John Archer

This will tell you almost everything you need to know about Omniverse.  Will be updated as needed.  Further details can be found in the other documents.  Don't panic when you see numbers, no player will ever be required to perform any calculations.

Spacecraft Stuff
Teslanium and Effects
Technology
History

The term telekinesis, often referred to as kinetics, refers to a set of abilities possessed by some life forms following exposure to large quantities of teslanium at a very young age.  This teslanium will typically accumulate in several areas of the individual, usually causing a variety of health complications.  However, in a few cases the body is able to contain and exploit the teslanium, creating a series of isolated nodes with organic electrodes.  When this happens the individual has the potential to develop kinetic abilities.

Kinetic abilities rely on mass projections, force projections, spatial conduits and almost any imaginable combination of the three to affect objects at a distance.  While most of the properties remain the same, many kinetic abilities have been demonstrated by organics which have not been reproduced purely by technology despite several attempts to do so.  They also seem to require far less energy than what would be expected in normal use.

Limb projections are perhaps the most commonly developed and utilized kinetic abilities.  A mass projection of a limb allows the user to effectively extend his/her reach.  The mass projection can also be sent around obstacles.  It also provides force feedback when in contact with another object, allowing the user an extended sense of touch.

There are a few drawbacks to limb projections.  Without a line of sight on the projection the user must operate it entirely by touch.  The projection can not be sent through a solid obstacle, only around it.  Any reaction force on the projection will be transmitted back to the user, effectively limiting its strength to the user's own strength.  Lifting an object at a distance is often very difficult due to the long moment arm created.

Extremely skilled individuals can sometimes generate entire limbs using mass projections.  Unlike ordinary limb projections these do not necessarily correspond to their own movements.  For example, a humanoid with two arms and two legs can create a second pair of arms which can be moved completely independently of their physical arms rather than simply mimicking their motions.  This ability requires years of training to use and the user must generally specialize depending on the type of limb needed.

An area projection uses a large number of weak mass projections to provide the user with a sense of touch for a large area.  Depending on the user's level of experience this can be even more effective than a radar or sonar at creating a high resolution, up to date image of everything nearby.  People within another person's area projection have often reported feeling what seems to be a light breeze.

Mass projections can also be used to burn things.  Supercharging a projection causes it to behave as a plasma, often igniting anything combustible nearby.  This can be concentrated into a limb projection to focus the power or it can be used in tandem with an area projection to create an effective area denial ability.  However, this form of projection is very taxing, requiring significant endurance training and an implanted power supply to be useful.

General:

• Name:  Drake (Actual name can not be pronounced or heard by humans)
  
• Species:  Dragon
  
• Gender:  Male
  
• Age:  68

Cybernetics:  Small oxygen intake valves have been implanted throughout Drake's skin with filters, effectively increasing the amount of oxygen he is able to inhale with every breath.  This allows him to comfortably maintain normal activity levels on planets with far less oxygen than his own planet.

Appearance:  20.7 meters from head to tail, athletic build (slightly less muscular than many other dragons), very dark, near-black slightly red scales, bright red eyes.  Often wears a harness built to carry equipment without adding much weight.  The harness includes a padded spot at the base of his neck, though he refuses to refer to it as a saddle despite having used it for that purpose more than once.

Background:  Drake was born and raised during the excitement caused by first contact with the Republic, the first time one of his people had encountered an alien species.  While he had a decent life he grew up with a strong desire to explore the galaxy, eventually landing a job working on his nation's first space platform.

Talents:  Drake is large and in charge.  As expected he is a very powerful melee combatant without even having to try very hard.  He is also an exceptional shot, though he depends on smart-linked electronic sights for most ranged weapons due to the difficulty of using a conventional stock.  He is also a decent pilot of both aircraft and spacecraft, though he is not as skilled there as he is with his own wings.

