Hyperspatial Travel
27-04-2009, 11:11
OOC: A quiet note. The Tradelane Treaty is not the focus of this RP in the slightest. It's a mild convenience used to throw mediocre characters (mediocre in ability, not in depth or development) into an RP together against relatively everyday enemies in a future-tech context. This never happens. So if you want in, rest assured that you'll be participating in some sort of odd almost NS-like (the RP forum) RP, excluding the fact that it'll be taking place in the rich political fabric-jabbed-at-viciously-with-scissors-and-burnt-with-doomfire which is II.
- - - - - -
Treaties are concluded almost every day. Not big ones. Nothing like the creation of the ESUS, when nations first banded together to fight off the Shivan menace. Not even anything like the various trade federations of the years, wherein every nation agreed to help protect trade, reduce tariffs, and spread galactic welfare for all.
The Tradelane Treaty was an eight-hundred page behemoth of a document, most of which were footnotes regarding every single signatory, and most of the remainder being drivel. In the simplest essence, it could easily be boiled down to this:
Every signatory nation was to send cadets to a international training station, where they'd be thrown together into an elite fighting force. Well, a fighting force, in any case. Hopefully.
These cadets would man ships funded equally by each signatory nation, and protect traders, fight pirates, and generally reduce the lot of the private-enterprise mercenary looking for an easy gig. This was done in the name of increasing international co-operation, protecting trade, reducing tariffs, and spreading galactic welfare to all.
A lot of nations signed. It had no treaty obligations beyond sending a few cadets each year, and a few million creds along with it. The media furor that accompanied it would almost make this completely certain. It was a very inexpensive way for some very militant or xenocidal nations to buy a bit of good PR. Of course, the more good-aligned nations signed out of the goodness of their hearts. The diplomats had been working for three months straight on the treaty, and nobody really ever wants to piss off the diplomatic corps.
For the first few days, it was all over the 'nets.
Tradelane Treaty signed! New Age of International Co-Operation Dawning!
Nations Come Together, Set Aside Old Ways of Violence!
Of course, it didn't make for very exciting news after that. It was nice to trumpet your moral superiority to the universe, but it only lasted so long. Then there was a major rad spill, a pirate attack, a piece of rare celebrity un-nudity. The Tradelane Treaty was forgotten as soon as it had been drafted.
The bureaucracy kept it going, of course. A few million kilocreds added to the budget meant more employees and paperwork in every nation, and departments are hard to prune once they have grown. So it was that the Tradelane Treaty Fleet and Asset Protection Unit settled into quiet anonymity. It was, by-and-large, the place for mediocre candidates. The psions ended up hitting the D-chairs on major battlecruises, the tactical geniuses tended to find themselves into command.
The jocks with exceptional reflexes got sent out to die in fighters. The mathematicians got into engineering or science. The more verbose among the cadet ranks managed to get filed into the diplomatic corps.
No, it was only the truly average who found themselves in the Tradelane Treaty Fleet and Asset Protection Unit Training Facility and Repair-Refuel Station, the unmemorable TFAPUTFRRS, known colloquially as the "teapot fucker". It was a fairly run-of-the-mill spire, with a few rings around it. It orbited a gas giant, harvesting its own fusionables, in order to keep fleet costs down.
They certainly weren't the worst. The worst never even made it into the military. They weren't even sub-par. The sub-par got shunted off to on-planet policing, or got killed early on as mercenaries. The Treaty Cadets, as they were somewhat less colloquially known, weren't incompetent. They just weren't especially good. They didn't have equipment bought and maintained by the lowest bidder, it was the most cost-effective bidder in the bottom five.
By-and-large, it wasn't an especially impressive unit. Traders from signatory nations tended to sign them for safe, legal missions that they could puff up a bit. Escorts for helium freighters were generally expensive, and free government ones would stop the occasional pirate who threatened to ram a few c-fracs into the hull unless they were given a substantial ransom. Occasionally they'd go after smugglers and pirates in neutral space, but they were never well-armed enough to compare with the epic battles of the day.
Nevertheless, they were people. And they had a story.
- - - - -
OOC: So, sign up. As you can guess, nobody overly-exceptional. The TTFAPU signs the average. If your character is exceptionally strong, smart, has uber-abilities, is intensely loveable, so-on-and-so-forth, they're probably off having proper adventures. These are the adventures of people who still get shot at and killed, but they tend to be shot at by people smugglers and panicky traders instead of shiny new military hardware.
If you join, your nation will be assumed to have signed the TFFAPU. The liability amounts to maybe twenty to thirty cadets a year, and fifty million credits at most. This is probably less than you'd spend on your average fighter.
The Trade Treaty Fleet consists of about twenty-five ships (this is an arbitary decision - every nation contributes maintenance fees, but the ships themselves will be decided upon by myself, mainly to keep the impressiveness down to a minimal level. Maybe one proper cruiser, two destroyers, five frigates, and eighteen cutters/corvettes. Fighters and shuttles don't count in the shipcount.)
At first, the RP will be focused on the training of the recruits, in one of those irritating "school" RPs. This will be thankfully punctuated by practical in-the-field training where you get to make interesting muckups as an ensign.
So, if you're interested.
TEMPLATE
Name: (Obvious. If you can't figure this out, turn off your computer.)
Nation: (Your nation. If not your nation, explain why.)
Career Path: Just put down what your character wants to be here. There are quite a few careers available in the Treaty Fleet, though they're not very prestigious. So, realistically, there's command, security (shooty guys), pilots, engineers, so on and so forth. Of course, some of the fun of a mildly dysfunctional fleet like this is that not everyone makes what they want. That's good RP.
