The OSRF's flag resembles a circular human eye surrounded by the sharp ridges of a crown, impaled from multiple sides by angular claws and hands - some human, others arthropod like, and many clawed, for some even skeletal in their robotic nature. These stabbing limbs dig through the borders of a six-sided diamond. On each of its sides, six rigid insectoid limbs ending in scything claws emerge. The "head" of this insect can be placed on top or bottom of this long formation, resembling that of a carnivorous carabid or staphylinid beetle.

See the red circle with question marks within its borders.

The OSRF features three large blocs of powerful aliens who each have their own general governmental structures. As they are more of a pact than a singular government, much of the higher level decision

The arthropod czlozekostra ("Complex External Skeleton") are run by a combination of lower level directly elected officials at local and sometimes national levels and higher up features advanced AI's and councils of mentally-linked cybernetic individuals. The third is joined together as a gestalt consciousness and at that point working directly under the supervision of an arcane super-computer cloud-like entity formed of psionic, biomechanical, and cybernetic components simply known as the Egregor. While the entity has a prominent position in the primary czlozekostra leadership, it is primarily in an advisory role - the AI's and gestalt-councils are obligated to consider its words more heavily but their collective power holds more sway.

Ordinary czlozekostra enact higher up decision making directly through petitioning, demonstrating, and collectively communicating to local leaders and can even vote out gestalt-council members, replacing them with their own candidates. They can vote to even modify parts of the AI-councils, changing the parameters of their decision making and introducing new components to them. While it is difficult to replace individual AI's due to the highly advanced nature of their construction, they can be molded to change the parameters of their decision making to better suit collective czlozekostra needs. The interconnected cyberbiological intelligence of both AI councils and the egregor allow for rapid decision making and information analysis, allowing them to absorb information provided by entire planets of voters to tailor craft policy.

The rotting fungal Salibughri ("Spore's Scions", "Sally-boor-E") have a similarly joint-consciousness oriented leadership, with their highest sapient leaders connected to gigantic neuromycelial networks, allonwing for rapid information transfer and discourse. Rather than "depersonalizing" their leaders, they are able to operate independently and with individual Egregors for differing sections of their territory rather than a single large one like the slozvnesikostra. While both allow for a high degree of direct democratic involvement, the salibughri emphasizes a great deal of aggressive populist action. While they also lack individual political parties, they do posssess societal interest groups, known as Citizen or Specialist Assemblies. These represent groups such as artists, cargo haulers, industrial workers, void-tech scientists and so on and as they are note voted into power, tend to collaborate rather than compete.

Depending on the situation, these Assemblies are often temporarily mind-linked to the neuromycelial networks. This results in direct involvement of specialized (often civilian) knowledgement for larger scale government initiatives. As salibughri leaders use essentially a high tech biodigital information network to communicate, the assembly of such a governmental body is treated as a single "entity" as opposed to individual. It too is a gestalt with a higher range of "individual" autonomy, and like with their athropod allies, they can frequently "swap out" individual members albeit even more quickly allowing for faster decision making. The massive data stores generaitons of politicians have left in the neuromycelial network allows them a massive wealth of information as well as the creation of biogintelligences that can serve in advisory roles, similar to AI's though made primarily from living sources.

The tall and eel like tiarncnoic ("Lord of the Hills") in spite of their advanced antigravitational and energy-manipulation technology have the most primitive system of governance. They are still often nomadic tribespeople who deliberately maintained a series of elder councils though it is a mistake to assume they have remained static politically. The word "elder" has come to mean as much senior leaders as it has wisened youth who have stepped up to the task. Much of their decision making since their liberation from the Federation and barbarian incusions is focused on these councils though the individuals who comprise it in many cases are linked to long family lineages associated with rulership. Voting however is based on "family units" and collectives of individuals, whether friends, craftspeople, or even religious practitioners, much of it taking place at a very local level however.

For larger scale geopolitics, the tiarncnoic organize their individual tribes into alliances. A ruling council of tribal chiefs is set up along with their varius assistants. Yet its power is balanced out by AI collectives made by the "heads" of various individual collectives and family units, representing the interests outside of the ruling leadership. While they tend to not really have a class system, even the vague semblance of one in leadership necessitates such an anachronistic usage of technology. In some cases, the "ancestral intelligence" (ANCINT's) even have more political power than the still flesh-and-blood council members. However the people themselves organize as efficiently as anyone else to keep either in check and most council members see themselves as of their specific tribe first and foremost.

The OSRF has three primary species that inhabit it listed below, in order of rising populace. Humans comprise the second largest aspect of its populace due to Federation economic policy having relocated many to the area for economic growth. Though once they were the dominant power in what is now OSRF territory, they have since receded in that field to let aliens take a more promiennt role. Their political, economic, and military power has a large part been absorbed into the front though exclusively human settlements have long since been banned. They have otherwise demonstrated themselves not just as victims of the same imperial oppressors yet also beholden to the same revolutionary fervor as any of those they once saw themselves as the betters of.

A variety of miscellaneous minor species also inhabit the region, sometimes in great numbers yet never to the extent of becoming major power blocs in and of themselves. The majority of them are also quite unususal: demonic rocky-skinned creatures, living cyborg coral colonies, bony membrane-covered creatures of skeletal frame and x-shaped shovel heads, as well as certain wraith-like beings inhabting the "gulf" between systems. The dwellers of said gulf, simply known as voidhangers, are quite cryptic and the Front technically does not count them as members if only due to the fact they have not collectively agreed to membership. Some of them resemble the czlozekostra albeit with transparent, plankton like bodies and a semblance to eerie deep sea amphipods and isopods, freshwater remipedes, and phronima. Not much is known about them only that diplomacy between them and the Front has been going on even before they had fully manifested as a galactic power.

(The fun part! What’s defending your nation in these uncertain times? You can provide as much or as little detail as you like. Can’t also forget, showing tons of pictures of what their soldiers, vehicles and ships look like :P)

The OSRF as a whole is a military focused on tough, resilient infantry capable of rapid movement and mechanized coordination rapidly shuttling them into engagement range with enemies. While they tend to lack as much heavy armor (primarily tanks and land cruisers) as others, their baseline infantry on average are armed, armored, and augmented to a much higher degree. They are further reinforced by powerful psionic/ethereal units primarily focused on improving their performance. These "etherealists" can protect via psionically distorting the space around comrades to obscure their profile, create barriers of solidified psionic energy, or even momentarily distort any heat or electricity readings around them. They are capable of more destructive feets, manifesting disruptions in space itself to blast reinforced positions, creating exit-fields around weapon barrels to augment their rounds, and even warping in extradimensional creatures to fight alongside them.

The majority of their ground armor is focused on rapid deployment and long distance engagement, with high velocity cannons and multiple missile launch systems being their iconic weaponry. They have a variety of mecha that while not meant for the same role of tanks can often be their conventional mainline heavy armor. Most of these may not have a tank's devastating long-range main cannon but they do have various auxiliary energy, missile, cannon, and sometimes even psionic weapons. Typically they do not try to out brute force enemy armor as much as to out-manoeuvre them, manipulating them into crossfires and killzones. Infantry play a vital role in this with a variety of advanced anti-armor weapon systems used to harass heavier vehicular threats into repositioning; sometimes by chasing soft targets and other times by forcing them from their positions. Advanced target-painting systems and weapons designed to stun or disrupt the systems of enemy heavy armor further makes them vulnerable to their own vehicles.

Their tanks reflect this mindset of speed, range, and aggression. They feature prominent high velocity cannons (with both solid synthetic/biological and energy-type output available) but a number of additional weapon systems, primarily aimed at targeting infantry but also light long range artillery. Missile systems are typically reserved for lighter IFV's and other AFV's but frequently find their way to their tanks in recent years along with light mortars/heavier grenade launchers. High velocity machine guns, energy or solid round based, to even light autocannons are also prominent. Yet tanks are also capable of highly encrypted direct communication and coordination with friendly forces, with the ability to transmit and examine data for positioning, targeting, and coordination. Combined with features such as anti-gravitational movement, adjustable tracks, or even arthropod limbs, their ability to move over tough terrain at rapid speeds lets them take up advantageous positions normally impossible for most vehicles to acquire.

