Alright, starting diplomacy and stuff now. Anyone interested in having prior relationship with the state (TM)?
-Celestial Empire: Cordial but cold relations. Not as ideologically different as the USV but considering the true nature of Velukans, that of conquerors, they hate the fact that someone would dictate laws to them. High target for intelligence since if they decide to invade, it seems unlikely anyone would intervene.
-AUO: Mostly indifferent publicly but enjoyed as a potential gold mine of knowledge and intelligence. Free market is a pants-on-head retarded idea to the Chairmen, but this means a lot less government oversight to acquire technologies and information. Not seen as a military threat so very little attention given on that side of intelligence.
-Ryukyu: The citizens of the State are sympathetic to Ryukyu, it is familiar, like it was before the State came to be: A supreme leader heading a militaristic and socialist state with control over the heavy industry to sustain war but little else. While the State acts cordially it still prefers to limit interaction from their people with those, by fear of reawakening old ideas within the population.
-USV (Assuming it's SPACE! America): Great distaste and seen as the most immediate and direct threat to the State, it is militarily dangerous, ideologically toxic to the Totalitarian regime that is the state. Any diplomatic mission is generally an excuse to shove a diplomatic vessel equipped with a ton of surveillance and intelligence assets near them to peep at what's going on and plan around a possible war.
-Pomerania: They wouldn't dare to support Pomeranian independentists openly of course, but The State knows opportunity to cause trouble when it presents itself and as such, monitors the situation carefully, covertly helping separatists any way they can to weaken, or at least distract, the Empire.
Alias/Abbreviation: Velukans (Used only by foreigners)
Nation Specie{s}: Velukans
Specie{s} Description: Velukans are rather tall, male averaging at 6ft6 and females at 6ft4, have 3 fingers to manipulate objects and a hardened exoskeleton. While said exoskeleton provides no defense against modern weaponry, it gives some resistance to blunt trauma, although enough force can cause internal damages as well. Mainly, they have increased resistance to the natural radiation of their home world. Historically they are a violent species that saw their history marked by violent conflicts, both ethnic and ideological. The formation of 'The State' only recently forced their nature to be softened. Instead they place their passion in sports and other entertainments.
National Symbol/Flag/Emblem: To say that something is 'your' flag means that it could NOT be your flag as well. The State is as flagless as it is nameless.
Nation Population: Veluka Prime: 5.2 Billion
-8 Large Space Stations -11 'Retaliation' Ships (Quick, never kept at the same place, specializing in Mutually Assured Destruction of enemy population.) -9 'Police' Ships (Medium (Or small, for major nations) ship with a vast range of detection equipment and boarding crew to deal with piracy, illegal mining and smuggling. 'Police' ships officially but still with military equipment.)
Nation Focus: Intelligence
Weapons: Biological Weapons Shield Type: Force Fields Armor Type: Grounded Armor Bonus Type: Intelligence (Intercepting and decryption of information as well as protecting their own data)
Nation Government: Communistic Total Surveillance State
Nation Economy: Socialist Private small scale service industry and entertainment industry, general rule being 'anything that employs over 100 people belongs to the state'. Prices of physical goods are controlled by the state and intellectual property becomes public after 5 years of creation. All basic goods are provided for and any non-physical good is free (A book on a computer is free, a paper copy is not), the currency is 'Merit', which is allocated to people by the state depending on their work and achievements. Prices are state controlled in function of availability and renewability of the material used in the creation of an item, with personal computer devices such as smartphones, TVs, PCs and game consoles being kept artificially low along with sports equipment. The aim is to keep the population contempt, forever.
Nation Military Description: Officially the State has no army, only an excessively well equipped and trained police force with artillery, tanks, bombers, you name it. It is mainly focused on domestic concerns as it has been less than a century since the State was formed and some still don't agree with its existence. But even thinking about that is a thought crime that can send you to re-education. The State's domestic forces are supplemented by an enormous and almost all seeing intelligence service, the SIB (State Intelligence Bureau), three letters to make anyone shiver in fear when heard, because just talking about it is sure to put you on some watch list (If you weren't in one already). The SIB also works on censorship and disinformation and has been known not to hesitate to dupe the citizens of the State with elaborate hoaxes just to deceive foreign intelligence. False flag operations, entire military operations that don't exist, starting revolutions only to purge certain places from possibly hostile elements. People fear just hearing about a possible plot against the government and shun anyone openly speaking out against it as a possible SIB agent provocateur.
