Crion's Revenge
Appendix
Chapter One of Crion's Revenge
Allied Powers: Earth system and its allies of Sectors 1, 2, 3, and 5. Its formal name is the Allied Earth Federal Planets.
Central Powers: The Alliance of Sectors 7, 8, 9, and 10 against Earth and its allied Sectors. The formal name is the United Central Powers of the Free Colonies.
Crimson Prince: See Cassius Vhell.
Crion: A planet settled by German, Israeli, Irish, and Japanese colonists in the first century of the Great Colonization. Crion suffered tremendously during the Machine Wars and became a totalitarian government as a result. While freedom is nonexistent, the planetary populous is largely unmolested and live fairly prosperous lives. The leader of the planet is typically selected from the Crion family that is related to all of the most prosperous military families by blood or marriage. It has four moons in Astraios, Eurybia, Perses, Pallas.
Crion Allegiance: A radical nationalist party that sweeps Crion after the Treaty of the Seven Sisters. Deliberately modeled after the Nazi party despite its monstrous history, it attracts numerous devotees throughout the planetary populous. Despite his disgust for the organization, Dolze Zebullon manipulates the organization for his own political benefit. The Crion Allegiance maintains its own militia and terrorist organization to aid in securing its political gains.
Crion, Isaac: The planetary president of Crion and Governor-General of all of her colonies. Isaac Crion was a devious, manipulative, and evil man that nevertheless was able to invoke strong loyalty from his followers. Nearing the end of his life when he took over the rulership of Crion, he was seemingly broke by the destruction of Terra-2 and chose to negotiate the surrender of the Central Powers.
Darkspace Drive: A 'strange matter' device that has the peculiar property of allowing vessels to travel at speeds many times that of light by altering the properties of the universe's physics for brief periods. Scientists are still unsure how the drive works since its inventor's theories about the universe were all proven incorrect despite the machine's functionality. Also called Welft drives after its inventor Ulysses Welft.
Dane, Mirallia: The daughter of the previous head of Earth Intelligence and now its current leader, Mirallia Dane is a compassionate woman whom nevertheless has nerves of steel. Disgusted with the corruption and villainy she sees in the Earth Federation's forces, she nevertheless hopes to defend its citizens against what she percieves to be the greater evil in the Crion Allegiance. Mirallia is a war widow and has lost most of her family in the Reclamation Wars.
Earth Federation: The Federation of Earth colonized planets and stations is a congressional government that theoretically represents the interests of all humans. In practice, the government is an oligarchy that has been run by ruthless commercial interests for well over a century.
Genoids: Bio-engineered humans with enhanced intelligence, perception, and strength. Genoids are not superhumanly powerful but tend to view themselves as a master race.
Great Galactic War: See Reclamation Wars.
Interstellar News Network: The Earth based network for the human race's news. It holds a state-sponsored monopoly on Earth's media.
Ishikawa, Amada: A Lunar born child of the war, Ishikawa Amada grew up with his French mother in an environment of war induced poverty. A genius with mathmatics and mechanical devices, Amada was swifty drafted into the Space Navy upon his sixteenth birthday. An opinionated and sarcastic man, his attitude got him transferred to the starfighter corps in hopes of seeing him killed. Amada is nevertheless an honorable and decent man with a true warrior's spirit. Note that his surname comes first in his addresses.
Khan, Alexia: A Earth slave girl rescued by The Crimson Prince during one of his raids on munitions shipping to the Allies. Alexia Khan was allowed to recover at the Vhell estates bequeathed to Cassius for his war efforts and soon caught the eye of the President. A woman of intelligence and keen insight, Alexia Khan soon became a trusted associate of the Crion leadership. Her past before her slavery is unknown but some suspect that she might have been someone of importance.
Kursanagi, Motoko: A Japanese born girl that is the last of a long line of martial art's instructors, Motoko Kursanagi has a strong fetish for the myths of Feudal Japan. She was briefly married before her husband was killed in the Reclamation Wars and chose to model herself after mythical warrior woman Tomoe Gozen. Motoko is a surprisingly adept pilot and skillful warrior despite her ridiculous ideals.
Jupiter-class Battlecruiser: The mainstay of the Earth Federation fleet. The kilometer long vessels are egg shaped and covered in battery pods that make it look somewhat like a potato. The ships are not particularly powerful compared to their Centralist counterparts but are easy to construct, operate, maintain, and repair. The ships carry 6,000 crew, 2,000 troopers, 160 starfighters, and are armed with 65 batteries.
Machine Wars: The conflict between mankind and artificial intelligences. The 'Rebellion' that lead to this war was the result of human terrorists spreading a virus that caused belligerant and rebellious behavior in a fraction of the machines. Paranoia and bigotry against the machines resulted in a thorough purge. Misunderstandings about the viability of alternative technologies lead to a century long dark age of space travel.
Neutral Powers: Sectors 4, 6, 11, and 12 that refused to take a side during the Reclamation Wars.
Odin-class Battlecruiser: A star dreadnought that is ten miles in length and resembles a long pointed pyramid. Massive 'wings' fly out of its sides. Only four were ever constructed and two were destroyed during the Reclamation Wars. The Odin and her sister ship the Mjonir are two of the most famous vessels currently in Centralist forces. The ship carries 220,132 personnel, 50,000 troopers, 720 starfighters, and is armed with 3000 assault batteries.
Preybird- A ugly T-shaped fighter that was mass produced by Earth in order to meet the needs of their invasion plans. The Preybirds lacked shields or strong armor while simultaneously being difficult to master due to their absurdly high speeds. The Preybird was adapted to untrained Earth troopers by using swarm tactics and many Centralist aces racked up large numbers of kills against them.
