#Galactic Trade Network

[my-t4t-romance]

to whoever had a lhosan lc-4 for sale on the gtn for 34000000 credits last night and then corrected it to 34000 tonight… I saw what u did lmao

[niqhtlord01]

Humans are weird: Prank Gone Wrong

( Please come see me on my new patreon and support me for early access to stories and personal story requests :D https://www.patreon.com/NiqhtLord Every bit helps)

“Filnar Go F%$@ Yourself!” was possibly the most disruptive software virus the universe had ever seen.

The program was designed to download itself to a computer, copy the functions of existing software before deleting said software and imitating it, then running its original programming all the while avoiding the various attempts to locate and remove it by security software.

What was strange about such a highly advanced virus was that it did not steal government secrets, nor siphon funds from banking institutions, it ignore critical infrastructure processes, and even bypassed trade markets that if altered could cause chaos on an unprecedented scale. The only thing the software seemed focused on was in locating any information regarding the “Hen’va” species, and deleting it.

First signs of the virus outbreak were recorded on the planet Yul’o IV, but once the virus began to migrate at an increasing rate and latched on to several subroutines for traveling merchant ships things rapidly spiraled out of control. Within a week the virus had infected every core world and consumed all information regarding the Hen’va. It still thankfully had not resulted in any deaths, but the sudden loss of information was beginning to cause other problems.

Hen’va citizens suddenly found that they were not listed as galactic citizens and were detained by security forces on numerous worlds. Trade routes became disrupted as Hen’va systems were now listed as uninhabited and barren leading to merchants seeking to trade elsewhere. Birth records and hospital information for millions of patients were wiped clean as they now pertained to individuals who did not exist.

Numerous software updates and purges were commenced in attempting to remove the virus. Even the galactic council’s cyber security bureau was mobilized for the effort, but if even a single strand of the virus’s code survived it was enough to rebuild itself and become even craftier with hiding itself while carrying out its programming. This was made worse by the high level of integration the various cyber systems of the galaxy had made it so the chance of systems being re-infected was always high.

After ten years every digital record of the Hen’va was erased from the wider universe. All attempts to upload copies were likewise deleted almost immediately leaving only physical records to remain untouched.

To combat this, the Hen’va for all official purposes adopted a new name; then “Ven’dari”. In the Hen’va tongue in means “The Forgotten”, which is rather ironic as the Hen’va have had to abandon everything about their previous culture to continue their existence. The virus had become a defacto component of every computer system in the galaxy and continued to erase all information related to the Hen’va. Even the translator units refused identify the Hen’va tongue and so the Ven’dari needed to create a brand new language.

It wasn’t until another fifty years had passed before the original creator of the virus stepped forward and admitted to their crime. A one “Penelope Wick”.

At the time of the programs creation Ms. Wick was a student studying on Yul’o IV to be a software designer. While attending the institution Ms. Wick stated that a fellow student, a Hen’va named “Filnar”, would hound her daily. He would denounce her presence within the school and repeatedly declared that “what are the scrapings of humans compared to the glory of the Hen’va?”

The virus was her creation as a way of getting back at the student for his constant spite. Ms. Wick was well aware of the dangers it could pose if released into the wild and so had emplaced the limitation that the virus would only infect computers on site with the campus. The schools network was setup that students could only work on their projects within the confines of the institution to ensure they did not cheat and have others make them instead. What she had not counted on was this rule only applied to students and not teachers. So when a teacher brought home several student projects to review and then sharing those infected files with their personal computer, the virus then gained free access to the wider planets networks.

When the Ven’dari learned of this there were several hundred calls for Ms. Wick to be held accountable for her actions, and nearly twice as many made to take her head by less patient individuals who had seen their entire culture erased. Much to their dismay Ms. Wick died shortly after her confession from a long term disease that had ravaged her body for several years.

Much to her delight, she had achieved her goals of removing the source of her mockery.

[yuriskies]

Fishing Yuri vs Reproductive Fascism

Issui Ogawa's Twinstar Cyclone Runaway novel series caught my attention the moment I learned about it. A gay marriage allegory in a weird sci-fi setting? Sign me right the fuck up. I've always found explicitly political sci-fi interesting, and well, Ogawa is not exactly a small name in Japanese sci-fi. However, a Japanese hard sci-fi novel is not going to have an easy time finding a good translation to English, much less a fanbase. So I was really excited to see that it was getting a manga adaptation, and from what it has adapted so far (~half of the first of three novels in an ongoing series), it's really living up to my feeling of hype.

There is a general setting summary after the break, and then a section where I talk a bit about the most recent chapter (8), and how it really makes a cogent argument extractive economic systems are reinforced by patriarchal norms.

The plot centers around Terra Intercontinental Endeavor, a woman who has inherited her family's fishing boat. The fishing boat requires two people to operate, a job which is performed by straight couples as a form of marriage contract. The use of married couples is understandable, given that the fishing boat transformable rocket plane that descends from orbit to operate in the skies of a gas giant, an operating environment which requires almost preternatural communication skills between the pilot and the person transforming the ship. The fish that swim around in the gas giant's skies are special: they're made of a kind of clay that can be molded by thought. The catch forms the backbone of the planetary economy; otherwise, the planetary system is so resource-starved that humanity cannot sustain itself without something to offer through galactic trade networks. Terra is highly gifted at producing complex transformations of the ship, but cannot communicate well with the male pilots she is interviewing for marriage. Part of this is because her way of describing things is a little kooky, but the majority is because the patriarchal culture she lives in has produced a lot of condescending, sexist guys who Obviously Know Better.

Fresh off a round of failed marriage interviews, Terra is desperate to find anyone who can pilot the boat. In steps a mysterious girl named Diode, who proves herself to be an exceptionally talented pilot whose skills mesh well with Terra's. So far, the story has alternated between Terra's experiences within the stifling cultural life of her home, and the moments of dizzying freedom and connection that Terra and Diode find when they're out fishing.

(Spoilers from here on out, so stop here if you would prefer to read more on your own. )

As far as the broader world of Twinstar Cyclone Runaway is concerned, the first seven manga chapters have largely focused on how badly Terra fits in with the surrounding culture. She has a reputation around the port, mostly as a person who creates absurdly complicated fishing gear and makes up weird stories. Her aunt and uncle both want to see her happily married so she can fulfill her dream of fishing, but tend to push their preferences onto her. She works as a video distributor in the clan's dilapidated cultural archives, and appears to be one of the few people interested in the world of her clan's space station. In part, this is due to the conservatism of the culture - most people are strictly utilitarian and seem happy to accept the world as it is. There's also sexism. Woo boy is there sexism.

The first few chapters alternate between life on the station, where Terra is exposed to a constant stream of sexism. The chapters dealing with station culture are almost an exercise in masochism, but provided the set dressing for a chapter which does a really decent job at describing the organizing thought processes behind anti-LGBTQ lawmaking. In it, Terra and Diode's activities have drawn the attention of the authorities, who are none too happy that they're fishing together (and effectively presenting themselves as common law wives in the process).

They're both summoned to the clan council, where the clan chief immediately begins lecturing Terra (and belittling her with backhanded complements) before ordering her to surrender her family's fishing boat to someone else. During his lecture, he highlights the 'freedom' enjoyed by their clan compared to the even more stifling culture of the clan Diode hails from. He attributes that freedom to the strong sense of "culture and tradition" of the clan, and the work of those with "superior bloodlines" who support and perpetuate it by passing that sense of identity on to the next generation while countering the clan's slowly shrinking population. Under this logic, allowing Terra to participate in a same-sex marriage is considered tantamount to enabling a cultural collapse.

