Ecumene Page

*"This is Major Tom to Ground Control*

*I'm stepping through the door*

*And I'm floating in a most peculiar way*

*And the stars look very different today"*

- "Space Oddity", by David Bowie, rumored to be based on a true story of an astronaut.
The *Ukrazol Ecumene* is an Echoes-faction being worked on by The Red Star Rising with the assistance of ProudAmerikan and GearsGoAwryMan. A Totalitarian and extremely advanced (in some areas, very much lacking in others!) faction of Social Darwinists that harkens back to the days of the silver age of comics, Doctor Who, and B-movies, the Ukrazol Ecumene seeks to grow its power and to steal ideas from other civilizations as it would be easier than making their own ideas, and so to continue advancement they observe and disturb other civilizations so as to pry their technological, cultural, philosophical, and tactical/strategic advancements out of them to keep on ensuring the progress of their ancient civilization.

Though at first they begin with isolated incidents of abductions and scouting, they eventually bring the crashing hammer of their technology, annihilating foes with their superior knowledge of energy manipulation, femtotechnology, A.I, the fundamental forces, and even the three dimensions of conventional space while an army of individually superior units and drone carriers doles out this terrifying arsenal. An Ukrazol Amarani will work to study his foe, gathering intelligence on them, pinpricking their weak points, finding the right spot for powerful if small spearheads to smash through to lead them to victory.

## Background

### The Wind is Coming

The Ukrazols are a species from Scutum-Centaurus arm who emerged from the oceans of their homeworld to eventually claim the stars around them. Coming to see themselves as the primary civilizing force in the universe they explored they started to develop an ideology based around the "Civilizing Wind", which blew from their world to other societies. Under this philosophy they believed that it was not only not morally wrong to conquer other societies but that it was a sacred duty and imperative so that they could be raised to the levels of the Ukrazols. However, other societies could not be trusted to raise themselves to a proper civilized level of existence and might get deviant ideas about what is civilized and so the means to militarily subdue them were developed. And of course, the Ecumene (a term meant to refer to their idea of their society as an all encompassing one) had an idea of what was civilized that differed quite a bit from what many others would find tolerable; they were believers in absolute meritocracy. It doesn't matter how unpopular someone is, or how many favors they have, if they were deemed more worthy by their system they would have to be in the positions that they deemed to be best fitting for them. This of course means that everyone is where they should be and there is no need to try and level the playing field; and that virtually every other society is organized along "wrong" patterns that must be corrected before they can be civilized.

This eventually lead to them coming into conflicts with their first real enemies who could actually be considered meaningful peers of their military machine, leading to a great slow down in their rate of conquest as these enemies such as the Zeelich Communes ended up introducing to them the concept of geopolitics. This greatly slowed rate of civilizing other societies lead to a pause in the growth of their society. They had come to incorporate the act of conquering other societies as a cornerstone of their Ecumene and the concept of their society not being all encompassing was deeply philosophically disturbing. However, even with the restrictions of having other powers in place who would certainly act if they were being too brazen with their attempts to expand, there were ways with which the Ecumene could continue to grow so that it may come to encompass all civilized life and bring it under the stabilizing influence of a superior method of organizing society and thus liberate them from the burden of their uncouth and savage ways. Thus the Civilizing corps was created with the mission of observing, studying, and then invading societies with lower grade weapons and munitions so as to not arouse the notice of other states that the usage of modern weaponry would.

This slower rate of conquest allowed them to subvert more worlds into their growing Ecumene even without having to pick through the stars to find suitable and uninhabited worlds. The ideas and cultures of those conquered civilizations would be examined; if there was anything of value produced by these lesser civilizations they would be dutifully incorporated into the Ecumene while other ideas would be suppressed and replaced with the superior higher culture of the Ukrazol. The strengths and weaknesses of the conquered species would be analyzed and they would be given fitting places in Ecumenical society. Given time some might even show enough merit to become great leaders or otherwise noteworthy persons within the Ecumene's government and its economy. They would be imbued with a love of the Ecumene and its concept as a nation, a homogenizing force in the cosmos that will put everyone where they deserve to be and a force of civilization that dispels the darkness and banishes the fel powers of savagery. That many people died and continue to die in the process of this civilizing mission is of ultimately little consequence to the Ecumene; what are the lives of millions and billions to the spreading of the gift of the winds of civilization to quadrillions and quintillions?

