Military

Thanks mostly to the United Dragon Alliance, the militaries of each of the races of the Dragon Quadrant are relatively equal from a technological standpoint. Despite this intermixing of technologies, no one offensive or defensive technology has really come to the forefront as 'the best'. Better planning, better strategies, and better preparedness tend to triump over pure firepower. Thus, there are different applications of the available technology, but they all fall into these categories:

• Weapons - Melee:
  • Monowire - Bladed weapons with a single molocule super-sharp edge.
  • Vibro - High-velocity vibrations to cut/hit thousands per second.
  • Sonic - Coherant sound waves formed into blades, and crushing weapons.
• Weapons - Ranged:
  • Laser - Light/Heat beam doing piercing damage.
  • Blaster - Charged Particle beam doing piercing or blunt damage.
  • EM Bolt - Magnetic Impulse launches single inert or explosive bolts.
  • Needlers - Magnetic Impulse lauches hundreds of small needles.
  • Disruptor - Microwave Frequency Lasers doing slashing damage.
  • Plasma - Super Hot energy discharge doing burn damage.
  • Pulse - Concentrated sound pulses doing blunt damage.
• weapons - Area:
  • Explosive - Chemical Explosives, Grenades, etc.
  • Gas - Chemical Gases designed to stun or kill.
  • Stun - Concussion blast and light strobing devices.
  • Sonic - Multiple concentrated sound pulses.
• Armor:
  • CompFiber - Light-weight, comfortable, damage resistant.
  • Ceramic - Medium duty, designed to take some punishment.
  • Monocrys - Heavy duty, designed to take a lot of punishment.
  • Reflect - Highly polished metallic fiber, good against lasers.
  • Ablative - Material absorbs damage as it erodes.

For most Militaries, the various branches have converged. Technology has reached a point where it is easier and cheaper to build a vehicle that can handles multiple environments than to build one that can only deal with one environment. Militaries now fall into two main categories. Planet based, for combat occuring within the atmosphere of the planet, and Space based, for combat occuring outside a planet's atmosphere. By treaty, Space based forces may not attack a planet directly. They may only deliver a planet based force and defend themselves against planet-based attacks long enough to get out of range. Planet based forces may only attack space based forces delivering planet based forces. They may not interfere with a ship to ship battle outside the atmosphere.

United Dragon Alliance

The United Dragon Alliance (UDA) is a treaty between the 10 races of the Dragon Quadrant for mutal defense, trade, and interstellar law. It was formed after the conflict between the Humans and the Rheleign and expanded to include the Khanvarians when they came to the Dragon Quadrant. The UDA is comprised of three parts. The Council, the High Court, and the Military.

The UDA Council provides leadership and governance over Alliance matters. There are 10 council seats which are appointed by the leadership of each of the races in the treaty. Every four years, the council must elect a leader from their own ranks. The leader vacates the position of representive and another is appointed is his or her place. At any time the government of the races may choose to appoint a new council member.

The UDA High Court consists of 10 judges who are appointed by a unanimous vote of the UDA council for life. Before trying a case, the judges select amongst themselves one whose vote will not be counted in order to prevent ties. Once selected, this choice cannot be changed. The selected judge still participates in all aspects of the case, including persudading other judges of his or her viewpoint. When it is time for a decision, only 9 votes are counted. The High Court must confirm by a simple majority any appointment of a Council seat or the Supreme Commander.

The Supreme Commander of the UDA Military is chosen by 2/3rd majority of the UDA Council, and can be removed by a similar vote. The Supreme Commander can appeal this vote with the High Court who can overturn the decision with a simple majority vote of the High Court. If this happens, the Council can seek to remove the Supreme Commander, but it then requires a unanimous vote of the Council. The UDA Military space force is supported by a 25% tax on all space military spending of member races. This means that at any given time, the UDA Space Force should be about 2.5x as large as any single world Space Force. This allows the UDA to enforce treaty rules as deemed necessary by the UDA Council.