The ASE

[Destructionator]

Note this is probably going to be revised when the graveddie thread goes up.

The A'millian Star Empire (ase for short)

"Maybe if we just lie low, they'll leave us alone."
- The Government's official policy on interstellar politics

"Don't bet on it."
- The Government's unofficial policy on interstellar politics.



The A'millians have been slowly poking out from home to take a look around ever since the FTL effect was discovered.

They located a nearby intelligent race, one amazingly similar to themselves both biologically and technologically, and became a kind of friends (frenemies?) over a couple centuries, including governing some portion of them.

Years flew by and ships were exploring the nearby area through special places in space they called Alderson points, after the mathematician who predicted their existence. Science ships would travel through them to other star systems and take a look around.

Life was apparently common in the area - about half the systems they visited had some kind of life, however aside from themselves and that one intelligent race (who lacked FTL technology), it all seemed to be very simple organisms. They expected this; hell, they weren't expecting to find the one they did.


So when unknown alien starships started showing up (and leaving) in the outer solar system (around the inner most gas giant), en masse, it came as quite the big surprise.

Starfleet Division
HM Royal Knight Service

Ministry of War Document No. SF-1097 Vol. I
URGENT - CONFIDENTIAL


ALIEN THREAT AROUND A'MILLIA IV
VOLUME I: SUMMARY
AW 2894


1. OVERVIEW

Recent observations of the planet A-IV by ground and space telescopes have confirmed alien[1] FTL[1][2] and construction[2][3][4] activity. No such activity was present as recently as last year[2].

We find the potential consequences of this to be quite unsettelling. This document aims to outline the threat and propose a plan of action for His Majesty's consideration[citation needed].

2. SITUATION REPORT

We have apparent confirmation of four previously unknown Alderson points[2] around planet A-IV. All four of these are now in use by one or more unknown alien powers[1]. Furthermore, a moon of the planet (A-IV-a6) shows apparent mining activity[3] to act as a source of material for construction[4] of something, what it is being unknown, but we guess it is a kind of waypoint station, in an orbit with low delta-vee to each of the four points.[5]

We feel it is likely these aliens plan to be here to stay. Given the amount of activity present[2], we feel it is moreover likely that they plan to expand their presence.

3. THREAT ASSESSMENT

Little is currently known about the alien's capabilities or intentions. However, given the high volume of traffic[2] and estimating projections from our existing traffic/military ratio data[6], it seems fair to assume they aliens are most likely capable of fielding significant military force.

Given what we know about interstellar travel and orbital mechanics[5], it is very likely that the alien vessels have sufficient delta-vee capability to encroach on the inner system, however this is unconfirmed.

We strongly believe these aliens have the capability to pose a serious potential threat.

We have insufficient data to project their intentions.

4. DEFENSIVE ANALYSIS

[section redacted from confidential version][7]

5. PROPOSED PLAN OF ACTION

Without knowing their intentions or precise capabilities, it is difficult to make a detailed proposal. It seems likely that they have not discovered us yet, but they may also know about us but do not care. It is distinctly possible that they are only interested in having a waystation at the outer Alderson points, and thus will not bother us at all.

Or perhaps they are going to colonize the outer system and we can peacefully coexist; there is nothing in the inner system they would rationally require for this purpose[8].

It is also, however, possible that they are xenocidaires establishing a foothold to use as a staging point crush us. We simply do not know.

We therefore propose building up local defenses, including [redacted from confidential version]. We should also cautiously take closer observations of them; try to learn more about them without advertising our presence. RSEA can [redacted from confidential version] to this end[citation redacted].

Whatever You decide to do, we urge You to decide quickly but cautiously. There are too many potentially fatal unknowns to wait or act too rash alike.

6. BIBLIOGRAPHY

[1] - Ministry of War. Observation Reports, Koreallian System. AW 2894.
[2] - Royal Observatory at Lesalia. Composite Observation Reports. AW 2894.
[3] - Royal Observatory. Space Telescope Data Analysis. AW 2894.
[4] - General Kinematics, Inc.. Signatures of Space Construction. AW 2894.
[5] - Royal Space Exploration Agency. Delta-v Maps for Outer System Missions. AW 2894.
[6] - Ministry of Economics, Ministry of War. Commerce Protection Recommendations. AW 2750.
[7] - See: Ministry of War. Alien Threat Around A'millia IV, Vol. II. AW 2894.
[8] - University at Zeon. The Outer Visitor: Colonies in the Oort Cloud. AW 2532.

[Destructionator]

I finished up my little report there. I think that's a more fun way to introduce what I have in mind for my role than listing off more history, military assets, economy, and whatever. (All that is basically the same as what you can see in my 'verse's forum anyway.)


I rather like the idea of playing a little guy caught between all hell beyond their control and having to deal with it, so that's what I'm going for here (the italics quotes on top are delicious to me). Everything else is hopefully vague enough that we can fill in fun to tie it into everyone else's storyline ideas as they are filled in.

[Malchus]

(who lacked the warp drive)

Is this mostly unrevised so far from their old conception in Old Oz? I kinda did a double-take when I saw the mention of a "warp drive" seeing as how graveddies are supposed to be the only FTL for TSW.

[Destructionator]

Is this mostly unrevised so far from their old conception in Old Oz? I kinda did a double-take when I saw the mention of a "warp drive" seeing as how graveddies are supposed to be the only FTL for TSW.

That's just braindead me. I'm so used to calling FTL drives 'warp drive' thanks to Star Trek that I wrote it out without thinking about it. I'll change it now.

