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The Verakh Compact is an authoritarian government, formed by the militaries of several allied nations after most of the traditional nation-states collapsed. After uniting the planet under its banner in a series of wars, they have devoted themselves to one goal- the survival of the Verakh people, by any means necessary.

Verkon: The icy homeworld of the Verakh, home to nine billion souls. Due to the planet's elliptical orbit, it has two seasons: a temperate summer, during which life flourishes, and a cold winter. The ancient Verakh would grow food during the summer, and use it to survive the winters. However, the planet's orbit has become increasingly eccentric, causing the summers to grow shorter, and the winters to grow longer. This has devastated the planet's ecology, and set in motion the chain of events that lead to the formation of the Compact.

Ulteris: A fairly typical gas giant, Ulteris is highly important to the Compact because of its abnormally large amounts of helium-3. Helium-3 mined here is used to fuel nuclear reactors on Verkon, which are responsible for powering cities. Without a constant flow of helium-3, the Verakh would be unable to survive the increasingly harsh winters.

Hypergate Code: V585
When the Verakh evolved into sapient beings, Verkon was a much warmer, more hospitable place than it is today. The winters were shorter and warmer, and summer was downright temperate. The Verakh developed civilization near the equator, going from scattered tribes to more complex states.

From the beginning of the atomic age, the planet's temperature had been slowly dropping. During the early Space Age, astronomers began to notice that Verkon's orbit was seemingly becoming unstable, becoming more and more eccentric. While they warned the governments of the many nation-states that this could lead to disaster, their pleas were mostly unheard. This proved to be their undoing during the infamous "Death Winter", an abnormally long and cold winter season that lead to the deaths of millions. Many nations began to fall into civil war as the survivors fought for resources.

During this chaos, the militaries of four nations whose governments had fallen united together, forming the basis for what would one day be the Verakh Compact. This alliance, having restored order to their respective countries, began a crusade to unify the world under one banner. The Unification Wars, as they were called, was a relatively short (they went on for about a year) yet bloody conflict that resulted in the military alliance having control of the planet, either through conquest or diplomacy. The leaders of this alliance soon reorganized themselves as the Verakh Compact, an organization with one goal- save our species.

Throughout the years, the Compact has worked to accomplish this goal. Although new technologies have made survival easier, the planet isn't getting any warmer. Some fear that there will come a point where the winter will never end, and Verkon will die, becoming an uninhabitable, frozen tomb. There are only two options left: find a way to save the planet, or escape it.

The Compact is currently completely made up of Verakh, nine billion of them. The overwhelming majority live on Verkon, while a few thousand live on orbital stations, mostly around Ulteris and her moons. They are a race of humanoid mammals, four to five feet in height. Their general body structure somewhat resembles that of chimpanzees, although more suited to bipedal movement. They have four-fingered hands, flat faces, two eyes and ears, and are covered by a layer of fur (typically either grey or a reddish-brown, although other colors have been seen). Like most mammals, they give live birth, and nurse their young.

Due to the events on their homeworld, the Verakh have become increasingly pragmatic, judging things and people by their usefulness. Laziness is despised, as well as selfishness. The government encourages people to consider the welfare of the state over their own personal problems- after all, to serve the state, is to fight for the survival of the species. Dissidents are portrayed as enemies of the people, who would rather save themselves and watch the whole world freeze.

Religion varies among different people. The Compact is officially secular, and they tend to let the people believe what they want, unless it goes against the values of the state. Many Verakh have no religion. Recently, there has been a resurgence in worship of the ancient Sun God, Geshtok (whom the system's star was named after). Followers of Geshtok believe that he is waging a war against evil beings that conspire to send the world into an eternal winter.

The Compact is governed by the Overseer Council, who have complete control over the state. Each Overseer represents a different part of the government, or Office, such as the Office of War, or the Office of the Treasury. They serve as advisors to the High Overseer, who has total control over the government and the military. There are no term limits, and the High Overseer usually rules for life. The lesser Overseers are chosen by the High Overseer, and can also rule for life, but tend to get replaced far more often than the High Overseer. The High Overseer is also responsible for selecting provincial governors, who carry out the Council's commands to the many provinces of the Compact. The government does not try to hide the fact that they are essentially a dictatorship- on the contrary, they embrace it. They believe that the Council represents the wisest and most qualified rulers, who are free to do what must be done, without being hindered by red tape or partisan infighting.

Under the Compact's guidance, Verakh civilization has rapidly advanced in technology. While relative newcomers to space, they are advanced in other fields, like robotics, shielding tech, nuclear power, and climate control.

Hazardous Climate Suit (HCS): Designed to allow workers to operate during the harsh winter, this sealed suit adjusts itself to the climate, ensuring the wearer will stay comfortable, no matter how hot or cold it is outside. Advanced models provide protection against radiation, toxic materials, biological and/or chemical warfare, and even the vacuum of space. Military models include personal shield generators and increased armor.

Barrier Field Generator: A shield generator on a massive scale, the Barrier Field Generator was designed to protect cities from deadly hail storms. It projects a field over a large area, protecting it from impacts. However, it was designed to stop smaller projectiles, and larger projectiles with more force will likely shatter it. It is not meant for military use, but as a way to protect cities from hazardous weather. While there have been attempts to create a military version capable of withstanding artillery, or even orbital bombardment, these attempts have been unsuccessful.

Helium-3 Fusion: Helium-3, when fused with deuterium, results in a highly efficient nuclear reaction. The Verakh have nearly perfected this process, and it allows them to power their cities, as well as some of their more exotic technologies. Smaller helium-3 reactors are used to power their ships, providing a reliable power source that allows their ships to operate for long periods of time.

Verakh industry relies on the flow of helium-3 from Ulteris to power it. The need to harvest helium-3, deliver it to Verkon, and protect those shipments, have been the driving force behind the Compact's expansion into space. This expansion into space has lead to the creation of the asteroid mining industry, which has proven crucial to the development of orbital infrastructure and the Compact's space fleet. On Verkon, industry is centered around the things needed to survive the winter- food, power, and raw materials. Anything else is treated as unimportant.

The Compact's military is much smaller than it was during the Unification Wars, due to the simple fact that there has been no enemy to fight. Still, the military plays an important role in maintain law and order. Besides the Army (the Landcorps) and the Navy (the Voidcorps), there is also the Peacekeeper Corps, a paramilitary organization that serves as the main law enforcement body for the Compact. Peacekeepers, besides acting as police, act as a reserve force in the event of an invasion, using guerilla tactics to assist the regular army. With their iconic teal armor, Peacekeepers are omnipresent in Verakh cities, watching over the population.

The Landcorps itself is divided into three subdivisions: Infantry (foot soldiers), Cavalry (mechanized units), and Skyforce (atmospheric fighters). The Landcorps favors overwhelming firepower and "shock and awe" style attacks. Enemies are subjected by waves of Skyforce airstrikes, followed by artillery, then waves of tanks, mechanized infantry, and shock troops. They favor railguns and gauss weapons, due to their reliability, although some weapons utilize plasma technology.

The Voidcorps, initially created with the sole purpose of protecting the Verkon-Ulteris route from pirates, tends to favor small, maneuverable stike craft, and smaller ships like corvettes and destroyers. They also use railguns heavily, although some larger ships carry nuclear torpedoes. Several leading admirals have created a proposal for a "Heavy Fleet", which could be used for large-scale campaigns and planetary invasions. These fleets would utilize a core of large battleships, supported by smaller vessels and strike craft. These proposals have not been acted on yet, as there is currently no need for such a fleet. In addition to its ships, the Voidcorps has the Void Troopers, their version of space marines. These elite troops are used as either shipboard security, for boarding actions, or for precision orbital insertions against specific, planetside targets.

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The Cooperative is a civilization descended from rogue peacekeepers who rebelled against the terrans. Characterized as a highly centralized, highly hierarchal domain founded upon the belief in the human spirit with the grand sovereign’s guidance.

The Cooperative as a civilization is one built around two sets of beliefs, that of a transhumanist hierarchal order that is viewed as a form of maturation within the meritocratic cooperative society. It is also built on the conception of a common human spirit that borders on theocratic even as AIs and Cyborgs run everything. The humanistic regime has a several other peculiarities, such as how their elite at times seems to view the common, non-augmented people like tending to a garden. The meritocratic ideal is built on the idea that those common people will advance and mature into cyborgs who are viewed as superhuman in nature.
This gardener mindset comes from a strong natalist streak within the cooperative’s elite circles that has led to Cooperative space being flooded in people created through factories of artificial wombs. Of whom the common cooperative citizen comes from that if they work hard enough get to be cyborgs.


Notable Worlds

Diagones
Diagones is a warm earth-like world colonized due to being in the habitable zone of Opiuchi C and with a gravitational pull similar enough to that of Earth’s. Diagones has dense jungles and large mountain ranges with deserts dominating the equatorial region. The polar regions are the most habitable for humans, with the weather cycles on Diagones from a near perfect 0 degree tilt. Diagones also has a small sterile moon. In the current Cooperative age, Diagones is the most densely populated planet of the entire cooperative with over 27 billion people crammed into arcologies either on the world itself or in one of the dozens of orbital cities. The moon meanwhile hosts various super computers and cyborgs.

Diagones was the only world that was easily colonized in the 36 Ophiuchi system and got its name during the early 21st century. It orbits near the star 36 Ophiuchi C, which is the most stable star in the system (Opiuchi A and B are extremely close binaries with highly elliptical orbits meanwhile).

Atlas
Atlas is a barycentric world found at the center of the entire 36 Opiuchi star system. It is a massive terrestrial world with over five times earth’s mass that consists of aggregated material from an earlier epoch. Atlas orbits the barycenter of the Ophiuchi system instead of any of the stars. It is the site of a space elevator that was hard to set up due to the gravity well, which was why the space elevator was made in the first place. Atlas is used as a mining center for cooperative activities due to the massive shores of rare earth minerals hosted in the highly pressurized, noxious depths of Atlas.

Long Step
Long Step is the homeworld of the Tikali. It is found in the Alsafi system. Long step has lower gravity than earth and less air pressure than Earth with sprawling planes of magenta colored bacteria. Long Step shifts in color over the seasons, from Violet to Magenta and back. There is an absence of polar caps due to the greenhouse effect, leading to a more carbon rich environment than on Earth. Their world has more homogenous temperature than earth, but there are still amazing amounts of variation thanks to the nutrition poor soils. The white hard growths of the salty swamps would allow for the depth of time to enable the natively developed Tikali to spend millennia killing each other over very ridiculous reasons when they weren’t digging out canals and overpopulating massive rafts of hard growth to expand their agricultural output.
Long Step has all matter of critters, such as segmented worms with 2-way gut systems slinking or flying about, floods of eusocial invertebrates who dwell in the mega organisms on the ocean floor who absorb the dead and various higher order organisms including the Tikali themselves. The agriculture the Tikali cultivate from their world is diverse, such as their cultivation of gametes for food or the cultivation of growing building material. Or the cultivation of all matter of sea critters they farm on a regular basis with the drilling of canals. All matter of indigenous engineering was employed to sustain a quite massive Tikali populations in large trade networks that the Cooperative encountered.
Long Step is populated by 15 billion people, 9 billion of which are Tikali as the Cooperative allowed colonies to develop despite the well-established Tikali population on the rationale the Tikali control the seas more than the land.

