Amalgaverse Profile: The Aglian-Terran Planetary Defense System

Sphere of Influence: Hyades Cluster (sol-ward side)

Government: Republic

Homeworld: Terra

Terra is the most earth-like planet ever discovered. Environmentally it is nearly identical to earth and, thanks to Aglian terraforming technology, even includes many species of flora and fauna. Visitors will find vast forests of redwoods and rain forest as well as replicas of all of earth’s great cultural treasures, such as the Forbidden City and the Pyramids. These finely-crafted replicas were instrumental in the creation of the famous “culture park” on Earth. The planet has extremely controlled growth and zoning. Clean, neat cities end in lush forests which hide stunning, extravagant mansions. The downside is that unless you have a waiver for living space from ATPDS or a corporation, or are very rich, you probably cannot afford to live here. It’s a goal of many spacers to retire to Terra. The planet is the heart of the ATPDS administration and the ATPDS fleet, which is headquartered at a massive space station and shipyard which orbits Terra’s moon. It is also home to many powerful corporations. Known for its stability, even its weather is controlled in fine detail, with rain and storms scheduled to interfere the least with daily routine. The capital is Rome.

The government of the ATPDS is a republic. It is headed by a Board of Regents, who are assisted by a House of Commons and the Colonial Senate. Each member planet is allowed to have its own form of government, as long as it is considered democratic.

The core worlds of the ATPDS include Terra, Biraktes (Aglian Homeworld), Gahdgkyl (Ular Homeworld), and Motuv’Utaw (Kirn homeworld). There are ten other major colonies in the Hyades Cluster under the protective wing of the ATPDS and its member races. Please see “Rifts: Manhunter” for more details (also just to own a damn good gaming book).

History of the ATPDS

One of the most changed governments for the Amalgaverse Project. The roots of the ATPDS start with the arrival of the first Megaroad mission into the Hyades Cluster. Mankind had known about the world orbiting the star Lux since the early 21^st Century, as it was the first earth-like extrasolar planet detected. Virtually the same size, with slightly less water (but more fresh water than earth), the planet was primordial and only plant life had made it onto land. Surveys of the surrounding star systems found a cluster rife with earth-like planets. The first Megaroad project was massive, including Megaroad-1, which was many times larger than the SDF-1 and was created by retooling a Zentraedi flagship class and attaching several smaller vessels to the hull. It was escorted by a large fleet of refitted Zentraedi cruisers and the Fokker, an SDF-class battlefortress. Humanity did not know what to expect with their first foray outside of their home system. They went armed for bear.

Humans were amazed to detect numerous communications between worlds, but indecision over whether to contact these new races paralyzed them for the first couple years. Political strife saw the rending of the fleet after the initial settlement of the colony, primarily due to the fleet’s protoculture supplies starting to erode. The first years were punctuated with an attempted military coup which was resolved by the “Treaty of Captains” which allowed large portions of the fleet to decide their own course. The fleets became independent and split up, with about a third staying at Terra and the rest scattering across the cluster to found numerous new colonies. This was specifically due to the weak government in place on Terra.

When new leadership took over, an attempt was made to rein in the colonies under one government. The ten largest rebelled and formed the Decahedron Compact, although to many in the ATPDS they are still considered the “Exile Colonies” because Terra, in anger, cut them off from all aid.

An unfortunate first contact with the Aglians led to war. The Aglians were alarmed at how fast this new race had spread throughout the cluster. What was more disturbing was their military might, and the fact that this species seemed to be avoiding contact with other aliens. This seemed to imply a covert invasion. After several battles with the tenacious humans (during which the Fokker was destroyed), the Aglians used their advanced robotic technology to create the Manhunters, sentient robots whose original programming was to “control” the spread of humanity. The Manhunters had different ideas and decided humans could only be controlled by massively reducing their numbers and enslaving the survivors. The Aglians disagreed, never intending to heap that kind of harm on the human race. The Manhunters rebelled and the Aglians had no choice but to turn to the humans they were at war with for assistance. In what became known as the Unity War, Terra, the Aglians and the Decahedron Compact joined forces and the New Texas Armada, consisting of the reformed Megaroad-1 fleet, was formed. The Manhunters’ FTL production facilities were targeted and destroyed, as well as other industrial assets. Together, humans and aglians drove the Manhunters from the cluster. Terra and Biraktes signed a permanent treaty and formed the ATPDS, having come to a greater understanding of one another, and, much to each species’ surprise, actually enjoyed working with one another. The Decahedron Compact, fiercely independent, would have nothing of it, and returned to the Exile Colonies, swearing to never trust the Aglians or the ATPDS.

