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laika290 · 1 year ago

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ever wonder why spotify/discord/teams desktop apps kind of suck?

i don't do a lot of long form posts but. I realized that so many people aren't aware that a lot of the enshittification of using computers in the past decade or so has a lot to do with embedded webapps becoming so frequently used instead of creating native programs. and boy do i have some thoughts about this.

for those who are not blessed/cursed with computers knowledge Basically most (graphical) programs used to be native programs (ever since we started widely using a graphical interface instead of just a text-based terminal). these are apps that feel like when you open up the settings on your computer, and one of the factors that make windows and mac programs look different (bc they use a different design language!) this was the standard for a long long time - your emails were served to you in a special email application like thunderbird or outlook, your documents were processed in something like microsoft word (again. On your own computer!). same goes for calendars, calculators, spreadsheets, and a whole bunch more - crucially, your computer didn't depend on the internet to do basic things, but being connected to the web was very much an appreciated luxury!

that leads us to the eventual rise of webapps that we are all so painfully familiar with today - gmail dot com/outlook, google docs, google/microsoft calendar, and so on. as html/css/js technology grew beyond just displaying text images and such, it became clear that it could be a lot more convenient to just run programs on some server somewhere, and serve the front end on a web interface for anyone to use. this is really very convenient!!!! it Also means a huge concentration of power (notice how suddenly google is one company providing you the SERVICE) - you're renting instead of owning. which means google is your landlord - the services you use every day are first and foremost means of hitting the year over year profit quota. its a pretty sweet deal to have a free email account in exchange for ads! email accounts used to be paid (simply because the provider had to store your emails somewhere. which takes up storage space which is physical hard drives), but now the standard as of hotmail/yahoo/gmail is to just provide a free service and shove ads in as much as you need to.

webapps can do a lot of things, but they didn't immediately replace software like skype or code editors or music players - software that requires more heavy system interaction or snappy audio/visual responses. in 2013, the electron framework came out - a way of packaging up a bundle of html/css/js into a neat little crossplatform application that could be downloaded and run like any other native application. there were significant upsides to this - web developers could suddenly use their webapp skills to build desktop applications that ran on any computer as long as it could support chrome*! the first applications to be built on electron were the late code editor atom (rest in peace), but soon a whole lot of companies took note! some notable contemporary applications that use electron, or a similar webapp-embedded-in-a-little-chrome as a base are:

microsoft teams

notion

vscode

discord

spotify

anyone! who has paid even a little bit of attention to their computer - especially when using older/budget computers - know just how much having chrome open can slow down your computer (firefox as well to a lesser extent. because its just built better <3)

whenever you have one of these programs open on your computer, it's running in a one-tab chrome browser. there is a whole extra chrome open just to run your discord. if you have discord, spotify, and notion open all at once, along with chrome itself, that's four chromes. needless to say, this uses a LOT of resources to deliver applications that are often much less polished and less integrated with the rest of the operating system. it also means that if you have no internet connection, sometimes the apps straight up do not work, since much of them rely heavily on being connected to their servers, where the heavy lifting is done.

taking this idea to the very furthest is the concept of chromebooks - dinky little laptops that were created to only run a web browser and webapps - simply a vessel to access the google dot com mothership. they have gotten better at running offline android/linux applications, but often the $200 chromebooks that are bought in bulk have almost no processing power of their own - why would you even need it? you have everything you could possibly need in the warm embrace of google!

all in all the average person in the modern age, using computers in the mainstream way, owns very little of their means of computing.

i started this post as a rant about the electron/webapp framework because i think that it sucks and it displaces proper programs. and now ive swiveled into getting pissed off at software services which is in honestly the core issue. and i think things can be better!!!!!!!!!!! but to think about better computing culture one has to imagine living outside of capitalism.

i'm not the one to try to explain permacomputing specifically because there's already wonderful literature ^ but if anything here interested you, read this!!!!!!!!!! there is a beautiful world where computers live for decades and do less but do it well. and you just own it. come frolic with me Okay ? :]

*when i say chrome i technically mean chromium. but functionally it's same thing

#txt #long post #permacomputing #sustainability

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dropthedemiurge · 13 days ago

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I have been slowly working towards getting a professional visa in Korea for more than a year - and finally, I have it!🥲 Just got the notification.

Native Koreans wouldn't understand my excitement or how difficult the process is, so I'm yelling here. I still have to update this visa every year but if I work hard enough I can get a better visa (that is not tied to a specific job and company) later. And I competed with actual Koreans for this spot in engineering company, they never had a foreigner before 👽 Yet previous intern was let go after a year but they offered me a permanent position in just 1 month because they liked my working attitude and skills. I can be proud of myself, right?

Also, since I didn't graduate in Korea but in my own country, that took many more preparations and failed attempts and risks. I left my old life, my family and friends, came here alone betting on the only chance, and now I get to start a completely new life. Difficult, but exciting nevertheless🥺

I have already started another program for foreigners integrating in Korean society, and it requires studying for 5 hours on Sunday and doing local social programs/volunteering/donating blood in other days... so idk when I'll have free time but I'm so relieved now, getting this visa took away some anxiety and burden rock off my chest. I can't wait to get back into watching new BLs and enjoy some rest writing fics or drawing (once I find free time)x))

Anyway. I finally feel like one of those heroes in the journey books I always read when I was a kid.

#my diary #dropthediary #personal rant #you're gonna rattle the stars you are #i thought i could never be someone i dreamed about #but im still not ashamed of who i grew ro be so that's a win too

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rainyenemypoetry · 11 days ago

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Tech Moguls Want to Build a Crypto Paradise on a Native American Reservation And hope to gobble up some land near you.

Early last year, a group of entrepreneurs and tech enthusiasts from around the world gathered inside a newly built dome on the Honduran island of Roatán to grapple with a problem: For thought leaders who want to move fast and break things, what can be done about laws that get in the way? The conference, sponsored by the Salt Lake City–based Startup Societies Foundation, was being put on in Vitalia, a longevity-themed “pop-up city” that caters to American medical tourists sidestepping cumbersome FDA regulations. Its motto: “We’re here to make death optional.” Vitalia was in turn located in Próspera, a semiautonomous city on Roatán. Imagine a nesting doll, a city within a city within a city—all on a Caribbean isle.Próspera, the project of entrepreneurs funded by venture capital firms backed by PayPal founder Peter Thiel and venture capital mogul Marc Andreessen, was established in 2017 and continues today, despite repeated efforts from Honduras to shut it down. An example of a “special economic zone,” Próspera is an autonomous jurisdiction with limited regulations. The general idea has been around for years—Mother Jones wrote about a failed Thiel-backed effort to build floating cities at sea back in 2012, for example. But in recent years, Silicon Valley founders, as they like to call themselves, have reworked the concept into the “network state,” as coined by entrepreneur and investor Balaji Srinivasan, a close friend of Thiel’s and a former colleague of Andreessen’s. As journalist Gil Durán observed in a New Republic piece on Srinivasan last year, “Balaji’s politics have become even more stridently authoritarian and extremist, yet he remains a celebrated figure in key circles,” including multiple Signal chats that, Semafor reported in April, helped radicalize the Silicon Valley elite.In a 2021 essay on his website, Srinivasan laid out his vision for people seeking to build a new utopia or, as he put it, “a fresh start.” Sure, there were conventional ways to do this—forming a new country through revolution or war. But that would be, well, really hard, not to mention unpredictable. A cruise ship or somewhere in space were appealing options, but both presented logistical challenges. Far simpler and more practical was “tech Zionism,” creating an online nation, complete with its own culture, economy, tax structure, and, of course, startup-friendly laws.Eventually, Srinivasan mused, such a community could acquire actual physical property where people would gather and live under the laws dreamed up by the founders—a “reverse diaspora,” he called it—but that land didn’t even need to be contiguous. “A community that forms first on the internet, builds a culture online,” he said, “and only then comes together in person to build dwellings and structures.” Acknowledging that the idea might sound a little goofy—like live-action Minecraft—he emphasized that it was also a serious proposition. “Once we remember that Facebook has 3B users, Twitter has 300M, and many individual influencers”—himself included—“have more than 1M followers,” he wrote, “it starts to be not too crazy to imagine we can build a 1-10M person social network with a genuine sense of national consciousness, an integrated cryptocurrency, and a plan to crowdfund many pieces of territory around the world.”A network state would, like a kind of Pac-Man, gobble up little pieces of actual land, eventually amassing so much economic power that other nations would be forced to recognize it. Once that happens, laws in more conventional nations could become almost irrelevant. Why on earth would, say, a pharmaceutical company with a new drug choose to spend billions of dollars and decades on mandated testing when it could go to a deregulated network state and take it to market in record time? As Srinivasan argued in a Zoom talk at last year’s conference, “Just like it was easier to start bitcoin and then to reform the Fed,” he said, “it is literally easier to start a new country than

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loudcreationbluebird · 11 days ago

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Tech Moguls Want to Build a Crypto Paradise on a Native American Reservation And hope to gobble up some land near you.

