(Player notes: This thread is essentially exposition; just setting stuff up for a number of eventual RP plot ideas. If you want to get involved at this early stage anyway, feel free to TG me)
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Tekara System, former Atlantean space, Orion Spur
Hurcon. A shattered world, its former spherical shape dissected by cataclysm. Its moon, Thalamas, had once been host to over three hundred million souls before The War. Now the fragments of the two ruined globes drifted in space, their residual gravitational forces holding them close for now, though the Tekara star would eventually spread them out amongst the orbital plain given a few hundred thousand years. Deeper inspection would have revealed the carcasses of many warships—some of them silver, some of them jet-black and monstrous. A great battle had been fought here, at the cost of many lives. And though it would seem like it was a battle that would had taken place in another age, one may have been surprised to know that it had only been a scant few decades. A year of bloodshed and chaos, of genocide. A year that brought an end to one of the Orion Spur’s sleeping superpowers. And since then, the system had remained silent. Timeless. Certainly, there had been a salvage party here, a pirate stash there, but for all intents and purposes the ruined system remained empty and free, devoid of all and any life.
Until today.
A flash of light heralded the arrival of a wound in space-time; soft shades of blue and white pouring out from the hole into the surrounding void. Within a second or two, more holes began to develop, flanking the first and largest one. From them came ships—around thirty in all, each them similar to the silver-hulled streamlined derelicts drifting in the wreckage of the planet below. By far the largest of the vessels was a massive pyramid structure that measured around seven kilometers in height. It stayed motionless above the graveyard below as the other ships of the fleet moved in. The largest measured out to about two kilometers in length, while the others were smaller than that. A few were warships, but many of the ships were freighters and support vessels, many of which were attached to a kilometer-wide station they had dragged into the system. Smaller shuttlecraft and scout craft moved deeper into the field to secure the area as the station was moved into position. It would be the first of many; over the course of the following weeks this scene would be repeated across this system and many others that had once been Atlantean. This one had been a major system hub station, but others—mining stations, salvage bases, scouting outposts and beacons…to anyone watching, this was nothing less than full-scale organized recolonization.
The Atlanteans were back.
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News excerpt from ‘INS’—Imperial News Service, taken from the Atlantean interstellar net archives
The brown-skinned and white-haired but young-looking woman smiled for the camera as the footage opened. Her clothes were fairly standard for Atlantean dress; a blue and yellow tunic, accented by various trinkets covering her arms. Had she been Terran, one might have thought she was in her thirties—lack of hair pigment notwithstanding. She was moderatly attractive, but overall standard reporter fare. She smiled as she began to speak, “Hello and welcome to INS, your best source of unbiased and free information on the Atlantean net. I’m Korayia, House of Veraia, and I’ll be your host. Tonight’s top story: the sudden militarization of our fair Federation. I have with me tonight the Grand Admiral himself; Sid, House of Iknar”
Another figure appeared on the screen; a man about the same age as Korayia, but also lacking any hair pigments. While she was dressed in civilianware, he was in naval dress; a black turtleneck jacket with blue, red, and yellow accents that helped to indicate rank.
“Thank you for taking time out to be here with us, Admiral”
The admiral smiled, “It’s my pleasure. And please, call me Sid”
Korayia returned the smile fully, “Well then, Sid. Our subscribers have many things they want to know about the government’s new sudden projects. Can you give us an overview of what exactly is going on?”
