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Designing a more "sustainable" star trek mirror universe

Introduction and terrans

Mark Poe

The majestic cock
Writing Champ
shamelessly crossposting content from AH.com...

Pretty sure I'm not the first, or even the 100th, person to think about this but then again I'm mainly just trying to jot down some of my thought on making a more 'sustainable' mirror universe.

The thing is, many of us love the mirror universe, although most of us would also acknowledge that there's no way that such a savage universe (or at least the political entities that resides within) would still be functional after all the paranoia and backstabs.

Final note, this is heavily inspired by Count of Crisco's (he's over at AH.com, and SB under a different name, he's also crossposting his content on multiple forums so someone should try to get him here) project in rebooting TOS (disclosure: I'm sort of helping out his project in a few small parts), and since he has no intention of doing anything related to the mirror universe I know I'm not gonna accidentally bump into his project or anything.

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Let's start with the humans.

In the prime universe, the humans (okay, so the united federation of planets, but given the humans are the dominate force in starfleet and starfleet holds most of the firepower... oh, and not to mention section 31) are a peaceful and post-materialistic species with very enlightened views on most things. That being said despite all the peacefulness, democracy, and sapient rights the UFP is an ever expanding power, whose military powers can match, if not overcome, far more militant species.

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The history of the humans in the mirror universe would be the one of a journey... to find the most efficient form of authoritarianism. Assuming a fundamental difference in human nature, finding a POD from prime universe would be an exercise in futility, not to mention the need for similar people would require similar/familiar social-political entities... so the differences would have to be not so different.

-Rome's transition from the republic to... not an empire, at least not for long. For the fate of such a vast entity at the hands of a single person is akin to gambling and expecting to win every time. Instead, the republic would transform into an oligarchy (much like OTL late republic, but in this case more overt and less relying on the mob)
-the failures of Athenian democracy being far more stressed in later history, rather than the praise of in their golden era. The perception formed that the success of the Athenian empire was in spite of its democracy rather than because of it.
-the fall of Roman civilization being due to the inability for the ruling class to keep the rabble in line, either due to limits of technology, outside variables (changing climate wrecking the still mainly agrarian economy), or them becoming soft. The last of which is seen by later history as the primary cause
-the dark age ended when strong rulers once again becoming the norm and conquered their weaker neighbors, utilizing better technologies. This has the impact of people (or at least the ruling class) valuing technological progress (but not the spreading of techs, quite the opposite in fact).
-age of discovery and imperialism went hand in hand, as the powers that be are too evenly matched, so they must expand outward for ever more resources and [cannon] fodder.
-The American Civil War being a war between the merits of wage slavery vs chattel slavery rather than over the existence of slavery itself, with the former winning and seen as the superior method of extracting labor from the masses.
-world wars fought between various groups of authoritarian nations for entirely selfish purposes. While later history would cast it as a form of competition between various forms of authoritarian to see which is the most efficient.
-cold war between the forces of oriental despotism and occidental oligarchism. Basically pick your poison. The former invested heavily in robotics (cut out the middle man oppressor/enforcers for the regime) while the latter dabbled in eugenics and genetic engineering (to bred a superior generation of leaders)... needless to say things went wrong in both cases, which leads to...
-final world war, because the planet isn't big enough for the two ideologies (or two groups of self serving bastards, because quite frankly under the hood they're rather similar).
-post war chaos, shit happens yo, brought to an end by the usual means: strong authority enforcing their will and bring order into chaos.
-development of FTL/warp drive pursued because the ruling class realize the planet is always too small, and humanity must funnel their bloodlust and land hunger outward.
-after developing warp, humanity went out... and found themselves the small fish in a big pond. All is not lost however, and humanity quickly got into the business of being mercenaries.
-with mercenary jobs, more advance tech and capital quickly flowed, and soon the hired guns became a conquering army, quickly annexing their former employers and opponents such as the vulcans, andorians, etc. (sounds familiar?)

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So overall the Terran... State would be a highly authoritarian nation state, but with clear line of organization and lack of chronic back stabbing and betrayals. Technological progression would be comparable to OTL (if at far, far greater costs, not only in research but also in production) but spread of technologies would be much slower. So while the Terran State could build reactors as good as any the UFP, such technology would be almost exclusively in the hands of the military and higher government organizations. Obviously, concepts such as human/sapient rights and freedoms would be unheard of, or seen as weakness that brings down nation states.

The various -isms (racism, sexism, etc.) and the various -phobias (homophobia, xenophobia, etc.) have become the means to an end rather than the driving force and motivation. The end in this case being the channeling of discount amongst the masses towards each other and the outside other, but not to the extent of destabilizing social cohesion. The historical failure of democracies and tolerant societies were the result of the lack of the various hatreds, while the failure of the various super authoritarian states were the result of excess hatreds.

In terms of starships the Terran State, unlike the UFP, would rarely retrofit/upgrade their warships with newer tech. The reason being that given the much slower rate of industrial production of higher end tech components excess parts wouldn't make it in enough quantities before the hulls of the ships themselves wore out (or ships themselves destroyed, it's a far more violent universe after all) or production of newer generation of gear begins. Speaking of gear older generation and sometimes even obsolete parts, equipment, and even ships will continue production to sustain necessary numbers.

In terms of fleet composition, the TS space navy would be even more top heavy than the UFP starfleet, as befitting a more dangerous galaxy and the lack of need/use for more peaceful missions. Smaller ships are only useful for beating up and conquering primitive species (which are usually of marginal uses given their lack of relevant industries, but sometimes their planet/solar system do have some rather useful resources... best not think about what happens to them). The space navy's main goals would be to smash enemy fleets and crush planets.


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Klingons
The Klingons, in the prime universe going from peer opponents of the UFP to a bunch of tribal (let's not pretend the various houses are much more sophisticated than that) societies basically being subsidized by their sugar daddy the UFP (the main reason the "honorable" faction won was because their sugar daddy the feddies managed to cockblock the other faction's romunlan sugardaddy). They got a bit better by DS9 but that brought upon a anther slew of issues (although in fairness a lot of that was also due to changling shenanigans).

In effect, the root of the issue was the evolution (or perhaps devolution) of the Klingons from a soldier culture to a warrior culture, with the latter being a lot less effective in the running/managing of a larger interstellar nation state, especially if a significant percentage of the ruling class actually buys into the warrior culture thing (rather than being pragmatic about it like being colossal hypocrites), their survival being rather dependent on their alliance with the UFP.

(though of course, the real reason is that the TOS they are the stand in for the USSR while in TNG & later they're the stand in for various warrior culture, at least the pop culture version)

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In the mirror universe, the transition would be switched (cliched? yes. But this is the mirror universe we're talking about).

The history of the Klingons would start (at the single planetary stage of their development) would be that of various heavily militarized but rather tribal nations with strong warrior cultures (maybe there's more sophisticated civilizations before but nothing a nuclear war wouldn't completely wreck, not important overall). They got their big break when some more peaceful species made contact with them, probably a more mercantile species seeing a simple target to exploit for labor. Predictably it didn't work out for them and the slavers became the enslaved and the Klingons started their path to galactic power...

... not really though, it's more of a bunch of tribal nation states spreading out, in a sense competing against each other to see who can conquer the most, who can gather the most loot, enslave the most species, be the most feared among the stars. Overall though things were going well (not for those in their path, but no one really cares for the aliens of the week)...

... until the crashed headfirst into the Terran state, much like the barbarian hordes that ran into the roman republic at its expansionist era. On the individual level the Klingons on many cases have the superior size, power, and in a few cases even higher tech. None of that matters however as the Terrans could bring to bear a lot more assets, also in a more organized way from a strategic POV. It'll take a miracle for them to survive.

Or a major overhaul of Klingon society. Conveniently most of the brave and honorable warriors & leaders ended up getting themselves killed off in the early stages of the conflicts against the Terrans. Their noble sacrifices will be remembered for all ages, even as those who rose to power in the wake of such disasters were doing their best in dismantling their legacies and existing power structures. Learning from their enemies and the greatest threat to their species, they unified the species, centralized the government, completely overhaul the militaries, the works. It was insane, it was unthinkable, but it was necessary, and out of it came a very different military society. Gone were honor, the nobility, the glory of individual combat. In its place there reside pragmatic cynicism, regimental lifestyle, and the dullness of industrial subservience to the needs of mass interstellar warfare.

They have bought time for their species, but is there a soul of the species left to defend?
 
Cardassians
On to the spoonheads Cardassians, the guys who in the prime universe were very spiritual people until it turns out that prayers don't fill stomachs in times of famine, thus turning into the resource hungry secular expansionist police state we all know and love (to hate, I guess. Still they had some of the most complex characters in all of Trek, so that's something going for them).

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When the climate changed and the famines hit, it was signs from the gods that their faith was not strong enough, that they were too materialistic in their ways. Far from destroying the faith and the religious order, the trying times greatly strengthened it. Hard times calls for hard men to make hard choices (while hard), and food of the faith is substitute for food of the material world (for those with sufficient faith obviously). Tens of millions died regardless, weaklings who's lack of faith made them unfit for the rebirth of the Cardassian civilization.

The phoenix that rose out of the ashes of the old Cardassian civilization was eerily familiar yet drastically different. To ensure that the people are all properly of faith and spirit, religion and government have become and and same, the perfect fusion of the material and spiritual worlds. The survival of the faith, of the government, is of absolute paramount, the individual merely a minute part to serve that purpose. As the faith and state is everything, individual material needs are irrelevant.

As Cardassia is a resource poor world (and being part of the material world, prayers still don't bring forth the necessary ores, no matter how many dies from praying and fasting), the survival of the state and faith will have to be found among the stars. A crash program was instituted to developed the necessary technologies to explore (and exploit) other celestial bodies. Interestingly enough, the Cardassians were one of the few civilizations to attempt slow than light interstellar invasions, such was the religious fervor and trust of the necessary personnel. Needless to say, none of those panned out, and they only serve to exhaust the rest of the resources of the Cardassia system itself.

Interstellar conquest only begin in earnest with the development of the warp drive, and soon a number of systems has fallen to the true faith, their populations now trade the material wealth of their worlds for the spiritual wealth of the Cardassian faith*. The [religious] leaders vowed that the fires of faith will never want of fuel ever again.

......