Description: Describe your character. Personality, background, physical description, you get the idea. Do it well. That'd be super.
So, yeah. If you're interested, throw someone in. Otherwise, get the fuck out of my thread.
I'm serious.
I will cut you!
- - - - - -
Treaties are concluded almost every day. Not big ones. Nothing like the creation of the ESUS, when nations first banded together to fight off the Shivan menace. Not even anything like the various trade federations of the years, wherein every nation agreed to help protect trade, reduce tariffs, and spread galactic welfare for all.
The Tradelane Treaty was an eight-hundred page behemoth of a document, most of which were footnotes regarding every single signatory, and most of the remainder being drivel. In the simplest essence, it could easily be boiled down to this:
Every signatory nation was to send cadets to a international training station, where they'd be thrown together into an elite fighting force. Well, a fighting force, in any case. Hopefully.
These cadets would man ships funded equally by each signatory nation, and protect traders, fight pirates, and generally reduce the lot of the private-enterprise mercenary looking for an easy gig. This was done in the name of increasing international co-operation, protecting trade, reducing tariffs, and spreading galactic welfare to all.
A lot of nations signed. It had no treaty obligations beyond sending a few cadets each year, and a few million creds along with it. The media furor that accompanied it would almost make this completely certain. It was a very inexpensive way for some very militant or xenocidal nations to buy a bit of good PR. Of course, the more good-aligned nations signed out of the goodness of their hearts. The diplomats had been working for three months straight on the treaty, and nobody really ever wants to piss off the diplomatic corps.
For the first few days, it was all over the 'nets.
Tradelane Treaty signed! New Age of International Co-Operation Dawning!
Nations Come Together, Set Aside Old Ways of Violence!
Of course, it didn't make for very exciting news after that. It was nice to trumpet your moral superiority to the universe, but it only lasted so long. Then there was a major rad spill, a pirate attack, a piece of rare celebrity un-nudity. The Tradelane Treaty was forgotten as soon as it had been drafted.
The bureaucracy kept it going, of course. A few million kilocreds added to the budget meant more employees and paperwork in every nation, and departments are hard to prune once they have grown. So it was that the Tradelane Treaty Fleet and Asset Protection Unit settled into quiet anonymity. It was, by-and-large, the place for mediocre candidates. The psions ended up hitting the D-chairs on major battlecruises, the tactical geniuses tended to find themselves into command.
The jocks with exceptional reflexes got sent out to die in fighters. The mathematicians got into engineering or science. The more verbose among the cadet ranks managed to get filed into the diplomatic corps.
No, it was only the truly average who found themselves in the Tradelane Treaty Fleet and Asset Protection Unit Training Facility and Repair-Refuel Station, the unmemorable TFAPUTFRRS, known colloquially as the "teapot fucker". It was a fairly run-of-the-mill spire, with a few rings around it. It orbited a gas giant, harvesting its own fusionables, in order to keep fleet costs down.
They certainly weren't the worst. The worst never even made it into the military. They weren't even sub-par. The sub-par got shunted off to on-planet policing, or got killed early on as mercenaries. The Treaty Cadets, as they were somewhat less colloquially known, weren't incompetent. They just weren't especially good. They didn't have equipment bought and maintained by the lowest bidder, it was the most cost-effective bidder in the bottom five.
By-and-large, it wasn't an especially impressive unit. Traders from signatory nations tended to sign them for safe, legal missions that they could puff up a bit. Escorts for helium freighters were generally expensive, and free government ones would stop the occasional pirate who threatened to ram a few c-fracs into the hull unless they were given a substantial ransom. Occasionally they'd go after smugglers and pirates in neutral space, but they were never well-armed enough to compare with the epic battles of the day.
Nevertheless, they were people. And they had a story.
- - - - -
OOC: So, sign up. As you can guess, nobody overly-exceptional. The TTFAPU signs the average. If your character is exceptionally strong, smart, has uber-abilities, is intensely loveable, so-on-and-so-forth, they're probably off having proper adventures. These are the adventures of people who still get shot at and killed, but they tend to be shot at by people smugglers and panicky traders instead of shiny new military hardware.
If you join, your nation will be assumed to have signed the TFFAPU. The liability amounts to maybe twenty to thirty cadets a year, and fifty million credits at most. This is probably less than you'd spend on your average fighter.
The Trade Treaty Fleet consists of about twenty-five ships (this is an arbitary decision - every nation contributes maintenance fees, but the ships themselves will be decided upon by myself, mainly to keep the impressiveness down to a minimal level. Maybe one proper cruiser, two destroyers, five frigates, and eighteen cutters/corvettes. Fighters and shuttles don't count in the shipcount.)
At first, the RP will be focused on the training of the recruits, in one of those irritating "school" RPs. This will be thankfully punctuated by practical in-the-field training where you get to make interesting muckups as an ensign.
So, if you're interested.
TEMPLATE
Name: (Obvious. If you can't figure this out, turn off your computer.)
Nation: (Your nation. If not your nation, explain why.)
Career Path: Just put down what your character wants to be here. There are quite a few careers available in the Treaty Fleet, though they're not very prestigious. So, realistically, there's command, security (shooty guys), pilots, engineers, so on and so forth. Of course, some of the fun of a mildly dysfunctional fleet like this is that not everyone makes what they want. That's good RP.
Description: Describe your character. Personality, background, physical description, you get the idea. Do it well. That'd be super.
So, yeah. If you're interested, throw someone in. Otherwise, get the fuck out of my thread.
I'm serious.
I will cut you!