NationStates Jolt Archive

The Novus Rimor moved silently though space. With no medium in which to carry sound, the otherwise loud sublight engines of the ship only emitted a bright yellow light as the ship was moved forward, soon it lengthened and dissapeared into a hole in space. The ship was now in subspace, the domain of nothingness where FTL travel was possible.
The ship moved through this barren, glowing space of nothingness at great speeds in its travel toward the region of space ahead of it. Tachyons moved past the ship as it continued to its yet unknown destination. However, this peace and tranquility was disturbed as the ship was suddenly ripped from subspace and quickly descended back into normal space.
[Bridge of the Novus Rimor]
The crew sat in their seats on the bridge surrounded by countless holographic displays. They all sat silently giving commands to the ship. There was no current need to manually imput commands as they were all connected by a neural network. if Needed one person could run the whole ship but while everyone was there such a abnormal thing was not needed.
In the neural network the captain asked for a report. The report he received surprised him. "We are in a unrecorded cluster, behind us is a possibly naturally occuring forcefield that shields the area from outside detection. The location of this cluster matches with a untried stargate coordinate in the ancient database. Its name is infinitus tractus. There is no further information in the database on this location.
We are surrounded by several hundred stars seemingly each has an abudence of minerals and an abnormally large amount of habitable planets has been detected."
"Send an encrypted subspace message to the home world, We just might have found a new place to colonise"
[Several weeks later]
A 100 ship strong fleet dropped out of hyperspace and passed the barrier that cloaked the large cluster. They proceeded to the center of the cluster where a small colony was established via the stargate. The cluster belonged to Prates and perhaps it would be a good place to expand.

((OOC:
its open
1000 stars located across several dozen square light years
Officially it all belongs to Prates but since I will not be able to use the whole thing there are plots available for lease
Plot details:
number: 25
Stars in each: approximately 40
Planetary details: seven planets per system on average
habitable: approximately one in every three systems
Terrestrial: 3-4 per system
Gas: 2-4 per system
Inner Asteroid belt: present in 1/2 of systems
cost: N/A
Rules: no strip mining, gas giant core tapping, war is discouraged, adhere to these rules and no problem, just ask for premission from the fleet present in the system before claiming a parcel.

Note: if you are interested in joining just join, since I really dont know anyone here anyone is welcome since I am not at war, just post a little snipet about receiving permission from my government))

OOC: I'll take a plot, 40 stars and all. I'll post something up soon ICly showing it.

Official Statement of the President of the United States

Greetings, Freemen.

Even as I speak, me and my assistants are negotiating the final details of a treaty with the government of Prates, allowing the United States of Allanea to lay claim to forty systems the new star cluster they discovered. The systems are a new Clondike, a wealth of resources and inhabitable territory beyond the wildest dreams of our nation.

I would like to first thank the free trader Joshua Gaines for locating the cluster and establishing contract with Prates. He will be rewarded richer than anybody in Allanean history - with a star system all of his own.

As of now, it appears that the Cluster has been created by an ancient super-civilization for some purpose of their own, but the super-civilization seems to have moved on for some reason. Only this can explain the presence of multiple habitable worlds in every system of the cluster. Let me say it again, Freemen: Multiple. Habitable. Worlds.

We will be subject to precious few restrictions – the government of Prates would like us to avoid core-tapping gas giants and blowing up worlds for the material. So we won't. Other than that, ladies and gentlemen, let me be the first to announce a new age in the history of the United States of Allanea.

An age of greatness. An age of prosperity. Most importantly, an age of freedom.

For centuries, it was known that the liberty we enjoy here in Allanea hinges on us maintaining a healthy, low population density. Should we allow ourselves to be crammed into a hive-city like Knootoss or the megacities of ZMI, our freedom will be soon gone forever.

With this new sector, our liberty is secure forever.

And thus I hereby dub the area we claim the Libertas Sector. May those who move there – of which I know there will be many – find true liberty there, on that new, but surely not final, frontier. I invite all our friends and allies to move in and to petition the people of Prates for their own slice of this wonderful new cluster.

That is all.

And may God continue to bless Allanea.

With the cluster discovered by a foreign race secrecy about it was no longer required. Thus the government of prates decided to announce to the wold the location of the cluster.

"Peoples of the universe. We have recently come across a location of immense wealth. A location of numerous star systems with numerous habitable planets. We cannot colonise the whole thing alone, and though it is within our territory we invite all the people of the universe to come to the area. We have divided the entirety of the cluster of systems into 40 segments, each containing roughly the name number of star systems. A nations may come and claim one of these so long as they abide my the rules set forth. We hope that this will usher in a new time of prosperity and wealth both for our nation and many others"

[Middle, Pratese Claim]
The pratese claim was being developed. There were thirty ships in the pratese claim. Some patrolled the system but most helped with the construction. On the planet nanobots began constructing buildings which were quickly inhabited by large numbers of colonists entering the cluster through the stargate. These colonists would continue to build in the system. A mass driver and space elevator was already under constriction.

A message was sent to the Prateian nation, serving to establish the claim of the Ascendants.

The Telrosian Ascendancy would like to ask the Prateian authority for the right to come forth and claim a plot of this cluster for ourselves. We are assembling a colonization fleet as we speak. We will not require any aid, we only ask for your permission.

Message to the government of Telros:
permission is granted, please feel free to sue the planets to your liking so long as you abide by the stated rules.
---Pratese foreign Ministry

"Of course; we have what we need without using such wasteful things as strip mining planets and the like. We thank the Prateians for their hospitality.

The sector of space which had been laid aside for the Ascendants was a rather large slice, which was surprising to Breanna. She had expected a large amount of systems, but 40 systems? She shook her head. This was going to propel their economy to insane heights and give them the material and monetary power they would need in a war. She sent out a call to the colonization fleet. Many were coming from the now fully situated five core systems of the Ascendancy, by colonized and defense grids online.

"Begin the jump. Set to work immediately and repeat the success you made at the core systems."

They shifted into phase space and began their journey to the cluster. Within hours, they arrived and smoothly transitioned back to the normal dimension. They began a furious program of beginning construction and perimeter defense. Another fifty ships had been requisitioned by this effort, along with the many smaller ships and colonization ships. The fifty ships moved out to the perimeters of their massive acquisition, setting up probes to monitor the areas they could not cover. Five core systems, like last time, were selected for initial colonization. The Xel'athi dreadnaughts, followed by fleets of shuttles, landed on the planets and began working, the millions of Xel'athi workers pouring onto the planets. They started construction on their hives and civilizations, working to build factories, power plants, and everything else. All the while, setting aside points for the Ascendants hidden cities and civilizations.

[bump for the night, OOC note, if you are interested in joining just join, since I really dont know anyone here anyone is welcome since I am not at war, just post a little snipet about receiving permission from my government]

If you do not mind - a map of the Libertas Sector [naturally not to scale]:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v42/allanea/Maps/cluster.jpg

http://img299.imageshack.us/img299/2295/kostemetsianforeignaffaie3.png

Long-Range Message to the Pratese Government

The Kostemetsian Government would like to claim a plot, to be named the Unity Territories. We are having some overcrowding problems on our Internal Six Worlds and need to establish further space colonies. As the populations grow, so too would those of the outer worlds. We are currently in possession of the resources necessary to terraform such planets.

Please reply at your earliest convenience.

http://img184.imageshack.us/img184/2616/jbovillez3.png
James Bovill
Kostemetsian General Secretary and Interim Foreign Minister

http://img299.imageshack.us/img299/2295/kostemetsianforeignaffaie3.png

Long-Range Message to the Pratese Government

The Kostemetsian Government would like to claim a plot, to be named the Unity Territories. We are having some overcrowding problems on our Internal Six Worlds and need to establish further space colonies. As the populations grow, so too would those of the outer worlds. We are currently in possession of the resources necessary to terraform such planets.

