NationStates Jolt Archive

OOC: This is essentially a wee report thread, coupled with a map, and possibly an ongoing factbook - my former FT nation, the Realm, merely so I can track how it's regrowing. I'm using one of the tools (http://direpress.bin.sh/tools/system.cgi) the awesomeness that is Chronosia linked me to, so it'll be fairly boring, and straightforward. I'm simply tired of warring without the reciprocal stuff - rebuilding a nation, for example.

If anyone wants to trade with the slowly rebuilding Realm.. feel free to give me a chat over MSN, or TG me. It's merely something I feel will be fun. Reconstruct my entire nation from scratch (and rebuild it fully after the war I'm in currently, the ESUS/GFFA conflict, ends), so I have a solid foundation to RP on.

No fleets. Period.

IC: Magnius glowered down at the system. Habitable systems were hard to come by, nowadays. And systems with worlds that could support life, and were well-hidden from the eyes of the Maker-Mind were far, far more valuable. It had been six weeks since his reincarnation. Six long, painful weeks, in which he had discovered the weakness, and the attacks that plagued it.

He had made his decision. He had a thousand ships to war with. A thousand ships that contained the tools to be self-supporting for quite some time. He would be able to aid the Federation in his conflict. Yet, now.. rebuilding his Realm was more important. Executive control of every branch of government was now his.

He sighed, and spoke. "We will colonize here. We will term it.. Tharalis. It may not be a lush paradise, but it is defensible enough."

"Tharalis. Give me the report on it."

The report shot up onscreen, and Magnius looked at it, uncomprehending, for a moment. And then he sprung into action..

Report: Tharalis II
Gravity: 0.79 G
Escape Velocity: 8.50 km/s
Day Length: 16.23 hours
Atmospheric Composition: 77% carbon dioxide, 19% oxygen, 4% other gases.
Lithosphere: 36.2% magnesium, 22.0% oxygen, 22.0% iron, 14.0% silicon, 3.7% other metals, 2.2% other elements
Year Length: 0.61 Earth years
Temperature in habitable zones: 3-36°C

That, in, and of itself, was the most interesting fact there. It was useable. Perhaps not habitable, but it had several useful elements to it. Firstly, the gravity. The Realm breed of humans had slowly adapted to .82 gees, for the most part. The gravity was close enough as to make no difference to them.

The day length, of course, was annoying. The major Realm colonies, previously, had had thirty-hour days. Half the day-length meant real eight-hour days. But, as it stood.. there would have to be sacrifices made. Genetic changes made, as well. The Realm was going to rebuild. And Tharalis was far enough way, hard enough to access.. that it was perfect, at least for that.

Of course, the atmosphere was deadly. And the planet, at best, could only support a population of seventeen million. But domes existed for a reason. Perhaps the construction of orbital mirrors to heat up other areas.. yes, those were things that could be done. But the posession of water was important, and Tharalis II had plenty of that.

Magnius gave the order. "I want six dome-cities fabricated from the fleet's supplies within a month. We will begin the colonisation of Tharalis II as soon as we may.

Of course, his motives were pure. To rebuild the Realm, to the days of its former glory. And he understood the Maker-Mind, having lived inside of it for some time. It would not chase them, if it did not know that they were gone. Perhaps.. he might have to destroy the citizens of the current Realm. But, of course.. sacrifices had to be made.


- - - - - -
Reconstruction Year: 16

National Status:
92.6 million citizens
0 Capital Ships
0 Major Trade Routes
2 Systems
3 Colonies

Colonization Status
Tharalis II: 16.1 million people - Orbital Mirror x3, Transmission Satellite x3, Defense Satellite x2
Tharalis IV (Jovian world): 1.7 million Chiiyen - No orbital constructions
Authil II: 74.8 million people - Orbital Mirror x2, Transmission Satellite x6, Defense Satellite x4

Realm Infrastructure Status
(Note: Red is under contruction. Green is complete. A mixture of the two shows construction status. Blue is upgraded)
Tharalis
Tharalis Mining Operation
Tharalis Refinery
Tharalis Shipyards
Tharallis Worldgate

Authil
Authil Mining Operation
Authil Worldgate
Authil Shipyards

The project had begun. Tharalis II was a tiny, brown-blue gem of a world. At least to the eyes of Gaiter. He had previously been an officer in the Quarath, the navy of the Realm. It was then, that the First Magnate had arrived.

Almost two hundred years ago, the Maker-Mind had come into existence. With its progidous ability to consume anything it saw necessary, every single last operant human in the Realm had died. And there were precious few alien operants, most of whom died out after the repeated attacks.

That, in one, was the reason the Realm had been so weakened. Metapsychic power was one of the keystones of the Realm. Although it was not something you could use to smash the minds of the enemies within another fleet, or crush entire worlds with, it was well-suited for delicate planetary engineering work.

And then, the Ten Thousand had come back. That was the name for them, that had taken hold around the Realm. The ten thousand servants of Magnius, the brightest, the best, and the most powerfully metapsychic individuals in the Realm. A team of fifty had been taken off the Magnate's Fleet, and they had jury-rigged together some antimatter generators, coupled with a psi-heightener suit, to aid in the terraforming of Tharalis II.

