ShadowLogan wrote: Wed Feb 12, 2025 11:43 am How many shapeshifting races actually exist (plus consider magical means), and how do they each compare in known detection methods?
Answering my own question partially...
Depending on how you count a "shape shifter", in my incomplete Palladium Library for Rifts & Palladium Fantasy I count 77-85 (there are 9x were-beast options in Land of the Damned 2, but lumped as 1x RCC so is that 1x or 9x?) without duplication IINM.
Of those:
-28x are Shape Shifters, though here I mixed in full-range shape shifters (human, animal, etc) and humanoid-limited shifters
-10x are Limited Shifters, capable of "minor" adjustments (though some here might also belong to the fixed category below) that aren't really disguise level changes
-22x are Fixed Shifters (1x of which is the were-beast, it could count as much as 8x though depending on how one chooses) capable of only switching between two specified forms
-14x are Enhanced Fixed Shifters, capable of only switching between specified forms (like a Vampire or WereWolf)
-3x of these are stone body/armor type changes and might not belong (if we include this, a case might also exist to put the RUE revised Psi-Stalker in this category to)
So each of these might require its own approach to detection for a given race.
ShadowLogan wrote: Thu Feb 13, 2025 12:00 pm
So each of these might require its own approach to detection for a given race.
Being security in a multi-dimensional/multi-species polity(or a paranoid one) is a full-time business, coming up with new ways to spot potential trouble, while still respecting sophist dignity.
-------------
"Trouble rather the Tiger in his Lair,
Than the Sage among his Books,
For all the Empires and Kingdoms,
The Armies and Works that you hold Dear,
Are to him but the Playthings of the Moment,
To be turned over with the Flick of a Finger,
And the Turning of a Page"
A strange thought crossed my mind now of at least a few of the "deep tier doppelgangers" races, the beings that may replicate an individual down to the DNA-level precision, could perhaps have started as "sample-collecting tools" created by groups in the vein of Gene-Splicers, Splugorth bio-wizards, the GeneTech from the 3Gs or a number of similar organizations & societies across the Megaverse.
That's an interesting postulation, after 'they evolved in hellish environments so bad they adapted flexible genetics'.
-------------
"Trouble rather the Tiger in his Lair,
Than the Sage among his Books,
For all the Empires and Kingdoms,
The Armies and Works that you hold Dear,
Are to him but the Playthings of the Moment,
To be turned over with the Flick of a Finger,
And the Turning of a Page"
SolCannibal wrote: Fri Feb 14, 2025 8:37 am
A strange thought crossed my mind now of at least a few of the "deep tier doppelgangers" races, the beings that may replicate an individual down to the DNA-level precision, could perhaps have started as "sample-collecting tools" created by groups in the vein of Gene-Splicers, Splugorth bio-wizards, the GeneTech from the 3Gs or a number of similar organizations & societies across the Megaverse.
Aside from the Auto-G though, how many shapeshifting races are actually identified in this manner that they hit DNA-level alteration? I don't think I've seen that description applied to any other Shapeshifter outside of the Auto-G.
I'm not saying there aren't or couldn't be additional races like the Auto-G, nor the idea as bad. I'm just not sure if it works, the Auto-G doesn't "save" previous DNA samples in their code, they use it and then lose it when they switch to a new form (at least that is how I've read the race's ability).
Admittedly, an Auto-G character with a freezer of DNA samples 'just in case' strikes me as a potentially cool character.
-------------
"Trouble rather the Tiger in his Lair,
Than the Sage among his Books,
For all the Empires and Kingdoms,
The Armies and Works that you hold Dear,
Are to him but the Playthings of the Moment,
To be turned over with the Flick of a Finger,
And the Turning of a Page"
SolCannibal wrote: Fri Feb 14, 2025 8:37 am
A strange thought crossed my mind now of at least a few of the "deep tier doppelgangers" races, the beings that may replicate an individual down to the DNA-level precision, could perhaps have started as "sample-collecting tools" created by groups in the vein of Gene-Splicers, Splugorth bio-wizards, the GeneTech from the 3Gs or a number of similar organizations & societies across the Megaverse.
Aside from the Auto-G though, how many shapeshifting races are actually identified in this manner that they hit DNA-level alteration? I don't think I've seen that description applied to any other Shapeshifter outside of the Auto-G.
I'm not saying there aren't or couldn't be additional races like the Auto-G, nor the idea as bad. I'm just not sure if it works, the Auto-G doesn't "save" previous DNA samples in their code, they use it and then lose it when they switch to a new form (at least that is how I've read the race's ability).
I brought it up pretty much because beside the Auto-G there are the Ereshik/Two-Faced Star People, at least as described in Spirit West.
“The Pleasutec Affair may have ended Nagana’s prospects to join the United Systems Alliance, but it didn’t end the company’s depredations. As much of Pleasutec that got rolled up by the USA before the CCW stepped in, it clearly wasn’t enough; either staff involved in the operation escaped the dragnet, or else the technology was copied by others. Similar operations began popping up in other sectors...the Central Alliance world of Colnan was one such world that saw under-the-table Naganan tech-investment.
When the USAMS and the Cyberhawks broke up the viceport of Colnan, there was a flood of pleasure-borgs and high-cognition sexbots approaching USA forces or USA-flagged merchantmen in port, seeking asylum, sanctuary, employment or just plain escape from the planet, ahead of the local order collapsing. Many told the same story or had common origins; runaways or young people seeking offworld jobs or adventure, lured by agents promising them big opportunities in sophisticated Galactic society,…only to wind up kidnapped across the galaxies and forced into cyber-slavery.
A lot of refugees from shatterworlds and unsuccessful colonies shared the same story. Desperate for work, shelter, and security, and they wound up dropping into the ugly underbelly of galactic slave-trafficking.
The AIs told of being quickened to be as lifelike as possible, then had their newly-emergent sophancies abused by their users. Or else they were brainscans taken from kidnapped sophonts, flesh-minds imposed on psuedo-organic cortical processors. Some of them snapped and went berserker, while others just shut down. The survivors just wanted to experience happiness without attendant pain, and purpose without debasement.
The merchant marine got a LOT of anxious transportation requests. To their credit, they actually accepted a lot into their ranks as shipboard on-the-job trainees and passed the rest on to Human Resources to place. A lot of those people really did finally get their second chance at new lives.”
“The attraction of sex-cyborgs and pleasure-bots is supposedly that their good looks are fixed; they don’t deteriorate as rapidly as flesh-bods, so they remain attractive to clients longer. That’s not entirely true; tastes change, trends alter, and even among the technophiles there’s a sense of age in the older ‘bots and ‘borgs. Especially with the sex-borgs; the organic persona bleeds through the mental conditioning and begins manifesting in various ways, often ways that make the worker less attractive to the more demanding clientele. A lot of the tech-sex buyers can almost psychically sense a used-goods feeling from a older and resigned cyborg, when what they really want is a scared virgin or novice they can have fun breaking.
Thus, a growing number of older cybers and ‘bots wound up getting shifted to more demanding venues to draw crowds and arouse increased interest. Peril theater, with real perils, gladiatorial fights, demolition derbies...the list is long and a compendium of creative cruelty, staged for others’ amusement. Some of the participants actually managed to survive...only to be pushed into another round of combats and dangers. And there was always the mines as a last stop for slave-borgs no longer deemed useful in the vice trades. The pitchblende mines especially, with low-level rad-dust from a lack of safety measures rotting even bionic systems, took a toll on the workers.
What the Colnanite authorities and slave-masters didn’t realize was that they were training their formerly docile sex-slaves to be fighters and killers, breaking the very same docility conditioning they imposed on them in the first place.
Thus, when we arrived to scout out Colnan for Lord Wisen’s crackdown, we were very surprised to find a growing slave resistance already in place. Some of these people had quite a grudge built up and they were waiting an opportunity to inflict some payback, one way or another. They were planning a slave uprising to murder their masters, that likely wouldn’t have ended well of them when the authorities rallied and struck back, but with our help, we were able to turn it into a liberation day instead. But we couldn’t have done it without the assistance of the local freedom fighters.‘
----Captain Vergal Exur, United Systems Alliance Office of Positive Outcomes.
“The ‘Battle of Devak Shoals’? Mightah been something if it had been just between merc-companies. The Colnan concerns had a half-dozen substantial PMC outfits working for them, and they scrambled ships when the alarm about un-ID’ed trespassers in the system rang out. If it had been regular space-cops or other mercs, the Colnan muscle might have stood and fought, but when they got close enough to scan the Cyberhawks’ big ships and the usan squadrons, nearly half the Devak group jumped out-system. The rest skeddadled back to Colnan and grounded long enough to load their on-planet personnel and whatever they could snap up from the spaceport before they too ran like hell.
Oh. we had a few stubborn ones who stayed to fight, on account of them being too dumb or too slow, but once it was clear they couldn’t hide behind the planetary defense net , most of the renta-guns bugged out.”
“Heed a Merchant Advisory: Not all the ‘talent’ wanting to jump offworld on a visiting freighter are conscripted waifs and runaways, so be very careful who you let aboard ship. Some of them are ruthless gutter-scum who will plead and seduce their way onto your ship and into your cabins, then cut your throat while you’re asleep and take your gear for their own. There’s still plenty of desperate pirates in Colnan that the Usans and the Cyberhawks missed or are looking for, so don’t be opening your hearts or your hatches. Best advice; stall until you can get a peacekeeper scan of any new crew members you’re thinking of picking up on Colnan.”
Colnan was a Central Alliance-border ‘viceport’ on the planet Devak. While entire communities, moons, and even planets have been set aside and dedicated to fun and leisure, such as the parkworld of Fuzzinon, Colnan was a community dedicated to darker pleasures, in that it catered heavily to cyber-sexual debauchery.
Colnan survived and prospered because it claimed neutrality in the many brush-conflicts in the pre-Noldek Central Alliance regions. It even benefitted from the Noldek peace and alliance initiatives because increased trade meant more free money floating around and safer tourism. The darkport also had the protection of its affluent clientele.
At its height, Colnan was known even to the scions of the Pleasure Federation. It commanded a force of mercenary enforcers that made sure of its neutrality and kept outside criminal interests from muscling in on the highly profitable venue.
The end for Colnan came when evidence was developed that the port was being used to launder funds for anti-Noldek factions, the Colnanite authorities feeling that as Noldek’s peace took firmer hold, it would become bad for their business. This shift in outlook proved overly optimistic and ill-advised. General Noldek decided that Colnan’s role in fomenting opposition to his unification and reform efforts could not be ignored, but without a central leader on Devak to publicly challenge, his personal participation in the planet’s chastisement would look silly and be less than effective. Other weapons would be employed instead. Lord-Captain Wisen, a trusted lieutenant of General Noldek, was set the task to bringing the law to Colnan, but he asked the allied United Systems Alliance for support.
The USA readily deployed its merchant marine, which enjoyed access to Colnan’s legitimate businesses(there were a few) to gather information. The USA’s Office of Positive Outcomes began developing intelligence on the ground setup in Colnan. Meanwhile, a joint intervention force of Cyberehawks and USAJC would assemble and be prepared to move when a better picture of Colnan’s defenses and governance was produced.
Cooperation with a local underground slave movement allowed scouts to identify, target, and sabotage key defense sites and infrastructure, in advance of the open arrival of the joint warfleet. Though there was still some fighting, the joint government forces had both the element of surprise and overwhelming firepower on their side.
Today, Colnan is in the process of breaking up. Cyberhawks have landed, taking over from the USAJC peacekeepers, but there is still a fair-sized USA presence on the planet. The lights of the city are steadily going out as the once-bustling urban center is abandoned. While a few legitimate businesses cling to life, offering services to travelers, the rooting out of corruption has revealed few wholly innocents in the port, and spreading word is causing most transients to avoid the system altogether.
Devak’s future is uncertain; with Colnan being shut down, the original colony faces much the same problem as it did before the cartels were invited in, only now with the problem of a tainted reputation hanging over them. But nobody wants the possibility of the colonists possibly inviting in another group of criminals to resume operations. While some in General Noldek’s administration have suggested making an example of the planet to any other troublemakers, others have slyly suggested offering the world to the United Systems Alliance, given both their success with red dwarf systems and their habit/hobby of rehabilitated down-on-their -luck worlds. Pushing their problem on to their allies isn’t popular with everybody in the Noldek administration, but it’s considered a better solution than letting the situation on Devak fester once more and possibly rebreed a darkport problem. However, Lord-Captain Wisen is adamant on making clear that what happened to Colnan was because it acted against the Central Alliance, and not because it offended anybody else's’ sensibilities.
At its height, Colnan’s profile was as follows: Darkport Template
a) Size:
Large City---- 1.8 million residents at its height. Large transient population of nearly 30% of that.
b)Origins
Lapsed Colony---Colnan is part of the Devak Colony, a colonial venture that began failing when expectations of early returns in the investment didn’t pan out . They subsequently invited in less discriminating development and turned a blind eye to what was being brought in. There’s still a substantial number of colonists eking out a living out beyond the city limits, but they have little to do what the central city has become. Aside from a few lawless tourists going out into the wilderness to stir up trouble, or smugglers landing to conduct business that even the Colnan authorities wouldn’t approve of or might demand a cut of, there’s little offworld activity outside the main city.
c)Administration
Corporate---Several different corporations bankrolled the creation of Colnan, and their representatives ran the city.
d)Economy
Substantial--Cybersex and other associated vices account for a good half of the darkport’s revenue stream.
e) Wealth
Rich---- There’s a lot of wealth in evidence and most (free)people in the ‘port live comfortable lives with enough to lavish on a few luxuries and extravagances.
f) Security
Lax----- There’s a local constabulary, but they’re rather easy-going when it comes to enforcing local laws, tend to look the other way if the lawbreakers are too powerful to handle, and are amenable to bribery. Only if the criminal activity is particularly ugly, blatant, or threatens the businesses of the more affluent local interests will the police take immediate action.
The most feared of the local security are the Adjustors, who hunt down escaping slaves considered to still be of value to their owners. The Adjustors are considered by many to be sadistic brutes who delight in finding new ways of re-breaking(or ‘adjusting’) recaptured slaves, especially if their orders are not to physically harm the ‘merchandise’. Though the Adjustors confine their sadism to ‘merchandise’, everybody else generally stays clear of them.
g)Defenses:
Fortified----Colnan sported a variety of orbital defenses manned by mercenaries. Orbital battlestations, minefields, planetary shields and surface to space batteries, and a mobile force of fighters and larger ships make cracking this nut particularly expensive for most law enforcement agencies. Major fortifications and both passive and active lines of defense guard all approaches to the darkport., though it remained an [open’ port to mercantile activity.
