The Rules:

1. The game starts with the following post. If you want to play, put me on your ignore list after you read this post (be sure to place all other participants on your IL, as well).

2. The chosen topic is "Space Opera" (per Doc Rotwang!).

3. Each post shall consist of one paragraph -- no more, no less.

4. This game shall consist of ten posts per player.

If you have no idea what this is, check out the "Exquisite Corpse (via IL)" thread in the Off-Topic forum. It comes complete with links and shtuff.

Ready. . . set. . . go!

The Gilat Empire is a second-rate expansionist power extending outward from the Gilat system -- territorial space-faring reptiloids with a thirst for conquest but not a lot of resources.  As of three weeks ago, they had barely subjugated three worlds in 100 years.  Until three weeks ago, when they fell en masse upon the Human colony of New Dross, defeating the colonists with striking swiftness and superior firepower.  Some of the colonists were evacuated, but many are still trapped there.  The refugees report that the Gilat attackers were carrying weapons previously unknown, and that the survivors were being herded into holding pens at the now-captured starport.  Where'd the Gilats get such wonderful toys?  And what's it have to do with those weird black saucer-shaped craft that have been seen near the Gilat's conquered planets?

Since the time they first encountered each other (and created the Pact of the Long Night) in the Void, the peoples of Aria and Demos have lived in peace. Every fifty years, upon mutually agreed terms they wage a savage  war that last five years. Their armies clash in a mysterious sector of space, between their two planets called Hell'sBreach. POWs are treated brutality in prison camps scattered around various planets in the Breach. All travel to and from these two warring planets are halted, in fact travel around the Breach is unheard off during this war -even though that sector of space in a convenient route for many voidfarers. The children born in these prison camps, display during their youth, strange powers of mind and body. They become diplomats and much sought after warriors for both planets after hostilities have ceased.

Regards,
David R

The Corsair Kings are a dangerous band of space pirates who fly old model frigates, complete with solar sails and sub-light engines. While these frigates are easily out-maneuvered by modern starships, they have two distinct advantages that the the Corsair Kings make good use of. First, when running on solar sails only, the frigates are invisible to most modern scanners (which detect energy signatures, rather than mass). Second, in space, ships that utilize solar sails never run out of juice.

"Now, here we have the insectoid plasma fuel farmers of the Koditch Conglomerate. Some amongst them have a lucrative side bussiness of extracting the narcotic -so classified on all worlds of the Syndicate - TR 4 (Tranquil Rage series 4) during the refining process. An extremely dangerous endevour. The cost is high, in terms of the plasma sacrificied, and to a lesser degree the lives most often lost. So far, sale of this drug, which enhances speed, cognitive ability, perception and reflexes - with the unfortunate side effect of dementia and violent random outburst- has been confined (because of the cost no doubt) to the young nobles in the Riven sector of the Void - no doubt used during their numerous duels based on ancient family grudges. The drug is beyond the reach of most people - anywhere. Intelligence suggest, that Denarth Shandane, noted political agitator, has expressed interest, in making a synthetic more affordable TR 4...all this off course is just gossip...we all know that Shandane met his doom, during the extraction sortie on Praxis.."

Regards,
David R

The Javoa clan, a band of interstellar pirates who survive using their wits and whatever food and life support they can find from the vessels they plunder, maintain their home base in orbit around a rogue planet as yet uncharted by local surveyors.  The orbital base is not a space station, per se, but the hollowed hull of a massive passenger ship, the first prize taken by Questen, who is matron of the clan.  Questen Javoa maintains the image of a revolutionary prophet, dedicated to eradicating the corrupt government of Lorne, though most who crew her ships are little more than murderers, thieves, sociopaths and assorted ne'er-do-wells.

Syndicate Askars are notorious for their almost insatiable appetite for tributes. If you're back from a showdown with the Gorgon kind on Telos or had a run in with the Lanun freebooters of the Kashway Belt, the last thing you need, is the local boys demanding tribute for that tricked out Crusader armour you managed to salvage or trying to intimidate your Esoteric comrade into submitting to a mind probe - for the betterment of the Prana Institue. For the former, make sure you have your salvage docs, for the latter gently remind them of the Free Expression Accord, but the most important thing to remember, is that credits are expendable, for everything else, blood is the curency.

Regards,
David R

Ishugara Corporation, the largest manufacturer of hostile environment gear for Lorne's military, virtually controls the entirety of the Tori system, owning the planet Eiga outright.  Massive manufacturing and testing facilities are present on every planet.  Ishugara Corp has terraformed Eiga at great expense, shaping its largest continent into a copy of its electric waterfall logo.

