Phoenix War III OOC / signup

[Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman]

It seems that Lord Ra and Darth Kreshna are going about other business now, so is the meeting on the Death Star adjourned?

Yup. Oh, and Dartzap please notice: the meeting is over. Of course Lord Detritus can still talk with Darth Kreshna, but not in the meeting anymore since it is over.

[DesertFly]

Ya, it was a bunch of Mutalisks that took out the Pathfinder.

On a related note, I was thinking of asking DesertFly to attack Tais II, but I'd like to wait until I've got a Gun of Command to control the lab's Guardian Core; that way it would begin producing enough psychic emissions to get Kerrigan's (or the Overmind's) attention.

But then again, DF, if you wanna attack now, by all means, be my guest. The psionic emissions of the Guardian might still be enough to get the Broods' attention.

Actually, there were no Muties there, it was a group of Scourge, the previously unseen Scourge Carrier TM (which Destructionater forgot to write in, oh well), and a Devourer, all of which were destroyed. The Mutalisks weren't there through act of plot, which is good for all concerned.

And yes, I'll attack Tais II, I'll PM you to setup the details very soon.

[Ra]

My bad, I hadn't read Adam's post closely enough.

[Destructionator XV]

Ra: quick note: if your science advisor is staying on my ship, she will be going back to base 242 for a couple days, not going down to the surface at this time.

The Lord and Lady are taking their ship back to base and will hang out there for a couple days while waiting for more equipment to come from the A'millian home galaxy. (Such as atmosphere converters, heavy nonstandard stuff that they don't have on hand in the Milky Way at all)

Once that equipment comes in, they will return to the planet and get back to landing party stuff.

[Dartzap]

Sorry about the lack of updates folks, my dads been on the computer for the last 2 days because of 'Working At Home'

[Ra]

Well, don't feel guilty about it. Except for me and Adam, no one else has posted in days.

[Narsil]

I'm waiting until Adam's back on A'millian prime before posting...

Streamlines the plan a bit.

[Destructionator XV]

I'm waiting until Adam's back on A'millian prime before posting...

That's probably not going to be for a while. He, and the Lady (btw, I've almost decided on her name after all these years) will be out in the Milky Way for some time.

They are having some fun checking out this ancient planet and at the same time, the Zerg thing may be escalating (depends on DF's move) and that keeps them away for a while.

What you should do is open up contact, the first guys you talk to will say "I dunno, you'd have to talk to the boss about that" then point you toward the DS3 or base 242.

If you make it to 242 soon, they will be hanging out there for the next couple days waiting on the gear to come from the home galaxy, so if you catch them that is a good way to spend that time.

[Destructionator XV]

Another post with irrelevant information ahead, again, feel free to skip. I just find looking into random facts about the fictional world to be fascinating.

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

I have been crunching some numbers to try and get a feel for just how huge the A'millian Star Empire really is.

I looked up some numbers, and used these as a base line for my numbers. In the United States, the average person eats 800 kilograms of food per year. The US is rather high on this number; for example, the average Italian eats half that much, and the average Indian, half that.

I arbitrarily decided (I am the damn writer, it is my right to arbitrarily make up numbers for my fiction!) that the average A'millian eats about 500 kilograms of food per year. With the A'millian population being over 1.1 trillion, we can simply multiply to find that annually, the A'millian Star Empire consumes about 550 billion metric tonnes of food.

550,000,000,000 tons per year. Wow, that is a fuckton of food. Now, of course, like most things in the Empire, it is mostly handled locally, so it is not like it all has to come from one farm planet. (What is truely astounding is Coruscant in the Star Wars universe is even more amazing. Coruscant has a population of about one trillion, so most the numbers for the A'millian Empire as a whole can be applied to Coruscant alone. Imagine shipping all that food in. Wow)

Water is also a massive number. The average person needs at least fourty litres per day for drinking and sanitation in the United States. Again, I will use this number, as it seems reasonable, and multiply it.

That is about 150,00 litres per person per year. Times 1.1 trillion is 1.7 times 10 to the 16th. 17 petalitres of water used per year in the ASE. Wow, that is a fuckton of water! (Once again, on Coruscant, they would also use about that much, and much of it would have to be imported or artifically recycled: what a huge cost).



Now, a moment to discuss A'millian government and how these numbers affect that. The ASE is an absolute monarchy, but out of practicality, much of the government is left at the local level, in a form of federalism.

