Captioned Images

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Zor
Posts: 271
Joined: Wed May 28, 2008 10:01 pm

Captioned Images

Post by Zor »

This thread is to images to give you glimpses into the world of the Terran Sphere.
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(Terran Sphere) Novan Centurion class Destroyer firing off an energy broadside to do what Destroyers do best, Destroy Frigates. At the same time, it is taking a broadside from the Intersteller Protectorate frigates which it is engaged with, although the Destroyer is much more able to take damage than the frigates in question due to better armoring and improved internal redundancy. Laser impacts cause plumes of burning metal and ceramics to burst from the hull. The steam being ejected from the laser cannons is part of the cooling system. The Centurion class is fairly large for a Destroyer, massing it at about 400,000 tonnes and has the typical conical prow of a Novan Warship. Unlike Frigates, the Novan Imperial Navy assigns names to their destroyers instead of just hull numbers. This one is named after a figure from classical North American fiction who first appeared in the last decade of the first century BT.
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Salicia Cheng (3rd Graf Cheng) poses for a photo in a commercial district of Bahiaopolis, a major capital city on the Planet Belém (conquered by the Novan Empire in 2158) to which she has control over. Belém was a divided world upon the arival of the Novan Fleet and had suffered from a low-scale nuclear conflict 40 years earlier. As such, after it's conquest most of the cities were rebuilt to Novan Standards. Bahiaopolis is among the most notable, with it's dominating features being several districts built in Nova Atlantean Style with a central skyscrape circled by rings of buildings divided roads, parks and artifical waterways. An Automated passengerboat makes it's way past her.

(For the sake of the veiwer, the sign has been translated from Novan into English, Strips n Chips is a typical Novan fast food composed of strips of meat (usually beef or bison) lightly breaded served with fries and gravy)
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(Terran Sphere) Imhotep 19th, 2289 After Tranquility, an Intersteller Protectorate Fleet holds under the command of three star admiral Giuditta Horvejkul orbit over the planet Volksland after the world was retaken by the Intersteller Protectorate from the Novan Empire in one of the numerious wars that have marked the Novan Empire and surrounding space over the course of the 23rd century. The planet itself would be retaken by Lord Admiral Mikhail Ramzy (Eleventh Graf Ramzy) in 2296. Not including it's conquest by the pirate warlord Zhe Jorgston Volksland itself has exchanged rulers nine time over the course of the 23rd century (five times by the Novan Empire, four times by the protectorate and once by the Union of Free Socialist Worlds).

Colonized in the early 16th century by members of an ancient political movement that was notable for starting the Western Eurasian section second of ancient Terra's world wars in the last years of the 1st century BT based around a flawed pre-genetics understanding of humanity and germanic nationalism, Volksland devolved into a state of political fragmentation over finer details of their ideology and quickly degenerated into several waring states which frequently engaged in vicious planetary warfare at a basic mechanized level. Many sociologists beleived that the population would have either destroyed itself or devestated itself to the point of technological regression to fuedalism long ago if it was not for the planet's lack of fissile materials and high birth rates.

Due to it's backwards nature and the unpleasant local ideology it was largely ingored with the onset of the FTL age beyond a few minor attempts at trade by a handful of minor merchent ships until the planet was taken under threat of orbital bombardment in 2219, who used what industry it could offer to assemble a basic shipyard in orbit and serve as a base for commerce raiding over the next twelve years, eventually bringing it to the attention of the Novan Empire, Intersteller Protectorate and Union of Free Socialist Worlds. While the petty national diferences have become less sugnifigant in past years and education programs by occupying governments have managed to break down the racial ideologies of the planet, it remains a backwater with a trifiling population of merely 320 million, a lower than average standard of living and a high rate of crime and insurgency by radical fringe groups. The most valuable asset of Volksland remains it's shipyards, which have over the years supplied Frigates, Destroyers and Cruisers to three nations.
Last edited by Zor on Tue Feb 01, 2011 9:04 am, edited 2 times in total.
Zor
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Re: Captioned Images

