[hider=The NAC]
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[b][u][h1]The Ninth Amaranthine Circuit[/h1][/u][/b][/center]

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[quote=Federation Merchant]They call themselves the Ninth Amaranthine Circuit, whatever that means. They can put on a neat, antiseptic diplomatic facade when they feel like it - don't let them fool you. They are just some shady, cult-like corporate cabal. Using their 'official' name just helps to legitimize them. Call them The Printers. Everyone else does.[/quote]

[b][u]Official Name:[/u][/b] The Ninth Amaranthine Circuit
[b][u]Common Name:[/u][/b] The Printers
[b][u]Government:[/u][/b] Corporate Stratocracy
[b][u]Capital:[/u][/b] Point Phokashra 
[hider=Dominant Species][u][b]Divergent Plasmodium Replicant ([i]Typis Mucor[/i])[/b][/u]

Otherwise known as 'Printed People,' Plasmodium Replicants posses, as its name implies, an internally naked mass of cytoplasm and interstitial fluids with an even dispersion of microscopic organic structures. The Plasmodium frame is adhered to a predetermined framework of material not dissimilar to cartilage, which also forms in a thin layer across the surface of the Plasmodium's exterior. Plasmodiums are universally printed to resemble other species in external appearance, and so have drastically diverse anatomies, though their physiologies are largely identical overall. Although their external facades are convincing enough, their internal anatomy, their scent, and their behavior are starkly different to natives of that species, and they make very inept infiltrators. Additionally, while they may retain the appearance of a species they rarely if ever possess their natural abilities. They are typically never venomous, lack psionic abilities, etcetera. As an extension of this, while they have facsimiles of reproductive organs they are largely incapable of intercourse and cannot reproduce naturally, even with their own kind.

Plasmodiums are radiotrophic by design, using trace amounts of nuclear isomers as biocatalysts and to produce metabolic energy. This factor is what permits Plasmodiums to support their own body weight despite having a cartilage-like skeleton, as their muscles and connective tissues exert several times more force than mundane muscular tissue. Plasmodium's are usually as strong if not stronger than the species they are made to resemble, while also being faster, healing much more rapidly, and capable of healing body-parts that would not otherwise grow back. Due to their physiology being so immensely distributed amongst their body, they are much harder to kill than normal, and can survive dismemberment, decapitation, and being torn and then shredded into several dozen pieces. Each Plasmodium possess a particular nucleus near their center of mass, surrounded by a thick barrier if denser bone-like protective material, which if damaged or destroyed will kill them, and also determines which severed pieces of their body die and live.

For all of their advantages, Plasmodiums have two significant drawbacks. Due to the decentralized nature of their immune system and their higher metabolism plus increase cellular regeneration rates, Plasmodium organisms have much weaker immune systems and short life spans, rarely living past twelve galactic standard years before their bodies give out and fail due to the emergence of uncontrolled malevolent tumors in addition to the body's own metabolic functions starting to cannibalize itself.[/hider][hider=Government]The Ninth Amaranthine Circuit describes itself as a largely self-contained corporate economic macrosystem, having arisen from the holdings of a large if obscure Megacorporation specializing in industrial fabrication. Having grown large and affluent enough to surpass the base purpose of the original corporate agenda, the Ninth Amaranthine Circuit has aligned itself with the pursuit of internal economic stability along with the endorsement of individual liberties and welfare.

All individuals registered within the Circuit are citizens who effectuate a contract upon willing joinder or emergence within the Circuit's territory, subject to particular regulatory rulings. In effect, the contract is essentially a corporate employment agreement and charter, guaranteeing citizens an agreed-upon standard of living in exchange for services rendered while also setting out the Circuit's basis of authority and the signing party's obligation to adhere to that authority. Participation in the system is voluntary and may be revoked by either party at-will for a number of reasons, either with or without consequence contingent upon the circumstances. It is entirely possible to live within the Circuit without being a citizen, but reduces one's options to direct negotiation with individual lower-management authorities - who have broad and liberal discretion to exploit and tread on the unwary non-citizens where able. 

