Milo Tyranne
Character
- Hafnip -
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Region - Wild Space.
System - Twenteska I System.
Sun - Twenteska I, an average yellow star. This star is technically part of a binary system, though it is separated from its neighbor by a distance of approximately half a parsec; the neighboring star is called Twenteska II, and is orbited by its own system of planets. Though they orbit one-another, the two systems are considered separate.
Orbital Position - Hafnip occupies Twenteska I's fourth orbital position, and is at about the median point of the star's habitable zone.
Moons -
Hafnip has two natural satellites, as well as countless artificial ones, including a large number of objects moved from the system's asteroid belt for resource mining operations. Major objects in orbit around Hafnip include the following:
- Lanas -
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The smaller of Hafnip's two moons, Lanas was the first to be visited and settled by the native Miln. Approximately 1/8th the size and density of the Miln home-world, with equivalent reduced gravity, it is believed to be an ancient planetoid captured by Hafnip's gravity, many billions of years ago. Oddly, while barren, Lanas does possess a diffuse atmosphere in its lowlands, composed primarily of neon and argon. Today, Lanas is an important Miln resource and population center, home to some 10 million beings. The moon boasts some of the oldest Miln settlements in the system, predating the Miln-Imperial war and overlooked in the subsequent bombardment of Hafnip and its orbital installations. Much of Lanas' economy centers around the mining of its regolith, which contains many metallic elements, as well as water ice deposits.
Oddly, Lanas' crust is apparently devoid of radioactive isotopes, though such elements are abundantly present throughout the rest of the system.
- Lunus -
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Lunus is the larger of Hafnip's two natural satellites, approximately 1/4th the size of the Miln home-world with equivalent reduced gravity. Orbiting slightly further away than Lanas, Lunus was the second moon to be visited by the Miln. Thought to have been created when a large proto-planet struck Hafnip early in the system's history, ejecting a large plume of debris which eventually coalesced into a moon, the mineral composition of Lunus is very similar to that of Hafnip (though it possesses no atmosphere), thus lending itself to heavy development as the Miln began to colonize their star system. At its height prior to the Miln-Imperial war, Lunus boasted a large population and a heavy concentration of high-tech industries. During the war, however, the moon was a frequent target of Imperial raids, and suffered a full-scale bombardment at the hands of three of the nine Star Destroyers sent to raze Hafnip.
Lunus has never truly recovered in the centuries since, retaining only a small population. Of note, the moon does boast a large number of automated mining operations, primarily devoted to the extraction of radioactive materials used in fuel and industrial processes.
- The Orbital Habitats -
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With its surface rendered more or less uninhabitable by Imperial bombardment, and recovery efforts slow in coming, the vast majority of the native Miln species do not live on their historical home-world of Hafnip, but instead in the vast shoals of artificial habitats which occupy its Lagrange points. Built using resources harvested from the system's asteroid belt, Miln space habitats exist in all shapes and sizes. The largest, however, are of the cylinder type, massive constructions which can exceed 20 kilometers in length, bigger than a Super Star Destroyer, and house populations in excess of 5 million beings. Lacking true artificial gravity, they spin in order to generate centrifugal force, simulating a "downward" pull on their inside walls. Light, heat and power are generated primarily by solar energy, directed by huge mirror vanes and beamed inside through large transparent hull sections.
Almost entirely self-sufficient, these habitats grow their own food, recycle their own water and atmosphere, and provide ample living space for their residents. Cylinder type habitats are typically paired up, connected to a counter-rotating twin in order to balance out undesirable gyroscopic effects, which would otherwise make it difficult to keep the habitat's mirrors properly angled toward the sun.
Though much more numerous beforehand, only three intact cylinders (one pair and one single habitat) survived the Miln-Imperial War, and no more have been constructed since due to the substantial resources required. Many ruined examples can still be found in war-era debris fields, though most are too badly damaged to ever realistically be repaired, and the dangerous nature of the surrounding debris makes even scrapping the wrecks a difficult prospect.
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After the end of the Miln-Imperial war, it took many years for the struggling populations of the surviving Miln colonies to outgrow their habitats. Due to the limited resources and shortages of labor which could be spared to build new residential habitats, and the small numbers of people who would end up living in them, a number of new, smaller habitat designs were tried.One of the most popular new designs constructed in the post-war era was the so-called sunflower type, so named for its large, circular reflector arrays, which resemble some flowers. Compact in construction, sunflower habitats were easy to build using lunar materials, with a shortened cylindrical habitation area approximately 500 meters in diameter, allowing for a population of around 2,500. The type also incorporated a separate agricultural torus, which supplied the inhabitants with food, as well as serving as an integral part of the habitat's atmosphere, waste and water recycling system. Two of these habitats are generally connected in counter-rotating pairs, similar to their larger cousins, in order to cancel out gyroscopic effects.
Sunflower types continue to be built in large numbers to this day, orbiting Hafnip, other planets in the Twenteska I system and beyond.
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Also common after the war, the "pill" type habitat was designed as an even smaller and less resource intensive alternative to the sunflower type, with about 2/5ths the population capacity. Sacrificing even a reflected vista of outer space for economy of building materials and internal land area, the pill type can house up to 1,000 people inside a habitation cylinder about 200 meters in diameter. Agricultural areas are incorporated into the main cylinder in this design, taking up a considerable amount of room, though no more-so than the transparent hull section of a sunflower or full cylinder type. Like the other two habitat types previously mentioned, individual pill types are usually connected with others, though more commonly in series rather than merely pairs. This allows residents to more easily communicate and visit with the populations of other habitats, ensuring a more dynamic and interesting social environment.
Due to their convenient size and ease of construction, pill type habitats are popular as residential structures in far-flung Miln settlements, as well as for use in certain industrial applications, such as large-scale commercial agriculture and industries with gravity-dependent manufacturing methods.
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Less common than the pill or sunflower types, the sphere type is another space habitat design which gained popularity in the aftermath of the war. Larger than its two post-war counterparts, the sphere type is actually a very old design, predating even the massive cylinder types. Among the first orbital habitat types built by the Miln in any number, the sphere type incorporates a habitat section in the shape of its namesake, about 16 kilometers in diameter and capable of housing over 20,000 people. Unlike cylindrical habitats, which maintain a long stretch of their maximum diameter along their length, the sphere type only maintains full "gravity" at its equator, with centrifugal force tapering off toward the "poles". The sphere's interior resembles a valley in form, typically with a narrow "river" along the equatorial line.The residential sphere is flanked at either end by stacks of external agricultural tori, plus zero-gravity port and industrial facilities. Though significantly smaller than a full cylinder type habitat, sphere types have a larger population potential and more comprehensive facilities than either of their smaller cousins.
Though uncommon before the war, the smaller resource and labor requirements of the sphere type compared to the cylinder type meant that 6 more were constructed when production of new residential habitats resumed, in addition to the single pre-war example which survived.
Prior to the war against the Galactic Empire, over 2,000 colonies of various types existed in orbit around Hafnip, home to over half the total Miln population. Large but fragile, completely unshielded and only lightly armed if at all, the vast majority were destroyed during the Miln-Imperial war, resulting in untold billions of civilian casualties. After the final bombardment of Hafnip, only a handful survived, somehow overlooked in the carnage.
