Space Empires Volume 1: Space Empire

[Sabin]

I have made a short "history" of a game of Space Empires IV Gold. The Star Trek Mod by Atrocities is in use, and I am using canon names, besides for the United Federation of Planets, which I have altered to be my own faction, the Space Empire.

I encourage that readers should review this product and attempt to produce advice that can improve the story.


SPACE EMPIRES VOLUME I: Space Empire
Chapter I: The Space Empire
Stardate: 2400.00


In a star system, in a name-less galaxy, planets revolved around a single star, Sol. This system, called the Sol system, housed a single intelligent race, the Humans. These creatures were quite fascinating, for they had a long and complicated history, one that showed many extremes and balances, that showed that existence indeed had constants. Now, the balance has changed again, for this race has finally began it's first Reaching for the Stars, in a significant manner.

In the year of 2379.21, a recent war has ended, one that devastated the human race of that time. The war was one over two idealogical stances, both of which consisted of two opposite extremes. The larger, but unadvanced faction was one of religious origins, and goals. This faction wanted to maintain the power of religion, and finally had to go on a crusade against the world, for they were starting to lose their political and social importance.

The latter faction was composed of those who championed science and touted it benefits, despite what appeared to not be moralistic in the eyes of the religions of that world. They used genetic engineering, created democratic governments, disapproved of worship in a deity(s) that probably didn't exist, and refused the demands of the religions to scale back such operations.

These religions felt the need to fight, and played their hand with sabotage initially. Then it increased, as the world found out about what was happening. The religions now used more extreme tactics, using weapons of mass destruction. The world press fanned the flames, and the internet became segregated. The world quickly fell into war, and for many years, that was the status quo. Eventually, a third major faction appeared, one that consisted of monks. These monks integrated what they felt were the best aspects of the two factions, and discarded the less worthwhile ideas that both factions touted. In the end, this faction became powerful and overwhelmed the other two, and has become a world power. They are called the Masuterusu.

In the year of 2400.00, a recent technology, a technology that would allow the people of Earth to Reach for the Stars, was discovered. This technology, actually consisted of multiple technologies that formed a greater whole, in the form of a colonization ship. More specifically, the Colonizer MK.I-R, or a colonizer that can set up a small colony on a distant planet formed primarily of rock. This vessel was called the Saramisu. This vessel was quickly constructed by a new agency created by the Masuterusu. This name however, was quickly discarded and replaced by a far more impressive title, the Space Empire. This "empire" began to quickly expand the influence of the Masuterusu, by quickly colonizing a world called Vulcan. They found a minor race their by the same name, and the races quickly became allies, and eventually, one people. This little "empire" actually became a real one quite quickly, for they colonized the systems around Sol. They were the Draylax, Vulcan, Terra Nova, Tellar, Sirius, and finally, Alpha Centauri. However, some things changed during that time.

The most important was that the state of technology changed quickly, but in one area, so much so, that defenses were not considered important. Not one ship was equipped for war, there was only colony ships. Eventually, another race appeared before the Space Empire. They called themselves the Borg, and appeared to be quite dangerous. The Space Empire quickly made a non-agression treaty with the Borg, but within the next two months, the Borg broke the treaty. They did not attack, fortunately for the Space Empire. The Space Empire quickly created a new class of ship, the Saber MK.I, a warship that weighed in at 200 kilotons. Also, this ship was equipped with the latest weapons that the Space Empire had. The ship was quickly put to the test against a heavily armed Borg vessal. The Borg also declared war, and the Space Empire quickly took to defending their borders.

They begun construction of the new kind of vessal, and the first one appeared within two months, named the Enterprise. A Borg ship quickly appeared, and it was heavily armed, enough so to easily destroy the Enterprise, it seemed.

The video of the battle from the bridge crew of the Enterprise are recorded here, to show how the battle begun, and ended.

Captain of the Enterprise, Raynor: "This is the Enterprise, Space Command." "Target is within visual range, and closing in."
Space Command Admiral, Vivius: "Commence attack if they begin to advance or open fire."
Raynor: "Acknowledged, sir." Raynor picked up an intercom microphone, and alerted the crew on the ship to be ready for the battle. Weak, red lights activated, and speakers began crying "Red Alert, Red Alert, Red Alert..." The tension aboard the bridge of the ship was quite palpable.

The enemy vessel advanced quickly, despite it's large, round shape...too quickly, for it attacked first. The range was quite great between the two ships, and the resulting blow shook the ship greatly, and a nacelle of the vessal was destroyed, utterly and completely. Despite this, the Enterprise advanced and opened fire with the pair of phased energy cannons, which tore into the enemy's hull with great precision, destroying a critical part of it's propulsion system: The transwarp drive. The Enterprise retreated, but still got hit by an counter-attack, which destroyed the life-support system matrix and the hull integrity force-field, which prevented minor damage.

