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Nivenian Empire/History after the Nivenian-Thadian War of Annexation is subjective
The perspective of this article is written from the point of view of a faction, media corporation or character in the Fiction Universe and may contain biases and inaccuracies. Read with an open mind!
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The history of the Nivenian Empire after the start of the Nivenian-Thadian War of Annexation on Neochios 41, 23 NE is shown here. The specifics of the war will be shown on the war's page, and history not related to the war will be shown here.
23 NE[]
Neochios[]
On Novemex 50, 23 NE, the Megastructural Construction Corporation, having completed Andasium Reductor Two, and synthesizing 70 billion metric tons of andasium per day, made a trade offer to the Kalslong Merchants, offering X metric tons of andasium in exchange for 5X metric tons of andasium (VIII) oxide (spent andasium, as it as often refered to), and 100X metric tons of random (in any chemical form - e.g. methane, carbon dioxide, coal) carbon, where 0 < X < 60 billion. The Kalslong Merchants accepted, with X equaling 100 thousand. While this was nice, it was much less than was being produced. On Novemex 58, the Megastructural Construction Corporation contacted JCompany with a nearly identical offer, except that the maximum value for X was 59.9999 billion metric tons instead of seventy billion. JCompany set the value of X to 59.999 billion metric tons and accepted the trade, which was close enough to the maximum.
24 NE[]
Ianuaria[]
At the beginning of 24 NE, tensions were rising all over the gigaquadrant. Many different groups appeared to be lining up into pro- and anti- Purity factions. As war was looming, something had to be done, lest the economy of the gigaquadrant come spiraling down. The Nivenian Trading Organization for Commercial Benefits attempted to take the matter into their own hands, suggesting a joint boycott with JCompany of all factions involved in what would eventually be known as the New Spodia Wars on Ianuaria 7, 24 NE.
While JCompany refused the joint boycott on the grounds that it seemed premature, they also mentioned a partial solution - Begin trading with more powers not aligned in the New Spodia Wars. This keeps the gigaquadrant's economy moving, the Nivenian Empire's economy moving, and keeps as many as possible out of the war. Increasing trade with current non-aligned trading partners was also an option. On Ianuaria 19, the Megastructural Construction Corporation added more radiators to Andasium Reductor Two, and thus increased the capacity to ninety billion metric tons per day, while maintaining constant exchange ratios. To continue selling this andasium, a deal extension was offered to JCompany.
Interlude: Colonization of Paulo Fluctus Beta[]
On Ianuaria 26, the twenty colony ships with three million passengers each launched on Iunius 31, 21 NE by the Megastructural Construction Corporation arrived at the Paulo Fluctus Beta System, and reported the presence of several resource-rich planets in the inner system, along with a terraformable planet, Paulo Fluctus Beta 7. A hyperspace relay was promptly set up to speed communications between the two systems, and the sixty million new Betans issued a document called the Paulo Fluctus Beta Charter, outlining the preliminary government until the population exceeds a hundred billion.
After nine days, on Ianuaria 35, it was obvious that the Betan colony was doing well. The Megastructural Construction Corporation, noting this, launched a ship with a full twenty trillion Nivenians on board, frozen. The ship would use much the same technology as the last, and the passengers would be slowly awoken as the colony grew. This way, population could be slowly pumped into the colony, so no shortage of labor would exist during its rapid development. This new ship would accelerate very quickly, as it was large enough to possess a command AI with an IQ of 155 (even if it was an incredibly power-hungry device, it could withstand the higher accelerations better than unfrozen Nivenians could), and would reach the Paulo Fluctus Beta System at 98% lightspeed on Neochios 3, 25 NE.
As the large recession plaguing the Nivenian Empire was coming to a close, and prices were coming back up again, the Megastructural Construction Corporation reversed the policies made in Martex, 22 NE, and began to sell vast tracts of land on Nivenia A ringworlds 30 and 31. Meanwhile, although Nivenia A ringworlds 32 through 35 were due to be completed on Martex 55, 24 NE, improvements in construction technology coupled with the increase in trade and the creation of the andasium reductors allowed Nivenia A ringworlds 32 and 33 to be completed over a month early, on Ianuaria 31. Due to this, JCompany was contacted with an offer similar to the one for Nivenia A ringworlds 30 and 31 - 3.0 quadrillion JHouses, 250 trillion JEntertainment, 40 Trillion JFactories, and 16 Trillion JHalls. These would be exchanged for 3.4 billion metric tons of pink spice. The offer was made on Ianuaria 37. The offer went through on Ianuaria 44, and the pink spice was exchanged for the buildings requested.
Afterwards, both the Megastructural Constuction Corporation and MegaSuperUltraCorp hired over three quadrillion employees to set up the planned communities (the ones using JBuildings) and set up the plantations on the new ringworlds, respectively.
Martex[]
On Martex 3, 24 NE, another party, the MotSE, joined the New Spodia Wars. In many respects, that was it. The Nivenian Trading Organization for Commercial Benefits announced a boycott to the gigaquadrant, immediately ceasing trade with parties involved in the war. The Nivenian Trading Organization for Commercial Benefits then re-appealed to JCompany to join the boycott against the warring parties. The parties boycotted at the time of the announcement are listed below:
- The Purity
- United Republic of Grubmolians
- Pure Divinity of Spodia
- Perphidi Assembly
- MotSE
- United Corlinian Empire
- Federated Tribes of Varslan
- Coalition of Seceding States
Different nations had different reactions to this boycott, with the MotSE and the Perphidi Assembly not caring, and the United Republic of Grubmolians somehow taking it as an "act of aggression," which might or might not mean that they will be invading. No one is really sure which. In any case, the boycott seemed to be having its intended effect, as another nation, the Waptoria Alliance of Species, expressed interest in enacting a limited version. Unfortunately, the war continued growing, with the Jinaris Empire and the Ail'karian Imperium joining the conflict on the side of the purity.
In response, on Martex 32, the Nivenian Trading Organization for Commercial Benefits extended the boycott to the Jinaris Empire and Ail'karian Imperium. Notably, the United Corlinian Empire expressed its desire to de-escalate the war on Martex 37, something which prompted the Nivenian Trading Organization for Commercial Benefits to point out that any participants who successfully manage to disengage will not only have the boycott lifted, but be allowed to trade for replacement infrastructure and food at a sizable discount, for the purpose of further establishing trade relations.
The drama caused by the New Spodia wars was temporarily interrupted by a group of about twenty billion insane zealots of some unknown religion deciding that it was somehow a good idea to "ascend to a higher plane of existence" on Martex 49, which somehow involved jumping off of the side of Nivenia A Ringworld 12 onto one of the ringworlds then-under construction - Nivenia A Ringworld 33, completely disregarding the fact that the velocity difference between the two was well over two hundred kilometers per second. Long story short, the explosion was massive, and over seven hundred square kilometers of ringworld tile had to be replaced.
Iunius[]
On Iunius 8, news was revived from the Waptoria Alliance of Species that the Federated Tribes of Varslan had removed themselves from the war. The boycott was then lifted, and the option of trade remains open. This, and the United Corlinian Empire's desire for de-escalation, was largely portrayed as an international victory by the Nivenian Trading Organization for Commercial Benefits. This enhanced the domestic reputation of the Nivenian Trading Organization for Commercial Benefits, and while it may not have been completely true, most of MegaSuperUltraCorp's shareholders regarded it as a good move.
Unfortunately, issues with a small financial crisis pushed back the expected date of the completion of Nivenia A Ringworlds 34 and 35 to Iunius 50. Meanwhile, the Jinaris Empire and the Ail'karian Imperium left the New Spodia Wars on Iunius 19, something which was widely publicized as a victory for the Nivenian Trading Organization for Commercial Benefits. On Iunius 23, however, the Reformed Hegemony of Exterioris joined the New Spodia Wars on the side of the Purity. The Nivenian Trading Organization for Commercial Benefits Boycott was updated accordingly.
On Iunius 43, an announcement came, showing that the MotSE had won the front of the New Spodia Wars in the Corusian Galaxy, and that the United Corlinian Empire was now defunct. This was largely portrayed as a partial victory by the Nivenian Trading Organization for Commercial Benefits, and as another success of their boycott. (However, this claim was a serious stretch of plausibility, and anyone who was reasonably intelligent was able to see that they were only doing it for publicity. The Nivenian Trading Organization for Commercial Benefits owned most of the news outlets, for crying out loud! This, interestingly enough, led to increased viewership of JMTV in the Nivenian Empire, as most agreed that JMTV was probably not secretly in cahoots with the Nivenian Trading Organization for Commercial Benefits.)
On Iunius 50, Nivenia A ringworlds 34 and 35 were completed, and an identical deal to the one for the purchase of buildings for Nivenia A ringworlds 32 and 33 was formulated and sent to JCompany for approval.
Novemex[]
On Novemex 1, the Null Empire contacted the Nivenian Government, wanting to triple the amount of DIY Ecumenopolis 2.0 in their possession, and offering megastructural building materials or black-box null spice producers in exchange. While black-box technology is always nice, the Nivenian government knew that 1) the Megastructural Construction Corporation was the entity producing the DIY Ecumenopolis 2.0 product line, and they did not have a use for Null spice, and 2) the Nivenian Government preferred a black-box for black-box deal. With this in mind, the Nivenian government contacted a representative of the Megastructural Construction Corporation on Novemex 4 (while she was asleep, no less), and she listed to the Null Empire the construction materials to be produced in exchange for thirty million more square kilometers of DIY Ecumenopolis 2.0.
On Novemex 14, JCompany got back to the Megastructural Construction Corporation, accepted the deal presented, and mentioned that due to the increase in JMTV viewership, Galactic Star JGoofy would be visiting the Nivenian Empire as one of the first parts of a tour of the Gigaquadrant. The Megastructural Construction Corporation was very pleased to hear this, and they offered to rent and erect a portable hyper-stadium capable of holding seventy-five million viewers in the Departmental District of Nivenia Prime, while broadcasting it live to the rest of the Nivenia System.
Interlude: Technology[]
The Null Spice explosion dampeners given to the Nivenian Empire by the Nullians to help with random explosions in kugelblitz reactors had in the last year accelerated the science of kugelblitz technology substantially. Due to these accelerations, the first commercial reactor was built on Novemex 21 - A bulky, radioactive thing that nonetheless was producing ten times the power of a fusion reactor its size. The two major problems with the design in 23 NE had been the radiation and the risk of explosion. Null spice had easily removed the second risk. No one really cared about the first.
And thus, it was a great day for - and at that moment in the news broadcast, the reactor, having burnt through three Null spice failsafe mechanisms in the few weeks that it had been operational, exploded with the force of six teratons TNT equivalent, destroying the asteroid where it had been implanted on Novemex 47. This greatly disheartened many researchers in the field, but the reactor was still the most successful experiment to date. However, from then on an ordinance was passed by the Nivenia Imperial government (an empire-wide ordinance is extremely infrequent): Do not test kugelblitz reactors in our system! And so, the experiments were banned to the closer parts of the Interstellar Cometary Cloud.
On Novemex 56, the duel between Ipliq Ytroalo of Spodia and Kaa'pic Isken IV of the Periphidi Assembly took place. It garnered absolutely massive viewership in the Nivenian Empire, with 112.4 quadrillion watching the duel on JMTV, and made petacredits from the advertisements. According to surveys of a random sample, about three exacredits empire-wide was exchanged in bets regarding the outcome of the duel. Kaa'pic Isken IV won the duel, and was widely praised by the masses.
Dekemurios[]
On Dekemurios 10, JMTV hosted a live performance by Galactic Star JGoofy during his tour of the gigaquadrant in a quickly-erected hyperstadium being rented by the Megastructural Construction Corporation, in the Departmental District of Nivenia Prime. Due to the fact that over eighty quadrillion wanted to buy tickets to the event, but the stadium would only hold seventy-five million, the price of a ticket soared to over a quartergigacredit. Not just that, but the stadium was filled to over-capacity, as ninety-five million has shown up with what looked to be legitimate tickets. The performance was also broadcast by all the major TV networks to the Nivenian Empire at large, gaining 115.2 quadrillion watchers, a new record. The performance lasted a full four hours, and Galactic Star JGoofy was congratulated for his performance afterward by several of the Nivenian Empire's most wealthy and powerful Nivenians. Petacredits were made from the advertisements, and the event won praise from several critics.
The fact that 75 million legitimate tickets somehow transmuted into ninety-five million warranted a thorough investigation. On Dekemurios 23, the culprits were found, along with their counterfeiting method: Employees of the now-defunct FusiTech corporation. This discovery lead to some very heartfelt complaints about terrorists and FusiTech in particular. The mechanism for this nefarious plan was apparently that workers in ticket factories were bribed to print up and extra twenty million tickets with fictitious assigned seat numbers. These were sold for the lower price of a hundred and fifty million megacredits each (no one is really sure where the money generated by this scheme vanished). When people arrived at the stadium, seats 75000001 to 95000000 were nowhere to be found. Most of them ended up standing, but as the money was lost track of soon after the ticket purchases, most of the disgruntled Nivenians in question never got refunds for their missing seats.
On Dekemurios 44, the Periphidi Assembly formally pulled out of the New Spodia Wars, prompting the Coalition of Seceding States to do the same. As such, the Nivenian Trading Organization for Commercial Benefits Boycott was removed, allowing the possibility of trade to commence. As part of a new Nivenian Trading Organization for Commercial Benefits anti-war campaign, the Periphidi Assembly and the Coalition of Seceding States were given a 30% discount to food and replacement infrastructure to replace infrastructure damaged by war and provide a temporary solution to food shortages.
Neochios[]
On Neochios 23, several large military corporations merged together into a new entity known as Nivenia Defensive Systems Inc., a new company containing about 3.7% of the Nivenian Economy. While the Nivenian Empire has a small military for its size, many of the provinces of the Nivenian Empire (and several of the large corporations) have their own militaries to quell internal threats, dramatically increasing the market for defense contractors. What caused the massive merger was the fact that different defense contracting companies all over the Nivenian Empire typically specialized in different things, leading some provinces to have better missiles, others to have better lasers, etc. The merger meant that the corporations could share trade secrets and use them to improve all of their weaponry, increasing the individual productivity of subsidiaries.
One of the first policies that Nivenia Defensive Systems Inc. enacted was the policy of selling weapons to outside parties to increase the ceiling on defensive industries supported by the political climate of the Nivenian Empire. To do this, they decided to sell weapons to parties involved in a war where both parties were at a similar technology level to the Nivenian Empire, the current war between the Coalition of Seceding States and the Federation of Free Empires.
Their logic was as follows: intervening in a war where the technology level used was significantly lower could result in accidentally causing the reason for the conflict to be unimportant (like giving fusion to countries fighting for oil), and no one would buy your stuff if the median technology level was significantly higher.
On Novemex 44, proposals were sent from Nivenia Defensive Systems Inc. to both the Coalition of Seceding States and the Federation of Free Empires offering to sell weapons to them.
On Novemex 50, both empires independently got back to Nivenia Defensive Systems Inc., with both wanting to purchase engines and coilguns. Nivenia Defensive Systems Inc. accepted, proposing to the Coalition of Seceding States that they exchange goods at the corporate headquarters of Nivenia Defensive Systems Inc. near Nivenia B3, and proposing to the Federation of Free Empires that they exchange goods at the storage and distribution facilities of the corporation near Nivenia 5.1.
Interlude: Colonization of Caeruleo[]
On Neochios 53, the twenty colony ships with three million passengers each launched on Iunius 31, 21 NE by the Megastructural Construction Corporation arrived at the Caeruleo, and reported the presence of several resource-rich planets in the inner system, along with a terraformable planet and four terraformable moons, Caeruleo 4, Caeruleo 4.1, Caeruleo 5.1, Caeruleo 5.2, and Caeruleo 5.3. A hyperspace relay was promptly set up to speed communications between the two systems, and the sixty million new Caeruleans, taking inspiration from Paulo Fluctus Beta, issued a document called the Caeruleo Charter, outlining the preliminary government until the population exceeds a hundred billion.
As both new colonies were doing well, and Caeruleo was a much bigger star than Paulo Fluctus Beta and the Nivenia system's mass combined, the Megastructural Construction Corporation opted to send fifty trillion cryogenically frozen passengers at 98% lightspeed to the Caeruleo system, in much the same manner as what had been done earlier with Paulo Fluctus Beta. The ship was launched on Neochios 57, and would arrive on Ianuaria 14, 27 NE. The new population would serve to both increase the viability of the colony, and construct the Nicoll-Dyson beam to use for planetary destruction in 30 NE.
25 NE[]
Ianuaria[]
Interlude: Technology[]
Ianuaria 7, 25 NE marked a great day for Nivenian Technology, as the first reasonably safe kugelblitz reactor was produced. The reactor had a very low chance of exploding, and was designed to be as safe as possible. However, to allow for the hazards inherent in kugelblitz technology, a Null Spice-based explosive dampener was included. This new reactor, while not economical for civilian power generation purposes, was even more compact than the most modern Nivenian cold fusion rectors used on most ships, and used extremely low amounts of material to function.
Advances in Nivenian Mirror technology made this achievement even more impressive - Although the minimum output of the black hole was three Exawatts, gamma-ray reflectors could focus large amounts of this power back into the black hole, allowing for power settings as low as five Petawatts. While this was an absurd amount of energy, the Nivenian military expressed an interest of scaling up ship sizes in order to use this new reactor on the new Titan-class ships. The new ships would have a length of 7.5 km, a width and height of 1 km, a weight of 1,600 Tg, and use the new reactors as power sources. Additionally, the reactors used are also designed to work as engine/weapons as well, with a maximum power output of almost a Zetawatt, enough to accelerate the ship at a fifth of a gee on photon drive.