In the centuries since the war, many colonies have been rebuilt to house the slowly rebounding Miln population, though they have not even come close to matching their former proliferation. Nevertheless, the vast majority of Miln call these habitats home, and will for the foreseeable future.
- The Resource Asteroids -
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After centuries of intensive space development, Hafnip is ringed by countless resource asteroids. Brought in from the system's asteroid belt to put them in closer proximity to the workforce and markets of the colonies, these asteroids provide vast quantities of metals, chemicals and fissionable materials (such as uranium and thorium). Some older asteroids boast small permanent populations, ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand, depending on the size and scale of the operation.Though most tapped-out asteroids are abandoned, more than a few have been put to other uses, including conversion into residential habitats, resorts, manufacturing facilities and military bases.
System Features -
The Twenteska I system encompasses 10 planets including Hafnip, as well as a large asteroid belt. These other bodies include:
- Iuytis -
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Occupying the system's first orbital position, Iuytis is an unremarkable ball of metals and silicates circling close to its star. Possessing no atmosphere, surface temperatures on Iuytis during the local day can reach over 450 degrees Celsius, making this planet utterly inhospitable for most life-forms.- Iatis -
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Second in from its star, Iatis is a barren, dusty planet, possessing no natural magnetic field and a thin nitrogen-oxygen-carbon dioxide atmosphere, which is is in the process of being stripped away by the solar wind. Said atmosphere is too diffuse to breathe for most beings, of course, and a breath mask is thus advised when visiting the surface.Iatis is not itself inhabited, but does occupy the inner edge of the system's habitable zone. Evidence of ancient seabeds and channels has led to the theory that the planet may have had liquid water and possibly life at some point in the distant past. Today, Iatis' orbit is home to a few Miln outposts.
- Verderis -
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Verderis is Hafnip's immediate neighbor, occupying the third orbital position only 10 million miles away. Thought to be a still-evolving world, Verderis has vast, shallow oceans of liquid water and is still highly volcanically active. Though visited by Miln scientists, the planet has been judged too dangerous for direct colonization due to its hazardous terrain, frequent volcanic eruptions and toxic atmosphere, which has high levels of carbon dioxide and other poisonous gases, necessitating that breath masks be used by most species when visiting the surface.It is thought that Verderis resembles Hafnip in the very distant past, and many have theorized that after a few hundred million more years, life may evolve there. At present, however, the planet's orbit is host to a few dozen Miln colonies and outposts.
- Milcrolla -
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Milcrolla orbits just beyond Hafnip in the fifth orbital position, just at the edge of the system's habitable zone. This frigid world is locked in an eons-long ice age, covered from pole to pole in a frozen sheet up to three kilometers thick. Though possessing a breathable atmosphere, the planet's daylight surface temperature of around -50 degrees Celsius has proven discouraging to surface colonization efforts. There are a handful of colonies and outposts in orbit, however.- The Asteroid Belt -
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Orbiting between the inner and outer planets, the Twenteska I Asteroid Belt is a circle of debris which rings the inner system. Believed to be the remains of a giant rocky planet, approximately three times the size of Hafnip, the Belt contains high concentrations of metal, radioactive materials and other useful elements. The Miln routinely "harvest" these asteroids for their own use, transporting them from the Belt to new orbits around Hafnip, where they are mined and their raw materials processed.The Asteroid Belt boasts few permanent Miln settlements, most of the Belt's inhabitants being transients moving from job to job, prospecting and fitting engines to asteroids slated for transit. There are a few permanent outposts or habitats, those that do exist mainly being carved out of the asteroids themselves.
During the Miln-Imperial War, Imperial access to the resources of the asteroids was the ultimate catalyst for hostilities. At one time, the Empire kept a garrison in the region. The opening shots of the war were fired at VY236, a resource asteroid in transit to Hafnip, and at Green Rest, an asteroid colony where over 5,000 Miln were slaughtered by Imperial stormtroopers.
- Katryus -
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Katryus circles beyond the Asteroid Belt, occupying the seventh orbital position in the system. The largest planet in the system, Katryus is a titanic gas giant, with an upper atmosphere primarily composed of helium and chlorine, the former of which is mined by large tanker spacecraft via long probes dipped into the roiling clouds from orbit.Katryus boasts dozens of moons, some of which are large enough to be planets in their own right, though none support life or have breathable atmospheres. A few boast Miln outposts and colonies, both on the surfaces and in orbit; most residents work in the helium mining business, and the have formed a distinct culture over centuries of near-complete isolation on the frontiers of Miln civilization. Residents of the Katryus colonies prefer to be called Katryians.
- Oskade -
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A small, mysterious rock balanced at the gravitational neutral point between Katryus and Oslenus, Oskade occupies the eighth orbital position in the system, and is thought to be a cast off moon of one of the two gas giants which got caught between them. Very little is known about Oskade; possessing no moons or Miln outposts, it is seldom visited by anyone. The little planet has a bit of a reputation, however; lying beyond the edge of the Miln frontier within the system, Oskade has nonetheless become the wreck site of a number of ships en route to and from the edge of the system. One particularly famous wreck, that of the HFS Dawn's Kiss, a hyperspace-capable Miln freighter, resulted in the surviving crew being marooned on the planet for ten years. Retreating into their stasis pods to await rescue, most of the crew died shortly afterward due to malfunctions, leaving only one survivor.
When the ship was finally discovered, a decade later, rescue teams entered to find the last surviving crewman huddled in a rear cargo bay, having been awoken early by a still functional safety system when his pod began to fail as well, a feature which had been broken on the others. He had apparently survived for over two years, alone and terrified, gibbering warnings about a horrifying creature which stalked him through the corridors.
These stories were dismissed, the result no doubt of the poor male being driven mad, marooned for years aboard a dead ship with nothing but the corpses of his shipmates for company. An un-crewed relief station was subsequently placed in orbit for use by ships in distress.
Force users who have visited Oskade have noted the presence of the dark side there, and some believe that the planet may have borne witness to some great evil in the far distant past. Certain Miln scientists who have studied Oskade have also theorized that the planet itself may predate the rest of the System, leaving its true origins and history unknown.
- Oslenus -
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A reddish gas giant, Oslenus is the ninth out and second largest planet in the system. Though it does posses nearly as many moons as Katryus, few are very large, most being barren and rocky. Though bearing few useful resources, the planet does have an unusual atmospheric structure, with red "surface" clouds and white high altitude clouds. It is theorized that Oslenus' inner atmosphere may contain perfect conditions for the formation and harvesting of Corusca gems, though no actual prospecting has yet been undertaken.- Hion -
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The tenth and most distant planet in the system, Hion is a green gas giant only about a quarter the size of Katryus. An unremarkable world, it was named for the ancient Miln god of frontiers, and possesses no less than five moons, all strangely similar in size and composition, though all barren of life and atmosphere. Hion is too remote for colonization or even frequent visitation by the Miln, drifting in lonely silence at the edge of interstellar space.Coordinates - Adjacent Pzob, approximately the middle of the hex below it.
Rotational Period - 20 standard hours.
Orbital Period - 305 standard days.
