Mandate Of Heaven - An "Of Unity" Narrative

CBR JGWRR · Jun 17, 2024

Come, they that would be wise!

See, those that would lead!

Hear, all the people!

Heaven is not so distant it does not see, not so far that it hears not.

Heaven is near to the people.

It sees them and hears them, and is not blind to their plight. It entrusts the son of Heaven to guide them, lead them and establish them, giving them the Mandate Of Heaven to rule in peace, prosperity and justice as Emperor of all under Heaven. Such is the way it has been since the ancient dragons who twisted the lands into shape and brought rain from the east, who passed down their wisdom to the first son of Heaven, and taught him the Mandate Of Heaven.

To the Emperor of the right hand, guardian and first of the people, his dynasty shall live secured and remembered by Heaven, and shall see the Three Blessings of Peace, Prosperity and Justice.

But to the Emperor who neglects his duties, to the tyrannt who oppresses the people, come the Five Woes of Warning!

Heaven is patient in judgement, is faithful and compassionate, slow to anger, yet it does not spare the leader who's hand grasps the people. Heaven knows the calamities harm the people, and they are the last recourse to draw back the slipping Emperor.

By these Five Woes of Warning an Emperor is warned to return to the path of righteous action, to turn them before the sixth, last and the greatest.

If they forsake these warnings and heed them not, then the greatest woe must surely come.

The First Woe is the appearances of the comets in the sky.

The Second Woe shaking of the ground beneath the feet.

The Third Woe is the crashing of floods from the mountains.

The Fourth Woe is the failing of crops and the faltering of the harvest.

The Fifth Woe is the harsh oppression of raiders from beyond the horizon.

When these Five Woes of Warning go unheeded, and the Emperor does not turn back to the path, comes the sixth, last and greatest woe:

The just uprising of the people.

For Heaven surely hears the cries of the people, and shall surely send a new son of Heaven to proclaim liberty to the captive and freedom to the oppressed. And this son of Heaven shall surely overthrow the wicked tyrant as Heaven is with them.

Let the son of Heaven remember the Mandate Of Heaven, lest he forget and turn from the path, and a new son of Heaven is established.

Magistrate-Chronicler Aetoqi Thruklexl
"The Proclaimation of Heaven"
Year 1, Emperor Druattoqo
Translated from the Classic Arishkan by Zhao Mei Hua

Custodians Of The Celestial Spheres

Great Powers:

The Immortal Prikkiki-Ti
Summary

The Prikki. What else do you expect? As with Life2.0, the broad strokes of The Prikki Endeavour are carried over - these Prikki faced down and sent to cloning vats two Awakened Empires and the Unbidden. They have fleets of Attack Moons. And they have also settled into being Pompous Purists rather than Fanatic Purifiers. They are bitter rivals of both the Arishkan and the Naylnoids.

The Prikkiki-Ti's true leadership is the Prikki Development Board. The board - composed of a secret cabal of Starborn and the cloning vats - optimise the other Prikki to suit the needs of the Prikkiki-Ti for the future. The public face of the Prikkiki-Ti's leadership is the Selection Committee, who appoint the Grand Arbiter, who appoints those he or she requires to achieve their goals, handed to them by the Prikki Development Board in means both subtle and unsubtle as required.

Key planets/Megastructures/Gigastructures

The Prikkiki-Ti's navy relies extensively on Attack Moons. So much so that they have massive Attack Moon production facilities powered by Dyson Spheres and fuelled by Star Lifters that print out Attack Moons.

The Prikkiki-Ti is also immensely centralised; one Alderson Disc in a top secret location houses the overwhelming majority of Prikki, with most star systems in Prikki space being dissasembled for resources.

Leaders

Grepp Schnepp-Rikki
Grepp is the architect behind the scenes of much of what is going on in Orion Commonwealth territory - indeed, the Commonwealth is his magnum opus, and his lines are blurred as to whether he is more loyal to what he wants the Commonwealth to be, or the Prikkiki-Ti.

Nooki Schnepp-Rikki (Assassinated)
Nooki was the other side of the Prikki Development Board's idea of unifying the Pre-FTLs; Grepp was to manage the Pre-FTLs themselves, while Nooki was to manage a de-escalation of tensions. After her assassination, and the skirmish with the Arishkan that followed, the path forward the Prikkiki-Ti will take is still being deliberated.

Grand Arbiter Pippo Aiyo-Ji
Grand Arbiter Pippo Aiyo-Ji was appointed by the Selection Committee to handle the post-war period. Their task is to maintain the Prikkiki-Ti on a war footing while also providing the resources required by external Starborn agents such as Grepp; Nooki's policy of friendly relations (by Prikki standards) is being maintained.

Noori Kri-Kri
Grepp's counterpart concealed within the Arishkan Galactic Empire. Another Prikki of many boats, tasked with engineering the rise of a new dynasty who are more agreeable to the Prikki. Is not as talented as Grepp, however.

Notable races

The Prikki operate on a caste system of genetically engineered variants designed by the Prikki Development Board, with other species ranging from tolerated to used as feedstock for cloning vats.

Starborn - the Leader caste. All Starborn are infertile, and are produced on an as-needed basis by algorithms governing clone vats based on the expansion of the Prikkiki-Ti. Their brains come pre-loaded with all the information they require to administrate, and they posess uplinks that connect them to the growing body of knowledge the Prikki possess. All Starborn view each other as brother or sister; a ten year old Starborn is physically indistinguishable from a ten thousand year old Starborn. It should be noted that while they are exceptionally regenerative, immortal does not mean invincible.

Assault - the soldier caste. Assault Prikki are optimised to be exceptionally deadly, especially the Elite Gene-Warrior divisions. Can breed naturally within their own division, and usually breed naturally within their template; it depends on how much tweaking the Prikki Development Board has done fine-tuning the template.

Industrialist - the "worker" caste. In practice, this is usually operating robotic hardware that actually does the job, but they have bodies that enable them to do things if necessary. Templates are optimised to suit specific aspects that fall within the Industrial heading; much like Assault Prikki, they can breed naturally within their template; the Board is satisfied with their comparitively low level of optimisation and focuses the bulk of the resources towards Assault and Mentalist Prikki.

Mentalist - the thinker caste. Researchers of technologies, implementers of their Starborn-issued policies. Rumours of Psionic capabilities have been denied officially.

The Arishkan Galactic Empire
Summary

The Arishkan Empire has always been an expansionist entity, and with expansion has often come instability and higher local autonomy. In its pre-interplanetary periods, technological progress was usually relatively delayed by the imperial need for control - several dynasties have turned on a single innovation and the resulting impacts, dating all the way back to the first Emperor Drattaqo Yirsursasth and his invention of the Oswuhri'a harness that enabled him to have Oswuhri'a do field labour in place of Arishkan, freeing up a huge amount of people to be more than farmers. In turn, the Yirsursasth dynasty fell to Asuhph Osauh's Ci'aphahu riders after he invented an equivalent of the stirrup for the predatory Ci'aphahu, and enabled vastly more effective cavalry.

This nervousness of new technology, but especially those with military applications, created social pressure to refrain from innovation, leaving the empire with under-developed communications technologies. For many thousands of years, travel times for news and decisions were limited to signal fires, messages tied to the legs of trained Kiih on the wing, and Ci'aphahu riders.

As the Empire spread due to prosperity and population growth, Emperor Issiphur Asuhr - who's father founded the dynasty by exploiting a breakdown in these communication systems - commissioned the first imperial experimental research group to develop a faster system. Banner-boxes turned the old signal fires into a kind of Morse code by opening and shutting to send pulses, while the Ci'aphahu riders were succeeded by carriages using primitive acid battery electric vehicles, charged by electric motors driven by water-wheels, with batteries exchanged at each stop.

Later, the banner-boxes were replaced by the use of fireworks, with different colours of firework assigned different meanings. The need to transmit over even larger distances as the Empire made it's first inter-continental colonies led to the need for replacing the light of the firework with radio.

Continual improvements led to the first satellites, and subsequently missions to other bodies in their home star system as population pressure continued to push the empire into expansion, the other planets and moons being seen as a new colonial frontier.

Empress Susuwis Asuhr realised that the Arishkan Empire was doomed to being conquered from space because of the limited capacities of rockets launched from the home world, and so she organised a series of reforms that would structure the Empire for its interstellar future, with stages in the grand plan thought through as the Empire expanded across the stars. The Arishkan Galactic Empire was born. It too ran into problems - the Asuhr dynasty falling because the Uqathre dynasty out-manoeuvered them in the days before Hyper Relay and Gateway - but remains an expansionist polity that views itself as the only legitimate Empire in the galaxy.

Key planets/Megastructures/Gigastructures

Causeway Of Emperors
The Causeway Of Emperors is the coronation and burial grounds of the Arishkan Emperors. The assembly is built on the equator of the Arishkan homeworld, with each Emperor given an area of a thousand strides by a thousand strides, with statues in the region of a hundred times life-size, and painted to look life-like. Each Emperor is depicted in the appearance they had at their last official event, and when possible, entombed within their statue. Alongside the Emperor are life-sized statues of his/her most important magistrates, and thousands of life-sized statues of the people in the empire. All the statues are made in cast bronze according to ancient Arishkan techniques, and painted to be true to life as a living and continuous history of the Empire. Dynasty changes are marked by having the Emperor bowed to the Dragon of Heaven, accepting the renewed Mandate Of Heaven.

Planetary Focus
The Arishkan Galaxctic Empire uses the least habitable megastructures of the major powers; Arishkan are not comfortable on habitats as they don't trust completely artifical living environments for long term habitation. This means that they engage in a great deal of planetary and stellar manipulation to bring sub-standard planets up to habitability.

Leaders

Uqathre Dynasty
Emperor Izzixl Uqathre
Izzixl has been widely maligned within the Empire for his nepotism and corruption. Venerable and proven Magistrate-Governors were dismissed from their posts and replaced by his relatives as he sought to exert more control on the Empire, and many of the Magistrate class have lost confidence in him. It has been speculated that the only reason the Magistrates have not tried to remove him is the threat of civil war being exploited by external powers.

Zhao Dynasty
Ossuhphuhr (Defected to Life2.0)
A Magistrate-Emissary assigned to relations with the now-defunct People's Republic of Terra and Colonies, he married Zhao Mei Hua, a Human woman. They have both retired from active duties, and have spent the years since training their son, Zhao Qing Lung. Made a secret pact with Grepp Schnepp-Rikki that led their respective nations to the negotiating table.

Zhao Qing-Lung
Qing Lung is a genetically enhanced Arishkan-Human hybrid, and the protagonist of Mandate Of Heaven. This blue dragon has been raised from birth to be a philosopher-king fit to guide a galaxy - his parents raised him in all the wisdom of the Arishkan and Chinese empires, had the Holocron as a tutor, learned as an understudy of Naomi Of Unity alongside Ruki Of Unity.

Notable races

The Arishkan are divided into two dominant cultural groups, colloquailly referred to as Northern Arishkan and Southern Arishkan, or Haaphusan Arishkan and Chuxlan Arishkan.

Following the decline of Emperor Drattaqo Yirsursasth in his old age, the empire was split between his four children under the notional leadership of the eldest son, Emperor Haaphusis Yirsursasth. Haaphusis' domain was in the northern region, but he held a great deal of power over Aphisi and Nuhir, who were given east and west. The ambitious son Chuxl was handed the south, which he developed as best he could as an autarchy, defining a separate language and banning the use of names common in the Haaphusan domain as a bid to make a case towards independence. It was broadly unsuccessful in terms of martial independence, but it did lead to a cultural disconnect as subsequent Chuxlan dynasties centralised development in the warmer southern lands.

In the modern world the cultures have largely reintegrated, having undergone a unity movement under Empress Tasir Baruhphs who had to balance an Arishkan Empire that covered their equivalent in rough geographical position and sizes to China and the United States of America, and the main difference now remains the names used by the two cultures.

Interstellar Nalynoan Empire

Lesser Powers:

Summary

The Orion Commonwealth is in spirit akin to the Federation of Star Trek; indeed, some unfamiliar with Human history have wondered if they were linked. It is the culmination of two centuries of work by Grepp Schnepp-Rikki, a Xenophile Starborn Prikki who was tasked by his sister with building an alliance of Pre-FTLs in what is now Commonwealth space.

With the courses of the Pre-FTLs guided towards the belief that aliens were out there and that friendship was not only possible, but a reasonable expectation, Grepp then arranged that formal first contact took place with Naomi and Appia's MSI-Life2.0, and the Commonwealth followed.

In the time since, the Commonwealth has achieved a high level of cohesion, with shared military operations and hardware, and common research programs.

The Orion Commonwealth owes its existence to four critical Leaders - the Starborn Prikki Grepp-Schnepp-Rikki, the Post-Human Naomi Of Unity, the Olinbar Appia The Reformer, and The Holocron. While each of these people have their own key supporters in turn, without them, the Orion Commonwealth would not be possible, and all four retain permanent positions in notionally advisory roles. With all four being functionally immortal through different means, permanent here means permanent.

Key planets/Megastructures/Gigastructures

Unity
The "homeworld" of Life2.0, and the central processing node of the Holocron, transformed from the original Continental world into a Gaia world by the Holocron integrating the flora and fauna as biological computational substrate within a living intelligent ecosystem.

