Poor Man's Fight: Lore-Dump/Update (possible spoilers!)

Hi all,

I haven't quite started putting down pages for the next PMF, but I have recently gone through the series as a refresher (mainly listening to the audiobooks). With that, I tried to update my primary lore/world-building document to include the events and details of No Man's Land (book 6). And since it's time for the mid-month post, I figured, why not share?

I'm pretty sure I've shared this document here on the Patreon before... although in clicking back a few years in the library, I didn't see it. So if this is familiar to you, I have added stuff (and italicized it if you want to skip to the additions). And if not, hey, check out this entirely original post! Also, to be clear, this is mainly a set of notes for me as a writer. The text ranges from full paragraphs and complete sentences to quickie reminder notes.

BIG WARNING: This document contains MAJOR spoilers for No Man's Land! I cut right to a bunch of the big revelations here, so if you haven't read that, you might want to hold off on reading this. I promise the book is more exciting and has better detail. :)

WORLDBUILDING NOTES

1st Tier World: self-sufficient, stable terraforming, active trade.

2nd Tier World: not self-sufficient, but with active industry and trade.

3rd Tier World: dependent on imports for basic development, terraforming incomplete or unstable.

1647: Alien civilization on the planet Minos is wiped out by a volcanic cataclysm.

Vaguely 21st/22nd Century: Interstellar expansion begins, largely powered by megacorporations. Humanity encounters the Krokinthians and Nyuyinaro. Corporate operatives steal the vastly superior faster-than-light tech of the Krokinthians, which leads to friction. Later friction leads to the Expansion Wars with both species.

2214: Nominal end of the Expansion Wars. Pointedly, the Krokinthians came to the armistice talks only to say “Go no farther than you have,” and immediately left. No formal treaty was ever established.

2215: Astronomers at Fremantle University see the “dying light” of the fall of Minos.

Series Start: 2274. Archangel hasn’t been at war in 30 years. The Union has been at “peace” with the aliens for 60 years.

Summer 2274: Oscar Company begins basic training.

January 2275: Qal’at Khalil in the Kingdom of Hashem suffers a devastating pirate raid. The fallout leads to unrest and harsh crackdowns within Hashem, creating fears of civil war and a refugee crisis.

August 2275: The Pride of Polaris is hijacked by pirates. Archangel revokes numerous contracts with the “Big Three” major interstellar corporations of NorthStar, Lai Wa, and CDC.

April/May 2276: Hashem falls into open civil war.

November 2276: Archangel reveals massive fraud and cheating on The Test by the Big Three across the Union. In response, Archangel expels the Big Three from its borders and cancels all outstanding debts by its government and citizens to the Big Three.

December 2276: NorthStar, Lai Wa, and CDC invade Archangel.

January-February 2277: Covert NorthStar operatives raid secret CDC-owned research facilities on Maurras and Headwaters. The Headwaters raid leads to the escape of a captured Nyuyinaro, exposing CDC’s crimes to numerous organizations. Though the matter is kept from the public at large, reactions from government and corporate entities leave CDC mortally wounded. Within two years, CDC collapses.

February 2277: Archangel attacks the NSS Anchorage, a massive NorthStar repair ship lurking outside Archangel space. Capture is thwarted but the ship is looted and destroyed.

July 2277: Morley is the first cargo ship to escape occupied Michael with its holds full of refugees.

July 2278: NorthStar attempts to capture Augustine. Archangel puts up an evacuation defense, but the offensive falters under cost/benefit analysis. Augustine is never fully captured.

January 2279: The Archangel Navy attempts to liberate Michael’s moon, Astonaco. After a fierce ground and space battle, Archangel forces withdraw and bombard Port Astonaco to deny its facilities to NorthStar. The incident is widely seen as a demoralizing failure.

July 2279: Against its own wishes, NorthStar is declared a sovereign state entity by the Union Assembly. By month’s end, Archangel invades Fairhaven and forces a peace treaty. NorthStar evacuates from occupied territories of Archangel and agrees to void all student, medical, defense, and sovereign debt from Archangel and its citizens.

August 2279: Immediately after Archangel’s fleet returns from Fairhaven, President Aguirre and numerous deputies are exposed as aiding and supporting the pirate raid on Qal’at Khalil of 2275 and numerous other pirate actions, as well as the continued employment of Captain Casey as a covert asset of the Ministry of Intelligence. Aguirre is impeached and removed from office along with most of his cabinet.