All voidfarers have to be made aware of the phenomenon called Walkers. Upon or nearning death certain (in)famous individual(s) have been approached by these entities - whose appearence change from one encounter to another - and offered the choice of life instead of death. If the former is accepted the results are often shocking and not what the unfortunate soul expects. Two recent examples, the first, the downloading of the soul of the Merchant Tobias Crall into the body of his trade rival Sher Minos - together until, the unfortunate Sher ceases to exist. The second, happened after freedom fighter Captain Shanti Youngblood and crew tangled with Syndicate provocateurs from the Bureau of Disinformation (BUDIS :eek: ) and the Captain succumbed to mortal wounds. The Esoteric Ta'lli and close Shanti confidante Ellis "Doc" Halleck supposedly made a deal with a Walker only to find the valiant Captain's soul downloaded onto their ship's - The Lucky Strike - computer. A final more recent encounter. Two (unnamed) Esoterics from the tribes, Void Dancers and Shakti , respectively did battle with a Walker (for reasons unknown) in the NoComebacks cafe located on the asteroid mining belt colony of RedSquall. All that was left after the encounter was the Shakti's chalisk and the Void Dancers, malfunctioning voidblade.

Regards,
David R

The first anyone heard of it were rumors whispered by merchant captains in starport bars throughout the sector: be wary of the Uspal-Mentegge run; something's out there.  Small, unescorted freighters would go missing, only to be found months later, their hulls corroded and covered with an acidic substance, stripped of all crew.  The local planetary governments kept it hushed; there was nothing about this in the media.  But then the commercial passenger liner Norima, secretly carrying several high-ranking diplomats from Lorne, disappeared, and the resulting political uproar prompted an investigation.  The best anyone can tell is that something is alive out there, swallowing spacecraft whole, digesting the crews aboard and spitting out the hulls like so many walnut shells.  The Menteggean navy is currently mounting a top-secret expedition to confront whatever interstellar horror awaits them.

Mara Taldekki is an exorbitantly wealthy woman; you can make a lot of money liscensing "designer" starship hulls.  She's yong, too -- just out of design school on Anphora, 26 years old.  A prodigy.  Millions of credits to her name.  She's also exorbitantly strange, and has a penchant for collections and scavenger hunts; she has been known to organize million-credit races across the galaxy to bring her back a list of odds and ends, some mundane and some exotic.  Obscure objets d'art, three-toed arborinks from the forests of Myrkyl, the hubcaps off a Salton Beretta...it's amazing what she'll pay for this stuff, and what fortune-seekers, adventurers and other dilettantes will do to claim her prizes.

Valtorn!  The very name conjures up images of its blasted surface scoured by millenia of dust-storms, the sulfur-yellow ground, the steam-vents at the North pole.  Not a hospitable place, and one which, exotic and dangerous though it is, doesn't attract much attention...which its secret colonists like just fine, as it lessens the chances of prying eyes discovering the underground laboratories and testing sites where they are developing biomechanical horrors beyond imagination, for sale to he highest bidder.

Char Wardell, the pre-eminent xenosociologist of Arakor, has a price on his head; it was put there by Maram Sylor, the planetary governor.  Wardell has gone on public record several times stating that the human colonists have unfairly taken away the property and liberty of Arakor's native sophonts, the Kurri and the Brodhim.  "The history of humanity on Arakor," he said most recently, "is the history of the brutal suppression of the planet's native population."  These statements have gone far toward re-igniting the revolutionary spirit of the Kurri and Brodhim, and native insurgent activities have stepped up drastically in recent months.  After the assassination of General Rak Cole, a high-ranking territorial official, Sylor hopes that Wardell's death will send a message to others seeking to fan the flames of public unrest.

Folding is essential for travelling from one end of the void to the other. Punching in the coordinates for your foldjump takes you into the Waves -foldspace - so called, because of the waves of soundless blue lighting that washes over the vessel (illuminating the interior) like waves on a blue planet. Some Esoterics call this desolate space, Night Without Stars. Don't be fooled, this place is not barren. It is rumoured, that the same Esoterics tribes who are familiar enough to name this place also maintain sanctuaries here. For instance, the Void Dancers are rumored to maintain a fortress on a hidden barren moon, where they train their battle monks. The Shakti are rumored to have a citadel on a vapor world which continuosly evaporates and reforms (along with all in it) where the acoloytes try to decipher their arcane riddles. But all this is of no import to regular folks like you and me. This is where the last Crusader craftworld is located. and if you have the right contacts or know the wrong folks, you can find sanctuary, relief or.... in the wretched hive of scum and villainy known as Neraka.

Regards,
David R

Four months ago, all contact was lost with settlements on the planet Brinn IV following unusually strong solar flare activity from its star, Idaa-Horntens.  Fearing the worst, a brigade of Marines was sent to investigate.  Reports just coming back indicate that 2/3 of the human population is dead, and most of the remaining settlers have been stricken by a grave illness.  Testing has revealed that a microbial lifeform is to blame, one that lies dormant until it is "activated" by a certain level of solar radiation in the atmosphere.  Government agents have quarantined all survivors and have them under intense observation.  They are particularly interested in the handful of people seemingly unaffected by this strange plague.