Class - Terrestrial.
Atmosphere - Type III (extremely low levels of oxygen, high levels of carbon dioxide).
Climate - Arid, barren; surface and atmosphere have been scarred by the effects of a prolonged planetary bombardment, which resulted in global firestorms, consuming much of the oxygen in the atmosphere and wiping out 99.9% of all native life. This also led to a prolonged nuclear winter, followed by a nuclear summer which turned much of the planet into a desert.
Gravity - Coruscant standard.
Primary Terrain - Hafnip's current terrain primarily consists of desert wastelands, baked under harsh sunlight and shrouded in a toxic carbon dioxide atmosphere, sterilized of all life besides maybe a few tenacious microbes. The planet does have small liquid water seas, though they have an extremely low pH balance, making them highly acidic.
Native Species - Miln.
Immigrated Species - Small numbers of Tynnans, Tintinna, Mhingxin and Chadra-Fan, invited to live in the colonies by the Hafnip government as the first phase of a project to acclimatize the native Miln to alien races.
Primary Languages - Milnish, Basic.
- Government -
The post-war flag of the Hafnip Federation.
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The Hafnip government is known as the Hafnip Federation, and is considered to be the central government of all current Miln colonies. Originally formed during the early days of the Miln space age, the Hafnip Federation was originally the successor to an earlier world government, which was reformed into the Federation in order to incorporate the new Miln orbital colonies and other settlements throughout the system. In this capacity, the Federation was mainly a framework for common law and cooperation between separate Miln communities, as most Miln colonies at the time were considered to be more or less autonomous states.
After the war, things changed again; with the total Miln population reduced to only 15 million beings, and the process of rebuilding being of utmost importance to their long-term survival, the Hafnip Federation's power was greatly expanded, evolving into a more comprehensive federal government in order to more easily direct the reconstruction effort, as well as the new defense initiative.
The Hafnip Federation is a representative democracy, with elections in each region every 5 years to elect officials to serve in the Central Assembly. These representatives in turn elect one of their number as a Prime Minister, who may serve up to two terms of five years.
Though highly centralized in the years after the war, the establishment of Miln colonies in far-away star systems has begun a movement to restore the more "hands off" central government which existed before the war. This is a subject of heavy debate in Miln politics, with most members of the general population falling into one camp or the other.
Population - 100-120 million sentients.
Demonym - Hafnese.
Currency - The local currency of Hafnip and its colonies is Federal Credit Standard, which is maintained at an equal exchange rate to Galactic Credit Standard; its value is backed by abundant gold reserves kept by the Federation government.
Federal Credit Standard is commonly exchanged in coin form, with denominations of 100, 50, 20, 10, 5, 1, 0.50, 0.25, 0.10, 0.05 and 0.01. These coins are square with a triangular notch, in addition to the number printed on the coin's surface; this notch is wider or narrower depending on the coin's value, and aids in mechanical counting. All Federation coins are made from a lightweight titanium alloy, specially formulated to make forgery difficult.
Major Imports - Hafnip and its colonies import very little; as most Miln colonies are self-sufficient, there is little call for foreign goods, which tend to be expensive within the system due to its distance from established trade routes. Most imports come in the form of luxury goods and other familiar items purchased from elsewhere by aliens living within Miln society.
Major Exports - Hafnip is a major regional exporter of radioactive fuel elements, such as uranium and plutonium. Other exports include metals, simple technological trinkets and various foodstuffs, primarily cereal crops.
Affiliation - The government of Hafnip is strictly neutral in Galactic affairs.
Major Locations -
Notable locations on and around Hafnip include the following:
- Home Base -
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Home Base is currently the only consistently inhabited settlement on the surface of Hafnip, the planet having been rendered sterile by an Imperial bombardment several centuries ago. The atmosphere has a low oxygen content and high levels of carbon dioxide, making it poisonous to the Miln and many other life-forms; therefore, Home Base is a completely sealed and pressurized environment.The Base was established as a foothold for the Miln on their home-world after the war with the Galactic Empire, and primarily hosts research and survey teams monitoring efforts to restore Hafnip's eradicated biosphere, a process which will likely take centuries yet.
- Nalaan -
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Named for a mythical hidden kingdom in an ancient Miln folktale, Nalaan was established several decades before the Miln-Imperial War on Hafnip's nearer moon, Lanas, as a nature preserve. Originally built as a memento of the home-world's savage splendor for Miln living in space, Nalaan is the size of a large city, roofed over by a massive, automatically tinting transparent dome. It remains one of the most impressive feats of structural engineering yet accomplished by the Miln, and one of the biggest domes anywhere. Nalaan was designed to simulate an equatorial river valley, with rain-forests, plains and mountains. It is populated by a complete ecosystems of plants and animals, including both prey and predators, all of which have adapted admirably to Lanas' 1/8th standard gravity, and all of which are now extinct on their native planet, as are nearly all lifeforms indigenous to Hafnip.
The main dome is accompanied by a number of smaller ones, each enclosing a scaled down replica of a different environment; there is also a genetic vault containing preserved DNA samples from nearly every species on ancient Hafnip. It is hoped that, once the surface of the planet has been restored, these genetic samples might be used to clone the species represented, restoring Hafnip as it once was.
- Island One -
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An antique sphere type habitat from the early days of Miln space colonization, Island One is the capital of the Hafnip Federation, orbiting at the L1 Lagrange point. One of the first colonies constructed by the Miln, it has always served as the administrative center of the Federation government, except during the war, when it was badly damaged and the government temporarily relocated to an anonymous resource asteroid. Repaired after the war and restored as the center of government, Island One boasts a population of around 20,000, and is the only civilian territory directly administered by the Central Assembly.
- Island Ease -
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Located at the L3 Lagrange point, Island Ease is the largest and most densely populated single space habitat yet built by the Miln. Having survived the Miln-Imperial War, it had originally been a pair of cylinders, but one half had been severely damaged and was later cut loose. The remaining habitat was enlarged in order to house refugees in the immediate post-war era, receiving an additional 4 kilometers in length in the form of extended end caps, increasing the total length of the cylinder to 24 kilometers. These new areas, designed as high-density residential districts, increased the colony's population capacity by an additional 2 million to a total of 7 million.Though widely regarded as crowded and poorly maintained compared to other Miln habitats, Island Ease quickly grew to prominence in the decades after the war, its large population boosting its commercial potential, cultural significance and political importance. Coming to be known as the "big city" of the surviving large habitats, it was seen as the beating heart of the Miln reconstruction effort, through which all business, all ideas and all people eventually flowed. Within a few short decades, the space around Island Ease became crowded with smaller "suburb" habitats.
In the present day, Island Ease is still considered one of the most important and dynamic settlements in Miln space.