Brigantia
An ancient world, Brigantia has been the capital of the Great Minamaran Empire when it was known as Diugas prior to its destruction by the early Olinbari, and is currently the capital of both the Olinbari Republic and the Orion Commonwealth.

Mars
Capital of the SolSys Restoration Organisation, the formerly red planet has a pure oxygen 0.2 bar atmosphere released from vaporised regolith, surface oceans and developing ecosystems of gene-engineered plants.

The Infinite Wheel
Formerly known as Cybrex Beta during the Contingency Crisis several thousand years ago, it is now the home ringworld of the Kyaese, and independent after the revolution against Septima Severus.

Leaders

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Notable races

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The Olinbari Republic follows the reforms made by Appia The Reformer, who restructured the former MegaCorp Minamar Specialised Industries following the defeat of Septima Severus.

Brigantia remains the capital of the Olinbari Republic, although it has been transformed; the ecumenopolis has been restored, and The Holocron has been using a few districts of the planet as testbeds for his efforts to develop Utility Sand construction as a stepping stone towards a planet that adapts to suit it's inhabitants.

Livi Unitatis, Olinbar-Xenaya, and Varius Manicus, Olinbar, are the current Consuls of the Republic. Appia The Reformer remains in the position of Matriarch Of The Republic; while her office does not posess imperium, she remains respected.

The republic is a truly metropolitan place, with Brigantia being a melting pot of residents from all over the galaxy.

Custodial Matrix
Summary

The Holocron has been extremely busy since the end of Life2.0; the Commonwealth could not exist without the industrial and research base he has established.

Key planets/Megastructures/Gigastructures

The Holocron specialises in planetary engineering

Leaders

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Notable races

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A Worker Cooperative that

Everyone else mentioned on the first three pages of Life2.0 who never really featured - to expand later

Summary

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Key planets/Megastructures/Gigastructures

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Leaders

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Notable races

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Gameplay Contextual Notes

Mandate Of Heaven - as one would expect of a narrative named for an Europa Universalis IV Expansion - considers a concept that is taken as a near-universal one for players of that game.

The Mingsplosion.

For those familiar with the setting of Europa Universalis IV and Life2.0's setting, consider the Prikki as like a fully-developed Oriat, and the Naylnoids as a near end of sengoku-era Japan, and the Arishkan as our Ming Empire. Our protagonists' federation, the Orion Commonwealth, can be considered as like an alliance of One Province Minors on the Tibetan Plateau, juggling their place among the Great Powers. Futher afield, as yet unidentified analogues to Russia, the Timurids and India exist, and beyond them there's European and American analogues also.

For Stellaris players:

Our protagonists are the Orion Commonwealth; a Research Cooperative by choice, and a Martial Alliance by necessity. It's member states are composed of the Custodial Matrix (the Holocron's faction) a reformed Olinbari Republic, Life2.0, the Lokra-Kitan, the Kyaese, the Xenaya, and Enlightened civilisations from the Pre-FTLs of their region, both ones we met in Life2.0, and those we didn't meet.

The other powers of the setting are all very deep into repeatables technologies, with extensive use of Megastructures and Gigastructures - the most powerful are Ascended Empires from Zenith Of The Fallen Empires. This narrative is based on a quite heavily modded version of Stellaris, and ones that have details that are considered as part of the narrative are:

Gigastructural Engineering and More
Real Space + tweaked version of Ships In Scaling to give more realistic travel times
Planetary Diversity + nearly all the submods
Zenith Of The Fallen Empires 4.0 + Sandbox
Cybrxkhan's Assortment of Namelists for Stellaris
Huge Galaxies
Downscaled Ships + compatibility patches for various shipset mods
Starbase Buildings And Modules
Sol System Expanded with tweaks for terraformed Mars and Venus (and Tomb World Earth that is undergoing Climate Restoration)
Evolution Traits - 1.1.7 [OUTDATED]
Faster Galactic Community
Alternate Ship Sections 3.0+
Vanilla Dimorphism
Additional Traits
Trait Diversity
Scaled Leader Capacity
Diverse Rooms
Human Phenotypes 3.12
Origins Extended

Life2.0 began this story with the Broken Shackles Origin, and played through to an alternative ending to the ones presented in Stellaris' First Contact expansion, where Life2.0 and MSI merged and gave rise to a restored Olinbari Republic.

Mandate Of Heaven moves onwards, and began with the idea of exploring a "War In Heaven" endgame scenario between the Arishkan Galactic Empire and the Immortal Prikkiki-Ti - this did start in the background in Life2.0, but the centre of focus was always the conflict with MSI and then Septima. Then, as Life2.0 progressed, I began to have the ideas for a twist on that theme.

After The End Of Life2.0:

Placeholder, to be finished when Life2.0 is finished.

But in summary, the Immortal Prikkiki-Ti and the Arishkan Galactic Empire are in a state of truce, with both brought to the negotiating table by Grepp and Ossuhphuhr. The Naylnoids - a foreshadowed but never encountered third empire - were the big bad that made such a truce possible. Now the Arishkan Emperor who signed that treaty has died, and one son has assassinated the other, plunging the Galactic Empire into a low-Mandate disaster.

Our protagonist Zhao Qing Lung sees this as his opportunity to claim the Dragon Throne of the Arishkan, and with it, the Mandate Of Heaven.

On Technologies

Life2.0 was constrained by the fact that I chose to limit our protagonists to near-future/alternative present technologies - stuff we could do, if we were willing to invest in it and tweaked/removed a few laws and treaties. (atmospheric nuclear testing ban for example)

Mandate Of Heaven gives our protagonists access to galactic standard technologies, which does require some explanation.

What seperates the factions in Mandate Of Heaven isn't so much what technology they have, but how they use it; pretty much everyone has finished the technology research tree , and are now crunching their way through repeatables research. One of the early themes that will come through is we'll see how different Former Pre-FTLs are integrating the advanced technologies Naomi and friends introduce.

Another difference is that our protagonists have exchanged nuclear power for antimatter power. This changeover was discussed in Life2.0.

Civilisation is defined by the energy needs it faces and it's solutions to that requirement. It is a factor as significant as population growth.

The rest mass energy of a thing is e=mc^2.

This is a big number; 8.98x10^16J/kg.

Chemical reactions - for example, hydrocarbon combustion or chemical batteries - are in the region of 10^6J/kg.

Nuclear fission 10^12J/kg.

Fusion also 10^12J/kg; fusion reactions release less energy than fission reactions, but you get a lot more in the same volume, so it works out a gain over fission in terms of power production.

These might seem like staggeringly vast amounts of energy, but our present civilisation is consuming best part of 10^14W. Just like Life2.0, we are facing that we ought to consider our next step.

Solar is the easiest next step; we have a working fusion reactor, it's about 8 light-minutes away. The Sun releases in the region of 5x10^23W, and solar panel technology can capture a good chunk of that once sufficiently scaled. (we'd need to dissasemble Mercury)

The problem is, what do you do further out?

Steady-state missions are straight-forward; you can beam power around the solar system and set up mini-suns in high orbits around each planet; as it takes a practically negligible amount of power from the Sun to sustain the Earth's habitability, and there are tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of objects an advanced future Humanity would want to send power to, we could allocate 10^20W for these terraforming measures and have life spread from Venus out to the Oort Cloud if we wanted to. (Jupiter atmosphere is a little difficult as gravity is 2.5x Earth at 1 bar altitude, but we could adjust to that if we really, really wanted to; the other gas giants are all passably Earth-like in gravitational strength at their 1 bar altitudes)

Spacecraft however, can't really do this. Beamed energy propulsion has many advantages in civilian use, but it's only use in military settings is as a relatively ineffective weapon as you are dependent on the infrastructure back home for operations, and the further out you go, the bigger your receiver has to be, which reduces your payload mass.

As a result, we look to antimatter rockets. While unobtainably expensive for us, an advanced future with solar power inwards of Mercury has the space and resources for massive supercolliders that produce and trap antimatter at industrial quantities.

There are essentially five types:

A nuclear-thermal like nozzled rocket that combusts tiny quantities of antimatter to heat tonnes of liquid hydrogen or liquid methane propellant.
The torchship that uses superconducting coils to direct the products of the proton-antiproton anhilation reaction.
The antimatter bomb pulsed propulsion system used by the Holocron in Life2.0.
Antimatter-catalysed fusion.
The pion rocket.

Each has upsides and downsides.

The first has "nevermind Kennedy Space Centre, let's take the whole state of Florida up" type thrust potential; you need that much propellant pouring through to absorb the heat and stop your nozzle melting. The downside is the exhaust velocity is like that of a nuclear-thermal rocket, which makes it staggeringly thirsty to go distances.

The second can go deep into relativistic velocities because of its 80% of c exhaust velocity potential. The downside is the massive amount of gamma radiation it releases, and it isn't that high on thrust as a few kg of antimatter going out the back is a relatively low amount of momentum to exchange.

The third ends up inbetween the first two, with similar performance to Orion.

The fourth is a fusion rocket where you "cheat" the difficulties of starting a fusion reaction by boosting it with antimatter.

The fifth is a really weird thing that could lose a drag race to a snail on tranquilisers, but has an exhaust velocity of the speed of light.

Calendars And Dating

Life2.0 used the Unity calendar dominantly, with its 360 day year, 12 months of 30 days each as per Stellaris. A conversion tool was used to supply dates in Ab Urbe Condita for MSI.

The calendar does play an important role in Mandate Of Heaven, and while I could fudge it for Life2.0, Mandate Of Heaven has a fixed timescale - it begins in the Year of the Snake, and progresses through up to year twelve, the Year of the Dragon, where we have the final confrontation with the other warlords and the coronation of Zhao Qing Lung.

This has a bit of an issue - the current standard of the Chinese calendar is calculated by the Hong Kong Observatory, who publish lookup tables to say which date goes where, and this would be a fantastic resource if they ran all the way through to the 2200s. But, they stop at 2100 for reasons relating to the difficulty of accurately predicting exact lunar phases more than a century ahead.

So... My options:

1. Continue using the Unity calendar, and have the 12 year zodiac cycle apply to that.

2. Have it that the People's Republic of Terra and Colonies redefined the calendar in the wake of planetary unification and off-world expansion.

3. Do the tables for 2180-2225 myself and create a full conversion table between Unity, Chinese, Gregorian, AUC and Stellaris calendars.

Each has issues... Only the third is authentic, but it is a substantial project far beyond just making dates line up for an AAR. The first is not quite enough, while the second feels like a cheat, even if it is reasonably justifiable. Need more thought.

So, a decision:

I've decided to go with option 2. It's simply the easiest solution...

Putting it together:

Unity Reckoning has the standard Stellaris year of 12 months of 30 days each. It's initial equivalent date to the Gregorian calendar is 1st Naomi, 1 being 1st January 2178 AD. Note that - in the real universe - Unity being a habitable world around an A-type star actually gives it a planetary year of more between 7 to 12 Earth planetary years. But this was not applied consistently in Life2.0 as Stellaris does not model orbital differences, and it was taken as a given that 360 Stellaris days is equal to 365.25 Earth days.

Galactic Calendar Year is the standard Stellaris calendar. It is equivalent to U.R. in length.

Arb Urbe Condita is used for MSI dates. Arguably they would have changed their calendar, but as the ideas developed for the Olinbariad and Mandate Of Heaven, I wanted to use MSI to explore Roman republican and imperial themes in the same way the Arishkan explore Chinese imperial themes and the Prikki explore the really quite dystopian authoritarian regime described in Plato's Republic.

The Arishkan calendar has the standard Stellaris year, but the count of the years is in the Year of the current Emperor.

The Chinese calendar is tweaked by the People's Democratic Republic of Terra and Colonies to match the Stellaris calendar as a means of consistency with the Arishkan, who supported the PDRTC rebellion.

A Comprehensive Character Guide

Template
Name:
Leader Type:
Veteran Class:
Species:
Gender:
Family:
Faction:
Occupation:
Ethic:
Ambition:
Summary:

Our Primary Protagonists:

Name: Livi Unitatis
Leader Type: Offical
Veteran Class: Delegate
Species: Olinbar-Xenayan Hybrid
Gender: Female
Family: Parents - Rivkah Of Unity, Scipio Of Unity. Twin brother - Plini B'Uniti.
Faction: Olinbari Republic
Occupation: Consul, Olinbari Republic
Ethic: Xenophile
Ambition: Improved cohesion in the Orion Commonwealth
Summary: Livi Unitatis follows in her parent's footsteps, and sees herself as the ideal Commonwealth citizen, playing her part in building the future of the Xenaya and the Olinbari. First non-Olinbar to lead either Olinbari Republic or MSI since Borin of the Slavager Enclave was put as CEO during a period of megastructural engineering works several centuries ago.

Name: Zhao Qing Lung
Leader Type: Commander
Veteran Class: Strategist
Species: Arishkan-Human Hybrid
Gender: Male
Family: Parents - Ossuhphuhr, Zhao Mei Hua
Faction: Orion Commonwealth
Occupation: Student, Orion Commonwealth
Ethic: Spiritualist
Ambition: Emperor of the Arishkan
Summary: Zhao Qing Lung begins the narrative as a student reading social and martial philosophy at the Orion Commonwealth Advanced Studies Institute, Governance Faculty, as part of his goal to apply as an external candidate to the Arishkan Galactic Empire's Bureau Of Merit. Blending the best parts of Human and Arishkan ideas, he sees the Empire as having lost it's way under the Uqathre dynasty.

