The Rebellion Redux

[mike wightman]

My first thought was for the exodus to be renegade Nobles and Admirals from Lucan's fraction too

Recognising the hoplessness of their situation they made plans to refit a mothballed fleet and to get as many scientists, engineers etc. as they could.

How far do you want to stretch the "physics" of the backstory?
How about the exodus fleet making use of a one off jump portal - one of Lucan's special projects - to get them 36 parsecs away in the first jump.
They sabotaged the portal to prevent anyone following, but mysteriously some of the ships were lost.

The exodus fleet then proceeds by jump after jump until they have left the Imperium far behind.

Their route would take them coreward/trailing, taking them through the lesser rift. This would require sometimes travelling STL, adding five to six years to a journey that could have taken only a few months, if only the fleet could have had jump 6 engines for every ship.

Their target worlds are a quadrant of worlds cut off by jump 4 rifts from surrounding systems.

The exodus fleet took with them the very best in robotic construction machinery, the full Imperial technical database, and enough supplies and equipment to rapidly build a colony on a human compatible world.

 

[jfetters]

Originally posted by Sigg Oddra:
My first thought was for the exodus to be renegade Nobles and Admirals from Lucan's fraction too

Recognising the hoplessness of their situation they made plans to refit a mothballed fleet and to get as many scientists, engineers etc. as they could.

Interesting take. That would lend a nice "Battlestar Galactica" feel to things, especially if the exodus was detailed.

My only reservation with using people in Lucan's faction is that there was an unfortunate tendency of disgruntled admirals (or anyone who disagreed with Lucan, for that matter) of ending up dead. I just don't see them able to amass a group in the millions for this without being noticed.

How far do you want to stretch the "physics" of the backstory?
How about the exodus fleet making use of a one off jump portal - one of Lucan's special projects - to get them 36 parsecs away in the first jump.
They sabotaged the portal to prevent anyone following, but mysteriously some of the ships were lost.

The exodus fleet then proceeds by jump after jump until they have left the Imperium far behind.

Their route would take them coreward/trailing, taking them through the lesser rift. This would require sometimes travelling STL, adding five to six years to a journey that could have taken only a few months, if only the fleet could have had jump 6 engines for every ship.

The only thing about that is the availability of J-6 ships that can carry millions of colonists.

Also, at least the way I'm thinking now, this will happen well into the future, maybe at least a hundred years into the fourth Imp, to allow the settlments to be established in the setting.

Still, it's important to have a backstory, so it will still be important to determine how they get there. I really like the jump portal or "superjump" project that can move them a hell of a lot farther than they could otherwise.

Ultimately, I'd like to take them off the charted space map altogether.

Their target worlds are a quadrant of worlds cut off by jump 4 rifts from surrounding systems.

The exodus fleet took with them the very best in robotic construction machinery, the full Imperial technical database, and enough supplies and equipment to rapidly build a colony on a human compatible world.

Of course. And the major "ark" ships (or whatever the big vessels are) can be refitted to act as highports, at least on a short term basis.

 

[jfetters]

Originally posted by Sigg Oddra:
My first thought was for the exodus to be renegade Nobles and Admirals from Lucan's fraction too

Recognising the hoplessness of their situation they made plans to refit a mothballed fleet and to get as many scientists, engineers etc. as they could.

Interesting take. That would lend a nice "Battlestar Galactica" feel to things, especially if the exodus was detailed.

My only reservation with using people in Lucan's faction is that there was an unfortunate tendency of disgruntled admirals (or anyone who disagreed with Lucan, for that matter) of ending up dead. I just don't see them able to amass a group in the millions for this without being noticed.

How far do you want to stretch the "physics" of the backstory?
How about the exodus fleet making use of a one off jump portal - one of Lucan's special projects - to get them 36 parsecs away in the first jump.
They sabotaged the portal to prevent anyone following, but mysteriously some of the ships were lost.

The exodus fleet then proceeds by jump after jump until they have left the Imperium far behind.

