No, not the show, though now that I think of it the though of a -race- of giant flying figureheads is kind of neat.
The sort of map I mean, however, is my first computerized draft of the Spiral. Alas, I have no webspace and as such cannot post it here, but anyone interested is welcome to send me a message and I'll attach it to my reply.
Now. The Spice.
The Arrakeen Templates all show both a true paucity of surface water and a natural oxygen cycle that shows a fine disregard for this.
These two are linked deeply, having to do with the presence (in the equatorial regions, usually) of an order of life that operates on a somewhat different chemical basis from the rest of the galaxy. They fuel their metabolisms by the absorbtion, not of -visible- light, as conventional plants, but -infrared-, which, on cooler Templates, restricts them to the equatorial regions.
In regions warm enough to support them, they absorb all available water and crowd out any competing form.
The most sophisticated species are roughly equivalent in intelligence and construction to a cross between a milipede and a flatworm. These are, by no coincidence, the most common and successful examples of their type.
Typically, they will be ~10 cm across and less than three meters long - the sandworms of Arrakis proper are unique in more than just the effects of their spice.
All known types of sandworms excrete some form of spice, although in most cases (Kharak, Dragonsway, Terra Nova) it is a vilolently toxic hallucinogen. Kessel spice, also called glitterstim, is a hallucinogen with esp enhancing properties, and the True Spice, Melange, lacks hallucinogenic potential but serves as both an antiagiatic and, in large quantities, an esp enhancer of far greater reliability and potential than the more common glitterstim.
Blessed be.
Nathan Baxter
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According to Nathan's story-fragment, the Centauri had a border with Juraii. Admittedly, this is a two-dimensional map, rather than 3, but by this map, with the (rather larger than Centauri) Humanx in the way, it seems somewhat unlikely. Admittedly, this is the circa ten years map. I suppose the Centauri *could* have carved their way through the Mimbari in the meantime, but...
Fibula
It's all in the details
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The first being that the Free Worlds League should border the People's Republic of Haven, and the Draconis Combine should be up against the Juraiian Empire.
Okay, say that the AAnn are Rimward of the Mimbari, and that both are Coreward of the Vorlons (who are correctly placed). The Centauri should be spinward of the Vorlons, and the Narn (at the height of their power) would be wedged in between the Humanx, the Centauri, and the Jurai.
Yeah, that works.
Blessed be.
Nathan Baxter
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>1) what's the circle around the Darkvoid represent?
The Shadow Zone. Lexx fans, this is your playground.
>2)who's the galactic power between Haven and the Void?
The Anderman Empire (major military and industrial power, with a ruling family as effective as the Davions and as crazy as the Liaos)? Silesia (well, okay, that's mostly by courtesy, but still)? Manticore (itty bitty, but rich as all fuck)?
>3)when the next version of the map is made, can you add an indicator as to which way is spinward?
Good idea.
>4) is it just me or does Jurai look like it has an I at the begining?
It's not just you. Either I goofed, or Paint defaults to a rather confusing font.
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Right, I've done a little cut & paste with Paint and made the changes to the Centauri Sector and the Inner Sphere (it's a little rough but it'll do for now - I hope). I've also tweaked the J of Jurai so it's more clear and placed an arrow at the bottom of the map to indicate spin.
Shouldn't the core have a few semipermanent mining stations? Also, with enough shielding/antiradiation armor (lots and lots and lots) it makes a great place for a pirate hangout.
Missing portions of the Manticore wormgate cluster: midgaard to the galactic north of the Vorlons
Sigma Draconis in the Commonwealth
Pheonix, humanx settlement in the non-aligned worlds
Looking at placement, significant wormgates are a serious influence on politics/econ/warfare on a galactic scale. Smaller/shorter/less reliable/internal to one empire/secret/undiscovered wormgates can probably be added almost arbitrarily but if it crosses the spiral and can reliably take a significant battlegroup, it's probably something we should be setting in stone now, and marking clearly on the map..
Where exactly are the toward stars? Supposedly, Gregor is in the part of the Anderman empire that borders them.
Does the league of non-aligned worlds have a cluster, or are they pretty much just everywhere?
I have no idea what the deal is going to be with the Darkvoid - we don't even want to begin thinking about that until well into Walls of Troy (though if we're making the chapter names public, I think we should go for one with a bit more recognition) but...I seriously doubt they will be bothered by the Core. In essence, then, their first strike could be anywhere - and the first signs that they exist will probably be miners just disappearing without a trace or a signal. It happens from time to time.
