Vacuum Crows [M]

[dakkagor]

+++Rated [M] for potential drug use, swearing, sex, and lots of violence.+++



“The empire, long divided, must unite; long united, must divide”
Unknown pre-spaceflight philospher.

War stretches out its skeletal hand once more, and the System trembles. From the cold barrier of the heliopause, to the blazing rock of Hermes, all now turn their hands to the making of weapons, the building of walls, and the shoring up of alliances.

It is a good time to be a Crow.

As the inheritor of the greatest weapons technologies of the Unity, your kind, and only your kind, can control the Cores. Scattered throughout the System, Cores can fuse with any technology, adapting it into a bipedal fighting machine that can fight in any environment and defeat any foe. Core and Crow together make a fearsome weapon, but without one or the other, they are worthless.

Now, the balance of power in the system is changing, and Crows are more in demand than ever. You have been hired by the Consuls of the Zeus Republic, to bolster their conventional military forces. You will travel to Ares, and fight amongst the domes of the divided Aresian League, to throw back the forces of the Aberrant King and his Cradle Empire. And for this, you will be very well paid.

Character Generation:

Name + Callsign:
Age:
Gender:
Nation of Birth:
Background:

Skills:
You should list 3-5 things that your character is good at. At least 1 should be a non-combat skill

Flaws:
You should list 1-2 flaws or weaknesses of your character. At least one should be applicable to combat.

Links:
No man is an island. List 3 people who your character has a strong connection to, and flesh out these connections. These connections can be positive, or negative.

Story Beats:
If you have something you'd like to explore with this character during the narrative, list it here. (A confrontation with a rival, a personal disaster to recover from, a moment of triumph or loss)

Core Design

Each Core is a unique, custom built mech that has existed for hundreds of years. Many have built up storied histories, battle honours or black marks of shame. Moreover, each Core has adapted over time, slowly but surely changing to match the proclivities of the pilot family who control it. The power source of a core allows it to 'jump' using rocket motors, and skilled pilots will use bursts of the same motors to 'skate' across flat ground, jink clear of fire, or quickly reposition. They can even be used to break a Core's fall, allowing a Core to enter atmosphere from orbit with nothing more than an ejectable, protective cocoon. This ability, combined with their weapons, makes a Core the most flexible weapon on the battlefield.

Weight Class:

Light Cores are good at recon and raiding. They carry as many weapons as a heavier core, but have much less armour and are more reliant on piloting and evasion, and their weapons are often lighter, not hitting as hard. Due to their lower weight of armour, they are nimble and fast. Can use Digitigrade and Plantigrade legs.

Medium Cores are the 'jack of all trade' class. They use a good mix of weapons, armour and speed to achieve their objectives. Can use Digitigrade and Plantigrade legs, or be track mounted or quad mounted.

Heavy Cores are designed to carry the maximum weight of armour and the heaviest weapons. Slow and hard to manoeuvrer, they rely on overwhelming force to get things done. Can use Digitigrade legs, quad legs or be track mounted.

Motive System:

Digitigrade legs are the classic 'chicken walker' design. They give a Core greater straight line speed at the cost of a wider turning circle, and allow them to jump further. They carry the least weight of armour, and restrict a core to light weapons.

Plantigrade legs are just like human legs. They carry a good quantity of weight and armour, and offer average speed and a tight turning circle. Plantigrade legs allow light, weapons, medium weapons, and up to one heavy weapon.

Track units are effectively the bottom half of a tread, with the torso of the Core replacing the turret. Pioneered by poorer nations, they provided a surprising benefit in the amount of equipment a core can carry. They provide heavy armour, the ability to swiftly turn on the spot, and can carry heavy weapons without constraints. However they are slow, provide very poor jump performance, and give the Core a wider battlefield footprint.

Finally, some rare Core designs make use of four legs arranged in a splayed out, spider like pattern. Known as Quads, they are not popular due to their complexity, they do provide the ability for a Core to easily raise and lower its profile, allowing it to make better use of cover for pop-up attacks. They can turn swiftly on the spot much like Track units, but are similarly slow as even veteran pilots struggle to manage them. A Quad can carry two heavy weapons, the rest being lights or mediums.

The Right Arm:

The right arm carries the Cores main weapon system, often something that looks like an oversized rifle. This main gun will do most of the work in battle. See Weapon systems for a description of what can be used here.

Left Arm:

The left arm carries either an energy blade, a devastating weapon that can be used for melee strikes up close, or an energy shield that can deflect enemy weapons.

The Right and Left Shoulder:

Each shoulder slot can carry a weapon equivalent to the weight of your core, or a support system

The Head:

The head mounts a support system, normally a sensor array.