[Destructionator]

Military assets:


They can be broken up into five major categories (as far as space war is concerned anyway):

Planetary forces

Main planetary forces consist of naval, ground, and air forces. However, since Starfleet lacks the capability to move this stuff around, they are stuck on the planet they are built on, and thus lack offensive capabilities against an enemy in a different star system.

Planetary forces have the primary mission of protecting assets on the planet from enemies on the same planet, but have a fair number of anti-orbital tricks up their sleeve too.

Amongst that weaponry are such diverse elements as:

Surface to space missiles - while it is an uphill climb to hit an orbiting warship, this doesn't discourage the planetary forces when it comes time to defend their homes. Missiles capable of damaging, if not outright destroying, enemy spacecraft in low orbits can be launched from ground installations and vehicles, surface naval ships, and some aircraft. Some of the larger missiles can swoop in on the target even if launched from the other side of the world.

Sea to space lasers - another nasty suprise lurks under the oceans for would be conquerors from space: sea to space laser submarines. These boats can remain hidden for months on end, popping up to blast the orbiting target without advance notice, then going right back under the waves before you know what hit them. In addition to giving stealth, the sea also provides some defense against incoming laser blasts and easy cooling for its own laser. The water however is also their weak point - it keeps them hidden but also keeps them from tracking you! Thus they are dependent on surface ships or other assets for updated targetting information.


And a whole pile of stuff for fighting foes on the planet itself.

Habitat forces

Army divisions, primarily of light and mechanized infantry and special aerospace support, tooled toward assaulting space habitats or doing special insertions on planets from orbit.

Equipment includes:

Standard soldier kit - The modern A'millian soldier is tied to high technology. Communication and surveillance gear is a part of the standard kit, giving him a level of awareness unheard of in history.

Built in microphones, for example, in the soldier's helmet can track individual bullets whizzing by him allowing the microcomputer he carries to pinpoint the location of the shooter in an instant, allowing him to immediately return fire.

Computer assisted aiming accounts for the Coriolis force aboard a habitat and tells him, before firing, if his shot is going to hit or miss and how to adjust it for the best chance of hitting. With a link-up to an aerial drone or teammate, the computer can also target mortars with pinpoint accuracy on targets outside the soldier's line of sight.

Squad commanders can track the locations of their team and their enemy with extreme ease, letting them decide the optimal tactics for the situation and issue orders without delay.

When operating on planets, the soldier also has a constant stream of data coming in from orbiting starships and satellites - and access to fire support from those space assets. He can forward the location of any target to the starship above which will purify it with pinpoint laser strikes. No target is too big, nor too small.


Armored kit - Heavy infantry has made a come back in recent times. Like the standard man but with heavier armor. This limits his mobility slightly but increases his protection.

Seeker XR-20 - Guided missiles aren't just for vehicles anymore. The SXR-20 is a gun at first glance, but much more than meets the eye. It fires tiny rockets from a magnetic cannon which can make course adjustments in flight - its bullets can round corners, giving the illusion that it fires straight through walls.

Infantry fighting vehicle / armoured personnel carriers - The standard vehicle used by the space infantry forces is air-tight and amphibious, in more ways than one: with a rocket attachment, it can fly through space to a limited extent, and without it, it can drive both on water and on land. The pressurized passenger chamber also gives good protection against chemical weapons.

Several space habitats in the ASE have large lakes inside them. These lakes serve several purposes for the people inside, but also can serve a purpose for attackers: it is a potential easy insertion point!

A common strategy for the Royal Asturians attacking a habitat is to attach their carrier to the hull under the water, cut in, and release their amphibious IFVs. They float to the top and drive on water and on land to the target. Once finished with the job, they return to the sea, take on enough water to sink, and return to the waiting mothership which can fairly easily patch the hole it made [!] before leaving, which helps maintain at least some goodwill with the people inside.

The main model carries four men and is armed with a small multi-purpose laser - it can fire concentrated shots against hardened targets or rapid wide shots against softer targets. To keep it both water- and land-worthy, some traditional armor is left off, making the vehicle easily vulnerable to bigger weaponry.

Light tank - While heavy tanks are, well, a bit heavy for interhabitat fighting, the IFV is a bit too light for every task.

The light tank has a crew of two and is armed with a powerful cannon as well as its machine gun. Unlike the IFV, it is not amphibious - it maintains strong armour for protection. It is thus not suitable for insertions through the lakes and use take more... crude methods.

Submersible supply truck - Another important amphibious car is the Army's submersible supply carrier. These do a lot of the work in carrying supplies from the parked mothership to the troopers inside, going up and down through the lake.

Control ship - A heavily armored vehicle, either a truck or a ship (both are referred to as 'ships'), which houses robot controllers near the field of battle. The controllers inside operate recon drones as well as combat and maintenance robots to help the guys on the front. They also will often use floating or remote controlled relay stations to help extend their range without putting themselves at risk.

Often, the control ship is indeed the mothership in space, but due to the quality of communication needed, if there is any interference, an additional controller must be launched into the battle area.

Aerial drone - Remote controlled, usually from a nearby control ship, these small aircraft are packed with sensing equipment and some, with grenades, guns, or bombs to attack targets themselves. You're virtually guaranteed to see several robot drones in the air over the battle area at all times, feeding constant real-time information about the enemy's movements to the soldiers on the ground.

The drones need either a small landing strip or for some models, calm water to land and recharge its fuel cells.

