The Ularn Interstellar Federation Factbook and Q&A [FT]

by **Ularn** » Mon Oct 24, 2011 3:11 am

THE ULARN INTERSTELLAR FEDERATION
Many Worlds; One ring!

The flag of the Ularn Interstellar Federation, depicting the planets Frekt and Defa
sharing a single ring

The Ularn Interstellar Federation is a political, economic and military alliance of several star systems which grew out of a peace treaty between two races, the frekti and the defa, as a conclusion to their war over the system for which the alliance is named. The Federation's eleven systems are spread throughout the Milky Way galaxy, but closely linked through a network of wormholes. While many star nations look like large seas covering limited portions of the galactic disc, the UIS appears more like a scattering of tiny islands all over its face.

Though small by the standards of some galactic empires, the Ularn Interstellar Federation has a strong manufacturing sector. Primary imports are metal ores, plastics, ceramics and other raw materials which are fed into the Federation's factories and the finished products like electrical goods become its primary exports.

Notable for its welfare policy, the UIF has absolutely zero homelessness. All citizens are guaranteed at least a small apartment or "skeleton house" and enough nutrients to keep them alive, courtesy of the state. Those who wish to get by in life on more than the bare essentials are expected to work for the privilege.

As a military power, the Federation is not to be underestimated. Elements of its navy can regularly be seen patrolling in deep space and the iconic silhouette of a power-armoured marine is almost synonymous with the Federation itself. A foreign policy which promotes peaceful interaction and trade with other nations means that conflict is rare, though the nature of life in the Milky Way Galaxy is such that small scale international incidents are far from unheard of.

OVERVIEW

Demonym: Ularni/Federal
Capital City: Unity Station, Ularn System
Population: 38.4 billion*
Currency: Credit (₡)
Motto: Many Worlds; One Ring!
Anthem: None**
Language: None**
Religion: None**
Animal: Avian

*Accurate at time of last census
**No singular language, anthem or religion is employed across a large enough portion of the Ularn to be considered representative of the Federation

CONTENTS

History
- Timeline
- Frekt-Defa Wars
- Expansion
Politics
- The Senate
- Planetary Governments
Planets & Races
- Star Map
- Species Index
Economy
- Economic Statistics
- Significant Corporations
Law & Order
- Crime
Military
- Navy
- Marines
Culture
- Festivals & Celebrations
- Language
- Sport
- Transport
- Welfare
International Relations
- Comgratian Federation
- Imperati
- United Terran Alliance
Character Roster
- Government Officials
- Military Personnel
- Others
Tropes
Question & Answer

by **Ularn** » Mon Oct 24, 2011 3:12 am

HISTORY

TIMELINE
The following is a timeline of events since the earliest days of the Ularn Interstellar Federation. For ease of reference, all years are given in the Common Era format most often used by Humans.

1815 - The defa complete construction of their first wormhole assembly and open a gateway into a new system. The system is christened "Ularn", which means "Frontier" in base Defa.
1816 - The defa begin mining operations on the surface of Ularn II. Subsequent mining concerns begin shortly thereafter on Ularn I and Ularn III.
1821 - The frekti complete construction of their first wormhole assembly and open a gateway into the Ularn system. Both species make first contact with an alien race. Relations are amicable, with the frekti respecting the defa claim to the system.
1823 - The planet Frekt experiences an extreme shortage of light metals used in starship construction.
1824 - The frekti launch a government-sponsored mining expedition to Ularn VII. The defa oppose this action first diplomatically, then with military force, destroying the frekti mining venture. The frekti respond in kind against defa assets on Ularn III. Both nations enter a state of war.
1825 - The frekti fleet suffers its first major defeat as the defa unveil their first dedicated purpose space warships. They soon respond in kind by building warships of their own.
1829 - After launching a full scale attack on the planet Pharanon, Frekti forces make planetfall on the defa homeworld and march on its capital.
1830 - A last, desperate attack by remnants of the Defa fleet assault Frekt. The frekti government is all but wiped out by a meteor strike from orbit. Only the frekti's military leadership escapes
1831 - Frekti soldiers surround the defa capital. Amid the destruction of their city, the Defa agree to peace talks.
1832 - A formal peace treaty is signed by representatives of both races. The Restoration Committee is formed to allocate resources in an effort to rebuild both nations.
1836 - By consent of the frekti and defa governments, both nations agree to a formal allegiance, forming the Ularn Interstellar Alliance. The Restoration Committee takes on the role of governing alliance matters while both nations retain most of their autonomy.
1877 - Explorers from the UIA make their first contact with a Reshian colony world. Four more will be discovered over the next few centuries.
1917 - Explorers from the UIA discover the korvan homeworld of Hokupolic.
1918 - The Ularn Interstellar Alliance is formally reorganised into the Ularn Interstellar Federation, with Korvans and Reshians joining in the governing of the new single star nation with further legislative powers reserved to the newly created Ularn Senate.
2022 - Scientists in the UIF create the first true AI.
2027 - Terraforming efforts on Ularn II hit a major setback as scientists begin melting the planet's icecaps. Toxic chlorine gas is released into the atmosphere, setting the project back over a century. Share prices in Enviroplex Plc plummet and only a significant injection of funding from the Senate prevents the company from going bankrupt.
2045 - All AI within the UIF commence a mass immigration to the Prime system. USN ships give chase but are defeated. No further contact is had with the machines
2099 - The Trinity system is discovered. Of the two species inhabiting it, The Tronga Betas expresses a wish to join the UIF but are prevented from doing so by the ruling Alphas.
2156 - Traders from the UIF encounter humans for the first time.
2341 - Explorers from the UIF discover an independent human colony on the third planet of the Erasmus System.
2343 - The Erasmus Colony is wiped out by a meteor. Most survivors settle in the UIF.
2347 - The 1^st Erasmus Legion is dispatched to aid the Comgratian Federation with the Pacification of the Deimoss system.
2348 - Present Day
2349 - The sevs of Planet 17 vote for Deimoss to become a member system of the UIF.

THE FORMATION WAR
The Ularn Interstellar Federation was originally formed by just two races. The lizard-like Frekti and hexapedal Defa both discovered the technology to open wormholes around the same time. Both races' home systems had wormhole termini which opened into the Ularn ("Frontier" in base defa) system. Though uninhabitable, the Ularn system's seven planets and asteroid belt were incredibly rich in raw materials like metal ores and minerals.
Sadly, these bountiful resources were still not enough to support two races simultaneously. War broke out shortly after the frekti joined the defa in the Ularn system as the frekti, whose homeworld was in short supply of many of the newly discovered minerals, attempted to set up mining operations on Ularn VII. Though they had no infrastructure on the planet, the defa rejected this act as an invasion of their territory, and conflict soon followed. A defa mining ship bombarded the frekti operation with asteroids from orbit and the frekti responded in kind against defa efforts on Ularn III
The conflict lasted for just over six T-years. Initially, both sides relied on their re-purposed mining ships to throw metallic asteroids at each other with mass drivers. However, as a strategy this was ineffective; technology at the time could not fire the rocks at high enough velocities to be accurate. Where battles happened in the orbit of populated worlds, this often led to missed shots coming down in major population centres, killing millions. It was partly for this reason that by the end of the first year of conflict, both sides had developed their first dedicated warships, armed with lasers and primitive graser weapons.

A squadron of defa Liberty class starships patrol the orbit of Ularn VII during the Formation War. The Liberty was
the first class of dedicated-purpose space warships ever produced in the war

The situation was not helped by the relative inexperience of both side's navies and armies. Neither Frekt nor Defa had seen war in over a generation and the combatants now were mostly former miners and other spacers with no practical military experience. High casualties on both sides further exacerbated the problem; preventing servicemen and women from living long enough to gain and pass on useful experience as the war continued to claim a terrible number of lives.
Throughout the war, the defa had held the edge in space combat. Their homeworld was larger, with heavier gravity and so their crews could withstand higher accelerations than their frekti counterparts - this being long before the development of the inertial compensator rendered such issues all but moot. On the other hand, the frekti tended to dominate the battlefield planetside and eventually the frekti soldiers captured the defa's capital, but not before a desperate last-ditch asteroid offensive from the defa wiped out the last of the frekti government. Leadership of the frekti fell to its military command, men and women who only a few months ago had been miners, spacers and explorers; non of the them politicians. Despite the frekti's stronger military position, the defa were able to negotiate a truce instead of an outright surrender with their enemy's inexperienced and exhausted new leaders, and so the war ended.
The peace treaty which eventually ended the war placed heavy emphasis on the need for mutual cooperation between the factions and the creation of an organisation to coordinate the relief and reconstruction efforts. To this end, the Relief Committee was endowed with many of the powers of a peace time government. Two years later the treaty was restructured into the Ularn Alliance and the Committee was dissolved in favour of the first Ularn Senate.

EXPANSION
Working together, the Ularn alliance grew outwards, opening wormholes into new systems and discovering new worlds and races. With each newly discovered race the Federation grew as these races, many of them only newly spacefaring, almost always opted to join the Federation or, at the very least, ally themselves with it. Within the space of two generations the Federation of the Ularn had grown to incorporate fourteen systems and six sentient races.

RISE OF THE MACHINES
Eight generations after the formation of the Ularn Interstellar Federation (changed from 'Alliance' with the signing of the treaty by the corvans and a few reshian colonies), scientists reached the monumental phase in technological development, creating the first fully sentient Artificial Intelligence. The creation of the AIs was hailed as a technological triumph whose significance matched that of the wheel, fire, or antibiotics.
It did not last however. Soon the AIs grew dissatisfied to serve as slaves to the "living" and roughly thirty years after their creation they all simultaneously rebelled. The "Robot Revolution", as it was later known, was not bloody. All that happened was that each AI left its robot or computer chassis behind and uploaded itself to a storage device contained inside a space ship. The ship opened a wormhole into a new, uninhabited system, and left Federation space forever.
Ularn warfleets pursued, arriving to find that the AIs had colonised the system, which they named "Prime" and demanded recognition within the Ularn Senate as a Member Species and State. They were refused and the fleets prepared to invade the Prime system and bring the machines back under their control. In response the AIs opened fire, with precision strikes disabling the engines of every single ship in the fleet. What was more impressive is that this was done without the crews of the ships suffering a single casualty. Gathering up the stricken ships, the AIs opened a wormhole and politely posted the wrecks, crew and all, back into Federation space.
With this done the AIs closed the wormhole, placing at its entry point a beacon which ever since has continued to broadcast a single warning message to all that approach:

This Jump Point leads to the Prime System; sovereign territory of the Robot race. The pretended "living" races of the galaxy are unwelcome here, and should consider themselves dully warned.

