We're The New Kids On The Block
So Who Else Lives Here?
We've talked a lot so far about how Humanity left earth and joined galactic society. It's been a fair amount of naval-gazing about our own species, so what about the other species and cultures that make up that society?
Well, it's a big galaxy out there, so let's focus on some of Humanity's closest allies. We've mentioned a few alien figures before such as Xenick Vraifith, the tour guide that made first contact with the refugee humans, and Skargugh Y'Bolor, the anthropologist who made sure that those refugee humans didn't end up getting left to die. So let's start with them.
Xenick was an Iodeneon. Gasesous lifeforms that walk amongst us using high-tech pressure suits. Due to these suits, the look of Iodeneons can vary wildly as customising suits is their most popular form of self-expression. Outside of their suits, Iodeneons appear as clouds of multi-coloured gas with small flashes of light arcing inside them. Since they don't possess any way to verbally communicate, these flashes of light are their language. The suits translate these into verbal speech but Iodeneons still like to use these lights to communicate amongst each other. Iodeneons were one of the first species to acheive space travel, although they were heavily hampered by their inability to exist within standard atmospheric pressure (approximately 14.2 PSI). They were one of the most prominent cultures amongst the Galactic Federation of yore and were one of the few that managed to maintain their presence in the new Galactic Alliance after the war, despite siding against the Alliance.
Skargugh was a Tyndarean, a huge, hulking, reptilian species that evolved on the high gravity world of Lycor. Tyndareans usually stand around two to two and a half metres tall and sport a secondary set of limbs undernearth their articulated arms. These limbs are short, muscular tentacles that help stabilise them in higher gravity environments and can act as nearly prehensile fingers when in lower gravity environments. Their evolution has granted them enormous strength by the standards of most species. Although ostensibly warlike, they have a history of diffusing large scale situations through diplomacy, indulging in the occasional tea-time negotiations with the ceremonial fine-bone china. Failing that, their massive military might is a force to be reckoned with. Tyndarean culture is often very straightforward, with many cultures considering them to be very surface level. However, this is not true, it just means that when a Tyndarean is saying something to you, they usually mean it. During the war, despite a Tyndarean sitting on the council of the Galactic Federation, a large contingent of Tyndareans broke with their government and supported the new Galactic Alliance. Tyndareans are now one of the three species that sit on the council of the Galactic Alliance, alongside Humans and Phanalines.
However, the galaxy is teeming with life! Some have made it to the stars, some haven't. It's one of the core communal beliefs amongst all space-faring species that those who haven't yet acheived space flight will get there on their own & any interference could cause irreperable harm. This was the reason that, despite being fully aware of their impending doom, the old Galactic Federation didn't rescue the humans left on Old Earth.
If you want to hear more about our alien friends and foes, please listen to this episode of the Auld Alliance Podcast !
Living In The Stars
If you can't provide your own gravity, store bought is fine
While the galaxy is full of habitable planets and moons, some people just can't be satisfied with terrestrial life. Luckily for these people, there are many artificial ways to survive out in the big black that don't involve living out of the back of a spaceship like the many nomadic crews that travel the galaxy.
Back in the bad old days of space exploration, when Humanity was still working out the finer points of gunpowder, there was a great deal of worry over how to power the ever expanding industries, colonies, and galactic trade that made the interstellar community possible. One of the earliest solutions to this was something, in human terms, called a Dyson Sphere. Very simply, it involved enclosing a star in an artificial shell. This shell would then absorb the nuclear energy of the star to create energy cells that would power the galactic economy. In order to facilitate the creation of these cells, housing had to be created on the very surface of the Dyson Spheres. The problem is that Dyson Spheres were both dangerous to build and would massively increase a star's rate of decay, leading them to burn out. Thankfully, guardrails were put in place that only allowed Dyson Spheres to be built around stars that did not have live planets depending on them. Today, when other methods of power generation have overtaken the spheres, a great deal of them lie destitute around now dead stars. The old workers and their descendents have clung to the surface of the spheres in shanty towns and techno-ghettos. With the power plants shut down and industry drying up, many of the residents have turned to scrapping, piracy, and many other unsavory practices. However, since the Alliance are not willing to invest in relocating the populace or dismantling the Dyson Spheres, the poulation live largely under their own rule which attracts those who might want to subvert the law.
