I have been writing as a hobby for longer than you have been alive. I have been a regular member and roleplayer of no less than fourteen different online forums during that time (including the old RPG), fivesix eight of which no longer exist.
I was previously a regular on the Homestuck forums, but I became so sick of thread turnover there that I asked around and eventually found the Guild. Since joining, I have exclusively only participated in Advanced RPs. Before Mahz gave NRPs their own subforum, I used to be an NRP regular in the Advanced Subforum. I am a Guildfall survivor, and know/regularly write with a few others.
If you ask anybody who has written with me in previous RPs, they should tell you that I have a generally open schedule, I post regularly and in a timely fashion, and I never drop an RP once I join unless the thread dies. Some of them may tell you that I have extensive expertise within the realms of Biology, Psychology, and Physics, which I will make no effort to validate since there is no way I can provide hard proof of aforementioned alleged expertise to anybody over the internet (though I am happy to try and answer any questions you send my way).
My favorite fandom is the Myst franchise, which seemingly nobody other than me has ever heard of.
I was a Contest Moderator for the Writing Contests Subforum for just a little bit over two years. I wrote the Moderation Policy for that subforum and I ran a contest called the Twelve Labours; you can still go there and see all of them and the entries people wrote for them in the Contests Section and the Victory Archives.
I have been quadruple secret banned from the guild discord. That is not a joke.
Will not be using Caelrulmoste this time around. Perhaps a revamped Andromache.
For the purposes of claim determination only, could you give me a general idea as to which direction the Einherjar will be coming from? Assuming they are not going to fall from the sky, boil up from the Earth, converge from every directional simultaneously, or erupt from our navels.
Tremendously interested. Easily one of the more inspired and promising premises I have seen in several months. Working on a rough outline already, will await a proper OOC before finalizing it.
“You there, Journeyman! You are going to come with me since you aren’t busy. I’ve got some business to take care of at the Prison and I’d prefer to have somebody with me while I’m doing it. Hurry up.”
Hans froze mid-query about the relative slant of drainage ditches in the Mid-western Narrows when a tense woman with long, dirty blonde hair wearing red cloth over armor stormed out of the outpost and called out to him out of the blue, picking him out of the crowd like a cuckoo egg. She did it with naught but a single irritated glance after looking over the crowd once and then looking back to him.
After hastily tipping the woman at the market-stall, Hans hurriedly adorned his helmet once more and then looked himself up and down, trying to figure out what had given him away. Without his occasionally thrice-damned distinctive helmet on, there was no way she should have been able to pick him out from-
As he patted himself down, Hans' hand hit the dirtied and battered Journeyman's sigil still pinned to his overcoat, and he swore as he looked at the grimy, partly corroded badge. He had not coated it with enough dirt! Whoever the blonde woman in red was, she had probably been able to just make out enough of its color and contour to identify him!
"Traveler fucking damn a son of a harpy..." He swore under his breath as he jogged in order to catch up with Veira. Giving her a quick twice-over, he hastily brushed the crusts of filth off of his Journeyman insignia before falling into step with her. He opened his mouth to speak as he turned to look at her, and then stopped, subconsciously thankful that his grotesque helmet obscured his face and saved him from appearing as a star-struck idiot. Something about the way Veira held herself commanded attention. Her face had a sort of light to, a sort of striking grace and firmness to it despite the scars that demanded both respect and obedience. He was left staring at her for a full two seconds before he managed to shake the haze from his eyes, chastising himself for being so easily caught-up by the first striking face he had seen in weeks. Attempting to sound casual, he broached the subject of what the hell they were doing.
"You mentioned the prison. Are we interrogating someone? Carrying out a proscription? Are we remunerating the guards to aid their blind and deaf veterans-" His voice briefly caught as he glanced at Veira's scars again. "-or are we taking a cut from them?"
This post was written collaboratively in part with both @Commodore and @Ozerath.
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Interstellar Union of Collectives Bountiful Birth System Administrative Habitat Station
Austere grey seating raises far above into the ‘ceiling’, artificial gravity maintaining the different orientation of the current ‘floor’ of the meeting room. Clearly designed for audiences the above seating is set back and lights shine down onto the table of meeting. Designed for standing adult ‘Ysh’ the table and display raises to a half average height, a little over a meter. Gently flashing the table display is currently in a standby mode, awaiting the progression of the meeting in earnest.
Two figures stand at one end of the table, speaking quietly. One is an alien being unknown by the Ysh, faintly shorter in stature than their average two and a quarter meters, with four arms and a bulky frame. Their head is little more than the afterthought of a lump atop their torso, with no apparent sensory organs or even a mouth. Their flesh is a bare, off-color yellow with no hair of any sort. Their appendages end with four-fingered extremities. By and large it resembles an incomplete, reanimated Yshin corpse. The being wears a skintight suit, though even this is a token gesture meant to alleviate the anxiety of those forced to converse with it. Its companion was a Ysh - or at least, a being that looked very much like a member of the Ysh. There was something ever-so-faintly wrong about it. Its scent was a grave departure from the norm, neither pleasing nor disgusting, but rather impossible and foreign. Their eyes were static and dull, indicating an absence of chromatophores. They wore more customary clothing, but everyone present knew what they were. It was a Mucor Typis as its own kind described themselves. A kind of cultured being made so as to resemble the Ysh, but without being apart from the rest of its own kind - it and the corpse-like being it accompanied were of the same flesh.
They were the representatives of the NAC, the Ninth Amaranthine Circuit. Although overtly alien and somewhat anxiety-inducing to contend with, thus far they had made for fair association. Their own society was apparently not too dissimilar from that of the Union's, and the two polities shared many values - and, for the moment at least, a particular agenda. The introduction of the IUC and the NAC had gone over better than either side had anticipated, and the relationship between the two seemed like it might soon become an alliance.
Seven members of the ‘Ysh’ delegation, presumably one of the ‘Ysh’ collective base units, stood around the other end. Vocalizers around their throats hooked up to headsets primarily covering their eyes, a small microphone is extended out to their rarely used mouths. Each member wearing a skinsuit with various attachments, each member looking roughly the same despite their variable ages. Almost lined up perfectly as an example of ‘Ysh’ aging from the youngest to the eldest, only disrupting this effect somewhere in the center of the grouping. Each gently chatted with those across from them as the larger group curves around the edges of the table, changing the visible color of the skin around their eyes in polite conversation. Representatives from a variety of professions, the delegation from the Interstellar Union of Collectives was in primary support of the eldest present there as diplomatic and administrative officer. Although rarely dealt with in any terms of parity, the foreigners had been found surprisingly agreeable.
All the members except the eldest trying and failing to not glance at the uncomforting visage of the ‘Ysh’-like foreign being. Particularly of disgust is the lack of color from the skin near the eyes of the construct.
The same being finished its conversation with the shorter, near-headless alien and turned to address the Ysh delegation. It then spoke, actually addressing them directly with words uttered through its tongueless respiratory hole. It spoke in the trade language used by the Federation, simply due to it being a known element that the translators could easily work with. An unseen cybernetic device embedded just below the surface of its skin projected corresponding, shifting tones of coloration that hung in the air like frozen multicolored amber in a halo around its eyes - made ever so slightly disconcerting by the still faintly visible, unchanging static hue of the flesh underneath.
"If the delegation of the Interstellar Union of Collectives is ready, we are prepared to begin." The tone of the spoken words was neutral, but had a curious hollow timbre to them. The implant they were using to make up for their lack of chromatophores possessed an excruciatingly formal hue, the 'words' used unintentionally more arcane and precise than was strictly necessary or even suitable for everyday discussion.
The noise of the speech quickly stopped any ongoing conversation as focus shifted to the speaker. The group silently waited for the vocalization to finish, that itself was rather unsettling the range of sound coming from the ‘Ysh-like being, the youngest shifting their look to the other alien preferring not to recognize it. The eldest ‘spoke’, changing skin color to active the vocalizer by code then proceeding with their message, following quickly up on the end of previous speaker’s statement. The headset covered the eyes and much of the skin blocking the visible communication for the most part.
“We can begin, please proceed.” The voice was one of careful correct meaning in words, something gained from their efforts before obviously abandoning further advancement. The voice would quickly be identified as artificial should a Human, or other speaker, hear. Neutral because anything else would not be manageable by the underdeveloped vocalizing system.
"Very well. Members of this special delegation - Union military, navy, industry consultants and specialists - I am Sciroa Seventeen, adjucant and special liason for the NAC with the IUC for the purposes of this briefing. My associate here is Berrawo Ninety-Two, foreign operative and Field Commander under the third board of directors. We are here to elucidate to you as to the current political situation in the Imperial Systems Commonwealth, particularly as to why it is important both the NAC and the IUC be poised and ready to move if necessary. We will begin with a brief summary-"
Sciroa waved their lower left hand, and the table's display shifted to display a holographic map of the Commonwealth's systems.
"As I imagine some of you are already aware, the Commonwealth is divided into three distinct regions. The Core Worlds, the Verge Territories, and the Colonies." The map shifted and changed color to highlight each separate territory accordingly, various points of interests and demographic information appearing to supplement the imagery. "The NAC is currently an incorporated, independent organization in all three regions. As far as the Commonwealth is concerned or aware, the NAC is a mundane if prominent heavy-industries megacorporation. We have our own reasons for being there - our ongoing Hyper and Slipspace research project, of course. We also generate a large amount of capital and credit in the Commonwealth for the purposes of engaging in standard commerce with other nations, including with the IUC. The NAC does not have a traditional standard of currency and credit, and so it is necessary for us at this time to generate value and revenue in the galactic market through provision of goods and services with other sovereign powers."
Sciroa looked away from the projected map towards the elder. "Would you like to lay out the Union's current state of affairs in relation to the Commonwealth?" Although the color of their cybernetic chromo-array remained the same, an astute listener would have noted the faint hint of wariness and caution that had become intermixed with the hollow timbre of their voice.
The ‘Ysh’ present were not astute listeners, still relying on their less than perfect translation systems and so completely missed any hint of deeper meanings. The elder waved for the general information specialist, one of the middling ‘Ysh’, age and location, to reply. Vocalizer activated and proceeding with the same synthesized voice that the elder had ‘spoken’ with. Generally they made little use of the display as they generally spoke of non-location specific matters.
“The Commonwealth has up to this date not been the most pleasant of neighbors, being competitors for expansion and particularly militaristic one at that. Union analysis has mostly been of the conclusion that the expansion is necessary for the extension of their empire, plundering systems to put off their own collapse. However it seems to remain apparent that the Commonwealth will not collapse on its own anytime soon, primarily to the inordinate loyalty to their governing system. Specifics of revolt against the regime have always been obscure but it is estimated that a significant sustained disruption in normal operations could potentially cause widespread revolt whether that would be successful, there is no definite conclusion. A primary consideration has always been the specialization of the different regions, and indeed their strange focus on planets. No long term strategy has been formulated for policy on the Commonwealth besides pre-emptive expansion.”
As the general information specialist finished the eldest spoke through their vocalizer, unnecessarily, identifying someone in the raising cone of audience members above. “Regional Officer Obedient Legion, is there a question you wish to ask?”
Standing from their seating the Regional Officer sought to seek the best they could from as they stopped communicating with those across the cone. Fumbling on a vocalizer attachment they respond, “Yes Habitat Commandant, I believe there four distinct regions in the Commonwealth, not three as the ‘Sciroa Seventeen’ suggested.”