Combat ground robot - Remote controlled, by one to three operators, armed and armor plated, purpose built ground combat machines. Their wide based tracks allow them to operate over mildly rough terrain and their independently rotating guns and view cameras let them see and target multiple objects at once.

While they have speakers to play sounds from the operators, due to communication bandwidth concerns among other reliability problems, the operator's voice often comes out as robotic sounding bursts of syllables. While modern technology could correct this, the Army thinks the robot's mean sounding voice serves a useful psycholocal warfare use and wants to to remain the same.

General purpose ground robot - remote controlled by one or two operators and built in the general shape of a person. These robots are the military version of the common telepresence avatar, used for various tasks in the civilian world. The operator when in the control booth, feels like he /is/ the robot, and thus can move fairly naturally, using a variety of tools made for people. The robot also has optional manipulator attachments to help in performing maintenance tasks.

There is almost always one of these with a group of vehicles tasked with taking care of maintaining them.

Like the combat robot, the operator's voice is distorted by the time it gets to people listening on most military models.



See also: short range spacecraft

------

I'm going to end this post here and return with my next post listing spacecraft.

[Siege]

Christ Almighty, what part of 'shields are limited to absurdly advanced polities' is it that people do not understand? We're limiting shields on spaceships to an OCP-level phenomenon; I personally feel personal shields are a preposterous absurdity that have no place anywhere in this universe. Really, we establish these benchmarks and within days people are already fucking with them? What the fuck, people?

[Destructionator]

Like I said, I'm not married to it. I'm just going to haggle for power out of universe as well as in universe

Christ Almighty, what part of 'shields are limited to absurdly advanced polities' is it that people do not understand?

What is your definition of 'absurdly advanced polities' and why does the presence or absence of a niche technology follow from the metrics in determining this absurd advancement?

You said in Kamin's thread that one should "earn it". What does that mean? Is it providing in universe justification? Out of universe justification? Being a plot device NPC like Q?

We're limiting shields on spaceships to an OCP-level phenomenon; I personally feel personal shields are a preposterous absurdity that have no place anywhere in this universe.

If the technology is possible on spaceships, why wouldn't it be possible scaled down?

Perhaps they have a minimum size to work. What would this limit be; if it is too big to be on a person, what about a vehicle? Or a base? Or is it so gigantic that only mile long battleships can have it? (And if that's so, I'd start to question the upper limit - are planetary or habitat shields possible?)

Or perhaps the atmosphere interferes with it, so all space ships can have it, but nothing in the air gets it at all.


If you want to put limits on it, that's certainly good, but let's define those limits out in the open.

Really, we establish these benchmarks and within days people are already fucking with them? What the fuck, people?

If you don't want anyone to have them, just say the technology is impossible entirely; that is of course fine by me.

If you do want to have them, meaningful definitions of the above should be worked out now so it doesn't look like an asspull when it does inevitably show up.

[Siege]

You said in Kamin's thread that one should "earn it". What does that mean? Is it providing in universe justification?

I thought so much would be obvious. Frankly I feel shield technology ought to be strictly limited to borderline Outside Context Problem polities. The Vorlons and Shadows or, to use an example from a universe I know you're familiar with, the Organians of this universe. The kind of guys the average race really doesn't want to get into a pissing contest with, because they'll get stomped flat in under six seconds and there'd be fuck-all they could do about it.

To draw this in the classic angels vs. cavemen scenario: if the average TSW polity cruises around in mile-long torchships with huge laser cannons and multi-megaton fusion nukes, those would be the cavemen. The guys with the shields would be the angels; folks whose technology is operating on fundamental principles the rest of the galaxy hasn't even conceived of yet.

If you want to put limits on it, that's certainly good, but let's define those limits out in the open.

Fine; lets. Except the limits I'm talking of aren't going to be "lol gotta be >X cubic meters". It's "must compare to rest of galaxy as S.A.C. compares to 300". It's not a matter of trivial shit like "can't mount on tank". It's a matter of "is intimately familiar with physics other people haven't yet the slightest clue about".

EDIT: And frankly I don't think most people can competently handle the concept of a preposterously advanced polity, so I'd rather people stay the hell away from the kinds of technologies we explicitly reserved for preposterously advanced polities, until we've established a decent baseline for 'average polity'.

[Destructionator]

The Vorlons and Shadows or, to use an example from a universe I know you're familiar with, the Organians of this universe.

All right, I see what you mean.

Fine; lets. Except the limits I'm talking of aren't going to be "lol gotta be >X cubic meters". It's "must compare to rest of galaxy as S.A.C. compares to 300".

Hahahaha! Pwned.

It's not a matter of trivial shit like "can't mount on tank". It's a matter of "is intimately familiar with physics other people haven't even conceived of yet".

Right. In this case, I don't think it fits into the setting at all, so I think it should be listed as entirely impossible, at least as far as players are concerned; we probably don't want someone nuking our epic sword stand off in Greece.

(We could always revise it later if we need a god race, but honestly, I hope the action never requires that at all.)

I'd say we should make a note in the question thread about this. I'd word this conclusion as "if it is blatently impossible in the real world, with the exception of graveddie use, you can't do it at all."

That way, it is clear even to idiots like me who had to look up "Outside Context Problem" (and still apparently misunderstood it) that it is off limits.


edit: And removed from the above; you can now kill my troop carriers with RPGs On the bright side, it'll make diplomacy more tense.

[Siege]

Right. In this case, I don't think it fits into the setting at all, so I think it should be listed as entirely impossible, at least as far as players are concerned; we probably don't want someone nuking our epic sword stand off in Greece.

