To The Great Beyond - Space Empires!

Sureyan mysticism has, from its earliest iterations, propagated a cosmic dualism. Not only are there two sides to the proverbial coin, the sides themselves are inconstant: sunlight grows, yet it also burns; chance rains saved herds, but thunderstorms flooded fledgling orchards; the planet reputed as a furnace could yet freeze you to death overnight. So it is in the political realm: confederation versus conquest, exchange versus annexation, raids for plunder versus desperate defence of the besieged tribe. The newest era of civilization arrived in the rubbery digits of alien invaders.

Shra-Zuiei and Neyero set their personal differences aside long ago to become antipodal hegemons, yet even after the foundation of SCEDA, reciprocal state visits remain surprisingly irregular. Hence, the uncharacteristically subdued fanfare made around the arrival of Mishtzar Aren Marediy in the Southern Republic has attracted considerable attention. No fancy parades, no week-long festivals, not even third-party public exhibitions. Part of the reason is because Marediy is not staying in the capital: he is attending a top-secret briefing at SCEDA headquarters.

Marediy meets his Southern counterpart, Ry'zoura Laoue Vir-Fazh, at the entrance to the white-sloped, bunker-like complex of mission control. The traditional greeting: a bow forward, neck against neck, a second or two before straightening up. Respective entourages turn inside where the leaders join Director Iraizh in a large and well-stocked conference room. The briefing lasts four hours, intricately detailing the Murdizh's arrival to the star system, preliminary topographic analysis, first contact, and the peculiar letter cipher clerks have spent the past few days decoding. SCEDA may have autonomy in executing its mission mandate, but it's the sponsor states that write that mandate.

"What is this last bit," Vir-Fazh reviews the translated address, "About delaying terminal entropy?"

"Universal heat death?" offers one of the resident scientists. "Although given the wording it could be a reference to local faith."

"Not a threat, then."

"Captain Kallet reports the vessel had no visible weapon systems and the crew was unarmed," the Director states. "If anything, she was more imposing than they were."

Marediy speaks up: "They want to establish a permanent liaison, and from the wording they expect a response fairly soon." He looks across the table to Vir-Fazh. "Do we let them in?"

The room bubbles with steady conversation as supporting ministers converse amongst themselves and their leaders. "SCEDA is not a political authority," says one, "And at this stage multiple embassies would lead to confusion."

"They already offer to house an ambassador of our own," says another, "Refusal to reciprocate could be seen as prelude to hostile action." The conversation turns back to the sitting leaders.

"Until we've acclimatized ourselves," Vir-Fazh speaks, "Sureya and this... Corporation, we should limit direct interaction to designated intermediaries in a common zone."

"Over concerns we're still decelerating from a wartime mindset?" asks Marediy.

"Not to mention how Antalya might react to a third spacefaring species in the system. They're keeping quiet for now, but even with the Sentinel matrix we don't know if their shipbuilding plants are offline, and the last thing we need is envoys of an unknown alien race waking up to find a war raging at their doorstep." She turns to Iraizh. "The report says they have a presence planetside?"

"A small outpost on the third planet, would have only been established recently. They seem to have entered the system around the same time as the Murdizh."

"Well then," says Marediy, "If we build an outpost of our own, we can use the planet as a half-way house until capital embassies become feasible."

The next hour and a half plots out the preliminary details of the official Sureyan response. As a show of goodwill the Murdizh will return home as per original mission plan, and a colony ship dispatched in its place. For now, the details of first contact will remain secret, but the leaders agree to convene with the heads of their neighbour republics and deliver a consolidated response for the Administration no later than month's end.

Then begins the anxious recruitment campaign for interstellar settlers. No-one expected to be talking permanent colonies this soon, but once again, history isn't content to wait.




TO: Grey Wing Pilots
RE: Application for Orbital Defence

SCEDA is always grateful for volunteer servicepeople and will license the Grey Wings as an autonomous squadron so long as it co-ordinates its activity with aerospace command and abides by the Administration's rules of engagement.