The modern Cardassian Theocracy is very much a hydraulic empire, with the majority of the population and manufacturing capabilities retained on Cardassia Prime (making it one of the most densely populated planet in the known galaxy, and the planet itself is already larger than average as far as M class planets are concerned), the rest of the systems and planets in their control being merely little more than strip mines, sources of slave labor, and [on the borders] lines of defenses. After all, the gods have not seen fit to grace their presence in those places, their value barring what they can part in materials is nothing. All sources of spiritual goods (and more importantly, all sources of higher end manufactured goods) comes from Cardassia Prime, and woe to those far away who falter in their faith, as the withdraw of spiritual goods (not to mention the entire logistic chain) is for all intents and purposes a damnation of the soul (and the body when inevitably they ran out of necessary supplies for survival).

The individual Cardassian, even by mirror universe galactic standards, is very poor in terms of material goods**. However that matters little as the body is nothing but for the greater glory of the spirit, of the spirit of Cardassia of course. The majority of the wealth flowing into theocracy being utilized for the building and maintenance of a vast military and police force, both having large religious components, their performance being an indicator of the god's favor and their own levels of devotion.

All this makes the Cardassian Theocracy a very dangerous foe to wage war against, especially when they are on the defensive. The majority of their industrial infrastructure located in the heart of their empire, as well as their truly gigantic store of resources, makes the usual attacking and holding their rest of their lands effectively meaningless. In a sense a reflection of their religious beliefs, for as longs as Cardassia Prime stands and the faith fed, the gods still favors them.


*i.e. they're being starved to death in labor camps while the planets are being stripped mined and the resources shipped back to Cardassian Prime. Let's not talk about what happened to Bajor for now...
**also known as medium GDP per capita (PPP adjusted optional), development index, etc.
 
general observations on technological development
Compared to the Prime universe, the mirror universe isn't necessarily behind on technology, but rather the spread of technology. Contrary to popular belief, autocracies and despotism are quite capable of innovation and technological development, especially if their continued existence are on the line. The often large size and ability to marshal a greater percentage of the total resource to solve a particular problem, even after the usual inefficiency associated with autocratic and despotic governments, are still substantial. In certain cases, the mirror universe's counterpart nations have reacted faster than their prime universe counterparts in recognizing threats to their power (it's not paranoia if everyone else is after your arse).

However, how common that technology spreads (or even how quick it's produced) is another matter entirely. Generally it was not in the interest or within the capabilities of the major powers to produce the newest equipment in the quantities necessary for timely upgrades and new issuing of latest gear. Reasons are varied depending on the power in question.

-The Terran State simply cannot afford the mass overhaul/replacement of tooling necessary to put every newest invention in mass production, due to the need to feed the endless maw of the space navy and the endless wars of conquest. For the most part the new lines of production (few in number) were built to manufacture the newest gear, often alongside older generations. In fact, it is perfectly normal to see 3, even 4 generations of equipment being made at the same time. Oldest production lines being retired after finally wearing through their existing tooling (and spares if any) or sold to allies of the week (aka future conquests who paid for their own destruction).
-The Klingons, the bulk of their technologies for the most part being captured, stolen, or bought from other species, lacks the institutional knowledge to understand how all those stuff works on a fundamental level. Also not helping that the various houses don't really talk to each other on tech matters (precious secrets and having an edge over the rest and all that) and the whole warrior culture mentality doesn't exactly foster more scholarly pursuits. The new soldier culture are seeing a change of mentality and more centralization as well as serious investments into domestic research, but pressures from the fronts means changes will have to be made when possible, even if they were needed since yesterday.
-The hydraulic nature of the Cardassians meant that as long as it's not facing a peer opponent, there is little incentive to equip what amounts to border and camp guards with weapon and equipment meant for high intensity conventional warfare. Also, it's a feature, rather than a flaw, that the first forces any peer conventional enemy faces will be the weaker ones, it lures them into overconfidence which will set them up for defeat down the line. As far as the theological side goes, it's faith of the person that makes the job done, not the quality of the equipment.

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However, there are areas in which the mirror universe is far behind the prime universe: non-military technologies. The main reason is there is simply because the galaxy never had enough peace for there to be much of a consumer market, not to mention the supply side being lacking simply due to all relevant resources and labor bring used for military purposes (either to protect against conquers or to be the conquers). Besides, the suffering of the masses is simply more motivation for them to work harder...
 
The Romulans
Ah, the Romulans, who in the prime universe tend to be an unholy combination of ancient rome (empire or republic, depending on the episode probably), mao era communist china, and general space elves. Their only consistent aspects of them being cloaked ships, general secrecy, surprising competency in military matters, somewhat mild authoritarianism (they're bad guys mkay? Just trust us), and a distrust/hate of the feddies (rational or not depending on how one views the feddies of course), oh, and kept getting screwed over by fate (I mean, they are the only major power who actually lost their planet physically).

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"Logic without common sense is inherently self destructive, as is rationality without emotion", and with that slogan in mind those who rejected Surak's rational state left on low warp generation ships to... anywhere really, just as far away from rest of the Vulcans' grasp. Often with little more than the clothes on their backs, many, almost too many, died in the long trek to the planets later known as Romulus and Remus.

Desperate times called for desperate actions, and these exiled ones quickly conquered and enslaved the natives of the planet Remus. For centuries conqueror and conquered alike lived a hand to mouth existence, scrabbling a barest of substance from the rich yet unforgiving planets, beauty and terror so intertwined that the two are almost indistinguishable. Yet it was in this harsh conditions that what became known as the Romulan civilization come into being, as are their core values: the sacredness of life, and how that life should be lived. The people are the future of the culture, rather than the other way around as was the most of the entities in the galaxy at large.

The value placed on the Romulan people meant that as conditions finally improved and civilization begin to flourish in earnest, so did downright luxurious and high-minded concepts such as representation in government, basic rights of individuals, guaranteed freedoms, even checks and balances. Even the Remans were freed and rehabilitated (although a more cynical interpretation was that it was either that or lose the majority of the nation's mining operations as growing discontent among the Reman populations was already making the Romulan's tenuous hold on the planet downright impossible). For a galaxy where oppression and despotism seems is the norm, it seems too good to be true.

And so it was. The same compassion and value for life that got them through the bitter years have now come back to haunt them, as were the emotions that they held dear in all this time. Freed from the constraints of the harsh years, the formerly one voice of the people shattered into a million pieces, spread far and wide as dust in the wind. Needless to say outside of the bureaucracy, little of note ever gets accomplished, for the masses are as fickle as the weather.

As the politicians and the rabble rousers continue to fall in love with the sound of their own voice, the bureaucracy continues to trudge onward. Life waits for nothing, especially not for petty things such as politics, and soon the real seat of power shifts away from the supposed policy makers to those who carries out policies. By not having law from above, they became a law onto themselves.

The inability of the Star Republic to make any decision of consequences have resulted in a nation largely insular, paralyzed by their own indecision as surely as by enemy forces. The non-elected branches of the government continues on, various creative accounting and enclaves within the government allowed them a measure of freedom of action, if only to ensure survival. The military and the intelligence services being the most adapt in the so called 'grey existence'. The cloaked starships of the Romulan navy was as much of bluffing as deception, for the open gate implies overwhelming force rather than little to nothing.

Perhaps they should have ditched their emotions and embraced logic.
 
Vulcans
The good pointy ear aliens (in the prime universe anyways)... actually, mirror vulcans tend to be rather decent people regardless, just happened to be in a rather shitty universe overall.

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The history of Vulcan was not all the remarkable compared to many other species across the galaxy. They loved, they fought, they built, and they destroyed. Their civilization flourished in the crucible of fire; the fires of creation and destruction. And like many species, they went through the stage where at one point it seemed that the species was collectively staring into the abyss of destruction. Like most species* they managed to step back just in time. The few still alive anyways.

Like many species, the Vulcan's initial drive towards space was fueled by the need to access greater resources and territories. Given the warlike tendencies of the species it was unsurprising that space exploration was quickly followed by warfare and conflict. With great power comes great responsibility, but the latter is rare in the galaxy, and all too rare in those critical decades. For a time Vulcan herself was in danger of becoming uninhabitable, as deep space is the highest ground, prefect for placement of ortillary. It was a dark time, and the Vulcan people needed a messiah.

And they got one in the form of Surak, or more specifically those who co-opted his revolutionary ideology; the universe is driven by logic and rationality, and mere biological beings are unfit to take up such a mantle of modern civilization. History has made that rather clear. Thus the flesh pass the baton to the metal, carbon to silicon. With the power of minds of far greater powers than even the sum of all the biological minds of the planet the cycles of violence was quickly put out by a last spasm of the most intensive violence the planet has seen so far in its bloody history. Peace was restored, in the same way a riot being put down with tanks and guns.

There were some who did not fancy living in the new sterile order and left, never to be heard from again. What reminds of the Vulcan people begin the long process of rebuilding of the planet and the reshaping of the people. Emotions, cultures, traditions, all have no place in the new Vulcan. The makers soon became just another cog in the machinery of the state.

Life continued, in a fashion, although it's hard to call such meaningless existence living. Civilization, after a fashion, continued. Exploration of space begin again, after the affairs of the planet itself was put in order. As they reached forth among the stars they found that the bloody past they tried to shed was in fact the norm across the galaxy.

War and conflict was unavoidable, when the other side simply rejects logic and rationality. Luckily there were plenty of illogical and irrational species willing to lay down their lives for a coin or two, especially those with low technological levels such as the new species who called themselves humans...

Well, logic and rationality doesn't necessarily grant prefect foresight. But the humans in conquering Vulcan, saw great potential in the philosophies of Surak, or at least the modern interpretation of it. By the 23rd century, Vulcans can and in many cases do rise to high positions in the Terran bureaucracy and military, such was their prowess abilities, and loyalty (the last based on a solid foundation of logic and rationality, as they see the Terran State as the strongest among the major powers and a solid bulwark against even more irrational species).

Sometimes, it is hard to tell who had conquered who...


*the relevant ones anyway, no one cares about all the extinct ones save for the odd grave robber and tomb raider.
 
