# Spinward Stellar Coalition (Organization) Location: Territory coreward of the station; edge of civ-space Capital: New Moscow City (Novayamoskva), New Moscow, Zvezda Revolyutsii Oblast Born of the ashes of the collapsed Third Soviet Union, the Spinward Stellar Coalition (Vostochnaya Zvezdnaya Koalitsiya, *lit.* Eastern Stellar Coalition) is the closest governing body to SS13, controlling much of the regions closeby to the station. Small in comparison to even other independent human governments, their territory consists of a few sparsely populated planets, a few orbital outposts, and some systems that are owned by the government in New Moscow essentially on paper only. Life this far from Sol is austere, but the Spinwarders are generally honest, hardworking folk, unfairly subjected to the whims of various entities that have arrived in the region and started to throw their weight around. ### History In the wake of a major economic downturn known as the Green Crisis, humanity entered into what is now known as the Dark Decade, which came to dominate much of the early 2400s. People's lives were wracked by mounting inflation and mass layoffs, and humankind's collective quality of life became the lowest it had been in over 400 years. Faced with the crisis, many turned to radical ideologies, and one such example was a new form of communistic thought- one that espoused that the way forward was to escape from the capitalistic excess that had led humanity into this mess; indeed, they would go to the one place with virgin soil away from it all: space. And so, the Red Tomorrow Society packed their bags and left on a number of colony ships in 2433 to create this utopia amongst the stars. Spending a solid 10 years in cryosleep, the colonists eventually arrived at New Moscow, far from Terragov's influence. The following 20-30 years were, generally speaking, rather good for the fledgling Third Soviet Union. Life was understandably austere, but they were able to implement their ideals effectively and genuinely improve their lot in life. Unfortunately, such a state proved to be unstable, and as the initial leadership grew old and retired (or worse), their replacements were not quite as benevolent. Corruption began to blossom. Democratic institutions were slowly but surely sidelined in favour of strongman-style dictatorship. However, the Spinwarders were not willing to take this lying down, and in February 2505, tensions finally boiled over. A short but bloody civil war ensued, and from the ashes of the Third Soviet Union rose the phoenix of the SSC. ### The SSC Today Sadly, the revolution didn't manage to right all the wrongs of the Soviets. While it may be too early and too severe to call the SSC a failed democracy, its democratic institutions aren't in the best health. The current president, Oleksandr Kushnirenko, has served for the past 12 years in a quasi-dictatorship through some remarkably brazen electoral fraud; he's also filled the ranks of his government with his cronies. Kushnirenko thrives on the funding (and backing) of corporations, especially that of Nanotrasen, which has made him deeply unpopular with the wider Spinwarder populace who cling to the vestiges of democracy that still remain and seem increasingly likely with each passing election cycle to simply up and oust the wayward president from his position. The last election saw widespread protests but, against the odds, remained peaceful, most likely due to clandestine interference by Nanotrasen; with the new arrival of the Corporate War on the Spinward Rim, whether he can count on that saving him remains to be seen. Kushnirenko's regime does its best to abide by Nanotrasen in the region, typically bending over backwards for their wishes to secure their business and averting his gaze from whatever negative news filters out of the nearby space stations they operate. Fully aware of this good treatment, Nanotrasen takes ruthless advantage of it. They cheat on their taxes towards the SSC, with whatever amounts do get paid often winding up in the hands of Kushnirenko and his gaggle of cronies. They essentially ignore SSC cargo and shipping codes. Investigations that do get made into the various "events" occurring around Spinward territory tend to wind up with the investigator "going missing". Despite all of this, however, even Kushnirenko won't let Nanotrasen to take full control of the region. Perhaps there's a tiny twinge of patriotism that survived its encounter with Nanotrasen's firehose of money. Perhaps he's worried that the cash will dry up if he hands over the reins. Either way, the SSC does manage to maintain its independence, even if it gives up so much else to the corporations. TerraGov has also began to take an interest in the region, especially in the wake of the last Tiziran War. The government in Manhattan likes to claim natural dominion over all of humanity; while that might not accurately describe the situation on the ground, it does mean that TerraGov likes to try and exert influence over smaller states, regardless of whether or not those states appreciate it. Fortunately for Manhattan, the Spinwarders are generally receptive of their advances; while there is no particular political will for joining the Terran Federation, the SSC does maintain close diplomatic cooperation with them, and this relationship deepens every year. It seems likely that within the next decade or so, there will be some formalisation of this rule, but for now, TerraGov has only limited eyes and influence in the Spinward Rim. ### Life on the Rim For the average Spinwarder, life is generally better than it was under the late Third Union. With the liberalisation of the economy has come new opportunities, and despite how much their interference may be disliked, the corporations have brought a deluge of new money to the region, alongside the