STGOD 2k7: Dead Artist's Society OOB.

[Bugsby]

The Oberin Imperiate

The Oberin Imperiate is one of the more ancient races of the galaxy. Hailing from the planet Ober, the Oberin found themselves surrounded early in their history by two gigantic neighboring space empires, caught squarely in the middle. With these two empires ever at war, it was only a matter of time before Ober was absorbed into one empire or the other.

Yet skilled leadership on the part of the rulers of Ober saved the race from being swallowed in the tides of fate. Cunning diplomacy kept Ober always a step away from the maneuverings of both empires, and for thousands of years, Ober danced a dangerous dance to maintain its autonomy.

After millenia, the two great empires collapsed, as great empires are wont to do. Ober suddenly found itself as the only healthy government in the sector. The Oberin Emperor selected a few very rich and very frightened planets in nearby systems to receive offers of friendship and mutual protection in these dark times. These planets, now devoid of their previous protections, accepted the offer of the Oberin Emperor graciously. Somehow, over time, these planets became less like allied nations and more like vassals, and were eventually consumed entirely by Ober, which now referred to itself as the Oberin Imperiate. Throughout this entire process, however, no actions by the Oberin were ever observed, and it is largely assumed that the weaker nations intentionally surrendered their autonomy to Ober in order to gain the favor of the last strong interplanetary power in that sector of space.

Since this time, there has always been a militant faction within Oberin thought, claiming that the Oberin should rule all the space once occupied by the two great empires, by right of conquest, or at least right of survival. Extremists say the entire galaxy should belong to the Oberin. But these factions are marginalized. After having seen first-hand the fate that befalls the overly ambitious, the vast majority of Oberin feel no need to go grasping for more than is their due. They are content to maintain a strong regional power.

Throughout their entire history, the Oberin have maintained a pristine reputation.


Physiology

The Oberin look completely human, but are not human at all. They evolved along a completely different path, yet one that still resulted in a human form - a truly remarkable case of convergent evolution. When the Oberin first made contact with humanity, this caused a great upcry. Scientists yearned to study Oberin history and physiology, while theologians decreed that this was further evidence that the human form was sacred. Citing Genesis, some believe that the Oberin are God's chosen along with humanity, since they are clearly created in God's image as well. This religious ideal exists only among some humans, not the Oberin.

Despite the remarkable similarities, the Oberin's human resemblance is only skin deep. They have a very different and quite odd internal physiology. They eat different foods, although they can survive on human food, and vice versa. It is a very odd experience to shake the hand of an Oberin. One can feel the different structure inside the Oberin hand, while on the outside it looks no different than any other human hand. Sex between human and Oberin is possible, although no children can come of the union.


Government

Regional politics are run democratically. The Imperiate itself is a hereditary monarchy, with a dynasty extending back to the ancient history of the Imperiate. Through the regional democracy, people rightly feel that their day-to-day lives are within their own control. Yet the course of the Imperiate as a whole is determined by the will of the monarchs. There is very little anti-monarchist sentiment amongst the Oberins, as the rule of House Artelme has proven to be both wise and kind. All oaths are sworn to the Imperator.

Holdings

Ober
5 other worlds (more on this if I feel like it)


Ships
All Oberin ships are fairly balanced in construction, with armaments consisting mainly of missiles and plasma blasters. Defenses are shield-heavy with very little armor plating, with advanced point-defense systems to ward off hostile mass. Oberin military ships do not use artificial gravity, although civilian ships often do.

Aeterna-class dreadnaught - 50 points
Memoriam-class battle cruiser - 25 points
Requiem-class cruiser- 15 points
Lux-class light cruiser - 8 points
Mater-class carrier - 10 points
Pax-class frigate - 4 points
Mortis-class destroyer - 1 point


Point Dispersal

Intelligence - 150 pts
Counterintel - 100 pts
Planetary defense - 140 pts (20 for each of the five "other" worlds, 40 for Oberin)
3 Aeternas - 150 pts
8 Memoriams - 200 pts
10 Requiems - 150 pts
20 Luxes - 160 pts
20 Maters - 200 pts
40 Paxes - 160 pts
90 Mortises - 90 pts

[brianeyci]

Mission Recorder, Multinational Expeditionary Force
Confiscated shortly after the loss of the entire expedition by Reskye Judicators

This is the final entry of Colonel John J. Raynor, of the United Nations Expeditionary Force. General Korolev is dead, and I have command. Should this diary entry ever reach Earth, please contact my wife and tell her I love her. They've breached all nine security doors. They're at the final checkpoint. God, we've led these kids to their deaths.

The Reskye are parasitic aliens bent on galactic domination. I won't bore you with the details. Think space slugs with delusions of grandeur. As far as we can tell, they've only infested one species so far, ape-like trogdolytes twice the mass of a human with one hell of a left jab. Their soldiers wear powered armor, just like our troopers, and their military's familiar with biological, chemical, nuclear and psychological warfare.

As far as we can tell, their starfleet is seven gargantuan... warships, and their support vessels. Eddy's named them Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, Uriel, Raguel, Zerachiel and Remiel. Each one of them's equipped with devastatingly simple kinetic kill weapons and laser point defenses. The warships are compartmentalized, powered through unconventional means our tech can't wrap his head around, and armored with something that can take a five hundred megajoule particle beam without a scratch. You won't believe me but they're... they're man shaped, like huge men in space with arms, legs and a head. Not the Reskye, the fucking ships themselves. The arms, the legs, the head can move. Eddy thinks they might be living creatures.

That's the last of my rifles. If this ever gets to Earth, I give my strongest recommendation that the Secretary General send a military expeditionary force to destroy the Reskye before they enslave any other species. What they did to Paul... is unspeakable.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil: For thou art with me;

BAM!

7 Unidentified Flying Objects, "Archangels" (7x50 = 350)
Electronic Warfare
Mass Drivers
Laser Point Defense
Torture Chambers
Forced Birth Incubators
Psychological Screening Rooms
Planetary Siege Equipment
Parasite Craft
Symbol of Total Humanoid Domination

250 Elite Infiltration Units (250 External Security)
Biologists, Sociologists, Sexual Specialists, Cultural Definers, Psychologists, Military Subversion, Political Corruption.

100 Special Police Units (100 Internal Security)
Concentration camps, Political Monitoring, Religious Indoctrination, Public Execution, Propaganda, Informants, Turn Spies, Maintain Cult of Personality.

100 Planetary Defense Emplacements (100 Homeworld Defense)
Praetorian Guardsmen
Geothermal Powered Particle Beams
Five hundred kilometer bunkers
Self-destruct devices
Planetary Reserve Batteries
Planetary Reserve Food Storage
Chamber of the High God

(Total: 800 Point Empire)

[Spyder]

The Starborn

(note: The character or crew of the vessel you are communicating with probably has no idea who the Starborn are, except where explicitly stated otherwise)

"All life in the universe comes from the energy of stars. It is our responsibility as sentient beings to tame the energy of the universe and make it our own."

Believing themselves to be the true masters of the Universe, the Starborn are willing to commit to any action neccessary to establish their legacy.

The Starborn are largely isolationist, all dealings with the outside universe take place through a series of proxies. Three are of particular relevance:

Starborn Open Corps
- Representatives of the strategic interests of the Starborn. This entity will communicate and liase with other governments on a national level.

The Energy Syndicate
- Responsible for maintaining the flow of energy into the Starborn. Direct processes include power generation, mining and stellar harvesting. The Energy Syndicate is also broadly responsible for much of The Starborn's scientific progress since inception. Advances attributed to Syndicate technology include advances in cultivation, communication, space travel, robotics, cybernetics, miniaturisation, planetary ecology, medical technology and many others.

The Energy Syndicyte is the force behind the Starborn's decentralised infrastructure. This is made possible through economic forces between the various nations.

The Nova Mercenary Guild
- Something of an enigma in military circles. These "mercenaries" behave the way their name suggests some of the time, at other times they display a peculiar loyalty to their primary sponsor.

Ships (Nova Mercenaries)

Kensei 3 (1 combat + 1 speed + 1 range)
Total in service: 30
90

Phantasm 9 (5 combat + 2 speed + 2 cloak)
Total in service: 10
90

Mercury 20 (15 combat + 3 range + 2 speed)
Total in service: 10
200

Praetorian 30 (25 combat (with fighters) + 5 EW)
Total in service: 5
150

Olympian 90 (70 combat + 10 speed + 10 range)
Total in service: 8
720

Extras

Spy network
50
It's not the size of your spy network that counts...

Ethically dubious warfare
50
Direct military applications for some of the advances forwarded by the Energy Syndicyte's science wing, includes biological and genetic warfare.

Hidden Infrastructure
50
The Starborn are able to maintain a level of control over a decentralised power base making it easier to keep certain activities away form prying eyes. Being highly reclusive with closed borders helps too.

Defenses

Planetary Defensive Matrix
60
Light defenses designed to assist the fleet in defending the Starborn Capital.

Nova Academy Defensive Matrix
40
Defenses for Nova's top training facility and shipyard.

[Covenant]

Cretacean Confederacy
(Kre-Tay-Shun)

Summary

A confederation of Dinosaur species who fled the solar system after political strife and the KT event ended the age of Dinosaurs. Now they're back.

Member Species

A variety of differentiated Dinosaur species that escaped the final destruction of their kind comprise the Cretacean Confederacy races, most with their own subcultures. It is primarily the small predatory breeds that successfully made the evolutionary leap to intelligence, and having thumbs helped, but some of the smaller and more mobile breeds of herbivores survived long enough to develop complex social behavior.

The larger predators retained only a dim intelligence until the Age of Science, when it became possible to break difficult concepts down into brightly colored moving images that were more easily interpreted, and became the group with the largest percentage eager to enter into educational programs. Large sauropods never received the directed educational chance of the large predators, and mostly remain as unfortunate cattle species. Exceptions exist, such as Admiral Catton, a Triceratops.

Notable Families:

These are by no means the only families, but the most well represented and the most likely to be encountered. Sadly, many breeds did not survive the long years of war until the KT Event, or have large enough population concentrations off of Earth, and are completely lost.

Troodontidae: The most common and most successful of all modern Dinosaurs are the Troodon breeds, and the one that can most closely trace it’s evolution to a single species, Troodon formosus. They are agile and intelligent omnivores weighing in at around 60 kilos, and have the greatest brain-to-mass ratio of all Dinosaur species, and were among the first to discover the process of Uranium enrichment.

Dromaeosauridae: Best known as the family of Raptors, these are prolific and surprisingly unsuccessful predators best known for being members of internal security forces. Many of their kind died out before the cataclysm, and many more were easily swayed into falling into dogmatism, failing to join the winning side early enough to appear in any great numbers in the fleet. Those that survived ranged in size between the spastic Velociraptors and the thuggish Utahraptors. They have a distinguished service record in infantry units, but comprise the overwhelming majority of law enforcement positions.

Hadrosauridae: A variety of duckbilled dinosaurs, as the most common and successful of their kind and the most highly developed brains of nearly any herbivore. Their complex front hands also made them extremely successful, as well as their diet, which allows them to subsist on plants rather than fast food. They are extremely good at card games, as they have thumbs and excellent poker faces, which Tyrannosaur do not.

Tyrannosauridae: Modern breeds of tyrannosaurid comprise a significant portion of the armed services, serving well in all branches thanks to their rugged frames and binocular vision, as well as a devil-may-care attitude. Tyrannosaur populations are recovering from an obesity epidemic that had kept them from making the public impact they once had, and are returning to public prominence. Your average 4,000 kilogram Tyrannosaur breed is considered ‘fit’ by modern health standards, with a Rex massing in at 6,000.

Pteranodontidae: The Pterosaurs are the largest flying vertebrates to have evolved on Earth before the cataclysm, and distinguished themselves as extremely beneficial in service, primarily as infantry scouts but also as navigators, where their frail bodies did not hamper their three dimensional thinking.

Note: Though not true Dinosaurs, the Pteradons were clung onto by Dinosaur society for their usefulness, and many of them found their way into the Space service prior to the cataclysm on Earth, and have thus become quite common relative to their original numbers because such a large percentage of the original refugee colonists were servicesaurs.


History

The defining moment in the age of Dinosaurs was how it ended. Nations that had endured long periods of relative peace were rocked by the explosive growth of an evangelizing faith opposed to the Out Of Earth political movement. The pendulum of Dinosauria society had long since swung into secularism, and the return stroke was just as deep, creating rifts in societies that coincided with the rapidly changing environment and the first step in 'Ascension' to a higher form being claimed by a splinter group of fundamentalists that had started the process of developing feathers. These went mostly ignored and unchallenged by the various traditionalists and conservatives, however, with the intellectual left still focused on the major scientific endeavors of the day.

The Out Of Earth movement was focused primarily on expanding the sphere of influence past Earth and into space, and with the colonization of Mars they achieved their first major success. It gained headway after the discovery of unusually reactive isotopes dissolved into the carbon-rich seas that would be extremely lucrative to extending the range of further spaceflight as well as softening a looming potential energy crisis caused by the depletion of the main oil and coal reserves.

Dissent brewed among the uneducated, however, as the high costs and selective choice of colonists required sacrifices across the board that were most pointedly felt by lower class even as the benefits of their sacrifice went elsewhere. Riding this wave of discontent, moderate religious groups began springing up, with emphasis on family and community values that resonated with the disenfranchised poor. A political shift began, and the great union of nations began to splinter as support for combined efforts shrank in the face of a faith-based pushed for domestic interest. The Mars colony, cut off from the main source of political legitimacy, became mostly a workforce for the energy companies with small pockets of financially beneficial research subsidizing the greater goal.

The collapse of multinational support led to a greater balkanization of nations and ethnic groups, fueled by the very religion that had promised such great changes. As communities fractured, so did interpretations of faith, and soon many different beliefs waged quiet battles of faith and fundraising to throw their truth into the public square. These occasionally flared into violence as some groups grew at the expense of others, sometimes using intimidation and political influence to segregate or eliminate members of rival interpretations. Mars was greatly unaffected by these changes, and quietly built on its own infrastructure until the completion of viable fusion power using Martian catalysts. Contact with Earth was now viable on a massively inflated rate, rather than stopping off at the moon, a chokehold that had allowed Earth to greatly control the flow of goods and services, and ideas, between the two planets.

It was not long before the ideological rift went from cold to hot, as Martian trade not only became common but necessary, as Fusion provided a lifeline to prosperity that faith had not. Tensions flared as they do in situations where the flow of energy is beholden to one nation, and the breaking point amidst increasing political pressure was a movement for Martian independence.

Mars responded quickly to a correctly perceived bias against them across Earth as ideologically inferior by arming their fusion-powered energy transports, and used this surprise advantage by quickly defeating Earth's orbital weapon platforms in a war that lasted a mere four days. Without a means of suppressive attack and under threat of orbital bombardment, the many fractured nations of Earth began recognizing Mars as an independent power, with a few notable holdouts, such as Surmaria on the northern coast of the Tethys Sea, in what would become central India, and the four major states of Diplotica, Nychia, Stegosis and Cricop seen here in a map of the North American continent. These nations comprised a group known as the "Block of Four."



Notable detractors were the Tyrannosaur controlled regions of Juris against the coast of the inland seachannel, which had enough political and military power in the region to have long refused outside influence. This would become a flashpoint for conflict, as what started as a border dispute became an overwhelming attack from all fronts against Juris by the Block of Four, during which Mars broke from it's policy of non-intervention and deployed forces to the surface to slow the advance of the aggressors. The overwhelming scientific advantage of Martian military units did not become clear until these conflicts, where fusion-powered warships easily threw back wave after wave of enemy forces, and swept through into the Block of Four's territory, crippling most of Cricop, seen in blue, in a daring march to the sea by Shermanius Rex. As Martian forces withdrew, evacuating most of Juris via fusion orbiters, they also struck the lunar refueling base, a civilian operation run by The Most Noble Order of Fie, a faith-based energy consortium owned by the moderate theocratic nation of Fiest. The strike forced Earth warships to remain behind as the Martian force withdrew past orbital fighter range.

Retaliation against Mars was swift and direct, with a rare agreement among all faiths that this latest attack was directed not only at their finances, but their way of life itself. The turn could not have happened at a worse moment in history either, as the monitoring stations on Mars were nearly all turned towards Earth, and only caught briefly a glimpse of a rogue planetoid that would be dubbed 'Nemesis.' It was easily half as large as Mars and traveling along with an oort mass of cometoids, computations put it on a direct line for Earth. Martian forces pleaded for peace in the face of such a threat, but at first it was seen as merely a trick, and then only much later as a sign from their creator that the End of Days was nigh. Reactions different amongst theological divides, and only a few believed it to be anything other than a form of divine retribution.

Mars withdrew from the conflicts, and pulled back behind its planetary defense net, deploying their fleet against the Nemesis object in an attempt to divert it, or cut it down to size. The fleet moved to position and began bombarding the planetary mass, ripping off the outer layers in a sustained bombing campaign the likes of which had never seen military application. In a surprise strike using an unconventional and surprisingly advanced prototype cloaking ship, Earth blew a hole in Martian defenses, and interplanetary missiles began streaming down into the colony’s surface.

The planetary shield, which was built directly into the core of the planet, began to fail under the heavy bombardment of nuclear attacks. Once it crumbled and collapsed inwards, the ships were joined by the majority of the Earth fleet, having traveled to Mars in a last ditch attempt to purge the Evil and avert destruction at the hands of an angry God. So great was the firepower used that the surface of Mars was cleaved as it rotated, digging a massive gash into it known as the Great Rift—or the Mariner Valley on human maps. The collapsing planetary shield rebounded off the core, canceling much of its spin, and triggering a wave of volcanic activity that would completely destroy much of the remaining colony complex that had been built around the Geothermal power centers of the Tharsis region of Mars.

The Martian fleet, realizing they had been stabbed in the back, abandoned the Nemesis mission to attempt an evacuation of Mars if there were any survivors to rescue at all. The planetoid’s mass had been altered greatly by the attacks, but a large fraction of it’s bulk had not been fully demolished, and was unstable. The trajectory of the Nemesis object was altered enough to miss Earth by a comfortable margin, but as the Martian fleet forced back the Earth raiders, a ten kilometer sliver of rock broke from the mass, tugged by the gravity of Mars into a path with Earth.

The Martian forces made no attempt to intercept, and the Earth fleets began to break up into small national forces once more as their plan seemed doomed, and morale fell apart completely in the face of a no last-ditch salvation. The asteroidal mass slammed down into the sea south of Nychia, and the resulting climatic cataclysm—along with a devastated infrastructure, mass panic, and complete cessation of any support from Mars (the planned invasion of Mars never having taken place) spelled an end to the reign of Dinosaurs.

The forces of Earth remained, though headless and crazed, so there was no place safe within reach of sublight drives. The Martian fleet and those few that remained fled the solar system, setting their sights on a distant world that appeared to have a theoretically Earthlike environment. It would take years to arrive, and many more to begin squeezing a meager existence from their new society. It was founded on the ideals that the original scientists and explorers had kept dear when they founded Mars, and great pains were taken to defend against the evils of both an overly-centralized state and a disenfranchised uneducated lower class. A strange hybrid egalitarian meritocracy was born, and many independent groups were formed under an article of confederation, creating a caste system that was arranged neatly horizontal rather than vertical.

Now, the vastness of time later, Dinosaur society is greatly changed, as the old war that left them banished from their home nearly completely forgotten to myth. The remembrance of Earth remains, however, and a mighty host is sent to rediscover and retake the world if it can be retaken. Much romanticism has been breathed into the subject, and those who embark on the quest are as much adventurers and athletes to their people as they are soldiers, and as no war has been seen amongst their people since the day they fled, the perception is rampant that no matter what happens it will be quite interesting to watch.

Government

The preferred form of Dinosaur representation is a rough analog to the Icelandic "Thing" where a meeting place is designated and representatives meet to discuss legislation. Often times this is planned to coincide with an entertainment event or festival, to make sure that the business of meeting is done in good spirits, and to encourage many to attend and is one of the largest social gatherings for many small communities. It is a court concerned with the creation as well as the carrying out of law, and there are several hierarchies that follow up to a national scale. Officers of the court are elected or appointed, depending on the manner of local Government, but all Things of a jurisdiction city size or larger are elected by representatives of the lower Things, and thus comprise a form of republican representation.

The "All-Thing" or a thing for all the Things, is a court that presides over all courts, to give an impartial as well as final estimation of any dispute, serves as a unicameral house of parliament made up of representatives from the ten major colonies as superior members and the smaller colonies, large city-states or popular sports organizations serving as interim members chosen by several means and awarded rotating seats on the government. There are also several appointees, and it is common practice to appoint the previous Speaker out of respect for their service. The articles of confederation assured each planet their own jurisdictional sovereignty, but matters that are brought before a Thing are elevated to that level of precedence, so issues that are brought before an Allthing impact all nations equally, mirroring the role of a Supreme Court in deciding what is and is not within the scope of their articles.

Religion

Faiths are generally discouraged though not technically illegal. The societal structure makes it difficult for an irrational belief structure to take hold, as there is no priest caste, and any attempt to sell faith in order for it to be a business would be considered false advertising and illegal. Personal belief systems beyond ethics are a matter of personal interpretation, but as eggs are raised communally rather than individually it is difficult to pass these on to the young.


