Willy Vereb

Per Aspera Ad Astra - Sci-Fi Fantasy NRP

@KeyguypersonMind bumping in with the Abh? Adding another layer to the confusion sounds fun.
BTW, I haven't seen you on the chatzy room as of late.

Sol Fugit

@WrongEndoftheRainbowMan, no idea why people forgot this game.
Anyways, I don't remember if I asked this before. Are Martians allowed? Kind of a War of the Worlds lite style. It could be fun, IMO.
But I can see why if you don't.

Per Aspera Ad Astra - Sci-Fi Fantasy NRP

@WilsonTurnerPosted.
Let's say you guys broke all preconceptions the crew had about meeting aliens.

Per Aspera Ad Astra - Sci-Fi Fantasy NRP

Captain's Log, Stardate 3266.724

On its maiden voyage the FSS-1701 Enterprise performed the first manned long range Farcast sequence known in history with the distance over a thousand lightyears. Yet what we discovered at the other side of the hyperspace window surpassed all our expectations. Our mission is to find alien life but we never quite imagined to meet a fully fledged civilization. As we made our observations the Enterprise's crew accidentally became the first humans to make contact with an alien race.

"Fascinating."
Noted his first officer, Spike "Spock" Sanders, apparently not an elf cosplayer. They were picking up signs of a thriving interplanetary civilization right on their arrival. Calling it fascinating is selling their discovery too low. Finding an alien civilization would be the top discovery of the decade. No, perhaps even the entire century! As such it was no surprise the freshly arrived and confused crew of the Enterprise failed to notice the arrival of the fleet, up till the proximity sensors were ringing their alert.
"Captain, our sensors indicate multiple large-scale hi-energy objects approaching."
"I think we know that all too well by now, Hae-gi Kirscher. Put them on the screen."
Responded Kirk back as the center of the main holographic display flickered for a while then the 3D image of the approaching ships had suddenly appeared.
"Warships"
Indeed, while neither Kirk nor his father ever experienced war as an officer in training he received extensive lessons in history. The incoming warships bore passing resemblance to late 27th century vessels from the Alpha-Proxima Conflict. While appearing to be ancient by design their energy output are unquestionably high, primitive equipment or not purpose-built weapons are dangerous and with that kind of power it could even threaten the Enterprise.If they could just use their scanners like they did on the planet they could clearly evaluate the details and combat potential of the enemy. But chances were high they could detect this and take it as an act of aggression. If Kirk were in their shoes he definitely would. That being said these aliens broke his expectations twice over. First, the unexpected success of their mission to find a new civilization. Second being their apparent lower level of development. Over a millennia ago back in the mid 20th century Nikolai Kardashev predicted that if humanity may meet aliens they could be thousands if not millions of years older than us. While that was an ancient theory up till now impossible to confirm it was adopted as a sorts of "common sense". Thus watching the first alien civilization to be apparently behind Mankind in terms of technology was a strange experience. Their technology appeared to be crude with the very least the old barbaric custom of building warships being prevalent among them. If anything Kirk almost felt like he traveled back a couple centuries in time. Preliminary reports on the surface of the fourth planet also show infrastructure similar to old Earth culture. Yet all these would be rendered irrelevant when the crew received the aliens message.

Contacting Amber Starship, repeat, Contacting Amber Starship.

Identify and stand down; decrease power curves and thrusters. Repeat, Identify and stand down, decrease power curves and thrusters.

You are illegally trespassing into Storm Carapace System Space, repeat, you are illegally trespassing into Storm Carapace System Space.

You are required to identify and stand down, or an incident will occur. Repeat, you are required to identify and stand down, or an incident will occur.

Respond to this message reasonably and appropriately, or you will be fired upon. End message.

The message was sent in a device akin to Q-Comms, apparently theirs is sophisticated enough for general use. That was the least shocking fact about all this. What surprised the crew the most the aliens responded to them in English. Well, at least one version of the message did. They received supposedly the same message in dozens of different languages at once. These could be perhaps just the various dialects spoken within their civilization but if Spock's guess is right they might've just received pieces of the language to other civilizations the so-called Storm Carapace had made contact with. Which begged the question again, how did they learn English? Granted, they spoke in an ancient and sorts of broken dialect of English but regardless the fact remains. Were they involved with humanity in the past? Preliminary analysis shows they are certainly not little gray people in flying saucers. So what was going on? This curiosity and the fact he didn't wish to leave a bad impression on the first aliens he met motivated Kirk to respond to their message rather than running away.

