Beyond the Veil

Introduction

Four decades ago, a posthuman infoweapon was released into the human infosphere, shutting down interstellar travel all across the core worlds. For four decades the worlds beyond have existed in splending isolation from Earth. Only the occasional ship manages to brave the empty systems of the Firewall and bring rumors of war and tectonic shifts in politics from behind the veil. Isolated by distance even before the veil was raised, the inhabited worlds of the Rim have created their own societies and politics.

Places of Note

Second Nibiru

A world heir to a catastrophe, Second Nibiru is the home of those men and women who fled Old Nibiru. Lightly settled during the early 22nd century, it was flooded by refugees and construction machinery in the early 2160s as ships shuttled to and from at a frantic pace. Hurried attempts to erect shelter led to vast sprawls of homogeneous housing, sprawls that are only now being demolished three decades later to make way for more civilized domiciles.

A poorer but more populous world, Second Nibiru is built on the ashes of the first - not just people, but industry and technology. Those fabricators that had not failed from overwork were dragged into space and formed the nucleus of the new world's industry, soon surrounded by more conventional factories and commerce. Reconstructing from scratch was long and difficult but now, three decades later, Second Nibiru is once again a world of importance. Its spacefleets are full of newly built craft, reinforcing those few survivors from the war against the drones three decades ago and its freighters bring goods far and wide. Forged in fire, some say that Nibiru is stronger than ever before.

Quick Facts

• Population: 41,000,000
• Economic Power: Strong
• Industrial Power: Strong
• Military Power: Strong
• Technological Level: High

Raël

Another seedship colony, Raël was founded by the Raëlian Church. Originally something of a 'kooky cult' on Earth, reformations and philosophical shifts in the middle of the 21st century saw them increase in size and influence, eventually acquiring an entire seedship to head for the Rim. Today Raël is a prosperous, populous world that is the center of the Raël Interconnect. The Interconnect connects five inhabited systems with catapults, making it the only true integrated multiworld economic bloc in the Rim.

Distance is all that keeps Raël and Second Nibiru from coming to blows; even widely seperated they have strongly divergent views of what is right and wrong, particularly when it comes to Posthuman technology. Raëlians are strict regarding the technologies of those who had 'ascended', only using what is necessary. By contrast, Nibirans have the attitude that to protect their future, anything they can acquire is fair game. It is quite common for agents of either to attempt to interfere with actions of the other.

Quick Facts

• Population: 36,000,000
• Economic Power: Strong
• Industrial Power: Strong
• Military Power: Strong
• Technological Level: High

GARField-1143

GARField-1143 (General Astronometric Range and Field survey) is a deep rim system. While lacking any terraformable worlds, its three gas giants are rich in helium and as such it ended up as the final port of call for the General Secretary exploration ship Ban Kim Moon in 2133. Having suffered a creeping breakdown to its FTL jump drive that could not be repaired without a major shipyard, the BKM was instructed to find a suitable system and then 'beach' itself, making the transition from a mobile factory to the start of a new colony.

The chaos of the Breakdown saw many refugees flood to Garfield-1143 from half a dozen colony worlds as critical systems failed and today the space-city of Ban Kim Moon has a varied and polyglot population. The ramshackle expansion by adding ever-greater numbers of habitation cylinders has resulted in a station that looks nothing like the original ship.

Quick Facts

• Population: 8,000,000
• Economic Power: Moderate
• Industrial Power: Moderate
• Military Power: Low
• Technological Level: High

Bolivar

Settled by South Americans at the end of the 21st century, Bolivar was ripped apart by intercine warfare when contact with the core was abruptly lost. Three major nations lay claim to it now, uneasily coexisting, glaring at one another across nebulous borders.

• Population: 19,000,000
• Economic Power: Low
• Industrial Power: Moderate
• Military Power: Moderate
• Technological Level: Low

Tournesol

A tidally-locked world around an M-type star, Tournesol's metal-rich system was officially cleared of ferals in the 2140s by the EU's DSF and fully opened for resource exploration. While recently ferals have been spotted again, they are not the aggressive and deadly types that assaulted Old Nibiru and so far there have not been any lethal clashes between human and machine.

• Population: 12,000,000
• Economic Power: Low
• Industrial Power: Moderate
• Military Power: Moderate
• Technological Level: Low

Piper's Dream

A pleasant world orbiting a K-type star, Piper's Dream was found to have unexpected amounts of delta dust and today mines dot its surface to provide the reality-editing nanomachiners that all space travel depends upon. Piper's Dream also exports a substantial amount of electronics and related technologies, though it builds no ships of its own.

