JSOC/SPD: Mission Briefing

[LunarHunk]

Watson stood up and walked with his PADD to the front of his room,
occassionally leaning heavily on his cane, "Thank you Admiral Lasiter."

"The Ramesar." His eyes sparkled when he said their name, he was obviously
enamored with them.

"I have divided this briefing into several sections to make it easier to
digest..."

He took a deep breath and clicked his PADD putting an image on the screen,
"Let's start with Appearance...Humanoid, approximately 5'10" tall. Black
body hair is the norm, but shades of brown are slightly less than common,
shades of red is rare. Body hair is similar to that of humans, top of head
and thin covering on
appendages, just a bit thicker. Their skin is very tan, naturally so as an
adaptation to living in the sun for so many years. As a race they are very
muscular, not visually muscular, just very strong. Average strength for
them would be similar to above average for a human. A natural development
to the gravity of their homeworld which is 1.18 times that of earth and
their preferred life style." He smiled, "Anyone of average stature getting
into a physical altercation with them would be....well..." he glanced at
his stiff leg, "better off backing away."

"Their Life span is roughly 100 standard years. Aging is generally slow
until the 70th year, when the body no longer repairs itself as efficiently.
Some call their ability regenerative."

Caimlyn was impressed with their physical attributes.  It sounded as if they made medicine almost unnecessary until they were in their 70's

(assume responses-will put in more in retreads)

"Their governmental and societal systems are fascinating....Their
Government: Pseudo-parliamentary. They have a monarch, called the High
Prefect. A ruling council is made up of 17 other lower Prefects, each
responsible for a specific function of government- law, commerce, foreign
relations, war, etc. A Parliamentary body makes up the legislature. The
Parliament is elected, but the Prefects are appointed by the leadership of
each of the different casts in the caste system."

Caimlyn's ears perked up when he heard the words 'caste system.'  He had never considered himself a specialist in the field of politics, but his people had a caste system, and his experience could prove helpful to understanding these people.

"What is the formation of their castes, sir?" asked the young Aqualish officer.

"Their Society is a Caste system. Warrior, Advocate, Religious, Teacher,
Healer, Worker are the known casts. Each cast appoints three members of
their respective cast to the ruling council. Children are schooled in the arts and
traditions of all casts until their 16th year, the age of decision. At this
age they choose their cast and begin a 6 year term of focused study to
become a member of that cast. Each cast affords their members with certain
responsibilities in society, and to a degree certain rights. Equality and
fairness are very important in their culture, although they are
militaristic and aggressive in nature.  They are a deeply spiritual people.
Spiritual, not religious. They believe in fate, destiny, and the like. A
being's aura tells much about the person, as the Bajorans believe the Pagh
does. Communities are very important. Not that they do not trust beings
from other communities outside of their own, but they know everyone in
their community. They like small villages or towns, and discourage large
cities. There are a few large cities, but they are not the metropolis 'that
other advanced people have."

It sounded like a standard caste system that could be found on many planets.  Even Earth had had formals castes such as this.  One thing, Caimlyn noticed was a lack of two types that are often found among such systems.  "You did not mention artist or undesireable castes.   Are they lacking in this society?"

(response?)

"Technology-They are technically advanced as far as species go, but they do
not appear to be overly advanced. This is to say that the people are not
tied to technology in every day life. They prefer to work themselves than
to rely on a machine, and are very suspicious of machines and technology.
Most people have small gardens that supply much of what they eat. Large
farms provide the staples and much of the meat products. As a society they
do not like replicated things. The vast majority of products consumed or
used are natural, not synthetic or artificially made. A fair statement is
that they are very natural people or very nature friendly. At least that is
the outward appearance."

"He was making a serious point, "In actuality, they are a highly advanced
society and use technology in very specialized ways. While they are
suspicious of technology, it is more accurate to say that they are
suspicious of technology that comes from outside of their society. They
have expansive mass transit systems that transport millions of Ramesar
every day. They have manufacturing plants that produce some of the most
advanced goods to be found. Manufacturing centers are supplied with workers from small communities from hundreds of kilometers away. Thus the mass transit system."

"As for their Military. It is suspected that they have a very advanced
military, but one would not know it from seeing it. Outsiders have not been
very far within their borders, and the only view that many get are the border patrol. These ships look to be comparable to the Enterprise after it's initial refit.
What no one knows is that is just one part of their fleet. The mainstay of
their fleet are highly advanced ships. A single Ramesar cruiser would give
a squadron of the best Klingon or Romulan battle ships a hard time. They
are armed, mean, but rarely seen.

"As for dealings with the Federation, First contact was roughly 25 years
ago, and since then is has been a rough ride. First contact was merely
their presence in the Rigellian system...we greeted them with standard
First Contact procedure protocols and got little to no response before they
left."

"The latest contact was roughly 8 months ago over a border dispute. Several
planets believed to be in free space were claimed by the Ramesar.
Negotiations were undertaken to define the outer boundaries of Ramesar
space, but those failed. The Ramesar believed that the Federation was
trying to move in on their territory, and was overly suspicious at the
reasons why the Federation would want to know or have interests in those
planets. The truth of the matter was that the Federation had no interest in
those planets other than to define them as Ramesar, so they could be avoided."

"As for my personal interaction with the Ramesar, I was part of the most
recent two contacts, and I am well known by their people. Good or bad I
don't know at this point. I spent many weeks on the homeworld, and can
speak enough of their language to get by, but not nearly as much as I
should. I spent a great deal of time interacting with the common Ramesar.  This race has some great aspects that we could benefit from studying."

"I have one last point for this crew to be aware of. I have a strong
suspicion that their military is much more technically advanced then they
let on, but can not prove it. Almost like they have one fleet for display
purposes and then one much stronger fleet and I fear that we do not know
that strength."

They seemed like formidable opponents.  They were advanced in both technology and military.  Even more serious, we seemed to know less about them than we should.  "Do we have any knowledge of systems that they are allied with?  People we might be able to contact for more information?"

Lasiter took the oppertunity to answer this one, "No. From previous experience, they seem to discourage ongoing contact with outsiders. While it is possible that they have allies outside of their territory, it is not very likely."

<These are definitely not the most friendlly of people,> Caimlyn thought to himself.  "What sort of knowledge do we have about the size and borders of their space?"

(response)

AJ