- Mrakjant Deep Space Terminal -
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Located beyond the orbit of Hion, Mrakjant Deep Space Terminal is a free-floating outpost habitat which comprises the most remote inhabited spot in the system. A sphere type colony, one of six to be built after the Miln-Imperial War, it is located in the center of an enormous mirror dish which allows it to collect and concentrate the necessary sunlight for operations at so great a distance from Twenteska I. Mrakjant has a permanent population of about 15,000, many of them in active service with or retired from the Miln Astrogational Corps, the headquarters of which is also located there.Established as "the Gateway to Hafnip", Mrakjant Deep Space Terminal was designed as a showcase of Miln society and culture to first-time visitors, hence its population of MAC personnel and alumni, who are able to interact more casually with alien visitors thanks to their fear-suppressing psychological conditioning. The colony has residential, recreational and commercial districts, and acts as a combined customs and immigration center and free trade zone, with some of the system's few markets importing alien consumer goods and other items.
Though the station itself is kept clean and more or less free of crime, the reflector dish is different story; the reflector, which is many times the diameter of the colony's habitat sphere, does not boast an official population, though some of its facilities are thought to be home to Miln and alien squatters. The dish's sensor shadow is also a popular meeting place for smuggler vessels.
Mrakjant also functions as the Hafnip Federation's system frontier defense headquarters, coordinating the fleet of sensor and armed defense satellites which ring the system. The colony also boasts a Hafnip Federation Defensive Navy garrison, with a number of warships and a sizable detachment of marines.
- Culture -
The Miln, Hafnip's native species, have a diverse culture, united primarily by an intense survivalist sentiment stemming from the species' near extinction and subsequent slow recovery. Miln unity is primarily attributed to a pseudo-religious ideology known as Eoism; fostered by the new environment in which the species has found itself, Eoism primarily centers around the belief that all material and societal problems can be solved through intelligent, practical application and development of outer space and its resources, rejecting purely ideological struggle as a waste of time and resources. As a result, the Miln are generally regarded as having - at least among one-another - a peaceful, eminently practical society, with a focus on solving problems the smart way.
Due to the nature of their near extinction centuries ago, the Miln do have a bit of a stubborn streak, and a commitment to self defense and massive retaliation which would give even the most aggressive conqueror pause. Though their technological development is still several thousand years behind much of the Galaxy, the government of their home system, the Hafnip Federation, has declared that, in the event of war with a hostile power, there shall be no attempt on the part of the Miln to surrender. Any conflict undertaken by the species is total war, and is to the death, either theirs or the enemy's.
Historically, the Miln have only waged war when the very survival of their species and culture were at stake. As such, the Miln do not undertake the art of war lightly; a fundamentally peaceful people, it was a major leap for the Miln to accept large-scale combat as a necessity under certain circumstances, but in the centuries since their introduction to warfare, they have taken the concept of readiness and overwhelming force to heart. From an early age, Miln children are educated in self defense and elementary strategic thought; during time of war, every physically able member of the population is considered an effective combatant. Despite their limited technology and small size, Miln special forces - maintained at full readiness even in peacetime - are considered to be some of the best in the known Galaxy.
Perhaps the best known representatives of the Miln species, however, are not their army or navy, but their explorers. Though still far behind the curve in terms of technology, the Hafnip Federation has an active and very professional inter-stellar exploration and development organization, the Miln Astrogational Corps, or MAC.
An elite scout organization, members of the MAC function as the vanguards of the Miln species in the wider Galaxy. With responsibilities ranging from long-range astrogational surveys to first contact with alien species, the organization is widely regarded by denizens of the Outer Rim and Wild Space as being a collection of some of the most simultaneously competent and stubborn beings in their business, despite their often outdated technology and comparatively small size of their supporting government.
Originally formed well before the Miln were exposed to the wider Galaxy, the MAC was originally charged with exploring the frontiers of their home system as the species expanded out from their home-world to found their first space colonies. When the Miln achieved interstellar travel, the MAC graduated to exploring other systems and laying the ground-work for the first Miln colonies around other stars. Today, the MAC continues their proud tradition of long-range exploration and research. The organization also frequently initiates first contact with new alien species, and has thus included diplomacy within its unofficial mission statement.
MAC scouts are considered some of the toughest beings in space; despite their species' small size and relatively primitive technology, Miln spacers routinely push boundaries and endure hardships other races would find unthinkable. The organization has the following motto:
"Not by strength, but by guile shall we know."
- History -
The history of Hafnip is, in large part, the history of the Miln, its native sentient species.The Miln, in the grand scheme of Galactic history, are a fairly young civilization, only having contact with the wider Galaxy for a few centuries now. Prior to this event, Miln history is fairly standard as sentient races go; the earliest Miln were hunter-gatherers on their home-world of Hafnip, living in tribes composed of multiple family units. Eventually, some of these groups discovered agriculture; this advance led to the founding of the earliest permanent Miln settlements, first villages, later towns and cities.
The Miln planetary government did form relatively quickly, compared to many other races; warfare being unknown to the species, larger entities often organically absorbed smaller ones when they encountered one-another, forming first kingdoms, later countries, superpowers, and finally, a unified state encompassing all Miln settlements. The Miln are somewhat unusual in that such a unified government actually emerged before the species achieved a true industrial age, though this came soon afterward.
Miln technology advanced rapidly in the time before first contact. Within only a century or so of their first steam engine, the species had achieved space travel within their star system, beginning with simple robotic instruments fired aloft by huge mass drivers, and later by progressively more advanced chemical rockets. It was not long before Miln explorers begin to make crewed forays into orbit above their world, later visiting its satellites, first for short visits, but later setting up permanent bases and settlements.
These first expeditions ranged further and further afield as time went on; first the moons, and later Hafnip's planetary neighbors. These scientific missions were followed later by commercial interests, exploiting the vast natural resources to be found, which in turn led to the colonization of near space by Miln pioneers.
Miln in ever-increasing numbers began to live and work in space as time went on, eventually leading to the construction of vast orbital habitats housing millions of people. Within a few centuries, the number of Miln living in space matched the number living planet-side, and shortly afterward, began to exceed it. The species had many reasons for such a massive migration into space; aside from desiring the abundant natural resources, many Miln were following an instinctual drive to seek a safer environment. Though the species had developed an industrial society, the planet upon which they lived was still a dangerous place; their technology had afforded them a measure of respect from the local predators, but the Miln were still not truly at the top of their planet's food chain, and venturing outside the fortified cities without heavy armament and a large group was still considered tantamount to suicide. In space, as far as the Miln knew, no such predators existed; a Miln in the colonies did not have to compulsively bar their windows and doors, lest a ravenous beast try to sneak inside.
Space was a safe place; to live, to work, to raise a family.
And so, the Miln colonized the inner reaches of their solar system. As their presence in space grew, so to did their ambitions, and it was not long before the Miln began to turn their attention further afield; ignorant of the realities of the wider Galaxy, the species fostered high hopes for their future within it.
But then came First Contact.
“Inconsequential folk, the Miln; their technology is laughable, and never have I met a more fearful and retiring people. They should be no trouble for us to handle.”
_Commodore Fedorov Paln, commenting on the threat posed by the Miln to the Empire, circa 10 BBY.
Hafnip was first discovered by the Imperial Survey Corps around 12 BBY. Initially cataloged by a long-range probot, the planet and its star system would not be visited by an organic Imperial representative for another year.This was due to two factors, mainly, the first being workload; the Imperial Survey Corps was notoriously overworked during the height of the Galactic Empire, with new planets being discovered at the rate of one every 207 standard minutes; Hafnip was easily lost in the shuffle, set aside as other, more interesting discoveries came in.
