I know it is in GT: Humaniti. It may be elsewhere as well in prior matetial; I do not recall where it appeared first. It might be mentioned in one of the MgT supplements dealing with Floria Subsector.
Polities of the Long Night
- Thread starter TheDark
- Start date
Going back over Humaniti, that book has it as speculation rather than fact (and oddly put it in Physiology and Appearance rather than Origins and History). The chapter does state that scientists speculate they might be "completely artificial genetic constructs," but doesn't contain a statement on whether that speculation is accurate. It also says that their origin is unclear and "biological evidence indicates" they were subjected to substantial genetic manipulation by the Ancients, so we end up with a narrator statement that their origin is unclear, that there's evidence of Ancient genetic manipulation, and scientists speculate they may be Androids, but other than the "origin unclear" statement they're not phrased as unambiguous fact. It's not quite as fuzzy as T4 canon, but it's not a direct statement of fact either.
(The Physiology and Appearance section also claims they're not hominids, which would mean they technically don't belong in the book, since per Humaniti "n the Imperium, the collective term for all intelligent hominids is Humaniti." If they're not hominids, then they're not part of Humaniti by the Imperial definition. It would also mean they're not Homo anything, since when that book was written, all of Homo was contained within hominidae - it's since expanded to also contain orangutans, gorillas, chimpanzees, and bonobos, but I think that was still contentious when Humaniti was published.)
Probably the better contemporary term would be Hominins.
Probably, although that term still has enough disagreement on its scope that it would need definition within the game. At its narrowest, it's used basically as a synonym for genus Homo, the way hominid was used when Humaniti was written. At its broadest, it's the (current) hominids except for orangutans, and the broadest definition would presumably include the uplifted apes that are a transgenic mix of gorilla, chimpanzee, and human, since all three are hominins in that definition. Biology doesn't like to fit into neat little boxes, which tends to drive nuts the people who like to come up with organizational systems.
You're correct on the fluidity scope of the term. But I'll just go ahead and make a "GM's Judgment Call" for game purposes based on the similarity of the following terms:
ORDER: Primata (Primates)
INFRAORDER: Simiiformes (Simians)
- SUPERFAMILY: Hominoidea = Hominoid (Lesser [Ponginae/Gibbons] & Great Apes)
- FAMILY: Hominidae = Hominid (Great Apes)
- SUBFAMILY: Homininae = Hominini & Gorillini
- » TRIBE: Hominini = Hominine (Homo & Pan)
- » SUBTRIBE: Hominina = Hominin
- GENUS: Homo
- » SPECIES: Homo erectus
- » SPECIES: Homo floresiensis
- » SPECIES: Homo luzonensis
- » SPECIES: Homo naledi
- » SPECIES: Homo rhodesiensis/heidelbergensis
- » SPECIES: Homo longi = Denisovan
- » SPECIES: Homo neanderthalensis = Neanderthal Man
- »» SPECIES: Homo neanderthalensis (longi) = Mixed archaic man
- » SPECIES: Homo sapiens = Archaic Modern Man
- »» SPECIES: Homo sapiens (neanderthalensis) = Mixed Human
- »» SPECIES: Homo sapiens (longi) = Mixed Human
- »» SPECIES: Homo sapiens (sapiens) = Modern Humans
- »»» SUBSPECIES: Humaniti (various subspecies, and species across Charted Space derived from "Homo-" genus ca -300,000 and subsequently mixed)
ORDER: Carnivora
SUBORDER: Caniformia
- CLADE: Canoidea = Canoid
- FAMILY: Canidae = Canid
- SUBFAMILY: Caninae (Canini & Vulpini)
- » TRIBE: Canini = Canine
- » SUBTRIBE: Canina = Canin (Canis & Aenocyon ["Dire Wolf"])
- GENUS: Aenocyon
- » SPECIES: Aenocyon armbrusteri (Extinct Wolf ca -850,000 to -130,000)
- » SPECIES: Aenocyon dirus (Extinct Wolf ca -125,000 to -10,000)
- GENUS: Canis
- » SPECIES: Canis othmanii = (Extinct Tunisian Wolf ca -700,000)
- » SPECIES: Canis edwardi = (Extinct North American Wolf until ca -250,000)
- » SPECIES: Canis lupaster = African Wolf
- » SPECIES: Canis simensis = Ethiopian Wolf
- » SPECIES: Canis latrans = Coyote
- » SPECIES: Canis rufus = Red Wolf
- » SPECIES: Canis aureus = Golden Jackal
- » SPECIES: Canis lycaon = Eastern Wolf
- » SPECIES: Canis lupus = Gray Wolf
- » SPECIES: Canis (lupus) familiaris = Dog (ca -25,000 to present)
- »» SPECIES: Canis ( ? ) sapiens = Vargr (ca -300,000 to present) - derived principally from various modern and extinct Canin genera (ca -300,000)
Yeah, I was looking at those cladograms for far too long. You're correct.
