know your enemy

ENEMY FAUNA

INFANTRYMAN'S GUIDE TO COMBATING MODERN AUTONOMOUS PLATFORMS

2nd edition

Ken Moore & Yelena Ivanovna

October 2272

FOREWORD

War changes.

This is neither a new observation nor a particularly useful one by itself. Weapons change. Tactics change. Organisations change. What is useful to remember is that these changes rarely occur independently.

The increasing use of autonomous platforms has altered the relationship between the soldier and the battlefield. Machines can remain where people cannot, observe for longer than people can, carry more than people can, and in many circumstances make decisions without waiting for a person to make them. Their introduction has consequently changed not only what is deployed, but what must be expected in return.

An effective platform invites a response. A successful response invites an adaptation. An adaptation becomes a new platform, a new procedure, or a new weakness to be exploited. This process is continuous. By the time a particular machine becomes familiar to an infantryman, its newest variant may already be appearing elsewhere.

The result is a constant exchange of information and capability between opposing forces.

For the individual soldier, however, this exchange is rarely visible in its entirety. A soldier does not need to know the history of a platform, the organisation that designed it, or the engineering principles behind its operation. They need to know what is in front of them.

What is it?

Why is it here?

What is it likely to do?

What should I do about it?

Enemy Fauna was written for that purpose.

This guide is not intended to replace technical manuals, intelligence publications, or unit-specific training. It is deliberately narrower. The information presented here has been selected for immediate recognition and practical use by personnel who may encounter autonomous platforms under field conditions.

The descriptions are therefore brief. Many of the machines included in this guide are considerably more complicated than their entries suggest. This is intentional. Knowing how a platform works is not the same as knowing how to deal with it.

Think of this book as a dictionary.

Modern combat has developed its own vocabulary of machines, behaviours, configurations and responses. The soldier who recognises that vocabulary can understand more of what is happening around them. A machine encountered in an unexpected location, carrying unfamiliar equipment, or behaving outside its normal pattern is still communicating something. So is the absence of a machine that should be there.

The purpose of this guide is to make that language easier to read.

No field guide remains current forever. Autonomous platforms are particularly poor subjects for permanent classification, since every successful design is an invitation to modification and every successful countermeasure is an invitation to redesign. Readers are encouraged to report significant variations through the appropriate channels. Future editions will depend upon these observations.

Observe carefully. Identify before acting where circumstances permit. Do not assume that a familiar machine is an unchanged machine.

And remember that the fauna of a battlefield is always evolving.

Ken Moore

Yelena Ivanovna

OLD HUMANITY

Mankind (nonfaction specific)

Old Humanity (metahistorical purposes)

Ancestors (the Nastiche Church)

Last updated: September 25th 2026

SUMMARIZED HISTORY

home.

Old Humanity was the collective effort and history of Earth/Mars-based nations and countless private groups for the first half of Civilization's existence within the Solar System and its stellar neighboorhood. At the time of the Dominion's foundation, humans had been a spacefaring species longer than we (the readers) had agriculture.

Known prominent factions include the Latin Catholic Church, the Federation of United Nations, the Union of Latino-American Republics, the Moon Alliance, the ITCA, Sable-Rustichelli MRDO, the Martian Coalition, the Solar Empire, and various minor interplanetary nations, groups, and companies across space.

Its domain across the stars lasted roughly 2000 years (2354 - 4300?), and at its largest extension spanned over 31 alien star systems, 40 inhabited exoplanets, countless moons, space habitats and outposts.

By 3000 CE, Old Humanity's frontier harbored over 120 million people beyond Earth, with roughly 40 million living beyond the Solar System (~0.26% of the total population). Mars, the second most populated colony, sustained over 80 million inhabitants across the planet's surface and its subterranean cities.

Second World War (1939-1946)

Initiated by unresolved tensions after World War I, the rise of Fascism in Europe and the militarization of Japan. World War II began on 1 September 1939, with the German invasion of Poland, followed by declarations of war from the United Kingdom and France. In June 1941, Germany launched Operation Barbarossa, invading the Soviet Union and opening the Eastern Front. The Soviet summer offensive of 1942 saw the Red Army abandon Voronezh in favor of a deeper defensive posture along the Don, trading territory for time. German forces, interpreting the withdrawal as collapse, redirected their summer offensive toward the Ukrainian and Georgian oil fields, capturing Maikop and threatening Grozny by late 1942. Though Baku remained out of reach, the campaign severely disrupted Soviet fuel production, slowing Red Army mobility and offensives through 1943 and 1944. In the Atlantic, Allied codebreakers struggled to break successive Enigma keys, and the Battle of the Atlantic extended into 1944, delaying the Allied buildup in Britain and pushing any cross-Channel invasion to late 1944. By the end of 1944, Germany remained in control of most of continental Europe, and the war had settled into a grinding stalemate on both fronts.

Through 1945, the Allies pressed forward slowly. The Western Allies landed in France in late 1944 but faced attritional warfare in Normandy and the Low Countries, while the Red Army advanced in costly increments across Ukraine and Belarus. Germany, though bombed heavily and starved of resources, continued to fight, its war economy dispersed and its civilian population hardened by years of raid. In the Pacific, the United States advanced toward Japan, capturing islands and preparing for the invasion of the home islands, scheduled for late 1945. The Manhattan Project, delayed by difficulties in isotope separation, reactor problems at Hanford, and the complexity of implosion design, fell months behind schedule. By mid-1946, the first weapons were finally assembled and available for deployment.

The Japanese islands are invaded by US forces in November 1945 in an effort to force the empire to surrender, the country is firebombed and the japanese troops fight even harder for their homeland. The Allies approve the atomic bombing (Little Boy, 15kt) of Hamburg on June 9 1946, leading Germany to surrender within two weeks due the effects of nuclear warfare and total military collapse, the Empire of Japan continues on fighting while deeming the news of such a weapon as Allied propaganda. On June 20th, Kyoto's resistance front is hit by a tactical atomic bomb (Thin Man, 9kt), followed by Kokura (Fat Man, 21kt) in June 23rd. In June 30th 1946, Japan ultimately surrenders upon news of a Soviet northern offensive, bringing the end of WWII.

Cold War (1946-2006)

‘The Betrayal of Voronezh’ got marked in history among war veterans and political circles in the USSR. There starts a proto-nationalist movement, lightly suppressed by the soviet regime. Meanwhile over Saratov, ethnic Tatars and Slavic-Muslims are relocated forcibly after WWII under suspicion of German collaboration, deepening bitterness for the soviet forces in the region.

Europe was then split into Western and Soviet spheres of influence.