(USAn scout teams were surprised to find that some of the defenses included Paladin Steel/Aegis Stellar Industries-sourced equipment, bought originally legally by legitimate third parties and either resold or transferred to Colnan. This made the sabotage and subversion of a substantial amount of the planetary defenses easier with company insider information)
h)Access
Open Port----The Colnan authorities don’t discriminate as long as you don’t bring trouble and pay your docking fees in time and up front. In fact, they welcome legitimate business as much as they do illicit traffic, as it gives an appearance of respectability to the place.
i)Notoriety
Notorious--The darkport is well-known as a haven of debauchery, with rumors of even darker goings on in the background.
j)Facilities
Extensive Overhaul----Can perform full overhauls and major modifications. Many crews come in with damaged or maintenance-needing ships, drop them off, and troop off to wait in the fleshpots while their ships are overhauled.
k) Supplies
*Modest---The darkport has stocks of food, water, and basic supplies, as well as common spare parts and fuel stocks, and small quantities of ammunition. However, with the right contacts with the local mercenaries, arrangements can be made to special order munitions and weaponry from offworld, though delivery may take a month or more.
l) Features
* Casinos----Particularly opulent palaces of chance and the downfall of many an arriving crew, flush with ill-gotten wealthy. Fools and their money are soon parted.
*Slave Market-----The darkport sponsors the flesh trade and provides the means for pirates to unload captives for cash.
*Scrubbers----The darkport provides services in ‘cleaning up’ hardware and merchandise and providing falsified ownership/purchase documentation. Colnan’s underground specialized in false IDs and removing the trail of illegally transported victims to its cybersex trade.
*Cybernetics/Bionics---Colnan features a number of cyberchopshops specializing in cyberware. For the right questions one can also get partial cyborg, cyberhumanoid and light machine conversions. Dark rumors of ‘cutting rooms’ converting healthy abductees, unwary tourists, or visitors who break the law into slave borgs are hushed up, but everybody is aware that’s a major part of Colnan’s stock and trade.
m)Perks
* Friends in Low Places---The darkport is part of a larger cartel or organized crime network spanning galactic sectors, and shares resources and information.
*Neutrality--The darkport claims it plays no favorites and is an independent polity in its own right. This is debatable, as Colnan and its hostworld are not sufficiently independent.
Solar System(Devak-Thurn)
Number of Stars: 1
Types of Stars:
Red Dwarf
Number of Planets: 4
-Asteroid(Ploio)----A close sun-grazer, Ploio is of little interest otherwise.
-Terrestrial(Devak )----System lifeworld and location of Colnan darkport.
-Gas Giant(Trides)-----A miniscule gas giant with several small satellite moons. It is gas-skimmed by several operations based on the moons. Aside from some owned slaves/indentured workers, the gas harvesters were mostly aboveboard and legal.
- Asteroid(Evrdids)----Outlier Ceres-sized dwarf planetoid. Some of the Colnan-investees reportedly established deep-cold storage caches on Evrdids, and the CA seized the planetoid to conduct investigations.
Planet(Devak )
Devak Colony was funded on the idea of grabbing and developing a potentially valuable red dwarf system. However, the plan was not well realized, and the colony soon began to fail financially. Desperate for investment, the colonial authorities lowered their standards and let less-scrupulous business interests in to turn the port-city of Colnan into a more popular destination and commercial venture. That idea did indeed quickly turned Colnan into a profitable hotspot, but also into darkport catering to less savory activities.
Colnan itself is a city of lights and action. Though it started out as a simple smuggling port and gambling/vice den, the city has been gradually sinking into more diabolical behaviors, such as cyber-slavery.
Outside Colnan proper, the civilized presence becomes less evident. A few colonial communities cling stubbornly to traditional subsistence work such as dome-farming and mining, but are really subsidized by the business interests in the darkport. There are a few sanctuaries of escaped slaves, hiding in ghost-towns and trying to avoid hunters from the port, but one is just as likely to stumble across a slave-breaking camp or hideaway for a Colnan bigwig. The original colonists tend to stand back and ignore these, at worst lending mild assistance to the recapture of ‘contract penal laborers’. A few sympathetic colonists, however, have helped escaped slaves, offering them refuge and supplying them with basic needs.
Devak was originally colonized by a mixed bag of species; humans, elves, orcs, and Lupis.
Devak’s political future remains uncertain; though it is unlikely to be completely abandoned, most residents foresee bleaker times ahead.
Type: Terrestrial
Diameter: 15,000 km
Gravity: 1.2 g
Temperature:
Cool; akin to Alaska or Siberia.
Unusual/Special Features:
-Moons(6)--Six small moonlets that have been turned into corporate space stations.
These stations have since been interdicted, some of them under protest, as the authorities have boarded looking for evidence of illegal activity. Subsequently several of them have been abandoned as their owners hurriedly pulled out of the Devak-Thurn system. These stations have proven attractive to looters and fugitives, and the peacekeeping forces around Devak have to regularly patrol them.
Atmosphere:
Breathable terrestrial nitrox mix, albeit n the thin side.
Terrain:
Varied
Notable Mineral Concentrations:
- Pitchblende
- Iron
- Zinc
- Manganese
- Samarskite
- Nickel
- Borax
- Diamond
Hydrosphere:
Badlands-----The colony is dependent on fossil water and cometary ice drops. A mounting compliant was that Colnan-port was taking up an increasing amount of local water to feed its industries and transitory residents(the concerns running Colnan have launched various watertable replenishment projects but on an individual site basis).
Biosphere:
Sparse----Mainly terraforming biota that has shouldered aside the original scant native microbial ecosystem.
Civilization:
Colonial
Population:
78 million(56 %Humans, 24% Elves, 19% Orcs, 15% Lupis)
-Humans--Varied in their opinion of what’s going on in Colnan. Most have turned a blind eye to Colnan’s criminal underbelly as long as it doesn’t touch them.
- Elves---These are non-magic elves. They’re arguably as varied or as bad as the Humans with regards to the treatment of slaves from Colnan.
-Orcs---The orc settlers particularly appreciate the labor aspect of the slave trade, as they dislike the hard manual labor they originally were recruited to perform. On the other hand, those orc colonists who have bought slaves from Colnan for domestic labor(rather than the mines) tend to treat them better than the other groups.
-Lupis(Aliens Unlimited, pgs. 85-86)----An offshoot immigrant group that is notably cagey about their origins and reclusive in their communities. They are probably the best suited to survival on frigid Devak, and were against the deal bringing in outsiders to run Colnan. The Lupis are also the most likely to aid escaped/escaping slaves. Few Lupis lived near Colnan, preferring the high cold country instead.
Technology:
Galactic. Colnan supports some quite advanced cybernetics/bionics tech, though nothing truly groundbreaking in the way of research and development.
These cybershops and small factories MIGHT provide future income to Devak, but many were involved in producing less-than-savory purposed cybernetics, and many if the darker shops mysteriously burned down as the CA/USA authorities moved in.
Economy:
Agriculture and Mining outside Colnan, while the port itself can be considered to be a Service center
Wealth:
Rich---- Subsidies from Colnan have given the original Devak colonists everything they need to sustain comfortable lives, though many seek to downplay their wealth and insist on conducting traditional colonial activities such as dome- and extremophile-farming and mining.
Government:
Effectively a Syndicracy; rule by (corrupt) corporate interests. Though several of the ‘investors’ in the Colnan enterprise are reputable businesses from the Human Alliance, CCW, and Paradise Federation, they have defended their involvement in Colnan as catering to the ‘entertainment’ industry, with little knowledge of what the ‘local’ faces of business were actually doing.
The Colnan colonists themselves have been left largely to their own devices; though many of them sit on directorship boards overseeing the most active businesses on the planet, many have tried to portray their activities as divorced from the actual goings-on in Colnan. Most of the general population have adopted a ‘see no evil’ outlook, ignoring the excesses they hear of in Colnan. As long as money kept flowing to the communities, no one would speak ill of Colnan.
Law Level:
Lax inside Colnan, rather more Lawful outside the city.
Since the occupation of Colnan, a state of lawlessness have begun to creep into the outer lands. Fugitive mercenaries have been holing up looking for ways offworld, and without the threat of the Colnan security forces hunting them, some escaped slaves have begun raiding the country estates and wealthier colonial communities. seeing them as accomplices in the slaves’ ordeals.
Popularity:
Wildly Popular during the heyday of Colnan, though the colonists saw it as a necessary evil and the slaves despised it.
That popularity has dropped considerably, though some colonials already bemoan the loss of the ‘good old days’ when Colnan was attracting big money.
Stability:
Uncertain; with Colnan being shut down and the investors fleeing, the income keeping the remaining colonial communities subsidized is going to dry up. There are rumors that either the Central Alliance or the United Systems Alliance is going to move in and clean house, adding to the anxiety.
-------------
"Trouble rather the Tiger in his Lair,
Than the Sage among his Books,
For all the Empires and Kingdoms,
The Armies and Works that you hold Dear,
Are to him but the Playthings of the Moment,
To be turned over with the Flick of a Finger,
And the Turning of a Page"
Oh, i have some dimensionally-stranded guys who would absolutely LOVE a place like Colnan to clean up, refurbish and make their own. Rhilith is nice and all, but a flagging colony of the Central Alliance is probably far more the kind of place for a minotaur-led polish cybernetics industrial center rifted away from home. They might even cut on a lot of costs by sanitizing some of the outlaw tech left by previous owner.
Definitely something for the Talos Group to consider collecting data, resources and maybe even try a lease with some business in the UWW to gamble on a proposal to General Noldek and his cabinet.
Do tell me more!
I love it when a one-off idea leads to bigger things, like the Outland Confederation spawning developments, Mestos becoming a breadbasket world, or the Pleasurtec affair spawning forays into the seamy underside of galactic organized crime.
-------------
"Trouble rather the Tiger in his Lair,
Than the Sage among his Books,
For all the Empires and Kingdoms,
The Armies and Works that you hold Dear,
Are to him but the Playthings of the Moment,
To be turned over with the Flick of a Finger,
And the Turning of a Page"
taalismn wrote: Thu Mar 13, 2025 9:12 am
Do tell me more!
I love it when a one-off idea leads to bigger things, like the Outland Confederation spawning developments, Mestos becoming a breadbasket world, or the Pleasurtec affair spawning forays into the seamy underside of galactic organized crime.
Alright, so here we go down that slippery slope - Tarnow as described in Sourcebook 3 supposedly has a quite large (bordering on half the kingdom's whole populace) though undefined D-Bee population, so we basically got a bit of every SDC race from the Conversion Book, gave them some local spin and one successful business led by a family of that RCC.
The Talos group was one created by members of a tribe of minotaurs that escaped from Gargoyle slave camps in the mediterranean to Tarnow, a cybernetics cooperative started from resources scavenged & reverse-engineered from Brodkill bands and some black market body-chops discovered in their original exodus. From this would also come a long-standing strategy-tradition of financing scavenging expeditions, adventuring groups and raids, frequently led by other minotaurs but not always, to collect either golden age or enemy tech instalations and gear for recycling or reverse-engineering, allowing the minotaurs with the passing of decades to grow from half a dozen worshops into an actual regional powerhouse, specially in the sector of cybernetics & bionics - being particularly known for their works on a variety of limbs and bionic systems for non-human anatomy.
Their idea of making knock-offs of russian "cyberhorse" implants to them adapt for mass use by centaurs in particular gathering a lot of outrage and respect both (specially in the warlords' camps) - the Lajkonik centaurs of Tarnow and other areas of Polska definitely appreciate the options, though.
On the good side it would eventually lead Talos to create its own major factory center and company town for the sake of consolidating resources and expanding their production capabilities. On the bad side, that same success would make their city the target for a large-scale Gargoyle-Brodkill operation like the one that destroyed the city of Wroclaw.
What due to a combination of factors, like planetary alignments, ley line spikes and misuse of barely understood esoteric resources in both sides, would result in a catastrophic mass D-shifting and LAB-Rinth center to the Three Galaxies - smack into a TGE world. From the pan to the fire, anyone?
They tried to put on a good fight, but outgunned and already partly spent the previous siege they were dominated by the local forces, whose governor tried to keep things under wraps while tried to see what kind of edge he could get from acquiring about a million slaves, many of them technicians or cybernetics specialists and a brand new factory town for his planet. Unfortunately for him, he failed badly on that, with imperial authorities intervening on the situation - and a bunch of rebels exploting the general infighting and distraction to start a mass uprising, liberating the minotaurs in the process, who proceeded with the rebels help to liberate LAB-Rinth center - and starting the systematic dismantling of everything, to relocate en mass ASAP.
From there they spent sometime between abandoned mines, bunkers and secret rebel bases to the eventual transfer of their machinery & people to an improvised fleet of transports, an unsuccessful attempt to make a mass exodus toward FWC territory blocked by TGE forces, some time playing hide-&-seek in desert systems on TGE or unclaimed space, until by a stroke of luck they discovered a ghost town excavated in an asteroid, that the Tarnow exile and the rebels proceeded to convert into their home away from home, along the way discovering a variety of curious but heavily damaged TW infrastructure and a lots of dead dwarves on the place. Basically, was a lost asteroid-eater of the UWW, what would lead to them managing to make contact with Azeroth Battlegroup of the Warlock Navy - that after some ups and downs in (mis)comunication and diplomacy, managed to strike a rapport and the Navy's specialists would try to guide the fugitives in repairing some of the defenses and other key systems.
Not too soon, since that same long-distance ley line interestellar communication was detected by elements of the TGE, leading a fleet directly to the asteroid-eater that, after a very hectic siege, still managed to re-activate just enough TW-systems to attempt a blind jump, that lead them straight to Rilith's system - and the rift drive burning out right after that.
So, they are mostly safe now and dealing with the UWW for food, lease on the asteroid plus a number of other things, getting a feel of this peculiar dimension that seems bound to be their new home and looking for inroads to get fully into gear and involved into intergalactic markets. And a world with a large cybernetics industrial that is going through a major clean up of criminal enterprises and is in serious need of legit workers... well, that would be quite the boon for about a million people and their bionics company town looking for a new world to call home and updating their tech base to local standards while at it.
It would certainly come as a surprise to the Central Alliance, and nobody could fault that minotaurs are tough and could help clean up the mess in Colnan...and keep the legit colonists from getting any ideas about inviting in other criminal elements.
A new cyber facility producing stuff the Central Alliance would BUY, that wasn't produced by Cybernary, Xleena or Ungersoll would also encourage continued military presence, but one that would be paid for in part by the increased local industry. And while Noldek(and the CA in general) doesn't place any store in magic, perhaps some closer exposure will change minds and encourage interest.
-------------
"Trouble rather the Tiger in his Lair,
Than the Sage among his Books,
For all the Empires and Kingdoms,
The Armies and Works that you hold Dear,
Are to him but the Playthings of the Moment,
To be turned over with the Flick of a Finger,
And the Turning of a Page"
taalismn wrote: Thu Mar 13, 2025 11:24 pm
It would certainly come as a surprise to the Central Alliance, and nobody could fault that minotaurs are tough and could help clean up the mess in Colnan...and keep the legit colonists from getting any ideas about inviting in other criminal elements.
