They Answered The Call

Political organizations and empires of local space

The Galactic Commonwealth: The Commonwealth is a 427-year-old interstellar organization that was founded in the Earth year of 1747 A.D. after an alliance of three species emerged victorious against the aggressive Tallen Empire. The three original charter members were the V’rni, the Zikal, and the Omina. They ratified the charter and took over the administration of the now-defunct Tallen Empire, liberating the four subjugated species that were under their control. These four species would join the organization within the next fifty years, and the Commonwealth entered a golden age of exploration and peaceful expansion. Two hundred years after its creation, the Commonwealth had increased its membership to sixteen species and continued to thrive and expand its borders.

They enjoyed mostly peaceful relations with other interstellar polities and embarked on a new wave of colonization and expansion. In the year 1983, first contact with the Eleani Sovereignty occurred, followed by first contact with the Xenxin Protectorate in 1986 A.D. After a few years of trading and cultural exchanges, the Commonwealth approached the Eleani government with a membership proposal. The Eleani Sovereignty officially joined the Commonwealth in 1989, joining several other neighboring species that were already members and becoming the furthermost member state in the region that would come to be known as the Commonwealth periphery.

First contact with the Insectoid Empire occurred in 2036 A.D. when a Commonwealth expedition entered the area known as the Ralek Expanse to chart a course and scout the unknown region for prospective colonial expansion. They were immediately attacked by unknown ships upon entering the expanse, and only two ships out of the nine in the expedition survived the encounter. The Commonwealth sent several diplomatic forays to the region to diffuse tensions and try to make contact, but every attempt was met with weapons fire and a refusal to communicate. The first official naval battle with the new enemy occurred two months later, and four Commonwealth heavy cruisers were severely damaged before they managed to destroy the lone alien cruiser. It was when they retrieved bodies from the wreckage that they realized that they were dealing with a space-faring insect species, the first ever encountered.

Faced with their first real enemy in almost three hundred years, a militant faction in the parliament called for a punitive expedition to be launched as a show of strength and to avenge the deaths of their crews and ships. In 2037, a fleet of three hundred of the most powerful ships in the navy set course to the Ralek Expanse and entered it. The last series of transmissions received before contact with the fleet was lost showed the first appearance of what would later be categorized as a Hive ship. The three hundred warships of the fleet were the pinnacle of Commonwealth military technology and were crewed by long-serving veterans. Several attempts by the fleet to communicate were ignored, and the Hive ship sent the first voice transmission ever by the Insectoids. It was a synthesized voice that was copied from previous communications by Commonwealth ships and was just one word: LEAVE.

The admiral commanding the task force continued to try to open channels and ordered the fleet to condition readiness level two. Two minutes after the Insectoid transmission, the Hive ship suddenly opened fire. Within five minutes, there were less than sixty Commonwealth vessels still combat-capable, and the Admiral ordered a retreat, leaving behind crippled ships and thousands of escape pods. The retreating fleet fled towards the edge of the expanse as their null space capacitors charged, and the Hive ship followed them, picking them off one by one. Eleven minutes after the battle had commenced, the last retreating ship managed to eject the bridge log drone before being destroyed. The Hive ship ignored it or didn’t detect it, and the drone kept recording as it left the battlespace to safely flash into null space. Before it exited, it recorded the Hive ship going back to the site of the opening battle and capturing one of the crippled ships and numerous escape pods, pulling them into an opening before destroying the rest as more Hive ships and hundreds of cruisers exited null space and flashed into the area, targeting the drifting escape pods and destroying all of them without mercy.

The Commonwealth retrieved the drone and panicked, sending most of its fleet to the border that faced the Insectoids and enacting a quarantine zone to prevent any other Commonwealth ships from entering that area and antagonizing the Insectoids. The Commonwealth stopped all further colonization and expansion attempts after their disastrous first contact with the Insectoids and devoted their efforts to building up their navy and fortifying their territory. As of 2172, the Commonwealth had twenty-seven member species and controlled two hundred and eighty-six solar systems, with a combined population of two and a half trillion citizens.