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adragonsdance · 1 month ago

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I may be yelling unheard into the uncaring void, but I’m gonna keep yelling about this au anyway.

I think I’m gonna call it the Corporate Problems AU, because this ship is full of Mira corporation’s Biggest Problems!

This au sits on the foundations of a lot of background worldbuilding that, admittedly, isn’t mine. At some point years ago, I read the Mimicry series on Ao3 by missteavee, and it was so good that it irrevocably rewired my brain, and completely changed the way that i view Among us. That worldbuilding is now the only thing I can think of as among us story cannon. So. It’s fantastic go check it out. There are a lotta elements that are important in like, How This World Works, but imma put a summary of the Important Bits (plus a few probably less important bits, because its fun) at the end of this post.

Because I have been Thinking about The Characters. I have ideas and concepts, but no plot. Which is a problem. But we’re not gonna think about that right now because Concepts and Characters are Fun!

The Main Cast, the crew, are Scar, Grian, Impulse, Skizz, Tango, Jimmy, Etho, Pearl, and Gem. All of them are hiding something, and all of them lied, frauded, or hacked their way onto the ship so that as far as Mira’s databases are concerned, this is a perfectly normal, approved crew traveling to Polus and following all regulations. They are not. And no one group is aware that none of the others are legitimate Mira employees either! This ship houses Chaos.

For starters, the integrity, (the name of the skeld ship, which I am treating as a standard class of Mira corporate space ships, each of which has its own name) actually belongs to a group of space pirates. Grian, scar, and jimmy stole the ship, disconnected it from all Mira systems, and proceeded to make a number of definitely illegal modifications, including making it suitable as their full-time living space. Grian used to work for Mira as a xenobiologist, until he managed to discover Mira’s corporate-genocide-coverup. Scar had been a pirate moving himself around Miras various corporate sectors and stealing tech and information for years at that point, and jimmy was Grian’s “I know a guy” computer tech guy to help them gut the ship of all of Mira’s influence.

Etho was the original founder of Mira, before it grew into a huge company, and stayed on the board as the primary influence in the company as it grew, until the rest of the board decided he had a few too many morals, and attempted to assassinate him via space-transport-malfunction. He ended up stranded on an unexplored planet, but survived. But that happened decades ago. He has not aged. He might possibly be immortal now, we have no idea.

Tango is an imposter, native to Polus, and a soldier in the very much active war that Mira is completely covering up. He doesn’t know that most of Mira’s employees don’t know that they’re fighting a war. He’s tech-savvy, and a very good shapeshifter by his species standards. He’s not red, because Grian’s red, but I can’t decide if I want to make him a light “frost” blue, or the shade of blue that’s literally called “tango blue”. Probably the latter. Im not sure if there’s gonna be another imposter on the ship, or who they are if they’re there.

For the rest of the crew, I’m still kinda figuring out What Their Deal Is. I think I’ve got impulse and skizz down, but from here on out, things might be subject to change.

Impulse is a bit of an inventor, with credentials in physics, and a lot of experience dabbling in other fields as well. He discovered or created something that the government was not thrilled with. I think that thing might have been a fully sentient, sapient AI, and I think that AI was skizz. After having his research publication denied, and the narrative equivalent of the FBI showing up at his house to try and confiscate his research and tech, he and skizz went on the run. They stole some advanced tech, probably from Mira, to build skizz a hyper-realistic, or possibly partially organic body, and decided that hacking into Mira’s databases and getting themselves an extended stay on Polus, one of the most remote research stations, would be a good way to hide.

Gem and peral I am much less sure of.

Gem is the ship’s acting medic. She has absolutely no medical experience. I wanted to have scientist gem, because I think that’s a fun character. She’s a xenobiologist and anthropologist. Possibly officially, possibly not. She wants to get to Plous for her own reasons, and is definitly not actually a miracle employee. One idea I had was to make her a retired or hiding mercenary or bounty hunter or something, but I’m not sure. I also kinda want to make her the other imposter, just because she gets imposter so frequently in the recent among us streams.

Peral, I really have no idea. She’s another candidate for the other imposter. She’s probably not human either way. She is a chemist though, that part of her credentials, at least, isn’t fake.

You throw all of these characters into the close quarters of a spaceship for 6-9 months, and intrigue, secrets, and shenanigans ensue! That’s about all I got for plot so far. Maybe overthrowing Mira, who knows.

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For context, here’s the other worldbuiling this au rests on:

Imposters— they are a species of sapient predatory mimics who are native to the planet Polus. When Mira scientists first set up on Polus, they drilled into one of the imposter-inhabited caves, and had a rather disastrous first contact. The cave they drilled into was a steam cavern, seemingly inhabited by hundreds of little alien worms. Mira labeled these worms as Polus Lifeform Type x223, and deemed them of high scientific interest. Recently, the company had issued an order that these worms are very scientifically valuable, and to collect and flash-freeze samples en masse. These worms are actually the newborn stage of imposters, and the steam caverns are their nurseries. None of the average Mira employees are aware of this. The imposters are in a fully militarized guerrilla warfare against a force attempting to genocide them. It is heavily implied that this is not the first alien species they have encountered and had to fight off.

Crewmates— the crewmates are a narative-equivalent-of-humans-species called Humana/humanae. They’re basically humans but a little to the left. Particularly in that they have very colorful eyes in any visible shade. The colour of their eyes is very important, especially in the dominant culture that we see. The colour of your eyes is your name, and while in small groups, like on a ship, going by base colour (ie. Blue, or yellow) is fine, generally, people are referred to by their “perfect shade” that is your specific colour name, (ie saffron, or crimson, or cerulean, etc). I think your colour generally dominates your dress, and is the colour of your MIRA space suit. They have a cultural idea of modesty that includes covering the face in public, generally by wearing a colorful vail, and is why no one typically takes off their helmets. Aside from the heads of the company and a few select high ranking staff and scientists, none of the Humana know that they ate fighting in a war. Mira claims, and bases all their released protocols and information on the idea, that imposters are an infective parasite, not a sentient species, and they are very careful to keep just the right about of stress and fear that no one has the incentive to look too closely at the evidence. (Yes I have picked out specific colours, to the hex code, for each of the characters)

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nrdmssgs · 2 years ago

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can you write something with reader and gromsko and how gromsko would treat her if she was his wife? i’ve heard some seriously questionable things about polish people from my boyfriend, he could be biased but from what i know they are super misogynistic and gromsko gives off traditional vibes yknow.

Masterlist

Wow, that is a very interesting request, actually!

First of all, I am very sorry, that your boyfriend had bad experience with Polish people and I really hope, that things get better. My very first work was in a Polish company, and I've met the sweetest, nicest people there. There was literally one issue - I was young, tiny and underweight, and they all felt sorry about that and constantly tried to feed me.)) So the reason I'm telling this here is to highlight, that there are so many different people in every country.