August 2280: The ancient Minoans resurface. The Battle of Minos ends in a cease-fire and full emergency withdrawal of human colonists from Minos. First recorded incidence of Nyuyinaro showing distinction between human individuals. Kroks and Noonies reveal names and fates of several other species as yet unknown to humanity, which also confirms the existence of more still-living species beyond human discovery.

September 2280 – March 2281: Magenta, a Nyuyinaro, strikes up a tentative friendship with Alicia Wong of Archangel. This is the first individual relationship between the two species known to humanity, and kept closely guarded as a secret by the Union and Archangel governments.

October 2280: Tanner Malone becomes a freshman dormitory resident advisor at Fremantle University.

April 2281: Empress Amara visits the Union Assembly to request right of transit as a step toward normalizing relations. She then attempts to frame Christina Walters, CEO of NorthStar, in an assassination attempt on herself. Simultaneously, a joint Union Fleet and Nyuyinaro mission identifies a Minoan spacecraft in Union Space, carrying thousands of Minoans and captured aliens in stasis. This is revealed on the floor of the Assembly, whereupon Amara launches an attack on the station. The Union declares a “state of hostility” with Minos, short of declared war, while Union leadership, Nyuyinaro, and Krokinthians attempt to address resettlement and support for the newly-liberated alien species.

THE UNION OF HUMANITY

125 “member worlds,” ranging from multi-star-system states to independent worlds within a single system to isolated colonies.

President Dhawan and Vice-Chairman Terrence Jackson are the leadership through DMD; as of LMO, the current president is Chairwoman Irawati Limanto. The current Secretary of Defense is Charles Ohanga of Earth (Nigeria).

Assembly Station orbits Saturn. Alien observers are welcome, but stay private.

Technically a confederacy, the Union binds humanity to common defense and diplomacy with alien powers. It maintains the Union Fleet, sets common astrogation rules and establishes a common standard for weights and measures, but any other powers or jurisdictions are strictly and jealously limited by its member worlds.

Pointedly, the Union Assembly has no high court and has never managed to establish a common definition for basic human rights, nor does it have any power to intervene in conflicts between member states. The Assembly wields significant domestic diplomatic weight but is frequently limited by the conflicting interests of its members.

Union Interpol works toward interstellar law-enforcement cooperation, but is primarily an effort of information sharing and diplomacy.

The Union Fleet draws members from all over the Union. Its mandates are largely for defense vs alien powers, anti-piracy, search and rescue, and some science and exploration. Annapolis serves as its military academy. The Fleet generally doesn’t do as well by enlisted personnel as it should.

Though defense plans lean heavily on cooperation with the Big Three and other corporate-mil services, command and many personnel are privately mistrustful of so much sharing of intelligence and infrastructure.

NorthStar held 58% of the personal debt of personnel across the Fleet.

ALIENS

As of PMF-LMO, humanity knows of seven alien species: the Krokinthians, the Nyuyinaro, and five others who appear to have died out before reaching space travel. LMO reveals the Minoans. NML expands dramatically on human knowledge of aliens.

Krokinthians are mostly aquatic, elephant-sized, pentagonal, and crustacean-like. They have one eye and one claw for each side and an additional eye on each “knee,” with a mouth under their carapace. Krok ships contain a liquid environment. Krokinthians can survive outside an aquatic environment for hours without difficulty, but healing injuries and other physical processes require submersion in their native waters or a close approximation. Their physiology is less threatened by the internal burns of laser weapons than humans, though not at all immune. The baseline level of Krokithian education appears significantly higher than humanity’s.

Showing exceptional community and harmony, Kroks do not practice buying or selling among themselves.

Krokinthians appear to have a monoculture. According to Amara, this is the result of conquest by a single Krok faction over the rest long in the past.

Despite a common fear of being eaten, humans are poisonous to Krokinthians.

The Krokinthians eventually tried to limit human expansion, which led to the Expansion Wars. At the armistice they said, “Go no farther than you have” and walked out. Colonization of Minos was allowed as a technicality, but grudgingly.

Though victorious against Minos (People of Dust), the war was ruinous for the Kroks.

The Krokinthians did not view war as a distinct concept until they encountered humans and learned of the word from them. Before this, Krokinthians saw no need to describe conflicts in such a way. They also had no word for slavery before contact with humans, despite their experiences with Amara and her agenda.

Krokinthian-human communication is handled with the Kroks doing the translations. Most speak in terse sentences and tend to reveal little, but are open about their mistrust of humans.

While physically ponderous compared to smaller species, Krokinthians are highly capable at multitasking.

Krokinthians perceive time differently than humans. They have kept this a secret from all but a few humans. This ability allows them to absorb information at a much faster rate, though no other details have been revealed.

