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Ulaf Sector - Cygnus Middle Region |
An irregular volume of some 18,000 cubic ly of mostly low resource M-type stars and brown dwarves. During the Age of Expansion the area was was claimed by SecureSpace, with Ulaf (pron. ul-af) prime becoming a local power and industrial center of minor note. During the empires period SecureSpace was broken up, but by then the local administration had long since established itself as a post-corporate aristocratic house, House Lea, easily ruling over the nearbaselines, splices, and vecs that comprised much of the citizenship.
To consolidate its power, House Lea used extended memetic subversion, and finally, when the population was softened up, took the excuse of some terrorist attacks by rogue elements to introduce oppressive regulations regarding ultratech ownership. Thus they were spared any danger of revolt or overthrow by hyperturing or po elements. This was enforced by their own police force, the Ho Je Dor. All the Ho Je Dor possess symbiotic bionano that has optimised them into very efficient warriors. Over the centuries the Ho Je Dor developed a feudalistic order composed of various aristocratic houses that were descended from the different House Lea factions, such as House Luk, House Sogha, House Farj, and others. Although there was occasional internecine warfare, relations between the Houses was generally harmonious, and they established a trade federation, the Ula Federation, and their own culture, the Ula(f) Culture (the final consonant was not pronounced, except in the adjectival form "ulafic", and was often dropped).
Central to the Ula Culture was not only an entrenched feudalism, but also a very hostile view of the outside universe. The rest of the galaxy, the aristocracy taught, was a wicked place ruled over by machines who cared nothing for biont lives, or for the natural order of society. Lurid tales were circulated of the licentious life of the galactics, where commoners would couple with the high-genomed, and humans would plug in to have sex with aioids. Every report of a perversity or blight was lovingly recorded in all its detail, with especial attention given to casualties and victims, while anything positive about galactic civilization was censored by slaved ai expert systems. As the lot of Ulafic vecs fell, those that could migrated outsystem, or joined the rebel and local free zones. Those that stayed had to accept their fate as domestic servants, part of the large slave caste
None of the Ula Culture star systems had stargates; these were deemed too dangerous and destabilising. The region was however fairly frequently visited by relativist vessels. The relativists fell into several categories:
Lack of stargates meant that during the Version War it was still business as usual in the Ulaf Sector until a relativist Metasoft Battle squadron stopped in Higo system (under the rule of House Brant) to stock up on supplies. The vec commander, Rear Admiral Molectronicsturbo was appalled by the treatment of vecs and slaves, and annoyed at House Brant's refusal to allow eir fleet to re-supply, but minded eir own business and simply began processing some unused asteroids anyway (this was legal under the old Second Federation Military Fleet Resupply Act article 23 b). House Brant, furious at this act of territorial violation by these galactics (and vecs at that!) sent a fleet to sort these stupid tinheads out. Rear Admiral Molectronicsturbo patience ran out and e ordered eir forces to dismantle all military, government, and House infrastructure installations in the system, freed the vecs and slaves, and aided them in establishing their own Polity. (After the war Higo joined the Metasoft empire, and to this date Molectronicsturbo is considered a savior and local culture hero)
Later in the war a Dominion
relativistic fleet stopped in another system, High Baffa, under House
Jatwin, but the Dominion commander, Admiral Mithro S. Hiron III, liked
the aristocratic feudalism so much e offered them membership in the
Dominion, provided they free all biont and vec slaves. The Jatwins,
until this time quite minor players in the Sector (being the smallest
and poorest of the 12 Houses), had a heated debate over this, and,
after seeing everything the Dominion had to offer and deciding it
wasn't that bad, decided to do so. A minority faction, calling
themselves the True Jatwin, who refused to join the Dominion were given
an outer system moon, called Hager's Rock, where their feudalism exists
to this day. Meanwhile, High Baffa became the only star system in the
entire sector to host a stargate (though only a small one).
In the ComEmp and post ComEmp period things have not gone too well for the Ula Culture. Increasing anthropist and Church of Man immigration is causing social disruption, and the number of H. sapiens extremists entering the system has also increased, and some have tried to take over the region.
The most serious disruption in recent centuries was caused by a small scale perversity that seemed to have arrived either under its own steam in a relativistic probe, or through visitor luggage, and established itself on the Ula world of Tarbo, completely infiltrating the ruling House Rardav. The perversity eventually took over the entire star system, built up large regional empire, and launched an attack on a number of nearby worlds, all of which were decimated and salted.
A coalition by a number of Houses finally managed to defeat the perversity, but only after billions of lives were lost, several solar systems rendered uninhabitable, and with massive (relative to their small polities) help from the Dominion (via the Jatwin), and only minimal help from anthropist mercenaries who had signed up to help defeat the "evil empire" as it was known throughout the region.
Ulaf Sector remains today one of the more eccentric of the innerward Middle Region districts. Most of the population still consists of ordinary sapient nearbaselines, splices, and vecs, ruled over by the aristocratic houses. The media is full of epic tales of how courageous Ho Je Dor warriors single-handed defeated the evil empire, with (outside High Baffa system) no mention made of the Dominion's role. The populace is entertained by pomp and ceremony put on by the aristocracy and mostly all social classes are well treated (the Dominion, via their Jatwin proxies, have manged to improve the lot of the slaves, even if they are still not treated as well as presophont animals are in the civilized galaxy). The area is still being increasingly destabilised by increasing immigration, which exceeds the emigration by disillusioned anthropists who found they couldn't just join the aristocratic houses. High Baffa is by far the most prosperous solsystem, and has been so galactified that it no longer bears any relation to the Ulaf Culture (despite the tourist brochure slogan "High Baffa - Gateway to the Ula Sector"), and the Jatwins now identify themselves more with the Dominion than with any Ulafic culture in any case