However, Dyson Spheres are not the only large scale artificial residences in the galaxy. Most people who want to have a permanent residence but for one reason or another can't or won't live directly on a planet can be found on space stations. These are large platforms that orbit planets, some of which are habitable but need the extra space to house its population or exist as a relic of when the population first colonised the planet. Sometimes space stations have evolved out of continous spaceport use or long-term docked ships but a number of them were originally created to allow for scientific research or undertake mining operations. Some of these stations are still at work on their original mission, but a good number of them have been converted from their original purposes and become long term living and working spaces. On any station you care to dock at, you'll usually find a huge melting pot of different cultures and species, all carving out little spaces on the station to call their own. All sorts of folks come from space stations and are often referred to as "spacers". They're not so much a culture as a common background.
Finally, there is one last way that life can be enjoyed beyond the terrestrial. For the rich and powerful, Rings exist. "Rings" is the colloquial name given to colossal orbital bands of artifical ground that encircle a planet. They are named "Rings" because they are comprised of an extremely long but comparitvely thin strip of habitable land that loops around a planet, rotating to provide its own gravity. These mega-structures are so ruinously expensive that they are exclusively the domain of the wealthy. Most Rings tend to be situated around visually beautiful but utterly hostile planets in order to provide a striking view for its inhabitants. There are indeed almost no Rings around inhabited worlds, space stations being the go-to for satellite populations.The only exceptions to the idea of Rings being situated around inhospitable planets are the Band of Kings around the galactic capital of Chala, a Ring dedicated to housing the upper crust of galactic government, and the permanent observation Ring around the forest planet of Decidua. However, with Decidua having a permanent blockade preventing unauthorised access, this definition might be stretched a little.
All these methods of extra-terrestrial habitation will come in handy when the Old Earth Restoration Movement (OERM) start really cleaning up the planet. You can't house workers in toxic smog clouds under lethal UV rays after all. Space OSHA would have a field day...
New Terra and Shangri-La
A New Home for a New Humanity
Despite a rocky start, the refugee humans had found life amongst the stars. While the rest of the wayward Arks were being recovered, there was still one question hanging over everything:
Where was Humanity going to go now?
A specieis can't drift in space forever, so the Federation allocated Humanity a recently terraformed planet that was yet to be given a designation and had been intended for large-scale farming operations. After a slight translation error of the word "Earth", the planet was named "New Terra". Grateful for the new home, Humanity quickly established itself on the planet and its twin moons, Elias and Dorje, as fast as possible using borrowed technology from other Federation species to create viable settlements both above and below ground. These settlements were far from the mega-cities that now cover the surface of New Terra but they were far superior to the ramshackle underground cities that they left behind on Earth. Geographically speaking, New Terra is surprisingly similar to Old Earth, although it is slightly more massive due to a difference in geological makeup. Broad mountain ranges and deep, dark, oceans cover the surface alongside massive forests and a single enormous sweeping arid desert. While a great deal of the forestry is now gone, the desert has been converted into the largest single urban landscape in known space, with the exception of the galactic capital of Chala. The mountains and oceans of New Terra still boast incredible natural beauty. Humanity were originally settled on a continent on the southern hemisphere but expanded quickly. There is still a small city on the original settlement site that houses a great deal of the governmental buildings for New Terra. It was in those halls where the idea for the Galactic Alliance was forged and the decision to enact the Shattering of Phlegethon was made.
