Naltok of the Coalition - TheGiraffe3/Endless-Sky-Creators-Handbook GitHub Wiki
Original text by the_legendary_m
In 4000 BC, the Drak, with a groan of sadness, swept one of their most ambitious plans under the rug, never to be seen again. On it reads a simple word: Coalition.
For aeons, the Drak had had but a simple approach to the species in the Milky Way: A galactic zoo, where species are confined into their separate spaces, isolated from each other and developing independently. While this plan worked at first, the dramatic failures of first the Builders, then the Sheragi, shook the Drak’s confidence in the future of this cordoning act. The Drak begins to wonder. Maybe letting species contact each other can lead to a more stable galaxy?
Just as the idea sprouts, the Quarg reported that four species in the southwest of the Galaxy are developing rapidly, and will enter space race soon. The Saryd, the Kimek, the Arachi, and the Naltok.
Yes, you heard right. Four species, not three.
The plan seemed to be perfect. The spiritual, slow Saryd with plentiful resources and the materialist, resourceful Kimek who developed the most efficient methods and machines can work very well together. The warlike, aristocratic Arachi and the pacifistic, technocratic Naltok can fix each other’s shortcomings while boosting the strengths of both. The Quadruple Coalition should make the Coalition a strong, prosperous entity. If this experiment succeeds, Humans, Hai, Avgi, and Korath may form a second Coalition, populating the largest part of the Galaxy, and setting a model for future cooperation.
However, the Drak failed to account for a simple factor: The Quarg’s paranoia.
The Coalition plan chugged along pleasantly and to plan. The Saryds, the Kimek, and the Arach quickly got to know each other. Once the Naltok becomes spacefaring, they would join as well. Three Quarg rings in the middle are supposed to be a citadel of progress and commerce, with four Quarg rings in the outer regions acting as sentry stations that defends against any incursions by unauthorised individuals. Despite the Quarg’s adamant denials, the unauthorised individual list never expanded beyond “Pug”.
The Arachi, unlike the other two Coalition species, emphasise the importance of thick, strong hulls over all else. After all, they reason, when shield-piercing weapons are developed, the utility of shields becomes much diminished. And, based on rudimentary research, shield-piercing weapons are indeed possible. Hence, while shield regeneration is quickly understood and produced, the Arachi never ceased their development in hull repair technology.
As it turns out, hull repair is not that hard. The Arachi, like humans, have made many robots modelled after themselves, and spider-shaped robots turn out to be reliable platforms on which different tools can be mounted. Simple modifications with adhesive modules allow the spider robots crawl all over any spaceship with ease, and it’s a simple matter of mounting repair toolkits on the robots before the first Coalition repair module is made. Ten years of modifications later, circa 5300 BC, the Arachi Hull Repair Modules are available for sale, a testament of Arachi ingenuity and the source of much species pride.
At that point, the Saryd-Kimek-Arachi Coalition seemed to be integrating well. A little too well, in fact, that the Quarg began to worry that the Naltok, the fourth addition, might be excluded in many Coalition affairs. Thus, a Quarg envoy is sent to meet the Saryd, Kimek, and Arachi representatives to tell them their planned future addition, and to prepare accordingly. The fateful meeting that would change the entire Coalition is made on 5295 BC. Amidst celebrations of the annual Coalition Festival, the Quarg representative would make an appearance, showing the Coalition images of the Naltok, their culture and languages, and information to translate the Naltok language. Received with great fanfare, the three Coalition species promptly began preparations to welcome their newest addition.
When the Quarg team make a visit to Far Home’s outfitter, however, they were shocked. Prominently displayed amongst the newest Arachi innovations lie the Large and Small Repair Modules, something very few species have access to. Although the Korath and the Bunrodea already have existing hull repair technologies, the distance between the Arachi and the two races, and the difference between nanite and spider-shaped robots made it clear that the Arachi were not influenced by the two Northern races.
This leaves one answer, the Quarg realise as their blood ran cold. The Pug have made contact with the Arachi.