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Lord Admiral of the Fleet Dieter Menshov (18th Herzog Menshov) of the Seventeenth fleet in the capital City of the Planet Hansen, 2/12/2177 AT (4146 CE) shortly after the Planet's Conquest at his hands by the Novan Empire. Hansen was notable for being colonized by a group of people which beleived in strict gender segregation. As such, Hansenite society was tightly seperated, in which Men after puberty and women lived seperated by law save for a few facillities in which restricted face to face interaction was allowed, some law enforcement activity and the occasional disaster releif effort. A state of affairs which continued for nearly six hundred T-years before the Novan Empire invaded. The Seventeenth fleet had some 2,500 hyperspace capable warships (with some 500 troop ships under escort) against the Hensenian Defence Forces which had a total of a mere five hundred craft, with nearly half of that being corvettes and most of their fleet being horribly out of date. The local fleet quickly dispatched with minimal losses and planetary surrender was enforced shortly afterwards. As a reward for bringing in a new system to the Empire, over three hundred thousand square kilometers of Hensen's surface was given to the Menshov Household by the Newly Crowned Emperor Stephen-III.

After the Conquest, Programs were put into place for cultural normalization of the Hensenian People. The most notable of was the enforced De-segregation of the Planet's Population. All forms of Gender Segregation were stripped from the lawbooks overnight and anti-discrimination and affirmative action policies were put into effect to integrate the workforce, backed up by the Authority and Force of the Imperian Novan Army. To demonstrate the ending of Gender segregation, he organized a series of public campaigns to bring men and women together, most notable of these was the demolition of the walls which were built to divide male and female districts of cities using tanks and televised broadcasts of these events. Protest occured over this move, with protesters being processed together without regard for their beleifs on gender.
Zor
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Re: Captioned Images

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(Galileo 25th, 2259 After Tranquility) Lord Vice Admiral Jorden Tsao (First Graf Tsao) publically decapitates the leader of the Black Viper Militia of Barbarians shortly after the addition of the Third Expasion Sphere world of Jackston into the Novan Empire. Once a fairly sucsessful colony for its area, a series of earthquakes and a massive Tsunami in the early 20th century AT had caused a level of regression on Jackston to barbarism. Most urban society collapsed and what emerged as the major holders of powers were a series of Barbarian clans, warrior societies existing as either village level agricultural or nomadic pastoral societies. Between 2195 and 2258 the planet was conquered by the nearby Republic of Tlaloc and the Holy Dominion of Baset. Neither side was able to fully pacificy the planet due to their limited of troop lift capacity, small scale (leaving aside Jackston, the collective population of both states was 1.1 billion by 2250, neither were praticularly prosperous) and the fact that it constantly changed hands and was occasionally split between the two powers, which made active attempts to sabotauge each others efforts. This came to the end after Jackston was seized by a Novan Conquest fleet.

Jorden Tsao was given a lordship with some 500,000 square kilometers of land and some 15 million people living on it. Many of which were notable for being savage barbarians. As such, in conjunction with the occupying army forces he helped plan, orginize and oversee campaigns to bring them to heal. Some of them rebelled, most notably the Black Vipers, which turned to bloody terrorism. Upon the capture of their leadership, he personnally executed them by the sword from his new capital. This is one of the few rare examples in which a Novan Nobleman has used his/her household sword (one of the symbols of Nobility in the Novan Empire) in anger.
Zor
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Re: Captioned Images

Post by Zor »

Image

(Terran Sphere) An Apex Skyscraper. Novans have a praticular style of designing whole districts of buildings (usually residential or commercial) when flat land is available in large amounts. Said districts are circular, composed of a set of concentric rings of either roads or canals and a few grand avenues aranged radially. Buildings get progressively taller the closer to the center one gets, with at the center being the tallest building. Often these buildings tower more than a kilometer skywards and if a Noble House makes their home in said district, they do so in said towers. Art Deco is generally the prefered style. This style is iconic of the Novan Empire and often depicted in propaganda campaigns, both by the Novan Empire and its enemies
Zor
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Re: Captioned Images

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Image
2nd Sergeant Carsten Chertok (Novan Imperial Army, 37th Planetary Army (The Shieldbreakers)) does a morning inspection of the Motorpool in NIA Regional Headquarters New Florida-25 (informally refered to by it's garrison as Terrace Infirma due to the large number of Rice Paddies and the fact that it is in an area which has seen numerous riots) during the shift change. Behind him sits a parked Countergrav Artillery Vehicle. It is his job to make sure things work smoothly, but if the need arises he has seen plenty of action. To the soldiers he is intrusted to oversee his marksmenship is respected, but what is feared is ability to unleash upon those who slack off or do a half assed job a Right Royal Thundering.