(We could always revise it later if we need a god race, but honestly, I hope the action never requires that at all.)

I originally wanted to leave the option open, but all things considered it might indeed be wiser to go about it this way at this point.

[Destructionator]

Condensed general info:

Species: A'millian + another humanoid

Systems: 2, if you are generous. They don't control all of either one by any stretch of the imagination. The home system is rather poorly developed and they are just one of many countries in the second system (and it isn't anywhere near fully developed either).

Population: ~500 million among all holdings

Government: socialist monarchy

Culture: Generally conservative (mainly in the sense of not wanting change) and pacifistic; many romanticize the past, but still hold scientists in high regard, thus leading to advancing technology and knowledge while maintaining the political and social status quo.

In short, knowledge is good but change is scary.

Foreign policy: Many regular people aren't in love with the Government's actions toward the second star system. They think we should just go home and keep to ourselves, like in the good old days before we found those aliens.

Others, however, including most the elite and nobility, feel a sense of moral obligation to help others live "better" lives and point at the general prosperity in the Territories as evidence that they are doing good things there.

A small minority feels it is too dangerous to try and "guide" alien's lives and similarly too dangerous to just stay home and ignore them - they advocate rather extreme and hawkish measures. Some of these individuals are in high places, but nevertheless currently have little influence on policy.

Economy: Protectionist policies along keep most economic action entirely domestic; the country is not dependent on foreign trade and if they have their way, never will be. There is also little material trade between the two star systems; they often share information, but rarely goods. Widespread use of heavy automation multiplies the productivity of the small workforce.

Debt is culturally frowned upon and the government tends to keep a balanced budget, even if that means passing up some investment. Some[who? fucking wikipedia] call their economy "stagnated", but most the conservative populace prefer to call it "stable".


History: About 800 years ago, a materials engineer was doing research in the space station and found some curious measurements. She thought this was a whole new discovery that would potentially make FTL possible.

To everyone's disappointment, this research ended up being a dead end when further explored. However, it nevertheless sparked a renewed interest in space research, most importantly, it inspired several people to take up amateur astronomy.

With so many eyes on the sky, it wasn't long before some curious observations were made in local space. Eventually attracting professional observations, then space telescopes, and finally, probes, these amateur observations would be the first step to real FTL travel.

Over the next decades, they would explore two solar systems besides their own: the binary giant system they called 'Lanterus', to which the discovered nearby graveddie (eventually named Alderson points after a mathematician who worked out the best working theory behind them) led, and a yellow dwarf single star system they called 'Koreallius', accessible from a second wormhole in Lanterus. Much to their surprise, the latter had a planet with intelligent life on it - Life remarkably similar to themselves. (There are several theories to explain the similarity - a recent one gaining traction is they share a common ancestor thanks to the graveddie!)

Probably in great part thanks to their similarity, they got along somewhat well with this new lifeform, but being afraid of them, they worked to keep knowledge of the graveddies from them, thus keeping contact on their own terms. This succeeded for a long time, but recently, other nations around the other star have started to make their own observations of the eddies. It is just a matter of time before they start using them independently.

They'd eventually carve a chunk of this world and its orbital space out to govern as their territory, which is why they are now called a "star empire" and have royal subjects of species from both planets. (In fact, the people from the Territories outnumber the people back home.)

Over the last several centuries, the dynamics of the Territories with other Koreallian nations have given the most 'excitement' in the ASE. Until now...

[Destructionator]

I'm going to reserve the right to do a revision for size once I see what everyone else is doing. I do want to be a little guy stuck in the middle, but also can't be /too/ little lest I become utterly irrelevant.

I'm not as small as I look right now: I put in that vague "automation multiplies production" statement as an escape valve (if you will), and a large fraction of the ASE's starfleet are robot ships, which makes up for the small population militarily. My next post will be talking about the starfleet and will detail that to a greater extent.

However, if that isn't good enough, I'll come back and do some revising.

I'll almost certainly stick to the one well developed solar system and the one poorly developed one, but I'll tweak a few parameters to make the well developed one actually be well developed rather than just 'sort of developed around the one planet' like it is in the current revision.


A brief note copied from the draft of my size of a hard sci-fi civilization essay will let you see how being in one star system isn't as small as you might think:

So if we mined the entire asteroid belt and turned it into space colonies, we would be able to support about 3e18 / 1.55e3 = ~2e15 people, which is nearly two quadrillion.

And that's really just the beginning of what the solar system could potentially offer, so sticking to two systems isn't really limiting at all.

[Destructionator]

Stationary spacecraft

The Army actually forms a large part of the space defense, and in many cases, attack plan with the various war stations they control.

Space fortresses - Space fortresses are powerhouses built into asteroids. Inside, the fortress is a small, self sufficient town, with agriculture, some industry, residences - everything the crew needs to live on their own for extended periods of time. It is run by internal nuclear reactors, with fuel inside for a decade, so there is no need to have exposed solar panels or incoming fuel shipments.

On the outside, it is a heavily armed and armored platform with formidable observation capabilities. The asteroid's mass functions as heavy armor as well as a large heat sink. Armored doors open to reveal large long range lasers and sensors as well as missile launchers (which have missiles produced inside the fortress from the asteroid's material).

Its sheer volume of fire combined with its long range makes the space fortress a dreaded site for attackers just about anywhere, thus serving a pretty good deterrent role.

