A Spacers Life (For Me)

Spacers are, in a way, a nation unto themselves. Even with a Bulgarin Drive, journeys between stars take months at best. Away from the rare corridors where local gravity fields align just right they take years.

All this time the spacers are traveling at the speed of light, or faster, within their Bulgarin bubbles. Time passes differently for them, thanks to relativity they age much slower than their planet-bound fellows, and the worlds they return to are often very different from the worlds they left.

These differences have led to spacers developing cultures of their own. Few ever really return home, most sign-on expecting their journey to be a one-way trip, a way of paying their passage to a new world. Others make the conscious decision to leave the society they have known and live the rest of their now extended lives on ships travelling between the stars.

Faced with these long stretches of time, many choose the comfort of a stasis pod when possible, but not every ship has enough space, and at least a few crew members need to be awake at any given time. With all these long periods spent alone, away from companionship and any likelihood of rescue, spacers have learned how to take care of themselves and keep themselves entertained in the vastness of space.

Reading Material

The average ship has thousands of micro floppies loaded with everything from textbooks to the latest smut. Even private ships regularly take on new media at every time they stop. Bulgarin transmitters can only send some much information in a single burst. Spacers get to read the latest from each world they visit, long before the locals at their next destination have ever heard it.

But paper books are expensive. Most media is transmitted of micro floppys or other digital storage media. Spacers (and most locals) choose to use digital books instead, which project the words onto a sheet of transparent plastic.

These devices are surprisingly sophisticated, with buttons that allow the reader to move forward and backward in the book, and to set a limited number of bookmarks.

Spacers are known for their voracious information appetite. Most ships make it a priority to procure more material for their library at every port of call. In this way even privately owned ships serve to keep the disparate segments of humanity connected culturally.

Technical Tools

Space is huge and filled with tech, tech that tends to break from time to time. Portable interface terminals like this one are a spacer’s best friend.

Terminals are small and handheld, able to be clipped onto a belt or other piece of clothing. Each terminal is able to connect to a wide array of machines including satelites, life support systems, reactors, and more through a standard connector. Once plugged in the terminal displays a set of standard metrics like CPU usage, temperature, and error codes. The menu, which can be navigated by the arrow buttons in the bottom left, allow the user to to do a variety of things internally.

These hand terminals even give the user the ability to type custom commands or lines of code, although this is not the most user friendly option. Larger portal terminals with dedicated keyboards and graphic user interfaces are generally preferred for those more complex tasks.

Explorer’s Kit

All ships, no matter what their purpose, carry basic scientific equipment on board including Ultraviolet/Visual Light spectroscopes, mass spectrometers, and nuclear magnetic resonance instruments. Even if it it not their purpose, any ship might encounter unknown environments that they need to evaluate to determine their safety.

A basic spacer’s sample collection kit.

For things that cannot be easily carried back into orbit, spacers often bring handheld units able records local conditions. These units come equipped with a myriad of basic sensors and can be connected to various attachments such as voltage probes. Data collected with these hand-held sensors can be stored and timestamped on microfloppies

A basic handheld sensor package.

For Safety’s Sake

Radiation from distant stars, nuclear weapons, and leaky reactors are a constant danger. Most ships require their crew to wear radiation badges at all times. The badges are painted with specialized chemicals that cycle through colors as the amount of radiation increases. These colors provide a handy guide for spacers trying to quickly assess the safety of their surroundings using a handy guide.

Green = Good

Yellow=Be Careful

Red = Get Out

Black = You’re probably dead already.

The presence of breathable air is also of importance to all spacers. In response to this danger most spacers also carry small atmospheric field tests. The rods inside are chemically treated to change color in the presence of various gases.

NATO Forces in the Independence System

Awhile back I posted about a system named Independence, a part of my retro-scifi setting Red Suns. Independence is important because one of it’s planets, Franklin, is capable of supporting human life.

Because planets like this are so rare, the system is coveted by many factions, several of which maintain outposts in the system and two; NATO and the Neo-SOVIET have agreed to share Franklin. The relations between these two factions are often tense and both sides have dedicated considerable resources to securing their interests in the system.

This is the first of several posts where I provide an overview of the ships, people, and places of the Independence System. Beginning with an overview of NATO military assets in the system.

Ship Weapons

Rotating rings are great for providing consistent gravity but are incredibly vulnerable in combat. For this reason most frontline combat ships are built without rings. “Gravity” is provide by constant acceleration and crew have to deal with frequent shifts in acceleration and orientation.

NATO ship design hides most weapons emplacements inside armored bulbs. Everything from anti-missile counter measures to missile chutes are enclosed in armored bulbs that only open during combat.

