For the Terran Dominion. (F/Any. Playing as 'Bad Guys'. Scifi. Possible System).

[Lustful Bride]

""Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men."~John Dalberg-Acton

"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."~Abraham Lincoln.

"War is harmful, not only to the conquered but to the conqueror."~Luwdig Von Mises.

"The conqueror is regarded with awe; the wise man commands our respect; but it is only the benevolent man that wins our affection."~William Dean Howells.

The Terran Dominion began as a simple sphere of influence around the birth-world of humanity. Constantly falling apart, turning into senseless civil wars, issues of rebelling colonies, resource shortages. For many decades it seemed that the human race would be wiped out by its own failures, or be left vulnerable to one of the many predatory species that wander the galaxy and seek to devour all that stand in their way. Yet even as mankind suffered, and warred, they were growing stronger.

Centuries of warfare, lifetimes of suffering built a better, stronger, humanity. Despite all the bloodshed, we were now able to deal with the dangers of the void, even at the cost of losing some of what makes us human in order to be able to meet these threats one to one. As mankind learned its place in the greater universe, it formed the Terran Confederation, as all the worlds under human control agreed to a unified power structure, for the sake of survival. Thus was the seed of a new galactic power planted, and destined to blossom to one day stand toe to toe with powers that would make lesser minds crack in terror.

In the five thousand years since the original formation of the Terran Confederation, the human sphere of influence has expanded and moved to the Terran Union, then to the Terran Empire, and then finally to the Terran Dominion. All of Terran space is now ruled by a council of Electorates and advanced Seed AI contained within miniaturized Matrioshka Brains. All to ensure the long term survival of mankind and its dominance over the stars, against the other empires that also claim the stars for themselves, and against the old sinful behaviors of humanity that once threatened to kill it on its homeworld.

Mankind once lived on a placid island of ignorance, in the midst of black seas of infinity, and while it may not have been meant for us to voyage far, since the stars were never meant for us, we will take them. We will make the stars our own and choke the darkness out with our light.

In the time since our first expansion, we have faced many foes, and seen in truth how we truly are not alone and are beset on all sides by empires that all long to steamroll us and take our territory.

Forces that are all too familiar to us.

Forces that only live to consume all natural resources and move on to the next.

Forces that can be utterly esoteric and sometimes incomprehensible.

The universe is a dangerous place. A yawning chasm where the planets roll without name and purpose. We must be strong, we must be united, to control our territory and save other species from empires far crueler than us. They may hate us, may resent us, but in time they will learn that there are forces out there far worse than us.

When we take a civilized world, it is not out of cruelty. We do not bomb worlds into submission and ruin their biospheres. We do not squander the rare resource that habitable worlds are. Those must be cherished and protected as valuable islands of life in an otherwise hostile universe that cares nothing for organic life forms. Nor do we do something so wasteful as virus bombing species to extinction, when each one could better serve the Dominion and secure for themselves long term survival.

With each passing decade, the human sphere of influence expands and the Terran Dominion gains more territory as the march of technology in the core worlds becomes something that those on the periphery can struggle to comprehend, let alone actually understand it.

The Home-System of Sol Prime is now all but unrecognizable to those on the outer spheres of Terran influence. Those that go there from the outer edges of the Second Sphere or even the Third Sphere can only say that nothing on Sol makes any sense. The people, aren't people. Man and Machine have combined into one and become...something else. They speak of concepts that have no real worlds, that hurt the mind to think about, and some come away preferring to be on the battlefields of the frontier, than on the mother-world. But Earth is still the core world, still the heart of the Terran Dominion, thus it must be served and protected. Their orders, must be obeyed. The Many Minds and the Council know best.

Out at the edge of the Third Sphere of expansion, a mineral rich system promises to become a vital source of the much needed isotopes and resources that are used to build the many fleets of the Terran Dominion that protect its territory. If only it could be properly pacified. The initial conquest of the world was promising. The species had barely gone to its nearby moon when the conquest came, under the orders of Administrator Strauss. It was a rushed thing. A sudden invasion, that crushed local resistance, a harsh police force to keep the natives in line while he hastily planted the banner of the Dominion before beginning mining operations.

That was a decade ago, and Strauss has failed to bring any semblance of order to the world outside of the strictly controlled cities. Mining facilities are regularly sabotaged, supply ships shot down, patrols ambushed (Even when providing valuable services to the locals). Production is down and the resistance seems to be rising up in more places than ever. Strauss constantly went on about how soon they would have everything under control, and the Dominion's investment in the planet would be paid off in spades once the mining process was truly begun and on and one the excuses went. He never did anything more than look out for his interests, and cover his own ass.

Strauss was a politician in public. But in private he was a businessman. People were not living beings with thoughts and emotions to him. They were just numbers on paper, all for the sole purpose of making him more money and increasing his prestige back in the higher echelons of Terran society. He treated the entire thing as a business venture and pinched every last penny that he could, causing the local populace to rise up in insurrection against the Dominion, and actually attain some success when they used an old missile silo to strike at a cruiser that had been flying over one of the controlled cities. The ship was heavily damaged as its shields were down, and it was left to crash into the ground just outside of the city, a monument to the failures of Strauss.