However, as the population began to multiply, it became apparent that there was not going to be enough space to support both the burgeoning human population and the necessary infrastructure to provide for all without creating incredible inequality. Luckily enough, there was another habitable planet in the same system. So, with the assistance of the Iodeneons and the Tyndareans, Humanity embarked on its first ever large-scale terraforming project. This was also the first major project where Humanity was not only the beneficiary, but also an equal participant. Drawing on Old Earth mythology, they named this new planet "Shangri-La". Paying homage to the paradise of its nameesake, Shangri-La is a truly beautiful world. Enormous sweeping grasslands cover a great deal of its northern hemisphere while a broad equator and tropical zone allows for a large band of pleasantly habitable area. The beauty of Shangri-La has inspired an incredible wave of artists and poets, both human and alien, into a movement that is largely referred to as "Parisidism". While it is a hotbed of art and cultural fusion, Shangri-La does still operate as its own distinct political entity from New Terra, despite having been originally intended only to house its overflow. This became especially true after the end of the Federation War where Shangri-La seceded from the fledgling Alliance under protest against the actions that humanity took during the war, specifically the Shattering of Phlegethon.
As the twin planets developed, distinct cultures began to emerge. As the initial location settled by a refugee people desperate to survive, New Terra tended towards industrialisation, pragmatism, and trying to carry on the pioneer spirit of their ancestors. Hence New Terra became hailed as the capital of Humanity. Having been established later, Shangri-La tended towards more liberal, cosmopolitan views and such became a great hub of arts and culture emphasising supporting its people. A popular saying amongst the people of Shangri-La is that "The Arks were built by many." meaning that teamwork is the key to success.
A Yoghurt on a Racetrack
How did the professionals do it?
While the Arks were a fantastic achievement in human engineering, compared to the rest of the ships flying around the galaxy, humanity might as well have been trying to pilot a yoghurt around a race track.
So, how were the rest of the galaxy already moving beyond the speed of light and establishing a galactic community?
Firstly, they had worked out a way to pull the wool over the eyes of the laws of physics. Secondly, they were professionals. The basis for galactic travel is entirely down to the invention of the Trebuchet Gates, and later the Starlight Drive and the far less elegant Ishimura Cosmic Drive. Astrophysicists in every species that have even approached space travel have butted up against the issues that an object with mass cannot travel at or beyond the speed of light. Albert Einstein was the human most often credited with working this out, although other species tend to prefer their own scientific celebrities. The first method for undercutting this particular immutable law of the universe was through the creation of the Trebuchet Gates.
Very simply, a Trebuchet Gate allows you to instantly travel from one point in the universe to another by opening a wormhole and firing you through it at incredible speeds. The theory basically went that, if you just made the space you had to cross smaller, you didn't actually need to achieve light speed. Like a great many inventions, this one was sadly before its time. Since there was no other way to traverse vast quantities of space, there was no way to build a gate at your destination since you would already have to have been there. This meant that some hapless crew of explorers had to travel the old-fashioned way to assemble a gate so that others could cross the same space in an instant later on. Think of it like this: if you launch a plane from a runway, you need to know that there's another runway at the other end or things will go horribly wrong.
Nevertheless, they allowed for further exploration of your local star system but weren't able to take you further.
The real leap forwards in galactic travel was the invention of the Starlight Drive. It is a miracle of modern science that still baffles the engineers who build and work on them. The problem with moving an object with mass faster than light is that you need more than infinite energy to do so. So, what the Starlight Drive does is that it converts an entire ship into a light-like substance (colloquially known as Starlight). This substance, according to all available physical tests, has a negative mass. Therefore, a ship can engage this drive and then accelerate well beyond light speed. However, this process is still quite energy intensive, so the vast majority of commercially available Starlight Drives need a period of 12 to 24 hours to cooldown between uses, depending on the model. Now, there was a way to cross vast swathes of distance without having to have already visited your destination. So many crews were ecstatic to discover this new wonder meant that explorers could strike out into the unknown, build a Trebuchet Gate, and then allow many others to follow in the blink of an eye. These networks of Trebuchet Gates all across the galaxy linked dozens of cultures together that would eventually become the first Galactic Federation, but that's a story for another time.