ISS Enterprise
misc_68.png

(seen here with the prime universe's counterpart, for comparison purposes of course. The mirror universe one is the one that looks like emo/goth/punk/blinged out version)

The ISS Enterprise of the Constitution class heavy cruiser was the newest class of heavy cruisers in the Terran Space Navy and representing a shift in doctrine as well as reorganization of the changing galactic geo-political climate. Due to some rather short sighted polices of previous decades and the effects of interstellar trade activities of the Orions and Ferengi meant that ever more minor powers were acquiring more advanced military hardware, making the prior established tactics of light units as minor intimation and annexation units all but untenable. The Constitution class is designed in mind to have a "discount battlegroup in a package", containing the firepower and command facilities necessary to waltz into a system and take command of existing minor units to smash any opposition short of a full scale invasion by a major power. Other duties include showing the flag, leading precursor archaeological expeditions, and dick waving against their Klingon counterparts. It is not a replacement for the Victor class heavy cruiser, which is more suited as part of the main battlefleets, and is not expected to replace them in the production lines.


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Difference compare to prime time counterparts:
-around 8-12,000t heavier
-carries a much heavier armament: 4 more torpedo tubes (although 2 rear facing) and 6 more phaser points (include extra capacitors). In general mirror torpedoes have higher yield but less accuracy and maneuverability
-less windows in the observation lounge, which is reserved for the command officers
-lack of wall mounted flatscreens and many other crew amenities, but more and larger common areas. Many of the crew's entertainment tend to be more communal than prime universe's counterparts (no, nothing lewd, at least not officially, but when you coop up hundreds of men in a tin can for months and years at a time... what was that song again? "In the navy...")
-much larger impulse engines
-less science labs, but far more specialized
-crew include a marine detachment of company size (~100), as numbers cannot be counted on, Andorian shock marines are usually carried on Constitution class ships.
-the word constitution carries very different connotation in the mirror universe, as the US Constitution was a very different document that welded the 13 states into one centralized country.
-the class is actually named after legendary ships who kicked a lot of arse and survived to see the end of victorious conflict they partaken in, A partial listing of the ships in the class: ISS Constitution (named after USS Constitution, the frigate), ISS Enterprise (named after USS Enterprise, the non-nuclear carrier), ISS Victory (named after HMS Victory, the man of war), ISS Mikasa (named after the Imperial Japanese Navy's Pre-dreadnought), ISS Warspite (named after HMS Warspite, the battleship that served in the World Wars).
-The ISS still stands for "Imperial Star Ship", the Imperial moniker was decided upon to project a sense of majesty to the military forces of the Terran State. (though mostly because using Autocracy Star Ship would meant that the acronym would be ASS, and that's not gonna happen)

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Compared to the prime universe counterpart, it would be a mistake to underestimate the mirror enterprise. Speed and maneuverability at impulse is as good, while warp performance is slightly inferior. Range at both sublight and warp is slightly inferior, but not significant (especially in their own universe). It's superior armament is still rather limited by reactor output, making it more suited for initial alpha strikes. Under the hands of competent officers and crew (which they are, even if they are more cruel and ruthless than their prime universe counterparts) utilizing it's strengths it will do very well for itself. The one area it does lack in significantly (in comparison) are the non-combat/military related scientific activities, although given the universe it operate in it is not as much of a problem as it first appears.
 
Interstellar commerce & shipping in the mirror universe
Interstellar commerce can be usually separated into two categories, internal and international, the former involving only a single nation-state between its component parts while the latter involves multiple nation-states. Regardless both are somewhat rare in the mirror universe. One should note that commerce does not necessarily include all forms of shipping, as many of the major governments happen to have very command and control economies (a necessity in the war-torn galaxy certainly but still).

Most internal shipping tend to be in the hub and spoke model, in which raw materials and resources flow from outlying worlds & systems to the core worlds & systems, and finished/manufactured goods flowed outward. It's an ancient system, yet for all its old fashion-ness its very effective for maintaining control for the homeland, and by extension the powers that be.

Internal trade for the most part rarely reach beyond the planetary stage, as for the most part cottage industries being enough to sustain consumer demands in systems outside the home world. Besides [for certain major powers], slaves don't need much in the way of consumer goods, for their mass death is a feature rather than a flaw, as by the time the natives have died off either the planet has been exhausted of useful natural resources or the planet is rich enough to warrant importation of advance resource extraction machinery.

The sheer distances between the home worlds of most of the major (and even some minor) powers and the focus of most countries investing in conventional warfare meant that trade lanes and cargo vessels tend to rather unprotected. That is not as bad of problem as it first appears, as most transports tend to carry raw materials and the vast majority tend to be armed, making them medium risk but low profit targets, especially for new warp capable species as most solar systems tend to be rather self sufficient in raw materials, at least for .

True interstellar trade between nation states tend to be transient in nature, tied to the fickle fate of interstellar politics and military jockeying. As such most nations' tend to be lacking in robust merchant institutions, preferring to use intermediaries so when things inevitably go wrong it's not themselves who are losing significant investments. Thus the mantle of interstellar trade falls on the shoulders of the Orions and Ferengi.

......

The Orions are famed all across the Alpha and Beta quadrants for having the sexiest and most seductive females, which suits them just fine as most tend to not look too hard what what they actually really good at: stealing technology from the advanced militant powers and selling them to the minor countries in the path of conquest. Hurting & distracting the major powers while also making tidy sums in the meantime. Their extensive non-conquest related interactions with many minor warp capable nations and the trust built up with them meant that the Orions harbored quite a few governments in exile... as well as the galaxy's largest known collection of cultural artifacts (mainly in private hands, and unlikely to ever go back to their original species, even the ones that aren't already extinct).

The Ferengi are mainly interesting in that they are one of the few known geo-political entities to have a fusion of the collective and free market ideologies without collapsing into a blackhole of nonsense and insanity. The source of their continuous existence and even prosperity might be found in their psychological make up, as it appears to have been hardwired into them to feel the positive emotions as a collective, thus the profit of one is the profit off all (within a certain distance, science is currently unsure of just how wide of a radius the effect is), as is the opposite. While this low level telepathy does not appear to be capable to passing more advance information (and in fact due to the make up of the Ferengi brain, they are actually immune to most mind reading telepathic species) and thus is far from being a hive mind it does instill the species with a sense of collective well being. This passive collective-ness meant that while the Ferengi will do the utmost for each other, everything in the out group is fair game, as such they are the most ruthless merchants and ironically the most potent of privateers (due to their small size and emotion sharing nature, ground fighting is not their strong suit).
 
Government of the Terran State
The fundamental founding principle of the Terran State was the exclusion of the rabble from holding any power of relevance, as they are stupid, impulsive, and incapable of handling anything more sophisticated than tying their shoelaces. The history of earth (and countless other even less lucky planets) had clearly shown the failure of of more representative governments on the one end and absolute despotism on the other. The modern government system is designed to maximize stability by ensuring critical interests and powers will always maintain their influence and authority within the government.

Government make up (top to bottom, roughly that order)

-President* (foreign matters, public face of the Terran State, supreme commander of the armed forces in times of war which include the military industrial complex**), Chancellor*** (domestic matters, overseer of all economic affairs, the intelligence bureau to him). President appointed from the military side, Chancellor from the civilian side.
-General Secretary: A coordinator position to facilitate dialogue between the president and Chancellor. Almost always appointed from candidates suggested from the Military Council or the Grand Senate. Its powers and responsibilities of the office are very narrowly defined, to prevent a certain repeat of history...
-Military Council:composed of the top generals and admirals of both planetary and space forces, headed by a High Marshall (usually the oldest military officer). Top of the military chain of command. Below them are the various branches include planetary forces, the space navy, and combined military intelligence.
-Grand Senate: composed of representatives of major corporations and rare cases the wealthiest families of the Terran State. Headed by a prime minister (usually the representative of the wealthiest and most powerful corporations, or a weakling when there are a number of corporations too close to each other in size and need a compromise candidate). Top of the civilian chain of command. Numerous bureaus below them, such as the Bureau of Xeno affairs, the Bureau of Public Enlightenment, and the Colonial Bureau.

The duality of the Terran State's governing structure is designed to ensure a measure of redundancy in the event of unforeseen catastrophe (the people who built the original government did lived through the final world war and the subsequent chaos era), unsaid but just as importantly it gives a measure of controlled competition, even if sometimes the various feuds and rivalries gets a bit out of hand****.

Career advancements in both the civilian and military chain of commands are in theory determined by merit and performance, in reality access to education and connections ensure that senior and critical positions remain in the hands of established families and vetted persons the vast majority of the time. The exceptional cases tend to fall under the category of "Cinderella Syndrome" in which commoners of exceptional talent, skill, and potential picked up the fancy of a member of the upper class, and ends up marries into the upper class (although the majority of the supposed cases were in fact merely some rich man discretely providing for his bastard spawns, and it's almost always a him). This is begrudgingly tolerated due to the need to infuse genetic diversity into the ruling class, as well as draw away talent from the rabble which serves to cripple potential revolutionary groups, or at least their effectiveness.

The masses do not need to use their brains, they just need to follow orders, their betters will do all the thinking for them.





*the connotation of the term in this universe is probably closer to the prime universe's 'autocrat'.
**critical industries, certain special populations, in which resources and labor are set aside even in peacetime (which is defined as not being in a state of declared war against an opponent with estimated GDP of at least 35% of the Terran State's)
***in terms of connotation, think 'Chancellor Palpatine' Or Hitler when he got the position in 1933. Wait, aren't the 2 pretty much the same since the former is so based on the latter?
****to the point where there was a saying, "The tea that taste the safest is the one you pluck the leaves yourself."
 
Andorians
Right, the blue aliens with the antennas on their heads, honestly them being yet another militant race/culture with a side dose of passions in prime universe (and OTL mirror universe) makes them somewhere repetitive... well, I'm not here to whine, I'm here to make stuff up. Here we go.

-------------

The harsh climate and geography of the moon Andoria produced a tough and hardy species in the form of the Andorians. Well, there's also the Aenar, but the universe was too cruel for the continuous existence of some blind telepathic creeps after they come into contact with more normal biped species. The resulting the resulting genocide was rather unremarkable all things considered. They were simply in the way, the moon was too simply small for the two species, the strong shall thrive and the useless consigned to the dustbins of archaeology.

The cold of Andoria did well to prepare the Andorians for space, for the void is also a cold, cruel place, the only heat are those what they produce themselves, those of predators and prey, and the inevitable conflicts that results when the two meet each other. It was no surprise then that the Andorians came out of their system with lasers blazing, carving a path of destruction and sorrow in their wake. Competent engineers and skilled soldiers, they were one of the few species that were peerless at fighting on both planet side and deep space, and everything in between. Perhaps it was because their origin in a moon rather than a planet, where land and space was even more at a premium in comparison to planets, or their early taste of committing genocide, or perhaps the universe is just filled with violent assholes and it takes one to survive one.