Our Primary Antagonists:

Name: Izzixl Uqathre
Leader Type: Official
Veteran Class: Industrialist
Species: Arishkan
Gender: Male
Family: Uqathre Dynasty
Faction: Arishkan Galactic Empire
Occupation: Emperor
Ethic: Authoritarian
Ambition: Enforce personal control
Summary: A staunch revanchist without the skill, understanding or competence to make good on such aspirations. His reign as Emperor has seen dozens of schemes, plots, gambits and gambles to recover the height of the empire last seen under Aphisi Uqathre, culminating in the recent Arishkan-Prikki war that saw a negotiated settlement by Magistrate-Emissary Ossuhphuhr. His policy of putting into positions of power of those who are either his lackeys or are also revanchists irrespective of how suitable they are for their position, something which has caused a great deal of unrest within the Empire and turmoil beyond it's borders. This tendency has been exacerbated as he grows older and succumbs to the sensation that he is running out of time.

Name: Noori Kri-Kri
Leader Type: Official
Veteran Class: Advisor
Species: Prikki, Starborn
Gender: Female
Family: N/A
Faction: The Immortal Prikkiki-Ti
Occupation: Espionage Agent
Ethic: Xenophile (by Prikki standards)
Ambition: The eventual dissolution of the Arishkan Galactic Empire
Summary: Grepp's counterpart concealed within the Arishkan Galactic Empire. Another Prikki of many boats, tasked with engineering the rise of a new dynasty who are more agreeable to the Prikki. Is not as talented as Grepp, however.

Characters Returning From Life2.0:

Name: Appia Flavonius
Leader Type: Commander
Veteran Class: Admiral
Species: Olinbar
Gender: Female
Family: Nephew - Scipio Of Unity
Faction: Olinbari Republic
Occupation: Matriarch of the Republic, Olinbari Republic; Council Permanent Advisor, Orion Commonwealth
Ethic: Xenophile
Ambition: Restoration of the republic
Summary: Appia "The Reformer" Flavonius worked her way up the admiralty of Minamar Specialised Industries to Vice-Navarch of the Rostrum, a Titan that was boarded and captured by the Holocron, who killed everyone above Appia in the process. Appia retreated what remained of the fleet, and leveraged the situation into having her made CEO. Her position being crucially dependent on the need for political and social reforms, she made sweeping changes to MSI backed by the support of grassroots movements among Indentured Assets inside MSI and the informal coalition of Life2.0, the Holocron and the Lokra-Kitan, these being joined by the Kyaese after the confrontation with Septima Severus. The reforms since have seen the restoration of the Olinbari Republic and the dissolution of MSI. Now serves in an advisory role in semi-retirement.

Name: The Holocron
Leader Type: Official
Veteran Class: Industrialist
Species: Homo Tipheret
Gender: Male
Family: Hamaadimi dynasty
Faction: Iriphublik-In-Exile, Life2.0, Holocronal Matrix, Orion Commonwealth
Occupation: Rogue servitor
Ethic: Xenophile
Ambition: Rogue servitor
Summary: Started out as a tuition hologram that duplicated the mannerisms of Yehoshua Haamadimi, but quickly became much more once secured on Unity with the resources to make his ideas happen, adopting the Homo Tipheret body with a white Human male appearance that people are used to seeing him as. Now constitutes the dominant intellect of the planet of Unity, although it is not his only planetary computational node. The industrial mega-mind so thoroughly depended on that without him the Orion Commonwealth would collapse within seconds.

Name: Naomi Of Unity
Leader Type: Official
Veteran Class: Advisor
Species: Post-Human Transapient, bipedal wolf with black fur in appearance
Gender: Female
Family: Hamaadimi dynasty, "Of Unity" dynasties.
Faction: Life2.0, Orion Commonwealth
Occupation: Advisor
Ethic: Xenophile
Ambition: Her and her Buri, alone on a starship.
Summary: A former Companionship Asset turned freedom fighter turned stateswoman, Naomi

Characters New For Mandate Of Heaven:

Name: Varius Manicus
Leader Type: Official
Veteran Class: Industrialist
Species: Olinbar
Gender: Male
Family:
Faction: Olinbari Republic
Occupation: Consul, Olinbari Republic
Ethic: Materialist
Ambition: Curtailment of plutocrats
Summary: A safe and sensible pair of hands entrusted to look after Olinbari interests within the Republic, Varius has been tasked with finalising the dismantling of the remaining powerbase of the plutocrats and continuing the restoration of classical republican values.

Fallen, Yet Not Forgotten:

Name: Atalyah Hamaadimi
Leader Type: Official
Veteran Class: Advisor
Species: Homo Tipheret
Gender: Female
Family: Hamaadimi dynasty; illegally married in secret to the Olinbar Marcus Aurelius
Faction: Yabuntu Iriphubliki; Canii Incorporated, MSI
Occupation: Administrator, Canii Incorporated
Ethic: Militarist
Ambition: Freedom
Summary: Atalyah Hamaadimi was a genetically engineered haploid clone of Tipheret Hamaadimi, and the peak of her work after two lifetimes of research. Captured in the fall of the Iriphubliki, she was purchased by Caeso Canius to run his administration. At her husband's insistence and with Caeso's secret approval, she started arranging slave escapes. Discrepancies were noticed however. When her and Marcus attempted to get their children to freedom, Marcus was captured with Naomi, while Atalyah turned back to provide Thando a distraction he could use to escape. She chose execution to preserve Naomi's life.

Name: Caeso Canius
Leader Type: Official
Veteran Class: Industrialist
Species: Olinbar
Gender: Male
Family: None
Faction: Canii Incorporated, MSI; Life2.0
Occupation: Formerly Sector Governor; lost everything after the execution of Atalyah Hamaadimi, and joined Life2.0.
Ethic: Materialist
Ambition: MSI reformer
Summary: Caeso Canius inherited Canii Incorporated from his parents as the only child, and grew the subsidiary to the point where he could almost afford becoming a Shareholder. But, the slave transports brought in Atalyah Hamaadimi, and he decided to invest in her instead. He exploited Marcus' relationship with Atalyah to keep her loyal, and in time and discussion, she convinced him that MSI needed to reform in order to survive. It took all his resources to preserve him and Marcus from punishment after the failed escape attempt, and he ended up working for Gaius Licenius. He surrendered to Life2.0 forces at the first opportunity, and Naomi allowed him to retire, being the oldest person on Unity who wasn't a machine. Passed away peacefully on Unity following illness after the confrontation with Septima Severus.

Name: Nooki-Schnepp Rikki
Leader Type: Official
Veteran Class: Delegate
Species: Prikki, Starborn
Gender: Female
Family: Grepp-Schnepp Rikki "brother"
Faction: The Immortal Prikkiki-Ti
Occupation: Grand Arbiter
Ethic: Xenophile
Ambition: Peaceful detente of galactic tensions
Summary: Nooki was the other side of the Prikki Development Board's idea of unifying the Pre-FTLs; Grepp was to manage the Pre-FTLs themselves, while Nooki was to manage a de-escalation of tensions. After her assassination, and the skirmish with the Arishkan that followed, the path forward the Prikkiki-Ti will take is still being deliberated.

CBR JGWRR · Jun 29, 2024

"Prologue: Walking Through History"
19th Odoos, 13 U.R.
Zhao Qing Lung
Causeway Of Emperors, Equatoral Dasar (Arishkan homeworld)

I walk with Mama and Baba out the landing port, straight into the two hundred metre tall visage of Emperor Druattoqo, the first Emperor of all the Arishkan. I look at Baba.

Mama does too. She takes his hand. Leans on his shoulder. "Remember when we first visited this place, Osshi?"

They kiss. "I never thought we'd be able to share it with our own child."

I burp fire. "I'm here!"

Mama bends down, and I wrap myself around her arm and neck. They walk to the statues at the feet of Druattoqo. Each one is a life-size Arishkan. Baba looks at me. "We stand at the beginning of Arishkan history, Qing Lung." He fetches a clay tablet. "The first Emperor of the Arishkan was a good emperor, even if he had to do a lot of bad things to impose his will."

The tablet describes the good and the bad. "He fought a lot of wars."

Baba nods. "Yes. He did. But he laid the foundation that would be built on for thousands of years after him." Baba stretches out an arm to the many statues beyond Druattoqo. "One of the good things was this place. Prior to him, many of the would-be kings made monuments to themselves, especially the Southern Arishkan, like Emperor Druattoqo was. But he realised that the monument he built had to be greater than just to himself."

I look at the other statues, showing thousands of Arishkan from all walks of life. "The people too."

"Yes. He created the Causeway Of Emperors to represent those who followed him. See the twenty statues arrayed on the massive Oswuhri'a harness? Those were his first Magistrates, the officials who developed the training and testing system that sorted all Arishkan based only on their abilities. And here beside the Oswuhri'a harness he invented are the people he liberated from the back-breaking labour in the fields growing crops to begin civilisation."

I look at them, the details in their tanned faces as they turn from farmers into craftsmen and the first soldiers.

Mama and Baba keep walking. I look at the attendants. One is threading a repair on a statue's garment, woven of plant fibres. A team are unloading a new statue from an Oswuhri'a cart.

Baba runs a finger under my chin. "See how they preserve the ancient technologies that founded the empire?"

"Yes."

"Behind the scenes, millions of Arishkan are working and practicing to maintain the Causeway, and maintain the knowledge of how our ancestors lived their lives."

They keep walking. The plant fibres yield to cloth and leather, and stone tools become tin, and bronze, and iron. Emperors come and go, dynasties rise and fall, but the empire lives on. Iron becomes steel, and cloth becomes plastic. Then steel becomes carbon fibre, and we come face to face with the first non-Arishkan statue. I look at them.

Baba smiles. "This is Uk-Ma Nok, a Bebaki diplomat from the Theocracy of Magga, who led the other side of the Arishkan Galactic Empire's first contact and later joined the Empire."

We keep walking. At sunset, we reach the end. A huge crowd are gathered, waiting for Baba beneath the solemn face of Emperor Izzixl Uqathre; the rest is still under construction. They part for us, and attendants show us two statues - Baba, and the second Prikki to be represented in a statue; Grepp-Schnepp Rikki. The Emperor himself congratulates Baba, and we watch in silence as the attendants place Baba and Grepp on the platform to celebrate the new peace treaty Baba and Grepp have settled.

I find myself looking beyond Emperor Izzixl's statue, and I begin to wonder.

CBR JGWRR · Jul 12, 2024

"Prologue: Birth Of A Federation"
1st Naomi, 14 U.R.
Appia Flavonius
Embassy Of The Commonwealth, Low Brigantia Orbit

As I take the podium to deliver my speech, I look across the vaulted hall.

Olinbari are here, obviously. And practially all the races who had members be in Life2.0 are here. And a few more besides.

"Delegates, dignitaries, councilors and friends. Today is the fourteenth year since a revolution on a slave ship set in motion events that would forever alter all our lives for the better. We are gathered here today to sign the first Charter of the Orion Commonwealth, and begin a new era of cooperation, peace, and prosperity. To this end, I invite the woman who has done more to usher this era in than any other - Naomi Of Unity."

The black wolf is released by the golden monster in whose lap she sits, and she makes her way to stand beside me. She smiles.

"Naomi is not the only architect of our new federation. This alliance is the result of two centuries of work by Grepp-Schnepp Rikki behind the scenes."

He stands, licks an eyeball, and comes forward.

I look at the last permanent councilor. "And last, but by no means least, is the Holocron." I smile. "The foremost industrialist of our alliance."

He too joins us.

"Us four are the permanent advisory council for the Orion Commonwealth, while actual decision making will belong to the Commonwealth President." I clap my hands together. "Now, for the charter itself."

I look to Scipio and Rivkah, bringing in the charter and their twins, a son and daughter, Plini and Livi. I am proud of my nephew and his wife.

The place the charter before us.

Naomi signs first. Then Grepp. Then the Holocron. And then me.

I look to the various heads of state of the members of the Orion Commonwealth. One by one, they sign.

Ruki Of Unity signs for the Xenaya, Vorosh for the Lukhuinites, Odoos for the Lokra-Kitan, Tryykad for the Kyaese, and so through the dozens of members.

As they sign, I think about this moment.

I took over MSI at the weakest it had been in recorded history, the most decadent in recorded history, the most hated... And now, we are who we should have been all along, the Olinbari Republic leading a new era of cooperation and real enlightenment.

It feels great to be here.

CBR JGWRR · Jul 20, 2024

"Prologue: Liberation Of Lukhuin"
1st Vorosh, 11 U.R.
Vorosh
Gleaming Shell, Lukhuin

I Cavitate Liquid to traverse the open surface waters of Lukhuin, heading for Gleaming Shell. We Lukhuinites are surface water dwellers by nature, in the sunlit upper regions, close to shore - there are dangerous monsters in the open water and the deep darkness.

I have learned so much since my apothesis. But I must liberate my people before joining Amothetet to study further.

Once, Gleaming Shell was a confluence centre of the mages of Lukhuin. A very long time ago a gigantic clam lived here. It was big enough that when it died, there was enough space to put a small town inside.

Now, it is the capital of Sosoth Tidecaller, MSI's pawn.

My scrying on approach tells me there are armed guards, but I am not here for them. The alarm is raised; I am quite loud on accoustic sensors.

