In the dawning days of the Terran Hegemony, worlds rose to great power, and fell from great heights to the lowest depths of shame. War was ever present...but it was always below a boil. Always some vague line on a newscaster on a secure and happy colony world. Until it all broke down.
The Great Rift tore the Hegemony in two; fighting a war of it's own against it's own kind and it's own ships, man against man and woman against woman; life was hell for these years. For over one hundred and fivety bloody years Humanity waged war with it's own children, destroying everything that came into peaceful existence, but soon, the tide changed; the Hegemony began to win.
That is not where we start. We start at the beginning of this horrible conflict, when the first cracks began to appear in the illusion.
The year is 2305. And war, is coming.
Synopsis
You, portray the role of the captain of a ship in the Terran Hegemony Space Navy, or THSN. Ship designs in the Hegemony are not standard, due to the distances involved, it is simply a logistical fallacy, therefore, each system (there are roughly some 2500 in the Hegemony at this point) has 10-25 classes of ship ranging from Fighters to Super-dreadnoughts.
You, join a task force that will be crucial to winning or loosing the war. Your task-force is the most important one in Hegemony history. Do not fail, otherwise...the consequences could be devastating.
Our story starts at 2305.
A reader's guide
Terran Hegemony = The governing body for Humanity (pre-Entropy)
UMD = The United Multinational Directorate, Pre-Hegemony government governing the early colonies and Earth during and after the Unification Wars, first and second.
Pre and Post Entropy = Events before and after the fall of the Terran Hegemony, respectively.
Alcubierre drive = The warp drive we all know and love.
First Exodus = The first mass migration of people from the Sol system to other solar systems in the galaxy.
The Nameless = Alien race, destroyed by a genocidal campaign by the Terran Hegemony.
Great Collapse = The events leading up to, and preceding the fall of the Terran Hegemony.
Rift Drive = An advanced technology used to generate Rifts which are similar to wormholes in function, but not form. Extremely rare.
History: Pre-Entropy Terran Hegemony
The Terran Hegemony
Years 2015-2115
Shortly after 2015, The United States of America pushed for space colonization. Massively. Within months regular missions to the Moon were being sent, a colony was being constructed. This sparked the Race for Sol, with the United States of the ultimate victors. Vicious territory disputes threatened war on Earth, all the while the United States had a stable colony of 100,000 on the Moon by 2025. Soon the United States played their ultimate card: A massive switch-over to Helium-3 fusion power and electric automobiles caused the United States to drop oil imports massively. Now one of the largest consumers of oil had suddenly stopped, throwing the world's economy into turmoil. Most of the industrial output that the US relied on was on the moon, safely out of reach from foreign hands.
War was threatened. The United States refused to import oil. Soon Mexico declared war on the United States. There was no debate about who would win. The United States Army was a juggernaut. The M4A55 MBT was fitted with dual 250mm rail-guns, electrostatic armor, and various other things. Not to mention the Next-Generation-Weapons Advanced Warrior Unit Mech, which was a downright fearful combatant on it's own.
By 2050 the United States had taken over Mexico, shortly turning it into a series of new states.
Shortly after 2054, a collection of Middle-Eastern countries declared war on the United States of America. They were being backed by the newly formed Sino-Russian Alliance. Russia was lagging in technological superiority and China's economy was still in turmoil from the haltage of oil imports, and because the United States had halted imports from China, nearing an embargo. The first attack came in the form of an attempted nuclear strike on one of the United State's space elevators - keyword being attempted. The warhead was traced back to Russia. Soon after the United States declared war. Instead of a terrestrial invasion, the United States devastated the Sino-Russian Alliance from orbit with tungsten rods. First hit was Moscow, then Hongkong. Little more was needed to convince the world that the United States was now the only super-power.
This, being said, was challenged many times by those who sought to bring the United States down. The orbital bombardments against the Sino-Russian Alliance continued - until eventually nuclear war broke out. China and Russia fired off their entire ready nuclear stockpile. Only two nukes got through. New York City was hit with a 120 kiloton nuke. 600,000 dead. Los Angles was hit by a 50kt nuke. 400,000 dead.
Needless to say, the retaliation was massive. The United States Army and Navy mobilized within hours. Within a day Russia was being invaded. China was desperately trying to scrape together a defensive. Within a month, Russia was under United States control, and China had lost it's entire Eastern half. Both territories were newly annexed and kept under extreme occupation for ten years. Slowly but surely the names changed from the United States of America, Russia, and China to the United Multinational Directorate. With it, history changed. The land formerly know as Russia was revitalized, so was China. Damage was repaired, cities modernized, and the general addenda was progress. Soon the UN had a vote to admit all participating countries to the UMD. It passed.
The year is 2115, Earth is finally united as one. Humanity's outlook turns from Earth to the stars.
