Spickle Industrial Outposts and Colonies:
The Spickles are industrious and overpopulated, and have been for the entirety of their interstellar presence. They were discovered by the Neemons and quickly collaborated with them to start mining operations in distant star systems. The Spickles were already adept at offworld industry, having fully settled eight rocky planets within their home system, but lacked the ability to reach other stars. The Neemons didn't give their FTL technology to the Spickles fully, but did give them information with which to create Outpost Barges (Above) that the Neemons could tow to destination with their triangular Tractor Ships. (Below). The Spickles would defend themselves with their own hefty, gap-armored Frigates (Below). The Neemons never had a large enough fleet to guard the Spickle outposts themselves, despite their energy-shielded ships being functionally invincible for the era. The Spickles appreciated the Neemons' help, but over time resented how much the Neemons guarded their FTL and Electron Shielding technology.
Shuttles and Dropships:
The Spickles were quick to build settlements to which they could offshore their massive and growing population. They had effective VTOL Shuttles, which were used to move sensitive cargo and ferry specialist personnel, but the brunt of the Spickles and material were deployed with the Dropships. The Dropships were massive gliders that would be towed to the system they would be settling, and would be carefully landed in the ocean and taken to a shore to be disassembled.
The Dropships contained construction airships, trucks, and seeds, and the majority of the ship could be reassembled into
1. Administrative Building.
2. Apartment Building.
3. Depot.
4. x2 Factory Buildings.
5. Security Building.
6. Hospital Building.
7. Orbital Comm Building.
8. Outpost Building.
Flying Houses:
The Spickles promoted the settlement and exploration of the planets they colonized by loaning adventurous Spickles "Flying Houses". These were lightweight airplanes that could be disassembled and reassembled into an electric windmill, a truck, a wagon, and a two story frontier house.
The pilots of these Flying Houses would be allowed to fly out across the continents of planets to stake a section of land that they would own and develop. They were given a pair of markers with which they could stake a square of territory. The markers could only be activated after the plane had been broken down. This was to prevent settlers from flying from one end of a continent to the other and grabbing the whole thing. Instead they could only stake as far as they could drive in two directions from their house.
An issue with that system was that the satellite that recorded the claims could only document them when its orbit went over them. This meant that it was easy for claims to be recorded as "simultaneous" despite one being made several hours after the other. This resulted in frequent, enraging "ties" that started land feuds that often turned petty or violent.
If two claims overlapped, the first one that got recorded got its whole square. If the claims were recorded simultaneously, they each got an equal triangle of the overlapping section.
After about five years, the system upgraded to a fleet of 8 satellites so that the coverage was constant and ties only happened if the claims were staked less than a second apart. Despite the small window during which this problem was common, it can be felt all the way into the modern day, with many of these land feuds being passed down through generations without softening.
Another oddity of the Spickle colonization system is the Indigenous Sapients rules. The second Neemon Administrateur d'Spickle, Rolmenne, was concerned about how quickly and aggressively the Spickles were able to settle habitable planets. He wanted to prevent the Spickles from endangering sapient species that might have been overlooked when surveying planets, and ordered laws to allow settlements to be withdrawn if intelligent life was discovered late. Along with stricter and thorougher surveying guidelines, the Spickles and Neemons also created the Withdrawal Fund to compensate settlers that might be forced to abandon their claims, and to reward them well enough to outweigh the possibility of a xenocidal cover-up from happening if settlers discovered indigenous sapients on their property.
These laws have been considered successful, though they have only had to pay out three and a half times. The "half" being when the then-mostly-subterranean Telos were temporarily colonized for a few months. It was later revealed that the surveyor company had colluded with the small party of colonists to overlook the Telos' presence to quickly mine a valuable exoasteroid before deceiving the government into paying withdrawal money. The surveyors, colonists, and attached mob elements were all arrested.
An unserious consequence of the laws has been "Crawler Evidence". A phenomenon frequently mocked by most Spickles, as well as other species, in which Spickle settlers disappointed with the land they claimed have attempted to con the government into bailing them out by presenting "evidence" of secretive, sapient creatures on their property. This has never been successful in tricking the government, but some "Crawler Catchers" have made careers out of delusionally and/or entertainingly commiting to the bit and showing off "footprints" and "tools" of dubious authenticity.