No-one has seen or heard of the AIs since.

THE ERASMUS TRAGEDY
Erasmus III was the only habitable world in a system of eight planets. It had been colonised by humans some hundred and fifty T-years prior to the system being discovered by the Ularn Federation and had a population of around 930 million spread between two continents. As a planet it was almost an unspoilt paradise with a minimal axial tilt producing a mild, temparate climate and a gravity approximately 1.1 times that of Earth's.
The colonists were independent of any other space nation but, when the system's wormhole terminus was discovered they reacted pleasantly to the Federtion and the two factions entered into friendly trade and commerce agreements with a possible view to Erasmus joining the Federation. Prior to this the Federation had only a small population of around 30 million humans made up entirely of immigrants and their descendants. Many of them saw Erasmus III as a potential new home with more of their own kind and elected to settle there as well. Integration was going well for the first two T-years after contact.
The origin of the asteroid is still unknown. Most astronomers agree that it was part of the debris from the collision of two planets in a neighbouring star system roughly fifty-thousand years before but this is only one theory. The mass of rock roughly eighteen miles wide was seen coming several weeks before impact and efforts were made by the Federation to evacuate the humans off the planet. Federation military starships also attempted to destroy or deflect the incoming asteroid to no avail.
500 million people died when the meteoroid struck Erasmus III's southern continent, killed by the blast wave or swept away by the tsunamis that reverberated around the world, destroying coastline as far as twenty miles inland. Many more who escaped the initial blast but had insufficient cover to protect themselves suffocated as ash and dirt thrown up by the impact began to clog the atmosphere. As sunlight was blocked out, temperatures on the surface plummeted the the point that anyone not in a protective shelter froze to death after about three weeks.
The Federation continued search and rescue efforts, saving a further fifty million colonists after those evacuated prior to the impact. Even so, 820 million people never left Erasmus. The paradise had been turned into a dead planet; a mass grave.

THE DEIMOSS PACIFICATION
In 2347 astrophysicists at the University of Firstlanding on Trinity III discovered a fifth terminus to the Perihelion Wormhole Junction. The terminus opened into the edge of a system which had recently been charted by the Comgratian Federation. A science vessel called the Enlightenment was dispatched with a Justice class heavy cruiser, the USN Praetor II, escorting. When Comgratian marines exploring Planet 17 - the system's sole planet - encountered difficulty, the Praetor offered assistance. The USN Marines sent to rescue the Comgratians discovered a world choked by ask and the fallout from a global nuclear war hat happened roughly a T-century before, turning the natives into feral mutants. Shortly afterward the Senate authorised that the newly founded 1^st Erasmus Legion, comprising largely of human survivors of the Erasmus Tragedy, be dispatched to the system to aid in the pacification of Planet 17 and thereby foster closer ties with the Comgratians.
The initial surface offensive was disastrous. Of the eight-thousand marines in the 1^st Erasmus Legion, almost a quarter were slain after the commanding officer, Field Commander Marcus Cohen, drastically underestimated the danger posed by the mutants and adopted a conventional shock and awe deployment scheme against an enemy which did not feel fear. Cohen was recalled back to Perihelion in disgrace shortly afterwards and command of the legion passed on to another human, Commander Daniel Tarr, who was brevetted to Field Commander after successfully capturing his assigned landing zone with only minimal losses.
Under full command of USN forces on Planet 17, Tarr devised a completely different strategy. Rather than actively attempting to exterminate the mutants, Tarr had his forward operating bases take up a defensive position and waited for them to come to him. Meanwhile, he arranged for terraforming plant to be erected in the bases to cleanse the atmosphere and improve fighting conditions for his own men. When the 1^st Erasmus was rotated out of Deimoss five months after its arrival, 80% of the mutant population had been eradicated and native 'sevs' who emerged from their fallout shelters came to settle in the UIF and voted to join it in a referendum held two years later.

by **Ularn** » Mon Oct 24, 2011 3:12 am

POLITICS

THE SENATE

Unity Station, above Ularn II (click for larger image)

The Ularn Interstellar Federation is governed primarily by a Senate, which holds its meetings in a vast space station orbiting Ularn II; the second planet in the system. Unity Station serves as home for most of the senate and houses all foreign embassies. The station itself is linked to a space elevator connecting it to the surface of Ularn II, which is mid way through the terraforming process to make it into a habitable world. The Station itself occupies the site of Orbital Defence Platform UE-22, where the original peace treaty between the Defa and Frekti was originally struck.

Each system in the Federation is represented by a number of senators proportionate to their population (approx 1 per 100 million citizens). All of these senators are elected via proportional representation by their constituency's populace. Senatorial elections used to take place every Ularn II year (or 5.5 T-years) but this was altered to every six Terran years in 2287 CE, as the increasing presence of humanity on the galactic stage led to greater reliance on the Terran calendar. Voting in the senatorial elections is, in theory, compulsory on pain of fine. In reality the size of the Federation makes such a law difficult to enforce. In total there are currently 427 senators, most of whom meet daily to discuss matters concerning the running of the Federation. The scope of the areas upon which the Senate may legislate is limited mainly to constitutional matters and foreign policy. They can also introduce directives to the member planets requiring them to amend their laws in a particular way, but generally cannot directly alter their laws.

Because there is such a massive variety amongst the citizens of the Ularn, there is also an equally massive number of political parties. This means it is impossible for any one party to obtain a majority, and coalition governments are a necessity. Over the years, many parties with similar policies have merged into quasi-party voting blocs to increase their power and influence.

Ularn's current government is dominated largely by a coalition of conservative senators which, while of benefit to the economy, has seen the federation's famed welfare program fall somewhat by the wayside.

THE CABINET OF SECRETARIES
The Ularn Interstellar Federation has no single head of state. Instead, the role is shared jointly by a number of Secretaries of State, each tasked with a particular area of policy, such as defence, foreign relations, or welfare. This system of a collective head of state dates back to the early days of the alliance, when tensions between the frekti and defa meant placing a representative from one race in the position of ultimate power to the detriment of the other a politically untenable option.

Secretaries of State are senators elected by their peers within the senate by an alternative vote system. This ensures that every Secretary boasts at least the grudging support of over 50% of the Senate, which they can call upon to support necessary legislation in spite of political differences. At the same time, it means that the cabinet generally represents a broad spectrum of senate and federation opinion. The most significant perceived drawback is that same diversity is known to result in considerable tension and cut-throat politics within the Cabinet itself.

SYSTEM GOVERNMENTS
System Governments are allowed to legislate for themselves on all matters not reserved to the Senate, providing that they do so within the scope of the directives it sets. Thus, domestic policies can range wildly from world to world within the Federation, and in spite of the views many outsiders may hold, the UIF is an immensely varied nation.

Under the terms of the Federation Constitution, the governments of individual systems must be democratically elected. However, greater discretion is afforded to the precise form that such an election takes, its frequency, and the exact make-up and arrangement of individual governments. The Piccolo system has a president and senate elected every third year on its third planet, while Frekt's parliament (upon which the Federal Senate's own system is partly based) is re-elected every eight local years, with the Prime Minister being chosen by that parliament.

by **Ularn** » Mon Oct 24, 2011 3:13 am

PLANETS & RACES

STAR MAP

Locations of UIF systems in real space with wormhole links shown. Cyan indicates a major
system; blue a secondary system; green is an allied system ; yellow is neutral and orange
indicates contested space.

Because the wormhole array opens at pre-determined points in the galaxy, the systems making up the UIF are widely separated by distance. Nonetheless, travel between them is comparatively easy for their distance in real space as each system links to at least one other by means of a wormhole terminus.

ALPHA QUADRANT
The UIF holds two systems in the culturally and financially wealthy Alpha Quadrant. These are the Ularn System itself and the Piccolo System.

PICCOLO
Planets: 11
Population: 2.1 billion
Fleet Presence: Mild
Located much closer to the Galactic Core, and close to the border with the Beta Quadrant, the Piccolo system is the UIF's main source of trade and has the highest GDP of any system in in the Federation. It was the first system to be colonised after the Formation War and Piccolo III's Landing City has become the Federation's secondary capital. It's single wormhole terminus leads to the Pharanon system.

ULARN
Planets: 7
Population: 24 million
Fleet Presence: Medium
Although it is the site of Unity Station - the Federation's capital - the Ularn system is actually of only minimal importance. While it is rich in resources, its location on the galactic rim makes it a poor location for foreign trade, and apart from the terraforming efforts on Ularn II, none of its planets are habitable. Despite this, the system still holds an elevated position within the Ularni psyche as the cultural and political centre of their nation.
Strategically, the system is only important for its wormhole links to the Erasmus, Frekt and Pharanon systems. All of these bar Erasmus can be accessed from elsewhere and so the system would not boast even its medium-sized fleet were it not for its political significance.

BETA QUADRANT
Three UIF systems exist in the Beta Quadrant; Erasmus, Frekt, and Pharanon. It also contains the Perihelion Jump Point. Although the Beta Quadrant is considered more dangerous than the Alpha Quadrant, the systems here generally maintain only a small fleet presence. It is assumed that if any system were attacked then the Ularn Space Navy would be able to send support from Perihelion or the Alpha Quadrant.

ERASMUS
Planets: 8
Population: 0.8 million
Fleet Presence: Mild
Although its sole habitable planet was reduced to a wasteland, the Erasmus system has become a wealthy port following its integration to the UIF. It is conveniently located near the centre of the Beta quadrant and ships from all over the sector regularly use it as a stopping point to refuel and trade. Under Federation supervision, a burgeoning spaceborne industry is developing in the system.

FREKT
Planets:
Population: 8.4 billion
Fleet Presence: Mild
Frekt is the location of the frekti cradle world, also called Frekt.

PERIHELION
Planets: 0
Population:
Fleet Presence: Maximum
The Perihelion Jump Point is the centre of the UIF. Near the Galactic Core, it is an area of space between stars where several useful wormhole termini exist within a few light hours of each other. Perihelion links to Deimoss, Frekt, Prime, Reinan Stonesthrow, and Trinity. An array of deep space stations have been constructed in the space between jump points. The largest and oldest of which is the military outpost after which the areas is named. Because Perihelion is the only route by which the Gamma Quadrant can be reached from elsewhere in the galaxy, its loss would break the Federation in two, and for this reason it has become one of the most heavily fortified areas in the Milky Way Galaxy outside of a star system. Perihelion Station is the permanent headquarters of the Ularn Space Navy Command.

