| Players; This page is intended for GM's to understand backgrounds that should be beyond the PC's scope of knowledge. As such, you're cheating yourself (-50 XP per detail) if you use the blacked out information (the rest is fair game). You've been warned. The way it's supposed to (and should) work; Enter into the URL bar #(pagename) and that will be the section you want for that page (exmple #asf). Several places I use material from outside of ROBOTECH, sometimes well outside (such as the LOTR universe inspiring the Flyjt, orc, etc.). Not only am I not sorry, I'm slightly contemptuous of those who except me to be (I'm talking about YOU, Jaymz, if you thought talking shit behind my back was gonna work for you you're as stupid as you think I am). Most transformers don't make sense; The only ones that do are the VF-1 Veritech, VF-21 Seeker, and the TIGERSHARK submersible (that includes the Alpha and Beta series). Just because I love it doesn't mean it makes sense, and just because it makes sense doesn't mean I love it. The entire warbirds series started with the question about what makes sense (the F-4U, Mitchell, and to a lesser extent the Mosquito) in a reconstruction world (what we could produce fastest and be the most useful) and then I could add whatever I happen to like (the rest of the warbirds and most of the historic tanks series; only the MkIV, Renault FT, and StuG III really make sense and even that's limited tbh)- Even the Destroids generally don't make sense (only the REF Era Regult really does, and that's slightly limited). To make them really make sense I borrowed Taffy's concept that the Destroids were pre-Visitor tech that was adapted to the the overtech that Zor gave Earth. Even with this, the MAC-II still doesn't make sense unless you add flight technology (which is possible with T'sentraedi anti gravity tech, "gosh" the math is proven out but it appears NMI has removed now). When it partially makes sense I can still use it- For example the idea of an energy gun that transforms into a robot clearly doesn't make sense but the idea of the robot did- Especially if I can hand wavium the size to a 6" repair drone with "no" intelligence of its own, a mere finger to a larger body (that's the Micro Defense Drone/Shockwave; as a acknowledgement of that I used a pic of Shockwave holding himself in robot mode). I've been asked why I don't try writing for Palladium or someone- First because my name is mudd over there but moreso because as a mere fan fic writer I can do whatever the fuck I want- T'sentraedi Pride Baby, feel the BRRRRRRRRRRRRT. As long as I'm not connected to anyone (and oh boy am I not connected to anyone I made sure those bridges were well and truly burnt) there's nothing anyone can do to me- Which makes it funny that I found one of my own short stories had been stolen (when I went looking for that I discovered I'd been discovered or something, I even had to partially correct the record- I don't care that people call me a kikenigger space monkey, I only care if they call me a liar- and even if they're right then ok, I'll eat my shit cold). The ASF is a 1/1 replica of the US Air Force, but with severe restrictions (they don't exactly have a lot of aircraft carriers). The most glaring restriction at the moment is their lack of ability to project power much further than off-world on the few worlds that are settled. The ASF has been trying to change this by acquiring an FTL equipped fleet of ships; This will come to fruition in the 27ᵗʰ century, first with two ships then with a fleet of 144 ships, and eventually one ship to each UGC Fleet. In keeping with UGC MAF protocols, the AeroSpace Forces will be assigned in matching numbers to the fleets. The Spacy in particular is unhappy about this, since power projection has been their niche but the ASF is not getting spacefold equipped ships so the objections while serious are limited. The vast majority of the ships will remain with the Patrol (despite being smaller overall the Patrol has much smaller ships with much smaller crews and therefore more ships; by tonnage and firepower the Spacy utterly dwarfs the Patrol). This is an attempt at a power play on budgets, and while it will eventually succeed that 'victory' will be limited by the sheer bulk of the Spacy; One spacy task force could easily be bigger than the entire ASF (if the ASDF's aren't included). There's a refence in The Reva Story to a sabbac game. This is an example of the E-4 Mafia, which totally doesn't exist and I was NEVER EVER a member of the E-4 Mafia (I was a Third Class about HALF of my time in the service and started acting like it years earlier). The E-4 Mafia is a semi-official term to describe the influence wielded by junior NCO's (and sometimes senior non-rates). E-4's aren't major decision-maker but we knows how the unit works (as people and equipment) better than some of our superiors in the middle ground between the leadership and workers bees and we know who told what lies when and for what reason. There is a unit that made certain materials disappear because if that shit had come really come to light a very ugly diplomatic incident between the US and "a western country" would have been unavoidable (there was an ugly diplomatic incident, but all the interested parties were able to keep it secret-ish). Even 20 years later I can still cash that check. Leadership knows all about this; Turning to this-or-that Lance Corporal to get Y item that's never in inventory (or as the army puts it "there's only one thief in the army, everyone else is just trying to get his shit back") and the Colonel and Sgt. Major are using that same phenomena as a form of diplomacy; Let the Marine think he's fucking off by playing cards making everyone a little less tense. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Andy's Personal Lore: The party started as they always do; A little light drinking, a little light music, everybody having a great old time. It wasn't long until it got a little bit more carried away. Bill had been enjoying himself, after all he'd never been to a keger before and he had very little knowledge of what would happen. He had heard that "sex" was part of it but he still wasn't quite sure what sex was. After a couple hours Bill wandered into one of the back berthing units. There he saw two of the members he knew one was a Seaman SMITH and the other was Petty Officer WELL. He looked for just a second and could see that she was rubbing herself on his bottom while he was bent over. "Excuse me sorry" he said and backed out quickly as WELL tried to say something. Bill didn't give it a second thought for a few days until he heard it a pipe; "Now Cadet CUSHING, your presence is requested by the commanding officer, Cadet CUSHING 2000." I wonder what this could be about out Bill thought as he wandered away to the Captain's office. Three quick raps at the door were met by a bark: "ENTER!" With that Bill walked right on in as if he owned the place, stood at attention and announced "Cadet CUSHING reported as ordered sir!" The captain looked at another RDF officer, a lieutenant commander by the look of her. "Cadet at ease." With a big sigh the captain continued; "Cadet we have a little bit of an issue here right now and we need you to tell the truth." "Yes of course Captain." With that the Captain continued, "Commander please." The Commander turned towards Bill and addressed him "Cadet my name is Maria GONZELEZ-ORTIGEZ. I'm a Lieutenant Commander with the Judge Advocate General's office. It is my understanding that you witnessed something at a party last week." Bill stood there confuse. "Uh um ma ma'am I I witnessed a lot of things at the party you have to be a little more specific please." With that the Commander turned in her seat completely facing him; "A rape Cadet. You witnessed a rape. Did you or did you not?" "No no no no no ma'am no oh oh no I didn't see anything like that, no." The Commander crossed her arms underneath her breasts, looked to the cadet and said "Did you see Seaman SMITH and Petty Officer WELL together at any point that night?" Bill thought for a moment "Well yes ma'am just for a moment though." "Continue." "Well ma'am I saw her rubbing her groin on his bottom while he was bent over a rack." "Is that all you saw Cadet?" "Yes Ma'am why I, I'm conf confused ma..." With that the Commander turned back to the Captain. "Captain I think we have another one." The Captain leaned his elbows on the desk tipped his head almost vertical parallel to it and said "Yeah yeah another one. Okay Commander he's all yours." The Commander turned back towards the Cadet. "You are not to speak of any of this to anyone at any time unless specifically directed to do so. If anybody asks you are to direct them to me personally do you understand?" "Yes ma'am of course." "Very well Cadet. Please sit" she said much more kindly. With that the Cadet sat down turning facing fully towards the Commander; His eyes drifted across her breasts for a moment and then back to her face. The Commander took a deep breath and then began; "Cadet, Petty Officer WELL has accused Seaman SMITH of rape to be perfectly blunt and we think you witnessed it." The Cadet sat there dumbstruck. "Uh no ma'am I didn't see anything even vaguely like that." "Cadet, please tell me in deepest possible detail what you think you saw." With that the Cadet sat up straight eyes fixed absolutely forward in the position of attention and began. "I opened the door to the berthing unit about an hour hour and a half into the party I'm not exactly sure. I saw Seaman SMITH standing behind Petty