Please reply at your earliest convenience.

http://img184.imageshack.us/img184/2616/jbovillez3.png
James Bovill
Kostemetsian General Secretary and Interim Foreign Minister

To: James Bovill
From: Pratese Government
Subject: infinitus tractus
Body: Your government has the permission of the pratese government to conduct colonization and system exploitation in whatever sector of infinitus tractus you so choose. Please abide by the rules and we shall have no quarrel.
---Pratese Foreign Ministry

A single frigate appeared near the vessels the Prates was using to govern the allocation of the new territories. The ebon vessel simply remained where it faded into existence, silently watching. After several minutes, a message filled the minds of those aboard the ship.

Greetings

We are the Ta’Nar. We have interest in laying claim over one of your domains. We would like to request this one.

(A mental map formed showing the centrally located territory that was not yet claimed by anyone.)

If you approve please reply immediately.

The strange ship fell silent, waiting for the owners to return with a message of acceptance or denial.

http://img299.imageshack.us/img299/2295/kostemetsianforeignaffaie3.png

Long-Range Message to the Pratese Government
Thank you. The Kostemetsian nation is now a constitutional federal republic consisting of forty-six states, forty of those being in the Unity plot. Immigrant shipping will begin immediately, and we assure you that our people will not cause their neighbours any harm. The Government wishes to profusely thank its Pratese counterpart, as well as the crew of the Novus Rimor, for allowing it to colonise in Infinitus Tractus.

http://img184.imageshack.us/img184/2616/jbovillez3.png
James Bovill
Kostemetsian General Secretary and Interim Foreign Minister

To the Government of Kostemetsia:

As agreed in our non-aggression and limited assistance pact, the Principality of Northern Rangeria requests that the following message be transmitted to the government of Prates. In conjunction, the Principality is interested in purchasing or leasing Kostemetsian space-faring technology, and seek Kostemetsian scientific and military assistance in the newly established KATK (Kansallinen Avaruustutkimuksen Keskus, National Centre of Space Research and Exploration), a Northern Rangerian government organization working in conjunction with the National Academy, Ministry of Trade and Ministry of Defence.



----------------------------------------------------------------
Official Communique to the Government of Prates

The Principality of Northern Rangeria would like to claim a Sector of the Infinitus Tractus cluster for purposes of scientific research and development. The Principality would also like to maintain the possibility of future colonisation in the sector by Her citizenry and allies.



On behalf of His Highness Prince Mikhail IV, Dux Maximus, Lord of Northern Rangeria and Uusmaa, Protector of the Most Sanctified Beard of St Gid of the Greens,

Duke Stapani Aalthone
Minister of the Exterior

Dr. Veljami Kaukola
Director of the KATK

*snip*
----------------------------------------------------------------
Official Communique to the Government of Prates

The Principality of Northern Rangeria would like to claim a Sector of the Infinitus Tractus cluster for purposes of scientific research and development. The Principality would also like to maintain the possibility of future colonisation in the sector by Her citizenry and allies.



On behalf of His Highness Prince Mikhail IV, Dux Maximus, Lord of Northern Rangeria and Uusmaa, Protector of the Most Sanctified Beard of St Gid of the Greens,

Duke Stapani Aalthone
Minister of the Exterior

Dr. Veljami Kaukola
Director of the KATK
Message to the Principality of Northern Rangeria
The government of prates allows permission for the people of Northern Rangeria a lease to a sector of the cluster for an indefinite period of time. We hope that the close proximity of all these nations will foster trade and deplomacy between our varied nations.
---Government of Prates

[Pratese claim, Empty Space]
With the advent of the numerous races interested in the cluster the pratese government determined that a official meeting place for all the races in the region. With the the authorisation to construct a large space station as a neutral point in open space was approved. The space station had to me modular, able to change as the political and economic situation in the cluster changed. Thus an entirely new design was made.
The new space station, to be called Stability, was a large modular station to be constructed entirely by nanobots on site. Ships would have to bring in materials that would then be used to construct the entirely of the station. Also with its modular design new segments could be added at any time. The station itself would consist of a singular station in the middle. From this roughly hexagonal shaped station (when viewed from the "top") spokes would extend. attacked to these spokes would be rings. These rings consist of modules sheathed in a strong alloy. More spokes would extend from this ring. At first only donging ports would be on these spokes but eventually should it be needed, the spokes could be extended into a new ring. Thus the entirety of the station could expand so long as the resources needed were acquired. And also being in space, additional rings could be added vertically thus making a roughly spherical shape. It was this design that was chosen for the station, and now it was being built.
Around fifty ships emerged from hyperspace each dragging with it a large amount of refined metals and synthetic composites. These containers were lumped together in a large heap. Then projectiles were shot out of the ships. These projectiles impacted the large mass and replicated. Soon the entirety of the mass was a moving silver blog that was rearranging itself into the desired shape. This process was repeated several times until the station has the central station surrounded by a single ring with docking spokes. The station was done and could be used by the pulbic.
[Message to all in the cluster]
The Space Station Stability has been completed at the following coordinates. We encourage any and all nations here to share discoveries and trade with other nations at the space station. We hope it to be neutral ground where all can meat in peace.

((I guess you could, would be interesting to discover that there was some nation in here.... but you would have to be a fairly new FT nation to not have colonised it already, preferably limited to one sector))

OOC: I am planning on going into FT. I was curious if I could use this as a location for my species although I'm not sure how that would work out. Anyways, just curious and working on my technology. I'm detailed like that.

Sorry I posted with DRB, I forgot I was using it.

((I guess you could, would be interesting to discover that there was some nation in here.... but you would have to be a fairly new FT nation to not have colonised it already, preferably limited to one sector))

Yeah, I was thinking something in the neighbourhood of half a sector or so. Yes, my intelligent organisms just started exploring their system. Think NFT tech right now, approaching FT. They probably wouldn't have explored more than half a sector.

((Do you have aim or MSN, perhaps we could talk))

(OOC: MSN is for ppl I know IRL so I guess we could use AIM....)

Bring Up My Post

Lucas

Kevin Nivenski smiled a little bit as he saw his company starships appear out of hyperspace. They were large vessels, each at the very least seven kilometers long. They descended into low orbit over Lucas Two, the first habitable world of the Lucas system, and prepared to do their work – which, interestingly, was quite simple.

Passage to the Lucas system cost a tidy $150,000 – but for that sum, you would receive a pre-made house and a 360-acre homestead on the planet. Many people considered that a bargain. And now, they would collect.

There were flashes on the sides of the freighters, not unlike the flashes of ortillery cannon being fired. Which they were, in effect.

Thousands of re-entry modules rained down upon Lucas' three continents. As their ablative armor tore itself apart on re-entry, what emerged was a hail of large, metallic balls – the future homes of the colonists, which were now waiting upon the ships.

Two hours later, they would make the trip down, too – and the first colony in the Libertas Sector would be founded.

Simultaneously, other giant freighters moved the floating platforms that comprised the city of Neo-Dallas into its final resting point – the planet of the same name, poised near the middle of the system. The people of Neo-Dallas would find the northern oceans of their new home far more hospitable and far more pleasant then that oceans of Mars, and with good reason.

Nivensky in the meanwhile was reaping a tidy profit. He was about to move community of Sisters of Liberty and other assorted C'tanists to triple worlds of Carmel System, and had contracted to build their new Fortress-Monastery on the surface. The Order of Our Lady's Might would be very pleased with the quality of his work.

Neo-Dallas

Ilana Lippmanovich took a degree of pleasure at her new assignment. The locals would be far more sensible, far less provincial in their attitudes, and perhaps with a better view towards the Allaneans. And this time, she had a naval battlegroup – the former Mercury Defense Force, now the Libertas Defense Force – backing her up.