But the days in which the Realm could simply seed a world to its needs, taking away excess matter, changing the gravity of a world, burning away entire biospheres, and constructing new ones, to better suit its citizens.. those days were long gone. No, now, they would have to scrape out a miserable existence on this new, cold world. It was temperate, where they would live. It changed temperature fairly rapidly, yet it rarely went below zero, nor above forty.

It could support crops. That was important. Although weaponry and the like could be synthesized, given enough power, food could.. well, food could be constructed artifically. But to make a gun required the same amount of matter as a few loaves of bread - and, as such, the same power. It would drain the entire fleet's resources in but a few weeks, if they were to use the fleet to synthesize food.

No, they needed farms. Hydroponic farms were the ones that had been set up, down on the surface. They would suffice, until they had mastered the ins and outs of this new world's biosphere.

Gaiter had previously been a captain in the Realm's navy. But then.. he had been one of the precious few to be found metapsychically 'latent', or possessing powers, that could be forced out. A few long, painful weeks, filled with agony, with despair, and with hatred.. had brought out his metapsychic abilities.

He pulled up his metapsychic assay. It was one of the few things he had a right to.

Citizen Name: Gaiter Harnan
Former Occupation: Quarath captain
Overall Operancy Strength: R-5, 117.
Coercion: R-12, 7%
Creativity: R-9, 72%
Telekinesis: R-2, 247%
Farsenses: R-7, 92%
Telepathy: R-6, 100%
Mindshield Strength: R-1, 672%
Metaconcert Suitability: 0%. Lack of control fear. Phobia?. May use as buffer only.
Enhancement Suitability: 0%. Warning: Immense rejection syndrome.

It was a fairly simple little assay. Essentially, there were six main areas of metapsychic operancy. The first was coercion. The ability to project your mind onto that of others. Magnius, the leader of the Realm, came up at around six thousand percent on that assay. A hundred percent was the average of the Realm metapsychic operant, back in the old days.

You were given 'ranks', from one, to twelve. Ranks thirteen to twenty also existed, however, these were classed as various identifications of latency - rank twenties could be raised up to rank twelves, on average, rank thirteens could often be raised up to rank twos, or ones.

He had so little coercive power, that it was laughable. Then again, it was his mindwall strength that had got him into this project. When you were dealing with metapsychic power, you often went into something called a 'metaconcert'. A unity of minds, using their power together, more than the sum of their whole.

Creativity was another poor point for him - creativity was the manipulation of matter, seemingly through using electro-magnetic waves. It was vastly more powerful than any other power, yet it was incredibly dangerous, and also incredibly rare. They had no High Masters of creativity in the New Realm, bar one.

Telekinesis was a strength of his. Busting things up with your mind. Although not as subtle as creativity, or as convincing as coercion, it was fairly common. And fairly useful. Moving things around without kinetic energy was impossible - and, in projects like this, pure, raw, kinetic operancy came in handy.

Farsenses were the ability to, surprisingly enough, sense things far away. The 'sixth sense', as it had so often been called. Since they only travelled at the speed of light, they were hardly useful in spying on people in world to world. But they were useful, in terms of being used as a sensor, sometimes in battle.

Now, where was he? Ah, yes. Mindshields. When working with other minds, if.. something went wrong, you'd be looking at a huge backlash of psionic energy. More than one High Master had died, trying to accomplish such things. For every action, there was an equal and opposite reaction. Newton's law held in metapsychic operations, and, for every iota of force you exerted on someone else, you had to be able to block the same force coming back to you. Mindshields were the ability to prevent this sort of thing - metapsychic energy flooding your brain.

That was why he had been chosen. He couldn't participate in a metaconcert, not otherwise. The damned thing freaked him out. As well as the brainboard, the "enhancer". Sure, it could magnify your power by a few hundred times. But the risk often outweighed the gain.

But he could serve as a buffer. Most Masters, and Grand Masters, had learnt to keep a low metapsychic shield, in order to be able to talk amongst each other more readily. Shields were developed over time, and his former paranoia, in the military, as the Maker-Mind had been able to.. order his men, through their minds... well, that had given him an incentive.

In fact, his mindshield was the reason he'd served so well. The Maker-Mind couldn't touch his mind, and he could command without worrying about strange directives creeping inside of his skull.

He pulled up another screen. He'd been told to get some reading in, before he was sent to start on the project. Protocol, and the like.

Classes, Ranks, and Information
Ranks: The ranking system serves as a convinient method for sorting people with metapsychic powers. R-1 is the highest rank, fitting those with the most raw talent in, and R-12 is the lowest rank for operants, fitting those in with very minor powers. R-13s to R-20s may have some metapsychic power, however, this will always been unconsciously used, and will be in the hundredth percentile of metapsychic operant ranking.

Classes: Apart from ranks, the class system is used to identify the greater, more skilled operants. There are six classes. The useage of your metapsychic power, not your raw power, is what determines your class. Raw power is merely output, classes are the limits of your ability.