The second was classification; though the probot had observed the Miln during its survey of the system, an oversight in its programming caused it to file any pre-hyperdrive civilization as “primitive”, which could mean anything from stone-age hunter-gatherers to a space-age people on the cusp of interstellar exploration.
This was not to say the probe discovered nothing it considered of note, though; in a mineral survey, it discovered that the system's asteroid belt – the remains of a destroyed Super-Coruscant – contained massive deposits of fissionable material, such as Uranium and Thorium, in addition to other heavy metals and useful elements. That the Miln had been mining these deposits for centuries was not mentioned, nor would it have been a concern; such materials were valuable to the burgeoning Empire, and workers would eventually be sent in to extract them, locals or no.
First contact between the Miln and Humans of the Galactic Empire first occurred in 11 BBY, when an ISC Pacifier entered the system on a routine followup survey. During a tour of the outer planets, the ship encountered an enormous intra-system helium tanker en route from mining operations at the system's largest gas giant. Though initially frightened of the newcomer, the Miln crew greeted the Imperial vessel, welcoming it to the system.
The Miln, up to that point, had grappled with the Fermi paradox; never before in their recorded history had they been visited by alien beings, nor had their primitive instruments been able to observe conclusive evidence of other species within the Galaxy, leading them to theorize that intelligent life at least was a rare, if not unique occurrence within at least their region of space. The arrival of visitors from the stars, therefore, was a momentous occasion; despite their instinctual fear, the Miln were heartened to know that others at least marginally similar to themselves existed in the Galaxy, and welcomed them with open arms.
The Imperials, for their part, were not nearly so enthusiastic at the discovery of space-faring natives occupying their new raw materials mine.
Relations with the Miln were quickly taken over by the Imperial Navy, which established a small garrison station in the system's asteroid belt, and began acquiring mining rights to the surrounding area. Their demands were initially well received by the Miln; after all, a few resource asteroids seemed like a more than fair price to pay for relations with an alien culture.
Over the next half decade, however, Imperial mining operations began to chew through the resources conceded to them at a frightening rate, with the Empire demanding access to more and more. Unused to dealing with such aggressive demands, the Miln conceded without much complaint at first, but as the demands became more arrogant, and the Miln lost access to more and more of the resources they had come to depend on, the diminutive rodentoids began to cool down to the novelty of their interstellar visitors.
In 5 BBY, things came to a head.
The trouble arose initially over the supposed “theft” of a major resource asteroid.
For generations, the Miln had mined large asteroids for metals, fissionable materials and other elements, specialists identifying the most promising rocks, which were then fitted with large engines and moved out of their native orbit, bringing them closer to the orbital colonies around Hafnip, where the raw materials would be processed and used. Such “delivery” operations had been commonplace before the coming of the Empire, but the ever-expanding claims the newcomers had made in the asteroid belt had disrupted the trade, leading to much consternation and confusion on the part of the Miln who made their livelihoods as deep space prospectors. Imperial claims shifted by the day, it seemed, and resource asteroids slated for transportation to Hafnip could find themselves within Imperial territory, usually with almost no notice.
Such was the case with VY236, a mostly unremarkable rock about 3 kilometers in length, primarily rich in chromium. The crew working VY236, a group of 10 Miln prospectors and engine fitters representing the Pulsar Deep Space Resources corporation, were nearly finished with the installation of propulsion units on the asteroid when word came that Imperial territory had shifted again, and that they were now occupying Imperial property.
Rather than giving up their prize, however, the team decided to snub Imperial authority and completed the asteroid's fitting out, igniting the engines to begin the trip back to their home-world.
An Imperial scout vessel was dispatched as soon as the departure was detected, rendezvousing with the asteroid and ordering the crew to alter course back toward the Imperial concession or be fired upon. In hindsight, it was likely this phrasing that caused confusion amid the Miln on the asteroid; not possessing a military of their own, or a history of armed conflict for that matter, threat of force against a fellow sentient was a difficult concept to grasp; to the scout's instructions, the Miln foreman responded with a request for clarification, asking what fire had to do with the current situation. The Imperial commander, assuming that the Miln were making light of the situation, ordered his gunners to fire a warning shot across the asteroid's path.
This had the opposite of the intended effect.
As the Miln were predisposed to do, the crew of the asteroid tried to run, firing the asteroid's nuclear pulse engine to try and outrun their pursuers. The edge of the exhaust cone, basically the directed output of a megaton-scale fusion device, caught the closely following Imperial scout ship, stripping the vessel's shields and causing minor hull damage. Taking this as hostile action, the Imperial commander retaliated, bringing his weapons to bear on the asteroid and razing the surface installations.
All 10 Miln on VY236 were killed.
The Imperial attack on VY236 caused a substantial panic on Hafnip; in the Miln view, the Imperials had demonstrated themselves to be hostile predators, and most believed it would only be a matter of time before they came for the rest of the Miln population. Worse yet, while the Miln were a space-faring civilization, they had not yet developed the capacity for interstellar travel; ultimately, if the Empire came for them on Hafnip or their orbital colonies, the Miln had nowhere they could run.
They were cornered.
The population of Green Rest – mainly prospectors, propulsion engineers and other space development specialists – were informed via a radionic message that they were now subjects of the Galactic Empire, and to await the arrival of their new Human governor. Despite the speciesist disdain for the Miln professed by at least the higher-ranking Human officers assigned to the system garrison, the diminutive rodentoids were admired at least for their skill in working the asteroids, extracting the valuable resources the Empire wanted.
The annexation of Green Rest had been quite deliberate in that regard; the commander of the garrison, Commodore Fedorov Paln, had long considered demonstrating the utility of the Miln as a slave race as a means of furthering his own career. Now with a population of Miln under his control, Paln intended to test his theories, expecting that the naturally timid creatures could easily be controlled.
Such was not the case.
As a preliminary step in training the Miln of Green Rest, the population of the asteroid was rounded up for division into work details. The Miln, assuming that the stormtroopers sent to collect them were herding them together for extermination, imagined themselves to be cornered.
And cornered Miln were anything but timid.
The Massacre of Green Rest is considered by many to be the formal beginning of the Miln-Imperial war. The population of the asteroid colony, some 5,000 Miln, rose up against a force of 200 stormtroopers sent to gather them. Despite being armed only with hand tools, kitchen knives, other hastily improvised implements and only mob tactics, the Miln managed to inflict over 50 casualties. In retaliation, they were indeed entirely exterminated by the Imperials, though not before a chilling message was broadcast by the defenders.
They are killing us. We cannot get out. Save yourselves.
The subsequent evacuation of the asteroid belt by the Miln occurred in short order. Thousands fled to the inner planets, taking with them numerous resource asteroids and concentrating at the Hafnip orbital colonies. The Miln had never fought a war before; the concept was all but unknown to them. However, the new and significant danger placed before them forced the diminutive creatures to think in new ways; unable to flee from the new predator that was the Empire, they were forced to make a stand, and a massive one at that, requiring whole new ways of thinking and specialized technologies the species had never before explored.