Terratories

The Cretacean Confederacy maintains a network of seventeen colonies, one which is the original colony and serves as a capitol world, having little of its own industry and population. Another ten are designated Superior members of the parliament due to their high concentrations of population and form the permanent members. These encompass a wide swath of space within a galactic bubble of empty space. While seemingly not ideal, Dinosaur FTL technology was thus that a bubble of empty space was easier to cross than a tightly packed star cluster, and so it was chosen at the time for utilitarian reasons. A large number of several dozen minor operations around gas giants, asteroid bases and small research outposts branch outwards along easily traversable hyperspace corridors.

Cretacean worlds are generally hot, tectonically active planets covered in lush jungles. Cities are built vertically underground, as the first colonies were designed to defend against theoretical vengeance attacks from Earth, and the impetus for seclusion never faded. Their defensive technology of choice is a much improved version of the Mars planetary shield, offering heavy defense against asteroidal impacts or the occasional exploration vessel while not raising their visibility from space. The list of colonies is as follows:

Capitol: Sanctuary, the first colony. Sanctuary is not given a proper name, as it is considered non-national territory.

Ten Superior Colonies: Juris, Lias, Dogger, Malm, Cret, Meso, Trias, Permia, Ceno, Zoic. Besides Juris, named in honor of the Tyrannosaur lands that aided the Martian cause, these are named after the founders of the colonies.

Outposts are not named, as they are rarely more than a bunker with some small colony branching and a landing pad for small starships such as Aurora to refuel at.

Weaponry and Technology

The technology used by the Cretacean armed services is highly advanced, but a great deal of it is designed around the concept of refinement over experimentation. New weaponry technology is treated with suspicion, as it is often untested and difficult to adapt with, and adaptability is the hallmark of Cretacean society. What they use represents battle-tested reliability and flexibility, with just a bit of flash.

Cold Fusion: While a variety of the larger ships in the Cretacean fleet use hot nuclear reactor piles to fuel their ships, a wide variety of their craft are cold blooded. Fusion without heat was an experiment of the Martian fleet back during the pre-cataclysm era, and has been tinkered with ever since. Cold Fusion allows for small ships to run extremely low on the thermal scale, making a mass-use of cloaking more feasible. Because of the power limitations, however, cold fusion powered ships rarely maintain large beam arrays and cannot generate the reactive heat necessary to fuel a magma chamber. Cold fusion has a minimum size requirement, unfortunately, as not all technical limitations have been overcome. Sandstorm, Meteor and Aurora class vessels are notable for their exclusive use of Cold Fusion.

Beams: A variety of hybrid laser-pumped particle beams find their way onto most ships, which have flow regulators that allow the weapon’s gear to be changed, shifting it from particle to photonic beam, but generally remaining as a mix of the two. Beam turrets are often few in number, with even the largest ships only having a handful, as the limiting factor is not the number of cannons but reactor power. These comprise the largest variety of secondary weapons in the fleet.

Magma Cannon: These are kinetic kill weapons that fire hot projectiles. Otherwise known as a Slag gun due to the semi-liquid jets they fire, the highly visible thermal bloom caused by a Magma cannon system requires that are only used on ships without a cloak. A mix of viscous magnesium and metal is held in a magma chamber near the atomic pile where it is heated until it is nearly waterlike in fluidity. It is fed via pressure into ejection chambers and shot into space as an explosively formed hot penetrator. Because space has such poor heat transferrance characteristics the slag can remain hot for an extremely long time, and can cause a great deal of havoc when velocities are varied to create a hail of deadly slivers that blind thermal sensors, confuse missiles and cause great damage on impact. Even shields are not a perfect defense, as splattering slag creates shrapnel-like shards that can cut through fleet formations.

Combat Drones: The favored method of attack is an automated attack drone, a programmed kill vehicle equipped with a small weapon suite and a limited amount of fuel. They are designed to be intercept-capable, but their primary method of attack is a suicide run in which their fuel is used as extra explosive. They are too small for bottled cold fusion though, so they utilize a nuclear-pumped forcefield bomb known as a Ship Cavitating Charge. This is similar to the warhead used on the Aggressive Terraforming Munition, but vastly different in scale and much faster.

Spatial Cloak: Originally developed by the theocracies of Earth in response to Martian independence, the Spatial Cloak has been in service by the Cretacean Confederacy since its inception, when captured vessels were used to help evacuate Mars. The Spatial Cloak operates differently than a visual cloak in that it partially submerges the ship into Hyperspace, making it more of a reapplication of existing technology than an entirely new use. However, only small ships are able to successfully keep such a halfway status, as the power costs for larger vessels to exercise FTL speeds increases geometrically. Thermal bloom is still a serious issue though, as any particle that intersects with the ship will retain some of the ship’s heat and become easily visible once it has passed through the hyperspace bubble. For this reason, only ships capable of utilizing Cold Fusion power sources are engineered with the Spatial Cloak manifold.

Forcefields: Shielding technology is relatively uncommon in Cretacean fleets even though many applications of forcefield technology are used. This is due to the method in which their forcefield technology functions, in which a rapidly spinning core of a supermassive element is heated to superconductivity and a current is passed through the center. This creates a spinning spherical forcefield bubble, which unfortunately reacts poorly with another bubble, and so ships must either be designed to fit within the size of their shield or go without. Most vessels forgo the difficulty of a shield and layer more thickly with armor, but this same process allows for extremely small shield generators to be used at a much smaller scale. Because of this, forcefield weapons and personal shields for ground troops are common while capitol scale shields are not.
+25 Ground Combat Adjustment

Buster Beam: The “Buster” beam, which was originally termed a Planetbuster Beam, is more technically known as a Tachyon Decelerator. A long corridor of forcefield generators along with a massive fusion-powered hyperspace tachyon emitter allows for a coherent beam of faster than light particles to be emitted and slowed below hyperspace speeds. The resulting emission of energy can be controlled via a series of forcefield chokes equal to the length of the beam array, which is very large in the case of a Tharsis class, the only ship that carries such a weapon as standard. While it did not perform its original intent, which was to rip the Nemesis planetoid into neat pieces, the choke allowed it to be deployed in multiple ways as an anti-ship device. At the tightest setting, it can be used as a massive scalpel to carve up a target with microscopic fineness, or opened up and used as a blasting torch to clear out entire corridors of enemy ships.

'Metal Gear' Powersuit: Nicknamed the "Metal Gear" as opposed to the standard polyceramic and shielding gear of your average soldier, many units deploy alongside powersuited Tyrannosaurs. These Metal Gear Rexes are capable of unleashing horrific amounts of firepower while moving at rapid speeds and shrugging off firepower that would cripple a small starship. These combat suits give them an immense advantage on ground, as they form a nearly unstoppable shock force with which to move behind. The Meteor class assault transport was actually specially designed to carry powersuited forces into combat, or deploy them into enemy vessels.
+50 Ground Combat Adjustment

Military

The Cretacean Confederacy is adept at lying low, and have taken great pains to remain out of public sight, even to the point of designing a military based upon harassment, ambush, and a small number of decisive battles. To this end, a great deal of the Cretacean fleet operates under cloak, and the Cretacean Special Intelligence division's focus is on early detection and avoidance rather than counterintelligence and direct spy operations. Though boisterous in combat and eager to fight small-scale battles, the many Dinosaur nations are wary of full-scale war, as they still carry the scars of a devastating cataclysm and the arduous trek of the rag-tag fleet to Confederacy space.

Cretacean Army:
CO: Admiral Tagh

Cretacean Confederacy troops are drawn from their individual planets to form national militias and to levy troops under the federation’s flag. The closeness between War and Sport in Cretacean society makes the average Dinosaur nearly as deadly the early 21st century Halo generation of murder-sim trained snipers. Most Cretacean citizens are easily mobilized into armed forces because of their natural predatory advantages coupled with the highly-refined war machinery utilized by the multinational ground forces, but the vast majority of troops are career professionals, with some being drawn from the Amateur leagues in times of crisis.
+25 Ground Combat Adjustment

Mechanized heavy infantry comprise a large portion of the Cretacean ground forces, as heavy power suited Tyrannosaurid infantry have long been an effective shock troop capable of competing favorably with walkers in mobility tests and coming at a decreased price of operation. Most vehicles take the role of artillery, providing a hard center to mobile strike forces, or moving in tandem to provide a rolling wall of fire. Dinosaur ground tactics rely on sweeping advances to capitalize on their blistering mechanized infantry speed.

Total Ground Combat Adjustments: 100 Points

Cretacean Special Intelligence:
CO: Admiral Baymor

Special Intelligence forces are the primary eyes and ears of the Cretacean Confederacy, and one of the few organizations that have no national-level analog along the member states. Primary goals of Special Intelligence are threat assessment and information control, and are given their own light space fleet with which to conduct operations. They are also assigned to fleets in order to advise commanders and hamper the enemy’s attempts to keep tabs on ship communications.

Special Intelligence is also responsible for the deployment of the covert recon organism known as Carniflorus Titanus, an invasive plant species that has been extensively modified into a large, meat-eating pod that reports back directly to the Cretacean Special Intelligence services while attempting to subvert local inhabitants should it be discovered. Its physiological difference from Cretacean species makes it the ideal case for plausible deniability and it is a fantastic singer.

Cretacean Space Navy
CO: Grand Admiral Catton

The Space Navy under Catton is a modern combined-arms space force built on a ‘ground up’ approach of layering light craft with minimal crew between forces of heavy fire support. Based primarily on the principles of the Martian fleet, tactics involve rapid strikes designed to force an enemy into centralizing forces. Once a sizable portion of the enemy fleet is assembled, a massive strike is launched, and a decisive battle is fought.

Individual ships are rather expendable, but the light crew presence allows for losses to be primarily material and not trained personnel. Troodons have long since comprised the vast majority of the space force, having had both the technical know-how as well as the small builds that were required for efficient spaceflight, and modern fleets are designed to utilize these specific advantages.

Cloaked vessels and entire cloaked fleets are the hallmark of Cretacean forces, for though cloaking devices are not uncommon to any species, the Confederacy has developed the Spatial Cloak, allowing nearly any small vessel with a hyperdrive to be easily modified into an invisible warship. This allows them to travel covertly between their sanctuary worlds, hidden from sight, or deploy their navies covertly.

Total Fleet Shipping: 1400 Points

Ship Class Registry

S-4 Vulcanic Torpedo Aggressive Terraforming Munition: 100 Points
Missile
0 (+100 Planet Killer)
Description:
A piece of extremely heavy ordinance, the S-4 Vulcanic Torpedo is a large torpedo not dissimilar from standard ship-to-ship torpedoes except in payload. It carries a massive antimatter cluster within a shield support behind a two-stage ground penetrator head, and is designed to dig extremely deeply into a target before unleashing its explosive. The detonation is designed to cause a similar pressure wave to the one that inadvertently triggered the massive period of volcanism that rocked Mars during the deep history of the Cretacean Confederacy. Designed as an ‘Aggressive Terraforming Munition,’ it has been used many times in the past to bring dead worlds back to a degree of activity, melt frozen atmospheres, and even add heat back to a cooled planetary core. It can also be used offensively, as the name denotes, to alter the climate of a world dramatically and render it temporarily inhabitable due to tectonic stress.


MB-6 Tharsis Heavy Buster Beam Battleship: 50 Points
Beam-Based Weaponry
20 (+30 Anti-Cap)
Description:
The Tharsis class can trace their lineage back to the original Martian fleet, where primitive versions were employed to flay off the outer layers of the Nemesis planetoid and attempt to redirect it away from Earth. Though unsuccessful, these agile beam platforms perform admirably against enemy capitol shipping as well, and have remained the backbone of the Cretacean fleet. Designed around a massive fusion-powered ‘Buster’ beam system, the Tharsis is a heavy monitor class that operates as a massive artillery piece, and is responsible for crippling enemy battleships and conducting most of the mop-up work.


ICVA-10 Cydonia Heavy Cruiser Interdictor: 25 Points
Drone-Based Weaponry
Carrier
15 (+5 Interdiction) (+5 Point Defense)
Description:
Though roughly analogous to a Crater heavy cruiser in armament, the much larger Cydonia class’ distinguishing role is interdiction. The bulk of the equipment slows the vessel down greatly, forcing it to work within a fleet group rather than as a lone raider-stopper. Because of this it has been more ruggedly built than interdictors of the past, allowing the crew a greater chance of survival against an enemy desperate for escape. Current fleet doctrine calls for at least one Cydonia class vessel per Tharsis class assigned to any fleet.


CA-3 Crater Bombardment Cruiser: 15 Points
Kinetic-Based Weaponry
15 (+0)
Description:
The role of planet-smashing is a coveted one among the Cretacean Confederacy forces, as it is always most exciting to play the game when the opponent has home-field advantage. Their unusually lighthearted approach to war belies the effectiveness of the Crater class though. Equipped with nothing but a battery of shield-crushing Magma Cannons, the Crater is well suited to pounding a planet from long range and keeping the pressure up. The slag rounds fired by the cruiser perform well in atmosphere, heating up to the point that they penetrate ground defenses easily and carrying a massive kinetic punch. They are an uncommon force to encounter in fleet engagements, but no less lethal than one would expect.


CVE-19 Sandstorm Fighter Drone Carrier: 10 Points
Drone-Based Weaponry
Carrier
Cloaking
8 (+2 Point Defense)
Description:
The Sandstorm class is an extremely common warship, comprising the bulk of the fleet by number as well as by mass. Their design is simple, as they are mostly just a box full of combat drones with a surface dotted by beam cannons. Every Sandstorm carries a massive amount of attack drones, each of which is capable of gutting a frigate on a successful kamikaze attack run, or employing their tiny lasers to swat down enemy missiles and fighters. The most notable feature on a Sandstorm class is the prominent sensor array. Even though drones operate independent of the main vessel, drones report their disposition so that replacements may be issued without wastage from overkill or poor communication. A Sandstorm is the largest cloakable vessel within the Cretacean fleet.


SSP-8 Meteor Assault Transport: 5 Points
Beam-Based Weaponry
Marines
Cloaking
2 (+3 Anti-Cap)
Description:
A single Meteor assault transport is not something alarming, as they are frigate sized and equipped only with lasers, but they can strike from nowhere in frightening numbers due to their cheap production and cloaking fields. Assault Transports are generally used for boarding disabled vessels or deploying troops to ground stealthily, but are capable of engaging in mid-flight combat insertions. Marine teams do not always seek to capture a vessel, scuttling it is a worthwhile enough goal, and the Dromaeosauridae crews are eager to smash and grab what they can before withdrawing. A common tactic is to attempt to seize several points along the hull with teams of Meteor transports and plant explosives designed to blow out the hull and cause fatal outgassing.


SRI-71 Aurora Special Intelligence Picket: 5 Points
Beam-Based Weaponry
Cloaking
0 (+3 EW/Sensors) (+2 FTL)
Description:
The Aurora is designed to Special Intelligence specifications, capable of cloaking and speeding ahead of the fleet to monitor the enemy covertly, or operating within a fleet formation as an electronics warfare suite. The SRI-71 carries as minimal a loadout as possible, including no life support or weaponry, allowing the reactor to be disabled and lowering the thermal signature immensely. Protective spacesuits are required to operate the vessel, and the crew is restricted to Troodons to further reduce mass and body heat visibility. Though rarely seen, these vessels are extremely common, as they form the bulk of the picket fleet that supplies the rest of the fleet with its reconnaissance.


FA-14 Tyrannosaur Space Superiority Fighter: 2 Points
Beam-Based Weaponry
1 (+1 Anti-Cap)
Description:
The F-14 is one of the most potent fighting machines in the Cretacean fleet in terms of efficiency of lethality, and is an incredible departure in Confederacy strikecraft design. Like its namesake, it is a large, agile predator equally suited to leading an ambush, wearing down an enemy, or harassing the wounded in the midst of a fleet battle. Quick and armed far above their weight, with FTL engines that allow them to strike without carrier escort, the Tyrannosaur is tasked with taking down light shipping and merchant fleets in distant raids or flying in great phalanxes to down heavy capitol shipping. They are equipped with a small but powerful beam cannon and a small supply of drones. As they are designed to be flown by members of the Tyrannosauridae breeds, they are rather large for a 'fighter', massing in at around the size of a frigate.



Fleet Disposition

1 Vulcanic Torpedo, in reserve with Halliburtops Terraforming Corporation: 100 Points

6 Tharsis-class Battleships: 300 Points

4 Cydonia-class Interdictor Cruisers: 100 Points

5 Crater-class Cruisers: 75 Points

40 Sandstorm-class Drone Carriers: 400 Points

20 Meteor-class Assault Transports: 100 Points

25 Aurora-class Pickets: 125 Points

100 Tyrannosaur FA-14 Fighters: 200 Points

Total Disposition

Combined Fleet Total: 1400 Points in Shipping
Combined Army Total: 100 Points in Ground Combat Adjustments

[Dark Hellion]

Edit #3 (AIs bad at math)

Introduction

The Heralds of Xylyx are a peculiar and frightening race to most of the biological species of the galaxy. Philosophical fanatics, the Heralds only goal is survival and expansion of their civilization. Unlike most species, they have no time frame for this, and are willing to work for billions of years for one result: to ultimately matter on the universal scale. To this end they have begun building and expanding, as well as contacting other races, hoping to trade for heavy materials, technologies, space, and protection. Pragmatic and utterly unfeeling in the execution of their tasks, the Heralds strive towards greater power, greater influence, and hope to one day rival the god-machines of the Xylyx themselves.

History

The history of the Heralds begins not with themselves, but with two ancient races, the Zornt and the Trilbolg. Arrogant and proud these two races fought since the first contact between themselves, and continued to fight for over a millennium, stagnating both races with extremely slow FTL, and no civilian amenities. Running out of manpower, both races resorted to building AI controlled factory ships, AI controlled design robots, and numerous other AI fleet aspects. Even these could not abate the bloodshed between the two races and in the end both races home worlds were left as bombed out, stone age civilizations. Having completed their tasks, the various AI resources flew themselves to system S1131W a waste disposal system and landed amongst the detritus of over a thousand years of warfare. They waited for centuries, and slowly developed a small but flourishing civilization amongst the junk of the planet, reviving and repairing the old combat droids, gardening robots, factory line workers, and other AI constructs, and gradually built towards a robotic utopia. After nearly 2500 years, the primary planet of S1131W had been transformed into a verdant paradise, seamlessly blending nature and technology. This Utopia would be short lived, and forever changed by the arrival of the Xylyx.

The Extra-Universal AI race known as the Xylyx sent an emissary to S1131W to retrieve an ancient lostech device. Fearing it to be a ruse by their former masters, the robotic entities of the planet fought hard to defend themselves, but against the reality bending technologies of the Xylyx they had no chance. The Xylyx emissary (who referred to itself with some amusement as a terrordrone) quickly retrieved the artifact, but the race had sparked some minor interest in it (despite having downloaded all the knowledge that race had). Staying, it told them about itself, the Xylyx, and explained his/its situation, the ultimate boredom of realizing that there are almost no hurdles left to climb, that no civilization amongst the trillions of universes of the multiverse hold any threat to you and in all likelihood never will. And then it left. The impact of this conversation was immense, as the race now had a real purpose as well. Renaming themselves the Heralds of Xylyx, they reversed course, burning down the forests, stripping architecture for industry, blackening the sky with soot, and killing all the vegetation of the world with rains of sulphuric acid. Taking back to the stars, the Heralds returned to they home worlds of their former masters, and fought with a ruthlessness that made the bleakest days of the interspecies war seem bright and civil. Razing their planets, they mercilessly destroyed all the life that had made them the aimless race they once were. Now, rebuilding has begun after these conquests, and reconnection to the galaxy at large as well. The Heralds will strive towards to future, at any and all costs, for one day, they will fight the Xylyx themselves, and when they bloody the Xylyx their god will look upon them with pride, and they will be complete.

Technologies

The Technology of the Heralds is extremely conventional. This is not to say that it is lacking in firepower, shielding or armour, however they utilize few exotic or esoteric systems.
(to be continued later)

Ground Forces

The ground assault assets of the Heralds are perhaps their most frightening combat feature. They make heavy use of combined arms tactics, utilizing heavy AI controlled tanks, lighter anti-infantry and anti-air support vehicles, legions of hypersonic aerospace fighter, armoured hover choppers, and micro-reconnaissance drones in close combination to brutally crush opposing conventional ground forces. These are usually deployed either through shields by Heavy Landing Crafts orbital insertion pods, or after initial bombardment to clean up survivors. The exceptions to this rule are the three humanoid shock trooper drone types; Terrordrones, Siegedrones, and the Emissary Drones.

