House rules and settings:
Game version is 6.43
Non-real stars
Gravity tolerance of humans set to 0.7g
Temperature tolerance of humans set to 30 degrees Celsius
NPR difficulty set to 250%
NPR spawn chance set to 30%
Invaders are off
Star swarm and the precursors are on
Minimum comets per system are set to 10
Terraforming can be done only via PDCs (no ships and no installations) to make the terraforming and colonising of planets a much more important and resource consuming choice.
Planetless systems will be rerolled.
The Commune
When the trans-newtonian technology became widely available and jump points were proven to be common, many colonies were established. Some were mining outposts. Others were retreats from overpopulated Earth. Yet others were social experiments, founded by ideologues looking to create their “perfect society”.
One such group was hoping to create a communist state, but after lessons of twentieth century they have spent much time studying the problem in order to avoid totalitarianism and collapse of their society. This has proven a wise choice as many social experiments have ended badly.
During that time an unstable jump point was found, leading to a black hole. This was a shock to scientists as jump points usually led to nearby systems, often no more than a dozen light year distant, yet there was no black hole within hundreds of light years. Many exploration ships ventured to the object and beyond, but all were lost when the connection between it and the human space collapsed. The various experts begun to theorise that black holes create a variety of unstable, ever changing jump points, which may be used, but will collapse soon after forming.
This was of interest to the group as their research have led them to two important discoveries. First, the stigma associated with communism will make them outcasts so the possibility of settling beyond known space was an appealing prospect. Second, and more importantly perhaps, the best way to avoid totalitarianism was to remove humans from the equation, by turning the administration to an AI.
That was potentially the biggest issue. Not only would many people bulk at the idea of AI having so much power, but if it worked it could show human elites as replaceable, or worse, incompetent, which would make it in the interest of every nation to ensure the experiment fails. If the Commune, as the nation to be born has been named, was to succeed, they'll have to hide.
However they could not know when or even if a new connection to a black hole will form. As such they came with a different idea of settling inhospitable objects, such as asteroids of small moons of distant gas giants to hide themselves. While expensive, it was doable and would allow the Commune to hide itself.
When the Destroyer came, the expedition was almost ready and a search for suitable colony sites have begun. But a few weeks after the initial invasion a new jump point has been opened – one leading to a black hole. The expedition entered it and never looked back.
There was some discussion about where to settle. As the Commune was beyond known space, in a location that was almost certainly random, it was possible for them to colonise an Earth-like planet, or a good terraforming candidate without worrying about other humans. On the other hand the danger of aliens made many want to create secure colonies that will be difficult to find. In the end the latter group won.
By 2320 the Commune is a healthy and large nation. The AI, named Administrator, have ruled successfully by over ninety years, kept in check by democratically elected Oversight Committee. However the settlements could only be established on certain moons, which had to have very special properties, such as reasonable size, and composition that could withstand inflation and spinning processes, which means space is very limited. As the population approaches the capacity of the habitats the people, most of whom never knew the terror of the Destroyer, begin to push for expansion. And the Administrator, bound by it's programming, must give it to them, even if it believes hiding to be a better option.
The Commune home system composes a single Sun-like star named Baltic and eight planets with a total of fifty six moons. All colonies are orbiting the outermost gas giant named Valhalla.
The Commune also lost nothing of the human technology and has in fact expanded upon it, albeit only slightly due to limited resources.
List of habitats:
Odin (80 million inhabitants) – capital, administration, officer education and manufacturing centre
Biskupin (60 million inhabitants) – research centre
New Prague (50 million inhabitants) – primary mining site
Thor (50 million inhabitants) – no TN industry
Perun (45 million inhabitants) – secondary mining site
Courland (40 million inhabitants) – commercial shipbuilding (one yard)
Carpathia (25 million inhabitants) – tertiary mining site
Starting Forces: 4 freighters, 1 colony ship, 1 tug, 1 tanker, 3 fuel harvesting bases
Hegemony of Man
When the news of the Destroyer begun to arrive significant amount of people begun to panic, which has proven to be a good thing as they begun to run away, using the black hole to find sanctuary. Fortunately among the ever changing jump points they found one leading to a system with habitable planet.
Over a course of several months hundreds, if not thousands of ships begun making trip to the system, moving people to safety. Eventually the connection collapsed, cutting the system away from the rest of humanity – and the threat they faced.