"Ah, yes, that is correct." Sciroa indicateda, their spoken voice faintly embarrassed, though their chromo array retained the same arcane tone. "This is because the Commonwealth has two different regions for legal incorporation, specifically the Core Worlds and everywhere else. As far as the NAC is concerned, the Colonies and Constituent Worlds are the same. Which leads us directly into our next point." He gestured and the projected map shifted again, additional graphs and lines of text appearing beside each region. "You see, the entirety of the Commonwealth's industry and economy revolves around the Core Worlds. The verge worlds and colonies supply in excess of ninety-nine percent of all skilled and unskilled labor in the Commonwealth. They harvest most if not all of the Commonwealth's resources, work in all of the Commonwealth's primary industries, and make more than ninety-five percent of all material, commercial goods. Most of these goods, products, and resources are then sent directly to the Core World markets. The situation there is the exact inverse. The Core World has only secondary and tertiary industries in it. Entertainment and leisure, luxury goods and service industries. These are not even the largest or most successful businesses in the Core Worlds, and instead the wealthiest individuals make nearly all of their money from speculation, proprietary trading, and accounting. The Core Worlds, which contain less than ten percent of the Commonwealth's population, contains more than ninety-nine percent of the Commonwealth's net worth, and more than eighty-five percent of all officially mandated products produced in all regions of the Commonwealth. The population of the Coreworlds are, by large, bourgeois and decadent or otherwise involved in the administrative affairs of the Directorate."
As the point was brought up into further detail a greater reaction came out the audience. At first there was merely flashes as some audience members looked to their friends and others in the time honored tradition of ‘Are you seeing this?’ however, this soon grew into rapt attention, always unblinking staring down from above. As more and more unfolded before them they sat still. With the last word they continued in stunned blankness, not a pattern unfolded across the faces of the audience members. Eventually one of the Ideological Protectors stood and made the distinctive ysh sound of attention demanding, finally bringing motion to the audience once more as they turned to face the rear. Vocalizer attached the Protector spoke out.
“That. That is evil of the Individual!”
The audience above broke out into flashes of words, concepts, phrases. “Immoral” “Inefficient” “Evil” “Individualistic”, each broke out mirroring amongst groupings of ‘Ysh’ until eventually settling back into their own seats and blankness, attention rapt onto the meeting below.
"The political demographics within the Commonwealth follow a similar pattern," Sciroa carried on after giving the audience time to settle down once more. "Many of the constituent and colony worlds are annexed powers who were either conquered or coerced into joining the sovereign power that would then later become the Commonwealth. Due to frequent revolts and uprisings within these annexed powers, that power formed the modern Parliamentary system of representation that we know as the Commonwealth. After that, order was restored across the majority of worlds. However, many of them are still not fully represented within Parliament due to the status of personal integration. Simply put, different factions and populations are integrated within the Commonwealth in accordence to need, convenience, and of course the motivation of Parliament, the Noble Diet, and the Imperial Line in endorsing such integration. Contemporaneously, many constituent and verge worlds have suffered from increasing unrest due to the full annexation and integration of a species known as the Valerians."
Sciroa reached out with their upper right hand and tapped on one of the illuminated table's control panes, calling up an image of the Valerian species, alongside several lines of basic information.
"The full integration of the Valerians was due predominantly to the high relative prevalence of individuals with Psionic potential within their popualce, many of whom have been drawn to serve as State Psintegrae. Many constituent and verge world populations are displeased with this, since many of them have been waiting for full integration since they were annexed more than a century ago."
Another distinctive ysh issued forth, although this time from the Ground Forces Specialist on the floor of the meeting in the pause from Sciroa’s speech. Once more the pattern activated the vocalizer and words flowed.
“The Psintegrae are not something we have been able to gather much information on. We have been able to gather they are exceptional individuals, greatly desired for a variety of elite combat purposes, and it goes without saying we have been unable to procure a sample of one. It would be helpful if you could clear up for many what exactly a Psintegrae is, particularly in context of apparent improvements in their capabilities with this development.”
At this, Sciroa turned their colorless eyes to the headless, corpse-like being he had introduced as Berrawo standing beside it with something very closely approximating a knowing look. Berrawo began to speak - their voice was an unfathomable, arcane series of roiling, boiling tar intermixed with crackling static, their voice filled with hisses, pops, and a slick kind of effervescent resonance. Its voice had to be completely translated, unlike Sciroa's own already admittedly alien tongue. A large halo of iridescent light was projected above its head in order to provide a visual translation while members of the audience in the front rows rushed to convert its odd speech to something properly audible to the Ysh.
"Many individuals with Psionic potential in the Commonwealth are..." A faint pause of consideration. "...requisitioned at or near birth by the state by an organization we suspect is affiliated with the Commonwealth Directorate in some way, though how we are not yet sure. They are run through a processing and training regime that lasts several years, eventually procuding elite soldiers, security forces, and guards, known as Su'urtugal. You see many of them serving a police role in some of the Core Worlds, especially in affairs attached or pertaining to the Diet of Lords and the Imperial Line." Berrawo reached out and manipulated the nearby control pane once more in order to show a brief visual clip of a Yassinan Su'urtugal pursuing several individuals in powered armor across a crowded urban underroad junction, running much faster than they were despite being, on the surface at least, unaugmented. With a flick of one of their wrists as they caught up, one of the power-armored criminals was lifted off their feet and flung into a nearby wall, their form pressed awkwardly and with unnatural firmness against the metal surface, sounds of audibly snapping bones and shearing metal filling the briefing room over the other chaotic sounds of the underroad in the video.
"In addition to possessing considerable telekinetic prowess, these individuals are adept inquisitors, capable of reading surface thoughts reflexively as well as being able of going through long-term and deep memory when given time and allowed to focus. As far as the third board is presently aware, their Psionic powers are effective against all forms of sapient, sentient life, including the Mucor Typis - which, as we do not have centralized nervous tissues, is indicative of their great ability. The NAC has several protocols for preserving and obscuring information from discovery, but this is largely done through compartmentalization of our operations and dissemination of intelligence on a strict, need-to-know basis. Until our peoples' joint, API project produces notable results, it should be assumed there is no hiding any known memories or information from them, and it is speculated they may even be capable of retrieving subconscious and completely forgotten or otherwise inaccessible information."
The general information specialist broke in with their vocalizer. “The Anti-Psionic Initiative is a joint project seeking to update, improve and expand the various means of Psionic control developed after the integration of the Kre’allar. Particularly to increase its effectiveness in a greater variety of scenarios and deployments.”
The specialist manipulated the controls as they spoke, retrieving archival footage from the habitat’s databanks. Displayed up is footage of obviously dated security feeds from an older model of a ground forces’ power armor helmet. Watching a crowd of Kre’allar humans, in obvious conditions of some indoor compound, slowly filter through a security gate. There is no issues until alarms blare around the gate and ‘Ysh’ in power suits are blown back, the gate is mostly undamaged. A Kre’allar human unremarkable except for their position at the center of the psionic wave is briefly seen before bolting back into the crowd.
“Although effective in certain instances detection technology has continued to be rather limited even if it has greatly improved since that time, range is still an issue. Direct measures have been unfortunately even less developed.”
The display changes from a security feed to five Kre’allar lined up and restrained, a large pillar, obviously of heavy electronic construction, is being carried by two powersuited ‘Ysh’ in front of each in turn. After being brought in front of each the pillar is brought close to the foreheads of each, the first two showing no reaction. The third, however, visibly recoils from the device, prompting the two ‘Ysh’ visible to move the pillar behind the man and transfer his restraints to the pillar.
“Although improved from these models, especially in mobility, inhibitor devices still leave much to be desired, especially in a combat situation. Thankfully the NAC has graciously donated a number of subjects for this endeavor, allowing a greatly advanced rate of testing. This should hopefully soon allow for mock tests of currently developed models.”
"We expect many great things from the joint initiative, which the NAC owes largely to the Union's own initial, if modest, research in the area. Although the results are still to be borne out, as far as we are aware the Union is the only power in the galaxy that had taken any successful efforts into investigating methods of deterrence in that regard. With that topic addressed, let us now return to the Valerians." Sciroa tapped on their own controls for the table once more, shifting the projected imagery back to the previously displayed map of the greater Commonwealth. "As I said, many of the verge and colony worlds are presently subject to high degrees of unrest and civil disorder due to widespread discontent over the rapid integration of the Valerians into the Commonwealth, whereas many other member species have been waiting over a century. This is where I would like to turn the briefing over to Berrawo Ninety-Two here." He gestured with both of his right arms to Berrawo.
"Many thanks." Berrawo said, their crackling, seething voice whining through the air for a second time. "As my companion mentioned earlier, the NAC has been using the Commonwealth market as a means of generating revenue and credit for our own purposes - and to further that end, a number of operatives and agents have been distributed across the Commonwealth's sectors and infiltrated a number of their more successful industries." They motioned to Sciroa, who manipulated the control panel for the table again in response to project an image of several Commonwealth stock ratings, as well as a large display of several charts depicting how each particular stock had changed in value over time.
"With some effort, our agents have managed to procure inside-information on the value of certain key stocks far in advance of their public release. By comparing and analyzing contemporary market dialectics to those of the past, we see that the Commonwealth market's stability is highly predictive of social disorder and strife within the verge worlds and colonies, particularly within the oldest member species and factions not yet fully integrated. Within the last few galactic months, two new pieces of information have started to circulate through the Commonwealth."
"In particular," Sciroa spoke up, taking the reins of Berrawo's tract in an almost rehearsed fashion. "...amongst the core worlds there is spreading word of an upcoming bill that is to be passed through their parliament that would increase the individual cost for applying for state citizenship tests, as well as reformatting the tests to make them more strenuous, and to add either one or two new tests to the total number required by foreigners or colonial inhabitants in order to become citizens. I will return to this matter in a moment to explain why the bill may have been developed."
"Meanwhile," Berrawo picked up once more, "...in the verge and colony worlds, there is a very curious rumor about many heavy industrial megacorporations enacting plans and agendas in order to advance a policy furthering advanced, widespread industrial automation. As far as our agents have been able to discern, this was in fact nothing but a rumor. However, the various corporate powers operating in these regions believed it. Many of them are now racing to implement these policies in order to stay ahead of their competition. As more than eighty percent of the Commonwealth's products and goods are made using skilled labor provided by their populous verge and colonial populations, advanced automation implemented on that scale would likely completely destroy the weaker economies present in these systems."
"Which is where we return to the first rumor of the upcoming citizenship bill. The NAC's analysis of the situation is simple." Sciroa picked the conversation up again, changing the projection above the holo-table to dismiss the displayed market data. "The Commonwealth is aware that their market is due for a minor crash soon, and is preemptively seeking ways to consolidate political capital in advance while also scraping together an additional source of revenue in order to weather the drought. However, knowledge of the second rumor has not yet spread at large to the core worlds, due in part to the industries incorporated there not desiring to tip their respective hands. They, in turn, are hastening their automation agendas in order to get out ahead of the perceived, incoming crash."
Sciroa paused briefly, permitting the audience to digest the information that had just been divulged before continuing. "These three separate forces are all timed to occur in-synchrony with one another. It is the NAC's educated guess that the Commonwealth stock market will soon flag severely. Not by a tremendous amount, this will not be a civilization-slaying depression, merely the largest notable dip in recent history for them. At the same time, parliament will pass a bill making acquisition of full citizenship more onerous and inaccessible to the lower classes of the verge worlds and colonies, and various corporate powers will begin implementing their automation policies in full. This will leave a vast portion of the lower class, working populace unemployed and without any meaningful courses of action remaining to them short of revolt."
If the audience had been composed of a more auditory species whispers would no doubt be abound. However as it was composed of ‘Ysh’ the sight of the audience was one of ever changing colors. Excited communications encompassed the ‘Ysh’ audience, presented before them was not just an opportunity for a victory, but a lasting one. The ever present conflict to the south, perhaps a necessity with two expansionist powers, could be ended with a grand liberation. This opportunity was not one to easily pass by, the audience shifted back to the floor, the vocalizer of the Naval Forces Specialist.
