CURRENT STATUS
OVERALL STATUS: Neutral, attempting to recollect after Rage of Relos
Population: 76000
Mechana/human ratio: 5/6
Fleets Units: 35000
Allied factions: None
Enemy factions: None
The Fleets’ arsenal:
Soldiers: 13000
Ships:
- Dreadnoughts: 0
- Battleships: 4
- Cruisers: 13
- Carriers: 12
- Destroyers: 19
- Frigates: 36
- Corvettes: 23
Fighters and few-crewed ships:
- Standard fighters: 31
- Interceptors: 28
- Bombers: 15
- Gunships: 16
- Crew transports: 37
Special projects: None
Ruler: Grixilas
Controlled systems: Tevlos Vistrucha
Capital: Tevlos-002
INTRODUCTION
THE FIRST GENERATION
Set hundreds of thousands of years in the future, the Tevlon Order was a faction devoted to industry, development, and engineering. They housed nearly 100 billion humans and a race of androids known as mechana.
THE SECOND GENERATION
The Tevlon Order that the other factions interact with would be known as the second generation. The universe where the first generation existed took place long before the creation of the second generation. In their universe, humanity had already fallen and the residual mechana slowly evolved into the transcendent Volys-Corpa. They would discover the second generation, who was still in the midst of the Flux War. The god Relos saw this transuniversal interference and began to destroy the universe in a fit of rage. This was the beginning of the Outburst of Relos, a disaster that would gradually end the multiverse itself. The first generation was forced to escape their universe with the help of the Volys-Corpa. The majority failed and were obliterated by the complete breakdown of physics. The second generation of the Order came to this second universe with only 76 thousand survivors, a miniscule fraction of their former power. (Less than 0.0001%!)
The Union would not flee to this universe, but the Order's Principles and views on flux were still in effect.
ARCHIVES
The original Archives were lost in the Rage of Relos, but the Order is currently rebuilding their database of knowledge.
Ave-Ens Cons, the caretaker of the original Archives, was a part of the survivors that would become the second generation. As time passes, Cons will discover new sections of the Archives and repair any corrupt files.
GENERAL ARCHIVES
STATUS: MINIMAL ARCHIVE CORRUPTION. Attempting to restore...
ORIGINS
Humans began interstellar travel as the Union of Earth after their habits demolished the Earth's ecosystem. These pioneers were better known as the Ancients. As many centuries passed and the Union expanded, a certain colony named Tevlos thought that the Union's progression with technology was far too slow. They would separate from the Union and become the Tevlon Order, named after the colony where they started.
After the Order was formed, the Union would discover flux, an ability that allowed sentient beings to remotely apply forces to their environment. They kept its secrets to themselves in fear of losing power to the Order. This led to a rise in tension that would inevitably break out into the Flux War. Because of the association of flux with the Union, the Order despised the power and forbade any of their people from using it. They vowed to defeat the Union’s “sorcery” with their own technology and determination.
GEOGRAPHY
At the start of the Flux War, the Order controlled about three percent of the galaxy with hundreds of systems in its domain. The Frontier was the border it shared with the Union. It would grow in length at a rapid pace as both nations scrambled for resources.
The Order was adding new systems to its database in a matter of weeks. Colonization would take place on any planet that was even remotely habitable. With technologies such as terraforming, water hydrolysis, and controlled climate structures, the Order always made room to grow.
Their capital, Validom-004, was located near the center of the Order’s territory. In the case that it would be destroyed, a second capital was being constructed nearby called Lamoxia. With a small artificial star at its core, Lamoxia was considered a dyson sphere despite its scaled down form. It would remain cloaked to prevent the Union from discovering and organizing a raid against it.
THE MECHANA
The early prototypes of the mechana appeared soon after the Union discovered flux. Tests on these prototypes showed that the mechana yearned for freedom and to live among humans. Instead of fearing their creations, the Order granted their wish, seeing that the mechana were similar to their human counterparts.