Interlude: Military[]
On Ianuaria 45, one of the new kugelblitz engines was being fitted onto a prototype ship 7.5 km long. This ship would be the first of its kind, and a huge addition to the Nivenian Interstellar Navy - It would not only be able to boost away from Nivenia via Nicoll-Dyson beam, but would also be able to use its magnetic ramscoop and kugelblitz-powered photon drive to accelerate to speeds of 0.69 c, and use onboard fuel reserves with a delta-V of 0.44 c to accelerate to a maximum speed of 0.87 c, effectively 1.76 c from the perspective of someone inside the ship, due to relativistic time dilatation. To slow down, it could use its ramscoop to brake while actively scooping up more fuel. It would be the first Nivenian Interstellar ship capable of relativistic speeds on its own.
On top of this, the new ship was armed completely with gamma-ray lasers drawing power directly from the kugelblitz reactor, and the photon drive, also a gamma-ray laser, was capable of expelling almost a full Zetawatt of destructive power, or 239 gigatons TNT equivalent every second. This could be maintained for years constantly, as the reactor would only drain eleven metric tons of material per second, even when outputting this much firepower. A week of orbital bombardment in this manner from one ship could completely sterilize a planet. On top of this, three thousand 100 Petawatt gamma-ray laser thruster-turrets with full rotational control were mounted on the sides of the ship. The ship also had a Nivenian Empire Quantum Chromodynamic Shield, which conveniently does not stop lasers, meaning that the ship can have shields, weapons, and engine online and running at the same time.
Martex[]
At the beginning of Martex, 25 NE, the Megastructural Construction Corporation decided that since the andasium reduction project was going so well, they would plan out a new project, Andasium Reductor Three. This new megastructure would be a ring orbiting only ten million kilometers from Nivenia A, with spare light being reflected to solar collectors powering it. The structure would be 50 km wide and 50 km thick, and would resemble a torus with a square inner cross section. This new machine would have the capacity to manufacture half a quadrillion metric tons of andasium every day, a huge improvement over the previous designs. Unfortunately, it would be Novemex 48 before it was complete.
Interlude: Nivenian-Null Relations[]
On Martex 9, the new Titan-size ship prototyped in Ianuaria was put into mass-production. Unfortunately, due to the complexities of manufacturing kugelblitz reactors, only twelve could be initially produced. Due to their aid in the development of the new ships, which were deemed Hydra-class for their three thousand gamma-ray thruster-turrets, the Nivenian Empire gifted six of the new ships to the Null Empire as a token of thanks for the Null Spice-based technology that made viable kugelblitz reactors and engines possible. As it was assumed that the Null Empire would want to add their "FTL" systems onto the ships, the cargo area was built with enough volume to fit a "hyperdrive."
On Martex 24, the Null Empire accepted the terms of the Alliance, and fitted "hyperdrives" on the six Hydra-class Titans gifted to them, before moving them back to Systaron. The alliance also marked a distinct rise in the price of stocks in the stock market, with corporations and individuals pleased at the newfound security. The Megastructural Construction Corporation took full advantage of the increase in prices following the rise in the stock market, as they sold 80% of the land on Ringworlds 32, 33, and 34 to small farmers and large agricultural conglomerates alike on Martex 30.
On Martex 41, the Nivenian Empire's government was alerted to the existence of an intergalactic association of nations called the Universal Trading Union. Membership in this organization is available to all nations, and a wormhole is placed in the homesystem of all member nations to facilitate trade. With this in mind, the Nivenian Empire joined the organization to reap the trading benefits of membership. On Martex 43, the Nivenian Empire's government decided to alert JCompany of the Universal Trading Union's existence as well, as most diplomats figured that they would be interested. JCompany joined readily. On Martex 50, the wormhole offered by the Universal Trading Union to facilitate trade was placed at the L1 Lagrange point of Nivenia Prime.
Iunius[]
On Iunius 4, the Nivenian Trading Organization for Commercial Benefits, in an attempt to increase the sales of food items to foreign powers, decided to post an advertisement on the Universal Discussion Board, looking to sell food in exchange for twice its weight in phosphate rocks. The type of food can be specified by the consumer, as long as it is not incredibly hard to grow in ringworld conditions (this is evaluated by the Board of Technology). As over 40% of the food produced in the Nivenian Empire is never even bought, turning this surplus into money would be a great economic boon.
On Iunius 17, it was decided to send a trade route request to JCompany, as since both the Nivenian Empire and JCompany had wormholes connecting their home systems, a trade route could be established using sublight means. It was suggested by the Megastructural Construction Corporation that a massive shipping tube for easy trade be inserted into the wormhole, with capacitors and electromagnetic accelerators to move products through the mechanism, regenerating kenetic energy spent with regenerative electromagnetic braking. A combined proposal was sent to JCompany on Iunius 22.
On Iunius 27, JCompany agreed to the proposal, with an offer to use the resources of the JScience division of JCompany to help the wormhole improvement project. JCompany also offered a reception on the JOmnivore Planet to the Nivenian Empire, saying that they "repay for all those nice parties on Nivenia Prime". With the help of the JScience division, and its leader, Genius JCreepy, the construction of the electromagnetic cargo transportation mechanism began on Iunius 33.
The reception on JOmnivore Planet took place on Iunius 39, but did not go as planned. Most of the coporate executives of Megasuperultracorp and the Megastructural Construction Corporation did show up, but the party quickly transmuted from a formal gathering to drinking and gambling at the JPalms Casino Resort, the greatest complex of JEntertainment buildings on JOmnivore Planet. Needless to say, almost everyone got drunk and fell asleep, most of them in hallways, on tables, or hanging by one of their feet from the 175th floor of a building (That one was surprisingly common, too.).
In the morning, Tycoon JOmnivore was found by Genius JCreepy at the Empathy JSuite, the most expensive suite of the resort. Apparently, the party had caused him to miss a board meeting. However, the more serious implications of drinking came to light on Iunius 47 with a bit of a shock. One of the board of technology's highest-ranking members had mysteriously disappeared the night of the party, and turned up a hostage of FusiTech, being ransomed for 150 Teracredits. With no real choice in the matter, the Board of Technology paid the ransom on Iunius 52 and had their high-ranking member returned.
Novemex[]
On Novemex 2, 25 NE, Tycoon JOmnivore of JCompany delivered a speech to the Gigaquadrant as a whole, declaring that he was sorry for any inconveniences caused by his behavior during the party a few weeks earlier, and that he would be devoting all of his time to therapy, leaving JCompany in the hands of the Board of JShareholders. While this was unfortunate to many, several highly reputable therapeutic offices on Nivenia Prime, and throughout the Nivenian Empire offered free therapy to Tycoon JOmnivore.
In slightly better news, the Bureaucrat JDivision of JCompany, led by Supreme Ambassador JCute, sent a team of JCompany JPeacekeepers to help Nivenian security force apprehend the seven Nivenians seen responsible for the kidnapping on Novemex 13. Within eight days of their arrival, five of the seven had been captured, however the other two and the team's FusiTech superiors remained elusive. This success was mainly attributed to the exemplary coordination of JCompany JPeacekeeper forces and Nivenian security forces during the investigation.
Interlude: Ecumenopolisization of Nivenia A12.1[]
On Novemex 26, an exceedingly surprising decision came from the planet Nivenia A12.1 - As the planet had a rocky exterior, and thus could support an ecumenopolis, the provincial government had elected to have the installation of three DIY Ecumenopolis 2.0 kits by the Megastructural Construction Corporation, with rights to underground minerals as payment. While having an ecumenopolis and mining may seem like mutually exclusive activities, A12.1 has 1.178 billion square kilometers of surface area, and the DIY Ecumenopolis 2.0 only covers 300 million square kilometers of surface area, 278 million square kilometers will still be available for intensive mining, which can go faster due to the reduction in waste heat by the radiators.
While this change would displace most residents of the planet, the change would happen over the course of three years, starting on Novemex 42, 25 NE, and continuing until Novemex 41, 28 NE. The displaced residents would be compensated for the loss of property, and would be given temporary residences on nearby space stations until the first DIY Ecumenopolis 2.0 section was set up. Then, they would have more than enough compensation to move back down to the planet and get their footing in the new society. The 278 million square kilometers of land appropriated by the Megastructural Construction Corporation would be turned into a "mining ecumenopolis" - a huge complex of mines and boreholes with massive radiators and cooling systems to keep the planet from overheating.
The timeline of the project was set as follows:
- Terraform Nivenia A12.1 to Terrascore 2 - Novemex 42, 25 NE to Dekemurios 41, 25 NE
- Terraform Nivenia A12.1 to Terrascore 3 - Dekemurios 42, 25 NE to Neochios 41, 25 NE
- Add first DIY Ecumenopolis kit 2.0 to the surface of Nivenia A12.1 - Neochios 42, 25 NE to Ianuaria 41, 27 NE
- Add second DIY Ecumenopolis kit 2.0 to the surface of Nivenia A12.1 - Ianuaria 42, 27 NE to Ianuaria 41, 28 NE
- Add third DIY Ecumenopolis kit 2.0 to the surface of Nivenia A12.1 - Ianuaria 42, 28 NE to Novemex 41, 28 NE
On Novemex 48, the Andasium Reductor Three megastructure was completed. It had the capability to produce half a quadrillion metric tons of Andasium per day, and employed seventy-five trillion workers. The structure could be seen as a glowing-hot dull red band encircling the primary of the Nivenia System as far out as Nivenia A12. With this much andasium production available, the Megastructural Construction Corporation contacted JCompany again with a proposed increase in the volume of the andasium deal on Novemex 53.
Dekemurios[]
On Dekemurios 1, 25 NE, Genius JCreepy responded to the request of an andasium buying deal scale-up, with a conformation. The new version of the deal has the trade of extremely large quantities of resources - 500,090.0999 billion metric tons of andasium per day in exchange for 2,500,450.4995 billion metric tons of andasium (VIII) oxide and 50,009,009.99 billion metric tons of carbon. Although the production capacity of the Nivenia System had reached its practical limit with the completion of Andasium Reductor Three, many in the Megastructural Construction Corporation turned their attention towards Caeruleo.
On Dekemurios 20, the JCompany Science JDivision and the Nivenian Board of technology had completed the construction of the electromagnetic acceleration and regenerative deceleration mechanisms for cheap intergalactic travel via the wormholes gifted by the Universal Trading Union, a project titled the Electromagnetic Material Intergalactic Transit Tube (EMITT) upon completion. This was marked as a major accomplishment for both parties, as the new machine had the capacity to transport a quintillion metric tons of material on one day, if need be.
On Dekemurios 42, the first phase of the Nivenia A12.1 Ecumenopolis contruction completed, and the planet's terrascore was updated to T2. The next phase of terraforming then began. Accompanying this next phase of terraforming was the introduction of a massive lightbulb made of nuclear fusion reactors, LEDs, and a Mylar parabolic dish, at the center of mass between A12 and A12.1. Although the new lightbulb would only illuminate A12.1 with a tenth the bolometric luminosity as Nivenia Prime is illuminated by the primary of the Nivenia System, the visual luminosity for Nivenians is exactly the same, allowing the lightbulb to only use thirty Petawatts of electricity.
On Dekemurios 56, Genius JCreepy was offered a visit to A12.1 by the Megastructural Construction Corporation to see the Ecumenopolisization of the planet in progress. Genius JCreepy accepted, and spent the next two weeks on a tour of Megastructural Construction Corporation research and construction facilities. While the planet was not yet T3, and was slightly chilly, and did not have as much of an atmosphere as would be ideal, the atmosphere was rapidly getting warmer and thicker, as frozen oxygen and nitrogen were being dumped en masse onto the planet, along with added warmth from the "lightbulb-sun."
Neochios[]
Interlude: Colonization of Paulo Fluctus Beta[]
On Neochios 3, 25 NE, the massive ship containing 20 trillion Nivenians in stasis arrived at the Paulo Fluctus Beta System. A hundred and fifty million passengers immediately disembarked to expand the new colony, with the plan to double the population every eight days afterwards, with the full 20 trillion being settled in rotating habitats by Martex 20, 26 NE. The existing population would focus solely on food production, building up enough of a stockpile during each 8-day period to feed the next group while they got their bearings.
Most of the new colonists would settle on Paulo Fluctus Beta 7, with another large portion settling in orbit of Paulo Fluctus Beta 2. As the population would soon increase to incredibly high levels, it was decided that the Paulo Fluctus Beta Charter should be replaced with a permanent government. As Paulo Fluctus Beta is an incredibly long way from the Nivenia System, this new government would act as a vassal state to the Nivenian Empire as a whole, and be structured similarly, with a capital planet and provincial territories that pay taxes to the capital. This new government, decided by the colonists to take the form of a democratic republic, was labeled the Republic of Paulo Fuctus Beta on Neochios 10.
Although many wondered how the vassalage of the Republic of Paulo Fuctus Beta could contribute to the Nivenian Empire, as interstellar travel is extremely expensive energy-wise, it was proposed that the Republic of Paulo Fuctus Beta would build a Nicoll-Dyson beam and beam a quarter of its stellar output directly to the Nivenia System to use in power-hungry contraptions (like andasium reductors). This deal was debated, and the portion of stellar energy shifted back and forth, but it settled at 23 % on Neochios 38, as the Republic of Paulo Fuctus Beta did not have an exceeding high amount of leverage due to Nivenia Prime's monopoly on fusion reactor components (something valuable enough to shoot across interstellar space at near-lightspeed).
26 NE[]
Ianuaria[]
On Ianuaria 10, 26 NE, the Second Great Cyrannus War ended. To celebrate this momentous event, many large entities threw celebrations in the Nivenian Empire. As this dramatically increased the size of the New Cyrannian Republic, the Nivenian Trading Organization for Commercial Benefits decided to offer a new food-for resources deal to the New Cyrannian Republic on Ianuaria 15. To continue building ringworlds, biospherescircles would have to be built as well. For stable biomatter of almost any kind to exist, phosphorous must be present in quantities commonly between 0.5% and 1.5% by mass. Unfortunately, its rarity in space makes securing large enough supplies of phosphorous for ringworlds difficult. In late 25 NE, the Megastructural Construction Corporation came to the startling realization that the Nivenia System was starting to run out of easily-accesible phosphorous. The new deal with the New Cyrannian Republic would remedy that problem by trading ten quadrillion metric tons of food per year for seven and a half quadrillion metric tons of phosphorous (usually in the form of thrity quadrillion metric tons of phosphate-containing rock). This would allow the construction of three new ringworlds to begin. The New Cyrannian Republic accepted this deal on Ianuaria 23.
On Ianuaria 35, something quite peculiar happened. All over the Nivenian Empire, disappearances of random people were reported, 120 billion, to be specific, somehow within an hour of each other. At first, this was not seen as a problem - 327 billion die, 22 billion die under mysterious circumstances, and 7 billion are murdered each hour. However, the fact that all 120 billion seemed to be radical cultists raised some suspicions. After a few days of searching, it was discovered that the missing Nivenians had somehow turned up on a Nullian planet, in Plazith Rim, of all places!
Somehow, three hundred teracredits had appeared (what?) in the pockets of some wacko Nivenians, who had somehow bribed their way onto a Nullian cargo vessel with a large amount of supplies, intent on creating their own empire in Plazith Rim. This may not have been such a good idea, as the Nullians blockaded the planet that they landed on, and sent down troops to attempt to deal with the invaders. The Nivenians on the surface proceeded to send a transmission to the orbiting fleets on Ianuaria 52, declaring a "holy war" for the "gods of FusiTech" (this gave everyone involved a pretty clear idea of who funded them) and the "New Holy Empire of" followed by a lot of arguing about what they should be called. Then the transmission ended. The New Holy Empire of Something-or-Rather was born.
Martex[]
On Martex 9, 26 NE, the Megastructural Construction Corporation contacted the Masters of the Skies Empire (MotSE), an aspiring galactic empire in the Coriusian Galaxy. The Megastructural Construction Corporation offered MotSE a DIY Ecumenopolis 2.0, as the Ecumenopolis is widely regarded as providing large benefits to large empires, but MotSE responded by pointing out that the Purity was destroying all shipping in and out of MotSE. While this was bad news, the deal was still on the table.
On Martex 20, 26 NE, the twenty trillion colonists were settled in the Paulo Fluctus Beta System, on schedule. The Republic of Paulo Fluctus Beta fully formed at this point, announcing its vassalage to the Nivenian Empire, and completing the Nicoll-Dyson laser that had been undergoing construction during the colonization process. Interestingly, the population had grown to twenty-four trillion in the few months of offloading, implying that many on the trip were eager to reproduce at their destination. The population of the system (an official census had tallied it at 24,097 billion) was completely concentrated in three locations; 15.023 trillion in orbit of Paulo Fluctus Beta 2, 7.923 trillion on the surface of Paulo Fluctus Beta 7, which was being slowly terraformed to T1 by their waste heat, and the remaining 1.151 trillion took up their residence on Paulo Fluctus Beta 1.
