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[Tyrant Leviathan]

Kingdom of Unrivaled Archaeology (5) : NG, m1895, Frostgiant, Rockeater, TL
Grobyci (2): C2M, NUKE9.13
Synklino (2): Failbird, Unraveller

Dino  damnit! Enough said! : Officially has returned to Bay 12. In bits and pieces.:

[Unraveller]

Our future, it seems, dwells in the past.

[Tyrant Leviathan]

Our future, it seems, dwells in the past.

Time is but a cycle that repeats. Events of the past are cycled again in the future, with just a new paint job.

[Powder Miner]

Preliminary Phase Three - Mercenary

The Kingdom of the Unrivalled Archaeologist is a polity that is nearly fully explained by its prodigious title.

Firstly: it's a Kingdom, make no mistake about that. When a polity is a result of planetary unification by means of increasingly giant, cybernetically enhanced dinosaurs wielded by a truly batshit insane man, make no mistake: it is not going to be a ruled by a council or by a carefully set-up legislature. It is going to be ruled by the man making the dinosaurs, and indeed it was, becoming a despotic kingdom almost immediately. While the original Unrivalled is long gone, subsequent Unrivalleds made a point of keeping power in a tight grasp. The Kingdom of the Unrivalled Archaeologist was their cybernetic dinosaur kingdom, and its actions were made first and foremost in their interests.

Secondly, if out of order: it's Archaeologists. The Kingdom of the Unrivalled Archaeologist is nothing short of dangerously obsessed with archaeology -- and with taking the remains of the old and applying brute force, technological marvel, and eccentricity to turn it into something very new and very threatening indeed. While this has traditionally meant a burning desire to find, revive, and modify dinosaurs (perhaps ironically, it's theorized that the dinosaurs on the planet must have been revived and seeded on it a very very long time ago for unknown reasons), the Kingdom makes it a policy priority to get their hands on lost technology and the remains of ancient megafauna, no matter the means and no matter the cost -- for each of these things they find, they sate their curiosity and become stronger.

Thirdly: it's Unrivalled. Oh, you had better bet that these archaeologists pride themselves on being Unrivalled. Dominance has always been what the Kingdom of the Unrivalled Archaeologist has seen as its natural position in the galaxy, endowed as it is with its spark of mad genius and its insatiable drive to fuel that mad genius through its trade caravans and its military expeditions to retrieve fascinating artifacts. The fact that they are not dominant, surrounded by other petty empires with their own ambitions and just enough means not to see them completely crushed, is an uncomfortable and inconvenient one -- and one that has fueled a great deal of conflict, from the past to now.

During the reign of the 21st Unrivalled, this took the form of the Kingdom looking in a new direction to extend its influence, to a burgeoning polity across the sector, rumored to have all sorts of odd military technologies speckled through its land and space thanks to the remains of past empires that had attempted to expand to its location -- the Arehan Frontier Union. The 21st Unrivalled, an abnormally peaceful sort for his position, had attempted to extend trade routes to this Arehan Frontier Union after a trade route with a previous partner for ancient tech had dried up... and had been immediately and rudely rejected. For the remainder of his reign, he continued to make these sorts of overtures, rejected each time -- and then one of his diplomatic parties was murdered brutally on the Arehan colony ship Penglai.

When Unrivalled XXI failed to act decisively, his son did, seizing the throne and making his much more aggressive intentions clear from the start. It didn't actually take long to discover that the murdered dignitaries had been actually killed by a third party, one of the Kingdom's rivals also present on the Penglaia, but to tell the truth, that didn't really matter. The murder had only ever been a catalyst, something that was an embarrassment that couldn't be stood for: the core of the matter had always been that the Kingdom of the Unrivalled Archaeologist wanted the Arehan Frontier Union's artifacts, and they wouldn't give them up. And so it was war, with giant cybernetic dinosaur Titans sent to capture bases on barren planets -- and rebuffed in costly clashes when the Arehans responded with their own Titans, mixtures of advanced technology and different kinds of magical being. This conflict continued to be dominant in the next couple of decades, as skirmishes and small invasions becoming common, but never quite enough to be successful.

