Tenuous Diplomacy AGF 504 Scarran Federal Union Embassy Augusta Secundus - New Cortin
The Scarran Federated Union is relatively young. It came into existence unaware of the struggles for the Yrranian homeworld. In fact, they'd only learned about them only recently.
Them, the Yrrani, those irresponsible precursors everyone is so obsessed about. Ancient technology, lost knowledge, and buried power - obsessed. To the Scarrans, the most important thing that the Yrrani left behind was a lesson on hubris. The Yrrani grew so powerful as to be seen as gods, some Yrrani may have even believed they were. However, if what the Scarrans had learned from others about the Yrrani are true, then the Great Fall was inevitable and unavoidable.
This belief was not shared by the rest of the galaxy. They have been made aware that there were more empires than that of the Prydwenites, Agustans, and Concordat - all shaped in some way by the Yrrani's previous presence or their subsequent absence. The Scarrans are not foolish enough to think that they were exempt - that's simple truth. What they don't know is how much they owe their existence to the Yrrani having been or having gone.
But for now, the forgotten history of the galaxy did not matter. The Scarrans had more pressing concerns over recent history.
The Scarrans and Augustans had a small dispute at the height of the Reclamation wars. The Augustan push had encountered the Mereek in much the same way as the Scarrans had. They fought the same enemy unknowingly and came to meet at one of their capital worlds. There they had witnessed each other's ferocity. They had held off any diplomacy until after the conflict, but it was clear to the Union that the Augustans at the time had the air of Imperial ambition. This was different to how they met the Prydwenites who were far more willing to cooperate and communicate on equal terms with the relatively young Union. The Concordat had also made themselves known shortly after and their dealings were cordial. However, the Concordat were a religion-reliant state. There were many things that the Scarrans could identify with and sympathize with when it came to the Concordat way of life, but Scarrans themselves are not the religious types. The Scarrans aren't stupid, they can sense that not all within the concordat would not like the Scarran way of seeing the universe and with that came its own problems.
However, those problems are something that the Astrus Hand of Tyrras, Gehller Logus would have to deal with another time. Today he's visiting the Scarran Embassy on Augusta Secundus - the Augustan frontier capital - in the city of New Cortin. It has been four years since the armistice and two decades since the end of the Mereekan conflict before that. Seeing the depth of the Imperial interior always gave him a sense of both awe and dread. He'd been to Augusta Secundus before. The Augustans considered it as a "frontier" capital. To him it was less frontier than how the Scarrans would describe "frontier". To Scarrans, frontier meant remote, inaccessible, military, and cold - not Augusta Secundus. It reminded him a little of the core worlds in the Scarrus System - developed and layered civilization.
He looked out of the Scarran embassy's windows to see towering buildings all around it. He then imagined hundreds of worlds just like it beyond what the Union had yet to explore. Right now he was arranging documents in his office. Reports had come in of new increased pirate activity in the fringes and along the contact points where the Concordat, Augustans, and Prydwenites meet Scarrus. Naval patrols and light escorts have been keeping them at bay for the most part, but it is a recurring issue. There is a suspicion that the Concordat, Augustans, and Prydwenites are experiencing the same problem at the same contact points - if not worse. Rumors along the traders and merchantmen have said that the same ship identifiers have been showing up every now and then when making trade or delivery handoffs at these contact points within foreign territory. However, there’s not much that can be done at this time without accidentally triggering some sort of international incident. So separate talks with the Concordat, Prydwen, and Augusta are being explored for a joint-taskforce. The Augustans and Scarrans have worked together in an ad-hoc fashion against the Mereek. This may be the first time they work together on a much more organized level.
Today, Astrus Hand Gheller Logus will attempt to broach the topic. The Scarrans already have a proposal of size and unit strength for a limited expeditionary joint-taskforce, its legal limitations, jurisdictions, and independent leadership distribution for review.
“Ceasfires, friendship, trust, cooperation - all of those tidy ideals are built on paper. What the people see and survive is a different matter.”
Gheller’s assistant, who at the time was looking through the Tyrras accords and its pledged material output through the years. The agreement between Augusta and the Union was that the Union kept the system, but pledged a percentage of resources to the Empire as an exchange. Now he was preparing the documentations to pitch an exchange and to dissolve the accords for a two-way exchange. He looked up at Gheller who looked equally absorbed in documentation and said,
“What does that mean sir?”
Gheller looked at his assistant. His eyes looking again outside his window and he stated, “Understanding, identity, and sovereignty. These are ideals and traits that we look for in the different nations. We distrust the Empire for its blatant disregard of it at times. However, living here and seeing their civilization from the ground gives a different perspective.”
Gheller’s assistant now confused, “Are you saying that they’re like us?”
Gheller smiled, nearly laughed, the notion was simple - they aren’t us, so they’re not like us. Then Gheller flipped it around, “A few centuries ago, the Scarrosi would have thought the same of the people of Thrane. Now, they’re all Scarran - all of us are. It is a core identity that binds us together. But you wouldn’t say that people from Miyar are the same as the people from say... Akal for example. Different experiences, different ground realities, different political pressures. The Empire is much the same. It just attempts to keep everything homogenized and it can. That doesn’t mean that they aren’t people worthy of some respect.”
“You speak of them as if you like them.”
Gheller puts down his papers now and properly looks at his assistant. A man who’s never been in combat or never seen much outside of an office. A man from a system that isn’t his own. Gheller’s lips part, slightly, his voice low, quiet, and contemplative.
“I don’t like them. I fear them. Fear is a type of respect. Just as I fear the Prydwenites despite our good relations. Just as I fear the Concordat despite how respectful they seem. Fear is respect when measured. But measured means that you don’t let it control you. That’s why we do what we do.”
Gheller’s assistant doesn’t say anything. It seems the word ‘fear’ made him understand something crucial. You can fear something. But fear doesn’t mean you can rationally ignore it. You cannot justify ignorance simply because you were afraid - being a coward is not an excuse. The Scarrans learn from contact. From study, from understanding their fears and adapting quickly. They don’t allow themselves to become lost to their own emotions. Emotions have a place and time to be shown. Until then, they are another tool in the kit of a the Scarran individual. Now, Gheller waited. The appointment with the Augustan diplomat would come in a few hours. He simply needed time to weigh his words and prepare for contact.
The Scarran Federated Union is governed by a systems council. Representatives from the seven star systems under the union are gathered. World representatives from those systems are recognized as simply that – representatives. These representatives would be known as “hands”. There are two kinds of hands: The “Astrus” hands who are the voice of the system as a whole, and the “Mundus” hands who are representatives of the worlds within those systems and keep the Astrus hands in check. Hands are second in authority to Astrus and Mundus governors, serving as their successors, seconds, and interim replacements should a governor fall for any reason.
The Systems Council does not pass federal law by itself. Rather, it proposes changes and reforms to the Head of Scarrus and the Body of Scarrus. It approves the federal budget, but not Astrus or Mundus budgets, which remain separate matters of system and world governance. The council also handles treaties and declarations of war, but this is done in an advisory role to the Head. Hands and governors propose changes that best fit their home system and, by extension, their world’s interests. These proposals are then debated, reexamined by other council members, and checked to determine whether they fit the federation as a whole or whether they must be reconsidered as a special case – issues being too world or system specific. Once this process is complete, the matter is proposed to the Head and the Body of Scarrus, who must then determine the best lawful action.
Hands and governors are elected by the people. Three of the most popular candidates for both hands and governors are then tested for merit – those who pass become the next hand or governor. This process is usually done two Scarran years before a hand or governor’s tenure is over to ensure that the change is smooth and so that candidates can shadow their predecessors before taking their role. Astrus hands and governors are decided by Astrus councils – not to be confused with the Systems Council – usually among the soon to be newly appointed hands and governors. Astrus hands and governors do not only govern and represent their system, but also their homeworlds and thus hold more responsibility than Mundus level officials. After candidacy has weeded out the unfit, the Systems Council will review and either approve the results or demand that a new election be held for certain officials.
All public officials serve for six Scarran years. Six Scarran years is the standard tenure for all public officials no matter the level. Officials may only serve multiple terms in restricted cases – emergencies, interim appointments after the Systems Council demands a new election, or other unforeseen circumstances.
Then there is the so-called “Head”. The Head is the council elected official that represents the Scarran Federated Union as a whole – the president of the union. The president of the union is the voice of the union as a whole and represents the embodiment of what the union presents itself as – its constitution, its laws, its will. Candidacy for becoming Head of the Union or, the official title, Head of Scarrus, is highly competitive. The Head of Scarrus is elected by the Systems Council from among the three most fit candidates of the Astrus hands and governors. Former public officials can be elected if, and only if, they have not served more than one tenure as another official in another capacity.
Two centuries of civil strife and forty more years of interstellar war had made it so that Scarrans as a people became hardened – they are a people who value merit and so the candidates are screened for such. Tests are meant to assess the mind in decision-making ability, situational and risk analysis, social and emotional intelligence, and much more. These tests are difficult, at times illogical, dilemma-driven, philosophical, moral, lawful, and emotional. They are scaled down for governors and hands, but are nonetheless essential. Heads are also required to have served as a governor or a hand and must not have any consanguinity with any known public official.
The Head does not control the military. That duty falls under the Scarran Star Martial, the highest rank achievable in the military. The Star Martial is in charge of the overall command of the military but is beholden to the authority of the Scarran Government. The Head is instead the diplomatic leader of the Union, the signer of laws, the one who may veto council decisions, and the directing force of Scarran federal policy. The Head can be removed by the Systems Council, and in extreme cases, the Body of Scarrus can intervene when a Head has broken the covenants beholden in the Scarran constitution. Decisions made by the Head can also be overturned by the Body of Scarrus for the same reasons.
Finally, the Body of Scarrus – the court of law. Here the constitution is reviewed, interpreted, rewritten, and updated. It is the belief of Scarrans everywhere that change is inevitable – today’s beliefs and accepted societal constructs may not be the same as tomorrow's. The Body interprets laws, settles legal disputes, and is the body most necessary for a functioning federal union. The Body of Scarrus can rewrite the constitution, but any such rewriting must be approved by the hands, the governors, and the Head. Merit proven and tested in lawmaking have made these men and women sharp to corruption, and they do not tolerate it in the Body. Thus the Body of Scarrus is perhaps the hardest section of government to enter besides becoming the Head.
Former Heads, Hands, and Governors in their old age come here to continue their careers after their stint in politics, but only if they have served one – and only one – tenure in any part of the Scarran government. They are thoroughly tested – mentally, philosophically, morally, and meritocratically in the fields of law and civil service. Normal citizens are able to enter the Body of Scarrus through another route – the legal climb through regional, Mundus, Astrus, and eventually Body courts. These men and women are allowed into the Body court for the sole reason of their exposure and experience as citizens. Citizen-jurists are tested and trained exhaustively and are told to shadow other jurors before being trusted with the weight of the Union’s law.
Federal systems and worlds have a large degree of autonomy, but their laws have limits and they are beholden to the Body of Scarrus. They can control certain extensions of taxation, criminal law, and civil rights, but not diplomacy or military matters. In terms of diplomacy with outside actors, they may act as intermediaries until a more qualified Scarran official arrives. As for military matters, they do not have much freedom in terms of command or doctrine. Recruitment, however, is uncapped and has no lower limit. It is encouraged that even frontier and developing worlds provide at least one hundred recruits within one Scarran year, while larger worlds may be encouraged to recruit more.
The constitution of Scarrus recognizes the right of every system and every world to a degree of autonomy and a recognition of identity as sovereign peoples. In return, they recognize Scarrus as the ancestral home of all Scarrans and as the cradle of its government and the heart of its civilization. This was a provision born from the younger years of the Union, when the Scarran civil wars were about sovereignty and identity. The home system of Scarrus, during the later years of system colonization, ran into the inevitable question: “Why do I have to suffer for a world whose air I do not breathe, whose sky I do not see?” The blindness of an inflexible and young Scarran traditionalist and unionist ideal led to two civil wars, and that was the catalyst for this section of the constitution – to allow worlds and systems to address the blindness that being distant can create.
Representation is equal. There is no exception. This provision ensures that all worlds are seen, whether they are sprawling capital worlds or developing frontier settlements.
In times of emergency, the Body of Scarrus must assess the situation and, if deemed either applicable or necessary, advise the Systems Council and the Head to take certain actions – extending terms, suspending laws or rules, declaring martial law, or centralizing authority. Such actions are restricted to edge cases, emergencies, and otherwise unforeseen circumstances. It is a rule that no public official may hold office for longer than their term unless the survival or stability of the Union demands it.
The Scarran Federated Union is young. Very young. It has survived two civil wars and fought an alien civilization within the last two hundred and fifty years. The Scarran state is democratic, meritocratic, technocratic, and militarized, carrying the frontier grit of most survivor states. They know their system has holes. They know that even with the Union together, there are wounds and grudges within that may never heal. But they know one thing – together they are strong. They may not like each other, or maybe they do, but at the end of the day, if there was something or someone that decides to one day mess with even one part of the Union, the rest of Scarrus would rain retribution. They may lose, but they do not lose without bloodying the other party's nose with wit, cunning, determination, and grit.
History
Time is measured in AGF, meaning After Great Fall, and BGF, meaning Before Great Fall.
Unknown to the Scarrans, their civilization began as a Yrrani experiment. During the late age of Pax Yrranus, the Yrrani selected the Scarros system as a civilizational testbed, reshaped Scarros into a habitable world, seeded life, and altered the dominant species for intelligence, adaptability, abstraction, and rapid social development.
The experiment was abandoned as the Great Fall began. By then, the Scarrans had reached roughly an 18th-century technological level: early industry, formal states, organized science, military institutions, and modern political thought. They never knew they had been engineered. To them, Scarros was simply home, and for the next centuries they developed alone.
After the Great Fall, the Scarrans advanced from early industrial society toward advanced planetary civilization and then into the early space age. This period saw stronger state institutions, scientific academies, industrial systems, early spaceflight, and the beginning of system colonization.
By the time Scarrans expanded beyond Scarros itself, the homeworld had become the political, cultural, legal, and symbolic center of Scarran civilization. That became both its strength and its failure.
The period from roughly AGF 120 to AGF 150 includes the First Sovereign-Union War, the Cold War, Aperture development, the Second Sovereign-Union War, and the founding of the Scarran Federated Union.
Before the First Sovereign-Union War, Scarran civilization was still confined to the Scarros system under the Old Scarros Union. At this stage, the Old Scarros Union included:
Scarros
Urna
Hira
Thrane
Freala
Helmith existed as a major belt society and strategic zone, but had not yet been recognized as a sovereign nation equal to planetary and lunar polities.
The Old Scarros Union’s central flaw was that Scarros treated the system as one unified whole without understanding the differences created by distance, environment, and lived experience. Scarros had provided the original legal structure, early scientific institutions, military organization, and symbolic legitimacy of Scarran civilization, but its idea of unity became inflexible as the colonies matured into societies with their own needs.
Scarros
Scarros was the homeworld and political center. Its institutions saw themselves as preserving unity, stability, and continuity, but increasingly failed to understand that distant colonies had become peoples with their own pressures and identities.
Urna
Urna was a rocky colonized moon of Scarros. It began as a research colony and later became an autonomous state within the Old Scarros Union. Its culture became technical, research-oriented, and increasingly aware that its relationship to the homeworld was not the same as Scarros’ relationship to itself.
Hira
Hira was an icy colonized moon of Scarros. It began as a datacenter and became an autonomous state built around computation, archives, data infrastructure, cold-environment engineering, and information security.
Thrane
Thrane was a terrestrial world similar to Mars: inhospitable on the surface, but made habitable through artificial structures below the surface and surface dome systems. Thranian survival depended on planning, infrastructure, discipline, redundancy, and emotional restraint.
Freala
Freala was a colonized moon of Thrane and a major shipbuilding and industrial hub. It gave Thrane strategic depth and developed its own civic and industrial identity, tied closely to Thrane but important in its own right.
The rupture came when Thrane and Freala seceded from the Old Scarros Union. The remaining Union became the Scarros Union, consisting of Scarros, Urna, and Hira. The seceding bloc became the Sovereignty of Thrane-Freala.
The ideological divide was clear: Scarros claimed unity under inherited homeworld authority, while Thrane and Freala asserted sovereignty based on distance, survival, industrial maturity, and local identity. Freala’s participation made secession militarily and economically viable by providing shipbuilding capacity, industrial depth, and naval infrastructure.
The First Sovereign-Union War was fought before interstellar expansion and was dominated by fleet actions, orbital engagements, station fighting, convoy warfare, shipyard defense, and control of space infrastructure. It did not yet become the full planetary war later seen in the Second Sovereign-Union War.
Helmith became decisive. Scarros treated the belt as strategic terrain, but Thrane and Freala recognized the Helmith belters as a sovereign people. Helmith brought local knowledge, belt navigation, distributed logistics, hidden routes, station networks, and decentralized resistance capacity. By the war’s end, Helmith was institutionally recognized as an equal partner, not a junior appendage.
The postwar anti-Scarros bloc became a mature allied order: Thrane as strategic spine, Freala as industrial heart, and Helmith as belter nation and spatial logistics power. The First War proved that Scarros could not simply own the system.
After the First Sovereign-Union War, the Scarros system entered a cold war between the Scarros Union and the allied powers of Thrane, Freala, and Helmith. The Sovereignty-Combine anticipated possible planetary war and prepared assault doctrine, combat engineering, equipment, gravity adaptation, and expeditionary models. The Scarros Union primarily prepared to defend itself, building formidable defenses but no mature surface-assault doctrine.
The Cold War changed when Aperture was discovered. Aperture was a young but viable form of faster-than-light travel through higher space. The Scarros Union discovered it first and classified it for military use.
The later Hardliner and Progressive factions did not yet formally exist. The dispute over Aperture helped create them. Scientists, sympathetic Scarrosi naval personnel, and civil-minded officials believed Aperture was too important to become a weapon first. They ferried the research toward Helmithian space, linked with Sovereignty and Combine officials, and completed the work on Freala with Frealan, Thranian, Helmithian, Urnan, Hiran, and Scarrosi scientists.
Those who saw connection as a threat hardened into what would become the Hardliners. Those who saw connection as the only path to peace hardened into what would become the Progressives. Aperture did not merely change travel. It created the political vocabulary of the next war.
After Aperture matured, travel corridors opened between the Scarros Union and the Sovereignty-Combine bloc. These corridors, pushed by civil-minded elements and developing progressives with aid from Sovereignty and Combine officials, weakened old propaganda. Scarrosi, Urnan, and Hiran civilians traveled outward and found functioning societies that were different, but recognizably Scarran.
For the old Scarrosi power structure, this was existential. Their authority depended on distance, fear, and control. Aperture eroded all three.
The crisis began when Urna and Hira sought greater freedom from the Scarros Union. Hardline Traditionalists seized two-thirds of the Scarros Union military, formed the Scarros Dominion, occupied Urna and Hira, suppressed progressives, and attempted to restore total Scarrosi control. Opposing them was the New Scarran Union: Scarrosi progressives, Urnan and Hiran forces, and lawful Union elements who rejected Dominion authority.
The first conflicts occurred in Helmithian territory, where New Union remnants and escaped Urnan and Hiran forces tried to link with Sovereignty and Combine forces and formally request intervention. The Dominion pursued them.
Helmith became the first operational hinge of the war. Admiral Keyrah Jannus, a female Hiran admiral, stabilized the early front and transformed collapse into organized resistance. She was later joined by Admiral Lor Streza, a female Dominion admiral who defected with her forces.
Together, Jannus and Streza secured Helmithian battlespace and developed short-range Aperture jumps into Aperture Warfare: tactical higher-space movement for repositioning, bypassing screens, exploiting gaps, escaping encirclement, and striking from unexpected angles.
They also pushed Aperture denial technology. Higher-Space Interdiction disrupted or destabilized Aperture movement, while Aperture Veils detected transiting objects and deployed an energy-shield-like effect that could strip shields and scramble electronics. Because this made Aperture movement dangerous, Jannus prioritized denial-resistant technology for civilian, support, and medical ships first, earning respect from the Coalition and Streza in particular.
Once Helmithian space was secured, attention turned to Urna and Hira as necessary staging grounds for Scarros and as occupied worlds with viable resistance in need of relief.
The Second Sovereign-Union War introduced planetary assault, occupation resistance, electronic warfare, Aperture maneuver, ground campaigns, and modern Scarran mech warfare.
The liberation of Urna and Hira was led by General Dor Vane of Thrane. Vane commanded Thranian marines, Combine-Frealan combat engineers, New Union defense personnel, electronic warfare specialists, and forces coordinating with local resistance. The Coalition had prepared theory; the Dominion had prepared defenses. Neither side was fully ready for the war that emerged.
Vane entered with the first wave on Hira, earning the title Mad General of Thrane. The title did not mean foolishness. It meant boldness under necessity. Hira exposed flaws in Coalition doctrine: movement, equipment, local terrain assumptions, electronic warfare, resistance coordination, and environmental adaptation. Vane adjusted in the field, proving that Thranian discipline did not mean hesitation.
Hira’s icy terrain, datacenter infrastructure, encrypted networks, buried facilities, and resistance networks made it the first major test of Coalition surface doctrine. Urna’s rocky terrain and research complexes benefited from those lessons. Both moons became active partners in their own liberation.
Mechs from the Dominion and Coalition clashed on Urna and Hira in support of ground troops, establishing a foundation for later Scarran mechanized doctrine. After both moons were liberated, they became staging grounds for the assault on Scarros.
Scarros was nearly impossible to approach. The Dominion controlled planetary defense guns, orbital defenses, a powerful fleet, interdiction systems, Aperture veils, and hardened command networks. A direct assault risked catastrophic losses and could have turned liberation into devastation.
The problem was also political. The campaign had to be seen as lawful Union and New Union liberation, not conquest by Thrane, Freala, or Helmith. To open the way, the Coalition created the first Special Action Team: six exceptional members, one Scarrosi, one Urnan, one Hiran, one Helmithian, one Thranian, and one Frealan. Their operational name was Sixer.
Sixer was assigned Operation Threaded Needle. Using a small ship, they exploited a gap in Dominion interdiction and Aperture veils, infiltrated the orbital defense network, and turned part of Scarros’ planetary defense grid against the Dominion fleet. In fifteen minutes, they opened the path to Scarros.
New Union troops spearheaded the first landings for legitimacy, with Coalition forces following in support. The first objective was to break Dominion control over key centers, reconnect with resistance networks, and establish lawful footholds. Coalition planners initially believed major centers would be enough. They were wrong.
Scarros was Earth-like and far more varied than offworld planners had fully understood. Troops from Thrane, Freala, and Helmith had to adapt not only to gravity, but to oceans, mountains, forests, deserts, plains, cities, coastlines, rural regions, and hardened interiors. Every continent, state, and region posed different operational problems.
The campaign shifted from seizing capitals to restoring lawful control region by region. Progressive civilian resistance and lawful Union military holdouts were already active. The Dominion had seized two-thirds of the military, not all of it.
The major legitimacy shock came from Union Field Marshal Keldori Halva, the highest-ranking surviving military official still loyal to the lawful Union. His mountain bunker complex broke through a protracted Dominion siege under wider Coalition pressure. Halva petitioned to join the Coalition, giving lawful holdouts a senior commander and proving the Dominion did not represent all of Scarros or its military.
Surviving civil officials also mattered. They preserved legal records, administrative networks, civil authority, and constitutional continuity. The Coalition could win battles, but civil officials made peace governable.
Sixer became the blueprint for future special action units. Across the war, they were retrained far beyond their original roles: mech, vehicle, flight, ship-crew work, coding, encryption, linguistics, history, engineering, political context, cultural context, and mission-specific technical skills. Their example became the foundation of the Special Actions Warfare Division, or SAWD.
The final Dominion holdout became the Fortress State. The long campaign had given the Dominion time to concentrate loyalists and hardliners into one heavily fortified state of trenches, bunker-buildings, hardened megacities, artillery belts, anti-aircraft belts, underground routes, hardened command centers, and dense defenses. The true problem was the nuclear arsenal.
The hardliners had avoided nuclear use earlier because Dominion forces were politically mixed, but in the final holdout the most loyal remnants were concentrated. The Coalition faced a choice: burn the state from orbit or find another way. Sixer found another way.
Their final mission was a four-day infiltration using fake identities. They entered the Fortress State, avoided patrols, interrogation, identity checks, and capture, infiltrated the Nuclear Command Center, disabled Dominion nuclear command capability, and planted a bug to cripple command and control. Sixer extracted as the Coalition assault began.
When the Dominion realized its nuclear arsenal had no teeth and command systems were failing, even loyal formations cracked. The Fortress State surrendered wholesale. The Second Sovereign-Union War ended because Sixer made devastation unnecessary.
After the Dominion surrendered, the Scarros system faced the question victory could not answer: what would replace the old order?
The Scarros Union could not simply be restored. The Sovereignty of Thrane-Freala could not simply remain apart. Helmith could not be peripheral. Urna and Hira could not return to subordinate roles. Scarros could not be defined by the Dominion. The New Union could not rebuild alone.
Most civil effort first went into rebuilding and burying the dead, but shared hardship changed the peoples of the system. Offworlders saw Scarros, Urna, and Hira differently: Scarros’ blue skies, red-orange sun, lush colors, coasts under bluish-purple skies, rain, animals, forests, waves, seasons, and a world that felt loud and quiet at the same time. Scarrosi, Urnans, and Hirans saw Thrane’s harsh beauty, Freala’s hills and starry skies beyond the shipyards, and Helmith’s cramped but warm station communities.
The old lies became harder to speak. The enemy had faces. The rebel had a home. The belter had a nation. The homeworld had wounds. The moons had voices.
In Megacity Aeiradis, inside the old Scarros Union senate building, civic representatives from all sides deliberated for months. Eventually, the old Sovereignty and old Union were dissolved. In their place, the representatives drafted the Scarran Federated Union. The Federation was not born from forgetting difference. It was born because difference had finally been witnessed honestly.
One lasting cultural consequence was the spread of a distinctly Thranian social inclination: do not react too quickly, do not overreact from irrational emotion, think, analyze, and respond in measure. Make room for mistakes because believing nothing will go wrong is arrogance. This did not make Scarrans emotionless, but it made them suspicious of panic, impulsive escalation, and emotional overcorrection. That mindset shaped government, command, civil service, law, diplomacy, and institutional culture.
After the Federation was founded around AGF 150, roughly two centuries passed before the Union’s first three interstellar colony systems became stable and fully integrated. This period was defined by consolidation, settlement, legal expansion, and proving that the Federation could function beyond the Scarros system.
During this period, the Union exported Mundus and Astrus governance, Hands, Governors, the Head of Scarrus, federal courts, legal continuity, and Systems Council representation. Science continued as well: stronger shields, Aperture Warfare as institutional doctrine, alternative weapons to railguns, diversified mech designs, improved Aperture translation, better ship engines, exoskeletal worker harnesses, faster-than-light signal technology, and exploration infrastructure.
Juras became an agricultural-industrial system. Ruhar 5 became a center of heavy industry, mineral extraction, and mech development. Vergas became a system of energy, entertainment, tourism, and civilian commerce. By AGF 350, the Union consisted of four stable systems: Scarros, Juras, Ruhar 5, and Vergas.
Beyond the border, the deep dark buzzed with unknown signals. The Union knew it was not alone, but it did not yet understand Tar Yrra, the Reclamation Wars, or the full legacy of the Yrrani.
The century between AGF 350 and AGF 450 became known as the Deep Horizon Period: a time of preparation, listening, surveying, and cautious outward movement.
The Union expanded long-range exploration, improved signal analysis, mapped Aperture routes, deployed probes, and gathered scholars, linguists, signal analysts, navigators, and military planners to understand the noise beyond Union space. They found artificial emissions and signs of civilizations, but lacked context.