The ranks from Grand Master and upwards are dual in nature. If one has Grandmasterclass skill in, say, coercion, they will be referred to as a Grand Coercive Master, or a Coercion Grand Master. The appellation 'Grand Master' is reserved for those who attain that rank, or higher, in every one of their metapsychic areas.
Operant: Operants are your standard metapsychic. They are
Master: Masters are fairly rare, and are also one of the standard inclusions into any metaconcert, being all-round skilled. Masters are quite common in older operants, however, with the shorter lifespan of the Realm human, this makes them relatively rare.
Grand Master: Grand Masters are the second rank, and are uncommon. Although powerful, they tend to be those who engage in major work for the Realm.
Skilled Master: The most uncommon rank, Skilled Master is really a half-step between Grand Master and High Master. Since High Masters are exceptionally powerful, as well as exceptionally skilled, most people tend to have 'breakthroughs' with their power, and jump straight from Grand Master status, to High Master status. Skilled Masters are still exceptionally well-rounded, and powerful, and generally have reached the limits of their power.
High Master: The most powerful operancy rank available. High Masters are R-1s in every category, and are able to direct a metapsychic concert with ease. Only one High Master exists at present, and it suspected he augments his powers using the dimension known as the 'lattice'.
Paramount Operant: Someone who has attained the highest amount of skill available in every type of metapsychic ability. Grand Masters, for instance, may only have a 15% inefficiency rate with their useage of power. Paramount Operants may have a 0.1%. This means they can constantly reuse their powers, without feeling the ill effects those who lose their powers over time. No Paramounts exist at present.

He closed the file, and laughed at himself. A few weeks earlier, he'd been a starship captain.

And now, he was serving as Vice-Project Director for the orbital mirror program. Tharalis II was just too cold in some areas, to raise the food they needed. The orbital mirrors would beam the energy down to specific places, allowing more solar generators to be into place.

He walked off, whistling. The five hundred thousand below on the planet were pretty damn cold down there, he knew. But, given some time, he was sure he could change that...

Tharalis Data:
Stardata: Yellow Main Sequence
Radius: 6.88 x 105 km (0.99 x sol)
Mass: 1.59 x 1030 kg (0.80 x sol)
Temperature: 5500 K
Luminosity: 5.61 x 1026 W 1.47 x sol)


- - - - -

Another day, another construction to take place. The population of the three dome-cities had grown to seven hundred and fifty thousand. New people were brought out of cryo-freezing every day, and the hydroponic farms had grown dramatically. With the useage of the fleet to salvage hundreds of old Realm hulks from various system, although the fleet.

Tharalis II was fairly far from the sun - although it orbited at a progidous rate. It was this distance that made it colder, and the mirrors needed. The twin orbital mirrors had proven greatly useful for the power requirements of the dome-cities - nuclear generations were also utilised, but they had to be shut down for repairs upon occasion.. yes, solar power was useful. The Realm was growing, upon Tharalis.

And now.. they were going to attempt something fairly unprecedented. The old, broken shipyards, from one of the ship-graveyards, was going to be brought in. A brief pulse of Truespace is all that would be required. Of course, the shipyards were smashed beyond belief, but repairing them now would allow Tharalis to construct shuttlecraft and minercraft, something that the world desperately needed. To be the new seat of the Realm, it would have to be quickly built into a manufacturing capitol.

Blue mist sliced the wall open between dimensions, and a battered wreckage of a shipyard flew out. The assembly plants were still relatively intact, as were the life-support systems. That alone was a miracle. But it would require more construction..

With the shipyard, came another pair of objects. Satellites. Transmission ones. Tharalis II had six moons, it had to be noted, but none were especially inconvinient, as they were all fairly small. The two satellites were to act as transmitters to each of the three major dome-cities - an entertainment network, such as it was.

Gaiter looked in pleasure as the shipyards were towed to be fairly close to the planet - not in orbit, but well out of the way. He'd order repairs for them soon...

Report on Realm Humans -
The Realm Human, having no official scientific designation, is a strange creature indeed. Having evolved far away from the longevity of standard humanity, a Realm human has an average maximum lifespan of twenty years, as opposed to the lifespan of other humans, which evens out at a hundred years without medical treatment.

As such, genetic therapy is popular in the Realm, as Realm humans only undergo two years of ageing, at which point their bodies fall apart quite rapidly.

Yet it is this rapid period of gestation and growth that makes the Realm rise, time, and time again. With a gestation period of only two months, and adulthood only taking four years to accomplish, the Realm human is physically more frail than the Sol human, and generally less resilient.

Yet, the metabolism of the Realm human far exceeds that of their Solarian cousins, and they recover from diseases quite easily, having a robust immune system. It is interesting to note that the Realm human undergoes approximately fifty to sixty years worth of ageing in the last three years of their lifespan - their bodies quite literally degenerate immensely quickly. This has been speculated as being a result of genetic tampering, as it does not seem to be a naturally occuring genetic trait within any other subrace of humanity.

Although only the marked intelligence increase has allowed Realm science to keep pace with the counterparts of 'normal' humans, the rapid reproductive period, with 'generations' of around five to six years, as opposed to the twenty-thirty year generation in many nations, allows the Realm to replenish its populace with stunning ease.

Indeed, the Realm human, although being weaker, smaller, and far, far more fragile than most humans, compensate by being both numerous, and technologically dependent. Indeed, their weaker bone structure, (Realm humans average in at 5'4, for males, and 5'3, for females, despite this, they are less compact than normal humans) sees them undergo heavy damage on Earth-or-above gravity planets.

