Khan United

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Cheese, dairy, livestock, soy, genetically engineered crops, high-proof vodka, weapons, ships, cola products, stuffed animals, raw materials.

# **Khan United**

(Work In Progress)
The Khan United was the second unified government of the Khan people of the Belt, following the simultaneous military defeat of the Khan Enclave's navy in the Battle of Temujin 27 and the - - Revolution's successes in the Khan capital. Following the dissolution of the Enclave, a provisional government was established with the assistance of the Earth Federal Navy that eventually formed the Khan United Government, colloquially referred to as the Khan United or simply the KU.

## History

### The Banished

In 2151, the 1st Fleet enacted the policy of 'Banishment' throughout it's territory. The policy entailed sending those convicted of nearly any crime, including the thousands arrested in riots and protests across the system in the wake of the Gate's destruction, into the farthest and unexplored reaches of the system. While everyone knew this was a death sentence in all but name, the prison hulks that were sent out still had life support, food, and enough supplies to last the Banished to their nebulous destination.

But while those who were Banished were written off as dead by the rest of the system, even the unforgiving Belt was not enough to kill them all.

While most of the prison hulks would see the deaths of all hands, three dozen hulks over the early years of the banishment were captured by the gravity well of a previously undiscovered planet. While cold and unforgiving, this world had a breathable atmosphere and enough biodiversity to sustain life. This biodiversity was added to by the survivors, who formed settlements around the groups they were banished with, salvaged what seeds they could from the supplies they'd been given, and started building a new home.

### The Early Clans

These settlements became highly insular, eventually coming to be known as 'clans.' But in spite of their insularity, the resources each clan had access to were not enough to sustain them. At first, the Clans started to try and steal from or kill rivals, but each clan was fighting for their lives, and the cost of such ventures often proved more devastating than the benefits.

In 2157, representatives from each of the clans in what is now the Danger Province, the largest habitable region on the planet, met together and formed Karakorum, a neutral trading post where all were welcome. This trading post eventually grew into the largest city on the planet, so large that most denizens of the Belt call the planet by the same name. With Karakorum established, the surviving clans began trading resources, supplementing for each other's deficiencies, and starting to build. Clans started to develop space flight again, at first primitive rockets using engines stripped from the remains of their prison hulks, but once the Clans began establishing orbital stations that began to change. By the time that the Rogue Traders clan built Reprisal Shipyard in 2169, Khans were already setting up outposts throughout the Belt.

### The First Major Clans

At this point, Banishment was still a punishment within the 1st Fleet's space, and so new prison hulks sent into the Belt were frequently detected and rescued with much higher rates of survival, seeing the population of the clans start to swell. This most heavily effected the clans who already had the resources to perform such rescues and house the survivors, leading to some clans rapidly ballooning in power and population. The largest of these was Majestic Carabao Agriculture, who had been given a gift of large quantities of seeds and a dozen cattle smuggled onto their prison hulk, who leveraged that early blessing into one of the strongest agricultural industries in the Belt. They were also lucky enough to have been banished with several terraforming experts who were arrested in riots against the 1st Fleet, who by 2184 had turned the Danger Province into a comparable paradise.

Meanwhile, the Rogue Traders Shipyards, who were producing the best built ships in the Belt out of their orbital yard Reprisal, had expanded to have a heavy hand in mining raw resources as well. The Goldo Clan, while newcomers who arrived after the settlement of Karakorum, quickly took control of trade and shipping between the far flung outposts of the Belt. And where there is trade, there is piracy, and the Pravda Heavy Industries grew feared and powerful off of it.

These major clans soon entered into an uneasy detente, each having things the others lacked. MCA had numbers and controlled much of the food production in the Belt, Goldo could clamp down on trade and PHI could pilfer it, meanwhile the raw resources and ship building of the RTS was crucial to every clan. For a while, this mutual self interest kept the major clans at peace. But that couldn't last for ever.

### The Warring Clans

The situation came to a head in 2189, when the Goldo Clan, tired of negotiating protections from the pirates of the PHI, demanded that RTS and MCA stop supplying raw resources and food to the pirates. However, the RTS had been growing frustrated about having to pay Goldo to carry resources between RTS mines and RTS production facilities, and so formally declared war on Goldo. MCA, unwilling to follow orders from another clan but unwilling to risk their farms in a bloody conflict, chose neutrality in the worst way possible; by cutting off all three clans from food shipments. All three clans then declare three separate wars on the MCA in order to try and claim their farms, however this quickly turned into destroying farms to deny assets to their enemies. In 2190, a brief alliance between the RTS and PHI against Goldo fell apart because the leaders of both clans got into a pit duel over whether shark faces on ships was a structural weakness and wound up both dying at the other's hands, sparking a war.

With that, every major clan was at war with every other major clan, and nothing was safe. Within the first few years of the Warring Clans period, Clans fought for conquest, being careful not to damage the civilian facilities they were fighting to control. However, in 2194, the Goldo Clan attacked the MCA transport "*Cúailnge,"* carrying seven cattle and thousands of tons of food, destroying it with all hands. The destruction of the *Cúailnge* led to a sudden and immediate shift in the war, as MCA launched an immediate retaliatory strike to avenge their beloved cattle by wiping out a PHI base called *Vladivostok* while it's ships were out, killing wounded and non-combatants to the last man and burning their bodies, leaving them on display for the PHI raiders to find when they returned. The Vladivostok Massacre and the Cattle Raid of the *Cúailnge* saw a near immediate shift in the hostilities, with the focus of the clans turning from taking things from each other to denying assets, taking revenge, and inflicting terror onto their enemies, and it would go on like that with no end in sight.