Years 2115-2205
With the basic steps already taken by the UMD during the Unification Wars, Humanity was posed to colonize the Sol system. First sights were set on Mars - and Humanity ventured forth. First, unmanned missions. The rovers that once explored the surface now lay dormant and dead from years of being left in place without command, and eventually running out of power. Lost data was rediscovered, the Red Planet would soon become a second Earth. Finally after much trepidation and unmanned exploration, the first manned exploration mission to Mars was sent. 30 men and women left the Moon to form a permanent science outpost on Mars. The long journey was made shorter, and safer, thanks to newly created cryosleep technology. After the long transit time to Mars, they finally set down and began their experiments. Year after year passed - eventually a child was born. It was inevitable, and the UMD celebrated such.
After the outpost had served it's mission of exploring, mapping, and location resources, it began to fill it's second goal: Prepare Mars for the first wave of colonists. They came six years later to discover a colony of 100 thriving people - with minimal inbreeding. The first 400 colonists landed in four ships, each carrying 100 people. They carried the latest technology and equipment from Earth, giving the colony a distinct edge in it's start. Soon the colony began to grow, and was named Horizon. A steady stream of people begin to leave Earth and the moon for Mars. First it was 10 a month, then 20, eventually peaking to 650 per month. The population grew rapidly, and within 30 years, Mars had a population of roughly 500,000. This is where Terra-forming begins.
The UMD's best and brightest long considered how to make the red planet more hospitable; 500,000 was a large amount for an uninhabitable planet and it was expensive to maintain the domes. Eventually they came up with a solution. Unmanned probes brought comets from the Oort cloud to orbit of Mars, and deorbited them, releasing water and oxygen plus other organics. A series of huge electromagnets was constructed in Mar's crust by robotic drones. Once powered with massive geothermal reactors, Mar slowly regained it's former magnetic field. The comet impacts continued long into the years, 10 every month. Eventually, Mars had oceans. It cooled to a steady -5C. It had a 120kPa Oxygen/Nitrogen atmosphere. The UMD started the next phase of the Eden Project, which was what the Terra-forming process was called: They started to seed genetically engineering bacteria onto the surface of Mars and it's new oceans.
Pods were dropped from orbit around Mars, each carrying thousands of strains of Terra-forming bacteria. Soon the seeded protoalgae started to evolve into Mar's own brand, producing oxygen and consuming what CO2 was left in the atmosphere. Soon the Red Planet was ready for the first plants and animals. Giant orbital mirrors were set up around the sun, and beamed it's rays onto Mars to heat it up from the frosty -5 it was currently at to a tolerable 25C. With the increase in temperature, Mar's ecology began to evolve rapidly, soon the first multi-cell organisms were found, and they grew into basic, sea-going invertebrate, then into fish. With this, plants also began to emerge at a rapid pace; there was only one major issues - all of the lifeforms on Mars were extremely akali and in-edible to humans. Soon the colonists of Horizon and it's outposts began to undergo genetic modifications so that their descendants could consume the wildlife.
Within generations, the wildlife was edible to the colonists. They left the domes for the first time, and began to build their homes in the new, terraformed Mars. The first non-domed city, Safehaven, was established, with a population of 560. Mar's population was now up to over a million and continuing to grow extremely rapidly. Expansion began anew as birthrates soared and the population exploded. It was very much like the Industrial Revolution on Earth. Soon Mar's population peaked 40 million, and the planet requested independence from the UMD. It was rejected. Mars declared it's independence much to the disdain of the UMD, but they were tolerated. Mars became a bastion for industry and technology. But, anger was stirring within the UMD, and they were building for an invasion of Mars.
Once again, old troubles return to halt Humanity's progress among the stars, but it is only a temporary setback.
Years 2205-2305
With the UMD planning it's invasion, many new technologies were created. Most soldiers were equipped with power armor, and for years, a very anti-mars sentiment was instilled into the population in support of the invasion...then they struck. Orbital drop pods full of mechanized units and grunts fell from orbit all around, in, and on the dome cities and the non-domed cities. The Mars Defense Force mounted a valiant defense, and a war was begun. The UMD, at first, captured the capital of Mars, Horizon. The city was almost totally destroyed by the fighting on-going inside of it, and several other cities were outright annihilated by it. The fighting continued for ten long, bloody years, with both sides trading blows. Billions died. Earth was nuked sixteen times, killing over 10 billion people and taking out 25% of Humanity in a few seconds. Mar's population was in ruins, down from 120 million to 60 million. Earth had 12 billion remaining. Worst of all, the war had drained both worlds of their vital biospheres and resources; the mad scramble to leave Sol began.
Age old ways of colonization were dug up, the old cryoships of the First Colonization were not enough for the years it would take to leave Sol. New ships were designed and constructed. 56 kilometer long spires with anti-matter engines that went to 15% of the speed of light, accelerating for a year and a half. They carried 12,000 occupants in cryosleep plus a massive genetic bank stocked with eggs and sperm so that even in the event of a mass extinction of the population, they could rebuild. Resources from the moon and the asteroid belt were used to fund the construction, thousands of these ships left orbit of Mars and the Moon. A startling break-through, though, revolutionized construction of these ships: Scientists had broken the light-speed barrier. A team of scientists from Mars, the Moon, and Earth had created what people thought impossible: The Alcubierre drive, or warp drive.
