Mankind spread rapidly under the guidance of SPACE. The worlds settled were so diverse and scattered, however, that many of them began to develop divergent cultures. From the disciplined and reserved Ice Planet colonists to the hedonistic and self-indulgent settlers of the paradise world Island, the only link many of them retained with galactic civilization was occasional contact with representatives of SPACE. This primarily took the form of tax collectors, requiring a tithe of resources and wealth (and in some cases, personnel) in order that the organization could maintain its expensive fleet.
It was not long until grumbling and discontent began to build, with many colonists saying that SPACE's mission had effectively been accomplished, and that they no longer were a necessary part of humanity. Naturally, SPACE objected to any attempts to withhold the tithe, and responded with force. Ice Planet began a guerrilla war against SPACE Marine invaders, while Island and Emm both fell rather quickly.
One planet, perpetually shrouded in dark clouds, did not provoke a response despite their great discontent with SPACE's increasinly heavy-handed oversight. Rather than attempt to withhold the tithe and invite an invasion, the citizens of this planet decided to begin construction of a fleet of their own in secret. Shadow, as their world was called, was the ideal location for such a project, as the heavy and pervasive cloud cover interfered with SPACE scanning devices and allowed for significant construction projects to be completed before the first reports that they had even been begun reached SPACE's intelligence apparatus.
The Shadow fleet was assisted by a few developments on the planet. The first was a major brikonite find. The second was the development of an energy shielding system capable of defeating several hits from any known weaponry. Combined with the skill and dedication of the ship crews these new shields allowed the Shadow fleet to meet SPACE on equal footing.
When the flagship of the new fleet, the Tricorn, finally launched and joined its fellows in low orbit where the perpetual clouds disguised them, Shadows' leadership issued an ultimatum to SPACE. They declared themselves to be independent, and forbade any SPACE incursions into their territory on pain of war. SPACE immediately mustered a response, sending a fleet to subdue the wayward planet. They moved into high orbit and began indescriminate bombardment, firing blindly through the clouds. Suddenly Tricorn and its fellows rose out of the roiling blackness and engaged the SPACE ships. The surprise counterattack left SPACE reeling. Their fleet suffered heavy casualties, and only a handful of damaged survivors managed to limp away.
Shadow moved quickly, sending salvage teams to recover the remains of the destroyed ships, repairing them and adapting them with shields. They then dispatched their ever-growing fleet to relieve the siege of Ice Planet. Continued success drew their forces ever farther out, bringing more and more planets into a growing alliance against SPACE. All went well for a time, until SPACE decided to end the war in a single master stroke.
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Friday, February 5, 2010
History of Empire, Part III
SPACE led humanity into a new golden age, with rapid colonization of the solar system. Terraforming on Mars proceeded quickly, while less hospitable planets were settled using domes, orbital stations, or other such protected enclosures. Still, mankind was not truly safe from an extinction event so long as it remained trapped in the solar system. SPACE decided to remedy that problem.
Research on the Mars moon of Phobos began to investigate several different theories for timely interstellar travel. Sleeper ships requiring centuries of travel were not deemed acceptable by SPACE. Only something on the order of true faster-than-light travel would suffice. The most promising leads involved the creation of temporary, stable wormholes.
SPACE finally met with success in this regard when the SPACE Navy Ship Icarus succeeded in travelling across the solar system almost instantly using a wormhole generated by an experimental prototype. The SNS Icarus emerged from the wormhole entirely intact, and managed to replicate the experiment in reverse by returning through another wormhole. Extensive studies of the entry and exit points showed no residual damage to the fabric of space, and the project was deemed a success. Work began on increasing power and efficiency to levels suitable for mass production.
SPACE quickly built an expeditionary fleet armed to the teeth with brikonite-powered lasers. The tough, heavily-armored ships in the fleet were each equipped with several grades of weapon, ranging from small, low-output lasers meant for rapid point-defense fire, to large, high-output cannons designed for engaging enemy capital ships. Each one came with a detachment of SPACE Marines in addition to the basic crews, while the flagship of each squadron also had a small team of scientists who would evaluate any planets encountered to determine their suitability for colonization projects.
