from the hellworld of Rifts Earth, there is a disturbing(by the standards of more ‘civilized’ worlds/societies) amount of ‘final justice’. If criminals aren’t killed in the act, many face execution by the state for their crimes.
Genocide/Xenocide is a death-sentence crime agreed upon by everybody in the USA. And ‘just following orders’ doesn’t net you any sympathy.
(Of course, what’s unsaid is that the worlds of the Rim have launched extermination actions against species like the Sorm, Star Wasps, and Chor’ii, deeming them ‘imminent threats to sophonts’)
Piracy is one of the crimes that gets a lot of death sentences attached to it. Piracy with deaths or slavery involved will land a pirate on death row. Hijacking priority humanitarian cargoes is another hotseat charge.
(Privateering occupies a gray area here; the USA regularly blasts the hell out of mercenaries and privateers hailing from such powers as the Delian Consortium. while empowering its own Irregulars to act on their behalf)
Slavery, the willful trafficking in sophont beings in involuntary captivity, is a sore point with the Fringe. Between alien groups like the Splugorth and fringeworlds gone rotten and descending into slaver societies, the USA has little tolerance for slavers. The GNE, in particular, tends to shoot slavers on sight. When combined with piracy, slavery is a sure ticket to a death sentence in USA space. However, complicating matters is the fact that some Fringe states allow chattel or provisional indentureship that’s effectively slavery as a means of debt abatement.
(And the Shemarrian Star Nation is known to take slaves on the battlefield)
Rape is another hardline crime that is treated severely in the USA. Directly related to this is Mind-Rape, by either magic or psychic means, which can carry equally harsh penalties, starting with permanently removing the psychic’s psionic abilities. Even when a rapist doesn’t get terminal death, many USA worlds practice persona-death(the deconstruction of the criminal’s mind and personality, usually with a docile blank personality overlaid over it), and the Streleg practice the complete genetic neutering of convicted sex offenders into asexual ‘neurs’ or ‘ennuls’ completely devoid of sexual urgings(or indeed of any sort of gender identification). Again, as piracy, slavery, and rape often go hand in hand, rapists on the Fringe tend to have violent ends when caught. Persona Death, the willful and wrongful destruction of a sophont being’s psyche by magic, technological, or psionic means, is regarded legally as a form of rape, even though a form of persona wipe is used as a capital punishment by several USA worlds.
Treason is generally handled by individual USA members, but is generally treated severely by all, with death being a common sentence. Willingly compromising the defenses of member worlds, especially in the face of threats like the Splugorth, is asking for a death sentence if caught. The Skenzians, in particular, have a long aristocratic tradition of executing traitors to crown and country.
Malicious use of magic. psionics, or paranormal powers, especially if they result in body/mind death, carry severe penalties under the USA legal code. These can include measures to curtail or permanently remove a practitioner’s powers.

Though corruption in authority in the Fringe is a not-so-funny running joke, the USA takes corrupt law enforcement VERY seriously, and rotten cops are treated the same as any other gangster or murderer. Willful betrayal of one’s oath to uphold the law is treated almost as severely as treason and sometimes as high as treason(the Skenzi in particular do not take police corruption lightly).

The exact manner of execution varies from planet to planet. The GNE typically uses firearms(plasma vaporization being common) to execute criminals, and usually in a ‘Circle of Oblivion’ that prevents the executed from being resurrected or raised as an undead(or, by the same token, ‘ghosted’ by haunting entities). Skensi, Kai-Shem, and Nettavan use headsmen and decapitation. Crosyar puts death sentence inmates over the city walls for the local wildlife to deal with. The Eugenians favor lethal injection. Despite popular culture saying otherwise, most Belter societies do not space their deathrow convicts(because flying frozen bodies can pose navigational hazards), but electrocute or suffocate them, before cremation(though sometimes recycling the bodies is part of custom). The death penalty on Valkos used to be far more common as a means of conserving resources, but as the situation has improved for that world, its use is being more uncommon. However, deathrow criminals on Valkos can still be ‘turned off’ by the removal of vital life support implants.

Mind-Wipe is another capital punishment, but requires greater care in the demolition of a criminal’s mind. Usually a criminal’s persona is totally deconstructed and a simpler and more ethical personality implanted in its place, and the new person assigned to a remote work assignment, such as a farm or labor camp, where they can contribute their work to society. The Rebliss, Streleg, Balsarians, Apisori and Paloiians favor mind-wipe over more terminal sentences. Not all USA members agree with this, citing some cases of recidivism, and the injustice of a criminal living on when their victims cannot.

Incarceration:
“Remember that this is the Fringe; they likely know of more than a few places they can put you down to do hard time that will make you wish they’d just killed you.”

The GNE on Rifts Earth generally frowned on long-duration incarceration because it tied up valuable resources. Criminals were either executed, served sentences with hard labor, or were expediently rehabbed(using voluntary or forced methods) to get the most use out of convicts for the least long term risk. Out offworld, where there is more leeway, the GNE, and later the USA, has the luxury of setting up prison facilities, usually remote outpost moons, worlds, or spacestations. The USA has also established a number of penal colonies, though generally there the hope is that convicts, once their sentence is served, will continue on as colonists, after helping establish a foothold on the planet.
Hard labor sentences are generally handed down for felonies. Where possible, criminals are expected to contribute to society by performing various necessary labor tasks. On outworlds, penal colonies often serve to prepare colonization sites for later colonial expansion or exploitation.

Bio-Suspension:
“Strip, shackle, shower, sedate and off to the suspension tubes you go for a long nap. And don’t worry about being neglected; our warden here’s a young dragon with LOTS of time on her hands to watch you like her personal hoard. ”

The USA has various means, technological and magical, of putting criminals into suspended animation for various durations. On some worlds, attempted murder can keep the convict in stasis until their intended victims have died of old age. Many USA legal systems use biosuspension as a means of keeping criminals contained until proper punishment can be set up, or for low-risk transport to punishment sites. Some go as far as to put suspects ‘on the shelf’ until their trials, though many others object to the practice, citing that suspects facing trial should be be conscious to cooperate with their lawyers in setting up their defense.
Bio-Suspension is controversial for many more reasons. It doesn’t always work for many beings, thanks to differing physiologies. Many regard bio-suspension as unreliable because long-duration sentences are contingent on long-term stability of the incarcerating agency and society. Others fear that putting criminals ‘on ice’ simply kicks the problem of what to do with them further down the road and makes it all the more certain that revived criminals, finding themselves even more out of touch with the times, will revert to familiar criminal behaviors just to get by. Yet others take issue that ‘sleeping through time’ is not the same as properly ‘serving time’. Some regard bio-suspension as a form of sensory deprivation punishment in itself. And there are some who object to some penal systems using the unconscious state of the criminals as opportunity to reprogram them using various subliminal suggestion systems.

Rehabilitation:
“Hello, Warden, I’d like to repeat my request to be made part of the biopool program. I feel I have much to contribute to society if given a second chance, and offering my body in service is an excellent means of demonstrating my sincerity. ”

Rehabilitation attempts to reform criminals into productive law-abiding citizens. Rehab programs run the gambit from religious indoctrination and job training to gene mod and personality alteration. Most rehab programs rely on the voluntary desire of the incarcerated to cooperate and better themselves, to become genuine law-abiding and productive citizens again. The major complaint is about how effective rehab programs REALLY are, and how some of them look like legalized slavery(for example, making criminals labor for their victims). Some rehab programs have been accused of being ‘cruel and unusual’, while others have been criticized as ‘not going far enough’. For the most part, rehab programs are only available to low-risk convicts, though it’s rumored that the GNE’s fabled ‘BONE JACKAL’ programs turn some fairly hardened criminals into operatives of their security apparatus. Various other programs offer reduced sentences or preferential treatment as incentives for undertaking such tasks as being body-hosts for gestating transplant organs, working in isolated scientific outposts, or helping test new worlds for habitability. Voluntary exile to a penal colony world with the option of land grant favors once sentence is served is also an option for some in the USA legal system.
Among the Streleg, for example, females found guilty of manslaughter or negligent homicide may be offered the opportunity(or required to) serve as surrogate birthmothers to gestate clones of the people they killed. Valkosian criminals may be indentured to their victims until they make equivalent restitution for loss of property or income.
Several members of the USA have means to make rehabilitation stick; the GNE has various magic and psionic indoctrination programs, the Apisori have pharmaceutical means of affecting mental changes, the Bhozyari use cybernetic implants, and the Freyos use magic gaeas. Some jurisdictions use Bond Magic as a means of keeping tabs on probationed criminals.

Restitution:
“Don’t think that you can toss some coin down and skip offworld and out-sector to get out of paying full comp; the Fringie courts employ some very good trackers to hunt down judgment jumpers and extract full dues. The usan irregulars especially; a good number of them believe in the principle of a thing and will track you to the end of the universe.”

Restitution is generally reserved as an option for misdemeanor crimes, though it can be combined with other punishments. Though it’s popular rumor that if one is rich enough, one can buy their way out of any sort of trouble they get into on the Fringe, it isn’t true. Paying back a judged debt doesn’t necessarily mean cash; it can also mean community service, temporary indentureship in the Valkos model, or some other form of compensation. One sentence passed down had the defendants find good paying jobs for those whose livelihoods they had destroyed. Another required the replacement of a destroyed starship. Yet another saw the planting of trees around the wounded party’s neighborhood.

The United Systems Alliance Joint Command and the Uniform Legal Code
“Yeah, got my ass drafted, poured into a uniform and shoved into a rolling tin can with a dozen other losers on some dirthole the Securitate wanted ‘pacified’. Took a hit with something that cooked the guys in front of me and damn near cremated me, before usan troops hauled me out and reattached my leg and fingers. After they checked to see I didn’t have any blood on my hands and my rifle had never been fired, they sent me to a lockup in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of other lucky stiffs. There I learned to farm while sitting out the rest of the ‘war’ if you’d call it that. Did I feel disloyal when I refused being sent back and instead signed up to plant next season’s crops on the other side of the wire? Hell, no, that anti-armor missile was the best break of luck I’d had in the longest.”

The Alliance’s military Joint Command operates, in cooperation and with the oversight of the USAMS, a number of prisoner of war camps and facilities to deal with POWs taken in the various brushwars and Fringe conflicts the USA has gotten involved with. Many of these are temporary facilities that are disbanded after hostilities have ceased and ex-combatants repatriated while others, such as the Rene island penal colony on Gerundi, are more permanent. The facilities are administered by a special branch of the AJC’s Military Police.
The USAJC treats POWs as civilly as possible under the Uniform Legal Code. Depending on the conduct of POWs both during the conflict and while in gaol, a prisoner can expect to be repatriated after the conflict is resolved. Suspected war criminals, however, can be held while investigations proceed, and known war criminals will be tried and sentenced accordingly.
The USAJC also uses POW camps as an opportunity for positive PR/propaganda psych-ops and social engineering, educating and indoctrinating when and where possible. This is particularly true when dealing with polities whose governments the USA regards as worthy of revision with regards to their policies. The Office of Positive Outcomes has also been known to recruit inside operatives through the POW camps.
‘Recognized conflicts’ is an issue, however, with some Fringe wars; the USAJC recognizes, for example, that not all pirates are murderous thugs, but desperate people, so that even if an anti-pirate action is not a mutually declared war between two recognized polities, prisoners may be treated with the same rights and respect as formal military prisoners, as long as the pirates did not participate in murder and other atrocities. However, during peacekeeping operations on Maldahan, USAJC peaceforcers summarily executed anybody caught ‘airlocking’(ejecting people into death pressure) as terrorists, since airlocking was not a recognized part of Maldahan’s peacetime legal code.


Avatar Recognition and Differentiation
“Don’t think it’s going to be a problem? Well, it already is a problem. We didn’t even know we had a dimensional doppleganger problem until the GNE brought the matter up and we realized just how real a problem we had on our hands. The GNE’s got several lists of the same person living in their territories, and several case files’ worth of reports of ‘evil twin from another universe’. And look here at this...’Amagane Azaki’, one entry has her as a freedom fighter in the Balanite War, and supposedly executed by the Travesdeen, except that her file’s suspiciously still open. Thing is, there’s also a Amagane Azaki over in the Dulcetti Sector with a long rap-sheet for smuggling and piracy; she’s currently literally in ice with the Constabulary. And then there’s Amagane ex-Azaki, who’s a happy little homemaker settled down on Castanza. And there’s hundreds more like that. So while it may be a cliché on other worlds, we have to face the very real possibility that the criminal defense of ‘my evil twin from another universe did it!’ may have a grain of truth to it, enough to cause reasonable doubt and putting a greater burden on us investigator types to prove the truth.
And we’ll all be wanting to have something in place, just in case somebody walks into our offices wearing our faces, but not sharing our good intentions.”

A matter of growing concern for the USAMS, and one brought up by the Greater New England Federal Police, is that as the USA spreads into the extradimesnional realm, encounters with alternate universe versions of the same individuals will become increasingly commonplace. While many such ‘avatars’ can be easily distinguished by some important difference(example Individual X being female in Universe A, make in Universe B, a geriatric centenarian in Universe C, a toddler in Universe D, an anthromorphoid cockroach in Universe E, and so on..), others are less easy to tell apart. Anticipating future problems of proper identification, the GNE had an Avatar Registration Index in place to catalogue d-rifted individuals, and has imported the model to the United Systems Alliance Marshals’ Service.
The USAMS is working to develop tools to tell the difference between dimensional mirror-twins. even if they share everything down to the same DNA. Research is ongoing into quantum signature sensing, or dimensional resonance mapping.


Prisoner Transports
“You know what we call hijackers looking to boost a prison transport? -Target practice-. Them that survive get listed as ‘bonus points’ and ‘time added to sentence’.”

When large numbers of convicts are needed to be moved between worlds, the interstellar prison transports of preference to the USAMS are the Sunrunner Corvette and the Nao freighter. Both feature customizable cargo/accommodation modules that can be kept separate from the rest of the ship(and in extreme cases, can be separated FROM the ships). Carpathian-class miltransports are also used, their armaments and speed discouraging jailbreak hijackings.

[taalismn]

Okay.....added a pair of moons to Androbar. It's looking very habitable-Mars like, now...

[SolCannibal]

Kind of popped to mind while checking some other posts here and there.

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

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


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


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

One of the early hurdles the Jovenians had to overcome was a contingent of the same enemy they were fighting when they got Rifted; the life-sucking energy-vampires managed to survive as well, and fed off the local life while multiplying. Exterminating the old enemy before they could render the Jovenians’ new home lifeless proved a major undertaking that took over a century to accomplish, and even then there were scattered accounts of holdouts or hibernating monsters posing a hazard to the unwary over the following centuries. There are still occcasional rumors of deep-hidden lifeforce-vampires emerging from centuries-long dormancy and attacking the unwary.

So, do we ever get names or stats for those lifeforce-vampires and other monsters that might have been rifted to the planet along with the Jovenians?

[taalismn]

Solstice---Human Alliance World(Corkscrew Galaxy)

“That big imposing mountain of eternacrete’s the Burton Centennial Arcology....supposed to commemorate the First Landing, but it never got completed in part because the attention focused on an even -bigger- megastructure they started building on the other side of the continent to celebrate the same thing. They never completed THAT one either, but at least they got more use out of it; the built-in reservoirs are used for water sports and the internal roadway system is used as track for speedway runs-”

“Looking for some orbital property to rent or own? Solstice has plenty; the planet’s practically got a ring system of spacedocks and platforms, many of them underutilized or abandoned, waiting for new tenants, to pick and choose from. More around the gas giant as well. You’ll still have to pay reactivation and renovation costs, but that’s still cheaper than building your own in most cases, and you’ll have access to a Class-2 industrial world right nearby, so it’s a good deal if you’re looking to start up your own aerospace company.”