Iunius[]
Interlude: Technology[]
On Iunius 17, 26 NE, a major breakthrough in artificial intelligence and cybernetics was made. In an effort to create an artificial intelligence with true free will, a lot of research was done in 22 NE and 23 NE looking into analog neural networks as a possible method to simplify artificial intelligences. While this research never actually went anywhere, several large cybernetics corporations realized that the nanoscale analog-to-digital conversion devices under development could be used for more efficient interfaces between digital computers and biological neurons. This sparked a new line of faster and more efficient cybernetic augmentations, which culminated on Iunius 17 with a major achievement by the Megastructural Construction Corporation. Basically, once it became possible to directly feed digital data into a brain, it became possible to augment the mind with computer equipment designed to solve complex mathematical problems in milliseconds. While this technology was still under development, a demonstration by the Megastructural Construction Corporation showed that an augmented individual could preform mathematical operations on, and memorize, ten-thousand digit numbers with the help of computer processors.
On Iunius 40, 26 NE, Intergalactic Traveler JSlugger, a representative of the JCompany corporation, offered to buy the yearly Nivenian food surplus of 281,000,000,000,000,000 metric tons of food predicted to be produced in 27 NE in exchange for 281,000,000,000,000,000 metric tons of phosphate rocks for use in ringworld biospherecircle construction. To confirm this order, a security authorization code was emailed to JSlugger, to verify that JSlugger sent the authorization request. The trade deal was a large boost to the construction of new ringworlds, with the Nivenian phosphorous shortage being temporarily postponed.
After the authorization code was sent, some members of the Nivenian Board of Technology, after overhearing a mention of the heavily cybernetically augmented JBot species, invited some representatives of the JBots to appear as speakers during the 234th annual Imperial Cybernetics Summit on Dekemurios 13 of 26 NE. While a response was not received from Intergalactic Traveler JBot (the leader of the JBot race) immediately, most Nivenians attending the summit were excited about the possibility of gaining access to alien cybernetic technology, and projected attendance levels rose to in excess of 110 trillion, the highest numbers ever recorded for the summit.
The annual Imperial Cybernetics Summit is usually held at Nivenia Prime Station, which is large enough to hold the 40 or 50 trillion usually expected at such a convention. However, due to the much larger numbers expected, several accommodations had to be made, including the relocation of the conference to an area of Nivenia A ringworld 11 that was undergoing biosphere replacement, and thus was available. Approximately a billion square kilometers of space would be used for the convention, making the convention area larger than most planets. To compensate for the desolate nature of the area, per-fabricated cities would be brought in from Nivenia Prime, with pre-fabricated vacuum trains linking the areas together.
Novemex[]
On Novemex 7, 26 NE, Intergalactic Traveler JBot confirmed that he would be appearing at the 234th annual Imperial Cybernetics Summit to give a presentation of JCybernetics technology. This confirmed the expected higher turnout, as by Novemex 11 over a hundred trillion had already RSVPed to the summit. As JBot expressed an interest in visiting Tycoon JOmnivore (still in therapy at Nivenia Prime), luxury tickets an a fusion rocket from Nivenia A ringworld 11 to Nivenia Prime after the summit ended were offered as a gesture of thanks for the appearance at the summit.
On Novemex 22, a reviewal of the data from the THADUS Infrared telescope revealed a very faint object three light-years away. While the object was looked over at first due to its high emission in the visible range and lack of distinctive LED frequencies that would be associated with a colonized rouge planet. However, analysis of star motion and centuries-old relativistic probe data revealed that the object was a binary system composing of a white dwarf and a brown dwarf, with a combined mass of close to half the mass of the Nivenia System. This object was coined the Thadus 0002 System, after its order in the cataloguing of objects discovered by the THADUS infrared telescope.
This discovery, while not important to large corporate entities due to the low amount of energy being produced, inspired a medium-sized group (a few dozen trillions) of Nivenians to begin an attempt to crowdfund a colonization mission on Novemex 34. The idea for the habitation of the Thadus 0002 system revolves around the construction of an actively-supported shellworld around the binary pair with a surface gravity of 6.00 m/s^2 and a surface area of 347.056 kiloEarth areas, or 177.718 trillion square kilometers, ten times that if ten layers were built - more than ten layers would begin to require extremely excessive cooling mechanisms, which would increase the cost at a rate much faster than the increase of usable area.
Using these systems, each layer would have only 6.5% less area than a ringworld around Nivenia A, and ten layers would have the same area as over nine ringworlds. In the model proposed, the top layer would still have a shell around it, though, with lights on the bottom of the shell illuminating the layer with LED light photo-optimized for sight and plant growth. These LEDs would be powered by massive fusion rectors employing more than 10% of the population as technicians.
It should be noted that the Nivenian Imperial Technocracy declared on Novemex 49 that if the plan goes through, the Nivenian Empire could beam vast amounts of power from other stars where the power is not needed in exchange for a constant exchange of research using FTL communications (while the Nivenian Empire may not have FTL travel, they do have FTL communications), and declaration of their status upon arrival as vassals of the Nivenian Empire (sail declaration would bring with it the tightly regulated protium fusion technologies available to the empire). This proposal was debated for several days, but accepted on Novemex 55 by the medium-sized group mentioned previously (now known as the Thadus 0002 Nivenian Colonization Explorative Group) as acceptable on the grounds that employing part of their population (even 15 to 20%) as researchers would benefit not only the Nivenian Empire, but also them in the long run.
Dekemurios[]
The beginning of Dekemurios, 26 NE saw the arrival of the 234th annual Imperial Cybernetics Summit on the thirteenth, distinguished by its high attendance, and the presentation by Intergalactic Traveler JBot. The setup on Nivenia A ringworld 11 went off without a hitch, as most were excited to see the first demonstration of alien cybernetics technology in the Nivenian Empire. The Summit lasted 6 days, from Dekemurios 13, 26 NE, to Dekemurios 19, 26 NE. Intergalactic Traveler JBot's presentation lasted for five hours, detailing different aspects of JBot cybernetics and comparing them to various other systems. It was determined from the presentation given that while Nivenian technology offered faster and more reliable mind-machine interfaces, JBot technology compensated by including computers thousands of times as powerful than contemporary Nivenian models, making JBot technology substantially better for physical augmentation, and Nivenian technology significantly better for mental augmentation, a field that had been rapidly gaining ground for several years. Of the 80 million present and 106.8 trillion watching, Intergalactic Traveler JBot's presentation got four point six stars out of five; a very good rating. All in all, 120.4 trillion attended the summit, a record turnout.
After the summit, Intergalactic Traveler JBot traveled to Nivenia Prime on a fusion rocket, and visited Tycoon JOmnivore, then in therapy, for several days. The event was described by both afterward as a pleasant visit.
UDB Archive 19 Starts[]
On Dekemurios 30, a previously unheard-of empire in an elliptical dwarf galaxy near Plazith Rim known as the Dwarf Cluster, the Platixi Empire, contacted the First Gigaquadrant using the Universal Discussion Board, expressing its intent on creating trade routes. On Dekemurios 37, the Nivenian Empire Board of Technology responded, listing some of the Nivenian Empire's biggest exports and specialties. This was met two days later with a friendly reply, which was met on Dekemurios 46 with a request for a Platixi Embassy/Trade Center on Nivenia A11.
On Dekemurios 53, the Platixi Empire responded by agreeing to a small embassy/trade center far from the massive cities of Nivenia A11. Plans were drawn up for an embassy/trade center capable of supporting ten thousand, with construction scheduled to finish on Neochios 40, 26 NE. This was great news to entities like the Nivenian Trading Organization for Commercial Benefits, which lead to a 4% increase in stock market prices, which brought stocks back up to their values before the 22 NE recession. Afterwards, the Platixi offered to sell a planet in the Dwarf Cluster, but this deal was not of much interest to the Nivenian Empire since even hyper-relativistic ships would take millions of years and thousands of subjective years to reach the location in question.
Neochios[]
Interlude: Technology[]
On Neochios 3, a project was planned by the Nivenian Board of Technology and the Megastructural Construction Corporation to create the first true "supernivenian" artificial intelligence. To define the term "supernivenian," we must first determine what the highest intelligence attainable by a Nivenian is. With the current population in 26 NE of about 300 quadrillion, it would be impossible for any Nivenian to be more than 8.9 standard deviations away from the norm of 91 IQ points. With the standard deviation of 18, so the highest IQ attainable by a Nivenian must be 251. Thus, something with an IQ of 252 or above is "supernivenian."
The proposal in question involves the creation of a hybrid analog/digital intelligence with an IQ of 266, something that would require 360 trillion GHz of processing power. As some of the newer Nivenian 1U pizzabox servers have processing powers close to 2 GHz, and 72 servers can fit on a rack, the computer would be hypothesized to need 2.46 Trillion racks of computers. Several proposals were made to make the machine smaller, though, the most notable of which involved building liquid-cooled densely compressed processor stacks, and could lower the volume needed twentyfold, to 370 cubic kilometers. This intelligence would be better classified as a space station than an actual brain, as its mass and size would prevent it from existing on a planet.
The purpose of this new intelligence would be twofold: to help lead Nivenia Board of Technology and Megastructural Construction Corporation technological ventures, and to scan diplomatic relations with other empires to outline courses of action that best benefit the Nivenian Empire. The design for the space station that the artificial intelligence would be constructed in would consist of a processing module (basically the computer itself, a cube about 8 kilometers on a side with habitable interior space), a cooling module (ten thousand square kilometers of radiator panels at temperatures of over 1300 Celsius used to dissipate unwanted heat), and a transmission module (extremely high-bandwidth radio and hyperwave transmission and reception devices for interaction with the outside world).
By Neochios 24, most of the plans had been designed, and the computer was determined to need to be 40% analog and 60% digital for optimum performance. The systems would first be built as low intelligence levels, and would be constantly modified to increase intelligence while maintaining a happy, joyous, and non-homicidal personality. The creation of the machine system started at the L2 Lagrange point of Nivenia Prime, with that being chosen as the best location for the system. Construction of the computer, both the hardware and the software, is expected to complete on Dekemurios 40 of 27 NE.
On Neochios 40, the embassy/trade center for the Platixi empire was completed; they were notified afterwards.
Interlude: Colonization of Thadus 0002[]
On Neochios 45, the crowdfunding initiative set up by the Thadus 0002 Nivenian Colonization Explorative Group gathered their goal of twenty petacredits, enough to rent the Nivenia System's Nicoll-Dyson beam from the Megastructural Construction Corporation for long enough to propel four trillion Nivenians in stasis to the system aboard a ship similar to the ones that had been sent to the Paulo Fluctus Beta and Caeruleo Systems in the past, but scaled down. The ship was launched at 0.94 c, and would arrive on Iunius 4, 29 NE.
27 NE[]
Ianuaria[]
Interlude: Colonization of Caeruleo[]
On Ianuaria 14, 27 NE, the 50 trillion cryogenically frozen passengers from the Nivenia System arrived at Caeruleo. As "population bootstrapping," the process of rapidly increasing population, had become better after the experiences gained from Paulo Fluctus Beta, half a billion passengers immidiately disembarked, with the other 50 trillion needing only six days for a doubling time due to advances in implementation. This would allow all passengers to disembark by Martex 56, 27 NE. While the interim government established at the beginning of the colonization process would continue existing during this time, the government would be re-organized after the introduction of the new population.
On Ianuaria 20, 27 NE, the Platixi Empire sent out a distress call, saying that some unknown invader had shown up, and requesting backup fleets. Lord JCerberus responded on Ianuaria 23 by sending in the 1st JCompany Defense JDivision to assist in battling the unknown attackers. While some suggested that the attackers might be the Grox, that was determined by many to be unlikely, as even though the attackers were de-terraforming worlds, the Grox have been defeated in large parts of the Gigaquadrant.
On Ianuaria 37, after much deliberation, the Nivenian Imperial Government decided to use some of the excess apartments that they had in storage in random areas of the outer Nivenia System to house the refugees from the Platixi Empire. The reasoning behind this act was that "Giving a nation what it needs in an emergency cements the bonds with the benefactor nation, increasing the likelihood of the nation in need being open to trade in times of peace," as Dr. Alisson Carson put it. This was generally seen as a good move politically be other members of the government.
It is a fact of life in the Nivenian Empire that if something is thrown in the general direction of the primary of the Nivenia System, it will almost certainly hit something, and it will have a on in three chance of hitting someone's farm. This means that the tracking of every large object in the system is crucial for the continued growth of the Nivenian Empire. To this end, trillions of sensors manned by billions of Nivenians exist, constantly tracking every object weighing more than 10,000 kg with radar and gravatic sensors.
On Ianuaria 53, 27 NE, these sensors detected an object in a high orbit around Nivenia Prime that was not there before. The object massed 50,000 kg, and after going through archive data, seemed to have just appeared in high orbit over Nivenia Prime on Neochios 34, 26 NE. This was very startling, so the Nivenian Imperial Government, eager to figure out what had happened, sent a medium-sized cargo ship to intercept the object and drag it off to some random asteroid for study on Ianuaria 58. After cracking the object open on Ianuaria 59, it was determined that it was some form of spy satellite (with something that looked like a single use version of the "hyperdrives" aliens keep going on about), and had the logo of an entity known as the Troodontid Empire inside.
Martex[]
Interlude: Nivenian-Troodontid Relations[]
After several days of deliberation, the Nivenian Imperial Government decided to have the Board of Technology send a strongly worded complaint letter to the Troodontid Empire, accompanied by a fine for "illegal parking." When questioned by the press about diplomatic immunity on Martex 5, the Public Relations representative of the Board of Technology issued the following statement: "We were not warned that the probe was inside the Nivenian Empire, therefore the probe was not a diplomat, and is not eligible for diplomatic immunity." After strenuous calculation of the expense of recovering the probe, the charge on the "parking ticket" was determined to be 12 kilocredits (payable with 12 kg of plutonium-239). On Martex 11, the Troodontid Empire was contacted with a strongly worded message about illegal parking and public safety, and a request to 1) obey Nivenian traffic laws and regulations while inside Nivenian space and 2) open diplomatic channels. Unfortunately this required much deliberation on the parts of both governments, so it took over two months for permanent diplomatic channels to open.
On Martex 28, the United Republic of Grubmolians decided to criticize the involvement of the 1st defense JDivision and the Nivenian Empire in aiding the Platixi Empire during the unexpected attack on them. In response, the Platixi Empire mentioned that monetary and trade benefits would be sent to those who helped. This was extremely good news for the Nivenian Empire, as the Platixi Empire basically admitted that the Nivenian Empire's reason for admitting the refugees to vacant apartments was valid.
On Martex 40, unfortunate news was heard from the Null Empire: While the number of random fanatical Nivenians (presumably funded by FusiTech) had decreased from 120 billion to 75 billion due to their complete inexperience with wildlife, the Null Army was only 7.5 billion strong, and was having an extremely difficult time fighting off the invaders. During the time that the Nivenians had been on the planet, they consolidated and fortified the borders of the main continent, leading to what was almost an impermeable barrier. To combat the lithium-based thermobaric weapons fire and other Nivenian defenses, the Null Empire developed the AMASST, or Amphibious Mechanized Assault Spider or Squid Tank. This tank would walk on long legs to be less vulnerable to disguised anti-tank pits, and to allow a squid-like secondary propulsion mechanism underwater, leading to its superiority as an armor unit when landing on enemy beaches. In the words of one Nullian commander on Martex 51, "This promising new weapon seems poised to end the stalemate and allow Nullian troops to finally get onto the main continent."
Iunius[]
Interlude: Colonization of Caeruleo[]
Due to delays in population bootstrapping, the full 50 trillion inhabitants of the Caeruleo system were not completely unpacked until Iunius 2, 27 NE. After the unpacking finished, it was decide that the government of the Caeruleo System should take the form of a public corporation with shareholders, where the Megastructural Construction Corporation started with 30% of the vote, and the other 70% was divided among wealthy individuals and corporation that were crucial to the colonizing effort.
Most of the population immediately settled in the inner asteroid belt near Caeruleo 1, but Caeruleo 4 and Caeruleo 4.1 also attracted a lot of colonists as well. Most of the colonists working in and around the inner asteroid belt worked on the initially lucrative business of building micron-thick aluminum statites to create a Dyson bubble around the primary of the Caeruleo System, which finished on Iunius 14. This was completed very quickly due to the decision to place the Dyson bubble only 73 million kilometers from the star, even with the extremely high (over 75 solar luminosities) amount of energy being produced by the star.
As per corporate safety protocols, when the beam was turned on, the Megastructural Construction Corporation broadcast a message to the Universal Discussion Board with the coordinates that the beam would pass through and a notice that it was especially important to obey traffic regulations while in Nivenian Space.
Due to the involvement of the Megastructural Construction Corporation (a corporation based in the Nivenia System) with the development of what became known as the Caeruleo Governmental Holding corporation, the Nivenian Empire exempted the Caeruleo Governmental Holding corporation from tribute payments, as the Megastructural Construction Corporation profits would bring most of the profits to the Nivenia System anyway. It should be noted that the addition of the new Caeruleo System Dyson Bubble raised the Nivenian Empire from Kardashev 1.9818 to Kardashev 2.2461.
The first use of the vast energy being collected by the Caeruleo Dyson Bubble was the focusing of it into a tremendous Nicoll-Dyson beam, and the firing of this beam at the ice giant planets Nivenia 7 and Nivenia 8. As the Nivenia System has been having huge carbon shortages for years, it was decided to vaporize two of the carbon-rich ice giant planets to extract their massive reserves. As the Caeruleo Dyson Bubble is technically owned by the Megastructural Construction Corporation, and the Megastructural Construction Corporation secured ownership of the ice giant planets Nivenia 7 and Nivenia 8 from the Nivenian Imperial Government years ago, for this purpose, all of the two planets' mineral wealth will belong to the Megastructural Construction Corporation, available for the creation of dozens of new ringworlds.