While humanity in general has long viewed Krokinthians as dismissive and indifferent to human individuality, Krokinthians are in fact highly insightful and perceptive. In negotiations with humanity, Krokinthians have identified individual humans as either dishonest or compromised by superiors with hidden agendas and discounted the reliability of those individuals accordingly.

Nyuyinaro are a space-borne race with conscious control over their evolutionary development. They arose from an avian race on an unnamed planet and now live in the vacuum of space, often forming pod units, with little or no material culture.

Noonies can absorb and metabolize a variety of electromagnetic energy, allowing for light emission, laser blasts, EM transmissions, and FTL communication far faster than any human tech. During the Expansion Wars, Noonies figured out how to absorb the specific EM “bounce” signals of human sensors, allowing them a stealth capability that they seem to have disseminated to one another almost instantaneously across many light years. A Noonie is capable of sustaining a powerful energy blast for several seconds.

A Noonie pod is described in LMO on pg 356.

The war with Minos/People of Dust nearly annihilated the Nyuyinaro. Even in the final battle, the Noonies didn’t know if they would survive the war as a species. Their numbers still haven’t recovered to what they once were. The Noonies didn’t encounter the Minoans until Amara was already the sole ruler.

Noonies find humans more deceptive than Minoans, but also more willing to correct.

Individual Noonies have so far identified themselves as Magenta, Breeze, and Scar.

Noonies can communicate with humans through transmissions to human communications tech and holocoms. The Noonie is more responsible for translation than the human tech. Their “language” is often halting and full of curious word choices, which the Noonies are conscious of; some are better at such communication than others.

While Nyuyinaro show little material culture or technology, they are capable of producing small gemstone-like orbs that can act as personal transceivers with the same power and range of their natural communication abilities. This is a biological product. Thus far, only a limited number of humans are aware of this.

Minoans/People of Dust are originally bipedal, symmetrical, and essentially humanoid, though with many variations: monosexual, reversed leg joints, a vertical mouth and no nose, three-fingered hands. The atmosphere on Minos was oxygenated and fairly similar to Earth’s, as was its gravity, but other environmental and biochemical factors were dramatically different.

Most importantly, Minoans ingest and retain crystals from their environment like salt throughout their lives. The crystals form into orb-shaped structures in the brain serving as long-term memory. As Minoan science advanced, they were able to artificially gestate new adult bodies and transplant “memories,” thus allowing rebirth and longevity.

Minos existed under a monoculture after Amara conquered all other factions and leaders. They did not practice buying or selling after that.

Under Amara, the Minoans became imperialistic and merciless, wiping out those who would not serve them. To Minoans (again, under Amara), this was entirely reasonable and just. Amara demanded service even from species when those species showed little obvious benefits the Minoans could exploit, like the environmentally-restricted Oneln and the low-tech Runners.

Responding to the terraforming and colonization of their planet, the Minoan Regents engineered new, human-like bodies to adapt to their environment. They selected genetic stock from the healthiest humans they could find, and while this led to fit bodies it also limited variation. New Minoans tend toward tall and fit body shapes, golden skin, emerald eyes, and dark hair. While they now show sexual dimorphism, this is a whole new experience for them and gender remains largely irrelevant.

New Minoans have “downloaded” considerable human data into their brains, effectively carrying a cultural and scientific library, but it must be actively searched and accessed like a computer. This is fast, but shows in body language like a head-twitch and takes a moment to process.

Minoans place a high priority on recovering their dead. In battle, Minoans will take risks to make sure they claim a fallen Minoan’s memory crystal if there is any chance a body may be lost. The average Minoan reacts to a threatened memory crystal with as much concern as a life in danger.

Amara’s dominance over Minoan society has clearly altered aspects of culture, expectation, and the Minoans’ own understanding of their history. Many Minoans have been conditioned to accept her dominance as natural, and indeed the resistance other species have toward her as unnatural—though this is far from a universal viewpoint, with age and cycles of memory and life providing significant differences.

Minoan society is arranged in a caste system. The Sentinels and Regents make up the military and highest levels of power and leadership under Amara. The Kratee “maintain and support” while the Galtee “grow [agriculture and also caregiving].” Together they make up much of a working caste. The Kenton “build and discover,” which appears to be a euphemism for science and engineering. Other castes have not yet been identified.

Evidence suggests a hereditary aristocracy under Amara’s line of descendants. Corruption for personal benefit appears widespread among those in power.

Minoan castes were much more fluid before Amara’s rise to power. Under her rule, a Minoan who wishes to change castes is screened for disloyalty by having their memory crystals placed inside a Regent for interrogation. Disloyal subjects are purged. Such examinations are also common during rebirth, but with lesser scrutiny and less concern for loyalty—because requiring such a standard would purge enough Minoans to weaken their society as a whole.

