The Ashtar? Bunch of assholes. Bullshitty jumped-up psychic hippy assholes. Ask literally anyone anywhere and they’ll say the same.
They popped up almost exactly 130 years ago. And I do mean “popped up”; one day they were just everywhere all at once, and everyone knew who they were, and why they had come.
It was a noble enough goal; peace in our time and all that good shit. It’s just that they were such giant assholes about it.
You ever been Pushed? No, course you haven’t, you’re too young. Not a psintegrat in the galaxy these days who could do what the Ashtar did, thank the Gods. When they came, they Pushed us. All of us. Every last man woman and child, every blip of sentient spacefaring life in the galaxy. It didn’t hurt, not really. Psintegrae that we have, what they does hurts. It’s a fight, when they try to change something, a fight you have a chance in. But getting Pushed...well, one moment your mind is one way, then you have a little stabby feeling behind the eyes, then your mind is another way. The Ashtar wanted the Galaxy to know why they were here, and they didn’t want to waste time with sub space transmissions and translation algorithms. So they just...Pushed. Some folks didn’t mind it, some folks clawed their own eyes out. Guess I fell somewhere in the middle.
So they spent a hundred odd years enforcing peace in the galaxy. And that’s the right word for it, cuz they sure used a lot of force to keep the peace, at least at first. Between their gate tech and the PsiNet, they could come calling on any scuffles that might be brewing. Only ever took a few cruisers to put a stop to that. Whole fleets got taken out by those cruisers, in the early days. Beautiful ships they were, but more deadly than you’d ever believe. Not invincible, but damned close. When everyone got to comparing notes back at the Madrigasa talks, we figured they lost maybe 7 cruisers in the whole 100 years. Course they were just cruisers. Ashtar sent one of their capital ships around on a tour of the galaxy once. Thing was the size of a small moon...
Anyways, bout a hundred years pass, then *poof*, gone. Took everyone a while to realize it, but they up and left, every last ship, in about a day.
Rest is modern history, really. The Great War, the Madrigasa talks, the Treaty of Detente, all that. I guess the Great War kindof proved the Ashtar’s point. Took the galaxy less than a year to start a war like we’d never seen before. Like we’d never known we even could see.
And now the stupid bastards who run things are about to do it again. Madrigasa and the Detente would’ve lasted if the Ashtar hadn’t poked their godam noses in again. Assholes had to know what they’d provoke. Oh sure, that Llyena woman talked the good talk, “come together as a galaxy, carry on our legacy”, all that crap. But they had to know that every government in the galaxy would be willing to do anything to get their hands on Ashtar tech. Llyena said they were dying, leaving, whatever. I figure they just decided to fuck with us on the way out. PsiNet’s final message. The Ashtar’s last laugh.
So here we are. The fighting’s still holed up at Agdemnar, all those “rogue elements” and “expeditionary forces” killing eachother, but it won’t last. No, those new hyperdreads everyone’s building, most of those are never going to see Agdemnar orbit. They’re building them to go for the throat. Damn galaxy’s one stray spark away from going up in flames. So I don’t know, maybe the Ashtar were right in the end. Maybe that’s the joke.
Welcome all to my inaugural attempt at running a sci-fi NRP. Let’s see how running one of these things actually works.
There’s a couple key elements to the setting, but I’ll spell out the history a little more plainly first.
In short, some high tech psychic space elves (the Ashtar) spent a hundred years playing peacekeepers in the Milky Way. If you don’t like space elves, I’ve got good news: they’re all dead. Anyways, less than a galactic standard year after they left, war breaks out. It started out small enough, but pretty much everyone got involved before the end came, 10 years later. Peace was negotiated on the neutral world Madrigasa, and in the ensuing spirit of cooperation and unity, the Treaty of Detente was signed. It did a lot of nice things, but mostly it limited naval construction. It gave the galaxy 20 odd years of peace. Then the Ashtar sent out a psionic broadcast across the galaxy, announcing that they were dying/leaving, and giving the coordinates to Agdemnar, their outpost at the centre of the galaxy. Agdemnar in turn would “open the way” to the fabled Ashtar homeworld of Ayrie, where the races of the galaxy could “take on the mantle” of the Ashtar and carry on their work and so on. Naturally every government around was mostly thinking about all the amazing Ashtar tech they could loot from Ayrie, and how much it would suck to share that with their neighbors. Naval construction kicked back up at a frantic pace, including the new hyperdreadnoughts, which I’ll get to in a minute. Everyone sent forces to Agdemnar, but most sent “mercenaries” or “relief forces”, or claimed the admirals and generals involved had gone rogue. The result is that so far the fighting has been contained to Agdemnar, but everyone knows that’s going to change. So build your space boats, make some friends, and get ready for a fight.
Note that this setting will have very little room for first contact situations. I’m establishing a shared galactic history that everyone’s been involved in to some extent. There will certainly be nations with no established diplomatic contact, but this setting is interconnected enough that your nation will have at least heard of everyone else’s. Certainly there can be exceptions, so if you’re wanting to play an isolated nation and do first contact, write up an NS and I’ll take a look.
The Great War: Despite sharing a name with WW1 IRL and resulting in a similar treaty setup, I’m thinking the Great War was actually relatively civilized, a gentlemen’s war, certainly at the start, probably because everyone’s naval forces were super out of date after the Ashtar lockdown. Towards the end, when new weapons started to emerge (like dreadnought class starships), enough of the belligerents got spooked by the killing power becoming available that they ended up negotiating a broadly satisfactory peace settlement at the Madrigasa talks.
The Treaty of Detente (or at least the naval component): Halted all dreadnought construction and introduced strict limitations on the size and firepower of battleships and battlecruisers. Largely written up between the X major powers of the galaxy. Quite effective because none of those major powers’ economies had sufficiently recovered to sustain an arms race. The major powers forced the thing top down on everyone else, since it was no good to them if some upstart power built up a modern navy while their backs were turned. Likely resulted in one brief conflict, the “Devastation of Blank”, wherein the major powers discovered such an upstart and went in and practically nuked em back to the stone age.
The Message: The Ashtar built a comm beacon array throughout most of the galaxy (PsiNet as they called it, but now known as the Galactic Net, more on that later). The nations of today still use it because why wouldn’t you, it would be ridiculously expensive and inconvenient to replace. However, they only have access to the “real” frequencies of the network. There’s a telepathic layer to it that only the Ashtar could access, and the message came from there, simultaneously to the entire galaxy. Come to Agdemnar, open the way to Ayrie, take up our mantle, build our legacy etc. etc. Coordinates attached.
The Battle for Agdemnar and Point Jakurna: The first folks to arrive at Agdemnar didn’t take long to find the Ashtar command centre: A huge tower the Ashtar called Point Jakurna. Unfortunately it’s under an enormous shield bubble a hundred klicks across, and in the year since folks arrived at Agdemnar, no one’s been able to penetrate the shield. So Agdemnar has become a warzone, on the surface and the orbitals. Different armies occupy different parts of the planet, most of them with some presence on the perimeter of the bubble. No one’s been able to secure control of the orbitals; space forces have gotten into the habit of rallying in the outer system, then making a dash for the planet and offloading as many ground forces as they can before someone else comes along to chase them off.
The idea here is that we have a persistent conflict going on regardless of the politics and diplomacy going on in the rest of the galaxy, so there’s always something for everyone.Lots of room for plot elements on Agdemnar, so don’t ignore it. At the same time, you wouldn’t want someone to march into your capital while you’re away, so don’t overcommit either.
Hyper-Dreadnoughts: Fun little gimmick here: everyone go out and find a picture of a big cool spaceship then write a little blurb about how big and cool it is. Basically, the next greatest thing in naval warfare, hyperdreads utterly outclass any ship that came before them. They represent the final word in combat power, and a significant escalation of tensions in the galaxy. Everyone starts with one at the beginning of the RP, and every now and then I’ll announce that some more have been completed. For simplicity’s sake, every hyperdread is equal to every other hyperdread. Expect engagements between these things to be long and rarely conclusive.
The Galactic Net: A network of FTL comm relay stations across the galaxy, originally built by the Ashtar and now maintained by the nations of the Galaxy. FTL of course does not mean instantaneous, and bandwith remains an issue, so the Net is not like our Internet, more like a very fast postal service. You’ll all be finding out about major events in the galaxy within days, rather than weeks or months. The limits on bandwith mean it’s still easier to send large amounts of data by courrier ship. Additionally, since it’s a shared network, you’d better be damnned confident in your encryptions and cyphers if you’re sending sensitive information. Top secret stuff (like military orders or diplomatic correspondence etc.) should probably also be sent by courrier.
Relations Sheet: I'd like folks to summarize their nation’s relations with other nations. It’s a nice easy way to keep track of shared history. This may be multiple paragraphs or it can be a simple “Contact between X and Y is minimal.”
Tl;dr rules for the lazy among us
1. Every nation was in some way impacted by the Ashtar, otherwise there’s no reason for them to engage in the central plot. 2. Your engagement with the Great War and the galaxy’s shared history will determine how big I let your nation be. I’ve formalized this into three classes, read on to find out more. 3. Everyone starts with largely outdated or small navies built before or under the Treaty of Detente. This is mostly to level the playing field a bit, but I’m open to exemptions. 4. Everyone has some level of forces on Agdemnar. Might just be a few special ops teams, but you have people there. Note you don’t have to always use them; as in, you don’t have to write up battle posts for Agdemnar every time you post, but your guys should be there. 5. Everyone builds Hyperdreads. I’m not going to bother determining the combat effectiveness and relative power levels of every class of ship for every navy, and the Hyperdreads will not penalize the rest of your forces in any way, so just take the godamn super spaceships that I’m giving you for free. 6. Play nice. Really, sort out your differences politely amongst yourselves. You don’t want me intervening, if only because I’m lazy and any intervening I do will be sweeping and arbitrary, and probably disappointing for everyone involved (sex joke!). 7. No planet crackers. Just don’t want to deal with that. You’re welcome to glass the surface but no blowing the things up. 8. There’s always a kerfuffle over FTL. I as of this writing have not decided what I’m going to do to preempt/respond to that kerfuffle. Ideally we’ll all play nice and work out a compromise, but I reserve the right to slap rules on FTL and how it’s used. EDIT: Newly slapped minor limitation! All FTL, regardless of tech, doesn't work within 1 light minute of a planet or star. Putter your way in and out of the interdiction zone at sublight, otherwise feel free to combat FTL around as fast as your generators can cycle! 9. Speaking of slapping, I reserve the right to boot anyone at any time for any reason, or no reason whatsoever. Don’t get me wrong, I want people to play this and I want people to enjoy this, so I’m not going to be kicking people for the lulz. What I mean is that if you’re being a dick, you’re not entitled to a defence attorney, a fair trial, and a jury of your peers. I’m not going to play internet lawyer with dicks, I’m just going to give em the boot. I do like to think of myself as a reasonable person so I’ll generally stick with warnings and trying to talk out the problem, but yeah, consider yourselves warned.
Please post your nation sheets in the OOC tab for approval, then move them to the Characters tab when I give the OK.
I’m probably going to make a discord. The link will be distributed by PM once folks have posted an NS.
NS Format: see next post. I’m going to go ahead and code the thing out, but that format is not strictly necessary, I’m just doing it to make things easy to read for myself. Go ahead and quote the post to get the code.
NOTE: I’m aiming to get some collaborative history building going, so I’ve decided to formally divide nations into three classes. You may choose whichever one you want, there’s no limit on how many we can have of any type.
Major Belligerent: Your nation was a major participant in the Great War, your brave men and women fought valiantly across the galaxy for peace, justice, all that good stuff. Consequently, your nation was a major force in shaping the treaty of Detente and the post-war galaxy as we know it. Your words carry weight at any table, your while your economy took a beating during the war, you have the population, resources, and prestige to restore what was lost, sooner than your enemies might think.
Minor Belligerent: Your nation fought at the side of a Major Belligerent, contributing what men and materiel it could from its more limited resources. Your contributions did not go unnoticed, and your voice carried loud and clear at the Madrigasa talks. You may lack the diplomatic clout and resources of the Galaxy’s old guard, but your star is in the ascendant; less affected by the ravages of the Great War, your nation is poised to become the first of a new age of galactic powers.
Non-combatant/neutral: Let other fools fight. You wisely stood by the sidelines when the Great War began, though perhaps it was your small size and unimportance that saved your nation from the war. Still, you’ve managed to grow in the interwar years, building up rather than building anew. Your more influential neighbors may crush you under their boots once they’re fully mobilized, but only if you don’t slit their throats first.
(Please do put the thing in a hider, as shown below)
Official Nation Name
Any less official names your nation or its people may have
General Information (an overheading to space things out a bit)
Nation type (Major Belligerent, Minor Belligerent, Non-Combatant)
Overview
A general summary of your nation. Just a paragraph or so with the high-level points.
History
Most of this is pretty optional, but some is fairly important. Notably this section should include your nation’s interactions/responses/thoughts on the Ashtar and it’s involvement in the Great War.
Major Holdings
Your capital world, your favourite starbase, the key places in your Nation etc.
Demographics
Population
Not an actual number, but this is the section to talk about your people. Folks with multiple species, a percentage breakdown of those species might be nice. Descriptions of all those lovely species would also be nice.
Society
Daily life and such. Not the most important section but useful for giving us a sense of how your citizens actually feel about their nation. Can include religion, fashion, etc.
Economy
This could go under society if you like. Mostly just make it clear up front if you’re an industrial powerhouse, a nation of refined master artisans, etc. Also things people might want to know for trading purposes.
Government
My favourite part <3. Probably the most important of the demographics sections. Who runs the place, how do they run it. Since you will presumably be RPing people in your government, this is pretty critical.
Technological Information
Major Techs
Mostly interested in military techs, here: FTL, weapons, shields, armor, power, engines, etc. Civilian techs are also here, and sometimes just as important.
Military Information
Military Overview
Describe general doctrine, history, whatever floats your space boats.
Fleet/Navy
Your space boats. Include pics or don’t, I’m not your supervisor. You’ll probably want to have one or two of most of the classes, but it doesn’t really matter too much. I’m also including some flavour options here that you might want to consider. In short, the history of the galaxy has divied up ship designs into three waves: Great War (ships built before and during the Great War), Detente (ships built during the Detente, some wonky designs in the larger classes due to treaty limitations), and Modern (ships built in the year since the message)
DO NOT put your hyperdread here, it gets its own section.
Dreadnoughts: Only a few were built before the end of the Great War, the destructive potential of these vessels was a major contributor to ending the conflict. Those old ones are pretty obsolete, and any new ones are only just coming into service (mostly in secret) due to the Treaty of Detente banning their construction.
Battleships: The grand old ladies that did all the fighting of the Great War. The Treaty of Detente imposed limitations on their sizes and destructive potential, so if you want to get intricate there’s 3 waves of battleships: Great War, Detente, and Modern. Great War is self explanatory, old sluggers and antiques. Detente battleships were awkward creations involving all kinds of elaborate ways to get around the Treaty without actually violating it. Lots of glass cannon designs here, or iron fortresses that couldn’t scratch eachother’s paint, or half baked experimental weapon systems, or novel propulsion methods that only work if nobody on board sneezes. Modern battleships are just coming into service, and are quite deadly.
Battlecruisers: The treaty of Detent also limited battlecruisers, in an effort to avoid just slightly reducing the size of ship involved in any potential arms race. Similar design iterations to Battleships; Great War, Detente, and Modern. Detente battlecruisers were often cripplingly overspecialized: dedicated point defence ships, artillery vessels, mass shielding vessels, etc. Battlecruiser designs from the Detente period were often put together as a way to shore up the weaknesses of their contemporaneous Battleship partners.
Cruisers: Nothing special here.
Destroyers: Still nothing special.
Frigates: Nope.
Corvettes: Corvettes can be thought of in several iterations just kidding I don’t care what you do with these things. Unless you try to just upscale what I’m trying to avoid with strike craft.
Strike craft: K I’m actually gonna sort of limit these things, or rather, the things that carry them around. Strike craft have long been an important part of space combat, so most nations have them and defences against them. Historically, they’ve been used as close in support; no one’s yet figured out how to strap useful FTL drives on the things. All this means that long range strikes aren’t practical. What I’m trying to get at is Carrier’s aren’t really a thing, or at least dedicated carriers aren’t. Plenty of room for Battlestar type things (fighty-boats with a solid complement of strike craft), but no dropping off a carrier squadron on one side of the system then expecting your strikecraft to win the fight on the other side.
A notable exception is your Hyperdread. Do whatever you want with your super special awesome boat.
Army/Planetary forces
Outline some doctrine, highlight some major units. I’m not great at doing ground forces so not much guidance here.
Getting something up now, will continue working on it throughout the weekend.
Basically a large food producer, genetic engineering nation with an outdated navy. Their planets feed whole sectors and rely on a web of Alliances to keep their borders safe after being partially occupied during the Great War.