Regardless, the future was bright, probably due to all the bling they're wearing, ripped from the corpses of slewed enemies.

Then The Vulcans hired some new species called humans as mercenaries, and things went downhill from there. In the end the Andorians were beaten at their own games, unfair and certainly not square. At least they also get to see the damn Vulcans thrown into the same lot as them, collared and chained by the humans.

All was not lost, for like the Vulcans (although neither will ever admit it) both of them were similar in once sense: they are useful enough to their new human overlords to avoid being consigned to the dustbins of history like so many of their hapless victims. As it stood Andorians tend to be overrepresented (in proportion to their population) in the combat branches, specifically the direct combat branches. That is not to say their vast shipyards and designs bureaus are left unattended, quite the contrary.

It's a wonderful pet life, such is what the Andorians have become, the attack pitbulls of the Terran State.
 
Terra (Earth), and the rest of sol system (probably)
Terra, also known as Earth, is the 3rd planet in the Sol system. The seat of power of the Terran State and still one of the most populated planets in the human inhabited systems (if including all space habitation colonies in both low and high orbit, otherwise Proxima Centauri b of the Alpha Centauri system has the highest population, and this is not counting planets where most of the population are not human, such as Vulcan of the Vulcan system).

History:

The history of Terra is closely aligned with the species known as humans. During their industrial age the planet began a long process of ecological and environmental degradation, which accelerated during the various world wars. As humanity's leadership discovered warp drive and expanded across the stars they always still looked back at Terra as the original cradle, even in its pitiful and used state. With humanity's expansion and settlement on a numerous systems and the annexation of various alien systems the need for resources from Terra diminished greatly, and the planet was re-terraformed into a more appealing format, with emphasis on vegetation and habitability at the expense of industry (which were moved to orbit), as the nobility want a place to call 'home' and something to show off the splendor and glory of humanity. A series of major projects, including the draining of the Mediterranean and the irrigation of the Sahara desert, greatly increased the amount of usable land.

Population:

The present population (circa 25th* century) of Earth and her orbital suburb regions stands at +15 billion, with around 35% of those living in various orbital colonies. Being the political, administrative, and military center (Washington D.C. , Kinshasa, and Moscow respectively) of the Terran state, Terra houses a large number of politicians, bureaucrats, military personnel and their respective families and dependents. The rest of the vast majority of the population are usually in the agricultural and services sector (planetside) or military industries (orbitside).

Economy:

As the home of the vast majority of the upper class of the Terran State, Terra is one of the few planets (and by extension the Sol system) to possess a large consumer and luxury goods industry. The vast majority of the arable land (outside of various natural preserves and [REDACTED] areas) is used for agriculture, mainly animal husbandry (real meat is a luxury, as is planetside fish**).

The most important product of Terra however, lies in her population. Specifically the most loyal population out of all of her holdings. Terra has the highest percentage of population under arms, and most vessels in the Terran Space Navy has at least a quarter of her command staff being of Terra birth. As such there are many military institutions on Terra (planetside and orbit), including at San Francisco, Dartmouth, Annapolis, Etajima, and Glenn 4.

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Luna:

As the single natural moon of Terra, Luna is possibly the single most militarized location in the known galaxy. The naval HQ of the home fleet as well as main depot and staging area of the Star Infantry***.

Mars:

The second most populated planet in the Sol system (population: +6 billion, 5% in orbit regions), Mars is home of the largest human shipbuilding industry and the largest military shipbuilding industry in the Terran State (while Vulcan technically has a larger shipbuilding industry, much of it is classified as civilian). While terraformed, the surface of the planet is still extremely harsh and unforgiving, and most agricultural activities are conducted in hydroponics, much like in orbital colonies. In a sense Mars is closer in mentality to orbital colonies than planetary colonies, except with better scenery.

The gas giants:

Lightly populated (total population of all 4 gas giants at <1 billion, mostly in various moons and orbital colonies). Jupiter and Saturn being the main fleet fueling depots while Neptune and Uranus being opened to civilian shipping. Much of the population is employed in activities related in the production and refining of hydrogen and helium, along with some light mining in the various moons.

Venus:

Still the hellhole of the solar system, being mostly useful for scientific studies****/penal colonies*****.

Mercury:

A barely inhabited planet, mainly noted for its antimatter production facilities.

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*see Count of Crisco's prime universe for an idea of the line scale I'm going for...
**as opposed to reactor fish (fish raised in enclosed ecosystems which due to their mass content of water also serve as reactor shielding on older fusion powered ships), I swear I'm never gonna eat sushi when on a starship...
***I decided not to use 'Light Orbital Launched Infantry' for obvious reasons... honestly I don't have the guts to do it.
****have anyone ever wondered what dropping a man naked into the atmosphere of Venus looked like? Will wonder no longer... (you still can't hear their screams though).
*****spacesuits not stand issued to inmates, neither are breathable atmospheric supplies.
 
Terran Space Navy
The Space Navy is the first line of defense as well as the first line of offense of the Terran State, while also being the public face of the nation to outsiders for all intents and purposes. As such it enjoys significant funding in terms of resources and manpower. However, nothing is infinite (outside of the universe itself) and as such there are limits to even what the Space Navy can maintain especially in light of its many obligations.

Purpose:

The main missions of the Terran Space Navy is as follows:

-to protect the exo-planetary territorial integrity of the Terran State
-to seek out new resources and population, and incorporate them for the benefit of the Terran State
-maintain control and access of the main shipping lanes
-to find and eliminate any and all exotic exo-planetary threats

Internal sub-divisions:

The Space Navy is divided into the following sub-divisions:

-Interstellar force (sub divided into battlefleets and independent operations)
-System Defense force (include fortress divisions and station management)
-Star Infantry
-Intelligence
-Logistics (including Strategic, Tactical, and Productions)

Resource allocation:

"Flesh & metal are cheap, supercomputers & warp cores not so much" -unknown, probably some corporate suit

The nature of the Terran State's manufacturing capabilities meant that resource allocation to the Terran Navy would be relatively decentralized, with the Interstellar force receiving the vast majority of the military warp capable vessels from major manufacturing hubs such as Earth, Proxima Centauri b, Vulcan, Andoria, etc. However, due to the limited productivity of the [relatively] few major shipyards capable of producing modern hardware the majority of the resources and lower production capabilities are allocated to the System Defense forces (who are only treated as an unified force for administrative purposes, given them being spread out in multiple systems and for the most part lacking high warp capable ships of their own)

Such a high-low approach of resource allocation to the military is the norm in comparison to most interstellar nation states as it limits the spread of technology and infrastructure as to give enough time to assess and instill loyalties of the distance regions.

Interstellar force:

The Interstellar Force, taken together, has the largest concentration of firepower and tonnage among the known powers. Preferring capital vessels over lesser units, the Interstellar Force has been accused of being top heavy, although the usual response is that it's not their business to bail out the failures of the various system defense forces in every minor matters.

As the sub-division that goes beyond the known regions of the Terran State, the Interstellar force also occasionally conduct scientific and technological research, mostly in terms of weapons development and prototyping.

System Defense force:

The low end of the high-low mix, the system defense forces's main purpose is to prevent enemies from disrupting shipping lanes, landing or harming planetary bodies, and general interplanetary order keeping (gassing orbital colonies is a regular part of the job).

Their equipment usually tend to be cheap and mass producible, as their patronage spurs the growth of local industries and resource extraction operations.

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Defense platform (generation 5): A cheap orbital defense platform containing a single photon torpedo launcher and four phaser points. Powered by a single fusion reactor, it has limited autonomous capabilities but mostly data-linked to the nearest starbase. Most defense platforms (especially those in more outer systems) tend to be older models (armed with nuclear missions and lasers).

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Impulse fighter (I-512): armed with a single phaser, the impulse fighter is a cheap, disposable shuttle-sized craft designed to expand a starbase's area of active defense, either with their phasers or far more likely with their bodies, as a single fighter trading with a photon torpedo is a good trade. Pilots of these crafts usually received around 10 hours of training, 7 of which are in basic simulators. Build and used by the thousands per system, they are the ultimate manned expendable munitions (although older designs are even cheaper. Also useful for atmospheric operations and fighting against pre-warp to early warp civilizations. Due to their fragile and weak nature fleet carrier operations (in the traditional understanding of the concept) is simply too inefficient to be of use.

Star Infantry:

The ground assets of the Space Navy, these troops are intended to conduct anything from spearheading planetary assaults, to boarding enemy vessels, to more mundane tasks such as guarding VIPs and orbital facilities. Interestingly enough Andorians make up a significant portion of the Star Infantry's ranks, even among the commissioned officers.

Intelligence:

Almost their separate thing (rumor has it they have their own vessels and logistical & production networks although that is not confirmed), their main mission is to find all external threats and weed out all internal ones. As such there is usually a detachment of agents onboard every ship, outside of the regular chain of command.

Logistics:

The other part of "state within a state" the logistical branch owns a large number of production, resource extraction, and even agricultural facilities. Interestingly enough it operates the largest number of non-human designed vessels, the bulk of their transportation fleets composed of Vulcan designed armed transports. Many of the orphanages of the outer colonies are in fact run by them (from cradle to grave, the Navy demands all from some...)
 
Planetary forces of the Terran State
Like the vast majority of other post-warp species, the Terran State emphasize space-borne forces over that of planetary forces, for the simple reason that the former has the capability to concentrate forces while the latter cannot, being limited to individual systems at most due to their limited possession of transportation assets. The lack of emphasis does not necessarily meant a lack of numbers or even expenditures, as most common resources have to be spent in system, their value not worth the cost of shipping through interstellar distances, or in terms of human resources, their loyalty is suspect.

As the economies of size and scale for production of smaller equipment tend to sharply drop off at beyond the level of individual star systems, the planetary forces tend to be much less standardized than the space forces. The lower priorities tend to manifest themselves in terms of the technological levels of the average equipment, although to a pre-warp civilization they would appear to be lavishly equipped, with certain seemly lacking in certain capabilities.

