The Keeper-Pedia: The Keeper's Universe, #4

By Matthew Mangum

The Keeper-Pedia is a guide book to The Keeper's Universe. The Keeper's Universe is a rich diverse and ever evolving science fiction community of storytellers. This book contains the history of the galaxy as well as essential characters, ships and technology to understand and set stories of your own in the The Keeper's Universe. Learn more at keepersuniverse.blogspot.com

• Language: English
• Publisher: Matthew Mangum
• Release date: Sep 13, 2012
• ISBN: 9781301141234

Matthew Mangum

Matthew Mangum is just a regular guy with big dreams. He works full time in the broadcast and live event industry and writes during his morning commute on the train.

Book preview

The Keeper-Pedia

The Official Guidebook to The Keeper’s Universe

By: Matthew Mangum aka The Keeper

Copyright 2012 Matthew Mangum

Smashwords Edition

Selections by Drew Eckhardt, Selected illustrations by Ben McElroy, and Cory Dugger

Special Thanks to Jonelle Edwards and other members of The Keeper’s Universe Forum

Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1: History of the Galaxy

Chapter 2: Essential Planets

Chapter 3: People of the Galaxy

Chapter 4: Essential Ships and Vehicles

Chapter 5: Ground Vehicles

Chapter 6: Military Personal and Soldiers

Chapter 7: Weapons

Chapter 8: Essential Technology

Chapter 9: Publishing Stories in The Keeper’s Universe

Introduction

Hello there and welcome to a world of wonder and imagination known as The Keeper’s Universe. My name is Matthew Mangum; some just call me the Keeper. I am the omnipotent bard chronicling the glory and adventure of the galaxy at large, not to mention the heartaches, love stories, tragedies and happy endings. I welcome you to our universe and look forward to the additions that you will make to our ever expanding canon.

The point of this guide book to The Keeper’s Universe is to give you a place and back-story to drop your characters and story into. I recently ran into an old acquaintance of mine on the train coming home from work. He asked me how my book sales were going and mentioned that he too was writing a book, and had been working on it for five years. I thought that was great and asked him if he had a rough draft finished yet. He responded no, he hadn’t written any of the book yet; he was still developing the world. I was a little shocked, till I realized that I had spent over two years developing my universe and characters before I had begun drafting my first novel. Since that time fifteen years ago I have continued to develop the universe with the help of a number of people, maybe even you. The Keeper’s Universe has become such a rich and diverse science fiction universe that I believe it could stand up with the best of the competition.

As you tour The Keeper’s Universe through this guide book I hope that the worlds, characters, technology and history will inspire you to set your science fiction stories in our universe and help us continue to enrich and expand this universe. Again, welcome to The Keeper’s Universe!

Chapter 1

Section 1: Galactic History, from a Galactic Republic point of view

Hello there. My name is Brian Higgins, communication specialist with Guardian Force; The Galactic Republic’s elite starfighter combat team. I have been asked to give you a basic history lesson of the galaxy. History 101 if you will. I hear that you’re not much of a history buff and I have to fill you on three thousand years worth of history. I’ll do my best not to bore you.

Late in the 21st century an elderly woman named Jonelle Edwards completed her lifelong work. She perfected a hyperdrive, a device that allowed a ship to enter a dimension where it could travel faster than light. With pollution and over-population problems several major corporations sponsored the construction of six exploration vehicles. The ships with small crews were dispatched to six solar systems were planets were suspected to exist that could support life. Five of the ships met with success. The planets were dubbed Galantos, Kronsk, Balsavis, Deseret, and Pangea. Two of the explorers, Pahoran Hardy and Amos Parson’s became quiet famous and went on to discover many additional planets. They were always competing against each other to have discovered the most planets.

Within a few years colony ships were built and crewed. Mankind had spread beyond its cradle and found new homes. The exploration ships continued and with time found many other planets, as well as a few other groups of intelligent life, some capable of space travel, and others not. As there was no profit in sending colonists the ships were funded by governments as well as a few religious groups.

Late in the 22nd century the colonies lost contact with the home world of Earth. The last known news was that the world was locked in war and that nuclear weapons were being used. There had also been a message of the moon’s orbit becoming unstable. Once contact was lost ships were sent, but nothing was ever found. Christians decided that the second coming of Christ had happened. Some claimed that the nuclear war got so bad that earth was completely incinerated and others decided that some advanced alien race attacked and destroyed the home world of mankind. No matter what had happened the colonies were on their own.

A variety of governments ruled over each planet. Some had monarchies, some republics or democracies, Deseret had a theocracy, and Balsavis was governed under a socialist hierarchy. Over the course of a few hundred years most of the planets formed under two major galactic governments, the Galactic Republic, centered on Galantos, and the Socialist Alliance, centered on Balsavis.

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Over the next couple thousand years these empires would expand to approximately a hundred planets each. Exploration slowed as more than enough food and living space could provide for the entire human race. For the most part the two major governments ignored each other. Eventually their borders expanded and wars over territory and philosophies began to be fought.

Alright I can see you glazing over, that’s a very brief overview of a couple thousand years. I’m sure that there are lots of stories and more exciting things I can tell you about during the centuries of exploration, expansion and unification. But frankly I have the most fun with the history of the last 100 years or so. Let me tell you a bit about The Great War.

The Great War began when the Socialist Emperor Zarahemnah Zaragoza invaded the Galactic Republic. Republic intelligence was aware that an attack was coming but they did not know the target. The Socialists had been building up a massive fleet but kept the target very quiet. Republic Admiral Coglistio Boronaught along with aging General Moroni Monson quietly built up defenses along all of the border planets.

Then in a surprise move the massive Socialist forces attacked the Republic capital at Galantos. The defenses were crushed and resistance forces could never muster enough strength in one body to do any good before they too were destroyed. Every member of the President’s cabinet was killed along with senate leaders. A few senators escaped but the vast majority were rounded up and sent off to prison camps. All high ranking military officers on Galantos were also killed, General Monson among them. Admiral Boronaught managed to escape but Socialist forces were attacking many other Republic planets as well. There was not much of a fleet to retaliate with. Within a month Socialist forces occupied half of the Galactic Republic. At this point the Socialist forces began to be spread too thin to effectively control anymore territory. Two years passed somewhat uneventfully. The Socialists did their best to stamp out rebellions and the remaining Republic planets did what they