Weapon Systems:

Ranged weapons are either energy based, projectile based (bullets and shells) or recoilless (missiles and rockets). Each has advantages and disadvantages

Energy – great damage, short range, limitless ammo

Projectile – average damage, good range, reasonable ammo

Recoilless – good damage, long range, very limited ammo.

A weapon can be light, medium or heavy. Light weapons do less damage for type, medium weapons do standard damage for type, and heavy weapons do more damage for type.

Support Systems:

Support systems make a Core more effective or more flexible, but not necessarily any deadlier. Improved sensor arrays, extended ammunition bins, heavy or even ablative armour plates, extra fuel cells for rocket motors, antimissile systems, all have been mounted as support systems. The GM has the final say on what is or isn't available as a support system.

General RP Rules:
As well as the standard RPA rules, these following house rules apply:

• Please write all IC posts in third person past tense. That is, "John stood up", never "John stands up" or "I stood up".
• Please don't use quote boxes in the IC. If you're reproducing another player's text to help put your own post into context, please indicate the copied text with a different colour. Ideally, please use the colours that I will highlight for each player in the The player characters section above.
• To save confusion with the above, please do not use a different coloured text just to indicate that a character is speaking (i.e. don't write "Hi," he said.)
• It goes without saying that you can resign from the RP at any time, but if so please have the courtesy to leave some sort of message in the OOC so other players aren't left waiting around for you.
• Further, this RP has a 'The DM is allowed to kick me in the teeth' rule. This is a RP about combat, war, and the horrors of such. That means it will not be fair, or even nice. Sometimes bad things will happen, your plans will go south, and people you like/love/want to kill yourself will perish. This will not be a cakewalk. If you don't want that experience, thats perfectly fair, thanks for reading. If you do, buckle up.

Useful Links

A pinterest folder full of useful art inspiration:

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/dakkagords/vacuum-crows/

A youtube playlist of the intros from the game that inspired this madness:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...kBPczEM37WOBwV

[dakkagor]

The universe of Vacuum Crows

Important! READ THIS FIRST BEFORE BUILDING A CHARACTER.

Spoiler: What is a Core? 

Cores are lost technology, the secrets of their construction were destroyed with the Unity. Each core looks like a large, cut gemstone, generally in the shape and size of a large coffin. Each one is nearly impervious to damage from any source except some energy weapons produced by Cores themselves when armed.
When placed in a nutrient broth, piloted by a Crow, and placed near suitable components, Cores produce three fantastical materials. The first is an organic fibre-optic sensor material, that threads itself through attached components to provide its Crow with the 360 tactical awareness for which they are genetically conditioned and famed. The second is groupings of electrically motivated fibre bundles, nicknamed 'myomer'. These fibre bundles form muscle groups over appropriately designed limbs and allow the mech to move and fight.
The third and final material is an organic power cable, with more tensile strength than tungsten and better conduction qualities than any known metal.
Once the Core is connected to appropriate components, it will fully power up, and the resulting Mech will activate. As such, each Mech is only as good as the weapons, armour and equipment that it is provided with.
All cores will, given time, also produce a energy blade or an energy shield on a left arm limb. How these weapons work is a mystery, but these energy blades are the only recorded weapon powerful enough to puncture a core and kill its pilot.

When a Crow approaches an unbonded Core for the first time, the Core will form a hand print on its surface. Matching a hand to the hand print allows the Core to draw a blood sample, which it checks for compatibility. It will then open and fill its central cavity, a black cocoon filled with connection fluid. This connection fluid forms the neural link between pilot and once the Crow is in the cavity, will fill it, effectively 'drowning' the Crow. However, its high oxygen content and the unique physiology and psychology of Crows makes this experience more meditative than terrifying.

Attempts have been made to harvest these wonder materials from Cores, all have failed. They quickly denature when not attached to a Core, so they cannot be harvested, even with a Crow trying to consciously grow them for this purpose. Attempts to open up Cores to examine their inner workings have always failed, and the rare few Cores that have been destroyed quickly crumble into useless black carbon dust. Currently, this mystery of the Unity is remaining stubbornly mysterious.

Spoiler: What is a Crow? 

