The old Clarification is closed, and I thought people would still need to clear things up. Here we go:

Ob-Ka

A relatively new Obish colony, now captured by pirates. There is a small guerilla war on the surface, but for now the planet is mostly abandoned by the Obiards.

Starbeam

An Obish Escort-class vessel. It is commanded by Commander Thrk, and it's first officer is g'Var "8 Lightnings" Krai'un.

Ob-Viert Station

An Obish outpost near the Human border, about six light-years from Ob-Ka. The Starbeam and the three battleships from the Ob-Ka defense force are currently docked here, with the crew off-duty until further notice.

Obish Kear -class Hyperfighter

A fighter with both super- and hyperlight drives. It is unpopular with combat pilots, as they dislike the open superlight drive vents. However, the politicians love them for the apparent advantage they give the over their political opponents.

------------------
Subcommander g'Var "8 Lightnings" Krai'un
Second in command of the Escort Starbeam.
"CRUISER DESTROYED. 91 remaining" -Ares, chapter 9, Hand Over Fist

ISN Outpost 3976483: An Ishiman outpost built in an asteroid field near the Ishiman Stellar Protectorate/Elejeetian Empire border. It mostly handles pirates.

Irto Squadron: The fighter squadron based at ISN Outpost 3976483. It has 12 Ishiman fighters, as well as a cargo ship, which is mostly used for retrieving things. It is often moved around, and the Ishiman Stellar Navy always has one squadron transport on standby at all times in case they need to move again.

Mag Steelglass Industries Mark IV Repair Droid: A cheap repair droid, about 3' high. Has data to fix almost anything using almost anything. These have very few other applicable uses besides repair, unlike most repair droids.

Hades Group: A group of three pirate cruisers that had a short skirmish with Irto Squadron, then later agreed to work with them for a while in order to not be apprehended.

Squadron Transport: A special type of Ishiman transport. These are approximately carrier-sized, and have bays for holding a fighter squadron along with lots of cargo and one cruiser-sized vessel. The bays for the ships are near the outer hull, so that any ship docked with it may leavy immediately if it needs too. These also have a concussion missile turret for self-defense.

Ishiman Fighter Squadron: The Ishiman Stellar Navy's fighter squadrons consist of twelve fighters, a repair droid, and a cruiser-sized vessel for utility purposes (usually some sort of transport or cargo ship). The pilots of the fighters tend to have extra jobs within the squadron, to cut down on staff.

------------------
"Oi, oi, oi, me got a hurt n here
Oi, oi, oi, me smell a ting is near
Me gonna bosh and me gonna nosh
An da hurt'll dissapear"

915 series ships. In the Ishiman Navy, the prefix 915 is a designation that the ship is one of the absolute elite of the navy, the crews of 915 series ships are the absolute cream of the best of the protectorate races. Each crewmwmber is from a race that affords him or her an advantage in that job, there are actually only three carriers, three HVDs, and a number of HVCs in the 915 series. They are a recent experiment in the ISN, but have been very successful, and the Ishimans are actually considering mixing their entire navy, because the 915 series has been so successful.

P.S. Would it be too much to give the Ishimans a second gateship? I think it might be, but remember how big the Protectorate is(geographically) and given the production capacity of the Ishimans, and the length of time they've been around, I think it would be plauseable, but would it be too much?

------------------
Faris eck Vaenar Maletena-Wizr, Trey'ish of the Ishiman reestablishment comittee.
"I don't think I'm alone when I say that I'd like to see more and more planets fall under the ruthless domination of our solar system."

(This message has been edited by Trey'sh Maletena Wizr (edited 01-02-2001).)

Pharris: I was always under the impression that they had several already. After all, isn't it a bit coincidental to have the Ares end up in a system with on of them in it?

------------------
Subcommander g'Var "8 Lightnings" Krai'un
Second in command of the Escort Starbeam.
"CRUISER DESTROYED. 91 remaining" -Ares, chapter 9, Hand Over Fist

Well seeing as it was the Gateship that was the source of the transmission....

