Portfolio: Imperial Cartography Center

Humanity’s first maps were of the stars. Created millennia ago, they were dots charting the night sky painted upon cavern walls on Earth. One wonders if those original mapmakers ever imagined that one day their descendants would get to visit those stars?

Though the methods have drastically changed, the Imperial Cartography Center (ICC) carries on that proud tradition of charting celestial objects. This UEE government agency is best known for their Deep Space Scanning & AstroGraphical Stations that search for jump points, and for the elite Stellar Surveyors unit that assesses newly discovered systems. Yet, the responsibilities and reach of the ICC extend far beyond those two departments. From working with the Ark to keeping the Starmap current, to tracking the Baer comet as it crosses the Stanton System, the Imperial Cartography Center is essential to modern space travel.

Expanding Space
Once Nick Croshaw successfully piloted his ship through the first jump point, aspiring explorers flooded the stars, obsessed with helping Humanity expand its reach ever farther. However, the nascent days of space exploration were fraught with danger. Experimental and unreliable equipment paired with a vast, uncharted expanse led to the tragic disappearances of many.

Humanity grappled with how to govern their growing domain. The various national institutions had not yet unified, so there were few protocols in place to deal with the discovery of new systems. That led to Nemo’s 2364 discovery date coming into question during a famous legal case where two companies argued over who owned the coordinates for the jump into the system from Fora. Meanwhile, the government hid the discovery of Banshee, in 2317, from the public for years out of fear that its powerful pulsar was a safety concern.

After the United Nations of Earth finally formed in 2380, they incentivized explorers to report their discoveries to the government, but left the private sector to chart new systems. This occurred because a contingent of prominent and powerful politicians was dedicated to keeping the new UNE government as lean and efficient as possible. They believed an industry within the private sector would rise to fill the gap, and they were right.

For a few centuries, this arrangement worked relatively well. Initially, there were numerous cartography companies with the ships and technology to chart systems. However, it wasn’t long before conglomerates acquired the most promising firms and slowly pushed out the rest. A few non-profit and academic institutions survived the culling and continued to provide detailed maps to the public for free or at a nominal cost. But due to a lack of funding, their products often took years to reach the market after a new system was discovered.

For the Public Good
Over the years, the government received an increasing number of complaints against cartography companies for egregious inaccuracies or tiered pricing schemes that made detailed maps unaffordable to many consumers. One particular heinous example was when the Monroe Mapping Concern left a whole asteroid field off a map of Hadrian since they had promised exclusivity to a mining company. This led a number of politicians to lobby for increased oversight. It finally reached a tipping point with the Pallas incident. After discovering Pallas, Gaia Planet Services failed to properly scan the system before attempting to terraform Pallas III. Only then did they discover it was already occupied by the Xi’An, an unknown species at the time. Realizing regulations were needed to govern the charting of new systems, the Government Cartography Agency (GCA) was created in 2531.

Initially, the GCA was tasked with charting and scanning all new systems and ensuring that the most current geospatial information was available to the public. When Ivar Messer empowered himself as Imperator in 2546, he realized that the GCA was in a key position to control the knowledge of the known universe. Not long after he was sworn in, private mapmakers got word to shutter their operations. Mapmaking was nationalized, and the GCA renamed the Imperial Cartography Center.

Under Ivar Messer, an astronomical amount of credits was poured into the ICC. Companies with strong ties to the Messer regime received massive orders for top-of-the-line scanning equipment and were granted no-bid contracts to construct deep-space scanning stations. The ICC quickly embedded itself into a number of government agencies and organizations including, most importantly, the military. Deep-space scanning stations kept an eye on Perry Line systems and, eventually, helped monitor Vanduul clans on the western front. Without any private sector competition, the ICC became an essential agency and earned a degree of autonomy not afforded to other agencies under Messers’ rule.

Eventually, the ICC put that political independence to use. In 2715, three years after the fall of Orion to the Vanduul, Messer VIII ordered the system and all jumps to it removed from the UEE’s non-military maps for the public good. ICC Director Loretta De Biasio refused, claiming that it would be more dangerous for people in systems connected to Orion not to know exactly where a clan of Vanduul might suddenly appear.