I don't have anything against authors, who chose to depict him as very traditional (in a negative way) person. It is always important to not forget, such people exist. But I want to offer you a slightly different approach to him. Let's just call it an experiment and see, if it works both for you and me, ok? We will keep this guy traditional more or less, but shift him to a non-toxic side.

Husband Gromsko HCs

Long before the marriage, he takes you with him on a trip across Poland to meet his relatives. Won't stop until you meet everyone. Grannies, aunties, nieces - everyone. You are about to become part of his family and it's important to him, that you are truly integrated in the family and shown love from every single part of it.

He asks his parents to bless your marriage, and definitely asks your parents to let him make a proposal to you. It is not that he is dependent - he was raised in a culture, where respect to elderly is everything.

Regardless of how devout he and you are (even if you are an atheist), Gromskо will persuade you to a traditional wedding ceremony.

If you do not belong to any church or are simply a representative of another faith, he will not rest until he persuades the priest of his native church to allow you two to marry.

Yes, this guy will start to fight for your marriage long before it even starts. He doesn't try to force you into faith though. If needed - he is ready to pray for you both. Because you are his love and Sobieslaw has enough faith to keep you in Gods good books.

Once you are his, truly and finally his - Sobieslaws mind is all concentrated on two objectives: domesticating you and welcoming children in your family.

His biggest fear is to fail you. And in his mind, keeping you on your work equals failing you. If you worry about money - it means to Gromsko, that he doesn't provide well enough.

It will take a lot of talking to change his mind. But eventually he will understand. No matter, what he is taught to believe - you, his wife, love of his life, come first. Always. If you are 100% sure, this is the way, you want to live - he will support your choice to keep your work.

He wants children. Not a single child - children. It will break his heart, if you are not in the same boat with him on that one. He won't push you too hard, won't give ultimatums - but he will constantly try to bring the similar wish into your mind.

He is a 'look how adorable these little ones', 'look how tiny this baby beanie is' type of guy. Watches his friends kids on the playground, while embracing you lovingly and whispering 'they are sweet, but our little treasure would be the sweetest'.

If you are as enthusiastic as he is, and you get pregnant - prepare to meet doctor Gromsko. He won't leave your side, not for a day, even if it affects his career. Who gives a f**k about work stuff, when the most important person out there prepares to gift him the second most important person in his life?

He will monitor you constantly, take you to every single check up, make sure you get all the essential vitamins, have enough of fresh air daily and NO stress.

Will welcome his child with tears, will cover your face with frantic, desperate kisses afterwards. "Dziękuję kochanie... dziękuję, dziękuję,dziękuję*!"

Gromsko loves it, when everybody knows, that you are his and he is yours. So please, if you take off your wedding ring for any reason - wear it on a chain as a necklace. Otherwise, he will be terrified, that it is a sign, you don't want him by your side anymore.

He is constantly worried, you might get sick, so he makes sure, you are always warm, you eat well (no matter what your body type is, his granny will still call you too thin, so Sobieslaw will worry about that), you get health checkups every now and then (even if you are feeling perfect!!!).

The most supporting guy, if you decide for any reason, that you don't want to work actively and choose to stay at home.

Gromsko won't just settle with 'ok, good, now I finally have a stay at home wifey'. He will make sure, you like every part of your home, have enough time and space for your hobbies, feel safe and loved.

By the way, the guy looks like the 'I'll build our house on my own' type. Who, if not him, knows better, what makes an ideal home for you and him? Of course, you can choose all the decorations, materials and so on. But he is the one, doing the building.

Dziękuję kochanie… dziękuję, dziękuję,dziękuję - Thank you, love... thank you, thank you, thank you.

#cod mw2 #cod #cod modern warfare #call of duty #cod x reader #call of duty mw2 #gromsko #modern warfare 2 #mw2 #modern warfare ii #gromsko mw2 #gromsko x reader #mw2 x reader #specgru cod #gromsko cod #sobiesław kościuszko #sobiesław kościuszko x reader #call of duty x reader

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ilisteria · 4 months ago

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Wild West/American Frontier Horus Heresy AU (Part 1)

Not sure if this was done before this has been stewing in my mind for a while. I don't have a complete list of all the Primarchs in this AU yet because they're either awkward fits or I just don't know how to make them have spice.

This is set in the late 20s. Some of their names will probably be changed but I haven't figured out to what yet.

As for how the Chaos vs Imperium conflict is represented here, I'd say it's more like the remaining colonial powers with a presence in the Americas, Mexico, and the indigenous tribes vs American expansionism. "Chaos" here isn't comically evil, it's still very much human - just with people pulling the strings of desperate people and everyone getting double crossed in the end.

And yes, the implication is that the Emperor is a parallel to Andrew Jackson. The Imperium is satire of the military complex ramped up 1000 times with heavy doses of fascism in the guise of freedom and literally entails colonizing the entire galaxy and driving out xenos species while narrowing humanity to a hyperspecific version of it. Plus, Andrew Jackson was known as the man and president of the American people and Big E is the Emperor of Mankind.

What can I say, the parallel writes itself.

Part two with the primarchs missing from this post

Loyalists

Sanguinius, the poster child of Manifest Destiny - he replaces Columbia in the American Progress painting. His wings aren't literal, but he's practically the saint of Westward Expansion and is thus usually depicted with them. A Quaker who knows he's supporting something terrible, but he takes in those orphaned by expansionist conflicts to try and atone and runs a network to help runaway slaves find freedom.

Ferrus, the owner of an iron company who's looking to take on Fulgrim as a business partner. Deep into the Manifest Destiny ideal because he firmly believes that industry is a blessing and he fell into the propaganda of the "barbaric" west. When he sees Fulgrim "slipping" from the ways of American society, he's still furious and things go as they do in 30k - but this time, his head gets beaten in with a steel bar.

Dorn, the figurehead of an architecture firm whose former partner is Perturabo. He holds similar beliefs to Ferrus on top of the ideal of American dream, albiet less brutal about how it could spread to the west. He has benefitted greatly from the dream, being renowned and contracted for the designs of various buildings for prestigious clients through sheer hard work and some well-placed connections. He has a massive disconnect between his own personal experiences as a part-native-part-white American and what's actually happening on the frontier.

Lion, a general from the War of 1812 and celebrated by the country. He believes to this day that there was an additional party orchestrating it and is in active investigation into a possible infiltrator of the military. Does he fully believe in Manifest Destiny? Maybe so, maybe not. He did swallow the propaganda about the "barbaric" west, but he holds some begrudging respect for their war tactics. Does he like them though? Not really, and he can't be convinced out of it. Conformity or death is at the forefront of his ideals. Currently a member of Big E's Cabinet.

Leman, another general from the War of 1812 albeit less celebrated than Lion due to his off-duty reputation and dishonourable discharge. He also believes there was an additional party orchestrating the war, but the lack of evidence thus far has left him generally leaning towards the side of "where there is or isn't, there'll still be a war to fight". He's not really keen on Manifest Destiny since he surprisingly feels that there's still a way for the indigenous people to integrate (albeit through assimilation) but does solidly believe in the American dream since he came from a peasant family. He's out in the frontier with a handful of his former soldiers, largely exploring and repelling attacks against the towns of the frontier.

Corvus, the descendent of slaves that fled to Massachusetts. Currently working with Sanguinius to help more people flee the South and is silently orchestrating a rebellion through an information network made up of those sympathetic to the cause of abolitionism and freed and current slaves. He doesn't have much involvement in the native vs white American conflict past occasionally tipping off certain tribal informants on any legislation or hunts that could impact them.

Vulkan, a freed slave via multiple successful slave revolts he started in order to force his state to abolish slavery. One of the few major timeline divergences against history in the real world. He's working with Corvus and Sanguinius to some degree and is trying to campaign for a Congressional seat in order to push a formal act to end slavery. He, of course, still rubs elbows with revolutionaries in other states through Corvus' network.