Crows are the inheritors of Core technology. Their ancestors were the elite warriors of the Unity, genetically modified to be able to control the Cores and pilot them to maximum effect. Even with the fall of the Unity, the Crow bloodlines have remained, if somewhat erratically. Sometimes it skips generations, other times, it appears randomly in families that have never produced Crows. Crows are identified in their youth by dreams of swimming in black liquid which they find calming, with these dreams starting around puberty. Crows can be of any gender, and in-fact are almost exactly evenly split between men and women.
Crows are possessed of a wanderlust spirit and desire for glory from the end of their teen years. While this manifests in different ways depending on the personality of the Crow, it almost always ends up with the Crow leaving their home, joining a military, and being bonded to a Core if one can be found.
Crow traits do occasionally manifest in older people, though it has never been recorded as older than 40 standard years, and this only occurs if they are exposed to an inactive and unbonded core.
Crows benefit from several significant, but difficult to spot physiological advantages. They are much more resistant to G-forces, never suffer motion sickness and its associated problems, and have much stronger lungs, circulatory systems and diaphragms than 'normal' people. All of these traits make them uniquely suited to piloting fast moving Cores. These traits always develop alongside the dreams of youth. Crows who come into their heritage at an older age are often said to have 'clipped wings' until these adaptations fully grow in, which can take as long as several years to be fully effective.

Crow Culture
The Crows are often outcasts; driven to wander far from their homes by an instinctive desire to serve and fight, the crows are welcomed everywhere and loved by no-one. While some hereditary crow houses are able to balance that wanderlust with duty, and pull their younger members back in after a decade or so away, for most crows the rest of their life will be spent travelling between the worlds, fighting for money. This has led to a sub-culture forming around these ronin warriors. Crow bars and hostels (Rookeries) can be found throughout the system, often tended by those Crows who have retired, and they serve double duty as hiring halls and bounty boards. Crows have few laws, but one is key: A Crow never kills a dismounted Crow, and a Crow never takes a Crows core. This only extends to the actual core component, of course. A defeated Crow can expect the choicest components of their smashed mech to be ripped clear and carted away by the victor. And while a dismounted crow is almost never killed, it is considered 'unfortunate' rather than criminal if a Crow is killed in the heat of battle. After all, they knew the risks.

Almost all crows will abide by those rules. A further set of rules, the Ravens Code, was codified many hundreds of years ago, and lays out everything from proper wartime treatment of fellow Crows, to personal heraldry. The Ravens code has many adherents, but not all of those adherents agree on the practice, or even the text of the code. In general, however, followers of the code work to reduce the civilian casualties of war, take jobs that do not put innocents in the firing line, and comport themselves as ancient duellists on the battlefield, treating their fellow Crows with respect. They will work for nominal payment if the cause is just (some famous Ravens adherents working for a meal and bed for the duration of the contract) and will hold to their word no matter what.

Those Crows who turn from the code, who kill other Crows, who steal cores, are given many names, such as magpie, or vulture. Often times the only thing that will bring the fractious, fragmented community of Crows together is news of a particularly heinous war-criminal, resulting in grand hunts that result in the criminal being run to ground, and defeated. Crow justice is swift and final in such instances, as the Crows are allowed many indulgences in civilian life, as well as having something of a halo of awe and appeal around them. Such things do not last with renegades tarnishing everyone's reputation, and so those who imperil the Crows reputation are quickly disposed of.

A worrying trend for the Crows is that as the larger nations formalise their militaries and turn away from household forces and mercenaries, the Crows are increasingly on the outside of any force, rather than its centre piece. In both the Zeussian Republic and Cradle Empire, Crows are increasingly pressured to join a military, take an official rank, and submit to the rule of an officer. Those who stay on the outside are increasingly sidelined, but for the moment at least, the number of mercenary Crows far outstrips the lesser warriors who have signed up with the militaries for shelter and a regular paycheck.

'Kind
The 'kind have spread throughout the system, and are found on every colony. Bipedal, these hairless upright apes evolved on Cradle to claim sapience and build the first empires, and enter the void between worlds. The 'kind have varying skin colour, from dark browns to pale whites and every hue and shade between, dependent on melanin in the skin and colony environment. Eye and hair colour is similarly a riot of colours. An aeon of breeding and tinkering have rendered the 'kind gifted with long lives blessedly free of the diseases that blighted their ancestors, and a high tolerance to radiation and the extremes of gravity, a lifesaving trait in deep space. All Crows are 'Kind.

'Lifts
'Lifts are animals that co-evolved on Cradle with the 'kind, and were later further evolved artificially by 'kind scientists of the Unity. Many 'lifts were redesigned for specific roles in the colonies or extreme environments, to live and work were the 'kind could not. Some, regrettably, were used as slaves for both war and debauched pleasure, and to this day many of their communities hold it was their bloody uprising against bondage that saw the Unity fall. No 'lifts have ever been known to manifest the Crow bloodline, so they are not playable characters in this game. They may appear as NPC's, so its worth covering them briefly.

Spoiler: Who are you fighting for, and against? Where do you come from? 