As for its foreign doctrine, the state is trying to do a military buildup to protect itself against possible minor nation aggression, but mainly fears the larger powers and thus places its resources on Weapons of Mass Destruction aimed at killing civilians. They never acknowledge that they do so however and their incredible intelligence machine makes it impossible to prove, but others know that if the State is attacked, it will do its best to cause as much damage as it can before going down. Deterrence is key.
Military Divisions:
-First Responder: The Velukans have a strong military tradition and despite their best attempt, the State can hardly suppress the population's fascination with martial prowess. To compensate, this is tightly regulated, guns in particular, are only selectively awarded after special 'use and ethics' training following a detailed psychological profiling. After these training however, these people are awarded their weapon of choice, as well as the solemn duty to use it to protect those in need when emergency services are not present. This makes a great many of the common civilian armed and part of their 'Gun range group', which is a thinly veiled local militia. They might not have field experience, but these guys have enthusiasm on their side as well as vast knowledge of local geography.
-Local Police: Armed with machineguns and patrolling the streets in armored vehicles, these people are trained as much to handle single individuals as they are in handling 'Organized Mass Hysteria', meaning a group outnumbering them with gear and training similar to their own. It is notable that Velukans consider the use of chemical weapons to be trivial and the police will generally engage using gas, ranging from non-lethal to lethal agents working by inhalation or skin contact.
-Metropolitan Police: To answer the more pressing needs of large cities where you're likely to encounter hundreds of people you've never seen before, these 'cops' are equipped with advanced reality augmentation gear, allowing them to maneuver and identify suspects with better speed and accuracy in case of 'Mass Unrest', they are also trained and equipped in demolition and delaying tactics to resist while the bigger guns arrive. The last suit is the new Third Generation powered armor that is slowly coming into service.
-GLF Terrorist: The Global Liberation Front is the single largest organization operating against the state by a large margin, anyone looking to fight The State will seek them out... What they don't know, and what no chairman outside of the SIB knows, is that they are actually a SIB honey pot. Every act they do was selected by the SIB and its entire superior leadership is made of undercover SIB agents. These fighters, allowed to live only because they serve a purpose to the state, are veteran guerrilla warfare that have decades of fighting and terrorist activities under their belt, enjoying the use of ambush and last ditch suicide tactics to gain a upper hand on their would be enemies.
-GLF Operative: Trained and commanded by SIB agents, these fanatics have no clue they are being manipulated by their sworn enemies, but still engage in covert operation with extreme effectiveness. They are as willing to die for the cause as the ordinary terrorists, but are smart enough to put on a fight and make the suicide detonation a last resort to cause devastating damage rather than a more or less primary mean of attack. They have gear that was once extremely high tech but that now rival a slightly superior fighting force and not much else.
Nation Culture Description: The State is formed of many people of many cultures, but these days it is changing, as the State promotes historical revisionism, where everything from before it was bad and barbaric, as well as the creation of a single, globalized identity. From the outside, the average state citizen is a somewhat self centered individual that on average works only 20 hours a week but that thus has a vast amount of time for his hobbies, such as art or making stuff others will find entertaining. Indeed, it is impossible to turn a restaurant into a large chain or if you invent something, sell it to become incredibly rich as the communistic nature of the State prevents those things. Simply, Velukans do what they do because they find personal enjoyment in it, or revel in the popularity doing what they do give them.
The life of a Velukan is something to be envied by many other civilizations, as if you judge a society by how it treats its poor, Velukans live in a society where poverty is non existent, as is war and crime. But it comes at a cost. The state is seen, and justifiably so, as a psychotic totalitarian dictatorship suffering from paranoia at the highest level by its own citizens. You can either live in these comfortable boundaries or suddenly disappear, become a non person that never even existed.
Their views on outside is either an arrogant one, where they look with distain at how primitive anyone who is forced to work for a living is, or with superiority, where the outsiders are a bloody annoyance that should be crushed like the vermin that it is so the precious resources the universe has to offer can be used to better the lives of people who actually matter, Velukan lives! The first is what the state endorses, to see the State as the beacon of civilization. The second, while not actively being worked against, is an old legacy of the true Velukan nature: Warriors, that fight each other and anything else for glory, success, resources and to reduce lesser beings to nothing more than slavery. There are of course, those that look with envy at the freedom to be had outside, but those... they don't speak.