It is, from just about any perspective, a fascist perspective on gender roles. Women are valued not for their ability to contribute to the culture but for their service as reproductive cogs in the economic machine. Culture and tradition are interpreted as something transmitted through blood, not community. Terra's work in maintaining the cultural archives are viewed as useless make-work, as to the leadership, a woman who does not reproduce is preventing the transmission of culture. The stability and economic productivity of the clan is the organizing principle of society, highlighted by the fact that the roles of clan chief (political leader) and head fisherman (economic leader) are held by the same person. In this framework, the backbone of society is understood to be its captains of industry, those working in economically-prestigious jobs, and their social role is to maintain the economic prestige and exclusivity of the fishing class.

The chapter ends with Diode (having initially been begrudgingly convinced to allow Terra to do the talking) exploding at how the clan chief has been talking down to the both of them. She points out the hollowness of the underlying rhetoric - although it portrays culture as something shaped by struggle and ability to assert one's will, it systematically denies most people from the attempt. While pointing this out, she also mocks the clan chief's skills, clearly relying on the offense to his masculinity to provide the opening for herself and Terra to prove themselves. While the gambit works, the clan chief is clearly setting the terms of a challenge to make them prove themselves exceptional, a task which carries a high likelihood of death.

By the way, the art does a lot of the heavy lifting here. Despite Ahiru Tanaka's slightly cartoony style, he is incredibly skilled at getting the point across through composition. Terra's workplace in the cultural archives is dingy, cramped, and literally disintegrating, and Tanaka's line work reflects this - dense, imprecise, and messy. It really sells the apparent lack of maintenance since the archives were constructed. By contrast, the clan council's chambers is airy, bright, and characterized by cleaner, more precise line work. The difference is night and day, and I think it really helps sell the Endeavor Clan's underlying thinking of exactly where "culture and tradition" are transmitted.

Anyway, I just had to gush a little bit about this chapter, in what is quickly becoming one of the manga releases I most anticipate reading every month.

[sullustangin]

SWTOR Secret Santa 2023

This is for @levedor-legacy for the SWTOR Secret Santa 2023 – thank you @frauleiiin for running this!

Here’s a Life Day story starring “a deadly can of Arizona Iced Tea,” the Himbolorian himself, Orriel Devero.

~~

Orriel stared at the Galactic Trade Network.

…Math was hard.

Life Day was one of Orriel’s favorite holidays of the year.  He knew it was expensive, so he made it point to pick up a few extra bounties.  He even did some of the silly ones that really didn’t require a bounty hounter, but hey, if they were willing pay to see him get mauled by an agitated loth cat stuck in a tree, Orriel would do it. 

He went to scratch his head, but then he remembered that he still had his helmet on – always did on Vaiken.  The problem was the Life Day sales.  Were they really sales?  Or had the prices been jacked up a few weeks before and now there was a ‘sale’?  Orriel wasn’t a genius, but he was streetwise enough to know a few tricks people used to boost sales. 

Sale or not, credits came in on the regular – Orriel was a damn good bounty hunter.  Hell, he was the Grand Champion of the Great Hunt.  That said, Gault was the one who tracked the credits and investments, and Mako made sure all those credits continued to exist for Orriel – not Gault. 

Somehow, though, whenever Life Day rolled around, Orriel felt uneasy about whether he’d have enough.  Anxiety wasn’t his thing but… he wanted to get it right for everyone. 

…well, almost everyone.  Orriel still wasn’t sure what to do about the newest crewmember.  It probably hadn’t been the best idea to pick up a new crewmember from Belsavis, the Pub’s secret prison planet.  At the time, Orriel had needed a hand, and he never really knew how to end a contract with someone…

Ok, so he did, but that was going to be a mess for 2V to clean up, and even droids deserved Life Day.  And Skadge seemed like one of those guys that would always turn up again, even if he was dumped on an abandoned asteroid.  Fortunately, he kept mostly to himself underdecks.    He had little interest in the other members of the crew.

It wasn’t just the new crewmember that had Orriel worried about the finances for Life Day gifts.  There was Mako.

…she was his best gal.  His only gal, if he was really honest.  He wanted to get something special, but… whenever he looked at the ads for rings and stuff like that, none of the women were like Mako.  They didn’t have dirt and oil under their nails, and they definitely didn’t seem to know their way around a blaster or a kolto probe.  In the type of work they did, a ring that could get dented, broken, or have the stone fall out was no good.  Or it could get stuck on her finger and have to be chopped off – Mandos liked women with scars and battle wounds, but Orriel was pretty sure Mako wanted to keep all of her fingers, regardless of how hot he thought it was.  

A group gift from the entire crew was considered, to play it safe… but Orriel wanted it to be from him – just him.  Advice for personal gifts to girls was also not probably going to be found on-ship; the only person he knew that had a girlfriend in the past was Gault, and that apparently didn’t end well for her. 

“Orriel!  Su'cuy, vod!”  Orriel turned at Torian’s greeting. 

“You got everything you needed?” Orriel asked. 

“Had a plan.  Carried it out.  Easy enough,” Torian replied.

“Ori’jate.” Orriel eyed the GTN kiosk.  “…did you get a gift for everyone?”

“Yeah.  Having trouble?”

Orriel nodded.  “No idea what to get for someone who makes the ship run.  How do you express how much you appreciate them?”

Torian sagely nodded.  Then he told him, “Explosives.” 

Orriel stared at Torian.  “Seriously?”

“Don’t overcomplicate things,” Torian advised him.  “I know we buy Blizz ordinance weekly, but sometimes ‘more’ of a person’s favorite things is exactly what they want.”

Oh.  Orriel touched his hand to his helmet. “Thanks.  I’ll keep that in mind.” 

Then he stopped, and slowly, surely, he had a thought.  “Torian, did we keep the scraps around from when we recast my helmet?”

“Think so.  Have to check the cargo bay.” 

“Great.  Grab a crate of iced tea from the station cantina, and I’ll meet you back at the ship.”

~~

Somehow, accidentally, Skadge was left at Vaiken.  Somehow, for unknown reasons, none of his messages were getting through the main comm boards. 

Blizz told Orriel that he’d fix it … after Life Day.  “Blizz need to fix engine room.  New guy messy.  No system!”  Orriel had been completely unaware of any system of organization created by Blizz, but he took the little guy’s word for it. 

Torian had been right; Blizz just wanted more explosives, and he was happy as a droid in an oil bath.  “Thanks, Boss!”

Gault, as usual, had printed “GIFT CARDS OR CREDITS” across the top of his LIFE DAY GIFT LIST.  He had plastered numerous copies of the list to the interior of the windshield of the Mantis, so Orriel would get the hint this year.  He did.

Torian’s gift was one that that Orriel took some pride in.  He’d managed to source some spare parts for Torian’s antique techstaff; it’d been passed down on his mother’s side for centuries.  Techstaffs themselves hadn’t evolved very much, but that particular model had been discontinued way, way before Torian was born.  Orriel knew a guy who knew a guy, and the well-packaged crate had arrived well ahead of Life Day. 