With a little more detail for Humaniti:
(Technically Australopithecina and Hominina are synonymous, and Australopithecus and Homo divide from it at the "Lower Subgenus" Australopithecus level in my chart, but I am dividing them into separate categories).
- SUPERFAMILY: Hominoidea = Hominoid (Lesser Apes [Gibbons] & Great Apes [Hominids] )
- FAMILY: Hominidae = Hominid (Great Apes) [= Homininae & Orangutans]
- SUBFAMILY: Homininae = Hominini & Gorillini
- » TRIBE: Hominini = Hominine [= Hominina ("Hominins") & Australopithecina ("Australopithecines") & Panina ("Pan")]
- » ( SUBTRIBE: Homininia/Australopithecina )
- »» SUBTRIBE: Australopithecina = Australopithecines
- GENUS: Ardipithecus
- GENUS: Australopithecus
- » (SUB-GENUS): Praeanthropus
- » (SUB-GENUS): Paranthropus
- » (SUB-GENUS): Australopithecus
- »»» SUBTRIBE: Hominina = Hominin
- GENUS: Homo
- » SPECIES: Homo erectus
- » SPECIES: Homo floresiensis
- » SPECIES: Homo luzonensis
- » SPECIES: Homo naledi
- » SPECIES: Homo rhodesiensis/heidelbergensis
- » SPECIES: Homo longi = Denisovan
- » SPECIES: Homo neanderthalensis = Neanderthal Man
- »» SPECIES: Homo neanderthalensis (longi) = Mixed archaic man
- » SPECIES: Homo sapiens = Archaic Modern Man
- »» SPECIES: Homo sapiens (neanderthalensis) = Mixed Human
- »» SPECIES: Homo sapiens (longi) = Mixed Human
- »» SPECIES: Homo sapiens (sapiens) = Modern Humans
- »»» SUBSPECIES: Humaniti (various subspecies, and species across Charted Space derived from "Homo-" genus ca -300,000 and subsequently mixed)
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I went through GT: Rim of Fire, and while there's not a huge amount that's new, there were some additional details on known polities and a few new things. All things in quotes are directly from the book. Things in parentheses other than locations are my speculation/extrapolation from what's in the book.
IISS first entered Solomani Rim around 100, contacting the four major powers (Old Earth Union, Easter Concord, Dingir League, and Vegan Polity) soon after. By 200, trade was occurring between the powers and they were beginning to explore nearby Wilds. Easter Concord in particular is called out as working with IISS to open up new worlds. Easter Concord also most willing to join TI due to having remnants of RoM noble structure (other polities did not). Most early contact is via scouts, since Imperial diplomatic and military interest is directed spinward against Reaver and Aslan states. EC joined TI in 426, DL in 582, VP in 586, and OEU in 588.
Terran Mercantile Community – trade alliance rather than actual government, mostly in Sol and Arcturus. Extended from Lagash to Mirabilis, which would give it some territory in Dingir and Capella as well. Began contracting around -1500 under pressure from Reaver states to spinward. By -1400 trade collapsed to a level that ended piracy due to a lack of targets. Became Old Earth Union in -1110.
Old Earth Union – extended from Ys to Barnard and Dismal to Sirius. Hostile to Dingir League and Vegan Polity. Attempted to conquer Near Bootes Cluster in -400 and failed. Incorporated into TI in 588.
Vegan Polity – survived Long Night “almost unscathed,” but like most Rim nations was isolationist. (It's unclear whether the ten worlds within five parsecs of Dingir were part of the League or the Polity. I lean toward the Polity.)
Easter Concord – settled Quaver (Solomani Rim 1110) around -500, 11 parsecs from Easter. This is slightly outside the EC’s borders from other sources.