Minoan technology relies heavily on the signal-absorbing and heat-dispersing qualities of Minoan stone, which is abundant through their star system. This stone can be refined into metal to exploit those properties. Much other Minoan technology has been stolen and adapted from other alien species, recently including humanity.

The aesthetics of Minoan crafting encourage geometric artistry, but also concealment and subtlety to functional objects. To a human observer, even simple things such as unsecured doors seem deliberately hidden from obvious view.

Minoan personal weapons include collapsible spears, shields, and wrist-mounted energy blasters with a much wider impact radius than human weapons. Many of their spaceships appear as asteroids. Apart from energy weapons, some Minoan spacecraft are armed with large Minoan stones launched and guided by a gravity-manipulation system. This system locks onto a target’s individual gravity system. Guidance and propulsion components are usually pulverized on impact, making them difficult to study.

Some number of Nyuyinaro have been held captive and physically forced to serve as communications nodes for Minoan vessels and presumably installations. The Minoans use at least one captured, powerful Yanra starship.

Regents: Essentially Minoan cyborgs, the Regents are fully artificial bodies directed by the same Minoan memory crystal that could otherwise be implanted into a biological Minoan body. The Regents have a much longer “lifespan” than biologicals, but are almost emotionless. To date, no Regent has been interviewed on its feelings about being a Regent, though one responds to a question from Tanner by saying that no one volunteers to be a Regent.

Their jet-black stone bodies are based on ancient Minoans: knees backward, long limbs, three fingers, taller than humans. Their machine strength and precision make them formidable in close combat. A glowing red tau shape on their faces can emit a powerful and wide two-second laser blast. Such a blast often creates a thunder sound effect from superheated air. As Regents are made from Minoan stone, their bodies can absorb a considerable amount of laser and other beam effects before suffering damage, though this can eventually be overcome. Kinetic weapons like bullets are more effective, though the Regents are still resilient. The tau is a weak point.

Minoan Tech and material culture: Prior to the reemergence of the Minoans, it was believed the ancient Minoans never developed past Iron Age tech at best. Ruins were universally carved into natural stone, often in single pieces. Roads were discovered but no standing “cities” other than those carved buildings. The Minoans incorporated stairs in their architecture, but functional doors were a matter of conjecture until LMO. Artifacts were also limited to stone-carved objects such as pottery and simple tools, with no moving parts more complicated than sealed pottery lids. No visual arts depicting life were ever found. No physical remains were found (except memory crystals, which were not identified as such). Fabric was not found until the events of LMO.

A considerable amount of Minoan geology can absorb and dissipate heat and much of the EM band, including lasers. Such rock is found elsewhere within the star system as well.

Human engineering had not yet cracked metallurgical issues necessary to industrialize this, but the prospects were there and much effort was made in that direction.

Modern Minoans have this all figured out and incorporate it into their tech. Metal crafted from this stone is often fashioned with a matrix pattern, used in everything from pottery to armor. Embedded Minoan crystals are used in everything from simple light projection to tools with all the same functions as computers. Minoan holography has incredible fidelity, though still not easily mistaken for solid objects.

The EM-absorbing qualities remain, granting considerable stealth vs sensor tech and resilience to heat. This has been scaled up all the way to Minoan starships, which often incorporate a good deal of unprocessed Minoan stone as ablative armor.

Minoan warriors use tall shields and wrist-mounted energy blasters with a yellow light and an impact radius half the size of a human fist. They also carry small rods that can extend to full-length black spears with a spring-like action.

Minoans have significant control over their environment, from the ability trigger and direct geological catastrophes to weather control. The EM-absorbing qualities of Minoan minerals are a major part of their tactics. Minoan warriors will dust one another to aid in stealth vs. technology, while full dust storms are often summoned to provide cover for operations on the surface.

The Minoans have had considerable time to develop and refine weapons and defenses against the Kroks and the Noonies. They were less ready to face human tech, as kinetic weapons still proved effective enough. Engaged in space, Minoan dreadnoughts scored many early hits and were hard to damage, but soon Archangel and Fleet technicians figured out how to recalibrate and reprogram missiles to overcome the stealth abilities of Minoan hulls. This will likely not be a static advantage in the future.

The Minoans have also cracked a considerable amount of human info security and had much of the communications traffic and databases on Minos under surveillance.