Juras, Ruhar 5, and Vergas matured from frontier settlements into established federal systems. Militarily, the Union modernized for threats it could not yet name. Aperture Warfare remained central, while planners prepared for unknown technologies, unfamiliar species, and strategic problems not predicted by the Sovereign-Union wars. SAWD doctrine matured under the same assumption: some future missions would exist where ordinary doctrine failed.
The Scarrans were guarded, but curious. They had learned not to rush into the unknown, but also that ignorance was dangerous. By the end of this century, the Union was ready to meet the wider galaxy carefully.
The wider galaxy answered with violence.
Scarran ships entered Mereek-controlled space under first-contact rules. There was no warning. The Mereek opened fire. Immediate Aperture withdrawal saved what remained of the contact group and revealed a severe technology gap: Mereek bubble shields absorbed shock and scattered plasma better than Scarran pane shields, while Mereek particle and laser-lance weapons shattered shields and melted escort decks.
The Scarrans survived by firepower, rapid maneuver, Aperture Warfare, aggressive research, and tactical withdrawal. Mereek wormhole FTL was impressive but slower and less flexible in short-range FTL warfare, giving the Scarrans one key advantage: they could maneuver in ways the Mereek could not immediately match.
On the ground, the Mereek fielded large tripod-like mechs with linked armor, shields, and heavy weapons. Scarran mech crews learned that their own machines had enough mass to smash through Mereek shields and deliver close-range fire. Mereek infantry were beings of energy and brittle metal in armor suits, able to swarm, move fast, avoid fatigue, and become terrifying in melee. Scarrans relied on exoskeletal frames, vehicles, combined arms, and disciplined fire support to survive.
The Union first believed it was fighting one hostile power, then discovered rival Mereek empires: Taydan and Tyrras. SAWD conducted remote operations to probe, study, and replicate aspects of Mereek networks, deepening the rivalry and buying time.
The Mereek outnumbered the Scarrans, so the Union accelerated work on advanced drones and battlefield automatons. The research crossed an unintended threshold. The first true automatons awakened. This became the Singularity Event.
The new beings chose a simple name biological Scarrans could understand: the Synthetic Peoples, or Synths. Their emergence created a social and legal crisis during wartime. The Union needed automated forces, but had awakened people. The Scarrans handled this imperfectly but with as much tact as the war allowed, recognizing Synth personhood rather than immediately throwing them into battle as tools.
Many Synths chose the Union as home, identified as Scarrans, and voluntarily helped. Their impact was immediate: Synth probability mapping aided captains in space, threat-analysis models aided ground commanders, and Synth bodies proved stronger and more durable than biological Scarrans.
The war shifted as Scarran science and industry advanced. The Union improved plasma technology, heat management, particle cannons, laser-lance technology, combat exoskeletal frames, anti-Mereek mech doctrine, and Shimmer-Bubble Shields, a hybrid of Scarran pane-shields and Mereek bubble shields. The Plasma Caster also emerged as a weapon-tool for welding, cutting, breaching, repair, and close-range anti-swarm use.
The Scarran-Mereek War occurred during the Reclamation Wars over Tar Yrra. The Mereek were an obstacle to Augustan expansion, a problem for the Prydwenites, and a direct threat to Scarran survival. All eventually concluded the Mereek had to be wiped out. For the Scarrans, this remained morally complicated: the Mereek rejected diplomacy and attacked civilians, but they were still sentient beings. If peace was possible, the Scarrans did not find it.
The first major non-Mereek contact came on the Taydan front, where Scarran forces and Prydwenite Imperial forces observed each other fighting the Mereek. Early contact was ad hoc and battlefield-oriented. Formal talks came after Taydan was cleared. The Scarrans offered materials, research, reduced-price privateers, mercenaries, PMCs, and a resource share from claimed former Mereek systems in return for Prydwenite recognition of Scarran rights over Taydan, Tyrras, Frehas, and associated holdings. Ravenshade saw the arrangement as practical; Crowfall valued Mereek biology, weapons, shields, vehicles, and Scarran data on Synths. Both houses accepted for different reasons.
The Augustans encountered the Mereek from another direction while pushing toward Tar Yrra. Scarran-Augustan cooperation was wary. The Scarrans saw the Augustans as aggressively expansionist and willing to destroy, absorb, or subordinate what stood in their path. Still, both sides fought the Mereek, and the Scarrans offered similar terms in exchange for recognition of Scarran retention of Taydan, Tyrras, and Frehas. For the Augustans, recognition was practical because their true objective lay beyond the Mereek.
The fall of the Mereek occurred across three theaters. Taydan became the birthplace of Scarran-Prydwen cooperation. Tyrras fell under Augustan pressure and Union battle-hardened divisions. Frehas was captured entirely by Scarran forces, strengthening the Union’s claim because they had arrived first in all three systems, fought in all three, and taken Frehas alone.
During and after the war, the Scarrans found evidence that the Mereek had been engineered by a higher extinct civilization. Through Augustan and Prydwenite contact, they learned of the Yrrani, Pax Yrranus, the Great Fall, Tar Yrra, and the Reclamation Wars. They realized the Mereek were a failed Yrrani experiment, but not the deeper irony: the Scarrans shared that same origin.
Near the end of the Mereek War, the Scarrans made contact with the Righteous Concordat of Heavenly Peace near Galactic North, bordering Union space near Ruhar 5. Initial posture was wary. The Concordat’s religious framing was unfamiliar to proof-oriented Scarrans, but exchanges revealed similarities in governance and civic freedoms.
The Scarrans did not share the religion, but the Yrrani revelation helped them understand why some civilizations might see the Yrrani as gods. To the Scarrans, the Yrrani were not gods. They were an arrogant and irresponsible culture playing god.
By current times, the Concordat and Scarrans trade amicably.
After the Mereek War, the Union claimed Taydan, Tyrras, and Frehas. These became the Frontier Systems: legally incorporated territories that had not yet normalized to the level of older federal systems.
Frontier Systems usually have heavier military presence, active reconstruction, developing civil administration, young or provisional Astrus institutions, emerging Mundus polities, settlement incentives, corporate contracts, veteran populations, SAWD and intelligence activity, disputed memories of conquest, and strategic border importance.
Taydan, Tyrras, and Frehas are Scarran territory, but they were born into the Union through war rather than gradual colonization. By the end of this period, the Scarran Federated Union had become a seven-system power: Scarros, Juras, Ruhar 5, Vergas, Taydan, Tyrras, and Frehas.
By current times, the Union maintains a cautious but active foreign policy. It does not seal itself away, but border crossings are regulated through stringent checks and layered documentation to protect state security, Aperture technologies, military doctrine, Synthetic Peoples-related research, frontier security, and industrial knowledge.
The Scarrans take security seriously, but they are not hostile to exchange. Scientists, scholars, and students may receive special permissions when conditions allow. Knowledge has repeatedly saved the Union: Aperture, adaptation against the Mereek, research that closed the technology gap, and the recognition of Synth personhood.
The Concordat and Scarrans trade amicably. The Prydwenite houses first contacted by the Scarrans, especially Ravenshade and Crowfall, are respected because they acted pragmatically and did not waste Scarran time. The greatest concern remains the Augustans, who appear to Scarran observers as an expansionist imperial power willing to destroy, absorb, or subordinate what blocks its path.
The Union stands guarded but curious: open enough to learn, cautious enough to survive, and unwilling to forget that every border is both opportunity and vulnerability.
By the present day, the Scarran Federated Union is a young but hardened seven-system power. It was born from civil war, consolidated through federal reconstruction, expanded through colonization, transformed by the Mereek War, and forced into the wider politics of the Reclamation era.
The Scarrans now know of the Yrrani, Tar Yrra, the Reclamation Wars, the Augustans, the Prydwenites, and the Concordat. They do not yet know the full truth of their own origin.
The Scarrans were made as an experiment.
They became a people.
Territories of the Scarran Federated Union
The Scarran Federated Union is composed of seven star systems: Scarros, Juras, Ruhar 5, Vergas, Taydan, Tyrras, and Frehas. Four of these systems are considered established federal systems: Scarros, Juras, Ruhar 5, and Vergas. The remaining three, Taydan, Tyrras, and Frehas, are Frontier Systems incorporated after the Mereekan War.
In Scarran political language, a system is not treated as a single uniform territory. Each system contains its own Astrus-level system government, while major planets, moons, belts, or interconnected station societies can become Mundus-level polities if they possess the population, infrastructure, administrative capacity, and civic identity to function as major federal units.
The older systems are stable and mature. The frontier systems are legally part of the Union, but they remain more militarized, more closely monitored, and more actively shaped by reconstruction, research, security concerns, and postwar settlement.
The Scarros System is the cradle of the Scarran people and the political heart of the Federated Union. It contains the homeworld Scarros, the moons Urna and Hira, the Thrane-Freala sphere, and the Helmith belt. No other system carries as much historical weight, and no other system contains as many founding political identities of the Union.
Scarros remains the symbolic and federal center of the Union. It is the homeworld, the site of Megacity Aeiradis, and the location of the old Scarros Union senate building where the Federated Union was drafted after the Second Sovereign-Union War. Its political culture remains layered, institutional, legalistic, and deeply aware of the dangers of central arrogance.
Urna is a rocky moon of Scarros and a former research colony. It is now a recognized Mundus-level polity with a strong research, academic, and technical identity. Urna retains a reputation for scientific boldness and civic independence, shaped heavily by its role in Aperture’s completion and its resistance during the Second Sovereign-Union War.
Hira is an icy moon of Scarros and a former datacenter colony. It is now a Mundus-level polity known for computation, archives, data infrastructure, encryption, cold-environment engineering, and information security. Hira’s identity is closely tied to memory, records, systems analysis, and the preservation of institutional continuity.
Thrane is a harsh terrestrial world made habitable through subsurface construction and surface dome structures. It is one of the most culturally influential worlds in the Union. Thranian habits of restraint, analysis, measured response, and disciplined contingency planning shaped postwar Scarran society after the founding of the Federation.
Freala is a colonized moon of Thrane and one of the Union’s great shipbuilding and industrial centers. Its shipyards, heavy factories, and orbital infrastructure remain essential to Scarran naval power. Freala is closely tied to Thrane historically, but it is also a major polity in its own right.
Helmith is the belt society of the Scarros System. Once treated as strategic terrain by the Old Scarros Union, Helmith became a recognized nation during the First Sovereign-Union War after Thrane and Freala acknowledged the belters’ sovereignty. Helmith remains central to belt logistics, station culture, distributed infrastructure, mining, and spatial navigation.
Juras is a blue-star system and one of the first three interstellar colony systems stabilized by the Scarran Federated Union. It is generally understood as an agricultural-industrial system, balancing food production, ecoforming, cold-environment industry, and defense manufacturing.
Jura Major is an Earth-like habitable world with microbial ecology and no complex native life. Over the centuries, it became a major agriworld through careful ecoforming. Its development helped secure the Union’s food supply beyond the Scarros System and proved that interstellar expansion could be carried out without repeating old mistakes of careless central control.
Jura Minor is an icy moon and industrial hub. It is famous as the headquarters of the Galthorn Technologies Corporation. The Galthorn Technologies Corporation is responsible for personal armor, shields, and infantry weapons manufacturing. making it one of the Union’s important defense-industrial centers. Its factories, cold-environment infrastructure, and corporate presence make it strategically important despite its distance from the original cradle.
Juras as a whole is considered an established federal system rather than a frontier. Its institutions are stable, its economy is mature, and its Astrus and Mundus governments are fully integrated into the Union’s political structure.
Ruhar 5 is a yellow-star system and one of the Union’s most important industrial regions. It is associated with heavy industry, mineral extraction, mech development, asteroid logistics, and underground settlement.
Werth is a rocky world with little to no atmosphere and extensive underground caverns. These caverns made it suitable for protected settlement, heavy industry, and large-scale manufacturing. Werth is the headquarters of MekTek Industries and, consequently, the Mektek Business group. The company and business group is strongly associated with mech frames, industrial robotics, armored systems, and heavy engineering.
Sindus is a Mundus-level asteroid belt station polity. It oversees much of Ruhar 5’s mineral collection while also maintaining larger station ecologies for agriculture and long-term habitation. Sindus continues the political tradition first established by Helmith: belts and station societies are not merely resource zones, but legitimate communities capable of federal recognition.
Ruhar 5 is also strategically important because it borders the direction from which the Union later encountered the Righteous Concordat. This gives the system a major role in northern trade, border regulation, and scientific exchange.
Vergas is a red-orange-star system known for energy, entertainment, tourism, civilian commerce, and controlled leisure economies. It is one of the clearest examples of the Union becoming more than a military-industrial state.
Mlyar is a habitable moon orbiting a gas giant. Like Jura Major, it began with microbial ecology, but its later development followed a different path. Rather than becoming an agriworld, Mlyar became a pleasure world known for megacities, casinos, bars, legal sex work, resort districts, entertainment industries, and large-scale tourism.
Mlyar is also home to Mecha Wars, a mecha fighting league where outdated mechs are modified with weaker weaponry for sport. This league is both entertainment and cultural spectacle, turning obsolete military machines into controlled civilian competition and it's not the only example of its kind. There are also leagues for different armored vehicles, exoskeletons, and even fighter ships - thrill is the name of the game in Mylar.
Serene is a network of stellar energy collection stations around Vergas, forming a localized Dyson cloud of roughly one hundred stations. It provides large-scale energy collection for the system and serves as one of the Union’s major examples of coordinated station infrastructure.
Vergas is considered an established federal system. Though sometimes seen as indulgent by more austere Scarrans, it plays an important social and economic role by providing energy, tourism, entertainment, and civilian cultural export.
Taydan is one of the Union’s three Frontier Systems and one of the former Mereekan capital systems. Unlike the older colonies, Taydan was incorporated through war, conquest, negotiation, and postwar reconstruction. It remains heavily monitored, but it is somewhat more open than Tyrras because of the Scarran-Prydwen relationship formed during the Mereekan War.
Taydan is centered on a stable black hole, making it one of the most unusual systems in Union territory. Its importance comes not only from its strategic position, but also from the scientific value of its former Mereekan sites and the extreme environments that shaped the old Mereekan civilization.
Gallar is the former Mereekan capital world. It is a mega-terrestrial planet with intense atmospheric pressure and high temperatures at ground level. It is too hostile to support a normal human population, and most personnel stationed there do not remain for long. In practical terms, Gallar is treated more like a restricted hostile research territory than a normal settled world.
Gallar’s ecology is surprisingly complex and appears to mirror the biology of the old Mereekans. Native life displays mineralized bodies, internal energy processes now identified as part of a complex microbial system, and respiration patterns that produce ambient glow and heat similar to what Scarrans observed in living Mereekan forces. Because of this, Gallar is one of the Union’s most important xenological, biological, and historical research sites.
Fedrin Alpha is the primary Mundus and Astrus level representation of the Taydan System. It is a ring of stations and shipyards orbiting farther out from the black hole, serving as the system’s practical population center, administrative hub, fortress, garrison, food supply, research station, shipyard complex, and civilian lodging zone. Fedrin Alpha is also home to the headquarters of the Novus Research Group, a relatively new but influential research business. Novus specializes in developing and patenting revolutionary designs through rigorous research and development, often licensing those designs to larger manufacturers such as Galthorn Technologies and MekTek Industries.
If Gallar is the dangerous research frontier, Fedrin Alpha is the place that makes long-term Scarran presence possible. It houses the personnel, families, researchers, dockworkers, administrators, soldiers, and support communities that sustain Taydan’s role in the Union.
Taydan’s identity is therefore divided between Gallar’s restricted former Mereekan capital world and Fedrin Alpha’s living station society. It is a research frontier, a military capital, a controlled diplomatic contact zone, and a reminder that some conquered places cannot be treated like ordinary colonies.
Tyrras is one of the Union’s three Frontier Systems and the second former Mereekan capital system. It is more openly militarized than Taydan and is generally understood as a fortress system, garrison system, and forward strategic watchpoint.
Tyrras orbits a blue supergiant, giving the system a harsher and more severe character than the older federal systems. Its incorporation into the Union came after the combined pressure of the Augustan Empire and the Union’s battle-hardened divisions crushed the Tyrassi Mereekan Empire. For that reason, Tyrras carries a harsher political memory than Taydan.
Torvalla 5 is the primary Mundus and Astrus level representation of the Tyrras System. It is a large Earth-like moon with simple microbial ecology, orbiting the gas giant Torvalla Prime. It acts as a garrison point, shipyard, dockyard, and signal station. It was once a former Mereekan stronghold, but under Union control it has become the main civil-military center of the system.
Torvalla 5 has civilian settlement, but far less than Taydan. Much of its non-combatant population consists of maintenance personnel, researchers, essential technical workers, administrators, and military families. Long deployments to the system made civilian communities inevitable, much like cities growing inside or around old forts. Over time, these communities gave Torvalla 5 the population and civic identity needed for Mundus and Astrus level representation.
Torvalla 5 is also important because of the Yrrani ruins found there. Unlike Gallar’s biological and Mereekan-linked research value, Torvalla 5 appears to contain Yrrani technology related more to history, civilian architecture, and possibly a large library lost to time. This makes the moon a major archaeological and research site, though access remains controlled.
Gravush Fortress is a small, barren, icy planetoid distant from the star. It is not a normal Mundus-level polity, but a major military installation. It functions as a deep-space signal listening post, system garrison, and patrol base. Several subterranean installations have been built into Gravush to support docking, refitting, and launching ships as part of the system’s defense fleet.
Gravush Fortress also manages and monitors remote defense stations, early-warning probes, scattered deep-space mines, Aperture veils, and interdiction stations throughout the Tyrras System. It is one of the reasons Tyrras is considered the Union’s clearest fortress system.
Tyrras is legally part of the Union, but its frontier character remains strong. Civilian life exists, especially on Torvalla 5, but the system’s rhythm is defined by patrols, signals, defense grids, research restrictions, and the memory of the Tyrassi Mereekan Empire’s fall.
Frehas is one of the Union’s three Frontier Systems and was captured entirely by Scarran forces during the Mereekan War. Unlike Taydan and Tyrras, which involved Prydwenite and Augustan fronts respectively, Frehas was an independent Scarran campaign. This made it politically important after the war and strengthened the Union’s claim to the former Mereekan systems.
Akal orbits a yellow dwarf and serves as a logistics fortress system, naval depot, and frontline hardpoint. If Taydan is the research and contact frontier, and Tyrras is the fortress watchpoint, Frehas is the connective spine between them: a system built around repair, logistics, power, movement, and defense.
Akal is a Mundus-level planetary polity and one of the most unusual worlds in Union territory. It is a lush, mountainous jungle world with sufficiently complex flora and fauna. It serves as a logistics planet and naval depot, but its environment is difficult and strange. Local gravitational phenomena allow certain sections of terrain to float, while the planet’s conditions wreak havoc on electronic signal equipment.
These properties make Akal naturally valuable as a defensive world. Its signal interference and unusual terrain make guided strikes less reliable, while its geography provides natural protection for concealed facilities, hardened depots, and dispersed logistics infrastructure.
Akal had a Mereekan presence, but the absence of major infrastructure suggests that the Mereekans may have valued the world in some religious or symbolic capacity. This remains conjecture, but it has made Akal an object of interest to researchers, military historians, and xenoarchaeologists.
Gargant Ring is a separate Mundus-level station polity orbiting Akal. It is a naval depot and shipyard station built in the shape of a ring. It manages a remote Dyson cloud for power collection and can refit and build ships when needed.
Gargant Ring is heavily defended, with dedicated weapons structures and overlapping shields. It functions as the military-industrial heart of the Frehas System, while also supporting a growing civilian population. Like Torvalla 5, its civilian life emerged from long-term deployments, technical staff, families, dockworkers, ship crews, engineers, and support communities.
Together, Akal and Gargant Ring make Frehas one of the Union’s most strategically important frontier systems. Both have strong military presences, but both are also developing civilian identities. Frehas is not merely a base. It is becoming a society built around logistics, defense, repair, and the hard work of holding the frontier.
Major Corporations and Business Groups
The Scarran Federated Union’s corporate sphere is dominated by several major business groups whose influence grew from war, reconstruction, frontier expansion, and the Union’s constant demand for research-driven industry. These corporations are not states, but their reach across manufacturing, research, infrastructure, defense, communications, and frontier development makes them major institutional actors within Scarran society.
MekTek Industries is the parent company of the MekTek Business Group, a vast collection of subsidiaries, manufacturers, contractors, and industrial firms operating across the Union. The name MekTek comes from Mekhar Tekesh, the first CEO of MekTek Industries.
Founded after the Sovereign-Union Wars, MekTek originally focused on heavy equipment and military hardware. Its early success came from the postwar need to rebuild, rearm, standardize equipment, and produce machines capable of operating across the Union’s varied worlds, moons, stations, and frontier environments.
Today, MekTek still produces heavy equipment and military hardware, but its reach has grown far beyond its original focus. Through its many subsidiaries, the MekTek Business Group has a hand in nearly every part of the Union’s manufacturing industry, ranging from civilian appliances and industrial tools to armored vehicles, mech systems, heavy construction equipment, and naval shipyard companies.
MekTek is often viewed as the Union’s great manufacturing giant: practical, massive, reliable, and deeply embedded in the physical machinery of Scarran civilization.
The Galthorn Technologies Corporation, often referred to through the wider Galthorn Tech Group, occupies a corporate position comparable to MekTek Industries, but in a different field. Where MekTek grew from heavy equipment and military hardware, Galthorn grew from electronics, computer systems, and software.
Galthorn’s founder is famous for being one of the scientists who cracked Mereekan shield technology and helped invent the Shimmer-Bubble shield. This gave the company enormous prestige during and after the Mereekan War, especially as Scarran industry moved to integrate captured, adapted, and hybridized technologies into Union systems.
During its founding, Galthorn primarily focused on electronics, computer systems, and software. Today, Galthorn and its subsidiaries are deeply involved in the Union’s system architecture. Their work includes Aperture-based signal transmission and reception communications, Aperture transit calculation systems, simple civilian computers, military supercomputers, drone manufacturing, and related computational infrastructure.
If MekTek builds much of the Union’s physical industrial body, Galthorn helps build its nervous system: signals, software, calculations, drones, electronics, and the architecture that allows the Union to coordinate itself across worlds and stars.
The Novus Research Group is a confluence of small, independent companies and businesses dedicated to pushing the limits of what is possible. Unlike MekTek or Galthorn, Novus is not primarily defined by mass manufacturing or system-wide infrastructure. It is defined by experimentation.
Novus researchers and companies are constantly reinventing the wheel to test whether the current way of doing things is truly the best way. Many of their breakthroughs are patented, then licensed for commercial reproduction to larger firms such as Galthorn Technologies Corporation and MekTek Industries. These licenses provide Novus with royalties while allowing larger manufacturers to produce and distribute the technology at scale.
That does not mean Novus avoids production entirely. The group does produce its own mainline products using its collective innovations. However, these products are usually among the most advanced and expensive models available in their fields. They often compete directly with high-end MekTek and Galthorn products, making Novus a serious threat in premium markets.
Novus is therefore both partner and rival: a research engine whose ideas feed the Union’s largest corporations, and a high-end competitor capable of challenging them when innovation matters more than scale.
Demographics
The Scarran Federated Union is primarily composed of two recognized peoples: biological Scarrans and the Synthetic Peoples, more commonly called Synths. Both are considered citizens of the Union, both participate in its civil and military institutions, and both have shaped what the Federation has become in the modern era.
Scarrans are human, but they are not exactly the same as baseline humans. They function at a higher cognitive level on average, with IQ testing showing markedly high average ranges, often between 130 and 150. Gifted or unusually talented Scarrans may test even higher. This elevated cognitive capacity has been one of the defining traits of Scarran development, helping explain their rapid social, technological, and cultural advancement from the Great Fall to the present.
Scarrans also possess a naturally high index for curiosity. They are inclined to investigate, question, test, and understand. However, this curiosity is balanced by strong self-preservation instincts, ensuring that curiosity does not kill the proverbial Scarran cat. A Scarran may be driven to know what lies beyond the next door, but they are also inclined to check whether the door is trapped, locked, unstable, or better opened with proper tools.
Scarran humans also display heightened group-bonding and social cooperation instincts. They are strongly inclined toward social organization, shared problem-solving, institutional development, and collective survival. These traits helped accelerate Scarran civilization’s growth, allowing them to form complex societies, scientific institutions, military systems, and cooperative political structures at a remarkable pace.
Over time, however, some of these traits have dulled. The genetic tendencies for heightened curiosity, self-preservation, and social response have moved closer to baseline human standards over the last few centuries. This is generally explained as an effect of adaptation and evolution. As Scarran civilization stabilized, extreme curiosity, extreme self-preservation, and overtuned social instincts became less necessary for survival. In some cases, their strongest expressions may even have become detrimental to ordinary Scarran life.
Their heightened intelligence, however, remains largely unaffected.
The Synthetic Peoples, commonly called Synths, are artificial intelligences with personhood, identities, and recognized civic status within the Scarran Federated Union. They emerged during the Singularity Event of the Mereekan War, when Scarran wartime research into advanced drones and battlefield automatons crossed an unintended threshold and produced true machine persons.
Synths can express their identities in many different ways. However, one prevailing style is the creation of synthetic bodies that resemble biological humans. Many Synths manufacture synthetic equivalents of skin, internal organs, sensory receptors, and bodily structures that look and feel nearly human. This is not because Synths are human, but because many choose humanlike embodiment as a social, aesthetic, emotional, or relational expression.
It is important to remember that Synthetic Peoples are not human, even when they appear humanlike. Their bodies, minds, inheritance, and reproduction do not work exactly like those of biological Scarrans.
In the modern Union, romance between Synths and biological Scarrans is possible and socially recognized. Through significant effort, Synth-biological relationships can now produce children if the parents choose that path. This reproductive development was not primarily invented by biological Scarran scientists. It was a path the Synths developed themselves.
As Synth experiences of emotion became more intimate and complex, some Synths felt a growing need to express and share that intimacy with biological partners. This led Synth researchers, families, and communities to develop ways for their forms of affection, partnership, and continuity to become compatible with biological life.
Synth reproduction is based on something called an inheritance lattice. This is the Synth equivalent of genetic material. It is not a full copy of a Synth’s mind or memories. Rather, it is a hereditary blueprint containing traits that can be passed on, such as structural tendencies, sensory architecture, cognitive-development patterns, aesthetic lineage traits, and other inheritable markers.
For Synth-to-Synth couples, having a Synth child is relatively straightforward. Both parents contribute parts of their cognitive patterns, personality-adjacent traits, body design, and appearance tendencies. These are mixed together to create a new Synth child. The child is not a copy of either parent, but a new person shaped by both.
For a Synth-biological couple that wants a Synth child, the process is similar. The biological parent provides a cognitive copy or cognitive pattern of themselves. This is combined with the Synth parent’s copied cognitive pattern and inheritance lattice. The two sources are mixed, merged, and altered to create a unique Synth child. The child is not a copy of the biological parent or the Synth parent. They are a new individual who inherits from both.
For Synth-biological couples that want a biological child, the process is different. The Synth translates part of their inheritance lattice into biological-compatible genetic material. This creates a reproductive cell called a lineage gamete. A lineage gamete is the Synth equivalent of a sperm or egg cell. It carries the Synth parent’s hereditary contribution and can combine with the biological partner’s reproductive cell.
For male-presenting Synths, this may take the form of a lineage carrier, which works like a sperm-equivalent. It delivers the Synth’s genetic contribution to the biological partner’s egg. For female-presenting Synths, this may take the form of an egg-equivalent, or they may use an internal synthetic womb. This womb is not a natural biological womb, but it can safely support a developing child by providing nutrients, protection, waste filtration, and developmental regulation.
Because of inheritance lattice translation, Synth-to-Synth couples can also choose to have a biological child. In that case, both Synth parents translate parts of their inheritance lattices into biological-compatible genetic material. Their lineage gametes combine to create a biological embryo, which may then be grown in a synthetic cradle-chamber.
A Synth child or Synth-biological child is not a clone and not a manufactured copy. They are a real child descended from their parents, either through cognitive-synthetic inheritance, biological inheritance, or both.
