- Edited
"Blessed nation of Irri" (theocratic empire)
Faction leader: Holy Empress Vai Uirv
Systems under control: 1
Planets under control: 1 (Itteri'cra, homeworld.)
Itteri'cra
The relief of Irri homeworld (which the natives call "Itteri'cra") is its main difference from most other Earth-like planets. It is almost impossible to find the "sea level" of Itteri'cra or to highlight some large geographical objects of a tectonic scale.
Relief and landscape
The entire surface of this planet is covered with bristles of mountain ranges, which consist of thin, needle-like rocks, the height of which from the foot to the top reaches an average of seven to nine kilometers. These rocks have a porous structure with a large number of spherical cavities; often inside such "mountain caves" a variety of liquids and liquid mixtures condense, forming unstable, regularly drying out lakes.
During the hot period, evaporating liquids create dense flows of gases escaping from cracks in the surface of mountains; gases, which are heavier than air, slowly flow downward, enveloping obstacles encountered along the way and gradually accumulating in mountain gorges. Light gases are slightly less common, and they rise to the upper atmosphere in the form of massive columns.
In some areas, mountain ranges are alternate with deep, narrow crevices. Often non-drying liquids accumulates at the bottom of these gorges, forming a kind of mountain lakes; they may look shallow, but but in fact the depth of such lakes sometimes reaches several kilometers.
Hydrosphere and ecosystem
As a result of seismic activity, mountain lakes sometimes come together to form huge underground reservoirs with strange mixtures of a wide variety of liquids. Despite the fact that the surface of Itteri'cra looks dry and rocky, it actually contains a huge amount of liquids. In stable lakes a large number of living organisms ihabit; a significant number of them are plants and bacteria, among which there are a lot of luminescent organisms. At the night they highlight lakes and clusters of fog, and due to the amount of them they can be seen even from orbit.
Layered atmosphere
The atmosphere of the planet consists of several very different layers. Irri, who live closer to the upper atmosphere, are not able to breathe air from the lower (surface) layer, and many animals from the lower layers are unable to breathe high in the mountains. Both the upper and lower layers contain a large amount of vaporous liquids, which constantly condenses and evaporates again, circulating between atmospheric layers or between floors of natural underground caves. This creates numerous and diverse air currents, which greatly facilitate the process of flying in the atmosphere of Itteri'cra.
•Anatomy.
Flight is the main way to move used by Irri. When they fly, to the viewer on the ground they are most similar to ordinary terrestrial birds; their flying style is most reminiscent to high-speed soaring of eagles with difficult and long takeoff. But unlike the terrestrial birds, Irri have two pairs of forelimbs- both arms and wings with ~ 2.5 meters of wingspan.
Standing upright, Irri might reach ~ 1.6 meters tall, and their body mass can range from 7 to 12 kg. They have long (up to 90 centimetres), narrow legs with tarsometatarsus, that slightly taper to talons; that talons are sharp and massive, from 7 to 15 centimetres length depending on which toe they are placed.
Their arms are ~ 65 centimetres length, four-fingered with opposable thumbs, with tarsometatarsus from cubit to palm; males also have sharp claw-like inflexible bone growth on wrist (~ 15 centimetres length). Except for this growth, most of Irri's bones are hollow inside and very fragile.
Feathers and fluffy feathers cover the bodies of Irri; their heads looks like heads of terrestrial hawks or secretarybirds, with сurved beak and long distinct black feathers protruding from behind of the head, sometimes forming a peculiar halo. Irri are fastidious about their plumage, frequently tending their feathers. Males have plumage in a contrasting black and white palette, occasionally with small amount of bright yellow, pink and blue-green plumage elements, and females are mostly gray. Yellow colour of feathers is considered as a sign of holiness; also the yellow feathered phenotype is common to many noble houses. Some Irri prefer to dye their feathers, however it's prohibited for military personnel.
Irri have great binocular vision enabling very accurate judgement of distances. They have more types of colour receptors than humans (7 instead of 3), which improves their distance vision, nullifyes effectiveness of primitive enemy camouflage and allows to see in hazy conditions without any additional tools. Their visual field is ~ 280° in the horizontal plane and ~ 150° in the vertical. Irri's reaction speed is good enough to notice flying bullet and maybe even try to evade it (most probably without any success).
