Picking up the ball that Zebs dropped on the Plague systems

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jedion357

June 1, 2011 - 6:00pm

Issue #1. the greek letters are all cool and such but the systems need names, for both the stars and the planets.

Issue #2. Need semi-established jump routes to the systems- before they were made off limits people traveled to and from these systems. With the UPF barring travel to the planets the jump routes will no longer be publically available to non military craft but that does not mean the route's information is not still kicking around in databases. Likely all Captains are ordered to purge their navicomputers but some wont comply and checking a navi computer will become SOP for ship inspections by Space Fleet.

Issue #3 Need to stat out each system to the level of the astro catalog in AD and Zebs with maybe some planetary footnotes

I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!

jedion357

June 1, 2011 - 6:26pm

This post is about Issue #2

System Alpha will have been discovered when a ship misjumped on the Prengular-Timeon route. No doubt that it has a jump route to Prengular and maybe one to Timeon, though the Timeon route is not a must at that system is a Light population ag colony with some industry (perhaps robot brain controlled factory). Original colonizers: high likelihood of human, possibility of yazirian- so it should be named accordingly. Could easily have been discovered during the Age of Colonization but just took awhile for it to be colonized. Original Population size: Moderate?

System Beta will have been discovered by the yazirians. It will have a jump route to Araks and maybe one to Gruna Garu. It will have been discovered and colonized after SW1 and since it was a new terraforming operation it was easy to write off. Somewhere (ZEbs timeline IIRC) it suggest that the blue plague may have first come from Starmist so there may be a Starmist connection to this system or the introduction of the Blue Plague went through Araks (looking at the map Araks is more likely) Original Population size: Light or higher

System Gamma will almost certainly have been discovered from White Light by humans and have a jump route to White Light system. a jump route to Delta has a high probability. In my setting material Clarion and Minotaur funded a group called FARM (Frontier Agriculture Resource Mission) whos mandate was to subsidized new start up ag colonies where the farmer paid back the start up aid he recieved with lower priced food stuffs. the idea being that Clarion and Minotaur needed more food resources to grow (Clarions whether is hard on most earth crops and Minotaur's economy is centered around business and industry). Gamma system could easily have been one of these new start up ag colonies. Original Population size: Light.

System Delta Likely will have jump routes to Prengular and Gamma. Likely it was mapped as a short cut from White Light to Prengular via Gamma system. Jokers wild for who the colonizers were, and why, its population size at time of the plague could be any.

System Epsion is a tragic system. Its original colonizers were refugees from the Free World Rebellion on Kdikit. its a vrusk system and its jump route was through K'tsa Kar and latter K'aken Kar. The systems mentioned have Lt and moderate populations respectively so this system will fall between Lt and moderate.

I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!

jedion357

June 1, 2011 - 6:42pm

Re: Population sizes

Light- planet has a few small cities

Moderate- planet has several large cities

Heavy- planet has numerous large cities and hundreds of smaller cities.

Its important to think about population size for running a salvage campaign as a few planets need to be of moderate to heavy pop size so that there is lots of abandoned stuff and locations to poke around in.

I dont see any of these systems really getting off the ground during what I call the Age of Colonization which begins with the discovery of the Frontier and ends with the SW1. The reason being is that not adding them to the system during that time period lets you play the setting as just as the AD rules present it. adding them after neatly gives you some natural expansion due to exploration that you know must be going on.

Part of me wants all of these planets to be young planets with nothing more than Moderate populations- this is workable.

I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!

w00t (not verified)

June 1, 2011 - 7:22pm

Have you considered having a pre-existing race, perhaps up to 20th century with an in-system space program. They were whipped out for unknown reasons, everything was untouched as if they vanished. Lots of remains are found. Planet/System considered plague system until the corp/government who discovered it can ascertain what happened. With SWI, it was put on the back burner.

jedion357

June 1, 2011 - 7:24pm

ISSUE #1 naming the planets and stars

Alpha:

Beta:

Gamma: since its likely a ag colony call the star Proserpina, inhabited planet: Ceres; another planet : Dis. Using all these mythological names would mean the core of the colonizers originally came From Minotaur.

Delta:

Epsilon: need vrusk names

I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!

jedion357

June 1, 2011 - 7:25pm

w00t wrote:

means adding another race and complicates things, prefer to simply add tetrach ruins on one planet.