- -

The report was closed. It was fairly simple, overall. Realm humans ate lots, and were immensely fecund. This was good - as they needed a lot of them. The construction of the Tharalis Shipyards had cost almost eight thousand lives so far. People were cheap, and equipment was not. The older eighteen year-olds were those asked to volunteer, in the early stages of degeneration. And the sacrifice had been worth it. Although the shipyards did not possess the capabilities to construct dreadnoughts, they could certainly construct shuttles. And that, at this stage, was useful.

Six scout-shuttlecraft had been constructed.. and Gaiter was to lead them through Truespace, into the nearest system. Thalaris had a single Jovian world, two Uranian planets, six rock-worlds, three ice-worlds, and two asteroid belts. But that wasn't what Magnius sought. He wanted two colonies - establishing colonies was important, as they could build up their infrastructure from there. And the population of Tharalis II had quadrupled in a year, and living space was tight. Habitation domes were not cheap.

And, it was done. It was not an epic moment. Gaiter sat there, on the tiny shuttle, reading the printout on the screen, taking it in. They had each gone into orbit around individual planets - and they were going to find out what types of worlds were there.

A main sequence orange star.. four lifeless rockworlds. A pair of iceworlds. A uranian planet. Another quadruped of iceworlds. And then.. he looked at it. And smiled. Another planet, second from the sun. It seemed to be the thing for habitable planets.

"Gaiter, here. Get me a complete assay on that planet."

A brief "yessir" came through the comms, and Gaiter waited. For a few hours, he sat there, twiddling his thumbs. And waited. Assays would normally take a minute or two - but these were shuttles, and hardly advanced ones, at that.

Authil II Report:
Gravity: 0.91 G
Day Length: 25.87 hours
Atmospheric Composition: 70.8% nitrogen, 29.2% oxygen, trace other gases
Average temperature in habitable zones: 12 °C
Pressure: 115.80 kPa (1.13 x earth)

It was.. heavenly, in comparison to the second world of Tharalis. He mentally cursed the Realm for not assaying the systems around them first - and then realised such a task would've taken quite some time, and quite the amount of supplies. Slightly higher gravity, a beautiful daylength, and perfect atmosphere. It already had plankton in its oceans, ripe for harvesting!

It was, of course, fairly cold. But they could deal with that. They had the materials to construct orbital mirrors, they could build fusion plants. But the important thing was that no habitation domes would be required. He hit the 'population assay' command, and the computer churned out an answer.

<Brief Analysis>
<Original Population Supportable: 212 million>
<Total Population Supportable: 1.2 billion>
<Farming Capacity: 200-2000 million people>
<Dangerous Tectonics: None>
<Weather Systems: Standard>
<Irregularities: None>

That, in, and of itself, was fairly nice. A second colony for the Realm - and all within four years, as well. Gaiter had been appointed governor for the region of space after his success with the spaceyard. And, with the rumblings of dissent from Tharalis.. now might just be the time to colonise a new world, and keep people's minds off what had been...

Map of the Realm
http://i15.tinypic.com/4d7d84k.jpg

A brief note on Realm codes, and the key.
Firstly, the map is only KNOWN systems. There are quite the number more. However, being focused on survival and rebuilding has all but eliminated the Realm astronomy programs.

Key
Super-inhabited system: A system in which a lot of people dwell, possibly some sort of entirely habited planet, that requires food and material imports from elsewhere on a regular basis.
Inhabited system: Any system that has a permanent colony on a planet within the system is counted as an inhabited system.
Unclaimed systems: Systems as of yet unclaimed, and uncontested, by the Realm.
Claimed systems: All other systems (resource systems, inhabited systems, etc), fall under this classification as well. However, a claimed system is a system the Realm has explored, and subsequently claimed in the name of the Realm, although they have not done anything further.

Three-letter key
UAS - Unexplored, unassayed system. A system with no exploratory action taken whatsoever.
EUS - Explored, unassayed system. A system which has been given a pefunctionary scan, and little else. Gravitational data, and information on the star is generally available for these systems.
EAS - Explored, assayed system. In-depth assays, discovering tectonic and weather information about planets, as well as probing their biospheres, is classified under this naming unit.

Note that all habited, or claimed systems are named. As such, the three-letter key is assigned solely to systems that do not fall under such.

The rickety transport set down, shuddering as it did so. The doors slid open, and the first group of people ran off. The transport merely stood there - closed. The people had their food, and the means to construct a shelter. This was a test.

Two days later, over half the citizens there were dead. Three days later, it was two-thirds. A week later... three-quarters of them were dead. And, with that, the death rate levelled out. They were haggard survivors, having built the occasional rough shelter, and eaten what little they could.

Gaiter shuddered, as he saw them. Yet they were criminals of the colony - and they were more expendable than anyone else. Then, he ordered them killed. Quick blasts, smashing their heads into bits, leaving nothing but corpses there.

He sent out a team in vac-suits, who picked up the bodies, and brought them aboard the transport. It had been given a small medical lab. Within two days, a vaccine had been constructed. Another two days, and they were manufacturing it wholesale.

It was only another day after that, that the next transport came. And this time, it had thousands aboard, and real equipment came through - laser-cutters, fusion generators, portable construction units.. the stuff needed to construct cities. Twenty thousand colonists on one site. Ten thousand on another. Fifteen on a third. And seventy-five on a fifth. One hundred and twenty thousand colonists in total. Some were dying of disease.