Immediately, the Quarg grew distant. Inquisition-style interrogations are made to all attending members, especially to the Arachi. Scientists are questioned, often brutally, and political leaders are barred from further communications. Saryd expeditions are indefinitely postponed, and technological and cultural exchange between species and even individual worlds are prohibited. The Quarg drilled any Arachi they could find whether they knew the Pug, and every time it was denied. Without saying, the Naltok plan was postponed as well. The Coalition did not take this kindly.
The Quarg’s actions, de facto punishing the Arachi over their greatest independent development made the Coalition species grow more and more hostile to their ring-dwelling overlords. Similar development is seen in Naltok space, where the newt-like aliens ceased trading with the Quarg, starting a series of industrial, scientific, and genetical espionage instead. The Quarg saw all four species growing distant, and is adamant that the only explanation was the Pug turning everyone against them. The more one tightens one’s grip, the more systems slip from their hands. The Coalition’s resentment reached a boiling point, when a more radical Quarg accidentally expressed his extremist view of disconnecting the three Coalition species from one another. Deciding enough is enough, the Coalition rose up against the Quarg, forming the Heliarch government, and began shooting at any Quarg ships they see.
Of course, after the initial shock, the Quarg would manage to destroy Coalition ships with ease. However, despite being hopelessly outmatched and outnumbered, the Coalition did not let up the pressure, and kept throwing ship after ship against the Quarg defensive lines. The situation became so bad that the Quarg began to worry if the Coalition would send every last member against the Quarg, this committing a triple species-wide suicide. The Quarg did not have to worry for long, however, when the Drak sent them a diktat, telling them to abandon the three rings and the Coalition altogether. After much initial protest, the Quarg eventually accepted.
After one millennium of fighting, around 3000BC, the Quarg’s tactical retreat through their rings in Coalition space was complete, granting the Coalition their victory. The Drak’s warning to the Coalition did dampen the celebrations in the Coalition a bit, but a victory was a victory, and the three species finally tasted freedom. At this sensitive time, the Naltok finally became spacefaring. Almost immediately, they were visited by a Quarg spaceship intent to give them a warning to not repeat what the Coalition did. Before the warning could be delivered, however, the Quarg visitors where showered with affection, and brought to a scientific expo where ideas were being shared all across Naltok-kind. Flustered, the Quarg made some excuses and flew away.
The Naltok spent the next few centuries hopeful and joyous. They found aliens around their space, and simply cannot wait to meet them and engage in technological exchange. Hyperdrives were soon invented, and the Naltok quickly mapped the nearby space, meeting the Quarg at their half-finished ring-world. There, they experienced one of the rudest awakenings possible, when severe warnings were delivered to the Naltok the moment they landed.
The Naltok thought the Quarg were merely too shy to reply the first time they met, and that the Quarg would be as willing to share their knowledge as the Naltok would. Instead, they found a bunch of cold, bitter, and withdrawn aliens unwilling to engage in even the most symbolic technological exchanges, after the Naltok told them about their exploits in every field possible. To the Naltok, the Quarg were akin to a grumpy old man who shout at children playing in a park. Gradually, bitter feelings grew between the Naltok and the Quarg, and the two races became increasingly distant.
A few years after the Naltok colonised their southernmost systems, they met the Heliarch. The Heliarch were under no illusion that the Quarg affair would end after just a single war. To prepare for a second round, the Heliarch spared no effort in finding new allies all around their space. After numerous expeditions up north disappeared without a trace, the Heliarch were forced to conclude that any ally they find would have to be in other directions. Even after the wars, the Heliarch never forgot about the Naltok in the Northwest. For centuries they tried to go Northwest, but were always too afraid that the Naltok-monitoring Quarg would find out their expedition, and destroy them. Now, with the Naltok one jump away, a secure channel can be established. The Heliarch and Naltok quickly cosy up to each other.
The Heliarch Coalition and the Naltok are kindred spirits, having been wronged by the Quarg, and share similar sympathies. The Heliarch would promptly propose an exchange program, which the Naltok would gratefully accept. The program, however, would be quickly shut down once the Quarg detected Jump Drive usage between the Naltok and the Coalition. This did nothing to halt the budding Naltok-Heliarch friendship though. The Naltok finally found a friend, and were never going to give up a friend over a threat like that. The only thing this attempt did, was increase Quarg-Naltok hostility.