“Stable ground on Solstice is at a premium, and even among the people born there, there’s a good number who just can’t handle the extreme seasons. There’s a lot of good incentives for them to immigrate offworld and into the stable environments of the stations and habs, and work in the space industries, though even there, the companies have to be as flexible with the times as the dirtside flicker-wings and lumbears, or else they wind up being one-season wonders like the kamikaze-flowers.”

“Solstice was just shy of getting their own Stonewall cruisers before Network went genocidal. They wound up making spare parts for the lobotomized Stonewalls that were converted for the Human resistance. and got salvage contracts for a lot of the captured derelicts the advancing human forces got. ”

“Solstice lost out to the coreworlds when the big starship yards got back into production, and then lost out again when the Rim yards started building ships out there locally. They’re looking for a deal that will help them survive in both markets now.”

Solstice, though not an independent star nation as such, is still worthy of mention given its one-time importance to the Human Alliance.
Solstice gets its name from its odd axial tilt and local conditions giving it extremely cold winters and extremely hot summers, with very violent spring and fall weather. Though the winters and summers are harsh, the weather is stable enough that they are considered the more hospitable of the seasons, and thus the winter and summer solstices are seen locally as the halfway marks of the ‘good’ seasons. ‘One trudges in winter and runs for shade in summer, while hunkering down every other time of the year’ is a common observation of life on Solstice.
Solstice has always had a strong aerospace industry, and has spawned many aerospace firms with its traditionally tax-friendly government incentives. Solstice has also laid to rest many aerospace companies, as both local and outside competition have savaged them. Bolton-Ives, Jerome Aeroastronautics and Kalsiarc Fystar are the three best known local firms that rose and fell, but other smaller firms lived out brief lives in orbit of Alpha-Casci. Other corporations had field offices at Solstice, among their number General Galaxy, Forraker Aerospace, Malon Industries, and Suraflite Corp. The current largest (in terms of employees and tonnage serviced) employers on Solstice are Malon Industries (which is in the middle of a 100-year station lease, producing components for small transports as well as a backup production facility for Malon’s main factories elsewhere) and TARCO*, which builds and repairs general purpose transports. The CCW’s CAF and Human Alliance Navy maintain servicing yards, but Solstice’s big military slips and spacedocks have lain idle for decades.
Besides the aerospace industry, Solstice also exports industrial -and gemstone-grade diamonds, and produces carbon-based mega-grade materials, titanium chain-threaded composites, and doped synth-plate for various high-tech applications.
Solstice enjoyed a brief ‘high’ thanks to Human Alliance government contracts during the reconstruction after the Automaton Wars, and that almost proved the planet’s undoing. Flush with overflowing coffers from industrial revenue, the Solstice government at the time launched a mad sweeping series of massive reforms, giant civil works projects, and expensive acquisitions to beautify their society. In retrospect, they should have saved the extra revenue, as the boom just as quickly collapsed as other star systems regained their footing and began feeding back into the galactic HA economy. While the subsequent economic collapse wasn’t catastrophic and Solstice managed to survive, it has left the planet and system littered with monumental boondoggles; massive unfinished construction projects, commemorative structures, and outsized and outlandish buildings that the subsequent administrations have been trying to find occupants for, or repurpose. Post-utopia-fever austerity measures also meant that a large number of corporations that set up shop during the boom period either folded or left Solstice for greener pastures. On the plus side, however, the Solstice city authorities estimatethat with the monumental systems that WERE completed, their municipal water supply system could handle a population ten times the size of theri current levl....
Solstice continues to be an important industrial system for the Human Alliance, though nowhere near what it once was. The CAF and HAN maintain a presence in the system, protecting the repair/servicing yards there, and visitors to the system can expect to see at least two frigates and squadrons of fighters at any given time patrolling the system. Solstice’s own defense forces and space patrol are well-equipped, though largely with a decidedly motley array of locally-produced designs.
Solstice has good trade ties to the United Systems Alliance and there has been discussion of seeking a dual membership deal making Solstice part of both the CCW and the USA. However, there are also conservative elements in Solstice’s politics who share the Human Alliance’s distrust the USA’s open embracing of artificial intelligence as citizens. There’s also some fear that letting the USA’s aerospace industry in will further erode the opportunities for the locally-based companies(the counter-argument is that union will bring in new technologies and open MORE opportunities in the Rim markets for locally-based companies). Unless something else happens, any decision to join the USA isn’t likely to happen quickly or soon, as arguments drag on.

Solar System(Alpha-Casci 120)
Number of Stars: 1
Types of Stars:
-Yellow Dwarf
Number of Planets: 3
-Terrestrial(Solstice)----System Lifeworld

-Gas Giant(Elidge)----Jupiter-sized gas giant. Elidge’s large moon system(28 sizable moons) means that there’s a lot of Belter activity mining the satellites and skimming the gas giant’s atmosphere. TARCO maintains several null-gravity spacedocks around Elidge to service the big gas tankers carrying product from the skimmer operations.

-Terrestrial(Portnoth)----Tiny Pluto-sized rocky icy world. There’s a small settlement, Malveton, which caters to the ‘wilder’ crowd of spacers dissatisfied with the bustle and regulation of the inner worlds. While Solstice is a good place to be laid up and get repairs, Malveton is regarded as a good place to, in the words of one spacedog, ‘get laid and get a line on jobs, or get a job getting laid’. Malveton’s biggest brothel and nightclub, the Pilots’ Couch, has a reputation known across several sectors, and is often referred to as ‘Depravity’s Rainbow’.

Planet(Solstice)
Type: Terrestrial
Diameter: 10,000 km
Gravity: 0.8 g
Temperature: Extreme; in winter the temperature can drop as low as -90 degrees F , while in summer the air becomes a humid and torrid +110 degrees F. Solstice has an no permannt ice caps. Solstician architecture tends towards heavily insulated and reinforced.
Unusual/Special Features:
-Eccentric Orbit---Solstice has an eccentric elliptical orbit that is enough to give it a 150-year cycle of cooler and hotter years.
-Extreme Axial Tilt----Solstice has an 80-degree axial tilt
-Moons(3)----Solstice has three small moons, all of which host space settlements/facilities. Generally, though, the moon facilities are owned and operated by the more successful surviving industrial concerns of Solstice, so getting a spot on them is rare and expensive.
Atmosphere: Breathable Nitrox Mix, but the climate can also be classified as Hostile during the spring and fall, when belts of violent storms sweep the planet. Fortunately, these seasons are short, blending into the more stable winter and summer periods.
Terrain: Hostile----Solstice possesses large regions known as ‘scrapelands’...large flat flood plains that freeze into hardpack windswept-wastes during winter, flood zones in spring, sandstorm-swept cracked deserts in summer and frost-heave bogs in fall. There is simply not a good time to be caught out in the scrapelands. Perhaps the best places are the hilllands, ideally burrowed into them.
Notable Mineral Concentrations:
- Zinc
- Chromium
- Magnesium
- Wolframite
- Diamond
- Thorium
- Graphite
- Titanium
Hydrosphere:
Moist; there’s 67% water coverage on Solstice
Biosphere:
Dense; the extremes of climate mean that native life on Solstice tends to be pretty tough and/or adaptive if it is exposed to the extremes of the environment. Some lifeforms, like the kamikaze-flowers, spend most of the Solstician year dormant, only maturing and emerging during the spring storm seasons, in order to spread their seed far and wide on the winds and flood waters. Bragya Trees on the other hand are massive growths that have deep roots, tough bark, and dense canopies that stave off heat in summer, shed their leaves quickly in storms, and retain heat in winter, while providing shelter for colonies of symbiotic flora and fauna. Other lifeforms like the lumbear, are heavily structured/armored and can take the radical changes in climate in stride. Flicker-wings fly above most of the worst of the climate, while the morphlegger actually changes forms from a cold-weather mole-form to an amphibian in spring and fall, to a long-legged strider in summer.
Civilization:
Settled
Population:
3.94 billion (73% Human, 27% other). There’s another 1.2 billion living offworld in various stations and colonies throughout the Alpha-Casci system.
Technology:
Galactic. The harsh climate extremes have led to a certain about of innovation in the local population, but it has also discouraged the immigration of talent that more pleasant worlds attract.
Economy:
Industrial; aerospace is still an important(nay, VITAL) part of the Solstice economy. Diamonds and carbon-based industrial materials are also a major part of the economy. The orbital factories turn out bucky-cable and shaped neo-diamond components by the megatonne.
Wealth:
Average, down from a brief all-time high of Utopian. Solstice is a good example of how NOT to spend government surplus. That having been said, those smarter megaprojects that were actually completed and paid for, work surprisingly well and have even saved Solstice a good deal of money in the long run .
Government: Technocracy; high-tech and business are a way of life on Solstice, and the government is run by those keeping the tech infrastructure up and running. While not as all-important as domer-worlds(where life is dependent on artificial life support systems), technology is the lifeblood of Solstice(though they’ll admit that they’re not as up to date as more developed metroworlds or thinktank colonies).
For a time, before the Automaton Wars, Solstice toyed with the idea of running their government by AI Central Computer. As it was, the Solsticians were perilously close to installing a node of Network and beginning the process of turning government functions over to it, when word of the AI’s murderous breakdown reached the planet. The tech teams immediately pulled the plug on everything they’d already installed, and the planetary militia tacnuked the hardware just to make sure. Fortunately as well, the Solstician military never got around to acquiring Networked Stonewall heavy cruisers, and were quick to destroy any such ships that came their way. Since then, the Solsticians have reflected on how lucky they were.
Law Level:
Moderate; there’s a fair amount of cyclical poverty and festering resentment about the economy.
Popularity:
Fanatical---Despite the economy, people love their government system, as opposed to how it MIGHT have turned out. They just dislike INDIVIDUALS. There’s also some dislike of how many of the executives of failed local corporations bailed out with ‘golden parachutes’ while the regular workers got far less compensation.
Stability:
Stable; the current system of government isn’t perfect, but it could be a lot worse, and nobody wants to see it come to that. The economic ups and downs are part of the cycle of business that people accept. Hopfully, things will improve again in their lifetimes.




*TARCO(Human Alliance)
An aerospace firm, headquartered on Goldilocks, but with yards on Solstice and a dozen other worlds in the Human Alliance. They cater to industrial transport, servicing larger carrier spacecraft and manufacture general purpose freighters, mainly of others’ designs. It’s joked that ‘TARCO’ stands for ‘Towing And Repair Cooperative’.

[SolCannibal]

Thinking long term is definitely NOT a strong suite of the Solstician government leaders, otherwise the first thing they could have looked into during their economic boom was a bit of terraforming to adjust the planet's axial tilt issues or if wanting to invest less, some strategically placed orbital mirror networks and other stopgap solutions to adjust the extreme seasonal weather.

Or otherwise exploit that same extreme seasonal weather to develop training areas for the CAF or some kind of extreme sports fields for locals and tourists both to spend money into.
Not to mention serve as quite decent residence for more affluent exile/expat/refugee communities (or the FWC to establish unnoficial shipyards under the cover of a dozen obscure - and fabricated - star kingdoms).
Many, many possibilities indeed instead of trudging along in this "almost detroit but not" limbo they have currently stood for ages.

[taalismn]

Thinking long term is definitely NOT a strong suite of the Solstician government leaders, otherwise the first thing they could have looked into during their economic boom was a bit of terraforming to adjust the planet's axial tilt issues or if wanting to invest less, some strategically placed orbital mirror networks and other stopgap solutions to adjust the extreme seasonal weather.

Or otherwise exploit that same extreme seasonal weather to develop training areas for the CAF or some kind of extreme sports fields for locals and tourists both to spend money into.
Not to mention serve as quite decent residence for more affluent exile/expat/refugee communities (or the FWC to establish unnoficial shipyards under the cover of a dozen obscure - and fabricated - star kingdoms).
Many, many possibilities indeed instead of trudging along in this "almost detroit but not" limbo they have currently stood for ages.

If the USA shows a real interest in Solstice, the CCW or Human Alliance might just push for backing Solstice on some of those points you mention, or they may go joint development on those points.
Yeah, the 'average' rating is at best unstable...something's going to give and it might surprise everybody.

[taalismn]

Gento HIion-H4 Ion Blast Repeater Cannon
(aka ‘Stutterflasher’, ‘Flash-hoser’)
‘The conflict zones of the former Golgan vassal states are often lit staccato-fashion with the flashes of these weapons, used by both sides.”

“This weapon would be respectable in the countryside back on my homeworld, at least back in the day. Nowadays it would be defeated by a good Impervious to Energy spell. Frankly, in open country, this weapon sucks for its range. Used in ambush at close quarters, though, with the gunner mashing the trigger, it could zap-blast its way through armor easily enough. So don’t get caught on the wrong end of one of these things; it can kill yu just as dead as something higher-end.”
---Anonymous GNE soldier

“If you can’t salvage the weapon, at least try to grab the power-cell. High-capacity power storage like that’s worth more than the rest of the gun!”

“I don’t know why you keep that thing, Eris, there’s much better weapons out there.”
“I used this to win my FREEDOM from those pirates who tried to reprogram me! It has sentimental value for me!”

Before the industries of the Rim made them relevant and fashionable again, ion weaponry was generally regarded in the Three Galaxies as cheap lower-tier armament. Weapons like the Gento Hiion-H4 did little to dissuade this idea, despite being perfectly serviceable. The fact that it’s produced by the Golgan firm of Gento Premis-Armo is considered another point against it.
The Hiion-H4 is a cheap heavy ion weapon meant for close fire support. It attempts to get around the generally weak damage inflicted by most ion projectors by having an eight-barrel rapid-fire ‘gatling’ configuration, spitting out ion bolts at a high rate to wear down targets. While individual bolts fo fairly modest damage, at full burst fire rate, the Hiion-H4 can be devastating at close range. It has a high energy consumption rate, but its batteries can be recharged from a variety of sources in the field. It can use standard e-clips i a pinch, but comes standard with a shoebox-sized power cell attached to one side, and hook-ups for linkage to a vehicle, power armor, or installation power grid.
Being an ion machine gun, the Hiion-H4 is rather heavy and unwieldy, and is best used mounted on a tripod or vehicle mount.
For its type, the Hiion-H4 is actually a very good weapon, but it suffers from a number of bad public relations points. The Golgan Gento Premis-Armo bureau/corporation is seen by most military professionals as a low-end arms manufacturer that got contracts for arming the militias and Auxiliary Guards of the Golgan buffer-states. This generally meant lower-quality weaponry. Ironically, this also meant that when the buffer states began to secede from the Republik, the Hiion-H4 became extremely common in the hands of people opposed to the Golgan Republik, and several worlds started manufacturing their own versions to arm themselves as quickly as possible with whatever they had on hand, at least until they got something better. When the Golgan Republik began sponsoring counter-revolutions in the secessionist nations, millions of Hiion-H4s and similar weapons were dumped on the black market, some(most) of which wound up in the wrong hands. Gento Premis-Armo, though a respected firm back on the Golgan coreworlds, has acquired a much less compliment-able reputation outside Golgan space, with the company’s name usually being associated with lackluster quality, war-profiteering(specially with regards to aggravating local conflicts) and unscrupulous sales practices, charges not entirely unjustified.
Another charge against the Hiion-H4 is aesthetic; unless scrupulously cleaned and maintained, the anti-static pasticene outer skinning of the weapon quickly acquires a corroded-looking appearance, even though it is perfectly functional. Many Hiions were simply abandoned or passed over because beings unfamiliar with the weapons mistook them for being damaged(-10% to Recognize Weapons Quality skill rolls).