But the planet Authil II was simply too valuable to give up for mere disease. No, they would stick it out. It had the capacity to exceed Tharalis II's output of food, and amount of citizens, and it was far more stable. A hundred and twenty thousand colonists. Gaiter smiled. They'd probably need orbital mirrors on this planet, too...

- - - -

As he returned to orbit, around Tharalis II, a message sat there, holographically projected above his desk.

- Outer Spiral Trade Consortium -
- First Magnate -
Greetings, Governor Gaiter. We have recently signed the Outer Spiral Trade Consortium's charter, in hopes of increasing our trade revenue. As it stands, one of the most profitable trades we have made, from time to time, is in workers. Realm humans are far more prolific, and generally far quicker, and, as such, are desirable labourers. If you wish to send colonists to other nations to garner some small amount of monetary aid for your newborn colonies, I give you permission to do so.

Furthermore, congratulations on your acquisition of Authil II! I am appointing you Sector Magnate, which gives you executive control over the area. You may choose Planetary Governors from your underlings, if you so wish.

-End Message-

Gaiter looked at the message in shock. He'd risen from a mere sub-director of a project, to Planetary Governor, to Sector Magnate! He was rising meteorically through the ranks. And then.. he chuckled. The title of Sector Magnate here was a virtually useless one. He wielded no clout between nations. It essentially gave Magnius someone to co-ordinate the rebuilding efforts.

"Yallok. What's the progress on that shipyard?", he asked, his message streaming over the comms.

"Good to see you, sir. We've managed to restore larger hull construction, as well as larger components. We're dangerously low on resources, but we can easily construct a few larger ships."

"Well done, Yallok. Here's what I want you to do. Construct a small fleet of freighters, who can mine the asteroid belts out here. Mining planets is prohibitively expensive - asteroids can be mined out without issue. I want the entire fleet turned to that purpose - I also want an orbital refinery constructed in the 'belt. You should have just enough resources to accomplish that, I hope."

"Yessir."

"Good man."

With that, he terminated the conversation. Perhaps Yallok would make a fine candidate for a Governor.. after all, he did need loyal governors, and Yallok was one of the most loyal. He smiled. If they could get a mining operation up and running, they wouldn't have to rely on the sporadic freighters from the war-front, and could, instead, continue the reconstruction of the Realm as it deserved.

Sector Magnate.. he smiled. What a lovely title...

<Ready?>

<Ready.>

<JOIN!>

Allegro, the leader of the metaconcert, drew him in, closer, closer, and...

A blinding flash in his mind, and it was done. Gaiter was now a member of the metaconcert. A fancy term for a linkage of minds. He could feel them, in the back of his head, like half-connected arms and legs, and, in the same way, they could feel him. The team of eight operants had linked to finish the armour plating on the shipyard. It had been decked out with defense guns, adjustment thrusters, and, now, given enough materials, it could construct frigate and cruiser-sized craft!

Truly an accomplishment, he knew. But without the armor, it was a sitting duck. And those armor plates were massive. And they required the lightest touch, the most skillful delicacy, to maneuver them onto the delicate skeleton of the shipyard.

He couldn't personally contribute any power to the metaconcert, but he served as a buffer - the laws of motion stated that all actions had a reaction. With metapsychic power, this reaction was a backlash onto one's mind. His mindshield could easily disperse all of that energy out in space, with, hopefully, no ill effects.

It moved, then, without any visible inducement. Massive, black, stealth-plates, slowly moving under their own will, seemingly, into place. The first plate settled onto the craft. And then a massive backlash! Raw metapsychic energy bombarded his mind, and he felt his mindshield weakening, weakening.. thinning.. breaking... and it was over.

He panted, hands on his knees, trying to recover the energy he had just spent. And then it begun again. Too weak to protest, Gaiter sat there, as the second of the four plates they were to put on the craft slid into space. This time, though, although weaker, he was ready. Resistance of the power came more easily, although his mindshield was weakened.

And then the third plate.. he used his own psychokinetic powers to give it a tap, signalling that it was time to begin. And then.. the backlash. He dropped to his knees, tearing at his head. The others couldn't feel him - his mindshield was far too strong, for that.

Gaiter: <Notgoodnotgoodnotgood! Weaking of mindshield! Reallyfuckedup here, guys! Stop?>
Alegro: <Sorrysircan'tstop!!!!! If we leave threeplates on there, 'yard might collapse! Structure-integrity!>

And then... the fourth plate began to move. Gaiter tore at his face, hands beating wildly at the energies he could feel, feel building up in his mind. They were all in seperate shuttles. His own was a relatively old craft, and not entirely trustworthy, either...

The backlash was about to come - and it came. Gaiter felt the massive influx of power slam into his decrepit shield, and tried vainly to reroute it elsewhere.

Gaiter: <Shitshitshit - helpmehelpmefuckinghelpme!>
Alegro: <Nowait - wait nopower. Just onemin. ONE!>

Outside, the other members of the metaconcert saw his shuttle tear itself apart. Enough energy to move a million-ton plate of armor into place, pouring out, in sheer kinetic form, smashing the craft, buffeting its weak walls, and.. a system broke. A brief fire, as Gaiter's oxygen was burnt away by the electrical fire, and decompression.

A tiny bubble of pressure surrounded Gaiter, kept in place by his will alone. High Masters, such as Magnius, could sustain such a thing easily. He was not even a Master, unfortunately.