Unity

The Unity once spanned the system, with colonies on every world. Possessed of, to modern eyes, magical technologies that defy explanation, the Unity was unassailable from without, so it fell to corruption from within. None now living know the cause of the civil war, but the devastation it unleashed is still visible across the system and written into the very genes of the 'kind and his companion species. Fallen to ruin after centuries of warfare, it has taken a millennia for 'kind to crawl from the wreckage of the empires fall and build new societies in the depths of space and across the surface of the rocky worlds of the system.

Zeus Republic

Spread across the Zeus sub-system of the systems largest gas giant and its dozens of moon consorts, the Zeus republic brings its Pax Zeus into the Cronus, Triton and Ouranos sub-systems. Growing from the city state of Olympus on the icy moon of Ganymedes, it was shielded from the wrath of Zeus by ancient Unity mag-shielding and terraforming efforts. Through a mix of diplomacy, political marriage and outright coercion, the Olympians claimed the entirety of Zeus, and with their fellow Zeusians, built a senatorial republic that has weathered many trials and brought much prosperity to the outer system.

To serve as an electable official in Zeus, vote, or have offspring, one must first serve a term in the civil service. This can be in almost any department based on an individuals education and predilections, from healthcare to warfare. Even working on civil construction and maintenance departments is enough to qualify. The Republic has a strong bias towards military achievement, however, and one seeking to advance quickly despite low birth would be best served by joining the military.

While the republic claims to be egalitarian, two dozen noble familia hold a great deal of economic and political power throughout the republic. Many of these families descend from the old rulers of independent city states, now firmly part of the Zeus Republic. Others are merchant houses with great wealth and influence, while others are old officer families with long and storied military histories. A few are even Crow Houses, who reliably produce Crows to pilot hereditary Cores of great power and strength.

The Republic is controlled by a Senate, which is voted into power on strict rules that prevent the formation of power blocks (in theory). Each senator represents exactly 1,000,000 citizens, and it is no coincidence that each of the five Legions of the Republican Army holds a million servicemen, allowing even those men and women who have not yet earned the right to vote to elect an officer to represent the Legion in the senate.

To prevent deadlock, the Senate elect two non-senators to the role of Consul, executives with sweeping powers who can break political deadlocks and command civil servants directly in crisis. A further post, Dictator, exists and can be ratified in a national crisis. All consuls must have sat, at least once, as a senator, and held an officer rank in the civil service, and served in the military. Dictators are more commonly selected from an unexpected source, and great weight is placed on them to bring unconventional and even unpopular solutions to bear on a crisis to see it resolved. All Dictators step down after a two cradle year period, and some have even committed suicide to spare their families and their nation controversy. The Senate and Consular Guard are elite regiments separate from the mighty legions, but are held as loyal to the state over their charges by design and ethos. A further military unit, the Dictator Guard, is formed adhoc to be the elite sword of a Dictator, loyal only to them. However, at the end of the two year period, they will either see their Dictator step down, or execute them.

Culturally, The Zeusians favour strongly flavoured, spicy food, fast and loud music, and very strong alcohol. They have a great love of their passions, and recreational drug use is not frowned upon as long as the user does not fall prey to weakness or vice. They enjoy plays, political debate and martial competition at all levels. Marriages are not monogamous in the upper classes or the familia, as they are viewed as political arrangements designed to create long-lasting partnerships in business or politics, bringing familia together to work on a single goal, and so the partners are expected to find their pleasures elsewhere, as long as it does not interfere with the working relationship of the marriage. Often times marriage is pursued between the opposite sexes, but marriage between two men or two women is not unknown, and with access to expensive technologies from the Unity, it is possible to bring forth viable children from such unions.
Among the lower classes, marriage is more commonly along romantic lines, but some do aspire to the higher principles of their betters. In all things, the Zeusians are said to mirror the great spinning orb of Zeus, beautiful to behold, with depthless strength under the surface.

Addenda - Cronus, the graceful giant

The Cronus sub-system is dominated by Cronus, the ring bearer. Cronus is surrounded by a spectacular ring system, the greatest of the system, and is orbited by dozens of moons. Titan is its largest, a moon with a greater mass than Hermes, a true planet, and is the seat of its local government. Compared to the manic energy of Zeus, the Cronus system is a sleepy place, which tends to the vast solar reflectors needed to turn the icy moons of Tethys and Enceladus into the breadbasket of the outer system. The endless icy oceans produce a vast bounty of krill, that feeds a transplanted ecology from the depths of Cradles bountiful oceans.

