OK, I'm sitting on the CQ desk last night, and I started thinking about way to
make for interesting games.
I came up with the Meran Cluster.
Approx 200 years ago, the Merans burst onto the interstellar scene. Agressive,
Militaristic, and totalitarian, they also had managed to make some quantum
leaps in technology over their neighbors. They
quickly subdued their local star cluster and set up a semi-feudalistic
empire. One of the biggest problems was the lack of native Merans to fill all
the positions of leadership, so many local 'elites' were coopted into the
Fleet and Strike Forces, as well as the local government.
Fastforward about 70 years, with increased restlessness inside the Cluster. In
order to keep central control, the Merans have set up a system of jump gates
in their cluster. These require no specific drive to use, just a transmitting
station and a recieving station that is not 'closed'. So not so useful if the
rebels could get ahold of the jump gate, but extremely useful if loyal forces
could keep control. Within a decade of the network's complete, the Hand of God
struck. A remarkably successful secret society that was apparently
cluster-wide, nothing is known of the Hand of God save the bare name,
and the results of their most spectacular operation. In the space of less than
six hours, a toxin of some sort was released across the planet Mera which
managed to kill over 99% of all lifeforms with a central nervous system. With
the loss of the central governmental structure, the entire empire collapsed
nearly over night. To the surprise of most of the outside observers, the
scramble for Imperial assets and to set up political structures at the single
system level was very light on bloodshed.
The Maran cluster contains 27 habitable star systems, organized into
polities of between 1 and 3 systems. Only 3 multi-system
confederations exist. The economy of the cluster is reasonably
strong, but technology is not near Tier 1 standards. Mostly Tier 2-3.
There is some competition among the star systems, largely of a 'cold war'
nature, but occasionally breaking out into serious violence. Several of the
systems have been noted to have militaristic tendencies and the resources to
put those tendencies into action, so most observers do not believe the
generally peaceful trends will continue.
I designed one star system, the Lithian Commonwealth, with miltary
forces FT/DS. Any interest?
G'day,
One last hurrah via Derek's email...
> John Atkinson wrote:
> In the space of less than six hours, a toxin of some sort was
I haven't done any epidemiology models in 10 years but I doubt much has
changed in the mixing models in that time, so you'll have to come up with a
very nifty explanation for the planet wide dispersal of a toxin on that time
frame. Days I'd believe hours is pushing the credible a fair bit.
Did you also intend to wipe out absolutely everything except bacteria
and wind/water dispersed plants like grass/seagrass? Taking out nearly
everything with a central nervous system means not only no vertebrates but no
insects, crustaceans or any other animal invertebrate with more than a handful
of cells. The fungi would be ok as they're mainly wind dispersed, but most
plants would also die within a year or two with no means of dispersing seed
(if they got pollinated in the first place). That leave of destruction is
fairly major. Its also fairly unlikely unless the make up of the life in the
cluster is a lot more similar than
on Earth. There is no existing toxin that we know about that could come
anywhere close on Earth. I'm not a chemist so I can't think of one that would
kill more than about 10%, a chemist could probably make it 30%, but not much
more I'd reckon.
Nothing wrong with the catastrophic attack premise in principal, you may
just want to modify some of your numbers a bit.
Cheers
Beth
From: John Atkinson johnmatkinson@gmail.com
> I came up with the Meran Cluster.
Given the tech level, I'd rather they were using natural jump points instead
of setting up their own. Otherwise good.
It strikes me that the Unity would be a good source for a poinon that would
kill N% of chordate life. They'd think of it as "Evolution in Action".
> I designed one star system, the Lithian Commonwealth, with miltary
Yes. Depending on length, maybe a summary to the list and the extended version
to whoever wants to write the web page...which I suspect is going to be me.
On Mon, 07 Feb 2005 23:28:33 +1100, Derek Fulton
> <djfulton@bigpond.net.au> wrote:
> Did you also intend to wipe out absolutely everything except bacteria
Yup. It's supposed to be a dead planet. There's a plot there that I'm working
towards. And dead is going to mean dead.
> That leave of destruction is fairly major. Its also fairly unlikely
It's actually a series of toxin cocktails that took decades to completely
design and test.
Probably the initial attacks/dispersions were into the ventilation
systems of the starports and such, and planetwide dispersal took many releases
over the next few days, but the mythology is going to condense the timeframe.
The Hand of God are the bogeyman under the bed in this cluster, and more so
because they only conducted one operation that anyone knows about, but it was
devestatingly effective.
On Mon, 7 Feb 2005 09:10:18 -0500, laserlight@quixnet.net
> <laserlight@quixnet.net> wrote:
> Given the tech level, I'd rather they were using natural jump points
The Maran Empire was definitely a Tier 1 system. And I wanted jump points of
limited military value.
> >I designed one star system, the Lithian Commonwealth, with miltary
Summary:
Perhaps 20% of the population is "Gentry" (best English translation). Gentry,
by social custom are limited in the occupations they can hold,
primarily landowning/capitalist/military. All members of the Gentry
class have a vote in Parliment. In practice, most gentry members give proxies
to Magnates who are social equals but far wealthier and
control large areas of land, great wealth, and/or private armed
forces. There is an elected-for-life Grand Duke. He mainly controls
the Fleet, although the Fleet is supported both by the Grand Duke's personal
estates (and those of his personal retainers, in his position as a magnate in
his own right) and by taxation supported by the Parliment.
The Gentry have a well-developed Code Duello, which extends to miltary
conflict between Magnates with their private armed forces. On-planet
military operations are highly limited in rules of engagement which are
designed to eliminate as nearly as possible noncombatant casualties. These
rules of warfare are enforced by the Fleet. Typically the engagements between
the household troops consist of a great deal of maneuver, with a short, sharp
engagement terminated by surrender of the disadvantaged party.
The Fleet is primarily a self-defense organization, divided into N
Task Forces, each consisting of Strike Groups based around 2-4 Armored
Cruisers (88 Mass) and Carrier Groups based around 2-4 Strike Carriers
(110 Mass). These are both escorted by escort cruisers(1-2) and
destroyers (3-5), and more destroyers and corvettes are formed into
Patrol Groups of 8-10 vessels.
The Fleet operates a Naval Infantry Brigade consisting of
combat-armored assault troops, with the capability to land a BN at a
time in shuttlecraft, and has a number of planetary-based Fighter
Groups, each of 4-6 squadrons. Squadrons are broken into 3 6-craft
flights.
The typical Magnate's ground forces are organized into a Cavalry
Brigade. This consists of an Armored Group (large company) and 2-4
Mounted Rifle Regiments, plus an Artillery Batallion, Engineer
Company, Anti-armor Company, etc. Each Regiment has 4 Rifle
Squadrons, a Machine Gun Squadron, and platoons of Scouts, Anti-armor,
and Engineers.
Squadrons may be mechanized in APCs, motorized in either trucks or
jeeps, or horse-mounted.
Any Magnate whose military gets too large, either gets a pointed visit from
the Fleet or from his neighbors.
It's chaotic, unstable, and messy. But it isn't supposed to be stable
long-term, what would be the fun in that?