The Imperator was infuriated by the ICC’s defiance and threatened to drastically slash the agency’s budget. But making matters worse for the Imperator, prominent members of the military came to De Biasio’s defense. Some even threatened to resign if she was fired or the agency’s budget struck with draconian cuts. There’s evidence that retaliatory measures were planned against De Biasio for her disobedience, but Messer VIII was stabbed to death in his bed before they were enacted.

And so, even though the ICC was long associated with the Messers, it survived their downfall. The agency had ingrained themselves too deeply into the fabric of the Empire to be discarded. It had also displayed enough independence to avoid the name change many other agencies received to erase associations with a darker time. Today, the ICC scans for jump points from their numerous stations, provides data to The Ark to keep the Starmap current, and much more.

Stellar Surveyors
The ICC is also home to one of the most prestigious scientific organizations – the Stellar Surveyors. This elite unit, composed of multi-talented individuals from both the public and private sector, are the first to visit and chart new systems after they are discovered. In the 29th century, their assessment of Stanton convinced politicians that it would be perfect for a system-wide business park. Recently, they discovered the Kabal System only to find abandoned Tevarin cities on Kabal III. They’ve also been up against their most difficult challenge ever – exploring and mapping the Tamsa System and the black hole at its center.

‘Charting the Way Ahead’ may be the motto of the Stellar Surveyors, but it’s also an appropriate maxim for the entire ICC. Whether standing up to the Messers or finding jump points that introduce the UEE to new worlds, the ICC clearly has its sights set on the future.

$window.resize(function () { windowHeight = $window.height(); }); $.fn.parallax = function(xpos, speedFactor, outerHeight) { var $this = $(this); var getHeight; var firstTop; var paddingTop = 0; //get the starting position of each element to have parallax applied to it $this.each(function(){ firstTop = $this.offset().top; }); if (outerHeight) { getHeight = function(jqo) { return jqo.outerHeight(true); }; } else { getHeight = function(jqo) { return jqo.height(); }; } // setup defaults if arguments aren’t specified if (arguments.length < 1 || xpos = null) xpos = "50%"; if (arguments.length < 2 || speedFactor = null) speedFactor = 0.1; if (arguments.length < 3 || outerHeight === null) outerHeight = true; // function to be called whenever the window is scrolled or resized function update(){ var pos = $window.scrollTop(); $this.each(function(){ var $element = $(this); var top = $element.offset().top; var height = getHeight($element); // Check if totally above or totally below viewport if (top + height < pos || top > pos + windowHeight) { return; } $this.css(‘backgroundPosition’, xpos + “ “ + Math.round((firstTop – pos) * speedFactor) + “px”); }); } $window.bind(‘scroll’, update).resize(update); update(); }; $(‘.parallax-1’).parallax(“50%”, 0.1, true); $(‘.parallax-2’).parallax(“50%”, 0.1, true); $(‘.parallax-3’).parallax(“50%”, 0.1, true); $(‘.parallax-4’).parallax(“50%”, 0.1, true); $(‘.parallax-5’).parallax(“50%”, 0.1, true); $(‘.parallax-6’).parallax(“50%”, 0.1, true); $(‘.parallax-7’).parallax(“50%”, 0.1, true); })(jQuery);

Die ersten Karten der Menschheit waren von den Sternen. Sie wurden vor Jahrtausenden geschaffen und waren Punkte, die den Nachthimmel auf die Höhlenwände der Erde zeichneten. Man fragt sich, ob sich diese ursprünglichen Kartenmacher jemals vorgestellt haben, dass ihre Nachkommen eines Tages diese Sterne besuchen würden?

Obwohl sich die Methoden drastisch geändert haben, setzt das Imperial Cartography Center (ICC) diese stolze Tradition der Darstellung von Himmelsobjekten fort. Diese UEE-Regierungsbehörde ist vor allem bekannt für ihre Deep Space Scanning & AstroGraphical Stations, die nach Sprungbrettpunkten suchen, und für die Eliteeinheit Stellar Surveyors, die neu entdeckte Systeme bewertet. Doch die Verantwortlichkeiten und die Reichweite des ICC gehen weit über diese beiden Abteilungen hinaus. Von der Arbeit mit der Arche über die Aktualisierung der Sternkarte bis hin zur Verfolgung des Baer-Kometen beim Durchqueren des Stanton-Systems ist das Imperial Cartography Center für die moderne Raumfahrt unverzichtbar.