The attitude of being Unrivalled has also led to a new direction of movement for the Kingdom: out of the Jumble Sector entirely. As the conflicts with the Arehans have proved, the Jumble Sector is no place to become Unrivalled, with no one actor scrounging up quite enough resources to gain a decisive edge over all of the other inhabitants of the Jumble Sector. Instead, with political events in the neighboring Sommet Sector spiraling out of control, the Kingdom has decided that it ought to inhabit the power vacuum there, with the rulers of the Sommet Sector now in practical freefall, in destructive war, and most assuredly unable to focus resources onto keeping influences like the Kingdom out.

For this reason, the Kingdom of the Unrivalled Archaeologist has rented space on the Rapid-Pair Ship Sojourner (owned by the inter-Sector corporation Exploratory Systems Incorporated) sending a group there with the goal of controlling the political situation in the Sommet Sector through intervention in its current many, many conflicts as a mercenary group. But who is this mercenary group? Are they a old and veteran unit of the Kingdom's military, cut abnormally loose given the situation? Are they a true mercenary company that has distinguished itself in some way? Are they something in between? Who are they, and what motivated their being chosen for travel to the Sommet Sector?

Write and vote for a single description of the mercenary group you'll be playing as, and some of their history (enough to know why they were chosen to go).

[frostgiant]

Princess's Orbital Pterosaurs
With the succesion of a new Unrivalled, the new king will typpically set about securing their power. Commonly This takes the form of skullduggery and "Gifting" their siblings command of an expeditionary force. The Princess, Currently 15 years old, was "gifted" Command of this mercenary force when she was 10 and summarily kicked off the planet. The only way for her to return to the life of luxury and planet of her birth was to accomplish a deed grand enough to force even the king  to grant her a title and land despite the legitimate claim to the throne that she posses.

Of course, 10 year old don't tend to make very good mercenary commanders, so the last 5 years have been... a challenge and a hard lesson plan freshly supplied from the school of hard knocks. While she was provided with a unit of old house Guards and highly skilled biogineers along with advisors, much of her starting windfall has dried up in the years it took for her to figure out what being a mercenary commander actually means. From a war group of 12 Titans down to only 1 and a savaged staff, the death of the mecenary group seemed soon.
 With the new decision for the Kingdom to move sectors, they had begn to put out feelers for trusted mecenary units to send as a vanguard, and what unit is more trustworthy then one led by a member of the royal family? This of course ignored the utterly savaged state of the Mercenary group and the fact that they only have 1 running titan.
With a Sizable loan, a promise of further rewards on good performance, the Princess and her orbital Pterasaurs set out to make, or break, their fortunes one last time in the  sommet sector.

Xi-Sun's Substrate Scourers
The personal PMC of a highly respected Biogineer, The Substrate scourers were formed as a means of excavating fossils for their noble lord, of the house of Xi, in places were a standard archologist expedition could not reach, whether that be deep in warzones or inside of the borders of isolationist polity's.
They enjoyed much success, and actually enjoyed quite the flair of popularity in the noble courts. Thus came the inevitable downfall of all success. New managment. The prevouis commanding officers of the fossil guard found that their success allowed either recruitment to more prestigous positions or comfy retirement back on their homeplanet. Afterwards, many a noble son and daughter were fast tracked into command of the mecenary unit, with nary a idea how to really run the unit in combat or off. They could thank the posting solely to their bribes to the Biogineer noble house of Xi that owned the unit, all payed to your aunt Xi-she as she used the Substrate's as a political tool to curry favour in the courts.

Needless to say, the new management quickly ran the PMC into the ground. Battles lost, Money embezziled, Funds meant for repair used on High class alchohol and escorts and a (not so) healthy serving of designer drugs. You, on the other hand are the poor sap who got swindled into buying the prevouisly prestigous PMC, Now reduced to a single titan. AKA You, who has recently been swindles out of the whole of your inheritence by your aunt in exchange for the prestigous unit, who , under your aunts managment had not won a single battle since your grandmother's time.
The Merc unit you spent all of your inheritence on, had not won a victory in 60 years. Needless to say you were hooped.