Observation platforms - During peace time, these are space telescopes. During war time, they are highly sensitive listening posts, feeding constant data to the military, giving them position data both on themselves (to aid in navigation) and on the enemy (to aid in targeting). Space is littered with such platforms.

Orbital weaponry - Remote controlled missile launchers, guns, and lasers on satellites are another thing the Army controls to fight off invasions by enemy space forces. These platforms are easy for the enemy to kill, but divert enemy fire away from more important things while taking a few of the attackers with them.


Short range spacecraft

The Army, along with the Air Force, also control a number of mobile, yet still short range, spacecraft. Their primary role is attacking nearby space colonies in crowded areas that are causing trouble, performing precision strikes to clear the way for, and support, an invasion.

Type A fighter - The venerable type-A has been around for hundreds of years in its various forms. A short range, chemical powered one man spacecraft, it sounds like the thing that would be useless for anything more than a joy ride. However, it serves an important role in the L5 colony cluster, weaving through heavy neutral interference to make precision strikes against the enemy with a minimal interruption to everyone else. Its high tech short range sensor array feeds critical data to the pilot letting him tell whom to shoot and whom to warn away.

Among its targets are its enemy counterparts, fixed surface guns on a habitat's hull, exposed manufacturing centers, and sometimes it blows the hole in a hab's hole that the invaders will use to access it.

The type-A is launched from a nearby base and returns to it immediately after his mission is complete for maintenance and refueling.

Type E fighter - The type-E is meant to replace the aging type-A in the coming decades. It adds a second man to operate it, halving the cost to the pilot of identifying what is going on. In addition to the pure space mission of the type-A, the type E can also enter the colony, through a variety of insertion points including through the water, and fly along its axis to continue supporting the invasion force, striking internal ground targets with its weaponry.

Troop carrier - What it says on the tin.

VPL Carrier - The "Versatile Planetary Lander". If His Majesty needs to send forces from space to the ground and back, or in some cases, vice versa, the VPL does most the reentry and escape work.

It screams into the atmosphere at high speed, shedding a protective sheet as it falls, and then makes a controlled soft vertical landing on either a sufficiently hard open area, or on a large enough body of water, depending on the model.

Remote controlled exterior machine guns and micro-missile launchers are revealed to protect the troopers exiting the cargo bay in their vehicles.

The VPL then waits, hidden by its stealth and camo'd skin, protected by its own weapons and by calling for laser strikes from warships in space, for the troops to return from their mission. They drive back into the cargo bay and lock in for a vertical launch to return to space.

Ideally, it would land somewhere with an existing Navy presence to help protect it, since while waiting for the troops to return, they are somewhat vulnerable and very delicious targets. If there aren't ships already there however, you must simply send down additional troopers who will stay and protect it and pray Starfleet's orbit lines up to be there when you need them.



Long range spacecraft

The Starfleet does all longer range work, both transport and destruction, in space. Its ship's long range precision lasers and missiles, working with their observation suites, can pinpoint and destroy targets at long range, including orbit to surface bombardment. Unless you are starting close to the target, an invasion force isn't likely to have any chance of success as long as the Starfleet is still there.

Starfleet has a huge number of robotic ships - believed to be over 2/3 the fleet (though the exact number is classified). These robotic ships are indistinguishable from their manned counterparts from the outside and are just as efficient in battle.

Usually, a squad will have at least one manned ship which provides instructions to the robot components. However, this isn't always true for every squad. Furthermore, it is a misconception to think that taking out the manned ship will render the squad useless; the robots are fully capable of fighting and winning on their own. Taking out the control ship will only prevent you from negotiating a cease-fire!

Warrior class battlecruiser - The newest class to come out of the A'millian design boards. Powered by a nuclear reactor and driven by a mini nuclear pulse drive, it has very long range, good acceleration, and a good chunk of power, even in the outer system. Its primary weapon is a multiple turret laser system and can also carry missiles. It has a crew of about twenty.

BCA-10 - Automated variant of the Warrior class.

Indefatigable class battleship - "In war, we're tough and able!" The Indefatigable is powered by nuclear pulse propulsion and a nuclear reactor. It boasts strong armor, a laser system, a coilgun, and missiles, making it strong on attack, defense, speed and range. It has a crew of about thirty.

BBA-07 - Automated variant of the Indefatigable class.

Herring class frigate - The Herring class is made for action in the inner system. It is solar and chemical powered. It carries armor, an observation suite, and lots of missiles. It has a crew of about a dozen.

FFA-04 - Automated variant of the Herring class

Pacifica class attack carrier - "Peace... through superior firepower!" The attack carriers primarily carry the Army around and dock to habitats to be invaded to act as motherships for the invasion force.

[Destructionator]

Military ranks:

The rank system in the ASE is a bizarre collection, formed over many years as the service grew from its roots as a feudal army.

Originally, there were six positions, all combat related: three who followed, made from people pulled from the commoners and lesser nobles, and three who led, pulled from the nobility.

These positions were:

The followers:

Warrior: the most common grunt trooper.

Major: an English translation of the old term meaning 'senior warrior'. The Major is simply a well experienced warrior, usually put in charge of leading a team.

Lieutenant: in the olden days, this was as close to real command as a commoner could get. Through demonstrations of his skill and experience, he earned a position as the commanding field officer's right hand man and would have authority delegated to him.

The leaders:

Commander: Usually a lesser noble, the commander would actually lead (and I do mean lead - they'd be right up front) troops on the field. He'd be tasked with keeping everyone together and working out tactics.