Each member state (like US state here, not sure if there is a better term I could use here) (also note that member state is not necessarily a planet: a planet need not be united under the Empire, or may have several states on it), anyway, each member state is permitted to pretty much do its own thing internally, provided it does the following things:

1) Maintains its Federal tax quota. Each planet needs to pay in to the Federal government an amount determined by various factors (business, population, etc). How it raises this money is usually left up to local implementation. It can get tax breaks if the planet provides goods, services, or personnel to the Federal government as well.

2) Follows Federal moral guidelines. These are purposefully left vague most the time, realizing that different cultures may prefer different specifics, and attempting to micromanage trillions of people is not feasable. An example here is slavery is not permitted anywhere in the ASE.

3) A Federal garrison is required in every member state, always commanded and primarily staffed by off worlders, to remind them they are part of a larger thing.

4) Local governments must use Federal funds for what they are allocated, nothing else. An example is the Federal government gives a big chunk of the planetary tax dollars back to the local government for Federal social programs and public education. The specific distribution of these dollars is determined by the local government, but if this money goes somewhere else, is given out unfairly, or is used in a wasteful, inefficent manner, a Federal governor may be forced to move in and take over.

5) The local government must allow complaints about the government to be heard by representives of the Federal government, who if they deem necessary, may overrule any local law. The freedom to petition the government at any level for redress of grivances shall not be infringed.

6) The citizens must be permitted to communicate with each other with no limitations. To facilitate this, the Federal government maintains a full Postal Service, which can deliver letters, packages, and electronic messages reliably from any point in the Empire to any other point. Interference in the operation of this Postal Service is prohibited. (Another interesting fact is the A'millian Postal Service is also one of the biggest ISPs in the Empire)

These six requirements here attempt to maintain a singular view in the ASE without resorting to micromanagement.

But, as mentioned, there are Federal programs in place to take state tax dollars and put them right back into that state. A large portion of the A'millian gross Federal tax is allocated to social programs, over 40% of the annual Federal budget goes to these programs, which greatly exceeds even military spending.

All citizens of the A'millian Star Empire are guaranteed opportunities to the following things, regardless of income, race, condition, or anything else:

Health and dental care.

Collegiate level education. (Here, it is not your acceptance guaranteed, though you are guaranteed consideration, and if accepted, the government will take care of any financial problems you might have in paying)

Freedom from starvation and thirst.

Basic housing.

Security of person.

While these guarantees are not enough to live very well, they are enough for anyone to get by and get a chance to get back on his feet during hard times.

To prevent abuse of the system, anyone who is determined by a local and Federal judge to be abusing the system may be forced to serve a term (usually two years but may be more depending on how bad the abuse was) in either the local or Federal military, at the person's choosing.

The military is often a good choice for people in the ASE, as the military accepts almost anyone and generally pays reasonably well. Long terms of service may also qualify you for a tax break down the line.

There is no excuse to live in poverty anywhere as an A'millian. All one has to do is ask the government for help, and he or she is guaranteed to get it.

These generous social and government programs are not free, however; someone must pay for it, and those people are the taxpayers. The average citizen in the A'millian Star Empire pays over 55% of his income to the government in taxes. Some might bitch about their hard earned cash going to some lazy bum on a far away world, but even the rich gain much through the government. (This has raised problems before; the ASE isn't exactly a utopia, but overall it does pretty well). In addition to taxes, the Federal government sells some goods and services to pay for the infrastructure. An example is the sale of stamps help fund the Postal Service.

Despite leaving the specifics to the local governments, maintaining the Federal Government is still a major undertaking, making the A'millian Federal government is the largest employer in the Empire.

The Federal military has nearly ten billion personnel.

The Federal Postal Service employs over five billion people.

The rest of the Federal government employs over twelve billion people doing a number of tasks, including some traditionally left to the private sector.

Despite its large size, the Federal budget nearly consistantly remains balanced or even in surplus. If the annual surplus is considerably large, some more of the money will be allocated to to needless 'pet projects', where scientists across the empire can take some of the money and just work on something that interests them, without really needing a reason. Even if the immediate results looks like throwing money away, the A'millians believe knowledge just for knowledge's sake is a Good Thing. Often, knowledge learned this way may be useful down the road, so in the long run, the cost is many times justified. Sometimes, even side effects of these pet projects end up being useful (there are plenty examples of this happening in real life).



That concludes this irrelevant post. Next one I write might be about commerce and capitalism in the empire. If you are actually reading these, you are awesome. That is all.

[Destructionator XV]

So, KAN, the Empire has spies, everywhere, watching every little thing?

[Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman]

Anyway, Adam, do you remember the map you put on the OOC thread? Could you put several "islands" on the map? Those are Darth Kreshna's "fiefdom" colonies... Unlike the Goa'uld territory, Darth Kreshna opted for separate territorial "islands" for the following reasons:

(1) the Empire has hyperdrive technology, so distance is not a problem. A Star Destroyer, for instance, could jump from a colonial territory from another in mere minutes.

(2) Again, the Empire has hyperdrive technology, so it has advantage in speed. Thus, Darth Kreshna's strategy was always grabbing the best planets first (best minerals, best climate, etc) without concerning too much about the neighboring stars. So unlike the Goa'uld territory on your map, Darth Kreshna's "fiefdom" colonies were smaller, separate territories.


Hyperdrive technology enables him to afford such strategy --grabbing the best stars first, and worrying about territorial expansion later.


Just a note: each DK's colony can be really different than the others, since each planet has their own "best" criteria. A mineral-rich planet, for example, would have nothing but a couple of World Devastators strip-mining it. A haven climate planet, on the other hand, would typically serve as population/business center, etc, etc.

[Destructionator XV]

Anyway, Adam, do you remember the map you put on the OOC thread?

Here it is again for rememberance, slightly updated:


(you might need to press refresh to see the updates)

Could you put several "islands" on the map? Those are Darth Kreshna's "fiefdom" colonies... Unlike the Goa'uld territory, Darth Kreshna opted for separate territorial "islands" for the following reasons:

Some random dots were added; good enough?

(1) the Empire has hyperdrive technology, so distance is not a problem. A Star Destroyer, for instance, could jump from a colonial territory from another in mere minutes.

The Goa'uld have hyperdrive as well, which is not as fast, but can still make very long trips in a matter of days or less. Hell, some A'millian ships can make it almost as fast as the Goa'uld if in a rush. Their different strategies are surely for different reasons, but whatever, we can do what you want.

[Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman]

Could you put several "islands" on the map? Those are Darth Kreshna's "fiefdom" colonies... Unlike the Goa'uld territory, Darth Kreshna opted for separate territorial "islands" for the following reasons:

Some random dots were added; good enough?

Um, could you change the color into something more contrast to the background? Probably purple? (some color as the Death Star's sphere of influence)

Also, could you put two, or maybe three planets very near to the Zerg territory? I have.... ahem, particular plan with the future of the plot.

Thanks.

[Destructionator XV]

Ok, done. Also added a couple more random dots on the right side too.

[Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman]

Ok, done. Also added a couple more random dots on the right side too.

Ah, thanks!

Okay everyone, the most upper-left planet (near Zerg terriroty) is called 'Lomar III'; the planet is uninhabitable, and the DK doesn't bother to terraform it either. However, the planet is very mineral rich, so it's been heavilty strip-mined by World Devastators.

[Ra]

Heh, I think it's funny how you pinned Madar for being an "illegal" darksider that should have reported to you for training, Kresh. One of her secret ambitions was to become a Dark Lady of the Sith one day.

Anyway, just to clarify (not that there's anything really wrong with your post), how I had envisoned her, Madar was an apprentice of the actual Dark Jedi order the Empire kept, but went rogue. But the emphasis is on "rogue", so yeah, the Imperial po-po would still be after her.

Oh, and I have to second Adam's observation that the Imps seem to have spies all over the place, even when they're spying on people that should probably sense them through the Force.

[Destructionator XV]

I'm going to put off my discussion of capitalism for a little bit more for this irrelevant post. Well, this one is tangentally relevant; I will talk about the change in A'millian warfare with the introduction of the Guardians.

Standard skip me if you want message applies.

The security of the A'millian Star Empire from external threats is very much rested in their mighty Starfleet. The over 50,000 starships at a technological level meeting or exceeding most they have encountered, excepting previously only the Asgard, and in the canon of the Phoenix War, also the Star Wars Empire and the Guardians, is enough to give most external powers great pause before even thinking about attacking them.

The two powers close to them that can give them challenge are the Republic of Wivillia, led by a former A'millian Knight, elected by the people, and a nation known under the A'millian designation only by the initials E.N.F. Very little is known about their internal political system.

The political climate in the A'millian home galaxy is often set by the interaction of these three great powers. Each one fearing all out war with the others, what is known as war between them is often more of a slow arms maneuvering race, with actual battles being few.

Similar to a game of chess between masters, each power carefully moves his assets, reacting and counter reacting to the other, waiting for one to make a mistake, when a strike is made.