Of course, Starlight Drives came with their own set of restrictions. The largest ever Starlight capable ship at the time, the MSV Ishimura, embarked on its maiden voyage (1900 C.E) and engaged its Starlight Drive. The entire ship was torn apart as it only partially turned into Starlight. There were no survivors. Turned out that Starlight Drives had solved the mass issue, but could only cover a certain volume of a ship. So, the Ishimura Cosmic Drive was developed to move larger ships at the speed of light. The downsides of these drives compared to their Starlight cousins are considerable, but they are able to move enormous spacecrafts across the vast reaches of space. They require an average of approximately 56 hours of charge time before they can be used, run on expensive and single use fuel rods rather than cycling power, and have been known to adversely affect the health of those who work on them for too long. Some have referred to one such linked condition as "Turbo Cancer". There are a host of other issues but the Ishimura Cosmic Drive is currently the only viable way of moving a huge spaceship at light speed. Most people opt to either run these ships through a Trebuchet Gate or just build smaller ships and avoid them all together.
It is currently forbidden for any spacefaring civilisation to spread this technology to any culture that has yet to achieve space flight, fearing the destruction that a sudden technological acceleration could bring to an unprepared species.
First Contact
And an exchange of pleasantries
In our last post, you learned all about humanity’s journey to the stars and their dire need for escape. We know you’re dying to discover the fate of the 21st Ark that carried Dhondup and Hodge but that must remain a mystery for now! The next best thing we have is the fate of 20th Ark, whose crew was relieved to have a near head-on collision. And no, it’s not because they were trying to commit interstellar insurance fraud.
When abandoning a dying planet, the last thing they were probably expecting was to almost crash into an alien tour group taking selfies with the moons of Jupiter. First contact is meant for diplomats and emissaries, not an interstellar tour guide who had only taken on this group in order to be able to pay off debts gained from backroom snail racing. From the humans’ perspective, they began to hear strange, garbled, words coming from their radio. Many of them compared it to a trout trying to do improvisational jazz. From the alien perspective, they had been coming to see a few interesting Martian deserts, the great red storm on Jupiter, and observe a little blue marble that had been flooded by its dominant species. In fact, the tour guide, a gaseous Iodeneon named Xenick Vraifith, was midway through explaining to their tour group that the Federation had recently rescinded their observation crews around Earth. They believed that the human race were on the road to extinction and would therefore never achieve space travel. It was just as they were launching into a description of the local planet systems that the pilot of the safari ship alerted them to the incoming behemoth careening away from Earth.
A choice faced Xenick: Did they try and sneak around the surprise ship? Or would they open communication? Ignorant that the ship was coming directly from Earth’s surface, Xenick decided to open communication in order to give them a piece of his mind. The safari ship’s logs reveal that Xenick's exact words were: "Who the f*ck gave you a ship license, you blind sack of slag?! Get out of the f*cking lanes and learn how to f*cking fly you incompetent Sh*twipe!"
Thankfully, due to a delay on Xenick’s universal translator, the humans only perceived this outpouring of profanity as a series of beeps and whistles. They responded, very politely with a greeting and identification in as many languages as were shared by the refugees. Luckily for the humans, the observation crews that had been orbiting their planet1, had taken samples of as many human languages as possible and loaded them into the universal translation matrix2. Once Xenick's aging system managed to recognise the human language, they were able to communicate. Thus the first words humanity heard from an alien being were "We apologise for the delay, we are currently trying to navigate around some form of primitive space junk."
Thankfully, they were not dismissed so easily and, as luck would have it, one of the members of the safari tour was a retired Tyndarean xenoanthropologist by the name of Skargugh Y'Bolor. He realised that they were communicating with what was thought to be a soon-to-be-extinct species and, after getting over his giddiness, began the proper protocol to initiate First Contact. How the itinerant tour guide ended up locked in the ship's toilet after suggesting brushing off the humans and leaving them to die so they can finish the tour on time, is unknown.
And the rest, as they say, is history.
1Serious fact! Both the Federation and the Alliance have rigorously enforced the law that states no-one is allowed to interfere in the development of worlds that have not achieved space travel yet.
2Fun fact! This universal translation matrix is more colloquially known as Polylinguo, or occasionally Polly for short.