Wow. For such a serious prize, arrakis is damn close to the border. Now we know that Golgotha will be attacked by a major armada - and even if it isn't conquered or destroyed utterly, it will be seriously weakened - You don't just depend on stationary defense for that sort of thing, and that's a lot of tonnage of ship for anyone to lose all at once. So...The Taiidani empire is going to collapse. Any large-scale Empire depends on the fact that it can crush the first n pockets of open rebellion to ensure that there's never as many as n+1. However, the news that Golgotha is under serious threat/has been hit will hit the empire like wildfire, at which point, everyone who might have considered rebelling any time within the next 20 years will decide to take their chance right then. Nobody has the power to deal with a situation of that magnitude - especially not with any staying power when it disrupts taxes and trade so thoroughly. The Taidaani are going to come apart at the seams even if Golgotha doesn't fall - and the space around arrakis will run red with exploding ships as a ridiculous number of different groups try to take the richest prize in existance. Makes a good location for the Darkvoid to stage one of its many initial assaults, and they'll almost certainly take it. At that point, the Guild of Navigators is having serious issues. They're still the fastest organized group of couriers in existance short of a wormhole, in a time when couriers are more and more valuable, but their prime sponsers are either annhilated utterly or in the process of being destroyed from within, and every jump they make takes a bit more of the now finite supply of Spice.
This is the point at which I see some of them diving without a parachute and trying to grok HyperII with less and less spice - or none at all. All will go mad. Some will go mad in ways that still let them pilot however - for the moment. Also, at this point, the Navigators are running a serious tightrope with frantically trying to regain some form of stability in a decaying universe (in spite of painfully limited resources) while at the same time bluffing absolutely everyone. Navigators up to that point survived because the Taiidani promised to hunt down and kill anyone who harmed one, and their friends, and their family, and their household pets. For the first time in centuries, the Taiidani can't follow through - but it will take a while for the info to spread.
At the same time, Haven's outlying sectors are getting pulled thinner and thinner by the war with Manticore - which means that the trek into Trevor's star is really quite easy - and if you can warp in on top of the wormhole, you can silence it and hit Manticore without giving warning.
If the Darkvoid is willing to use pawns, convincing the Havenites to hit Basilisk a few hours before the assault on Trevor's star ought to be fairly easy...
For that matter, as was pointed out, deep strikes are ridiculously easy, as long as you're willing to have your ships where they cannot defend your home. Think about it.
Trevor's star is also pretty close to Atreus - and while the Battletech types may not have much in the way of ship-to-ship combat, their ground troops are superb. Manticore or have might well make book off of a temporary exchange of favors along those lines, as would whichever house they were helping out.
Where the heck are thos teleporting robot things?
Hokay. out of steam.
Happy time period to you.
Fibula
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>Shouldn't the core have a few semipermanent mining stations? Also, with enough shielding/antiradiation armor (lots and lots and lots) it makes a great place for a pirate hangout.
Oh, certainly, but none of them are particularly significant on a galactic scale, and hence, are not on the map.
>Looking at placement, significant wormgates are a serious influence on politics/econ/warfare on a galactic scale. Smaller/shorter/less reliable/internal to one empire/secret/undiscovered wormgates can probably be added almost arbitrarily but if it crosses the spiral and can reliably take a significant battlegroup, it's probably something we should be setting in stone now, and marking clearly on the map..
Lessee... Okay. Lets say that most wormhole junctions are much smaller than Manticore. Other junctions... Hm. Erewhon, Midgaard (a trinary system - the Manticoran terminus exits in association with one star, and the Midgaard Junction proper with another), Naboo... There are almost certainly others, but those are the ones I'm going to ask for.
The Guild has historically made numerous attempts to buy, blackmail, conquer or otherwise control all of the various major junctions, but have yet to be successful.
>Where exactly are the toward stars? Supposedly, Gregor is in the part of the Anderman empire that borders them.
Saying "The Toward Stars" is kind of like saying "The Outer Rim" - they're both disorganized, poorly explored areas at the edge of the Galaxy. The Toward Stars are the inner edge - they're -toward- the Deep Galactic Core.
>Does the league of non-aligned worlds have a cluster, or are they pretty much just everywhere?
They're scattered pretty randomly through the Centauri Sector.