A new cyber facility producing stuff the Central Alliance would BUY, that wasn't produced by Cybernary, Xleena or Ungersoll would also encourage continued military presence, but one that would be paid for in part by the increased local industry. And while Noldek(and the CA in general) doesn't place any store in magic, perhaps some closer exposure will change minds and encourage interest.
Well, to be fair while they are familiar with TW to some degree, for it's far from a core area in Talos' techbase, one of the reasons why a place like Colnan seems more like their alley, the jump to fit into the new enviroment and to get competitive would not require extensive investment in so many areas. In fact just in the process of "sanitizing" much of infrastructure left by the sex-cyborgs and pleasure-bots factories they might learn some things from the cybernetics and bionics standards in the 3 Galaxies, not to mention legal dos & don'ts for the major powers, all good for trade in the long run.
Ah, and i just checked my notes. The city of Krawar had a population of about 1 million people, with another 1.8 million in the towns surrounding it and LAB-Rinth center. About 60% of the population were Zubri minotaurs, a variant sept with the mutation that they their horns molt, being grown and shed yearly with the seasons much like the antlers common to most cervids. Those shed horns are commonly used in a number of handcrafts and some traditionalists among the Zubri were known make use of them in certain sorts of magical items.
I'm picturing the peacekeepers on Devak responding to a special request; "What, we're expected to escort WHO? They wanna do WHAT?! A fact-finding expedition? Well, this is going to be interesting!"
"You want building clearance for new construction? Oh, we can do that...lemme punch in the coordinates for an orbital strike."
-------------
"Trouble rather the Tiger in his Lair,
Than the Sage among his Books,
For all the Empires and Kingdoms,
The Armies and Works that you hold Dear,
Are to him but the Playthings of the Moment,
To be turned over with the Flick of a Finger,
And the Turning of a Page"
taalismn wrote: Fri Mar 14, 2025 9:39 am
I'm picturing the peacekeepers on Devak responding to a special request; "What, we're expected to escort WHO? They wanna do WHAT?! A fact-finding expedition? Well, this is going to be interesting!"
How much of the port has actually been left vacant with the clean up going on, what business are still around providing jobs or basic services for the remaining population, what places are to be recycled into new residences for the coming immigrants, instalations to be artisanally dismantled by the Talos' engineers & technicians while fine-combing every piece of hard- & software for useful bits of data and novel (for them) tech to be added to their reference library for later use.... so much indeed to be fact-found and checked.
taalismn wrote: Fri Mar 14, 2025 9:39 am"You want building clearance for new construction? Oh, we can do that...lemme punch in the coordinates for an orbital strike."
"Could you guys use some of those comets for that? We could really get some extra quality of life out of bringing more heaps of water down here."
And I'm picturing Devak getting a new moon when the Asteroid-Eater's FTL engines get a temporary repair for the big move...or maybe a temporary girdle of engines that can be installed for the move, then removed afterwards.
Yeah, there's some legit businesses who stuck around to provide essential services and whose worst crime was looking the other way if they found out that the local sex-workers weren't all consensual. The gems would be those who bought 'employees' and treated them well...or got them off world...those were the most likely to be spared by the underground slave rebels.
I'm tempted to use all my collected /created charts to write up the line of battle for the 'Battle of Devak Shoals'..With all their commitments, neither the Central Alliance nor the USA can throw battleships at every problem, but the combined taskforce that cruised into the system had to have enough heavy iron to give the Colnan PMCs (who probably had nothing heavier than a couple of old heavy cruisers) a really bad moment....and a second when they discovered the planet/orbit-based defenses were down.
Then the landings....Colnan is basically a cyberpunk city, so you're talking an electronic urban battlefield in what's basically Las Vegas on Moist Mars...PMCs trying to bug out while covering the escape of their clients, slave rebels taking revenge, and a thousand little uncoordinated conflict situations as people try to bug out as two organized invasion forces come to take control.
On the plus side, though, it's not a Stalingrad, because frankly few folks in Colnan are affectionately or idealistically attached to the city, so there's not a lot of diehard residents sticking around to defend their homeland. On the other hand, there's quite a few people who realize that they have backgrounds that are not going to endear them to any serious-reputationed law enforcement groups like the Cyberhawks or the USAMS...unless they can leave town fast, they may feel backed into corners with no way out without a fight.
-------------
"Trouble rather the Tiger in his Lair,
Than the Sage among his Books,
For all the Empires and Kingdoms,
The Armies and Works that you hold Dear,
Are to him but the Playthings of the Moment,
To be turned over with the Flick of a Finger,
And the Turning of a Page"
Feklakon---Former Splugorth Slave World(Thundercloud Galaxy)
“Mustah come as a real shock to old Kull’rythh when his money-makers started dropping dead, and then their factories started blowing up or melting down, such that even -object read- or telemechanics couldn’t pull anything useful from the remains.”
“Fek’s the backside of nowhere and it’s hard to believe that it was once a center of a network of trade and prosperity. It’s like legendary Timbuktu; times changed, the shine went away, or in this case was stripped away by looters, and the rest left to rot with the ages.”
Feklakon is the former homeworld of the Ellarth, a technologically-advanced species who become enslaved by the Splugorth, before infighting between Splugorth intelligences rendered the Ellarth extinct.
The Ellarth were vassals of the Splugorth Kull’rythh, and the Ellarth practiced a mastery of material sciences, especially in the production of a near-indestructible alloy known as reenor, affording Kull’rythh a virtual and very profitable monopoly. Another valuable alloy was hexamun, not as tough as reenor, but very strong when used in constructing structures. The Ellarth were controlled by Kull’rythh’s monopolization of vital food supplies to the species; the Ellarth could work, or they could starve. The Splugorth also used biowizardry-created animal guards to keep the Ellarth in check and in their dormitory-cities working to make the alien intelligence’s trade goods, especially the highly valuable reenor and hexamun, which went into ship hulls, buildings, and vaults.
Then a jealous rival thought to tear the underpinnings of this monopoly out, introducing into the food supply a fast-spreading species-specific pathogen that shortly rendered the Ellarth extinct, destroying the reenor-trade in the process(the Ellarth having committed the formula for reenor to racial memory, rather than record it more permanently on external media, and had also managed to covertly rig the production equipment with ‘deadman switch’ self-destruct systems). In retaliation, Kull’rythh launched a bloody campaign against the Splugorth responsible. The war came to an end when other angry Splugorth exterminated BOTH Kull’rythh and his rival.
Between Kull’rythh’s revenge war, his final doom, and several centuries of Splugorth stripmining the Ellarth homeworld looking for the secrets of reenor manufacture, once-verdant Feklakon has become something of a wasteland. Though still capable fo supporting life, no Splugorth in the region wants to claim the resource-exhausted planet, and its location deep in Splugorth space has discouraged others from trying to colonize it. Aside from the occasional patrol and half-hearted effort to search again for any Ellarth secret data troves, the Splugorth have made no moves to occupy Feklakon. Recently, conflict with the Shemarrians and others have caused a general withdrawal of Splugorth forces from the region, allowing othrs to access the world, though Kittani and Minion patrols remain a constant threat .
Currently Feklakon is a quiet world, its damaged ecology struggling to survive, its landscape dotted with the ruins of the Ellarth and their undecayed hexagonal reenor-hexamun structures(those the Splugorth couldn’t pry loose and repurpose). The ruins are haunted by monstrous mutants, the result of Splugorth bio-wizardry gone feral.
Solar System(Darsh)
Number of Stars: 1
Types of Stars:
-Orange Dwarf
Number of Planets: 3
- Terrestrial(Feklakon)----System lifeworld
-Gas Giant(Ermarsh)----Smallish for a gas giant, Ermarsh nevertheless managed to gather a retinue of seventeen small moons, At their height, the Ellarth had established several industrial bases and a shipyard in orbit of Ermarsh, though reenor and hexamun manufacture was limited to Feklakon. Kull’rythh took over operation of these facilities. During Kull’rythh’s revenge campaign and the subsequent bloody reavings, the facilities around Ermarsh were destroyed and the orbital shipyard/energy plant deorbited into the gas giant’s atmosphere, leaving little of anything that can be scavenged.
-Terrestrial(Pwayhm)----Little more than a large asteroid, Pwayhm is partially covered in ice. There are signs that the Ellarth established a mining outpost on the planetoid, but left no reenor structure behind. Whatever was mined is long-played out, leaving only empty shafts.
Planet( Feklakon)
Type: Terrestrial
Diameter: 13,000 km
Gravity: 1.08 g
Temperature: Cool; akin to Alaska or Siberia. With the thinning of its atmosphere, Feklakon has lost a lot of its heat-retention.
Unusual/Special Features:
-PPE Field---Feklakon actually posssesses a fairly high PPE field, though the Ellarth were not known to practice magic.. The Splugorth did, however, and used opened rifts to move slaves and material to and from their other properties. From what records remain, it’s hinted that the pathogen unleashed on the Ellarth may have had a magic component to it that resisted normal courses of treatment. Post-Ellarth extinction, the local PPE fields have become unstable, and leyline-like storms are a common occurance.
Atmosphere:
Thin tainted terrestrial nitrox mixture. It’s breathable, but with filtration and supplementation. Was once thicker, but the planet has been losing its atmosphere due to environmental damage.
Terrain:
Varied, but dominated by large plains.
Notable Mineral Concentrations:
- Chromium
- Zinc
- Lead
- Antimony
- Barite
- Thorium
- Sulfur
- Titanium
Hydrosphere:
Badlands; there are a few shallow seas, small lakes, and meandering rivers, but much of the planet’s water has been taken offworld or has sunk underground.
Biosphere:
Thin; the already over-exploited ecosystem took a hit when the industrial infrastructure went up, releasing radiation and pollutants. What remains is scraggly vegetation, rugged survivors, and monstrous mutants. For those wanting to live off the land, the local vegetation tends to be nutrient-poor, and in fact many of the plants are incidentally or deliberately toxic, having either absorbed poisons(or poisonous concentrations of salts and heavy metals) or have evolved poisonous parts to repel browsers.
Civilization:
Abandoned Ruin-world.
Population:
At any given time, there’s not more than a few hundred offworlders exploring or patroling the ruins.
Technology:
The Ellarth were once Galactic-level technologists, with a concentration on materials science. Much of the usable Ellarth technology has been subsequently stripped away by Splugorth seeking the secrets of Ellarth materials synthesis.
Economy:
Was Industrial
Wealth:
Was once Rich, but is now abandoned squalor.
Government:
None. Rule of Tooth, Claw, and Blaster.
Law Level:
Lawless. Aside from the occassional Splugorth Minion patrol that will attack and enslave any interlopers they come across, and the mutants who attack and eat any interlopers they come across, Feklakon is a pretty dangerous place.
Popularity:
Feklakon is not a popular assignment for Splugorth Minions. It’s seen as punishment detail, combing through the ruins for lost Ellarth tech, and dealing with other tech-vultures scouring the remains.
Stability:
It’s a ruinworld. What isn’t made of reenor or other exotic materials is slowly destabilizing and collapsing into rubble.
Spoiler:
GM Option: The Ellarth didn’t all die out, taking their secrets with them. Foreseeing their vulnerability in the food supplies the Splugorth controlled, the Ellarth launched a very secret and dangerous long term project to ensure that some of them would survive in the event the Splugorth tired of their slaves and killed them off. Using their considerable intellects, the Ellarth began transferring the mindstates of select members of their species into specially prepared examples of their biowizardry watchdogs that had been captured.
Thus, some(but not ALL) of the ferocious mutants wandering the Ellarth ruins are actually highly intelligent Ellarth intellects hiding under the animalistic thoughts of the bioborgs. They watch over the ruins of their civilization, picking off the occasional unwary ruin-raider, and await the day the Splugorth quit Feklakon entirely before the Ellarth start to rebuild their world.
-------------
"Trouble rather the Tiger in his Lair,
Than the Sage among his Books,
For all the Empires and Kingdoms,
The Armies and Works that you hold Dear,
Are to him but the Playthings of the Moment,
To be turned over with the Flick of a Finger,
And the Turning of a Page"
Skaytraxus----A World of the DarcDominion(Anvil Galaxy)
(aka ‘DeepHole’, ‘DeepTide’) “Fighting underwater’s always a bastard; water is always trying to find a way in and wreck things. Skay’s going to be a right bastard to storm, especially if even half of what we’ve heard about the local garrison’s correct. The DarcDork managed to take the place by threatening to blow it all to smithereens; we want to take the place as infact as possible, ideally without killing the local civilian population. Good thing we have oir own amphibians and aquatics, but even then, this could be a real fight if we can’t somehow find a quick backdoor. ”
Skaytraxus is a waterworld in the thrall of the DarcDominion, a pirate state in the Anvil Galaxy(or rather one of its satellite globular clusters).
Skaytraxus was colonized by humans who used bio-engineering and cloning to modify themselves and their descendants into mild amphibiforms with dual-gill/lungs and webbed fingers and toes. This allowed them to colonize Skaytraxus by establishing communities atop continent-sized seamounts under the waves of the global ocean. After settling in, they cannibalized their starships and broke off contact with the rest of te Three Galaxies, in order to concerntrate on their own social experiments. They did not expect to make contact with the rest of the starfaring community for at least a couple of centuries, as they had settled in a region of sparse stars and habitable worlds not likely to attract much attention form other star nations..
How wrong they were.
Skaytraxus was conquered by the Darc Dominion’s DarcLord who threatened to depth-bomb the fragile dome communities. Without the weaponry to defeat the DarcLord’s superior orbiting forces, the planet readily capitulated. The DarcLord then installed one of his oldest reliable lieutenants and advisor as ruler, and set up a mechanized garrison to enforce the DDominion’s control.
Skaytraxus’s oceans provide the DDominion with foodstuffs and hydrogen isotopes. It also occasionally supplies organ transplant material for the cyborg legions of the DarcLord.
Governor Strakus is an ancient (over two hundred eighty years old) human being kept alive by organ transplants and elaborate life support(his body rejects the bionics most common to the DDominion’s techbase). Exposure to biochemical weapons on his homeworld back in the Central Alliance has made his body unable to accept most cybernetics and bionics without a massive inflammatory immune response. Despite this, Strakus’s mind is sharp and his thoughts well-organized, though riven through with a merciless streak. His assignment as governor of Skaytraxus was meant as something a reward and retirement after some two hundred years of service to the DarcLord’s predecessor and to the DarcLord(Strakus helped the DarcLord dispose of his predecessor, in fact).
Strakus rules the planet from his fortified capital city, the massive dome complex known as DeepTide. Here the cyborg and robotic enforcers run the planet, sending out patrols and collection squads to the satellite communities of the Skaytraxusans. The local colonist-descendents live in perpetual fear of not making qouta on harvests and mine output, and of being selected for organ harvesting.