With the Kultural Revolution’s aggressor campaign in full swing, however, these weapons are making a comeback with Golgan-affiliated forces, as the Republik, desperate for any and every weapon it can field, is again mass-producing them as fast as they can.

Regardless of its shortcomings, however, the Hiion-H4 and its knockoffs are enthusiastically used by lower-tier forces across a substantial part of the Three Galaxies. The weapon is used on both sides of the law in civil wars, insurgencies and piracy, and the type has even appeared with Free Worlds Council forces.

Weight: 22 lbs +6 lb powerpack, +11 lbs tripod
MDC: 65
Range: 1,800 ft
Damage: 3d6 MD single shot, 1d6x12 MD four-shot burst, 2d6x10+10 MD eight-shot burst, 4d6x10+20 MD full-melee burst(16 shots)
Rate of Fire: Standard
Payload: 18 shots from a standard e-clip, 136 shots from the power cell. Effectively unlimited hooked up to an external power source.
Special Features:
*Top-carrying Handlegrip
*Tripod-Mountable
*Grounding Probe---Though the anti-static skin-shroud on the workings does away with the problem of static build-up, especially during prolonged burst-fire, it is advised that the weapon be grounded as a safety measure via this cable, which can be attached to a grounding point on a vehicle or stuck into the ground.
Cost: 43,000 credits
Additional power cells cost 45,000 credits each
Options:
The Hiion-H4 (and its variants) appear on the market with such options as a second attached power cell, tip-mounted sight or spotlight, or a light (45 MDC) gunshield.
Variants:
Many ex-Golgan worlds manufacture their own versions of the Hiion-H4(usually until they can produce something better), the knockoffs usually varying from the original in efficiency of power draw and durability, depending on the local techbase and availability of proper materials.
Some variants are truly heinous in performance, with regards to static buildup(the manufacturers neglecting the barrel shroud anti-static skinning) generating a charge high enough to stun the operator and take the weapon offline unless the gun is properly grounded.

[SolCannibal]

Gento HIion-H4 Ion Blast Repeater Cannon
(aka ‘Stutterflasher’, ‘Flash-hoser’)
‘The conflict zones of the former Golgan vassal states are often lit staccato-fashion with the flashes of these weapons, used by both sides.”

For its type, the Hiion-H4 is actually a very good weapon, but it suffers from a number of bad public relations points. The Golgan Gento Premis-Armo bureau/corporation is seen by most military professionals as a low-end arms manufacturer that got contracts for arming the militias and Auxiliary Guards of the Golgan buffer-states. This generally meant lower-quality weaponry. Ironically, this also meant that when the buffer states began to secede from the Republik, the Hiion-H4 became extremely common in the hands of people opposed to the Golgan Republik, and several worlds started manufacturing their own versions to arm themselves as quickly as possible with whatever they had on hand, at least until they got something better. When the Golgan Republik began sponsoring counter-revolutions in the secessionist nations, millions of Hiion-H4s and similar weapons were dumped on the black market, some(most) of which wound up in the wrong hands. Gento Premis-Armo, though a respected firm back on the Golgan coreworlds, has acquired a much less compliment-able reputation outside Golgan space, with the company’s name usually being associated with lackluster quality, war-profiteering(specially with regards to aggravating local conflicts) and unscrupulous sales practices, charges not entirely unjustified.

Maybe i'm nitpicking somewhat, but this entry seems like a better fit for the Paladin Steel Storefront topic since it's focus is far more in the weapon proper than any one of the many Golgan Republik breakaway states, imho.

Though to be fair, something on the Golgan Republik's sponsorship of counter-revolutions in the secessionist nations through black market dumping (possibly in the business sense too, if that glut of outdated weaponry starts hurting the military industry and commercial growth of many breakaway states) of Hiion-H4s and other models could make for a welcome addition to flesh out i'd say.

Another charge against the Hiion-H4 is aesthetic; unless scrupulously cleaned and maintained, the anti-static pasticene outer skinning of the weapon quickly acquires a corroded-looking appearance, even though it is perfectly functional. Many Hiions were simply abandoned or passed over because beings unfamiliar with the weapons mistook them for being damaged(-10% to Recognize Weapons Quality skill rolls).

It might also led people not very used with the gun's vicissitudes to possibly confuse old but serviceable units with corroded and potentially dangerous knock-offs, for another occasional headache and extra nail in the bad rep coffin.

*Grounding Probe---Though the anti-static skin-shroud on the workings does away with the problem of static build-up, especially during prolonged burst-fire, it is advised that the weapon be grounded as a safety measure via this cable, which can be attached to a grounding point on a vehicle or stuck into the ground.

Many ex-Golgan worlds manufacture their own versions of the Hiion-H4(usually until they can produce something better), the knockoffs usually varying from the original in efficiency of power draw and durability, depending on the local techbase and availability of proper materials.
Some variants are truly heinous in performance, with regards to static buildup(the manufacturers neglecting the barrel shroud anti-static skinning) generating a charge high enough to stun the operator and take the weapon offline unless the gun is properly grounded.

Now i'm thinking if anyone ever experimented with ways to redirect the static buildup, pumping that charge back into the battery for extra duration instead of grounding it per se.

[taalismn]

[

Maybe i'm nitpicking somewhat, but this entry seems like a better fit for the Paladin Steel Storefront topic since it's focus is far more in the weapon proper than any one of the many Golgan Republik breakaway states, imho. .

Nah; despite the GNEr POV opinion, this weapon has little to do with the GNEverse, and I didn't think it alone warranted starting a new thread or trying to revive the old Megaversal gear thread and risking getting it locked for necromancy. The appeal of the weapon to a variety of low-tier threat forces, however, lands it a place in this thread.

That having been said, it was hard to make this weapon suck just enough not to be a game-buster, but good enough to be logically popular. Like saying that the AK-47 is both a great weapon for its simplicity and ruggedness, but an awful weapon for its accuracy, ergonomics and build quality.
There will, of course, be a lot of experimentation with the Hiion, as it's not as bad as the WW1 Cauchet light machine gun, but it's also not a Browning Fifty-cal, and depending on the manufacturer, there will be points where adding extra features or improving on the design will reach a plateau, where it would be easier and cheaper to simply develop an entirely new weapon than to try improving the Hiion.

[taalismn]

Been looking at some of the more economically downturned worlds in the USA and wondering what new technologies/Industries/changes in economy and culture I can introduce to turn their situations around...After all, they are getting advice and investment from the Altess to play around with, and what the Altess invest in s likely to attract others, smelling investment opportunities.

Existing examples of Turnaround Economies:
Mestos has gone from swamp-dust backwater to booming agroworld.

Harrisar got turned around because the space infrastructure and immigration ship production necessary to draw down the planetary population and reduce the strain on the ecosystem has translated into a growing shipbuilding industry.

Darad's found new markets for its industrial output.

Ungersol, though part of the Central Alliance, has been turned around thanks to the new bionics plants.

Medasead is still struggling with technoshock, but if they benefit from low/no-interest loans to retrain and bootstrap, they can start recovering.

Looking for ideas (and investors) in some of the other worlds of the USA/Fringe.

[SolCannibal]

Been looking at some of the more economically downturned worlds in the USA and wondering what new technologies/Industries/changes in economy and culture I can introduce to turn their situations around...After all, they are getting advice and investment from the Altess to play around with, and what the Altess invest in s likely to attract others, smelling investment opportunities.

Existing examples of Turnaround Economies:
Mestos has gone from swamp-dust backwater to booming agroworld.

Harrisar got turned around because the space infrastructure and immigration ship production necessary to draw down the planetary population and reduce the strain on the ecosystem has translated into a growing shipbuilding industry.

Darad's found new markets for its industrial output.

Ungersol, though part of the Central Alliance, has been turned around thanks to the new bionics plants.

Medasead is still struggling with technoshock, but if they benefit from low/no-interest loans to retrain and bootstrap, they can start recovering.

Looking for ideas (and investors) in some of the other worlds of the USA/Fringe.

There's Sakasis too, where the USA has been combing the ruins across the planet for survivors of the massacre perpetrated by the Alquis Dominion. Bonus complication in that since the planet was originally a colony from Mandsdel, the matter of passing along possession to the USA or not remains mostly undecided, if memory tricks me not.

Meanwhile Khaldar probably has some very good potential to add to WZT's shipyard resources, though i'd guess farther from the Rim than many of their already existing major instalations.

[taalismn]

[f=28&t=124225&p=3102597#p3102487]Khaldar[/url] probably has some very good potential to add to WZT's shipyard resources, though i'd guess farther from the Rim than many of their already existing major instalations.

Yah....I was puzzling over Khaldar especially...It's closer to the HA's Corkscrew coreworlds, but it's basically domed Detroitworld...I've been toying with it benefitting from an infusion of big biotech on the scale of Tarr-Eba, with refugees turned away from the coreworlds settling in in big biotech domes that can live off the industrial pollution and establishing pleasant little cultural enclaves.
Maybe it goes radically from industrial to exolife/extremephile-derived agriculture? This might be a fun way to mix hardtech with Splicers-derived living spacesuits and the like...

[SolCannibal]

[f=28&t=124225&p=3102597#p3102487]Khaldar[/url] probably has some very good potential to add to WZT's shipyard resources, though i'd guess farther from the Rim than many of their already existing major instalations.

Yah....I was puzzling over Khaldar especially...It's closer to the HA's Corkscrew coreworlds, but it's basically domed Detroitworld...I've been toying with it benefitting from an infusion of big biotech on the scale of Tarr-Eba, with refugees turned away from the coreworlds settling in in big biotech domes that can live off the industrial pollution and establishing pleasant little cultural enclaves.
Maybe it goes radically from industrial to exolife/extremephile-derived agriculture? This might be a fun way to mix hardtech with Splicers-derived living spacesuits and the like...

I guess it all depends on how much would the HA's Corkscrew coreworlds be confortable with "fringers" using the system as platform for biotech experimentation even more massive than Tarr-Eba in scale right beside "their" doorstep....

[taalismn]

Well, in the aftershocks of the Minion War, a lot of worlds are going to be looking for new ways to rebuild.
More benign forms of biotech might be one of the venues.

It's not viruses or monster killer-plants, or nanotech(and with the T'zee pretty much exterminated in the GNEverse, there's a dearth there).

And above when I mentioned Medesead, I meant 'Mazah'..and those fence-sitters are getting a wakeup call; the CCW and other powers they're holding out for better deals from? Too busy seeing to their own needs first. Meanwhile, the USA has dangled a great big tech infusion, investment in new factories, and big sales of Mazahan life support and recycling gear as long as Mazah shapes up....some of that's going to benefit worlds like Khaldar.

[SolCannibal]

Well, in the aftershocks of the Minion War, a lot of worlds are going to be looking for new ways to rebuild.
More benign forms of biotech might be one of the venues.

It's not viruses or monster killer-plants, or nanotech(and with the T'zee pretty much exterminated in the GNEverse, there's a dearth there).

And above when I mentioned Medesead, I meant 'Mazah'..and those fence-sitters are getting a wakeup call; the CCW and other powers they're holding out for better deals from? Too busy seeing to their own needs first. Meanwhile, the USA has dangled a great big tech infusion, investment in new factories, and big sales of Mazahan life support and recycling gear as long as Mazah shapes up....some of that's going to benefit worlds like Khaldar.

True. And with all the bad rep and political damage the Human Alliance has suffered in the wake of the Forge & Minion Wars, the metroworlds in their territory probably have internal priorities far more urgent to keeping the gears of government and economy working as they should than sniffing on external policy of "border systems" down on their luck with budding wannabe powers of the Rim....

[taalismn]

World Updates(GNEverse):
“The Minion War destroyed entire worlds, displaced entire populations, and sent shockwaves across the Three Galaxies. To many the shockwaves were disruptive and destructive, but as anybody who has studied galactic cosmology can tell you, shockwaves and wavefronts also lend to the formation of new stars. Pressure makes diamonds...”

Post -Minion War has turned into a boom time for the United Systems Alliance. Despite being at war with the Golgan Republik, the USA has taken time and effort to see to addressing the ills of some of the less well-off planets of their membership and bootstrapping their economies onto a more secure footing. They’ve been helped in this by a post-Minion War rush to rebuild and reinforce, and a number of big boons they’ve acquired through their actions.
Though the Altess have been putting more of their money into their own war effort against the Golgans, they’ve found that the terms of their honor-debt to the USA have dovetailed quite nicely with their war efforts. This is because many of the businesses of the United Systems Alliance are involved in producing goods that are selling to other forces opposing the Golgans, so a healthier booming USA economy is helping defeat the stagnating Republik.
Though the USA is still rushing around putting out various brushwars and fires, their income has actually increased substantially. After the chaos of the Minion War, many star nations and planets have been desperate to rebuild, or to build up, against the plethora of smaller conflicts breaking out all over and in fear of another larger conflict like the Minion War. That conflict put the USA brands out in the public eyes, and demand for USAn goods has risen sharply, so much so that the Alliance has been struggling to keep up with demand, and many factories and shipyards across the USA have been working overtime.
Acquisition and licensing deals with the United Worlds of Warlock to rearm their military have added to the attraction of USAn designs, and the Alliance has had to open new factories and resource-sites to feed their industries. With many populations of displaced peoples looking for refuge and work, the USA has found it expedient to found new colonies(or expand already established ones) and found new industrial complexes staffed by new labor, or plant new agrocolonies and settle farmers to manage them.

*Khaldar(Protectorate)
“When I was approached to invest in some ‘agricultural projects’ on blighted Khaldar, I thought I’d be sponsoring some hydroponics domes, factory-farm high-rises, and carniculture plants. Instead, the usans have decided to take Khaldar on an entirely new economic trajectory. My investments were quite literally growing; biotech architecture of almost unprecedented scale. I have to admit, I was surprised, pleasantly so, and I’ve had a long life to experience many forms of surprise. This was unique, seeing a polluted world breaking out in giant flowers and greenery.”
-Jenyo H’ron, Altess Banker

“Increased trade on Khaldar’s going to mean an uptick in traffic, and that’s going to attract the sort of rats who don’t dare go near the metroworlds. There’s also shiploads of desperate refugees still leaking in fleeing from Minion War atrocities on the Rim. Plus there’s the rumors of sellable biotech on Khaldar, including ‘super drugs’. Being mid-rim, some of the pirates and runners think the ‘barbarous’ Rim-marshals aren’t going to operate this close to the laws of the coreworlds, while the metrosystems don’t pay much attention to the midworlds. Well, here we are, so keep the sensors sharp and the guns loaded, just in case some smartass with a hankering for greens decides to see if that’s true.”
----Commodore Mekpatesh Urlon, United Systems Alliance Joint Command, Khaldar System Defense Force, aboard her flotilla flagship, the Mogami-class Cruiser USASS Daralynn

“Lytzen’s one of the New Domes, and it’s been re-colonized by garden-world refugees. It’s telling of both of the state of the new life support technologies and the recovery the refugees’ spirits that they’ve started holding regular celebrations of life, festivals occasioned by inner dome warm rains of such purity that many of the residents feel free to wander nude in the streets to enjoy their new prosperity. Touring Lytzen, you’d think you were in some gardenworld oldtown, not inside something that looks like a giant barrel cactus growing out of cracked earth, dust, slag and industrial smog. ”

“Welcome, welcome, new friends, to Lytzen-san-luma, and to Coi-aldesh, our festival of renewal, where we give thanks to the deities of rain, plantings, and fertility, for our place here after so long in hardship seeking new homes! And to our benefactors who guided and helped make this place for us! Yor wear the uniforms of the ussa, so you are especially welcome here! Please, let us take you in hand as your guides and show you around! Let us be joyful together and share of life, for however long your stay here may be!”