Please don't go giving the Ishimans fleets of gateships untill I have cleared it first with Nathan Lamont. An Email has been sent.

------------------
Never put all your ranking officers in a shuttle.

I wasn't thinking fleets, I was thinking two, maybe three, but the third would be a really old one.

The gateship was the source of the transmission, but I doubt anyone could afford to have their only gateship sit around for a hundred and fifty years waiting. (Ships are expensive, they cost money just sitting in the dock, so you want them to be doing something useful almost all the time.

-Captain Pharris

------------------

Of course, the gateship probably has a really huge long-range sensor array that works at FTL, the main purpose of which is to make the jumpstream not come out inside an asteroid or planet or star or right next to a flack drone or something. It could see the dumb, slow Apollo a few dozen light years away by the plasma of its main engine alone. It would know when and where they were arriving in plenty of time to arrange to be there, even if their schedule was as bad as that of Dilbert™'s boss.

------------------
William Darkk, head of the Darkklight Entrepenurial Federation
Your cargo or your life!!!

The Ishiman Legislature is a very interesting arrangement. It exists in orbit around the Star Ishima. It is larger than many cities. It has offices and facilities for the 100,000 odd delegates and aides. The actual assembly hall is a tremendous sphere. The artificial gravity inside is arranged so that every booth faces a single point on the "bottom" of the sphere. That is where the presenter stands.

Each of the major comitees has a Trey'sh, the comitees are: Defence Comittee, Reestablishment Comitee, Resources Comitee, Production Comitee , Civil Comitee, Information Comitee, Development Comitee, Trade Comitee, Expansion Comitee, Relations Comitee.

There are also delegations from all the Protectorate governments, and from each of the Ishiman planets. The Protectorate Representatives also meet separately in their own comitee. These are the Trey'al

The Legislature is continually in session. There is always a representative from each comitee present, and he must be ready to speak and vote for the Comittee. This means that small motions that require attention quickly can be passed at any time, in under six hours, but usually larger issues take longer, up to two days.

Trey'sh Maletena Wizr has been in this legislature for 873 years. He was initailly a Trey'al for his home planet, then he was brought into the Reestablishment comitee, and was a representative there. He was sent to many newly reestablished races, and made a name for himself as a defender of the rights of the protectorates over the Stellar Protectorate itself. He was appointed to the position of Trey'sh, and has constantly shifted himself between field posts and his duty as a Trey. Recently, his Trey'eck,(second man for the Trey'sh) Myrk, an Ishiman, has become his protegee, and has come to represent him more and more in the Legislature. Myrk doesn't carry the force and clout that Wizr does, but he is still very highly respected, and is very good at useing all of his mentor's tricks and methods to get the way for the Comitee of Reestablishment.

------------------
Faris eck Vaenar Maletena-Wizr, Trey'ish of the Ishiman reestablishment comittee.
"I don't think I'm alone when I say that I'd like to see more and more planets fall under the ruthless domination of our solar system."

p.s. The Salrillians would attack when they believe the odds are heavily in their favour, that's what the Oracular net does, it calculates the billions of possible outcomes, and figures out which ones is most likely. The Sals then can constrain variables that the net shows will effect the results favorably. Unfortunately, they don't have that much data on Sol, so they can't really predict things very accurately.

Now if the Sals really want Sol badly, they're going to accept a lower chance of sucess simply because the UNS is already a protectorate, and they don't want it firmly established.

------------------
NEW NAME FOR THE DREADNOUGHT
The Hard-Boiled Egg
Why?
Because she cant be beaten!

Obish Fleet Structure:

The Obish Armada is made up of six main fleets, plus several small fleets designed for special purposes, and defence fleets.

The Starbeam , as a defence vehicle, is not a part of a main fleet, but as it was built at a Third Fleet shipyard, would be requisitioned to the 3rd if it should be moved. This is likely to happen now that they have no planet to defend.

The Fleets are all quite large, but not necessarily mobile, as ships are often requisitioned as additional defence vehicles. Fleets are usually divided up into teams, made up of class groupings usually three to four ships of different classes, i.e. Battleship, Gunship, Escort, Fighter as a team, with the fighter often dropped.