Up until the 1960s, multiple transformations happen across Europe and Asia. Namely the US occupation of Japan (1945-1989), the founding of NATO in 1949 in western Europe, the alignment of Eastern Europe with the Warsaw Pact in 1955. The decolonisation of Africa begins in the early 50s after weakened European powers partially retract their forces.

The Chinese Civil War concluded with the establishment of the Popular Republic of China, and the Korean War (1950-1953) solidified the division of the peninsula and accelerated the growth of the American national security state.

After several soviet ultimatums, the west refuses to leave West Germany, leading to the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961, the Western Allies protest but do not intervene.

With the forced resigning of Brezhnev in favor of Kosygin in 1969, the USSR invests heavily into consumer electronics, computing, and automation for civilian use. Becoming a major international player in the digital market and computer education, funds partially go to the soviet space program in favor of propaganda launches with the GAYA project. A civilian-scientific module added to the MIR, with quarterly launches sending university projects and crew to space. Political shift into pragmatic socialism. The USSR funds and supports a client regime in Afghanistan, refusing full scale deployment during the crisis.

The USSR lifts censorship in technical, academic, and artistic circles — allowing a controlled form of openness. Starting with the launching of NAROSET, the soviet internet-equivalent in 1988.

In 1989 with heightened tensions in the Middle East and Europe, the US withdraws troops from Japan, leaving behind a tri-party democratic system between the LDP, DPP, and the JCP, and the minor Sanseito movement.

In 1990 the USSR rebrands itself as the 'Eurasian Socialist Federation' (ESF) during a soft collapse, suffering a recession due its direct involvement in the Gulf War siding with Iraq, later forcing Saddam to step out in exchange for oil concessions, the conflict ends with a divided country between the US and ESF forces. The Berlin Wall is teared down in November 1990 as gesture of openess with the West, Germany unites as Greater Germany after soviet partial east territorial concessions under the terms of soviet-tied industrialization and commerce of the region. Greater Germany remains a neutral country throughout the Cold War, playing both the US and ESF off each other.

ESF-proxied Iraq leads to further destabilization of the region, due to insurgent supply chains. The US and the ESF both invest heavily in remote reconnaissance and semi-autonomous strike drones as a way to avoid direct escalation with each other. The civilian internet worldwide is growing, but intertwined with military research. The war has exhausted most of its foreign power and will to fight, seen with voiced will to withdraw from several member states during the gulf war. A few strong soviet foreign policies, included nuclear assistance deals signed with Brazil, Iran, and India in the early 90s in order to threaten the US and Israeli influence in the regions, setting the stage for future regional allied powers.

The US put Brazil under and threatened its south-american allies with sanctions in an attempt to disarm negotiations in 1992. In late 1993, an assassination attempt on President Itamar Franco, allegedly backed by American interests, sought to derail the Plano Real reforms and prevent Brazil from emerging as a ESF-aligned economic competitor.

The Cold War would extend well into the early years of the 21st century, dividing the world's political, technological and cultural spheres into soviet or american influences. Particularly in computer and automation systems used in weapons development, communications and satellite networks. On September 11th 1999, a highly coordinated cyberattack to the United States and British computer infrastructure pushes NATO powers into the Middle East against the ESF's proxy powers. This chaotic condition ripens the development and deployment of autonomous platforms of all kinds on both sides.

In 2001 the US passes an emergency legislation that would later become the ‘Artificial Intelligence Control Act’. AI and advanced automation systems are classified as dual-use technology, just like nuclear or chemical weapons, in order to better control which agents become capable of deploying them against the US and its allies.

In 2006, the drawn-out conflicts worldwide exhaust the ESF’s economy and image, also staining further development in computing for smart-systems due the war stigma. The ESF economy crashes, and the assembly dissolves in their formative states as members withdraw. The Iraq Civil War still happens as the US is still fighting sectarian Shia and Sunni armed groups, former ESF federations and Russia’s proxies, Russia joins in to defend its buffer zones but its influence in the region decreases exponentially.

Post-Cold War (2006-2020)

By 2010 the multipolar world is under stress, China sponsors India, Brazil, South Africa, and floods the market with their ‘IBSA’ economic coalition as a response to the March 2009 American Housing market crash. Russia fades into regional power despite its strong ties with the Brazilian energy industry, suspected capability is widely assumed by now after failure to comply in scheduled inspections, excused as ‘too troublesome’ during a political scandal period. The US cannot justify sanctions against Brazil or its allies without losing trade with the Mercosur needed for its meat and soy. Internet presence is fragmented and tied to national identity worldwide, despite American and European efforts to connect it and surveil it, there is no unified mass social media but local ones, and Wikipedia never arises as we know it. Warfare AI research goes dark under shell corporations and dual-use projects.

In 2017 after decades of attrition Russia officially invades Ukraine with support of Russian sympathizers in the country. The operation is a military disaster in terms of strategic accomplishments due the Russian army's outdated army doctrine and a public reeling for the end of Russian conflicts across the world. Yet, it managed to annex the region of Crimea for its strategic ports to the black sea. The US and European countries send incentives to Ukraine so they can fight — no one wants conflict with a nuclear-armed Russia and mainly one that can threaten European natural gas and oil lines. The conflict drags on for multiple years. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia failed to contain Yemeni rebels despite American incentives in the form of outdated bombs and semi-autonomous weapons, and they took over Yemen, becoming a dangerous state in the region with strong ties to Iran's sphere of influence.

In the 2020s, there is major isolation in economic and political spheres worldwide dealing with foreign firmware, OS, and hardware. Exporting computer platforms becomes expensive and daring endeavors, computing markets are mostly proprietary in major world blocs. The UN votes on a treaty on AI Non-Proliferation based on the guidelines of the American AICA. Further fueling the stigma of autonomous smart systems of any kind, the word itself becomes taboo, historically associated with destruction and terrorism. Civilian companies pivot towards “dumb automation”, deterministic and easily audited systems.

The Millennial Crises (2020-2133)

Around mid 2021 a flu-like pandemic breaks out in east Asia spreading from China to Vietnam, Laos, Indonesia and Japan. Ukraine is condemned internationally after war footage of drone warfare surfaces on the European Interlink (Euro-block internet equivalent, built in 1998). Conversations about the employment of chemical and electronic warfare resurfaces in the world forums, this and other war crimes being committed by both sides quickly sinks foreign support for Ukraine and Russia, quickly turning the Donbas region into a terror quagmire as the Russian forces rush to modernize and illegally test drone warfare, in an attempt to improve national PR and avoid military casualties.

In 2027, an American-British joint manned mission to Mars happens. Space-age development has never fully faded, the technology designed for weapons delivery heavily influenced delivery and maintenance of onboard systems, making it possible to put three women on Mars by October 2029 for a five-day scientific mission.

