Science Fiction Universe Creation

[Axis Kast]

To keep a long story short, I've been in the process of creating my own science fiction universe for about a year now. I'm looking for other interested parties to bounce ideas off of and collaborate, however. I find that some of my best ideas emerge from discussion or cross-questioning with others. If anyone's interested, be my guest to write a PM or contact me.

Broadly speaking, my story covers the development of strictly human civilization on other worlds. It tends to adhere to the BattleTech vision of relatively lightly-populated worlds with small(er) military forces fighting largely tactical skirmishes over resources and salvage. I don't feature BattleMechs, but combat is facilitated through the use of vessels that function somewhat like dropships - that is, they break atmosphere, disgorge flying columns, and then add their own minimal firepower to the melees that ensue.

My inspiration has really been the Dark Ages of medieval Europe, although I am trying to work in other elements as well. (For example, there's a healthy corporate element.) There is a Church, with all that it entails (Crusades, heresy, sects, the works).

Here's some flavor text...

In the year 5244, the Terran Union was nearing the height of its power. For nearly three millennia, entire generations had lived and died without once setting foot on their homeworld. Human civilization spanned more than one thousand star systems; one hundred billion coaxed a living on eight thousand worlds. Most were starving. One in six was a slave.

Nominally speaking, the planets on which settlement had been undertaken were colonial extensions of the Terran Union, a quasi-representative governing body whose pedigree reached back to the early twenty-third century. Functionally, however, it had consolidated effective authority over less than half its territory, and could hardly afford to contest the status of the remainder. Some populations grew wealthy and even complacent under Terran rule; others went years without evidence that they were citizens in a larger galactic body, with rights enshrined by constitutional arrangement and guaranteed by decree of the Universal Church.

The Terran Union inaugurated no less than eighteen separate attempts at coordinated expansion; only the first ten are considered by modern historians to have achieved fruition. On worlds of obvious strategic or commercial value, the government often consolidated its rule quickly, replacing incompetent administrators and rapidly expanding the scope of developmental projects. Where coffers were not soon refilled, however, interest waned, and when local officials reported one failure too many, parliament was often unwilling to bear the mounting costs of empire. All too frequently, the Terran Union relinquished its responsibilities to the very settlements it had founded, offering planetary charters for purchase by the highest bidder. In some cases, corporate interests obtained a stake in the abandoned worlds; on others, the Vulgatian Church planted its own banner. But for the vast majority – deemed worthless in the eyes of those with superior finances – it was typically the local elite that incorporated themselves as an enfoeffed nobility, cementing their own legacy on the backs of thousands of hapless “subjects” suddenly placed at the mercy of the rich.

The typical world of the early fifth millennium was a provincial backwater. The average colonist was a rural smallholder, obliged to coax from the ground a stable diet to feed his large family, and a steady income to make good on his still larger debt to the news powers that be. When formal development ended, security was at a premium; those who could afford the sacrifice usually acceded to heavy taxation rather than face the prospect of going without a wealth patron who could not only punish bandits, but provide against the threat of drought or famine. The unlucky were obliged to mortgage their land in perpetuity; unable to pay taxes, they became bound to the land entirely, working much of their time on the land of their masters. Others became slaves, consigned to even greater calumny, whether because of their criminal history, heresy, or simply a surfeit of powerful enemies. A slim handful composed a technical elite or merchant class, with the background, education, and opportunity to fill specialized niches in the infant economies on the frontier. An even more select group became retainers; the personal appointees, enforcers, and headmen of the privileged handful at the summit of every new social hierarchy that, despite the absence of a formal peer list with prerogatives recognized on Earth, could nevertheless assert themselves as nobility on the worlds they now owned entirely. Their favorite pasttime was war.

[Coalition]

One technological requirement, is that the planets have to have some ability to maintain FTL transportation, otherwise your Dropships will run out of fuel and spare parts. This can be reduced by having the Dropships perform their own construction of parts, and fuel collection.

Also, to avoid having the BT problem, of the United States have 400 times as large a military (based upon populatin) as the Free Worlds League, you need several areas to 'sink' money, that requires resource expenditure, with minimal returns.

Several good areas:

1 ) Maintenance of hostile environment domes - if ~90% of a planet's industry is tied into mere survival, you have to be real careful about what is gained and lost when someone attacks. If tyhe attackers merely want to land, take several slaves, and leave, that could actually cost the colony less than if they tried to resist.

2 ) Remnants of chemical and biological warfare - this reduces population fairly easily, and requires a steady drain in terms of medical support. Euthanasia might be the most efficient method, but if the older people have knowledge that the planet/empire desperately needs to survive . . .

3 ) Remnants of chemical and biological warfare - this time, on the food supply. You have to constantly work to keep the farms clean from contaminants, etc, or your hard work to grow crops is wasted.