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H-88 GCHAV (General Combat Hover Armored Vehicle). While the most advanced hover vehicle in mass production to planetary forces, it is still far behind in technology compare to the shuttles of the Space Navy or even the impulse fighters of the System Defense forces. Equipped with a directional phaser cannon (rather than the more complex omni-directional phaser ball turret), and mounting impulse engines a couple of generations out of date and powered by a micro-fusion reactor (limiting its hover capabilities to <500m). The H-88 takes on all direct combat roles including anti-armor, anti-infantry, and even anti-air, made possible by the versatility of the phaser (there is, of course, no 'stun' setting. That's for bleeding heart weaklings). Combat crew of two, a driver and gunner, as data networking makes the commander position much less relevant. Shielding is... adequate, as calculated that the amount of energy and munitions require to disable the vehicle will be more expensive than the cost of repairs.

Indirect firing roles have all but gone extinct outside of certain infantry weapons due to proliferation of space-borne assets, as either ortillery from orbital assets are plentiful (in the case of commencing an planetary invasion after securing orbital superiority) or the situation is hopeless (in the case of a planet and/or system losing orbital superiority, and thus by extension reinforcements in the short term) in which case more equipment just meant more lost.

Another feature seemly missing are air combat vehicles, although impulse fighters are available for support if truly necessary. The amount of heavy phaser weaponry available to ground forces meant that non-space-capable air vehicles tend to not survive long in such an environment, and space capable forces are under generally under the authority of the Space Navy.

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Various basic infantry, these ones are in the livery of the Alpha Centauri Ground Force. The soldier on the left is armed with a M44 combat assault gun (firing 10x50 ammunition, 30 round magazine, thermal imaging system). The uniform is a dress uniform (supposedly based on ancient German uniforms), field uniforms tend to be much more practical. The one of the right is wearing the ES-A-Mk.VII powered armor and armed with a G11 40mm grenade launcher (the size and bulk of the weapon, along with the power provided by the ES-A-Mk.VII allows it to also be used in a melee capacity for that more 'personal' touch).

Compare to the Star Infantry, most planetary force's personnel weapons are centuries out of date, mostly due to the vast majority of their weapons still based on chemically propelled physical projectile weapons instead of the various energy weapons favored by the Star Infantry and even ship-borne security teams. However, the reasoning behind the production and equipping of obsolete weapons is sound: most industries far from the core systems tend to be limited in terms of technological capabilities, usually receiving hand me downs of assets that probably started back on Old Terra in the post World War years (or at least designs derived from them, it is a Ship of Theseus question regarding some of the industrial equipment), strict arms control as well as general level of poverty among most of the population meant that the vast majority of the rebellions tend to be even more poorly armed. Despite the antique nature of chemically propelled physical projectile weapons they do have a versatility of ammunition, for example the 40mm grenade launcher can fire a number of rounds, from the common HE (more popularly known as 'orphan poppers' take a guess why...), buckshot, Fragmentation, incendiary, to more exotic types such as poison (usually of the pain and paralyzation inducing rather than the outright killing kind), acid, taser, which gives a much more up close and personal experience in dispatching the enemies of humanity.

Logistics for most planetary units for planetary purposes tend to be heavily reliant on rolling stock, due to low costs and ease of control and centralization. For inter-system transportation most of the more well off planetary forces do possess a number of impulse and even low warp capable vessels, although most of those tend to be only lightly armed.

All that aside, there are a number of elite planetary units, as the Star Infantry does not have sufficient numbers to accomplish major planetary and system invasions on their own. Most famous of them are the Terran Marines (descendants of the Marines of the old United States), Heavy Strike Brigades (descendants of the VDV of the USSR), Centenarian ground Force, and Andorian Assault Guard (generally composed of those who didn't make the grade for Shock Marines). While equipment at times were still not at the same technological level as the Star Navy, their training (and loyalty) are second to none, as with their ferocity and sadism.
 
Flag of the Terran State
terran_state_flag.png

Flag of the Terran State.

Symbolism: The laurels of victory and prosperity is maintained by the sword and shield of the state authority. The blood of sacrifices by the heroes of the past will never be forgotten (the dark red being the color of dried blood, as in the glories of the formation of the Terran State in the aftermath of the World Wars but their memory lives on forever).

The old 'Sword & Planet" flag have been retired as it no longer properly represent the ambitions and extent of humanity (or more precisely its leadership and military industrial & corporate interests), although this lip service to greater inclusiveness is not reflected in reality as most of the colonies were perceived as hotbeds of discontent and insurrection, probably something to do with the minor fact that most of them did start off as prison labor colonies or dumping grounds for uncooperative ethnic & religious groups*.


*among other things, dumping tens of millions people to let them die in completely uninhabitable worlds and use their decomposition serving to kickstart the terraforming process is a valid method if time was not of the essence...
 
General Plan Space
Origins:

Almost as soon as the Terran State (or more accurately Zefram Cochrane and his merry little rag tag crew) cobbled together the first operational warp drive there was a flood of people outward, mainly to escape the grasp of centralized authority. The merely trickle of the early days, when the cost of a measly warp 1 capable drive costed as much as a 100,000 man rated space colony, became a flood after the formation wars that ended with the conquest of Vulcan and Andor, and more importantly their massive and mature starship production infrastructure. The Earth-Romulan War further spurred this unchecked and unorganized colonization, as the early days of panic set off a number of 'survival' colonization attempts by opportunistic groups who did not have enough faith in the staying power of the Terran State. Thus by the end of the Earth-Romulan War the Terran State was at its greatest expansion yet, but while scores of planets have the signs of human habitation (if not the actual flag of the state), their loyalty to humanity itself was far more questionable...

It would be a mistake to assume that these unauthorized groups were simple freedom seekers, for while they fled the oppression of the Terran State did not mean they fled the ideals of oppression, and in many cases in turns out that former slaves make for the cruelest of masters. The question was never whether the jackboot should be worn, but rather who should be the one wearing it.

Regardless, the victory of war was easy, the victory of peace is a process, and that's far more difficult...

General Plan Space:

What is popularly known as the General Plan Space was in fact a series of separate plans drawn up by various bureaus for a number of different intentions. The hodgepodge of colonies of various stages of development (or more accurately lack of) made resource extraction and haphazard, making them questionable at best in producing profits or even being merely sustainable. Their lackluster populations make them also semi-useless for the extraction of human resources, as soldier/bureaucrat societies (of which the Terran State is, as with the post revolution era Klingons) need vast numbers of mediocre to competent peoples, rather than small collections of exceptional individuals (who probably also incapable of working together). Overall these plans to have a few things in common; mainly to cement the power of Terran State in actuality in the planets that it owns in theory.

Generally, these plans called for mass migrations of people (the most extreme of these plans called for shipping of +35 million persons per year) from Earth to the nearest (i.e. oldest) colonies, and an equivalent amount of people (not actually in numbers of bodies, but rather total potential GDP displaced, which means that planets receiving the shipments of people from Earth will have to move out more of their own populations, as GDP per capita is most likely lower than Earth (and if not, nothing a few accounting tricks couldn't fix...)). These ex-inhabitants of these older colonies will then be shipped off to younger colonies, where the process begins again. Generally, colonies have to provide for the incoming shipments of peoples to the standards from their previous homes while also covering the costs of shipping off the expected displaced populations (notice that Earth itself only has to pay for the latter and not the former). Planets that resisted were usually pervaded to change their mind after a quick orbital strike, the few that resisted were simply slagged, the effort to convince them their errors in judgement simply not worth the effort compare to simply starting over.

The advantage of the plan was that it took advantage of existing planets that have already been terraformed to human standards (or close enough) due to the existence of previous inhabitants, while also simultaneously began the 'Terra-ization' of cultures of systems outwards from Sol, thus raising the loyalty levels by the brute force approach of replacing disloyal populations with more loyal ones.

Implementation and results:

Since the beginning of the implementation of the collection of policies that became known as General Plan Space, a estimated total of over 50 billion people have been moved from their original planet of birth to another planet. Records of the rate of death from these forced mass migrations are scarce but also irrelevant, as for the most part their death is a mere bonus side effect.

(off the cuff guesstimates are around ~145 millions dead cumulatively, with an ongoing death of 3.2% of all population transferred annually)

The most visual example of the success of General Plan Space is the system of Alpha Centauri, where by the eve of the Four Years War was known as "Terra's younger brother" and of which 35% of the population could trace their ancestry from those who migrated from Terra due to the plan. The loyalty of the system meant that it's tech is second to Sol herself, sometimes receiving the same industrial and military blueprints with only the delay of warp travel.

The biggest effect of the General Plan Space was that for a warp capable species as young as humans it has a very balanced spread of population rather than the far more usual 'hub and spoke' model of most young warp capable species. While this means a greater percentage of the national populations (and sometimes industries) were closer to the borders and thus subject to danger of foreign invasions (the latter stages of the Four Years War showed how painful it could be) it also ensured greater survival of the species as a whole against extreme unexpected events that negatively affect home planet and/or system (the so called 'keystone syndrome' caused the extinction of more than one early warp capable species as with the destruction of their homeworld/homesystem left not enough of a population to sustain themselves genetically).
 
Zefram Cochrane
Zefram Cochrane​

Possibly the most important scientist in the history of humanity* as his theories and far more importantly practical demonstration of faster than light travel via what became known as warp drive opened the gates of the galaxy to humanity.

Early life:

Born somewhere in the midwest region of the old United States in during the early warlord chaos/post-atomic horror era** his childhood was rather unremarkable, much like much of the populations, was mainly concerned with surviving to see another day. The early years of hardship and suffering had a formative effect on his mentality and his world views. Rejecting materialism, for which he blamed it for causing the world wars and the subsequent horrors, he devoted his life to science. His life fueled by the drive to simply 'see what's over the next hill', for while material wealth could be easily taken away by any drug fueled band of soldiers/bandits the wealth that is knowledge is forever***.

Research and discovery of warp drive:

The continent of North America managed to recover a semblance of normality relatively quickly following the final world war to the point where prewar research into various exotic fields were restarted merely a generation after the post atomic horrors****. It was a fortuitous time period as Cochrane and countless other of the brightest minds of the time had the opportunity to pick up what was left off due to the wars and collapse of civilization. Although in all honestly most simply took the job because it was one of the few places that has hot meals (with semi-eatable food even) and actual bunks.

Regardless of their motivations to join, soon a scientific community begin to bloom once more, although this one had a much more emphasis on engineering and the more practical application of theories. In this environment, Cochrane quickly became became one of the brightest stars in his research on anti-matter reactions and inter-dimensional shifting, and as a result was allocated significant amount of resources including access to a malfunctioned and inoperative Titan V ICBM (in fact, it was precisely its malfunction that allowed it to survive in its silo, as it couldn't lift off at the time of the nuclear launches during the war). By modern standards it wasn't much but at the time it was a treasure trove of advance materials.