Nation Economy Description: Private small scale service industry and entertainment industry, general rule being 'anything that employs over 100 people belongs to the state'. Prices of physical goods are controlled by the state and intellectual property becomes public after 5 years of creation. All basic goods are provided for and any non-physical good is free (A book on a computer is free, a paper copy is not), the currency is 'Merit', which is allocated to people by the state depending on their work and achievements. Prices are state controlled in function of availability and renewability of the material used in the creation of an item, with personal computer devices such as smartphones, TVs, PCs and game consoles being kept artificially low along with sports equipment. The aim is to keep the population contempt, forever.
National Figures: Chairman of the State Projects Bureau Kritarch: While not the leader officially (The State has no leader), Kritarch controls what the manpower and resources of the State will build as a future for its people and any bureau that doesn't have the Project's Bureau on its side will have a hard time to do anything. He was chosen for this post as a compromise, because he genuinely doesn't care about what actually is and should be the state. He's a sociopath, unable to feel empathy for his fellow Velukans, which means he has no moral quandary doing the most terrible of things, and has been a keen supporter of the idea of deterrence, although he doesn't hide to his colleagues that he would honestly rather just kill everything else in the universe so they can't ever make a problem.
Chairman of the State Intelligence Bureau Valarak: Author of the so called 'Triangle of Paranoia' (The SIB is divided in 3, the first part is the humongous organization watching over citizens and foreigners alike while the 2 others watch over the first to weed out corruption and... on each other, to make sure the watchmen themselves don't become corrupt), he's the most senior Chairman around and despite having a say in anyone that climbs the rank and being able to watch anyone's life 24/7, still doesn't trust anyone but rare individuals. Makes it his personal duty that if everyone agrees on something to order everyone to double check. All of this however, is unnoficial. As head of intelligence, he has a cover identity as being a semi-popular internet figure known to show camping and hunting tips for the new and experienced alike.
Chairman of the State Security Bureau Flon: Was the head of Justice before being promoted. The official reason she was told for her promotion was that the current Chairmen found her flexibility refreshing and that what they wanted was someone who applied the spirit of the law, not its letters. The truth is that she was causing too many problems in her old position but was still competent and above all, popular enough that it would cause a fuss if she was removed from power by the SIB. Valarak decided to play a bold game and promote her, giving the people false hope for justice while in doing so, giving her so much responsibilities that she'd be too busy to micromanage everything and cause too many problems while placing someone playing more by the rule as head of justice in the meantime. She's a good natured person, kind of suspicious about foreigners as after all she effectively controls the army, but someone willing to ask questions first and shoot later.
Ambassador Solon: When dealing with outsiders, the Chairmen, Valarak especially, wanted someone who could be sympathetic to foreigners, empathetic to their demands, but that would always unquestioningly follow orders and place the State first. Finding complete zealots that would never think of letting slip an information to the strangers is easy enough, but one that was likable? Valarak think he found that person in Solon and indeed, he is likable, representing the ideal The State advocates: He is someone who's a diplomat because of his passion, not because of duty or desire for advancement, someone that wants to know the culture of others and understand them. If you do what you like, you won't work a single day in your life, right? More than an ambassador, Solon is a symbol of what his people is... or what the state wants people to think they are.
Homeworld: -Veluka Prime: Still recovering from the War to End All Wars when the state was formed. It is becoming something beautiful as the State wants it to stand as a beacon of its own greatness to its future colonial empire, but everything has a... garden feel to it. Everything there has been tempered by the hands of Velukan and nature has lost all rights. Notable Planets and Sizes -Nova Veluka (Medium Inhabitable): A moon around a gas giant that can sustain life. It's a lush jungle, with its water frequently disturbed by tidal movements from other moons and the giant itself it orbits around. Weak gravity allows for life to develop in all sizes here and a dense atmosphere rich in oxygen makes things grow quite fast.