The Star Republic of Rolvius "Our Roots Go Deep"
The Rolvan Granary (laconic), the Tree-Hugger Republic (prejorative)
General Information
The Star Republic of Rolvius is considered a Minor Power by most Star Nations. Their nation is one that wields "soft power" throughout the galaxy, as they provide multiple industrial worlds with the daily rations needed to keep their workers' bellies full.
In Warfare they: - Rely on massive ground-based armies for defense of their homeworlds. - Genetically engineered war beasts (colloquially called "Invasive Species") used to take the fight to the enemy's territory. - An Alliance Network to safeguard their own territory, after a third of Rolvian Space was occupied by foreign powers during the Great War.
Overview
The Star Republic of Rolvius is an agrarian economy. The nation practices sustained farming on multiple worlds in their territory. Inevitably they could be among the Major Powers of the Galaxy, but this would require a massive cultural and political shift, along with decades of work. Most of the citizens treasure their place in the galaxy- living so close to nature and enjoying the fruits of modernity via trade.
History
Rolvius generally benefited from the oversight of the Ashtar, allowing them to develop multiple Gaea-class planets under their protection, merging modern scientific discoveries with a careful application of genetic engineering to preserve natural phenomena. Having lost their original homeworld to dramatic climate change and industrialization, the Ashtar gave the Rolvians a second chance at survival- one that they have not forgotten.
During the Great War, the Rolvians were initially unwilling to enter hostilities and holed up within their borders as war gathered on the horizons. Multiple foreign powers crossed their borders and set up staging grounds on satellite worlds within the Republic- initially these "unwanted guests" were exceedingly polite, diplomatic, and utterly able to overpower the Rolvians with or without a fight. Rolvus unprepared for war would lose only a little faster than Rolvus obsessively prepared for war. Rolvius held its fleets in reserve while multiple belligerents pledged to help dislodge the occupiers in exchange for access to the Rolvian breadbaskets and their ground troops, especially when grain and meat stopped leaving their sectors to the rest of the galaxy. Rolvus continued gathering strength and withholding shipments, putting severe strain on food sources throughout whole galactic sectors. Four planetary governments were toppled due to hunger riots directly related to the Rolvian food blockade- three of them were eventually conquered by Rolvian troops in the late stages of the war.
Major Holdings
Rolvius
Mezla
Manir The sight of most of the destruction in the Great War. Manir was occupied by the
Demographics
Population
The Republic's population is mostly (92%) native Rolvians, though there has been an influx of humans (2%) and other races to spaceports since the Great War's end. Deserters of foreign armies that tramped across Manir have been regularly found, and depending on the manner of their discovery, are either extradited to their home star nation or allowed to live-and-let-live.
Society
Rolvian society revolves around the farming communities and families. Family units can be homo, hetero, or any other -sexual. The prevalence of genetic splicing allows for the creation of children outside heterosexual reproductive methods, and this does not carry a significant stigma outside of several Fundamentalist Gaean sects.
A Rural Rolvian does not live in a town, but on a bio-ranch with several thousand workers. Cities are primarily administration centers and spaceports, with few factories to produce machinery and packaging supplies. Ore is mined from the Republic's asteroid belts- never from any planet unless a prospective asteroid mine cannot be found.
A city Rolvian will often be identified by their place of work, either at a University, Government Agency, or Factory.
A Rolvian Asteroid Miner lives in a controlled colony, working in low gravity work to provide raw materials that will protect the beauty of home. Some take pride in this work. Some are sentenced to this work. Most just know it's an easy way to make money if they can stand the cramped quarters and isolation.
Roughly 40% of Rolvians Revere the Galactic Gaea, a motherly figure that protects, shelters, and provides from the earth while granting hidden knowledge. Human scholars that first encountered the religion referred to her as "Hippy Prometheus with giant... plants."
Economy
The Republic's economy is dominated by agricultural exports. A full 68% of economic output (and 82% of exports) are food-based products or byproducts (leather, hides, etc). Behind agriculture is bio-engineering, medicine, and tourism. It is not uncommon for Oligarchs across the galaxy to venture into the Republic and purchase genetic treatments- receiving custom grown heart, lung, or skin regeneration, then recovering from such treatments in one of many resorts or vacation destinations across the Republic.
Government
Prime Minister Vannifar currently holds the speaker position in the Rolvian government. Duchess of Granite Peak, she is on her third term as Minister and wields power in a Coalition government. Her Liberal-Aristocracy Party hold 30% of the seats in Parliament, while their partners the Corporate Alliance Party and the Manir Solidarity Party hold 14% and 11%, respectively.
Vannifar lived through the occupation of Manir and has made the completion of the Hyper-Dreadnought her main foreign policy tool.
Rolvian Cabinet Prime Minister: Lady Varous Vannifar (Liberal-Aristocracy) Minister of Defense Minister of Interplanetary Affairs Minister of the Treasury Minister of Justice Minister of Trade Minister of Planetary Development
Technological Information
Major Techs
Biological Splicing: Rolvian ground troops use military standard blasters and kinetic rifles, but their infantry are granted genetic infusions to improve their natural fighting ability. Night vision genetic grafts from the Manir Mountain Puma, hard leather skin implantation from splicing with the Mezla Pink Rhino, and in some cases, webbing beneath the arms to allow for gliding over short distances.
Rapid Harvesting: Rolvius has practiced cultivation of crops for generations, experimenting with genetic modifications for multiple seed crops. These crops tend to produce two-to-three harvests per year.
Bio-Weapons: The Rolvian army does not manufacture armored vehicles beyond airships and starships. Most of the "armored vehicles" that they field are actually modified beasts of war.
Acid Missiles: Rolvian warships and strike craft are armed with hunter-killer torpedoes and missiles, though the explosive components within these weapons only serve as propulsion to deliver the missile's true payload- acid globules. These globules attach themselves to solid components on enemy targets and begin to dissolve metal and steel at an exponential rate. Maximum damage threshold is met approximately 3 minutes after delivery in the vacuum of space, while oxygen accelerates the destructive process. Should roughly 3 cubic-meters of acid be delivered to the interior of a warship it can and will begin dissolving metal, flesh, and bone for roughly 30 minutes, and \the acid will be further spread through water-based fire suppression systems. Carbon and nitrogen-based fire-fighting systems will successfully prevent the spread of acid and even halt the destruction.
Military Overview
The Rolvian military practices a defensive policy. Their fleet is considered third class by the galaxy's major powers, but their marines and ground forces are considered a threat to any general, anywhere in the galaxy. Rolvian bio-weapons are lab built and refined, their genetic codes altered and tweaked to make sure that their weapons will be as deadly as a raging lion on the battlefield, and as docile (and delicious) as a cow when peace is declared.
Fleet/Navy
Dreadnoughts: The Rolvians have only ever laid down the hull for one Dreadnought, the RRS Gaea. The Gaea was repurposed and upgraded into a Hyperdreadnought, and officially completed in recent weeks.
Battleships: The Republic does not possess any Battleships at this time.
Battlecruisers: The Republic does not possess any Battlecruisers at this time.
Cruisers: Most of the Republic's cruisers were purchased in the lead-up to the Great War.
Destroyers:
Frigates:
Corvettes:
Strike craft:
Rolvian strike craft are armed with acid hunter-killer missiles and standard anti-strike craft kinetic cannons. Most travel in squadrons of 10 and up to 5 squadrons are moored on monitoring stations through the Rolvian sector.
Army/Planetary forces: Rolvian infantry are primarily made up of planetary guard forces. Some join the guard corps out of a sense of patriotism, others for the lucrative tax breaks, but most find the training and passive genetic grafts useful in everyday life "back on the farm." Add to this the likely assignment of a government bred Uulaka, a venomous but loyal war beast, to be a benefit back home as well. The Uulaka protects crops and herds and is a hardy mount, capable of moving at speeds nearly 75 kph for short bursts.
The Planetary Guard Corps could, if fully assembled, launch a prolonged invasion of an entire solar system with reasonable chances of conquest without more than token naval support.
Still working on this (it only goes up to the first few years of the Great War), but here's a preview of some history.
The Empire of Alduur
Battered, Never Broken.
The Alduuri people, particularly those who enlist in the armed forces, are proud and capable. To say that subjugation by the Ashtar went over poorly is an understatement. Much of the Imperial Navy was not about to bow to the mind meddling of those who imagine themselves superior. The Navy flew, readying its fleets to show the Ashtar just who the Alduuri were and remind them that they would never bow.
To call the resulting “battle” a massacre would be a disservice to massacres. A thousand Alduuri warships and hundreds of thousands of the Navy’s finest arrived at a meager fringe system of the Ashtar’s territorial holdings, orbiting opposite just twelve Ashtar cruisers. Warships quite literally evaporated under the incoming fire. Almost all of the Alduuri Imperial Navy was slaughtered to a man, wholly reduced to atoms, all to merely disable a single Ashtar cruiser.
The injury suffered on that fateful day was not soon forgotten. When the damned psychics released their deathgrip on the galaxy at large, the Alduuri people were split. There were a few whose fighting spirit had truly been crushed, abandoning the pride of the Alduuri for more peaceful, hedonistic ways. Many were ready for revenge. The sting of their loss had done nothing but fester in the century that had followed it. Just as many felt it was pointless to try. They were free now, and there was no point sending their infant naval forces back to the slaughterhouse.
The galaxy took mere months to explode around them. Those who desired for blood soon shifted their sights from an impossible adversary to many more very manageable targets. Manageable, at least, to the Navy at full strength. Almost no reconstruction had taken place during the subjugation of the Ashtar, and the number of war-ready, FTL-capable spacecraft in the whole of the Empire could be counted on two hands. So they bit their tongues, sat on their hands, and waited.
Biding their time gave an opportunity to rebuild a standing naval force. The Imperial Navy put together a technological marvel of a fighting force in just four years. Having thrown away their entire naval arm at the dawn of Ashtar subjugation, their newly constructed forces were bleeding edge military technology in stark contrast to the archaic fleets most nations were busily beating each other with. Though the Alduuri industrial complex was a powerhouse and the Empire was far from a minor player on the galactic stage, four years was grossly insufficient to construct a naval force that could rival the larger powers at war. Advanced as it was, the lack of training of officers and sheer lack of quantity would come to haunt it.
The military veterancy unanimously held that these new ship classes could face down two adversaries of equivalent classification and emerge decisively victorious. When the Alduuri Imperial Navy took to the battlespace for the first time in over a century, they were not so fortunate as to be faced with two to one odds. The fleets of <someone> outnumbered the reconstructed navy by nearly five to one.
For the second time, the Imperial Navy would fight to the last ship. Despite attempting to fall back into Imperial territory after the harsh realization that they were simply not eliminating enemy ships fast enough, the fleet was pursued into the orbital defense layers of <planet>. The price to fully knock out the fleet was exceedingly high, massive casualties coming from both the technological prowess of the warships and the ruthless power of the orbital defenses. Nonetheless, The Empire of Alduur was once again stripped of its naval superiority. The mistake of rushing into battle half-cocked would not be repeated again.
I did totally decide to be sadistic to my poor empire (I still love them). I figure they'll spend the rest of the war using part of their military industrial complex to produce someone else's ships in support, while the rest of it steadily rebuilds their core navy force. The Treaty of Detente would widely be viewed as a suggestion and careful measures to continue construction of powerful capital class warships would be taken. I expect they'd be given a little bit of slack considering they were completely stripped of naval forces twice, but they'd still be very carefully walking on eggshells.
A young power on the rise in the Western Outer Rim regions of the Galaxy. Ruled under the divine guidance of the Messiah and the Ascendant Church.
History
When the Ashtar first arrived over a century ago, it was a waning time, the nations of the Galaxy refusing to bow before them. However, as the years passed and the Ashtar having cemented their indefinite reign over the galaxy, people on millions of worlds slowly begun to revere them as divine beings, slowly morphing into a new religion that would spread through the galaxy like wildfire. Varying cults and sects of the Ashtari Faith soon sprouted up on many worlds, spreading their message, their divine interpretation of the Ashtar.
Once the Ashtar had vanished, followed by the start of the Great War, the Ashtari faith was thrown into disarray, many blaming the nonbelievers for the disappearance of the Gods, and how the nations of the galaxy were tarnishing the peace the Gods brought to the galaxy. The Ashtari soon declared their own Holy War upon all participants of the Great War, engaging in acts of terrorism, launching insurrections, and many more. Their Holy War kept on for the first five years of the Great War, before the Ashtari received the Call.
On the Outer Rim world of Jalaryias, the one claiming to be the Messiah summoned all the faithful to her side, claiming that divinity runs through her veins, claiming to be a Half-breed, a Demigod. Many sect leaders were at first, skeptical of these claims, but eventually they, and many others ceased all operations, and begun a mass exodus to the western reaches of the Outer Rim, converging on the lush world of Jalaryias. This world would soon be at the very heart of the newly established Ascendancy, in their short term isolation, the Ascendancy launched a series of campaigns against neighboring systems, conquering fledgling human colonies and primitive alien civilizations. Decades into the present, the Ascendancy has emerged as a potential power in the Outer Rim. Once the message from Llyena reached the Ascendancy and all faithful across the galaxy, much rejoicing followed as the Gods seemed to have returned once more.
By the time the Message was received, the Ascendancy had already opened itself up to the greater galaxy, establishing alliances, trade routes and spreading the faith ever further. However, this entanglement with the great powers of the Milky Way has proved to be a bane in the end, the political ramifications of Jalaryias' official entry in the emerging conflict would be utterly disastrous, however many within the church, military and citizenry would simply take matters into their own hands, a plot the Ascendant Council was all to aware of and quietly gave their consent.
Major Holdings
Jalaryias: The seat of power within the Ascendancy, once a remote human colony, the world of Jalaryias is one of serenity, lush jungles and forests covering the surface, dotted by grand cities and humble settlements, it is also the homeworld of the Messiah and where she summoned the faithful.
Talania: The polar opposite of Jalaryias, Talania is a world of heavy Industry, it's surface littered with hundreds of foundries churning both civilian products and military equipment.
Jericho: An arid world located within the gateway systems between the fringe and the core, and home to the Jericho Fleet Yards Corporation, the primary manufacturer of the Ascendancy's newer generation of Warships, its orbit dominated by hundreds of shipyards.
Demographics
Population
The Ascendancy is home to numerous species from all across the galaxy. Be it Human, Nonhuman, it matters not, all are equal in the Holy Light of the Ashtar. The latest species to be added to the flock of the faithful are the Dathir, a peculiar, vaguely insectoid species, and the Repto-mammalian Aldzam. Both conquered in the early years of the Great Crusade.
The culture of Jalaryian Ascendancy is one of piety, devotion and order. Most citizens of the Ascendancy strive to become faithful servants of the Ashtar, and to be worthy one day to ascend and be among with their Gods. Despite some semblance of peace and prosperity, it is far from it, such peace is often maintained through brutal force. Although a segment of the population are content with their lives, many other citizens think otherwise, and often are marked as either apostates or heretics, and often will be hunted down by the Inquisitors.
Economy
Like in all aspects, the Ascendancy lags behind many other nations in economic power, but it's simply bidding time as the Ascendancy has slowly emerged as a potential powerhouse in the region, in the short few decades of its existence, several influential corporations have already manifested, forming the bakcbone of Jalaryias' potential industrial might and commercial value. Exporting whatever products one needs, be it food stuffs, resources and military hardware.
Government
The Ascendancy is a Theocratic Monarchy under the rule of the Messiah Ilya, a truly rare Ashtar Half-breed. Under the Messiah are the general caretakers, the Ascendant Council of Apostles. It's members consists of representatives from of the most influential institutions within the Ascendancy, The Ascendant Church, the Military and the Bureaucracy or the Central Government as it is called often. Each member of the Council is given the title of Apostle and the one to lead such a council is given the title of Oracle.
The Council functions both to act as the governing body of the Ascendancy as a whole and to administer church functions and activities, Promoting and spreading the Light of the Ashtar and keeping order within the borders of the Ascendancy. Despite the rather equal footing the members of the Council seem to present, the Church is by far the most powerful of the three, using its secretive enforcement arm, the Inquisition, to root out corruption, enforcing the faith and the will of the church within the Central Government and on the streets of dozens of worlds. The Ayrie Knights fulfill a similar function, Knight chapters assigned with military units giving the task to see if their faith stays true.
Technological Information
Major Techs
Compared to the participants of the Great War, the Ascendancy lags far behind in many aspects. However, due to their formerly remote location, the Ascendancy was allowed both time and peace to work on new military technologies to better themselves, and for the most part, it has bored fruit, but in limited quantities, developing such feats as directed energy weapons that ranged as small as firearms, to as large as a assault batteries for starships, as well as developing hover vehicles to better navigate unforgiving terrain on more harsh worlds.
Military Information
Military Overview
Describe general doctrine, history, whatever floats your space boats.