To their credit, they rose admirably to the challenge; within a year, the first Miln warships had been developed, and in 4 BBY, a Miln fleet some 3,000 strong set out for the asteroid belt, the first of many attempts to dislodge the Imperials from their holdings in the system. Despite their weight of numbers, new weapon technology and resolve, however, the Miln were beaten handily at the First Battle of the Belt, during which a scant handful of Imperial survey and patrol craft decimated 90% of the fleet sent against them. Imperial weapons and tactics severely over-matched the novice Miln, and the attack only served to set the Empire on the offensive, launching raids deep into the system. There, they wreaked untold destruction, annihilating Miln industrial and administrative targets, as well as population centers.
To the Imperials, it was little more than target practice, though to the Miln, it was a war for their very survival.
War raged in the system for 4 standard years. In that time, the Miln suffered horrific losses against the Empire; by 1 BBY, 70% of the entire Miln population in space had been wiped out, with entire colony groups reduced to drifting shoals of wreckage.
The Miln themselves had very little to show for it; convinced that the Imperials were determined to exterminate them, they had never let up their attacks. Over time, their technology and tactics had grown more sophisticated; Imperial casualties continued to be frustratingly light, but by late in the war the Miln had begun to employ weapons which were at least marginally capable of damaging Imperial vessels, and had adopted strategies learned by observing the way the Empire fought, as well as more original tactics derived from the way the Miln dealt with the deadly predators of their home-world.
Ultimately, the Miln were fighting a delaying action; realistically, they knew they could never hope to beat the Empire, but perhaps they could keep them back long enough for their people to discover a way to survive. Even if they could not, the Miln would not submit to the claws of a predator without a fight, whatever it cost.
On the other end of things, the Empire looked upon the Miln as little more than a nuisance, a localized blip which barely even registered on their annual expenditures. The local garrison only operated a dozen or so small ships, more than enough firepower to deal with the threat of the indigenous sentients.
They were nothing to the Empire; not even worth the trouble of extermination, at least up until that point.
The end of the Miln-Imperial war came in 0 ABY, with the arrival of the Interrogator.
The Imperial I-class Star Destroyer Interrogator was on routine patrol in the Outer Rim, and was not originally scheduled to visit the Miln home system. The ship was diverted to the aid of the system's garrison at the suggestion of Commodore Paln, who mentioned the difficulties he had encountered with the native population in a hypercomm conversation with Interrogator's commander, Captain Morgan Yeln. Captain Yeln suggested that perhaps the Commodore's lack of any vessels exceeding light corvette size had failed to sufficiently impress upon the locals the scale and power of their foe, and that a show of force by a ship the size of his own might drive home the futility of their actions. Paln, by this time thoroughly frustrated by the Miln's refusal to surrender, readily agreed to try the Captain's idea.
Interrogator arrived in the system's outer reaches shortly afterward, and was quickly detected by Miln long-range sensors, which despite their relative primitiveness had no trouble picking up an object over a kilometer and a half in length. Understandably, the ship's arrival caused substantial consternation among the Miln; it was larger by several orders of magnitude than anything the Imperials had yet fielded against them, and it was on a direct course for the home-world.
What followed was, in the perspective of the Miln, perhaps the single most important space battle of the entire war.
Wanting to advertise his presence to the Miln, Captain Yeln ordered a leisurely sublight cruise through the system's inner planets, giving the locals time to be impressed by the incredible scale and power of one of the Empire's most formidable warships. This was to be Yeln's undoing, as the Miln made good use of the extra time, assembling the largest single fleet ever seen in the system up to that time to meet the Interrogator.
The Miln fleet, which encompassed every space-worthy vessel which could be found and fitted with armament, met Interrogator at the Hafnip Absolute Defense Line, a point just beyond the orbit of the planet's furthest natural satellite. Captain Yeln, not expecting to find an actual opposing force in his way, had come alone; he was not concerned, however, especially given that his vessel overwhelmingly outclassed anything the Miln could field against it.
The Miln, however, were not about to back down. They assumed that Interrogator could only mean the end for them; the Empire had finally brought the other hand out from behind its back, and was about to swat them down with it. The only thing left to do for the Miln was to fight on until the end, and hope that at least a few of their own would survive, somehow.
The battle which followed was indeed apocalyptic in scale and ferocity.
Though the Miln ships were little better than target practice for Interrogator's gunners, the Star Destroyer's shields absorbed volley after volley of Miln anti-ship missiles and mass driver bolts. Despite the loss of thousands of vessels, the Miln kept pouring on fire, crews ramming their own ships against the doonium behemoth's deflectors and hull when they ran out of ordnance. Such was the bombardment that, after many hours, the shields of the Imperial battle wagon actually collapsed, and the Miln defenders descended on it. Braving the ship's still formidable close-in weapons, Miln war vessels closed to latch on, disgorging their crews to fight the Imperials aboard.
Despite horrific casualties, including the near-complete decimation of their combined fleet, the Interrogator was eventually subdued and captured by the Miln. The victory came as a surprise; despite their ferocity in defending their home, few among the Miln had expected to succeed. The badly mauled but still intact Star Destroyer was now sailed by a prize crew, and though it had cost the Miln much to achieve such a victory, many believed that their actions might give the Empire pause in continuing their war against them.
They were wrong.
In point of fact, the Miln had signed their own death warrant with the taking of the Interrogator.
In managing to achieve such a victory, the Miln had brought themselves under the direct scrutiny of a government which had conquered thousands of worlds. The Miln, tiny rodentoids from a backwater world in the depths of Wild Space, had managed to bring down not just a ship, but a symbol of the Empire's irresistible might.
Such an act could not go unpunished.
The Miln enjoyed a few months of peace after the battle, unaware that it was the calm before a storm such as they had never seen.
They had brought down a single Star Destroyer, and it had cost them nearly all of their fighting strength. To finish them off, the Empire sent nine; nine ships, each a kilometer and a half long, all with very simple instructions.
Leave nothing alive on or around Hafnip.
Imperial Navy high command had authorized Base Delta Zero against Hafnip. Upon the task force's arrival, the Miln made an attempt to fight them off, even fielding the half-crippled Interrogator in their desperation, but in their weakened state they were swatted aside as the Empire laid waste to their world. The nine Star Destroyers conducted an orbital bombardment of Hafnip for a full standard day. Nothing on the surface survived; the forests and plains burned in immense firestorms, the smoke from which blackened the sky. Seas boiled, volcanoes erupted and groundquakes shook the earth; every industrial site and population center was reduced to a lake of molten slag by sheets of turbolaser bolts.
On their way out, the Imperial vessels turned their weapons on what remained of the Miln orbital infrastructure. Of the several hundred space habitats which had survived the conflict up to that point, only three were spared, plus a handful of moon bases and deep space installations, all somehow overlooked in the unimaginable carnage.
And that was it.
The Empire withdrew from the system shortly afterward; even with the resources to be had, the cost of maintaining even a small garrison in such a remote region of Wild Space was considered an unnecessary expense, especially as the Galactic Civil War began to escalate. In 2 ABY, a clerical error resulted in the system itself being dropped from Imperial records.