-Grion (Colonize-able Dead World): There was a colony there but The State tries to sweep it under the rug since it had been a colony of a previous nation that took 10 painful years to be eliminated by nuclear bombardment, all the while it sent anti-state broadcast on Veluka. Now it might actually become something productive, with maybe a little nuclear power on the ice caps to make the barren grey wasteland more inhabitable.
System Creator Choices -1 Red Sun -1 Large Gas Giant -1 Medium Inhabitable -1 Colonize-able Dead World -1 Large uninhabitable world cluster (6) -1 Large Asteroid Clusters
For the record, I would like to use everyone's race who is willing for my organization. Please let me know if you are or are not. Also, I need to know what the stuff for making an org is.
More than willing! Freedom seekers and all that. Then again, this would make you a target, but my people are oh so open to pay third parties to get advantages. Expect both deals and backstabs to be made, how does that sound?
Alias/Abbreviation: Velukans (Used only by foreigners)
Nation Specie{s}: Velukans
Specie{s} Description: Velukans are rather tall, male averaging at 6ft6 and females at 6ft4, have 3 fingers to manipulate objects and a hardened exoskeleton. While said exoskeleton provides no defense against modern weaponry, it gives some resistance to blunt trauma, although enough force can cause internal damages as well. Mainly, they have increased resistance to the natural radiation of their home world. Historically they are a violent species that saw their history marked by violent conflicts, both ethnic and ideological. The formation of 'The State' only recently forced their nature to be softened. Instead they place their passion in sports and other entertainments.
National Symbol/Flag/Emblem: To say that something is 'your' flag means that it could NOT be your flag as well. The State is as flagless as it is nameless.
Nation Population: Veluka Prime: 5.2 Billion
-8 Large Space Stations -11 'Retaliation' Ships (Quick, never kept at the same place, specializing in Mutually Assured Destruction of enemy population.) -9 'Police' Ships (Medium (Or small, for major nations) ship with a vast range of detection equipment and boarding crew to deal with piracy, illegal mining and smuggling. 'Police' ships officially but still with military equipment.)
Nation Focus: Intelligence
Weapons: Biological Weapons Shield Type: Force Fields Armor Type: Grounded Armor Bonus Type: Intelligence (Intercepting and decryption of information as well as protecting their own data)
Nation Government: Communistic Total Surveillance State
Nation Economy: Socialist Private small scale service industry and entertainment industry, general rule being 'anything that employs over 100 people belongs to the state'. Prices of physical goods are controlled by the state and intellectual property becomes public after 5 years of creation. All basic goods are provided for and any non-physical good is free (A book on a computer is free, a paper copy is not), the currency is 'Merit', which is allocated to people by the state depending on their work and achievements. Prices are state controlled in function of availability and renewability of the material used in the creation of an item, with personal computer devices such as smartphones, TVs, PCs and game consoles being kept artificially low along with sports equipment. The aim is to keep the population contempt, forever.
Nation Military Description: Officially the State has no army, only an excessively well equipped and trained police force with artillery, tanks, bombers, you name it. It is mainly focused on domestic concerns as it has been less than a century since the State was formed and some still don't agree with its existence. But even thinking about that is a thought crime that can send you to re-education. The State's domestic forces are supplemented by an enormous and almost all seeing intelligence service, the SIB (State Intelligence Bureau), three letters to make anyone shiver in fear when heard, because just talking about it is sure to put you on some watch list (If you weren't in one already). The SIB also works on censorship and disinformation and has been known not to hesitate to dupe the citizens of the State with elaborate hoaxes just to deceive foreign intelligence. False flag operations, entire military operations that don't exist, starting revolutions only to purge certain places from possibly hostile elements. People fear just hearing about a possible plot against the government and shun anyone openly speaking out against it as a possible SIB agent provocateur.
As for its foreign doctrine, the state is trying to do a military buildup to protect itself against possible minor nation aggression, but mainly fears the larger powers and thus places its resources on Weapons of Mass Destruction aimed at killing civilians. They never acknowledge that they do so however and their incredible intelligence machine makes it impossible to prove, but others know that if the State is attacked, it will do its best to cause as much damage as it can before going down. Deterrence is key.