The fleet met with extraordinary success, flagging countless worlds as prime colonization candidates and failing to meet any significant opposition among the stars. Only a handful of alien species were found, and they were all less advanced than mankind. SPACE decided initially to limit contact, at least for the moment.
Research on the Mars moon of Phobos began to investigate several different theories for timely interstellar travel. Sleeper ships requiring centuries of travel were not deemed acceptable by SPACE. Only something on the order of true faster-than-light travel would suffice. The most promising leads involved the creation of temporary, stable wormholes.
SPACE finally met with success in this regard when the SPACE Navy Ship Icarus succeeded in travelling across the solar system almost instantly using a wormhole generated by an experimental prototype. The SNS Icarus emerged from the wormhole entirely intact, and managed to replicate the experiment in reverse by returning through another wormhole. Extensive studies of the entry and exit points showed no residual damage to the fabric of space, and the project was deemed a success. Work began on increasing power and efficiency to levels suitable for mass production.
SPACE quickly built an expeditionary fleet armed to the teeth with brikonite-powered lasers. The tough, heavily-armored ships in the fleet were each equipped with several grades of weapon, ranging from small, low-output lasers meant for rapid point-defense fire, to large, high-output cannons designed for engaging enemy capital ships. Each one came with a detachment of SPACE Marines in addition to the basic crews, while the flagship of each squadron also had a small team of scientists who would evaluate any planets encountered to determine their suitability for colonization projects.
The fleet met with extraordinary success, flagging countless worlds as prime colonization candidates and failing to meet any significant opposition among the stars. Only a handful of alien species were found, and they were all less advanced than mankind. SPACE decided initially to limit contact, at least for the moment.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
HIstory of Empire, Part II
Unbeknownst to the scientists who were tasked with implementing the terraforming procedures on Mars, the red planet was already home to a highly advanced species. Tall and thin, with wedge-shaped heads and large eyes, these Martians were at first simply curious about the newcomers to their homeworld. Curiosity turned to alarm when the first systematic attempts at terraforming began to take hold, and the Martians decided that if they were to survive as a people then they would need to take decisive action against the invaders.
Martian technology was largely peaceful, but they did have some combat-oriented vehicles. Their primary law enforcement tools were bipedal humanoid mecha, primarily armed with low-power laser weaponry, intended as much to disable as to destroy. Against the unknown capabilities of the earth scientists, however, they decided to take no chances. They quickly modified their weapons, removing safeguards and power limiters to convert less-than-lethal police equipment into full-scale military hardware. The initial contact between the two species was brief: a scientific outpost was annihilated in mere moments. Further one-sided combats followed, and before long the Mars Mission was all but over.
SPACE was not to be deterred, however, and managed to piece together enough scraps of intelligence to make a preliminary judgement regarding the threat to the terraforming process posed by the Martians. A second expedition was formed, this time led by officers drawn from the armies and air-forces of the various SPACE member nations. New combat-ready vehicles with trained military crews assembled on Moon Base, tasked with escorting a new team of scientists with a batch of second-generation terraforming bacteria. The Martians were not idle during the this time, but rather began to militarize whole segments of their population. Genetic manipulation led to the development of new combat breeds, nearly twice as tall and far more physically robust than a normal Martian, while virtually every civilian vehicle was armed with at least minimal weaponry. A full-scale interplanetary war was brewing.
The second landing met with heavy resistance, but the superior toughness of Earth-designed vehicles allowed SPACE to land the bulk of their forces intact. Millenia of martial traditions similarly gave SPACE the advantage on the ground, with trained soldiers handily out-fighting inexperienced alien forces. Even the specially-bred Warrior Martians were unable consistently to defeat their human enemies. Despite this disparity, the outcome was far from certain until the SPACE scientists managed to deploy the new strains of terraforming bacteria using a new dispersal technique that saturated the planetary surface beyond the ability of the Martians to counter. From that moment on, the Martians were a dying people.