Pilgrims Once the call for Crusade was sounded, tens of thousands of regular citizens took up arms and embarked on a grand Pilgrimage to claim the Holy Land in the name of the Ashtar. Jalaryian Pilgrims form the core of the Crusade's irregular forces, acting as guerilla fighters and light infantry in large scale battles. The more fanatical and fearless among their ranks will often then not, strap various explosives upon their person, willing to take their own life and those around them for the glory of the Gods.
Army Regular A grade above the Pilgrims, the regulars of the Jalarysian Army form the the heart and soul of the crusading armies of the Ascendancy, although their equipment lags behind other armies, their devotion to their Gods and State more then make up for such inadequacies.
Vanguard The more veteran elements of the Ascendancy's military. The Vanguard act as the elite shock troops of the ground forces, only the best of the infantry are chosen to join their ranks and train in the Vanguard program.
Cleansers A sub-section of the standard army regulars and as the title suggests, the Cleansers main task is to simply cleanse the battlefield of heathens and infidels in divine flame. Armed with Plasma flame throwers, the Cleansers are among the more zealous even among the faithful.
Redeemers
Utility Jeep
Infantry Fighting Vehicle
Armored Personnel Carrier
Main Battle Tank
Mobile Artillery
Anti-Air
Mobile Command Vehicle
Crusader-series Combat Armor Developed to eventually phase out the old combat exoskeletons. Trooper Variant Officer Variant Heavy Powered Armor variant Recon Variant War Angels
Scout Bike
Utility Vehicle
Modular APC
Artillery
Main Battle Tank
Siege Platform
Marine Light Combat Armor
Crusader-series Marine Powered Armor
Established shortly before the outbreak of the Great War, the Sacred Order of the Lost Ayrie Knights, or the Ayrie Knights as they're commonly referred too, were among the more militant of the Ashtari Sects, tracing their origin to Sirona, a rural colony world on the very fringes of what is now Federation Space.
For a brief period, the rather feeble Sironan Government was quickly overthrown in a violent Ashtari uprising spearhead by the precursors of the Order and had declared Sirona their Dominion. Their rather short-lived rule over the colony was bloody, the populace continually resisting the Ashtari Usurpers, only to be met with crackdowns, however it would not be long before the Sironan people's plight had reached the ears of the Federation of Nations. Not too long a Federal Strike Force made planefall, and within a few months, the Federation had successfully liberated the planet from the Ashtari.
Battered and defeated, the Sironan Sects fled far from Federation Space, still eager to answer the call of Holy War upon the Galaxy, traveling system to system, aiding their brothers and sisters in the destruction of the Infidels.
Once all the faithful received the summons from the Messiah, the Knights were among the tens of thousands of sects to answer the call. And due to their distinguished service in the Crusades to secure Jalaryias' place in the Outer Rim, they were made the Elite of the Elite. The Sacred Order of the Lost Ayrie Knights was officially established and was made the Military Arm of the Church. Armor Variants Although a great number of the Order's ranks are granted the honor of personalized suits of armor, many more are yet to be granted such privileges and are equipped with more standardized set of armor.
Squire Light Combat Armor
Yeoman Powered Armor
Lancer Powered Armor
Judicator Powered Armor
Notable Knight Chapters Sisterhood of the Dawnbringer Herself
Oathsworn of Izani
Scions of Mishri
Redeemers of St Sierata
Fleet/Navy
Capital Ships Initiate-class Corvette
Crusader-class Gunboat Like many others before, the Crusader Gunboats are civilian transports converted into light warships. The Crusader fulfilling the role of an anti-fighter ship, a small array of AA guns bolted down onto its hull, and acting as a medium troop transport, ferrying the faithful in the hundreds to one target to another.
Acolyte-class Frigate
Zealot-class Destroyer
Archer-class Torpedo Frigate Another product of Lokoid engineering. The Archer frigate's purpose is to act as a light artillery platform, lobbing waves of torpedoes at enemy warships from at a fair distance.
Martyr-class Cruiser
Prophet-class Battlecruiser
Strike/Support Craft Watchmen Gunship Designed by the Lokoids and later purchased by the Ascendancy in bulk, the Watchmen fulfilled a small role in the young Ascendancy as a fast response patrol ship, policing the at the time, untamed region that would come under the Ascendancy's rule. It would be a role the Watchmen excelled at greatly compared to an already aged fleet of retrofitted freighters. Armed with two PDF cannons and two torpedo tubes, a lone watchmen was more then enough for your bog-standard pirate vessel. After decades of long service, the Watchmen still persists, patrolling the borders. In wartime, particularly under the command of the "rogue" Agdemnar Crusaders, the Watchmen fulfills the role of a Heavy Fighter-Bomber.
Space Superiority Fighter
Interceptor
Bomber
Ferrymen Dropship Once a common sight among many independent human colonies far from Federation Space. The Ferryman was the go-to colonial utility craft, from troop deployment, to logistic transports, even retrofitted as light gunships, its modular nature proved a boon for poorer colonies. Despite its old age, the ferrymen served many worlds well for centuries to come, even into the Great War. The ferryman also proved as a very useful asset for many Ashtari Sects once they declared their Holy War, allowing cells far greater reach as they waged their many insurrections.
Now in the preset time, the ferryman's time has come, many still in reserve and in use, but is slowly being phased out by the more much advanced and sophisticated Virtuous Combat Dropship.
Capital Ships Umbra-class Stealth Corvette
Righteous-class Corvette
Devotion-class Frigate
Penance-class Missile Frigate
Retribution-class Destroyer
Order-class Cruiser
Justice-class Battle Carrier
Smite-class Artillery Cruiser
Reverence-class Battlecruiser
Valiance-class Battleship
Divinity-class Dreadnought
Strike/Support Craft Space Superiority Fighter Developed by the Yanis Aerospace Corporation as part of a new wave of modern strike craft. The
Bomber
Interceptor
Diplomatic Shuttle
Salvation Combat Dropship Among the new wave of modern auxiliary craft and to replace the aging Ferrymen dropship. The Salvation was designed to fulfill a modular role just as its predecessor before, using its state of the art magnetic clamps to transport heavy cargo or armored vehicles with ease. The standard National-grade model of the Salvation is equipped with one heavy repeating laser turret, two sets missile launchers, one dedicated for armored targets and the other for lightly armored targets or infantry and lastly a small manned laser turret place in the troop bay in the back of the vehicle. Salvation Dropships sold outside Ascendancy Space are significantly of lower quality, but remain reliable and sturdy.
Multi-Purpose Heavy Transport
Errant-class Frigate
Gallant-class Cruiser
Valiant-class Battlecruiser
The Truth Seeker Serving as Mobile Headquarters of the Inquisition, the Truth Seeker is an experimental warship built for prolonged missions around Ascendancy Space, capable of moving and sustaining its crew for over a decade without the urgent need for resupply or drydock. Armed with a small array of Point defense guns, anti-ship batteries and missiles, the Truth Seeker is more then a match for any pirate vessel, in addition to her defense systems, she carries over seventy strike craft and two dozen support craft.
Sentinel-class Assault Shuttle The primary mode of transportation for Inquisitors throughout Ascendancy Space. The Sentinel serves as a harrowing reminder of the Inquisition's far reach throughout the Ascendancy, serving as simple shuttles to ferry Inquisitors to their targets, to deadly pursuit craft if their target proves more elusive and flees offworld. The sentinel is armed with four forward facing plasma reaper cannons, one missile launcher and one defensive tail gun to ward off any potential attackers from the rear.
Hyperdread
Ascension-class Hyperdreadnought By far the most technologically sophisticated warship ever constructed by the Ascendancy. The Ascension is the pride and mighty Fist of Jalarysias and serves as the symbol of the Ascendancy's slow, but creeping technological evolution, and one of their many steps towards becoming a major power in the Galaxy. Similar to its Federation and Commonwealth counterparts, the Ascension serves as a Fleet Command vessel, however has more "teeth" so to speak. The Ascension's armaments consists of hundreds of point defense guns, anti-ship batteries, Missile and Torpedo launchers and lastly its primary weapon, the Particle Burst Cannon. Echoing the design of the Federation Solaris, the Burst Cannon runs the length of the Ascension. In addition to its armaments, the Ascension carries a small fleets-worth of auxiliary craft in any scenario that the Ascension engages the enemy alone.
Foreign Relations
Allied/Friendly Asra Ascendancy Star Republic of Rolvius Taulron Empire
Neutral/Cold/Unknown Federation of Nations Valerius Federation Harmonic Conflux of the Innumerate Suns WARGRID Lokoid Hierarchy Urdji Civîneşra
Hostile Imperial Systems Commonwealth Empire of Alduur Utopia Project
The WARGRID is an immensely powerful military-issue hyper-strategic defense-and-offense computation matrix. Created by the century-long dead species known as the Othos, skilled mechanists and computational scientists, in their efforts of defense against the assailing Kobiot Stratocracy. WARGRID spent what might as well have been eons performing its given task of defending its Othos creators and annihilating the Kobiots. However, whilst ultimately victorious in the total war, the Kobiots now long extinct as a result, its masters were also destroyed, leaving the WARGRID in perpetual operation. WARGRID is, however, a defensive entity, and does not initiate offensive procedures against other entities. That being said, it is incredibly distrustful and views nations under only two conditions; "CEASEFIRE" and "WAR." What had once been an exclusively autonomous military process has now turned into an absolute absorption of former Othos territory, assimilating it into its resource acquisitioning, production, and operations processes.
History:
-Early History
During the earliest years of Ashtari ascension, their curious minds were sated by their effects upon the galaxy. One such satisfaction was the creation of the species known only as the Othos to the most ancient-oriented of today's galactic historians. They were a curious people, quick to evolve and adapt to their planet thanks to their artificial origins. They were the result of Ashtari experimentation, and as a result were given a relatively large degree of protection from outside interference, evolving isolated as a result. Their scientifically-minded civilization grew by leads and bounds within mere centuries, soon encompassing a star-spanning nation whose only intention of being was the furthering of their understanding on matters both material and theoretical.
Whilst the Othos were one of the more intellectually capable species to have graced the galaxy, they were still limited by the extents of their biological capabilities. As a result, they quickly learned to utilize mechanical engineering; what started off as wooden prosthetics eventually turned into gargantuan super-computational mathematical think-tanks composed of neural networks on unbelievable scales. And as their civilization grew more and more autonomous, as it grew more and more efficient and less utilitarian, so too did the jealousy of its local neighbours.
Whilst the Othos were a protected species in their inception, the Ashtar might've realized that they were capable enough to take care of themselves, leaving them; allowing the Kobiots ire to fester. Whilst the Othos engaged in scientific discourse and philosophical debates amidst their towering spires amidst automated infrastructure, the Kobiots drew war plans and gathered intelligence on Othos domains and territories. A clash between a species forged from fire and blood and a species bathed in the peaceful and serene waters of tranquility and knowledge would soon come to shake the histories of both peoples.
It would not take long for the Kobiot warfleets to arrive, thereafter shaping the foundations for one of the most savage wars to cross the stars:
- Kobiot Grand Marshal makes landfall on Ot, year 604 -
As we all looked up towards heaven from earth in unison, fire met out gaze, and ruin laid itself bare at our feet. Friend, family, and stranger were tossed apart, each aspect of their being neutralized and scattered into clouds of smoke and death. Moons of steel sat in orbit above our peaceful communions, above our citadels of knowledge and learning, and from these moons came down rocks ablaze and supersonic; descending; crashing. And upon its reaching the surface, from these rocks came men and women of unknown descent, unknown origin, unknown nature, wielding spears and swords of light and hearts and minds of malice.
As heaven fell down upon us all, so too did those angels whom had come from it. We ran, but we were not rapid enough; with each corner turned, we were met with twelve new faces whom we had never seen before. We were hunted within our alley, along our street, into our home, and hoarded towards our square.
As death seemed to descend upon me, so too did luck. With fortune incomprehensible, me and my posse were blessed by stupendous captors, and through keen eyes and rapid thinking, we managed to usurp the control from our enemy, and flee with dignity in hand.
As the war raged on, and the Kobiot laid waste to city upon city, across planets and star systems, the efforts of the Othos were soon to be materialized in their ultimate construction. Upon the fifth moon of Ot were built a complex entombed far beneath ice and bedrock, a complex whose sole purpose of being was to handle that which the Othos were incapable of doing themselves.
The peaceful Othos would never have imagined that what was happening, would happen; could happen. They built a warrior made of steel, a mind whose neurons and synapses consisted of virtualized quantum atoms and energies, a force whose capabilities could rival even heaven itself. They built a general whom could both build and lead an army in manners of which the Othos could never hope to imagine, and could think and device strategies and technologies to succeed in its efforts in fashions utterly incomprehensible to even its creators.
As the WARGRID blared into being, a massive psyonic scream crossed across the stars as the virtual mind began thinking in fashions so complex, even its lifeless entity began to interact with planes of existences beyond convention and understanding. In one instantaneous moment, all things the Othos had ever built was taken from them, and the WARGRID absorbed it into its process. Those present were awed and fearsome both, but in that moment, the virtual mind made sound from nothing, and in a deep metallic growl it spoke to them:
"WARGRID COMMENCE WAR."
YEAR - 610; PLANET - MOSOT (MOON). AUTHOR: WARGRID. ENTRY; (these were the first 'thoughts' of WARGRID. These lines appeared in the same instantaneous moment, as WARGRID is capable of thinking simultaneous thoughts)
WARGRID CONDITION - RED; "WAR, WAR, WAR." DEMAND - RED; REQUEST (REALITY ENGINE) PREDICTION. DEMAND - RED; REQUEST (GRID) STATUS. GRID; STATUS - RED; "INTELLIGENCE, PRODUCTION, RESOURCE." REALITY ENGINE; REALITY ALIGNMENT PROBABILITY - 86%. WARGRID; "NETWORK CONNECTION (OTHOS) DISCOVERED." WARGRID; "NETWORK CONNECTION (OTHOS) CONNECTED." WARGRID; "NETWORK CONNECTION (OTHOS) CONTROLLED." WARGRID; "INITIALIZING CONTROL (AUTOMATION - OTHOS - ALL)." WARGRID; "CONTROL ACQUIRED (AUTOMATION - OTHOS - ALL)." WARGRID; "ASSIMILATE PROCESS (AUTOMATION - OTHOS - ALL) - WARGRID." DEMAND - RED; REQUEST (GRID) UPDATE. GRID; UPDATE; COMPLETE (QWARG1). DEMAND (PRODNET) - RED; PRODUCTION - SITE12ABC: MODEL1A (150000). DEMAND (LOGINET) - RED; RESOURCE SUPPLY REALIGNMENT (AREA14-SITE12A). DEMAND (LOGINET) - RED; RESOURCE SUPPLY REALIGNMENT (AREA9-SITE12B). DEMAND (LOGINET) - RED; RESOURCE SUPPLY REALIGNMENT (AREA8-SITE12B). DEMAND (LOGINET) - RED; RESOURCE SUPPLY REALIGNMENT (AREA4-SITE12C). LOGINET; LOGISTICS REALIGNED. PRODNET; SITE12ABC; MODEL1A (150000) - INITIALIZED. WARGRID; "INSUFFICIENT PROCESS (REALITY ENGINE);" WARGRID; "SUFFICIENT PROCESS (PRODNET);" WARGRID; "SUFFICIENT PROCESS (LOGINET);" DEMAND - RED; REQUEST (GRID) UPDATE. GRID; UPDATE; COMPLETE (QWARG2). DEMAND - RED; REQUEST (REALITY ENGINE) PREDICTION. DEMAND - RED; REQUEST (GRID) STATUS. GRID; STATUS - RED; "INTELLIGENCE, DEFEND, DEFEND." REALITY ENGINE; REALITY ALIGNMENT PROBABILITY - 96%. WARGRID; "SUFFICIENT PROCESS (REALITY ENGINE);" DEMAND - RED; REQUEST (PRODUCTION) STATUS. GRID; PRODUCTION; STATUS - YELLOW. WARGRID; "WAR, WAR, WAR." WARGRID; "WAR, WAR, WAR." WARGRID; "WAR, WAR, WAR." WARGRID; "WAR, WAR, WAR." WARGRID; "WAR, WAR, WAR." WARGRID; "WAR, WAR, WAR." WARGRID; "WAR, WAR, WAR." WARGRID; "WAR, WAR, WAR." WARGRID; "WAR, WAR, WAR." WARGRID; "WAR, WAR, WAR." DEMAND - RED; REQUEST (GRID) STATUS. GRID; STATUS - RED; "DEFEND, DEFEND, DEFEND." DEMAND - RED; REQUEST (GRID) UPDATE. GRID; UPDATE; COMPLETE (QWARG3). DEMAND - RED; ACTIVATE (STRATA NEURAL NETWORK) PROCESS. PROBABILITY ENGINE; STRATNET; INITIALIZING THOUGHT. DEMAND - RED; POWER SUPPLY REALIGNMENT (NODE1-STRATNETNODE). DEMAND - RED; POWER SUPPLY REALIGNMENT (NODE2-STRATNETNODE). DEMAND - RED; POWER SUPPLY REALIGNMENT (NODE3-STRATNETNODE). DEMAND - RED; POWER SUPPLY REALIGNMENT (NODE5-STRATNETNODE). DEMAND - RED; POWER SUPPLY REALIGNMENT (NODE6-STRATNETNODE). DEMAND - RED; POWER SUPPLY REALIGNMENT (NODE7-STRATNETNODE). DEMAND - RED; POWER SUPPLY REALIGNMENT (NODE8-STRATNETNODE). DEMAND - RED; POWER SUPPLY REALIGNMENT (NODE9-STRATNETNODE). WARGRID CONDITION - IDLE; "NULL, NULL, NULL." PROBABILITY ENGINE; STRATNET; THOUGHT COMPLETE. WARGRID; "SUFFICIENT PROCESS (STRATNET)." DEMAND - RED; POWER SUPPLY REALIGNMENT (NODENETWORK); RESET. DEMAND - RED; REQUEST (GRID) UPDATE. DEMAND - GREEN; REQUEST (THOUGHT) ARCHIVAL. WARGRID; "WAR, WAR, WAR." GRID; UPDATE; COMPLETE (QWARG4). WARGRID; "WAR, WAR, WAR." WARGRID; "WAR, WAR, WAR." WARGRID; "WAR, WAR, WAR." GRID; ARCHIVE; ARCHIVE-1A (BOOTLOG1); ARCHIVAL (THOUGHT) COMPLETE.