Their route would take them coreward/trailing, taking them through the lesser rift. This would require sometimes travelling STL, adding five to six years to a journey that could have taken only a few months, if only the fleet could have had jump 6 engines for every ship.

The only thing about that is the availability of J-6 ships that can carry millions of colonists.

Also, at least the way I'm thinking now, this will happen well into the future, maybe at least a hundred years into the fourth Imp, to allow the settlments to be established in the setting.

Still, it's important to have a backstory, so it will still be important to determine how they get there. I really like the jump portal or "superjump" project that can move them a hell of a lot farther than they could otherwise.

Ultimately, I'd like to take them off the charted space map altogether.

Their target worlds are a quadrant of worlds cut off by jump 4 rifts from surrounding systems.

The exodus fleet took with them the very best in robotic construction machinery, the full Imperial technical database, and enough supplies and equipment to rapidly build a colony on a human compatible world.

Of course. And the major "ark" ships (or whatever the big vessels are) can be refitted to act as highports, at least on a short term basis.

 

[jfetters]

Originally posted by Sigg Oddra:
My first thought was for the exodus to be renegade Nobles and Admirals from Lucan's fraction too

Recognising the hoplessness of their situation they made plans to refit a mothballed fleet and to get as many scientists, engineers etc. as they could.

Interesting take. That would lend a nice "Battlestar Galactica" feel to things, especially if the exodus was detailed.

My only reservation with using people in Lucan's faction is that there was an unfortunate tendency of disgruntled admirals (or anyone who disagreed with Lucan, for that matter) of ending up dead. I just don't see them able to amass a group in the millions for this without being noticed.

How far do you want to stretch the "physics" of the backstory?
How about the exodus fleet making use of a one off jump portal - one of Lucan's special projects - to get them 36 parsecs away in the first jump.
They sabotaged the portal to prevent anyone following, but mysteriously some of the ships were lost.

The exodus fleet then proceeds by jump after jump until they have left the Imperium far behind.

Their route would take them coreward/trailing, taking them through the lesser rift. This would require sometimes travelling STL, adding five to six years to a journey that could have taken only a few months, if only the fleet could have had jump 6 engines for every ship.

The only thing about that is the availability of J-6 ships that can carry millions of colonists.

Also, at least the way I'm thinking now, this will happen well into the future, maybe at least a hundred years into the fourth Imp, to allow the settlments to be established in the setting.

Still, it's important to have a backstory, so it will still be important to determine how they get there. I really like the jump portal or "superjump" project that can move them a hell of a lot farther than they could otherwise.

Ultimately, I'd like to take them off the charted space map altogether.

Their target worlds are a quadrant of worlds cut off by jump 4 rifts from surrounding systems.

The exodus fleet took with them the very best in robotic construction machinery, the full Imperial technical database, and enough supplies and equipment to rapidly build a colony on a human compatible world.

Of course. And the major "ark" ships (or whatever the big vessels are) can be refitted to act as highports, at least on a short term basis.

 

[mike wightman]

How about a jump 5 fleet that can carry millions of colonists?
There are two 60kt Azhanti High Lightning class ships in core sector, CT supplement 9 gives us the 30kt Gionetti light cruiser, the Rebellion sourcebook gives us the 75kt Planet class heavy cruiser, and then from Fighting Ship of the Shattered Imperium there are the 700kt BT-14, and the 500kt BT-15. All ships are jump 5.

If the tenders carry 30kt "colonist modules" instead of battle riders - each colony module would be 10kt of equipment, power plant etc, and 20kt of emergency low berths for 80,000 per module - you'd only need a couple of BT-15s or double the number of BT-14s to carry close to a million colonists.

 

[mike wightman]

How about a jump 5 fleet that can carry millions of colonists?
There are two 60kt Azhanti High Lightning class ships in core sector, CT supplement 9 gives us the 30kt Gionetti light cruiser, the Rebellion sourcebook gives us the 75kt Planet class heavy cruiser, and then from Fighting Ship of the Shattered Imperium there are the 700kt BT-14, and the 500kt BT-15. All ships are jump 5.