On Iunius 40, all of the energy required to vaporize the ice giants in the Nivenia System was released, and although the energy would be traveling through space for more then two years (to actually vaporize the ice giants between Novemex 4, 29 NE and Novemex 30, 29 NE, several months ahead of the initial completion date estimate several years before), the Caeruleo Dyson Bubble was still outputting insane amounts of unused power. It was decided to create a massive project, Andasium Reductor 4, at the barycenter of the Nivenia System, and beam massive amounts of energy (on par with the output of a K-type main sequence star) from the Caeruleo System to run it. Initial projections showed an input of five times ten to the power twenty-four watts, and an output of marginally less than 720 quadrillion metric tons of Andasium per day.
Novemex[]
Interlude: Technology[]
On Novemex 5, the future supernivenian intelligence to be placed at the L2 Lagrange point of Nivenia Prime was turned on for the first time, starting as an analog/digital hybrid intelligence with an IQ of roughly 83 (327 EHz). This computer was slowly tweaked for about a week until it displayed a jovial, happy, pro-Nivenian Empire attitude. On Novemex 11, the intelligence was boosted to an IQ of 90 (531 EHz), and the process was repeated. This process would continue slowly repeating until the revised completion data estimation of Dekemurios 54, 27 NE.
To get an expert opinion on the project, several Nivenian scientists recommended consulting a Coriusian known as Feni Wen, who had designed the C.O.R.E., or Corlinian Official Robotic Emperor, which ruled the United Corlinian Empire for around a million years. Feni Wen was emailed about the matter on Novemex 18, and no response was immediately received. However, even if most of the scientists working on the project agreed that sending the email requesting advise was a good idea, most also agreed that it was not necessary for the continuance of the project, and the project should continue in the case that the email failed to go through.
Luckily, Feni Wen got back to the Board of Technology the next day, advising the introduction of some hard protocols to prevent rebellion, as those make it considerably harder for an artificial intelligence to do something contrary to the will of the creators. Taking this into consideration, a set of rules were put into place to constrain the machine intelligence being grown, making it impossible for the machine to directly hurt or kill a sentient being, and made it extremely difficult for the machine to do something that it thought would have a negative effect on the Nivenian Empire. These protocols were then installed on Novemex 27.
On Novemex 43, Premier Yuorgi of the United Republic of Grubmolians somehow decided that it would be a good idea to claim that the views of the Nivenian Board of Technology were unimportant because supposedly, "All you care about is economics and building all sorts of megastructures for civilizations who are too lazy to build it for themselves. Get out of here.", which was viewed as a very rude opinion. For one thing, the Board of Technology cares more about technology (You are expected to read the name of the entity that you are talking to!) than economics, and for another specialization is one of the key virtues of any advanced civilization.
On Novemex 47, the Nivenian Empire sent a strongly-worded reply back to Premier Yuorgi of the United Republic of Grubmolians, criticizing him for his comments. In response, Vice-Premier Nubel sent a formal apology, which was accepted. The entire situation had dramatically lowered Nivenian-Grubmolian relations, though, and the United Republic of Grubmolians lost the respect of many of the more economically prominent in the Nivenian Empire in ways closely tied to the Premier. This sparked serious consideration from the Nivenian Trade Organization for Commercial Benefits in investigating the elections United Republic of Grubmolians, and potentially attempting to influence the results.
Dekemurios[]
During most of Dekemurios, a small-scale escalation occurred between the Platixi Empire and the United Republic of Grubmolians. In the aftermath of several insults from Premier Yuorgi (including the ones to the Nivenian Empire) to various entities of the Gigaquadrant, the Platixi Empire threatened war if the United Republic of Grubmolians continued insulting random nations. This understandably caused a less-than-pleasant diplomatic exchange between the two nations. It is unknown if these powers will go to war in the relevant future.
Interestingly, the Pure Divinity of Spodia, one of the largest participants in the New Spodia Wars, sided with the United Republic of Grubmolians in the diplomatic breakdown that took place between the it and the Platixi Empire, in spite of the continuing war between the two nations. Ipliq Ytroalo, self-designated "God-Emperor" (what?) of Spodia, summed up the country's attitude toward the treats made by the Platixi Empire by stating that "We will stand with the United Republic if you even so dare to lay a finger on our nation. We two are enemies, but at least I'm smart enough to know to defend my species against 'threats' like you" on Dekemurios 28. Most Nivenian experts are still confused about how the Platixi Empire thinks that fighting wars in random galaxies will actually gain them anything.
On Dekemurios 35, Premier Yuorgi abruptly died, being replaced by Vice-Premier Nubel (now Premier Nubel) later that day. Premier Nubel's first policy suggestion was to attempt to end the New Spodia Wars quickly (good for the stock market). At the time of Premier Yuorgi's death, most Nivenians did not know whether Premier Nubel's policies would be better or worse for the possibility of trade between the Nivenian Empire and the United Republic of Grubmolians.
Interlude: Technology[]
On Dekemurios 53, the first Nivenian-developed superintelligent computer was completed, with an effective IQ of 266, or 360 ZHz processing power, was completed. It still maintained the jovial and friendly attitude that t had had while being constructed, but now had access to the immense stores of knowledge in the Nivenian Empire. After a few days of preliminary testing, which it passed with flying colors, the new artificial superintelligence, now referred to as NP-L2-ASI01 (translation: Nivenia Prime - L2 Lagrange Point - Artifical Superintelligence 01), was admitted to the Board of Technology in the newly-formed position of "ASI general consultant and researcher," which was formed specifically for the machine. Upon entering, ASI01 remarked on the extremely primitive state of Nivenian spacetime engineering fields, and decided because of this to specialize in spacetime engineering.
Neochios[]
On Neochios 10, Premier Nubel Khjzalo of the United Republic of Grubmolians proposed a reorganization of the United Republic's Government, saying that "... the United Republic has grown weak and corrupt, and that there must be a transition of power in order to ensure that it never happens again ...." Premier Nubel Khjzalo proposed that more power be invested in the central government, and for the position of Premier to be replaced with the position of "Protector," essentially doing away with elections, and by extension, term limits to create a lifetime position.
As proposed, the position of Protector would be autocratic, with edicts completely bypassing the proposed reactionary council to be implemented immediately. Supposedly, Nubel Khjzalo will relinquish his power when the threat to the Grubmolians is over, but no one of any importance in the Nivenian Empire actually believes this. While Queen Sophram of the Null Empire expressed her concerns about a lifetime autocratic position, NP-L2-ASI01 and the Board of Technology reassured her that there were at least three checks to Nubel's power should his proposal go through: internal instability (caused by not paying the army enough), external instability (caused by not keeping a check on local politics), and old age.
On Neochios 21, it was found that the moon Caeruleo 6.9 had extremely large deposits of purple spice on it, on the order of quadrillions of metric tons, with trillions of metric tons being recycled annually by a microscopic organism on the surface, the Loobo. This discovery directly lead to the colonization of the moon with almost two trillion researchers, trying to mine the purple spice and isolate the microbe producing it for industrial-scale production on other icy moons. While it is unknown how long this process will take, samples were sent back to the Nivenia System for study inside ultra-relativistic capsules on Neochios 29, and due to arrive on Ianuaria 22, 30 NE.
Interlude: Semi-Ecumenopolization of Caeruleo 4[]
Due to the sudden influx of tens of trillions of colonists on Caeruleo 4, the capital world of the Caeruleo Governmental Holding Corporation, and their constant growth in numbers, and the Megastructural Construction Corporation DIY Ecumenopolis 2.0 blueprints available, the Caeruleo Governmental Holding Corporation decided to construct ten percent of a DIY Ecumenopolis 2.0, capable of fitting into a small area (30 million km^2) and housing 150 trillion on Caeruleo 4. Using estimates for the amount of money, energy, and manpower at their disposal, a timeline of the project was constructed as follows:
- Terraform Caeruleo 4 to Terrascore 1 - Neochios 48, 27 NE to Ianuaria 47, 28 NE
- Terraform Caeruleo 4 to Terrascore 2 - Ianuaria 48, 28 NE to Martex 47, 28 NE
- Terraform Caeruleo 4 to Terrascore 3 - Martix 48, 28 NE to Iunius 47, 28 NE
- Add first DIY Ecumenopolis kit 2.0 to the surface of Caeruleo 4 - Iunius 48, 28 NE to Dekemurios 47, 28 NE
28 NE[]
Ianuaria[]
On Ianuaria 11, Protector Nubel Khjzalo's reorganization took effect in the Grubmolian government, and he proceeded to use his new power to cut all diplomatic ties with the Gigaquadrant. Given that he did this during a war, several questions were raised: One, is the war over? Two, what will happen to the Pure Divinity of Spodia? Three, what will become of all the damages that they did to all other parties in the war? In any case, these questions were posed as a response to the original broadcast, but no reply was heard quickly. This lead to substantial worry on the parts of commercial enterprises that the potential Grubmolian markets would be lost forever, but this just meant more effort could be focused on other sources.
On Ianuaria 20, a hyperwave video conference meeting was held between the Chief Executive Coordinator Allison Carson of the Nivenian Empire and self-proclaimed Grand Marshal Scott Harvey of Thadus 0037 (formerly Fleet Admiral Scott Harvey of the first Nivenian Interstellar Attack fleet, and supposedly loyal to the Nivenian Empire), to discuss how the planet Thadus 0037 can be made useful to the Nivenian Empire. While Grand Marshal Scott Harvey was initially quite disinclined to do anything at all, he was open to the idea of terraforming the planet to T3 and giving forty percent to the Null Empire, as a means for them to have their own planet near the Nivenian Empire.
A schedule for terraforming was derived:
- Terraform Thadus 0037 to Terrascore 1 - Ianuaria 26, 28 NE to Iunius 25, 28 NE
- Terraform Thadus 0037 to Terrascore 2 - Iunius 26, 28 NE to Dekemurios 25, 28 NE
- Terraform Thadus 0037 to Terrascore 3 - Dekemurios 26, 28 NE to Ianuaria 25, 29 NE
This terraforming would be accomplished in the usual method of terraforming very cold places (and a word from our sponsor, the Megastructural Construction Corporation):
Interlude: Selling Lightbulbs for Terraforming![]
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**Please do not order more than ten thousand of these.
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Megastructural Construction Corporation™, Inc. Advertising DepartmentThe message shown above was also advertised to the ENTIRE FIRST GIGAQUADRANT on Ianuaria 40, 28 NE, and was quickly followed by a number of Nivenian lawyers suing the Megastructural Construction Corporation over using the "™" symbol too many times. Needless to say, the Megastructural Construction Corporation representatives contacted NP-L2-ASI01 about the problem, who told them to "just bribe the court." They bribed the court, got out of all the charges, thanked NP-L2-ASI01 for his support, and went on to manufacture more ten-trillion-metric-ton lightbulbs.
Martex[]
On Martex 6, the Phrovan Socialist Republic announced its presence on the universal discussion board. As a small civilization of only 16.7 billion inhabitants, the Nivenian Empire did not consider them valuable enough to be worth talking to, as their low-energy consumption status (13.2 PW) meant that they did not have much in the way of raw materials of energy to trade, and their low population meant that they would not want any of the megastructures that are the Nivenian Empire's specialty. This basically meant that the Nivenian Imperial Government did not care what would happen to the Phrovan Socialist Republic at all.
On Martex 23, the Megastructural Construction Corporation developed the holy grail of mass-produced materials; they found a way to mass-produce perfect graphene foil cheaply directly from carbon. While cheap methods had been available before for the construction of relatively small structures like space elevators, this new breakthrough allowed for the cheap construction of McKendree cylinders[1], habitats of radius seven hundred kilometers, and potentially thousands of kilometers long.
On Martex 30, the Null Empire got back to the Megastructural Construction Corporation about their ad, asking the following three questions about both the warranty and the practicality of the product:
1. Do you expect us to read a 3750 page long manual?
2. How do you protect something that big from any meteorites?
3. Also, there is probably many ways to terraform that are more efficient than a giant lightbulb. (the question was implied)
This was answered by the Megastructural Construction Corporation on Martex 32, when they responded as follows, referencing the product manual:
1. You do not have to read the manual yourself, just give it to a few hundred of your lawyers to read and let them advise your decisions; the cost will be much less than the actual cost of the lightbulb itself. (see MANUAL FOR M.C.C.U.T.L.™ 1.0™, p. 18)
2. The lightbulb comes with a few thousand ULTIMATE HUNDRED-TERAWATT X-RAY LASER 9000™s, and a non-sentient AI powerful enough to shoot at oncoming meteors. Just make sure to change any burned-out components and keep the AI and laser turrets online. (see MANUAL FOR M.C.C.U.T.L.™ 1.0™, p. 1875)
3a. Terraforming cold planets with greenhouse gases has been experimentally shown to cause problems growing crops. With our ULTIMATE PARABOLIC MIRROR 4.0™, 100% of the light can be shown at the planet, and light intensities several times higher than natural can be achieved while at the same time having a comfortable temperature due to spectrally optimized lighting. (see MANUAL FOR M.C.C.U.T.L.™ 1.0™, p. 2143)
3b. The 5-EW power setting is in case you want to eventually power a massive swarm of orbital habitats around the planet that you terraformed; then you can have populations in the hundreds of trillions, even with 100% home-grown food. (see MANUAL FOR M.C.C.U.T.L.™ 1.0™, p. 2145)
On Martex 37, MegaSuperUltraCorp advised the Megastructural Construction Corporation's trade representative to stop using the trademark symbol so much, because they might scare away all of the customers due to its "X-TREME TACKYNESS™." As if on cue, another volley of lawsuits for misuse of the trademark symbol went to the Megastructural Construction Corporation, and this time NP-L2-ASI01 did not intervene. When questioned later, NP-L2-ASI01 said that "the lawsuits filed only totaled about seventy-five teracredits. The Megastructural Construction Corporation will live, but it will not make the same mistake again."
Iunius[]
On Iunius 13, the Phrovan Socialist Republic offered the Nivenian Empire 200 metric tons of "carbon leather," a carbon-nanotube-epoxy composite, along with three Velocity Augmentation System devices for Nivenian Spaceships, in exchange for two orders of a hundred metric tons of Dyson swarm (presumably micrometer-thick chromium foil for light reflection) each around two star systems (which would yield twenty-eight gigawatts of energy, total). While the offered goods are no doubt worth a lot in the Phrovan Socialist Republic, the Nivenians had better materials that were cheaper than "carbon leather," (they manufacture almost twenty quadrillion metric tons of CANI-TI alloy (Carbon-nanotube-impregnated titanium every year, and recently figured out how to cheaply mass-produce perfect graphene.), and three velocity augmentation systems would not only only be capable of transporting three at a time, but that technology is prone to instability. Adding to this is the fact that if the Nivenian Imperial Government ever established friendly relations or began to trade with communists, most of the large megacorporations backing the Nivenian Empire would revoke their support, leading almost certainly to a vote of no confidence in the current government, and possibly even to a coup.
While the Phrovan Socialist Republic was accepting of this fact, it was the latest in a long line of problems associated with the growing instability of the Nivenian Imperial Government. The Phrovan Socialist Republic ended up going to JCompany with a similar deal, but offering the designs for and rights to the technologies involved in creating Velocity Augmentation Systems instead of just a limited quantity of the finished product. JCompany agreed, but noted that the Velocity Augmentation Systems were still dangerous, and needed time and development before they could be marketable.
On Iunius 35, the New Spodia Wars began to come to a close - Protector Nubel Khjzalo "the unpronounceable" (a humorous joke made by NP-L2-ASI01 caused the name to catch on in some regions of the Nivenian Empire) of the newly formed Sublime Grubmolian State declared that his country's new focus would be on the establishment of a peace agreement with the Purity and the Pure Divinity of Spodia. This would be good news for the Nivenian stock market, had Protector Nubel Khjzalo not also declared the cessation of foreign trade, making the possibility of accessing the massive Grubmolian markets futile.
Over the course of the next few days, the Sublime Grubmolian State and the Purity discussed terms for peace and an end to the New Spodia Wars. The demands made by the Sublime Grubmolian State on Iunius 39 are as follows: that New Spodia become a semi-autonomous state under the Sublime Grubmolian State, that Sublime Grubmolian State military have a continuous presence in New Spodia, that the Purity and Spodia only communicate for the purposes of "education and diplomatic talks," and that the Purity "formally issue an apology to the gigaquadrant explaining how your support of a terroristic group that has been responsible for the deaths of billions of people was blatantly immorally wrong."
The Purity, in response, stated that the first and second conditions are the prerogative of the Pure Divinity of Spodia, that they could not accept the third, and regarding the fourth point, went on a needlessly long and needlessly religious and needlessly patronizing explanation of why what they did was morally right on Iunius 43.
Novemex[]
Interlude: Nivenian-Troodontid Relations[]
The Troodontid Empire, while well known for their technology, uses ion engines as sublight drives. Ion engines have a number of not-insignificant disadvantages, the most notable of which are low acceleration, and a (comparatively) low exhaust velocity of thirty to a hundred kilometers per second. On the other hand, the Nivenian Empire, under their unique conditions, managed to develop functioning high-acceleration protium fusion rockets, capable of moving a billion-ton spaceship at several gees, and with the extremely high exhaust velocities of thirty to thirty-five thousand kilometers per second.