Most unusual is their usage of various bioconstructs and robots. The first of these can include domesticated organisms modified for combat or essentially biomecha. This is a somewhat misleading title as they tend to a;sp feature prominent cybernetics in their construction, but they tend to prominently feature as support units for their infantry alongside "drone" type automata. Both will often provide support for squads with additional fire capacity but also the ability to create energy shields, scan and track targets, dig into the ground to rapidly create cover or hiding spots, or even forwards reconaissance and heavy weapons ounting. This is useful for smaller squads of more powerful infantry, augmenting their capabilities with cost effective, comparatively expandable units.

Larger versions of both can frequently take the part of armored vehicles, often controlled via telepathic, cybernetic, and neuromycelial means and specialized "communicator parasites" between handler and host. The majority of these fulfill roles between those of support drones and IFV's to medium AFV's, having high movement capability and often a variety of light to medium type heavy weapons, letting them put out impressive volumes of firepower typically for harassment and suppression purposes. Some have limited flight or gliding capabilities, others can burrow below fortifications, and some can leap massive distances, gaining on targets in ambushes before they can blink. Some are large enough to function as tanks though they tend to have shorter ranged weaponry while retaining high mobility and versatility. Their speed combined with ability to mount lighter artillery such as rocket/mortar options makes them excellent for providing rapid though not dedicated long range support and harassment opportunity, even if they will not be as powerful as dedicated bombardment options.

Their space fleet focuses on long range energy weapons with select gravitationally accelerated cannons being retrofitted onto newer ships. While the latter are more common on newer ground vehicles, they have seen prominent adaptation after roughshod retrofits during the independence war demonstrated their might. Complex missile systems let them focus down multiple targets as well as giving CIWS and anti-missile systems a struggle. Not merely by volume of missiles launched but their ability to "blink" in and out of realspace, jammer arrays, and their stealth capabilities of "dead" launches and low-emission gas propulsion (before using rapid bursts to close in) make them very tricky to fight. Even worse, many of their primary cannon type weapons can have additional effects on their targets, creating "reactive fields" from pent up volatile energies that amplify the effect of additional beam/plasma/pulse type wepaons for example. Other time sthey may diminish scanning/targeting capabilities or even cause psionic anomalies.

This comes at the cost of their heavy hitting damage options being somewhat limited, focusing on disrupting and debilitating fleets very heavily. The idea is to soften or overwhelm them with all kinds of interfering effects, making them easier to then pick off. While this is not necessarily very efficient when it comes to pure kill ratios, it can frequently force fleets to retreat or make force them to awkwardly split up their forces as major enemy vessels quickly struggle to bring their full power to bear. However, for genuine raw killing power, the enormous void-creatures (and the retrofitted husks of such) found in the "gulf" within OSRF space possess that in great number. These enormous predators (and their reanimated cadaveres), sometimes greater in size than capital ships, possess various parasites, anatomy, and mutations serving as weapons and munitions. Mythic starfaring serpent-eels, horrific mantis-centipede leviathans, pustulent spore-masses of bristling filth, all frequently augmented with conventioanl weaponry - to face these incrasingly common monstrosities is the stuff of many horror stories emerging from Front space.

The eastern periphery systems of what was once the Federation have historically been rife with conflict, dissatisfaction, greed, and exploitation. Resource rich yet marginalizedin galactic politics, it was at once a jewel in the empire's crown and an unwilling servant beneath its boots. Its absorption into the the Federation, accomplished via the manipulation of pre-existing ethnic, ideological, and territorial tensions and "justified" humanitarian intervention, has only recently served as a frequent topic of discourse when discussing the great decline of empires.

The Orion Sphere Revolutionary Front had many names in its infancy, battling against as much reactionary terror cells and militant groups as it did the Federation and its crony-states. Many times had it been crushed yet just as many had the desire for liberation both ideological and territorial ignite again and again. As the overburdened mechanisms of rulership began to buckle under their own weight, a distant threat of alien invasion began to become increasingly tangible. It is from the ensuring war that the veterans of many insurrectionary actions and the few independent planet states in the area began to prepare for a shift in the geopolitical paradigm.

The brutal liberation war was a chaotic one responsible for some of the most hellish fighting on the eastern front of the sphere. Conventional wisdom sees it as a maddening war of all against all yet in reality, the barbarians and the Federation frequently employed the same strategies. As Federation control over eastern sphere worlds weakened, the barbarians swept in to fill the power vacuum. Both would manipulate the individual worlds against one another to protect their own holdings and engage in proxy wars, saving their main forces for gaps in one another's defences. Yet the OSRF was aware of this and the growing discontent among the civilian populace. The foreign "liberators" quickly proved to be as cruel of masters as the enlightened cruelty of those they had replaced.

From the cry of frustration and subjugation of the imprisoned masses came an uproar of anger and defiance. As once civilian masses began to organize en masse, protesting then rioting against the slavish exploitation of their labour, the destructive resource extraction of their homelands, and the fattening of the all-too-willing collaborators of the ruling classes, both superpowers saw a common problem. Temporary truces between warlords and generals to "sort out" civil unrest however, turned out to be the powder keg lighting the OSRF had hoped for to galvanize mass resistance. When the war was revealed as a glorified sham to the masses with these two great enemies working under the table with one another, the blowback was colossal.

It was enough to kickstart the fires of revolution that had smouldered in the background, devouring isolated and ruined worlds, now angrily spreading to the more prosperous and internally divided of worlds. Insurgencies and guerilla campaigns, once isolated to individual systems, began to spread as the populace of the worlds became hostile. Outer worlds were the first to fall, ignored as the Federation-Barbarian war heated up again, forcing one another's hand and trying to capitalize on one another's instability. Like a storm of pickaxes, batons, knives, and IED's, a once captive populace immediately seized the opportunity. Combined with the gradual transformation of full blown rebellions into interplanetary military groups, the once great powers found themselves stretched out, wasting personnel and supplies on one another, and now the prey to the vengeful people they once thought of as resources.

Devoured and decimated by a once maligned populace, the great powers were forced out of the eastern territories. From the ruins, a grand unification emerged. The revolutionary fire had not merely scourged the mark of the hated colonialist and and imperialist, it had reduced the boundaries that once divided the various inhabitants of these systems to a withered husk. With massive spoils of war left from the driven enemy, a collaborationist ruling class now forced into chains, and a fervour to never again bow to corporation or empeor, the OSRF had truly been materialized.

With the Federation's fall and the reduction of the barbarians to at best scattered warbands and holdouts, the Front has considerably expanded. Its current actions see this now solidified alliance expanding its ideology to surrounding systems as those who once fleed from the war encouraged to now return. A great influx of foreign capital and resources has begun. It fuels the growth of increasingly pro OSRF sentiment in surrounding regions, spreading even into the galactic core as its ideological expansion outstrips its physical one. Many potential candidates are wracked by tumultuous politics, reeling from the aftermath of a brual inter-imperial war, yet the promise of a new possibility away from the realm of empire remains tantalizing. Even those absorbed into its fold still struggle but an expansion of its geopolitical power in a calculated ppush is bearing fruit in stabilizing its fresh, still somewhat tenuous allies.

At the same time, mysterious research into the fields of the arcane, the psionic, the occult, and the eldritch have begun to make waves past its boundaries. Manifestations of unearthly power and the presence of mythic void-borne creatues, some not believed to be of this reality, drape it in an air of danger an dmystery. Research into the unity of the unearthly knowledge with cutting edge science has resulted in a boon of experimental technologies and Front leadership hopes to be the torchbearer for a new paradigm of technopolitical development. While its alliances with many nomadic groups, independent systems or planets, and NGO's does not result in direct control, it is growing its strength in a tangible fashion. It can no longer be written off as at best a resource rich backwater; it is a rising force and its message is beginning to resonate with increasing volume across the stars.