Arcturus Federation – created by Banasdan, stretched from Altiplano to Anenerkuk and had “sporadic contact” with Vegan Polity. Fought a civil war around 200, joined the TI in 583. (Probably nine systems total – Altiplano, Noricum, Banasdan, Aqilat, Nyarlathotep, Arcturus, Jael, Tunguska, and Anenerkuk – the wiki leaves out Tunguska, but it’s the only J1 route to Anenerkuk from the rest of the Federation.)
Bootean League – formed around -400 in response to Old Earth Union aggression. Comparing the League to the modern Federation, it did not include Aquitaine, but did include Vantage, Polyphemus, and Hamilcar. (Speculation: it likely covered the eastern part of the northern J1 network of the modern Federation, southeast to Aristotle and northeast to Chernozem. Saxe is also likely, but it possibly didn’t include Sequoyah, since that planet did lose Jump and its history before the -200 civil war is unclear. Excluding everything from Sequoyah west on the J-1 main, Teucer (a recent colony), and the southwestern cluster around Aquitaine that’s J-2 from the rest of the Federation, the League may have been 10 systems. This size or smaller would be consistent with it not being considered a power on par with Easter, Old Earth, Dingir, or Vega.)
(Esperance may not have maintained Jump on its own but should have had at least some access to Jump-capable ships, since settlement by Vegans “continued throughout the Long Night.”)
(Iilike may have had Jump, since it maintained a “buffer state” between the Dingir League and Old Earth Union. This would likely need to include Markhashi, since that system is more directly between the League and the Union than Iilike is, due to Sirius being part of the Union and the League extending down to Enki Kalamma. Shuruppak and Markhashi would be the shortest route between those, with Shuruppak-Iilike the second-shortest.) Iilike joined the TI in 596.
(Lagash may have maintained Jump, since it’s noted as having had conflicts with the Old Earth Union during its expansionist periods. The closest Union world was Barnard, 7 parsecs away via J-2 routes, and those conflicts probably took place around Agidda and/or Nusku.)
Scandia retained spaceflight and contact with Terra throughout the Long Night, but maintained its independence. (This implies deep space refueling posts, since there’s a 3 parsec gap between Scandia and Dismal.) It didn’t join the TI until after the Rim War, having gone from independence to Solomani in 740.
Hathor was able to settle Anenerkuk during the Long Night,. (Presumably it kept Jump, since settling via sublight ship, while possible, would be unusual enough to warrant a mention.)
IISS first entered Solomani Rim around 100, contacting the four major powers (Old Earth Union, Easter Concord, Dingir League, and Vegan Polity) soon after. By 200, trade was occurring between the powers and they were beginning to explore nearby Wilds. Easter Concord in particular is called out as working with IISS to open up new worlds. Easter Concord also most willing to join TI due to having remnants of RoM noble structure (other polities did not). Most early contact is via scouts, since Imperial diplomatic and military interest is directed spinward against Reaver and Aslan states. EC joined TI in 426, DL in 582, VP in 586, and OEU in 588.
Terran Mercantile Community – trade alliance rather than actual government, mostly in Sol and Arcturus. Extended from Lagash to Mirabilis, which would give it some territory in Dingir and Capella as well. Began contracting around -1500 under pressure from Reaver states to spinward. By -1400 trade collapsed to a level that ended piracy due to a lack of targets. Became Old Earth Union in -1110.
Old Earth Union – extended from Ys to Barnard and Dismal to Sirius. Hostile to Dingir League and Vegan Polity. Attempted to conquer Near Bootes Cluster in -400 and failed. Incorporated into TI in 588.
Vegan Polity – survived Long Night “almost unscathed,” but like most Rim nations was isolationist. (It's unclear whether the ten worlds within five parsecs of Dingir were part of the League or the Polity. I lean toward the Polity.)
Easter Concord – settled Quaver (Solomani Rim 1110) around -500, 11 parsecs from Easter. This is slightly outside the EC’s borders from other sources.
Arcturus Federation – created by Banasdan, stretched from Altiplano to Anenerkuk and had “sporadic contact” with Vegan Polity. Fought a civil war around 200, joined the TI in 583. (Probably nine systems total – Altiplano, Noricum, Banasdan, Aqilat, Nyarlathotep, Arcturus, Jael, Tunguska, and Anenerkuk – the wiki leaves out Tunguska, but it’s the only J1 route to Anenerkuk from the rest of the Federation.)