Rather than making the mechana look as human as possible, the Order decided to keep the rough, metallic feel of the prototypes. This design was very popular among the people due to their plated, armor-like exoskeleton. The mechana would continue this trend even when they began to produce themselves after the fall of humanity (it wasn’t a robot apocalypse!)
Physically, the mechana typically stood at around two meters tall. They were both stronger and tougher than humans, but were also somewhat denser and heavier for their height at 90kg. As a mechana entered secondary training, they would begin to modify their body to fit their field of study, whether it be added utility limbs or reinforced armor plating.
Mechana were known for having lighting throughout the crevices of their chassis. One of the first quality control tests for a newborn mechana mind was to turn on the backlights of their given chassis. This tested their ability to control the chassis, but also determined what could be called their favorite color. Throughout their life, a mechana would rarely select favorite ideas, objects, or people, which made the backlighting of their chassis important to them.
Although they were manufactured with either male or female chassis styles, they acted the same regardless of their appearance and unless the mechana were a defect, they rarely took on any gender roles. Some mechana were even reported to have changed the gender of their chassis, but this was done to mask their identity.
The mechana also had an AI that functioned as its mind. They could make calculations much faster than humans, but still had limitations. One of the largest downsides of a mechana mind was their tendencies to overanalyze and panic in high-stress situations. This brought about interrupting protocols, rules embedded in the mechana that acted like the instincts and “gut feelings” of a human. Like their bodies, mechana could change the amount of interrupting protocols installed depending on their field of study.
Though they were capable of such, the mechana were programmed to be incapable of “human” emotions such as empathy, belonging, and love. The Order’s reasoning was that the computing power needed to process these complex emotions would be better used elsewhere. This made mechana in commanding roles very rare as humans were able to relate to and inspire their subordinates better. Even though the mechana were less socially capable, they were still able to stand with the humans as people of the Order.
EXCLUS ANTECTRA (SIXTH SENSE)
The Exclus Antectra mutation first appeared on Earth when humans were exposed to direct radiation due to the depleting atmosphere. It gave the subject enhanced awareness of their surroundings. However, this “sixth sense” would only detect the intentions and actions of others with the same mutation.
Exclus Antectra was very rare. Between both the Order and Union, only 28 confirmed cases were counted. Within the Order, the majority of these people would become top-ranking Fleets units and use their sixth sense against the Union’s subjects.
ARCHIVE MANAGEMENT
The Archives were the names of the large skyscrapers that stored the entirety of the Order’s knowledge. Dating back to the Ancients, the Archives consisted of billions upon billions of files that were deemed valuable. These included exchange receipts, transcriptions of select recordings, and the datasheets of all technologies. To ensure that all files were safely stored without corruption, an AI named Ave-Ens Cons was tasked with the management of the Archives.
CIVICS ARCHIVES
STATUS: MINIMAL ARCHIVE CORRUPTION. Attempting to restore...
LAW
After the Flux War began, the Order formed the Principles, which outlined the general attitude that its citizens should have. A motto was formed from the final two lines of the article:
Stagnance is failure. Innovation is power.
Below that article lay the actual laws of the Order. The nation’s first priority was that its people abided by the Principles.
The nation was controlled by a being named Grixilas. He was a prominent founder of the Order and his mind was preserved digitally after his death. The resurrection of Grixilas brought about a movement to put a founder in charge. Propaganda appeared everywhere until the entire nation followed Grixilas. Despite his dictator-like approach to issues, he was a well-supported and powerful leader.
With servers all over the Order, Grixilas was able to communicate with many people at once. Because of the network of servers, the destruction of one would not destroy Grixilas himself. This would only happen in the case that all servers were destroyed.
Of course, there were more people in the Order’s government than Grixilas. Each of the hundreds of colonized systems had a single representative that would help him understand what the people needed. However, they had little impact over Grixilas’ final decision. He had only changed his mind over a topic a few times over his reign, where the displeasure of the people was brought to his attention with widespread civil unrest.