Governor Strakus is likely to be unmoved by revelations that the DarcLord is apparently dead; though they worked closely together, Strakus saw the man as a means to an end, a convenient partner to power. Strakus’s real concern is that with the DarcLord dead, he loses a good amount of protection from the other ambitious underlings previously held in check by the DarcLord’s brutal paranoia. As the time since the DarcLord last made contact with his realm grows long and longer, Strakus, suspecting he is dead, has been quietly stepping up building up the defenses of Skaytraxus, including the production of more robotic soldiers. Strakus figures it is only a matter of time before the other lieutenants and DDominion governors realize the truth, make their own moves to fill the power vaccum and come to demand his fealty(and eliminate the competition). While the DarcLord deliberately limited what forces Strakus could deploy around Skaytraxus, Strakus, no stranger to scheming, had been covertly engineering a number of military defenses that would come as a shock to any would-be new overlords attempting to conquer the planet.
Despite its importance to the DarcDominion, most of the Tytzel system is under-exploited, in part due to the relative youth of the Skaytraxus colony and the DD in general, and the limited resources available to both. With most of its outer worlds sporting easily-exploited water supplies in the form of ice, the Tytzel systemcould easily be more extensively colonized or developed.
The United Systems Alliance has learned of Skaytraxus in its efforts to infiltrate the Darc Dominion and settle the hash of the pirate kingdome once and for all. The planet’s importance as a food and energy source makes it a key target in the USA’s antipiracy campaign. Initial intelligence reports, however, suggest that the planet would be a tough nut to crack using conventional tactics.
Solar System(Tytzel)
Number of Stars: 2
Types of Stars:
-Yellow Dwarf(Tytzel-Alpha)
-Orange Dwarf(Tytzel-Beta)
Number of Planets: 6
-Exotic(Monus)---- Monus is a small gas giant with a very dense atmosphere, but the atmosphere, lashed by solar winds from Tytzel-Alpha and -Beta has formed curious bands of towering and dense, almost solid, cloud formations that reach far above the atmosphere. To the casual observer, the planet looks like it’s coming apart at the seams, but the eruptions are curiously stable, persisting for months before collapsing and new superstrato-mountain clouds build up. The visuals are spectacular and worthy of both scientific study and potential tourism, but the DarcDominion has had little inclination for either, so Monus is dismissed as a mere distraction.
-Terrestrial(Skaytraxus)----System lifeworld
-Terrestrial(Tronus)----A tiny world with low gravity, a thin atmosphere of argon, and an abundance of ice. It’s been rumored variously that the Darc Dominion and Governor Strakus occasionally stash prisoners and valuables in stasis on the planet, and/or strand underlings with limited life support on Tronus as punishment.
-Terrestrial(Acklanar)----Miniscule, heavily iced. There are hints that its rocky core is rich in heavy metals. Currently, though, Governor Strakus has no plans to survey more deeply or attempt any exploitation efforts if a geosurvey does pan out .
-Terrestrial(Odavis)----Small, with a heavy covering of ice and a thin methane atmosphere.
-Gas Giant(Vorgasus)----Saturn-sized gas giant with three small moons. It has only recieved cursory surveys.
Planet(Skaytraxus)
Skaytraxus’s surface is lashed by intense ultraviolet radiation, making life at the surface difficult unless adequately shielded. Several meters below the global ocean’s sirface, however, the solar radiation is dampened enough to allow life to make use of the energy and flourish in the water.
Type: Terrestrial
Diameter: 13,521 km
Gravity: 1.1 g
Temperature:
Temperate
Unusual/Special Features:
*Skaytraxus’s oceans are unusually rich in certain stabilized hydrogen isotopes
Atmosphere:
Above the water, Skaytraxus’s atmosphere is a nitrox mixture, but heavily laced with ozone, making it dangerous to breath without extensive filtration.
Terrain:
Submarine; with several extensive chains of seamounts and sub-oceanic plateaus rising from the abyssal depths.
Notable Mineral Concentrations:
- Amethyst
- Iron
- Zinc
- Tin
- Sulfur
- Nickel
- Borax
- Samarskite
Hydrosphere:
Waterworld, roughly 99.8 % of the planet is covered in open water. Skaytraxus’s water is unusually rich in certain hydrogen isotopes.
Biosphere:
Verdant, with abundant sealife. Has advanced boney fishes and crustaceans, but lacks more advanced mollusc-analogues such as octopi. Also plays host to a number of introduced species genetically engineered to survive in Skaytraxus’s waters. Many different commercially-exploitable species, some of which are the basis of the planet’s offworld export economy.
Civilization:
Settled
Population:
232 million humans
Technology:
Low Galactic-----Strakus has brought in technology to build fusion power systems, maintain his cyborg army, and on the side make weapons such as fusion bombs and heavy energy projectors. He’s also quietly turned some of his industrial robot assembly lines to the task of building more powerful war-robots.
The planet’s aerospace defenses include a force of aerospace fighters, several cutters, and three destroyers. Strakus has also covertly developed pop-up fusion-bomb-pumped x-ray laser satellites/mines that can be quickly seeded in the planet’s orbit from secret underwater launch sites hidden around the global ocean.
Economy:
Agriculture, Mining, Deuterium Refining
Wealth:
Wealthy. However, that wealth is tied up in Governor Strakus’s various self-serving projects. The native Skaytraxusans live in low income poverty. Though they are allowed enough food to eat, and offered medical care, the latter comes with the risk of being deemed suitable for organ draft.
Government:
Autocracy----The 200+ year-old tyrant and technocrat Governor Strakus. Though he’s lost any interest in the pleasures of the flesh, he enjoys power games and manipulating those around him. Though he has no interest in becoming a galactic DarcLord, he is content with ruling his planetary realm with an iron fist.
Law Level:
Totalitarian; Strakus rules with draconian efficiency.
Popularity:
Hated; the human Skaytraxusans despise their cyborg overlords and Governor Strakus.
Stability:
Unrest; Strakus’ Stability Through Force hasn’t quelled the rebellious spirit of the human colonists, and there are still murmurs of rebellion amongst the civilian population. Only the superior firepower of the DDoinion garrison keeps the people from rising up en masse and deposing the hated Ancient.
-------------
"Trouble rather the Tiger in his Lair,
Than the Sage among his Books,
For all the Empires and Kingdoms,
The Armies and Works that you hold Dear,
Are to him but the Playthings of the Moment,
To be turned over with the Flick of a Finger,
And the Turning of a Page"
"There's bull-headed - and there's crazy space minotaurs that will discover and breach a portal to podunk in FWC territory, just to make a warcamp of a colony for the sake of joining them and fighting all the Kreeghor they can and them some. That's some sort of insane genius dedication to one's culture of outlawry and rowdiness."
"Since when does the UWW have a shared protectorate with the FWC?!"
"Since a bunch of literal warbulls decided nobody was doing enough to stomp the TGE beside the FWC - and they wanted a piece of the action too."
"Is that even legal?!"
"They have numbers and organization enough to count as a member-state of their own, so long as they attack no other member-state or the TGE declares war on the UWW as a whole because of them, yeah, 100% legal by our own convoluted and schizo Union statutes. And since it's in the middle of FWC space, their also accepting the wackos as a member or not is completely up to the Council's leaders back there. And they are not ones to reject anyone willing to bloody the noses of the Kreeghor and their flunkies"
(Germs of a stupid, stupid idea of a world brewing by spurts in my mind. Hopefully i can make an actual something out of the nonsense)
Oh, I hope you do! Churning up what seems to be a centuries-long status quo/stalemate is a good direction for the shared universe here.
And remember; not everything has to make sense(on the surface)...as Lord Byron put it,'Reality is stranger than fiction', and Tom Clancy put it as 'The difference between fiction and reality is that fiction has to make sense'.
-------------
"Trouble rather the Tiger in his Lair,
Than the Sage among his Books,
For all the Empires and Kingdoms,
The Armies and Works that you hold Dear,
Are to him but the Playthings of the Moment,
To be turned over with the Flick of a Finger,
And the Turning of a Page"
Species of the United Systems Alliance
These are the major or exclusive intelligent species found throughout USA space
--(Member) designates a species or variant-sept of a species whose homeworld(s) is/are full-fledged members of the USA. Others are not second-class citizens, but d-bees, refugees, or immigrants who have established significant numbers and enclaves in the USA(Example; humans have colonized/dominated several planets, while there is no one single dwarf-started/dominated world, though there are plenty of scattered Dwarven communities in the USA), or are aboriginal natives of colonies/protectorates.
Humans--(Member)
-Bhozyari--(Member)
-Casserines--(Gene-engineered servitor race; rescued populations established on Atium and other USA worlds)
-Cheral--(Member)
-Jovenians--(Member)
-Kellestans--(Member)
-Tavazan Amazons
-Vinobes--(Gene-engineered slave race liberated from the Splugorth)
-Tetrakians--(Descendants of gene-engineered workers; )
- Panmanduans
-Davasgarans --(Human/Chinese Demon hybrids)
-Children of the Snow--(Human/Klia hybrids)
-Thidians--(Mystically-engineered prey race protected by the USA)
-Sensuans
Ogres
Elves--(Member)
-Skensian shalris--(Member)
-Calians--(Mystically-engineered prey race liberated from the Splugorth)
Dwarves
Algor Frost Giants(Freyos)--(Member)
Orcs
- Nisu--(Member)
Wolfen(Variants)
- Eugenians--(Member)
Coyle(Variants)--(Member)
- Tmelain--(Member)
Minotaurs
Kai-Shem--(Member)
Seljuk--(Member)
Lizardmen
-Nagunsa--(Member)
Goblins--(Member)
-Aurelog
Gnomes--(Member)
Wynaro--(Descendants of colony ship that crashed on Rifts Earth)
ChaiChuk--(Member)
Smallkin
-Nomansers RCC (the Mutant Rabbits of No Man’s Land Island)
-Nutkin Republic Mutant Squirrel(AtB conversion)
-PeeVees (Converted/Modified AtB Mutant Birds)
-Anowak (Converted/Modified AtB Mutant Turtles)
-Mendabe --- Mutant Moles
-Mephites (Converted/Modified AtB Mutant Mutant Skunks)
-------------
"Trouble rather the Tiger in his Lair,
Than the Sage among his Books,
For all the Empires and Kingdoms,
The Armies and Works that you hold Dear,
Are to him but the Playthings of the Moment,
To be turned over with the Flick of a Finger,
And the Turning of a Page"
Vitero Station----Yssuria Domate Enclave(Corkscrew Galaxy)
“Vitero’s not a stopover for the casual traveler; you arrive under tighter scrutiny than some coreworld capitols, and the whole time you’re there you’ll be aware of being watched all the time. Don’t buy foodstuffs, because even when they’re on sale, there’s the sense that you’re stealing food from somebody else’s mouth. If you’re invited to stay and eat, though, accept, because you’ll have the rare opportunity to sample Usulan cooking, and because it is both rare to get an invitation and rude to refuse.”
“Helluva place to pin the hopes of a lot of people; that station looks like one or two hard pops could knock it apart, and if it goes, a noticeable percentage of the free Usulans likely goes down with it.”
Vitero Station was once a forlorn far-flung trading outpost of the once-extent Usulan mercantile network. Established by the mercantile Blian Family on a gamble that didn’t pan out, the station gained an unexpected reprieve, born of a greater misfortune. When the TransGalactic Empire rolled over the Yssuria Domate, panicked Usulans fled their conquered homeworlds in whatever ships they could fly, and sought sanctuary wherever they could, ideally far from pursuit by their new overlords.
The far distant Virtero outpost showed up on enough updated starcharts as an Usulan territory that a number of ships fled there, seeking shelter. Word of space radio ship-comm spread the word to other refugees, who followed. And the Blian family suddenly found themselves the unlikely providers of assistance to a substantial part of the free survivors of their species.
Vitero Station has become something of an informal exile port for the Usulans. It’s a place to gather to look for loved ones, seek information about the conquered homeworlds and the state of affairs of the Usulan people, and post messages to other exiles. As no formal Usulan government-in-exile exists, Vitero Station cannot be considered to be the exiles’ capitol, but it is one of the few places that the Usulans can go and simply be Usulans, rather than pitiable refugees.
Vitero Station was ill-prepared for handling the large numbers of refugees who showed up on their doorstep seeking sanctuary; the infrastructure had to be hurriedly expanded to accommodate the many ships and exiles, and even now, several years later, the station is still running hand-to-mouth and week to week ahead of mechanical breakdowns, supply shortages, and available space.
Vitero is also a lot more guarded than in the past; the once-gregarious Usulans are much more wary of strangers and especially non-Usulans. The Blians especially do not want to draw the attention of hostile powers their way, and endanger the fragile refuge of the station. Because it is known that the TGE had inside help in betraying the Domate’s defenders, the refugees constantly worry about collaborators, such as the TGE-supported -Darvot- organization , infiltrating the station. For this reason especially, the population of Vitero does not openly tolerate Free Worlds Council recruiters who occasionally attempt to sign up fighters.
Vitero Station is supported mainly by donations from Usulan free merchants who use the station as a port of call or home port. There’s also some work to be had in the neighboring solar system planets. There is also, and the Usulans are loath to admit they need it, charity from other polities such as the CCW, UWW and USA. The Cisen-Adeta Republic maintains a rather obscure ‘embassy’ on the station, seeking to attract refugee immigrants to settle in the new star nation.
The original structure of Vitero Station has been expanded in haphazard fashion with various modular extensions and improvised sections made from repurposed cargo containers and defunct spacecraft, ruining what the Blians had hoped would be a gradual planned expansion.
The Blian Family continues to be the management of Vitero Station and the effective government of the refugee colony. This has caused some friction with former Domate officials, but the Blians took the early measure of establishing a Citizens’ Board(essentially a refugee representational body) and signing in as family board members several sympathetic Domate government officials who can pull rank on latecomers.
Design:
Ring Station attached to a cored asteroid. It’s since been expanded with a coverage of additional modules and hulks. The asteroid holds several large artificial caverns that are used for additional living space, hydroponics, and warehousing.
Size:
Was originally sized to handle up to 9,000 residents, but has since ballooned in population to 53,000. The ring assembly is roughly 1,500 meters in diameter, while the asteroid is some 4 kms long.
Function:
Former Trading Post; now a Refugee Colony
Power Systems:
Nuclear Fusion. Several repurposed starship engines have been added to provide additional power to the newer sections.
Defenses:
Light; started with a dozen light laser cannons(albeit with x 3 the range of ship-mounted cannons) and light commercial shielding.
The original anti-meteor point defenses have been supplemented with several scavenged missile batteries and additional/heavier energy weapon turrets(none bigger than Medium-grade), though nobody in the station management is under any delusion that the station could really hold off a determined attack on its own.
The resident merchants and businesses can contribute a half-dozen armed merchantmen and another dozen armed shuttles and second/third-hand-sourced starfighters.
Sensors:
The original trade post mounted sensors that could see out 2 light years and a series of sensor beacon satellites for guiding ships in. That system has fallen by the wayside and several scavenged starship sensor suites have been grafted in.
Communications:
The original trade post FTL communications systems remain intact, though there’s been no direct contact with any of the former Usulan worlds since the conquest. Current comm-traffic is mainly with trader ships and commercial contacts outside Usulan space.