“This is an opportunity that may never again be presented. In light of this certain measures normally reserved for moments of national survival have been decided to be put into effect. Primarily to general information that will be released through appropriate channels, primarily it is to be considered at this time that all reserve collectives are to be mobilized for matters of national importance and ability to support the necessary manpower for any possible liberations.”
The Naval Forces Specialist paused allowing this to sink in before continuing, “Orders have been sent out to Naval units across the Union to report to the Southern sectors, as have other orders that will be listed by my colleagues in the matters of National importance. To fill holes in roles caused by this mobilization, select mass mobilization super-collectives will be mobilized, specifics of which will be available on request at a later date.”
The vocalizer of one of the Industrial Consultants flared before making his words auditory for those who required it, “In support of military forces it has been decided that all vital industries are to be brought to full economic mobilization in accordance with necessary supply. In addition several stockpiles have been authorized use in bringing full production as fast as possible.”
A disturbance in the audience causes a pause, “Regional Officer Obedient Legion, I believe you wish to ask something?” Apparently nonplussed for their second time of being visibly picked out of the audience, Obedient Legion vocalized their question.
“Will offensive forces have habitat vessels on hand for necessary resupply? This impacted the last war to a large extent according to estimates that I have presented before.” They pause before continuing with renewed vigor, “I cannot speak for everyone but I speak for some at least when I ask if we are going to take this risk with a chance to succeed or are we going to handicap ourselves?”
The flare from a vocalizer resounded before the words of the Habitat Administrator, the Eldest came, “I can confirm that Habitat vessels will be deployed for this effort as well as other necessary logistical tasks. I can also say that further orders and information will be released as we close onto full preparation. The current plan is maintaining preparation to support, and possibly enact a quick and bloodless as possible revolt to secure freedoms for the colonial peoples, this is something that will be reflected in operational procedures, specific information will be forth coming soon.”
"The NAC is also preparing to render assistance to any liberation movement that arises." Sciroa followed up. "Our naval assets are not as numerous as those of the Union, but we are even now laying down discrete logistic routes and passages in key areas of the Commonwealth. We will work to keep liberation forces supplied and equipped, and we will also mobilize special operatives in order to strike at the heart of the Commonwealth's ruling elite. Of course, we will not act without the consent of the common populace of of the various liberation movements and without agreement from the IUC's own intelligence analysts."
“Thank you Sciroa Seventeen, and we must thank the NAC in its good morals over the good of the galactic peoples.” The Eldest paused before continuing in a more formal style, “We know that each of you will do their best to assure that suffering of subjugated peoples will not continue for long nor will it come to nought but more suffering. We must all assure that every soldier, and worker, researcher, and farmer, all do their best to exploit this opportunity in the best way that they can. I want you to spread this message to your subordinates, as we may go to war we seek only peace, a peace that can only come when an individual is no longer subordinate another individual in their single name alone. Only when the collective good comes first can we reach a lasting, free peace.”
The general information officer transmitted, vocalizer working for those who needed it, “Specifics will be in future briefings in a more regular situation, orders will be sent once you all return to your posts. This Briefing is officially over.”
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The Imperial Systems Commonwealth The Core Worlds Corinthene Adalusia City Neuftshcellier's Fine Dining Highrise
Neuftschellier's was a fine establishment, Severus Thannicus, policy analyst to the assistant deputy minister of internal revenue, thought to himself. Perhaps his favourite in the city. It was expensive, but not too expensive, just expensive enough that one could demonstrate affluence without breaking the bank. All the right people frequented it as well, anyone who was anyone really. It was a good place to see and be seen. The food was good, and the view, the view was spectacular. Thannicus had been born and raised on Corinthene, not in the capital city itself, but not far away, and one city on Corinthene was much like another, all gleaming highrises, none more than a few decades old. Some complained Corinthene lacked character. Thannicus thought 'character' was a funny way of describing decrepit old stone buildings like the ones they treasured on Praetoria. The old must by necessity give way to the new, and on Corinthene, it did. Constantly. Thannicus could see at least three highrises under construction from where he sat. He adjusted the Rhodesian sized powered chair he was occupying and scanned the room for his lunch partner.
He was only left waiting for a few minutes. The soft whirring of the restaurant's elevator doors receding carried ever so faintly like a whisper across the open-aired hall, seeming to waft just above the low murmur of voices from the other diners. Stepping in across the fine black-and-gold slate tiles was a Rhodesian Woman with a fine red and auburn coat of fur, with the faintest traces of golden coloration along the tips of her hairs along her ears and along the back of her head. She was wearing a brass-colored strapless evening dress adorned with a modest brocade of orange lines about the front and back, drawing the eyes inevitably up, and the way it caught in the light of the afternoon sun through the restaurant skylights gave it a seemingly luminescent gleam. The ensemble was held together with a pewter brooch with a recognizable emblem adorning it - nine Amaranthine gems arranged in a circle, one being a prominent starburst at the top. She carried with her a business case, with small pewter clasps tying a small shash between its corners to a line across her waist. Nearly concealed beneath the folds of fine silk was the sight of a sturdy durachrome wire, indicating that the case being tied to her person was not precisely just for show.
When she was greeted by the attendant, she simply passed him a card with the same emblem emblazoned across it as seen on her brooch along with a few words. He nodded in understanding, and Severus found himself momentarily entranced as she crossed the dining lanai, her hard-soled bright orange shoes clinking distinctively against the fine tiled floor. Her whole body seemed to bob and undulate with a curious rhythm as she walked right up to his table. She stopped just within half an arm's reach, gave him what was most assuredly a very well practiced smile as she looked him straight in the eyes, and offered him her wrist.
"Belleza Trianedyne. The NAC's Primary Adjucant Representative for Corinthene. I must say, you have the most beautiful idea of a business meeting I have had the pleasure of experiencing thus far."
Thannicus blushed beneath his fur as he bent to chastly kiss the stunning woman's hand. "Ms Trianedyne, I'm both thrilled you could make it and thrilled you appreciate the establishment. It's a personal favourite of mine." He moved to pull her seat out for her, an entirely redundant gesture as the powered chair descended and positioned itself perfectly for it's intended occupant before lifting her to the height of the table. Thannicus returned to his own chair, which did the same, placing the two of them at eye level. The policy analyst did his best to avoid staring at Belleza's shapely ears. He flipped open his menu, trying to avoid the distraction of Belleza doing the same, her soft, fine-furred ears being the only part of her head visible above both their menus, her right-side twitching slightly as a breeze rolled by.
"So, I am told you are the Senior Policy Analyst for the Assistant Deputy Minister of Internal Revenue?" Belleza's voice sounded like a silken cloth polishing slick marble, even partly muffled as it was coming from behind her menu. She had rattled off both titles effortlessly and without any hesitation. That was not entirely surprising given the complex and byzantine nature of Corinthene as the Commonwealth's beauracratic center. Most of the population here lived with being able to memorize and recite long titles of those working under the Imperial Directorate to the point where doing so was second-nature.
"Yes, quite so," Thannicus responded, quite pleased with the slight emphasis she'd put on 'Senior'. "It's a fascinating position, with a great variety of responsibilities. Policy analyst isn't even the best word for it. Certainly I do, well, analyze policy, but there's a great deal of real world data involved, thank Lexus the Metternich government restored the long form census-" Thannicus caught his rambling and felt the skin beneath his chestnut-coloured bristles flush again. "But I'm rambling, I should perhaps be a little more forthcoming about the reason I asked to meet with someone from the NAC. Specifically, we are hearing the strangest rumours coming out of the UAG." Thannicus was a bureacrat, not a spy, but he knew how the game was played on Corinthene. Adressing such a subject so brazenly was not usually done; he was hoping to perhaps get an honest answer out of Belleza by catching her off guard.
"That would be the United Artanin Governments, yes. I have to confess, they have been causing the second and fourth boards absolutely no end of stress!" Belleza sighed faintly as she folded her menu shut, laying it by the side of the table as she draped one of her vixen arms adroitly across the finely polished and gleaming table surface, her index and longfinger twisting around each other in what must have been a force of habit as she drew imaginary lines in the glass. "The region there is quite unstable, from what I have been told. The leaders of the current - well, not to seem boorish but they are something of a brutal regime. The NAC has some assets in the region that are being threatened by certain less tractable parties. A straw of Tuber Malt if you please." She graced their waiter with a smile as he came to offer them drinks.
"The Chanteclair please," Thannicus gave the waiter a smile of his own, though it was considerably less charming than Belleza's. He turned back to the striking woman. "That is troubling to hear...but not unexpected. The UAG in general could be described as 'less tractable', so I certainly understand how your corporation may be encountering difficulties. I don't believe Her Imperial Majesty's Government could condone what we understand to be a violation of Artanin sovereignty. But personally I am most sympathetic to your difficulties."
The unspoken implication of course was that anything Thannicus personally felt was reflective of the unofficial opinion of the government he served. Such was the way of things on Corinthene.
"Trust me when I say nobody is more upset than the Circuit." Belleza's smile turned ever-so-slightly down. "You see, after several cycles of being stonewalled, we were contacted by a party we were informed had the authority to lobby policy directly with their body of Ministers, one thing led to another, there were a few...massacres perpetrated here and there by separatist movements. Quite frankly the NAC has been harried by every other Artanin in a suit, claiming to represent the actual legislative body of the United Governments..." Belleza shook her head, slowly, once. Her smile thinned, becoming a stern line as she turned her gaze up from the table to look Thannicus in the eye once more. "I'll be blunt. The NAC does not wish to - refuses in fact - to associate with any known or potential terrorist bodies. We were forced to move forward with our agenda in UAG space on a presumption of abrogated sovereignty." She held up her free hand, part of her corded sash wrapped about her wrist and making a faint clicking noise as the cord tying it to her waist dragged across the table. "I know that sounds bad, but we are trying our best to hold out for...whatever legitimate political body eventually reemerges. The Ninth Amaranthine Circuit is fully prepared to honor a preestablished contract with the peoples of the Artanin Governments so that both we and they may mutually benefit and prosper as one from what will be accrued through our interests there."
Belleza lowered her hand and adopted a small, piteous smile as she lowered her head just-so, forcing Thannicus to look down towards her across the table. "The NAC was deceived into an arrangement and it would be costly not only for us, but for the Artanin people as well, for us to abandon what we have started there. Once stability in the region has been restored, we will of course abide by the sovereignty of the United Governments and their wishes, but for the moment we have a fiduciary duty to the people in the region to safeguard their future dividends."
Thannicus leaned back in his chair, processing what he'd heard. He was silent for a moment, during which the waiter slippped in to deposit their drinks. Thannicus nodded appreciatively, took his glass, and after a cursory sniff, took a long sip, savouring the wine's rich flavour.
"Ms.Trianedyne, I must thank you for providing the NAC's side of the story. Frankly what you've told me today is much more substantial than anything I've heard so far, and I'll be sure that my superiors are informed of the realities of the situation. Nevertheless, a nation's sovereignty is sacrosanct, and my Government will be hard pressed to alter its views on that point." He took another long sip of wine, as if the matter was settled. Belleza raised her head again, adopting her prior posture and seemingly appraised Thannicus with a cool expression as he drank. Her left hand traced towards the deceptively thin and long straw of glass of her own drink, fingering the recepticle delicately.
"This does all remind me of a rather humorous incident from the other day," Thannicus said meaningfully. "Someone accidentally sent around a draft memo on the economic beneftis of inviting the United Artanian Governments into the Commonwealth." He tried to chuckle lightly, but it came out sounding rather forced. "A classic blunder in the Directorate. All the more amusing in how timely it is."