But none of this meant she would not have to work hard at her new job.

Already she was sending out messages to the Kostemestians, the Pratese, and the Telrosians, soliciting permission for a diplomatic meeting.

Message to Allanea:
From: Station Stability
To: Neo-Dallas
Subject: Diplomatic Meeting
Body:
Your request for a diplomatic meeting has been received. This space station has the ability to conduct such meeting and would be an appropriate place for such a meeting. Should you wish to this station already has the nessecary Pratese representatives for most situations. We invite you to this station to host the meeting.

The Garbage Men, always looking for opportunity to expand it's market looked upon this newly opened up cluster with dreams of wealth and opportunity.

Already swathes of space had been gobbled up (although with the permision of the Prates government. They wanted in on this as well.


From: Robert Jones, Chief Marketing Officer, The Garbage Men
To: Prates Government
Subject: Re: Libertas Cluster

To Whom it may concern;

The Garbage Men is an inter-steller extra-national corporation dedicated to the service industry. In handling of all manner of waste, and sanitation needs. Our friendly, helpful and most importantly discrete staff will help deal with any need that may arrise both for the Prates government as well as any of the other leasees
We eagily await your reply.

Yours sincerly

Robert Jones, Chief MArketing Officer, The Garbage Men
Your friendly sanitation providers.

“My Lord. If I might crave a boon?”

At the sound, Lord Atum glanced down at the floor to behold his current war master, Geb. It was a mostly superfluous title these days; he would rather trust his First Prime with most difficult or demanding tasks, “Yes?” he asked, curious to see quite what this child of his cloned children wanted.

“Lord, I have been wronged, and would like your permission to seek restitution.”

“I see, and who is the transgressor.”

“Thy vassal Morrigan, Lord,” Geb said.

“Then you know full well the answer. To deplete the numbers of my servants in frivolous violence is treason against me.”

“But Lord, the slur against my honour-”

“Is less than the slur against your honour if you were to act against the wishes of your God.”

“Quite correct Lord. If I may be excused…”

“No, I have a task for you. Take one of the Chappa’i of Edfu, and load it aboard your ship. Intelligence brings word that humans from a distant world have uncovered a lost domain of the ancients. There may yet be something there that I want, while many there are colonising the region, I care not for that. You are to find what I want. I will send instruction regarding what to search for when you arrive.”

“But Lord, in my battleship ( http://www.necrontyr.plus.com/images/BATT.GIF), it will take a great length of time to reach the galaxy proper…”

“The journey will do you good. I will send word of your arrival, in an effort to solicit the cooperation of the local peoples.”

“But Lord, Thoth could surely-”

“Thoth serves me on another project from which neither he, nor his vessel, can be spared.”

“As you desire, My Lord. But I do not understand, why did you have to wait until humans discovered such a place… It seems unnecessary, given the bredth of your almighty wisdom.”

Atum turned fully, white silken robes swirling in the pale moonlight of Mnewer, “You cannot know what is or is not necessary in the Grand Design. Do as thou art bid, and do not question.”

“What Grand Design?”

“Mine…” Atum said firmly, the hooded cloak shifting a little as he said it, black mask twisting on itself, totally obscuring his features behind an ever shifting illusion of the primordial waters.

The Ascendant expansion was going on a fairly good pace, with the five core systems of their claim, being very developed. Massive Xel'athi hive-cities were popping up like great bulges across the planet, connected by underground tunnels and sophisticated tubes through which much traffic occurred. The Ascendants own civilization, built by a section of the Xel'athi but over seen by their masters, was also rising. A hidden series of cities, full of glittering glory and spledour, all hidden from sight by their phase generators.

The shipyards were under construction, along with the extensive, and exhaustive, defense platform systems. When the Pratian call for representatives came from their space station Stability, they immediately sent a message.

"As soon as we are able, we will be sending a representative to come to the Stability and represent us in dealings with other nations."

When the Allaneans, allies from the ESUS alliance, sent a message, another reply was given. "We welcome the offer for negotiations, but we must ask. Will this be private in nature, or more public? If the latter, then we can just use the Pratian offered station for it. We both have strict schedules and responsibilities, and keeping to both is key in this operation."

OOC:

Please note, I substituted my placeholder with an IC request.

Previously placed placeholder. (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=13390157&postcount=12)

((OOC: I may not have specified this earlier but this cluster is in an area above the normal galactic disk, not greatly so but still enough that it is away from most trade routes... also quoting quotes is just annoying))

The Garbage Men, always looking for opportunity to expand it's market looked upon this newly opened up cluster with dreams of wealth and opportunity.

Already swathes of space had been gobbled up (although with the permision of the Prates government. They wanted in on this as well.
From: Robert Jones, Chief Marketing Officer, The Garbage Men
To: Prates Government
Subject: Re: Libertas Cluster

To Whom it may concern;

The Garbage Men is an inter-steller extra-national corporation dedicated to the service industry. In handling of all manner of waste, and sanitation needs. Our friendly, helpful and most importantly discrete staff will help deal with any need that may arrise both for the Prates government as well as any of the other leasees
We eagily await your reply.

Yours sincerly

Robert Jones, Chief MArketing Officer, The Garbage Men
Your friendly sanitation providers.

The Message from Garbage man was received and a reply sent back.
From: Pratese Government
To: Garbage man Government
Subject: Waste Management
Body: The waste management of our country is highly advanced. Relatively Few wastes go recycled. Those that don't (nuclear waste basically) is stored safely in specifically constructed depots in deep space. We therefore don't need your services on any large scale. However, you do have our premission to expand in the cluster and obtain contracts from any of the Leasers in the cluster.





A single frigate appeared near the vessels the Prates was using to govern the allocation of the new territories. The ebon vessel simply remained where it faded into existence, silently watching. After several minutes, a message filled the minds of those aboard the ship.

Greetings

We are the Ta’Nar. We have interest in laying claim over one of your domains. We would like to request this one.

(A mental map formed showing the centrally located territory that was not yet claimed by anyone.)

If you approve please reply immediately.

The strange ship fell silent, waiting for the owners to return with a message of acceptance or denial.

Message to the Unknown ship proclaiming to be a Ta'Nar vessel.
To: Ta'Nar
From: Pratese Government
Subject: Cluster Claim
Body: Your request for a sector in the cluster has been approved. The territory you have specified is close to ours and we hope for good relationships in the future. Please remember that the Space Station Stability is available as a market place for any of the races here and should serve well in facilitating trade between our varied nations.
---(the newly Formed) Pratese Cluster claim management department

Telros-Uir Sector Map:
http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k155/Uiri/UirStarMap.jpg

White Circle - System with: No Habitable Planet nor Asteroid Belt.
Blue Circle - System with: Habitable Planet(s) but no Asteroid Belt.
Red Circle - System with: No Habitable Planet but an Asteroid Belt.
Orange Circle - System with: Habitable Planet(s) and Asteroid Belt.
Green Line - 5 lightyears distance
White Box - Trisystem
White Writing - Trisystem and system designations. System 1 in the Uir Alpha Trisystem would be called Uir Alpha 1. Planets are named a,b,c,etc. based on proximity to their parent star. The third planet from Star Uir Alpha1 would be Uir Alpha1c.

RP post may or may not come.