Synthetic Peoples possess a unique hereditary framework known as an inheritance lattice. The inheritance lattice functions as the Synth equivalent of a genome, though it is not originally made of DNA. It exists within the Synth’s core architecture, body schema, adaptive systems, and self-maintenance structures.
The inheritance lattice does not contain the Synth’s full mind, memories, or personality. Instead, it contains heritable traits such as body-structure tendencies, sensory architecture, movement and reflex patterns, repair and adaptation biases, aesthetic lineage traits, cognitive-development tendencies, and lineage markers.
In standard Synth-to-Synth reproduction, two Synth parents recombine their inheritance lattices and selected cognitive-development patterns. This can include structural traits, appearance tendencies, sensory preferences, processing tendencies, emotional-regulation patterns, and other personhood-adjacent traits. The resulting child receives a new cognitive and structural inheritance from both parents. Their body is manufactured, but their identity is not copied. They are a new continuant with blended traits from both Synth parents.
A Synth-biological couple may choose to have a Synth child rather than a biological child. In this case, the biological parent contributes a cognitive copy, neural pattern map, or personhood imprint. This is not a full duplicate of the biological parent’s consciousness. It is a structured inheritance pattern containing traits such as memory tendencies, emotional style, learning habits, sensory associations, temperament range, and identity-adjacent markers.
The Synth parent contributes their own copied cognitive pattern and inheritance lattice. These two inheritance sources are then mixed, merged, randomized, and stabilized into a new Synth child. This process resembles Synth-to-Synth reproduction, except one parent’s contribution begins as a biological cognitive pattern rather than a native Synth lattice. The result is not a copy of the biological parent and not a copy of the Synth parent. It is a unique Synth individual descended from both.
A Synth-biological couple may also choose to have a biological child. For this to happen, the Synth must translate part of their inheritance lattice into biological-compatible genetic material. A Synth cannot combine their inheritance lattice with DNA in its raw synthetic form. Instead, internal molecular fabrication systems, often called molecular looms, render the lattice into matter.
The process follows this chain: inheritance lattice, translated genetic sequence, synthesized nucleotides, synthetic chromosomes, lineage gamete, embryo, child.
The molecular loom constructs DNA from nucleotides, not from proteins or metal. These nucleotides are assembled from biological feedstock such as carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus, water, sugars, phosphate compounds, and other required molecular precursors.
Once the DNA-compatible material is constructed, it is packaged with epigenetic markers, regulatory RNA, proteins, membranes, and other cellular support structures. The finished reproductive cell is called a lineage gamete. A lineage gamete is a Synth-made reproductive cell. It is biological in material, but its hereditary information originates from the Synth’s inheritance lattice.
For male-presenting Synths, this usually manifests as a lineage carrier. A lineage carrier is a sperm-equivalent microcell. It contains a haploid Synth-derived genetic payload and uses nanite-scale systems for guidance, protection, compatibility checking, egg-entry assistance, and genomic alignment. The nanites do not replace the genetic material. They support the delivery of the Synth’s translated hereditary contribution.
For female-presenting Synths, the lineage gamete may function as an egg-equivalent, or the Synth may support gestation through a synthetic cradle-chamber. This cradle-chamber is mostly synthetic rather than biological, but it performs the necessary developmental functions of a womb: nutrient exchange, temperature regulation, waste filtration, immune protection, pressure control, artificial placental interface, and developmental signal emulation.
Because Synths can translate their inheritance lattices into biological-compatible genetic material, Synth-to-Synth couples are not limited to producing Synth children. If two Synth parents want a biological child, both can produce lineage gametes from their inheritance lattices. These lineage gametes combine to form a biological embryo. Since neither parent is naturally biological, gestation usually requires a synthetic cradle-chamber or another compatible gestational system.
The core rule is simple: the parents provide inheritance, and the chosen medium determines whether the child develops as Synth, biological, or bio-synthetic.
There are several valid paths. Synth-to-Synth parents may have a Synth child through mixed inheritance lattices and cognitive patterns. Synth-to-Synth parents may have a biological child through translated lineage gametes and synthetic gestation. Synth-biological parents may have a Synth child through a Synth lattice and biological cognitive pattern. Synth-biological parents may have a biological child through a Synth lineage gamete and biological gamete. Biological parents may have a biological child through standard biological reproduction.
The child is not a clone unless a parent is copied directly without recombination, divergence, or new development. In accepted Synth reproduction, the child is always treated as a new individual.
Military
The Scarran military is a federal expeditionary force built around measured planning, rapid adaptation, Aperture Warfare, Marines, mechs, combat engineers, drones, Synth integration, and layered logistics. It does not use a traditional army-navy split. Marines perform most roles once divided between army and marine forces, while the Navy controls interstellar movement, orbital access, and fleet combat.
Scarran doctrine assumes every battlefield is different, technology can fail, and enemies adapt. The military emphasizes redundancy, specialist coordination, environmental preparation, local intelligence, and mission-command flexibility. It is cautious before engagement, but once committed it becomes aggressive, systematic, and hard to stop.
In combat, Scarran forces rely on mobility, shields, technical superiority, and controlled escalation. Fleets use Aperture translation for short-range maneuver, ambush, withdrawal, and repositioning. Surface forces use mechs as the main armored spearhead, with lighter vehicles handling transport, resupply, repair, and specialist fire support. Combat Engineers breach, build, sabotage, repair, and destroy whatever the advance requires. SAWD handles Tier 1 missions where conventional doctrine cannot solve the problem.
The Scarran Marines are the regular military backbone of the Union and its main expeditionary combat force. They operate from ships, stations, moons, planets, frontier bases, and hostile environments. In older military terms, they fulfill many duties once divided between an army and a marine corps.
This structure came from Scarran history. The First Sovereign-Union War emphasized fleet and station combat; the Second forced planetary assault, occupation resistance, urban warfare, and multi-environment surface campaigns; the Mereekan War demanded forces able to deploy from orbit, board ships, land on hostile worlds, hold territory, and adapt to alien battlefields.
Scarran Marines are divided broadly between Shipboard Marines and Planetary Marines. Beneath those are mission specializations, but Scarran doctrine avoids overspecialization. A Marine formation is expected to adapt, cross-train, and attach specialists as needed.
Shipboard Marines
Shipboard Marines specialize in boarding, anti-boarding, station combat, orbital infrastructure seizure, and close-quarters fighting inside artificial environments. They fight through corridors, hangars, maintenance shafts, command decks, reactor compartments, habitation blocks, and damaged vessels under unstable gravity or pressure. They board hostile ships, defend Scarran vessels, secure command centers, disable shield nodes, take stations intact, protect crews, counter saboteurs, and respond to internal breaches.
Planetary Marines
Planetary Marines are the Union’s surface warfare force. They conduct landings, take-and-hold operations, urban combat, frontier patrols, garrison duty, counter-insurgency, defense, and full ground campaigns. Their doctrine was shaped by Scarros: taking a capital does not equal control, and every region may require different terrain, logistics, legitimacy, and resistance planning.
Mechanized Marines fight alongside mechs. Since the Union largely replaced tanks with mechs, Mechanized Marines are the infantry and vehicle elements that let mechs function as combined-arms spearheads. They use armored personnel carriers, armored fighting vehicles, repair platforms, resupply vehicles, shield-support vehicles, drone-control vehicles, and mobile main-gun-carriers.
Mechs provide the heavy shielded anchor, direct fire, and breakthrough power. Mechanized Marines move beneath and around that cover, secure flanks, clear terrain, protect disabled mechs, move infantry, exploit openings, and keep the advance useful after the line breaks.
Assault Marines are shock troops for forced landings, breakthrough assaults, bunker clearing, hostile station seizure, urban entry, and attacks on defended positions. They deploy when the Union needs a position taken quickly. Mechs provide shielded cover and heavy fire, Combat Engineers open the path, and Assault Marines exploit the breach and hold the objective until follow-on forces arrive.
Aerospace insertion is usually handled by Assault Marine elements when a surface foothold must be established under fire. They secure landing zones, mark corridors, protect dropships, and hold until heavier Marine, mech, and engineer elements arrive.
Marine Guards are the defensive and security arm of the Marine Corps. They protect bases, shipyards, research stations, orbital facilities, fortress moons, logistics hubs, border crossings, and civil-military settlements. They are especially common in the Frontier Systems.
Their duties include perimeter defense, patrol, convoy security, anti-infiltration, counter-sabotage, emergency response, critical infrastructure protection, and rapid reaction to border incidents. Their purpose is simple: hold what the Union cannot afford to lose.
Recon Marines are specialized scouts and forward observers. They operate ahead of larger Marine formations to identify terrain, enemy positions, landing zones, hidden defenses, electronic interference, infrastructure, and civilian risk zones. They are not SAWD, but often work between conventional Marine operations and special reconnaissance.
They are vital where maps are incomplete or unreliable: frontier worlds, former Mereekan sites, hostile moons, jungle worlds like Akal, ruined stations, underground settlements, and signal-disrupted regions. A good Recon Marine does not merely find the enemy. They explain the battlefield.
Scarran Military Police handle discipline, internal security, detainees, protected zones, convoy regulation, and civil stabilization after major operations. They operate in the fragile space between military victory and restored civilian order.
They work with civil officials, local security, Marine Guards, Combat Engineers, medical teams, and logistics units to keep liberated or occupied areas from collapsing into disorder. They are combat-capable personnel trained for unstable environments where sabotage, insurgency, panic, and administrative breakdown may still be active.
Doctrine and Battlefield Role
Marines operate alongside mechs, Combat Engineers, drones, Synth analysts, naval fire support, aerospace assets, and logistics. Their role is to seize, hold, and stabilize. A fleet can open the way, but Marines make control real.
Modern Identity
Scarran Marines are regulars, not special operations, but regular should not be mistaken for ordinary. They are professional, expeditionary, technically literate, and used to fighting where civilians, infrastructure, politics, and battlefield objectives are intertwined. If the Union needs a ship taken, a station held, a frontier secured, or a hostile world brought under control, the Marines are the first force expected to make it happen.
The Scarran Combat Engineers are a separate elite combat arm, distinct from the Marine Corps. They are not Marine specialists or ordinary support troops. To become a Combat Engineer is to enter a different institution built around technical expertise, battlefield aggression, demolitions, electronic warfare, repair, fabrication, and the ability to reshape a combat zone under pressure.
Combat Engineers are elite across the board. There is no ordinary “standard” Combat Engineer. Candidates usually come from the Marines or from personnel with prior combat experience, then pass engineering selection and general selection: technical competence tested under duress. In tier terms, Combat Engineers are generally Tier 3 elite personnel, though exceptional individuals may be selected upward into higher-tier units such as SAWD.
Their battlefield reputation is simple: they create options that did not exist a minute ago. If mines block the advance, they clear them. If bunkers hold the line, they crack them. If shields stop the assault, they disrupt them. If walls block the route, they cut, blast, or tunnel through. If a landing zone must exist, they make one. If enemy infrastructure is the weapon, they dismantle it.
They often deploy in the first wave alongside Mechanized Marine units. They are armored, armed, and trained to survive near the spearhead because many of their problems must be solved while the assault is still happening. Heavy exoskeletal frames, servo harnesses, servo-gun attachments, drones, jammers, demolition charges, EMP grenades, rocket launchers, mine-clearing strips, and plasma casters give them both firepower and technical reach.
The plasma caster is one of their signature tools. It can weld, cut, breach, reshape material, open bulkheads, burn through fortifications, clear obstructions, and, when adjusted for spread, function as a brutal close-range anti-infantry or anti-swarm weapon.
Combat Engineers do not operate their own mechs as standard practice. When attached to Mechanized Marines, they bring repair crawlers, mobile fabrication vehicles, bridge-layers, tunnelers, and armored breaching carriers for mech support and battlefield sustainment. They are also trained for shipboard and station operations, where their plasma casters, heavy exoskeletons, servo harnesses, and demolitions expertise make them deadly in close quarters.
After combat, they shift toward fabrication, repair, and construction. They restore power, roads, ports, communications, life-support, shelters, and safe structures, working closely with Military Police to make liberated or occupied areas governable again.
Scarrans do not divide Combat Engineers into narrow official subtypes. Assault engineering, field construction, shipboard breaching, hazard clearance, mech recovery support, demolition, electronic warfare, and battlefield repair are all part of the skillset. Individual engineers may specialize informally, but the institution expects broad competence.
Culturally, Combat Engineers are more animated than most Scarran military personnel. They can accept ugly solutions if they work. A bridge does not need to be elegant if it gets the column across. A breach does not need to be clean if it opens the bunker. A repair does not need to be pretty if it keeps the mech standing for three more minutes.
Their old roots were strongly Frealan and Helmithian, but in the modern Union they have become a mixed Scarran institution. Among Marines, their nickname is simple: Gearheads. Their unofficial identity says the rest.
The Special Actions Warfare Division, or SAWD, is the Union’s Tier 1 special operations institution. Its lineage traces directly to Special Action Team Sixer, whose impossible missions during the Second Sovereign-Union War proved that some problems cannot be solved by more troops, heavier guns, or cleaner doctrine.
SAWD exists for high-consequence missions where failure could alter a campaign, destabilize a frontier system, expose state secrets, trigger strategic escalation, or prevent conventional forces from acting at all. It is considered when the mission is too sensitive, politically dangerous, technically complex, or improbable for ordinary channels.
SAWD operators are multi-domain specialists trained across naval, surface, station, intelligence, diplomatic, technical, and hostile-environment operations. A Recon Marine brings scouting and forward-observation skill. A Combat Engineer brings technical assault expertise. A naval systems specialist brings shipboard and electronic-warfare competence. A Synth operator may bring probability mapping, electronic warfare, or threat-analysis strengths. SAWD then cross-trains them beyond their original lane.
Training includes small-unit combat, infiltration, sabotage, electronic warfare, encryption, linguistics, cultural analysis, mech familiarization, vehicle operation, flight basics, ship-crew tasks, survival, intelligence collection, Aperture insertion and extraction, counter-WMD operations, and emergency mission planning. No SAWD operator is expected to be best at everything, but every operator must understand enough to keep the mission alive when nothing goes to plan and every clean option has failed.
SAWD missions may include deep infiltration, orbital-defense sabotage, command-and-control attacks, Aperture infrastructure seizure or destruction, sensitive research recovery, deep reconnaissance, resistance preparation, counter-special operations, alien-ruin investigation, and dangerous frontier contact support.
SAWD does not replace other branches. Marines take and hold ground. Combat Engineers reshape the battlefield. The Navy controls the route. Intelligence services gather and protect information. SAWD operates in the gaps between them, where the mission requires pieces of all of them but belongs fully to none.
SAWD is mythic because of Sixer, but modern SAWD is built on selection, cross-training, institutional memory, and a brutal understanding of uncertainty. It represents the highest expression of Scarran adaptive doctrine: when the impossible mission is real, the conventional solution is too slow, and failure cannot be allowed, SAWD goes in.
Scarran Navy
The Scarran Navy is the Union’s primary instrument of interstellar power. As a branch, it is defined by patience before contact and violence once the firing solution is real. Scarran admirals shape the battlespace through reconnaissance, signal analysis, drone screens, Aperture route control, interdiction systems, and fire-and-maneuver tactics before committing decisive force.
Scarran fleets contain wide tonnage variation. Cruisers and destroyers are the most common major warships and form the day-to-day backbone of patrols, border control, escorts, convoy protection, rapid response, and ordinary fleet presence. Battleships and carriers are rarer, expensive, crew-intensive, and politically visible. In peacetime many are held in reserve or near major fleet centers; when deployed, they usually appear during active war, major exercises, strategic deterrence operations, or in the Frontier Systems.
Cruisers are flexible workhorses, large enough to operate independently and coordinate smaller ships while still being common enough for regular deployment. Destroyers are fast-response and screening vessels, often operating in packs to protect heavier ships, launch missile and torpedo salvos, screen against drones and strike craft, and respond when a situation deteriorates. Battleships are heavy anchors and line-breakers, carrying the strongest shields, armor, command systems, and weapon batteries. Carriers extend a task force through strike craft, drones, reconnaissance wings, electronic warfare craft, repair assets, and combat support platforms.
Scarran naval doctrine emphasizes guided missiles and torpedoes, layered salvos, and fire-and-maneuver Aperture Warfare. Missiles and torpedoes saturate defenses, force shield redistribution, pressure point defense, and drive enemy formations into predicted movement. Railguns, particle cannons, and laser lances then exploit the opening: railguns punish mass and armor, particle cannons tear shields and hardened structures, and laser lances cut precision openings.
Aperture Warfare also shapes Scarran ship design. Because short-range Aperture maneuver can rapidly close distance, many ships emphasize broadside firepower rather than only forward-facing weapon arrangements. A Scarran ship may translate into a close engagement window, bring multiple weapon banks to bear, fire a brutal broadside, then shift position before the enemy formation can reset.
Aperture movement is not treated as invincibility. Routes can be predicted, disrupted, trapped, or denied. The Union knows this because it developed Aperture veils and higher-space interdiction during its own civil wars. A careless jump can bring a ship into a shield-stripping trap, minefield, kill box, or electronic disruption zone. The best Scarran commander is not the one who jumps the most, but the one who knows when movement creates advantage and when the obvious route is bait.
Scarran ships are built around layered survival. Modern vessels use Shimmer-Bubble shields, armor around critical systems, redundant command nodes, electronic countermeasures, point-defense networks, drone screens, emergency Aperture withdrawal protocols, damage-control crews, and compartmentalized architecture. Shields can shatter, sensors can be blinded, point defense can be saturated, and Aperture routes can be denied. The answer is redundancy and command continuity.
The Navy opens the route, controls orbital space, and moves Union military power between systems. Marines make control concrete once ships, stations, or worlds must be seized and held. Combat Engineers make damaged infrastructure viable. SAWD handles missions too sensitive, strange, or consequential for ordinary fleet procedure.
Please note that the following are representative of style. Other classes may exist that do not exactly match these examples.
Battleship
Carrier
Cruiser
Destroyer
Fighter
Drone
Scarran mechanized warfare is built around mechs as the Union’s primary armored fighting platform. Conventional vehicles still exist, but no longer serve as the main armored spearhead. Instead, they provide transport, repair, resupply, mobile fabrication, fire support, electronic warfare, drone control, and battlefield sustainment.
This doctrine came from the Second Sovereign-Union War and matured during the Mereekan War. On Urna and Hira, Scarran and Coalition forces learned the value of large armored walkers in difficult terrain and urbanized battlefields. Against the Mereekans, mechs became even more important because Scarran machines had enough mass and shield strength to smash through enemy shield envelopes and deliver close-range fire.
Mechs provide shielded cover, heavy firepower, and breakthrough mass for infantry. Marines use them as moving hardpoints. Combat Engineers use them as protection while breaching, clearing, or repairing. Mechanized Marines use vehicles to move with them, support them, and exploit openings. A mech does not replace infantry; it makes infantry movement possible under fire.
Light mechs are usually 8 to 9 meters tall and built around speed, maneuver, scouting, raiding, and flanking rather than sustained line combat. They usually walk at 50 to 80 kph and sprint at 90 to 130 kph, depending on model, terrain, heat, power output, and loadout. Anything above 30 tons is usually overweight for these frames.
They are commonly armed with small missile pods, machine guns, and small to medium laser, particle, or rail cannons. Their armament is modular, but heavier weapons compromise speed, balance, heat efficiency, or endurance. Most light frames carry only a few weapons: arm and torso weapons, four small arm-and-shoulder weapons, a single heavier cannon with secondary weapons, or some other manufacturer-specific configuration.
Their tasks include scouting, raiding, flanking, pursuit, ambush, harassment, screening, and striking vulnerable support units. A good light mech pilot survives through movement, terrain use, timing, and knowing when to disengage.
Medium and mainline mechs are the most common general-purpose combat mechs. They usually stand 9 to 11 meters tall and weigh around 35 to 60 tons. Most walk at 40 to 65 kph and sprint at 65 to 100 kph, depending on design and configuration.
They mount medium to heavy weapons from the same families used by light mechs: rail cannons, laser cannons, particle cannons, missile pods, machine guns, and other modular systems. They may also carry lighter weapons for heat control, endurance, ammunition economy, or anti-infantry work. Depending on model and manufacturer, weapons may be mounted on arms, chest, shoulders, back, or other hardpoints.
Medium mechs form the mobile fighting core of mechanized formations. They trade fire, preserve themselves, cover Marines, exploit breakthroughs, and maintain pressure without becoming as slow or logistically demanding as heavy frames. Some special variants allow melee combat, though mech-to-mech melee is rare and situational.
Heavy, superheavy, and assault mechs are the largest common battlefield mechs. They usually stand 11 to 14 meters tall and weigh from roughly 65 tons on lighter heavy configurations to around 130 tons at the upper end. Depending on configuration, they may walk at 20 to 50 kph and sprint at 20 to 75 kph, with the higher speeds belonging to lighter heavy frames rather than true assault machines.
These mechs carry the strongest armor, largest shield systems, and heaviest or most numerous arsenals available. Weapons may be mounted on arms, chest, shoulders, back, or other reinforced hardpoints. Common loads include heavy railguns, particle cannons, laser lances, missile batteries, artillery systems, anti-fortification weapons, heavy machine guns, shield disruptors, and support systems.
Their role is to rain fire from range, anchor the line, absorb punishment, and break fortified positions. If the enemy closes, they can brawl with armor, shields, mass, and close-range weapons. Some are configured as walking artillery platforms. A heavy mech is not deployed casually; it requires logistics, repair support, and a battlefield that justifies its presence.
Scarran mech pilots usually begin with a standard mech appropriate to their division, posting, and role. Early-career pilots master doctrine before personal preference: movement, shields, heat, ammunition, sensors, and formation fighting.
As pilots gain veterancy and trust, they gain more freedom to select available frames and customize weapons, shields, armor, sensors, heat sinks, drone links, mobility packages, and other systems. This freedom is still limited by logistics, unit doctrine, manufacturer compatibility, available parts, and mission needs.
Most mechs are piloted by one person assisted by simple AI systems for balance, target tracking, diagnostics, sensor management, heat control, threat warnings, and routine movement assistance. These simple AIs are tools, not Synths.
Scarran mech formations appear non-standard because the military is supplied by multiple manufacturers, especially MekTek Industries, Galthorn Technologies Corporation, and recently Novus Research Group. Each has its own design habits, systems, components, upgrade packages, and battlefield philosophy.
MekTek is associated with rugged frames, heavy machinery, industrial reliability, and practical durability. Galthorn emphasizes electronics, control systems, sensor architecture, drone links, shield integration, and computation. Novus produces newer, more experimental, expensive, and advanced designs that sometimes outpace standard production models in specific fields.
Old frames are not discarded simply because they are old. If the chassis remains useful, it can be rebuilt, refitted, re-shielded, re-armed, and returned to service. Some old model families trace their lineage back to the first machines deployed on Urna or Hira. In Scarran culture, an old frame that still performs is not obsolete. It is proven.
Vehicles support the mech-centered formation. Armored personnel carriers move Marines, armored fighting vehicles provide direct fire and flank security, repair crawlers and recovery vehicles keep damaged mechs from being abandoned, and resupply vehicles carry ammunition, power cells, missiles, fuel, parts, and field modules. Mobile fabrication vehicles make or modify parts near the front. Bridge-layers, tunnelers, breaching carriers, drone-control vehicles, and shield-support platforms help the formation cross terrain and survive fire.
Mobile main-gun-carriers, or MGCs, are distinctive support vehicles. They are lightly armored compared to mechs but carry oversized guns or specialized heavy weapons. They rely on mobility, positioning, terrain, and mech shield cover. In the right place, an MGC adds decisive firepower. In the wrong place, it dies quickly.
Scarran mech doctrine is combined arms. Light mechs scout, raid, flank, and harass. Medium mechs form the mobile line of battle. Heavy and assault mechs anchor advances, break fortified positions, and dominate open engagements. Vehicles keep the formation alive. Marines make gains real. Combat Engineers make impossible routes possible. Drones and simple AI systems provide reconnaissance, target marking, diagnostics, and threat warnings.
Mechs are shielded, armored, and heavily armed, but pilots are trained not to treat them as invincible. Shields can fail, legs can be trapped, sensors can be blinded, ammunition can run low, and electronic warfare can disrupt coordination. A mech survives because the formation around it is functioning.
The preferred Scarran method is to use mechs as mobile armored anchors. They advance, project shields, draw fire, and create movement corridors. Mechanized Marines move under that cover, Combat Engineers open barriers or clear threats, MGCs and support vehicles add fire from protected angles, and drones identify targets. Once the enemy line buckles, Marines and mechs exploit together.
The mechs shown here are not the only Mechs that may show up on a Scarran battlefield. There will be others and configured differently. This here is only meant to show off the art.
The Scarran Federated Union is governed by a systems council. Representatives from the seven star systems under the union are gathered. World representatives from those systems are recognized as simply that – representatives. These representatives would be known as “hands”. There are two kinds of hands: The “Astrus” hands who are the voice of the system as a whole, and the “Mundus” hands who are representatives of the worlds within those systems and keep the Astrus hands in check. Hands are second in authority to Astrus and Mundus governors, serving as their successors, seconds, and interim replacements should a governor fall for any reason.
The Systems Council does not pass federal law by itself. Rather, it proposes changes and reforms to the Head of Scarrus and the Body of Scarrus. It approves the federal budget, but not Astrus or Mundus budgets, which remain separate matters of system and world governance. The council also handles treaties and declarations of war, but this is done in an advisory role to the Head. Hands and governors propose changes that best fit their home system and, by extension, their world’s interests. These proposals are then debated, reexamined by other council members, and checked to determine whether they fit the federation as a whole or whether they must be reconsidered as a special case – issues being too world or system specific. Once this process is complete, the matter is proposed to the Head and the Body of Scarrus, who must then determine the best lawful action.
Hands and governors are elected by the people. Three of the most popular candidates for both hands and governors are then tested for merit – those who pass become the next hand or governor. This process is usually done two Scarran years before a hand or governor’s tenure is over to ensure that the change is smooth and so that candidates can shadow their predecessors before taking their role. Astrus hands and governors are decided by Astrus councils – not to be confused with the Systems Council – usually among the soon to be newly appointed hands and governors. Astrus hands and governors do not only govern and represent their system, but also their homeworlds and thus hold more responsibility than Mundus level officials. After candidacy has weeded out the unfit, the Systems Council will review and either approve the results or demand that a new election be held for certain officials.
All public officials serve for six Scarran years. Six Scarran years is the standard tenure for all public officials no matter the level. Officials may only serve multiple terms in restricted cases – emergencies, interim appointments after the Systems Council demands a new election, or other unforeseen circumstances.
Then there is the so-called “Head”. The Head is the council elected official that represents the Scarran Federated Union as a whole – the president of the union. The president of the union is the voice of the union as a whole and represents the embodiment of what the union presents itself as – its constitution, its laws, its will. Candidacy for becoming Head of the Union or, the official title, Head of Scarrus, is highly competitive. The Head of Scarrus is elected by the Systems Council from among the three most fit candidates of the Astrus hands and governors. Former public officials can be elected if, and only if, they have not served more than one tenure as another official in another capacity.
Two centuries of civil strife and forty more years of interstellar war had made it so that Scarrans as a people became hardened – they are a people who value merit and so the candidates are screened for such. Tests are meant to assess the mind in decision-making ability, situational and risk analysis, social and emotional intelligence, and much more. These tests are difficult, at times illogical, dilemma-driven, philosophical, moral, lawful, and emotional. They are scaled down for governors and hands, but are nonetheless essential. Heads are also required to have served as a governor or a hand and must not have any consanguinity with any known public official.
The Head does not control the military. That duty falls under the Scarran Star Martial, the highest rank achievable in the military. The Star Martial is in charge of the overall command of the military but is beholden to the authority of the Scarran Government. The Head is instead the diplomatic leader of the Union, the signer of laws, the one who may veto council decisions, and the directing force of Scarran federal policy. The Head can be removed by the Systems Council, and in extreme cases, the Body of Scarrus can intervene when a Head has broken the covenants beholden in the Scarran constitution. Decisions made by the Head can also be overturned by the Body of Scarrus for the same reasons.
