YGIV PEOPLES

Ygiv (neutral vulgar, nonfaction specific)

Qesaxakuho (Whisperers, by the Hoku)

Iurr'nakai (Whimpering Ones, by the Raydee)

Aa'Ruhuhassar (Blue Ones, by the Arrene)

Yig-Yith (Smart Ones, by themselves)

Last updated: June 24th 2026

COLLECTIVE SUMMARY

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The Ygiv civilization had just started to use radio waves when they were detected by the Arrene. The Thosuo ultramarine fleet arrived within 30 years for first contact, circa 11,088 CE. Joined the Luminary Combine in 11,155 CE (3500 BdF)

Joined the Dominion in 14,650 (0 AdF), with the defeat of the Luminary Combine in the Battle of Argost (extra-signatary).

Origin

The planet Aa'rihuteshqatar (Arrene name, often shortened to Rihuta or Serenity by others), in the Osuna system (-114, -17, 49), a double-K binary about 54ly from Argost, 25ly from Thosuo.

Rihuta is a tropical oceanic world surrounded by small moons, it has a characteristic blue color from space given its shallow oceans, bluish vegetation and blue inhabitants, the Ygiv. The other Ygiv population center is the colony world of Kaegaels, a neighboring star system that the Arrene had later populated with them (initially as cattle, later employed as a workforce). Though nowadays, the Ygiv are mostly ubiquitous to the Arrene Core and its dozen worlds.

Description

Being 2’2” to 4’0” tall, 4 to 6ft long, and 40 to 60kg, the Ygiv are lizard-like hexapods in a centaurine posture. Their most prominent feature besides anatomy are their two pairs of pitch-black eyes dominated by one much larger pair, and their deeply azure or sky blue skin pigments. They possess several appendages on their heads that serve sensory and communication purposes, flushing with blood and picking up bright red colors, which means they very visibly blush and bruise, which means they are commonly seen in armor or protective clothing/uniforms not unlike humans.

Their speech is akin to whispers and raspy vocalizations, with some high frequency notes, their languages are popular vulgata among travelers for their ease of learning, mainly Common Nagiv.

Their multiple appendages mean they are very skillful artists and builders, that combined with their genius actively worked in favor of them when faced with becoming food or a slave caste of the Combine. The Treaty of Forzai largely liberated up the Ygiv population, although it hasn’t necessarily freed them.

Spacetravel

Common proton rockets for in-system travel.

Proprietary interstellar mode nonexistent.

Often accompany other species' crews during interstellar travel as a workforce.

Relations

Officially friendly to foreign powers. Non-territorial, social collectivistic, curious anc creative. Largely exploited, second-class citizens across the Dominion.

Fleet size numbering the hundreds.

Population estimated at 50 to 100 billion across the Dominion core.

No civilizational goals, aligned power.

Hostile relationships with qire, positive relationships with the humans, neutral with hoku and arrene.

Civilization has been long assimilated, the Ygiv live for about 70 years.

OTHER LINKS

The Osuna System (homesystem)

SCIENCE&ARTWORK | THE HOKU | STELLAR ERA

FINAL YEARS OF THE PRE-STELLAR ERA

At the time of the Great War, there were six great nations at odds with one another.

• Ent'Shelari Republic
• Dahetian Republics
• Hukatian Empire
• North and South Sidessia (in civil war)
• Kalopan Empire
• Farkade Union

Heavily disputing control of the globe at least for the past century or two.

Thrown against each other in dirty resource wars to feed their ever expanding industry and war machine, regional conflicts soon had these powers meet with each other. Fully bloomed world war. Each fighting on multiple fronts against multiple declared enemies - both deploying terrible weapons against one another, just as soon as they were developed live on the frontlines.

The armsrace had made it so the sun hadn't shined in half a decade. Records of this time are rare and sparse, often removed from context by the movements of the tribes that remained. Legend has it, a small circle of generals accorded to finally put a stop to the massacre. It is unclear if the technology was intentionally leaked, or if it developed independently. But someone had finally split the atom. It didn't matter to that circle who had it, they knew it had to be used if they wanted to fix the world, if they wanted to reset the cycle of violence. If the world had to be burned so it could truly flourish again, if all flags had to be burned to unite everyone, so it had to be done.

It was the last day of summer, 92 PSE.

600 million gone in an instant.

The ash, the radiation, and the scavengers, claimed the remaining 6 billion in the following decade.

YEAR ZERO

The southern regions of the world, mostly a vast sea populated by a single continent, were largely unaffected by the exchange and its effects. Without global trade or ultramarine enemies left to fight. The handfull of organized groups and states that remained in the south continent coalesced into the Commonwealth of Sidessia.

Though, the reality of the aftermath of the nuclear war is that most of the northern lands were far too razed to occupy. Though nature always found a way to creep back in. And so the Commonwealth learned quickly. They too had to adapt.

Engineers, doctors and ecologists alike worked to create variants of known crops and cattle, resistant to the radiation, resistant to the terrible climate that slowly waned... Then it occurred to them, if designing was the key to survival in a new world - then why not redesign themselves?

The result of these decades of research, questionable, inhumane, but deemed VITAL research, were the Kahikōpafi (better translated as "divine servant", or crudely "angel"). The Angels were a mass-produceable workforce designed to clear and re-settle the northern wastelands. Greater resistance, greater strength, superior intellect, balanced by constant work-load, constant oversight, and short lifespans. Easily spotted by their characteristic looks, it was almost impossible to miss those 'elite slaves' amidst the public - and oh they tried.

As the employment of Angels grew. So did the public sentiment that these beings were something else, something more than mere tools sent to work in no-man's-land, something more than lead-soldiers to be cast and mowed down by conflict.

Each generation of Angels meant a different conflict between demand, performance, and the public perception. Different skillsets, different lifespans, different patches in behavior patterns and social skills. Even limited breeding generations for the farthest reaches of the land.

Them Angels fought hard to earn a spot. And a well deserved spot indeed, they had brought that world up from the ashes almost entirely on their own. By the time of the Somoga Event, it had been almost three centuries the Angels had become the Hoku's right hand.