The Yanra are a space-faring species partly responsible for the technological rise of the Krokinthians and the Minoans. Their bodies follow a serpentine model with eyepods, four tentacles, and a long tail. (Tanner describes one as like “a snake eating a football.”) The Yanra homeworld was consumed by its sun in the distant past, leaving the Yanra to live on their space vessels. Over time, the Yanra came to prefer this way of life over colonizing other worlds.

The Yanra saw their experience with the Krokinthians as beneficial to both, and thus were open to sharing technology with the Minoans. Amara’s demands continued regardless of the Yanra’s accommodations until she launched an open war against them and others.

Yanra science and technology include some degree of biological self-modification. Logol, a Yanra on the Minoan Preserve, possessed an organ capable of auditory vibration and speech simply because it was convenient. Like the Krokinthians, the Yanra can perceive time outside the singular flow known by humans. (NML implies this is not uncommon among alien species, and that humans are limited rather than this ability being rare.)

Most of the surviving Yanra left this part of the galaxy after the war with Minos.

Some time before the war with Minos, the Yanra observed humans on Earth. They were dismayed by humanity’s tendency toward violence against one another and thus made no contact.

The Kaelos are another space-faring species that fled this part of the galaxy after the war with Minos.

The Runners inhabited Voltaire until they were presumably wiped out by the Minoans. They are a nomadic, quadruped, fur-covered species with visual similarities to capybaras, rabbits, and ponies. The average full-grown Runner slightly outweighs the average human. Archaeological surveys on Voltaire have revealed no permanent dwellings and only scattered examples of Stone-Age technology.

Twenty-eight thousand Runners are recovered from the Preserve ship captured in NML, having been kept in stasis since the genocidal attack by the Minoans.

Runners built mounds across Voltaire as guide posts, memorials, and other markers.

Runner society is herd-based, communal, and largely peaceful. They are not pacifistic, but they had relatively few conflicts and few natural predators on Voltaire.

While primarily quadrupedal in stance and gait, the Runners are tool-users and are capable of gripping and manipulating objects with their upper limbs. They can fight readily with spears, but their hind legs are dramatically more powerful than their upper limbs.

Runner medicine is “not advanced, but they have their ways,” according to Logol.

Logol asserts that Runners share an ability to recognize sincerity across species, like the Krokinthians.

The Runners are highly adaptable to environmental conditions. In NML, they adjust quickly to the atmosphere of the Preserve once released from stasis.

At the end of NML, the surviving Runners collectively ask to return to Voltaire despite the changes wrought by terraforming.

The Oneln are a newly-revealed species among the aliens captured in the Minoan Preserve. Their bodies follow a similar structure to Terran trees, with eyes at the end of some branches. The Oneln partly went undiscovered because they arose in an environment hostile to humans. They “prefer worlds distant from stars,” according to Glotho, a Krokinthian. They cannot survive under atmospheric conditions suitable for humans.

Voltaire is the homeworld of the Runners.

New Yunaan had cave-dwellings.

Anambra has considerable ruins, which have significantly influenced human architecture and development on the planet. Its embassy on Assembly Station shines like a jewel as a result.

Magenta says the Minoans wiped out “the Runners” because they would not serve.

The Krok in LMO says the Minoans destroyed three alien civilizations and drove two more “beyond our space” before the Kroks and Noonies defeated them. “Even the last battle could have ended us instead of them.”  They name the two surviving species as Yanra and the Kaelos, and say “human space is small” to explain why they haven’t been encountered.

PLANETS

Archangel is not quite 2 weeks from Earth for a fast ship hauling ass (300-ish light years). Its planets are Ambrose, Michael, Raphael, Jerome, Gabriel, Uriel, Ophanim, Gregoria, and Augustine. Additionally, several large asteroids and moons have small settlements. Before the war, Archangel ranked as the ninth strongest economy in the Union and the strongest of any state based around a single star. (Debatable: the Solar System claims to be made of independent planet-states, but functionally Earth runs the show.) 

The settlement and development of Archangel reaches back 150 years. Archangel was sponsored by the Catholic Church, though an overwhelming number of colonists preferred a secular turn once in the system. The first colony ship was the Agnus Dei.

Raphael is home to the capital city of Salvation. The president lives and works at, Ascension Hall and the main military headquarters is called the Basilica. Raphael is also home to Fort Stalwart and the prestigious Michelangelo Academy.

Azarias is the moon of Raphael.

Gabriel is Archangel’s second most-developed world after Raphael. It has a strong Francophone heritage.

Uriel is home to Uriel Shipyards, the Archangel Naval Academy, the Naval Justice School, and the navy’s polar survival course. Uriel is seen as the most religious of Archangel’s worlds.