PUNISHMENTS
The Order only utilised three different types of punishment, all of them extremely harsh. The first was expulsion, which was the act of ejecting the subject into deep space without any equipment. This was the most widespread punishment and was used in many cases. Even something as small as shoplifting or harassment would sentence someone to expulsion. However, expulsion was not always a form of punishment. Some high-level executives would voluntarily expel themselves if they felt that they could no longer fulfill their duty. They would be sent off with honor.
The second form of punishment was dedicated to the mechana. Because they could survive in the vacuum of deep space, they underwent a similar death sentence known as dismantlement. They would be strapped down and completely disassembled while still conscious. Until they shut down from sustaining damage, the mechana would feel around the same level of pain as a human undergoing expulsion. The parts from dismantlement would be recycled into the production of new mechana.
The third type of punishment was demotion. It was dedicated to not crime, but an inability to follow the Principles. Those that failed basic aptitude exams in their schooling were also deemed unfit for the Order and sentenced to demotion, which was essentially indentured servitude for life. Because of their cruel treatment, demotion was seen as a harsher punishment than expulsion. Despite their unproductivity, they served the purpose of demonstrating to students their fate if any failed an aptitude exam.
ECONOMY
Like every sci-fi faction that the Ancients could imagine, the Order used an electronic credit system. The value of a single credit was somewhat low, where the average person spent around 50,000 credits on necessities every day.
Because the Union and Order were the only factions that they knew of during the Flux War, trade was non-existent. The Order primarily earned credit through mining resources. Much funding was put back into exploration to access more resources to exploit. Even though raw materials were high in demand, they were fairly affordable due to high amounts of salvaging. After battles, salvaging teams cleaned up, returning the scrap into manufacturing lines. In successful battles with more Union wrecks, the Order sometimes had a net gain of resources.
Though a good portion of the Order’s tax revenue was invested into the Fleets, there were also a few megacorporations that were supported by the government. The first to appear was Hypertech, a manufacturing company that produced both industrial and personal vehicles and equipment. Their products were so refined that they frequently sold weaponized designs to the Fleets.
Arguably the most influential of the megacorporations was Axon, which had a monopoly on N-DAT production, archive management, and computer modules. Together, Axon and Hypertech oversaw the development and manufacturing of mechana.
The largest of the three was Hexus. They controlled the majority of industries that Hypertech and Axon did not, such as education, research, and colonization.
Although not endorsed by the government, a fourth organization was as large as the official megacorporations. Known as Philea, they controlled the entertainment industry. Their revenue came from the middle and lower class who could not afford the comforts of the upper class. Supporting Philea was generally looked down upon as it was seen as unproductive.
EDUCATION SYSTEM
Children begin their education in pre-primary training at around the age of four. They would prepare for an aptitude exam before entering primary training. The average age of the testers lay between six and ten years of age. Those that failed the aptitude exam would be sentenced to demotion. Around 5% fail the exam every year. Those that pass the exam would leave their family to continue their training under Hexus.
Like in the Fleets, students in primary training were ranked from 1 to 10. Every year, every student in primary training would take an aptitude exam based on their rank. The bottom 10% would be sentenced to demotion while the rest are moved up a rank. At the end of this gauntlet, less than 35% of students would survive to graduate and move on to secondary training.
Secondary training was where students began to specialize. There were two broad choices for this: Fleets training and civil training. Within each secondary training group, many more subgroups existed. However, most of these groups required general training, much like primary training. Secondary training was much less harsh than primary training, but was still a dangerous place for students. Less than 20% of every human born would reach adulthood because of their difficult education.
If one wished to learn and specialize even further, tertiary training was available for certain subgroups. Unlike the harsh primary and secondary training, the students entering tertiary training were rarely faced with demotion because they almost always succeeded and graduated.