And the promise of freedom came with one last pharaonic task - run for the stars.

Within a few years of building the Somoga Square Zaega Array (Okuiuka Zaaega Iutso det Somoga, O.Za.I.So. literal for Plateau), a radio telescope range, the Somoga Event happened. A stream of radio, gamma rays and radiation all across the high energy spectrum. Peaking on a cluster of stars in Hokushoku's celestial south. The energy levels required to produce such an event from this distance - the physicists reckoned, would require destruction on a planetary scale - compatible with the deployment of a theoretical superweapon, a relativistic missile. No other explanations satisfied the case.

They had barely any chance to ask themselves if they were alone. The forest echoed a roar back at them.

GOLDEN STELLAR ERA

Sending Angels and Hoku to nearby planets in their own system was quite above ordinary - compared to what they had previously achieved on the surface of their homeworld. Settling their neighboring ice world of Namenza with a permanent Angel and Hoku population. But looking up at the stars, require some far more sophisticated leaps.

The Specter, as the Chelok call them, was a natural step in manning missions sent to distant moons, planets - and then stars. The specter chassis varied with the designated tasks, from being simple cores operating whole factories, to UAVs and UTVs, down to being more avipodomorphic with recognizable and relatable faces and expressions, working as police, healthcare, or assistant units worldwide and offworld.

The development of better and even more autonomous AI allowed the hoku to dare sending precurssor missions at various extra-solar planets during their first stellar era, both habitable and uninhabitable worlds, these robotic missions had the same intent of their first efforts, pave infraestructure and acquire intel for the upcoming organic population, once they figured how the hell one does safely traverse interstellar space.

Auot'zae never became habitable again in its full extension because of the still radioactive zones, but the fallout had thinned enough in areas which could be treated and recovered with work. Because many northern cultures and technologies were lost, groups of kahikopafis adopted the ancient languages, and custoums of these lost civilizations as their own, while some created entirely new ways to have a sense of ownership over their fates, hence why we see the reapperance of old tongues such as Hukat and Entselari throughout off-world populations later on.

The Dominion is densely populated with stars, however, many of these harbor dead or gaseous worlds. Very few were deemed high-priority targets for the Hoku's purpose: Escape the Dominion grasp, whatever it was.

The closest of such worlds was aptly named Muhori (in Sidessian mythology, it is an island where demigods reside), some 20 light-years from the Paza system. A brand new, barren and young, oceanic world.

In their early attempts to settle this distant jewel, the Hoku also independently developed what they would later recognize as the modern Starlane. An excavated "tube" in the interstellar medium that allows for safe relativistic travel.

The first crewed ships to cross the void were egg-ships, which incubated an Angel crew in the final two decades of their century-long trip to settle Muhori. Though specter crews were sent to that and other likely target at close to twice that speed.

In the 1000 years since the last great war, the Hoku Expanse (Azapaxako Hoku) had already set foot on five new worlds beyond its home system. But not all worlds were as welcoming as Muhori.

FIRST ENCOUNTER WITH THE CHELOK

One world called their attention heavily. Qekohoshoku - the golden world. A tropical world with golden vegetation reminiscent of their own homeworld. When the Expanse got there in 734 SE (7,929 of the Ecumenical Era, by Chelok reckoning), they met a local population of Chelok. Their first contact with alien society which they weren't aware existed at the time.

The locals received their extraterrestrial visitors with warm, and told stories of the greater Chelok domain, a string of 'island nations' that crossed straight through the Expanse's claim to the heavens. The population of Qekohoshoku however, was an estranged strain of the Chelok Empire, the presence of the Expanse would be tolerated, but deals and commerce would probably have better success dealing straight with the administrative core of humanity, at Dheghom.

And so the Hoku did use what they had learned on Qekohoshoku and took their case to Dheghom - albeit on a cautious foot.

Meeting the Chelok was a far more underwhelming event than what the tales and the allure for the strange would have you believe. Very few trips, mostly letters through beamed lasers. To the Hoku, they seemed far too firmly planted in place, far too preoccupied with themselves, far too unconcerned about whatever it was they witnessed almost a millenium ago.

'The Dominion'. It had a name, and the Chelok knew of it, had dealt with it. They were there at its founding. With a concerned expression, they told the Hoku what they knew. From what they understood, they had little to fear for themselves in the time being, but they also didn't condemn the Expanse's posture about keeping their distance of it, lest they did not cross humanity.

The exchanges between the Chelok Empire and the Hoku Expanse marked the end of the golden stellar era, and the start of the lower stellar era.

LOWER STELLAR ERA

In 1739 SE, an Expanse expedition mission stumbled on another silent civilization around their north celestial hemisphere. The Nan-Nan of Anaya. A world just shy of 25 light-years from the Expanse colony of Voliloshoku. A race of stout water-adjacent reptilians, highly empathetic, idealistic and curious beings, just getting the hang of launching their first satellites. Peacefully integrated them into the Expanse via various technology trade accords. A significant fraction of Nan-Nan now lives in multiple hoku worlds and trade routes.

It had been almost a thousand years since their meeting with the Chelok. During a uneventful winter night of 1977 SE, a strange object pierced the comet cloud of the Muhori system at hyperbolic velocity, recorded in photographic plates that wouldn't be revised until decades later.

Ground telescopes looked for any new comets for that season, but amongst the bright comets they noticed outgassing and ices spraying and settling on the surface of a very dark object past the asteroid belt, later observation lead to finding the object in a very inclined and hypebolic trajectory, which meant the object did not originate from within the systems sparse comet cloud, instead, it pointed the heart of the Dominion... Authorities kept the existence of the object a top secret and limited the use of large telescopes to avoid employees and students from leaking the news, they only had a six-year window to study the object before it were catapulted out the system. It took a few weeks for the rendezvouz with the object, within a month of mission Kooratalil (in hoku mythology, the serpent that guards the gates of the Underworld) decent visual contact with the object could be made, about 752 meters long, a constellation of debris surrounded the bulky halved starship, the dark metal coating the lizard-like armor plates were flaking away due at least four millenia of micrometeorite impacts.

