Primal Stars

“Men came from the stars, knowing everything, and they examined the four corners of the sky and the Earth’s round surface.”

– The Popol Vuh

Cade Wells crouched behind the nearest tree, all rough and covered with strange spines that jutted in random directions. He checked his ammunition the way that Shane had taught him to, and sighed. Ten left. That meant he needed to return to the ship soon, as long as he could remember where they parked.

A bolt of blue energy ripped him back into the real world, as did the guttural shouting that told him the yaoquizqueh were nearby. He ran, his chain shirt shifting over his body, the forty pounds of weight dragging his shoulders. Electricity arced through the trees and struck him hard in the chest.

He flew backwards onto the ground, grunting in pain as the air fell from his lungs and his rifle went flying. Coughing, he rolled up to see three warriors led by an ocelotl wearing a human skin, grossly altered to resemble a jungle cat’s, draped over the leader’s back and face. A black serpent made of metal and muscle rested in his palms, and the weapon slithered up to his shoulder.

“Miltin!” he heard one shout, lowering a spear into Cade’s face.

He knew what that meant. They planned to take him prisoner, perhaps cut out his heart and erase his memory. He licked his lips and clenched his fists. They’d have to shoot him, first.

Instantly a nearby tree decided to tear itself away from the ground and sweep by the yaoquizqueh farthest from him. The ocelotl blinked in surprise and began shouting for more support, but the tree turned and rammed him head-on, though he managed to roll and was only clipped by its passing, spinning in place and howling as the rough bark and branches tore through his skin.

“You!” he shouted in trade language, “you are doing this!”

Cade put up his palms and bared his teeth, shaking his head, even as the warrior pulled the serpent off his shoulder, which spasmed and spat a bolt of lightning into his body, forcing him to scream and collapse in the dirt.

            Eons ago, the tribes of humankind once dwelled on a small, backwater world on the edge of the galaxy. These tribes were visited by fate, as beings who descended from the skies offered to show those people the heavens above them. They took that chance, to be among gods, and so traveled the sea of stars. Humanity spread across the galaxy, eventually ruling over others of their kind with the power they possessed, until, at last, the universe fell into silence.

            An enemy, unknown and unheralded, bit into the fleets of humanity, into explorers, conquerors, and would-be gods and struck them low. The human homeworld was lost to history, and those that survived were hurled back into tribal societies, to build themselves up from the ground once more. When at last they reached the skies again, it was by their own volition and their own spirit, wrought in the fires of their many worlds, in pride and a near-mythical desire to reclaim what their legends told them they had lost.

            Now, humanity wanders back and forth across the stars again, as aliens to one another, forever seeking that mystical place where they had first crawled out of the oceans.

He awoke to a wooden frame hanging over him, suspended beneath a roof of thatched grass. The frame was a wooden board, broad and flat, adorned with tropical colors, crossing lines, and with woven feather wings resembling the unfolding mechanical struts of an Eternai cloak. A woman was leaning into his face, smiling softly, her skin a deep tan and her eyes a dark blue, almost black.

“Wow, did I die or what?” he groaned.

“So, you do speak the language of the gods,” she said, “we saw it on your clothing, and saw you battle with the demons, and thought you had fallen from heaven.”

He sat up, clutching his forehead.

“And your skin was like no one we had seen since the gods last visited us, so we thought you were a messenger of heaven,” she continued, sounding hopeful, “and the demons were trying to prevent you from reaching us. When I saw them attacking you, I was afraid, but I called upon the power the gods gave us to command the spirits of the trees.”

Starting to stand further, he regretted the decision, wobbling from the pain. He rubbed his face, finding electrical burns.

“But you were struck by a lightning bolt from the serpent he held,” she said.

“It’s called a xiucoatl,” he said, “what did you do with it?”

“We killed it,” she shrugged, “several of our warriors crushed it with the ends of their spears, and they have taken its remains and the remains of the demons to the volcanoes and thrown them into the pits there.”

“Damn,” he hissed, “I wanted that thing.”

He narrowed his eyes. She stepped back and dropped to her knees, seemingly afraid to face him now.

“Uh, no,” he shook his head, “it’s alright, I’m more upset at myself than anyone else.”

She still waited, palms and head facing the floor.

“You can stand up?” he tried.

She stood, but kept her head down.

“You can look at me if you want to,” he said.

