ARCADIA

(the Axelon Research, Collation and Access of Data Institute's Archives)

Section W

For a list of entries in this section, please see the main ARCADIA page.

Publishing date:  January 1, 2221 AD (Axelon Main Timeframe)

English version (20th century midwestern American, net-accessible, alphabetic with images, alphabetical order, perspective-set:moderate liberal) and all other versions ©2221 ARCADI.

Explanation of code used.
 

Entries

Walküre

Wall, the (evn)

The Wall (occasionally called the Major Wall, to distinguish it from the Little Wall) was not a physical wall, but rather a symbolic one.  Basically, it was a period in time during which the pace of progress in Known Space crawled to a near standstill.

Beginning in the 2130's, the rate of progress throughout Known Space began to slow.  At first, few people took notice of it, or believed it to be only a local phenomena.  However, as time progressed, it appeared that it was in fact a widespread malady.

The exact form which it took has never been adequately concretized, but it generally seems that people simply ceased to make  truly insightful discoveries, and fundamental research became a dead end.  Continued refinement of previously existing research continued quite as before, but the essential spark of new ideas seemed to have just dried up.  As many began to put it, "All the good ideas have already been thought of."  By the 2140's, the phenomena was definite, and had come to be called the Wall.

Refinement did continue, but it was not enough.  Humanity had come to depend on constant technological improvement in all areas of life, and the cessation of that improvement was disastrous.  The populations of Earth, who had come to depend on ever-increasing crops from ever-decreasing plots of land, were probably the ones who suffered most; it is estimated that, by the 2150's, over two billion people had died due to unsustainable agriculture.

Blame for the Wall was leveled at the doorstep of nearly any group which could be given a collective label.  Paranoids blamed scientists for trying to make the world pay for ignoring them, or the poorer nations for trying to make the rest of the world suffer as they had.  Many groups in Known Space isolated themselves from the rest of humanity, believing that their ideals made them somehow immune, or that they were the "chosen" who were destined to survive the "great cleansing".  Neo-Luddite movements in particular became very common, especially on Earth.  Simple lawlessness also rose greatly, especially as the hungry masses crowded around points of grain supply to demand food.  Many criminal groups took this opportunity to expand their control.  The LSN also gained power during this era, establishing central control when many smaller nations drowned under the waves of hungry crowds.

More level-headed critics blamed the consumer culture itself for having unrealistic expectations of science.  Some believed that the Qiqiu had secretly undermined human infonets, or that the then-unknown Starwhales were readying humanity to become a market for Starwhale technology.  Fingers wagged in every direction, but to this day, no one is quite sure why the Wall happened, or why it went away.

However, in the 2150's, the Wall did begin to gradually erode, and new ideas began again.  Within a couple decades, humanity was trying to put itself back together and push on.  At present, though many Luddites continue their quests to rid humanity of excessive reliance upon technology, it appears that the Wall is behind us.

Back to ARCADIA page - Back to W listings in ARCADIA - Back to top of this file - Back to Rachel's main page

Wallonia

Warfare, Ground (gen)

A large part of war -- perhaps the main part -- has always been about controlling territory and resources.  Traditionally, this has meant that even armies with the best air forces, navies and even space forces have still had to rely, in the end, upon foot soldiers to actually control the situation.  A missile, fighter or destroyer cannot control a city; they can threaten, of course, but actually issuing orders, coordinating action, collecting taxes, etc. has always been the province of the foot soldier.

However, with the computer control and automation of control, this situation has changed.  If a given territory is controlled to a great extent by artificial means (info systems, robotics, etc.), it then becomes possible to take control over such a territory from a distance, provided that infiltration of the target communication network is possible.  Of course, this hinges on just how much of the territory is controlled automatically or in any case not by humans.  A governmental system which is 100% computer-controlled can be extremely decentralized, and thus nearly immune to traditional infantry control, but is correspondingly vulnerable to info-based attack.

Back to ARCADIA page - Back to W listings in ARCADIA - Back to top of this file - Back to Rachel's main page

Warfare, Space (gen)

Modern space warfare is based almost entirely upon the development economical spaceflight, which largely occurred due to the development of the Karlos-DaRosa Faster-Than-Light (FTL) drive.  Although there are elements of space warfare which do not depend upon the K-D drive, most aspects of space warfare are at least in some way influenced by it.

Space warfare may generally be divided into two types: FTL and STL.

FTL Warfare

Rare as it is, faster-than-light warfare does occasionally occur.  This may be because defenders of a system send out vessels to pre-emptively attack assaulters for some reason, or due to piracy along the trade lanes, a much more common occurrence.  In this event, the thing being contested is the defenders' ship itself.