The Enterprise closed the distance again, and opened fire, which raked apart the sphere's great engines, and some of it's weaponry. Quite fortunate for the Enterprise, but the return fire still destoryed 95% of the ship, leaving the bridge, an engine, and a single cannon operating. The Enterprise managed to disable this foe with another attack. The enemy ship was now quite helpless, but the Enterprise still attacked regardless, until the sphere was little more than rubble in space. The Enterprise limped to Alpha Centauri II, and was given a hero's welcome for the crew.

As for the Borg...they did not bother the Space Empire much from that point, though threatening to attack Alpha Centauri. The Borg's colony ships were preyed upon by the Space Empire, utterly reducing the Borg's claim of colonizing those territories to nothing, for more Saber MK-I's were produced.

The economy of the Space Empire quickly expanded, and the science facilitys were beginning to become diverse, researching areas that had much to do with wars and economies. One major advance was the creation of the Monolith technology. It was expensive, but it can produce three kinds of critical resources for an empire, and it combined science with religious concepts, creating great pieces of art that also doubled as structures that produced resources. The economy began to shift towards this innovation quickly. Farms, Mines, and Radioactives Extraction facilities were disposed of, their usefulness now beginning to wane.

After all of those years, another race was encountered: Starfleet Command, a group of humanoids that were remarkable similar to the Humans. The two races quickly befriended each other, and soon they established treaties that benefited both of them, until they have finally made a military pact. This occurred the star-date of 2,413.05.


SUB-CHAPTER I: Of Population and Planets
2400.00 through 2431.05

The Earth was overpopulated when it first began it's expansion, and it was soon found that the masses of Earth can be transported in bulk to other planets. Soon, it became a requirement to ship the majority of the older generations to other planets, to expand operations. This led to a sexual revolution, due to that before, contraceptives and other methods of birth prevention were in much heavier use. The Earth now produces 2 megatons of human labor that is shipped to other planets. The Earth's population always recovered by 2 megatons per month. This was a good balance, for the additional labor was now well paid for doing the difficult work of colonizing and expanding the colonies, leading to an incredible boost in the economy. However, the rich could stay on Earth or go to an excellent planet to live on, provided they pay a hefty sum of resources.

These planets were usually quite comfortable places to live on, or had benefits that made of up for their hostility. Vulcan, for example, contains many libraries and other such hallmarks of intelligent work, despite the planet's intense heat and lack of water. A great place for wealthy scientists, and the Vulcan aliens were great at the art of discussion. Tellar, on the other hand, was a planet devoted to many activities that were generally looked upon with disdain by the general public: Gambling, wrestling, football, prostitution, videogame tournaments that featured devices that injures the losers of each match, and the Flight of Men, where the arena is a potential grounds for death, ranging from churches to abandoned grocery stores. This was all allowed because the matches were regulated by the government to be fair, and to actually give the players a good chance to surrender the chance for victory, in exchange for life. Tellar was quite profitable for the Space Empire, and because of this, all those seemingly immoral activities are allowed up to the present day.

Middle class civilians tended to have excellent lives, since there was so much work to do, that almost no one fell into poverty. The middle classes also had voting rights, for all persons, besides an age restriction set at 20 years old before a potential voter would be granted the ability. Also, the middle class had access to most educational programs and uncensored Internet connections. The poor also lead decent lives, since they had access to such abilities too, and they made enough funds to purchase decent dwellings. There were problems though: The poor did not recieve the benefits of law enforcement and fire assistance unless they paid an active fee. This was because the districts that contained poor urban areas usually had high rates of crimes and "accidents." This was costly to counter, and the poor had to pay for services though the proverbial nostril.

The transportation was done by primarily a single star-ship, the Automated Transport MK.I(Only one currently exists.)

[Atrocities]

Wow, very nice read.

[sachmo]

I'll be reading!

[Sabin]

I am almost ready to post the second chapter, but first...I need input, and second, I want to know if anyone wants a sub-chapter about a specific aspect of the Space Empire.

[Taz-in-Space]

Taz LOVES SE4 stories! Taz wants MORE story! Soon. NO - SOONER!! PLEASE!!!!

Taz has a few questions:
Found any ruins yet? What did you get?
How big is the Galaxy? What type is it?
How many ships you got? Any fixed defenses?
Are your
* REMANDER OF MESSAGE DELETED DUE TO EXCESSIVE LENGHT * - Sanity Police

[Sabin]

Hm...Taz-in-Space, I will try to create a sub-chapter about the space vehicles the Space Empire employs.

As for the map: It was included with the Star Trek Mod. This map, more specifically, is a star-chart of the known Star-Trek universe.

The ruins in this game are actually, races. If you colonize Vulcan II for example, you recieve technology from assimilating the Vulcan people. So far I have found two planets featuring such, the Tellerites and the Vulcans.