There are also 'Heavy Teams'. This is an approximate translation; g'Tri'Ai'un in Obish. These are led by the rare Obish Carriers; generally there are two to a fleet, for a total of fourteen. The additional two are given to the Tactical Response Team, otherwise known as Fleet 12, and to the Elite 1st Fleet, known as Vi'ta in Obish.

There are exceptions to all the team systems in the 1st fleet, where teams are constructed not just by class, but by capability and rapport.

------------------
Subcommander g'Var "8 Lightnings" Krai'un
Second in command of the Escort Starbeam.
"CRUISER DESTROYED. 91 remaining" -Ares, chapter 9, Hand Over Fist

Ishiman Buildup, second gateship, and salrillian settlement.

Ishiman Buildup: Hey, remember the huge production capacity that the Ishimans have? well, now its going towards building a fleet. in two months, once things really get going, they will have three or four thousand carriers, five or six thousand HVDs, fourty or fifty thousand cruisers, Ten or twenty thousand Heavy Cruisers, thirty thousand or so Gunships, and a copious number of squadron transports and escort carriers.

also, a large number of the new HVCs will be equipped much like the one you fly in level 20, as the Ishimans have been getting a little friendly advice from the Elejeetians. They are also laying out some of their Heavy Destroyers with more powerful Elejeetian weaponry(not necessarily onas pulse, but better than current weapons)

The second Ishiman gateship is about a hundred years old. The Ishimans, who rapidly engineer new and more powerful technologies, usually retire gateships every fifty years or so, but most of the time they are kept in meticulous condition, so they are still flyable, even at retirement age. This one was saved from scrapping to aid the defence and recapture of Earth.

The Ishimans have contested the Salrillians claim to Sol and the other Protectorate systems, but the Salrillians have recalled their Ambassador. The Ishimans have declared that they have 60 days to withdraw, or else.

P.S. The Ishimans probably upgrade gateships more rapidly than any other race, because the Elejeetians reached technological peaks ages ago, and the Cantharaans hardly have the resources to go beyond one at a time (they take about five years to build and another two to test and certify anyway)

- - - - -

(this is Slug talking)

Sorry folks but this is getting rediculous. You're acting as if each race has hundreds of worlds each, but they don't. There is no way the Ishimans would build a fleet to retake Earth and they certainly wouldn't go to war with the Salrilians, who always have a good cause to do everything.

The Elejeetians would not be the slightest bit interested in a war and certainly don't have that kind of navy. Their defense forces consist of a few dozen cruisers. Big whoop. They don't need a gateship because they are focused on industry and technology, not military. Their merchant fleets roam around, a lot, yes, but they use Jumpgates as indicated in level 13.

Also, the Salrilians would have no reason to be cruel and enslavign like the Cantharans. They are currently doing what the Ishiman Protectorate couldn't: bringing peace.

And a word on gateships: They're big because they have a lot of equipment and mass to create jumpgates. They're NOT big because they have guns, so whoever made the post on the Elejeetian "gateship" is recieving my warning.

For those of you who are confused as to why each faction doesn't have thousands of planets, Ares does NOT take place in a galaxy, but the Orion Arm of the galaxy.

(/rant)

------------------
Faris eck Vaenar Maletena-Wizr, Trey'ish of the Ishiman reestablishment comittee.
"I don't think I'm alone when I say that I'd like to see more and more planets fall under the ruthless domination of our solar system."

(This message has been edited by Slug (edited 01-12-2001).)

But the Ishimans don't necessarily have hundreds of worlds, its just that theirs are more productive, as they have amazing "ishimaforming"(terraforming) technology, so their colonies are all basically ideally suited for the race that lives there.

I guess those numbers on that fleet are pretty extreme, but Wizr doesn't like failing. Half of his devotion to Earth is his ego. He has an image of himself as a great "humanitarian" and he wants to keep his perfect record for "saving" protectorate races or else. He wants Earth partly because of the friends he has there, but more importantly, he doesn't want to be seen failing a protectorate. He wants be the person remembered when Earth becomes a tremendous Galactic power. He has clout in the legislature because he has been serving there longer than anybody ever has before, and he is useing it. He knows what is best for the protectorate, and he is going to drag the ishimans kicking and screaming into a war with Salril to prove it.

