Sunnydale

by on September 30, 2017 at 12:01 am
Posted In: The Essential Galactic Atlas

One of the primary reasons people live on Frostydale at all is “because it’s there.” Being totally honest. “Because it’s there” is one of the most common reasons for why someone has gone anywhere on old Earth or in the galaxy at large. Human curiosity is almost as infinite as human stupidity, and the willingness of many to go to impressive lengths to get away from others is in the same league. That is the reason most people move to Frosty. The other reason is that Frosty is one of the richest worlds out there when it comes to rare earth minerals. It is very solidly in the top ten percent in the known worlds. The only reason Frosty isn’t more heavily inhabited than it is, is because Scorch, Sunny, and Torch are nearly as rich, which tends to split up the various colonization programs to the system. Most of the people who chose Frosty come from the Scandinavian Nations. There’s also a surprising number of Russian ex-patriots who love going on about how good winters breed strong men and loving women. I have to admit that I rather like both the place and the people, though I come from Northern Minnesota. So your mileage may vary.

 Comment 

Weylan

by on September 29, 2017 at 12:01 am
Posted In: The Races of Humanity

Because the Weylan were based on the Peloran model, they received all of the gifts those supersoldiers boasted. Increased strength, impressive regeneration capabilities, mental acuity, combat instincts, and limited precognition to name a few. And since they were the size and shape of normal humans, they could use standard human weapons and armor with only minimal modifications, if any were required at all. The one difference was the third pair of limbs they were designed to use. Wings. The Weylan’s brains were wired from the start to use all six limbs, and they managed what the Branan never did. Fully functional flight, walk, and tool using capabilities. Many people consider them to be the most ambitious creation the Albion ever managed. Many people have not seen everything I’ve seen, but they are right to a point. The Weylan really are impressive.

 Comment 

The Hyades Cluster

by on September 28, 2017 at 12:01 am
Posted In: The Essential Galactic Atlas

One thing to understand about the Hyades Cluster during The War is that there were no uninhabited systems. It is a common myth amongst most people that there are thousands of systems were nobody goes just within a few hundred lightyears of Earth. That is less true than people think, but also partially accurate. Most systems are inhabited by probeswarms and the relatively small industrial bases they generate. They have long kept watch over our flanks, so it is more accurate to say that there are thousands of systems near Earth where no biological human lives. This was not the case in the Hyades. Every single system, every star no matter how minor, had people there. They were watching for us. Waiting for us. Ready to send word of intruders at a moment’s notice. It was impossible to penetrate the Hyades Cluster without being discovered. That is why we did not try.

 Comment 

Sunnydale

by on September 27, 2017 at 12:01 am
Posted In: The Essential Galactic Atlas

Frostydale is a debatably-habitable frozen ball of rock nearly four times as far away from Sunnydale as Earth is from the Sun. She’s significantly larger than Earth, but has a much thinner atmosphere at sea level. Those seas are frozen solid over the vast majority of the planetary surface, though the balmy tropics of the equatorial zones at least keep them in a liquid state most of the time. Now I’ve swum in Minnesota lakes in spring, right after the ice melts, and I may have even done a Polar Bear Plunge a time or two in my life, so I find those equatorial seashores to be rather refreshing. I bit like coming home, you might say. But my conscience requires that I warn anybody from warmer States like California or Florida against enjoying them. You will not enjoy them, and you will probably freeze off various body parts that you dearly do not want to lose.

 Comment 

Weylan

by on September 26, 2017 at 12:01 am
Posted In: The Races of Humanity

The Weylan are one of the younger Races of Humanity. The Albion began working on them after perfecting the Peloran supersoldier. They’d long wanted a humanoid airborne soldier, as their failed work with the Branan shows, and the Peloran project had taught them much about how to program brains. So they began work on what would become the Weylan, using the Peloran as the base genetic model. They hoped that would result in an impressive upgrade to the basic Peloran model and spurred the new project on with an impressive amount of resources. The first and most important hurdle they had to pass was being able to program a human brain to easily control six limbs. That was a not-insignificant task, but the Albion had a plan, an impressive amount of experience with tweaking the human genome, and one very strong inspiration. War was coming, and they needed every weapon they could create.

 Comment