I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!

w00t (not verified)

June 1, 2011 - 7:34pm

That or a race that is non-existent. Either or you have to define them since (I don't believe the tetrach's have been defined.) Actually might be worth an entire project to define the Tetrach's.

jedion357

June 1, 2011 - 8:15pm

Could be clikk military depot in ruins

but I think the focus should be that its the ruins of Frontier civilization being picked over by scavengers.

I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!

jacobsar

June 1, 2011 - 8:58pm

It was all a Sathar conspiracy I tell you! They attacked the home worlds of the core four to weaken us for an invasion!

This message brought to you by the Anti Satharian Legue from our secret base orbiting Terra Nova (GammaWorld)

Reasonable men adapt to the world around them; unreasonable men make the world adapt to them. The world is changed by unreasonable men.
Edwin Louis Cole

thespiritcoyote

February 18, 2012 - 5:10pm

If I may quote from Zeb's:

17-27FY The Blue Plague sweeps the Frontier. Scientists believe it was brought to the Sundown system by an alien vessel that crashed on Starmist. Because of Starmist's light population, the plague was not immediately detected and had a chance to mutate. It is believed that vermin from the planet became infected and somehow gained entry to a ship. The ship makes

several stops on the Frontier and the plague spreads rapidly. It is called the Blue Plague because of its earliest symptoms -- large blue welts that appear about the face and extremities. These welts leave horrible black scars even if the victim survives the plague.

20FY Four star systems become so infested with the Blue Plague that the Council of Worlds, the diplomatic organization of the UPF, requests all races to recognize a permanent quarantine of these four star systems. The systems are designated by Greek letters. A spaceship seen leaving one of these systems is to be destroyed by Spacefleet before it has a chance to spread the plague any further.

22FY Hargut, Pale, and Gollywog suffer massive population losses due to the Blue Plague. All three planets are temporarily

quarantined.
23FY The Medical Services Organization is founded. Funding pours in from most of the Frontier worlds. Gretl Grohn is named as the MSO Chief Surgeon.

24FY Vaccine for the Blue Plague is discovered at the MSO Center on Morgaine's World.

25FYThe Mechanon menace on Volturnus first comes to the UPF's attention, but cannot be dealt with because of the Blue Plague.

27FY The Blue Plague is eradicated from inhabited planets in the Frontier. In total, 17 million victims fell to the plague.

http://starfrontiers.info/wiki/index.php/Sanctuary_City#Plague_World
http://starfrontiers.org/khvcode/Hole%20in%20the%20wall/universe.htm

   The effects of the Blue Plague are detailed well enough, apparently started on Starmist, and the obvious assumption is that it is cross-species virulent, and likely effects entire ecosystems indiscriminately, working it's way from the most specific subspecies, all the way to an entire kingdom or even domain, in very short periods, weeks or months. "The Andromeda Strain" (1971 Movie and 2008 Mini-series) seems an appropriate example to consider.
   The timeline mentions Four permanently quarantined worlds not Five, with Greek letters given no particular order... it could be considered that they are not necessarily the only quarantined systems, or that the Blue Plague has been the only reason for a high-level quarantine being enacted on planets, or even entire systems. I offer that Alpha could be considered linked to the namesake, Alpha Dawn, Epsilon isn't specifically mentioned in the timeline, Beta may be considered differently by many fans, and there are still more than 19 letters to consider for designators.
   Starmist, Hargut, Pale, Gollywog, Morgaine's World, Cass, and Four unspecified systems with ambiguous designations, are the only worlds mentioned as being directly effected. Any one, or all of those, would have been given a quarantine designator, and later quarantines were not likely re-designated just to fill a gap.
Over the major two to five years of the outbreak, the order of quarantine is also ambiguous, and technically Starmist was probably one of the early quarantines designated, and then decided that it was the possible origin early during a simultaneous investigation.
   The full designation is likely given a Beta Pi-Qoppa extension to designate it is part of the Blue Plague Quarantine.

An Archive List in some forgotton data file, might look like this:
Beta Pi-Qoppa Alpha _ Stella(Domus) - First Outbreak: COMPLETE ECOSYSTEM ANIHILATION
   This is the original Central Administration Colony of the human race, and one of the first settled worlds. The planet was destroyed by full scale hostilities during the Blue Plague. Ironically, the fighting was over the vaccine for the plague. No known complex organisms survived the hostilities, and the total ecosystem annihilation scenario.