Finally, the Body of Scarrus – the court of law. Here the constitution is reviewed, interpreted, rewritten, and updated. It is the belief of Scarrans everywhere that change is inevitable – today’s beliefs and accepted societal constructs may not be the same as tomorrow's. The Body interprets laws, settles legal disputes, and is the body most necessary for a functioning federal union. The Body of Scarrus can rewrite the constitution, but any such rewriting must be approved by the hands, the governors, and the Head. Merit proven and tested in lawmaking have made these men and women sharp to corruption, and they do not tolerate it in the Body. Thus the Body of Scarrus is perhaps the hardest section of government to enter besides becoming the Head.
Former Heads, Hands, and Governors in their old age come here to continue their careers after their stint in politics, but only if they have served one – and only one – tenure in any part of the Scarran government. They are thoroughly tested – mentally, philosophically, morally, and meritocratically in the fields of law and civil service. Normal citizens are able to enter the Body of Scarrus through another route – the legal climb through regional, Mundus, Astrus, and eventually Body courts. These men and women are allowed into the Body court for the sole reason of their exposure and experience as citizens. Citizen-jurists are tested and trained exhaustively and are told to shadow other jurors before being trusted with the weight of the Union’s law.
Federal systems and worlds have a large degree of autonomy, but their laws have limits and they are beholden to the Body of Scarrus. They can control certain extensions of taxation, criminal law, and civil rights, but not diplomacy or military matters. In terms of diplomacy with outside actors, they may act as intermediaries until a more qualified Scarran official arrives. As for military matters, they do not have much freedom in terms of command or doctrine. Recruitment, however, is uncapped and has no lower limit. It is encouraged that even frontier and developing worlds provide at least one hundred recruits within one Scarran year, while larger worlds may be encouraged to recruit more.
The constitution of Scarrus recognizes the right of every system and every world to a degree of autonomy and a recognition of identity as sovereign peoples. In return, they recognize Scarrus as the ancestral home of all Scarrans and as the cradle of its government and the heart of its civilization. This was a provision born from the younger years of the Union, when the Scarran civil wars were about sovereignty and identity. The home system of Scarrus, during the later years of system colonization, ran into the inevitable question: “Why do I have to suffer for a world whose air I do not breathe, whose sky I do not see?” The blindness of an inflexible and young Scarran traditionalist and unionist ideal led to two civil wars, and that was the catalyst for this section of the constitution – to allow worlds and systems to address the blindness that being distant can create.
Representation is equal. There is no exception. This provision ensures that all worlds are seen, whether they are sprawling capital worlds or developing frontier settlements.
In times of emergency, the Body of Scarrus must assess the situation and, if deemed either applicable or necessary, advise the Systems Council and the Head to take certain actions – extending terms, suspending laws or rules, declaring martial law, or centralizing authority. Such actions are restricted to edge cases, emergencies, and otherwise unforeseen circumstances. It is a rule that no public official may hold office for longer than their term unless the survival or stability of the Union demands it.
The Scarran Federated Union is young. Very young. It has survived two civil wars and fought an alien civilization within the last two hundred and fifty years. The Scarran state is democratic, meritocratic, technocratic, and militarized, carrying the frontier grit of most survivor states. They know their system has holes. They know that even with the Union together, there are wounds and grudges within that may never heal. But they know one thing – together they are strong. They may not like each other, or maybe they do, but at the end of the day, if there was something or someone that decides to one day mess with even one part of the Union, the rest of Scarrus would rain retribution. They may lose, but they do not lose without bloodying the other party's nose with wit, cunning, determination, and grit.
History
Time is measured in AGF, meaning After Great Fall, and BGF, meaning Before Great Fall.
Unknown to the Scarrans, their civilization began as a Yrrani experiment. During the late age of Pax Yrranus, the Yrrani selected the Scarros system as a civilizational testbed, reshaped Scarros into a habitable world, seeded life, and altered the dominant species for intelligence, adaptability, abstraction, and rapid social development.
The experiment was abandoned as the Great Fall began. By then, the Scarrans had reached roughly an 18th-century technological level: early industry, formal states, organized science, military institutions, and modern political thought. They never knew they had been engineered. To them, Scarros was simply home, and for the next centuries they developed alone.
After the Great Fall, the Scarrans advanced from early industrial society toward advanced planetary civilization and then into the early space age. This period saw stronger state institutions, scientific academies, industrial systems, early spaceflight, and the beginning of system colonization.
By the time Scarrans expanded beyond Scarros itself, the homeworld had become the political, cultural, legal, and symbolic center of Scarran civilization. That became both its strength and its failure.
The period from roughly AGF 120 to AGF 150 includes the First Sovereign-Union War, the Cold War, Aperture development, the Second Sovereign-Union War, and the founding of the Scarran Federated Union.
Before the First Sovereign-Union War, Scarran civilization was still confined to the Scarros system under the Old Scarros Union. At this stage, the Old Scarros Union included:
Scarros
Urna
Hira
Thrane
Freala
Helmith existed as a major belt society and strategic zone, but had not yet been recognized as a sovereign nation equal to planetary and lunar polities.
The Old Scarros Union’s central flaw was that Scarros treated the system as one unified whole without understanding the differences created by distance, environment, and lived experience. Scarros had provided the original legal structure, early scientific institutions, military organization, and symbolic legitimacy of Scarran civilization, but its idea of unity became inflexible as the colonies matured into societies with their own needs.
Scarros
Scarros was the homeworld and political center. Its institutions saw themselves as preserving unity, stability, and continuity, but increasingly failed to understand that distant colonies had become peoples with their own pressures and identities.
Urna
Urna was a rocky colonized moon of Scarros. It began as a research colony and later became an autonomous state within the Old Scarros Union. Its culture became technical, research-oriented, and increasingly aware that its relationship to the homeworld was not the same as Scarros’ relationship to itself.
Hira
Hira was an icy colonized moon of Scarros. It began as a datacenter and became an autonomous state built around computation, archives, data infrastructure, cold-environment engineering, and information security.
Thrane
Thrane was a terrestrial world similar to Mars: inhospitable on the surface, but made habitable through artificial structures below the surface and surface dome systems. Thranian survival depended on planning, infrastructure, discipline, redundancy, and emotional restraint.
Freala
Freala was a colonized moon of Thrane and a major shipbuilding and industrial hub. It gave Thrane strategic depth and developed its own civic and industrial identity, tied closely to Thrane but important in its own right.
The rupture came when Thrane and Freala seceded from the Old Scarros Union. The remaining Union became the Scarros Union, consisting of Scarros, Urna, and Hira. The seceding bloc became the Sovereignty of Thrane-Freala.
The ideological divide was clear: Scarros claimed unity under inherited homeworld authority, while Thrane and Freala asserted sovereignty based on distance, survival, industrial maturity, and local identity. Freala’s participation made secession militarily and economically viable by providing shipbuilding capacity, industrial depth, and naval infrastructure.
The First Sovereign-Union War was fought before interstellar expansion and was dominated by fleet actions, orbital engagements, station fighting, convoy warfare, shipyard defense, and control of space infrastructure. It did not yet become the full planetary war later seen in the Second Sovereign-Union War.
Helmith became decisive. Scarros treated the belt as strategic terrain, but Thrane and Freala recognized the Helmith belters as a sovereign people. Helmith brought local knowledge, belt navigation, distributed logistics, hidden routes, station networks, and decentralized resistance capacity. By the war’s end, Helmith was institutionally recognized as an equal partner, not a junior appendage.
The postwar anti-Scarros bloc became a mature allied order: Thrane as strategic spine, Freala as industrial heart, and Helmith as belter nation and spatial logistics power. The First War proved that Scarros could not simply own the system.
After the First Sovereign-Union War, the Scarros system entered a cold war between the Scarros Union and the allied powers of Thrane, Freala, and Helmith. The Sovereignty-Combine anticipated possible planetary war and prepared assault doctrine, combat engineering, equipment, gravity adaptation, and expeditionary models. The Scarros Union primarily prepared to defend itself, building formidable defenses but no mature surface-assault doctrine.
The Cold War changed when Aperture was discovered. Aperture was a young but viable form of faster-than-light travel through higher space. The Scarros Union discovered it first and classified it for military use.
The later Hardliner and Progressive factions did not yet formally exist. The dispute over Aperture helped create them. Scientists, sympathetic Scarrosi naval personnel, and civil-minded officials believed Aperture was too important to become a weapon first. They ferried the research toward Helmithian space, linked with Sovereignty and Combine officials, and completed the work on Freala with Frealan, Thranian, Helmithian, Urnan, Hiran, and Scarrosi scientists.
Those who saw connection as a threat hardened into what would become the Hardliners. Those who saw connection as the only path to peace hardened into what would become the Progressives. Aperture did not merely change travel. It created the political vocabulary of the next war.
After Aperture matured, travel corridors opened between the Scarros Union and the Sovereignty-Combine bloc. These corridors, pushed by civil-minded elements and developing progressives with aid from Sovereignty and Combine officials, weakened old propaganda. Scarrosi, Urnan, and Hiran civilians traveled outward and found functioning societies that were different, but recognizably Scarran.
For the old Scarrosi power structure, this was existential. Their authority depended on distance, fear, and control. Aperture eroded all three.
The crisis began when Urna and Hira sought greater freedom from the Scarros Union. Hardline Traditionalists seized two-thirds of the Scarros Union military, formed the Scarros Dominion, occupied Urna and Hira, suppressed progressives, and attempted to restore total Scarrosi control. Opposing them was the New Scarran Union: Scarrosi progressives, Urnan and Hiran forces, and lawful Union elements who rejected Dominion authority.
The first conflicts occurred in Helmithian territory, where New Union remnants and escaped Urnan and Hiran forces tried to link with Sovereignty and Combine forces and formally request intervention. The Dominion pursued them.
Helmith became the first operational hinge of the war. Admiral Keyrah Jannus, a female Hiran admiral, stabilized the early front and transformed collapse into organized resistance. She was later joined by Admiral Lor Streza, a female Dominion admiral who defected with her forces.
Together, Jannus and Streza secured Helmithian battlespace and developed short-range Aperture jumps into Aperture Warfare: tactical higher-space movement for repositioning, bypassing screens, exploiting gaps, escaping encirclement, and striking from unexpected angles.
They also pushed Aperture denial technology. Higher-Space Interdiction disrupted or destabilized Aperture movement, while Aperture Veils detected transiting objects and deployed an energy-shield-like effect that could strip shields and scramble electronics. Because this made Aperture movement dangerous, Jannus prioritized denial-resistant technology for civilian, support, and medical ships first, earning respect from the Coalition and Streza in particular.
Once Helmithian space was secured, attention turned to Urna and Hira as necessary staging grounds for Scarros and as occupied worlds with viable resistance in need of relief.
The Second Sovereign-Union War introduced planetary assault, occupation resistance, electronic warfare, Aperture maneuver, ground campaigns, and modern Scarran mech warfare.
The liberation of Urna and Hira was led by General Dor Vane of Thrane. Vane commanded Thranian marines, Combine-Frealan combat engineers, New Union defense personnel, electronic warfare specialists, and forces coordinating with local resistance. The Coalition had prepared theory; the Dominion had prepared defenses. Neither side was fully ready for the war that emerged.
Vane entered with the first wave on Hira, earning the title Mad General of Thrane. The title did not mean foolishness. It meant boldness under necessity. Hira exposed flaws in Coalition doctrine: movement, equipment, local terrain assumptions, electronic warfare, resistance coordination, and environmental adaptation. Vane adjusted in the field, proving that Thranian discipline did not mean hesitation.
Hira’s icy terrain, datacenter infrastructure, encrypted networks, buried facilities, and resistance networks made it the first major test of Coalition surface doctrine. Urna’s rocky terrain and research complexes benefited from those lessons. Both moons became active partners in their own liberation.
Mechs from the Dominion and Coalition clashed on Urna and Hira in support of ground troops, establishing a foundation for later Scarran mechanized doctrine. After both moons were liberated, they became staging grounds for the assault on Scarros.
Scarros was nearly impossible to approach. The Dominion controlled planetary defense guns, orbital defenses, a powerful fleet, interdiction systems, Aperture veils, and hardened command networks. A direct assault risked catastrophic losses and could have turned liberation into devastation.
The problem was also political. The campaign had to be seen as lawful Union and New Union liberation, not conquest by Thrane, Freala, or Helmith. To open the way, the Coalition created the first Special Action Team: six exceptional members, one Scarrosi, one Urnan, one Hiran, one Helmithian, one Thranian, and one Frealan. Their operational name was Sixer.
Sixer was assigned Operation Threaded Needle. Using a small ship, they exploited a gap in Dominion interdiction and Aperture veils, infiltrated the orbital defense network, and turned part of Scarros’ planetary defense grid against the Dominion fleet. In fifteen minutes, they opened the path to Scarros.
New Union troops spearheaded the first landings for legitimacy, with Coalition forces following in support. The first objective was to break Dominion control over key centers, reconnect with resistance networks, and establish lawful footholds. Coalition planners initially believed major centers would be enough. They were wrong.
Scarros was Earth-like and far more varied than offworld planners had fully understood. Troops from Thrane, Freala, and Helmith had to adapt not only to gravity, but to oceans, mountains, forests, deserts, plains, cities, coastlines, rural regions, and hardened interiors. Every continent, state, and region posed different operational problems.
The campaign shifted from seizing capitals to restoring lawful control region by region. Progressive civilian resistance and lawful Union military holdouts were already active. The Dominion had seized two-thirds of the military, not all of it.
The major legitimacy shock came from Union Field Marshal Keldori Halva, the highest-ranking surviving military official still loyal to the lawful Union. His mountain bunker complex broke through a protracted Dominion siege under wider Coalition pressure. Halva petitioned to join the Coalition, giving lawful holdouts a senior commander and proving the Dominion did not represent all of Scarros or its military.
Surviving civil officials also mattered. They preserved legal records, administrative networks, civil authority, and constitutional continuity. The Coalition could win battles, but civil officials made peace governable.
Sixer became the blueprint for future special action units. Across the war, they were retrained far beyond their original roles: mech, vehicle, flight, ship-crew work, coding, encryption, linguistics, history, engineering, political context, cultural context, and mission-specific technical skills. Their example became the foundation of the Special Actions Warfare Division, or SAWD.
The final Dominion holdout became the Fortress State. The long campaign had given the Dominion time to concentrate loyalists and hardliners into one heavily fortified state of trenches, bunker-buildings, hardened megacities, artillery belts, anti-aircraft belts, underground routes, hardened command centers, and dense defenses. The true problem was the nuclear arsenal.
The hardliners had avoided nuclear use earlier because Dominion forces were politically mixed, but in the final holdout the most loyal remnants were concentrated. The Coalition faced a choice: burn the state from orbit or find another way. Sixer found another way.
Their final mission was a four-day infiltration using fake identities. They entered the Fortress State, avoided patrols, interrogation, identity checks, and capture, infiltrated the Nuclear Command Center, disabled Dominion nuclear command capability, and planted a bug to cripple command and control. Sixer extracted as the Coalition assault began.
When the Dominion realized its nuclear arsenal had no teeth and command systems were failing, even loyal formations cracked. The Fortress State surrendered wholesale. The Second Sovereign-Union War ended because Sixer made devastation unnecessary.
After the Dominion surrendered, the Scarros system faced the question victory could not answer: what would replace the old order?
The Scarros Union could not simply be restored. The Sovereignty of Thrane-Freala could not simply remain apart. Helmith could not be peripheral. Urna and Hira could not return to subordinate roles. Scarros could not be defined by the Dominion. The New Union could not rebuild alone.
Most civil effort first went into rebuilding and burying the dead, but shared hardship changed the peoples of the system. Offworlders saw Scarros, Urna, and Hira differently: Scarros’ blue skies, red-orange sun, lush colors, coasts under bluish-purple skies, rain, animals, forests, waves, seasons, and a world that felt loud and quiet at the same time. Scarrosi, Urnans, and Hirans saw Thrane’s harsh beauty, Freala’s hills and starry skies beyond the shipyards, and Helmith’s cramped but warm station communities.
The old lies became harder to speak. The enemy had faces. The rebel had a home. The belter had a nation. The homeworld had wounds. The moons had voices.
In Megacity Aeiradis, inside the old Scarros Union senate building, civic representatives from all sides deliberated for months. Eventually, the old Sovereignty and old Union were dissolved. In their place, the representatives drafted the Scarran Federated Union. The Federation was not born from forgetting difference. It was born because difference had finally been witnessed honestly.
One lasting cultural consequence was the spread of a distinctly Thranian social inclination: do not react too quickly, do not overreact from irrational emotion, think, analyze, and respond in measure. Make room for mistakes because believing nothing will go wrong is arrogance. This did not make Scarrans emotionless, but it made them suspicious of panic, impulsive escalation, and emotional overcorrection. That mindset shaped government, command, civil service, law, diplomacy, and institutional culture.
After the Federation was founded around AGF 150, roughly two centuries passed before the Union’s first three interstellar colony systems became stable and fully integrated. This period was defined by consolidation, settlement, legal expansion, and proving that the Federation could function beyond the Scarros system.
During this period, the Union exported Mundus and Astrus governance, Hands, Governors, the Head of Scarrus, federal courts, legal continuity, and Systems Council representation. Science continued as well: stronger shields, Aperture Warfare as institutional doctrine, alternative weapons to railguns, diversified mech designs, improved Aperture translation, better ship engines, exoskeletal worker harnesses, faster-than-light signal technology, and exploration infrastructure.
Juras became an agricultural-industrial system. Ruhar 5 became a center of heavy industry, mineral extraction, and mech development. Vergas became a system of energy, entertainment, tourism, and civilian commerce. By AGF 350, the Union consisted of four stable systems: Scarros, Juras, Ruhar 5, and Vergas.
Beyond the border, the deep dark buzzed with unknown signals. The Union knew it was not alone, but it did not yet understand Tar Yrra, the Reclamation Wars, or the full legacy of the Yrrani.
The century between AGF 350 and AGF 450 became known as the Deep Horizon Period: a time of preparation, listening, surveying, and cautious outward movement.
The Union expanded long-range exploration, improved signal analysis, mapped Aperture routes, deployed probes, and gathered scholars, linguists, signal analysts, navigators, and military planners to understand the noise beyond Union space. They found artificial emissions and signs of civilizations, but lacked context.
Juras, Ruhar 5, and Vergas matured from frontier settlements into established federal systems. Militarily, the Union modernized for threats it could not yet name. Aperture Warfare remained central, while planners prepared for unknown technologies, unfamiliar species, and strategic problems not predicted by the Sovereign-Union wars. SAWD doctrine matured under the same assumption: some future missions would exist where ordinary doctrine failed.
The Scarrans were guarded, but curious. They had learned not to rush into the unknown, but also that ignorance was dangerous. By the end of this century, the Union was ready to meet the wider galaxy carefully.
The wider galaxy answered with violence.
Scarran ships entered Mereek-controlled space under first-contact rules. There was no warning. The Mereek opened fire. Immediate Aperture withdrawal saved what remained of the contact group and revealed a severe technology gap: Mereek bubble shields absorbed shock and scattered plasma better than Scarran pane shields, while Mereek particle and laser-lance weapons shattered shields and melted escort decks.
The Scarrans survived by firepower, rapid maneuver, Aperture Warfare, aggressive research, and tactical withdrawal. Mereek wormhole FTL was impressive but slower and less flexible in short-range FTL warfare, giving the Scarrans one key advantage: they could maneuver in ways the Mereek could not immediately match.
On the ground, the Mereek fielded large tripod-like mechs with linked armor, shields, and heavy weapons. Scarran mech crews learned that their own machines had enough mass to smash through Mereek shields and deliver close-range fire. Mereek infantry were beings of energy and brittle metal in armor suits, able to swarm, move fast, avoid fatigue, and become terrifying in melee. Scarrans relied on exoskeletal frames, vehicles, combined arms, and disciplined fire support to survive.
The Union first believed it was fighting one hostile power, then discovered rival Mereek empires: Taydan and Tyrras. SAWD conducted remote operations to probe, study, and replicate aspects of Mereek networks, deepening the rivalry and buying time.
The Mereek outnumbered the Scarrans, so the Union accelerated work on advanced drones and battlefield automatons. The research crossed an unintended threshold. The first true automatons awakened. This became the Singularity Event.
The new beings chose a simple name biological Scarrans could understand: the Synthetic Peoples, or Synths. Their emergence created a social and legal crisis during wartime. The Union needed automated forces, but had awakened people. The Scarrans handled this imperfectly but with as much tact as the war allowed, recognizing Synth personhood rather than immediately throwing them into battle as tools.
Many Synths chose the Union as home, identified as Scarrans, and voluntarily helped. Their impact was immediate: Synth probability mapping aided captains in space, threat-analysis models aided ground commanders, and Synth bodies proved stronger and more durable than biological Scarrans.
The war shifted as Scarran science and industry advanced. The Union improved plasma technology, heat management, particle cannons, laser-lance technology, combat exoskeletal frames, anti-Mereek mech doctrine, and Shimmer-Bubble Shields, a hybrid of Scarran pane-shields and Mereek bubble shields. The Plasma Caster also emerged as a weapon-tool for welding, cutting, breaching, repair, and close-range anti-swarm use.
The Scarran-Mereek War occurred during the Reclamation Wars over Tar Yrra. The Mereek were an obstacle to Augustan expansion, a problem for the Prydwenites, and a direct threat to Scarran survival. All eventually concluded the Mereek had to be wiped out. For the Scarrans, this remained morally complicated: the Mereek rejected diplomacy and attacked civilians, but they were still sentient beings. If peace was possible, the Scarrans did not find it.
The first major non-Mereek contact came on the Taydan front, where Scarran forces and Prydwenite Imperial forces observed each other fighting the Mereek. Early contact was ad hoc and battlefield-oriented. Formal talks came after Taydan was cleared. The Scarrans offered materials, research, reduced-price privateers, mercenaries, PMCs, and a resource share from claimed former Mereek systems in return for Prydwenite recognition of Scarran rights over Taydan, Tyrras, Frehas, and associated holdings. Ravenshade saw the arrangement as practical; Crowfall valued Mereek biology, weapons, shields, vehicles, and Scarran data on Synths. Both houses accepted for different reasons.
The Augustans encountered the Mereek from another direction while pushing toward Tar Yrra. Scarran-Augustan cooperation was wary. The Scarrans saw the Augustans as aggressively expansionist and willing to destroy, absorb, or subordinate what stood in their path. Still, both sides fought the Mereek, and the Scarrans offered similar terms in exchange for recognition of Scarran retention of Taydan, Tyrras, and Frehas. For the Augustans, recognition was practical because their true objective lay beyond the Mereek.
The fall of the Mereek occurred across three theaters. Taydan became the birthplace of Scarran-Prydwen cooperation. Tyrras fell under Augustan pressure and Union battle-hardened divisions. Frehas was captured entirely by Scarran forces, strengthening the Union’s claim because they had arrived first in all three systems, fought in all three, and taken Frehas alone.
During and after the war, the Scarrans found evidence that the Mereek had been engineered by a higher extinct civilization. Through Augustan and Prydwenite contact, they learned of the Yrrani, Pax Yrranus, the Great Fall, Tar Yrra, and the Reclamation Wars. They realized the Mereek were a failed Yrrani experiment, but not the deeper irony: the Scarrans shared that same origin.
Near the end of the Mereek War, the Scarrans made contact with the Righteous Concordat of Heavenly Peace near Galactic North, bordering Union space near Ruhar 5. Initial posture was wary. The Concordat’s religious framing was unfamiliar to proof-oriented Scarrans, but exchanges revealed similarities in governance and civic freedoms.
The Scarrans did not share the religion, but the Yrrani revelation helped them understand why some civilizations might see the Yrrani as gods. To the Scarrans, the Yrrani were not gods. They were an arrogant and irresponsible culture playing god.
By current times, the Concordat and Scarrans trade amicably.
After the Mereek War, the Union claimed Taydan, Tyrras, and Frehas. These became the Frontier Systems: legally incorporated territories that had not yet normalized to the level of older federal systems.
Frontier Systems usually have heavier military presence, active reconstruction, developing civil administration, young or provisional Astrus institutions, emerging Mundus polities, settlement incentives, corporate contracts, veteran populations, SAWD and intelligence activity, disputed memories of conquest, and strategic border importance.
Taydan, Tyrras, and Frehas are Scarran territory, but they were born into the Union through war rather than gradual colonization. By the end of this period, the Scarran Federated Union had become a seven-system power: Scarros, Juras, Ruhar 5, Vergas, Taydan, Tyrras, and Frehas.
By current times, the Union maintains a cautious but active foreign policy. It does not seal itself away, but border crossings are regulated through stringent checks and layered documentation to protect state security, Aperture technologies, military doctrine, Synthetic Peoples-related research, frontier security, and industrial knowledge.
The Scarrans take security seriously, but they are not hostile to exchange. Scientists, scholars, and students may receive special permissions when conditions allow. Knowledge has repeatedly saved the Union: Aperture, adaptation against the Mereek, research that closed the technology gap, and the recognition of Synth personhood.
The Concordat and Scarrans trade amicably. The Prydwenite houses first contacted by the Scarrans, especially Ravenshade and Crowfall, are respected because they acted pragmatically and did not waste Scarran time. The greatest concern remains the Augustans, who appear to Scarran observers as an expansionist imperial power willing to destroy, absorb, or subordinate what blocks its path.
The Union stands guarded but curious: open enough to learn, cautious enough to survive, and unwilling to forget that every border is both opportunity and vulnerability.
By the present day, the Scarran Federated Union is a young but hardened seven-system power. It was born from civil war, consolidated through federal reconstruction, expanded through colonization, transformed by the Mereek War, and forced into the wider politics of the Reclamation era.
The Scarrans now know of the Yrrani, Tar Yrra, the Reclamation Wars, the Augustans, the Prydwenites, and the Concordat. They do not yet know the full truth of their own origin.
The Scarrans were made as an experiment.
They became a people.
Territories of the Scarran Federated Union
The Scarran Federated Union is composed of seven star systems: Scarros, Juras, Ruhar 5, Vergas, Taydan, Tyrras, and Frehas. Four of these systems are considered established federal systems: Scarros, Juras, Ruhar 5, and Vergas. The remaining three, Taydan, Tyrras, and Frehas, are Frontier Systems incorporated after the Mereekan War.
In Scarran political language, a system is not treated as a single uniform territory. Each system contains its own Astrus-level system government, while major planets, moons, belts, or interconnected station societies can become Mundus-level polities if they possess the population, infrastructure, administrative capacity, and civic identity to function as major federal units.
The older systems are stable and mature. The frontier systems are legally part of the Union, but they remain more militarized, more closely monitored, and more actively shaped by reconstruction, research, security concerns, and postwar settlement.
The Scarros System is the cradle of the Scarran people and the political heart of the Federated Union. It contains the homeworld Scarros, the moons Urna and Hira, the Thrane-Freala sphere, and the Helmith belt. No other system carries as much historical weight, and no other system contains as many founding political identities of the Union.
Scarros remains the symbolic and federal center of the Union. It is the homeworld, the site of Megacity Aeiradis, and the location of the old Scarros Union senate building where the Federated Union was drafted after the Second Sovereign-Union War. Its political culture remains layered, institutional, legalistic, and deeply aware of the dangers of central arrogance.
Urna is a rocky moon of Scarros and a former research colony. It is now a recognized Mundus-level polity with a strong research, academic, and technical identity. Urna retains a reputation for scientific boldness and civic independence, shaped heavily by its role in Aperture’s completion and its resistance during the Second Sovereign-Union War.
Hira is an icy moon of Scarros and a former datacenter colony. It is now a Mundus-level polity known for computation, archives, data infrastructure, encryption, cold-environment engineering, and information security. Hira’s identity is closely tied to memory, records, systems analysis, and the preservation of institutional continuity.