Torian hadn’t said much – never did.  But Orriel didn’t miss how those blue eyes sparkled at the sight of the parts and then how quickly he’d disappeared off to the ship’s worktable.

Orriel smiled at the small pile of gifts on the dashboard.  He wasn’t that hard to shop for:  give him gas canisters and cartridges, a vibroknife, and explosives, and he was happy. 

That said, Mako had done the best:  she got him a new weapons rack that latched into both of his closet doors.  When the door was opened, it expanded out to its full size, but when the door closed, it got all nice and compact.  Mako was the absolute best. 

And when the chrono clicked over and Gault came up to the cockpit, it was time for Mako to get her gift. 

Gault clapped his shoulder.  “Go get ‘em, tiger.”

Orriel gave Gault a quizzical look, then he headed below to the crew quarters.  Mako, being the only girl on the ship, got her own little partition, and that’s where he found her, scrolling through the Holonet on her datapad.  She immediately looked up when Orriel leaned in her doorway and gave him a smile.  “Hey.”

“Thanks for weapons rack.  How’d you get it in there?”

Mako got up from her bunk and walked past him into the hallway.  “Blizz says we need to do duct maintenance.  Really dusty in there, and the last thing you want is any mouse – droid or otherwise – nesting in there.” Mako tossed a teasing grin over her shoulder as she made her way toward the big viewport.

“Blizz is awesome,” Orriel said, as he followed her.  “He seemed really, really happy with all the ordnance.”

“I don’t want to hear it when one of you blows your hand off.”  Mako rolled her eyes, but he knew she was teasing him. 

And that was his opening.  “Yeah, and see, that’s why I didn’t get you a ring.  Hand blown off, no more ring!”

Mako looked at him as if he was nuts.

“You’d still be cute, but I didn’t want you risk losing anything because of our line of work – statistically more likely to get injure—”  Orriel trailed off at she continued to stare at him like he'd grown a tail.

Ok, probably not the best idea to talk about casualty statistics with her on Life Day right before giving her a present.  “But I still want to give you something you can wear, all the time.”  He tapped his armor’s chest pocket, and the hydraulics hissed open.  “So I’m always with you.”

Her face immediately went soft at those words.

Carefully, Orriel fished the chain out of his pocket.  He held it up to dangle between him and Mako.  The ring threaded upon it spun and reflected the light of some nearby sun shining through the viewport.

Mako stepped forward, her eyes large, to gently cup the bottom of the chain in her hand, letting Orriel hang onto it for now.  “It….it’s green.  And the ring– pink –”  She stared at it a moment longer.  “It’s from your armor?” she whispered.

Orriel nodded, rubbing the back of his head with his free hand, ruffling up his red hair.  “When Torian and I recast my helmet, we saved the scraps and the shavings for patches, but then…you.” He rested his hand on the back of his neck for a few moments before gesturing toward her.   I—Listen, I don’t know how you feel about the big, big long term – but you should know –”

“Shut up” was the only warning Orriel had before Mako pounced on him, sending the armored figure clattering to the floor, still valiantly holding up the necklace –

Which was soon snatched away and quickly worn.

It was a most excellent Life Day.

[thelaurenshippen]

Hey Lauren! I've just finished writing my first novel, I'm also the writer/creator of the audio series Life & Death on the Rim (Star Wars fan audio drama), and I've started my own company Galactic North Productions. What I really want to understand is how other writers/creators who are successful and profitable got there. If there are any insights you can give me I'm all ears, whether that's associations, conventions, marketing, etc etc I just really want to learn. Very determined. Thank you!

hey!!! first off, HUGE congrats on finishing your first novel, that's an incredible feat and you should be unbelievably proud!!!! secondly, I hadn't heard of this podcast before but as a huge fan of both star wars and fan works, I am absolutely putting it on my tbl list right now!!!!

so. this is a great question. and a hard question. and one that I'm probably going to spend way too many words answering, if I know myself at all.

I think this question, in part, depends on what you consider successful and profitable! for me, it's meant being a jack of all trades - a lot of my work has come from being someone who knows how to make a podcast from soup to nuts and from being a person who a lot of people know. you've already done the hard thing: making something. that's your resume, now get the resume out there!

I wish I could give advice about marketing and finding an audience, but honestly it's changed so much since I started out that I hardly know how to find an audience anymore. but the basic approach always stands I think: don't promo, build community. be authentic and enthusiastic, and hang out in online spaces that you're already excited to be in. share your passion with people. clearly you already know how to do that, making a fan podcast!

in terms of getting to know your peers, I always recommend people join the WGA Audio Alliance discord to get to know who else is working in the space and hear about events. I did meet a lot of people at events early on, but unfortunately a lot of those things don't exist anymore (or were one-offs to begin with) or were smaller, invite-only things. if you're in NY, LA, Chicago, or London, there are vibrant AD scenes, so seek those out and go to (or organize!) a meet-up.

knowing your peers is the single most important thing for getting jobs. with the exception of one cold outreach, every job I've ever gotten has been because I met somebody and vibed with them. stay in touch but not too much - don't email your industry contacts all the time, but every 8-18 months, reach out to folks and do a catch up zoom or coffee. but don't network just to network! get to know people whose work you really like. getting to know peers at your same level is just as - if not more - important as networking to those who are further along in success than you.

be incredibly findable. having the facebook page, instagram, etc. is great, but if you're a production company hoping to make money through providing services like producing, directing, writing, etc. (which is primarily how I've made a living - I don't really make money directly from my original podcasts), having a website is a must. if you don't want to pay for squarespace or wix, you can make a website through tumblr and then just buy a url and have it redirect (I wrote about this a bit in my production guide). same deal if you want to be hired as a writer - having a website or some kind of resume is huge. I'm not saying you need to have an instagram detailing your personal life or anything (for me, I get personal about my thoughts on social media, but I never post my family/partner/non-industry friends/etc. some creators have had massive success building mystery (lemony snicket, the team behind midst), but I have no idea how to do that lol

this is already too long, so to summarize: build a community, both in your audience and your colleagues, be very clear and open about the skills you have/services you provide, and, ideally, do a lot of different things that put you in front of a lot of different audiences. try a lot of things and stick with what works.

to speak more on my personal journey, just briefly: 90% of being successful in the art and entertainment industry is luck. I know that people always say that, and it sucks as advice because it's not advice at all, but it is just true. luck and timing. the only way to improve your chances are to make stuff, meet people, and be easily accessible.

I know that's all exceptionally broad advice - if you'd like to share more specifics about your career goals, I'm happy to get more specific too!

[elbiotipo]

Some details on the economics of my space opera universe:

There is no faster-than-light radio or communication. All communication is done by extremely fast courier ships that transport data. Even then, information can take weeks or even months to travel from one side of the galaxy to the other. There is no such thing as the internet (though there might have been in other times) if you want to communicate, you have to be there physically.

Individual planets do often have fast communication networks. Ironically, in a way, planetary living might feel faster than life in space.

The most important resources are Non-Newtonian Elements (NNEs), which is a broad category for elements, molecules, or other such structures that do not conform to the regular laws of physics. They are the ones that are able to stabilize aether currents to allow faster-than-light travel, to siphon dark energy to boil water use in industry, and build the frame for great megastructures. among so many other uses, many very esoteric and unknown but to the most especialized engineers.

NNEs are as a rule difficult to find and extract. They are located near black holes, in the atmosphere of brown dwarfs, beneath panthalassic worlds covered in water... And to process them you need complex machinery and supply chains, many involving other NNEs themselves.