Beta Pi-Qoppa Beta _ Pavor(Waloo) - Second Outbreak: COMPLETE LIFESUPORT FAILURE
   This was the home-world of the Yazirian species. When the outbreak of the Blue Plague occurred in this system, it began spreading rapidly through all of the research outposts and observation stations. The mode of conveyance was undetermined, and spot outbreaks occurred in multiple locations. This system was temporarily designated Beta Pi-Qoppa Omega-Beta, four about three months. The entire compleate failure of all life-support in the system occurred 5 months - 2 weeks - 3 days - 5 hrs - 34minutes, after the official log of the first known occurrence. some survivors were suspected of carrying the plague beyond this point, before the quarantine was called.

Beta Pi-Qoppa Gamma _ Whorl(Solaris) - Third Outbreak: 92%-SEVERE ECOSYSTEM ANIHILATION
   A center for Science and Heavy Industry, this system was under regular harassment by the Sathar, and was temporarily designated Beta Pi-Qoppa Omega Pi-Alpha, and considered the target of a Sathar Bio-warfare attack. After Beta Pi-Qoppa Alpha was cleared of it's Omega Pi designation, and Beta Pi-Qoppa Omega-Delta was confirmed as meeting the requirements of Origin Point, it was again refered to as Gamma, as the third outbreak point. Further investigations of Sathar Bio-warfare Threats were discredited.
   Home of the Azure-K'hu'baii Industries Corporation, this system produced high-tech machinery, power-armor, self-automated construction machines, and spaceships. High intra-system activity in this system caused a rabid spread of the outbreak, but complete annihilation was slowed considerably by the efforts of the scientific community, and the established precausions conducted by the Industrial installations.
   The StarCom HQ and the Tachyon Galactic Communications Array were lost, cutting off communications with the home-worlds of the Dralasite and the Humans, until replacement facilities could be brought online by the Web Organized Routing Data(WoRD) Corporation.
   The most prominent human university, the Blake Institute of Solaris, was located here and was one of the first reported outbreak sites in the system, xeno-plauge quarantine protocols were swift and efficient, and handled internally. Some of the MSO was founded on the works of these brave scientists, casualties on the campus were minimized to 89% before an evacuation was authorized by a DevCo emergency muster task force. Several heroes of the Blue Plague, have been given a memorial on most campuses in the frontier, honoring Blake's Seven scientists.

Beta Pi-Qoppa Delta _ Grana Garu(Hargut) - Fourth Outbreak: 77% SEVERE ECOSYSTEM DISRUPTION
   GodCo and PanGal Terraformation of Hargut was halted, fortunately precautionary measures for potential contamination of the terraformation process were able to reduce casualties, but the project was severely crippled.
   Never officially recognized, this was a possible origin point given consideration by the MSO investigations in the aftermath.

Beta Pi-Qoppa Zeta _ White Light(Gollywog) - Fifth Outbreak: 33% ENVIRONMENTAL COLLAPSE
   Possibly the most widely known outbreak. King Leotus XIX took the throne when his mother died of Blue Plague. His first act of office was requesting a quarantine (which was going to be declared by the UPF CoW shortly, anyway) to protect others from his mother's fate.
   Gollywog suffered massive population losses during the Blue Plague, and one third of the planetary ecosystem had collapsed before the MSO arrived. Severe debts incurred by rebuilding the environment, and reorganizing the aftermath, caused a sharp decline in the Royal Treasury, and several decades of conflict with various foreign mega-corporations and the local populations.

Beta Pi-Qoppa Eta _  Kar(Kit Kit) - Sixth Outbreak: 79% ENVIRONMENTAL COLLAPSE
   This was the Vrusk Prime Colony. It was abandoned and returned somewhat to its pre-civilization state because of the Blue Plague. Over two thirds of the ecosystem suffered catastrophic failure, and nearly two thirds of the population died or became infirm.
   Assistance from Madderly's Star was slow, and the MSO was accused of favoring 'other priorities' by other Vrusk colonies, especially by Kaken'Kar. An investigation committee from Terledrom reported inconclusively, that "All measures were taken that could be, to arrange for the safety of all member worlds.", but support for the MSO by Vrusk worlds was crippled, and the GVMPI invested heavily in support of the Biological Unity Health Governance Institution as an alternative to the MSO.