Luckily the name still held enough sway in the courts that with a some bribes and quick thinking you managed to pull out the sommet contract, buuuut you really hope this works out.
Normally, the owner of the PMC would never travel with the unit, managing thigs fro their personal lab/workshop, However, you were eager for the glory of battle! Or at least that what you told everyone when they asked. The real reason was that in order for people to claim on the debts you had created getting the substrate scourers up and runnig, you had to be present or they would take it up with your aunt. Sommet would make or break you. After all, if you went back people would actually expect you to pay those debts. and as it is, Xi-sun 6th child of the house of Xi... was dead broke.

[Failbird105]

I like the Princess idea.

[chubby2man]

Okay, not a complete backstory but maybe a crew member idea.
Backstory Modifier: The Unrivaled.

The First Unrivaled Archeologist of course never died. A master of cybernetics and revivification dying of old age? Laughable.

He just grew bored with the tedium of ruling a stellar kingdom. He wanted to get back to his studies, the simple pleasure of creating Titans that could bring whole worlds to their knees. So he faked his death convincingly enough, providing his own body while transferring his consciousness to a cybernetic one, leaving the rulership to a successor and retreating to his own studies. Everyone was suspicious, but you disappear enough investigators and eventually they stop looking.

Now his body is starting to fail, his knowledge and technology failing him and the Unrivaled doesn’t quite know why. Rather than fear, excitement filled him instead. He needed to find something new, something to push him over this final hurdle.

Hearing that a mercenary group was heading to the Summet Sector, the Unrivaled arranges for his cybernetic body to be stored away in the group’s things. He figures that they’ll run into new technologies that he might be able to adept to keep himself ticking. And if not, at least he won’t be bored in his final years.

(The Unrivaled is a support character in the crew, offering advice on attaching new parts and repairs. Doesn’t have much mobility currently (pretty much a cybernetic mummy) and can’t (currently) plug into  a Titan. Desires to study and discover new things, end goal achieving immortality.)

[Tyrant Leviathan]

My idea: The Combiners

Catergory: Hereteks these are those who followed the engineered path, but instead of keeping to “orthodox” methods of one genius type in their engineered model, they “spliced” the beings they ride as sleeves, an act considered illegal by the government and so forced to serve. The pilots enjoy it, with their crew of engineers and private drop ship perform daring missions for the Archaeologists faction, their home. Just by their rules.

Examples:

The Leader: The body of a great ape, with theropod skull, fin plates for power storage, blades tail and armed to the teeth as ape arms means “equipped weapons” ( like macro guns and melee gear) with a bonus blaster array in the jaw region ( teeth are not for show either.)

Gigantic Turtle with jet pods for fleet and has mole claws and megaladon mouth/head. Houses flame units in the palms.


A two legged sauropod/iguandon hybrid with a Predator head, arm claws of massive set of claws ( with thermo units to cut extra good) and an array of fire power.

Massive Pangolin/lizard hybrid with hidden mounted slug throwers in the armored scales.

A four legged triceratops deal with sword like horns, dagger teeth, and hybrid with back mounted tentacles array that channels pulse energy to shred like light sabers.

More? To come?

Yeah willing to be “pure strain” mega fauna. But aced these guys in as a exotic alter take. Mega fauna hybrids armed to the teeth.

Edit: Yeah suicide squad doing the time to be free and applying lethal force just because.

[NUKE9.13]

I like the Princess suggestion. With permission, I expanded/rewrote it.