Construction shifted radically, and soon the Alcubierre drive was standard on every colony ship: the massive engines now dedicated to a massive reactor to power the drive and send the ships to many times the speed of light. Soon Humanity was spreading faster than ever. Massive FTL communication networks between the colonies closer to Sol began to pop up, feeding information back to the cradle of Humanity. Then, resources started to return. Freighters returned what was so desperately needed. Earth was struggling to support it's population, and it's biosphere was on the edge of complete and total collapse; and the flow of resources from the newly formed colonies helped keep her alive for nearly four more decades, until a massive mega-engineering project could be undertaken to restore the biosphere to Earth.
After Project Vital began on Earth, the planet slowly turned from a brown and blue ball of polluted mud into a vibrant, green paradise once again. The atmosphere was cleansed, the oceans purified, the land revitalized. Earth was brought back to life from the verges of death. By now, Humanity had spread across the stars and was now going strong, and the UMD's name changed; no longer focusing on the nations of old; now on the new future of Humanity: It became the Terran Hegemony, and it's power was felt across the Orion arm of the galaxy. Humanity's pace had slowed from the original fervent colonization and now was a leisurely pace as it marched towards the galactic core, with it's increasing technological and militaristic, along with logistical might. A Terran Hegemony Marine Corps invasion was truly a sight to behold, and it was a sight repeated across the galaxy, as worlds soon rebelled against the Hegemony's rule - but, eventually, these calmed down and were quelled with time. It was Humanity's golden age.
The pace quickened as Humanity began to create extremely complicated nanotechnology, using it for good and evil alike: nanites turned protoplanets into fully formed colony worlds, they were used to build warships at a rapid pace and to heal people. Computer and engineering technologies long thought impossible became possible. Structures could be assembled and ready for use in a matter of hours, for warships the size of a few kilometers, a matter of weeks. This technology though, was limited in its spread. Many people shunned it, finding it strange and arcane - they simply didn't want it in their lives out of fear that it would go wrong and kill them all, despite the likelihood of this happening being less than one percent out of ten million.
Humanity's golden age is at it's prime, and is continuing to live on. With things going well, who knows what's to come.
Years 2305-2450
Theme.
Once again the paced quickened. With the maturation of the Inner Colonies, technology had spread and evolved more. Now most worlds were urbworlds - giant city worlds glistening with steel and glass, holding billions upon billions of people on their surface and in their crust. The average lifespan was over 250 years, and each citizen somehow contributed to the Hegemony in one way or another. Farming, mining, or military service, they all did their part. The race for the galactic core also heated up. Corporations began to colonize world after world in an attempt to grab as many resources as possible for their own use, as the closer you got to the core, the denser and richer the resources were. It was another gold rush in space, much like the first Exodus from Earth and Sol.
The core of the galaxy was a wild and untamed place; the colonies that set up there were plagued by pirates and raiders, not to mention a myriad of supply issues and lack of coverage by the Hegemony's navy. Slowly but surely however, the base of the Orion arm began to be tamed by the Terran Hegemony, and the good times rolled. Technology progressed, and the state of affairs was generally a good one, but not all was well. There was dissent inside the High Council of the Hegemony - the current leader was to be disposed and replaced with a more favorable figure; little did the belligerents know, that this would lead to a civil war spanning across half the Hegemony. It was too late once they realized this: the gears of revolution were already under way, and once they tried to stop it, the very thing they created destroyed them.
In this conflict, soon to be known as the Great Rift, tore the Hegemony apart at it's very foundations. Colonies rebelled and left the Hegemony only to be forced back in by military threat or actual military power, billions were killed in the conflict, only a drop in the bucket however, compared to when the fighting really heated up. Very soon each and every planet had vicious, violent fighting on-going for thirty years, ravaging each world and destroying what had been built. The Sol system quietly closed itself off and maintained the status quo at-least in a small portion of the galaxy, keeping peace inside Sol until the fighting calmed down enough for the Hegemony to re-establish it's power on the colonies and in the galaxy. The war left the Hegemony navy in shambles, along with it's military forces and technological production, ship production was at an all-time low in the Hegemony, along with resources. It was a bleak time to live in.
But, as in every conflict; Humanity slowly rose again from the ashes, rebuilding what was lost bigger, and better. The population slowly recovered, ship production slowly increased, resource projection grew in a steady upwards push until all three pushed beyond what had existed before the Great Tear. The Hegemony was now stronger than ever, and in it's wake, life around the galaxy continued. Earth was still a bastion of culture and technology, continuing to thrive even after the Great Tear, and even more so that more resources than ever before flowed into it. Troubling signs began to appear, though. Life near the galactic core was still hard, and signals of possible extra-terrestrial life began to appear, who knows? No one really pursued it much, as the Frontier worlds had their own issues to deal with and simply couldn't spare more beyond a sub-light space probe to investigate.