While significant number of people made it to the planet – with estimates ranging from thirty million to as much as seventy million – most had nothing but clothes on their backs. In addition there was no organisation among them, no authority and soon after the survivors begun to group themselves into societies and nations. Sometimes those were based on the nationality of people or shared principles. More often than not those structures arisen from simple convenience.
Over the course of over a hundred years many such nations have come into being or were destroyed, but only one endured – the Hegemony of Man. This state expected to be found by the Destroyer or it's creators and wanted to be ready. To do this two things were needed: the unification of Man and adaptation of the most efficient economic system possible, the naked capitalism. One with no social spending of any kind, where anything that produces taxes is permitted, up to and including some of the lighter forms of indenture servitude as a form of debt repayment.
By 2320 the Hegemony has accomplished their goal on New Earth, but in order to defend themselves from the Destroyer they will need trans-newtonian elements which are absent from the planet. Small stockpiles exist, recycled from fallen spacecraft and while much knowledge was lost, detailed geological survey data has also been recovered. In addition a small space station that can serve as a shipyard has been established, several ancient vessels were recovered and reactivated and a small scientific colony exists on one of the other planets. Even so, the Hegemony has only now rediscovered the trans-newtonian technology and it will take much time for them to get back to where humanity was before the Destroyer came.
The Hegemony home system is a binary of two Sol-like stars orbited by a total of eight planets with a mere three moons and a small asteroid belt. The central object is named Sanctuary while the secondary – of which the third planet is New Earth – is named Perseverance.
Starting Facilities:
Population: 700 million
Research Labs: 10
Sector Command: 1
Tracking Stations: 1
Ground Force Training Facilities: 5
Naval Academies: 3
Conventional Industry: 1000
Mineral Stockpiles: 5 000T of each mineral
Additional colonies: 10k people on Ares (Perseverance V), 5 infrastructure (enough for 25k people).
Starting Forces: 10 armour divisions, 30 infantry divisions, 2 freighters, 1 colony ship (pulse drive powered)
Federal Republic of Phoenix
Due to the twentieth century treaty prohibiting weapon deployment in space, humanity ended up being unprepared for the coming of the Destroyer. For months it remained unchallenged, destroying colony after colony until finally it arrived on Earth.
The homeworld was still divided between competing nation states, and while it too had no fleet, the number of missile bases was staggering. Unfortunately it was not enough to destroy the alien vessel – but it was enough to seriously damage it.
While many considered it a victory, it was a temporary one for the enemy was fully capable of repairing itself. In the end the battle only delayed the inevitable, but that time was invaluable.
After the collapse of the jump point leading to the black hole, there was no easy to reach destination to run to. Instead many organisation, nations and alliances begun preparing fleets whose sole purpose was to travel through space, hopefully far enough to escape the aliens.
One such fleet, launched by the old European Union, managed to stay safe and functioning for over a hundred years. And just when the maintenance issues were becoming too large to overcome, they found an opportunity they could not pass – a large system of four stars and several colonisable planets littered with ruins of ancient civilisation. Ruins that may very well give the refugees the tools they need to restart their civilisation rather than experience a period of technological degeneration due to their limited supplies.
And while many fear the system, believing it was annihilated by the Destroyer who may one day return, most are tired of the long trek and believe this system to be their best hope of for survival.
The Republic is currently engaged in cataloguing and exploring ruins on the readily habitable planet, a task made more urgent by the fact that the refugees have no advanced industries. Most ships have been dismantled into a temporary shelters – a necessity considering their poor condition – including all their survey ships, leaving them with only handful of vessels. In addition in order to preserve their technological knowledge in face of failing systems, they were forced to sacrifice some data, including most of their survey information. As such, while they have some idea about the nearby space, they have no way to return to Earth, even if they wanted to.
Their system, named Phoenix, consists of four Sol-like stars orbited by a total of twenty planets with eighty one moons and a small, scattered collection of asteroids. The human colony – New Atlantis – is the second planet of the fourth star and there are seven more reasonable candidates for colonisation as well as four more less desirable bodies.
Starting Conditions:
Population: 27 million
Industry: none
Ground Forces: 5 Garrison Battalions, 10 Construction Brigades
Ships: 3 Troop Transports, 21 Freighters, 11 Colony ships, 6 fuel harvesters (all are ion engine powered and mass in vicinity of forty thousand tonnes)