Janssen
Janssen is a world so pressurized and hot that there is a diamond mantle. Janssen’s ash covered, supercritical surface where volcanoes erupt clouds of diamond crystal particles didn’t keep the Cooperative from using the world as a test bed for all matter of research projects including the Diamond Breaker armor systems or the Tide Breaker Frigates. Janssen is mainly populated with orbital cities, as the surface is so hostile to life it makes Venus look like the garden of eden. These orbital cities are some of the most numerous around any world, with over 300 of them just orbiting Janssen hosting over a billion people.

(More to come)

System Roster
(Major population center) 36 Ophiuchi
(tikali home system) Alsafi
(Location of Janssen) 55 Cancri [Accessed via hypergate]

Hypergate ID is V729, it is in orbit of a brown dwarf.



The birth of the Cooperative comes from the private security forces of one of the major space corporations that formed during the third cold war as one of the main competitors to SpaceX. The early Cooperative was running very unlike most businesses in that the Cooperative had a culture where integrating their employees and workers into the inner workings of client governments was considered an imperative as was spreading the general ideal of pan-humanist individualism. As a business, the ideological fervor for a liberation of humanity seemingly overrode common sense desires for profit or growth, taking on multiple times major losses for dubious projects of varied levels of success. Where they were successful however, they were able to gain an edge- and that edge would be in the social engineering they pulled off on Diagones.
The Cooperative’s CEO, Francis Midgley with his board of directors had based their business on Diagones and with their economic influence and clout spread their vision of the world alongside large commissioned private peacekeeping forces made with the intention of dealing with pirate dens who hid out in the asteroid fields and dwarf planets between Ophiuchi C and Opiuchi AB that regularly terrorized those who passed through the region.

The Pirate Wars between the Cooperative Peacekeeping Space Force would ensue, with minimal help from the UINE at the time and these Pirate Wars would be what secured the power of the Cooperative within the 36 Opiuchi System and secured Francis Midgley as one of the most powerful individuals on Diagones. Cooperative medical and nursing units also would help with various troubles caused by the harsh conditions of the world they colonized. The world governors would become more deferential to him as well, if only out of fear of vanishing in the dark of night.

It was at this time the Grand Sovereign originated. It was initially a joke of sorts, a mind uploading system that could hold multiple personalities in a large tank to come to conclusions. The Sovereign Project was deeply controversial, but little was done as Francis managed to assure people it would have little impact on people’s day-day lives. Little did even Francis know that he would end up being a volunteer to his own invention.

For a group of senators who feared the grasp Francis has attained on their world's politics plotted the assassination of Francis Midgley. They saw no democratic means to remove him due to how most of the senate answered mostly to the Cooperative. The assassination attempt occurred during a public outing by Francis Midgley where he was showcasing various power suit models that the local engineering corporation Judgement Manufacturing had built.

Little did the crowds know that one of the power suits was manned by the obtuse minded Mangler, who assaulted Francis Midgley during the presentation, smashing his chest in and breaking all his legs. The powersuit ran out of juice before it could crush his skull in and Francis Midgley was immediately sent to the secretive Sovereign project in a last-ditch effort to save him as the blood loss was terminal and he had already lost consciousness. They uploaded his mind to the Sovereign successfully.

Thus, Francis Midgley died and the Cooperative was born.

Immediately after Francis died, there was mass rioting n in the streets. The senators were sent into hiding while the Mangler was killed by crowds. The anarchy and chaos of this time would be just the instability the Peacekeeper admiral Marian Kusnetsov needed to initiate a military coup known as Restabilization. The Restabilization sought to remove from power all those who opposed the cooperative's agenda and conspired to murder the well loved Francis Midgley- who gave security and peace befoe it was stolen away by corrupt senators who terrorized the public. The opposition was a minority by this point in Ophiuchi and those who had been viewed as conspirators in the assassination of Francis Midgley were hunted down and executed.

Once the purging was complete, Marian initiated a directive to rebuild what was destroyed in the riots. These two policies were controversial outside of Diagones, but within Diagones gave the much-needed popularity for Marian to be elected multiple times as world governor. Later Marian would become part of the Grand Sovereign

Marian’s rule was general viewed positive and was stable despite initial tensions with the UINE military, with efforts into research expanded upon into fields previously underfunded or otherwise not touched upon. Fears would appear on the potential of UINE encroachment on their research initiatives, and so after a couple decades of Marian’s governing a referendum was held to leave the UINE that succeeded by 64%. An exodus of UINE loyalists took place and the Cooperative found itself needed to grow their populations. Old artificial womb designs from the biotechnology experiments during third cold war era were brought back into use as were the Birth Protocols.

The Birth Protocols was a set of protocols made to facilitate the growth of Cooperative populations and expansion as a newly independent society. The Cooperative would expand their reach towards the Barycenter of the Ophuchi star system, taking Atlas as theirs and in general building up their fleets, infrastructure and populations on a mind-boggling scale. This was the Golden Age of the Cooperative, and it would lead to the discovery of the V199 Hypergate that led to 55 Cancri where the research world of Janssen was founded.

After Marian’s rule, the Sovereign’s power grew considerably in scope as the world governors proved increasingly reliant on the guidance of the Sovereign and those who are part of it. Increasingly ideological governors would be elected on the promise of advancing humanity further and further, without much in the way of constraints or ethics as the promise of a humanity first society filled the media and indoctrinating fervor filled the populous.

Cyborgization became incredibly widespread in the Cooperative as did the increasing need to manage more and more people, machines and worlds due to the constant building of new projects commissioned by the sovereigns and world governors. The Silver Net would be developed as a management apparatus for the Cooperative to deal with the difficulties the rapidly growing population gave the cooperative’s system.

From these points the cooperative’s hierarchy came increasingly into focus with public objections to cyborgized people having and raising kids with in built advantages leading to the usage of artificial wombs being promoted as an equalizing force- though in practice the hierarchy continued to further entrench itself over the decades. The silver net would never state that of course, the humanity first attitude the cooperative was born with continued to be espoused as gospel even as cyborg elites accrued increasing power.

Eventually the institution of world governor was scrapped entirely, in its place the lesser sovereigns and the grand sovereign who together acted as the supreme governing force of the Cooperative. With mind uploading and AI technology hitting a revolution within the Cooperative, the Sovereigns expanded their powers greatly as the ancient, wise ones who have the memories of the founders with them still along with those idealized as the best of the Cooperative’s society.

Around the same time, Cooperative Expeditionary forces contacted the Tikali in the star system of Alsafi, finding clever, but technologically inferior alien life that had managed to dominate their whole world despite being adapted to the sea. These Tikali disgusted the Grand Sovereign of the Cooperative, who wanted them exterminated due to their appearance. The lesser sovereigns however overruled the grand sovereign thus ensuring the Tikali would be technologically uplifted by the Cooperative begrudgingly.

As more of the Cooperative’s population becomes augmented and cybernetic, the inability to hold grand power in the Cooperative dismayed those with high ambitions but lacked the favor of the Sovereigns. Internal unrest also had regularly plagued the Cooperative as many people fail to advance to becoming cyborgs or due to acts of violence against Tikali colonies by locals. Of which the Lesser Sovereigns do little about with the Grand Sovereign encouraging it.

These troubles have led to the wealthiest, most powerful cyborgs acting increasingly autonomously despite the Sovereigns being in theory the highest power of the Cooperative in recent times. Concerns of stability from the increasingly delirious, but increasingly revered Grand Sovereign or the ambitions and machinations of the prime cyborgs plague the cooperative in a time of increasing uncertainty. With outside contacts of interstellar empires flooding in and ongoing tensions with the other two human powers making the situation worse.

A future that once looked so bright now only seems to look like a descent into the abyss. And those part of the Cooperative now find themselves struggling both with the structural failures of their society and numerous outside threats posed by forces both human and alien.


There is one Grand Sovereign of the Cooperative.
There is around a dozen lesser sovereigns who act as local administrators for the various worlds controlled by the cooperative.
About 10% of the population are full body cyborgs on some level with copies of themselves backed up in data archives.
12% of the population is Tikali.
60% of the population are humans of some sort.
9.6% of the population are uploaded minds with sapience or advanced AIs of some sort
6% of the population are various species of uplifted animals
The total population of the Cooperative is around 74 billion registered sapients.

The Tikali


The lore on them is really overdeveloped, look at this article if you want the long version (be warned it references the tikali that got to higher levels of tech than the tikali of this RP):
The Tikali

The Tikali here didn’t get past the iron metallurgy by the time the Cooperative found a species of aquatic creatures who managed to etch their way inland for lots of resources impossible to find in the salty swamps/mangroves and coasts they normally lived in. They colonized the oceans as well using raft cities and had a wide range of clan-oriented societies and all matter of other social systems upon contact with the Cooperative. The Tikali filled a niche comparable to the terran cuttlefish, with lots of spines due to being both a predator and prey species.

Tikallian society was deeply impacted by cooperative contact as they both found liberation and oppression from their new guests. A large share of those in power in the Cooperative generally looks down upon them (often dismissively or with derision) despite allowing them to colonize multiple cooperative worlds due to how they live in oceans like Earth’s just fine and quickly set up to get aquatic resources humans otherwise would have a harder time getting. Despite these contributions, they usually don’t get much for their rare earth resource gathering from the cooperative and incidents have happened due to the near lack of communication the human colonies have. Despite objections by the grand sovereign, there are cyborg factions who have put illegal funding into accelerating tikali reproduction.


The Cooperative is organized into a centralized force where the grand sovereign holds unilateral dominion over most human affairs. The cooperative’s presence for the common folk is that of a seemingly prevalent burning sensation with many people existing very insular, culturally desperate existences as if they were test labs even with the freedom of movement they can have... in theory. In practice, movement freedoms usually are limited by the standards system that acts as the universal value metric all people are judged by mainly through having to show their capacity for greater things through all matter of arbitrary testing by those in power who act as patrons to those lesser in the cylindrical habitat. The sub societies in the cooperative tend to be built on frame works created by lesser sovereigns and AIs who act on a freer plane where space travel and commerce is the norm.



The Cooperative has been mostly dominated by the grand sovereign, of whom being part of is viewed as of the highest honor. For to be part of the grand sovereign is the highest position attainable within the cooperative. Lesser sovereigns exist in the cooperative as well, and those who become part of the grand sovereign usually come from lesser sovereigns in practice. Lesser sovereigns not part of the cooperative or think tanks have been utilized by organizations part of the cooperative for ages.

Indeed, the cooperative originated as a peacekeeper force ran by what by this point would in modern times be viewed as a lesser sovereign. The cooperative’s political developments have shifted over time with the grand sovereign being less direct a force as cyborg oligarchs take on much more direct roles as the cooperative’s elite with their ideological and experimental outlook- with a sense of nihilism caused by copies of their minds already being uploaded many times over so they fear their own annihilation far less, though the threat of data purging is often held over some to keep them in line.