Possessions:

Plasmid:  Plasmids are perhaps the strangest species ever encountered in the galaxy. Each individual member is a cloud of plasma surrounding a small orb. This orb is able to generate a mass projection similar to a kinetic barrier which keeps the plasma cloud intact and isolates it from the environment, preventing cooler surrounding air from cooling it too much and similarly preventing its own body from heating the environment.

The plasma cloud appears to function primarily as the plasmid's brain. Electrical discharges are constantly visible within it and increase in frequency whenever it is thinking. The plasmid is capable of manipulating the color and intensity of the light within the cloud as a form of visual communication. In order to interact with the physical world mass projections are used as a form of telekinesis. This also provides tactile feedback. In addition it can sense light and sound, though how these two senses compare to other species is unknown.

A plasmid can feed on nearly any biomass, primarily extracting hydrogen for use as its own energy source in a fuel cell like process. In order to feed it wraps its "skin" barrier around the food, pinches off the field once it is fully internal to create a sort of 'bubble' containing its prey then allows this bubble to dissipate, exposing the food to the plasma. Certain inorganic materials are also required, however, including platinum and exmat, though these are only needed to grow, reproduce and replenish any losses in case some leaks through the barrier.

---

Dragon:  Named for a striking resemblance to creatures of ancient Terran mythology (a resemblance suspected to be more than mere coincidence by many), dragons are the largest sapient life forms in the known galaxy and one of the largest of any species capable of flight.  They are bipedal and their wings pull double duty as arms courtesy of the rather dexterous four-digit hands located on the front of each wing.  Each finger is normally tipped with a very sharp claw, though most dragons prefer to dull their claws to make fine work easier.

Adult dragons average between sixteen and twenty meters from head to tail with a forty meter wingspan.  They stand between seven and eight meters tall.  The dragons, along with other life forms native to their planet, have evolved a somewhat unique skeletal and muscle structure with an incredibly high strength to weight ratio, making them much lighter than their size would suggest.  Even then, however, they still often weigh over twenty metric tons.

Dragons have a rather unique natural defense mechanism.  They are able to produce an extremely flammable liquid as well as a strong charge difference between their upper and lower jaw.  They can launch this fluid with surprising velocity and accuracy from a small vent in the roof of the mouth and ignite it with an electric arc between their teeth, creating a natural flamethrower.  It is unclear how such a specialized attack evolved, though it is believed that ancestors of modern dragons had to defend themselves against even fiercer predators than themselves.

Dragons are normally not well suited to exploring other planets due to their high oxygen requirements.  Generally an additional oxygen supply is required, though some dragons have received cybernetic upgrades which add additional oxygen ports throughout their skin, alleviating the problem.  Dragons reach maturity at thirty years old, though most do not reach their maximum size until fifty.  They have an average natural lifespan of 150 years.  Their population is estimated to be in the hundreds of thousands, though they do not appear to be in decline.  The low numbers are thought to be a result of the relatively high amount of food and other resources required to sustain each member when compared to other species coupled with a relatively slow reproductive rate.

---

Alitri:  The alitri are humanoid avian species. They average at 1.4 meters tall with a 3 meter wingspan.  Their hands and feet are covered by small, tough scales while the rest of the body is covered with feathers.  The color of these feathers can vary widely, though brown patterns and solid blue are among the most common.

The wings are joined to the arms all the way to the wrists.  An elongated finger-like bone structure extends from the wrist to support the rest of the wing, though this is capable of folding flush with the forearm.  The feathers also sweep back along the arms when the wings fold up, allowing them to be stored out of the way and allowing full motion with the arms.  Each hand has three fingers and a thumb.  Each finger is tipped by a sharp claw, though most alitri tend to dull their claws to make fine work easier.

Alitri have tetrachromatic vision, allowing them to see in the human visible range as well as some ultraviolet light in full color.  Their low light vision is slightly sensitive to infrared but not ultraviolet light, allowing them to see anything warm enough (such as a live creature) with a slight glow, though this only works in low light conditions as visible light will overpower it.