Citizens are mandated to work a certain number of hours every year, while being free to choose or otherwise independently arrange a leisure schedule with their corresponding civil manager. All laws are stipulated and enforced via the authority of the corporate charter, which is amended bi-annually. Demand for goods and services is measured by public forum and census, evaluated by economic speculators and consultants, and supply is mandated by the corporate state across particular layers of the Circuit Industrial Complex. The first priority of the Circuit is to adequately fulfill the needs and desires of its citizens, and then the pursuit of an established economic agenda to stabilize or reinforce the way of life within the Circuit, such as diplomacy and negotiation with sovereign powers, the establishment of a strong military, and the gathering of intelligence.

The Circuit allegedly has multiple boards of directors who mandate agenda, establish economic goals, dictate military activities and budget, amend the corporate charter, and more. However, to date these directors have had little if any form of official contact with foreign parties and everything known about how they operate is drawn from inspection of the the public copy of the corporate charter and related speculation.[/hider][hider=History]Although the NAC claims to have been a merely obscure Megacorporation operating around and within the Southern rim of the galaxy, little to no trace of their presence - [i]anywhere[/i] - prior to five galactic standard years ago has yet been obtained. They themselves have been remarkably coy and evasive in answering questions as to their precise origins, as well as recalcitrant to any and all demands to produce any kind of documentation or evidence as to their alleged corporate history. As far as anybody has been able to discern, the NAC seemingly erupted from nothingness within the Akkamarid system five years ago. Since then, they have been steadily growing and consolidating power at an alarming rate while establishing their easily discerned facade of civil order. The NAC now stands poised to rapidly expand and start asserting influence in the galactic scene, but what exactly they intend or even what kind of political entity they truly are remains a relative mystery.[/hider][hider=Culture]The first thing that most people see when examining society within the NAC is the by-and-large absence of traditional organic and synthetic lifestyles. More than 97% of the citizens in the NAC are printed Plasmodium template organisms whose motives and ways of thinking are largely oriented according to the preferences of the NAC's boards. As such, inspection by a skeptical mind usually finds that there is little of anything resembling culture within the NAC beyond ironclad terms of employment, working relationships and poor facades of trivial amusement for the purposes of leisure. The Pladmodium template populace are reclusive, keeping to themselves and retaining a secretive air in the presence of outsiders. Defectors and prisoners indicate that as individuals and groups, Pladmodium are not by nature hard to please and keep entertained, and that a widespread availability of subsidized dietary stimulants is typically sufficient to keep the entire population focused and enthusiastic. Although there are variations and exceptions by individuals, by and large Plasmodium templates regard most traditional mediums of entertainment for organics to be boring and trite.

This is further reflected by the state of various entertainment industries within the NAC, all of which are almost exclusively oriented towards entertaining alien species from foreign powers, almost all of which being subsidized and non-profit. In essence, it would seem the corporate charter's indicated goal of endorsing individual liberties and the welfare of the people has been phased out in practice. Plasmodium templates largely pursue their own welfare by working, and are generally at their best when pursuing a goal or objective. Left to their own devices, Plasmodiums very quickly become listless and anxious, being hard-pressed to arrange their own lives in the absence of explicit instructions or orders. What little culture they and the NAC at large pretend to maintain would seem to be for the benefit of appearances with other species.[/hider][hider=Map & Holdings]As of this reading, the NAC control only a single star system - although as Star Systems go, they certainly could have done worse.

The Akkamarid system is host to a quaternary star arrangement featuring three orbital barycenters. Tramitet, a superluminous class O star of indigo coloration, forms the first binary with Levanbent, a white class A star. The binary is referred to as the Greganev Binary. Estre, a blue class B star, forms the second binary with Ponekte, a yellow class G star. The binary is referred to as the Librens binary. The first and second binaries orbit a tertiary center of mass between them, which is designated as Point Phakashra. Two planets orbit Tamitet in the Greganev binary, while three respectively orbit both stars in the Librens binary.