The general hierarchy of the Cooperative goes as follows from greatest to least power:
The Grand Sovereign
Lesser Sovereigns
Primes
AIs, Cyborgs
Humans, Honored Tikali
Tikali
Uplifted animals, other aliens

The Grand Sovereign acts as the central commanding unit for the cooperative while the lesser sovereigns act as provisional enforcers and advisors for the grand sovereign. These sovereigns are small groups of uploaded human minds who come to a census on what to do and act as gatekeepers for critical cooperative functions- be it handling Jensson or dealing with automatic warships that glitched up. The lesser sovereigns can override the grand sovereign if most them object to a decision made by the grand sovereign. One notable incident would be when the grand sovereign wanted to kill off the Tikali with an orbital bombardment that was overridden by an override veto including 9 of 12 lesser sovereigns. The Grand Sovereign’s minds can be overwritten by lesser sovereign minds should the grand sovereign be viewed as having become corrupted or too dysfunctional from age. That has yet to actually happen thus far. The Grand Soverign has members who were alive during the secession still. Or because of… reasons. The lesser sovereigns and the grand sovereign co-own the main peacekeeping fleets.

Than you have Cyborgs and uploaded minds. The uploaded minds and cyborgs are viewed generally as the wealthier and better off parts of cooperative society, as while they in theory defer to lesser sovereigns, in practice the cyborgs internally have their own pecking orders as well. People of these augmented ranks can transfer to the status of lesser sovereign if they prove themselves great enough for the task. The boundaries between AIs and Cyborgs tends to be tenuous, which is why they are viewed in equal respects. Cyborgs tend to do all matter of administrative functions and heavy duty dirty work, such as spaceship manufacture or asteroid mining.

The higher cyborgs and AI, the primes are another class in the convoluted system of the Cooperative that consists of cyborgs who accrue large amounts of power within the cyborg class that were never liked much by the sovereigns. And so, they instead focus on power politics in their level due to the near impossibility to advancing to sovereign status.

Below the transhumanistic class of uploaded minds and cyborgs are humans and honored tikali. Humans in the cooperative tend to live decent lives despite the dense crowds and difficulty in advancing upwards caused by how only some humans get augmented to the degree of the cyborg class. The cyborg class it should be noted, refers to a class of people who live as full body cyborgs- humans who just have a robotic arm don’t qualify for the cyborg class. These humans tend to either content themselves with the musings of virtual spaces, often piloting drones or causing pointless drama. A large share of them don’t even need to work and exist only due to the artificial womb factories and the obsessive desire to cultivate people among the cyborg class.

There are than the Tikali, who are equals to humans sometimes (the “honored” tikali), other times as lesser to humans. The Tikali in the system rarely get to the cyborg level and there are numerous structural biases that cause that. Many Tikali are just content using human ships to find other worlds to colonize, within or outside cooperative space.

Below even the Tikali are uplifted animals and other alien species who if they immigrate aren’t allowed to move up in the hierarchy at all for the first several generations and are usually loathed. Uplifted animals have it even worse, often just living at the fringes of cooperative society as a product of various experiments. Few in the cooperative like them, even tikali loathe them. They often get hunted by humans due to the challenge of hunting a smart chimpanzee or a smart elephant.

Tech Overview

The Cooperative has managed to achieve great strides in cybernetic augmentation, AI, Missiles, artificial wombs and Fusion while proving relatively weak in the fields of nanotech, particle based weaponry and FTL systems


Fusion Batteries
The bulk of cooperative tech is fueled by the usage of fusion batteries, especially their electromagnetic weaponry and multitudes of power suits.
Artificial Wombs
Artificial womb tech is the backbone of Cooperative expansion, for pregnancy is viewed as an affliction of lesser life forms and thus, it is standard practice for would be parents to buy an artificial womb for their baby or send their gametes to a public baby factory. Pregnancy is on some worlds outlawed entirely, being viewed as a form of abuse there. On most worlds pregnancy remains widespread and not much is actually done about it in practice. Genetic modification is often paired with artificial wombs, with designer babies being very common.

Cyborgization
Cyborgization is the process of becoming increasingly augmented with synthetic body parts and mechanical parts as one grows and upgrades. This can mean replacing everything short of the brain with a synthetic substitute over time, with citizens in the cooperative having many varied degrees of augmentation.

Power Suits
Power suits are used often in the cooperative as a force multiplier for heavy duty tasks such as building modular apartments, spaceships and whatever infrastructure is needed. Such power suits have of course, found military application by lesser human militias repurposing them for military usage.
The Silver Net
The Silver Net is the primary virtual network of the Cooperative and it is used to house virtual life forms, uploaded minds and all matter of cyberspace marketplaces. The Silver Net is regionalized to the local planet in practice, with low traffic lanes between worlds being used mainly by AIs.


One of the most prized and exotic sites of research in the Cooperative is the Janssen Research Center, the site of numerous developments in energy weaponry and all matter of diamond-based technologies that have found usage throughout the cooperative. Indeed, Janssen has been viewed as the ‘will’ of the Cooperative for how much research has been done on this boiling hot super earth.
Factory complexes in the Cooperative are often based in asteroid belts or in the orbit of dwarf planets, such factories are found all over cooperative space with local provisional subordinates privately owning said factories.

Cooperative population centers are most concentrated at the multiple star system of 36 Ophiuchi, where over half the cooperative’s population lives. This is due to there being multiple rocky planets close enough in mass to earth to paraterraform along with one world so much like earth making artificial ecologies wasn’t necessary. These populations planet side are densely situated in craters or valleys where covering them is easier with magnetic rail transit systems linking them across the desolate surface for larger freight and airports for orbital access.
Space elevators have been created on 4 worlds throughout cooperative space- the Tikali Home World of Long Step, 2 Ophiuchi worlds and one world in 55 Cancri. An attempt to make a space elevator for Placing a space Elevator to access Janssen was tried, but it ended with a couple thousand people dying from the instability the smoldering heat and raining molten rock caused.
Orbital cities are common in the Cooperative, it’s hard to find any major celestial body in the Cooperative that lacks an orbital settlement. The more colonized worlds often have hundreds of them.


The Cooperative’s origins as a peacekeeping force gone rogue has given their military a strong civilian role within the cooperative, with even members of the main fleet often carrying out charitable acts and handling various local disputes. The fraternal culture of the Cooperative military creates a community mentality that pervades the whole institution as the military directly has provisional control over local law enforcement in both the virtual and real space realms.
The Cooperative military as a force is also known mainly for being incredibly sleek in design- with favored futurist designers commissioned by engineers make beautiful whatever they make as ugly technology is looked down upon by a lot of those in the middle and upper echelons of the cooperative’s hierarchy. This is because for those who are augmented, the technology is a part of them and thus, it must be beautiful. Rusty tech, crude tech and such they view would negatively affect the character of whoever wears it. Sleek, clean technology is much more preferred. That attitude transfers to their military as well. While they are advanced, the costs associated with making their advanced military hardware often mean that they cannot afford significant losses and so often will buffer themselves with drone swarms or human militias.
The main military is however, only a small fraction and there isn’t nearly as much of them as their overall population would imply. Most cyborgs don’t like to volunteer for the peacekeeping forces in practice and the human militias tend to make use of crude 3D printed weapons or antique weapons from pre-secession times that get made still.


The Cooperative Army makes used of a combined arms approach to warfare, with their armies of augmented brigades usually having sky probes and a lot of supporting machines that they feel they can never go without. Even the militia humans will often have support automations helping them and very often some simple exosuit atop of their relative lack of a combat skin. In terms of weaponry, miniaturized missiles and nuclear weaponry are at the forefront along with energy-based weaponry and plasma throwers. In general, the Cooperative’s R&D has focused mainly on the most showy, loud and intimidating weaponry supplemented with AI controllers to ensure that it will hit.
Their small arms are made with intended usage with power suits, exosuits and cyborgs and so they tend to be on the heavy side. Even the more rustic weapons used by the common people in their militias can be rather heavy.
Their primary arms include electro lasers, railguns, micro-missile rifles (or gyrojets) and plasma throwers along with micronuke cannons.
Weapons
Micronukes
Micronukes are miniaturized nuclear arms that can be used by infantry units to irradiate chokepoints, disrupt machinery and blow up infrastructure. The micro-nuke’s radius is small- only 50-100 meters with some powersuit wearers being able to survive being within a few meters of a blast and exceptionally resilient defenses being able to shrug one off with only some radiation burns. They come in longer range and shorter range formats along with micro-detonators that have been a huge security risk for the cooperative and anyone who has a terrorist organization that gets ahold of one. Heavy micro-nukes exist for vehicles and spacecraft.
Micromissile projectors
Micromissile projectors are deadly for they are swarms computer guided missiles that swarm their intended to target to overwhelm their interception systems with many small, but explosive payloads. Micromissiles have been used by infantry units as well in their gyrojet rifles. Drone swarms with explosive payloads are a common feature of cooperative militaries. Even militia humans used them.
Plasma Throwers
Plasma throwers are an arcane device used mainly to cut through defenses more than to kill, as plasma throwers can rip through steel and bone without really much effort. They can even cut through rocks. The main drawback of plasma throwers is their limited range and being massive energy hogs to the point where they’re not standard use. Some hunter killers use them to break into bunkers.

Vehicles

Exojets
One of the prized advancements of the Cooperative is their exospheric jets, which have been used in civilian infrastructure to make low gravity worlds easy to leave and in the military for low orbit combat and domination of airspace.
The standard cooperative exojet system includes ion thrusters, gauss turrets and micromissiles. They are meant mainly for flight around orbital infrastructure and the upper atmosphere of a planet, with shuttle variants able to go from surface-orbit.

Diamond Breakers
Diamond Breakers are a specialized military apparatus that is the star of military research from Janssen, as their armoring and plating is a specialized, but non-standard alloy of multiple layers and coolant that has been able to survive the extreme pressures of Janssen. Diamond Breakers are worn by shock troops to bust into the most hostile regions of a battlefield or planet with a surface to flush out garrisons or bunkered troops. The Diamond Breaker apparatus is so resilient that they can be within a mile of a nuclear detonation and survive.
Such hyper resilient apparatus isn’t invincible, but it can take tons of punishment before it breaks down from wear and tear.
The wearer’s strength is also enhanced greatly due to how the apparatus can by simply not yielding break through all matter of materials and the wearer is often a cyborg to begin with who is usually given an arsenal of explosives, railguns and heavy gauss rifles.
There’s only a couple hundred diamond breaker apparatus in existence thus far, with research efforts for lighter, more standardized apparatus still in the works.


The Cooperative space force is one meant to protect the cooperative from outside forces primarily, while also existing as it did in the past- as a force for keeping the peace. The peacekeeping fleets of the cooperative date back to the secession and continue to as they did in the past act as a means of keeping marauders from wrecking civilization or deviants from undermining the grand sovereign. The main peacekeeping force is owned by the grand sovereign itself and is the public space fleet.
Meanwhile, the twelve lesser sovereigns of the elite privately own their own militia fleets for local and rapid response initiatives. Or more often in practice, to settle disputes between other regional leaders over who controls what asteroid.