Bootean League – formed around -400 in response to Old Earth Union aggression. Comparing the League to the modern Federation, it did not include Aquitaine, but did include Vantage, Polyphemus, and Hamilcar. (Speculation: it likely covered the eastern part of the northern J1 network of the modern Federation, southeast to Aristotle and northeast to Chernozem. Saxe is also likely, but it possibly didn’t include Sequoyah, since that planet did lose Jump and its history before the -200 civil war is unclear. Excluding everything from Sequoyah west on the J-1 main, Teucer (a recent colony), and the southwestern cluster around Aquitaine that’s J-2 from the rest of the Federation, the League may have been 10 systems. This size or smaller would be consistent with it not being considered a power on par with Easter, Old Earth, Dingir, or Vega.)
(Esperance may not have maintained Jump on its own but should have had at least some access to Jump-capable ships, since settlement by Vegans “continued throughout the Long Night.”)
(Iilike may have had Jump, since it maintained a “buffer state” between the Dingir League and Old Earth Union. This would likely need to include Markhashi, since that system is more directly between the League and the Union than Iilike is, due to Sirius being part of the Union and the League extending down to Enki Kalamma. Shuruppak and Markhashi would be the shortest route between those, with Shuruppak-Iilike the second-shortest.) Iilike joined the TI in 596.
(Lagash may have maintained Jump, since it’s noted as having had conflicts with the Old Earth Union during its expansionist periods. The closest Union world was Barnard, 7 parsecs away via J-2 routes, and those conflicts probably took place around Agidda and/or Nusku.)
Scandia retained spaceflight and contact with Terra throughout the Long Night, but maintained its independence. (This implies deep space refueling posts, since there’s a 3 parsec gap between Scandia and Dismal.) It didn’t join the TI until after the Rim War, having gone from independence to Solomani in 740.
Hathor was able to settle Anenerkuk during the Long Night,. (Presumably it kept Jump, since settling via sublight ship, while possible, would be unusual enough to warrant a mention.)
Note that the RoM and 2I were TL12, so some TL-12 tech may have remained available to some of these polities (and thus J-3).
mike wightman
SOC-14 10K
I don't see why Terra and its surrounding worlds wouldn't continue to make TL progress, the long night was not a long night for them, it was purely a Cleon invention. The long night describes the "dark age" between the final fall of the Terran lead Ziru Sirka (the first Imperium was never dissolved, it just got new management) and the triumphant return of the Imperium in the form of Cleon's elevation to empire.
Meanwhile back in Earth sector individual countries still maintained their identity, companies continued to trade, colonies continued to be founded, expeditions into the great unknown still set out... there was no dark age.
Meanwhile back in Earth sector individual countries still maintained their identity, companies continued to trade, colonies continued to be founded, expeditions into the great unknown still set out... there was no dark age.
Rim of Fire claims that the various polities in the Rim during the Long Night were isolationist, and trade shrank so much that reavers stopped raiding them because there weren't enough targets to justify piracy. The "major polities" of the Solomani Rim ranged from slightly bigger than the Sylean Federation (Vegan Polity) to somewhat smaller than the Federation (Old Earth Union). The book also states that trade between those major polities didn't become significant again until the arrival of the Third Imperium (the cause isn't specified in the book, but just off the top of my head it could be the TI acting as a neutral arbiter or just something as simple as shocking them out of their isolationism).
While GT's a parallel timeline, my understanding is it's held to be generally correct unless explicitly contradicted elsewhere. It doesn't go into as much detail as we might like about the history of the sector, but it describes a situation of a handful of "pocket empires" that sounds like they shrink during the first half of the Long Night and then fight with each other over potential expansion in the second half.
T4 ( and perhaps GT:IW ) seem to suggest that while the Terran Confederation achieved TL12 during the Interstellar Wars (which became a significant factor in their defeat of the Vilani Imperium, which was broad-based TL11), their establishment of the RoM over the Imperium continued to advance technologically (albeit slower in terms of overall base) to at least TL13, with some prototype TL14 (which in fact may be relic tech from some of the colonies and polities post-RoM during Twilight and the Long Night).
But no FusionPlus breakthrough to revolutionize power production, despite its nominal TL12.
Spinward Flow
SOC-14 5K
Looks like my Rule of Man Long Trader and Clipper design choices falling into the TL=9-A range are hitting the "sweet spot" for J2/J3 (respectively) ... albeit using LBB2.81 standard letter drives (D and H, to be specific) rather than LBB5.80 custom drives. In both classes, maximum range is 6 parsecs with minimal revenue tonnage loading.