The two allies, so near yet so distant, would continue to exchange information in secret, while trying their best to evade Quarg. The Quarg would piously scour Naltok worlds of any Heliarch influence, but the mistrust between Naltok and Quarg prevented the latter from knowing whether the sentiments is Heliarch-originating, or domestic Naltok creations. This was the final death knell to Quarg-Naltok relations, the two forever halting all friendly overtures.
Millenia pass.
During the closing months of the Alpha War, a large group of Alpha retreated to the South, where large Republican fleets were closing in for a kill. Outnumbered and outgunned, the Alpha made a desperate situation: Half of the fleet would defend to the last man, while the other half jump to wherever system they could find. The ensuing battle was bloody. While the Republic fleet was broken, losing twice as many ships as the Alpha did, their losses were replaceable. The Alpha must escape now, before a renewed Republican offensive kill them all.
That was when a certain Alpha captain made a gambit, blindly activating her Jump Drive in a last bid for salvation. As fate would have it, the Drive took her to a previously unmapped sector, complete with a wormhole to god-knows-where. In for a penny, in for a pound. On the other side of the wormhole and one jump away, the Alpha captain met the Naltok. After obtaining permission, the entire Southern Alpha group were moved, one by one, into Naltok space. Two months later, when the Republic launched their final assault to root out the Alpha in the South, they found empty bunkers and wiped computer drives. Through clenched teeth, the newly-christened Admiral Danforth reported the Alpha escape to the Republican Senate, who promptly swept it under the rug.
The Naltok found yet another group of species, genetically engineered yet shunned by their creators and abandoned by the higher species. Immediately, a sense of camaraderie formed between the newt-shaped aliens and the green humans. The Naltok welcomed the Alpha with open arms, and promptly integrated them into the Naltok society. Where there are believers, there are also dissenters. While most Naltok regained faith in aliens by interacting with the friendly Heliarch after being betrayed by the Quarg, the scar the Quarg made on the Naltok civilisation never truly went away. When the coven of human slaves the Alpha brought with them broke free, and sought asylum in the southern Naltok planets, they told a different story.
Rather than a powerless minority persecuted due to racism and xenophobia, the Alpha were psychopathic megalomaniacs who sought to rule over all the galaxy, the Naltok included. For the sake of the Galaxy, the humans say, the Alpha must not be trusted!
This caused a huge rift in the Naltok society. The technocrats, heavily invested in genetic engineering, thought the Alpha as a model to follow, and the humans are just jealous and reactionary to oppose them. This reverence, however, soon turned into preferential treatment, the Naltok Ministries choosing Alphas over even their native Naltok. With the Alpha’s sudden ascension to power, coupled by the stories told by human slaves, an ever growing number of Naltok grew suspicious and hostile to the Alphas, and in extension, to the Ministries. Suddenly, the normally carefree and open Naltok society becomes shrouded in hostility, with rumours and suspicions floating around.
Demonstrations and riots became commonplace. Human and Alpha shops were frequently set on fire and vandalised. While the Naltok police were usually able to catch the perpetrators, bad blood deepened between the human-believing and the Alpha-believing sects of Alpha society. It was in such a polarised state when a young war-game champion, Keloxok, rose to prominence.
War games were never commonplace in Naltok society. Being at peace the entirety of its existence, the Naltok never had any real reason to, nor experience in, fights. War was such an alien concept to the Naltok that, when the Quarg-Naltok split started, the only actions the Naltok ever thought was to accelerate scientific development and surpass the Quarg. Then, the Heliarch appeared.
The Heliarch representatives told the Naltok a tale unimaginable in Naltok space. Where waves after waves of warships were used to win against the superior Quarg ships. With enough perseverance and commitment, the Heliarch said, the Naltok could kick the Quarg out as well. The Naltok saw the recording seeing how powerful the Quarg and Heliarch warships were. They knew that the Naltok wouldn’t be able to fight a space battle against the Quarg and win in the next million years. When the Naltok saw the frail bodies of the Quarg, however, the Naltok saw a glimmer of hope.