Gaiter: <HELPME! HELPFUCKINGHELP!>
Alegro: <Openup! Openthehellup! Wecangiveyouallpower!>

The bubble weakened. Gaiter felt the walls of the tremulous survival pod he had created waver. It would be ten, perhaps twenty seconds. He was going to die.

Alegro: <Yourgoingtodie! Eitherway! You openup, and ?die?, or you DIE! Fuckingopenyourmind!>

Gaiter felt his power draining from him. He was still, nominally, part of a metaconcert. But surrender his mind? He.. couldn't do that. No. That would lead to death. He knew that. And the bubble shattered.

A miniscule fraction of the second after the bubble opened, Gaiter opened his mind. He was going to die anyway, after all. And what did it matter, to open his mind? It was death, perhaps, but only possible death. As his mind opened, like a flower, opening to meet the sun, power flooded into it, the full force of seven Grand Masters in metaconcert with his mind. The bubble reasserted itself, decompression stopped before it could truly begin.

Alegro: <Allright! Keep the metapower. Keep bubbleclosed. Shuttle-two is coming round to pick you up. Hold it for three minutes, kay?>

Gaiter sank into near-unconsciousness, conserving what mental energies he had for the task of survival.

Magnate's Report:

We successfully armored the shipyard, and, over the past few years, the remainder of colonists have been brought out of cryogenic freeze-status. We have not yet released the location of our worlds, and will not do so, as instructed, unless orders countermand your previous directives, First Magnate.

Furthermore, in the process of armoring the shipyard, I seem to have gained extensive metapsychic powers, especially in the areas of my PK, and my metaconcert suitability.

Two asteroid mining operations have been set up, and a orbital refinery above Tharalis. All colonists are now out of cryo-stasis.

"So, the first load of minerals is in?"

"Yes, Sector Magnate."

"Good. I want you to process them at the Tharalis refineries, and send the finished product down to the shipyards. We need more transport shuttles, and mining craft. If we can't expand our industry, the New Realm will die before it even gets a chance to live."

The man walked off. Gaiter sighed. The enhancement of his metafaculties had been unexpected, yet it had seen him rise to even greater heights. It was surprising, being able to think with such clarity. The production of mining craft, and transport craft were vital at this stage. Tharalis lacked proper infrastructure on the surface, and shipping down equipment was still proving expensive.

He sighed. He had little to do, these days. The excitement had drained out of the job, and he was left with a sense of duty. Other operants were out, on the fleet, fighting the war, and he was stuck here, husbanding a few New Realm colonies into growth. His duty, though, superceded his wishes. Keeping the New Realm colonies hidden, and alive, would see the New Realm flourish once more. And Sector Magnate, as it stood, was hardly a poor title.

There was.. another thing, he would need to construct. Gates. The pact they had recently entered into required it - but a series of gates would negate the need for Truespace travel, thus keeping their activity to a minimum. At the moment, the occasional Truespace travelling ship would not signal their location to the Maker-Mind. But... once traffic grew, this would not be the case.

He took out his pen, and set the nib to holopaper, letters burning themselves into the paper as he thought, his neural interface with the pen activated.

We are to construct a network of trade and transport gates. As such, I hereby order the commissioning of two Worldgates, as we shall term them, one in Tharalis, and another in Authil. The construction of the first shall be paramount, and getting these two gates operative, based on the ancient design used in the Zegenthis Star-Bridge Gate, will be a priority of the burgeoning colonies.

He set the pen down, and, with a thought, sent the missive off to hundreds of recipients. They would begin the construction, readily enough, should it take ten, or fifteen years.. it would not matter. But starting them now meant that their safety could be more easily ensured. He sighed. He had not been sleeping enough lately. He would take a shuttle down to Tharalis, and perhaps sleep in his own quarters there. They were comfortable enough...

"So, you're saying the Jovian world contains life?"

"Yes, Magnate. From what we can ascertain, the Jovian creatures are.. operant."

"Operant?!".

Gaiter's voice rose sharply. The Realm Assayer, a fine, upstanding woman of eight, was not given to flights of fancy. Of course, she was not operant, herself.

Gaiter spoke. "Get me the next shuttle available. A Citizen Ignusis? Tell him that his flight has been commandeered on behalf of the Realm. We will fully reimburse him for his time."

He sighed. And walked down to the shuttle bay. The Tharalis Shipyards made a fine base of operations, especially considering they were the main maintenance centre in the Realm. In fact, they were really the only place capable of carrying out full-scale maintenance.

No inertialess transports here, he knew. A few minutes later, he was onboard the Rickety Nancy, a fairly old, yet seemingly reliable shuttle. The shuttle sped out to the area in which the aliens lived.. and a few minutes later, he had arrived.

<Happy?>

The mindvoice surprised him. He spoke back, tenatively.

Gaiter: <I.. do not understand.>

Other: <Fun? Playtime?>

Gaiter: <I.. who are you?>

Other: <I am playvoice of friendcaller!>

Gaiter stopped, and thought, for a moment. The voice seemed.. very friendly. Perhaps he would be able to engage in metaconcert with it. He tenatively reached a tendril of his mind forward, and felt.. instant acceptance. The voice's mind was so, so inviting! A flood of information washed through his mind, and suddenly he knew everything about this race, their world, and their capabilities.. and they knew everything about the Realm.