Princess Rivalla's Grand Biomechanic Retinue
Princess Rivalla's name is not just Rivalla. Her full name is Rivalla Pterodactyl Ichthyosaur Bastilodon the Unrivalled. Rivalla comes from her great grandfather, Unrivalled XX, whose name was Unrivalled, but her father decided to change it to Rivalla because he liked the sound. Pterodactyl comes from her mother's favourite Titan. Ichthyosaur comes from her father's third-favourite Titan. Bastilodon was the name of a Titan commissioned shortly before her birth, which became her guardian Titan. She is 'the Unrivalled', because like every other child of an Unrivalled, she is the greatest child ever to have that name.
Anyway.
The ascension of her brother to the Unrivalled throne, becoming Unrivalled XXIII, occurred shortly after Rivalla's 10th birthday when Unrivalled XXII was killed in battle with the dastardly Arehan Frontier Union. Her brother, as was custom, bequeathed his siblings with very 'prestigious' off-world positions, coincidentally involving incredibly dangerous activities, giving them a life expectancy of about 1-2 years. Any suggestion that this was essentially the same as executing them was treason, and would result in execution. One of Rivalla's brothers objected, and raised an army of loyal followers to besiege the Unrivalled Palace, but Unrivalled XIII put the rebellion down personally in his Titan 'Spinosaurus'. It was so rad, you should've seen it.
Anyway.
Rivalla, being 10 years old, did not have the option of rebellion. She was given command of a retinue of 'veteran' soldiers and 'vintage' Titans, and tasked with securing specimens from the planet (well, moon) Ynara IIb. Ynara IIb was, at one point, home to incredibly dangerous gigantic predatory beasts- just what the KUA loved. The only snag was that it was still home to incredibly dangerous gigantic predatory beasts, and several expeditions had been wiped out already by rampaging megafauna. Rivalla had no idea how to run a military operation, but her new retinue had been strictly ordered to obey her every command- disobeying her would be a guaranteed death sentence, as opposed to obeying her, which was merely a likely death sentence.
Anyway.
Rivalla would've given up, probably should've given up- maybe by begging her brother and renouncing all rights to the throne she could live out her days on some backwater planet-, but for some reason she did not. She lost three-quarters of her Titans and soldiers in three years, yet somehow she managed to capture a live specimen of a Sataodon (one of the larger land animals on the planet), and successfully augmented it into a working Titan (using parts scavenged from previously destroyed Titans)- which technically fulfilled her task. Her brother was forced to acknowledge her success, though his congratulations came packaged with immediate orders to move to the planet Gurney III- on the front line of the war with the Arehan Frontier Union- to recover the wreckage of an ancient warship. She was provided with no extra men or materiel, since a proper member of the Unrivalled dynasty should be able to scrounge up everything they need, right?
Anyway.
She somehow survived Gurney III as well, escaping the planet with the desired technology by the skin of her teeth (pursued by Arehan forces). Her brother was forced to grant her a title (Duchess of Gurney), but immediately sent her on another suicide mission. Which she also survived, miraculously. It should be noted that Rivalla was not a brilliant commander, or a brilliant biomechanic, or a brilliant Titan pilot. Her greatest skill was identifying and running away from danger, as well as stumbling into advantageous positions by accident.
Anyway.
At this point, Unrivalled XIII was getting seriously worried. His own endeavours had hit a stumbling block; wars were being lost, rebellions were mustering strength, and Titan innovation had slowed to a crawl. One more successful mission, and Rivalla might look like a more competent leader than him. He needed to get rid of her- permanently. Assassination was not viable- killing a member of the royal family (who had not been duly convicted of a crime by the unusually independent judiciary) was punishable by death, even for the king. Despite his best efforts, he couldn't manage to frame her for treason- even despite the KUA's extremely long list of treasonous crimes. Fortunately, he had a novel solution- a one-way ticket to the Sommet Sector. Out of sight, out of mind- even if she somehow managed to keep up her bizarre string of successes, she could hardly launch a coup from another sector. And there was absolutely no way that she would ever be able to get back. Right?

Princess Rivalla is now 15 years old. Her Grand Biomechanic Retinue consists of three kinds of people; disabled veterans barely able to fight, biomechanic engineers who were too crazy for even the KUA, and a gaggle of novice recruits who were forced to join (probably having committed some minor offence that earned them the king's ire, like tying their shoelaces the wrong way). Her technology is out of date- decrepit megafauna enhanced with centuries-old equipment- but like the Princess herself, it has proven remarkably capable of surviving extreme danger (mostly as anything that wasn't had long since fallen to pieces).

E: I instinctively aged the Princess up to a more sensible age, but I guess we are dealing with a kingdom ruled by cartoon villains. Maybe it'd be a good idea to lean into it? You know what, sure. I'll change it back to 15.