A war was commenced, and for some it could even be said that the war had commenced, in that moment. As the WARGRID sparked to life, the resonance of its thoughts ripped into the psyonic realm like a cancerous growth in expansion. Those Othos who stood close by the Network Matrix within Mosot's crust found themselves rendered of life, progressively growing less powerful as the psyonic ripple grew further and further apart as it crossed the galaxy.
Unlike the Othos, the Kobiots were not of excessive intellect, and were at best average, leaving them ignorant of the horrors that would come to befall them in the near future. The WARGRID hijacked the connected network of the Othos civilization, leaving it as the sole controller of all aspects of life both affected and unaffected of the war alike.
The Kobiots, however, riding on the momentum of their blitz did not cease in motion. Its High Admirals and Grand Marshals intent on rapid extermination and subjugation through overwhelming power. With a poor defensive effort, non-existant in fact, they had no reason to fear in their advances. But below their orbital palisades were silent factories turned active, producing machines and soulless soldiers to stop their rapid advances with absolute resolve. With few factory locations with access to stable supply-lines, the WARGRID utilized scrap and debris to construct its initial combatants.
- Early-generation General Constructforms utilizing Kobiot Weaponry -
YEAR - ???; PLANET - ??? AUTHOR; ??? ENTRY;
We rallied beneath the shatter-dome of the arcology in the north-north-east; our battle-cadre had recieved new advancement orders from Orbital Command. The Captain was energizing as always, the only beacon of bravery amidst our entire troop if you'd ask myself.
As he raced towards the troopcarrier, his second- and third-in-command at his heels, preparing to deliver the orders upon our prey-bloodied shapes, strange silhouettes emerged in the greater distance. We activated our combat visors in unison; no connection.
Our leader thus roared in warrior-fevourish glory that our enemy had at last found the courage to meet us on the field with honour. I felt my adoration swell as I readied my rifle at the distant combatants, my rifle-brothers at each flank as we assembled the firing line under orders from our leaders.
Never would we have known that as we would prepare to fire upon the rapidly closing visuals to our front, that an omni-directional ambush would be triggered upon our backs. It was with chilling roars that my siblings were dismembered and murdered at my feet in consecutive actions of brutality. The ambush had tossed me aground, my feet and suit failing to hold me up as the enemy pounced.
I reached for my rifle, but fortune would favour me as a steady barrage of gattling rained upon the black-and-yellow frames that had now ceased their offense and pursued withdrawal. As they returned to the shadows and urban alleys of whence they had come they carried with them the corpses and equipment of my disgraced siblings, going so far as to shoot upon the combat walker with our own weapons in retreat as it approached my position and they grew further and further away.
Their movements had been unlike anything that I had seen in my time on the war-tournaments of Kaz, or the military exercises aboard the Universal Conqueror. They spoke in tongues of bone-chilling steel, their growls echoing throughout my entire body long after they had disappeared.
My war had ended sadly on that note, as I now descend aboard the Triumph towards Kaz. They said I was to be debriefed by the Supreme High Command itself on the matters of our "opponent," it would seem I was not the only one forever shocked by their emergence.
The war raged further into hellish proportions as the constantly growing army of mechanized soldiers grew further and further more advanced and complex. The Kobiot Stratocracy's ruling council, the Supreme High Command, ruled towards a new stratagem as their forces recieved ever-increasing losses and their opponent grew more and more rich with resources and technologies.
This stratagem focused on attritional warfare, deciding that razing the planets were a preferred alternative to allowing their opponent to grow stronger off of the seeds of their own work and effort through centuries of technological advancements and achievements. Bombardment Fleets were organized and all former task forces were dismantled and reorganized into combat readied reservists.
WARGRID's response was both obvious and successful; it detached itself from the surface and expanded within the bedrock of its stretched domain. It gathered the remaining peoples and shoved them into expanding habitation complexes, both securing its ultimate objective and its own welfare. With supply-lines detached, each stronghold became a force unto itself, and over decades the WARGRID had studied, tested, and perfected its response to its enemies.
- After-action Debrisfield around Soth-ot -
YEAR - ???; PLANET - ??? AUTHOR; ??? ENTRY;
It was with a strange shaking that we were alerted by our enemy; the red lights and sirens sounding and blinking across the entire ship. I rushed from the restroom and back onto the bridge, raising my hand towards the combat intelligence officers and demanding a status report.
With the panicked expressions of a crew far too long without combat they responded with intermittened stuttering that signatures had been located to the lower-rear of the fleet formation. As the update was relayed, the ship shook a second time- No, again. A third time.
I had the communications officer patch me into the vessel-wide coms, giving out the usual combat-procedural commands with an added spice of advice for those too green to ever land on frontline posts under normal warfare doctrine.
We then proceeded to face our anti-warship weaponry face towards the enemy fleet mysteriously rising out of the planet's orbit, and under fleet-wide fire coordination from the Unmaker, we let loose a barrage of both missiles and kinetic warheads.
And that is when the silence descended, as we waited for either our own shells to connect or those of the enemy's.
But that silence would be silenced by the entire fleet turning towards the powers of chaos and confusion with the immediate obliteration of the Flagship, the Unmaker. Seventyseven projectiles impacted center-stern of the mighty and massive warship whose radar signature had once been a sight of safety, now turned to a symbol of horror as the signature turned into an increasing cloud.
The engagement ended with horrific losses, 14 out of the 22 warships of the Fleet Orbys Royal marooned against the slow tides of vacuous space.
At least I will now become an Admiral; we don't have enough anymore.
After centuries, millennia, and the passage of the eons, the battle between the experienced Kobiot Stratocracy and their previously unfortunate victim, the Othos, has spiraled in a very unsatisfactory direction for the aggressors. Through efforts both attritional and precision warfare WARGRID has managed to push the Kobiots to their last strongholds and their last fleets of ships surrounded by an immeasurable horde of warmachines the likes of which only nightmares could fashion.
The Supreme High Command, desperate in their efforts, had managed to locate the percieved central command network; a settlement locale on Ot's orbital equitorial lane; relief arriving as the news spread amongst the populace. Operation Blacksword was drafted and edited, fashioned into a proper military process which their ancestors could find pride in. The mission was simple in its relativity; construct an invisible craft, armed with the most powerful device concieved, and annihilate the apex of command within their incoming enemy as they keep their forces occupied through aggressive prodding.
The mission was perfect in execution, each step synchronized down to the milisecond, and the stealthship as invisible as possible. It detonated, five brave souls sacrificed their lives for the greatest good, and the habitat was erased from existence down to the atom. It was a success, or should have been- the machines were unaffected, their actions as unceasing as ever, and their offenses as bulldozer-like as ever.
The Supreme High Command had resigned their fates to oblivion with this disgraceful act, and through the last acts of this chapter of the galactic story, they took their own lives in ceremonial fashion before the grand forum assembly within the governmental district of Kaz, the doomed world.
- Urr-Jahan Katar, the Supreme Grand Marshal of the Nation, presenting the Supreme High Command for execution by public -
YEAR - ???; PLANET - KAZ AUTHOR; Supreme Grand Marshal of the Nation, Urr-Jahan Katar. ENTRY;
Mere moments 'fore now we were a nation in war, a people of pride, a spirit of victory, a pantheon of conquest- mere moments 'fore now our fleets faced odds inconcievable and triumphed in their objectives at whatever cost necessary to protect you, the people, from those who seek us harm. Indeed, it was mere moments ago that I too, your most humble leader, and those others of whom contribute to the operations of the Supreme High Council, had a vision of triumph against evil and fires so unbearable the absolute frost evaporates within the moment.
The words to come now are those of sincerity, spoken by a man who has fought tooth and nail against the uncoming tides, constructed by a mind capable of devicing the most competent of strategies and tactics; the most profound of maneuvers and the most complex of supply chains.
All the above, is me, and I, my people, have failed.
We, the Supreme High Command, have failed you, our people, and our past.
We thought ourselves masters of the crafts and artistry of war, but we were but high on the fumes of success our people have claimed in the past. We walked within halls littered with trophies and imagined ourselves invincible.
That belief will now end, as I, and the sitting Supreme High Command will submit ourselves for Joshi'tari.
The people, we have doomed you, and we submit ourselves to your wrath.
With the erasure of government of the Kobiot Stratocracy, so too was the erasure of the Othos, who had been gathered where the Kobiot believed the central matrix lie. The last billion lives of the Othos were deleted with instantaneous matter-annihilation, leaving not even atoms in its wake. This instantaneous event caused a logic-loop so powerful its existence was deleted and the erasure of the Othos was eliminated from logic. As the steel legions and fleets race towards a defeated people, a dead nation, and dying resistances, it would not take more than half a century (145 years ago) for the last Kobiot in the galaxy to be obliterated from galactic history.
Incapable of surrender without a nation and government at their helm, the Kobiots died in inevitability, and any presence of which they had both material and immaterial was deleted; cyberattacks were focused on posts made from Kobiot IPs on the galactic network. With the completion of this event, the WARGRID entered condition GREEN, "CEASEFIRE, REPRIORITIZE, REORGANIZE." for the first time in history.
The ruined cities of the Kobiots were razed by excavators and recyclers whose proportions were beyond gargantuan in scope and capability, replaced by complex constructs whose purpose were either the furthering of the WARGRID's process or the mind's ability to execute and react to elements involving aforementioned process.
Legions or constructforms, both military and logistic, were recycled and turned into material to expand infrastructure and defensive abilities. Fleets were dismantled and deorbited in order to face the same fate as all other constructions; to further the WARGRID's capabilities to perform its duties.
Constructions of vast, fully automated, and luxorious orbital habitation-stations were initiated in orbit around AREA1, the object once known as Ot now turned into a world-spanning computational engine: the WARGRID. Their construction carefully proportioned to the predicted population increases according to the supposed population which the WARGRID believes exists.
With the disappearance of the Ashtar the mind proceeded to pursue a tertiary objective; securing the longevity of the Othos. The prediction engine percieved a high probability for the presence of DNA samples to exist on the planet Agdemmar. Should this prediction prove true, not is it only an incomprehensible security threat should it fall into others' hands, but it would also prove beneficial should the Othos, who are now extinct, die out within the understanding of the mind.
In order to pursue this objective, constructions of Designed Constructforms were initialized and completed. Rapidly sent towards their objective, stealthily inserted within the system to locate both resources and technologies, but prioritized genetic manipulation facilities and DNA archives. These scouts, whilst surveyors, also expand the WARGRID's comprehension through their presence.
Major Holdings
Complexes constructed by the WARGRID are black in appearance, thanks to the usage of an electronic warfare-resistant alloy with additional partial light-absorption properties. As such, the planets which have undergone terrestrial transformation into planet-complexes are invisible to the eye. However, the planets excrete an incomprehensible amount of both heat and anti-psions (inverted psionic forces, harmful based on proximity.
AREA1 - Formerly known as Ot, a fortress of thinkers designed by the Ashtar to perhaps even rival or surpass their own minds, a civilization risen from nothing into being constructors of marvels of the ancient past. As the Kobiot War spanned, the WARGRID's performance desired increases, and the once-moon-now-computer MOSOT was carefully deorbited and landed aboard the surface of the planet, carefully integrated into what has now, after centuries of ceaseless construction, become a planet-sized computation-engine. It is here that WARGRID's 'conscious' is stored and its comprehension, prediction, and strategic subsystems are stored. All of its mechanisms and circuitry being powered by the still-active core, the entire surface removed through eons of strip-mining and construction-work. For species who utilize the psionic element to enhance their vision, or replace their vision, the planet glows fiercely no matter where one stands in the galaxy.
SITE2 - Amongst Ot's many moons were Mosot, the home of the WARGRID before it migrated, and aboard Somot lie the Prediction Engine: a reality-simulation engine capable of incomprehensible predictions and comprehension based on both hypothetical and factual knowledge known by the WARGRID and previously produced by the Prediction Engine to horrifying detail. Somot, much like Mosot, has now turned into a stellar object made of steel since long ago, however it has remained in orbit as opposed to the central WARGRID itself; the Prediction Engine has a lower security priority. This location is the reason why, should you communicate with the WARGRID, it may at times seem like it is able to read your mind.
AREA12 - Formerly known as Kaffa, one of the settlements made by the Othos in their early history during the first stages of wonderlust from the discovery of space travel. It has now become the central construction hub and transportation center for the WARGRID's logistic network. Sites 11-60 are all located on this one location, and its produce amount to a total third of the WARGRID's entire production capabilities. It is the only entirely-constructed factory within the entire network.
SITE58 - A large ship anchorage and orbital drydock, the location lies within the center of the WARGRID's warpgate network and is therefore the single best location for a constant contingent-fleet of defensive-purpose vessels capable of rapid-response to threats. It maintains a cubic shape, intermittened with empty slots perfectly designed for the ship-sizes and classes of the WARGRID's numerous warships. In addition, it is also where the Hyperdreadnought was first anchored after it was constructed on the surface of AREA12 within its large drydocks. The Site is additionally connected to the surface through four seperate space elevators, whose purpose is to transport four seperate classes of material necessary for ship-maintenance produced on the surface.
AREA58 - Formerly Kaz, the once glorious city-world of the proud and warlike Kobiot peoples. It is presently in the process of terrestrial transformation, its resources stripmined and gradually replaced with structures and machinations whose intent is to further increase the WARGRID's ability to perform its tasks. It is the planet closest to Agdemmar, and as such was the location where the design for the Designed Constructforms sent there were sent and produced.
Demographics
Population
Not an actual number, but this is the section to talk about your people. Folks with multiple species, a percentage breakdown of those species might be nice. Descriptions of all those lovely species would also be nice.
Society
Daily life and such. Not the most important section but useful for giving us a sense of how your citizens actually feel about their nation. Can include religion, fashion, etc.
Economy
This could go under society if you like. Mostly just make it clear up front if you’re an industrial powerhouse, a nation of refined master artisans, etc. Also things people might want to know for trading purposes.
Government
My favourite part <3. Probably the most important of the demographics sections. Who runs the place, how do they run it. Since you will presumably be RPing people in your government, this is pretty critical.
Technological Information
Major Techs
Mostly interested in military techs, here: FTL, weapons, shields, armor, power, engines, etc. Civilian techs are also here, and sometimes just as important.
Military Information
Military Overview
Describe general doctrine, history, whatever floats your space boats.
Fleet/Navy
Your space boats. Include pics or don’t, I’m not your supervisor. You’ll probably want to have one or two of most of the classes, but it doesn’t really matter too much. I’m also including some flavour options here that you might want to consider. In short, the history of the galaxy has divied up ship designs into three waves: Great War (ships built before and during the Great War), Detente (ships built during the Detente, some wonky designs in the larger classes due to treaty limitations), and Modern (ships built in the year since the message)
DO NOT put your hyperdread here, it gets its own section.
Dreadnoughts: Only a few were built before the end of the Great War, the destructive potential of these vessels was a major contributor to ending the conflict. Those old ones are pretty obsolete, and any new ones are only just coming into service (mostly in secret) due to the Treaty of Detente banning their construction.
Battleships: The grand old ladies that did all the fighting of the Great War. The Treaty of Detente imposed limitations on their sizes and destructive potential, so if you want to get intricate there’s 3 waves of battleships: Great War, Detente, and Modern. Great War is self explanatory, old sluggers and antiques. Detente battleships were awkward creations involving all kinds of elaborate ways to get around the Treaty without actually violating it. Lots of glass cannon designs here, or iron fortresses that couldn’t scratch eachother’s paint, or half baked experimental weapon systems, or novel propulsion methods that only work if nobody on board sneezes. Modern battleships are just coming into service, and are quite deadly.