Michael is the closest settled planet to the sun. It is considered by many to be the least religious of Archangel’s already mostly-secular worlds. The cities of Geronimo and Crystal Falls saw lots of protests and insurgency violence during the occupation. The city of Saguaro was badly hit by missiles during the invasion. General Carruthers was the NorthStar occupation CO.

Astonaco is the moon of Michael. Port Astonaco was targeted in a failed liberation offensive near the end of the war, ending in a partial bombardment of its shipyard facilities.

Bethlehem Station orbits Michael and was nearly destroyed in the invasion.

Augustine is the farthest from the sun, and not considered a fully terraformed world despite an oxygenated atmosphere and a carefully-engineered greenhouse effect. At the start of PMF, Augustine is at its closest orbital point to Hashem’s space. Augustine holds a university and a major naval station, which was bombarded during the invasion.

The Kingdom of Hashem contains SEVEN star systems. It borders Archangel, lies partially between Archangel and Krok space. Hashem and Archangel have been historical antagonists, with border tensions, covert ops, and small raids throughout their shared history.

After the pirate attack on Qal’at Khalil, Prince Murtada took over the planet in an early aggression that set off worries of civil war and a refugee crisis. The full civil war erupted months after, with fighting between Princes Murtada, Kaseem, and Khalil. The king was killed shortly before DMD.

By the end of DMD, Khalil officially holds the Kingdom’s seat in the Union Assembly and the support of many outside powers. Murtada and Kaseem are reduced to holding three planets between them (star systems not specified), but the war continued.

Ras-al-Khaimah is a system on top/opposite side of Hashem from Archangel with two planets: Ras-al-Khaimah Prime and Qal’at Khalil

Scheherezade is only a few days from Archangel (for a fast ship). Conquered by Prince Murtada in the civil war.

Al-Farabi and Palmyra border Krokinthian space, giving Hashem a priority privilege in the Union Assembly. Both are loyal to Prince Khalil.

Earth, Luna, and Mars claim to be independent worlds largely to enhance their political power, but in practice they vote and conduct trade as a bloc.

Fairhaven: In the Endeavor system. NorthStar HQ, 6-9 days from Earth and ~12 days from Archangel. Fairhaven is seen as a model of balancing ecological care with urban development. Though it once held an independent government and militia, both were subsumed by NorthStar when the company was declared a state entity by the Union Assembly. The final offensive by Archangel was the first time Fairhaven had suffered an attack since the Expansion Wars.

Fremantle is ~280 light years from Earth. Home of the prestigious 100-year-old Fremantle University, it is a 1st Tier world with a warm and pleasant climate, palm trees big enough to rival office towers, and crustaceans coveted as fine dining across the Union. Jandakot Station is the main spaceport. Civilian gun ownership is generally illegal.

Fremantle University is one of the Union’s top art schools as well as its science & tech.

Minos was claimed as a technicality after the armistice that ended the Expansion Wars. It was naturally oxygenated and its gravity was close to Earth’s, with life in the oceans. The land masses had all suffered a volcanic catastrophe in 1647 that was believed to have wiped out a stone-tech civilization. Terraforming did not take hold in all areas, but Terran biomass flourished in many parts of the planet.

Quilombo, formerly New Brasilia, was the first extra-solar colony to declare independence. This was as much a revolt against the abusive, now-defunct Brandao-Alegre Company as a political revolution. Quilombo sees itself as a force for liberation. They also throw great embassy parties.

Zheng He holds major Union Fleet base on the Krok border. It’s ~9 days from Archangel. Major cities include Mazu. Though the planet holds considerable Union and Union Fleet facilities, most of Zheng He is occupied by either Lai Wa or its approved subsidiaries and partners.

Edison: Paid for early big development, but prosperity never came because of debt issues. Major cities include Stilwell.

Headwaters: Major commercial hub with many corporate enclaves due to lax regulations. Fully terraformed with significant urban development. Site of CDC’s secret Noonie lab. Settlement goes back over 100 years.

Arcadia is a planet with many luxurious climate zones. It’s seen as a top tourist destination and an expensive place to live. Architecture incorporates lots of green space and terracing.

Izumoto’s Star: Strong military power, fell under the fascist Setsubun regime 3 generations ago.

Maurras: an aspiring military power under CDC patronage. Held CDC’s secret Krok lab outside the city of Stanton.

Anambra was home to a pre-industrial alien race that became extinct before human expansion. Its human settlers are largely from Nigeria and neighboring regions. They have incorporated much of the alien architectural styles and materials.