### The Great Khanquest

As the major clans burned and butchered each other, the habitability of the Belt rapidly deteriorated. The original city of Karakorum was bombed from orbit, sparking a refugee crisis on the planet. Travelling between outposts without being attacked by *someone* was next to unheard of, raids on settlements even tangentially related to the war efforts became staggeringly commonplace. Food shortages became the norm for the first time in decades, even in the MCA, and attacks by rival clans had left much of the populous Danger Province a burning ruin.

In the midst of this, a figure emerged. The first record of **The Khan** is in 2205 when the Goldo cruiser *Tiny Snek* attempted to stop a small, unarmed rockhopper with a single occupant. Caught in the cruiser's interdiction field, the rockhopper proceeded to rush the cruiser, spinning it's way past the withering fire before latching itself to the ship's hull. It's occupant proceeded to get out and challenge the captain to single combat on top of one of the *Tiny Snek's* hydrogen thrusters. After besting the captain, he then proceeded to challenge the first officer, then the second, until he had defeated every single person aboard the ship in single combat without a single rest. Miraculously, he also bested them without taking a single life, and so the crew of the *Tiny Snek* declared that he was their new captain. The man, then only known as Khan, proceeded to take his newfound warship and head to Goldo space, challenging any warship of any clan he encountered and besting them as well. By the time he reached the Goldo headquarters in 2206, Khan had amassed a fleet of twenty warships, mostly Goldo vessels who had all sworn themselves to his cause after he had bested them in battle.

From the bridge of the *Tiny Snek*, Khan announce that the Clans' war with each other would not stop until everyone was dead, not unless somebody stronger made them stop. He proceeded to challenge the Primus of the Goldo clan to battle, a battle his fleet quickly lost. The Goldo Clan had mobilized every ship they had, including several cruisers equal in strength to the *Tiny Snek*, and Khan was forced to retreat. This was hardly the first time some upstart had challenged a major clan, and in most cases such a defeat would have been the end of him. But his words and deeds inspired many, even in defeat, and his followers did not abandon him. In fact, as they fled, Khan's fleet began finding new ships flying alongside them, pledging their support for his mission.

Khan and his forces retreated from Goldo space, heading towards Karakorum. The planet was largely controlled by MCA's fleet, with most of the space around it controlled by RTS. RTS, seeing an opportunity, quickly began launching harassing attacks on Khan's fleet, pushing him towards MCA territory. Caught between a rock and a hard place, Khan ordered the smaller frigates in his fleet to break off and hide, while his larger ships that couldn't enter the gravity well headed straight for the MCA's main battle line.

Khan once again gave his speech about how the people of the Belt would not survive if the clans continued fighting, a speech that went over considerably better in the MCA. Several MCA ships notified him that they would join him, creating chaos in the MCA battle line that allowed Khan's frigates to sneak past the MCA blockade over the Danger Province. As the MCA's loyalists waged war on Khan and his defectors, the frigate force took control of the largest ranches in the Danger province. With their precious cattle held hostage, Khan was able to force the MCA to the negotiating table.

When he met with their leaders, Khan was asked what his demands were. Those present say he simply shrugged, and said "I want the war to end." After several hours of people arguing about whether that was even possible, he proceeded to tell them about his plan to unite the clans under one banner. Khan swore those present to secrecy about his identity and his past, for if he was part of none of the clans then he could unite all of them. Learning that Khan had no intention to punish the MCA for fighting him, and in fact that he wanted them to help him end the war, the heads of the clan agreed. Khan did not take on the title of leader of the MCA, however, instead choosing to simply take the title of The.

**The Khan's** next Khanquest came a year later, in 2207. After many years organizing his followers and the MCA forces, he launched an attack on the RTS, his forces heading straight for Reprisal. RTS ships were notoriously tough, but **The Khan's** fleet was bolstered by the vast numbers of the MCA and by the droves of defectors from other factions, in particular Goldo ships who had slowly been trickling into MCA space to join him. He had also been joined by the Penumbra, an order of warriors aboard stealth corvettes who held the long and sacred duty of keeping warriors honorable. The Penumbra had been important to keeping the peace between the Clans, but had been progressively ignored as the Time of the Warring Clans went on. But they had heard **The Khan's** message and come to join him, and now their particular strengths would become crucial to his success.

The main MCA force struck heavily at RTS, forcing them to bring their heaviest forces to the fight. Once the battle was met, however, **The Khan's** followers from the Goldo clan struck out of nowhere, their presence hidden from the RTS by the Penumbra's powerful jamming capabilities. Taken off guard and surrounded, the RTS forces were given a chance to surrender. They refused, and the fleet fought to the last ship. After that, RTS surrendered to **The** **Khan**, coming to the same surprised revelation that the MCA had when he commended their ships' durability, their warrior's commitment, and asked them to join him in ending the war.

The Khanquest of the RTS did not go unnoticed. Goldo, who had been bleeding ships and warriors to **The Khan**, quickly began mobilizing to invade. While **The Khan** had gained considerable shipbuilding capabilities, he had gained very few ships. Most of the RTS' heavy assets were lost in battle, with the cruiser *Longbow* the only capital ship still intact as it had been being refit at the time of the battle. As the Goldo fleet was quickly invading, and many of the MCA ships were still damaged from the Battle of Reprisal, **The Khan** took the four largest available ships; the *Tiny Snek*, the *Longbow*, and the MCA cruisers *Toe Sucker* and *Garry The Woe*, along with the Penumbra, and launched a raid back into Goldo territory, attacking everything they could on their way to the GC headquarters. With **The Khans** heaviest available assets tied up attacking everything behind enemy lines that they could, and Goldo's heavy assets committing to the invasion, both sides had the knife to the others throats. But the GC invasion of **The Khans** territory stalled, as the destroyers, frigates, and light cruisers fending them off, while weaker, were crewed by determined people.