Irri reach maturity by age 2 in Earth years; they usually die at age of 15-25. Female Irri usually have 2-6 children. After coming of an Sacred Era attempts of governments from Era of Delusion to regulate home planet's population were declared a sin and cursed in the name of Vai Uirv, so nowadays Irri have big problems with overcrowding of their home planet.
Irri arе much weaker and much more fragile than humans and most of human-like creatures, but in close combat their natural weapons like claws or wrist growths and also excellent reaction speed sometimes make them a dangerous opponents.
•Technologies.
1) Gravity manipulations
Fundamental technology that made possible the existence of many Irri inventions. The first samples of gravity-defying devices were created in the Era Of Delusion, 130 years ago; at that time Irri used electromagnetic gravity-nullifying fields, generated by two huge superconducting coils, connected to a complex of powerful cooling and energy-generating systems. Those machines were fragile, terribly expensive and heavy, but they allowed Irri to reach the space. Nowadays Irri use much more elegant devices.
Typically they are a spherical superconducting core made of ceramic-metall alloy, covered with a protecting fractal case connected to container filled with liquid coolant and powered by a rechargeable plasma cell. During operation this device consumes plasma and coolant. This machine, called "Uitoo," is important part of Irri battlesuits and airships; it helps to compensate gravity (not only lessen, but increase too), and because of that Irri can easily fly in almost any conditions as good as they fly at their home planet.
1.1) Gravitational Well Generator
Advanced spaceship technology, commonly used for avoiding enemy fire or for fleeing from battlefield. Strong gravitational field both pushes ship forwards and repells it from back, accelerating it to incredible speed. This maneuver can be performed only once per 20 minutes.
1.1.1) FTL-jumping with use of GW Generator
The power of the Irri devices allows to create a gravity well strong enough to accelerate spaceships to superluminal speeds. However, the speed puts strain on the gravitational field, acquiring too much acceleration can abrutly end the jump, and release the ship violently and unshielded from the FTL, causing catastrophic damage. Gravitational Well Jumping is not very reliable FTL-tech.
1.2) Gravitational Well Routes
Software that allows to calculate optimal route for GW FTL-jumps. Series of jumps without pre-calculated route most probably will be an equivalent of suicide.
1.3) GraviLens Shield Projector and GraviLens Telescope
Shield projectors are massive and expensive devices, that slightly redirect incoming projectiles or missiles and diffuse laser beams. Also here is variation of GraviLens Projector that can redirect photons, making the target invisible for the human eye, but only if target doesn't move or move with negligible speed.
GraviLens Telescope System is huge half-spherical space object, which creates a perfect gravitational lense and allows to visually see nearby star systems, like when you using ordinary telescope. Zoom and view direction of GraviLense telescope can be changed very fast and precisely to observe smallest and most inconspicuous details or to spy on moving targets.
1.4) Universal aerospace movement systems
Gravitational manipulations, yay! In that case Irri massively use aerospace fighters like Orri'uit or Lei'tava. That ships combine both plasma or chemfuel thrusters and gravitational movement systems. Because of that Irri fighters are able to hover in the air motionless or take off vertically upwards without acceleration path.
Moreover, personal gravity stabilizers negates the difference in gravity, allowing Irri to fly with help of wings in atmosphere of almost any planet. Irri can spend days or even weeks in flight because of possibility of sleeping when flying; personal gravity stabilizers allow them to conduct massive combat operations with use of infantry units AND at the same time without landing on ground.
1.4) Weaponry, based on this technologies
(but sometimes Irri still use cheap chemical weapons like firearms and primitive explosives)
1.4.1) Mass Accelerators
Weapons, the action principle of which is similar to the principle of operation of the Gravitational Well Generator. Mass accelerators have extremely high projectile speed and fire range, but long reload time.
1.4.2) Weapons using gravitational stabilization of plasma
Gravity manipulations™ allows to produce plasma grenades and bombs, and also allows to shoot stable plasma projectiles instead of creating useless short-lived plasma flashes.