Colonel: Coming from the higher nobility, the colonel commanded whole armies. On the battle field, he would remain at a vantage point where he could see everything; up on a tall hill rather than on the front line.

General: A general would normally be a Duke appointed to lead the overall strategy of the war and report directly back to the King.


As time went on, support troops were more formalized and uniformed in addition to the combat and control soldiers. Traditionally, support personnel were civilian skilled tradesmen who worked for their lord, kinda like private contractors. Later, military equipment became too different from civilian tools, so their knowledge was no longer directly applicable (originally almost all military equipment was simply repurposed civilian implements); the workers needed specialized training to be useful to the military.

While they were pulled into the service, put in uniforms, and specially trained, their ranks and positions are based on tradition of civilian tradesmen:

Worker: A labourer with a minimum amount of training. The workers, as their name implies, do most the grunt work under the supervision of experts in the field.

Foreman: Like the Major to the Warrior, the foreman would be an experienced worker who would keep small teams organized and supervise their work while still working himself.

Apprentice: An apprentice would work closely with a master of his trade, learning as he goes doing real work. Originally, it would be someone whose entire training came from his master, but later, it would be a graduate of the trade school who is not yet experienced enough to work on his own.

Master: The master is an expert in his field tasked with making sure everyone else is working efficiently and correctly as well as training the apprentices. His experience, skill and knowledge make him vary valuable to both the military and civilian worlds.


Finally, a third group rose as science became more important: the intelligensia. For the most part, they remained purely civilian, but for those who were also combat warriors, a special rank was added: the sublieutenant. This would give immediate prestige to the intellectual new to the military and give him some authority to do his job, equal to the more experienced Major (however the Major could take over for a lieutenant or commander if the need arises, whereas the sublieutenant only had authority as far as it applies to their specialty).





This system worked for a long, long time. (Note that I gave Army descriptions above, but the Navy basically used the same system. Worth noting that any naval ship had to have a captain of rank Commander or higher, meaning even small ships would traditionally get a random lesser noble assigned to command it.)

Even as the air force and starfleet formed, this same system remained in use.

But, the service would grow with time, especially with the annexation of the Territories, making the ranking system be too shallow to remain effective. To solve this, new positions were added to the combat and control line:

The first one was the subcommander, added between lieutenant and commander. The subcommander would assist the commander in managing his ever growing forces, partitioning it down to an easier size.


The strategic situation was getting bigger as well. The colonel could no longer manage campaigns by following the army and looking down on hills; this was only giving a fraction of the overall picture. A new position of 'overcolonel' would be added to deal with this. The colonels would remain attached to individual sectional armies while the new overcolonel would take over commanding the overall larger army; controlling the campaign, with the generals still deciding overall strategy for the war.


The current combat and control rank list looks like this italics are similar to what they are in the real life modern us army:

Warrior: privates
Major: Corporals/sergeants
Sublieutenant: specialists, warrant officers; highly technical people
Lieutenant: lieutantants and captains
Subcommander: majors
Commander: lieutenant colonels
Colonel: Colonels
Overcolonel: Brigadiers
General: Generals

[Destructionator]

Humans are lame. This isn't my canon verse, so let's run with something different for the territorial subjects!

Note I'm making this up as I go, so I'd appreciate anyone pointing out stupid, inconsistent, etc. crap for me.

---

The Koreallians

Biology

The dominate species on planet Koreallia is an amphibious pentapod (sort of, if you count the tail) that doesn't really fit into any of the classes we were familiar with when discovering them. The closest they fall however is some kind of flightless bird.

Biochemically, they are similar to us; they breathe (almost) the same air and eat (almost) the same foods. The weirdness comes on the outside.

They stand low to the ground and have two arms, two legs, and a tail. Their hands are similar to robotic claws, with two fingers on each side of the hand.

Their legs are forward on their bodies, and when standing still, they must use their tail as a third leg to balance and therefore can't stop over very rough terrain. When running, they need to tuck their arms in and put their tail above their body to maintain moving balance.

They are very fast over smooth land like open plains, but very awkward in rougher land like forests, and thus try to avoid it whenever possible.

They have webbed feet and float very well, like birds. Their strong arms, legs, and tail are all used in making them excellent swimmers. Using their strange balance afforded to them by their arms and tail, they can make sudden dives to quickly catch fish to eat from the water.

When passing through a forest or other rough terrain, they will try to find a river and swim through it to avoid having to depend on their poor land balance. They have incredible endurance and can swim or run for a very long time at a steady pace.


They are significantly smaller than us: about a foot and a half tall, one foot wide, and about two feet long on average. They tend to weigh in between 40 and 50 pounds. They are native to warmer climates and eat just about anything, a daily amount of about three quarters what we need.



For senses, they have poor hearing and depend on their excellent eyesight. They have two eyes, one on each side of the head, which look kinda bulgy. They can use them to see almost all around them - they can point them out to the side (their rested state) to watch for incoming predators from about 320 degrees around (directly ahead and directly behind are both out of the field), or can point them both forward to track an object in more detail, used when hunting.

Their sense of smell is primarily focused on family identification and helps in warfare, foraging and hunting. Family units secrete scents that members of their family sense and can home in on. The family unit is the most important social group among the Koreallians: families are large and stick together.

Which brings us to social things, but first:

Reproduction

Like birds, the Koreallians lay eggs and incubate them until they hatch. Hatchlings live on the water and very dependent on their family to survive.

The eggs must be laid on the ground and incubated there (it sinks in water!), but the baby is helpless on the ground for several months while their brains and muscles develop the needed ability to balance on land.