The Naltok Ministry of War was quickly founded. Instead of researching space battles like all other species do, the ministry focussed solely on planetary invasion, seeking to take advantage of the Quarg’s inferior physical prowess. Space warfare remained out of focus. Until Keloxok came along. Keloxok, like the Ministry employees, saw the Heliarch-Quarg war, but unlike the Ministries, felt fascinated. A hot-blooded university student, Keloxok immediately founded a Space Warfare Research Club, and began brainstorming theories about it. Even though the older, more experienced professors told Keloxok that his research was a lost cause, Keloxok was not deterred. If nobody tried it before, he reasoned, then why were they so sure it would fail?
Drawing lines and theorising on paper can only take a theorist so far, and Keloxok yearned for actual combat simulations. Unfortunately, all models available were either planetary maps to simulate ground battles, or children’s arcade games that were in no way realistic. With his friends in engineering and computing science departments, Keloxok would buy a Ministry of Minerals-made asteroid mining simulation for miner trainings, and modify it into a rudimentary space combat simulator.
For ten years, Keloxok and his friends would play on this simulator, occasionally making small improvements and optimisations. Over time, Keloxok’s friend group would slowly grow, as interest on space combat skyrocketed after the human slaves revealed the Alpha’s nature. When some human members of Keloxok’s team brought Keloxok their prized copies of the hyper-realistic space simulator Boundless Frontiers, Keloxok would incorporate that into his simulations as well. Soon, Keloxok and his friends would become the best Naltok tacticians in space combat.
Years of spending time with human friends have made Keloxok firmly subscribing to the human version of the Alpha wars, and he soon began to attend pro-human rallies. One day, during the usual anti-Alpha demonstrations in the South, Keloxok took the stage. Years of leading his war game team have taught Keloxok much about riling others up and delivering his ideas concisely. Using only five minutes, Keloxok managed to cause the entire crowd, most of whom already tired from the day’s march, to be re-energised. As days pass, more and more Naltoks came to listen to Keloxok’s speeches, and the Southern popular opinion soon swung decisively towards the human side. Through these speeches, Keloxok rose through the ranks, and soon became the de-facto leader of the pro-human movement.
During all this time, the Alpha did not cease their propaganda campaign. The mutated humans, whom are based in the North, enjoyed popular support there. Soon, the human-Alpha divide became a geographical one, with the pro-Alpha North and the pro-Human South becoming increasingly hostile towards each other.
The Alpha took note of Keloxok’s popularity, and secretly sent assassins to take care of him. After all, losing such a charismatic and capable leader would heavily damage the pro-human cause. On a fateful day, a group of assassins rushed to the stage where Keloxok was giving a speech, and started attacking the passionate orator. In front of all the pro-human Naltoks, Keloxok not only managed to escape from the assassin’s chokeholds, but also managed to defeat and knock out every one of them. Keloxok’s image, standing in the light while defeating threats from the shadows, would make him unmistakably become the ideal hero many Naltok dreamt of having. The botched assassination attempt also proved to be the last straw that broke the camel’s back.
Two days after the assassination, in a widely televised speech, Keloxok declared the incumbent Naltok Ministries as treasonous and illegitimate, and asked for the support from “everyone who believes in rationality and kindness”. The same day, the entire Southeast of Naltok space seceded from the central Naltok government, and pledged their allegiances to the pro-Human leader.
Enraged, the central Naltok government attempted to use their garrisoned troops to put down this massive rebellion. Unfortunately, the Naltok Ministries’ inexperienced military was no match against the seasoned strategic play the seasoned war-gamer had. Within one day, all Telashki garrisons in the planets declaring independence would surrender to pro-Keloxok forces, and Keloxok that night would declare the formation of the Xochira Naltok Government, or the Naltok Defender Government.
Despite the secession, much of Naltok space were still under the Ministries’ control including all Naltok industrial worlds and shipyards, places incoming Alpha were the most involved in. Hence, the most educated Naltok would predict that, despite Keloxok scoring victory after victory, the Ministries’ superior logistics and numbers would eventually wear the Xochira down, resulting in a Ministry victory. Then, four days later, Vigechox, which houses the Naltok’s largest and most productive shipyards, research centres, and mines, declared its allegiance to the Xochira government, bringing the Naltok Southwest to Keloxok’s fold as well.