1.4.3) Gravity-changing bomb
Highly-armoured and amortized analogue of "Uitoo", which nullifies gravity within a twenty-meter radius for a couple of seconds, using same amount of plasma and coolant as "Uitoo" consumes after a few days of work. Weird (but effective) way to fight against heavy vehicles.
2) Sublimated highly-nutritious powder.
Birdies need a lot of energy, and food consumes too much place, so I decided that I have to add magical technology of producing cheap lightweight stuff for eating.
Planetary warfare doctrine I. The sky belongs to the birds
Irri do not use any ground vehicles, navy or stationary artillery. They rely on small squads of flying sharpshooters, on fast and maneuverable fighters, unattainable for most types of armoured vehicles, and on nimble tactical bombers.
The aircraft conducts combat actions in close cooperation with the spaceships on planetary orbit and with the marine corps. Infantry extensively uses atmospheric conditions and supremacy in visual field to obtain an advantage over the enemy troops.
Planetary forces:
"Sharpshooter squad"
Group of 9 soldiers in standard battlesuits with "Uitoo" gravity stabilizers, armed with long range hand singly-charged mass accelerators for fighting against infantry and vehicles. Also all of them have a pair of plasma greanades for destroying fortifications and eliminating groups of enemy infantry on the ground.
"Heavy weapon squad"
Pair of Irri soldiers. They have standard battlesuits with "Uitoo" and one additional gravity stabilizer to compensate heavy weapon's mass or/and recoil.
Also with help of additional gravitational stabilizer they can use heavy weapon in air without landing, but probably they will not be very successful trying to shoot using HW in motion (expect of lance-cannon, wich was created for shooting during the flight).
Heavy weapons list (only one weapon per squad):
•Multi-barrel mass accelerator
Heavy anti-tank mass-accelerator, capable to commit several shots before recharging.
•Rapidfire plasma rotor cannon
Weapon designed to compensate the lack of fire density performed by the Irri infantry squads.
•Small plasma lance-cannon
Flamethrower-like weapon for short distances, which can easily melt tank armour or concrete walls.
"Paladins"
Group of 9 Irri servicemen, scientists, engineers or clerics. Their equipment and role in the Irri army can vary depending on which order they belong.
•Order of the Awed Ones. Paladins from the Order of the Awed Ones are judges, orators, military police, theologians and warpriests all at the same time. They are usually responsible for maintaining discipline in the army squads and in the crews of the starships. Nowadays the inspiring sermon of a paladin before a major battle is an important part of the Irri army traditions.
This paladins are armed with low-power compact plasmaguns and ceremonial melee weapons named "Oi'Ya Rri", which are something like ancient Irri spears. In addition, their equipment includes massive sound systems for playing sacred birdsongs during the battle. Colours of this order are yellow and purple.
•Order of the Fourth Word. The main task of this order is to prevent leakage of Irri technologies. Paladins of the Fourth Word are ones who fight with defectors, renegades and spies; for this task they are authorized to use secret weapons or even untested prototypes. Sometimes they also can act as combat engineers or as tactical stealth-troopers. Colours of this order are black and green-blue.
•Order of the South Wind.
An order whose task is to study xenotechnologies and continue the Great Work of the First Emperor. Paladins of this order mostly are explorers, scientists and engineers. They are also engaged in maintenance of equipment, starships and battlesuits. Colours of this order are orange and white.
Combat vehicles
"Lei'tava" aerospace fighter.
Very fast and maneuverable, but fragile aerospace fighter without FTL drive or shields, mostly used for planetary defence and patrolling around military objects in space or as a deck spacecraft on carrier ships. Adaptive gravitational stabilizer allows "Lei'Tava" fighters perform almost impossible tricks.
Weapons: Two separately working plasma cannons, able to destroy most of normal sized ground and aerial warmachines. Their optimal fire range, limited by cooling of plasma projectiles, is almost normal for the planetary combat (750 metres), but in space such fire range is a way too insignificant.
Overall dimensions: length 17 m, wingspan 13 m, crew 4 souls, mass 20 tonnes.
(no pic)
"Soi'ull" aerospace fighter
Heavy aerospace fighter, created for ambushing and snipering. It is much faster than all other Irri fighters, but also larger and more fragile. Soi'Ull have no shields, but instead it protects itself with cloaking GraviLens Projector. No FTL-drive.