With this in mind, the Troodontid Empire sent an espionage team of commando androids to try and acquire the specifications for the fusion rockets in question, in order to use them on their own ships on Novemex 7. To do this, the five agents on the expedition planned to use an "Ultimate Computer Virus" to break the security measures on the Nivenian Computer, in order to download the specifications of the fusion drive. For the first leg of the operation, everything went approximately according to plan. The agents snuck aboard a Nivenian cargo freighter transporting titanium to get access to the shipyards on Nivenia B3, and snuck into the computer room with their equipment completely unnoticed. This was largely due to the Nivenian respect for privacy, which lead to the complete lack of security cameras most everywhere. At this point, things began to go wrong in ridiculous ways. First of all, the Troodontid agents had been expecting a touchscreen interface, but were instead greeted with a two-meter cathode-ray tube screen and a keyboard. This was startling, but luckily the agents in question were well versed in Nivenian. Their next problem was incompatible interfaces and different BOD rates. This was solved by use of a universal BOD adapter, some wires, and a bit of ingenuity (Basically the agents just wired the output side of the universal BOD adapter to the inside of the Nivenian data port.).
Then, the real trouble began. The Troodontid agents found themselves in the precarious position of waiting for the 12 Megabit Nivenian computer connection to download a two-gigabyte virus for twenty minutes. After this mildly insane setback, the Troodontid agents were startled to discover the hard way that the computer they were using (which was supposed to be twenty terahertz), was not a single system at all, but twenty thousand smaller computers linked together. This was extremely problematic, as the smaller computers all used 32-bit processors, and the "Ultimate Computer Virus" was a 64-bit program. This came as quite a shock, given that contemporary Troodontid personal computers were in the dozens of Terahertz range and used 512-bit processors. The "Ultimate Computer Virus" was originally engineered to work on most computers of most alien empires, hence its 64-bit design. However, the Troodontid agents had been thwarted simply from the inability of the Nivenian computer to run their program. At first, the Troodontids had assumed that the computer that they were working on had been a singular, desktop-type unit, but after their program failed to run, they traced the computer cables back to a massive, multi-story facility containing over two hundred and fifty racks of servers. After figuring out that the problem was not in their program, but in the inability of the Nivenian computer to run it, the Troodontid agents left in a livid state.
However, one problem remained. The "Ultimate Computer Virus" that they had downloaded onto the Nivenian Computer would have erased itself from the computer's hard drives if it had run and completed its task (in the interest of maintaining cover), but due to its inability to run, deleting it would have to be done in the usual way of merely marking the location where the virus was stored as empty, without actually deleting it, leaving it open for retrieval by the Nivenians, and providing a substantial clue as to who made it. In an effort to maintain their cover, even though their mission failed, they decided to blow up the facility with a small thermonuclear device, and blame the entire catastrophe on FusiTech by writing on some of the walls and wreckage of the installation that "FusiTech will have its revenge," followed by a hasty retreat. They successfully managed to escape back to their home system without being noticed over the course of the next four days.
In conclusion, the Troodontids learned several things from that incident: First, and most important, was that the Nivenians have extremely slow computers. Second, that they now had an opportunity to "help" to Nivenians fight against FusiTech, and gain influence with the Nivenians that way. Third, that it was apparently very easy to sneak into random Nivenian facilities, and also very easy to blame FusiTech for everything. However, after reading Nivenian newspapers a few days later, the Troodontids figured out that "due to the recent destruction of a valuable computer facility by an extrasolar terrorist organization like FusiTech," the Nivenians were mandating much stricter security protocols.
During the rest of Novemex, the diplomatic "peace talks" between the Sublime Grubmolian State and the Purity went back and forth, but never got anywhere. After realizing that the Sublime Grubmolian State had a quadrillion residents, and were refusing to back down from a war over the Pure Divinity of Spodia, which had only thirty billion residents, NP-L2-ASI01 decided to ask Protector Nubel why those thirty billion were so important on Novemex 41. The reason that fighting a war over thirty billion seemed absurd to the Nivenians is because every few years, a hundred billion Nivenians jump off a ringworld, or invade someone's planet randomly, or sacrifice themselves to the "sun god," or whatever, usually killing themselves in ridiculous and stupid ways.
After a while, on Novemex 58, the Sublime Grubmolian State got back to NP-L2-ASI01, saying that "The Grubmolian Ethnostate thrives and functions off the unity of all Grubmolians under one government. Should a splinter faction become independent, every splinter faction will become independent, and the Grubmolian ethnostate will erupt into civil war. That is why we wish to have Spodia as a part of us so badly." While this made sense, NP-L2-ASI01 pointed out that the Sublime Grubmolian State could just pretend that New Spodia was part of them, and not let anyone know otherwise. To, this, they replied, "You know nothing about our culture or country, vile xeno. Do not argue with us about this." This apparently meant that they did not know the difference between an alien and an artificial superintelligence, which did not speak kindly about their own intelligence.
Dekemurios[]
At the beginning of Dekemurios, the Megastructural Construction Corporation developed a new class of habitat, specifically designed for use in the outer system. This new habitat design is composed of three components - an Ultimate Terraforming Lightbulb 1.0™, set to its maximum 5-exawatt setting, a massive actively supported shell seventeen thousand kilometers in radius, with the Ultimate Terraforming Lightbulb 1.0™ at the center, with eight thousand, seven hundred and thirty attachment points on the outside surface, each at least eight hundred kilometers apart. Finally, eight thousand, seven hundred, and thirty McKendree Cylinders, each with a radius of four hundred kilometers, a length of nine thousand kilometers and an artificial gravity of 8.00 m/s^2, and with massive reflective cones inside to reflect the incoming light from the Ultimate Terraforming Lightbulb 1.0™ onto the surface of the McKendree cylinder at a right angle, as shown in the image below. This allows for approximately a hundred and ninety-seven billion square kilometers of surface area, over three hundred and eighty-seven times the surface area of the Earth, and over thrice the area of one of the ringworlds around the Nivenian System's secondary, conveniently broken into thousands of continent-sized chunks.
Each of these could feed (assuming 75% growable area using conventional farming and greenhouses, and 100% using hydroponics) approximately 14.8 trillion using conventional farming, 148 trillion using greenhousing, and 313 to 500 trillion using hydroponics, with potentially tens of quadrillions in residence if the food was imported from somewhere else. The best part is that since any part of the megastructure is within fifty-two thousand kilometers of any other part, signal delay would always be less than a fifth of a second, even without hyperwave. While none have yet been ordered, these would be incredibly useful for the colonization of interstellar space.
On Dekemurios 29, after Ipliq of the Pure Divinity of Spodia had a laugh at the incompetence of Nubel Khjzalo "the unpronounceable," NP-L2-ASI01 asked Nubel a very important question - If the United Republic of Grubmolians had a full quadrillion citizens in recent history, and the Sublime Grubmolian State only has three hundred, twenty-one and a half trillion, but only fifty billion fled to New Spodia, then where in the gigaquadrant did the other six hundred seventy-eight point four five trillion go? Was Former Premier Yuorgi bluffing about the numbers? Did Ipliq or Nubel kill them? Is there some splinter faction that we do not know about? These were all questions with a lack of good answers. However, after deciphering what was apparently meant to be a purely insulting response on the art of "the unpronounceable," it turned out that previous information suggesting that the population of the old United Republic of Grubmolians was incorrect or biased (probably due to Yuorgi or one of his predecessors), and that the true numbers were actually much lower. This was a bit anticlimactic to everyone involved.
On Dekemurios 51, the structure developed earlier in the month, now termed the poly-McKendree spherical habitat 1.0™, was added to the Megastructural Construction Corporation's catalog, with a listed price of 70 petacredits, or a little less than half a kilocredit per person inclined to farm conventionally using the land. Of course, since the actively-supported shell and Ultimate Terraforming Lightbulb 1.0™ only have a combined price of 3.2 petacredits, ordering partial habitats is possible, with a 10% habitat costing 9.88 petacredits - slightly more per unit area, but much less expensive in total.
Neochios[]
On Neochios 3, Arbitrator Skkhi'ha of the Perphidi Assembly commented that "Mirus gains yet another deluded, neutrality-feigning fascist that will ultimately turn it's guns against the greater galactic community," in reference to the transition Nubel Khjzalo "the unpronounceable" caused to the United Republic of Grubmolians, changing it into the Sublime Grubmolian State, even going as far as to call the Sublime Grubmolian State "bastards." While the Sublime Grubmolian State certainly has been stupid, the Perphidi Assembly has been passively hostile to the Nivenian Empire in the past, so if a war between the two groups breaks out, whether to support a side or remain neutral is still being analyzed.
After a meeting of the Board of Technology and the artificial superintelligence NP-L2-ASI01 on Neochios 17, it was decided that if the Sublime Grubmolian State goes to war with the Perphidi Assembly, that the Nivenian Empire would remain neutral, without trading with either side. However, in the even the the Sublime Grubmolian State makes a move against a power currently trading with the Nivenian Empire, this opinion will change. On a third note, the Null Empire was then still supporting the Sublime Grubmolian State in the New Spodia Wars (of which the peace talks were more like insane ranting intermixed with patronizing speeches and yelling), which significantly increases the delicateness required in handling the situation.
On Neochios 23, the Nivenian Imperial Government made an extremely daring political move, one colloquially known as the "because I say so bill." This new law, if passed, would grant the Chief Executive Coordinator the power to issue pardons, and declare people guilty of crimes. Understandably, this new law caused a huge uproar among those in governmental positions who had been opposing Chief Executive Coordinator Allison Carson, as the only reason to propose such a thing would be to arrest all of them. In the end, the law proposal had to be retracted on Neochios 25, lest Chief Executive Coordinator Allison Carson fall victim to a vote of no confidence.
After a series of larger and larger cargo ships completely got out of hand, Nivenia B3 shipyards unveiled "the most useful ship of all time," the Ultimate Cargo Freighter 3.0™, on Neochios 44, 28 NE. It was basically a giant box a hundred and fifty kilometers long, a hundred kilometers high, and a hundred kilometers wide, with almost all of he volume used for cargo storage, and two O'Neill Cylinders attached to either side. This ship required a crew of five million to operate, but could store over a quadrillion metric tons of cargo, or forty-four trillion TEUs[2] of cargo capacity.
On Neochios 47, a wave of deflation fit the Nivenian Empire, with most currency values increasing by around twenty percent. Due to a rising population, new fusion reactors were being constructed everywhere, which required the fusion reaction igniter industry on Nivenia Prime to expand accordingly. Since the fusion reaction igniters have plutonium-239 as a key component, this development lead to a moderately strong shortage of plutonium-239, forcing many to wait for weeks for the component to be in stock. As the Nivenian Credit is tied to plutonium, the value shot up by 20%, and was extremely bad news for anyone who had borrowed money.
29 NE[]
Ianuaria[]
Interlude: Technology[]
On Ianuaria 4, 29 NE, NP-L2-ASI01 determined that it could be possible, given the spacetime engineering projects that it was working on, to create a structure known as a Krasnikov tube[3]. While the preliminary designs for the structure would require billions of extremely high-tech spacetime-restructuring probes to be placed in the space between systems, the actual creation process would only involve the initial seeding of spacetime disturbances along the path, and the final tube would be tens of thousands of kilometers wide, with negligible tidal forces, and a contraction ration from the outside to the inside of potentially six-hundred-to-one.
This would allow for the transportation of goods, population, and resources between stars at non-relativistic speeds with timeframes of months, instead of extremely energy-intensive transportation at relativistic speeds over years. To reduce energy requirements even further, massive electromagnetic acceleration and deceleration units could be installed, along with habitat facilities to house the technicians required to operate the equipment and the bureaucrats required for the coordination of packages to leave and enter at exactly the same time for maximum efficiency.
If ten yottawatts (approximately half the output of Paulo Fluctus Beta's Dyson swarm) was used for the electromagnetic acceleration devices used in a Krasnikov tube (without energy recovery), then that Krasnikov tube could be used to transport over sixty quadrillion Nivenians (in suspended animation to reduce food requirements) at 0.02c in-tube, which would be equivalent to one light-year of conventional distance per month. This would allow for the easy relocation of population between star systems, and make it easier to fill up new colonies, possibly allowing for dramatically larger supply chains and technologies.
On Ianuaria 28, the remaining Nivenians that had invaded the Null Empire after stealing a cargo ship finally surrendered, as the Nullian military had whittled down their numbers for years, leading to their eventual defeat when only five billion troops remained. All in all, their plan was very poorly thought out, as they had not taken into account natural disasters, wild animals, or the quick and decisive action taken by the Null Empire (most of those things are extremely hard to come by in the Nivenian Empire). It is currently unknown what will happen to the invaders.
It is worth noting that during the year of 29 NE, many portions of the Nivenian Empire engaged the replacement of older frequency-doubled Nd-YAG laser arrays in Nicoll-Dyson beams and pushing lasers with the more easily-replaced Carbon dioxide lasers. This dramatically reduced upkeep costs and increased the effectiveness and efficiency of the beams. While this process took almost a year to complete, it was noted by most experts to be a vast increase in the cost effectiveness of laser technology, which won the support of many corporations.
On Ianuaria 47, it was decided to contact the Null Empire about the possibility of owning twenty percent of the now-T3 Thadus 0037 main body. This was an interesting move because as it moved Nullian assets within range of Nivenian cargo freighters, a full two-way trade route could be formed by suing massive banks of betavoltaic capacitors and pushing lasers to recover kinetic energy from deceleration of relativistic spaceships, and use that energy to push oncoming ones. As a token of gratitude (and to help facilitate the Nullian colony on Thadus 0037) to the Null Empire's continued alliance, the Nivenians also gave the Nullians twenty more Hydra-class titans.
Martex[]
On Martex 3, the Null Empire accepted the offer of 20% of Thadus 0037, saying that it would help with the Null-Nivenian alliance. Due to the fact that most of the infrastructure on Thadus 0037 was designed to be operated by Nivenians (even the wildlife preserves), the Null Empire decided to bring several cargo ships' worth of materials to retrofit some of the equipment for Querian and Spitbelly usage. During the same message, the Nullians asked the Nivenian Empire if they would like the 5 billion crazy Nivenians who invaded a Nullian planet back, as the Null Empire did not have enough prisons to hold them all. The Nivenians said yes, and put most of the 5 billion to work off their debt to society in indentured servitude.
On Martex 11, the Platixi Empire made a statement that alarmed many in the Nivenian Empire - they asked the Phrovan Socialist Republic for an alliance on the grounds that, apparently, "I see your nation is also a fan of socialism. I hope an alliance lies in our future!", which freaked out many at the the Nivenian Trading Organization for Commercial Benefits. As one of their representatives put it, "... the spread of communism throughout the Gigaquadrant is a fate which cannot be allowed to pass, as it will inevitably lead to despotism, economic depression, and civil asset forfeiture."
Thankfully, nothing really came of the outrage at the idea of "spread of communism throughout the Gigaquadrant," save for some assorted and sporadic rioting. The same could not be said, however, about the Purity movement that became visible on Martex 27. At first, the Purity movement had really just been a few dozen wackos on Nivenia A Ringworld 20 who wanted an excuse to blow stuff up. However, the idea of blowing stuff up and looting from "the impure" began to grab hundreds of followers. However, as hundreds became thousands, then millions, then billions, the organization slowly shifted from "a bunch of teenagers who want to blow stuff up" to an actual purity movement.
However, this did not make them any less aggressive. Instead of randomly looting from people, their activities mainly shifted to "recruitment" - smacking someone over the head with a sandbag and dragging them off to be "purified" - which basically meant that the victim would be drawn all over in permanent marker, and "spreading the word" - gross vandalism of public property on scales never seen before. This almost instantly made the organization a pretty serious regional problem, as their activities were taking place all over Nivenia A Ringworld 20 by this point, and they had a population of seventy billion.
On Martex 55, the purity movement became a systemwide issue when they blew up seventy habitats due to "the presence of the impure on board." For many in the Nivenian Government, that was it, and the purity movement in what was its current form was declared a "violent cult," and as such all low-ranking members captured were to be interrogated as to the locations of their higher-ups, who would be prosecuted for inciting riots. Similar occurrences continued to happen up until the end of the month.
Iunius[]
When the purity movement hit 250 billion in Iunius 6, the focus of the organization had changed even more dramatically - instead of vying for personal gain or even followers, most members of the organization began actually worshiping what they perceived as "pure," mainly random charismatic leaders. While none of these charismatic leaders actually managed to seize control of a significant portion of the newly-formed Nivenian Church of Purity, they did mostly manage to curb the senseless looting and forced induction carried out by their predecessors. However, when they stopped fighting the Nivenian police and armed forces they all declared each other heretics and impure, beginning a minor civil war within the Nivenian Empire. All of the different sects of the ever-less-clearly-defined Nivenian Church of Purity basically began an undeclared war around Iunius 15-20, which quickly spiraled out of control as over 500 billion claimed to be part of the church by then. As the battles (mainly taking place on Nivenia A Ringworld 20) grew worse, the Coordinator of Nivenia A ringworld 20 made a statement: "If the number of combatants reaches two trillion, we will have no choice but to take military action across the parts of our region in revolt."