Station Maintenance:
Top Priority----With so many lives depending on a spit-and-bailing -wire structure, any small problem can quickly grow into a critical systems failure. Therefore the Blians have put a not-inconsiderable amount of effort into round-the-clock environmental monitoring and rapid-response repair. The best engineers on the station work in Maintenance & Repair, and the private businesses aboard that offer ship repair also volunteer their time and assistance.
Supplies:
The Blians have had to hurriedly expand the hydroponics and nutrient synthesis sections of the station, using a hodgepodge of systems scrounged from a variety of sources including colonial supplies and derelict spacecraft. Building up a reserve of supplies is another priority. In a pinch, the station could support the current population of the station for five months before rationing would be required and the hydroponics harvests would have to be accelerated somehow .
Internal Security Personnel:
Station Militia---An expanded station security force regularly patrols the station and checks on refugees. While not species-supremacists, the predominately Usulan constabulary tend to favor Usulans, and will take the word of Usulans, especially station residents, over that of non-Usulans(especially visitors), so a fair amount of petty theft from transients goes un-investigated.
Security Systems:
Originally built with trade in mind, Vitero Station had Medium Security, especially around the intended warehouses for transferring cargo. The expansion of he station into a refugee habitat has stretched the limits of the security system, and now most of the station possesses only basic security measures. Environmental monitoring, however, has NOT been neglected and all new sections are expected to be quickly wired into the central emergency notification system.
Some sections, however, are strictly off-limits and protected by automated defense systems.
Medical Facilities:
Several charities maintain clinics aboard Vitero Station.
Environmental Systems:
Basic Systems. WAS Advanced, but the Blians have had to scavenge and repurpose some of the more advanced systems to expand the accommodations for refugees. Coverage of gravity-plating is not consistent and some station sections are reliant on centrifugal rotation for gravity.
Independent Businesses:
There are a few dozen businesses on the station, most of them owned by refugee Usulans. Non-Usulan businesses are definitely in the minority. Most of the station businesses are involved in shipping, smuggling, information brokering, ship repair and maintenance, salvage and thrift(selling of previously used hardware and equipment), and recycling. Several businesses offer hired-muscle for security and mercenary work.
Transients:
There’s usually about a couple thousand transients passing through the station at any one time, mostly refugees looking for places to permanently settle, lost family or acquaintances, or employment.
Non-Usulans are in the minority on the station, and only well-known friends and allies of the Usulans are really tolerated. While not openly hated or abused, strangers are treated with passive-aggression and encouraged to be quick about their business and leave as soon as they can. It is telling of the change in attitudes of the Usulan people that they will even forgo their once-notorious love of haggling.
Solar System(Vekmann)
Vekmann system contains no inhabitable planets, but the Blian family thought it a good place to establish a way-station and trading post due to its proximity to several local hyperlanes passing by Usulan space.
Number of Stars: 1
Types of Stars:
-Blue Giant
Number of Planets: 3
-Terrestrial(Derlec)----Small rocky planet. Any atmosphere Derlec had was blasted away by the harsh solar radiation of Vekmann. That same solar bombardment boiled away all of the planet’s surface water, and only a few trace underground pockets of moisture survive. Derlec is pretty well useless as a colony site, with a constantly shifting geology and geography that makes surface colonies untenable long-term and which worries some planetologists. The only reason anybody visits Derlec at all is that recent geo-surveys have revealed quantities of a new mineral, dubbed Derlyte, that shows promise as a source of more energetic and efficient fission-reaction nuclear fuel. If a mining operation could be established, it could be used to supplement Vitero Station’s power systems and possibly provide an exportable trade good.
-Gas Giant(Laygor)---- Enormous, but lacking in any substantial moons. Laygor DOES possess a large ring system that is proving useful as a source of water ice.
The Blians had hope of setting up a gas-mining operation around Laygor, but the annexation of the Yssuria Domate nixed any hope of big bankroll investment from that quarter. Instead, a smaller-scaled improvised operation has been set up. However, if anybody were to offer the Blians fair terms on technical assistance to expand the gas scooping, they would seriously consider it.
-Terrestrial(Medro)----A tiny iceball of a world that normally wouldn’t attract much, if any, attention. Out of a desperate need for resources, however, the Usulan refugees have established ice mines on the planet.
-------------
"Trouble rather the Tiger in his Lair,
Than the Sage among his Books,
For all the Empires and Kingdoms,
The Armies and Works that you hold Dear,
Are to him but the Playthings of the Moment,
To be turned over with the Flick of a Finger,
And the Turning of a Page"
A part of me had been considering the possibility of Vitero Station getting something of a very needed boost from the Usulans' outdimension kin, the Shissan from AU, who happen to be magically skilled and dimension-hoppers to some degree.
Not out of just a fuzzy-hearted sense of charity, but to make the most from an opportunity to upgrade their own tech base through access & reverse-engineering of Usulan resources in the process of reconstruction.
A simple and kind of solid plan - that kind of crashes down hard in the harsh reality that the Shissans are pretty much a civilization of scam artists and exploitative gurus filching less advanced people to their benefit.
They have some degree of contact with Cibola and Naruni Enterprises - and yet i still feel like if this trio ever got involved with Vitero or other Usulan holdouts, NE might be the MORE honest one and capable of keeping the plan on course instead of running everything on the ground for some short term debatable profit... Yup, not looking good at all when it comes to help.
Ouch...
Yeah, I can see a number of Shissans, both conmen and rogues, trying to take up residence on Vitero...and it's not entirely improbable that the rogues and the conmen are actually working together 'good Shissan, bad Shissan' to fool the Usulans into taking a side(of which there's only one).
Or, as you start out, it could be an honest effort to trade, albeit at desperation exchange rates.
But the Usulans WERE a nation of traders, so they have experience with all sorts of trade tricks, so they might not be such easy marks as others might think.
-------------
"Trouble rather the Tiger in his Lair,
Than the Sage among his Books,
For all the Empires and Kingdoms,
The Armies and Works that you hold Dear,
Are to him but the Playthings of the Moment,
To be turned over with the Flick of a Finger,
And the Turning of a Page"
Aboroc ‘Gothamite’ Defense Robot
(aka ‘Swivblastas’) “Even warriors recognize that sometimes cannonfodder tactics are a good choice...as long as you’re not the cannonfodder. The Aboroc managed to develop robotics to provide themselves with expendable legions so their soldiers could concentrate on the strategic picture.”
“The new-meat seeks to distract us with their automatons! They dare not face us but cower behind their toys! Crush their metal corruptions and show them the error of their ways!!!”
----Anonymous Infernal during the Battle of Ultor.
“During the seige of Ultor, the Aboroc threw waves of these things at the Infernals. They’d stand and deliver until their gun-arms glowed with overhead, and their body-shells began to buckle under the return fire. Didn’t do much damage to the demons when they got their protection magic up, but it tended to occupy their attention, allowing the defenders to get other things ready...or slip away to better cover. They managed to keep the factories that produced their defense-bots running long enough to give their planet a fighting chance, but it was a near-thing, what with them having to deal with swarms of techno-grems looking to bollux the works.”
The Aboroc Continga have long used semi-autonomous robotic probes and giant bipedal robots for exploration, and have developed a number of domestic automata for use back home. This includes defense robots.
Though(or rather because) the Aboroc are insanely tough in themselves, with a warrior tradition and a paramilitary government, they built their robot soldiers simple, but tough. A basic humanoid frame, tall and broad enough to be intimidating to the large-bodied Aboroc, with a barrel-shaped torso and dome head, and lanky arms and legs provide familiar arcs of movement. A wasp-waist, but exceedingly tough, allows the upper body to swivel around a full 360-degrees to engage targets all around. Integral armament consists of a pair of forearm-mounted heavy cannon(typically energy), and concealed torso-mount antipersonnel chemical sprayers or burn-projectors. Incredibly strong actuators and myomers give the ‘bots great strength for their size. Integral flight/jump systems increase the mobility of the units.
As a matter of security policy, the Aboroc did not arm their robots with artillery missile weaponry. Such weaponry was considered too dangerous to leave in the control of a system that could potentially run rogue, so artillery and other WMDs were strictly llimited to operation by living troops.
The true extent of the Aborocs’ robotic legions became apparent when the Infernals invaded the Aboroc homeworld. The Aboroc called out their robot defenders. AI-run combat spacecraft engaged the Infernals’ ships in orbit, while demonic ground forces came under fire from mechanical hordes of tens of thousands. Even when Infernal firepower carried the battle, the Aboroc wore down their unwelcome visitors through attrition, the expendable robots wearing down Infernal troops, enough for the Aboroc militia to launch succssful counterattacks.
Post-invasion, the Aboroc have rebuilt their robot defenders, but are also looking at the lessons learned from the conflict, with new robot designs in mind.
Type: AC-R11 ‘Gothamite’
Class: Heavy Infantry Robot
Crew: Robotic Artificial Intelligence
MDC/Armor by Location:
Main Body 500
Head 250
Arms(2) 200 each
Hands(2) 80 each
Forearm Weapons Pods(2) 100 each
Legs (2) 250 each
Height: 11 ft
Width: 6 ft at shoulders
Length: 4 ft
Weight: 1.3 tons
Cargo: None
Physical Strength: Equiv. Robotic P.S. of 40
Powerplant: Nuclear Fusion w/ 20 year energy life
Speed: (Running) 85 MPH
(Leaping) Can leap 30 ft up/across from a standstill, or 400 ft up/across with a thruster-assist.
(Flying)---Limited; by using a combination of jet thrusters and anti-gravity, the Gothamites can fly from a stationary hover to 250 MPH, maximum altitude 2,000 ft
(Underwater) Can walk along the bottom at 10 MPH, up to 3 miles down.
Market Cost: Not for sale outside the Aboroc Continga. If any were, they could bring 50 million credits or more for their technology.
Systems of Note:
Standard Robot Systems, plus:
*360-degree Waist/Torso Rotation
*Locking Joints
*Motion Detector---100 ft radius
*Micro-Radar---5 mile range
*Vocalizer and Loud-Hailer----Gothamites have limited vocal skills and a conversational vocabulary limited to issuing warnings, situation updates, and alerts.
Weapons Systems:
1) Forearm Cannons(2)---Mounted on the outside of each forearm is a large cannon , typically an energy type to reduce dependence on ammo, and the vulnerability of ammunition feeds. This would become problematic later, when a lack of kinetic/projectile weaponry made the robots less effective against magically energy-resistant opponents.
a) Pulse Laser
Range: 7,000 ft
Damage: 1d6x10 MD per energy burst
Rate of Fire: ECHH
Payload: Effectively Unlimited
b) Plasma Cannon
Range: 3,500 ft
Damage: 2d4x10 MD per blast
Rate of Fire: ECHH
Payload: Effectively Unlimited
c) Ion Cannon
Range: 4,000 ft
Damage: 1d6x10+9 MD per energy burst
Rate of Fire: ECHH
Payload: Effectively Unlimited
d) Particle Beam Cannon
Range: 3,000 ft
Damage: 2d6x10 MD per blast
Rate of Fire: ECHH
Payload: Effectively Unlimited
2) Torso Weapons(2)---Concealed in the torso are two antipersonnel weapons.
a) Flamer
Range: 200 ft and can cover a 10 ft area.
Damage: 3d6 MD per burst, plus does an additional 2d6 MD per melee for 1d6 melees
Rate of Fire: ECHH
Payload: 100 shots
b) Plasma Thrower
Range:1,000 ft
Damage: 4d6 MD single blast
Rate of Fire: ECHH
Payload: Effectively Unlimited
c) Chemical Sprayer
Range: 150 ft and can cover a 15 ft area.
Damage: Varies by chemical; typically mace-like tearing and choking gases(tailored to the Aboroc physiology) were stocked pre-invasion, but during the Battle of Ultor, units were sent out with other chemical agents such as corrosives().
Rate of Fire: ECHH
Payload: 80 shots, Up to three different chemicals could be carried.
d) Light Rail Gun---Essentially rapid-fire machine guns.
Range:4,000 ft
Damage: 1d4 MD single rd. 6d6 MD per 30 rd burst
Later versions could fire wood, incendiary or alternate metal (silver or cold iron) projectiles
Rate of Fire: ECHH
Payload: 800 rd magazine
e) Net Gun
Range: 500 ft
Damage:
(Standard Net) Heavy high-tensile strength megadamage steel cable net; takes 2d6 melee actions/attacks to untangle self(half that for creatures with supernatural PS of 30 or higher)...in the meantime, the victim CANNOT strike or parry, is -2 to dodge, and reduce speed by 90%
(Slicer Net) As above, except that every melee the target spends struggling and trying to get out, they take 1d4 MD from the various hooks and razor-lines. In addition to usual penalties, takes an additional -2 to dodge from the pain.
Rate of Fire:: ECHH
Payload: 10
f) Grenade Launcher
Range: 1,000 ft
Damage:
(Fragmentation-MD) 3d6 MD to 25 ft blast radius
(High Explosive) 6d6 MD to 10 ft blast radius
(Plasma/Micro-Fusion) 1d6x10 MD to 8 ft blast radius
(Incendiary) 2d6 MD flash damage to 12 ft blast radius, plus does 1d4 MD per melee for 2d4 melees
(Acid)---4d6 MD to a 5 ft radius, then diminishes in strength by 1d6 each melee(lasts about 4 melees)
(Chemical) Effects vary, but contains enough chemical agent to cover a 15 ft radius
Rate of Fire: Bursts of 1-10 grenades
Payload: 80 rds
g) Heavy ElectroStunner----Stuns the megadamag physique of the Aboroc, but can prove lethal to just about anybody else (of weaker constitution)
Range: 1,400 ft
Damage: Does 2d6x10 SDC(or 1 MD), and victim must roll versus non-lethal poison(16 or better). On a successful save an augmented human(oid) is -5 to strike, parry, dodge, and loses initiative and 1 APM for 1d4 melee rounds. A successful save by UNaugmented human(oid)s results in -10 to strike, parry, dodge, lose initiative and is reduced to 1 APM, skill performance is -80%, speed reduced 95%, and suffer painful convulsions doing 1d6 SDC per melee for 2d4 MINUTES.
A FAILED save by augmented human(oid)s means the target is -7 to all actions, loses initiative, reduce APMs to TWO, skill performance is -60%, -80% to Speed, and suffers convulsions that do 4d6 SDC per round for 2d4 melee rounds.
Note: Works through most body armor up to 50 MDC. Those in armor protection of 51-80 MDC are +6 to save. Those in heavier armor, power armor, full conversion cyborgs, vehicles, robots, or who are MegaJuicers or Dragons are impervious.
Rate of Fire: ECHH
Payload: Effectively Unlimited
Hand to Hand
Actions/Attacks Per Melee: 7
Initiative +2
Strike +4
+3 with ranged weapons
Parry +5
Dodge +4(+5 with thruster leap)
Roll +4
Pull Punch +6
Disarm +3
Knockout/Stun on Natural 19-20.
