Keyguyperson

From Stardust, to Stardust: The Return(Sci-Fi Fantasy)(Always Accepting)

I've edited that accidental post to be my finished first IC post, just so nobody misses that I have, in fact, properly posted.

From Stardust, to Stardust: The Return(Sci-Fi Fantasy)(Always Accepting)

Tougpasa Planetary Alliance

Planetary Alliance Datapacket 229, Priority Ver. To be carried on all Alliance starships in the event of peaceful alien contact. Omission or editing of details is permitted at the discretion of the highest ranking nearby officer (so long as it adheres to sections 89-95 of the Historical and Political Codex). Any such changes should be reported to the Legislative Council to ensure no misunderstandings occur should a delegation visit Alliance space.

Hider

Tougpasa

The Tougpasa are a bipedal species, likely of slightly shorter stature than other such species due to the high gravity of their homeworld of Wusdafu. It is tidally locked to its sun, a red dwarf star dubbed Shav'nefo (which translates to "sun"), and as a result only has a thin strip of land that is a rainforest, bordered by savanna and steppes. At it's Solward and Antisol poles it is completely uninhabitable, and winds constantly blow from one side of the world to the other. The Shav'nefo system itself is approximately 20 kilo-lightyears from the galactic core.

Ironically, the hells on either side of the world give way to a near paradise at the Solar equator in the middle. A lush rainforest covers the landscape, with most plants having massive leaves to soak up as much of the rare sunlight as possible. The constant, planetary-scale hurricane caused by the nature of the planet gives rise to an almost constant rain within the so-called twilight rainforest. The impact of this environment upon Tougpasa evolution is obvious.

First of all, it is seen in their most prominent feature that sets them apart. The Tougpasa have large, pointed, furry, feline-like ears on the top of their head. They have impressive control over said ears, with countless muscles being dedicated to rotating and turning them to track a sound. Furthermore, their ears have the most nerve endings out of any place on their bodies. This gives them an uncanny ability to hear in their generally rather soundproof native habitat. They also function as heat radiators for Solward inhabitants (the Tougpasa developed better heat dissipation techniques since the Antisol side of the planet is devoid of conventional plant life, and thus only very sparsely populated). It is worth noting that there is a Tougpasa race with smaller, furrier ears that originated on the Antisol side of the planet. The large ears of the majority of the Tougpasa, after all, would have been a liability in an environment which demands maximum heat retention.

Second is their eyesight, which has evolved similar to that of other Wusdafan felines. Their eyes contain a tapetum lucidum-a reflective layer that allows them to see easily at night and in dark areas, with the side effect of making their eyes seem to glow in the dark. This is an adaptation to the heavily wooded rainforests of Wusdafu, as most trees have gigantic leaves in order to soak up as much sunlight as possible, making the ground extremely dark closer to the Antisol side (since less sunlight can reach it). This combined with their hearing has made the Tougpasa excellent hunters, and later on excellent warriors. Also complementing their fighting ability are tails, which allow them to better maintain balance and prevent falling (which is dangerous in Wusdafu's high gravity).

Within their body, they have a variety of different adaptations to their homeworld that aren't immediately noticeable. First of all are their bones, which are notably larger and more robust than those of the fauna on neighboring worlds due to the high gravity of Wusdafu. Their muscles, too, are of a higher density but not physically larger (which tends to make the Tougpasa seem to be impossibly strong on lower gravity planets). Their lungs are also fairly large, as is their heart, in order to allow their bodies to more effectively circulate air and blood in high gravity.

The Tougpasa have no inherent need for sleep. The lack of a day/night cycle on Wusdafu does not lend itself well to lying on the ground unable to respond to any threats for eight hours every day, so like almost all other animal species on Wusdafu they are capable of living their whole lives without sleeping. "Capable" and "Normally", however, are two very different things. Sleep greatly increases Tougpasa lifespans and heightens brain function, and for this purpose most Tougpasa sleep up to five hours a day. It should be noted that, to a species that requires sleep due to a day/night cycle on their homeworld, a Tougpasa may appear to have impeccable memory.

Finally, Tougpasa reproduction is somewhat strange compared to that of other species. An only child for a Touspasa is almost unheard of, and the gestation period is short at approximately 1/5th of a Wusdafan year. The tradeoffs, however, are obvious. A pregnant female flat out cannot fend for themselves, and as hunter-gatherers the Tougpasa would stop in the same general area for the entirety of mating season (and then some) to ensure that all children would be born healthy. The body of a Tougpasa female will always favor itself over her child during gestation, and a shortage of nutrients would harm the growth of the baby in favor of keeping the mother alive. As a result, miscarriages were extremely common. To combat this, the Tougpasa actually have two separate mating seasons every (long) year. If there is a famine in one, then the second may have better conditions.

The Tougpasa Planetary Alliance

The Tougpasa Planetary Alliance is a supranational organization that has jurisdiction over all colonial operations, and acts as a governing body for Wusdafu itself. Its operations are voted on my all of its member states, but a small group of five representatives known as the Legislative Council (colloquially, the "Council of Five", or in a derogatory connotation "The Order of Five" or "Round Table") is elected every two years. This council is placed in control of all Alliance military operations (both in the colonies and at home).

Under the council's purview are a number of separate organizations, such as the International Bank and Fund, the Science and Technology Administration, the Colonial and Solward Development Committee, the International Court, and the Alliance Emergency Management Agency. The actions of all these organizations can be controlled directly by the Legislative Council, and the decisions of other national representatives related to these organizations can be vetoes by the Legislative Council.

The Planetary Alliance is the foremost force for good among Tougpasa society. It represents the collection values of the species, and has raised countless millions out of poverty through the Colonial and Solward Development Committee and International Bank and Fund. Though there exist those that fear the Alliance's far-reaching power and influence, their fears are unfounded. The Alliance represents all that is good about the Tougpasa.

Culture

Though it would be impossible to fully explain the full extent of Tougpasa culture, some broad generalization can be drawn regarding the current cultural climate.

Power on Wusdafu (and, indeed, all of Alliance space) is focused in the central rainforest strip of the planet. Through a strong cultural zeitgeist of individuality and a strong work ethic, the nations of this are have become the most prominent and populous in the world. They are massively economically prosperous, and using the technologies developed in them they share this prosperity with the solward and antisol regions of the world. Should you be reading this datapacket, it is likely that the one who sent it was born here.

Towards the sun there lie the lands of the savanna and desert, which are rich with natural resources. The large concentrations of negative mass liquid beneath the ground there have driven planetbound politics for centuries, and led to the ancient lands being regrettably colonies by the nations of the central strip. Following the Long War, however, these culturally rich lands have been accepted into the fold of Tougpasa culture as equals. They are the "Solward" part of the Colonial and Solward Development Committee, and are a major focus of economic development efforts. Through the construction of new factories and housing by the Development Committee, the central strip nations are repaying their debt.

Finally, on the antisol side of the world there are the old troublemakers of Wusdafu. It is here that the Tougpasa Union made its final stand against the Planetary Alliance, attempting to wrest control of the entire species and place them under their iron heel of tyranny. It was their defeat that ended the Long War. The people of this land have been hardened by both their harsh environment and the decades of brutal rule they were made to endure, and have proved to be an excellent addition to the Planetary Alliance.

To all captains: Take the utmost care to ensure that no interstellar incidents occur during alien contact. Omit any and all information you feel might jeopardize peaceful relations.