Jaghatai, a later player in the setting. He won't show up until the California Gold Rush when Chinese immigrants start appearing, so in the 30s he's living in a very politically fragile China marred by the Opium trade and is merely a lower level member of one of the banner families of the Qing. He's still Mongolian here (at least partially) since some of the Manchurian clans preferred to marry Mongolian women over Han women.

Bobby G what do I do with you and your backstory. Please send ideas my way he's so bland.

Traitors (better name pending)

Fulgrim, the son of Italian immigrants who worked to unionize a factory in NYC. He's travelling west with some former fellow factory workers to buy some land and try to make his own company with ethical working conditions. He abandons Manifest Destiny when he realizes that westward expansion and the prosperity of the country relies on the suffering and disposession of the indigenous peoples, and in a sense he sees himself in them. But this comes with a sort of saviour complex that he fails to acknowledge. The struggle against imperialism isn't fought in the same way as the struggle against ruthless capitalism.

Lorgar, one of the adherents of Pan-Indianism though he didn't directly fight in Tecumseh's War or the War of 1812. A native who was taken into American society as a child and grew disillusioned with it as he witnessed the abuses towards his people and realized there wasn't a place for him in such a society, so he fled the moment he heard rumours of a native movement and religious revival. Currently acts as a bridge between those sympathetic to the cause and the remaining tribes of Tecumseh's Confederacy.

Perturabo, someone disillusioned with the American dream because, as it turns out, pure hard work and diligence didn't get him anything. He used to work in an architectural firm with Dorn and contributed to the designs of various theatres and colleges but lost the credits and fame to them solely because Dorn's name was listed first and he was the front facing person of the firm. He watched Dorn recieve accolades from the President and the public while he sat in the office sorting out construction contracts and finishing blueprints, and eventually broke and left to the frontiers to restart his life and quite literally rebuild his ego. This, of course, means he's stuck designing forts instead.

Magnus, an early anthropologist who has a genuine interest in studying indigenous cultures and is one of the early proponents of something similar to cultural relativity before Franz Boas would create the American school of anthropology. He would also quickly become disillusioned with the American dream because even if his work earned him accolades, it was ultimately being used to crush the very cultures he dedicated his life to studying. He finds himself out west with resistance movements using his knowledge of American society to try to turn people on border and frontier towns to support the local natives and turn away soldiers should they come.

Angron, a runaway slave who fled west and came across Lorgar who acted as a bridge between him and a tribe that would take him in out of sympathy for the shared struggle against the abuses of the American Dream. No nails in this AU. He's still furious about the way things are going, but he's against direct combat here and largely relegates himself to helping runaways find their way to safety and freedom. Vaguely connected to Sanguinius' efforts, but they've never met directly.

Alpharius, a double agent for the British Empire. He's working to destabilize both Mexico and the US through orchestrating events that'll exacerbate the tensions between them and indigenous tribes until war breaks out. The moment things tip into the beginnings of war, his orders are to contact the British Empire and resecure the New World where the territory will be divvied up between them and any allies from the other colonial empires. Does he actually support them? Who knows.

Horus, Konrad, and Mortarion are big question marks for now, but if this gains any traction, I'd love to see interpretations for them plus Guilliman.

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cursedreverie1945 · 1 month ago

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This format is going to be a little different because it’s not just simple facts. I have a lot to say about this bag of hate. Also, this is over 7 pages on Microsoft Word. Buckle up. It's a long one.

@atticuscat

Hans Friedrich Karl Franz Kammler

He was better known as simply Hans Kammler.

He is probably one of the least known but most impactful of the more infamous bags of shite.

His young life was non-descript. There was nothing about really written about his early years that screamed out that he would be one of the worst men or the best at the worst. Depending on how you look at it, of course.

What made him stand out was his dedication to nazism. He joined the NSDAP in either 1931 or 1932, as various news agencies and websites report different dates. He was a rigid ideologue, and held various administrative positions, including being the head of the construction department at the Imperial Ministry of Aviation. In 1933, Kammler joined the SS.

He was responsible for the five-year program to organize concentration camps in the occupied territories of the USSR and Norway. Kammler was also involved in the design of the Auschwitz death camp and others. The sheer attention to detail made him all the more dangerous. The death camps were planned by this man, right down to the methods of cremation.

Kammler believed “subjugation” would require the murder of 20-30 million people from the Eastern Front, plus from the murder of what he considered undesirables.

It is known that Kammler organized the SS Special Staff in the section of the "Skoda" company located in the German Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. This would have been under the control of Reinhard Heydrich at the time. I have no idea how much Heydrich would have known about this, but knowing that bastard, I imagine it would have been most everything.

In March 1942, Himmler officially transferred the management of the "Skoda" plant to the SS, a giant industrial complex located in Pilsen and Brno. Speer knew nothing about this operation until he was informed about it as an accomplished fact.

In 1943 Kammler was appointed the Reichsführer SS special representative for the "A-4" program, otherwise known as vengeance weapons. He was put in charge of construction work and labor supply from concentration camps. The camps that worked their human slaves to death, on a quite literal level, were part of this man’s signature.

“The Holocaust would not have been as ‘efficient’ were it not for Kammler,” said Dean Reuter, author of “The Hidden Nazi: The Untold Story of America’s Deal with the Devil,” “He was integral to the evolution of mass murder.” We’ll get back to Reuter later.

In March 1944, Kammler became a representative of Himmler in the "aviation staff," which consisted of senior officials from the Luftwaffe and the Ministry of Armaments.

Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring, the head of the Luftwaffe and Hateler's nominal successor, tasked him with moving all strategic aviation facilities underground. From March 1944, Kammler supervised the construction of underground factories to produce fighter aircraft.

The bombing of Germany had become so prevalent that they wanted to move everything underground to possibly get ahead in the war machine. Obviously, as I sit in my American home, speaking English as my native language, and being quite liberal in my politics that involves having told a vast number of politicians in my lifetime that they were vile bootlickers, you can see how well that worked for Kammler, Himmler and Hateler. Also, what is up with Kammler and Himmler? They sound like names from some fascist cartoon.

After three months, Himmler reported to Hateler that ten underground aviation factories with a total area of tens of thousands of square meters had been built in eight weeks. EIGHT WEEKS. The sheer work that goes into something like that is virtually unheard of today.

In August of 1945 the Allies sent a list of six underground factories that had been penetrated to the U.S. Air Force headquarters in Europe. Each of these factories continued to produce aviation engines and other specialized equipment for the Luftwaffe until the last day of the war.

These factories occupied 3 – 16 miles approximately for my fellow Americans and 5 to 26 kilometers in length for the rest of the world. Tunnel sizes ranged from 13 feet to 66 feet or four to twenty meters in width and five to fifteen meters in height; workshop sizes ranged from 42,651 to 80,202 square feet or 13,000 to 25,000 square meters.

Don’t get me started on the feet vs meter thing. It’s a thorn in my side that the US is so damn backwards. Anyway, it’s a lot of land mass.

By mid-October 1945, a report sent to the U.S. Air Force stated that many underground factories had been discovered, much more than previously thought. These underground facilities were found not only in Germany and Austria but also in France, Italy, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia.

The report stated that the Germans had managed to launch about 143 such factories by the end of the war. Another 107 factories were discovered, built or laid down at the end of the war, in addition to 600 caves and mines, many of which were turned into conveyor belts and weapon production laboratories. It can only be speculated what would have happened if the Germans had gone underground before the war began, concludes the report, clearly impressed by the scale of German underground construction.

On August 8, 1944, following Himmler's appointment as head of the Ministry of Armaments, Kammler became the chief executive of the "V-2" project.

Kammler managed the entire process, from production and placement to conducting military operations against England and the Netherlands. He personally directed the rocket attacks. This position, thanks to his attention to detail, allowed Kammler to study the entire process of managing the strategic weapons program, an opportunity that had not been available to anyone else in the third reich.

Himmlers Hirn heißt Heydrich und Himmlers Hirn heißt Kammler.

I’m going to go off on a tangent here. Himmler really didn’t have anything more than an average IQ from everything I have read over the years. He was a toady little man, not much to look at in the general sense. He was, however, excellent at picking his people. Hans Kammler was one of them.