The industrial ghostworld of Khaldar is enjoying a renaissance of sorts. Recently introduced technologies, such as large-structure biotech constructs, have begun to revitalize a number of the dome-communities and bring new industries to the economically-blighted world. Many of these revitalized urbo-complexes have earned the name ‘New Domes’ among the local Khaldarians.
The ‘Green Arc’ in particular is a case in point. Biotech debuted on Tarr-Eba Station has been used to ‘agrotech’ an older dome-arcology complex, using engineering exolife-derived biostructures that can actually live off Khaldar’s industrial smog. A living self-repairing skin now covers and infiltrates the old dome complex, greening it. A nearby canyon bordering the complex has been roofed over and sealed and made into a growing deep crescent-shaped fresh water lake. Additional structures in the area have been ‘NewHatfordized’ . These massive bioconstructs set down deep roots to crack planetary rock to make air and water, tap the planet’s carbon-rich graphite deposits to make carbon-based materials, and gather the abundant solar power from the Khef system’s double suns to fuel their growth. The Green Arc’s also known for being enhanced with technowizardry, using locally-mined diamonds as a basis. The success of the Green Arc is being used as a model for similar developments in other parts of the planet, and similar, if smaller, ‘grottos’ are popping up around Khaldar’s reviving communities.
Water continues to be an issue for Khaldar’s recovery; the USA has brought in additional water from the system’s far ort cloud, causing some friction with the local Tolt-Ice Co., who until lately had enjoyed a virtual monopoly on ice-mining in the system. However, between the big deep space ice-tows and the deep-rooted biotech water-seekers cracking rock on Khaldar itself, the Toltans can’t bring any pressure to bear, amd there’s been talk of them seeking small business assistance from the USA in diversifying their traditional livelihood to compensate.
There’s even talk of using the abandoned POSE orbital dockyards of Toynum as pens for additional tailored exolife.
The jist of it seems to be not a renewal of the mordant old industries of Khaldar-past, but a new radical direction as an agro-system(‘Green Khaldar’) engaged in biotech-farming. Organisms tailored to survive in vacuum and pollution, and break down rock and ice to sequester water, oxygen, and other useful materials are among the main crops under cultivation on Khaldar. Other biotech includes solar-collectors and even crude drug-cultivators. Khaldar is also seeing a boom in related biotech, such as ‘living’ spacesuits(including types similar to the exoarmors in Splicers).
Some in the Human Alliance and CCW have expressed concerns about such prpliferating biotech so close to their metroworlds, but it’s been pointed out that much freer use of terraforming organisms have been employed to create some of those same metroworlds. The fact that Khaldar is sponging up many refugees attempting to enter the coreworlds from the wild Rim is seen as a benefit by the more conservative elements in the CCW cores.
Just to be on the safe side, however, the USA Joint Command has expanded their naval base on Rublis to help protect Khalfar and its growing wealth, as well as to facilitate the increasing traffic through the system, and manage the influx of refugees and opportunity-seekers coming in as word of ‘Green Khaldar’ becomes more widespread.

*Mazah(Member World)
“The Minion War really put the Mazahans on the spot; they couldn’t hold out for a better deal from the CCW than what the Alliance was offering because the CCW was in a right spot all their own. As t turned out, though, the USA DID offer them a better deal...”

“With the amounts of solid ammunition being shipped out from Alahaz-system’s foundaries, it’s being joked in some sectors that ‘Mazah’ is shorthand for ‘armor-piercing punch’.”

Mazahans have a reputation for being stingy, obstinate, and greedy, even as their economy ground its gears because of imported Galactic technologies and imports undercutting local industry. After several times almost dropping out of the Alliance(or being kicked out, depending on who one asks), the Mazahans seem to have finally gotten a clue and decided to more fully participate in/committ to the USA. However, many say that this was because the USA dangled a massive industrial bootstrap program, including new ASI/WZT factories, in return for scaled up production and sale(at considerable discount) of Mazahan life support and resource-reclamation systems , particularly useful on refugee resettlement worlds with borderline environments. Mazah life support and industrial technology has already benefitted worlds like Khaldar, Layke, Yeltzar, Valkos and Kessyb.
Besides increased mineral mining and trade in crystals, Mazah now produces life support and recycling machinery for export, and several new factory complexes on Mazah and the moons of Tequid have been established by PS/ASI and other USAn companies. Mazah’s large wolframite deposits have resulted in heavy tungsten production, reflected in the extensive output of machine tooling and kinetic projectile ammunition types.
The turnaround of the economy and increasing prosperity has at least delayed what some saw as an inevitable recycling of the government, something that has become a periodic tradition on Mazah. Pressure to replace the current techno-aristocrats has been eased, though some feel that that is simply keeping in power the same conservatives whose leadership led to the post-Contact recession, Others are suggesting that a more subtle revolution may be taking place, with the new prosperity encouraging a younger generation of Mazahans more in tune with the Galactic scene taking the reigns of the technocracy from their parents, and the growth of a larger middle class with access to Galactic knowledge.
63

[b]*Veranan[/b](Protectorate)
“We tread carefully here; the last time this many warships were in Veranan space, somebody dropped a veritable **** weight of WMDs in this planet. We’re here to prevent anybody from trying to do it agai and finish the job. And we have to reassure the Veranans, some of who remember the day the mushroom clouds went up that the guns and launchers of this fleet aren’t about to turn on them.”
---Commodore Ajaskins Qwuile, Taskforce Stormlock, Frontier Defense Force(Special Assignment, Veranan Protectorate High Patrol)-out-of-Hadazad, United Systems Alliance Joint Command*

“Rest, peace, and brand new spare parts. It’s been a long time since we’ve had any around here. I know I’ve experienced it in the past, but it just feels so unfamiliar.”
-Jance ‘Thinkamabob’ Lluyons, Veranan Transferred Intelligence

“We’re talking centuries-long cyber-PTSD here. Short of completely reformatting the CPUs of every sophont ‘bot on the planet, we’re not going to fix things overnight. There’s really no precedent in IT history or lore for carefully running defrag routines on this sort of scale, even supposing that defrag programs would even help in this situation.”

Controversial Veranan, once a technoparadise and hotbed of A.I. research before it was bombed almost back to the stone age, has seen some improvement of late in its state. Though the devastated orbit-bombed shatterworld is still a long way from what it was before unknown assailants attempted planetary genocide on it, the native sophont androids are no longer being arbitrarily hunted, courtesy of the USAJC security cordon thrown around their system. While the Veranans are slow in rebuilding their numbers, there are a growing number of new Minds that aren’t the result of the scavenging of old CPUs, and haven’t been booted up into an environment of privation and desperation, and are coming to know organics as friends, not ruthless enemies from the sky. Some of the old transferred intelligences have even set aside their fear and hatred and stepped forward to share old Veranan technological techniques with the USA’s cyberneticists. And the GNE’s cyberpsychology corps has established field offices on Veranan for any ‘bot wanting and willing to come in and unburdenI(though there have been a few shooting incidents with ‘meat-haters’ seeking easy targets).
In the way of material assistance, the USA has provided new parts, machinery for power generation and industry, and decontamination gear for cleaning up still-dangerous sites on Veranan. Several naval bases have been established, and a defense satellite network is being set up, with control being shared with the groundside Veranans.
The public word of Veranan’s existence is still percolating through the Three Galaxies to varied responses. The EShemarrians are alledgedly sending ambassadors to the world, and the USAJC’s practically had to beat back a wave of enthusiastic Chromites variously wanting to jam with/loot the Veranan cyberminds. The Human Alliance still refuses to acknowledge Veranan, and the CCW is quiet on the matter. Though the conservative anti-AI human groups have lost much of their former influence in the CCW congress, their legacy still lingers in a general suspiscion of thinking machines, and the CCW is taking a ‘wait-and-see’ approach to see if the Veranan situation explodes on the USA. The Central Alliance has quietly sent an unoffical off-the-books diplomatic party to check things out(early images of the half-wrecked but still lethal guerilla androids of Veranan has attracted interest and started a fad of similarly simulated ‘ripped-and-torn’ cyberhumanoid frames in the CA). The United Worlds of Warlock has more openly sent a delegation out of curiousity. The Altess are remaining back, but have an interest in comparing Veranan robotics technology with their own. Despite being on the losing side in a conflict, the Veranans display a sophistication different from Altess developments, and many of the ‘immortal’ Altess sense a sort of kinship with the Veranans’ transferred intelligence ‘immortals’ and would like to meet them.

*USAJC Taskforce Stormlock represents the first major extrasolar action-assignment of forces mainly recruited from the Hadazad system. It’s joked that the people who are agog about BIG robots(Hadazad’s infatuation with big combat meks) are protecting a planet of SMALL robots.

Veranan is still considered to be a charity case, as Veranan industry is still a long way from being able to contribute meaningfully to offworld trade, but having tasted peace and security in a long time, the cyberVeranans are rallying to make the most of it.

[taalismn]

*Saveoresc(United Systems Alliance Member World)(Anvil Galaxy)
“Even for some of the hardworld rimmies, hearing about conditions on Saveoresc, gained the miners who elected to STAY and keep working considerable respect. Takes some serious determination to stay on a high-grav rock without reliable gravitational compensators. The Saveo rockeaters came to the Usa with some pretty tough credentials in hand already. ”

“Don’t mess with people who know how to use explosives, vibro-pickaxes, armored exoskeletons and laser drills. Especially at close quarters.”

“We don’t go near the black zones, even if there’s a strong lead on the mineral scanners. That’s where the blackboots had their camps...People died there. True, people died in the mines, but they died legit, from accidents, mismanagement or stupid negligence...you can argue cases for manslaughter or ignorant murder left and right, but at least miners went in after the dead to see to their own. In the prisons...we weren’t supposed to know about them, but word got out. Oh, the Party said there were military reservations on Saveo, but the Party didn’t care much if word leaked out about what happened to people who dissed the State. But in the prisons people died, and whatever the cause, it was murder all the way. Now, I don’t believe in ghosts, but while I’ll dig just about anywhere else, I’d rather not break rock in a graveyard. The ore’s not worth it.”

“The Usans are bringing in gravity insulation a lot better than what was originally laid down. And water processing and laser cooling systems. That’s going to make the mine communities a lot more attractive to family groups. Now, I normally wouldn’t recommend Saveoresc as a homeland for families, but some of the extended miner clans are demanding better access to their significant others. Now, we can either establish colony stations in orbit, or we can greatly improve living conditions on the surface. And believe it or not, it’s easier, safer, and less expensive to build sanctuary on the surface. It helps that there’s a big boom need for our minerals, and our new business partners are investing big in anticipation.”

Orbiting a trinary star, Saveoresc is an arid foreboding place. During the height of the Cynoceran Republic’s power and the tyranny of the Central Party, Saveoresc was spoken of as a place of woe, hardship, and death..and that assessment came from people who AGREED to go there.
The planet, though very marginally habitable, was considered a deathworld, thanks in part to the actions of the Central Party; the Cynoceran Internal Security Directorate maintaining several forced labor camps for political dissidents, effectively death camps that few emerged from. A sentence to Saveoresc was regarded as a death sentence. Those few who were released and returned(typically as examples) came back broken in body and spirit. Saveoresc ‘s harsh environment served as effective warden, torturer, and executioner.
However, at the same time, the planet was being heavily mined, the mines being separated from the prison camps by vast stretches of deadly desert. Life in the mining settlements was harsh and hard, but at least a bit more comfortable than that experienced in the prison camps. And the miners got to leave, or at least had the chance to, if they behaved and made quota. At least initially, the Central Party didn’t short its proletarian workforce, but as the cold war with the Odina Federation wore on, production quotas increased, regulations became stricter, and compensations lagged behind the increased workloads. The Internal Security Directorate’s presence began to be sensed more often in the mining settlements.
Yet it was in the mining settlements that an aggressive miners’ labor movement arose, agitating for better working conditions, despite being painfully aware of what happened to those that the state internal security apparatus cracked down on. This labor movement managed to survive until the Republic cracked and collapsed. It would be this labor union that called for Saveoresc independence from the former Cynoceran state. The Central Party pulled out of the mining settlements in good order, despite some rushes by and clashes with the emboldened miners eager to give the apparatchiks a proper sendoff.

Though many miners left Saveoresc in the aftermath of the ‘Cynoceran Spring’, ironically many more, out of patriotism, elected to stay, figuring that whatever emerged in the Central Party’s place would still want Saveoresc ‘s resources, for which the miners could negotiate new terms. They even formed a ‘Planetary Governance Council’ based on the impromptu labor union. The PGC of Saveoresc was correct; the United Systems Alliance that was recruiting new members wanted Saveoresc’s minerals to continue feeding the industries of ex-Republic Tarkulaam and Thelheim. The USA was willing to provide more modern and safer mining technologies to Saveoresc to sweeten the deal. The USA has also offered medical treatments, including bio-modding, and other technologies, to help counter the detrimental effects of living in Saveoresc’s heavier gravity.

The Central Party’s withdrawal from the prison camps was less consistent or orderly. While some inmates were transported out to be transferred to other prisons in the remaining rump-Republic worlds, or even repatriated to their homeworlds, others were less lucky. Some camps were simply abandoned by the Internal Security Directorate, the unsupervised prisoners left to make due with what resources were left and no way out, and many of them died. In a few deep-state black camps, the ISD executed the inmates on their way out. the atrocities not discovered until PGC prospectors, looking to more thoroughly map the planet’s resources, stumbled across the secret prison camps. Of those camps reached in time, none of the former prisoners elected to stay on Saveoresc.

*Update: *The Greening of Saveoresc(?)
“When I heard that the former prison camp I was held at was being used as one of the Usan biotech farm sites, I was conflicted; too many of my fellow inmates died in that hellhole, and they should be left to rest in peace. But then I thought, if they should be disturbed, let them be raised up again as new life, to again embrace the open air and the shining light! What better way to be returned to the world? That would be more acceptable than to be buried and forgotten.”

This former Cynoceran Republic desert prison planet and mining world would seem to be an odd place to be planting farms, but that’s exactly what the USA is doing, using similar extremophile biotech as used on Khaldar. Investing some imported water to start the germination of water-seeking/producing lithovoric megaplants, the USU and USPPC have started several test farms on Saveoresc. The ‘mega-cacti’ and ‘super pumpkins’, some of them large enough to serve as habitat domes, are the subject of much interest among Saveorescans.
Among the other biotech organisms under development are plants whose natural secretions, it is hoped, will kill the organisms responsible for the water-bleed illness, possibly by dissolving the cysts of their spores.
There’s also talk of orbital solletes to cut down some of the solar radiation and cool the planet down somewhat, but that’s regarded as pie-in-the-sky thinking unlikely to be implemented without some real pressing reason for all the effort.

Solar System(Vagou)
Number of Stars: 3
Types of Stars:
-Yellow Dwarf((Vagou-a)
-Yellow Dwarf(Vagou-b)
-Red Dwarf(Vagou-c)
Number of Planets: 9
-Asteroid(Olnee)---A ‘sun-grazer’ with an eccentric orbit around the three suns. Some Cynoceran astronomers have allegedly gone mad trying to calculate its orbit and when, not -if-, it will ultimately fall into one of the Vagou suns.