Tunkret, the first planet closest in the Librens binary, is a barren world which contains several seas of molten rock and minerals. Due to concentrated pockets of volcanic gasses forming within older oceans now located within the planet's crust, the planet is host to several massive subterranean caverns and tunnel networks which are significantly cooler than the planet's surface. The NAC maintains several colonies and urban centers is here, within caverns beneath the planet's northern and southern poles and accessible only via artificial boreshafts.

Karthans, the second planet in the Librens binary, is similarly barren but possesses a cooler surface and an inert core. The planet's overall structure has remained stable for millions of years. Karthans is a base for a number of mining operations and serves as a waypoint between Tunkret and Trinnet. As such, Karthans is home to the largest terrestrial and subterranean urban complexes in the NAC, boasting the largest population and the most developed infrastructure.

Trinnet, the third plane in the Librens binary, is a barely habitable, sweltering greenhouse world with an atmosphere composed largely of Helium and Nitrogen, with moderate concentrations of Ammonia and Carbon Dioxide. Trinnet is host to most of the NAC's agricultural operations and industrial centers, which produce and organize shipments of foodstuffs and edible goods. While a number of Human plants can grow without trouble on Trinnet's surface, most livestock and cattle asphyxiate within the planet's atmosphere. Only particular cultures of engineered, meat-like crops are permitted to grow unabated on the surface.

Rannktom, the first planet in the Greganev binary, is a blasted, utterly inhospital ball of boiling, molten metal through and through. It has no noteworthy stable landmasses, and its surface features are in perpetual flux and turmoil. Due to the planet's speculated formative history combined with its close proximity to Tramitet, the planet's seas are suffused with a very high concentration of nuclear isomers. The NAC has gone to great trouble and length to establish massive, floating cities on Rannktom for the purposes of harvesting nuclear materials for industrial and civil applications. Rannktom is also home to a large number of prominent military installations and bases, which make use of the unforgiving 'terrain' as the ultimate proving ground and test-bed for their innovations and designs.

Paroh, the second planet in the Greganev binary, is thought to have once been a gas giant predating the formation of the binary itself. Its surface is an unnatural smooth, highly compressed composite material containing large amounts of cobalt, nickel, and chrome, with less than a thousand known craters and meteor impact sites. The large and diffuse arrangements of chromium compounds across the surface create a spectacular sea of metallic coloration. Although the NAC maintains a large number of starbases in orbit of the planet, there are no permanent installations on its surface and teams sent down to collect mineral samples and perform research are strictly relegated to very small select sites. Paroh is marked as a natural site by the NAC, and offers tours and vacation outings on its surface while staying in one of its stunningly accommodating luxury atmospheric habitats. Coincidentally, Paroh is also home to the NAC's official station of Embassies as well as their Diplomatic Forum.

Point Phokashra, located directly atop the tertiary Akkamarid binary, is a massive, sprawling starbase continuously expanding in every direction, being several times larger than most megacities and not looking to stop getting larger anytime soon. It has a network of supporting stations and starbases orbiting around the tertiary binary to match the orbits of other notable locations within the system, and it serves as both an activity hub and staging ground for most NAC operations. A large number of administrative centers and services are located here as a result.[/hider][hider=Technology]
[hider=LHSP Neutrino Scanning]Long-Hold Superpositioned Neutrino Scanning is a method developed by the NAC to scan any given target object down to the subatomic level and create a perfect, static data copy of that target's entire actual structure. This is not limited to merely mechanical or electronic devices, but can also be used to scan organic and synthetic beings, high-energy phenomena,
invisible force interactions and waves, and more. LHSP Neutrino Scanning is infamous for being very nearly impossible to shield against.
One of the only known limitations to LHSP Neutrino Scanning is its inability to detect or measure gravity meaningfully, with the scanning 'beam' also being susceptible to artificially bent or otherwise distorted spacetime curvature.

