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[cronos5010]

Frontier Breaker M.A.W.

The premise is simple. It is the year 2307 AD, and the asteroid bound Trojan Coalition is at war with the Transatlantic Union. Claiming it to be an unfortunate, if necessary measure towards their liberation from the whims of distant colonial masters, the Coalition embarked on a grand offensive to push back the TAU’s army at all costs, and secure Trojan dominance over the resource rich Martian colonies in the hopes of forcing the TAU into accepting unfavorable terms, or face a long and humiliating defeat. None of this has happened, and for the past year the Trojan Coalition has been locked in an uneasy truce with the TAU, with both sides seemingly too battered by the long and bloody war to invade the other, and yet too mired in pride and sheer spite to accept anything less but the other’s inevitable defeat.

It is an age of war, an age where the ambitions of men drive them to commit acts of great cruelty or great courage, and where even the unlikeliest of concepts are pursued in search of something, anything that could give one side the edge it needed to triumph over the other, and claim a final victory. And it is in this age that necessity, and unrelated innovations in the field of compact power generation and artificial musculature has culminated in the development of the Multi-purpose Armored Walker.

Heavily armored walking tanks with their roots in armored hardsuit and industrial machinery. Each MAW is an instrument of death purpose designed to operate in low and zero gravity conditions, and utilize its cutting edge electronic warfare suite to bridge the gap in ship to ship combat, and sink enemy ships with support allied bombers and ship mounted artillery. They were one and all glorified fighter jets-cum-tanks, but for a little while it gave the TAU the technological edge they needed to push the Trojans back, until the first Coalition MAWs rolled off the line, and the war ground to a halt once more.

But just as one innovation became a standard, another would take its place, as the TAU’s Advanced Research Projects Agency put the finishing touches on their latest scientific marvel, the Yukawa Jet, and sent their Jet equipped experimental Philadelphia class heavy battleship out for testing. It was supposed to be a simple test, with an intentionally skeletal crew of freshly trained officers and recruits, and just enough war materiel to learn what side effects if any should be expected after a jump, and allow the crew to hold out for rescue if a system or operator error took them deep into enemy territory. And to safeguard against the potential death of the crew, the battleship was even equipped with a last generation AI programmed to prevent the ship and its secrets from falling into Trojan hands among many other systems.

Unfortunately an unexpected assault on ARPA’s lunar base by the Trojan army forced the untested crew into battle, and as one allied ship and bunker fell after another, the Philadelphia’s captain made the decision to activate the Yukawa Jet to make their escape into the relative safety of near Earth orbit, only for a stray round to pierce its hull, and tear a hole into the Jet’s housing. Witnesses reported a brilliant flash of white light enveloping the Philadelphia and everything around it, before finally fading away to reveal nothing but empty space. Two ships disappeared on that day, both the Philadelphia and the front half of the Trojan warship “Prometheus” seemingly never to be seen again, just another tragedy among many in the never ending war.

Of course, no one expected the people on board the missing ships to survive, but when the crew of the Philadelphia blinked back into reality once more, and found themselves with a crippled drive, a makeshift brig full of Trojan MAW and starship pilots, and a good view of an unfamiliar world covered in strange machinery; most wondered if that was really a good thing. No one knew any of the stars here after all.

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Frontier Breaker M.A.W. is my attempt at learning how to write for proper mecha combat. Expect it to have a decently real robot tone as befitting an RP inspired primarily by various Mobile Suit Gundam series, Martian Successor Nadesico, and what I’ve heard about ‘the good’ Star Trek.

I am currently looking for about four to six players. Although I’m leaning on the lower end as I genuinely believe that keeping a lower player count helps to ensure that everyone has their shot at the limelight, and also I don’t want to run a big game to begin with.

Spoiler: Short Explanation of the System (click to show/hide)

The Frontier Breaker M.A.W. System is at its core, not only stolen wholesale from another, more popular game, but also from the concept of RTDs in general. The results of your turn are determined at least in part from a roll of 1d6 that will be opposed by other rolls of 1d6.

There is a World Line that shows your next 10 Rolls, and the roll that will be used next turn on the Leftmost part of the Line.

You start each ‘Mission’ with 5 Alterations, by spending one you get to add or subtract 1 from a dice roll in your worldline, and you can spend any number of Alterations on each turn. You gain 0.5 Alterations per turn, and can have at most 5 Alterations on you at any given time.

You start each ‘Mission’ with 0 Strain, but at any time, you can choose to add a point of Strain to have your character perform particularly anime actions, such as firing off two Specials in the same round, entering into a beam clash with an enemy to deflect their attack, or having your instincts kick in at the last possible moment to keep a round from tearing your mech a new one. You can also add a point to reroll your entire worldline in case something goes terribly wrong, or to refill your pool of Alterations.

While the first point of Strain spent on each Mission come with no drawbacks, in order to spend more, the player can choose to obtain Power At A Cost and temporarily obtain a higher Strain cap in exchange for receiving equivalent drawbacks down the line to your mech or character. Power corrupts after all, and you won’t always have the chance to rest or recuperate in between battles. But if you had to choose between your leg or your life, most people would choose the latter, and of course, we all know that absolutely nothing bad ever happens to someone who injects themselves with experimental medical nanobots to stop the bleeding.

Full disclosure: You're godknowshow far from the nearest supply station and the Philadelphia is not a medical ship. Meaning, if you go over your strain limit and get mangled, whatever replacement parts are going to have be salvaged from the locals in the hopes that it won't cost all of your humanity. No guarantees on that by the way.
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Stats: You have 14 points to freely distribute between player defined stats that represent the capabilities of your character’s mech as relevant to resolving actual fights. A stat can be anything really, as long as you can think of a snappy name, and write a definition for what it actually represents. You should also note that you can increase the effect of a stat’s number by focusing on one specific aspect, someone with 8 in ‘Long Ranged Offense’ is going to be worse at shooting death lasers than someone with ‘Shooting Death Lasers 4-5’ for example. You can have as many player-defined stats as you want, as long as it is below 7 individual stats at the start of the game.
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Specials: A Special represents a…. Special technique, system, move, or other sort of nonsense that pushes your character to their limits. Each character starts with four Specials. Each Special is tied to a number from 3 to 6, and the higher the number is, the more powerful the Special’s effect is. You can always slap a drawback onto any Special to make it stronger than it ordinarily would to represent temporarily turning off your mech’s limiters, allowing it to move at speeds a human body was never designed to handle, or a technique that leaves the user wide open for example, but it isn’t strictly speaking required.

When a Special is used, a result on the character’s Worldline that matches the number tied to that Special is expended as if a turn had passed with that result. It is important to note that a Special can be used at the same turn as other actions, and that only one Special can be used per turn by default.

Strain Specials are Specials that trade a higher level of versatility or power in exchange for requiring Strain points, not worldline numbers to use.

Spoiler: Basic Character Sheet (click to show/hide)

Character Name:

Callsign:

Gender:

Sex:

Age:

Appearance:

Personality:

Aerospace Fighter/MAW Name:

Aerospace Fighter/MAW Theme: (A simple description of your MAW or Aerospace Fighter’s specialized role in combat. While the first MAWs were purpose-designed to be manned anti-ship weaponry, over time they have gradually taken the role of everything from a mobile fire support, to a ‘nimble’ scout specializing in marking targets for artillery bombardment.)

Aerospace Fighter/MAW Design: (Meant to be a description of your MAW/Aerospace Fighter’s appearance, not its role or equipment. The former is what the theme section is for, and the latter is what the stats are for.)

Stats: (Remember that you start with 14 points to distribute between up to 6 Player Defined Stats)

Specials: (Remember that each Special is tied to a number from 3 to 6, and that you start with 4 of these things)

Background: (I’ll potentially accept anyone from a lost scientist, a cooperative POW just trying to keep everyone alive, or the sole experienced Unionist soldier watching everything burn, just as long as they have a good reason to pilot a Fighter or MAW, be on the ship, and are willing to work with a team among other things.)

Spoiler: Setting Lore (click to show/hide)

The Plagues
“To fight for a future, is that such a crime?”

To many living on the Earth today, ‘the Plagues’ were seen as an aberration, an overreaction to the status quo of the time. Throughout the 21st century, as advancements in space travel began to commercialize what was once solely the providence of nations, and space colonization became an increasingly profitable reality. And in time the various superpowers of the world reaped the rewards from decades of investment into what was once little more than a scientific money pit, while the developing nations of the world could do little more than look on in awe or envy as they have always done.