Now, as the Hegemony reaches it's full prime, things are settled, no more wars. The population is growing and things are going good for those who live in the Hegemony; science brings a new degree of happiness to everyone across the Hegemony, the government is secular and non-corrupt, and a mighty military protects those who contribute to the Hegemony with an aegis of power. Deep space exploration ships continue to report nothing but colonizable space, and the rush to grab it up starts once again in a second Great Exodus, the new worlds being grabbed up faster and faster as the Inner Colonies continue to grow and modernize to slowly become like Earth, massive megalopolises of steel and glass, towering over everything and high into their stratospheres.
The golden age of Humankind has arrived. We are at the pinnacle of scientific innovation. Life is good, and opportunity is everywhere.
A reader's guide
Terran Hegemony = The governing body for Humanity (pre-Entropy)
UMD = The United Multinational Directorate, Pre-Hegemony government governing the early colonies and Earth during and after the Unification Wars, first and second.
Pre and Post Entropy = Events before and after the fall of the Terran Hegemony, respectively.
Alcubierre drive = The warp drive we all know and love.
First Exodus = The first mass migration of people from the Sol system to other solar systems in the galaxy.
The Nameless = Alien race, destroyed by a genocidal campaign by the Terran Hegemony.
Great Collapse = The events leading up to, and preceding the fall of the Terran Hegemony.
Rift Drive = An advanced technology used to generate Rifts which are similar to wormholes in function, but not form. Extremely rare.
History: Pre-Entropy Terran Hegemony
The Terran Hegemony
Years 2015-2115
Shortly after 2015, The United States of America pushed for space colonization. Massively. Within months regular missions to the Moon were being sent, a colony was being constructed. This sparked the Race for Sol, with the United States of the ultimate victors. Vicious territory disputes threatened war on Earth, all the while the United States had a stable colony of 100,000 on the Moon by 2025. Soon the United States played their ultimate card: A massive switch-over to Helium-3 fusion power and electric automobiles caused the United States to drop oil imports massively. Now one of the largest consumers of oil had suddenly stopped, throwing the world's economy into turmoil. Most of the industrial output that the US relied on was on the moon, safely out of reach from foreign hands.
War was threatened. The United States refused to import oil. Soon Mexico declared war on the United States. There was no debate about who would win. The United States Army was a juggernaut. The M4A55 MBT was fitted with dual 250mm rail-guns, electrostatic armor, and various other things. Not to mention the Next-Generation-Weapons Advanced Warrior Unit Mech, which was a downright fearful combatant on it's own.
By 2050 the United States had taken over Mexico, shortly turning it into a series of new states.
Shortly after 2054, a collection of Middle-Eastern countries declared war on the United States of America. They were being backed by the newly formed Sino-Russian Alliance. Russia was lagging in technological superiority and China's economy was still in turmoil from the haltage of oil imports, and because the United States had halted imports from China, nearing an embargo. The first attack came in the form of an attempted nuclear strike on one of the United State's space elevators - keyword being attempted. The warhead was traced back to Russia. Soon after the United States declared war. Instead of a terrestrial invasion, the United States devastated the Sino-Russian Alliance from orbit with tungsten rods. First hit was Moscow, then Hongkong. Little more was needed to convince the world that the United States was now the only super-power.
This, being said, was challenged many times by those who sought to bring the United States down. The orbital bombardments against the Sino-Russian Alliance continued - until eventually nuclear war broke out. China and Russia fired off their entire ready nuclear stockpile. Only two nukes got through. New York City was hit with a 120 kiloton nuke. 600,000 dead. Los Angles was hit by a 50kt nuke. 400,000 dead.
Needless to say, the retaliation was massive. The United States Army and Navy mobilized within hours. Within a day Russia was being invaded. China was desperately trying to scrape together a defensive. Within a month, Russia was under United States control, and China had lost it's entire Eastern half. Both territories were newly annexed and kept under extreme occupation for ten years. Slowly but surely the names changed from the United States of America, Russia, and China to the United Multinational Directorate. With it, history changed. The land formerly know as Russia was revitalized, so was China. Damage was repaired, cities modernized, and the general addenda was progress. Soon the UN had a vote to admit all participating countries to the UMD. It passed.
The year is 2115, Earth is finally united as one. Humanity's outlook turns from Earth to the stars.
Years 2115-2205
With the basic steps already taken by the UMD during the Unification Wars, Humanity was posed to colonize the Sol system. First sights were set on Mars - and Humanity ventured forth. First, unmanned missions. The rovers that once explored the surface now lay dormant and dead from years of being left in place without command, and eventually running out of power. Lost data was rediscovered, the Red Planet would soon become a second Earth. Finally after much trepidation and unmanned exploration, the first manned exploration mission to Mars was sent. 30 men and women left the Moon to form a permanent science outpost on Mars. The long journey was made shorter, and safer, thanks to newly created cryosleep technology. After the long transit time to Mars, they finally set down and began their experiments. Year after year passed - eventually a child was born. It was inevitable, and the UMD celebrated such.