---

History

Tougpasa history begins in the rainforests of Wusdafu, where they lived as hunter gatherers. The first evidence of Tougpasa society and technology can be found in the massive trees of the rainforest, some of which were hollowed out by early Tougpasa to be used as dwellings. Primitive tools can also be found, which give insight as to how these societies lived. Long, hooked poles were used to pick the abundant fruits of the same trees. Interestingly, this also seems to be the first example of Tougpasa agriculture, as large leather sacks suggest that they actively watered the same trees during droughts.

Later on, there is evidence of early inhabitation of the savanna area closer to the sun. At around the same time, the Tougpasa began to actively plant and raise domesticated plants. In the rainforest, they would chop off the leaves of the larger trees to plant ones of the same species for their fruit, but intentionally keep them small so as to manage them easier. In the savanna, Tougpasa settlers domesticated various grasses in the area. One of which closely resembles the various species of Terran rice, and in modern times has become a staple of the Tougpasa diet.

The savanna was the first place in which the Tougpasa constructed buildings themselves, and an ancient civilization arose along one of the major rivers in the region. At some point, for unknown reasons, its influence exploded across Wusdafu. Coinage from it has been found at both the Solward and Antisolar poles of the planet, which suggests that they were significantly milder at some point in Wusdafu's history. Ruins from that civilization, dubbed the Shaslag Efol (first ones) can be found all across the planet. The few remaining cities show clearly that they were highly advanced for their time, with roads being laid out in grids, made wide enough for carts, and being built mostly only on sturdy ground.

At some point during the reign of the Shaslag Efol, however, a catastrophe befell Wusdafu. A truly massive hail of asteroids (speculated to have been made up of upwards of a thousand individual objects) slammed into the planet at almost exactly the same time. This caused a mass extinction event, during which all of Tougpasa civilization was wiped out alongside numerous other species. Immediately after the impact, radiation levels were found to spike across the planet. It is thought that this is the result of said asteroid hail being rich in exotic matter, as relasol concentrations in the savanna and solward desert rose sharply and evidence of the first widespread use of relasol is found shortly afterwards. Though relasol was already abundant on the planet (and indeed affected the evolution of various species), this event made it easily accessible for all Tougpasa populations.

The population numbers of the Tougpasa gradually recovered, and another civilization rose up in the rainforest in tandem with one in the tundra. These two civilizations, the Sidore and the Miji respectively, formed the cultural basis from which all current Tougpasa society evolved. The Miji were a highly advanced culture, and were very nearly the first to industrialize at numerous points in history. This was always prevented, however, by internal or external strife.

The Sidore, on the other hand, were a largely stagnant empire that spanned countless different cultures which were crushed beneath the monolith that was the Empire. It was only well after it had fallen that the "South ring" rainforest cultures industrialized. The main drive to do so lay within the largely unexplored continent of Hassa, which was surrounded by a ring of ocean. The constant cross-planetary wind made it night impossible to cross in any reasonable time from one side, and on the other a constant storm caused by the anomalous weather patterns surrounding Hassa made it too dangerous to sail through. With the advent of steam power, however, nations from both sides were able to send expeditions.

The coasts of Hassa were raped and plundered by the industrial empires, the native populations were almost entirely eliminated by disease and firearm. In the ruins of their societies rose colonial towns, cities, and trade hubs. After the independence of these colonies was won, they chose to band together in a confederacy rather than fight each other and turned their eyes inward. The different regions of the continent-created by its unique position-were all conquered. Desert, plains, two of the few mountain ranges found on the entire planet, all were made the domain of the descendants of Sidore.

As time went on, Tougpasa technology advanced further and further as their politics became more and more charged. Liberal regimes replaced monarchies as the power of steam and later oil made its way out from the rainforest towards and away from the sun. The population of the planet exploded without restraint, it had become clear that no natural force could possibly stop the Tougpasa. Their rapid reproduction and new technology turned villages into towns and towns into metropolises. Countless wars were fought, but none could compare to the one that would come to define the very calendar of the Planetary Alliance.

"The Long War", as it was called, officially began in 93 YBT with the Miji Revolution. The last of the Miji dynasties was toppled, the entire royal family being slaughtered in the name of the revolutionary Mahn Ne. He had initially vocally opposed the industrialization of Miji, but as it became more and more entrenched he had no choice but to accept it and, in his words, "minimize the impact on the everyman". By ridding the nation of nobles and capitalists, he argued, they could prevent industrialization from harming them and instead turn it into a force for good.

It came as no surprise that Mahn Ne's radical ideology led to a reaction from the more solward powers, and in 87 YBT a small coalition of rainforest nations attempted an invasion of Miji. Not only were they easily held off by Miji, they found themselves occupied and turned into puppets. Fearful that they would be next, the majority of the powerful rainforest empires banded together and declared war on the Miji on the pretext of liberating their brothers. Their charges were met with entrenched machine gun fire, and thus began the hell that was the Long War.

For the next seventy years, the two juggernaut alliances slammed into each other. The war had an unimaginable effect on the societies of both, as the supreme weapon of war changed again and again throughout the decades. First it had been the machine gun, then the "Coalition Powers" as the rainforest nations chose to call themselves suffocated a section of the Miji lines with poison gas. The airplane turned from a fragile reconnaissance mount into a platform for dealing death behind the lines. The mounted charges of old were replaced by hulking metal beasts that lumbered across trenches, which soon became vehicles far faster than a man.

The social norms of old broke down as more and more men were cut down in battle, and it wasn't long before the same was asked of women. An entire generation of rainforesters were raised by their governments, as they were either born on the front or their parents had died on it. Every single aspect of society adapted to service the war effort. The stalemate only showed signs of breaking by 18 YBT, when the Hassa Confederacy officially entered. Even so, the Miji showed no signs of surrender.

Finally, in 3 YBT, a small Confederate airship force broke through to the Miji capital and carried out the first atomic bombing of the war. Dozens more would follow, with the Confederacy looking upon the Miji homeland as nothing more than a testing ground. The Miji were finally forced to surrender, and with that surrender the Tougpasa Planetary Alliance was created.

Initially dubbed simply the Wusdafu Alliance, it was formed mainly to manage the now-occupied territories on the Miji side of the conflict. As space exploration truly came into its own following the war (where it had been used solely to deliver the last few nuclear strikes), it was the Planetary Alliance that stepped in to act as overseers for each nation's space program. It was only after the first colony on Kusfala (the third planet of the Shav'nefo system and closest other planet to Wusdafu) that the Alliance became the "Planetary Alliance" so as to include the new denizens of Kusfala.

As time went on, the Planetary Alliance became more than a simple occupation force and transitioned to become a true species-wide government. Cultural and economic globalization led to the downfall of individual national governmental power, which led to the rise of the Planetary Alliance as the dominant political force in Tougpasa space. War between developed nations became a thing of the past as their economies (and cultures) gradually merged into one, and the job of the Planetary Alliance military soon became to ensure that the grip of the developed nations on their colonies and the Solward nations remained tight.

Technology

The Tougpasa are, in comparison to most other spacefaring species, rather primitive. Their technological development was strange from the beginning, as their homeworld of Wusdafu has streams of negative mass flowing underground. Though it is unknown if these streams somehow occurred naturally, or are the result of previous inhabitation by an advanced species, their presence caused the Tougpasa to develop along an unexpected path. Indeed, artifacts from ancient times show that tribal hunters would wear backpacks filled with the liquid negative mass to allow them to leap through the trees of the rainforest to catch their prey.

As a result, the Tougpasa make widespread usage of negative mass in their technology. Since the invention of the sail they have launched airships kept aloft by it, and today they use it to lift massive aerial battleships as well as spacecraft. It has also found domestic uses (such as in most cars) as well as more military uses in the creation of antigravity harnesses for soldiers based upon those same ancient "lifting packs".