When trying to gain control of a ship at FTL speeds, there are two basic methods: infotage and the threat of destruction.  Infotage occurs typically by gaining access to the target vessel's internal communication system, typically through the external communication system, and inserting an infotage agent.  This might be done at the vessel's origin point, or could be done during the journey.  Doing so at FTL speeds is nearly impossible, though, as only pacing the target vessel or using tachyon communications would allow effective transmission of the agent.  Otherwise, the vessel will simply be travelling too fast for light-speed communications to allow access.

If infotage is not a viable option, it may be easier to simply try to threaten the destruction of the vessel, working on the assumption that the commander of the vessel would prefer to give the vessel over to the attackers rather than sacrifice it.  Threatening this kind of destruction is difficult, naturally.  A typical method would be deploying extremely low-signature mines or missiles in a volume through which vessels are known to travel, and then somehow communicating with a ship that its course will take it through the ambush area, and then leveling the demands.  Of course, communication at FTL speeds is still difficult, and may again either require pacing the vessel or access while the vessel is still groundside.  Even if this is successful, many ships' commanders will in fact sacrifice their vessels rather than see them fall into enemy hands.  This resolve is heightened by the fact that many pirates do not save their targets' crews, preferring to simply vent them.

STL Warfare

Generally speaking, STL warfare always occurs around strategic physical objects, such as planets, stations, etc.  Some combats may occur between forces located within a given system, but more often, it occurs between attacking forces which have gained access to the defenders' system by using FTL travel.  Although the attackers may therefore save themselves quite easily by retreating back to the depths of space, their ability to press an attack will be at a relative disadvantage, given the fact that their ships are burdened with K-D equipment while the defenders are not.  This shapes a great deal of the tactics of STL space warfare.

When STL warfare occurs, it is typically divided into two phases: the approach and the actual attack.

The approach

Typically, the first thing that an invading force will do before launching their attack will be to probe the enemy defenses.  If the target is something as small as, for example, a station, and the attackers have control of the surrounding space, this will be a simple matter.  However, if the attackers are attacking an entire system (which must be the case if the invaders are coming from another system), the process of probing the defenders' defenses may take a great deal of effort.  Since all but the most weakly defended systems are liberally dotted with stations and settlements, and any one of these might be an armed opponent, such an effort to probe may require scanning the entire surface of a ovoid up to a light-year in diameter.  The actual reconnaissance must typically be done at high speed, to avoid pinpointing and attack from native forces, and frequently involves dozens of vessels to allow completion in the shortest time possible (thus minimizing native ability to gear up for defense).  This initial reconnaissance is commonly known in naval parlance as the Fabergé Egg Maneuver, or alternately the Christmas Tree, due to the resemblance which the reconnoitering ships have on a holodisplay to those objects.  Thus, anyone considering invading a major system must both have vast resouces and tremendous resolve.

Once suitable entry point or points have been found, the attack will be pressed.  Doing so requires numerous types of units and tactics.  Therefore, the following section is divided by unit and/or tactic.

Decoy drones

Decoys are common in all aspects of space warfare.  K-D radiation (momons) are detectable at long range as they travel great distances, frequently at FTL speeds, and are difficult to dampen.  This means that vessels can almost never approach an enemy
undetected.  They may allow an enemy to approach them, though this is naturally not an option when pressing an attack.  Spent momons may, however, be modified slightly, changing the signature of the drive system which is producing them.  This means that it is possible to make a drone which can quite effectively mimic a given vessel's signature, being detectable as a fake only through visual identification (which is quite difficult) or if the fakery can be prevented.  Thus, a small force may be made to resemble a large one through the use of numerous drones, though it is pretty difficult to make a large force resemble a small one.  When attacking a system, therefore, it will almost always deploy numerous drones, if only to make the defenders unsure of the attackers' actual force size.  More commonly, the attackers will use a variety of different routes of attack, planning their main attack along only one, and seeding the rest with drones, thus dividing the defenders' forces.
 
 

Back to ARCADIA page - Back to W listings in ARCADIA - Back to top of this file - Back to Rachel's main page

West Africa

Wolf

Wolf 489

Wolong

Wolong is a major world orbiting Fuxing in the ISC.

Wongju

Wulong (cor)

Wulong Inc. is one of the major corporations in Known Space.  Its headquarters are located at Wolong, Fuxing, in the ISC.  They primarily make machinery of various sorts, including heavy machinery, light machinery, construction equipment, etc.  They also have small divisions working in general manufacturing, including weapons, starships, vehicles and other things.

One of the things Wulong is most famous for, though, is milservice.  Wulong provides a great deal of security and armed forces services to various governments and entities, and like many milservice providers, it is not terribly concerned with the purposes its services are put to.  Wulong does pride itself on being more morally upright than some of its competitors, though, especially Saito.

Back to ARCADIA page - Back to W listings in ARCADIA - Back to top of this file - Back to Rachel's main page
This page (http://www.jiawen.net/arcadiaw.html) designed and ©1999 by Rachel Kronick.   Last updated February 5, 2000.  All names mentioned are used for satiric use only, and no offense is intended or should be inferred.