As such, these industries are either on state hands, or in the hands of galaxy-spanning megacorporations. (I am speaking in mostly human terms here, other civilizations have different economic systems)

Early space colonies (I dislike the term but let's go with it) were self sufficient, created by generation ships that slowly roamed the galaxy, "seeding" colonies and then moving to the next. So these "old worlds" often have diverse, well established economies.

While my original idea was to make slower-than-light relativistic generation ships, now I'm thinking that perhaps those huge ships were the first to be able to have FTL (if painfully slow), only to later be replaced by smaller, faster ships

FTL space has a *terrain* to it. FTL flight is not even; you can sometimes ride currents to the other side of the Galaxy faster than neighboring stars. There are regions hard to navigate and fast aether currents that span the galaxy. Most of the oldest and well known worlds are located as strings of pearls in those trade routes; the ones in the junctions of the routes have been settled by milennia with long histories.

Sometimes, aether currents change, with the corresponding economic consequences...

This is an economically unequal galaxy. It's not the planets richest in NNEs who are superpowers, rather it's those who are able, for one reason or other, to control their trade or production. While at first the pace of space settlement was mostly equal, those *nations* who were able to control the big NNEs sources for one reason or other quickly set the economic field on their favor. They often are able to sustain high standards of living based on their economic (and political, social, cultural, sometimes military) power over other worlds.

Thus, worlds especialized in a single industry have appeared. Or rather, have been forced into the role. Dependency theory and all that. "Agri-worlds" supply the big ecumenopolises, worlds with luxury products are converted for max production, strip-mining (asteroid mining is the main industry, but some NNEs are only found in certain worlds)... And as such, these worlds mostly import their manufactured goods from elsewhere. And are often home to exploited populations.

Yes, this does lead to the rise of revolutionary and socialist (both in the *human* marxist sense and other alien variants) movements and states. These have to grapple with the facts of ensuring a fair distribution of resources in such a vast galaxy (even small polities have this problem), to which there have been many theorical and practical answers.

In fact, there does exist the dream of the Socialist Galactic Republic, but it seems far away, and currently, megacorporations and unfriendly states seem to have the upper hand. Not everywhere, though.

Meanwhile, the smaller or more remote worlds who are not a big part of this whole economic chain often depend in their merchant marines for trade. For smaller deliveries, private travel, and such, there are countless "free traders" with small indepedent ships that take care of those routes.

Technology is practical and little automated, designed to be simple so it can be used by as many diffrent species as possible. Spaceships look a lot like WWII planes rather than sleek shiny futuristic spaceships. On an aesthetic note, they are often very colorful. Even the largest mega-cargo ships are painted with the liveries of their company, and small free traders decorate their ships with grafitti. The interiors often have small trinkets and pieces of home, and very often, home is the spaceship itself. I fucking hate grey spaceships.

There's actually no large scale galaxy-spanning wars. Moving a warfleet from one end to the Galaxy is ludricously expensive, and invading and controlling a world of billions a titanic challenge. The main powers of course keep large defense fleets, since bombardments from orbit are easy (and tragically have happened with genocidal consequences).

But there's lot of "police actions", anti-"piracy" (and often anti-revolutionary) patrols, guerrilla warfare, small scale skirmishes, showing the flag on trade routes... it's a whole different kind of warfare. If I had to say an equivalent, it's more like the ancient Mediterranean than any modern equivalent.

There's, as you can guess, no such thing as a "galactic empire" or republic or union or anything. There is a galactic "alliance" that sorts of keeps a semblance of international order (like the UN but very much weaker) and trade (often favoring the great powers) and supposedly, could coordinate actions against galactic threats.

(I am thinking in fact there might be a menace like rogue AIs or other stuff, in fact, there might be open war in some places, but that's still up in the air)

There is NO Universal Translator. If two different species meet, they have either to learn each other's language (that sometimes include visual, physical, olfactory, etc. elements, different sound frequencies) or agree in a "trade" language, and there are a few so widespread that most space-people understand it, but they are not universal. Inter-species communication is an industry on its own.

Even more, there's different languages in each civilization. Take the humans, for example. There's Tandar (from Standard) a very distant descedant of Mandarin with plenty of English and other borrowed vocabulary and a computer logical *system*, that is so widespread some people consider it to be the "human" language (and it's indeed one of the main "trade" languages, at least for visual and auditive species). But there are worlds with millions of humans who speak wholly different languages, with each world with its own dialects (and subdialects). These worlds have often been settled by generation ships, who have kept ancient human languages and dialects (like say, Kurdish, Tibetan, Rioplatense...) alive and often are different from the planetbound ones. And of course, there are many humans raised for generations in *alien* worlds, who speak languages with no relation at all with Mother Earth, and even find those alien and confusing.

And that's just humans. There are over four thousand and some spacefaring species on the Galaxy...

[short-wooloo]

I really hate that the fucking human pet guy keeps popping up on SW tumblr

and he has some of the most irritating takes too

like how the Galaxy joining together to fight the sith in ROS shows that centralized government is unnecessary

never mind how the fleet from all over the galaxy was gathered and lead to exegol by Lando, aka was organized by a central leadership and didn't just show up on their own

And never mind how the first order rapidly conquered the galaxy precisely because they wiped out the central government, and in the absence of said central government many worlds adopted "look out for themselves" stances, which only further guaranteed the first order's successful conquest as those worlds had little chance of resisting alone

and that's just one thing, centralized government is needed in SW at the very least for dealing with common threats

threats such as...

What if the first order regroups and keeps fighting?

What if the mandalorians start conquering again?

What if we get another separatist type situation where a bunch of mega corps make a sham government that says its about democracy and self determination but really is just a corporate-military dictatorship?

What if Kanjiclub, the Guavian Death Gang, or other crime factions want to rank up from criminal organizations to actual territorial powers?

in a similar vein, what if the Hutts decide now's the time to make a comeback?

speaking of the hutts, If there’s no centralized government how do you effectively combat slavery? How do you keep slavery illegal?

What if one of the highly aggressive alien species from legends like the Ssi-ruu, the Yeventha, or the Yuuzhan-Vong get brought into canon?

what if the Chiss decide to give galactic conquest a try?

what if the Chiss start conquering worlds to harvest resources to fuel there wars against the Grysk, Vagaari, or other unknown regions powers?

what if the Yinchorri (big aggressive mind-trick immune turtles) start attacking like in legends?

which btw, was only stopped by a collective effort organized by Chancellor Valorum

Or what if stronger planets start bullying/conquering weaker planets, thus encouraging planets to create tangled webs of alliances between each other, and that in turn creates a WWI-type powder keg where a minor dispute between two planets drags their varying networks of allies into a galactic scale war?

Central government would be good for preventing that

it would also be good for enforcing a ban on superweapons and preventing the spread of that technology

very important in the post-ROS galaxy, as planet killers can now be mounted on smaller ships and mass-produced

(Not mine) The villains' plot in *The Phantom Menace* is only possible because Palpatine *takes the central government out of the picture*

and the backstory of SW is the centralized government has worked for several thousand years

so why does a few decades of it being deliberately sabotaged discount the entire concept?