There may be a year or more of silence from a power between careful movements, perhaps even more time until a strike is launched. But, when these strikes are launched, they are quick, brutal, and deadly. They nearly always try to lead into a series of moves that will end with the other side ceding space control of a planet, where the vicious cycle of move-countermove begins anew on the planet's surface, or in the case of weaker planets, it is simply a surrender.

While the E.N.F.'s style of interstellar warfare was different than that of the Wivillian's, the same basic formula ensued. The three way war between all three powers between AW 3992 and AW 4004 was as such: many years, most quiet, strategic manuevering and waiting. The military near parity here commanded it: anything else would lead to either defeat of the attacker or MAD.



All this changed in AW 4005 with the Guardian incident. They were infiltrated from the inside, and by the time the shit hit the fan, they were already in check, near a mate position. There was no time to slowly manuevour, no time to out wit the opponent. It was a brutal bloodbath, with attacks from everywhere at once.

For the first time since the Holocaust, the A'millian Empire was in serious danger of destruction from an outside threat, an outside threat to insideous that it grew from the inside. A threat so powerful, it could brush aside the mighty Starfleet as nothing more than annoyances.

While the Guardians were defeated within the year, that year was the bloodiest one in the history of the ASE, with over one hundred billion slain. (The A'millian Holocaust of AW 3009 saw only the loss of 1.6 million lives; the number seems very small on the outside, but it was enough to bring the A'millian genus into virtual extinction)


But, while that threat was defeated, another remained. A power with immense firepower, such firepower that it dwarfs the A'millian defences, and could stomp them with ease.

This power was the Galactic Empire.

There was a peace with them following the Guardian incident, but a peace many in the ASE were uncomfortable with. If this Empire decided to attack, there was nothing we could do to stop them.

We were at their mercy, and the A'millians have grown to like the security that comes with the power to forge one's own destiny.

Projects were started in an attempt to level the playing field with the Galactic Empire. While closing the firepower gap seemed impossible, there was one thing they could go for: the threat of Mutually Assured Destruction to keep the Empire in check.

But MAD is only a useful deterrant if it is indeed assured, and this assurance would be difficult to get against the Empire. While GE ships could just waltz in and attack, to counter strike, we would need other plans, something fast, long range, and very deadly.

A solution was found to this problem, but it had its problems: it was more of a preemptive strike weapon than a counter-strike weapon. A preemptive strike against the Empire would only seal assured destruction, it would not prevent it. The GE still had the upper hand here.

But what then? It was decided that they would need time. Much time, so the A'millians accepted their invitation to the Death Star III, and sent small teams of often inexperienced diplomats, not taking diplomacy with them seriously, not to truly change the GE on this Death Star, but instead in a hope to buy that time and let them think the ASE is not relevant - in a hope to keep the Galactic Empire from striking first, as the plans within plans within plans continued to stir.

With the GE being rather quiet and seeming cooperative with the nearly irrelevant DSIII envoy, the A'millians reconstructed their losses from the Guardians, and tried returning to their scientific roots, letting their worries about the Galactic Empire fall to nothing more than the background of their thoughts as their secret projects continued outside the public eye.

But then things started to get agitating again as Adam went to the Milky Way. Seeing them up close again, seeing how they act first hand, stirred back up his worries, combined with his xenophobic concerns, brought their threat back to the front of his mind.

Only time will tell how this shall end....

[Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman]

Heh, I think it's funny how you pinned Madar for being an "illegal" darksider that should have reported to you for training, Kresh. One of her secret ambitions was to become a Dark Lady of the Sith one day.

*tugging his tunic nervously* Actually, Darth Kreshna is a very shy guy....

Anyway, just to clarify (not that there's anything really wrong with your post), how I had envisoned her, Madar was an apprentice of the actual Dark Jedi order the Empire kept, but went rogue. But the emphasis is on "rogue", so yeah, the Imperial po-po would still be after her.

And worse, Darth Kreshna is very much laissez-faire regarding to the regulation, so the Empire probably wants to capture her just to raise the issue.

Oh, and I have to second Adam's observation that the Imps seem to have spies all over the place, even when they're spying on people that should probably sense them through the Force.

Actually, Imperial spying method is more like modern-day CIA instead of KGB or MI-6; relying on sattelite surveillance, spy planes, and bugging devices instead of field agents.

I read somewhere that there is one big difference between KGB and CIA: KGB relies heavily on spies (although less glamorous than James Bond), while CIA relies more on sattelite, spy planes, and such.