Errei Varyshan
Chief of Staff, Military Operations

@Daftpanzer, that's really cool, but I think you missed my question? Post #219

Angst said:

@Daftpanzer, that's really cool, but I think you missed my question? Post #219

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Yes I did indeed - apologies, it may have been some kind of internet mishap

Angst said:

Ah, I kind of looked through the rules to figure out where I would be allowed to train troops; couldn't find the rules for it so just assumed I could. I did mostly skip the Developed Worlds section. Perhaps you should note under the Units/buildings/stuff section that Developed Worlds designate where you can build stuff. Just one line with a reference should be enough, although changing the individual paragraphs could work too (ie adding a dot which says "Can only be built in Capital or Industrial developed worlds" under Troops.)

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Yes, I will add a note under the Units / Buildings section.

I don't mean to be purposefully annoying. Its to prevent people from being able to insta-spawn a massive army and/or fleet whenever and wherever they are threatened.

Angst said:

I think I will change the orders slightly, as I need to know: A Warship presents enough threat to "contain" dissent on a foreign world, right? As far as I understand the rules, it shouldn't be the best idea leaving Drift Harbor's colony without troops, right? As in, you need to contain the dissent of worlds you control with troops? Especially colonies? Or doesn't it matter?

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Well, you don't really need the warship or troops there to maintain order at this point - I'd give you warning in the update if there was a reasonable risk of rebellion. Not that having your military there willl do any harm as such.

I don't think you're annoying at all! Thanks for taking your time for walking me through this. I'll change the orders accordingly. Will edit this post when the orders are finalized.

EDIT: ORDERS FINISHED, in Post # 216

~

Varyn 2:
The Crystal Seed

The room's walls were ornamental, littered with small figured, symbols and faces. The colors were of the metallic, rusted kind, and with the thick layer of sand over the floor, one could easily mistake it for an unused part of a large house, or a ruin. But the careful investigator could look closer on the small engravings, noting that several of the figures were polished; figures that seemingly bowed or held their hands high for whatever reason; some seemed like playing sports, wearing javelins or jumping, but several of the items had been crudely removed and replaced with small drawings of suns or crystals. Some of the figures were so worn and rusty with acid that the cold stone material behind the iron was visible, creating the illusion that the wall was a world littered with small lakes.

Although to be fair, the careful investigator could look elsewhere to find his curiousity filled. Because in the middle of the room, there stood a delicate table of glass, surrounded by a multitude of seated humanoids with blisters and strangely formed limbs and torsos. They were the elite of this planet, the Dry Sea. And they loudly discussed something.
“The kalai crystals are sacred, we cannot –”
“What we cannot is to stop the Almighty Beast's limbs from reaching the skies.”
“But they belong on Dry Sea!”
“I agree. Still, they should into space.”
“But think of the Beast! Of our Progress! Of the New Age!”
“Bah!, I say. We need all crystals here. We have people to feed.”
“That's true.”
“Listen, we don't need that amount of nutrients anymore. People are flying towards the colony, we need food there –”
“Heretic.”
“Did you just call me a heretic? You mild-minded, crude, primitive –”
“SILENCE! Immediately!, or I will have your heads!”
They all knew this voice – the crowd fell instantly mute as she entered the room. Her face as beautiful as ever; her arms covered in sickly boils. Behind her, a hunch-backed, tooth-mouthed, giant-armed person crept ever closer. Even in this crowd, that particular individual had a tendency to evoke nausea.

The woman calmly began speaking, almost in a whisper, silklike.
“I know it must be difficult for some of you to accept. For some of you to understand. And again, it must be difficult for some of you not to show shallow, sinful pride over being supported by me this way.”
Some of the smiles that had just been lifted now fell almost to the bottom of the chairs.
“I have spoken with the Stone Men. They have already begun mining surplus crystals. It will not be long until it is put into a ship, ready for takeoff. And until then, my friends, you are welcome to discuss the divine implications of these events. Because it is a fact: Finally the Beast will be brought into the remainder of space.”
There was a long pause. At some point, a smartly dressed person with a head looking like a cauliflower straigthened himself slightly, then cleared his throat. He was the planet's lead Crystalogist. Like the rest of the men in the room, he was an important person of the planet Dry Sea. But here he was not as welcome as he usually was. See, he was the person that thought of this idea, that the creatures would bring a strange assortment of these kalai crystals to foreign planets. This caused quite a row.