Rather than suffer a lingering death, the Martians decided to make a grand gesture. They worked in secrecy and haste until they had completed a massive vessel capable of unthinkable destruction. It required a sizable crew to run, and all those Martians who were not given that task died defending it as it prepared to launch. SPACE made a valiant effort to prevent it, but ultimately the Martian sacrifice held them off long enough for the massive vessel to reach orbit. Once there, it set out toward earth. SPACE analysts feared that it planned to orchestrate an extinction event, the very thing that SPACE had been founded to prevent. They scrambled to muster a response.
In the few short months that it took the Martian battleship to approach Earth, SPACE managed the impossible. They developed a prototype super weapon capable of drawing the power from a brikonite crystal in a single focused burst. The resultant beam of energy, though short-lived, was capable of immense destruction. Moon Base deployed the weapon as the Martian battleship neared Earth and managed to destroy the huge vessel, but not before it left large swathes of Earth uninhabitable. The devastation was so extensive that whole governments collapsed. In the aftermath of the Battle for the Homeworld, SPACE found itself to be the most powerful remaining administrative body, with the added credibility of having just saved the planet from total destruction. A new age began, with SPACE at the head of a unified Earth and the colonization of Mars beginning in earnest.
Martian technology was largely peaceful, but they did have some combat-oriented vehicles. Their primary law enforcement tools were bipedal humanoid mecha, primarily armed with low-power laser weaponry, intended as much to disable as to destroy. Against the unknown capabilities of the earth scientists, however, they decided to take no chances. They quickly modified their weapons, removing safeguards and power limiters to convert less-than-lethal police equipment into full-scale military hardware. The initial contact between the two species was brief: a scientific outpost was annihilated in mere moments. Further one-sided combats followed, and before long the Mars Mission was all but over.
SPACE was not to be deterred, however, and managed to piece together enough scraps of intelligence to make a preliminary judgement regarding the threat to the terraforming process posed by the Martians. A second expedition was formed, this time led by officers drawn from the armies and air-forces of the various SPACE member nations. New combat-ready vehicles with trained military crews assembled on Moon Base, tasked with escorting a new team of scientists with a batch of second-generation terraforming bacteria. The Martians were not idle during the this time, but rather began to militarize whole segments of their population. Genetic manipulation led to the development of new combat breeds, nearly twice as tall and far more physically robust than a normal Martian, while virtually every civilian vehicle was armed with at least minimal weaponry. A full-scale interplanetary war was brewing.
The second landing met with heavy resistance, but the superior toughness of Earth-designed vehicles allowed SPACE to land the bulk of their forces intact. Millenia of martial traditions similarly gave SPACE the advantage on the ground, with trained soldiers handily out-fighting inexperienced alien forces. Even the specially-bred Warrior Martians were unable consistently to defeat their human enemies. Despite this disparity, the outcome was far from certain until the SPACE scientists managed to deploy the new strains of terraforming bacteria using a new dispersal technique that saturated the planetary surface beyond the ability of the Martians to counter. From that moment on, the Martians were a dying people.
Rather than suffer a lingering death, the Martians decided to make a grand gesture. They worked in secrecy and haste until they had completed a massive vessel capable of unthinkable destruction. It required a sizable crew to run, and all those Martians who were not given that task died defending it as it prepared to launch. SPACE made a valiant effort to prevent it, but ultimately the Martian sacrifice held them off long enough for the massive vessel to reach orbit. Once there, it set out toward earth. SPACE analysts feared that it planned to orchestrate an extinction event, the very thing that SPACE had been founded to prevent. They scrambled to muster a response.
In the few short months that it took the Martian battleship to approach Earth, SPACE managed the impossible. They developed a prototype super weapon capable of drawing the power from a brikonite crystal in a single focused burst. The resultant beam of energy, though short-lived, was capable of immense destruction. Moon Base deployed the weapon as the Martian battleship neared Earth and managed to destroy the huge vessel, but not before it left large swathes of Earth uninhabitable. The devastation was so extensive that whole governments collapsed. In the aftermath of the Battle for the Homeworld, SPACE found itself to be the most powerful remaining administrative body, with the added credibility of having just saved the planet from total destruction. A new age began, with SPACE at the head of a unified Earth and the colonization of Mars beginning in earnest.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)