[Sabin]

The sub-chapter is finished, and thus I release Chapter two. By the way, Taz-in-Space, the sub-chapter is about the ships, as promised.

SPACE EMPIRES
VOLUME I:
Space Empire


Chapter II: Intelligence, where art thou?
Stardate: 2414.03

It was a very good time to be the human race, for their relations with what appeared to be the greatest power in the known galaxy, Starfleet Command, formed a partnership with the growing terran race. Upon such occuring on stardate 2414.03, human knowledge about the local galaxy expanded greatly: Instead of being aware of merely 7 systems and their contents, that number grew to over 50 systems, some teeming with new life forms, ones the humans wished to meet.

However, there were many problems: The Space Empire wished to bide it's time, until it's ships can hold up to the rugged galaxy outside of their domain, which they discovered was quite weak when compared to the power of the other empires. The other empires had many ships, enough so that by using 10 or so of such, they would have crushed the small army of ships the Space Empire had: 7, not including the vessels that formed the "museum fleet" a group of aged ships now obsolete, placed into storage.(Which only increased the entire number of ships by 2.)

This was a major problem, so the Space Empire hid within it's 7 systems, unmoving, and it's technology expanding. However, this was not to be the same: More aliens appeared, entering the systems the Space Empire held control over. More specifically, the Fludic Imperium, a race of aliens that had the appearance of slavering, killing monsters. However, the peace was still maintained, for the two races quickly formed a trade alliance during 2405.6. During 2405.7, they changed the make-up of the agreement to one that included provisions about research. It seemed that the Space Empire was at peace.

Unfortunately, the Space Empire lost the Enterprise (B), when they tried to remove an infestation of Borg from a system not in their territory. It failed, being destroyed by the planet's missile emplacements. Wait, the Enterprise (B)? We have skipped a small portion of the history about the Klingon Fiasco. During the years of peace, Klingon transports entered the Space Empire's systems, much like the other races, and contact was established. Early in the relationship, they quickly became allies, to the point of a trade & research alliance. Starfleet Command, however, objected, and told the weaker Space Empire to go to war with the Klingons. The people of Earth bent their collective knees to the command, and work began on constructing a new ship, the Enterprise (B). The Enterprise (B) was far more advanced then the aging Saber MK.II, featuring updated weapons, armor, sensor arrays, and so on. Raynor, the captain of the original Enterprise (A), declined the offer to become the new ship's captain. A different captain was found, Mary Lambeas. The female captain of the ship began the journey to Itamish and Chin'Toka upon the ship's completion.

The ship, while much faster then older Space Empire vessels, was too slow. It couldn't reach the systems in time to help, and were sent away by the Starfleet Command forces. The ship returned to the Sol system, and then was sent to Vega to assault Vega III, since the Borg occupied that planet, and to help the Space Empire to place a foothold outside of it's systems. The Enterprise did away with the single fighter and a transport ship, before making it's assault upon the planet itself. It was destroyed upon coming into range of the planet's missile platforms, which within 60 seconds, tore the ship apart so badly, that it was destroyed instantly.

Thus, the Space Empire decided to isolate itself some more. During that period incidents of sabotage began to occur, enough so make the Space Empire respond, by attempting to establish counter-intelligence agencies. What caused the response? It was that when the Space Empire's ships began to get conflicting orders and in some cases, ships having bombs set off aboard them, that the Space Empire began to prepare to establish an agency...but they accelerated the schedule, when Terra Nova III, the planet that was to be the center for such developments, was sabotaged. More specifically, the sabotage caused 50 million deaths, the entirety of the planet's population. The Space Empire now acted quickly, shipping 2 megatons of humans to the planet immediatly, and changing the construction que, to one soley for the purpose of creating intelligence centers. The sabotage that caused the deaths was determined to be a tectonic-altering bomb.

Soon, an agency called Section 31 was established, and the sabotage was put to a halt. The perpatrators of thee sabotage was none other then the Borg. How was the sabotage stopped? Section 31 employed ruthless tactics to remove the Borg agents, quickly killing all those that worked with the Borg willingly, and removing officials from power when they were forced to assist the Borg. Thus, the Space Empire's efforts bore fruit, though not without loss, ranging from the Enterprise (B) to the Terra Nova III incident, but they gained power in the area of intelligence and tested an upgraded starship, seeing what they were capable of.





Sub-Chapter II: The ships employed by the Space Empire (1st generation.)


The ships of the Star Empire have a history, one of various successes and failiures, which has been true up to the modern day. What were the first starships employed, though? Looking back, the first starship ever constructed and launched was the original Colonizer MK.I-R, which is a vessel designed to colonize planets made up of rocky substances. This ship quickly became a staple, used to colonize 7 systems-completely, no other major races to contend with, which was deemed to be an accomplishment in itself. However, more importantly, was that this ship had two other varients which finished the great task of colonization, the Colonizer MK.I-G(Gas) and the Colonizer MK.I-I(Ice).