Interesting it was never certain why the authorities at the time allocated so much resources to something that doesn't exactly have immediate military applications (costs being a main concern if nothing else). The most popular theory was that with the control of the the bulk of the continent they do have to fear invasions, as most geo-political entities of the era lack much in the way of sea going transportation and logistical capabilities (such was the thinking common among pre-warp political entities).

Work on the Phoenix (as the missile was renamed, the new name to symbolize the rebirth of spirit of science and discovery) went smoothly, or as smoothly as a project of such a complexity could have gone when digging through rubble to find computer chips was the only way to get them was the order of the day, and after a decade of research and development the ship was launched without much fanfare, mainly because no one really besides Cochrane himself had much confidence in it. It also explained why he was the chief pilot despite his importance in the project, in the in the event of a catastrophic failure no one back home would be the wiser (just another prewar satellite failing, or shooting star), not to mention one less failure to keep around.

But things worked well enough (a few things broke, but nothing major), and while the light barrier was not broken on that day (that would have to wait for a few months) the concept of the warp drive was sound. What was far more important was that the activation of the warp drive attracted the attention of the Vulcans, and humanity soon found themselves to be not alone in the galaxy, although strangely the galactic community was oddly familiar, and soon humanity's well honed arts of war were put into good use. That was all coming later though, and the crew of the Phoenix became the humanity's impromptu first ambassadors to an alien species.

Although rumors persisted that Cochrane partook in ground combat against the Vulcan landing vessel no evidence of the sort has ever been discovered. In fact, given what is known of the man's character, it would be extremely out of character for him to take up in arms against fellow explorers, even if they're aliens.

Later life:

Like a night of wild partying and the long hung over filled morning that came afterward, after the brief moment of shining triumph on behalf of all of humanity the inevitable disappointment came to Cochrane as his sees his inventions and discoveries being used for humanity's age old pastimes of imperialism and warfare. It was not enough for fate to deny him the material joys of life, he had came to peace with that since early childhood. It was a much harder to accept that fate also intended to rob him of the joys of knowledge. By the time of the opening of the Warp Five Complex he was merely a shell of his former self, who's presence was only so the big wigs in charge could have the blessings of a legend. Soon after he elected to leave Sol for the Alpha Centauri system, in order to "get away from it all".

The last years of Cochrane's life was shrouded in myth and legends, some claimed that he was taken away by extremely advanced aliens, or that he chose to go out on his terms by testing a new form of warp drive, which inevitably went wrong and simply winked out of existence. It was far more likely that he simply died in his old age from a broken heart.

Legacy:

For all his flaws (his anti-militarism, his lack of political/financial ambitions, his naivety towards the inhabited galaxy at large) Cochrane's impact on the course on humanity could not be understated, and thus it was unsurprising that there were many memorials and monuments in his memory.

-The Cochrane shipyards in orbit of Alpha Centauri B II: the largest human shipyards outside of Sol system, although not always on the bleeding edge of technologies in terms of their products, they do have some of the most advance production facilities.
-Cochrane Research Academy: Located in North America on Old Terra, the Academy is on the forefront of research and development in a number of fields, including of course warp propulsion and dynamics.
-number of colonies, cities, towns, counties, districts, too many to list.
-There's a 10m statue of him in what was known as Montana in Terra, as well as one in New Phoenix on Alpha Centauri B II
-The Zefram Cochrane museum in New Phoenix (where the statue is located), contains such artifacts such as his personal shotgun (legend has it he slew the first Vulcan who dared to step on Terra's sacred land) and parts of the Phoenix herself (mostly the nacelles, Earth's Museum of Spaceflight got the cockpit).

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*although hyperbole aside, he is merely another who saw further by standing on the shoulder of giants who have gone before him, doesn't detract from the fact that its still he who finally did it.
**the one that followed the world wars, specifically the final one where all the nukes flew and for a time the living envied the dead.
***or until the radiation melts one's brain, but it's moot point by then...
****that is not to say things were going well for everyone, most like things were going well for everyone relevant (i.e. the leadership and key personnel)
 
Colonel Green

Phillip Green​

Hard times called for hard men to make hard choices, and the Post Atomic Era was a time hardships. It was therefore fortuitous that hard men rose up to the task and make the choices that set the foundation for the future greatness of the Terran State. One such man was Phillip Green, or Colonel Green as he was popular remembered (although his final official rank held was actually major, see below).

Early life and career

Born in what was the old United States of America, the son of a military family with a long and illustrative history. Green's childhood was unremarkable for a military brat, moving from one military base to another, always living underneath the shadow of a world on the brink of nuclear apocalypse and more insidious threats, the latter of which heavily influenced his later views.

Although records were sketchy concerning his education, it was known that he did enroll in ROTC and joined the army as a commissioned officer. His early career in the military was unremarkable, although it was noted he was very charismatic officer with a mastery of rhetoric, especially in advance racial theories. The destabilizing effect of his influence on those who served under him led to his dismissal from the active army and into the reserves. Around that time he attempted to start a political career, but records indicated that did not go anywhere.

His shutting off to the reserves was in fact a blessing in disguise, as when the final world war begin and ended saw him still on the continent of North America while the flowering of the prewar US army ends up feed the worms in Flanders (again) or being cooked by radiation in the ruins of Hong Kong. That was not to say North America got off lightly. On the contrary, many of the urban areas were smoking craters despite the best work of the missile defense systems, and a significant percentage of the survivors were literally suffering radiation poisoning to the point where their brains were leaking through their nose. The continent needed a savior, and it got one.

The Purification campaigns

At the time of the end of the final world war and the beginning of the post atomic horror era Phillip Green found himself a major, the second in command to a ragtag group of soldiers composed of a mishmash of army reserves and national guard units. His promotion to the rank of major was the last official confirmation, along with orders to the unit to maintain order in the local region by any means necessary and assist in the any recovery efforts, received from central command before it all collapsed.

One of Green's first actions was the arrest and summary execution of his superior officer on charges of gross incompetency due to him attempting to aid a number of survivors from a nearby nuked village. He then assumed the rank of colonel, which would be associated to him for the rest of his life and beyond. The act was wildly popular among the troops, as in the dog eat dog world of the post atomic horrors it's good to have a commander who prioritize the strong over the weak. After organizing the troops under him, he then began to purge the surrounding civilians, especially those suffering from radiation, although later on the list to be purged was expanded to those with genetic disorders and mutations.

At first, it was merely death through negligence as Green and his troops were mostly doing what they could to survive themselves, mainly through 'commandeering' supplies for civilian populations suspected of suffering from the effects radiation, as time went on and the overall situation improved (relatively speaking) more efforts had to be made to keep the unfit from consuming resources that could be better spent on the recovery efforts.

Thus the first 'allocation camps' (Camp Happy Tree) were built and constructed, although it was unclear whether colonel Green was involved in the actual construction, he did provide it with a steady inflow in inmates (even the lowest estimates are at least in the hundreds of thousands, and obviously those he send to the other camps set up later on). Although most of the inmates in those camps were dispatched in the tried and true methods of generous application of Zyklon b, the lack of industrial assets available at the time meant in many cases more primitive methods were utilized such as firing squads, rape gangs, and simple exposure to the elements.

In total, colonel Green's tireless work eliminated an estimated over 37 million (lower estimate, as usual records were kinda sketchy from that era) of the unclean and unworthy, saving a incalculable amount of resource for the reconstruction of North America and later the Terran State.

With each success and each hundred of the worthless gone up in ashes, more soldiers and militiamen joined his ranks and his crusade to purge humanity of the impure and cast out those whose existence were keeping humanity behind.

Death & Legacy

For all of his life work, it was ironic that colonel Green died of long term effects from radiation poisoning at the age of 55, most likely contracted through the early post atomic horror years through contaminated supplies commandeered, although it is interesting to note that his unit suffered a lower rate of radiation poisoning in comparison to the averages of the time. Due to his life work and later cause of death, he did not leave and descendants, although persistent rumors and speculations remain that he fathered a number of bastards...

Although publicly the Terran State applauded his actions, privately the leadership was glad he was gone and with him his legacy also. His actions were simply too direct, too crude, too unrefined. Of course it was a harsh time and he did not have hindsight, but regardless it was not exactly the best way to inspire the non-military segments of the populations. A final and continuing solution to the problem of the useless segments of the population would have to wait after the conclusion of the formation wars...
 
Operation class battleship
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Length: 229.5m
Width: 120m
Height: 81m
Displacement: 274,623t standard, >300,000t full load
Decks: 25
Armament: 20 ball phaser turrets in 6 banks, 14 photon torpedo tubes (10 heavy, 4 medium), number of torpedoes carried classified*
Embarked craft: 4 GP-1 shuttles, 4, GP-1L heavy shuttles, other miscellaneous crafts depending on fleet composition and operations assignment
Crew: 400 peacetime, 700 wartime including 200 Star Infantry.
Speed: Warp 7.5 max, 5.6 cruising. 0.34cc impulse
Defense: shields and armor, classified.

At a cursory glance the Operations class battleship appears to be a further evolution of the Battle class battleship, although without the latter's visually unique twin engineering hull. However, the design was a culmination of a number of results of studies from the experimental Walker class** cruisers as well as field performance reports of the Metropolis class cruisers (obvious influences could be seen with the turtleback stripe of the former and the grouping of the nacelles of the latter). As with most battleship classes, there were three nacelles, grouped in a extended section above and aft of the primary hull. In case of emergency the nacelles could be jettisoned, thus improving performance at impulse (for ramming speeds of course***). The engineering hull is of similar type as the Battle class, although internal arraignments were significantly different due to the need to place four torpedo tubes and their accompanied magazines.

Doctrine wise the Operation class was designed to be significantly cheaper than its predecessor class (thus the omitting of the twin engineering hull design) while delivering more long range firepower via torpedoes. This was a response to the resurgence of Klingion military and [more disturbingly] industrial power in the conclusion of the Four Years War. The previous estimates of battleships having effective frontline lifespans of up to 30 years were revised to under 10 years, especially with the new assumptions of the possibilities newer classes of lighter units being introduced every 5 years. As such battleships will no longer be expected to be short to medium range brawlers expected to take heavy punishment and survive, however strong and sturdy and individual units are. Instead what become important is the total number of capital units available.