Goldo was forced to the negotiating table, thoroughly impressed by **The Khan's** tactics. (Section unfinished)

### The Glorious Revolution

During the Belt War, the Earth Federal Navy battleship *EFN Eternity's Advent* pressed deep into Khan territory, fighting to disrupt the Khan Enclave's supply lines and force ships away from the front to deal with her. In the course of this campaign, the *EFN Eternity's Advent* participated in the Markus Revolt on the Khan moon of Jeffrey that eventually lead to the expulsion of KE forces from the Moon. Following the successful repulsion of a KE punitive expedition to Jeffrey following the Revolt, Captain Brock of the Eternity broadcasted a message addressing the Khan population. In this message, known as the Eternity's Address, he informed the people of the Pioneer system that the Eternity was a ship from Earth on a mission to restore the jump gate back to Sol, and that the people of the Khans Enclave must cease supporting the KE war machine. Following this announcement, Khan settlements and ships across the Belt entered into open revolt.

Meanwhile, the Riders had broken through the Khan frontline, and were rapidly gaining ground as the Khan forces retreated into their core territory for a final stand. This force, functionally the entire remaining KE navy, wound up crossing the path of the *EFN Eternity's Advent*, along with her squadron consisting of the *EFN Constellation* [Link to Page], the Rider cruiser *Vesuvius* [Link to Page], and the insurgent Khan destroyer *Sparta* [Link to Page] near the Temujin trojan cluster. While the *Eternity* drew the fire of the majority of the Khan formation, the *Constellation*, escorted by the *Sparta* and the *Vesuvius*, attempted to escape the range of Khan communication jamming in order to inform the approaching Rider armada of the *Eternity's* situation. While the *Sparta* was critically damaged and forced to withdraw, and the *Vesuvius* was critically damaged by the heavy cruiser *Longbow* [Link to Page] but spared by her Shipmaster, the *Constellation* was able to send out a message to the Riders, who arrived in full force to assist the Eternity.

In the ensuing Battle of Temujin 27, the might of the Khan Enclave's war machine was crippled. Countless ships, including infamous vessels such as the cruiser *GarryTheWoe* [Link to Page] were destroyed, and the Khan's Enclave formally surrendered as the mostly crippled *EFN Eternity's Advent* rammed the Khan battleship *Pioneer's Folly* [Link to Page] into the asteroid Temujin 27 b, where her hulk remains to this day as a memorial. With the Rider force at their doorstep and the entire belt consumed with revolts, the Khan's Enclave was formally disbanded, and the crew of the *Eternity* helped establish an interim government.

### Khan Interregnum

In the months that followed, the interim government established by the EFN, the Khan Interregnum, worked to create a path forward for the Khan people. The primary issues of the Khan Interregnum were three-fold; Establish a new working government for the Khan peoples that would not immediately redeclare war, decide the fate of the Khan caste system, and establish methods of paying reparations to those most affected by the war. This last matter proved to be one of the most contentious, however, as neither the warrior-elite who had bankrolled the war and the partisan revolutionaries who had risen up against them wished to pay for the war's toll. In the case of the latter, they felt that they were among the war's aggrieved, not aggressors, and that their struggle against the KE had absolved them of the KE's responsibilities. This led many factions, most notably the insurgent Trade Station Alpha, to break off from the Khans entirely, becoming wholly independent. The warrior-elite, on the other hand, wished to maintain as much of the power as they had possessed before the KE's fall.

This strife was exacerbated by the collapse of the Riders. Mass unrest in the Outer Reach, war weariness on the part of its fighters, and the desire not to be an occupying force in Khan lands led the Riders to completely pull out from the Belt, retreating to the core space they had held at the start of the Rider/CDF War [Link to Page]. As the *EFN Eternity's Advent* was still heavily damaged and undergoing repairs at Shipyard Reprisal under the auspices of Rogue Traders Shipyards [Link to Page] and the *EFN Constellation* had been destroyed in the Battle of Temujin 27, this left the only military force remaining in the system capable of enforcing the terms of the surrender on the Khans was the remnants of the Khan military itself.

Three weeks after the Battle of Temujin 27, an attempted coup occurred. Captain Brock of the *Eternity*, though a popular figure among the Khans both for his proven honor and valor in battle, and for ideals he'd expressed in the Eternity's Address, had also been pushing for the bulk of the war reparations to fall on the wealthiest Khans. This was because he had learned over the course of his campaign in Khan space that they had pushed the Belt War and stood the most to profit from it, and he wanted them to shoulder the biggest share of the burden. However, the warrior-elite bristled at any consequences, and so organized a coup to both overthrow the Khan Interregnum, thereby taking control of the government. They enlisted the aid of many Khan warriors disgruntled with the changes, who formed the bulk of the remains of the military and made their move. Simultaneous strikes on Reprisal and the Capital were made, as well as an attempt to seize control of the Khan battleship *Tiniest Snek* [Link to page], the largest warship in the Belt aside from the *Eternity*. Their assault on Reprisal was repulsed by the *Longbow* and other ships of the RTS clan, who refused to allow such a valiant ship to be taken by treachery. The *Snek*'s decks were awash with blood as intense fighting with rifles and grinders tore through the ship, but eventually the battleship remained loyal to the Interregnum. And finally, an attack on the interim government, meant to kill the delegates to the Khangress, was foiled by a mob of Khan civilians that stormed the building and slaughtered the attempted assassins with bricks, blades, bludgeons, and power tools.