Weapons: Heavy mass accelerator, able to easily liquidate fortifications, slow spaceships and ground vehicles from long distances. Perfect for sudden attacks on enemy military bases or motionless spaceships. Vulnerable in fight with multiple targets, but still can be effective in air or space duels.
Overall dimensions: length 32 m, wingspan 42 m, crew 12 souls, mass 290 tonnes.
"Ivi'Rri" aerospace fighter
The main and most common aerospace fighter used by Irri Faith Defence Forces. Good enough both for ambushes and face-to-face battles. Has GraviLens Shield Projector (halfsphere) in front part of ship and cloaking GraviLens Projector. Still no FTL.
Weapons: Two rapidfire plasma rotor cannons with less firepower and range than ordinary plasma cannons of "Lei'tava", but with far higher rate of fire and heavy plasma lance-cannon, elder brother of hand lance-cannon, shooting short beams of superhot unstable plasma, devastating in close combat.
Overall dimensions: length 16 m, wingspan 18 m, crew 6 souls, mass 50 tonnes.
"Orri'uit" plasma bomber
Small and nimble invisible bomber, with bottom part protected by gravishield halfsphere. What a nightmare of any fortress... Has cloak & shield projectors. Can not perform FTL-jumps.
Weapons: Four light plasmaguns, providing defence against infantry and low-armored aircraft; storage for fifeteen plasma or gravity-changing bombs, used against fortifications and enormous vehicles.
Overall dimensions: length 9 meters, wingspan 15 metres, crew 9 souls, mass 75 tonnes (without bombs).
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"Yerr'vi" universal transport ship
Biggest and heaviest aerospace ship in Irri fleet. Slow, but durable. Workhorse of Faith Defence Forces, used as bomber, or gunship, or landing ship, or as ship for transportation of ammunition, supplies and auxiliary military tools. Finally, this ship can perform FTL-jumps.
Weapons: Four rapidfire plasma rotor cannons (same ones installed on "Ivi'Rri"), mostly used for covering infantry and defending against enemy aircraft, but sometimes also against spaceships or armored vehicles. I will count place for marines as weapon; so, place for 180 marines (2 marines from Heavy Weapon Squad counts as 9 marines, and 9 paladins in full equipment counts as 9 or 18 marines depending on Order) with supplies for 3 days of autonomous survival in any conditions, and storage for 40 plasma or gravity-changing bombs which can be replaced by storage of ammunition, water & nutritious powder, in case of emergency providing supplies for crew and marines for an additional week. Also all space taken by marines, rotor cannons and small storages can be replaced by one huge storage. Even FTL-drive can be replaced for extra cargo space.
Overall dimensions: length 32 meters, wingspan 41 metres, 180 marines, crew 9 souls, mass 500 tonnes (without bombs or cargo)
Planetary warfare doctrine II. Honorable Discharge
Xenoscum do not deserve to examine or even touch Sacred Blessings of Irri Engineering- their weaponry, auxiliary military tools and spaceships. Savages will never be able to capture that holy relics as a trophy, because almost every spaceship have perfectly-balanced selfdestruction system, that can be also used for entering kamikaze mode, and Irri infantry rather annihilate themselves and their sacred equipment by detonating plasma grenades or try to disable their machines and kill themselves, using bayonets (yes, massaccelerators have bayonets), claws or personal melee weapons than be taken as prisoners.
Ideology
Irri philosophy implies a perception of the world with an understanding of their insignificance and a constant awareness about the fact that globally single Irri is unable to make a significant difference in anything during their tiny lifetime. However, if united under rule of wise leader, Irri can leave something noticeable after their deaths. The desire to be remembered is very strong in mentality of Irri, and it's expressed in their obsession with inherited banners, sacred tombs, obelisks and other ways to leave something significant to their descendants. This mentality, reinforced by natural psycology of Irri and huge number of traditions bounded to inheritance rights of titles and property, was fixed by the world government for more than two centuries (that is about a dozen generations) as part of a set of universal prescriptions for almost all cases of life.