>I have no idea what the deal is going to be with the Darkvoid -
Honestly? I'm not really sure. The Darkvoid was made by the Galactic Leyline to contain something evil and tremendously powerful... the idea for which was pulled from Alan Dean Foster.
This is slightly handicapping, because Foster hasn't yet gotten around to actually -explaining- what his cosmic menace really -is-.
My alternate thought had been that most societies worship different gods... but fear the -same- Devil...
And Guess Where He Is. <VEG>
>we don't even want to begin thinking about that until well into Walls of Troy (though if we're making the chapter names public, I think we should go for one with a bit more recognition)
I like that song. But if you can come up with a better title, I'd love to hear it...
>but...I seriously doubt they will be bothered by the Core. In essence, then, their first strike could be anywhere - and the first signs that they exist will probably be miners just disappearing without a trace or a signal. It happens from time to time.
Like on Dragonsway.
>Wow. For such a serious prize, arrakis is damn close to the border.
This is compensated for mostly by the fact that only the Jurai and the Vorlons could really hope to match the Empire in a straight fight. Attacking, or even -raiding- Arrakis, would bring the full might of the Taiidani down on your head - _instantly_.
>Now we know that Golgotha will be attacked by a major armada - and even if it isn't conquered or destroyed utterly, it will be seriously weakened - You don't just depend on stationary defense for that sort of thing, and that's a lot of tonnage of ship for anyone to lose all at once. So...The Taiidani empire is going to collapse. Any large-scale Empire depends on the fact that it can crush the first n pockets of open rebellion to ensure that there's never as many as n+1. However, the news that Golgotha is under serious threat/has been hit will hit the empire like wildfire, at which point, everyone who might have considered rebelling any time within the next 20 years will decide to take their chance right then. Nobody has the power to deal with a situation of that magnitude - especially not with any staying power when it disrupts taxes and trade so thoroughly. The Taidaani are going to come apart at the seams even if Golgotha doesn't fall - and the space around arrakis will run red with exploding ships as a ridiculous number of different groups try to take the richest prize in existance. Makes a good location for the Darkvoid to stage one of its many initial assaults, and they'll almost certainly take it.
Okay. First the Cylons attack. Then the Invid. Then the Exiles.
Then, Lionstone panics. She declares martial law for the duration, triples taxes, and issues orders to turn Virimonde (which produces more than three quarters of the food used by the Empire's various armed forces and other non-self-sufficient installations) from a fuedal pastoral-agricultural world into a mechanized, planet-sized factory farm. Naturally, the populace resists.
That minor rebellion is crushed, utterly, and Lionstone -televises the whole thing-, on the theory that it will scare the rest of the Empire into submission.
It works, mostly. A few planets, though, go into rebellions of various types and severity. The worst of these is Alderaan, which essentially goes into a planetwide sit down strike.
We all know what happens to Alderaan. Lionstone televises -that- too.
And then, every neighborhood of every city of every world of the Empire rises up in outrage and just goes -berserk-.
And the Taiidani Empire just does not have enough troops to deal with that. The imperial fleet proper spreads out to try to do just that, but the House navies (very few of which are jump capable) have all been loaded onto Heighliners and shipped to Arrakis to try to hold off the Cylons and the Zentradi are trying and failing to stop the Invid, so there just aren't enough ships to be everywhere they need to be...
And -then- the Exiles hit Golgotha in support of the local efforts at rebellion. Because even if half the Empire goes, Golgotha is the center of all the com and C&C nets.
>At that point, the Guild of Navigators is having serious issues. They're still the fastest organized group of couriers in existance short of a wormhole, in a time when couriers are more and more valuable, but their prime sponsers are either annhilated utterly or in the process of being destroyed from within, and every jump they make takes a bit more of the now finite supply of Spice.
The Guild has a tremendous credit line. By this point, they'll have hired every space-based mercenary unit in the galaxy and shipped them in to try and protect Arrakis from the Cylons.
>This is the point at which I see some of them diving without a parachute and trying to grok HyperII with less and less spice - or none at all. All will go mad. Some will go mad in ways that still let them pilot however - for the moment. Also, at this point, the Navigators are running a serious tightrope with frantically trying to regain some form of stability in a decaying universe (in spite of painfully limited resources) while at the same time bluffing absolutely everyone. Navigators up to that point survived because the Taiidani promised to hunt down and kill anyone who harmed one, and their friends, and their family, and their household pets. For the first time in centuries, the Taiidani can't follow through - but it will take a while for the info to spread.