• Population: 6,500,000
• Economic Power: Moderate
• Industrial Power: Low
• Military Power: Low
• Technological Level: Moderate

Alejandro's Star

A K-class star lacking habitable planets, Alejandro's Star is at the nexus of several high-speed transit routes in the Rim. First visited in 2098, it was discovered to have an unfinished Posthuman gravity spire in orbit of its largest gas giant. This object could be tapped to provide artificial gravity for a station, and construction began in 2104. Ideally sited to provide fuel or incidental repairs, Alejandro's Star became a bustling deep-space port as trade routes extended out from the Expanse in the '20s and '30s. Occasional drone incursions in the '40s saw the emplacement of fixed weapons, but despite being next to the Hive, these incursions seemed to be almost half-hearted.

The rush of ships out of the Firewall at the start of Breakdown saw dozens of interstellar ships stream into Alejandro's Star, seeking refuge, and it didn't take long for the system to become something of a free port where almost anything could be acquired. As a deep-space colony, Alejandro's Star fared surprisingly well, though by the '80s its structures both surrounding the gravity spire and on the surface of several moons had aquired a distinctly ramshackle appearance. The '80s also saw the first Cuckoo Drones venturing in to the system, making what passed for contact with the Human inhabitants. Today, as the routes back to the Expanse and Core are once again braved by intrepid pioneers, even more outsiders begin to walk the corridors of the old space station.

• Population: Unknown
• Economic Power: Low
• Industrial Power: Low
• Military Power: Low
• Technological Level: Moderate

Old Nibiru

Nibiru was colonized by a UN seedship in the late 2070s, a bigger sibling to the longshots that were fired off in the hundreds. With 700,000 colonists the 0.9-rated world of Nibiru, 160 light years from Earth soon became a key port and stepping stone between the core and the true deep rim. The population grew rapidly between 2090 and 2150 and Nibiru was a shining success story in the Rim.

Then the veil was raised and Nibiru was cut off, like so many other worlds. Life was chaotic, for a bit, but people adapt. There are however only so many shocks a world can take, and one casualty of the loss of connection with the core was failure of further military aid to suppress and eventually destroy the feral velan drones that plagued many systems and routes. Several years after FTL travel with the core was shut off, it became clear that the ferals were increasing in power at a seemingly exponential rate. Their target: Nibiru.

Even with overclocked fabricators, yards running 24/7 shifts and all the accumulated warships already in place, the hordes of machines were wearing down the defenders. No amount of cunning or valour or self-sacrifice could stem the flood. The only option was flight; a herculanean task at the best of times. But with cunning, and valour, and self-sacrifice, it was done. Twenty million people fled Nibiru, leaving behind everything they'd built. A million more died in space, fighting for their world or hapless victims of aggressive drones.

The Hive

The nickname for the area of space near Old Nibiru, due to the massive number of ferals that have been spawned and now lurk among its stars. The aggressive hybrids were being pushed back and destroyed by elements of the PACT fleet during the '40s, but since travel with the core was cut off, the ferals in the area redoubled their numbers and pushed all humans out of the area. It is unknown if there is an overall intelligence guiding them, or just (like most ferals) nonsentient action/reaction chains.

Technologies

Civilian Shipping

The Rim always was a more dangerous place than the Core. Feral drones are a problem, particularly in well-travelled but poorly-patrolled systems, and the Breakdown resulted in the formation of dozens of pirate bands. Thus most civilian ships in the Rim are built more sturdily than their Core equivalents, with defensive weapons. The loss in efficiency and cargo volume is seen as a regretable but necessary tradeoff.

Weapons

Kinetic-kill weapons are preferred against ferals, who are often (especially in the case of 'warrior' types) clad in energy-deflecting Nephilim armor. In addition, railguns and missiles require a generally simpler technical and engineering baseline than particle accelerator weapons. Thus directed energy weapons are relatively rare in the Rim. Posthuman-derived energy weapons are all but unheard-of and stories of weapons like mega particle beams are considered to be exagerations or bad intelligence.

Defenses

First generation scattering fields were in fairly common use by the '40s, and they have since spread throughout the Rim. More advanced nations like Second Nibiru and Raël have also fielded ships with second generation fields, though they lack the technical expertise to build more sophisticated types like flash fields. Similarly, armor is normally fairly standard and simple low-mass composites, though anti-energy laminates based on Nephilim armor has begun to be seen on modern ships.

Combat Frames

Introduced to the rim in the early 80s, those in the know are aware that the original models are based off plans and production models of the ZOCU Peltast. To most others, they are simply militarized versions of familiar space manipulation vehicles. Railguns and missiles are the primary armament of the various models now built by different worlds, as few energy weapons other than plasma guns reverse-engineered from feral drones are commonly used on Rim strike craft.