Slowly, she turned to see him again. He smiled and patted her on the shoulder. He heard the soft churning of ocean waves and a light wind sliding over trees, bringing the scent of palms blossoms into the longhouse. She smiled back, and he laughed. She reached up towards his wrist. His stomach gurgled. He looked away and stepped towards the door, putting his hands in his pockets.

“Is there anything to eat around here?”

“Food? Yes,” she nodded, “when the gods came to us last, they left many seeds and taught us to make nets. You do not know this?”

“Uh, no, no, I didn’t, I’m new to this area.”

“Area? How can you be new to this place?”

He looked up at the blue sky outside, the white sand on the beach, fading to black as the shoreline curved toward a mountain chain off in the distance.

“There are many islands here, right?”

She nodded, trying to see what he was looking for.

“How many of them do you know of?”

“This island, and three neighboring islands.”

“But there’s a lot more you don’t know about, and you don’t know the people who live on those, right?”

She nodded again, and he knocked on the doorframe.

“Good,” he said.

His finger went into the air.

“You know how at night, you see the stars?”
            “Yes.”

“There’s a lot of them, yes?”

“Of course.”

“Well, they are all very far away from one another. If your gods came from one, then how many are left for me to come from?”

“Oh, I see,” she nodded, “the sea of the heavens is like an ocean, too, and because it turns black at night, we can see the islands in it.”

He thumped his head on the supporting post of the porch.

“But,” she continued, looking up at the sky, “the gods told us that the heavens were like a great void, and that great rocks hung within it.”

“That’s very close, “ he shook his head, “our boats can sail that void.”

She brightened.

“I have always wanted to see the islands of the gods,” she said, fishing in her small vest and producing a piece of plastic, which seemed to unfold into a three dimensional image of skyscrapers lit up in the night, “is this like it?”

He took the picture, grinning.

“Hey, this is Meijong port in Lingbai territory,” he said, and she looked puzzled, “it’s a space station, an island made out of metal and plastic.”

“You can even make islands?”

He passed the postcard back to her and shrugged.

“I can’t, but I know others who can.”

She seemed happy at that, and waved for him to follow as she approached a trio of fishermen.

            History of the Heavens

            The void is filled with all manner of phenomena, from detonated stars to collapsed gravity wells, gas clouds, asteroid belts, solar systems, and pockets of dense energy lying in wait. Sailors die and their ships are destroyed, their names becoming lost in the vast ether, but still they sail, still a thousand more take to the skies for the freedom it provides and to be the first to set foot on alien worlds.

            Buried in myth and legend, the history of the galaxy at large is something of a tall tale, a story told to children in order to turn their eyes to the heavens. The story goes that at one point, the human race once dwelt upon one world, and worshipped many gods and spirits. Then, the spirits they worshipped came to them from the heavens.

In ages past, humans were removed from their homeworld, alternatively called Mashtauli, Terra, Bhumi, Tellus, Jeegoo, Gaea, Earth, or any number of other names, dependent on who one talks to, by an ancient race known as Arrosians. They took them away from the four corners of the Earth and returned them with knowledge and power that they used to become as gods upon the land. The Arrosians lamented this, for they had failed to give these humans the humility they had been seeking to grant the species.

            The War of the Fall

            With this hubris also came a dark enemy, one that easily ate its way through the galaxy and its myriad peoples, and the would-be gods cried out to their own gods for aid. None came. The ancient beings, the Arrosians, who lifted humankind from their place on Earth, had abandoned their vain children. So humanity went to war, the shape and form of this enemy lost to history, destroying everything it touched.

            Humans either fell to worlds or lost the ability to travel faster than light at the end of this war, plummeting the galaxy into a dark age from which it is only now recovering. The original home of humankind was lost in order to protect it from this consuming evil. The true face of this evil has been forgotten, but stylized depictions of formless shadows and shapeless phantoms litter ruins from the time period.

            The Kruathok War

            As the first humans pulled themselves from the pits of their worlds, as industrial ages rose and the information age blossomed, two species came into conflict. The planet of Koros began a new millennium, entering its information age with a bang. A ship entered their atmosphere and crash-landed on a small island in the western ocean. Over the next few years, the ship became the center of scientific research, and the Koroso began building machines of war to defend themselves against what they discovered was a coming alien menace.

