Fractal Galaxy: Dark Orbit (Discussion Thread)

[Hibou]

[spoiler=Paratha II]

[/spoiler]

Dark Orbit

"Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels, it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it." ― Terry Pratchett, Reaper Man

A spacefaring vessel quietly disembarks from the Paratha II orbital station, and although it makes no sound in the vacuum of space, inside the ship is a dull roar of the nuclear core, followed by the hum of the freshly-updated Mail and Information Repository (MIR for short). This vessel is a Sunthrush-class courier in the employ of the Galactic Postal and Courier Service (usually shortened to GPS or GCS), making its way from station to station updating its archives so that distant systems may know the goings-on of their Darkspace neighbors. Outfitted for extended deep space travel, the ship, known as the Icarus VI, features massive solar arrays rather than hardpoints, and expanded communications systems rather than the armories and reserve weapons bays typical of military vessels of the same size.

The Icarus VI, like the countless other GCS vessels, operates with the goal of providing relatively (taking weeks, months, or more rarely, years) up-to-date information from other systems given the nature of space travel. By the year 3221, humankind has made its way into space in fragile fashion, absorbing the technologies of the Spacefarer species and developing their own. What surprised them most was that none of their contemporaries had developed reliable, energy-efficient FTL travel, with wormhole technology still an extremely expensive, secretive talent that only a few terrifying threats from beyond the Milky Way possess. However, an ancient system of fast-travel conduits collectively known as the Darkspace Network aligns itself asymmetrically across the galaxy, allowing near-instantaneous between graphically-adjacent systems, with the compromise that most vessels will still need days, weeks, or months to travel from the Darkspace Node to the intended station or colony. As a result, the Sunthrush class of vessels are outfitted with storage systems adhering to the minimum standard of 100 exabytes of capability, which (through a complex order of precedence) are updated at each compatible dock with massive stores of data with varying levels of security. Eventually, the Icarus VI will reach a hub of civilization such as Unity Nine, the orbital-home of humanity, and offload an updated encyclopedia of data before attending to a new route. Thousands of these vessels operate simultaneously, sometimes coming within hours of each other during docking, while other remote stations may not see them for months at a time.

Paratha II's Darkspace Node is atypical in that it resides in the inner solar system, making average travel time shorter but also more dangerous due to Paratha Prime's multiple belts of debris, which are excellent places to mask the otherwise painfully-obvious heat signatures of raider ships until it is too late to evade them. For the Icarus VI's veteran crew this is of little concern, and as the ship silently drifts inward from orbit to orbit, it extends its solar arrays to run on electricity rather than the emergency nuclear core. There is only one final checkpoint near the Node, where the Icarus VI will be contacted and scanned by a DRAECH outpost, before it disappears into the dark of the system web.

The Galaxy

The Milky Way harbors an unknown number of Darkspace Nodes (the current count is in the hundreds of thousands) that connect systems seemingly independently from how said systems are actually located in relation to one another; the Node of the now-lost Sol system, for example, connects to a quiet system in the aftermath of a supernova, which is in turn located on the border of the Alliance of Galactic Species' dyen (called Praetors in human tongue) zone, across the center of the galaxy from where humans arose. Though the Network raises many questions such as Who Built Them? and Why Are We Using Them So Carelessly? on a galactic level, their convenience in the quest to expand into the darkness is insurmountable, and as a result they have been a focal point of galactic politics and upkeep for hundreds and thousands of years before humans even reached the stars. DRAECH (pronounced "drake"), the de-facto galactic police force headed by Praetors, closely monitors any and all Darkspace Nodes and are the primary source of authority on the frontier. DRAECH is one of the few entities in the Alliance of Spacefaring Species that has adopted the concept of individual fighter spacecraft with any measure of success, and being an A1-C977 Vynder (modern DRAECH fighter) pilot is one of the highest honors among the ranks.

Outside of the roughly seventy major centers of inhabitance in different zones of the Alliance territories, lawlessness is a perpetual reality and surprisingly, it lends itself more to sinister scientific practices held far from the prying eyes of administrative bodies than it does raiding and piracy. Little can be said of factions other than the Alliance, such as the Eternal Empire, which the GCS has only made contact with a handful of times (read: when the EE is not actively at war with the Alliance). Other threats lurk if one ventures deep enough into the Network, including the fearsome and mysterious Vorovka, whose frightening forms and even more terrifying creations have given the galaxy nightmares for as long as they have been on its edge.

Aliens

The dishes remind me of big flowers pointing their petals to the skies, waiting to receive whatever's out there. There's nothing between my dish and the end of the universe.