[Gate System, Primary habitable world, Nothern Pole, a NF-3 Class Jumper]

the NF-3 Class Jumper was a direct descendant of reverse-engineered Ancient Gateships. The gateship, an effective means of gate travel, was not as effective when compared to larger designs. The NF-3 Class jumper was designed to solve this. It is too large to fit through a gate but it is equipped with a hyperdrive and carried superior weapons to the original jumper and also carried a adaptive cloak/ shield several times more powerful then the original jumper. Its control computers were also more flexible, not requiring the physical movement of crystals to change the actions of the ship.

it was in this larger, ship that six people sat at their consoles with neural interfaces. Their minds communicated to the ship through their hands. The ship also had a built in genetic marker scanner. It could only be piloted by Pratese people or people with the ATA gene. Everyone sat quietly as the ship's scanners scanned around the vessel looking for anything out of the ordinary and producing detailed topographical and resource maps. These maps were stored in the data banks for later retrieval when the ship went back to the main city centered around the gate on the primary continent.

Suddenly a blinking dot appeared on the HUD. The person at the sensor console blinked in surprise before speaking. "Captain, a large artificial mass has been located by the sensors one hundred km from our current location."

"Is that not ocean?" asked the captain.

"Yes sir, it is also surrounded by a sensor dampening field."

The captain though before saying "Tell command of our discovery, perhaps something important is down there."


[One Week Later]

A mass of NF-3 Class Jumpers moved on toward the underwater artificial object, sensor dampeners limited any real accurate reading on the object and thus the only way to see what was down there was a manual journey to the site. All the NF-3 class jumpers had been outfitted with extra plating to survive the underwater pressures. The ships quickly entered the sea resulting in a large splash. Soon there were twenty ships under the water and they rapidly descended under water. They soon came upon the object in question. The object was a large city, it was almost twice the size of a standard city ship and also had a large shield around it. Using ancient codes previously aquired the ships entered the city, then waiting in slumber for any who might come. All the ships docked in the several jumper bays that lined the cities. Numbers of the jumpers were apperantly combat oriented symbolizing that the station was not entirely peaceful. The crews then left, carrying numerous prototype ZPMs to power the city and replace the what might possibly be depleted ZPMs already powering the city.


[Control Room]

Ten people entered the primary control room for the city. The City's ZPMs had been replaced, the old ones having been at a low 5% power reserve left. The city was once again coming back to life after mellenia of slumber. Perhaps now the city could be brought back to its former glory.


[A day later]

The city was comming together, shipments of people came and numerous functions of the city were brought back online. Apperantly the entirety of the city was supposed to remain under water, a hyperdrive unit not there. slowly its secrets were being unraveled.... and perhaps soon the greatest mystery of them all, why was the cluster there, why was there seemingly a natural cloaking field, and why was there nothing left of the ancients or whatever race populated it? These were all good questions.. and as all good questions they lacked real answers. Soon though they might be answered.

((OOC: if you want you can discover something in one of your planets... or perhaps an abandonded station or something... Its the beginning of an arc into unravelling the mystery of this place... a place hidden from the galaxy and full of habitable worlds.... obviously artificial in construct... lets see what we can come up with))

Stalinvast

The world was magnificient in it's own way, thought Ilana. Normally “beautiful in it's own way” is an euphemism for “mindblowingly ugly”, but this time it was different. There was snow, covering Stalinvast I as far as the eye could see from the first impromptu spaceport that the colonists could set up.

In orbit, the giant freighter XV-5667 “Opportunity”, once purchased by the United States government from the Zero-One Monocorporation, was being torn apart for scrap. Now that it brought the first colonists from Earth, it was at the end of its long, exciting service life, and it would now be more useful as material for the various things the colonists were going to need while they prepared the worlds of Stalinvast System for their fate.

And judging by how some enterprising soul has already installed the first ski route on a small mountain in plain sight of the spaceport – so far just Stalinvast Spaceport, but Ilana was sure they'd come up with a better name later – the fate of Stalinvast I was to be Allanea's premier winter resort.

Even the more reason to visit the ratian space station, then.

"Miss Lipmpmanovich, your transport to Prates is ready.” - a Valaquine (http://wiki.esusalliance.co.uk/index.php?title=Valaquine) bodyguard intruded on her thoughts for a moment.

"Very well, Krsss-th-qua.” - she took care to pronounce the name exactly as it would have sounded coming from the throat of a Valaquine newscaster. She likely missed half a tone somewhere, but it's the thought that counts. - “Lead the way.”a

Worlds.

Of all the resources at the disposal of the Chronosian Imperium it is worlds that form the skeleton. They supply the great War Machine of the Imperial armies, forge the mighty vessels that bring torment to the Material plane and birthed the mortal meat who fed its armies, serving under its baleful rule. Reasons such as these have precipitated every major Chronosian war, from the "assisstance" rendered to the Colonies of Kobol, to the Charybdis Crusade and beyond.

Why then should their eye not turn towards this new score of worlds, spoken of with increasingly whispered awe across the span of known space. Fresh new worlds that yearned to be taken and controlled, to be colonised and exploited. New rivals and foes to be quashed and conquered, new peoples to be illuminated to the divine glory of Chaos.

Through the howling torrents of the Immaterium they came, a fleet of exploration, colonisation and conquest. A fleet girded with the raiment of War, a fleet of a hundred ships sent forth to secure an entire sector in the name of the Dark Gods, names which echoed even now upon the cold existence of the Sector.

Daenax. They would call it Daenax

Prospector-Captain Alexian Daenax smiled cruelly as he gazed out at the wondrous grouping of stars that they beheld, only just having torn free of the Immaterium. The Daenax Sector had a nice ring to it, an almost regal bearing on his own name. Others, in their time, would name worlds after their own lineages, after Gods and Primarchs...But the honor of the Sector went to he, leader of the Colonisation contingent of the mission.

He let his eyes drift to the rugged, ancient prows of the Chronosian warships that followed with them, feral dwellers of the void, like raptors among the stars. It made him proud to do the Emperor's work, to do the will of the Gods, he thought as he formed his fingers into a crude eight pointed star and mouthed a silent prayer.

"Ahead full. And have the slave-helots give us a tune, something bloody and full of life. The Cruel Gods Reward their Servants All" He smiled as the tortured cants of praise rose from below decks, voxed around the ship and across the fleet, the air ripe with the forced suffering of hundreds.

Was there anything more glorious in this universe than being a staunch and blessed Chronosian?

OOC: Could you reserve for me about 3 or 5 star systems? Because my FT NS focus entirely resources on improving their current star system to the maximum possible instead of expanding and leaving several undeveloped colonies. Once(after two or three centuries, by the 2300s probably, current timeline of Solar Communes is around 2180 and I don't have time to write a new factbook with their 2300s version) they build asteroid mining facilities everywhere in their system, cover their gas giant with Helium-3 mining stations, terraform their both planets to something more hospitable, have almost the surface of an entire planet in the total habitable area of their torus space habitats (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Internal_view_of_the_Stanford_torus.jpg) and build a Dyson ring (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyson_Sphere#Dyson_swarm) surrounding their sun to crown their passage to a Type II civilization (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_II_Civilization), then they'll be coming to colonize other systems... with gene-loaded self-replicating motherships (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-replicating_spacecraft#Replicating_.22seeder.22_ships)

[Underwater City]

The underwater city was home to a large network of long range scanners. Apparently the activation of the city also lead to the reactivation of numerous sensor satellites that extended the range of the already long range sensors of the city. It was these satellites that detected the anomaly in space.

One man was at each station and each minded his own business as reports came in from the teams exploring the city. All of a sudden a warning came up on the large screen behind everyone.

The person at one of the consoles exclaimed, "We apparently have long range sensors that cover the entirety of the cluster."

The person in command at the time looked up. "Elaborate" He ordered.

"There is a network of sensors in place at numerous places in the cluster. There is an anomaly here." he pointed to a system. "sensors show several ships emerging from what appears to be a rip in space time leading to another, possibly parallel dimension. The ships have not announced themselves and are therefore illegally here."

The commanding officer walked around to the console at which the sensor reports came from. He looked at the data before going to the comm. The following message was sent out over subspace.