            When the Kruathok warlord Gramuk led his forces to Koros, the Koroso were waiting with ships capable of converting from atmospheric fighters to weapons platforms capable of performing in the vacuum. The war raged for two years, until Gramuk mysteriously withdrew its forces, bowing to the Koroso military as a more competent tribe. Other warlords moved in to destroy Gramuk's tribe, and the Koroso attacked them, as well. These skirmishes and battles have lasted even until the present day, though the tribe of Gramuk has maintained fealty to the Koroso Republic.

            First Steps

            The war somewhat behind them, the Koros people began to explore space, and found another group of humans who had been plying space lanes for generations. Locked on board their derelict hulks, these people had become masters of mining and space travel, though their faster-than-light capabilities were lacking. They were the Lingbai, and were organized into multiple tribes and clans. They had possessed faster-than-light travel for centuries, purchasing them from a corporation calling itself Arvotechnologies Industrial Systems, and had traveled the stars, calling no planet a home and settling on moons, amid clouds of gas and dust, and in the upper reaches of gas giants. They welcomed the Koroso, who were fart more advanced and economically stable, and took to settling planets with them. In this time, the Koroso settled two more worlds, Boros and Eleosos.

            The Koros, in league with the Lingbai, spread out into space to explore the universe, and discovered the moon Androa and its hearty people, who had already spread themselves out over their solar system. As miners and resource-hoarders, the Androans were welcomed into the fold as a new civilization. With the Androans came their neighbors, the Reutel, with whom the Androans had been trading technology and culture, and the two cultures could finally meet face to face.

            The Pirate War

            With the spread of the Lingbai tribes came the spreading of the pirate clans. Spread over far larger areas, the pirate clans were able to begin warring with one another. The Androan pirate clans of nearby space jumped into the fray, as well, seeking planets and resources to hold under their belt. In a flash, the war was raging on three sides.

            Toward the end of the war, an Androan pirate fleet strayed too far attempting to circumvent a Koros scan zone and wound up in a solar system controlled by an unknown human culture. The first ships to contact the pirates were wooden vessels, and their occupants recoiled in anger at the audacity of the interlopers. They took them captive, extracted the location of their homeworld, and performed what they believed was a preemptive strike, simply appeared en masse near Androa and peppering the planet with plasma fire.

            The Mharva had arrived. The Reutel quickly suggested a Concord-style pact in order to appeal to the sense of honor the “newcomers” possessed. The Koroso signed on, and the new trinary culture entered the Lingbai war with intent to keep the pirates out of their own systems and colonies. In the end, both the Lingbai and the Androans signed on to Galactic Concord.

            With the coming of the Mharva also came the Thukel Free States, a human culture who was at first loathe to tell its people of humans out in the galaxy. The culture, however, eventually joined the Concord with much enthusiasm.

            The Azred War

            From the edge of space came a threat to the burgeoning Concord. Alien beings called the Azred who delighted in the arts of war came upon a Lingbai transport. To be fair, the Lingbai fired first, and the reptilian beasts attacked the convoy. At the same time, during peaceful negotiations, the Azred warriors spotted vegetables on the plate set out for them, and began a slaughter of dignitaries.

            The united human nations were once again thrown into war. The Flae'eli, a planet stuck in its iron age that had been conquered by an enterprising warlord, joined the battle on the side of the human nations after the Azred attacked their world for resources.

            For ten years the humans and the Azred fought a war to exterminate the other species, but the humans proved too resourceful and numerous, and the Azred proved to be too technologically advanced. In the end, the Azred signed non-aggression pacts with those who were members of the Concord.

            The Mharva-Thukel War

            The Mharva, for their part, are a peaceful people, but all too easily drawn into violence when their honor is questioned. The Thukel Free States had secretly placed a small installation inside Mharva territory, and that act drew the ire of the emperor of the Mharva Stellar Empire, who declared war upon the Thukel.

            The two cultures clashed for three years, and the Thukel perfected a great many strategies for use against the Mharva, whose generals were nearly untouchable, but whose armies fell quickly to the might of modern military technology. Eventually the war drew to a close as both sides chocked up immeasurable losses.

            The war ended in a stalemate, both sides tapering off attacks until the members of the war simply called a cease fire, honored by the Mharva ever since the loss of Krestfall to the Swarm.

            The Swarm War

            On the other side of Thukel space there lay massive amounts of unexplored void. From that darkness arose an army of alien insects, a hive-minded swarm of seemingly mindless creatures that attacked an outlying world known as Krestfall. They destroyed it, capturing and hauling away many of the civilians and raining destruction down upon military targets.