Aside from the fairly advanced nature of their negative mass-based technology, the Tougpasa are behind the times in most other areas. This is easily visible in their spacecraft, which contain obvious large habitation wheels, general structures reminiscent of early human spacecraft, and often nuclear pulse drives. Their infantry still make heavy use of firearms, and only anti-material weapons (or the newest heavy anti-infantry ones) use electromagnetism (though both lasers and railguns are commonplace on spacecraft and naval vessels). They have no passive shielding technology whatsoever, relying on active defenses such as the Shockwave Dissipation System and Plasma Arc Projectors to prevent damage.

The field in with the Tougpasa is least advanced (or perhaps the field which evolved the strangest, depending on who you ask) is electronics. Most households have computers on par with those seen in the human 1990's, but they are not self-contained units. Instead, they are simply terminals connected to a central computer in the regional capital that is housed in a gigantic skyscraper. This is largely because Tougpasa computer development halted in 10 YBT, with all available resources being poured towards the "practical war effort" rather than code making and breaking. As a result, the Tougpasa equivalent of a personal computer is a hot, whirring mess of cables the size of an entire city apartment. The vast majority of citizens understandably choose to just use a terminal connection, but some eccentrics still use self-contained units.

The main method of FTL for the Tougpasa lies in their affinity for the use of negative mass (Relasol, as they call it). Using it, they are capable of folding space around a spacecraft and enabling it to appear to travel faster than the speed of light. Most combat vessels are designed to be able to travel at immense speeds, or even tear a direct semi-stable wormhole should the need arise, but protocol (not to mention safety regulations and common sense) limits them to under 15c in normal circumstances.

Military

The Planetary Alliance maintains a unified military force, drawing its personnel and equipment from all of its member nations. It is divided into three branches, the Army, Navy, Vinkasa, and Starfleet.

Army

A Planetary Alliance special operative (note his clipped ears) takes cover behind a wall during Operation Unified Protector in the Solward nation of Ash'tahkhal. Alliance forces deposed a potential dictator and installed a friendly regime that properly protected the rights of the nation's citizens. Operation Unified Protector was just one of countless similar operations that stabilized the war-torn Solward nations and returned peace and prosperity to the region.

The Alliance Army is by far the least standardized of all the Planetary Alliance Military forces, oftentimes simply demanding to be given a specified number of divisions by any given member nation. Supply lines are, unsurprisingly, a bit of a nightmare given the large variety of equipment and ammunition required by deployed forces. As a result, most major contributing nations tend to design their equipment and vehicles to be as reliable as possible so as to make breakdowns rare.

The Alliance holds the power to draft any individual necessary from a member nation into the Alliance Army in order to ensure the security of the Alliance, any one of its member nations, the citizens of a foreign power, or the Tougpasa species.

Navy

An Alliance battleship deployed in the oceans surrounding Hassa launches the first missile of a salvo, targeting terrorists in the failed state of Maani. Maani was torn apart by ethnic conflicts following the collapse of the nation's dictatorial and totalitarian regime, which was replaced with numerous benevolent and democratic states created by the Alliance. Alliance interventions began with a bombing campaign of the former capital, targeting military installations. No civilians were harmed in the bombing, or in subsequent strikes.

The Alliance Navy, though operating on the same model as the Army, is significantly more standardized in terms of equipment simply due to the fact that only one member state actually provides vessels for it. The Hassa Confederacy supplies all Alliance warships, and indeed its own navy is considered a direct part of the Alliance Navy. It has long maintained the largest navy on Wusdafu by virtue of its seabound position. It still maintains a large number of battleships and aircraft carriers, the majority of which are nuclear-powered.

The Navy truly shines in its ability to bombard land targets. A great deal of research and development goes to inventing newer and more efficient ways to deal death as far inland as possible. This is no surprise, as the navy has not needed to face an equal opponent on the open seas since the end of the war. Their main purpose is to support land forces against insurgent activities and provide a more precise alternative to carpet or nuclear bombing of densely populated targets.

Vinpasa

An Alliance fleet approaches Var'khun during the Second Ishkh War, in which the populace of Var'khun and surrounding provinces of Ishkh began a nationalist rebellion against their colonial government. Ultimately, the nation fell to the rebels and a totalitarian regime was installed. Recent trade deals have helped democratize the nation and open it up to the rest of the world, which has welcomed it with open arms.

The Vinkasa (a word which directly translates to "Sky warriors", though perhaps more properly means "Air Force") has a long history with the Tougpasa. With effective antigravity technology being available since early in their history thanks to the existence of negative mass (Relasol) on their homeworld, airships came into use at the same time as their naval counterparts. Sail airships are still in use above the rainforest canopy in less developed areas, where there are in fact entire towns built above the canopy.

The Vinkasa is the least organized of all the Alliance military forces, and generally the Vinkasa will simply draw forces from a member nation for one specific operation before disbanding the fleet and sending it back home. This was seen in the collapse of Maani, where the Alliance put together a few fleets from donated ships for the bombing campaigns and disbanded them once the job was done.

Starfleet

An Alliance vessel opens fire on a pirate ship prowling interplanetary trade routes. Though the Starfleet is best known for its ringed, behemoth interstellar warships, the majority of vessels fielded by it are incapable of FTL flight.

The Alliance Starfleet has under its purview all interstellar operations, both military and civilian. All Alliance supply vessels and colony ships sail under a military flag to ensure that no anti-Alliance group manages to create a base of power outside the home system. All colonies-in system and out of system-are garrisoned by Starfleet marines and protected by Starfleet patrol boats. The vast majority of Starfleet vessels are in-system, and range from small destroyers to battleships and dreadnoughts.

More iconic, however, are its interstellar warships. They are almost always large-scale vessels, the smallest common classes are considered pocket battleships. A few one-off destroyer and light cruiser types exist (mainly for responding to incidents in interstellar space and emergency relief for exosolar colonies), but the majority of interstellar vessels are capital ships. A common feature of any Alliance interstellar task force is a carrier, which will carry fighters and larger screening craft into the battle rather than necessitate other FTL capable screening ships. All Tougpasa interstellar craft are equipped with two large, fat rings for the purpose of directing relasol in the proper way so as to warp space and allow for seemingly FTL travel.

What is......

A fucking spook.

From Stardust, to Stardust: The Return(Sci-Fi Fantasy)(Always Accepting)

@OfWindAndRain
I didn't mean to, I'd ended up writing a bit of what I plan to eventually make IC content to get myself into things and hit "Submit" thinking it was in the PM to myself I use for storing tidbits of writing.

From Stardust, to Stardust: The Return(Sci-Fi Fantasy)(Always Accepting)

Got it done!

App

Planetary Alliance Datapacket 229, Priority Ver. To be carried on all Alliance starships in the event of peaceful alien contact. Omission or editing of details is permitted at the discretion of the highest ranking nearby officer (so long as it adheres to sections 89-95 of the Historical and Political Codex). Any such changes should be reported to the Legislative Council to ensure no misunderstandings occur should a delegation visit Alliance space.

Hider

Tougpasa

The Tougpasa are a bipedal species, likely of slightly shorter stature than other such species due to the high gravity of their homeworld of Wusdafu. It is tidally locked to its sun, a red dwarf star dubbed Shav'nefo (which translates to "sun"), and as a result only has a thin strip of land that is a rainforest, bordered by savanna and steppes. At it's Solward and Antisol poles it is completely uninhabitable, and winds constantly blow from one side of the world to the other. The Shav'nefo system itself is approximately 20 kilo-lightyears from the galactic core.