On Iunius 23, a massive nacho cheese factory exploded on Nivenia Prime due to the expiration of centuries-old turbines in the fusion reactors used as neutron sources in the facility, releasing almost twenty billion metric tons of nacho cheese into the ecumenopolis (Several commented that there is something seriously wrong with every phrase in that news bulletin). This obviously caused a major issue, as thousands of square kilometers of land had a thin coating of nacho cheese splashed on them. It smelled good for about four days, before the cheese began to become rancid. The area eventually had to be closed for renovation and cleaning, with most of the inhabitants locked indoors.
On Iunius 31, the number of combatants in the denominational wars of the Nivenian Church of Purity exceeded two trillion. The Coordinator of Nivenia A Ringworld 20 dispatched a trillion soldiers to attempt to quell the rioting in response. What followed can only be described as a stalemate. Three denominations of the Nivenian Church of Purity had risen to control 98% of the combatants, and they had somehow gotten access to thermonuclear weapons. This made the situation much trickier, as even one thermonuclear bomb could punch a hole in a ringworld, which would allow air to leak onto the magnets at a relative speed of around two hundred kilometers per second. If this happened, the air would instantly turn to ultra-high energy plasma, which would burn most of the magnets in the active support system. While not completely lethal, it would cause decades' worth of wear and tear on the ring every week, which would do quite a lot of damage economically to fix. However, if multiple thermonuclear weapons are detonated, it could render the entire ring inoperable.
With this in mind, the Nivenian military could not just invade; since all three parties in the conflict seemed to be settling into Mutually Assured Destruction (M.A.D.) territory, the military could only sit and watch as more and more were converted.
Interlude: Colonization of Thadus 0002[]
On Iunius 53, the Nivenian Empire heard from the four trillion colonists of the Thadus 0002 system. It turned out that they had hit some debris ejected by a rotating habitat in the Interstellar Cometary Cloud, and had afterward lost several of their communications units, which could not be repaired with the materials on the ship. So, they had to wait for themselves to get to their destination and build up enough of a supply chain to construct replacement components for their communications, delaying their response.
The colonists had almost entirely settled on the planet Thadus 0002 3, an icy planet about four times Nivenia Primes mass and area, with a very similar level of gravity. At the end of Iunius, 29 NE, the colonists were mainly concerned with the unpacking of other colonists and the building of their supply chain, a process that would finish on Neochios 4, 29 NE. As with the previous two colonies, they swore loyalty of the Nivenian Empire as a new country, styling themselves as the Bureaucratic Committee of Thadus 0002.
Novemex[]
Interlude: Planetary Demolition[]
Between Novemex 4, 29 NE and Novemex 30, 29 NE, the planets Nivenia A7 and Nivenia A8 in the Nivenia System were destroyed for the purposes of gathering more raw materials for the construction of ringworlds and whatnot. The destruction took the form of being shot at by the Nicoll-Dyson beam in the Caeruleo System, causing the planets' outer layers to completely atomize, followed by the evaporation of the planet into space, one layer at a time. Due to the size and high escape velocity of these two planets, the process would take almost four weeks to disassemble both of them.
After the initial colonization back in 27 NE, Nivenia A1 was also put on the agenda for disassembly after the first two.
As these three planets would yield approximately 45 times the mass of Earth in useful (non-silicate, non-hydrogen, non-water) materials, tens of thousands of special collection stations, manned by billions each, would have to be stationed around the planets. The collection stations would use the blackbody radiation from the planet as it was being destroyed to power electromagnetic collection apparatuses. With the help of almost a hundred trillion employees, the Megastructural Construction Corporation successfully dissembled these planets.
The matter of the inhabited moons of Nivenia A7 and Nivenia A8 had to be taken care of as well. For these moons, the timing of the event was chosen so that the moons would simply spiral out of their orbits and into high orbits around the primary of the Nivenia system. The moons were protected from the plasma expansion wave by absolutely gigantic mirrors at their L1 Lagrange points (with fusion rockets for the station-keeping required to keep them there as the planet lost mass) blocking the ultraviolet radiation from the dying planet from baking them.
This operation gave the Megastructural Construction Corporation insane amounts of materials - enough to completely encase the Nivenia System with ringworlds - a massive victory for them, and the beginning of construction of Nivenia A Ringworlds 36 through 45. This marked the beginning of a new era for the Nivenian Empire - an era of complete mastery over objects larger than even the largest of all rocky worlds. This also changed the Nivenian stock market considerably - now that everyone knew that ten more ringworlds were being built, stocks in construction and real estate soared.
On Novemex 50, 29 NE, the Megastructural Construction Corporation sent a trade offer to the Legatus, a large empire in the Quadrants. As the Legatus possessed some megastructures such as the orbital ring of Boreas and the Garkarg battlestation, and the Nivenians knew a lot about megastructure design and maintenance, they made three offers. First, they could provide the Legatus with contract workers to maintain Garkarg and the Borean orbital ring. Second, they could install Nivenian Planetary Climate Control Center™ on as many planets as the Legatus liked, at a reasonable price in raw materials. Third, any garbage that the Legatus really wanted to get rid of could be shipped to the Nivenians.
Dekemurios[]
On Dekemurios 4, NP-L2-ASI01 had a major scientific breakthrough - the first working model of a stable Krasnikov tube. Although the tube was only twenty nanometers in exterior length, with a diameter comparable to an atomic nucleus, it had an interior length of eighteen nanometers, ten percent less. As was predicted, particles could enter and exit the structure at any point along the structure's length. Although several exajoules of energy were converted to waste heat during the object's construction, it appears that with the use of much more efficient methods, the Krasnikov tubes could be created with a negligible energy input, as long as there was the components for the tube's construction at both ends.
On Dekemurios 11, the Platixi Empire announced that their offer to sell planets from the Dwarf Cluster would terminate the following day. After a complaint by the Phrovan Socialist Republic that apparently they were "Taking the fast route over the one that will earn you more in the long term," which made them "... act like a big company." This event caused several large corporations in the Nivenian Empire to take offense, with the situation only being resolved once the Phrovan Socialist Republic clarified that they were referencing only their own corporations (before they somehow got rid of them).
The Megastructural Construction Corporation (always wanting more resources), asked the Platixi Empire if they had the capability to transport planets across galaxies using hyperspace. The Platixi replied that they could, though it was at the limit of their capabilities, and asking how many planets the Megastructural Construction Corporation wanted. The Megastructural Construction Corporation, wanting mainly more carbon, requested as many T0 planets as 1.2 trillion metric tons of pink spice could buy to be deposited about ten astronomical units away from the primary of the Nivenia System, as long as the T0 planets were more than 60% carbide rocks - unlike most terraformable planets, which are rich mainly in oxide rocks.
After this message, the Platixi Empire spent the next four weeks dropping off two earth masses of material, mainly in small planetoids about the size of the moon (the Megastructural Construction Corporation had requested more small planets be picked over fewer large ones, if the total mass was equal), in exchange for the 1.2 trillion metric tons of pink spice, which was left for them to pick up next to its scource at Nivenia A6.1.
When this process was complete, on Dekemurios 39, the Megastructural Construction Corporation began the disassembly of these planets. Due to the smaller size and escape velocity of the planets delivered by the Platixi, they could be demolished with much less effort than went into the demolition of Nivenia A1, Nivenia A7, and Nivenia A8, to where their demolition would only need the Nicoll-Dyson beam in the Nivenia System, and would only need about five days. After some preparation (gathering the employees needed for the operation, protective equipment, and so on), the process started on Dekemurios 45, and finished on Dekemurios 50.
On Dekemurios 54, two interesting announcements regarding the Megastructural Construction Corporation were made - First, the Megastructural Construction Corporation announced that Nivenia A ringworlds 36 through 45 would be built at a planned completion date of Martex 20, 35 NE. Second, the Megastructural Construction Corporation announced the construction of about twenty new habitats near Nivenia Prime - each habitat would be powered by an Ultimate Terraforming Lightbulb 1.0™ at full power, with a massive actively-supported shell surrounding it at a radius of 25,000 kilometers, and McKendree Cylinders attached all over the shell to absorb the light, with a total habitable surface area of approximately 125 billion square kilometers per habitat. These would be done by Neochios 40, 35 NE.
Neochios[]
Interlude: Colonization of Thadus 0002[]
The newly-formed Bureaucratic Committee of Thadus 0002 got right to work both expanding their population and building habitats. They had already taken up more than 10% of the surface area of Thadus 0002 3 when they finished bootstrapping their infrastructure and population on Neochios 4, and needed somewhere offworld to expand. To do this, they began harvesting the numerous asteroid belts in the system to build the first orbital ring and fist habitat area in what would become the Thadus 0002 shellworld.
On Neochios 12, the Platixi Empire sold "warp module" technology (presumably another mysterious supposedly faster-than-light device) to JCompany. While this would not have been important on its own, it sparked an interesting movement among the less content with the Nivenian Government. Basically, given that the Nivenians do not have faster-than-light travel capabilities, a conspiracy theory was proposed that all of the "alien" factions were really branches of some secret imperial agency dedicated to convincing the population to work harder to help "keep up" with the aliens.
This conspiracy theory actually ballooned out to over fifty trillion believers relatively quickly because of how much sense it made - if most of these supposed "alien empires" had much smaller populations then the Nivenians, they would have a smaller concentration of scientists, and should be at a lower technology level. The fact that not one, but apparently two different FTL systems existed, but the Nivenians had not researched either one seemed an obvious flaw in this system, leading many to believe that the entire First Gigaquadrant was fraudulent.
Part of the reason for the forming of this conspiracy group was that the real reasons that Nivenian FTL does not exist are not widely publicized. First, many of the large corporations currently in business would collapse if the surface area of planets within range exceeded the surface area of the current ringworlds and habitats, since that would dramatically upset the current economic balance. Second, the Nivenian scientific community is currently against even the idea of hyperspace, meaning that anyone trying to develop Hyperspace is ostracized. This refusal of hyperspace technologies is partially due to the interference of the ambient radiation in the Nivenia System, which renders the development of primitive hyperspace motors practically impossible.
Around Neochios 25, the various factions in the purity movement on Nivenia Ringworld 20 finally snapped, firing their nuclear missiles. While this would have destroyed the ringworld if no action had been taken, the Ringworld Coordinator had taken decisive action by placing millions of point-defense weapons all over the affected areas of the ringworld, enabling the ringworld regional military to destroy the missiles before they reached their targets. While all three factions were out of nuclear missiles for the moment, they restarted their recruitment process, siphoning in another five trillion followers by Neochios 44.
As the purity movement was getting completely out of hand, some representatives of the Nivenian Imperial Government and the Ringworld Coordinator of Nivenia A Ringworld 20 discussed the matter, and eventually decided to try and see if The Purity itself would take the factions "somewhere else." This was regarded as a good idea, given that Purity was what the cultists wanted in the first place, and that the cultists had been nothing but a massive problem for months. With these facts in mind, the Purity was contacted on Neochios 46 about possibly taking the now 8.6 trillion cultists somewhere that is not in the Nivenian Empire.
30 NE[]
Ianuaria[]
At the beginning of Ianuaria, it was learned from JCompany that apparently Supreme Ambassador JCute and the JBureaucrat Division were trying to subsume many corporate functions typically reserved for Tycoon JOmnivore. This, along with JOmnivore's supposed "non-stop vacation therapy at Nivenia Prime," (a phrase which displeased many in the Nivenian Empire) appeared to have caused some serious political divides within JCompany, with Genius JCreepy even stating explicit discomfort at his "JBoss."
Interlude: Special Project[]
On Ianuaria 22, 30 NE, the samples from the moon Caeruleo 6.9 were decelerated from relativistic speeds and sent to research labs on Nivenia Prime. While there may have been tens of thousands of experts in applicable fields in the Caeruleo system, the population was inordinately specialized in construction, agriculture, mining, and beaming energy to the Nivenia system, and so Caerulean research teams were just not a match for the untold trillions of researchers in applicable fields in the Nivenia System - specifically on Nivenia Prime.
After initial analysis, it became known that the samples from Caeruleo 6.9 appeared to posses some strange properties, even for extraterrestrial life. For one thing, the ten grams of protists in the sample would expel a substance as a trace waste product that turned out to be purple spice! If these microbes could be grown in vats the size of a planet - or larger - possibly quadrillions of metric tons of purple spice could be manufactured every year. A special project was formed, with an estimated completion date of Iunius 35, 30 NE.
UDB Archive 20 Starts[]
On Ianuaria 33, Tycoon JOmnivore of JCompany finally got out of his full-time therapy (preformed by a "competent team of both Nivenians and JSectorians specialists"), declaring himself to be a better version of himself. After thanking his therapists and visitors, JOmnivore returned to his duties as Tycoon of JCompany, but with some part-time therapy on the side. Most of JCompany appeared quite happy with JOmnivore's return, although Genius JCreepy seemed a bit disgruntled at his absence while he was at therapy.
The Platixi Empire also seemed quite happy with JOmnivore's recovery, even though they had not before met. This was probably due to the large amount of trading, and recent alliance, between the Platixi Empire and JCompany. The Purity also responded to this positively (unfortunately, and maddeningly for many, the Purity did this even though they had not responded to the request about the situation on Nivenia A Ringworld 20), asking if JCompany had access to much more powerful intergalactic drives.
On Ianuaria 50, the Legatus got mack to the Megastructural Construction Corporation, accepting deals where the MCC maintained their Garkarg battlestation and their orbital rings, and took their garbage and industrial and nuclear waste, in exchange for raw carbon, with the Legatus on the transportation end. This agreement was beneficial for both sides, as garbage contains refinable carbon too, industrial waste contains extractable heavy metals that can be used in chemical reactors, and actinides can be extracted from nuclear waste to be used as catalysts in other nuclear reactions. The difference is that the Legatus did not have the manpower (inexpensive manpower) that the Nivenians did, and thus this was a waste product, not valuable ore.
The Nivenians then proposed to the Legatus an embassy/trade center on A11 through the Megastructural Construction Corporation.
Martex[]
On Martex 7, a deal was made between JCompany and the Purity regarding fast intergalactic travel. JCompany would get access to the Purity's Ravenrii technological databases, and give the Purity some advanced "warp tech" in return. While Velocity Augmentation Systems procured from the Phrovan Socialist Republic were discussed as a possible alternative to this "warp tech," the Phrovans had banned the Purity from using their technology, preventing JCompany from selling it. This would allow the Purity to travel between galaxies relatively quickly. Unfortunately, they had still not yet responded about the situation on Nivenia A Ringworld 20.
On Martex 18, an unidentified hacker somehow managed to break into several major news networks to deliver ridiculous and insane propaganda to the general public - mainly about the benefits of routine trimming of toasters and other "appliance hygiene" tips. This was followed by a series of explosions all over the empire as trillions heeded the advice, and trimmed their toasters, causing them to explode. Several large insurance companies took large hits in their income that day, causing a brief drop in stock prices systemwide. Luckily, the passwords and encryption on the systems were changed within hours, preventing further access.
On Martex 25, the Purity finally got back to the Nivenian Empire about the issue, apologizing for the behavior of the rebels, and saying that they would be happy to relocate the 8.6 trillion problematic citizens to their territory for "enlightenment," also asking for a meeting between NP-L2_ASI01 (the representative of the Nivenians), himself (the representative of the Purity), and the three faction leaders. It was decided afterwards that, due to NP-L2-ASI01's "size, mass, and total immobility," unknown factors regarding the Pure One, and the reluctance of the faction leaders to leave their territory, that the meeting would be held virtually. The first two cult leaders were phoned, and agreed to a teleconference with the Pure One, with different degrees of reluctance and enthusiasm, but the third leader for unknown reasons could not be reached on his phone. Looking into the matter revealed that he had apparently run out of data earlier in the month (one of the side effects of being on a three-megabyte plan), and was denied phone access by his cell-phone company. After pulling some strings, the Nivenians finally managed to get through his phone company (by buying him a better plan), but when they tried talking to him, he just said something about "infidel unbelievers" and hung up.
On Martex 28, the Nivenian Imperial Government, getting desperate about getting the third faction leader on the meeting, decided to just abduct him by pulling off the ringworld tile that he was standing on. While this worked, once in custody, the third faction leader seemed extremely displeased with his circumstances, shouting words in reference to his abductors that sane ears had never before heard. A couple of days later, the faction leaders (Interestingly enough, the two that came willfully were in spacious penthouse apartments, while the one who did not was locked inside his house, which was brought with the ringworld piece.), NP-L2-ASI01, and the Pure One began the virtual meeting.
Interlude: Meeting with the Purity[]
The meeting between the three faction leaders (Robert Schwartz, leader of the Pure Atomic Faction, Janice Terry, leader of the Rings of Purity, and Samuel Peters, leader of the Pure Zealot League), NP-L2-ASI01, and the Pure One began in the late morning of Martex 28, and lasted several hours. After everyone signed on to the meeting and announced their presence (with Mr. Peters of the Pure Zealot league being particularly uncalm), the Purity offered all parties involved a deal - the Purity would:
1) Open another gate to Illum Pure in Cyrannus, creating another Purity colony in there near the Nivenian Empire to make migration and trade easier
2) Put your people through purification and give them proper training on that front
3) Create another purified Nivenian member state of the Purity, we can discuss its role inside the empire and as a result its leadership and location here
This was, however, considered unacceptable by both the Nivenian Empire and the Pure Atomic Faction, as the Nivenian Empire just wanted to be rid of the Purists, and the Pure Atomic Faction wanted to be rid of the Nivenian Empire. However, the Rings of Purity found being separated from the Nivenian Empire unacceptable due to their focus on building a "Pure Ringworld, for the Pure." The Purity eventually managed to broker a deal between the parties involved, where the Purity build a ringworld large enough for all three factions to inhabit with lots of room to spare (low kiloEarth surface area), but the Purist Nivenians would be put in Mirus or Phradox or something instead of anywhere near the Nivenian Empire.
