Quest for the Cloud!
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Quest for the Cloud!
Hi.
I seem to be on something of a Magellanic roll today - might have something to do with the general relief/euphoria that my Canadian visa is in the bag, but how and ever...
I was thinking about the post-Unity landscape in the Cloud, as well as what, if any, new races might show up (or, perhaps, return) in the years after Y202.
In this case, I will refer initially to the following tidbit from Module C5:
Quote:OMEGA SECTOR RACES: it is known that the Iridani and Bolosco sent ships to the Lesser Magellanic Cloud at different points in time. It is probable that the Loriyill and Souldra had a minor presence in the LMC as well.
Of the four races above, the Souldra have already been featured in Captain's Log, as a scenario exists there showing an encounter between them and the Maghadim.
However, while looking at other areas where Souldra and Loriyill ships could show up in the Cloud is a pretty interesting avenue of exploration, it's not quite what I want to launch into here. (For now, at least... *cue manical laughter*)
What I do want to refer to, however, is the case of the Iridani, and to offer the following idea:
Quest to the Cloud!
The Iridani Cluster, far from the rim of the Milky Way Galaxy, is in a unique position of the Milky Way Group - one which allows would-be explorers to use it as a launching point for excursions to the Milky Way proper, as well as to numerous satellite galaxies nearby.
How apt, then, that the species which emerged to prominence within the Cluster happened to possess an irreperable spirit of dauntless adventure!
While the bulk of off-Cluster exploration took place in the Omega Octant, Iridani ships did have cause to travel to other regions - including a number of missions to the Alpha Octant, such as the escorting of the Federation GSX Sakharov to the Federation in Y219 - though not all missions turned out to be quite as successful.
Quests to the Lesser Magellanic Cloud were relatively few and far between in the years prior to the Andromedan Conquest of the Iridani Cluster, but there were notable families of nobles who kept a sort of generational tradition in terms of seeking to explore and find adventure within the Cloud - which could be seen clearly in the skies from the Throne Planet, Iridia.
One such Quest, undertaken by Baron Coillt in Y138-Y142, travelled through the Cloud while it was embroiled in the Second Neutral Worlds War - and narrowly avoided destruction and plunder on a number of occasions.
However, while the bulk of the ship's encounters involved known Magellanic powers, there was one encounter with a "type previously unknown" in an area of the Fringe near the Neutral Worlds, in which the Baron took part in what he considered to be a 'duel' with a smaller, yet quite powerful, alien craft, but was forced to disengage when additional aliens arrived at the scene. Somewhat dismayed at the lack of honour shown by the aliens, and more focussed on his efforts to reach - and contact - the Chomak Community, the encounter became a footnote upon the Baron's Quest Scroll, and largely forgotten.
And so it would have remained, were it not for the Andromedan Conquest, the subsequent Grand Quest, and the Crusade declared by the King against the inter-galactic invaders in its aftermath. Records were scoured of Quests which had involved any sort of travel beyond the Cluster, in search of any evidence of Andromedan activity - all the better to hunt them down and destroy them. Yet, prior to the end of the Sixth Cycle, the Iridani could not spare any resources for anywhere other than Omega - where their Crusade fleets won glory and renown in the pursuit of the hated foe.
This was to change in Y204, when the Andromedan invasion came to an end, and the last major holdout in Omega was defeated in Operation Concerted Strike. This action allowed the Iridani to return to their traditional Quests, but the Crusade was not forgotten - indeed, one of the long-term goals of all Questers would be to hunt down and eradicate any remaining Andromedan forces, anywhere they could be found.
It was in this political and social climate that Duke Takah, whose family shared close ties to the Cloud-quest faction, presented the information gathered from the Scroll of Baron Caoillt, identifying the "unknown" aliens as Andromedans. The King immediately declared that Takah, as his Quest, launch a long-range expediton to the Cloud, and to determine whether any Andromedan forces remained.
Soon, many adventurous Knights had flocked to the Duke's banner, and brought their craft to the growing Quest fleet. In addition, the Duke himself prepared a logistics train capable of sustaining the fleet so far from home, as well as fortifying whatever forward positions might be necessary to establish on this venture. (In that regard, the lessons bitterly earned in the New Kingdom and in the home Cluster were not forgotten, and Takah made sure to have the parts necessary to construct at least one planetary control base, along with a number of PF ground bases, for this forward location. That this would facilitate a foundation of his own 'new kingdom' in the Cloud, should there be no Andromedans to fight, was not entirely left un-noticed by the Duke, or by the King for that matter.)
And so, in May Y206, the Quest for the Cloud was launched - and by the time the fleet arrived in the LMC, they would find a lot more than they bargianed for...
Essentially, one of a series of individual Quests in the pre-Andro War era would throw up data which would later be discovered to implicate an Andromedan presence in the Cloud - and thus, the Iridani would send a large Quest to the LMC to try and see if it was still present, to root it out if it was... and, perhaps, to carve a niche for themselves out there if it was not.
There is a lot of Cloudspace left unoccupied by the end of Operation Unity - and I had previously suggested that a Seltorian Nest Ship park itself in the Neutral Worlds in the Mid-Y200s, where the Magellanic Powers wouldn't be able to get to in time (given their focus on re-taking their home provinces and clearing them of Andro garrsions and holdouts) - and this idea would not be intended to invalidate this.
Rather, perhaps the Iridani could find another location to call their home-away-from home - perhaps on the edge of what was once the Line, or maybe in Uthiki space, or perhaps in the Chomak Cluster (An ironic choice, for a race originating from a star cluster in turn) - which they would use as a base from which to aid in hunting down the last Andromedans present, find themselves drawn into the political intrigues of the post-Unity Cloud...
...and, perhaps, on the front line against a Seltorian force based out of Sleern, should that idea ever be favoured.
Indeed, if the Selts are not allowed to go to the Cloud in force, maybe it is Sleern itself which the Iridani could set thesmelves up over - and that would certainly make things interesting for them, but perhaps not in the way they had intended!
The post-Unity Cloud awaits fleshing out in a future module, or Captain's Log, but perhaps part of this could include a place for a bunch of knightly space-otters who come for the Andros, but stay for the adventure!