Humanity could never have the galaxy to itself. Despite the tumultuous and violent nature that astrophysical objects take on, life arose many, many times since the birth of  the Milky Way, usually perishing too early to become a player on the ultimate stage. On rarer occasions, a species overcame the challenges of its homeworld and made it into space to find it continually more quiet, cold and unforgiving than fiction writers and scientists alike could imagine. Isolation is the monster that lurks in the darkness and behind every corner, of dimmed space stations and abandoned vessels drifting in decaying orbits; some, however would argue that on the fringes of civilization, where there are few patrols and fewer people, that knowing you are alone is preferable to knowing you are not.

Pioneer is the term given to those who not only achieved spaceflight but delved deeply enough into the workings of their solar systems to discover their Darkspace Node (should one exist), and did so independently. Species that received assistance from others are known as the Enlightened, and are the subject of much controversy as this latter group continues to be joined by new members at a pace often outstripping conventional infrastructures to support the influx of un-spaced beings.

[spoiler=The Pioneers]

Tetrobor

The tetrobor, commonly known as the grays, are the heirs to an ancient galactic empire that crumbled many eons ago, and despite being one of the oldest Alliance species to achieve spaceflight, their current civilization (or at least what is part of the Alliance) is rather small and concentrated. Residing primarily in a region of the Darkspace Network known as the Iasilath, the tetrobor can be attributed to the initialization of many modern galactic laws and social structures, as well as the construction of countless ruins on abandoned planets and the advancement of genetic science. It was the grays who, along with the dyen, began classification and monitoring of other sentient species that had not yet reached the stars, and even into the last centuries of their civilization they visited planets for scientific purposes, some choosing to take extensive "samples" of the flora and fauna. The Alliance policies that arose from the ashes of their empire and its advancements came to be the Alliance Intelligent Species and Entity Code, a charter pertaining to all missions risking first contact.

The grays are an intimidating species because of their tenacity and focus on the precision dissection and destruction of things that are inconvenient to them, and no Alliance members are known to harbor technologies for dismemberment and pain-induction more infamous than those of the grays. Their biological and genetics is infamous and unparalleled in its depth and scope, despite the grays' apparent loss of civilized knowledge in the past few centuries.

A tetrobor stands roughly seven feet tall, and (like most of the most prominent Alliance species) is vaguely humanoid. They appear almost as oversized green-gray humans whose muscular system is more pronounced in comparison. They are completely hairless and have few visible orifices or protrusions such as ears; their mouths are vestigial, shallow holes in their faces. Grays hear through small depressed membranes on either side of their head. The eyes of a tetrobor are massive, black, slightly ellipsoid orbs that sit on either side of what might have, in early evolution, been the bridge of a nose ending in two tiny slits. Their primary method of communication is short-range telepathy, with an odd tendency to use hand gestures when speaking to non-tetrobor. Grays seem to obtain sustenance both from solar radiation and electricity, and can use battery-like devices to feed. They can survive indefinitely on one source while lacking the other, although some minor physical and mental health problems may arise. Grays are also noted for possessing some startling regenerative capabilities compared to other species, including the capability to regrow smaller amounts of bone as well as muscle and skin (it is not unknown to see a tetrobor growing its fingers or toes back if they have been lost).

Dyen

[spoiler=A view from the jungles of Kordin-Athu XI, a dyen moon world]

from www.wakpaper.com[/spoiler]

Known by humanity as praetors, the dyen are a model of ideal spacefaring civilization as imagined by humans of the past, taking a controlled, curious approach to the secrets of the galaxy and fielding a powerful paramilitary multi-species force (DRAECH) that doubles as a research and development division. The dyen are the Alliance's most prominent species and are historically the closest allies to humankind, with most hostile encounters being with rogue praetors. They are unparalleled warmakers and a fading-but-still-significant warrior culture from their civilization's past has reinforced the valuations of strength, honor and courage, resulting in a heroic (sometimes suicidal) approach to their plight. The abundance of military-trained dyen results in many taking holding armed positions for private companies, and mercenary bands many feature slightly more bloodthirsty praetors among the ranks.

The dyen have held a long and bloody history battling the vorovka, and more distantly, the grays. The destruction of Nodes by the encroaching vorov fleet is a longstanding concern among praetor governing bodies and a significant portion of dyen research is concentrated on better battling the threat of the vorovka now that a strong alliance has been solidified by the grays and humans. Notable praetor defense contractors and megacorporations include Avirta Development, an ancient corporation whose Orbital Demolition, Interdiction and Assault (ODIA) arsenal has long been the catalogue of choice for observation and suppression; and High-Orbit Enterprise Robotic Shipyards, whose mass manufacture capabilities are undoubtedly infamous among Alliance adversaries.