In 2030 conflicts between the US, Israel and Iran causes soaring oil prices, putting Brazil and Venezuela ahead of the oil market as alternate suppliers competing directly with US oil. US makes moves to bar Venezuelan oil through harsher sanctions but Brazil backs with a floor-price tag or else it will retaliate economically. Venezuela becomes the south-american backfoot of the Brazilian economy as China imports its oil. France and Spain pull up a joint operation in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon to relieve the pressure on Iran and try to persuade it into suspending its naval blockade, this shatters European cohesion but alleviates economic pressure, as civilians now start buying in Spanish and French goods to have access to the external market. Brazil is pushed to hold-off American plans to start a bombing campaign in Iran under peacekeeping tones, and offers a joint exploration of Venezuelan oil, but it might take the result of the 2030 elections to be officialized.

By 2047 the West returns to Mars, this time with a semi-permanent scientific facility after almost two decades of delays and planning. The first stage out of three to start a base near the landing site of the Spirit rover is due to arrive in November 2047. The east and south blocs feel excluded despite minor software and hardware compromises with the mission. Plan out their own endeavor towards the landing site of Opportunity. Europeans will play a big part in the American mission, but France and Germany both voice plans to explore Mars’ western hemisphere around Valles Marineris in the future.

By 2050, Consumer level AI development initiatives resurface. The public is skeptical but willing to experiment with its gradual implementation. The south-american bloc seems to suffer a major recession due Brazilian involvement in the Rainforest Wars in West Africa, fighting French and Belgian influence in the region, supplying weapons and naval support to rebel forces and regime changes, sealing deals in Real. Venezuelan and Argentinian economies start to crack as economic opponents start to sanction Brazil and its allies.

In 2074 the ULARs initiative happens, a temporary alliance, the Union of Latino-American Republics, is created as an extension of the ALCA to save South Americans from further recession, led by Brazil. Essentially creating an EU-like bloc, with soft borders, organized international peacekeeping and freer economy.

In 2087 a domestic terrorist attack detonates a stolen 60kt nuclear weapon in San Francisco bay, California. The ongoing investigation and toll in the US economy causes a minor civil war between ultranationalists and moderate Americans that has threatened to split the country. This event was also used to excuse extensive vigilance and political violence of and against its citizens and enemies, particularly latino immigrants and ULARs – but also lead to the increased security and further non-proliferation policies of the US and its allies from that decade forward. This also pushes the United States autonomous systems industry into

In 2099, the Federation of United Nations was founded as an off-world para-military and semi-governmental organization, by Russia, China, France and the United States — their goals? Split the heavens between them. Later joined by the UAE, Bharat, Greater Germany, Portugal, Kuwait up until 2140, and later Saratovia in 2189 after it gained independence from Russia in 2119. This marks the rupture of the third-world bloc to essentially North vs South.

The ULARs' original expiration date arrived in 2104, but no one wanted to pull back from the interlinked system of culture and economy. Stepping back on it wasn't realistically viable without sacrificing the progress made. The regional governments of South America united into a single major state through the Treaty of Caracas in 2108, sharing borders only with Honduras, which refused the offer. The ULARs is the only country in the world with essentially three capitals, Brasília for the internal affairs, Caracas for the exports to the west and Europe, and Santiago for the east and south.

In 2133, the Five Treaties for Peaceful uses of Space are re-written to accommodate space exploration and privatized efforts for a human presence beyond Earth. This immediately expands the number of private investments into space, namely Venus, Mars, Titan, Enceladus, and Europa.

Interplanetary Epoch (2133 - 2365)

Starting with the humans return to Mars after almost a century of infighting across the globe in 2139, both superpowers, the Federation and ULARs start pouring resources in expanding their space infrastructure, launching from Equador, to Baikonour and Cape Canaveral. The late 2100-2200s are in no shortage of multiple attacks in between the two, in economic, political, cultural, and technological fronts.

During the 2220 to 2252, tensions rise between the Federation states and ULARs. With Voronezh (a small landlocked nation in Eastern Europe) becoming a South American ‘Cuban missile’ platform. Pirates and separatists in the moon colonies begin using Voronesi-style tech. The UN starts policing information and firmware access more strictly. By 2270, the outworld colonies begin uprisings, partially sponsored by southern powers. Anti-Federation sentiment spreads. Voronesia becomes a potential flashpoint for a major conflict.

The ULARs' (top left), Voronesia's (top right), and the Federation's (center) flags at the time of the Voronesi-Federation war.

The Voronesi-Federation War (2271 - 2273)

A Voronesian first strike on Saratovia's air defenses on November 17th 2271 starts the Voronesi-Federation War. A humiliatingly long three-year conflict that would come to claim nearly 1.1 million casualties for the Federation side (locals and interplanetary conscripts alike) and about 33,200 Voronesi troops, due the extremely lopsided use of autonomous platforms from the Voronesi side such as Specters - a military disaster of unprecedented scale since the drone wars of the late 20th century.

The discovery of the Voronesi nuclear laboratory and subsequent investigation by the United Nations lead to an abrupt end to the war on April 2nd, 2273. The surviving conscripted martians were repatriated to their home planet with severe mental and physical scars. The Voronesi government heavily utilized the threat of nuclear war to assure its proper financial compensations for damages caused by the Federation in its homeland and outworld settlements, their borders being restored to their former 2201 delineations, all thanks to the last hour efforts made by their tactical computer cluster, known as ‘VOYNET’. The program, however, got demoted back to third-class tactician in the aftermath of negotiations.

The programming notes and technology used to construct and power VOYNET would be gathered by researchers for the Titan Academy of Computer Sciences, in New Bulgaria, on Titan (Saturn VI), the primary body behind the beginnings of Project Prometheus.

The Martian Secession Wars (2301 - 2305)

The growing political and social pressure of the 23rd century erupted with the opening of the new one. When the Gray Army, a far-left extremist group cut the powerlines between the martian cities of Bronkhorst and Mariner, leaving the entire region without its main supply of electricity - this move initiated a cascade of military incursions by the Federation that heavily deepened the opression sentiment already lived by the planet in previous decades. It also pushed several separatist movements across the political spectrum in other regions of the planet into full revolt status, such as the Metal Worker's Reformist Front and the Arean Liberty Movement - for the Federation forces would not distinguish active from potential rebel in their efforts to quench the insurgents.

Unfortunately, for the detriment of the Solar System colonies at large, the Martian Secession wars ended with the destruction of Betel Gateway Station around Earth, the Phobos Space Hook, and the insertion of 100,000 metric tons of steel caltrops around Earth's low orbit - making safe, commercial, and reliable space travel for Terrans (and particularly, the Federation) essentially impossible for the coming decades.

