TECHNOCRAT

Organizations

Nova Carinae

Nova Carinae, abbreviated NC, is an independent scientific organization dedicated to making dragonkind and interplanetary species, and understanding the fundamental nature of magic and the Shade. Once a regular Lightning clan, after our research began to turn up disturbing results, we quickly realized it was not only the criticism of our fellow dragons we had to worry about, but the wrath of the gods. We were getting glimpses of a truth that threatened to turn our understanding of the world on its head. We couldn’t stop, not when we were so close. So we went into hiding, beyond the territories of the Eleven, building a new home at the very bottom of the Mare Incognita where we could delve deeper into the inner workings of our world.

But that was years ago, and since then we’ve become so much more. We have the truth now, or at least bits and pieces of it. Magic violates the law of conservation of energy- it shouldn’t be possible within the laws of our universe. We don’t know whether the deities created the Rift, or simply found it. But we do know that the Rift is the source of all magic on Sornieth, a tear in the thin fabric between our universe and another, a gateway into the roiling core of an alien sun. Every joule of magical energy on our planet is leeched from this core. One could call us parasites, but that would be incorrect. Parasites don’t kill their host.

When they realized their sun was dying, the Riftkind fashioned a defensive weapon out of the primordial fabric of the universe, out of emptiness and spacetime and the violence of quantum mechanics. They gave it intelligence, in a way; but most of all they gave it hunger, a hunger for the energy the Enemy sapped from their sun, and a desperate drive to do one thing and one thing only: close the Rift, and make sure it was never opened again. This is the entity we’ve come to know as the Shade. And thus we are faced with a dilemma no mortal should have to resolve. Do we step back and let fate take its course, let an entire civilization die through our inaction? Or do we close the door between worlds, cut off Sornieth’s lifeblood, destroying society as we know it and possibly killing millions?

Newcomers always want to know: are we working with the Shade? I emphasize that it is not our goal to allow the Shade to destroy Sornieth. But we aren’t seeking to destroy it, either. The truth weighs heavy on all our consciences as we seek a better way; a bright version of the future where peace prevails and everyone lives.

In the meantime, we’ve used our newfound understanding to construct portals, bypassing the need for rockets to get material and dragons up the gravity well. We’ve built a fleet of ships that sail not through the ocean, but through the cold void of space. We’ve spoken to beings from other realities. And, perhaps most difficult of all, we’ve weaned ourselves off of Rift magic down to the cellular level and found alternative power sources to sustain us when we make our final journey out to the stars.

I’m sorry, but I hope you understand why we can’t let you go back. It’s the price we’ve all paid for the truth. Please, join us willingly. We are not a military organization, but understand that it is not our wish to cause chaos by releasing this information to the general public, and we will do what we must to guarantee our security.


The Flotilla

We run on photons and ions and sheer force of will.

The Flotilla comprises all of NC’s operations outside Sornieth’s atmosphere. Currently, the Flotilla is made up of Asylum Station, a fleet of eight ships, a Riftkind lighthugger, and the under-construction NCSS Horizon Seeker: the first faster-than-light starship ever built and the ship that will carry us to another star. Our progress has been greatly aided by the use of portals in place of rockets, but the fleet remains reliant on us for supplies of food, water, and oxygen; we have a ways to go before we can abandon Sornieth altogether and become self-sustaining.

Horizon Seeker: A vessel built to explore space both within and beyond the Sornieth system, now serving as the flagship of the Flotilla, and a vision for the future of dragonkind. Horizon Seeker is still unfinished, but has proven itself to be worthy of the title of the only known faster-than-light starship in existence.

Asylum Station: The gateway to Sornieth, and the center of operations for the entire Flotilla, under the command of Alphecca. The wheel-shaped station houses a portal through which all supplies, crew members, and new vessels are received from the Vigilance. As the name suggests, it is also where ships stop to replenish their supplies, get repairs done, and trade and socialize with other crews.

Saber Observatory: Not as much a ship as it is a heavily insulated habitat duct-taped to an asteroid along with an array of telescopes, but this is where many of Nova Carinae's astronomers now make their home, able to observe the sky across a wide range of frequencies without the pesky interference of the planet or its atmosphere.

Sungrazer: The only other purely scientific vessel in the fleet. While Saber Observatory studies the wider universe, Sungrazer’s crew study the solar system (its age, formation, composition, etc) in about as hands-on a way as you can get. Their ship holds the records for the closest flybys of the Sun and all five gas giants.

Steelmaiden: The industrial center of the Flotilla, serving as a place for other ships to stop for repairs and upgrades, as well as a factory to put the raw materials brought in by the Rockhopper to use. Her crew is composed mostly of specialized engineers, but perhaps most notable among them is Shockwave, the only known surviving member of the Labyrinth Builder society.

Dreadram: The closest the Flotilla has to a warship, and one of the most controversial of the organization’s exploits, especially after the testimony of Navis. Ostensibly, the Dreadram is meant to defend the Flotilla. Many NC dragons are conflicted about having such a heavily armed ship in what is meant to be a peaceful scientific coalition.

Glass Knife: The first step toward self-sustainability, Glass Knife is essentially a space farm providing a source of food and (perhaps more vitally) oxygen for the fleet, as well as housing a genetic/biological engineering facility.

Rockhopper: A small but vital asteroid mining vessel that provides the Flotilla with a source of raw materials and water.

Icebound: The fastest ship in the Flotilla second only to the Horizon Seeker. Her robotic crew don’t need oxygen and require only the minimum in terms of life support systems; Icebound is the only ship in the Flotilla that’s completely unpressurized. She’s capable of much higher acceleration than any other ship, not so much due to the engineering of the vessel, but rather because her crew is much more resilient and can handle accelerations that would turn a flesh-and-bone dragon into raspberry jam.

Interceptor: A small, swift stealth ship mostly independent of the Flotilla and allied with the Pavonis Mons. They have no official single role in the Flotilla, but they act as explorers and prospectors in the outer fringes of the system, and theoretically could do reconnaissance of Sornieth should the deities become aware of the Flotilla’s activity.

Nostalgia for Infinity: A ‘living’ vessel of Riftkind origin called a lighthugger, Nostalgia for Infinity is essentially an engine attached to a solid mass of supercomputer, made to accelerate to within a fraction of a percent of the speed of light. Her ‘crew’, if they could be called that, seem to be artificial intelligences, though whether or not they are all separate entities or different sides of the same coin is still uncertain. NC managed to save most of the ship after it blindly dove through the Rift, driven by the need to know the nature of the Enemy on the other side no matter the cost, and broke into pieces. Celeste and the ship’s voices helped the Steelmaiden’s crew rebuild most of the Nostalgia. The ship has shown a sometimes frustrating desire to understand the way of life of “the Enemy”, but has agreed to help NC in the construction of the Horizon Seeker after they swore they were doing their best to find a solution to the Rift.

The Vigilance
Nova Carinae, abbreviated NC,

The Inner Sanctum
Nova Carinae, abbreviated NC,

The Company

The crew of the Pavonis Mons, calling themselves simply the Company, broke away peacefully from NC with the intention of starting a colony on the fifth planet from the sun, Merakai. Their goal is to create a permanent settlement, but for now the Company remains airborne as it migrates between two main bases of operation with the planet's violent seasonal changes. The Company were the first to discover the Labyrinth, a network of artificial but long-abandoned caves and tunnels just beneath the planet’s surface. They’ve taken on the daunting task of exploring the Labyrinth and learning all they can about the beings that constructed it.

Spire Intelligence Agency
Nova Carinae, abbreviated NC,


Technology

october 7th 2023. nice