Officer WELL. She seemed to be rubbing herself on his posterior while he was leaning forward. Oh I think I recall that he was biting down on something." With that the Commander looked to the Captain. That drove the Captain to look at the Cadet. "Did you see her wearing anything else at all? Please be specific." The Cadet sat there a moment. "Um yes yes I recall she was wearing a a tool belt but with no tools." The Commander sat up straight and her eyes bulged out of her head. "She was wearing a what?" "A tool belt with no tools ma'am." "Oh" the Captain said very softly from his own side of the desk. "I'm sorry that's all I recall now, and Petty Officer WELL tried to say something but he had that silly thing in his mouth." With that the Captain and the Commander both remained absolutely silent. "Will that be all?" the Cadet finally asked, annoyed at the interruption. "No Cadet that will not be all" the Commander growled annoyed at his insolence. The Captain growled as if annoyed at the question as well. "Captain I think I should take the Cadet aside for a moment I don't think he understands what he thinks he knows." "Please do Commander please do and please keep me informed of any other updates in this case." "Yes of course Captain. Cadet please follow me." With that the Cadet stood to follow her. The Commander led the Cadet out of the office and into a side office normally used as the ship's office. It was empty at this time even though it should not have been. "Please sit down." The Commander spoke calmly. With that she opened a file and pulled out a picture of a strange harness with a strange metal circle in the front. "Does this look anything like the thing you saw Petty Officer, uh Seaman SMITH rather wearing?" The Cadet looked at the picture for a moment. "Yes, kind of. I really don't understand any of this..." "Cadet please don't interrupt me." "Yes ma'am." "Cadet, do you know what a strapon is?" With that the Cadet's face contorted in thought. "No ma'am, I've never heard of anything, I've never heard that word before in my life. Is it anything like a toolkit ma'am?" The Lieutenant Commander let out a sigh. "Something like that you could say Cadet. Um oh dear I've got to teach you about birds and bees do I?" "No ma'am they gave us the sex safety class several times." With that the Commander chuckled softly. "They didn't quite tell you everything Cadet. A strapon is a thing that women can use to simulate being a man." The Cadet sat there for a moment looking around his perplextion obvious. With that the Commander pulled out another picture a woman wearing the harness with a dildo in place. "One of these Cadet." The Cadet looked at the picture and his eyes opened much wider. "Ma'am I I I don't know anything about this..." "Cadet it's alleged that Seaman SMITH used this very device on Petty Officer WELL." "How ma'am?" "In his anus." "Oh my" the Cadet said, suddenly realizing what it was he had seen. "Ma'am I I swear I didn't know..." "It's all right Cadet, your absolute innocence in this, your absolute lack of knowledge is the best tool we have, but we need you to keep to one story. You walked in, you saw what you saw you walked out and you didn't make any connection until later. Do you understand?" "Yes yes ma'am, yes!" "Cadet when this is all said and done I'm going to have to have a much longer talk with you." "Yes of course ma'am." "In the meantime I'm not here as an investigator." "Ma'am?" "I'm here as your representative, your advocate Cadet." "I, I don't understand now." "It was thought before that you might have been utterly naive about this matter and your naivety would do our case great deal of help but only if you really didn't understand what it was you saw. Now that we know you didn't you need a representative, somebody to protect you from the defense attorneys once that time comes." "Oh. Yes ma'am of course I understand." "You do what I say from here on out do you understand?" "Yes ma'am of course. I want to do the right thing." "Good. Good that's a good thing Cadet. All right you are to speak to no one at any time in this process understand?" "Yes ma'am." "If anybody asks you, you are to direct them to me and me alone." "Yes ma'am." "My card Cadet." With that the Cadet took the proffered card, putting it in his wallet. "A little bit of luck this will all be over in two weeks and you'll be back to your life as normal." "Yes ma'am thank you." A week later the Commander came by the Cadet's berthing. "Ma'am um you know you're not supposed to be in here unless you're on an inspection." "Correct yes Cadet. I have special dispensation and the door is to be left open per regulations. Is anybody else in here?" "No ma'am." "I'm here to talk to you about the case that you're supposed to testify in." "Oh oh yes ma'am yes of course." "We're going to need you to give a deposition under oath. You're scheduled for tomorrow morning. With a little bit of luck that's the end of it the case will be closed after that." "Thank you ma'am." "Also Cadet I need you to uh answer a couple questions for me." "Oh yes of course ma'am." "Where exactly did you come from?" "Ma'am I was homeless I don't even know what nationality I am. In fact I don't even think I legally have a nationality at this point." "I see and when did you come aboard the SDF-1?" "With the space fold mishap." "I see. And when did you arrive at Macross Island?" "Uh ma'am I just sort of floated in on one or another ship and I just don't even know. I lived on the streets of Macross the entire time. You could tell me six months or you could tell me 10 years I wouldn't know." "I see, I see, okay well that should be the last of my questions for the moment. After this is all wrapped up I will have some more things to discuss with you but in the meantime Cadet thank you for your time." "Yes ma'am thank you." And with that the Commander left. A couple of weeks later another pipe came; "Now Cadet CUSHING lay to the commanding officer's office, Cadet CUSHING, 2000." The Cadet did as ordered. Inside he found the Captain and the Lieutenant Commander. "Captain, Commander how may I help you?" "I have excellent news for you Commander GONZELEZ-ORTIGEZ intoned. "Yes ma'am?" "A plea agreement has been reached the Seaman has agreed to certain punitive actions which I'm not going to get into. You're done." "Oh that's excellent ma'am thank you ma'am." "Cadet" the Captain added "the Commander here has some uh issues that she needs to clear up related to your case." "My case sir?" "Yes uh the Commander will cover it. I think you have everything well in hand, you can use my office." At that the Captain stood up and walked out. Bill stood there a little confused. "Cadet please sit down. In the process of backgrounding you in order to be sure that there wasn't something that the defense could use against you to impeach your testimony I came across several irregularities." "Yes ma'am?" "Cadet you don't exist before two, before one year ago. You do not exist in any way shape or form." Bill thought about this for a moment; A year ago was when he'd come on board the SDF-1. "Ma'am I don't know where this is going." "Cadet a lot of people think you're an alien infiltrator." The word hit Bill like a ton of bricks. "Now my background into you suggest that it might be true." Again another ton of bricks. With that the Lieutenant Commander pulled two files from her briefcase. "Which one would you like me to turn in Cadet?" "The Cadet looked at her. "I don't understand ma'am." "One of these files says that it's very possible that you are an infiltrator and you will be shot." That set Bill absolutely upright. "The other says that you are a homeless person of Unknown Origin but probably a Britain or an American, possibly Australian by some of the intonations in your inflection and that you simply don't know where you come from but your file completely checks out. There's even a record of you in Los Angeles California a year and a half before your supposed arrival on Macross Island." "I see ma'am." "It even says that you were aboard one of the many shit freighters that arrived on Macross Island in one particular month. Your story is safe. Do you see where this is going Cadet?" "You will make my entire existence and nobody will think I'm a T'sentraedi anymore." "That's right Cadet that's exactly right. I want something in return." "Yes ma'am?" "You are going to be my boyfriend for at least as long as we're still on this ship." Bill turned and looked at her aghast. "Really?" he asked, absolutely startled. The Commander leaned back a little. "What? You don't like what you see here?" Bill's voice began to shake; His whole chest began to flutter. "Uh uh oh oh Ma'am I, I do" he answered, scanning her body very care carefully, "but I uh..." "Good then Cadet" she interrupted, rubbing her finger along the bottom of his chin. "You will be my boyfriend, this file" she held up one of the files "will find itself in a shredder, and this file" she said holding up the other "will tell the entire world that you were in Los Angeles just what was it? Uh three years ago now. And oh this is the real kicker, there's actually a citation which you have not yet paid for vagrancy and camping inside city limits." "What does that mean ma'am?" "It means you're homeless and uh you're probably wanted... Although it'll be an infraction we can make that go away faster than you could even understand the concept Cadet." "Oh oh he" said with another slight chuckle, "and all I have to do is be your boyfriend" he said hopefully. "Don't you want to know why I chose you?" Bill sat there for a