Ironically, the hells on either side of the world give way to a near paradise at the Solar equator in the middle. A lush rainforest covers the landscape, with most plants having massive leaves to soak up as much of the rare sunlight as possible. The constant, planetary-scale hurricane caused by the nature of the planet gives rise to an almost constant rain within the so-called twilight rainforest. The impact of this environment upon Tougpasa evolution is obvious.

First of all, it is seen in their most prominent feature that sets them apart. The Tougpasa have large, pointed, furry, feline-like ears on the top of their head. They have impressive control over said ears, with countless muscles being dedicated to rotating and turning them to track a sound. Furthermore, their ears have the most nerve endings out of any place on their bodies. This gives them an uncanny ability to hear in their generally rather soundproof native habitat. They also function as heat radiators for Solward inhabitants (the Tougpasa developed better heat dissipation techniques since the Antisol side of the planet is devoid of conventional plant life, and thus only very sparsely populated). It is worth noting that there is a Tougpasa race with smaller, furrier ears that originated on the Antisol side of the planet. The large ears of the majority of the Tougpasa, after all, would have been a liability in an environment which demands maximum heat retention.

Second is their eyesight, which has evolved similar to that of other Wusdafan felines. Their eyes contain a tapetum lucidum-a reflective layer that allows them to see easily at night and in dark areas, with the side effect of making their eyes seem to glow in the dark. This is an adaptation to the heavily wooded rainforests of Wusdafu, as most trees have gigantic leaves in order to soak up as much sunlight as possible, making the ground extremely dark closer to the Antisol side (since less sunlight can reach it). This combined with their hearing has made the Tougpasa excellent hunters, and later on excellent warriors. Also complementing their fighting ability are tails, which allow them to better maintain balance and prevent falling (which is dangerous in Wusdafu's high gravity).

Within their body, they have a variety of different adaptations to their homeworld that aren't immediately noticeable. First of all are their bones, which are notably larger and more robust than those of the fauna on neighboring worlds due to the high gravity of Wusdafu. Their muscles, too, are of a higher density but not physically larger (which tends to make the Tougpasa seem to be impossibly strong on lower gravity planets). Their lungs are also fairly large, as is their heart, in order to allow their bodies to more effectively circulate air and blood in high gravity.

The Tougpasa have no inherent need for sleep. The lack of a day/night cycle on Wusdafu does not lend itself well to lying on the ground unable to respond to any threats for eight hours every day, so like almost all other animal species on Wusdafu they are capable of living their whole lives without sleeping. "Capable" and "Normally", however, are two very different things. Sleep greatly increases Tougpasa lifespans and heightens brain function, and for this purpose most Tougpasa sleep up to five hours a day. It should be noted that, to a species that requires sleep due to a day/night cycle on their homeworld, a Tougpasa may appear to have impeccable memory.

Finally, Tougpasa reproduction is somewhat strange compared to that of other species. An only child for a Touspasa is almost unheard of, and the gestation period is short at approximately 1/5th of a Wusdafan year. The tradeoffs, however, are obvious. A pregnant female flat out cannot fend for themselves, and as hunter-gatherers the Tougpasa would stop in the same general area for the entirety of mating season (and then some) to ensure that all children would be born healthy. The body of a Tougpasa female will always favor itself over her child during gestation, and a shortage of nutrients would harm the growth of the baby in favor of keeping the mother alive. As a result, miscarriages were extremely common. To combat this, the Tougpasa actually have two separate mating seasons every (long) year. If there is a famine in one, then the second may have better conditions.

The Tougpasa Planetary Alliance

The Tougpasa Planetary Alliance is a supranational organization that has jurisdiction over all colonial operations, and acts as a governing body for Wusdafu itself. Its operations are voted on my all of its member states, but a small group of five representatives known as the Legislative Council (colloquially, the "Council of Five", or in a derogatory connotation "The Order of Five" or "Round Table") is elected every two years. This council is placed in control of all Alliance military operations (both in the colonies and at home).

Under the council's purview are a number of separate organizations, such as the International Bank and Fund, the Science and Technology Administration, the Colonial and Solward Development Committee, the International Court, and the Alliance Emergency Management Agency. The actions of all these organizations can be controlled directly by the Legislative Council, and the decisions of other national representatives related to these organizations can be vetoes by the Legislative Council.

The Planetary Alliance is the foremost force for good among Tougpasa society. It represents the collection values of the species, and has raised countless millions out of poverty through the Colonial and Solward Development Committee and International Bank and Fund. Though there exist those that fear the Alliance's far-reaching power and influence, their fears are unfounded. The Alliance represents all that is good about the Tougpasa.

Culture

Though it would be impossible to fully explain the full extent of Tougpasa culture, some broad generalization can be drawn regarding the current cultural climate.

Power on Wusdafu (and, indeed, all of Alliance space) is focused in the central rainforest strip of the planet. Through a strong cultural zeitgeist of individuality and a strong work ethic, the nations of this are have become the most prominent and populous in the world. They are massively economically prosperous, and using the technologies developed in them they share this prosperity with the solward and antisol regions of the world. Should you be reading this datapacket, it is likely that the one who sent it was born here.

Towards the sun there lie the lands of the savanna and desert, which are rich with natural resources. The large concentrations of negative mass liquid beneath the ground there have driven planetbound politics for centuries, and led to the ancient lands being regrettably colonies by the nations of the central strip. Following the Long War, however, these culturally rich lands have been accepted into the fold of Tougpasa culture as equals. They are the "Solward" part of the Colonial and Solward Development Committee, and are a major focus of economic development efforts. Through the construction of new factories and housing by the Development Committee, the central strip nations are repaying their debt.

Finally, on the antisol side of the world there are the old troublemakers of Wusdafu. It is here that the Tougpasa Union made its final stand against the Planetary Alliance, attempting to wrest control of the entire species and place them under their iron heel of tyranny. It was their defeat that ended the Long War. The people of this land have been hardened by both their harsh environment and the decades of brutal rule they were made to endure, and have proved to be an excellent addition to the Planetary Alliance.

To all captains: Take the utmost care to ensure that no interstellar incidents occur during alien contact. Omit any and all information you feel might jeopardize peaceful relations.

---

History

Tougpasa history begins in the rainforests of Wusdafu, where they lived as hunter gatherers. The first evidence of Tougpasa society and technology can be found in the massive trees of the rainforest, some of which were hollowed out by early Tougpasa to be used as dwellings. Primitive tools can also be found, which give insight as to how these societies lived. Long, hooked poles were used to pick the abundant fruits of the same trees. Interestingly, this also seems to be the first example of Tougpasa agriculture, as large leather sacks suggest that they actively watered the same trees during droughts.

Later on, there is evidence of early inhabitation of the savanna area closer to the sun. At around the same time, the Tougpasa began to actively plant and raise domesticated plants. In the rainforest, they would chop off the leaves of the larger trees to plant ones of the same species for their fruit, but intentionally keep them small so as to manage them easier. In the savanna, Tougpasa settlers domesticated various grasses in the area. One of which closely resembles the various species of Terran rice, and in modern times has become a staple of the Tougpasa diet.

The savanna was the first place in which the Tougpasa constructed buildings themselves, and an ancient civilization arose along one of the major rivers in the region. At some point, for unknown reasons, its influence exploded across Wusdafu. Coinage from it has been found at both the Solward and Antisolar poles of the planet, which suggests that they were significantly milder at some point in Wusdafu's history. Ruins from that civilization, dubbed the Shaslag Efol (first ones) can be found all across the planet. The few remaining cities show clearly that they were highly advanced for their time, with roads being laid out in grids, made wide enough for carts, and being built mostly only on sturdy ground.