The Enterprise stopped dead within an instant, a feat thanks to their advanced impulse technology. All propulsion systems went offline, albeit subtly remaining on standby. On the other hand energy output was redirected into the shield complex. Though operating in idle power output below battle readiness by cutting off energy consumption they managed to reinforce the shields to viable levels. The aliens asked him to power down but such a request is impossible between complete strangers. Following these actionsKirk contacted the command ship using the just reverse-engineered means of their Q-Comms to hail them.
"To the Storm Carapace ship. This is Tiberius J. Kirk, captain of the FSS-1701 Enterprise. We are peaceful explorers belonging to the Star Federation of Mankind. We have come in peace. Our mission is to seek out signs of foreign civilizations and establish relations with them. I repeat we've come in peace. Although if we must we're fully capable of defending ourselves."
Kirk responded while sending it in two versions. One is the original while the other was based on the Storm Carapace's understanding of their English. Better to avoid any sorts of confusion. In his message Kirk highlighted their non-hostile intentions and implied their unknowing innocence at suddenly breaching their borders. On the other hand he kept up a strong front to deter these aliens from freely pillaging Starfleet property. If they happen to want his ship Kirk let them know he's unwilling to give it up without a good fight.

Per Aspera Ad Astra - Sci-Fi Fantasy NRP

@mattmanganonSadly I can't help with that.
My civ is just discovering that there are alien races out there.

Per Aspera Ad Astra - Sci-Fi Fantasy NRP

@mattmanganonSure, what or how you need my help with?

Per Aspera Ad Astra - Sci-Fi Fantasy NRP

@duck55223Since this just came up I try asking you for confirmation.
Is my Federation the only source of humans (barring WrongEnd's alternate universe ones)? Or are there others in particular those who speak English?

If not then I propose the following explanation. Humans sent out probes and signals ever since the 20th century in hopes to contact aliens.
Yet the origin of these could be never be traced and was perhaps even assumed to be from a long gone civilization. Anyways it did effect the culture of other races somewhat which both explains why their culture is similar to humanity as well as why Wilson's civ knew about humans.
It'd be overall just a sub-plot and handwave of sorts not intended to influence the game much beyond giving an explanation.
Are you fine with this?
If anything it could spice up conversations with my civ.

Per Aspera Ad Astra - Sci-Fi Fantasy NRP

@WilsonTurnerHmm, I might be missing something but how and why do they know English?
I suppose there are humans or at least their equivalents in other space empires but I am sure I did miss something.
Anyways, this is the complete opposite how Starfleet or even the crew of the Enterprise imagined things would go.

Lemme list them:

1.) Meeting aliens straight on approach (even Kirk had low expectations on finding alien civilizations, to say at least)

2.) Quick scan confirming they are less advanced and "barbaric" (due to having warships, among others). Given the age of the universe or the galaxy the Federation expected the opposite if they ever meet aliens. Kardashev, eat your heart out!

3.) Holy cow they are hailing us in English! where did they learn it?

@Willy Vereb Hey, would you be good with an Abh battleship dropping out of warp above the Moon and asking for some helium-3? They can pay. They've got tech, fissionable material, Rissan slaves, and probably some precious metals to scrape off of railings.

@Keyguyperson

I think you'd be forced out of warp before reaching the edge of either Federation controlled star system. Hyperspace/warp/whatever was only discovered recently but a decade or two are a lot for the accelerated development of the Federation, especially if they have a new subject to work with.

Anyways, the point of the Federation not meeting aliens yet is exactly due to their remoteness so randomly bumping into them is almost impossible. Then again it could be hilarious to making first contact straight after the Enterprise left for doing that elsewhere. Still, I support Wilson's idea to let the Abh join the fun out in the Raudona Saulé system. Some say three is a crowd but personally I was always in the "more the merrier" party.

Per Aspera Ad Astra - Sci-Fi Fantasy NRP

Sorry for short post, very busy atm

@darkwolf687

Given my post is only half as long as yours and half of that is a big starship picture I take that as a sarcasm.
Granted, I wrote it also when I had only limited time to spare for the post. And I am generally unsatisfied with the lack of details in mine.

Time's a Changing - a Steampunk NRP set in a Psuedo-Earth

<Snipped quote by Willy Vereb>

I know he said he regretted blocking your idea so harshly, but I dunno if he changed his overall stance on the issue. I never knew about the jets, and while you could easily be right, we just gotta stay with that steampunk a e s t h e t i c, so I personally would say no to jet engines. Right now, at least. As time moves on, we might eventually reach that point.

@Keyguyperson

Calling for aesthetics would feel like a buzzword made to fit one's own subjective view and pretend there's some truth in it.
Aesthetics is the same bad excuse we have for fantasy gun bans and other ridiculous actions because the person in charge would suffer from limited imagination.
I am talking in general terms here so don't worry I don't really accuse anybody. Just disagree with limiting creativity only because that doesn't fit one's narrowed down idea on the genre.

Aliens in steampunk. You can make a case against it, even if it isn't exactly right. Arguing that a piece of technology which was long available by the chosen time period should not be used due to arbitrary reasons? That's pretty hard to justify. Especially when introducing things which were never even thought about back then.
As I said about the only way steam engines can propel aircraft if they are the steam equivalent of turboprops.