Exploring the ship revealed that this half seemed to be the lower deck and engine module of a sort of warship, given the amount of warheads and antimatter storage equipment, no crew in sight, but enough biological samples were collected for several species to be cloned in-vitro back on Muhori by our xenobiologists. To this day a top secret, maybe buried under files no one alive knows about.

The warship couldn't be slowed down without risking being too public about it, and so the government scanned and collected everything they could about it and allowed it to drift away into space. The problem with the whole secrecy of the operation is that you can't tell people not not go there because you don't want them to know something is actually there. Less than 3 years later, the crew of a comet-mining ship stumbled upon the dark vessel, taking time to document, explore and stream it for the whole world to see, while they attempted to jump-start it for several days, too far to be jumped upon by the authorities, they finally managed to turn the warship on, which immediately cried for help before being shut off. The crew of the Pearly Tear IV was trialed and executed for high treason in-situ upon arrival of the navy.

"THE PING"

... As the event would come to later be called by the public was a day of panic worldwide, for centuries the consensus was that the we were safe for as long as they kept moving away from the Dominion, and now that the Ping was sent, it was only a matter of a century or two before They showed up inside the Hoku Expanse. Although the panic was quickly settled out by the authorities, various commands and investments were issued in further developing weapons and combat ships for a possible disastrous first contact with the races of the Dominion, this Lower Stellar Era had its development focusing on faster and smaller maneuverable starships, energy-based and relativistic weapons.

The intent of miniaturizing combat-able ships and starships was to ease in the manufacturing effort and the formation of potential resistance militias across Hoku space. This wasn't much of a problem due the common traditions of the spacefaring peoples, there was no shortage of work and technological niche opportunities in the industry, and the time for the outsider's arrival had been set into the foreseeable future, thus infighting almost completely ceased.

Soon enough, many of the hoku born into the LSE were enrolled into local militias, interstellar patrol groups and radar stations across known space, waiting for the Dominion to respond to the ping.

The Chelok at their nearby homeworld of Dhéģhōm were the first to detect the ping some 50 years later, and immediately frowned upon the trading with us, because they were bringing the Dominion closer to them and such an encounter could have unpleasant consequences.

At the time being, the south polar star of Auot'zae, Kuoosate'zapa (or Forzai, by its arrene name) was the nearest Dominion system and the first to respond the Ping. The message took 78 years to reach Forzai, a decade-long discussion resulted into an escorted First Contact fleet with ten vessels. Which weren't noticed until their decelleration plume shone at the edge of the comet cloud like a nova directed at them.

THE HOKU JOIN THE DOMINION

It was then, in 2239 SE, that the Dominion revealed themselves to the Hoku, not as a monolith. But as multi-race 'colaborative framework'. Chelok members, the Ygiv, a few Saffi, the Arrene, and ONE Qire science officer.

They refuse to elaborate on the nature of the events that created the Somoga Event, testimonies are hard to cross - but they do make it clear it was not going to happen ever again.

The Dominion has plenty of space and resources for both civilizations thousands of times over, there was nothing the we personally had that was of interest to them, except our known biospheres, which as arguably non-negotiable given the scale of the Arrene force. Private groups however had great interest in trading and learning the ways of the hoku to sell their culture and artifacts as novelties back in the Dominion's capital worlds.

Many Hoku, mainly as researchers, opted for returning with the diplomatic fleet to the heart of the Dominion to learn more and establish a viable pacific presence within, in such a way as to have a representative seat within the community. This was quite a historic moment for both parties, for the arrene, it would be a chance to start pacific relations from the start with a new race. Given the first encounters with the Chelok and Qire were pretty disastrous, not to speak from the outright oppressive way they colonized the Yigiv people before they became a spacefaring civilization as preemptive action.

The Hoku are considered to have joined as soon as the diplomatic fleet knocked at their doorstep, although bureocracy held that a few decades to be effected. Shortly followed by the Nan-Nan, a century after. Though more like an alternate arm of the Dominion, a distant neighbor state rather than part of it, nonetheless given the power and technological disparity, many saw the relationship as a creeping assimilation. It was not without reason, the hoku had clear motives to gulp, being under a Qire Duke's command at times.

DOMINION ERA

With a population of 40 billion at the time, the Hoku Expanse had no shortage of work to be done, though many repetitive tasks were acomplished by machinery, we were reaching a near post-scarcity societal stage, with very few places struggling with obtaining sustenance or resources and only for a lack of heavy equipment, since the off-world colonies needed vast amounts of supplies and tech coming from the core worlds in order the keep productivity and growth rate. The terrible weather and acessibility meant many of those colonies would make it cheaper to manufacture machinery in nearby asteroids, moons, or simply import it from the Dominion's merchant flocks and scout ships. So while the core worlds and capital colonies across the Expanse concentrated the Hoku tech and prowess, the Dominion basically taught colonists how to survive in those extreme environments in which the we were just barely able to settle, given the greater reliability in delivery times by the faster Arrene and Qire ships.

Because of the political reasons behind the expanse, colonies never had any necessity of rebel against the Hoku domain because they weren't really being pressured to produce any goods, their only goal was to be there as a backup in case of catastrophic fail of mainland society, of course, from time to time, companies, private groups, and the navy would bring new technology, goals, and gratifications to the most succesful settlements. Over time, several moon, belter, and farmer colonies were simply abandoned by succeeding generations, because of lack of greater opportunity and goals, with populations migrating towards the core worlds and even venturing into the dominion.

Though the Expanse did not posess any goods that peaked further interest within the Dominion, apart from the occasional novelties, the paved starlanes were still of importance for Dominion scouts and researchers because it signified safe paths to reaching further regions of space of particular interest like nebulae and potentially habitable star systems, without risking slow and dangerous trips across the frontier. Allowing them to remain close to civilization in case of emergencies while they venture into uncharted space.

This state of peace lasted 1000 Chelok-years, and were recorded as one of the most prosperous periods in Hoku history. A period before the 'Unrelenting Force' came upon us...