If the tenders carry 30kt "colonist modules" instead of battle riders - each colony module would be 10kt of equipment, power plant etc, and 20kt of emergency low berths for 80,000 per module - you'd only need a couple of BT-15s or double the number of BT-14s to carry close to a million colonists.

 

[mike wightman]

How about a jump 5 fleet that can carry millions of colonists?
There are two 60kt Azhanti High Lightning class ships in core sector, CT supplement 9 gives us the 30kt Gionetti light cruiser, the Rebellion sourcebook gives us the 75kt Planet class heavy cruiser, and then from Fighting Ship of the Shattered Imperium there are the 700kt BT-14, and the 500kt BT-15. All ships are jump 5.

If the tenders carry 30kt "colonist modules" instead of battle riders - each colony module would be 10kt of equipment, power plant etc, and 20kt of emergency low berths for 80,000 per module - you'd only need a couple of BT-15s or double the number of BT-14s to carry close to a million colonists.

 

[Golan2072]

Originally posted by Jim Fetters:
Not a Long Night recovery as such, as the settlers will be bringing as much TL14-15 stuff as possible, but there will of course be luddites of various levels.

Reminds me of the old Alien Legacy computer game, in which an STL colony ship arrives into a supposedly settled star system to find it myseteriously abandoned; interesting exploration, intrigue, research and rebuilding ensues.

My Unity of Gaia variant is partially and loosely based on the Eastern European situation in the early 1990's; the big bureaucratic megastate (The Solomani Confederation) is dead, and everybody is at everybody else's throat over the leftovers, from the three self-proclaimed successors of the Confederacy (the biggest controlling about seven subsectors in the Aldebaran [sp?] Sector), through the revolutionary Unity of Gaia (think Prague 1956 with the USSR unable to step on it) to the new national and nationalist states (Vegans first and formost) to the multiple one- or two- world pocket empires trying to grab a bite at each other (Balkan-style).

 

[Golan2072]

Originally posted by Jim Fetters:
Not a Long Night recovery as such, as the settlers will be bringing as much TL14-15 stuff as possible, but there will of course be luddites of various levels.

Reminds me of the old Alien Legacy computer game, in which an STL colony ship arrives into a supposedly settled star system to find it myseteriously abandoned; interesting exploration, intrigue, research and rebuilding ensues.

My Unity of Gaia variant is partially and loosely based on the Eastern European situation in the early 1990's; the big bureaucratic megastate (The Solomani Confederation) is dead, and everybody is at everybody else's throat over the leftovers, from the three self-proclaimed successors of the Confederacy (the biggest controlling about seven subsectors in the Aldebaran [sp?] Sector), through the revolutionary Unity of Gaia (think Prague 1956 with the USSR unable to step on it) to the new national and nationalist states (Vegans first and formost) to the multiple one- or two- world pocket empires trying to grab a bite at each other (Balkan-style).

 

[Golan2072]

Originally posted by Jim Fetters:
Not a Long Night recovery as such, as the settlers will be bringing as much TL14-15 stuff as possible, but there will of course be luddites of various levels.

Reminds me of the old Alien Legacy computer game, in which an STL colony ship arrives into a supposedly settled star system to find it myseteriously abandoned; interesting exploration, intrigue, research and rebuilding ensues.

My Unity of Gaia variant is partially and loosely based on the Eastern European situation in the early 1990's; the big bureaucratic megastate (The Solomani Confederation) is dead, and everybody is at everybody else's throat over the leftovers, from the three self-proclaimed successors of the Confederacy (the biggest controlling about seven subsectors in the Aldebaran [sp?] Sector), through the revolutionary Unity of Gaia (think Prague 1956 with the USSR unable to step on it) to the new national and nationalist states (Vegans first and formost) to the multiple one- or two- world pocket empires trying to grab a bite at each other (Balkan-style).

 

[Gnusam Netor]

Originally posted by Jim Fetters:
Interesting take. That would lend a nice "Battlestar Galactica" feel to things, especially if the exodus was detailed.

My only reservation with using people in Lucan's faction is that there was an unfortunate tendency of disgruntled admirals (or anyone who disagreed with Lucan, for that matter) of ending up dead. I just don't see them able to amass a group in the millions for this without being noticed.

