In exclusive, a never-before released song that commander Barbagli sang to mission command to celebrate the successful launch of Nerva II!
Another Mars mission patch
"Senza Limiti" - without limits
Graphic Thread
- Thread starter Glen
- Start date
Courtesy of ettingermentum from Twitter, the official website of the Communist Party of the United States in 2008, in a timeline where it gained power in 1932 and remained the dominant ruling party to the present day.
No lore from the author, but the news headlines imply very interesting things: Soviet-American alliance, merger between the CPUSA and the Democratic Party, the Republican party convention repeatedly failing to pick a presidential candidate, intraparty democracy, constitutional amendments being put on the ballot, the electoral college still exists for some reason…
No lore from the author, but the news headlines imply very interesting things: Soviet-American alliance, merger between the CPUSA and the Democratic Party, the Republican party convention repeatedly failing to pick a presidential candidate, intraparty democracy, constitutional amendments being put on the ballot, the electoral college still exists for some reason…
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An experiment for a worldbuilding project. Does this look right for those who know the languages?
For the German one, it's a direct translation of English and it makes sense in German, but it feels very Denglish still. As in, German speakers encountered the English phrase first and then translated it. The more native OTL current German phrasing is usually "Sicherheit geht vor", though I've also seen "Sicherheit hat Vorrang!" .
I think "Sicherheit hat Vorrang!" feels like there's an official policy that mandates the signs, and also means there are consequences that you'll suffer if you fail to adhere to the policy. "Sicherheit geht vor" definitely feels more German than "Sicherheit zuerst", but it still feels more like you're exhorting people to act safely for their own benefit, rather than mandating that they do so for everyone's benefit.
But "Sicherheit geht vor" is the form used by Berufsgenossenschaften, public corporations in Germany set up to provide mandatory occupational injury & sickness insurance to German employers and to people who work in the agricultural sector. So that's the most official OTL term.
Thank you for your critique. I'm looking to imitate multilingual signs like in Singapore (which this sign is taken from) as it makes sense in the context of this world. I will elaborate hopefully soon. I'm most nervous about the German and the Japanese, as it is harder to wing it with me.
An ominous and menacing character in my story/setting, though he appears much later than where the TL is currently at.
Henry Leopold Heavenly, born on August 8th of 2628 in Ghana Province on Earth, was the son of a customs official and an Ashanti heiress. His elder brother inherited his mother's lands and customary titles. He joined the Imperial Navy Coastal Force after graduating secondary school, attending the Rhode Island Naval OCS and graduating with an officer's commission in late 2646. He served actively for two years aboard a coastal frigate, then entered the Naval Reserve while he attended university, first in Accra for a degree in public administration, then in London for a doctorate in law. All the while, he became involved in politics with the National Humanist Imperial Labor Party, joining the paramilitary National Volunteer Force. He rose quickly, first as a secretary for the regimental commander for the Gold Coast Legion, then receiving an appointment to the NVF Central Recruitment Bureau, of which he became an assistant director after gaining his doctorate. In the early 2660s, he was commissioned as an officer in the Imperial Strategic Intelligence Agency, the foreign intelligence and counterintelligence agency for the Terran Empire. After the NHILP's electoral victory in 2662, the national police and intelligence agencies were gradually brought into alignment with the Party security and paramilitary apparatus.
In 2665, he submitted a memorandum to the NVF leadership and the ISIA command staff, recommending the formation of joint-service special operations units to act as ideologically-committed "political soldiers" to combat terrorist threats and act as saboteurs in "tip of the spear" operations, containing mixed personnel from intelligence agencies, military special forces, and Party security forces. He was assigned to spearhead a pilot program for such a unit, recruiting agents from across the Empire. His concept was successfully tested in the Kojima Incident, the foiling of a terrorist seizure of an orbital military research station. He was assigned as the political "handler" and deputy commander of the 9th Joint Special Forces Battalion, which included two company-sized special operations groups, the most famous of which was 71st SOG or "Beaumont's Raiders". The unit was increased in size to a Brigade, though after a year his primary duties shifted to assignments as a field inspector on the front lines of the Great War, effectively a political commissar shuffled around to front-line units to maintain discipline and coordinate intelligence activities. He recruited further skilled soldiers for the 9th JSFB. He was granted formal command over the brigade in 2668, and redirected its major operations to counterterror direct action and unconventional warfare against left-wing insurrectionists.