He was not a popular person right now, this lead Crystalogist, even if he used to be. He was the person to invent the transpara engine, the kalai-fueled machine that first harnessed the powers that brought this species to the stars. Harnessing the power of these crystals had been a long tradition of these creatures, as they were the primary food source for milennia – they grew naturally in the area around the creature-like ruined machine entity known as the Beast whose carcass lay silent in the centre of the desert. It would perhaps baffle the careful investigator how much these crystals meant to these creatures, or how much they took offense from placing the crystals on other planets. To us, there is perhaps not that much difference between these two things. But to them, there was a fundamental difference; the crystals were to be harnessed, even eaten, but not brought away from the Beast. Perhaps that is just the power of devotion, or perchance madness. These creatures did expect, after all, that at the beginning of the space age, the Beast would wake up and plummet itself into the Sun. That it didn't, it surprised quite a bit of the elite's theologists as well as the common folk.

So this would be why these people were so angry, and so upset. The kalai crystals were supposed to stay on this planet… Until the woman and her grotesque follower entered and said what's what. The Crystalogist started speaking, carefully, not as enthusiastically ranting as the beginning of the meeting. His voice squeaked a bit, perhaps because of the pressure his vocal cords were under below his cauliflower head:
“Look, here, uhm, I know it must've been quite shocking to some of you excellent leaders, to hear what I was, uh, trying to put forward. See, well, I had the whole thing idea because of a massive surplus of our holy, virtuous, wonderful crystals. So many have left our planet for the colony, although it is cold, yes, slightly cold, it's surely different from the warm days here, right? Even if the nights are really cold here. I guess you could say the climate there has different premises. The athmosphere's thicker, I think, but it's a moon quite some distance from its star, a lot of its surface warmth is coming from the volcanic planetoid it orbits –”
“Get on with it,” snarled the woman's creature. She pat it on its head. It took a little bit for the lead Crystalogist to collect himself, then:
“… Uh, yes, of course. See, uh, friends, uh, the issue at hand, or, it's not really an issue. It's more that we have some excellent conditions that we've never had before. Because of the colonization, we have, for the first time in recorded history, a huge kalai crystal surplus, due to having fewer people to feed. And because of this, I finally had a significant enough kalai surplus to test in some ways, I began analyzing their properties. So two weeks back, we received the first dirt samples from the Drift Harbor colony. So after messing around for just a few minutes, something amazing happened… Burrowing the crystals in the xenodirt made the crystals proliferate independently of the Almighty Beast. This dirt apparently had properties that our dirt hasn't, in that our crystals naturally grow in it. But I was curious, see, because there were some things… This really had some possibilities. So I sent for samples from the rest of our solar systems' planetoids, whether big or small, and… Look…”
He took out a few tiny boxes of his cloak, and placed them on the table. Then he opened each of them – each filled with dirt or rocks of a different color. Then he took a black, black crystal from his cloak – so black, it seems like nothing was here, like a void – it was the kalai crystal itself – and touched each dirt sample with the crystal's tip. And from each dirt sample, small crystals began growing, slightly, but significant enough for the crowd to be in complete awe.
“So, now, as I said when our meeting began: We should bring the crystals to other worlds, to seed them.”
This time, noone yelled, noone snorted. Some few looked at the woman and her creature.
“Because, you see, you know their properties. They're edible, they absorb radiation, they fuel our transpara drives, they power our electricity engines. See, my initial hypothethis was wrong – it was not that some extraplanetary soil has properties our soil hasn't; it's more that our soil has properties that extraplanetary soil hasn't. Our soil has been so contaminated with the Almighty Beast's perculiar radiation that the kalai crystals don't grow naturally here. On other planets, however… Where the soil hasn't been contaminated yet…”