The tactics used by their space force often orient on two doctrines- shock and awe strikes to intimidate and the liberal use of reconnaissance information gathering so the tacticians can craft their master plans.

Virgo Class Light Frigate

The Virgo is a scouting craft that is a standard issue light frigate used primarily by the cooperative in their fleets as a scouting vessel and a fast response system. The Virgo class is a heavily relied upon vessel due to its rapid pacing, rapid construction and so on. Virgo scouting frigates usually come with multiple electromagnetic projectors and a modular missile pod along with a defensive plasma barrier for self defense as the Cooperative based Judgement Manufacturing Collective likes to claim.

Electromagnetic projectors have the first and primary purpose of being Both an interceptor and a shield breaker, for they spew forth millions of pea sized chunks of metal at incredible velocities which makes them in many regards blur the line between a gauss weapon and a particle weapon. They are regularly used by humans mainly due to their blunt force and their preference for shield breaking.

Hunter Killer Cruisers
Hunter Killer Cruisers are a specialized anti-infrastructure space vessel. These vessels have a history, being modified from the peacekeeper Hunter Cruisers once made to track down and destroy pirate settlements in asteroids to a more aggressive application beyond just unruly scrappers. These cruisers come with many probes meant to scan and find any settlements within asteroids or small planets that would otherwise not be detectable by radar. Hunter Killers also come with many homing mines they are supposed to place strategically in places where a retreating force may be unable to deal with them or around choke points. Hunter Killers also make use of chemical missiles and bunker buster missiles that can drill through 12 kilometers of stone to get to their targets. Buster Missiles can be used against capital vessels as well, but they’re usually interceptable and are limited in their speed and payload by the need to carry a drill with them.

Tide Breaker Frigates
Tidebreaker Frigates are highly specialized frigates who handle a wide range of information warfare operations- mainly in subverting enemy drones, launching micro-nukes to disrupt enemy nanotechnology and distorting communication lanes to make it harder for enemies to understand what is going on. What gives the tide breakers their name however, is in their authorization to create shield barrier fields that block smaller projectiles such as particle beams or gauss projectiles that extent out over a hundred kilometers if allowed to. These fields can mess with targeting systems for those in the fields however, making those in the fields often utilize missiles instead.

Automatic Warships
Automatic Warships are patrol crafts placed around no-go zones with catalogs of whitelisted cooperative members. They automatically after two warnings fire upon any unauthorized intruders. Automatic Warships are often classed into the frigate range and act as hives for many smaller drone fighter crafts that get launched at the unwanted guest. The warship itself hosts a wide array of energy-based interceptors to block missiles from hitting the drone hive itself while the smaller ships will attack with kinetic projectiles until they run out. Should a drone run out of kinetic projectiles or run low on fuel, said drone will attempt to crash into the enemy spacecraft like a missile. Automatic warships can at times glitch and attack indiscriminately, which is why a shutoff key held by the local lesser sovereign usually exists. The gatekeeping on shutoff keys does mean the occasional ‘grey’ incidents that occur can take longer than expected to deal with due to the red tape involved in getting a shutoff key from a local lesser sovereign.

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GENERAL INFORMATION

Species: The Bellakee are a people of mostly humanoid shape, but they would be described by a human as having "Scary exposed broad pointy teeth, pale skin and lidless grey eyes." The overall skull like face combined with the hunched appearance and three-fingered clawed hands upon their wiry frame often makes them mistrusted by others.
The thing that sets them apart from being a true humanoid is the fact they have a smaller set of arms beneath the first, but this set is seldom used and often under the clothes.
Bellakeen live to a maximum of 250 earth years, 180 being the usual time of death.

The common clothing utilized by most of the Bellakeen is a robe covering their form with a hood that covers their heads but not their face.
Often in dark red, but other colours do show up.
Higher ranking Bellakeen decorate the trims and wear jewelry of precious metals, preferring silvery ones over golden. The most impressive carry Eltreum infused platinum, seen as the most valuable metal in the society.

Planets owned: Akee, meaning soil, also the namesake of their people which translates to 'Of the soil' or similar, it is a dark planet because of its distance from its blue sun and its many moons, resulting in many solar eclipses.
The atmosphere is mostly similar to earth atmosphere, but a human would develop breathing problems over extended periods of time (ie, decades) because of the lower concentration of oxygen and a slight variation in the gasses.

The Bellakee only own their own planet, but close to it is a massive gate (Aspyr 1, A001) obviously made by the Builders long ago.
Akee also held a multitude of Builder artifacts and ruins which has led the Bellakee to where they are today.
While some of them are fully functional, they are far too revered to be used again or simply don't work. Either because of misuse or lack of maintenance.

Government: Bellakee is led by a council, chosen based on merit.
Making it a meritocratic oligarchy.

Mysteries: Very few know anything of Akee, since the Bellakeen don't speak of their home when away and choose to present it as a mystery.
The amount of people living there is unknown but overall speculations suggest the Bellakee population is small.

Territory Overview: Apart from the massive A001, the Bellakee has an extensive mining outpost in their home system, the mine is interesting since it has an unusually high level of Eltreum in it, because of its presence to a hyperspace phenomena.
However the output of Eltreum isn't higher than one would expect because of the strange dangers this poses.

A001 is massive, thus it also provides an unusually big area of hyperfield. The usefulness of this is questionable but it is a fact.
Aspyr 1 also has a special hyperspace vent/ fold-space node/ hyperspace valve. No one really knows, the Bellakee have the most understanding of it and even they are at a loss of its proper utilization and properties.
What it allows is a sealed environment where one can expose materials to hyperspace. In theory this results in an infinite amount of Eltreum, in practise it results in a violently dangerous research field which claim researchers on a regular basis. With a supremely varied set of results.
Yes, Eltreum infused materials has been produced. Yes, a broad understanding of hyperspace has been reached.
But the problems are multiple and often the tests are non reproducible and one off events.
Often hyperspace inversions occur, annihilating the research team present, all their materials and set off distortions in the whole system. But the chamber is intact, shielded from all this by the Builders.

History: The Bellakee has oddly enough always been unified, in all their trials they think the same and act similarly. This had led many to believe they are telepathic, this is untrue.
Individuality is however a different thing for them. Individuality simply referring to the body of the person, Bellakee usually refer to themselves as 'Us'.
Something that makes them unmistakably alien to other civilizations.

Akee however was a hotspot of the Builders.
No one knows what it was, some claim it was their homeworld, others an important research facility.
But the fact is that a large amount of Builder houses remained upon its surface, something the Bellakee has utilized for millenia.
Oddly enough the Bellakee use several symbols of the Builders alphabet in their own, mimic their style of architecture and revere them as their forefathers.

The Bellakee would never admit it, but practically speaking, they worship the Builders.
Having shielded them from the elements when they were young, to the day when they managed to reach the fabled Aspyr 1 where they began to understand space.

The Bellakee has travelled to many many gates and probably have the best understanding of the gate network.
Funnily enough though, they also have a poor sense of the galactic map, since when they arrive in a new system, the primary focus is to explore the gate itself, search for other Builder remains. Some time after that comes make a quick look for other things like planets and other species.

SOCIETY INFORMATION

Cultural Overview: They are traders and 'spiritual', they themselves do not refer to their reverence for the Builders as religious but the way they act about them makes people wonder.

Bellakee avoid confrontations if possible, borderline pacifists. Everything is best solved with a mutual agreement.

Other species: The Bellakee have a positive outlook on other species they come upon. They will happily ask about Builder findings and suggest trade.
Many species know them as travelling traders and it's not uncommon for Bellakee to show up seemingly from nowhere on some new expedition. Either a trade fleet or a Builder research expedition.
Because of this, they often 'Ping' the receiving end about their arrival. Both to appear non-hostile but also for them to prepare for their arrival. Either with interesting information or precious materials or interesting curiosities of which they can trade.

TECHNOLOGY INFORMATION

Tech Overview: The overall technology level of the Bellakee is high, they have done well in their attempts to reverse engineer Builder technology and while they cannot claim such a high level of understanding, technology is widely understood and employed.
What it however isn't is pretty.
Bellakee tech looks dark and grimy, covered in greasy oil and their ships and homes are dark.
Mostly since their eyes are sensitive to light.
So while they illuminate all their corridors, a human would think it's kinda gloomy everywhere on a Bellakeen ship.

Their understanding of hyperspace is widespread, but not really deep.
What they excel the most in is Eltreum infusion. They have made its purification into an artform.

Notable Technologies
Eltreum infusion chamber
It cannot be trusted, it is volatile, they don't fully understand it, the results are non-binary, they cannot make more chambers without understanding Builder architecture and technology....
But they have it, and it works.

Molecular de-binders
A technology based upon the concepts of hyperspace inversion, it utilizes a bunch of complex ideas and mathematics into a simple to use device.
Molecular de-binders project a beam of... de-binding, which makes matter fall apart into a slurry.
Hand-held versions can have beams no wider than a pen, while ship-grade heavy de-binders can have a beam as broad as a foot.
They take a lot of energy to operate and compared to proper weapons they have a short range.

But they are very potent. Able to work their way through matter at a high rate, their weakness is some forms of shielding.
If it is a particle shield it might just disassemble it as well. But energy shields (not to mention the energy fields which holds the particles in particle shields in place) can have odd effects upon the beam.
Usually the beam drains the power supply of the shield at a dramatically higher rate than conventional weapons, but depending on the shielding it can also be useless or stop the beam completely.

Micro-fusion
The Bellakee are good at miniaturizing fusion plants, able to make them as small as an apple. This is very useful in all sorts of ways.
It primarily provides the function of hand-held de-binders and free public electricity.
Bellakee ships therefore don't have a central fusion core to power their ships, but instead a large amount of semi-portable reactors in their ships. Roughly the size of a household refrigerator.

Eltreum refining... or just general refining
The Bellakee excel at refining all manner of things. Ores, produce, eltreum you name it. However if you want them to make a meal for you, be sure to tell them your cultural preference in food.
Since not all prefer nutri-slurry.

Industrial Overview: Bellakee mining is slow but thorough, nothing goes to waste. It also appears filthy compared to others industry, their locales often grimey, black and dirty.
Overall the industry isn't large compared to a capitalist society. Mostly since money isn't something the Bellakee use, instead focusing on pure trade.
For their own people everything is provided by the state.

MILITARY INFORMATION

Military Overview: The military is poor... really poor.
It's not that it's not funded, it's mostly a foreign concept to the Bellakee. Sure a Bellakee fights if need be, but they avoid it if they can.
Bellakee military grade doesn't exist, instead they build everything to last.
Molecular de-binders also work wonders on both cutting loose chunks of asteroids and chunks of hostile vessels.

Army Overview: Non existent. If the need arises a bunch of people will bring hand-held de-binders and shoot hostiles. But otherwise this isn't something employed.