Battlecruisers: The treaty of Detent also limited battlecruisers, in an effort to avoid just slightly reducing the size of ship involved in any potential arms race. Similar design iterations to Battleships; Great War, Detente, and Modern. Detente battlecruisers were often cripplingly overspecialized: dedicated point defence ships, artillery vessels, mass shielding vessels, etc. Battlecruiser designs from the Detente period were often put together as a way to shore up the weaknesses of their contemporaneous Battleship partners.
Cruisers: Nothing special here.
Destroyers: Still nothing special.
Frigates: Nope.
Corvettes: Corvettes can be thought of in several iterations just kidding I don’t care what you do with these things. Unless you try to just upscale what I’m trying to avoid with strike craft.
Strike craft: K I’m actually gonna sort of limit these things, or rather, the things that carry them around. Strike craft have long been an important part of space combat, so most nations have them and defences against them. Historically, they’ve been used as close in support; no one’s yet figured out how to strap useful FTL drives on the things. All this means that long range strikes aren’t practical. What I’m trying to get at is Carrier’s aren’t really a thing, or at least dedicated carriers aren’t. Plenty of room for Battlestar type things (fighty-boats with a solid complement of strike craft), but no dropping off a carrier squadron on one side of the system then expecting your strikecraft to win the fight on the other side.
A notable exception is your Hyperdread. Do whatever you want with your super special awesome boat.
Army/Planetary forces
Outline some doctrine, highlight some major units. I’m not great at doing ground forces so not much guidance here.
I finished the history up, though I elected to trim the bit about helping someone else because it just kind of flowed to omit it. I also got a blurb together for the dreadnought.
History
The Alduuri people, particularly those who enlist in the armed forces, are proud and capable. To say that subjugation by the Ashtar went over poorly is an understatement. Much of the Imperial Navy was not about to bow to the mind meddling of those who imagine themselves superior. The Navy flew, readying its fleets to show the Ashtar just who the Alduuri were and remind them that they would never bow.
To call the resulting “battle” a massacre would be a disservice to massacres. A thousand Alduuri warships and hundreds of thousands of the Navy’s finest arrived at a meager fringe system of the Ashtar’s territorial holdings, orbiting opposite just twelve Ashtar cruisers. Warships quite literally evaporated under the incoming fire. Almost all of the Alduuri Imperial Navy was slaughtered to a man, wholly reduced to atoms, all to merely disable a single Ashtar cruiser.
The injury suffered on that fateful day was not soon forgotten. When the damned psychics released their deathgrip on the galaxy at large, the Alduuri people were split. There were a few whose fighting spirit had truly been crushed, abandoning the pride of the Alduuri for more peaceful, hedonistic ways. Many were ready for revenge. The sting of their loss had done nothing but fester in the century that had followed it. Just as many felt it was pointless to try. They were free now, and there was no point sending their infant naval forces back to the slaughterhouse.
The galaxy took mere months to explode around them. Those who desired for blood soon shifted their sights from an impossible adversary to many more very manageable targets. Manageable, at least, to the Navy at full strength. Almost no reconstruction had taken place during the subjugation of the Ashtar, and the number of war-ready, FTL-capable spacecraft in the whole of the Empire could be counted on two hands. So they bit their tongues, sat on their hands, and waited.
Biding their time gave an opportunity to rebuild a standing naval force. The Imperial Navy put together a technological marvel of a fighting force in just four years. Having thrown away their entire naval arm at the dawn of Ashtar subjugation, their newly constructed forces were bleeding edge military technology in stark contrast to the archaic fleets most nations were busily beating each other with. Though the Alduuri industrial complex was a powerhouse and the Empire was far from a minor player on the galactic stage, four years was grossly insufficient to construct a naval force that could rival the larger powers at war. Advanced as it was, the lack of training of officers and sheer lack of quantity would come to haunt it.
The military veterancy unanimously held that these new ship classes could face down two adversaries of equivalent classification and emerge decisively victorious. When the Alduuri Imperial Navy took to the battlespace for the first time in over a century, they were not so fortunate as to be faced with two to one odds. The fleets of <someone> outnumbered the reconstructed navy by nearly five to one.
For the second time, the Imperial Navy would fight to the last ship. Despite attempting to fall back into Imperial territory after the harsh realization that they were simply not eliminating enemy ships fast enough, the fleet was pursued into the orbital defense layers of <planet>. The price to fully knock out the fleet was exceedingly high, massive casualties coming from both the technological prowess of the warships and the ruthless power of the orbital defenses. Nonetheless, The Empire of Alduur was once again stripped of its naval superiority. The mistake of rushing into battle half-cocked would not be repeated again.
Yet again, the Alduuri Empire bided their time. Yet again, there was political infighting. Their predisposition to conquest and conflict had brought them nothing but death and devastation. At first, the naval reconstruction effort was solely focused on ensuring the national defense. Even the perpetually-ongoing modernization of ground forces was halted for a time. It was the cessation of hostilities, ironically, that opened the eyes of the pacificists to the harsh reality. You clawed your way to the top of the food chain, or you bowed to those that did.
The people of Alduur do not bow. The emissaries’ information that the treaty being drafted would apply to them whether they came to the table or not solidified the spirit of the Alduuri just as the Great War had done before. No one was going to stand up for them. Either they fought for themselves or they would be at the mercy of others. Weary as the entire nation was from building a navy from scratch, they forged on, unwilling to be subservient to the whims of other powers.
While over half the fleet lost to <someone> was scuttled to avoid capture of their modern naval technology, the rest had gone down in the orbit of <planet> and was readily salvaged. Most ships were repaired and brought back to fighting strength in no time at all. These recovered ships were the early core of the national defense. Production continued at full burn, producing the latest iterations of already-modern ship classes. While it still does not rival the biggest powers in the galaxy for size, the Alduuri Imperial Navy has always, since the end of Ashtar subjugation, fielded bleeding edge warships. If their indomitable fighting spirit is their greatest weapon, then their military technology is its ammunition.
Dreadnoughts: Leviathan-class dreadnought -- A modern navy requires modern dreadnoughts. The Leviathan series of dreadnought is not the most gargantuan ship in the galaxy, but was still the largest ship of the Alduuri Imperial Navy, 2,371 meters from engine cowls to prow, when the lead ship was laid down near the end of the Great War. Had it come into service in time, and the Navy waited for its completion to engage, their fate during the war could have been very different. The Leviathan series features a ship-length reciprocating ion accelerator to power its main weapon: a heavy ion beam. The weapon only existed as a paper concept during the Great War and its viability remained uncertain even partway through construction, requiring multiple design changes to accommodate. It slices through ships as if armor is nonexistent. Though older than most modern naval technology, it remains an engineering marvel today. A formidable array of typical Alduuri railgun batteries serve as a secondary armament for once. Despite its size, it is too densely packed to carry capital-class torpedoes and their multi-megaton payloads. The ship incorporates four fusion stellarators: two to feed the main drive engines, maneuvering systems, and power shielding, defense grid, and inertial stabilizers; and two more to supply power to the main offensive weapon systems. In Service: AMS Leviathan, AMS Kraken, AMS Cthulu, AMS Jörmungandr Laid Down: AMS Architeuthis, AMS Charybdis, AMS Gojira, AMS Hydra, AMS Unagi
While utterly annihilating the navy TWICE seems cruel and puts the Alduuri at a severe numerical disadvantage, it does give the benefit of the entire fleet being state of the art. All of their ships were designed from scratch in the last 30 years, rather than putting century-old designs back into production to facilitate a war effort.
Basically, a human faction that was JUST small enough to be crushed by the Ashtar. They have a substance on their homeworld that reacts with psionic powers. At first, they only had latent psionic powers and had to enhance them through technology. Though it did allow each person to control several drones in the field. The result is that almost their entire army and navy depends on psionics. So yeah, the Ashtar crushed them but after that they sort of got a bit of help with the psionics to even out the field. So long story short, they mix technology and psionics to give me an excuse to use magitech stuff.
However, quite obviously they are a minor belligerent faction so if anyone is interested in writing some shared history, hit me up!
A growing empire intent on holding what it has fought hard for. and very weary of outsider but not impossible to bargain with
History
The empire of goa was very wary of the arrival of the Ashtar but couldnt do much about their subjugation but they learned from them and developed new tech based on observations and with their oversight developed a health manufaturing and farming based economy but we never where truly able to build larger ships than frigates until the ashtar arrived.
it’s involvement in the Great War. initially able to avoid contact in the war and our temporary unwillingness to join because of our distinct lack of a fleet caused us to sit out most of the war, but caused a massive militarization campaign where we built hundreds of frigates and cruisers to protect ourselves while also building massive military stations to keep out the other squabbling empires. we were eventually forced into the war but rapidly found out how bad our fleet was( even with all the tech the ashtar gave us) losing most of it within the first year, but we also found out that are defenses were better than we expected (considering the massive failure that was our fleet) because we had more ability to make better structures than ships. very little outside territory was gained in the great war consisting of only 1 system.
Major Holdings the capital is goa prime(a tough and heart world), our favorite star base is the alpha platform (large and with many advanced shields and weapons constantly being upgraded located within our home sector), the key place in our empire are goa prime and goa-2 a large and mineral rich world used for mainly manufacturing of military vessels and our colony in the system boa (renamed) Is mainly for mining and trading. Demographics
Population
Goans- a large and tough race of lizard like beings when disarmed will bite claw and break whatever they are fighting. many capable of psionics but dont develop them naturally and can be quite the painful experience for all involved.
Society
Relatively happy and healthy but in almost constant mobilization after the great war/ highly national
Economy
mainly manufacture of large weapons, outdated ship exports and agricultural exports. Government
the government is a monarchy style government that has 4 kings with different roles ties and restrictions based on our need for security theses kings arent usually the most backstabbing in war time and will almost always support the others in times of need. below the kings is a grand council that handles most civic duties. the kings act more as figurheads and military leaders and have been known to purge entire councils for just 1 being corrupt.
Technological Information
Major Techs military techs: slow but stable ftl drives, heavy cannons, missles,and large anti orbital rail guns, shields designed to take damage but are only well effective on large ships (and small dedicated shield ships) and station because of power needs, heavy armor meant for taking hits but slows the ships significantly, fusion based with high efficiency but not good for our shields , for orbital use it is solid fuel boosters and in space they are nuclear, etc. Civilian techs strong agricultural and medical tech but pretty crappy car type vehicles, and sometimes just as important. Military Information large ground units mainly using drop-ships for initial assaults and heavily coordinated artillery and airstrikes, heavy bunker styles for continued assaults generally with shield installed in more permanent structures, lots of ground to orbital artillery and large militias in cities, very limited ground vehicles mainly being more assault gun style of heavy vehicles and basically armored civilian trucks (but only in style not operation) with heavy machine guns for the light vehicles.
Regulars: basic combat and areal insert training and made up of men and women, armed with the X22 gauss rifle and x11 gauss pistol often deploy via air.
militia: trained in large scale warfare and in light vehicle operations, armed with the x21 assault rifle a normal firing rifle that is relatively outdated but still in production and the x88 pump shotgun capable of highly accurate slug fire. (not equipped with both) consist of most of the population not in active service but excused if to sick or old to perform in combat.
spec ops aka- shock jumpers, the shock jumpers are an elite group composed of elite and experienced soldiers from the most revered of the regulars that go thru advanced Arial/orbital drop training, survival, advanced marksmanship and vehicle operations they are armed with the y-28 plasma repeater capable of rapid sustained fire and high penetration capabilities along with the x12 advance gauss pistol with more stopping power than the standard x11.
The Kings guard- equipped with the best armor and weapons and equipped with a personal shield they also have abilities of limited psionics and power armor when necessary the have the x33 rail rifle capable of flying thru even some armored vehicles the MGX10 new and not combat proven but on the testing range proved more than capable of squad support and individual they often get deployed in smaller groups to boost morale and can quite often be replaced when lost from the massive scores of candidates even if a majority of recruits break in the psionic tests.
vehicles- xt-222 assault tank is basically a slow moving howitzer tank with very heavy armor and is capable of long range and short range fire
the m11 "Shock" truck is a fast attack vehicle with a large gauss machine gun on the back and armor capable of anything smaller than a tank shell directly but is one of the fastest vehicles that the GOANS PRODUCE outside of flyers.
The RRDS is a rapid response drop-ship capable of very limited interstellar flight (short inter system jumps. not recommended for long range stealth ops) capable of transporting up to 40 troops directly into combat with little to no incedent barring direct heavy AA fire.
The LRSDS is a long range stealth drop ship with a rather autonomus build in mind and is capable of multiple ftl jumps (in and out of systems) and is specifically reserved to the spec ops teams barring special requisition orders. capable of dropping 20 fully armed troops with a low chance of detection.
Military Overview lots of air support for mainly stationary ground units unless necessary to move then mainly air travel in drop-ships our special forces are a small group of highly trained jet-packers armed with our most advanced plasma based weaponry and based in small interstellar strike craft intended to be relatively self sufficient, history: huge amounts of infighting and civil war before the Ashtar and not a very revered navy for it is crap, space combat is generally brawler type ships with heavy ordnance and long rang missile cruisers.
Fleet/Navy Your space boats. Include pics or don’t, I’m not your supervisor. You’ll probably want to have one or two of most of the classes, but it doesn’t really matter too much. I’m also including some flavour options here that you might want to consider. In short, the history of the galaxy has divied up ship designs into three waves: Great War (ships built before and during the Great War), Detente (ships built during the Detente, some wonky designs in the larger classes due to treaty limitations), and Modern (ships built in the year since the message)
Dreadnoughts: none even thought up by goa
Battleships: 2 Detent and 1 modern fresh off the line that all act as command ships the detent class are slow and burley with more empasis on artillery than anything else but the modern is more rounded with heavier shields, armor and more modern weapons and communications
Battle-cruisers: idea immediately scraped after first live test (don't ask)
Cruisers: 10 modern class vessels with balanced shields and firepower with heavy armor making it pretty slow
Destroyers: 10 detent class slow heavily armored and un-shielded with lots of heavy long range cannons
Frigates: 20 modern fast but still slow (normal speed) armed with lots of heavy auto cannons
Corvettes: 10 modern, fast shielded, boarding ship with no weapons but almost impossible for anything smaller than a cruser to kill in a good amount of time anyway.
Strike craft: 50 a station and 400 on each goa prime and goa-2 but basically none in our colony sector
A notable exception is your Hyperdread. Do whatever you want with your super special awesome boat.
Army/Planetary forces: every planet has use of their pdf forces which consist mainly of regulars and militia with spec ops bases scattered through most systems. Each planet has a small regiment of kings guard to act as leaders and trainers of militias and new regulars. Every city has anti orbital guns built in all around it, and our orbits are lowered with local
Outline some doctrine, highlight some major units. I’m not great at doing ground forces so not much guidance here.
ANNNDDD
Hyperdread ...we lost it my kings jk meet the Queen its the biggest baddest ship we got capable of sustained long range artillery fire and basically deploying an army on a whim, its shield are the tougest we got and its armor has no equal. It has only recently completed and is still undergoing system checks and crewing up And due to our lack of dreadnought ideas it is generally smaller than what should be considered a super dread but It has been stuffed with tech and weapons to almost literally the brim
if i missed anything please inform me I've been writing for a while now
@Legion02 There isn't much history for me to cover, but would it be alright if your nation had an Ashtari Cult/Sect by the time of the war?(They possibly would've engaged in terrorism and all that during the war), could also explain the number of human psonics within the Ascendancy.
And depending if relations havnen't soured from the acts of said sect, there would possibly still be a small amount Ashtari faithful within your nation, plus some missionaries directly from the Ascendancy.
@Sigma An Ashtari cult would certainly be a possibility as the Asrians (name of my faction, they're all humans though) see themselves as an Apprentice faction of the Ashtar. Though they generally don't crack down religion, most don't believe the Ashtar are gods (this is more on account of their own arrogance than believing the Ashtar were great enough to be gods). So a Sect certainly could have formed and all cultists from Asra (the home planet) would have at the very least some latent psionic powers (though it would generally have to be aided by technology to be viable).
However, if they chose to act during the Great War through terrorism inflicted upon any of the Crown Worlds (Asra, the homeworld) or Noble worlds (Worlds meant mostly for the advancement of culture and science), the sect would be hunted down. So any missionaries would be politely but firmly asked to leave.
@Legion02 Actually, you mentioning your faction being sort of "Apprentices" could very well change how the cultists reacted during the Great War. With their I assume, more positive outlook on the Ashtar, this could've caused a sort of schism in the Asrian Sect, some of the cultists engaging in terrorism, others(those that probably hailed from Noble Worlds or Asra itself), would've fought against their brothers, causing a very confusion situation for all, although granted the cults/sects were a very disorganized bunch during the war, with no central authority to answer too and such.