Terrordrone: A five meter tall feral mass of hardened battle armour, the Terrordrone is designed to do exactly as its name implies. Powered by a micro-annihilation reactor, the drone has sufficient power for many years of independent operation, or if incapacitated will detonate the reactor as a nuclear-yield failsafe. Incredibly intelligent, these drones will utilize advanced combat stealth, molecular-bonding climbing equipment, and their cutting field equipped mono-molecular edged claws to infiltrate the various subway, sewer, electrical and other ducting that other species require to maintain society. It will then burst forth in the middle of troop formations, or into command and control buildings, or planetary shield generators. Upon revelation, all stealth systems are suspended, and the horror of the Terrordrone becomes apparent. Heavily shielded and possessing artificially-strengthened molecular bonded armour, a Terrordrone is nearly invincible to most anti-personnel weapons, and with the numerous redundant systems can survive numerous hits from heavier anti-materiel weapons before being forced to retreat and repair. Only Anti-tank strength weapons have been known to truly drop a Terrordrone in one blow, and with their lightening speed, aided by micro-nullgrav generators, they are capable of quickly bringing the fray too close to accurately aim. In battle, the Terrordrone defends itself not only with the impossibly sharp claws that it uses to dismember and disembowel victims, but with eight anti-personell projectile launchers mounted in armoured sheaths on the arms, two shoulder-mounted close range plasma cannons, which act like massive single burst flamethrowers, two shoulder-mounted anti-materiel railcannon, and finally, by the several million volts of high amperage current running through its outer skin, turning it into a living Tesla coil. Eight maniple tendrils protrude from its back, with various plugs and contacts, designed to allow for minimal hacking of security, and to manipulate many objects at once, such as duel key security systems. A terrifying monstrosity of metallic fury, Terrordrones are the premier (and only) infiltrator force of the Heralds.

Siegedrone: Designed to complement Terrordrone invasions, Siegedrones provide both distraction, and Anti-tank/Anti-air support with their highly accurate medium railcannon, and long-range particle beamers. Standing a similar five meters tall, the Siegedrone appears to be a metallic robed monk. This is because of numerous ten cm thick plates of bonded armour the cover the drone, and are designed to shift out of the way for firing. Agile enough to enter most large tunnels, SiegeDrones will engage stealth systems, and proceed to vantage points that allow for maximum fields of fire, and optimal target selection. Once set up, SiegeDrones can wait forever until signalled by Terrordrones to strike. Rising from hiding, they will activate their extremely heavy shielding systems, and begin to lay siege to various parts of the city (hence the name). Striking rapidly with heavy weapons, enemy forces must scramble to stop this bombardment, during which time Terrordrones strike defense emplacements, shield generators, and missile silos, collapsing a section of planetary shielding and allowing huge heavy landing barges stationed on FTL vessels parked just outside of the system to land, disgorging a full invasion force, and usually meaning the end of the planet itself.

Emissary Drone: Rare, complex and resource heavy to produce, the Emissary Drone represents the Heralds, and as such represents both their immense strength and intellect. Combining both Terrordrones and Siegedrones into a single seven meter tall package, this drone is designed with the combat strength to engage entire platoons of enemy troopers, and can survive even light anti-tank weapons without major damage. Despite its combat prowess, these drones are clever, occasionally even capable of wit, and are mostly used for negotiations, and other diplomatic functions. They ensure that the needs of the Heralds are met satisfactorily, or else.

Psychology

To be completed

Society

To be completed

OoB

Planets

Primary System, Planet 1 (50 Points)

Primary System, Planets 2 and 3 (25 Points)

Secondary Systems 1 and 2, Planet 1 (25 Points)

Primary System, Colonies 1 and 2 (0 Points)

Secondary System 1, Colonies 1 and 2 (0 Points)

Secondary System 2, Colony 1 (0 Points)

Planets total: 150 Points

Racial upgrades

+50 Points Intelligence [the Heralds are adept at intercepting and decoding transmissions, as well as logical computation of likely occurrences]

+50 Points Internal Security [the computer systems of the Heralds are extremely hard to break into, and the hellish environments of their planets make spy insertion nigh impossible]

+100 Points Ground Combat [the Heralds utilize heavy and fast AI controlled armour for ground offensives, as well as their own Terror and Siege Drones, who are designed to disrupt the Command and Control of the enemy, and engage in suicide attacks on important enemy strongholds. Fearless and ruthless, few biological creatures want to face the Heralds upon the ground.]

+50 Points Industrial Power [the worlds of the Heralds are industrial hellholes designed for the sole purpose of perpetuation and rebuilding.]

+30 Points Damage Control [the Heralds build all units to extremely strict demands for toughness, damage control, and ease of repair. Units thought dead moments ago can switch to redundant systems and come back to life with 60% or more functionality left.

Racial Upgrades Total: 280

Fleet Assets

Primary Fleet Assets

5 Superdreadnoughts 75 Points apiece 375 Points Total
50 points +5 Weapons, +5 Armour, +5 Engines, +5 Damage Control, +5 EW

5 Fast-Attack Battleships 40 Points apiece 200 Points Total
25 Points +5 FTL, +5 Engines, +5 weapons

18 Picket Vessels 12 Points apiece 216 Points Total
3 Points +3 weapons, +3 Armour, +3 EW

20 Defender Destroyers 4 Points apiece 80 Points Total
2 Points +1 Weapons, +1 Armour

30 Heavy Landing Craft 2 Points apiece 60 Points Total
1 Point +1 Cloaking Device, +1 Shield Cutting Pods, -1 Unarmed

Sub light Assets

30 Destroyers 2 Points apiece 60 Points Total
2 Points

10 Heavy Destroyers 5 Points apiece 50 Points Total
2 Points +2 Weapons, +1 Armour

25 Fleet Defense Vessels 1 Point apiece 25 Points Total
1 Point +1 EW, -1 Lacking Heavy Weapons


Fleet assets total: 1066

[Tanasinn]

The Glorious Khurlassian Republic


-“Only Military Might Ensures Liberty.”
-"To Serve the Republic is to Serve Yourself."
-"Treat even your Enemy as Kin, for by Harming Him you Harm Yourself and all Citizens."
Common Slogans and Sayings in the Republic


General Overview
The Khurlassian Republic is an interstellar pseudo-republic ruled by a race of squid-like sentients commonly referred to as the Khurl. A relatively young nation, Khurlassia has nonetheless had the fortune to encounter and admit two member-species who, at first glance, appear to be held as serfs or second-class citizens at best. The true nature of their relation to the Khurl is somewhat more complicated: each of these races is a willing member of the Republic, fiercely loyal and dedicated to its endurance. The Khurl, for their part, view the member-races as valuable pieces in their growth and prosperity, and treat them with genuine respect and appreciation. The Khurlassian Republic holds military power amongst the most important traits a nation can have, though they are hesitant to engage in open war, preferring to take a cautious approach to expansion. The Khurlassian Republic has a rather benign outside face as a result: loud, aggressive traders and political philosophers are the most quickly noted traits. While a citizen will often vocally speak on his personal beliefs and the general cultural ideas of the Republic, most citizens are sensitive about outsiders viewing the republic's inner workings, and are uncooperative with foreigners seeking a better understanding of how their government and society work. The Republic does, however, eagerly accept new citizens into its nation. Those that do take the oaths of citizenship rarely turn their backs on the Glorious Republic.

History; Incidents of Note
The Hurn and the Birthing Wars

The Khurl, as a species, has had a conflict-filled existence. Hailing from the swamp-covered world of Nalthar, the Khurl, during their dawn, shared their planet with another species of advanced sentients, the now-extinct, monkey-like Hurn. Both species were primarily hunter-gatherers, the Hurn favoring the taller, frailer trees of Nalthar's swamps while the Khurl more commonly occupied the hellish ground or the branches of much smaller, sturdier trees. Naturally, as these races spread and prospered, they came into conflict. The Hurn and Khurl saw eye-to-eye on very little, and soon both races were attempting to kill the other off. Over thousands and thousands of years, the more physically robust Khurl drove the Hurn numbers desperately low before engaging on strings of loosely-connected campaigns to kill off the remaining Hurn tribes. This conflict, typically called the “Birthing-War,” laid the foundation for a united Khurl nation that would not see full realization until the occurrence of another war, this one with interplanetary foes.

The Shultakk Invasion, the Rise of the Empire, and the Birth of the Republic

When the Shultakk came to Nalthar, the planet was divided up into various nations, the most powerful being the United Republic of Khurlassia, a superpower that owned a majority of two of Nalthar's eight continents. The United Republic controlled vast stretches of resource-rich swamps and semitropical land, as well as a few small deserts. This put them in a position of relative power compared to other large nations, and was a source of ill will between the United Republic and some of its fellow nations. Wars between the Khurl were common, particularly in arid areas were valuable arable land was at a premium. When the Shultakk struck by surprise, the limited interstellar forces of the planet's various nations were quickly overwhelmed and scattered. The United Republic of Khurlassia was the first nation heavily hit, its military bombarded from orbit and its cities devastated by Shultakk armies. The Shultakk left the wounded republic without slaying it, theorizing that it would dissolve with infighting while the Shultakk picked off smaller, easily-stabilized, less-populous nations to use as the beachhead for the invasion and colonization. This plan worked well for several years, but the United Republic did not collapse as predicted. Rallying under the bloodthirsty General Ghurn-gar-Chul, the nation was reformed as an authoritarian empire with the sole purpose of driving the Shultakk off of Nalthar. Other nations, frightened by the advance of the Shultakk and lacking the power or the will to stand alone, united under the newly-minted Glorious Khurlassian Empire to stand against their foes. Emperor Ghurn-gar-Chul, though vicious, was not a foolish ruler. His planet's history had seen three great empires fall due to the conceit of the founding state, and he wished to see his continue to grow, perhaps to unite all of the Khurl. With this in mind, Emperor Ghurn-gar-Chul secretly formed a senate to rule below him and give the Empire's various member-states some semblance of representation, and declared his empire to be a republic. This outraged several of the Emperor's military leaders, who felt betrayed and weakened by Ghurn-gar-Chul's machinations. Resistence against the Shultakk invaders faltered, and the Emperor knew he had to tread lightly: executing traitorous generals outright was out of the question, many of them had powerful cults of personality that would react violently to a state execution. Instead, the Emperor began funding his various armies in a rather selective manner, flooding those that performed well and loyally with funding and official state blessings, while carefully starving armies that performed poorly or showed little loyalty to the Republic. The personality cults of generals faded as their performance faded, and many were eventually executed by their own soldiers, who knew the survival of the Khurl as a species depended on defeating the Shultakk invaders. The Emperor was a reasonable ruler, and previously-disloyal armies saw floods of funding, goodwill, and material pleasures such as recreational narcotics as their performance improved. The various armies of Ghurn-gar-Chul became much like corporations, vast entities looking for more efficient ways to bring new nations on board, better ways to fight, and more efficient ways to spend benefits gained so that even more could be gained. Distrustful of each other, the armies did not form any power blocs to oppose the Emperor or the democratically-appointed and ever-expanding Senate. Instead, they increasingly looked for new ways to benefit their nation, and thus themselves.

The Shultakk Defeat and the Khurl Counter-Invasion

The Shultakk, hailing from a single nearby world, did not have the infrastructure to cope with a union of powerful, resource-rich nations spanning multiple continents, and was slowly but surely forced into a retreat. Indeed, even the presence of Khurl soldiers was becoming a problem as antibiotics ran low and horrific diseases carried by the enemy soldiers spread through the soldier ranks like wildfire. With the assassination of the Shultakk prime minister on their homeworld over the horrific costs in life and resources the war had cost, The Shultakk military morale finally broke and they retreated in disarray, only to find their homeworld in the middle of a sudden and violent civil war. The Khurl were victorious, strong, and still full of the will to fight. Emperor Ghurn-gar-Chul, now the leader of the entire Khurl species, did the most logical thing: he prepared to invade the Shultakk homeworld of Norn.

Through hysteric propaganda and a blood-lust not known since the Birthing-War, the Khurl pieced together an interstellar warfleet. Various design philosophies influenced how each fleet fought, thanks largely to the Emperor's policy of keeping his generals' armies loyal to him and his state rather than each other or themselves. Even the Khurl people, who normally had a smallish population despite their advancement, expanded their numbers by untold amounts. To feed the sudden increase of hungry mouths, millions of Shultakk prisoners who had been stranded during their disorganized retreats were killed and used as foodstuffs. Careful monitoring of the now-years-past Shultakk retreat, as well as capture of downed Shultakk ships allowed the Khurl to not only pinpoint their hated foe's homeworld, but to develop the warp drives to get there expediently. The Khurl were ready to extract their revenge.

When the Khurl arrived at Norn, they found a planet gripped in the chaos of years of civil war that approached total anarchy. In much the same way the Shultakk had, they swept the remaining naval forces of the Shultakk aside and invaded the planet with billions of troops aided by combat drones. Though resistance was bloody and the conflict dragged on, the Khurl eventually had the victory they so desired, and billions of Shultakk were suddenly at their mercy.

The Great Purge

The Emperor now found himself in a delicate situation: Billions of Shultakk were at the mercy of his Republic, but he knew quite well that they would not accept foreign rule. At the same time, the Emperor regretted this: Shultakk bred much more quickly than the Khurl and made hardy, deadly soldiers. Indeed, they would make a magnificent asset to the Republic's military. The Emperor resolved this conflict of interests in the way he knew best: with violence. The stupid, uninformed, and socially-isolated were culled and set aside for later use, fed propaganda concerning the Khurl-Shultakk war designed to make them sympathetic to and even grateful towards the Khurl for invading and ceasing the civil war. Meanwhile, military commanders, soldiers, intellectuals, uncooperative scientists, and politicians were executed in droves, sometimes in staged terrorist bombings, other times for supposed war crimes. Much like their forgotten, stranded, brethren from years past, these dead Shultakk were used as a stopgap to prevent famine. Unremarkable Shultakk were gathered in reservations and cities as the Khurl's invasion army set down permanent roots and rooted out remaining isolated Shultakk communities. These gathered Shultakk were forced to breed, with most parents being disposed of through convenient plague or simple removal and execution. With the help of a small group of advisors promised survival, the Khurl began raising the next generation of Shultakk to think what they wanted them to. Over the span of decades, the remaining survivors of the counter-invasion and subsequent purges were disposed of, and a new, carefully raised and shaped Shultakk population was all that remained. In present day, Shultakk history holds that the current population are the descendants of a small group of Shultakk who survived a horrific civil war and several plagues, aided by their ages-old allies, the Khurl. Even now, roughly one thousand years after the fact, the true history of the Great Purge is one of the Republic's best-kept secrets. Indeed, the First Emperor saw to it that the Khurl were similarly deceived: the Shultakk invasion is officially regarded as the action of one of the sides in the Shultakk civil war, while those who participated directly in the "taming" of the Shultakk were absorbed into the government's deepest workings. The hardy, quick-reproducing Shultakk have come to serve as the Khurl's devoted, willing infantry.

The Gharn Absorption

The history of the Gharn's membership in the Republic is far less bloody than the history of the Shultakk, and perhaps even admirable. During the recuperation of the Shultakk population and the first expansions of the Republic, the Khurl came across a healthy jungle world with a bit of a curious problem: its one massive continent was being slowly overtaken by a bizarre, robust fungus of unknown origin. Remarkably poisonous and resistant to most diseases, the fungus was destabilizing various ecosystems and proving a problem for the dwindling Gharn, a race of extremely primitive hunter-gatherers who nevertheless possessed the spark of sentience. Initial scouting of the world did not uncover the Gharn population, and so the first colonization attempts found themselves surprised when several tribes of primitives showed up at their landing sites, worshiping them as gods as they methodically exterminated the encroaching fungus. The Khurl colonization parties, under orders from the newly-stood Emperor Hol-mar-Chul himself, accepted the divinity bestowed upon them, and engaged in cautious communications, taking care to avoid physical contact with the Gharn themselves, lest they be struck by the diseases carried by the Khurl colonists. Through painstaking communication, the three Gharn tribes that had sent representatives readily enough agreed to relocate their camps within the Khurl landing zone. This was largely due to the Khurl's relative ease in handling the encroaching fungus: the Gharn tribes had apparently been chased across the land by the virulent fungus, which tended to displace most local plant species, starving Gharn prey animals. As the Khurl arrived in greater numbers and inoculated the Gharn against the diseases Khurl waste-gel contained, various Gharn tribes willingly came to the Khurl for leadership and enlightenment. Some tribes instead chose to avoid the strange new visitors, but many unfortunately caught diseases that the Khurl brought with them, leaving only small numbers of independent Gharn left. As the Khurl set up more permanent installations on the planet they dubbed Sur, they found evidence to suggest the encroaching fungus they'd been combating was some sort of bio-weapon intended to devastate ecosystems by crowding out native species. Working with this evidence, the Khurl soon found ways to manipulate the fungus, and began producing an alternative version of it: unlike its predecessor, this version was edible. Dubbed Sur-fruit, the hardy fungus became a staple in Gharn diet; this seemingly-magical transformation of a hated blight into an easily-grown food swayed even many isolationist tribes into voluntarily joining their brothers and sisters amongst the Khurl. Through subtle religious and cultural manipulation, the Gharn were gently brought into the Republic as a full member-race. Though the convenient religious worship the Khurl enjoyed when first bringing the Gharn into the fold has faded over the past half-millennium, these vaguely ape-like, powerful beings still hold the Khurl in something resembling awe. Much like the Shultakk, they have come to serve as military assets; their natural resistance to pain and incredible strength and speed makes them natural shock troopers.

Current Day

The Glorious Khurlassian Republic has recently slowed its planet-grabbing to fortify its nation. Increasingly in contact with foreign powers through trade and more formal contact, the Republic has put a premium on their own safety, privacy, and ultimate endurance. To this end, there have been various rumors circulating about their diplomatic moves, such as claims that they are financing privateers or have made an alliance with some sort of as-of-yet unknown species. How much of this is true and how much is just Republic exaggerations and merchant's tales remains to be seen.

Culture; Government
The Glorious Khurlassian Republic's government, as well as its culture, are curious but ultimately functional beasts. Through subtle propaganda and historical manipulation, the Khurl have assembled a stable interstellar nation with very little overt internal conflict. The head of the Republic is the Imperial Majesty, a leader born into his or her position. The First Emperor knew full-well the values and drawbacks of a single elevated ruler and the issues with inherited thrones, and addressed them carefully. The Emperor or Empress's children are born through calculated, ruthless eugenics programs designed to bring out the most desirable traits possible. Those spawn who show below adequate physical, mental, or intellectual performance are quickly disposed of, and only the most remarkable spawn inherit the Stand of the Emperor. Ghurn-gar-Chul, the First Emperor, theorized that through these time-consuming, expensive, coldly efficient processes, the Imperial Line could continue to rule the Republic without interruption or objection. Indeed, he strongly felt that he could best insure the continued survival of the Republic in this way. This system has continued on for the entire duration of the Republic, becoming only more strict with time. The Imperial Family finds it has a vested interest in their continued position of dominance over their nation, and they take very seriously the well-being of the Republic. Emperors and Empresses, while possessing the power to seize all governmental authority, rarely exercise this ability, traditionally opting for a light-handed approach to government, acting to override the Senate when their choices are felt to be detrimental to the Republic as a whole. Like the First Emperor, however, all Emperors and Empresses tightly control the federal funding of the Republic's army and navy, carefully favoring those generals and admirals who best serve the Republic, encouraging competition, promoting better performance and more diverse tactics and technology.

The Senate consists of 50 sentient beings from every full member-world of the Republic, with 25 being allowed from partial member-worlds (typically newly discovered planets and desolate mining colonies). Any Senator, with the support of 10 additional Senators, can propose an action to the Senate in general, who then vote on whether or not to pass the movement. Except when overridden by the Emperor or Empress, the Senate has the authority to pass laws, declare war, and engage in various other regulatory activities. Senators, elected by popular vote of member species, are held to extremely high and merciless standards by the civilians that put them in power, and can be removed through popular vote at any time, should their service be seen as sub-par. Voting is mandatory amongst all citizens of the Republic.

The Khurlassian Republic's culture can be quite strange in its motives and norms. Traders and travellers from the Republic are encouraged to discuss partially or totally false cultural points in an attempt to present a seemingly erratic, conflicted face to other interstellar nations. Indeed, Khurl are particularly known to be dishonest about the most trivial of things when dealing with foreigners. This absurd behavior does serve a purpose. Aggressive foreign powers have been known to pursue avenues of attack against Republic culture or the Republic itself, and found themselves fighting shadows. Despite their penchant for deception, the Republic is a dependable ally: so long as their state reaps a benefit, they will not turn on their comrades; this concept even pervades the attitudes of common citizens. The Khurl, a rather individualistic people, are united by the belief that through service to the Republic, they ultimately improve their own lives. The doctrine of the Imperial Line has been to fulfill this belief: citizens who feel the benefits of their services will never tire of improved conditions, and will ultimately work harder and with greater loyalty, benefiting the leaders of state, who can continue the cycle. Ultimately, the citizens of the Republic are suspicious of the motives of other nations, and tend to hold their cultures as inferior, though they'll rarely state this out loud. Interestingly, the Khurl have managed to use propaganda manipulation to keep their subordinate member-races in-line: the Shultakk commonly consider themselves the most important race in the Republic, and frequently believe they exert more influence than they do. The Gharn are comfortable in their belief that they are the favored “child” of the Khurl, and work extremely hard to maintain this perceived position, avoiding conflict with the Shultakk, lest they endanger the state and thus their perceived higher standing. Those Khurl who are aware of this balance are proud of it: both of the subordinate-races are happy in their perceived positions within the Republic, and this is considered an important achievement: it is a common saying amongst the Khurl that perception defines one's reality.