A praetor stands about as tall as a gray, but appears much more muscular and bulky. Instead of five digits per hand they have two very thick fingers and a triple-jointed thumb. Their feet resemble a large bird's. All praetors grow what has been coined an "episkeleton" - while it is not shed at any point in life, nor is it as hard in comparison to an insect's, it provides significant toughness to their skin, including a thick almost helmet-like crest covering most of the face and head. This structure becomes the platform for a praetor's distinct coloring and markings as they age. Praetor vocal capability is similar to humankind, although their peculiar vocal system allows for them to at times have two simultaneous "voices", and their mouths open on two axes rather than one, with split jaws that vaguely resemble a set of mandibles.

Wraz

Not to be outdone on an evolutionary level, the wraz (singular wrazk, pronounced "rask") are a younger species that closely resemble the reptilians of human conspiracy. They possess slender frames and a superficial tallness, with massive, rounded eyes much like a lizard's. Their mouths sit below two sunken nostrils and are shaped like beaks, and the wraz have no hair on their scaly bodies. They have four-digit hands but with sharp tips, figuring into their long history of using a base-eight counting in mathematics.

Wrazk history is the single bloodiest account of death and destruction among any known race, with superstitious beliefs regarding the rare birth of a wrazk scion often serving as the spark for catastrophic wars and genocides. A scion is an extremely rare child born with a membrane-like structure atop their skull that quickly expands, rises and hardens to form a jagged frill in their infancy. Science would wash away the primitive views towards these harbingers were they not validated by the presence of powerful psionic capabilities in every scion that ever lived - a rare talent among the wraz, who show some of the weakest psionic aptitudes among the Pioneers.

Wrazk engineering has been mostly the same for centuries, with an "organic" origin to all of their buildings and equipment. The wraz effectively "grow" nearly everything out of a crystalline fungus adapted from their homeworld Though it is in many respects similar to Earth, crystallization is such a common phenomenon on Wrotta that wrazk engineers have had thousands of years of exposure to master it. This peculiar technology also serves to provide basic life support systems such as air filtration and thermal regulation, with a control system based on biological feedback and a pilot "infection" process where they become host to some of the crystal fungus so that they may control their vessels.[/spoiler]

[spoiler=The Enlightened]

Vaelartyra

Humanity's entrance onto the galactic stage caused a great deal of controversy, dredging up a very tense subject among the Alliance species: overpopulation on a galactic level.  A tense debate quickly erupted into the Green Sun War, which eventually resulted in the creation of the Alliance and its contemporaries: the Tripartite Legion of Vaulon, Woldas, and the Eternal Empire. In the aftermath, the differing factions were united by stances on the treatment of intelligent life (persistent, regular encounters and assistance is the act of "Enlightenment"; the Alliance is against it). It was no surprise that leadership of the Alliance was very cold when a wrazk and tetrobor joint operation accidentally entered human space nearly a century after the Green Sun War - becoming mankind's first official alien encounter. Though they were all ready well on their way to discovering the rest of the galaxy on their own, humans were given a controversial jumpstart into galactic life after a short, one-sided conflict and became an Alliance species in 2470 AD.

Humans or vaelartyra (vaelartyr singular) as they are known to others have a lot to be thankful for: vast amounts of knowledge and assistance gained in obtaining a foothold in galactic civilization; a strong, prosperous friendship with the rest of the Alliance; but, most importantly, they avoided having their world reduced to rubble and tribes by the thunderous navies of their new benefactors. Human leaders in reality have a collective chip on their shoulders, despite their technological knowledge and military power surpassing other factions' in some ways. Many human colonies have abandoned the Alliance over polarizing laws and cultural events, becoming independent or joining factions such as the Eternal Empire. A more recent example is the outlawing of the Council for the Destruction of Intelligent Threats or CDIT ("Seed-It"), which put forward the proposed methods of introducing violent predators to garden worlds, eliminating most lifeforms and facilitating easy colonization. By 3060 the Great Recovery had not yet reached its peak, and the United Human Command's attempts to impose laws on the suddenly remote ranch-colonies forbidding the use of CDIT practices drove them to go declare secession, to which a still-weak human government could not respond.