In the rest of the system, the Cronites are viewed as somewhat backwards and fearful, the hick farmers of the system. However, they are in fact a people that favour patience, peace, privacy, family ties and hard work, and they value technical expertise highly. You aren't an adult in the Cronus system until you have served a term on the solar farms, a vital civil service that keeps the colonies viable. In many ways, the Cronites are nearly the polar opposites of the Zeusians, and them joining the Zeusian Republic was something of a surprise to both parties. However, the Cronites are the people most often raided by the exiles and desperately needed a fleet and army they couldn't afford, while the Zeusians needed the rich resources of Cronus to feed a burgeoning population. A hundred and fifty years ago, the two sub-systems signed a mutual support pact, and very soon the Cronites became part of the Zeusian Republic, sending senators to represent their interests and even having a few consuls and generals to their name. They also, ironically, have the highest number of Dictators who have served (five to the Zeusians two) as their politicians are famously incorruptible, and have brought their fanatic work ethic to a Republic on the brink of disaster on several key occasions.

Culturally, the Cronites favour good, hearty staples in their food and lots of it, rather than wasting time on strong or exotic flavours. Leisure time is often spent reading, and the fantastical novel is very popular in the sub-system. Their music features lots of choral singing and chanting, and often features a chorus that can be taken up by a labour gang with much gusto (if not much skill). Weak beer is drunk universally by all ages rather than water, with harder liquors saved for rare celebrations. A private people, their relationships and families are their own, and they look down on the performative dramas and scandalous gossip mills of the Zeusians. Families often play boardgames together, with all families keeping a small library of well loved playing pieces to play family favourites. This is said to breed a certain tactical awareness in their soldiers, who are the backbone of the Zeus Republic Legions. Some elements of Zeussian culture has transferred to the larger cities on Titan. Mainly, this is food. The denizens of Titan tend to salt everything, to a degree that would make a Zeussian blanche, and this is apparently a local variant on the Zeussian penchant for spices.

Cronus has the largest population of 'lifts, with Ursidae making a home on its icy moons and Cephlapodia making a home in the many dark oceans that circle the gas giant.

Aresian League

The Aresian League dominates the surface of Ares, and the orbits of Phobos, Deimos and Enyo. A fractious collection of warring city states, Ares has the largest population of Crows, and was home to the Unity's main fleet and army bases, leaving truly staggering stockpiles of weapons ready to be found and used by would be successor states. This includes the jackpot find of cores, but any number of terrifying weapons of destruction have been found and then unleashed on the scarred surface of Ares.

Ares is the world that fell the hardest after the fall of the Unity. Its terraforming engines destroyed, its orbitals dropped, it reverted back to a hostile desert, but one not free of active peril. Animals that normally only kept to the most arid regions crowded out all competitors, and now the Aresian deserts are filled with deadly lizards, snakes and insects of all kinds. While it retains most of its atmosphere and transplanted water, its ecology is a twisted mess, made worse by the constant unleashing of bioweapons, nuclear devices and nano-weapons on its tormented surface.

The many city states of Ares are in constant contention, each battling for limited resources, trade rights, and territory. It has been this way since the fall of the Unity, and doesn't seem likely to change, as each sits on massive stockpiles of weapons, enough to slaughter their rivals. As such the warfare has simmered to a low but constant ebb of raids, objective strikes, assassinations and sponsored terrorism and dirty politics. Today's ally is tomorrows rival, while today's enemy is tomorrows best friend.

The one difference is in orbit. The three moons have each become vast orbital transfer yards for the produce of Aresian cities, the despatch of Aresian mercenaries in return for coin, and the hauling of loot. Controlled by the merciless and aloof Aresian Haulage Guild, Enyo is maintained as a freeport where anything can be found for a price, and even the Exiles are welcomed to trade. Each moonlet mounts enough weapons stolen, salvaged and welded into place to knock down a fleet, or obliterate any ground target, something the stations are happy to remind the cities states if they try to point weapons in their direction.

The Aresian city states survive, because each also possesses many of the fabrication machines used by the Unity to produce much of the lost tech that elevated it to power. Many of these machines only work intermittently, but they do work, and thus each city has enormous trade power. Some of the largest can even produce new Cores.

Aresian culture is as fractured as its people, but some universal trends exist. Soldiers are exalted and honoured, and they tend to be an insular people who hold their homes as sacrosanct. Many of the cities have cultures that are relics of ancient Cradle cultures, with diverse practices of dress, body modification, politics, religion, courtship and food preparation, which is just one more reason the city states will fight amongst themselves, as they all see themselves as the 'true' inheritors of Ares culture.

Ares has dozens of cities, but some of the dominant ones are discussed in brief below:

Hellas City
A city with delusions of grandeur, Hellas is a vast floating arcology that moves across the surface of the Hellas Ocean. Once a playground for the rich and decadent of the unity, its art-deco towers and sweeping broadwalks have been turned into a fortress, which extracts tribute from the lesser city states that ring the Hellas Ocean. Its people aspire to the same power and influence of the Zeusian Republic, but each time they attempt conquest, it slips through their fingers.