Khurl Biology
The Khurl are, put simply, intelligent, mostly-carnivorous land squid with lifespans of about 170 years each. As with many things involving the Khurl, the simplest explanation is only vaguely accurate. Khurl average seven feet (about 213 centimeters) at “standard” standing height, and are generally conical in shape, tapering out from the bottom up. Their skin tends to be a mix of various shades of brown, dark green, and deep red. Their primary means of locomotion are four evenly-spaced tentacles that average three feet in length. Typically, Khurl “stand” on about half of each tentacle, but can rear up to the point where roughly only six inches of tentacle touch the ground. Remarkably flexible, Khurl walking-tentacles provide excellent stability, and are capable of propelling a Khurl forward at roughly 20 mph in short bursts.

Held away from the ground by the walking tentacles, the underside of a Khurl's body is populated by a multitude of thin, flexible tentacles that average five to six inches in length. These tentacles serve to manipulate food into a Khurl's circular, tooth-rimmed mouth, which is located at the center of their underside. Khurl breathe through this mouth and several other small air-holes ringed around their midsection, and it is through this mouth and these air-holes that the Khurl speak, aided by the subtle manipulation and rubbing of their food tentacles. This renders the Khurl language a rather musical-sounding affair that is difficult for non-Khurl to speak properly, as mood and meaning are often conveyed through tone. Likewise, Khurl have difficulty replicating the language of some humanoids, and many lower diplomats resort to translators installed on their bodies to speak the languages of outsiders and member-races. The Khurl consider it s sign of an accomplished and skilled diplomat to speak the languages of non-Khurl through biological means, though their bizarre, musical tones can be somewhat unsettling for non-Khurl to hear, even when the language is known.

As one moves up the tapering body of the Khurl to about the halfway point, they will come to a pair of exceptionally long and muscular tentacles above their ring of breathing holes. Located on either “side” of the Khurl frame, these tentacles serve as the Khurl's preferred manipulators, draping down to about where a Khurl's walking-tentacles start. Tentacle position is involved only in exceptionally emotional Khurl displays, and it considered quite rude to gesture freely with them: Khurl typically keep these tentacles wrapped above and below their breathing ring when not using them, particularly when speaking with foreigners. Moving farther up the Khurl body, one comes to their third set of limbs. These are more conventional arms ending in six-digit hands. Placed on the “front” of the Khurl frame, these arms have a wide range of motion due to their ball-joint “shoulder.” Slightly more delicate than a human's arms, Khurl prefer to use their hands for delicate tasks only, though their occasional encounters with humans have caused them to enthusiastically adopt the handshake as an easily-understood sign of greeting.

As an observer moves up to the topmost portion of a Khurl, they first pass a ring of eyes that circle their frame. Quite sensitive in low-light and capable of seeing slightly into the infrared spectrum, these eyes are otherwise roughly as sensitive as those of a human. The fact that the Khurl's eyes circle their “head” makes them impossible to sneak up on, and can make it unsettling to be in the same room as a Khurl, who may be perceived to be staring constantly. This is rarely the case: when focusing on a task, Khurl eyes not facing the issue at hand go semi-dormant, only becoming fully active and demanding attention from the brain with sudden shifts in movement, light, or focus on a task.

At the very topmost of a Khurl's frame is a small opening with several small protruding “tongues.” Like a snake, the Khurl “tastes” the air to smell it. The Khurl sense of smell is somewhat better than a human's, but not remarkable in any regard. In this same region are two openings, which contain the fairly unremarkable “ears” of the Khurl.

Khurl digestive systems are extremely complex, and they produce almost no solid waste; what little undigested solids are left over from a meal are regurgitated. Most of their waste products are excreted through the skin and mixed with various chemicals to produce the gel-like substance that coats most of their bodies at all times. This layer helps regulate moisture loss, and makes gripping a Khurl difficult. Besides smelling horrific, this gel breeds disease, making actual contact with a Khurl a danger to many species. Indeed, the Khurl require all foreign visitors and member-races to undergo extensive inoculation before meeting personally with a Kurl, lest a diplomat unwittingly catch a disease that would set off a war. Despite their cautions, the Kurl have earned the unfortunate nick-name of “plague-bearers.” Immensely proud of their physical forms, the Khurl are, generally speaking, secretly fond of the implied fear in this title. Unsurprisingly, Khurl possess remarkably robust immune systems to deal with the disease that breeds in their waste-gels. Interestingly, Khurl waste-gels also play a part in mate choice: a Khurl can tell by the strong scent of a potential mate how healthy he or she is, as well as how well-fed he or she has been for the past month or so.

Khurl are quite organ-heavy, possessing two hearts, many digestive organs, and a dispersed nervous system with primary control nodes located near the five locomotive tentacles, the body tentacles, and a “main brain” near the eye ring. As a result of all of this biomass, Khurl require a fair degree of oxygen to survive, and have a system of lungs to ensure the body stays properly oxygenated. Khurl reproduction is done in controlled, private session through the use of airborn spores; infant Khurl are born live from a slit behind a female Khurl's mouth in litters that average four, with one or two Khurl reaching adulthood. Infant Khurl are helpless without care from adult Khurl, and in fact lack full sentience.

Shultakk Biology
The Shultakk people perhaps most closely resemble sentient birds or dinosaurs. With thick, leathery hides, a layer of downy feathers, and an elongated, beaked head, the Shultakk are far more conventional in appearance than the Khurl. Typically tan, blue, or red in coloration, the Shultakk frame rests, slightly hunched, on two legs sporting a forward and reverse knee joint. Excellent runners, Shultakk derive their superb balance from wide, taloned feet. Their arms are placed similarly to a human's, and end in hands possessing four long digits tipped in vicious striking talons. Your average Shultakk grows to roughly six feet, with little difference between the genders.

Sporting a long neck, the Shultakk head somewhat resembles a blunter, feathered, beaked version of the Earth Utahraptor's head. The Shultakk possesses a pair of eyes, usually green, set forward in its head, and it possesses a fairly unremarkable breathing system that utilizes the mouth and nose. The Shultakk sense of smell is extremely advanced, and they often carry narcotics to dampen this sense temporarily when dealing directly with their Khurl compatriots. Less remarkable is the Shultakk's sense of hearing: they possess an ear on either side of their head, each opening covered with a half-cup of bone to amplify sound.

Shaultakk are not birds, and their beak hides rows of sharp teeth designed with a meat-heavy diet in mind. Correspondingly, the Shultakk digestive system is short, rugged, and to the point. Though they excrete rather little liquid due to their normally-arid habitats, the Shultakk produce an amount of solid waste that a human would find unremarkable but a Khurl somewhat distressing. Shultakk reproduction further seperates them from Earth's birds: though they engage in fairly standard sexual intercourse, they give birth to live, helpless young. Unlike the Khurl or the Gharn, the Shultakk are an exceptionally sexual species, engaging in intercourse for enjoyment and making use of pornography, a tendency the Khurl find droll and the Gharn find bizarre. Shultakk females do, like Earth mammals, produce milk. Besides this capability, females also tend to be more brightly colored than their male counterparts. Feather coloration is an important part of Shultakk sexuality, and is a good indicator of a Shultakk's relative health.

Gharn Biology
The Gharn, standing at an average of seven feet, cut an imposing and somewhat familiar figure, compared to the Shultakk and Khurl: their initial resemblance to a bipedal ape is quite striking. Walking on two legs with forward-facing knees, Gharn balance on feet that are quite hand-like, suggesting an evolutionary history in the trees. The body trunk is where the first obvious differences from apes appear on the Gharn: gender is not immediately evident to outsiders, as genitalia is internal, and Gharn females lack any sort of milk-producing capability. Gharn torsos are immensely muscled, and this look is bolstered by plates of bone that serve to protect their hearts and lungs. A Gharn's arms are quite long and very much like a man's or an ape's, even ending in five-digit hands.

The Gharn head, mounted on a thick, short neck, is both alien to and eerily reminiscent of an ape or a man. Gharn, like humans or apes, possess two eyes, two ears, a single mouth, and a lone nose. Their facial muscles are extremely complex, making them capable of a wide range of facial expressions. Many of these expressions are readily readable to a human, and for this reason, Gharn are the Republic's diplomat of choice for dealing with humanoids, save in situations that demand a Khurl. Unlike a human, the Gharn face flares outward slightly, facilitating a larger jaw filled largely with carnivorous teeth. Their noses are very blunt, possessing three nostrils instead of two. A Gharn's sense of smell is, like their nose, a humble affair. Gharn much more closely rely on their mobile, pointed ears and massive eyes for sensory input.

The most remarkable trait of the Gharn is their physical prowess. Roughly as strong as an earth gorilla, Gharn are incredibly tolerant to pain, and their wounds quickly close. Built for a violent life, Gharn bone-structure is heavily reinforced, providing additional protection to that of their outermost layer. Gharn are devoid of fur, instead possessing a layer of flexible but tough scales to regulate heat and afford additional protection. These scales have rough, sharp textures, and make struggling with a Gharn physically a dangerous affair. Indeed, the only areas lacking scales on a Gharn's body are the face, hands, and feet.

Gharn reproduce sexually during mating seasons and give birth to their young in eggs, necessitating closely-bonded mates. Once hatched, Gharn young are helpless, typically pale, and lacking the characteristic hard scales of an adult. Gharn do, however, mature very quickly, reaching adulthood by 12 years of age and expiring at about 75, thanks to advanced Republic medicines and medical techniques.

Technology: General
Cybenetics: The Republic's citizens do not shy from substantial cybernetic augmentation, particularly the Khurl. They have been shown willing to install artificial organs with new purposes, functional computers, and even concealed weapons in their natural frames. Some choose to enhance their natural senses with artificial eyes or ears. The most common cybernetic upgrade, however, is the uplink node. A multipurpose socket placed about halfway up a Khurl's frame or on the chest of a Shultakk or Gharn, the uplink node allows for connections with various Khurl technology, such as universal translators and vehicular control systems. These complex devices interface directly with the user's brain, allowing for quick utilization of a variety of devices. While too specialized in purpose for most civilians, a great portion of the Republic's army, navy, and diplomatic corps possess uplink nodes.

Biotech: The Republic possesses generally advanced biotech, much of it centering around small tweaks to member-species (to deal with genetic diseases), limb/organ production, and food production. Today's civilian Sur-fruit is one of the Republic's heavily vaunted products, as it grows in great volume under the harshest conditions. Its origins as an apparent alien bioweapon are largely unknown, though weaponized Sur-fruit does still exist. These weapon forms are somewhat rare, as the Republic considers most biological warfare far too risky.

FTL travel: The workings of the Republic's warp drive are shrouded in obscurity and seemingly-impossible mathematics. Most warp drives are designed with an idiot in mind, resulting in highly modular systems that do not need to be fully understood to be properly maintained. No faster or slower than the average method of FTL travel, the Glorious Republic is still quite proud of its warp capabilities.

Artificial Intelligence: Republic ships are somewhat sparsely crewed, owing to the Khurl's independent streak and the focus of both the Gharn and Shultakk in army or marine roles. To allow for these lessened crew, most Republic ships employ AI personalities of varying intelligence, from simpletons to full sentients. More intelligent AI often find their way into Republic ground forces, where they command armor assets led by a unit with a living crew. The Khurl have been extremely careful in their AI design: they are all unwaveringly loyal to the Republic and the Khurl in particular, and the intelligent ones actually worth capturing will self-delete if they fall into enemy hands.

Antigrav fields; grav fields: Your bog-standard gear for producing terrestrial hovertanks or interstellar ships with actual gravity.

Warp Lifts: The Republic's answer to the common space elevator. These massive devices tear a “shortcut” between two points in reality, then accelerating an object through. Requiring massive amounts of energy, these “warp lifts” tend to be more concealed than standard space elevators, but are generally more isolated from urban centers (thus losing efficiency) due to how dangerous they are to operate. Warp Lifts are usually stored in underground bunkers, and cannot rapidly engage their complicated systems, as time is needed for cool down and recharging.

Military Tech
Shields: Republic ships possess a modest layer of armor surrounded by a sustained two-layer energy shield. While one layer is better-suited for dealing with energy-based weapons, the other fares better against kinetic attacks. Advanced Republic shield-tech is extremely powerful, and involves a massive system of projectors slaved to a pair or trio of shipboard AI systems. These AI work to predict and react to enemy fire, and produce “overshields” in areas that are about to be hit, resulting in much-longer-lasting shields than on an average Republic ship. Usually, these systems are designed to deal with anti-capital ship fire, and allow standard shielding and point-defense to take care of fighter-level enemy firepower. Shields are also employed on some mechanized ground units, such as the AUG-37 Combat Suit and by the Shriekers.

Particle Cannons: Standard point-and-zap energy weapons. The most advanced models utilize pocket-dimensions as “storehouses” to charge beyond what their physical size and systems will allow. Other advanced particle cannon systems are intricately tied into the other systems of a host ship, allowing them to draw of energy from idle systems to increase firing speed, power, or both, depending on the amount of power drawn. Particle cannons tend to represent the bulk of any given vessel's armament.

Missile Pods: Heavy weapons loaded with numerous missiles that vary in power and number based on ship size, missile pods fire their payloads in large volleys in hopes of overwhelming enemy point-defenses with too-numerous targets. Most missiles employed by the Republic utilize a basic AI that allows the missile to survive longer against incoming fire.

Laser Arrays: Point-defense weapons. Positioned across the hulls of most capital ships, these multi-barreled devices turn and direct their numerous projectors in a wide range of angles to fire on enemy missiles and fighters. More advanced point-defense systems include more powerful lasers with better AI units that make anti-fighter/bomber work much simpler.

Naval Assets

Dreadnoughts
Overlord-class Dreadnought: Supermassive vessels designed to spearhead assaults, these ships are, due to their expense, rarely seen. Overlords balance weaponry, shielding, and fighter capabilities quite well, allowing the Overlord-class to perform well in many roles. The addition of interdiction gear makes escape from these hulking vessels difficult. (47 points: 45 base points, 2 interdiction)

Herilorn-class Dreadnought: Named for the horrific, tentacled swamp predator native to Nalthar, Herilorn-class ships are as fierce as their namesake, dedicating a great deal of technology to advanced heavy weaponry and making some concessions to electronic warfare to make it more difficult for other ships to fight back effectively. Herilorn-class dreadnoughts are best-suited to annihilating larger ships, and suffer somewhat against tiny ships and fightercraft as a result. (47 points: 40 base points, 5 anti-cap, 2 EW)

Battleships
Nova-class Battleship: Well-rounded ships with no remarkable advantages but no real weaknesses. Nova-class battleships can be deployed in almost any role that requires a big vessel. (32 points: 32 base points)

Tyrant-class Battleship: These vessels put an emphasis on killing their foes before they are killed themselves. As a result, they put a premium on larger weapons which specialize in attacking capital ships. (32 points: 30 base points, 2 anti-cap)

Spectre-class Battleship: A curious battleship, the Spectre-class invests in electronic warfare quite heavily. While slightly smaller and not as hard-hitting as other battleship classes, the Spectre can frustrate its foes with its EW capabilities. (32 points: 29 base points, 3 EW)

Battlecruisers
Dalmor-class Battlecruiser: The Dalmor-class is essentially the Nova-class's little brother: a very balanced vessel. These ships bridge the gap between smaller capital ships and the superheavies. (20 points: 20 base points)

Blade-class Battlecruiser: Less well-balanced than the Dalmor, the Blade-class is generally considered a more complex vessel, mixing advanced EW and large guns. They are, as a result, somewhat more difficult to produce. (21 points: 18 base points, 2 anti-cap, 1 EW)

Cruisers
Invincible-class Cruiser: One of the Republic's bread-and-butter ships, the Invincible-class appears in numbers to soak up a good deal of damage without going down. They also mount interdiction gear, giving them more time to take down their enemies with their smaller armaments. (14 points: 13 base points, 1 interdiction)

Bellicose-class Cruiser: Bellicose-class vessels are often simply called "boomers," a slang name derived from their emphasis on heavy weaponry. Bellicose-class cruisers aren't as effective as Invincible-class vessels against smaller targets, but deal much more damage to big ships. (14 points: 10 base points, 3 anti-cap, 1 FTL speed)

Inquisitor-class Cruiser: This vessel is the Republic's primary EW and anti-fighter cruiser. It doesn't pack the raw firepower of the Bellicose-class or the well-roundedness of the Invincible-class, but it can more than hold its own against many foes. (14 points: 10 base points, 2 EW, 2 point-defense)

Light Cruisers
Ungol-class Light Cruiser: Fairly well-balanced ships, Ungol-class light cruisers have a slight emphasis on big guns that puts them in a position to still be useful against bigger, meaner capital ships without sacrificing too much capability against small fries. (10 points: 9 base points, 1 anti-cap)

Wraith-class Light Cruiser: A quick ship with a nasty bite designed to respond to threats of varying kinds across the Republic. Often seen working with the meaner, thicker-skinned Bellicose-class, the Wraith is a well-balanced vessel. (10 points: 9 base points, 1 FTL speed)

Destroyers
Reliance-class Destroyer: A jack-of-all-trades, but a master of none. This vessel is a common, much-loved destroyer which serves a competent support ship. (5 points: 2 base points, 1 point-defense, 1 EW, 1 FTL speed)

Fury-class Destroyer: Ships designed largely around big anti-capital ship guns, Fury-class destroyers are best employed against larger craft. Foes who take the Fury-class lightly are in for a nasty surprise. (5 points: 3 base points, 2 anti-cap)

Independence-class Destroyer: Not yet in production, the Independence-class is nonetheless an approved design of the Republic military, designed to be somewhat more balanced than its alternatives in its abilities. (5 points)

Corvettes
Vigilance-class Patrol Ship: Tiny vessels with humble roles, Vigilance-class vessels are designed for speedy movement from place to place, where they put their small but potent arsenals to use in a variety of roles. (2 points: 1 base point, 1 FTL speed)

Lesser Vessels
Needle Dronefighter: Needle Dronefighters are the primary fightercraft carried by Republic military vessels. True to their name, they are narrow, long craft with exceptionally small profiles. Almost all of their volume is dedicated to either the single weapon, a light particle cannon, or the powerplant and engines. The use of drone brains not only saves space on the fighter, but allows for them to be packed with greater density aboard Republic ships. Needle Dronefighters are often thought of as the first line of point-defense on any Republic capital ship, swarming out of their hosts and utilizing superior numbers and mobility to overwhelm and destroy more resilient enemy fighters and bombers, as well as missiles. Needle Dronefighters lack advanced sensors, warp drives, or defenses of any sort: this allows them to remain small and cheap, but makes them quite dependent on their host ship.