infrastructure they need to operate.. The first comms buoy link to Earth came around 30 years ago, finally giving the Rim a permanent instant(ish) connection to the homeworld; now, you can fly from New York to New Moscow in as little as three weeks if you're willing to take a direct route, and you can buy Core-made products at reasonable prices with reasonable stock at your local grocery store, provided you're in a large enough town. The various stars of the SSC are, in many ways, becoming some of the best connected Far Rim territories in the entirety of human space. With this newfound wealth comes, unfortunately, the overbearing hands of the corporations. As mentioned before, the government of the SSC is, at best, ignoring the corporate problem; this has allowed them to reach into many aspects of Spinward life. Many of the younger people living in the sector have started taking jobs with the corporations, creating a generational divide with the older Spinwarders who hate corporate influence in their lives. Much of the above infrastructural support comes not from benevolence, but necessity for the corps, and they aren't necessarily shy about taking advantage of that fact. While the luxuries they bring are currently freely available, there's an open implication that they could be taken away should the Spinwarders do something the corps dislike. Taken as a whole, this breeds a certain resentment of the situation with corps on the Rim, with many citizens wishing for a tomorrow where they've been brought to heel; where their quality of life doesn't rely on the whims of billion-dollar companies that have forgotten the struggle of the average person. Indeed, there's a sense of irony given the origins of the SSC; that a state born of hatred of capitalistic excess has found itself under its boot once again, and this hasn't gone unnoticed by the Spinwarders. Anti-corporate movements form a large part of the backbone of the governmental opposition, with firebrand activists and politicians marginalised by New Moscow leading the fight against corporate influence and Kusnirenko's regime. In the larger cities and orbital habitats of the SSC, corporate workers have started to rent or purchase houses, seeking some degree of freedom from the corpos during their time off-rotation. The pay offered by Nanotrasen means that most workers can afford a decent enough place to live, and the commute from the SSC to the nearest NT Dispatch Station is only a few days by local mass transit options. There's also a lot of recreational facilities here that just can't be replicated on one of Nanotrasen's stations; while you can always drop by the bar, there's a certain ambience the on-station facilities lack. Naturally, none of this particularly improves the mood of the locals. The primary language in the SSC is Novorusskii, an East Slavic language derived from Russian. In the major cities, Galactic Common is also commonly spoken, but it's not an official language within the territory of the SSC, and the further you head out of those cities, the less likely it is that you'll find a speaker of it. # The Third Soviet Union/Red Tommorrow Society Location: No official capital, small holdings throughout SSC space Type of Org: Rump State/Insurgency Though the fires of Spinward Communism burn dim, burn they do still. Despite being on the losing side of the February Revolution, the Third Soviet Union lives on in the hearts and minds of its diehard supporters across the Spinward Sector, where they maintain an insurgency against the Coalition that displaced them. The February Revolution saw the end of Soviet power in the Spinward Sector and the rise of the nascent SSC. With the major planets of the Coalition declaring independence and splitting off to form their own republics, the central authority on New Moscow collapsed, and the planet fell with very little fighting. The remaining Soviet loyalists, mostly military personnel and politicians, vanished into the hinterlands of the Sector, licking their wounds and seeking to plan a return to power. Now, from hidden strongholds and in secretive cells, they continue the fight against capitalistic excess via guerilla warfare and terrorism against any and all who would seek to bring it; while the SSC may be their main target, they don't spare the corporations or TerraGov, either. With each passing year, they lose strength as members die off or lose hope; and yet, they are still a significant fighting force capable of causing major disruption throughout the entire sector. Within the ranks of the insurgents, the term "Third Soviet Union" is frequently used, as they seek to maintain the political legitimacy of the previous state. Amongst the SSC, the name "Red Tomorrow Society", taken from the group that founded the Union, is more frequently used. Notes: * The hostile space Russians you see are mostly associated with the TSU, though some are just kosmogopniks with no cause and copious amounts of vodka. * While they are hidden and their numbers are few, Soviet Remnants are a formidable problem for the SSC to deal with. Terrorist attacks by the group are a constant threat to major cities in the SSC, particularly in New Moscow. * KS13 was a Soviet installation prior to being shut down during the collapse. The station was never reactivated by the SSC as it was deemed "too old" to bother expending resources on. * There are rumours that the Soviets still possess the PWS Khranitel Revolyutsii, their old flagship that went missing during the collapse. If these rumours are true, the Soviets may be able to pose a serious naval threat in the region- but as no signs of the vessel have been found even across 50 years, many believe it's simply an apocryphal tale, a boogeyman for the politicians in New Moscow.
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Muan Autonomous Sector