Yep. Oh, and a point worth considering at this point...
The Guild -is- Comstar.
>At the same time, Haven's outlying sectors are getting pulled thinner and thinner by the war with Manticore - which means that the trek into Trevor's star is really quite easy - and if you can warp in on top of the wormhole, you can silence it and hit Manticore without giving warning.
>If the Darkvoid is willing to use pawns, convincing the Havenites to hit Basilisk a few hours before the assault on Trevor's star ought to be fairly easy...
It would be, I think, but I doubt that Manticore would be high on its hit list...
>For that matter, as was pointed out, deep strikes are ridiculously easy, as long as you're willing to have your ships where they cannot defend your home. Think about it.
Oh, yes...
>Trevor's star is also pretty close to Atreus - and while the Battletech types may not have much in the way of ship-to-ship combat, their ground troops are superb. Manticore or have might well make book off of a temporary exchange of favors along those lines, as would whichever house they were helping out.
Oh goodness. That's a thought... Manticoran and Havenite intrigue in the Successor States. Tech sales, assassinations...
We really need to find someone more familiar with that era of BT, who can develope things there...
The other area that really needs work, to my mind, is the Juraiian Empire. I mean, what do we know about its culture, its worlds, its people? Zip.
>Where the heck are thos teleporting robot things?
Think of them as a hybrid of the Cybrids from Earthsiege, the Borg, Skynet, the Machines from The Matrix, and just about every other computerised nasty in fiction.
They have a smallish empire, actually, Rimward of the Shadow Zone - between the Silesia and the Taiidani.
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>Looking at placement, significant wormgates are a serious influence on politics/econ/warfare on a galactic scale. Smaller/shorter/less reliable/internal to one empire/secret/undiscovered wormgates can probably be added almost arbitrarily but if it crosses the spiral and can reliably take a significant battlegroup, it's probably something we should be setting in stone now, and marking clearly on the map..
> Lessee... Okay. Lets say that most wormhole
> junctions are much smaller than Manticore. Other
> junctions... Hm. Erewhon, Midgaard (a trinary
> system - the Manticoran terminus exits in
> association with one star, and the Midgaard Junction
> proper with another), Naboo... There are almost
> certainly others, but those are the ones I'm going
> to ask for.
The Caprician Junction is probably the smallest Junction around in terms of reach: although it does have an impressive number of terminii, they are all within a sphere less than 200 light years across.
>Does the league of non-aligned worlds have a cluster, or are they pretty much just everywhere?
> They're scattered pretty randomly through the
> Centauri Sector.
Mostly in the gaps between the major power although there would actually be interpenetration IIRC.
> Okay. First the Cylons attack. Then the Invid. Then
> the Exiles.
Hmm, where and when do the Achuultani arrive? And might there be a connection between the Star League and the Fourth Empire/Imperium?
> Yep. Oh, and a point worth considering at this
> point...
>
> The Guild -is- Comstar.
Oho!
>At the same time, Haven's outlying sectors are getting pulled thinner and thinner by the war with Manticore - which means that the trek into Trevor's star is really quite easy - and if you can warp in on top of the wormhole, you can silence it and hit Manticore without giving warning.
>Trevor's star is also pretty close to Atreus - and while the Battletech types may not have much in the way of ship-to-ship combat, their ground troops are superb. Manticore or have might well make book off of a temporary exchange of favors along those lines, as would whichever house they were helping out.
> Oh goodness. That's a thought... Manticoran and
> Havenite intrigue in the Successor States. Tech
> sales, assassinations...
As I recall, the Manticorans had a major shortage of personnel, particularly when they had to garrison s many captured Haven worlds. Hiring up Inner Sphere Mercs would help this, although doing this in the middle of a major war would be challenging.
It occurs to me that any one of the successor states is probably LARGER than Haven in terms of planets right now. Heck with 400+ planets each (that's over 2000 inhabited worlds in the Inner Sphere) they're probably a very large market for the Manticorans so Peep commerce raiders would be as likely there as in Silesia.
> We really need to find someone more familiar with
> that era of BT, who can develop things there...
I'm reasonably familiar with the era and I have most of the original, late-80s, sourcebooks so what I don't know I can find out. Nueva Terra probably has some ties so I might develop something. If anyone has questions, I'm glad to help (I have both sourcebooks for the Fourth Succession War and all of the relevant novels, for example).