Mechana were obviously raised differently than humans. From the moment they were “born”, the mechana underwent quality control tests. Those that failed were labeled defects and were sentenced to dismantlement. They would attend sessions with engineers regularly to upload information directly into their memory banks, rather than attempt to teach them. They still had to pass the rank 10 test, but could do so within a year of being born. After primary training, they could join the ranks of humans and move on to secondary training.
CULTURE ARCHIVES
STATUS: MODERATE ARCHIVE CORRUPTION. Attempting to restore...
CLASS STRUCTURE
A strict social hierarchy was determined based on not strictly wealth, but “productivity”, or the ability to contribute to society. Wealth was a byproduct of such an identifier, which is determined based on education, work ethic, determination, and other characteristics. The three main parts of this Strata from highest to lowest were the Strata Primus, Strata Subprimus, and Strata Minimus. In this hierarchy, the lower class were often looked down upon by the middle and upper class.
The very bottom of the social hierarchy was called the Substrata. These slums were scattered throughout the Order on isolated planets with each one having a special identification code. They had so few credits, they traded within their small communities with any resource commonly available. Because of their more lax attitude, they developed more of a close community and culture than the stricter working classes. The Substrata was also the hiding place of those subject to punishment, which made the Substrata a target of searches by the Fleets.
CUSTOMS
From a young age, people were trained to give respect to all. As a sign of respect or a greeting, people would raise their non-dominant hand such that the arm was folded and the back of the hand faced the other person. The hand was a symbol of progress in the Order and raising the hand in this manner showed that the person was willing to sacrifice their productivity to greet the other person.
If one were asking the other a favor, they would have the same pose as the greeting except with their dominant hand gripping the folded forearm. This was a sign that the person was willing to offer their hand and their pride to the other party. Depending on the other person’s rank, they may also drop to a kneel and put their head down to show more sincerity at the cost of their ego.
FAMILY LIFE
Because of the strict education regiment, the chances of surviving to adulthood were very low. This caused families to have many more children than the Ancients with the average birth rate of 8. The financial and literal stress on the parents were minimized by staggering the birth of their children. Once the children took the primary training aptitude exam, they would either be demoted or taken in by Hexus to begin training. Either way, parents only raised a few children at a time in intervals of six to ten years.
NAMING SYSTEM
Every name in the Order (aside from Grixilas) used a three-part system with each part being one syllable in the form of “x-y z”. The first and second parts were a distinguisher within families and used in casual cases, while the last name is a family name. The one-syllable parts make referencing names very efficient. Take the renowned mechana pilot Hyx-Es Vlox as an example. In the majority of situations, people would refer to him as “Vlox” or “Pilot Vlox”. However, “Hyx-Es” would be used in more casual cases, such as with colleagues outside of work or with new people. “Hyx” would be used by close friends and family. It acted like a nickname would between the Ancients.
GLAXON
One of the most popular ways to pass time was a game called glaxon. Inspired by the Ancient’s chess, glaxon took place in a cube split into grid spaces. It was renown for its incredible complexity and strategic gameplay. The game was so popular, competitions and tournaments regularly took place. In competitive glaxon, players only had a few seconds to make a move. This reduced the time a game took from days to hours.
Competitive glaxon was split into “commander”, “squad”, and “fleet” competitions. Commander competitions were individual matches against solo players. These were typically the most intense competitions as these professional players battled for prestige. Like commander, squad competitions also involved individual matches, but were primarily a team battle. Teams would send up one player at a time such that each player entered a match once. There was a larger focus on scouting other teams between matches. Finally, fleet competitions involved pitting entire eight person teams against each other. This revolutionized glaxon gameplay because four cubes were merged into a single megacube. The team was split into two groups playing on separate megacubes, but players playing on the same field could transfer pieces to neighboring allies. This dynamic added a new dimension of teamwork and required trust and communication for all four megacube players to successfully make a single move.