Ad Astra, Per Felix
To the Stars with Luck
Earth, the cradle of humanity, suffered greatly at the hands of its dominant species. The polar ice caps melted, flooding great swathes of the planet's surface. Those humans that survived the initial flooding fled to the highest mountain ranges or burrowed deep underground. Eventually, survivalist civilisations formed within the Himalayas and in subterranean caverns and shelters created by the collapsing governments of the world. Some brave or mad souls defied the deadly solar radiation to sail the seas, providing trade and information to the disparate settlements. However, we are not here to talk about those intrepid adventurers that would become the stuff of myth and legends. Today, we are talking about how humanity slipped the surly bonds of earth to touch the face of God. Or, at least, the face of the closest friendly alien species.
In the years following the Great Flood, humanity faced total extinction. Those within the mountains and caverns had been struggling to grow crops, without success. Food was becoming scarce as the great stockpiles that had supplied many of the colonies were running dangerously slim. However, humanity still held hope as a flickering torch against the darkness. Scavengers continued to search the ruins of their destroyed world to find any scrap of usable technology. Many thought the search was in vain, until the day that a young scavenger by the name of Dorje Dhondup came across a lost research lab while diving into what had once been Murmansk. There she recovered, amongst other things, the incomplete schematics for a starship. Not fully understanding what she had found, but knowing that it could be important, she brought it to one of the great settlements and there found a scientist by the name of Elias Hodge. Expecting Hodge to simply buy the schematics and associated scavenged tech, Dorje was surprised when Hodge took her under his wing. Together the two began to devise a plan that would save all of humanity.
They would establish communication between the various surviving holdouts to pool their resources and construct as many of these starships as possible. Under the banner of hope, they came together to follow Elias and Dorje’s plan. So, the Ark project was begun. However, significant difficulties presented themselves throughout the construction. Most notably was that the schematics Dorje had recovered did not include a method of interstellar navigation. Unwilling to abandon their last chance, it was decided that the solution would be to fire off the arks in as many directions as possible. The hope being that they encountered a place that would allow them to survive. The second barrier that stood in humanity’s way was the dire lack of resources, allowing only 21 arks to be created. They would be unable to contain the entirety of the human survivors, leaving thousands stranded on the dying planet. Unable to face the choice of who would get the chance to survive amongst the stars and who would most likely die on Earth, Elias left the decision to the remaining civic leaders. Reports greatly differ as to what Dorje's opinions were on the matter, some casting her as a great pragmatist while others claim that she displayed incredible empathy for those left behind, openly weeping at the prospect of abandoning them.
The day came for the arks to be launched. This is where Elias Hodge famously inscribed the words "Ad Astra, Per Felix" onto the hull of the ark that would take him and Dorje to the stars. The meaning of this phrase has been lost to time in the current galactic era, but it is a common occurrence to see it painted on human ships. It is also quoted ritualistically by the Church of Terranism, which regards both Elias Hodge and Dorje Dhondup as spiritual, almost deific, figures. It is currently known what befell 20 of the arks: 4 facing total annihilation, while a further 10 managed to achieve planetfall and establish rudimentary colonies before they were found, and the final 6 surviving arks converting themselves into space stations, attempting to harvest the planets that they orbited.
However, the fate of the 21st ark, the ark that carried Elias and Dorje, remains a mystery.
Return of the Space Capitalists!
We're knee deep in the SSHI-
We know that our beloved Sully and Jeffries are travelling the cosmos, but how did they end up there? Well, like so many things in life, it's a job. Both of them, although coming from very different walks of life, have ended up working for Slegthor and Sons Heavy Industries, or SSHI.
Founded some time in the last two centuries, sources vary on precise dates due to conflicting calendars, by the recently imigrated Hegenus Slegthor as a very traditional terrestrial shipping company on Trivax, the shipping juggernaut that is SSHI has spread its reach across the entire galaxy. Currently headed by the grandson of the original owner, Wirkum Slegthor, the company boasts a grand array of clients, from tiny Outer Rim & Frontier Colonies to some of the most lucrative contracts within Alliance space. If you need something moved across the galaxy, chances are your best option is to turn to Slegthor. In fact, in a lot of places, SSHI is the only choice! Hyper-agressive competitive strategies, as well as enough money to make The Alliance either turn a blind eye or even help them, has allowed the Slegthor family to muscle out the competition and set themselves up as an almost galactic monopoly.