Shortly after its formation, the ATPDS discovered the Kirn and Ular, who were at war with one another, and brokered a peace deal. The two species were welcomed into the ATPDS. Interstellar communications was limited to light speed without protoculture to power the old Zentraedi hyperwave comm systems. The result being that the ATPDS literally never even knew Earth had been invaded until remnants of the REF folded into the cluster to check on humanity’s colonies and to search for the SDF-3. It would be several years later that the Decahedron Compact would introduce tachyon communications arrays, allowing true interstellar communication throughout known space.

After the Invid Invasion, and the development of a more advanced FTL system, the ATPDS signed a pact with the newly formed U.N. Spacy that outlawed the use of protoculture in its territory. Since they had not used protoculture since the founding of Terra, it was not that big a loss. The ATPDS gets along fine without it, but their power systems require huge industrial infrastructures that only large interstellar organizations could economically produce. It is only currently feasible for the ATPDS, U.N. Spacy and (if they needed to) the Sentinels Alliance to generate the amounts of antimatter required to power non-protoculture FTL drives. This leaves the Southern Cross and Decahedron Compact little choice but to continue to use protoculture unless they want to be beholden on the U.N. Spacy or ATPDS to get from one star system to another.

Currently, the ATPDS has launched a new fleet, thanks to the Cyberworks Aerospace Network (C.A.N.) to deal with raids by the Gorushan Empire as well as a rash of recent raids by what appear to be a new group of enhanced Manhunter robots. The primary goals of the ATPDS are to find a way to make peace with the Gorushan (which may be impossible given their raider-based civilization) and to find and destroy the Manhunter production facilities.

The Consortium, a secret cabal of magic-users which had hid among humanity since the 20^th century, was revitalized with the discovery that both the kirn and a species known as the chiropti openly used magic. Several years ago, the Consortium was successful in opening a rift to the Sagittarius arm of the galaxy, allowing first contact between the ATPDS and the Consortium of Civilized Worlds. This contact led to the Center Conference on Phaseworld, a meeting of representatives of the CCW, the United Wizards of Warlock, the Transgalactic Empire, the Sentinels Alliance, the U.N. Spacy, and the ATPDS. The ATPDS and other governments are unaware that the Consortium opened the initial rift, believing it to have been a naturally occurring spatial phenomenon.

Notes on ships and Mecha

The Manhunter book, unfortunately, gave virtually no data regarding ATPDS space assets. So I invented a fleet of various ship classes from scratch. For mecha, the ATPDS does not dabble much in variable geometry mecha (veritechs). It primarily uses its venerable M.U.T.T. power armors (found in the Manhunter book) and a fleet of new Mikado robot vehicles constructed by the C.A.N. (see Mutants in Orbit, a Rifts and After the Bomb sourcebook) and L-7 transformable utility robots (same book). If these books are unavailable, I’d suggest using the Dragonwing and Ulti-Max, and other Triax and the NGR robot vehicles, slapping some “space boosters” on them that allow them to fly at a decent clip and using those. But I’d strongly advise buying Manhunter and Mutants in Orbit if you can find them. Lacking everything else, there’s a great robot creation table section in Rifts Sourcebook One.

Relations with other governments

U.N. Spacy: The ATPDS’s strongest ally, the ATPDS was a bit upset that U.N. Spacy tried to keep its short war with the Marduk a secret. Still, the war was over before the ATPDS could marshal significant strength. This was one of the tipping points for the creation of a new, more mobile fleet to replace its aging, short-range patrol vessels. Both governments strongly enforce the protoculture ban and trade heavily in FTL systems, advanced computer components and less exotic trade goods. Sometimes members of the ATPDS are put off by the fact that U.N. Spacy shows more favoritism to the REF, but it’s a minor annoyance. All three organizations have a very good relationship.

Sentinels Alliance and the REF: Another strong ally of the ATPDS, both see the other as “enlightened” cultures due to the interspecies diversity in both. The Sentinels Alliance and ATPDS are the only true multi-sentient species organizations in this area of the galaxy. As such, citizens of both governments get along fairly well. Scientific and intellectual trade is very brisk. The only stumbling block is the Sentinels continuing use of protoculture. The ATPDS understands why they’re hesitant to give it up: it’s the foundation of their entire space-faring empire, but a good amount of protoculture smuggling comes from there. Also, old REF gear is commonly used for smuggling. Souped up Horizonts and cyclones are particularly common, as many protoculture smugglers originate from within the REF. T.R. Edwards had a massive surplus of the Horizont built in his attempted coup, and a large part of the Horizont fleet just kind of disappeared off the books when he fell from power. Having its hands full with the Invid Invasion, the REF was never able to track more than a few down. It’s believed those vessels form the backbone of an organized black market of some kind, which flourished in the absence of the SDF-3. These Horizonts will have a couple weapon systems and an FTL drive. The cyclone bays have been converted to cargo pods for smuggling.