Restrained Punch/Bump w/ gun muzzle 1d4 MD
Full Strength Punch/Bat with gun barrel 2d6 MD
Power Punch(2 attacks)4d6 MD
Kick 3d8 MD
Leap Kick(2 attacks) 5d8 MD
Stomp(targets under 4 ft tall) 1d4 MD
Body Block/Tackle 1d6 MD and 80% chance of knocking weaker beings off their feet
Programming:
Land Navigation 90%
Radio Basic 90%
Read Sensory Equipment 90%
Pilot JetPack 80%
Detect Ambush 50%
General Repair & Maintenance(Weapons Systems) 80%
W.P. Heavy Military Weapons(+3 strike)
W.P. Military Flamethrowers(+3 strike)
Options:
*Self-Destruct----Developed as a failsafe against the ‘bot running rampant, the original termination charge was fairly limited in scope, meant to destroy the AI and limiting collateral damage. During the Minion War invsion, the Aboroc increased the size of the charge(up to heavy missile warhead-scale), allowing the robots to act, as a last resort, as suicide bombers.
Variants:
The AC-R11’s been around long enough to have spawned some variants. Pre-Minion War, the most common was a mirror-chromed laser-resistant armored model(lasers do HALF damage).
Police/Internal Security models carried non-lethal/reduced lethality weapons in the arms, such as neural stun blasters, net/goop-launchers, gas projectors and spray cammon, while the hands and feet had taser-contacts built in. These were usually powerful enough to kill or severely injure anybody not possessing a superhuman or supernatural physique, but were merely incapacitating to the Aboroc.
Several different types of the AC-R11 were improvised as the Infernal invasion led to desperate field-modifications and a lot of limitations came off. Several efforts were made to fit the ‘bots with arm-mounted rail- or g-cannon to overcome the Infernals’ magic defenses against energy attacks, and the torso AP guns were refitted to fire substances that were proven to be damaging to Infernal physiologies. Foot and hand claws adding +2d6 MD to punches and kicks/stomps were also common.
A limited number of ‘Hookmeisters’ did away with the arm-mounted guns altogether, in favor of oversized melee weapons or claw-arms(generally doing 4d6-5d6 MD on punches/slashes), and the ‘bots reprogrammed for close combat, usually adding 1-4 additional APMs and +1d4 to strike/parry with melee weapons.
The AC-R11T featured a ‘cyclops-eye’ laser in its dome head that was geared as an anti-missile defense. This had a range of 11,000 ft and did 2d4x10 MD per blast. It could NOT, however, engage ground targets at 200 ft or less without leaning over to bring its top dome into line-of-sight on the targets.
Post-Minion Invasion upgrades took advantage of trade with the USA to mount Kirallian aura-detection optical systems and SNARLS-similar detectors.
-------------
"Trouble rather the Tiger in his Lair,
Than the Sage among his Books,
For all the Empires and Kingdoms,
The Armies and Works that you hold Dear,
Are to him but the Playthings of the Moment,
To be turned over with the Flick of a Finger,
And the Turning of a Page"
“Damn it, Tarker was supposed to bail out, not use the capsule to drop us a dancing girl!”
“A DEAD dancing girl that some other pirate killed...at least until he used his tech-wiz medkit to resurrect her.”
“Exactly! She can barely remember her name pre-skull facture, let alone tell us anything useful about Darc Dominion operations!”
“He used the excuse of disposing of her body to get off that battleship’s bridge and to the disposal airlocks where he could dump his escape capsule with the rest of the regular garbage. He used her as a courier, knowing we’d pick up that hollowed out missile warhead he’d adapted.”
“He was playing hero! He was supposed to return to us!”
“If he wasn’t a hero type, he wouldn’t have volunteered to infiltrate a battleship full of cyborg pirates. He saw the opportunity to get an innocent out of the way and get us his report at the same time. He stayed behind to see what else he could do and what other intel he could dig up. He was serious about that, though I admit he did indulge in that sense of humor of his.”
“Oh?”
“The data micro-crystal. It was concealed in the dancer’s navel. Think about it; NAVEL intelligence?”
“I’ll courtmartial him for disobeying orders AND bad puns if he survives this, I swear it!”
Klarence Tarker ----Cyborg Spy
Commander Klarence Tarker is a full-conversion cyborg agent of the United Systems Alliance’s Office of Positive Outcomes. He is currently working undercover in the piratical DarcDominion.
Tarker grew up in the refugee community on Styx, and received his first bionic implants to compensate for radiation-aggravated injuries and cancers suffered as a child on his origin shatterworld. He took up government work in part to see the cosmos and pay for additional medical treatments. His enthusiasm and skills soon landed him a position with the newly-formed Cyborg Espionage Group of the USAJC involved in hunting pirates along the Central Alliance marches. This led to operations gathering intel on the DarcDominion, in the wake of the disappearance(and likely death) of its leader, the DarcLord.
Externally-disguised as a cyborg mercenary and provided with a false life-history(though incorporating elements of his actual background as being from a ‘nuked backwater assworld’), Tarker managed to infiltrate a DarcDominion military force and has worked his way to a position aboard one of the Darc’s heavy warships. He has been gathering information on the Dominion, the coordinates of its worlds, its current stability, and its military forces. He’s managed to get a damage control and logistics role that gets him on or near the warship’s bridge, while remaining under the radar of the ship’s senior staff and security. Already he’s managed to pass on information about the military organization of the DarcDominion, its leadership, and planets such as Skaytraxus.
Tarker’s survived several loyalty tests, including explosive implants(especially after the DarcLord went missing; Tarker suspects some of his superiors are angling to become new warlords, and are looking to coerce or neutralize the rank and file troops), though what he did to pass some of the tests weighs heavily on his mind and has hardened his resolve to take down the DarcDominion.
While Tarker’s made a few acquaintances among the DarcDominion pirates and cyborgs, he has nobody he really considers friends or comrades, at least in the upper levels to which he’s risen. He recognizes, as many of the pirates have embraced, that looking out for one’s own skin and advancing one’s own agendas is paramount; everybody else is either a tool or a rival. Tarker feels the most connection to the lower echelons, particularly the force labor slaves, most of who are not cyborgs, but ‘fleshies’, and he tries to avoid being assigned to anything harming them, and on occasion has by serendipity helped them out, such as interrupting abuse at the hands of the pirates.
Tarker is due for protracted leave and debriefing, but has refused orders to come back, citing in covert communiques that he is getting closer to a full assessment of the situation in the DarcDominion, especially its changing power structure.
Level of Experience: 8th Level GNE Full Conversion Cyborg
Rank: Commander, Naval Intelligence
Race: Human(Full Conversion Cyborg)
Alignment: Scrupulous
Land of Origin: Styx, United Systems Alliance
Age: 35
Sex: Male
Height: 6’ 9”
Weight: 330 lbs
Physical Description/Appearance:
Currently sports the appearance of a Darc Domionion drone-cyborg; crude external plating, expressionless helmeted head, optical visor and slit-mouth. Hardshell body with obvious mechanical limbs. His hands have an extra digit, explained away as a compensatory measure for the generally poor quality of DarcDomion cybernetics. Generally regarded as a generic cyber-mook.
After this last mission, he intends to take up a bio-bod.
Disposition:
Diligent, dedicated, steadfast. He’s devoted to the United Systems Alliance’s mission of protecting others and ridding the space lanes or predatory pirates. He’s seen up-close enough atrocities carried out by the Darc-minions that he wants to see the entire pirate nation collapse and be replaced by something better, for the sake of the Dominion’s enslaved subjects.
An accomplished actor, able to pass for a ruthless and laconic pirate to underlings and a harmless, socially invisible, but functional and efficient minion to his superiors. He even acts weaker, slower, and less responsive than his bioics are really capable of, so he doesn’t reveal his true capabilities and stand out from the rest of the pirate scum. He’s had to make some judgments and take some actions that he otherwise wouldn’t have, in order to preserve his cover, but feels it’s necessary as he closes in on information that could allow the USA to strike a decisive blow against the Darc Dominion pirates.
A bit of a prankster and a punster, though the lack of opportunity to do either in his current job has frustrated him something fierce. Thus, when he takes leave of the DarcDominion, if he can, he’ll leave them a few serious pranks as a parting gift.
Physical Attributes/Superlatives:
IQ: 20(+6% to skills)
ME: 22
MA: 21
PS:(Bionic) 24
PP:(Bionic) 30
PE: 14
PB:(Bionic) 4
SPD:(Bionic)
Running: 120 mph max . However the act of running does not tire him out and the maximum speed can be maintained indefinitely.
Jumping: The powerful robotic legs are strong and capable of leaping 10 feet high or 18 ft lengthwise. A running leap adds 50% to distance/height.
Flying: Not possible without a jet pack
Underwater: Concealed adjustable buoyancy units allow Tarker to actually float and swim. This ability is not known to Tarker’s DarcDominion superiors, but has allowed him to sneak/swim around Dominion waterworlds such as Skaytraxus when his ship has made port calls on them.
(ISP):---
(PPE): 3
Hit Points: 29
SDC:----
M.D.C. By Location:(Equivalent of a Light Machine)
Hands(2) 25 each
Arms(2) 60 each
Legs(2) 80 each
Feet(2) 25 each
*Head 80
**Main Body 170
*Destroying the head of a Cyborg will kill the character!
However, the head is a small and difficult target to hit. The attacker
must make a called shot and even then he is -3 to strike. The hands, and
forearms are also difficult targets to hit and are -4 to strike on a
called shot.
**Depleting the M.D.C. of the main body will effectively
destroy the artificial body, but emergency systems will keep the brain and
vital organs alive for 36 hours. Recovery of the severely damaged body
will enable doctors to place the character on life support systems that
will keep him alive until a new bionic body (same style or other) is
available, for full conversion. Failure to find the damaged Borg within 36
hours means the character dies.
Horror Factor:----
Special Abilities/Characteristics/Powers:
Magic: By Equipment only
Psionics:-----
Cybernetics/Bionics:(Full Conversion Cyborg--- Light Machine)
Standard Bionic Features
Note: These features are all found in the bionic and
cybernetic section of the Rifts RPG.
1. Bionic lung with gas filter & storage cell
2. Built-in language translator
3. Built-in radio receiver & transmitter w/ scrambler and signal booster
4. Clock calendar
5. Gyro-compass
6. Modulated voice synthesizer
7. Multi-optic eyes
8. Built-in loudspeaker
9. Universal headjack with amplified hearing and sound filtration systems.
Special Features:
*Data Recorder--Secret all-media data recorder. Tarker routinely downloads his daily activities to micro-crystals(concealed in various ;locations, but wipeable by an encrypted signal) for later communication/drop to his USA superiors.
*Empathic, Telepathic, and Mind Control Blockers---Tarker’s GE/USA superiors didn’t discount the possibility of the DarcDominio having psychic prbes, so they insisted on Tarker having extra mental protection.
*’Tempest’ Monitor OBC EM Surveillance Net---This alliows the cyborg to pick up and recrd electrmagnetic activity around him, such as active computer monitors, from roughly 500 ft away.
*Advanced Headjack w/Computer Virus Carrier
*Sensor Baffling----Special lining to his cyborg chassis gives a false reading to cyber-scanners as to what’s REALLY under his skin. 90% chanceof fooling conventional security and cyber-diagnostic scanners.
*Loyalty Implant-chip(false/nonfunctional)--- An explosive device that was implanted as a safeguard against a cyborg mutiny. Tarker disabled his and reprogrammed it to give off false readings, It’s now gimmicked to inform Tarker when it’s being remotely activated. Even Tarker admits the DarcDominion’s cyberdocs did a half-assed job with this, though whether out of incompetence or secret sympathy for the cyber-goons is unknown. anker has kept the explosive charge as a backup sabotage store or, gods forbid, a suicide bomb.
* Concealed TW Interface---- Ectorfiber conduits and plug-ins allowing the cyborg to use technowizardry devices. It was flet that the use of magic would give Tarker an advantage, as the Dark Dominion seems unaware of magic(especially usable by cyborgs).
*Adjustable Buoyancy--- Concealed adjustable buoyancy units allow Tarker to actually float and swim. This ability is not known to Tarker’s DarcDominion superiors, but has allowed him to sneak around Dominion waterworlds when his ship has made port calls on them.
*Concealed Leg Compartments---Tarker’s bionic legs have concealed compatments. Besides the ion weapon rod, Tarker can conceal B&E kits, data solids, and explosives in them.
*Molecular Adhesion Foot Soles
Weapons Systems:
1) Plasma Palm Torch-- This is known to Tarker’s superiors, though not its full range
-200 ft range(Tarker keeps it to 10 ft ), 2d4x10 SDC to 2d6 MDC.
2) Concealed Forearm Vibroblade ----2d6 MD
3) Concealed Forearm Laser---Tarker’s superiors DON’T know about this
Range: 2,000 ft
Damage: 2d6 MD per single blast
Rate of Fire: ECHH
Payload: Effectively Unlimited
4) Concealed Leg Ion Rod---Nor do they know about this.
Range: 2,000 ft
Damage: 4d6 MD
Also has a ‘spray’ setting that does 3d6 MD to a 10 ft-wide area, but range drops to 1,000 ft.
Rate of Fire: ECHH
Payload: Effectively Unlimited
5)Finger Lasers(4, 2 each hand)----Again, the full pwer of these tool-lasers is not advertized to Tarker’s pirate superiors.
Range: 50 ft at lower settings, 300 ft at higher setting.
Damage: 1d6-3d6 SDC, or 1d4 MD per single blast
Rate of Fire: ECHH
Payload: Effectively Unlimited
6) Finger Grenades(2)----Tarker’s extra digits actually conceal detachable mini-explosives.
Range:Can be thrown up to 100 ft
Damage: 2d4 MD to a 10 ft area
Rate of Fire: 3 per finger, 6 total
Payload: Effectively Unlimited
7) Forearm Grappling Hook Launcher ---Combination hook/barb/molecular adhesion head.
Range:100 ft
Damage: Does 1d6 SDC if used as a striking weapon. The cable could concievably be used as a garrot.