The people elect a number of lower representatives on their own worlds, and there is a Senate that is formed from a single ‘planetary representative’ sent from each world in the Union to be the voice of their people (nobility are barred from this position by law). There is also a second body within it formed of a representative elected from each system, which nobility can actually be elected to just as much as regular citizens. This body is mostly legislative in function and approves as well as makes and debates and goes over new laws. Lower-level officials legislatively are also elected as representatives of the people,

On the other hand, the overall Senate is balanced out with the “Union Council” which is limited to five seats and is held by the descendants of both General Arkas and the four original most powerful individuals whom General Arkas worked with in the past. Their position is hereditary, and they own great amounts of wealth, and they can appoint lower national-level executives within their branch without needed approval. Indeed, they act as the executive branch of the nation proper in the formal sense as well. The Council is then held responsible for doing its job by the Senate, and in turn the Senate is held responsible by the law and constitution and ultimately the people. Yet relatives of families of the Council cannot be a part of the Senate by law either. They are the collective heads of the state who execute the law on the nation, whereas the Senate is legislative in nature, but the two bodies do have to agree on a budget jointly to get one passed for the nation proper. The two branches also have a certain involvement in the judicial processes.

Judicially the top judges/magistrates of the nation are two “High Magistrates”, who are nominated by the Union Council but have to be approved by the Senate in turn. These oversee the highest level judicial cases in the nation in the joint position of judge, which is unique to the singular judges found at all other lower level of the judicial bureaucracy, and are meant to examine old and new judicial cases alike and to: Rule on how the law is applied, decide whether a law is or was relevant to a particular case, and interpret the meaning of the law. Below them is a council of seven judges known as the “Elder Magistrates”, who are elected into their place and manage the judicial bureaucracy at the national level from day to day and report back to and are below the High Magistrates in terms of authority and power. In general judges and other judicial officers at all levels must meet certain educational and experience-related criteria, the less of this needed the lower the judicial position in particular of course, but are elected into place from among the viable candidates in turn. (Also judicial circuits still exist as well.)

There is likewise a formal constitution that has a number of set legal rights for citizens, alongside laying out the government and other legal amendments added to it. The levels of government possess the flexibility to do their job without constant needs for high-up approval, though of course higher and lower levels of government communicate with each other, but are also held to the responsibility and gravity (“gravitas” as humans called it once) of their jobs notably more so than those of the old Orion Federation in the legal and societal sense. Etc.

Is it perfect? No. Was it functional and adaptable moving forward? Yes. This constitution was made to both lay out how things should work, but also anchor how things would be done.

The hard work of General Arkas and those working with him forged this, which itself was a reflection of the nature of things at the time and a means of balancing the powerful individuals but also the many populations that were part of the process along the way. An imperfect process with good and bad, but which in the end produced something that has survived the times and continues to persist as a modern successor state of sorts of the old Orion Federation.

***For clerical purposes, the generalized political subdivisions of the nation are the following:

The nation’s whole is divided into five Quints, each with a Quintary Governor.

Each quint has a set amount of Systems within it, with each System having a System Governor.

Each system has a planet, which has a Planetary Governor.

Each planet is divided into roughly sensible and equal Regions, which each have a Regional Governor.

Each Region is subdivided into Provinces, which each have a Provincial Governor.

Each province is divided into sub-parts called Districts with their own District Governors.

Within Districts you get the accompanying lower level government subdivisions on county lines with County Leaders, and then the local Mayors at the smallest level below this, who get elected into office.

In certain places, the old political boundaries on a planet might be kept and reused if a proper alternative division of it couldn’t be determined. However something like a microstate, or a ton of tiny divisions of land on a planet exist, that is usually pulled into another boundary or are consolidated to form a larger one under Union law.

((Things such as city councils and equivalent Planetary Senates, etc and so forth, exist as well at each level under Union law.))

There does exist a nobility within the Union, however, which is filled with wealthy enough families that it has cemented itself notably in society in the cultural sense. Families who can afford great estates, are afforded the specific legal rights to own a certain small amount of personal guards/contracted guards to protect their homes and properties, etc. Though far from being able to kill people in the streets or hurt the regular average citizens, they do possess the wealth and power to do many things as they wish within the bounds of the law.

Being descendants of the powerful individuals who assisted in forming the Union in one way or another, they have always retained some amount of branching family lines and limited influence within the system. On the other hand their power has been limited and set to avoid a feudal-style situation or aristocracy from emerging, albeit in return for those certain legal concessions to keep them on the side of the nation and government otherwise. If the nation and its people are doing good, they do good, or at least that has been the intent and goal of legislation over the many decades.

The highest form of nobility, the members of the Union Council at the very top, are the metaphorical, legal, and frankly financial royalty of the nation, and the process of dealing with lower nobility and so forth has always been ever part of what the Union Council has been involved with as well. In general the life of nobles in the Union has been interesting, with strategic marriages, grand balls and other high-society events, noble intrigues, and the like have ever been part of this from the very start as such. A picture from the past indeed, but framed within a modern framework and nation that exists far and beyond from feudalistic-types times (at least when it comes to humanity if nothing else).

Humans. Homo sapiens sapiens. Bipedal walking things with wiggly fingers and toes. Beings that exist all over due to being one of the Founding Races of the Orion Federation. Everywhere and all over the place, like ants. I can’t think of many more silling things to say to designate humans as humans but try to give people a chuckle here. Yes.

A race possessing six limbs, the rear four of which are used for running/walking and the front two acting as graspers. Originally stemmed very far back from a much larger species that used all six limbs for traction in running across plains in order to use their long neck to catch prey. The Hiigüül themselves were derived from a far smaller variant of this greater species, one which itself became the last remaining extant branch of its ancestor after two planetary extinction events on its homeworld. From here this species’ descendants diverged in time to become the primate equivalents of its homeworld. Smaller size, the use of the front four limbs and their claws in climbing, the use of the back four limbs to run, and the front two limbs to grasp would become advantages of the subspecies that would eventually produce the Hyulgee proper. Meanwhile the development of intelligence and reliance on growing social groups to survive would lead ultimately to sapience in due time after this.

Rather than achieve a sort of planetary unity under a certain set of standards or united factors, the future Hiigüül homeworld’s leaders brought their planet together in another way through an initial economic organization of sorts to ‘aim for greater prosperity and peace’ that was followed with said organization seeking to forge a system of inter-reliant economic ties/bonds. Each of the founders of this organization were Hiigüül who were themselves politicians, CEOs, and members of other companies that sought to secure more favorable trade conditions worldwide. Yet ultimately these economic ties, forged over a number of years, were also made so that many of the larger nations of their homeworld could not go to war without causing themselves to enter a horrible economic spin as a result (thus ensuring a more stable profit for the organization’s members). From here this would create a growing wave that would pressure those who resisted joining to toss their lot in with the rest or face a loss of international trade partners, in which being an independent party became less and less viable over time. The incorporation of further national representatives and such would eventually occur as well.

Eventually the growing politico-economic union would grow to the extent that it led to the establishment of the First Planetary Government for the race. Thus was born what would become the “Hiigüül Union”, which would in effect become basically a federalized government system as the new government fostered deeper economic and political bonds that tangled up its native political bodies. It did this to the point that local national sovereignty became basically having a choice in what kind of state-level government one possessed since planetary law took precedent and the constituent parts all answered to the ruling body of the Union.

As a race their appearance was startling enough as it was to those that made first contact during the pre-Federation time period, which led to a diplomatic incident of sorts that itself led to a ‘First Contact War’ with the Hiigüül. In the end it would take international arbitration, performed via other spacefaring nations not involved in the issue, to stop things from escalating in the end. From here the Hiigüül would become incorporated into the eventual Federation as it formed around them, and more so as the League found its potential areas of expansion in space ground to a halt in the face of the growing and still very young Orion Federation. It was admittedly not the most willing transition to join the Federation, nor was it entirely unwilling or without its benefits either, but for better or worse this led to the diaspora of the Hiigüül within Federation territory within the Sphere.

In the wake of the Orion Federation’s collapse, the Hiigüül can be found all across the stars and systems of the former Federation.

Due to historical reasons, a number of Hiigüül are involved in matters involving finances and money and banking. Naturally they have a presence in many other areas beyond this, just like with any other race, but some might feel the association of money and the Hiigüül to be a stereotype of sorts that developed over the course of the last one thousand plus years.

In terms of height, the Hiigüül when standing on their back two legs (which is the normal way they stand up) stand on average about 5’10” for females and 6’3” for males of the species.