The scanner works by firing a compact ray of over a hundred quadrillion neutrinos at a target, which pass through an eigenstate trap before leaving the apparatus' emitter. Using telemetry and observation of the target, the eigenstate trap can stimulate select neutrino eigenstates to force a neutrino interaction while it passes through the target, which due to its captured eigenstate within the emitter can then be recorded. If the target's location is known, the eigenstate trap can stimulate the neutrino eigenstates in the ray until every part of the target structure has been observed. In the unlikely event that a high percentage of neutrinos are blocked or obscured, either by a mass of neutronium or else by a second eigenstate trap, the emitter's own eigenstate trap can force a corresponding neutrino to superposition across the barrier without interacting with it, allowing for it to continue.

LHSP Neutrino Scanners require large amounts of energy in order to produce upwards of quintillions of neutrinos at a time per use, and tend to be extremely large, dedicated assemblies with their own accompanying reactors and data storage systems. Additionally, Scanners are often specialized for specific kinds of targets for the sake of efficiency. Some are specialized to scan organic matter, others for hardware,
or high-energy phenomena. General-use, universal scanners exist but tend to be designed using very conservative estimates, meaning they are typically the largest and most relatively inefficient scanners of their kind.[/hider][hider=Mind Ripping]Working using similar principles to the NAC's Neutrino scanners, Mind Rippers range from backpack-mounted assemblies to larger medical equipment, specialized for the express purposes of scanning and storing the memory patterns of organic beings. The emitter used fires electrons rather than neutrinos, requiring much less energy overall to power and much less space to contain, especially in the absence of the need to fire quintillions of neutrinos at once. A Mind Ripper simply shoots electrons through an organic being's body,
recording any identifiable instances of genetic sequences or other chemical structures used in the storage and retrieval of memory. 

Typically, mind ripping is a nearly harmless procedure known to cause mild disorientation, as the electron stream used is normally does not fire enough electrons to seriously hurt a target. If the target has significant cybernetic augmentation or surgically implanted metal, the process is known to be more dangerous, being occasionally debilitating or lethal. Additionally, the larger and more powerful a mind ripper is in order to facilitate the firing of a denser electron stream, the more dangerous the process becomes for the target. Saturation of the bloodstream or other pathways in the body with particular compounds or materials that deter electron passage can shield against mind ripping, and it is entirely possible to develop serums affording short-term relative immunity. The counterpoint being that if an angry NAC agent with a mind ripper thinks you are using a serum, they can elect to use a larger mind ripper that fires many many many more electrons with a near 100% of killing you in the process of stealing all your hopes and dreams.[/hider][hider=Static-Form Printers]The very technology for which the populace of the NAC have earned the nickname of 'The Printers' from the galactic layman, Static-Form Printers are variable-sized chambers which use a number of arcane processes to create a near-QED Vacuum within their interior, and then use a provided supply of highly purified elemental fuels in order to create a perfect, printed copy of any object down to the subatomic level using information derived from Neutrino scanning.

Even for the smallest printers printing the smallest of objects, the printing process can take upwards of an hour to complete due to the mechanisms used in order to ensure the printed object is a whole, stable structure. Once an object starts printing, the process cannot be stopped or interrupted, and the sealed printing chamber cannot be opened. If the process should be stopped or the chamber forced open for any reason, the printed matter can fall apart and degenerate, sometimes spectacularly. As long as the process is allowed to proceed however, normally hazardous or unstable matter (or antimatter) can be preserved up until the moment the printing process is complete. Only once the printing process is complete are potentially hazardous or unstable objects and structures permitted to explode or melt through the floor. For this very same reason, safeguard programs exist in every printer that warn the user of the potential for unsafe materials to be printed.