And in the present time, although the Asrians and Jalaryians differ great on the Ashtar, I could see relations between the two possibly being somewhat warm, depends really.
I'll throw my hat in the ring for this, looks very interesting. The first idea that comes to mind is playing a splinter group of a now-collapsed empire, that have become a pseudo-scavenger/pirate faction in recent years, a haven for renegades and runaways based around a Port Royal style home-planet/star-base. Would that be something that could work?
Do you have a discord channel? I know there's a stigma attached to it and I can get it but it does spice up activity a lot and allows brainstorming like never before.
That being said, I have several possible ideas in my head. Will re-read the plot and read over other player sheets to see if there's a particular niche which needs to be filled.
Interconnected world, long history of space travel, everyone knows each other. Hmm.. yeah, I guess it's time to revive White Corps. For those unfamiliar, White Interstellar Corporations is basically a megacorp like civ. In terms of plot relevance they engage in a lot of trade and they like to deal in high tech, as well as exploiting stuff to earn more profit. White Security Services is their mercenary/PMC branch which can and frequently does lend assistance to outsiders even if their primary function is to provide security for White Corps. As a multi-national megacorp their employees come from a myriad of backrounds and races, pretty much a corporate meritocracy.
White Interstellar Corporations
Name: White Interstellar Corporations (WIC), also referred as White Corps Chief Director: Keith White, the third Headquarters: Cygnus System, Hydea Prime Government: Interstellar Conglomerate Status: "Neutral" (see below)
Overview/History
White Corps is a powerful galaxy wide corporation that came to be around the same time as Pax Ashtari, the "peace" established by the might of the Ashtar. Before the first contact with Earth, White Corps was a multinational conglomerate evolved from a spacelift company. Keith White (the first) was a brilliant businessman who basically made his empire from scratch. White International Corporations was among the top 100 greatest human companies yet compared to their future heights their position was almost mediocre. The grand change arrived alongside with the Ashtar whose galaxy spanning communication and transportation measures enabled unimaginable possibilities. Aging yet still in full capacity of his wits, Keith White risked everything to set foot in unfamiliar regions, racing to beat his competition. During his life White Corps went from an averagish international enterprise into a conglomerate with interstellar reach, as well as undoubtedly the most powerful corporation on Earth, rivaling nations. His dream continued under the guidance of Keith White (the second) whose youthful energy and desire for growth made White Corps into a galaxy wide entity. The second Keith White put down the lion's share of what provides the face of White Interstellar Corporations nowadays. The third Keith White thus seemingly landed a cushy office job with very little to do. The irony of this statement becomes obvious when you realize he took office only a few years prior to the Great War. The loss of Ashtar oversight and the embroiling chaos initially troubled the company but soon they turned things around, responding well to the galactic demand for conflict. In short they turned wars into profit, and keep doing it even now. White Corps' influence is on the constant rise and while materially speaking they are far from a powerhouse, they keep growing. White Corps built a reputation for high quality and extremely dependable services, something in dire demand during such chaotic times. In a sense this makes them neutral, they do not have any dreams of galactic conquest nor offering more support to any particular faction. In practice they are very much self-serving and given their high profile technological leaning they maintain a veiled yet keen interest in the Ashtar homeworld and its ongoings.
Holdings/Government
White Corps is a galaxy-spanning conglomerate with some degree of involvement in nearly every nation. While interstellar logistics is still their main profile they are present in a myriad of fields. White Mining and Industries (WMI) is steadily growing since the chaos of war, meeting the increasing demand for resources. White Research Fund has presence in countless places of learning, providing support and scholarship programs (as well as receiving up to date information on scientific finds). White Interstellar Innovation Initiative is a giant R&D powerhouse not only gathering technology from distant regions but also developing technology unique to White Corps. White Galactic Credit is a galaxy-wide bank and stock exchange which also invests in foreign companies. Overall the White Interstellar Corporations is a gigantic conglomerate with equally huge and complex leadership to govern it. There are several levels going from the daughter firms to constituent corporations all up to the main branches each lead by an Archon. These Archons have sweeping influence over their set field in the conglomerate and arguably even galaxy-wide. There are overall 11 Archons who also attend regular board meetings in presence of the chief director of White Corps, Keith White himself. These meetings are typically held in Hydea Prime, the planet-wide headquarters of the company but since Archons are constantly busy they can still remotely attend through highly encrypted quantum comms.
White Corps originated from Earth yet as the enterprise grew to encroach the galaxy the rock planet shared with billions of outside the company's payroll became inconvenient. Its location closer to the edge of the galaxy also caused logistical troubles. This inadequacy remained even after several moves of the company's headquarters until Keith White the second bought an entire star system for White Corps' exclusive use. Cygnus is an unique trinary star system ruled by the stars of Cygnus A, Cygnus B and Cygnus B*. As a hiearchical star system Cygnus A is much larger and situated at the center while the pairs of Cygnus B and B* orbit it from a further distance. Cygnus has 4 planets, 1 rock and 3 gas giants. With the rock planet orbiting between Cygnus A and Cygnus B+B* it surprisingly remained of habitable quality, dubbed Hydea Prime.
As a headquarters of White Corps and later an important trade hub the Cygnus system has a massive influx of starships coming and going outside the system. The stars are surrounded by dyson swarms and stellar mining units while the gas giants became industrial districts and hydroponics. Deneb Shipyards, a White Corps subsidiary, has their most prestigious production complex set up in Cygnus. Hydea Prime itself rapidly grew into an ecumenopolis, a planet-wide city. Used to be home tens of billions of employees with the Great War and unpredictable interstellar transports it became unsustainable. Along with a cost cutting and rationalizing measure Hydea Prime now sports extreme degree of automation with the living population reduced that to 400 million. Hydea Prime became a "ghost city" or as some call it a "planet wide computer". In spite of the dramatic cut on staff the productivity only escalated further while Hydea went from borderline ghetto to one of the best places to live in.
White Corps is a company and while some tend to joke about them becoming a "corporate nation", they are unable to practice direct political power. While technically owned by White Corps, Hydea Prime or even the remainder of Cygnus has no national rights. Instead each inhabitant are the citizen of their respective nations with laws applying to them accordingly. To avoid some of the confusion the interstellar community agreed to form the Cygnus Autonomous Government, a state supervised by major powers which can practice national rights. At least that's what the public believes. In practice CAG is of course a puppet of White Corps, a necessary extra step to have their way.
As a major trade hub and the heart of the galaxy's most prominent megacorp Cygnus is of course possesses their own defenses. Lent by White Corps but officially under the authority of the Cygnus government the Cygnus Defense Force (CDF) acts both as security and self-defense. About a million WSS employees are participating in CDF for this purpose, including 4 WSF battlegroups in space. Furthermore Cygnus has the unique Jaivardhan Network, a meticulous system of space defense platforms, capable of even repelling a few dreadnoughts. That being said the primary purpose of CDF is security and to stop the rare rouge actors from ruining operations. They aren't meant nor capable of stopping a major power from invading Cygnus. But why would they? Cygnus is important because White Corps is operating there. Invading the headquarters can be a major financial blow to not just the megacorp but the galactic community at large. The ultimate protection of White Corps is money and the key role they have in the modern interconnected interstellar economy.
Present CDO of White Corps, the grandson of the second Keith White. Original name Jason, he freshly earned his business degree in the University of Corinthene when the news of his grandfather's death reached him. As a tradition his father Kayne White was to be nominated as the next CDO, a motion everyone expected. Yet in a surprising twist the third Keith White was to be Jason, a person with practically no fame. Naturally this sent the entire Council of Archons into an uproar yet mysteriously Kayne expressed his support. As soon as they rose the waves of outrage had calmed down, perhaps begrudgingly accepting the fresh director. Rumors spread about the second Keith White growing emotional senile to name such a successor. Others calmly accepted this, thinking the third Keith White would be nothing but a handsome figurehead. With the sheer robustness of the company and the galaxy at peace it was beleived that White Corps could last another hundred years without a change. They were wrong. A few years later the Ashtar resigned their position as world police, going into hiding. Soon after the Great War broke out and conflict ruled the space. White Corps' businesses were collapsing in the waves of destruction yet the unthinkable happened. Keith White reorganized the conglomerate, changed focus and opened new markets. For every lost business they soon began gaining four or five. Conflict was a detriment to the old structure since it fed on stability. The new face of White Corps was different, it abused the inequalities of conflict. Need for some quick cash? Sell that resource asteroid to us. Need for some war resources? Here, freshly mined. Weapons? We have them. Men? Can do. Anything else? Can be arranged for. White Corps began to grow once again, turning from one of many intergalactic names to the top business in the galaxy. Logistics and high technology were still their main profile yet the way they approached things changed. After few years into the War nobody had any doubts about the young Keith's business sense. With hostilities reigniting in the race for Agdemnar it's expected that White Corps will flourish even more.
Demographics/Society
As a galaxy-spanning interstellar enterprise the White Corps has employees from a myriad of nations and races. [to be continued...]
Economy/Technology
Conservative estimates put White Corps' contribution to around 1% of the galaxy's entire GDP. Over the century the megacorp enjoyed a meteoric growth and its presence is now felt in every corner of the galaxy. That being said they are still just an interstellar company, perhaps the largest and most extensive the galaxy had ever known but regardless they aren't a nation state. Their assets are compartmentalized and dispersed through the galaxy. Like any other company they can be victims of the whims of local governments and while influential they only possess soft power. Similarly their industrial power is hanging on a myriad of interstellar agreements. And to re-iterate: White Corps might be the single greatest company in the galaxy but when compared to the gross national product of major powers they are still underwhelming. That being said, having a profit oriented galaxy-spanning enterprise does mean they could focus on projects much easier and could weigh countless alternatives. This sorts of freedom can also explain their reputation of high tech. While still nowhere to the point of Ashtar it's often beleived that White Corps owns the best technology money could buy. Their research programs penetrate every nation, their development teams "appropriate" patents through the galaxy and their seemingly unending funds can finance technological inventions most nations could never even dream of.
Nanolathes: The 3D printing of the future. It sorays layers of nanopractices on a "frame" made of forcefields it is possible to create objects or even fine devices with extreme precision. With centuries of development this technology is now widespread in White Corps facilities, allowing versatility and customization like never before. A qualitative improvement over this technology were the Q-fabs (quantum fabricators), allowing to interact with matter and change its structure. While transmuting lead to gold is still an economical dead end the range of customization options grew exponentially.
Metamaterials: Matter made, not extracted. Metamaterials is an attractive field which allows one to design matter with the exact properties they desire. While this process is costly it has several means of payoff. MSIM (meta-stable intermediary matter) is one common product, a family of designer composites ideal to rearrange via Q-Fabs for more specific uses. Durametals are the other end of the spectrum, ultradense metal-derived matrixes making them way more durable than normal. Durachrome is a fine example. Even the more modern brands of nanomesh use metamaterials and dura technology. Duramesh in particular is a spongy nano-webbed derivative of durachrome, making it excellent lightweight construction material.
Conversion Reactor: As a result of White Corps trying to deliver plentiful amount of energy conveniently to its clients its R&D team made many breakthroughs in energy generation, storage and transfer. One of these is the conversion reactor advertised as the ultimate evolution of nuclear energy. Using field generators, Q-Fabs and other devices it became plausible to turn any regular matter into a source of energy. Do you wish to run your reactor by throwing rocks into it? Sure, though far from ideal. Nuclear energy from air? Absolutely! Conversion reactors went through multiple generations and since the 5th gen era it's possible to make them even on the micro scale. Wrist watches and phones powered by air-derived nuclear energy is a matter of course now. While convenience is important White Corps also considered high performance users. Starships and certain military equipment can now use "ultra conversion reactors" which consume ultradense metastable matter to achieve high performance and at compact volume. Long story short this technology enables further miniaturization attempts from White Corps, enabling the rest of their tech.
Impeller/Impulse Technology: Unified force theory is partially unraveled by White Corps, allowing them to create a new kind of propulsion based on forcefields. This meant a fundamental change to White Corps technology yet functionally it has little effect. Impeller technology can be used in moving parts in place of electromagnetics, further improving efficiency. Similarly mass accelerators with impeller technology can be made more compact and reliable yet outwardly the effects are rather similar. A more apparent difference happened with the spread of impulse drives/engines. Using pure force instead of reaction mediums resulted in monumental fuel savings and environmentally safe method. Forcefields themselves are an ubiquitous standard feature of all White Corps technology.
Elektrokinetics: With the atomic age conventional explosives appeared to be on their way out yet thermonuclear weapons had their own issues. Elektrokinetics are using the coulombic force, induced by charge difference. Using sophisticated devices it's plausible to artificially create charge differences in matter to generate force. It can be used for mechanical power akin to the cylinders of a combustion engine, providing motive force. More importantly this charge difference can result in massively energetic bursts which can be utilized for explosives. Military applications for example include turning inert projectiles into improvised explosives, furthering the versatility of accelerator weaponry. It can be even used as rocket propulsion by turning a small portion of the object into reactive matter and expelling it in sequence. While electrokinetics have a narrow niche it still finds surpriringly frequent applications by White Corps.
Farcasters: As a galaxy wide conglomerate White Corps has experience with a myriad of faster than light travel mechanisms. To avoid the logistical nightmare of managing many dozens of different FTL drives, White Corps settled down on two. One of them are the farcasters, derivative of the ubiquitous hyperdrive. Some may go as far as White Corps invented Farcasters just for the patent money. Farcasters open a portal to hyperspace, an eldritch region commonly used for FTL travel. The actual process of "Farcasting" occours after entry where the ship establishes a safe corridor anchored to the exit point. This process makes hyperspace travel both safer and free of the random time variance regular hyperdrives experience. As such Farcasting vessels are always on time, a valuable asset for a corporation mainlining in logistics.
Fold Drive: While Farcasters offer reliable interstellar travel the corporation was also fascinated by the potential of a radically different approach. Foldspace technology warps space-time around the vessel, achieving superluminal apparent velocities without the ship actually moving faster. It works very similar to that of a multiplier, if an object moves at 0.1c then at warp factor 100 it effectively would travel at 10c. Some derivative of this technology was long used by civilizations galaxywide to speed up sublight cruise times but breaking the light barrier was a challenging task. White Corps achieved that breakthrough, giving them a fairly economical and reliable travel measure. Unlike most FTL types Foldspace travel occours in realspace. The upside is that it increases precision and allows continuous observation of the sorroundings. The drawbacks are that collosion with realspace objects is a strong risk. Plotting courses to avoid obstacles is essential, especially since with increased speed the turning circle of ships expand accordingly. A ship which had a 200km turning circle may require 200,000 km in high-warp, a monumental difference. Regardless fold drives are fairly useful in the right hands, even if they have a specific niche. In addition fold technology can be used for the so-called "hypersensors". Foldwave radars can get reflections at superluminal rates, hypercameras can visually observe objects in real time rate from astronomical units away. Hypercomms allow sending signals for interplanetary distances without the light-lag. Fold technology is even utilized in weaponry. Although unlike electromagnetic waves these objects require what is called a "fold sustainer", a device derived from the fold drives but way simpler. It cannot generate fold distortion but maintain it around the vessel. Such "fold accelerated weapons" have a rising niche in the White Security Starforce.
Armor: White Corps relies on armor as the primary passive protection. Nanomesh and duramesh are adequate structural materials and can provide sufficient protection against infantry weapons. Durachrome is used as the most common "true" armor material, albeit its weigh (40-80g/cm^3) makes it awkward at times. More sophisticated armor schemes make use of duracomposites which is an extremely large family of varying setups, effectively unique to each type of hardware. More advanced armor schemes are also reinforced by integrity field, which is a small matrix of forcefields.
Higgs-Shielding: Derived from the impeller technology, a skin-tight energy barrier forming a protective layer over the user. Its self-focusing technology concentrates shield strength proportional to the punishment received, making it fairly economical in terms of energy consumption. Higgs-shielding is normally invisible, only flares up when receiving a sufficiently strong attack to trigger its self-focusing effect.
Deflector Screens:Multi-layered impeller shielding mostly exclusive to spacecraft. A form of standoff protection it forms several layers up to miles from the vessel. Deflector screens are the first line of defense for ships, but far from the last. They are intended to weaken, deflect or pre-detonate attacks rather than straight blocking them. Distance is equally important as their forcefield strength. Due to its standoff nature these shields are much more rare for ground units since shield-to-ground contact could weaken them unless adjusted correctly.
Accelerator Guns:Impeller Acceleration Arms technology allows using forcefields to propel a variety of different projectiles. This technology is commonly utilized in White Corps small arms, cannons, artillery or even missile weaponry. In a more narrow sense accelerator guns are a family of impeller acceleration arms that fire interactive multi-purpose projectiles (IMPP) at hypervelocity. Accelerator Guns have integrated nanolathes or even Q-Fabs to modify their projectiles prior to fire, allowing an extreme range of customization. The most expensive accelerator guns outright create their projectiles using metamatter (MSIM, to be precise).