Ascraeus, Pavonis and Arsia
These three cities form an unstable alliance in the north, more a defensive pact, that has a solid hold on the Tarsis region. Metropolitan and outward looking by Aresian standards, they are quicker to trade than fight. Protected by a large corp of hired Crows, the three cities have a long standing relationship with the Zeusian league but have resisted overt attempts at integration. Proud, principled and cultured, the one argument between each of them is that each believes they were once the seat of Aresian government and should be again.

Elysium
Resting atop a vast shield volcano surrounded by shallow artic seas, Elysium has remained largely neutral in the conflicts of the other martian states, mainly because of its remote nature. Somewhat mysterious, it has strict codes on how to deal with outsiders, and a specialised intermediary caste who handle all diplomacy.

Utopia
This sprawling complex of domes rests under the Planatia ocean, and has been out of contact since the fall of the Unity. Any who approach are attacked by powerful automated defenses, and rumour has it, Cores designed for underwater operation.

Claritas
Occasionally called the 'Engine of War', Claritas spreads across the ranges south of Tarsis. Its forges and foundries churn out weapons of all types, and it sells to anyone and everyone. It has ambitions of empire, and seeks to other throw the other Tarsis region cities and claim the freshwater cities on the coast of the Argyre. It has apparently made overtures to the Abberant King towards this end.

Cradle Empire
Cradle

The Cradle was devastated by the fall of the Unity, with the many cities of earth seeking independence and turning on their rivals to be free. Centuries of war saw the Cradle revert to a lawless wasteland, but eventually, one man rose to power. Called the Aberrant King, he was a Crow with a strange desire for a man of his breed – to rebuild the Unity, starting with the Cradle.

Cradle itself was much restored from the dark ages that preceded the Unity. Vast public works saw it reseeded with bountiful life from recorded samples, its cities condensed and consolidated into vast arcologies that left much of the world untamed. It was these arcologies that suffered in the anarchy of the Unity's fall, and its peoples died by the multi-million trying to live in the re-wilded landscape of the cradle, falling to predators and disease as they escaped cities falling to famine and war. Each arcology became a deserted ruin, and its survivors were split into city dwelling scavenger tribes and nomads wandering the increasingly unmanaged Cradle wilderness.

Hundreds of years passed, and slowly the Arcologies were reborn as independent kingdoms. Scavengers from across the System, but especially Ares and Zeus, would travel to cradle to find lostech remnants or records pointing to military caches, and these Scavengers would often hire the natives as a brute labour force, guides or guards. The most valuable thing the Scavengers brought was knowledge, allowing the natives of Cradle to rebuild their cities and tap into the wealth of resources all around them. Slowly, petty kings gave way to functioning governments, which controlled the city states that grew through the arcologies. Trade was managed by the tribal caravans, and Cradle became at least a shadow of its former glory, even as it was riven by bickering, trade wars, proxy conflicts fought using pauper kingdoms and mercenaries, and the occasional full blown, no-holds-barred slug fest between Arcologies.

This process has been either accelerated or interrupted by the Abberant King, depending on who you ask. This middle aged man found an obscenely powerful Core, perhaps the most powerful of its kind ever built, and bonded with it. His late age for a Crow did not seem to be a hindrance, and he was quickly able to overtake his home Arcology of Albion by conquest, leading a military coup. He then turned his might and surprising political acumen to conquering the entirety of Cradle, an effort that took over a decade.

He then turned to Selene, Aphrodite and Hermes. The rise of the Abberant King has caused the various militaries of Cradle to unify and standardise, and for all Cradle-born Crows to be brought into the fold and under direct military command. Many Crows fled the Cradle and the expanding borders of the Cradle Empire, eager to cling to their way of life.

Selene
The consort of Cradle, Selene is a barren and airless rock that orbits Cradle and was the first other world visited by the 'Kind. The Selenites stood apart from the carnage and destruction that followed the Unity, as there's was a technological culture that had long eschewed conflict as simply too dangerous. The Ring of Selene, a station that circled that noble moon with habitats, shipyards and weapon platforms, gave them the power to isolate themselves and preserve their culture. They would often venture to the Cradle, looking for relics and archives to return to their great underground cities that had been carved out of the magma tubes of Selene in ages past. They often loaned their services as advisors and scholars, before they bent their knee to the Aberrant King.

The Selenites hold learning and knowledge as the highest virtue, to which all other pursuits must be subordinate. A cold and aloof people, most Selenites are taller than average and seem stick thin and frail. They are elegant and adept at moving in zero and low G, but must wear specialised muscle suits in higher gravities, and even then find such worlds deeply uncomfortable. Selenite cuisine is relatively bland and unflavoured, as food is viewed as fuel first and something to enjoy second, though they produce a variety of sweet drinks, including teas and soft drinks, which they use to sustain their stamina and wakefulness. They produce little art, and such that they produce is often mathematical, abstract, or very minimalist, leaning towards tessellating images and tricks of perception.