In this system would rise some with particularly strong ambitions; such as Fleet Overseer Orluk Udranor and Council Organizer Manager Arakrast Medunara. Orluk was deeply steeped in the culture and the habits of the Ecumene and was considered to be greatly loyal to the Ecumene as a concept while Arakrast is virtually hellbent on the advancement of their career to transfer from attachments to the Civilizing Corps and get a post in the proper military commands of the Ecumene. Orluk seems to be seeking commendation as a particularly exemplary Fleet Overseer from the ruling councils of the meritous of the Ecumene; to make a name for themselves so that they may be in a position to advocate for some changes in Ecumenical policy, a rarity in a society that generally thinks poorly of questioning one's superiors. Soon the two would be attached to each other and would make a name for themselves bringing thirty other civilizations under the influence of the winds of civilization, earning them many distinctions and increasingly prestigious commands. Coming to know figures such as Planetary Ika-Amarani Ikizer Ulgost, Organizer Makuran Kolkressa, Intelligence Officer Parasa Meela, Ground Amarani Temostos Ullra, Ground Amarani Jalakras Wola Science Amarani Zefto Pilbor, Science Amarani Golasa Issara and Mercenary Ymtrast Nuraffi; they assembled an all star cast of subordinates who helped them take over each world in turn.

As their fleet wandered the void looking for signs of new civilizations to bring into the fold; their attention was brought to a planet that had recently started to transmit its first radio messages just a few light years away from a system being surveyed by their fleet. The curiosity of the fleet was immediately piqued as the fleet was not expecting a world with intelligent life so nearby to their prior expeditions. The signals were faint yes, signifying that the planet was likely just beginning to experiment with radio and had folded space receivers not been in place it was unlikely they would have picked up these weak radio signals, but a world was a world regardless of its level of advancement. Determining that it was worth investigating; the Civilizing fleet waited a year to decipher any further radio transmissions from the source before making the folded space jump into a solar system with five gas giants and a number of independently revolving terrestrial bodies; with four within the asteroid belt.

### Arrival of the Spacemen

Upon determining what they estimated was the planet's general effectiveness of technology and locations of militarily and technologically relevant polities, they began landing their first scouting parties in areas of the world where they could function without too much prying. Inaccessible mountain ranges, enormous plains and deserts where one could walk a thousand miles before going anywhere of importance, huge trackless forests and jungles, but most importantly they needed to be able to keep tabs on each of the relevant factions. A job that proved to be quite interesting as the political make up of the world changed quite frequently, with the first planetary conflict they observed ending in the demise of four empires and the conversion of one to a political system that deeply rankled the Ecumene's beliefs. The Ecumene at first wished to simply roll in and conquer the entire planet, but the detection of dormant ships already in the Kuiper belt that matched the description of a civilization the Ecumene regarded as uncivilizable and a danger to the wider Ecumene forced a change in calculus as it took orbit around Jupiter.

It was likely that if they called in reinforcements the normal way; they would awaken the dormant fleet and they would be forced into an undesired interstellar conflict and risk getting an enemy long constrained by slower than light travel access to their own faster than light systems. On the other hand, they did not have enough troops to occupy the planet outright and fight off a potential awakening of the other fleet long enough to set up a wormhole generator to call in a fleet; however primitive they were, so they needed to take the time to build up their fleet and their armies; a task that was possible with the manufacturing systems available to the fleet, but one that would take time as they increased the overall fleet population in terms of both numbers of ships and "citizens" of the fleet. So they would wait and watch, dispatching observers to the planet to watch this planetary war of the humans' unfold and see how humanity's technological progress would unfold. Similar in shape to a number of other known species; the Ecumene believed that humanity could have use in the Ecumene even if they detested the human form as ugly for the same reasons the rather Octopoid Ukrazol disliked the forms of those species who resembled them. Their resilience towards lower temperatures and suggestibility in pre-adult stages of life would be particularly useful.

