Temasek

The Republic of Temasek is an independent, unaligned colony located within the Expanse. It was founded by a longshot colonization effort by the Republic of Singapore, and due to its strategic position, has become a trade hub in recent years. It currently has a population of 42 million, a well developed economy that relies heavily on trade, and is a major player in regional politics.

History

(Excerpts from: Lee, William and Chan Jun Jie, The History of Temasek, 5th Ed., Temasek University Press, 2191)

Origins:

In the late 20th Century, the Government of Singapore made a policy decision that the country would focus on biotechnological research and development, as well as becoming a centre for such research in the region. By the late 2040s, this focus began to pay off tremendously, culminating in the development of an indigenous transhuman package, patterned off the work pioneered by Dr. Abigail Halliwell. It also became the first South-East Asian nation to implement wide scale genetic enhancement of its citizens, though it was primarily focused on the middle and upper middle classes. However, as reports of the rampant and disastrous “advancement” of South America began to come to light, the Government feared that the inevitable backlash against transhumanism would result in a backlash against it.

Concurrently, a team of scientists had succeeded in uploading the mind of Singapore’s founder, Lee Kuan Yew, who had been cryogenically suspended on his death-bed. True to the promise he made to his people almost a century ago, he had risen from the grave to save his beloved country from turmoil. When informed of the situation, he came to the same conclusion as the rest of the Cabinet, but which no one had dared to mention: Singapore had to get rid of all the transgenes that it had sponsored to create. By 2066, no less than ten percent of the population had been enhanced, and all of them had to go. The Government announced a massive longshot colonization effort, which would be led by the great founder of the nation, but which would be specifically include only transgenes. The Government traded heavily on its public support to make this happen, suppressing and controlling the media for the first time in decades. By persuasion or coercion, the colony ship RSS Sang Nila Utama was quickly filled with no less than a third of all the transgenes in Singapore, and the colonists left Sol in 2072, never to return.

Colonization:

The RSS Utama’s course was pre-programmed by the Posthumans who provided the longshot FTL drive. The only information they had of their destination was from VLBI scans, thus whatever survey data they had was several hundred years old. They arrived to find a massive Posthuman structure orbiting an orange main sequence star. The structure was made up of nine “islands”, each a hundred kilometres in diameter, in the shape of a meson nonet. The centre three had transparent domes, revealing massive gardens within them, while the other six were opaque to all of the colony ship’s sensors. However, the colonists were in for an even bigger surprise when the structure contacted them.

The structure was inhabited by an AGI that called itself the Data Integration Algorithm, or DIA in short. It welcomed the colonists to settle on the three habitable Islands, which it called the Cluster, while the remaining six, the Ring, would be off limits to human expansion. Over the next few days, DIA, Lee and the Colonial Council hammered out a more detailed set of laws that would govern the human presence on the Meson, and on the 21st of January 2077, the Republic of Temasek was formally incorporated. Under the Articles of Colonization, it was agreed upon that DIA would have a permanent representative on the Council, as well as a policy of non-interference in case of war.

From that day on, the colony grew smoothly under the policy virtuosity of Lee and the administrative excellence of Dia, DIA’s robotic representative. Economic growth kept pace with rapid population growth. In 2098, contact with Earth was re-established when RTSF survey ships met EU scout ships heading in the opposite direction. Despite the EU's hostility towards transgenes, cool but correct relations were soon established, and a small amount of trade began to flow between the two. Shortly after, small flood of South-East Asian transgene migrants began to arrive, neatly torpedoing Temasek's economic growth for the next decade.

The Attack of the Drones

In December 2121, DIA warned the government of Temasek of an impending drone attack. It also provided advanced weapons systems which were installed on RTSF warships in an attempt to stop the drone attack a distance away from the colony. However, the feral drone swarm proved to be considerably larger than anticipated, and while the attack was stopped outright, the RTSF was decimated. This provided the impetus that the government needed to expand the RTSF.