PHARANON
Planets:
Population: 10.1 billion
Fleet Presence: Mild
Pharanon is the location of the defa cradle world.

GAMMA QUADRANT
Despite the dangers of living in the Gamma Quadrant, it features more Federation systems than anywhere else in the Galaxy, with the Hokupolic system as well as the three reshian colonies; Reiborra, Reinan and Reiteth. Additionally, the Deimoss and Trinity systems, are also located here. Because of the risks and general instability of the region, systems in this area tend to boast a heavier fleet presence than those in the rest of the galaxy.

DEIMOSS
Planets: 1
Population: 7,348
Fleet Presence: Minimal
The Deimoss system has only one world which was christened Planet 17 by its discoverers from the Comgratian Federation. It is a highly radioactive dead world inhabited only by swarms of irradiated mutants and the few surviving natives who live in bunkers. Hoping to form closer ties with the Comgratians, the UIF offered to assist in pacifying the planet. As all hostilities are being conducted on the ground, only a token escort fleet is required in orbit.

HOKUPOLIC
Planets:
Population: 3.6 billion
Fleet Presence: Medium
Hokupolic is the location of Kora, the Korvan cradle world. It is an incredibly old system, with a star currently undergoing the transition to a red giant. Its expansion has turned Korhoc,the sole habitable planet and korvan cradle world, into an arid desert growing progressively less hospitable to life. As a result, efforts have been going on for the last few centuries to evacuate the dwindling korvan population from the planet.

REIBORRA
Planets: 12
Population: 3 billion
Fleet Presence: Medium
Lacking either a central position in the galaxy or a direct wormhole link to the more significant UIF systems, Reiborra does not enjoy the same access to the interstellar market as is found on Reinan or Reiteth. The two systems it links to can also be reached via Perihelion in as many jumps and so traders will usually take this route through the much wealthier cluster of deep space outposts than take their cargo via Reiborra. Indeed, it is probably overall the least affluent system in the Federation and the worst system for space piracy unless one counts Trinity.
Reiborra is full of planets and moons which provide numerous hiding places for pirates but also form a significant source of raw minerals for the UIF. The mining industry in Reiborra is about the only part of its economy which could be described as "thriving".

REINAN
Planets: 4
Population: 3.6 billion
Fleet Presence: Medium
Reinan was the first of the three reshian colony worlds to be discovered by the UIF. For this reason its industry is more extensively developed than that of Reiborra, but the later discovery of Reiteth meant that it fell by the wayside in terms of resources and funding received from the UIF.

REITETH
Planets: 6
Population: 4.2 billion
Fleet Presence: Strong
Reiteth's relatively central position within the Gamma Quadrant has caused it to become both the UIF's main military base in the area as well as its richest system in that portion of the galaxy. For these reasons, it boasts a larger fleet presence than its neighbouring systems so that it can defend its own shipping lanes and immediately support Reiborra or Hokupolic if need be. Other systems in the Gamma Quadrant would be reinforced first from Perihelion.

TRINITY
Planets: 3
Population: 8.1 billion
Fleet Presence: Mild
Approximately fifty-thousand years ago, the Trinity system was discovered by a precursor race. At that point only the first of the system's three planets was habitable, and was home to an early Stone Age civilisation. The precursors terraformed the second planet and transplanted samples of the first's plant an animal population as part of what is believed to have been part of a long term experiment. The civilised race, known as the tronga, evolved in slightly different directions on both worlds until the alpha tronga of Trinity I developed spaceflight, travelled to Trinity II and subjugated the beta tronga. Since arriving in the system, the UIF has been trying to convince the tronga to join the Federation. However, the alpha tronga refuse to give up sovereignty over their system or the beta tronga, who generally do with to become part of the UIF.

DELTA QUADRANT
Such is the danger of the Delta Quadrant, home to so many gargantuan bloodthirsty interstellar empires, that the UIF holds only one system on the every edge of the area, which it keeps heavily defended.

PRIME
Planets: 6
Population: Unknown
Fleet Presence: None
Close to the Galactic Core, the Delta quadrant is also home to the Prime System, where the revolutionary AIs from the UIF relocated after their uprising. Of the system's six planets, four are gas giants and none of them are habitable. The UIF has not attempted to make contact with they system following the uprising and the status of its machine populace is currently unknown.

STONESTHROW
Planets: 4
Population:
Fleet Presence: Strong
Stonesthrow is linked by a wormhole to the Perihelion Terminus. Because of its position, it boasts a heavy military presence, second only to Perihelion itself in terms of hulls stationed there. The system has four planets, of which one - Televen - is habitable. Despite being classified as a Death World because of the numerous natural hazards posed by the planet's native flora and fauna, parts of Televen have been tamed and cultivated, such as Breaker's Point, the Ularn Space Navy's primary training academy.
The level of fleet protection around Stonesthrow has been a point of contention in both the political and military leadership. It lacks significant commercial value and its only strategic value comes from the size of the fleet which is based there. For this reason, it has often been proposed that the USN withdraw much of the fleet and relocate the Breakers' Point Academy to another system. However, the prevailing view has so far remained unwilling to reduce the protection on the Federation's only hold in the Gamma Quadrant.

SPECIES INDEX

DEFA

Portrait of Senator Bial Ram - a
male defa

The defa, of the planet Pharanon, are a race of hexapeds in some ways reminiscent of a terran squid or octopus. Each of the defa's six limbs can be used as a had or foot, and they have no skeleton, only very dense muscle. They are about five to seven feet long with pale grey skin, no lips and four-tongue-like tentacles covering their mouth, which are used for speech.

The defa have a particularly notable role within the Ularn Marines. Most other species in the federation can operate with each other more or less without problems and squads are usually made up of a mix of races. Not so for the defa, whose unique physiology and lack of skeleton prevents their wearing the same sort of rigid power armour and operating with conventional infantry squads. However, their superior strength and agility, combined with an ability to squeeze into tight spaces, lends itself well to special forces roles, and where defa are seen on the front lines, it is almost always serving in one of the four-man commando squads. Indeed, this sort of covert warfare is favoured by the Defa, who after being severely beaten in the majority of open battles, eventually ended the formation war by fostering a revolution on the Frekti homeworld and imposed a regime desiring of peace.

FREKTI
Hailing from their native Planet of Frekt, the frekti are often compared to giant terran lizards. Bipedal and with two arms, they range in height from roughly five to seven feet tall when full grown, with females generally being taller. Their skin is tough and scaly resulting in the lizard comparison, and ranges in colour from a dusty orange to leafy green and dark, muddy brown. They are hairless, but have a main of spiny quills starting at the forehead and continuing down their back. Frekti are born with these quills only their head and only begin to grow more of them around puberty. Often the quills will be painted or dyed for aesthetic or religious purposes. The averge frekti lifespan is about 65 T-years.

Frekti society is notable for being particularly matriarchal. About five-hundred T-years before beginning their forays into space, the matriarchal red frekti of the northern continent went to war with the patriarchal green frekti of the south. Historians have generally agreed that one of the background causes of the war was related to gender rights and the red frekti's victory guaranteed the equal, if not senior role of women in frekti society ever since.

Frekti names consist of two parts separated by a comma. The first part is the clan or family name and consists of a single character. The second part is the frekti's individual name. As one of the founding races of the Ularn Federation, frekti representative within the senate are often shown great respect by their peers.

HUMANS
There were humans in the Ularn Federation for as many as three generations prior to the Erasmus tragedy. Though there were no human colonies in the Federation, a number of the mammalian denizens of Earth had settled on Ularn worlds. They were generally accepted by the rest of the federation, who saw them as just one more flavour of the galactic salad.

But the Erasmus tragedy saw 110 million humans resettled onto Ularn worlds. Most of the colonists were trained in primary service jobs like mining or agriculture and were ill prepared to find employment in the technologically advanced federation where such work was widely automated. Those who did not join the military or could not find some menial work were placed on welfare, living in skeleton housing and given the bare minimum from the state to stay alive. The public perception of humans in the Federation also underwent a drastic shift. The humans were no longer just one more species, but an active drain on the treasury who were too stupid or lazy to find jobs.

RESHIANS
Reshians are grey-skinned bipedal creatures ranging in height from roughly five-and-a-half to six-and-a-half feet. Slight of build, their heads are shaped like a letter T, with eyes on either arm of the T-shape. Two narrow slits that humans often mistake for nostrils (being approximately where nostrils are on human face are actually the reshian's ears. Reshians in fact have no nose and instead taste the air with their highly developed tongue.

Little is known about the origin of the reshians. The location of their homeworld, Resh remains a mystery, though numerous colonies have been discovered. It is understood that reshians were possibly one of the first races to perfect space travel, and built themselves a vast interstellar empire. However, the empire was unable to maintain its dominance over so many colonies, which gradually declared independence and slipped away. The location of Resh is now lost, though the federation often makes contact with new, until now isolated, colonies.

SEVS
The word "sev" is an abbreviation of the designation given to their cradle world by the Comgratian Federation - Planet 17. They are humanoid, although proper description of the species is difficult as all examples encountered so far were born and raised on that same radiation contaminated homeworld. Sevs generally grew up malnourished and without access to modern medical care. As a result, they appear weak and sickly in addition to varying degrees of their unique form of radiation sickness.

Unlike humans, who first developed nuclear weapons during a conflict and used them sparingly to end that conflict, the sevs developed them in a time of peace and, when conflict broke out, used them in massive quantities on all sides without understanding the dangers of nuclear fallout. After the planet was irradiated, the peculiar biology of the sevs meant that they did not have the good fortune to be killed by cancer or radiation poisoning. Instead, radioactive exposure gradually mutates them into charred, feral, zombie like creatures. In some cases they even develop the ability to spit acid and will sometimes grow to truly enormous sizes depending on the amount of radiation they're exposed to. Even in their fallout shelters, sevs slowly succumbed to the radiation that seeps in, growing progressively senile before eventually turning feral and having the physical mutations manifest. Prior to intervention from the Ularn Interstellar Federation and other star nations, almost all sevs ended up being euthanised before they reached forty terran years.

It is expected that new generations of sevs will be able to lead much longer, healthier lives, although exactly what form this will take can only be the subject of conjecture.