            The Mharva took the opportunity to attempt to seize back several holdings from the Thukel, which prompted the Koroso allies of the Thukel states to retaliate. The Kruathok moved in on the “weakness” of the Koroso, which caused the Reutel to attempt to cover the Koroso’s open flank. The galaxy erupted in a free-for all, and even the Azred entered the war alongside their Androan allies.

            In the months that followed, the swarm worked their way through Thukel space as a juggernaut, slowly making their way toward Thularis itself. The bugs were pinned down on Orosis, a jungle world that the swarm had devoured, seemingly at the end of their resources, when seven bugs, the most massive ever seen by the Thukel forces, took to the sky as starships capable of faster than light travel. The bugs could reach Thularis.

They struck at the edge of the system, taking several key points, but were held at bay for three months by the brave actions of the Thukel Naval Forces. The swarm was forced back, at least for a time, and left to rebuild its power on nearby worlds before striking again. This time, they fought their way into the hub of the Thularis system, took over several space stations and even made a bid for the moon of the planet itself.

            Then, without warning, the Swarm vanished, disappearing to the edge of its territories, going underground, and refusing to fight or be found.

            The Machine War

            On the heels of the Swarm War, the Thukel made contact with another civilization that proved to be made up of mechanical beings. These machines called themselves the Next, and the Thukel declared war when they discovered that the Next had killed all humans on their home world before moving out into space. The Next, confused, fought back, using nonlethal methods, though they had little success in fending off the onslaught of the Thukel forces.

            The end of the war came abruptly when the machines literally landed a warship in the middle of a battle on the roof of the Concord's main offices and demanded a seat. They gave up all territories conquered during the war, retreated from all captured bases and ships, and returned all prisoners of war, though many of those prisoners chose to remain with the machines, bringing their families with them.

            The machines have since set up shop in a series of moons that serve as a gateway to the system from which they have come, with the humans of the area and the media dubbing them "The Machine Empire," and the name has stuck.

            The Diaboron War

            A fourth time the Thukel were responsible for galactic war, but not of their direct action. Their propaganda had reached across the stars and settled on a world of warriors who leaped at the chance to do battle with such a powerful foe. They climbed aboard their ships and raced to Thukel territory, dropping on to the first planet they found and immediately declaring open war.

            Unfortunately, the Thukel were unprepared for an enemy whose tactics would be suicidal to any other human people, but were just a daily fact to the Diaboron. So, as rapidly as it was formed, the Thukel war machine began to fall apart. The cybernetically enhanced, selectively bred humans of the Diaboron people bored their way to the Thukel home world like an out of control train.

In the end, the Diaboron shattered the Free States and took over as its leaders and dictators. The Thukel Free States are now more than just a name, as the slow and steady reconstruction continues. The galaxy has settled into an uneasy and fearful peace, with each civilization afraid of what may hide beyond the next bend.

            He was stuffing fish into his mouth as if he had never eaten before in his life.

            “I will guess that means it tastes good,” she said.

            He nodded, wiping his mouth.

            “Sorry,” he said, “I haven’t eaten in a day or so.”

            The wind across the beach picked up, tossing several cloths to the breeze and knocking coconuts from their place atop the trees. Cade raised his hand to his forehand and squinted. There was a low hiss or squeal, and something metal the size of a small shuttle collapsed to the beach.

            “That does not belong to the Gukumatz,” he grumbled, searching his body for his pistol.

            “Are you seeking this?” the woman asked, handing him a wrapped bundle.

            “Oh, hell yeah,” he nodded, brandishing the gleaming metal. The fishermen bowed even as the multi-legged device rumbled toward him, dramatically sweeping outward with a massive gun barrel.

            One of the nearby huts detonated into a burst of flame, and the weapon rolled in his direction.

            “Well, crap,” he shouted, stumbling away, “whose is that?”

            Something glittered in the jungle, and his head jerked in that direction. A cloak was skimming the trees at top speed, Eternai in its design, all smooth and sleek and silver, dancing with its own exhaust like the scattered water droplets after a storm, its hydrogen engine leaving behind a rainbow.