Reclamation Wars: A conflict initiated by planet Earth to attempt to unite all of the disparate members of the human race under one government. Also known as the 'Great Galactic War.' The conflict lasted 23 years and was far more vicious than any participant thought it would be.
Terra-2: A planet designed to be a duplicate of Earth. Terra-2 was home to a vast number of human colonists of all stripes and wavered in its allegiance several times during the Reclamation Wars. It was under the control of a collaborator government with the Central Powers when unknown forces destroyed it with mass drivers.
Thor-class Battlecruiser: The Centralist war efforts chief battleship, the Thor-class is a mile and a half long war machine designed for concentrated planetary assaults. The vessels resemble pointed pyramids with large towers rising out of its left, right, and top sides. The Thor class carries 8,000 crew, 2,5000 troopers, 250 starfighters, and is equipped with 90 batteries.
Sectors: A astrography term that refers to collections of roughly one hundred inhabited human planets. The term has become somewhat obsolete as many of the original colonies have made colonies of their own. There are currently twelve recognized sectors of human habitation.
Shogun Executor: A title given by Crion forces to a military leader in times of great duress. It bestows the powers of Genralissmo and military dictator to its bearer. There have only been three in Crion history.
Sol-Suckers: A derogitory name for humans from the Earth system.
Sol-less: A derogitory name for extra-solar humans.
Space Marshall: The absolute commander of Earth's space born forces. The Space Marshall answers only to the Congress of Earth and is the most powerful of the branch heads.
Spiegel, George: Space Marshall for the Earth Federation forces. George Spiegel was in a dead end career as a starfighter colonel when the war broke out and rapidly rose through the ranks until he was in charge of the entire space forces of the Allied Powers. George's bombastic personality and opinionated nature have made him an unwitting scapegoat to deflecting criticism from Earth's war effort. He is nevertheless an open, honest, and beloved figure to the majority of the Federation miliary.
Star Crescent News Network: The premiere non-aligned news network that tended to post Centralist-positive news in the waning years of the war. It is still the most expansive network amongst the Earth colonies.
Star Wing: A starfighter with two extendable wings built into its right side for additional fire-support. The Star Wing is a generalist craft designed to compensate for the disaster that had been the Preybird class starfighters. It is now the staple of the Allied fighter corps.
Titans: Earth armored shocktroopers that serve as deep space marines. Titans enforce loyalty to the home system as part of their duty and are infamous for their brutality.
Treaty of the Seven Sisters: The disastrous surrender agreement of the Central Powers to the Allies that evokes the Treaty of Versailles in many ways. The treaty itself is not as harsh but corrupt officials and disorganization amongst the Central governments allow the Earth Federation enforcers to abuse clauses of it well beyond what was agreed.
Valkyries: A line of winged starfighters that tend to resemble birds with a central ball-like cockpit. The Valkyrie models of starfighter are almost synonymous with the Central powers.
Valkyrie-Hunter: The most plentiful of Valkyrie-type starfighters, the Hunters were deployed in the early stages of the war and have remained an economical weapon for the Centralist powers. The Hunters have light shielding, armor, and are not incredibly fast but their powerful weapons along with ease of mastering make it a superior weapon to Earth's Preybirds.
Valkyrie-Interceptor: A solution to the Star-wings eliminating the Centralists' advantage over the Allied Powers in starfighter combat, the Interceptors were given to all aces and eventually made the craft of elite squads. The Interceptors have dramatically increased speed, manuverability, and armaments. The use of Interceptors as bombing craft inflicted devastating losses on Allied ships.
Valkyrie-Overlord: The first major blunder of the Central powers in warspending, the Overlord is a nightmarishly expensive starfighter designed to be anything and everything on a battlefield. Almost impossible to control by even a star ace, the heavily shielded machine bore armaments equal to a small capital ship. The machine was also unusually large and not able to be fitted into regular squadron slots in hangar bays. The 'Albatross' as it became known was nevertheless made famous as the preferred ship of the Crimson Prince.
Vhell, Cassius: "The Crimson Prince" and the military darling of the Crion media. Cassius Vhell is the nephew of former President Isaac Crion and as close to royalty as the planet has. A Genoid and genuinely talented pilot with a keen strategic mind, Cassius Vhell has kept himself alive through the Reclamation wars with well chosen fights. An aristocrat with too high an opinion of himself, Cassius nevertheless has a deep devotion to both his homeland and his troops. His keenest hope is to see them all live in a state of happiness with their pride and dignity intact.
Vhell, Serena: Serena Vhell is the daughter of political activists on Crion that were sentenced to summary execution by, then, Inquisitor-General Isaac Crion for sedition. The commanding officer, not wanting to murder a child, faked results that the girl was exceptional genetically in order to set her up as a concubine for a wealthy family. Ironically, Serena Vhell ended up being set up with Isaac Crion's own great nephew. Thankfully, he was more inclined to view her as a sister than a sexual conquest. While disgusted with her brother's naivity and indifference to the conditions of their planet, she has since become his closest friend and squadmate.
Welft-drive: See 'Darkspace drive.'
Zebullon, Dolze: The English descended fleet commander of the Crion homefleet, Dolze Zebullon has a reputation as a brilliant officer and a man of action. In truth, Dolze Zebullon is a mediocore tactician and only has the vaguest idea about the exact capacities of his forces. It is Dolze's family connections along with his ability to surround himself with genuine talent has allowed him to skyrocket to through the ranks. Dolze has only participated in a few battles during his career and even these have been marred by warcrimes.
