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Lor Standard Date 1853.1 WISE 0535−7500 The Lor don't know the moon's name - not yet. They know that the stellar body that Terrans call WISE 0535, too large for a planet and too small for a brown dwarf, was part of a star system in Delaztri days - a star system that went missing in the interregnum in the records between the fall of the Delaztri and the arrival of the first Lor starships. They know this moon, the size of a Lor-Van-sized planet, was inhabited in those days with cities, a spaceport, and a population in perhaps the millions. They're not sure yet; the layers of ice, first oxygen and atmospheric gases, then water ice, are thick enough that the Archaeological Service has been digging for months even to come this far, to the high upper stories of what had once been an arcology. They've found some interesting things. - Pugio awoke to pain, and voices, and darkness, the sounds of vibration elsewhere. He faded in and out of consciousness. "Translator online, deciphering audio records." And darkness, and confinement, and _cold_. "Spaceship hangars are gold - not only does it give you access to their tech, it gives you their starmaps - and that gives you access to _more_ of their tech." He wasn't in his own craft, he was in something else, something dark and cold and confining, and then suddenly the rear of it was coming open. In the instant before light came streaming in and two envirosuited humanoids looked down at him, Pugio realized he was in the back of a medical evacuation shuttle - but what in all the hells had happened to it?
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Kesteven 79 system Coalition Victory Station Imperial Year 0, Day 0 One way or another, Sharl Tulink had all of 36 hours in Coalition space before he had to be transmitted back home to the body waiting for him back in Emerald City. He had friends, family, a city to protect - and an employer who had high expectations about his report on post-Incursion Lor technology and its adaptability for Terrestrial purposes. He had just one last thing to do - to act as bodyguard for the woman who he hoped would be the next Imperator of the Lor Republic. He knew the Imperator's duties well enough from his early education in Tronik, for all that the Republic he'd learned about had been just a few centuries removed from its imperial days: the Imperator on the one hand had little power "reigning, but not ruling" - but on the other hand as the voice of the people against the state, as the symbol of all the Lor revered about themselves, and as the person who actually selected the ministers of government from the ranks of the Senate and the people - well, it all came down to how you used your power. In the first election since the Incursion, filling a spot left vacant after the old Imperator and its family had gone with the rest of Lor-Van, the question of how the Imperator's power would be used wasn't as easy to answer as it once had been. Sharl wanted Grand Nauarchus Bucklin Frankan to be the one who found the new answers to that question; and not just because he hoped that her election would be a stepping-stone to Terran unification and joining the Republic. The Lor needed to be strong again after the horrific things they'd lost, and from all he'd seen, she was the best candidate for the job. He took the lead as Frankan's party walked into their station quarters, scanning the suite with his internal sensors as a supplement to the scanning already done by the station's security staff. "It's clean," he said after a moment. "No listening devices or bombs - and I think the station commander left a box of sweets in the refresher." "She must be angling for a promotion," commented Frankan with a wry smile as she entered the room just behind Citizen. "Thank you, Citizen Tulink. As always, your work here has been invaluable." As the two spoke, Frankan's staff, almost all of them uniformed officers either in the Star Navy or in one of its planetary militias, were filling the rooms, setting up gear and calls, getting ready for the media presence they were about to encounter. It was tradition in the Republic that on Election Night, the candidates for Imperator shared the same space at the same time as a way of promoting amity (and as a way of preventing assassination attempts). This year, this election, this day - it was Coalition Victory Station that would see the two candidates together. A quick glance out the window (with the help of tapping into the station's external sensors) showed Sharl a three-dimensional sphere buzzing with spaceships, a volume he hadn't seen since the end of the Incursion - military vessels armed to the teeth to prevent another attack, civilian ships, Grue Individuality vessels with their usual hodgepodge of designs, and countless others. Between the press, the spectators, and the parties of the two candidates, the interior of the station was packed to the gills even beyond its usual large population. It was going to be a busy day and a half.
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"I suppose if I had lost the war, I would have been tried as a war criminal." -Curtis LeMay Altinak C The Grand Shipyards are among the most impressive works of Lor civilization - a Dyson shell of solar panels and high-end lasers, surrounding the blue-white star and providing the fantastic energies that drive some of the largest energy-matter converters in Lor space, using material from the star's corona and what remains of its systems to build starships. The converters, massive skeletal spheres that dot the space around the star, each as large as a planet's moon, can't run independently; the Shipyards still need to import certain exotic minerals to build certain instruments of high technology like artificial gravity units and jump drives. But for the most part, the vast shape of the Shipyards, enclosing an entire star in a spidersweb of humanoid-built technology, can build a fleet all on its own. As Corona's vessel came out of warp in the Altinak system, it was clear a fleet was indeed being built here. Row after row of brand-new starships were in orbit of the system's few small rocky planets, a fleet-in-being as large as anything she'd seen during the war, not to mention the new ships still under construction near the converter complex closer to the vast blue bulk of the star. An entire prewar sector fleet looked to be waiting here - with more under construction visible near the glowing, fusion-hot matter converters. But Corona wasn't there for the view - she was there to meet the commander of the Star Navy; and perhaps the most powerful individual in the Lor Republic. "Greetings, Corona," came the military-sounding voice on the comm channel. Grand Nauarchus Frankan is waiting for you in Central Command."