Alitri reach maturity at 16 years and live to be 50 years old on average, though this is likely limited by their relatively primitive society more than anything.  In theory they could easily live to be 80 with access to more advanced health care.  However, the alitri have only been in contact with more advanced nations for three decades, far too short of a time to test this.

Despite thousands of years of intellectual advancement and technological progress the basic concept of the projectile weapon has not changed since the first primates took down their prey by throwing rocks at them.  The goal of any projectile weapon is to accelerate some mass towards the target, generally at a high enough velocity to damage it on impact unless it is carrying some kind of payload.  There are a variety of ways to accomplish this.

Firearm:  A firearm is a weapon which uses a combustible propellant to accelerate a projectile.  A firearm can be manually chambered by a pump, lever or bolt action mechanism or it can use the recoil or gases from each shot to cycle the action, automatically loading the next cartridge.

Firearms have the advantage of simplicity.  They do not require an external power supply and tend to scale very easily.  A simple fabricator can easily turn out a fully functional firearm on demand, making them incredibly cheap to manufacture.  With no need for a high output power supply a firearm is an excellent choice when fully automatic fire is needed.  Most nations prefer to issue firearms to the majority of their forces for these reasons; they are far cheaper than alternatives and almost as deadly.  

Firearms do have a few drawbacks.  Auto-loading mechanisms tend to reduce accuracy and are prone to jamming if they are not properly cleaned and maintained.  Relatively large projectiles are required to transfer most of the energy from the explosion to the round.  This tends to reduce a firearm's capacity compared to other weapons.  Each cartridge must contain a combustible propellant, making the cartridge somewhat large and a fire hazard.

Coilgun:  A coilgun uses a series of electromagnets to accelerate a projectile to high velocity.  Each magnet is switched on until the projectile reaches it, at which point it either switches off or reverses its polarity to avoid slowing the projectile down.  Coilguns sometimes use the same magnetic field to cycle the loader, though this can also be done either by a separate motor or manually.

Coilguns are able to fire much smaller projectiles than firearms at the same energy.  This gives them a higher muzzle velocity and capacity with reduced recoil.  They also have less barrel wear as the projectile does not have to create a moving pressure seal.  Ammunition consists only of the projectiles, making storage easy and safe.  They are most often used as long range, high accuracy weapons, filling the roles of the designated marksman rifle and sniper rifle.  However, their high cost means that they are only deployed in relatively small numbers in these roles.

Coilguns are more difficult to manufacture than firearms.  Some components, including the superconducting magnets, capacitor and power supply can not be produced by a fabricator.  The power supply and capacitor also tend to be somewhat heavy, making coilguns heavier than comparable firearms.  Rate of fire tends to be much lower than that of a firearm as it must recharge its capacitor after each shot, though some coilguns have been designed with an enlarged capacitor to fire extremely rapid two or three shot bursts followed by a longer recharge time.

Railgun:  A railgun consists of a pair of rails with a projectile in between.  An electric current is applied through these rails and the projectile, creating an extremely powerful magnetic field.  This magnetic field expands behind the projectile as it moves down the barrel, continuing to accelerate it until rail contact is broken.  A conducting sabot is required, though most railguns use plasma sabots to reduce rail wear and cartridge size.

Railguns have the best muzzle velocity of any kinetic weapon.  Even extremely small projectiles can be made quite deadly by a sufficiently powerful railgun.  A single railgun can often carry enough ammunition internally to outlast most reasonable firefights, leaving the power supply as the only practical limitation.  Railguns are excellent precision and support weapons, combining long range, high accuracy, high damage, high capacity and low recoil in a single weapon, though they are generally far too heavy to be used standing up unless the operator has a powered exoskeleton.

Railguns tend to be very heavy, again due to the required capacitor and power supply, and tend to have a lower rate of fire than coilguns.  They are less efficient, resulting in larger power supplies and capacitors as well as significant overheating.  Heavy structural bracing is also required to prevent the rails from blowing themselves apart with every shot.  As a result they make rather poor small arms.  They tend to be limited to occasional support roles and are sometimes used by soldiers equipped with powered combat armor.