For generations, the Miln had mined large asteroids for metals, fissionable materials and other elements, specialists identifying the most promising rocks, which were then fitted with large engines and moved out of their native orbit, bringing them closer to the orbital colonies around Hafnip, where the raw materials would be processed and used. Such “delivery” operations had been commonplace before the coming of the Empire, but the ever-expanding claims the newcomers had made in the asteroid belt had disrupted the trade, leading to much consternation and confusion on the part of the Miln who made their livelihoods as deep space prospectors. Imperial claims shifted by the day, it seemed, and resource asteroids slated for transportation to Hafnip could find themselves within Imperial territory, usually with almost no notice.
Such was the case with VY236, a mostly unremarkable rock about 3 kilometers in length, primarily rich in chromium. The crew working VY236, a group of 10 Miln prospectors and engine fitters representing the Pulsar Deep Space Resources corporation, were nearly finished with the installation of propulsion units on the asteroid when word came that Imperial territory had shifted again, and that they were now occupying Imperial property.
Rather than giving up their prize, however, the team decided to snub Imperial authority and completed the asteroid's fitting out, igniting the engines to begin the trip back to their home-world.
An Imperial scout vessel was dispatched as soon as the departure was detected, rendezvousing with the asteroid and ordering the crew to alter course back toward the Imperial concession or be fired upon. In hindsight, it was likely this phrasing that caused confusion amid the Miln on the asteroid; not possessing a military of their own, or a history of armed conflict for that matter, threat of force against a fellow sentient was a difficult concept to grasp; to the scout's instructions, the Miln foreman responded with a request for clarification, asking what fire had to do with the current situation. The Imperial commander, assuming that the Miln were making light of the situation, ordered his gunners to fire a warning shot across the asteroid's path.
This had the opposite of the intended effect.
As the Miln were predisposed to do, the crew of the asteroid tried to run, firing the asteroid's nuclear pulse engine to try and outrun their pursuers. The edge of the exhaust cone, basically the directed output of a megaton-scale fusion device, caught the closely following Imperial scout ship, stripping the vessel's shields and causing minor hull damage. Taking this as hostile action, the Imperial commander retaliated, bringing his weapons to bear on the asteroid and razing the surface installations.
All 10 Miln on VY236 were killed.
The Imperial attack on VY236 caused a substantial panic on Hafnip; in the Miln view, the Imperials had demonstrated themselves to be hostile predators, and most believed it would only be a matter of time before they came for the rest of the Miln population. Worse yet, while the Miln were a space-faring civilization, they had not yet developed the capacity for interstellar travel; ultimately, if the Empire came for them on Hafnip or their orbital colonies, the Miln had nowhere they could run.
They were cornered.
“We cannot flee. We have nowhere to go. All we can do, what we all must do, is try, as hard and as long and as fiercely as we can, to survive.”
_Prime Minister Til Jeren, leader of the Hafnip Federation, circa 5 BBY.
The Miln-Imperial War would not be called such for another year, but in the aftermath of VY236, the Empire began to exert a firmer hand within the system. The number of armed patrols in the system's outer reaches was increased, and larger and larger sections of the asteroid belt were claimed, increasingly without consultation of the Miln government. This policy peaked in 4 BBY, when the Empire engulfed the Green Rest deep space colony, a major Miln settlement within the belt, into its zone of control.The population of Green Rest – mainly prospectors, propulsion engineers and other space development specialists – were informed via a radionic message that they were now subjects of the Galactic Empire, and to await the arrival of their new Human governor. Despite the speciesist disdain for the Miln professed by at least the higher-ranking Human officers assigned to the system garrison, the diminutive rodentoids were admired at least for their skill in working the asteroids, extracting the valuable resources the Empire wanted.
The annexation of Green Rest had been quite deliberate in that regard; the commander of the garrison, Commodore Fedorov Paln, had long considered demonstrating the utility of the Miln as a slave race as a means of furthering his own career. Now with a population of Miln under his control, Paln intended to test his theories, expecting that the naturally timid creatures could easily be controlled.
Such was not the case.
As a preliminary step in training the Miln of Green Rest, the population of the asteroid was rounded up for division into work details. The Miln, assuming that the stormtroopers sent to collect them were herding them together for extermination, imagined themselves to be cornered.
And cornered Miln were anything but timid.
The Massacre of Green Rest is considered by many to be the formal beginning of the Miln-Imperial war. The population of the asteroid colony, some 5,000 Miln, rose up against a force of 200 stormtroopers sent to gather them. Despite being armed only with hand tools, kitchen knives, other hastily improvised implements and only mob tactics, the Miln managed to inflict over 50 casualties. In retaliation, they were indeed entirely exterminated by the Imperials, though not before a chilling message was broadcast by the defenders.
They are killing us. We cannot get out. Save yourselves.
The subsequent evacuation of the asteroid belt by the Miln occurred in short order. Thousands fled to the inner planets, taking with them numerous resource asteroids and concentrating at the Hafnip orbital colonies. The Miln had never fought a war before; the concept was all but unknown to them. However, the new and significant danger placed before them forced the diminutive creatures to think in new ways; unable to flee from the new predator that was the Empire, they were forced to make a stand, and a massive one at that, requiring whole new ways of thinking and specialized technologies the species had never before explored.
To their credit, they rose admirably to the challenge; within a year, the first Miln warships had been developed, and in 4 BBY, a Miln fleet some 3,000 strong set out for the asteroid belt, the first of many attempts to dislodge the Imperials from their holdings in the system. Despite their weight of numbers, new weapon technology and resolve, however, the Miln were beaten handily at the First Battle of the Belt, during which a scant handful of Imperial survey and patrol craft decimated 90% of the fleet sent against them. Imperial weapons and tactics severely over-matched the novice Miln, and the attack only served to set the Empire on the offensive, launching raids deep into the system. There, they wreaked untold destruction, annihilating Miln industrial and administrative targets, as well as population centers.
To the Imperials, it was little more than target practice, though to the Miln, it was a war for their very survival.
War raged in the system for 4 standard years. In that time, the Miln suffered horrific losses against the Empire; by 1 BBY, 70% of the entire Miln population in space had been wiped out, with entire colony groups reduced to drifting shoals of wreckage.
The Miln themselves had very little to show for it; convinced that the Imperials were determined to exterminate them, they had never let up their attacks. Over time, their technology and tactics had grown more sophisticated; Imperial casualties continued to be frustratingly light, but by late in the war the Miln had begun to employ weapons which were at least marginally capable of damaging Imperial vessels, and had adopted strategies learned by observing the way the Empire fought, as well as more original tactics derived from the way the Miln dealt with the deadly predators of their home-world.
Ultimately, the Miln were fighting a delaying action; realistically, they knew they could never hope to beat the Empire, but perhaps they could keep them back long enough for their people to discover a way to survive. Even if they could not, the Miln would not submit to the claws of a predator without a fight, whatever it cost.
On the other end of things, the Empire looked upon the Miln as little more than a nuisance, a localized blip which barely even registered on their annual expenditures. The local garrison only operated a dozen or so small ships, more than enough firepower to deal with the threat of the indigenous sentients.
They were nothing to the Empire; not even worth the trouble of extermination, at least up until that point.
The end of the Miln-Imperial war came in 0 ABY, with the arrival of the Interrogator.