After the outpost had served it's mission of exploring, mapping, and location resources, it began to fill it's second goal: Prepare Mars for the first wave of colonists. They came six years later to discover a colony of 100 thriving people - with minimal inbreeding. The first 400 colonists landed in four ships, each carrying 100 people. They carried the latest technology and equipment from Earth, giving the colony a distinct edge in it's start. Soon the colony began to grow, and was named Horizon. A steady stream of people begin to leave Earth and the moon for Mars. First it was 10 a month, then 20, eventually peaking to 650 per month. The population grew rapidly, and within 30 years, Mars had a population of roughly 500,000. This is where Terra-forming begins.
The UMD's best and brightest long considered how to make the red planet more hospitable; 500,000 was a large amount for an uninhabitable planet and it was expensive to maintain the domes. Eventually they came up with a solution. Unmanned probes brought comets from the Oort cloud to orbit of Mars, and deorbited them, releasing water and oxygen plus other organics. A series of huge electromagnets was constructed in Mar's crust by robotic drones. Once powered with massive geothermal reactors, Mar slowly regained it's former magnetic field. The comet impacts continued long into the years, 10 every month. Eventually, Mars had oceans. It cooled to a steady -5C. It had a 120kPa Oxygen/Nitrogen atmosphere. The UMD started the next phase of the Eden Project, which was what the Terra-forming process was called: They started to seed genetically engineering bacteria onto the surface of Mars and it's new oceans.
Pods were dropped from orbit around Mars, each carrying thousands of strains of Terra-forming bacteria. Soon the seeded protoalgae started to evolve into Mar's own brand, producing oxygen and consuming what CO2 was left in the atmosphere. Soon the Red Planet was ready for the first plants and animals. Giant orbital mirrors were set up around the sun, and beamed it's rays onto Mars to heat it up from the frosty -5 it was currently at to a tolerable 25C. With the increase in temperature, Mar's ecology began to evolve rapidly, soon the first multi-cell organisms were found, and they grew into basic, sea-going invertebrate, then into fish. With this, plants also began to emerge at a rapid pace; there was only one major issues - all of the lifeforms on Mars were extremely akali and in-edible to humans. Soon the colonists of Horizon and it's outposts began to undergo genetic modifications so that their descendants could consume the wildlife.
Within generations, the wildlife was edible to the colonists. They left the domes for the first time, and began to build their homes in the new, terraformed Mars. The first non-domed city, Safehaven, was established, with a population of 560. Mar's population was now up to over a million and continuing to grow extremely rapidly. Expansion began anew as birthrates soared and the population exploded. It was very much like the Industrial Revolution on Earth. Soon Mar's population peaked 40 million, and the planet requested independence from the UMD. It was rejected. Mars declared it's independence much to the disdain of the UMD, but they were tolerated. Mars became a bastion for industry and technology. But, anger was stirring within the UMD, and they were building for an invasion of Mars.
Once again, old troubles return to halt Humanity's progress among the stars, but it is only a temporary setback.
Years 2205-2305
With the UMD planning it's invasion, many new technologies were created. Most soldiers were equipped with power armor, and for years, a very anti-mars sentiment was instilled into the population in support of the invasion...then they struck. Orbital drop pods full of mechanized units and grunts fell from orbit all around, in, and on the dome cities and the non-domed cities. The Mars Defense Force mounted a valiant defense, and a war was begun. The UMD, at first, captured the capital of Mars, Horizon. The city was almost totally destroyed by the fighting on-going inside of it, and several other cities were outright annihilated by it. The fighting continued for ten long, bloody years, with both sides trading blows. Billions died. Earth was nuked sixteen times, killing over 10 billion people and taking out 25% of Humanity in a few seconds. Mar's population was in ruins, down from 120 million to 60 million. Earth had 12 billion remaining. Worst of all, the war had drained both worlds of their vital biospheres and resources; the mad scramble to leave Sol began.
Age old ways of colonization were dug up, the old cryoships of the First Colonization were not enough for the years it would take to leave Sol. New ships were designed and constructed. 56 kilometer long spires with anti-matter engines that went to 15% of the speed of light, accelerating for a year and a half. They carried 12,000 occupants in cryosleep plus a massive genetic bank stocked with eggs and sperm so that even in the event of a mass extinction of the population, they could rebuild. Resources from the moon and the asteroid belt were used to fund the construction, thousands of these ships left orbit of Mars and the Moon. A startling break-through, though, revolutionized construction of these ships: Scientists had broken the light-speed barrier. A team of scientists from Mars, the Moon, and Earth had created what people thought impossible: The Alcubierre drive, or warp drive.