Billions watched competitive glaxon events through hypercubes, large structures projecting the cube and placement of pieces. They could be streamed across the Order or attended in person and were a source of excitement for many. Though it was sometimes arguable that glaxon was unproductive, many saw it as a way to stimulate the mind and promote strategic thinking.
MILITARY AND TECHNOLOGY ARCHIVES
STATUS: PARTIAL ARCHIVE CORRUPTION. Attempting to restore...
THE FLEETS
The Fleets were the total armed forces within the Order. They were split between three groups: soldiers, which consisted of armed individuals, pilots, and machine operators; commanders, which controlled larger ships; and combat engineers, which maintained and upgraded the Fleets’ equipment and ships. Around 50% of the Fleets were soldiers, 30% were commanders, and 20% were combat engineers. There were many other subclasses within these groups that specialized in certain aspects of combat.
The Fleets used a ranking system, where a higher ranking offered more prestige and authority. The highest rank one could achieve was rank 10, while the lowest was rank 1. Trainees could be referred to as their desired roles, but would have a rank of 0, indicating that they were still untrained. Once they completed training, they would gain their first rank. As more missions were completed, higher ranking units would raise or lower the unit's rank as seen fit. If a unit fell back down to rank 0 after training, they would be sentenced to expulsion. New units in particular needed to be careful as they were rank 1 by default, which was very close to the threshold for expulsion.
The soldiers were split into six broad subcategories.
- The Standard class held the most soldiers at 45%. They were plentiful and could be found both on the front lines and patrolling the many cities of the Order.
- Operators were the drivers of armed and unarmed ground vehicles and ground artillery units. They required skill in collaboration, hand-eye coordination, and plentiful knowledge on their vehicle of choice. Operators were required to specialise in a single role due to the differences across the Order’s vehicles.
- Rather than the ground-based Operators, Pilots flew the Order’s fighters and few-crewed ships.
- The Tacticians were a unique supporting form of soldier that manipulated the movement of enemies. They orchestrated traps and ambushes before leading enemies to said places, which made them particularly useful in tight, closed off locations.
- Seekers were a series of soldiers known for their agility. They varied from long-range snipers and scouts to CQC experts and infiltrators. Some were even equipped with the same FTL technology as the Order’s ships to improve their speed even further.
- Finally, the Guardians were the opposite of the Seekers with shields and heavy armor. They protected their fellow soldiers on the front lines and were deadly in very close ranges.
While commanders did not fit into distinct roles like soldiers, the ships they control did. The ships were not necessarily ranked by size or shape, but it did contribute to the final decision. Instead, they were classified based on their intended role.
- Corvettes were the smallest class of ship that commanders controlled. They were primarily valued for their discreet, lightweight chassis when scouting. Because of the limited space, corvette commanders had to choose to equip either a shield generator or a cloaking system.
- Frigates were the most produced ship class due to their high price-performance ratio. They were typically the first ships of the Order’s forces to enter battle thanks to their higher mobility. When not in direct battle, frigates were found as escorts and patrols.
- Destroyers were analogous to the artillery units on the ground. They exchanged durability with raw power and took on supporting roles behind the tougher capital ships. Typically, only a few destroyers were needed to cripple a Union battleship.
- Cruisers were less armed than the other capital ships, but trumped them in supporting power. Their fuel scooping systems allowed them to refuel allied ships and their many crew quarters could replace anyone lost. Many were self-sustained with hydroponic farms and civil facilities like training and medical centers.
- Carriers stood in the same class as cruisers for the same self-sustained, less heavily armed design. The only difference was that they exchanged their ability to resupply ships with fighter hangars.
- Battleships were the main attack force in any Order assault. Their high durability and damage output made them vital to any attack force.
- Dreadnoughts were essentially larger battleships that were fairly rare because of their high construction cost. This did not detract from their incredible power. Because high-ranking commanders controlled these ships, they could also inspire allied ships and raise the morale of the fleet.