For perhaps two seconds, Belleza continued to simply stare cooly at Thannicus, as if he were some particularly fascinating souffle. But a moment later though, her face practically lit up and she returned his chuckle with a soft, light laugh reminescent of rain falling across a forest canopy. "Oh, don't I know it. The same thing happens all the time at our corporate HQ down by the Calorwoods. Why, just the other day, somebody accidentally slipped some statistical data on our stock returns into my orbital holdings portfolio!" Her laugh faded to a light chuckle, and then abruptly her face fell to a more cool expression as she lifted the straw of glass with her drink in it and took the smallest of sips, staring at him intently from over it. Barely a fraction of the already miniscule thread of liquid vanished from her glass, and it was then that Thannicus remember that Tuber Malt was a particularly potent beverage. The thin straw of glass Belleza was drinking from would probably be enough to send her home unconscious if she took the whole thing at once.
She lowered the glass and her smile returned as both of her ears fluttered lightly and became less taut. "Well, I for one think it would be a splendid idea for the United Governments to become part of the Commonwealth. The light of Llyena and her majesty is precisely what the Artanins need to get all their kits quiet."
The waiter arrived once more to place their orders. Thannicus gave him a small smile and ordered the arctic thon, a particularly succulant fish native to the colder waters of Corinthene. Belleza ordered a Chestnut Souffle and requested two garnishes to go with it - something of a sweet meal, and not particularly filling.
"Oh, the Commonwealth always welcomes the opportunity to foster development and security in the galaxy. It would certainly solve the NAC's problems in the region as well. Ah well, perhaps one day. For now it's just a hypothetical discussion." Thannicus remembered not to slip Belleza a wink at that last comment. "A very interesting one certainly, but not the stuff of actionable policy."
"Yes, of course, after all, I am certain the cabinet has most of its political capital tied up in that upcoming push for automating the verge and colonial industrial bases!" Belleza agreed with a sly smile, followed by a slight tilt of her head as she closed her eyes to take a sip from nearly a fifth of the remaining fluid in her thin straw glass.
Thannicus managed not to frown or say anything revealing he had heard no such thing, but his ears flicked rather noticeably. "Yes...it's a...contentious issue to be sure."
"Ha! You don't say! Even a few airheaded glamorins I passed on the way here were up in arms about it. Quite the daring policy change. Very bold. Though I have no real opinion on the matter, advanced robotic automation is somewhat beyond my purview." Belleza laughed again as she lowered her glass, her ears now having a faint and alluring, folded droop to them.
Thannicus was saved from having to fabricate a response by the arrival of their orders. He resolved to ask his colleagues about the matter when he got back to the office. Belleza's souffle had barely touched down on the table before she viciously stabbed into the garnishes atop it before cutting it up into pieces, determined to seemingly mince the dessert thoroughly before actually tasting any of it.
Thannicus dug into his thon with a little less enthusiasm. He chewed slowly as he cast about for a way to conceal his ignorance on the topic, and he thought back to earlier in the conversation, sneaking the occasional glance at Belleza's ears. "It's funny you should mention stock returns actually. I was just looking at some rather irregular market data yesterday."
"Irregular?" That got Belleza's attention. She looked up with something approaching apprehension of her face - understandable, since any kind of irregularity in market data significant enough to even appear as an irregularity in the first place for a market as flush and large as the Commonwealth's Core Worlds was nothing to ignore. "I...Oh, I hope I am not intruding upon any of the Directorate's mandates by prying."
Distracted as he was by her ears, Thannicus mistook Belleza's interest in the subject for interest in him personally. "Oh, nothing I can't share with a valued associate. It's all public data, it's the apparent irregularity that's the interesting part. You see..." Thannicus managed to carry on for a good ten minutes uninterupted on the exact nature of the discrepency, only too pleased to show off his expertise for his attractive lunch companion. His attractive lunch companion who seemed to drink everything he said in with incrementally increasing amounts of her excedingly strong intoxicating beverage.
"Hooh, you....you know-" Belleza said, fingering her nearly obscured straw glass suggestively with both hands now, less than a sixth of its original contents remaining. Her ears were pricked ever so slightly at the tips, and though drooping considerably around the bases had adopted a very pleasurable curve to their overall length. "That- That's, well, I'm not a handsome acolyte- analyst policy like you are, but when my assistant, they screwed up my asset prot-prot-" Belleza paused for a moment, blinking concertedly several times. "PORTFOLIO! Yes, momentary jutter there, I thought there was something weird about it. Now..." She paused again, taking another sip from her straw glass, the remaining liquid within growing treacherously shallow. She then pulled her left wrist up, drawing her business case connected to her waist and wrist by durachrome cable she had been dragging across the edge of the table the whole time during Thannicus' speech, and started to pry it open. "Normally, this isn't really something I'm supposed to do, but well you've been letting me hear about your...really great...exciting work...because I'm a valued associate...and I'm pretty sure that makes you a valued associate of mine, and maybe it will help, so..." Belleza rifled through the case distractedly, her words ever-so-slightly indistinct, until she found a small display-pane with a utilitarian silver trim and slid it across the table to Thannicus.
"I mean, it looks like...something might be messed up? And if the market is also mussed- fussed up, it's probably related right? Whats is your...expert opinion if that's ok." Belleza's voice took on a certain airy, breathy quality as she voiced her inquiry, her eyelids lowered ever so faintly as she gazed at him expectantly.
Quite thoroughly under her spell by now, Thannicus picked up the pane without much thought for terms like 'conflict of interest'. He frowned as he read. "Well, it seems to me you're going to be dealing with a significant surplus of a whole range of goods and materials. This doesn't look good for the NAC's earning potential. I'm inclined to think your initial projections were far too pessimistic, and your stock may become over-valued. Not that it's anyone's fault, I can think of several ways this might have happened on its own. Most likely..." the policy analyst llaunched into another monologue, convinced that Belleza was absolutely enthralled by the subject.
However, he was eventually cut off by a bright, ringing tone from the vicinity around Belleza's left wrist - which had been busily running and stroking her left ear for a while now. "Whoops! I've- we appear to have stayed, just a bit, past desert. I think it's maybe...early evening now? Uh, I have to get back...back to the...future...past...uh...circuit...The offices, yeah, but this was great." She got up, unsteady and about to fall over until the automated chair, well-accustomed to saving incapacitated customers, rose to steady her stance by pressing against her back while she regained her balance. She spent a moment adjusting her business case and the durachrome cord it was secured with, which had become wrapped around her whole arm three times somehow during Thannicus' speech. She then bobbed pleasantly over to Thannicus and nipped him lightly on the snout before standing as tall as she could. "We should...this again, yeah? Hope you...analyze those...that irregularity what-for. My bosses would like that. I would like that. Next time!" She errantly held out her wrist like she had when she first met him, but seemingly could not hold it all the way up. Belleza giggled faintly and then stumbled off towards the elevators, leaving a smitten and perplexed Thannicus behind her to pay the bill.
It was not until he had paid and reached the elevator himself a while later that he realized he was still holding onto the display-pane Belleza had shown him.
888888888888
The Ninth Amaranthine Circuit Akkamarid System Point Phokashra
Point Phokashra was the literal center of the NAC's operations. In addition to being located at the central-most coordinate location within their territory, it was also located on top of the Akkamarid barycenter between the Greganev and Librens stellar binaries, serving as a bridge between the otherwise relatively distant locales. Though definitively residing within the Akkamarid system proper, the system's boundaries were vast due to its quaternary status. A vast gulf of more than two-thousand astronomical units lay between the station and the closer Librens binary. While still encompassed within the overlapping, gargantuan heliospheres of the stars Tramitet and Estre, leaving the immense gulf between them a relatively clear and cool void, the station was nonetheless almost effectively positioned in the middle of interstellar space.
Phokashra itself was a massive, sprawling starbase. Little more than a kilometer in diameter when it was built five years prior, the station sprawled out in every direction like some unfathomably massive urchin now more than thirty-six kilometers from end to end. The density of traffic in and about the tremendous station was higher than some planets in the Commonwealth's Coreworlds saw. A ring of smaller supporting stations, minuscule specks in comparison, ringed the station across all three of its axis. It was no exaggeration to say Phokashra was the beating heart and the central nexus of the NAC's existence.
Very near to the core of the immense structure, a single figure rode a tram through an armored transit shaft, reinforced blast-doors opening ahead of it and slamming shut behind as the platform descended into the secure center of Phkashra. They were altogether distinct and unique relative to the standard Plasmodium templates favored by the NAC in most circumstances, being a natural species as opposed to designed - though their anatomy was unlike anything seen in the local region of the galaxy. Their lower body was a mass of twelve, rubbery, seemingly boneless hydrostatic limbs, supporting a torso with six arms and a bulbous head that seemed to surge across the creature's back with a distended, fluttering mantle of flesh. Most of the alien being's body was covered in a dark crimson skintight suit, though it wore firmer, metal frames around and underneath the folds of its mantle while a mask obscured most of what was presumably its face.
The tram finally shuddered to a halt and a chiming, animatronic voice rang out as a final layer of blast-doors and a wavering field of shielding lowered to permit the creature pasage.
Ariamache slithered and drifted through the darkened interior of the infrequently traversed core sector, which was truthfully much smaller than most might have otherwise imagined, at least as far as accessible areas went. There were, in fact, only four places one could go, all accessible from a single junction that Ariamache quickly reached. Four signs manually carved into the metal of the corridor walls were present, lines of luminescent coils winding within the grooves so as to make it immediately apparent exactly where one was and where they were headed even in the event of power failure.
Paying no mind to the other three passageways, Ariamache drifted down the corridor leading to Iteration Analysis. Passing through unseen layers of security and a final shielded door, Ariamache entered the small meeting room. Little more than a slick, black-topped conference table in the middle of a darkened hemisphere-shaped room, the curving ceiling serving as a massive imaging system, currently displaying a map of the known galaxy in bright, contrasting colors so as not to unnecessarily darken the rest of the room. Already present were eleven other alien beings of the same species as Ariamache, gathered together at great inconvenience. As a matter of doctrine, none of them were permitted to participate in the meeting remotely. Not only would doing so be very nearly impossible due to the excessive security features of the core sector, but it would doubtlessly have opened an unacceptable vulnerability in those security features. While the NAC was eager, willing, and in fact expectant of the fact that a great deal of their secrets and technology would eventually be deciphered by foreign powers, the contents of the four sections of the core sector could never be revealed to outsiders, ever, no matter the cost. The stakes were far too high to gamble with the ambiguities of how even a single sapient being would react.
"This meeting of the Second Board is hereby commenced." The being to Ariamache's left indicated as she took her place at the table, distinguished from the rest of the gathered beings by the luminous, orange stripes running along the arms of its skinsuit. "The only new topic of consideration at this time is the impending issue of the Daisan Order."
The hemispherical imager surrounding the table moved and zoomed in to display the three-dimensional boundaries of Daisan controlled space, as far as it had been determined - though even the incomplete map showed that the fringes of their territory alone possessed more volume than the rest of the powers in the local region combined.
"As discussed previously, a plan has already been formulated in order to extend the VMSRA disc into Daisan space, which has a high projected certainty of success, albeit at significantly greater cost than otherwise normally acceptable. The means of constructing a single VMSRA within Daisan space safely and securely outweighs the cost of building twelve anywhere else. The First Board is still examining potential ramifications and consequences of the chosen methodology, but that is not what we are here to discuss."
The hemispherical screen refocused again, until the three-dimensional plane of stars had shrunk to show a small rectangular corridor of space - containing numerous territories, but with three in particular highlighted.
"As you are already aware, within the Federation, the UAG, and the Empire of Astrana, we have elected to pursue implementation agendas on the assumption of abrogated sovereignty of the respective powers. For various reasons. However, it appears that in all three cases - even in the case of the UAG - it has been decided that our presence in their territories is not to be tolerated even in light of the Daisan threat. Contrary to our expectations, it does indeed seem that these powers are destabilized and stagnant to the point where they would in fact prefer their senseless destruction over-"
"Skip past the bit where you are mad over being wrong about being able to bully them in their own homes and get to the point." Ariamache cut the decorated being off. He bristled faintly, but moved on with only the barest hint of indignity.