The woman and her creature stood in another room, surrounded by black and red banners and guards. One of the room's corners wasn't a corner, but a curtain blown ever so slightly by the outside wind, a little dust shuffling along the floor. In the middle of the room, there was a tall circular piece of furniture, with tiny compartments of strange herbs and colored fluids. The two stood in front of each other, dressing up. Outside the curtain, a mass of voices could be heard, chanting. Soon, they would move to the balcony behind the curtain and speak to the masses of the Dry Sea.
“My dear Speaker Creature,” the woman purred.
“Lady Nar,” the Speaker Creature replied, in a deep, but normal, voice, “Are you nervous?”
“No,” she said. She pat it on the back, a boil on her hand burst into a small splash of blue pus. “I'm just impatient to hear your sermon.”
“We all are,” the Speaker Creature said, smiling with its chaos of teeth. Then she covered its mouth with a gilded mask. Nar's voice was husky:
“To think that soon the Beast's very offspring is to grow on foreign soil. I'm so amazed that we are living in this time. My mother would never have expected me to do so much for our Almighty Lord. Never before have our feet been so tired, but so fulfilled with pilgrimage.”
“I shall say that to the crowd,” the Speaker Creature beamed, and left the room.

Flallorean Collective: Lord_Herobrine
Engineer Traders
Habitat: Terrestrial, Sea, [Engineer*]
100% Flallore population
Culture is considered Somewhat Interesting
Morale is Rather High
Society is Stable

Projects: 2 project slots empty

Economy:
1 Tech World
1 Food eaten, +1 wanted
2 Minerals used, +2 wanted
1 Luxuries enjoyed, +1 wanted
1 Oddities explored, +1 wanted
0 goods traded (*2 Tech Goods surplus)

+1 asteroid capture random event
= 7 EP income

Costs:
1 Warship (x1)
1 Explorer (x1)
1 Freighter (x0.25)
= 2EP upkeep

= 5 EP banked, treasury is now 5EP

Click to expand...

Construction/ Spending:
-Set up mining operations on Kat-33, henceforth known as Ferron. 3EP

Banking:
-Save the extra 2EP produced this turn for future purposes.

Movements:
-Move the Exploration Ship from Ferron to SER-55 for surveying purposes.
-Leave the Warship behind in Ferron to oversee the expansion of the colony.

Drok Imperium Order 2

The Drok Imperium: Everblack
Philosopher Warriors
Habitat: Terrestrial, Arid, Hot
100% Drokmohx population
Culture is considered Somewhat Interesting
Morale is High
Society is Stable

Projects: 1 project slot empty

Economy:
1 Fortress World
1 Food eaten, +1 wanted
2 Minerals used, +1 wanted
1 Luxuries enjoyed, +1 wanted
0 Oddities explored, +1 wanted
1 goods consumed (1 Carvanian Tech Goods, +0 wanted)
= 6 EP income

Costs:
1 Explorer (x1)
1 Troops (x0.5)
= 1EP upkeep

=5 EP banked, treasury is now 8EP

Click to expand...

-Our Explorer will move to Oro-1 and if possible will invest in 3EP to auto-colonisation a food colony.

- 1EP will be use to build a new Freighter

- 2 EP will be invested in Genetic engineering (for now there wont be anything special as it a prerequisite for later projects) the rest EP will be banked.

Thank you very much for the orders and great stories, once again

I meant to post a reminder about the deadline, and to do a story for the Hurrunnunn, but I ended up crashing to sleep last night at 9pm!

At first glance we're missing orders from Zappericus (Skitarii), Exhera (Dscheri), <nuke> (Carvania) and Lord_Iggy (Hlur-Baiheen). I'm happy to NPC them based on previous orders, but there's still a chance to get orders in at this point. You know the deal - I'll work around them as much as possible until I have to decide where those ships are moving.

A scene, presented for your visual stimulation:

The camera sweeps at tree level through the environment, which is a dense forest covered by water in a solid state. The organic structures of the plants are barren and hard, having gone into a state of hibernation in order to survive the extreme conditions. It is beautiful and utterly alien to the inhabitants of a desert world, where large bodies of water are nonexistent and snow cannot be created outside of a laboratory setting.

How did they get here? There is a spacecraft in an opening in the foliage, a landing pod detached from an orbiting ship. Eight legs spread out from it like a nightmarish spider, but the reassuring orbital wheel of OSEC identifies it as a Sehoum craft.