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>>>Does the league of non-aligned worlds have a cluster, or are they pretty much just everywhere?
>> They're scattered pretty randomly through the
>> Centauri Sector.
>Mostly in the gaps between the major power although there would actually be interpenetration IIRC.
Yep. Brakir, for instance, is well within the "borders" of the Commonwealth.
>> Okay. First the Cylons attack. Then the Invid. Then
>> the Exiles.
>Hmm, where and when do the Achuultani arrive? And might there be a connection between the Star League and the Fourth Empire/Imperium?
The Achuultanni hit the Coreward part of the Juraiian Empire about the same time that the Cylons hit the Taiidani. Of course, the first thing the Great Visit does is sweep straight outward, which pretty much occupies both.
>> The Guild -is- Comstar.
>Oho!
It makes sense, I think. Admittedly, they don't have much in common in and of themselves, but their roles in plot and politics are almost identical.
>> Oh goodness. That's a thought... Manticoran and
>> Havenite intrigue in the Successor States. Tech
>> sales, assassinations...
>As I recall, the Manticorans had a major shortage of personnel, particularly when they had to garrison s many captured Haven worlds. Hiring up Inner Sphere Mercs would help this, although doing this in the middle of a major war would be challenging.
The one thing that Manticore never has much trouble with is moolah. They've got the coin, they've got the need...
But my point of interest is that it has been bloody obvious to anyone who keeps his head out of his ass that the Manticoran/Havenite war was coming for several decades now. Canon shows that Manticore has been shopping for allies and support for at least a decade - read Honor of the Queen if you don't believe me. I can easily see them trying to butter up the Successor States, either one on one or as a group. And with Manticore getting involved in spherian politics, and being quite willing to sell tech for, say, concessions...
Things Will Be Different.
>It occurs to me that any one of the successor states is probably LARGER than Haven in terms of planets right now. Heck with 400+ planets each (that's over 2000 inhabited worlds in the Inner Sphere) they're probably a very large market for the Manticorans so Peep commerce raiders would be as likely there as in Silesia.
The Inner Sphere is without a doubt the most heavily settled part of the galaxy. The Taiidani Empire only has about 300 worlds, and two thirds of those have less than ten million inhabitants.
>> We really need to find someone more familiar with
>> that era of BT, who can develop things there...
>I'm reasonably familiar with the era and I have most of the original, late-80s, sourcebooks so what I don't know I can find out. Nueva Terra probably has some ties so I might develop something. If anyone has questions, I'm glad to help (I have both sourcebooks for the Fourth Succession War and all of the relevant novels, for example).
Oh. Oh. I believe my eyes just turned green...
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>Hmm, where and when do the Achuultani arrive? And might there be a connection between the Star League and the Fourth Empire/Imperium?
> The Achuultanni hit the Coreward part of the
> Juraiian Empire about the same time that the Cylons
> hit the Taiidani. Of course, the first thing the
> Great Visit does is sweep straight outward, which
> pretty much occupies both.
Okay, so the Caprician cluster is in no imminent danger from -them- (Not that their own three-way pissing match and the Andermanni aren't enough even before the 4th SW and Haven-Manticore wars spill over.
>> Oh goodness. That's a thought... Manticoran and
>> Havenite intrigue in the Successor States. Tech
>> sales, assassinations...
> But my point of interest is that it has been bloody
> obvious to anyone who keeps his head out of his ass
> that the Manticoran/Havenite war was coming for
> several decades now. Canon shows that Manticore has
> been shopping for allies and support for at least a
> decade - read Honor of the Queen if you don't
> believe me. I can easily see them trying to butter
> up the Successor States, either one on one or as a #
> group. And with Manticore getting involved in
> spherian politics, and being quite willing to sell
> tech for, say, concessions...
> The Inner Sphere is without a doubt the most heavily
> settled part of the galaxy. The Taiidani Empire only
> has about 300 worlds, and two thirds of those have
> less than ten million inhabitants.
I suspect that Jurai, and the most of the Haven Secotr would be seriously worried about the possiblity of the area ever actually unifying. Of course, it's not like they've been subtly destabilising the area or anything like that... they'd be delighted to have an expansionist regeime in charge of the largest unified area of the entre galaxy right on their borders. And in Act IV that might well look likely, no?
>> We really need to find someone more familiar with
>> that era of BT, who can develop things there...