Other: <Hurthurt! Painmindhardstonerockhurt!>

Gaiter: <Calm. Calmdown. Release mymind. Release.>

Other: *release*

Gaiter sighed. It knew all about him. And, supposedly, it would commune with the others of its race. The message came in under a second.

Other: <Realm goodgood. We join? We help make ships/mindguns. Much fun!>

He went over the message. And again. In shock, he sent out a mute acceptance. These.. creatures were going to join the Realm? He didn't know how Magnius would take that. But, with their power, and, presumably, what infrastructure they possessed, they'd make a fine addition to the two colonies.

They were the Chiiyen, they called themselves. Gaiter simply returned to the station. He had a report to fill out.. and a new race to induct into the Realm.

He finished typing. Gaiter looked at the message. It seemed everything had to be personally approved by him, nowadays. Especially anything dealing with the Chiiyen. The strange, childlike, innocent creatures had become the latest fascination of the Realm. The First Magnate had given his approval, and they had been inducted into the Realm. The first alien species to do so.

<HaVING fun! WORKing FUN! Funtime, happy!>

The Chiiyen was one who had been appointed as a 'Funtime Realmgood', in their speech. From what he had grasped, that meant a liason, or a diplomat. He looked at the report glumly. Oh, they were charming little creatures. They were all operant, and all fairly powerful. But they were oh, oh so innocent.

They had lived in their gas giant for millenia of millenia, they had told him. It had simply never occurred to them that there was fun to be had outside the gas giant. They spent their days playing games, procreation, to building massive cities in the giant, seemingly immortal. Indeed, they were flighty, capricious, and...

Gaiter sent a brief pulse of approval to the Chiiyen.

<Joyfunhave! LoveGaiter! Funperson!>

They were like.. children. Immensely powerful, yet innocent children. They could survive interplanetary travel without a spacecraft, and their activity, however, was limited to 'fun'.

He looked at the report.

Chiiyen Species Report

The Chiiyen, from what we can surmise, are asexual beings, reproducing via thought. Their thoughts are expressed via metapsychic energies, which, coupled with some latent.. element that makes them up, on their home gas giant, allows them to procreate often, an easily. However, should they forget to hold their bodies together, unless far below, in the depths of the gas giant, they will die.

Strangely enough, the Chiiyen have no civilization to speak of, nor do they understand the terms 'death', or 'war'. They are remarkably reluctant to move anything with their metapsychic powers, unless it is proposed to them as a game.

They vary in size, but tend towards the size of a normal housecat, to that of a Great Dane. They enjoy physical touch from other sentient beings, and respond to metapsychic praise with great fervour.

All Chiiyen are R-3, or equivalent, operants, with absolutely no coercive ability, but they display remarkable creativity and psychokinesis. Their mindshields are horribly undeveloped, and they appear to utilise some form of instant-transmission with their telepathy. However, their telepathy is apparently a natural, non-psychic ability, and is thus not the subject of research on telepathy.

However, to get a Chiiyen to do something, or to understand more than the most basic of tasks, is immensely difficult. They are fairly unintelligent, and, although sentient, are only basically so. They cannot repeat a task, and their long-term memory is all but nonexistent.

We suggest that they are used as labourers across the Realm, and as communication devices, when none better can be had. Those Chiiyen who are remarkably gifted at creativity will often create things, as well as the 'mindguns' of which they spoke.

- - - -

'Mindgun'

Apparently a Chiiyen invention, the Mindgun is essentially a metapsychic creativity booster. The ability of the operant to manipulate energy to his or her will is fairly limited among Realm humans, however, the mindgun boosts it to such a level, that destruction of even major armored units is deemed possible.

However, the 'recoil' from the gun sears out creativity from the user entirely for some time after use. This does not particularly bother the Chiiyen, who replicate the device only to use in their creations.

With some brief modifications, the basic mechanism of the Mindgun has allowed us to make nigh-undetectable enhancements to both metacoercivity, and psycokinesis, and in many different shapes. However, what sets the Mindgun aside from standard psi-enhancers is that it grants the user operancy.

Anyone capable of imagining the route to using mindpowers is capable of using a Mindgun. Although expensive, we feel this device will be of increased popularity among the citizenry in years to come, simply because it will allow non-operant humans to sympathise, and understand operant ones.

End report.

"Routine operations have been completed, Sector Magnate. As per your command, probes have been sent out to nearby worlds, with orders to replicate, and investigate likely worlds."

Gaiter sighed. Another routine day. There was nothing to do.. well, that was not strictly true. A mountain of paperwork awaited him on his desk. Which was impressive, as it was sixteen datapads. Each with terabytes of data to be uploaded into his system, and interfaced with. He smiled. Not even he escaped the drudgery of menial office work, he knew.

The progress on the war was interesting, however.. he would watch that eagerly. If they were attacked, he had been instructed to offer a unconditional surrender to the invading ESUS forces, so long as there were no Maker-Mind forces with them. It sat ill with him.. but he didn't have much of a choice. The preservation of the Realm was paramount.

"Yes, First Magnate."

Magnius had come to Tharalis - and had come to speak with Gaiter. They had been speaking for hours, and Magnius was pleased. Of course, the only sign that he was pleased, was his crooked smile, flashing for a moment when Gaiter had told him that the shipyards were completed.

Of course, Gaiter had one bit of news to relay. One more bit of.. poor news. He took a breath.