Non-aligned Powers: These are smaller interstellar powers that are mostly single-species states and their colonial possessions. They trend towards neutrality in the interstellar affairs of their local area of space, preferring to engage in trade and the exchange of services and technology. Most of these smaller powers tend to excel in certain areas, such as specific fields of science, medicine, and military technology, that they then sell to their neighbors or larger powers, such as the Commonwealth. These favorable exchanges of services and technology allow them to enrich their coffers and negotiate security agreements with larger powers that guarantee protection from invasion. Their prosperity and cutting-edge research and development programs have allowed for these smaller powers to become economic powerhouses and centers of commerce, and their small navies punch well above their weight because of their advanced military-industrial complexes. The non-aligned powers control fifty-eight solar systems between them and have a combined population of one hundred and thirty billion citizens.

The Ma’lit Domain: The only survivors of an ancient interstellar organization called the Galactic Federation that existed 125,000 years ago, and the only confirmed species to still exist that are of the “Old Ones.” They are a quasi-religious society that has been in a long period of stagnation and decline, though their technology is still far superior and will remain so for generations. They eschew all contact with other alien races, and their trading and interspecies negotiations are handled on a series of automated border posts crewed by androids and control AIs. Any accidental or intentional violations of their border are swiftly intercepted, and the offending ship is hit with a beam that disables the entire vessel instantly. The ship is towed back to the other side of their border by automated sentry vessels and left there. An emergency beacon is dropped by the sentry ships that transmits coordinates for rescue, and they are left to fend for themselves in a powerless ship as they await rescue, often freezing to death or running out of air before they are saved.

Very few of their species are ever encountered outside of their space, and they wear bio-mechanical exosuits that isolate them from their surroundings when they venture past their borders. The few surviving records that have been found about the Federation in archaeological sites describe a very different species during that time, indicating that they were great scientists and explorers. They are suspected of being the creators of the null drive and the source of the derelict ships that have been found in numerous systems that have allowed for the technology to be reverse engineered by the younger races. A fringe group of researchers and historians maintain that this was an intentional act by renegade Ma’lit, who, despite their isolationist tendencies, did not like being alone for millennia and purposefully crashed automated ships with primitive null drives to uplift neighboring races so that they could become interstellar species and bring sapient life back to the empty worlds of the long-dead Federation.

Rumors have persisted that the Federation collapsed because of a virulent, fast-moving plague that swept through their worlds and wiped them out, with only the Ma’lit having some innate resistance to it. When the plague ran its course, they found themselves alone in a vast graveyard of trillions of dead and suffered a form of racial madness as a result. They sent out massive ships and scourged all the dead worlds of any evidence and technology of the Federation, and when that was done, they withdrew back to their space and isolated themselves, fearful of being carriers of the plague and infecting the younger races. Only two Ma’lit warships have been sighted by spy drones along the border, and they are massive dreadnoughts that are twelve kilometers long and five kilometers wide. Their territory is in the Pleiades cluster, and they lay claim to a ten-light-year radius.

The Insectoid Empire: Not much is known about this aggressive, xenophobic species. They do not tolerate any encroachment upon their territory and periodically engage in “swarming” to seize worlds from neighboring species. Their ships are extremely powerful, and their tactics reflect an ability and willingness to absorb an incomprehensible number of casualties to achieve victory or inflict unsustainable losses on enemy fleets. They do not engage in diplomacy or trade, and their ships do not leave their territory unless they are swarming.

The most common ships utilized by the Insectoids are cruisers, which are 360 meters long, 60 meters wide, and 120 meters in height. They are heavily armed and armored and can take on the larger heavy cruiser warships fielded by most species. Five Insectoid cruisers are capable of engaging and destroying the massive battleships fielded by the Commonwealth.

Hive ships fill a dual role in the Insectoid Empire, fulfilling both functions as capital dreadnoughts and colony ships. They have a rounded hexagonal shape with a radius of five kilometers and a height of 1.5 kilometers. They have numerous beam weapons emplacements for 360-degree coverage and carry a magazine of 10,000 missiles. Their hulls are extremely strong, requiring sustained energy weapon fire in a concentrated area before being breached. They can carry up to two million worker drones and a million larvae for rapid colonization of worlds. They are susceptible to specialized penetrator missiles, railgun slugs, hyper-velocity kinetic weaponry, and plasma torpedoes. They are prone to catastrophic decompressions if they suffer enough critical hull breaches beyond their abilities to seal. As of 2172, they controlled forty-eight solar systems with an estimated population of more than four trillion drones.