These autocannons, suitable only for close-range combat or intercepting missiles, are a vital part of every ship’s defenses. Most combat however, is done with missiles at extreme ranges.

These missiles can carry a variety of payloads good for everything from orbital bombardment to anti-ship slog fests. The one pictured here is a generic load, but NATO armorers are more than capable of switching warheads out at a moment’s notice.


Siegfried Class Battleship

The newest, most advanced ship in the NATO fleet, and only a handful are currently available. It takes over a decade to finalize the design of a new battleship, and years more before new ships are fully distributed in all the systems where NATO has interests. The Independence system has an unusually high concentration of these new battleships. Equipped with new, rapid launch missile silos and state-of-the-art target tracking. A Siegfried can make short work of most ships.

Siegfrieds carry close to 2000 personnel, including enough dropships and marines to take over a small surface settlement or large space station. Each ship is a self-contained city. NATO spacers compete fiercely for a posting on a Siegfried because they know that they will spend years, or even decades on that ship and a Siegfried is one of the safest, most comfortable ships to be on in any fleet.

Challenger Class Battleship

There are a bit smaller than the Siegfrieds. Let’s say a crew of about 1000.

Somewhat older than the Siegfrieds but by no means out dated. The armament on modern retrofitted Challengers is similar in almost all ways to a new Siegfried. The main differences in armament come from a less sophisticated guidance computer and a set of four drive cannons mounted at the top of the ship.

These drive cannons fire huge projectiles at enemy ships and moons in medium-range confrontations. These cannons require a dedicated reactor and are placed away from the main hull to increase their field of fire. At the time of the ship’s design it was thought that these cannons would be a part of the ship’s primary armament. Technology had other plans. As guidance computers and targeting systems advanced it became more and more practical to engage enemies at extreme range. Despite this, the Challengers remain competent warships.

Recently, several of the Challengers in the Independence system have been given further refits that have improved their guidance computers. Engineers expect to see a far greater degree of accuracy from the drive cannons as a result. This has not yet been tested in combat conditions.

Marshal Class Destroyer

This is the smallest warship that NATO is likely to assign to long-term missions. Marshal Class Destroyers are often seen far away from NATO systems.

In locales such as the Independence System the Marshal Clase Destroyers are commonplace due to the buildup of forces. They are frequently seen escorting larger ships or leading customs patrols.

Marshal Class Destroyers carry enough firepower to hold their own in a fight and carry multiple Pioneer Class Dropships. Enough to perform small boarding actions and land marines on a surface.

Multi-Vector Attack Unit (MVAU)

Outside of atmosphere fighters are uncommon. The smallest combat craft operated by NATO is the MVAU, a broad class of small vessels crewed by between two and five crew.

MVAUs are an important part of the larger fleet, but their pilots must be carefully selected, as their positions require them to spend many weeks or even months alone.

MVAUs are mainly valued for their ability to go relatively unnoticed. Their small profile makes them difficult to distinguish from the vastness of space and they often go for long periods in a “dormant” state.

In combat MVAUs are limited. Their main armament consists of projectile weapons, useful for intercepting missiles or attacking unsuspecting targets. An MVAU may carry one or two missiles but for the most part are considered the outermost part of a fleet’s defensive screen.

Pioneer Class Dropship

Large shuttles that glide to a safe landing are preferred for ground operations. But not all planets have suitable atmospheres or are safe for shuttles with such drawn out atmospheric trajectories.

Dropships can carry many tons of supplies, or about forty marines, on a meteoric trajectory towards a planets surface. It’s fall is only arrested at the last moment by a set of powerful maneuvering thrusters.

Ground Forces

Forces stationed on Franklin’s surface have the luxury of not needing to carry bulky life support systems and armored exoskeletons. But they do have to content with the possibility of protracted surface combat.

Because Franklin is capable of naturally supporting human life the surface is worth preserving to both sides. This means that large scale bombardments are unlikely and the soldiers stationed there will have to endure a protracted ground campaign if war breaks out.

NATO soldiers on Franklin are equipped with a stripped down version of more standard armor kits painted in shades of white and grey to blend in with the chalky off-white gravel and stone that covers the planet. For the harsh, dry winters a mask with breathing filters also suitable for protection against chemical warfare agents is supplied to each soldier and worn as needed. These masks offer protection from the massive storms that sweep across the surface each winter and pummel victims with showers of dust, gravel, and ice. Also useful in the winter is a bundle of heating circuits incorporated into the uniform that when activated can help to keep a soldier’s core temperatures up.

