Just curious if this is still accepting applications, and if so, if it'd be allowed to have a small nation pop up utilizing a completely different branch of technology- both the reason for their isolated independence, and a mark of pride of their sovereignty.

Idea being, they're relatively small but can punch up to be "equals" against significantly larger civilizations.

Small ships, elite powered infantry, but hellishly expensive one and all compared to significantly larger ships due to density collapsed armor, gravity propulsion and FTL (capable for short trips between near systems but nowhere near as effective for long trips that hyperlanes once filled), extensive cybernetics. Can't really "project" power due to small size and quantity, but the quality has skyrocketed.

It would, of course, be a major incentive for them to never ever share or allow their technology to be reverse engineered, and perhaps a strong incentive for other nations to investigate the new advancements.