Rate of Fire: Single shot
Payload: 1
Skills:(8th level Full Conversion)
• Laguage (English): 98 %
• Language (Dragonese): 80 %
• Literacy (English): 95 %
• Literacy (Dragonese): 80 %
• Radio (Basic): 96%
Radio: Scramblers 96%
Radio: Deep Space 86%
Laser Communications 76 %
Electronic Countermeasures: 91%
Surveillance Systems 91%
Performance 96%
• Military Etiquette 97 %
Intelligence: 85 %
Detect Ambush: 91 %
Pick Locks 91%
Demolitions: 81%
• Climbing: 90%/80 %
• Swimming: 98 %
Movement: Zero Gravity
EVA 66%
• Pilot Hovercraft: 98 %
• Pilot Hovercycle: 98%
• Pilot Jet Pack: 98%
Pilot: Small Spacecraft 60%
• Navigation(ALW): 98 %
Navigation: Space 61%
• Sensory Equipment: 86 %
• Weapon Systems: 96 %
• Computer Operation 96 %
-Computer Programming 91%
-Computer Hacking 80%
• Math (Basic): 98%
Mathematics: Advanced 91%
• General Repair and Maintenance: 96 %
Spaceship Mechanics 47%
Electronics: Basic 66 %
Cybernetics: Basic 56%
Jury-Rig 55 %
Salvage 31%
First Aid 91%
• Lore (D-Bees) 71%
• HtH Commando
• WP Knife (+3 strike, +3 parry, +4 throw)
• WP Grappling Hook(+2 strike, +2 entangle)
W.P. Paired Weapons
• WP Energy Pistol(+4 to strike)
• WP Energy Rifle (+5 to strike)
• WP Heavy Energy Weapons(+3 strike)
Actions/Attacks per Melee: 6
Initiative: +6
Strike: +7
Parry: +8
Dodge: +8
Automatic Dodge: +3
Roll: +4
Pull Punch: +4
Disarm +2
Critical Strike on Unmodified 18-20
Back Flip/Back Flip Eacpe
Holds
Damage:
Restrained Punch 1d6+9 SDC
Full Strength Punch 3d6+9 SDC
Power Punch( 2 attacks) 1d4 MD
Kick 3d6+9 SDC
Leap Kick(2 Attacks) 1d6 MD
Judo-Style Throw/Flip 2d6 SDC
Body Block/Ram: (2 attacks) 1d6 MD
Saves:
+3 Vs Magic
+4 Vs Psionics
+6 Vs Horror Factor
+5 vs Psionics
+1 vs Mind Control
+1 vs Empathic Projection
+7 vs possession, impervious to Bio-Manipulation, Telemechanics(all), See Aura, and any attacks that do damage directly to Hit Points.
65% Inspire Trust/Intimidate
Penalties: Touch/tactile sense is 60% of human norm.
Prowl penalty: -20%
Notable Possessions/Equipment:
On his current deep-cover assignment Tarker can’t carry much of anything that might draw undue attention to himself and reveal his true nature and mission. However, he has a concealed TW medical kit, several computer infiltration chips, scrambled mini-comm, and a concealed electronics tool kit.
He’s also managed to scrounge a handy demolitions kit from stuff he’s acquired aboard the pirate cruiser he’s on.
As a pirate, he’s been issued a generic laser pistol( 600 ft range, 2d6 MD per shot, 20 shot clip) and is issued a laser rifle for heavier fighting(1.800 ft range, 4d6 MD per single shot, 30 shot e-clip) that he’s responsible for.
Tarker has been issued Light Cyborg Armor (120 MDC) by his superiors, though this is only worn during damage control and boarding actions.
Vehicle:
None. When travel is needed, he’s issued or assigned to one by his pirate superiors. In an emergency, Tarker figures he can steal one and already knows how to bypass security on a number of readily-accessible vehicles, including officers-only escape pods.
-------------
"Trouble rather the Tiger in his Lair,
Than the Sage among his Books,
For all the Empires and Kingdoms,
The Armies and Works that you hold Dear,
Are to him but the Playthings of the Moment,
To be turned over with the Flick of a Finger,
And the Turning of a Page"
Twaniland----- GNE Colony World(Thundercloud)
(aka ‘Twani’, ‘Zillaland’, ‘Spliceland’)
“On long range scans, the Urgora system life zone was already looking attractive, and a number of nearby polities were gearing up to claim it with colonization survey expeditions. The United Systems Alliance just managed to get here first with enough heavy iron to make their claim stick.”
“The usans are encouraging a ‘combined arms’ approach to the megacosmos, so you have worlds that churn out high tech, worlds that study hard magic, and worlds that go bio, with ideally most leaning towards a mix of them. Twanliand tips heavily towards the biosciences, but there’s a bit of magic mixed in there too.”
“Twaniland’s super-lush enough that there’s a lot of adam-and-eving going on, what with colonists running around naked, talking to the animals and eating fruit off trees...though odds are, the naked innocents have genetically-enhanced physiques, subcuyaneous body armor, induced psionics, poison-proof digestive systems, the fruits are also likely to be gene-modded, and any snake seeking to sew corruption in THOSE gardens is going to get skinned alive.”
“I pity whoever raids Twaniland, thinking it’s a soft target, what with the supposed tech-rejectors settling there. You’d think by now that word would have gotten out far and wide that we don’t do hapless farmers; they don’t -reject- technology, they just embrace a DIFFERENT technology, one that’s just as formidable in its way as the metal-based ones. The Zillalanders got bioarmor, genetic augs, living weaponry, and warbeasts that frankly scare even a hardened armor-jock like myself.”
“What IS it with Tawni women and giant lizards? They’re arguably as bad as the Yavuulans and their vurms. I had to make a hard set-down in the highlands and before I knew it I was up to my eyebrows in what I soon learned were the local militia...only it was a pack of amazons in scanty leather riding big war-lizards. But they had guns, bio-weapons, and I later found out they were bio-auged to a lady, and they knew damned well how to hold those guns and whatevers. I have no doubt that had I been a pirate or gene-raider, they’d have quickly flensed me to my constituent body parts. Fortunately, between the biocomms they had and the radios they brought along on several motorcycles they also had, they were able to confirm I was just a free-trader with a busted gravitic generator making an emergency landing. They sent up a skycrane ship from their spaceport to pick up my ship and trasnport me to...well, ‘civilization’ would be implying disrespect to my female hosts...but, well, to a more familiar culture.”
“The Twanils are just as bad as the Central Alliance and the GNE when it comes to personal augmentation, only it’s all biotech; there’s plenty of eugenic upgrades available, there’s biotic conversion in place of bionic conversion, and it’s often very hard to tell the difference between the nonhumans and the humans who have gotten a dinosauroid or gorilloid makeover.”
“Once you get through the long list of immunizations required and the orientation talks about dangerous local lifeforms, Twailand actually is a pretty nice place to visit. The locals have alrady carved out a number of reserves divided up into ‘mini-edens’ for tourists to come and cavort -au natural-and eatng local produce....some of which either naturally or deliberately engineered, have some real aphrodisiac effects. Of course, for those who really want to get close t one another, the Twanilanders also grow and sell Bond Fruit. so for a little extra fee, a couple can tie the knot with a mental linkage. Of course, what isn’t out loud stated, is the Twanilanders also sell the means to chemically sever the bond if the union doesn’t work out. Even in Eden, it seems, there’s divorce lawyers.”
“There’s been some controversy already on exports from Twaniland; some adventurers and mercs have tried passing off their newly-acquired bioweaponry as ‘pets’ on declaration forms. That’s like trying to pass off a blaster rifle as a flagstaff or a yard torch. Pets don’t normally throw ultra-hard spikes at supersonic velocity or spam laser beams in the armor-melt energy transfer range.”
Twaniland is a colony of the GNE settled by colonists from the Cambridge Jungle region of Greater New England. The emphasis of the colony is on the use of biotechnology; while hard technology is not proscribed, it is frowned upon when biotech substitutes are available or can be developed. Several biotechture arcologies have already been established. It is already being predicted that Twaniland will become a major source of biotech for the USA.
Twaniland is settled by a loose confederation of nine different tribes, and a dozen smaller groups , conducting their own affairs and pursuing their own projects. Most originated in Greater New England’s Cambridge Jungle region, but interest from other quarters of Rifts Earth resulted in a group of Jungle Elves from South America approaching the GNE for permission and transport to the planet. Some of the United Systems Alliance’s biotech-user cultures have similarly evinced interest in sending immigrants or at least resident observers to study the work being done on Twaniland and conduct their own research on the planet’s fecind environment.
The Twanilanders have been extensively modifying various of the local sauroids and reptile species, as wells as numerous other local species.
Besides humans, Twaniland has attracted immigrants of other biotech-using species. Besides the aforementioned Jungle Elves, Apisori have also applied for(and been granted) immigration permission.
There is some thought that Tawniland’s rich ecosystem and growth-conducive environment are not a coincidence, but may have been artificially instigated by some ancient dvanced species. Recent unearthing of artifacts on the polar continent suggest a proto-Cernan or intelligent sauroid presence several million years ago, though the extent of the presence and whether they made any deliberate alterations to Tawniland’s environment are unknown. Another theory is that a later civilization(or extension of the earlier ones) flourished up until the Dominator War, and were wiped out in the mass extinction event that obliterated so many other starfaring cultures of the time.
Because of Twaniland’s growing prosperity, and the temptations for colony-jumpers and gene-poachers, the system is well-defended. Besides a potent local militia armed with bioweaponry, warmounts, augments, and bio-power armor., there are several tech-enclaves with high-tech weaponry, and the USAJC maintains a presence in the system.
Solar System(Urgora)
Number of Stars: 1
Types of Stars:
-Orange Dwarf
Number of Planets: 4
-Asteroid(Prospera)----A small-end dwarf planetoid of some 900 km diameter, Prospera has little to offer in prospects for development, though the USA has set up an automated solar observatory in the rock. There’s been some talk of also setting up an exolife test farm/agricultural station to try out new solar radiation-resistant plant strains.
-Terrestrial(Girlan)----A tiny (6,000 km diameter) world with nearly non-existant light gravity, and a low dense tainted fog of an atmosphere. Massive quantities of subterranenan water lie under the surface, however, and with drilling, filtration, and cracking, provide both potable drinking water and sources of oxygen and hydrogen fuel. Several hardtech domed communities have been established on Girlan and the USAJC maintains a naval base to protect the system. The tribes of Twaniland have offered to lend their expertise in biotechture to assist the domer-colonists on Girlan.
-Terrestrial(Twaniland)---- System lifeworld and colony site.
-Exotic(Malder’s Patch)----This is an unusually dense cloud of small asteroids and dust that is thought to be the remains of a larger planetary body that was shattered, but not dispersed, by a high speed impact with a smaller and far denser body, such as a mini black hole, neutron star, or exotic matter asteroid. Something has kept the debris from dispersing or coalescing back into on mss. The USA has been methodically scanning the cloud of rocks for anything of interest.
Planet(Twaniland)
Twaniland is described as “a Venus before reality caught up to it”(a reference to how Earth thought Venus would be a wet tropical world beneath the cover of its clouds, before it was discerned that it was really a torturously hot acid-clouded hell). A verdant world brimming with life, it was viewed as perfect for the biotechnologists to study and colonize.
Type: Terrestrial
Diameter: 13,324 km
Gravity: 1.2 g
Temperature:
Temperate, shading to tropical/warm. Twaniland’s ice caps are tiny as a result.
Unusual/Special Features:
-Moons(4)---Twaniland has four small moons, nicknamed Squirrel, Wren, Moth, and Guppy, all of which have been settled with high-tech and biotech outposts. The biotech-moons are expected to be gradually covered in biotechture, while one of the two hard-tech moons is a USAJC base supporting several squadrons of starfighters.
-Rings---A thin system of debris rings orbits Twaniland. The USAJC has seeded the rings with a defense satellite network, and the Twanilanders reportedly test numerous engineered exo-organisms in the rings.
-Impact Craters---Numerous impact craters dot the planetary surface.
-Ambient PPE Field---Higher than normal local PPE field with ley lines, but few nexi. Twaniland’s exuberant ecology may be responsible for the abundant psychic energy(or vice-versa).
Atmosphere:
Dense, but breathable terrestrial nitrox mix. The warm moist atmosphere lends itself to powerful tropical storms extending over much of the planet.
Terrain:
Unusual Geology-----Twaniland sports regions of ‘cold jet volcanoes’; geo-vents that emit jets of pressurized gas, often at scalding temperatures, nit not at volcanic gradients. Deeper magmatic or tectonic stresses breaking down porous gas-trapping strata are one possible explanation for the phenomenon; another is possible subterranean microbial ecologies generating waste gases.
Notable Mineral Concentrations:
- Lead
- Pitchblende
- Manganese
- Antimony
- Sulfur
- Talc
- Emerald
- Titanium
Hydrosphere:
77% of Twaniland’s surface is covered in open water.
Biosphere:
Cornucopia---Twaniland is either an ecological madhouse or a biotech’s dream warehouse of genetic resources. Millions of animal and plant species teem on the planet, though reptiles and sauroids dominate.
Civilization:
Colonial(late-Settled)
Population:
57 million(71% human, 29% other; a mix of Lizardmen, Jungle Elves, and Apisori)
Technology:
Biotechnology(equivalent to Splicers), including personal bio-modding, animal and plant modification. The local defense force is well-supplied with biotech weaponry, and bio-modding is popular.
Hard tech is available, but is only really accepted in the highlands and regions where the planetary jungles aren’t as well-established.
Economy:
Agriculture and Biotech-Manufacturing
Wealth:
Average, but expected to boom as the colonists become more established.
Government:
Clan Confederation---Based on the Cambridge Jungle Tribes and Splicer Houses, there are several tribes that work in loose union. While they manage their own regions and affairs, the tribes come together on matters of mutual concern, such as planetary defense and offworld trade. A Council of Chiefs meets regularly to discuss global matters and arbitrate disagreements between tribes. The tribes are fairly evenly divided between patriarchies and matriarchies.
Law Level:
Lawful. There have been some feuding between tribes and their leaders, but the common code of law and the Council of Chiefs has worked to quickly resolve such dissension(there’s an unspoken sense that the Twanilanders do not want to be seen wanting in unity or commonsense by their hardtech-using fellow USA members).
Popularity:
Popular---So far the Twaniland experiment has gone very well. Despite some differences among the colonists, things are proceeding fairly smoothly, with teething problems expected. Coming from a bio-evolutionary-oriented background, the colonists feel a little competition is a GOOD thing for the overall long-term health of the colonies.
Stability:
Stable---So far, so good.
Notable Residents:
Lizard-Lord Lhari(Kowalski )---Retired Gladiator, Ranch-Island Owner
“The Lizard-Lord’s biography would be the stuff of epics, if one could separate the truth from the bull$#!+ he proudly spouts.”
“I’m a great grandchild of the King Lizard Himself, Twanzilla!!!”
Lizard-Lord Lhari Kowalski is a landholder on Twaniland, with quite a tale to tell.
Born and raised in the Cambridge Jungle Tribes, Lhari became a Biotic Warrior and served his tribe well, defending it against many different enemies, and was rewarded by his tribal elders with enhancements. Though not the most powerful bio-augment, Lhari made up for it with enthusiasm, courage(some say foolhardiness) and aggression in fighting the enemies of the tribe.
Lhari disappeared during one of the last large Splugorth raids on the East Coast(prior to the Zot Smackdown and Grand Banks Accords) and it was presumed that he was either captured or killed(and the body not found) by Splugorth Minions. It therefore came as a great surprise, years later, when Lhari reappeared in the Three Galaxies, asking for permission to immigrate to Twaniland.
It turned out Lhari HAD been captured by Horune, and forced into slavery as a gladiator, and had fought for a number of years in various crossdimensional venues(there’s evidence that he spent some of this period in dimensions with differing relative time flow) and environments(including microgravity), before he managed to escape, and became a highly succcesful freelance combat athlete while trying to find a way back to familiar territory.