Construction shifted radically, and soon the Alcubierre drive was standard on every colony ship: the massive engines now dedicated to a massive reactor to power the drive and send the ships to many times the speed of light. Soon Humanity was spreading faster than ever. Massive FTL communication networks between the colonies closer to Sol began to pop up, feeding information back to the cradle of Humanity. Then, resources started to return. Freighters returned what was so desperately needed. Earth was struggling to support it's population, and it's biosphere was on the edge of complete and total collapse; and the flow of resources from the newly formed colonies helped keep her alive for nearly four more decades, until a massive mega-engineering project could be undertaken to restore the biosphere to Earth.
After Project Vital began on Earth, the planet slowly turned from a brown and blue ball of polluted mud into a vibrant, green paradise once again. The atmosphere was cleansed, the oceans purified, the land revitalized. Earth was brought back to life from the verges of death. By now, Humanity had spread across the stars and was now going strong, and the UMD's name changed; no longer focusing on the nations of old; now on the new future of Humanity: It became the Terran Hegemony, and it's power was felt across the Orion arm of the galaxy. Humanity's pace had slowed from the original fervent colonization and now was a leisurely pace as it marched towards the galactic core, with it's increasing technological and militaristic, along with logistical might. A Terran Hegemony Marine Corps invasion was truly a sight to behold, and it was a sight repeated across the galaxy, as worlds soon rebelled against the Hegemony's rule - but, eventually, these calmed down and were quelled with time. It was Humanity's golden age.
The pace quickened as Humanity began to create extremely complicated nanotechnology, using it for good and evil alike: nanites turned protoplanets into fully formed colony worlds, they were used to build warships at a rapid pace and to heal people. Computer and engineering technologies long thought impossible became possible. Structures could be assembled and ready for use in a matter of hours, for warships the size of a few kilometers, a matter of weeks. This technology though, was limited in its spread. Many people shunned it, finding it strange and arcane - they simply didn't want it in their lives out of fear that it would go wrong and kill them all, despite the likelihood of this happening being less than one percent out of ten million.
Humanity's golden age is at it's prime, and is continuing to live on. With things going well, who knows what's to come.
Years 2305-2450
Theme.
Once again the paced quickened. With the maturation of the Inner Colonies, technology had spread and evolved more. Now most worlds were urbworlds - giant city worlds glistening with steel and glass, holding billions upon billions of people on their surface and in their crust. The average lifespan was over 250 years, and each citizen somehow contributed to the Hegemony in one way or another. Farming, mining, or military service, they all did their part. The race for the galactic core also heated up. Corporations began to colonize world after world in an attempt to grab as many resources as possible for their own use, as the closer you got to the core, the denser and richer the resources were. It was another gold rush in space, much like the first Exodus from Earth and Sol.
The core of the galaxy was a wild and untamed place; the colonies that set up there were plagued by pirates and raiders, not to mention a myriad of supply issues and lack of coverage by the Hegemony's navy. Slowly but surely however, the base of the Orion arm began to be tamed by the Terran Hegemony, and the good times rolled. Technology progressed, and the state of affairs was generally a good one, but not all was well. There was dissent inside the High Council of the Hegemony - the current leader was to be disposed and replaced with a more favorable figure; little did the belligerents know, that this would lead to a civil war spanning across half the Hegemony. It was too late once they realized this: the gears of revolution were already under way, and once they tried to stop it, the very thing they created destroyed them.
In this conflict, soon to be known as the Great Rift, tore the Hegemony apart at it's very foundations. Colonies rebelled and left the Hegemony only to be forced back in by military threat or actual military power, billions were killed in the conflict, only a drop in the bucket however, compared to when the fighting really heated up. Very soon each and every planet had vicious, violent fighting on-going for thirty years, ravaging each world and destroying what had been built. The Sol system quietly closed itself off and maintained the status quo at-least in a small portion of the galaxy, keeping peace inside Sol until the fighting calmed down enough for the Hegemony to re-establish it's power on the colonies and in the galaxy. The war left the Hegemony navy in shambles, along with it's military forces and technological production, ship production was at an all-time low in the Hegemony, along with resources. It was a bleak time to live in.
But, as in every conflict; Humanity slowly rose again from the ashes, rebuilding what was lost bigger, and better. The population slowly recovered, ship production slowly increased, resource projection grew in a steady upwards push until all three pushed beyond what had existed before the Great Tear. The Hegemony was now stronger than ever, and in it's wake, life around the galaxy continued. Earth was still a bastion of culture and technology, continuing to thrive even after the Great Tear, and even more so that more resources than ever before flowed into it. Troubling signs began to appear, though. Life near the galactic core was still hard, and signals of possible extra-terrestrial life began to appear, who knows? No one really pursued it much, as the Frontier worlds had their own issues to deal with and simply couldn't spare more beyond a sub-light space probe to investigate.
Now, as the Hegemony reaches it's full prime, things are settled, no more wars. The population is growing and things are going good for those who live in the Hegemony; science brings a new degree of happiness to everyone across the Hegemony, the government is secular and non-corrupt, and a mighty military protects those who contribute to the Hegemony with an aegis of power. Deep space exploration ships continue to report nothing but colonizable space, and the rush to grab it up starts once again in a second Great Exodus, the new worlds being grabbed up faster and faster as the Inner Colonies continue to grow and modernize to slowly become like Earth, massive megalopolises of steel and glass, towering over everything and high into their stratospheres.