HOKU EXPANSE

Hoku (vulgar neutral, nonfaction specific)

Azapaxako Hoku (The Hoku Expanse, by themselves)

Last updated: June 26th 2026

COLLECTIVE SUMMARY

The Hoku Expanse flag, the lotus and their seven member worlds

The Hoku Expanse is an ultramarine governmental entity responsible for resource administration and development of the hoku interstellar diaspora. It was assembled after the Somoga Event sometime between 190 and 140 BdF.

First contact with the Dominion in 2548 AdF.

Joined the Dominion in 2553 AdF, as an aligned neutral power.

Origin

The binary star system Paza (86, 36, 75), ~120ly from Argost.

The Hoku homeworld is an oceanic tropical superterran with one small moon, with a circumbinary orbit around the system's suns. Outsiders and foreign Hoku alike call the planet 'Hokushoku', but the natives call it Auot'zae. The geography and atmosphere is pretty Earth-like and hyperoxic due to higher atmospheric pressure - its greatest feature however is the autumnal-colored vegetation, often golden, due an alternative pigment to green chlorophyl.

The Hoku naturally have a strong preference for Earth-like oceanic worlds with a warm climate, but their forced early diaspora has pushed them towards many worlds on the edge of their species adaptability threshold.

Description

Being 5'0" to 7'6" tall bipeds with marsupial-bird-reptile traces, they weigh 60 to 120kg, known to be viviparous with joeys as their young. Possess long conical faces, two pairs of eyes with a smaller and larger pair positioned further on front and back, respectively on the sides of the head, with rectangular-ish vertical pupils. Have three pairs of long ear-like appendages used for emotional communication and hearing on the back quarter of the head. Mostly covered by a fur-like plumage in various earthy colors plus white, black and red. Their hands have two thumbs on the same side of the hand, making them excellent grabbers and complex manipulators.

Hallmark trait of Hoku is their vibrant sexual dimorphism - with males exhibiting redder skin, vibrant often brazen or golden neck plumage and varied bright feather patterns - and females exhibiting lighter skin with muted feather colors ranging from browns to bluish grays, with some sparingly orange, blue or green plumage.

Besides their exotic upper body, their main feature are their running short-shinned digitigrade legs with zygodactyl feet (bird legs and feet), which has earned them the chelok species-tag, “Avipodan”. Their customs and small point teeth point to a mostly insectivorous but omnivorous diet.

The hoku can be found across a spectrum of two sub-species, the base emotional hoku (Avipoda sapiens cer), and the calculating ingenious Kahikoopafi (Avipoda sapiens sidus), the latter which was engineered for early space colonization, now the majority of its surviving population. Cybernetic augmentation is common place but deemed largely optional and cultural.

Hoku languages like Hukat, Sidessian and Entselari are common for Pankal humans to adopt as a second language due their vicinity and long trade history.

Spacetravel

Hoku technology across space can be found at various states of development despite efforts to modernize its fleet and arsenal. Interstellar vessels range from lightsails, ionic and proton rockets, up to the latest proprietary Pionic A-M/AM drivers. The hoku are one of the oldest client species to Chelok tech since around 15,780 CE (2400 years!). Typical travel speed between γ~1.025 and γ~6.5 depending on available proprietary transports.

Relations

Officially neutral to foreign powers. Non-territorial, politico-social clan-based society, curious. Fragmented, can be volatile/reckless or calculating/apathetic/psychopathic as individuals, variable degree of xenophobia.

Fleet size numbering the hundreds of thousands.

Population currently estimated at least 50 to 60 billion across the Dominion, could be a lot closer to ~80bi as of 18,000 CE due census imprecision.

No other civilizational goals than reorganizing, power for hire.

Faction-dependent loyalties, historically unanimously friendly towards Chelok and negative towards the Arrene.

OTHER LINKS

The Hoku Expanse (domain)

The Paza System (homesystem)

Hokushoku (homeworld)

Hukat Mythos (worldbuilding)

The Fall of Hokushoku (short story)

History Overview (worldbuilding)

- Pre-Stellar Era

- Stellar Era

24th birthday and mapmaking in progress

répi bürfdei chu iuu, répi bürfdei chu iuu~

Hi, it's me, mrValent. I know I haven't been a lot actively lately, mainly through this last semester up until like two or three weeks ago - truth is, I've been through some depression episodes badly later, and honestly I'm struggling with college.

But hey! Now that the semester is over, I can get back to some intensive worldbuilding and writing for the Beyond the Final Frontier series, posting some more lore and trivia here on Hard Sci-Fi. Lately I've been working on the Dominion's Astrography, plotting some real and bright stars we can see all the way up here on Earth, that sure will be a delight for those who enjoy some really neat maps and realistic settings! I'm sure regular readers have already noticed that the Dominion main page has received a few updates.

I gotta admit, initially when I picked the Coalsack Nebula region to situate my small universe, I didn't think it would give me this much work, but WOW I picked a really complicated region to work with! - I will see what do I do about some problematic features if any show up, thankfully, this is fiction and literature, I can allow myself to get away with a few minor tweaks, can't I?

Plus, the other main reason, besides neat maps, behind all this mapmaking work is for me to plot dates and travel times accurately for the storytelling aspect. I had to reposition some canon three star systems because of this, already, fun.

Well, that's the main updates I wanted to give you guys, see you later! Probably around Christmas or new years. Happy holidays.

- M.O. Valent, 11/12/2025

NO STARS ABOVE THEM | FINAL

Seven days...

The world had been ground down to a fine, grey paste. The swamp was a photograph left out in the rain, all detail bleached away by a fog that clung to everything. It didn’t move. It just was, a wet, silent shroud over still black water and the bones of dead trees.

Five military trucks, their green paint scoured down to bare, scarred metal, formed a slow-moving caravan through the murk. They were the last clenched fist of an army that no longer existed, now just a shell protecting the soft, breathing things inside.

In the back of the third truck, under stained canvas, the survivors sat in silence. Everyone wore a mask. The adults had the blank, round eyepieces of standard-issue respirators. The children wore pathetic, handmade things. Scarves and cloth fitted over scavenged filter canisters. The little girl slept against Gora’s side, her breath rattling softly. Kalene was a ball of silent shivers in Lalene’s lap, his eyes too wide, seeing nothing.

