THE AGRICOLANS
Unfortunately, I can't draw. I especially can't draw in ASCII, so I can't
transfer the little sketch of an Agricolan to the list. My conception of
the Agricolans is that they are four limbed, with a long heavy tail which
includes a vertical fin structure. Their feet are webbed and provide most
of their water propulsion, with the tail used for steering. The forelimbs
each have a hand with four relatively delicate fingers. The skin is
smooth, and a mottled dark gray/green on top, shading to a fairly light
gray below. This provides camouflage from above and below. I suppose that
camouflage from above would be an evolutionary advantage if the Agricolans
or their ancestors were hunted by flying creatures, and camouflage from
below is an advantage to any hunter swimming near the surface looking for
prey beneath it. The sensory organs are fairly conventional, and located
at the front of the head. (Should they have a sonar sense?) Buoyancy is
maintained by a swim bladder in the torso, which is interconnected with the
lungs, but which can be controlled separately. In pregnant females in the
later stages of pregnancy the swim bladder is compressed by the fetus so
that the female Agricolan cannot float. The overall visual impression of
an Agricolan would be something like a dolphin with tyrannosaur-like limbs.
I should mention that breathing is done through a blowhole on top of the
head, like a dolphin's.
The traditional weapons of the Agricolans include spears and tridents,
nets, knives and blow guns. Most other Earth-type primitive weaponry would
not be usable under water. An Agricolan blowgun is a rather odd looking
piece of equipment to human eyes, since it is powered by an expulsion of
air through the blow hole, above and behind the Agricolan's eyes.
"Wind Cap"/\-------------< Muzzle of blow gun
___/__\__
/ o \ Head of Agricolan
_________)
/
The "wind cap", the curved part fitting over the blow hole, is shown here
larger than scale. Due to the necessity of the curved shape, a blow gun
either has to be muzzle loading, or break apart just forward of the wind
cap in order to be insert the dart. Both solutions have been used at
various times. A sight is usually installed on the bottom of the tube.
Agricolan designed vehicles would take advantage of Agricolan locomotion
patterns. Thus, an Agricolan chair would hold an Agricolan in a prone
position, with the sensory apparatus and hands at the front covering minor
controls, the legs and feet controlling the throttle(s), and the tail
fitting into a steering fixture. Two humans could probably work an Agrico-
lan control chair, since a stretched out Agricolan is about 2.8 meters
long. One would have to work the steering and the other the forward con-
trols. I can see this coming up in an annoying way in an adventure, which
is why I mention it.
That's about all I've figured out about the Agricolans so far. Anyone who
would like to suggest how their psychology is influenced by their semi-
aquatic lifestyle is welcome to do so...
OTHER FEATURES OF THE GAMBA SUBSECTOR:
I still am visualizing the Gamba subsector as being fairly isolated, with
no real external threats. As a result, I would expect Imperial armed
forces units to be primarily used for peace-keeping and emergency response
activities, and to be maintainable with local resources. I won't post the
design today, but using book 2 you could have a 1000 ton TL13 patrol ship
with 3-G maneuver and Jump-3, plus six pinnaces and 60 troops.
So, I came up with the following:
There are *2* Naval Bases, at Forqueray and Galliard.
3 Imperial Navy squadrons are stationed in the subsector, two of which
have the above mentioned 1000 ton patrollers (one squadron of 6 at Gal-
liard, and one of 7 at Forqueray), and one of which is a light escort
squadron with 12 Type T patrol cruisers, officially based at Forqueray, but
usually patrolling the class A and B starports in pairs, with a flight of 4
almost always at Lassus. In the event of a major outbreak of piracy, or an
interplanetary war beyond the ability of these forces to handle, additional
ships could be brought from an adjacent subsector (to be determined if
necessary, when necessary). If we decide to use the Adriano incident, a
large temporary Imperial force might be present there. I think the piracy
threat would be pretty low, personally, since none of the systems is really
lawless and high tech enough to be a good haven for space pirates. "Claim
jumping" in the asteroid mining systems might be a problem, though...
There are *9* Scout bases:
Violone: anthropology, semi-interdiction
Pavane: anthropology
Madrigal: communication
Treble: emergency
Bass: system survey
Bach: communication
Weelkes: repair/support
Pardessus: emergency now, but repair/support under construction
Baldwyn: communication
I'd figure that one Imperial marine regiment would be enough, so they'll be
based at Forqueray with the naval headquarters, such as it is. They're
probably equipped at TL13 using locally produced gear (from Lassus), since
that's enough of an advantage over the local planetary armies. They've
also probably got a high number (for color)--I wrote them down as the
986th.
I've never been very comfortable with the entire idea of an Imperial army,
but if there is any major Imperial army presence, it is probably centered
on Weelkes, and equipped at TL10. Definitely third or fourth line...
Mercenaries would probably be fairly scarce, too. The main use of merce-
naries, as I read it, are on balkanized planets, and with Canzona being a
mere TL3, and Agricola inhabited by aliens, I doubt that there is much
demand. Such mercenaries as there are probably mostly from Weelkes, and
equipped at TL10. (Conveniently, I've got a lot of TL10 military equipment
for MegaTraveller, if I were to decide to do something along those lines.)
I suppose that the Madrigalans might have a large standing army, more for
internal security than anything else, and that it might ship units out to
other systems for practice, but moving TL6 military gear around doesn't
seem very likely to be cost effective. Counter examples and opinions are
welcome.
I've already mentioned that there were no psionics institutes when I rolled
the original stats, but if you accept the Gannon hypothesis as laid down a
while back in Challenge, you might find a few isolated psionic practition-
ers on Violone and/or Susato.
Rob Dean
Keep those discussions going...