The golden age of Humankind has arrived. We are at the pinnacle of scientific innovation. Life is good, and opportunity is everywhere.
Ship Design
PRIMARY ARMAMENT (Think what your ship specializes in. The Hegemony likes lasers and railguns.)
SECONDARY ARMAMENT (THink what could augment your ship's weaponry. Never enough firepower.)
ARMOR/SHIELDING (Things to protect your ship! Make it balanced or risk rejection.)
COUNTERMEASURES (Things to keep the explodey stuff from blowing your expensive things up.)
ENGINES (Things that make you go vroom-vroom.)
REACTORS (VAGETA! WHAT IS HIS POWER LEVEL?! IT'S OVER 9000!)
CREW (You gotta have fleshy bits for the mechanical bits.)
COMPUTER SYSTEMS (No HAL 9000s. Or Skynet.)
FIGHTER AND BOMBER COMPLEMENT (X-Wings and TIE fighters need not apply.)
Ship Classification
0-500m - Frigate (Weakly armed and armored, very fast)
500-1KM - Destroyer (More armed and armored than a frigate, somewhat slower)
1KM-2KM - Cruiser (Slower than a destroyer, far more armed and armored)
2KM-4KM - Battle-cruiser (Slightly slower than a cruiser, but far more heavily armed and armored, generally a flagship or fire support)
4KM-6KM - Battleship (Very slow and very heavily armored and armed, usually has energy shielding along with gratuitous amounts of firepower.)
6KM-8KM - Dreadnought (EXTREMELY slow, but usually carries the fleet's FTL bubble generator along with an absurb amount of weapons and armor, plus energy shielding)
8KM-10KM - Super-dreadnought (Like the dreadnought, but far larger and far more heavily armed)
+10KM - Titan (Only four exist. Not player usable. You don't even want to fathom how hard these are to kill.)
PRIMARY ARMAMENT (Think what your ship specializes in. The Hegemony likes lasers and railguns.)
SECONDARY ARMAMENT (THink what could augment your ship's weaponry. Never enough firepower.)
ARMOR/SHIELDING (Things to protect your ship! Make it balanced or risk rejection.)
COUNTERMEASURES (Things to keep the explodey stuff from blowing your expensive things up.)
ENGINES (Things that make you go vroom-vroom.)
REACTORS (VAGETA! WHAT IS HIS POWER LEVEL?! IT'S OVER 9000!)
CREW (You gotta have fleshy bits for the mechanical bits.)
COMPUTER SYSTEMS (No HAL 9000s. Or Skynet.)
FIGHTER AND BOMBER COMPLEMENT (X-Wings and TIE fighters need not apply.)
Ship Classification
0-500m - Frigate (Weakly armed and armored, very fast)
500-1KM - Destroyer (More armed and armored than a frigate, somewhat slower)
1KM-2KM - Cruiser (Slower than a destroyer, far more armed and armored)
2KM-4KM - Battle-cruiser (Slightly slower than a cruiser, but far more heavily armed and armored, generally a flagship or fire support)
4KM-6KM - Battleship (Very slow and very heavily armored and armed, usually has energy shielding along with gratuitous amounts of firepower.)
6KM-8KM - Dreadnought (EXTREMELY slow, but usually carries the fleet's FTL bubble generator along with an absurb amount of weapons and armor, plus energy shielding)
8KM-10KM - Super-dreadnought (Like the dreadnought, but far larger and far more heavily armed)
+10KM - Titan (Only four exist. Not player usable. You don't even want to fathom how hard these are to kill.)
Length-Width-Height
1750m 655m 358m
Class: Dreadnaught
Tonnage: 16,000,000 tonnes
Reference image
PRIMARY ARMAMENT
120 dual 240mm rail-gun turrets firing 300 rounds/minute with interchangeable ammo.
Ammo types: Hull-piercing High Explosive, Radiological anti-biological hull-piercing, Semi-guided Shaped Explosive, Debris-Distributing high explosive Flak.
(HPHE, RABHP, SGSE, DDHEF)
140 550mm guided missile launchers firing 40 laser/radar guided missiles/salvo, approx reload is 45 seconds.
56 850mm radar/laser/fly-by-wire guided torpedoes. Nuclear-tipped, yield is approximately 25 megatons. Shaped charge.
15GW Heavy Ion Lasers. Range is ~5 million KM, cool-down is 60 seconds.
48 24GW Plasma cannons. Range is 2 million KM, cooldown is 240 seconds.
SECONDARY ARMAMENT
120 8GW Point-defense lasers
140 40mm Shrike auto-cannons firing 1200 rounds/second.
6 2500mm rail-gun turrets firing 4 rounds/minute. Rounds are depleted uranium solid-core fusion explosive.