"All three powers are about to imminently launch military operations to expel our forces and decommission our facilities - all presently still under construction and far from active. The First Board has examined our own analysis of the situation and decided that it was inadequate. They indicate that these powers are likely to hold the grudge against us for some time, and that this will become a point of international friction as the local galactic community starts to ally together in order to combat the Daisan threat. Even in the event that the NAC is not sanctioned by a formal gathering of some kind, it will become difficult for us to infringe upon their territories again without invoking the anger of our current allies."
"And their current experiences with us will make them unlikely to entertain future offers." The being to Ariamache's right, distinguished by their dark-blue skinsuit and the stark-white coloration of their rubbery skin, stated matter-of-factly.
"Correct. Thus, the First Board has ordered us to test our prototype VMSRA modules intended for use in Daisan space within these hostile powers as soon as is convenient." The decorated creature indicated.
"They ask the impossible." Ariamache indicated. "The stockpile we have set aside in preparation for our incursion into Daisan space is already a massive drain on our resources, and we are expected to drain them further by testing the new convection stations in three separate territories at once? Impossible. Perhaps once the secondary ring of systems has finished being colonized...But not before."
The blue-suited alien shrugged. "Perhaps, perhaps not. We still have no mandated timetable for our incursion into the Daisan field of influence. There is no reason not to leave them for another day and use the stockpile to test within these three regions."
"Which is unacceptable." A green-clad being at the opposite end of the table stood at their full height whilst speaking. "With the Daisan, our forbidden access of Kalpa Vault schematics ahead of schedule to devise the new convection stations is necessary, since otherwise the disc cannot possibly be expanded into their space. But these other powers are more...tractable. Sophisticated, even. They will have far greater cause to probe and pry as to the exact nature of the stations. It could lead to a breach of the core secrets if their investigations prove thorough enough."
"That opinion, while noted, is awfully pessimistic. You assume any of the present powers in the galaxy even have the means to detect what we will be doing." The blue-suited being replied.
"It is nonetheless a warranted fear." Ariamache interjected. "If we give them any reason to investigate, we must assume they will. For that reason, I suggest we run diversionary efforts in all three realms. Given our present strain of resources, I suggest strictly asymmetrical tactics of attrition while we maintain a ploy of conventional VMSRA stations."
"Agreed." Came the chorus of replies.
"I accept that the chances are remote, but what if one of the three powers should detect our efforts?" The green-suited being inquired.
Andromache's six-arms wavered and undulated in a fashion equivalent to a shrug. "All three regions are...quite politically unstable. Although it would otherwise be undesirable, given the context of our situation, destabilizing the regions further in the event our own efforts should be discovered will likely preclude any further efforts on their parts, at least for long enough that the convection stations will become active."
There's no reason for it to be as dead as it is, though, considering there is still an active writing contest moderator.
Excellent answer. Factually correct and 100% true.
<Snipped quote by Terminal>
That sucks troll schlong....
Could we do something independent of the sub forum, just because it's fun? You've done some before in the past right? Is it a lot of work?
Sure. I could hypothetically run an independent project there. It is just that there is a 0% chance it would be Mod sponsored. For people to actually get anything, it would have to be run by someone else who the Mods would be amenable to making a contest moderator.
don't say this too loud or people will get upset. I think you know why it died.
Let me say it extra loud just for you.
I have no idea whatsoever as to why it died.
I know that it did die. One of the contest mods lost their position, the others went AWOL, and TheGreyDust's project unfortunately did not take off. I do not know the actual causes behind any of those events.
If you know anything, by all means, please enlighten me.
They call themselves the Ninth Amaranthine Circuit, whatever that means. They can put on a neat, antiseptic diplomatic facade when they feel like it - don't let them fool you. They are just some shady, cult-like corporate cabal. Using their 'official' name just helps to legitimize them. Call them The Printers. Everyone else does.
Official Name: The Ninth Amaranthine Circuit Common Name: The Printers Government: Corporate Stratocracy Capital: Point Phokashra
Divergent Plasmodium Replicant (Typis Mucor)
Otherwise known as 'Printed People,' Plasmodium Replicants posses, as its name implies, an internally naked mass of cytoplasm and interstitial fluids with an even dispersion of microscopic organic structures. The Plasmodium frame is adhered to a predetermined framework of material not dissimilar to cartilage, which also forms in a thin layer across the surface of the Plasmodium's exterior. Plasmodiums are universally printed to resemble other species in external appearance, and so have drastically diverse anatomies, though their physiologies are largely identical overall. Although their external facades are convincing enough, their internal anatomy, their scent, and their behavior are starkly different to natives of that species, and they make very inept infiltrators. Additionally, while they may retain the appearance of a species they rarely if ever possess their natural abilities. They are typically never venomous, lack psionic abilities, etcetera. As an extension of this, while they have facsimiles of reproductive organs they are largely incapable of intercourse and cannot reproduce naturally, even with their own kind.
Plasmodiums are radiotrophic by design, using trace amounts of nuclear isomers as biocatalysts and to produce metabolic energy. This factor is what permits Plasmodiums to support their own body weight despite having a cartilage-like skeleton, as their muscles and connective tissues exert several times more force than mundane muscular tissue while also being analagous to hydrostatic tissue systems - affording Plasmodiums tremendous physical strength and flexibility for their size. Plasmodium's are usually as strong if not stronger than the species they are made to resemble, while also being faster, healing much more rapidly, and capable of healing body-parts that would not otherwise grow back. Due to their physiology being so immensely distributed amongst their body, they are much harder to kill than normal, and can survive dismemberment, decapitation, and being torn and then shredded into several dozen pieces. Each Plasmodium possess a particular nucleus near their center of mass, surrounded by a thick barrier if denser bone-like protective material, which if damaged or destroyed will kill them, and also determines which severed pieces of their body die and live.
For all of their advantages, Plasmodiums have two significant drawbacks. Due to the decentralized nature of their immune system and their higher metabolism plus increase cellular regeneration rates, Plasmodium organisms have much weaker immune systems and short life spans, rarely living past twelve galactic standard years before their bodies give out and fail due to the emergence of uncontrolled malevolent tumors in addition to the body's own metabolic functions starting to cannibalize itself.
The Ninth Amaranthine Circuit describes itself as a largely self-contained corporate economic macrosystem, having arisen from the holdings of a large if obscure Megacorporation specializing in industrial fabrication. Having grown large and affluent enough to surpass the base purpose of the original corporate agenda, the Ninth Amaranthine Circuit has aligned itself with the pursuit of internal economic stability along with the endorsement of individual liberties and welfare.
All individuals registered within the Circuit are citizens who effectuate a contract upon willing joinder or emergence within the Circuit's territory, subject to particular regulatory rulings. In effect, the contract is essentially a corporate employment agreement and charter, guaranteeing citizens an agreed-upon standard of living in exchange for services rendered while also setting out the Circuit's basis of authority and the signing party's obligation to adhere to that authority. Participation in the system is voluntary and may be revoked by either party at-will for a number of reasons, either with or without consequence contingent upon the circumstances. It is entirely possible to live within the Circuit without being a citizen, but reduces one's options to direct negotiation with individual lower-management authorities - who have broad and liberal discretion to exploit and tread on the unwary non-citizens where able.
Citizens are mandated to work a certain number of hours every year, while being free to choose or otherwise independently arrange a leisure schedule with their corresponding civil manager. All laws are stipulated and enforced via the authority of the corporate charter, which is amended bi-annually. Demand for goods and services is measured by public forum and census, evaluated by economic speculators and consultants, and supply is mandated by the corporate state across particular layers of the Circuit Industrial Complex. The first priority of the Circuit is to adequately fulfill the needs and desires of its citizens, and then the pursuit of an established economic agenda to stabilize or reinforce the way of life within the Circuit, such as diplomacy and negotiation with sovereign powers, the establishment of a strong military, and the gathering of intelligence.
The Circuit allegedly has multiple boards of directors who mandate agenda, establish economic goals, dictate military activities and budget, amend the corporate charter, and more. However, to date these directors have had little if any form of official contact with foreign parties and everything known about how they operate is drawn from inspection of the the public copy of the corporate charter and related speculation.
Although the NAC claims to have been a merely obscure Megacorporation operating around and within the Southern rim of the galaxy, little to no trace of their presence - anywhere - prior to five galactic standard years ago has yet been obtained. They themselves have been remarkably coy and evasive in answering questions as to their precise origins, as well as recalcitrant to any and all demands to produce any kind of documentation or evidence as to their alleged corporate history. As far as anybody has been able to discern, the NAC seemingly erupted from nothingness within the Akkamarid system five years ago. Since then, they have been steadily growing and consolidating power at an alarming rate while establishing their easily discerned facade of civil order. The NAC now stands poised to rapidly expand and start asserting influence in the galactic scene, but what exactly they intend or even what kind of political entity they truly are remains a relative mystery.
The first thing that most people see when examining society within the NAC is the by-and-large absence of traditional organic and synthetic lifestyles. More than 97% of the citizens in the NAC are printed Plasmodium template organisms whose motives and ways of thinking are largely oriented according to the preferences of the NAC's boards. As such, inspection by a skeptical mind usually finds that there is little of anything resembling culture within the NAC beyond ironclad terms of employment, working relationships and poor facades of trivial amusement for the purposes of leisure. The Pladmodium template populace are reclusive, keeping to themselves and retaining a secretive air in the presence of outsiders. Defectors and prisoners indicate that as individuals and groups, Pladmodium are not by nature hard to please and keep entertained, and that a widespread availability of subsidized dietary stimulants is typically sufficient to keep the entire population focused and enthusiastic. Although there are variations and exceptions by individuals, by and large Plasmodium templates regard most traditional mediums of entertainment for organics to be boring and trite.
This is further reflected by the state of various entertainment industries within the NAC, all of which are almost exclusively oriented towards entertaining alien species from foreign powers, almost all of which being subsidized and non-profit. In essence, it would seem the corporate charter's indicated goal of endorsing individual liberties and the welfare of the people has been phased out in practice. Plasmodium templates largely pursue their own welfare by working, and are generally at their best when pursuing a goal or objective. Left to their own devices, Plasmodiums very quickly become listless and anxious, being hard-pressed to arrange their own lives in the absence of explicit instructions or orders. What little culture they and the NAC at large pretend to maintain would seem to be for the benefit of appearances with other species.
As of this reading, the NAC control only a single star system - although as Star Systems go, they certainly could have done worse.
The Akkamarid system is host to a quaternary star arrangement featuring three orbital barycenters. Tramitet, a superluminous class O star of indigo coloration, forms the first binary with Levanbent, a white class A star. The binary is referred to as the Greganev Binary. Estre, a blue class B star, forms the second binary with Ponekte, a yellow class G star. The binary is referred to as the Librens binary. The first and second binaries orbit a tertiary center of mass between them, which is designated as Point Phakashra. Two planets orbit Tamitet in the Greganev binary, while three respectively orbit both stars in the Librens binary.
Tunkret, the first planet closest in the Librens binary, is a barren world which contains several seas of molten rock and minerals. Due to concentrated pockets of volcanic gasses forming within older oceans now located within the planet's crust, the planet is host to several massive subterranean caverns and tunnel networks which are significantly cooler than the planet's surface. The NAC maintains several colonies and urban centers is here, within caverns beneath the planet's northern and southern poles and accessible only via artificial boreshafts.
Karthans, the second planet in the Librens binary, is similarly barren but possesses a cooler surface and an inert core. The planet's overall structure has remained stable for millions of years. Karthans is a base for a number of mining operations and serves as a waypoint between Tunkret and Trinnet. As such, Karthans is home to the largest terrestrial and subterranean urban complexes in the NAC, boasting the largest population and the most developed infrastructure.