The ship thundered overhead, drawing the enemy machine’s attention, ducking and weaving through trees in what he knew to be Lindiwe’s slapdash style. He shouted at the children gathered under the palm trees and screamed at the old man raising his arms as if he were a great conductor. Lindiwe’s cloak banked hard across the jungle canopy and shot out over the ocean, ripping off the roof of several huts.

He made a break across the open sand as the robot unfolded six thin, spindly limbs and skittered across the surface of the sea, aiming its distinctive head in the direction of the silvery jet. He wrapped his arms around the shaman, grunting with effort to move him.

“She has returned!” he was shouted, “La’ieikawai has come back to us!”

“And she’s about to set this beach on fire if you don’t move!”

The old man seemed to be surprised by that statement, even as Lindiwe’s wings and main body flowered open and folded away, like a feathered fan remaking itself into a vaguely humanoid shape. The new hand reached up and produced a long spear and trough to use as a shield, which unfurled, flinging shining silver feathers in every direction.

            Current Affairs

            The Mharva Stellar Empire rules the most planets of any civilization, with their ships carved from the wood of a species of tree unique to their world and shielding technology. They are known for their ability to control battlefields through the use of mysterious abilities that allow them to appear almost literally anywhere. They hide behind a wall or gate set up in space as a ring around their area of influence, a sector containing many habitable planets, but slim on natural resources other than water and wood.

            In Lingbai space, between the civilizations of the galaxy, loose confederations of pirates rule territories that are measured in voids and asteroid belts. Five major pirate clans still exist in the present day, controlling the areas that the GSS does not patrol. Androa is one of these regions, flecked with nebulas and solar systems not yet fully formed, and stocked by a rugged frontier people with a love of games and song.

            The people of the once mighty Thukel Free States have since had their country reduced to two systems by the Diaboron, who are currently busying themselves with ruling the area in accordance with the Thukel’s own laws. Pockets of resistance still fight, constantly churning their propaganda machines, but all they hear is each other's own shouts and cries. The networks hum with activity, cities and countries sit under martial law, and the whole of the grand Free States wait in fear of their future. The people are confused who to fight or cheer for, not knowing whether to call the invaders saviors or enemies.

            The Koroso still maintain multiple skirmish battles with Kruathok forces, though the tribe of Gramuk is loyal to the United Koros Republics at large, having been defeated by them through the use of the Kruathok gernakai, or "kill count." The Kruathok arrange the hierarchy of their tribes based upon the amount of members of opposing tribes killed by that tribe. Once the Koroso military complex killed more Kruathok than that tribe had killed in its lifetime, the war at large ended. Other tribes maintain that as humans, the Koroso are not deserving of a place in the hierarchy, and exist only to be killed so that the tribes do not war amongst each other. The current warlord of the Kruathok, Gakar, is simply happy to sit and watch what happens with this development, and she has been for centuries.

            The Koroso are having problems of their own; their robots and machines appear to be rejecting their limited programming and expanding themselves to greater heights of artificial intelligence, seemingly randomly. This is leading to disharmony among the nations of the united republic and their peoples, and may lead to an internal war between nations and eventually, the machines themselves.

            The countries of Reutel space are home to a wide variety of people and religions, but political games have prevented internal wars for centuries. They were the people who were responsible for drafting the Galactic Concord, and even now, several regions of space they control are considered neutral in terms of galactic affairs.

            Derdeki servers plow the space beyond Koros, toward the center of the galaxy. Immense, blocky constructs known as servers cruise through empty space, linking with one another, disengaging, and creating all manner of strange black and green formations within that region. They are an introspective people, concerned with questions as to whether or not they exist rather than what they should do with that existence. At least, at large. Some factions among them explore the galaxy at large, with mindless, cloned drones at the helm and strange, incomprehensible goals known only to them and their mysterious Unity.

            The Gukumatz worship a symbiotic life form native to their home planet that retains the mRNA of its host even as it is transferred from host creature to host creature. Slowly attaining sentience over the years, the Gukumatz symbiote is a repository of knowledge, containing the minds and emotions of the ancestors of the people it has joined with. The Gukumatz people, on the other hand, breed and genetically engineer humans for all tasks present in their life, from mounts to clothing to food to even energy storage.

            Innasah are known primarily for their cooking and their attractive appearance and demeanor. Religious creatures, the galaxy for the most part sees the creatures as a monolithic culture obsessed with food and eating. In truth, they are a species as fractured as any other, with variable factions based around both the concepts of resource management and the discovery of their homeworld. They vary from factions that see meat as a divine food, as sentient life little more than cattle, and others that settle planets or constantly sail between the stars.