Navy Overview: Bellakee ships are sturdy, have a lot of power and have very thick hulls. But it's only a super heavy trade fleet.
Every ship usually mounts a single super heavy ventral de-binder with a fully rotatable arm mounting, allowing for a 180* degree arc. The ship tilts if need be to allow it to face the theoretical foe.

The roughly bug-like ships are not pretty, but faster than expected and can take far more punishment than some military vessels.
But to call them warships is wrong.

Haven’s Sovereignty





The people of Haven’s Sovereignty have advanced through several generations leading into the 22nd century. They are an isolationist faction that has restructured itself into a proud Military Commissariat; dedicated to the pursuit of expanding their territory and region of influence throughout uncharted space. Diplomatic by nature, they would rather talk things through than resort to needless violence. Due to the Seraph's Mark, Havenians are naturally stronger, intelligent and have a known resistance to electrical conduction. As a tradeoff, this is unusually manifested as a black tattoo underneath both eyes that can reshape itself to the subject's emotional state if a strong emotional presence is felt. Lastly, it is important to note that the males who do bear the Seraph's Mark are generally employed into high-ranking military positions or are seen managing high-level political departments, whereas females who bear the mark are given higher administrative responsibility over sectors, corporations, or even entire planets.



Primaris: The capital planet of Haven’s Sovereignty, this Earth-like planet is split into four Sectors each with their own specific focus on Haven’s resources and production management. Throughout the planet’s evolution, the land masses have naturally fractured apart due to the ocean’s slightly acidic properties.

Luminus: The only moon orbiting Primaris, the white-grey surface of this sphere reflects off of the blue star of the system’s sun; bathing the nighttime sky into an aura of swirling blue lights. This effect has been described as naturally calming to Havenians.

Radus: This low-atmosphere red soiled planet served as the first attempt by Haven to properly establish a colony on during the 21st century. Eventually, as large bodies of hydrogen were found beneath the surface, this planet is being currently mined for resources such as drinking water and oxygen.

Seraphis: Perhaps the most important planet to Haven’s Sovereignty, this planet is a gas giant swirling with clouds of a self-contained field of energized particles. The clouds are harvested and sent back to Primaris to be fused with an Ion cloud, creating the nearly limitless and pure energy element known as Seraphic Energy.


The History of this Civilization only came into recorded light following the half-genocide of regular Humans following the Purity Wars, formerly on Earth. The planet was renamed and the governmental body restructured to unify the new race under one banner.





Havenians are distinctly Western and European in appearance; the only difference being that the Seraph Mark is almost nearly absent or is rarely present among members of the male populace. It is unknown why this takes place, and the matter is still being investigated.



Havenians are an curious, industrious, hardworking people who are bound by a strict code of community, honor, discipline and integrity. As there have been few known instances of rebellions against the faction, most would agree that although there are political differences among the populace, Outcast’s Haven is a stable, safe nation with an emphasis on doing what is right for the continued betterment and survival of the Havenian species. As everything is overseen in multiple areas by a select few group of individuals, political freedom for the average Havenian is moderate at best. From birth until death, a Havenian’s future is guaranteed to be one of prose and opportunity based on individual choice. If they do not or cannot qualify for mandatory military service, Citizens are allowed attain a full Citizenship permit and work in any field of choice from their chosen path of education. Traditionally, however, Citizenship is guaranteed through compulsory (or voluntary) military service as long as those enlisted complete a minimum four year’s service contract, with those ultimately choosing to stay when their contract is up. Citizenship can also be gained by exemplary performance in school as well as continued performance in society.



The nation is governed by a single ruler operating from Sector Zero. For high-level matters overseeing military operations, economic, administrative and industrial function, there are a series of departments that each query responds to. The rest are governed by the populace of Haven themselves; with a smaller sub-department directing the more Citizen-oriented services. Generally, each Department Head has completed a mandatory military service and has received high education in their field of work.





The strong fields Haven specializes in are Propulsion, Spacecraft, Armor, Weapons, Shields, Nanomachines (,son.) and Medicine. The fields Haven are the weakest in are FTL, Artificial Intelligence, and Planetary Defenses.



Nano-Graphene composite armor plating: Perhaps one of Haven’s most notable achievements, this plating is only issued to and designed for Haven’s Navy as well as planetside buildings. This remarkable armor plating comes in a signature hexagonal pattern. When a direct kinetic, thermo-kinetic or energy impact is sustained, the direct force of energy will cause the affected grouping of hexagons to ‘shrink inward’ and expose the underlying circular tubes of nanites. When these canisters break, the resulting nanites are dispersed across the affected hull of the ship and immediately begin to repair and contain any structural damage sustained. This can give off the appearance of an orange-reddish ‘blood’ leaking from the ship’s armor when hit.

N1-Series Engineering Nanite Drone: Designed for specific use by both the composite armor and the payload of the Shield-Class Support Corvettes, these tiny quadrupeds measuring only 10nm (0.00001mm) are equipped with a welding arm, multipurpose wirecutter and a three-digit material manipulation arm. By itself, the drones aren’t threatening. In groups, however, they can repair or dismantle materials at an alarming rate.

Ferrison Ion-Propulsion Engine: The crown jewel of Haven’s capability for interstellar travel, the engine utilizes an ionized neutral gas by extracting the electrons out of atoms; thus creating a positive ion cloud for propulsion. These engines have not only been outfitted onto ships, but serve as most civilian vehicles new methods of transportation.



Because Sector Four and Five are the Industrial capital of Haven, most exportations are supplied to the other sectors to either fulfill the need for construction materials, repairs, or new civilian and military hardware.





Haven’s military is founded primarily on the doctrine of a grand battle plan. They would rather be confident in defeating their foes prior to a battle and acting on it appropriately within each situation presented. If a military objective is sought and manpower is limited, for whatever reason, Havenians will fight to the death as they attempt to achieve it; believing it better to die in combat than to surrender as a prisoner to the enemy. Additionally, they favor large assault forces, both groundside and spaceside when engaging the enemy. However, just as successful are their missions of superiority, are their missions reliant on stealth, and sabotage behind enemy lines. It is not uncommon to see small, cloned elite strike forces be sent on suicide missions against the enemy.


Haven's Army, for all intents and purposes, are just that. They favor large, battalion-sized engagement forces comprised of some of the deadliest, most armed and armored vehicles ever designed by their hands. Even down to the anti-armor weapons themselves, such as the 'Zeus' and 'Ares' shoulder-mounted weapons series, are designed specifically with the end goal of breaking through a battle-line and moving into enemy territory.


Haven's Navy is the space-side and air-side branches of their military. Split into two sections, the Navy has control over their Strike Craft Garrison, found on ships, and their Planetary Air Garrison, where non-interstellar capable fighters, bombers, and heavy attack craft are stationed on the planet to conduct air superiority.

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The Moljac Republic is a republic based out the capital system of Leptir. The Republic has around 34 billion residents spread across 7 habitable planets, however their reach extends to multiple non-habitable planets and systems.


Leptir - As the capital planet, this planet has the dubious honour of being the most important and most populous of all Moljac systems. It is here that the government convenes to decide the fate of the Republic.

Maslac - Maslac is the second most populous planet, owing to being the first one inhabited by the the Republic beyond their home system. It's an industrial powerhouse.

Linje - The third most populous system is Linje, once an independent dictatorship that was forcefully overthrown by the Leptirica. An aggressive attempt to force the locals to adopt Leptir ways and customs lead to a huge backlash, and to this day, it is the great shame of the Labour party that they had to put down a revolution on this planet. That revolt has resulted in the far more moderate stance all three parties have today.

Luftoj - Luftoj was incorporated under the Liberal party. Like Linje, it was independent until the Leptirica came in and overthrew the old monarchy, replacing it with a puppet government. The intention was that the republic would slowly grant them more and more powers, and that they would guide them through the transition from dictatorship to democracy. However, they underestimated the loyalty of the new government, who was constantly voting to grant more and more power to Leptir, eventually devolving into a regional government. This was not the Liberals intention and although they were praised at the time for their "successful" intervention, many veteran members of the party see this as something of a failure.

Lojtur - Lojtur was a purely colonial effort. An ocean planet, it has a paltry population, but it maintains relevancy through its impressive fishing and tourism industries.

Holoj - Similar to our own Pluto, Holoj is a very cold planet. Initially, the Republic was going to skip past it, but scientists discovered some interesting ruins on the surface and went to study them. Lo and behold, they found a tribe of natives still living in the icy wastes. The Republic now takes an active role in helping the Holojica form a space-faring, democratic nation. Older members of all three parties point to Linje and Luftoj as examples of why this is a very bad idea, but they are a minority.

Kula - Kula is a terrestrial, but incredibly rainy, planet with no known sentient natives. The constant barrage of water has lead to some interesting life forms that are of significant scientific interest to the Moljac, so colonisation is well underway.

Hypergate Codes: M376, M216, M998

(Of course you can also tell the history of your civilization. It doesn't need to be novel length or I'd say this is even optional but eh, most players love to do this.)


The vast majority of citizens are Leptirica. Natives to Leptir, Leptirica are roughly humanoid in shape, though slightly taller. Leptirica's bodies are covered in short, fleecy feathers that cover all areas bar the face and digits, where their grey skin is exposed. Their noses are flat and feline, and their eyes solid black. Their ears have long tufted feathers that filter loud sounds and aggressive vibrations to keep the ear safe. Males are generally smaller and have brighter colouration than females. Leptirica comprise around 75% of the Moljac Republic's population.

Luftojica make up around 20% of the population of the republic. They are short and completely hairless, with feline faces and big, wide ears. Natives to Luftoj, they once ruled under a benevolent but authoritarian monarchy until the Republic forced him to stand down. Confused at their new-found "freedom", many Luftojica voted the only way they knew how: by giving one leader absolute power. This resulted in their eventual integration with republic proper. Luftojica are renowned for their grumpy faces and their "ugly-cute" appearance.


The Republic is known for it's stoicism. Keeping your head down, moving along with your life and not making a fuss is an unspoken rule. Something going wrong? Quietly report it to the authorities; don't make a song and dance about it. The correct response to someone else talking about your achievements is to shrug it off bashfully. Loudmouths and braggarts are NOT welcome here.

A cornerstone in the Republic is it's devotion to welfare. Collectivism, far from being a negative quality, is openly promoted as one of the Republic's greatest strengths; here, the majority rules. Citizens have a direct say in how the government is run and make decisions they think will work for the greater good. To think about your own desires is selfish; only the group matters. The welfare state is far too popular for even the most daring politician to try to remove without committing political suicide.

The Republic sees their democratic system as the ideal, free from autocracy. They have no hesitation in stopping colonial nations in their sphere of influence, and have taken it upon themselves to bring democracy to their alien neighbors. They see themselves as the bulwark against dictatorship, and nearby minors are their charges.