Once evaluated and vetted that he had not been brainwashed as a double-agent or was a turncoat, Lhari was allowed to settle on Twaniland. He then revealed that he had a retinue/harem of human women(mainly rescuees from slave pits) and enough wealth to buy and develop a private island on Twaniland.
Currently Lhari spends most of his time overseeing his ranch-island(where he raises riding beasts and livestock), his many wives, and their growing number of children. However, he is a member of the Twaniland militia, an Irregular in the USAJC, and occasionally goes offworld with expeditions and missions, particularly those involving the seedier side of Galactic society.
Lhari, though he admits he lost a lot of acquaintances/friends in the slave pits and games, as well as killed a number of agents, still has contacts/friends in low places in some of the seedier ports in the Splugorth realms. This is another reason the United Systems Alliance has virtually installed several liaison agents as rent-paying residents on Lhari’s island, so whenever he feels like talking or some of his friends come by on visits they can pick up intel. Lhari still has a repitation in some underworld gaming circles and amog galdiator fight viewership.
Level of Experience: 9th Level Biotic /11th Level Combat Athlete
Rank: Champion
Race: Human
Alignment: Unprincipled
Land of Origin: Cambridge Jungle, Greater New England
Age: 65
Sex: Male
Height: 6’ 8”
Weight: 290 lbs
Physical Description/Appearance:
Can be mistaken for a particularly large and muscular Lizardman(indeed, the Horune did just that); with thick scaly skin, blunt snout, mouth filled with sharp teeth, long combat tail, and claws. Can also raise a series of spiked fins along his shoulders, back, spine, and crest that arguably make him look more intiimidating(they serve no other purposes except to help him cool off more efficiently). Typically goes around wearing onlya pair of speedo-style shorts and a few pieces of gold bling.
Disposition:
Loud, verbose, tough guy uber-confident to the point of abrasiveness. Brave to the breaking point of comic machismo.
Under the boisterous, arrogant, trash-talking loudmouth is a protective family man. Having come from a large family/tribe, Lhari sought to recreate it with his own large family, and though he boasts loudly of his masculinity bordering on male misogeny,he’s actually a big softy when it comes to treating his many wives, loves his kids, and stands by his family. When he’s not looking to impress/intimidate others, he can be rather charming in a crude sort of way.
Loves food, preparing it as much as eating it, and since he’s established his ranch, he holds frequent cookouts for his large family and visiting friends. He also enjoys fishing, and the ecologically active waters of Twaniland afford him no shortage of fishing venues and prey.
Though he’s occasionally accompanied expeditions offworld and has gladly lent his expertise and knowledge to the greater services. Lhari is hoping to steer clear of any more time/space shenanigans and settle down to the life of a rural lord. If trouble comes his way and threatens his kingdom, he will fight to the death to defend what’s his.
Physical Attributes/Superlatives:
IQ: 14
ME: 19
MA: 10
PS: 30 (Biotic)
PP: 14
PE: 30(fatigues at a lesser rate; can go 10x normal human fatigue rate)
PB: 8
SPD: 43(28 MPH)
(ISP): 117
(PPE): 12
Hit Points:----
SDC:---
MDC: 427
Horror Factor: 9
Special Abilities/Characteristics/Powers(Biotech):
-Regenerates 2d6+3 MD per melee round
-Prehensile Tail (88 MDC)
-Firebreath ----6d6 MD, 30 ft range
-Claws 2d6 MD,
-Teeth 2d8 MD
-Resistance to Kinetic Attacks (‘Sharp’ physical attacks such as bullets and blades do HALF damage)
-Resistance to Physical Attacks( ‘Blunt’ physical attacks such as kicks, punches and concussive blows do HALF damage)
-Resistance to Heat(Fire, plasma, and magic heat attacks fo HALF damage)
-Resistance to Cold(Unbothered by freezing temoeratures; super-cold and magic cold do HALF damage)
-Bio-Forcefield (180 MDC)
- Advanced Eyes (Polarized vision, low-light vision 2,000 ft, long distance vision 1 mile)
- Armored Eyes(Unbothered by dust, grit, airborne irritants)
- Enhanced Sight(Infrared, Ulltraviolet/Thermal)
- Advanced Senses (amplified hearing, taste x2 normal, natural compass sense, loudspeaker voice--80 decibels)
- Enhanced Hearing
- Enhanced Neurological Connections
Skills:(9th Level Biotic /11th Level HU Combat Athlete)
Basic Mathematics 98%
Language/Literacy: English/Trade Four 98%/ 98%
Dragonese 98%/ 95%
Gobbely 98%/ 95%
First Aid 98%
Bio-Coms 98%
Operate Bio-Equipment 95%
Cooking 98%
Fishing 98%
Sewing 95%
Play Musical Instruments(Drums) 98%
Detect Ambush 98%
Resist Torture
Streetwise 64%
Contacts: Friends in Low Places---28%; knows people in the Galactic gladiatorial circuit, including promoters, agents, stable coaches, performance drug dealers, pit doctors, etc.
Carpentry 80%
Lore: Cattle & Animals 45%
Wilderness Survival 85%
Outdoorsmanship
Land Navigation 80%
Camouflage 75%
Tracking 80%
Trap Construction 64%
Horsemanship: Exotic 74%
Pilot : Hovervehicle 98%
Pilot Boat: Kayaks & Canoes 98%
Rowing
Swimming 98%
Forced March
Running
Boxing
Wrestling
Zero Gravity Movement & Combat
Gymnastics
-Work Parallel Bars/Rings 75%
-Climb Rope 86%
-Sense of Balance 79%
-Back Flip 95%
Athletics
Physical Labor
Rope Works 80%
Prowl 80%
Vital Points(Inorganic)
Vital Points(Organic)
Recogize Weapon Quality 98%
Hand to Hand: Martial Arts
W.P. Paired Weapons
W.P. Knife (+4 strike, +4 parry, +5 throw)
W.P. Blunt (+3 strike, +3 parry)
-W.P. Spear (+4 strike, +4 parry, +3 throw)
-W.P. Trident (+4 strike, +4 parry, +4 throw, +3 pin/catch)
-W.P. Sword (+4 strike, +4 parry, +2 throw)
W.P. Reverse Stroke
W.P. Bio-Weapons: Light(+4 strike)
W.P. Bio-Weapons:Heavy(+3 strike)
W.P. Energy Rifle(+4 strike)
Actions/Attacks per Melee: 8
Initiative: +7
Strike:+3
Parry:+6
Dodge: +8
Automatic Dodge+2
Roll:+8
Pull Punch+5
Disarm+5
Entangle +2
Critical Strike on Unmodified 18-20
Knockout/Stun on Natural 20
Pin/Incapacitate on 18-20
Back Flip, Back Flip Escape, Back Flip Attack
Holds
Damage:+4
Bite 2d8 MD
Claws 2d6 MD
Restrained Punch 1d4 MD
Full Strength Punch 1d6 MD
Power Punch(2 APMs) 2d6 MD
Tail Strike 2d4 MD
Kick 2d4 MD
Leap Attack(2 APMs) 2d8 MD
Saves:
+40% Vs Coma/Death
+8 Vs Magic
+2 Vs Psionics (so, on a 10 or better)
+2 Vs Horror Factor
+4 Vs Insanity
+9 Vs Poisons
+1 Vs Possession
+5 Vs pain, torture, hypnosis, and mind control,
Insanities:
Though Cambridge Jungle Biotics suffer less from insanity than their Splicer counterparts, their rough and tumble lifestyle still subjects them to no small number of occasions for trauma, and Lhari’s had plenty. Not surprisingly he’s picked up a few:
-Superhero Complex----Sees himself as a ‘Guardian Kaiju Cousin’, protector of the land and people, descendent of Great God Gadzilla.
-Obsession: Competition and Combat----”Wanna make a thing of it?! Do you? Do YOU?! Let’s if you can beat me!” Actually, his wives have steered him away from going into gambling.
-Delusional; Believes himself to be an alien prince. Ironically, he’s made that pretty much come true with his own private little kingdom.
Notable Possessions/Equipment:
Has a personal arsenal of weapons he’s collected over the years, including a Horune Energy Trident.
Vehicle:
Prefers riding exotic combat-animals
Rosetta----A Colonial Enclave of the Knights of the White Rose
(aka ‘Roseville’) “They really thought they’d fool us with that cover story? That’s a military expedition as much as it is a refugee migration. For a good number of reasons, they’ll bear watching.”
Rosetta is a small colonial outpost established as part of the Twaniland colonization venture .
Rosetta has been founded/established by a small advance party of the Knights of the White Rose. With Greater New England nearby and their extradimensional/extraplanetary trade/travel network becoming public knowledge on Rifts Earth, the Madhaven-based Knights saw an opportunity to expand their order and insure their survival against the many enemies the KotWR had made. Taking advantage of the GNE’s ‘getaway specials’, a small group of disguised White Rose Knights approached the GNE and expressed a desire to immigrate offworld to new pastures, claiming to be religious refugees fleeing the Coalition States with the assistance of a splinter group of Light-aligned Mystic Knights. If pressed on certain points, as expected, they were prepared to admit to being a splinter group of the Order of the White Rose, but claimed to have separated from the main group several years prior, and thus having little knowledge of the Order’s current base of operations. Having some experience with dissident Mystic Knights(even welcomed within the GNE’s ranks), the GNE did not pursue inquiries that far and admitted the group of prospective colonists leave to use the GNE dimensional network, clearing them with the United Systems Alliance’s Office of Relocation .
This group, sheparding a group of refugees the White Rose had rescued, but could not take within their Madhaven sanctum, and concealing a core group of Order colonists and several White Rose seedlings, left Rifts Earth and travelled via the GNE’s extradimensional transit network to join a colonial development group to the newly opened Urgora system..
Though some in the Order wanted to try for a world all their own, regarding anonymous isolation as the best security, the Order’s leadership decided that such would also place them at risk if they ran into unknowns they were ill-equipped to handle. Even in Madhaven, it was pointed out, they had the support of many Madhaven mutants. Furthermore, the GNE’s biotechs had already done wonders with upgrading the abilities of resident cyberkights, and it was hoped that something similar might be worked out to improve the abilities of the KotWR or better hide them among other superpowered defenders. Sharing a planet with other colonists and a benign supportive overseeing government had a better chance of survival. In the end, though, the Knight expedition was able to acquire claim to an island sub-continent all to themselves, giving them some isolation from the rest of the colonization effort.
Fortunately, the mystic White Rose seedlings the Knights brought with them have taken exuberant root in Twaniland’s soil. The Knights expect to expand their plantings to increase the supply of the useful mystic plants.
Ideally the Knights would like to grow the Rosetta colony into a full-scale kingdom and acquire starships of their own, as well as permanent dimensional gates between Madhaven and Twaniland, but for now they’re content to have established an offworld foothold. The colony is also seen as a fallback and retirement site for older knights who fo not want to remain on Rifts Earth and would like to retreat to less chaotic surroundings.
For their part, the GNE officials who approved the Knights’ colonial application saw through their deception and well know of the KotWR, if not the details of their Veiled enclave in Madhaven’s Central Park. As they regard the White Rose as benign champions of the downtrodden and healers of the sick, the GNE has quietly gone along with the deception(though it’s very likely a reciprocal case of everybody knowing that that everybody else knows). Besides, having another source of White Roses is seen as a plus(the GNE’s own botanists and mystic herbalists having acquired samples and working on establishing viable fields elsewhere in GNE territory).
Colony:(Rosetta)
Sponsoring Organization:
Knights of the White Rose with Greater New England subsidization.
Colony Size:
Roughly 1,000 colonists, mainly human, but expected to grow as more refugees(real and Knights) are transplanted to the enclave.
General Alignment: Principled and Scrupulous
Trade Policy:
Flexible and Pragmatic; the Knights of the White Rose still want to secure their privacy, but they are willing to trade with outsiders(or at least the other colonists).
Environment Around Colony:
Inland from the coast, the island has a fair-sized region of rolling hills, arable plains, and patches of light forest. A nearby small river provides additional access to potable and navigable water.
Notable/Special Natural Resources:
*Fur Trapping----Many of the local animals(and fortunately the vermin most likely to dine on the colonists’ various crops) have sellable pelts.
Initial Buildings/Facilities:
-Armory---Fortified strongpoint bunker holding most of the colony’s weapons and explosives when not on issued duty.
-Barracks---While married couples have private apartment-style residences, the rest of the colonists sleep in geder-segregrated communal barracks.
-Bio-Dome---It might have seemed superfluous, given Twaniland’s proven soil fertility, but the KotWR wanted to be sure before transplanting the White Rose into an unfamiliar environment. They keep a ‘control’ crop of Roses under the dome, along with other special plants.
-Church/Temple---Initially part of the ruse of the ‘religious refugees’, it’s since become a real part of the community. It’s also become the closest to a command center so far and a community strongpoint .
-Communication Tower---Insisted on by the USA Colonization Authority.
-Construction/Farm Vehicle Shed---- The settlement’s tech-vehicles are kept and serviced in several large sheds.
-Farm---Barns, Grain Silos, and Animal Pens
-Factory----Flour Mill and Lumber Mill
-Fence, Outer, with Walled inner sections protecting sensitive facilites. There are several watch-towers and a disguised gun tower.
-Monument---Initially part of the ruse of the ‘religious refugees’, it’s since become a real part of the community
-School---There’s enough juveniles that a small school has been set up.
-Storage Sheds(includes food storage, refrigeration
-Water Treatment Plant---Water drawn from the river and recycled from settlement use is treated and purified here.
Medical Facility:
-Clinic/Infirmary----The KotWR rely heavily on magic and psychic healing currently, and some biotech they’ve acquired from their neighbors.
And of course the KotWR brought mystic herbalists able to make best use of the crops of White Rose they’re raising.
Primary Energy Source:
Colonial GNE/USA-issue nuclear fusion ‘power pod’ supplemented by solar & wind power.Vehicles are largely powered by battery or biofuels.
Primary Source of Transportation:
Colonial GNE/USA-issue vehcles, mainly ATVs and hovervehicles, though the Knights have acquired some riding and draught animals from the other biotech colonies. The thinking is that they will eventually phase out their hard-tech to better blend in with the rest of the colonies.
Security/Fighting Force:
Several dozen Knights of the White Rose and three times that number of squires and militia(roughly 200 at arms). They’ve acquired the usual militia kit from PS/ASI and a few bioweapons from their neighbors.
Outside Threats:
Wild animals mainly. The GNE has assured the colonists that the system is regularly patrolled against pirates and other extraterrestrial threats.
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"Trouble rather the Tiger in his Lair,
Than the Sage among his Books,
For all the Empires and Kingdoms,
The Armies and Works that you hold Dear,
Are to him but the Playthings of the Moment,
To be turned over with the Flick of a Finger,
And the Turning of a Page"