            The Azred remain mysterious and departed from galactic affairs, but are not afraid to bring their military prowess to bear if the situation demands it. They are a caste-based species, and are technically comprised of three species. The Naghai are warriors, tall, sinuous, and heavily muscled, the Oanes are spindly, intelligent creatures with long, thin tails who serve as scientists, emissaries, and pilots, and the Shehti are small bodied egg-white creatures with large black eyes, and serve as leaders to groups of Oanes and Naghai.

            The Machine Empire, or "Next," remains sequestered on its gateway moons, keeping many of the prisoners they have collected during the war. Returning prisoners report a paradise, an idyllic world where everything was maintained for them and their whims were catered to; enough so that they felt the entire "deal" too good to be true and returned. Others returned only to gather their families or friends and retreat into machine space.

            The mysterious Swarm, a seemingly endless army of alien insects, has all but vanished from the galaxy, hiding on out of the way jungle worlds and keeping to itself, enigmatic as it is. Possessed of a hive mind and capable of seemingly sentient tactical decisions, the bugs seem to make efforts to avoid human contact at the moment, content to stir on their chosen worlds, viciously protecting them from all comers.

            Corporations

            Multiple corporate concerns plow the void, the endless black between stars.

            Arvotechnologies Industrial Systems sells anything for the right price, and is the only place one can truly purchase a hyperdrive engine. They sell them so cheaply that it's often less expensive to buy furniture for one's ship than it is to buy an engine. This fact has helped reduce the number of governments attempting to reverse engineer the engine, since they can get it so cheaply elsewhere. A few other corporate concerns have tried, but all attempts have met with failure. AIS also sells just about anything else, though their fares are more expensive for more mundane items (one is paying for convenience, and beggars can't be hagglers).

            DocShip, Incorporated is a medical company run by an Innasah faction with an alliance with the Locron nation of Calperié. They provide medical treatment, extractions, and emergency care to large sections of the galaxy at large. Members can purchase cybernetic implants, supplies, and long term care on board the roving hospital ships. In recent years, DocShip has started paying bounties on known and suspected organ runners.

            Galaxial Security Services provides security solutions to the galaxy at large, and is the official representative of the Concord's law in the regions of space less traveled. Their signature ships and weapons are easily recognizable from a fair distance, with their smooth contours, blue, black, and white designs, and flashing lights, as well as broadband transmissions of the ship's sirens. GSS provides security for space stations, developing colonies, and merchant convoys. It regularly patrols developing planets, keeping them safe from extraterrestrial intrusion and corruption through the use of undercover resident officers.

            The cloak kicked to the air over the smoking remains of the robot, rolling and coming to rest on the white sand. The wind pushed the beach outward, enveloping the village in soft breezes. He jogged up to the opening cockpit as Lindiwe jumped out, her white scales reflecting the sun’s light and her tropical feathers where hair should have been flicking in the day.

            “Hey,” he waved, “what the heck was that? And where did you get this?”

            She pointed at the mountain at the center of the island.

            “There’s a Next ship in orbit, and I think they want what we’re after,” she said, “and I found the cloak up there, in a cave.”

            The locals were bowing, though the woman he’d met was walking boldly toward him. He stuck a finger in the air.

            “One moment,” he said.

            “Well, well,” Lindiwe said, “on the ground for five minutes and you’re already making special friends.”

            He scowled at her and raised his arms.

            “I guess you got me. Any clues on the stone we’re looking for?”

            She stuck a hand back into the cockpit, pulling out a folded over cloth of decent size.

            “Oddly enough,” she smiled.

Swords on a Boat

Swords, knives, and body armor are pretty commonplace in Primal Stars. Not only because primitive civilizations abound in the galaxy, but because a stray plasma bolt or gunshot on a ship could damage a vital piece of equipment, from the glass case around an Engine to a computator console, display monitor, communications array, mega-flux omni-stabilizer, or languotron translator. Swords and other melee weapons, however, are easier to control, and so see far more use on boats, though bludgeoning weapons do not. That last thing anyone wants is to start swinging a mace in an engine room.

            The expense is another issue. Certainly those species that have shields could use them to cover their consoles, but the cost to do so is outrageous. Why spend an extra ten billion credits/chits/dollars/whatever the heck on every ship you build to protect consoles when you can spend an extra thousand per crew member to train them in the use of a spear or rapier?