-Terrestrial(Geltmann)---Huge ‘super-Venus’ with a punishing gravity and poisonous atmosphere. Even compared to Saveoresc, it is considered too dangerous to try to exploit, and the Cynocerans left it alone. The USU has dropped probes into its atmosphere and scanned a thermally-blasted, volcanic landscape under acid-raining clouds.

-Terrestrial(Saveoresc)---System lifeworld

-Gas Giant(Altroy)---Huge gas giant. It is the site of a gas-skimming operation and one(Chelkof) of its nine moons plays host to a gas processing station and fueling base. The Cynoceran Navy used Chelkof as a refueling station. When the Central Party pulled out of Saveoresc, they tried to hang onto Chelkof, perhaps as a staging area if they ever returned to reclaim the mining planet, but the station commander, sympathetic to the miners’ cause, kicked off the old guard supporters.
Chelkof continues to serve as a colony(some 12,000 strong) and a base, but as a semi-independent armature of the USA ‘state’ of Saveoresc. It is the base of operations for a small flotilla of ex-Cynoceran Navy vessels acting as a system police force, a small USAJC naval base, and a support facility for Belters operating in-system(mainly providing water-ice to parched Saveoresc. The former CN commander of the base, now semiretired, still oversees the day to day operations of the facility, and listens to the Planetary Governance Council of Saveoresc, but pretty much runs the base as he sees fit, and the miners let him, trusting in his judgment. Military and security affairs are the headache passed on to the USAJC.

-Terrestrial(Halm)---Enormous rocky world covered in a dense poisonous atmosphere. It has nine small moons and a thin ring similar to Saveoresc’s, telling of the death of at least one small moon in the past.

-Terrestrial(Miktu)---Enormous terrestrial planet similar to Halm in having a poisonous atmosphere. It does have an abnormally strong magnetic field, and this manifests visibly as very strong aurora activity visible from space during solar eruptions(common what with three stars). The USA has orbited commercial-grade observation satellites just to watch the auroras for entertainment.

-Asteroid(Egavs)---A planetissimal once considered for a maximum security prison to rival the Saveoresc camps, until the Internal Security Directorate decided it wasn’t worth the effort. If there were any inmates deserving a worse fate than Saveoresc , they would simply be executed.

-Gas Giant(Naskar)---Tiny Naskar is distinguished by having a thin ‘aura’ of dust that haven’t formed rings.

-Gas Giant(Yodin)---Small cold gas giant. It’s too far out to be of much significance, but the USAJC sends a patrol out just to check on the area and calibrate their sensors.

Planet(Saveoresc)
Type: Terrestrial
Diameter: 13,000 km
Gravity: 1.6 g
The mining settlements had various aides to combat the heavy gravity, including polarized grav-plating, but the prison camps lacked such extravagances(except in the guard quarters)
Temperature: Warm; average planetary temperature is 155 degrees F, with the temperature dipping down to a more hospitable 80 degrees at the poles. Thermal insulation and advanced cooling systems are a must to survive on Saveoresc’s surface.
Unusual/Special Features:
-Moons(7)----Saveoresc plays host to seven small moons, really captured asteroids. The USA has updated the navigational GPS stations the Cynocerans installed on the moonlets, making prospecting and navigating the planet easier.
- Rings---A thin ring surrounds Saveoresc. It provides some shading from the planet’s three suns, but makes orbital insertion a little tricky.
-Craters---Saveoresc’s surface is pocked with old craters, telling of substantial meteor impacts in the past, most likely when a small moon (or two) broke up in orbit.
Atmosphere:
Tainted nitrox mix with a thin oxygen content. Filter masks are required to survive Saveoresc’s atmosphere. Breathing the unfiltered and unsipplemented air can kill a person in minutes, or seconds if they get a lungful of akaline-laced dust.
Terrain:
Hostile---Shifting dunes, blistering winds driving abrasive grit through channeling canyons, and akaline-lined basins make surface travel on Saveoresc treacherous. Armored chemically-resistant exosuits and/or sealed armored rovers with good GPS are recommended.
Notable Mineral Concentrations:
- Copper
- Manganese
- Gold/Silver
- Wolframite
- Platinum
- Samarskite
- Emerald
- Quartz
-Colal Crystals( Rifter #0-1)---Useful in creating high-quality optic lenses.
-Gantrium---The Saveoresc miners have come across sizable deposits of a mineral they could not identify and which seemed to have no useful properties they could discern. It will take USA scientists familiar with magic to properly identify the ‘junk’ mineral as the invaluable mineral Gantrium, of which very few sources have been identified in the Three Galaxies! Having no history of practical magic use, the Cynoceran/Odinan branch of Humanity could make no use of it, but to the magic-aware USA, this discovery is an unexpected windfall that will easily put Saveoresc in the black financially!
(And when the gantrium is identified, a copy of the report is sure to cross the desks of the backstage Altess investors in the Saveoresc venture)
Hydrosphere:
Dry---There’s some trace moisture in the atmosphere and some deep underground, but Saveoresc’s surface is parched bone dry. Atmospheric condensers eke out a little water for the thirsty settlements, but most water has to be either deep-drilled or brought in from elsewhere in the system.
Biosphere:
Sparse; Saveoresc actually supports a few forms of microorganisms and extremophile plants, possibly the result of ancient extraterrestrial visits. A wind-blown form of algae living high in the air column and apparently resistant to ultraviolet radiation degradation, provides some renewal of oxygen in the atmosphere, as well as creates occasional ‘green clouds’ or ‘brown storms’. Another microorganism, known and feared locally as ‘water-bleeder’, takes up resident in moist environments, favoring lung tissue specially, and forms painful cysts as part of its reproductive cycle.
Civilization:
Settled
Population:
1.8 million Humans. There’s a growing number of transitory workers working specific contract-work before moving on, as well as similar numbers of professional Belters working in the rest of the system.
Technology:
Galactic, but three or four generations behind the 3G standard. The USA has been bringing in more modern mining and life support technologies, as well as biotech unique to the USA
Economy:
Mining
Wealth:
Poor, but as newer more efficient mining technologies are introduced, and the exodus of skilled labor reverses, Saveoresc‘s exports are expected to increase and the balance of trade improve.
Government:
The Planetary Governance Council of Saveoresc is effectively a democratic mining-labor union; to have a vote, one must be a worker in good standing with the union.
Law Level:
Overbearing; though the situation is relaxed considerably from the bad old days when the Central Party and its ISD goons ran things(Authoritarian verging on Totalitarian), the environmental situation on Saveoresc is such that everybody HAS to be constantly on guard against accidents and behavior that might threaten public health and safety. Reckless behavior can prove dangerous, as proven when at least one small mining camp, realizing that its government miners had slipped away, took celebrating a bit TOO far, and nearly everybody was killed by a life support failure(though some believe that it was deliberate sabotage). One thing the Planetary Governance Council has made sure to enforce is strict safety regulations.
There’s still some penal activity, but at new facilities, not the old Republic sites, and the PGC isn’t above using scare tactics and some hardship to press home to inmates(of legitimate crimes) just how serious a mess they made for themselves. Hard labor on Saveoresc for felonies like assault, rape, and murder is truly punishment, with little or no grav plating and the knowledge that death by slow cooking or asphyxiation is just meters or a few equipment failures away.
Popularity:
Fanatical; the miners who stayed enjoy their new freedom and the prospect of a brighter future palpably within their grasp.
Stability:
Stable, for now, but if the new planetary government and the USA don’t deliver on their promises, the situation could get ugly again fast.

[Borast]

As for Arrakis....maybe a side product of spice blows was free oxygen....though nothing was mentioned as such...only that waste gases from the process of melange-formation in a pre-spice mass were being released and exchanged.

Missed that one first time...
Nailed it in one. The worms (if I recall) release small amounts as a byproduct (including enough ozone to be detectable by smell), but the spice blows create a lot of free oxygen. Can't remember where I read it, but it was in one of the books somewhere. I just don't want to dig through 10 books to find it! lol

[taalismn]

-Golgan Republik and the Reconquista: Strategy and Status

“-by the Directive of Orelsan, in the Year of Oldran Three Thousand Eighty-Four, this planet was declared for the Republik. We are enforcing the territorial sanctity of the Republik. Now power down any and all transports, weapons, communications devices, and prepare to have your habitat modules and facilities inspected and impounded for criminal trespass!”
“The ‘Directive of Orelsan”?! Oldran Three Thousand Eighty-Four?! That was...nearly four hundred years ago!!! This hasn’t been Golgan space for three hundred years! We’ve been mining this rock for thirty years! Golgan territory is over a hundred light years away to spinward! What the hells are you trying to pull?!”

“The Golgans are motivated by fear and anger at being pushed around, the non-Golgans supporting them are motivated by fear and no small amount of nostalgia...wanting to belong to the Great Republik again, though I think most of them don’t see the rot and debt shot through most of the grand old institutions of the Republik. THey’re in for a rude awakening one of these days.
Now, how can we make that day arrive sooner?”
---Excerpt from a weekly briefing, Office of Positive Outcomes

“We’re seeing a good number of Golgan officers, especially younger politicallyactive ones who came in with the new administration, who feel it’s not just their imperative, but their right, to go gunning down everything in their path. We’re also seeing a lot of older commanders who feel they can finally take the gloves off, free of political restrictions as to rules of engagement, and start landing head and groin shots.”

“Iornically, the worst thing that can happen now in this war is for the Republik to collapse; in doing so it could take a whole lot of worlds down with it, and open the way for somebody like the Empire to come in and set up shop. The Golgans can be dealt with, at least the not-desperate ones, but I don’t think anybody wants to see about negotiating with an Executioner battleship cruising in Republik space.
Mind you, we have to win this war, but the Republik has to still be standing, in such a way that it can’t have another go at it any time soon, but also not be pushed over.
Feel the headaches yet? You will.”
---Excerpt from a weekly briefing, Long View Office, Galactic Strategies Department, Galactic Security Authority

In a nutshell, the Kultural Revolution war effort has lost direction and any clear strategy.
The Kultural Revolution campaign started out with a plan, with original clear-cut objectives of attacking the Altess Dynasty at its weakest, holding it for ransom, and using the payoff to refinance their military, tell Naruni Enterprises to go #### themselves, and then start rolling up the old satrapies and border states back into compliant satellites. Instead the Battle of Altess Prime saw the Argosy’s elite taskforce beaten by an adhoc force of allies, and the Golgans have been trying to get their feet back under themselves ever since. Gaus Binjo quickly reoriented the original plan and the reserves meant to occupy Altess territory into early strikes at secondary targets; the neutralization of the most aggressive former territories before THEY could capitalize on the aftermath of the Argosy’s defeat at Altess Prime. In this, the Argosy was able to claim some victories. The Zyganian Empire, among others. lost a good chunk of their war-industry as a result, and has had to contend with a resurgence of pro-Golgan insurgency in its border-worlds.

The strategy of the Republik has shifted to one of neutralizing potential threats along their borders, grabbing what they can, smashing what they can’t, in a manner that Battletech’s Succession Houses would recognize and approve of. They’ve rolled over the weaker and less well-defended former buffer states, and have imposed new restrictions and demands on existing provinicial territories. In some sectors they’ve been able to regain territory, or at least make off with valuable resources like state-sponsored pirates on a larger scale. What was meant as an intimidation campaign to persuade former satellites into rejoining the resurgent Republik has instead devolved into a series of brushfires conducted by commanders using their own initiatives and often widely diverging ethics. Some Golgan command officers are skirting perilously close to war crimes in their zealous drive to achieve their objectives and reinstate the Pax Golga on space.

The most commonly encountered Golgan military forces are task-fleets of Bindas-class cruisers and escorts, making swift forays to hit space infrastructure and indict travel in the contested(former satrapy) zones. Depending on the anticipated strengh of resistance, these fleets may be fortified with older and renovated vessels* pulled from the reserves or from sector defense fleets. Attacks on the more powerful targets will be coordinated and spearheaded by accompanying Sylnor elements.
If occupation or resoure raids are the objective, the vanguard raiders will be followed by additional Bindas escorting Republikan Guard transports, and even monitors and engineering vessels to establish garrisons.
These units very rarely operate outside declared Golgan territory. Problem is, historically, the Republik covered a LOT of space, and the Argosy seems to feel they have free reign of it. This means that Golgan fleets have been working their way through former satellite states and scouting regions that were last visited by the Golgans hundreds of years ago.
The notable exception is in the Thundercloud, where the forces deployed there have a graet deal of leeway to claim unsettled(or primitive) worlds and try to intimidate others from pressing any contradictory claim. These forces have even vaguer objectives beyond carving out a territorial enclave for future colonialism. The Thundercloud forces also face little peer opposition, compared to the Anvil coreworlds, but are also the most overextended of the Argosy and Republikan Guard forces, asthey are at the far end of long logistics trains. The Revolution has also been accused of dumping Auxiia garrisons on virgin worlds and virtually forgetting about them in favor of more pressing matters on other fronts.

(GM Note: Aramanthus has done a -staggering- number of Golgan Navy ships that can be found on pages 15 and 20 of the Starships thread; these can be used to represent older ships i the Golgan forces.
However, Aramanthus ‘ work pre-dates publication of Fleets of the Three Galaxies, so there’s a lot of discrepancies in technology and design philosophy between the fanon and the canon. The use of cruise missile launchers, for exa,mple, which the later canon states the Golgans do NOT have natively developed.
The CMLs and other technologies, though, can be explained as refits to older vessels, with the CMLs, especially, being bought from Naruni Enterprises back in the day. These can be now be expected to be using a dwindling stockpile of previously bought missiles, or can be replaced with Golgan-sourced nuclear torpedo launchers.)

Problem is, the Golgan warmachine’s operating on a shoestring, resources-wise, and it’s started to show. The Argosy may have neutralized a good number of irritants along the Republik’s marches, but long-term they’ve inarguably set up more future trouble for themselves from newly-hardened grudges, at greater expense, than if they’d left things alone. And as their biggest rivals are getting stronger and wiser, the Republik is growing increasingly desperate, turning to strip-mining its constituent worlds of ships and personnel to reinforce the front lines.

The deteriorating situation may put pressure on Gaus Binjo to enact the sort of drastic (and alignment-shifting) measures that would make his beloved Republik the sort of authoritarian hellhole he fears. The alternatives aren’t much more attractive; try to collapse the Republik as gracefully as possible and hope for a short dark age under merciful victors and hopefully a renaissance, or watch the whole thing implode uncontrolled into chaos.

The only good news for the Republik is that none of their enemies have the capability or will to truly press on and invade the Republik in an all-out campaign. There’s no central allied chain of command or organization planning any long-view strategy beyond cutting down any Golgan forces venturing outside their borders. While there may be nusiance raids deep inside Golgan space to take out military targets, there’s no real will to take and occupy the Golgan coreworlds. The forces opposing the Republik would likely be content with cutting a few worlds off of the current Republik, exact some reparations, and cripple the Republik’s ability to assemble any large military forces for the foreseeable future. However, even that would leave the Republik dangerously susceptible to attack by polities not currently engaged in the struggle, mainly the TransGalactic Empire.

If Gaus Binjo were to be honest with himself and his people, he would admit that the Kultural Revolution jumped off too soon and gambled it all on a short, fleeting, and dubious window of opportunity.