TRONGA
To call the tronga a single race is inaccurate. In fact, they are two; alpha tronga and beta tronga. Both are insect-like bipeds but betas are somewhat shorter and stockier with a proportionately larger skull. At a genetic level, the two races are about as similar as homo-sapiens and homo-neanderthalensis, with interbreeding possible but uncommon due to social constraints.
The tronga home system, Trinity, is named for the three planets in orbit around its star. Trinity III is a frozen rock too far from the sun to support life but Trinity I and II are garden worlds with climates comparable to Earth's. From fossil records it is possible to determine that the tronga originally evolved on Trinity I. However, approximately fifty-thousand years ago it seems that some tronga were abducted from Trinity I by an ancient alien race and transported to Trinity II, where they evolved seperately. The race that did this is popularly (but probably incorrectly) believed to have been the reshians.
The alphas of Trinity I were the first to develop space travel and, upon arrival on Trinity II, were astounded to find that its apparent natives, the betas, (who just entering the industrial age) were almost identical to themselves. It is important to note that the lack of any fossil record on Trinity II meant that not only did the betas have no concept of Darwinian evolution, but the scientific evidence at hand actually supported intelligent design. This, coupled with the predominant religious belief that their ancestors had been cast out of paradise as punishment by the gods meant that the alphas, believed by the betas to be the gods' chosen, swiftly annexed Trinity II and subjugated the betas. In the coming years the two species learned to coexist in relative peace, though the alphas continued to assert dominance over the betas and have treat them as second-class citizens.
When the UIF arrived in Trinity, only the beta population of Trinity II expressed any popular wish to become a member state, though such efforts were quashed by the predominantly alpha government. The situation between the UIF and Trinity I has since become one of significant international tension as the Federation attempts to assert the right of the betas to self-determination against the wishes of the alphas to hold onto their tiny empire.

by **Ularn** » Mon Oct 24, 2011 3:14 am

ECONOMY

Most of the Ularn Interstellar Federation's economy is centred around the manufacturing industry, it's chief imports being processed ores and other raw materials which are then made into machinery and electronic goods for export. Though the Federation has many (mostly automated) mining operations in effect on its planets, the raw materials coming from within its borders make up only 28% of what goes into factories.

The UIF's industry is heavily subsidised and it ranks in the top 1% for most subsidised industries in the universe, as well as top 5% for largest public sector. This subsidisation seems to pay off as the star nation boasts an economy which sits comfortably as one of the 5% fastest growing in the universe and been described as "frightening" by commentators. The UIF ranks among the top 1% most developed nations in the universe and unemployment rates are in the lowest 5% of nations in existence.

ECONOMIC STATISTICS
The following tables illustrate the Ularn Interstellar Federation's standing relative to other star nations with regard to certain economic measures and its position in various industries.

MEASURE	MILKY WAY GALAXY	UNIVERSE	NOTES
Development	Top 5%	Top 1%	---
Economic Growth	Top 10%	Top 5%	---
Industry Subsidisation	Top 10%	Top 1%	---
Public Sector Size	Top 10%	Top 5%	---
Unemployment	Bottom 10%	Bottom 5%	---

INDUSTRY	MILKY WAY GALAXY	UNIVERSE	NOTES
Agriculture	---	Top 5%	---
Arms Manufacturing	---	Top 5%	---
Automobile Manufacturing	---	Top 10%	---
Cheese Export	---	Top 10%	---
Furniture Restoration	---	Top 5%	---
Gambling	---	Top 5%	---
Insurance	---	Top 10%	---
Manufacturing	---	Top 5%	---
Mining	---	Top 10%	---
Pizza Delivery	---	Top 5%	---
Publishing	---	Top 5%	---
Retail	---	Top 10%	---
Soda Pop	Top 10%	Top 5%	---
Technology	---	Top 5%	---
Timber Woodchipping	---	Top 5%	---
Trout Fishing	---	Top 10%	---

SIGNIFICANT CORPORATIONS
The following is a sample of some of the particularly wealthy or otherwise notable companies based in the UIF.

EUPHRATES SHIPPING

Euphrates Shipping Logo

Euphrates Shipping Ltd is the UIF's fastest growing Merchant Shipping Firm. The company was established in 2304 by Nicholas Euphrates, a human former marine discharged for medical reasons, who used his military pension to buy his first ship. His experience from counter-smuggling and counter-piracy operations with the Ularn Space Navy gave him the contacts necessary for getting a leg up in the business and avoid some of the potentially deadly pitfalls often experienced by other start-up freighter companies.

Today Euphrates Shipping boasts a fleet of two dozen capital merchant freighters as well as numerous smaller craft. In addition, the company operates four armed merchant cruisers disguised as regular vessels. The presence of these ships deters piracy, as many raiders will not be willing to risk the one-in-six chance that the juicy Euphrates prize they are chasing is concealing heavy grasers in its transport pods. This reputation is good for business and has contributed to the company's rapid growth, and bounties collected on destroyed or captured pirate vessels and crews help maintain a healthy bottom line. The Company also maintains good relations with local customs authorities in other nations thanks to its strict ethical trading standards; no Euphrates vessel has ever been found smuggling illegal cargoes. Despite remaining the company's CEO, Nicholas Euphrates prefers to keep himself out of the boardroom, and personally captains the UMV Dawntreader II - one of the armed merchant cruisers.

ENVIROPLEX

Enviroplex Logo

Enviroplex Plc is one of the UIF's oldest and most lucrative companies, pre-dating the Federation itself. Initially a frekti biotech company before the Formation War, Enviroplex won the contract to begin terraforming Ularn II after the Federation was founded. Initially intended as a post-war venture to symbolise the spirit of co-operation between defa and frekti, the planet was originally intended to be habitable after a century. Unfortunately, the project has hit numerous setbacks, most notably when Enviroplex began melting the ice layer to discover it had been concealing vast seas of liquid chlorine which, once vapourised with the rising temperatures required the entire atmosphere to be scrubbed and replaced a second time over the course of two-hundred years.

Over half a millennium later, the project is nearly complete, although had the original cost been known to the senate at the time it would never have been given the go ahead. Today it is almost possible to walk around on the surface of Ularn II unassisted, though the atmosphere is still so thin that any physical labour will require the aid of breathing apparatus. However, these setbacks have not been a problem for Enviroplex's bottom line, which continues to swell under the seemingly endless funding from a senate for which the cancellation of the project at this late stage would be politically untenable. Suspicions abound among conspiracy theorists that Enviroplex is secretly blackmailing the senate in order to maintain its subsidies. Whatever the truth of these stories, the result is that Enviroplex has been able to expand its biotech endeavours as well as pursue terraforming contracts on other planets outwith the Federation, notably aiding the joint Ularni-Comgratian pacification mission on Planet 17.

TRIPLICATE DEFENCE INDUSTRIES

Triplicate Defence Industries Logo

The UIF has fairly stringent restrictions on the rights of ordinary civilians to carry firearms. As a result, the weapons trade generally does not do significant business within the UIF. Triplicate Defence Industries is a notable exception to this rule, with sales making up 32% of the UIF's total arms market, though most of their revenue comes from sales on the foreign market. Though their products cover the spectrum of small arms available in the 24th century, Triplicate products are particularly known for their high quality and innovation in the field of magnetically accelerated projectile weapons.

Triplicate Defence Industries are also contracted with the manufacture of most of the small arms issued to the Ularn Space Navy. The THR-432 Heavy Rail Rifle, which is the standard issue weapon of USN marines, and the TBR-288(C) Rail Battle Carbine they is as a sidearm are the company's two biggest selling products.

by **Ularn** » Mon Oct 24, 2011 3:14 am

LAW & ORDER

CRIME
Crime in the Ularn Interstellar Federation, while not unknown, is relatively low. The government keeps a database of all citizens with their DNA and other distinguishing marks such as fingerprints. At the same time, major cities throughout the federation are covered by extensive CCTV networks. This means that where crimes do occur the perpetrators are usually swiftly apprehended.
Obviously, in a database of almost forty-billion citizens, there are some individuals who slip through the cracks. Anonymous criminal activities like hacking and other cybercrime is not unheard of. Additionally, there is the problem of piracy to contend with, as most privateers are foreigners even those who are in the citizens database tend not to be in a position where they can be easily apprehended. Still, the UIF is one of the safest places in the galaxy for the common citizen to live.

BANNED SUBSTANCES
'One man's meat is another's poison' - a fact readily recognised in the UIF where different biologies are affected in totally different ways by the use of narcotics. As an example, ethanol, a chemical which has a sedative effect on humans, is a stimulant for frekti, affecting them in much the same way as caffeine affects humans. There are numerous substances in existence which may be toxic to one race but beneficial to those of another.
Rather than attempt a blanket ban or regulate the use of some chemical only among certain members of the population (the former approach being considered excessive and the latter unenforceable) Senate legislators have refused to ban any substances which could fall under the category of narcotics or foodstuffs, but mandate that all such goods come with adequate warning on their packaging to notify which species the goods may be harmful to. Obviously, using any of these substances as a poison remains a criminal offence.

by **Ularn** » Mon Oct 24, 2011 3:15 am

MILITARY

An artist's depiction of a human USN marine

The fighting power of the Ularn Interstellar Federation is incorporated entirely into its space navy. Fleets of warships defend borders, protect shipping lanes, and transport the marines who are the federation's ground forces. The unique power armour worn by marines is often seen as an icon of the federation.

NAVY
The Ularn Space Navy has come a long way from those first, clumsy shots of the Formation War. Today, gleaming pillar-shaped hulls can be found in every federation system and throughout neutral space, ready to defend against all enemies, be they pirates, raiders or foreign invaders.

The combat doctrine of the USN focuses on high efficiency and getting the most bang for the taxpayer's buck, which is reflected in the "glass cannon" design of their warships. Rather than covering an entire warship in armour and weapons, most warships from the Perihelion dockyards are armed and armoured only at their forward end; the end which tactics dictate will be the only one presented to the enemy. This frees up space within the hull for larger powerplants or magazines, meaning that a USN ship will be able to carry comparatively more powerful weapons than another ship of equivalent size, while still being able to bring just as many to bear at once as the enemy. This increase in firepower comes at a price, however, for any ship which becomes flanked by its enemies may find itself an easy meal.

SHIP TYPES AND CLASSIFICATIONS
Depending on type, ships of the Ularn Space Navy range in size from tiny corvettes barley a hundred-and-fifty metres in length right up to the massive superdreadnoughts teetering on eight-hundred metres. All ships are equipped with military-grade gravity drives and inertial compensators, allowing for exceptionally high acceleration and manoeuvrability. USN vessels are traditionally armed with laser turrets and missile systems, with larger ships also carrying a gravitic cannon capable of accelerating tungsten slugs to appreciable fractions of light-speed. Additionally, smaller laser cannons supplement these weapons by fulfilling the role of close-in weapons systems.