Erweiterter Raum
Nachdem Nick Croshaw sein Schiff erfolgreich durch den ersten Sprungpunkt gesteuert hatte, überfluteten angehende Entdecker die Sterne und waren besessen davon, der Menschheit zu helfen, ihre Reichweite immer weiter auszudehnen. Die aufkeimenden Tage der Weltraumforschung waren jedoch mit Gefahren behaftet. Experimentelle und unzuverlässige Ausrüstung gepaart mit einer riesigen, unerforschten Fläche führten zum tragischen Verschwinden vieler.

Die Menschheit hat sich damit beschäftigt, wie sie ihr wachsendes Reich regieren kann. Die verschiedenen nationalen Institutionen waren noch nicht vereinheitlicht, so dass es nur wenige Protokolle gab, um die Entdeckung neuer Systeme zu behandeln. Dies führte dazu, dass Nemos Entdeckungsdatum 2364 während eines berühmten Rechtsstreits in Frage gestellt wurde, in dem zwei Unternehmen darüber stritten, wem die Koordinaten für den Sprung ins System von Fora aus gehörten. Unterdessen verbarg die Regierung die Entdeckung von Banshee im Jahr 2317 jahrelang vor der Öffentlichkeit, aus Angst, dass sein mächtiger Pulsar ein Sicherheitsproblem sei.

Nachdem sich die Vereinten Nationen der Erde 2380 schließlich gegründet hatten, gaben sie den Forschern Anreize, ihre Entdeckungen der Regierung zu melden, verließen aber den Privatsektor, um neue Systeme zu entwickeln. Dies geschah, weil ein Kontingent prominenter und mächtiger Politiker sich dafür einsetzte, die neue UNE-Regierung so schlank und effizient wie möglich zu halten. Sie glaubten, dass eine Industrie innerhalb des Privatsektors aufsteigen würde, um die Lücke zu schließen, und sie hatten Recht.

Einige Jahrhunderte lang funktionierte diese Anordnung relativ gut. Ursprünglich gab es zahlreiche Kartographieunternehmen mit den Schiffen und der Technologie zur Kartenerstellung. Es dauerte jedoch nicht lange, bis Konglomerate die vielversprechendsten Unternehmen übernahmen und den Rest langsam verdrängten. Einige wenige gemeinnützige und akademische Einrichtungen überlebten die Keulung und stellten der Öffentlichkeit weiterhin detaillierte Karten kostenlos oder zu einem geringen Preis zur Verfügung. Doch mangels Finanzierung dauerte es oft Jahre, bis ihre Produkte auf den Markt kamen, nachdem ein neues System entdeckt wurde.

Für das Gemeinwohl
Im Laufe der Jahre erhielt die Regierung immer mehr Beschwerden gegen Kartographieunternehmen wegen gravierender Ungenauigkeiten oder gestaffelter Preisgestaltung, die detaillierte Karten für viele Verbraucher unerschwinglich machten. Ein besonders abscheuliches Beispiel war, als der Monroe Mapping Concern ein ganzes Asteroidenfeld von einer Hadrian-Karte verließ, da sie einer Minengesellschaft Exklusivität versprochen hatten. Dies veranlasste eine Reihe von Politikern, sich für eine verstärkte Aufsicht einzusetzen. Mit dem Vorfall in Pallas erreichte sie schließlich einen Wendepunkt. Nach der Entdeckung von Pallas konnte Gaia Planet Services das System nicht richtig scannen, bevor er versuchte, Pallas III zu terraformen. Erst dann entdeckten sie, dass es bereits von den Xi'An besetzt war, einer damals unbekannten Art. Die Government Cartography Agency (GCA) wurde 2531 gegründet, um die Abbildung neuer Systeme zu regeln.