Most soldiers carry the same service rifle used on other planets and in vacuum. These rifles are deadly, but are mostly small caliber weapons designed to allow soldiers to carry enough ammunition as possible.

For support, ground troops have access to a selection of armored vehicles, all built in local factories. Most of these vehicles are hover craft or have extremely wide treads into order to navigate the mud slurries that cover much of the surface during the wet season.

Red Suns: A System Named Independence

First explored by Lester Arkwright, who claimed the system for the NATO Bloc and established an initial settlement on Franklin, the Independence System was quick to attract the interest of multiple parties in the area, primarily the Neo-Soviets and the already established NATO colonists. It didn’t take long before conflict was already brewing over the system, primarily because one of the planets, Franklin, was suitable for human life. Eventually an agreement was reached in which NATO and the Neo-Soviets would share Franklin and establish settlements in zones designated to each. Meanwhile NATO would take control of the moon of Burr while the moon of Hamilton would fall under Neo-Soviet control. The rest of the system was then declared to be neutral ground with the exception of a handful of independent settlements that were later established orbiting the gas giant Washington.


The planet of Franklin is at one time habitable and bizarre. Like Earth, Franklin orbits within it’s star’s habitable zone and experiences similar seasonal changes, although in most regions it is more likely to rain than snow in the winter. The planet’s surface is white and chalky in most places ranging from fine sand to solid rock and during heavy rains the sand turns into a thick paste.

Surprisingly, both NATO and Neo-Soviet scientists have been able to to engineer crops able to be grow in the planet’s alien soil, although these crops require special attention. To date most crops grown on Franklin are engineered variants of potatoes, beats, and various root vegetables. More traditional crops are grown in special green houses.

Flora and Fauna


These imposing creatures are mainly scavengers, eating whatever their tentacles can pick up off the ground. Pedestrians should beware however, the tentacles are tipped with deadly stingers. When sleeping they lower themselves to the ground in order to blend in with the landscape.

Those who have hunted these massive creatures hoping for a feast have often been disappointed. The majority of the creature’s body is its shell, which is continually extruded and grows thicker as it grows older.


These gelatinous multi-cellular organisms resemble a giant cell. They move slowly, and attack their pray from above. This is a very painful experience, the poison they excrete slowly breaks their victims down, allowing them to be absorbed by the dropper.

Alone a single dropper is not a huge threat, but droppers reproduce via budding and are often found living in “packs.”


Instead of trees Franklin is home to “forests” of organisms resembling coral. These colonies are mostly dead except for those parts of the colonies close to the ground where they can easily absorb nutrients.

Dead coral is very brittle. It shatters easily and broken coral shards can be quite sharp. Some settlers have begun polishing coral fragments to make jewelry.


The bane of every technician and soldier stationed on Franklin. Creep is most similar to algae on Earth. It links to grow in thick mats on objects with lots of crevices. Just a small amount left remaining on a surface is enough to restart the colony, providing endless work to those who have displeased their superiors.


Washington is a gas giant slightly larger than Jupiter. Though it may not be habitable like Franklin it does possess many moons with varied environments. Many independent settlements have been established on these moons that have chosen to put themselves under the umbrella of the Rogue Star Collective. Their concerns are mostly represented by the RSC Administrators who oversee Washington Station.

Officially Washington Station is an important trade hub for the Independence System. It’s the one place were merchants of any nation know that they can trade freely. It is also a place were spies and informants often meet and secrets are sold.

Officially the Rogue Star Collective is a neutral entity within the system. However, many suspect that the value of the system has caused the local administrators to assemble a larger concentration of force than is typical for the RSC. Whether this concentration of force is significant is unknown but represents an significant unknown in the plans of many other actors.

Washington Locales

Washington Station

Washington Station was built after several independent settlements on Washington’s moons petitioned for membership in the RSC. Washington Station was then built to house the RSC administrators and representatives and to direct trade around the gas giant.

Many independent merchants have made their home on this station. The ring is full of taverns, warehouses, and casinos that do not wish to be under the thumb of other powers in the system.

Berzog Point

A small asteroid that was captured in Washington’s orbit. Berzog Point is a mostly lawless settlement administered by the Berzog Family. They don’t much care what goes on in their asteroid so long as everyone pays their docking fees.

This sounds exciting, but for the most part the people here just want to avoid more expensive docking fees or experiment with drugs that have been outlawed elsewhere in the system.


Cold, icy, and full of interesting chemistry. Tartan is the manufacturing center of the Washing Sub-System. It’s surface is home to a number of large plantations home to self-replicating molecular systems. These self-replicating molecules harvest light from the star Independence and use that light to grow a variety of useful polymers that are sold elsewhere in the system.