His pride and egotistical warmongering is not entirely baseless, he is very experienced in galactic politics, and he's seen a lot. He has been frustrated serving these ambitionless rodents. For eight hundred years, he's sat there watching them shy away from hundreds of opportunities to secure peace in the galaxy and stop their enemies, and finally, they've cut Cantharis's legs off, and they have a very good excuse to go and vent some frustration on the Prophets of Salril.

Remember, this guy is not necessarily doing this because it is noble, he is doing it because he sees that Earth is going to get big fast, just like the Sals, and he wants to a)be remembered as the guy who nursed them to health or, failing that, b)make sure they are allied with the Ishimans.

P.S. How do the Auds have 500,000 ships? I was under the impression that they were an elite force, does that mean that the Salrillian Navy is many times bigger than the Aud navy?

------------------
NEW NAME FOR THE DREADNOUGHT
The Hard-Boiled Egg
Why?
Because she cant be beaten!

(Personally, I think Slug made that fleet size solely to insure victory for the Auds. I'm pretty sure he argues elsewhere that the Auds don't have nearly that kind of numbers.)

Auditronic visualiser: This is based on Salrilian data taken from the Simlabs by Darkk. It uses series of tones to put images into your imagination, enabling you to see things you couldn't normally, like what's on the other side of that hull plate, which your sensors can see but can't convey to you in an understandable format. They don't affect your piloting skill up or down to any major degree, but they do let you know things you notice things you wouldn't normally. It's only really usefull in situations like the one Darkk was in, hunting the Achiles heel.

------------------
William Darkk, head of the Darkklight Entrepenurial Federation
"Strategic warfare" is code for "killing civilians", and it's my calling. Yeah, it's barbaric. War's supposed to be.

I wan't actually meaning to imply that the Obish fleets were extremely large; but they would have quite a few ships; they'd like to be prepared for Gaitori invasion, I see them as a fairly militaristic race...

Ship classes:

Carrier (Great big ship, one per fleet)
Battleship (You've seen these...)
Destroyer (Not quite the same as HVDs of other races; I'll explain later)
Gunship (A bit faster than other races; but less weaponry)
Heavy Cruiser (Only about 4 of these; all prototypes)
Escort (You've seen these too...)
Hyperfighter (Like a fighter but with hyperdrive. Pilots hate them...)
Interceptor (Actually better armed than the Hyperfighter, and slightly faster at sublight)
((I'm using Lynx, and it won't let me go down any further. I'll edit later...)

------------------
Subcommander g'Var "8 Lightnings" Krai'un
Second in command of the Escort Starbeam.
"CRUISER DESTROYED. 91 remaining" -Ares, chapter 9, Hand Over Fist

Subspace Beacons/transmitters:

Subspace transmissions are the most powerful and advanced method of ftl messageing. They work by generating holes into subspace, and pinging messages in subspace. They have a range upwards of 10^100 light years, but it fluxuates, because a point in subspace doesn't necessarily coincide with a point in realspace, so its a lot like short wave radios that bonce around the Earth's Ionosphere, the average range is quite long, but at times, weird subspace phenomenon bring back messages from across the universe. On the plus side, the ephemeral nature of subspace makes tracking transmitter locations very difficult, and it makes intercepting useful parts of messages even more difficult.

The Ishimans basically invented the use of subspace for communications, so they have very good subspace transmitters, and they are very widely used. Many other races don't know haw to construct them, and either use stolen or donated transmitters, or don't use them at all(there are other methods of FTL transmission, but they are large and expensive, and couldn't fit in a PDA) The Ishiman Stellar Protectorate Likes to keep this technology for their own use, so they don't sell them to civilians, but diplomats travelling outside of the Ishiman internal communications networks carry them so they can keep in contact. The models used in PDAs contain cipherpads that each have several thousand one-time-use ciphers on them. The ciphers are so complicated that it is impossible to break the cipher without intercepting two or more messages from the same cipher. Needless to say, each cipher is used only once, and is erased from the cipherpad as the message is sent.