Compared to the known spacefaring species, humans have seen moderate development of psionics over the past 700 years. Historically, anomalous individuals have usually displayed a faint precognitive ability, unique among the "natural" talents of the Alliance. Upon discovery of this natural psionic ability late in the 26th century, a great deal of funding went into military and then private research. For long years they were met with mixed success, ushering in a human golden age that would be shattered during the looming Psionic Wars. Roughly one out of every fifteen modern humans manifests strongly as a psionic in the modern human population, with a knack for precognitives and pyrokinesis.

Modern advances and ingenuity in human medicine have extended the human lifespan to such a level that old age is no longer reached until they have lived for an average of 170 years, although availability and deployment delays result in "generations of generations" where people have may have lower-than-average life expectancy - driving a rift in inter-colony relations. Much worry and speculation accompanies this fact, and more than a few distant colonies have in the past (some very recently) resorted to extreme measures to achieve "equality", sometimes via extensive cybernetic enhancement.

One final note is the human homeworld: Unity HS-9, a colossal (partially still unexplored) space station in a busy solar system halfway from the center of the galaxy, harboring approximately 18 billion humans. The Sol system is long gone, with its Darkspace Node shut down from the other side following the Vorovka Engulfment in 3012. A few particularly venerable or cybernetic-assisted people from the conflict still live, and there are few who have not at some point in their lives harbored a measure of anger and longing for their lost world, Earth.

Cancerath

The canceranth (tetrobor catalogue: shuvat or shuvata plural) were Enlightened thirty years following the Green Sun War, and thus the most recent (and unwelcomed) case of Enlightenment by the Alliance. A race of bizarre amphibious humanoids, the canceranth are still gaining a foothold on the galactic stage from their handful of star systems at the edge of the galaxy. When discovered, their technology was pre-industrial (and aquatic), and a massive disparity between regions of their homeworld still exists; a class divide was driven - not by economics, but by first contact - into their culture. Thus, the canceranth live among walled cities with numerous law enforcement and omniscient monitoring, in true police state fashion. Although attempts are made to reach out to undeveloped areas, the divide is often responsible for a mutual hatred between classes, and this ongoing conflict has limited the shuvata's ability to advance.

Canceranth stand on average about seven feet tall and are covered in frills lining their limbs and their torso. Their skeletal system consists of more cartilage than other species, a common trait on their homeworld of Cancera. Shuvat hands and feet look much like very thickly-webbed frog feet. Their heads are narrow but long, typically with particularly long frills running along the sides, and large, shark-like eyes in binocular orientation. A canceranth's mouth too is like a shark's, the inside lined with sharp rows of teeth that are replaced by newer ones as they age. One of the unique features of the shuvata is that they are bioluminescent, their frills and fins glowing green, blue, and purple; an adaptation for hunting in the oceans of their homeworld, as well as being an important method of communication.

Unlike most of the other spacefaring species, canceranths have almost no external distinction between the sexes - males and females are roughly the same height, same size, and have the same ranges of colors; males are defined most easily by their more numerous poisonous barbs lining the frills of their arms and legs. They do have vocal capability, but without adapters it sounds both watery and short-of-breath. In the water, their primary method of communication is electroception, but in many environments they must wear powersuits to provide suitable moisture and vocal filtering.

Wzzev

The wzzev (pronounced "sef") are not a natural species - rather, they were created by unknown agents in the 2900s. Some theories suggest they were being engineered for use as apex predators in natural environments, and master infiltrators and assassins in artifical ones. Resembling a massive, sinewy cross between a spider and a wasp, the wzzev quickly overcame their creators and formed primitive, confused societies among the ruins of laboratories. Although they are by far the youngest of the Alliance species in the galaxy, they have a rich culture and a sizable population made possible by both their cunning and their improving galactic relationships.

The wzzev's primary "ancestor" resembles the genus Portia, with vestigial wings and menacing black-and-yellow colors. Its body is a meter long (although its legs make it much larger). The wzzev can strangely spin a web, with its uses in modern times including territory/ownership marking and art. They are capable of jumping significant heights and distances with their legs, which are covered in a thick carapace and provide monstrous strength. They have human-level intelligence, but despite vocal modifications, a wzzev requires a vocal amplifier to converse with other species. Inheriting the violence and the venomous sting of their wasp parents, a wzzev is a formidable enemy.

Wzzev culture is a variety of styles and philosophies, largely human-derivative. Wzzev structures often resemble giant webs or may be alternatively built into suitably massive trees. While their technological level is roughly equal to that of the rest of the Alliance, wzzev personal tech translates poorly to other species, and because of mutual incompatibility most manufacturers of wzzev gear originate from the wzzev as well.