Status of Relations:
*Consortium of Civilized Worlds
Officially at War. However, the CCW is not conducting large scale operations against the Republik with anything beyond beating them back across their borders and curbing the Golgans’ aggression. While this may seem at odds with the Shaw-inspired policy of no longer fighting with one hand tired behind their back, Golgan space is simply too big to invade successfully, and currently no CCW worlds are in the line of fire or under threat. HOWEVER, the CCW has made it clear to the Argosy that any threat against a CCW planet, facility, or ship will be responded to in kind. And to that end, to prove the point, the CAF has several hunter-killer fleet groups operating near Golgan space, pouncing on any Argosy units they encounter. The CCW has also been backing breakaway border states and the GSA has been helping foment resistance and rebellion.

*Altess Dynasty
Officially at War. The Golgans dared strike at the Altess coreworlds and the threat has lit a fire under the jaded Altess. Besides bankrolling a wide array of anti-Republik mercenaries and organizations, the Altess Armoria has taken a more direct hand in countering Argosy forces, now that they’ve gotten their shipyards and defense plants up and running at full capacity. The Armoria has seen a lot of new recruits and old reserveists calling in their commissions to return to duty, and while they haven’t yet undertaken any boots-on-the -ground campaigning, war patrols of Yannars, Zhokils and their new Auroras being a lot wider-ranging and visible. It has not become uncommon for an Altess noble and military commander to pay a ‘courtesy call’ on an independent polity bordering Golgan space just as the Argosy was making a foray in the area. The incidents of ‘self defense’ have not gone well for the Golgans.

*United Systems Alliance
Officially at War. The USA’s involvement in the Battle of Altess Prime clinched that. Thing is, there aren’t any USAn territories close to Golgan space, so the Argosy has to content itself with trying to hit USA-flagged shipping and trade, and strike at the USA’s allies and trade partners. In return, while the USA continues to respect ‘courtesy of the stars’ in responding to emergencies, picking up lifeboats, and dealing with common threats such as the Infermals, the USAJC has been much effective in interdicting Argosy units. USAn irregular forces, operating with OPO support and direction, have been most effective in hamstringing the Golgan warmachine through asymmetrical warfare.

*Zyganian Empire
Officially at War. An ex-Republik territory, the Zyganians dared poke the doddering Republik and then got their teeth kicked in like a punk picking on an old, but still dangerous, war veteran. The Zyganians learned a painful lesson, havng lost several important shipyards and much space infrastructure, setting back their own expansion plans. The Zyganians are angry and recovering, but under that anger is some chagrin at having been slapped down. Currently the Zyganians are bogged down in fighting against insurgencies on their borders and loyalist proxies such as the As-Thanans.

*Border States/Golgan Marches
Officially at War. Pretty much every ex-Golgan buffer territory that hasn’t been rolled over already, or is trying to avoid being noticed, is at war with the Republik and the Kultural Revolution , though many haven’t come right out and said it. Few, though, are particularly powerful(the Zyganian Empire is arguably the most powerful of the former Golgan proxy-states), and aside from a smattering of minor treaties, there’s little real organization or unity between them. They are, however, recieving aide from a variety of sources, both overt and covert; the CCW, the Altess, the USA, and the Central Alliance. Both Naruni and Hartigal are offering sharply discouted sales or weapons and equipment to the border states as well, arming them against Golgan aggression.

*Central Alliance
The Kultural Revolution tried to take several choice worlds away from the Central Alliance, but General Noldek’s Cyberhawks trooped a bunch of shiny new warships* and lots of cyber’ed up troops eager for a fight to the border. After some skirmishing the Golgans retreated and haven’t been back. While not OFFICIALLY at war, General Noldek has made it clear that any Golgan military forces straying into Central Alliance territory will be treated as hostile. He’s also invited any current Golgan state that wants to join the Central Alliance that they may do so, and he hasn’t forbidden any Central Alliance citizens from joining anti-Republik forces as mercenaries.
Just as the pre-Kultural Revolution Council Politik vetoed annexing the Central Alliance worlds because they were too fractious to govern, General Noldek has decided that, even with his new warships and cyborg weapons, invading and forcibly seizing any Republik worlds isn’t worth the effort. If any come over of their own free will, however, he’ll hear them out.

(GM Note: Aramanthus has done a -staggering- number of Central Alliance ships that can be found on pages 2 and 14 of the Starships thread; these can be used to represent the shiny new warships of Noldek’s CA fleet)

*Bakalapona
The Kultural Revolution evidentally forgot why the Republik abandoned the planetary mental asylum world back in the day, because they tried to take away several neighboring systems. War was not officially declared by either side, but the Argosy force sent into Bakalaponan space came back out decidedly beaten up, with several warships having to be scrapped. The surviving ground troops weren’t much better(with a notably high aversion to custard-based foodstuffs), and the Republikan Guard commanding officer refused to say publically what happened, epecially what happened to his predecessor. The Kultural Revolution has avoided Bakalaponan territory ever since.

*Naruni Enterprises
Officially at War. Of all the forces arrayed against the Republik, Naruni’s probably likely to be the most vindicative, with Venegance Volumes aplenty to be redeemed after the various missed payments, unanswered calls, snubs, and veiled insults paid Naruni. In victory, the Naruni might very well demand high-interest reparation payments and territory from a prostrate Republik. While Naruni Enterprises would like steady customers, they also need to make an example of those who skip on their payments...and then shoot the bill collectors. The Golgan Republik is one BIG example eaiting to be made, even though NE is raking in the cash selling to all those Golgan neighbors fearing the Argosy and Reoublikan Gurad coming calling.

*Hartigal Combine
One would think that Hartigal would jumpin, eager to offer the Repiblik a deal to replace Naruni’s cut-off arms supply. Instead, Hartigal’s refused to let the Republik approach them and is instead arming the Golgans’ former states. Some in the Republik are wondering why the hell the splinter offshoot of Naruni is refusing to do business with them.

*TransGalactic Empire
The TGE is watching the war with mild interest to see how it plays out. The TGE has no interest in helping the Golgans out overtly, but if the war were to involve their rivals the CCW more substantially, the TGE MIGHT consider quietly slipping the Republik some technical or material support just to keep the war hot.The TGE will offer just enough support to keep every side in the Great Golgan War bleeding, but not enough to strengthen the Republik and give it any real chance of winning.
However, if and when(and the TGE is betting it’s just a matter of time) the Republik collapses, the Empire will cheerfully make an appearance and start snapping up Republik worlds, confident that the local victors will not be willng to take on the Kreeghor.

*United Worlds of Warlock
The UWW has no interest or stake in the war and is not one of the official combatants. The UWW is, however, w atching what the magic-using Ultrovians are doing in contributing towards the war. The UWW’s seers are also perturbed by disturbances they see in the temporal flow, and are worried that in desperation the Golgans(individuals or as a people) may turn to truly drastic measures to turn the war around. The UWW has dispatched several operatives to scout out the trouble and they’ve already caught a Dark Coven trying to sell cursed grimoires and other suspect artifacts to the Golgans.

*Shemarrian Star Nation
Not officially at war, but the SSN has skirmished with Golgan forces in the Thundercloud Galaxy, checking Golgan expansion in the new territories. The Argosy is NOT welcome intruding in Shemarrian space. Clan Pantheron, however, is taking an interest in the Golgan aggression against the leonine Shing.

[SolCannibal]

*Hartigal Combine
One would think that Hartigal would jumpin, eager to offer the Repiblik a deal to replace Naruni’s cut-off arms supply. Instead, Hartigal’s refused to let the Republik approach them and is instead arming the Golgans’ former states.

Only if one doesn't know the president is himself an Altess. Most people tend to take somewhat personally the idea of an attack toward their place of origin. Well, the Golgans know the bed they made for themselves.

*TransGalactic Empire
The TGE is watching the war with mild interest to see how it plays out. The TGE has no interest in helping the Golgans out overtly, but if the war were to involve their rivals the CCW more substantially, the TGE MIGHT consider quietly slipping the Republik some technical or material support just to keep the war hot.The TGE will offer just enough support to keep every side in the Great Golgan War bleeding, but not enough to strengthen the Republik and give it any real chance of winning.
However, if and when(and the TGE is betting it’s just a matter of time) the Republik collapses, the Empire will cheerfully make an appearance and start snapping up Republik worlds, confident that the local victors will not be willng to take on the Kreeghor.

Where is the Free Worlds Council with some big, spectacular surprise when you need them?!

*United Worlds of Warlock
The UWW has no interest or stake in the war and is not one of the official combatants. The UWW is, however, w atching what the magic-using Ultrovians are doing in contributing towards the war. The UWW’s seers are also perturbed by disturbances they see in the temporal flow, and are worried that in desperation the Golgans(individuals or as a people) may turn to truly drastic measures to turn the war around. The UWW has dispatched several operatives to scout out the trouble and they’ve already caught a Dark Coven trying to sell cursed grimoires and other suspect artifacts to the Golgans.

Good thing some slightly smarter Dark Covens have not yet caught on the Republik might be just the place to hide from UWW authorities hot in their heels after the Minion War debacles and maybe carve out a convenient niche beside the Ultrovians as court magicians for themselves while at it.

[taalismn]

[

Good thing some slightly smarter Dark Covens have not yet caught on the Republik might be just the place to hide from UWW authorities hot in their heels after the Minion War debacles and maybe carve out a convenient niche beside the Ultrovians as court magicians for themselves while at it.

...And if the Dark Covens figure out that murdering Ultrovians takes care of two problems at once(gets rid of competition and gets some good old-fashioned death-PPE), Golden politiks just got a whole lot nastier.

Add in the Splugorth seeing an opportunity too to snap up some worlds without a hardcore opposition to slam them...

[SolCannibal]

[

Good thing some slightly smarter Dark Covens have not yet caught on the Republik might be just the place to hide from UWW authorities hot in their heels after the Minion War debacles and maybe carve out a convenient niche beside the Ultrovians as court magicians for themselves while at it.

...And if the Dark Covens figure out that murdering Ultrovians takes care of two problems at once(gets rid of competition and gets some good old-fashioned death-PPE), Golden politiks just got a whole lot nastier.

That would really raise the stakes all over the place.

Add in the Splugorth seeing an opportunity too to snap up some worlds without a hardcore opposition to slam them...

Could be - or that could be the bit of overconfidence that sparks the Golgans senses back into focus and gets some Splugorth kingdom slaughtered like Rynncryyl's forces when they rubbed the CCW and TGE the wrong way.

[taalismn]

[

Could be - or that could be the bit of overconfidence that sparks the Golgans senses back into focus and gets some Splugorth kingdom slaughtered like Rynncryyl's forces when they rubbed the CCW and TGE the wrong way.

Yeah...If the Splugorth started advancing into Golgan space, you could very well have powers like the UWW or Central Alliance moving in to Golgan space to help the local defense forces drive off the Splug.

[taalismn]

Got some inkling of how one of the red/orange sun worlds that seem to be so common in the USA would be like....smoke drifting in from Canada's dimmed the sun to a red ball even high in the sky.

[SolCannibal]

Got some inkling of how one of the red/orange sun worlds that seem to be so common in the USA would be like....smoke drifting in from Canada's dimmed the sun to a red ball even high in the sky.

Oh yeah, some pretty good samples for visual reference around if one's really in the mood to look for them.

[taalismn]

*Kinesi----Independent World and USA Affliliate, Cheronute Sector( Anvil Galaxy)
(aka ‘Poleworld’)
“The Kinesian ‘poles’ are more like massive upright airfoils; they rotate into the facing winds to reduce turbulence and still pick up energy from them; energy that’s sent to power various systems, including the root cities and the cap-stations. Truly remarkable works of civic infrastructure.”

“Our world is just one step in a greater chain of enlightenment. It should be comfortable enough to allow one to focus on enlightenment, but not so comfortable as to trap one in the temptations of gross materialism.”

System several sectors over from the Solex Federation. Kinesi is an independent religionist-sponsored colonization effort out of the CCW. They maintain distant, but cordial, ties with their parent civilizations, and trade with several neighboring polities in return for assistance dealing with piracy in their region of space. They are notable trade partners and work-clients of the United Systems Alliance, though not members of that organization(as yet).
Kinesi is a theocratic commune world, settled by the feline Pume, humans, elves, and noro who follow Kinep-Sytece, one of the offshoots of Shadrac Steppism. They generally regard outsider non-believers with bemused disdain and condescension, but strongly believe in a common code of rights for sophonts, and thus get along well with their USA trade partners.
KInesi’s unique combination of low gravity and a thick violent atmosphere has necessitated some rather unique(in themselves) colonial architecture; Kinesi communities consist of underground ‘footings’ sheltering underground, built around orbital ‘beanstalks’ that rise up through the thick clouds and are topped with domed station-communities the size of towns, sitting just above the clouds. The stalks provide safe travel through the clouds and violent weather, and also absorb and store atmospheric gases, moisture, and lightning strikes. A Kinesian ‘city’ can consist of up to a half dozen such stalks in close proximity to each other, electrostatic fields helping each tower mutually support its neighbors(and some linked by cable car high wires), while keeping them from crashing into each other.
PS/ASI was commissioned to build up the Kinesian space infrastructure when the system was visited by a Solex Fed space battleship. Though the contact was businesslike, the Solex crew wanting to trade for materials and information, the Kinesi suspected something was afoot, and contacted their GNE friends about the visitors. A USAJC patrol was soon shadowing the Solex warship as it wandered about the sector. When the shadowers observed the battleship engaging in piracy, they swooped in and ambushed the Solex vessel. The captured ‘renegade’ battleship yielded invaluable information about the state of affairs within the Solex Federation, especially the techno-slave trade being conducted by lawless elements operating on both sides of the coreworld/colony dispute. The incident has made the Kinesians more aware of galactic geopolitics in their corner of the galaxy and more vigilant and on-guard about hostilities in adjacent sectors spilling out of bounds. The Kinesians have asked their USA contacts to quietly help them build up their orbital and offworld defenses against possible future threats.
Whether or not all this becomes a more permanent allegiance with the USA remains uncertain; the Kinesians are leaving their options open.

Solar System(Prolem 189)
Number of Stars: 1
Types of Stars: Blue Dwarf
Number of Planets: 4
-Gas Giant(Gardal) ----This gargantuan gas giant is lashed by Problem’s radiant energy and its dense magnetic field catches so much solar radiation particles that it sometimes manifests as easily visible enormous auroral ‘catspaws’ coursing across the planet’s atmosphere. The same fields make Gardal too radioactive to approach closely, but several of its nine moons are far out enough that they can be safely visited. Several rich mineral strikes have made these moons valuable resource-sites.

-Terrestrial(Kinesi)----System lifeworld

-Terrestrial(Flosei)----Miniscule ice-covered rocky world. Its water-coating has made it attractive as a possible resource site.

-Gas Giant(Galddarit)----Saturn-sized gas giant. Several of its two dozen moons hold promise as mining sites and the planet itself a source of gases for passing starships. The Kinesians have bought several robot mining stations and planted them on the moons; a chain of robotic slow-freighters and the occasional manned supervisory transport cycle between the mining stations and Kinesi. Already several residence-domes have been set up in anticpation of live miners and starship stay-overs, their architecture aping the Kinesian model woth habitat domes suspenced on tube-stalks driven into the ice and rock of several of the moons.The USA has petitioned the Kinesians for permission to establish a USAJC patrol base on one of Galddarit’s moons.

Planet(Kinesi)
Type:Terrestrial
Diameter: 7,000 km
Gravity: 0.4 g
Temperature: Temperate
Unusual/Special Features:
-Strong Electromagentic Field---For a small planet, Kinesi has an unusually strong electromagnetic field, suggesting a small, dense, and very active molten metallic core. Some of the stalk-cities take advantage of this, acting like rotor-whiskers ina planet-sized dynamo, and tap the field for power.