Zunächst war der GCA damit beauftragt, alle neuen Systeme zu kartieren und zu scannen und sicherzustellen, dass die aktuellsten Geoinformationen der Öffentlichkeit zur Verfügung stehen. Als Ivar Messer sich 2546 als Imperator ermächtigte, erkannte er, dass die GCA in einer Schlüsselposition war, um das Wissen über das bekannte Universum zu kontrollieren. Nicht lange nachdem er vereidigt wurde, erhielten private Kartenmacher die Nachricht, dass sie ihren Betrieb einstellen sollen. Der Kartenbau wurde verstaatlicht und der GCA benannte das Imperial Cartography Center um.

Unter Ivar Messer wurde ein astronomischer Betrag an Credits in das ICC gegossen. Unternehmen mit starker Verbundenheit zum Messer-Regime erhielten massive Aufträge für Spitzenscananlagen und erhielten Ausschreibungen für den Bau von Tiefseescanning- Stationen. Der IStGH fügte sich schnell in eine Reihe von Regierungsbehörden und Organisationen ein, darunter vor allem das Militär. Tiefraum-Scanstationen beobachteten die Systeme von Perry Line und halfen schließlich bei der Überwachung der Vanduul-Clans an der Westfront. Ohne jeglichen Wettbewerb im Privatsektor wurde der IStGH zu einer unverzichtbaren Agentur und erhielt ein gewisses Maß an Autonomie, das anderen Agenturen nach der Messerschen Regel nicht gewährt wurde.

Schließlich nutzte der IStGH diese politische Unabhängigkeit. Im Jahr 2715, drei Jahre nach dem Fall von Orion an die Vanduul, ordnete Messer VIII das System an und alle Sprünge zu ihm wurden aus den nichtmilitärischen Karten der UEE für das öffentliche Interesse entfernt. ICC-Direktorin Loretta De Biasio weigerte sich und behauptete, dass es für Menschen in mit Orion verbundenen Systemen gefährlicher wäre, nicht genau zu wissen, wo ein Clan von Vanduul plötzlich auftauchen könnte.

Der Imperator war wütend über die Missachtung des ICC und drohte, den Haushalt der Agentur drastisch zu kürzen. Aber was die Situation für den Imperator noch verschlimmerte, kamen prominente Mitglieder des Militärs zur Verteidigung von De Biasio. Einige drohten sogar mit dem Rücktritt, wenn sie entlassen wurde oder der Haushalt der Agentur von drastischen Kürzungen betroffen war. Es gibt Hinweise darauf, dass Vergeltungsmaßnahmen gegen De Biasio wegen ihres Ungehorsams geplant waren, aber Messer VIII wurde in seinem Bett erstochen, bevor sie verhängt wurden.

Und so, obwohl der ICC lange Zeit mit den Messers verbunden war, überlebte er ihren Untergang. Die Agentur hatte sich zu tief in das Gefüge des Imperiums eingegraben, um es zu verwerfen. Sie hatte auch genügend Unabhängigkeit bewiesen, um die Namensänderung zu vermeiden, die viele andere Agenturen erhalten hatten, um Assoziationen mit einer dunkleren Zeit zu löschen. Heute scannt das ICC nach Sprungbrettpunkten von seinen zahlreichen Stationen, liefert Daten an The Ark, um die Starmap aktuell zu halten, und vieles mehr.

Stellare Vermessungsingenieure
Das ICC beherbergt auch eine der renommiertesten wissenschaftlichen Organisationen - die Stellar Surveyors. Diese Eliteeinheit, die sich aus Multitalenten aus dem öffentlichen und privaten Sektor zusammensetzt, ist die erste, die neue Systeme besucht und kartiert, nachdem sie entdeckt wurden. Anfang des 30. Jahrhunderts überzeugte ihre Einschätzung von Stanton die Politiker, dass es für einen systemweiten Gewerbepark perfekt wäre. Vor kurzem entdeckten sie das Kabalsystem, nur um verlassene Tevarin-Städte auf Kabal III zu finden. Sie standen auch vor ihrer schwierigsten Herausforderung aller Zeiten - der Erforschung und Kartierung des Tamsa-Systems und des Schwarzen Lochs in seiner Mitte.