Spiritualistic part of this philosophy is the perception of the world (or, to be more precise, time) as some kind of event spirals, and in their borders the history is moving from bottom to top forming a complex unevenly symmetrical spiral with certain laws that are cyclically traced in its structure. Strictly speaking, the spiral consists of almost identical turns that with every cycle step by step become closer and closer to some kind of universal perfection, and each of those turns is so large that it can't be expressed in terms of understandable measures of time. But the structure of the spiral itself consists of smaller event spirals formed by other spirals, and so on, almost infinitely, to a level beyond the control of the Irri intelligence.
The smallest part of the Spiral is the life of one Irri. Until the last son or daughter of Blessed Nation exist, the Spiral will keep flowing in it's eternal harmony of constant self-development; with death of last Irri it will be the end of time, because the tissue of the whole world's history will be disrupted and torn apart.
"The life of unskilled personnel is nothing. This short life will be spent in a meaningless, criminal squandering, and the only worthy way to apply such a life is to spend it on tools maintenence."
"A chief or commander who does not care about the lives of his subordinates is a criminal; and that chief who does not protect qualified specialists is a criminal and a pest, because competent personnel are essentially a tool and sometimes they even surpass their equipment in value."
“Those who are able to create new knowledge will forever remain in the Spirals. Their names will sound again, and again, and again, and to the end of time. Knowledge always grows with new knowledge, giving rise to new benefits and miracles. Knowledge is the only important value, and it should never be lost."
"Respect ones who provide your safety and security. If you have subordinates- always be sure that they are safe."
“Machines are the quintessence of mental and physical work, an alloy of dozens of useful lives. Take care of apparatuses, even if you do not understand the principle of their work, because they are more important and more valuable than you.”
“The equipment is sacred. Take care of it, because your name will most likely be forgotten, and the equipment will continue to rotate in the Spirals and will benefit many generations later. That life will be heard in the Spiral, which led to the appearance of new equipment. The equipment, carefully preserved for posterity will also carry your name further down the Spiral - remember this and appreciate truly usefulness, as well as remember your insignificance. Don’t be afraid, those who come further down the Spiral will replace you, but replacing equipment will be much more difficult."
"Be cautious- always."
"Everyone deserves the right to obtain knowledge and no one can take this right away. Bearing part of the sacred knowledge is equally the highest honor and the strictest duty; one who received part of the glories of his predecessors in the Spiral, must take upon himself the severity of the knowledge of his House and either increase it or spread what others increased, because a Noble House barren of knowledge will soon be replaced by a more worthy House."
“Doctrine is your greatest knowledge, carry it with trepidation. Remember the beginning of your Spiral and think about its future; remember the predestination created by the consequences; remember that the only choice in your life is the choice between eternity and oblivion; remember that those who were are nothing compared to those who will be."
"Worship Protocol. It was made by ones who are more worthy than you."
"Always doubt everything, but never let this interfere with your work. Always think about how to improve your life and the lifes of others, but do not put this idea higher than submission to your superiors. Always know that someone knows more than you."
"There's no ethic principles important enough to limit the scientifical progress. Constant development in the name of wellbeing of future generations is the only hope for Blessed Nation, and no sacrifice is too much when it comes to achieving new heights."
"Do not let your insignificant wars and conflicts disrupt infrastructure. Your disputes, no matter how important they seem to be for you, will be forgotten, meanwhile the machines should work as long as possible and technologies should remain preserved. Every time you want to do something radical, think about consiquences for those who will come to replace you."
"Take care of the delicate balance of ecosystems, but don't turn it into worship. Nature is created to serve the Blessed Nation. It reflects universal harmony, but it is mindless and therefore it is not more valuable than our survival."
-Avir Uirv, the Second Emperor of Sacred Era. "Memorandum Ivitieyrra"
Space warfare doctrine. Flock fleets
In space here are no halftones and other games of light and shadow. It's not an atmosphere, and chaotically moving molecules do not rise on the path of photons in the endless emptiness. When moving in space the photons almost do not change their trajectory.
Almost.
Irri has mastered in the art of redirection of photons with help of cloak projectors. Their motionless ships are almost impossible to detect without the aid of special sensors and the tiny size of Irri ships only complicate the task. Pilots of the Blessed Nation rely on the element of surprise and disorientation of the enemy, who will not be able to determine the location of the bird fleet. Their tactics involve a risky "all-in" and hope that when the enemy will understand from where it is attacked, it will be too late for him.