I would posit that the "fall" into the Long Night wasn't a matter of "technology failed" ... but rather a case of the intersection of economics and politics failed. Think "market CRASH" that plunges star systems into a wave of interstellar economic depression that creates an "undertow" that drags almost everything under. Liquidity freezes solid, because credit markets lock up and collapse completely. Banks fail, taking generational wealth with them. Societies crumble as interstellar trade DIES ON THE VINE due to the lack of currency mobility between worlds.
Anywhere that wasn't self(-ishly)sufficient "before the crash" will enter into a decline ... the only question is, how "fast" the fall will be. In the harshest of environments, that require external logistics just to keep subsistence technology going (life suport, etc.), the END will come relatively quickly (assuming that fighting over dwindling resources that can no longer be replenished doesn't hasten that ending). In places with biospheres ... the fall may take longer ... and places with "hospitable" biospheres with a large enough/diversified world economy could potentially "survive the coming of the long night" by turning inwards and concentrating on local/parochial concerns for survival.
Even if there is the TECH necessary to do so ... if you can't make a profit by going interstellar ... you're not going to do it.
Ask any Power Grid Operator how easy it is to do a BLACK START of an entire power grid that has completely failed and collapsed. It isn't easy, it isn't "free" and it takes more than just "flipping a switch" to turn the lights back on.
Now try doing the political + economic version of a BLACK START of an entire INTERSTELLAR EMPIRE.
Spoiler Alert: If the darkness arrived suddenly, without much warning ... it's not going to be pretty.
Perhaps the best way to explain this ... problem ... is the first 30 minutes of James Burke's series Connections, episode 1 ... The Trigger Effect.
And that first episode is merely talking about a technological problem that happened at a specific time on a specific portion of a continent of the Solomani homeworld when they were only TL=5-6.
Now imagine the exact same sort of thing happening on a multi-sector interstellar scale ... resulting in the loss of TRILLIONS OF LIVES over the next millennium+ as the entire society COLLAPSES IN ON ITSELF ... even though the TECHNOLOGY works just fine, but the economics + politics of that empire DOESN'T anymore.
I would encourage anyone reading this thread to watch (at least) the first 30 minutes of this episode to even BEGIN to come to grips with the sheer scale and scope of what must have happened, when the Long Night "fell" upon the Second Imperium/Rule of Man/Ramshackle Empire ... and why it would have taken SO LONG for any polity to emerge from that darkness.
Given how hard it'd be to maintain and support a ship via piracy, it'd take quite a bit of unprotected trade to support piracy, and not much contraction to make it non-viable. It could justify the lack of inter-polity trade, though. Inside a polity, the traders are protected. Outside, they are not.
As I recall that's from the T4 book Anomalies which was not exactly well-received, and took an even looser approach to canon than T4 did in general.
As for fusion+, it allows smaller powerplants, and that's about it, so it allows fusion powered grav tanks and space fighters.
Another potential issue was a lack of interstellar polities during the Terran Mercantile Community (and piracy) era. The wiki page for Rim Province claims (albeit without a book source) that in -1690 the provincial fleet was disbanded and assets distributed among the local worlds (and the TMC). According to Rim of Fire -1500 was when the pirate attacks began forcing the TMC to contract, -1400 was roughly when the attacks ceased due to lack of targets, and -1110 was when the TMC became the OEU, an actual government rather than just a set of trade agreements.
Looking at the TMC a bit more before switching to the large polities in general, a couple hundred years of growing isolationism could have played a large factor in the TMC's inability to stop piracy, since their ROM ships would be getting worn (or entirely out of service). Without government shipyards of their own, they'd be dependent on buying warships from worlds that don't really care about interstellar affairs or on arming merchant vessels.
AM6 claims the Dingir League and Easter Concord date to around the same time as the transition from TMC to OEU, so for almost 600 years there weren't large-scale polities (except for the Vegans) that could draw on the resources of multiple systems. There were probably some minor alliances, but on the scale of two or three systems rather than fifteen or twenty. The TMC could draw on some of the resources of multiple systems, but wouldn't have had the same level of control.