New Florida is among the more politicially unstable planets of the Novan Empire, largely due to its above average population (nearly five billion), various internal conflicts and feuds, some of which go back to the four colonization ships which made their way to this planet, a pig headed tendancy to independance and the efforts of the Intersteller Protectorate. Three times in the Last century (though never for more than 1.5 T-years before the planets reconquest by the Novan Empire), Protectorate Forces had seized control of the world. Each time the world had been reconquered, a couple million Protectorate Soldiers were generally left on the planets surface and not all of them would surrender after the Empire's return. These would often engage in guerilla activity, as well as providing weapons, supplies and training to various anti-Imperial forces. For this reason, it is not unusual for fully power armored infantry to be on guard in outlying bases. The 37th Planetary Army of the Novan Imperial Army has made the Interstellar Protectorate their traditional enemy, their name refers to the Protectorate Logo (which is a ancient Roman Tower Sheild and Pilum).
Zor
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Re: Captioned Images

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Novan Imperial Army Corporal Eleni Pavlos waits to make her move in an urban supression action in one of the old slums in Wikasgrad, New Florida. Rebel insurgencies are fairly common on New Florida, with the forces that she faces in this instance being part of the second lowest tier of rebel forces (the lowest being simple mobs). The elite of a New Florida rebellion are typically a set of quiet poker faced men and women, quiet and unassuming but capable of organizing forces and keeping them supplied. Then their are nondiscript elite fighters and officers, well organized and capable of preforming devestating lightning raids and then fading into the croud and full time partisans who have expert knowledge of the terrain. Then their are lower ranking agitators who publish media and make connections. Then they are various gangs and low income/low education youth movements that are loosely associated with the actual resistance through proxies. In exchange for drugs, weapons, loot and money and due to ideological rhetoric they will rise up and fight, generally causing chaos. This is usually done to provide a distraction while the elites preform some raid, hopefully killing a couple of police officers and Imperial soldiers in the process.

Here, corporal Pavlos waits with a couple of attrition infantry robots behind a building, listing to the affairs of a couple of Gang members fight. While they do hate the Imperial Authorities, they often also hate each other. Two of these gang members belong to two diferent gangs (as is identifable by their local type of home made decorative armor) are now this close to killing each other off. An overweight counterpart who might have some connections with the actual resistance movement tries to calm them down. He is armed with a Protectorate made gauss assault rifle which, unlike the usual machine shop made primitive chemical burners that are carried by rebels can pose a threat to a power armored soldier or an attrition robot. She waits to see how it goes, hoping that the rebels will do two thirds of the neutralization of this practicular trio.
Zor
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Re: Captioned Images

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A squadron of Imperial Novan Navy Atlantis class Dreadnoughts pass by a gas giant during an engagement with a force of Interstellar Protectorate Frigates. One of them firing off a rear laser against the last fleeing enemy vessel. For safety purposes, the Imperial Capital ships have closes off their Drive Irises (also known as Sphincters) to protect the inner workings of their engines and fuel tanks during combat
Zor
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Re: Captioned Images

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A trio of extrasolar colonists from the Pre-FTL era. Millions of men and women traveled to the stars at sublight speeds for centuries to lay claim to five thousand star systems before the development of Hyper-drive. Using pre-fabricated equipment, bravery and determination, they deployed themselves to planets which could have harsh climates, unbreathable atmospheres, extreme temperatures, unknown Geological or Meteorological hazards, deadly predators and even in a few cases, hostile native sapients and while their were failures, these settlers would carve out a home on remote lands, Terraform barren wastes into living landscapes and give rise to new civilizations.

Among these figures are...
1-An head engineer, overseeing th establishment of a new housing complex, stylus and datapad on hand. She has a gas mask and dust goggles on had as the world she does some work outdoors on a planet that has a rather unpleasant atmosphere, although much of her work can be done inside a filtered environment.
2-An external laborer who works on various construction and excavation projects well away from the base, doing alot of work in muddy, wind swept areas in heat and rain for hours at a time. In time, it will become fertile farmland, but to him, only a handful of genetically engineered plants and small ponds filled with algae hint at whats to come.
3-A Machine shop worker, unlike the other two, she spends most of her time indoors with other men and women assembling various components that are needed for the new colony. While her workshop is not an assembly line, she and her fellow workers can use the available fabrication equipment produce a vast array of machines that, while primitive in comparison to those on developed worlds, are good enough to meet the needs of a growing colony in its early stages of development.
Zor
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Re: Captioned Images