But as time went on, what little profit the developing nations could make from providing raw materials or skilled hands for the hegemons began to dry up as the colonies became increasingly self-sufficient. Until their growing irrelevance finally caused their once promising economies to crumble from their own overspecialization. And all the while the great powers of the world simply carved up the solar system among themselves, seemingly uncaring for the plight of those who were left behind, save for the occasional offer of subjugation, or annexation. As their arable land and people became the sole bargaining chips of these increasingly irrelevant powers.

That is until the first manned exploration of Jupiter discovered an artificial structure in a decaying orbit around the gas giant, a long abandoned space station created by a highly advanced race that had stubbornly stood the test of time, and evaded detection until now. The discovery of what is now known as the Poseidon artifact sparked off a minor space race, as each superpower sought to be the first to discover its secrets, leading to the settlement and expansion of various outposts in the trojans around the distant planet, and the rapid reverse engineering of the technologies needed to create the first truly self sustaining colony. A final strike against these once developing powers, as they are now fully cut off from any hopes of profiting from the scraps left behind by the new solar hegemonies.

Faced with subjugation, or an inevitable decline into irrelevance, some of the more desperate powers of the world turned to an unorthodox solution to their problems, one proposed by the great pariah of his age, one Jaka Aditya Supriyadi. If the hegemonies of the world wouldn’t share the fruits of space travel and the Poseidon artifact willingly, then the developing powers of the world would have to drag them down to their knees through the only means available, continuous biological warfare. And thus, the Red Queen Alliance was formed in secret, and in time they would reveal their presence, just as great swarms of locusts scoured the American continent, and men and women began to wither away in the streets of Europe.

It was a risky gamble, but one the Alliance was all too willing to chance. They had nothing to lose, and everything to gain after all. And with how decentralized their organization was it would have been almost impossible for the solar hegemonies to stamp them out, or eradicate their tenfold plagues before it ravaged the Earth. All they could do was struggle fruitlessly against the approaching end of all humanity, until they finally gave in to their demands.

Three years, it took the first of the Solar Hegemonies three whole years to concede defeat, and call for an end to the seven remaining plagues upon humanity, as in this grand game of chicken each superpower had simply sought to be the one who blinked last, even if it meant the suffering of their own people. After all, what Hegemony would want to be known as the first to concede to the demands of some upstart shadow organization? And admit that above all else, they were not quite as invincible as they seemed.

But even as the rest began to follow suit, and the Alliance frantically attempted to end the very plagues they had unleashed upon the world, it became clear that it was all far too late to matter. Their own brinkmanship had put the Earth on a path to ruin, one that neither side had an answer to.

The Transatlantic Union

“The Earth is the cradle of humanity, but mankind cannot stay in the cradle forever.”

An intergovernmental organization aiming to maintain unity, facilitate economic growth and environmental recovery, and safeguard humanity’s return to outer space. The Transatlantic Union is in theory an alliance of equals, meant to serve as both a balancing force against potential Trojan expansion, and as the final arbiter of extraterrestrial territorial disputes between its member states. In practice it has mostly been the former, and the TAU serve as both the first point of contact between the peoples of Earth and their Trojan counterparts, and the driving force behind Earth’s aggressive policy of solar reclamation.

Yet despite their opposition, the TAU owe their very existence to the Trojan Confederation themselves. As the Poseidon artifact derived technologies shared by the Trojan people during their first contact marked the end of the long humiliation endured by the once proud people of Earth.

But while the remarkable generosity of the Trojan diplomats were key to bringing about the slow but steady reclamation of Earth, and the recovery of its battered and weary people, it also inspired something far more sinister in the process. A hint of fear, as the earnestly grateful people of Earth looked upon their technologically advanced brethren in awe, and wondered when the other shoe would drop.

Over time, this hint of fear seemed to justify itself, as the extraterrestrial ambitions of Earth’s new powers grew, and its people took to the stars once more. The newly founded space colonies of Earth found themselves plagued by the two fold threats of Piracy, and Trojan Expansionism. As pirate vessels with crew hardened through years of plying their craft in well defended Trojan territory turned their gaze towards the often poorly defended colonies of Earth, while Trojan mining vessels continued their work in the many territories claimed by Earth’s nations, often in the company of Trojan military vessels seeking to ward off any potential aggression.

But as each nation’s leaders pushed their Trojan counterparts for a diplomatic resolution, and the recognition of their sovereign territory, it became increasingly clear that the Trojans saw their uncoordinated attempts at returning to the stars as an insult. The Trojans had already given the people of Earth what they needed to reclaim it out of the goodness of their own heart after all, but the stars were their birthright, one these barbarians had the gall to claim for themselves.

Finding themselves ostensibly forced to choose between subjugation or irrelevance, and frustrated with the blunt condescension of their Trojan counterparts, and their own inability to enforce their own territorial claims. A handful of nations looked towards their collective past for a solution, and found it in the Transatlantic Union, forming an all too familiar pact to standardize equipment, and coordinate their military forces to check the ambitions of a common enemy, and in truth, each other’s.

Other nations would seek to join the transatlantic experiment as it began to bear fruit. Each offering their aid and resources in exchange for the legitimization of their sometimes overlapping claims, and the all important protection against piracy. Until in time the TAU’s influence and purview grew far beyond its north atlantic centered militaristic roots, leaving only its name, and distinguished military history behind as proof of its original purpose.

And while the TAU’s critics sometimes deride it as being a hegemony under any other name, one that extracts manpower and raw resources from its member states to enrich the ruling elite, and empower the ‘peacekeeping forces’ that keeps the colonies in line. Before the War of Trojan aggression began, its supporters would likely point out that its member states only have colonies to begin with due to the TAU’s protection, and that there hasn’t been a major conflict over extraterrestrial territory in recent history since the Plagues. These days though? They’re far more likely to mash their fist into your face.

Spoiler: Thanks and Credits (click to show/hide)

Thanks and credits goes to Empiricist for literally allowing me to steal a system he made, and giving good suggestions for each faction’s names, Furtuka for helping me with the latter, and Doomblade, Strider, and Wrench in the plan for putting up with me throwing fluff at them out of the blu.

Link to the Discord Server: Here

[cronos5010]

This post is reserved for example characters, and accepted characters.

Spoiler: Example Build 1 (click to show/hide)

Joseph Clinton “Albion”

A cowardly mechanic press ganged into service in the heat of battle, Joseph’s remarkable ability to adapt, and the lack of trained pilots has kept him firmly tied to the cockpit he fell into.

MAW Name: MK1 Armatohaubica “Perfidious”

MAW Theme:
Stealth Sniper: Equipped with the last word in electronic warfare and thermal cloaking technology, the Armatohaubica is a marvel of modern engineering hindered only the relatively low amount of time its cloaking systems can remain active, as its heat baffles are incapable of venting heat quickly enough to cool down its powerful reactor and onboard computers during prolonged usage.

MAW Design: A sleek humanoid mecha with rounded out and aerodynamic curves, and an unfolding railgun almost as long as the Armatohaubica itself mounted on its right shoulder.

Stats:
Overwhelming Firepower [5]: The MK1 Armatohaubica is designed entirely around the battleship grade “Hyper Railgun” mounted on its shoulder, an unwieldy and practically immobile weapon designed to fire guided gyrojet rounds at targets marked by the mech’s hand mounted laser designator. Unfortunately, Albion is incapable of understanding the instruction manual for the gyrojet’s self guiding systems, and has settled on the crude, but surprisingly effective tactic of using the mech’s thruster array to manually point the Hyper Railgun towards its target.

‘Flutter’ Thruster Array  [4]: A standard array of movable nozzle jumpjets integrated throughout the Armatohaubica’s frame. The ‘Flutter’ Thruster Array was designed to provide rapid, and truly 360 degree acceleration, allowing the MAW to change its heading at a moment’s notice to evade enemy fire. Although the limited fuel tanks prevents the Armatohaubica from using its Thrusters for sustained movement.


Stealth Armor [3}: Constructed out of advanced ceramic polymers, and equipped with an array of passive heat dissipators, baffles, and the latest in ECM technology. The Armatohaubica’s stealth armor does a fine job of masking its exact position when active, and an average job at keeping the MAW intact when struck/

Competence [2]: Having ‘leapt into the cockpit’ not too long ago, Albion is still largely unfamiliar with the Perfidious’s systems, and his continued survival and success can be chalked down to a mixture of sheer luck, and good instincts.