[Destructionator XV]

Note to self on how my transwarp conduit works:

Most ships take 2 days for the trip, except for small shuttles specially designed for going through the conduit quickly. They can make the trip in less than one day.

If there are vessels trying to go both ways at once through the conduit, they risk high speed collision, which is obviously a dangerous prospect.

Once a ship starts going in one direction, it cannot turn around, and can only stop at the conduit's terminus. Passing through the conduit's accelerator rings commits you to the trip.

[Destructionator XV]

Quick overview of all A'millian characters introduced thus far, either here or in previous PW threads who will be returning later:

Lord Adam (AW 2086 - living): Biological A'millian, Emperor of A'millian Star Empire from AW 3010 to present

The Lady (AW 2254 - living): Of species extremely similar to biological A'millian, wife of Lord Adam. I will probably reveal her last name soon, and even her seldom heard first name, if the situation arises (such as if we go down a time travel plot...)

Professor Mathias (AW 1997 - AW 4008): Biological A'millian, chair of A'millian Royal Academy of Magic from AW 3065 to his death in AW 4008.

Lady Lucrecia (AW 3006 - living): Of species extremely similar to biological A'millian.

Sir Hoisler: Human, Captain of Elite Knights. Fills in castle command duties when the Lord and Lady are off world.

Grand Admiral Andrew Reilly : Human, Commander of A'millian war fleet in Milky Way during the Guardian War. Currently assigned elsewhere.

Rear Admiral Denise Wise: Human, Current commander of Starbase 242.

Commander Jennifer Fuller: Human, Former captain of ASV Pathfinder

Lt. Commander Richard Lloyd: Human, Former first officer of ASV Pathfinder

Captain Robert H. Jackson: Human, Captain of ASV Warrior

John Kruger: Human, Current A'millian Ambassador to the Death Star

Robert J. Macy, J.D.: Human, Foregin Affairs lawyer currently working at the Embassy on the Death Star

Lieutenant Commander Hugh Ywe: Human, Representive from Starbase 242 JAG office

Lieutenant Wallace: Human, Representive from Starbase 242 JAG office

Captain Ryan Harrison: Captain of ASV Argo, a science ship trapped in an alternate universe during the Phoenix War.


I'm going to keep this post edited and up to date if I introduce any more names, for my own benefit as much as yours.

[Ra]

Kewl, I suppose we should all keep an updated list of all our characters. At least, I'll do the same with my own.

Ra: Goa'uld, and Supreme System Lord of the Reformed Goa'uld Empire. Also stands as CEO and chief stock owner of the Heliopolis Group within the Imperial Galaxy.

Galadriel: Noldor Elf, former Chief Advisor to Ra before returning to Valinor at the Phoenix War's end; current status unknown.

Madar: Human female, rogue Dark Jedi and Ra's chief bodyguard.

Buscan: Human male, rogue Dark Jedi under Madar's command.

Nica: Twi'lek female, rogue Dark Jedi under Madar's command.

Meryetre: Jaffa female, Chief Scientific Advisor to Ra and the mastermind of his Project Fireday.

Baal: Goa'uld, and only other surviving System Lord besides Ra (though I might add another resurrected Goa'uld later on, to stir things up).

Arany: Male human, Dark Jedi.

Amion: Male human, corporate security agent, deceased.

Khahor: Jaffa male, infested by the Zerg, deceased.

[unnamed Dark Jedi #1]: Deseased.

[Narsil]

The Commonwealth: A bunch of AI systems in direct control of individual starships. About twenty ships altogether at the moment

Daroch: Human Male, Jedi Master.

(to be later introduced):

Umrae, Drow Female, Warlock.

Death, the Anthropomorphic Personification therof. (Cameo appearance)

[Ra]

Dak, the Jedi Temple is perfectly fine, and in fact featured heavily in the first STGOD.

EDIT: I fucking hate this board's search function, it doesn't work at all. Enter "Jedi Temple", do everything right and select everything right, and it has "no results". Bullshit.[/rant]

[Narsil]

Ah... well that's a mistake... I'll have to change that to 'long abandoned apartment building' and change the backstory from '"family" (that being the rest of the Jedi Order) died in the Jedi Purge' to 'family (that being a wife and kids, instead) was discovered to be part of a collaboration with Rebel forces, plus harbouring a Jedi'

[Ra]

EDIT Deuce: (Mostly-to-self) Here's the link I was looking for.

Damn, post 2876? Wow, that was a long time ago...