Fiction:Vyendan Republic

The Vyendan Republic aims to bring life to all corners of every galaxy they find. The Vyendan race are all passionate ecologists, and are by their reckoning the best in the universe at terraforming. Although this may or may not be true, none can doubt they are frighteningly efficient at what they do. A skilled Vyendan Earthshaper can bring a planet up to T3 and fill its food web in a few minutes, while a Worldmaker can do all the same in a few moments.

Organisation of the Republic
The Republic is governed by an elected leader. Every five years, the Vyendans vote on the three levels of government: Their colony's leadership, their Galaxy's leadership, and the President of the Republic. Each level is responsible for different things, and also has their own ways of generating revenue.

Colony President
The office of Colony President is a joke. Plain and simple. They do practically nothing except calm down the occasional rebellion or go out for photo opportunities with some cute little alien freak for the sake of publicity. Whenever something bad happens like an eco-disaster, they just call for the Starstriders to come along and help out. The same happens with invasions. In general, the Colony President does nothing. The President's office gets money in the usual ways, taxes.

Galactic Assembly
In control of every colony in the Galaxy it governs, it is the Galactic Assembly that gets the real work done. The assembly is made up of fifty individuals, who must be at least Landbenders in rank but no more than five can be Earthshapers or above. This is to ensure that the council is not made up of egocentric idiots that think too much of themselves to worry about others. The Galactic Assembly deals with spice production and the opening of trade routes, as well as documenting everything produced in surplus (spice not used in trade) for when the Starstriders next arrive. The Assembly gets its funds from taxing the various colonies.

President of the Republic
The one guy in charge of the entire republic, the President has a lot on his hands. His office has a live-feed screen to each Galactic Assembly, and he must be on hand for as long as possible during the day so that the Assemblies can always call on his help. The President is not directly in charge of anything, but he is able to take command of any resources he needs to complete his chosen objectives. The only entities that answer to him are the Starstriders, and yet he does not control them, he simply sets them objectives to complete.

Living Standards)
Because of how smoothly the Republic is run (believe it or not) the average Vyendan has a lot of spare time on their hands, and a lot of money to spend. Basic workers operating mining vehicles are extremely well-paid, with each gaining a few thousand sporebucks a day. Because of their wealth they are able to afford all manner of entertainment.

Literacy
In all colonies, all citizens are fully literate. This is not an exaggeration. Each Vyendan goes through stages of learning similar to the 'grades' or year levels of Terran schools (Terra means Earth), but these grades are instead based on skill. No Vyendan has ever dropped out of school, all strive to master each level of learning so that they can get employed in the famed Institute of Terraforming. Each Vyendan also learns to speak many languages fluently, and a good portion can even speak like a Loron.

Food and Water
Again, society provides all that the individual needs. Each Vyendan has steady and easy access to completely pure water (the Vyendans put great value on this) and hot food. Even the most lowly of workers can afford to feed themselves for a few months with a single day's pay slip, so the instance of a Vyendan going hungry is almost unthinkable. Factor in that Vyendans are naturally generous and think nothing of handing out food or money, and the chance of a Vyendan going without is non-existent.

Shelter
The average Vyendan house costs around 16,000 sporebucks, and so a Vyendan can afford to purchase their own house after just a few weeks of work. Many rental accommodation options are also available, and many homes take on boarders as long as they help pay for general upkeep and buy their own food.

Ranking System
Vyendans in the Republic are ranked based on their skill in terraforming. Note that although Landbender is only rank 1, it is actually very high in the Republic's class system, surpassing even Colony President.

1= Landbender- Tasked with doing the odd little job here and there, and also to do groundwork for higher ranks, the Landbenders don't really see much action unless an eco-collapse is happening, in which case they are employed en-masse to find the diseased creatures.

2= Landshifter- These 'formers are allowed to work from air vehicles, and generally ensure that the planet has enough land space and enough water space for what is required. They often create land bridges so that spice gathering vehicles can access otherwise unreachable spice points (those in water).

3= Windchanger- Also operating from aerial vehicles, Windchangers ensure that the colony's temperature and humidity are satisfactory for Vyendan life.

4= Earthshaper- At more or less the top of the pecking order, Earthshapers use spaceships to terraform other planets in a given system so that colonies can be placed on them. Unlike the Starstriders, though, they cannot leave the system they are attached to on official business.

5= Starstrider- The very greatest of the Republic's terraformers, Starstriders don't even need to look at their displays to determine what is wrong with a planet. Their fingers nimbly find each key needed to set the ship's tools to terraform the planet properly. Even one of these giants of the field can terraform a planet in mere seconds, and without fail, but when the half-dozen of them that crew the Starstrider work together the results are almost immediate and are astounding.

Relations with other Empires
The Republic seeks to bring peace and life to the galaxy, so naturally they are friendly towards everyone they meet, although if attacked or threatened, or they think you are a threat to nature, watch out! They use their skills in terraforming to turn your planet's ecosystem against you.