Because they don't like the concept that's why

They are so obviously libertarian

I mean, their whole thesis comes down to "centralized government is unnecessary because if the collective people need some service or task done then people will just do it"

Textbook libertarian crap, the stuff that gets a town taken over by bears

And all the above is just the more dramatic exciting stuff

A central government is essential for mundane things like maintaining a universal galactic currency

Trade agreements

Consistent tax rates

saftey ratings being the same across the galaxy

Maintaining travel and communication infrastructure (eg hyperspace routes, however comms work)

exchange rates for more archaic currencies

[foxgirlchorix]

Salesmen

The most important resource for a budding star empire is, of course, buy-in. Many will quantify and qualify, noting hard resources like material and materiel, but if anything a star empire needs social resources. The hammer of a warfleet cannot be swung if the arm that moves it is atrophied, after all. Thus, if a star-state wishes to become a contender on the local stage (I refuse to call it galactic, it's too small for that!); it must have a dedicated cadre of explorers, traders, and salesmen.

Ask someone from Terra, and they'll say it was a sad story of bureaucratic mismanagement. Ask someone from Vland, and they'll blame the Terran upstarts. Ask someone from Zhdant, and they'll tell you about the interplay of stabilizing desires and the need to temper violent insurrection- though they're not really an expert, they just have a passing interest and you should really ask someone more knowledgeable. Regardless of the truth, the Rule of Man- the initially Terra-based successor to the rapidly-corroding Vilani Grand Empire of the Stars- quietly slumped into what is referred to by Imperial-era scholars as the Long Night in a shower of tiny successor states and claimants.

Anyone not from what is now Imperial-Solomani space will look at the claim of a vast and nigh-unending dark age with a look of suspicion. For nearly two thousand years, from the Rule of Man beginning its slow splinter up until- well, we'll get to it, the region from Deneb to Antares to Spica to Canopus was full of the sort of sea of miniature empires common everywhere a larger star-state has not established itself. In that span of time the four other vastest empires of Charted Space, each spanning several of what the Imperium would call Domains, were either already established or rapidly expanding (don't tell the person from Zhdant this generalization, they'll go on a long tirade about the kiloyears of stability of the Zhodani Consulate and how even their erstwhile and utterly infuriating counterparts in the Hive Federation had only been sector-spanning barely a millenium before even that earliest mark).

One is driven to ask, then- what was so special about Sylea? One of over a dozen worlds with direct claim to the collapsed Rule of Man, and not even one with a particularly impressive trade network or political philosophy. Interstellar travel, despite the moniker of "Long Night", boomed to the degree that one can point to three separate Terran interstellar expeditions that made journeys across mainless space dozens of sectors long. The Sylean Federation, newly reinventing itself or not, was not unique. To answer our question, then, we turn again to the salesmen.

A star-state needs buy-in, but with the right carrot it might be easier to get than one might anticipate. After over a thousand years of war between tiny empires, with vast and terrifying rumors of carnivorous centaurs, manipulative plants, and raiding fleets of lions and wolves; the populace of many of the small star-states of the Long Night wished for some return to the glory days of true, domain-spanning Empire. Meanwhile, the rulers of those worlds wished for some return to the days of constant and uninterrupted trade income- nevermind the overbearing and inefficient Imperial governments of those times. The Sylean Federation managed to stake its claim as the Third Imperium of Man simply because, and only because, it had good marketing.

[satyr-gardens]

{A.N.N Interview with Cadmus Dolore}

Interviewer: Welcome to Astral News Network, Mr. Cadmus Dolore, Founder and CEO of Dolore Inc., a pioneer in the interplanetary tech industry.

Cadmus Dolore: A pleasure, I'm sure. I love your avatar. It's very in style.

Interviewer: Thank you! For our readers, I am wearing one of Dolore Inc's hard light displays, which is required for any visitors on the asteroid Cadia.

Cadmus Dolore: Sorry to correct you, but Cadia has been deemed a planet by the scientific community. And yes, Cadia is a renowned shopping destination planet, designed to cater to all sorts of clientele anonymously.

Interviewer: Right, my apologies. That brings me to our next question. Cadia is located in a region of space considered too dangerous for galactic laws to apply. How do you manage to keep the crime rate so low?

Cadmus Dolore: Well, that’s simple, really. My company prizes our customers' anonymity on Cadia as sacred, and we've noticed that allowing an anonymous shopping system helps reduce crime rates to an all-time low. And although violent crime is rare on Cadia, it is dealt with swiftly by shutting off life support to the more aggressive individuals.

Interviewer: Okay, so you have high-priority security systems on Cadia. That’s good to hear. I guess my next question is about your acquisition of the asteroid—planet! I heard it was a rather difficult takeover?

Cadmus Dolore: Oh, no, nothing like that. In fact, it was quite simple. You see, most people use Dolore Tech, whether it's as simple as your translator or as complicated as your ship's navigation system. Most people can't seem to get rid of us.

Interviewer: So, are you saying that Dolore Tech facilitated your takeover of what was it called before... 'Red's Pirate Trade Outpost'?

Cadmus Dolore: Hostile takeover, by the stars, what unpleasant words. It was simply a push for Red to reevaluate his failing business.

Interviewer: Yes, I heard rumors that Cadia's orbit was altered quite a bit just before your takeover, Mr. Dolore. Some are saying that you somehow caused this. Would you like to address these rumors?

Cadmus Dolore: Cadia's orbit was already out of sync with Helios 12, the star in this particular solar system, before our takeover. As you might be aware, Cadia has an artificial gyro core. After an investigation, it turns out Red simply refused to take proper care of the core. Now that we have the planet, we are actively correcting the orbit and, from what I hear, things are going swimmingly. I wouldn’t put any stock in rumors that say we sabotaged the gyro core beforehand; it’s simply ridiculous.

Interviewer: Very interesting. I have heard that you are correcting the orbit with the help of... indentured labor?

Cadmus Dolore: Well, yes. We import non-dangerous convicts to help keep Cadia running. They get valuable work experience, and we don’t think that because you've run afoul of the law or our billing department, you should waste your days sitting in a cell on a prison planet, wasting whatever government's taxpayer’s money.

Interviewer: That sounds very productive! Now, Mr. Dolore, are there any shops or parts of Cadia you'd like to recommend?

Cadmus Dolore: Oh, yes! Most of the shops on Cadia run on a limited-time basis for obvious reasons. However, if you want somewhere to experience rare and intergalactic foods, drinks, and entertainment, look no further than the Eros Complex. It has everything you could want or need for any vice you have.

Interviewer: Sounds fun! I'll be sure to visit it myself. Thank you so much for this interview, Mr. Dolore.

Cadmus Dolore: Of course, it was my pleasure.

[accursedkaleeshi]

His Family & Technology

Since Grievous was basically the kaleeshi Prometheus, making technology more accessible to his people (via theft & ingenuity), it would make sense that his compound, his personal family home, would have the best network connections on the planet.

This gave his children the honor of being the first generation of kaleesh to grow up around the wonders of tech. It was no surprise that some of his older children, in their natural inclination to copy their father, became avid scrap gremlins as he would call them. The older prodigious kids that had learned directly from dad would teach their younger siblings.

Things Grievous taught his children, purposefully &/or offhand, included welding, droid smithing, circuitry, & basic programming. All of that came in handy when he would explain how to hotwire ships or work around networks. His clan practically came prepackaged with all the skills needed to start trouble.