[frostgiant]

POP (0):
Xi-suns substrate scourers (0):
The Combiners (0):
Princess Rivalla's Grand Biomechanic retinue (1): Frostgiant

[Failbird105]

POP (0):
Xi-suns substrate scourers (0):
The Combiners (0):
Princess Rivalla's Grand Biomechanic retinue (2): Frostgiant, Failbird105

Imagine our enemies faces when they realize they lost the war to a girl barely even in the second half of her teens.

[Rockeater]

POP (0):
Xi-suns substrate scourers (0):
The Combiners (0):
Princess Rivalla's Grand Biomechanic retinue (3): Frostgiant, Failbird105, Rockeater

[chaotick21]

POP (0):
Xi-suns substrate scourers (0):
The Combiners (0):
Princess Rivalla's Grand Biomechanic retinue (4): Frostgiant, Failbird105, Rockeater, chaoskl21

[Naturegirl1999]

POP (0):
Xi-suns substrate scourers (0):
The Combiners (0):
Princess Rivalla's Grand Biomechanic retinue (5): Frostgiant, Failbird105, Rockeater, chaoskl21, NG

[frostgiant]

Spoiler: Shell smasher Gun (click to show/hide)

? Equipment slot?

The shell smasher is not a gun meant to smash the enemy shell. Instead, it is a gun that smashes the shell, INTO the enemy! Through a combination of air pressure and magnetic coils, and hard, Metallic-calcium shell projectile is launched like a cannon shell towards the target.  Mid Flight, The secondary thrusters activate, Increasing the already menacing speed of the Disc-shaped shell and adding a rotation to its flight path to ensure stability over longer distances.

Upon collision, the projectile will hit like a truck, being comparable to a coilgun round in velocity.
Should the Shell survive the impact without shattering into a million pieces and the occupant of the shell with its impact resistant body survives, The ammonite like creature begins its gruesome work, using a mixture of sticky and incredible acidic tentacles to burrow itself under the armour of the impacted titan, During which the Living bomb activates the detonation charges placed within its rudimentary brain.

If it had died on impact, the detonation charge would have gone off right then, adding an explosive punch to the coilgun like impact. Its purpose is much more dangerous. With the loss of its shell the ammonite will be digging into the nearest object it can find, that being the titan it impacted, burning a hole into the hull with its acid and burrowing as deep as it can. When the timer runs out, the Explosive charge detonates going off under the titans armour and directly on its more vulnerable internals, even as the blood, brains, guts and most importantly the Acid of the Ammonite is splattered around the new inner compartment, creating further compounding damage.

One could call the shell smasher a triple punch, Consisting of the Coilgun like impact, The acid borrowing creature and the acidic detonation intended to bypass heavy armour, like those typically mounted by Cybersaurs.

Spoiler: Flora amythystus extremus (click to show/hide)

To the Uninitiated, this two handed laser cannon looks like a massive turret weapon that was abandoned, overgrown and then ripped off its mount to use directly in combat. In truth however, the vegetation that grows from the casing of the weapon, covering it in a network of vines, moss, roots and flowers serve to both power the weapon and dissipate the heat created from firing the massive Anti-Titan grade weapon.

Much of the flora growing from the weapon are designed for recharging the hefty battery, which is drained almost completely from firing. This is accomplished through a combination of extremely powerful solar collecting plants and Atmospheric splitter roots, that break down the bonds between particles in the air and collect the energy released from these breaking bonds.

Working Together they manage to power the laser cannon on a variety of planets  that otherwise would require a hefty generator or a direct attachment to an extra strength Titan generator.
After firing, the Vines Begin to leach the heat away from the body of the gun, towards the outer plant matter at which point the thermovoric moss covering the weapon takes the heat energy into itself even as its radiates to the surface by the Collant vines. The thermal energy is transformed back into usable power, Both ensuring the laser cannon does not overheat while at the same time supplementing the recharge of the primary capacity bank. Between the Solar collectors, The thormovoric moss and the Atmospheric splitter roots, the laser cannon should be able to   operate even in environments lacking ideal circumstances, albeit with slowed firing rate due to a longer recharge.