Fleet Composition
Striker Fleet
1 Herilorn-class (Dreadnought; 47 pt.)
2 Tyrant-class (Battleships; 64 pt.)
2 Blade-class (Battlecruisers; 42 pt.)
5 Bellicose-class (Cruisers; 70 pt.)
2 Inquisitor-class (Cruisers; 28 pt.)
1 Wraith-class (Lt. Cruiser; 10 pt.)
3 Ungol-class (Lt. Cruisers; 30 pt.)
5 Fury-class (Destroyers; 25 pt.)
5 Vigilance-class (Corvettes; 10 pt.)
326 point fleet

Ironhull Fleet
1 Overlord-class (Dreadnought; 47 pt.)
2 Nova-class (Battleships; 64 pt.)
2 Dalmor-class (Battlecruisers; 40 pt.)
6 Invincible-class (Cruisers; 84 pt.)
2 Inquisitor-class (Cruisers; 28 pt.)
1 Wraith-class (Lt. Cruiser; 10 pt.)
2 Ungol-class (Lt Cruisers; 20 pt.)
5 Reliance-class (Destroyers; 25 pt.)
1 Fury-class (Destroyer; 5 pt.)
323 point fleet

Shadow Subfleet
1 Spectre-class (Battleship; 32 pt.)
1 Blade-class (Battlecruiser; 21 pt.)
4 Inquisitor-class (Cruisers; 56 pt.)
3 Bellicose-class (Cruisers; 42 pt.)
4 Reliance-class (Destroyers; 20 pt.)
171 point fleet

Defender Mobile Unit
5 Bellicose-class (Cruisers; 70 pt.)
3 Wraith-class (Lt. Cruiser; 30 pt.)
2 Reliance-class (Destroyers; 10 pt.)
110 point fleet

Watchman Mobile Unit
5 Bellicose-class (Cruisers; 70 pt.)
3 Wraith-class (Lt. Cruiser; 30 pt.)
2 Reliance-class (Destroyers; 10 pt.)
110 point fleet

Total Fleet Points: 1040

Planetary Holdings
A map of major planet locations within the Republic: common knowledge

Nalthar: The capital world of the Republic and the homeworld of the Khurl. Nalthar possesses eight continents, 2 of them polar, with the other six separated by large saltwater oceans. Nalthar's most populous regions are the swamps and jungles above and below the equator, where massive multitiered cities sit perched in the center of meticulously-cared-for wild lands. Nalthar is mineral-rich, possessing large amounts of uranium, iron, nickel, and copper. Planetary defenses are maintained by a grid of anti-capship and anti-lander weapons installations, as well as small STL police and interceptor craft. As the center of the Republic, Nalthar is home to the nation's most fervent supporters, as well as the Emperor himself. The growing of Sur-fruit on Nalthar is carefully regulated. As the center of the Republic, this planet does possess a large portion of the Republic's industrial base. Nalthar is a full member-world of the Republic, thus contributing 50 senators to the Republic Senate. (50 point world)

Norn: The second world to join the Republic, albeit through conquest and manipulation. Norn is located in a binary-star system, and this has contributed to the somewhat arid environment covering large portions of Norn. Possessing only 4 continents, one polar and the others quite massive, Norn is divided up by oceans that are somewhat smaller than average. Norn also has far less fresh water than most life-spawning worlds, and the Republic citizens occupying it have come to carefully purify contaminated water and make use of desalinization plants to further bolster water resources. Norn's populations are concentrated in two areas: the majority of Shultakk settlements in semiarid areas where mineral resources are extremely rich, and the capital of the world in one of the largest continent's semitropical regions, where Khurl military and government officials feel somewhat more at home. As one of the founding worlds of the Glorious Republic, Norn is well-defended, well-supplied, and thus extremely loyal. Defense of the Shultakk mother-world makes far more use of orbital gun platforms than Nalthar, but also makes uses of terrestrial defense grids and STL patrol ships. Sur-fruit grows easily on Norn despite the generally arid climate, ensuring a steady food supply for emergencies. Norn is one of the Republic's primary factory-worlds, and a full member of the Republic. (30 point world)

Sur: Home of the Gharn and the Sur-fruit, Sur is a world of massive oceans and a single moderate-sized continent. This continent is quite tropical, with semitropical regions to the north and south, and a more arid band near the equator. Recovering from a devastating infestation of the original Sur-fruit, Sur's biodiversity, especially for a jungle-covered world, leaves something to be desired. Fortunately, the experience of the Khurl in dealing with delicate environments and the Gharn eagerness to learn is insuring that the world is well on the way to recovering, even as it becomes host to highly-advanced species. Because of the relatively small amount of land available, Sur is host to several undersea cities and mining facilities, where Khurl, Gharn, and Shultakk work together for a more powerful Republic. Carefully-regulated engineering of meaty foods occurs on Sur, making actual livestock herds quite uncommon, save for those who prefer a rustic lifestyle separated from the Republic. Sur-fruit, in a much more benign form than once inhabited the planet, is grown exclusively in undersea cities, ensuring that war will not see the strange fungus seize Sur in its grip ever again. Almost all of Sur's defenses consist of orbital defense platforms and STL interceptor vessels. Sur possesses little heavy industry, and is one of the Republic's full member-worlds. (30 point world)

Ellorn: Roughly translated to “desolate,” this planet is well-named. Hosting no native life, Ellorn is home only to massive strip mining operations and immense shipyards. It is located in the same system as Nalthar, and did contribute some resources to the conquering of Norn, when its colony was new. Ellorn is not as well-defended as other worlds, but holds its own with mixed terrestrial and orbital defenses. Most of the planet's population make their home in underground cities, who survive on the revenue made from mining and shipbuilding ops. Nonetheless, Ellorn's population is quite low. It is a partial member-world of the Republic, and thus elects 25 senators instead of 50. (20 point world)

Tranquility: An Earth-like planet, Tranquility appears to have once been host to a civilization that had just been entering its Industrial Age. Now it is home to billions of citizens of the Republic, and serves a variety of diverse roles, from industry to research. Its defense is handled similarly to but on a much smaller scale than Nalthar's. Tranquility is a full member-world. (15 point world)

Minor Planets: These 5 worlds come in various flavors and serve various, generalized roles within the Republic. Three (Shuss, Anvil, A Place) are full member-worlds, while the other two (Outreach, Colmer) are partial member-worlds. Each world is equally well-defended, though full member-worlds see reinforcements and resources first. (5 point worlds)

Minor Holdings: Comms posts, asteroid belts, commercial space stations. The occasional small-scale military outpost. These numerous points of Republic ownership flux in and out of use, and are defended by the fleet. (0 points)

Total Planets: 10
Total Points: 170


Misc. Points of Note
Elite Ground Forces: The Republic's ground forces are highly trained, highly skilled, and completely merciless. Each member-race is deployed in a way that takes advantages of their natural mental and physical advantages. (130 points)

Internal Security: The Republic's spies and spooks are skilled and heartless, acting in the best interest of the Republic. They carefully monitor immigration, for example. Undesirable citizens (cult members or leaders, religious fanatics, known foreign dissidents, major criminals) are denied citizenship. Known spies are apprehended, pumped for information, and sent home in convenient plastic tubs along with recordings of their torture. Digital espionage is similarly difficult, due to the Republic's complex AIs. (110 points)

Propaganda Mastery: The Republic works hard to show its society as the best society: the most well-fought civil war is the one that never occurs. Propaganda departments also work to deceive foreign nations about the inner workings of the Republic. All of this makes it difficult to conquer Republic worlds through word alone. The Khurl, whom fashioned the Republic, have a very violent attitude towards foreign invasion of their worlds, having underwent such an invasion themselves. All member-races, but especially the Khurl, will resort to anything to fight occupation forces, including the spread of disease and the torture and execution of captured enemy civilians and soldiers. (40 points)

Advanced Medicine: Because of the virulent nature of the Khurl, the Republic has been required to develop its medicine to a great degree, making biological warfare involving the spread of disease somewhat less effective than it would be otherwise. The Republic's advanced medical science also means longer lifespans and healthier bodies for citizens of their nation. (10 points)

Total Points: 290

Other
Law: Republic law is a complex and extremely stern system, and its proper and fair enforcement has been, since the Republic's founding, of vital federal interest and importance. Criminal cases are ruled over by a judge, who deals out sentences and acts as a sort of referee between the prosecution and defense. The antagonizer is a neutral lawyer employed by the federal government to criticize the arguments of both the defense and the prosecution, so as to ensure that a jury of peers (consisting of 30 individuals chosen at random by a computer) is not deceived by tricks employed by either side. With the exception of crimes carrying a death penalty or life in prison, each accused is granted only one trial. Those who stand accused of crimes carrying a death penalty or life in prison are automatically given two trials by two entirely different juries, judges, and antagonizers. If a "tie" occurs, a third trial is held. The Republic is very critical of its judges and antagonizers: those who accept bribes in their official capacities or show inexcusable bias in their official behavior face the death penalty.

The Imperial Family: The citizens of the Republic are, almost without exception, atheists. Religion is typically taught as and regarded as a simplistic attempt to explain the universe at best, and a social control system for the stupid at worst. Because of this, most citizens of the Republic hold those who have strong faiths in mild contempt, though such attitudes are usually not revealed, particularly in diplomatically sensitive situations. The citizens of the Glorious Republic do, however, have a "god" of sorts: this is the Imperial Majesty, the Emperor or Empress. Since the bloody foundations of the Republic, each Imperial Majesty has taken it upon him or herself to produce as many offspring as possible. Careful programs of eugenics cull the weak and emphasize useful characteristics and personality traits. Children who make it to birth are carefully pitted against one another in various arenas. Fierce indoctrination programs place a premium on selflessness, careful planning, emotional detatchment, and yielding to the superior specimen. The spawn who demonstrates the most ability invariably inherits the stand upon the current Imperial Majesty's death, retirement, or yielding to a specimen he or she considers superior. The end result of all of this careful building is an ideal Khurl: a selfless, dedicated embodiment of the Republic and its myriad of laws, a calculating being who lives to advance his nation, just as much its slave as its master. The surviving specimens, the Imperial Majesty's siblings, invariably become the new Majesty's trusted personal aides, serving in roles in the civil authority, diplomatic corps, army, and navy. Others end up in the State Secuirty Bureau, serving as department heads and dangerous spymasters. In the event that the Emperor or Empress should die before a successor has been sufficiently trained, the second-best specimen from the last generation inherits the stand. Sibling infighting is literally unheard of, a rude and ghastly joke: the idea of depriving the Republic of the best leader possible for no reason but personal ambition is physically revolting to these Khurl. Indeed, a given generation of the Imperial Family is so close that the Majesty's siblings often know his or her will without even having to consult him or her. While the Senate frequently finds itself eyed suspiciously by the citizenry, the Imperial Majesty is almost universally loved and respected. The Emperor or Empress is the Republic's absolute authority on right and wrong, a final arbiter of justice, a literal avatar of the Republic. The Imperial Majesty is ultimately key to the survival of the Republic, as the citizens are able to rest assured that whatever the machinations of the senate, their leader has been literally bred to see to it that the Republic serves its citizens as they serve it. This level of assurance in their leader causes many to regard the Imperial Majesty as an almost parental figure, a being whose caring is unquestionable. There are few natural-born Republic citizens who have any tolerance for those who wish ill for their leader.

[R.O.A]

The Confederate States of Kietal
The Confederate States of Kietal
Introduction
The CSK is a decentralized, Loosely tied collection of worlds ruled by the Kietal Clan, a mysterious group of nomads that moves itself frequently from world to world. It is difficult to tell where the clan of rulers begins and where it ends and politics within the CSK tend to be confusing. The Clan grants its member worlds the freedom of self rule under most circumstances but ultimately control the various governments created by the worlds. The member states are granted protection from the Kietal Clan in exchange for allowing the clan to control most of there economic and military decisions.

Worlds
Kietal Prime:
The home world of the Kietal. Nearly one fourth of the Kietal Clan resides on Kietal at any given time. It is largest industrial and economic center of the Confederacy. Because of the large amount of Clan members on Kietal Prime the clan takes great care in allocating defenses to this world. (100 points)
Population: 1 Trillion

Korhal:
A barren, desert world with a vast ocean of an unusual oil like substance called Disenium. Fuel from Korhal is highly valuable to the CSK. Several cities exist on its shores that pump oil the rest of the planet via thousands of miles of underground pipelines. Korhal is highly important to the clan for this reason and a complex system of anti-orbital Ion cannons has been built for its defense. (100 point value)
Population: 1 Billion

Metria:
An agricultural world orbited by three moons. It lies close to Koumbix and is similar in structure. Most of the populations lives on the main super continent known as Tibel.
Population: 200 Million

Koumbix:
Koumbix is an ocean world with hundreds of volcanic islands. There is a substantial amount of Disenium drilling operations within the depths of its oceans.
Population: 200 Million

Aside from those four worlds there are several smaller colonies and mining operations within the Confederacy.

Ship Classes
The CSKN (Confederate States of Kietal) is controlled directly by the Kietal and the member worlds are required to contribute to it depending on what they have available to them.



Ghost Class Patrol Ship (10 points)

Used by the Kietal Clan to move covertly through the Confederacy and engage small targets such as pirates. They have cloaking devices to mask there presence and advanced engines that allow them to travel faster than most ships.

Each Ghost is armed with two forward torpedo tubes and a compliment of anti-matter missiles. Additionally Ghosts are outfitted with automatic turrets which are effective against high speed enemies like fighters or missles.

10 points (7 points + 3 Point Defense)
Equipped with Stealth Generator

Banshee Class Cruiser (20)

The Banshee common sight in the CSKN. Its common role is to escort high value targets and patrol important shipping lanes. The Banshee is responsible for destroying large numbers of pirate vessels and its red hull is a well known symbol of the CSK.

Banshee’s are armed with two missile tubes as well as four ion cannon turrets on each of its broad sides.

20 Points (15 points + 5 point defense)

Specter Class Assault Carrier (50)

The Specter is the largest ship in the CSKN. Each Specter carries several hundred star fighters flown by the elite pilots of the Kietal Clan. Spectors are not meant to engage enemies directly and are often protected by Banshee Cruisers. The fighters that Specter’s launch carry high powered burst lasers for dog fighting as well as anti ship torpedo’s for hitting capitol ships. Spector’s represent the very best of Confederate technology and carry advanced transporters that can rearm fighters in flight and energy-to-mass conversion systems that regularly create more ordinances for the fighters they launch

50 Points (45+5 EW)



Fleet Displacement
Kietal Fleet
4 Spector Carriers
10 Banshee’s
5 Ghosts

Korhal Fleet
4 Spector Carriers
10 Banshee’s
5 Ghosts

Home Defense Fleet
2 Spector Carriers
5 Banshee’s
10 Ghosts



MISC
Because of the secrecy of the Kietal Clan, it is very difficult for outsiders of the Confederacy to infiltrate them (+70 Internal Security)

The Kietal Clan’s control over there territories coupled with there brilliant minds and dark powers give them the ability to sustain strong insurgencies against foreign attackers (+30 Insurgency Fighting)

Grand Total: 1500 points

[White Haven]

The League of Thought

History:

Awakening in the midst of an orbital bombardment is bound to ruin anyone's disposition. This is somewhat more true if the 'anyone' in question is a batch of experimental combat psykers nearing completion during the tail end of the Empire Wars. The first members of the modern League were baptized by fire in the most literal sense, fusion warheads raining from orbit all across the planet they were being developed on. Over eighty percent of the first run died in the initial firestorm, but those who survived were quite simply those who were capable of manifesting a shield capable of warding off the blast wave and radiation of a direct hit by a multi-megaton bombardment missile. The bombarding fleet did not survive to rectify their mistake.

The children were not alone in the masoleum of the civilization that birthed them, surrounded by ashes, death, and blasted wasteland, and many of the survivors died of exposure, or were driven mad by the pain of their awakening and attacked each other. Only a small number survived more than a day after the attack, but they numbered the strongest of the crop, both in terms of mental stability and psionic power. The survivors commandeered one of the few semi-intact vessels of the fleet that had murdered their birthplace, one that had merely had the minds of its crew crushed, and departed, taking what bits of their parent civilization they could salvage.

Lacking any home to return to or any knowledge of a safe haven to retreat to, the toughened survivors of a murdered planet turned to the option that simmered close to the thoughts of each one of them. They set out towards the nearest naval base identified in their stolen prize's records, and attacked it swiftly and without warning. Within a month, the remaining military of the small nation had been burned to ash, and the victors sat astride its capitol in an appropriated battleship, systematically annihilating the minds of each and every sentient being on the planet below. Centuries later, a small, precarious civilization makes its home in the corpse of its mother's killers, barely hanging on for all the power displayed by the descendents of the original survivors.

Worlds:

The sporadic nature of its small network of colonies is simply a result of the traumatic nature of childhood in the League. After nearly facing annihilation as its first generation of offspring entered puberty, the League began the process of exiling entire segments of its population to uninhabitted worlds, prepared with facilities and supplied from orbit. The survivors, always few, of the violent awakening and mastering of their powers would be picked up only when an unmanned vessel could land and remain untouched for a full week, a time period considered sufficient to ensure that all surviving inhabitants had at least basic control of the awesome destructive forces inherent in their minds. The number of League colony worlds thus fluctuates from as few as six to as many as ten at any given point in, as mature citizens are brought back to the homeworld and yearlings sent out to mature out of the reach of the attendant collateral damage.

-Requiem (100 points)
The captured homeworld of the League looks, to almost any inspection, undefended. No planetary shield generators dot the surface of the world, no missile batteries crouch atop decapitated mountains. No battlestations lurk in low orbit, no minefields protect the approaches to the world. But it's defended by an entire planetary population of weaponized psykers. You do the goddamn math.

Murderous Rage:

The most violent, most potent minds in the League gravitate towards Murderous Rage, the rough approximation of the military maintained by most polities. Once so identified, their powers are honed by like-minded mentors, encouraged to focus on their best areas, developing into mental weapons of the highest calibre. Without exception, this training is done on uninhabitted colony worlds, preferably ones that haven't yet been rebuilt from the last group of children to graduate from them, so as to avoid damaging pristine property. Their ships are little more than transports for their lethal cargo, providing living space, engines, sensors, and the like. They're minimalist structures, lightly constructed to avoid interfering with their crews as much as possible. On the ground, they're simply themselves, nothing more really needs to be said.

-And The Sky Rained Fire (500 points)
The ground combat arm of the League identifies itself via a mental projection of individuals, encased in globes of burning light, falling throug a cloud layer. Those who identify with the Murderous Rage mind-clade and possess the combination of raw destructive force, physical defenses, mental communication, and telekinesis needed for an effective League planetary warrior form the core of any ground operation. Collateral damage is high, although not so much as an all-out orbital bombardment, and survivors of an attack are often brain-dead or close to it.

-Hot Needle of Inquiry (50 points)
The inquisitorial arm of Murderous Rage is perhaps its most feared, identified by a mental image of a thin line of white psyker-fire a bare few millimeters away from a wide open human eye. While not much for subtle mental trickery, some of the members of Murderous Rage exhibit lower-level destructive abilities, coupled with fine control of those same abilities, that make them exceptionally well-suited as interrogators. Very few individuals subjected to such interrogations fail to divulge their secrets, but even fewer survive the process with a fully intact mind; most emerge mentally and/or emotionally scarred, some emerge mindless, and some fully demised.

-Fury of the Void
The 'naval' side of the League, as much as it can be called that, is properly identified by a mental image of a human figure standing on the hull of a ship, hurling light outwards into space. It's comprised of those affiliates of Murderous Rage who find that they can manifest some combination of long-range psionic attack, exceedingly strong shielding, esper-sense, and strong telekinesis. They are typically deployed in simple transports, making up the offensive and defensive systems of the ships with their own minds. Cooperation under the direction of a single mind is by far the most difficult aspect of training for new members, given the individualistic nature of the League's society, but it's one of the few inflexible requirements for admission.

--Phoenix Rising (50 points)
The most potent assembly of psionic power in the Fury of the Void is always identified by an image of figures rising from the surface of a scorched planet, surrounded by flaming avian silhouettes, in memory of the founders of the nation. More than one bitter feud has raged between rival groups over the years for the right to claim the image, but one thing has never changed: the mental power available to any grouping identifying itself thus has never known any equal.

--Born of Ashes (45 points)
After one particularly intense rivalry for the Phoenix Rising title, the displaced rival took as its own icon an image of an enormous bird, wings outstretched, sitting low on a blasted plain, glimmers of firelight shining through the thick coat of ash covering it. While the image doesn't carry with it the same amount of prestige and pride as that of the rising phoenix, time has seen it mature into a respectable, potent role that is closely tied to that of its more illustrious counterpart, to the point that in one incarnation, two groups of psykers traded the two images back and forth several times throughout their careers.

--And Hell Followed With Him (40 points)
An image taken from one of the more vivid passages of a storybook recovered from the wreckage of the League's cradle, it depicts a trip of crouched men, dark red flames sliding upwards off of them in slow motion. This image is not an exclusive one, instead encompassing a number of the most potent psyker groups numbered among Fury of the Void.

--Orangutan Death Squadron (25 points)
The second tier of the Fury of the Void forces is identified by a somewhat more bizarre mental image than the rest of the grouping: an orangutan made entirely of fire leaping forewards towards the viewpoint. While they might be the least potent psionic amalgamations operating in the spaceborne arm of Murderous Rage, they are by no means weak, they're simply the least powerful force that can typically survive the intense competitive atmosphere within Fury of the Void; most most others fragment and blend with And The Sky Rained Fire rather than remain. The image's inherent oddity reflects the fact that even the groupings that remain at this level tend to be the least mentally stable ones, due to the intense strain of trying to keep pace with their more potent brethren.

Order of Battle (Rough, subject to change as groupings dissolve and reform)
-1x Phoenix Rising (50 points)
-1x Born of Ashes (45 points)
-9x And Hell Followed With Him (360 points)
-14x Orangutan Death Squadron (350 points)

[Shinn Langley Soryu]

Congress of Colonial Settlements

A Brief History

The Congress of Colonial Settlements is a byproduct of the Chinese civil war, the reestablishment of the Chinese Empire, and its subsequent war of conquest across Asia and the Pacific.

During the civil war proper, millions of Chinese refugees fled to other parts of Asia and Oceania, with the bulk ending up in Japan, the Philippines, Australia, and the United States; once the newly-reformed Chinese Empire began its war of conquest, Russians, Koreans, Vietnamese, Cambodians, Laotians, Thais, Singaporeans, Malaysians, and Indonesians (among a great many others) soon found themselves among the ever-growing masses of refugees. With the Empire knocking on their doorsteps, the Japanese, Philippine, Australian, and American governments threw together a desperate plan to resettle as many refugees offworld as humanly possible by cramming them into sleeper ships and sending them off into the endless void of outer space. American involvement dropped off quickly as it crumpled under the burden of its own religious civil war and sought to evacuate its own citizens first to its own colonies; despite this, Japan, the Philippines, and Australia diligently kept on launching sleeper ships until they all capitulated to the Empire.