During the post-war decades, a series of civil conflicts and disputes boil over on Mars due the power vaccum left by the retreating Federation and corporate body. The conglomerate of newly instituded martian nations, the Martian Coalition, stumbled to reorganize the outer system's moon colonies under its new regime, becoming the new center of humanity in the Solar System. Meanwhile, the nations of Earth plunged themselves into World War III over who was to blame for the Martian-project disaster and how to (forcibly) redistribute whatever resources, goods, and power was left of the former Federation of United Nations and ULARs.

Early Stellar Epoch (2365 - 2550)

By 2330, with the aid of the Moon Alliance, suspended animation technology is further developed, five scientists volunteer for the program to be watched in permanent stasis. The Martian Coalition together with the Rustichelli Engineering Solutions fund the building of the Dandelion, the first official interstellar vehicle. Mission to establish a camp in Proxima Centauri b utilizing autnomous Specter units as proxies for human labor. The mission launched in 2365 is a success broadcasted to the world in 2403, and in 2410, a second ship, the Paloma reaches planet Alma around Toliman without major issues.

Also during the late 2390s, OmniHaul Dynamics Inc. takes the lead in starting to build starships to take pioneers over to Proxima and Alma, given the trip is just over 23 years for both destinations. The first few ships get ready in 2418, plus a third one looking to send both humans, specters, and two synths over to Tuomi, a small planet around Wolf 359 in just under 40 years.

Late Stellar Epoch (2550 - 2805)

In 2600, Unable to sustain its overreach to fund and control distant colonies, the Coalition starts issuing corporate charters. These grant a company sovereign rights to develop a star system in exchange for taxes, resource shares, and adherence to broad laws. This creates the "Charter" worlds. The discussions are broad and fierce, and need to be debated across the human domain. Its why any decisions will only be final by 2600. However, some local powers in the Sol system such as the Venusian bloc and the outer moons pushback against that stance under the argument that centralizing power around the craddle of humanity is only moral and ethical way to disperse, even though costly, to ensure companies don't abuse their powers. The Coalition heavily militarizes its ultramarine force with the sole purpose to project power across the stars and oversee corporate action.

During this epoch, Sable-Rustichelli MRDO (S&R) takes over as the major interstellar logistics conglomerate and charter holder across the human domain.

In 2700, a wealthy, well-established corporate charter, Freehold (YZ Ceti), declares its de facto independence, refusing Martian oversight. The stretched ultramarine force is unable to compel them, forcing a tense negotiation that redefines the power balance.

By 2784, the Triple-A Charter takes over the Trappist-1 system, seing the success of the Freehold revolt. No major reprisals from the core, although, mlilitary presence was thickened everywhere else, which caused a major series of political unrests across the domain.

Solar Imperial Era (2805 - 3321?)

The unrests end partially with the Venusian coup of 2805, switching the core of humanity to a constitutional monarchy, the Solar Empire. Pouring massive resources into revitalization of old Coalition rule territories, although partially still under martian control by allegiance. Mars becomes the military backbone of the empire. All while terran nations and enterprises try to get a bite of the solar parlament with its own houses during this exchange of hats. After decades of infighting, administrative powers over local colonies (Sol) are conceded to Terrans once more, but Venus and Mars govern themselves under imperial rule.

From 2880 to 2924, the Lambdan Serpentian Question occurs, a generation-long campaign to pacify and integrate the native populations of Caput to the Solar Empire. By proxy, uplifting them to client species status of humanity.

The Universal Blackout (3321 - 4350?)

All the colonies knew in the following decades, one by one, was that Sol, followed by every major of the inner colonies, suddenly went dark. The outer colonies didn't know that yet, but their great distance from the human core would prove itself as their greatest advantage against what later ensued.

Theories and chatter sputtered all over the place for what started the Universal Blackout, from aliens, to insurrectionists or simply the outcome of the Great Human Civil War sabotaging the TRAMN array, to rogue artificial intelligence. The true nature of the Enemy however didn't matter. What it did matter, was that it sought out the complete disassembling of human civilizational infrastructure. When an organized resistance was put together, survivors accounted for a mere 0.2% of the original human population.

[end of files]

SCIENCE&ARTWORK | SABLE-RUSTICHELLI MRDO

Last updated: September 25th 2026

SABLE-RUSTICHELLI MARITIME RESOURCE AND DEVELOPMENT OFFICE

"For Everyone, Everywhere"

S&R's visual identity has largely remained unchanged since its origins in the late 2550s, mainly because updating stencils across interstellar space gets expensive

OVERVIEW

The Sable-Rustichelli MRDO — known colloquially as S&R, The Office, or Sable-Rusty to its detractors — was the dominant interstellar logistics and resource extraction corporate conglomerate of Old Humanity's expansion era. Operating from the mid-24th century through the late 33rd century, S&R was the commercial and logistical backbone of human expansion beyond the Solar System, functioning as the de facto interstellar arm of the Martian Coalition, and later, the Solar Empire.

In practice, S&R was a corporate leviathan. Holding sovereign charters over entire star systems, operating its own fleets, and effectively governing colonies on behalf of distant Solar-based authorities. It became a major player of the ITCA's (Inteplanetary Transport and Commerce Association, fund. 2142) review board in 2559.

At the height of its extension during the early 3000s, S&R valued at ~122 trillion Martian Marks (roughly 54 trillion 2020-US dollars), with an average annual revenue $13.66 trillion. Its massive globally distributed workforce (direct and indirect contractors) extended to over 18 million people, with ~4.6 million human employees in 2954. S&R's naval power operated about 221 starships simultaneously across human space, mostly within its charter space in an 18-month rotation, from freighters, to military transport, to exploratory vessels in deep space - with a focus on ensuring the company's presence in every facet of human expansion.

ORIGINS & HISTORY

In more ways than one, S&R history is deeply interwoven with human history during the human interstellar era, let's take a look at a summarized timeline...

    2155 - Sable Chronotactical Inc. founded as a military watch contractor, based on Czechia (Earth). Bulk of its initial success was due contracts with the Federation of United Nations and their outworld operations across the Solar system. At the center of S&R's Sol headquarters, a single wristwatch is displayed in a glass case. It is a reminder of the company's origins as a watchmaker, the device stopped ticking in August 2495 due radiodepletion of its battery.

    2230s - Sable pivots to shipping and packaging technologies as Sable Maritime Ltd., serving both private enterprises and the Federation up until their collapse, during the Martian Secession in the late 2290s.

    2427 - Sable Maritime partners with the Martian Coalition for the Epsilon Eridani mission. Launching the pilot starship program "Skipper", hoping to establish a looping logistics chain between nearby stars and the Solar system, but results wouldn't arrive until 2470.

