New Earth Empire
Nine hundred years ago, three civilizations, broken and scattered by the Fall, converged upon a signal source. What happened next is unclear, it isn't clear what they found, what they they had little choice but to fight. What is known however, is that it was from the Fall, and though suffering great casualties, the three emerged victorious and united. Somewhere, on that bloodstained battlefield, the New Earth Empire had been born.
Unrivaled in technology (at least, of the non-blackbox variety) and occupying the systems surrounding Sol, the NEE, once firmly entrenched on a planet become virtually unassailable thanks to their advanced particle-beam weapon systems. Perhaps due to its origins in a war, it is quick to use violence, as both proof of its military might and as a means to gain foreign technology to assimilate.
In the heart of the Empire is an exclusion zone. Centered on humanity's cradle, it extends all the way to Sirius, nu-Cassiopeia, Beta Hydri, 61 Virginis, 36 Ophiuchi and Theta Persei. What lies beyond is unknown, clouded by the broken systems and traitorous cosmic phenomena that once bowed to man. Still, progress is being made, the Inner Front is receding, however slowly. The foothold closest to its is now the Procyon System, and the NEE is intent on continuing its pilgrimage back to the center.
According to history, the Sun lies dead in a Dyson Sphere-turned casket and Jupiter has been ignited to succeed it. Uranus and Neptune were merged to form a gas giant. And Earth, scarred and desolate, drifts as a frozen monument to the naive dreams and ideals that lived and died with it. Of course, what really is there is unknown. It was the epicenter of the Fall. It was the origin. It is there where the final pieces will fall into place, where the ghosts of the past shall be slain, and where humanity will find whatever sentimental closure it needs to be haunted no more. No matter how long it takes, no matter the obstacles, this is what the NEE seeks.
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System League
Shattered shards strewn across the ruins of a once great colony cluster, what would come to be called the System League started off a band of survivors in the Galactic Center. Salvaging what they could, they clinged to survival. They feared that they were the only ones left. The only ones who remembered all those who came before, and all those who perished.
Times have changed. A millennia has passed since then. The once-desperate scavengers are now an economic powerhouse, capable of crushing its foes simply by throwing around its seemingly endless supply of money until any resistance collapses under the sheer mass of the League's military resources. Utilizing technology purchased from numerous sources and able to reverse-engineer and deploy just about anything without even necessarily understanding all its inner workings.
However, this methodology comes at the cost of true scientific research due to the hurry to analyze the newest acquisitions rather than extending known ideas and developing new frameworks. Consequently, the group's technical knowledge isn't so much the usual tapestry of interwoven theories, as much as it's half a tapestry submerged in a presumably carcinogenic haze of disjointed fibers. They don't fully understand all the specifications of their technology, using inexact empirical models in their deployment, which generally results in a noticeable reduction in operational reliability.
Considering their origins, it is unsurprising that the idea of scavenging has become ingrained, possibly even romanticized in their culture. Military ventures are often driven by an adventurous spirit and the desire to capture equipment. Interestingly enough, their military ranks do not exist on a linear scale as a soldier's role is determined by a scavenging rating (based on ability to recover devices and general combat prowess) and a separate leadership rating (based on the ability to devise tactics and strategy).
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Vestige
Consisting of just over 20 member corporations (and countless other smaller, non-member companies), each of which are potent politco-economic forces in their own right, the Vestige Conglomerate has a presence in just about every industry ranging from the strictly peaceful to the decidedly militaristic. Forming about three and a half centuries ago in the NEE, it has since broken off though some of its members do still possess particularly close ties to their homeworlds (in part due to still being in NEE-controlled space and thus subject to its laws).
Generally amoral, and valuing money (in addition to other forms of power) over all else they are anarcho-capitalists perfectly content to sell just about anything (barring trade secrets of course) to just about anyone for the right price. Surprisingly, they also act as the closest thing there is to a peacekeeping force, presumably because prolonged warfare and blockades can hurt the profit margins of some of their less war-oriented subsidiaries.
Still, they often find themselves at odds with the Loremaster Consortium due to the desire of certain subsidiaries to, "acquire" the Consortium's technological secrets.
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Loremaster Consortium
330 years ago, unidentified shuttles landed in the core worlds of the NEE and System League. What happened next is rather sketchy, though it resulted in a set of iron-clad laws protecting a newly formed "Loremaster Consortium" becoming drafted and passed seemingly immediately.
The group exists to acquire and preserve knowledge whilst protecting humanity from "unacceptably hazardous threats", whatever that may entail. Consequently, they prefer to remain neutral, only acting out of self-interest. Often in conflicts, they have operatives in all the involved parties to repair and maintain whatever pre-Fall artifacts they happen to be using.
They regularly publish large quantities of historical and scientific data in white papers that are available to the general public. Though, the content of these seem to be quite reliable, there are suspicions that they are omitting certain topics, perhaps due to them being deemed "too dangerous".
After a misunderstanding resulted in them attempting to steal the Black Moon (how such a thing is even remotely possible is unknown) and which resulted in a series uncharacteristic conflicts and subsequent stalemates against Dead Hand, the two factions became staunch allies, or whatever passes for that in this era of changing fortunes and loyalties. It is through this that Dead Hand's pseudo-industrial revolution was sparked, and that the Consortium gained invaluable data.
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Dead Hand
Six centuries ago, upon the moons of a gas giant, the System League became embroiled in an armed conflict against a pre-industrial coalition of (oddly communist) kingdoms. Despite the obvious gap in technology, it was the League that was defeated and forced to retreat. Frames were torn asunder by forces of seemingly supernatural nature, whilst capital ships were effortlessly obliterated by the Black Moon, an anomalous celestial body that seems to shadow the planet's moons. It was during this war they gave themselves a name: "Dead Hand", derived from the designation of an ancient deterrence system.
Apparently, this Black Moon was once luminous, and only darkened when it was sealed in fear of it's immense power being misused. It was this very moon that shielded them not only from the League, but also the Fall. Perhaps as a direct consequence, their populace universally possesses the seeming magical capability to distort reality. Furthermore, they have more than their fare share of artifacts, including a "gateway" system that allowed them to travel between moons and unify themselves.
Due to their relative isolation and the evident differences in the very nature of what their "technology" consists of, Dead Hand employs abnormal military strategies which is perhaps epitamized by their outright lack of Armor Frames and almost complete emphasis on infantry. Often, said infantry elicits fear in opposing ranks, in part due to them being capable of fighting vehicles and frames on equal footing, though mostly due to them primarily consisting of apparently magical constructs who are impossible to reason with and which commit a rather distressing large amount of warcrimes generally involving civilians dying horribly.
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Phage
The Phage are, something, it is not clear what they are precisely (or even generally) yet. Perhaps they are alien lifeforms. Or maybe they are just the actions of various factions hidden behind an all-encompassing bogeyman-esque myth.
Whatever they are, they wipe out entire colonies without warning and exclusively target those of older (especially pre-Fall) designs.
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Topic: Perplexicon - Down the Foxhole - Raining Mecha (Read 177059 times)