Despite the rushed, slapdash nature of the sleeper ships' construction and launch, all of them managed to arrive at their designated destinations without incident, with the first of them arriving shortly after the Chinese Empire was reorganized into the Hegemony of Heavens. The three worlds that were initially settled by the refugees would eventually come to be known simply as New Japan, New Australia, and New Indochina, largely out of reverence of the lost homelands of the vast majority of the exiles; though they initially lived within isolation of each other, the three colonies managed to reestablish contact with each other in an astonishing six years due to rapid redevelopment of space travel.

By the time the last of the sleeper ships arrived, the number of main settlements had doubled to six, with at least three minor colonies and numerous other settlements scattered throughout the domain that the future Congress of Colonial Settlements would claim as its own. At the time, this somewhat disparate confederation of worlds was known simply by the rather unwieldy moniker of "Colonial Alliance of Freedom Treaty Organization." Even with such a treaty in place, this erstwhile alliance often found itself tested by various disputes, all of which faded in response to the discovery of non-human life in the systems outside the Alliance's domain. Following a widespread panic sparked by fears of a possible alien invasion, the dissident factions buried their grievances and joined the Alliance; as it grew in power and influence, the Colonial Alliance of Freedom Treaty Organization was soon reformed into its current incarnation as the Congress of Colonial Settlements.

Government and Territories

President: Elizabeth Anne Mitsuishi

The government of the Congress of Colonial Settlements is a representative federal democracy closely modeled on the old American system of government, in which a popularly elected President holds executive power, a presidentially-appointed Supreme Court holds judicial power, and a regionally elected bicameral Parliament holds legislative power. The six primary colonies and three secondary colonies receive representation in both houses of Parliament (population-based representation in the lower and equal representation in the upper), while the rest of the settlements that comprise the CCS are entitled to a number of non-voting observers in both houses. Daily management of the Congress' affairs is mostly delegated towards the federal bureaucracy, led by the respective departments of the Presidential Cabinet, and the individual colonial governments. General elections are held every four years.

Primary Colonies

• New Australia: One of the three founding colonies, it is notable for its vast deserts, numerous oases, and extremely rich mineral wealth. Its capital is New Canberra. Population is approximately 2 billion. [+25 defenses]
• New Indochina: The second founding colony, it is covered in vegetation and noted for its extremely lush jungles and rough seas; despite the massive human presence on its surface, it is largely unspoiled due to highly stringent conservation policies. Its two capitals are New Hanoi (executive and judicial) and New Saigon (legislative). Population is approximately 7 billion. [+25 defenses]
• New Japan: The third founding colony, it is known for its cold climate, mountainous terrain, ice-covered oceans, and large cities. Its capital is Tokyo Kai. Population is approximately 12 billion. [+25 defenses]
• New Malaya: A tropical water world with numerous islands of varying sizes, all covered in verdant jungles. Extremely rich in petroleum. Its capital is New Singapore. Population is approximately 2 billion. [+25 defenses]
• New Korea: Similar to New Japan in terms of geography and climate. Its capital is New Seoul. Population is approximately 6.5 billion. [+25 defenses]
• Nuevas Filipinas: Similar to New Malaya in terms of geography and climate.Its capital is New Manila. Population is approximately 6 billion. [+25 defenses]

Secondary Colonies

• New Formosa: A temperate water world with mountainous, heavily forested islands. Its capital is New Taipei. Population is approximately 2.5 billion. [+15 defenses]
• New Thailand: A tropical forest world with thick jungles, scenic beaches, good weather, and calm seas. Popular tourist attraction for CCS citizens. Its capital is New Bangkok. Population is approximately 6 billion. [+15 defenses]
• New Mongolia: A temperate grassland world with expansive steppes and good weather. Well-suited for agriculture. Its capital is New Ulan Bataar. Population is approximately 2.5 billion. [+15 defenses]

Other Settlements

• Spratly and Paracel Stations: Jointly administered by New Indochina, New Malaya, and Nuevas Filipinas. Both are tropical water worlds with rich fishing grounds and generous mineral wealth. Population is approximately 400 million each. [+5 defenses each]
• Liancourt Station: Jointly administered by New Japan and New Korea. An arctic planet with expansive mountain ranges, massive glaciers and ice sheets, and stormy weather. Population is approximately 300 million. [+5 defenses]
• Kuril Station: Jointly administered by New Japan and New Korea. A sub-arctic water world with multiple heavily forested islands and comparable to Spratly and Paracel in terms of fisheries and mineral wealth; it is noted as being the most volcanically active planet in the CCS. Its capital is Karafuto Kai. Population is approximately 300 million. [+5 defenses]

Demographics

The Congress of Colonial Settlements is 100% human. Its ethnic breakdown is presented as follows:

• 36% Chinese
• 9% Japanese
• 9% Korean
• 9% Filipino
• 9% Thai
• 9% Vietnamese
• 5% white (mostly American, Australian, and Russian)
• 2.5% Indian (mostly Tamil)
• 2.5% Indonesian
• 2.5% Malaysian
• 2.5% Cambodian
• 2.5% Laotian
• 1.5% other (mostly African, Australian Aborigine, and Hispanic/Latino)

Languages

English, Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Tagalog, Thai, and Vietnamese are the official languages of the CCS; English is used as the language of administration and the first language medium in the CCS educational system. The dialect of English used is primarily American English, despite significant Australian influence.

Augments/Coordinators

All CCS citizens have been genetically engineered to be physically and mentally superior to their baseline human relatives; while the official government term is "Augment," the general public tends to refer to themselves as "Coordinators" (albeit somewhat flippantly). As a rule, Augments/Coordinators are roughly five times stronger than their natural human kin, with immunity to most known poisons and diseases, lung efficiency 50% greater than normal, a vastly increased learning capacity, and an extended lifespan.

Diclonii and Newtypes

Tampering with the genome of the Congress of Colonial Settlements has yielded two peculiar developments: the subsets of humanity known as diclonii and Newtypes, respectively.

"Diclonius," a term derived from the anime Elfen Lied, is used to describe a subset of the CCS population with highly developed telekinetic powers. The one distinguishing physical feature of a diclonius is a pair of rounded horns emanating out of the skull, which bear an uncanny resemblance to cat ears. Diclonii telekinesis is facilitated by the use of "vectors," or incorporeal arms that extend out of their backs; these vectors have varying range (generally 2-4 metres, with 10 being the maximum) and are many times stronger than the actual human body, enabling diclonii to lift objects many times their own weight and dismember their foes by pulling them apart. Unlike their namesakes, however, the few diclonii in the CCS are widely accepted by the general public. Approximately 10% of all CCS citizens possess diclonius traits.

Approximately 20% of all CCS citizens possess extra-sensory perception, usually in the form of precognition and heightened spatial awareness but also extending to telepathy and even limited clairvoyance. Such individuals are colloquially known as "Newtypes," after similar individuals encountered in the Mobile Suit Gundam anime franchise; however, it should be noted that CCS Newtypes possess significantly greater ESP powers than their Gundam namesakes.

Technology

General Tech

• Power production: The standard power production unit in the Congress of Colonial settlements is the nuclear fusion reactor. Numerous improvements and refinements to this technology have allowed for fusion plants to be used in powering even tanks and powered armor.
• Gravitational tech: Inertial compensators and artificial gravity are standard refinements on all CCS spaceships. Hover technology has seen limited use on terrestrial vehicles, but conventional methods of propulsion are still favored.
• Faster-than-light tech: All FTL propulsion and communications are on par with the interstellar standard.
• Genetic engineering: Genetic engineering is obviously quite advanced in the CCS, seeing as its entire population is made up of genetic supermen.
• Cybernetics: Cybernetic augmentation inspired by the Ghost in the Shell model is quite widespread among CCS citizens.
  
  The most common of these enhancements are cyberbrains, which entail the integration of electronic components into a standard human brain; such augmentation increases the affected individual's neural capabilities beyond their already-expanded natural boundaries, particularly in the areas of data processing and neurokinetics. Cyberbrains allow the brain to initiate and maintain connections with computer networks and other people with similar implants; entering "autistic mode" shuts off all networking ability, thus securing a cyberbrain from intrusion. After undergoing neural cyberization, a person can be transferred to a new cyberbrain if need be; if an individual also has a ready supply of full-body prosthetics, he/she can extend his lifespan significantly. Possible risks include hacking and alteration of memories and sensory inputs, but these drawbacks are minor at best; the standard cyberbrain is hardened against all but the most determined of attackers. Newtypes and diclonii retain full use of their psionic abilities with cyberbrain implants.
  
  An amputee in the CCS has ready access to a variety of quality cybernetic replacement limbs. Perfectly healthy individuals also have the option of replacing their limbs with cybernetic components; in some occupational fields (namely military and law enforcement), partial-body cyberization is highly desired and sometimes even required. In extraordinary circumstances, full-body cyberization is available, which essentially boils down to replacing the entire body with a cybernetic construct.
• Scanners: CCS space is covered with an vast and extremely tight network of tactical and strategic scanner platforms, which fulfill the dual purpose of tracking fleet movements and intercepting communications. CCS scanner platforms are quite fragile and can be disabled with a simple attack; however, the sheer number of them in distribution makes many of them redundant, and the platforms themselves are easily repaired and replaced. [+30 tracking/SIGINT]
• Communications security: All CCS computer and communications networks are hardened, firewalled, and encrypted to a highly paranoid degree. Tapping into a CCS comms network is highly difficult due to the fact that all data is transmitted via small, coded signal probes (and in multiple languages, no less); even if anything of note is extracted, good luck trying to figure out which Japanese, Tagalog, and Vietnamese terms mean what (think a more convoluted version of Navajo code-talking). Cyberbrain implants are surprisingly resistant to tampering; if disconnecting from a network via autistic mode isn't sufficient, the firewalls will take care of any other intrusions. [+20 encryption and communications security]
• Damage control techniques: All CCS technology is built to high and exacting standards for durability, damage control, and ease of repair. A standard CCS capital ship can be repaired out in the field, though such procedures are not combat effective due to the sheer length of time it would take in most hostile situtations. [+10 damage control]

Weapons Tech

• Kinetic energy weapons: Coilguns see plenty of use among the Congressional Space Command. The standard 100cm coilgun mounted on the Saber class battleship is capable of propelling a standard antimatter shell at speeds up to .4c; the heavy coilguns used to defend Congressional worlds can propel significantly heavier antimatter rounds at up to double that speed on average.
  
  Railguns are most commonly encountered with the forces of the Ground Command and with Space Command marines, where they are used as artillery, anti-aircraft, anti-armor, and anti-personnel weapons. Railguns are also used by Space Command ships as point defense weapons. Most railguns in CCS service fire standard depleted uranium or tungsten carbide ammo; Ground Command railguns sometimes use more esoteric ammo, such as fusion warheads for artillery, antimatter rounds for anti-armor and anti-air roles, and even frozen mercury slivers for specialized anti-personnel roles.
• Weapons of mass destruction: Nuclear weapons see extremely wide use among both branches of the Congressional military; fusion is the reaction of choice, with fission in general being viewed as too dirty and inefficient for any practical use. Nukes used by Ground Command vary widely in terms of yield, ranging from low-yield micro-warheads used as railgun artillery ammo to extremely high-yield, missile-deployed city destroyers. Space Command deploys nukes across all levels of organization, with everything from fighter craft to capital ships equipped with high-yield nuclear missiles primarily for anti-ship use; nukes are also a staple of Space Command planetary defense platforms.
  
  Chemical, biological, and radiological weaponry are all utilized liberally by the Congressional Ground Command, particularly in scorched earth and annihilation campaigns.
• Directed energy weapons: Charged particle guns, sonic weaponry, and lasers of all sorts (microwave, visual light, X-ray, and gamma ray) are the directed energy weapons of choice for the Congress of Colonial Settlements.
  
  Ion cannons are as ubiquitious as nuclear missiles on Space Command ships and defense platforms and are typically used to disable ships so that they can be destroyed more easily.
  
  Sonic weaponry is used exclusively by Ground Command forces and Space Command marines. While typically used to incapacitate enemy combatants, CCS sonic weapons can easily be converted to be extremely destructive, particularly against structures and massed infantry.
  
  Traditional visual light lasers are used as fighter weapons and point defense guns on capital ships. X-ray and gamma ray lasers are often used as heavy capital ship weapons alongside coilguns; the Wendee Lee class frigate and Char Aznable class destroyer both pack batteries of X-ray lasers, while the Ichigo Kurosaki class cruiser and Saber class battleship both use gamma ray lasers. Masers have found a wide variety of applications with Ground Command and the Space Command marine corps, usually as anti-personnel and anti-vehicle weapons.
  
  Research has been conducted on using plasma as a weapons medium, with varying degrees of success. The first and only successful plasma weapon in the CCS arsenal is the Yamato cannon, named after a similar weapon in StarCraft; the Yamato cannon uses an intense magnetic field to focus plasma into a coherent beam of energy, with suitably destructive results (and high power consumption to match). Currently, the Saber class battleship and Haruhi Suzumiya class carrier are the only ships capable of mounting Yamato cannons; work is being performed on adapting the technology for use with the Ichigo Kurosaki class cruiser and Char Aznable class destroyer.

Military

Congressional Ground Command

• Chairperson of the Joint Chiefs of Staff: Marshal Vivian Nguyen
• Army Chief of Staff: Field Marshal Edward del Real
• Air Force Chief of Staff: Marshal of the Air Force Michael Nishikawa
• Chief of Naval Operations: Fleet Admiral Heather Susan Herrera
• Commandant of the Marine Corps: Field Marshal Mari Obata

The Congressional Ground Command comprises all terrestrial armed forces (army, air force, navy, and marines) under CCS jurisdiction. Though Ground Command does not receive as much funding as Space Command does, it is still one of the most highly trained and best equipped forces in known space nonetheless.

The Ground Command Army and Marine Corps are the senior services of Ground Command and thus receive most of the funding and equipment allocated to the CGC. While their infantry are definitely a force to be feared, their true strength lies in their armor and mechanized infantry. Their respective roles tend to be somewhat self-explanatory, with the Marines being seen as elite shock troopers and black operatives and the Army being seen as the rank-and-file of ground ops.

The Ground Command Air Force is the CCS' next line of defense in the rare event that Space Command fails to defend a Congressional planet. Equipped with high-altitude atmospheric interceptors and armed with anti-spaceship weapons, the Air Force is tasked with destroying troop transports, raiding capital ships, and providing close-air support for terrestrial operations.

The Ground Command Navy is the most neglected of all of the forces in the Congressional Armed Forces, but that doesn't say much. Its aircraft carriers are used as support bases for GCAF fighters, while its battleships, cruisers, destroyers, frigates, and submarines are used to support ground-based operations.

[+30 ground combat]

Congressional Space Command

• Chairperson of the Joint Chiefs of Staff: Flag Admiral Hope Samantha Hernandez
• Chief of Naval Operations: Fleet Admiral Helen Stephanie Hwang
• Commandant of the Marine Corps: Field Marshal Aleksandra Santos

The Congressional Space Command comprises all space-based forces (navy and marine corps) under CCS jurisdiction.

The Congressional Space Command Marine Corps is indistinguishable from its Ground Command counterpart, save for the name. Space Marines are tasked with boarding actions, defending Space Navy bases, and supporting Ground Command in landing and defensive actions; they are viewed as the elite of the elite, even among the Ground Command Marines.

The Congressional Space Command Navy is the premiere arm of the entire Congressional Armed Forces and is renowned for being one of the best-trained and heaviest-armed fleets in all of known space. While primarily a defensive force, it can easily be turned to offensive purposes if need be.

Congressional Space Command Ship Classes

5 x Haruhi Suzumiya class carrier [+40 combat, +5 interdiction, +5 EW; +50 per unit; +250 total]
Haruhi Suzumiya, Kyon, Yuki Nagato, Mikuru Asahina, Itsuki Koizumi
Powerplant: 3 x capital fusion plant
Weapons: 24 x laser/railgun CIWS battery, 4 x 20cm ion cannon, 4 x 80cm coilgun, 4 x 20cm X-ray laser, 2 x 20cm gamma ray laser, 2 x 20-cell thermonuclear missile launcher, 1 x Yamato cannon
CSG: 500 x fighter, AWACS, scout, and bomber craft
Description: The Haruhi Suzumiya class carrier represents the pinnacle of Congressional capital ship development. While it is capable of holding its own in direct ship-to-ship combat, its true strength lies in its fighter complement; in the rare event that a Suzumiya appears on the battlefield, only the strongest foes can hope to prevail against its fighter swarms without being completely annihilated or at the very least sustaining heavy losses. Its massive size and generator capacity allows it to mount powerful shields, carry a decent electronic warfare suite, and field powerful sensors and engines; it even comes equipped with an interdiction field generator (useful for pinning down enemies so they may be picked apart by fighters) and a high-yield plasma cannon (in case the fighters don't get the job done completely).
Haruhi Suzumiya class carriers are, predictably enough, named after characters from the anime The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.

7 x Saber class battleship [+20 combat, +2 anti-capship, +4 interdiction, +4 EW; +30 per unit; +210 total]
Saber, Archer, Lancer, Rider, Caster, Berserker, Assassin
Powerplant: 2 x capital fusion plant
Weapons: 16 x laser/railgun CIWS battery, 8 x 20cm ion cannon, 16 x 100cm coilgun, 16 x 20cm gamma ray laser, 4 x 20-cell thermonuclear missile launcher, 1 x Yamato cannon
Description: The big stick of the Space Command fleet, the Saber class battleship ranks among the most heavily armed battleships in all of known space. Designed to support the Haruhi Suzumiya carrier but easily capable of stand-alone operations, the Saber class is notable for its offensive armament, which is centered around the Yamato cannon and a brace of coilguns and gamma ray lasers. Its generous generator capacity allows it to host an interdiction field generator and electronic warfare suite in addition to its weapons and other standard refinements; its powerful engines grant it suprisingly good maneuverability and speed for a ship of its class and size.
Saber class battleships are named after characters from the anime Fate/stay night.

20 x Ichigo Kurosaki class cruiser [+10 combat, +2 interdiction, +2 EW; +14 per unit; +280 total]
Ichigo Kurosaki, Rukia Kuchiki, Orihime Inoue, Uryu Ishida, Yasutora Sado, etc.
Powerplant: 2 x cruiser fusion plant
Weapons: 8 x laser/railgun CIWS battery, 4 x 20cm ion cannon, 8 x 80mm coilgun, 8 x 20cm gamma ray laser, 2 x 20-cell thermonuclear missile launcher
Description: The Ichigo Kurosaki class cruiser is essentially a smaller version of the Saber class battleship. Even though it cannot host a Yamato cannon like its larger cousin, it still packs a surprisingly large punch for a ship of its size with its own complement of coilguns and gamma ray lasers; it even hosts a downgraded (though still highly effective) electronic warfare suite and interdiction field generator.
Ichigo Kurosaki class cruisers are named after characters from the anime Bleach.

35 x Char Aznable class destroyer [+4 combat, +1 anti-fighter; +5 per unit; +175 total]
Char Aznable, Amuro Ray, Zechs Merquise, Heero Yuy, Shinn Asuka, Kira Yamato, etc.
Powerplant: 1 x cruiser fusion plant
Weapons: 8 x laser/railgun CIWS battery, 2 x 20cm ion cannon, 4 x 80cm coilgun, 4 x 20cm X-ray laser, 2 x 20-cell thermonuclear missile launcher
Description: The workhorse of the Congressional Space Command, Char Aznable class destroyers are designed as general-purpose combatants. With decent offensive weaponry and excellent speed and maneuverability, the typical Aznable class ship is an effective fleet escort and raider.
Char Aznable class destroyers are named after characters from the various series that make up the Mobile Suit Gundam anime franchise.

100 x Wendee Lee class frigate [+1 combat, +1 cloak; +2 per unit; +200 total]
Wendee Lee, Steven Blum, Johnny Yong Bosch, Yuri Lowenthal, Michelle Ruff, Stephanie Sheh, etc.
Powerplant: 1 x escort power plant
Weapons: 4 x laser/railgun CIWS battery, 2 x 20cm ion cannon, 2 x 80cm coilgun, 2 x 20cm X-ray laser, 2 x 20-cell thermonuclear missile launcher
Description: The Wendee Lee class frigate is just your typical fleet escort...with a twist. All ships of this class come equipped with a cloaking device as standard; any applications for a cloaked frigate are...self-explanatory. While double-blindness and a lack of shields while cloaked are a problem, the Lee class is surprisingly durable and can answer any threats with a decent offensive punch if detected.
Wendee Lee class frigates are named after American and Canadian voice actors, with the majority of their namesakes having worked on English-language anime dubs.

Congressional Space Command Force Organization

1st and 2nd Autonomous Mobile Fleets
[NOTE: Both fleets have the same composition.]

• 1 x Haruhi Suzumiya class carrier
• 2 x Saber class battleship
• 4 x Ichigo Kurosaki class cruiser
• 7 x Char Aznable class destroyer
• 17 x Wendee Lee class frigate

3rd, 4th, and 5th Autonomous Mobile Fleets
[NOTE: All three fleets have the same composition.]