moment "A little bit maybe?" "Because Cadet, my husband left me for another man." With that Bill recoiled very slightly "Oh oh um I-I see ma'am. I'm sorry." "Something like that does something to any woman. I want you to take his place. Part of my offer Cadet is I will teach you everything about the birds and the bees, including things that you don't necessarily need to know. I will not teach you about pegging hands on, but I will explain it to you in a little while." Bill sat there for a long moment. Once the revulsion he clearly felt had passed over, he answered, "Sign me up." "Good good. There's a program where members of the community can adopt Cadets give them a place to stay overnight on liberty. I can sign up for the program and you can be moved in by the end of the week." "And it won't affect my training ma'am." "It shouldn't except in so far as you might decide to become an attorney rather than a fighter pilot" she teased. "No ma'am I don't think that'll happen but I'm all in." "Good Cadet good. I expect to see you tonight. Here's my information." "Uh ma'am I I can't make it tonight." "Oh poo I was so hoping. Well I expect to see you by the end this week" she added this time a threatening tone in her voice. "Oh yes ma'am I uh I I'll be there." I have a girlfriend thought Bill thought over the course of the next six months. Maria did everything she promised- She even would watch porn with him just so he would understand some of the more "curious basics" of what she was trying to talk about. While he watched she would stroke him either with her hand or with her mouth; She made him participate in everything at least once that a single man and a single woman could do together, with the exception of anything to do with strapons, although they did watch a video once just to know just so he would know what it was- And she performed fellatio during the watching of that video. It was clear to both of them that he was as interested as she was. "If only I'd done that to my husband I might not be single now" she had growled afterwards. "Guess I'm better off." The two of them were often seen inside Macross City, but it was all completely acceptable because she was after all his program sponsor. As her as his sponsor she was also given special dispensation to teach him manners- In fact that was how she argued to get into the program. Bill being a homeless person before joining the RDF was clearly not as socially sophisticated as his classmates. She would teach him manners, he would learn. It was actually kind of as simple as that. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Cemuh Drive Cadet CUSHING approached the door and knocked as hard as he could; After a few minutes the door opened. On the other side was an RDF Aerospace General. His name tag read BILLS. "Come in Cadet." The General's British accent was unmistakable."Sir, Cadet CUSHING Reporting As Ordered." "At ease Cadet. Relax. You're not in class at the moment, and I don't want you sounding off in here." "Sir?" the Cadet responded confused. "Some of the equipment in here is sensitive. I don't know what it'll do if you upset it. Until you go back out that door, that's an order." After a moment's pause he continued. "Cadet, you impressed a couple of the engineers with your observations on T'sentraedi equipment. How did you come to the idea that knee actuators would lock up at flank speed like they apparently do?" "Sir, I thought like they would, they're an army constantly on the march. Logistics would be difficult, so degradation would be inevitable. At low level use the damage wouldn't be noticeable, but under extended intense use breakdown would be a matter of time." "Well good job Cadet. It's gotten you a new job." With that, the General opened a non-tight door and led the Cadet in. That's when he saw the thing- A collection of a trash can, a red ball, and what looked like scavenged vehicle windows and a television set. "This is Thunder Road. As you can see, it's not much to look at at all, but we are terrified of it because we don't know what it is." The Cadet began walking around the artifact. "Is there anything we do know as of now sir?" "No. Or more to the point, here's what we do know; Ben CRANDALL, Wolfgang MULLER, and Darren or Darrel WOOD or WOODS, we're not sure about him too much, built this thing somewhere around 1982 or '83. We know from police reports that the thing flew, one of the cops who tried to intercept it admitted to us that he'd wished them luck when he failed to stop them. "A few years later, the American Air Force recovered the vehicle from a location. We've been working with them since, trying to figure it out. CRANDALL reportedly drew a diagram of the circuit board and showed it to MULLER who built the microchip, which upon testing generated an electromagnetic bubble which surrounds a pre-determined area capable of moving near-limitless distances and 'extremely great' speeds. One of the boys became trapped in the bubble and discovered it was completely airtight, but as he moved in it he did not feel any effects of inertia." "No effect sir?" the Cadet parroted, incredulous. "We're still looking into that Cadet, we haven't gotten it working yet." With that he moved on; "After this, they recruited WOOD for access to a junkyard. They built this platform from a wrecked Tilt-A-Whirl car and the various junk you see here. Our problem Cadet is we can't get it running, so we're not entirely sure what it can do. And that's why you're here." The cadet looked at the General for a moment, then turned to the craft. "How do I get inside sir?" The General opened the hatch and the Cadet climbed in, a tight fit. "They must have been rather short men, sir" he observed. "They were teenagers Cadet." "Oh I see." the Cadet looked around a moment, then asked "Where is this city like board sir?" "It's on another bench." With that the Cadet hopped out, clearly happy to get away from the confining space, and the General led him to the bench were the circuit board was resting. The Cadet grabbed a magnification headband and adjust the distance and magnification. After looking over the circuit board for several minutes he announced "I don't see any problems with the board that would cause it to fail, but it's not hooked up to a power source." Pointing to a spot on the board he continued on "I think this is were the power source should be connected." The General looked at the Cadet for a moment, then replied "You passed that test Cadet. Can you reconnect it?" "If I have the power connector, yes sir." "It's in a drawer to your right." The Cadet looked at the drawers indicated, opening them one at a time until he found what he thought would be the correct piece. "Yes, that's it." The Cadet turned to the board and placed the connector on the board the way that looked correct. "This would seem to be it sir. Solder it, and find a power source, and we're in business." The General smiled and reached over to solder the board. "It took me an hour to unsolder this Cadet." "I didn't want to break something sir." "Oh no Cadet, I wouldn't have let you. Maybe you would have gotten it right, but if you didn't I'd be in very big trouble." With that the General connected a keyboard to the circuit board and powered the system up. A semi-transparent blue bubble about 3 inches in diameter appeared. "Alright here's how to move the bubble." The General began instructing the Cadet on piloting the bubble; Early moves were horrible, with one serious crash into a bulkhead hard enough to dent armored plating. "That's ok Cadet, I've done worse. Keep going." After about 15 minutes CUSHING was flying the bubble like an ace. "Alright Cadet, we've tested the device to breaking. I've been inside the bubble, the circuit board generates air while the bubble itself generates both lift and thrust. We fired a variety of weapons at it, it seemed to shrug them all off. We put a camera and Geiger counter in it, placed it in a tunnel being used in a nuclear test with a recorder. After the test, the bubble was brought back, the camera showed continuous recording and the Geiger counter showed very low levels of radiation penetrating- Bad, but well within survivable levels, roughly equivalent to being 12 miles away. If treated immediately, the pilot would fully recover." "It slices, it dices it purees sir." "Sarcasm isn't helpful here, Cadet." "I apologize, sir, sarcasm wasn't my intention." "What was?" "Shocked admiration, sir. Shomiriation sir? That's not a things sir, but I feel like it should be." "Understood, Cadet. We know essentially everything we need to know at this point." "Sir, why am I here if you don't seem to need me?" "Because we do, Cadet. We need two things, someone to test fly a CRADALL-MULLER-WOOD drive equipped Veritech and, if it's successful, to begin a program to mass produce them." The General's answer sounded like a death sentence; Nevertheless, the Cadet's eye gleams. "Where's my fighter sir?" he answered, the smile fighting to escape. "I was hoping you'd say yes, Cadet." A bulkhead section opened up silently, and with it the Cadet could see the fighter, an orange highlighted D version. The General began moving towards the opening with the Cadet in tow. "This is one of only three Veritechs quite like this, a two seat Delta airframe with a quad head Sierra head." The Cadet's head snapped towards the General in surprise; The S head was reserved for Squadron commanders. "And this is, as of now, the only one with the CMW drive." "I see sir. Who will be my instructor?" "I will be riding the #2 seat..." the General began. "That's not possible, sir, it's too dangerous." "Boy, I was flying F-105's over the 'Nam before you were born, don't you tell ME I can't fly bitch on your, or should I say MY, ship. I'll be along for the ride to collect data. As long as we're in the air, she's yours, just follow the flight plan you were given." "Uh, yes sir" the Cadet responded admonished. "When do we launch?" "The day after tomorrow, zero eight hundred. Be here." "Aye aye, sir." On the morning of the flight Wild Bill stood in the hangar bay, waiting for the General to arrive. He'd confirmed the day before the flight plan; There was no mistake. After 15 minutes, a Chief Aviation's Boatswain walked up. "You Cadet CUSHING?" he asked. "Yes Chief." "Your ride won't be making it. I don't know why, I just got word. You're flying solo today. Your bird's all checked out, she's ready to go as soon as you are." "Thank you Chief." The Cadet turned to the stall were his fighter was parked; A couple of enlisted were making the final checkout and fueling. 