He handed command to Colonel Celeste Beaumont and Lt Col William McGrady in 2669 after he was tapped to be the chief of staff to Frederick Voss, Commander of Imperial Intelligence and Police. Heavenly helped Voss plan out the coordination of the various government and Party security agencies into a singular organization. Their efforts bore fruit in late 2670, with the creation of the Imperial State Security Department. For the first time in centuries, all non-military national security efforts were brought together under one organization. Heavenly was appointed Deputy Secretary, and took direct control of the Internal Security Main Administration; it is under his day-to-day governance of the department that its efforts were delegated between several directorates under Heavenly's proteges-- Xander Vox, William McGrady, and Bastian MacBeth. When the previous human empires were dissolved and reorganized as the Central Galactic Union, the State Security apparatus was hived off into its own Ministry. Heavenly oversaw the expansion of every branch of State Sec in response to various crises but increasingly felt his burdens as he juggled directly managing the sprawling internal security apparatus, and running the day-to-day operations of the entire Ministry. Something had to give, and in early 2681, he used his agents' success in ending the civil war on planet Keystone to promote General Vox to Director of Internal Security. Focusing full-time on the daily grind of State Sec, he strove to balance the immense and clashing egos of Vox and McGrady, and the frustrations of MacBeth. In the wake of the Pirate War in 2685, he worked with MacBeth to reorganize all federal police under him as a single department.
In July 2696, when a terrorist chemical attack on the Galapagos National Fortress killed over 3,000 federal employees, Heavenly personally ensured the independence of an investigative committee, despite the attempts at interference by Minister Voss. This rose suspicions, and further investigation found that Voss was partly responsible for the incident, and had been colluding with Resistance terrorists. After Voss' arrest late in the year, Heavenly replaced him as Minister of State Security in what many have called a "palace coup". Heavenly denies all such innuendos.
At left we see him at age 20 when he was a young officer in the Navy Coastal Force (basically the Terran coast guard). In the middle we see him in the paramilitary "greenshirt" uniform of the NVF, not longer after being assigned as the political handler of the 71st Studies and Observations Group, with oak leaf pips as a badge of rank. On the right we see him in the mid-2680s as Vice Minister of State Sec, and at far right we see him in his full dress uniform as Minister of State Security.
Henry Leopold Heavenly, born on August 8th of 2628 in Ghana Province on Earth, was the son of a customs official and an Ashanti heiress. His elder brother inherited his mother's lands and customary titles. He joined the Imperial Navy Coastal Force after graduating secondary school, attending the Rhode Island Naval OCS and graduating with an officer's commission in late 2646. He served actively for two years aboard a coastal frigate, then entered the Naval Reserve while he attended university, first in Accra for a degree in public administration, then in London for a doctorate in law. All the while, he became involved in politics with the National Humanist Imperial Labor Party, joining the paramilitary National Volunteer Force. He rose quickly, first as a secretary for the regimental commander for the Gold Coast Legion, then receiving an appointment to the NVF Central Recruitment Bureau, of which he became an assistant director after gaining his doctorate. In the early 2660s, he was commissioned as an officer in the Imperial Strategic Intelligence Agency, the foreign intelligence and counterintelligence agency for the Terran Empire. After the NHILP's electoral victory in 2662, the national police and intelligence agencies were gradually brought into alignment with the Party security and paramilitary apparatus.
In 2665, he submitted a memorandum to the NVF leadership and the ISIA command staff, recommending the formation of joint-service special operations units to act as ideologically-committed "political soldiers" to combat terrorist threats and act as saboteurs in "tip of the spear" operations, containing mixed personnel from intelligence agencies, military special forces, and Party security forces. He was assigned to spearhead a pilot program for such a unit, recruiting agents from across the Empire. His concept was successfully tested in the Kojima Incident, the foiling of a terrorist seizure of an orbital military research station. He was assigned as the political "handler" and deputy commander of the 9th Joint Special Forces Battalion, which included two company-sized special operations groups, the most famous of which was 71st SOG or "Beaumont's Raiders". The unit was increased in size to a Brigade, though after a year his primary duties shifted to assignments as a field inspector on the front lines of the Great War, effectively a political commissar shuffled around to front-line units to maintain discipline and coordinate intelligence activities. He recruited further skilled soldiers for the 9th JSFB. He was granted formal command over the brigade in 2668, and redirected its major operations to counterterror direct action and unconventional warfare against left-wing insurrectionists.