A humanoid and feminine alien race with two sets of horns and a long tail in an orange-gold-ish color, and that possess a grayish-green skin color. Their bones and muscles are stronger and more hardy/resilient than that of humans, and the skin remains basically as soft but a little/slightly thicker underneath the surface than meets the eye. Likewise many members possess darker/duller shades of greenish-blue hair (based on the picture above mind). Their leg muscles are especially strong, meant for running at speeds faster than humans are capable of at least, and their tails are excellent in helping them balance when running to boot.

Historically the Nilati underwent a sort of past similar to those of other pre-spacefaring races, with nations, wars, plagues, varied languages and cultures, and so forth. In some places of their world, the practice of selective breeding among Nilati was common and even enforced in certain places as well. Among these were even a few more extreme and far-flung sects of the popular Nilati Goddess, Rathsi, who did such things in the aim of ‘achieving her beauty’ and pursued this with a zeal. Of course there were the majority of others who did not partake in such ideas, and those in the minority who took it even farther to boot, but this mention is all simply to establish that the general concept of such things was not alien to the Nilati culture (and will come up again shortly).

Close to the time planetary unity was achieved on their homeworld, the Nilati’s two largest political blocs of nations/polities at the time would engage in a long and harsh war with each other that nearly brought the planet to its knees. Weapons of mass destruction and biological weapons would feature prominently as the conflict spilled over into uninvolved areas pressured into or forced into the fighting, and in the end the devastation would not take out the whole of the Nilati race in the heat of the moment. Yet it would see a vast depopulation and crippling of many populations across the world. Genetic defects, chromosomal loss, and radiation-related issues would run rampant, and the use of reproductive diseases as a distinct part of the bioweapons deployed in the war would bring the reproduction-capable population of the planet down much farther as well. Indeed the long-term future seemed to be that of a dropping and perhaps inevitable extinction.

Yet among the more unified and surviving stronger groups who persisted through the period, who would eventually unite amidst the ashes of their world, they would secure the remaining technology and blueprints of old before seeking out a path toward survival. Albeit a path riddled with new technology and wonders to come, but also many drastic and strict measures being taken that to others would seem barbaric for a ‘modern society’ even on other worlds in that day and age. Extensive population genetic testing to assist selective breeding programs, all aimed to retain and foster a new population of genetically-stable and healthy individuals. There was genetic experimentation performed using the afflicted as test subjects in return for food, housing, and other forms of medical assistance as evolving genetic engineering technologies were being developed and used to try to restore others to a healthier state. There was even the creation of ‘haven cities’ to house viable populations of healthy individuals, separating them from the rest of the crippled and devastated stock of the population otherwise. Worship of the Goddess Rathsi would likewise see a revival of sorts, among other preserved and regained and retained or reclaimed parts of the past such as certain arts and architecture and so forth in a very much “Renaissance” type of time period. Yet it would be the pursuit of the even more ancient ‘idealized body form’ (akin to if humans tried to shape themselves after the idealized images of old greco-roman statues) would likewise be sought after and fostered, among other similar things, in an effort to drum up society in support of current policies meant to rebuild a healthy population at large across the planet. Not the most culturally healthy idea, but also not entirely un-successful either.

The approach the new world government took to ‘unify the people under one identity and banner’, whilst seeking to preserve the past and seek a future that had almost been lost, would become the vehicles that the race took to race on into the future as it rebuilt, reclaimed, repopulated, and gradually rehabilitated the Nilati race and their homeworld once more. Whilst myriad other Nilati languages and histories and cultures would be dedicated to the well-kept and oft-sought records of the past, as well as linger in certain places due to the eventual Renaissance that emerged, the approach to these things was not necessarily well-accepted by all. Nor could it reach them all for that matter. The approach would see success in fostering a new population of healthy and ready Nilati for the planet, not genetically streamlined or made strictly samey at all to the point of being disease vulnerable or causing other genetic issues or the like mind (that was not the goal nor desirable in the first place), but at the same time would generate just as much backlash from those who either couldn’t access it in time or who were outsiders or dissidents who increasingly saw and treated such measures as ‘eugenic and thus barbaric and evil’. Many would be dying off that could not get the right therapies or procedures to help them in time, the process itself would reject a number of individuals for whom the damage was too extensive to remediate before the technology was improved enough to handle them, and frankly the resources and technology to do it all were limited due to rebuilding efforts and so forth going on. It was imperfect as an approach and solution, even if it generally worked out, and as a system it did have its flaws inherently from the very nature of how it arranged itself.

Eventually the breach into the realm of more advanced methods of genetic engineering would allow for even more to be taken into society in greater numbers and despite more extensive problems, though a growing movement of those resisting the ‘genetic puritans’ would rise in other areas that had yet to be reclaimed by the ever-growing scope and territory of the world government. Whilst genetic engineering would lead to medical modifications usurping the likes of selective breeding programs, both in cost and controversy as well as in other ways, historical scars of the past and other issues along the way caused or allowed to sit around by the system would not simply disappear Some places with mutation simply lived on their own, became isolated, or died out in silence in the long term without a voice. Others warred like the nations of old to claim land and territory in the scarred world, or took up as bandits and raiding parties to take what they needed to live and survive simply another day. Yet as contact with the ever-growing territory of the world government occurred, as said world government took all the resources it needed for its growing population centers, and there began to become more and more Resistance-run ‘mutant enclaves’ of various levels of extremity in their beliefs, things would more and more come to a head. Some would say it was inevitable for conflict to occur due to how things were being treated during that time period, and what had happened along the way, and yet others would look to the number of known cases of peaceful incorporation and genetic remediation of such populations that also took place more so as the technology advanced and more resources for such efforts were able to be produced or acquired. In the end it was a mixed bag that was generally well-recorded ‘enough’ on both ends, though as ever the victor was the one that wrote the history down.

In the end that idealized form of beauty and bodily shape and strength, one hewn into the race’s own ancient statues in its greatest empires and forged in the post-apocalypse into a glorified standard seeking to rebuild, would win out over the rest. And from this point the Nilati would reach finally into the stars before coming into contact with others and ultimately joining the Federation.

So whilst their unaltered humanoid-type body physical layout and such is indeed something similar to that of humanity, a case of existing convergent evolution from across vast spatial distances at its finest in a general sense, there was the use of genetic engineering and so forth to ‘refine’ this image as they tried to rebuild their race into a healthy once once more. By the time the Orion Federation formed, it was even a comical point to others that one could not tell the difference between the males and females save for the lack or presence of breasts and by what reproductive organs they possessed. This can be traced more so back to the transfer of male-deciding factors into the other more complex sex chromosome of the females, a measure taken to preserve them and other healthy genes within other chromosomes in the wake of the apocalyptic disaster of the past. Native Nilati fashions have remained distinct between the sexes as well, having their own distinctions and distinct nuances as well, and the general use of toga-like robes and garments (with certain differing styles between the sexes) has been a thing for quite some time now among native Nilati clothing. Likewise since the formation of the Federation the importing of foreign clothing and styles and patterns and such has become just as common among the race in a general sense as well.

By the time the Orion Federation fell, the Nilati have seen a vast thousand-year-diaspora that has seen them inhabit many far-flung places and new homes. All just as the other founder races and more widely-spread species of the former Federation have done as well, to put it simply.

((Bonus Fact 1: The word “ilati” in Sumerian generically means “goddess”, which is used for this alien race due to their modern appearance/form.

Currently they would be almost incompatible, if not actually so, with pre-apocalypse members of their species after so many generations and by current times. They are Nilati, but the modern sort are the only extant species/form left.))

((Bonus Fact 2: This whole event of the Nilati’s history is rather roughly akin to a ‘what if’ humanity in the future went about refinding and shaping itself after the idealized forms and images of old Greco-Roman statues, to put it as simply as possible, after such ideas overcame other such philosophies about the human body and its ‘ideal form(s)’ in the long run.

Very peculiar and strange indeed.))

Dathu of the Union are migrants or descendants of migrants immigrating from the Augustan Empire’s territory, much like humans and members of some other races seeking out a better life, better prospects, and better opportunities elsewhere. They aren’t the largest minority species of the Union by any means, but each of the three subgroups of Dathu are actually present within the enclaves of the species that lives within the Union at the very least.