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At the age of 101, Bucklin Frankan is the Grand Nauarchus of the Lor Star Navy - in other words, the highest-ranking military officer of the Lor Republic. A slight, trim woman who is about as fit as an athletic Terran woman of sixty, she speaks with the faint accent common to those who've served for years on the Galactic Rim - making her sound (to Terran ears) a bit like late-period Katharine Hepburn. A career officer, she has spent the last eighty years in service to the Lor Republic. - Partial service record (narrative): Frankan's military background is in engineering - specifically the hyperspace drives common to large military vessels. She earned the first of many commendations when, during her first tour of duty aboard the Scientific Progress, the vessel was boarded in a surprise attack by Rhotic pirates. Assuming command of the engineering deck after her commanding officer was taken hostage by the pirates, the 20 year old officer donned a hazardous materials suit before deliberately venting superheated drive waste directly into the engineering compartments, killing the pirates who had boarded without the protective gear standard for Lor engineers working the lower decks. - At the age of thirty, then-Centurion Frankan married Rex Talonis, a civilian communications specialist on special assignment to the Star Navy during the Spinward conflict with the Grue. Talonis took a position on Lor-Van shortly after their marriage to raise their children, allowing Frankan to assume her position as first officer aboard the Republic's Reprisal. - A veteran of conflicts with the Grue, Khanate, and various other enemies of the Republic, Frankan earned multiple citations for valor throughout her career, including one memorable incident (that won her the position of Nauarchus) when (as commanding officer of the Reprisal) she redirected the Lorside end of an experimental Grue stargate into the heart of a variable star, the subsequent plasma backwash incinerating the Grue fleet that had been preparing a secret invasion of the Galactic Rim. - Nauarchus Frankan commanded the Star Navy Academy on Lor-Van for a period of thirty standard years, making her the commandant for the current generation of mid-ranking Lor officers. Her bravery, intelligence, and reputation for integrity made her immensely popular with her students - as did her willingness to show that she carried the same burdens they did. "Grandmother Frankan" is a voice that most high-ranking officers will listen to even beyond the bounds of rank. During a cadet cruise ten years ago, she joined a squadron of Star Knights in the arrest of the rogue knight Blackstar. Five years ago, she was transferred to the site that is still where she keeps her flag - the Grand Shipyards at Altinak C. The highest-ranking survivor of the Communion Incursion, she was promoted to the rank of Grand Nauarchus two standard days after the destruction of Lor-Van. Leaving the war against the Communion to the specialists on the field, she assumed leadership of the 'homefront' of the Star Navy during the war. She has declined proposals by the Senate to move command of the military to the new Lor capital world, arguing that she prefers "the simplicity of a soldier's life" at the Shipyards - something that has only increased her popularity among the officer corps of the Star Navy. - WHAT IS LITTLE-DISCUSSED: Beloved as she was by her subordinates (all career soldiers like herself), Frankan was not popular with her peers or her superiors. She was too inflexible, too convinced of her own brilliance (which was true) and her own righteousness (which was often, but not always true). Inside the Star Navy, she had been a strong voice for a 'pre-emptive military strategy' that called for aggressive action (and possibly conquest and what is euphemistically called 'culture-forming') to be taken against the Stellar Khanate, the Grue Unity, and other enemies of the Republic. She strongly favored integrating outlying worlds like Terra into the Republic - the better to strengthen "the forces of civilization" in the Galaxy. She vigorous condemned the Star Knights (in private communications) as "unreliable allies serving an unknowable 'Mentor') - and called for a Lor branch of the Star Knight Corps to be developed. (These facts are not widely known because the officers who knew them are now dead - and the Grand Nauarchus has classified much of her personal correspondence in recent months.) Her transfer to the Grand Shipyards five years ago came after complaints were filed with the civilian government of the Republic that she was grooming Star Navy students on the basis of their politics and personal loyalty. Considered something of a self-righteous political zealot by many beings of high rank in the Republic, the forty years she spent as Nauarchus, the lowest flag rank in the Star Navy, were widely taken as a sign that her career had stalled out - until the destruction of Lor-Van made her the most senior officer in the Star Navy. She has taken advantage of the weakened Senate oversight caused by the ongoing Republic recovery to carry out certain personal projects - the better to make sure that the Republic can never again be threatened by its enemies. Or by the weakness of its friends. Her husband, children, and grandchildren were all serving in the Star Navy or living on Lor-Van in the early stages of the Incursion. None survived the destruction of Lor-Van.