Specials:
Counter Missiles [3]: Albion frantically fires off heat seeking missiles around the Armatohaubica in an attempt to force approaching enemies to maneuver around them, or lead guided missiles astray. The missiles are low yield and incapable of prolonged flight, but they serve well enough as an area denial tool and emergency defence.

Stealth Armor Online [4]: Albion activates the Armatohaubica’s Stealth Armor, causing his mech to be momentarily undetectable to all but visual sensors, allowing the Perfidious to make a quick getaway and avoid guided weaponry. While powerful this system does little to prevent someone within close range from simply punching the WAM, or unloading unguided munitions at their general area. During active combat, the Armatohaubica can only activate its stealth armor for six second long bursts, requiring an equivalent amount of time to properly vent waste heat before it can be safely reactivated.

Nerveskitter [5]: Acting purely on instinct, Albion guns the Armatohaubica’s thrusters, and fires the Hyper Railgun at thin air to provide a massive burst of speed. Nerveskitter is often used to evade enemy fire at the last moment, or distance the Perfidious from close ranged threats.

All Out Attack [Strain]: Feathering the Armatohaubica’s thrusters to point the Hyper Railgun at the target, the Albion opens fire with its counter missiles to corral and batter them towards close range, where the Perfidious can simply press the Hyper Railgun's barrel against its target, and pull the trigger.

Notes: A direct fire support build designed to deal burst damage with its Hyper Railgun. The rest of the Armatohaubica’s kit is geared towards keeping it out of the line of fire, and punishing enemies that stray too close for its railgun to handle.

Spoiler: Example Build 2 (click to show/hide)

Al-Sache Lorran “Contender”

As it became increasingly clear that the war wouldn’t be ending any time soon, the Trojans found themselves with a problem. They could take as many space colonies as they could hold, and subjugate all of Mars, but in the end none of it really mattered, not when the Earth still lay beyond reproach, and not when the TAU still sat on the largest store of nuclear weaponry in existence, and could simply rain down hellfire on any hostile fleet massing on its borders.

In order to prevent the nuclear annihilation of their fleets, the Trojans turned to an ancient Terran concept in search of a more active defense against nuclear bombardment, Project Excalibur.

MAW Name: Excalibur Exceed Unit 02

MAW Theme:
A Boy and His Dog: A testbed unit designed to realize the wildest dreams of Project Excalibur’s designers. The Excalibur Exceed is a heavily armored MAW equipped with a Nuclear Bazooka, and the latest in AI controlled drone technology. On paper it was one of the deadliest single pilot machines that would ever grace the battlefield with its presence, but in reality most of its test pilots could wrangle the surprisingly finicky onboard AI, and the Truce of Tharsis meant that the Trojans now had the time they’d need to come up with less expensive solutions to the problem of nuclear weaponry.

Unit 02 was in many ways, the sole success story of the original production line.

MAW Design: A squat and bulky humanoid figure reminiscent of a medieval knight in full white painted armor carrying a unfolding bazooka on its back, and a red and gold kite shield mounted on its right hand. Small cone shaped drones fly about around it.

Stats:

Nuclear Bazooka (5): While limited in terms of ammunition, firing speed, and guidance systems, and requiring perhaps an awkward amount of space when unfolded, if there’s one thing the Bazooka doesn’t lack it’s the ability to annihilate almost everything upon direct impact. Fortunately, the low rate of fire, and the inherently ‘unfriendly’ nature of this weapon prevents Contender from simply unloading it at every possible opportunity.


Hound Drones (4): Small and nimble long range drones equipped with a pair of built in lasers, and remotely controlled by the Excalibur Exceed’s onboard AI, BASKERVILLE. The Hounds are designed to harry enemy interceptors, and arrange themselves around the Nuclear Bazooka’s target in order to focus the x-rays emitted into a more coherent beam.

Chobham Armor (5): The Excalibur Exceed is protected from head to toe in a thick layer of armor plating, and it comes equipped with a disposable handheld shield covering its right torso, where most of the Nuclear Bazooka’s ammunition is kept.

Specials:

Unfold Nuclear Bazooka [6]: The Excalibur Exceed unfolds the Nuclear Bazooka, and requests that the hounds prepare for the aftermath of a single shot.

Cloud Assisted Targeting [4]: Working in tandem with the Baskerville AI, the Hound Drones temporarily shuts down all extraneous capabilities in order to act as a computational cloud and tracking system, and thus greatly increase the accuracy of The Excalibur Exceed’s next shot.

Interdiction [3]: Reacting quickly, the Hound Drones put themselves in the line of fire, blocking attacks directed at the Excalibur itself.

Reinforce Drone Complement [5]: The Excalibur Exceeds deploys additional Hound Drones from its limited reserve to reinforce its ranks.

Notes: Another approach to a direct fire support mech. The Excalibur Exceed relies on its heavy armor and complement of offensive drones to wade into battle, before selectively deleting areas with its Nuclear Bazooka.

Spoiler: Example Build 3 (click to show/hide)

Aleksander Haraldsen “Hellburner”

In a battlefield increasingly dominated by powerful electronic warfare systems that rendered the guidance systems on contemporary missiles all but useless outside of danger close range, the brilliant minds at Tau’s Advanced Research Projects Agency came up with a novel solution.

Remove the guidance systems, cut back on the wasteful amounts of fuel needed to propel it towards its target, the unnecessary fuel reserves weighing it down, and fill it all up with as much high explosives as you can afford before capping it with a standard kinetic penetrator for aerodynamics, and setting it all to detonate on impact or proximity. In essence, they had reinvented the bomb, and now their minds set to work on the machine best suited to launch it.

Aerospace Fighter: F-88 Dauntless

Aerospace Fighter Theme:
Glorious Melee Combat: The mass production model for “the aerospace fighter of the futuretm”, the F-88 Dauntless was designed to accelerate to breakneck speeds to close the gap, and disable enemy interceptors and battleships alike with its complement of charged particle cannons, before jabbing its Lancea missile at anything that remains.

Aerospace Fighter Design: A forward swept wing aircraft with a standard issue armor plated cockpit that is wholly painted in a surprisingly reflective white. Two powerful thrusters are mounted in the back, and smaller vents intended for additional maneuverability are arranged throughout the plane. A pair of short barreled turrets are mounted on the sides of its nose, and a long and black railgun is slung underneath the fighter itself.

Stats:
Danger Close Weaponry (7): In an attempt to save on space and weight for its missiles, the Dauntless is solely armed with a pair of turret mounted Chernobyl class Charged Particle Cannons, granting it unparalleled close range firepower against even the heaviest armored MAWs or Battleships as its beams lances through to fry flesh and electronics alike. All at the cost of limiting its long range firepower to the underslung railgun launched Lancea Unguided High Explosive missiles.

Archon Class Thrusters (7): With an incredibly aerodynamic design, and benefitting from a century’s worth of knowledge on thruster and jet design. The Dauntless is one of the most, if not the most maneuverable, and fastest aerospace fighter of its era, allowing it to weave in and out of combat and dodge enemy fire at speeds limited mainly by the pilot’s ability to withstand G forces.

Specials:

Increase Thrust (3): Increase power consumption to thrusters to give itself a sudden burst of acceleration.
Increase Thrust (4): Increase power consumption to thrusters to give itself a sudden burst of acceleration.
Increase Thrust (5): Increase power consumption to thrusters to give itself a sudden burst of acceleration.
Load Lancea Missile (6): The Dauntless loads a single Lancea missile into the underslung railgun, preparing to fire it at a moment’s notice. The Lancea Missiles are incredibly aerodynamic, and are packed to the brim with high explosives. And while the missile by itself is both slow and unguided, the Dauntless’s own speed is often enough to ensure that the missile strikes its target, or detonates through proximity when fired at the close range it was designed for.

Notes: A straightforward ramping melee combatant that trades armor and all long range firing capability in exchange for pure speed, and relies on its high offensive and evasive stats to remain a threat even as it burns through as many 3, 4, and 5 rolls on its speed ramping Specials.

Spoiler: Example Build 4 (click to show/hide)

Hanna Halley “Grandmaster”

Originally sold to the army as “The first truly combat capable AWACS MAW”, The GE Haruspex is considered an oddity by most. A malformed creation brought about by a rushed design process performed by separate teams incapable of reconciling their differences.