In the wake of the Interregnum Insurrection, loyal members of the Khan military challenged the survivors to duels in the Pit. The few that refused were declared honor less, and were stripped of all possessions, and the many that met the challenge met their end in bloody grinder battle, and their assets were donated to the government by the victors. This sudden influx of wealth solved the reparation problem, though the Khan government was once again nearly bankrupted once it had paid those restitutions. In the wake of the reparation's crisis, the other matters were solved through lively but constructive debate, although only three delegates present at the first meeting survived to the signing due to the prevalence of grinder duels over constant disagreements and insults.

### The Khans United

A month after the Battle of Temujin 27, the ratification of the Khanstitution formed a new government for the Khan people, the Khan United. While the name was a slight misnomer, as the KU government directly controlled only a third of the KE's prewar territory. Their fleets were likewise depleted by both the terrible losses at the Battle of Temujin 27 and that failed coup, and their treasuries were depleted by the reparations to foreign powers and the repairing the damage the war had wrought to Khan territory. However, in spite of this, or perhaps even because of it, one of the KU's first proclamations was that as much as could be spared would be poured into the construction of a Jump Gate. Working directly under the direction of the crew of the *EFN Eternity's Advent*, the Khans began constructing the massive superstructure and called for any available Khans to assist. The call was answered in droves, as miners, scrappers, engineers, and shipwrights from across the Belt, many no longer even part of the KU's territory, arrived to see the Jump Gate to its completion.

## The Clans

When the Khans where first banished, they did not unify into the Enclave instantly. At first, they were just groups of people working together to survive. Many of these groups still died, but some few survived. The groups that lived eventually declared themselves to be clans and started their own societies. With five major clans; Rogue Traders Shipyards, Majestic Carabao Agriculture, Pravda Heavy Industries, the Goldo Clan, and the Marauders.

These clans lived, battled, traded, and had politics with each other for a long time. Eventually, however, a man who had never joined a clan formed his own group of loyal followers. And he dubbed himself as the **Khan**, and with his companions he started converting small clans to his cause. Eventually having a small navy of ships from different clans. With this he started converting mayor clans via the Khan way. Killing everyone who thought of him as lesser in combat till everyone agreed he is good in combat. He converted 4 of the large clans into his new faction. The Khans Enclave. And with this he tried to convert the Marauders however tragically died at the apex of fighting.

This left the clans devastated. The Enclaves were formed to keep the **Khan's** accomplishment and the dream of Khan unity alive, but none of the clans were ever truly assimilated, and remain somewhat independent to this day.

### Major Clans

#### RTS: Rogue Traders Shipyards

Before the collapse of Pioneer System, Rogue Traders Shipyards was the proud owner of a shipyard in the Inner Rim. Yet after the collapse they found themselves banished to the Belt by 1st Fleet. They should have died there, but struggled on regardless, leveraging their engineering expertise to ensure their survival. They quickly became the premiere faction for resource extraction, developing an iron grip on all major mining ventures in the Belt. In addition, their expertise in ship building and mining got them into the position where quickly Rogue Traders Shipyards became the only clan to produce ships that where so armored they were dubbed unkillable

When the **Khan** unified all the clans into one faction, he had the most problems killing any of the RTS ships. It took the **Khan** devastating 90% of their fleet before RTS surrendered, leaving their numbers low ever since. Thus, during the Belt War, RTS ship numbers were low but their survivability was unmatched by any other KE vessel.

After the Belt War and the formation of the Khan United, RTS had difficulty adapting to the new morals of the KU. To this day, RTS is still looking for ways to recuperate the losses they suffered over the years. Yet now that the 1st Fleet has reared it's head in the Outer Reach, RTS has become very conflicted, as there is a need to rebuild their fleets and a need to get back at the people that exiled their ancestors all those years ago.

#### MCA: Majestic Carabao Agriculture

The story of Majestic Carabao Agriculture is a story of regrowth and survival. MCA started on the very same prison hulk that they were banished on, a death sentence in all but name. But it has something that the other hulks hadn't: a hidden blessing that the MCA made the most of. During their banishment, a dissident 1st Fleet officer did not agree with his peers. When one of his best friends was put on the hulk that would become the MCA's, he broke with his orders and smuggled several cows and bags of seeds, dirt, water and animal food on the ship. He knew full well that this might grant him a first-class ticket on the next banishment ship, but his humanity overtook any fear he had of the consequences, and the poor souls on the ship never forgot that officer, remembering his act of mercy even as his name passed from memory.

MCA started their life in the Belt way smoother than any other clan. They quickly secured their position as the main farmers of the belt, making other factions pay or fight them for their food. Their power grew with each encounter with other clans, quickly becoming the biggest clan in all the belt through both conquest and the power of their steady food supply. But the MCA's power was soon matched by the arrival of the **Khan** and his quest to unify the clans of the Belt. MCA was the first major clan to fall to the **Khan's** military might, with the **Khan's** smaller fleet outplaying MCA's forces at every turn. After joining the **Khan** and becoming the first major in Enclave, the MCA later played a critical role in defeating the other major clans as the **Khan's** forces quickly turned from rag tag war boys into the disciplined of capable ships and soldiers that the Pioneer system would come to know and fear.

During the Belt War, MCA forces could be seen in every battle, and as a result their numbers were cut down heavily during the war. But even after the devastating Battle of Temujin 27, the MCA still had the highest numbers of any other clan, even in spite of losing famed and beloved MCA warships such as the notorious *GarryTheWoe*. However, the creation of Khans United has seen their military numbers start to stagger, as most new MCA recruits see what all the destruction has brought and decided to become farmers once more. Their moral at an all-time low and their concern for the worlds outside their settlements reduced to basically nothing, the MCA is stricken with the losses the war has brought them. However, as the Outlands grow increasingly unstable and new factions begin to rise where so many others fell, the time may come again when MCA is called to defend their space again from the raiders and strife.