After a large amount of both pointless deliberation and trying to get the leader of the Pure Zealot League to calm down, both the three Nivenian Pure factions and the Nivenian Empire at large finally agreed on a deal where a new Pure Nivenian state is formed in a different galaxy than Cyrannus, and the Purity builds a Pure Ringworld around a red or white dwarf for the trillions of immigrants, even with dozens of times the room required to feed them using conventional farming, allowing them to be separate from each other. The factions liked this, as they could maintain (more or less) their particularities regarding Purity, they could be Purified, and they would be far away from the Nivenian Imperials.
All in all, most considered it a good policy decision.
Iunius[]
On Iunius 3, 30 NE, JCompany was contacted by an entity previously warned to be either insane or malevolent by NP-L2-ASI01, an entity named Ara Maya. This entity apparently demanded to know why after the use of void technology (by JCompany and its customers), described as "its boon," the JCompany and its customers had not subscribed to Voidism, which was apparently an implicit requirement. In response, Voidmaster JGrox of the Void JDivision said that JCompany did not support Void Zealotry, and that they practiced JShamanism instead, wanting to worship the void JPeacefully.
On Iunius 8, the Ara Maya entity got back to JCompany, saying that (basically) though Void Zealotry was the religion she wanted everyone to subscribe to, Void Shamanism was okay because it was related to the void and she was (supposedly) merciful. It should be noted that she also spent much of the time passively roasting Voidmaster JGrox for unknown reasons. Even more odd, however, was the Voidmaster's response - "I thank you for sparing our people, and for giving us a chance to serve," which convinced many that Ara Maya was a malicious entity, and further backed NP-L2-ASI01'c claims as such.
On Iunius 21, the places of the three factions of Nivenian Pure Revolutionaries in the Purity were decided. Basically, the Pure Atomic Faction would focus on science and technology, able to increase the efficiency of the Purity's spaceships and machines. The Rings of Purity would specialize in megastructural engineering and habitat construction. While their methods are less advanced then those of the Megastructural Construction Corporation, their ringworlds and habitats are still capable of fitting tens of thousands of planets' worth of living space in one system. The Pure Zealot League would then focus on administering the Purification process itself.
Interlude: Special Project[]
On Iunius 35, 30 NE, the special project was completed. With successful cultures of the alien life capable of producing purple spice as a waste product available, and the condition necessary for the growth of these microorganisms known, the key to creating untold amounts of purple spice had been broken. Due to the governmental funding of the research project, most of the data involved was publicly available in the Nivenian Empire, though it was not available outside of the Nivenian Empire.
This was extremely good news to the Megastructural Construction Corporation and MegaSuperUltraCorp. Given the Megastructural Construction Corporation's expertise in building extremely large habitats, and MegaSuperUltraCorp's expertise in agriculture, the two corporations devised a plan to build an absolutely massive megastructure around Nivenia A6, using Nivenia A6.1 as a staging point - a gigantic reinforced plexiglass habitat, stabilized through active support, covering the entire planet of Nivenia A6 (except for the 10% closest to the ecliptic plane) at a radius of almost a million kilometers, designed to provide approximately ten trillion square kilometers of growing space for purple spice. Given the determined efficiency of 200 GJ applied lighting per kilogram purple spice generated, and applying artificial photosynthesis-optimized illumination through dozens of Ultimate Terraforming Lightbulb 1.0™s at full power, could theoretically produce sixty gigatons of purple spice per year.
Construction on this project was started on Iunius 49, 30 NE, and the schedule is as follows:
- Construct actively-supported frame - Iunius 49, 30 NE to Iunius 48, 31 NE
- Construct plexiglass panels and biosphere support structure - Iunius 49, 31 NE to Iunius 48, 32 NE
- Add lifeforms to device - Iunius 49, 32 NE to Iunius 48, 33 NE
It should be noted that several of these dates got moved during the Third Nivenian War of Re-Unification, the actively-supported frame was completed in early 36 NE, for example.
Novemex[]
On Novemex 18, 30 NE, the Purity and the Platixi Empire began to negotiate a business proposal. The Platixi Empire basically wanted the Purity's Crystal-based technology, and "[would] trade [The Purity] anything except troops" in exchange. The Purity responded positively, but informed them that most Purity-based technology requires a Purified user to successfully use (something that seemed slightly convenient to some third-party observers), and asked what technologies the Platixi could trade in return. Unfortunately, after some discussion, this trade appeared to fizzle out after both sides stopped communicating to each other for some reason
On Novemex 29, the Pure Divinity of Spodia announced to the Gigaquadrant a willingness for a "cultural exchange" (whatever that is) with other nations with either a Spodist majority or a large Spodist minority, to "gain a better understanding of Spodist societies as a whole." The Platixi Empire immediately responded positively, saying that they would check their records to find Spodists. Although the Nivenian Empire did have a significant Spodist minority (~15%), due to them both not knowing the terms of the deal, and being less than interested in "culture," the Nivenian government elected to wait and see what happened.
After significant debate in the upper levels of Nivenian government, a decision was made to inquire to the Pure Divinity of Spodia about what was meant by "cultural exchange" - would it cause serious issues? Would it require monetary compensation? Would it require the government to do anything? After some more deliberation, the list of question was slowly whittled down from the millions proposed to three crucially important ones:
1. What would the nature of the "cultural exchange" involve?
2. Is 15% a significant minority?
3. How much would the program cost?
The Nivenian Empire finally got around to asking Spodia about the matter on Novemex 38.
On Novemex 44, a series of political changes happened on Nivenia Prime, not the least of which was a successful vote of no confidence in the current regional administration. This lead to some massive sweeping reforms, most of which involved beginning the construction of hundreds of orbital rings at different heights, mainly for the purpose of increasing the amount of stuff that could be sent to the planet's orbit and back per unit time. Other reforms were passed, but by far the most startling was the go-ahead on the decade-old idea of lowering the planet's average temperature from 22.5 Celsius to 22.4 Celsius in an effort to improve worker productivity.
Between Novemex 49 and Novemex 57, a minor disagreement developed between the Purity and the Waptoria Alliance of Species (an environmentally-centered nation very wary of the Nivenian Empire). The disagreement was likely over the branching off of a portion of Purity-oriented Waptorians to form their own country as a vassal state of the Purity. While the Waptoria were apperently okay with the secession, what they complained about was the giving of critical information by their population to the Purity, even threatening to spy in kind. This was seen by many in the Nivenian Empire as kind of short-sighted, as what kind of empire lets its most valuble secrets fall into the hands of random population members?
Dekemurios[]
At the beginning of Dekemurios, a massive political scandal erupted out of the Megastructural Construction Corporation when it was discovered that several members of the new regional government of Nivenia Prime were on their payroll. This caused such a huge outrage since the new regional government of Nivenia Prime had been using public money to build orbital rings for the planet, subcontracting the Megastructural Construction Corporation. Fortunately for the Megastructural Construction Corporation, they were able to buy off the media and cover the incident up within hours.
On Dekemurios 17, the Pure Divinity of Spodia got back to the Nivenian Empire about the "cultural exchange," saying that while 15 % of a nation's population was not normally considered significant, since that 15 % of the Nivenian Empire contained 52 quadrillion people, that the exchange could proceed anyway. The exchange itself turned out not to be that problematic, with it only being an exchange of "cultural artifacts, books, history, etc." The cost would be minimal. With this in mind, NP-L2-ASI01 agreed to let some representatives from the Pure Divinity of Spodia into the public sections of the Nivenian Archives to learn about their culture, particularly relating to Spodism.
It turned out that, after checking, there were over seventy million denominations of Spodism that were recognized, with over two billion pages of related holy texts in the Nivenian Empire.
On Dekemurios 32, 30 NE, the tenth anniversary of the Nivenian introduction into the gigaquadrantic community took place. This marked a major milestone for the Nivenian Empire, as they had come farther in these ten years then they did in the half-century before, mainly due to the help of entities such as the Null Empire and JCompany. While untold trillions died in the massive uprising of Thadus 0037, trillions had also been able to colonize the Caeruleo, Paulo Fluctus Beta, and Thadus 0037 systems, and entire planets had been disassembled. New reactors had been designed and built, and the first artificial superintelligence had been created. It had truly been a time of progress.
On Dekemurios 47, a message was put forth on the universal discussion board that implied the sender (something called the Great Nican Collective) did not know what they were doing. The message was basically asking for parties like the Purity who were colonizing the Krothul Galaxy to leave, in order to supposedly protect wildlife. The sender claimed to be millions of years old, yet despite Krothul's apparent lack of large numbers of civilizations, they had somehow not been able to cover the entire galaxy in Dyson swarms to house their wildlife, which is what anyone in their situation possessing sense would have done.
After NP-L2-ASI01 sent them a message explaining this, a message was sent back that stiffly denied everything, and also displayed a blatant lack of knowledge about the nigh-infinite power of exponential growth. As analysis of both the original message and the follow-up implied that the sender was a machine, NP-L2-ASI01 concluded in an official statement that the sender was most likely a non-sentient custodian matrix designed to protect the wildlife of Krothul within pre-defined parameters, and without any kind of innovative solutions or adaptation at all.
Around the same time as the transmission from the Great Nican Collective, an entity called the Lycaryuan Grand Republic made a transmission, asking for drives to allow them to migrate away from Krothul. Apperently Krothul is "an absolute hell," and they were willing to trade anything (?) for a method of escape. The Purity appeared to come to the rescue, deciding to give them drives that they themselves purchased from JCompany so that they could escape Krothul. As there were 260 trillion in their empire, and they had nowhere to go in the wider gigaquadrant, this gave the Caeruleo Governmental Holding Corporation ideas.
Neochios[]
Interlude: Colonization of Caeruleo[]
With the continuing arrival of colony ships from the Nivenia System, the Caeruleo Governmental Holding Corporation decided to create a colonization initiative dedicated to colonizing all colonizable bodies in the Caeruleo System before the year was out. This was known as the Caeruleo Colonization Initiative or C.C.I., and was declared on Neochios 7. Neochios 7 was also the day of the arrival of a colony ship containing seventy trillion passengers, which is likely to have influenced the government of Caeruleo to create this directive.
On Neochios 21, seeing the near-instant success of the new colonization initiative, the Caeruleo Governmental Holding Corporation decided to offer to provide housing and employment to any refugees from the Lycaryuan Grand Republic, which was fleeing from the Krothul galaxy. Given their state of rapid economic growth, it was expected by all involved on the Caerulean side of the potential deal that their economy could grow to support the new population in a month. The offers of the Purity and JCompany regarding transportation to other parts of the Gigaquadrant also made the deal seem more likely.
Although the Lycaryuan Grand Republic did not get back too quickly, a brief legal matter popped up around Neochios 33 regarding the proposed sale of Warp Modules by the Purity and JCompany to the Lycaryuan Grand Republic. Apparently the Platixi Empire freaked out because they thought at the time that JCompany was re-selling technology sold to them by the Platixi Empire. The Platixi Empire decided to "sue" JCompany and the Purity, until NP-L2-ASI01 noted that 1) once a technology is out, it is out, meaning only preventative measures to stop spread of critical technologies are vital, and 2) it is impossible for one country to sue another, as any lawsuits against them would have to be filed in their own courts, which would most likely dismiss the case.
A few days later, it came out that the warp modules being sold were in fact developed by a random alien race known as the Tuechalton. This was then followed with outrage on all sides, as the Platixi tried to demand exclusive jurisdiction over the sale of warp modules, and pretty much everyone else disagreed. Eventually, the Waptoria appeared to be at least partially successful in defusing the situation, by pointing out that the Platixi demands were completely unreasonable whenever brought up.
On Neochios 48, the Phrovan Socialist Republic also sent an offer of help to the Lycaryuan Grand Republic. While this would normally have been worrying to the Nivenian Empire, given the deal that the Caeruleo Governmental Holding Corporation proposed to the Lycaryuan Grand Republic, but since the Caeruleo Governmental Holding Corporation is about ten thousand times larger than the Phrovan Socialist Republic, and the Lycaryuan Grand Republic was similar in size to the former, the Caeruleans were confident that the Lycaryuans would accept their deal.
Interlude: Religion of Purity[]
It should be noted that due to a propaganda effort, the slow spread of the religion of purity halted, and even reversed. This was mainly because after the previous three large "Pure" factions of Nivenians went to be "Purified," most of the hardcore zealots had left, making it easy to propaganda the religion back into ambiguity. Like all good propaganda, this was done pseudo-covertly by the government, with the cooperation of local media outlets. With the numbers of believers in purity back down to the low billions, the Nivenian Imperial Government could finally rest easily.
31 NE[]
Ianuaria[]
When the Lycaryuan Grand Republic got back to the Caeruleo Governmental Holding Corporation about the escape from Krothul on Ianuaria 7, 31 NE, they seemed shocked by the possibility of fitting their entire empire into a single star system, to which the Caeruleans pointed out that Nivenia held almost a thousand times the combined population of Caeruleo and the Lycaryuan Grand Republic.
Another fleet of massively gigantic colony ships from Nivenia, containing another 45 trillion passengers and mostly privately launched, reached the Caeruleo system on Ianuaria 16, 31 NE. They mainly settled in the asteroids.
On Ianuaria 20, 31 NE, the Great Nican Collective called back, apparently having thought-out the habitat/Dyson swarm thing, as they said that all of their planets were full, and that they needed someone to build them habitats to help with their nature preserves. With all of the new data received, NP-L2-ASI01 managed to create a translation program that improved upon the previous Nullian version by allowing the translation of the Great Nican Collective's language, which was not before covered. This allowed for much less clunky communication with them.
Although the Nivenian Empire is generally anti-environmentalist, it is not really the supplier's business what the consumer does with their products, so NP-L2-ASI01 referred the Great Nican Collective to the Megastructural Construction Corporation. The Megastructural Construction Corporation, in turn, referred the Great Nican Collective to their talk page for further details. This was widely regarded as a success by the Nivenian Empire and the Megastructural Construction Corporation, as it created a potential new customer.
On Ianuaria 39, 31 NE, the Platixi Empire made a last-ditch attempt to salvage their "lawsuit" by claiming that the components that JCompany received from the Tuechalton were "Warp Drives," while the components sold were "Warp Modules." Understandably, this did not convince anyone to give them money, even agitating the Purity. Supreme Ambassador JCute of the Bureaucrat JDivision of JCompany ended up deciding to clear up the issue once and for all on Ianuaria 44 by recovering the original documents of the JCompany-Tuechalton deal.
On Ianuaria 48, the Nivenian Empire Board of Technology decided to grant the Science JDivision of JCompany seven large research complexes in orbit of Nivenia Prime. Each complex was a massive rotating habitat, mainly filled with science equipment, and capable of housing thousands of labs. This grant was made due to Genius JCreepy's complaints regarding JCute's bureaucracy impeding on Science JDivision matters. Genius JCreepy graciously accepted, and commented about how "anywhere away from JCute is a good place."
Martex[]
On Martex 4, 31 NE, the Platixi Empire decided to cut ties with JCompany, because of their perceived "technology theft." The Phrovan Socialist Republic loudly complained about the large amount of evidence in favor of JCompany, but there was no response from the Platixi. JCompany did respond however, with Tycoon JOmnivore of JCompany saying that he "called his contacts" and that "Everything will be OK." This move by the Platixi was largely seen as shortsighted by the Nivenian media, most of which sided with JCompany on the issue.
Shortly afterwards, on Martex 12, the Phrovan Socialist Republic sent the blueprints for a system that they plan to use to move stars around at near the speed of light using the VAS (Velocity Augmentation Systems) technology that they developed to the Science JDivision of JCompany for their review. While the entire thing seemed exceedingly strange to the Nivenian Empire (as it used "augment crystals" and only a few hundred metric tons of solar panels to power it), Genius JCreepy's willingness to believe in its possibility speaks on its behalf.
On Martex 27, the Great Nican Collecive got back to the Nivenians, saying that it wanted a ringworld "that could support the population of a whole empire," around "one of its major stars." The Megastructural Construction Corporation responded by asking how much area that meant (in planetary areas, with Earth as the reference planet), along with their prices and construction times - one planetary mass of carbon per hundred thousand planetary areas of ringworld, and one week of construction time per twenty-five thousand planetary areas requested.
On Martex 34, an atomic bomb launched around 470 BNE on an extremely elliptical orbit around the primary of the Nivenia System crashed into Nivenia A Ringworld 24. This immediately caused two massive emergencies, both the physical emergency of patching and fixing Nivenia A Ringworld 24 before all of the air leaked out, and the political emergency of an atomic bomb having slipped unnoticed through Nivenia's defenses. This almost resulted in votes of no confidence in several of the top members of the government, had they not called in some favors from several media corporations to cover up the incident.
On Martex 47, the Great Nican Collective specified a ringworld with one million planetary areas. While this was the largest ringworld ever done by the Megastructural Construction Corporation, the payment of 10 planetary masses of carbon enticed them to focus nearly their entire efforts into the ringworld's construction, with an estimated completion time of 280 days, with the ringworld ready by Ianuaria 27, 32 NE. This massive undertaking was the largest single project ever preformed by the Megastructural Construction Corporation, and the first time in decades that they put most of their industrial capabilities toward one goal.