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A pair of typical Civilians from the Commonwealth of Democratic worlds dressed in Typical Shenzhou style business wear (which has become the norm across most of the commonwealth since the 2220s-30s century despite some movements to maintain local fashions). Their are some variations on this theme. Neckties are fairly rare in the commonwealth as they are usually associated with the Novan Empire.
Zor
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Re: Captioned Images

Post by Zor »

Image

An agent of the Imperial Security Intelligence Service with an Novan Imperial Army soldier at his side gives the clear to begin a counter-terrorism action. Many of the newer worlds of the Novan Empire have considerable movements bent on regaining independence, ferreting out cells of that live among the loyal (or at least passive) subjects of the Empire is a constant task, requiring vast numbers of experts, agents, vast and complex Surveillance networks and underground connections. Brute force often ends making things worse, for this reason occupation forces often rely on ISIS agents to advise them on their actions.
Zor
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Joined: Wed May 28, 2008 10:01 pm

Re: Captioned Images

Post by Zor »

Image

The first in a series of the peoples of the myriad of worlds of the Novan Empire.

Here we have a man and a woman from Strugatski (annexed into the Novan Empire in 2187 AT). The original colonists arrived in 1347 AT and were not particularly unusual in ideology and were international in. However, between the 15th and the 18th centuries, a series of factors (including cold, damage done by earthquakes, toxic native plant-life that reproduced via spores, the arise of a series of airborne contagions, several unusual poets and writers and shifting social norms) a rather usual cultural habit emerged. Nudity taboos were extended to include all visible skin and in particular outside of immediate families, medical care, loved ones and similar it became highly rude not to wear a mask, although some subcultures did latter emerge that were against mask wearing. Woman were allowed to show their hair.

When a five thousand ship strong conquest fleet was dispatched to add Strugatski into the Empire and an ultimatum was given, the people of Strugatski surrendered unconditionally. As it was seen to be counter-productive to ban such activities, the Novan Empire has tolerated this practice, though some laws in regards to local conceptions of decency have been amended. Even today, it is still the norm on Strugatski to wear a mask among most locals, as well as some emigrants and subcultures on other worlds. Strugatskian masks typically have communications equipment and heads up display computers built in.
Zor
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Re: Captioned Images

Post by Zor »

Image
Along the boarders of the Novan Empire, Rebellions are quite common, both in worlds under Novan control and those under the rule of the Commonwealth, Protectorate, Union and the Domain. These planets have suffered the worst of eighty years of constant wars, being taken and retaken numerous times. The degree to which these groups are active varies. On some planets they are belligerents with little mainstream appeal and are mostly contained in a few problematic areas. On other worlds they are an omnipresent threat to public safety. That said, the actual threat they pose to the presence of their occupiers is minimal. While they may destroy valuable property and equipment, kill a few soldiers on patrol or assassinate a Noble or some other high ranking figure, they are always outclassed by interstellar powers with tens of billions of subjects from which to draw support while most resistance groups are little more than street gangs. That said, despite their belligerence the powers still find uses for them.

Resistance groups are useful for draining the finances, manpower and strategic reserves of occupational forces and can be used as cannon fodder and scouts during invasions. As such, encouraging resistance forces in enemy held territory is often a good move. Their are various ways of doing this. These include

*Providing them with weapons and supplies
*Giving them equipment and training to manufacture their own weapons (typically simple ancient combustion firearms such as Kalashnikovs, Bolt Action weapons, Garands, revolvers and Stens and basic grenades)
*Having agents train resistance forces to be more effective fighting forces
*Funding and organizing resistance movements
*Releasing violent criminals en mass when abandoning a planet (a tactic preferred by the Protectorate)
*Propaganda campaigns
*Having agents start resistance groups or shift existing local criminal organizations to resistance groups or resistance sympathetic stances

While some resistance fighters are capable fighters and guerrilla soldiers, most are like this fellow. Gangs of violent local thugs that have contacts with resistance cells. In return for weapons, cash and drugs, they tag buildings, rob Imperial targets, act as hitmen and rise up during riots. Many of these figures like to look tough and wear gang cloths and a selection of items such as home made armor and pins to show their strength. The general nickname used by Imperial forces about these fighters is "Peacock" for their overt displays, when contrasted with the professional resistance forces which blend into the background. In combat they are limited to spraying and praying, knife fighting and throwing grenades. The attrition rates of these rebels are high, especially against soldiers or tactical units. To professional resistance, they are best used as distractions. As an odd means of fighting these rebels, ISIS has created and distributed various bits of underground media to try to steer the looser rebels towards said tenancies or to keep them.
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