Beta Pi-Qoppa Theta _ Truane's Star(Pale) - 22% System-wide Environmental Breakdown.
   Pale was the first planet in the system to be colonized because of it's great mineral wealth, and the population was rather low and spread out in isolated environmentally controlled mining outposts.
Thus only a 16% fatality was recorded during the five year quarantine. Environmental systems were able to be replaced and upgraded before total collapse became eminent.
   New Pale would have been a more devastating outbreak, however only a 2% loss was incurred, before treatments being delivered to Pale were made available to the whole system.
This outbreak was heralded as the greatest MSO success.

Beta Pi-Qoppa Kappa _ Outpost Nine(OP EC-IV) - 0% Survival; 0% Reclamation; TOTAL SYSTEM QUARANTINE
   Investigation Pending; Origin Point Undetermined; Data Classified
You are unauthorised to Access this Data; Investigations to ascertain the purpose of your quarry has been initiated; please stand by for further contact by an authorised debriefing officer...

Beta Pi-Qoppa Lamda _ Devco(Cass) - Emergency Quarantine Refugee Camp
   A mega-corp planet founded by the Cassadine Development Corporation as an isolated refuge camp for the multitudes that were left homeless by the Blue Plague.
   Quarantine measures were successful in halting the spread of the plague, by rerouting potential refuges and exodus groups, through this quarantine camp.
   Reports by MSO, DevCo, and BUHGI, confirmed a 89% to 98% survival rate, and a 46% to 98% containment success.

Beta Pi-Qoppa Mu _ Wotogon(Lomigleeb) - 0% Survival; 0% Reclamation; TOTAL SYSTEM QUARANTINE
   Lomigleeb was quarantined during the end of the Blue Plague outbreak. The following year the plague infiltrated much of the ecosystem. A saturated system reacted with the Blue Plague and a change on the genetic level occurred. Everyone on the planet died in the upheaval, which changed even the geology of the planet.
   The world is permanently set as off limits for the plague infection, though changed, is infectious to nearly all biological organisms. The new existence of the Plague on the planet is different than that of the Blue Plague and cannot be cured.
   By reacting with a heavily influenced Dralasite Ecosystem, the virulence and onset-to-death time, has increased to weeks if not days. A second outbreak from this planet, has been theorized as potentially causing a sector-wide doomsday event, that would make the Pavor system catastrophe seem like a slow death.
   Immediate deterrence is authorized to any ship entering this system. All contact with unauthorized ships traveling into this system are given severe notice to vacate the area, or extreme coercion will continue. All unknown and unauthorized ships discoverd in a path of departure, are forced to comply immediately with the strictest quarantine protocol, without negotiation.

Beta Pi-Qoppa Omega-Delta _ Sundown - The fourth suspected Beta Pi - Origin Point:CONFIRMED
You are unauthorised to Access this Data; Investigations to ascertain the purpose of your quarry have been initiated; please stand by for further contact by an authorised debriefing officer...

Oh humans!!

We discover a galactic community filled with multiple species of aliens, and the first thing we think about is "how can we have sex with them?".
~ anymoose, somewhere on the net...

so...
if you square a square it becomes a cube...
if you square a cube does it become an octoid?

jedion357

June 2, 2011 - 12:51pm

Perhaps the map I was working from was in error as it clearly lists 5 plague systems

but then the map is a nicely done fan offering of the Frontier and Rim with all the other systems from the modules that I had printed and laminated.

I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!

TerlObar

June 2, 2011 - 3:44pm

The Zeb's Guide map definitely shows alpha, beta, gamma, delta, and epsilon.

Ad Astra Per Ardua!
My blog - Expanding Frontier
Webmaster - The Star Frontiers Network & this site
Founding Editor - The Frontier Explorer Magazine
Managing Editor - The Star Frontiersman Magazine

thespiritcoyote

June 8, 2011 - 7:44am

   No errors, just no names.
   What I can, see in Zeb's shows at least five unlabeled Quarantine Systems on the map, but only mentions the four unnamed Quarantine Worlds in the timeline being part of the Blue Plague. Nothing wrong with the Fan-Map, I have had it printed for wall poster use also, but it isn't any more 'correct' than anything in the printed material, as all the offical sources have delivered unedited errors to some degree.
   The other Quarantine Systems on the map could be quarantined for other reasons, and worlds not mentioned in the timeline or shown on the map could be added to that, either for the Blue Plague or some other unrelated event...