Although generally limited by the volume and dimensions of the printing chamber, assuming it is larger enough a printer can recreate nearly any object with perfect fidelity, and is not limited to hardware. Printers can reliably recreate computing equipment and every program,
piece of software, and line of code stored in the equipment's scan data. They can print synthetics, organic matter, and even perfect copies of living, sentient beings complete with intact memory. Imperfections and flaws are possible, but generally so insignificant as to be negligible, since defects in printed matter are generally only caused by vacuum fluctuations within the printing chamber or by impurities in the elemental fuel any given printer might use.

In addition to registering and tracking every single printer ever made, the NAC has a large array of security and safeguards programmed into each one. In particular, non-Plasmodium species cannot use printers, nor can any Plasmodium unless its genome is on record with the NAC. However, although printers are sophisticated and elaborate pieces of technology, they are not beyond the means of other opportunistic powers to duplicate with sufficient study and analysis. The science behind its operation is not particularly arcane, and the simple act of creating the near-QED vacuum within the printing chamber is the most complex part of the actual printing process itself. Once the technology behind printing gets out, the only real advantages the NAC will have will be the relatively better efficiency and sophistication of their own printers.[/hider][hider=Epigenetic Memory Calibration]Although the NAC has developed a number of model designer organisms for its own purposes, by and large they do not specialize in genetic design or manipulation, and the few organisms they have made from scratch took decades of time to develop. However, there are a few key areas where the NAC excels due to their express interests, in particular, the ability to change and manipulate biogenic information in the form of memory. After having studied a particular organic species sufficiently, the NAC can print perfect copies of scanned members of their species with erased, altered, or completely fabricated memories and corresponding personalities.[/hider][hider=Subluminal FTL Targeting]Certain ships amongst the NAC's navy and a number of their starbases and space stations are equipped with a weapons array that allows for the use of FTL energy munitions. Despite the system's designation as an FTL weapon, its ultimate range is strictly limited within the same system, and is most effectively employed at relatively close ranges. This is because the targeting mechanism for the weapon is, in and of itself, a subluminal targeting maser that travels near but not quite at the speed of light. This same maser is calibrated so that it is fired as a hollow, cylindrical beam as opposed to a solid stream. The hollow interior of the maser is both rendered into a full vacuum, while the specialized properties of the maser create a Casimir effect corridor along the length of the beam.

Once the maser itself hits and 'paints' a target, the FTL munition can then be employed by firing it down the vacuum within the targeting maser, accelerated past lightspeed by the casimir corridor to the point where any target being painted by the targeting maser will be hit instantaneously, turning what would otherwise be a mundane near-C energy munition into a [i]technical[/i] FTL weapon. The targeting maser itself being subluminal still tremendously limits the effective range of the system, and presents a number of other drawbacks. For one,if the laser loses target acquisition, then the energy stream fired through it will also miss. If the targeting maser should be broken or interrupted - by space debris or certain kinds of interrupting fields for example - the energy stream fired through it will likewise be interrupted at that point. The upside to the weapon is that once a target is painting, no matter what range it happens to be at, the firing system will have perfect down-to-the-microsecond telemetry data on its position and will be able to apply a continuous, hitscan stream of fire.[/hider][hider=Halbach Magnetoshields]NAC vessels use a powerful superfluid magnetohydrodynamic power system to generate a highly energetic halbach magnetosphere around themselves, mimicking the natural magnetospheres generated by planets with fluid mantles (such as Earth, by way of example) or the heliospheres of stars. Each vessel features a dynamo containing a rapidly circulating supercharged and superfluid matter, which generates a dipolar magnetic field several hundreds of times the size of the vessel generating the field. The dynamo system also spins perpendicular to its axis, and so the dipolar field behaves as though it were singular and fluid rather than dipolar.