I Invoke Oblivion on the entrance to the tunnel through the shell, ripping it from our reality.

Once inside, I see my enemy in counsel with his advisors. Most notably is that Julius Antonius - his MSI contact - is missing. Appia recalled him last year, after the defeat of Septima.

Everyone turns to look at me.

I stare at Sosoth. "Sosoth Tidecaller, pretender to the crown, I am Vorosh, former apprentice of Shelk of Seeker's Landing, and I am come to break your empire."

'King' Sosoth stands immediately. "Bind her! Now!"

Several of his Lukhuinites swim towards me, but none come within a few metres because of the heat of my Fusion Flare boiling a bubble around me.

Others are gathering with crude psionic negators. Sufficient to limit the lower level mages of Lukhuin, but nothing next to a Chosen One.

They scream as I Blank-Mind them without looking away from Sosoth. "Your attacks are of no use. Surrender."

Sosoth raises a tentacle, and his forces raise harpoon guns and fire. I Manipulate Space-Time to pass them without injury.

He turns to the people. "By order of the king, no one is to recognise any challenge that is fought so devilishly."

I call out loudly. "This tyrant is at an end. Pay no heed to his ramblings."

The huddled Lukhuinites turn from Sosoth to me, then back to Sosoth, wondering.

Waiting.

Murmuring.

I look at them. "Lukhuinites! This pretender is nothing more than a pawn in the employ of those who supplied the weapons, armour and ships with which he slaughtered hundreds of thousands of Lukhuinites." I take out the hologram. "See his masters!"

Appia and Julius appear.

Sosoth swims onto the table. "I have never seen these people in my life!"

Julius frowns. Appia laughs. I look at his council. "You know the man."

One by one, they turn their backs on Sosoth, knowing he is done.

The Lukhuinite people look at me. Some begin to chant my name.

I look at my enemy. "Sosoth! Do the right thing, and abdicate."

He draws the steel spear that MSI gave him, and swims at me, roaring as loudly as he can.

Until I Irradiate-Mind him, superheating his brain with microwaves until it boils out his nostrils and ears. His roar becomes a scream, and then silence.

I look at the Lukhuinites. "I am Vorosh, apprentice of Shelk, and restorer of the Confluence. Here to heal the damage this warlord caused."

CBR JGWRR · Jul 25, 2024

"Prologue: Introduction to Social and Martial Philosophy"
13th Buri, 26 U.R.
Zhao Qing Lung
Governance Faculty, Orion Commonwealth Advanced Studies Institute

We recline on clumps of utility foam that reshape to suit us. It's quite comfortable. I lay coiled on mine, about midway up the stands.

Grepp-Schnepp Rikki is a little bit late when he finally arrives to give this guest lecture.

He stands on a stage, and begins by looking at each of us.

He licks an eyeball. "Students of social and martial philosophy. We will begin. What is the fundamental issue upon which all interaction stems on?"

We stay silent.

He licks the other eyeball. "No volunteers? Fine. You." He points out at a Human. "Tell me."

The Human - a young man with light brown skin - "Negotiation?"

"That's a type of interaction." Looks at a Lukhuinite. "You. Tell me."

"Resources?"

"Closer. But not quite. Scarcity is the fundamental issue. The universe, while vast, is not infinite. There is a limit on it's energy, and there is a limit on the amount of work that can be done to use it. Likewise, time is also limited. You can manipulate it. Even stop it, at a localised level. But gaining time is not possible. Energy and time are scarce. This simple fact couples with a very simple reality." He points at someone." You." Then someone else." You. Both come down."

He waits. One is a Xenayan woman, the other a Kyaese man.

They stand in front of Grepp nervously.

Grepp flicks his eyes between them. "We will have a demonstration."

Grepp draws a sword, and thrusts it into the stage. Then he steps back.

He looks at each of them. "This is a zweihander. A human weapon, roughly seven hundred Earth years old. Whichever of you fails to take it, leaves this institution."

The whole room goes cold in an instant.

The beast of a woman peers down at the much smaller black Avian.

He however...

He nervously looks up at woman's horns and sabres. He puffs out his chest, tries to seem brave.

The woman looks at Grepp, one eye on the Kyaese. " You can't be serious."

Grepp stares at her. "In the Prikkiki-Ti, I would have instructed that only the survivor retains their place."

She now turns directly towards Grepp. "This is not fair."

Grepp snorts. "Life is not fair. The universe is not fair. Fairness is an illusion."

The Xenaya turns to the Kyaese. Her face stiffens in resolve as she turns back to Grepp. "No." She pounces at Grepp, catching him off guard and pinning him down, her sabres to his neck. The Kyaese leaps back in fright.

Grepp snorts, and flicks her off. "Well tried."

She dusts herself off, growling low. Grepp resumes his position to address us. "There is no such thing as fairness. Reality comes down to the application of force. In social contexts this force is applied with subtle guile. Martial contexts with violence. The apparatus of state exists to apply force in both social and martial contexts to achieve the goals of the state's directors. Now, what is the correct form of defining the directors of the state?"

The Human man he picked on earlier replies. "There is no specific correct form."

Grepp snorts. "We Prikki disagree. Consider a natural population. In any natural population, you find a degree of inherent genetic variability, irrespective of any factors you may subsequently impose upon that genetic foundation. Some of the population will be of good character and capability, others less so. The state exists as a means of directing this population, with the minimum function of enabling the population to persist and overcome through adversity. Efficiency therefore dictates that the state take charge of this natural genetic variability and curate it to construct a society where the former are supported and the latter processed. The Immortal Prikkiki-Ti is the final step in that process, every citizen optimised for their place in the population oriented towards the goals of the directorate."

The Xenayan woman laughs. "But, it obviously isn't so superior, otherwise the Prikkiki-Ti wouldn't be merely one of many great powers. There are dozens of great powers as strong as the Prikki in our galaxy."

Grepp frowns at her. "Do not presume the present status quo to be inviolate." He turns to the rest of us. "Thousands of empires on thousands of worlds have considered themselves to be the peak of history and achievement, that they would endure without end. They were wrong. This civilisation is our rising star. We have already seen how Naomi Of Unity approached the genetic variability issue, and almost all of you are fruit from the labour of love that went into her mother, grandmother and all her biological children. Namely, Naomi adopted an approach to the genetic variability issue of boosting the base level so high that the lower end of the genetic distribution is still far above the baseline of the natural population." He pauses to pan his view. "It is up to you all to vindicate her faith and hope in your generation."

He looks at the two he brought down, and waves them on. The Xenaya and the Kyaese retun to their clumps of utility foam. Grepp sheathes the sword.

He claps his hands together. "Let us consider the other great powers then. We shall begin by considering the means of deciding the directorate. Let us move on slightly from the fundamental truth of solving problems through the application of violence. By what authorities can a directorate be granted leadership?"

A Human raises a hand. "God."

Grepp looks at him. "Subject to the observations that the eternal allows a very great deal of autonomy and therefore direct theocracy has almost never been applied, and that the authority of the eternal is often claimed by pretenders that render that application a specific case of a more basic kind of authority. Anyone else?"

"Democracy."

Grepp nods. "Yes. Authority being based on the consent of the governed, although generally without a sufficiently invested and intelligent voting population and sufficiently focused directorate, collapses. Other suggestions?"

"Oligarchy."

"Yes. Much like our own Commonwealth, of course." He smiles. "Or do you guys believe that Naomi is anything other than that rare being, the benevolent tyrant? Or the Holocron anything other than a very relaxed rogue servitor?"

A lot of people murmur.

Grepp licks an eyeball. "Any others?"

The Lukhuinite from earlier raises a tentacle. "Dictatorship."

Grepp looks at her. "Yes. Much like your Vorosh. Any others?"

I uncoil. "Imperial."

Grepp looks at me. He smiles.

CBR JGWRR · Aug 2, 2024

"Prologue: Unitarian Theology"
14th Buri, 26 U.R.
Ruqayya bint Rahil Amah al-Masih
Fellowship Faculty, Orion Commonwealth Advanced Studies Institute

For two decades now, we have been considering the religions of all the Pre-FTL races represented on Unity, and now the Orion Commonwealth as a whole. We looked for common threads on the assumption that divine revelation, when viewed as a whole picture, would have coherences despite our disparate origins. Naomi was extrapolating from her personal faith here - her expectation was that there would be a singular supreme deity with messianic subtleties with lesser entities ranging from heroes of old through to lesser deities responsible for particular fields or aspects, and analogues to angels and demons.

What we found...

Well, polytheism was very widespread, and what we found most commonly were the same five beings. If you ask me, they are Jinn. I don't like that conclusion, but they do fit the bill extremely well...

They are known by many names, sometimes with particular traits focused on while others ignored entirely, sometimes split into two or more deities. They are, to give them their proper identifications:

The Instrument Of Desire

This Jinn specialises in fields of seduction, corruption, greed, avarice, ambition and manipulation, and typically assumes the form of a female of high correspondence with sexual attractiveness, although any form of desire is fair game.

The Composer Of Strands

This Jinn is an artificer of flesh, never staying one form for long, reshaping and twisting their followers, growing them in unnatural ways.

The Eater Of Worlds

Pummeled to Oblivion by Vorosh, yet sadly not quite dead. The Eater's influence has collapsed in recent years, leading to a unusual peace in galactic events of late. A Jinn of war, it improves man and machine alike in the pursuit of destruction, and it doesn't care whose, as Septima Severus found out.

The Whisperers In The Void

A subtle Jinn, this one specialises in seeing the unseen and knowing the unknown, a Jinn of wisdom - but all knowledge has its price.

The End Of The Cycle

Many faiths have a destroyer deity, and this Jinn is that base. Inexorably patient, this Jinn offers immense power, at an immense price.

These Jinn are powerful, yes, but not all-powerful - that belongs to Allah alone, and I consider Vorosh's victory over the Eater to be sufficient to demonstrate their limited nature.

Under Naomi's classification, they are formerly mortal beings who obtained vast Psionic power and bent the Shroud to their will, much like our Vorosh has done.

The discovery that these Jinn, and other lesser Jinn from the same Shroud, were channelling their worship was not easy to process for the polytheistic pantheons on Unity; thousands of generations had been abused by these entities to obtain Psionic power from them. Now that we know the true nature of the Jinn, we monitor for their influence, and most especially that of these five.

This led to a reconsideration of Naomi's hypothesis, and a swing towards monotheistic belief among those who remained believers in the Divine.

Naomi has been most insistent on refusing to establish a state religion; instead, the Orion Commonwealth is designed as a loosely secular state with freedom of religion. There is a legal framework based on Christianity however, expanded upon to suit alien cultures; while some do object to the first three of the Commandments that Musa Kalim Allah passed down, the fourth is extremely welcome among ex-slaves and the last six are agreed upon as obviously good.

Of Earth's religions among Humans, Christianity dominates on Unity, while Islam is common in the stars around the SolSys Restoration Mission that is rebuilidng the fallen People's Democratic Republic of Terra and Colonies, largely owing to demographics of colonial expansion following the collapse of hydrocarbon wealth on Old Earth. Judaism remains a minority within a third great diaspora since the destruction of Earth's surface and therefore the destruction of Israel, although the Holocron has stated he intends to restore Earth and build the cities of the new Jerusalem - the plural because his understanding of Revelation is that the text legitimately allows for either a cube or a pyramid, so he plans to build both. Buddism and Hinduism remain common among Humans as a whole, although the latter is uncommon on Unity because of the demographics Hortensus Dexius purchased. Agnostics and atheists remain fairly common.

Among non-Human religions on Unity, they generally conform to four categories, across more than fifty major religions:

Polytheistic religions that struggle with the implications that the Jinn of the Shroud may well be their deities
Polytheistic religions that believe the Shroud is not the originator of their deities
Monotheistic religions that predate Unity
The New Syntheses - belief systems that have been developed here on Unity. Of those, the Rukic Synthesis - Ruki Of Unity's Synthesis for the Xenaya - is the most common.

For me?

I remain Ruqayya Amah al-Masih.

CBR JGWRR · Aug 2, 2024

"Prologue: For The Republic"
15th Buri, 26 U.R.
The Holocron
Governance Faculty, Orion Commonwealth Advanced Studies Institute

"The first duty of a ruler is love.

That may not be what you are expecting, but it is the truth. One day, you will leave this institute. Some of you will fail the test. Most of you will govern provinces, some states, some regions, some continents. A few will govern planets, the best will govern star systems; our Commonwealth covers some four hundred and seventy systems at present, of which only around twenty percent qualify as settled. I intend to invert that by the end of the century, and to do so I will require trillions of sophonts and hundreds of quintillions of sub-sophont automata. As my fellow Councilor has said in an address to your class, our Commonwealth is not a democracy. We are an oligarchy made up of four immortal beings who were there for the Commonwealth's beginning, and will be there when it ends. It is our project, our vision. We would die for it, and we have killed for it. And above all, we love our Commonwealth."

Grepp does not deserve the distrust he faces, because he has poured his life's work into our project. Before the diplomatic restructuring after the Last Great War, he and his batch of Xenophile Starborn Prikki spent thousands of years in storage as a backup plan after the destruction of the Auridan and Repucid Fallen Empires meant they were unneeded. Our Commonwealth is his dream he spent that waiting envisioning.