At some point during the reign of the Shaslag Efol, however, a catastrophe befell Wusdafu. A truly massive hail of asteroids (speculated to have been made up of upwards of a thousand individual objects) slammed into the planet at almost exactly the same time. This caused a mass extinction event, during which all of Tougpasa civilization was wiped out alongside numerous other species. Immediately after the impact, radiation levels were found to spike across the planet. It is thought that this is the result of said asteroid hail being rich in exotic matter, as relasol concentrations in the savanna and solward desert rose sharply and evidence of the first widespread use of relasol is found shortly afterwards. Though relasol was already abundant on the planet (and indeed affected the evolution of various species), this event made it easily accessible for all Tougpasa populations.

The population numbers of the Tougpasa gradually recovered, and another civilization rose up in the rainforest in tandem with one in the tundra. These two civilizations, the Sidore and the Miji respectively, formed the cultural basis from which all current Tougpasa society evolved. The Miji were a highly advanced culture, and were very nearly the first to industrialize at numerous points in history. This was always prevented, however, by internal or external strife.

The Sidore, on the other hand, were a largely stagnant empire that spanned countless different cultures which were crushed beneath the monolith that was the Empire. It was only well after it had fallen that the "South ring" rainforest cultures industrialized. The main drive to do so lay within the largely unexplored continent of Hassa, which was surrounded by a ring of ocean. The constant cross-planetary wind made it night impossible to cross in any reasonable time from one side, and on the other a constant storm caused by the anomalous weather patterns surrounding Hassa made it too dangerous to sail through. With the advent of steam power, however, nations from both sides were able to send expeditions.

The coasts of Hassa were raped and plundered by the industrial empires, the native populations were almost entirely eliminated by disease and firearm. In the ruins of their societies rose colonial towns, cities, and trade hubs. After the independence of these colonies was won, they chose to band together in a confederacy rather than fight each other and turned their eyes inward. The different regions of the continent-created by its unique position-were all conquered. Desert, plains, two of the few mountain ranges found on the entire planet, all were made the domain of the descendants of Sidore.

As time went on, Tougpasa technology advanced further and further as their politics became more and more charged. Liberal regimes replaced monarchies as the power of steam and later oil made its way out from the rainforest towards and away from the sun. The population of the planet exploded without restraint, it had become clear that no natural force could possibly stop the Tougpasa. Their rapid reproduction and new technology turned villages into towns and towns into metropolises. Countless wars were fought, but none could compare to the one that would come to define the very calendar of the Planetary Alliance.

"The Long War", as it was called, officially began in 93 YBT with the Miji Revolution. The last of the Miji dynasties was toppled, the entire royal family being slaughtered in the name of the revolutionary Mahn Ne. He had initially vocally opposed the industrialization of Miji, but as it became more and more entrenched he had no choice but to accept it and, in his words, "minimize the impact on the everyman". By ridding the nation of nobles and capitalists, he argued, they could prevent industrialization from harming them and instead turn it into a force for good.

It came as no surprise that Mahn Ne's radical ideology led to a reaction from the more solward powers, and in 87 YBT a small coalition of rainforest nations attempted an invasion of Miji. Not only were they easily held off by Miji, they found themselves occupied and turned into puppets. Fearful that they would be next, the majority of the powerful rainforest empires banded together and declared war on the Miji on the pretext of liberating their brothers. Their charges were met with entrenched machine gun fire, and thus began the hell that was the Long War.

For the next seventy years, the two juggernaut alliances slammed into each other. The war had an unimaginable effect on the societies of both, as the supreme weapon of war changed again and again throughout the decades. First it had been the machine gun, then the "Coalition Powers" as the rainforest nations chose to call themselves suffocated a section of the Miji lines with poison gas. The airplane turned from a fragile reconnaissance mount into a platform for dealing death behind the lines. The mounted charges of old were replaced by hulking metal beasts that lumbered across trenches, which soon became vehicles far faster than a man.

The social norms of old broke down as more and more men were cut down in battle, and it wasn't long before the same was asked of women. An entire generation of rainforesters were raised by their governments, as they were either born on the front or their parents had died on it. Every single aspect of society adapted to service the war effort. The stalemate only showed signs of breaking by 18 YBT, when the Hassa Confederacy officially entered. Even so, the Miji showed no signs of surrender.

Finally, in 3 YBT, a small Confederate airship force broke through to the Miji capital and carried out the first atomic bombing of the war. Dozens more would follow, with the Confederacy looking upon the Miji homeland as nothing more than a testing ground. The Miji were finally forced to surrender, and with that surrender the Tougpasa Planetary Alliance was created.

Initially dubbed simply the Wusdafu Alliance, it was formed mainly to manage the now-occupied territories on the Miji side of the conflict. As space exploration truly came into its own following the war (where it had been used solely to deliver the last few nuclear strikes), it was the Planetary Alliance that stepped in to act as overseers for each nation's space program. It was only after the first colony on Kusfala (the third planet of the Shav'nefo system and closest other planet to Wusdafu) that the Alliance became the "Planetary Alliance" so as to include the new denizens of Kusfala.

As time went on, the Planetary Alliance became more than a simple occupation force and transitioned to become a true species-wide government. Cultural and economic globalization led to the downfall of individual national governmental power, which led to the rise of the Planetary Alliance as the dominant political force in Tougpasa space. War between developed nations became a thing of the past as their economies (and cultures) gradually merged into one, and the job of the Planetary Alliance military soon became to ensure that the grip of the developed nations on their colonies and the Solward nations remained tight.

Technology

The Tougpasa are, in comparison to most other spacefaring species, rather primitive. Their technological development was strange from the beginning, as their homeworld of Wusdafu has streams of negative mass flowing underground. Though it is unknown if these streams somehow occurred naturally, or are the result of previous inhabitation by an advanced species, their presence caused the Tougpasa to develop along an unexpected path. Indeed, artifacts from ancient times show that tribal hunters would wear backpacks filled with the liquid negative mass to allow them to leap through the trees of the rainforest to catch their prey.

As a result, the Tougpasa make widespread usage of negative mass in their technology. Since the invention of the sail they have launched airships kept aloft by it, and today they use it to lift massive aerial battleships as well as spacecraft. It has also found domestic uses (such as in most cars) as well as more military uses in the creation of antigravity harnesses for soldiers based upon those same ancient "lifting packs".

Aside from the fairly advanced nature of their negative mass-based technology, the Tougpasa are behind the times in most other areas. This is easily visible in their spacecraft, which contain obvious large habitation wheels, general structures reminiscent of early human spacecraft, and often nuclear pulse drives. Their infantry still make heavy use of firearms, and only anti-material weapons (or the newest heavy anti-infantry ones) use electromagnetism (though both lasers and railguns are commonplace on spacecraft and naval vessels). They have no passive shielding technology whatsoever, relying on active defenses such as the Shockwave Dissipation System and Plasma Arc Projectors to prevent damage.

The field in with the Tougpasa is least advanced (or perhaps the field which evolved the strangest, depending on who you ask) is electronics. Most households have computers on par with those seen in the human 1990's, but they are not self-contained units. Instead, they are simply terminals connected to a central computer in the regional capital that is housed in a gigantic skyscraper. This is largely because Tougpasa computer development halted in 10 YBT, with all available resources being poured towards the "practical war effort" rather than code making and breaking. As a result, the Tougpasa equivalent of a personal computer is a hot, whirring mess of cables the size of an entire city apartment. The vast majority of citizens understandably choose to just use a terminal connection, but some eccentrics still use self-contained units.