When they arrived, reports of crop circles, stories of abductions, tales and absurdly blurry photographs of what people claimed to be aliens started to climb. They had to take care to try and not abduct anyone of importance lest any substantial number of people believe them, but they could only be so careful with such a purely academic understanding of humanity. Some of these people would form communities, huddling together to discuss their experiences since the world at large didn't believe them, one that would become an issue for them and others who would rather remain in the darkness. As the world changed, it only continued to get more and more interesting, prompting the council of commanders to decide that the world was of high priority to be brought under the blessed winds of civilization. Meticulously careful when it came to covering their tracks; the Ecumene was less than a shadow. The great masses of humanity were content to believe that they were alone on the world, and the Ecumene was willing to let them continue to have the delusion. After all it made operating on the Earth so much easier when most governments couldn't act on their existence because they didn't even know they were there.

But in time, some with actual influence did take notice and try to follow the trail. The Russians were perhaps the first when scattered reports from the first human forces to meet the Ecumene in battle filtered back to the Imperial government, but the Tsars, already shaky in their rule over the Empire believed that going public with such fragmentary reports would cause unwanted upheaval, so they kept these reports secret. These reports would find their ways into the hands of Russia's enemies and more secretive forces who could access the motherland's records; particularly in the turmoil of the Revolution. They didn't find much, but they did find enough to alert some of the more astute factions that something was amiss. Many still dismissed the talk of aliens as ridiculous, preferring to go for more "plausible" explanations, but others actually believed those who had survived an encounter with the Ukrazol and decided to try and uncover more about this shadowy threat, which would lead to the forming of the Network. It also put the Ecumene on the map of the Order and the Cult, and when Lenin gained access to the secret files of Russia, he organized a task force to try and combat this danger.

### Escalation Protocol

The Earth only continued to arouse interest in the Jovian Fleet as it built up its numbers and reverse engineered Ecumenical technology that was not already in the fleet's armouries. The political developments of the Earth were at times disturbing, the notion of all being equal or all being deserving of a share of society's fruits didn't chime well with the Ecumene's own ideas of fairness where everyone would get what they deserved; no more no less. It was rather akin to the talk of enemies, but the Ecumene had survived ideological challenges before and these errors would be corrected when the fleet around Jupiter was ready to launch a full scale invasion of the planet. What particularly intrigued them about the Earth was the paths of technology it began to take. Despite the unusual delay in the discovery of nuclear technology (though not entirely unprecedented) the humans were still able to get around this and make use of a number of very energy intensive designs. The Soviets at first piqued their interest with their edge in unusual technology in the second world war; deploying such devices as Tesla weapons and engines, Earthquake machines, Iron Curtain devices, and cyborg super soldiers that shocked the world; perhaps more so than the development of SPAM that so utterly changed industrial warfare, but the allies' progress into Chronotechnology and GAP generators also proved to be fascinating.

Technology seemed to rapidly diversify in amazing ways after the second world war; beyond the first human forrays into space was virtually every faction of global significance rapidly developing technology along entirely different paths. It was like all at once humanity went from a single line of development to radiating into a dozen "phyla" of scientific progress. They began to theorize on what could be incorporated into the Ecumene, what was truly unique and what was simply just things they had already seen before but not quite understood as something already known yet. What an exciting time for the fleet! And accordingly as the years progressed and the fleet grew larger the Ecumene's activity began to increase. More observation outposts, more abductions, more raids, more missions of study and understanding. As expected the world descended into another world war when Cherdenko decided to make his gambit to become the master of the world, followed by the Empire and the Africans' attempts to realize their respective destinies as the Axis powers struck at both the Allies and the Communist bloc. This time around, there was much to see and much to debate, but the arrival of a meteor from the kuiper belt and the spreading of an immature form of a dreaded terraforming agent followed by the nuclear annihilation of China was what really kicked the Ecumene into high gear.