Ships in the class (partial listing): Bagration, Overlord, Torch, Iskra, Olympic, Coronet, Desert Storm, Chromite, Rolling Thunder, Red Dawn.

*in other words I'm not good at making up numbers.
**just because I made a more TOS version of the Walker class doesn't mean I think it'll actually be built in large numbers (in either the count's prime or my mirror universe), especially how many custom parts I made specifically for it. Thus making it an experimental design (read: some shipyard & design bureaus managed to successfully lobbied to have their really expensive shit approved for limited production run)
***I have no fucking clue if warp ramming is a thing or not but given that most planets still exists somehow I'm leaning towards not...
 
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The Terran Romulan War
The bloodiest war (in terms of causalities per year, not necessarily total causalities) in both the Terran State's and the Romulan Star Republic's history till the Dominion War, the Terran Romulan War had far reaching implications and consequences on both nation state's culture, politics, military, and technologies, not to mention the geo-political make up of the Alpha Quadrant for centuries.

Prelude

At the time of the middle of the 24th century the Terran State has just wrapped up the last of the Formation Wars, in which the other local powers (and sometimes their former employers) the Vulcans, Andorians, and a host of other species were brutally annexed into the rapidly Terran State. Even as they were digesting their latest acquisitions the leaders back on Terra were already turning their gaze to the future, specifically what other easy and/or useful picking that might be out there. Rumors from still independent factions such as the Orions hinted at a closed off and rather unknown species called the Romulans, not much was known of them except that their government is a sort of representative democracy. That's at least somewhat encouraging as it's well known that non-authoritarian governments tend to be easy pickings.

Meanwhile in the Romulan Star Republic the naval brass watched the rapidly expanding and blatantly militant humans with growing alarm, and despite their pleading and a growing mountain of data the senate was deadlock in its usual squabbling and refuse to even contemplate a war. The admirals decided that one way or another they will have a war on their terms and choosing.

The first shot

Despite the strong incentives on both sides in starting a war, the actual spark that lit the quadrant aflame was in fact an accident. The Terran Navy's scout ship ISS Finch was mapping out a then previous unmapped sector when it simply lost contact. Soon news got back (from 3rd parties such as the Orions) that it was destroyed by a Romulan patrol the Terran State wasted no time in a declaration of war, even though they only had a vague idea of where those aliens were. Meanwhile back on Romulus, things were moving at their usual rate, with the Senate taking over two months to declare war back.

Both sides claimed to be the wrong party, the Terran State claimed that their ship had no hostile intentions and was merely conducting standard survey while the Romulans claimed that the Finch was a "pathfinder" unit, intending to probe their defenses as a prelude for the expected invasion. The truth was out there somewhere, debris in the cosmic dust.

Opening moves

In sharp contrast to the Romulan Senate, the Romulan Navy moved fast. Even before the reports of the Finch incident, forward units of the fleets were already crossing well into the Terran State's border. The Romulan admirals knew that they have a slim chance where they have the initiative both on the strategic and political front, and they seized it with both hands. By shooting first they hoped to cripple the numerically superior human fleets and by winning (in which they fully intend to), they hope to drum up support among the population and force the senate's hand in support the war with what effectively is a fait accompli.

It worked, and soon the Terran State started to lose contact with listening posts, outposts, supply depots, bases, even the odd colony. Sometimes they found debris as the only evidence of anything existed there, often times not even that. Predictably, the government was enraged, the president immediately ordering all the major fleets for a full scale invasion of Romulus, to "Kill them sons of bitches and make the bodies hit the floor!"

The human fleets responded promptly and with great vigor. Alas, victory it was not to be for them. In hindsight sending fleets of heterogeneous ships (many of them spoils of the Formations Wars from the recently annexed Vulcan and Andorian navies) and raw crews (there's no way that the Terran State will allow vile xenos control the greatest and most unified military tool in the state) to the general direction of the enemy was a recipe for disaster. Hundreds of ships and tens of thousands of humans (and lots of aliens too, but that's not important to the bean counters back on Terra) were lost in a series of foolhardy and increasingly desperate battles as it seemed that nothing could stop the mysterious enemy from desecrating Terra herself...

The turning point that wasn't

However, since the beginning of the conflict the Romulan Navy was running on fumes. The expected support from the populace did not materialize, and the Senate did not wake up from the specter of war, still at their usual grumbling games. The reason that so many of the battles lack much in the way of debris was due to the Romulan navy taking anything and everything that could be used, either as is or as resource for their own military controlled productions.

As the Terran State used up its stockpiles of existing warships those were replaced with new, domestic production. Now human crews run human built and designed ships in a finely mesh of terran superiority the new navy while on paper was little better than the ones before it was in fact much more coherent.

The commonly cited turning point of the war, the Battle of Hell's Gate, was in fact the culminations of both of these variables as a restructured Terran Navy smashed an overextended and exhausted Romulan Navy. After that the gates to the Star Republic was wide open.

Stabbed in the back (or: should have seen this a mile away)

At the moment of triumph, supreme victory was denied as many of the alien species, sensing an opportunity, rose in revolt. In hindsight, it was all but expected that with the bulk of the navy far away at the front lines, that the opportunity was ripe for revolt. At the time though it was a massive shock to Terra on hearing that the natives were marching on Vulcan and contact with Andoria was completely lost. While the navy itself managed to escape the worst of the disruptions (with the notable exception of the assassination of Admiral Maxwell Forrest on board his flagship the ISS Carousel of Agony), the chaos that were erupting in the rest of the Terran State forced them to turn back to remind the xeno rabble who's in control of the ultimate high ground.

status quo ante bellum (and aftermath)

With both sides exhausted or otherwise occupied the war... simply ended. No formal peace treaty was ever signed, or even a ceasefire. The region between the two nation was simply a neutral zone, a rather undefined region whose lack of defined borders suits both just fine.

For the Romulans, the humiliation and destruction of the fleet heavily discredited the military, yet paradoxically at the same time they were needed more than ever as their worst fears concerning the humans were in fact correct. In the end the Navy was quietly and unofficially given more control over certain parts of the economy for their own use off the books. This soon grew to an almost separate state within a state, a guardian within but not of the Star Republic.

Meanwhile back in the human sphere the sudden betrayal and stab in the back led to a new wave of xenophobia amongst the human populace, with lynching of aliens becoming a pastime on certain worlds (until they ran out of aliens and helf-breeds to kill and rape). Meanwhile among the leadership there was a realization that the then current expansion was too fast, and more consolidation was needed after each conquest and annexation. Meanwhile the Terran Navy came out of the war stronger than ever before, with a proper sense of identity and coherence, not only in ships but also in men and institutions.
 
The Dominion
The largest political entity in the Gamma Quadrant, although its political structure is rather unconventional in the eyes of the nation states of the Alpha Quadrant. Composed of a number of species operating as a single front seemly without a single species exerting strong top down leadership (Unlike, say, the Terran State post Formation Wars). It's interesting to note that there was a lack of exploitation of species despite the specialization of most of the species within the Dominion, almost as if they were all engineered by an unseen grand watchmaker...

Major members of the Dominion and their 'cliche', although bearing in mind that in fact most of the populations were regular people doing all the vast varieties of things that makes a civilization function...

Vorta: the public face of the Dominion, skilled diplomats and gifted administrators. Gifted with great sense of taste for both foods, arts, and cultures, which comes quite in handy when in their capacity/roles in interacting with other species outside of the Dominion.
Jem'Hadar: loyal soldiers of the Dominion, which despite their seemly barbaric physical features were capable of conducting complex large scale strategic operations and are rather cultured all things considered. Not the greatest of melee combatants, but modern warfare isn't won by individual valor in hand to hand combat. Sometimes accused of without honor, but suicidal bravely merely meant less institutional experiences being passed on to the next batch of recruits. Along their their military prowess was an aptitude for engineering, especially concerning military hardware and reverse engineering.
Karemma: merchants and industrialists, these mild manner and gentle species are actually the most numerous among the member species of the Dominion.

In all these species their early history were surprisingly similar: in which a number of extraordinary individuals arose and unified the species, promoted technological and sociological progress, to reach out to the stars and spread their gifts to others. Such generosity is still maintained by the modern Dominion, such as their aid to the Teplan in curing an epidemic that was raging through their lands. Such acts of kindness meant that many species joined willingly, even if their reasons were materialistic in nature.

Another rather oddity among the major members of the Dominion was their seemly obsession in protecting a shape-shifting species only known as the Changlings. This "pledge to protect", almost religious in nature, although a coherent answer was never given. Mostly it appears that their natural appearance (and their most common form) seems to have an effect that is extremely aesthetically pleasing (also known as adorable or kawaii). There are conspiracy theories that these Changlings are in fact the real power behind the Dominion although there are currently little evidences that these creatures are capable of higher intelligence, never mind controlling multiple species. Regardless of the reasons for such an irrational obsession the physical manifestation of it were clearly evident: The native world of the species, a M-class rogue planet, is possibly the most heavily defended planet, even if its location is of no strategic importance. In it's orbit lies hundreds of starbases, including the headquarters of the Dominion fleet. The Vorta often give guided tours to certain highly important foreign dignitaries (after a truly exhaustive vetting process) to see the Changlings in their natural habit, although a certain distance is always kept to prevent cases of "actual contamination" whatever that might be...

Beside that odd quirk, the Dominion does have an zeal in spreading their joys of liberty and brotherhood, the fruits of the good life that they enjoy, to every corner of the galaxy. Often by force of arms if necessary especially given how depressing common despotism is in the galaxy. Sometimes it is good to spill the blood of a few tyrants if it opens the voices of the masses who yearns for the sweet freedom that the Dominion brings wherever their fleets go forth...

With an economy and military that dwarfs any major power of the Alpha Quadrant, or even a combination of them, a technological and scientific prowess to match, and ideologies that are meant for conflict against each other, it was perhaps lucky that there's a lot of lightyears separating them from each other...
 
Kor
Kor: the last warrior, the first soldier, the greatest of statesmen​

History, at least the popular enjoyment of the bastardization of the thing, tend to want neat and tidy stories, of heroes and legends singlehandedly accomplishing great feats and noble deeds, changing the course of peoples and nations. Most of the time that is utterly nonsense, as most cases these so called great individuals were the symptoms of various trends, rather than the cause of them. Chance and luck does the rest and determines who wins and who loses.