   Part of my example was for showing how I have handled quarantine designators in the past, in such a way that emergency response events can be distinguished in the archives, and how an 'order of occurence' can be traced, similar to the way that hurricanes and earthquakes are named, much of the rest is because I studied some CDC and Global Response protocols in my wasted youth... the origin point investigations are conducted simultaneous and independent of the quarantine events, which are likewise separate and independent of the search for a cure, while one or more bureaucratic logistics groups (like the MSO in this case, and the added Vrusk counterpart rising due to the inter-species politics involved) collects and keeps the information in a central database... keeping the designators consistent and reissuing updates back to the contributing teams, individuals, and when necessary the public media.

   Coming up with the events for such a large fictional epidemic, in a hard sci-fi setting, and keeping it playable and engaging, while not overloading the information with superfluous details... whew... but I had an advantage... I've done this project before.
   So, this is just representing my experience with the questions that rise from players when the meta-plot is opened, either historically in the form of old newscasts and archives or as part of a running timeline in a campaign.

   My use of names and events is to be as consistent as possible first and primarily with AD to Zeb's (which hasn't been that difficult to me), then using the fan-canon only as a guideline where it doesn't fail that printed foundation.
   By reconciling as much fan-canon as I could pilfer over the last several decades with that primary canon, I have what I feel is a very complete and dynamic setting that could easily meet public appeal, while still leaving the really big issues open to individual interpretations (like which galaxy are we in anyway?)... my problem is I am reconstructing large sections of that material as I go, due to several data-crashes. This I still have some active files and fresh memories about. Hope it was helpfull!

Oh humans!!

thespiritcoyote

June 10, 2011 - 9:46am

Oh humans!!

w00t (not verified)

June 18, 2011 - 3:12pm

Have you watched those videos?

Perhaps you could summarize?

Karxan

February 3, 2012 - 12:22am

@ Spiritcoyote, I thought your rundown on the blue plague was very well thought out. You should submit something like that to StarFrontiersman. It would make for a great article.

w00t (not verified)

February 13, 2012 - 7:04am

PM sent, fyi.

thespiritcoyote

February 16, 2012 - 8:01pm

I will see what I can WIP... I supose that was almost a full article

I didn't think about it that way...

Oh humans!!

thespiritcoyote

February 18, 2012 - 3:48pm

There are couple other threads I posted to
with similar content born of the same endeavor -

Salvaging the Plague Planets
has a bit of historic fiction...

should be a couple more...
but, for some reason I seem to have lost track of those posts...

Oh humans!!

jedion357

February 19, 2012 - 7:11am

thespiritcoyote wrote:

Use the search function on this site or click on you icon and use the track feature to track where you have posted.

I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!

thespiritcoyote

February 19, 2012 - 5:12pm

@jedion357 no luck... I cant find any other mention, though I also cannot find what I know I did mention... thank you tho'

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

so, how would this - Archive List- go into the SFman, I imagined it in a sort of "player handout" aesthetic, where it might be printed on digital-transparencies,
expecting it to be accessing authorization off the reader via a finger-print scan, and with the provided "blocked out" sensitive text...

The rest of the format shown here was directed to this forum, and rewording for a SFman reader would be necessary...
Information is rather scattered between multiple posts here, but still given to context of topic, even with some summarized information from the video links aide...
[some links are now failed, I need to edit that post and provide an actual cited bibliography there.]

...and finally, does the short story When The Laughter Died and surrounding posts in the other thread also conform to SFman needs in a full article of this topic?
(with cited source as given there)

picky, picky, picky - me... I have no real say in the final formatting of contributions, yeah I get that... but it is as is; already a contribution I have given to be abused. here at least I had some artistic presentation control...

Oh humans!!

jedion357

February 19, 2012 - 5:53pm

I would say that you should look at the meat of the information that is here and write it up in a style that does not assume that the audience knows all about what you are talking about. Secondly emulate the common style of writing that you find in most magazines.

I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!

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