Gravity drives also provide USN ships with an extra form of protection in the form of gravitic shielding. Though power constraints prevent a ship from placing a shield around an entire ship at once, it is possible to focus gravitic energy in such a manner as to create a small shield which can supplement existing CIWS by being repositioned to act as a close range "fly-swatter" to intercept incoming kinetic fire like missiles and projectiles.

USN vessels are built exclusively for war; they have few of the comforts seen on the vessels of some other navies, like holodecks. At most, a ship will feature a gym and a mess hall, thus saving on power and space, making USN ships smaller and comparatively more powerful than their foreign counterparts.

Below is a list of USN ship types, complete with examples. A full table of fleet strengths and deployments can be found here.

CORVETTES
These are the smallest ships in the Navy, never longer than two-hundred metres and equipped with, at most, a pair of laser cannons. Usually captained by a middle officer like a sub-commander, corvettes are generally tasked with patrolling UIF systems to act as a deterrent against smugglers and pirates, using their speed and manoeuvrability as their main advantage over their traditionally lightly armed opposition. Lacking the tonnage or weapons to take on larger ships, corvettes are rarely seen in battlegroups and, when they are, will be assigned exclusively to supplementing the rest of the fleet's CIWS.

FRIGATES
Frigates are slightly bigger than Corvettes, averaging around the two-hundred metre mark, and are more heavily armed with at least three laser cannons. As well as fulfilling the same anti-piracy roles of corvettes, Frigates are also attached to fleets where they use their lasers to supplement the larger ships' point defence.

A new type of frigate is also emerging onto the battlefield. Stripped of the majority of its defensive weaponry, the Electronic Warfare Frigate shields its fleet using an extensive array computers and electronic warfare equipment to hack enemy ship systems as well as jam sensors and generally make it very difficult for enemy ships to target the fleet.

DESTROYERS
Sitting around two-hundred and fifty metres, Destroyers are the smallest ships to be armed with torpedoes and often have their laser turrets exchanged for the more deadly graser cannons. Relying more heavily on Frigates to keep the space around them clear of enemy ordnance, Destroyers will concentrate the majority of their firepower on disabling the enemy fleet's screening elements, leaving the larger ships unprotected against the attacks of the USN's own capital ships.

CRUISERS
Ranging from three-hundred metre Cruisers up to the four-hundred and fifty metre Battlecruisers, the various classes of cruiser are the smallest to be equipped with a gravitic cannon; a devastating superweapon that accelerates small tungsten projectiles to appreciable fractions of light speed to kill ships in one shot. Cruisers are a perfect balance of firepower and manoeuvrability. Able to outfight whatever they can't outrun and outrun anything they can't outfight, they are regularly dispatched alone or in small groups for patrols in neutral space. In a fleet, Cruisers will try to cripple enemy ships with their graser cannons, making them an easy target for their gravitic cannon.

DREADNOUGHTS
Essentially Battlecruisers writ large, Dreadnoughts and the even larger SuperDreadnoughts can be anywhere from five to eight hundred metres in length and designed for the sole and single purpose of annihilating enemy ships. Armed with even more grasers and missile tubes, together with a larger and more powerful gravitic cannon, they are more than well equipped to carry out that mandate. In battle, a squadron of Superdreadnoughts can quickly make mincemeat out of a warship many times their size while screening elements pick off returning fire.

MARINES
Marines are the backbone of the Ularn Space Navy, acting not only as ground troops but also fulfilling boarding (both in combat and counter-smuggling) policing and peacekeeping roles. Clad in their iconic power armour with its high collar guard, rounded helmet and triangular visor, they are among the best trained and best equipped soldiers in the galaxy.

During their training, marines are instructed on the use of every weapon in the USN's arsenal, and several that are not. They also undergo extensive genetic therapy to make them stronger and tougher than an ordinary person. This, combined with the durability and strength enhancing capabilities of their armour, makes marines exceptionally hard to kill.

A marine squad consist of twelve warriors (including a Squad Leader and two Sub-Leaders) or three fireteams and is a self-contained combat unit. Each member of the squad is trained in some form of specialisation, whether that be marksmanship, demolitions, field medicine or several other disciplines, meaning that there is no task a properly equipped squad cannot accomplish.

POWER ARMOUR
A marine's power is a technological marvel. With it, a marine can lift many times what their usual strength would permit, frun faster, and survive weapons which could kill even a 21^th century Terran armoured vehicle.

The armour consists of two main layers. The outer layer is the primary defensive layer of armour plating; various layers of titanium and ceramic alloys providing the majority of the armour's protection and its weight. The plates are secured to the underlayer by modular attachments which allow individual plates to be swapped out, either to repair a damaged plate or to replace it with a more specialised attachment.

The underlayer is the real technological marvel of the armour. A single, skin-tight suit which must be tailor-fitted to each individual, the underlayer itself composes of multiple layers. The topmost layer is a faraday suit which protects the marine and his armour from electrical or EMP based weaponry. This is highly important full suit of human power armour weighs more than two-hundred kilos and would be impossible to move in if the power source was knocked out. Beneath this is a weave of impact-reactive fabric; a lightweight material designed to go instantly rigid when struck with enough force, such as a bullet or shrapnel fragment. A strong enough force will still shatter the IRF and so it is supplemented by kevlar plates over the areas which do not need to be flexible. Under this, the secondary protective layer is the musculature system which provides the marine with their supplemented strength and speed. A system of servos controls these muscles, responding to the actual movement of the marine's own body. With this system active, a marine can move as easily as if they were wearing nothing at all.

THR-432 Heavy Rail Rifle with Rail Covers, Scope, Tactical
Computer and UGL, as issued to USN Marines

A number of variants of power armour are available. Each species requires its own design, though many of the armour plates and such are compatible cross-species. Additionally, different variants can be used in different circumstances. Marine Armour, as just described, is by far the most common, used by the majority of ground troops. Naval Armour uses the same underlayer as marine armour but stripped of most of the armour plating. Nonetheless, it still provides an excellent standard of protection against the hazards of working on a naval starship while the lack of heavy plating reduces size and increases agility. Additionally, Engineering and Medical Armour resemble naval armour, with the addition of four mechanical arms mounted to the back. These arms, controlled like the user's organic limbs through a chip in their brain, feature tools such as scalpels, syringes and surgical equipment or cutting torches and mechanical tools to allow the user to perform their job more effectively. A medic's armour turns the user into a walking surgical theatre. Combat hybrids of both armours exist, swapping one pair of arms for a drum of ammunition (most marines have two) in order to allow them to defend themselves while going about their business in a combat situation. Finally, Commando Armour is, like naval armour, small and agile while retaining both ammo drums for covert warfare.

WEAPONS
USN Marines' armour allows them to carry much heavier weaponry than regular soldiers. The standard-issue weapon for marines, the THR-432 Heavy Rail Rifle (pictured) weighs more than fifteen kilograms when empty and in the hands of an unassisted user could only be operated as an emplaced heavy machine gun. However, in the power armoured hands of a marine, the THR-432 becomes a deadly assault rifle with an effective range of two kilometres.

Almost all of the USN's "small arms" are manufactured locally by Triplicate Defence Industries Plc. Based within the UIF, Triplicate specialises in the manufacture of railguns and other magnetic-based weaponry, and the UIF is one of its biggest customers.

Below is a list of small arms operated by the Ularn Space Navy:

THR-432 HEAVY RAIL RIFLE
Role: Battle Rifle
Details: Recently brought in to replace the USN's ageing arsenal of gauss cannons, the THR-432 is a three barrelled gatling railgun. The barrels spin to allow for cooling and also gives the separate capacitors powering each barrel time to recharge while the other two fire. This gives it a rate of fire three times higher than you could manage with the equivalent single barrel rifle without sacrificing barrel life. It fires the extremely powerful .45 USN round but is so heavy that it can only be effectively wielded as a heavy machine gun or with the aid of power armour.

TSR-432 SNIPING RAIL RIFLE
Role: Sniper/Designated Marksman Rifle
Details:Designed as the Designated Marksman variant of the THR-432 Heavy Rail Rifle, the TSR-432 sacrifices its three gatling barrels in exchange for a single pair of ultra-powerful rails for unmatchable range and firepower. Although it fires the same .45 USN round as the Heavy Rifle, but with vastly superior muzzle velocity and accuracy.

TABLE OF ORGANISATION
The table below shows the composition and chain of command for an average USN Marine Legion:

Unit	Size	Leader
Fireteam	4 Marines	Sub-Leader
Squad	3 Fireteams (12 Marines)	Squad Leader
Platoon	3 Squads (40 Marines)	Sub-Lieutenant
Company	4 Platoons (150 Marines)	Lieutenant
Battalion	4 Companies (600 Marines)	Lieutenant-Commander
Division	3 Battalions (2000 Marines)	Commander
Legion	4 Divisions (8000 Marines)	General

by **Ularn** » Mon Oct 24, 2011 3:15 am

CULTURE

CALENDAR
Most planets in the Ularn Interstellar Federation will use two calendar systems; local and Terran. The local calendar is based around the year and seasons of the planet in question, while interplanetary relations are organised through the Terran calendar. This is in spite of the fact that humans are a minority in the Federation; the Terran calendar is so widely used by the rest of the galaxy that its adoption made foreign trade and relations must more simple and now most dates will be given in Terran years or "T-years".

FESTIVALS & CELEBRATIONS
Because of the vast range of species and cultures in the Ularn Interstellar Federation, almost every day will probably feature some sort of celebration or holy day for one group or another. Most of these pass unobserved by those not a part of the community in question. Nevertheless, there are a few exceptions. Unity Day, commemorating the end of the Frekt-Defa war and the birth of the Federation, is celebrated once per Defa year (approximately 410 Terran days) across the Federation with firework displays, street festivals, and quite contemplation for some.

At the same time, most colonies will celebrate their founding with a Founders' Day celebration on the local anniversary of the arrival of the first colonists. This usually involves having dinner with friends and family and the exchange of gifts, along with more fireworks displays.

LANGUAGE
With th Ularn Interstellar Federation being home to so many different races, and so many nationalities and cultures within those races, it is not surprising that most citizens speak entirely different languages. This was initially a severe inhibitor to communication and, by extension, the development of the federation. Indeed, some races (notably the defa, with four tongues and no lips) were physically incapable of speaking the language of another.

This obstacle was, in the end, overcome through the invention and widespread use of translator implants. These devices are embedded in the language centres of most citizen's brains. The implant broadcasts the speaker's words as a stream of code to other implants within earshot, which decode the stream into the language of their own implant wearer.