The cipherpads are changed regularly, as well as whenever there is the slightest suspiscion of a breach in security.

------------------
NEW NAME FOR THE DREADNOUGHT
The Hard-Boiled Egg
Why?
Because she cant be beaten!

(Correct me if i'm wrong, but I don't think that Nathan Lamont ever completed the Eleejeetian ship line-up, so I'm doing it. (some stuff stolen from the Eleejeetian ship topic in the Briefing room))

Eleejeetian carrier: Bad-ass ship. Armed with (rate of fire slower than the cruiser) dual Onas pulse turrets, 10 fighters, and a Newo beam turret.(Same rate of fire as a repulser)

Eleejeetian Gunship: Like Aud gunship, only faster. Both Rapid firing Onas pulse and Newo beam cannons. Same shielding as Aud. Gunship.

Eleejeetian HVC: Weaponry of gunship, plus a cloak. Same shielding as Mod. HVC.

Eleejeetian HVD: Rapid Onas pulse, Rapid Newo turret, and a (even more) rapid fire Fullerene pulse with 500 ammo.

Eleejeetian fighter: Newo beam. Slightly superior shielding to Aud fighter.

Eleejeetian Gateship: This is a MASSIVE ship. It is aprox. 4 Km in length. Most of it's mass is made up by the huge fusion power generators, which allow it to transport entire fleets, and to carry a heck of a lot of guns.
Weaponry: 50 onas pulse turrets (carrier version)
75 Newo beams (also carrier/HVD version)

The Gateship was recently commisioned by Eleejee to help build up their fleet. It is designed as a mobile Command post/Planet during war times, as well as serving as the eleejeetian fleet's preffered transport.

------------------
We don't go to hell,
memories of us do.
And if you go to hell,
I'll still remember you.

(This message has been edited by Talon Karrde (edited 01-19-2001).)

Quote

Originally posted by Talon Karrde:
**Eleejeetian HVC: Weaponry of gunship, plus a cloak. Same shielding as Mod. HVC.

Eleejeetian HVD: Rapid Onas pulse, Rapid Newo turret, and a (even more) rapid fire Fullerene pulse with 500 ammo.

Eleejeetian fighter: Newo beam. Slightly superior shielding to Aud fighter.
**

The modified HVC has less shielding than the Elejeetian cruiser, I believe. I suggest you just stick with the shielding of the Elejeetian cruiser.

I think you should drop the fullerene gun and replace it with some missiles. You shouldn't mix technology around, and all HVDs are supposed to be nearly equal.

I think it should have equal shielding to the aud fighter, as their cruisers have the same shielding.

------------------
"I think I have discovered the problem with humans. It is not entirely stupidity, as I once thought. It is their pigheaded and baseless philosophy: "If it isn't me, then it's opinions, feelings, and life do not matter, and it was meant to serve me." They also have this ability for creating excuses that are pointless, but they get others to believe it. A few examples: "It's only some savages. It's only five acres of rain forest. It's only one semi-truck. It's only fifty gallons of toxic waste..." After this realization, I marvelled at how humans, and the rest of the planet, have survived for so very long."
- Me

Sarah Darkk: William's little sister. She was 17 at the time Ares launched, and couldn't go with her brother. Instead she put herself in suspended animation to await his return. Unfortunatly, the Cantharans finally found her and woke her up 5 years before the liberation. They didn't revive her propperly, and thus her hand was damaged and had to be amputated. Because of this, she wasn't any good as a laborer, and was sold to the Salrilians for mental research.

------------------
Never fly in front when attacking a Jjaro ship. -Me

A rant about the UNS resistance and Submarines:

1: UNS Ships go by the designation USS, not UNS. They're United Sol Ships, Not United Nations Ships.

The safest place for the UNS resistance is underwater. The Audemedons are not used to useing ships, and the Sals have a deep fear of Saltwater. The Humans are the only ones who are really familiar with the Earth's oceans, and so they use them to their advantage.