Interactive Multi-Purpose Projectiles: IMPP are cylindrical inert projectiles specially engineered to be easily modifiable. Using nanolathes and Q-Fabs it's possible to shape the projectile, add special properties or even give it simple programming. Thanks to this accelerator guns no longer need to carry specialized ammunition, they create them from IMPP on demand. The first shot might be a dart-like extremely hard penetrator while the next round would be functioning like an airburst grenade. Depending on sophistication IMPP can be also adjusted for specialized roles like incendiaries, anti-electronics, anti-shield or even non-lethal purposes. Larger accelerator guns could even fire nuclear shells. Thanks to this versatility White Corps almost entirely abolished their use of energy weapons.
Sublight Accelerator Guns:A variant of accelerator guns utilizing a degree of foldspace technology. It allows firing up to near lightspeed projectiles in a fairly compact package. Most commonly found in starship use, this is the standard for most WSF weaponry.
Missiles: Aside from IMPP the most popular weaponry in White Corps' arsenal are various missiles. The simplest forms are actually IMPP, only of larger diameter and designed to be propelled by electrokinetic jets or rocketry. These light missiles usually rely on the combination of speed and electrokinetic warheads. More sophisticated missiles are mostly for space and anti-orbital use. These rely on their own impulse engines to achieve great performance and often have sublight speed capability built into them. Such missiles can have a myriad of different warhead options which deserves its own section. Modern space missiles like 200mm and VLS capable ones are wildly customizable not just in their warheads but in practically all their characteristics, specialized for the situation at hand. Speed boosters, Fold Sustainers (for limited FTL) and maneuverability packages are among the most popular mods to equip but far from an exhaustive list. Missiles of such sophistication are usually made via Q-Fabs and further modified prior to launch to meet the exactly required specifics.
The warheads below are the most typical for 200mm and VLS type missiles, though in different distribution. 200mm missiles are generally considered medium range and for defensive purposes. VLS are long to extremely long range missiles with at least as much offensive as defensive uses. Also while many of these missile types are easy to fabricate, some require either special materials or contain classified technology not authorized to be constructed by frontline Q-Fabs.
Fold Accelerator Guns: A new type of weaponry mostly in prototype phase. Their mechanism is in theory simple: equip a projectile with fold sustainer and ramp up the foldspace boost sufficiently to reach superluminal apparent velocities. In reality this is a demanding and very delicate process which is often accomplished only by linking the weapon to the ship's fold drive. This is generally not a concern for White Corps as they intend to combine this technology with spinal mount mass accelerator weaponry. Spinal mounts were not encouraged by White Corps due to their awkwardness and inferiority compared to their own VLS systems. Fold Accelerator Guns changed this, making such mounts actually viable as specialist anti capital ship or anti-fortrification purposes.
Mass Lance Projectors:The closest White Corps ever gets to utilizing energy weapons as shipborne weapons. It compresses matter to the extreme and unleashes it as a needle thin stream at extreme velocities it could very efficiently punch through hardened targets. Yet matter stream also expands, only slowed down by relativistic effects. Once the stream slows down it explodes, preferably inside the target. Mass Lance Projectors are extremely potent but only at short ranges. Its penetration characteristics degrade with range. Fold acceleration variants were also invented but those are telegraphed (they need to erect a fold corridor for the stream to travel through) and even more easier to disrupt. Standoff protection schemes might also detonate the stream prematurely, nullifying their threat. As such careful considerations must be taken to properly use this weapon. Yet this "instability" can be also exploited. Modern fold lance projectors are known to be "dual purpose", capable of punching through heavy defenses at short range or to be used as futuristic flak cannons which detonate their content at a set distance. Mass lance projection technology has a lot of potential and White Corps very much intends to eventually turn these to their standard arms. Yet that would likely take at least a few more decades, even optimistically speaking. Regardless lance projectors are getting increasingly more widespread, no longer limited to spacecraft. Mass lance projectors in ground usage are fairly popular against enemy armor.
Military Overview
White Security Services (WSS) is the conglomerate's official security branch which eventually grew into a private military corporation of its own. The primary goal of WSS is to secure White Corps' interests but they soon began offering their services to foreign companies and even nations, effectively turning into a mercenary force. WSS is known for their high quality equipment and overall decent service, just as White Corps as a whole. The pool of staff is of course limited as White Corps has no legal grounds to aggressively recruit people, much less to do conscription. Yet given the conglomerate's high tech profile this happened to coincide just nicely. As previously said WSS contractors use high tech gear which combiend with their small numbers means they will not rely on brute force but rather make effective use of their mobility and precision to destablize their opposition. WSS troops are meant for small skirmishes, special operations and low intensity conflicts. They don't do open warfare. This philosophy in some sense is also reflected in their space forces, although combined with a lot of other aspects.
As their name implies White Security Services is primarily for providing security. Most of their employees are the equivalent of mall cops or civilian contractors. While their job is far from risk free the most "action" they tend to get is on the firing ranges and maybe catch purse snatcher. Actually, with the spread of robotic security it seems both sides are doing mostly the same. Staffers handle equipment and perform routine maintenance while security personnel oversees robots and keep them in top condition. The real difference is just that security tends to interact with people more.
As dictated by the worker laws of most nations White Corps provides uniforms for their employees. In case of WSS contractors they go for an extra mile, designing something that not only looks good but fitted with features to make their job easier. WSS uniforms are woven of nanomesh fabric which makes it stab proof, fire proof and absorbs impacts. The adoptive nanolayers can also protect against chemical spills and manage temperature. In-built sensors also watch for the wearer's vitals and might inject drugs in emergencies. The suit also comes commonly equipped with a low powered energy shield against radiation, vacuum and other environmental effects for short periods. If necessary wearers can also equip a shield booster which is the size of a cigarette box and can be fixed on the belt. It includes early warning sensors and a computer alongside the micro conversion reactor and shielding tech to erect a short lasting barrier against small arms and shrapnel. It only has enough to stop a few shots but it could mean the difference between life and death. On the other hand studies showed that the shield booster has long term health effects thus it's only issued on order. WSS contractors have relative freedom at choosing their weaponry yet by far the most common sidearm is the GOG-17C pistol. Like all White Corps firearms it uses mass accelerator technology and it fires 2.4mm projectiles at hypervelocity. These pre-fab bullets can customized to extreme variety so they could become stun shots of wide variety, AP, explosive or even more types. In spite of its size it's possible to charge up these bullets sufficiently to blow a human target to mincemeat (although at considerably power drain). The weapon is fairly accurate, can support HUD or direct link targeting displays, thought based controls and of course all pistols come standard with ID lock and similar security features. Overall it's a good gun although it requires relatively frequent maintenance and the White Corps supplied 2.4mm ammo (100 per magazine) is rather expensive.
Alternatively called SDS (spherical drone systems) are a large family of ball-shaped drones of various size and functions. In spite of that their overall role is relatively similar as they are meant for scouting, surveying and scanning. They are either rolling on the ground or fly using anti-gravity mechanisms (often both) and their focus is on sensors instead of anything else. Battle variants can exist with shields and heavier weaponry, so are hunter killer drones using powerful weaponry like warheads or mass lances. They are the most common type independent robotics utilized by White Corps.
Field Robotics and public Interface Enabled Normal Drone (F.R.I.E.N.D.) is a type of robotic infantry that can be seen everywhere in White Corps' premises. Their shape imitates humanoids (or aliens native to that region) and their form design is intended to make them look approachable rather than threatening. PR image is big with them and most FRIENDs are loaded with myriad of entertainment and public service features. That being said their primary purpose is to secure the area as well as lessen the workload of security personnel. As for combat capability they are no match for trained infantry. While possessing exceptional aim their responses are predictable and their agility is kind of laughable by expert eyes. They are designed to be relatively cheap and expendable, afterall. Most of their parts are second grade or lower by White Corps standards although they gave exceptional care to their computer core. Situated within the central portion of the machine's chest its housing is surrounded by composite armor which survives even if the rest of the robot is blown up. As such it's common for FRIENDs to have exchanged bodies dozens of times through their lifetime, occasionally retaining "bugs" related to the trauma. As walking gun turrets the most important combat asset of a FRIEND is their GCC-38/40 battle carbine firing 3.6mm programmable rounds with extreme variety. Thanks to the direct link to the AI it could dynamically determine the kind of ammo settings required to solve a specific situation. The combination of larger munitions, massively expanded versatility and huge power pack makes these carbines potentially way more destructive than GOG-17 pistols or even the rifles of standard infantry. Some prototypes also carry mini mass lances for even more massive firepower but those never seen out in the public.
WSS Expeditionaries are a mix of marines and standard infantry utilizing high-tech equipment. They wear sealed suit made of nanomesh composites which is resistant to shock and shrapnel and integrated with an exoskeletal system to lessen their load. In addition they wear composite armor plates to resist small arms and dramatically increase their survival. Using data-link and their vast array of built-in tiny sensors they view everything through a computer generated augmented reality interface. Some troops even agree to link their senses, achieving teamwork akin to the precise directions of a hive mind. For additional mobility the combat suit of the Expeditionaries often has micro fusion thrusters for jet assisted jumps and maneuvering. All these gadgets of course have a hefty price and could not be used by just anyone. WSS Expeditionaries were often members of foreign militaries for years and scouted by WSS for their skills. Following that they undergo intense VR training and field practices before becoming a fully fledged member. Alternatively WSS can ask promising security staff to advance, accept the courses and training and similarly become an Expeditionary who earns a much more respectable wage. As actual combat troops life as an expeditionary is not simple. You have to travel a lot, train constantly and occasionally even fight. In spite of their incomparably greater potential the Expeditionaries still mostly do what the standard infantry does, earning the nickname of "level 2 security".
- GAR-15A: Advanced accelerator rifle nominally firing 4.2mm projectiles. Unlike less advanced models it has a much more powerful and sophisticated nanolathe to alter projectile characteristics including feats like splitting one 4.2mm type to six 2.5mm munitions for salvo fire. The larger projectile is intended to carry more explosives and more sophisticated tools, as well as increase the maximum firepower. That being said full powered shots consume too much energy to be sustainable, often considered akin to using a grenade launcher. Speaking of which the GAR-15 has room for a GAG-203 12mm short accelerator to further increase its firepower or seldom mount a MLPA-025 micro mass lance for anti-armor roles. The "A" in the GAR-15A means "anthropoid-type", used by human mercs and those of similar build.
- MMS-148: The current type of micro missile systems (MMS) in use by the Expeditionaries. Fire and forget system which is not that dissimilar to accelerator rifles in function. It uses a sophisticated nanolathe fabricator to customize the 30mm missile bodies after which an accelerator ring gives them a starter velocity. The missiles use electrokinetic rocket propulsion which converts some of their own mass into propellant. Their size allows them to house decent guidance without making it too complex and their warheads can vary immensely. While generally slower than the hypervelocity projectiles these missiles still have enough velocity to use that as a weapon. Submunition spreads in a frontal cone is a common killing method with them. micro missiles are filling in a niche between infantry rifles and dedicated anti-armor weapons. Their price is still not significant enough to make missiles uneconomical and their tiny size gives them surprising magazine capacity. In addition they are the Expeditionaries' preferred weapon of choice when encountering aircraft.
- MLP-99: Man portable mass lance projector which focuses hyperdense matter to a nanometer thin beam at speeds approaching the light. This concentration of momentum allows extremely energy efficient anti-armor function although at a price of reduced range. That being said in terrestrial warfare the said "limited" range barely applies which makes MLP like a laserbeam. More care has to be taken for the target as the weapon needs precise adjustments to become lethal. A nanometer thin beam passing through does practically no damage. Yet slow it down sufficiently and it will practically explode (preferably post-penetration). Make the beam too wide and it wouldn't pierce the barrier or fail due to the standoff plates "pre-detonating" the shot. Consequently MLP-99 requires specialists to handle. Although White Corps has future plans of fielding "mass lance rifles" as their next gen infantry weapon.
These three weapon types dominate the Expeditionaries' arsenal. In addition they use drones for hauling supplies and munitions or to carry larger weapon systems which less advanced militaries would consider as crew served weapons. This includes mortars, AA missile batteries, field artillery and even more.
The elite force of WSS and their primary offensive response. Mobile Infantry have the best equipment and many has special forces background. They currently wear the ARS-011 powersuit which has the best materials and technology that money could buy. Actually, calling them mere infantry is a misinformer. They are effectively a one man fighting vehicle with durable armor, shielding, enhanced agility, micro impulse thrusters and extensive sensory and battlefield management setup. While they can equip a lot of different gadgets the Mobile Infantry prefers to be loaded light and to answer this White Corps invented the VARIS (Versatile Accelerator Rifle-Integrated System) which is currently at ver.437. Unlike standard White Corps guns that use pre-fabricated projectiles the VARIS uses compressed metastable matter and creates new projectiles before firing which can range anywhere from 1 to 15mm diameter. In addition the VARIS can also work as a mass lance or energy weapon by just a quick computer directed adjustment of the accelerator rings. This allows them to effectively engage anything ranging from infantry to even tanks or aircraft. Yet their greatest asset is their sheer agility and speed which they can accomplish their objectives.
TBA
White Security Services is a PMC providing the public face of their military. Yet there are times White Corps has to secure their interest with less savory means. H.Y.D.R.A. (actual meaning classified, possibly just a backronym) is effectively a black organization doing exactly that. They operate independently from White Corps and technically have no ties to each other. In a sense HYDRA doesn't even exist. There are little of any records mentioning them and most sources tend to be contradictory. Those who are aware of HYDRA tend to think it's a codename covering multiple organizations and on the surface level it might be even true. Yet the actual HYDRA is a secret agency led by the Shadow Council, an independent group supposedly hand picked by Keith White himself. Rather than directed by White Corps, HYDRA acts entirely on their own with their only contact being periodical reports and seldom communicating with Keith White. They are distanced from White Corps as much as possible to maintain plausible deniability. As for members the core staff of HYDRA are select individuals who officially shouldn't even exist. They are either declared dead, missing or otherwise no longer being on records. The exact size and capabilities of HYDRA are uncertain but it's beleived they even have their own R&D units. Given the sheer amount of White Corps tech they possess it's likely they have backdoors to many White Corps complexes both to gather information and support them without officially endorsing it. Some even suggests that experimental technologies of more secretive nature might be tested by HYDRA, especially when it involves unethical or morally questionable purposes. Aside from its solid core unit HYDRA actually has contact with the underworld network and often uses criminals, pirates and terrorists to do the grunt work for them. Many supposed "HYDRA" organizations were actually criminal group propped up by the Shadow Council to act as their proxy.
Space Forces
For a long time White Corps didn't own a real space force. The interstellar conglomerate was still growing and they only required to ward off the occasional pirate. Escort vessels commanded by White Security Services were sufficient. Regardless this lead to them gaining some experience in building warships, particularly corvettes and frigates. As the enterprise grew, so did the amount of potential threats. Furthermore their shipbuilding grew into a fruitious business and thus the demand for an independent space force became apparent. White Security Starforce (WSF) became their official name. Technically still answering to WSS yet given massive amount of autonomy. Just as before White Corps focuses on smaller vessels yet size could be deceiving. Although compact the amount of technology and power hidden within these ships should not be underestimated. Indeed while technically the main purpose of WSF is still "security" they grew into a full blown space force. The shipbuilding rush of course effected White Corps, too. The end result were quirky compact warships punching way above their weight class, although with some drawbacks. Strike frigates that really should be deserving to be called cruisers. Then let's not talk about their so-called "expeditionary combat vessels", White Corps' own take to sidestep the Treaty of Detente. Consequently the WSF has a dearth of any large combat vessels. White Security Starforce does not appear to own any battleships, mind dreadnoughts. Some say this is a ruse and White Corps is hiding a force of very much treaty violating dreadnoughts until the opportunity arrives. While such rumors likely have no basis it's well-known that White Corps has fair bit of knowledge in dreadnought technology, even offering technical support in their upgrades and maintenance. Though secretive about it but intelligence reports also claim White Corps is likely to possess a prototype hyper-dreadnought, kept only for research and experimentation. This could explain the recent spike of high-powered anti-dreadnought weapons mounted on their newest vessels.
Small vessels exist for local patrol, support and screening purposes. By galactic standards these all would be classified as Corvettes of some type and they are indeed marketed as such.
- Blockade Runners: FTL capable shuttlecraft made with recon roles in mind rather than outright combat.
- Gunboat/Torpedo Boat/Missile Boat: Weapons corvettes on the smaller end of the spectrum focusing on firepower.
- Schooner/Snauw/Corvette/Patrol Ship: Generalist corvettes of various sizes. Schooner/Snauw are on the smaller scale and tend to be old models while patrol boats are more advanced vessels following modular design. Corvette is a generic term which can mean anything, of course.
- Mine Layer/Minesweeper/Minehunter/ Mine Warfare Ship: All of these are referring to escorts specialized to mine warfare, either to counter them or to deploy them (often both).