Trinnet, the third plane in the Librens binary, is a barely habitable, sweltering greenhouse world with an atmosphere composed largely of Helium and Nitrogen, with moderate concentrations of Ammonia and Carbon Dioxide. Trinnet is host to most of the NAC's agricultural operations and industrial centers, which produce and organize shipments of foodstuffs and edible goods. While a number of Human plants can grow without trouble on Trinnet's surface, most livestock and cattle asphyxiate within the planet's atmosphere. Only particular cultures of engineered, meat-like crops are permitted to grow unabated on the surface.
Rannktom, the first planet in the Greganev binary, is a blasted, utterly inhospital ball of boiling, molten metal through and through. It has no noteworthy stable landmasses, and its surface features are in perpetual flux and turmoil. Due to the planet's speculated formative history combined with its close proximity to Tramitet, the planet's seas are suffused with a very high concentration of nuclear isomers. The NAC has gone to great trouble and length to establish massive, floating cities on Rannktom for the purposes of harvesting nuclear materials for industrial and civil applications. Rannktom is also home to a large number of prominent military installations and bases, which make use of the unforgiving 'terrain' as the ultimate proving ground and test-bed for their innovations and designs.
Paroh, the second planet in the Greganev binary, is thought to have once been a gas giant predating the formation of the binary itself. Its surface is an unnatural smooth, highly compressed composite material containing large amounts of cobalt, nickel, and chrome, with less than a thousand known craters and meteor impact sites. The large and diffuse arrangements of chromium compounds across the surface create a spectacular sea of metallic coloration. Although the NAC maintains a large number of starbases in orbit of the planet, there are no permanent installations on its surface and teams sent down to collect mineral samples and perform research are strictly relegated to very small select sites. Paroh is marked as a natural site by the NAC, and offers tours and vacation outings on its surface while staying in one of its stunningly accommodating luxury atmospheric habitats. Coincidentally, Paroh is also home to the NAC's official station of Embassies as well as their Diplomatic Forum.
Point Phokashra, located directly atop the tertiary Akkamarid binary, is a massive, sprawling starbase continuously expanding in every direction, being several times larger than most megacities and not looking to stop getting larger anytime soon. It has a network of supporting stations and starbases orbiting around the tertiary binary to match the orbits of other notable locations within the system, and it serves as both an activity hub and staging ground for most NAC operations. A large number of administrative centers and services are located here as a result.
Long-Hold Superpositioned Neutrino Scanning is a method developed by the NAC to scan any given target object down to the subatomic level and create a perfect, static data copy of that target's entire actual structure. This is not limited to merely mechanical or electronic devices, but can also be used to scan organic and synthetic beings, high-energy phenomena, invisible force interactions and waves, and more. LHSP Neutrino Scanning is infamous for being very nearly impossible to shield against. One of the only known limitations to LHSP Neutrino Scanning is its inability to detect or measure gravity meaningfully, with the scanning 'beam' also being susceptible to artificially bent or otherwise distorted spacetime curvature.
The scanner works by firing a compact ray of over a hundred quadrillion neutrinos at a target, which pass through an eigenstate trap before leaving the apparatus' emitter. Using telemetry and observation of the target, the eigenstate trap can stimulate select neutrino eigenstates to force a neutrino interaction while it passes through the target, which due to its captured eigenstate within the emitter can then be recorded. If the target's location is known, the eigenstate trap can stimulate the neutrino eigenstates in the ray until every part of the target structure has been observed. In the unlikely event that a high percentage of neutrinos are blocked or obscured, either by a mass of neutronium or else by a second eigenstate trap, the emitter's own eigenstate trap can force a corresponding neutrino to superposition across the barrier without interacting with it, allowing for it to continue.
LHSP Neutrino Scanners require large amounts of energy in order to produce upwards of quintillions of neutrinos at a time per use, and tend to be extremely large, dedicated assemblies with their own accompanying reactors and data storage systems. Additionally, Scanners are often specialized for specific kinds of targets for the sake of efficiency. Some are specialized to scan organic matter, others for hardware, or high-energy phenomena. General-use, universal scanners exist but tend to be designed using very conservative estimates, meaning they are typically the largest and most relatively inefficient scanners of their kind.
Working using similar principles to the NAC's Neutrino scanners, Mind Rippers range from backpack-mounted assemblies to larger medical equipment, specialized for the express purposes of scanning and storing the memory patterns of organic beings. The emitter used fires electrons rather than neutrinos, requiring much less energy overall to power and much less space to contain, especially in the absence of the need to fire quintillions of neutrinos at once. A Mind Ripper simply shoots electrons through an organic being's body, recording any identifiable instances of genetic sequences or other chemical structures used in the storage and retrieval of memory.
Typically, mind ripping is a nearly harmless procedure known to cause mild disorientation, as the electron stream used is normally does not fire enough electrons to seriously hurt a target. If the target has significant cybernetic augmentation or surgically implanted metal, the process is known to be more dangerous, being occasionally debilitating or lethal. Additionally, the larger and more powerful a mind ripper is in order to facilitate the firing of a denser electron stream, the more dangerous the process becomes for the target. Saturation of the bloodstream or other pathways in the body with particular compounds or materials that deter electron passage can shield against mind ripping, and it is entirely possible to develop serums affording short-term relative immunity. The counterpoint being that if an angry NAC agent with a mind ripper thinks you are using a serum, they can elect to use a larger mind ripper that fires many many many more electrons with a near 100% of killing you in the process of stealing all your hopes and dreams.
The very technology for which the populace of the NAC have earned the nickname of 'The Printers' from the galactic layman, Static-Form Printers are variable-sized chambers which use a number of arcane processes to create a near-QED Vacuum within their interior, and then use a provided supply of highly purified elemental fuels in order to create a perfect, printed copy of any object down to the subatomic level using information derived from Neutrino scanning.
Even for the smallest printers printing the smallest of objects, the printing process can take upwards of an hour to complete due to the mechanisms used in order to ensure the printed object is a whole, stable structure. Once an object starts printing, the process cannot be stopped or interrupted, and the sealed printing chamber cannot be opened. If the process should be stopped or the chamber forced open for any reason, the printed matter can fall apart and degenerate, sometimes spectacularly. As long as the process is allowed to proceed however, normally hazardous or unstable matter (or antimatter) can be preserved up until the moment the printing process is complete. Only once the printing process is complete are potentially hazardous or unstable objects and structures permitted to explode or melt through the floor. For this very same reason, safeguard programs exist in every printer that warn the user of the potential for unsafe materials to be printed.
Although generally limited by the volume and dimensions of the printing chamber, assuming it is larger enough a printer can recreate nearly any object with perfect fidelity, and is not limited to hardware. Printers can reliably recreate computing equipment and every program, piece of software, and line of code stored in the equipment's scan data. They can print synthetics, organic matter, and even perfect copies of living, sentient beings complete with intact memory. Imperfections and flaws are possible, but generally so insignificant as to be negligible, since defects in printed matter are generally only caused by vacuum fluctuations within the printing chamber or by impurities in the elemental fuel any given printer might use.
In addition to registering and tracking every single printer ever made, the NAC has a large array of security and safeguards programmed into each one. In particular, non-Plasmodium species cannot use printers, nor can any Plasmodium unless its genome is on record with the NAC. However, although printers are sophisticated and elaborate pieces of technology, they are not beyond the means of other opportunistic powers to duplicate with sufficient study and analysis. The science behind its operation is not particularly arcane, and the simple act of creating the near-QED vacuum within the printing chamber is the most complex part of the actual printing process itself. Once the technology behind printing gets out, the only real advantages the NAC will have will be the relatively better efficiency and sophistication of their own printers.
Although the NAC has developed a number of model designer organisms for its own purposes, by and large they do not specialize in genetic design or manipulation, and the few organisms they have made from scratch took decades of time to develop. However, there are a few key areas where the NAC excels due to their express interests, in particular, the ability to change and manipulate biogenic information in the form of memory. After having studied a particular organic species sufficiently, the NAC can print perfect copies of scanned members of their species with erased, altered, or completely fabricated memories and corresponding personalities.
Certain ships amongst the NAC's navy and a number of their starbases and space stations are equipped with a weapons array that allows for the use of FTL energy munitions. Despite the system's designation as an FTL weapon, its ultimate range is strictly limited within the same system, and is most effectively employed at relatively close ranges. This is because the targeting mechanism for the weapon is, in and of itself, a subluminal targeting maser that travels near but not quite at the speed of light. This same maser is calibrated so that it is fired as a hollow, cylindrical beam as opposed to a solid stream. The hollow interior of the maser is both rendered into a full vacuum, while the specialized properties of the maser create a Casimir effect corridor along the length of the beam.
Once the maser itself hits and 'paints' a target, the FTL munition can then be employed by firing it down the vacuum within the targeting maser, accelerated past lightspeed by the casimir corridor to the point where any target being painted by the targeting maser will be hit instantaneously, turning what would otherwise be a mundane near-C energy munition into a technical FTL weapon. The targeting maser itself being subluminal still tremendously limits the effective range of the system, and presents a number of other drawbacks. For one,if the laser loses target acquisition, then the energy stream fired through it will also miss. If the targeting maser should be broken or interrupted - by space debris or certain kinds of interrupting fields for example - the energy stream fired through it will likewise be interrupted at that point. The upside to the weapon is that once a target is painting, no matter what range it happens to be at, the firing system will have perfect down-to-the-microsecond telemetry data on its position and will be able to apply a continuous, hitscan stream of fire.
NAC vessels use a powerful superfluid magnetohydrodynamic power system to generate a highly energetic halbach magnetosphere around themselves, mimicking the natural magnetospheres generated by planets with fluid mantles (such as Earth, by way of example) or the heliospheres of stars. Each vessel features a dynamo containing a rapidly circulating supercharged and superfluid matter, which generates a dipolar magnetic field several hundreds of times the size of the vessel generating the field. The dynamo system also spins perpendicular to its axis, and so the dipolar field behaves as though it were singular and fluid rather than dipolar.
When any object (not merely objects that are strongly magnetic) enters the magnetofield of a planet like Earth, its own trajectory is influenced by the relatively velocity at which the field spins in proportion to how energetic the field is. Earth’s magnetosphere is just powerful enough to deflect radiation and other energetic particles projected for the sun, which relative to large space objects or highly-energetic cosmic particles, may as well be lazily buzzing gnats. Hence, when a large object or an extremely energetic particle enters Earth’s magnetosphere, they tend to be only negligibly affected by the field.
NAC vessels generate magnetoshields which, relative to the Earth’s magnetofield, are almost literally millions of times more energetic and rapid. When an object enters an NAC magnetoshield, it is likely to be immediately torn apart due to the extreme spin of the superfluid matter near the corresponding vessel’s core. Objects that are not torn apart, but lack sufficient kinetic force to maintain their own trajectory are yanked from their trajectory to be flung away from the magnetoshield at a reciprocal vector.
Missiles, accelerated particle streams, slugs, and most beam/projectile based weapons are susceptible to interception by NAC magnetoshields, and the magnetoshields in question do not lose energy from sustained fire or from being pierced. Very simply, the only way to pierce through the magnetoshield is to use a weapon or form of attack that is powerful enough to pierce through it. Using weapons or attacks too weak to pierce through the magnetoshield initially will never pierce through it at all, no matter how many times they are used or in what concentration they are utilized. If an enemy attacks an NAC vessel of the same or equivalent ship classification and only has light armaments, there is a distinct possibility that none of its weapons will be capable of piercing the magnetoshield.
