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I originally posted this in a thread called 'Voinian History', and I thought you might find it relevant. Unfortunately, with our SEARCH facility out of action, it's taken me a hell of a long time to find it. Anyway, here's my take on the origins of the Voinian Empire. It's more a bio of Borb, really:
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The Voinians were a minor race, actually eclipsed by some of their more powerful neighbours and required to operate under restrictions which affected trade, colonisation and the construction of vessels. There were two superpowers in the vicinity of Voinian space in those days, and the only reason the tiny Voinian empire wasn't taken over was because neither side wanted the other to gain that advantage.
On Voinia, the natives could do nothing except appease these potential conquerors. Then came Borb. He was a dangerous non-conformist who believed that the Voinians could win a place among the great nations of the sector.
Borb had won a scholarship to the training school of the tiny Voinian Navy. He failed Politics and Diplomacy five times in three years. Not because he didn't know the right answers, his examiners suggested, but because he found the answers unacceptable. Borb remained at the Academy only because of his superb grades in n-space geometry and spaceflight. (There were no battle tactics courses at that time.)
Eventually he was allowed to graduate, and was given a junior officer's post on a freighter. There he might well have stayed indefinitely, but when a blockade situation developed his ship happened to be chosen to run the gauntlet. The ship was pounded almost into scrap, leaving Borb as the highest-ranking survivor. Not only did he extricate the ship, he delivered the cargo in safety and brought about the destruction of an enemy corvette in the process, thanks to a daring maneuver involving a minefield.
Borb was hailed as a hero, and in response to public demand he was given command of his own ship. He ordered it modified extensively, eventually forming what present-day pilots would recognise as a Voinian Frigate. With this first ship, Borb made several daring raids which set the local superpowers at each others' throats. This broke the deadlock and persuaded Voinian politicians at home that there might be some value in building up the military. Borb was a key influence in the formation of the newly enlarged navy.
Borb lived a long, successful life, and died of natural causes at an advanced age. All that happened many, many generations ago, though.
Since Borb, the Voinians have never again found such a leader. Nobody else has had anything like the same degree of insight. Tactics and even ship designs stagnate in the Voinian Empire. Even the policy of expansion and conquest is out-of-date; the alien races which caused the Voinians' belligerent attitude were defeated utterly, and very few traces of them can be found on what are now considered to be Voinian planets.
------------------ I'm sorry my karma ran over your dogma. (url="http://"http://www.geocities.com/evodude2001/home.html")New & Improved: Cerberus Station!(/url) I got this .sig file at insanely_great.com - don't even think about taunting me!
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Originally posted by DeadMan: **
Orginally Posted by UE Patriot: Someone's been playing "Reign of the UE," haven't they?
Yep! Just finished it, wierd twist with McPherson! I can't believe that I would resign! Geez.
Well, there was just a misunderstanding between the Voinians and UE. But the Voinians had always been a race that took over everything. Take the Hinwar and Emalgha. They put both of them in Slavery, and voth rebelled. The Voinains are just a blood-loving society! And don't believe LoneVoinain's threat, he's changed his sig.file! **
Be afraid, DeadMan, be very afraid. Why? Because Lone didn't change his sig that much, it still has that threat.
------------------ To Escape Velocity: Nova and Beyond! -------------- Millennium. Its coming, prepare for it. Coming to the (url="http://"http://www.ambrosiaSW.com/games/ev/chronicles.html")EV Chronicles(/url).