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Early December 2015 Wolf 359 Aquaria didn't know much about space - but she could tell the space-house (or space station, as Ruby called it) orbiting the tiny young star was old and busted. The metal plates that made up the walls and the ceiling were obviously corroded, turning green like copper instead of orange like steel around their dark grey edges and the air had the smell of something alien and old burnt away in the ducts, long ago. The humanoids in the station were exotic and strange, even stranger and more exotic than the Surfacers of Freedom City, their hair, clothes, and skin all strange colors and textures - but at least they ate good food, including a delicious flying insect as big as her fist that both she and Bliss had developed a taste for. She spent most of her time in the station's small garden, taking advantage of the high humidity (and even small pond!) to bask in the comforting wetness without her suit. She earned her keep by tending the plants, a skill she'd learned at the home of Jessie's sister and her mate, and did her best to get Jessie to come by and help her. It was less stressful than being on the ship. There had been some sort of dispute over repairs to the Voidrunner (she hadn't really followed the conversation) - and it was a high-stress time on-board for everyone. We just have to make it home, Aquaria assured herself as she ducked down to the bottom of the pond (which was just deep enough for her to completely immerse herself in), the ever-present hum of machinery reminding her that this was no ordinary body of water. And they will have all the gold the ship can carry! Reaching down, she cut a few fronds of pondweed with a knife - the stuff was vile to her, but some of the local people on the station loved it in their stews. In just a day, or less, she'd been assured, the repairs would be done and they'd all go home - but now, everybody pulled their weight, Luckily, she and Jessie were both very strong indeed. - It had been a tough few weeks for the Horizon crew and their Star Knight companion. They'd tracked the fugitives to a remote swampy world, and even found the ion trail of the vessel that had picked them up there, but they'd found no clues about the identity of the vessel they were chasing. Whoever they were, they were fast and good, sticking to high-traffic lanes to blend in (but not the ones still regularly patrolled by the Lor), running their engines so fast they must be risking needing to scrub out their coils, and not staying in any one place long enough to be positively identified by eyewitnesses. If not for the unique energy emitted by Aquaria Innsmouth's suit, which noticeably warped extradimensional space while in hyperdrive, and if not for the further n-dimensional changes caused by the fact that the other passenger was from some other dimension entirely, they'd have lost the scent long ago. But now they'd caught the scent. Station K-7 was old and tired, a collection of habitat domes welded together centuries earlier, with a mostly transient population in the hundreds. It was widely known to be a den of smugglers making the potentially profitable run to Terra now that Lor border patrols weren't what they used to be - or even there at all, most of the time. As the ship approached the station, their sensors jangled with news - their two fugitives were _on that very station_.
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Altinak C The Grand Shipyards are among the most impressive works of Lor civilization - a Dyson shell of solar panels and high-end lasers, surrounding the blue-white star and providing the fantastic energies that drive some of the largest energy-matter converters in Lor space, using material from the star's corona and what remains of its systems to build starships. The converters, massive skeletal spheres that dot the space around the star, each as large as a planet's moon, can't run independently; the Shipyards still need to import certain exotic minerals to build certain instruments of high technology like artificial gravity units and jump drives. But for the most part, the vast shape of the Shipyards, enclosing an entire star in a spidersweb of humanoid-built technology, can build a fleet all on its own. As the Horizon came out of warp in the Altinak system, it was clear a fleet was indeed being built here. Row after row of brand-new starships were in orbit of the system's few small rocky planets, a fleet-in-being as large as anything they'd seen during the war, not to mention the new ships still under construction near the converter complex closer to the vast blue bulk of the star. But the Horizon crew wasn't there for the view - they were there to meet an old friend. "Greetings, Horizon," came the military-sounding voice on the comm channel. Cavalier is waiting for you in the Grand Nauarcus's command center." - Cavalier's translator had given the Grand Nauarchus, the highest-ranking officer in the Lor Star Navy, a Mid-Atlantic accent - something that fit her short puff of bone-white hair and short stature that barely reached five feet. He could immediately see why her nickname was 'Grandmother Frankan.' She watched the holo again, the recording of the murder of a Star Knight, with a steely demeanor that belied her otherwise matronly air. "They put him down like a dog, didn't they? Barbarians," she muttered to herself before looking at Cavalier. "And you're sure these two are from your planet? That one there, with the tongue, doesn't look like any Terran I've ever seen."
