Solomani Preserve Break Worlds
The Solomani Preserve Break Worlds are a polity located in Thaku Fung Sector.
- It is an isolated part of Charted Space.
[edit]
Polity | Survey | Code | Type | Remarks |
---|---|---|---|---|
Solomani Preserve Break Worlds | Pre-Imperial | SoBr | No standard code | None |
Solomani Preserve Break Worlds | 1st Survey (300) | Sb | 2-ltr code | None |
Solomani Preserve Break Worlds | 2nd Survey (1065) | SPBW | 4-ltr code | None |
Description (Specifications)[edit]
The Solomani Preserve claims a limited number of worlds, but enforces non-colonization upon a larger number throughout Thaku Fung Sector. These barren worlds act as a "break" against colonization, making sure the Preserve stands apart from the Vargr Extents and all other major polities of Charted Space (in particular the Second Imperium and later Third Imperium).
History & Background (Dossier)[edit]
This gulf of barren worlds was intended to hide the Preserve from the Imperiums, as the Preserve was initially set up as a safeguard of Solomani (in particular Terran) culture and heritage. For thousands of years, patrolling these worlds was the Preserve's primary force projection exercise, making sure no colonists set up and bombarding any colonies that were found (if the colonists did not voluntarily leave upon warning). It worked, despite the advent of a Cheaters' Route to enable trade with the Vargr Extents, until 1104 when an Imperial scout finally crossed the route and discovered the Preserve.
Actual enforcement was extremely rare. Until after 1, there was simply nobody to colonize these worlds. After that point, the worlds to spinward of the Preserve were removed from the break and colonization permitted, so long as it did not spread too far rimward (this was mainly an issue in Firepit Subsector). When the Vargr Extents finally crossed the border into Thaku Fung Sector, it was decided to allow them to encroach so long as they stayed at least a subsector away. As it turned out, Kiden - about two subsectors from VoidBridge 1 - would be the closest such encroachment before the Empress Wave and Collapse.
Those performing the patrols were well aware of the lack of actual colonists. Patrols were thus usually performed in 100 ton starships with a laser turret, optimized for economy and speed. Aside from Geokha and the Vargr Extents' encroachment, what very few violations were found after 1, who did not leave, were easily and mercilessly eradicated.
In 1105 there arose claims that the first few centuries of patrols, over 2,000 years earlier, had encountered low technology native sophont races among the break worlds. These claims suggested the patrols had mostly wiped them out by weeks of laser strikes from orbit and/or asteroids towed into biosphere-devastating collision trajectories, left enough survivors remaining undiscovered to recover over a century or two, only for the natives to be detected again and bombarded into oblivion. While there was evidence of such orbital bombardment on a few worlds, there were no ruins, fossils, or any other sign of any population they might have targeted, and records from that time universally claimed "target practice". The official end of the investigation noted that the allegations appeared to have been invented shortly after official contact with the Third Imperium in 1104, and bore suspicious similarity to distributions of native sophonts in Imperial sectors. Thaku Fung Sector, for whatever reason, appeared to simply have no native sophontic life, assuming the Chirpers on Skyfish were imported by the Ancients as they had been everywhere else they were encountered. Whether this was actually true, or the early Preserve sterilized worlds to make it true, proved ultimately unprovable.
Historians note that this unification against an enemy that was not actually there, helped stabilize the Preserve for its first two millennia of existence. Geokha's founding in 359, on what had been SP Break 3210, was a shock to the Preserve. A substantial portion of the Preserve's economy was redirected toward measures to hide from passing Imperial scouts; some of these measures were productive, though many would turn out ineffective. This shift in resources is one of the main factors historians cite in the slowdown in technological progress; had it not been for this, historians believe the Preserve would have achieved TL 16 in the 600s; as it was, the Preserve was on the cusp of TL 16 when the Empress Wave arrived in the 1000s and smashed effective technological levels back where it did not simply cause outright depopulation.
During the Collapse, the purpose of these worlds shifted. With the Preserve now known in Charted Space, the break served as a buffer against vampire fleets. This was more propaganda than truth, advertising in the Vargr Extents that break worlds not on the Cheaters' Route were being fortified with automated drones that would destroy any ships passing by (and did not identify friend-or-foe on any incoming ships, thus being proof against Virus infection), making the sector impassible except for acknowledged populated worlds and the Cheaters' Route. A few worlds were so fortified (with self-manufacturing drone swarms adapted form the VoidBridges), but most were not, and active patrols largely ceased. This was intended to funnel all traffic coming into the Preserve, Virus and otherwise, through the Cheaters' Route and ultimately VoidBridge 1, which had become a fortress intended to destroy any incoming ships that might cause harm. Although not completely effective, expeditions through the break in the 1200s and later found far fewer derelict vampire fleets than would have been expected had there been no such propaganda, and the Preserve was able to fend off what few fleets went through the break worlds and around the rift behind them, attacking through Stasis Tail or Firepit subsectors.
Worlds & Sectors (Astrography)[edit]
This polity can be primarily found in the following areas:
Charted Space:
Capital/s: 1105[edit]
The capital/s of this polity is/are located in the following location/s:
- No information yet available.
World Listing: 1105[edit]
The following systems and worlds are a part of this polity:
References & Contributors (Sources)[edit]
This article is missing content for one or more detailed sections. Additional details are required to complete the article. You can help the Traveller Wiki by expanding it. |
- Traveller Wiki Editorial Team
- Author & Contributor: Atymes
- Author & Contributor: Lord (Marquis) and Master of Sophontology Maksim-Smelchak of the Ministry of Science