Lalene’s other arm held nothing. The space where Favo should have been was a cold, aching void.

Beside her, Chase sat with his back rod-straight, a monument to duty in a world that had forgotten the word. His chassis was a log of fresh damage: black burns across his chest plate, a deep dent in one shoulder that made his arm hang at a wrong angle. In one hand, he turned the steelglass data chip over and over. His glowing eyes were dim, fixed on the middle distance, processing nothing.

The air bit with a cold that seeped into the bones. From the uniform grey above, a thin, silent snow fell. It wasn’t snow. It was ash. The powdered remains of cities and forests and lives, falling in a gentle, perpetual funeral. It was already inches deep, softening the outlines of the wreckage that littered the swamp: the hulk of a main battle tank sat half-sunk beside the colossal, segmented leg of a fallen Strider, both just strange, grey shapes under the same blanket.

The lead truck’s brakes groaned. The convoy shuddered to a halt.

A figure climbed onto its hood, movements stiff with a tiredness deeper than muscle. His gray uniform was a Vice-Admiral’s, or it had been. Now it was torn and stained, the gold thread tarnished black. A battered greatcoat was draped over his shoulders. He raised a pair of thermal binoculars, scanning the solid wall of fog ahead.

The ash settled on his greasy hair, swept back from a face of sharp angles and deeper shadows. A old, y-shaped scar ran from his left temple down to his jaw, pale against the grime.

Vice-Admiral Tityus Kyte.

One week ago, his voice had moved fleets from the bridge of the *HNS Resolute*. Now he was squinting into a poisoned mist, pathfinding for a convoy of ghosts.

He lowered the binoculars. His breath fogged the inside of his mask. He didn’t speak.

— Sir? — Captain Alira Vos climbed up beside him, her own uniform hanging loose.

— One-five. Three-fifteen. And nine hours... — Kyte didn’t look at her. His voice was a dry rasp.

Vos nodded. The last echoes of a broken command.

Kyte finally turned his head. His eyes, dark and sunk deep, met hers through their lenses.

— Tell everybody to keep their heads down. Fire on my sign.

Vos gave a ghost of a salute and dropped down, moving between the trucks, whispering the order to the haggard marines and specters.

A minute bled into the silence. Just the idle rumble of engines.

Then, from the heart of the fog, a shape. A rocket, trailing fire. It screamed out of the grey, missing the hood by less than a meter, searing the air past Kyte’s head. It struck the drowned tank behind them. Mud and metal fragments rained down. Kyte didn’t flinch.

— FIRE!

His own voice was a raw tear in the quiet. He drew his sidearm, a heavy, six-chambered silvery revolver, and fired into the fog.

BOOM

Muzzle flashes answered from the whiteness. Not the red screech of alien plasma. The sharp, familiar crack of Hoku rifles. Figures in rags and scavenged armor advanced from behind the bone-trees. Desperate, sunken faces. They fired at the trucks, at the marines who returned fire from behind wheels and fenders.

The fight was short, brutal, and almost silent. No screams, no shouts. Just the mechanical trade of death.

It was over in less than a minute. The ambushers fell, or bled back into the fog. Silence returned, now heavy with the stink of cordite and opened bodies. Kyte stood on the hood, his revolver still extended. He pulled the trigger.

*Click.*

He cycled the drum.

*Click.*

He pulled again.

*Click.*

The gun was empty. His bandaged hands trembled violently, working the mechanism over and over, the dry *clicks* sounding like a broken clock. His shoulders began to shake.

A sound escaped his mask, distorted. A wet choke. Then a ragged, heaving sob that twisted in his throat into a sharp, broken laugh. Another sob, another laugh, tangling together into a manic, shuddering crescendo. He threw his head back and yelled at the shrouded, ashen sky. A raw, wordless howl of grief, rage, and absolute defeat.

Tears cut clean tracks through the filth on his scarred face behind the mask.

Vos watched her commander come apart. She gave him ten seconds of the awful sound. Then she turned away, her face set like stone.

— Search the bodies. — her voice was flat, final. — All ammunition. All weapons. Any food, any medicine. Leave nothing useful.

The marines moved out, grimly efficient. They rolled over the dead, men and women in militia rags and tattered army gear. Starving faces, cheeks hollowed, eyes wide even in death. They had died for a few cans of rations and half-spent power cells.

Gora watched from the truck bed, her arm tightening around the little girl. Lalene pulled Kalene’s face into her chest, shielding him. She didn’t need to see. She understood. This was the market now. This was the economy. Chase’s head turned, his head tracking a marine picking up a dropped rifle. His hand closed into a fist around the data chip, its edges biting into his synthetic palm. The chip held the blueprint of the enemy, their purpose, their flaws. The most vital intelligence of the age. It was worth less than the half-eaten nutrient bar being pulled from a dead man’s pocket.

Kyte’s laughter died, guttering out into shuddering silence. He lowered the empty revolver, his whole body sagging. He wiped his face with a bandaged hand, smearing ash and tears. He took a long, ragged breath that fogged his mask, then another, forcing air in and out until the tremors stilled.

He looked at his marines looting the dead, the swallowing fog, the gentle, cursed ashfall. He looked back at the trucks, at the masked, silent faces in the gloom.  Vos climbed back up, handed him a canteen. Kyte took it, swished the water in his mouth, spat a dark stream into the grey at his feet.

— Mount up, — Kyte said, his voice a hollow scrape once more, all feeling burned out. — We’re burning daylight.

The engines revved. The convoy lurched forward, leaving the fresh dead to the quiet swamp and the soft, ceaseless ash. It fell on the coastal cities turned to fused glass a thousand kilometers away. It fell on the gutted hulls of starships in silent orbit. It fell on the massive, indifferent ships that still drank the seas, their work uninterrupted.

In 02.35/3504 AdF, Hokushoku and its planet-wide security forces fell after twenty seven hours of resistance against the Unrelenting Force.

But in the silent, grey twilight of the world that was left behind, the true battle for the surface had just begun.