You don’t get the equivalent of a PhD without attention to detail. Trust me, I know this as fact, personally. The sheer amount of attention to all the details and thinking outside the box is so danged important. With some people, it is dangerous.

The war was falling apart for Germany. Perhaps the public didn’t know that because of Goebbels’ propaganda, those that were in command? They knew. They were done. There was no chance of winning the war for the nazis.

Around the very end of January 1945, Kammler became the Hatler's authorized representative for the development of jet engines and the leader of all rocket programs, both defensive and offensive.

Hateler permanently transferred all responsibility for air armaments such as fighters, rockets, and bombers to Kammler. In early April 1945, when the Soviet army was already approaching Berlin, Hateler and Himmler handed over to Kammler all the secret weapons systems of the third reich, which had no equivalents among the countries of the Allies.

The work of the scientists in Kammler's headquarters as unparalleled among other late-war technologies, even the "V-1" and "V-2" projects seemed ordinary in comparison. The list of special projects included nuclear installations for rockets and aircraft, advanced guided projectiles, and anti-aircraft lasers.

An important point is that the testing was not carried out at "Skoda" itself but in field conditions. Thus, Kammler's Special Staff functioned as a coordinating research center.

After the meeting with Hateler on April 3, 1945, Kammler moved his headquarters (not to be confused with the Special Staff) from Berlin to Munich. Before leaving Berlin, he made a farewell visit to Speer, during which he hinted that Speer should also move to Munich and that the SS was attempting to eliminate Hateler.

Kammler then informed Speer that he planned to contact the Americans and offer them everything in exchange for his freedom - "jet planes, as well as A-4 rockets and other important developments." He also revealed that he was gathering all qualified experts in Upper Bavaria to hand them over to the U.S. Army.

"He offered me a chance to participate in his operation," wrote Speer, "which undoubtedly would work in my favor." Speer, however, is not a reliable witness and wrote/told a lot of lies in his work. Still, Speer declined.

It was unheard of that these sons of bitches in leadership could possibly believe that Kammler would/could/should work miracles. In April of 1945, Goebbels wrote in his diary: "The Hater had long negotiations with Obergruppenführer Kammler, who is responsible for the reform of the Luftwaffe. Kammler is doing his duties superbly, and great hopes are placed on him."

WHAT THE ABSOLUTE FUCK. I am utterly serious. Were these men delusional? The beginning of April. Hateler would commit suicide less than a month later and Goebbels could possibly believe this load of shite? My honest thoughts on Goebbels’ diaries were absolutely meant for someone else to read them by this point or earlier. He knew that the diaries would be scrutinized by others and so he would be the biggest supporter of nazism.

All these research programs represented by SS Obergruppenführer Hans Kammler, it is surprising that his name is hardly mentioned in references to the Luftwaffe or its major programs. However, despite this, Kammler was at the head of a top-secret research center. He was the ‘forgotten one’. However, was this on purpose?

I’m all about forgetting nazis in a sense. Their names and legacies should be forgotten. It is not so simple. We must remember them, or it will happen again.

Throughout all of this. Throughout all the insane things that Kemmler had accomplished. How he was told to work faster and harder on setting up the camps, while he stated it was the conditions that were the problem. Those problems were the extreme cold, lack of supplies, and poor labor. When you use dying people for labor, there usually is a problem. Idiots.

Once again, what happened to him after the war was what truly interests me. He was one of hundreds, if not thousands of men that potentially could have done the exact same job with the exact same outcomes.

For a very long time it was thought that he committed suicide in 1945. The suicides after the war were numerous, over 7000 in Berlin alone.

Decades passed, it was assumed Kammler died by suicide or was killed shortly after liberation in 1945. Reuter’s book, however, demonstrates that Kammler was “delivered” to US authorities by rocket scientist Wernher von Braun, who feared that Kammler’s secrets — and colleagues — would fall into Russian hands.

Oh my, does that plot ever thicken.

“Kammler and the Americans created the deal wherein he gave them the rocket team, and they erased his past,” Reuter said. “As part of that deal, we covered up his death and the world accepted that he died.”

Remember, this accusation is that of a writer. I could easily tell you that my father’s fourth cousin twice removed was Kammler. Given that Ridding The World Of Nazis Is A Family Tradition, nah. Not feasible. I have that on a t-shirt.

Going back to Reuter, as part of “Operation Paperclip,” US authorities sought to capture German technical experts to use in the space program. Beginning in 1945, an estimated 5,000 German scientists and technicians were brought to the US, including “severely tainted men who were involved in the Holocaust and the use of slave labor.”

Are we great yet? Nope.

No released official documents have been found that list Kammler having been brought over to the US. No official documents have said he wasn’t. The problem with Kammler was quite simple, he knew too much. That made him a target. If you have a special target, you don’t go around being a pick me.

“Gerald Fleming, a leading Holocaust researcher, wanted certainty but could not find sufficient evidence to prove that the suicide narrative was not true. Fleming urged us not to let the story rest but to continue the research.

In the article „Ein inszenierter Selbstmord. Überlebte Hitlers „letzter Hoffnungsträger“, SS Obergruppenführer Hans Kammler den Krieg? [A staged suicide. Did Hitler’s “Last Hopeful,” SS Obergruppenführer Hans Kammler, Survive the War?], published in the Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaft in 2014, for the first time declassified documents and statements were presented which suggest that Hans Kammler was captured by the Counterintelligence Corps, an American military intelligence service. The most important evidence for this thesis was a report by special investigator Oscar Packe dated August 1949. Packe, who worked for the department of the U.S. military government in Hesse responsible for denazification, concluded his report as follows: “The suicide of the subject, suspected and allegedly confirmed by the witnesses, is refuted by the CIC’s precise information about his capture and escape in May 1945. Evidence that the subject is now in Soviet custody and is to work in the Soviet occupation zone of Germany could not be provided here.

Packe had been informed by the CIC of Kammler’s capture and subsequent escape. Was it possible for a high-ranking SS general and his staff to escape from American captivity? Was he really arrested with his staff at the Messerschmidt works in Oberammergau, as the Packe report states, “by American troops on 9 May”? And was able to escape from there with senior SS leaders of his staff? Did the events in fact take place near the underground Messerschmitt plant “Bergkristall” in Gusen, near Linz? It is likely that Packe did not learn the true circumstances of Kammler’s arrest from the Counter Intelligence Corps. Recently Donald W. Richardson, a special agent of the CIC and the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), has emerged as a key. Shortly before his death, he told his sons that he had brought Hans Kammler to the United States. For reasons of national security, he had to remain silent about it. Despite these sources and Richardson’s statement, doubts about the chain of circumstantial evidence persisted.” – The Wilson Center

In any case, Kammler’s disappearance was a great advantage to the rocket developers around Wernher von Braun. Why? They were able to blame all crimes against concentration camp inmates and forced laborers related to the production and use of V-weapons to the SS, presenting themselves as apolitical engineers. Apolitical. Right. As if anyone believed such a story. These men and women were useful. Very useful. Being useful gave them the freedom not to be hung at any of the numerous trials against the other nazis.

The biography of Hans Kammler must be corrected in a central point: It does not end on May 9, 1945. What happened after that can only be clarified after the discovery or the release of relevant documents as well as the interrogation records.

For now, at least we know that the bastard is dead. Pretty sure there is no way he would be alive at 124 years of age. We also have no idea what the ever-loving fuck happened to one of the worst men of WWII.