Yet despite involvement in the various areas as with any other race, they do tend to get a reputation as being inherent farmers/hydroponics workers, laborers, or potential politicians to a certain extent. The lattermost category of those three usually being sought by the more wealthy that have migrated over and found the status of nobility in the Union to be more desirable than conditions for them back on their homeworld. It has certainly allowed noble-blooded Dathu who wish to migrate to find a new place to assimilate into from within this minority Dathu population at least.

Males possess crimson red skin and two horns, whilst females are distinctly different in that they are blue colored and possess only one horn. Males are genetically more unstable and live shorter lives than females as they usually only make it to as old as 50-60 years old at the very most. In return, however, they possess notably much higher physical strength and physiological resilience (oddly in part how they can manage to live up to about 50 years old without medical intervention, more till about 60 years with medical intervention). Females, on the other hand, are not as supernaturally strong/resilient as the males (distinctly so) but in return live much longer (100+) and actually possess potent and distinct regeneration capabilities. A male and female can naturally have kids with each other, as well as have children with members of the most common races of the former Orion Federation (whom they were made from the materials of) to boot. Pregnancies among male-female Aratanni-Aratanni couples can produce both females or males of the species, whilst pregnancies with other species only produce children the same sex as their Aratanni parent (or of the other parent's species). Both sexes have generally equivalent occurrence rates during pregnancies, as well as the same viability. For males the issues that shorten their lifespan begin after a certain point in maturation in their teens.

In terms of names, surnames are chosen from either Rehnathian words the race adopted as part of their culture, from one of the common races of the former Orion Federation that their ancestors were made from (as a reminder of their origins), or from the places and planets where their ancestors were made on.

Human Variant Species/Offshoots, Krentasians, Czlozekostra/Zekts, Midgardians, etc.

(Human Variant Species/Offshoots came from wherever they originated from in the pre-Civil War time period.

Midgardians/Krentasians there are descended from migrants originating where the Federated Systems Alliance currently is located now.

Czlozekostra/Zekts with the Union originated from migrants who may have collaborated with either occupying Orion Federation or barbarians in their area of origin, and thus are very much outcasts and unpopular back home. "Gusanos", one could say, to borrow the human term. Yet others also came from various nomadic groups, refugees, and people who might be on the same political spectrum but left simply due to disagreements with leadership or fleeing the instability of the region.

)

((NOTE: More could be added over time potentially.))

Earth. Third planet from the sun of the Sol System, and the ancestral home of the human race. In the pre-Orion Federation days it was the beating heart of human politics and operations. Under the jurisdiction of the United Earth Confederation (UEC), it became the capital of a space power that came to control a number of systems and planets within its grasp. Under the UEC, Earth prospered like none other, seeing myriad building projects and environmental restoration projects and even interstellar trade agreements that brought it immense wealth and prestige. In its heyday, it was a force to be reckoned with and Earth remained at the very center of it all.

…And then came the development of the Orion Federation. A grand idea of interstellar unification that brought humanity to the forefront as one of the three major Founding Species. Yet the trouble came when the blueprints for the future Sphere would leave Earth woefully out of the equation, and indeed this would sono be followed with the formal creation of a new ‘human founder world’ to fit in and maintain humanity’s prestige and status within the new Federation. It saw a lot of political power be moved from Earth to the new Founder World, which would not only strip much of the significance of the planet outright at the time but also see what little remained there dwindling or leaving it over the next thousand years of the Orion Federation.

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Indeed, the glory days of Earth as humanity’s seat of origin and hub of power would eventually themselves be lost from most human memory due to the widespread diaspora of humanity to the stars. As most humans by far would be born far from their species’ former world of origin, even memories of it would become conflated as being mere legend and myth to many. Humans, a species spread so far and wide within the boundaries of the Sphere, coming from one small planet beyond the Core Systems? It was laughable at best to some! Even so others would still be born upon the surface of the third planet from the sun of the Sol System, human or alien, and others living closer to where the Sol System was located would remember the fact it actually existed as a literal planet and one left with the forgotten zoning designation of ‘designated historical site’ that kept it from being turned into an industrial world like the rest of the Sol System was.

Yet the planet itself never lost all use, at least, mostly ending up used by the Orion Federation as a place for Inner Systems residents and on rare occasions from elsewhere to go for a vacation. But much as the other systems of the Federation-designated boundaries of “Sector 7” of the Inner Systems, it was nothing special with regards to the wider Sphere and would find itself lost as but one mere planet and place amidst the many other systems of the Inner Systems around it.

Over the course of time, though, Sector 7 would find itself turned into a hub of civilian production and manufacturing, including producing many civilian-grade computers, common and luxury civilian spacecraft, general communication satellites, transportation vehicles, and other such goods for the wider market. Yet at the same time, it would see a little bit of history along the way compared to other ‘far more eventful’ areas of the Sphere. In 2908 it would be the place from which the former radical “Humanity First Front” terrorist organization would emerge, before the organization was rooted out and destroyed finally after decades of struggles in 2936 on the planet of Hethar IV. The sector would also celebrate and host the opening of the first civilian-grade servitor robot factories emerge in 3082, and become host to a Federation-wide major sporting event in 3057, 3143, and 3346 respectively. In 3488 it would even be the sector where the famous Federation weapons developer “Thrak Ok’hael” would be born and dream up the space warship concepts that would one day debut within the Orion Federation Military only three decades later. (Etc).

In the end Sector 7 would find itself not being much of a place of much focus or attention, and did so for a number of reasons. It was not a hub or any sort of military manufacturing or military-related industry, and this was not looked at by the military in that vein. It avoided becoming a chaotic and open frontier of major food producing importance like the Outer Systems, nor was involved in the likewise chaotic and criminal allure of the Periphery Systems. It was a middle-ground sector among the sectors of the Inner Systems, not the most profitable but just average enough in comparison to fall by the wayside of notice, and likewise was not amidst the hustle and bustle and politics of the urbanized Core Systems or the even greater Founder Worlds. This would ultimately make this sector one of the most ‘ideal’ locations of a number of secretive ‘Orion Federation Black Sites’, wherein the government conducted top-secret research or developed and tested more secretive or taboo forms of technology away from prying eyes. It had a lot of supplies flowing in and out, worlds for setting up on that could have easy cover such as one of a ‘new and budding business’ or ‘industrial research station’ or such, etc, allowing for the hiding of these ‘government black sites’ in plain sight as well as being tucked away in corners no one bothered with inside the sector to boot.

Among the parts of the Inner Systems that it existed, Sector 7 would become the most littered with myriad top secret sites concealed within its borders. Of course not everything of such a nature was located there by the former Federation, but it was still a hotbed of such activities at the same time.

---

Eventually the fateful year of 3700 rolled around, and when the invading barbarians came to blows with the Orion Federation it would see a shift in Sector 7 for better or worse. Civilian production in the area was cut in certain areas, both taking up a portion of military production to support the war effort and continuing the production of dual-use goods that both the military and the civilian market could make use of. It was also here that a few of the government projects being worked on in secret within the sector would manifest during the atrocities perpetrated by the Orion Federation during the course of the war. Whilst the Federation was not the only one to commit such atrocities, the invaders doing just as much, this was all among the events and actions that would help in part to turn Sector 7 into a warming hotbed of issues.

The wartime rationing of certain civilian-grade consumer goods, the cessation of producing some goods or stripping of them from the sector to send elsewhere, and even the rationing of food to an ever-increasing extent, would all be used to fuel the war effort as well as feeding and supplying other much more affected and damaged areas. This was stacked with a rather steady large influx of general refugees being put to work in the sector’s old and even fresh newly-built facilities to support the war, or frankly replacing the jobs of others already living there who were being conscripted into the conflict. This time would also see a ramping up of government activities, both using refugees as ‘participants’ in some but also using their general presence to build up more industrial facilities to help mask the government sites. This refugee measure in part was covertly justified in the eyes of the government due to the Sphere-shocking exposure of three such government black sites elsewhere in 3716 within the chaos of the ongoing conflict (and the convenient misplacement of a few top secret government documents into the hands of a media company). Combined with stories of the horrors from the front lines, and other heaping frustrating factors forced upon the locals, Sector 7 seemed stable on the outside but was bubbling up bit by bit with dissent, anger, and increasing instability becoming more and more common.