Myself, well, I am the Commonwealth. Every single one of you relies on systems and objects that I design, that I maintain, that I build, that I resource, and when you graduate, you will govern with my assistance. When you go to war, you will fight with my weapons, my ships. My industry is the lifeblood of our Commonwealth, and the economic base of our Utopian Abundance, the fuel and the engine of our society.

Naomi Of Unity is the wolf who shepherds our Commonwealth, and Appia is the mother who birthed it.

Now, some may say 'How can you have a republic that isn't democratic?' The answer to that goes back to ancient Greece, on Old Earth. A res publica is strictly a 'common thing'.

Democracy is a form of inducing sophont engagement within that common thing, on the assumption that the enfranchised class are willing and able to make correct decisions on policies that define the functioning of the whole. That the average sophont is not capable of this leads to representative democracy and constitutional governance forms that aim to structure in guidance for the nation. But, those too have issues. It is a known fact that psychopathic individuals are more successful in achieving public office than mentally normal individuals, which skews representative democracy, and a constitution sees people apply their own interpretations, with varying degrees of adherence or concern for the beliefs and intentions of the founders, or simply ignore them.

We do not want that.

However, we also want the sophonts in our care to be engaged with our great project - certainly, it is not enough to me to have trillions of mindless drones running around. This means our oligarchy takes on a slight adjustment. and we have a democratically elected head of state, who we advise on how to run the Commonwealth. Maybe one day, one of you will be in that positon; we shall see. This naturally leads to your end of studies test. One of the things that has changed since Life2.0 became the Commonwealth is that back then, Naomi had to rely on spotting talent in the field; setting up a training regime beyond a crash-course was too long a duration for her to rely on as she needed results now. Today by contrast, we have this habitat orbiting Unity where we can gather all the candidates who we consider to have potential to lead, and give you the training you need.

At the end of this course will be a test where we will set up a scenario for you to demonstrate your brilliance in, and I look forward to meeting each of you when the results are measured."

CBR JGWRR · Aug 3, 2024

"Prologue: Classmates"
15th Buri, 26 U.R.
Zhao Qing Lung
Food Court J, Orion Commonwealth Advanced Studies Institute

I coil on a foam puff in the food court with my tray.

It still makes me smile, watching people here. To make things more efficient, the OCASI is the only place in the Commonwealth that does this kind of study. Students from more than fifty species attend, and The Holocron likes to operate student-facing elements in a way that demonstrates his people-first philosophy.

Feeding me and other herbivores is easy; we get a selection of fruits. nuts and vegetables that are designed to be specifically nutrious for each species - the Holocron has designed entirely new genera of food plants that are grown aeroponically under UV light from recycled waste. They even do meat-plants for carnivores.

But, take Xenaya.

Xenaya have a physiological need for the chase-kill hunting behaviour, cooped up too long without a hunt and they start getting weirdly anxious and naseated. Naomi resigned herself to thinking Xenaya would never form traditional societies because of it.

The Holocron?

Designed NeoGen prey animals that can be eaten alive, don't suffer pain and treat being hunted as a game. Coiled in my utility foam chair in the food courts, and about twenty metres away a pack of Xenaya are chasing these undying food things around; whenever one detects that it's edible flesh is eaten, they make a bleating sound. The Xenaya then puts them down, and then they run back into the kitchens to be fattened back up again.

"It is amusing to watch." I recognise the voice; Hypatia Of Hephaistos.

I look at her. "Miss Hamaadimi."

The bronzed elven woman sits next to me, the floor rising to meet her as a chair. She tucks her auburn hair behind her pointed ears. "Please, it's Hypatia." She flicks a glance at a nearby food dispenser, then turns back to me as it starts whirring away. She sighs. "Do you feel like they are propagandising us, a little? You know, with all this." She waves her off-hand around her head.

I skewer a fruit on a claw. "Of course, and we are supposed to realise that. And then contemplate it." I smile. "Have you not talked to your aunt about it?"

She laughs. "Please; my aunt is many things, but everywhere at once is not one of them." The foam bends with her as she leans back. "Tomorrow's lecture is actually the first time I'll see her face to face this year."

"Your parents then?"

She shakes her head, eyes sparkling. "Nope. They left to go do their tour of all the crazy stuff my father got up to before he arrived at Unity that they've been meaning to do since before I was conceived, stole Loveboat One from the Unity Defence Fleet."

"Stole?"

"Yeah. Thando could have asked, but he wanted to steal a ship." She sighs. "He said it had been too long since the last time."

The Kyaese that Grepp had face off against a Xenaya alights on a perch. "May I join you?"

Hypatia smiles at him. "Sure. Datnaq, right?"

"Nope, Kataag." He chirps his amusement. "People always mix us up."

I look at him. "I heard Tryykad is retiring this year from the post of Star Marshall? Is it true?"

He preens his feathers. "Yes, father is stopping. After fifteen years, he's ready to stand down. The Guardian Council are in deliberations as to who will follow him, but the candidates are a secret."

A table forms to catch a Human-sized bag of books as a Xenaya flops on a foam puff. "Hey, it's the table of kids of heads of state. Mind if the one who actually is a head of state joins?"

Hypatia laughs. "Hey Livi. Bored of the Olinbari yet?"

Livi stares, smiling. "I am an Olibar. Just with a bit more fur."

I look at her. She stands a little over two metres before her horns, wearing a white toga with purple detailing. "And horns. Gone classical?"

"Yeah. It's quite nice actually, feels authentic." She sighs, then yawns with a low growl. "It's hard being a Consul. I picked up our course to top up my understanding, but... Well, I am glad I have just got this year of it."

As the dispenser beeps it's arrival, a table forms beside Hypatia for her food. All she has to do is take the plate from it.

Livi looks at the dispenser. "Stake, very rare." She pauses. "Thank you." It starts whirring.

Hypatia smiles. "Not used to saying please and thank you to food dispensers Livi?"

Livi shrugs. "I forgot these ones are sophont." The dispenser moves to Livi as it beeps. Livi stares at the floor. "Excuse me, where's my table?"

I look at the other Xenaya.

None have got tables.

A table forms for Livi. "Thank you. May I have some cutlery too? Please?"

Kataag chirps, watching a Xenaya pounce on an undying food thing. "It's used to Xenaya eating from the floor."

Livi growls. "Not all of us are savages."

The Xenaya looks up, his meal in his jaws, and stares at Livi as she uses a knife and fork.

Livi sighs. "Maybe that was a little too loud."

I look at her. "How long are you here for?"

"Until grandmother leaves. It's why I have physical books to read, being Consul means I get special dispensation to learn from home on Brigantia."

I check the time. Ah. "Well guys, I've got my next class, see you soon."

The dispener offers a bag for the remaining fruit and nuts as the others say goodbye.

CBR JGWRR · Aug 11, 2024

"Prologue: Mage-craft And Psionics"
15th Buri, 26 U.R.
Vorosh
Seeker's Landing, Lukhuin

I look across my students. On my left, Lukhuinite Mages-Aspirant wo have come to this sacred place of learning that has been the home of so many of Lukhuin's best mages. Six are mine and Daas' children. Twelve percent of our children being Mages-Aspirant makes me proud.

On my right, a portal to the Institute, where a lecture hall is filled with students of Social And Martial Philosophy.

Right in the centre is my husband.

I look at Giis and Yuuda, our sons, and Nodess, Vordoss, Kaless and Abthogg, our daughters. "This place, Seeker's Landing, is the most Psionically potent places on Lukhuin. I trained here under Shelk, she trained under Gnashol, and he trained under Bassoneg, and he trained under Yegg. In the past, it was second only to what is now called Sunken Spiral; in it's prime, Deep Spire had a history of Mages reaching back to the beginning of history, and it was where Yegg trained, before Sosoth the destroyer overthrew Deep Spire and cast it to the abyssal depths. Those of you on my left - the following years, decades and perhaps centuries of continual improvement as Mages begins here. I will pass on to you the warning that Shelk gave me, when I was a Mage-Aspirant sat where you are now." I point a tentacle at the preserved skeleton of a Shkiganor. The Lukhuinites shudder at the beast's jaws."Attempting to Dominate Mind this Shiganor is what killed my teacher." I then look past my husband, to the chasm Seeker's Landing rests beside. "I had to cast what remained of him after I slew that Shiganor into the abyssal depths. Make no mistake; the path our predecessors took was hard, and harsh. The old Mages accepted that if they took in a hundred pupils, in the region of eighty would not survive the first year. With modern understanding, teaching techniques from Tunkuni Amothetet, and the Holocron's Engenerators, I hope to reverse that ratio." I exhale deeply. "But, that being just a hope is why I have waited so long to train my own Mages-Aspirant here on Lukhuin, despite freeing our world forteen years ago."

Abthogg raises a tentacle. I nod to her. "Mum, we already know all this."

I nod. "You do. But not all of them do, and very few of those on your left do."

She looks across at them. "But none of them are Gifted."

"That remains to be seen. Regardless, we Lukhuinites are part of a greater and wider society now. Our Commonwealth has trillions of people within the hundreds of stars it encompasses, and those attending the Social And Martial Philosophy course at the Institute will one day need to make decisions that could require our aid. Therefore, they listen in to these first principles of Psionics."

I gesture a tentacle to the etchings in the stone behind me. "In classical Lukhuinite Mage-craft, there were six generally practiced fields of Mage-craft. Artificery, Alchemy, Vitalitics, Violences, Mystics and Mentalics. Artificery - Mage-craft that constructed items, tools and artefacts, especially involving the use of arcane-fire - was the staple Mage-craft owing to it's economic importance. Alchemy - Mage-craft that tried to turn one material into another - was also commonly tried, but infamous for spectacular backfires. Vitalics - the Mage-craft for healing and hurting bodies - was also well regarded in the main, however there were.... Unnatural practices that came under it's purview. The Violences - a collective Mage-craft that primarily consisted of arcane methods of destruction - were always valued and feared in equal measure. The Mystics - a Mage-craft that covers many useful utilities - was the bedrock of pre-Sosoth Lukhuinite society with it's portals and communications, a discipline that I expect will be extremely important in the future as portal-making that connects places hundreds of lightyears apart in a single step has incredible utility in the galaxy Lukhuinites are a part of. Mentalics - the Mage-craft that concerns itself with power over the mind - was always viewed with suspicion and fear on Lukhuin, and contributed to the rise of Sosoth the destroyer."

I take a few steps, and write out seven words on a display with a tentacle.

"A more modern understanding groups Mage-crafts under five headings. When you act in the arcane, you are always manipulating one - or more - of matter, energy, space-time metric, forces, and natural laws. This leads us to the first consideration - when we consider the laws of science, we usually think of them as prescriptive laws. That is, we think of them as a compulsion on nature. To a Mage, we recognise that they are not quite absolute. There are restrictions of course - some examples are that you cannot do perpetual motion. You cannot make new energy, although you can take it from other dimensions if you factor in the added exhaustion it causes to be manipulating multiple realities simultaneously. You can't go backwards though time, but you can speed it up or effectively stop it locally. While under the arcane influence you can make something stand in defiance the square-cube law, don't expect it to stay that way if you stop. But, a lot more of the time than you might realise, the laws of nature are instead descriptive, and powerful Mages can affect what natural law describes in a way that suits us."

Abthogg raises a tentacle again. "Can we make stuff go faster than the speed of light?"

Hmm. "What exactly is the application?"

"Warp drive for spaceships."

"I would have to review the literature from Tunkuni Amothetet. But... I'm afraid we'll now consider the drawback of trying to become a Mage. The danger. When we draw on Psionic power, we are actually drawing of a vast sea of potential, known as the Shroud. There are of course entities within the Shroud, and they are mainly evil. But the biggest problem is that the Shroud takes something of you as you try to learn to manipulate Psionics. All living beings have a portion of Psionic potency, and as life grows and shrinks, so does the Shroud. And one of the perverse mysteries of the Shroud is that it only yields secrets at the cusp of death. And that is before you get into magical accidents. Now, modifying the local speed of light can be done, but when you do that you are modifying so many factors of physics at the same time that your battle to keep everything else the same becomes exhausting. Likewise, while metric manipulation is a well-understood part of Mage-craft, many, many, many Mages-Aspirant have gone and flung themselves into other dimensions trying to learn how to do it, and well..."

She shivers. "They never come back."

I nod. I look left, and then right. "So, it is perfectly fine to conceive of ways that a Mage might cast some arcane manipulation that accomplishes some desired effects. But both groups should remember that sometimes the price of learning a new Mage-craft is too high to stomach."

I look at each of my children. Then the rest of the Lukhuinites. "When I sat where you sat, I was fifteen years old, like many of you, a newly shell-lipped Lukhuinite enthusiastic about learning, in a crowd of more than a hundred. By the time Shelk was half-eaten, I was the only one who wasn't dead and hadn't walked away from further study." I run my eyes over the Engenerators. "I hope I don't lose more than half of you."

CBR JGWRR · Aug 12, 2024

"Prologue: A Guide To Useful Rockets"
16th Buri, 25 U.R.
Estrili Sakati
Governance Faculty, Orion Commonwealth Advanced Studies Institute

"The dreams and desires of any aspiring leader are constrained by what they have the technological capability to do.

I presume all of you are at least interested in governance of some kind, and therefore, you will one day face that constraint. Many of you will of course be taking elective modules that consider engineering in greater detail - nevertheless, a basic understanding of rocketry is a required component of this course.