#### PHI: Pravda Heavy Industries

Pravda Heavy Industries did not start as a group of people united by scarcity and need, but rather as partners is crime. When the one-way prison ships filled with banished arrived in the Belt, it was the Pravda pirate group they feared most. Pravda was ruthless, and they reveled in the joy that is combat. Often Pravda would let their victims enter their ships before attacking to have combat last even one second longer. Their infamy was unmatched, and the Pravda group's predations were the direct reason there would eventually be so few older major clans.

Yet these pirates would not stay pirates for long. With the influx of groups calling themselves clans, these smaller groups started to band together until they came to double the war power of the Pravda pirates. This left only the most war-hardened members of Pravda to survive. These members fought hard, fought without giving up, and most importantly adopted a system of honor where they judged their opposition on how fair they fought and how much technique they put into their maneuvers. These veterans started to adopt the shark teeth on their ships and helmets, symbolizing to other veterans that they fought via the rules of honor and that they demanded respect from an enemy via them showing them their best shot.

These veterans became legends. They spread the idea of an Honorable fight far and wide in the Belt. In no time all ship captains worth their salt would fly with shark teeth in the name of honor. Pravda would soon challenge their years of bad reputation as these veterans forged their new identity as Pravda Heavy Industries. They started producing ships which only the best captains could fly and master, and they believed these ships, would dominate any battle under the right hand. And PHI continued growing their reputation as the newly declared clan where your combat prowess would outshine anything. When the **Khan** started uniting the clans into Khans, it was the PHI who defeated him the most, and it was the PHI who broke the **Khan's** main fleet. Yet this would not defeat the **Khan**, whose successes were based in his ability to make people work together and to learn from mistakes. In the long term, PHI stood alone against the full might of all clans the **Khan** converted

Later, during the Belt War, it was PHI who lead the charge into the Outer Reaches. Their war prowess was unmatched, so much so that they were allowed to rebuild many of their ships into the Khan battleship, the *Pioneer's Folly*.

Yet at the war's end disaster struck. PHI's inability to leave a fight because of honor reduced 90% of its fleet power to wreckage, left many of their veterans dead, and the *Pioneer's Folly* rammed into Temujin 27 b in a climactic ramming attack from the heavily damaged *EFN Eternity's Advent*. In the end, their main leadership faced the guns in a suicide charge alongside the grunts they were leading, choosing death and glory above surrender, and Pravda's Shipmaster is to this day listed as Missing in Action.

Under the new Khans United government, PHI is struggling. As members are reverting back to a life of piracy and joining newer minor factions seeking glory, it is up to the new PHI to see whether they can rebuild what was lost or if they degrade further into a fleeting memory of the past.

#### GC: Goldo Clan

The Goldo Clan was one of the last of the early banished to arrive in the Belt, and with the condition their ship came in that was almost where GC's story ended. With no early resources to gather and trade, and no close neighbors to raid GC almost withered like so many other early starters into nothing. However, the early settlers banded together and, in one final push for survival, launched a deep belt resource gathering mission where they knew only the strongest would survive. And they did. Although they suffered massive casualties, the few that returned were hardened by the experience, and they came back with everything they needed to survive. They found large asteroid filled with gold and other rare minerals, and they used these precious resources to quickly barter their way to survival. They worked hard to get more of this lifeblood from the asteroid and not long after they had a full mining guild around it, along with several high-quality ships in the making.

As the Goldo Clan's power grew, so did their greed. GC begun raiding other groups and capturing their members, where they made them work on their asteroids of fortune. But GC, still remembering the time they were weak themselves, would give the strong the opportunity to join them in their wealth gathering. Soon, the Goldo Clan adopted the belief that everyone should start out weak and that only the strong may rule, thus everyone would need to work for their power. This mentality soon drove GC to prominence as they rapidly grew in power. So much so that GC was the first group that dubbed themselves a Clan in the belt, and their example would serve as an example on how to run a society for all the other clans that followed them.

When the **Khan** began amassing followers and started uniting the clans, GC was soon to become the most powerful clan there was. Their strong front in the battle against **Khan** would inflict devastating early losses on his forces, and the **Khan** was forced to reevaluate his battle plans against the Goldo Clan several times before the battle's end. But in the end, GC underestimated the **Khan's** abilities, a mistake he seized to defeat the GC in one fell swoop. Goldo Clan's leaders and people should have been furious for the loss they had suffered, but instead they declared how proud they were of this **Khan** who'd come from nothing and became the ruler of everything. The Goldo Clan would end up following the **Khan** religiously, and when he died there was no Clan that felt a greater grief than they did, grief that soon turned into anger.

With the **Khan** dead, the Goldo Clan sought to keep his legacy alive and to keep the rapidly dividing clans he'd united from fracturing once more. Rumors spread that the **Khan's** death was due to Inner subterfuge, and the GC convinced the other clans that it was justice to finally get back at the inner's who had wronged their people. Building this anger into a national identity, united by their reverence for the **Khan** and their thirst for revenge, the Goldo Clan lead the Khans Enclave into a frenzied military buildup and, eventually, the Belt War. There, the GC's war power was felt by all the peoples of the Outer Reaches, and their combat prowess eventually convinced the other Clans that the GC should be honored with the construction of their own battleship. But in spite of early glorious victories, the Belt War led to disaster as the Khan lines collapsed, taking with them many of the GC's ships. Further compromising their control of the Khans, the idea that the **Khan** was killed by Inner treachery was starting to be seen as a lie by some officers, leading the GC into a full-blown internal schism. As a result, after the war the Goldo Clan became a husk of what it once was, though still powerful force to be reckoned with. Its leadership was replaced by the new Khans United government, and thus the way of greed and power above everything became against the will of the elders and veterans, seen as outdated ideas left behind for the glorious future the KU sought to build.

