A Nation Of Nations [Maintenance Thread, Closed]

[Roselladrelos]

Tridnayu-Hepreda is a nation composed of several smaller nations, each composed of smaller nations and states. See factbooks for actual information.

Here is where I'd tamp down expectations, but honestly I'm not in the mood to make people not read my work.

---

She looked across the surprisingly empty plaza, trying to find someone odd and new. Within a few minutes she located her target- a tall silver-grey humanoid. My first Euthena, she thought, and moved closer. She sat down a body-length from them, and awkwardly tried to seem idle. She stared at the Euthena for a while, trying to figure out how to make first contact. A faeriebird suddenly landed on her shoulder, chirped "Just talk to her, man," and muttered "Light-be-damned, the staring...," as they flew away. The Euthena jerked slightly, her eyes shifting from slate-blue to a full sky blue as she straightened herself and brought herself back to reality. "Oh, er, I'm sorry, was I unresponsive?"

[Roselladrelos]

Miranda Node, Undisclosed Location - Year Of Founding 977, Year 25 of the reign of Tazhudo II

In the chambers of the Machine-Goddess, bells were ringing. The reign of Tazhudo the Second was being brought to a close, and each note in the symphony signified a new system being handed over to Ver successor. Unbeknownst to anyone outside the series of nodes that made up the body of the Machine-Goddess (at least, unknown until next morning), the AI that had been tweaked from Tazhudo II's template since the moment Tazhudo II had been put into power was activated. The crews of each system ran their simulations, the AI's subroutines and disaster-handling algorithms breezing through them with an ease unpracticed. Not missing a note, each system switched over to the soon-to-be-crowned AI. The final crew activated their system, and in the far aft section of the node a portal began to glow. A green laser briefly pierced it, and then it was Proteus node's turn.

Tazhudo the Second was shutting down, and it knew it. The automatic systems deep within its core hummed, briefly dimmed, and suddenly were handed over to the core of Ver successor. The "consciousness", such as it was, of Tazhudo the Second felt no remorse. From its standpoint, it had done nothing wrong- from its standpoint, there was not enough *it* to be responsible for anything. The algorithms making up Tazhudo the Second stopped, one by one- and the old AI felt only love.

[Roselladrelos]

The animal life of New Earth (the ninth planet named that in the records) was remarkably Earthlike, in quite a few ways. Despite the proliferation of hexapedal bodyplans, there was a certain resemblance- maybe in the eyes (often described as deep and intelligent), though those who'd seen the creatures in person wavered on where they saw it. After nearly a century of study and detail work, New Earth was quietly opened for colonization; finally deemed safe.

Which was why it was such a surprise when things started going wrong.

First it was a few disappearances, then it was a few mass disappearances. Cordons, curfews, and search-and-rescue commands were set up when the third of these hit the news, and soon proved mostly ineffective. Arcologies were evacuated and set up again on the orbital ring, but the problem didn't stop. The solution became obvious when an orbital habitat took ruthless measures: extermination of all New Earth-native flora and fauna aboard the spacecraft. This policy ended the issue, but attempts to apply it on a planetary scale were quickly shot down by civilian protests.

As such, New Earth and its orbital ring remain uninhabited. Travel in and out of that area of the system is strictly regulated, and even research programs have been shut down- researchers had started trying to smuggle out animals. Nowadays, the planet is merely a curiosity- official policy is to discourage colonial efforts in-system.

[Roselladrelos]

Unified States of Ny Olenig, Ny Olenig System, Lemponian Colonial Sector Y by M by Q

"I'm just saying- it's the thirtieth anniversary of our literal status as vassal to a foreign power, and you want me to *celebrate?* Why should we waste time on something dumb and degrading like that when there are people in slavery across the galaxy?"

"Oh, get the stick out of your ass, Markis. Granted, slavery is an issue, but it's certainly not as prevalent as your sources want you to believe. Get some nuance, and realize that there are forces fighting it every day. Would you want to fight in that war? Besides, the vassal system is harmless. It's not like we're paying them anything important, and- at least for me- it gives me pride to have the political situation of my nation be impossible to sum up easily."

[Roselladrelos]

He sat at the bar, eyes closed and net connection open. A tiny performer had been belting out a song that was just mumbley enough to be unintelligible for the past few minutes, so of course he was remarking on it on his chatboards. I never knew Faeriebirds had such a lung capacity, he thought into the net, and was unsurprised at the array of same-format responses he received. He sighed as the rest of the audience clapped, unsure of why he even cared about other people.

Quietly, an overseeing AI set up recommendations for therapists.