To unknown ship:
From: Pratese colony
Subject: Intrusion
Body: Unknown ships you are intruding in Pratese territory. State your intentions! If you wish to colonize or otherwise exploit these systems please fill out the attacked documents to obtain permission from the government to exploit the said systems in a lease. There will be no quarrel with us as long as you agree to this and follow the set rules.
---PCCMD

((OOC: I see no reason why you can't just request a partial sector.))

OOC:

Here's the list of the worlds I've dealt with in passing or in total:

Carmel: C'tanist colony with a population of around 500,000 people.

Gaines' World: Two habitable worlds owned lock, stock, and barrel by Joshua Gaines, his wife and three daughters. Population is naturally 5.

Lucas: Colony worlds being developed under the aegis of Allanean Arms, Incorporation, population goal will be 100 million when all development is complete.

Neo-Dallas: Sector capital, has it's own status of statehood, population 230 million on the main habitable world, shipyards under construction on secondary system.

Stalinvast: Planned to be a tourist resort with a population of 10 million when all work is complete.

Total Population goals so far: ~350 million

An IC post is forthcoming with more stuff.

OOC:

Prates, check your origional account's TGs. I sent you one with a bunch of questions and can't continue without them answered.

Official Inquiry from the Kirill Nivensky Charity Foundation to the Solar Communes:

We heard that your civilisation utilizes Stanford Torii. Please inform us of the price and personnel capacity of your Torii, and furthermore of your Dyson rings. Further we wish to inquire of the possibility of construction of a Niven Ringworld by your civilisation.

As this all went on, the Allaneans continued to develop their various worlds. The next world to be developed would be Laumer, with its three habitable worlds and two gas giants [which, naturally, were used for fuel harvesting, though outright coretapping was not affected].

Laumer Alpha would be extremely cold, and would receive a population of 600,000 Dohwar settlers and 400,000 humans, mostly from areas of Allanea which were already very cold. It would also be the site for a heavy-duty Allanean Arms refinery. The small population allowed Allanean Arms, Incorporated to pollute with reckless abandon as they worked on their product.

Laumer Beta would be settled by a population of Tidanian avians and – yet again – Valaquine. The bizarrely-shaped aliens believed, quite rightfully, that nobody would persecute them for their shape, at least not this far out. They did take precautions, though. Six ion cannon arrays were built (rumour had it Kevin Nivensky helped foot the bill) and operated by the Laumer Beta Benevolent Militia, and General Prrrrsh-Qua was appointed by the locals to command it.

Laumer Gamma became a closed down military facility, with the Allanean government closing FTL and sensor access to within fifteen light minutes of the planets. What precisely was the facility for was anybody's guess- the Army, strangely, brought in little heavy equipment.

[Ancient City]
Numerous technicians stood around the reaserch lab pulling files out of the ancient mainframe. The files were all heavily encrypted and each person worked on breaking the encryption on the files. Progress was slow but steady and the numerous computers of the expedition began to unravel the plaintext of the enciphered messages.
Soon however, one person exclaimed "The file is decoded!" several people rushed over to the file. It was small allowing for a relatively easier deciphering due to its perceived lack of importance, but it was such files that sped up the process on larger mroe secure files. it contained a log of a scientist working on the project. It contained the following message:
Year 32 of the 2nd Cluster
The city is finally expanding, the area is hidden from sensors and even if our enemies manage to find this safe haven we will will be hidden from them. Now we work on ways to develop this cluster. Our allies have already combined a great deal of our technology toward this effort. All our races are now reaping the benefits as we can develop our technology in secrecy even as our other colonies and fleets fight the dreaded enemy.
Now we work on a war to.... the message was suddenly cut off

"Thats it this computer is useless, there was some sort of worm in the decoded message, everyone, make sure you isolate the files you are working on when you decode them."
Work would continue, it was only a minor setback and further details had been provided on the cluster.

Telros and I are RPing contact here:

Linky ( or P:mq; ) (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=548299)

[bump]

The Fallen Empire had not only reached an agreement with Prates for one of the territories located at the center of the Cluster but also was requested to help enforce their simple rules and requirements. They were effectively an extension of the authority of Prates, almost like the police in a way.

As soon as news of the approval reached the Ta'Nar, they contacted one of their allies who expressed intrest in some of their worlds for settlement. The Ta'Nar did not need them so sub-letting them out was in their best intrest. The remainder of the worlds would remain fallow until they were needed, patrolled in case squatters or pirates tried to settle them without permission.

A single message was sent to the Skiss, informing them the worlds were ready and waiting.


OOC:

Sorry it took so long, college and work tends to interfere at times. I hope this is enough for Skiss to post.

The spoor of life bearing worlds and those so readily terraformed to more specific needs had attracted the attentions (and some what argue, the predations) of the Sskiss like a fresh carcass…

And the Sskiss, with the full intent on plundering it, would do so copiously…

A fleet of ships appeared, several of them, in a close formation, seemingly out of nowhere as if intent on invasion. However, this was not an invasion intent on bringing death and destruction to a perceived enemy, this was not the “teeth and claws of the race”, the symbol of Sskiss might, but was in fact, simply an invasion of Sskiss colonists.

However, there are those who both dislike and respect the Sskiss that have stated in the past that there is in fact little difference between an Sskiss battle fleet and a Sskiss colony fleet. Perhaps the only differences between the two are the intensity and the rate at which such an invasion occurs….

The fleet in question was basically composed of three different types of craft. The first and most crucial of these were the huge colony ships with their several million Sskiss colonists and the enormous tonnage of supplies needed for both the short and long term to sustain them. Their were three of these ships, fully automated and controlled (by several linked Sskiss quasi-organic data nodes) looked like a linear series of fat inter-connected organic looking disks, broadest at the center and gradually tapering off toward the edges. Each of the disks was connected to the other at the center, making both ships to resemble a series of spools. The trio only differed as to the number of these disks; one possessed six such disks, a second possessed eight and the last possessed twelve. Each of these huge disks, at just over four kilometres in diameter and roughly one kilometre thick at the centre contained 360,000 Sskiss colonists each of which hundreds and often thousands were suspended in clustered stasis pods within. Also present were millions of tons of foodstuffs stored in egg shaped pods, tens of thousands of “growth spores” used in the creation of various quasi-organic constructs. It was a bulk cargo necessary for both the short and long term needs of the colonists.

The second type within the fleet of which there was only one seemed the most ominous, or at less the most exotic, was in fact a Sskiss terraforming ship. Like the colony ships, it too was fully automated. This ship simply looked like a prickly egg roughly half a kilometre long. It was almost purely organic in composition. Its function was of course to terraform all worlds claimed by the Sskiss as needed. It would perform this task by seeding genetically modified macro-phytoplankton spores on the surface of the target worlds which in turn would eventually transform the chosen worlds’ carbon dioxide atmosphere into an oxygen one suitable for permanent habitation. It sole function was to produce billions off these basketball sized spores.

The third type, of which there were three, were small ellipsoid shaped survey craft about 50 meters in length. These were crewed by 12 Sskiss each, most being mainly scientists specializing in various fields and disiplines, small craft pilots and a few explorers. The craft were maximized for cargo space to contain various survey probes, landers and orbiters as well as a series of sophisticated sensor arrays, labs and the like.