The Aberrant King bartered technological secrets and access to the deepest levels of Cradles Arcologies for the allegiance of the Selenites, who provide not just scientific advice, but their shipyards to his empire. Very few Selenites are crows, and almost all of the selenite crows abandon their home and seek mercenary work, so Selene was not required to donate front line military forces to the Cradle Empire. Instead, their technicians can be found throughout the empire, working to maintain the engines of war.

Aphrodite
Aphrodite is a world of churning storms, vulcanism and hostile jungle. Apparently changed by the Unity, it was once a paradise, but with the fall of the Unity the engines that shaped the world ran out of control and tore its biosphere apart. The simple plants created to shape its atmosphere and make it suitable for habitation evolved into a deadly fungal ecosystem that has created at ground level a fug of toxic spores that can corrode metals and rot flesh in moments. Its mountain peaks, once claimed by the rich nobles of Unity as demesnes on the paradise world, are now haunted ruins overrun by gene-wracked horrors and rogue servant machines. The great geothermal engines burrowed deep into the earth and split it, creating great rift valleys that spilled magma and spawning massive volcano chains, that further fed the jungle and stirred the worlds atmosphere to madness. Its two oceans boil with poison and horrifying creatures, and the sky is plagued by bulbous floating horrors that explode with poisonous spores. It is difficult to imagine a world more inimical to life, but somehow the 'Kind survived and even prospered on this hell world.

The Aphroditians can only survive in mobile forge-cities, great crawlers repurposed from their role in shaping the world into vehicles to survive it. Isolated and almost forgotten, the Aphroditians changed into an insular, clannish culture favouring strength of arms. Battles would often be fought between the Crawler Clans, themselves led by Crow Bloodlines maintained through the darkest of measures, the increasingly specialised Cores they piloted the only thing between life and death. These Crawlers move constantly, gouging resources from the tortured earth and grinding the jungle into nutritious paste to feed their crew-population. As they own so little, the peoples of the Crawlers favour tattoos, jewellery and piercings from a young age, and invest in finely crafted and embellished tools over any other fripperies or luxuries. The habitation decks of the crawlers are often richly decorated with murals and art made by the clan.

When the Aberrant King arrived, he cleared several mountain fastnesses of their horrors and gifted them to the clans to serve as neutral meeting grounds, secured from attack by his own guarantee and force of arms. This gift earned the favour of the Aphroditians, who pledged several of their Crows to his armies, as well as several regiments of elite scouts and trackers. Aphrodite serves as a training ground for the growing armies of the Aberrant King, and many of his best soldiers serve a tour on this harsh world to harden them for the wars he sees on the horizon.

Hermes
Hermes is a barren, scorched and freezing rock, flashing around the sun at an incredible pace. While its orbit is fast, its rotation is slow. Therefore, to make the most of this harsh but rich world, the Unity laid a vast metal track around the worlds equator, and set a city atop it that is driven forward constantly out of the dark and into the burning light by the expansion and contraction of the tracks themselves. Like food squeezed from a ration tube, Chiaroscuro City moves constantly around Hermes equator, supporting a fleet of wildcat miners and the engineers in orbit that maintain the systems largest and most profitable solar farm.

Life on Hermes is harsh, and regimented. Chiaroscuro City is ruled by the Factotums, a council of hereditary administrators who preside over a brutal caste system with a fist of iron. Water is the means of control, and the Factotums think nothing of cutting of a city districts water rations to enforce compliance or punish disobedience. While the Factotums claim to the population that they are the richest and most successful survivors of the fall of the Unity, in truth the Factotums are fabulously wealthy, and the lower castes live in crushing poverty, and social mobility is a myth. Bread and circuses are the order of the day, with gladiatorial combats and grisly executions used to distract the population. Rumour has it that Hermes started off as a Unity prison colony, and if so, it is not so far from its roots even today.

Despite this, Hermes is a prize. Its vast mineral and energy wealth made it a key objective for the Aberrant King, who bought the Factotums loyalty by showering them with gifts and luxuries they could not otherwise attain. In return, the Factotums send vast shipments of batteries and raw materials to Cradle, as well as a new custom, indentured criminals forced to serve as soldiers. Ironically, these penal battalions find life as a soldier in the Aberrant Kings army a significant step up from their life on Hermes, and are fanatically loyal to their new master.