— M.O. Valent, 01/12/2025

<< PART 6

NO STARS ABOVE THEM | PART 6

— Chase? Chase! FUCK, WAKE UP CHASE! — Gora shook Chase hard. He didn’t budge, only slumped off the horn.

— What is happening? Is he okay? — Lalene leaned forward from the back seat.

— Stay back, ma’am. — Gora extended a hand towards her. And gave up on shaking Chase. She popped open the panel at the back of his neck and flipped the manual override, nothing. — Shit. He’s completely off… — she tried turning the car on again, but the car didn’t respond. — … This is bad, bad, bad…

— Talk to us, dammit! What the hell is happening? — the man behind her seat pushed and shook it up.

— … Fine! We are cooked, is what happened. An EMP must have disabled all electronics in the whole state area. — Gora bursted out and unlatched her seatbelt.

— An EMP? What-

— Doesn’t matter. We need to leave the city, now! Because-

Suddenly a damp and dry crack roared from all directions, deafening fading and echoing in between the buildings like a roaring thunder as nearly every window shattered and cracked, as a faint orange light glowed from beyond the clouds. Both the man and Lalene covered the children as the windows cracked and the car got rained on by glass.

— Everyone okay? — Gora checked on them. — I’m glad I never got any implants.

— My left eye’s gone! I can’t see! — the man groaned, clutching his face.

— We can get you a doctor and find a new eye at the camp. I need someone to help me ditch Chase. We can’t afford to wait for him to reboot, that is, if he’s still with us. — Gora left the car and opened the back door. — Grab what you need, we move now.

Gora hurried Lalene and the man off the van, looking around over the front and behind the vehicle. She grunted and pressed her helmet controls trying to restart it, finally giving up and throwing it away. She wiped her face with a sleeve, forcing herself to focus. With a grunt, she pulled down her combat skin, letting her ears and feathers puff free in the cold air.

— Can you shoot? — she walked to the man holding the little girl.

— Uh, I’m a linguistics major. — excused the man covering his malfunctioning synth eye.

— I did hunting lessons with my ex-husband. — Lalene stepped forward.

— Good enough. Standard issue rifle. — Gora pushed the rifle to her. — stay behind me.

— … Lift, pull, hold, slide, switch. — Lalene scanned the weapon with her hands and muttered as she readied it.

[SOUND OF DISTANT GUNFIRE, FAINT SIRENS. WIND HOWLS THROUGH BROKEN STREET]

The city was a different kind of quiet now. A dead quiet, broken by things that didn’t sound like sirens or people. The kind of quiet that felt heavy, like a blanket smothering the world. The only light came from above, that ugly orange glow behind the clouds, and from the distant fires reflecting off the bottom of the smoke layer. Street signs were dark. Building lights were out. The world had been unplugged.

Gora led, her head on a swivel, ears twitching at every distant crack and thud. She wasn't looking for street names anymore. She was looking for shapes, for movement, for the silhouette of a landmark tower against the hell-glow.

— We need to find a metro entrance. Get underground. — Gora’s voice was low, cutting through the silence she herself had imposed. — It’s a straight shot. Less eyes on us.

[SOUND OF FOOTSTEPS ON GLASS AND DEBRIS. KALENE WHIMPERS SOFTLY]

— Shhh, baby, it’s okay. — Lalene’s whisper was strained, her grip tight on the rifle, her other hand pulling Kalene closer. Favo followed, his piece of scrap metal held like a talisman.

A few blocks over, the silence broke. Not with random noise, but with the organized, terrifying sound of a real fight. The staccato pop of rifles, the heavier thump of something else. And a sound they hadn’t heard before, a high-pitched, shrieking whine of energy weapons. Gora held up a fist. They froze in the shadow of a collapsed bus shelter.

— Wait here. — she hissed, and darted to the corner of a building, peeking around.

[SOUND OF INTENSE FIREFIGHT GROWS LOUDER]

Lalene risked a look. Down the wide avenue, an army squad was pinned behind the smoldering wreck of a… thing. A hemispherical craft, maybe ten patas across, lay crumpled against a fountain. It was scarred and smoking, but a hatch was open, and from it, the invaders poured out.

They were a nightmare of standardized design. All clad in the same sleek, dark armor and battleskin, marked with unfamiliar, sharp-angled symbols that glowed faintly in the gloom. But the bodies underneath were all wrong.

Most of them, maybe half, were bipedal, humanoid. Their movements under the armor were jarringly familiar, but their precision was alien, coordinated. They moved like parts of a single machine.

Among them, things that stood on two thick legs but ran on four limbs, their armored backs bristling with tentacles that uncurled to fire weapons or drag wounded comrades back with brutal efficiency. A heavier one, a brute nearly bursting out of its standardized plating, hefted a cannon that thumped with a deeper, more resonant shriek. Its bolt hit an army barricade, and a section of it didn’t just shatter. It boiled away in a cloud of vapor and molten stone, the shrapnel sizzling through the air.

The air itself was being torn apart by their weapons. Every shot was a rising, piercing SCREECH, like a steam-kettle pushed to its breaking point. That ended in a wet, fizzling CRACK as it vaporized flesh, metal, and concrete. The smell was ozone, cooked meat, and hot stone.

— They’re… people? — Lalene whispered, horrified, her eyes fixed on the humanoid forms.

— Don’t know. Don’t care. They’re shooting. — Gora muttered, pulling back. — We go around. Now.

But before they could move, a new sound emerged. A chittering, skittering wave of noise from the side streets. A flood of the smaller, multi-legged fauna poured into the intersection. They didn’t care about sides. They swarmed over the army position. They clambered over the downed saucer. The neat lines of the firefight dissolved into a melee of screams, alien shrieks, and the wet sounds of close-quarters death.

One of the armored humanoids turned its weapon on the swarm, the screech of its bolt drowning out the fauna's clicks. It burned through three of the creatures before a larger beast, a hulking thing with exposed, glistening muscle fused to rust-colored metal plates, barreled into it, crushing the invader against the saucer's hull.

— They’re fighting each other? — Favo breathed, his eyes wide.

— They don’t care, — Gora said, her voice grim with understanding. She’d seen it. In the chaos, she saw one of the invaders. Its helmet was cracked, and the face underneath, the face was hoku.