Earlier, when the Tyrant/Ruler, Isss’Raak and the Sskiss Hierarchy had heard about the star cluster (and its potential for “Vast/Endless” resources and “Food/Satiation everlasting”) through the Balroggians they had wasted no time formulating plans with their primary trading partners, whom the Sskiss often referred to as “Ruled/dominated by the fleshless/luminous ones”. The data was presented and the Sskiss scientists analysed it in typical detached and methodical efficiency – little, if anything escaped these “hunters of data” as they sifted through every scrap of data. A Sskiss delegate then proposed to the Balroggian government the systems that contained worlds best suited to them for their habitation. With this formality over with, the Tyrant caste Sskiss simply dictated their orders and a colony fleet was quickly cobbled together (likely from mostly mothballed ships) along with millions of colonists of various castes and species hastily assembled and placed into stasis. They were selected for physical qualities such as age, vitality, fecundity and an assortment of necessary skills. Workers, soldiers and scientists of various sorts, commanders and of course, a small number of tyrant castes were selected and would ultimately comprise the needed colonists for each world.

Along with themselves and the Balroggians, the Sskiss also discovered that some of the other powers that made up the ESUS alliance also had a claim to the cluster. Powers such as the Alleanians and the Chronosians to name a couple, and together, they would make up a powerful military and trading block (with accompanying influence of course) within the cluster. Isss’Raak and the hierarchs knew this and equally knew that the situation would provide a secure (and hopefully influential) Sskiss presence within the cluster.

It is this last realization along with the potential for mass cheap trade with the Balroggians as well as an increase in said trade (via the highly efficient Balroggian trade network) that the Sskiss leadership agreed to their colonization plans in the first place. Thus, the hidden purpose of the colonization was that the Sskiss Hierarchs planned to monopolize certain resources within the region and elsewhere if possible and two, to gain a large share of the overall trade that goes on as well as specifically with the Balroggians. The Sskiss had a term for it - “Silent/Hidden Plunder”….

But in the end, the most important reason was a simple one; the need to expand and claim territory….

It was a reason as old as life itself.

It was New Numenor that would be developed next by the Allaneans. It was not clear, yet, what the main industry of this new world would be, but the builders surely were ambitious. All three habitable worlds were named – Ar-Pharazon, Tar-Palantir and Akkalabeth, but all three would be very different.

Ar-Pharazon would become the site of several small towns, built out of the most modern materials, but were copies – adjusted for multi-terabyte high-bandwidth communications, cars and flyers – of 17th century architecture. A church was built on Ar-Pharazon, eight hundred meters tall, prepared to house 150,000 worshippers directly, and over a billion via telecoms. The plan was to grow the population to two hundred million eventually, but so far, only around 100,000 people lived on Ar-Pharazon.

Tar-Palantir became a hub for smugglers and merchants, gambling emporiums and dens of corruption. An immense casino was being built, and its owner mounted an antenna on it just to make it taller than the church on Ar-Pharazon.

Akkalabeth was almost entirely covered with water. It's surface became, very soon, covered with whale and salmon farms, as well as farms for more exotic marine life.

Official Message from the Nivensky-Ringworld Foundation

To enhance trade and accommodate for better and easier settlement of the Cluster area, we will fund 20 orbital gates, to be mounted in orbit over the various Allanean systems in the Libertas Sector of the cluster.

In the meanwhile, the Nivensky-Ringworld Foundation continued to contribute with its charity to development of the Sector. They have moved 10 orbital repair yards and 10 Golan III Space Defense Platforms into the Neo-Dallas system. Other Golan III platforms were distributed to other worlds and given to the United States Navy, whereas 30 more ORDs were given to local authorities.

And rumour had it that the people at the Foundatoin were just getting started.

OOC: Bringing this thread back to life...

IC:

The Infinitus Tractus Cluster seemed to have become quiet for an extended period of time, and in that time the once Earth-bound Principality of Northern Rangeria had established a presence in their own sector.

The first star systems the newly-acquired space fleet discovered were lifeless, but their mineral wealth seemed impressive on preliminary scans. The champaigne corks didn't come off, however, until the ships' sensors detected a habitable planet orbiting a bright yellow sun. The star system was designated Astra Princeps, and noting the virgin beauty of this green and blue orb of a planet, the new world was christened by admiral Niemi as Vestal.

From this base-world, the Principality ships extended their reach into the sector. Past a bright red giant they found the Boreus Novus and Jaeger's Star systems, both exhibiting a single habitable celestial body. Other systems were soon charted, and small colonies were established in Rex Primus, Veritas, Farhome and Bovillia systems. The KATK fleet maintained a permanent presence in these systems, and soon the colonies boasted a population of at least a million each, thanks to extensive settlement policy. The planets were treated as provinces, and as such they each were allowed certain autonomy while remaining loyal to the Earth-located government.

The documents had been filled out and returned to the Prateans, transmitted back along their poached sensor arrays and communications channels with a contemptable ease. The Chronosians hadn't truly cared that the Cluster was "Spoken for", instead they simply wanted time to settle, to explore. This momentary appeasement would serve them well, in preperation for the colonisation to come.

By the will of the Gods, this sector of space is now claimed by the glory of the Chronosian Imperium in the name of the divine Remiel, chosen of the Gods, Scion of Chaos, Master of Mankind. You claim to be the governing force here? Then it is you who must accept our claim and designate it as a vassal-sphere of Chronosian influence, to be shaped as we see fit. These systems which we claim are thus ours to command, ours to control.

This is satisfactory, yes?

OOC: Placeholder for a post.

The documents had been filled out and returned to the Prateans, transmitted back along their poached sensor arrays and communications channels with a contemptable ease. The Chronosians hadn't truly cared that the Cluster was "Spoken for", instead they simply wanted time to settle, to explore. This momentary appeasement would serve them well, in preperation for the colonisation to come.

By the will of the Gods, this sector of space is now claimed by the glory of the Chronosian Imperium in the name of the divine Remiel, chosen of the Gods, Scion of Chaos, Master of Mankind. You claim to be the governing force here? Then it is you who must accept our claim and designate it as a vassal-sphere of Chronosian influence, to be shaped as we see fit. These systems which we claim are thus ours to command, ours to control.

This is satisfactory, yes?

OOC: Are you claiming the whole cluster? Or just your piece of it?

OOC: My bit. I'm not greedy, I'm patient. All good things to me in time ;)

Johannesburg, South Africa, Earth SSR

The Trekboer, displaying prominent pointed ears, blond hair, hornrimmed spectacles, khaki jacket, rail thin body, a sternness of face and simple business suit, looked at the Settlement Sponsorship Agreement form. He seemed a rather severe person, reading the document with unusual gravity before looking at the Commissariat of Trade man. The CoT man replied the old trekboer's look with a, "Mr. Cronje, I have heard your request, here is your paper. As stated, you will recieve a transfer of funds to your accounts and a grant of the planets of Sector A and B of the Dornalian Sector of the Supercluster, plus material assistance."

The old man then got up, and said severely, "Thank you, Mr. Langston. But, my people have a concern. The Trekboers of my group are not comfortable mixing with the reprobrate, having been favored as God's elected. Will we have to share this land with others?"

Langston slid the form back at Cronje, and said, "You can use it entirely for your purposes. We won't force you to share. We only ask you respect the Constitution and the laws, and pay taxes. That's all."

Cronje then asked, "Also, how will this work? Will we be free to move there at once?"

Langston laughed, and said, "Well, the fact that the Dornalians concluded an agreement to capture their own share of the Supercluster, we've got all kinds of applications flooding in. I suggest you get your space while it's still possible. Well, we don't hate squatters, but no legal title on a land parcel means that it's gonna be harder for you to keep it."

Cronje gritted his teeth; such motivations were how previous generations of his people had been forced off of their farmlands. The trekboers didn't care much for the land laws of their reprobrate uitlander neighbors. As far as trekboer culture held, God had granted the trekboers, as His Elected, the land as far as the eye could see to master. Only the intransigence of the uitlanders and their usurous ways kept His Will from being done.

He then leaned in and said, "Mr. Langston. I, Commandant Johannes Cronje, part of a long line of Commandants from the Orania Commando, have heard such language before. I am no child, nor a thief who would steal land. Not that I would have to steal my birthright."