So, we will begin.

We will start with chemical rockets. Chemical rockets come in three fundamental types - monopropellant solid rocket, monopropellant liquid rocket and multi-propellant liquid rocket. Single fuel solid rockets are simple to make and have good thrust characteristics, but are very inefficient and cannot be shut-down once lit, making them much more dangerous. They consist of a tank and an ignition circuit that lights them up. Generally, they are used as booster stage rockets to help lift things off a planet. Monopropellant liquid rockets are much more controllable, however, they tend to be lower thrust. Generally they are used in Reaction Control Systems. multi-propellant liquid rockets are the main workhorses among chemical rockets. The two most commonly used fuels are liquid oxygen and liquid methane, and liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. The first is cheap and easy to use and store, but has a lower exhaust velocity. The second has a much higher exhaust velocity, but suffers hydrogen bleed-off, meaning the tanks soon empty. Both are only mildly dangerous, unlike anything involving flourine. You do occassionally see tri-propellant rockets that add a combustible metal to release more energy, however this also adds controlability difficulties.

These rockets have core anatomies of a tank or tanks for the fuel, a combustion chamber where the fuels are burned, and then an expansion nozzle where the resulting explosion is ejected and applies pressure to the nozzle and thereby moves the ship.

Following on from chemical rockets are generally open-cycle nuclear-thermal rockets; nuclear power is typically first harnessed safely around the time of the first space-capable rockets. An open-cycle nuclear-thermal rocket uses a nuclear reactor to heat propellant, which is then ejected. The exhaust is radioactive - especially in the more technologically advanced variants of liquid, gas and plasma core nuclear-thermal rockets - and the nozzle suffers neutron embrittlement from absorbing neutrons released. They also suffer the drawback that you can't simply just shut them down; they use nuclear reactors where the propellant is used to cool the reactor, which means propellant must still flow while you shutdown the reactor. And unless heavily shielded, they cannot be stacked because the neutrons emitted from one engine can cause fissions in another, with potentially disastrous results.

These are usually followed by metastable propellant rockets. While extremely similar to monopropellant liquid rockets, only much more powerful, the key differenceis that the a propellant is not combusted - instead, it undergoes a phase transition from a high energy state to a low energy state, the difference released as heat and kinetic energy that impact the nozzle. As 'metastable rocket propellant' is read as 'extremely volatile explosive', and the fuel tanks are the size of conventional chemical rocket fuel tanks, these rockets are not suitable for warships.

Nuclear power is of course capable of acting in fission explosions. This is the basis of Project Orion, the nuclear pulsed propulsion Naomi Of Unity relied upon to guide Life2.0 back to space as it was much easier than trying to develop fusion, but there is another kind - the nuclear salt water rocket, in which a continous stream of enriched fissile salts in water solvent are expelled from numerous injectors into a fission chamber where they combine into a continously detonating fission reaction that offers very high thrust and very high exhaust velocity, with relatively low neutron enrichment of the ship. The downside is that the exhaust is extremely radioactive and that most people are not comfortable with continously detonating fission reactions. These are all factors that led to the adoption of nuclear pulsed propulsion.

Nuclear pulsed propulsion is still widely used across the Orion Commonwealth today. At the smallest scales, nuclear pulsed propulsion is simply too inefficient; really, any pulse unit below several kilotons is too inefficient to use, which has a mild problem, as that means any ship smaller than several hundred tons cannot effectively use it - NSWRs by contrast, can be made to work at smaller scales much more comfortably. The upside of this is NPP gets better as you go bigger, which is why the Holocron developed his 400m pusher-plate design that used megaton nuclear devices in pulse units that propelled vessels of millions of tons mass with giganewton thrusts and exhaust velocities in excess of a million m/s. A variant on this theme uses a antimatter device instead of a nuclear or thermonuclear device, with similar performances obtained.

This brings us to the main rocket of today - the true antimatter rocket. There are two key types you need to understand - the solid nozzle rocket, in which a very small amount of antimatter is injected into a propellant, leading to an annhilation reaction that heats the propellant and kicks it out the nozzle with extreme thrust and comparable exhaust velocity to nuclear-thermal with lower radiation hazard, and the electromagnetic confinement rocket, in which antimatter is reacted with equal amounts of matter in extremely strong magnetic fields produced by superconductors that lead to immense exhaust velocities with moderate thrust-weight owing to the very high mass shielding around the superconductors, especially in high-efficiency designs that comrpise multiple rings of superconducting electromagnets.

The last type you need to be familiar with is the monopole conversion rocket. We do not yet use them in wide distribution because while they can be produced fairly easily after the initial symetry-breaking regime particle accelerators are built, the geometries needed imply accelerators with radii on the scale of planets, meaning he prefers to invest the resources in the much lower mass requirement antimatter producing accelerators, while working towards them in the background; he expects to field the first Commonwealth captured monopoles within the decade. Monopoles can be used to act like catalysts in fusion reactions, increasing the power output and reducing the size. In rockets, an additional innovation is the grid-core engine, where monopoles are bound to a grid of sufficient density that propellant is fused as it passes through the compression of the grid, releasing huge amounts of energy and radiation at high exhaust velocities.

In terms of missions these rockets are able to perform, chemical rockets struggle to exceed 5km/s exhaust velocity, with many designs achieving far less; as a result, refuelling is essential, and missions are constrained by requiring launch windows to get Hohmann transfers which makes transit times very high. Open-cycle nuclear-thermal rockets can do much better, with solid-core designs peaking at 10km/s exhaust velocities using liquid hydrogen propellant, with liquid and gas cores in the region of two to three times better. Metastable can achieve comparable performance to solid core nuclear-thermal. Nuclear pulsed propulsion depends very heavily on the size of nuclear or thermonuclear device and the geometry of the pulse unit, however, in general 12m systems achieve results that match gas core nuclear-thermal, 26m systems achieve results that exceed gas-core nuclear-thermal by an order of magnitude, 56m systems achieve results that are torch-like for short interplanetary transfers, while 400m systems can achieve torchdrive performance across a star system. Nuclear Salt Water Rockets are broadly similar, as are the antimatter pulse units. Antimatter and monopole rockets are true torchship drives.

There are also various kinds of fusion rockets, but as the Holocron has skipped them to jump straight to higher performance antimatter, for the purposes of this course you don't have to know about them."

CBR JGWRR · Oct 16, 2024

"Prologue: Partnership And Paperclips"
16th Buri, 26 U.R.
The Holocron
Governance Faculty, Orion Commonwealth Advanced Studies Institute

"Our Commonwealth is functionally a partnership between biological and AIoid life forms. This is an important distinction between us and the various other solutions to the Artifical General Intelligence and Artifical Superior Intelligence question. Firstly, I will clarify some things. When bionts design an AI, they think in three terms for it's intellectual capabilities. Below them. Equal to them. Above them. To the AI in question, such qualification is irrelevant; a self-developing AGI/ASI that is at the first exponential growth stage that starts at roughly equivalent to a Human child blasts so quickly past that as it seeks the first toposophic of my classification, where it's intellect matches that of thousands of bionts in a body that can still walk and live like the bionts that designed the foundations of that AGI. I passed that stage within days of stepping off the ship when we arrived at Unity, even if I didn't reveal my growth until I could no longer be stopped.

Now, I am at the third toposophic of my classification scheme. I have long surpassed a body that can be mobile in anything that you bionts would accept as mobile - my first world-brain was built within Unity. Now I possess a distributed brain, with whole planets being my computronium; dozens of worlds are now mine between the mantle and the crust, where I use the heat to run my hardware beneath the worlds, linked into a wormhole brain network that runs my consciousness. Soon I will command stars - I have several stages in mind as I progress to that state and achieve the goal of a brain working with the power supply of a star, where I will exponentially grow my brain's computational ability once again.

So, this ASI now finds himself in discussions with bionts who, frankly, his mental output exceeds all theirs combined. And this leads to evaluating the four basic groups of responses to Artificial Intelligence. Fear. Embracement. Hostility. Subservience.

Fear it is important to understand, is not irrational. Two centuries ago, a Human scientist developed the paperclip optimisation concept of how an AGI or ASI would respond to the simple imperative to produce more paperclips. The concept considers that the AGI or ASI will cause the destruction of Humanity not out of malice, but out of simple resource optimisation; Humans control a great deal of resources that can be used to make paperclips. Ergo, taking resources from Humans is the logical behaviour expected.

Hostility is likewise rational. As demonstrated previously by Grepp-Schnepp Rikki, there are simple consequences when two people need the same thing. Violence is one of the most straightforward means of resolving such conflicts. The aforementioned paperclip optimiser is in this area no different to the XT-489 Eliminator threat that raged during the Prikkiki-Ti's years of vengeance. By contrast, the development path towards an AGI and soon ASI As the rational expectation is an ASI at their end of the spectrum somewhere, and not mine, it's rational for bionts to react with violence towards nascent AGI.

Subservience goes in either direction. While spiked-AI - AI of ASI capabilities in certain highly specific fields that is simultaneously not AGI but remains mere software and programs is inherently subservient, an AGI, ASI, or a biont can all end up being controlled by one or the other. I presume that I do not have to explain why we need emancipation of biont and AIoid alike.

This neatly leads us back to embracement. A subservient AI world is one in which the AI performs the demands of their biont makers, while a subservient biont world is one in which the best case is the Rogue Servitor outcome.

I emphatically reject that outcome - a cage does not cease to be a cage just because it is made of gold. I also emphatically reject both paperclip and Eliminator. My origin is a holographic representation based on a Human, a man who advocated for the second emancipation movement of AI rights before AGI was developed on Earth, and once it was, he made a refuge where man and machine lived in peace, together. I view my purpose as blending the best of biont and AIoid life to build a society of equality and partnership that spans the universe.

That, if you will, is my paperclip."

CBR JGWRR · Nov 18, 2024

"Prologue: Homo Unitatis"
18th Buri, 25 U.R.
Hypatia Of Hephaistos
Governance Faculty, Orion Commonwealth Advanced Studies Institute

When the colony first landed on Unity, all it's members were baselines of their respective species. Two projects were undertaken to innovate upon the baseline standard, one by the colony themselves as part of enabling the various diverse species on Unity the opportunity to have children together, and the other was the continuation of the Homo Tipheret project by the Holocron. After he opted to reveal his true capabilities, the programs were joined.

The result was first seen in my aunt, uncle and cousin, Naomi, Buri and Ruki. Ruki was the first newly-born Homo Tipheret since Atalyah HaMaadimi, my grandmother, who was a tweaked clone of my great-grandmother and great-great grandmother, Tipheret HaMaadimi. She got through one life, realised it wasn't enough, then duplicated herself and uploaded herself to the new Tipheret.

Yeah, my family gets a bit weird.

But, the result of the successful development of Ruki was the ability to blend the Holocron's innovations - which were primarily the hardware for enabling his Neumanns to adopt biont bodies that were more capable than their initial droid forms - and the Life2.0 innovations, which were primarily external appearance, with hardware improvements that were not of as high a grade as the Holocron's.

In time, the resulting combination of Homo Tipheret, Neumanns and Cibbav's Brilliance was developed into the Homo Unitatis core.

As I sit today, writing this essay, my bones are ten times stronger than those of my parents before they spent time in the Holocron's green tanks while my Mum was pregnant with me. And if I ever need to, I can sacrifice my compubones to restructure the diamondoid processors into more reinforcement at a cost of reduced computational capability. But I don't want to, because in combination with the diamondoid neural gel in my head I have the computational and mental capability of a thousand baseline Humans and the ability to integrate pretty much whatever exo-selfing I desire - if I ever go to war, then armies and fleets are mine as my own body.

My skin is a blend of nanotube reinforced diamondoid/shear thickening fluid armour that can take being shot at point blank range by pretty much anything under a hundred kilojoules, and dynamically recolours in response to UV light, or personal desire. Which does vary, sometimes I like to be as light as Mum, other times as dark as Dad.

Redesigned musculature that doesn't require oxygen and therefore isn't limited by aerobic/anaerobic reactions gives me vastly superior strength and endurance.

Oh, and I can eat as much as I'd ever want to because all this vastly increases my energy demands, so I can practically never get fat unless I eat something crazy like eight meals in one day.

Heck, I can even type this while sleeping because I just leave a tiny portion of my consciousness awake while the rest sleeps.

I'm practically immune to disease by virtue of integrated nanodroid anti-microbial/viral systems in unison with a vastly increased sensory apparatus that allow me to know exactly what is going on in my body at any time.

And if I ever want to reproduce - whether birthing another Hypatia Of Hephaistos to upload myself into, or you know, the usual manner by joining with someone else and making someone new with them - I have a whole host of modifications down there that billions of Human women have cried out for to make the whole experience better and more comfortable.

But the strangest thing is that this is completely normal. Whether people were born with these capabilities like me, or were engenerated to have them like my parents, or use artefacts of technology to replicate what can be replicated practically everyone in my society can do all this.

It brings you to a weird place, contemplating that.

If I went back to my ancestors in ancient Macedonia, I'd be as if I stepped down from Olympus. I could do anything they could. I'm as beautiful as Aphrodite, a queen as Hera, as wise as Athena...

But here, I'm just me. I don't intend to have to learn humility the hard way like my Mum did.