New Bangkok is a largely failed terraforming project by Lai Wa from some 160 years ago. The only settlements are on a narrow band of livable conditions, yet Lai Wa refuses to sell or forgive any of its primary debts. The planet is hot and dry and gravity is a touch too heavy.

Qin Kai is a thriving world near the edge of Union space bordering Krokinthian and recognized Nyuyinaro territory. It is home to a major Union Fleet base and significant Lai Wa investment and development. The system has few planets, making for an easy transition in and out. It is only two hours away from Minos by most good FTL drives.

Moorehouse: buys small arms.

New Corsica has an asteroid belt with many mining outposts

Delhi Prime has palaces

Wushan has cave expeditions

New Canaan is predominantly Jewish, with slightly more adherence to religious influence than Archangel but still more secular than religious.

New Yunaan has cave dwellings from an extinct alien species.

Voltaire was home to the Runners, believed extinct until the events of NML. The planet required minor terraforming in comparison to other worlds settled by humanity, however atmospheric alterations and the addition of extraplanetary water were still necessary.

Voltaire has a population of around 63 million humans living under a corporate oligarchy.

The Sapphire system has two separate planetary states: Endeavor and Independence. Endeavor was the first colony in the system, established by an Earth-based multinational that gambled big on CDC support and ultimately lost. Independence is a secondary mining colony established thirty years ago. With the demise of CDC, Endeavor’s future prospects have risen sharply, but Independence broke away (renaming itself to Independence in the process) and has become a big bully because they got their hands on some of CDC’s hardware. Endeavor is trying hard to avoid violent conflict.

The Zorya system is only a few years older than Tanner. It is a border system, far from any known alien borders. They have only recently begun developing a university.

Name-drops only: Columbia, Hamilton IV, New Beijing, Shanfang (Assembly Station)

HOLOCOMS

Like cell phones, holocoms are an indispensable computer and electronic multi-tool. Cheaper versions are like wristwatches (also the most durable kind), but many are condensed down to jewelry. Most generally recognize a user’s biometrics and/or some other security function like a code, and open up by producing a floating holographic menu screen.

Holocoms provide audio and video conferencing, projected images for media and games and even protest signs, and can contain a media library. They are also commonly used to interface with larger devices for work and play.

Many different companies produce a wide range of holocoms. The highest-quality are made from Minoan crystal, though Minos Enterprises generally did not produce the final product.

MEDICAL TECHNOLOGY:

Auto-suture: place over wound to 1) extract burnt/dangerous tissue and foreign matter, 2) inject with various antiseptic, anti-cauterizing, and clotting gels, and 3) to suture the site.

Some first aid kits come with injection pens that do some of the same work as auto-suture.

self-compressing bandages, corrective bandages, micro-weave bracing bandages

A blood regulator is an emergency device that can minimize and restrict circulation in the event of catastrophic blood loss. This largely involves limiting the flow of blood to the limbs to the bare minimum required to support tissue survival while preserving circulation to vital organs.

clotting gel (with antiseptic)

hypo shot (ease pain, prevent shock)

suture cartridges (marker sized)

longevity treatments/gene therapy

--several pet species including dogs and cats can receive this; a monopoly by CDC made this super expensive until their monopoly was undercut, and then they flooded the market to screw the new competition in around 2270

Rich people can afford electric stim sessions for muscles in lieu of actually working out, as well as semi-customized digestive bacteria to prevent weight gain (but it leads to some private gross stuff)

Metabolic enhancers – basically a two-sequence bacteriological treatment to combat weight gain, sometimes with unpleasant gastronomic side effects if not managed carefully.

Rejuvi-stim is a common hangover helper

TOOLS/REPAIR TECHNOLOGY

Anti-grav lifter belts

Electrostatic tape

Emergency sealing foam

Plasma cutter

Fuckin’ magnets everywhere

Breaching Kits (damage control tools, probably also first responder gear)

Self-adhering, self-sealing suit patches for vac suits, presumably other fabrics as well

Identifier Spectacles can be programmed for pattern recognition and will search for small objects in a given field of vision.

Clawhand is a single-person powered digging rig on two exoskeleton-like legs

ARCHITECTURE/ENGINEERING

Floor-to-ceiling windows with opaque settings almost indistinguishable from regular walls, and even one-way transparency settings (Andrea’s office in Ascension Hall had one of these)

CONSUMER STUFF

Photo-reactive contact lenses

Salons offer rapid hair regrowth

VEHICLES:

Airvan

Rover – fills the SUV/minivan category

ESPIONAGE TECH:

Bumper Unit – The Navy’s is the size of a shoebox, the Intel Ministry has one that fits in the palm of the hand but runs out of power fast. Intel’s version is stolen from Lai Wa.