The Slegthor family have often gone on record saying "Doesn't matter what it is or how far it needs to go, we'll get it there." Never mentioning how many corners they might cut in order to do so. They have a longstanding habit of buying up just about anything with at least one working thruster and a hold you can starfish in and calling it a transport. As Sully will tell you, they long ago made the financial decision that it was cheaper to bribe the inspectors than actually fix up the ships they buy. This means that you'll probably get your package, it just might arrive in a rusty pile of scrap or a flaming ball of hot slag.
Despite everyone knowing that Slegthor have a detatchment of ships dedicated to shifting illicit goods for select clients, the Slegthor family have declined comment on the rumours that they have been facilitating galactic smuggling. However, based on a number of reports from inside the company, people usually don't know that they're transporting illegal goods. One member of the crew will be tasked with dispensing the illicit goods once the ship reaches its destination and the rest of the crew will be none the wiser! Such a practice often makes SSHI ships targets for loot-hungry pirates trying for an easy score on an oblivious mule. Despite this, Slegthor still refuses to outfit their ships with defences or provide armed escorts. More cost saving measures that don't put life in the equation.
Slegthor commands the most expansive commercial fleet in the galaxy, operating craft from River class ships all the way up to the enormous Ocean class dreadnought that contains their company headquarters: Hegenus' Delight. The Slegthor family are also reported to privately own a large number of luxury ships. Partly due to the expansion of their fleet, Slegthor and Sons Heavy Industry (SSHI) are one of the largest civillian employers around, from warehouse workers, to transporters to customs agents.
The Galactic Alliance
We're in 2538 baby!
The Alliance aren’t the first pan-galactic government, but they are the one in power during the period of I Thought There’d be Stars... Led by the Humans of the newly settled New Terra, the Alliance took control of the galaxy after a short but brutal war that culminated in the complete destruction of the planet Phlegethon. After witnessing this incredible display of destructive force, the old government surrendered and allowed the Alliance to take control. The Alliance immediately swore that they would never deploy the weapon that shattered Phlegethon ever again, although rumour says that they still have a stockpile hidden away somewhere.
Shortly after they took control, the Humans of the Alliance started looking back to their roots. With Earth Prime having been left utterly uninhabitable after the events of the 21st and 22nd centuries, the only people who could really speak about the planet’s beauty or its history were those who had stories passed down through their families from the first settlers who were aboard the Arks. So, in order to recapture a sense of cultural heritage and gain some goodwill from the Human population at large, the Alliance began funding the Old Earth Renewal Movement. An organisation whose purpose was to return to Earth Prime and begin restoring it to its former glory by undoing the massive environmental damage done by their ancestors.
This wasn’t the Alliance’s only policy after they took power. Under the previous government, the Cybernetic population had begun a revolt that was incited by a rogue computer virus that sought out Cybernetics and drove them to try and destroy any organic life they came across. The old government managed to supress the revolt and supposedly eradicated the virus.
However, not long after the Alliance took control, Cybernetic dissidents began appearing who protested the Alliance’s brutal takeover strategy and their lack of empathy for the displaced Rivangian people, who were the natives of the recently destroyed planet Phlegethon. The Alliance blamed this unrest on a resurgence of the virus that had caused the original Cybernetic revolt. Taking swift action to silence those protesting, the Alliance claimed that the virus was spreading through the galaxy-wide information network, LegionNet. This network was sustained by a series of interconnected giga-computers, each the size of a small moon in their own right. LegionNet connected the entire galaxy together, similar to the internet on Earth Prime but on a galactic scale. The Alliance sought out each of these giga-computers and, one by one, destroyed all of them, severing the galaxy from LegionNet and leaving the Alliance in complete control of galactic communications. Although, some say that one survived, taken out of orbit and hidden by its operators who continue to broadcast free information as a pirate station. Completing this cruel stroke of authoritarian brutality, the Alliance declared that no Cybernetic was safe from the virus and so all of them should be destroyed on sight.
Those few Cybernetics that have survived this purge live in hiding, concealing their nature from any organics they come across.