Yet still, though, the sector held up under the pressure ‘well enough’ in the end to not immediately pose any major problems to the Orion Federation’s government by the end of the war.

---

After 3730 came along, and with that the end of the First Contact War, Sector 7 was able to reestablish a certain amount of greater stability within its boundaries on the part of the Orion Federation’s government. This was a minor event some loyalists tried to label ‘the great miracle’ and use as propaganda, but this would only increase the infighting as a number of top government loyalists sought to keep a firm hand on Sector 7 and its valuable ‘black sites’ in lieu of the looking civil war era. It was also perhaps the last time the government would be able to do such a thing with success, as with the general post-war decline that began to occur.

This was a boon to the struggling and declining Federation government itself at first, and effort was made by certain military loyalists to keep the projects there afloat and to use them to prepare for the internal struggles to come. In this period the Nilati war hero General Arkas, a Nilati married to a human woman as his comrades knew him, was placed in the system to help protect it from ‘terrorist threats’ but mostly as a way of protecting loyalist assets in that time period from rival factions. Yet a slow but gradual backsliding still occurred due to dwindling resources from infighting, a reversal of some of the actions taken to keep the system loyal in lieu of new resources struggles, and the involvement of inter-factional struggles stirring up the population of the sector to boot.

The final nail in the coffin was the sector being devastated by an unthinkable and notable large-scale Stellar Storm, which in the Sol System alone devastated the habitations of Venus and its population by roughly 89%. This at the same time saved most of the Earth, which was hidden behind Venus at the time, from devastation and the storm-triggered secondary large-scale solar flare that occurred afterward. But the widespread issues, ship-disappearances, and finally the destruction of many hyperlanes within the Sphere would prove too much of an opponent to maintaining proper order. Sector 7, as with many places, would be among the places that erupted into conflict during the ensuing civil war that erupted into life in 3740.

---

During the roughly first seven years of the war the loyalists would fight to and would maintain control over Sector 7 and its neighbors, though the individual they had chosen to place over Sector 7 itself would prove to be their undoing. Increasingly tyrannical and hostile measures were used by the loyalists within Sector 7 in particular, as it stood to hold government black site operations that were rather valuable weapons and materials for the loyalists to use, and the flagrant revelation of some such operations into the open to keep them going at the cost of locals was among the horrors that were perpetrated. Eventually the likes of General Arkas himself, a tentative loyalist (who had hoped to and helped to keep people safe during the former war by joining this particular faction of loyalists) as civil unrest erupted elsewhere, would be broken away by these actions and turn (alongside the many soldiers loyal to him) upon what remained of the nation he had devoted himself to alongside other rebels in Sector 7 in 3748.

For the next twelve years, General Arkas would launch a campaign to bring about order and unity within Sector 7 before branching out to its neighboring areas within the Inner Systems. It was also within this time period the war hero would forge his own mixed bag of a reputation from then onward to boot. On one hand, he would focus on minimizing violence and seeking the peaceful integration of new systems and planets. Many hydroponics works would begin being built on planets who cooperated, both to try to help feed locals and his own armed forces, whilst attempting to use it as a bargaining chip to try to push for a more peaceful resolution. He likewise brought in many powerful people and populations into his cause along the way, working to gradually build steam in his actions instead of rushing to an attempted, hasty, and ill-supplied pyrrhic victory otherwise. Or at least that is how he wrote about perceiving the situation in a general and strategic sense as he went about taking more systems under his command. He even went about arranging for the future repair of damaged hyperlanes, and until then seeking to maintain and organize trade routes to keep his conquered or peacefully acquired systems afloat and happy.

On the other hand, Arkas made many ‘deals with the devil’ in promising reward to powerful people to get them on his side over the likes of other factions and foes during the civil war. He also commanded those below him to pirate and raid the food supplies and shipments from areas beyond what borders he could maintain, and even took food from certain newly-conquered areas that had shown any notable resistance, to try to remedy the food situation (and ensure loyalty) elsewhere in his accrued territories whilst likewise punishing those who had shown ‘too much resistance’ and were seen as ‘still too tough to integrate’ at first. Sometimes food was even used to pressure weaker opponents along the warpath into submission with silent force, and trade routes to keep his areas of control afloat would favor certain ‘more important’ ones over others due to the occasional fluctuation of resources that existed for most of this time within his accrued territories. Not to mention the ‘quiet acquisition’ and pardoning of government black sites and such in the region, both exposed and ones still kept off the books, to feed into his own war effort and internal works despite the many crimes committed in them and criminal researchers/developers working inside many of them (ones not abandoned at the time at least) still.

---

In the wake of the Federation’s fall, it would take another 8 years of war, negotiation, and internal struggle for General Arkas to reach the full extent of what he felt he could take and reasonably control. Within this period there were likewise those under his command who protested that they could still go further and remain stable, however, and wished to push further and harder outward to continue to fuel more conquest. The General disagreed and would eventually halt his push about 7 years after the end of the civil war, though the dissenters would in turn seek to provoke action or set out against orders to continue ‘the fight’. One bickering and debate led to another, then came arrests and warrants, and in the end the dissenters would rise up in rebellion to launch a coup against Arkas and those still loyal to him.

This sub-conflict, known as the “Erubirungehr Rebellion” (due to the group calling themselves the “Erubirungehr”, or basically ‘conquerors’ in a rather corrupted word in this case taken from one of the older human languages [German]), would last one year before being put down by Arkas and his loyalists. It saw scattered fighting within Arkas’ territories, however, and showed much of the weaknesses of what had been established. Likewise the war was only a year, but it was no less brutal in its showing and actions than the recently-ended civil war. This very thing would be what inspired Arkas, and many of those who he managed to keep on his side, to agree to meet upon his flagship (a cruiser named “Sainur” (or “survivor” in the Hiigüül tongue) in the Sol System and work upon as well as lay out the very document that became the “Sol Accord” or “Sainur Constitution” as it is more formally known as by ‘modern’ times.

It was a document that laid out the new government, as well as being something that appeased those that Arkas had to appease (some of those people of power came at a price in certain cases after all) but likewise set into motion and entrenched rights and so forth that would protect the population in a balance to this. It took eight Earth months to work things out and negotiate it fully in turn, before it was finalized and signed in mid-3770. Further, the establishment of Earth (already used for a long time by Arkas and his people as a main base of operations during the civil war) as the capital of the new nation was formalized in turn (as was still calling it “Earth” in the human and other tongues).

Arkas, bearing long-term complications from injuries from his last several personally-involved battles, would eventually pass away quietly in his bed of medical complications six years later in 3776. He was roughly at the end of ‘middle age’ and into early ‘old age’ for one of his species.

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Over the next eighty-four years, the new nation of “The Sovereign Union of Sol” would work in its internal matters for the most part, only paying attention to outside powers if engaged with. They would war with those who sought war or conflict with them in defense, engage in trade with those who were willing to trade, and generally seek to maintain both a steady and stably-sustained national presence without provoking another major conflict with external powers. It wasn’t a time of ‘isolation or utter neutrality’, as some outsiders have often jabbed at locals with, but one that saw smaller conflicts, sought to make improvements to various economic and military technologies, and sought to improve conditions in a form of vertical growth that would bolster up the nation heading into the future.

In this general vein, it could be said that The Sovereign Union of Sol has been quite the successful nation. On the other hand, a lack of wider large-scale participation in events and the like has left the very same nation behind in terms of political alliances and so forth on a greater scale. Involvement with the matters of the Periphery has been frankly nonexistent in the personally-involved sense to boot, even if trade could maybe have reached that far from the Union’s borders potentially), and no expansion to ‘stabilize or bring order to elsewhere’ has been undertaken outwardly either. In this vein the Union has been somewhat more isolated or sidelined, even if in trade it has managed to vastly improve its own internal food security and production (among other things).