    2435 - Sable Maritime starts pumping out starships to fill its contract with the Coalition, all while using this endeavor to field test its own proprietary Specters and Synths in the engineering department (mainly as a PR stunt, but then they started getting really good at it.) The newest frontier is set to Jubilee, a small frozen world around Ross 128, with ships that can pull up to ~24% lightspeed during cruise.

    2551 - Sable Maritime absorbs OmniHaul Dynamics Inc. (OHD) and their existing infrastructure after the partnership with the Martian Coalition. Then fuses with Rustichelli Engineering Solutions in 2557 (an outworld construction company based on Dallas, Earth) - creating the 'Sable-Rustichelli Maritime Resource and Development Office' (or simply S&R), and a jointed development achieves very stable Synths and 50% lightspeed. Humanity's interstellar roads now span 15 destinations across 13 systems within 20 light-years from the Sun, average travel time is cut down to 10-25 years, increasing the transit of personnel to and from the colonies to the Sol system.

    2600 - The Martian Coalition issues corporate charters to ease control pressures across the human domain. S&R becomes a primary charter holder, but the Coalition heavily militarizes its ultramarine force with the sole purpose to project power across the stars and oversee corporate action. Joint missions between the Coalition's Naval Intelligence Office and S&R become commonplace.

    2805 - Venusian coup establishes the Solar Empire, S&R aligns with the new imperial order, holding alone well over 40% of human space.

    2880-2924 - S&R heavily influenced imperial operations during the Lambda Serpentian Question and treaties with the locals of planet Caput (Lambda Serpentis c). A morally questionable enterprise but one that saved the empire decades if not centuries of troubles with its inhabitants, the insectoid Haskans. The Haskans continued to become part of the human interstellar diaspora as useful and at times, disposable assets.

    3000-3300s - This period of human history in general is muddled by a series of civil wars and skirmishes between large factions and corporations. Fragmentary records indicate S&R continued to faithfully serve the Solar Empire, heavily funding and arming the Solar side of the Great Human Civil War, mainly involved in the direct conflict between Sol-Alpha Centauri. It is unclear whether it continued to exist in any fair capacity after the Universal Blackout.

    4000 - Present - It is certainly extinct at present time.

CORPORATE PHILOSOPHY

The Civilizational Mission

S&R was not merely a profit-driven entity, at least, not at its core. The company's founders and old guard genuinely believed in a "civilizational mission" — the expansion of humanity across the stars, the building of infrastructure, the creation of a future that would outlast any single corporation or government.

This belief was genuine, but it was also convenient. S&R's mission allowed it to justify its power, its wealth, and its willingness to invest in distant, unproven ventures. The company was the practical arm of humanity's ambition, and it profited handsomely from it.

The Corporate Reality

S&R's corporate culture was a blend of military discipline and corporate ambition. Employees were expected to be loyal, hardworking, and willing to sacrifice for the mission. In return, they were given a share of the company's success, and a sense of purpose that was rare in the corporate world.

Beneath the noble mission was a sprawling, often ruthless corporation. S&R was very much...

• Essential. It built the infrastructure that made interstellar expansion possible.
• Exploitative. Its charter systems were often run as corporate fiefdoms, with workers treated as assets. 
• Contradictory. The same company that built hospitals also suppressed labor movements, the same company that funded scientific research also armed militias.

TECHNOLOGY & INNOVATION

Propulsion Systems

S&R was at the forefront of interstellar propulsion research since its cargo freighting days. Being a major sponsor of Project Archer (a probe mission to Alpha Centauri that never left the paper).

    Ion Drives. The TorrMikk-Mitsubishi ionic drivers, which powered early interstellar missions. S&R's early mass-production of ion propulsion made routine freight service across the inner Solar System economically viable.

    Plasma Drives. Pioneered by the Martian branch of TorrMikk after the Martian Revolution, later acquired by Sable Maritime in 2355 when the company went bankrupt.

    Udanium-Based M-AM Drives. The "wonder material" that made efficient relativistic travel possible. A synthetic superheavy metal with a 255-year half-life, able to power high-efficiency pion rockets.

By the late 2550s, S&R ships could achieve 50% lightspeed, and by 3000 CE, commercial/military ships typically pulled 0.75c, making interstellar travel practical on a generational scale.

Food and Medicine

S&R has long heavily invested in independent production of resources used in its operations, including food, medicine and pharmaceutical research.

    Cryo-stasis. Long-duration metabolic suppression allowing biological passengers to survive interstellar voyages lasting decades, with documented missions extending to approximately 50 years.

    Z-Egg and derivates. Initially created by FFGG Pharmaceutical in 2109 by its original founders Francesco Ferraro and Giorgio Galli, as a drug delivery system, which escalated into an industrial food base. Synthetic Eggs (or Z-Egg by its market name) is a chickenless, glutenless, lactose-free, gyroscopically stable lab-grown egg protein substitute - a market staple in outworld colonies since 2121, the patent has been held by Sable Maritime Ltd. since its expiration in 2215. Sable Maritime has since expanded the technology to synthetic carrots, chicken legs and breasts, beetroots, tortillas, tomatoes, mangos, broccolli, cauliflower, and Hakka drumsticks, among countless other synthetic ingredients and spices.

    Liquid Blue and derivates. Discovered in 2088 by Zhineng Auto, in its Guangzhou (Earth, Popular Republic of China) industrial plant, as a manufacturing residue from producing artificial intellgence kernels for specters. It is a high-density low viscosity temperature stable eutectic mixture that can be employed with graphite dust and petroleum jellies as an industrial lubricant. Its biologically inert for the most part, and Liquid Blue was even used as a carrier molecule for drug delivery and food colorante between 2105 and 2166, after which it was found to cause kidney cancer when broken down via radiation exposure. Its use as food colorant was completely phased out of Earth-usage by 2182, but some industries still use Liquid Blue (LU) as a cheap pigment in various applications. Other synthetic variants include Liquid Yellow (LY), which is actually deep red but a bright fluorescent yellow when diluted in jelly. Mixing LU and LY together actually makes Liquid Black (LK) which is a near pitch-black purple, which is by far the most used form of Liquid [COLOR], used as identification markers in stainable security systems in banknotes across the world since 2154. Sable Maritime has acquired all commercially significant uses of LU and LK in outworld operations since the Martian Revolution in the early 2300s.

Communication

    Transstellar Messaging Network (TRAMN). Initially developed during the pre-Coalition era to support efficient communications between the planets, moons, and orbital habitats of the Solar System, the network was inherited and extensively modernized by S&R. Expanded into an interstellar communications backbone, TRAMN links frontier settlements through dedicated communications stations (TRANSMTRs, or Transstellar Messaging and Telecommunications Relays) centered around steerable 900-meter radio dishes, equipped with autonomous stellar tracking systems and operating primarily in the X-band with RF outputs ranging from 50 to 900 kW.