Equipped with a ‘state of the art’ scanner suite and an Adversarial ECCM system. The Haruspex nonetheless suffers as a dedicated AWACS unit due to a unique quirk in its design, the lack of any external AWACS equipment. A quirk that has led to a remarkably low detection and transmission range, in exchange for vastly increased survivability and operating time, and in truth this increased survivability was the Haruspex’s sole claim to fame.

Where other AWACS MAWs or Planes had to rely on distance and speed alone to ward off threats, and serve admirably in its supporting role until one too many holes punctured its radar dish. The Haruspex was unique in its ability to take round after round into its heavily armored hull without a noticeable decrease in effectiveness.

But there was of course just one more problem that led to its eventual disuse. In between the thick armor plating, the surprisingly well designed synthetic musculature, and the staggering amount of space its internal computer took up, the Haruspex’s cramped internals were completely incapable of supporting the power lines and ammo feeds required by most conventional weaponry.

And thus the Haruspex languished in its reputation as a powerful, durable and agile line mech that couldn’t hold a gun, and a AWAC capable MAW that practically functioned within visual range. Until now that is.

MAW Name: GE Haruspex MK2

MAW Theme:
Full Contact Electronic Warfare: Building upon the semi solid foundation of the original Haruspex’s design, the MK2 attempts to lean into the close range role preferred by the MK1’s surviving pilots with the addition of the proprietary General Electric Data-Spike. A revolutionary close range emissions analysis probe mounted over each of the MAW’s two hands that allows the Haruspex’s pilot to subvert the systems of almost any MAW or Fighter… so long as the spike penetrates the cockpit or internal computer without blowing them up in the process.

MAW Design: A sleek, humanoid frame painted matte black with a dome shaped head, and a pair of oversized arms that can serve as a makeshift shield in a pinch.

Stats:

Sloped Armor (4): The Haruspex boasts thick armor plating that allows it to comfortably function in its role as a close range brawler, and continue to provide AWACs support until the bitter end.

MAW Martial Arts (3): The Haruspex’s artificial musculature and joint design allows it to perform a  wide variety of movements despite its bulk, a quirk that Grandmaster, and many Haruspex pilots before her have leveraged to utilize their own martial arts training in combat. The Haruspex also comes equipped with a pair of GE Data-Spikes, close range emissions analysis probes that temporarily enhances the Skyeye system if it breaches a target’s cockpit. And the mech's lethality is comparable to being chased down by an angry missile. threatening, though by no means certain death barring sudden inexplicable ECM failure.

Integrated “Skyeye” AWACS and ECCM System (4): The Skyeye System boasts a remarkably low time to detection rate, and a comprehensive ECCM suite utilizing an adversarial neural network to progressively break down the effectiveness of hostile ECM based on live visual data, and allied weapons feedback. Although effective it is hampered mostly by the low detection and transmission range inherent to the mech itself, and its heavy reliance on Specials to function.

Vectored Thrust Kit (3): Boasting a high rate of acceleration and control. The Vectored Thrust Kit grants the Haruspex a surprising amount of agility. Although its limited fuel reserves prevents Grandmaster from simply gunning the throttle to reach particularly high speeds.

Specials:

Borrowed Sword (6): The Haruspex relays targeting data to allied units of its choice. These units are able to launch attacks on the designated target of its choice without disrupting their owners combat operations as all the processing is offloaded to the Haruspex itself. More accurate against closer targets and with fewer linked allies.

Relay [4]: The Haruspex relays a targeted enemy unit's IFF credentials to an allied unit of its choice (including itself), confusing enemy targeting systems. The effect terminates prematurely if the owner of the credentials is neutralized.

C&C (Evasion) [3]: The Haruspex uses its analysis suite to actually function as an AWACS and assist all allied units (including itself) in not getting blindsided by enemy fire.

Adversarial ECCM [5]: The Haruspex's ANN combines data from its visual feed and tactical uplink to degrade the effectiveness of a target's ECM. The ANN needs training data to function, so this requires the target to have been chased or attacked recently to function. The effects of this scale with the amount of attacks (missiles are considered to be constantly attacking for the purposes of this) and the proximity of the Haruspex to its target at the time.

Notes: A durable support build that benefits greatly from the support options it provides. The Haruspex is both capable of hanging back and spamming its Relay and C&C specials to protect its allies while they build up charge for its Adversarial ECCM, and wading right into the mess to exploit the opportunities it creates.

[ctsun]

Pop a reserve.

Spoiler: in progress (click to show/hide)

Character Name:

Callsign:Voyager

Gender:

Appearance:

Aerospace Fighter/MAW Name:

Aerospace Fighter/MAW Theme: (A simple description of your MAW or Aerospace Fighter’s specialized role in combat. While the first MAWs were purpose-designed to be manned anti-ship weaponry, over time they have gradually taken the role of everything from a mobile fire support, to a ‘nimble’ scout specializing in marking targets for artillery bombardment.)

Aerospace Fighter/MAW Design: (Meant to be a description of your MAW/Aerospace Fighter’s appearance, not its role or equipment. The former is what the theme section is for, and the latter is what the stats are for.)

Stats: (Remember that you start with 14 points to distribute between up to 6 Player Defined Stats)

Specials: (Remember that each Special is tied to a number from 3 to 6, and that you start with 4 of these things)

Background: (I’ll potentially accept anyone from a lost scientist, a cooperative POW just trying to keep everyone alive, or the sole experienced Unionist soldier watching everything burn, just as long as they have a good reason to pilot a Fighter or MAW, be on the ship, and are willing to work with a team among other things.)

[Chevaleresse]

Spoiler: Score (click to show/hide)

Character Name: Vilhelmiina "Mimmi" Aino

Callsign: Score

Gender: Female

Age: 24

Appearance: A diminutive woman with dark hair rarely seen outside her suit of power armor.  She has piercing blue eyes that seem to constantly be scanning for weaknesses, when they aren't obscured by a visor. Her armor is a bulky thing designed for frontline combat, which conveniently also gives it sufficient power and dexterity to assist in her mechanical work. The various armor plates are uniformly a scratched, faded olive drab color, with the occasional TAU insignia on it. The layer beneath the plating is a plain black, save for when a warning label or brand name is visible.

Personality: Score has a no-nonsense, efficient approach to most things, and sometimes comes off as cold to those who meet her; those who know better would say this isn't the case, but she is a reserved woman nonetheless. Possessed of an odd sense of humor and surprisingly thoughtful, Score is a stalwart and honorable friend. Nobody really knows what will excite her; some claim she's some sort of blood knight, others think she can only talk properly to machines, and the occasional FNG suggests that there is no person inside the armor at all. Regardless, if Score says something will be done, you can count on it being done.

MAW Name: LA-HWP4r4 "Skadi"

MAW Theme: Heavy Anti-Ship Weaponry

MAW Design: A design calling to mind the warships of ages past, managing to simultaneously look bulky and sleek with massive armor plates and enormous guns. The main battery sits in two triple mountings on either shoulder of the MAW, with recessed vectoring thrusters oriented perpendicular to the guns. It appears to wield an energy sword roughly as tall as it is and about half as wide when activated, in a broad, loosely triangular shape. The head of the MAW is more or less a pointier version of a ship's bridge, a "visor" of transparent panels supplementing the machine's cameras in the case of the latter being disabled. The Skadi is painted in mottled, steely grays and blues, with occasional running lights peeking between plates.

Stats:

MDR-MTr2 "Atgeir" Main Battery - 4: The primary armament the Skadi brings to bear is a set of six cannons set into the shoulders, with a limited range and rate of traversal. The MAW itself is equipped with only the most rudimentary targeting systems, making firing at moving targets (especially nearby ones) difficult and impractical. However, the weight and cost savings this afforded allowed the railcannons to be made even heavier and more powerful, firing either armor-piercing shells for penetrating thick battleship plating or "hollowpoint" kinetic rounds designed to flatten on impact with the target and transfer massive amounts of kinetic energy at once. What it lacks in agility can be somewhat made up for by shifting the MAW itself or brute forcing it by simply firing shells at velocities that make it impossible to practically react to them.