            Superstition

            There are stranger things among the stars, as well. New alien species lurk in the darkness, waiting to prey upon the unwary, and the myriad civilizations hold the secrets of incredible, seemingly supernatural powers. The Mharva, for example, are known for their mastery of an mysterious ability to transport themselves and their ships almost instantaneously across a battlefield.

            In Lingbai space, followers of the Tao and other mystical disciplines profess strange powers, such as the manipulation of energy and matter. In other places, primitive peoples harbor strange abilities that they say were given to them by gods long ago. The Koroso make use of what they call psychics and psychic energy, and the AIS counters sell machines and devices they claim detect psychic resonances.

            Thousands of worlds still wait, undeveloped and locked in the iron age or worse, lingering at a point in their development, fearing gods, spirits, and devils from the sky. Others are crushed beneath the bootheel of more advanced cultures that would take advantage of them. In Hakovak space, the people of that planet claim to be ruled by their gods, beings made flesh from another universe.

            Space Travel

            There are two ways to travel through space. Hire a ship, or own a ship.

Hiring a ship is typically a simple affair, and ship range from pirates and privateers to the more pedestrian shuttles that travel back and forth between planets. This has only the problems of finding a ship going where you want it to go when you want it to go there. Public transports are reliable and safe, but they never go in a straight line someplace, and you've got to deal with hefty amounts of corporate nosiness pertaining to your destination. Hiring a privateer or pirates means dealing with the local law enforcement if they're pirates and they get caught, or dealing with pirates if you're on a privateer vessel. Then, there's always hitching a ride with a mining rig, but that has its own problems.

Owning a ship has all the problems of a privateer ship, including pirates, unscrupulous GSS officers, and sneaking around in heavily corporate areas, in addition to the extra problems the captain and crew of such a vessel have to deal with. Repair costs, ammunition costs, upkeep for the engines, paying a crew, docking fees, launching fees, and irate customs officials are just a few of the many fun things that a ship owner has to deal with on a regular basis.

            The artifact was a small disk, about thirty centimeters, with a hole in the center about twenty millimeters wide. He ran his hands over the surface, tracing the radial lines outward with his fingers and tapping the symbols on the top.

            “So, any clue what it does?”

            “We’ll have to get it to the ship. O’leary is waiting for us.”

            “He got it fixed?”

            “Yes,” Lindiwe nodded, and Cade sighed with relief.

            She tapped her earpiece.

            “O’leary, bring it in,” she said, and the beach once again flew into activity as the Broken Spear roared over the jungle, settling down near the shore.

He stood to go, and felt his sleeve grabbed. The woman was there, pressing her lips tight and furrowing her eyebrows. She took in a sharp breath.

“You wanna go, right?” he asked.

Her eyes went wide, and she let go of him.

“Yes,” she answered, almost shamefully.

“Hey, can we use a cook?” he asked Lindiwe.

Lindiwe smiled, her lips curving into a predatory grin.

“Yeah, we could,” she said, shoving her elbow gently into Cade’s ribs.

“I don’t know her that well,” he whined, and looked in the woman’s direction, “let’s go.”

She clapped her hands and shouted to the crowd in that strange language, which erupted into cheers. The old man approached, grasping him by the shoulders and speaking over and over, then looked mortified and pulled away.

“He is thanking you,” she said, “he’s so excited, he forgot the gods’ language.”

“It’s okay,” he said, and the old man relaxed.

He nodded once more, and started up the gangplank.

Retrotech

A major theme of many of the civilizations in Primal Stars is the absence of high-tech trappings, or rather, high-tech trappings disguised or designed to look like low-tech implements. A space suit might have tribal designs, strange rings and curves, or have switches, dials, and exposed regions that grant the suit a more spiritual or otherworldly appearance than is needed. This occurs more often in older civilizations, for example, the Thukel do not have this particular design theme running through their civilization, but it is an active part of the universe. Mharva technology, for example, includes wooden elements in its design, augmented reality images to substitute for magical illusions, and so on.

Ancient ruins dot planet surfaces, ruins of stone and other, unidentifiable materials, covered in hieroglyphs and the writings of spiritual peoples, but with technology so advanced it seems like magic. This is the prime meta-reason for the name of the setting. These are Primal Stars.