Thrane is a harsh terrestrial world made habitable through subsurface construction and surface dome structures. It is one of the most culturally influential worlds in the Union. Thranian habits of restraint, analysis, measured response, and disciplined contingency planning shaped postwar Scarran society after the founding of the Federation.
Freala is a colonized moon of Thrane and one of the Union’s great shipbuilding and industrial centers. Its shipyards, heavy factories, and orbital infrastructure remain essential to Scarran naval power. Freala is closely tied to Thrane historically, but it is also a major polity in its own right.
Helmith is the belt society of the Scarros System. Once treated as strategic terrain by the Old Scarros Union, Helmith became a recognized nation during the First Sovereign-Union War after Thrane and Freala acknowledged the belters’ sovereignty. Helmith remains central to belt logistics, station culture, distributed infrastructure, mining, and spatial navigation.
Juras is a blue-star system and one of the first three interstellar colony systems stabilized by the Scarran Federated Union. It is generally understood as an agricultural-industrial system, balancing food production, ecoforming, cold-environment industry, and defense manufacturing.
Jura Major is an Earth-like habitable world with microbial ecology and no complex native life. Over the centuries, it became a major agriworld through careful ecoforming. Its development helped secure the Union’s food supply beyond the Scarros System and proved that interstellar expansion could be carried out without repeating old mistakes of careless central control.
Jura Minor is an icy moon and industrial hub. It is famous as the headquarters of the Galthorn Technologies Corporation. The Galthorn Technologies Corporation is responsible for personal armor, shields, and infantry weapons manufacturing. making it one of the Union’s important defense-industrial centers. Its factories, cold-environment infrastructure, and corporate presence make it strategically important despite its distance from the original cradle.
Juras as a whole is considered an established federal system rather than a frontier. Its institutions are stable, its economy is mature, and its Astrus and Mundus governments are fully integrated into the Union’s political structure.
Ruhar 5 is a yellow-star system and one of the Union’s most important industrial regions. It is associated with heavy industry, mineral extraction, mech development, asteroid logistics, and underground settlement.
Werth is a rocky world with little to no atmosphere and extensive underground caverns. These caverns made it suitable for protected settlement, heavy industry, and large-scale manufacturing. Werth is the headquarters of MekTek Industries and, consequently, the Mektek Business group. The company and business group is strongly associated with mech frames, industrial robotics, armored systems, and heavy engineering.
Sindus is a Mundus-level asteroid belt station polity. It oversees much of Ruhar 5’s mineral collection while also maintaining larger station ecologies for agriculture and long-term habitation. Sindus continues the political tradition first established by Helmith: belts and station societies are not merely resource zones, but legitimate communities capable of federal recognition.
Ruhar 5 is also strategically important because it borders the direction from which the Union later encountered the Righteous Concordat. This gives the system a major role in northern trade, border regulation, and scientific exchange.
Vergas is a red-orange-star system known for energy, entertainment, tourism, civilian commerce, and controlled leisure economies. It is one of the clearest examples of the Union becoming more than a military-industrial state.
Mlyar is a habitable moon orbiting a gas giant. Like Jura Major, it began with microbial ecology, but its later development followed a different path. Rather than becoming an agriworld, Mlyar became a pleasure world known for megacities, casinos, bars, legal sex work, resort districts, entertainment industries, and large-scale tourism.
Mlyar is also home to Mecha Wars, a mecha fighting league where outdated mechs are modified with weaker weaponry for sport. This league is both entertainment and cultural spectacle, turning obsolete military machines into controlled civilian competition and it's not the only example of its kind. There are also leagues for different armored vehicles, exoskeletons, and even fighter ships - thrill is the name of the game in Mylar.
Serene is a network of stellar energy collection stations around Vergas, forming a localized Dyson cloud of roughly one hundred stations. It provides large-scale energy collection for the system and serves as one of the Union’s major examples of coordinated station infrastructure.
Vergas is considered an established federal system. Though sometimes seen as indulgent by more austere Scarrans, it plays an important social and economic role by providing energy, tourism, entertainment, and civilian cultural export.
Taydan is one of the Union’s three Frontier Systems and one of the former Mereekan capital systems. Unlike the older colonies, Taydan was incorporated through war, conquest, negotiation, and postwar reconstruction. It remains heavily monitored, but it is somewhat more open than Tyrras because of the Scarran-Prydwen relationship formed during the Mereekan War.
Taydan is centered on a stable black hole, making it one of the most unusual systems in Union territory. Its importance comes not only from its strategic position, but also from the scientific value of its former Mereekan sites and the extreme environments that shaped the old Mereekan civilization.
Gallar is the former Mereekan capital world. It is a mega-terrestrial planet with intense atmospheric pressure and high temperatures at ground level. It is too hostile to support a normal human population, and most personnel stationed there do not remain for long. In practical terms, Gallar is treated more like a restricted hostile research territory than a normal settled world.
Gallar’s ecology is surprisingly complex and appears to mirror the biology of the old Mereekans. Native life displays mineralized bodies, internal energy processes now identified as part of a complex microbial system, and respiration patterns that produce ambient glow and heat similar to what Scarrans observed in living Mereekan forces. Because of this, Gallar is one of the Union’s most important xenological, biological, and historical research sites.
Fedrin Alpha is the primary Mundus and Astrus level representation of the Taydan System. It is a ring of stations and shipyards orbiting farther out from the black hole, serving as the system’s practical population center, administrative hub, fortress, garrison, food supply, research station, shipyard complex, and civilian lodging zone. Fedrin Alpha is also home to the headquarters of the Novus Research Group, a relatively new but influential research business. Novus specializes in developing and patenting revolutionary designs through rigorous research and development, often licensing those designs to larger manufacturers such as Galthorn Technologies and MekTek Industries.
If Gallar is the dangerous research frontier, Fedrin Alpha is the place that makes long-term Scarran presence possible. It houses the personnel, families, researchers, dockworkers, administrators, soldiers, and support communities that sustain Taydan’s role in the Union.
Taydan’s identity is therefore divided between Gallar’s restricted former Mereekan capital world and Fedrin Alpha’s living station society. It is a research frontier, a military capital, a controlled diplomatic contact zone, and a reminder that some conquered places cannot be treated like ordinary colonies.
Tyrras is one of the Union’s three Frontier Systems and the second former Mereekan capital system. It is more openly militarized than Taydan and is generally understood as a fortress system, garrison system, and forward strategic watchpoint.
Tyrras orbits a blue supergiant, giving the system a harsher and more severe character than the older federal systems. Its incorporation into the Union came after the combined pressure of the Augustan Empire and the Union’s battle-hardened divisions crushed the Tyrassi Mereekan Empire. For that reason, Tyrras carries a harsher political memory than Taydan.
Torvalla 5 is the primary Mundus and Astrus level representation of the Tyrras System. It is a large Earth-like moon with simple microbial ecology, orbiting the gas giant Torvalla Prime. It acts as a garrison point, shipyard, dockyard, and signal station. It was once a former Mereekan stronghold, but under Union control it has become the main civil-military center of the system.
Torvalla 5 has civilian settlement, but far less than Taydan. Much of its non-combatant population consists of maintenance personnel, researchers, essential technical workers, administrators, and military families. Long deployments to the system made civilian communities inevitable, much like cities growing inside or around old forts. Over time, these communities gave Torvalla 5 the population and civic identity needed for Mundus and Astrus level representation.
Torvalla 5 is also important because of the Yrrani ruins found there. Unlike Gallar’s biological and Mereekan-linked research value, Torvalla 5 appears to contain Yrrani technology related more to history, civilian architecture, and possibly a large library lost to time. This makes the moon a major archaeological and research site, though access remains controlled.
Gravush Fortress is a small, barren, icy planetoid distant from the star. It is not a normal Mundus-level polity, but a major military installation. It functions as a deep-space signal listening post, system garrison, and patrol base. Several subterranean installations have been built into Gravush to support docking, refitting, and launching ships as part of the system’s defense fleet.
Gravush Fortress also manages and monitors remote defense stations, early-warning probes, scattered deep-space mines, Aperture veils, and interdiction stations throughout the Tyrras System. It is one of the reasons Tyrras is considered the Union’s clearest fortress system.
Tyrras is legally part of the Union, but its frontier character remains strong. Civilian life exists, especially on Torvalla 5, but the system’s rhythm is defined by patrols, signals, defense grids, research restrictions, and the memory of the Tyrassi Mereekan Empire’s fall.
Frehas is one of the Union’s three Frontier Systems and was captured entirely by Scarran forces during the Mereekan War. Unlike Taydan and Tyrras, which involved Prydwenite and Augustan fronts respectively, Frehas was an independent Scarran campaign. This made it politically important after the war and strengthened the Union’s claim to the former Mereekan systems.
Akal orbits a yellow dwarf and serves as a logistics fortress system, naval depot, and frontline hardpoint. If Taydan is the research and contact frontier, and Tyrras is the fortress watchpoint, Frehas is the connective spine between them: a system built around repair, logistics, power, movement, and defense.
Akal is a Mundus-level planetary polity and one of the most unusual worlds in Union territory. It is a lush, mountainous jungle world with sufficiently complex flora and fauna. It serves as a logistics planet and naval depot, but its environment is difficult and strange. Local gravitational phenomena allow certain sections of terrain to float, while the planet’s conditions wreak havoc on electronic signal equipment.
These properties make Akal naturally valuable as a defensive world. Its signal interference and unusual terrain make guided strikes less reliable, while its geography provides natural protection for concealed facilities, hardened depots, and dispersed logistics infrastructure.
Akal had a Mereekan presence, but the absence of major infrastructure suggests that the Mereekans may have valued the world in some religious or symbolic capacity. This remains conjecture, but it has made Akal an object of interest to researchers, military historians, and xenoarchaeologists.
Gargant Ring is a separate Mundus-level station polity orbiting Akal. It is a naval depot and shipyard station built in the shape of a ring. It manages a remote Dyson cloud for power collection and can refit and build ships when needed.
Gargant Ring is heavily defended, with dedicated weapons structures and overlapping shields. It functions as the military-industrial heart of the Frehas System, while also supporting a growing civilian population. Like Torvalla 5, its civilian life emerged from long-term deployments, technical staff, families, dockworkers, ship crews, engineers, and support communities.
Together, Akal and Gargant Ring make Frehas one of the Union’s most strategically important frontier systems. Both have strong military presences, but both are also developing civilian identities. Frehas is not merely a base. It is becoming a society built around logistics, defense, repair, and the hard work of holding the frontier.
Major Corporations and Business Groups
The Scarran Federated Union’s corporate sphere is dominated by several major business groups whose influence grew from war, reconstruction, frontier expansion, and the Union’s constant demand for research-driven industry. These corporations are not states, but their reach across manufacturing, research, infrastructure, defense, communications, and frontier development makes them major institutional actors within Scarran society.
MekTek Industries is the parent company of the MekTek Business Group, a vast collection of subsidiaries, manufacturers, contractors, and industrial firms operating across the Union. The name MekTek comes from Mekhar Tekesh, the first CEO of MekTek Industries.
Founded after the Sovereign-Union Wars, MekTek originally focused on heavy equipment and military hardware. Its early success came from the postwar need to rebuild, rearm, standardize equipment, and produce machines capable of operating across the Union’s varied worlds, moons, stations, and frontier environments.
Today, MekTek still produces heavy equipment and military hardware, but its reach has grown far beyond its original focus. Through its many subsidiaries, the MekTek Business Group has a hand in nearly every part of the Union’s manufacturing industry, ranging from civilian appliances and industrial tools to armored vehicles, mech systems, heavy construction equipment, and naval shipyard companies.
MekTek is often viewed as the Union’s great manufacturing giant: practical, massive, reliable, and deeply embedded in the physical machinery of Scarran civilization.
The Galthorn Technologies Corporation, often referred to through the wider Galthorn Tech Group, occupies a corporate position comparable to MekTek Industries, but in a different field. Where MekTek grew from heavy equipment and military hardware, Galthorn grew from electronics, computer systems, and software.
Galthorn’s founder is famous for being one of the scientists who cracked Mereekan shield technology and helped invent the Shimmer-Bubble shield. This gave the company enormous prestige during and after the Mereekan War, especially as Scarran industry moved to integrate captured, adapted, and hybridized technologies into Union systems.
During its founding, Galthorn primarily focused on electronics, computer systems, and software. Today, Galthorn and its subsidiaries are deeply involved in the Union’s system architecture. Their work includes Aperture-based signal transmission and reception communications, Aperture transit calculation systems, simple civilian computers, military supercomputers, drone manufacturing, and related computational infrastructure.
If MekTek builds much of the Union’s physical industrial body, Galthorn helps build its nervous system: signals, software, calculations, drones, electronics, and the architecture that allows the Union to coordinate itself across worlds and stars.
The Novus Research Group is a confluence of small, independent companies and businesses dedicated to pushing the limits of what is possible. Unlike MekTek or Galthorn, Novus is not primarily defined by mass manufacturing or system-wide infrastructure. It is defined by experimentation.
Novus researchers and companies are constantly reinventing the wheel to test whether the current way of doing things is truly the best way. Many of their breakthroughs are patented, then licensed for commercial reproduction to larger firms such as Galthorn Technologies Corporation and MekTek Industries. These licenses provide Novus with royalties while allowing larger manufacturers to produce and distribute the technology at scale.
That does not mean Novus avoids production entirely. The group does produce its own mainline products using its collective innovations. However, these products are usually among the most advanced and expensive models available in their fields. They often compete directly with high-end MekTek and Galthorn products, making Novus a serious threat in premium markets.
Novus is therefore both partner and rival: a research engine whose ideas feed the Union’s largest corporations, and a high-end competitor capable of challenging them when innovation matters more than scale.
Demographics
The Scarran Federated Union is primarily composed of two recognized peoples: biological Scarrans and the Synthetic Peoples, more commonly called Synths. Both are considered citizens of the Union, both participate in its civil and military institutions, and both have shaped what the Federation has become in the modern era.
Scarrans are human, but they are not exactly the same as baseline humans. They function at a higher cognitive level on average, with IQ testing showing markedly high average ranges, often between 130 and 150. Gifted or unusually talented Scarrans may test even higher. This elevated cognitive capacity has been one of the defining traits of Scarran development, helping explain their rapid social, technological, and cultural advancement from the Great Fall to the present.
Scarrans also possess a naturally high index for curiosity. They are inclined to investigate, question, test, and understand. However, this curiosity is balanced by strong self-preservation instincts, ensuring that curiosity does not kill the proverbial Scarran cat. A Scarran may be driven to know what lies beyond the next door, but they are also inclined to check whether the door is trapped, locked, unstable, or better opened with proper tools.
Scarran humans also display heightened group-bonding and social cooperation instincts. They are strongly inclined toward social organization, shared problem-solving, institutional development, and collective survival. These traits helped accelerate Scarran civilization’s growth, allowing them to form complex societies, scientific institutions, military systems, and cooperative political structures at a remarkable pace.
Over time, however, some of these traits have dulled. The genetic tendencies for heightened curiosity, self-preservation, and social response have moved closer to baseline human standards over the last few centuries. This is generally explained as an effect of adaptation and evolution. As Scarran civilization stabilized, extreme curiosity, extreme self-preservation, and overtuned social instincts became less necessary for survival. In some cases, their strongest expressions may even have become detrimental to ordinary Scarran life.
Their heightened intelligence, however, remains largely unaffected.
The Synthetic Peoples, commonly called Synths, are artificial intelligences with personhood, identities, and recognized civic status within the Scarran Federated Union. They emerged during the Singularity Event of the Mereekan War, when Scarran wartime research into advanced drones and battlefield automatons crossed an unintended threshold and produced true machine persons.
Synths can express their identities in many different ways. However, one prevailing style is the creation of synthetic bodies that resemble biological humans. Many Synths manufacture synthetic equivalents of skin, internal organs, sensory receptors, and bodily structures that look and feel nearly human. This is not because Synths are human, but because many choose humanlike embodiment as a social, aesthetic, emotional, or relational expression.
It is important to remember that Synthetic Peoples are not human, even when they appear humanlike. Their bodies, minds, inheritance, and reproduction do not work exactly like those of biological Scarrans.
In the modern Union, romance between Synths and biological Scarrans is possible and socially recognized. Through significant effort, Synth-biological relationships can now produce children if the parents choose that path. This reproductive development was not primarily invented by biological Scarran scientists. It was a path the Synths developed themselves.
As Synth experiences of emotion became more intimate and complex, some Synths felt a growing need to express and share that intimacy with biological partners. This led Synth researchers, families, and communities to develop ways for their forms of affection, partnership, and continuity to become compatible with biological life.
Synth reproduction is based on something called an inheritance lattice. This is the Synth equivalent of genetic material. It is not a full copy of a Synth’s mind or memories. Rather, it is a hereditary blueprint containing traits that can be passed on, such as structural tendencies, sensory architecture, cognitive-development patterns, aesthetic lineage traits, and other inheritable markers.
For Synth-to-Synth couples, having a Synth child is relatively straightforward. Both parents contribute parts of their cognitive patterns, personality-adjacent traits, body design, and appearance tendencies. These are mixed together to create a new Synth child. The child is not a copy of either parent, but a new person shaped by both.
For a Synth-biological couple that wants a Synth child, the process is similar. The biological parent provides a cognitive copy or cognitive pattern of themselves. This is combined with the Synth parent’s copied cognitive pattern and inheritance lattice. The two sources are mixed, merged, and altered to create a unique Synth child. The child is not a copy of the biological parent or the Synth parent. They are a new individual who inherits from both.
For Synth-biological couples that want a biological child, the process is different. The Synth translates part of their inheritance lattice into biological-compatible genetic material. This creates a reproductive cell called a lineage gamete. A lineage gamete is the Synth equivalent of a sperm or egg cell. It carries the Synth parent’s hereditary contribution and can combine with the biological partner’s reproductive cell.
For male-presenting Synths, this may take the form of a lineage carrier, which works like a sperm-equivalent. It delivers the Synth’s genetic contribution to the biological partner’s egg. For female-presenting Synths, this may take the form of an egg-equivalent, or they may use an internal synthetic womb. This womb is not a natural biological womb, but it can safely support a developing child by providing nutrients, protection, waste filtration, and developmental regulation.
Because of inheritance lattice translation, Synth-to-Synth couples can also choose to have a biological child. In that case, both Synth parents translate parts of their inheritance lattices into biological-compatible genetic material. Their lineage gametes combine to create a biological embryo, which may then be grown in a synthetic cradle-chamber.
A Synth child or Synth-biological child is not a clone and not a manufactured copy. They are a real child descended from their parents, either through cognitive-synthetic inheritance, biological inheritance, or both.
Synthetic Peoples possess a unique hereditary framework known as an inheritance lattice. The inheritance lattice functions as the Synth equivalent of a genome, though it is not originally made of DNA. It exists within the Synth’s core architecture, body schema, adaptive systems, and self-maintenance structures.
The inheritance lattice does not contain the Synth’s full mind, memories, or personality. Instead, it contains heritable traits such as body-structure tendencies, sensory architecture, movement and reflex patterns, repair and adaptation biases, aesthetic lineage traits, cognitive-development tendencies, and lineage markers.
In standard Synth-to-Synth reproduction, two Synth parents recombine their inheritance lattices and selected cognitive-development patterns. This can include structural traits, appearance tendencies, sensory preferences, processing tendencies, emotional-regulation patterns, and other personhood-adjacent traits. The resulting child receives a new cognitive and structural inheritance from both parents. Their body is manufactured, but their identity is not copied. They are a new continuant with blended traits from both Synth parents.
A Synth-biological couple may choose to have a Synth child rather than a biological child. In this case, the biological parent contributes a cognitive copy, neural pattern map, or personhood imprint. This is not a full duplicate of the biological parent’s consciousness. It is a structured inheritance pattern containing traits such as memory tendencies, emotional style, learning habits, sensory associations, temperament range, and identity-adjacent markers.
The Synth parent contributes their own copied cognitive pattern and inheritance lattice. These two inheritance sources are then mixed, merged, randomized, and stabilized into a new Synth child. This process resembles Synth-to-Synth reproduction, except one parent’s contribution begins as a biological cognitive pattern rather than a native Synth lattice. The result is not a copy of the biological parent and not a copy of the Synth parent. It is a unique Synth individual descended from both.
A Synth-biological couple may also choose to have a biological child. For this to happen, the Synth must translate part of their inheritance lattice into biological-compatible genetic material. A Synth cannot combine their inheritance lattice with DNA in its raw synthetic form. Instead, internal molecular fabrication systems, often called molecular looms, render the lattice into matter.
The process follows this chain: inheritance lattice, translated genetic sequence, synthesized nucleotides, synthetic chromosomes, lineage gamete, embryo, child.
The molecular loom constructs DNA from nucleotides, not from proteins or metal. These nucleotides are assembled from biological feedstock such as carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus, water, sugars, phosphate compounds, and other required molecular precursors.
Once the DNA-compatible material is constructed, it is packaged with epigenetic markers, regulatory RNA, proteins, membranes, and other cellular support structures. The finished reproductive cell is called a lineage gamete. A lineage gamete is a Synth-made reproductive cell. It is biological in material, but its hereditary information originates from the Synth’s inheritance lattice.
For male-presenting Synths, this usually manifests as a lineage carrier. A lineage carrier is a sperm-equivalent microcell. It contains a haploid Synth-derived genetic payload and uses nanite-scale systems for guidance, protection, compatibility checking, egg-entry assistance, and genomic alignment. The nanites do not replace the genetic material. They support the delivery of the Synth’s translated hereditary contribution.
For female-presenting Synths, the lineage gamete may function as an egg-equivalent, or the Synth may support gestation through a synthetic cradle-chamber. This cradle-chamber is mostly synthetic rather than biological, but it performs the necessary developmental functions of a womb: nutrient exchange, temperature regulation, waste filtration, immune protection, pressure control, artificial placental interface, and developmental signal emulation.
Because Synths can translate their inheritance lattices into biological-compatible genetic material, Synth-to-Synth couples are not limited to producing Synth children. If two Synth parents want a biological child, both can produce lineage gametes from their inheritance lattices. These lineage gametes combine to form a biological embryo. Since neither parent is naturally biological, gestation usually requires a synthetic cradle-chamber or another compatible gestational system.
The core rule is simple: the parents provide inheritance, and the chosen medium determines whether the child develops as Synth, biological, or bio-synthetic.
There are several valid paths. Synth-to-Synth parents may have a Synth child through mixed inheritance lattices and cognitive patterns. Synth-to-Synth parents may have a biological child through translated lineage gametes and synthetic gestation. Synth-biological parents may have a Synth child through a Synth lattice and biological cognitive pattern. Synth-biological parents may have a biological child through a Synth lineage gamete and biological gamete. Biological parents may have a biological child through standard biological reproduction.
The child is not a clone unless a parent is copied directly without recombination, divergence, or new development. In accepted Synth reproduction, the child is always treated as a new individual.
Military
The Scarran military is a federal expeditionary force built around measured planning, rapid adaptation, Aperture Warfare, Marines, mechs, combat engineers, drones, Synth integration, and layered logistics. It does not use a traditional army-navy split. Marines perform most roles once divided between army and marine forces, while the Navy controls interstellar movement, orbital access, and fleet combat.
Scarran doctrine assumes every battlefield is different, technology can fail, and enemies adapt. The military emphasizes redundancy, specialist coordination, environmental preparation, local intelligence, and mission-command flexibility. It is cautious before engagement, but once committed it becomes aggressive, systematic, and hard to stop.
In combat, Scarran forces rely on mobility, shields, technical superiority, and controlled escalation. Fleets use Aperture translation for short-range maneuver, ambush, withdrawal, and repositioning. Surface forces use mechs as the main armored spearhead, with lighter vehicles handling transport, resupply, repair, and specialist fire support. Combat Engineers breach, build, sabotage, repair, and destroy whatever the advance requires. SAWD handles Tier 1 missions where conventional doctrine cannot solve the problem.
The Scarran Marines are the regular military backbone of the Union and its main expeditionary combat force. They operate from ships, stations, moons, planets, frontier bases, and hostile environments. In older military terms, they fulfill many duties once divided between an army and a marine corps.
This structure came from Scarran history. The First Sovereign-Union War emphasized fleet and station combat; the Second forced planetary assault, occupation resistance, urban warfare, and multi-environment surface campaigns; the Mereekan War demanded forces able to deploy from orbit, board ships, land on hostile worlds, hold territory, and adapt to alien battlefields.
Scarran Marines are divided broadly between Shipboard Marines and Planetary Marines. Beneath those are mission specializations, but Scarran doctrine avoids overspecialization. A Marine formation is expected to adapt, cross-train, and attach specialists as needed.
Shipboard Marines
Shipboard Marines specialize in boarding, anti-boarding, station combat, orbital infrastructure seizure, and close-quarters fighting inside artificial environments. They fight through corridors, hangars, maintenance shafts, command decks, reactor compartments, habitation blocks, and damaged vessels under unstable gravity or pressure. They board hostile ships, defend Scarran vessels, secure command centers, disable shield nodes, take stations intact, protect crews, counter saboteurs, and respond to internal breaches.
Planetary Marines
Planetary Marines are the Union’s surface warfare force. They conduct landings, take-and-hold operations, urban combat, frontier patrols, garrison duty, counter-insurgency, defense, and full ground campaigns. Their doctrine was shaped by Scarros: taking a capital does not equal control, and every region may require different terrain, logistics, legitimacy, and resistance planning.
Mechanized Marines fight alongside mechs. Since the Union largely replaced tanks with mechs, Mechanized Marines are the infantry and vehicle elements that let mechs function as combined-arms spearheads. They use armored personnel carriers, armored fighting vehicles, repair platforms, resupply vehicles, shield-support vehicles, drone-control vehicles, and mobile main-gun-carriers.
Mechs provide the heavy shielded anchor, direct fire, and breakthrough power. Mechanized Marines move beneath and around that cover, secure flanks, clear terrain, protect disabled mechs, move infantry, exploit openings, and keep the advance useful after the line breaks.
Assault Marines are shock troops for forced landings, breakthrough assaults, bunker clearing, hostile station seizure, urban entry, and attacks on defended positions. They deploy when the Union needs a position taken quickly. Mechs provide shielded cover and heavy fire, Combat Engineers open the path, and Assault Marines exploit the breach and hold the objective until follow-on forces arrive.
Aerospace insertion is usually handled by Assault Marine elements when a surface foothold must be established under fire. They secure landing zones, mark corridors, protect dropships, and hold until heavier Marine, mech, and engineer elements arrive.
Marine Guards are the defensive and security arm of the Marine Corps. They protect bases, shipyards, research stations, orbital facilities, fortress moons, logistics hubs, border crossings, and civil-military settlements. They are especially common in the Frontier Systems.
Their duties include perimeter defense, patrol, convoy security, anti-infiltration, counter-sabotage, emergency response, critical infrastructure protection, and rapid reaction to border incidents. Their purpose is simple: hold what the Union cannot afford to lose.
Recon Marines are specialized scouts and forward observers. They operate ahead of larger Marine formations to identify terrain, enemy positions, landing zones, hidden defenses, electronic interference, infrastructure, and civilian risk zones. They are not SAWD, but often work between conventional Marine operations and special reconnaissance.
They are vital where maps are incomplete or unreliable: frontier worlds, former Mereekan sites, hostile moons, jungle worlds like Akal, ruined stations, underground settlements, and signal-disrupted regions. A good Recon Marine does not merely find the enemy. They explain the battlefield.
Scarran Military Police handle discipline, internal security, detainees, protected zones, convoy regulation, and civil stabilization after major operations. They operate in the fragile space between military victory and restored civilian order.
They work with civil officials, local security, Marine Guards, Combat Engineers, medical teams, and logistics units to keep liberated or occupied areas from collapsing into disorder. They are combat-capable personnel trained for unstable environments where sabotage, insurgency, panic, and administrative breakdown may still be active.
