Races
Contents
Noah Colony
Unbeknownst to the inhabitants of the Solar System, Noah's Ark, commanded by Richard Cromwell, made it through the wormhole, damaged but intact. When the Mars wormhole collapsed behind them, the colonists proceeded with their original mission: find a suitable planet and establish a colony. As prompted by earlier surveys by probes, an Earth-class planet existed in the system, which they promptly claimed as their own, dubbing the system and the colony planet "Noah." Some time after the arrival of Noah's Ark, the Noah Colony made contact with the Vardrag Confederacy, a highly advanced but peaceful alien race who offered the new arrivals a deal: the Vardrags would give the humans advanced technology and the IP Drives if, in exchange, the humans helped the Vardrags fight the battle against their warlike, reptilian enemies, the Gorg Empire.
Vardrag Confederacy
The Vardrags are an unusual and extremely advanced alien race who had forged a large empire by the time they encountered the Noah colonists. The Vardrag homeworld has become a planet-sized city with enormous platforms in orbit. The Vardrags' main problem have been the constant skirmishes with the Gorg Empire. While Vardrag advanced weapons and defenses managed to keep the enemy at bay and despite their initially hideous biology, the Vardrags are pacifists - they severely disliked war. Discovering that the Noah Colony humans could be just as aggressive as the Gorgs, they gave the colonists advanced technology in exchange for their services as mercenaries. Most of their technology, however, was kept secret even from the Noah colonists; for example, technology that can force ships out of Interplanetary Drive mode, reactionless drives (labelled "gravity drives" in the game), extraordinarily resilient shields, and the massively powerful Cataclysm missiles. Vardrags prefer to travel in massive Cityships, larger and more powerful than either Noah or Gorg battleships. Leaving most of the fighting to their Noah Colony mercenaries and Raptor allies, they nevertheless maintain a defense force protecting their major systems from all kinds of threats.
to Mass@T1-xH1-xW1-xL1-x does nothing to the rest of the unsrevies mass which is going to continue moving on from T1 to where ever it is headed . you would have to have some force that not only operated on the travelers mass but all masses involved.
Mind you, I'm taking this from Davis (these are not my armtgenus here):JohnR: All I found was a reference to a debate on the secession issue. Indeed, moderates wanted a statement that the nullification doctrine was no longer valid in the CSA, but Ultras disagreed. There was no conclusion to this debate as other issues took precedence. BTW, the next issue was reform of the spoils system, or political patronage, which was abolished well before the US did the same.terry mc falls: Confederate sentiment was always diverse. One of the effects of the very nationalistic CSA constitution was the resort to laws and court decsions to enforece strict obedience to all sorts of contingencies. Many women (for that was who were left after conscription) complied, but many men, with their families' consent, resorted to brigandage against anyone entering thei localities. Condeferate sentiment was based on home, county, and State, and many rebelled against the CSA for the same reasons they hated the USA. Military commanders often acquired direct command over jurisdictions just to get food. Dsertion was rampant in both armies, because these were not volunteer armies per se. There were volunteers, but many more were poor conscripts, who, like in the USA, could not pay not to serve. This created a double bind, because all those conscripts were needed to work in factoris and fields. When slaves were commandeered for camp labor, many men just deserted to help their families. Davis recounts this in great detail using letters, court documents (judges often ruled in favor of deserters who were brought in front of them by military commanders). Commanders had to use resourcdes just to get food and retrieve deserters and brigands. Ironcially, the courts functioned like US courts, sometimes acquiring the arrogance of American courts before the war. Southerners began to hate both the CSA and the USA equally. Davis' account draws a line between the enthusuasm of 1861 and the gangs of men who preyed on reconstruction states in the 60s and 70s, and then went west. Davis also recounts the scholarly genesis of many of the popular pseudo-scientific theories on race and southern culture people held, and elites put into practice through their draconian laws, like amrtial law, conscription (the first conscription law arose in the CSA, not the USA), and confiscation of property. Yes, many people foungt only in their states, and only until they were needed at home. Few were patriots on either side, but the pay did help their families. Actually, I woulod argue it was easier to get a Southerner to fight the invader, than to convince a northerner to invade. That was the purpose of the 1862 Emancipation Proclamation. Black soldiers also releived Lincoln from having to conscript whites already weary of war. So, ins hort, yes, and if not, there was a gun with the law written on it to compel a man to fight. In addition, money was money especially in a region where inflation steadily increased and production was falling in all sectors. The rich had their ddges like selling goods across lines (poor southerners, too), gold, and foreign banks, if not just outright emigration.
Ghosts
Ghosts are a secretive and enigmatic race, inhabiting the system called Mist. They do, however, on occasion work as spies and scouts for the Vardrag Confederacy and the Noah Colony. All their communication is done either through text messages or a carefully-chosen representative, who is granted the honor of seeing the Ghosts' true form. It is suspected that the Ghosts have powerful psychic abilities that allow them to enhance their technology beyond what other races might achieve. Ghost ships are particularly weak as they are designed for stealth, not combat. The Ghosts' main strength lies in their Cloaking Device's ability to make their ships invisible to most sensors (except for close-range scans), hence their name. Their weapons are designed for precision strikes to allow a Ghost ship to disable an enemy ship and retreat before the enemy realizes the attacker.
Mechanoids (Also known as "The Entity")
Little concrete information is available on the Mechanoids, except that they attempt to subjugate and/or destroy everything they encounter. According to the Vardrags, the recent Wormhole Cataclysm (realigning of the wormhole network) and the collapse of several stars are the works of the Mechanoids. There is a theory that they are rogue AIs created by the long-dead Creators, and are trying to remake the universe to fit their needs, even if it means they have to eliminate all who stood on their way.
The Mechanoid nanomachines themselves are not alive, but instead controlled by a vast and powerful artificial consciousness known as "The Entity". The mechanoid nanomachines can change their physical shape at will. Usually, they take on the form of a complex geometric shape about 1/8 the size of Angelwing and can fire a powerful energy blast that can destroy many ships in only a few shots. There have also been reports of massive Mechanoid spheres, ranging from the size of a Vardrag Cityship to half the diameter of Earth's Moon. They are capable of subjugating almost any machine -- even the ships of other races -- to their own ends, and can also take control of living beings if they have cybernetic implants.
Creators
The only thing known about the beings called the Creators, sometimes called Planners, is that they have monitored and, perhaps, directed humanity's development for centuries up until the 17th Century, when the last Creator died, leaving behind the secret base behind Pluto, the Angelwing, and a dormant AI who would later become known as Angel. It is hinted that the Mechanoids were also originally made by the Creators, but they betrayed and attacked their masters.
Locusts
This bio-organic species acts much like its Terran namesake, consuming energy and bio-matter from any nearby sources, whether from ships, Mechanoids, or entire planetary eco-systems. Completely uncommunicative, they seem to exist only to feed, regardless of the consequences. While encountered only in two missions throughout the game, they are nonetheless deadly foes. The Locusts, being entirely organic, do not have starships, but instead are organized much like Earth's social insects, with three castes: Worker, Warrior, and Queen.
Text taken from Wikipedia