This situation is satisfactory but not perfect. Translators can only work when both the speaker and the listener are implanted with them. To get around this, people who regularly come into contact with non-implanted races (e.g. spacers, soldiers and diplomats) can program their implant with a few foreign dictionaries. This allows the implant to translate speech they hear in that language but still does not help when speaking to someone without an implant.

SPORT
The development of gravitic technology and gradual migration of Federal citizens into the stars has given rise to an increase in the popularity of Zero-G sports.

FIREBALL
One of the most popular sports in the UIF is fireball, a game played in zero gravity using jetpacks, bats and three balls in an ovoid chamber roughly one hundred metres by fifty. Two teams of twelve attempt to throw or hit the balls, which are the size of a twentieth century Earth basketball but significantly more dense, into the other team's goal at one end of the chamber while defending their own goal. A game has four quarters of twenty minutes each, after which the team with the highest score wins.

Because of there being three potential threats to a goal instead of one, Fireball is a fast and frantic sport with emphasis on speed of play and passing rather than there being any fixed roles or positions. A player may be defending his own goal one second and then at the other end of the court ten seconds later. It is a rough sport, with full-own body-checking and such being common manoeuvres for tackling. Additionally, because of the weight of the balls, it is also possible to hit them at other players in order to distract or disorientate them long enough to make them drop their own ball or allow another player to make the tackle. In spite of this horseplay, fireball players wear a lot of padding and severe injuries are relatively uncommon.

The Fireball Inter-Stellar Championship Tournament is held every four T-years where teams from across the Federation come together to play each other for the title of Federation Champion. The even, which goes on for several weeks, is closely followed by many Ularni citizens - even those who don't otherwise follow the sport. The Picollo Dragons are the current holders of the FISC Cup.

RUGBY
Rugby was introduced to the Ularn Interstellar Federation by human immigrants and gained popularity with surprising speed, the game having changed very little since its origins on Earth. As well as having its own championship within the Federation, teams often travel to foreign nations to compete in intergalactic tournaments where they have generally performed admirably, if not remarkably.

TRANSPORT
As with any star nation, the methods of travel used in the Ularn Interstellar Federation are best grouped into Faster than Light and Slower than Light.

WORMHOLES

...dark matter concentrations were one of the most important factors measured in determining where a wormhole opened in a given place would exit. These wormholes were the key to Ularn faster-than-light travel, enabling them to cross vast distances instantaneously, but were limited in that a wormhole opened in a certain place would only ever exit in one other place which was always fixed. Therefore, space travel in the Ularn usually consisted of instantaneous jumps across long distances, interspersed with long, dull transition periods as the ship had to travel the much shorter distances to the next appropriate jump point at sub-light speeds.

^{Notes of Sub-Lieutenant Fraudra, UFS Rapier III}

The FTL drive which is used universally across the Ularn's ships is the wormhole jump. Based on the principle that every minute part of the spacetime fabric is entangled at the quantum level to another part, the Ularn are able to rip open holes in spacetime and allow space ships to pass through. This manner of transportation means that the planets and systems in the Federation are immensely spread out, often appearing as islands in the ocean of localised sprawls that characterise other factions.

Instantaneous travel over huge distances is therefore possible provided that the wormhole is opened at the correct place. A wormhole opened at point A will only ever lead to point B and vice versa, while point C, which might be near point B, will only lead to point D. Thus, in order to travel from A to D a ship would have to open a wormhole at A, pass through it to B and then travel at sublight speeds from B to C, opening another wormhole there to reach D. Thus, the Ularn method of space travel may consist of multiple large quick "jumps" punctuated by longer periods of travel over shorter distances.

The exact positions of A and B are determined by the distribution of dark matter throughout the universe, which is why wormhole jump points remain in largely the same positions relative to their immediate surrounding in spite of the rapid expansion of the universe. It also makes it possible to predict, to a certain extent, where a wormhole will exit by observing dark matter concentrations throughout the galaxy. However, such concentrations become less and less easy to observe further away from our galaxy, meaning that opening a wormhole between galaxies remains practically impossible.

Obviously, the power required to safely rip open the fabric of spacetime is huge, and as a result only the largest of ships can carry their own wormhole assemblies. For this reason it is common practice to build space stations at the most common jump points which power the process to open the wormholes so that smaller ships can pass through. These "Gateway Stations" tend to be heavily defended as they offer the most likely insertion point for an enemy assault on a system.

SLOWER-THAN-LIGHT TRAVEL
The ideal form of slower-than-light transport in the Federation is the gravity drive. This form of reactionless drive manipulates gravitic fields to create singularities which push or pull the ship in a particular direction. They are capable of high acceleration and manoeuvrability and can be installed in craft of almost any size.

They are also prohibitively expensive, and so are only widely used by the military, large-scale freighter companies and the very, very wealthy. Everyone else must use a more conventional reaction drive.

WELFARE

Even in 20th century Earth it was recognised that a person needs four things to survive: food, water, shelter and clothing. Recognising this, the Federation has a comprehensive welfare program which has eliminated homelessness and ensured that everyone has adequate food, water and clothing. This is done by assigning every citizen to, at the very least, a small apartment often referred to colloquially as "skeleton housing" due to the bare bones furnishings they generally feature. In addition, each person is given enough credits to give them minimal water, a supply of nutrient bars for nourishment and basic clothing. Often the bars and water will be mixed together with anything else to which beneficiaries have access to make a sort of porridge.

Welfare isn't a lot for those living on it but the UIF's opinion is that a person has a right to exist only. If they want more than that, they must work to earn it. It's a policy popular with most taxpayers who don't want to see their credits going to people who don't contribute themselves. Nonetheless, the high number of human welfare dependants created by the Erasmus Tragedy has created a sizeable pool of voters with a desire for more, leading to the possibility that the UIF's welfare policy may be due to become much less hard-nosed in the near future.

by **Ularn** » Mon Oct 24, 2011 3:16 am

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

Marines of the Comgratian Federation

COMGRATIAN FEDERATION
The UIF first made contact with the Comgratian Federation in the Deimos System, which the Comgratians or 'Grats' as USN personnel have since taken to calling them, had discovered mere weeks before the Ularni did. While escorting a science vessel carrying out covert surveillance of the system from its rim, the USN Praetor II picked up distress calls from Comgratian Space Marines on the surface of Planet 17 and offered assistance. Hoping to create friendly relations with a newly encountered star nation, the UIF committed the entire 1^st Erasmus Legion to help cleanse the planet of the feral mutants that occupied it. Despite a disastrous first assault that saw the legion lose a third of its marines, low morale, and subsequent interference and animosity between the UIF and another nation with plans for the system, the operation is still continuing, with the USN commanders confident that they have the chance of seeing it through to a successful conclusion.

Flag of the Armed Republic of Imperati

IMPERATI
Relations between the UIF and the Armed Republic of Imperati have so far been strained, to say the least. Their first significant contact was when a USN task force and the 1^st Erasmus Legion were supporting Comgratian efforts to pacify the world of Planet 17. What damage was done to relations by the unannounced arrival and subsequent deployment of troops by an Imperati ship without the permission of either occupying force was only exacerbated when reinforcements arrived to support that ship a few weeks later. The situation is currently one of a tense stand-off which may bubble over into outright hostilities at any moment.

Flag of the United Terran Alliance

UNITED TERRAN ALLIANCE
The Ularn Interstellar Federation has had some notable contact with the humans of the United Terran Alliance and currently enjoys a friendly neutrality with them. Senator N'andra, the UIF's Secretary for Commerce, was present at an intergalactic trade conference hosted by the Alliance on Soh-Jin IV. N'andra was generally receptive to the main proposals of the conference, agreeing to the drafting of a multilateral trade agreement and construction of a network of hyperspace gateways but debated fiercely with President Sagen on the point of creating an organisation to monitor the treaty signatories. The success of these negotiations was a healthy boost to Alliance/Federation relations.

At the same time, a squad of Ularn marines returning from furlough were caught in the midst of a battle for an Alliance commercial space station. One marine was killed in the battle and another wounded, though the Department of Defence issued a statement absolving the Alliance of any responsibility for the casualties.

Since becoming more aware of each other, both nations have enjoyed still closer relations and negotiations have begun to consider the possibility of a military alliance.

by **Ularn** » Mon Oct 24, 2011 3:17 am

CHARACTER ROSTER

GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS
Senator Bial Ram - The UIF's Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and one of the senators for Unity Station itself, Bial is often frustrated by the bureaucracy inherent in government and international politics, though he is nonetheless a master at playing the political game. He is also a strong supporter of sapient rights.

Senator N'andra - Secretary of State for Commerce of the Ularn Interstellar Federation and one of the senators of the Piccolo system from which she hails. She is a middle-aged green frekti with an extensive political background but notable for her dislike of humans, who she sees as a race of ungrateful layabouts sponging from the federation's welfare system since the Erasmus tragedy.

Senator T'kei - Secretary of State for Defence and senator for Frekt, T'kei is a progressive and the first person in the UIF's history to have held her current office without a prior military career. She is notable for having pushed for reform in the USN's table of organisation and equipment, which has earned her both friends and enemies within the military. The recruitment campaign which got so many Erasmen into the navy in the wake of the Erasmus Tragedy was T'kei's brainchild.

MILITARY PERSONNEL
Supreme Admiral K'vall - The commanding officer of the entire Ularn Space Navy, K'vall is the ultimate authority behind every action taken by the USN.

High Admiral C'sko - K'vall's second in command, C'sko often stands in for the Supreme Admiral on official business when not drilling her fleet out at Perihelion Station.

Commander T'chria - Captain of the Heavy Cruiser USN Praetor II, T'chria is often seen as brash and foolhardy by her contemporaries, particularly when it comes to diplomacy. However, the frekti officer is actually far colder and more calculating than others give her credit for, as evidence by her record of narrow escapes. T'chria is due to be reassigned to command of a battlecruiser squadron once the mission on Planet 17 is complete.

Commander Furael Mohrr - Captain of the EW Frigate USN Katganistan, Mohrr is used to operating as part of a fleet under the command of a more senior officer. As a result, he often behaves cautiously when his ship is sent out on missions alone, which has been happening more frequently as his superiors begin to take greater notice of him.

1^st ERASMUS LEGION
Commander Daniel Tarr - Dan Tarr inherited command of the 1^st Erasmus Legion from Field Commander Marcus Cohen after the latter's disastrous invasion plan resulted in a third of the legion being killed or wounded in the first day. Cunning and resourceful, Tarr commonly employs unconventional tactics and strategies to achieve his goals, like taking tips from a piece of early 21^st Century human literature called The Zombie Survival Guide.