The silver lining for attacking forces, of course, is that if an attack pierces the magnetoshield, it always will, and will never fail in doing so (though they had best be wary that even such attacks are not disturbed or deflected enough to miss the target vessel anyway). Since the magnetoshield’s power is always constant, the NAC cannot suddenly decide to ‘divert more power to the shields!’ The same features which make magnetoshields effective against weak attacks makes them weak against sufficiently strong attacks.
Finally, by necessity of their design, each magnetoshield has two weak points. The dynamo containing the circulating matter necessarily generates a dipolar magnetoshield along its axis. At both poles, there is a steep depression in the magnetoshield which makes the area of space covered by the shield much ‘shallower’ than any other space, making it easier for attacks to penetrate those points. In order to circumvent this weakness, the NAC have each shield dynamo spun perpendicular to their axis (akin to the motion of a gyroscope), causing the axial poles to constantly shift and change position. This prevents enemies from effectively targeting either weak point. However, highly sophisticated tracking systems or targeting suites, if they knew what to look for, could probably time and predict the movements of the poles and time firing solutions to pierce through the magnetoshield the next time one or the other comes around.
Having observed all of this, one might ask how the NAC manage to fire any of their own weapons through the magnetoshield surrounding each vessel. The answer being that each shielding dynamo, in addition to rapidly circulating supercharged, superfluid matter, circulates it through rotating chambered systems designed to change the interaction of the magnetic field generated by the fluid circulating through each chamber in order to create a dynamic halbach array. This cancels out the influence of the magnetic field on the inside of the magnetoshield to near zero which proportionally augmenting the strength of the magnetoshield on its outside. In this way, each magnetoshield only destroys or repels attacks or objects that approach it from the outside; attacks directed from the inside, out, simply pass through.
tl;dr, attacks that are too weak to pass through it, don’t. Attacks that are, do. The shield doesn’t lose strength when it deflects an attack, and it doesn’t break when it gets pierced. It always works, and never drops or fails. The NAC can fire their own weapons out of the shield without them being affected.
Using internally seated wedge-shaped chambers containing stabilized matrices of exotic matter with negative mass, each NAC vessel bends spacetime to a given side of itself in order to attain a relative higher top speed, as well as better changes in acceleration. This allows each ship to attain respectably high sublight speed and acceleration without endangering the the organic crew or less durable objects aboard each vessel.
The NAC, by and large, is not interested in waging widescale insterstellar warfare or in making a habit of pursuing unnecessary naval engagements. In the eventuality they must, they would prefer that they win, even if the results are not achieved by tidy means. The NAC also prefers to pick and choose its battles, aiming to only engage when it is apparent that their forces can win decisively. The NAC implements this particular policy out of a stark awareness of the limitations of their available resources and relatively small number of their available forces. In this way, the NAC is like a snake. Generally, it will not fight unless cornered, and it prefers to strike from ambush with a focused, overwhelming, and crippling assault.
As far the NAC's navy itself goes, the military organization overseen by the third board of directors has broad and liberal discretion to dictate and implement its own strategic and tactical agenda. Its exact goals are usually fluid, malleable, and flexible in nature, and the strategies used by other extensions of the NAC's formal government adapts to service the military agenda rather than the other way around. The NAC's overarching galactic agenda might conceivably take centuries and will not be made or lost in the course of a single battle, so it is pointless to needlessly fight battles that cannot be won. For this very reason, it is not out-of-character to find NAC installations abandoned or evacuated upon attack.
It is also unusual for the military or for the third board to pursue a conflict not endorsed by the first board, and the third board and military typically decline to humor the requests of other formal agencies of the NAC - relegating most field operations to allotted resources only. Even those few military craft and personnel assigned to a particular duty with the expectation of fighting adhere to a strict series of contingencies, the punchline being NAC naval forces will only commit if they reasonably think they can win and if they think the fight is worth winning.
The NAC military and by extension the third board of directors only answer to the first board, meaning most if not all conflicts where the NAC navy is involved are formally sanctioned - contrary to what the NAC's diplomatic envoys would have many believe.
In regards to tactics, the navy prefers to go into most engagements using scan data in order to exploit specific vulnerabilities and weaknesses in hostile craft and infrastructure. In addition, they prefer to stay at range, exploiting the relatively long reach of their armaments to the utmost. They also commonly use celestial bodies to modify the rules of engagement, particular in engagements not in their own favor. A favored tactic is to hide within the corona of a star or inside the atmospheres of gas giants, using their superior sensor technology to launch on-and-off surprise attacks against distant targets. Their vessels are generally only as large as necessary in order to field the most effective weapons they have access to; the navy prefers very heavily armed cruisers supplemented by destroyers specialized for screening and anti-corvette and frigate roles while their larger brethren handle the hard work.
Naval formations are very loose and spread out over a relatively large area of space in order to minimize the effectiveness of corresponding enemy formations. They prefer conical and cylindrical walls of battle that can fold in or away from a center or a particular point rapidly. Cruisers are often attended by pairs of destroyers that provide personal support. Most ships employ high-energy munitions, usually defaulting to grasers, with but a few notable exceptions. Larger ships such as dreadnoughts and superdreadnoughts are only typically employed in relatively large numbers to fulfill specialized roles, and the navy as a whole disapproves of using small numbers of make-or-break spacecraft. Most NAC fleets utilize large numbers of small ship classes, but when they do use the larger classes, they use them in large numbers as well.
A design for a heavy atmospheric gunship gone terribly overboard that transformed into a design for a heavy dual-role strike craft that then also got decidedly out of hand, the Proxima is a Heavy Corvette and easily one of the single most over-designed vessels in the NAC's arsenal. Designed for atmospheric superiority and domination, the Proxima also proved exceptionally suited to bullying frigates and destroyers in naval engagements.
The Proxima is small and fast enough to be able to join transports during invasions of shielded planets, capable of shifting between space and atmospheres without issue, and can get into high-velocity dogfights with atmospheric fighters and interceptor strike-craft. It is heavily armored with reinforced, double-layered triple-composite alloy armor that allows it to take artillery shells to the side, careen headlong into a mountain, bounce down the side, carve a large gouge out of the terrain, and then drift right back up and get back to work. It is heavily armed with armor-penetrating plasma weaponry, shield and organic frying ion arrays, and a dreaded, maser-contained antimatter lance. Proximas are high-priority strategic-grade targets in terrestrial theaters, and in space are dangerous enough to be very risky for frigates to engage and a notable threat to destroyers.
The only true downside to the Proxima corvette is the degree to which it is over-designed. For a corvette it is unconscionably expensive and difficult to produce. While capable of bullying frigates and destroyers, in straight fights with them it tends to fare poorly, being praised for its ability to cripple such ships as opposed to its ability to actually survive encounters with them. Critiques of its design indicate that it is ill-suited to the purposes and needs of the infrequently engaged navy and army, and that producing such expensive craft only to never use them is a tremendous waste.
Proxima are typically encountered only in two scenarios. Either independently and alone during atmospheric operations by remote agents who have been accommodated a single Proxima for mission support - one Proxima being far and more than enough for most support purposes - or else in very large amassed numbers during planetary assaults. They are disgustingly terrible opponents to fight in any given situation.
The NAC's primary transport design is a highly specialized defense-oriented vessel with little in the way of armaments, made for the purpose of punching through planetary shielding while evading or overwhelming StS battery fire. In addition to its standard magnetoshield, the Urbane's bow is a dedicated emitter that generates a sheathe of plasma around the vessel, shaped around its shielding in order to enhance its defensive capabilities and also allowing it to legitimately use near-hit drive-by ramming tactics as an offensive measure. Upon touching down on the ground, the frigate is capable of unfolding itself and deploying into a small, highly modular defensive fortification that can then link and join up with the deployment of other frigates to create a larger defensive line, or else use preselected apparatus to move across battlefields, albeit slowly. Each Urbane can carry a predetermined loadout of soldiers, vehicles, munitions, or specialized equipment for the purposes of surgical terrestrial invasions.
The Bounty was made for the express purpose of supporting the NAC's line of Obelisk heavy cruisers, and to that extent it is a screening craft dedicated towards mitigating and destroying strike craft, corvettes, and frigates. It is so specialized for this purpose in fact, that it underperforms in matchups with other Destroyer classes. This is because it is assumed that each Bounty will have at least one Obelisk backing it up, which would be expected to do the true heavy lifting in regards to larger classes of ships. For its designated purpose though, the Bounty excels. Its primary armaments are eight light gyroscopic graser mounts, specially modified to allow for longer bursts of continuous tracking fire. Each graser mount is smaller than ordinary relative to the Bounty's ship classification, the graser stream each one fires being thinner. These weapons are optimized for tracking and destroy strike craft and bombers, while also being able to pick off and intercept torpedoes and other missile-based munitions. This function is supported by a dedicated sensor suite optimized to pick out and track small craft and munitions from amongst a sea of ECM, decoys, and rampant weapons fire. Additionally, the craft possesses six plasma-breacher projectors that allow it to ruin the day of any corvette or frigate it encounters.
The Obelisk is designed in order to mount the heaviest, most powerful weapons platforms as possible on as small, light, and fast of a craft as possible. Keenly aware of the relative resource shortage they must deal with, the NAC prefers that its heaviest hitters have high overall redundancy while being relatively inexpensive as far as reprint values rate. The Obelisk has the shape of an oblong needle with three spires jutting away from its center of mass just behind the ship's Y-axis. Mounted at the front, end, and atop each spire is an ultra-heavy graser mount normally reserved for battleships. Depending upon its orientation, the Obelisk can fire all five of its grasers at a single target at once, and can always fire at least four in any given direction. For secondary armaments the Obelisk is equipped with nine plasma-breacher projectors, intended largely to swat smaller craft into oblivion.
While the Obelisk fields a ridiculous amount of firepower, the nature of its weapons means it is poorly suited to battling smaller craft cruisers might otherwise be expected to handle. Its personal sensor suite is dedicated to identifying vulnerabilities in the shielding and hulls of battleships and dreadnoughts, and is poorly suited for interception purposes. It struggles in particular against frigates, corvettes, and strike-craft, against which none of its munitions are particularly suited to tracking.
Although officially rated as a battleship, the Scion is truthfully less heavily armed than the Obelisk heavy cruiser and is a highly specialized craft ill-suited to pitched, close-quarters engagements and skirmishes. A large bulk of the Scion's mass is taken up by a massive LHSP Neutrino Scanner as well as an FTL sensor suite, while most of the remainder is taken up by a single ultra-heavy subluminal-targeted FTL graser mount. The Scion earns its keep by detecting and tracking distant targets and picking them to pieces with its primary weapon from far, far afield and out of the enemy's effective range. As a deterrent against strike-craft and corvettes, the Scion also possesses twelve light tracking graser mounts optimized in the same manner as those of the Bounty's. All in all however, the Scion is ill-suited to any kind of fair fight even against smaller craft at relatively close distances.
The Mesektet is a craft designed for planetary invasions. While it cannot enter atmospheres under normal circumstances and is far too large and slow of a target to slip past planetary shielding or StS batteries, a single Mesektet can make or break a planetary invasion solely through its role as a mobile tactical HQ for the second board.
The Mesektet boasts an exceptionally powerful LHSP Neutrino scanner suite with accompanying information storage, capable of scanning massive bodies or innumerable large craft and storing the information. It is also host to a massive heavy-industrial Printing array and serves as a mobile depot for the refined elemental fuel used by the NAC's static printers, as well as harvesting and purification centers for the production of more. The Mesektet can print and reprint any number of army units on-demand, as well as print smaller naval units such as the Proxima and Urbane. When joined up with other supercarriers of its kind, multiple Mesektets can between them print and assemble larger vessels in relatively short periods of time. Due to the high concentration of high-priority equipment aboard Mesektets as well as due to their ability to turn the tide of any conflict through their support role, they are strategic-grade targets and are afforded appropriate protection as a result.