However, this ship has fallen into complete disuse, since the Space Empire has stopped all expansion for many years. It has been many years since a ship of the Colonizer legacy has been seen...however, there are now two projects taking place: the first is to create three colonizers to add to the "Museum Fleet" a collection of obsolete starships used to show the old designs of years past. The second project is to make updated Versions of these vessels, when expansion becomes possible for the Star Empire.

There is another series of starships, but this set is still in existence, with at least the original Saber MK.I in existence. The Saber MK.I was developed to counter the threat of a Borg invansion. The design was approved and constructed just in time, it seemed, when a heavily armed Borg vessel appeared in the Alpha Centauri system. The Enterprise (A), the first Saber MK.I, attacked the Borg vessel, and won. However, the Enterprise was heavily damaged, with 3 of it's decks almost entirely destroyed, ranging from weapons to the engines. However, it managed to limp to Alpha Centauri II, and the Saber MK.I series was now in heavy production, so that the 7 systems that the Space Empire had control over would be protected by at least 1 ship per system. 7 ships total, not including the final colonization ships and the Automated Transport MK.I.

The Sabers were later proven to be an outdated design when the other major race's designs were scanned, showing that they had far better parts then what the Saber MK.I's had available. Thus, the Saber MK.II was created. This ship was far better, and quickly replaced the Saber MK.I's, besides the Enterprise (A) which was placed into the "Museum Fleet". The other Saber MK.I's were scapped shortly after. The Saber MK.II proved sufficient for destroying enemie vessals, but was proven to be in sufficient for attacking enemie planets individually, as proven by the Enterprise (B) which foolishly attacked a planet by itself, and was destroyed by a single volley of missile fire.

During the same period, the Automated Transport MK.I was conceived. This vessel was designed to transport the people of Earth for redistrubution so that the Earth's population is reduced and that the other planets are stocked with extra labor. It succeeded at this goal for most of it's service, and was later replaced by the Automated Transport MK.II, which featured an upgraded warp-core, impulse engines, and cargo bays of better design. This increased the amount of people that can be ferried by a great amount.

Now, a new design of ship meant to be primarily of an exploration ship was designed. It currently has no name, besides the code-name, Pegasus. The prototype Pegasus featured additional weapons, shields, a new sort of scanning array, and so on. It also had a prototype weapon, the Quantum Torpedo III, which had some serious flaws, due to that a better sort of torpedo was available for use. Current military reports say that they will correct this deficiency in future Versions.

The prototype pegasus was launched, and to test it's combat abilities, it eventually attacked a borg planet. It destroyed a colony ship, but it was attacked by dozens of fighters. It managed to keep out of range at first, but then it's commander got over confident. The fighters got in range, and the first sweep tore the defenses of the hapless pegasus into shards, and the rest of the damage removed the engines, scanners, and so forth. The pegasus couldn't escape, and was destroyed by the second charge.

Now, a second pegasus was created, but unlike the Last one, this one is dedicated to exploration. However, none of the lessons learned were applied it seemed, for the torpedos were not changed, and the ship eventually got into a second fight, by it's own will.

It attacked a planet in a system far away from the Sol system, more then 8 systems away, with no friendly forces nearby, uncharted by the Space Empire or it's allies. The planet's name was Maxia III.(And it's moon, Maxia A). Stationed about the planet were 9 Borg vessels, all for colonizing planets or transporting labor. These were destroyed by the Pegasus(It has been named that, now.) and the 5 fighters guarding the planets.

The attacked succeeded. After three months, Maxia III and Maxia A fell to the Pegasus. This attack being successful, it was decided that the Pegasus was to be replaced by a new Version better suited for these tasks, and the attack shown that the Space Empire can hold it's own against it's enemies.
(This occured during 2424.6 through 2424.8)

[ February 21, 2004, 05:50: Message edited by: Sabin ]

[Atrocities]

Very nice second addition. I really have nothing other than positive feed back for your work. Sorry man.

[Cipher7071]

Okay, I'll try if you're ready for it.

I have no issues with the organization of the story. It goes from A to B to C in straightforward manner. In terms of some constructive criticism on style (which I think is what you're asking for), it reads a bit choppy sometimes, even in places where the grammar is technically correct. A good rule of thumb is that when you're not sure whether you need a comma, leave it out. There are also some run-on sentences, and these should be split.

I hope this is what you're asking for, and that it helps.

[Sabin]

This is exactly what I am looking for. However, I may have difficulty implementing the feedback due to incompetence. Expect better results after three or so more chapters.

Also, I am going to begin work on the third chapter soon, and it's respective sub-chapter. Does anyone want anything in particular?

[ February 21, 2004, 20:45: Message edited by: Sabin ]