Back to Chapter Three
Author’s Note: In Chapter Two, I wrote that Dr. Suzan Klug had made a breakthrough on new engines. Looking back on my notes, what she actually researched in February 04 was Improved Pebble Bed Reactors. New engines are still some years away so that’s why they are not used by the ships in this chapter.
The threat of an alien invasion cast a harsh light on the Omega Sector’s lack of militarization.
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July 31st, Year 4 OS - New Coruscant “This is an affront to the dignity of the Empire!” Admiral Wildemuth bellowed, his face red with rage as he gestured towards the hologram floating above their conference table. “These creatures fired on an Imperial vessel without provocation. It is our duty to respond in kind, immediately, and with overwhelming force!”
Moff Wolfe leaned back in his seat and watched the faces of his senior commanders, only half listening to the rant which had been ongoing in some variation for the better part of an hour.
Back to Chapter One
Commander Junior Nephew, captain of the Imperial survey ship Prospector 001, was in the head when the general quarters klaxon sounded, a possibility that none of his instructors at Naval Academy had ever bothered to prepare him for. His undignified scramble to the bridge was nothing at all like he had imagined in his youthful fantasies of commanding an Imperial starship. He staggered up to the observation deck winded and red faced with half the tail of his uniform tunic stuffed into his trousers but fortunately the crew in the pits below were too preoccupied to notice.
Back to Interlude: Game Setup
Moff Fabian Wolfe arrived late to the meeting, as was his custom, timing his entry precisely in order to make the most dramatic appearance. He wore a robin’s egg blue tunic cut after the fashion of an Imperial military uniform and a gold lamé lined half cape that fluttered behind him as he strode down the length of the conference table and plopped into the very comfortable chair he had reserved at its head.
Back to Prologue
The State of the Omega Sector (Y1 OS) By the time it was cut off from the rest of the galaxy the population of the Omega Sector had grown to 800 million, mostly concentrated in large cities on the surface of New Coruscant. These colonists were shipped in from the thousands of worlds controlled by the Galactic Empire and are almost entirely human. Many are skilled workers employed by the system’s extensive manufacturing sector.
Six years before the Battle of Yavin, an Imperial survey cruiser charting the Unknown Regions stumbled across a massive, ancient space station orbiting a nameless type A star. The Empire sent an expedition of its top scientists and archaeologists to study the artifact and they discovered that the central ring structure was not a curiosity from an era before artificial gravity but instead encircled some sort of space time anomaly. One researcher described it in his report as “a scab over a tear in the universe.
Are you tired of the same old Sol start? Maybe you want to play a lost colony of humanity in some far away star system. Maybe you think it would be awesome to play an alien species. Did you even know that you can do that in Aurora? If you’re a new player you might not. The game doesn’t really advertise the option. Back in VB6 there was a setting on the New Game screen.
The Terran Commonwealth was not, in its infancy, a heavily militarized state. It arose from the ashes of the 21st century, out of a global sense of unity that followed the triple ravages of nationalism, climate change and late stage capitalism. As traditional nation states collapsed and humanity’s future prospects seemed increasingly grim, a remarkable change swept across the world. The people huddled against the darkness began to set aside their differences and work together.