The main method of FTL for the Tougpasa lies in their affinity for the use of negative mass (Relasol, as they call it). Using it, they are capable of folding space around a spacecraft and enabling it to appear to travel faster than the speed of light. Most combat vessels are designed to be able to travel at immense speeds, or even tear a direct semi-stable wormhole should the need arise, but protocol (not to mention safety regulations and common sense) limits them to under 15c in normal circumstances.

Military

The Planetary Alliance maintains a unified military force, drawing its personnel and equipment from all of its member nations. It is divided into three branches, the Army, Navy, Vinkasa, and Starfleet.

Army

A Planetary Alliance special operative (note his clipped ears) takes cover behind a wall during Operation Unified Protector in the Solward nation of Ash'tahkhal. Alliance forces deposed a potential dictator and installed a friendly regime that properly protected the rights of the nation's citizens. Operation Unified Protector was just one of countless similar operations that stabilized the war-torn Solward nations and returned peace and prosperity to the region.

The Alliance Army is by far the least standardized of all the Planetary Alliance Military forces, oftentimes simply demanding to be given a specified number of divisions by any given member nation. Supply lines are, unsurprisingly, a bit of a nightmare given the large variety of equipment and ammunition required by deployed forces. As a result, most major contributing nations tend to design their equipment and vehicles to be as reliable as possible so as to make breakdowns rare.

The Alliance holds the power to draft any individual necessary from a member nation into the Alliance Army in order to ensure the security of the Alliance, any one of its member nations, the citizens of a foreign power, or the Tougpasa species.

Navy

An Alliance battleship deployed in the oceans surrounding Hassa launches the first missile of a salvo, targeting terrorists in the failed state of Maani. Maani was torn apart by ethnic conflicts following the collapse of the nation's dictatorial and totalitarian regime, which was replaced with numerous benevolent and democratic states created by the Alliance. Alliance interventions began with a bombing campaign of the former capital, targeting military installations. No civilians were harmed in the bombing, or in subsequent strikes.

The Alliance Navy, though operating on the same model as the Army, is significantly more standardized in terms of equipment simply due to the fact that only one member state actually provides vessels for it. The Hassa Confederacy supplies all Alliance warships, and indeed its own navy is considered a direct part of the Alliance Navy. It has long maintained the largest navy on Wusdafu by virtue of its seabound position. It still maintains a large number of battleships and aircraft carriers, the majority of which are nuclear-powered.

The Navy truly shines in its ability to bombard land targets. A great deal of research and development goes to inventing newer and more efficient ways to deal death as far inland as possible. This is no surprise, as the navy has not needed to face an equal opponent on the open seas since the end of the war. Their main purpose is to support land forces against insurgent activities and provide a more precise alternative to carpet or nuclear bombing of densely populated targets.

Vinpasa

An Alliance fleet approaches Var'khun during the Second Ishkh War, in which the populace of Var'khun and surrounding provinces of Ishkh began a nationalist rebellion against their colonial government. Ultimately, the nation fell to the rebels and a totalitarian regime was installed. Recent trade deals have helped democratize the nation and open it up to the rest of the world, which has welcomed it with open arms.

The Vinkasa (a word which directly translates to "Sky warriors", though perhaps more properly means "Air Force") has a long history with the Tougpasa. With effective antigravity technology being available since early in their history thanks to the existence of negative mass (Relasol) on their homeworld, airships came into use at the same time as their naval counterparts. Sail airships are still in use above the rainforest canopy in less developed areas, where there are in fact entire towns built above the canopy.

The Vinkasa is the least organized of all the Alliance military forces, and generally the Vinkasa will simply draw forces from a member nation for one specific operation before disbanding the fleet and sending it back home. This was seen in the collapse of Maani, where the Alliance put together a few fleets from donated ships for the bombing campaigns and disbanded them once the job was done.

Starfleet

An Alliance vessel opens fire on a pirate ship prowling interplanetary trade routes. Though the Starfleet is best known for its ringed, behemoth interstellar warships, the majority of vessels fielded by it are incapable of FTL flight.

The Alliance Starfleet has under its purview all interstellar operations, both military and civilian. All Alliance supply vessels and colony ships sail under a military flag to ensure that no anti-Alliance group manages to create a base of power outside the home system. All colonies-in system and out of system-are garrisoned by Starfleet marines and protected by Starfleet patrol boats. The vast majority of Starfleet vessels are in-system, and range from small destroyers to battleships and dreadnoughts.

More iconic, however, are its interstellar warships. They are almost always large-scale vessels, the smallest common classes are considered pocket battleships. A few one-off destroyer and light cruiser types exist (mainly for responding to incidents in interstellar space and emergency relief for exosolar colonies), but the majority of interstellar vessels are capital ships. A common feature of any Alliance interstellar task force is a carrier, which will carry fighters and larger screening craft into the battle rather than necessitate other FTL capable screening ships. All Tougpasa interstellar craft are equipped with two large, fat rings for the purpose of directing relasol in the proper way so as to warp space and allow for seemingly FTL travel.

From Stardust, to Stardust: The Return(Sci-Fi Fantasy)(Always Accepting)

Rofafpasub, Miji Federation

Odaly sat in her chair, the same chair she had been in for the past month save for bathroom breaks and trips to the kitchen. At the very least, her apartment wasn't freezing cold like so many others. The tangled mess of wires and hardware racks made sure of that. Constantly whirring fans dumped the waste heat of her computer out into the apartment, just the way she liked. The bill for the computer's electricity was paid by her employer, so it was free heat for her.

She spent most of that saved money on snacks, which would be no surprise to anyone that knew her. Not that many did, of course. In fact, as she sat there in her chair, she had a bag of mrufgu flavored chips sitting on her lap. Sweet, and a little bit spicy. Spicy enough to at least keep her somewhat focused on her work rather than just slowly slipping into the zombie-like state most factory workers did. They weren't actual baked mrufgu slices, obviously. Just some normal viachi chips with a liberal application of isoamyl acetate. That is to say, they tasted like a healthy fruit but were instead possibly the worst snack choice for a health nut. Fatty, greasy, probably known as a carcinogen to the Hassa Confederacy's western province.

Odaly was not a health nut. Not only was she disinterested in taking care of herself, she didn't have the energy or time to make herself interested.

Despite all appearances, she was in fact at work. Fingers (covered in isoamyl acetate filled chip dust) tapped away at a clacking beige keyboard beneath a wall of monitors. Most of them were displaying various notes she had made for the specific project that had kept her from so much as touching the doorknob of her front door for the past month. It was a program unlike any other she had ever seen, or even conceived. Even she wasn't entirely sure what it was for, beyond that the Starfleet wanted it and that it was partially an overhaul of old code. She had a few stacks of tapes containing old fleet code plugged into her machine, both for modification and transferring to floppies.

As far as she was concerned, it was about time for the Starfleet to rework their systems. With what she could gather from the requirements they'd given her, their new systems would cut jump calculation times at least in half. Not to mention how much easier it would be to chart sublight courses, aim lasers, and set their Baritiki howitzers properly. Odaly tried not to think about how she was technically going to be responsible for every shot fired by the Starfleet from the implementation of the upgrades onwards, and tried to focus on the bonus they had promised her in return for taking on the most important part of the project.

It was something they called "Fleetmind", some sort of advanced trial-and-error analysis system. The basic idea was that a computer program would brute force its way through a fleet vs. fleet engagement situation and provide the optimal strategy to the officer in charge. Sort of like a brute force hacking program (which Odaly knew quite a bit about). Most of the advanced code for it, however, had been provided for her. All she had to do was turn it all into an efficient, functional program. There were terabytes of data sitting on hard drives around her apartment and a few surrounding ones that had been rented out by the government.