Something had to be done. The Overminds on Earth issued new orders, Strauss was out, shamed and made a pariah, as a new leader was sought out to replace him. The Overminds decided it best not to let the entire planet or system be ruled by one single entity, and instead a council of leaders was chosen to take over the situation. Problem is that only one of them is close enough to get there in time and try to stabilize the situation. But it would have to do for now.

A Dominion military officer in a nearby sector was promoted and ordered to take command of the situation. Its the first time she'd been in charge of anything besides cleaning up dangerous xeno parasite outbreaks. But her profile shows that she has found success working with multiple species of the Dominion with little to no incidents of xenophobia. The Overminds believe this will show the locals humanity does not seek their extinction, and can convince them to join the wider empire, for the betterment of all. If she fails in her duties then she will be replaced as easily as they did with Strauss.

Her main task now is just to hold control of the world until the rest of the council arrives and turn the entire situation around. She won't be lone, as several attendants for Strauss, and the local command structure will all be there, willing to provide aid to her i she requires it. Surely nothing will go wrong with this smooth, organized, transition of power.

Upon arriving at the occupied world, she sees how the local populace has been enraged by the previous administrator's actions. The unneeded extravagance of the Dominion Administration building, the way food has been denied to the natives as a form of punishment and reward. An idiotic points system that grants privileges based upon behavior and only further turned the people against the empire as they saw their lives cheapened, and their livelihoods chocked by enforcers, all because they did not smiling or wave at the peacekeepers with enough sincerity.

The people had every reason to want the aliens out and she needed to make them try to see the benefits of the Dominion. Its all up to her now. She isn't like Strauss, she does seek to do better. She does believe in the promises of the Dominion, and in serving the people with honor and respect. She will rebuild this world, heal the scars left by the past administration, and ensure that this species, like so many others, has its place among the stars secured.

Many call her a dreamer, an idealist, she even still keeps one of the old flags of the original Terran Confederation in her office, to remind her of how far they have come. Perhaps its true...but....what else is there to help her wake up if not a dream of a better future for the dominion, and its peoples?

Maybe an idealist is exactly what they need in order to get to a brighter future.

She will be having an uphill battle the entire time. The people don't want to be tied down, they want to decide their own fate, free from alien interference. But they have resources that guarantee that even if the Dominion leaves the system, one of the other empires will step in to claim it, making them vulnerable to others that would exploit them, not to mention they don't have the training, experience, or soldiers themselves to take on so many of the horrible things left over from the initial invasion. Forcing them to depend on the Dominion Peacekeepers s to care for them from both threats from without, as well as from within.

As much as they may hate it, many of the locals would prefer to deal with a Stabilization Team, instead of some of the creatures outside of the cities. Though they never forget that the humans brought these things in the first place. Rats never existed on their planet until humans brought them here, and now they are out of control. Or the Jovian moon spiders, or the aquatic blood eels.

Acts of insurrection have been slowly building up, and people are disabling ore shipments or even attacking the peacekeeprs and clean up crews. Even when they are dealing with threats to the public health & Sanity.


This has forced the newcomers to take preemptive action, knowing that the planet/system is too valuable to lose unless they can find a viable alternative, or something better. They have used their ship's fabricators and drones and whatever engineers and manpower they can get from their troops/local help to create Extensive Fortifications around secure areas or tactically important sectors, creating safe Green Zones for the Dominion staying longterm on the planet. The heavy investment in these areas makes them a joy to visit and live in, which also causes some increased jealousy among the populace. But within their walls and shields the captains are safe, their crews and soldiers (and those loyal to them) can let their hair down. They can eat in safety, swim in a river, play sports, watch some holovids at the theater. They can forget their troubles and sleep in peace.......outside of the Green Zone though? That is another matter entirely.

(I just realized that this shares the same name as one of the factions in StarCraft. This has nothing to do with StarCraft.)

So some Half Life videos have gotten me pondering over a story craving that has gotten me.  We've always seen the trope and story line of the valiant human resistance against evil alien conquerors with immeasurable power, where our resistance might not do anything at all in the long run, yet we fight because it is our nature to resist.

Well my interest was in something with the roles reversed. Humans are now the dominant power in the universe with the interstellar/interdimensional empire that has conquered worlds and species after species. We are able to travel vast interstellar distances, achieve transhuman alterations, are now building Dyson-spheres in the inner portions of our empires to better use resources and ensure the longevity of our system against entropy. Many worlds are brought into the light of our order and will survive long past what they would have without us.

Even those that are conquered may find a place in the human empire, and may be called upon to serve and better the universe with their abilities and unique attributes.

TLDR:Basically just the Combine but if the humans were in charge of it.

I'm looking to make it less evil but still have that feeling of being part of the big scary empire. If you are interested in having this game have some system elements to it, I could see us making use of the Traveler RPG. I'm thinking specifically the Interstellar Wars book might be useful as there is a section there about the Earth forces having to run and command sectors of space while their forces are stretched thin, I think that might be a great way to run this scenario. Plus i think the lower level tech of Traveler might help show what its like on the outer edges of the Terran Dominion as opposed to the hyper advanced tech in the inner portions of the Dominion, especially the kind one would find on Earth.