## Military

The Khan United military is composed of ships from each of the Clans, operated under a joint command. While it's military forces are severely diminished from those of the KE, they are still a force to be reckoned with. Continuing on with the trends established by the KE, while continuing to innovate and push the limits of ship design, Khan United ships represent the values of the Clans that build them.

### Doctrine

**[REDACTED BY ORDER OF THE CLAN ASSEMBLY]**

### Ships of the Line

**BL**: Megalodon-class fast attack battleship *Tiniest Snek*

**BC:** Kirov-class battlecruiser *Pravda's Fervour*

**CH**: Longbow-class heavy ECM cruiser *Longbow*, Titanoboa-class heavy ECM cruiser *Nible Nible*, Samar-class heavy ECM cruiser *Toe Sucker* (Destroyed)

**CL**: CL Varyag *Harsh Seas* (Destroyed), CL Morrigan *Queen Maeve* (Destroyed)

**DD**: Santiago-class destroyer *Bootyslayer* (Destroyed), Novik-class destroyer *Novik,* Nox-R class destroyer prototype *Sand Shark* (Destroyed), Nox-R class destroyer prototype *Temujin* (Lost, presumed destroyed)

**FF**: Reserve assets

**CS**: Leto-class stealth torpedo corvette *Bean* (Destroyed), other unobserved assets.

### Ranks

Recruit Legionary: Equivalent to an EFN Petty Officer, 3rd class

Prime Legionary: Equivalent to an EFN Petty Officer, 2nd class

Veteran Legionary: Equivalent to an EFN Petty Officer, 1st class

Auxiliary: Equivalent to an EFN Technical Sergeant

Recruit Decanus: Equivalent to an EFN Master Sergeant

Decanus: Equivalent to an EFN Senior Master Sergeant

Vexiliarius: Equivalent to an EFN Junior Lieutenant

Preator: Equivalent to an EFN Lieutenant

Praetorian: Equivalent to an EFN Lieutenant Commander

Centurion: Equivalent to an EFN Commander

Legate: Equivalent to an EFN Captain

Lesser Shipmaster: Equivalent to an EFN Rear Admiral

Shipmaster: Equivalent to an EFN Vice Admiral

Grand Shipmaster: Equivalent to an EFN Admiral

Primus: Highest military rank in the Khan United, commander in chief of KU armed forces

## List of places raided by the Khans United

*This list is incomplete. You can help by **expanding it***.

-Earth

-Victoria Shipyards

-Mallard's view of Earth out of Victoria Shipyard

-The EFN *Constellation's* Crash Site

-One (1) 1st Fleet Carpool Combat Transport

-First Officer Nerd S'jet of the 1st Fleet Stealth Corvette *Needle*

- Brock's sanity after the "corridor" event

- Grand Shipmaster Cav Lightfoot's and Shipmaster Lillith Labrys's brains

- Everyone's patience

-PMA Chat

-ISU Chat

-EFN Chat

-Everyone's patience (x2)

-CPR Server

- 1ST Fleet Server

-Pub (too many times to count)

## Government

The governing body of the Khans United is the Khangress of Clans, an assembly of representatives sent from each of the major and minor clans to settle matters of interclan governance. The Clans themselves govern their own jurisdictions, and operate small military forces to do so, while the Khans United Navy represents the primary military organization. Ranks in the Khans United Navy are separate from a person's standing within their Clan or in the Khangress. For example, numerous leaders of Major Clans have held relatively low officer ranks within the Khans United Navy, and others positions of non-military importance such as diplomats representing the entire Khans United have not always even been held by commissioned officers.

However, in spite of the separation of these ranks, a great deal of overlap exists. Most Khans involved in the governing of the Clans or the Khangress are enlisted in the military in some form or another, though many serve in purely a symbolic or ceremonial capacity. While the Khan warrior caste is no more, and the military is far from the only dominant force in their government, age old belief that if a Khan wants to do anything of importance they must do it in the military still persists. The ubiquity of Khan military personnel in the government gives it the appearance of a military government, but this neglects a simple fact of the Khan mindset: everything, from growing food to mining ore to flying a spaceship or negotiating a treaty, is a kind of battle, and every Khan is a warrior fighting their own kind of struggle for the betterment of their people.

## Culture

Much of Khan culture is rooted in the necessities of their home space, the Pioneer's Belt, frequently called the Khan Belt or simply Khan Space. When the first Khans were banished, the Belt was largely uncharted. It was believed that there was no way for the banished to survive, and in most cases this was correct. But enough of the prison hulks contained people dedicated and determined enough to cling to life, with the skills to realize their survival. Over the decades of isolation, both physical and societal, this determination to survive against all odds grew to influence every facet of what would develop into Khan culture. To a Khan, life is an endless challenge that you either overcome or you die, and this belief influences every facet of who the Khans are as a people.

### Honor and the Creed

Central to the way every Khan lives is the Creed, a code of honor that every person no matter their caste must live by. The exact origins (and even exact wording) of the Creed is both unknown and hotly contested, with multiple contending theories about it's origins attributing it to the **Khan** himself, every single major clan, and most notably the system of honor that the Pravda Pirates flew under. It is important to note that not only do all these origins conflict with each other, but are unlikely in their own right as well. While every major culture within the Khans may claim the origins of the Creed for themselves, the most likely origin is collective: the Creed likely developed out of several honor codes that developed independently from the necessities of Belt life, all of which eventually converged into the modern Creed.