Charting the Way Ahead' mag das Motto der Stellar Surveyors sein, aber es ist auch eine passende Maxime für das gesamte ICC. Ob es darum geht, sich gegen die Messers zu behaupten oder Sprungbretter zu finden, die die UEE in neue Welten führen, das ICC hat klar den Blick auf die Zukunft gerichtet.

$window.resize(function () { windowHeight = $window.height(); }); $.fn.parallax = function(xpos, speedFactor, outerHeight) { var $this = $(this); var getHeight; var firstTop; var paddingTop = 0; //Gehen Sie die Startposition jedes Elements, um Parallaxe darauf anzuwenden $this.each(function(){ firstTop = $this.offset().top; }); if (outerHeight) { getHeight = function(jqo) { return jqo.outerHeight(true); }; }; } else { getHeight = function(jqo) { return jqo.height(); }; }; } setup standardmäßig, wenn Argumente nicht angegeben sind if (arguments.length < 1 ||| xpos = null) xpos = "50%"; if (arguments.length

Humanity’s first maps were of the stars. Created millennia ago, they were dots charting the night sky painted upon cavern walls on Earth. One wonders if those original mapmakers ever imagined that one day their descendants would get to visit those stars?

Though the methods have drastically changed, the Imperial Cartography Center (ICC) carries on that proud tradition of charting celestial objects. This UEE government agency is best known for their Deep Space Scanning & AstroGraphical Stations that search for jump points, and for the elite Stellar Surveyors unit that assesses newly discovered systems. Yet, the responsibilities and reach of the ICC extend far beyond those two departments. From working with the Ark to keeping the Starmap current, to tracking the Baer comet as it crosses the Stanton System, the Imperial Cartography Center is essential to modern space travel.

Expanding Space
Once Nick Croshaw successfully piloted his ship through the first jump point, aspiring explorers flooded the stars, obsessed with helping Humanity expand its reach ever farther. However, the nascent days of space exploration were fraught with danger. Experimental and unreliable equipment paired with a vast, uncharted expanse led to the tragic disappearances of many.

Humanity grappled with how to govern their growing domain. The various national institutions had not yet unified, so there were few protocols in place to deal with the discovery of new systems. That led to Nemo’s 2364 discovery date coming into question during a famous legal case where two companies argued over who owned the coordinates for the jump into the system from Fora. Meanwhile, the government hid the discovery of Banshee, in 2317, from the public for years out of fear that its powerful pulsar was a safety concern.

After the United Nations of Earth finally formed in 2380, they incentivized explorers to report their discoveries to the government, but left the private sector to chart new systems. This occurred because a contingent of prominent and powerful politicians was dedicated to keeping the new UNE government as lean and efficient as possible. They believed an industry within the private sector would rise to fill the gap, and they were right.

For a few centuries, this arrangement worked relatively well. Initially, there were numerous cartography companies with the ships and technology to chart systems. However, it wasn’t long before conglomerates acquired the most promising firms and slowly pushed out the rest. A few non-profit and academic institutions survived the culling and continued to provide detailed maps to the public for free or at a nominal cost. But due to a lack of funding, their products often took years to reach the market after a new system was discovered.

For the Public Good
Over the years, the government received an increasing number of complaints against cartography companies for egregious inaccuracies or tiered pricing schemes that made detailed maps unaffordable to many consumers. One particular heinous example was when the Monroe Mapping Concern left a whole asteroid field off a map of Hadrian since they had promised exclusivity to a mining company. This led a number of politicians to lobby for increased oversight. It finally reached a tipping point with the Pallas incident. After discovering Pallas, Gaia Planet Services failed to properly scan the system before attempting to terraform Pallas III. Only then did they discover it was already occupied by the Xi’An, an unknown species at the time. Realizing regulations were needed to govern the charting of new systems, the Government Cartography Agency (GCA) was created in 2531.

Initially, the GCA was tasked with charting and scanning all new systems and ensuring that the most current geospatial information was available to the public. When Ivar Messer empowered himself as Imperator in 2546, he realized that the GCA was in a key position to control the knowledge of the known universe. Not long after he was sworn in, private mapmakers got word to shutter their operations. Mapmaking was nationalized, and the GCA renamed the Imperial Cartography Center.