There were two unique ways that the Fleets developed to battle the Union. The first was the Sterna Colossus, a 100km long dreadnought. Its power rivaled entire fleets because of its many turrets and its huge spinally mounted railgun, known as the Berilysis Cannon. Nearly 15 years of construction at full speed was behind the Sterna Colossus, during which the entire Order faced an economic depression. But once the giga-dreadnought was completed, the balance of the Flux War began to shift in their favor.
The Fleets also supported a squad of three supersoldiers called the ATLAS (Augmenting Trimodal Lightweight Armor System) Units. They were equipped with custom-fitted ATLAS, which gave them three stages:
- Stage 0 was their smallest form. They acted and battled as normally sized people.
- Stage 1 wrapped armor around their entire body, increasing their power and durability at the cost of agility and size.
- Stage 2 towered over the other two at 15 meters tall. The user’s body was essentially dissociated into their summoned armor suit. This meant that while there was no weak point where the operator would be, any damage in stage 2 would reflect on the stage 0 form.
An attempt to end the Flux War was made long before the previous two. Little was known by the public about the APTA (Adaptive Pseudobiological Titanium-tissue Armor) project. It was made of a material that could adapt to incoming damage and change its composition accordingly. The Order was working on reducing the high cost and weight of APTA. The Union was aware of their endeavors and stole the only prototype to eject into deep space and destroy. Little did they know that it was still active...
STREAMSPEAK
Streamspeak (short for “streamlined speaking”) was a modified form of the Ancient’s English was created by the Order to make speaking more efficient. It did so by cutting out “unnecessary” syllables and conjunctions from words, essentially making many common words used in the Fleets one syllable long. As an example, consider the following lines.
This is Tactician Squad 0371. We’re bringing Union units to the ambush point. Get ready.
In streamspeak, this call becomes:
Tact code nought-three-siv-one call. Now bring hos charge point. Prep.
The benefits of streamspeak were evident in high-tension points in combat where every second mattered. Commanding officers were able to effectively give unique orders with the fewest syllables possible. Because of its detraction from classical English, all who entered Fleets training were required to become fluent in streamspeak.
TECHNOLOGY
The Order had developed their technology such that everything ran on electricity. For most portable equipment and vehicles, power was commonly stored in power cells, which were both high-capacity and reliable. Larger structures such as cities or battleships also had reactors installed that cycled between hydrogen fusion and helium fission, which supplied more than enough energy while being fuel efficient.
One of the few systems that remained somewhat unchanged over time was the compression drive, a structure that allowed ships to travel great distances faster than light. Its original design was similar to the Alcubierre drive that the Ancients used to expand past Earth, which worked by warping space around the craft. Unlike the Alcubierre drive, the compression drive was made more efficient by only producing a “portal” to the destination, while the craft’s thrusters pushed it across. Light from nearby stars across the long distance would gather on the outer rim of the compression portal. The appearance of the signature “halo rings” would mark the arrival of Order ships mere seconds later. Any changes to the compression drive were simple upgrades to efficiency, cost, size, and so on.
COMMUNICATION
The main form of communication within the Order were N-DATs, which were small devices by Axon that were planted into the back of the user’s neck. The integration of the N-DAT with the user’s nervous system allowed them to interact with an interface visible only to them. The high usage and popularity of these devices led to the development of the System, a network connecting the tens of billions of N-DATs across the Order. Through the System, users could directly communicate with each other or access public and private files.
In its early days, the System was vulnerable to malware and hacking. This was brought to Axon’s attention with the disaster of Nervostorm. Early in the Flux War, several Order engineers were captured by the Union and were forced to produce the virus that halted the majority of communication and killed a nearly 10% of the Order's population. Within months, Axon was able to deploy Lympha, an antivirus system that eradicated Nervostorm and made the System impenetrable.
You made it to the end! Feeling overwhelmed? I feel like splitting these archives into individual posts would be more organized than big blocks of text. Let me know what you think in the poll.