CDS-R.Type-r7 "Fafnir" Defense System - 5: The Skadi is defended by experimental armor allowing its protection to "regenerate" over the course of the battle. Systems inspired by the operation of recoilless rifles allow armor plating to displace slightly, forcing incoming kinetic energy to dissipate over a longer period of time and thus blunting the impact. Some of this energy is recovered in the process by the same mechanisms that return the armor to its baseline, non-displaced form, which mitigates the additional energy draw of a semi-active protection scheme.

Heavy Pulse Thrusters - 2: The Skadi has excellent systems for a number of purposes. Maneuvering is not one of these. The thrusters mounted on the MAW are designed to deliver short bursts of intense thrust; they are poor at complex maneuvers but good at getting from point A to point B, or occasionally evading a sheet of artillery fire you are on a direct course to obliteration with.

SFD-Pr11-Type 93 "Nothung" - 3: A multipurpose backup armament for the Skadi. Simply put, it's a big fuckoff energy sword (more sword than energy, as it primarily uses plasma to form the "edge" of the weapon.) It can be used to damage or destroy incoming projectiles alongside the obvious purpose of hacking unfortunate victims apart (whether they be MAWs or capital ships the Skadi managed to land upon.) It's also, you know, a sword, and thus sort of useless for offense unless something is stupid enough to get close.

Specials:
Deflection Protocols [3]: Score diverts power to her AIs, allowing her to more quickly and accurately respond to incoming fire by angling to it or outright destroying it with the Nothung, but moving power away from the chargers and loaders of the main battery.
Fortify [4]: Shifts power out of the Nothung and into the armor's active systems, allowing the MAW to more easily stand up to sustained fire but disabling its ability to fight in melee or deflect incoming fire outright.
Broadside [5]: Diverts the majority of the Skadi's power to charging and loading the main battery, increasing both the power of each shot and rate of fire at the expensive of a broad-range weakening of parameters.
Overclock [Strain]: Temporarily disables safety limiters on both the Skadi and Score's power armor, allowing her to react faster and the MAW to enhance all parameters at the cost of rapid heating and straining her own body beyond typical human tolerances.

Background: Ostensibly a mechanic, Score has accumulated a fair amount of combat experience in her service for the TAU, as enemies generally do not check to see whether the technicians are out of the way before they launch assaults. It did not take long for her to get approval to move from industrial models to a fully-fledged combat suit, one that she is effectively never seen outside. Experienced with both the maintenance and operation of a number of combat systems, she ended up on the Philadelphia in large part due to her ability to pull double duty - something that will almost certainly come in handy with the vessel stranded.

[Smoke Mirrors]

Spoiler: Chip (click to show/hide)

Character Name: Count Morgan von Corvinus

Callsign: Chip

Gender: Male

Sex: Male

Age: 24

Appearance: A tall young man with neat blond hair and a eyepatch over his left eye. His remaining eye is a grayish blue, and his face is painted with a constant scowl. His body is covered in scars and old wounds. He’s rarely ever dressed in anything but his formal dress uniform, complete with saber, or his combat suit. The dress uniform is a greyish blue outfit, complete with silver epaulette and his family’s coat of arms, a raven with a gold ring in its mouth, sitting on a log on a blue shield, emblazoned on the front. His combat uniform is relatively light weight, but with extra armor over his vitals and missing eye, designed to prevent a lucky shot from killing him, while also not limiting his movement. It’s a moderately scuffed, but still new looking gunmetal grey, with a black layer underneath with the TAU insignia on it.

Personality: Morgan’s personality is very much a result of his upbringing. Raised to be the next count of New Styria, Morgan was taught to act in a manner befitting a leader. He constantly puts the greater good of his team ahead of his own personal issues and desires. He refuses to allow himself to act impulsively or take unneeded risks, and he is skilled in planning under pressure. His family’s death 10 years ago also played a major role in determining his personality. He possesses a seething hatred of the Trojan military and government that is kept in check by his refusal to allow his emotions to control him. He keeps himself detached from others, which he claims to be to better allow himself to strategize, but is truly a defense mechanism. Behind his anger, professionalism, and trauma, Morgan is a young man who is relatively clueless about things most people learn growing up, due to him dedicating his life after 14 purely to studies that would further his military career. In the rare moments he lets himself relax, it becomes easy to see the glimmer of a bright and happy young man whose life was ruined by the war.

Aerospace Fighter/MAW Name: MK3 Mycenaean “Achilles”

Aerospace Fighter/MAW Theme:
Mobile Command Fortress: The Achilles is a slow moving, but heavily armored and practically indestructible MAW unit designed for a field commander. It’s larger than a normal MAW, both due to the armor and surveillance equipment built in. The most heavily armored section is the command center, where the pilot is given information from the Myrmidons. The Achilles is designed to take a hit and keep on functioning, though it’s weapon systems are relatively weak, designed more so to convince enemies that there are easier targets to aim for than to take them down. It is equipped with shielding technology to better enhance its defense. It’s primary feature are the speedy but weak “Myrmidon” drones that the MAW can release, designed to scan the battlefield and relay information to the pilot, and even to hack into other MAWs and Ships.

Aerospace Fighter/MAW Design:
The Achilles is a large and bulky MAW designed more to function as a mobile fortress than for visual’s sake. With it’s primarily black body with dark brown armor, if the Achilles resembles anything, it’s a giant, humanoid insect of some sort. The body and limbs are covered in powerful brown armor that can take most forms of assault with little to no damage, and even the Myrmidons dock between two plates of armor, meaning that even a shot to where they dock is unlikely to do much harm to the interior of the MAW. The head, like the head of all Mycenaean class MAWs, is designed to resemble an Ancient Greek warrior’s helmet. While the Achilles possesses ant-like antenna on its head, in truth, these are distractions, as it’s sensors are located throughout the body. The Myrmidon drones continue this theme, resembling Alates, or flying ants, though with jets in place of wings. They latch on to MAWs and Fighters with their legs and mandibles, and relay information back to the Achilles.

Stats: (Remember that you start with 14 points to distribute between up to 6 Player Defined Stats)

Hacking [5]:
When a Myrmidon drone attaches to a MAW or Fighter, it allows the pilot of the Achilles access to the onboard computer of the attached vehicle. This access can be used to do such things as thwart targeting systems, freeze up electronic controls, block and send signals, shut off ECM systems, and more. Myrmidons can also attach to allied vehicles, allowing the Achilles to provide additional support, such as helping to perform multiple tasks at once or overclocking their system to allow activities that would otherwise be blocked by safety protocols, among other things.

Scanning Drones [4]:
The Achilles is loaded with speedy and nimble Myrmidon drones that serve the primary purpose of scanning the battlefield to relay information back to the pilot of the Achilles, controlled by the on board A.I., Xenophon. While the drones can perform scans while simply flying around, their greatest scanning ability manifests once attached to another vehicle, where they gain access to the vehicle’s own data on its current and ongoing status and the biometrics of the pilot. This not only provides information on the status of the vehicle and it’s pilot, but also provides forewarning of the vehicles future maneuvers by letting the Achilles pilot know what signals are being sent.

Stygian Armor [5]:
The Achilles is equipped with the latest, top of the line Stygian Armor. The armor is designed to diffuse radiation based assaults, and the multi layer design dissipates the kinetic energy of physical assaults through the armored body, resulting in the damage felt to the pilot being minimal. The armor’s material, a super alloy containing titanium and tungsten, and design causes the damage from assaults to dissipate over a wide area, deflecting attacks that could destroy an ordinary MAW with little more than a scratch. The massive armor over the entire Achilles leaves it with little room for weaponry, and a slow movement speed, but those are more than countered by its nigh indestructible form.

Specials: (Remember that each Special is tied to a number from 3 to 6, and that you start with 4 of these things)

Geisterameisen [4]
Select Myrmidons release a signal that disrupts attempts from vehicles to lock on to vehicles they are attached to, along with disrupting attempts to detect those vehicles using mechanical means, as a result, attempts to fire on and detect those vehicles become incredibly difficult.

Feuerameisen [5]
Select Myrmidons release a signal that forces vehicles and weapon systems to lock on to the vehicles they are attached to and to fire. The signal is set with a slight delay, to allow the Myrmidons to escape from the range of attacks, but blocks attempts by the pilot to manually disengage the lock or prevent the weapon system from firing.

Overclock Orders [6]
A signal can be sent from the Achilles to a vehicle with a Myrmidon attached to it to ignore all safety limiter protocols, and to function at a level exceeding it’s safe limits. This causes the vehicle to gain a temporary boost to all parameters.