'Six months ago, I'd be scorning these people as mere technical; now I venerate them' the Cadet thought as he walked up. It was an odd feeling to him, but here he was doing IT and more importantly LIKING IT. "Cadet, your bird's all good to go as soon as we can disconnect shore power" the female Seaman called out as she closed the cover for the fuel port. Another crewmember called out from the top of the fighter where the Cadet couldn't see "Gimme five seconds to climb out kid." A moment later the man, presumably a petty officer from the quick flash of color on his collar, climbed out. "Alright, the gear's hooked up as instructed. What is all that stuff anyways, uh, Mister?" he asked leading. "Cadet CUSHING, Petty Officer- Ah Petty Officer WELL. Thank you both, as to the new gear, I don't really know just something the engineers want tested." "They modified a Delt with Commander's head to test new toys?" the Seaman asked. It was now that the Cadet could see her name tape, STRECK. "Yes, Seaman STRECK, and no I don't know why." "It's actually Airman sir. Supply screwed up her unis and won't fix it until Personnel send over the documentation or some shit sir." "My apologies Airman." The Airman waived it off. "Everyone does it sir. Anyways, good luck on- Whatever this is." "Ya, happy hunting or something sir." Wild Bill climbed up into the cockpit; WELL stood by to direct him out. Preflight checklist went quickly, all systems appeared to operating properly. Engine start up rolled though as if the plane wanted to get in the air; the Cadet thought on this a moment, the novelty of running standard jet engines, in a vacuum, on a plane that fundamentally should not need them. He shook his head at it all as he sealed up his E-Suit, then gave the Petty Officer a thumbs up; The Petty Officer responded with a hand out for stop as we watched something in the cross traffic. Within moments another Veritech went rolling by, one CUSHING hadn't seen before; It had some sort of boxy pack on the dorsal side, and "funny" looking legs. He couldn't help but wonder what they were testing with that, unless it was "how to crash a fighter." With the other fighter out of the way, WELL signaled forward and to Wild Bill's right, which the Cadet already knew to be the direction of the catapult. Catapults weren't strictly speaking necssary here; They gave the fighters additional thrust that wasn't actually needed, but pilots flew as they trained, and they'd been training nearly 100 years on catapults. The Cadet queued up for his launch; As the other fighters cleared away he hooked up, checked his connections, grabbed the left hand grip as he saluted, then grabbed the right grip and waited for the shooter to punch it. It wasn't long at all, his hand had barely brushed the grip as he felt the 3 g force of power shock his body with the catapult, one of the new electromagnetic ones, throw him out the side to the ship. Above him was the third planet of this system, the one the humans called home- Earth. He glanced up at the beautiful blue-brown-white ball, which reminded him of other worlds he'd... His mind snapped back fast. The flight plan was to accelerate away from the ship of a routine long range patrol, once beyond immediate sensor range to punch the button that would engage the experimental drive. As the distance ticked up, the Cadet felt his anxiety growing. This was an experimental drive, anything could happen... Including that it worked exactly as expected. As the radar range indicator shifted showing he'd gotten to the distance... He hit the button. The blue ball appeared around him instantly. Everyone from her to Jurruuqi can see me he thought, but nobody seemed to notice, or they didn't care. A slight forward throttle brought the ship forward; A slight up angle shifted her nose up. Increasing the thrusters increased her speed- It was if nothing had changed at all. He decided to test the thinking cap's effects on the fighter, and all seemed to be working well. With a quick glance back at the ship, as if to confirm nobody could see him, he accelerated forward, piloting a course to Saturn, the only place he'd seen the ship from the outside before joining the RDF. After about 3 hours he was deep in the rings; Sure enough, there was a familiar rock; He remembered seeing this very rock some 2 years ago under more than slightly diffrent circumstances. He looked at it a long moment, remembering that day, then snapped back to reality. Twisting and turning through the ring, he saw the debris of the battle there; Broken battle pods, broken Veritechs- Broken Veritech pilots. A moment of guilt washed over him but he continued on with the mission. Saturn hadn't been the flight plan- Mars was. But Wild Bill couldn't help himself, he had to come here. A circumnavigation of the planet through the ring, with it's myriad of dust, rocks, and debris would prove an able test for the barrier field, and he'd already thought of his cover story- He'd simply miscalculated the course. It was a new technology after all; Perhaps the equipment was the problem, though he was prepared to take the abuse of pilot error. And with any luck, General BILLS would either be so happy it worked or so worried about a leak he'd sweep it under the carpet. After about 15 minutes he'd completed the circle- It was time to head back. Another 3 hour transit later place him back in Earth orbit and closing with the SDF-1. "SDF-1, SDF-1, this is Tango One Five, come in please" he called out on the radio. "Tango One Five, this is SDF-1 Control. We've been trying to reach you over an hour, where have you been?" "Roger SDF-1, I lost all power about a half hour into my patrol, everything just sort of came back on line about 15 or 20 minutes ago. I was drifting for a long time and have been trying to work my way back here. Over." "Roger one five, do you want to declare an emergency?" "Roger SDF, I'd like to get back on deck asap." "Roger that one five, approach prometheus side, we'll clear the mecha bay for you. Golf Two Two, Gulf Two Two, SDF-1, Tango One Five has declared an emergency, can you escort him in?" "Roger that SDF, we're already on our way to meet him." The Cadet suddenly remembered the experimental drive was still engaged and shut it down quickly. He didn't want anyone to see it until the General was ready to show it to everyone. A moment later two Veritechs appeared on his port bow, one high and one low. "Hey there Wild Bill" one of the fighters called out. "You've had everyone kind of worried for a while." "I'm right with you Golf Two Two. I was afraid I'd have to set fire to this thing if it didn't come back." "Any idea what happened?" "Negative. She just shut down, then restarted as if she just wanted to." "Had you tried emergency restart procedures?" The Cadet already knew what the flight data recorder would tell the investigators, but he was hedging his bets anyways. "Affirmative, I think I might need some specialist assistance on what went wrong here." That would alert the General to personally come look at the fighter. It was already going to happen that way anyways, but he didn't want to risk the General not coming down; If the plane was declared "special damage/unknown," no one below the rank of Colonel could touch it until at least a 2 star had signed off, and not even just any two star- Even Captain GLOVAL himself couldn't touch the plane, except in the event of an attack. "Roger one five. Let's get you back on deck for now." Ten minutes later the fighter was back on deck getting griped down. Two Marines in the RDF's heavy plated battle armor approached. "No need for a security detail Marines. Nobody's touching this thing under any circumstances" the Cadet informed them. "Order from Captain GLOVAL himself. We're to stand guard until someone arrives to secure the plane, he said we'd be informed who as soon as he knew." "Oh, well in that case do your duty. Uh, I mean, carry on." The Marines began following the plane as she was towed back to the SDF's main hanger. The Cadet, for his part, began heading to where the General's offices were, knocking at the main entrance. This time a woman in civilian clothes met him. "Who are you?" she asked. "Uh, Cadet CUSHING ma'am. I'm supposed to meet with General BILLS." "Well good luck with that, Cadet. Bob had a heart attack this morning. He's in infirmary 15." "Then who are you and what are you doing in his compartment?" "I'm here collecting his paperwork. Captain GLOVAL sent me." "I'll just ask him about that, won't I?" the Cadet demanded as he pushed his way in. The woman provided very little resistance but some surprise. Wild Bill picked up the ship's service phone and dialed the Command Tower from memory- 200. "This is Cadet CUSHING, I'm in general BILL'S compartment aaa... Oh." Turning to the woman he asked "What's your name?"  "Annette JACOBS, Mister CUSHING" she answered defiantly."Annette JACOBS? ... Oh. Where is the General? ... Oh. I see. ... Yes, thank you." Turning to the woman he continued, "I apologize for that, ma'am. I was not told, I thought you might be a spy." "It's aright Cadet, I was just a little started that you grabbed my breast like that." The Cadet went pale. "Uh, oh, ma'am, I'm very very sorry, I didn..." "Well- It's over now, Cadet. I guess some confusion wasn't entirely out of order." She was hiding a bit of a smirk behind her annoyance, as if, upon reflection, it was quite alright after all. "I'll just head up to the see the General then, ma'am you are free to whatever you need to do." "Thank you Cadet. Please inform dad I'll see him when I can." "Dad?" "Yes, the General is my step father." "I will be sure to do so ma'am." With that the Cadet beat a hasty retreat out of the compartment and up to the infirmary; But upon arrival the nurses refused to allow him to go any further. "The General isn't doing well. You can only see him for a few minutes." The Cadet entered quietly, but the General was awake. "I guess those old Thuds didn't prepare me like I thought they would" he said softly. "Did you get it?" "I'm sorry sir, I made a mistake. I plotted the wrong course in, and ended up at Saturn." The General looked at the Cadet for a moment, then waved a hand closer. "I know aout you, Mister CUSHING. Everyone does. It's a joke you know." "What about me sir?" Wild Bill responded. "You're one of them, William. That's why I selected you. Your expendable. Damned good on you that you made it back, though. Be careful. Never tell anyone. Until you've been in that uniform a long time, don't tell, and maybe no one will find out. Never tell anyone about the fighter. Nobody will believe you anyways, and then you'll be sent up for a psych and you won't be able to hide it." "I don't understand sir, what are you talking about?" "I may not have long left for this world, so I don't have time for your games. You want to play human, ok. For now everyone's willing to play along with you. Just don't screw it up, zintrudi." With that, the General leaned back on his gurney. "I think you should leave now, and think about what I've said." "Uh, yes, sir. Uh, your step daughter said she'd come up when she could." "Thank you, Mister CUSHING. I appreciate you passing that along." "Sir, what's going to happen to your project?" "Someone will be assigned to it. For the moment, take the ship itself back to my lab... What squadron are you in again?" "VPB-6 sir." "Right, 'Traedi patrol. A bit of irony there, don't you think?" he growled. The Cadet didn't answer that. "In the meantime" he continued a bit more kindly "you head on back. I've commended you for your assistance on the project." "Thank you sir." With that the Cadet about faced and headed out, the entire escapade fading away from his mind. With the assistance of Dr Lara JONES, Andy would eventually recover Thunder Road from the SDF-001 MACROSS not long after the Final Reconciliation With The Invid, amidst recovering certain artifact Lara wanted recovered from another site, freeing his son from the POW camp, reconciling with Maria and their daughter, and getting Lara pregnant. Once it's done the story will be available. Andy approached the door and knocked. "Enter" can a voice within. Behind the desk was General O'NEIL. "Andy, this is Darren WOODS." "Mr. WOODS, how can I help you sir? I want my ship back, you thief, you pirate" he snapped. "Your ship, sir? I don't unders-" "Stop stalling, or whatever this is. I want Thunder Road." Andy went silent for a moment. "Ah. I see. Well, sir, that isn't going to happe-" "If I wasn't as old as I was, I'd beat you to death myself." "I don't doubt you'd try sir" Andy responded confidently. After a moments pause he continued. "Mr WOODS, let me level with you. First, that ship is built on stolen technology. I know because I participated in the final massacre of the people who gave you that techno-" "My friends are dead?" WOODS asked, his face showing his broken heart. "Yes. The Robotech Masters ordered us to wipe out that last of them around 1987 if I remember correctly." "Y- You said you participated?" "Yes, sir. I am T'sentraedi." Darren went quiet at that for a moment. "I see." "I am not that stupid clone any longer, sir." "Nobody sad you were, Mr... Mr Andy was it?" "REDDSON, sir, but I prefer Andy whenever possible." "Mr REDDSON, I don't understand perfectly, but I know what the Masters were. You sitting here, wearing that suit sir, I don't need to ask too many other questions. But I'm sure you understand, I'm not happy to know my friends are dead." "I'm not happy to tell you, sir. Now sir, to business." "Please, go on." "The technology is alien. It's no more yours than it is the General's. However, I can offer some compensation." "My friends?" "No, sir" Andy answered sadly. "All I can do now, is now going forward." Darren paused a moment. "What would your offer be?" "I can open up with a bid of ten million credits, I can cut the check here, now." "I see. I had thought... I'd wanted to make that my legacy." Andy turned to the General. "I don't see a conflict here, sir." "Fill in the blanks here, Colonel." "Thunder Road is lost," and turning to Darren added "lost forever I'm afraid sir," then back to the General "but there's no reason at all I can't reconstruct the ship, at least most of it as a model at KK. Leave it where Cadets can see it, maybe other models at the recruit centers. Hell, we can even make posters of it, make an open secret that we know of the ship, and leave it at that." "That would mean confirming she exists, Andering." "So? Confirming she existed doesn't mean admitting anything else. Like, uh, Mr JOOKIBA..." The General's scowl was met by Darren's question "Mr. JOOKIBA?" "You want to not know" Andy answered. "Mr JOOKIBA is a placeholder for any sufficiently classified matter sir" the General answered smoothly then added "please contrinue." "So. We put the model at KK, the legacy is intact. And you have the money, Mr. WOODS." The old man sat quietly for a long moment, lost in thought. "Wolf died of a drug reaction several years later. Ben died during the war. And my friends... Wak and Neek..." "Sir, I don't pretend to understand, but I can only do what I can." "It may have to do, Mr. REDDSON. What do I have to give in return?" "Well, first you can never speak publicly about this. The technology is top secret, we can't afford for people to learn how it works." "Alright." "Unless the General here objects, I don't see why you can't say publicly you are the creator of the ship." "Doctor?" Jack asked. Speaking for the first time the entire meeting Dr. SHELDON answered simply "I'll look into it but at this point no." "Sorry to undermine you Andy but for now the answer is no." "Understood. Dr. SHELDON will get back to us when he can." "It wouldn't matter anyways. Ben and Wolfgang were the ones who understood how it worked. I just supplied the ship components and welding. I couldn't tell you anything about the forcefield, only that it's some kind of forcefield and it worked." "Well doctor, that should help" Andy offered hopefully. "It doesn't hurt anything" the doctor answered. "So Mr WOODS, do we have a deal?" WOODS again remained silent a moment. "Could I get shares in lue of cash?" Andy looked at Jack and the Doctor. "Gentlemen?" "Doctor?" Jack asked. "You'll have to discuss that with the shareholders" the Doctor answered. "I will. Mr. WOODS, I can't guarantee anything yet but I know the President of the companies involved, I suspect they will say yes. They'll want this to quietly go away too." "I, uh, I could simply give my testimony in writing for the model at KK, whatever that is. The public would never care about what I know. Mr REDDSON, I conditionally accept your offer." "I'll have the papers drawn up by morning sir. General, what else do you need at this point?" "I'll need our attorneys to review the papers before I can pass them to the doctor for final approval." "Aye aye, Doctor?" "I'll have to approve them as well, after the attorneys approve it. Mr WOODS, I expect we can have a final, excuse me an offer ready by the day after tomorrow." "I see. Thank you." "Thank you Andy, I think that's all" Jack announced. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The True History Of XXT-5K. 1 million years in the future a group of around 1,000 Agonians will begin the process of using Cybertech in an attempt to avoid death, despite the dangers (which were well understood because of the Cybermen, Dalek, and Beorge). At first all was well, but then they were caught in a time vortex (not a common event, but common enough they are known of). They were flung 100 million years into the past, into a universe with few habitable worlds. Over this time their machine bodies began to deteriorate, forcing them to combine bodies for survival, combining minds and developing mental illness as multiple minds tried to inhabit the same bodies. Eventually they found a planet and began to exploit her resources, eventually becoming XXT-3K; As species began to develop, they began selling militry and civilian products to them, making them wealthy and powerful. This power, combined with the increasing mental illness caused by increasing bodies combining (eventually reducing to 8 at this point), made the cruel and vile. Products they couldn't sell (either unpopular or factory rejects) would be thrown into gladiatorial areas to fight one another for the master's amusement. Over time these contests became mundane and repetitive, and one of the master race volunteered to be combined with their robots to develop the spark of creativity in them (reducing their numbers to 6). This succeeded beyond their wildest dreams- The slave class was now highly creative, necessitating the development of the Overseers (mistakenly dubbed the Minister class) and an army of mindless killer drones (the Enforcer class) to keep the slaves in check- Until the slaves developed sufficiently in numbers and creativity to overthrow their masters. The resulting battle killed one of the masters in addition to many of the Enforcers. Some of the slaves did join the Master's cause (as Dr. Laura JONES surmised), but very few and all of this sort were massacred after the war. After the slave revolt succeeded, the masters fled taking the surviving enforcers and overseers, settling on a water world far outside the beaten track to regroup. They developed a few new factory worlds, but nothing near the opulence they held on their homeworld. They unwittingly influenced their development of Agorria and Zertonia by selling their people the equipment that allowed them to settle a new world, and later the equipment needed to save those worlds when their star began to collapse (thus the ringworld Zerta). They do still exist, 5 in total each comprised of 5 faces, each of around 15 what was once Agorian minds. Around half of the Agorians who first began the process didn't make it all the way. The new homeworld of the masters still exists, but it's a waterworld that appears to have a native lifeform and since water is quite common across the universe (often in greater quantity and less difficulty in collection) it's usually ignored. The very rare ship attempting to collect water here is either easily dispatched with nobody the wiser or more easily ignored than dealt with. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The 13ᵗʰ Colony There was in fact a 13ᵗʰ Colony, once inhabited by the biological life forms the Cylons developed into, who died out centuries ago; In fact, that's not "a colony" but "the home world," from whence the Kobolese and Cylons came. (Neo-)Kobol was the first colony, and not by choice but by need: They crash landed there, built a robotic civilization, which developed into a biological civilization based on their creators genetic makeup. The First Cylon Civil war began, forcing the survivors to flee Kobol (which they'd come to mistake for their own home world), settling the other planets. Ten thousand years later, memories of (Neo-)Kobol had faded as well, until it was rediscovered; In the intervening years, there had been TWELVE major wars, which threatened to wipe out the Kobolese people (1 with the Cylons, leading them to flee the planets, which in turn made the people think they'd "fled" the Kobolese and then came back- that war was started by the Cylons for reasons that can not be clearly understood). The 13ᵗʰ Colony is now an uninhabited rock three systems widdershins over and 4 discwise (due course of Caprica, 313 degrees mark 012 degrees range 18 light years). However, they're also the survivors of the last universe. As each universe dies the Kobolese send their robots into space. The robots move into the next universe, settle, evolve into biological species, then creates robots and the later on the universe dies. This cycle has repeated for them at least 1 MILLION times now. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Pam And Jerry North The original Green Hornet And Kato were none other than Pam And Jerry NORTH. Jerry's back was injured during WWII when he served as a Navy Lt. Pam being a white adult female could pass for an asian male if she wrapped her breasts up and wore the mask, and her lithe body allowed her to make those martial arts moves far better than she expected. As they retired from the position they selected their successors, who selected their successors, and so on. Their great-great granddaughter Brett became the first Green Kato. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The Atorians are not just another "monster of the week." They are a very complex society with many factions (some of which are still being written). The canon already established by Wayne BREAUX and Kevin SIEMBIEADA; They are supremely gynarchistic (female dominated) aggressive expansionists, slavers, and on occasion genocidal species. A very long time ago the nation of Atorian conquered all the other nations of Fehra. They have genetic augmentation technology, space technology that blew anything else out of existence, etc. They formed along clan lines (they're literally listed elsewhere on the internet). At one time the Atorians were peaceful expansionist. The sourcebook was canceled. Amongst the debris was the idea that "The Atorians are a race of warrior women whose race has been genetically altered to remove the male gender." Precedent set by the Paraxians of Sentinels and minor real world science notwithstanding that is scientifically impossible; It certainly would not work at large scale. I have attempted to salvage what I could of the Atorians with what I've done. The global crisis that struck Fehra was created by the Atorians themselves; They collapsed the world markets making expansion of their trading partners easier. Over a decade this put them in the lead position- As their neighbors imploded they expanded, a kind of 'soft conquest.' SIEMBIEADA/BREAUX history remains otherwise largely intact; They eventually became the rulers of Fehra, expanded beyond their homeworld, and encountered other species that they helped, then led, then quietly conquered. This changed with the expansion into Davanna; The Davanna wanted nothing to do with the Atorians, and for a moment this was fine but then the Atorians learned they had the ability to selectively engineer their DNA; This was a potential weapon, and one that couldn't be left ignored. After a brief border skirmish the Atorians declared war. The Davaana never stood a real chance and their empire fell in days. When the Atorians realized what a prize they'd acquired they separated the surviving scientists and technicians and shipped them off world. They got the subjects to agree to go on a promise of good treatment for their families; Weeks after the subjects were shipped off world they genocided the rest of the species by pumping chemical weaps into cities by the ton. The scientists eventually learned of the betrayal and sabotaged the program while feigning ignorance; The hope was by making them psychopathic and narcissistic they'd cause the Atorians to simply destroy themselves, but tis didn't quite work out. Once they thought they understood the process the Atorians killed the genetics experts. The Atorains genetically engineered their species to make women smarter, stronger, and with bigger breasts than anything else in the galaxy, and men into bigger, stronger creatures but also intellectually inferior and docile. This program was also top-top secret; Only the queen who began the program a few select scientists and even fewer administrators knew about it. They set the system up to be self-maintaining; They hide the genetic manipulation in vaccinations that must be administered around the time of birth. The average Atorian can't stop something they don't know about. The unplanned side effects were than the left side of their heads began to loose all its hair, creating the distinctive bald spot, and they started become more and more homosexual, and now are normally entirely lesbian. This program is directly tied to their sudden change in attitude; The same manipulations that make their breast bigger causes the balding on the left side of their head. The Queen who began the program would have considered this a minor trade off. The changes that make their bodies stronger makes them increasing more aggressive over time and now they're slightly psychopathic; They don't see other species as equals, they seem them as vermin to be exterminated or chattel to be utilized. The changes that made them smarter (a clinically retarded Atorian has an IQ of 200) has caused their brains to not fit properly in their skulls increasing their psychopathy and narcissism (that part of their brain is literally compressed, effectively damaging it). This trade off would have been considered a net benefit by the Queen, but it's also effected their sexuality; A "normal" Atorian female is lesbian, with minor bisexual tendencies at breeding only. This is NOT what the Queen would have considered an "acceptable tradeoff." Had she lived to know it was coming she would have demanded "this unnatural perversion" be corrected. Unfortunately it took dozens of generations for the first iterations to appear, a slowly creeping change that nobody realized was coming and thus flew under the radar. Additionally had she realized how far the program would take her people, she most certainly would have had it toned down. Her purpose at the time was to level the male/female physical difference (she was misandrist), but the degree it reached was not what she envisioned. Because it is labeled as an immunization the IPA was unwilling to interfere with the process, even going so far as to deliver vials and equipment to produce the "vaccines" to the Exodus Force under a flag of truce to prevent the crisis from exploding and a thousand years later and the system itself is still intact and fully functional. The successor states never bothered to check the immunization, and as such continues to this day. It's a basic serum that occasionally updates. Attitudes towards men in general and Atorian men in particular are improving but still not good; Men are draft animals and breeders and not much more. At the height of the empire this went to the extent that electroejaculation was the normal process of obtaining sperm. No attempt at sedation before the procedure was made. Atorian women know their manner of dress is provocative and that's why they do it. They only wear bras when it's time to breed, and these are normally a complentry color to their dress (whatever color it is) to make it stand out clearly (a tradition still in practice today). However Fehran women are treating their own sons far better than their ancestors did; They even have ended the practice of selling a son into slavery, begun giving them at least an 8ᵗʰ grade education (unfortunately that all the more they're really capable of, and attempted (as much as is possible) to ensure their sons go to good home. Paraxians have been gobbling Fehran males up; They like the big dumb types, and Fehran men are very big and not very bright.  