"What is it, Sector Magnate?", asked Magnius.

"It is.. Aurail, or Tharalis Dome City 4. The people there are unhappy. We have been experiencing peaceful demonstrations for the last two weeks."

"Ah. It is a pity that you did not tell me this at first. No matter. I will.. deal with it. However, we must speak of a more important matter than a few hundred thousand rebellious citizens. As it stands, I intend to construct the New Realm Fleet, the Lithai'ne, as I have termed it, into a power to be reckoned with. We have a thousand old capital ships, which are powerful, but will be facing action soon. We are going to use them as efficiently as possible, however, I have established these colonies for a reason."

"What is that, First?"

The colloquial term brought back Magnius's crooked smile - and then it was gone again, elusive.

"To provide the Realm with survival. No-one knows the location of the New Realm colonies, and, as such, we are safe. We are far from any other nation's sphere of influence, and it will be at least a millenium until the Maker-Mind spreads this far, if it wins the war. However, for our fleet to be truly effective, we need more ships. More ships, and superior ones. As such, I wish for you to construct a new set of shipyards in Authil, and to upgrade the ones here. Expand them, so that they can handle dreadnought-scale construction. "

"And the rebellion, First Magnate?"

"I will deal with it.. personally."

With that, Gaiter gulped. Magnius did not brook any opposition to what he saw as his rightful authority.

Magnius sighed. "I will require a brain-enhancement unit, with a multiplyer of fifty."

"Very well, First Magnate."

Within a few minutes, the First Magnate was on a shuttle onto the planet below, with a brainboard. He plugged it in, the helmet fitting over his head snugly. He could scarcely see, of course, but he had his metapsychic faculties for that.

The new shuttle sped down to the surface, alighting on Aurail's landing platform, and being brought into the dome city. Below, people roamed the streets, holding up placards. On a nearby platform, a man stood, preaching to the people, speaking, and whipping them into what seemed to be a near frenzy. Magnius exited his shuttle.

The man spoke. "And there! There is the despot! The man who comes to tell us to return to our homes, to stop us from being free, to enslave us! The self-appointed First Magnate of filth!"

Magnius smiled, and tried to remember if he had seen the man before. Wasn't he a political refugee, of some kind? Yes, that was probably it. A political refugee... one that had been supposed to go to that damned colony-exile world. First Landing.

He raised his hand, and the people turned 'round to face him. Immediately, bottles flew, guns fired, and a stream of obscenities smashed towards him. Had he been unprotected, he would've died. And the attacks merely.. stopped, their momentum halted in midair, gravity pulling them to the ground.

Magnius amplified his voice, using his creativity to make it boom out above the crowd. "I am Magnius. The First Magnate. The rightful ruler of the New Realm, and your leader. You will cease the charade immediately."

The people looked stunned. And then the man spoke back.

"So say you, lier! Slavemaster!"

And the people turned back to the man, who was raging at Magnius, and their obscenities began again. Ignoring them completely, Magnius walked up towards the plassteel platform, tossing those who got in his way aside with his PK.

One step. The man shouted at him. Two steps. The man held up his hand, as if trying to stop him. Three steps. The man cringed backwards, and pulled out a laspistol. Before he could pull the trigger, the air around it liquefied, freezing it in place.

And Magnius spoke. "You are all guilty of treason against the New Realm. As such, I have devised a punishment for you. Firstly, you will see your erstwhile leader die."

Had they had more heart, the people would've swarmed the state, then. They could've killed him, Magnius knew. But his manner intimidated them. He took three long strides, and hoisted the smaller man up by his shirt, holding him by one hand. And, as he saw the man scream, dwarfed by the noise of those rallying there, he plunged his hand into the man's chest. Amplified and heated by his creativity, he ripped out the man's heart, the heat searing it away to nothing.

Contemptously, he cast it aside, and dropped the man, leaving his seared and scarred, dessicated corpse there. The people were hysterical. And then.. it was time for the brainboard. Activating it, he felt his power amplify, his coercivity empower itself to be able to cover the crowd near him with ease.

Using the coercivity.. he calmed the people, the sheer force of his will silencing them. They felt the urge to stand still, and be quiet. Slowly, the silence rippled out through the crowd, Magnius taking hold of more and more of them.

"You are failures. Failures for the New Realm. Failures who are not worth the food they consume. As such, this is my dictate. A quarter of you shall die. Those of you who are not vital to the city, and are male, are of little use to me, in any case. You shall all die. Secondly, another quarter of you will be neutered. Those who are deemed to have any spark of poor geneseed will undergo this. The remainder of this rally has been cut off - my troops are en route, as we speak. Fleeing will do you no good. That remaining half will be interrogated using a psyprobe, and be re-educated for my service. That is all."

With that, he flung one hand up dramatically, his PK smashing into those who were in his way, leaving an entire street bare for him to walk on. Flung aside, tens died through sheer application of force. Magnius returned to his shuttle, calmly entered it, and gave the order for his troops to do what he had just decreed - they would be there within a few minutes.

The shuttle re-docked with the shipyards, and he hurried up, back into Gaiter's office.

"Well, then, Sector Magnate. That problem is dealt with. As I have said, continue construction of the Worldgates, construct a new shipyard, and upgrade the existing ones. And, as per normal, do not allow anyone to discover the location of the Realm."