Their eyes focused on the heat of the firefight a moment earlier, suddenly turning to her. Their rectangular pupils sharpened, as if having a split second of conscience before turning back to its energy rifle, reloading it quickly.

— They just don’t care. Move! Back this way!

She shoved them back, toward a set of stairs leading down into darkness, a metro entrance. As they stumbled down the first few steps, Gora’s eyes locked on a body sprawled near the curb. An army regular. A grenade belt, still full, was strapped to their chest.

— Shit. — she spat. — Get down there! Don’t stop!

— Where are you going?! — Lalene cried.

But Gora was already moving, low and fast, back out into the open. She sprinted, a crouched shadow, toward the corpse as the chaos of the three-way battle raged fifty patas away. She grabbed the belt, yanking it free. A clawed limb smashed down where her hand had been a second before. She didn’t look back. She just ran, hurling herself down the metro stairs as a red energy bolt seared the wall above her head.

She landed hard at the bottom, breathing in ragged gasps. The grenade belt clattered on the tile floor beside her.

In the dim light filtering from the street, five pairs of eyes stared back at her.

— Let’s go, — Gora panted, scooping up the belt. — And don’t touch the rails.

OK, INTERSTELLAR IS BETTER THAN I THOUGHT

I STAND CORRECTED

For those of you who don't remember exact details about the movie Interstellar (2011), it mostly happens within a black hole system, composed of Gargantua - a 100 million solar masses supermassive black hole - Pantagruel, a main sequence solar-type star (G or F type) - and an unnamed neutron star.

Note that I had previously not read The Science of Interstellar by Kip Thorne before, which would have been of great help. So I wanna share of the aspects about Gargantua that was always a point of contempt for me, until very recently.

We know that for all the scientific realism and hard sci-fi the production of the movie incorporated into it, a lot of creative liberties were taken to make it more 'palatable' for the average viewer. Some examples of that is how far away Gargantua appears when observed from its closest blanet (yes with a B, we're dealing with black hole planets here), Miller's planet - in the movie it looks pretty far away, but in reality Miller's planet would be orbiting so close to the black hole that by some estimates it would only be about some tens to hundreds of kilometers above the ISCO, which is the inner edge of the luminous accretion disk. Which by itself, is only possible if Gargantua is a Kerr black hole with a rotational speed just 0.99999999999999 times the speed of light!

Of course that would be an absurd view in the sky, plus the various relativistic effects that should be taken into consideration when painting the sky - all that would have been overwhelming not only for the production but for the audience to take in as well. A similar case can be made for its waves, and the apparent color of the accretion disk, which had its blue/red shift color removed in the final rendering as to not confuse the audience, making it look a flat sun-like color.

So, given those and many other more subtle taken liberties, I thought to myself while parsing and reverse engineering the Gargantua system for myself - "oh wow, these planets must be absolutely toasted being this close to black hole!" BUT... I still had much to learn about it, it seems.

So here is a summarized version of what I initially thought of:

Gargantua is a sleeping giant, and it can't wake up

Gargantua's accretion disk is hot, but not really 'hot' compared to other black holes. Active black holes have accretion disk temperatures in the tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of degrees, thus outshining even whole galaxies in the process of feeding. Those types of black holes are what we usually identify as radio galaxies or quasars - typically, a galaxy's central black hole in a feeding period. But since Gargantua's accretion disk isn't much hotter than the surface of the Sun, that is between 5700 and 6000 K, its disk is not only much cooler than usual, but also must be much thinner than usual? How thin? Basically non-existent! It is feeding basically on 1/3rd of the Moon's mass every year.

And even so, that means that at the distances involved between Gargantua and its blanets, that is, under 40 AU, the insolation for them is hundreds of times greater than Earth's because the accretion disk is thousands of times brighter than the Sun. That also happens with red giants, even though they are cooler than the Sun, their much larger surface area for emitting light makes them hundreds to thousands of times brighter. In this case, Gargantua's accretion disk is between 1.3 and 2.25 AU, roughly ~1.0 ASTRONOMICAL UNIT WIDE.

And if we tweak the feeding rate for the black hole until the thin-veil of gas around it isn't as luminous, we run into another problem: its Bondi radius - that is, its area of influence in interstellar space - is several parsecs wide, any unbound rock or cloud of gas can fall into it and add to the accretion disk mass, thus more than doubling its feeding rate and thus making it more hotter and brighter than it was before. In my view, it was one rogue asteroid away from just blasting the blanets with the wrath of 10,000 suns!

Before we continue, let's establish that 1.0 Earth insolation equals how much we get on average from our Sun, about 1360 W/m².

PHYSICS I OVERLOOKED

Turns out I was indeed correct in my assumptions, HOWEVER, it was incorrect to assume that the accretion disk is a perfect emitter from every angle. Which would simply not be true at all.

 

By considering the disk surface as a Lambertian surface, it means that an incident ray looks brighter or dimmer dependent on if the surface is face-on to the observer or at an angle to the observer.

Now let's imagine that our disk is a thin disk with a flat temperature profile, it would look very dim almost dark when observed edge-on compared to looking at it at 90° from the disk plane.

It is an okay assumption in this case, considering that when calculated for an accretion rate of 0.35 Moon-masses/yr, the disk temperature profile is more or less flat - between 5500 and 6000 K. We can then adopt an average solar-like temperature for our disk.

 

Our total luminosity based off disk geometry and temperature is about 70,000 Lsol, which is about 35,000 per face of the disk. Like I said before, putting an object even at 40 AU above either disk face means it is getting.... 35,000/40² = 21.88 Earth insolations (~30,000 W/m²). Which is not how it looks in the movie.

However, using Lambert's Cosine Law, we see that the insolation at our blanet is also dependent AND variable on its current angle from the disk's plane. In which case for simplicity, I will define the black hole system's Ecliptic the same as the accretion disk plane.