However the Reddite sentiments are growing; A little under half of Fehrans were bisexual at the time of the empire's collapse, and around 10% have come out of the closet. Around the same number are truly heterosexual and 1% are public about it. Most however prefer alien men- Atorian males aren't very intelligent. Their defeat by the REF is attributable to several factors; Second their overconfidence; They were so certain they could match the REF that the thought of not fighting never occurred to them. Their fleet was massive compared to the Terran/T'sentreadi/Sentinel fleet. They had almost as many ships as the REF had fighters by this point. Their technology was at least equal. They had multiple millennia of doctrine, training, and experience under their belts. Third their own internal cohesion- Or lack of. The empire wasn't as popular as most believed, and several factions assisted in the REF's victory by sabotaging equipment, giving assistance to the invaders, etc. Not all of this sort were slaves; A significant amount of the traitors were disaffected Atorians And fourth was ego; Everyone wanted to be part of the Atorian Empire. Naturally. The idea that anyone didn't was anathema to the leaders thinking and unthinkable to the common Atorian at the time; The Queen even publicly stated that within a year "the Robbies" would JOIN THEM as an "allied state." Billions of enslaved people did anything they could to hamper the Atorian war machine; Shoving gravel into wheel bearings, mis-mixing hull plating, installing electrical systems so that they'd short circuit under load while looking proper, even at times intentionally damaging equipment. One minor example was a gauge indicator for antimatter reactors; They intentionally mis-manufactured the indicator to show the pressure in a reactor as being within tolerable limits when it was in fact above said limits. It would start off being accurate, but as the pressure increased the indicator didn't rise accurately, causing reactors to blow out, crack, or simply shut down. As much as anything else many slaves simply SAT DOWN and refused to work. Worse their T'sentraedi actively defected to the REF when "routine technical updates" telling them to accept the Terran alliance as their new masters and to await further orders got through. These were followed up by secret communiques from T'sentraedi in the REF ordering them to prepare to sortie out to meet the REF, then regroup behind the fleet and be escorted to reconditioning centers. The REF T'sentraedi made a point of it to warn their kind not to mutiny, or attempt to overthrow their Atorian "masters" but rather to get into ships and take off. It would be 12 years before this intelligence coup became public, and cost one T'sentraedi Colonel his rank. Atorian superiority in all matters made them narcissistic as a species and while their defeat has deeply humbled them their tendencies remain. The appointment of the sadistically corrupt General BEVELSK and the simply sadistic Admiral DAALA was by no means an accident; BEVELSK'S mission was to create economic crisis, to impoverish the Fehrans, DAALA'S to break whatever spirit might remain, or to drive out those who might still have the fighting spirit in them. DAALA did get the 'immunizations' normal to her people, but her T'sentraedi heritage made them less effective; She had tens of thousands of years of DISCIPLINE to help her cope with her condition, and her personal militry experience to cement that. She never raised a personal finger to enforce the abuse; She had others do that for her (see below). The defeat of the Atorians was not entirely unpopular; One group of about 2,000 Atorians marched to the REF's headquarters to offer their services as collaborator mercenaries with the REF and eventually with the UWA providing extreme front line security services in exchange for favorable treatment. This eventually morphed into the Fehran Security Service (the REF's enforcers). They were even given full rations by the BEVELSK regime and had the boot on their temples eased by the DAALA regime to merely lodged in their ass- The fact that DAALA was half Atorian didn't hurt matters but the fact that her ancestor was a collaborator had a lot to do with her personal choice to associate with the REF. She knew how to really HURT Atorians- She'd grown up with one foot firmly in that world too, and her only overture was that when FSS did the sorts of things she wanted to do but couldn't she'd reward them for it (against Atorian norms DAALA was also openly homophobic and respectful towards her father and other Atorian males). Admiral DAALA would eventually develop the nascent Fehran Security Services into 12 infantry corps (1 million members in all), 2 armored divisions, air support battalion, a battalion of investigators, and a division worth of support personnel. Under her direction they stopped being the security guards and asset recovery specialists BEVELSK created and became ruthless enforcers, rooting out any resistance by any means necessary. Most of FSS members are female but 25% are Atorian males. Subsequent regimes have eased the enforcement to varying degrees, but Fehra is still under a militry dictatorship with a parliament façade; The Fehran government only rules by the consent of the REF garrison commander and while they are mostly free to do whatever they wish a minor objection from the commander can change attitudes significantly as was demonstrated in the VOSS Sleia matter. The Reddites are currently the ultimate expression of the Fehran culture learning from their past; They treat men as equally as actual circumstances allow (Fehran males are generally less intelligent and that isn't going to change just because of changing social conditions but non-Fehran males are NOT generally less intelligent), and many have embraced the social inversion (taking their men's names, even taking a collar and branding). There are also millions of "closet Reddites" and many times that who do not identify as Reddites but are treating males far better than their ancestors did. Whereas the Fehrans have been steadily embracing men again, Atorians have been turning increasingly anti-male. Males are still bred by electroejaculation and thrown into the mines to work basically from birth. They aren't abused much beyond that. Non-Atorian males however are abused with whatever cruel, sadistic, or merely wild idea their captors can come up with. The idea of the strap-on was accidently introduced by the IPA invaders and unfortunately the Atorians have taken to it quite diligently- But only intermittently on each other. Males from allied cultures however are treated far differently. These are treated as precious commodities for breeding, if they can deliver. While electroejaculation is still the norm, they are sedated before the procedure and then sent home with an invitation to return. If they can't "deliver" they're simply sent home without comment. The Naidens (from the cover of Aliens Unlimited) are Fehrans who settled their world so long ago they forgot their history. As a result they do not have the genetic  anaolomies their cousins (huge breasts, partially bald head, higher intelligece and strength) but they also don't possses their cousins psychopatic tendecies. That they have managed to do so says a lot both about how long they've been separated and the circumstances thereof; The only way to make such a complete separation means they wanted to forget their history. That the Fehrans also have no such record says quite a bit more. The Naidens are native to the Rallah galaxy; How they were able to get there is a question that can not be answered since nobody other than the ancient Haydonites had such technology at the time and they could not responsible as they were in hibernation at the time.The Atorians thought they'd killed all of the Davanna, but around a half million of the roughly 10 billion survived, most being homeless people living in sewers or hermits in the wilderness. Their assumption was a society that could create genetically enhanced beings couldn't possibly have poverty or homelessness (or at least very minimal). This was a deeply flawed assumption and around 10% of the Davanna were in fact homeless. Using local wave radios set on an automatic playlist they se