4 ) Warfare - expenditure of resources is obvious, and if all you get is a stalemate, then nothing is gained by either side.

5 ) Sabotage - someone else sees one world getting stronger, due to a certain technology. So they send in commandos to steal and/or destroy it.

If you keep it as lots of smaller empires, that are constantly at war with each other, this avoids having smaller kingdoms get steadily swallowed up by larger kingdoms. Corporations might trade with each other for a while, so trade alliances could spring up.

One thing, what keeps the original worlds from simply going on a conquest spree, taking over empires near them, and expanding their control? Are there regulations (non-interference laws) to prevent this? Or do the various nobles/independants get together to avoid it happening, to avoid a slow loss of power?

Who knows, if you get too much into a split of the church that uses string instruments, your story could get an 'R' rating, due to sects and violins.

[Axis Kast]

Most worlds do maintain landing facilities comparable to the DropPorts of BattleTech fame. These include not only heavy-duty tarmacs, aerospace tracking stations, and processing checkpoints, but (of course) maintenance sheds, machine shops, and (typically) defensive batteries such as missile systems or gun emplacements. In most cases, a small fraction of the DropPort caters to a contingent of the local garrison.

To remedy the problem of going too far from home and discovering that a world doesn’t have proper facilities, most starships are highly rugged. They employ a good number of permanently-attached engineers or other technical personal, and probably have a limited capacity to make jury-rigged repairs. No starship we’re talking about is large enough to include a self-contained machine shop, however.

In general, I wanted very small militaries, copying the Dark Age arc in BattleTech. Most worlds count their weekend warriors in the thousands, and while the soldiers themselves are often well-outfitted even on backwaters, they fight small-unit engagements in which vehicles number in the tens or dozens, not the hundreds.

However, I like the idea that some planets may pay “tribute” to invaders by simply allowing them to take people away. One way to account for the large slave population.

[Norseman]

Dark Ages warfare was dominated by small armies for the following reasons:

1. The big states had collapsed, in short the logistics for supporting large armies no longer existed. Remember having thousands of weekend warriors don't matter much if you can't feel or supply them all.

2. A new warrior, the mounted knight, had appeared. A knight required armour (very expensive), he required a horse (very expensive), he had to train constantly (expensive), and he had to be training from the start.

3. A Feudal order means that there's a castle to retreat into if the enemy comes, and that there's a horse mobile military presence (the knights) to fight back invaders.

If wars are generally on the scale of raids, or skirmishes between nobles, then small scale battles can easily be justified in three ways:

1. Neither side has the necessary resources to wage large battles.
2. When the raid comes there just isn't the TIME to get enough forces out to where the raiders are.
3. The extreme cost of building advanced weapons is such that you can only afford a few of them.

As to why no great Empires arise, there are actually three very simple answers to that, all are very historical incidentally:

1. Anyone who tries to build an empire has an alliance formed against him and is torn down.
2. If he does build an Empire he won't live forever, and once the Great Leader(s) die then everyone else begins to squabble and the whole thing falls apart.
3. IF an Empire is built, and it doesn't fall apart, it suffer from feudalisation. In short every corporation, nobleman, church etc wants a slice of the power, and to keep them happy they are given privileges little by little. Pretty soon the Empire only exists on paper.

Examples of the first are too many to mention, examples of the second is Charlemagnes, and examples of the third would be the Holy Roman Empire.

[Axis Kast]

Well, I mean the Dark Age storyline from BattleTech, but since the universe I'm building has a medieval feel, I can engage with these criticisms.

First of all, the Terran Union is modeled on both the Holy Roman and eleventh-century Byzantine Empire.

Secondly, the average world bankrupts itself to wage war. Nobles have fairly stable living conditions; they're not interested (typically) in social development. They can afford to spend lavishly on arms and munitions for temporary forrays and don't care if fields lie fallow in the meantime.

Third, starships are the new mounted knight. Even the Terran Union has only eighty combat starships, a dismally small number. However, since the technological threshold is so high, and the number of other operators so low, it's sufficient. A single Terran Union military starship can take out most worlds with one punch - by deploying atmospheric drop troops, flying columns, and even landing parties of marines or bluejackets (essentially naval infantry). Only the wealthiest of barons can afford to buy a freighter, and any weapons they include are likely to be jury-rigged machine guns.

There are obviously no castles in this world, but a great many bunkers and observation posts on contested or endangered worlds.

Wars are typically raids or skirmishes. For precisely the same reasons as you have pointed out.

There are worlds with manufacturing capabilty, but they service either the Terran Union, large corporations, or the Church. Some military commands have their own, but they're an army of the TU government. A few barons have managed to build small arms factories and even a few light vehicle assembly lines. A few dozen have built tank manufactories in connection with large corporations. Most have only infantry and munitions dumps.