-The Sainur, the ship of General Arkas, was named after a Hiigüül word for “survivor”...because it has survived much, as had its crew. Its formal title was the “O.F.S. Sainur”. Before this renaming, partly done as propaganda for the war after the ship became a poster boy in the news media as the General became a proper war hero, it was formerly named the “O.F.S. Argo’tari”.

-Venus has been half-rebuilt, but the devastation caused to its upper-atmosphere and even lower-atmosphere habitation stations and industrial capabilities was nothing short of incredible. What the Stellar Storm did was generally not as bad there comparatively to the large solar flare that the storm caused the sun of the Sol System to produce in the aftermath. Meanwhile Earth did sustain damage from the storm as well, but in comparison to Venus only took a large blow in the Siberian region and secondary damage to the North Pole from the ensuing solar flare in turn due to Venus’ placement in front of it at the time. For Earth this forced the involvement of limited terraforming technology to restore the integrity of the North Pole once more to its prior/’normal’ state, unlike Venus which took far more raw resources to begin any real rebuilding and restoration of its facilities/habitations.

The “Siberian Scar” still exists on Earth as a mark of just what happened back there, with life beginning to creep back in, and Venus has had a titanic memorial likewise installed in memory of those in the Sol System (especially on Venus) who were lost there due to the stellar storm and ensuring solar flare. (Mercury otherwise managed to avoid the solar flare somehow but did get hit with the stellar storm exposure more so in turn due to its lack of atmosphere in comparison to the likes of Earth and Venus.)

-(eventually more to be added someday)

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((NOTE: Space for more to be added as times goes on/later.))

-The creation of some kind of agri-worlds has been by and large put to the side in favor of much more ‘economical’ hydroponics, deemed as such compared to trying to clear up enough land and territory for any kind of proper agri-world otherwise, as with the presence of industrial capabilities and plenty of materials to build such machines it made doing so an easier and more rapid option to deal with initially bulky and present food problems. These problems were rampant during the time of Arkas' campaigns and the civil war, and even afterward it remained a general struggle until sufficient quantities of hydroponics were constructed to sustain local areas and start to ship food effectively around the Union’s territories. From here food infrastructure was worked on as a major area of note to get it to how things stand currently, and indeed the Union is far more prosperous than it once was due to this aspect of its internal development programs and internal focus.

In urban and even some suburban areas the emergence of ‘fashionable hydroponics cuisine’ would also emerge due to the boom of this industry. Growing plants and crops in certain shapes or under certain lights to get unique looks or colors or such, such as curled purple carrots that look nothing like those from the human homeworld, would become a notable part of this. Likewise there was the similar hydroponics practice of growing generations of livestock under different lights or using different foods or such to tweak aspects of the final product for culinary and presentation or flavor purposes, such as the color of the meat or fat content of it and so forth, would emerge.

Indeed it can be said that in this area it is one where quite a bit of advancement has been seen by current times, and where within the Union it has been worked on technologically since even before the end of the civil war to boot. These developments have even helped and led into improved medicine production, improved production of organic and synthetic materials/tissues, and even some improvements in the realm of terraforming. It also is certainly one of the largest areas of the nation’s economy by current times, though to call the Union an ‘agrarian nation’ of any sort would be a very bad misunderstanding indeed.

-The top area of the Union’s economy has ever remained that of industrial production, whether it be the use of foundries, the processing of materials, repurposing of former Federation facilities or building of new ones, and the like. It was mostly this area that necessarily fed into the war machine of the pre-Union times and rather early Union as well as a necessity for survival, and one that better diversified as time went on and especially so as the food situation improved over the decades. Even now the shipyards, constructed space-based and planetary foundries/industrial facilities, and the like are the most common sight to find in Union space by far…ruined, rebuilt, new, or repurposed, or reused ones alike.

Beyond this the art of scavenging has remained a distinct part of the local civilian economy as well. This usually involves the hauling of space debris out of planetary orbits to processing facilities, breaking down shipwrecks for parts to be sold wholesale or to locals/businesses, rooting through scavenge-sanctioned ruins on planets, running junkyards/scrapyards, and the like, all the type of standard business in this sort of respect that a nation would have in some way or another. Yet beyond the base form of this area, and various legitimate licensed independent scrapper businesses existing alongside government-controlled scrapping operations, the existence of the individual and small-business scrapper is something that has continued to be most definitely extant in current times as well.

If you need a scrapper, contracting an individual, many individuals, or even a proper scrapper business company from within the Union is most definitely a good decision in terms of the standard of quality for such workers. Outside of the few and usually foolish ones who would risk employment with an enemy of the nation they live in, called “Scrapers” for how desperate they are to make money in such an overly-risky strategy, most are just called “Scrappers” and “Scrappies” locally within the Union by the average person. On occasion the government will put out some contracts for scrap as well, which gathers a lot of competition due to these being some of the best-paying but hard-to-get contracts in the whole of the Union. Contracts that venture outside of Union territory to get some scrap, which is either Union-citizen or government-owned or otherwise, likewise are not uncommon on the borders but are also seen as a higher-paying greater-risk sort of legal job for a Scrapper/Scrappie.

Illegal operations have ever existed both in areas of industry and scavenging, though, but this area has been highly cracked down on in a very hard and increasingly hard manner by the government over the decades as well. It likewise has what might seem to be overly-harsh punishments within the Union to protect its own markets and internal legal jurisdiction, but at the same time this was seen and treated as merely part of cracking down on and removing inter-system and inter-planetary piracy/crime. The generally successful and disciplined results speak, quietly from the grave or otherwise, for themselves by current times. In short: Do not get caught doing this or being involved with space piracy based out of Union territory…the local as well as historical stories of what could happen and have happened to such individuals before are more than enough to suffice in explaining this if one simply asks around.

Called a “Catmoth” by humans ever since first contact was made with the other sapient spacefaring species of the future Sphere, it is a species native to the Nilati Homeworld that became widespread as a household pet in many places during the thousand years of the Orion Federation. Even among the Nilati pre-spaceflight this species was a common household pet that holds the same type of popularity as people loving cats as pets back during older and more ancient times on Earth. They would hunt pests and keep such things out of homes they lived in as well, which in rather ancient Nilati civilization eras was something highly useful to boot. Etc. They were once seen as good omens to keep around as well.

Of course their spreading popularity would require genetic modifications for living in alternative biomes safely, and various sub-breeds (varying in fur color and shape/size) once bred for various purposes would also likewise find homes and uses abroad and beyond their homeworld to boot. Of course by modern times they are just one kind of potential pet animal that is useful in rural places and has its home in cushy urban centers alike, and in places in-between, so it isn’t as unique as it once was when it was only to be found on the Nilati Homeworld. However, the most popular has been the most basic ‘mixed’ or ‘mutt’ type of Saaziz (as seen in the pictures above) for its general hardiness and due to its use in many old adverts...

….And of course in two rather niche historical cases, both in far-flung backwater planets in the Periphery Systems, they ‘might’ have become a horribly invasive species there. An adorable invasive species that might nibble your toes or sleep on your lap unless you are small enough to be food, or the particular Saaziz is a fully-feral one, but an invasive species all the same.

All Hail The Fluffy Catmoths! Lol.

((NOTE: “saa” is one of the Sumerian words for “cat”, and “ziz” separately is a word for “moth” in the same language as well! So rather technically, the name for this alien species means “cat moth” in Sumerian as well. XD))

An organization established within The Sovereign Union of Sol, dedicated to the investigation, containment, utilization, and understanding of psionic (aka: ‘supernatural’) phenomena. Considering the rarity of natural psionics and the existence of phenomenon associated with the psionic, this organization was designed to meet the needs of looking into such things and keeping an eye on them on the part of the government. Whilst funding is set by the government, and certain approvals in certain areas are required, these are two things among a few others simply put in place to keep the organization on a leash of sorts as part of the nation and frankly extension of the government itself that also answers back to it in the end. Generally-speaking, though, it overall operates independently internally and does not owe loyalty nor the like to any particular group below the top of the government. Even so it often works with other normal or standard arms/bureaus of the government proper along the way where it needs to, even including the likes of city officials and such when necessary for an operation of notable scale or such. It is the arm of the nation aimed at operating mostly in the shadows and behind the scenes, keeping things in check that lie beyond the bounds of the usual everyday, which even possesses its own army of agents and supporting internal armed forces (for handling problems, performing operations, and protecting itself, etc as necessary) as well as possesses their own Research & Development wing and so forth.