At the receiving end, distributed antenna arrays operate in parallel, synthesizing a combined effective aperture for high-sensitivity signal detection and long-duration integration. This architecture enables reliable communications between colonies separated by tens of light-years, while maintaining compatibility with legacy Solar-era infrastructure.

Automation

S&R was a major developer of autonomous systems.

    Specters. Remote-controlled or semi-autonomous humanoid chassis, used in construction, combat, and hazardous environments. Although not remotely invented by S&R (late 20th and early 21st century), they have been producing specters since 2242. By 2439 Sable Maritime had outgrown other Earth-based competitors such as the nationalized brazillian Meireles&Souza Robótica, the voronesian Samosek Systems, the korean Kia, the japanese Yamaha, the chinese Zhineng Auto, and the american CMU Robotics.

    Synths. Properly 'Synthetic Personnel Units', they are advanced lifelike robotic units designed mainly for standardized social and administrative roles, became common in unmanned space exploration by the 2400s. Proprietary S&R technology.

By deploying autonomous units to handle the majority of its operations, the company reduced its human workforce to a manageable core of specialists and managers. This allowed S&R to scale its operations without the logistical burden of supporting millions of human employees across interstellar distances.

EXTENSION

The Charter Systems

The charter system was the foundation of S&R's power. In exchange for taxes, resource shares, and adherence to broad laws, S&R was granted sovereign rights over entire star systems. These systems were run as corporate fiefdoms, with company-appointed administrators, private security forces, and a legal system designed to maximize profit. The Coalition's and later, Imperial oversight was minimal, and S&R's authority was absolute.

Following, is a list of heavily S&R controlled worlds and systems within Human Space, note that although dense in these systems, corporate operations wasn't solely limited to those, depending on the scale and nature of different operations - such as personnel, equipment, or material transport, in fact, it was pretty common for multiple corporations to operate within the same system up until the 2800s, before the charter and corporate wars began, and then, the Great Human Civil War - at which point, S&R had absorbed or subsidized the majority of its competitors.

• Ross 128; Jubilee
• Epsilon Eridani; Aegis
• Groombridge 34; Port Royal
• Epsilon Indi; New Andorra
• Teegarden's Star; Granaria
• HR 8832; Odyssey
• Pollux; Aurora, Timandra (moon of Thestias)
• Lambda Serpentis; Sargasso, Caput, New Spirit
• Mu Arae; Pepe (moon of Cervantes)

OTHER CONCEPTS | SPACE WARFARE | PART 5 - HARD SCI-FI x STARFLEET

PITCHING A GREEK TRIREME AGAINST A WW2 WARSHIP

THIS POST CONTAINS QUITE TECHNICAL DETAILS AND SPECULATIVE COURSE OF ACTION

MEET THE COMBATANTS

Galaxy-class USS EANES, NCC-1434

(After Gil Eanes, portuguese sailor from the 1430s which ended the myth of sea monsters in the northwestern African coast)

In the Star Trek universe, Galaxy-class starships were put in service around the 2360s into the 2370s by the Starfleet, crewed by between 1000 to 6000 people; these 641 meter behemoths were usually designated as explorer ships. Like most Starfleet vessels, it is composed of a large saucer, a neck, and two warp nacelles.

The average speed for cruising can be around warp 6, though at times warp 9 is possible but risky for long periods.

Armaments include a total of 26 phaser arrays (halves above and below the saucer), 2 torpedo launchers (250 photon torpedoes), and antimatter mines, and of course the staple deflector shields.

There isn't much information about how powerful phasers can be, citations say it takes several seconds to melt through granite, for further strength calculations 1 second will be considered for 1kg, for a total power estimate of 1.7 MJ/s, or roughly 2MW. In the TNG series throughout episodes we can estimate that typical firing power for ship-to-ship combat is between 40 and 400 MW, the latter of which is more than enough to overpower the ship’s shielding.

The TNG manual says phasers travel just under lightspeed with an effective range of 300 thousand kilometers.

Photon torpedoes get their power from matter/antimatter annihilation, which releases great quantities of radiation. Photon torpedoes are warp-capable depending on model, traveling up to 0.17-0.2c, they have an approximate range of some 300 thousand kilometers, but this can be extended at the expense of torpedo yield to 3.5 million km. 

The series speaks of setting levels for torpedo yield, which commonly go from 1 to 16, called isotons, and at one time is said that a level 25 warhead could level a city, so I'd imagine they'd have the yield of tactical nukes overall, is implied that these levels are not linear, since a 54 isoton could blow up a planet. The Star Trek Next Generation Technical Manual page 129 says that about 1.1-1.5 kg of anti-matter are carried by your typical photon torpedo, and conversion parameters set the explosive yield at a maximum of 64,4 megatons, it could be less if the annihilation is not total.

So basically this ship's capabilities are taking out a ~4 km wide asteroid with a single torpedo (from the gravitational binding energy equation), and particle beans able to vaporize through up to 200kg of rock a second.

On the other side of the ring, we have a fleet designed by me:

All ships follow the same construction rules as the blog's flagship the Scitalis, including the camouflage pattern

SCITALIS-class Support Cruisers
(The Scitalis is a medieval beast that is said to possess beautiful shiny marks)

Each vessel is about 320 meters long, I calculated, given an overestimate of the density of submarines, for 400-600 kg/m³ to account for the plates, reactor and skirts, that each ship would have a dry mass around 50 or 60 thousand tons, or the weight of two moderately-sized battleships, it could be way less if it can be manned by a small crew, or none at all, which is why I'm counting on a computer to crew the ship.

 

In the last post I calculated that a decent spin for the ship would impart over 60 G of acceleration on the ends of the ship, and knowing that the tensile strength of steel is between 400-800 MPa, and that the ship has an overall cross-section of the deck of some 24-35m, the stress shouldn't be above 20 MPa per square meter, and so the ship wouldn't rip itself apart unless it is spinning anything over 160 rpm (as fast as the blades of a fan).

No warp drives or superluminal travel capabilities, minimum artificial gravity, top speed just about solar escape velocity at 50 km/s, no in-atmosphere flight capabilities. No energy shielding, relying on inclined and thickened steel plating for projectile protection, which can be as thick as 1 meter in the most critical parts, with effective thickness of 2-3 meters due sloped armor.

For weapons, each broadside is equipped with 75x 80mm 7,4 ton fast paced artillery guns (40 rounds/minute). And 6x 7,0 ton kinetic kill dispersers (basically a shotgun with 300kg of pellets a shot), firing in a 30° cone.
Making this ship 2% cannons by mass, muzzle velocity at ~850m/s for 10 kg artillery and 100g pellets.