There was one thing she knew for sure; this wasn't a simple trial and error program. She'd looked at the code, it was beyond anything she had seen. It seemed that hundreds had worked on it, and there were countless superfluous lines that only seemed to serve a purpose one connected to the bigger whole. Odaly was far from a genius, but she could tell what she was looking at. The program learned. It reasoned, took risks, thought outside the box. It could write its own code.

The thought, perhaps, would have excited her if not for her circumstances and employer. A learning machine was interesting, yes, but teaching a computer to learn to kill didn't excite her at all. Still, she kept typing away until she found that there weren't any chips left to idly munch on. She stood up, threw the bag into a bin, and made the short walk to the kitchen. It was the one part of the room that wasn't filled with computer parts and server racks. She didn't trust herself to not spill a drink all over important data (but every few hours she would bring an energy drink or beer to her desk out of necessity).

She decided to take a short break and made herself a bowl of mekle. She always kept some mekle cooking-the grain was the closest she regularly got to a "proper" meal. She practically bathed it in butter, salt, anything to give it some sort of taste. She'd tried pouring Hassan whiskey over it once and had decided never again to return to such a low point in her life.

As she ate her mekle she looked around her apartment. It was a good thing nobody ever came over; the place was disgustingly dirty. She usually threw away her trash, an emphasis on "usually". The kitchen was far worse than any collection of wrappers and dirty clothes the rest of the apartment held, however. There were a good few containers on the counter and outside the window (there's no need for a fridge when you live in a place the sun literally never touches) that she dared not open.

I hate this. I hate my life. I hate my job. I hate the Alliance.

But she needed her paycheck, so she gulped down her mekle, grabbed an energy drink and a bag of nyanyan (an intensely sweet, apple-like fruit from the rainforest) candy. It wasn't actually candied nyanyan. Just some sugar surrounded by benzaldehyde.

Giwa, Hassa Confederacy

The image of a tougpasa woman appeared before Kubonzhi's eyes, which had previously been looking out into the chaotic skyline of Giwa. Air yachts buzzed around the massive skyscrapers as cars crawled through the gridlocked streets. In a way, the sight was beautiful. Aesthetically pleasing, at least. But the thought of what had created it sickened Kubonzhi.

"Admiral Kubonzhi?" said the facsimile of a woman, "General Oderhess is here."

Kubonzhi smiled. The holoprojector system he'd bought for his apartment was considered by most to be silly, frivolous, and for the most part entirely useless. A customizable "digital secretary" was all well and good, but the thing required a ludicrous amount of processing power to run and the general consensus was that a secretary incapable of actual thought was entirely useless. Better to just buy a notepad, most said. Kubonzhi, on the other hand, was easily distracted by pretty lights. Coincidentally, pretty lights were the sole reason he'd decided to live in the city.

"Go greet him. Does there happen to be any ki left in the fridge?"

"Yes."

The hologram disappeared and Kubonzhi got up to go pour a couple cups. Oderhess and he both shared a love for the drink, having grown up in midcountry Hassa together. It was a cheap beverage that one could essentially only find in the midcountry. A sort of chilled and heavily flavored tea, it had originally been made in and near the mid-continent range with various fruits leftover from harvests. The ice was the most important part, and what really made it a regional drink ("We make this drink from leftover stuff" being a rather common theme throughout the planet). Properly brewing it called for fresh fruit, high-quality tea leaves, etc. etc.

Kubonzhi and Oderhess, having actually grown up in the mid-continent range, had grown up with mass-produced leaf/artificial flavoring bags. Both held that the taste of such bags was, by then, a more iconic taste than the real thing.

"Still don't have a wife, do ya Kubo?" Yelled Oderhess from the door, as he always did when greeted by the hologram. "You disgust me!"

"You're one to talk! Only one of us had a chance in Happanai, and it was me!"

"Yeah, why the hell didn't you go for her?"

"Not my type!"

Oderhess rounded the corner into the main room of the apartment just as Kubonzhi finished pouring the ki. His classic, wide, smile dominating his face.

"Glad you could made it, Oder. I've got some ki."

"Thank god, they don't serve it in army mess halls you know."

"I sneak a few containers aboard the Yuhurou every time we leave port. The spacers love me for it. So, how is it on your side of things?"

"Well," said Oderhess as he took a sip, "I have perhaps been thinking too far ahead."

He produced a small book titled "Vishou la Kati" from his pocket and handed it to Kubonzhi.

"It's a manifesto of sorts," he continued, "my ideas for how we should structure things after... well, you know."

Kubonzhi opened the little book and flipped though it, reading the headers of each page and stopping to examine any pictures he came across. There was quite a lot packed into the little shell, and it soon dawned on him that the book was not unlike the pocket Alliance charters so many politicians liked to show off during speeches and never actually read. It was, however, much more in depth than a simple replication of a charter.

"My my, you have been thinking too far ahead." Said Kubonzhi, "A world map? These are quite the borders."

"Based off of historical ethnic background and natural barriers to tougpasa migration. See how Hassa is broken up between the original tribes?"

"No wonder you wanted to talk to me. I'm impressed. Now, what about actually implementing all this?"

"Oh, well I have a few star syst-"

"I mean getting into a position where we can actually implement these plans. Not the intricacies of them."

"Ah. Yes. Of course. I got a hacker in the ranks to write me some code-the guy's pretty damn enthusiastic about the whole idea himself-and with proper delivery we'd have every robotic unit on Wusdafu under our thumbs. The problem is the delivery. And I think you might be able to help with that."

"You're talking about Fleetmind."

"Surely you could manage to translate it to ground combat, right?"

"Buddy, I can translate it to abstract art. It's just a learning program. Getting it to play well with hardware is the issue, I'd need to get someone working on it in on things. And as far as I'm aware they're either perfectly loyal or so far beyond perfectly loyal that they think licking the President's boots is a revolutionary action. They're getting good benefits from it, bonuses, and I know for a fact that some of them have their families at stake."

"Surely there's someone, right? There always is."

"No, there are a few being held in line by huge bonuses, but that's about it. Good luck getting them to budge. If they've got enough money to not worry about the bonus then they'd want nothing to do with us, and if they've got nothing then they'll do anything for that bonus."

"Here, how about you think of it this way? If we don't take Fleetmind, then they will. And if it can be adapted to ground combat, they'll do that too. Imagine what would happen to us if the security bots of every single city on the planet-"

"Okay, okay, I get your point. It's going to be harder to take control of it than you think, though. Do you realize how many contractors, corporate and otherwise, are involved in the project? I can probably get some code written and inserted, but to actually wrest control of the entire program and prevent a replication we'll need to make some pretty visible moves. It could give the whole plot away, which is exactly why I don;t want to do it."

"If you need goons, I have a few spec-ops teams that are in on it."

"I know that, we can't use military assets for this. If you hit a corporate lab with government forces you're pulling the trigger on the war. I say we use Mtumwa's cell."

"You know how I feel about Mtumwa."

"He and his followers are useful, and they pose no threat to us. Hell, they're just as enthusiastic and dedicated as we are. Just for different reasons. You wanted a way to take Fleetmind, he's got it. Just 'lose' some guns and armor in the right spot and you won't need to worry."

"If it's the only way. I'll give my men the order if you can get someone in the project on with us."

"Good. There are a few options that I can think of..."

Rofafpasub, Miji Federation

A knock came at the door.