Before the Ecumene was starting to believe that humans would never be able to create a proper nuclear warhead and thus make conquest a simple affair; but with the arrival of nuclear weapons as a tool in the human kit, there came the possibility that the conquest might lead to the planet becoming ecologically spoiled and thus bring a demerit on the heads of the fleet due to needing to spend resources to clear up the planet. In addition the confirmed interest of the Kuiper belt force complicated their plans, as did the awakening of rogue self replicating A.Is in many reclusive parts of the world. But there was not only bad news, the end of the third world war seemed to add little in the way of stability to the world as it seemed to emerge from one crisis only to rapidly lapse into many more localized crises. The most geographically widespread power bloc was ailing from a dozen wounds and running sores of insurgency, the Chinese recovered remarkably quickly from their nuclear conflict to wage war on all they could reach, the Communists and the Japanese were facing an identity crisis, and war still raged between a major major mercenary force and the Africans as well as between an offshoot of the Communists and some of the Allies.

Orluk and Arakrast agreed that the time to move in for world conquest would be soon. With the quick cycle of global conflicts it was likely another one would erupt quite soon and exhaust the strength of the humans to resist while their own fleet had been building in preparation largely uninterrupted for more than half a century. Once they were suitably bogged down in such a conflict, they would launch their invasion and the storm of civilized life would crash down upon the barbarians until at last they saw the daybreak of proper living and gave up on their barbarism to become one with the superior culture of the Ukrazol's Ecumene as others had before. Even concerns regarding the increasing nosiness of the Technocratic humans living in the middle of the secondary landmass and the increasing interest in space held by all factions; including the once largely ignored humans living in the small southeastern landmass; were not enough to dissuade the planners from concocting their strategy to bring the world to their control and add yet another notch in the belt of Orluk and Arakrast. Arakrast eagerly anticipated adding yet more glory to their legend, while Orluk was delighted to get an opportunity "to demonstrate my ideals" in a test against so many others.

Efforts to probe at and understand humanity increased dramatically, including projects to try and create superior warriors out of them that resulted in such beings of power as Aira, and the world has begun to witness a spike in the sightings of unidentified objects in the skies and the seas and in unexplained circumstances. But with the world already so strange, it is not quite the reflex of many people to immediately assume that extraterrestrials are responsible any more than they are to assume that robotic doomsday armies would be responsible for these incidents. The armies would be readied for battle and the ships would be gathered in preparation for the invasion of the Earth. All that was needed was a proper opportunity to exploit a chaotic situation, divide the humans among themselves by setting them against their enemies and shocking and awing those deemed to be sufficiently compatible to the Ecumenical ideal to accept their reign to serve as stooges and to ensure neither the Kuiper belt fleet nor the machines stole their prize from them. With a world in seemingly endlessly increasing strife and turmoil, could it be that some may even accept the Ecumene's rule to know peace in a world at almost constant war?

## Ecumenical Observation Force Units & Buildings

*"My whole division went up in smoke in a day man, what the [CENSORED] can do that? Tanks left as their bitty elements, men metabolized until they burst into flames, inhuman, ungodly...things carving through men, good god, damn men, like turkeys! Reservists and Peacekeepers dying like flies in a gas house! It's game over man! **Game [CENSORED] OVER!**"*

-Peacekeeper Sergeant Elizabeth Johnston, consequently transferred to Broadmoor after those statements

### Construction Units

 File:IconEmirates.png | Femtospore Constructor | Large femtospore swarms that while rather dangerous to those in their way and capable of enacting repairs or healing for your units; are primarily meant to finish the construction processes started by Glyph carvers; using the systems on Transmatter platforms to create the needed structures. Construction can be accelerated with spacewarp fields or by using more than one constructor; but as they are consumed in the process this will raise the price of the structure.

### Units

#### Resource Gatherers

 File:IconEmirates.png | Looter | Now capable of deconstructing buildings for profit, the Looter can sweep up a fair sized portion of the ground, breaking it down for usage by the aliens in their observation of the world as a whole. Arming itself with femtospore missiles and flayer projectors, the Looter's large form often accompanies the fearsome fleets of stately hovercraft used by the Ecumene to assist them in their warpath. While an expensive investment for something with rather lackluster firepower for it's price, it can prove itself to be worth it under capable hands.

## Behind the Scenes

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