So eggs are laid very close to a body of water, so as soon as it hatches, the baby can be pushed in to begin its life in a slightly less helpless state.

Mothers lay several eggs at once; the average litter is six. It is expect that at least half of them will be eaten by predators or otherwise meet their demise in nature before their first birthday. Even on the water, they are vulnerable to being preyed upon by birds and fish.

To mitigate this, families try to protect the babies by swimming around them (not unlike a carrier battle group, really) and sticking to shallow waters where they can see incoming predator fish before its too late.

To defend against predator birds, the 'battle group' will jump at the bird as it dives down, attempting to grab it in their arms and drown it in the water, without harming the hatchlings underneath. This is as hard as it sounds and would often fail (before technology would be developed anyway).

Once the hatchlings mature enough to venture out onto land, they start to spread out to find enough food to live off on their own and eventually, look for mates, continuing the cycle.


Social stuff

Most their social bonds are tied into the reproductive cycle described above. Large families stick together and delegate different kinds of work off to different members.

Parents, aunts, and uncles would protect hatchlings together - sons, daughters, nieces, and nephews would all get equal treatment from the adults. Older siblings and cousins would be tasked with going to the land to gather food for the babies and their bodyguards.

Complex tactics would be used in both attack and defense, giving the first real hint of their intelligence to the outside viewer.


They are *very* territorial and outright mean to other members of their own species. Trying to encroach on a family's territory without having that family's scent will almost certainly result in your being attacked, and very likely killed.

Conquering a nearby family by force is a common way how mates are earned. Often, this is less bloody than it sounds - attack parties are away, leaving many of the young females relatively undefended to be captured by a rival family's attack party. This is done purposefully - the defending force is meant merely to weed out those too weak to join the family through mating, not to actually stop them decisively.

The heavy bias toward attack over defense during mating season leads to a cycling of lands; a family fiercely defends its land the rest of the time to willingly give it up to take a mate's land. They therefore don't really have ancestral homes and this would also help to define technology.

Technology

Above, I mostly focused on how they act in nature. A great many Koreallian tribes still function just like that, but some embraced technology to help them in their struggle.

Note that none of them are stupid, even the technologically primitive masses; in fact, their brains, despite being much smaller than ours, are very efficient and are very capable of abstract thought and rapid learning. They are indeed quite intelligent, as is evident most readily in their tactics in nature, but also by their art, dynamic culture, and of course, their native technology.


Agriculture took a fascinating road with them. With us, the advent of agriculture brought with it the importance of the nobility as land owners, something that continues to this day. With them, due to their cycling land in mating season, one never really got attached to his own farm, and thus never, for example, built castles to defend it. He would simply leave it to change hands annually, maintaining it for the benefit of his daughters and their new family rather than themselves - one of the few inter-family instances of cooperation.

Weaponry would be developed both for warfare and hunting/defense. The earliest examples was the use of sticks and stones to aid in fighting off predatory birds when protecting hatchlings on the water. Simple slings and bows would soon follow, giving a huge advantage to the family over nature.

However, the predatory birds weren't stupid either and would improvise their own weapons. Using their talons, they would carry rocks and drop them on the defenders before swooping in to eat those delicious hatchlings.

To survive, the Koreallians had to find a way to fight back against this aerial bombardment, and this led to the innovation of attaching shields to their tails. While this would hinder them on land, in the water, their tails were free to move on their own and plenty strong enough to carry a shield adequate against the rocks the birds could carry.

And to this the birds would adapt, and then the Koreallians again, and so on - it was a natural arms race, further pushed along by intraspecies warfare. Soon, firearms were invented.

Then someone got the bright idea to build a giant cannon to shoot someone up into the sky to meet God himself...

Which brings us to:

Religion

The predominate Koreallian religion is centered around what we know to be the gigantic graveddie that orbits their planet and leads to the Lanterus system.

Its orbits bring Lanterus alpha into sight about once every twenty days for a period of about four days at a time. During this time, L-alpha's light illuminates the planet in a constant blue-white glow, illuminating the night several times brighter than we get under a full moon.

They believe this to be a holy time when they are bathed in the light of God himself, and violence spikes dramatically during this time as the various tribes try to demonstrate their worthiness to God (similar to how they would defeat defenders to prove themselves to a potential mate).

The contrast is when the graveddie eclipses Koreallius entirely, leading to a couple days of darkness. This is God rewarding them for good deeds by removing the light by which those damned predator birds see to hunt them, thus giving them a few days of easier going. This tends to reinforce whatever activity was happening before the eclipse.

(Really, just about all astronomical phonomena tend to be seen as God rewarding them and punishing their enemies.)





I'll submit for now and return to do history which will lead into the modern situation.

[Destructionator]

If they have two litters of six a year, that is 12 hatchlings per female per year.

In a modern society, the attrition discussed above could be defeated. (Another form of attrition I forgot to list is males smashing eggs that aren't fertilized by themselves. But that can be defeated in modern society too.)

So what kind of population growth are we looking at?

In any extended family, you'd probably want only one pair mating each year, since otherwise there would be too many hatchlings to feed and protect.

Let's give them a 10 year lifespan. Say it takes half a year (one mating cycle) to grow beyond the water, and a couple more years to become sexually mature.

So from ages 3-10 they could potentially be mating. Not all would succeed every time, so on average, let's say age 5 is when most meet their mates. They will put out a few litters then retire to be the elder protectors/leaders or scholars.