The Republic is, well, a republic. Every adult citizen may vote for a representative every five years across three levels: a regional representative who handles the affairs of the local area, a national representative who handles the affairs of the country, and a planetary representative who handles the affairs of the whole planet. The Planetary governors are the most powerful, and out of the seven elected, one is chosen as First Speaker.
The whole republic uses a top-down voting system to manage its issues: should the Planetary representatives not come to a majority conclusion, the vote is put to the national representatives. If the national representatives fail to come to a conclusion, then it is handed to the regional representatives, and after them, a direct vote from the citizenship.
There are three main parties: Labour, Liberal and Conservative. Conservatives are the most right wing, but it would be stretch to call any party particularly "right wing" in this society. The divisions are mostly those of nationalism vs internationalism, with Labour being internationalist and Conservatives being nationalist. While there are other parties, these are mostly too small to make a difference, or even get votes. The only small party to consistently get seats is the Greens, nicknamed "tiebreakers" by government officials due to their key role in giving controversial bills the one or two votes they need to pass or fail.


Overall, the Republic has a mostly average technology sector.

Bio-tech is perhaps the most advanced field. Commercially available genetic modifications means that food crops rarely have an issue with predators, and disease has been reduced to a preventable nuisance. The Labour government in particular has a keen interest in keeping medical and food supplies affordable, so funds for this field of science are never short.

Ever since the early days, the Republic has been pushing for more natural means of supplying energy. Planetside, its not unusual to see entire cities supplied by solar panels, waterwheels and windmills. Even as early as their medieval days, Leptir intellectuals theorised that burning carbon-based objects would cause a "noxious miasma" and so firmly opposed the practice. Nuclear power is approved for space travel only, and is relatively in its infancy compared to other civilizations.

The computing industry is a bit of an orphan child amongst Leptir scientists. It's probably their weakest area, though it is sufficiently advanced as to allow a space-faring nation. Most homes don't have computers, and commercially available computers are a luxury only for the especially rich.

There's an old tradition of Leptir people, that when a man and woman should get married, they will leave their parents and build their own home, brick by brick. With such a tradition, it should come as no surprise that the Moljac republic has a high-quality yet traditionalist building society. Those who dedicate their life to engineering and construction are supplied with tools on the cutting edge of technology and their buildings are some of the most stable in the region.

Of course, weapons tech is what everyone's really interested in. It's run of the mill - nothing particularly stands out as being super impressive but nothing's particularly crap either. If there was an area that was to be held up as above and beyond, it would be reliability. You could drag a Moljac gun through a swamp, banging it of every rock and branch on the way, and it will come out smiling.

(If you have unique pieces of technology this is the place where you can talk about them.)


Industry is designed to be dispersed and as local as possible. Moljac runs on its small businesses. Everything, from extraction to processing to sale is handled at a regional level. The only industry that actually moves from one region to another is courier services, and that's purely out of necessity, otherwise the Leptir would be perfectly happy getting everything from a local source. This way of working things gives regions a particular industry which they excel it, whilst being mediocre at all else.

As mentioned before, the construction industry of Moljac is particularly impressive. Individuals are expected to build and repair their own homes, so while it's not much of a career option unless you go into the military or building mega-structures, it does mean that in the case of an emergency people won't be stranded with ruins they can't make anything out of. Private contractors may appeal to foreign powers, major and minor, to recruit the construction workforce.

In terms of imports and exports, Moljac is heavily reliant on foreign industry for their computers. Only devices that handle the most highly sensitive information are built in Moljac. Exports are mostly agrarian; silks, cottons, wools, liquors, that sort of thing.




As a general rule, the ground forces of the Moljac republic are motorised. Most units have designated personnel carriers, depending on what kind of unit it is - for example, most front-line units will have a truck for every squad of 12 to 20 people, while spec-ops forces might only be given a car for a fireteam of four or five.

Divisions of the Republic are organised in a 4/2/2 composition. Four relatively unarmoured regiments of motorised infantry of 1,000 men each, two armoured mechanised regiments of 1,000 men each and two artillery regiments, each 500 men. Finally, another 3,000 non-combatant roles, such as medical staff, logistics and signals are assigned to each division, rounding off every division at a neat 10,000 men strong. High production costs, however, and an insistence on keeping the army conscription-free has kept the army necessarily small. Good though they are, the simply don't have the numbers to replace losses efficiently, to either manpower or equipment. Currently, the total size of the army is 855,000,000 men strong, 85,500 divisions worth.

HALO units function independently, but closely related to the army. Control of the skies is a key feature in Moljac military doctrine. Pilots are rigourously trained, which makes them comparable to most others elite forces, but few in number. Reliability is the focus, with speed and agility second and weaponry last.

The Moljac Republic is fond of planned campaigns. They set up camps and entrench into a position, send out scouts to check the area and map every last detail, before carefully planning their advancements and defensives. This can result in some rather slow campaigns, but given enough time, the Republic can plan for just about any occurrence. However, they need that time in the first place, and can be caught off guard if forced out before they are prepared.


Moljac's space doctrine is designed around small craft. Capital ships are quite small for their role, being the size of most others heavier cruisers. Commanders are expected to lead their troops from the front, not cower behind fortifications and hope that the bad guys go away. The smaller size also makes it harder for enemies to tell which ship is the capital ship, and gives both capital and screen ships with that much more room for interpretation. Do you use overwhelm the enemy with lots of small fire, or focus your efforts on one big shot? The choice is up to the commander.

Capital Planet: Cmok
Government Type: Constitutional Monarchy
Head of State: Emperor Nal’reim Qyan
Legislature: Imperial Council
Planet’s Controlled: Core Worlds: 4 - Colonies: 3 - Outpost: Various
Population: 55 Billion


Home System: The majority and home of the Cmokian Empire rests in their home system, known as the Tycho System, orbits an average yellow sun and consists of six planet, a dwarf plant, numerous moons, and a small asteroid belts near the ‘end’ of the solar system.

Secondary System: The second system explored and conquered by the empire, known as Ors System, consists of a large yellow sun. This system consist of 2 gas giants, 8 planets, vast amounts of moons, and two separate asteroid belts. One large belt located in the inner part of the system and a thin smaller belt just outside the system. Ors system is 7 light years away from the Tycho System

Capital Planet – Cmok: The Empire’s capital planets is your ideal, typical, and larger goldilocks zone type of planet. Orbiting the star second out of the six, it is well within the realms or normally hospitable planets. Compared to other planets of similar areas within their solar systems, Cmok has a higher amounts of oxygen in the atmosphere at 31%. Due to higher amount of Oxygen, the Cmok people larger than the average human within the universe. This high oxygen content has also allowed the crops of the planet to grow larger and yield higher amounts, this allowed the Cmokian people to focus on other tasks other than food production. As home the Cmok people, this planet serves as the center for trade, government, and advancement.

Kree’Nal: Located in the Ors System, Kree’Nal is the name given to a series of three moons orbiting the Gas Giant, known as Vesna, in the middle parts of the Ors Sytem. After conquest, the Kree’Nal and its people have been a valuable part of the Empire through production of warship, mineral mining throughout the other moons and nearby planets, and the harvesting Eltreum from Vesna.

Geynus: The largest of the two moons of Cmok and home of the Tigarian species. Conquered in the early history of the Empire. The moon itself holds a small amounts of minerals and fuels but it rich in other natural resources and strategic importance.. But due to its close proximity to the Empire Capital. It serves as the heart of the military. With orbital space docks, defense platforms, and the largest of the Imperial Military Academies.

Zelt: This world is home to a Cmokian military outpost in a third solar system that has yet to be named. This is the newest addition to the Empire as it began the spread to a new solar system.

Hypergates:
Tycho: R694
Ors: R697
Third System: R691


(Of course you can also tell the history of your civilization. It doesn't need to be novel length or I'd say this is even optional but eh, most players love to do this.)



Total: 55 Billion Total
Cmokian: 25 Billion
Tigarian: 19 Billion
Kree: 11 Billion


In the beginning, the Cmokian people held their faith as a beacon within their culture. With war a massive part of their relgion. After securing their home world in the name of the Empire. Then discovering the ability to travel the stars, The conquest of other worlds began. Though fighting and war is in their culture, there is a certain honor behind it, as the members of the Cmokian race their faith drives them to hate and despise anything that deals in the ideals of subterfuge, scheming, and backstabbing within their own racial dealings and foreign affairs. It is said that an alliance with the Empire is one that if ever broken, will be done face to face and not through more behind the scenes means.

These ideals have been transferred to the other two races that make up the citizens of the Empire. Though each of the races holds their own traditions and cultures that set them apart, the Kree and Tigarians have adopted the sense of honor and pride that the Cmokians hold so high.


The Empire has always been just that, an Empire. In the initial centuries, it was a familial position that passed from Emperor/Empress to eldest child. But as the people grew and the Stars were travelled, the discontent grew. The people demanded some power and ability to help govern themselves. The Emperor still exist and he holds the final say the majority of decisions made, but the position isn’t passed down as it once was. The Emperor rules for the entirety of his/her life or until they decide to step down. From their the leading members of the non-Kree/Tigarian society come together and elect a new Emperor for the good of the people.

Outside of the Emperor, he has an imperial council of advisors made up of 3 elected Tigarian, 3 elected Kree, 3 elected Cmokians, the highest ranking General, highest ranking Admiral, an expert in economics , an expert in government administration, an expert in criminal justice, and lastly a representative in the faith.

Within the various planets, there is a similar council, all though it is normally smaller, for the governor of each planet. The governors candidates are selected by the Imperial Council, then the Emperor narrows it down to three. From there each planet is allowed to elect the governor, who the believes will lead their planet to success.



Strength:
Shielding Technology
Ballistics/Kinetic Weapons
Ship Crafting
Metalworking

Weak:
Robotics
A.I.
Cloaking
Energy Weapons


Wayfarer FTL Hyperdrive, the primary Hyperdrive for the Cmokian Military and Merchant ships. Creates an opening through to the Hyperfields thus allowing the ships to travel into Hyperspace.

Otri-Steel, a metallic alloy created from Otrium, a titanium like metal and the steel alloy, that the is the primary metallic metal used in ship building, military equipment, and weapons.

Dual-Field Shielding. Cmokian Ships are shielded on two different layers. The first layer is a bubble shield projected from the ship and encompasses the entirety of the shield through various shield projectors. The second shield is a skin style that wraps just off the ship’s hull. Due to the large amount of power needed for keeping the shields online, every Cmokian military ship has a separate power generator for the shields.


Industrial Areas:
Geymus serves as one the primary military shipyards within the Tycho System, due to the close proximity of Cmok. The shipping lanes are normally full of transport ships bring raw and processed materials to contstruct the might ships.

Vesna is one of the primary location of the Empire’s Eltreum harvesting from within the Gas Giant. Along with the mineral rich moons the surround the planet and the production center of on Kree’Nal. The planet and the Hypergate that is in the outer orbit of the planet are heavily defended.





The Land forces consists of 100 legions of 500,000 Legionnaires of the three species that make up the Empire. The legions are made up of the following:

Front Line Infantry: Tigarian and Cmokian soldiers armed with personal shields (think Gungan shield shaped like a Roman’s shield), a one handed energized Otrium sword, a gauss carbine, and other day to day kits.

Designated Marksmen: Typically of the Kree Race with a small number of Cmokian. These soldier forgo the personal shields and swords, in exchange for mid to long range railgun. These soldiers serve to keep the enemies, head down and in cover long enough for the ranks of Legionnaires are upon them.