Assuming Direct Control [Strain]
By pushing the Myrmidons and his abilities to their limit, Morgan can temporarily take control of a hacked vehicle from their pilot and manually control it himself. While it does not take long for the pilot to regain control, Morgan can get off some form of command to the vehicle before command returns to the pilot.

Background: Born the son of the count of New Styria, Morgan was educated in his childhood with the intent of taking a high level government position, with such things as fencing and classical arts being his main forms of leisure. This changed when he was merely 14 years old. A Trojan assassination attempt upon his family left his father dead, his mother comatose, and the newly minted count with a chip on his shoulder against all Trojans. He immediately changed his focus to gaining a military position. Pushing with a single minded dedication, Morgan passed all his military aptitude exams with high enough marks that his missing eye was written off as of little concern. His technical prowess, and the publicity of the count’s presence on the Yukawa Jet equipped ship’s virgin flight earned him a spot on the Philadelphia Class ship.

[BlackPaladin99]

Wait which side are we on?

[Smoke Mirrors]

Wait which side are we on?

I think we’re the TAU.

[Devastator]

Spoiler:  Jank (click to show/hide)

Character Name: Antoni Jankowski.

Callsign: Jank

Gender: Male

Age: 45

Apperance:  Pushing 50 and with graying hair, Antoni Jankowski looks more a relic than a modern fighter.  Is properly uniformed.  When in civilian clothes, goes with the generic T-shirt, jeans look.  Moves a bit slowly.. although the reflexes are there, years of cockpit use and minor injuries are becoming more obvious, although he is free of large scars.

MAW Name: Green 7.  (X-ACOG fighter)

Maw Theme: Space superiority fighter.

Maw Design: An antique.  An extremely well preserved fightercraft, with twin VTOL-capable engines, mounted port and starboard, and internal weapon bulges under a very aerodynamic skin.  No obvious head, the cockpit is in the middle forward of the craft, with the vehicle being moderately tall.  Not a true walker, ground movement must be done through four wheels each mounted on complicated biomechanical collapsable struts, allowing the unit to move over difficult terrain, and giving the VTOL engines the required ground clearance to properly function.

Personality:  Jank's in it to win it!  Well, no, the opposite, he's a laid-back taciturn type, having been around too long to be exciteable.  There is a slow-cooking anger, however, when he sees his teammates injured or pushed too far.

Backstory:  Jank got his origins in the test pilot community, not the ordinary military.  In general, his duties involved piloting several experimental vehicles and testing propulsion systems, not strict combat.  This got more serious once the war started, as there was a rapid expansion of both types and the importance of said duties.  This ended up with a two year stint testing advanced aerospace fighters, all rendered obsolete with the advent of MAW systems.. the switchover caught him by surprise as much as it did everyone else, all trying to rapidly learn about them as fast as possible.  This was one of the most exciting times of his life.

Still, with the war, fun isn't the most important thing.  The next step was becoming a trainer, following a minor accident leading to a period of ground duty.. a short period that grew into several years.  In the end, he wasn't well cut out of this.. seeing hundreds of young pilots heading out to do battle, and often die, is not something that sat well with him.  He could only remain a trainer for so long, demanding a move to active service at over 40 years old, an age that would have gotten him rejected if he was a new trainee pilot.

This lead into several years of piloting the new X-ACOG Maw Fighter, a model he'd piloted several times before before it entered limited production, assigned to the ship Kestrel, and sent out on several patrols in the disputed Asteroid belt.  His tour was somewhat ordinary, scoring several victories, winning several small skirmishes, and forced to retreat when the situation went badly.  There were no glorious engagements, no massive battles, and no heroic stands.. simply the everyday grind of an ordinary soldier.  Two years before current events, though, he was rotated back off active service, when the 194 Red Eagle squadron was disbanded.  The attrition of it's mostly-irreplaceable out of production fightercraft required assets to be redistributed.

The civilian side of things didn't go too well.  The war footing was too obvious, and there's a certain restlessness knowing that there might be a battle at any time.. a battle in which he could do nothing.  When the call came that he was going to pilot an X-ACOG once more, as what may be the only remaining qualified pilot of one, it was an easy decision for him to make.

Stats:

PEWS-120 expertise. (6)

Jank has spent over a decade flying similar fightercraft, and may be the best surviving expert on the unusual Projectile-Energy Weapon System, the long-abandoned experimental second-generation 'slow laser' device.  These were abandoned due to difficult upkeep and a lack of overall optimization, neither dealing quite the kinetic punch of proper penetrators nor the targetting advantages of comparative pure energy systems.  Nevertheless, in the hands of a sufficiently capable pilot, the weapon system was fully effective; the difficulty in training said pilots in what proved to be a weapon system with unique performance characteristics and targeting requirements rendered the PEWS into a category best described as capable yet secondary.

Advantages: Very hard to dodge, average damage.
Disadvantage: Large, but still limited ammunition stocks, cannot be repaired if disabled.

Test pilot. (4)

Similar to the PEWS, Green 7 is powered by a pair of obsolescent Kuiper-style engines, which were another attempt to innovate in the style of engine design, using a complicated method of mutually unbalanced superconducting coils to generate sufficient thrust.  However, a combination of software glitches and a newcomer-unfriendly performance profile, with the engine's dual-independantly controlled angles, and lack of a conventional throttling system require careful handling.  Jank, being a test pilot, has had plenty of time to acquaint himself with the notorious difficulties in taming the X-ACOG.

Advantages: Annoyingly difficult to hit with missiles or direct fire weapons.  Can earn persistant tactical advantages through maneuver.
Disadvantage: Relatively low top speed, no afterburner or special performance modes.. so suffers more from bad positioning.  Can't run from any comparably fast opponents.

Active Countermeasures. (4)

Green 7 is equipped with a standard full range of electronic, material, and mechanical countermeasures capable of combatting fully automatic systems, such as the ones in homing missiles and unmanned drones.  These can be used for an evasion, or in cases with vulnerable systems, baffling or disabling the system until the sensory overload has finished.  Elements of the system include low-powered infared and visible light lasers, miniature mortars launching clouds of emitters, and most nastily, what is the equivalent of a very long trailing wire that can fool proximity or contact sensors.

Advantages: Bonus protection against missiles or combat drones.
Disadvantages: None.

Specials:

Deploy Probe, 3.

The X-ACOG, not being a finalized design has more internal space in it than necessary.  Other examples have combat pods or additional sensors or communications gear or a second seat.  Green 7 has a deployment slot, capable of dropping a static drone equipped with sensors, allowing for rapid information gathering on enemy capabilities and equipment.  This is then broadcast to all allies in the area.

Unfortunately, only one probe may be carried per mission.

Advantages: Gains detailed information on target's equipment and capabilities.
Disadvantage: Only one probe per mission, and it's trivially easy to destroy.

Instincts, 5.

Jank has seen it all.  He can concentrate for a moment and manage to avoid damage by a combination of the MAW's bizarre performance characteristics and simply not being there.  The firing computer may have a solution, but Jank can manage to time his opponents reaction skills and know the precise moment, and direction, to make his move.

Advantages: Boosted dodging abilities relative to the length of time the target has been in the battle.
Disadvantage: If opponents are intelligent and independant characters, only effective against one of them at a time.

The Akbar maneuver, 6

The PEWS has the drawback of slowish projectiles.  This can be used as an advantage, creating a wide net of variable-speed projectiles.  When combined with ship acceleration, proper vectoring, and even the occasional bank shot, the PEWS can put a lot of metal across a wide area on target, or can, by itself hit from multiple angles at once.  Those missed shots may have simply been to corral the target into the right direction, rendering the best attempts at dodging irrelevant.

Advantage: Extra damage, ignores many dodging-related abilities.
Disadvantage: Little, if any extra effect against opponents who simply tank hits.

"That's not how that works", [strain]

There are many MAWs with unusual, even unnatural, capabilities, firing long-range weapons effectively at point-blank range, employing armour that's equally effective against all forms of attack, using materials that go past implausable and into impossible territory.  Jank can tell how something 'should' work, and find a restriction, limitation, or weakness in how that thing operates where one was not previously observed.

[Devastator]

Wait which side are we on?

Looks like neither to me.  This looks like a stranded group composed of members from both sides.