Spoiler: Slabs arms (click to show/hide)

The slab arms are an incredibly defensive piece of biogineer work. Mounting a set of Heavy Muscle fibers and bio-Hydrolic system right next to metallo-calcium bones. This is all so that the arms are capable of lifting and carrying the extremely large armoured plates that make up the forearms. Attached to what on a human would be the forearm, these massive slabs of metallo- bone, leather and heavy armour  is capable of protecting from even the heaviest bombardments.  Mounted on top of the Clawed lizard “hands” that end the forelimbs of the Slab arms are a pair of Heavy spikes. These are used both to dig into the amr to better stabilize when firing heavy back mounted weaponry and when weathering enemy fire without being knocked down.

In the event of close combat, Those heavy spikes are used like pile drivers, sending the momentous weight of the Slab’s shields and the muscle power straight into the enemy titan, concentrated on the point. Needless to say, such a Blow is enough to dent most armour fielded by the regional powers.

The Slabs are designed for the purpose of Protecting the vulnerable torso and head of the titan from heavy ranged fire, playing into the savagery of the Kingdoms Pre-historic Titans in close quarters combat.
The Defensive nature of these arms are part of why the design was requisitioned, in order to better protect important titan components during PMC operations, reducing the maintenance cost of non-expendable limbs.

Spoiler: Hammer Hands Multi-use manipulator limbs. (click to show/hide)

Hammer hands were designed to bridge the gap between the majority of dinosaurs that are unable to wield hand based equipment and the standard titans of the universe. Many dinosaurs, Shockingly, lack hands. The hammer hands are an attempt to bridge this gap.
Constructed from flexible organic tissue on the insides along with a series of shock absorbing Bone and metal plates along the outside, the hammer hands are design to allow the titan to be a standard pair of arms, capable of being mounted on 4 limbed walkers just the same as 2 legged creatures, serving as both hand or leg as needed, sometimes both on the same mech switching from a 2 legged combat pose to a faster and more defensive and stable 4 legged form, presenting back mounted gunnery.

Aside from the obvious ability to land a devastating punch,, something rather expected from a Titan limb built out of Metal, bone and Mantis shrimp treated dino-muscular tissue and named the Hammer's hand. The hands were designed to be able to do anything from grapple, punch, Wield a melee weapon, shield, rifle all the way to acting as a leg for a 4 legged creature. The tip of every finger is covered in sharp talons, safely kept retracted within the fingers of the Hammer hand when not in use. While not the most deadly tool, and blunt force is usually many times more effective then the thinner talons, a cutting tool can come in handy during the strangest of times and every attempt to cut them from the design has constantly proven such.

This versatility allows the hammer hand to see use over almost every kingdom design that lacks need for more specialized limbery.                                          

Spoiler: Repair drones Prehistoric Bee Hive (click to show/hide)

Created from heavily modified bee’s, the bee hive is a group of mechanically imbued mega insects, typically the size of a human palm and equipped with a small harvesting laser powered by their pitch black Chloro-wings.
The Bee drones are produced from the Hive module, breeding in the hive with the parts of their bodies that are not produced during maturation being added by worker drones from  internal cache. This does limit the amount of drones that the hive can produce before rapiar.

The most obvious mechanical attachment to the supersized bee’s are the glowing red hybrid Cutting/Welding lasers mounted where a regular bee would mount their stinger.

The beehive acts similar to a normal bee hive, sending out drones to the surrounding of the titan to forage for materials, ranging from metal, Biomatter that can be reprocessed and electronics. After this material is collected, it is returned to the hive, where biomatter is turned into  a Bio-organic rapidly hardening sealant, used to patch wounds during combat while the organic compounds use the nutrients inside of the past to rapidly undergo cell-division and heal.
Metals and electronics are used similarly, patchin up parts of the titan that require metallic compounds.

During combat, These repair drones work on a fix/kill system. During Fix, the hive will seek to rapidly repair damage that the Titan has sustained, patching up wounds in the hull. When switch to Kill by the pilot, the Repair drones will dedicate the whole of their limited existence to tearing apart attacking titan sized targets, cutting holes in the target with their metal tearing mandibles and the low powered lasers attached to their rear end.

Depending on the enemy the pilot will toggle Fix/Kill fairly regularly, having the drones fix up their mech with the parts of the enemy that they have cut off.