Two Sehoum, in heated environment suits, stand in the clearing. They are collecting samples for scientific study. They are lowered close to the ground, supporting themselves with their front and rear limbs while the middle hands work with an array of devices and measurements. They are small and sturdy, four feet at the shoulder instead of the usual five, and seven feet if fully upright. These Baloum are specially bred for extended space travel.

The camera refocuses, drawing attention to the tree line. There is movement there, quick leaps of some small group of creatures.

Aliens.

One of the astronauts sees this and moves closer, cautiously, raising a heat scanner. It returns nothing, despite what his eyes say.

There is a loud crack behind him and the camera spins around, to show his comrade fall to the ground. There are more cracks, and flashes in the trees, as some form of explosive device is used to propel objects at high speeds towards him. He starts to turn back towards the craft, but aliens pour into the clearing.

Amphibians are completely unheard of on Almoth, and these have been altered to be all the more disconcerting and strange beyond the source material. In their group patterns they seem like a swarm of predator insects, coming to pick an unwary mammal to the bone, than anything else.

The astronaut turns and flees into the woods, bounding on all six limbs. He is fast, but he can&#8217;t shake his pursuers: the camera shows glimpses of them chasing him, and around him, hopping and croaking. But they do not catch him, yet.

Because he is being herded into a trap, a net strung across the ground that, when disturbed, entangles his limbs. He falls to the ground, covered in snow. The amphibians gather around, licking their lips and showing off rows of vicious, completely unrealistic teeth. He is to be eaten, it seems.

Or not. There is an explosion, this time among the aliens, and a new group of aliens swarm into view. Horns sound, sending the bad aliens into panic. The new creatures are bipedal, but furred like foxes. They have large eyes and ears, like a baby Baloum. There is a great commotion and a short fight. They drive off the amphibians and gather around the astronaut now. Both astronaut and aliens watch each other warily for a moment.

Then one of the aliens steps forward and raps on the much larger astronaut&#8217;s visor. Three sharp knocks, the last one louder than the others and ending the scene with a sudden finality.

This has been a preview of a work of speculative fiction.
The Astronaut is coming next solstice for your entertainment.

Forgive me for the late orders Here they are!

Stabilizing Directorate of the Hlur-Baiheen: Lord_Iggy
Trader Brooders
Habitat: Thick-Atmos, Forested, Hot, Mountainous, [Brooder*]
100% Hlur-Baiheen population
Culture is considered Interesting
Morale is High
Society is Slightly Unstable

Projects: Atmospheric Seeooforming [progress 1/6 EP, confidence 50%]
* -1EP all future Base Costs for Hlur-Baiheen colonisation and building - provided that the planet has native biology, is not rated as Thin-Atmos or otherwise Radiated, Poisonous or other extreme conditions
* will be disruptive to native biology

Economy:
1 Metropolis World
1 Food eaten, +4 wanted
2 Minerals used, +1 wanted
1 Luxuries enjoyed, +1 wanted
0 Oddities explored, +2 wanted
0 goods traded (*2 Consumer Goods surplus)
= 5 EP income

Costs:
2 Explorer (x2)
1 Freighter (x0.25)
= 2EP upkeep

=3 EP banked, treasury is now 6EP

Click to expand...

4 EP to colonization of Dak-1, now named Hooaem. Use the freighter to carry home resources on Hooaem-Seeoo trips, and bring out colonists on the return trip.

2 EP to Atmosphering Seeooforming project.

The Pos-3 anomaly is extremely interesting to us. 1 Explorer will explore from Dak-1 to Dak-9, moving towards this signal.

Our second explorer will travel from Seeoo to Kat-33 to determine its appropriateness for colonization.

The FTL capable ship cruised along through the vastness of space and into the stars. Its destination was ahead, with three small red-dwarf stars dancing around each other nearby, like they have been for millennia. In the distance a small speck of light, red in color, slowly crept closer.

“Arrival in 6 Hours and 28 Minutes,” spoke a cool voice over the ship intercom.