Support Personal: Medics, Engineers, Communications, Supply, etc. Each specialty has a different load of the various weapons and equipment depending on assignment and proximity to the fighting.

Armor: One of the smaller branches of every legion is the Armor Cohort. The legions do operate a number of tanks, personal carriers, and artillery pieces. With hover technology being on the rises, the legions are starting to see the loss of track platforms in exchange for these hover vehicles.


The Imperial Navy operates various fleets ranging in depending on assigned role and sector. Instead of having many different classes of ships under the helm, the Navy operates three main warships. A large Battle Cruiser class that operates as the main ship of the line for the fleet. With a smaller destroyer class ships that serve as screening anti-fight/bomber ships to aid the point defenses of the battlecruiser, along with handling any smaller class vessel it may come across. The last vessel is the carriers, though battle cruisers carry a compliment of fighters and boarding craft. Carriers carry large number of all strike craft including bombers. With the majority of its capacity being on the defense end with numerous point defenses, it does have long range missiles to allow it to aid in offensive strikes from its position near the rear of the formations.

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GENERAL INFORMATION

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Faction Overview

Official Name: Das Grösses Mortereich aller Todestern (Gothic), Imperium Magni Morte (archaic Mortean), The Morte Empire
Common Name: Morte Imperium, Mortereich, Morte Empire
Government: Elective Centralized Totalitarian Monarchy (actually closer to a benign dictatorship)
Dominant Species: Morte (100%)
Capital: Silberdorf
Systems Owned: 3 (Toderstern, Erzricht, Heissessen)
Planets Owned: 2 (Mortis and Lichtfel with the rest being completely uninhabitable)
Population: 15,569,242,144 (according to last year's census)

Territory Overview

Gate Code(s): N919
The Morte Imperium currently controls the central portion of the Stormlosweg Sector, a harsh irradiated nebula zone. The region used to host multiple intelligent species but due to the Cataclysm and the ensuring series of desperate wars for survival reduced this to only a few. By now Morteans are the most dominant among them. Aside from the 2 semi-habitable planets they own Morte established 16 major colony clusters of space habitats which provides home for nearly 75% of their men. Their homeworld is Mortis of the Toderstern star system. Yet the capital is moved to Silberdorf, a colony cluster found within the interstellar void and a special section of space free of radioactive gases. Silberdorf is the rich region within the Imperium, housing less than a percentage of the entire population.That being said Toderstern is still their most populous region and remains the keystone piece of their industry.

History

Morteans as a civilization are several hundred years old. Their beginning was also the end of their previous civilization. Pre-Mortean history only has fragmentary information and as such the details are unclear. According to the official Mortean records before the Calamity their home planet was called Lieberland, a lush green planet with a peaceful and prospering civilization. Whether this has any roots in reality or mere fabrication for propaganda purposes is uncertain and it is unlikely we'd ever know the truth. What we know that around seven centuries ago a neutron star violently detonated, its nova and dangerous fragments ruining star systems close by, including theirs. Realizing their impeding doom Lieberland made preparations and sealed themselves in bunkers. It was far from a perfect solution and many sections of the bunker either failed to shield them, malfunctioned or people died out of sheer starvation. Regardless they managed to survive, now naming themselves Morte. Some suggests that Morteans are not Lieberlanders proper but were part of an experiment to create a new race fit for their changed world. Of course information regarding this is practically nonexistent. Either way Lieberland (now Mortis) became a barely habitable death world, hostile for life. It took nearly a hundred years to build up their civilization and avert their grim fate. Many civilizations in neighboring star systems were far less lucky, either dying in the initial gamma ray burst or failing to survive in the changed environment. Those closest to the kilonova had their entire star system reduced to space dust. In spite of that the worst had yet to come for Morte.

During this point Morte operated under a democratic system with their elected government doing their best to get their civilization on their feet. Through their struggles Morte began to slowly prosper and even began exploring space. Of course rather than pure curiosity their objective was to seek resources to further benefit their home. Yet their renewed activity soon drew the eyes of Xi'kar, in particular the Great Tertax. Xi'kar were the most advanced civilization prior to the Cataclysm but being too close to the kilonova meant they lost their home and were forced to become nomads. Tertax in particular was a pirate leader and after doing reconnaissance he saw Mortis as his price.
[to be continued...]

SOCIETY INFORMATION

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Demographics

Until just recently the Morte Imperium was an isolated civilization within the Stormlosweg Sector. As such it is unsurprising that the one and only sapient species within the Empire are the Morteans. Morteans are humanoid creatures with blueish skin, red eyes that might glow in the dark, sharp teeth and slightly pointed ears. They are at average shorter in stature (~ 150 cm) due to malnutrition but at times they can grow above 2m in height. Due to the effects of radiation they have an alarmingly high percentage of mutations which sometimes can be very visible. Unlike humans the Mortean blood is colored cyan. Morteans have human-like body structure but there are considerable differences in their chemical makeup. Mortean bones are made of various bio-steels, enhancing their durability and tolerance to radiation. Though the not so amazing side effect is that Morteans can get stuck to sufficiently strong magnets. Their sharp teeth are capable of chewing through many things and it isn't impossible for a Morteans to chew on rocks and ores (though not the most nutritious choice for sure). Mortean stomachs are versatile and work by different reactions and this generally applies to their entire system. Toxins that could be lethal to humans may be even considered nutrients. In reverse the Morteans have a number of harmful and deadly toxins specific to their physiology. Biologically the Morteans can live for 200 years but in effect the mutations and awful living conditions reduce the average life expectancy to 40 years. Due to their relatively well-adopted physiology to their environment there's a popular theory that the Morteans were actually engineered this way. Due to the effect of radiation, birth defects and mutations are relatively common and according to statistics 27.4% of the children die at (or before) birth. For every Mortean death is a common experience which swayed their society into an unique direction. Morteans neither fear death nor welcome it. They accept death as a natural element of their lives and strive to serve their community during the short time they're given. In the eyes of others Morteans themselves do appear almost machine-like, having little in the way of personal goals and instead striving to complete their duties to the community as a whole. They have little in the ways of compassion or complex emotions and instead approach everything with cold logic.

Cultural Overview

Morteans are struggling to survive in a sector inhospitable for all life. This obviously shaped their thinking to extremes, becoming pragmatic and almost machine like in their behavior. They lack empathy and so long it can be logically justified Morte is capable of any cruelty. Mortean society is all about order and hierarchy. The lines of leadership are clearly defined and Morteans work together like cogs in a well-oiled automaton. Questioning the authority of your superiors is unheard of and everyone is under constant supervision of their peers to act like a respectable Morte. On the other hand incompetence is not tolerated and subordinates can and will file reports about any of their boss' misdeeds. Advancing through the leadership is possible but difficult and at times certain social groups could be outright class-like. Mortean citizens know and use money with their official currency being the Reichsmark. At the same time a lot of commodities are rationed which means each person only entitled to a limited amount during shortages. Thankfully many of these rations are leased during the recent decades of peace but people are aware the system can be reinstated on a moment's notice. The official language of the Mortereich is the Gothic. This effectively splits into two distinct languages. High Gothic is a borderline forgotten language used for ceremonial purposes. It strangely resembles Latin from ancient human civilization but the connection is unlikely. Low Gothic is the common language of Mortean, it resembles German. There are also 4 other major dialects and even more minority dialects within the population which can range from slight mutation to something that doesn't even sound like the same language.

Government Overview

The Mortean government is imperial, formed under necessity during the early centuries to fend off the Luxans and other crazy invaders. Initially it was a typical monarchic government with the rule of Karl von Metzel and his descendants. However this soon changed and for 400 years now the Kaiser is an elected title which currently only assumed for the length of 2 years. It's possible to get re-elected but no more than 4 times in a row (so a total of 10 years of rule). Since the title is elected technically anyone can become a Kaiser, provided they pass the rigorous selection process for the candidates. There are a few days of promotion and campaign followed by a quick election. There are no solid political parties, albeit siding with certain companies, organizations and social groups may provide benefits at the election. After appointed as the Kaiser he or she has absolute power to do anything for the good of the Empire. Yet the Kaiser is tightly monitored and after 2 years pass he or she is thoroughly evaluated and potentially punished for any misconduct (sometimes even executed). The Empire also have ministers and other political leaders with their own powers and responsibilities. Their conditions are similar to that of the Kaiser but to a lesser extend. In Morte everyone watches the other and ready to report wrongs straight back to the authorities. This complex relation of hierarchy and keen supervision what defines Morte social structure the most. In terms of foreign politics since every new civilization they've encountered in the Stormlosweg Sector became hostile it's practically non-existent. That being said while the government is paranoiac they don't reject the idea of coexisting with other species. As such the first ever Mortean expedition outside the Stormlosweg Sector is watched with great anticipation.

TECHNOLOGY INFORMATION

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Tech Overview

After experiencing their paradise rapidly turning into a radioactive hell the Morteans doubled their efforts toward technology. Their first priorities were shielded homes and developing means to grow food in their changed environment. Over the centuries as Mortean society transformed their affinity towards technology only grew. Advanced medicine, gene engineering for special plants that grow in radioactive environments, robotics, self-improving computers and so on. The achievements of the Morteans were impressive. Due to their metallic bones development into electrogravitic systems began early and it is still their most popular form of artificial gravity. Over the time Morte also began experimenting with material sciences to the degree they can manipulate atoms and even design custom ultraheavy elements fit for special roles. This is in part inspired by reverse engineering the weird constructs of the DRVQ/Drovec. Yes, if anything Morte soon learned to utilize the technology of their hostile neighbors which eventually propelled them to become the dominant faction of Stormlosweg. For a long time the centermost portion of Stormlosweg was dominated by the Luxans with the hypergate sealed off until the last century. In addition Morte had limited reserves for Eltreum which they most used for jammers to fight back alien raids. As a result by galactic standards the Mortean FTL technology is fairly underdeveloped and they are only capable of gate travel very recently. In conclusion Morte is in possession in highly advanced technology albeit they tend to use it with some reservation, putting more faith in conventional and reliable designs over fancy experimental tools.

Industrial Overview

Having centuries of history on space faring Morte long began exploiting their system. While only a few planets could sustain any life Morte makes good use of every resource under their control. Rock planets and asteroids are strip mined by extensive automated installations, nebula gases gathered, solar collectors are commonplace and gas giants serve as powerful industrial bases. While their territories are almost tiny compared to more expansive empires their robust infrastructure means they might be a match for them regardless. The dense nebula also provides convenient fuel for their atomic reactors that are essential to power their huge nanolathe systems. Developed hundreds of years ago the nanolathe sprays tiny particles on shaped electromagnetic fields, allowing both fast and precise construction. Nanolathes are also versatile, capable of manufacturing a whole different product after adjusting their programs. Regardless their energy requirements limit them to places with plentiful power generation to be economical on the industrial scale. More conventional methods of construction are still frequently employed.