Servants of Holy Empress have no real combat experience in open space. Moreover, they had never encountered other intelligent species nor have they heard about the technology and tactics of the major space empires. However, the religious worship of knowledge and extreme caution led Irri to the fact that even before the beginning of the first-ever space wars they had already formulated their own doctrine of warfare in open space. This most pessimistic set of rules and assumptions imply that Irri, in any case, will be faced with superior enemy forces, which will have the advantage in numbers, knowledge and equipment of the spacecraft. Starting from this constant, the authors of the doctrine have included in their tactics these methods of achieving superiority over the enemy:
1) The element of surprise. You need to use the potential of the invisibility with maximum effectiveness, waiting until the last moment and, if necessary, using diversionary or distracting tactics to avoid detection of the main mass of hidden ships.
2) Start a fight in all three dimensions simultaneously. Ships must never be massed in one place, they need to be divided into small tactical groups. Ships from one group should concentrate firepower on one target, and, in addition, they should attack the same target in different planes, depriving the enemy of the opportunity to avoid fire with help of speed or maneuverability. 3) It is very important to avoid direct fire exchange. When getting under a frontal attack of an enemy vessel, it is recommended to use the generator of the gravitational well immediately. Irri ships are almost completely devoid of armor, and they are simply unable to openly fight the alien analogues; gravitational shields can, to some extent, redirect enemy missiles and shells, completely preventing damage, but they deplete quickly under concentrated fire, leaving the Irri ships defenseless against even the lightest of guns. In addition, the redirection does not always mean a complete avoidance of damage; sometimes redirected projectile still reach the ship, which can be fatal for the Irri. Recommended distance for the first strike under normal conditions - approximately two million kilometers, with an immediate regroup after a volley. The velocity of shell fired through an Irri gravitational mass accelerator is about three thousand kilometers per second; so, the target will take a damage after approximately ten minutes. It should be clarified that this rule applies only in the conditions when you attack motionless enemy ships, with only easily calculatable trajectory of inertial motion. It is not recommended to fire at moving targets at a distance of more than thousand kilometers because of the unacceptably high probability of miss. In addition, even if you fight with motionless targets sometimes the best solution would be to reduce the distance to a minimum and only after that open fire without the risk of miss. 4) Use cosmic objects and their gravity in military interests. Irri's favorite trick is to use the gravity of planets or large space objects to accelerate their ships or to change the flight path of shells. Shoot at a motionless (or very slow) target with a projectile that will change direction due to the influence of gravity of some planet; remain out of reach of enemy guns and sensors (somewhere in an asteroid field, for example); сontinue to fire, distracting and confusing your victim. The classic model of behavior in battle, described in all the textbooks for Irri pilots.
And final, most important part. Retreat is welcome. Victory at the cost of all ships is not. Irri have a very small battle fleet, and they rarely can afford to sacrifice their valuable ships. After completing the main combat mission or after inflicting sufficient damage to the enemy, Irri will choose to leave the battlefield. This does not apply to aerospace fighters - their main purpose is to provide cover for large vessels. Fighters are not so expensive, their weapons are unable to fire at great distances, and the lives of pilots in conditions of overpopulation of their home planet mean almost nothing.
Spacecraft (very WIP)
(no pic)
"Ai'urri'va" main spaceship
The most used battle spaceship of the Irri fleet. Extremely lightweight, fast and not too large, it was created to conduct combat operations in accordance with the basic tenets of Irri military doctrine. The ship is equipped with FTL-drive (a generator of gravitational well), gravity shield projectors and invisibility projectors.
Weapons: Four heavy mass accelerators, which are a kind of core of the ship. Their length is almost equal to the ship's total length. For a projectile fired with an Irri mass accelerator, movement speed alone is enough to inflict significant damage, and also the speed of the shells allows to fire from long distances without misses. Among other things, the ship has a set of software that allows crew to calculate how the space object's gravity will affect on the trajectory of the ship or shells fired from its guns. If necessary, the mass accelerator can fire with less force than usual in order to make the shell more dependent on gravity.
Overall dimensions: length 170 meters, maximal width 65 metres, crew 40 souls, mass 2500 tonnes
still working btw