Battlestar Galactica ehh? the “Varianites”, the "Lucanites" or the last of whatever-faction-ites works. What is important (well somewhat important atleast) is that they are the last and everyone are fleeing. Another importnt part is that they are not strong enough to stay and fight but they have massive resources stored, resources like what the protagonist had in the movie “der untergang”. Puny compared to what they used to have but massive nonetheless. The main character in “der untergang” was why I was going for the Lucanites by the way. A raving madman’s last decision and the PC’s are left to carry it through.

IMO, the exodus is the interesting part, what faction it is is only chrome. The PC’s could command one of the forward scouts perhaps.

Maybe the faction settles somewhere out of reach of their old enemies for a couple of years/decades only to find out that the bogey men now know enough about the exodus and are massing forces to be able to catch them so a new exodus is required. Or, maybe they settled out of reach of their old enemies and suddenly they realise that they are only 20 parsec away from a very disgruntled new enemy - the 2000 worlds perhaps? Nonetheless, time to move again…

 

[Gnusam Netor]

Originally posted by Jim Fetters:
Interesting take. That would lend a nice "Battlestar Galactica" feel to things, especially if the exodus was detailed.

My only reservation with using people in Lucan's faction is that there was an unfortunate tendency of disgruntled admirals (or anyone who disagreed with Lucan, for that matter) of ending up dead. I just don't see them able to amass a group in the millions for this without being noticed.

Battlestar Galactica ehh? the “Varianites”, the "Lucanites" or the last of whatever-faction-ites works. What is important (well somewhat important atleast) is that they are the last and everyone are fleeing. Another importnt part is that they are not strong enough to stay and fight but they have massive resources stored, resources like what the protagonist had in the movie “der untergang”. Puny compared to what they used to have but massive nonetheless. The main character in “der untergang” was why I was going for the Lucanites by the way. A raving madman’s last decision and the PC’s are left to carry it through.

IMO, the exodus is the interesting part, what faction it is is only chrome. The PC’s could command one of the forward scouts perhaps.

Maybe the faction settles somewhere out of reach of their old enemies for a couple of years/decades only to find out that the bogey men now know enough about the exodus and are massing forces to be able to catch them so a new exodus is required. Or, maybe they settled out of reach of their old enemies and suddenly they realise that they are only 20 parsec away from a very disgruntled new enemy - the 2000 worlds perhaps? Nonetheless, time to move again…

 

[Gnusam Netor]

Originally posted by Jim Fetters:
Interesting take. That would lend a nice "Battlestar Galactica" feel to things, especially if the exodus was detailed.

My only reservation with using people in Lucan's faction is that there was an unfortunate tendency of disgruntled admirals (or anyone who disagreed with Lucan, for that matter) of ending up dead. I just don't see them able to amass a group in the millions for this without being noticed.

Battlestar Galactica ehh? the “Varianites”, the "Lucanites" or the last of whatever-faction-ites works. What is important (well somewhat important atleast) is that they are the last and everyone are fleeing. Another importnt part is that they are not strong enough to stay and fight but they have massive resources stored, resources like what the protagonist had in the movie “der untergang”. Puny compared to what they used to have but massive nonetheless. The main character in “der untergang” was why I was going for the Lucanites by the way. A raving madman’s last decision and the PC’s are left to carry it through.

IMO, the exodus is the interesting part, what faction it is is only chrome. The PC’s could command one of the forward scouts perhaps.

Maybe the faction settles somewhere out of reach of their old enemies for a couple of years/decades only to find out that the bogey men now know enough about the exodus and are massing forces to be able to catch them so a new exodus is required. Or, maybe they settled out of reach of their old enemies and suddenly they realise that they are only 20 parsec away from a very disgruntled new enemy - the 2000 worlds perhaps? Nonetheless, time to move again…

 

[jfetters]

Originally posted by Sigg Oddra:
How about a jump 5 fleet that can carry millions of colonists?
There are two 60kt Azhanti High Lightning class ships in core sector, CT supplement 9 gives us the 30kt Gionetti light cruiser, the Rebellion sourcebook gives us the 75kt Planet class heavy cruiser, and then from Fighting Ship of the Shattered Imperium there are the 700kt BT-14, and the 500kt BT-15. All ships are jump 5.