The lifespan:

-x months - 0 months: egg
0 months - 6 months: water bound hatchling
6 months - 3 years: food gatherers
3 years - 5 years: warriors
5 years - 7 years: parents
7 years - 10 years: elders
10 years+: worm food

Two years is 4 litters. 4 litters * 6 hatchlings / 2 people = 12 babies per person. / 10 year lifespan = 1.2 babies per year per person. (Among those who survive to adulthood.)

This is too many to manage - to protect the hatchlings, they need food gatherers and bodyguards. Let's say there are 6 hatchlings. They'll want oh, like 8 bodyguards. Everyone will need a food gatherer out there, so let's say 8 + 3 (one gatherer can bring enough back for two babies + himself) = 11. So you have a group of 25 total, 19 adults (and older children) and 6 babies.

This implies more like 0.3 babies per person per year. This implies that only 1/4 of the pairs actually have a litter each mating season. I like that well enough; like I said above, only one mating pair should be present in each family each season. This implies that the 'extended family' is the mating pair + 3 other pairs and their random children.


So, what are we looking at?

Let's try and follow an average family's life. We'll just follow one individual, an elder male.

Early in his life, his job will be to gather food for his younger nieces and nephews as his aunts bear children. (His uncles would have left the tribe to find a mate of their own already.)

As the eldest, he'll be tasked with staying home during his warrior years at mating season, acting as a champion to protect his sisters from unworthy mates. During other seasons, he'll be out fighting to help secure more food.

When it is finally his own parental years, he will leave home to find a mate and his brothers and cousins closest in age to him to help him fight past her defenders. It is understood that while they are away, other males will be fighting over their sisters, doing combat with their youngest brothers.

If successful, they have a new family now. (The eldest surviving brother after the combat ultimately gets to compete with his brothers and cousins for the girl, in a non-violent way.)

Mating combat will be very ritualized for the attacker - he won't want to kill his future brothers-in-law since they will be very valuable in raising his children. However, the defender will be fighting viciously. If you aren't able to defeat him, your genes weren't worthy of his big sister anyway, so your death is a bonus to his family (one less competitor eating all the food).

If you win all these challenges, you are now a mating pair. Note that other males might still try and kill you to take your mate, combat isn't over yet. Her brothers aren't likely to help you, since if the challenger is able to beat you, he is a better match for her. You have to depend on your surviving biological brothers and cousins to help you win this battle.

Once you put out your litter, you then worry about the kids full time. You'll be protecting the eggs and the mother, helping her family feed her as she tends to incubation, or vice versa. Then you'll be one of the defending parents on the water keeping predators away from growing hatchlings.

After a couple years of that, you can use the last year or two of your life to devote to science or art or whatever, needing to contribute little in the way of battle and food in the end. You might play a role in selecting which suitor your daughters end up choosing too.

Then you die and your sons continue the cycle.


Females tend to the children, may help hunt or forage, but pretty much stay home, only doing combat as a defender. They get to do art and science from a young age if lucky enough to have a big surviving family.



I've gotta run, but will continue later. We're getting into having a picture that can be used for history and modern culture, which will be fun.

[Destructionator]

I just had a thought on my ride to my last destination: they would indeed have land owners as an idea - with the females being in control.

In the first post I was thinking about it from the male perspective, but going through the life in my previous post I realized the females indeed do stay with their land.

So you have a line of ownership from mother to daughter.

Anywho, got a picture:


Forgive the quality; I had to use my digicam with my shaky hands since my scanner isn't available right now.

Anyway, my friend Mark drew that, and he took some liberties with my description, but I think it looks pretty good.

This would be an adult male.

My view of them has the legs a bit more forward on the body, but this is still a cool image and good for a first draft.

The arms have a lot of range of motion. They flap up and down (i want to add some vestigal wing structure to the base on the next draft) but also move side to side, and the elbow joint has great flexibility; it is like a ball joint.

The tail can bend at each segment and the spike on the end is rather sharp for driving into the ground to stabilize or driving into flesh to kill (Mark imagined it would be good for spearing fish while swimming; it is his innovation to the design).


The horns can be used to stab in an uppercut motion - he runs with his head down, almost like a four legged animal, and can swing up, using the tail as counter balance, to drive it right in.


When swimming, his head goes straight with the rest of his body and he looks sort of like a crocodile rather than a bird, with his nose and eyes above water along with the curve of his back and his tail, but everything else is underwater. When stationary in the water, he can use his tail to reorient his weight and float with his arms above, like he is sitting on the water (more floating on his back, I guess), to fire a bow at incoming birds and such.

You can't see it due to my shaky hands, but the teeth are a combination of sharp and flat, showing his omnivorous diet.

A final size hasn't been decided, but I'm thinking about three feet tall/long now and a weight of about 30 pounds. The females are bigger than the males. I haven't decided on the colors yet.

--------

The babies are hatched from an egg about the size of a human fist and thus are very small when first born - perfect for those damned predator fish and birds.

They don't have the horns nor any patterns in their feathers and will have relatively lame colors. Their tails are also short and very soft, unlike the adult's hard and strong tail. The tail grows in relatively quickly in the first six months or so (during which time they also grow to several times their original size). The horns and patterns don't finish growing until sexual maturity begins to be reached at about age 3 and are only on the males.

Both male and female babies look pretty much the same.

---------

The adult female is very similar to the adult male, but is generally bigger all around. They lack the horns and probably the patterns too.

-------

I have work in the morning so I need to get to bed, but next chance I get I'm going to be going into language (how could I forget that above?) and history. It's gonna be a lot of fun.