The typical barrel life for WW2 warships was between 200 to some 300 shots depending on what cannon, while allowance (typical/minimum ammo carried) was up to half as much, with less than 50-60 shots fired per battle. By the same standards, since we have 150 cannons across the ship, our allowance is about 100 rounds per cannon, and our typical munitions cache is under 15 thousand rounds (150 tons of shells), had one vessel have to empty their stockpile, it would take approximately six minutes using a single broadside, costing us that whole set of weapons.

If the cannons on one side concentrate fire inside a 10 meter wide area, each salvo would impart over 270 megajoules of energy, or >1.73 MJ per m². 

Jaculus-class Gunships

(The Jaculus is a medieval beast, a flying serpent that hides on top of trees and strikes from above)

While the Scitalis-class hulls are pretty scary for their suppressive fire capability, a Jaculus-class ship, as the name suggests is intended to attack directly with a powerful strike. Because Jaculus ships are a big collective of heavy weapons, they must be scouted by lighter and faster ships which give them space and time to aim their salvos.

The frontal hull of the Jaculus possess parabolic geometry to deflect incoming shells, the main array of 7x 120mm cannons is endearingly called "Trumpets" as a reference to the trumpets in the book of Apocalypse, each shell weighing 20 kilograms, fired at 1,7km/s and 10 rounds a minute. With 1000 shells aboard, the ammunition types are broken in ¾ shaped explosives, and ¼ shredder rounds which break apart to maximize structural damage. The main arsenal in a Jaculus gunship are 24x 100kt plutonium fission warheads, these are usually kept unarmed and separated at different parts of the ship, in extreme situations the three-man crew will initiate the assembly which takes a few minutes, and then deploy the weapon.

The Jaculus cannot maneuver its individual Trumpet cannons, since they are mounted on the ship's structure. The whole vessel has to be pointing directly at the target as the small face size of the ship grants all cannons greater accuracy regardless of distance, for this reason it possesses greater turning capability than its companions.

A full Trumpet salvo can deliver >202 MJ of energy at once, making it as powerful as a Scitalis-class ship. Each side of the ship is lined with 15x 80mm cannons like the ones used in Scitalis-class ships, their purpose is purely defensive at first.

Archer-class Ranged Battleship

(I didn't find a beast cool enough to name it for its ability)

The Archer-class ships have very similar hulls to the Jaculus-class, but the Archers exchange caliber for range and speed, in place of 120mm cannons they sport 90mm with superior muzzle velocity, at 3 km/s, 20 rounds a minute, and 15kg shells. Most of their arsenal are shredder and cluster rounds. The ordinance that gives the ship hull its name are curved trajectory missiles and flashbang/flare charges, which are designed to fly along a predetermined curved path in the hopes of striking the target from an inconvenient angle, at adjustable speeds up to 5 km/s.

If Scitalis-class ships are in the middle of the battle, and Jaculus aim for the citadels, Archers rely mainly on taking down moderate value targets, like enemy ordinance, fighters, and peripherals as well as providing field intel and combat interference from a distance.

THE FIRST ENCOUNTER

2372.74, Omicron sector

Unknown presence detected moving across the UFP-Romulan neutral zone. The Federation fears another Borg threat. As of a few years ago, Starfleet has sent Galaxy-class USS EANES to verify the strange movements last seen near the Iconia system…

 

From the crew’s point of view the readings of the potential hostiles are not threatening, the detection of no shields and minimum vital signatures inside the group would raise curiosity but proceeding with caution is the order. The bridge would transmit their salutations and warnings in the name of the United Federation of Planets, but they answer with a negative, claiming the Iconia system and the ancient technology within it under their control.

The first encounter fleet is composed of two archers and two scitalis ships, captain Leonhardt from the USS Eanes orders the shields to be activated, and that the rebel fleet surrenders to the UFP. To no avail, the two archers strike first with a full cannon salvo against the starfleet ship, just to be stopped by the energy shield, an immediate surprise for the home side.

The Eanes crew is slightly less worried about the aggression capabilities of the enemy, as their attack didn’t even scratch their deflector shields a bit.

 

 

Their science official onboard is rather confused with the primitive armament they are being attacked with, the crew considers transmitting again, as the rising of a new spacefaring civilization sounds of importance to the Federation. Still, they are received with aggression, no known language in either side's catalog makes for a stable communication. As the weapons seem of no effect at all, the squadron starts to maneuver around the planet for a retreat.

I'm not sure about other captains, but I'm pretty sure it wouldn't be fair to fire back at such puny threat at first, as it had occurred several times across the series. Yet the Eanes follows the group around the planet, and as soon as the initial report from the fleet is analyzed in the next dozen minutes, a small object crosses space at some 10 km/s, from beyond the horizon in the direction of the starfleet ship. The collision with the frontal shields reveals that the object was a small 100 kiloton fission bomb, doing a small dip in the shields reading like those created by phasers in typical combat situations. Now this is the signal the crew needed to get ready for combat, despite less advanced, the civilization clearly sees them a threat to be dealt with, and so the crew decides upon showing who's boss, maybe this opens space for negotiation.

 

A 20-kiloton device can irradiate up to 100 R in a radius of 50km, using the inverse square law, we can say the explosion released 250 kR/km² at 1km from its center, this means that any nukes we launch at the Eanes here will be harmless to our computers and crew even at distances as close as less than 20-50km, as they are protected by 1m thick steel plating and possibly water as well (to get the radiation dose down to a billionth of the exposure), however, the radiation released by a photon torpedo would be so high, that the radiation would be lethal from as far as probably 500-1000 kilometers without some even thicker shielding. Although the starfleet ships have windows that would allow the radiation to penetrate, the deflector and cruising shields are good enough to deal with it during warp as usual, so I'm not even counting on giving the crew radiation sickness from a few nukes near the bridge.

THE SECOND ENCOUNTER

A few phaser beams are shot against the nearest battleships, cutting through the 1m thick steel plating and the ship's internals in less than 1 minute, depending on what exactly are phasers made of, it might not be very effective at all because of the shapes and structures of the hulls, but had it operate maximum effectiveness it would easily vaporize through 5 tons of steel in some 30 seconds, the rapid expansion of the material still causes explosions along where the beam hits. A ship hit with this sort of weapon for more than a pair of seconds anywhere will be taken out easily. No amount of nukes across the frontal shields of the Eanes will stop it, the fleet stops and regroups in a point far above the planet.

 

With the mutual silent cease-fire the two sides maneuver in space and observe each other.