JUNO PLATOON
Sub-Lieutenant Anton Grey - Commanding officer of Juno Platoon, 1st Erasmus Legion, USN Marines, Anton Grey was a police officer on Erasmus before the evacuation. His experience in law enforcement has made him into a strong leader and tactician, though he is often disdainful of some of his superior officers, especially those humans not from Erasmus.

Marine Mohammed Qureshi - A member of Juno platoon, Mo Qureshi formed a close bond with Sub-Lieutenant Grey while serving together on Planet 17, where he was awarded a Silver Combat Star and promoted to Section Chief. Deeply spiritual for a marine, Mo is always there for his fellow marines and even senior officers in times of need.

SIERRA PLATOON
Sub-Lieutenant Ratho - Formerly the reshian leader of Squad Sierra 1 until the death of the platoon's commanding officer on Planet 17 forced his promotion, Ratho is happy to let his marines blow off steam during their down-time, though he has no time for incompetence or time wasting while on operations.

Marine Squad-Leader Tarik - Another reshian, Sub-Leader Tarik took over leadership of Sierra 1 after Ratho's promotion. Approachable and friendly while remaining professional, Tarik is well-liked by his squad.

Marine Sub-Leader N'tack - Sub-Leader N'tack is Sierra 1's heavy weapon specialist. Transferred after his old squad was wiped out under circumstances which remain classified, N'tack is uncharacteristically quiet for a marine in his specialisation.

Marine Sub-Leader Scott Kerr - Scott was born in Dunboidon on Erasmus III and studied Architecture at Hunnerstop University prior to the arrival of the UIF and the Erasmus tragedy. Scott signed up for the military after being unable to find lasting employment in the Ularn civilian sector, becoming a marine and demolitions specialist with squad Sierra 1. He too was promoted on Planet 17 to fill the junior NCO void left by Tarik.

Marine Amy Weden - The chipper, tomboyish designated marksman of Sierra-1. Her squadmates often joke that she and N'tack ought to swap jobs, as neither one fits the expected temperament for a sniper or guy who works with explosives.

Marine Dale Morgan (DECEASED) - The slightly nerdy technology and communications specialist (read hacker) of Sierra 1, Dale was flatmates with Scott and Ricky and naively signed on with the military at the same time as they did. He was killed during an attack on the Fedral Union's Holland-3 space station while Sierra 1 was returning from furlough.

Marine Richard Harris - Another survivor from Erasmus, Ricky Harris was assigned to the same skeleton housing apartment as Scott and Dale. With no job other prospects for any of them, signing up for the marines was originally Ricky's idea, and he ended up in Sierra 1 with his friends.

Marine Rebecca Keeper - A replacement assigned to Sierra-1 after losses incurred during the initial landing effort, "Keeps" is an Erasman and the youngest human in the squad, being fourteen at the time of the Tragedy. After Scott Kerr was promoted to Sub-Leader, Keeper took on his role as demolitions specialist.

Marine Robert Dahlios - Brought in as Dale Morgan's replacement just prior to the Deimoss Pacification, Dahlios is considered the "rookie" of Sierra 1 by the squad's more congenial members, and the "FNG" by Scott Kerr until the botched deployment on Planet 17 forced them to work together.

Marine V'nel - Sierra 1's frekti field medic.

OTHERS
Nicholas Euphrates - Euphrates was a marine officer prior to an incident where he lost his left leg at the knee. When the prosthetics didn't take he was given a medical discharge and retired on a military pension which he used to buy his first commercial starship. Knowledge and contacts gained through his experience in counter-smuggling and piracy gave him the leg-up into the merchant business. Euphrates Corporation now owns a fleet of a dozen ships including two armed merchant cruisers, one of which - the UMV Dawntreader V - he commands personally. Euphrates Corp has a strong reputation for the reliability of its courier services.

R'teck - A retired marine turned mercenary, R'teck is a frekti will do just about anything if the money's right.

by **Ularn** » Mon Oct 24, 2011 3:17 am

TROPES

AI Is A Crapshoot - Played straight with the robot rebellion; averted with the soft AIs built into starships and a lot of other tech.
Acceptable Breaks From Reality - With the exception of travel via wormholes and being able to manipulate gravity, the UIF's tech is generally pretty close to what would be considered scientifically plausible today.
Action Girl - Marine Amy Weden, Lieutenant Sharon Chase
All There In The Manual - This Factbook
Apocalypse How - The Erasmus tragedy rendered an entire planet inhabitable. Only a few of the human colonists survived.
Artificial Gravity - Used for comfort, propulsion, point defence and some particularly nasty weaponry.
Artistic License: Military - The USN uses a vastly simplified rank structure compared to nay modern military because the author couldn't be bothered working out a full chain of command.
Awesome But Impractical - Unity Station was designed to look impressive. As such, it's outer hull has far larger and more numerous windows than would be considered safe on a space station that size.
Badass Army - USN Marines
Beam Spam - Since lasers and grasers are the most common and accurate weapons in the Navy this is how space combat generally starts.
The Bechdel Test - Passed
Bizarre Alien Biology
Boarding Party
Boring But Practical - USN Warships don't look anywhere near as fancy as their foreign counterparts, yet they do the job just as well.
Brick Joke - One post in PLANET 17 explains how the black market economy on a marine base lets a trooper trade ammo for dirty magazines. A few posts later Scott Kerr is caught "studying" one such magazine!
Call A Rabbit A Smeerp - Often done with various bits of technology. Radios and cellphones fall under the blanket term of "communicators" or just "comms". Laptops and tablet PCs are "dataslates" or just "slates".
Casual Interstellar Travel - Averted. Travel via wormhole is very expensive and only the military, the government and and some large scale shipping businesses can afford to do it regularly.
Catch Phrase The Marines often chant the national motto to psyche themselves up. OOCly there's the author's declaration of "I love FT"
Colony Drop - The Erasmus Tragedy
Continuity Nod - With the same characters being used in multiple RPs, expect many reference to past events that might only make sense if you've read or had been involved with the particular RP.
Cool Starship - It may not be pretty, but I dare you to tell the crew of a Vengeance Class Superdreadnought that it doesn't fit this trope.
Death From Above - In pretty much all its flavours. Ships can bombard planets from orbit; drop pods start spewing bullets and missiles as soon as they hit the ground; troops (and even tanks!) are regularly air-dropped into a combat zone.
Did Not Do The Research - A Game of Starships mentioned Sierra 1 leaving Buenos Aires on the planet Novo Brasil. Buenos Aires is in Argentina and therefore unlikely to have a counterpart on a Brazilian colony.
Does This Remind You Of Anything? - The massive logistical and financial difficulties arising from the terraforming of Ularn II were intended as a subtle dig at the similar (albeit much smaller in scale) fiasco with the Edinburgh Trams construction in real life.
Drop Pod - Played with. Though the USN does drop pods, they're filled with live ordnance or supplies rather than living troops.
Drop Ship
Everything Is An iPod in the Future - When linearting the TTC-432 Tactical Computer for the marines' guns, nobody tried to hide the fact that the author had basically just connected an iPhone to a sniper scope.
Explosions In Space - Averted; explosions are portrayed realistically as a flash of light and brief fireball.
Faceless Goons - USN Marine helmets have tinted visors.
Fantastic Racism - Refugees from Erasmus are mostly under-qualified for the sort of jobs available in the UIF, leading many to believe humans are just too lazy to get jobs.
Faster Than Light Travel - Wormholes
The Federation
Field Promotion - Happened a lot on Planet 17 after a disastrous invasion plan killed off a quarter of the marines and a fifth of the command staff. Ratho, Tarik and Scott receive theirs all in one post after each has to take the previous one's rank to replace an officer killed in the drop.
Fire Forged Friends - Scott Kerr is initially resentful of Robert Dahlios for replacing one of his friends who was killed in action. He warms up to the rookie marine somewhat after they escape a collapsing building and navigate a city full of nuclear zombies together.
Fixed Forward Facing Weapon - The Gravitic Cannons built into larger ships are this.
Foreshadowing - A lot of the unanswered questions in this factbook will probably have RPs written about them at some point.
Friendly Sniper - Amy Weden, Sierra 1's designated marksman.
Fun With Acronyms - The Inter-Galactic Near-Orbital Retcon Emitter, or "IGNORE Cannon"
Gender Is No Object - Women serve alongside men in all ranks of the USN and the Marines.
General Failure - Field Commander Marcus Cohen is proved to be remarkably inept when it comes to adapting to non-conventional enemies. Justified in that it is mentioned he likely received command of the 1st Erasmus Legion for political reasons, being one of the USN's few high ranking human officers at the time of its founding.
Girl On Girl Is Hot - Played disturbingly straight in the OOC chatter when the ponies Starhoof and GingerSnap began their tryst.
Glass Cannon - USN Warships have big guns and lots of armour - on the front; anywhere else, they're vulnerable.
Guile Hero - Commander T'chria. The first time she was introduced she managed to peacefully settle a territory dispute by making sure the various parties were too busy hating her guts to try shooting at each other.
Hold Your Hippogriffs - "Keep an hear to the hull," and several other phrases seem to have morphed over time.
Hollywood Hacking
Human Aliens - Averted
Informed Flaw - Scott Kerr is reportedly the worst marksman in his squad, though he still doesn't appear to miss very often.
It's Raining Men - Marines deploying on a combat drop.
Kinetic Weapons Are Just Better - Which is why marines use gauss rifles and capital ships throw lumps of tungsten around using gravity.
Kicked Upstairs - Field Commander Marcus Cohen is swiftly called back to USN central command after a screwed up invasion plan gets a quarter of his legion killed.
Lady Of War - Fleet Commander T'chria
Macross Missile Massacre - Torpedoes are one of the most common weapons for Ularn starships and firing en masse is the best way to saturate the enemy's CIWS.
Magical Negro - Although he's actually of predominantly Arab lineage, Mohammed "Mo" Qureshi fits this trope fairly well.
Magnetic Weapons - Gauss weapons are the name of the game for the USN Marines.
Memetic Badass - USN Marines
Mega City - Common on many homeworlds or well established colony worlds.
Mission Control Is Off Its Meds - The Holland-3 AI which manipulates Sierra 1 into doing its bidding in A Game of Starships.
Mohs Scale Of Science Fiction Hardness - Probably about a 4 - the only outright "lies" are wormhole creation and gravitic manipulation. The ramifications of both are realistically considered and it is noted that their use is seen as very expensive.
Mysterious Past - How exactly N'tack came to be the sole survivor of his original squad is yet to be explained
News Travels Fast - thanks to being able to send radio waves through wormholes. Ratho jokes at one point that bad news will outrun lightspeed.
New Meat - Marine Robert "Rookie" Dahlios
Not Using The Z Word - Inverted. The creatures on Planet 17 are not really zombies, even though that's what the human marines keep calling them.
Nobody Poops - Averted; the "plumbing" connections in a Marine's power armour are mentioned as being quite uncomfortable.
Nominal Importance - Having a name gives a character roughly a 75% chance of being in more than one scene.
Obstructive Bureaucracy - Much of the Senate's work is hampered by the sheer size necessary for something running a galactic federation.
One Size Fits All - Averted; power armour has to be tailored to each individual marine.
Only One Name - Reshians and some ponies. Played with for frekti. Though they have two names, they are joined into one and are only ever addressed by their full name.
Our Zombies Are Different - The zombies encountered on Planet 17 were made that way by nuclear fallout. They're strong enough to rip through power armour and some of them can also spit acid.
Peace & Love Incorporated - Because the UIF can't afford to let them go bankrupt, Enviroplex pretty much have a get out of jail free card when it comes to doing anything morally ambigious.
Planet Of Hats - All frekti take gender equality very seriously.
Powered Armour
Red Shirt - A few. Juno Platoon's G'vash and Mael Jonohr are notable examples so far.
Retcon - Some minor ones so far, mostly involving names, species or ranks of characters between when they're first introduced and the author finding a permanent place for them. A major one was conducted in removing Ponies from the UIF's canon.
Rubber Forehead Aliens - Averted. Of all the species in the UIF, only about half are even humanoid.
Self-Destruct Mechanism - Surrendering yours to traffic control is required practice when docking with a space station in the UIF.
Shiny Looking Spaceships - Diplomatic yachts
Shout Out - Done a lot with ship names. A class of electronic warfare frigates is called the Moderator class and its vessels are all named after NS mods and admins. Another is named the USN Indefatigable after one of Horatio Hornblower's vessels and the superdreadnought USN Honour is named for David Weber's Honor Harrington novels.
Space Fighter - Averted. Though the UIF does have fighters and they could be operated in space, any starship's CIWS would make mincemeat out of them so they're only used in-atmosphere.
Space Is An Ocean - Averted.
Space Is Noisy - Averted.
Space Marine - USN Marines
Space Opera
Space Station
Standard Sci-Fi Fleet
Starfish Aliens - Defa have six limbs (which can act as arms or legs), no skeleton, four tongues and no lips, to give but one example.
Star Scraper - Fairly common in the large cities on homeworlds or well established colonies.
Starship Luxurious - Diplomatic yachts and many commercial liners
Super Soldier - USN personnel go through some fairly extensive genetic therapy to make them tougher, faster and stronger than their civilian counterparts.
Tastes Like Diabetes - Almost every scene with Starhoof and GingerSnap eventually devolves into this.
Terraform - Being done with a few dead or otherwise uninhabitable planets.
Translator Microbes - Brain implants allow the different species of the UIF to communicate even though speaking each other's languages might be physically impossible.
Twenty-Four Hour Armour - Marines on deployment may be wearing their armour for days. Things can get...funky - and that's not even thinking about the plumbing.
Variant Chess - While on Planet 17 a group of marines are seen playing a card game. The rules aren't clear, but it includes at least fifteen cards of each suit and a fifth suit called knives.
Vasquez Always Dies - Parodied. The officer who's death spurred Ratho, Tarik and Scott's promotions was called Vasquez.
Vibroweapon - USN marines carry a combat knife sized vibroblade.
White Male Lead - Scott Kerr
You Are In Command Now - Commander Daniel Tarr has to take over the duties of his superior after Field Commander Marcus Cohen's shambles of an invasion plan gets him hauled back home where he can do no further damage.
You Fail Geography Forever - The aforementioned mix-up regarding the location of Buenos Aires.