MILITARY INFORMATION

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Military Overview

With almost a thousand years of constant warfare with outside aggressors Morte became a militaristic nation where soldiering is part of every citizen's duty. Just prior to reaching adulthood all Morteans regardless of gender receive combat training and discipline. The best of the trainees are offered to become part of the Reichswehrmacht which, given the overall better living conditions of soldiers, is an offer not many refuses. Even after the training adult Morteans are obliged to periodically refresh their soldiering skills and accept to be drafted in a moment of notice. This kind of social structure aided Morte to eventually triumph over their superior enemy, very much drowning them in numbers. On the other hand having a hundred years without war the Morte civilization faces the greatest crisis since their foundation: Peace and prosperous growth.

Mortean military technology is cheap and mass produced. They want reliability and numbers above almost everything. As such while their technology is advanced they opt for the more conservative uses. For example while hover technology is mature its cost and reliability makes it rarely used with combat vehicles. Similarly in favor of having more weapon systems for relatively low cost Mortean doctrines like to use manpower wherever it isn't a detriment. While many other civilizations would find means to keep soldiers away from dangerous missions the Morte side has volunteers and given their overpopulation issues there's no incentive to stop this anytime soon.

Army Overview

Irdishstreitkrafte der Mortereich (Surface Armed Forces of the Morte Imperium) is a virtual term describing three different military branches: Reichsheer (Imperial Army), Reichsgrenadierkrafte (Imperial Grenadier Force) and Volkswehr (People's Defense AKA Militia). Reichsheer is the main army of the Empire with roughly 300 million troops (mandated by the PAX Accords from IR521). This is their bare minimum and any loses are to be recovered within a week. As per the Morte attitude to recruitment, every Morte who passes the physical tests are considered "reserves" to the Heer thus in times of crisis this number can increase considerably. In the current "peacetime" days their purpose is defensive but they also form the numbers for every major invasion. Reichsgrenadierkrafte is effectively the "marines" of the Morte, they are elite highly mobile force constantly traveling aboard starships. They are the primary response of the Morte during peacetime and the spearhead of major assaults. Volkswehr is an institution rather than an outright military branch, used during crisis when the regular military isn't present or requires backup. By its nature the Volkswehr is poorly equipped if not forced to use improvised weapons but they can somewhat compensate this by their sheer numbers and fanaticism.

Morte ground combat doctrine focuses on massed infantry formations supported with a great deal of artillery. Morte likes fortifications and defensive combat as their wars frequently involved the other side as the primary aggressor. Armor is generally only what each army corps has assigned to them. It often provides fire support but there are pure armored forces for breakthrough and maneuvering combat. Air force is a bit of a maligned child in Mortean warfare. Both Reichsheer and Reichsgrenadierkrafte has aerial detachments that can be linked with any large force for support but usually their numbers alone are insufficient. This is often reinforced by space fighters from the Reichskriegsflotte but the different chain of command is a source of other issues. For a ruthless military Morte has a surprising lack of chemical weapons for two reasons. One, they love streamlining their logistics thus special shells are rare. Two, their chief opponents are the semi-robotic Dorvec and the mutant biotechnological Luxans which means chemical weapons are of little utility. In contrast their enemies love to employ chemical and biological weapons and thus before anything else the most essential equipment for Mortean soldiers are their gasmasks and environmental suits.

Navy Overview

The Reichskriegsflotte (Imperial Fleet) is the Reichswehr's special branch dealing with starships and generally the region of space. Like for any interstellar civilization an absurd majority of their territory is space thus the Imperial Fleet has a prominent role of securing it. Since the Mortean triumph in Lux the Imperium haven't faced any existential threats and enjoys a relative peace. Of course there are always Xi'kar pirates, Dorvec remnants or rouge Luxan raiders to worry about yet at their current strength the navy is way prepared to deal with them. In order to reduce maintenance problems the PAX Accords were signed which currently limits the Mortean navy to 250 warships. Consequently many old warships were phased out and mothballed over the time. Decommissioned ships are preserved and kept at various bases thus they could be reactivated fast upon a new crisis. Of course this doesn't account for the numerous support and escort ships that could accompany them, nor ships built for only local defense.

Mortean warships are built for endurance, relying on heavy armor and constant cannon fire. The typical Mortean war vessel is shaped like a slightly conical cylinder with the main engine cluster at the back and most firepower concentrated to several turrets of usually the macro particle cannon variety. In Mortean dictionary a warship is an independent combat starcraft capable of acting on their own. Starships in the smaller range are escorts that accompany the larger vessel for screening purposes as well as to satisfy special roles. Support ships are non-combat vessels that follow the fleets and perform anything from maintenance, transport, mining, manufacturing war materials or even provide hospital services. By the standards of most civilizations the Mortean ships tend to be on the smaller side with battleships often considered the size of other civilizations' cruisers if not destroyers. On the other hand Mortean warships classes are less diverse when it comes to sizes. Escorts are more fluctuating in scale and in rare cases it's difficult to distinguish the smallest escort ships from the largest starfighter classes.

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Demonym:
Volsinian
Hamerheads (Derogatory)
Nation's Colors:
Red, black, and grey
Government Type:
Absolute monarchy
Head of State:
Emperor Messor Aetius
Legislature:
The Imperial High council
Political Factions:
Steel order: the militaristic faction
Gold order: The economic faction
Bronze order: The Conservative faction


Volsinii- Homeworld it is the political and military center of the empire.
Scupi- the most heavily industrialized world in the Volsinii empire.
Hypergate: V532


To learn about the history of the empire is a challenge. As much of the early history as been over the years turned into a creation myth.
The history can be figured out the about Volsinii begins in the turbulent region later to be known as the Vosta. In the early chaos of the region as the city states rose and fell rapidly. During this time the first emperor rose to power. Not much is known about the first emperor. After the series of wars could unite the Vosta under one banner. Then under successive emperors they expanded their realm absorbing many of the local kingdoms and tribe in-till the Volsinii empire was the sizeable force on there world. It took several decades of conquest and political maneuvering to bring the planet under the rule of the empire.

Once the the now renamed Volsinii was brought firmly under the empire they began to start to expand throughout the system. With the discovery of the hyperspace rift was a major boon for Volsinii. Developing the technology to exploit the rift. They spread their empire to several systems and established themselves. This seems to start of a golden age of the empire.

But this was not the case. As emperor Cyamus Aetius following the notion of his predecessor attempted to enacted major land reforms. The nobility realizing the amount of power they stood to lose revolted. Emperor Cyamus was too weak to be able to whip them into line before they could revolt. For the next three years the loyalist forces fought a losing battle against the rebels eventually resulting in Emperor Cyamus death on the battlefield.

He son Messor Aetius was soon coronated. Taking helm of the shattered imperial military, he reformed it into a new fighting force. With newly developed weapons and tactic began to win back the losses suffered early in the war. As the fighting dragged on many of the other groups inhabiting the region began to pick different sides of the conflict. The conflicted carried over to the next 35 years in till the imperial loyalist manage to achieved victory. To reestablished control over the empire once again. The empire has been rebuilding it self for the pest decade.


The main population is the volsinian. A humanion specie hailing from a high from a mountainous world. they stand about 6'8 for males and 6'1 for females. Their bones are tougher have a more angular structure to them and their muscles system stronger due to the harsh condition on their home-world. They developed a bi-cardiovascular system (which means they have two hearts), as well as a higher metabolism, evolving larger lung compactly due to the mountainous terrain, there blade like front teeth and rounder back teeth is believed to come from a past omnivorous habits, dark colored hair, and their one-color eyes ranging from different shades of grays. Volsiniin prefer colder climates but can tolerate warmer climates.


The culture of the empire had gone through major shifts in the recent decades become far more focused on the national identity. The explosions of highly nationalistic art, music, and monuments inspired by the imperial victory. Services in the imperial military is considered the be the most prestige occupation that one can take. This feeds into a tier citizenship system depending of there value to the state. Tiers can be gain and lost through out the life of an imperial citizen depending on there value to the state. High tiers grant more freedoms and luxuries to the citizen. This further build attachment to the state and better ensuring loyalty.


The empire acts as an absolute monarchy in which the emperor dictates the laws and policy. With it being dissipated throughout the empire by various government organization. It should be noted that the imperial law code is very draconian with even minor crimes have harsh sentences. To either hard labor on one of the mining colonies or sent to a penal battalion. Its common practice to commune hard labor sentences to penal battalion if there is man power shortages. Convictions also mean a permanent reduction and limit on the tiers of citizenship that the convicted can achieved.


Volsiniin technology follows the simple doctrine of function over form. The imperial civil war staled technological development in non-critical fields. Leading to large technological differences between different fields. With the state offering grants to catch those fields up with the military-industrial complex of the empire. The one field the Volsinii excels is in metallurgy.


Volcanic foundry
Massive foundry built into the heart of volcano. Using the extreme heat from the volcano to smelt and forging manufacture good. This allows them to make high quality metal-alloys for imperial industry to use.

Arc weapons
Harnessing the power of electricity for the volsinian weaponry. Firing bolts of white-blue that fry there targets and overload enemies war-machines. Mostly used as special weapons to augment normal squads of legionary.

Plasma batteries
One of greater break through of volsinian weapons manufacturer corporation Irunemanger. Using the fourth state of matter the plasma batteries fire massive bolts plasma at targets. Usually mounted on the largest class of volsinian warships due to there reactors being powerful enough to charge and fire the batteries.


The Volsinii Empire is heavily industrialize with many imperial worlds dedicated to supplying the necessary material to supple the imperial war machine and civilian venture. Due to its nature the empire carries out large mining operation throughout there empire to supple there industry. Much of the empires industry is nationalized with the imperial government owning controlling portion of the company. Allowing them in time of crisis they can be quickly brought into the imperial military's supple lines.


Forge in the crucible of the Volsinian civil wars. The imperial army was crafted into a mighty war machine. With the military being divide into the Volsinian imperial army and the Volsinian imperial navy. The imperial military smaller that it was in the civil wars its still a large fighting force. The main doctrine of the imperial military is the overwhelming force to over power their enemy.

Within the imperial military is the Volsinian security and intelligence or VSI for short. Few know of there existence outside of the upper most echelons of the imperial government. Tasked with dealing with internal and external threats to the empire with more unorthodox methods. VSI maintain numerous black sites to ship prisoners to engage in all sorts of torture and experiments upon the poor souls.


The imperial army is organized into legions. Each legion is recruited from different world through out the empire. Certain planets produce specialized unites from the imperial army. In battle the legions make use of a combine arms doctrine with armor and mechanized infantry. Along with plenty of artillery for fire support. With navy fighter to gain air superiority and strike important targets with saturation bombardment. Additional manpower is provided via penal battalions. Made up by criminal looking to


Shaped by the Volsinian civil war the imperial navy favor heavily armed an armored battleships. These ships would naturally be supported by cruisers along with dedicated carries proving the bulk of the void-craft for the fleet. With smaller escorts ships providing extra void-craft screening along with extra firepower. Mostly fleet doctrine favor mid range engagement as it provides the most effective use of Volsinian weapons. Each imperial ship carries a detachment of imperial marines for boarding actions, boarding defense, and ground operations. Imperial navy also maintains strike-craft for supporting ground operations.