He handed command to Colonel Celeste Beaumont and Lt Col William McGrady in 2669 after he was tapped to be the chief of staff to Frederick Voss, Commander of Imperial Intelligence and Police. Heavenly helped Voss plan out the coordination of the various government and Party security agencies into a singular organization. Their efforts bore fruit in late 2670, with the creation of the Imperial State Security Department. For the first time in centuries, all non-military national security efforts were brought together under one organization. Heavenly was appointed Deputy Secretary, and took direct control of the Internal Security Main Administration; it is under his day-to-day governance of the department that its efforts were delegated between several directorates under Heavenly's proteges-- Xander Vox, William McGrady, and Bastian MacBeth. When the previous human empires were dissolved and reorganized as the Central Galactic Union, the State Security apparatus was hived off into its own Ministry. Heavenly oversaw the expansion of every branch of State Sec in response to various crises but increasingly felt his burdens as he juggled directly managing the sprawling internal security apparatus, and running the day-to-day operations of the entire Ministry. Something had to give, and in early 2681, he used his agents' success in ending the civil war on planet Keystone to promote General Vox to Director of Internal Security. Focusing full-time on the daily grind of State Sec, he strove to balance the immense and clashing egos of Vox and McGrady, and the frustrations of MacBeth. In the wake of the Pirate War in 2685, he worked with MacBeth to reorganize all federal police under him as a single department.
In July 2696, when a terrorist chemical attack on the Galapagos National Fortress killed over 3,000 federal employees, Heavenly personally ensured the independence of an investigative committee, despite the attempts at interference by Minister Voss. This rose suspicions, and further investigation found that Voss was partly responsible for the incident, and had been colluding with Resistance terrorists. After Voss' arrest late in the year, Heavenly replaced him as Minister of State Security in what many have called a "palace coup". Heavenly denies all such innuendos.
At left we see him at age 20 when he was a young officer in the Navy Coastal Force (basically the Terran coast guard). In the middle we see him in the paramilitary "greenshirt" uniform of the NVF, not longer after being assigned as the political handler of the 71st Studies and Observations Group, with oak leaf pips as a badge of rank. On the right we see him in the mid-2680s as Vice Minister of State Sec, and at far right we see him in his full dress uniform as Minister of State Security.
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Continuing from before, the corps and divisions of the 15th Army Group. Many of its divisions have heritage relating to African and Asian militaries of Earth's past, though some have roots in European, American, and British units. Despite these connections, its forces are distributed rather widely in the Outer Colonies and the Banat.
A great deal of unit heraldry has controversial connections to conflicts in the early 20th century; during the wars between NATO and Russia throughout the 21st century, the armies on both sides raised units with questionable history and heraldry, which was criticized at the time. However, as memory of the early 20th century faded, the debate subsided and these units were integrated into the United Nations allied forces. After the Interplanetary War in the 2160s, these units were demobilized, and the reconstituted Terran Federal Army had little continuity with the preceding UN joint force. When these units' heritages were revived and reflagged as Terran Imperial Army divisions in the 2550s, the cultural debates and their historical context were far removed for most people. However, some interest groups and historical societies raised concerns that fascists, like the National Humanist Imperial Labor Party, might see the revival of certain units and their histories as tacit approval of their politics. This debate faded over time, but was a sticky point for Terran peace activists and leftists. The 2nd Army Group (late Army Group Equatoria) and 15th Army Group drew the most criticism, but other were included as the Empire's army expanded.
A great deal of unit heraldry has controversial connections to conflicts in the early 20th century; during the wars between NATO and Russia throughout the 21st century, the armies on both sides raised units with questionable history and heraldry, which was criticized at the time. However, as memory of the early 20th century faded, the debate subsided and these units were integrated into the United Nations allied forces. After the Interplanetary War in the 2160s, these units were demobilized, and the reconstituted Terran Federal Army had little continuity with the preceding UN joint force. When these units' heritages were revived and reflagged as Terran Imperial Army divisions in the 2550s, the cultural debates and their historical context were far removed for most people. However, some interest groups and historical societies raised concerns that fascists, like the National Humanist Imperial Labor Party, might see the revival of certain units and their histories as tacit approval of their politics. This debate faded over time, but was a sticky point for Terran peace activists and leftists. The 2nd Army Group (late Army Group Equatoria) and 15th Army Group drew the most criticism, but other were included as the Empire's army expanded.