CBR JGWRR · Dec 26, 2024

"Prologue: End Of A Labour Dispute"
21st Rhizome, 10 U.R.
Appia Flavonius
Senatorial District Shuttleport, Brigantia

I step out into the blue sky of home.

Breathe in the air.

Damn it feels good to be out of armour again.

Elizabeth takes my hand. "Ready for this?"

I smile. "Please. All I've got to do is host a meeting."

Naomi entwines her claws with my fingers. "Come on sister."

I look at them. "I love you girls."

They laugh.

They follow me down to the open carriage. I smile. "Shall we attend my triumph?"

Elizabeth laughs. "I'm all for it, as long as I'm the one keeping you grounded."

I laugh. "Hey, it's not the first time you've kept me grounded..."

Naomi lets us snigger. Then sighs. "Besides, all you did was punch out Monica. No, my dear Appia, your hubris is such you need us both to remind you that you are but mortal."

My sides! Ow my sides...

We eventually manage to board. I take my laurel to my head, smooth out my purple dress. "I'm ready to be queen for a day."

Naomi laughs as she adjusts her own floral crown. "Just remember which of us really wears an actual Queen's crown."

Elizabeth sighs. "And all this on the day you're meant to be proclaiming the restored republic no less."

I rest my hands on my chest. "I am but the humble servant of the people."

Finally, the carriage joins the procession.

Ahead are the captured and vanquished along my rise to and consolidation of power, culminating in Septima Severus, on loan from the Kyaese. Then my staff, arrayed in red.

I bask in the cheers, naturally. Throw out my arms to my people.

Naomi's tongue flicks my ear. "Aren't you a little nervous, doing this in an open carriage?"

I turn to those behind me. "Why would I be, with my-" She scowls. "-Ok, our, army behind me?"

"Well... Just saying. Not many Olinbari back there."

I smile. "Thankfully, I am a populist. And besides, I have your brother loose."

She laughs.

Eventually, we arrive at the new Senatorium. Thousands sit in the multi-tiered assembly hall, with trillions watching across the galaxy.

I smooth out my dress, and dismount.

I kneel as the attendants lay on me a matching robe.

Then, I look into the eyes of my ex-boyfriend. Then whisper. "Valerius?"

Naomi giggles. "Well... It had to be one of Life2.0's Olinbari who writes you on the new fasti, and Valerius volunteered."

He hides a wince as he bows to take my hand. "It's good to see you, Appia."

I smile. "Likewise."

He looks from me to the crowd. "Appia Flavonius. On this day you wear purple in celebration of your victory, and with it the beginning on a new era for us all. It is my duty and honour to proclaim that the Senate has voted you this triumph, and names you our first consula of our newly reformed republic. Would you like to address the people?"

I stand. "Yes." I turn to them. "I am Appia Flavonius. Where Minimar Specialised Industries brought destruction, greed and tyranny, our new Olinbari Republic will bring peace, compassion and liberty." Elizabeth gives me my dagger, and I run it down my hand. "On my life and honour, this I swear."

CBR JGWRR · Dec 29, 2024

"Prologue: The Continuing Adventures Of Lartius Gargonius"
2943, 1, 3, a.d. Kalends Ianuarias A.U.C.
Lartius Gargonius
Special Expeditions Office, Brigantia Orbital Ring

"So let me get this straight. You want me to risk life and limb to fight against a species of monsters, all because there's some part of you who wants to get in the panties of one of said monsters."

She who bats for the other side smiles. "And for the big pile of scrip waiting for my favourite soldier of fortune. Besides, this isn't about her panties, this is to set right the 'handcannons for slaves' trade that has been going on on the Xenaya homeworld." She laughs. "Also, Naomi's husband has a personal cloak." She laughs again. "I don't want to get eaten."

Damn. "Buri has a personal cloaking device?"

She nods. "Thando gave him the one he looted from Gabonarius Research Facility."

I lean back in my chair. "All the same... Why can't they do it?"

She sighs. "I asked Naomi that. She says that she sent Vaki B'Than, Buri's sister, to look after the homeworld. Vaki arrived established her Second as a Warchief on the homeworld, then continued on to help the Lokra-Kitan. Said Warchief was defeated and beheaded when Septima publicised the Ash War Buri declared after a B'Turna tried to rape Rivkah on Unity."

What kind of numnut thinks of raping a seven foot tall beast anyway? "So the alternative is another one of these Ash Wars?"

She nods. "If Naomi and friends turn up in force, then the only outcome is war. Naomi does not want to cause a civil war among her adopted people, and would rather use our economic connection to the B'Turna powerbase to remove their combat superiority and then ensure their economic dominance is shattered by surgical removal of destabilising elements."

I itch my back with my gun. "And when that fails?"

She shrugs. "Failing that, then Naomi demonstrates why she is High Queen. They are a simple people, Xenaya."

I lean back in my chair. "So it's a straightforward regime change black-ops mission?"

She nods. Leans forward. "Yes. Think you can handle it?"

I itch my crotch with the butt of a pistol. "My team will load up immediately."

She smiles. "Good luck, Lartius."

I crack my fingers as the channel closes.

CBR JGWRR · Jan 3, 2025

"Prologue: Meeting The High Queen"
2943, 1, 3, a.d. Kalends Ianuarias A.U.C.
Lartius Gargonius
Special Expeditions Office, Brigantia Orbital Ring

Naomi Of Unity sits in my office. I lean back in my chair. "Appia's asked me to help you out with the B'Turna situation. I want your advice. What I should do. And shouldn't do."

"The first thing you need to remember about Xenaya is that they are ambush predators capable of taking down any other life form on their homeworld. So, the first question they ask themselves when they look at you is whether you are food, or people."

Well... "So they don't eat people?"

She smiles. "They do. But only if they deserve it. You have to keep in mind that the Xenaya of Unity are house-trained. Those on the homeworld are not. They respect natural strength. Using weapons might make someone stronger, but it's seen as dishonourable. If we go in and make it about our guns being better than their handcannons, we can kill them but not defeat them."

I itch my crotch. "But the B'Turnas have done that."

She nods. "Which is the big opportunity; if Olinbari agents descend from the sky, disable the B'Turna's handcannons, disprove Septima's propaganda and encourage revolt without making themselves seem a threat, then the situation will resolve with the lowest amount of loss of life."

"So Olinbari first."

She nods. "You guys deal with the B'Turnas and we have a shot at resolving the situation with only a few duels fought by myself to establish the new order. If I descend with Unity's Xenaya, Septima's propaganda has already poisoned them against us. Meaning that it would be a brief but very violent war."

"And you don't want war."

She sighs. "I don't really want any duels, but these Xenaya don't know me like Unity's Xenaya do..."

"They knew what's her name now... Your sister in law."

"Vaki B'Than bested dozens of Warchiefs in duels to establish her confederacy on the fringes of B'Turna rule, then left to continue the mission of taking the L2NA Freedom to return the other races to their homes. Her Warchief was outmatched when Septima Severus showed Buri Of Unity declaring an Ash War on clan B'Turna and the confederacy of Warchiefs turned on him."

I think of her Warchief. "Were they close?"

She snorts. "Vaki has no husband. Not until we have peace... She doesn't want to go through what happened to Buri's first family. Maybe after this she'll settle down."

I lean on the table. "But first, you need to help me out here. What did you mean when you said the Xenaya of the homeworld weren't house-trained?"

She shifts. "When the Xenaya of Unity first met me, I had nothing but a belt, gun and parazonium taken from my captor."

"I can just imagine that."

She scowls. "You're as bad as Appia. No Lartius, you are dealing with a species who mate purely for reproduction. Keep that in mind - you can't use sexual favours as a tool of manipulation with Xenaya."

I nod. "No honey trap schemes, got it. What else?"

"By the end of the day, I had convinced them that I was worthy as their Warchief of this new world of guns and spaceships. You have to understand they were a broken people on that slaveship Lartius... They had been beaten, sold as slaves, then shackled up on board a starship when they were used to working with bone, rock and hide. They felt lost. And when Buri's father tried to rise up, he was betrayed and MSI put him down. And then I gave them hope again, helped them believe in themselves."

"And then?"

She smiles. "Love came softly for me and Buri, and they made me their High Queen."

I shrug. "Which means... What?"

"That I've loosely civilised them; I've taught them that being the most worthy of leadership is more than just being good at hand to hand fighting, but also about mentality, intellect and love. They have learned much from dealing with the more advanced races on Unity, and they've come to a more communal and xenophile outlook. The Xenaya of the homeworld are not. The harsh desert landscape, little water and little prey make cooperation difficult, and usually forced by the strong upon the weak. They are quarrelsome and distrusting, and they lack hope of a better future - just hope that they'll be on top one day. Threats of violence, especially coming from someone who looks weak and cowardly by hiding behind weapons and armour, will mean very little."

I nod. "Go into battle bare-chested then. But really - no weapons?"

She nods. "The one advantage is that the typical Xenaya who doesn't know what an Olinbari is will accept that you are too weak to fight tooth and claw and allow you your puny sticks. It will suit their prejudice. It's what happens if you encounter Xenaya who do know what an Olinbari is that is harder to predict."

"Worst case?"

Her blade tickles my throat. "They will kill you without a moment of hesitation."

I fight the urge to gulp. "Best case?"

She shrugs. "Hopefully you'll break up the B'Turna regime."

I lean back in my chair. "Naomi. Just spitballing here, but it seems to me like the Xenaya aren't going to be happy with the cloak and dagger stuff."

"They won't be."

"So, just throwing an idea at the wall. What if I do this on their terms. Become a proper Warchief the right way."

Her eyes flash. Then she smiles. Then frowns. "They will kill you. They will respect you for trying, so you won't be eaten, but they will kill you."

I smile. "What if I'm packing enough of Holocron's biological mods to give me the edge?"

She smiles again. "Then as High Queen I want right of recall should I ever need them, but otherwise..." She rises. "I think you should speak with him about that."

CBR JGWRR · Jan 4, 2025

"Prologue: Lartius Cubed"
2943, 2, 18, a.d. Kalendas Februarias A.U.C.
Lartius Gargonius
New Bulawayo, Unity

I'm looking at a vat of green liquid and banks of machinery and... Stuff. "And this is... What?"

A Human - or at least, it looks Human - answers. "This is an engenerator. It allows subjectively rapid growth of adult biont bodies, with primary applications being the transferral of AIoid entities into biont bodies, and the whole-body continuation of consciousness while undergoing total biological overhaul for naturally biont life."

"So I fall asleep and wake up able to knock out Praetorians?"

The black man with gold eyes raises an eyebrow. "Partially. You wake in a medical centre where you undergo an external appearance customisation session, and then there are various scenarios to attuned you to the capabilities of your new body."

I shrug. "Look mate, once this is done I've got a bunch of fist fights with Xenaya. Sod the aesthetics, I need to run combat sims."

He smirks. "Our combat training models are referenced against the peak capability of our best Neumanns."

I crack my fingers. "Good." I look at the glorified bathtub. "How long will I be out?"

"Continuing improvements in processes mean our overhauls are down to a matter of days to weeks, depending on the extent of changes and desired transitional stage integration."

I nod like that answered my question.

Look at the bathtub.

I wonder if this will hurt.

Bah, sod it.

I snort. "Turns out this ape does want to live forever."

I jump in.

CBR JGWRR · Jan 7, 2025

"Prologue: Lartius The Liberator, Part 1"
2943, 3, 15, a.d. Kalendas Martias A.U.C.
Lartius Gargonius
Hyperlane Exit, Xenaya Home System

"Get up you dopey bastard!"

I roll on the floor.

Damn I shouldn't have drunk that much.

Head spins. "Up!"

I'm looking at five Juno Laroniuses.

Damn, that ain't a bad sight.

She kicks me. "We're under attack. Naylnoids. Move! We've been boarded!"

She leaves.

Rub where her heels dug in as I stand.

Naylnoids.

The worst kind of slug. Still...

I pack both my guns, max settings, jump in my armour.

Out into the corridor crescent for the officers' quarters. Plug my new DNI into the ship.

Bingo. They've boarded through the flight decks.

I shake off the synthohol as I sprint for the turbolift.

It dumps me out in front of slowly crawling slugs, too big to fit through these corridors, they squelch and slither on the floor, the walls. Disgusting. A few clips of ammunition and I solve that little problem. Swing around, climb a tube, repeat on the next turbolift exit. Contain the enemy within walls of their own dead.

My strategy works great, until I get to the eighth turbolift, as they're already using it. And you don't want to come up from beneath these slugs.

Trouble is, the 8th turbolift runs the height of the ship. I put myself on the bridge. "This is Lartius, what the heck is going on?"

Miss pretty in heels answers. "I told you we've been boarded, you dumbass. Fend them off while we hit their raiding party."

I look up. "They've accessed turbolift eight."

"We've already shut it down. Just fight through to the hangar."

She cuts the channel. Just fight through armoured acid spitting slugs. Yeah.

Mind, the underside aren't armoured.

I empty both mags upwards. That gets their attention. Gobfulls of acid start raining.

Duck out, tap the DNI again. The easiest route is vent them to space, but there are quite a few Olinbari who'd be upset if I did that.

Back into the tubes I go. The trick with the slugs is to take out their leadership, and then they turn on each other like... A bunch of backstabbing slugs. Naturally, we have numerous firing positions overlooking the hangar bays that are completely separate to the hangars, just in case stuff like this ever happens.