Doctrine and Battlefield Role
Marines operate alongside mechs, Combat Engineers, drones, Synth analysts, naval fire support, aerospace assets, and logistics. Their role is to seize, hold, and stabilize. A fleet can open the way, but Marines make control real.
Modern Identity
Scarran Marines are regulars, not special operations, but regular should not be mistaken for ordinary. They are professional, expeditionary, technically literate, and used to fighting where civilians, infrastructure, politics, and battlefield objectives are intertwined. If the Union needs a ship taken, a station held, a frontier secured, or a hostile world brought under control, the Marines are the first force expected to make it happen.
The Scarran Combat Engineers are a separate elite combat arm, distinct from the Marine Corps. They are not Marine specialists or ordinary support troops. To become a Combat Engineer is to enter a different institution built around technical expertise, battlefield aggression, demolitions, electronic warfare, repair, fabrication, and the ability to reshape a combat zone under pressure.
Combat Engineers are elite across the board. There is no ordinary “standard” Combat Engineer. Candidates usually come from the Marines or from personnel with prior combat experience, then pass engineering selection and general selection: technical competence tested under duress. In tier terms, Combat Engineers are generally Tier 3 elite personnel, though exceptional individuals may be selected upward into higher-tier units such as SAWD.
Their battlefield reputation is simple: they create options that did not exist a minute ago. If mines block the advance, they clear them. If bunkers hold the line, they crack them. If shields stop the assault, they disrupt them. If walls block the route, they cut, blast, or tunnel through. If a landing zone must exist, they make one. If enemy infrastructure is the weapon, they dismantle it.
They often deploy in the first wave alongside Mechanized Marine units. They are armored, armed, and trained to survive near the spearhead because many of their problems must be solved while the assault is still happening. Heavy exoskeletal frames, servo harnesses, servo-gun attachments, drones, jammers, demolition charges, EMP grenades, rocket launchers, mine-clearing strips, and plasma casters give them both firepower and technical reach.
The plasma caster is one of their signature tools. It can weld, cut, breach, reshape material, open bulkheads, burn through fortifications, clear obstructions, and, when adjusted for spread, function as a brutal close-range anti-infantry or anti-swarm weapon.
Combat Engineers do not operate their own mechs as standard practice. When attached to Mechanized Marines, they bring repair crawlers, mobile fabrication vehicles, bridge-layers, tunnelers, and armored breaching carriers for mech support and battlefield sustainment. They are also trained for shipboard and station operations, where their plasma casters, heavy exoskeletons, servo harnesses, and demolitions expertise make them deadly in close quarters.
After combat, they shift toward fabrication, repair, and construction. They restore power, roads, ports, communications, life-support, shelters, and safe structures, working closely with Military Police to make liberated or occupied areas governable again.
Scarrans do not divide Combat Engineers into narrow official subtypes. Assault engineering, field construction, shipboard breaching, hazard clearance, mech recovery support, demolition, electronic warfare, and battlefield repair are all part of the skillset. Individual engineers may specialize informally, but the institution expects broad competence.
Culturally, Combat Engineers are more animated than most Scarran military personnel. They can accept ugly solutions if they work. A bridge does not need to be elegant if it gets the column across. A breach does not need to be clean if it opens the bunker. A repair does not need to be pretty if it keeps the mech standing for three more minutes.
Their old roots were strongly Frealan and Helmithian, but in the modern Union they have become a mixed Scarran institution. Among Marines, their nickname is simple: Gearheads. Their unofficial identity says the rest.
The Special Actions Warfare Division, or SAWD, is the Union’s Tier 1 special operations institution. Its lineage traces directly to Special Action Team Sixer, whose impossible missions during the Second Sovereign-Union War proved that some problems cannot be solved by more troops, heavier guns, or cleaner doctrine.
SAWD exists for high-consequence missions where failure could alter a campaign, destabilize a frontier system, expose state secrets, trigger strategic escalation, or prevent conventional forces from acting at all. It is considered when the mission is too sensitive, politically dangerous, technically complex, or improbable for ordinary channels.
SAWD operators are multi-domain specialists trained across naval, surface, station, intelligence, diplomatic, technical, and hostile-environment operations. A Recon Marine brings scouting and forward-observation skill. A Combat Engineer brings technical assault expertise. A naval systems specialist brings shipboard and electronic-warfare competence. A Synth operator may bring probability mapping, electronic warfare, or threat-analysis strengths. SAWD then cross-trains them beyond their original lane.
Training includes small-unit combat, infiltration, sabotage, electronic warfare, encryption, linguistics, cultural analysis, mech familiarization, vehicle operation, flight basics, ship-crew tasks, survival, intelligence collection, Aperture insertion and extraction, counter-WMD operations, and emergency mission planning. No SAWD operator is expected to be best at everything, but every operator must understand enough to keep the mission alive when nothing goes to plan and every clean option has failed.
SAWD missions may include deep infiltration, orbital-defense sabotage, command-and-control attacks, Aperture infrastructure seizure or destruction, sensitive research recovery, deep reconnaissance, resistance preparation, counter-special operations, alien-ruin investigation, and dangerous frontier contact support.
SAWD does not replace other branches. Marines take and hold ground. Combat Engineers reshape the battlefield. The Navy controls the route. Intelligence services gather and protect information. SAWD operates in the gaps between them, where the mission requires pieces of all of them but belongs fully to none.
SAWD is mythic because of Sixer, but modern SAWD is built on selection, cross-training, institutional memory, and a brutal understanding of uncertainty. It represents the highest expression of Scarran adaptive doctrine: when the impossible mission is real, the conventional solution is too slow, and failure cannot be allowed, SAWD goes in.
Scarran Navy
The Scarran Navy is the Union’s primary instrument of interstellar power. As a branch, it is defined by patience before contact and violence once the firing solution is real. Scarran admirals shape the battlespace through reconnaissance, signal analysis, drone screens, Aperture route control, interdiction systems, and fire-and-maneuver tactics before committing decisive force.
Scarran fleets contain wide tonnage variation. Cruisers and destroyers are the most common major warships and form the day-to-day backbone of patrols, border control, escorts, convoy protection, rapid response, and ordinary fleet presence. Battleships and carriers are rarer, expensive, crew-intensive, and politically visible. In peacetime many are held in reserve or near major fleet centers; when deployed, they usually appear during active war, major exercises, strategic deterrence operations, or in the Frontier Systems.
Cruisers are flexible workhorses, large enough to operate independently and coordinate smaller ships while still being common enough for regular deployment. Destroyers are fast-response and screening vessels, often operating in packs to protect heavier ships, launch missile and torpedo salvos, screen against drones and strike craft, and respond when a situation deteriorates. Battleships are heavy anchors and line-breakers, carrying the strongest shields, armor, command systems, and weapon batteries. Carriers extend a task force through strike craft, drones, reconnaissance wings, electronic warfare craft, repair assets, and combat support platforms.
Scarran naval doctrine emphasizes guided missiles and torpedoes, layered salvos, and fire-and-maneuver Aperture Warfare. Missiles and torpedoes saturate defenses, force shield redistribution, pressure point defense, and drive enemy formations into predicted movement. Railguns, particle cannons, and laser lances then exploit the opening: railguns punish mass and armor, particle cannons tear shields and hardened structures, and laser lances cut precision openings.
Aperture Warfare also shapes Scarran ship design. Because short-range Aperture maneuver can rapidly close distance, many ships emphasize broadside firepower rather than only forward-facing weapon arrangements. A Scarran ship may translate into a close engagement window, bring multiple weapon banks to bear, fire a brutal broadside, then shift position before the enemy formation can reset.
Aperture movement is not treated as invincibility. Routes can be predicted, disrupted, trapped, or denied. The Union knows this because it developed Aperture veils and higher-space interdiction during its own civil wars. A careless jump can bring a ship into a shield-stripping trap, minefield, kill box, or electronic disruption zone. The best Scarran commander is not the one who jumps the most, but the one who knows when movement creates advantage and when the obvious route is bait.
Scarran ships are built around layered survival. Modern vessels use Shimmer-Bubble shields, armor around critical systems, redundant command nodes, electronic countermeasures, point-defense networks, drone screens, emergency Aperture withdrawal protocols, damage-control crews, and compartmentalized architecture. Shields can shatter, sensors can be blinded, point defense can be saturated, and Aperture routes can be denied. The answer is redundancy and command continuity.
The Navy opens the route, controls orbital space, and moves Union military power between systems. Marines make control concrete once ships, stations, or worlds must be seized and held. Combat Engineers make damaged infrastructure viable. SAWD handles missions too sensitive, strange, or consequential for ordinary fleet procedure.
Please note that the following are representative of style. Other classes may exist that do not exactly match these examples.
Battleship
Carrier
Cruiser
Destroyer
Fighter
Drone
Scarran mechanized warfare is built around mechs as the Union’s primary armored fighting platform. Conventional vehicles still exist, but no longer serve as the main armored spearhead. Instead, they provide transport, repair, resupply, mobile fabrication, fire support, electronic warfare, drone control, and battlefield sustainment.
This doctrine came from the Second Sovereign-Union War and matured during the Mereekan War. On Urna and Hira, Scarran and Coalition forces learned the value of large armored walkers in difficult terrain and urbanized battlefields. Against the Mereekans, mechs became even more important because Scarran machines had enough mass and shield strength to smash through enemy shield envelopes and deliver close-range fire.
Mechs provide shielded cover, heavy firepower, and breakthrough mass for infantry. Marines use them as moving hardpoints. Combat Engineers use them as protection while breaching, clearing, or repairing. Mechanized Marines use vehicles to move with them, support them, and exploit openings. A mech does not replace infantry; it makes infantry movement possible under fire.
Light mechs are usually 8 to 9 meters tall and built around speed, maneuver, scouting, raiding, and flanking rather than sustained line combat. They usually walk at 50 to 80 kph and sprint at 90 to 130 kph, depending on model, terrain, heat, power output, and loadout. Anything above 30 tons is usually overweight for these frames.
They are commonly armed with small missile pods, machine guns, and small to medium laser, particle, or rail cannons. Their armament is modular, but heavier weapons compromise speed, balance, heat efficiency, or endurance. Most light frames carry only a few weapons: arm and torso weapons, four small arm-and-shoulder weapons, a single heavier cannon with secondary weapons, or some other manufacturer-specific configuration.
Their tasks include scouting, raiding, flanking, pursuit, ambush, harassment, screening, and striking vulnerable support units. A good light mech pilot survives through movement, terrain use, timing, and knowing when to disengage.
Medium and mainline mechs are the most common general-purpose combat mechs. They usually stand 9 to 11 meters tall and weigh around 35 to 60 tons. Most walk at 40 to 65 kph and sprint at 65 to 100 kph, depending on design and configuration.
They mount medium to heavy weapons from the same families used by light mechs: rail cannons, laser cannons, particle cannons, missile pods, machine guns, and other modular systems. They may also carry lighter weapons for heat control, endurance, ammunition economy, or anti-infantry work. Depending on model and manufacturer, weapons may be mounted on arms, chest, shoulders, back, or other hardpoints.
Medium mechs form the mobile fighting core of mechanized formations. They trade fire, preserve themselves, cover Marines, exploit breakthroughs, and maintain pressure without becoming as slow or logistically demanding as heavy frames. Some special variants allow melee combat, though mech-to-mech melee is rare and situational.
Heavy, superheavy, and assault mechs are the largest common battlefield mechs. They usually stand 11 to 14 meters tall and weigh from roughly 65 tons on lighter heavy configurations to around 130 tons at the upper end. Depending on configuration, they may walk at 20 to 50 kph and sprint at 20 to 75 kph, with the higher speeds belonging to lighter heavy frames rather than true assault machines.
These mechs carry the strongest armor, largest shield systems, and heaviest or most numerous arsenals available. Weapons may be mounted on arms, chest, shoulders, back, or other reinforced hardpoints. Common loads include heavy railguns, particle cannons, laser lances, missile batteries, artillery systems, anti-fortification weapons, heavy machine guns, shield disruptors, and support systems.
Their role is to rain fire from range, anchor the line, absorb punishment, and break fortified positions. If the enemy closes, they can brawl with armor, shields, mass, and close-range weapons. Some are configured as walking artillery platforms. A heavy mech is not deployed casually; it requires logistics, repair support, and a battlefield that justifies its presence.
Scarran mech pilots usually begin with a standard mech appropriate to their division, posting, and role. Early-career pilots master doctrine before personal preference: movement, shields, heat, ammunition, sensors, and formation fighting.
As pilots gain veterancy and trust, they gain more freedom to select available frames and customize weapons, shields, armor, sensors, heat sinks, drone links, mobility packages, and other systems. This freedom is still limited by logistics, unit doctrine, manufacturer compatibility, available parts, and mission needs.
Most mechs are piloted by one person assisted by simple AI systems for balance, target tracking, diagnostics, sensor management, heat control, threat warnings, and routine movement assistance. These simple AIs are tools, not Synths.
Scarran mech formations appear non-standard because the military is supplied by multiple manufacturers, especially MekTek Industries, Galthorn Technologies Corporation, and recently Novus Research Group. Each has its own design habits, systems, components, upgrade packages, and battlefield philosophy.
MekTek is associated with rugged frames, heavy machinery, industrial reliability, and practical durability. Galthorn emphasizes electronics, control systems, sensor architecture, drone links, shield integration, and computation. Novus produces newer, more experimental, expensive, and advanced designs that sometimes outpace standard production models in specific fields.
Old frames are not discarded simply because they are old. If the chassis remains useful, it can be rebuilt, refitted, re-shielded, re-armed, and returned to service. Some old model families trace their lineage back to the first machines deployed on Urna or Hira. In Scarran culture, an old frame that still performs is not obsolete. It is proven.
Vehicles support the mech-centered formation. Armored personnel carriers move Marines, armored fighting vehicles provide direct fire and flank security, repair crawlers and recovery vehicles keep damaged mechs from being abandoned, and resupply vehicles carry ammunition, power cells, missiles, fuel, parts, and field modules. Mobile fabrication vehicles make or modify parts near the front. Bridge-layers, tunnelers, breaching carriers, drone-control vehicles, and shield-support platforms help the formation cross terrain and survive fire.
Mobile main-gun-carriers, or MGCs, are distinctive support vehicles. They are lightly armored compared to mechs but carry oversized guns or specialized heavy weapons. They rely on mobility, positioning, terrain, and mech shield cover. In the right place, an MGC adds decisive firepower. In the wrong place, it dies quickly.
Scarran mech doctrine is combined arms. Light mechs scout, raid, flank, and harass. Medium mechs form the mobile line of battle. Heavy and assault mechs anchor advances, break fortified positions, and dominate open engagements. Vehicles keep the formation alive. Marines make gains real. Combat Engineers make impossible routes possible. Drones and simple AI systems provide reconnaissance, target marking, diagnostics, and threat warnings.
Mechs are shielded, armored, and heavily armed, but pilots are trained not to treat them as invincible. Shields can fail, legs can be trapped, sensors can be blinded, ammunition can run low, and electronic warfare can disrupt coordination. A mech survives because the formation around it is functioning.
The preferred Scarran method is to use mechs as mobile armored anchors. They advance, project shields, draw fire, and create movement corridors. Mechanized Marines move under that cover, Combat Engineers open barriers or clear threats, MGCs and support vehicles add fire from protected angles, and drones identify targets. Once the enemy line buckles, Marines and mechs exploit together.
The mechs shown here are not the only Mechs that may show up on a Scarran battlefield. There will be others and configured differently. This here is only meant to show off the art.
Antar III Sector 5: Front Line Tar Yrra Expeditionary Zone
Two fleet hierarchs inspect their ships and begin to transition into active operations. Fleet Hierarchs Kadak and Kajuto, they were born in the same clutch and have competed with each other for a long time. In the end their competitive drive against each other is what drove them both to excel in their pursuits. Both aimed to be part of the historic warrior caste and rise to be part of the command sub caste. However, that was in their youth, now they’ve seen combat against the Augustans in the last war along the scorched line. They’re tempered and hardened veterans of war.
Both of them bear scars from the intense fleet combat during what they’d call the Firestorm wars. They themselves had the pleasure of meeting Augustan marines up close in boarding actions against their vessels. The Augustans could say whatever they’d like about the Lokoid, however, meeting one in person in close combat was another matter entirely. Four arms that were perfectly synchronized with each other, hyper awareness of their environment, their fleet footed agility around the tight corridors of their ship, and the lifetime's worth of fighting for their own survival against the standards of their society. There was no weakling Lokoid in the military, there were only those who survived or did not make the proverbial cut.
The two met each other on the boarding platforms. It had been a year since their respective deployments.
“Fleet Hierarch Kajuto, your deployment?” Kadak asked, looking towards his lifelong rival who now only had a prosthetic eye to salvage his sight.
“The scorched line. Hunting is slim. Must clean the sector. Directive from the Hierarch council themselves.” Kajuto looks towards his large ship, an Annihilator Dreadnought outfitted with salvage facilities and foundries to pump out new materials that they could use for anything.
The two chittered their chelicerae before Kadak reciprocated by revealing his tasking, “I take to the Ghost Nebula. Danger is guaranteed. Augustans present.”
Now it was Kajuto’s turn to take in the state of his clutch brother as he turned to look at him, yes he too had prosthetics, two of his arms have either been replaced or partially modified because of the damages sustained to his body, “Augustan blood debt must be paid. Hunt well, clutch brother, and let the ichor flow.”
As they were about to part ways, a cadre of well armed, heavily armored Lokoid approached them – Hunters. The two in-front, standing side-by-side, appeared to be Hunter officers. The one to the right spoke, “The 289th Tactical Hunter Taskforce “K’tanak” and 105th Tactical Hunter Taskforce “Nadak” have been assigned to assist you fleet Hierarchs. The 289th is assigned to Fleet Hierarch Kajuto and the 105th to Kadak.”
Kajuto stared for a moment, before asking, “My deployment is routine salvage. Why assign hunter units to the scorched line?”
The one to the left replied now, “Hierarch of war Daggoth and Hierarch of Commerce Kaloth find the presence of pirates in the scorched line unacceptable. Must minimize, must contain, must cleanse. The Hierarchs have placed piracy on zero tolerance. No negotiations. Only extermination.”
As the two hierarchs looked out from a large station window, they could already see the six cruiser sized stealth ships that held a compact complement of two fighter squadrons and a ground deployment package of their S-80 squadrons and heavy gunships each. The Hunter’s stealth ships were capable of optical camouflage and it didn’t particularly have a high heat signature because of a new experimental drive mechanism that did away with heavy thrusters as its main method of propulsion – sublight alcubierre drives in addition to sensor masking and electronic warfare, it would be near impossible to detect with only the bending of light around the ship revealing its position to the naked eye. However, it still made use of thrusters as backups and the complete stealth wasn’t fool proof, there are still a number of ways that it could be detected, particularly when firing its single high powered beam cannon, opening its many high yield graviton torpedoes, or launching cluster missiles as it needs to momentarily drop some of its stealth mechanisms, particularly the sensor masking and electronic warfare systems to yield far more accurate firing solutions. That being said, the Lokoid have mitigated this risk by using datalinks to communicate enemy locations and calculate firing solutions without other ships having to drop their stealth – they were relatively new to the Lokoid arsenal.
It seems the Hierarchs found these deployments as good opportunities to test the capabilities of their Hunter arsenal and hone the Hunters even further through actual combat. Most Hunters were veterans of the Firestorm wars, however, the new blood have yet to taste a true hunt. The Fleet Hierarchs know just as well as the Hunters themselves, the new blood must taste a true hunt before they can call themselves part of the Hunter’s cadre.
Kajuto and Kadak acknowledge their Hunter brethren, “Let us hunt well.”
To which the Hunters simply clicked their mandibles as a prompt reply.
They each boarded their respective ships and shuttles and made preparations to get underway. The Lokoid were once again slowly going back on the march.
Stealth Cruiser Hunter Power Armor Super Cruise mode Attack mode Hunter Fighter Craft Hunter Assault Dropship recreated from Downed Augustan Transports and redesigned for Lokoid standards.
It had been one long galactic year since the last war of reclamation or whatever the other nations wanted to call it. The Lokoid had a different word in mind to describe those wars - the firestorm wars. Wars so intense they burned brighter than that of the flames when the Lokoid and their allies scoured their galactic sectors of any Yrrani presence. What was it all for? Pieces of lost technology on Tar Yrra? The Lokoid had already broken down and learned what they could on Yrrani settled worlds during the Yrrani civil war and the subsequent rebellion of the auxiliaries. What kind of technology did the Yrrani withhold and kept so close to their hearts as to stay only in their home world? If it was a weapon, was it so destructive that even in their final moments they did not dare think to use it? Was it a miraculous power source that would never run out? What other possibilities were there?
Araq pondered this in his mind while his chelicerae chittered and chattered, a gesture akin to humans rubbing their hands together to think and ponder.
That was when the other Ruling Heirarchs entered the council chamber. There were others of course, the lesser Heirarchs were present via holoprojections. There were hundreds of reports, things that the Lokoid could easily sift through, their unique physiology and biology facilitated better information processing and handling even if there were multiple unrelated tasks at once - true multitasking.
In mere hours, several lesser Heirarchs governing different sectors had their concerns addressed by the ruling Heirarchs, directives, objectives, and other such things were then distributed. Sectors that had failed their tasks or had not lived up to the expectations of the Ruling Heirarchs had their governing Heirarchs reviewed. Actions of replacement or addressing their weaknesses that had been overlooked. Afterwards, as each of the lesser Heirarchs moved out of the council chamber, the Ruling Heirarchs began looking at the overall push of the Heirarchy at large.
The five convened by the center console of the chamber with Araq speaking first, “Tar Yrra cannot be conquered. Too many eyes. Too many restrictions. Multinational peace keeping corps and research team outside of system under Supremite threat. We overlook when we can, however, Augustan presence make relations… Difficult on both sides.”
Gorn, the Heirarch of research and development speaks, “Cannot lose privilege for research on multinational station. Suggest repositioning defense contingent with multinational fleet away from potential confrontation with Superiority forces to defense of station proper.”
“Not viable. Defense contingent near station may draw incorrect conclusion from Augustan force and other members. Putting forward for discussion suggestion: Communicate with Supremacy. Inform discreet passage past multinational force. Information provided in return for profit for Superiority and Hierarchy interests. If not, negotiate other means.” Araq presents the idea to the council.
All around the center console of the council chamber there was not one objection. Araq then begins to create an encrypted message to be delivered via physical transportation towards supremite controlled space aboard a delivery fleet containing Lokoid undesirables and raw materials for supremite conversion.
Araq then waves one hand and the console projects holo documents for the Heirarchs to view, as two other interesting matters pop into view, “... Aside from Tar Yrra, Sector Heirarchs under Commerce and Industrial caste propose limited clearing of Scorched Line. Too many valuable resources left behind. Reclamation deemed possible.”
The Heriarch of commerce, Kaloth seems intrigued, “Possible. Intriguing. Recuperating losses and recovering lost equipment is paramount in proposed venture. Methodology?”
Heirarch of industry, Zasz, and Heirarch of War, Dagoth start to present their holo documents sliding the ones on the forefront into the background temporarily.
“We send an Annihilator class super dreadnought outfitted for scrap collection. Reclaim, reforge, repurpose. Melt down what cannot be used into new material.” Zasz clicked.
Dagoth twitched his antennae in approval, “We send smaller destroyers and cruisers for escort. Super dreadnought to act as mobile space station for collection operation.”
Kaloth’s hands perused the documents available to him. There was a long pause before he finally buzzed with approval, “Methodology sound. Collection group adequately armed and equipped. Expected losses during collection, minimal. The commerce caste approves.”
Araq hearing his Heirarchs and seeing all presented facts was also pleased, “Limited collection mission approved.”
Araq brought back the third document regarding the ghost region. Whisper drones sent to the region have detected something interesting. “Augustan force spotted entering ghost nebula and disappearing off sensors. Ghost nebula navigation, challenging. Augustan, enemy, must observe, must obstruct. Options?”
Around the council table they chittered and chattered and clicked and clattered. Finally, Dagoth addressed the Supreme Heirarch, “Modified battlegroup move into ghost nebula. Follow Augustan force. Support group stationed outside nebula with beacon for reinforcement point. Engage Augustan force. Armistice does not stipulate hostilities outside Tar Yrra.”
Araq screeched in disapproval, “League of Nations will question hostility. Conflict unnecessary, conflict avoidable. Require deniability. Options?”
Dagoth revised his plans immediately, “Exploratory battlegroup, Hive class super carrier as flagship. Four antennae class destroyers for detection and navigation, four brawler class cruisers, four mauler class cruisers, three hailfire class cruisers. Fire power adequate, deployment options plenty. Revisions necessary?”
“Heirarch class battle carrier, Eight antennae class destroyers, three stinger class destroyers, six instigator class destroyers, four brawler class cruisers, three mauler class cruisers, three hailfire class cruisers. Detection needed, firepower needed, threat unknown. Do not repeat mistake with bio-mech union, must be prepared, must be organized. Support group stationed outside of nebula is agreable. All details now agreed?” Araq replies to Dagoth’s request for revisions.
Once again, around the console, they all remain silent. Araq then says, “Council deliberations decided. The Heirarchy moves forward.”
The Heirarchy recognizes its friend of steel and flesh, the Superiority.
The Heirarchy would like to present an opportunity for the Superiority. Coordination is necessary for both parties to benefit. Discreet means of communication required for further cooperation. The topic is considered sensitive for the position of the Lokoid and so cannot be discussed in the form of missives. A formal meeting between delegates may be required.
May profits find you honored friends. The Hierarchy expresses regrets for any inconvenience caused.
The Hierarchy, The Lokoid, The Roaches (Derogatory)
Government
The government is the Ruling Caste. The Hierarch Council disseminates their orders to system regional governors which keeps all systems in line with the will of the hierarchy. The council of hierarchs is made up of five members.
Araq, Supreme Hierarch - Chosen by the Hierarch Council
Kaloth, Hierarch of Commerce - Governs the Commerce Caste
Gorn, Hierarch of Research and Development - Governs the Academic Caste
Dagoth, Hierarch of War - Governs the Soldiery Caste
Zasz, Hierarch of Industry - Governs over mass production
These members of the council all have equal power except for the Supreme Hierarch who supersedes the rest of the council. The council deliberates everything related to running the Hierarchy as a whole and is responsible for the direction of the Hierarchy moving forward.
Demographics
The Lokoid Heirarchy is made up mostly of Lokoid. It is rare to find any other race on Lokoid worlds, especially those not built for the pleasure or leisure targeted towards those of a different race.
Society
From birth, the order of the hierarchy is implemented. Lokoid young hatch from eggs within an egg sack as larvae. The liquids in the sack are consumed, filled with vital nutrients and antibiotics. The weak are eaten and the strong continue to develop. Once the survivors break out of the egg sack, they are taken as nymphs to be educated. Primary education begins, but nothing could prepare the young Lokoids for their second trial. The nymphs, nearing their adolescence, are thrown into the wilderness to survive. Cannibalism is encouraged if it means survival. They are given the lesson, eat or be eaten, the survival of the fittest as they once did when they were larvae. But it was also natural selection as those who fail to adapt die off. The survivors at the end of the month are taken and given secondary education. Their secondary education focuses on the general education of different subjects. Four years later, they are evaluated and if their scores drop below a quota they are euthanized, prepared as food, and is rationed to the rest of the now grown brood.
Usually, the survival rate for Lokoids in their childhood is less than half. Their massive amounts of eggs per-person, however, necessitate this way of population control. The survivors are then given a caste position and specialization training. It is possible to move up in society through individual meritocracy. The weak and the stupid are recycled and eaten. This is vestigial behavior from a more primitive time. The average lifespan of a Lokoid, if allowed to live in ideal conditions, is seventy standard years. However, the oldest known Lokoid was a hierarch who was reported to be 210 standard years old, indicating that in the best conditions the Lokoid can have a surprisingly long lifespan when compared to humans.