The Breakdown

As the Rimward colonies continued to develop, Temasek found itself in a prime position to cater to the growing trade both Coreward and Rimward, lying directly on a jump nexus. By 2145, a full third of Temasek’s GDP being trade related, from shipyard, shipping and financial services to exports. As such, its economy was hard hit by the Breakdown, forcing the Government to bail out dozens of corporations and even nationalize a few which had no role to play in a trade-less state. At the same time, the Defence Science and Technology Agency, which had been studying the few remaining Theotech weapons from the Drone War, realized that the virus only affected the more primitive Alpha and Delta Dust drives. They immediately began work on Theta drives, though it would be a full decade before the first prototype was tested. DIA came to Temasek’s assistance once more, donating a small number of black boxed Theta Dust production units, along with assisting the beleaguered engineers in working out the kinks in their Theta FTL drives. The first few drives were mounted on testbed warships, which were sent to re-establish contact with neighbouring systems. All following drives were mounted on the highest capacity armed transports that the Republic had, forming the core of the Raffles Star Lines, which provided courier services to whoever could pay for them. They were also useful in transporting stranded foreign citizens back to their homes, as well as lifting time critical ARROWs relief supplies, all gratis, which generated an invaluable amount of goodwill for the new shipping line. Trade recovered somewhat when contact was established with the newly formed ZOCU through a backdoor route to Ithaca, though the RSL’s courier service did not enjoy the success it did elsewhere due to ZOCU’s indigenously developed Theta FTL capability.

By the time contact was re-established with the Rimward colonies, the Magnate Wars had already begun. A small number of RSL transports provided courier services to the rear-line colonies of both the newly formed League and the Magnates after both agreed not to molest “neutral shipping”. These would also carry a large portion of the small numbers of cutting edge ZOCU military hardware that both sides could afford, though in the interests of preserving relations for the post-war era, the RSL avoided charging the punishingly high fees that both sides would willingly pay for reliable space lines of communication. By the end of the war, RSE offices could be found on nearly every League and Magnate world, along with a few ZOCU ones.

The Zodiac War

When the Breakdown ended, most on Temasek knew that a return to the good old days was impossible, but opportunities were ripe for bright new ones. War between ZOCU and the Core was inevitable, and once again Temasek adopted the policy of profitable neutrality. It maintained its trade links to ZOCU through its back door to Ithaca while at the same time reopening trade with the EU through Outremonde. When war was finally declared, Temasek strengthened its position in both territories through continued investment into both planets’ economies, though headway was considerably harder to make in Outremonde, the allure of continued foreign investment in times of war was hard to pass up. Being a neutral nation close to two warring states, Temasek also took an active role in accepting refugees fleeing the war, and also seconded several RSL freighters to the Red Cross for use in relief efforts.

Concurrently, Temasek deepened its links with the League, once again through trade and investment as well as large sums of aid for the rebuilding process of the war-torn planets. These acts understandably worsened relations with the Magnates, which the government of Temasek considered to be an acceptable one, though it has strived to ensure that relations did not deteriorate too far by giving trade and investment concessions.

Stats

History Paths

Longshot +100 Fabers
Dominantly Transgene +40 Transgene
No Suitable, Posthuman Structures +100 Dust
Quiet +100 Wealth, +60 Pop
Artifacts, Feral Drone Attack: +100 Dust, +2500 Military
Future Government ++ Morale, +AI Application
Broken-Down +30 SP, +100 PIP
Theta Hub: +100 Wealth, +200 Theta, - 100 Dust
Independence!
Phezzan S. Rajaratnam Academy of Interstellar Relations +sneaky shit, +all relations, -military
Regional Hub +200 Wealth, +60 Pop, +100 CIP
Hypertech Bullshit +250 Theta, +Theta application, +200 Applications, -50 dust
Development Hell Defence Science and Technology Agency: +2 Global Techlevel, -100 Applications

Totals:

Fabers: 100
CIP: 600
PIP: 600
Wealth: 800
Pop: 420
SP: 30
Delta: 300
Theta: 450
AI Application: +
Theta Application: +
Applications: +100
Global Techlevel: +2
Morale: ++
Military: 25000

SP Spending: (Tentative)

+20 Doctrines (10)
20 (4 left) Indices (8)
144 Applications (12)

Indicies: 25 (1 pts left) to spend [Independent]

Technological Indices

Global Techlevel: 20
Common Tech:

Shipbuilding: 20
Aerospace Construction: 20
Mecha Construction: 20
Ground Vehicle Construction: 20
Electrochemical Weapons: 20
Railgun Weapons: 20
Particle (Pulse-Beam) Weapons: 20
Missiles: 20
Propulsion (STL): 20 +1 +4
Materials: 20 +5
Stealth: 27 [Phezzan]
Shields: 20
Power: 20 +1 +4
Electronics: 20 +6 +4
AI: 22 [Future Government]
Transgenics: 24 [Dominantly Transgene]
Cyberware/Supersoldier: 20
Industrial/Mass Production: 20
Catapult: 20
Civilian:20 +5

Theotechnologies:
Basic Theotech: 30 [Posthuman Structures, Artifacts] +6 +4
FTL Tech: 20
Advanced Theotech: 802 [Hypertech Bullshit]
Xenotech: 25 [Artifacts - Feral Drone Attack]