But most cares not for such complexities, and flock to simple stories of heroes and legends, so here it is, the story of the greatest Klingon since Kahless the Unforgettable: Kor the First Leader

------

The son of a noble family with long and illustrative careers, Kor's early life was in all rather unremarkable except in the odd minor peculiarity of not being a gloryhound as it was common amongst the culture of the time, seemly oddly calm when others embellish their deeds and actions to make themselves stand out more. Regardless, soon upon entering the military he rose through the ranks quickly, his dashing victories and heroic deeds need no embellishment to stand out even among the ranks of the greatest warriors.

The Four Years War begins found Kor as the captain of the battlecruiser Kut'luch, unlike the majority of the captains and warlords*, he and his ship did not charge headlong into the the defense of every inch of sacred territory of the Klingon people. Only his reputation and proven bravery prevented his crew from mutiny to join what appears to be great chances for glory and action. As a consequence, they were one of the few ships to survive the first months of the war as the cream and flower of the Klingon warriors threw themselves into the furnace that was the Terran Space Navy. In light of the situation he led the remaining forces in a irregular campaign, avoiding open battles to strike at the supply lines.

It was grating for most of the warriors, who now fight in a way that by tradition is without honor or glory. However, it was damn effective as the Terrans, long used to the simple way of fighting, were unable to quickly adapt to the suddenly extremely elusive enemy (mainly due to the top heavy nature of their fleet composition). For the most part their already weak logistics simply collapsed, and soon the Terran State was forced to withdraw from most of their conquests.

The Klingons ended the war with a number of territory losses, but the core worlds had survived. Despite his rather underhanded tactics, Kor was hailed as a hero and savior. Even as he took an all too short moment to bask in the glory of his triumph he was already planning for the far future. Knowing that his irregular tactics were unlikely to work a second time, as the Terran Space Navy were likely to adapt. The next war the Klingons must be capable of defeating the humans at their own game.

With the vast influence he now weld, Kor begin what is later known as the "Revolution of the Klingon people and culture". Gathering a surprising number of like-minded people, Kor begin to consolidate and centralize the patchwork of noble houses and petty kingdoms. Forming a modern government partially (and ironically) after the Terran State model, with him as the first chancellor. The whole process was helped along by the death of most of those who would have opposed such measures, as well as their failures in the early days of the Four Years War. In the two decades of his leadership saw the expansion of the Klingon bureaucracy and industry, as well as the formation of a first rate military from the collection of petty warbands. After over two decade, he stepped down willingly, claiming that he has accomplished what he has set out to do, the reforging of Klingon might and honor. Although rumors persisted that he was in fact pushed out by overly ambitious underlings.

Kor would live long enough to see his successors pervert his reforms, slowing sucking out the rich culture of the Klingon people in the name of "efficiency" and "modernization". In his later years he would take upon himself to preserve as many traditions as he could, and despite his age and lack of official power such was his reputation that nobody within the Klingon Empire could even contemplate touching him. It was a losing fight all the same, for now he was fighting against the trends rather than with them.

To the common person, Kor is the reason that the Klingon state still exists in the modern day, as well as the reason that traditional Klingon Culture is mostly dead (ironically enough the few remnants kept alive by Kor and his associates), but the historian knows that Kor is merely the focus of a historical trend, in which the Klingon people either reform itself or it would be dead in body rather just just spirit.

*pre revolution/reform era rank, equivalent to admiral/general in most other nations, although much more informal.
 
Looking forward to see your take on the more powerful entities and augmented beings.
 
Why is it that every time when I wasn't planning on doing something someone coincidentally asks if I was going to do that something? XD

(this has happened a couple of time already on AH.com where I'm cross posting, so it's nothing new)

Honestly I have no clue as of yet, but suffice to say I'm ready to poach any and all ideas from a certain other guy's reboot of star trek... ;)

Of course I still appreciate your comment and interest in my little project here...
 
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Captain Kirk
James Tiberius Kirk​

The poster child of a new breed of fleet officers in the aftermath of the Four Years War, Jame Tiberius Kirk is the dashing, brilliant, and independent (almost to the point of reckless) type of commander that the navy badly needs after the fiasco since the conclusion of the war.

Born in North America Agriculture Sector 3 (in parts of what was formerly known as the state of Iowa of the old United States of America) to a otherwise rather unremarkable family (although later on, after his rise in the ranks, persistent rumors came to being that his actual biological father was in fact none other than the late captain of the ISS Kelvin in a illicit tryst. Of course there's no evidence of such a thing according to official records from the Admiralty, and the Bureau of Racial Affairs decline to release their records or comment). Kirk's early childhood was equally unremarkable until one day in his late teenage years, when he partaken in a bar brawl against a number of naval cadets (police reports stated that the fight was sparked by the cadets implying that Kirk's mother was a harlot). By the time police showed up they found a lone man surrounded by a number of sprawling bodies, badly bleeding but still standing. While nominally the assault of members of the military (even mere cadets) is a offense worthy of summery execution, but it appeared that fate intervened and the father of one of the cadets took an interest in the young man who managed to beat his son and his buddies, and got Kirk acquitted. In fact, said admiral even pulled a few strings and got Kirk into the naval academy at San Francisco, an example of the 'Cinderella effect' at work...

At the academy, Kirk was for the most part a studious student although containing a streak of unconventional thinking. This was especially apparent during his reprogramming of the Kobayashi Maru simulation scenario. Although almost expelled for "subverting the authority of the teaching staff and the navy itself." he was in the end merely given a warning, with one of the rear admirals reportedly quipped "Bold move cotton, let's see if it'll pay off once you make it into the service." (said admiral would live to see the day his views being vindicated).

In the academy's field cruise (in which all final year students with a both physical and mental performance in the top 5% percentile partook in) at a stop around the planet of Tarsus IV right as the colony was in the mist of an agricultural & food crisis. The unexpected event allowed the cadets to have an impromptu hands on experience in crisis management. Kirk led an assault team of fellow cadets to arrest the local governor (Kodos) who's bleeding heart inefficiency was doing no favors for the planet's population. After the successful arrest (and subsequent field execution of the inefficient former governor), he partook in the 'selective purge' of the planet's population (with a death of over 8,000). The planetary triage was necessary to maintain the stability of the colony, and Kirk learned that in the real world, unlike the simulations, sometimes there is no way out of a 'no win' scenario.

After the academy, Kirk was posted on a number of ships, where his performance was mostly above average but nothing spectacular. That changed when during a catastrophe on board the ISS Farragut in which half the crew dead. In fact Kirk was the one responsible for that, after ordering the venting of the lower decks in order to save the ship herself. For his efforts in saving the vessel he was awarded and promoted, being transferred to the newly commissioned heavy cruiser ISS Enterprise.

On board the Enterprise Kirk quickly (and unexpectedly) gained the captain's seat after forced to assassinate captain Christopher Pike after the latter was compromised by an alien entity. The field promotion was quickly approved by the admiralty (not that they had much of a choice, as the Enterprise was too far out for them to ship another captain in a timely manner). As the captain of the Enterprise, Kirk was surprisingly 'soft' with a body count usually merely in the 4 digits (rather than the 6 to 7 as often in other captains of heavy cruisers in the independent operations arm) when suppressing rebels and subversives. Also of interest was his amassing of significant personal wealth, often due to his creative actions in solving problems with minimal of bloodshed (the third way out, as he often said). The reason of his interest in acquiring material wealth lies probably in the fact that for all of his achievements, he knows that his position is in fact very fragile, and only at the indulgence of the nobility, and one wrong move might send it all tumbling down...
 
Spock
Spock​

The bastard spawn of the Vulcan mid level bureaucrat Sarek and a human female known simply as Amanda Grayson in a lapse of logic all around*, Spock's life was mostly driven by racial politics of the era.

After centuries of advancing into interstellar space, it was still mildly surprising that humanity itself has not seen significant changes in its genetic composition. The specter of egomaniac nutjobs usurping proper authorities like what happened to the Oriental Despots in the lead up to the final world war in the pre warp days still hangs heavily in the political air despite centuries of time separating those events. What little genetic tinkering was mostly done for the adaptation of certain environments (when terraforming being too expensive and the existing biosphere being simply too hostile for human habitation, regardless of how many millions of bodies being dumped in it). However, things were not completely static during these centuries, and by the early 25th century there were a number of schools of thoughts on more "natural forms" of genetic engineering. One school, for some reason known as the "Brazilian" school, advocated for the crossbreeding of humans with certain vetted xeno species, and select desirable traits out of the resulting spawns. Suspiciously enough, the Brazilian school of thought has some support among some of the xeno populations, especially among the Vulcans, who logically came to the conclusion a long time ago that the only way that continuous resistance was pointless and that as the old Vulcan saying goes "If you can't beat them, join them."**

As such, Spock's early upbringing was carefully monitored on Vulcan (if only unofficially), his teachers and instructors careful to cultivate a restrained if somewhat aloof person out of this hybrid, to mold him into a shining example of competency worthy for the service of the Terran State.

After graduating from the Vulcan Academy of Science (while above average, but nowhere near the top 5% percentile, suggesting that hybrids are lesser compared to purebreeds), Spock surprisingly decided to choose a career in the Terran Space Navy. While at the face of it such a decision was rather illogical, one has to keep in mind this was the post Four Years War era, when the navy was becoming more interested (perhaps in a sign of desperation or panic, regardless it wasn't exactly a logical train of reasoning, something that the Vulcans noted and fully exploited to their advantage) in various scientific pursuits in order to gain more advantages in the ever accelerating arms race.

As a science attache to the ISS Enterprise, Spock's works were mainly adequate, but nothing worthy of praise. However, during the crisis which led to the assassination of Captain Pike, his prompt actions caught the notice of the military side of things, specifically the notice of a certain commander Kirk. Drafted into the navy as the commander after Kirk's promotion, the half Vulcan proved to be invaluable in terms of giving unexpected insights into certain situations, or facts that lesser logical beings simply overlooked.

While to make judgement based on a sample size of one is extremely illogical (although logic tend to be of little use in the racial sciences) Spock knew the eyes of the galaxy were on him, and everything he does will vindicate one view or another...

*Although later Sarek allegedly said that "At the time it seemed the logical thing to do." Make what you will of THAT.
**hey, at least it's not like that other Vulcan saying "Only Nixon can go to China"
 
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