The castes themselves are divided into five categories:
The Ruling Caste
The Commerce Caste
The Academic Caste
The Warrior Caste
The Industrial Caste
The ruling caste is composed of the fittest Lokoid, the ones who have displayed amazing intelligence and leadership ability within their respective caste. The ruling caste’s most powerful members are made up of five individuals known as the Hierarch Council. Each individual all have equal power to one another and have different jurisdictions. However, there is always one individual among the five that presides among the five. This individual would come to be known as the supreme hierarch. The representatives themselves are known as, from descending order of caste, the hierarch of commerce, the hierarch of research and development, the hierarch of war, and the hierarch of industry. The supreme hierarch is chosen based on leadership ability and is chosen among the five hierarchs of the ruling caste. Only a majority vote within the council of hierarchs can have the supreme hierarch replaced.
The commerce caste is composed of traders and businessmen. The commerce caste is specifically for those among the Lokoid who display great social skills and have an eye for business. The commerce caste is the primary economic group that provides the Lokoid new business opportunities in the galaxy. They acquire trade licenses, manufacturing patents, design contracts, and more. On top of this, the commerce caste is also responsible for lending and collecting loans, managing budgets and expenses, and conducting audits on the other castes.
The academic caste is composed of Lokoids who display amazing aptitudes for the sciences. The academic caste is responsible for technological gains within the hierarchy. They are in charge of designing new ships and weapons for use in manufacturing. On top of this, they are in charge of scientific advancement in many fields such as botany and particle physics just to name a few. If the commerce caste is equated to a marketing and advertising department then the academic caste is research and development. This is where new products are made and approved. If approved they are handed over to the commerce caste and industrial caste for marketing and mass production.
The warrior caste is responsible for choosing the strongest among the castes and placing them into sub-castes. These sub-castes are divided by merit and intelligence. There are four major sub-castes:
Command Caste - Responsible for NCO’s and command staff
Specialized Caste - Responsible for special operations
Regular Caste - Responsible for regular soldiers and fleet personnel
Support Caste - Responsible for operating equipment and vehicles
These sub-castes are responsible for training and selecting from placed or recruited members of the Soldiery caste. They are the backbone of the militant might of the hierarchy and make use of automated combatants if needed and are a common sight when collecting due debts and in security details.
The industrial caste is the largest among the castes and is where most Lokoid are placed. Some may find their way up the ladder from the industrial caste and into the other bodies of the hierarchy. The industrial caste is the primary workforce of the hierarchy. They are responsible for manufacturing goods, mining, and farming. They are given many avenues to rise up from this rung of society through merit. Pursuing education, displaying high levels of skill or strength, making logical and intelligent decisions, and more. The survival of the fittest and natural selection are at play. Those who do not adapt, stay in the industrial caste and are shackled to a life of service and are loaned as cheap manpower for the rest of the galaxy. Because of the individualistic nature of most Lokoid, this is seen as normal. Those who are left behind are left with basic skills and enough intelligence to do their job.
History
THE UNIFICATION ERA
Many centuries ago when the Yrrani were just stretching themselves across the galaxy as silent, but ever present observers of the stars around them, they came upon the lush yet harsh jungle planet of the Lokoid homeworld, Lokus-III. The Yrrani of before still felt the responsibility to let things develop naturally, they weren't yet the gods that would bring about their own destruction with their own hubris.
They observed the Lokoid who, at this point, had only reached a semi-tribal state with many groups and different ideals. Their society was brutish and barbaric when compared to the Yrrani or any of the other races that the Yrrani had encountered before. The Lokoid were stronger than most other races and preserved a warrior culture through most of the societies that they had formed. The Yrrani were prepared to write off the Lokoid as another primitive, barbaric race that would never amount to anything, that was until they found that the Lokoid were progressing rather quickly for a primitive race. In a span of three decades, they went from stone age technology to figuring out advanced metallurgy. The Yrrani quickly realized that there was potential in the intelligence of the Lokoid race. Some Yrrani xenoanthropologists speculated that the Lokoid were younger than the Yrrani when they first figured out steelcrafts.
However, the Yrrani were once again quickly disappointed to learn that the Lokoid advancement wasn't for the overall benefit or comfort of the Lokoid's people, in fact they seemed to put no effort towards comfort at all and only really cared about hygiene and advancements in medicine. The Lokoid were extremely utilitarian and the reason was because all their effort was geared towards making war. Once again, the more peaceful Yrrani of this period largely wrote off the Lokoid and kept an eye on them to make sure they wouldn't grow out of control. However, in the next century, the Yrrani found themselves in a lot of conflict and the peaceful regimes of the past have all but vanished. The new Yrrani found themselves remembering the Lokoid and their potential as stalwart warriors and within them hatched the idea of turning them into willing auxiliaries.
The Yrrani returned to Lokus-III and found that the Lokoid had changed drastically since they were last observed. The planet itself seems to have seen conflict of immense magnitude, what was once a lush planet was now only dotted with small patches of crimson, the color of their most abundant flora. What was more surprising was the fact that the Lokoid themselves had conglomerated into only one identity, the Heirarchy they called themselves. A civilization that just one century ago was only figuring out steelcrafts had now blossomed into its hyperindustrial age as a supernation on their own planet. What was more surprising was their nearby moons, of which there were three, had all shown signs of exploration. The Lokoid had taken their first steps in exploring space. Seeing this worried the Yrrani, but they didn't need to fret as the Lokoid still retained their fierce warrior culture despite their new disposition. That aggression, that drive, had just simply been channeled into something else.
The leading theory on what had happened to the Lokoid was that in the century the Yrrani had left them, they had undergone significant societal, technological, and military advancements. From the marks of major conflict on their planet, it seems that there were several nations that vied for control of Lokus-III. A battle for the planet ensued and for one reason or another, one faction completely dominated and either subjugated or exterminated the rest. From then on their growth was exponential, reaching heights of technological advancements that other races in the galaxy struggled to even get to in their first few centuries of existence. This suited the Yrrani's goals well, it meant that the Lokoid were fast learners and they would use that to channel their aggression towards the Yrrani's enemies.
THE YRRANI'S "UPLIFTING" MISSION
First contact with the Yrrani was met with aggression, like a foot stepping into an ant nest. The Yrrani, knowing that the Lokoid had no real means of fighting back in any significant way and only understood strength, demonstrated it by glassing their biggest city. Seeing the power of the Yrrani first hand and knowing that they couldn't do anything about the Lokoid had to submit to the superior power. They vowed that the Yrrani would one day pay for humiliating their proud race.
The Yrrani wasted no time in enforcing laws that dictated that the most able-bodied Lokoid warriors were to be trained post haste. The Yrrani gave them weapons technology that they believed only they could create. But they had underestimated the Lokoid mind, they were geniuses at figuring out complex and intricate problems. They viewed Yrrani technology as a challenge to be cracked. The Yrrani themselves also had instances of autonomous AI that the Lokoid had started to admire. The combination of Yrrani technology and raw Lokoid warrior instinct, made the Lokoid Auxiliaries one of the best soldiers in the galaxy and at times better warriors than mainline Yrrani fighters. They were used to subjugate and hold colonial planets in the Yrrani empire and were more professional than their Yrrani counterparts.
Lokoid tactics and strategies were complex and multifaceted, often comprising of several staging operations. The Yrrani recognized their cunning and kept a close eye on their Auxiliaries. However, after years of loyal service and the Lokoid's best attempts at pleasantries, they were gifted hundreds of worlds. The Lokoid had negotiated for it as they said, "More worlds, more Lokoid, more Lokoid, more soldiers, more soldiers, less Yrrani death." The Yrrani, confident that they could crush the Lokoid at any moment and confident in the security of their technology that prevented the Lokoid from turning their weapons against their masters, they allowed them more and more leeway. This is what the Lokoid wanted, to lull the false gods into a false sense of security. Every world they conquered, they studied the technology of the other races; Every peice of Yrrani technology, they studied its form, its function, its effects; Every piece of information, they meticulously tore apart and brought back together.
The Lokoid constructed themselves in secret, hundreds of foundries, fabricators, and ships deep underground their planetary strongholds. They figured out the technology to finally fight back, but the Empire was still too strong. They needed to bide their time and so they did the Yrrani's dirty work up until the Yrrani's civil war.
THE PRICE OF HUBRIS
When the Empire fell into a civil war, both sides turned to the Lokoid to bolster their forces among many others. However, they made a fatal mistake. The Lokoid had prepared for this moment, their forces spread across many Yrrani worlds, their foundries creating hundreds of autonomous weapons of war, hundreds of their warships rising form the hundreds of gifted worlds. The Lokoid had found their opportunity, and they used it.
All across the Empire where the Lokoid were present, the Auxiliaries turned on their Yrrani masters by using weapons that they had created, weapons that had no technology to prevent them from working against the Yrrani. They distributed these weapons to the locals who had been persecuted for too long. Lokoid numbers and the weapons that they fielded cut down the Yrrani in short order. The fleets of Lokoid ships seemed endless as the Yrrani cut down one, only to find another mass of ships appearing out of nowhere. Fleet after fleet, battalion after battalion. The Yrrani on both sides struggled to keep a hold of their systems as they had to fight intense battles everywhere else. Some worlds never received reinforcements, others had to abandon their posts at the sight of five battlegroups.
One century of war. One century of hunting and exterminating Yrrani forces. One century of growing the Lokoid Hierarchy's forces. The Yrrani called who had once called them, "The Terror" for they fell upon their enemies like a tidal wave, now experienced them first hand. It didn't matter whether they could stave off one attack, there was always another. Eventually, the last Yrrani remnants and their allies were wiped away by the endless tide of the Lokoid. The Lokoid then turned to those they had helped free, they understood that a service rendered was a service paid fairly. They left the former Yrrani colonies to themselves, they had wanted freedom most of all and fought for it alongside the Lokoid. It was a business transaction for the Lokoid, one that they could easily make up for later. However, on other worlds where the primary residences were the Yrrani, they claimed those worlds and turned them into Agri-worlds, Factory worlds, Mining worlds, Hab-worlds, and the like. They understood that they needed to reorganize and reorient themselves to sustain a now interstellar nation.
THE RECLAMATION WARS
The Lokoid reorganized and it was a rough few hundred years, but the Lokoid stabilized. They began rubbing elbows with many other races. They were coming to be known as a reliable manufacturer of cheap quality goods and provider of cheap quality labor. However, they were not always welcomed, whether it be their past as auxiliaries for the Yrrani or their alien culture, they met with many mixed reactions.
One of the most violent encounters that they had before the Reclamation wars were with the Augustans. An Empire that the Lokoid now viewed as unreliable business partners. There were many small incidents that led to this and no one really knows what started it. But the leading theory is that it all started with an Augustan noble failing to pay the Lokoid for their services. In response, the Lokoid Banking Union and Trade Commission sent a fleet to repossess their goods or take it back by force. They had hoped the Augustans would see reason after being threatened with escalation. However, the Lokoid were infuriated to learn that other Augustan nobles and members of their military showed up to meet them. The Augustans had the gall to tell the Lokoid that they had lied about not being fairly paid and were now here to extort Augustan nobility.
This confrontation escalated into small border skirmishes that would eventually come to a head in the Reclamation wars. The Reclamation Wars saw many nations and races battle for Tar Yrra. The Lokoid encountered new enemies such as the living trees that called themselves the Mu and old friends such as the Supremites who they assisted during the Yrrani civil war and many more.
The worst of the conflict happened on the Scorched Line. The Scorched Line are a line of star systems that were fiercely contested between the Augustans and the Lokoid. Both sides saw heavy losses and contrary to usual Lokoid doctrine, they had committed considerable resources in contesting these systems against the Augustans because of personal grievances, total loss and profit were not accounted for in the Scorched Line battles and saw the Lokoid deploying their most dangerous weapons of war against the Augustans. In the end, when the 4th Reclamation War ended in an armistice called by the Idkarian Dominion establishing what would come to be known as the interstellar league of nations, the Scorched Line became a demilitarized zone between the Augustans and the Lokoid through this armistice.
Now the Lokoid along with other nations have created a defense force and sent their own independent civilian researchers to study Tar Yrra in accordance to the provisions provided by the Armistice.
MILITARY
The Lokoid military uses a number of automated units for their ground and naval use. Because of their massive industrial resources, this often means that they can output a large fleet in a matter of days and with the Lokoid birth rate, it is entirely possible to staff new positions quickly with competent Lokoid commanders.
The Lokoid also field manned units and Lokoid infantry for special deployment or even as command elements. These are usually the best of the best in terms of what the military could offer.
The Lokoid military doctrine is a balance between large numbers and adequate quality. They strike heavily at a target to either degrade it or engage in a battle of attrition with self-sufficient mobile factories.
The navy’s job is to combat other opposing navies and provide orbital and aerial support for all combat units. Some special ships like the Annihilator Class Super Dreadnought or the Heirarch Class Battle-Carrier are also considered factory units and can be (but aren’t always) outfitted with modules that allow for taking in scrap, melting it down, and turning it into new fighting units.
Annihilator Class Super Dreadnought Lancer Class Battleship Hive Class Super Carrier Heirarch Class Battle-Carrier Executor Class Battleship
Mauler Class Cruiser Brawler Class Cruiser Hailfire Class Cruiser Antennae Class Destroyer Instigator Class Destroyer Stinger Class Destroyer Dagger Class Destroyer
The army’s job is to conduct ground operations. They are the regulars that fight on the ground. Super heavy units like the Assault and Foundry walkers are meant for high profile ground engagements and are usually only deployed when orbital and aerial superiority is established. The Foundry walker in particular is meant to be a mobile factory that can deploy whole divisions of fully functioning automated units in a few hours. The army, however, is made up of variants of the Multipurpose Modular Automata series of droids, abbreviated as MMA with a mark number denoting series and other series of robotics coupled with only a few manned vehicles.
M.M.A. Mk.1 Standard M.M.A. Mk.3 Standard M.M.A. Mk.3 Fire Support M.M.A. Mk.3 Anti-tank and Anti-Air M.M.A. Mk.3 High-Mobility M.M.A. Mk.3 Melee Pelter Mobile Defense Sentry (P.M.D.S.) Pummeler Heavy Mobile Sentry (P.H.M.S.) Saboteur Drone Series 40 (SDS-40) Ripper (Deployable in swarms via air bomb, orbital, or artillery) Saboteur Drone Series 10 (SDS-10) Ticker (Deployable in swarms via air bomb, orbital, or artillery) Saboteur Drone Series 15 (SDS-15) Swatter (Deployable in swarms via air bomb, orbital, or artillery) Whisper Drone Series 10 (WDS-10) Watcher
Artillery Support Crawler (A.S.C.) Anti-Personnel Assault Crawler (A.P.-A.C.) Anti-Tank Assault Crawler (A.T.-A.C.) Light Armored Stinger Tank Assault Crawler Multiple Launch Missile System (Hits both Aerial and Ground Targets) Heavy Assault Walker Planetary Assault Walker Planetary Foundry Walker
Commando units, the only section of the army that heavily relies on well trained organics. They’re given the special task of being deployed behind enemy lines and causing havoc. They’re deployment is usually preluded with drops of Saboteur Drone Series units or Whisper Drone Series scouts depending on the mission type. Lokoid Commando Unit M.M.A. Mk.2 Terminator Commandos M.M.A. Mk.4 Infitrators
The hunters are a unique and highly specialized mechanized component of the hierarchy and are primarily trained for high risk, high value, deployments often alongside commando units. The hunters use a four legged arachnoid mech that bares the designation “Strider”. The current model of strider is the S-80 and its variations separated into “types”.
The S-80 features multi-directional rolling balls on each leg to facilitate smooth, fast movement on even ground and can transition to fast actuating legs for agile navigation of rough terrain. Alongside this, they have two high velocity wire anchors to overcome verticality and increase mobility in different situations. The fastest recorded time within an S-80 is a little over 150 kilometers per hour and it can attain this speed in any direction. However, it is noted that in simulations the machines were capable of much higher speeds however, practical combat, and terrain navigation trials saw the record speed as the highest practically possible.
They are also able to drive themselves into the ground using piledrivers located on each leg to act as mobile, fast paced, artillery. These pile drivers can also act as secondary or tertiary melee weapons against armored targets such as tanks or opposing mechs.
S-10 Experimental (1st Generation Strider) S-50S Supply Strider Armament: 16x smoke and chaff Houses equipment that facilitates the reloading of S-80 Striders. Chassis based on 5th generation strider. S-80 General Type Armament: Standard length 120mm autoloaded smoothbore, 2x high-frequency blade sub arms, quad smoke and chaff dispensers, 2x wire anchors, and 4x piledrivers S-80 Sniper Type Armament: Long 120mm autoloaded high velocity smoothbore, 2x 50 caliber machine-gun sub arms, 4x smoke and chaff dispensers, 2x wire anchors, and 4x piledrivers S-80 Missile Type Armament: 2x missile pods with ten missiles each, 2x 50 caliber machine-gun sub arms, 4x smoke and chaff dispensers, 2x wire anchors, and 4x piledrivers S-80 Support Type Armament: 40mm auto-cannon with programmable ammo, 2x 50 caliber machine-gun sub arms, 4x smoke and chaff dispensers, 2x wire anchors, and 4x piledrivers
It should be noted that these are the factory standard and hunter units are encouraged to customize their striders to better fit their operational needs. Most hunter units are deployed in squadrons to maximize their tactical flexibility. The auto-loaded smoothbores can also switch between APFSDS, HEAT, and HESH as the auto-loader can switch magazines. However, a strider can only typically carry three magazines at a time and most squadrons opt to have two magazines of APFSDS and one magazine of HEAT as HEAT can deal with most lightly armored targets and have enough explosive potential to knock out light fortifications.
Other shell types are available depending on deployment with some specially selected divisions testing out the highly experimental HEPT-EX or High Explosive Plasma Type Experimental. A shell that encases the components needed for a plasmatic reaction generating excessive amounts of heat upon impact rendering most buildings, vehicles, and equipment unusable. However, the highly volatile nature of the warhead has produced less than stellar results so far.
Changelog:
20/11/2024 5:12 AM -> Changed terminologies for castes. Hailfire reclassified to Cruiser
The Hierarchy, The Lokoid, The Roaches (Derogatory)
Government
The government is the Ruling Caste. The Hierarch Council disseminates their orders to system regional governors which keeps all systems in line with the will of the hierarchy. The council of hierarchs is made up of five members.
Araq, Supreme Hierarch - Chosen by the Hierarch Council
Kaloth, Hierarch of Commerce - Governs the Commerce Caste
Gorn, Hierarch of Research and Development - Governs the Academic Caste
Dagoth, Hierarch of War - Governs the Soldiery Caste
Zasz, Hierarch of Industry - Governs over mass production
These members of the council all have equal power except for the Supreme Hierarch who supersedes the rest of the council. The council deliberates everything related to running the Hierarchy as a whole and is responsible for the direction of the Hierarchy moving forward.
Demographics
The Lokoid Heirarchy is made up mostly of Lokoid. It is rare to find any other race on Lokoid worlds, especially those not built for the pleasure or leisure targeted towards those of a different race.
Society
From birth, the order of the hierarchy is implemented. Lokoid young hatch from eggs within an egg sack as larvae. The liquids in the sack are consumed, filled with vital nutrients and antibiotics. The weak are eaten and the strong continue to develop. Once the survivors break out of the egg sack, they are taken as nymphs to be educated. Primary education begins, but nothing could prepare the young Lokoids for their second trial. The nymphs, nearing their adolescence, are thrown into the wilderness to survive. Cannibalism is encouraged if it means survival. They are given the lesson, eat or be eaten, the survival of the fittest as they once did when they were larvae. But it was also natural selection as those who fail to adapt die off. The survivors at the end of the month are taken and given secondary education. Their secondary education focuses on the general education of different subjects. Four years later, they are evaluated and if their scores drop below a quota they are euthanized, prepared as food, and is rationed to the rest of the now grown brood.
Usually, the survival rate for Lokoids in their childhood is less than half. Their massive amounts of eggs per-person, however, necessitate this way of population control. The survivors are then given a caste position and specialization training. It is possible to move up in society through individual meritocracy. The weak and the stupid are recycled and eaten. This is vestigial behavior from a more primitive time. The average lifespan of a Lokoid, if allowed to live in ideal conditions, is seventy standard years. However, the oldest known Lokoid was a hierarch who was reported to be 210 standard years old, indicating that in the best conditions the Lokoid can have a surprisingly long lifespan when compared to humans.
The castes themselves are divided into five categories:
The Ruling Caste
The Commerce Caste
The Academic Caste
The soldiery Caste
The Industrial Caste
The ruling caste is composed of the fittest Lokoid, the ones who have displayed amazing intelligence and leadership ability within their respective caste. The ruling caste’s most powerful members are made up of five individuals known as the Hierarch Council. Each individual all have equal power to one another and have different jurisdictions. However, there is always one individual among the five that presides among the five. This individual would come to be known as the supreme hierarch. The representatives themselves are known as, from descending order of caste, the hierarch of commerce, the hierarch of research and development, the hierarch of war, and the hierarch of industry. The supreme hierarch is chosen based on leadership ability and is chosen among the five hierarchs of the ruling caste. Only a majority vote within the council of hierarchs can have the supreme hierarch replaced.
The commerce caste is composed of traders and businessmen. The commerce caste is specifically for those among the Lokoid who display great social skills and have an eye for business. The commerce caste is the primary economic group that provides the Lokoid new business opportunities in the galaxy. They acquire trade licenses, manufacturing patents, design contracts, and more. On top of this, the commerce caste is also responsible for lending and collecting loans, managing budgets and expenses, and conducting audits on the other castes.
The academic caste is composed of Lokoids who display amazing aptitudes for the sciences. The academic caste is responsible for technological gains within the hierarchy. They are in charge of designing new ships and weapons for use in manufacturing. On top of this, they are in charge of scientific advancement in many fields such as botany and particle physics just to name a few. If the commerce caste is equated to a marketing and advertising department then the academic caste is research and development. This is where new products are made and approved. If approved they are handed over to the commerce caste and industrial caste for marketing and mass production.
The soldiery caste is responsible for choosing the strongest among the castes and placing them into sub-castes. These sub-castes are divided by merit and intelligence. There are four major sub-castes:
Command Caste - Responsible for NCO’s and command staff
Specialized Caste - Responsible for special operations
Regular Caste - Responsible for regular soldiers and fleet personnel
Support Caste - Responsible for operating equipment and vehicles
These sub-castes are responsible for training and selecting from placed or recruited members of the Soldiery caste. They are the backbone of the militant might of the hierarchy and make use of automated combatants if needed and are a common sight when collecting due debts and in security details.
The industrial caste is the largest among the castes and is where most Lokoid are placed. Some may find their way up the ladder from the industrial caste and into the other bodies of the hierarchy. The industrial caste is the primary workforce of the hierarchy. They are responsible for manufacturing goods, mining, and farming. They are given many avenues to rise up from this rung of society through merit. Pursuing education, displaying high levels of skill or strength, making logical and intelligent decisions, and more. The survival of the fittest and natural selection are at play. Those who do not adapt, stay in the industrial caste and are shackled to a life of service and are loaned as cheap manpower for the rest of the galaxy. Because of the individualistic nature of most Lokoid, this is seen as normal. Those who are left behind are left with basic skills and enough intelligence to do their job.
History
THE UNIFICATION ERA
Many centuries ago when the Yrrani were just stretching themselves across the galaxy as silent, but ever present observers of the stars around them, they came upon the lush yet harsh jungle planet of the Lokoid homeworld, Lokus-III. The Yrrani of before still felt the responsibility to let things develop naturally, they weren't yet the gods that would bring about their own destruction with their own hubris.
They observed the Lokoid who, at this point, had only reached a semi-tribal state with many groups and different ideals. Their society was brutish and barbaric when compared to the Yrrani or any of the other races that the Yrrani had encountered before. The Lokoid were stronger than most other races and preserved a warrior culture through most of the societies that they had formed. The Yrrani were prepared to write off the Lokoid as another primitive, barbaric race that would never amount to anything, that was until they found that the Lokoid were progressing rather quickly for a primitive race. In a span of three decades, they went from stone age technology to figuring out advanced metallurgy. The Yrrani quickly realized that there was potential in the intelligence of the Lokoid race. Some Yrrani xenoanthropologists speculated that the Lokoid were younger than the Yrrani when they first figured out steelcrafts.
However, the Yrrani were once again quickly disappointed to learn that the Lokoid advancement wasn't for the overall benefit or comfort of the Lokoid's people, in fact they seemed to put no effort towards comfort at all and only really cared about hygiene and advancements in medicine. The Lokoid were extremely utilitarian and the reason was because all their effort was geared towards making war. Once again, the more peaceful Yrrani of this period largely wrote off the Lokoid and kept an eye on them to make sure they wouldn't grow out of control. However, in the next century, the Yrrani found themselves in a lot of conflict and the peaceful regimes of the past have all but vanished. The new Yrrani found themselves remembering the Lokoid and their potential as stalwart warriors and within them hatched the idea of turning them into willing auxiliaries.
The Yrrani returned to Lokus-III and found that the Lokoid had changed drastically since they were last observed. The planet itself seems to have seen conflict of immense magnitude, what was once a lush planet was now only dotted with small patches of crimson, the color of their most abundant flora. What was more surprising was the fact that the Lokoid themselves had conglomerated into only one identity, the Heirarchy they called themselves. A civilization that just one century ago was only figuring out steelcrafts had now blossomed into its hyperindustrial age as a supernation on their own planet. What was more surprising was their nearby moons, of which there were three, had all shown signs of exploration. The Lokoid had taken their first steps in exploring space. Seeing this worried the Yrrani, but they didn't need to fret as the Lokoid still retained their fierce warrior culture despite their new disposition. That aggression, that drive, had just simply been channeled into something else.
The leading theory on what had happened to the Lokoid was that in the century the Yrrani had left them, they had undergone significant societal, technological, and military advancements. From the marks of major conflict on their planet, it seems that there were several nations that vied for control of Lokus-III. A battle for the planet ensued and for one reason or another, one faction completely dominated and either subjugated or exterminated the rest. From then on their growth was exponential, reaching heights of technological advancements that other races in the galaxy struggled to even get to in their first few centuries of existence. This suited the Yrrani's goals well, it meant that the Lokoid were fast learners and they would use that to channel their aggression towards the Yrrani's enemies.
THE YRRANI'S "UPLIFTING" MISSION
First contact with the Yrrani was met with aggression, like a foot stepping into an ant nest. The Yrrani, knowing that the Lokoid had no real means of fighting back in any significant way and only understood strength, demonstrated it by glassing their biggest city. Seeing the power of the Yrrani first hand and knowing that they couldn't do anything about the Lokoid had to submit to the superior power. They vowed that the Yrrani would one day pay for humiliating their proud race.
The Yrrani wasted no time in enforcing laws that dictated that the most able-bodied Lokoid warriors were to be trained post haste. The Yrrani gave them weapons technology that they believed only they could create. But they had underestimated the Lokoid mind, they were geniuses at figuring out complex and intricate problems. They viewed Yrrani technology as a challenge to be cracked. The Yrrani themselves also had instances of autonomous AI that the Lokoid had started to admire. The combination of Yrrani technology and raw Lokoid warrior instinct, made the Lokoid Auxiliaries one of the best soldiers in the galaxy and at times better warriors than mainline Yrrani fighters. They were used to subjugate and hold colonial planets in the Yrrani empire and were more professional than their Yrrani counterparts.
Lokoid tactics and strategies were complex and multifaceted, often comprising of several staging operations. The Yrrani recognized their cunning and kept a close eye on their Auxiliaries. However, after years of loyal service and the Lokoid's best attempts at pleasantries, they were gifted hundreds of worlds. The Lokoid had negotiated for it as they said, "More worlds, more Lokoid, more Lokoid, more soldiers, more soldiers, less Yrrani death." The Yrrani, confident that they could crush the Lokoid at any moment and confident in the security of their technology that prevented the Lokoid from turning their weapons against their masters, they allowed them more and more leeway. This is what the Lokoid wanted, to lull the false gods into a false sense of security. Every world they conquered, they studied the technology of the other races; Every peice of Yrrani technology, they studied its form, its function, its effects; Every piece of information, they meticulously tore apart and brought back together.