>I'm reasonably familiar with the era and I have most of the original, late-80s, sourcebooks so what I don't know I can find out. Nueva Terra probably has some ties so I might develop something. If anyone has questions, I'm glad to help (I have both sourcebooks for the Fourth Succession War and all of the relevant novels, for example).
> Oh. Oh. I believe my eyes just turned green...
Well the Star League sourcebook goes for about £40, that's $60 I think. And first you gotta FIND a copy. Believe me, I paid for 'em (and I've only got photocpies of House Marik.
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>Okay, so the Caprician cluster is in no imminent danger from -them- (Not that their own three-way pissing match and the Andermanni aren't enough even before the 4th SW and Haven-Manticore wars spill over.
The Andermani are always looking for an opportunity to expand, yes. Caprice is pretty close to the Cylon invasion zone, though.
>> The Inner Sphere is without a doubt the most heavily
>> settled part of the galaxy. The Taiidani Empire only
>> has about 300 worlds, and two thirds of those have
>> less than ten million inhabitants.
>I suspect that Jurai, and the most of the Haven Sector would be seriously worried about the possiblity of the area ever actually unifying. Of course, it's not like they've been subtly destabilising the area or anything like that... they'd be delighted to have an expansionist regeime in charge of the largest unified area of the entre galaxy right on their borders. And in Act IV that might well look likely, no?
As of Act I, Jurai is concerned about the Vorlons and what they want, and that's -it-. They feel about as threatened by, well, anyone as the US feels threatened by Lichtenstein.
As of Act II, they're concerned about not getting swamped by the Achuultanni. For reference, Jurai has about a million hulls. Treeships do -everything- in Jurai - the difference between an empty cargo transport and a combat cruiser is that the cruiser belongs to a serving member of the military.
For comparison, the Protectors of the Nest can field about fifty million front line hulls, twenty million viceroys, and five hundred thousand command ships...
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We are starting, then, in one of the universes where Ryo-oh-ki was unique and created by Washuu? Given that, I'm thinking that one of her first "R&D, anything that might help" moves would be creating a mate or few (perhaps as many as a dozen) and taking advantage of some of the "rabbit" aspects. One of the virtues of tree-ships is that they don't require much in the way of personnel - even the capital ships don't need more people than those neccessary to stock the bridge. Juraii has plenty of people, but very few trained. Cabbits get around that by being able to cover on instinct anything that their pilot doesn't know. They require only one crew, and they reproduce and mature at ridiculous rates if given sufficient available metals (say, the twisted hulks of defeated Accultani after the pirates have been through looking for interesting stuff).
Now, they aren't cap ships by any stretch, but they are amazingly powerful for the size and crew requirements, and can regrow and reconstruct themselves from just about any damage, given a human-livable environment. They work both as seriously beefed fighters and excellent scouts, and given enough time to breed up a base population, you can give one to pretty much anyone who volunteers. Too bad anything combat-capable over 1000 Ktons can swat them in job lots. (Who needs shields or armor when we can dodge? *Blat*. Oh.)
It's also worth noting that the Juraii themselves don't reproduce at any great rate. It's that whole "about the same family size, greatly increased lifespan" thing.
The Havenites probably *have* been destabilizing things, subtly. They're reasonably good at that.
There may well be some under-the-table old manty tech in the hands of the Inner Sphere. It's precisely the sort of thing that would be produced secretly and held in reserve. The beginnings of the war will probably look pretty identical - it's just that *everyone* will have one or more aces in the hole. Note that there won't be any new manty tech - Manticore jealously defends its tech superiority over Haven, and is not about to let anyone turn around and sell tech back to their enemies.
Pickets: this would be exactly the sort of thing for which the Inner Sphere would be no use whatsoever. The pickets are ships and orbital emplacements designed to ward off assault from space. Note that if you win the space battle, the scrubbiest cap ship in the world still has enough raw power to cow/annhilate (insert planet here). The mechs are far more useful for infiltration writ large. Anything big enough to take them out easily is orbital in nature, and would do serious collateral damage. You go for the stealth insertion (jumpships are slow, clunky, and nearly defenseless on a galactic scale, but they have amazingly good stealth. They don't teleport - it just looks that way when they decloak) and make hit-and-runs. In order to take you out, the enemy first has to find you, and then either has to orbital strike the area (usually not the plan) or send down pinnaces and marines to go toe to toe with mechs.