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FTL Drives

In all of human history, no singular invention can be said to have opened more doors than that of faster-than-light flight. Prior to its discovery, human expansion was very limited, with even Alpha Centauri taking the better part of 5 years to travel to and from. The First Pioneers The earliest work in discovering FTL flight began in the mid-2100s, after the settling of Adasta in Alpha Centauri provided a reasonable target for an experimental FTL vessel. During this time dozens of theories and prototypes were created, but very little actual progress was made until the Zhang's Comet incident of 2198 opened the eyes of humanity to the "Bluespace"; a parallel dimension which could, theoretically, be entered by specialised vessels. The first successful entry into bluespace by an unmanned vessel was made in 2205 when a research team from the University of Seoul sent a probe through via a "bluespace crush": detonating a bomb encased in bluespace crystals taken from Zhang's Comet, which proved enough to cause a short jump in space. Unfortunately, this initial travel also proved too stressful for the vessel to survive, with only wreckage arriving at the other side, but it was a promising step forward that showed that FTL flight was possible. The bluespace crush concept was expanded upon by subsequent research, with the first successful survivable flight occurring in 2208. From here, small scale tests with living creatures were conducted; first rats, then dogs, then monkeys, and with each proving to be survivable and successful, the race was on for the first manned bluespace jump. For this undertaking, TerraGov itself became strongly involved in the process, assembling a crack team of researchers and corporate sponsors to ensure the viability of the project; as well as picking their first pioneer, Air Force Lieutenant Othman bin Sulaiman. After years of physical and mental preparation and the combined efforts of hundreds of researchers, the day finally arrived for Othman to enter the capsule and begin his test flight. The resulting journey between Jump Zero and Point 65 in Alpha Centauri took around 45 minutes; equating to a nominal Bluespace Travel Factor of 1.2 (BTF is x in the equation v = c^x). This monumental leap made travel between humanity's two closest systems a mild commute; indeed, it took longer by sublight to get to Jump Zero from Earth than the subsequent journey from Jump Zero to Point 65, and overnight this changed humanity's outlook on the stars. After Othman was deemed physically and mentally unaffected by his voyage, plans began in earnest to scale up the technology and reduce the associated cost: while bluespace crush cores worked from a technical perspective, the required load of bluespace crystals for each journey would make the technology economically unviable at larger scales. Eventually, the answer would come in the form of Nuclear Driver Cores. Early FTL (Nuclear Driver Cores) The initial plans for the NDC came from a joint research project between the Institute of Astronautic Research and Conarex under the direction of Doctor Helena Franklin. The Institute had been experimenting for a time with using sources of high energy laser light to energise bluespace crystals, but were unable to generate enough energy by traditional means to create the desired effect. Eventually, the decision was made to investigate the use of nuclear-pumped lasers; previously only investigated experimentally for use as a weapons platform, these lasers generate a colossal amount of energy- however, their various drawbacks made them unviable for most purposes. The economic benefits from having more accessible FTL flight, however, would dramatically overpower these drawbacks; if they could only get them to work. After years of testing and prototyping, a breakthrough was made in 2219, and the first Franklin Spike underwent full-scale testing on the Terran Navy destroyer, the TMV Hammerhead, on a run between Harvest and Earth that achieved an approximate BTF of 2. This finally proved that mass-scale FTL was not only viable but eminently achieveable, and within the year the first Franklin Spikes were making their way off of production lines and into the vessels of the Terran Navy.

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"From my father I inherited a rusted sword. My efforts have polished it to a shining edge. And yet, it should be so much more."

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Amongst the stars, it takes skills to survive- and nobody is more skilled than the Scoundrel. Leveraging resourcefulness, roguish wit, and a healthy dose of luck, the Scoundrel forms an integral part of any successful party.

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