The Lokoid constructed themselves in secret, hundreds of foundries, fabricators, and ships deep underground their planetary strongholds. They figured out the technology to finally fight back, but the Empire was still too strong. They needed to bide their time and so they did the Yrrani's dirty work up until the Yrrani's civil war.
THE PRICE OF HUBRIS
When the Empire fell into a civil war, both sides turned to the Lokoid to bolster their forces among many others. However, they made a fatal mistake. The Lokoid had prepared for this moment, their forces spread across many Yrrani worlds, their foundries creating hundreds of autonomous weapons of war, hundreds of their warships rising form the hundreds of gifted worlds. The Lokoid had found their opportunity, and they used it.
All across the Empire where the Lokoid were present, the Auxiliaries turned on their Yrrani masters by using weapons that they had created, weapons that had no technology to prevent them from working against the Yrrani. They distributed these weapons to the locals who had been persecuted for too long. Lokoid numbers and the weapons that they fielded cut down the Yrrani in short order. The fleets of Lokoid ships seemed endless as the Yrrani cut down one, only to find another mass of ships appearing out of nowhere. Fleet after fleet, battalion after battalion. The Yrrani on both sides struggled to keep a hold of their systems as they had to fight intense battles everywhere else. Some worlds never received reinforcements, others had to abandon their posts at the sight of five battlegroups.
One century of war. One century of hunting and exterminating Yrrani forces. One century of growing the Lokoid Hierarchy's forces. The Yrrani called who had once called them, "The Terror" for they fell upon their enemies like a tidal wave, now experienced them first hand. It didn't matter whether they could stave off one attack, there was always another. Eventually, the last Yrrani remnants and their allies were wiped away by the endless tide of the Lokoid. The Lokoid then turned to those they had helped free, they understood that a service rendered was a service paid fairly. They left the former Yrrani colonies to themselves, they had wanted freedom most of all and fought for it alongside the Lokoid. It was a business transaction for the Lokoid, one that they could easily make up for later. However, on other worlds where the primary residences were the Yrrani, they claimed those worlds and turned them into Agri-worlds, Factory worlds, Mining worlds, Hab-worlds, and the like. They understood that they needed to reorganize and reorient themselves to sustain a now interstellar nation.
THE RECLAMATION WARS
The Lokoid reorganized and it was a rough few hundred years, but the Lokoid stabilized. They began rubbing elbows with many other races. They were coming to be known as a reliable manufacturer of cheap quality goods and provider of cheap quality labor. However, they were not always welcomed, whether it be their past as auxiliaries for the Yrrani or their alien culture, they met with many mixed reactions.
One of the most violent encounters that they had before the Reclamation wars were with the Augustans. An Empire that the Lokoid now viewed as unreliable business partners. There were many small incidents that led to this and no one really knows what started it. But the leading theory is that it all started with an Augustan noble failing to pay the Lokoid for their services. In response, the Lokoid Banking Union and Trade Commission sent a fleet to repossess their goods or take it back by force. They had hoped the Augustans would see reason after being threatened with escalation. However, the Lokoid were infuriated to learn that other Augustan nobles and members of their military showed up to meet them. The Augustans had the gall to tell the Lokoid that they had lied about not being fairly paid and were now here to extort Augustan nobility.
This confrontation escalated into small border skirmishes that would eventually come to a head in the Reclamation wars. The Reclamation Wars saw many nations and races battle for Tar Yrra. The Lokoid encountered new enemies such as the living trees that called themselves the Mu and old friends such as the Supremites who they assisted during the Yrrani civil war and many more.
The worst of the conflict happened on the Scorched Line. The Scorched Line are a line of star systems that were fiercely contested between the Augustans and the Lokoid. Both sides saw heavy losses and contrary to usual Lokoid doctrine, they had committed considerable resources in contesting these systems against the Augustans because of personal grievances, total loss and profit were not accounted for in the Scorched Line battles and saw the Lokoid deploying their most dangerous weapons of war against the Augustans. In the end, when the 4th Reclamation War ended in an armistice called by the Idkarian Dominion establishing what would come to be known as the interstellar league of nations, the Scorched Line became a demilitarized zone between the Augustans and the Lokoid through this armistice.
Now the Lokoid along with other nations have created a defense force and sent their own independent civilian researchers to study Tar Yrra in accordance to the provisions provided by the Armistice.
MILITARY
The Lokoid military uses a number of automated units for their ground and naval use. Because of their massive industrial resources, this often means that they can output a large fleet in a matter of days and with the Lokoid birth rate, it is entirely possible to staff new positions quickly with competent Lokoid commanders.
The Lokoid also field manned units and Lokoid infantry for special deployment or even as command elements. These are usually the best of the best in terms of what the military could offer.
The Lokoid military doctrine is a balance between large numbers and adequate quality. They strike heavily at a target to either degrade it or engage in a battle of attrition with self-sufficient mobile factories.
The navy’s job is to combat other opposing navies and provide orbital and aerial support for all combat units. Some special ships like the Annihilator Class Super Dreadnought or the Heirarch Class Battle-Carrier are also considered factory units and can be (but aren’t always) outfitted with modules that allow for taking in scrap, melting it down, and turning it into new fighting units.
Annihilator Class Super Dreadnought Lancer Class Battleship Hive Class Super Carrier Heirarch Class Battle-Carrier Executor Class Battleship
Mauler Class Cruiser Brawler Class Cruiser Antennae Class Destroyer Instigator Class Destroyer Hailfire Class Destroyer Stinger Class Destroyer Dagger Class Destroyer
The army’s job is to conduct ground operations. They are the regulars that fight on the ground. Super heavy units like the Assault and Foundry walkers are meant for high profile ground engagements and are usually only deployed when orbital and aerial superiority is established. The Foundry walker in particular is meant to be a mobile factory that can deploy whole divisions of fully functioning automated units in a few hours. The army, however, is made up of variants of the Multipurpose Modular Automata series of droids, abbreviated as MMA with a mark number denoting series and other series of robotics coupled with only a few manned vehicles.
M.M.A. Mk.1 Standard M.M.A. Mk.3 Standard M.M.A. Mk.3 Fire Support M.M.A. Mk.3 Anti-tank and Anti-Air M.M.A. Mk.3 High-Mobility M.M.A. Mk.3 Melee Pelter Mobile Defense Sentry (P.M.D.S.) Pummeler Heavy Mobile Sentry (P.H.M.S.) Saboteur Drone Series 40 (SDS-40) Ripper (Deployable in swarms via air bomb, orbital, or artillery) Saboteur Drone Series 10 (SDS-10) Ticker (Deployable in swarms via air bomb, orbital, or artillery) Saboteur Drone Series 15 (SDS-15) Swatter (Deployable in swarms via air bomb, orbital, or artillery) Whisper Drone Series 10 (WDS-10) Watcher
Artillery Support Crawler (A.S.C.) Anti-Personnel Assault Crawler (A.P.-A.C.) Anti-Tank Assault Crawler (A.T.-A.C.) Light Armored Stinger Tank Assault Crawler Multiple Launch Missile System (Hits both Aerial and Ground Targets) Heavy Assault Walker Planetary Assault Walker Planetary Foundry Walker
Commando units, the only section of the army that heavily relies on well trained organics. They’re given the special task of being deployed behind enemy lines and causing havoc. They’re deployment is usually preluded with drops of Saboteur Drone Series units or Whisper Drone Series scouts depending on the mission type. Lokoid Commando Unit M.M.A. Mk.2 Terminator Commandos M.M.A. Mk.4 Infitrators
The hunters are a unique and highly specialized mechanized component of the hierarchy and are primarily trained for high risk, high value, deployments often alongside commando units. The hunters use a four legged arachnoid mech that bares the designation “Strider”. The current model of strider is the S-80 and its variations separated into “types”.
The S-80 features multi-directional rolling balls on each leg to facilitate smooth, fast movement on even ground and can transition to fast actuating legs for agile navigation of rough terrain. Alongside this, they have two high velocity wire anchors to overcome verticality and increase mobility in different situations. The fastest recorded time within an S-80 is a little over 150 kilometers per hour and it can attain this speed in any direction. However, it is noted that in simulations the machines were capable of much higher speeds however, practical combat, and terrain navigation trials saw the record speed as the highest practically possible.
They are also able to drive themselves into the ground using piledrivers located on each leg to act as mobile, fast paced, artillery. These pile drivers can also act as secondary or tertiary melee weapons against armored targets such as tanks or opposing mechs.
S-10 Experimental (1st Generation Strider) S-50S Supply Strider Armament: 16x smoke and chaff Houses equipment that facilitates the reloading of S-80 Striders. Chassis based on 5th generation strider. S-80 General Type Armament: Standard length 120mm autoloaded smoothbore, 2x high-frequency blade sub arms, quad smoke and chaff dispensers, 2x wire anchors, and 4x piledrivers S-80 Sniper Type Armament: Long 120mm autoloaded high velocity smoothbore, 2x 50 caliber machine-gun sub arms, 4x smoke and chaff dispensers, 2x wire anchors, and 4x piledrivers S-80 Missile Type Armament: 2x missile pods with ten missiles each, 2x 50 caliber machine-gun sub arms, 4x smoke and chaff dispensers, 2x wire anchors, and 4x piledrivers S-80 Support Type Armament: 40mm auto-cannon with programmable ammo, 2x 50 caliber machine-gun sub arms, 4x smoke and chaff dispensers, 2x wire anchors, and 4x piledrivers
It should be noted that these are the factory standard and hunter units are encouraged to customize their striders to better fit their operational needs. Most hunter units are deployed in squadrons to maximize their tactical flexibility. The auto-loaded smoothbores can also switch between APFSDS, HEAT, and HESH as the auto-loader can switch magazines. However, a strider can only typically carry three magazines at a time and most squadrons opt to have two magazines of APFSDS and one magazine of HEAT as HEAT can deal with most lightly armored targets and have enough explosive potential to knock out light fortifications.
Other shell types are available depending on deployment with some specially selected divisions testing out the highly experimental HEPT-EX or High Explosive Plasma Type Experimental. A shell that encases the components needed for a plasmatic reaction generating excessive amounts of heat upon impact rendering most buildings, vehicles, and equipment unusable. However, the highly volatile nature of the warhead has produced less than stellar results so far.
The Hierarchy, The Lokoid, The Roaches (Derogatory)
Government
The government is the Ruling Caste. The Hierarch Council disseminates their orders to system regional governors which keeps all systems in line with the will of the hierarchy. The council of hierarchs is made up of five members.
Araq, Supreme Hierarch - Chosen by the Hierarch Council
Kaloth, Hierarch of Commerce - Governs the Commerce Caste
Gorn, Hierarch of Research and Development - Governs the Academic Caste
Dagoth, Hierarch of War - Governs the Soldiery Caste
Zasz, Hierarch of Industry - Governs over mass production
These members of the council all have equal power except for the Supreme Hierarch who supersedes the rest of the council. The council deliberates everything related to running the Hierarchy as a whole and is responsible for the direction of the Hierarchy moving forward.
Demographics
The Lokoid Heirarchy is made up mostly of Lokoid. It is rare to find any other race on Lokoid worlds, especially those not built for the pleasure or leisure targeted towards those of a different race.
Society
From birth, the order of the hierarchy is implemented. Lokoid young hatch from eggs within an egg sack as larvae. The liquids in the sack are consumed, filled with vital nutrients and antibiotics. The weak are eaten and the strong continue to develop. Once the survivors break out of the egg sack, they are taken as nymphs to be educated. Primary education begins, but nothing could prepare the young Lokoids for their second trial. The nymphs, nearing their adolescence, are thrown into the wilderness to survive. Cannibalism is encouraged if it means survival. They are given the lesson, eat or be eaten, the survival of the fittest as they once did when they were larvae. But it was also natural selection as those who fail to adapt die off. The survivors at the end of the month are taken and given secondary education. Their secondary education focuses on the general education of different subjects. Four years later, they are evaluated and if their scores drop below a quota they are euthanized, prepared as food, and is rationed to the rest of the now grown brood.
Usually, the survival rate for Lokoids in their childhood is less than half. Their massive amounts of eggs per-person, however, necessitate this way of population control. The survivors are then given a caste position and specialization training. It is possible to move up in society through individual meritocracy. The weak and the stupid are recycled and eaten. This is vestigial behavior from a more primitive time. The average lifespan of a Lokoid, if allowed to live in ideal conditions, is seventy standard years. However, the oldest known Lokoid was a hierarch who was reported to be 210 standard years old, indicating that in the best conditions the Lokoid can have a surprisingly long lifespan when compared to humans.
The castes themselves are divided into five categories:
The Ruling Caste
The Commerce Caste
The Academic Caste
The soldiery Caste
The Industrial Caste
The ruling caste is composed of the fittest Lokoid, the ones who have displayed amazing intelligence and leadership ability within their respective caste. The ruling caste’s most powerful members are made up of five individuals known as the Hierarch Council. Each individual all have equal power to one another and have different jurisdictions. However, there is always one individual among the five that presides among the five. This individual would come to be known as the supreme hierarch. The representatives themselves are known as, from descending order of caste, the hierarch of commerce, the hierarch of research and development, the hierarch of war, and the hierarch of industry. The supreme hierarch is chosen based on leadership ability and is chosen among the five hierarchs of the ruling caste. Only a majority vote within the council of hierarchs can have the supreme hierarch replaced.
The commerce caste is composed of traders and businessmen. The commerce caste is specifically for those among the Lokoid who display great social skills and have an eye for business. The commerce caste is the primary economic group that provides the Lokoid new business opportunities in the galaxy. They acquire trade licenses, manufacturing patents, design contracts, and more. On top of this, the commerce caste is also responsible for lending and collecting loans, managing budgets and expenses, and conducting audits on the other castes.
The academic caste is composed of Lokoids who display amazing aptitudes for the sciences. The academic caste is responsible for technological gains within the hierarchy. They are in charge of designing new ships and weapons for use in manufacturing. On top of this, they are in charge of scientific advancement in many fields such as botany and particle physics just to name a few. If the commerce caste is equated to a marketing and advertising department then the academic caste is research and development. This is where new products are made and approved. If approved they are handed over to the commerce caste and industrial caste for marketing and mass production.
The soldiery caste is responsible for choosing the strongest among the castes and placing them into sub-castes. These sub-castes are divided by merit and intelligence. There are four major sub-castes:
Command Caste - Responsible for NCO’s and command staff
Specialized Caste - Responsible for special operations
Regular Caste - Responsible for regular soldiers and fleet personnel
Support Caste - Responsible for operating equipment and vehicles
These sub-castes are responsible for training and selecting from placed or recruited members of the Soldiery caste. They are the backbone of the militant might of the hierarchy and make use of automated combatants if needed and are a common sight when collecting due debts and in security details.
The industrial caste is the largest among the castes and is where most Lokoid are placed. Some may find their way up the ladder from the industrial caste and into the other bodies of the hierarchy. The industrial caste is the primary workforce of the hierarchy. They are responsible for manufacturing goods, mining, and farming. They are given many avenues to rise up from this rung of society through merit. Pursuing education, displaying high levels of skill or strength, making logical and intelligent decisions, and more. The survival of the fittest and natural selection are at play. Those who do not adapt, stay in the industrial caste and are shackled to a life of service and are loaned as cheap manpower for the rest of the galaxy. Because of the individualistic nature of most Lokoid, this is seen as normal. Those who are left behind are left with basic skills and enough intelligence to do their job.
History
THE UNIFICATION ERA
Many centuries ago when the Yrrani were just stretching themselves across the galaxy as silent, but ever present observers of the stars around them, they came upon the lush yet harsh jungle planet of the Lokoid homeworld, Lokus-III. The Yrrani of before still felt the responsibility to let things develop naturally, they weren't yet the gods that would bring about their own destruction with their own hubris.
They observed the Lokoid who, at this point, had only reached a semi-tribal state with many groups and different ideals. Their society was brutish and barbaric when compared to the Yrrani or any of the other races that the Yrrani had encountered before. The Lokoid were stronger than most other races and preserved a warrior culture through most of the societies that they had formed. The Yrrani were prepared to write off the Lokoid as another primitive, barbaric race that would never amount to anything, that was until they found that the Lokoid were progressing rather quickly for a primitive race. In a span of three decades, they went from stone age technology to figuring out advanced metallurgy. The Yrrani quickly realized that there was potential in the intelligence of the Lokoid race. Some Yrrani xenoanthropologists speculated that the Lokoid were younger than the Yrrani when they first figured out steelcrafts.
However, the Yrrani were once again quickly disappointed to learn that the Lokoid advancement wasn't for the overall benefit or comfort of the Lokoid's people, in fact they seemed to put no effort towards comfort at all and only really cared about hygiene and advancements in medicine. The Lokoid were extremely utilitarian and the reason was because all their effort was geared towards making war. Once again, the more peaceful Yrrani of this period largely wrote off the Lokoid and kept an eye on them to make sure they wouldn't grow out of control. However, in the next century, the Yrrani found themselves in a lot of conflict and the peaceful regimes of the past have all but vanished. The new Yrrani found themselves remembering the Lokoid and their potential as stalwart warriors and within them hatched the idea of turning them into willing auxiliaries.
The Yrrani returned to Lokus-III and found that the Lokoid had changed drastically since they were last observed. The planet itself seems to have seen conflict of immense magnitude, what was once a lush planet was now only dotted with small patches of crimson, the color of their most abundant flora. What was more surprising was the fact that the Lokoid themselves had conglomerated into only one identity, the Heirarchy they called themselves. A civilization that just one century ago was only figuring out steelcrafts had now blossomed into its hyperindustrial age as a supernation on their own planet. What was more surprising was their nearby moons, of which there were three, had all shown signs of exploration. The Lokoid had taken their first steps in exploring space. Seeing this worried the Yrrani, but they didn't need to fret as the Lokoid still retained their fierce warrior culture despite their new disposition. That aggression, that drive, had just simply been channeled into something else.
The leading theory on what had happened to the Lokoid was that in the century the Yrrani had left them, they had undergone significant societal, technological, and military advancements. From the marks of major conflict on their planet, it seems that there were several nations that vied for control of Lokus-III. A battle for the planet ensued and for one reason or another, one faction completely dominated and either subjugated or exterminated the rest. From then on their growth was exponential, reaching heights of technological advancements that other races in the galaxy struggled to even get to in their first few centuries of existence. This suited the Yrrani's goals well, it meant that the Lokoid were fast learners and they would use that to channel their aggression towards the Yrrani's enemies.
THE YRRANI'S "UPLIFTING" MISSION
First contact with the Yrrani was met with aggression, like a foot stepping into an ant nest. The Yrrani, knowing that the Lokoid had no real means of fighting back in any significant way and only understood strength, demonstrated it by glassing their biggest city. Seeing the power of the Yrrani first hand and knowing that they couldn't do anything about the Lokoid had to submit to the superior power. They vowed that the Yrrani would one day pay for humiliating their proud race.
The Yrrani wasted no time in enforcing laws that dictated that the most able-bodied Lokoid warriors were to be trained post haste. The Yrrani gave them weapons technology that they believed only they could create. But they had underestimated the Lokoid mind, they were geniuses at figuring out complex and intricate problems. They viewed Yrrani technology as a challenge to be cracked. The Yrrani themselves also had instances of autonomous AI that the Lokoid had started to admire. The combination of Yrrani technology and raw Lokoid warrior instinct, made the Lokoid Auxiliaries one of the best soldiers in the galaxy and at times better warriors than mainline Yrrani fighters. They were used to subjugate and hold colonial planets in the Yrrani empire and were more professional than their Yrrani counterparts.
Lokoid tactics and strategies were complex and multifaceted, often comprising of several staging operations. The Yrrani recognized their cunning and kept a close eye on their Auxiliaries. However, after years of loyal service and the Lokoid's best attempts at pleasantries, they were gifted hundreds of worlds. The Lokoid had negotiated for it as they said, "More worlds, more Lokoid, more Lokoid, more soldiers, more soldiers, less Yrrani death." The Yrrani, confident that they could crush the Lokoid at any moment and confident in the security of their technology that prevented the Lokoid from turning their weapons against their masters, they allowed them more and more leeway. This is what the Lokoid wanted, to lull the false gods into a false sense of security. Every world they conquered, they studied the technology of the other races; Every peice of Yrrani technology, they studied its form, its function, its effects; Every piece of information, they meticulously tore apart and brought back together.
The Lokoid constructed themselves in secret, hundreds of foundries, fabricators, and ships deep underground their planetary strongholds. They figured out the technology to finally fight back, but the Empire was still too strong. They needed to bide their time and so they did the Yrrani's dirty work up until the Yrrani's civil war.
THE PRICE OF HUBRIS
When the Empire fell into a civil war, both sides turned to the Lokoid to bolster their forces among many others. However, they made a fatal mistake. The Lokoid had prepared for this moment, their forces spread across many Yrrani worlds, their foundries creating hundreds of autonomous weapons of war, hundreds of their warships rising form the hundreds of gifted worlds. The Lokoid had found their opportunity, and they used it.
All across the Empire where the Lokoid were present, the Auxiliaries turned on their Yrrani masters by using weapons that they had created, weapons that had no technology to prevent them from working against the Yrrani. They distributed these weapons to the locals who had been persecuted for too long. Lokoid numbers and the weapons that they fielded cut down the Yrrani in short order. The fleets of Lokoid ships seemed endless as the Yrrani cut down one, only to find another mass of ships appearing out of nowhere. Fleet after fleet, battalion after battalion. The Yrrani on both sides struggled to keep a hold of their systems as they had to fight intense battles everywhere else. Some worlds never received reinforcements, others had to abandon their posts at the sight of five battlegroups.
One century of war. One century of hunting and exterminating Yrrani forces. One century of growing the Lokoid Hierarchy's forces. The Yrrani called who had once called them, "The Terror" for they fell upon their enemies like a tidal wave, now experienced them first hand. It didn't matter whether they could stave off one attack, there was always another. Eventually, the last Yrrani remnants and their allies were wiped away by the endless tide of the Lokoid. The Lokoid then turned to those they had helped free, they understood that a service rendered was a service paid fairly. They left the former Yrrani colonies to themselves, they had wanted freedom most of all and fought for it alongside the Lokoid. It was a business transaction for the Lokoid, one that they could easily make up for later. However, on other worlds where the primary residences were the Yrrani, they claimed those worlds and turned them into Agri-worlds, Factory worlds, Mining worlds, Hab-worlds, and the like. They understood that they needed to reorganize and reorient themselves to sustain a now interstellar nation.
THE RECLAMATION WARS
The Lokoid reorganized and it was a rough few hundred years, but the Lokoid stabilized. They began rubbing elbows with many other races. They were coming to be known as a reliable manufacturer of cheap quality goods and provider of cheap quality labor. However, they were not always welcomed, whether it be their past as auxiliaries for the Yrrani or their alien culture, they met with many mixed reactions.
One of the most violent encounters that they had before the Reclamation wars were with the Augustans. An Empire that the Lokoid now viewed as unreliable business partners. There were many small incidents that led to this and no one really knows what started it. But the leading theory is that it all started with an Augustan noble failing to pay the Lokoid for their services. In response, the Lokoid Banking Union and Trade Commission sent a fleet to repossess their goods or take it back by force. They had hoped the Augustans would see reason after being threatened with escalation. However, the Lokoid were infuriated to learn that other Augustan nobles and members of their military showed up to meet them. The Augustans had the gall to tell the Lokoid that they had lied about not being fairly paid and were now here to extort Augustan nobility.
This confrontation escalated into small border skirmishes that would eventually come to a head in the Reclamation wars. The Reclamation Wars saw many nations and races battle for Tar Yrra. The Lokoid encountered new enemies such as the living trees that called themselves the Mu and old friends such as the Supremites who they assisted during the Yrrani civil war and many more.
The worst of the conflict happened on the Scorched Line. The Scorched Line are a line of star systems that were fiercely contested between the Augustans and the Lokoid. Both sides saw heavy losses and contrary to usual Lokoid doctrine, they had committed considerable resources in contesting these systems against the Augustans because of personal grievances, total loss and profit were not accounted for in the Scorched Line battles and saw the Lokoid deploying their most dangerous weapons of war against the Augustans. In the end, when the 4th Reclamation War ended in an armistice called by the Idkarian Dominion establishing what would come to be known as the interstellar league of nations, the Scorched Line became a demilitarized zone between the Augustans and the Lokoid.
Now the Lokoid along with other nations have created a defense force and sent their own independent civilian researchers to study Tar Yrra in accordance to the provisions provided by the Armistice.
Ulrik scoffed as he witnessed the ship overhead pass them by. He was annoyed that he had even bothered to stop his army from marching through. These tallfolk wouldn't even give him the light of day.
"Feckless cowards didn't even come down to meet us."
Halmdir came back through, "M'lord, the army's is holding."
The dwarves on the other side of the gate looked to Halmdir and finally, Ulrik said, "Fuck waiting. Get the army to march through the damn gate and send a messenger to the capital. I want another damned army ready, we're holding down this side of the gate."
Halmdir nodded and went back through the gate. A minute would pass and the first column of dwarves would arrive. Hundreds of dwarves at a time. Pikes, swords, hammers, and shields filling the immediate area. Ulrik looked towards the Horizon, this place was not their homeland of Dunmar.
"Well, it would've been fucking convenient if this was Dunmar aye lads?" he shook his head, "Now we have to rely on maps and centuries old knowhow to try and find this damned place. We will not be denied our glory."
"What do you want us to do if any other folk come through the gate m'lord?" Halmdir asked.
Ulrik looked to the gate, his eyes fierce and cold, "They haven't changed a wee bit. Talk to them, gently at first. But if they look down on you, make it fucking clear that we dwarves are not to be trifled with. Find out what they want with this place, why they're here, where they're from. If they don't want to fucking talk, KICK THEIR SORRY ARSES BACK TO THE SHIT HOLE THEY CAME FROM!"
Halmdir nodded, "Aye m'lord. I'll set a camp here then."
Ulrik raised a brow and looked back at Halmdir, "Only a camp?"
"M'lord?" Halmdir looked at Ulrik with a confused expression.
Ulrik looked around, "Halmdir, let's show these tallfolk we mean business. Get the earthworks and make fort they can't possibly ignore. A camp first, then a fortress."
"Wouldn't that give the wrong impression m'lord, I thought we were avoiding war." Halmdir asked.
"Halmdir, these fucking arseholes would do the same damned thing. What makes you think they'd just let us march our people through? Mark my words, if we don't, they will." Ulrik then looked back to the Horizon, his eyes searching for the snowy peaks of Dunmar.
Halmdir looked to a messenger, "You heard the king, pass the word!"
"Aye sir."
And so the dwarves worked hard to set up temporary fortifications in place of permanent ones. Hours would pass as more of the Dwarves poured through the gate. Ulrik would send a force of five hundred dwarves led by Halmdir out west as their compasses dictate to reconnoiter the surrounding area and find out where the hell they are. He would do this sending small forces in all four cardinal directions to secure his position near the gate and ensure that if there was anything here, he'd know about it.
There was much to do and many trials that awaited the dwarves, much more than they would anticipate. There were many realms that would march through the gate, some friendly, some malicious, some they could not even fathom. At the same time, there was also much to explore in this world, things that Dwarves who've only stayed in their mountain have never seen before. They too had much to learn about their ancestral world of Gaia. The ruins around the gate would be a good place to start.
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I'm a space cat.
<div style="white-space:pre-wrap;"><div class="bb-center"><img src="https://fontmeme.com/permalink/180608/d4bbef67240f61a7ae8c3bbfaf8eb569.png" /></div><br><div class="bb-center"><img src="https://img.roleplayerguild.com/prod/users/faca2651-b94f-4700-a18c-c9c60cad6818.jpg" /></div><br><br>I'm a space cat.</div>
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Inertia