As for everyone fearing the same devil...interesting thought. Clearly not the case in our own history. (The Greeks, for example, had no recognizable devil-figure.) Implications: Each planet will by its nature have some fairly solid godflows for the "devil". These will, if uncontrolled, develop their own deities. Either before or after the subdeities arrive, the Darkvoid comes to take his cut. The flows aren't going to go out through hyperI, might work in hyperII and could do just about anything in HyperIII.
Perhaps the Thing in the center of the Darkvoid is an extrusion of a HyperIII creature or HyperIII itself? It would get the cthuloid star-creature ancient alien evil come to consume us all reference.
On the other hand, I rather like the idea of having some local satanist's chapter turning out temporarily on the side of the angels because the utter annhilation of all life would interfere with their attempts to corrupt the innocent. (ref Redneck's Dark Victory future history for In Nomine.)
Walls of Troy. Sounds like a nifty song. (I, sadly, have never heard it.) Almost no name recognition. As for suggestions - that part of my creativity is in shutdown mode, but "Blood and Fire" gets the simplicity vote.
What is the deal with the exiles? Also, how in the heck id the Cylons and Galactica's brood end up both fighting the Taiidani? Finally, given the quantity of raw power defending Arrakis, how are the Cylons, of all people, even remotely a threat? Last I checked, their tech was nonstellar, and their numbers were only impressive in comparison to their prey. Admittedly, I don't know my battlestar background all that well, but...
I'm sorry Cap'n. I cannae write nae more. :)
sleeeeep calls.
Be well, all.
Fibula
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I get the feeling I should recognise the Anderman Empire from somewhere but I can't quite recall the source.
Is there a Galaxy Police organization operating in Juraian space? (perhaps merged with the 3WA)
Although the thought of Mihoshi anywhere within 3 lightcenturies of a warzone is disturbing. 8P
If they exist, the Galaxy Police could add their ships to support the treeships (how much use they'd be is a separate matter), though the 3WA is probably spread too thin covering smaller problems that the bigboys (Jurai, Taidanii, ect) can't be bothered with at that point.
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>I get the feeling I should recognise the Anderman Empire from somewhere but I can't quite recall the source.
They're from Honor Harrington.
>Is there a Galaxy Police organization operating in Juraian space? (perhaps merged with the 3WA)
Sorta like ComStar and the Spacing Guild, yeah.
>Although the thought of Mihoshi anywhere within 3 lightcenturies of a warzone is disturbing. 8P
TM was set at a very trying point in Officer Kuramitsu's life. She's feeling much better now.
>If they exist, the Galaxy Police could add their ships to support the treeships (how much use they'd be is a separate matter), though the 3WA is probably spread too thin covering smaller problems that the bigboys (Jurai, Taiidani, ect) can't be bothered with at that point.
Yep. My other though had been that something might have happened to break the Galactic Council, and thus dissolve both the 3WA and the primary stabilizing influence in galactic politics.
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- The GalCouncil dissolves. This doesn't mean , though, that its individual parts decay. The 3WA, for example, only answers to the rest of the Council at the upper levels. It's still a highly organized, highly competent spaceforce, with people who have a certain moral bent. They have about a month or two of operating capital on hand at any time, and can get by on raw loyalty for another month or two after that. The galaxy desperately needs them, and they aren't going to go away, if they can avoid it, but they need to find someone who can afford them. That's right - the galaxy's avatars of Justice and Law are going to the highest bidder.
- The Galcouncil does not dissolve. On the other hand, some of its member nations aren't so secure, and a few of them cant even remotely afford their dues - so they get paid in kind a lot more, and the enforcement's arm gets a lot of bizarre and eclectic abilities even as its belt is tightened severely. The Humanx continue to donate brains. The Taiidani, economically crushed, donate espers. (That's right. Espers. The Humanx do it, after all. What difference does a metal shell make? they get some rather interesting moral reactions out of that one, but except for the diplomats on the scene at the time, none of them care.) The Juraiian's bite the bullet and donate the contents of their external security databases up to clearance level Omega-Alpha-Bravo, along with a dozen male Tree seeds. They won't be ships for centuries, but that doesn't mean they'll be useless until then. Remember, essentially *all* Juraiian tech is based, somehow or other, on the Trees. The Vorlons look at the econ sheets, nod inscruitably, and, for the first time ever, pay entirely in cash, covering what will turn out to be over half of the next years severely stripped operating capital.
Done.
Fibula
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