[Strider03]

I know nothing except that I must plane

Spoiler: Spirit (click to show/hide)

Character Name: Dana Sandu

Callsign: Spirit

Gender: Female

Sex: Female

Appearance: Brown hair, which Dana prefers to wear about shoulder length, with a bit of curls. Her face is, despite the length of her career, mostly unmarked. The results of long nights and overexertion are present of course. Her eyes are brown, and her nose a bit on the pointy side. At one hundred and eighty one centimeters in height, she stands somewhat tall, and her posture accentuates it. She's fit enough for the job, as should be expected, at least for space. While some would remark on her cybernetic leg, she tends to not include it in her self image. She places no stake in the so called paradoxes of the ancients. It is not her, and will never be more than a necessary sacrifice.

Age: 34

Personality: Passionate, stubborn, somewhat monomaniacal, morbidly self-destructive, these words appeared over in over in the numerous missives wherein Dana was passed over for promotion by superior officers, over her significant career.

To equals and subordinates though, she is simply quirky and unimposing, unshaking in her beliefs, but unwilling to proselytize, or get in the way. She will be the first to admit that her goals are irrational, but stands firm that she will pursue them relentlessly despite this. Those beliefs tend to center around the disinterest of the universe, and her staunch resistance to it, the danger of tunnel flights and her desire to perform them, and the dangers of automation, and her futile rage against the results.

On the day to day, among friends, she tends to engage with the little things in life. Appreciating a good drink, taking walks, playing football, tending to plants, dancing, all would be within her interest, in the limited capacity that military service on a battleship allows. Though, her sleep is always prioritized when work gets quite busy, as she does not perform well on limited sleep. Thus, again, while she might like social activities, it is only when she can be certain she will not be called upon to fly the next day.

The struggle between her prioritization of humans and as a result, social interactions, against her values which tend to push others away when rambled about, is ongoing.

Aerospace Fighter Name: ED-17 Catskill Eagle

Aerospace Fighter Theme: The Catskill Eagle centers around top of the line maneuverability and significant ability to cripple enemy light vessels, especially around their thrusters.

Aerospace Fighter Design: The design goals for the Catskill Eagle center around top of the line maneuverability. Any form of guided munitions would be sacrificed to decrease inertia, allowing for superior maneuverability. The flight range of the vehicle similarly, would be relatively limited. A somewhat unnecessary request by the design bureau was excellent in atmosphere performance.
 
The result of these requests is a small swept-wing delta-wing hybrid design with two forward canards, and two engines mounted on the underside of the fuselage with vents in various locations on the wings and canards for additional thrust vectoring. Where the wing meets the fuselage are nested two 20mm cannons, and a significant quantity of ammunition. Twin fins sit on either side of the engines, performing multiple roles for atmospheric flight, and thrust vectoring.

The Catskill Eagle does of course contain adaptations to space warfare. Rather than sitting above the nose, the cockpit forms most of the nose, save for a small cap containing certain onboard avionics. This allows for a field of view more desireable for space combat. While the vehicle does have a distinct "up" and "down" orientation, it is suppressed relative to purely atmospheric fighters, with the fins somewhat clipped and the engines recessed more into the belly of the vehicle.


Stats: (Remember that you start with 14 points to distribute between up to 6 Player Defined Stats)

Heat Resistant High Impact Cannon Rounds (5): There is but one location on a ship that cannot be completely armored, and that is the thrusters. Spirit's rounds are designed with heat resistant ceramic shells encasing a scored tungsten fragmentation shell, which surrounds the explosive charge. These tear through fuel lines running into the engine, and cut holes in nozzles, dealing high damage to engines. The projectiles are not particularly impressive at penetrating armor, but will tear through softer targets with ease. The firing rate of said weaponry is frankly somewhat absurd, making it effective against vehicles and missiles alike

Archangel (7): The twin Arkhangelsk dual function deep space/atmosphere thrusters provide high performance thrust vectoring, as well as significant burst acceleration, though this cannot be sustained, and requires relatively frequent refueling

Anti-G Cushion (2): The primary pilot's seat is designed from a superelastic shape memory material which acts as as a shock absorber, nullifying a portion of applied G-force, while electronic pulses allow it amplify blood flow to the pilots brain and organs during high G maneuvers. The maneuverability of the fighter is thus enhanced by the decreased likelihood of the pilot dying.

Specials:

Thrust Vectoring [3]: Dynamically allocate thrust in different directions to perform flexible flight maneuvers.

Thrust Vectoring [4]: Dynamically allocate thrust in different directions to perform flexible flight maneuvers.

Afterburners [5]: Increase power consumption by main engines, to achieve increased thrust.

Rotary Cannon Overload[6]: Fire the two primary rotary-cannons in sustained fashion and increased speed, releasing a somewhat absurd quantity of high explosive ordinance. The result overheats the weapons, and prevents them from being fired for a period.

Background: Born on Earth, in what was once Romania, Dana was the child of a banker, and a wood carver. This contrast between occupations was the first key in shaping Dana's future. A steady income guaranteed that her family did not fall into poverty, while her father's artistry was appreciated less and less, purchased only by a few extremely amused local elite, who certainly did not appreciate the hard labor that went into such things.

Following this rather uneventful upbringing, Dana joined the rebuilding Earth military after high school. At the time, war was not imminent, and she was able to get her tertiary education subsidized by the military. Not long after though, the Solar War began. Over the course of the war, Dana has been involved in perhaps two or three of the tens of major battles that have occurred. Off of Vesta, she survived encounters with formidable enemy aces, and due to a quirk of circumstance, resolved that it would be by flying through tunnels that she would demonstrate her skill and human capability through this. While commanders did not approve of such things, she did not become much of a thorn in their sides until perhaps five years into the war. It was then that, in fighting the Trojan battleship Krishna, that she lost her previous fighter, and her leg, and perhaps some amount of pragmatism. Swearing revenge, she has been attempting to find that ship once more, ever foiled by frustrated commanders sending her off to a different remote outpost. It is with disdain that she utilizes her cybernetic leg, considering it a reminder of the increasing obsolescence of humans which she strives against.

Somehow, it was determined that placing her aboard the Philadelphia would be a good idea, since it was "far from combat" and "unlikely to let her get into any trouble". She retains great technical piloting skill, and her vendettas against quite a few things in life, but will not let that interfere with individual relaitonships if she can help it. She's currently seeing a therapist about her obsessions, but it's uncertain whether this is helping.

[Glass]

Spoiler: Polaris (click to show/hide)

Character Name: Letik Feins

Callsign: Polaris

Gender: Male

Age: 20

Appearance: A young man, looking young enough to be more properly at a university, but with a bitterness and sadness in his green eyes. His Coalition uniform is battered, and frequently, only the hat and outer jacket is worn, over non-uniform clothing (typically a plain t-shirt and slacks). His black hair clearly was cut to the short military standard, but is now being left to grow.

Personality: Quiet and bitter, Letik is the product of a idealistic, smart kid getting hooked on propaganda and then learning it’s all bullshit the hard way. He doesn’t hate TAU soldiers any more, only the commanders - both sides’ commanders, throwing lives away for nothing gained.
In person, he’s watchful and restless, unwilling to be caught off-guard by an attack that really probably isn’t coming. His instincts scream at him, even as he knows, logically, that he doesn’t need to listen.

MAW Name: Traveler

MAW Theme:
Scout-Skirmisher: Equipped with a variety of stealth-oriented systems, advanced mobility equipment, and a noticeably smaller stature than the average MAW - about half the usual size, in fact - the Traveler is built to get around quickly and undetected - important, as it absolutely cannot take a hit. For when combat is unavoidable, the Traveler is also equipped with Terminal, a blade with an integrated EMP field, allowing even light strikes to prevent an enemy from getting at the poorly-armored MAW, while also maintaining potential lethality as well as working well for safely dispatching isolated opponents.

MAW Design: The Traveler's plating is sleek and streamlined, though with a matte grey finish, rather than the shine usually associated with such a silhouette, as it reduces the risk of enemies catching sight of reflected light; it's not even universally the same shade of grey, breaking up its apparent silhouette. For whatever reason, the left arm has been wrapped in forest-green cloth, and an oversized hat, identical in shape to an Asian straw hat, adorns the head.