The surviving scitalis ship relays the result of nuclear attacks as it retreats past the organizing defense fleet, composed of seven scitalis-class ships, four archers and four jaculus gunships, all of which start dispersing at full speed around space. The longer ships start to spin through space while the manned ships skim behind, keeping themselves locked with the Eanes on sight. The captain orders immediate response to the detected new wave of attacks. The scitalis ships cannons light in sequence like Christmas lights as they fire towards the pilons of the warp nacelles and neck of the Eanes, as they are seemingly the weakest structures of the ship, the rain of shells does not do much being promptly stopped by the shielding, the enemy crew orders the computers to concentrate fire on the closest of the warp nacelles to try and overwhelm the shields, maybe it could lower them on other parts of the Eanes. Seeing the shield lecture dip down little by little prompts the Eanes to start attacking the support cruisers but the phaser banks can't get a good reading nor straight shot through the erratically spinning ships, defensive sprays of buckshots also partially block the phaser beans that do manage to hit the ships for a fraction of a second at a time.

So here where the course of conflict diverges in two scenarios:

1. The release of single photon torpedo annihilates the whole enemy fleet, as I'm not counting they would be much further than a few hundred km from each other.
   
2. The crew agrees to not use PTs for their large destructive power, and because they still intent to establish dialogue. It is possible that the Eanes sustains significant damage if nothing is done about the aggressors.

- M.O. Valent, 17/07/2026

i forgot from when is this original draft

HUKAT, A TRAVELLER'S ACCOUNT

LANGUAGES OF THE DOMINION

HUKAT, A TRAVELLER’S ACCOUNT

“Hukat”, they call it. I was told by Chase (spelt Sha-Se, written as XSE), their medical officer, that it would be better this way, if I learned it and fast. If I ever wanted to complete my mission with Ayrio.

I’m still struggling with old Marsi, so I don’t even fully understand what Chase tells me half of the time, but, whatever this strange human, or Chelok language is, it is close enough to what I know to be useful. From what I understand, it's an old liturgical language of “my people”. He is rather surprised that I don’t know it nor hukat. Apparently a second-language to many of my kind.

I explained to him I am not Chelok. Though he very patiently nods at it, I know he is humoring me. Mind you, for a Specter, he is quite of a strong will and humor.

I’ve been his shadow since I’ve been forcefully “invited” to this settlement by his people. He’s the oldest among them, but repairs and spare parts have kept him good as new for almost a century.

There is something deeper about the language I still can't quite grasp. The spelling rules I can learn. Which syllables take stress, when to write K or Q, those are merely habits. The speech itself is another matter entirely. It seems their faces and nasal structure echo and blow some air in ways my flat, human, face cannot. So I’m left to fare with this strange idiom with whatever mother-nature has bestowed upon me.

Chase told me that I shouldn’t be afraid of not being able to say it. It’s a well known fact that Chelok, I mean, Humans, can’t really do it. So it is okay as long as I get the syllables right, I will be understood.

I at least learned how to read well. Well, spelling out loud I mean.

Just enough that through some educated guesswork, most words reveal themselves before me. The base roots are pretty simple, but the more specific a word gets, the concept behind a word becomes more abstract. The ancients had words for water, rock, and silver - but they couldn’t ever foresee something like gasoline or computer screens. Which they call, if translated literally from the compound words, “fastwater” and “bright canvas”, which sounds crude when worded like that, but I personally find it quite helpful for my hoku education.

It took me embarrassingly long to realize the letters weren't merely letters. Each one used to mean something before it became part of the writing system. Not every word still uses those meanings literally, but enough do that you begin to notice patterns. Two symbols together often suggest a broader idea, four or five may describe something surprisingly specific. Sometimes I can guess an unfamiliar word simply by recognizing two of its older roots.

The letters for “ground” (D, de) plus “measure” (G, gue) together make the word “short” (DG, dege). As if you are physically measuring the distance from the ground up.

Which is deceitfully simple to grasp at first. Until you arrive at something like “nation” (ZAEXOKU, zaaexoku). It is, simultaneously, wonderful for my education and terrible for my sanity, very stackable in the way it produces words from simpler concepts.

I still have some difficulty figuring out what parts of words are the actual roots and which are descriptors or specifiers. I'll word it like that. Though the order of the compoundings seems rather consistent most of the time.

And don’t get me started on valency, placeness, intensity, and verb direction. Heavens, what a nightmare.

The hoku. Perhaps safer to say, these hoku, in my current ignorance. Refer to MOST concepts in what Chase has explained to me as “positive” or “affirmative” direction. Which, as far as I could research from old magazines and books and even an old hard-cover dictionary, means that ABOUT HALF of the words in this god-forsaken tongue don’t formally exist anywhere.

Sure, they ARE USED, in writing, and speech. But they don’t exist the same way it exists in Marsi, Anglis, or Franque, or even Latin for all I know. Every verb seems convinced reality comes in directions.

"Flow" (FXF, fixafi) exists.

"Not flowing" (MVFXF, mevifixafi) exists.

"Reverse flow" (MNFXF, mnefixafi) also exists.

Same word, three completely different verbs. To go, to go nowhere, and to return.

Apparently every action wants to know who's doing it, who's receiving it, and whether either of them ought to exist in the sentence at all. Chase called it Valency. The Hoku seem perfectly comfortable with this arrangement. I am not.

Then comes what Chase calls Placeness. A thing isn't merely a thing. It's also somewhere, becoming somewhere, belonging somewhere, or existing in some state I still haven't figured out. Which I think gives the language some poetic liberty, but also makes me look either uneducated or insane when trying to speak, alongside grammatical genders and imperatives.

I find Intensity, alongside direction, the most important part of the language in the sense that it produces more words with recognizable meanings at a glance. In crude terms, it's how large your subject is.

Think of “animal” (QIUK, qiuko).

A very small animal, such as a vermin or small bug is a qiukegi (KIUKEGI), but a large beast is an aaqiuko (AAQIUK), while a mythical monster is a qiukosage (QIUKSG).

I won’t even delve into derivational morphology and determinant articles because even though my notes are still incomplete, after almost a year among them, it seems pretty standard to them, of course it is. But they often get the memo when I say “drink”, “eat”, “you” or “us” anyway. Some gestures and mime often help bridging the gap, they seem to do the same to me when speaking.

I must admit that, because learning hukat seems more convenient for me at the time, it is beginning to be an intuitive bridge between Titan and whatever is this Chelok language. By simply looking at the way the Hoku translates these strange words.

I can’t wait for you to have a crack at it, Galileo. I’m sure you and Chase would do well with one another, and hopefully, give me some subtitles in my helmet visor soon.

The big day is tomorrow. I’ll see you in the desert, my friend.

Ian, sol 181, whatever year you reckon it to be