The Republic of Humanity: After a devastating world war, the Republic of Humanity emerged from the ruins, and the Global Accords of 2080 A.D. unified the Earth under one government for the first time in human history. After a massive rebuilding effort and rapid technological innovations, mankind went back into space and became an interplanetary species. The discovery of a derelict alien ship with a primitive null drive in 2116 A.D. on the surface of Titan confirmed the presence of alien life in the galaxy and allowed Republic scientists to reverse-engineer the technology, becoming an interstellar species. The first contact with an alien species occurred in the year 2123 A.D. when a Republic scout ship was intercepted by a Commonwealth science ship in the YZ Ceti system, twelve light-years from Earth. This was followed by the Republic embarking on a rapid and massive shipbuilding program to defend themselves against the perceived threat of invasion by far more advanced alien species.

There was also an outpouring of emigration from Earth to claim as many solar systems as possible to ensure that humanity wouldn’t be hemmed in and encircled by larger, more advanced societies. By the year 2131, the Republic had made its first contact with numerous species and had taken its place among the stars as an interstellar organization. The Republic engaged in widespread trading and cultural exchanges with other species, and their diplomats were second to none as they forged ever deeper relations. Humans were well-received by many of the races they encountered, and their endless curiosity and ability to empathize with and adapt to a variety of cultural differences endeared them to their neighbors. Republic starships were seen everywhere engaging in trade, scientific research, and cultural studies as they pushed ever deeper into space to try to quench their unending thirst for knowledge.

The Republic quickly became an economic powerhouse thanks to their highly advanced manufacturing abilities, and the quality of the products they produced became renowned throughout space. Earth became a regional cultural center as they welcomed all who wished to come, and their universities and science centers became nexuses of interspecies collaboration. After generations of rehabilitation and habitat restoration, Earth has turned most of the planet’s surface into federal parks and wildlife sanctuaries. By 2170, Earth had an annual average of over two billion alien visitors, and some would come to see the “Garden World” and the multitudes of wildlife swarming on the surface and under the oceans. Others came to learn about humanity and immensely enjoyed the museums, art galleries, and the dizzying array of cultures and cuisines worldwide.

Many alien visits are to the dozens of memorial monoliths found all over Earth that commemorate the victims of World War 3. They are massive obelisks, with a one-square-mile base made of granite and narrowing towards the top to a height of one thousand feet. The obelisks are encased in white quartz, and the capstone is made of pure platinum with a lamp that burns with an eternal flame. To many alien visitors, it is a pilgrimage that they make to pay their solemn respects to the billions of victims and to rejoice in the survival of the human species, as most sapient war-like species never make it through the great filter.

The Republic enjoys mostly cordial relations with many races but struggles with arrogant behavior from some older races and organizations that range from ambivalent to barely concealed hostility. The Republic has excellent relations with the non-aligned powers, while their relationship with the Galactic Commonwealth has been troubled for decades. The Republic underwent a massive uplifting of technology and advancement starting in the year 2131 A.D. that continued unabated in the ensuing four decades, reaching near-parity with the other far older interstellar societies. This, coupled with their already highly advanced automated technologies and AI capabilities, greatly contributed to the ongoing friction between the Republic and the Commonwealth. The growing power and prestige of the Republic have led to other races speculating that a war between the Republic and the resentful Commonwealth was a forgone conclusion and a matter of when, not if.

Many species and organizations have quietly let it be known that they would support the Republic if war broke out, including several disgruntled members of the Commonwealth. Many of them felt that the Commonwealth had become too large and were arrogant bullies. They had a stranglehold on interstellar affairs that they often leveraged through unfair trade tariffs, sanctions, and blockades, earning them the resentment and enmity of many species. There were rumors that the Republic had a massive war fleet and hundreds of shipyards, though many species believe that these rumors were spread by the Republic itself to give pause to the Commonwealth or any other powers that might think about attacking them. Attempts to spy on the Republic military are unsuccessful due to the impenetrable border detection network employed by the Republic and their ability to hack and take over any spy drones that approached their space. Trade goods are brought to designated outposts and offloaded there, and alien ships entering Republic space are assigned strictly enforced transit routes to their destinations. They are escorted by automated sentry vessels that enveloped them in a jamming field that scramble all navigation and scanning sensors, effectively blinding them and preventing any spying attempts.

The only military ships ever seen or detected were border guard cutters and automated sentry vessels. As a result of this, none of the other powers have any intelligence regarding the Republic's military capabilities. As of 2172, the Republic of Humanity controlled sixty-nine solar systems and had a population of over ten billion humans. There are also three pre-industrial sapient species inside Republic space that have strict quarantine zones around their solar systems and an official governmental policy of non-interference. The combined population of these three species is just over three billion.