There is a large fleet of nuclear powered submarines that are "under the command" of Captain Sackler. I put it in quotes because he is merely a coordinator. He synchronises movements and arranges combined operations between otherwise independant Resistance cells. There are some cells that operate outside of his sphere of influence, and he dissaproves of it. He thinks that everyone should be working together for clearly established and agreed upon goals. The organisation is very loose, but there is a very good spirit of cooperation, so things tend to work smoothly.

Sackler's ship is the USS Caveat. Its a Nuclear powered Ballistic missile submarine, it carries torpedoes, as well as 28 vertically launched ICBMs these are variable payload devices, but they are capable of delivering 16 independantly targeted nuclear or conventional warheads.

Alpha: Alpha is one of six underwater research labs. It was built in the early 21st century, before the Cantharaan occupation, and was initially intended to study underwater Hydrothermal vents. Since then it has been converted into Captain Sackler's Headquarters. Lots of other sub captains use it, and it is the most secure safe house on Earth, as only twenty sub captains know of its exact location.

Stuff about subs:
Now you too can ramble about the technical specifics of the RPG like Captain Pharris!
a) Vocab:
Cavitation: when a propeller spins fast, bubbles form along it, and it makes lots of noise. Not of concern unless you are a submarine whos very existance is based on your ability to remain silent. Even the most silent sub propellers cavitate at around 8 knots.

Thermocline: Water of different temperatures doesn't mix. This means that there are layers of different temperature water in the ocean. The line where two layers meet is a thermocline. Thermoclines do a very good job of messing with sound, so that subs can hide under them or in them, and they can float towed sonar arrays above them, while the sub stays hidden, tricks like that.

Boomer: An affectionate term for a Ballistic Missile Submarine. These are designed to hide. That is it. They are ridiculously quiet, made so that their precious payload of Nukes can go off in case the commie pinkos get the drop on our land based Missiles. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the US really had little need for more ICBMs, so they made the missile tubes capable of firing different types of shorter ranged missiles. Also, the latest and greatest addition has been a Seal team launch/recovery pod. A big airlock is attatched to the top of the sub just behind the Conning tower, and the way to get in and out of it is through the first two missile tubes. The tubes act as storage, and as a secondary airlock. The big airlock on the outside acts as a hangar bay for the Navy seals Neat minisubs and Boats and stuff.

Attack Submarine: These are the sharks. Hunter/Killers. In the event of nuclear apocalypse, these guys go find and kill the enemy boomers before they launch the nukes. More recently, they have been equipped with vertically launched Tomahawk-style cruise missiles, so they can shoot at land based stuff too.

The Modern Nuclear Submarine: Modern subs are made to be utterly silent. Every piece of machinery is muffled, everything is designed to be quiet. Subs are coated with rubber, so that they don't resound when hit by pings. They have extremely sensitive sonars, but they rarely use them actively. Most of the time, they are listening. Pinging gives away a subs location, so they rarely do it. They rely on their passive sonar arrays. They also have towed arrays, pods that they tow behind them, far enough back that they are clear of the "baffles" the area of turbulent water put off by the props.

P.S. Most of this stuff can be learned by reading your copy of The Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy.

------------------
NEW NAME FOR THE DREADNOUGHT
The Hard-Boiled Egg
Why?
Because she cant be beaten!

(This message has been edited by Captain Pharris (edited 01-21-2001).)

Pharris: So is your Caveat Boomer based on a Typhoon, or what?

Personally, I'm a bigger fan of attack subs...

Collins forever! (Collins being Australian diesel attack submarine)

------------------
Subcommander g'Var "8 Lightnings" Krai'un

Second in command of the Escort Starbeam.
“Imagine if you will, you’re standing on a grade of finely processed salt in a salt factory. Now, there is a very large rusty blade flying towards you at a very high speed. Imagine now, the feeling you will have as you fall into that salt after you are run through with that blade.” -Marathon Infinity, Terminal 0, Page 2, You Think You’re Big Time, You’re Gonna Die Big Time, Vidmaster’s Challenge Edition.