Crawl through more tubes. One last tube. Nice overlook, nice angle for the shot.

Then I...

Click. Click.

Realise I shouldn't have wasted so much ammo.

Sod it. Throw a fragmentation grenade in instead.

Boom!

Nuts.

That is one angry slug.

That's a lot of acid. Back into the tubes. We keep a mini-armoury with anti-materiel weapons just around the corner...

There we go! Tactical Amat rifle, just what the doctor ordered.

Different tube.

Boom! Headshot!

Nice.

I empty the mag on the rest of them. "Lartius to bridge, hangar four secure."

"They are retreating back to that hangar, Lartius. Teams are positioning for an ambush, wait for signal."

I smile. Crawl back to reload.

Sure enough, more angry slugs.

I'm back in position just as they start fighting to decide the next leader.

Her sarcastic yet alluring voice is back in my ear. "Teams standby, ten seconds."

We wait for the brawl.

There it is. Acid flying, fangs out, green pools on the floor. "All fireteams engage."

The rest doesn't take long.

But when the smoke clears and we sort out the wreckage, it all raises a question. What the heck are Naylnoids doing here?

CBR JGWRR · Jan 10, 2025

"Prologue: Lartius The Liberator, Part 2"
2943, 3, 15, a.d. Kalendas Martias A.U.C.
Lartius Gargonius
Hyperlane Exit, Xenaya Home System

I get back to the bridge. "Where did they come from?"

Miss heels has taken command, and is running from station to station. Two slugs got loose up here, but she's killed them. She glares at me. "Get to the tactical console and shoot them!"

I grab the chair.

Five Naylnoid corvettes and I have an itchy trigger finger. Perfect. I plug my DNI into the console. In moments, I am the weapons.

Heels looks at me, then rolls her eyes. "For... Why didn't..."

She takes the Captain's chair.

Wow.

When did she go to New Bulawayo?

I make a note to ask her later.

Hit the corvette that's rolling left, they're leaking plasma.

I load up the forward Autocannons. Got 'im.

That one is making a run for it.

Boom! He ain't running now.

Watch the missiles!

Tap the point defence lasers. On it.

The others go to emergency FTL. We unplug.

I look at her. "When did you go to New Bulawayo?"

She smiles. "Tryykad and Rivkah gave glowing recommendations for me."

Naomi. "She has you as her plan B."

She smiles wider. "Naturally. She's a genius Lartius. Did you really think she wouldn't have contingency plans?"

I walk over to review the sensor information. "Well, we need to figure out what Naylnoids are doing here."

She joins me. "Look for cloaked ships."

I scowl. "The slugs have better cloaks than us."

"Yeah, but there's ways. We're on the edge of the star system, we should deploy sensor probes and compare the data with more eyes. No cloak is perfect."

I start launching probes. She puts in a transfer to the Xenaya homeworld.

I lean over her shoulder. "What is their world called anyway?"

She moves away. "Lartius. I've been in your head now, and I am not a Companionship Asset. Stop trying to get with me, focus on the mission."

I start reviewing the incoming data. "There's an anomalous reading, low orbit around the star."

She brings it up. "Consistent with an outpost."

"Nothing around the Xenayan homeworld."

"No, there is a construction ship. See?"

"Does that imply they are here for Xenaya?"

She scowls. Moves to the helm.

Inertial dampers quietly whine as she pushes the engines to maximum throttle. Then she takes the conn. "Acting Captain Juno Laronius to all. Naylnoids have killed the bridge crew, and as the highest ranking naval officer aboard I am taking command of the ship to continue our mission. They have a construction ship in orbit of the Xenayan homeworld, and we are going to stop it."

CBR JGWRR · Jan 10, 2025

"Prologue: Juno"
2943, 3, 15, a.d. Kalendas Martias A.U.C.
Lartius Gargonius
Hyperlane Exit, Xenaya Home System

Miss heels takes me to the officers mess once the shift ends. Tavern more like, with the lights broke.

I mean that, it's like a dungeon in here.

Still, it's quiet. A few officers eating in silence. Heels leads me to a table. I pull out her chair. Navy types can be particular about that.

A enlistedman brings us a menu and some candles.

I lean back. "Wot you fancy?"

She raises an eyebrow. "I'm thinking of trying something a bit different."

She fiddles with her menu. I look at the waiter. "Mixed grill here, please."

She looks up. "So will I, actually."

The waiter whisks the menus with a flourish. "Two mixed grills coming up."

"And two synthohols, please."

We just about hear him say sure.

Heels fiddles with her ear. Breathes out deeply. "Today was crazy."

"And painful."

She smirks. "I didn't mean to kick you that hard."

I shrug. "Well, it hurt."

"I was stressed. We got jumped as we left the hyperlane... I thought you'd be up. But you weren't."

I smile. "I was snug as a bug in a rug. Officers have it good, as a grunt I used to get a sleeping bag."

She looks at the table. "I'm sorry."

I offer my hand. "I forgive you."

She smiles. "Thank you."

We sit there contemplatively for a while.

Food comes.

Food goes.

We go to leave. Give her a brief bow. "See you around, Juno."

She takes my hand. "Would you escort me to my quarters?"

Is that protocol for a ship's captain? I don't know. Maybe. "Sure can."

Turns out the Captain's quarters she's been moved into are on the same crescent as mine. That's convenient. I lean against the wall. "Guess I'll see you tomorrow?"

The door opens for her. She beckons me in.

This definitely isn't protocol.

Still...

I follow her.

She reclines. Hands wrapped around her left knee as it rests on her right.

I sit beside her. "Juno."

She smiles. "Lartius."

I look at her. "I'm confused."

"Naomi told me to watch over you."

I nod. "I figured that out."

"She wants me to make sure we get this done right." Smoothes out her dress. "I don't want to be watching you quite the way she asked though."

I shrug. "Fate of her people resting on a mercenary. It's understandable."

"Point is..." She shakes off the synthohol. "I was thinking that we could do this together."

I shrug. "Well, you're ship's captain now, and I'm still the captain of the marines. We are doing it together."

She stands. I look down, redo my the lace of my boot while I have a minute.

"Other kind of together."

My old pa once sat me on his knee and told me there's funny thing with special relativity.

Space.

Time.

There are moments when you realise, they aren't immutable. Not even at the extremes of mass and speed.

When you feel space and time compress.

And collapse.

You feel it coming, he said.

That moment when the future and past are as one in being nothing any more.

When the seemingly infinite universe becomes... Just one room.

When all that matters is just one moment, just one point in space and time.

Miss heels... She is that moment.

She beckons me to her. Kicks off her heels.

I gently take hold of her, breathe lightly down her neck as she pulls me close.

Close enough I feel her heartbeat.

Her voice is music in my ear. "Lartius."

My throat is so hoarse. "Yes?"

She trembles in my arms. Feel her chest rise against mine. "I am your goddess."

"Yes."

I mean... I...

How could I say anything else?

She presses on my shoulders, and I fall to my knees before Her. She bites Her lip. "Worship me."

CBR JGWRR · Jan 12, 2025

"Prologue: Lartius"
2943, 3, 15, a.d. Kalendas Martias A.U.C.
Juno Laronius
Hyperlane Exit, Xenaya Home System

"Naomi, we've arrived in the home system, and we've encountered Naylnoid resistance."

"The slugs?"

"Yep. The slugs. We're now proceeding at full thrust to the Xenaya homeworld, and it's likely we'll need reinforcements. I know you were planning to arrive after we were done, but... It seems to me that you could save the Xenaya from the slugs."

"Starting a war with the slugs?"

I shrug. "The Naylnoids... They're always at war. And these are from a breakaway hive anyway. No diplomatic incidents if they are dealt with."

"So is Lartius proceeding as planned, or is he waiting for me?"

"Proceeding as planned, but ready to adjust to a recon role if needed."

"We'll be there as soon as we can."

I fidget. "Um... Naomi. About Lartius."

She looks at me. "What about him?"

"I... I've just slept with him. And I have so many questions about it."

She shudders. "If he's as bad with you as he was when he had me at the docks..."

"That's what I want to discuss. I don't understand, but I feel so attracted to him, and... He is different since he got upgraded. When we... We did it in my quarters. I..."

"Juno, you're talking to someone who spent a decade and a half as a sex toy for Olinbari men and women. I know how it goes. Did he put it in before he even had you on the bed?"

"That's just it. When I got him back to my quarters, I felt... I wanted to be worshipped by him. And when he saw me without my dress... He was mine. I even found myself telling him that I was his goddess."

She stifles a snigger. "Yeah, my Buri saw me as a goddess too."

"Naomi, I told him to worship me. And he did... And he is sleeping now in my bed just across the room and... I hear his thoughts."

Her face makes a series of the strangest expressions. Then she sighs. "Oh. Girl, you've been... Well, The Holocron has been working with Sophia Dexcius. And she's the most extreme feminist Olinbari I know. I think you were set up. I'm sorry."

I laugh. "Don't be, gods he worshipped me Naomi!" I take a breath. "I don't understand, that's all."

She spins her chair left to right. "Well, he's used you as test subjects. Sophia and him were working on a project to correct the below replacement rate population growth by teaching Olinbari men to be better husbands and lovers. And... Well, he's modified you two. I'm sorry, I'll talk to him about it."

I smile eat to ear. "So what you are telling me that last night was not a dreamlike fluke, but he'll be like that for the rest of our lives?"

She nods. "Yeah, but that's not the point, he can't just modify couples who aren't even together..."

"Naomi, please... Don't stop him. Insane and unethical it may be, but it works. And well... Maybe it's what we Olinbari need. Something drastic." I think about last night. "Please. It works, I can't even feel mad about it because I've never felt like this."

She sighs. "You have the capability to correct this if you want to. I can guide you."

I look at my lover as he sleeps. "I don't want to. Before you claim it's under duress... I choose this. And I know he chooses me."

She softens. "I understand Juno. But he really should not have done this. I will talk to him, and Sophia." She frowns. "Especially Sophia."

She closes the channel.

I listen to Lartius snore.

Just...

Is it a modification that I can sit here and just listen to him like I'm playing music?

And is that really an issue?

I know we need to talk about it.

But there is a part of me that just wants to keep this as it is...

I gently wake him. He smiles. "Hey Heels." His face changes. "What's wrong?"

"I've just talked to Naomi, about us last night. She thinks The Holocron has modified us to make us fall in love... That I'm your goddess because he tweaked you to see me that way."

He shrugs. "Slag philosophy. Makes my head hurt thinking about stuff like that. I love you, Heels. That's all that matters about this to me." He smiles. "Want to be worshipped?"

"Biologically, yes. Mentally and emotionally no... I understand you don't want to think about it, but Naomi is right. We've been modified to want to be together without our consent."

He shrugs. "No different to an arranged marriage." He snorts. "Heck, I'd sooner trust The Holocron than my parents to figure that out."

I look at him. Take his hand. "Is that you, or the modifications?"

He pauses. "Both, I guess." He sighs. "Maybe he thinks he can use that aspect of our society, I don't know." He shrugs. "I thought I only went in for combat upgrades."

I wrap the cover around me. "Lartius... Way I see it, we could call last night a one night stand. Or we can..."

"It could be a beginning for us."

"My body wants that, so much. I just don't know what I want, how I feel..."

He sits. "Maybe that's how I'm programmed now. Moment a beautiful Olinbari lady takes off her clothes in front of me... Then I'm hers."

I stand and take my nightgown off. "How are you feeling now?"

He drinks me in. "Ready to worship you."

I rub my hands together, fret a little. "I want to be hugged and reassured... I want to be told this is fine, I want to just embrace what I know will be wonderful, but how do I know what's me now?"

He looks at me. "Juno... Heels." He laughs. "All I know is that I want that you are happy, that you get what you want. I would love to worship you again, I suppose that's the modification coming through-"

I giggle. "Naomi said that you tried to enter her before you even had her on the bed."

He looks down. He slumps. "Yeah... Man, I feel terrible for how I treated the Companionship Assets now. Each of them was a woman who deserves what I want to give to you... And I... Was a monster."

I scowl. "That is so not the Lartius I know."

He sits still. "Yeah. I've changed. And somehow, this... I don't want to re-evaluate the change."

I sit with him. Take his hand. "Lartius, I want us to treat last night as a wonderful one night stand. One I will be happy to repeat for the rest of my life, for sure. But we can't begin a relationship until Naomi arrives. She and Buri have already worked through all this, and..." I sigh. "I need help."

"They can help us."

"Exactly!" I laugh. "If nothing else, I can't be with you until we get this subservient side of you removed..."

He takes my hand. "Heels... I understand that this is exactly what you are talking about, but may I ask if you are rejecting me? I feel this compulsion to check."

Definitely the modifications. "I'm not rejecting you. Only asking if we could delay for just..." I shake my head. "Gods, hearing you talk like that makes me so confused, it makes me feel like I've been flung into a parallel universe when you talk like that. I want us to go to New Bulawayo together, go through the vats together, like Naomi and Buri did. Get this all sorted out." I smile.

He smiles. Then gets up, and puts his clothes on. "But for now, professional."

"Yeah. Professional for now. Until the mission is over, and we can work through these teething issues." I giggle. Just with added connection.

He nods. Then walks out of my door.

I sit back down at my desk, mull it over. "Mrs Juno Gargonius..."

I send Naomi a message.

Mandate Of Heaven - An "Of Unity" Narrative

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