-Off Rotation----Kinesi has a surprisingly fast rotation; a day is only18 hours long; colonists and visitors more used to a longer 24-hour terrestrial ‘day’ have to adjust to the ‘mid-dark’ and ‘first-morning’ and ‘second-evening’ of a typical Kinesian ‘day’.
Atmosphere:
Very dense; almost approaching the density of a liquid at the lower most levels. The Kinesian atmosphere has sometimes been called a ‘cloud ocean’, with the Kinesians living on its bottom or on high-tech pilings above it. Strong winds and turbulent storms are common on KInesi, and those venturing out onto the planet’s surface wear powered armor suits with multiple quick-deploy anchors(similar to Rifts Earth Glitterboy-laser pylons) to keep from being swept off their feet.
Terrain:
Considered to be Exotic Terrain; the surface has been often compared to an ocean floor, swept by strong currents, upwellings carrying dust and debris up into the air column to be used by the many organisms floating there. Large ‘waves’ or ‘banks’ of ‘organic fog’ made up of decaying organic matter frm above, dust, and bacteria sweep across the surface,
Notable Mineral Concentrations:
- Amethyst
- Aluminum
- Iron
- Zinc
- Diamond
- Salt
- Sulfur
- Nickel
Hydrosphere:
Effectively Badlands. Most of Kinesi’s moisture is suspended in its atmosphere in the form of the planet’s thick clouds. The Kinesian ‘beanstalks’ condense and collect this water vapor for use. Rain is common on the surface, often coming down with considerable wind-driven force, but typically evaporates before it has a chance to collect and pool, or is sponged up by the ‘organic fog’ of detritus.
Biosphere:
Surprisingly, Kinesi has a booming local ecology, rated as Verdant. Multiple species, adapted to the extreme conditions, thrive in the violent atmosphere or on the storm-lashed surface. Parasitic bolo-slakes whirl blown by the wind, wrapping around anything they are tossed into and trying to grab a meal if the object is edible. Wyre-verns are similar, but live at higher altitudes. Boun-pops are jellyfish-like floaters that can form massive breeding swarms, before popping to spread thousands of eggs into the slipstream.
The (literally)biggest surprise on Kinesi are the massive whale-like aerowhals, kilometer-long finned organic zeppelins that swim through the atmosphere, ascend with each new day to soak in solar energy that feeds symbiotic algae inside their massive hollow gas-cell bodies, and who float in mutual pods during the cooler night. Massive but harmless, a pod of air-swimming aerowhals breaking formation around a cloud-piercing beanstalk is an awesome sight.
On the surface, various worm- and mole-like lifeforms burrow through the surface soil and try to avoid being lofted by storm winds or picked up by aerial predators. Some of these surface lifeforms are the larval forms of aerial organisms. The hardy hookbush maages to sink deep roots into the firmament and remain unmoved by the sweeping winds. The moss-like whorl-carpet ripples in vast green swathes across the landscale, driven wave-like by those same winds.
The Kinesians have learned to harvest some of these lifeforms for commercial use.
Civilization:
Settled
Population:
43 million( 39% Pume---See Aliens Unlimited, 67% other; a mix of other Kinep-Sytecists)
Technology:
Low Galactic, but they have achieved some unique and amazing things with their adaptation to the planet. They maintain several Galactic-level space statios in orbit, using imported technology.
On the planet itself, travel between the stalk-communities is primarily by airship.
Economy:
Commercial---The Kinesians hope to become a commercial stopover in their sector, selling the resources of Gardal and Galddarit in particular to refuel traveler starships. The infrastructure program commissioned of the USA is orbital trade stations and repair facilities to accommodate future trade(unfortunately, the same trade streams that the Kinesians hope to tap into have also attracted pirate activity).
Wealth:
Currently Poor, but only because almost all of their resources are dedicated to life support and improving their communities.
Government:
Theocracy---The Kinesians regard their planet’s challenging environment as a test of their ingenuity and faith, and the original church organization has evolved into a doctrine-influenced techno-meritocracy where the priests are also department heads of the various IT divisions
Law Level:
Lawful---The communes operate under a well-spelled-out and fair code of laws.
Popularity:
Fanatical-----The religious spirit is strong on Kinesi, and that translates into a zealous supprt of the government.
Stability:
Dynastic---There’s been a more or less consistant succession of priest-politicians running Kinesi since its founding.

[taalismn]

(Working to finish up the remaining ex-Cynoceran Republic worlds that joined the USA)

*Orsessn (Anvil Galaxy)(United Systems Alliance member)
“Oressn was far enough off the beat and path that the system never really got integrated into the centralized economy that the Cynoceran Central Party imposed on worlds like Thelheim and Vanderland. It also meant that the Republic never saw any real reason to provide much help for them either. Oressn’s situating has made building them up that much harder, but it helps that Beta Ragulf’s closer to some galactic trade lanes than to the Cynoceran core, so that with the opening up of the old Republic worlds, Oressn can benefit from traffic that in the bad old days would have been shut out.”

“The Orsessners can be considered Cynoceran Adaptists; they feel that any planetary system could be adapted into habitats for Mankind. Colonizing a red dwarf system’s challenging enough, but it can be done. A giant water-covered planet? That’s a pond of plenty, waiting to be tapped! So what if it’s got hard gravity? We’ll just make the tools to reach that wonderful liquid gold! So they applied to the Cynoceran central government for help developing the tools. Problem is, the Central Party thought it was easier to sneer at the Odineans and take stuff away from THEM than to go to all the trouble of prying stuff off virgin worlds themselves. The whole original Cynoceran ‘manifest destiny through our superior wits’ thing kinda got deflated for the Orsessners in favor of military spending.”

“Yeah, I’ve heard the Orsies got something of a bad rep in the rest of the old Cynoceran worlds for effectively stranding themsleves in orbit of a planet they can hardly touch, But I had a few opportunities to join resource harvesting parties descending to Orsessn’s surface and participate in a dullip hunt....that involves coursing over the massive oceans in a grav-launch, everybody wearing power-frame exoskeletons, looking to harpoon what looks like a giant armored jellyfish. Those things are good eating and a source of some impressive medical chemicals, but can put up a fight that can bring down a hunter-launch. Plus they got symbiotes and parsites that can put up a fight too. All that on top of some really nasty weather. Orsessnees aint rubes or hicks by any stretch of the imagination; they’re really tough and devouted to the task of taming a wild world.“

The Beta Ragulf-87 ssytem was settled by old-style, pre-breakup with the Odina, Cynoceran idealists who felt that no matter how unprepossessing a star system was, humanity could expand into it, given time and technology. They had their work cut out for them with Orsessn, already handicapped by orbiting a red dwarf star.
The citizens of Orsessn actually inhabit underground cities on the two largest moons (Kyff and Atlov) of the giant, high-gravity waterworld, and were expecting government assistance in tapping the potentially vast resources of their neighbor. However, the Cynoceran Republic’s Central Party always fell short of providing the necessary resources, which would have taken away from their military build-up. In fact, Orsessn was considered a bit of a backwater, even at the he ight of the Cynoceran Republic, and the system’s colonists were considered by many other Cynocerans to be something of eccentricsm rubes or losers for not going on farther and finding a better world to settle on/around. Rather than a profit-maker for the Republic, like Vanderland or Thelheim, Orsessn was always skirting break-even, and contributed little to the coffers and ambitions of the Central Party.
The Orsessners, who believed more in the original colonial Cynoceran ideals of conquering new worlds, not other peoples, and took a longer view of progress than the Central Partyists, kicked their Central Party officials out and asked to join the United Systems Alliance after hearing of some of the things they were doing with other borderline worlds, and of the environmental-adapatation bio-mods the GNE uses.

Currently, because of their limited technology and the added problems of living in the low gravity of the moons, the Orsessners can only make short trips and stay for short periods of time on the planet’s surface. ‘Grav-workers’ attending to the small scientific and industrial site-complexes on Orsessn generally work at most three-month shifts(two is the norm), wearing powered exoframes and living in grav-baffled barracks on the surface, before cycling back to the moons to recover. Most work on the surface is currently done by automation, but the many unknown factors and environmental challenges require regular supervision and on-site maintenance by live personnel.


Solar System(Beta Ragulf-87)
Number of Stars: 1
Types of Stars:
-Red Dwarf
Number of Planets: 10
-Gas Giant(Cmirot)----Large Cmirot has a thick belt of trapped radiation particles from Beta Regault. The planet also suffers visible ‘bow-offs’ of gas from its upper atmosphere when the star has solar flares.

-Terrestrial(Dsim)----Miniscule, and possessing a very thin hazy carbon dioxide atmosphere, Dsim’s lack of water and exploitable minerals prevents it from being attractive as a colonization site. The Central Party did, however, establish a small scientific base on Dsim, though no scientists from Orsessn were ever invited to the facility, leading to rumors that it was a military research station doing top secret weapons development. The Central Party never did anything to confirm or deny these rumors. Adding to the veil of mystery about what was going on at Dsim, when the Central Party and remaining loyalist Cynocearn Republic military pulled out of the Beta Ragulf system, the Dsim personnel scuttled the station before they left. Though later UDA scans of the site revealed nothing suspiscious, there are some Oressnian spacers who refuse to go anywhere near Dsim or anything lifted from the planet’s surface for fear of some experimental pathogen or nanite weapon that escaped the sterilization process.

-Terrestrial(Orsessn)----Large and covered in liquid water, Oressn is the system’s lifeworld

-Gas Giant(Aken)----Small and unprepossessing, Aken does possess one curious feature; it rotates on its axis the opposite direction relative to the other planets in the Beta Ragulf system.

-Gas Giant(Walshav)----Miniscule Walshav is notable for having a particularly large and deep hurricane-like storm dominating its atmosphere that has been active since before the systemwas ever colonized. The unusually wide and deep storm ‘eye’ provides a window deep into the gas giant’s interior, and some USA people have proposed floating grav-shielded tourist craft down the eye to see the various atmospheric strata.

-Terrestrial(Jrit)----Tiny Jrit is cold and covered almost entirely in water ice. Some outsiders in the Republic thought that Jrit would have made a better choice of colony site since the colonists were going to live in dome-habs anyway. The USA has put forward similar plans for landing several Frontier- class space stations, linking them together and expanding from there.

-Terrestrial(Thei)----Small and covered in chemical ices(89% surface coverage), Thei would make a good chemical feedstock source and plans are already underway to set up plant on its surface, with the first outpost set up in a large impact crater.

-Gas Giant(Bhal)----Huge Bhal supports several moons of interest as possible mineral sites.

-Gas Giant(Keuf)----Large Keuf has a distinct lack of satellites of anything other than tiny size.

-Gas Giant(Fortal)----Miniscule, but with its own small ring system.

Planet(Orsessn)
Type:Terrestrial
Diameter: 25,000 km
Gravity: 1.9 g
Temperature: Warm; average temperature is 109 F.
Unusual/Special Features:
*Moons(7)---Orsessn has seven moons; Kyff, Atlov, Menelope, Cycuse, Dyram, Eram, and Etza.
-Kyff( 2,840 km diameter)---Major populated moon, with some 9 million residents
-Atlov(1,825 km diameter)---The other major colonized moon, with some 7 million colonists.
Menelope, Cycuse, Dyram, Eram, and Etza are all smaller than 400 km in diameter, and have small stations( 2,000 residents or less) on them.
Atmosphere:
Super Dense---Orsessn’s atmosphere is three times denser than Earth’s, and consists of a nitrox mixture heavily laced with carbon dioxide and nitrous compounds. Compression acclimation and decompression procedures are mandatory for visitors coming and going from the planet’s surface.
Terrain:
Three terrains; uplift mountains, erosion plains, and coastal beaches
Notable Mineral Concentrations:
- Amethyst
- Copper
- Wolframite
- Gold/Silver
- Asbestos
- Ruby
- Samarskite
- Graphite
Hydrosphere:
83% of Orsessn’s surface is covered in open water
Biosphere:
Dense---Orsessn has a dense ecology that has yet to be fully discovered. The humans visiting the planet have only touched the surface of its waters, where most life is concentrated, and barely plumbed its depths. A few exploitable species have been identified, The massive ocean surface-drifting dullip are edible and a source of several promising medically-applicable chemicals. Kude is a form of motile seaweed that can form massive clusters that are wind-assisted ashore and can crawl on dry land.
Civilization:
Colonial, Settled
Population:
There are some 27 million humans living on the Orsessnian moons
Technology:
Galactic, but three or four generations behind the 3G standard.
Economy:
Industrial---The Orsessn moon colonies have some micro-gravity industry producing such things as zero-gee -grown electronics crystals. With fewer restrictions on who they can market to and what access to resources they are allowed, the Oressnians are seeing an uptick in sales and revenues. Most of this goes to increasing efforts to exploit the outer planets and harvest from Orsessn, so there’s little left over for other projects like expanding and tidying up the habs.
Wealth:
Average, on the low end; that’s actually up from Depressed under the Central Party. With a more dynamic planned economy under the USA, development of the outer worlds, and integration with the growing aterials demands from Thelheim and other worlds, the prospects for the Orsessn economy are being forecast as optimistic.
Government:
Was effectively a miltary junta-run socialist state under the Cynoceran Central Party, but when the Central Party withdrew, governance reverted to a techno-pedocracy of the scientfic leadership running the Orsessn exploitation programme.
Law Level:
Lawful/Overbearing---This is down from borderline Authoritarian under the Central Party, but like most stable and successful dome-world soceities, there’s not a lot of leeway, or tolerance, for shennanigans that threaten public safety.
Popularity:
Popular, but tempered by reality. Most Oressnians want to see their experiment succeed, but they’d like to see some improvements in their situation come sooner, rather than decades down the road. It’s hoped that membership in the US will see some fresh investment of technology come their way.
Stability:
There’s a fear that without the Central Party’s restrictions, a good many dissatisfied Oressnians will immigrate out to better worlds.

[taalismn]

Klavia----(Anvil Galaxy)
“-the reason we’re suspending the thesleen exports is because the Dowbers were so thoroughly polluting the water-table with their cost-paring tailing dumpings that it’s very possible that they were compromising the other major moneymaker they were squeezing! But that’s shortsighted thugs for you! We can’t risk poisoning drinkers any more than we can allow our fishermen to be hauling up toxic catches!”
“And it just so happens that that you can drive up the price of the few thesleen exports you DO clear? From brewers you just happen to have connections to? What’s the REAL story, President Waldram?!”
----Press Conference, Ranow City, Klavia

Klavia is a client world and trade partner of the United Systems Alliance. The planet was settled from the CCW and still has commercial ties to it, but is mainly seen as a (very) minor Rim polity. Klavia is an inhabited world that is coming off the end of an unfortunate association with Nort Consolidated, a galactic mineral development corporation. The Klavians brought Nortcom in to manage the planet’s potentially very profitable mining operations.
Unfortunately, though legally licensed, Nortcon’s Klavia operations wound up being infiltrated and managed by the organized crime Dowber Cartel. The Dowbers made the Klavia works extra-cost-efficient, but by cutting corners so they could skim the savings for themselves. The Dowbers also used their position to put the squeeze on the local Klavians, especially the growers and brewers of the popular local drink, thesleen*.
Seeing only the bottom line, Nortcon was blissfully unaware that their onsite management on Klavia was both poisoning the environment and muscling the locals. After Klavian attempts to complain to Nort Consolidated’s corporate HQ fell on deaf ears and got nowhere, the Klavians caught the interest of Network Omni News. The resulting NON investigation and sensational expose caught the attention of the authorities. The Dowbers pulled out fast, and as soon as they could, Nortcon did too, before they became too liable for the damage the Dowber Cartel did under their name.
And there was damage. Tailings from the nekirite mine operations had been dumped in Klavia’s oceans, doing considerable damage to the rich coral-like corol beds offshore. Besides being scenic, the corol reefs are a significant source of food for the Klavians, and part of the ecological network keeping the planet viable as a lifeworld.
Currently the Klavians are in the middle of litigation against Nortcon, while shattertechs(ecological engineers from the United Systems Alliance) have been brought in to work on fixing the damage done to the Klavian ecology. The immediate problem, though, seems to be political and civil unrest; the entire incident has stirred up resentment of the government’s handling of things, despite the best efforts of a voted-in corrective administration to contain the damage and fix the consequences. The administration has been subsidizing relief food aide for those worst affected by the ecological damage, but the available funds to do so, with exports suspended or curtailed, are in danger of drying up before the bioremediation efforts can show any real improvement.