WSH-F09221A7 Raleigh-class Recon Corvette: Tiny 40m long blockade runner outfitted with SEWERS (Space Electronic Warfare and Enhanced Recon System) to act as a flying sensor, providing intelligence, early warning, targeting information and could even attempt to jam enemy sensors. Instead of weapons it has probe launcher tubes for further information gathering capabilities. Because of its overall importance it's referred as a recon corvette or RC rather than a blockade runner like its parent hull.
WSH-F07317A27 Calico-class Missile Boat:64m long vessel equipped with no less than forty 200mm missile tubes. Its main role is to act as screening vessel against starfighters and incoming missiles. The newest variant also replaced its old gun mount with a modular weapon station which can use either twin AG-30, SAG-57 or the new LPA-28 type armaments for self defense and close range interception.
WSH-E02148A11 Stargazer-class Corvette: Classic escort ship with length of 90m and versatile loadout. Also considered pocket warships these pack 16 VLS cells, pair of SAG-76 guns, assorted self-defense weaponry and a hangar module alongside three S-scale modules for mission customization. They are in the process of being replaced by the new Patrol Ship class due to their limited flexibility in comparison.
WSH-E00981A52 Ton-class Mine Warfare Ship: 100m long escort ship originally designed for minelaying. After scrapping its guns and antiquated missile pods they filled it with probe launchers for counter mine warfare. It became a specialist vessel responsible for carrying, deploying and controlling mines. It is also the vessel type used to combat mines by using various probes for detection, analysis and neutralization of space mines. Consequently the ship went through more variations than any other hull in order to be kept up to date. Regardless a replacement is in order, some even suggest that its duties should be taken over by the Delta-class patrol ships.
WSH-E17216A1 Delta-class Patrol Ship: The newest escort ship class freshly out of prototype stage. Unlike previous vessels that a rigid layout the Delta-class is entirely modular, can be fully customized for any role. Optimistic projections say these ships would replace nearly all escort vessels and the "Micro Delta" class intended to do the same with mini warships like blockade runners is already in development.
WSH-E10096A7 Hydra-class Missile Destroyer: 142m long vessel originally envisioned as a full scale warship. With the radical improvement in missile technology White Corps intended to have a craft fully exploiting them. Designed to be compact yet powerful the vessel ultimately failed to live up to the expectations. Demoted as an escort the Hydra is an incredible force multiplier equipped with no less than 160 VLS cells. Although initially these were meant to be filled with strike warheads the modern variants fill out an almost entirely defensive role with lot of their cells converted into 16-pack 200mm loadouts. The newest retrofit also saw the change from the outdated gun systems to 3 modular weapon systems most commonly occupied with LPA-55 mass lances for close-in defense.
WSH-E11017A2 Armstrong-class Gun Destroyer: Less of an escort ship and more like a 160m long flying cannon the Armstrong-class was designed entirely around its ridiculous SFAS-475 Fold Accelerator Cannon. They have limited room for defensive armaments or almost anything else yet their capability to threaten even battleships can make them a worthwhile addition.
WSH-E01390A21 Armadillo-class Monitor: 148m long ship which can be classified as either escort or warship. It has heavy armor and powerful guns for its size but it comes at the cost of endurance and FTL performance. Armadillo-class is intended for regional defense and considered a rather old ship design. Yet when it comes to cost effectiveness it has only a few equals which makes it a popular choice for small nations. The current retrofit is equipped with four SAG-205 guns, 16 defensive guns and eighty tubes for 200mm missiles. It also comes with two modular hangars and 6 S-scale modules for customization. When nations want a compact brawler they think of the Armadillo-class.
Warships are the mainline combat vessels utilized by White Corps. In a sense they could be called as capital vessels but WSF explicitly lacks such vessels. If anything in other doctrines ships of such size are the escort vessels instead.
The Dwarmar species began on the planet of Darmoor, a resource-rich planet with one single large continent and some scattered islands. As civilization developed, the continent eventually became divided into five major kingdom, who fought each other in the occasional stalemated war.
But technology became more advanced, and soon these wars saw higher body counts. One particularly intense war left four of the five major nations exhausted, and their economies would take years to recover. This allowed the fifth nation, the Kingdom of Romar, to pull ahead in technology and become the dominant power. They researched space travel, and began to establish colonies on Darmoor's moons. With the natural resources of Darmoor already becoming scarce, this benefited them greatly.
The other powers did not turn a blind eye to this, however. Eventually, through their combined efforts as well as a bit of espionage against their rival, they managed to catch up in technology, and start their own colonies on the moons. But Romar had too much of a headstart, and had already settled the best locations.
War broke out again: the four lesser powers against Romar. Skirmishes raged on the moons and in space, but even combined the four powers could not match Romar in spacial dominance, and so their colonies and their ships were lost.
The war would have to be settled on land... but alas, the Romarians had recently finished and installed orbital missile platforms on their stations. It proved a simple enough matter to bombard various armies and military bases from above, weakening their armies and destroying their ability to coordinate. The King of Romar, Joric Stonefist, then made his demands known: yield to his authority, allow the planet to become unified under one power, and he would share with them the bounty of the stars.
Initially the other four Kings refused. But their people were hungry, lacking the necessities and luxuries they had come to rely on, and bitter about the fact that it was their own rulers which started this pointless war in the first place. So they rose up, and although these rebellions were dealt with, the Kings saw the sense in surrender.
The Kingdoms and the Kings could continue to exist, but they now swore fealty to Joric Stonefist, first of his name, Emperor of Darmoor and King of Romar, and answered to his laws.
With Darmoor finally unified, planetary expansion and technological development continued to accelerate. They found a planet capable of supporting life, which they named New Darmoor, and promptly settled it. Dozens of other planets, moons, and outposts soon followed. They encountered two other species, which they convinced to join the Empire peacefully. The Dwarmar Empire became one of the foremost powers in the universe. Rival powers which tried to halt their advance or seize their colonies quickly regretted it.
Unfortunately, it did not go off without a hitch. Their home planet, Darmoor, became overpopulated and overpolluted. It soon began apparent that within a decade, the planet would become unsuitable to life.
And so began the worst crisis in Dwarmar history.
Mass panicking ensued throughout Darmoor. Riots began to break out. The dwarven government, meanwhile, was stuck the burden of transferring their administration and their people to other colonies and planets. Those planets, in turn, would need to prepare themselves to receive a sudden influx of refugees and immigrants - which they were none too happy about.
Some particularly ambitious colonies even went so far as to declare independence. They refused to pay taxes, contribute resources, or accept refugees. The Emperor, with much of his forces already tied up keeping order in Darmoor and transporting its people elsewhere, could not afford to fight a war of independence on multiple fronts. More colonies throughout the empire began to follow suit, and many already began to believe that the Emperor's authority had collapsed.
Then the Ashtar arrived.
They 'pushed' the rebellious colonies into rejoining the fold. They used their own ships to transport or escort the Darmoor refugees to other worlds. It was their intervention which kept the Empire together, and allowed a smooth transition of power from Old Darmoor to New Darmoor. Without the Ashtar, billions of Dwarmar would be dead, and the Empire would not exist.
Of course, if you say this to any Dwarmar, they will simply scoff and assure you that no help was needed. They would have worked it out eventually.
Nonetheless, the dwarven leaders who came after the crisis tended to be the Ashtar's most staunch supporters. The Fall of Old Darmoor had highlighted a number of flaws in their government, military, and general resource management, and the peace that the Ashtar enforced gave them the perfect opportunity to correct it. The military and government became more centralized, while their colonies began to turn to less destructive forms of fuel and energy in order to avoid repeating the same mistakes. With the guidance of the Ashtar, the Dwarmar Empire entered a new age of peace and prosperity.
Then the Ashtar disappeared.
The threats the dwarves faced were not internal. One hundred years had been enough to iron out most of the kinks in their system, and keep their colonies mostly content, while maintaining enough force to suppress those who weren't.
No, the threats that the Dwarmar faced were external: rival nations. These aggressors had come to believe that the Dwarmar were dependent on Ashtar authority. That with the Ashtar gone, the Dwarmar Emperor's authority would surely collapse in the face of the first major crisis.
They were wrong.
The Emperor endured. The Dwarves fought back, and drove the invaders from their territory. After that they went on the offensive, intent on seeking retribution, but instead the wars ground into a stalemate. With some reluctance they bit their tongue and agreed to the treaty.
But as the years passed, the dwarves continue to expand their navy and army in whatever way they could, without breaking the agreement. Then the Ashtar sent a message, urging the people of the galaxy to come to Argdemmer and take up the mantle of the Ashtar. Emperor Joric III made the rather naive decision to attend personally. Though he brought a well-equipped fleet with him, led by the competent High Admiral Gorm Goldbeard, he did not truly believe violence would break out.
But when the Emperor Joric's fleet arrived, they found that they had stumbled across a warzone... and they were in the crossfire. Although most of the Dwarmar managed to take evasive maneuvers and escape, the flagship took a series of heavy hits, resulting in the deaths of Emperor Joric and High Admiral Gorm.
Vice Admiral Ivar Ironhand took command of the fleet, reorganized his ships, and led them back into the fray to avenge the Emperor's death. The two exhausted forces were driven off, and Ivar sent a message home to inform them of the Emperor's death, along with a request reinforcements.
Prince Duran Stonefist ascended to the throne, and throughout the empire there was a cry for vengeance. Ivar was given his reinforcements, as well as a promotion to High Admiral to boot. Duran personally ripped the Treaty of Detente in two before a cheering crowd, and in his mind he knew what needed to be done. The secrets of the Ashtar were not fit to be shared. Most of the other nations were unworthy, and even the ones who were worthy would never agree on its use. No, only one nation could claim it.
And it would be the Dwarmar.
Major Holdings
New Darmoor. The second planet to be colonized by the dwarves, and now the capital. The bulk of the population of Old Darmoor was moved here before most of the planet became uninhabitable. The Dwarves have learned their lesson, and although much of the planet bears the scars of pollution, for the most part things are sustainable.
Old Darmoor. The Dwarven homeworld. Resources are scarce, the air quality is poor, and much of the land is barren. Despite this, a stubborn few remain, mainly in small fortified cities and towns that have somehow managed to scratch out a living. Beyond those cities, post-apocalyptic tribes roam the wastelands. Dozens of space stations hang in orbit, but most have been scrapped, salvaged, and abandoned; only a few remain occupied to monitor the situation.
Lunmoor. One of the moons of Old Darmoor. Its climate and terrain was remarkably similar to Old Darmoor before it was polluted, and thus it was fully capable of supporting life, but it possessed few mineral resources. The soil, however, is incredibly fertile, and the moon is an agricultural powerhouse.
Darmoon. The second moon of Darmoor. Darmoon is everything that Lunmoor is not. It is barren and possesses no oxygen, but it is incredibly rich in minerals and oils. Even after more than a thousand years, the planet still has an abundance of metals.
Arctus. Home of the Jotnar, it possesses a cold climate, yet strangely enough it has a number of edible plants and animals that actually grow best in the cold. Officially, they are the Dwarmar Empire's ally, but due to the sheer imbalance of power, 'vassal' might be more accurate. The Dwarmar don't interfere too much in their laws or politics, however, so most Jotnar overlook this.
Demographics
Population
The Dwarmar, also known as Dwarves, are a humanoid species. Stout and clever, they average between four and five feet in height. They are a proud and stubborn people, unyielding in both battle and diplomacy. While they can be standoffish toward outsiders and strangers, once a Dwarmar's trust is earned, their distrustful looks will quickly fade into warm eyes and welcoming grins. Dwarves are exceptional engineers, inventors, craftsmen, and pilots.
The Jotnar, also known as Frost Giants, are also humanoid. They are tall, ranging between eight and ten feet in height, with skin as white as snow and cold blue blood. They are friendly, laid back people, but don't let that fool you: they are aggressive and fearless fighters when provoked. Perhaps unsurprisingly the Frost Giants prefer cold climates, and warships need to be kept cool to accommodate them.
The Avianese. Another humanoid species, the Avians closely resemble humans, but they have beaks for mouths, talons for feet, and wings on their back. They average around seven feet in height. While they have excellent speed and reflexes, their bones are light and weak; they cannot take much in the way of direct punishment. They are a shrewd and pragmatic people.
Society
The Dwarmar are a proud, traditionalist people. They respect their elders, and are fiercely loyal to their families. They carry a firm belief in the wisdom and leadership of the Noble Clans. They do not respond well to insults, and they can be quick to hold grudges against species other than their own. But despite these conservative tendencies, they are still an upbeat and free-spirited people, always open to acts of revelry or celebration. Additionally, dwarves are an extremely technologically savby people. A dwarf who is incapable of performing basic household repairs is a disgrace to his family. Engineers, Inventors, and Builders are all held in high regard.
The Dwarven Religion is centered around a God known as the Allfather, who is credited for the creation of their planet and their species. Originally he was believed to have created the entire universe, but with the encounter of new species and cultures with their own distinct religion, this was gradually reformed. All gods exist, but any claims that those gods created any planets beyond where their worship originates is seen by the Dwarmar as nothing more than zealous arrogance.
The Jotnar worship a small pantheon of four gods, tied to the various elements. These gods are known simply as the Fire-Father, the Air-Father, the Earth-Mother, the Water-Mother, and the Cold-Father.
The Avianese had several different opposing religions, but with the introduction of space travel they quickly grew disillusioned with these faiths. A few converted to the Dwarmar faith, but most became agnostic or atheist.
Economy
The Dwarmar are primarily an industrial powerhouse, with enough agriculturally rich planets to remain mostly self-sufficient, but they still depend on trade during lean times.
Government
The Dwarmar Empire is a hereditary dictatorship, united under the Emperor (or Empress.) Serving directly under the Emperor is a Council of Elders; various ministers responsible for different departments who give the Emperor advice. Once upon a time these positions were hereditary, but that has been rectified.
On the planetary scale, each planet is divided into a series of provinces, led by a Governor, who are tasked with administering the regions. These Governors are overseen by the planet's Chancellor, who serves as the Emperor's representative and is responsible for appointing and revoking the Governors, as well as sending reports back to the Emperor, but little else. The Emperor appoints the Chancellor, and has the right to overrule the Chancellor's appointments. This is not a usual occurrence, however; the Emperor simply cannot pay close attention to dozens of planets, and so it may take years for a corrupt or incompetent Chancellor to be revealed, and months for the damage to be undone.
To help rectify this, the Empire maintains a vast intelligence network - the Imperial Watcher Agency. The "Watchers" essentially keep tabs on the current Governors and Chancellors, as well as military officers and other high ranking officials. They do have connections in foreign nations, but most of their attention is focused on the Empire's home territory. Their chief concern is to unveil plots against the Emperor, cases of corruption, or foreign attempts at Espionage.
Technological Information
Major Techs
Production Facilities: The dwarves have highly efficient resource extraction and production facilities, capable of mining ore or building ships and weapons at impressive speeds.
Mecha: The dwarves are fond of mecha, perhaps to compensate for their short stature, and make ample use of them in both ground and space operations.
Ships: Dwarmar ships are generally built to be resilient and heavy-hitting rather than fast. That isn't to say all their ships are slow; they do have some fast ships for scouting or skirmishing purposes, but their naval doctrine does not revolve around it. Their ships tend to be armed with heavy railguns, plasma cannons, and guided missles.
FTL: Their FTL drives are not the swiftest in the galaxy, but they rarely encounter issues.
Weapons: Dwarmar infantry weapons tend to fire plasma or high caliber bullets (usually incendiary or explosive.) The Jotnar have also invented weapons capable of freezing targets solid.
Space Stations: The Dwarmar have built space stations throughout their territory to serve as military outposts, shipyards, refueling centers, resource extraction facilities, and orbital defense platforms.
Military Information
Military Overview
Fleet/Navy
Dreadnoughts: The Dwarmar have a few new dreadnoughts. Against the treaty, you say? No, they are only recently constructed. How did this come about? Essentially, a previous Emperor built facilities throughout the Empire which constructed pieces of Dreadnoughts. A cockpit here, an engine there. Now that the Treaty of Detente has been rendered null and void, these Dreadnoughts have been brought together and assembled. While they are essentially brand new, the downside is that most of their crews have no experience operating a ship of that size. The Jotnar also built a single Dreadnought of their own in secret, at great cost, with the aid of the Imperial Watcher Agency.
I would like to join. Does my nation need to be human, or intelligent? I would like to make a creature alien kind of nation please. If I am allowed to, please let me know. Thank you!
10 detent class slow heavily armored and un-shielded with lots of heavy long range cannons
20 modern fast but still slow (normal speed) armed with lots of heavy auto cannons
10 modern, fast shielded, boarding ship with no weapons but almost impossible for anything smaller than a cruser to kill in a good amount of time anyway.
meet the Queen its the biggest baddest ship we got capable of sustained long range artillery fire and basically deploying an army on a whim, its shield are the tougest we got and its armor has no equal. It has only recently completed and is still undergoing system checks and crewing up