Langston sighed and said, "Ah yes. The old principle of Divine Right and Open Access Land. Well, there's also a saying. Render unto Caesar What Is Caesar's. Agree to the title part, or you get no money. And I am sure the Orania Commando is a bit short on cash for starships."

Cronje gritted his teeth, and then said, "Fine." He signed the form with some contempt, and then slid it back to Langston. Langston scanned the form and said, "Alright. Processing of claim will begin shortly. Thank you. Oh, and say hi to Jesus for me."

Cronje shot him a deadly gaze, and said, "You are lucky, uitlander, I Render Unto Caesar What is Caesar's. Otherwise, I would punish your blasphemy." He then walked out of the room.

----------------

Walvis Bay, Namibia, Earth SSR

The Orania Commando had secured their tickets, land, goods, supplies, etc., and it was by now several days later. Waiting in orbit were vessels of the Elected Fleet, the fleet of settlers organized by the Orania Commando and several other groups of Trekboers that had stayed on Earth when space was first opened up. They would join a group of other colony ships and miitary men heading to the newly christened Dornalian Supercluster Zone. With no official name, the Supercluster Zone was basically up for division, or eventual integration into a giant SSR.

With pride in their hearts and plenty of aggression, they moved out. Several days later, they arrived in the Dornalian Zone.

The leader of the Supercluster Expedition, General Rathbone, declared thusly,

"Let it be known that in the name of the True Dictatorship of the People of New Dornalia, we have, after some peaceful negotiations with the local government, have concluded a deal that will allow us to claim this area for the Workers State.

Let it also be known that the Workers State henceforth christens the area New Hokkaido Special Administrative Region, and lays claim to the material and territorial bounty within for settlement. Whether it becomes one contigious State Socialist Representative or several, is hard to say. One thing for sure is that we are here.

We are willing to meet with other settlements in this supercluster to demarcate reasonable boundaries and make agreements. Do not hesitate to inquire within.

Sincerely,

Edward Rathbone
Governor-General of the Dornalian Supercluster Expeditionary Force
General, Revolutionary Armed Forces--Red Army
Workers State of New Dornalia"

(OOC: I'll take my time, here, really and this is in fact a timewarp anticipatory post. I hope there's no problem on the fact I will probably post again only once Solar Communes hits OOCly the "1 billion" cap and I finish its transition into Far FT. And once I start it should be noticed that this colony will be completely independent from the actual Solar Communes)

2302, Gliese 581d, 1000 light years away from Infinitus Tractus

The "Eye of Liberty", a massive telescoped located at one of many Lagrange points in the Gliese 581 system, near the planet Gliese 581d, rarely was moved away from its primary focus: Earth... their cradle, the homeworld they retreated from following the dawn of the fascist Global State, but which one day they shall yet free from such tyranny. Observing what happened 20 years and 5 months ago in Earth, a major limitation for devising proper tactics and strategies against them, imposed by the light speed lag, which also gave Solar Communes the same shield, as they would only be seeing its past rather than present, such were the massive distances that separated both worlds.

However, in one of its usual data gatherings, from which it already concluded the Global State was giving its first steps into becoming interstellar despite the potential of further development over the Sol system, something very interesting was gathered from a distance estimated to be a thousand of light years away. Apparently they have discovered something a cluster in the galaxy which is much more blessed in minerals and having a disproportionate amount class G stars like the Sun. It was beyond their grasp, and the resources needed for an interstellar travel which would take a millennium would be better invested in more pressing matters. However there was still something that the spacemen operating that station decided to do... through the incredibly high, beyond yoctometre accuracy of quantum computers, they have aligned their communications system towards the cluster. First than any ship, a message would announce their arrival, in the next thousand of years, when hopefully they would already have liberated Sol and destroyed the totalitarian nightmare of the Global State. The message was then sent. It would take a thousand of years to reach its destination... that was 100 years ago.

Now, despite the great war, a group of daring, independent people has finally built their visionary dream... a massive torchship, completely automated self-replicating colony vessel based on the Von Neumann probe concept, fitted with its own shipyards, gas giant and asteroid mining facilities and industrial infrastructure and capable of building an exact replica of it for each hundred of years of travel, counting the necessary time to extract resources and energy from outer space as well.

It has departed from the Confederation, carrying the cryonically preserved genetic code of the best among its people, and its own cloning infrastructure to create new generation of colonists, besides the "Nanny" humanoid robots which shall raise it, trying to be as human-like as their limited, weak Artificial Intelligence allows. It would take a little more than a thousand of years to arrive at its final destination, making about 39 copies of itself and contained starships during its long travel... each headed for one of the existing stars of a very distant constellation with about 40 nearby stars.

3202:

In the Infinitus Tractus, a strange message arrives...

"This is the Confederation of what hopefully shall be the Interstellar Communes, because, due to the fact that this message you are now hearing took a thousand or more of years to arrive, much might have changed during such course of time, and perhaps certain plans might not have happened. However, should you, whoever you are, detect massive energy emissions of starships at relativistic speeds, then it does mean that the future generations of my people have decided to send in a colonization group. I recommend you to allow them to populate this region, as ending with their hands empty after a thousand year of space travel would not be a very happy thing, I hope you understand why... I cannot explain much, as neither I can predict how my society will be in the next centuries, all I request, should anybody be hearing this, is to allow our ships to colonize one of the constellations we found to be closest to our own... they shall be completely independent from our civilization, as logically, a gap of thousands of light years makes it entirely impossible to coordinate communications between us... Of course this is not a definitive statement. It might be that a crackpot scientist discovered an actual exception to the Theory of Relativity since than, that we decided to never have sent a colonization fleet during the millennium this message moved through space, or... we might be all dead. But if you detect any ships moving near the speed of light, then it will mean my descendants are coming. Also, do not at any circumstances allow a ship to be on the middle of their trajectory of free flight, for at the speed they shall travel at for most of their time, any impact would be catastrophic for both them and the ship they impacted with. They shall inhabit about 40 stars... or maybe less. This is everything."

It would be further 102 years before they would finally arrive... and despite the automated scientific research systems of their self-replicating ship, a thousand of years under cryonics would give them a significant technological gap, both compared to the 3300s Solar Communes and to whatever lied further. However, it would not mean they would be defenseless either, because such massive torchships had one way of defense, an extremely powerful gamma ray laser beam capable of destroying targets at light-minutes of distance of of soft-kills at a light hour or more of distance, coupled with an equally powerful supercollider particle beam, which theoretically might have even more devastating consequences if fired besides the high energy of its beam (http://prola.aps.org/abstract/PRD/v66/i9/e091901).

However for now... nothing was going on... and the message was the only evidence of their probable arrival, besides some clearly visible, extremely high energy emissions at about a hundred of light years away. It was the price to pay for an incredibly high belief on special relativity... of course time dilation would make the internal systems of the ships register a much smaller time frame instead, of only a little more than 13 years inside the ships, compared to the thousand of years that passed in the rest of the universe.

The population of the Libertas Sector continued to grow, inexorably, slowly, and in various ways.

In the Laumer System, large camps were set up, holding five million prisoners of war from the Federation front – humans, Vulcans, Trill, and many others. They were given basic tents and other equipment and simply dunked out on the surface. The prisoners had no spacecraft, and thus could not escape – the entire planet was a prison to them.

In other places, settlers from Allanea came in an endless stream, aboard gigantic Conestoga-Six series freighters produced both at Allanean Arms and at Kazansky Heavy Industries. Land was unbelievably cheap out here in the Cluster – which allowed people to seek out the Allanean Dream like never before.

Modern communications technologies helped, too. A programmer or a tech support clerk can answer calls as easily from a secluded house in the Sector as he can from Port-Allanea and Liberty-City – except that in the Sector, he can fire a rifle from his porch in any direction, and hit nothing but trespassers.