[Roselladrelos]

During Tridnayij-Eridani Accords, Year Of Founding 932, Year 9 of the reign of Delizha IV

"No, no. You're not both vassalizing Tridnayu-Hepreda, you're both vassalizing nations in Tridnayij-Hepredan space. The Republic of New Sol is entirely different from The Republic of New Sol, they're two hundred fifty light-years apart. What? I said the same thing twice? Oh, no, they just have a different main language and translate the same. Now that I think about it, that should apply to Tridnayu-Hepreda too... Homeland-Homeland. We can supply translator algorithms that translate semantic relationships like those, you know. Shall I place an order?"

[Roselladrelos]

A spacer's life is all noise- not the hustle and bustle of city streets, not usually, but the noise of a spacecraft. Whirring fans, the hum of the shipwide electricity, and of course the engines and reactors. A spacer will often find themselves unnerved or frightened by a lack of noise, to the point where even spacers trying to live a low-tech life most often live as close as they can to the loudest thing in town.

Which was why it was perfectly understandable that he was curled up in a corner trying to wish away the last hour.

It had been a joyride at first, a test of his newfound piloting abilities. He eased the ship into FTL and found himself over a world that would be green if it had life (though thankfully it had oxygen)- not in a well-traveled system, but far enough from civilized space to feel exciting.

It is not good, he thought in retrospect, to try to aerobrake when you don't need to save fuel.

The external tank's moorings hadn't separated correctly, leaving a long rod sticking out from the ship- causing it to tumble, causing hard gee forces, causing the internal tank to breach. The ship got itself to the ground, landing with a speed that didn't quite wreck the paragrav. This, thankfully, saved him from the force of slamming from the ground... though he was still queasy.

He reviewed the past hour again, and again- until he pulled himself out of it, tried to ignore the silence, and distanced himself from his mistakes. Outside, it was warm- probably safe.

It was night by now, and the sky was full of stars. Something about the Earth-thickness atmosphere made them look odd- but oh so very pretty. He laid down and stared at the sky.

There were so many stars that he was already assembling constellations in his head. But one didn't stick- the claw of the maintenance bot constellation was missing a star. He scanned the sky for it- there was a star moving in the sky. This planet didn't have moons, it couldn't be anything but a ship.

[Roselladrelos]

Salvage is a lucrative business, especially if you were originally planning to build a homestead. The ship they had started from was quite old- a Euthena colony ship built to accomodate cryobanks and sent off sublight for the frontier. Once it had arrived, it deployed its seeds- and promptly discovered that the system it had arrived in (perfectly usable, even if it didn't have that warm arean world in the inner system) had been host to a battle just years prior. The system contained thousands of chunks of metal and graphene, massing in at the mass of a small asteroid. As the colony set itself up and spread itself across the system, it took inventory of the chunks (and the dead) and set up storage for the parts, transforming the ones that proved to contain no possibility of former inhabitants into a cylindrical habitat for the ship's now-unfrozen crew.

Three distant cameras had taken notice of the moving light in a hallowed battleground, and each sent a ship. The two ships from civilization contacted the old ship, and while time-based culture shock sorted itself the third ship arrived. It was also Euthena, though notably much less regular and of a much younger design. The ship, built in such a way that it was almost as irregular as an old spacer ship built of junk accumulated over the years, deployed its own seeds- much smaller, much faster, and containing the tiniest speck of antimatter.

The system became a battleground again, briefly.

---

And that's the first seven posts, everyone. Varying quality, I'm sure, but I'm fairly satisfied....

[Roselladrelos]

The spaceship buzzed lightly, cradled as it was in the drydock. Countless umbilicals of varying size connected the ship to the systems of the dock complex, including the dedicated reactor and its control systems.
"Systems nominal," intoned the engineering officer. He was the man who designed this engine, and he'd be damned if it failed again. His pilot, focusing on the actual movement of the ship, announced as he pushed the throttle up- "Point oh ten gees. Point oh five. Point ten...."
"Still nominal. Magnetic field is a little above expected, but it's no issue."
"Point fifteen. Point one-seven-five.... and we have point two. We are officially weightless, sir. I'll file my report, the government will be amazed, and-"
"Keep going."
"K-keep going? This test was supposed to be to weightlessness, wasn't it?"
"Yes, but I built a few extra systems in. Or did you not notice the control sticks?"
"Yessir. Point two five.... I have view of the ground.... point three. The cords are running out of slack, I'm going back to point two."
"Good. Magnetic field is a little high, but... yes. Move the rotator axis stick forward."
"Doing so."

The ship, now with its cables hanging upward, began to move sideways as the engine- shaped like a circular fan- tilted slowly. "Wait. Something's wrong. Magnetic field's too strong, it's bound to affect the reactor-"
A gout of plasma shot out of the wall of the now empty drydock, and the umbilicals quickly went slack as the ship- mercifully slowly due to the 1/5th gravity- crashed back down. The closest to success in a while, thought the engineer, and we're lucky we put the engine at the top of the ship. Later, the two aboard would find that their credit cards had been wiped.