When any object (not merely objects that are strongly magnetic) enters the magnetofield of a planet like Earth, its own trajectory is influenced by the relatively velocity at which the field spins in proportion to how energetic the field is. Earth’s magnetosphere is just powerful enough to deflect radiation and other energetic particles projected for the sun, which relative to large space objects or highly-energetic cosmic particles, may as well be lazily buzzing gnats. Hence, when a large object or an extremely energetic particle enters Earth’s magnetosphere, they tend to be only negligibly affected by the field.

NAC vessels generate magnetoshields which, relative to the Earth’s magnetofield, are almost literally millions of times more energetic and rapid. When an object enters an NAC magnetoshield, it is likely to be immediately torn apart due to the extreme spin of the superfluid matter near the corresponding vessel’s core. Objects that are not torn apart, but lack sufficient kinetic force to maintain their own trajectory are yanked from their trajectory to be flung away from the magnetoshield at a reciprocal vector.

Missiles, accelerated particle streams, slugs, and most beam/projectile based weapons are susceptible to interception by NAC magnetoshields, and the magnetoshields in question do not lose energy from sustained fire or from being pierced. Very simply, the only way to pierce through the magnetoshield is to use a weapon or form of attack that is powerful enough to pierce through it. Using weapons or attacks too weak to pierce through the magnetoshield initially will never pierce through it at all, no matter how many times they are used or in what concentration they are utilized. If an enemy attacks an NAC vessel of the same or equivalent ship classification and only has light armaments, there is a distinct possibility that none of its weapons will be capable of piercing the magnetoshield. 

The silver lining for attacking forces, of course, is that if an attack pierces the magnetoshield, it always will, and will never fail in doing so (though they had best be wary that even such attacks are not disturbed or deflected enough to miss the target vessel anyway). Since the magnetoshield’s power is always constant, the NAC cannot suddenly decide to ‘divert more power to the shields!’ The same features which make magnetoshields effective against weak attacks makes them weak against sufficiently strong attacks.

Finally, by necessity of their design, each magnetoshield has two weak points. The dynamo containing the circulating matter necessarily generates a dipolar magnetoshield along its axis. At both poles, there is a steep depression in the magnetoshield which makes the area of space covered by the shield much ‘shallower’ than any other space, making it easier for attacks to penetrate those points. In order to circumvent this weakness, the NAC have each shield dynamo spun perpendicular to their axis (akin to the motion of a gyroscope), causing the axial poles to constantly shift and change position. This prevents enemies from effectively targeting either weak point. However, highly sophisticated tracking systems or targeting suites, if they knew what to look for, could probably time and predict the movements of the poles and time firing solutions to pierce through the magnetoshield the next time one or the other comes around.

Having observed all of this, one might ask how the NAC manage to fire any of their own weapons through the magnetoshield surrounding each vessel. The answer being that each shielding dynamo, in addition to rapidly circulating supercharged, superfluid matter, circulates it through rotating chambered systems designed to change the interaction of the magnetic field generated by the fluid circulating through each chamber in order to create a dynamic halbach array. This cancels out the influence of the magnetic field on the inside of the magnetoshield to near zero which proportionally augmenting the strength of the magnetoshield on its outside. In this way, each magnetoshield only destroys or repels attacks or objects that approach it from the outside; attacks directed from the inside, out, simply pass through.

tl;dr, attacks that are too weak to pass through it, don’t. Attacks that are, do. The shield doesn’t lose strength when it deflects an attack, and it doesn’t break when it gets pierced. It always works, and never drops or fails. The NAC can fire their own weapons out of the shield without them being affected.[/hider][hider=Spatial Impetus Sublight Drive]Using internally seated wedge-shaped chambers containing stabilized matrices of exotic matter with negative mass, each NAC vessel bends spacetime to a given side of itself in order to attain a relative higher top speed, as well as better changes in acceleration. This allows each ship to attain respectably high sublight speed and acceleration without endangering the the organic crew or less durable objects aboard each vessel.[/hider]

[/hider][hider=Military]Work In Progress.[/hider][/hider]