Nation Culture Description: The State is formed of many people of many cultures, but these days it is changing, as the State promotes historical revisionism, where everything from before it was bad and barbaric, as well as the creation of a single, globalized identity. From the outside, the average state citizen is a somewhat self centered individual that on average works only 20 hours a week but that thus has a vast amount of time for his hobbies, such as art or making stuff others will find entertaining. Indeed, it is impossible to turn a restaurant into a large chain or if you invent something, sell it to become incredibly rich as the communistic nature of the State prevents those things. Simply, Velukans do what they do because they find personal enjoyment in it, or revel in the popularity doing what they do give them.
The life of a Velukan is something to be envied by many other civilizations, as if you judge a society by how it treats its poor, Velukans live in a society where poverty is non existent, as is war and crime. But it comes at a cost. The state is seen, and justifiably so, as a psychotic totalitarian dictatorship suffering from paranoia at the highest level by its own citizens. You can either live in these comfortable boundaries or suddenly disappear, become a non person that never even existed.
Their views on outside is either an arrogant one, where they look with distain at how primitive anyone who is forced to work for a living is, or with superiority, where the outsiders are a bloody annoyance that should be crushed like the vermin that it is so the precious resources the universe has to offer can be used to better the lives of people who actually matter, Velukan lives! The first is what the state endorses, to see the State as the beacon of civilization. The second, while not actively being worked against, is an old legacy of the true Velukan nature: Warriors, that fight each other and anything else for glory, success, resources and to reduce lesser beings to nothing more than slavery. There are of course, those that look with envy at the freedom to be had outside, but those... they don't speak.
Nation Economy Description: Private small scale service industry and entertainment industry, general rule being 'anything that employs over 100 people belongs to the state'. Prices of physical goods are controlled by the state and intellectual property becomes public after 5 years of creation. All basic goods are provided for and any non-physical good is free (A book on a computer is free, a paper copy is not), the currency is 'Merit', which is allocated to people by the state depending on their work and achievements. Prices are state controlled in function of availability and renewability of the material used in the creation of an item, with personal computer devices such as smartphones, TVs, PCs and game consoles being kept artificially low along with sports equipment. The aim is to keep the population contempt, forever.
National Figures: Chairman of the State Projects Bureau Kritarch: While not the leader officially (The State has no leader), Kritarch controls what the manpower and resources of the State will build as a future for its people and any bureau that doesn't have the Project's Bureau on its side will have a hard time to do anything. He was chosen for this post as a compromise, because he genuinely doesn't care about what actually is and should be the state. He's a sociopath, unable to feel empathy for his fellow Velukans, which means he has no moral quandary doing the most terrible of things, and has been a keen supporter of the idea of deterrence, although he doesn't hide to his colleagues that he would honestly rather just kill everything else in the universe so they can't ever make a problem.
Chairman of the State Intelligence Bureau Valarak: Author of the so called 'Triangle of Paranoia' (The SIB is divided in 3, the first part is the humongous organization watching over citizens and foreigners alike while the 2 others watch over the first to weed out corruption and... on each other, to make sure the watchmen themselves don't become corrupt), he's the most senior Chairman around and despite having a say in anyone that climbs the rank and being able to watch anyone's life 24/7, still doesn't trust anyone but rare individuals. Makes it his personal duty that if everyone agrees on something to order everyone to double check. All of this however, is unnoficial. As head of intelligence, he has a cover identity as being a semi-popular internet figure known to show camping and hunting tips for the new and experienced alike.
Chairman of the State Security Bureau Flon: Was the head of Justice before being promoted. The official reason she was told for her promotion was that the current Chairmen found her flexibility refreshing and that what they wanted was someone who applied the spirit of the law, not its letters. The truth is that she was causing too many problems in her old position but was still competent and above all, popular enough that it would cause a fuss if she was removed from power by the SIB. Valarak decided to play a bold game and promote her, giving the people false hope for justice while in doing so, giving her so much responsibilities that she'd be too busy to micromanage everything and cause too many problems while placing someone playing more by the rule as head of justice in the meantime. She's a good natured person, kind of suspicious about foreigners as after all she effectively controls the army, but someone willing to ask questions first and shoot later.