Its roots lie within the Bureau of Anomalous Investigations (B.A.I.), a former Orion Federation government black site operations taskforce within the mid-to-late Orion Federation time period that looked into more taboo incidents and indulged in ethically illegal research related to psionics. Loyalties and funding for them lied with a select few within the old Orion Federation’s government, meaning it wasn’t some big national group, and so they were not really loyal to the Federation as much as they were the pocketbook of their supporters and the knowledge as well as ‘power’ they sought to accumulate. In the Post-War period and early Civil War they were bought out by the loyalist faction who ‘purchased’ them for use with large bribes and greater leeway in what they could do, using them as a secretive group to kill rivals and destabilize neighboring rivals as well as steal valuable ‘anomalies’ and other such secrets. However, the organization would become reckless enough to become well-known enough to higher-ranked initially-loyalist individuals such as General Arkas.

Securing their base through a blitzkrieg attack against them, knowing they would be a major obstacle in securing Sector 7, the organization was left to waste with survivors either captured or having been far away already before fleeing after the organization’s primary (and lone at this point) base of operations was seized. Their database and main storage facility, captured at this point during the civil war, was filled with information, research, captured items, contained ‘anomalous subjects’, and other such information and materials and so forth that had been gleaned retroactively before the end of the Invader War from even before its formation by its former masters in the government. General Arkas at the time took all of this into safe hiding before sorting and absorbing a number of the staff that remained at the facility following its capture. Those that were kept, after some of the survivors were executed for war crimes and so forth, were key individuals that would help in part form the foundation for the ultimately codified and legalized PSI Bureau itself later on right after the founding of the Union proper. Some of these even contributed to the curing of the Aratanni’s infertility to boot.

Generally speaking, for the PSI Bureau that is, the history of their ‘predecessors’ has lent itself to policies being enforced (even harshly) that no individuals are allowed to gain power over the organization from without. This mostly is why it independently operates and has a level of autonomy detached from particular nobles or any such groups, but is still on a strong ‘leash’ and such to have a secure ‘lifeline’ in case it ever tried to go rogue.

Leading the organization is one human woman named “Leanne Chambers”, a long red haired woman with an unnatural violet eye color who usually is seen donning her trademark ponytail. Despite seeming by all accounts like a normal human outside of her odd eye color, which most assume is a pair of contacts, she is rumored to have led the organization since its founding..... and even having been part of the old B.A.I. beforehand. Yet this rumor about her is frankly only ever known internally within the organization itself, and is merely just that to the vast majority of the general membership of the P.S.I. Bureau: a rumor. To be so old, even with augmentations, would be ludicrous indeed.

***(The Director is herself in reality almost 2000 years ago, born in 1995 and being currently 1865 years old. She an American woman who joined the FBI and later encountered a very peculiar unrecorded psionic event before being dumped out of it a week later and being confined by the American Government for study after being discovered. Safe to say this containment was because her circumstances of discovery and disappearance were themselves…incredibly strange and highly anomalous circumstances indeed. Her bodily tissues were infused and incorporated with what centuries later would be discovered to be ‘psionic-photonic crystals’, or a psionically-generated form of photonic crystals that have long continued to spread and integrate into her body as well as augment and even preserve her biological makeup over time. Most notable of the effects of this are the superhuman capabilities and attributes she has been in possession of since that day and strange event so long ago: A perfect eidetic memory, impossibly complex and ever-improving mental skills/capabilities in line with futuristic supercomputers, possession of general psionic capabilities/powers, superhuman durability and regeneration, and a lack of aging. She appearance-wise remains in her prime at about the age of 25-27 quite literally, though frankly looks rather deceptively normal enough in her appearance in that sense.

She is the oldest known human in existence, if she can still be called one, and frankly ended up becoming a very powerful psionic and superhuman individual subject studied and abused by the B.A.I. during its eventual existence (but not dying despite the eventual attempts to get rid of her by the old B.A.I. experimentally). She would later be freed by General Arkas as he toured the captured facility, and after talking with him would ultimately serve alongside him with her talents in return for freedom. However this position would evolve into becoming the general’s second and final wife, his first having died just before the end of the First Contact War, and then later on ultimately taking over the newly-created P.S.I. Bureau as its Director. She has retained that position even through current times and kept it all well-oiled and running smoothly…oddly well so for a single individual. But such is part of the mystique of the matter.

...Exists because a cool organization led by a strange abnormal ancient sounded cool to me.)

***(One of the other subjects tied to and a part of the P.S.I. Bureau itself is a strange psionic human referred to simply as “The Emperor”, whose first known ancestor to suddenly develop psionic powers lived within the Periphery Systems and then created a cult there that absorbed the aesthetics of ancient Japan and somewhat from China and Asia from farther back in the planet of Earth’s past to enforce on those loyal to them. Their ancestor was an individual whose passed-down power psionically tapped into their genetics as a catalyst to absorb and recall the lives, memories, and so forth of all their ancestors. Yes, not ‘past lives’ but literally their ancestors genetically going backwards. The original individual was in possession of an untold amount of history, going back so far even they cannot find the ‘origin’ of it all mired in the mists of time, and they along with a handful of followers were taken and contained by the B.A.I. for testing after the discovery of the initial cult by B.A.I. agents near the end of the First Contact War. And with each new generation, each “Emperor/Empress” (depends on the sex of the individual) has only one child that is born that also gains this power and further expands its knowledge base through the genetics of whoever their other parent was.

Even currently the peculiar and seemingly impossible nature of their ‘power’ and existence is still being studied, though this time by choice in return for support and not being a threat to the Union itself or abandoning their status as under the P.S.I. Bureau's jurisdiction. There are ‘protocols’ in case of the worst, but each descendant of the current Emperor/Empress has followed suit and even almost disturbingly shown the exact same behaviors as their particular ancestor (the one in this case that was found by General Arkas after taking down the B.A.I.) was known to have exhibited.

The current Emperor has borne three children by his wife, two of which did not inherit the power of their famous parent and (as with others in the family’s successive generations since the founding of the Union) now help run the ‘Forbidden City’ type of luxurious palatial city the Emperors/Empresses live in, itself surrounded by the greater ‘city’ filled with followers and that beyond this has surrounding and notably far smaller surrounding ‘villages and minor towns’ founded near to it. But as part of the deal made with the original one at the creation of the Union, the successors have always kept only within their rather limited area of influence that they were ancestrally allotted with their followers. Meanwhile the third and youngest child, at least in this generation of the family, would inherit this same power as her father and gain the worshiped status within the cult as the next one to inherit the position as an “Empress” after their father dies.

In the wake of the B.A.I. organization's destruction and ‘abrupt dismantling’ by General Arkas, “The Emperor” at the time and their surviving followers were kept constrained but freed from imprisonment in return for assisting in the General’s war efforts as well. They were then, at the formation of the Union itself, allowed to set up a place to live within the new P.S.I. Bureau’s jurisdiction and be hidden from the greater Union proper in peace. Setting up with their own highly-augmented culture and the ways that “The Emperor” taught them by current/modern times, these followers consist of a multi-species group that seems to be influenced by the presence of The Emperor’s psionic powers but not directly mind-controlled or such by them. Hence the containment of said population. Though successors to The Emperor have sought to assure the P.S.I. Bureau and Union government proper of being peaceful and simply wishing to see their group prosper in peaceful coexistence, they have admitted after some testing that some influence seems to be presence in a passive sense. Hence their willing containment with their followers and such to ensure this peace they say they seek, as well as their assisting the P.S.I. Bureau as part of it and keeping to their deal with the Union government all this time.)

Basically this organization handles and has all the psionic people inside for the Union, as well as educates psionic children and so forth and helps them acclimate to things as well as handling incidents regarding psionics and so forth (etc).Basically this organization handles and has all the psionic people inside for the Union, as well as educates psionic children and so forth and helps them acclimate to things as well as handling incidents regarding psionics and so forth (etc).))