As supercarriers, Mesektets are only lightly armed with graser-based point defense and a large array of plasma breachers, but all in all they are not intended to directly partake in any kind of naval engagement. In an actual conflict, a Mesektet will usually evade and run rather than engage.
The Pyrulen is to dreadnought designs what the Obelisk is to cruiser designs, and this is seen in their largely identical hull configurations, allowing for the Pyrulen's much, much larger volume. It fields four ultra-heavy subluminal-targeted FTL graser mounts at its rear and atop its three spires. Its front weapon mount is also a subluminal-targeted FTL weapon mount configured for graser fire, but is also a recently-developed experimental design permitting for the emission of a thin stream of phosphorescent corium along the length of the targeting maser. These prototype weapons are somewhat temperamental and have not been fully tested in live-fire conditions, but are hypothesized to be magnitudes more powerful than any other weapon in the NAC's arsenal, theoretically capable of destroying even starbases using only few seconds of sustained fire.
The Pyrulen is otherwise equipped with twelve heavy graser mounts, an array of light graser point-defense, and thirty-six heavy plasma-breacher emitters.
The NAC's army and terrestrial forces are known for their high overall mobility and their emphasis on atmospheric superiority. They prefer to field smaller numbers of high-quality elite infantry supported by gunships and rapid artillery. NAC armies move quickly and are hard to keep pinned down in one spot. Thanks to the design of the Urbane frigate and transport vessel, even their entrenchments and fortifications are mobile and notoriously difficult to zero in on.
These same qualities are what make the armed terrestrial forces of the NAC well-suited for covert operations. Although trained and fully intended to be used for the purposes of planetary invasions, they are most often employed in subversive missions against and within foreign powers. This Carte blanche deployment of the NAC's armed forces drives home the truth that the NAC itself is more a stratified military junta than any true kind of corporate power, as these military forces serve as basic security on top of handling other matters. Which is to say, the involvement of terrestrial armed forces is the minimum of investiture in any given operation.
Unlike the naval forces of the NAC, the army is much more willing and quick to resort to force, and are very willing to take risks and gambles in order to achieve their goals. Soldiers and equipment are much easier to reprint than spacecraft, after all. Thus, in foreign operations, while one is unlikely to ever see an NAC craft unless they have stumbled upon something big, even with the most low-key operations a wary investigator can expect to eventually find a two-meter tall armored military agent pointing an MTG Carbine at their head.
Hail Drones are small, spherical weapons platforms no bigger than a Humanoid's head, with eight gyroscopic ion thrusters for propulsion and a maser-emitter mounted on the front. Every aspect of the Hail Drone's design is highly economical, streamlined, and low cost. The designers scrimped at every angle and pulled every single trick they knew to save on space and materials when making it, especially when it came to the power supply. Although Hail Drones have a capacitor near their cores, dissection of them has shown an absence of any kind of power generation mechanism. The only clue as to how they are powered is a minuscule, hollow containment chamber just behind their center of mass connected directly to their capacitors. A few far-fling theories suggest they are powered through induction, beaming, or some other form of remote power relay.
Because of how small and economical Hail Drones are, they can be very quickly printed in very large batches all at once on the cheap, and are often deployed in large swarms. They are so prevalent they can even often be found supporting individual infantry in sextets. Hail Drones are, individually, not a great threat - but when supporting infantry with additional telemetry, acting as scouts in urban environments, and when deployed in very large numbers, they can stack the deck against the forces dealing with them.
By far though, the greatest utility of Hail Drones is their ability to self-destruct, creating a small explosion equivocal to a grenade detonation. This may be done either autonomous or by-order of infantry they are accompanying, and so Hail Drones also function as tactical, explosive smart-munitions.
Military Plasmodiums are usually printed standing two meters tall, with two legs and four arms. With multiple surgically installed implants of nuclear material for metabolic purposes and cybernetic augmentations, they are universally almost always stronger, faster, nimbler, and more durable than ordinary organics - before factoring in the powered exoskeleton they wear. The exoskeleton itself was designed to synergize with the Plasmodium's vastly increased physical strength and durable body, allowing them to rapidly propel themselves across battlefields using ion-emitters to produce small amounts of thrust.
The armor plating usually patched onto the exoskeleton is nothing spectacular, essentially a disposable and recyclable ceramic with excellent durability particularly against ballistics, but which is known to disintegrate and crack when superheated. This armor reliably protects infantry from ballistics over time and could usually sustain one to two exposures from high-energy weapons before falling apart, greatly increasing the longevity of the Plasmodium soldiers while still being inexpensive to produce and replace.
Plasmodium infantry are most often equipped with MSG Carbines. These sophisticated weapons are easily the single most complex and expensive piece of equipment a Plasmodium is typically outfitted with. An emitter built into the weapon's barrel fires a relatively weak maser at a target, which by itself is not particularly powerful and only capable of causing small burns, even on unarmored targets. Its primary function is to instead create a vacuum corridor in the atmosphere it passes through while applying light ablative shock to armored surfaces, so that a high-powered graser can then subsequently be fired from a fuel chamber built into the body of the carbine at the target through the momentary vacuum and do unpleasant things to them. The weapon is so effective it serves as a small-arms, armor-piercing, anti-electronic, and anti-organic weapon.
Plasmodium infantry are typically assisted in combat by attending Hail Drones, and a single soldier may be allotted up to a total of six at once. In addition to providing infantry with additional telemetry data and firepower, these drones can scout ahead and inform infantry of potential ambushes or enemy fortifications. Due to the relative omnipresence of Hail Drones, they are also commonly employed as smart explosives equivalent to grenades.
Field Printers are precisely what they are named - Static Printers provided with mobile housing and armor. Field Printers are mobile tactical depots that can resupply infantry, print Hail Drones, exoskeletons, ceramic armor, and carbines on the fly. It is also equipped with a sophisticated sensor array and relay antennae, allowing it to act as a local communications hub. Field Printers have no overt built-in armaments, but due to their frequent printing of large numbers of Hail Drones are often guarded by massive swarms of the insidious devices, making approach on foot difficult if not suicidal. This is further complicated by the Field Printer being able to see through various forms of camouflage and stealth, and share its telemetry data with all drones and infantry linked up with it.
By far though, the Field Printer's greatest utility is its ability to recycle equipment and matter into elemental fuel, allowing it to easily and quickly resupply while deployed.
The Totem is named for its shape - a largely vertical column of armor plating surrounding a single Impetus-Drive wedge along the top of the vehicle that allows it to fly through the air. Hanging directly below the wedge is a single dual-weapon turret with independently tracking plasma-breacher projectors and a heavy graser. Totems are fairly small in size, barely taller than a standing Plasmodium soldier and notably thinner. Despite being very swift and mobile, capable of going most places a soldier can, its single Impetus wedge is known to not grant it great stability. The totem can be sent wildly careening uncontrollably through the air with a well placed shot or series of shots, and its armor is similar in nature to the ceramic plating most Plasmodium soldiers use with their exoskeletons. In this manner, Totems are similar in nature to Hail Drones in that they are economical, easy to print, highly mobile and field large amounts of firepower.
The Horizon is an actual triangular platform with three Impetus wedges at each corner, and four gyroscopic weapon mounts. The single large top mount is an artillery piece with a specially modified emitter, capable of firing plasma-breachers with carefully configured magnetic containment that allows it to be fired with a parabolic trajectory. The weapon's range is ultimately still limited by the plasma-breacher's high overall speed and the limited capability of the magnetic field containing it to alter its trajectory, meaning at relatively closer ranges within several kilometers, the projectile itself will only possess a faint arc and will effectively still be moving in a nearly straight line. At longer ranges over the horizon line, the weapon's range is limited by the limited effect of gravity on its movement, actually restricting the upper limits of the vehicle's range.
The three weapon mounts on the underside are largely identical to those sported by the Totem tank, intended to deter hostile infantry and armor while the Horizon zeros in on more important targets elsewhere.
The Tomegathericon is the pinnacle of the NAC's terrestrial military doctrine personified. It is swift. heavily armed and armored, and although notably expensive to manufacture is notably cost-effective. Shaped as armored slopes around a large Impetus drive at the craft's nose with a smaller guiding drive at the rear, the Tomegathericon is noteworthy for its extreme maneuverability even in tight spaces and urban environments as well as for its high overall linear acceleration. It is armed with four heavy graser and plasma-breacher mounts apiece, with a graser on the front, rear, and sides, with all four plasma-breacher weapons mounted on the sides. It can fire a minimum of two of its plasma mounts in any direction at once, including ahead, beneath, over, and behind itself. It possess an Impetus clamp along its underside, allowing it to pick up and tow large vehicles or objects on demand, as well as two small cargo compartments on either of its sides just below its weapon mounts.
I have been writing as a hobby for longer than you have been alive. I have been a regular member and roleplayer of no less than fourteen different online forums during that time (including the old RPG), [s]five[/s] [s]six[/s] eight of which no longer exist.
I was previously a regular on the Homestuck forums, but I became so sick of thread turnover there that I asked around and eventually found the Guild. Since joining, I have exclusively only participated in Advanced RPs. Before Mahz gave NRPs their own subforum, I used to be an NRP regular in the Advanced Subforum. I am a Guildfall survivor, and know/regularly write with a few others.
If you ask anybody who has written with me in previous RPs, they should tell you that I have a generally open schedule, I post regularly and in a timely fashion, and I never drop an RP once I join unless the thread dies. Some of them may tell you that I have extensive expertise within the realms of Biology, Psychology, and Physics, which I will make no effort to validate since there is no way I can provide hard proof of aforementioned alleged expertise to anybody over the internet (though I am happy to try and answer any questions you send my way).
My favorite fandom is the Myst franchise, which seemingly nobody other than me has ever heard of.
I was a Contest Moderator for the Writing Contests Subforum for just a little bit over two years. I wrote the Moderation Policy for that subforum and I ran a contest called the Twelve Labours; you can still go there and see all of them and the entries people wrote for them in the [url=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/forums/45-writing-contests]Contests Section[/url] and the [url=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/topics/79562-the-twelve-labours-victory-archive/ooc]Victory Archives.[/url]
I have been quadruple secret banned from the guild discord. That is not a joke.
<div style="white-space:pre-wrap;">I have been writing as a hobby for longer than you have been alive. I have been a regular member and roleplayer of no less than fourteen different online forums during that time (including the old RPG), <span class="bb-s">five</span> <span class="bb-s">six</span> eight of which no longer exist.<br><br>I was previously a regular on the Homestuck forums, but I became so sick of thread turnover there that I asked around and eventually found the Guild. Since joining, I have exclusively only participated in Advanced RPs. Before Mahz gave NRPs their own subforum, I used to be an NRP regular in the Advanced Subforum. I am a Guildfall survivor, and know/regularly write with a few others.<br><br>If you ask anybody who has written with me in previous RPs, they should tell you that I have a generally open schedule, I post regularly and in a timely fashion, and I never drop an RP once I join unless the thread dies. Some of them may tell you that I have extensive expertise within the realms of Biology, Psychology, and Physics, which I will make no effort to validate since there is no way I can provide hard proof of aforementioned alleged expertise to anybody over the internet (though I am happy to try and answer any questions you send my way).<br><br>My favorite fandom is the Myst franchise, which seemingly nobody other than me has ever heard of.<br><br>I was a Contest Moderator for the Writing Contests Subforum for just a little bit over two years. I wrote the Moderation Policy for that subforum and I ran a contest called the Twelve Labours; you can still go there and see all of them and the entries people wrote for them in the <a href="https://www.roleplayerguild.com/forums/45-writing-contests">Contests Section</a> and the <a href="https://www.roleplayerguild.com/topics/79562-the-twelve-labours-victory-archive/ooc">Victory Archives.</a><br><br>I have been quadruple secret banned from the guild discord. That is not a joke.</div>