Hoban, a young and entrepreneurial student graduate researcher at the Greborag Technological Academy on Desmong, had decided to risk it all in the name of science. Packing up his own laboratory and getting a ticket for the next colonial ship, he severed ties with family and friends and boarded the ship.

His destination was Ferron, the first Flallore settlement beyond the Desmong system. It has been heralded as a triumph in engineering and the future of the race, with a promise that the Flallore will continue to expand in the celestial neighborhood. Now, the second wave of colonists are arriving along with Hoban, here to establish mining operations in the frozen dusty world and send the materials back to the homeworld.

As a graduate student, he hopes to scour the vast wastes and new worlds in search of the greatest finds in science and beauty, determined to make a name for himself in history as the first great explorer of the cosmos. He may even confirm the existence of intelligent alien life during his lifetime.

Hmmmm.... I think I might join, and post my hombrewed scythers as my alien race.


They are quite...... Intresting.

there is already a waiting list to get in poketwo.

Though, from my understanding, there is at least one NPC race that can be taken.

I read the op post, and I think my Species will be interesting enough to add to the game.

I am incredibly excited to see how that works out.

poketwo said:

I read the op post, and I think my Species will be interesting enough to add to the game.

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For the purposes of constructive criticism would they be anything like you described in this post?

Update on the Update: its in progress, though trying to update mid-working-week is not working out well. And I've got a busy Halloween weekend planned. Apologies that I can only give 50/50 odds of an update appearing on Sunday.

In future I'd like to get into a pattern of updating at weekends, orders received Friday and update posted on Sunday night, which I think would work much better.

poketwo said:

Hmmmm.... I think I might join, and post my hombrewed scythers as my alien race.


They are quite...... Intresting.

Click to expand...

Hi poketwo, thanks for your interest unfortunately there is a waiting list for this game, I'm waiting to hear back from several people at the moment.

Take your time the longer the better it will probably end up being!

The world of Seeoo is an immensely populous planet. Geologically active, the homeworld of the Hlur-Baiheen is encompassed in massive belts of mountains. Deep, snaking seas criss-cross the world, but the vast majority of the surface is solid. The atmosphere is dense and soupy, tinged a salmon pink by the vast clouds of aeroplankton which are so distinctive to Seeoo's biosphere, and serve as the critical food source for the Hlur-Baiheen.

In the past, the world of Seeoo was covered in forests, but today the woods are gone, though the yearning for them has not disappeared from the psyches of the Hlur. In the place of the ancient woodlands, new megastructures stretch for kilometers into the sky. They are open frames, rather than the sealed buildings that we know, for the Hlur-Baiheen despise prolonged enclosure indoors. Hlur architecture and design favours smooth curves, taking particular interest in ensuring appropriate resonances between associated shapes and structures, lest they form a cacophony amongst each other.

Between these structures hang massive gossamer nets of superb tensile strength. These are the 'farms' of the Hlur-Baiheen, and they are tightly integrated alongside the homes and industries of their civilization. While most Hlur would prefer to use their own frills to capture food, the necessities of civilization and inter-group competition have rendered this practice archaic and inefficient.

The Hlur are capable planetary engineers and geneticists, by necessity. Their entire biosphere has been carefully retooled to serve the needs of their species, at the expense of the vast majority of Seeoo's native life. Vast fields of algae cover most of the planet's surface, being harvested at a careful equilibrium to generate fuels and low-cost fodder. A few hardy grazers and scavengers are kept suppressed by engineered predators, allowing these fields to grow with minimal predation. Other organisms which once competed with the Hlur-Baiheen for a share of Seeoo's aeroplankton have been driven extinct, by a combination of deliberate policy and incidental habitat loss. Today, little lives in the skies without the explicit approval of the Stabilizing Directorate's planetary ecologists. To compensate for the breakdown of major nutrient cycles in the heavily reduced ecosystem of Seeoo, large-scale processes of air and land fertilization are maintained through a mixture of mechanical recycling techniques and bioengineered organisms.

Seeoo is a system carefully designed to maximize potential food output, and thus maximize the population of the Hlur-Baiheen species. Great sacrifices have been made to bring this system about, but few doubt that it has been a worthy path. The world sings together, and the species is united in the pursuit of the greatest collective happiness.