#wwii era #ww2 #ww2 history #wwii #ww2 germany #wwii germany #3rd reich #reichblr #heinrich himmler #himmler #austrian painter #hans kammler #kammler

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argumate · 4 months ago

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i think you're missing a big picture view on immigration. unless it's done slowly and carefully - which isn't what you argue for - there are huge social and economic consequences, and this is what drives xenophobia and racism up.

mass immigration -> drop in wages (supply and demand) and general COL rises, especially rent - it's impossible to keep uo housing demand that fast -> public resources get stretched thin (education, transportation, healthcare).

the only ones who benefit from big waves of "unskilled" labor (no such thing obviously, but they're the ones easy to exploit) are big companies. they get to pay them less than a native would accept, while the city and state govt who are already incredibly inefficient at best, let the whole place decay.

i have literally seen it happening in real life in my hometown. the first wave of immigrants in the 2010s (haitians) were generally welcomed and the population had a positive outlook on them. now, in the 2020s, the huge mass of venezuelan immigrants are very looked down upon because of the reasons i said above.

obviously it's not /their/ fault, bc they're also being exploited by the system.

also, there is a cultural and language factor! they play a big role in this, too. my oarents neighborhood HAS gotten more rowdy and dangerous after the venezuelans came in.

immigration only works if there is integration, but we can't say that w/o getting accused of xenophobia and racism. you cannot have a functioning harmonious society without a minimum amount of social cohesiveness. there is a reason culturally homogenous countries are the happiest - and i genuinely mean culturally, not racially.

i used to believe in Free Immigration For All until i experienced this in real life. there are no spots in school for kids and teens, the buses are full, the healthcare has gotten horrible, wages are incredibly low and rent js crazy high. obviously this isn't the immigrants fault - it's a simple question of supply x demand + government inefficiency. but to be quite honest? not even the most best equipped mayor would've been able to build enough schools and hospitals when you're constrained by the bureaucracy of things.

not to talk about the fact how they have access to social benefits, like our own version of ssi for vulnerable people without contributing anything to it nor needing to be a citizen when public pension style of social benefits (what we have) are already stretched thin by low birth rates!!!!!

im not in the usa, and this is my perspective in a 200k hab city. i cannot imagine how this is like in a larger city and the impacts it has ln the local population.

also, i will say one thing about the usa immigration issue: there are plenty of reasonably safe countries people pass before getting to the border. they dont HAVE to go there. they want to go there bc it doesn't matter to them that it's a low paying job, that money is still worth a lot back in their home country. that is why to them it's worth to cross the ocean and be at risk at the border. that, and it's only way to claim asylum is being physically there - after they're in waiting for a court date, it doesn't matter anymore whether they're legsl or not. they already have a job and are making 2 dollars an hour which is worth 83737373737383838282 back home.

yes fixing housing policy is essential for so many other things, but you're kind of mixing a bunch of random things here: if low birth rates are a problem then young immigrants help with that, low wages are less of a problem when immigrants don't need to fear deportation, etc.

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stardriveskickstart · 7 months ago

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Parahuman Space

While Stardrives is complete, I'm not done with TTRPG writing yet. I've been working on the @para-imperium setting for over a decade now and I'm almost ready to launch a complete RPG based on the Cepheus System derived from Mongoose's Traveller (but more open).

Parahuman Space is a furry setting, yes, of the genetically modified variety. It covers over 2,000 years, but the RPG will be focused on the period after the collapse of the big interstellar empire. When newly independent planets and systems are busy scavenging the wreckage.

Players will primarily be salvage crews venturing into hazardous ruined spaceships and stations. Braving haywire security systems, leaks of corrosive chemicals, and the dreaded Kessler Syndrome to retrieve valuable technology.

In other words, dungeon delving.

At present I am about halfway done drafting the rulebook, drawn heavily from the Cepheus System Reference Document that can be read online here. Once I'm finished and I have interior artists lined up I was hoping to bring it to Kickstarter.

Below is the setting's history, as written for the rulebook.

Timeline:

Most calendars in Parahuman Space are oriented around the launch of the first parahuman-built starship as the start of the exodus from the clade’s system of origin, Sol. On the Georgian calendar the year 0 Post Exodus (PX) would be in the early 22nd century AD. So the Federation would be founded in the 32nd century AD and collapse in the 45th century, or roughly the year 4600 AD.

-40 Before Exodus: Creation of parahumans. -24 BX: Parahumans emancipated and corporations that enslaved them dissolved. -17 BX: Events of The Pride of Parahumans. 0 Post Exodus: First Seedship, the Traveller, launched. 4 PX: Pallas launches second seedship. 10 PX: Earth destroyed by relativistic projectile, origin unknown. 14 PX: Second Pallene seedship is caught by berserker probes that destroyed Sol. Crew commit suicide first. 45 PX: Traveller lands on a planet orbiting Alpha Centauri A, creatively named "Secland." 48 PX: Vestan ship lands on opposite hemisphere from the Traveller.

115 PX: Ship from Ceres arrives at Epsilon Eridani to find a lifeless system. Instead of terraforming the new corporate government opts to build artificial habitats in the asteroid belts and beneath the surfaces of planets.

124 PX: A second Vestan ship discovers a garden world orbiting Tau Ceti. The crew decide to eschew technology after printing enough colonists in fear of Sol’s Destroyers.

150 PX: Sleeper ship carrying 1500 humans from Sol arrives over Secland. After an abortive attempt at invasion the survivors gradually integrate into Pallene society. 500 PX: Cold war between nations on Secland ends with the completion of terraforming. Biological weapons leave New Pallas the sole nation standing. 950 PX: New Pallas contacts Tau Ceti thanks to the newly developed conversion drive. Triggering political restructuring among the natives resulting in the kingdom of Schwarswelt under King Hideo Fink.

1060 PX: Stable wormholes large enough to move a spaceship through are produced and launched from Proxima Centauri to Tau Ceti and Epsilon Eridani. 1100 PX: Alpha Centauri, Tau Ceti, and Epsilon Eridani form the Federation.

1150 PX: Centauri Grand Mayor Selkd de Argentum assassinated by Cetan partisans and succeeded by his more aggressive sister Lirdrill.

1200 PX: The Federation centralizes power in the office of the Praetor, first held by Lirdrill de Argentum.

1205 PX: The Outworld memetic quarantine and contingency program is established, forcibly relocating ideological dissidents to frontier worlds with limited technology.

1500 PX: After extensive lobbying by Centauran merchant houses and the Eridani Company, Federation Senate votes to allow limited trade with Outworlds, which now compose roughly half of all colonized planets.

1846 PX: Kershkans, the first extant xenosophont species, discovered. 1903 PX: Contact established with Kershkans. 2300 PX: Federal Guard destroys Sol with strangelet bomb, inducing a nova. Evacuation of Core Worlds begins. 2304 PX: Wormhole gates at Alpha Centauri collapsed ahead of the nova's radiation. The capital cut off, the Federation quickly begins to fragment. 2345 PX: The Emissary-Governor of the Tiere System, wracked by tensions between earlier colonists and new refugees, disables all nanotech in the system in an attempt to reassert control. He is lynched by an angry mob within weeks. 2590 PX: The self-proclaimed Imperator Ronkal launches Project Paladin, sending ships with new reactionless drives and augmentation suites to neighboring systems. 2600 PX: A Ronkalli ship reaches the Tiere System, only for interplanetary debris to kill the entire crew. The ship AI forcibly augments a crew of scavengers who come looking.

The Origin of Species:

The first parahumans were engineered from a blend of human and animal genes and bioprinted in corporate labs in high Terran orbit. They were designed to fill roles in asteroid mining that were too complex for robots but too dangerous to risk human life for. It took less than a decade for rebellions and strikes to start.

Fortunately, the parahumans found many allies on Terra and after the revolutionaries on Ceres worked out a treaty to maintain the flow of resources back to Terra they were essentially left to themselves. With their new freedom came disagreements over how to govern themselves. The guilds on Vesta formed a form of anarcho-capitalist feudalism regulated by the cloning guild that held the early parahumans’ sole means of reproduction. But then a Vestan scientist, a silver fox named Argentum, discovered a simple gene therapy to remove the genetic sterility imposed by their creators and their followers formed a breakaway colony on Pallas.

The Vestan guilds could not tolerate this loss of control and war almost broke out between the two asteroids. Luckily they found an alternative means of proving the superiority of their respective systems of governance. A space race. Exploration of other star systems had been proposed many times but there had been little interest with the abundance of resources right there in Sol system. But with the new nanofabricators it was possible for even a small asteroid outpost to construct an Orion-style starship with a small crew and the fabricators to print out an entire new colony, colonists included.