Hey, not bad! And finally a good use for FSOTSI!

If the tenders carry 30kt "colonist modules" instead of battle riders - each colony module would be 10kt of equipment, power plant etc, and 20kt of emergency low berths for 80,000 per module - you'd only need a couple of BT-15s or double the number of BT-14s to carry close to a million colonists.

I may make it more than that, ultimately, to get the numbers I'm looking for. But in a lot of ways, that also rules out the Lucanites, as a lot of big ships missing would raise a lot of eyebrows, and they wouldn't be able to prep for this that quickly.

I think ultimately the idea of the major transit portal combined with these ships is a great idea. Either use a jump projector or a large teleportation disc left over from Grandfather that works intermittently. Whatever it is, being destroyed by Lucan's forces on their tail as they go through.

This also has the benefit of stranding some folks from Lucan's Imperium out in the wilderness, creating some kind of recurring antagonists.

 

[jfetters]

Originally posted by Sigg Oddra:
How about a jump 5 fleet that can carry millions of colonists?
There are two 60kt Azhanti High Lightning class ships in core sector, CT supplement 9 gives us the 30kt Gionetti light cruiser, the Rebellion sourcebook gives us the 75kt Planet class heavy cruiser, and then from Fighting Ship of the Shattered Imperium there are the 700kt BT-14, and the 500kt BT-15. All ships are jump 5.

Hey, not bad! And finally a good use for FSOTSI!

If the tenders carry 30kt "colonist modules" instead of battle riders - each colony module would be 10kt of equipment, power plant etc, and 20kt of emergency low berths for 80,000 per module - you'd only need a couple of BT-15s or double the number of BT-14s to carry close to a million colonists.

I may make it more than that, ultimately, to get the numbers I'm looking for. But in a lot of ways, that also rules out the Lucanites, as a lot of big ships missing would raise a lot of eyebrows, and they wouldn't be able to prep for this that quickly.

I think ultimately the idea of the major transit portal combined with these ships is a great idea. Either use a jump projector or a large teleportation disc left over from Grandfather that works intermittently. Whatever it is, being destroyed by Lucan's forces on their tail as they go through.

This also has the benefit of stranding some folks from Lucan's Imperium out in the wilderness, creating some kind of recurring antagonists.

 

[jfetters]

Originally posted by Sigg Oddra:
How about a jump 5 fleet that can carry millions of colonists?
There are two 60kt Azhanti High Lightning class ships in core sector, CT supplement 9 gives us the 30kt Gionetti light cruiser, the Rebellion sourcebook gives us the 75kt Planet class heavy cruiser, and then from Fighting Ship of the Shattered Imperium there are the 700kt BT-14, and the 500kt BT-15. All ships are jump 5.

Hey, not bad! And finally a good use for FSOTSI!

If the tenders carry 30kt "colonist modules" instead of battle riders - each colony module would be 10kt of equipment, power plant etc, and 20kt of emergency low berths for 80,000 per module - you'd only need a couple of BT-15s or double the number of BT-14s to carry close to a million colonists.

I may make it more than that, ultimately, to get the numbers I'm looking for. But in a lot of ways, that also rules out the Lucanites, as a lot of big ships missing would raise a lot of eyebrows, and they wouldn't be able to prep for this that quickly.

I think ultimately the idea of the major transit portal combined with these ships is a great idea. Either use a jump projector or a large teleportation disc left over from Grandfather that works intermittently. Whatever it is, being destroyed by Lucan's forces on their tail as they go through.

This also has the benefit of stranding some folks from Lucan's Imperium out in the wilderness, creating some kind of recurring antagonists.

 

[jfetters]

Originally posted by Employee 2-4601:
Reminds me of the old Alien Legacy computer game, in which an STL colony ship arrives into a supposedly settled star system to find it myseteriously abandoned; interesting exploration, intrigue, research and rebuilding ensues.