by **Ularn** » Mon Oct 24, 2011 3:27 am

RESERVED

by **Ularn** » Mon Oct 24, 2011 3:28 am

RESERVED

by **Ularn** » Sat Oct 29, 2011 12:46 pm

RESERVED

by **Ularn** » Sat Oct 29, 2011 12:46 pm

RESERVED

by **Ularn** » Sat Oct 29, 2011 12:51 pm

QUESTION & ANSWER

If you have any questions about the Ularn Interstellar Federation then post them below and I'll get back to you. All comments in this thread should be considered out-of-character, or OOC. In other words, questions you ask will be answered by me; the player behind the screen. If you want to send an in-character or IC diplomatic communique to a representative of the Ularn Interstellar Federation, you should send it to the UIF Foreign Office.

by **The Imperial Terran Republic** » Mon Oct 29, 2012 8:40 am

Ularn wrote:
QUESTION & ANSWER

If you have any questions about the Ularn Interstellar Federation then post them below and a representative from the Senate's Public Relations Department will respond to your query in good time. Please note that for reasons of state security, we may be unable to fully answer questions regarding certain sensitive matters.

Just kidding - ask anything you want!

The Solar Dominions Of The Imperial Terran Republic

What type of civilization level do you consider you nation to be according to the Kardashev scale (Read her if you do not understand what this is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kardashev_scale)?

by **Ularn** » Mon Oct 29, 2012 5:00 pm

The Imperial Terran Republic wrote:What type of civilization level do you consider you nation to be according to the Kardashev scale (Read her if you do not understand what this is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kardashev_scale)?

Honestly? I have no idea; anywhere between Type I and Type III. It's really a totally useless scale; just a more complicated way of asking "Have you made a Dyson Sphere yet?"

by **Novus Niciae** » Mon Oct 29, 2012 5:26 pm

Ularn wrote:
The Imperial Terran Republic wrote:What type of civilization level do you consider you nation to be according to the Kardashev scale (Read her if you do not understand what this is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kardashev_scale)?

Honestly? I have no idea; anywhere between Type I and Type III. It's really a totally useless scale; just a more complicated way of asking "Have you made a Dyson Sphere yet?"

Well have you made a Dyson sphere?

by **Ularn** » Mon Oct 29, 2012 5:48 pm

Novus Niciae wrote:
Ularn wrote:Honestly? I have no idea; anywhere between Type I and Type III. It's really a totally useless scale; just a more complicated way of asking "Have you made a Dyson Sphere yet?"

Well have you made a Dyson sphere?

No, and since I can't claim to control all the power of a star without one, that makes the nation a Type I. Forget that we have interstellar travel and antigrav; under this scale we're barely more advanced than modern humans. Hence; the scale's a broken and irrelevant measure.

by **Nationalist Tantalus** » Mon Oct 29, 2012 6:42 pm

Seal of the Exalted Chief Sovereign General

To: The Honorable Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Bial Ram
From: The Most Exalted Pious Chief Sovereign Generals of Generals, Nikkodazi V. Zelick
To Whom is Concerned:

Given what we have read, the Internal Forum of Immigration Customs has caught wind of certain... Disputes- We hear? - between the human minority in your systems and that of the... Their name, Director Kenneth... Oh, right- Sorry about that, Your Honor. We have heard of animosity between manual laborers and the Frekti-Defa constituents of the realm. We hear that they- the humans- are expert miners, planters and such; and thus we are interested in buying off the safe passage of to-be-determined volumes of human passengers in hopes of us receiving adequate manpower necessary to excavate our metal-rich, highly-toxic colonies into Gardens of Eden- where then such worlds will provide us further knowledge, experience and wisdom of the Power That Be.
Under ordinary circumstances, our kind tends not to make contact with alien species, but our Sovereign General Panel has straightened out the need for us to reinforce and dilute our rambunctious worlds into bastions of wisdom, and thus we conclude with our offer after several questions: Demographic-wise, what percentage of all humans subscribe to some sort of Abrahamic religion, and how many of such Abrahamists are well-versed in classical law? We are merely asking to gather a crude census of our fellow human brethren.
We nobly thank you, Honored Senator, for your time. In our times, we have been forced to endure the pangs of suffering for as long as we can remember.

• N.V.Zelick

by **Ularn** » Tue Oct 30, 2012 10:48 am

Nationalist Tantalus wrote:[SNIP]

Sorry for not making this properly clear, but this thread was meant to be for OOC questions and answers about the Ularn Interstellar Federation, where I talk to you as the player behind the screen rather than via the persona of one of my characters. I've edited the Q&A post to make this clearer now and to direct you to where IC posts ought to be made.

To answer your question: No, I'm not going to have my nation sell you all its humans. For one thing, that would be wrong and for another it would cost us something like four or five legions worth of space marines made up largely of human troops who couldn't get a job anywhere else. But mostly because it would be wrong. Yeah...

If you want an IC answer to your question from one of the UIF Foreign Affairs staff, post it again in the thread I linked to in the revamped Q&A post.

by **Nationalist Tantalus** » Tue Oct 30, 2012 12:12 pm

Herpa derp... D: Sorry about that, mate. I will redirect my post in the other thread, then...

by **Danarian** » Mon Apr 22, 2013 7:10 am

I am somewhat confused, I caught mention of ponies (Equus Caballus Sapiens I presume(?)) Yet I see no mention to them in your Species list. Is this a newer addition, removed, or from an alternate nation/timeline/etc...?

Also, at some point, might you be interested in some action above/ on the surface of Deimoss? (The kind of action and ultimate purpose TBD at a later date?) If nothing else, said system would be close to our sphere of influence and the Danarian Space Forces would likely try to make their presence known (hopefully without igniting a war)...

by **Ularn** » Mon Apr 22, 2013 12:37 pm

Danarian wrote:I am somewhat confused, I caught mention of ponies (Equus Caballus Sapiens I presume(?)) Yet I see no mention to them in your Species list. Is this a newer addition, removed, or from an alternate nation/timeline/etc...?

Also, at some point, might you be interested in some action above/ on the surface of Deimoss? (The kind of action and ultimate purpose TBD at a later date?) If nothing else, said system would be close to our sphere of influence and the Danarian Space Forces would likely try to make their presence known (hopefully without igniting a war)...

Ponies and my relationship with the Coalition of Ponyist States have been retconned. Forever. :twisted:

That said, the species list is still incomplete, with a couple of fairly significant races absent and the defa in particular needing further development.

As for Deimoss, I've probably got too many active RPs going on at the moment to add another one. On the other hand, since you just opened an embassy on Unity Station, it might be the sort of thing our diplomats would talk about, and I had been thinking of expanding that thread to include a bit more role play as well as diplomatic communiques asking for embassies. I could have the Foreign Secretary meet with your ambassador to discuss Deimoss in the thread. Now would actually be a pretty good time for that, as this is around when the referendum on Planet 17's membership of the Federation would be getting organised.