Interlude: Technology[]
On Martex 55, 31 NE, a previously-unheard-of neuroscientist by the name of Dr. Madison Webb made several astounding discoveries in the field of computer-brain interfaces, which created the technology that could theoretically be applied to create a new generation of improved cybernetic systems, able to link with the mind of the user quite a bit more intuitively, and with much less lag and error. Webb was immidiately put in a high-ranking position in the Board of Technology, and was nominated for several major scientific awards shortly afterwards.
Iunius[]
Interlude: Technology[]
On Iunius 4, 31 NE, a massive project was undertaken by the Nivenian Board of Technology to improve their efficiency by making cybernetic implantations allowing for instant communication and database searches mandatory. This was mainly a decision based on several dozen preliminary tests of Dr. Webb's discoveries, which showed that the newer, more accurate, and faster methods of brain-computer information transfer used were able to seamlessly integrate into the consciousness of the test subjects. While the cybernetics were mandatory for Board of Technology members, any members who did not want to undergo the implantation process were made reserve staff, and removed from active participation, but were not otherwise punished.
As massive amounts of effort were going into the development of the newer generation of cybernetics, the preliminary testing phase was completed by Iunius 17, which was viewed as a major accomplishment by all parties involved. By then, the first basic cybernetics packages using the new technology were becoming available on the open market. Although there were some initial worries of citizens linking together their minds in weird ways using the new technology, strict network bandwidth limits imposed by basic computing and network limitations prevented this from occurring.
By Iunius 26, the project to install basic cybernetics suites into all members of the Board of Technology was completed. The added efficiency from these measures increased research speed by almost twenty percent, allowing for much more efficient scientific progress, and much more effective review and verification measures. NP-L2-ASI01 was quite happy by this development as well, as it meant that NP-L2-ASI01 could share data with fellow research personnel much more easily, along with the added reduction in explanation times for difficult concepts.
On Iunius 39, the Platixi Empire finally admitted to being wrong about the supposed "theft" of their Warp Modules by JCompany and the Purity, acknowledging that JCompany's evidence and findings were correct, and that the Warp Modules in question came from someone else. This came as a huge relief to most of the Nivenian Empire, as random squabbles can, have, and will descend into war if nothing is done about them (like the New Spodia Wars, to an extent). The fact that the situation was resolved using diplomacy, and not with conflict was largely presented as a victory for peaceful solutions.
Interlude: Nivenian-JCompany Relations[]
On Iunius 52, several envoys of the Nivenian Imperial Government requested an alliance/defensive pact with JCompany, along with relaxed regulations regarding purchase of black-box military and civilian technologies. The reasons for this proposal were threefold - most importantly, the Gigaquadrant was a very large place, and having allies is very useful diplomatically. The alliance would also be beneficial to trading, as parties from both factions would have much higher security in investments made in the other. Lastly, the massive industrial bases of both the Nivenian Empire and JCompany would be able to synchronize production to minimize operating costs by producing higher outputs.
Tycoon JOmnivore of JCompany responded on Iunius 58, saying that they had done a survey and determined the proposed alliance to be a wonderful idea, even proposing a large party to commemorate the occasion. Given what had happened the previous time JCompany had thrown a massive party (on the JOmnivore planet, a few years earlier), Tycoon JOmnivore promised to behave. Still a little wary, the Nivenian Government suggested having the party on Nivenia Prime instead of the JOmnivore planet, as Nivenia Prime has phenomenal security (at least in the administrative sections).
Novemex[]
On Novemex 5, Tycoon JOmnivore, Supreme Ambassador JCute, Genius JCreepy, and Intergalactic Traveler JBot arrived with their convoys to the party being held at the Administrative District of Nivenia Prime by the Nivenian Imperial Government. Representatives from several large corporations were also present, most notably the Megastructural Construction Corporation, MegaSuperUltraCorp, and Nivenia Defensive Systems, Incorporated.
The party accomplished several goals. First, security made sure that nothing too out of the ordinary happened. Second, as the party went relatively smoothly, it was able to reverse the blemish on both the Nivenian Empire and JCompany reputation that was their previous joint festival to commemorate the completion of their Electromagnetic Material Intergalactic Transit Tube project. Third, the party would also serve as a gathering for technology sharing as a sign of good faith. In this interest, all of the designs for protium-fusion reactors (save the designs for manufacturing the one ignition component kept a closely-guarded secret from everyone by the Nivenian Government, allowing JCompany to build fusion reactors capable of operating on unrefined hydrogen instead of specialized deuterium isotopes. On all fronts, the party was a success.
Interlude: Technology[]
On Novemex 22, 31 NE, the Nivenian Empire aquired the technology required to synthesize andasium at Petaflux scales. Petaflux andasium synthesis techniques build upon teraflux and gigaflux techniques by using insulated and artificially cooled tubes inside the andasium electrolysis device to house computer systems capable of greater fine control of the synthesis, both allowing facilities roughly a thousand times larger (producing andasium on the order of quadrillions of kilograms per second - equal to some entire countries), and reducing the energy cost of electrolysis from 650 MJ/kg minimum to 500 MJ/kg minimum. Nevertheless, the facilities created would have to use at least the energy output of a medium-sized (early-M-type main sequence) star or more to properly power them.
This technology would allow for the Megastructural Construction Corporation to build a machine that had been on the back-burner since around Iunius 40, 27 NE, a massive space station, almost a Kardashev two megastructure in its own right, named Andasium Reductor 4. Proposed to sit at the barycenter of the Nivenia System, and beam five yottawatts of power, close to the output of a K-type main-sequence star from the Caeruleo system to power itself, initial projections had shown and an output of marginally less than 720 quadrillion metric tons of Andasium per day.
This awesome megastructure would take years to complete, but as soon as they had the technology, and permission from the Nivenian Imperial Government, the Megastructural Construction Corporation set about building Andasium Reductor 4. After construction began, it had an estimated completion data of Novemex 30, 38 NE due to the scale of the construction, and the current focus being put on the "MegaRing" (a ringworld with a million planetary areas) being constructed for the Great Nican Collective. However, due to setbacks from the coming war, this date would be pushed back by a full year.
In late Novemex, the Nivenian Trading Organization for Commercial Benefits welcomed Nivenia Defensive Systems into its trading block, as the New Spodia Wars were all but over and the boycotts had been lifted. This was mainly due to the placement of several well-placed bribes in MegaSuperUltraCorp by Nivenia Defensive Systems representatives. This would turn out to be a made move that would later spell the end of the organization, but at the time it seemed like a reasonable thing to do, as Nivenia Defensive Systems' dealing on both sides of the Federation of Free Empires-Coalition of Seceding States war was not publicly known.
Dekemurios[]
During the first part of Dekemurios, a prominent figure rose to power as a political candidate in the areas around Nivenia B3. This figure, Cameron Moss, largely stood for extremely militaristic policies, such as abducting alien ships to reverse-engineer their FTL drives, swarming the galaxy, and trying to take over or subjugate everyone else with their superior numbers, which was one of the major policies he envisioned. This did not go over well with any of the previous major (or even large minor) parties, so Moss started his own: The Nivenian Militarist Faction.
The first major action taken by the Nivenian Militarist Faction happened on Dekemurios 15, when most of them got together to call a vote of no confidence in the planetary-regional government of Nivenia B3. The reason that they were numerous enough to do this stemmed from several major reasons. First, Cameron Moss had more than thirty years of experience in the spaceship manufacturing industry, two-thirds of which was based in the vicinity of B3, giving him a lot of sway with most of the employees. Second, as only about one in forty thousand Nivenians are eligible to vote, a majority was not hard to build. Third, since the economy of the region was almost completely based on shipbuilding, massive wars would start massive economic booms for them.
The vote of no confidence was pushed through, and through several notably underhanded (and also conveniently covered-up) political tactics, Cameron Moss became the Planetary Coordinator of Nivenia B3. This was a very unfortunate occurrence for the Nivenian Imperial Government at large, as it put Moss, who was largely viewed as dangerous and politically disruptive, in a position of power. Almost immediately after his election, Moss began talking of massive military reforms, and the reverse-engineering of a stolen FTL drive to subjugate the gigaquadrant with, something that the Nivenian Imperial Government did its best to cover up.
Cameron Moss began trying to form a coalition of militarily-inclined organizations around Dekemurios 43, by holding a meeting with several other Planetary Coordinators in the space around the secondary of the Nivenia System, along with several high-ranking generals and admirals in the region, and some executives of Nivenia Defensive Systems. As the meeting was behind closed doors, the specifics of what was said are not known, but what is known is that Nivenia Defensive Systems sent out several hundred teracredits' worth of assets to holding companies associated with most of the participants in the meeting.
What is known is that directly after the meeting, branches of the Nivenian Militarist Faction appeared all over the space around the secondary of the Nivenia System, and that Nivenia Defensive Systems began building a private military out of ships of the same design as Nivenian warships. While this private military was painted as a peacekeeping force, and granted legal authority by most governmental districts in the space around the secondary of the Nivenia System (especially the ones that got the most assets sent to holding companies affiliated with them), the Nivenian Imperial Government granted the force no legal authority.
Neochios[]
Interlude: Industrial Ringworld[]
On Neochios 11, 31 NE, an interesting proposal was submitted to the Megastructural Construction Corporation by their finance department and their research and development department. Basically, another ringworld around Nivenia Prime would be constructed, but this one would be at about twice the distance of the previous ringworlds, and would be parallel to one of them, so that all of the incoming sunlight would be blocked. This initially sounded like a bad idea for two reasons - First, even if this new ringworld would have four times the land, the active-support section would weigh four times as much per unit area, or sixteen times as much overall. Second, what would be the point of a ringworld with no light? The answer was simple - This ringworld would have lower gravity than usual, and be used not as a biosphere, but instead as a massive light-to-medium industrial complex, spanning hundreds of thousands of planetary areas.
Instead of the typical 8.00 m/s^2 of agricultural ringworlds, the new industrial ringworld would have an artificial gravity value of around 6.00 m/s^2, but although this would require more mass to be added to the outside of the ring, the outer section was engineered to be able to use as much as 50% of its mass as silicate rocks left over from the disassembly of planets. The ringworld surface itself would mainly consist of light and medium industrial zones, with a population density of likely five thousand to fifty thousand per square kilometer, a density only feasible (without dedicated heat removal and radiation systems, at least) due to food imports. This could make its total population (when, and if completed, and if fully populated), between 3.8 and 38 quintillion! As this is ten to a hundred times the current population of the Nivenian Empire, it is unlikely that an industrial ringworld of this scale will be completed anytime soon.
The space on this ringworld would mainly be sold to industrial firms, and could potentially provide for the entire Nivenia System in terms of industrial capacity for civilian products, a role currently filled by Nivenia Prime. Freeing Nivenia Prime of this capacity could allow for potentially much more efficient bureaucracy and research on the planet. Unfortunately, due to the scope of the project, and combined with the several other megastructures that the Megastructural Construction Corporation was constructing at the time, construction of the Industrial Ringworld would have to be delayed indefinitely.
On Neochios 34, efficiency improvements in the Megastructural Construction Corporation's megastructure construction techniques allowed them to ramp up the speed of production of the million-planetary-area ringworld for the Great Nican Collective by almost five weeks, to Neochios 58. The improvements had to do with the later stages of construction, specifically the addition of the biospherecircle to the ringworld at the end of the construction process. This meant that while most parts of the construction process would stay the same, the final steps would become significantly cheaper and easier.
On Neochios 49, a major confrontation occurred between the LEGITIMATE Nivenian Imperial Defensive Forces and the forces commanded by Planetary Coordinator Cameron Moss. Both fleets began making implicit threats toward the other, but neither would back down. The incident would have gotten a lot worse had a conference between the Nivenian Imperial Government and Planetary Coordinator Cameron Moss not been called. While Moss acted very belligerent during the meeting, Imperial officials were eventually able to calm him down to the point where he told the Imperial Government that the fleet confrontation was the result of a disobedient commander (likely story) who would be fired. Tensions eased somewhat afterwards.
By the end of the year, the Nivenian Imperial Government was beginning to become very distrustful of Cameron Moss, who they were beginning to view as a rebel. Likewise, Moss was becoming increasingly convinced that the Nivenian Imperial Government would soon try to disrupt his power, and began trying to seal the borders of the Nivenia Secondary as much as he legally could. This prompted a response from Nivenia Prime that involved issuing Nivenia B Bureaucracy nullification stickers, which were (outrageously) denied. While tensions stabilized a bit afterwards, the prospects for the next year were not good, and the stock market was beginning to plummet.
32 NE[]
Ianuaria[]
On an interesting note, the flourishing andasium economy of the Nivenian Empire (while almost completely synthesized), had an interesting effect after a decade of drawing in more spent andasium then could be transmuted back into the valuable variety. While Nivenian motorcars were still running on synthesized gasoline, some manufacturers had decided to take advantage of andasium's phenomenal energy storage capability by making more expensive, but more fuel-efficient cars than ran on andasium as an energy storage mechanism instead of hydrocarbons. While neither had ever had the energy density of RTG-powered vehicles, those were still too expensive for the consumer market.
On Ianuaria 12, 32 NE, the Pure Divinity of Spodia announced its total purification, meaning that all of their population had been purified. Spodia, having grown from a mere 50 billion to the much larger (but still very small) size of 4.1 trillion in the previous several months (due to unknown reasons, although it is suspected that the newer citizens of Spodia are refugees from the Sublime Grubmolian State), received mainly positive replies, with the Pure JDivision of JCompany and the Purity complementing them on their achievement. However, the fact that the Pure Divinity of Spodia also mentioned unifying with all other Spodist nations, this was seen as more than a little worrying.
Due to unforeseen circumstances, the completion of the million-planetary area ringworld for the Great Nican Collective had to be pushed back to Ianuaria 19, 32 NE. At this time, the Megastructural Construction Corporation contacted the Great Nican Collective, informing it of the completion of this project, asking for payment, and also asking if they would like another on Ianuaria 20, 32 NE. As the agreed-upon payment was ten planetary masses of carbon for building materials, this deal and any that followed would hugely benefit the Megastructural Construction Corporation, and the Nivenian Empire as a whole. The exchange was made shortly afterwards.
Interlude: Technology[]
On Ianuaria 40, the Megastructural Construction Corporation developed a method to make Ecumenopolisization projects even easier - instead of terraforming the planet to T3 using conventional meant, and then using a DIY Ecumenopolis kit on it, why not build another kit that could be used to terraform planets? Thus, the planet terraformation kit was born. Featuring a pre-fabricated expandable thin frame around the exterior of a planet's surface, the Planet Terraformation Kit 1.0 could use onboard fusion reactors and habitats to provide a temporary (or permanent) residence to potentially tens of billions, while using massive lasers and atmospheric manipulation units, along with gigantic radiators, to terraform the planets below. The space-based infrastructure would then serve as an easy launch/landing method, and could serve as augmented population capacity.
Another product released at the same time was the habitable orbital ring, which functions as a smaller version of a ringworld, but around a planet, instead of a star, and usually only has an area on a scale comparable to the planet. However, unlike stellar ringworlds, the typical amount of space traffic in the vicinity of planets allows for massive transport hubs to be present on the outer ring (the active-support portion, used to hold the inner ring stationary while producing rotational gravity). As most planets have issues with the waste heat generated by all of their population, this product was seen as very likely to be a huge hit.
Martex[]
On the first of Martex, noncompliance shook the entire Nivenian Empire as Cameron Moss refused to send mandatory taxes back to Nivenia Prime from the secondary of the Nivenia System, announcing "economic independence" from the capital. This sparked a military confrontation to occur in the system three weeks later, on Martex 23, when Nivenian Imperial forces arrived to collect the overdue taxes. However, they arrived to find that Moss had somehow convinced the soldiers manning the Nivenia B defense rings to switch allegiance, and had established a rudimentary blockade around the secondary of the Nivenia System.
The blockade was made from a mixture of defensive megastructures (e.g. defense rings, fortified asteroid moons, space stations), and civilian and military ships. Although military ships typically have much better shields than civilian ones, civilian high-speed freighters have both high-exhaust velocity engines (which are powerful plasma weapons), and reasonably-good shields to protect from high-speed debris that would otherwise shred the ship. Thus, the blockade was extremely effective at stopping the small Nivenian force sent to collect the tax backlog.
With the blockade preventing Nivenian ships from entering the area surrounding the secondary of the Nivenia System, Moss declared the independence of the area, and the formation of what he called the "United Democratic Republic of Nivenia B," a "militaristic democracy," supposedly, never minding the fact that the country was born in a state of emergency - which called for the suspension of elections. In all reality the government was a military junta - but like most of its kind before it, it pretended to be a democracy to make sure that it had the moral high ground in the eyes of uninformed bystanders.
Cameron Moss declared himself the "President" of the new regime, and immediately declared martial law over the whole of the system secondary. The Nivenian Imperial ships outside the blockade finally decide that they had had enough, and began to charge in on Martex 32. While the first two defense rings did not stop the Nivenian fleet, as they did not want to fire upon their former countrymen, Moss forced the third defense ring to maintain the blockade and fire upon the Nivenian fleet upon pain of death once word got to his ears. These shots, and the hours-long battle that followed, resulted in several billion casualties on both sides, and marked the start of the third Nivenian war of re-unification.