Most of the survivors were the sort of intellectual and psychological inferiors the survivors could do without but between them they were able to recover their species understanding of genetic engineering. The Davanna have bifurcated within their own species to the roughly 1½ foot tall "Main" Davanna who collect and develop resources and defend what's left of their people and the 6 inch tall Dh'zeir who handle most repair work. The two 'species' exist symbiotically, if occasionally less than perfectly happily like cousins in an eternal pissing match. Many stayed on their homeworld just existing like rats in the sewers but some left their homeworld and became the Cantus (what the UGC calls the Gene Splicers). The Cantus believe the best defense is a good offense and have been trying to destroy the Atorians ever since. The UGC doesn't know any of this; Even the Atorian people didn't know about the Davaana. The Cantus aren't acting at the moment because they are amused by the Atorians complete fall from power- It's so much more satisfying to see your enemy enslaved and abused than dead and the Cantus can't see any way for the Atorians to recover from the extent of their fall. Even if the REF were destroyed and the UGC conquered the Atorians still couldn't recover no matter what kind of deal they made. The Davanna who stayed behind meanwhile avoid contact with the UGC or anyone else. The UGC doesn't care much about the Davanna one way or the other; They can't because they are only dimply aware of their existence. They often mistakenly identify Davanna activities for Atorians or refugees from some enslaved species and mostly ignore them. Sometimes food is left out for them, but it's not often taken, though this has increased over the years. Intermittent attempts at contact have been half-heartedly made. They're referred to as "fraggles." GM's; This section is "secret" unless you want to send the PC's into the sewers of Davanna for some insane reason... In which case, the Davanna (Main and Dh'zier) will leave booby traps and destroy as much as they can, then scatter. You'll never catch them, and the most the PC's can get is the shattered remains of whatever the Dh'zeirs were working on and trash and campsite materials the Mains were forced to abandon. Only a 20+ year campaign using remote cameras would give even the slightest clue to the depth of the secret down there. Main and Dh'zier Davanna alike are fearful of the outsiders, and will avoid contact any ways they can. The Cantus are on the vermin list but as long as they stay out of the way the UGC doesn't actively hunt them. They have been blamed for a wide variety of crimes, but what little communication has been achieved with them they deny all of the crimes. The UGC managed to coerce a Cantus into serving them, but even then he not only keeps the secret of his people but has maliciously planted disinformation that his people came from a diffrent galaxy. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The Fessors Other than the Fessors are what the Atorians woudl be if they knew they could get away with it there's not a lot to tell here. The Fessors take everything bad about the Atorians and turn it up to 1 million; They still rape every single hostage no matter the species or sex and are particularly fond of sodomizing their vicitims as a pure act of dehumanization, they practice full castration of male prisoners unless there's a good chance of a decent ransom (and if the subject's wife and/or mother is known to be present make them watch), they still throw hostages into the slave pits, etc. They've only recently stopped castrating every male thanks to intervention from The Investor's Group, and even that's conditional- If the operation wasn't sanctioned they'll do it anyways (the Fessors are free to prey on most non-UGC aligned factions with only a few exceptions). The Fessors also steer very far from the UGC- That's a line they know they can't cross. If the UGC has claim in a given galaxy they'll try to keep a low profile unless The Investors Group says otherwise and even then move carefully. Most of the Atorian allies are their allies as well. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ascension Supremacy The entire Ascension Supremacy is vulnerable to the same hack that allows anti-AS forces to take control of an HK-Tank, but the vulnerable point is deep inside AS's command center; The only way to get there is as a member of the Ascension Army or PF and nobody knows it exists, not even OverMind. There are plenty of AA and PF who'd do it- About half of PF are traitors in waiting, and nearly all AA would betray AS in a heartbeat. The problem is nobody knows it exists. FBX 21555320 And Ascension SupremacyThe natives of FBX 21555320 are trapped in OverMind. They exist in a virtual world of a neverending carnival; Several million extra marital affairs have occurred, and they have very little idea. They don't realize they're in the system. The settlers on the other hand DO know where they are and they're being tortured. The system is used only to hold those who's existence displeases OverMind including those who can't work (or at least as hard as their issued resources). Homosexuality in AS is a crimes potentially punishable by death, but the loophole tolerating its use as punishment is being exploited tops and bottoms alike; Tops join PF, bottoms 'commit misdeeds' to be punished. That's not an absolute, but it is a loophole being exploited as a get out jail free card. AS has established contact with the Atorians and other malcontents, but they can't reach them due to the interdiction ring. They abhor Atorians and Fessors due to the raging heterophobia in those societies but Cobra is an option, as are some of the Syhith and rogue Mandalorians. A Global Survey Agency ship found the planet. Survey teams on the planet found massive cities that had been totally abandoned instantly; There were cars crashed into buildings and each other. That means someone had been sitting in the car with his foot on the brake when he disappeared (releasing the brake and allowing the vehicle to move forward). This happened on a global scale. There are other examples, laundry still in washers and dryers, pots and pans still on stoves, baby bottles in microwave like units, etc. Whatever happened, every single person on planet disappeared instantly. There was no bodies and there would be no explanation for what happened for decades. The scene unnerved the survey teams who recommended against settlement, but the GSA was under pressure to open worlds up for settlement and they approved settlement. The settlers came. They established a libertarian society, meaning drugs, etc. was legal. For a few years there wasn't a problem, but then a series of natural disasters occurred and as stated many people were left homeless. Before that Lyman TAGGART went exploring and found an ancient machine. He interfaced the machine using a BCI called the Interlocker and learned part of the truth; The people of the world had been digitized (like the first half of a Star Trek transporter process). Who, how, and why are unknown but they're all in a computer living a life of sorts, an eternal carnival that they don't realize they're in. A few people had made it to OverMind, but they couldn't handle it. This accounts for 'SOME BUT NOT ALL' of the people who disappeared, and even a few of the people whose bodies were found later. When Lyman made contact he realized this was a means to power, but the society around him wasn't interested. He would have to wait and bide his time. During the chaos of the natural disasters people entered the camps boredom reigned; Drugs rose, fights and sexual assaults rose, you get the picture. Lyman comes offering a solution, but it was a scam; He took them to the digitization system then released them with their drug addition cured by re-writing their brains. They were free of the addition but they were enslaved to the system. This was his nascent army, released into the world to preach the miracle Lyman was offering. Chaos continued to reign on FBX; The overwhelmed RDF had asked for help, but the violence in the camps led the REF to enforce order. This led to a mass desertion by RDFer's who were imprisoned in "deplorable" conditions, who then in turn rioted. This situation kept snowballing with the drug lords trying to secure their positions, the FBX government trying to secure theirs, and the REF trying to restore order until suddenly there's a civil war. Into this chaos enters Lyman and his Ascension Supremacy. They approached the REF offering to help which they did until they were dug in very deep- Then one day they turned on their allies like the Order 66 scene. This hit the REF so hard that the UWA decided to withdraw from the planet entirely; Anyone who wanted to go would be evacuated, except that some people were trapped behind AS lines. The withdrawal from FBX looked like the scenes for the collapse of South Viet Nam (that's what I based it on). FBX now looks like the worst combination of Somalia's warlords and AS battling for control of the world, while at least three groups fight both at the same time; The low-tech Survivors (loosely based on Tonka's 1990's era Steel Monsters series), the Powers (based on Captain Power), and isolated pockets of people hiding in the remains of the cities (based on post-defeat WWII Germany good and bad) with support from the UWA and later UGC. This is the status quo of FBX now, a boogie man society that not much is known about. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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