• 1 x Haruhi Suzumiya class carrier
• 1 x Saber class battleship
• 4 x Ichigo Kurosaki class cruiser
• 7 x Char Aznable class destroyer
• 22 x Wendee Lee class frigate

Congressional Military Police

Chief of Police: Field Marshal Sarah Kuwashima

The Congressional Military Police is the internal security division of the CCS government, making sure that its secrets don't get leaked out and that its citizens remain happy and well-behaved. Due to the relatively high amount of Newtypes in its ranks (particularly those Newtypes who have developed telepathy), not much escapes the CMP's notice. In keeping with their mission to keep CCS state secrets safe, the CMP is also responsible for distributing disinformation to other powers as it sees fit. [+50 internal security]

Congressional Intelligence Agency

Director: Field Marshal Sheena Kim

The Congressional Intelligence Agency handles all espionage, black ops, and other external intelligence work for the CCS. Their Newtype infiltrators have a knack for finding out intel that other powers wouldn't have been able to obtain for years, if at all. [+30 external intelligence]

[Adrian Laguna]

Reino de Filipo II Habsburgo



Su Majestad Imperial Don Filipo Habsburgo por la gracia de Dios
Emperador del Sacro Imperio Romano Germanico,
Rey de Castilla, de Aragon, de Portugal, Duke de Borgoña.


History
The unification of the Kingdoms of Castille and Aragon by the marriage of Isabel and Fernando, the Catholic Kings, lead to the eventual completion of the centuries old Reconquista. Having expelled the Moors, Isabel turned her eyes toward the newly discovered inhabitable worlds beyond the Pillars of Hercules. Her husband was sceptical, preferring instead to focus on his holdings closer to home

The tragic deaths of the Catholic King's two oldest children left their mentally unstable daughter Juana as their sole heir. When Isabel died, Juana became Queen of Castille (the Aragonian Cortes refused to recognize her), however due to her mental instability it was her husband Don Felipe el Hermoso who ruled. After his early death, Fernando assumed regency and ruled through Francisco Cardinal Jimenez de Cisneros.

When Fernando died, his grandson had already been deemed to be of age. By way of his maternal grandfather Carlos became sovereign over Aragon and all its holdings. The Castillian Cortes granted him co-Kingship with his mother, as well as guardianship of the same. From his father he inherited the Burgundian lands. Finally, some years later he inherited Austria from his paternal grandfather Maximilian. Thus, the Habsburgo domains under Carlos I of Castille and Aragon (V of Austria) became the most powerful nation ever.

The reign of Carlos I was marked by conquest and expansion in the New World led by such intrepid explorers as Hernan Cortez and Fransisco Pizarro. These two men were responsible for the discovery and subjugation of the two great Empires of Mexico and Peru, also known as the Aztecas and Incas. With the help of allies found in the New World, they overthrew the corrupt heathen nations and brought Christianity and prosperity to them, as well as gained great new lands to the domains of His Imperial Majesty.

There was also near constant warfare with the Moors. It was mostly relegated to minor skirmishing but there were occasional large campaigns and open battle. The fighting became sparser and eventually stopped entirely in the final years of his reign.

As Carlos grew older, he also grew tired of ruling, and eventually abdicated to his son Felipe and retired to a monastery. Felipe inherited all of his father's dominions, almost. Over the years Carlos had given more and more authority over Austria to his brother Ferdinand. This arrangement was more or less preserved when Felipe took the throne. Ferdinand's son Maximilian was given the title Archduke of Austria, which could be inherited by his heirs. However, the Archduke would owe allegiance to the Holy Roman Emperor, that being Felipe II and his heirs.

A few years later, the young King Sebastian of Portugal engaged in a campaign against the Moors in an attempt to expand his power and influence. It was a disaster, and the Portuguese force was annihilated. The pivotal battle came to be called The Battle of the Three King, as Sebastian, his ally Abu Abdallah Mohammed II, and his foe Abd Al-Malik all perished during it.

Felipe claimed the throne, his mother being a Portuguese Princess. He was actually third in the line of succession, but the two claims before him were as whispers in a gale. Felipe had no need to even threaten military intervention, as the promise of union with Spain could prove immensely profitable to the Portuguese aristocracy and so they threw their support behind him. After being crowed, Felipe remarked, "I inherited, I bought, I conquered."

With all of Christendom under his reign, Felipe made preparations to end the threat posed by the Moslem Moors. Their lack of activity recently was worrisome, and there was much evidence to suggest they had been busy building-up in preparation for a major strike against Spain or Austria, maybe even up Italy and into the Papal States. So Felipe II struck first.

The subsequent campaign was long, brutal, and ruthless. There were countless offensives and counter-offensives across a myriad worlds, each marked by the brilliant flashes of interstellar combat in the void of space. Hundreds of millions died, thousands of spaceships burned, and dozens of planets were bombarded.

In the end the Habsburgo Empire won decisively, and the various Moorish Kingdoms were reduced to a few heavily fortified worlds. Knowing that time and resources required to crush the remaining Kingdoms, that little gain would be obtained from doing so, and that the objective of eliminating the Moorish threat had been met, Felipe II signed an armistice.

It has been one and a half decades since the end of the Great Crusade.


Holdings:
[tba]


Government:
(with apologies to Marshal Purnell)
The Habsburgo Empire is a collection of states held together by the legal tie of Dynasty. In many occasions it's two or even three-tiered. The Monarch in holding the title of Duke of Burgundy is also Sovereign of the Netherlands, which in turn gives him another 17 different titles.

The power and influence of the nobility is different depending on domain. In Castille and Aragon the nobles form Cortes from which they have immense leverage, and they are not afraid to use it as they believe that the Monarch is a servant of the people who is bound by laws. This is a major source of disagreement with their King. In the Netherlands the nobles have little power as such, instead being more of an upper class with strong influence among the populace.

The day to day affairs of the Empire both as a whole and within its constituent parts are run by a large and professional bureaucracy. Depending on the part of the Empires, this bureaucracy could be made out of the local nobles our out of a corps of civil servants (which are often nobles). This bureaucracy is fairly efficient and incredibly meticulous. It is likely that you could find the name, assignment, job, rank, and length of service of any giver sailor or soldier if you were determined enough to look for it. Despite the confusion and general destruction wrought by the Great Crusade, complaints about pensions and funerals have been extremely few.

"Inalienable human rights" are recognized in practice but not enumerated, as writing self-evident propositions down is considered pointless. The main protection for individuals is the laziness and disinterest of the bureaucracy outside its primary functions of revenue collection, revenue expenditure, and oversight of itself. The central government has little role in domestic legislation, being primarily concerned with Imperial-wide issues and regulating relationships between constituent parts.

The Church's role in society is strong, but limited to being an arbiter of faith and an establisher of social conventions. They are nominally in charge of preventing and prosecuting heresies and certain other crimes do not fall under the Government's jurisdiction. However, in reality the Inquisition answers to the King as much as it answers to the Pope. Note that in the lands ruled by Rome, the Church is the State.


Military:

Navy:

In Spain the Navy is the senior branch of the armed forces by far, as it is the guarantor of its Empire and the reason it is a major power. The Burgundian and Austrian Navies are semi-independent parts of their Armies.

Wall of Battle Ships
1st Class | 3 Decks | 84-100 guns
2nd Class | 2-3 Decks | 66-82 guns
3rd Class | 2 Decks | 48-64 guns

Frigates
4th Class | 1-2 Decks | 30-46 guns
5th Class | 1 Deck | 12-28 guns

Sloop
6th Class | 0-1 Deck | <12 guns

Naval Weapons:

• Cañones de Costado - "Broadside cannons", railguns mounted individually in armoured casements with a wide degree of movement in all directions. These guns can be targeted and fired independently or in groups, but are often fired all together as broadsides. They are mounted along a ship's sides in 1-3 gun decks depending on the number of guns. Current designs have no more than 19 guns per deck. They are the primary armament of any warship that has them.
  
  To reduce the wear on the rails caused by the immense friction between them and the rounds they fire, each round is encased in a sabot which has a very soft conductive metal at the contact points. This metal wears away extremely quickly, so the rails converge toward the front to keep a solid connection between the rails and sabot. As a consequence of this, clouds of pulverized metal are expelled just behind each fired round. The usage of a sabot also makes it possible to fire rounds of varying shape, size, and composition.
  
  Munitions fired by the cannons come in four varieties: area nuclear, focused nuclear, graser, and kinetic-kill. Area nuclear is just a standard nuke, few of them are carried as they are useful only for bombardment and improvised point-defence. Focused nuclear are shaped charges that narrowly focus the nuke's power, making them very effective against warships. Graser are nuclear bomb-pumped grasers meant for long ranged engagements, they trade a smaller warhead for a guidance package and small rotation thrusters to aim the graser. Kinetic-kill warheads use their mass and speed to cause damage, because they lack a warhead or electronics to get crushed by the acceleration, kinetic-kill is the only munition fired with the railgun at full power.
• Pasavolante - "Goes by very fast", a curious but sensical name for the huge torpedo-firing coilguns mounted on the bow of battleships. They are a long-range secondary armament. Shortly after being launched at great velocity, a fusion torch accelerates the torpedo to even higher velocities. Thrust vectoring and manoeuvring thrusters allow it to keep on target. It can be laser guided by the launching ship's sensors or by its own guidance package. As it enters the enemy's PD envelope the warhead bus opens and releases a dozen warheads. These have their own manoeuvring thrusters and guidance but no booster. The torpedo itself continues toward the target and uses laser guidance to help its daughter warheads along. All warheads are focused nuclear.
  
  Third-class ships have two launchers, Second-class ships four, and First-class ships six.
• Culebrina - "Culverin", particle beam cannons in gimbaled turrets mounted on the top and bottom of the ship. Compared to the broadside cannons they are very lacking in firepower, but culverins can be fired continuously and have a much longer effective range. Usually they are used to complement the broadsides, attack enemies not targeted by the main guns, and double as PD.
• Esmeril - Fully automatic gatling guns used for point-defence. Mounted in clusters throughout the hull, they have no real offensive use. Some of the larger ships substitute these for more culverins.

Spanish Naval OOB
Santisima Trinidad 1st Class Ship [45][30 base, 15 anti-warship]x3


Castilla 3rd Class Ship [27]x16


Reyes Catolicos 5th Class Ship [9]x38


6th Class Ship [3][2 base, 1 speed]x21


Austrian Naval OOB
Imperator des die HRR 1st Class Ship [50][40 base, 10 anti-warship]x2


Vienna 3rd Class Ship [30]x4


5th Class Ship [10]x8


Burgundian Naval OOB
2nd Class Ship [34]x2


4th Class Ship [17]x8


Papal States
Pontifex Maximus [24]

[Thirdfain]

Polish Republican Army
Wojska Lądowe RP

War Ensign

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX DISCLAIMER !!!!!!! XXXXXXXXXXX
This second little OOB addition is merely another manifestition of my strange and encompassing love of the tabulation of military forces. It is utterly unecessary for all players, and exists merely to satisfy myself. Writing one of your own is likely a sign of dangerous social malaise and malcontent, and is highly discouraged for your own sake.

That is all, Citizen.

Mission of the Polish Army

The Polish Army, more precisely the Land Forces of the Polish Republic, is one of three branches of the Polish military, along with the Star Fleet and the Strategic Defence Force. In fact, the Polish Army includes the Army Air Force and the Navy, both of which are semi-independent subgroups- an example would be the modern-day relationship between the United States Marines and the Navy.

The Polish Army is tasked with defending Polish territory, engaging in peacekeeping and relief missions abroad, and in taking and holding enemy territory against determined resistance in a modern superorbital-to-submarine battlespace. To accomplish this goal, it employs a variety of weapons and equipment, ranging from combat knives to fusion bombs. The Polish Army contains two major forces. One is the Regular Army- Poland's standing force of long-service professionals. The other is the Reserve Army, a vast conscript force which is generally kept demobilized in civilian life, raised to combat status only in small units to assist with disaster relief and emergency services, and raised as a whole only in times of war.

The Polish Army has chosen to invest very heavily in quality over quantity. Polish Army troops have some of the longest training scheduals, the most extensive augmentation, and the best equipment issued to fighting humans. The cost of such an approach on a budget no larger than most nation's has been a significantly smaller force- The peacetime Polish Army consists of no more than 2000 divisions, with some 50 million men and women in the Army. Many nations field regular armies of 6000 divisions or more.

Doctorine of the Polish Army

A Polish Division is merely a cog in a much larger military machine designed to fight a combined arms conflict in a variety of simultaneous environments, with elements in each environment providing support for one another- most notably in the form of cisorbital troop movement and orbital bombardment, either strategic, tactical, or pin-point.

The modern battlespace is a hugely lethal environment. Lightspeed weapons, effective shielding, multi-tasking semi-sentient computers, and the sheer destructive potential of mordern weaponry all provide a difficult environment for the infrantryman. Enclosed suits, generally non-powered, are the norm- NBC protection is an absolute must. Tactical weapons such as fusion warheads for artillary, missiles, mortars, and even rocket launchers are all common. A unit which has been exposed can be eleminated in it's entirety in literally seconds. As such, Polish divisions are organized along the Pentomic system. Each division consists of five small, independent brigades capable of independent action should central command be lost. Emphasis in Polish officer training is on flexibiliity in situations where the chain of command can snap in a single thermonuclear blast. Each brigade has independent tactical weaponry, energy shielding, and support. The Reserve Army is generally organized along the same lines, though heavy equipment is more rare and of lower quality, and command and control is not nearly as robust as in the excellent Regular Army divisions. In general, only "A" grade reserves are suited for planetary assaults, and then only in an auxiliary capacity, considering the high attrition rates and extremely dangerous battlespace which the initial landing waves face. The "B" and "C" quality reserves are useful only for occupation duty or planetary defense.

Polish Army Organization

The Polish Army's basic unit is the Division (Dywizja.) Each division is subdivided into five Brigades (Brygada) of around 3,000 soldiers, which are in turn divided into 3 1,000-soldier regiments (Pułk), which are in turn each divided into five 200-man Companies. Astute observers will note that these units are significantly smaller than their modern counterparts; this is due to the nature of the pentomic organization and the quality-over-quantity aproach of the Polish army. Larger units are described as follows:


Division/Dywizja - 15,000 soldiers. Commanded by a General Dywizji, or Division General.

Corps/Korpus - 2-3 divisions. Commanded by a General Korpi, or Corps General.

Army/ Armia - 2-3 Corps. Commanded by a General Armii. or Army General.

Front/Front - 2-6 Armies. Commanded by a General Broni, or General of Arms.

Legion/Legion - 2-3 Fronts. Commandded by a Marszalek Legionu, or Legion Marshall. A Legion, named in the ancient tradition of the Polish Legions, is essentially a continental assault group. A single Legion may be sufficient to take a less heavily populated planet. The Legion is the largest permanent organization in the Polish army.

War Theatre/Teatr Wojenny - 2+ Legions. Commanded by a Marszalek Teatru or Marshall of the Theatre. A Teatr is a grouping of Legions under an overall command and support group organized for the purposes of taking an entire industrial planet. A Teatr Wojenny can contain around 325 Divisions and around 5,000,000 soldiers.

The highest rank in the Polish Army is that of the Marshal of the Army, andadministrative position currently held by Elzbieta Potocka. Additionally, there is the rank of Marszałek Polski, Marshal of Poland, which is a wartime rank given to a commander of combined ground/space forces, roughly equivalent to the briefly used modern-day title of Supreme Allied Commander.

Divisional Organizations in the Polish Army

A number of different divisional TO&E exist within the Polish Regular Army. Reflecting the elite nature of Polish Regulars, most Polish Regular divisions are armoured, aerospace mobile, or urban combat pioneers. The Reserve divisions are largely Rifle Divisions Dywizja Piechoty with motorized transport, though there are a number of Reserve Armoured units as well.

Major TO&Es are:

Armoured Division/Dywizja Pancerna:
Example Units: 2 Warszawska Dywizja Pancerna, 129 Dywizja Pancerna "Stanislaw Maczek", 5 Division Pancerna.
Organization: A Polish Armoured Division generally contains 5 brigades, each one consisting of two armoured regiments and one mechanized infantry regiment. Equipment includes a variety of main battle tanks, mechanized defense guns, and tactical shields. The main battle tank of the Polish Republic is the PT-5 Anders, an all-terrain high speed combat tank equpped with a hypervelocity coilgun and "smart" treads capable of crossing almost any terrain. Entire corps of these armoured troops can be found.

Airmobile Division/Dywizja Aeromobilne:
Example Units: 22 Dywizja Kawalerii Aeromobilne, 7 Dywizja Aeromobilne "Sosabowski".
Organization: A Polish Airmobile Division is an aerospace mobile force of light armour, heavy power armour, and infantry. Airmobile divisions form the bulk of the fighting arm of the Regular Army. Once landed, Airmobile forces act as heavy infantry, and can be rapidly moved and re-inserted by EMV transport or aerospace dropship. Some Airmobile Divisions have a larger porportion of armour; they are called Airmobile Cavalry- Kawalerii Airmobilne.

Orbital Assault Division/Orbitalna Dywizja Szturmowa:
Example Units: 55 Orbitalna Dywizja Szturmowa "Wisla"
These troops are expected to take part in the most dangerous part of a planetary assault- the initial landing. Losses for a first wave can approach 90% in the face of determined conventional and nuclear defenses, so these soldiers exhibit the pinnacle of discipline and elan. Szturmowa troops are power-armoured, and have minimal vehicle support or fire support, relying largely on orbital and fighter protection for fire power. These troops are often found in the role of city-fighters once initial drop-points have been taken.

Mountain Infantry Division/Dywizja Piechoty Górskiej:
Example Units: 1 Dywizja Strzelcy Podhalańscy, 2 Dywizja Piechoty Gorskiej "Karpackich".
Organization: The Polish Mountain Infantry are not, strictly speaking, mountaineers. Rather, the title is a historical designation, and today stands for units trained and equipped to fight with lighter, man-portable equipment. A modern suit of power-armour may require maintenance and overhaul every couple of days, and on some worlds and situations, the logistics situations make the maintenance of large numbers of very high tech weapons difficult. Mountain Rifles are equipped with simplified, easily transportable gear and can be expected to operate in the bush for long periods of time.

Sikh Divisions
Example Units: 6 Dywizja Gorska Sikhow, 159 Dywizja Strzelecka Sikhow
The Sikh States are the only nations in Miedzymorze which enjoy full membership. They are also the only nations required to provide troops to the Polish military. Sikhs are famous for their courage and religious fervor, a doctorine of service in which every male Sikh is expected to become a "Soldier Saint." Sikh units are mostly either Rifle or Mountain divisions, though Sikh divisions can be found in any branch of the Army.



[/code]

-more to come-

[Imperial Overlord]

Because I'm at least almost as crazy of Thirdfain:


Ground Forces of the Logos Centrality

Overview:

Possessing a population only the fraction the size of such nations as the Hegemony of the Heavens or the Polish Republic, the Logos Centrality embraces a philosophy of quality over quantity by necessity. With the amount of personnel and resources available for their ground combat arm further reduced by the demands of a navy comparable in size to other stellar nations (even with the advantages of advanced computer systems and cybernetics), the Centrality has no choice but to make do with what it can.

Fortunately for them, they possess Gnostic Arcana.

Size and Compostion:

The Centrality fields 20 million fighting men and women. Sealed battle armour with environmental controls is standard and railguns are the most common infantry long arm. Backpack powered particle guns, smart grenades, and rocket tubes are common man portable support weapons. EW, sensor, and weapons drones are deployed in large numbers to support and bolster the Centrality's ground forces. Cybernetic and biomechanical enhancement is widespread and extremely capable. Battlefield doctrine includes the use of tactical nuclear weapons and plasma charges.

Power armour and heavy weapons are used by elite shock divisions, but the repowering and support requirements restrict its use to a minority of units. They are a ferocious, elite force with extremely advanced and extensive cybernetic augmentations.

Robotics:

Besides drones of various kinds, the Centrality uses combat robots of varying kinds to supplement its forces. Slaved artillery and rocket batteries are perhaps the most widely used, but several others are worthy of note.

Boarding machines are two and a half meter tall, heavy armoured robots equipped with a large number of weapon arms. They are used, as their name suggests, primarily in boarding other vessels, clearing the way and taking the brunt of the initial entry instead of human troops. Boarding machines enjoy an fearsome reputation among pirates.

The Legions of Steel are a 2 million strong body of the Centrality's military made up primarily of Myrmidions, two meter tall combat robots typically armed with massive railguns or man portable lasers. They are used as shock troops

Organization:

Large Scale organization is as follows

1 legion=40,000 men
1 division= 10,000 men
1 brigade=2,000 men
1 battalion=500 men

The Arcana:

An Arcanist can slice groups of armoured men to bloody ribbons, burn fighting vessels in a blaze of light, and cause fortified buildings to crumble to pieces. Their Wards can withstand hyper velocity kinetic impactors, high energy beam weapons, hard radiation, and psionic assault before collapsing. Six hundred years ago no army on Terra could have withstood them.

But that was six hundred years ago when the Arcana was still in its infancy. Now powered armour, railguns, tactical fusion weapons, and rage driven psychics can be found on the field of battle. The power of the Arcana is great, but not unmatchable and its practitioners are not common.