Disguise tech at the end of Dead Man’s Debt

Null Gel – allows user to pick up & mimic biometrics from a handshake.

Concealing Fog – produced from canisters, can soak up and fool bounce-back from active signals, hide heat signatures, and also provide visual cover

WEAPONS AND ARMOR

Most body armor worth wearing is exceptionally expensive. Many militaries and companies don’t bother with much more than helmets and simple padding.

Chaff is a combustible chemical that produces a brief shower of intense heat, light, and electromagnetic signals. It us used to scramble targeting systems, sensors, optics, etc. Chaff weapons scale from starship defenses to hand grenades.

Audio baffles are common, either worn as inserts or included in helmets to cut down on loud noises to protect hearing while leaving lower-level hearing undiminished.

Powered armor comes in a few varieties and is wildly expensive. Even the Big Three used it sparingly and reserved it for elite operators.

Guns in the first three books were not generally given names, but some names have turned up since. The most common weapons are lasers (red), pulse lasers (red or blue), conventional bullet-using firearms, and the rare and devastating plasma weapon (neon green). Color modification of beam outputs is sometimes possible. Weapons are often locked with magnetic or biometric keys.

Laser-heated knives are not uncommon.

Stunners use an electric shock to render a victim unconscious. They must be used at short range (and, I think, within atmosphere).

Sonic weapons including grenades and large weapons exist, but are rare. They cause severe nausea and disorientation in addition to hearing damage.

L-7 is a small laser pistol capable of fooling most sniffer and scanner units.

A Diamondback is a compact assault weapon produced by CDC with multiple output settings and a magazine of around 100 small high-penetration bullets. It’s an excellent weapon.

An airburster is an infantry heavy weapon that launches super-compressed balls of air into an area to create explosions.

A riot gun is a shotgun-like weapon that can be loaded with various shots for utility, including smoke, chaff, acid, gases, incendiaries, and solid shot. Some users pack magazines with varying loads and can alternate between types with a pump-action, but the pump is not necessary between shots like an old-fashioned shotgun.

Muskets are light, miniaturized missile launchers mounted under rifles and other long arms. They are not common to corporate or Archangel forces but are used by certain Union Fleet units.

COMPANIES

NorthStar

         Risk Management handled NorthStar’s dirty deeds and espionage.

         Before the Debtor’s War, NS owned 58% of personal debt of Union Fleet personnel. (Not established if this was publicly known.)

Lai Wa Corporation

         Education wing includes Lai Wa Success Academy

CDC = Carrington-Douglas Consolidated

         Military wings included CDC Expeditionary and CDC Security Services. CDC military hardware included hard-shell armor and magazine-fed infantry missile launchers.

         Executive Resources: CDC’s espionage & black ops division

         CDC Schools required a down payment for students to walk at graduation (Rav, Jesse)

Minos Enterprises produced the highest-quality computer chips for 30+ years.

Precision Solutions was a large PMC that went out of business after the Minos incident.

Stellarcast Communications is a broad media empire and also the biggest provider of packet ship services (mail) across the Union. They screwed Archangel in the run-up to the war.

United Express is an Earth-based shipping company that hires out freelancers everywhere.

Lloyd’s Financial

Briarwood Capital under Jonathan Hartmann is the largest independent investment firm in Archangel

The Archangel Independent Shipping Guild is chaired by Jim Bowers

Noble Dawn Holdings is a diverse, interstellar corporation that benefitted greatly from the downfall of CDC.

MEDIA OUTLETS

Stellarcast Communications presumably has several subsidiary companies and publications

Solar Herald

Armstrong News Service

Raphael Public Media (Bob Norris)

Uriel Media Service (conservative, hostile to Aguirre; Herman Deng)

Union Business Review (Matt Gao)

Assembly Night Roundup (Union Assembly station media)

Union Relations Monthly

BOOKS

A History of Alien Relations, Joseph Vandenberg, 2277

Introduction to Xenobiology, Mai Nguyen

So You Want to Be a Combat Pilot, Stanley Kim, Lai Wa Publishing, 2275

RANDOM CULTURAL BITS

Sovereign Humanity is an interstellar activist group with a xenophobic view of aliens and a strong distrust for the Union government.

The Interstellar Academy of Motion Picture and Holographic Arts and Sciences hosts the annual Tommy awards on a different planet each year.

“Film” includes holographic presentations, but essentially film/tv performance continues.

Rock music has evolved and diversified without ever going out of style.

LMO pg. 280 provides a little text on different military uniforms