ARMOR/SHIELDING
Armor is rated as 35 meter thick Iridium-Titanium alloy interweaved with Carbon-fiber netting
Outer layer is 2m thick nanite-regenative armor.
Shielding is Solid-State Plasma shielding. Extremely powerful.
COUNTERMEASURES
430 chaff rocket launchers
120 flare launchers
60 ECM emitters located around the hull, providing extremely large amounts of jamming power totalling 120TW of EM radation.
ENGINES
Intra-system engines are fusion-powered CARV6 forced-fusion engines providing 1,800,000 tonnes of thrust. x12
Inter-system engines are VAR4 VASMIR drives providing 600,000 tonnes of thrust. x6
FTL engines are Mass-canceling fields combined with Alcubierre Drive technology to provide a 120x SoL rating.
REACTORS
8 Tokamak heavy fusion reactors providing .75 YW of power. (Yottawatt)
6 Anti-Matter Medium reactors providing 1200GW of power.
CREW
60,000 crew across the ship and all decks.
4 Battalions of Orbital-Drop Troopers. 2 Mechanized Trooper Battalions.
COMPUTER SYSTEMS
6 Main Computer cores manage all systems. All systems are EMP hardened and isolated to prevent hacking attacks.
4 Backup computer cores on standby. EMP hardened and isolated from primary networks.
2 AIs assist in managing the ship, named Regalia, and Aegis.
FIGHTER AND BOMBER COMPLEMENT
Facilities to launch and re-arm 120 Tornado Fighter-bombers with 40mm auto-cannons firing 1000 rounds/minute. Each one carries 4 guided 4 kiloton tipped tactical nuclear missiles.
Facilities to launch and re-arm 60 Wailer Heavy Bombers. 4 dual 30mm auto-cannons mounted on turrets provide defense, along with a medium-strength plasma shield. Each one carries 6 2 megaton shaped charge nuclear-tipped missiles.
1750m 655m 358m
Class: Dreadnaught
Tonnage: 16,000,000 tonnes
Reference image
PRIMARY ARMAMENT
120 dual 240mm rail-gun turrets firing 300 rounds/minute with interchangeable ammo.
Ammo types: Hull-piercing High Explosive, Radiological anti-biological hull-piercing, Semi-guided Shaped Explosive, Debris-Distributing high explosive Flak.
(HPHE, RABHP, SGSE, DDHEF)
140 550mm guided missile launchers firing 40 laser/radar guided missiles/salvo, approx reload is 45 seconds.
56 850mm radar/laser/fly-by-wire guided torpedoes. Nuclear-tipped, yield is approximately 25 megatons. Shaped charge.
15GW Heavy Ion Lasers. Range is ~5 million KM, cool-down is 60 seconds.
48 24GW Plasma cannons. Range is 2 million KM, cooldown is 240 seconds.
SECONDARY ARMAMENT
120 8GW Point-defense lasers
140 40mm Shrike auto-cannons firing 1200 rounds/second.
6 2500mm rail-gun turrets firing 4 rounds/minute. Rounds are depleted uranium solid-core fusion explosive.
ARMOR/SHIELDING
Armor is rated as 35 meter thick Iridium-Titanium alloy interweaved with Carbon-fiber netting
Outer layer is 2m thick nanite-regenative armor.
Shielding is Solid-State Plasma shielding. Extremely powerful.
COUNTERMEASURES
430 chaff rocket launchers
120 flare launchers
60 ECM emitters located around the hull, providing extremely large amounts of jamming power totalling 120TW of EM radation.
ENGINES
Intra-system engines are fusion-powered CARV6 forced-fusion engines providing 1,800,000 tonnes of thrust. x12
Inter-system engines are VAR4 VASMIR drives providing 600,000 tonnes of thrust. x6
FTL engines are Mass-canceling fields combined with Alcubierre Drive technology to provide a 120x SoL rating.
REACTORS
8 Tokamak heavy fusion reactors providing .75 YW of power. (Yottawatt)
6 Anti-Matter Medium reactors providing 1200GW of power.
CREW
60,000 crew across the ship and all decks.
4 Battalions of Orbital-Drop Troopers. 2 Mechanized Trooper Battalions.
COMPUTER SYSTEMS
6 Main Computer cores manage all systems. All systems are EMP hardened and isolated to prevent hacking attacks.
4 Backup computer cores on standby. EMP hardened and isolated from primary networks.
2 AIs assist in managing the ship, named Regalia, and Aegis.
FIGHTER AND BOMBER COMPLEMENT
Facilities to launch and re-arm 120 Tornado Fighter-bombers with 40mm auto-cannons firing 1000 rounds/minute. Each one carries 4 guided 4 kiloton tipped tactical nuclear missiles.
Facilities to launch and re-arm 60 Wailer Heavy Bombers. 4 dual 30mm auto-cannons mounted on turrets provide defense, along with a medium-strength plasma shield. Each one carries 6 2 megaton shaped charge nuclear-tipped missiles.