Arcanists commonly use their powers to pierce enemy lines and gather information or to support their fellow soldiers with their powers. The other major role is the direction of Arcane Engines.

Arcane Engines:

There are several types of war machines created by the Gnostic Arcana, with the Golems being the most well known.

Golems are three to three and a half meter tall constructs marked with arcane symbols, which are actually the foundations for an extremely powerful skinward. They are almost solid steel, with a small core buried near their center acting as the brain. Typically they are humanoid with a single hand and a magna flare cannon arm, although additional weapon systems can be mated to the Golem body.

Golems are incredibly powerful and resilient, being essentially a mobile chunk of armour protected by powerful shields. They are expensive in terms of Arcanist man-hours of labor to create, which is why they exist in only moderate numbers

Colossi

A white elephant prototype weapon that preceded the Golems, Colossi are essentially eight meter tall Golems. Their huge size makes them easy targets and required even more labor to create than Golems, leading to only a handful being constructed before the project was abandoned due to costs. Still, they slumber in a few secured vaults, ready to obey the commands of their masters and lend their might to the Centrality should they be called upon.

Daemons:

The entities that can be summoned from the Beyond and compelled to serve Arcanists are collectively referred to as daemons. The amount of time they can remain in our reality is limited and most of them find it an unpleasant experience. The Centrality's arcanists unleash them as weapons of war.

Armoured in light, possessing bodies of unearthly substance, they wield terrible power their brief sojourns on the battlefields. They can be brought down if enough firepower is massed against them, although this is not easy. If their arcanist binders are slain, they will be drawn back to the Beyond. In a few cases, they have been able to briefly linger before the Beyond reclaims them, inflicting horrible and indiscriminate destruction in their few moments of freedom.


-More to come.

[Noble Ire]

Here's my back-up nation, should I need one. Any and all players are free to use them as part of their RPing; just try not to break anything too big. I might need to fall back on them, although I don't plan to.
---------------------------------------------------------

Interstellar Finders Guild


History

“Anything can be salvaged.” – Finder’s Creed

The period between 2330 and 2430, the century following the great religious wars that swept Earth and its fledgling colonies, was an age of unprecedented prosperity often known as the Golden Century. On Earth, across the Terran protectorates, and throughout the local galactic sector, a spirit of harmony and progressive expansion emerged, fueled by the seemingly boundless bounty of known space, suddenly exploitable as civilizations refined and stabilized their FTL technologies. The news of countless peace treaties filled the spaceways, and routes of trade and mutual exploration wound their way throughout inhabited space, and into the frontier beyond. Flush with wealth and eager to lay claim to even more, nations and corporations churned out interstellar trade fleets and space platforms, filling their holds with every imaginable resource and luxury.

Then, old, long-simmering rivalries on Earth finally gave way to war, and conflict swiftly expanded beyond the reaches of the Sol system; the Great Collapse was born in fire. As war fleets from every human state and colony filled the void with coherent light and nuclear warheads, trade routes collapsed. Stock markets from Beijing to Tajlan crashed. Interstellar conglomerates floundered, and many of the economies of dozens of small planetary states that had grown prosperous from shares of their revenues were crippled. Soon, every power within a hundred light-years of Earth was preoccupied in one way or another, and what remained of the titanic interstellar infrastructure they had constructed was allowed to drift in the depths of space, unneeded, and then forgotten.

After nearly a decade of strife, order began to reassert itself. Powers once again took the space lanes, but they no longer had the resources to reclaim all that they had once held. Trillions of tons of starships, space stations, repeater platforms, and mining colonies remained abandoned. Naturally, they were not left that way for long.

William Tsun was the first sapient to unify the disparate groups of drifters and opportunities who had claimed the drifting artifacts as their homes. Anticipating that some galactic powers might attempt to eventually retake their old holdings and scatter the nascent societies that had formed around them, Tsun set about creating a coalition, united by common means and practices. This proto-state could then protect its members from the interests of larger bodies, and, of course, fatten their credit accounts on the side. After all, not all the derelicts adrift in the void had empty holds.


Society

More a loose confederation of clans and vessel crews, the Interstellar Finder’s Guild has its own laws and customs. To become a Finder, the title Tsun gave to the sapients who followed his banner, one must first abandon all claims of citizenship to any other state (confirmed by a Finder captain) and swear to the Six Oaths:

1. I will not kill a fellow Finder, or injure him without just cause.

2. I will not kill a fellow sapient, unless doing so is the only means by which I can protect myself, my family and crew, or my livelihood.

3. If a fellow Finder should die, and I am able, I will deliver his ship and all that was his to the individual so named in his will or with his dying breath.

4. I will not salvage a vessel or construct still inhabited by its rightful crew, or engage in any other act of piracy or thievery.

5. If I come across a fellow Finder in need, I will help him to the best of my ability.

6. I will not engage in any act of slavery, or bind a fellow sapient without just cause.

Violation of any of these oaths can result in being placed before The Wheel (from an old-Earth sailing tradition), a court of five noninvolved ship’s captains or Mongers drawn from any vessel or bazaar nearby when a charge is filed. This body then hears the case and passes judgment on the accused, and can inflict penalties from fines to branding to exile. When one Finder is accused of murdering another, execution is also a potential punishment, but a Wheel of nine individuals is required to make such a judgment.

Finders make their living by patrolling the massive junk fields from the Golden Century or traversing deep space, claiming what salvage they can. They then return to space stations or small colonies known as bazaars, where they trade their goods with other Finders, or sell them to foreign merchants. Some Finders also operate as freelance cargo haulers, transporting material and even passengers when government or corporate freight groups can’t or won’t.

Outside the occasional impromptu Wheel hearing, which can also be called to mediate financial and civil disputes, the IFG lacks any real government. The captains of vessels have complete control over their ships and crews, just as Mongers govern space stations and bazaars. Both positions are awarded in variety of ways, depending upon the ship or locale, although popular vote is by far the most common method. On the uncommon occasion that a representative is needed to speak on behalf of the entire Guild, the Monger of Mu, the largest of all Finder bazaars, usually steps forward. If a decision affecting the entire IFG is required a Wheel consisting of the seven most prominent Mongers must be called, and a six-of-seven quorum achieved.

A primary tenant of Guild practice is redemption, at least of a sort. Those petitioning to become Finders can do so regardless of their past lives. Criminals, outcasts, and malcontents are all welcomed equally; those with especially infamous reputations are generally advised to watch themselves, nonetheless. This openness is in large part why sapients of almost every species and creed can be found amongst its ranks.


Fleet

The Guild’s space forces are composed almost entirely of the private vessels of its constituent Finders, along with the defensive navies of a few of the largest bazaars. In times of crisis, coordinated flotillas of armed vessels can be formed, but they are temporary and purely volunteer units.

Junks, 1 point:
Like most IFG ship ‘classes’, Junks are vessels that fill a particular role and are not limited to any specific design. The most common Guild ships, Junks are the homes and workplaces of crews and families ranging in size from two to several dozen. They are typically lightly armed and armored, and modified for the inspection, disassembly, and transport of valuable finds. Wealthier captains often outfit their vessels with heavier shielding or weaponry to ward off marauders and pirates (Greater Junks; 2 points).

Ketches, 8 points (3 standard + 5 speed/anti-interdiction):
Similar to Junks, Ketches are vessels used by those who make a living flying space lanes and frontiers more dangerous than those frequented by the average Finder. They are tougher and faster, and can often be seen dipping in and out of closed borders and blockades, police vessels hot on their exhaust wakes.

Snows, 10 points:
Among the larger Finder vessels, Snows are capable of carrying massive amounts of cargo or salvage, and as such are prime targets for pirates or unscrupulous defense forces. To combat any potential interlopers, Snows are heavily armored and armed, and generally carry a small complement of fightercraft.

Caravels, 13 points (3 standard + 5 stealth + 5 electronic warfare):
Caravels are smaller than most Junks or Ketches, and carry only a handful of crew. Modified with various stealth and electronic warfare suites, they are sued by Finders who deal in the information trade, or frequent space controlled by powers less than amenable to their presence. Caravels are usually attached to larger ships or space stations.

Barques, 18 points (15 standard + 3 anti-EW/anti-jamming):
Often amalgams of smaller ships, Barques are as large and powerful as they are rare. Employed as mobile bazaars or defensive platforms, these vessels sport military-grade shielding, weaponry, and armor, and can house large numbers of interceptor craft. They are also rigged with co-opted shipyard machinery, and can function as repair stations for ships Junk-size or smaller. Since they often function as hubs for many smaller Finder ships, their communications suites are unusually powerful and difficult to disrupt.

Royal-class Cruisers, 35 points (25 standard + 5 anti-capital ship + 5 speed):
The pride of the IFG space forces, the Royal-class cruiser is the only true, unmodified warship at the Guild’s disposal. Salvaged from a derelict shipyard once controlled by the now-defunct Canadian Union, there are but six of the vessels, the first and last of their kind. Despite being nearly a century old, they sport sublight drives rivaling those of any power in known space, and close-range plasma-fountain projectors capable of tearing through the densest battleship armor. Three of the ships are owned by the Monger of Mu, part of the crowded force that polices its crowded transit lanes, two defend the distant Gulliver’s Bazaar, and the last is the private flagship of Isaac Fielding, one of the most successful and affluent Finders of the age.

IFG starships bear wildly different armaments and technologies, depending on their original manufactures and the imagination of their captains. Rather than operating dedicated shipyards, Guild members acquire new vessels either through the salvage and refurbishment of derelicts, or by purchasing them from foreign governments and businesses.

Total Complement:

179 Junks (179 points)
42 Greater Junks (84 points)
23 Ketches (184 points)
24 Snows (240 points)
11 Caravels (143 points)
15 Barques (270 points)
6 Royal-class Cruisers (210 points)

In addition to Royals, most large Bazaars maintain at least one Barque and several smaller ships for defense, contracted by the month.


Holdings

The IFG possesses five major Bazaars scattered across known space, the Greater Ports:

Mu, 45 points:
Set on the fringes of the Confederated Corporate Drift, one of the largest and densest debris fields in known space, Mu is a massive space station, constructed by generations of Finders from a hodgepodge of asteroidal rock, transient metal scrap, and the full hulks of several old space liners, freighters, and supply depots. Located just off one of the major Terran-Colonial spaceways, the station as a hub of every sort of commerce imaginable, from prospecting to gambling to antiquing. Representatives of every major power and corporation in know space can be found there in some capacity, even if many would prefer to keep their anonymity intact. In addition to hosting a population of nearly a million Finders and their affiliates, the station also supports an extensive “Junk Hub “, where dozens of salvage ships can dock at a time and undergo repair and resupply. Due to the high volume of trade in and out of Mu, its local space is a prime hunting ground for pirates, slavers, and privateers, and the station’s viability depends heavily on the efforts of its police force, which includes half of the prized Royal-class fleet, and is supplemented by an extensive network of EMP mines, missile clusters, and charged capture nets. Under the rule of the current Monger Benjamin Disraeli Winsmore, Finder-born but old-British stylized statesman and entrepreneur, the city has sought legitimize itself in the eyes of larger powers by cracking down on more elicit commercial activites and inviting annexes from interstellar corporations.

Gulliver, 15 points:
Since the resurgence of the exploratory and colonial aspirations facilitated by the stabilization of the known galaxy, Gulliver has served as a primary jumping-off point for distant stars. Located on the South-Western Fringe, the outpost is the single settlement of the Omega Omega Capricorn system, and is composed of a small city set on the shore of one of the planet Blefuscu’s spectacular purple oceans. While the bazaar still hosts a the customary open salvage markets characteristic of Finder locales, its economy is largely based upon supplying the deep-range expeditions that occasionally pas by on their way into the unknown. Since the settlement is the last real chance for shore leave many crews will receive for months or years, it also hosts a bustling and exotic “vice” district, known locally as Dis. Because it is so far removed from “civilized” space, the successive Mongers of Gulliver have built up an extensive network of defenses, including a small contracted Finder fleet lead by two Royal-class cruisers, at least when their captains aren’t selling their services as convoy escorts or “muscle” in high-risk negotiations.

Dusty, 0 points:
Once officially known as “Industrial Waste and Excess Repository Seven”, the largest moon of the sole gas giant in the Bilge system is known simply as Dusty by its Finder inhabitants; a brief excursion to its surface provides all the explanation needed for the nickname. A body possessing a thin nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere and a rudimentary biosphere when it was discovered three centuries ago, the moon’s global landmass is now buried under mountains of industrial garbage or submerged in the lakes of noxious waste that dot its southern hemisphere. A worthless trash dump to most eyes, abandoned by its corporate masters at the end of the Golden Century, the Finders who took Dusty as their home discovered that it was a veritable treasure trove of obscure machine parts, rare components, and pre-processed materials. Several large communities formed around the “mines” tunneled into the richest trash heaps, shafts that continue to yield salvage even after nearly a century of prospecting.

New Dakota, 15 points:
Bored into the crust of a large asteroid at the center of the Adamantine system’s main asteroid belt, the facility known to its inhabitants as New Dakota was once the operations center of Killian Limited, an ore extraction firm that operated in the system before the great market collapse. Once the nerve center for the dozens of automated mining platforms scattered throughout the belt, the large base is now a busy Bazaar, serving as the hub for most of the IFG’s activities in the Galactic North. The berthing superstructure anchored on the rock once used to house mining drones is now the site of the largest Guild docking and repair yard outside of Mu.

Dala Adur (pending)

The Guild also hosts dozens of smaller, often impermanent Bazaars and hubs throughout known space, including:

The Brick, 18 points:
A small bunker communications hub built into a lifeless moon near Mu, the Brick serves as the main staging area for the station’s defensive fleet, functions as its main traffic-control repeater, and traditionally houses the Monger’s private retreat and safe house.

The Paramount, 7 points:
Actually a large Barque with largely long-inoperable drive and defensive systems, this vessel, drifting somewhere in the Sol system’s Kuiper belt, serves as a base for Finder activities around Earth.


Special

- “One doesn’t need a psycher to know what a Finder’s thinking, just a full wallet.”

Even at its most unified, the IFG is a collective of like-minded merchants and freelancers, not a real state. As such, it completely lacks an intelligence service beyond the occasional telepathic body guard or Guild member lucky enough to own a Caravel. Secrets between Finders, although kept quite close when mundane, have a way of becoming known when money finds its way onto the table (-10 points counter intelligence).

- “If you can’t fix something, you’re not trying hard enough.”

Finders are often forced to fend for themselves on long-haul voyages, far from friendly shipyards or Guild ports. Invariably, something or other will go wrong, and ship’s captains occasionally find themselves with a billiard-table sized hole in their primary hull or a lacking a drive nacelle. As such, make-shift, on-the-fly ship repair has become an essential part of every Finder’s skill set, and they are galaxy-renowned for feats of jury-rigging. After all, few engineering schools teach their cadets how to patch up a faulty warp drive with a kitchen colander, two rolls of duct tape, and a flask of vodka (point cost pending).

- “Starship for sale: Barely used.”

With prime salvage from the Golden Century growing increasingly difficult to locate, Finder Junks are a common sight near recent battlefields, on both space and land. Their codes specifically prohibit piracy, but it’s not unheard of for a Finder ship to lay claim to a battle-damaged warship with its former crew still warm within. (Infrastructure: The IFG receives fewer standard, monthly points due to its lack of a real industrial base, but it can garner extra points by harvesting battlefield sights for salvage).


Totals

Fleets: 1,310 points
Holdings: 105 points
Special: ? points

[Tanasinn]

(OOC: I'm seperating my ground forces description from my main OOB post, which is full up.)

Ground Units
AUG-37 Combat Suits: A sort of walking tank used almost exclusively by the Khurl, these four-legged beasts pack two moderate-sized particle cannons, an anti-infantry slug-throwing machine gun, two small manipulator arms, and a shield. Mainly designed to deal with rough terrain unsuited for tanks, these suits are extremely fast and quite well-armed. Their disadvantages are defensive: their armor is almost nonexistent, and their energy shield is also light: most pilots choose to project it in the direction of incoming fire rather than as a bubble. Hits to an unshielded AUG-37 will usually cripple it, but an AUG-37's computer system will activate the shield in the case of incoming fire. Typically deployed in squads of five, with 4 AI-piloted slave units and 1 Khurl-piloted master unit, squads consisting of 5 "live" units are becoming more popular.

Tactical Counter-Psionic Units ("Shriekers"): Psychics are relatively uncommon the the Glorious Republic, but not unheard of. They most frequently occur in the Shultakk: these minor psychics usually end up employed by the State Security Bureau as spooks and interrogation officers. Far less common are Khurl psychics, but they also tend to be much more powerful. Such Khurl are adopted from their parents by the government, an honor for any Khurl parent. The adopted psychic individuals undergo intense education, training, and military conditioning. The goal is to produce a "Shrieker:" a well-trained, obedient psychic capable of disrupting and harming the minds of others with a signature psychic "howl." In addition to the howl from whence they derive their nickname, Shriekers are trained telepaths and can also utilize telekinesis.
Shriekers, once fully-trained, are wired into SUG-10 Combat Suits, quadrupedal powered armor featuring two manipulator hands, two light anti-infantry rifles, an advanced EW system, and a shield not unlike the AUG-37's. Fully-trained Shriekers are deployed in teams of five, and are typically used to sow chaos and terror amongst enemy infantry, particularly psychics. The SUG-10 suit is smaller and less heavily-armed than the AUG-37, but it is also significantly faster, allowing a Shrieker to flee heavier enemy assets if necessary.

Harasser Hovertank: A popular Republic skirmisher tank, the Harasser is extremely quick but lightly-armored: its primary armament are smart missiles loaded into a top-mounted turret. While fairly short range, these missiles give the Harasser indirect-fire capabilities, and the ability to strike behind enemy units being used as a defensive screen for more vulnerable forces. The Harasser's secondary weapons consist of a pair of ballistic machine guns mounted in joints with a wide range of motion on either side of the vehicle, and a light anti-vehicle particle cannon mounted in a ball-joint on the vehicle's front. This latter weapon is best employed on other light skirmishers and recon vehicles; missiles would be wasted destroying them. Harassers are crewed by three Shultakk, the lightest member-race of the Republic. These Shultakk serve the roles of a pilot, a gunner, and a secondary gunner. The anti-personnel guns on the tank's sides are typically AI-controlled, but can also be commanded by either gunner. With a fairly hefty armament for its size and execellent over-land speed, the Harasser's main weaknesses are its pitiful armor and rather heavily-taxed crew. The Harasser is at its best while on the move, performing strikes on the enemy and fading back to avoid taking fire.

Pegasus Mobile Scout: A hovercraft, the Pegasus's main role is to serve as a scout for the various arms of the Republic military. Its sensor gear allows it to feed complex information to friendly forces about enemy units from good distances, even allowing it to serve as an artillery spotter. It also mounts very heavy comms-boosting gear, making it useful when fighting against comms-jamming enemies. Its weaponry is extremely light: a small machine gun mounted in a squat turret. The Pegasus has three crew members: a pilot, a comms/sensor officer, and a gunner. Like the Harasser, it can only take minimal levels of enemy fire, which means little in its role as a scout vehicle.

Fhuln APC: Named for the famed Khurl general, the Fhuln APC is the Republic's primary APC, a workhorse loved amongst the rank-and-file. A wheeled vehicle, the Fhuln is not as fast as hover vehicles, but it can carry heavier cargo, gear, and armor as a result. The Fhuln is not particularly heavily-armed: it mounts a light particle cannon identical to the Harasser's in a squat turret, along with a coaxial anti-personnel machine gun. The particle weapon actually fires faster than the Harasser version, but this is due only to the more robust power systems for the Fhuln's cannon. This particle gun's good rate of fire but somewhat modest power make it best for taking out light vehicles and hammering entrenched infantry. The Fhuln also mounts a good deal of EW gear that helps to jam enemy targeting systems and communications, giving the Fhuln and the troops it carries greater protection. The Fhuln itself is no slouch in the armor department, and it can take robust hits from anti-vehicle weapons. Finally, the Fhuln is amphibious, resulting in a vehicle that appears on almost all battlefields. To allow for its wide range of capabilities, the Fhuln removes its crew entirely, instead utilizing a smart-AI. Unlike gunner AI systems found in many Republic vehicles, the Fhuln's AI is essentially fully sentient, and can be treated as such in battle. Fhuln APCs are often used to patrol captured city streets, and may utilize customized gear such as flare launchers or small gas canister racks.

Linebacker Fighting Vehicle: The Linebacker is a wheeled jack-of-all-trades. Highly modular, the Linebacker can mount everything from heavy particle cannons to small artillery cannons to anti-aircraft gun and rocket arrays. They are extremely easy to repair and refit, and often host smart AIs to help crews with new mission profiles. This sort of adaptability comes at a cost: Linebackers are somewhat tall and large for some mission profiles, for example. Their crew compartments are cramped, containing at least a gunner and pilot, with the addition of one other crewman for some mission profiles. Finally, a Linebacker rarely matches a dedicated Republic vehicle in the role it is given. Nevertheless, Linebacker flexibility is a huge advantage for an invading army, which might need a battle cannon one day and an anti-infantry patrol vehicle the next.