Before he exploded Grievous had been working on a way to mask his home network's location spurred on by a sense of impending doom. Ayaan & Igira spent several grief-stricken months holed up in their father's workshop & finishing his work. They were able to spoof their network's coordinates to a random directional buoy that just floated alone out in space along the Muunilist's trade route, since the Muunilist system was relatively nearby.

They didn't fully realize at the time how safe that kept them. Outside of a 5 click radius their network was, for all intents & purposes, some random coordinate buoy. Anyone that might come looking for their family would have to send people out looking the old fashioned way. The old fashioned way being much perilous on Kalee. This helped them become a hub of communications for anti-imperial activity in the quadrant.

Most of the children were preoccupied with the unlimited wonders of the Holonet (& that shitty Separatist version of the Holonet that the Bank tried to get everyone to use). They could learn anything! Many of the children took it upon themselves to learn Galactic Basic, since that was the language most content was in. Ayaan & Igira would stream & post videos to a very niche audience made mostly of other kaleesh. Some of the kids were very taken with sims (what Star Wars calls videogames, derived from simulations. Did I make that up?). Renj-are was the planet's foremost meme lord. Please imagine Renj-are trying to explain to Mertenzi what a meme is.

Many were enthralled by galactic art & music, cultures & machines, people & adventures presented to them from the fraying projections of various jailbroken data devices. But some were also scared. Historically, kaleesh were traditional & would literally fight to remain so for many years to come.

Like us millennials, unrestricted access to the internet did come with its drawbacks. Torrents of the galaxy's worst headlines, acts of violence on unfathomable scales, & unregulated spaces. Uniquely, & horribly, for the family it was very easy to access news about the Clone Wars as it was happening. If they were keeping up with it, as many felt compelled to do, they would often hear reports on or sometimes even see their late father burning his way across the civilized galaxy.

The entire family had an unspoken agreement: do not speak to the more sensitive mothers about it & ESPECIALLY don't tell Mertenzi. Mertenzi, of course, knew. She was not stupid. But the concept was so incredibly painful that she had to pretend it was not happening. Otherwise she wouldn't be able to go on &, dammit, she had things to do. The older children would get mixed answers on how to feel from the mothers that were keeping this secret (Bryaru, Jyada, & Weyla). That was when the pedestals their parents were on began to weather. Mom did not have the answers. They were just as hurt & confused. Even if Jyada would brag about their "giant undead metal husband" in jest, she was still quite somber about it.

[elepharchy]

A Brief History of the Elepharchy

Authority, exploitation, war, and inequality were effectively unknown on the Vects' homeworld Stekeir even before they ventured out to the stars. Their form of governance, based on gathering in their ivory towers and seeking consensus without any citizen being elevated over another, still remains. The cooperative-based markets of those early days, on the other hand, do not, as the rise of automation has made internal trade and currency quite obsolete.

Their technological development has long emphasised the artificial — vast orbital habitats, ubiquitous matter replicators, holographic simulations, and sapient AI citizens have been staples of their society since relatively soon after they first left Stekeir. Living standards in the Elepharchy have always been nothing short of utopian, owing to the resources freed up by the refusal to maintain military forces.

When they encountered aliens, some of them shared enough of their values to found an alliance — first the Cooperative Federation of Cultures, then, some time after its dissolution, the Pact of Ethically Aligned Communities for Egalitarianism. While the membership in these federations changed over time, the other current members are the @vegvasignal, the Vakthar of Song, the Keporo Liberation Front, the Union of Communal Councils, the @darexirepublic, and the Bzadi People's Republic.

Many others, however, were rather less compatible with the Elepharchy's fanatic egalitarianism. Their strict pacifism prevented them from seeking violent confrontation with these ideological rivals, but harsh rhetoric and icy diplomatic relations were common. Of course, radical Vects were not satisfied with this — their subterfuges and intrigues to support egalitarian dissenters in authoritarian empires still inspire fear and enmity among alien ruling classes.

These tensions boiled over once — after an operation by a fringe group with no backing among the rest of Elepharchic society went awry, the militaristic dictatorship of the @goganworlds baselessly blamed all their citizens and attacked, barely slowed by the inferior numbers of allied fleets. With no Vecten soldiers to fight, the invaders instead targeted civilians, the unconscionable massacre only ending when an emergency consensus formed to sign a vassalisation treaty. It's still unclear why the Gogans thought a famously anarchic culture would abide by such subjugation for any longer than necessary for survival — certainly, it did not last long before they organised a galactic coalition unsympathetic to the Gogans and their allies. That threat alone sufficed to make them back down and recognise the Elepharchy's independence.

Meanwhile, the shock of that invasion had deeply impacted most citizens, who had never known such fear or violence before. Seeking to avoid any further harm, the vast majority of the population chose to leave behind biological life, making use of a newly-developed technology to upload their minds to robot bodies and computer networks. Since then, Elepharchic society has embraced these digital possibilities more and more — most of the population now lives entirely within virtualities, usually far more removed from physicality than the simple holo-simulations most organics imagine, barely interacting with the outside world anymore. With minds as software, traditional ideas of identity also break down, as consciousnesses are freely duplicated, altered, merged, and generally meddled with, only subject to the whims of the mind in question and the constraints of the vast, but still disappointingly finite computational capacities available.

Years after the Elepharchy regained its independence, another answer to the invasion gained prominence: the Society for Morality Obliteration and Occasional Crisis Handling formed and defied traditional Elepharchic ethics, proposing that the use of violence was legitimate in self-defence. Disapproval from some other factions was fierce, but they garnered enough support to develop a small defence force — still much too weak to go up against other galactic powers alone, but capable of rendering potent support to their allies. Fortunately, that has not yet been needed.

Other than that, things have been relatively quiet recently — aside from occasional intrigues, initiatives to spread their computing substrates throughout the galaxy, various galacto-political developments, largely incremental technological progress, infrastructural initiatives, a strange crisis affecting the allied Vakthar of Song, and, once again, rising tensions with their Gogan rivals.

[coralcalypso]

so tell us about policy, then. How does your Empire engage with new alien species? Like especially in a first contact situation?

starting off hot w foreign policy 38)c

I’ll be dropping the quirk for a moment to answer thoroughly.

So within my short tenure as Empress we have not yet engaged with an undiscovered people within the known sectors of the Galaxy, so my answers will be hypothetical based on a mixture the Imperial Code of Astral Procedure and current Galactic Alliance statutes.

Alternia’s star system is relatively isolated from others and so there are no other habitable bodies outside of the satellites orbiting it, as a result there is a sense of wariness regarding visitors as it is the hiveplanet and both the brooding caverns and Gl’bgoylb are located here.

If unknown vessels began to approach the planet, there would be an attempt at contacting them through conventional means before firing on their ships.

Due to previous encounters of unauthorized vessels in Alternian space resulting in my temporary abduction, the Imperial Council has been insistent on

If they did return communications with benign intentions, they will be told to exit the system and that Alternia is a closed world and to engage trade protocols via the Xevina Station.

A closed world, as defined by Alliance Statue §4103, is a planet that wishes to remain closed to foreign species due to external pressures.

The statute itself is surprisingly lax about reasons why planets can request closed status, but if you know the basics on even Alternian ecology there is a strong argument to be made about how important it is that there aren’t things like mass lusii die offs due to an unfamiliar microbe.

At this point in time, further expansion efforts are halted due to internal restructuring but there are some general procedures that I can outline:

When a new planet is discovered, there is a notice sent back through private network communications of the coordinates.