They couldn’t have timed the launch better. Just ten years after the first starship, the Traveller,was launched from Pallas towards Alpha Centauri, it received a frantic message from Sol:

“This is an automated beacon broadcasting what may well be the last message ever sent by the human race. Five years ago, our homeworld, Terra was struck by a 50-ton projectile traveling at 90% of the speed of light. The debris took out most of our habitats in Earth’s orbit, a few million of us survived elsewhere in the solar system. Then the rest of the invasion force arrived. Machines, vast machines kilometers in length that home in on any sources of radio transmissions, and annihilate them. We pray they are not intelligent and are simply weapons fired by a xenophobic alien race. But they’ve almost completed their work, we estimate that there’s only a couple hundred of us left in the system. We’re sending this message in hopes that there is someone out there who can hear it and beware. This universe is more hostile than we thought. They attack radio transmitters, dismantle whatever devices you are listening to this on before they find you.”

In total, five starships were far enough out to heed this warning. The Traveller, a Vestan ship also headed for Alpha Centauri, a second Vestan ship on course for Tau Ceti, a craft launched from Ceres to Epsilon Eridani, and the largest but slowest ship, a sleeper ark from Terra to Alpha Centauri.

Alpha Centauri: Sol’s Nearest Neighbors

Around Alpha Centauri A the Traveller found a Terra-sized rocky planet that had long been scoured of life by stellar storms from the trinary stars nearby. It was determined that this little rock could be reanimated with comparatively little effort and the crew made immediate plans to colonize and terraform the planet which they named “SecLand” (the landing on Pallas being the first land).

Just three years after the Traveller’s arrival, they were followed by their Vestan rival. Considering the horror they’d experienced since Sol’s last transmission they decided to set their differences aside and work together on terraforming SecLand, albeit from opposite hemispheres. This detente was strained at times, but the first real threat to world peace didn’t come until 150 years PX, when the ark carrying the last of unaltered humanity arrived.

By the time the sleeper ark arrived SecLand had a population of several thousand, the ark carried a mere 1500 passengers but over half were soldiers who’d entered stasis with orders to make sure that the first exosolar foothold of humanity was human, not parahuman. Or at least that was the plan, when word of what happened to their homeworld got out there was a mutiny and the victors immediately surrendered to the parahuman colonists, with most passengers integrating into the Republic of New Pallas. These newcomers brought a wide range of skills and knowledge, living knowledge, to a planet whose inhabitants up until then had primarily only known life inside their half-built habitat structures. The humans emigrated nearly equally to both colonies, over the centuries they interbred with the parahumans, with the net result being that many SecLanders have less fur or their facial features are closer to human than many further colonies. Today pure-bred humans, and parahumans (excepting uplifts), are miniscule minorities on SecLand with only a couple million individuals. The average SecLander resembles a blend of at least half a dozen species of Terragen origin.

For centuries the two colonies lived in relative peace, New Pallas breeding like rabbits while the Vestans cloned new citizens in bulk. But when the terraforming of SecLand had reached the point where colonists could breathe the atmosphere tensions re-established themselves between the two old enemies. With terraforming nearing completion some wondered what use New Pallas could have for the Vestans, on both continents. To that end the Vestans began to covertly build weapons in their Arcologies while New Pallas shifted their orbital satellites slightly. It all came to a head when the Vestans concealed a lethal virus in food shipments sent from their farms to the cities of New Pallas, thousands died in the months that followed. By the time the New Pallas government realized what had been done every Vestan arcology had unveiled surface-to-orbit mass drivers that could shoot down their enemy’s satellites. Even then, many arcologies were leveled by orbital strikes. Then the land battles began. The cybernetically augmented citizen-soldiers of New Pallas facing off against the bioprinted legions of the Vestans. The fighting raged on for months, then abruptly, it ceased less than a year after the war had begun. You see, the Vestans had underestimated New Pallas’s skill with biotechnology, crafting a virus that could be deadly to all the diverse inhabitants of the Republic had been difficult, but a dirty little secret of many 21st century regimes were the techniques to engineer a virus that had disastrous effects when it interacted with a specific gene or genes. And the Society for the Preservation of Parahuman Species had only used a couple genotypes for their army, and even fewer for their ruling priest-scientists. Once the virus had been grown any Vestan unit that came into contact with the enemy was dead within a week, in a month the ruling class had been reduced to a few paranoid individuals who had sealed themselves in hermetic bunkers. Specialized by repeated cloning into an effective caste system, and their soldier castes suddenly extinct, the surviving Vestan arcologies found themselves helpless against New Pallas occupation forces.

The medical advances achieved fighting the bioweapons led to the development of leukosynths, symbiotic microbots that could fight off nearly all microbes and repair the body at an accelerated rate. Even fighting off the advances of aging. When this “immortality” was proven to the public they clamored for the government to subsidize their deployment to the masses. Within the century 90% of New Pallas’ population enjoyed the benefits of leukosynths.

Among this chaos a new power emerged in the Pallene cities and settlements. Families all over the planet started giving birth to silver fox kits, reminiscent of their colony’s nearly-deified founder, Argentum. Some religious leaders saw this as a sign and exalted these silver foxes, propelling many into high positions in politics. The cynical suggested that the parents had modified their children’s genes in-utero, but after the plagues many people were desperate and willing to believe anything. Most of them were actually descendants of Argentum’s, but their progeny numbered in the hundreds of thousands by that point anyways.

An unintentional side effect of this bit of social engineering was a renewed interest in their origins out in the depths of space. And despite the terrors they knew awaited them they couldn’t help but wonder if any other colony ships had made it…

Epsilon Eridani

Ceres, the largest asteroid in Sol’s asteroid belt, was the main off-world base of operations for the corporation that created the first parahumans. During the revolution parahumans took over the local branch offices and largely continued to operate along the same lines. Their participation in the exosolar space race was almost an afterthought, an attempt at remaining relevant compared to the other two major asteroid civilizations in Sol system.

Upon arrival in the Epsilon Eridani system they found even fewer viable prospects for terraforming than those in Alpha Centauri. Instead, they opted to construct enclosed habitats in the system’s asteroid belts and under the surface of the larger rocky planets. Like on Ceres the colonists retained the corporate style of government that had served their forebears fairly well.

After about a century of this arrangement dissatisfaction among the lower ranking employees spread towards the shareholding class. A bloody revolution followed, after which the revolutionaries distributed the seized shares in the Eridani Company equally among the employees, granting everyone a vote in company elections and a share of the profits. Roughly a generation later a group of managers started buying up shares from others.

The third such regime made contact with a probe from New Pallas, trade began almost immediately.

Tau Ceti

The second Vestan colony ship took over a century to reach its destination, the star Tau Ceti. Along the way two generations of crew were decanted from the ship’s bioprinters to replace their predecessors. While the final crew were genetically identical to those who had set out from Vesta their commitment to the ideology of the Society for the Preservation of Parahuman Species had wavered, and with the news of Terra’s destruction some suggested that perhaps the best way to avoid sharing that world’s fate would be to lose their advanced technology.

That would require them to give up cloning as a means of reproduction, however they were unwilling to allow reckless crossing of genelines so they added genetic markers to prevent different phenotypes from interbreeding. Fortunately, unlike the other colony ships they discovered a lush world that wasn’t too hostile to Terran life which they named Schwarzwelt after the dark colors of the local chlorophyll analogue. They then settled each “species” into different “clans” in different regions of the planet. The clans grew in population rapidly, bumping up against the borders designated at founding in less than a century. War broke out.

Clans rallied behind charismatic warrior-nobles and weaker clans swore oaths of fealty to stronger ones to save their own skins. These wars continued until contact with the first probe from the Centauri system, realizing that there was another civilization out there and that they were capable of interstellar travel the clan heads held a council to decide what to do about it. The majority ruled that they needed a single man to represent their world when the outsiders came in person, they elected King Hideo Fink of the feline clan as the official ruler of Tau Ceti.