This is supported by the actual wording of the Creed, or lack thereof: the Creed has never been codified (and indeed some groups within the Khans feel it is against the Creed to do so), and regional values of the different clans frequently influence what Khans from those clans believe is and is not living by the Creed. The true genius of the Creed is that it is not a set of rules that can be bent, but the a law in spirit: something is either by the Creed or not, and every Khan knows by heart if an act is dishonorable the moment the witness it. More values are shared than not, however. Giving up is the greatest dishonor, tantamount to a living death among the Khans. Breaking one's word is equally damning, especially if one had never had the intention to keep it in the first place. And while glory in battle is the most commonly sought path to an honorable life, it is hardly accepted as the only one, as laboring to keep others alive or a war effort supplied is considered as honorable a life, if a less glorious one. However, sometimes disagreements arise between conflicting definitions of the Creed, and these are settled in the Pit.

What the Pit is varies from place to place, but every Khan ship, station, and settlement with more that one person must have one. The most common variant is centrally located around a live thruster, usually one burning hydrogen fuel or even pure oxygen for intense heat. Sometimes these are located inside a ship or station, but most often they are attached to the outside hull around a thruster in active use. The exact physical specifications, however, are less important to the Khans than the cultural meaning: The Pit is where your honor and your decisions are defended. When one Khan believes another has acted dishonorably, they will challenge the offender to the Pit. Often, merely showing up to such a challenge is enough to prove one's honor, but in the most serious cases a duel will take place within the Pit. There are technically no rules other than that combat must be honorable (in fact, dishonorable conduct in the Pit has often been the cause of subsequent challenges in the Pit), but several traditions have arisen over the decades. Proper weapons are usually forbidden unless all parties agree to it, but it is both considered braver and more exciting to fight with tools such as grinders and drills, as weapons tend to end fights too quickly. Fights are often between single contenders, and it considered dishonorable for multiple challengers to attack at once. Conversely, though, it is considered a show of strength and bravado for a contender to *request* multiple simultaneous opponents, and so such fights do still happen.

Many outsiders find Khan honor confusing, believing it to be full of contradictions. Many of the Khan's actions in the Belt War, such as their attacking of civilians and the infamous Khan sneak attack on the CDF-Rider Peace Conference that initiated the war, went against outsider's expectations of honor. Additionally, certain outside beliefs about what the Creed contained, such as the belief that the Khans forbade retreat or surrender, were contradiction by the actions of the Khans themselves. Additionally, actions that people of the Inner Reach considered heroic were considered highly dishonorable by the Khans, such as when the Rider warship *Wotan* rammed the Khan FOB *Perseverance* after offering her own surrender to get close to the station. The *Wotan's* act of deception allowed a great number of Rider personnel to escape at the cost of the *Wotan* and her skeleton crew, but that act of perfidy stained the Khan's opinion of Rider honor until the very end of the Belt War. Ramming the station, helping the rest of the Riders escape, dying gloriously, these would normally have been considered honorable deeds by the Khans, but lying about their surrender was an act so dishonorable that the Khans would not grant mercy to another Rider vessel until the *Vesuvius* dueled the Khan heavy cruiser *Longbow* during the final battle of the war (a policy that also lead the people of the Outer Reach to erroneously believe the Creed did not allow a Khan to accept an enemy's surrender).

The reason why Khan honor is so confusing to outsiders is that they do not understand it's core: an honorable Khan lives a life worth surviving. Khans will seek victory by ruthless means, enter battle with foes incapable of fighting back, and strike without warning while an enemy is unprepared, all because victory is life, and survival is everything to a Khan. But the life they live must be one worth living, and that is what Khan honor is about. The only way to live that is worthwhile to a Khan is living with honor, and if they are faced with the choice between living with dishonor and death, they will choose to die in the way that takes as many of their enemies with them.

### Glory and Death

When a life of honor comes to an end, it is up to a Khan to die gloriously. No Khan believes that they will live long, but every single one hopes that their short life will *matter*. If in a Khan's death they kill as many or more who would do harm to their Clan, the death that all Khans know is coming can be used to ensure the lives of their people go on, a tradition of self-sacrifice that goes back to the earliest days of the Banished Khans. As does the tradition of remembering their glory.

Back in the days of the early Khans, death was an even greater constant than it is today. The prison hulks that the Khans were banished in were never meant to sustain life, and in order to make them do so many Khans had to make hard choices. The hardest of all was whether to sacrifice yourself or another, and those who survived vowed to never forget those who chose the former. They would tell stories of the lost, mark their ships with some record of their passing, and give new ships names that their fallen friends would have laughed at. When the Clans began to fight each other for resources, this tradition morphed to encompass the new life of violence that the Khans found themselves in. Sacrifice was recontextualized to not just be about keeping others alive, but killing the people who wanted them dead. But the same traditions persisted.

Every Khan is a collection of stories, of their own glories and of those who can no longer tell their own stories. They remember the glories of those they knew, sing their praises and toast their lives, and never forget the sacrifices that got them where they are. Because of the short lives of most Khans, this can mean that every person who witnessed an act of glory might be dead within a decade or a day, and so some Khans take on the mantle of Lorescreamers, becoming living repositories of history and tales of glory. While they can be found in all castes and all walks of life, they often trade for stories: often trading their skills and knowledge in exchange for a tale of a warrior's glorious life and death. Other times, they will challenge a person to the Pit for the story, not to kill their foe but to prove that they are strong enough to survive to tell their stories. Lorescreamers are rare, however, and have never organized into a single cohesive group, and the majority of Khans simply carry their tales of glory and memories of the fallen themselves.

### Caste and Merit

In the early days of the Banished, Khan society began to organize around what skills a person had and how they could contribute to the greater survival of the whole. The more a person contributed to the group's survival, the more privileges they were given. This resulted both out of the communal desire to reward the people who kept them alive, and out of the pragmatic bargaining of people with critical skills looking out for themselves. However, once the Warring Clans period began, and combat became a greater threat to Khan communities than mechanical failure or resource scarcity, Khans who had proven their mettle in combat began pushing for more and more amenities and recognition.