Suddenly, the hopeless small-scale rebellion became a tense standoff between two rival governments, equal in power. In order to not lose further popular support, the Naltok Ministries reformed into the Telashki Government, or the Augmented, committing their support to genetical engineering, and representing the traditional Naltok way of life most Naltok were familiar with. With neither side willing to back down, civil war seemed inevitable.
The Drak gazed upon the Southwest and found every single aspect of it on fire. The Saryd, Kimek, and Arachi rebelled against the Quarg, who were then extremely paranoid. The Naltok, through spillover of the Human Civil War, are once again on the verge of civil war. Flames of rebellion and conflict lit up the entire Galactic Southwest. The Coalition Plan was an absolute and complete failure. The first thing, however, is to salvage what can be saved. The Drak must not repeat the mistakes of the Builders or the Sheragi.
First, the Drak have to deal with the most pressing issue. The Naltok must not have war.
Quickly, all hyperlink connections between Northern territories and the Southern Secessionists were cut off, leaving Vokegol the only sector connecting the two warring sides. Had it been any other sector, the war would have raged on. However, in the middle of Vokegol was a newborn star, and a Naltok observation post monitoring such a phenomenon. Neither the Augmented nor the Defenders were willing to fight a major battle there, fearing that stray weapon fire might destabilise the nova, ending up with unforeseen consequences. Just like that, the Naltok Civil War sat frozen, not a single battle fought.
Curiously, neither the Quarg nor the Heliarch intervened in the Naltok War. While the Alpha were the Pug’s enemies, the Quarg did not wish to ally with them, fearing that this might antagonise the Humans as well. After the dual blow the Quarg experienced in the Southwest, losing yet another species was something the Quarg dared not risk. The Heliarch, seeing the Quarg not taking sides, also declared neutrality. Secretly, however, they would aid the Xochira militarists. After all, the stronger the Naltok are, the more likely they are to overthrow Quarg oversight.
For the Alphas, the Telashki Naltok were both a blessing and a curse. The Telashki did provide the Alpha of a stable and friendly place to live in. The best thing the Naltok offered would be their amazing medical facilities, allowing the Alpha to create offsprings amongst themselves without any external assistance. However, the Telashki were isolated from any other species, and the Xochira secession now serves as a giant barrier between the Alpha and the wider galaxy as a whole, including the corrupt, decadent Republic. To prevent them from forever enclosed in this Gilded Cage, the Alpha must help the Telashki win against the Xochira Rebels. Only then, can the Alpha plan their next move in the Galaxy. Only then, can the Alpha rise again. Of course, in exchange for the Telashki’s help, the Naltok would be aptly rewarded as they deserve.
Recently, however, the Alphas begin to feel a little strange. Somehow, especially in recent years, they feel less belligerent and more cooperative. Must be because the Alpha now live in a stable environment with no expectations placed upon them. Yes, that must be the case. Little do they know, the medical procedures the Naltok use subtly alter the Alpha genome. Even if centuries have passed since the introduction of humans and Alphas in Naltok, the genetic base the Naltok use to modify genomes are still mostly populated by Naltok genes. And Naltok are pacifistic and open, polar opposite to the Alpha.
Wind of change is blowing in the Southwest, and First Last is there to witness it all.
The Coalition have been preparing for the Quarg for millennia. Over time, the generation that remembered the three Quarg rings are slowly dying out, despite the Quarg’s lifetime. The Heliarch know that, if the Quarg strikes, it would be now. Most simulations called for a Quarg return via rings, and the Heliarch having to fight enemies from the Rings once again. This would be a lopsided battle, with the Quarg having superior technology and numbers.
However, the Heliarch need not fight alone. The Naltok’s distaste towards the Quarg are well-known among the Coalition, and the only thing keeping the Naltok from rebelling against the Quarg is their large technological discrepancy. If the Heliarch could give the Naltok that extra push, the Naltok might just join the Heliarch’s fight to free themselves from the Quarg’s clutches. And that might just be enough to tip the scales in the Heliarch’s favour...