[/spoiler]

Factions

"The Universe is a pretty big place... And the one thing I know about nature is it hates to waste anything. So I guess I'd say if it is just us, an awful lot of space is going to waste."
-Contact

Given the vastness of space, one would think that it would be easy to spread out among the stars and find an abundance of resources with which to make life enjoyable. The costs of spaceflight and colony development are prohibitive, however. It is the corporations (and governments) that possess the funds and facilities from which they can expand out into the great nothing, and by 3221, they've made a concerted effort. A new employee destined for Halov Corporation's Division of Biological, Chemical and Environmental Solutions soon learns that Halov owns the planet she is landing on, the satellites and orbit, and perhaps even the star itself. It is what is called a "corponation", a supercorporation whose private military acquisitions and automation efforts allow colonies of mere millions to thrive as independent, privately-owned territories that flourish into billions of people. Some of these corponations are larger than the governments of independent factions, and blur the lines between them.

It is cool to post here. Will be using the wiki once I update/retcon the information, but here I will be posting some basic info.

credit to pynipple for the rad pics (http://pynipple.deviantart.com/)

[Hibou]

Some setting themes/points:

• Isolation
• Everyone is (potentially) a mutant/modification is common (but expensive)
• Science gone wrong
• The mail must get through
• Space travel is still slow
• Megacorporations ("Corponations")
• Private paramilitary divisions, galactic terrorism, spec ops, "FBI in space"
• Lost civilizations are abundant
• Galaxy ~20% explored

Major sources of inspiration:

• Starcraft
• Dead Space
• The X-Files
• Mass Effect
• Portal and Half-Life
• Metro 2033
• Alien/Aliens/Prometheus
• Farscape
• Conspiracy theories
• Military tech
• Call of Cthulhu
• Solaris
• Star Trek

[Hibou]

reserved 2

[Hibou]

reserved 3

[Weave]

I really enjoyed your method of introduction into this - it provided a great "ground-level" viewpoint for the everyday goings-on of the space vessel while also providing some exposition to the setting as a whole. The awesome art doesn't hurt, either.

I have a bunch of questions, but I'll wait until you post more than just the introduction to spare you anything you may clear up in the meantime. I will ask this, though: I'll admit that I haven't followed your previous Fractal Galaxy posts as much as I've wanted to, so I'm wondering if this is some new iteration of your setting? Or a reboot? Or is it still the same setting but somehow different what with the subtitle "Dark Orbit"?

I really look forward to seeing what develops here.

[Hibou]

I really enjoyed your method of introduction into this - it provided a great "ground-level" viewpoint for the everyday goings-on of the space vessel while also providing some exposition to the setting as a whole. The awesome art doesn't hurt, either.

I have a bunch of questions, but I'll wait until you post more than just the introduction to spare you anything you may clear up in the meantime. I will ask this, though: I'll admit that I haven't followed your previous Fractal Galaxy posts as much as I've wanted to, so I'm wondering if this is some new iteration of your setting? Or a reboot? Or is it still the same setting but somehow different what with the subtitle "Dark Orbit"?

I really look forward to seeing what develops here.

It's somewhere between a reboot and a retcon. New approach but a lot of the information is the same. I chose Dark Orbit for the name because it seemed to go well with the level of isolation I'll be adding to the setting, remote research facilities gone wrong, grittier (more "realistic") space tech, etc. I guess you could say Dark Orbit is the collective title for a series of scenarios I have in my head for potential games, although I have no plans to run one anytime soon.

Thanks for checking it out.

[sparkletwist]

I don't want to ruin your presentation, but the initial image is too large. I've spoilerized it for now.

Anyway, I'm glad to see you getting back into this setting, as I always found it pretty cool. I agree with Weave that your method of introduction is good-- one thing that I'm always eager to see with settings is what it's like to be there, just, walking around in it, or in this case, flying around in it.

[Hibou]

I don't want to ruin your presentation, but the initial image is too large. I've spoilerized it for now.

Anyway, I'm glad to see you getting back into this setting, as I always found it pretty cool. I agree with Weave that your method of introduction is good-- one thing that I'm always eager to see with settings is what it's like to be there, just, walking around in it, or in this case, flying around in it.

No worries. I think I actually saved an update to the main post shortly after you edited it but I've fixed it. Also, thanks for checking it out. :)

[Hibou]

A few more updates. Trying to get this page up to and a bit beyond the level of info that I had on the wiki before I moved away from the project. Up soon: gadgets, technology, monsters, psionics and locations of interest

[Humabout]

Oooh! More Fractal Galaxy!