That situation would also give the individual worlds a strong chance of running into funding traps where maintaining old ships would suck up too much money to build new ships, assuming they have (and maintain) shipyards that can build completely new ships (Rim of Fire's "Deep Night" section talks about worlds occasionally refurbishing old ships for exploratory missions as if it was the pinnacle of their capabilities). Each system can only rely on whatever ships it's capable of maintaining and crewing, maybe with some assistance from a neighbor if they have good relations or the TMC if their risk/benefit analysis of getting involved comes out in your favor. If you're Terra, with billions of people, that's probably OK. If you're a world with a population in the millions or the hundreds of thousands, staffing a navy or even a system defense force that's worth the title is a bit more of a challenge.
It's also plausible that the "end of piracy" was due to the TMC contracting farther than the pirates were willing to travel. The version of the TMC that became the OEU had withdrawn from the worlds closest to Alpha Crucis and Magyar, and the one expansion effort we know about was in the direction of Aldebaran instead of returning to the areas that had been abandoned due to raiding in Arcturus and Dingir. Dingir is somewhat understandable since they were hostile to the Dingir League and Iilike had some sort of "buffer state" between the two, but not moving into Arcturus is a little harder to write off since the Arcturus Federation was all the way on the opposite side of the subsector and they had friendly contact with Scandia at the near edge of the subsector.
Rim of Fire contains a section that makes this somewhat more plausible, talking about how the Third Imperium's early efforts in the Rim only involved the Scouts because the military and diplomatic efforts were focused spinward on the Aslan and Solomani splinter states in Reaver's Deep, Magyar, and Dark Nebula - the three spinward sectors that generated reavers. While it's a fanzine and not canonized, this would also line up with the Library Data from Traveller Chronicle 6 that states the reaver threat was mostly ended by the last of the Aslan Border Wars due to the Hierate and Third Imperium occupying the majority of the splinter states that generated pirates. That wasn't until 380, centuries after the OEU tried to move into Aldebaran.
(I did not intended to write nearly this much on the subject when I started.)
Condottiere
SOC-14 5K
If it's economics. not technological base, we'd need to know what's exportable, how much is the production cost, and what\s the wholesale price at the other planet.
Spinward Flow
SOC-14 5K
Gets worse if the "currency is rotten" (or no longer being accepted) and you're reduced to BARTER for trade.
Difficult to buy/obtain maintenance parts for a starship (even basic annual overhauls) if you have to BARTER for the service rather than pay using cash/credit.
Without a stable interstellar currency that is accepted everywhere you want to trade, it becomes very hard to operate an interstellar trading company at a profit ... and without profits, those companies either go bust or they ply their services elsewhere (including closer to their home ports, becoming microjumpers in-system instead of interstellar transports).
It is theoretically possible to simply "work in local currencies" in each individual (world) market, but that simply adds a layer of friction to the movement of capital (and thus, profits) between markets. You wind up with a sort of balkanization of trade which has to resort to BARTER in goods in order to export "value" from one star system to another. Too many books cook the bookkeeper(s) ... I think was the saying for that circumstance ...
Having just recently acquired and read a copy of that book, it is, and the series of adventures it appears in were probably my least favorite from Anomalies. According to the adventure "Double Deal," pirates/rebels recovered a TL-14 plasma cannon from Khiinra Ash (Core 2916). The pirates somehow made it there from Siduka (aka Kiikagaiir, aka Alterra, Core 2111), which is 9 parsecs away on the opposite side of the Sylean Federation. "Akira Downed!" has them raiding Medishvlaas (Core 1921) which would be Sorca now. It's 11 parsecs from Siduka, 10 parsecs from Khiinra Ash, and 4 parsecs from Capital. The plots aren't terrible other than using the plasma cannon as a railroading plot device (it works twice, with the first hit destroying any screens and armor and the second destroying all weapons and half the ship's Structure, then blows up when firing a third time), but the backstory is just bonkers and needs rewriting.
On the plus side, Khiinra Ash is noted in Milieu 0 as having an Ancient site, so it may have been intended to be an Ancient weapon the whole time rather than a ROM artifact. Even if not, an easy rewrite would be to make the "plasma cannon" an Ancient artifact that they're using without properly understanding it. I'd move that site, though, either using the one at Core 2020 (Kan/Tertha) or placing an unknown Ancient site on one of the worlds noted as having Chirpers like Gid/Shushan (Core 2211) so that the pirates aren't going completely around the Syleans (or through the Federation) to get their superweapon.
Making it an ancient weapon is much more sensible - it explains it's arbitrary self-destruction and how powerful it is.