Birth of the Federation

While the first manned starships with conversion drives were still traveling to their neighbors, scientists at a research base orbiting Proxima Centauri, the small red dwarf star that barely qualified as the third star of the Alpha Centauri system, made a breakthrough. Using a newly discovered form of exotic matter a wormhole could be pulled from the quantum foam of the universe and held open indefinitely. Once they successfully sent a laser through a pinprick-sized wormhole from Proxima to Secland, the New Pallas senate approved funding for the production of wormholes large enough to send materials through.

A very expensive experiment proved that wormholes larger in diameter than a micrometer could be catastrophically destabilized by proximity to large gravity wells. It was decided that no traversable wormhole could be placed closer to a star than the Oort Cloud, but even then the potential for shortening an interstellar voyage from decades to months was too exciting. Proxima Centauri was enclosed in a small Dyson sphere dedicated solely to producing the exotic matter for wormholes and just over a century after contact the first interstellar traversable wormhole between Proxima Centauri and Tau Ceti was ready, Epsilon Eridani followed suit. Commerce and communication between the three systems exploded, and conflict with them.

While interstellar war didn’t break out, there were many in both Tau Ceti and Epsilon Eridani who suspected that New Pallas intended to invade them through their wormholes. Before long both planetary governments were dealing with armed insurrections. New Pallas was all too glad to provide advanced weaponry and vehicles, especially on Schwarzwelt where the military was decentralized and entire clans or houses were rebelling. Eventually Pallene troops and warships were stationed in the two systems to defend Pallene interests.

Seeing tensions rise Grand Mayor Selkd de Argentum came up with an ingenious solution, an interstellar government composed of representatives from all three star systems, as well as any new systems that would be colonized in the future. That way, everyone could theoretically have a say in interstellar politics. While visiting Schwarzwelt in 1150 to promote his vision, Selkd was assassinated by a sniper.

Selkd was succeeded by his sister, Lirdrill, who ordered the sniper’s family estates leveled by orbital bombardment as an example to the others. The ruling houses of other clans that had rebelled were rounded up and stripped of their noble ranks, then imprisoned in stasis banks. She continued her brother’s vision of a united parahuman government, but centralized around Alpha Centauri and the office of the Praetor, which would be held by her house.

Wormholes took a lot of time and resources to set up while probes were reporting back dozens of exoplanets that were inhabitable or easily terraformed, so the senate on New Pallas had been debating whether to launch colony fleets before or after traversable wormholes arrived at the potential colonies. As Lirdrill solidified the Federation, she made an executive decision. Wormholes would be spaced anywhere from 20 to 50 light-years apart, depending on resources and stellar density, and the stars between them would be reachable only by ships traveling at 80% of the speed of light or slower. Since leukosynths and cryo-stasis had become mature technologies by then the decades of travel were deemed acceptable.

Even then, there was some trouble finding enough volunteers to fill the colony ships that were being built. After a few suggestions of using rebels as indentured labor the Memetic Quarantine and Contingency program was established. The thousands of rebels held in stasis were to be shipped off to marginally inhabitable “Outworlds” light-decades from the nearest wormhole, and to make sure they didn’t draw too much attention, without any technology more advanced than the most basic steam engines. It was hoped that eventually they’d become “civilized” and submit to the Federation, or die off.

But, there was a secondary purpose to the program. The machines that had destroyed Terra were still out there, and if the Destroyers were to notice the Federation growing under their noses, perhaps they’d overlook those small Outworlds without radio.

The Traders

With the vast distances between most inhabited systems trade opportunities were limited. Most star systems had enough raw materials locally that shipping them from another star without a wormhole was simply not cost-effective. While nanofabrication meant that most manufactured goods could be produced in a small warehouse, if not a garage. For the first few centuries of expansion the only goods that were worth shipping interstellar were in the form of digital data, and most of that could be handled by laser transmissions, and the occasional courier.

Just over two centuries after the Federation was established, a courier ship operated by a branch of House Argentum decided to stop off at an Outworld. The captain decided to land a shuttle near one city-state established by the unwilling colonists to see what they were up to.

The locals were wowed by the great flying machine and the crew, having forgotten their origins already. They offered tribute to the visiting immortals, foodstuffs, sculptures, and textiles. The crew decided to take some of the tributes with them, leaving some inconsequential trinkets of Federation technology which were quickly replaced by their on-board fabricators.

When the courier next made port at a Federation starbase they showed off the unique goods they’d acquired, many of which were purchased at exorbitant prices by bored oligarchs. The Outworld’s inhabitants were rapidly diverging culturally from their forebears, far faster than the leukosynth-using worlds of the Federation. Those simple couriers had found something valuable to the nearly post-scarcity Federation, novelty.

Many houses and companies commissioned their own Outworld trade freighters while the senate debated whether it was even legal to trade with the “barbarians.” Eventually it was determined that trade would be allowed; but no weapons, vehicles, communications, or nanotechnology were to be given to Outworlders. Small starships with industrial nanofabricators would set up shop over Outworlds for years at a time, fabbing trinkets made from space-age alloys and exchanging them for cloth made with alien fibers. Many of these traders became fabulously wealthy during the next few centuries as the Federation expanded outwards and established more and more Outworlds.

It was fun while it lasted.

The Return of the Destroyers

The Destroyers responsible for Terra’s demise had made occasional appearances in the next two millennia. Zeroing in on sources of radio transmissions with relativistic projectiles followed by hunter-seeker probes that would scour the surrounding system of life. But it seemed they hadn’t noticed, or didn’t care about the Federation at large.

Then astronomers in the Federal core noticed something. Sol, Terra’s sun, was dimming. A few disposable probes sent back horrific images, a Dyson sphere, and it was almost complete. With the energy of Sol the Destroyers could incinerate the core worlds at the speed of light! A secret panel of the senate met with the Praetor to decide what to do about this unthinkable prospect.

The Federal Guard’s fleets were assembled at Proxima Centauri and dispatched for Sol. Never before had Federation technology been tested against the Destroyers, and no one wanted to underestimate them, so the fleet was loaded with the most advanced weaponry they could muster.

It wasn’t enough.

Quantum ansible transmissions reported massive ships that maneuvered without visible reactions and accelerated to impossible speeds in seconds. The Federal Guard was slaughtered in short order, but before they died one ship managed to launch an experimental superweapon at Sol itself.

A strangelet bomb, filled with the same strange matter that converted baryonic matter into antimatter in conversion drives, with catalysts for self-replication. They spread across the star in a matter of days, triggering a series of detonations that tore the star and the incomplete Dyson sphere apart.

When word came that they had a potential nova carrying strangelets in their neighborhood the Federation’s elites abandoned the core worlds en masse. Fleeing through the wormholes at top speed. As the secret mission to Sol and its destructive results leaked everyone who could afford a ship followed suit, departing for distant worlds that they hoped could bring salvation.

Then, just before the nova’s wavefront reached Proxima, the wormhole network was collapsed to prevent it from spreading to the far colonies.

The Collapse

Every star system that had a direct link to the wormhole network found itself swarmed by refugees from the Core. The remnants of the Federal Guard struggled to maintain order as refugees clashed with natives. Many refugee fleets were forced to leave for other systems that were less sparsely populated, a few even attempted to invade Outworlds. Other fleets became nomads, passing through inhabited systems without slowing down and trading for or extorting supplies as they passed.

As unrest reached critical levels many governors activated failsafe programs embedded in every Federation citizen’s leukosynth implants, rendering the star system’s entire population mortal. Most such governors were torn apart by angry mobs. On other worlds the population voluntarily gave up advanced technology in hopes of hiding from the Destroyers.

Three hundred years later the dust has mostly settled. Few star systems are politically united, with individual planets and megastructures using everything from wooden carts to gravity-manipulating starships. The Federation is ancient history, and its technology treasure waiting to be discovered.

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