@stnylan - that was exactly my idea when I created this race
Anyway, time for 2nd episode... Hopefully 3rd and further will come more regularly ^^'
Also, a bit of a shameless plug - the AAR also gets posted on
my blog, where I also post various nerdy things - manga/anime recommendations, Kerbal Space Program AAR and stuff. The blog is pretty much in its infancy, but feel free to drop in from time to time and have a look
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II
Explorers and Soldiers
Despite its hierarchical and structured character, Baikalan society put great emphasis on equality; as long as a person could pull his or her weight and serve at least a single tour of duty in the military, a road to promotion and even the highest governmental posts was open. To facilitate promotion and encourage versatility, most functions - from individual habitats' governors to central Union command - were kept elective.
At the time of "Emergence", as Baikalan historians later called the era of first expeditions outside their solar system, the Union was led by Athena Kozlov. A charismatic and innovative officer, she rose to prominence in the years immediately before the Emergence, as the head of Pomorets' deep sea research division. Kozlov's vision of interstellar Baikalan presence was one of curiosity and reason. Each distant star contained a piece of the puzzle that was the Universe - and it was Pomorets' destiny to combine all those pieces into a coherent whole.
And it didn't take long for expeditionary ships to find first signs of alien life; and even though the species discovered in one of neighbouring systems showed only rudimentary signs of sapience, their discovery caused a great deal of enthusiasm on Baikal.
Under direct orders of archontess Kozlov, those primitive species - named Piredazay - were given special protection, as their homeworld was declared a reserve and forbidden from any for of active study for fear of disrupting the primitives' development.
It didn't take long for the Union to meet its peers in the black void above, either; first fully sentient contact came in the form of humanoid aliens, calling themselves the Abystarans. The first encounter was far from amiable; Abystaran ships interdicted Union's research ships, forcing them to hastly evacuate back into Union's space. Further attempts to establish more cordial diplomatic relations met an equally straightforward answer.
Soon, a series of incidents in 'no-man's space' between the two states' systems resulted in the already strained relations deteriorate into a state of cold war. While neither the Union, nor the Alliance, possessed resources or fleets to wage an open interstellar war, it was obvious that such state of affairs would not last forever...
Seeing the perspective of an arms race unlike any in Baikal's past, archontess Kozlov attempted to direct the Union's momentum in other areas of unhabitated space. However, before long, yet another galactic civilization came into contact with the Pomorets; the cautious and distanced avian Brums also closed their space for Union's ships, refusing any form of contact other than sporadic remote messages. What differed them from the Abyastarans, however, was their absolute and unquestionable disgust towards violence. Baikalan parliament - the
Sich - recieved those developments with sort of relief; although the Union found itself sandwiched between two superior factions, at least one of them appeared to pose no threat.
For the time being.
Realizing the limits of their expansion, the Union geared itself towards internal development. An ambitious colonization program has been announced - aiming at settling as many systems as possible in order to provide the Union with resources, and even more importantly, manpower it lacked.
Twenty one years after the Emergence, the first Pomorets colony ship arrived at the virgin world of Groezhda. Far from their home, under an alien sun, the first generation of pioneers began constructing their new homes.
The Age of Explorers came to an end. In its place came the Age of Soldiers.