By the Unification period, this had developed into a total caste system, split between warriors and workers. Warriors held significant social status and were afforded amenities and resources, while workers were functionally enslaved in all but name. While there was technically social mobility, as any worker who proved themselves in the Pit could be made a warrior, the reality was that most of the Khan population was simply relegated to life as workers. Additionally, while the Creed nominally considered any person capable of living with honor even though it prized honor in combat the highest, the fact that warriors who survived dishonor were punished with enslavement into the worker caste led to a pervasive belief that workers were dishonorable and deserving of scorn.

Additionally, during the later Clan Wars and the Unification Wars, a subcaste began to develop, known colloquially as the Warrior-Elite. While the accumulation and hoarding of material wealth by individuals is frowned upon by much of Khan society, it has never been strictly prohibited either. This, coupled with the Khan belief that those who did more deserved more, led to the Warrior-Elite; former warriors who had accumulated wealth, power, and prestige over their lives. By the end time of the **Khan's** death at the end of the Unification Wars, the Warrior-Elite had become the primary power in the leadership of Khan society, and pushed the Khan's Enclave into the Belt War. A belief developed among the Worker caste and many Warriors who fought in the Belt War that the Elite were merely waging the war to claim the more fertile territory of the Outer Reach and planned to abandon the Belt following the War's end. Many Warriors spoke out against this, and while some were able to retain their positions, most were punished harshly.

This situation reached a boiling point during Markus's Revolt on the moon of Triton. As one of the largest sources of ice in Khan Space, Triton was a critical location to the Khan's Enclave. However, it's position far behind the front lines of the War meant that it had the single highest worker population of any settlement in the Belt, while having a skeleton force of Warriors to keep that population in line. Led by Markus, a warrior who had survived the loss of the Enclave warship *Lava Plague* and spoken out against the excesses of the Warrior-Elite, and was subsequently enslaved in retaliation, the Revolt was initially fanned by covert support from 1st Fleet special operatives. However, the 1st Fleet's support was quickly eclipsed by the arrival of the *EFN Eternity's Advent*, which had arrived at Triton as part of her deep strike into Khan Space. With the support of the *Eternity* and the recently liberated Rider heavy cruiser *Vesuvius*, as well as material support from the Vhakov Brothers, arms dealers who lived on Triton, Markus's Revolt eventually succeeded in repelling the Khan Warrior forces and capturing the main resource processing plant on the planet.

This was not the first worker revolt in Khan history, and indeed many others just like it had happened successfully before. However, as the Khans recognize strength, each one was recognized and lauded by the Enclave and the Clans, who granted favorable working conditions and elevated the leaders to the Warrior caste. As a result, none of these revolts ever succeeded in affecting lasting reform to the Caste system, merely elevating those who participated. Markus's Revolt likely would have been the same, if the *Eternity* had not taken the momentum of the revolt to broadcast a message to the majority of Khan settlements. In what is now known as the *Eternity's* Address, her captain informed the system of the ship's mission to reconnect with Earth, implored them to believe a better future was possible, and called on them to stop supporting the Khan's Enclave.

What followed was open revolt across nearly every major Khan settlement, and would spell the death of the Khan Caste system.

### United and Fractured

With the formation of the Khan United government, much of Khan culture has entered a period of flux. The most notable change has been the total abolition of the Caste system, with the Warrior-Elite completely abolished and the worker class elevated from slaves to a vital and appreciated part of the Khans United. Systems meant to ensure social mobility for those who wished to become Workers or Warriors were put in place, but each role in society was now granted equal status. The same prestige and amenities granted to warriors of status was granted to workers who lived by the Creed, and a new idea of Worker Glory is evolving. Additionally, while the Warrior class was heavily depleted and many settlements have broken off from the KU government, many of the former Workers who remain now serve as Warriors in the battered but burgeoning Khan United military. With them come new ideas of what honor means, what a Warrior's duty is, and what the future holds for the Khans.

But with the end of the Caste system, a pillar of Khan society has been shaken. While most agree that it had to go, it has created a feeling of instability where other elements once thought vital to Khan culture are coming under scrutiny. There is no unified voice for what has to choice, merely a discordant symphony of new ideas and old traditions, with every Khan having a different idea of what needs to change and what must stay at all costs. The presence of the *EFN Eternity's Advent* in Khan Space, not as an occupier but as something approaching an ally, is also a factor for change, and the construction of her Jump Gate back to Earth is an even greater one. Both provide a new possibilities for the Khan people, especially since their mere existence was enough of a catalyst for the death of the Caste system during the War. Now, as Khans and EFN work side by side to repair the *Eternity* and build the Jump Gate back to Earth, outside ideas find their way into Khan hearts and minds for the first time since their Banishment.

The future of the Khans is uncertain, but then again it always has been. From the very first Banished in the Belt, to the Clan Wars, to the **Khan's** Unification Wars and the Belt War that followed, there has never been a single Khan who has taken their future for granted. In another people, in another place, the uncertainty of the Khans' future might break them on it's own, but the Khans meet the future with the same determination that they have risen to every other challenge before them. A fraction of their former might, reeling from defeat and destruction and the fragmenting of their people, the attitude of the Khans is best described by the name of their new government. The Khans United is not descriptive, it is aspirational. It is a promise to their people and a threat to all who would come between it: The Khans may die tomorrow, but whatever comes they will stand together against all odds and all comers. For all the chaos and uncertainty of this new age, the Khans have hope, and a dream of a better future, and the Khans built an empire on far, far less.