Ambassador Solon: When dealing with outsiders, the Chairmen, Valarak especially, wanted someone who could be sympathetic to foreigners, empathetic to their demands, but that would always unquestioningly follow orders and place the State first. Finding complete zealots that would never think of letting slip an information to the strangers is easy enough, but one that was likable? Valarak think he found that person in Solon and indeed, he is likable, representing the ideal The State advocates: He is someone who's a diplomat because of his passion, not because of duty or desire for advancement, someone that wants to know the culture of others and understand them. If you do what you like, you won't work a single day in your life, right? More than an ambassador, Solon is a symbol of what his people is... or what the state wants people to think they are.
Homeworld: -Veluka Prime: Still recovering from the War to End All Wars when the state was formed. It is becoming something beautiful as the State wants it to stand as a beacon of its own greatness to its future colonial empire, but everything has a... garden feel to it. Everything there has been tempered by the hands of Velukan and nature has lost all rights. Notable Planets and Sizes -Nova Veluka (Medium Inhabitable): A moon around a gas giant that can sustain life. It's a lush jungle, with its water frequently disturbed by tidal movements from other moons and the giant itself it orbits around. Weak gravity allows for life to develop in all sizes here and a dense atmosphere rich in oxygen makes things grow quite fast.
-Grion (Colonize-able Dead World): There was a colony there but The State tries to sweep it under the rug since it had been a colony of a previous nation that took 10 painful years to be eliminated by nuclear bombardment, all the while it sent anti-state broadcast on Veluka. Now it might actually become something productive, with maybe a little nuclear power on the ice caps to make the barren grey wasteland more inhabitable.
System Creator Choices -1 Red Sun -1 Large Gas Giant -1 Medium Inhabitable -1 Colonize-able Dead World -1 Large uninhabitable world cluster (6) -1 Large Asteroid Clusters
Simbel was silent for a moment, resisting the urge to crack a joke about how everyone wanted him to spend the night with them. Still, his heart said 'Turian' (Or at least his groin did) but his mind leaned toward Asari, if only because not only didn't she not menace to kill him, but she also proposed herself to host him despite their Turian friend saying she could handle it. That indicated at least that she didn't mind his company rather than doing so by obligation, no?
Looking at Chriseis, he bowed, his left hand on his heart and his robotic hand in the air. "Although I find it hard to refuse to spend the night with a Turian, you seem to value your intimacy and be shall I say... defensive about it? I think I'll retire for the night with our Asari colleague here." That was a good pick too, actually. "Still, it's only about half pass eight, do you guys really plan on ending the evening there? I know it's not Omega, but there has got to be something we can do for fun and get to know each other, no? First thing first. Can I pay you both something to drink? As Chryseis aptly nodded I don't have a rent to pay, so I should buy the first round, unless of course you can suggest a better place than this joint."
He hoped for a positive answer to his suggestion, but he didn't count on it too much. He was... different from them. While they seemed to place value on skill above all, he placed it on character, to make sure they wouldn't run away or leave him for dead to get his share of the contract if anything happened. It was ironical considering how he himself tended to be a cowardly vermin that didn't want to risk his life for that of others, but they didn't know that, nor did they need to. Ultimately, he assumed everyone in this line of work was skilled, if they were still alive after a few missions. But were they trustworthy? Another thing completely.
"I notice how you do not adress the problem of my payment." No matter the amount, no way he'd let himself fall behind on the final amount. That meant either he went on foot, or they found themselves a gunship pilot willing to work for less than grunts like them and be involved with bloodpack and with the authorities, if anyone fucked up. Still, he was smart enough to know that the two of them were of the same breed, people who's life were work. Simbel didn't like his job, what he did like was the paycheck, which he could use to drink alcohol with hookers. "Among other things." He thus answered, not giving any more detail than that.
Still, Simbel couldn't help but laugh gleefully at the extra bit his turian friend added. "Oh Keelah, I'm more worried about cutting myself on how edgy you are, but hey, maybe there's hope for you, you did just invite two complete strangers into your home. But please! If it's not too inconvenient take the whole hand, I have a discount if it's an entire limb." He brought up his metal arm, not to show it but to change some settings. He wasn't worried about anyone observing, no one had Quarian in their translators these days, he himself spoke Turian at the moment. He simply set up a new behavioral pattern for his lib and alert levels for his VI, for despite how casually he acted he didn't trust these people one bit. He was confident in his odds, people always underestimated him, but most specifically underestimated how massive his shields really were and how accurately his arm allowed him to shot.
TruckKun
Lunamaria Hawke
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GoldForest