Ssrissh, deep asleep in his slumber chamber was awakened by a soft cooing sound, chopped at regular intervals. He awoke slowly as he lurched to his feet and simultaneously saw and had smelled that it was Ssskrii, the chief astrogator standing at the threshold of the chamber at a discreet distance.

“Permission to enter territory” Ssskrii said as he assumed the rigid posture of ‘attention’. Although both Ssrissh and Ssskrii were crèche mates both also knew that even among crèche mates the territorial protocol had to be stringently observed.

“Permission given/excepted” Ssrissh said and then signalled ‘anticipation/eagerness’ by pulling his clawed three fingers toward his pectoral region in a grasping grabbing motion. Ssskrii entered the chamber not bothering to stop and place her sent since she knew it was unnecessary – in a vessel of this size, the specific scents of all crewmembers permeated everywhere.

In truth, Ssskrii knew that Ssrissh was anticipating some long awaited results from the probes, orbiters and landers launched many rotation cycles earlier.

Ssskrii slowly approached Ssrissh in a non threatening manner until they were standing snout to snout, facing each other for a brief moment, and then both finally rubbed snouts together in an ancient ritualized greeting. Both kept their forelimbs folded like great birds of prey assuming a neutral posture and to avoid any aggressive territorial displays. Such an ancient greeting cemented bonds and generally only occurred between crèche mates or old long term companions.

Both Ssrissh and Ssskrii were Dromaeosaur forms and typical of the group. Of the two, Ssrissh’s species was the larger and more heavily built originating from a sub-tropical well watered environment. Weighing in at just over 300 kilos and reached a length of a little over 5 meters, his gloss black plumage that covered the trunk, base of the tail, thighs and upper arms was kept immaculately groomed. The head and neck were a bright reddish colour and devoid of feathers giving him a vulture-like appearance. The remainder of his body was a brick red colour, the great claws, as usual, was gloss black.

Ssskrii in contrast was a more gracile form about 180 kilograms and 4 meters length. Her thick drab brown plumage covered much the same body parts as her companion, except on her neck it was somewhat sparser. A native of semi arid climes, her body by contrast was tawny coloured with faded dark bands evident on the more exposed areas of her body. Like her companion she sported lethal claws which seemed more prominent due to her overall lighter colouration and perhaps somewhat smaller size.
………………………………………………

With the territorial preliminaries over with Ssrissh wanted some answers and decided to press for information again.

“Tell me, what of the ‘hunter/seekers of data’?” said Ssrissh signalling ‘anticipation/eagerness’ more strongly, more forcefully this time.

“I will show you/much data collected” Said Ssskrii with modifiers of ‘patience’. Ssskrii produced a portable quasi-organic data node from a harness pouch strapped around her torso. Ssrissh could see that it was one of several within the pouch (judging from its bloated full appearance) and realized that the amount of data collected must be considerable and that much study and analysis of the data was to keep the scientist castes busy for quite some time.

Ssskrii placed the data node firmly on a raised platform composed of solid granite within the chamber and activated it. Immediately a hologram of the system appeared some distance away dominated by the systems’ orange K1 main-sequence primary…..

Official Report From the Allanean Travel Union Regardin the Situation in the Libertas Sector

Carmel: C'tanist colony with a population of around 500,000 people.

Gaines' World: Two habitable worlds owned lock, stock, and barrel by Joshua Gaines, his wife and three daughters. Population is naturally 5.

Laumer : Two habitable worlds, one developed under the aegis of Allanean Arms, Laumer Alpha and the other, Laumer Gamma owned by the military as a POW camp. Laumer Beta was rendered uninhabitable in a Federation Strike.

Population total: 3 million

New Numenor: (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=13414985&postcount=44) Three variously populated worlds, with a population of 201 million in total.

Lucas: Colony worlds being developed under the aegis of Allanean Arms, Incorporated, population goal will be 100 million when all development is complete.

Neo-Dallas: Sector capital, has it's own status of statehood, population 200 million on the main habitable world, shipyards under construction on secondary system.

Serena: A settlement of the Allanean Church of Scientology, houses approximately 30 million people.

Stalinvast: Planned to be a tourist resort with a population of 10 million when all work is complete. A cold, snowy place, attractive to skiers.

New Clondike: Quite as frosty as Stalinvast, with a population of 15 million, of them 5 million Tidanian avians.

Roddenberry: Named after the science-fiction writer, the planet is moderate in it's climate. 50 million inhabitants are clusterd around it's main spaceport under the same name, and about fifty million more live in various small communities around the planet. A large population of ethnic Hashi, as well as ideological Ambivalentirans, live here.

New Nashua: New Nashua is adesert planet, with a surprisingly large amount of semi-anarchist and independent minded settlers – over sixty-six million in small, secluded communities clustered around water-sources. They have a tendency of shooting tax collectors.

Nashua Beta is water-covered, and houses twenty million Dohwar.

Laura: Named after Petrarch's beloved, this world is famous for its scenery, and often visited by lovers. The locals are actually few in number – only five million of them, and they run a fine tourist business.

Beatrice: See above, but substitute Dante for Petrarch.

Libertas I:

Libertas Alpha is a comparatively warm planet, covered in savannas and jungle. It is a popular hunting resort for the wealthy inhabitants of the cluster, but the local population is only five million.

Libertas Beta, on the contrary, is a fully-earthlike world, famous for its light industrial products. The population, 150 million strong, covers one of the subcontinents of Beta in amazingly overdone urban sprawl.


Greenleaf:

The single earthlike world of Greenleaf is famous for nothing, except for its lush forests and majority-elven population, a full 30 million of elves.

Elhe Niennah: Again, a single, low-population world, populated by two million fans of Elhe Niennah, a fantasy writer from the Twentieth Century, living in small, secluded communities with a population of no more than 1,000 people.

Constanza: Mostly composed of religious communities, with a large following for some radical branches of Seventh-Day Adventism and various NRMs. Population – 10 million.

Torvalds: While generally Allanea is a libertarian nation, the state laws of Torvalds mandate that any software published on this world come with a declared sourcecode. This, however, does not prohibit people from importing or downloading software from other states, which means that many of it's 75 million inhabitants do exactly that – bring computer stuff from off-planet.

Gates: A population of about 65 million gamers and various computer and anime fans make this place their home.

New Nmweni: This world, due to being covered in jungle, was happily colonized by the Mgweni. 257 million of them live on this planet.

Weaver: The triple inhabitable worlds of the system – Vicky, Randall, and Samuel – are inhabited by what has at one point been described as “thirty million irate rednecks with lasguns.” Fifteen Allanean Revenue Service agents have been shot here in the first quarter of the fiscal year.

Giger: Nobody quite knows whom Giger Alpha and Giger Beta were named after. But the Valaquine love it here, and around 200 million of them live in-system.

Birch: While it has just one planet, it's just like the Weaver system – except only five milion people inhabit it. Five agents of the Allanean government have been shot here in the first quarter of the fiscal year.

New Maine: See Birch and Weaver. Population of the sole planet is 4 million.

The Libertas Worlds: The other 10 Libertas systems are extremely sparsely populated – between their 13 inhabitable worlds, they have only twelve million inhabitants. Their description matches that of Birch and Weaver, and sometimes, people here even shoot Census agents.

Severus: Rumor has it it is inhabited by magicians, witches, and fantasy fans driven exstatic. by the fact their authors' deranged visions are driven here. The rumor, unfortunately, is true, and there is at least one lich hailing from the area. Five million various sapients.



Weber, Carthage, Spencer New Formosa, New Iowa: Systems secured by the military. Population so far insignificant.

The other worlds on the cluster map have not yet been significantly settled.

Total Population: ~1530 million