UEG and the Southern Cross: This relationship is a bit dicey, but nothing overtly hostile. The Southern Cross and UEG are xenophobes and don’t really try to hide it. Since ¾ of the ATPDS are non-humans, this makes dealing with the Southern Cross difficult and unpalatable. The ATPDS also suspects that, beyond its open trade of protoculture to the Decahedron Compact, the Southern Cross also supports some protoculture, weapons and mecha smuggling in its territory. One current theory is that the Southern Cross kept a large amount of old EBSIS battloids on hand, which it uses for “black ops” missions in order to maintain plausible deniability. No one’s been able to prove this yet. On the plus side, there’s decent commerce between the two, with the ATPDS supplying the Southern Cross with computer technology in exchange for laser-resistant ceramics.

Decahedron Compact: The ATPDS’s “lost children” in the Exile Colonies (which is how many in the ATPDS refer to members of the D.C.). In some ways, the ATPDS still considers these colonies to be runaways that will one day be welcomed back into the fold. Of course, using force to do so is out of the question. They just hope that the people of the Compact will see the light of day through education and political maneuvering. There is still an embargo on weapons systems and some other advanced technologies aimed at preventing the Decahedron Compact to become a military power. They did not work and only fostered bad feelings from the independent-minded colonists. The more extreme members of the ATPDS considers the Compact to be little more than a den of thieves. It’s the general destination of most protoculture smuggling and even deals with the Gorushan Raiders.

The Invid: There is no real contact between these two civilizations. The ATPDS doesn’t use protoculture, which means they might as well be invisible to the Invid. The ATPDS likes it that way.

The Robotech Masters: The ATPDS has patrols out looking for the Robotech Masters because they believe some protoculture smuggling is shunted from the Compact to the Masters. The Masters also snatched a passenger vessel about a year ago filled with kirn. The ATPDS fears the Masters were after the kirn to study their adaptive DNA. These were the guys who invented the Zentraedi, so who knows what they may be capable of with kirn DNA!

The Gorushan Empire: The ATPDS isn’t even really sure how to proceed. They combat the Gorushan Raiders with extreme prejudice and there have been numerous skirmishes with raider fleets. The problem is that nobody knows how organized the Gorushan really are. Are they a formal, united Empire or a series of nomadic fleets? If they are all independent fleets, declaring war on the entire species would be unjustified. Further, since Gorushan ships are not marked and do not use transponders, how do you tell who is part of which fleet? A large number of Malatriani and Derkosians, two alien species enslaved by the Gorushan, appeared about four years ago in ATPDS space claiming to have escaped from the Gorushan. The ATPDS has made them welcome, and in return the aliens have filled the ATPDS in with knowledge of the Gorushan. Unfortunately, even the Gorushan’s former slaves are uncertain as to how the Gorushan Empire actually runs and most of their intel was technical in nature.

The Consortium of Civilized Worlds: The CCW really impressed the ATPDS and vice versa. They are nearly identical in political philosophies. The ATPDS would like to foster a closer relationship, but has discovered that its ban on protoculture (and thus space fold technology) has come back to bite them. Nobody can get to Phaseworld and CCW territory without the REF’s long-distance fold systems. Right now the ATPDS is weighing its options, but so far lifting the ban on protoculture is a non-starter. The ATPDS is looking into the rifts that originally brought about contact but do not know how to create them on demand.

The Transgalactic Empire: The ATPDS is neutral on the TGE. They put on a good face at the Center Conference, but they made the ATPDS representatives uneasy.

The United Wizards of Warlock: The Kirn are a driving force behind making more substantial contact with the UWW, believing that any culture that has been able to compete with the galactic powers using nothing but magic is likely to be more enlightened than others. Wild tales are circulating in the kirn culture that is quickly turning the UWW into some kind of magical fantasy utopia where everyone owns their own unicorn. The Kirn Institute for Astromancy, a magic-based organization, is leading the charge on the development of magical rifts technology that will allow them to have stronger contact with the UWW. The other races aren’t nearly as eager, which inhibits the kirn’s efforts.

The Splugorth: The ATPDS will take the word of the CCW, TGE and UWW on this one and stay out of these monsters’ way.

The Manhunters: The Manhunters are the sworn enemy of the ATPDS and the reason for its existence. The fleet is charged with hunting down and exterminating this mechanical menace.