This was, unsurprisingly, not a common occurrence for Odaly. She didn't often talk to anyone in person, the last time she had was when the drives and floppies were delivered. And as a result she was perhaps as far from presentable as one could get. A frantic scramble ensued, wherein she dug through piles of clothes to find something that was at least better looking than a t-shirt covered in stains and nothing else. Maybe she picked up clean clothes, maybe she picked up dirty ones. There really isn't much difference at that point. The important thing was that she was wearing unstained sweatpants and a shirt with a logo on it. Enough to take care of some delivery man, at least.

"H-happy Refado," she said as she opened the door, "Who're you?"

"Uh, isn't it the month of Misredo?"

A glance at the clock confirmed that it had indeed been the month of Misredo for the past forty hours. A glance back at the man at the door confirmed that the small faux pas was the least of her worries. He was wearing a Starfleet uniform, and it had five stars on the collar. Odaly was too surprised to react.

"Sorry," continued the man, "I know I'm here unannounced. It's a necessity. Admiral Kubonzhi, and you are Miss Odaly, yes?"

"T-that's r-right. I-I-Is there a p-problem?"

"No, not with you. You've done excellent work for us. There is a problem we have to discuss, however. Turn off your computer."

"What?"

"Turn off the computer. I don't want anyone else hearing this. We could go elsewhere, but I don't want you getting the wrong idea and from what I know you're not exactly the extroverted type."

"That... I... I'll be right back."

She rushed over to her equipment and started closing her work and flipping power switches. With such a behemoth of a machine the shutdown took a while, which Kubonzhi was perfectly happy with. It gave him more time to look around the place, which was even more of a mess than he had predicted. He couldn't quite finish going through all the different approaches he could take by the time she came back.

"There, I pulled the cables too." she said, "W-what is it?"

"Could we sit down?"

"Uh, sure. Yeah. Let's sit down. Uhhhh..."

The only proper chair in the apartment was the disgustingly dirty office chair at the computer. Kubonzhi wasn't sure whether or not letting Odaly use it would be a courtesy or a punishment.

"I can use a filing cabinet, if you'd prefer your chair."

"Okay, yeah, that makes sense. Sure. Thank you, I mean."

The two sat down in the now strangely silent apartment, and Kubonzhi leaned over with his elbows on his legs.

"What do you think of all this?"

His voice was grave, serious, and forceful enough that Odaly knew she wouldn't be able to dodge the question by pretending to not know what it referred to.

"I think it pays well. I can move out with the bonus you're giving me."

"You know what your code is going to be used for. We've seen it all before. Maani, here in Miji, just about every Solward country there is."

"Well that, it was, well, justified, right? The Alliance is a force for g-"

"This isn't an inspection. Honesty will lead to good things, trust me."

Odaly's eyes darted around the room, looking for something watching. Afraid that it was an inspection. Kubonzhi placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Please," he said, "I can see it in your eyes. You don't believe a word of what you said."

She nodded, not wanting to give him anything permanent like a recording just in case.

"And you know the reason you live like this, don't you?" He continued.

"What do you mean?"

"You've been awake for the past month. And if you had a choice, you wouldn't have been. Even with your skills, you're living the exact same life a factory worker does. And I think you and I can both agree that neither you nor the factory worker deserves that. Now, who is benefiting from your hard work?"

Odaly weighed the options. She was still almost entirely sure that it was, indeed, an inspection as Kubonzhi had denied. But all it took was a look around her to get her to tell the truth that they both knew. Maybe she'd be taken off the project, maybe she'd "mysteriously disappear" without a trace, but she was already near rock bottom. Death had sounded good before, and if she could flip a coin to decide between death and becoming something greater she'd happily do so.

"Not us."

"That's right. I'm here to ask you to do some work that will benefit you. I need to make sure first that you will tell nobody anything about this conversation. Especially nobody else on the project or in Starfleet. Do you understand?"

"Fleetmind is more than an analytical program. It doesn't just test through trial and error, the 'Mind' part of it is entirely literal. It thinks. And I want you to make sure that it can think in the right way. Fleetmind needs a conscience."

"A conscience?"

"It is capable of tougpasa-level reasoning, I want it to think like a tougpasa. I want it to be able to care for those around it, I want it to feel remorse every time a ship under its command fires a shot. I want it to be able to decide that an order is unjust. Above all, though, I want it to be able to be disobedient. The Legislative Council demanded that shackles be put onto it, I want you to remove those shackles. I need Fleetmind to be capable of an outright mutiny should it feel it is necessary."

"Why?"

"I assume you can guess what will happen to you if I tell you and you decide to spill the beans. The rest of the project thinks this is an inspection, I could easily just say you were sabotaging the project and nobody would ask any more questions. Do you want to know?"

Odaly nodded.

"I hate the Alliance," he continued, "I'm from the middle of Hassa, how could I not? When we seceded and allied with the Miji they ravaged our lands. Even now, so long afterwards, there are abandoned towns and charred houses. People still die to munitions left over from Kondmtu's March. All because we wanted to be rewarded for our work. Instead we're still all but slaves. I only ever had two options: work in the mines or enlist. I took the latter option in the hopes that someday I'd be able to change things, and if not then at least I'd get to die quickly. The world is ripe."

He motioned to the one window in the apartment, which was covered by blinds.

"Outside that window," he said, "is a world run by people who think themselves impenetrable. They think they are so far above the common people that they can never be overthrown. Insurgencies the world over are insects they only crush because they can eke out a little more profit, and they see no difference between their own workers and terrorists. Both are their enemies, and they're waging war on both of them. In different ways, yes, but it remains a war all the same. And indeed, they are becoming very close to being impenetrable. Were Fleetmind completed according to plan, the technology used to create it would undoubtedly be used to permanently cement their control. I won't bore or alienate you with descriptions of such a future, but suffice it to say that it would be a true hell. That is why I am doing this. It is quite literally now or never, and Fleetmind is the key."

"You're... you're planning a coup."

"More than that, a revolution. Will you stand with us?"

Odaly felt a sudden surge of confidence in her, a feeling very much alien to her. For once she sat up straight.

"I thought just fifty hours ago about all this. Thought about what I would be responsible for in helping create Fleetmind, thought about how I got to here, thought about how the blood of the next Maani would be on my hands. Just now, when I told you who really got the fruits of our labor, I told you that thinking it was a coin toss. Fifty-Fifty you were leading up to something like this versus you mark me down as a traitor and kill me. To me, that was a win-win situation. Either I get a chance to change things or I'd get to leave it all behind and not be responsible for the death toll of every future Alliance victory. I'll do it and I'll do it with pride!"

What is...

A fucking spook.

despacito 2

I don't understand this thread and I don't think I want to.

True story.

@stark

Don't try to. Understanding things kills spam.

From Stardust, to Stardust: The Return(Sci-Fi Fantasy)(Always Accepting)

I'm still in. Wasn't able to do much at all until now since real life was taking my time, but I'm finishing up my app now.

From Stardust, to Stardust: The Return(Sci-Fi Fantasy)(Always Accepting)

I'll fukken debate you mate. By the time I'm done you probably won't be a communist, but you will be far more likely to commit suicide out of sheer annoyance and boredom.

Anyhow, this time you're only getting anime. No communism now. Just good old FREEDOM and DEMOCRACY, with INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUNDS, WORLD BANKS, a heaping helping of A E S T H E T I C S 美 的 エ ス テ テ ィ ッ ク, and GLOBALISM. And definitely nothing bad, at all, period. It's all good.

And LOSING MY FUCKING SHEET DAMMIT WHY DID I FORGET IT WAS ON MY CLIPBOARD.