Yeah, I was thinking along the lines of a few of the worlds that they scout out after having been settled for a while having some kinds of alien ruins. No ancients, though. Or Primordials.

My Unity of Gaia variant is partially and loosely based on the Eastern European situation in the early 1990's; the big bureaucratic megastate (The Solomani Confederation) is dead, and everybody is at everybody else's throat over the leftovers, from the three self-proclaimed successors of the Confederacy (the biggest controlling about seven subsectors in the Aldebaran [sp?] Sector), through the revolutionary Unity of Gaia (think Prague 1956 with the USSR unable to step on it) to the new national and nationalist states (Vegans first and formost) to the multiple one- or two- world pocket empires trying to grab a bite at each other (Balkan-style).

Cool - is it post Virus, then? Or at least post-Rebellion?

 

[jfetters]

Originally posted by Employee 2-4601:
Reminds me of the old Alien Legacy computer game, in which an STL colony ship arrives into a supposedly settled star system to find it myseteriously abandoned; interesting exploration, intrigue, research and rebuilding ensues.

Yeah, I was thinking along the lines of a few of the worlds that they scout out after having been settled for a while having some kinds of alien ruins. No ancients, though. Or Primordials.

My Unity of Gaia variant is partially and loosely based on the Eastern European situation in the early 1990's; the big bureaucratic megastate (The Solomani Confederation) is dead, and everybody is at everybody else's throat over the leftovers, from the three self-proclaimed successors of the Confederacy (the biggest controlling about seven subsectors in the Aldebaran [sp?] Sector), through the revolutionary Unity of Gaia (think Prague 1956 with the USSR unable to step on it) to the new national and nationalist states (Vegans first and formost) to the multiple one- or two- world pocket empires trying to grab a bite at each other (Balkan-style).

Cool - is it post Virus, then? Or at least post-Rebellion?

 

[jfetters]

Originally posted by Employee 2-4601:
Reminds me of the old Alien Legacy computer game, in which an STL colony ship arrives into a supposedly settled star system to find it myseteriously abandoned; interesting exploration, intrigue, research and rebuilding ensues.

Yeah, I was thinking along the lines of a few of the worlds that they scout out after having been settled for a while having some kinds of alien ruins. No ancients, though. Or Primordials.

My Unity of Gaia variant is partially and loosely based on the Eastern European situation in the early 1990's; the big bureaucratic megastate (The Solomani Confederation) is dead, and everybody is at everybody else's throat over the leftovers, from the three self-proclaimed successors of the Confederacy (the biggest controlling about seven subsectors in the Aldebaran [sp?] Sector), through the revolutionary Unity of Gaia (think Prague 1956 with the USSR unable to step on it) to the new national and nationalist states (Vegans first and formost) to the multiple one- or two- world pocket empires trying to grab a bite at each other (Balkan-style).

Cool - is it post Virus, then? Or at least post-Rebellion?

 

[jfetters]

Originally posted by Gnusam Netor:
Battlestar Galactica ehh?

Yeah, the new one.

The main character in “der untergang” was why I was going for the Lucanites by the way. A raving madman’s last decision and the PC’s are left to carry it through.

Interesting. Haven't seen the movie, though I have heard nothing but good things about it. It also turns Lucan into an anti-hero to a large degree, which I vehemently disagree with.

IMO, the exodus is the interesting part, what faction it is is only chrome. The PC’s could command one of the forward scouts perhaps.

Yeah, if the point is to play the exodus. My goal here is to create a backstory for a (somewhat) stable pocket empire setting, so I am not planning to focus on that. That isn't to say that there will not be stories/adventures that spring from that exodus backstory, though.

Or, maybe they settled out of reach of their old enemies and suddenly they realise that they are only 20 parsec away from a very disgruntled new enemy - the 2000 worlds perhaps? Nonetheless, time to move again…

Some old villans may pop up, perhaps, but this will be so far out of the OTU that the only original aliens I plan on using are Vargr and Aslan.