Sid nodded, “Of course” he said, with a jovial tone. The admiral, though he was the head of all Atlantean military forces and answered only to the Empress and the Senate themselves, seemed to take a very relaxed posture, as if he was a far lower rank than he was. He seemed a bit young for the role too; a downside of attempted genocide on a species. “After much deliberation between the Imperial Office and the Senate, it has been determined that the Imperial Federation of Atlantis will take a new approach to its foreign policy. Over the last few decades we have grown leaps and bounds; thirty years ago we were barely surviving after The War; now we are the masters of our home system. Now finally, we can take the next step in furthering our defense: by going on the offensive”
“How does the Federation intend to do this, Admiral? I doubt our subscribers would be very enthused about an offensive war, draining our resources otherwise used for defense”
Sid chuckled, having his hand in protest, “No, no. It’s nothing like that. Our plan is four-fold. Our first is what you’ve been seeing in the news as of late: we’ve been reannaxing our old pre-war territories. We’ve used them covertly for years; much of our existing fleet was built from the wreckage we’ve salvaged from there—and over seventy percent of our Orichalic mining industry still focuses on the old Atlantean cluster. But we’ve reached our limits of what we can achieve without a lasting presence. As of two days ago the Atlantean third and fourth battlegroups launched a campaign on the systems of Tekara, Keloda, and Takar, establishing command bases, mining stations, and supply routes, while simultaneously wiping out pirate clans and surviving pockets of Demon resistance so we can secure our holdings”
Korayia’s expression was one of concerned bemusement, “Demons? Should our subscribers be worried?”
“Not at all” Sid said, keeping his jovial domineer, “These Demon ship groups are isolated and alone; striped of their hive collective they are not nearly as capable. Added to that, our current fleet was built specifically with Demon forces in mind and in fact incorporates Demon tech. Our skirmishes with Demon forces have been less like battles and more like turkey shoots”
The reporter nodded thoughtfully, “I see. But what about homeworld defense? Some of our viewers have expressed their concern that two of our five battlegroups are now assigned to this new front line, leaving our homeworld less guarded”
Sid nodded back, “That’s phase two of our plan, actually. The Senate recently allocated us the funds and authorized us to expand our battlegroup sizes, and build two more—with the associated army contingents. Atlantis is rebuilding its fleet. Its people no longer have to fear what’s out there—we beat the darkness and now we are rebuilding”
“But what about the cost? And the manpower?” asked Korayia, “Is the military going on a major recruitment drive?”
Sid leaned forward, chuckling, “You’re clearing my path for me, Korayia. That’s our next step. Funds aren’t a problem, the Federation’s stocked up a lot over the last few years just for this moment. As for manpower, yes, we will be undergoing a large recruitment drive. But we are also looking at other Atlantean survivor colonies; those who never made it to the Ithika system. We’ve been in contact with a few, and we’re currently working on bringing them back into the Imperial fold. We will also be stepping up our scouting efforts to locate other surviving pockets”
“How so?”
Sid leaned back again, folding his arms, “Well, we would have to assess their situation, determine what it would take to ease them back into imperial governing after decades of autonomy. Ideally, we’d like to bring them back to the Ithika system; we don’t want to have to patrol potentially dozens of isolated systems thousands of light-years apart. But for the meantime, that’s part of why we’ve rebuilt our forces; we intend to protect all of our people, not just those here. We will defend them”
“A noble goal” Korayia said softly, nodding encouragingly, “Any other plans you have in store?”
“Nothing I can talk about at this time, I’m afraid. But make no mistake, the future for Atlantis is going to be fantastic. We’re entering a new golden age; out of the ashes and back into glory” Sid replied, an aura of pride around him.
The reporter seemed to ponder something for a split second, before going ahead with her next question: “…There have been reports of Atlantean projects involving a number of pre-sapient and early-sapient species located in the Ithika cluster and surrounding space. Do you have anything you want to say about that?”
Sid instantly became more reserved, his earliest laid-back attitude gone, “I am afraid I cannot talk about what may or may not be going on with research involving the sapient species here in our system. And I am afraid I am just about out of time”
“As are we” Korayia said, a smile still on her face, “Well thank you for speaking with us today, Admiral Sid”
Sid bowed, his jovial attitude returned, “It was a pleasure. And remember; our greatest moments still lie ahead. The Atlantean people have risen before from the ashes like a glorious phoenix, and we shall do so again. We are as constant as the stellar wind”
“Well said, Admiral” Korayia said before turning to the audience, “This is Korayia, with INS, coming to you straight from the homeworld”
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Tikal, Nova Atlantai, Ithika System, Orion Spur
Night had fallen over the capital; the grand city of Tikal. It had grown up significantly over the past few decades—it and the rest of Atlantean civilization across the moon were a testament to how quickly society could rebound from an Apocalypse. Pyramids and towers dominated the skyline, the lights from their structures illuminating the river delta they straddled on both sides. Long paths of light weaving in and out between buildings revealed where vehicle routs and various forms of public transportation moved through. And from the Imperial Palace, located on an island between the two halves of the river, everything seemed serene.