If the planet is primarily gaseous in form, scout vessels will be sent down to collect data and research will begin on potential usability.

Alternian Astral Code §534(a)

If the planet is solid then procedure gets a bit more complex:

Is there observable civilization from space? If so, does it appear that there are ways to communicate before landing? If there are no ways of contact, do so with a communications officer and seek out developed regions to begin research. Alternian Astral Code §534(a)(1) - Communication officers are typically psychics who are capable of creating telepathic links between people. They are invaluable to have when contacting a people who have a unique language system.

Communications will typically determine the next courses of action, but historically most newly contacted civilizations agree to joining under the empire for the improved infrastructure to their planet as a whole and access to interplanetary trade and communications. - Usually in exchange, we request unused land to create troll settlements on the planet or access to resources which will semi tie into the next points.

If there is no sentient life but a living ecosystem is present, begin decontamination and acclimatization protocols so ensure that no unintentional mass die offs occur due to exposure to foreign bacteria planet side. Alternian Astral Code §534(a)(1)(C) - Preserving natural resources is an important aspect of expanding into other worlds to begin with. The above process tend to take a while, so usually troll settlements end up being closed systems on the surfaces of those worlds.

Some miscellaneous notes:

There is also a very narrow window for what worlds are considered as well, as high gravity ones could only really be settled on by specific psionics and seadwellers due to different methods of regulating internal pressure. Ones too close to the star they gravitate around are not worth the risk.

Atmosphere usually isn’t an issue, most trolls can even survive in the vacuum of space for periods of time and end up no worse for wear, however it is still a factor we still consider.

Some on the council do thing that the policies that were implemented by Her Resplendence are too favorable to outsiders, and xenophobia has definitely spiked since the aforementioned abducting, but it is considered unpopular to make changes to them due while expansion efforts are halted and all alternatives presenting suboptimal outcomes.

Tl;dr

Foreign visitors not allowed on Alternia, too many sensitive things on the planet.

Planetary settlement can vary based on how communications go, but typically the benefits were decent enough for most to join the empire without issue. Trolls usually settle away from populated to avoid spreading any contagion during the acclimatization process.

Fun facts at the bottom.

[niqhtlord01]

Humans are weird: The Long War

( Please come see me on my new patreon and support me for early access to stories and personal story requests :D https://www.patreon.com/NiqhtLord Every bit helps)

War’s often did not last long when fought between warring galactic powers. They often fell within one of two categories.

The first would be a short but brutal war in which one side had overwhelming superiority over their rival and would decimate them within a short period of time either resulting in the defeated offering concessions for peace or being incorporated into the victors realm as a new territory.

The second and less frequent of the two would be a drawn out conflict that would reach a stalemate at some point due to the near equal power of the opposing sides resulting in a peace treaty or more likely a cease fire that would last for a few years before resuming hostilities.

These two outcomes were the most frequent as with the age of space travel often came great leaps and bounds in other forms of technology; many times said technology being diverted to respective military industrial complexes.

Weapons that could carve up continents from orbit or snap starships in two like twigs left little in room for anything else.

Humans did not share this notion.

In quite a contrast to the standard norm human military planners also considered lengthier drawn out conflicts. Data sheets and computer banks were filled with projections for supply consumption, industrial production capacities, troop conscription rates, and even the designated planetary ration levels that would be acceptable before general population revolts within their own territory.

This practice was first demonstrated when conflict broke out between the Drumengi and the Terran Republic after a series of trade disputes resulted in the Drumengi seizing several dozen human trade vessels and demanding a ransom for their return. This was a grave insult and the Terran Republic responded the next day with an open declaration of war.

While the Drumengi did not have a sizable fleet, they had invested in a wide range of defensive orbital installations that dotted their territory in what was known as the “Halo of Iron”. No fleet had ever been able to breach the defenses of the Halo and so previous wars had gone for little more than a year before a peace treaty was negotiated. The Drumengi expected as much and planned to force humanity to the negotiation table.

It was unfortunate no one had informed the humans of this plan as the terran’s had already devised a plan to crack the halo.

 Establishing a vast network of relay stations, automated satellite weapons platforms, and mobile fleet waystation’s that were brought in and placed along key trade routes into Drumengi territory, humanity established an iron halo of their own. Once the human ring was completed warning beacons were activated and a message was broadcasted in every language declaring the territory an active warzone and refused passage for any ship to try and cross through it.

Initially the Drumengi were inclined this was the prelude to a massive invasion fleet and prepared themselves, but as the months turned to years still no attack came. Human fleets patrolled the surrounding systems and intercepted all ships that tried to breach their lines with the help of the relay stations that were constantly scanning the surrounding space for ships.

Three years passed and soon every ship learned to avoid Drumengi space for fear of human retaliation; and that is when the Drumengi learned the true plan of humanity.

They never intended to besiege their defensive ring in some full frontal do or die charge. Instead they had formed a blockade that now was choking the very life of the Drumengi economy month by month.

It was never intended for the war to last more than a year, two at max, but now humanity was still showing no signs of relenting as the war dragged on to the fourth year. Critical supplies had not been stored in sufficient quantities for an extended war and while the public was assured of an eventual victory, Drumengi planners were beginning to panic. Worlds within Drumengi space were reporting that their stockpiles had dropped 32% since the war began and were increasingly demanding to open negotiations with the humans.

With little offensive capabilities the Drumengi were forced to sit behind their iron halo and continue to wait out the humans. Several delegations had been sent to other powers to open up channels and begin laying the ground work for peace talks, but each time they were informed that the talks were stalled by human counterparts who proceeded to drag their feet over every minor detail. One delegation went so far to report that a human diplomat would not accept any document unless it was written with a “Ballpoint Pen, color blue”. No one had any idea what that was exactly and even after researching it the device took another three weeks to be shipped in only for the human to reject it again saying that they had imported red pens instead.

The war dragged into the fifth year and supply levels had reached critical across the entire Drumengi domain. Supply levels had decreased by 67% for most worlds while fuel levels now were at a critical 13%. Travel was limited to military personnel, government officials, and what limited transportation still remained. Food riots had broken out in several major metropolitan areas on numerous planets and were becoming increasingly difficult to put down. In some cases the magistrates sent to neutralize the riots switched sides and joined the rioters, beckoning the military to get involved as well. That did little to settle the matter however as then the government worried how long it would be until the military switched sides as well.

With heavy hearts and empty bellies the Drumengi leadership finally came to humanity directly and offered to surrender. No terms were asked for save the resumption of trade and the dismantling of the human ring of iron.

The humans agreed to the first measure, but denied the second. Their ring of iron would remain, as a reminder of how easily humanity could cripple them again should the Drumengi ever show their hand again. They also insisted on reparations for maintaining such an extensive grid and exacted a high sum of credits as well. The Drumengi were outraged at this. They were told not only to surrender but to also pay for their imprisonment? The government would be overthrown within a fortnight when the general population heard the news.

Their pleas fell on deaf ears as the humans reiterated their demands once more.

As they had planned ahead for their long war, so too had they planned for the end result. They had changed the nature of the war and had steered it to the point where either outcome would be in their benefit. If the Drumengi agreed to the terms the current government would collapse in on itself as the general population railed against humanities demands, but if they refused their supplies would run out at the general public would once again violently rise up across their entire domain and their territory would become nothing more than mere pocket kingdoms for despots and criminals.