Stats:
-Faster than Sight 8: The Traveler's stealth systems were designed with two ideas in mind: enemies should not know the Traveler is around to be looked for, and the Traveler should not be seen while moving. Its mobility systems were also designed with two ideas in mind: the Traveler should be able to go anywhere, and the Traveler should not be seen while moving. The overlap between these two intentions has resulted in a chassis with a high emphasis on leg-based movement (lacking the heat of jet-based mobility, though such systems are still present for void operations or when stealth can be sacrificed for more speed), leaping capability, and an overall prioritization of sheer speed, while stealth systems focus on preventing hostile sensors from detecting its thermal or audio signature while being able to briefly break up the Traveler's visual profile while out of cover. All of this is very good, because armor and other structural defenses were sorely neglected in favor of these two driving design principles.
-Terminal Blade 6: The Traveler is equipped with Terminal, a large blade (perhaps equivalent to a shortsword for more typically-sized MAWs) with a built-in EMP field, allow it to damage enemy systems that would otherwise be resilient, and thereby further disable opponents with every strike. It is most effective at taking out isolated opponents, allowing a skilled wielder to disable the enemy’s comms and weapon systems to prevent them from getting help or fighting back. Although it is short-ranged - the eternal curse of melee - the blade benefits greatly from the Traveler’s exceptional speed, which both allows for extensive use of hit-and-run tactics as well as MAW’s velocity as a whole lending force to its strikes.

Specials:
-Chaff Bomb (3): The Traveler deploys a chaff bomb, throwing up dust, shrapnel, and other material that can’t do harm to most units, but fully occludes virtually all known sensor methods, allowing it to make an unseen escape.
-Flyby Strike (5): The Traveler's mobility systems can be leveraged for a more direct version of hit-and-run, by making a charge almost directly at an opponent so as to make an accurate strike on them, before passing by them to rapidly get back out of range.
-Accelerando (4): Redirect power to emphasize speed above all else, allowing the Traveler run circles around opponents or else make a fast and clean escape.
-FADoS (6): In emergencies, the Terminal’s typical failsafes and protections can be disabled and even inverted, causing its electromagnetic wreath to “explode” in a Full-Area Denial of Systems burst. This does not - cannot - differentiate between foe and friend, shutting down any unit caught in its rather wide radius; even the Traveler’s prepared systems will briefly go down.

Background: Letik volunteered for the Trojan warforce two years back, as soon as he was old enough to; the intervening time between then and now has left him cynical on the value of the war as a whole, especially as it chews up and spits out otherwise-promising youths (like himself, not that he wants to talk about it). Mostly, he just wants to survive and do something notable with his life - and, well, the opportunity for the latter is available, so long as he can do the former.

[cronos5010]

Wait which side are we on?

Neither side, the party starts as an alliance of convenience between the inexperienced crew of the Philadelphia, and whatever's left of the Promethean's crew. The players can come from either faction really but you'd have to be people who can be trusted to work for the greater good of "Figuring out where the hell we are" and "Not dying or starving to death".

[SirAston]

Spoiler: WIP (click to show/hide)

Character Name:

Callsign:

Gender:

Sex:

Appearance:

Aerospace Fighter/MAW Name:

MAW Theme: Heavy Duty All-Suite Energy Weapon Platform

Aerospace Fighter/MAW Design: (Meant to be a description of your MAW/Aerospace Fighter’s appearance, not its role or equipment. The former is what the theme section is for, and the latter is what the stats are for.)

Stats:
Long Range Beam Weaponry [6]: The MAW's attacks are most effective at long ranges.
Energy Shielding [4]: A combination of plating with automatically-adjustable angles, self-sustaining shield bits and an interference-resistant array of disguised short-range radio antennas communicating with these systems allows for a high degree of defense against any and all incoming energy attacks.
Durable Plating [2]: The plating itself can resist some physical trauma even if they're specialized for energy weapons.
Outdated Sensors [2]: Capable of sweeping the battlefield for different parameters, potentially spotting enemies in hiding or even cloaked opponents. On a good day, at least.

Specials:
Shield Bits Overdrive [3]: The shield bits receive a signal to multiply their efficiency, covering a wide area around the MAW at high speed and protecting nearby allies on top of the MAW for a limited amount of time. After the Overdrive, the shield bits become temporarily sluggish as they recharge, partially impacting the MAW's defense against energy attacks.
Enigma Beam [5]: A two-port beam weapon that require opening part of the heavy plating in both the head area and chest area, revealing vulnerable inner workings. However, the revealed parts also host a barrel each designed for high-power energy weapons. Once revealed, charged and cleared for usage, two different beams are ejected from the barrels, intersecting in front of the MAW. The beams are calibrated in such a way that upon meeting, they combine into a large and wide beam of utter devastation, effective even at ranges usually reserved for Aerospace self-directing torpedoes. If desired, the Enigma Beam can be recalibrated within the cockpit to "only" be effective up to traditional long range. After firing it, the barrels must cool down for approximately two seconds before the heavy plating can be safely closed again.
Enigma Beam Concert [6]: Sending out shaped nanobits resting in the MAW's shoulderpieces in front of said MAW, they align according to the pilot's current targeting priorities. Once the bits are in position and the Enigma Beam is cleared for usage, said Enigma Beam is fired at the array of bits, cutting the beam in half and reflecting it into different directions. The reflected beams are themselves targeting other bits, being cut and reflected repeatedly until they reach their final bits that launches them towards all targeted enemies and/or locations no matter where they are. The Nanocut Beam's arc is effectively 360°, but due to the way the Enigma Beam is split, the power of each single beam is notably lower. Considering the raw power of the Enigma Beam itself, the Nanocut Beam is still able to damage opponents sufficiently enough though. It obviously comes with the drawbacks of the regular Enigma Beam on top of it.
Reactive Rapid Relocation Type EIDOLON [Strain]: A prototype emergency system made for swiftly transporting even heavy vehicles across the battlefield at the speed of an Interceptor-class Aerospace Fighter, with a blackbox software calculating the perfect position on the current battlefield for further long-range assault and bombardments while equally avoiding as much potential threat as possible. The system is so potent that a short-lived electronic afterimage remains on sensors, with a cascade of secondary systems masking the movement until relocation has been completed. However, it puts immense stress on the MAW, completely shutting down all subsystems aside from life support and handling/firing weapons, making the MAW a sitting duck with limited vision for a few precious seconds.

Background: (I’ll potentially accept anyone from a lost scientist, a cooperative POW just trying to keep everyone alive, or the sole experienced Unionist soldier watching everything burn, just as long as they have a good reason to pilot a Fighter or MAW, be on the ship, and are willing to work with a team among other things.)

[cronos5010]

Sign Ups will close on the 5th of October, as that will give me and any potential players ample time to hash out their characters and lore. I am still looking for about 4 to 6 players in the end naturally, and will be offering input on sheets pretty much whenever I can be bothered to do so in between real life and working on more example builds or lore.

[BlackPaladin99]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

 Character Name:Ramo

Callsign:EdgeDemon X

Gender: M

Appearance: A fourteen year old hyperhuman With pointy ears, middle length black hair that covers his eyes, and vampire like skin.

MAW Name: Actium Destiny

MAW Theme: melee fighter, wields dual swords and other shorter range weapons.

MAW Design: A sleek, black-and-red mech with two massive swords and various lethal looking equipment

Stats:
Dual great swords [4]: the dual great swords were designed with one purpose in mind: Destruction.  And they are extremely effective.  They slash, hack and shear through pretty much any solid.

Sixth sense[2]: Ramo, due to his Hyperhuman nature, has surreal perception skills which are used to notice attacks and properly dodge them

Dissipative armor [2]: this armor is made of specially layered light materials that dissipate force and energy, in addition to being pretty good at resisting cuts, without sacrificing mobility. 

Protomuscles [3]: protomuscles are clusters of special fibers that, when exposed to small charges of electricity, contract and act as muscles.

Pyrotechnics [3]: a set of several different thermal weapons, which are mainly channeled with thermal emmitance cannons (TEC) on the wrists and various other ways.


Specials:
Thermal missiles [3]: the actium destiny readies a small battery of thermal missiles and fires them at the target. 

Whirling blades [4]: the actium destiny whirls it’s blades at a high speed, shredding enemies within melee range and deflecting projectiles.

Shift [5]: the actium destiny receives a burst of energy and moves at a incredibly fast speed for a very short burst, much like a teleportation.

Push [strain]: the actium destiny energies with hyperhuman energy and performs a feat of strength incredible even for a mech.

Background: A former bounty hunter, Ramo was despoiled by a jealous rival and was forced to join this group.

In.