In our Solar System, the planets have formed more or less in this flat plane which we call the Invariable Plane, which is perpendicular to the Sun's rotational axis, turns out the Ecliptic is just another intersecting plane dictated by the Earth's orbit, which is convenient to us, because we then measure everything relative to it. Anyway, most planets and objects are within 7 degrees off that plane, and really at an average of 1.92° off it. If the planets around black holes are any similar to how planets form around stars, then that should also be somewhat true. Thus we should take the planet's orbital inclination in relation to the disk plane as a variable.

Inputting 1.50° as our maximum inclination at 40 AU we get only 2.62% of the disk face's maximum brightness, which is 0.57 Earth insolations or 780 W/m²! Way colder than receiving over 30,000 W/m². Usually that doesn't really come into play when dealing with stars because stars have well defined circular silhouettes no matter what angle you look at them from, so their perceived intensity is independent from viewing angle.

Now because our planet isn't always suspended 1.50° above the plane - it's relative vertical position changes throughout its orbit - that is the maximum insolation, the minimum will be a brief period where the disk occludes itself at inclination 0° which has nearly no power input for a non-lensed disk. Seasons will be mostly dependent on that relative altitude to the disk rather than orbit-shape dictated.

If we map out the disk perceived intensity by filling the environment with 'fog' which can reflect light back to the viewer, we would see a figure similar to this:

 

Basically two spotlight-like beams of light above and below the disk, with a very dark colder donut-shaped area around it, along the disk plane.

FROM EVERY ARTISTIC LIBERTY THEY TOOK, I'VE CHOSEN TO NITPICK THE ONE THING THEY GOT IT RIGHT FROM THE START, LMAO

Of course, this approach also ignores two factors that would be important in more realistic disks:

1. It ignores surface density, texture and layers.

The disk would present a 'thin' gaseous or plasma atmosphere above its surface, which would create a 'limb darkening' effect at shallow angles. That would decrease the amount of power received from the disk at a given angle by a measurable amount, because light rays would have to traverse more and more of this atmosphere and thus scatter along the way. This also means that even when observed edge-on, the disk wouldn't be truly dark, as the light scattered off the disk atmosphere above and below the faces would still reach the planet. Thus, the assumption of L~0.0 W/m² for θ~0.0° isn't true in the real world, because the luminous disk wouldn't be truly geometrically thin.

2. It ignores gravitational lensing.

The black hole would bend light from parts of the disk occluded by the black hole shadow, and parts above and below the disk, around the event horizon and towards the viewer. That would also add to the extra light received by the planet at any given position in its orbit, but mainly at that occlusion zone of θ~0.0°.

I'm yet to work those into my toy model.

Anyway I hope you've enjoyed the ride, this is another sneak peak into the DOMINION framework I'm building to help others into making well-researched space-focused sci-fi settings.

 - M.O. Valent, 02/10/2025

THE QIRE | SCIENCE&ARTWORK

LIVING STUMPS!

    ... Said him! Can you believe that!

Laugh all you want. You wanted to know, right?

>Ian slammed his glass on the table, unamused. He had that conversation maybe ten times by now<

    Sure, sure, I won't interrupt you anymore. Go on, "kindless orphan".

You ever seen a real tree? Like the ones, the old ones near the central plaza. By the great elevator.

    Yeah, I have. Majestic, aren't they?

Like that. Rough, not scaley, not silky, nor armored. Like a thick, impossibly flexible hide is what they wear, or are made out of. I've hear rumors they don't need that sort of thing. Clothes. Though they have innovated on a few pieces, I'm sure. Who wouldn't like to be tougher?

    That still doesn't help it, 'runner'.

>Ian gulped down his last glass, and took a moment to chew on the small fruit pinned on the glass<

The one I saw at Niniveh. Must have been like two-eighty or three. About two storage units tall, can you picture that?

And one third as thick. Like a tree. Standing on its many roots.

Those damn legs, you can't even keep up with them when they move, as if gliding over the floor, without friction. Long, and rough.

The body is a little skinnier than what it initially looks like up close. They have wings, but they stay folded against their body like a tight cape.

Like I said. A walking, living tree stump.

    Wings eh? Like a bird? Or a K'yen?

>Ian scoffed< Bird... Worse. Too many wings to count, They show too little, and I don't like to imagine what it would take for all of them wings to open up. >he pushed to empty glass aside< Virgil, let's call him that, it's complicated to explain.

He needed only two to glide, but those two wings made him look the size of a starfighter. Burning orange bright scales, I'm not sure what kind of fucked up chemistry or optics is happening, but it hurts.

    Hurts?

It physically HURTS. Your eyes. Your mind. Their presence is soul searing and eye-bleaching. He never opened his wings towards me, only towards THAT thing after us. But I could feel it. Like the scale patterns on it were a window to another dimension, clipped into reality like a poorly edited movie.

I've heard about those damn wings from another hunter like you, who heard it from a target who was almost killed by one. "It's like staring into the naked face of God... or the Devil."

For lack of a better word, I'd like to say its panic, but I'm also trying to be very rational about it. 

Maybe we shouldn't.

    Now its getting interesting, runner.

It is not! No one should... I was lucky to be not the one in Virgil's path. Not the one he actually wanted to burn with his heat. Searing heat. Body heat. Like a pot of molten lead inches from your face, even when their wings cover their bodies. Papers ignited and plants withered just from proximity, as if he sucked the life from them.. Like a being straight out of hell, or heavens burning all impurity...

Their faces, triangular, like someone glued a clam or mollusk to the top of a column. Needlessly small eyes, more like needle holes for light sensing, inexpressive. Invisible mouth, or more like a beak that clacks and roars when it feels like actually making a sound.

Atop it, ribbons, like thin tentacles with a similar material that of the wing scales, like they are crowned by fire at all times... Virgil used one of those ribbons for illumination once, so I at least know they need light like us, but they are able to make their own.

    It makes me wonder if they don't come from somewhere dark.

Perhaps. It does absurd me, though, that they have considered the near extinction of the Arrene a reasonable argument for a "Draw..."

What did the Arrene have or say to them? I can't think of a possible solution that could actually work. They have so little to lose with it, from what we know. Are they playing along? I don't know.

And I don't wanna know...

Are you Happy?

    More like amused... You earned it. Next one is for him!

- M.O. Valent, 30/07/2025