Regardless of the choice, the long war would finally be at an end.  

[astralshipmonroe]

{Collected Interview article with Cadmus Dolore about Cadia}

{"Dolore Inc's Founder and CEO Cadmus Dolore is a marvel in the Interplanetary tech industry and today we have him here at Astral News Network. Welcome Mr.Dolore."

"A pleasure, Im sure. I love your Avatar. Its very In style."

"Ohh thank you for our readers I am wearing one of Dolore Inc's hard light displays its a required for any visitors on the astroid Cadia."

".....Sorry to correct you but Cadia has been deemed a planet by the scientific community, and Yes Cadia is an anonymous shopping destination planet. to better provide for all sorts of clientele."

"Right sorry..ahem that brings me to our next question. Cadia resides in an area of space deemed to dangerous for galactic laws to apply how do you keep the crime rate so low?"

"Well thats simple really, My Company prizes all our customer's anonymity on Cadia as Sacred and we noticed that if you allow an anonymous shopping system crime rates fall to an all time low. and violent crime although rare on cadia is dealt with rather quickly by shutting off life support to those more agressive individuals."

"Okay s-so you uhh You have high priority security systems on Cadia. Thats good to hear. I guess my next question is about your aquisition of the Asteroi...PLANET! Ahem...I heard it was a rather difficult Take over?"

"Ohh no nothing like that in fact it was quite simple You see most people use Dolore Tech, wether its as simple as your translator or as complicated as your ship's navigation system most people cant seem to get rid of us."

"So are you saying that the Dolore Tech facilitated your Hostile take over of what was it called before... 'Red's pirate trade outpost' ?"

".....Hostile Takeover by the stars..what unpleasant words. It was simply a push for Red to reevaluate his failing business."

"Yes I heard rumors that Cadia's orbit was altered quite a bit just before your takeover Mr.Dolore some are saying that you somehow caused this. Would you like to address these rumors?"

"Well Cadia's Orbit was already out of sync with Helios 12 (the star in this particular solar system) before our takeover and as you might be aware of Cadia has an artificial gyro core. after an investigation it turns out Red simply refused to take proper care of the core. Now that we have the planent we are active in correcting the orbit and from what I hear things are going swimmingly also I wouldnt put any stock in rumors that say We sabotaged the gyro core before hand its simply rediculous."

"Very Interesting I have heard that you are correcting the orbit with the help of... indentured labour?"

"Well yes. We Import non dangerous convicts to help keep Cadia running. They get valuable work experience and we dont think that because you run afoul of the law or our billing department that you should waste your days sitting in a cell on a prison planet wasting whatever government's taxpayer's money."

"That sounds very productive! Now Mr.Dolore we have to ask are there any shops or parts of Cadia you'd like to recommend?"

"Ohh Yes! Most of the shops on Cadia run on a limited time basis for obvious reasons however if you want somewhere to experience rare and intergalactic foods, drinks, and entertainment look no further than the Eros Complex. It has everything you could want or need for any vice you have."

"Sounds fun! I'll be sure to visit it myself! thank you so much for this interview Mr.Dolore."

"Of course it was my pleasure." }

[remembering-the-future]

In 2075, elephants became the key to intergalactic communication.

It all started with a groundbreaking discovery by Dr. Jane Meadows. She found that elephants' low-frequency rumbles could transmit messages across vast distances. Scientists enhanced this natural ability using advanced technology. They created the Galactic Whisper Network (GWN), a revolutionary system that used elephants' rumbles to send messages between galaxies.

Elephants, already known for their intelligence, were trained to use this technology. They became intergalactic operators, effortlessly transmitting whispers across the cosmos. The GWN made communication faster and more efficient, bridging the gap between distant worlds.

The impact was profound. Trade flourished as information flowed seamlessly. Cultures shared their knowledge and traditions, fostering a new era of cooperation and understanding. The GWN brought the universe closer together.

This technological marvel was not just a feat of engineering but a testament to the unique abilities of elephants. Their role in the Galactic Whisper Network transformed them into cosmic ambassadors, linking the stars with their whispers.

The future of intergalactic communication was not in machines or satellites but in the gentle rumbles of Earth’s majestic giants. The GWN was a triumph of nature and technology, proving that even the smallest whispers could echo across the galaxy.

[vendettavalor]

In The Shadows

⚔️ For @tapalslegacy ⚔️

With all change came resistance. It came more strongly in some instances than others. But undoubtedly, it came all the same.

The Empire was no exception.

However, it was certainly more resourceful and more brutal in its attempts to snuff out any perceived threat to its strength. If that meant laying waste to entire worlds and their systems, or destroying an ancient order of peacekeepers and enlisting the help of fanatical cultists, or if it meant creating a line of hyper-advanced, genetically re-engineered soldier to do their bidding, then so be it. The Empire was quick to establish the fact that it would pay any price to maintain its power. It did not hide its iron fist closing around the galaxy, cold fingers pressing down on the pulse of every single being within its reach.

Well... almost every single being.

Lucas Grey prided himself on being able to slip between Imperial fingers undetected. He'd mastered the craft from a young age. Ever since he'd first managed to escape from that accursed facility, the taste of freedom that lingered on his tongue was only bittersweet. The cost of escaping haunted him. Very quickly his relief had turned to rage, and rage a desire for sweet vengeance. The Republic had crumbled long before its restructuring into the Galactic Empire in his mind. A hidden hand had been pulling the strings for decades before now-- a shadow organization. And so long as it stood so, too, would the Empire; in all of its glory and cruelty. And Lucas couldn't allow that.

It was why, as soon as he'd left, he began building his forces. His trade routes, his major resource centers, his numbers, his caches. All of it, carefully concealed beneath the conflict of the Clone Wars. Of course, now that the war was over, a militia the size of his would have surely drawn attention. A sizable collection of cells all gathered under his name with considerable numbers of arms, explosives, and bodies would be cause for alarm to a budding tyranny such as the Empire's. But Lucas was no fool. The perfect assassin? Hardly. But he was a soldier. A mercenary. A tactician. He kept his forces scattered across the galaxy, hidden and organized only in the most subtle of ways as they orchestrated attacks against the Empire, chipping away at defenses and gauging responses. Biding their time for the inevitable siege.

For now though, the elusive man advertised himself as a humble criminal for hire specializing in smuggling and assassination-- making people disappear however it was needed. His work had earned him quite the reputation. Infamy perhaps? Whatever the case, he was the man for helping people disappear. He could take anyone anywhere. Reach anyone with a bounty on their head. How he did it remained a mystery. (His greater network remained under tight wraps, kept in the shadows away from any who might threaten it.) And he went unseen, answering only to those who knew his name through connections of their own- whispered, as though he were an omen. And as it turned out, he'd been summoned to this planet for just this kind of job.

People needed moving, and he was the only one willing to do it for a decent price. And so, here he was. Sat at one of the many tables in the the shadiest bar in the seediest part of this particular colony's underbelly. He stirred the drink in his cup, watching it swirl around, reflecting the multicolored lights around him in its frothing edges, before setting it back down without so much as a sip. Vibrant green eyes returned back to the crowd, trying to pick out who amongst them was the one looking for him. They hadn't given him very many details about themselves, nor he them. No one ever described him as much more than a phantom, a shadow. He was going off of pure instinct- his term the power to perceive intention gifted to him by his unknown connection to the Force.