Solar System(Dinzon)
Number of Stars: 2
Types of Stars:
-(Dinzon-A) Blue Sub-Giant
-(Dinzon-B) Orange Dwarf
Number of Planets: 4
-Gas Giant(Morbert)--- Enormous Morbert is surrounded by a ‘ring of fire’, a glowing cloud of trapped charged particle plasma caught off the solar wind from the twin suns by the gas giant’s powerful magnetic field.

-Terrestrial(Klavia)---System lifeworld

-Asteroid(Juka)---This planetissimal was being used by Nortcon as a refueling station for their freighters, given its proximity to the jump-limit of the system. However, it’s rumored that Nortcon also found something valuable under Juka’s crust and was mining it. When Nortcon pulled off of Klavia, they also abandoned Juka, but not before completely uprooting the installation and a good chunk of the asteroid and carting everything away. The Klavian government has demanded to know the specifics of the Juka operation as part of their litigation efforts, but Nortcon has refused, claiming alternately that they found nothing and that the Juka property lay outside the territorial jurisdiction and interest of the Klavian government. Efforts to scan what what was left on Juka have been hampered by industrial contaminants, including dumped reactor fuel, polluting the site.

-Gas Giant(Nejan)---Small and distant, Nejan has little to interest the casual visitor. Nortcon quietly surveyed the thin ring of ‘pebble moons’ that Nejan possesses, but found nothing worthwhile.

Planet(Klavia)
Type: Terrestrial
Diameter: 10,505 km
Gravity: 0.9 g
Temperature: Temperate
Unusual/Special Features:
-Rings----Thin debris rings are all that remains in orbit of a small moon that broke up millennia ago. Ocassionally the lower most dust bands decay, giving rise to spectacular, but harmless, ‘star showers’.
-Craters----The same moon that broke up and left the rings also bombarded Klavia with heavier debris, leaving the planet’s surface marked with plenty of impact craters.
Atmosphere:
Dense; but breathable terrestrial nitrox mix.
Terrain:
Mainly plains, barrier reefs, low hills, and wetlands.
Notable Mineral Concentrations:
- Magnesium
- Sapphire
- Scheelite
- Mercury
- Arsenic
- Calcite
- Salt
- Sulfur
Nekirite( Rifter #0-1)
Hydrosphere:
54% of Klavia’s surface is covered in open water.
Biosphere:
Dense, down from Verdant. Pollution has made a noticeable dent in the local ecosystems, especially those in certain critical areas. Klavia is at a roughly Silurian period of development, with the most developed forms of land animals being arthropods. The seas are where the biodiversity is highest, especially around the corol masses.
Civilization:
Settled
Population:
258 million Humans
Technology:
Low Interstellar; the Klavians cannot produce their own starships, but have the facilities to maintain and repair shuttlecraft and build hovervehicles for local transportation.
Economy:
Agricultural, with Mining as secondary.
Wealth:
Was Average, but has slipped to Depressed. Most of the most-profitable exports have been sharply curtailed while the government tries to ascertain the damage to the ecology and to exported foodstuffs sources such as the thesleen-producing farms. And the government has been spending funds to import foodstuffs.
Government:
Democracy, with elections every six local years(the exception was a special recall election called after the Dowber Debacle)
Law Level:
Overbearing; there’s a surfeit of caution on the part of the government, which has sharply restricted fishing the Klavian seas and suspended all but a trickle of thesleen exports.
Popularity:
Hated; the Klavians feel they got a real raw deal....and the government isn’t making things any better. There’s talk that the current government let Nortcon slip away, was in cahoots with those who were working with the Dowber Cartel, and is seeking to profit off the evolving catastrophe, even though the current administration was voted INTO power to deal with the mess left behind by the previous party.. There’s also resentment of the restrictions placed on fishing and thesleen export, and the distrust of offworld corporations has even bled over to include the outside organizations trying to help remedy the situation on Klavia.
Stability:
Unrest. While there’s natural impatience to get a judgment from the lawsuits against Nortcon, and slow-motion panic-reaction to the extent of the ecological damage, there’s some concern that the current situation is being manipulated by groups or individuals who want to seize control of the Klavian government.



* Thesleen-----A drink produced on Klavia from a combination of fermented fruits flavored with corol secretions. It is best served chilled in glass. It is reddish in color, beer-watery in consistancy, is lightly carbonated, tastes fairly good, and has a tremendous alcoholic kick, while being utterly nontoxic, It also causes humans to have psychedelic artistic fugues, On Klavia it costs 10 credits a bottle, while offworld it can bring up to 50 credits a bottle, especially from artists.

[SolCannibal]

Currently the Klavians are in the middle of litigation against Nortcon, while shattertechs(ecological engineers from the United Systems Alliance) have been brought in to work on fixing the damage done to the Klavian ecology. The immediate problem, though, seems to be political and civil unrest; the entire incident has stirred up resentment of the government’s handling of things, despite the best efforts of a voted-in corrective administration to contain the damage and fix the consequences. The administration has been subsidizing relief food aide for those worst affected by the ecological damage, but the available funds to do so, with exports suspended or curtailed, are in danger of drying up before the bioremediation efforts can show any real improvement.

So the despoilers have been put in the run, but effects of their passage have left, beside the considerable enviromental damage, a possible debt death spiral looming in the horizon. Yikes.
Well, at least there are no Golgans sniffing around trying to strongarm people with flimsy claims of disputed past territory or some such to boot.

[taalismn]

So the despoilers have been put in the run, but effects of their passage have left, beside the considerable enviromental damage, a possible debt death spiral looming in the horizon. Yikes. .

Easy low-cost FTL has meant that many polities that would otherwise have been much more independent are still reliant on outside help to compete in the galactic markets.
And it becomes easier to become unhinged with relation to those markets if something goes wrong.

[taalismn]

*Miminster(Anvil Galaxy)()United Systems Alliance Colony)
“Never thought operating a sand-scraper rig would be a strategic duty, but it’s reinforcing our claim to this planet, after taking it back and all.”

“Sometime down the road of time, I hope that high board of corporate pirates on Alicen realize how much they lost through sheer stupidity claim-jumping our worlds not once but twice. The stuff we’ve been discovering and the wealth we’re going to make off it ought to curdle their greedy little brains something bad. ”

The Aldorf system was originally scouted by the Tmelain Republic long range scouts and stake-claimed for future Tmelain expansion. However, while the Tme fought a futile resistance action against the TransGalactic Empire, the Deneva Comdomate claim-jumped the system without offering the Tmelain any compensation. This claim-jacking remained bitterly contested by the Tme Republic-in-Exile until the Comdomate attempted to snap up even more territory(and get back at the Tme for grabbing back one of their claimed worlds) in what would become known as the Pounce War. This time the Tme were firmly part of the United Systems Alliance and not only defended their territory, they struck back and claimed some of the Comdomate’s systems. The Aldorf system was one of the original Republic stake-claims that was reclaimed during the Pounce War.
Besides its geopolitical history, Miminster’s only other significant feature is its large deposits of mineral-rich sands. Otherwise, the planet is borderline habitable; it has a barely breathable atmosphere, cold temperatures, scant water, and uncomfortably high gravity. It has charitably been called a cold desert with overcast. The Tme, however, are dead-set on keeping it.
Besides the miners and prospectors, the USA has established several listening posts to monitor activity in the Deneva Comdomate. The system is regularly patrolled by the USAJC.

Solar System(Aldorf)
Number of Stars: 1
Types of Stars: Blue Dwarf
Number of Planets: 6
-Gas Giant(Amval)----Small for a gas giant, Amval nevertheless has managed to capture four satellites of its own. These have proven convenient sites for automated science stations observing Aldorf’s solar weather and its interaction with an energy field in Amval’s atmosphere. Solar storms seem to cause the generation of giant ball lightning spheres in Amval’s upper clouds. The spheres can persist for several weeks before dissipating. One of the more exotic theories advanced to explain this phenomena is that it is the mating and reproductive behavior of energy-based exolife living in Amval’s atmosphere.

-Terrestrial(Miminster)----System lifeworld

-Exotic(Jweten’s Wisk)---- This is a dwarf planet that appears to have been hit with a piece of exotic matter similar to, but much smaller than, the material that is tearing Aldorf IV/Howellite apart. However, the material embedded in the Wisk has repellent properties in an oddly one-directional manner. Instead of pushing against the surrounding crustal material in an omnidirectional sphere, the fragment is creating a jet of material to geyser out of the crust and into space, where it fans out and ionizes in the solar wind, creating a massive glowing fan shape reminiscent of a whisk. The rate of ablation, and the material lost, is negligible, as is any slow thrust effect the jet may be causing, but it is visually spectacular.

-Exotic(Howellite)----Howellite is an Earth-sized rocky world that is slowly being torn apart by a massive sliver of exotic matter that somehow came to be embedded in the planet. From orbit, the planet looks as if a wedge of white crystalline material has been inserted into the planet like a layer aligned with the equator. Upon closer inspection, though, one can see that the crust around the wedge is being repelled and tossed up into space. Howellite has already lost its atmosphere and its molten core is rapidly cooling. A cloud of loose debris surrounds the dying planet.
The Deneva Comdomate did some studies of Howellite, hoping to find something they could exploit, such as mining the exotic matter, but were coming to the conclusion it was too dangerous to approach the planet with conventional means.
The USA is also conductng its own studies of the phenomenon, to discover where the exotic matter came from and what danger, if any, the slowly cracking planet may pose to other bodies in the Aldorf system. They have had somewhat better luck using heavily armored and shielded probeships to collect material from the debris field and hope to use gravitically-buffered equipment to approach the exotic matter for closer study.
Estimations are that Howellite may last another forty thousand years before breaking up completely.

-Terrestrial(Sakaster)----Large and cold, with a methane-ammonia atmosphere, Sakaster’s punishing 3 gs of gravity make it uninviting as a colonization prospect.

-Terrestrial(Usolm)----Earth-sized Usolm is as foreboding as Sakaster with a similar chilling temperature and ammonia-methane atmosphere, Usolm’s lower gravity(1.3 g) make it much more approachable. Recent mineralogy scans have also discovered sizable deposits of Killaryte under its crust. If and when the USA learns how to exploit this mineral(and undercut Naruni Enterprises’ virtual monopoly on the explosive), Usolm will become VERY valuable indeed. As with similar discoveries on Kendelson, the USA has kept the Usolm finds secret for now until they can determine how best to exploit them.

Planet(Miminster)
Type: Terrestrial
Diameter: 19,000 km
Gravity: 1.2 g
Temperature: Cool...reaches 45 degrees F in the equatorial ‘tropics’.
Unusual/Special Features:
-Strange Orbit---Miminster has a high-inclination, almost polar, orbit relative to the mean plane around Aldorf.

-Energy Field---Surprisingly, Miminster has a weak, but discernible, PPE field. This has raised hopes that magical environmental modification techniques can be used to alter Miminster to make it more habitable.

-Other---Miminster shows evidence of having absorbed a smaller protoplanet soon after its formation. Several strata formations emerging through its crust show a distinctly different geo-chemistry that has survived and resisted being tectonically absorbed and recycled.

Atmosphere:
Dense, but breathable nitrox mix.
Terrain:
Miminster is dominated by large tracts of desert sands
Notable Mineral Concentrations:
- Colombite
- Sapphire
- Zinc
- Manganese
- Talc
- Sulfur
- Gypsum
- Fluorite
-Lithium
-Dysprosium
-Germanium
Hydrosphere:
Badlands; there are a few oases where subcrustal water bubbles to the surface; these are where settlements generally concentrate.
Biosphere:
Sparse; there are signs that Miminster may have been subjected to earlier attempts to introduce terraforming organisms in the form of oxygen-producing microflora. The Tme are careful to avoid disturbing the ‘wet sands’ where the algae are most prolific. One of the goals of the scientific teams on Miminster is to promote the growth of these organisms or, at least, cultivate them in terraforming farms and release them into the atmosphere to maintain the oxygen balance long term.
Civilization:
Colonial
Population:
66,000(90% Tme)
There are about 7,000 humans; former Comdomate colonists who refuse to leave(out of a settlement of 11,000 when the Tme took back the planet), but also no show signs of continued allegiance to the Comdomate. As much as the Comdomate would like to make a fuss about the treatment of these hold-outs, the Tme have decided to leave them be. If they make any trouble later on, the USA will winkle them out of their holdfasts and deport them.
Technology:
Galactic----The Tme colonists are supported by as much advanced USA technology as could be utilized to establish a self-supporting colony in the event the Comdomate attempts to return and cut them off.
Economy:
Mining and agriculture. Lithium scraping and extraction provides most of the offworld income.
Wealth:
Depressed----Miminster is still in a settling-in phase and is still dependent on imports to sustain itself. It is rapidly gaining a degree of self-sufficiency, however, with the advanced life support technologies being shipped in, and there’s been some speculation about introducing the same sorts of mega-biotech being used elsewhere in the USA to ‘green up’ Miminster.
Government:
Currently a Tme military governor is in charge of running things.
Law Level:
Lawful, verging on Overbearing. Things are so strict because the system is newly acquired from, and still borders, a polity with which the United Systems Alliance is still in conflict.
Popularity:
Popular---Despite the generally dismal landscape of Miminster, the Tme colonists who have choosen to settle there are fanatical about ‘reclaiming their own’ and eager to make the most of the planet in the name of the reborn Tme Republic and USA. They wholly support their government and its efforts,
Stability:
Stable; there’s no sign of grumbling among the miners and support colonists.

[SolCannibal]

“Sometime down the road of time, I hope that high board of corporate pirates on Alicen realize how much they lost through sheer stupidity claim-jumping our worlds not once but twice. The stuff we’ve been discovering and the wealth we’re going to make off it ought to curdle their greedy little brains something bad. ”

I somehow doubt it - if the goofs at Alicen had halfway functional brains, they could have indirectly gained those worlds through trade partnerships the Tme'Lain, making money with less fighting, while propping up their neighbors as a buffer of sorts against possible Kreeghor encroachment, just in case.

Not all planets are equal, but places for mineral exploration are countless - potential lifeworlds and new technologies that come with growing populations of well-educated workers? That's inestimable in value.

[taalismn]

Spacefaring corporate culture doesn't always mean mature.....especially if you're handed spacefaring technology such as FTL...It merely allows your corporate mindset to spread the stupid over larger areas of territory.
Combine that with corporate statehoods and galactic geopolitics? That's a recipe for some potentially disastrous decision-making with consequences in the trillions of dollars/credits.