But the Empress knew that most wounds of such magnitude that had been inflicted on the Atlantean people were not visible on the surface. Cities and fleets could be rebuilt. Lives couldn’t. Society, though finally running like a well-oiled machine and life having become a normal pace once more, nevertheless had a persistent undercurrent of shock and depression. As if it ran as a well-oiled machine only to forget the horrors it had experienced.
She cradled in her hands a cup of hot tea as she aimlessly watched lights pass back and forth through the city. Something about it calmed her. She was about the same age as Sid was; looking to be about her early to mid thirties. That was another wound that was not apparent at first glance; survival through a genocidal apocalypse often meant that the younger you were, the more likely you were to survive. Much of the older population had either given their lives or had simply been outmaneuvered in the aftermath. It had been left to the shellshocked younger generation to take command. A lost generation. She still had nightmares, and she knew she was not alone—medical studies showed there were scant few who did not exhibit at least some symptoms of PTSD.
A chim at the door to her office woke her out of her thoughts. “Come in” she said, turning to face the door. As expected, Grand Admiral Sid walked through the now-open doorway.
“Everything go alright with the press?” she asked, taking a sip from her cup.
He nodded, slumping down on the couch, “About as well as we expected” he raised his eyebrow, “Though I don’t see why *I* had to be the one to do it. You’re a far better public speaker”
She smiled as she sat down next to him, “You give me too much credit. Besides, I’m a pretty divisive figure. But you? They love you. You’re a war hero. And you’re personable. You just do that informal thing with people, and they love it”
He shrugged, watching lights go by outside, “If you say so. …I don’t like lying to them about my opinions though. I don’t think this is a wise course of action”
She looked away from her cup at him with a more concerned expression, “You’re the one always pushing for less isolationist policies. ‘Oh Atlantia, we need to do this. Oh Atlantia, we need to do that.’ As soon as we start doing things, others will start paying attention to us. They’ll meet with us” she took another sip.
Sid laid back, “Yeah, that’s that worries me. I was hoping for trade routes and alliances. Bulking up our military and looking for fights will only get us noticed by small local tinpot dictators who brought a couple hundred Star Destroyers off the black market”
“We can take a Star Destroyer or two” Atlantia smiled, “We fought the Demons. Throwaway interstellar tech is candy”
“Depends on how big the fleet is” Sid replied, “Even after we finish bulking up, it’s unlikely we could sustain a war long-term”
She nodded, “Which is why the defense-over-offense strategy is still in effect. All we have to do is discourage them—we’re not looking to annex a foreign power. Simply reclaim what is ours”
“So then…what about Project Ascendant?”
The empress paused, contemplating her answer carefully. Misspeaking would be a bad thing, “We are…making alliances. We can’t support our long-term plans without a suitable population base, and that’s something we’ve been sorely lacking since The War. Simply reconnecting with other survivor colonies won’t be enough”
“So instead, we take a page out of the Olympians and play god for awhile, right? Because that turned out so well for them” Sid replied, a bit bitter.
Atlantia closed her eyes in thought, “We aren’t playing god. We won’t be gods to them, just…benefactors. Active benefactors. All of the species we’ve surveyed are sapient and self-aware. Some are even in a Neolithic stage of development. All they need is careful guidance while being uplifted”
“So that they can serve as a labor force for us”
Another pause, “…As much as the Atlantean community is. The simple hard fact is that numbers are everything”
Sid chuckled bitterly, “Yeah, right. I’m already hitting roadblocks with the survivor colonies. They say we’re beginning to oppress them—they just want to be left alone. I bet you these alien species will be the same way”
“It doesn’t matter” she said, a bit more coldly, “They are Atlantean, they will join us. We are one. And we have a better grasp of the situation”
Sid shook his head. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing, “So, what? We Know Better? I thought we used up all the blatant colonialist Imperialism in our blood eons ago. You may want this for political reasons, but don’t mistake it for altruism”
There was another pause before she spoke again, this time with a bit more regret.
“I’m not”