Under Ivar Messer, an astronomical amount of credits was poured into the ICC. Companies with strong ties to the Messer regime received massive orders for top-of-the-line scanning equipment and were granted no-bid contracts to construct deep-space scanning stations. The ICC quickly embedded itself into a number of government agencies and organizations including, most importantly, the military. Deep-space scanning stations kept an eye on Perry Line systems and, eventually, helped monitor Vanduul clans on the western front. Without any private sector competition, the ICC became an essential agency and earned a degree of autonomy not afforded to other agencies under Messers’ rule.

Eventually, the ICC put that political independence to use. In 2715, three years after the fall of Orion to the Vanduul, Messer VIII ordered the system and all jumps to it removed from the UEE’s non-military maps for the public good. ICC Director Loretta De Biasio refused, claiming that it would be more dangerous for people in systems connected to Orion not to know exactly where a clan of Vanduul might suddenly appear.

The Imperator was infuriated by the ICC’s defiance and threatened to drastically slash the agency’s budget. But making matters worse for the Imperator, prominent members of the military came to De Biasio’s defense. Some even threatened to resign if she was fired or the agency’s budget struck with draconian cuts. There’s evidence that retaliatory measures were planned against De Biasio for her disobedience, but Messer VIII was stabbed to death in his bed before they were enacted.

And so, even though the ICC was long associated with the Messers, it survived their downfall. The agency had ingrained themselves too deeply into the fabric of the Empire to be discarded. It had also displayed enough independence to avoid the name change many other agencies received to erase associations with a darker time. Today, the ICC scans for jump points from their numerous stations, provides data to The Ark to keep the Starmap current, and much more.

Stellar Surveyors
The ICC is also home to one of the most prestigious scientific organizations – the Stellar Surveyors. This elite unit, composed of multi-talented individuals from both the public and private sector, are the first to visit and chart new systems after they are discovered. In the 29th century, their assessment of Stanton convinced politicians that it would be perfect for a system-wide business park. Recently, they discovered the Kabal System only to find abandoned Tevarin cities on Kabal III. They’ve also been up against their most difficult challenge ever – exploring and mapping the Tamsa System and the black hole at its center.

‘Charting the Way Ahead’ may be the motto of the Stellar Surveyors, but it’s also an appropriate maxim for the entire ICC. Whether standing up to the Messers or finding jump points that introduce the UEE to new worlds, the ICC clearly has its sights set on the future.

$window.resize(function () { windowHeight = $window.height(); }); $.fn.parallax = function(xpos, speedFactor, outerHeight) { var $this = $(this); var getHeight; var firstTop; var paddingTop = 0; //get the starting position of each element to have parallax applied to it $this.each(function(){ firstTop = $this.offset().top; }); if (outerHeight) { getHeight = function(jqo) { return jqo.outerHeight(true); }; } else { getHeight = function(jqo) { return jqo.height(); }; } // setup defaults if arguments aren’t specified if (arguments.length < 1 || xpos = null) xpos = "50%"; if (arguments.length < 2 || speedFactor = null) speedFactor = 0.1; if (arguments.length < 3 || outerHeight === null) outerHeight = true; // function to be called whenever the window is scrolled or resized function update(){ var pos = $window.scrollTop(); $this.each(function(){ var $element = $(this); var top = $element.offset().top; var height = getHeight($element); // Check if totally above or totally below viewport if (top + height < pos || top > pos + windowHeight) { return; } $this.css(‘backgroundPosition’, xpos + “ “ + Math.round((firstTop – pos) * speedFactor) + “px”); }); } $window.bind(‘scroll’, update).resize(update); update(); }; $(‘.parallax-1’).parallax(“50%”, 0.1, true); $(‘.parallax-2’).parallax(“50%”, 0.1, true); $(‘.parallax-3’).parallax(“50%”, 0.1, true); $(‘.parallax-4’).parallax(“50%”, 0.1, true); $(‘.parallax-5’).parallax(“50%”, 0.1, true); $(‘.parallax-6’).parallax(“50%”, 0.1, true); $(‘.parallax-7’).parallax(“50%”, 0.1, true); })(jQuery);