The Imperial I-class Star Destroyer Interrogator was on routine patrol in the Outer Rim, and was not originally scheduled to visit the Miln home system. The ship was diverted to the aid of the system's garrison at the suggestion of Commodore Paln, who mentioned the difficulties he had encountered with the native population in a hypercomm conversation with Interrogator's commander, Captain Morgan Yeln. Captain Yeln suggested that perhaps the Commodore's lack of any vessels exceeding light corvette size had failed to sufficiently impress upon the locals the scale and power of their foe, and that a show of force by a ship the size of his own might drive home the futility of their actions. Paln, by this time thoroughly frustrated by the Miln's refusal to surrender, readily agreed to try the Captain's idea.
Interrogator arrived in the system's outer reaches shortly afterward, and was quickly detected by Miln long-range sensors, which despite their relative primitiveness had no trouble picking up an object over a kilometer and a half in length. Understandably, the ship's arrival caused substantial consternation among the Miln; it was larger by several orders of magnitude than anything the Imperials had yet fielded against them, and it was on a direct course for the home-world.
What followed was, in the perspective of the Miln, perhaps the single most important space battle of the entire war.
Wanting to advertise his presence to the Miln, Captain Yeln ordered a leisurely sublight cruise through the system's inner planets, giving the locals time to be impressed by the incredible scale and power of one of the Empire's most formidable warships. This was to be Yeln's undoing, as the Miln made good use of the extra time, assembling the largest single fleet ever seen in the system up to that time to meet the Interrogator.
The Miln fleet, which encompassed every space-worthy vessel which could be found and fitted with armament, met Interrogator at the Hafnip Absolute Defense Line, a point just beyond the orbit of the planet's furthest natural satellite. Captain Yeln, not expecting to find an actual opposing force in his way, had come alone; he was not concerned, however, especially given that his vessel overwhelmingly outclassed anything the Miln could field against it.
The Miln, however, were not about to back down. They assumed that Interrogator could only mean the end for them; the Empire had finally brought the other hand out from behind its back, and was about to swat them down with it. The only thing left to do for the Miln was to fight on until the end, and hope that at least a few of their own would survive, somehow.
The battle which followed was indeed apocalyptic in scale and ferocity.
Though the Miln ships were little better than target practice for Interrogator's gunners, the Star Destroyer's shields absorbed volley after volley of Miln anti-ship missiles and mass driver bolts. Despite the loss of thousands of vessels, the Miln kept pouring on fire, crews ramming their own ships against the doonium behemoth's deflectors and hull when they ran out of ordnance. Such was the bombardment that, after many hours, the shields of the Imperial battle wagon actually collapsed, and the Miln defenders descended on it. Braving the ship's still formidable close-in weapons, Miln war vessels closed to latch on, disgorging their crews to fight the Imperials aboard.
Despite horrific casualties, including the near-complete decimation of their combined fleet, the Interrogator was eventually subdued and captured by the Miln. The victory came as a surprise; despite their ferocity in defending their home, few among the Miln had expected to succeed. The badly mauled but still intact Star Destroyer was now sailed by a prize crew, and though it had cost the Miln much to achieve such a victory, many believed that their actions might give the Empire pause in continuing their war against them.
They were wrong.
In point of fact, the Miln had signed their own death warrant with the taking of the Interrogator.
In managing to achieve such a victory, the Miln had brought themselves under the direct scrutiny of a government which had conquered thousands of worlds. The Miln, tiny rodentoids from a backwater world in the depths of Wild Space, had managed to bring down not just a ship, but a symbol of the Empire's irresistible might.
Such an act could not go unpunished.
The Miln enjoyed a few months of peace after the battle, unaware that it was the calm before a storm such as they had never seen.
They had brought down a single Star Destroyer, and it had cost them nearly all of their fighting strength. To finish them off, the Empire sent nine; nine ships, each a kilometer and a half long, all with very simple instructions.
Leave nothing alive on or around Hafnip.
Imperial Navy high command had authorized Base Delta Zero against Hafnip. Upon the task force's arrival, the Miln made an attempt to fight them off, even fielding the half-crippled Interrogator in their desperation, but in their weakened state they were swatted aside as the Empire laid waste to their world. The nine Star Destroyers conducted an orbital bombardment of Hafnip for a full standard day. Nothing on the surface survived; the forests and plains burned in immense firestorms, the smoke from which blackened the sky. Seas boiled, volcanoes erupted and groundquakes shook the earth; every industrial site and population center was reduced to a lake of molten slag by sheets of turbolaser bolts.
On their way out, the Imperial vessels turned their weapons on what remained of the Miln orbital infrastructure. Of the several hundred space habitats which had survived the conflict up to that point, only three were spared, plus a handful of moon bases and deep space installations, all somehow overlooked in the unimaginable carnage.
And that was it.
The Empire withdrew from the system shortly afterward; even with the resources to be had, the cost of maintaining even a small garrison in such a remote region of Wild Space was considered an unnecessary expense, especially as the Galactic Civil War began to escalate. In 2 ABY, a clerical error resulted in the system itself being dropped from Imperial records.
The Miln who survived the war were few; just over 15 million, out of a prewar peak of over 10 billion. Though the Empire had left to fight other enemies, the process of rebuilding was far from easy; with their home-world rendered uninhabitable, and their space infrastructure in shambles, the species was reduced to subsistence level, cultivating and reclaiming what resources they could at a glacial pace.
The experience of the war with the Empire radically changed Miln society, as well. In addition to the need to survive, so too came the imperative to be ready. Life on other worlds existed, they now knew, and more important they also knew that at least some of it was hostile; should the Empire or others like them come calling again, they would not find the Miln to be the meek, naive species they had been before.
The Miln labored to improve their technology, though the Empire and its contemporaries had a long lead to catch up to. Unfortunately, the species had little opportunity to study what alien technology they had been able to capture; they had only been in possession of Interrogator for a few months, and all samples taken off the ship for study had been at a university on Hafnip during the bombardment, the wreck itself having been towed away by the Empire afterward. Nevertheless, the Miln were able to make certain key advances. Most significantly, their first crude hyperdrive, which was successfully tested in 794 ABY, about 50 years ago.
The discovery of hyperdrive has opened a bold new age in Miln space exploration; for the first time, the Miln have been able to realize their long-time dream of visiting other star systems, taking their first tentative steps out into the wider Galaxy, understandably cautious after the traumas of the past, but eager to explore.
In recent years, the Miln have begun to make their presence known in Wild Space and the Outer Rim, primarily represented by their explorers and merchants, who have a well-earned reputation for toughness and competence. The Miln have also made efforts to seed colonies on and around the planets of several nearby star systems, hoping to spread out their population base and avoid repeating their close brush with extinction.
Though the Miln have rebuilt at least a portion of their civilization in orbit overhead, the surface of Hafnip still retains the deep scars of the Empire's bombardment. Nearly all life upon the planet's surface was annihilated, its land turned to desert, its seas rendered lakes of acid, and its atmosphere toxic. Though the Miln have begun working to restore the biosphere of their ruined world, the process will likely take centuries yet.
Notable PCs - To be added.
Intent - This planet and system are intended to be the home-world of the Miln species.