Hermes Crows were often recruited to pilot the Factotums collection of powerful, gladiator Cores. Heavily armoured and armed with primitive melee weapons and shields, these Cores battled to entertain the Factotums and their oppressed serfs. Some of these Crows have escaped the Cradle Empire with their unique machines, while others have been recruited directly into the Cradle Empires forces, where their battlefield exploits are followed by drone cameras that transmit their victories back to Hermes.

Triton and Ouranos, the Ice Giants

The ice giants of the outer system are difficult, distant places, which even the Unity found difficult to manage. However, each is rich with resources that can be claimed with effort. Colonies persist here under the control of the Zeusian Republic, mostly mining concerns and archaeological expeditions that seek to find the ancient Unity facilities that dot the outer system, but all of these are under constant threat from the Exiles.

Hades, Cerberus and Eris, the domain of the exiles

Few claim to be responsible for the fall of the Unity, but the Exiles claim that they fled its fall rather than turn their weapons on its citizens as it fell. Perhaps this mercy is the only reason the 'Kind still exist, for the Exiles do not claim worlds as others do, but maintain the massive battleships of the Unity, living on them as caravans in the deep black of the outer system, sustaining themselves via mining and raiding the soft Inners.

Those who have visited the Exiles ships and returned speak of black hulled ships that cut through the outer void, vast city sized monuments to war, now the home of hereditary crews and tribe-fleets. Halls decorated with the plundered wealth of the inner system, the tribal warlords are attended by slaves taken from the inner system and rival tribes. Their youngest warriors venture into the inner system to raid, steal and fight, and can even be hired as mercenaries, though they are unreliable and treacherous. While they might have once been honourable and even merciful warriors to spare the inner system the power of their fleets, they now view all the 'kind as owing them whatever they wish, and they are not afraid to take it with force if that claim is not recognised.

Crows are hated in the fleets of the exiles, and driven into exile rather than tolerated. Much of what is known of the Exiles comes from their exiled crows, who are often called 'magpies' as they will often lack Cores. More than one Crow has had his core stolen by a desperate Magpie, driven to bond with the thing that caused him to be cast out of his life.

A brief discussion on the types of military unit found across the system.

The age of a completely integrated military, with various specialised arms working in concert, is a thing of the past. Only the Zeus Republic and the Cradle Empire can field truly cohesive military forces, and they are often cobbled together from various city states and tributaries, and thus suffer from all manner of issues with coordination, morale and supply. Both nations are trying to standardise as quickly as possible, and they are helped by the modular nature of Unity technology and that they are often using repurposed Unity logistical elements for their own forces. Still, much is begged, borrowed, stolen or hired, and many idiosyncrasies exist in both nations military forces. This will therefore be a brief breakdown of the broad types of military unit found throughout the system rather than an analysis of specific units and regiments.

Spoiler: Infantry 

Infantry
“the common lore of infantry across history suggests that the easy way is always mined”
Infantry is the basic building block of any army that seeks to actually win wars. Infantry can hold ground, garrison structures, search zones with a thoroughness that cannot be achieved by any other unit, and are cheap and adaptable. Most infantry in the system is equipped with an armoured environment suit, and an energy rifle, and is mechanised either with a variety of light and cheap all terrain vehicles, or organic APC support. A common way of organising infantry is as a section of 25 men, with 5 of the men serving in a command and communication squad, two squads of five men with heavy weapons (often recoilless rifles or laser cannon) and two squads of rifles. Such units can disperse into terrain and prepared defences better than any other unit and can be very difficult to dig out without infantry.

The most common APC is the Unity designed Salamander. A large tracked vehicle, this is a tough and easy to maintain design that can carry 25 men and their gear. While it does place all its eggs in one basket, its size means it can grind through light structures and over the top of trenches, and its heavy armour and lack of weapons means it does not often draw fire while other, more dangerous units are active. Both the Zeus Republic and the Cradle Empire make extensive use of the Salamander, and often modify it for other roles, such as field ambulances, artillery, or forward command posts.

Spoiler: Cavalry 

Cavalry
Cavalry is fast, hard hitting, and hopefully, heavily armoured. It can be divided into four categories, treads, levs, walkers and air cavalry.
Tread Cavalry are large, tracked units with a single turreted main gun and a variety of secondary weapons and defensive systems. Treads are cheap, easy to maintain and build, and can carry heavy armour. Mostly outmoded by the Core, Treads will fight Cores in an echelon formation, covering each others weak points and massing firepower against a single target in the hopes of killing it quickly, then moving onto the next. Most treads use railguns and particle cannon of various makes and calibres.

The CEAF use the heavy Fortress Tank. Equipped with two guns in the same turret, a particle cannon fed by a fusion plant and an autocannon with variable ammunition, it also mounts an Antimissile laser turret and a pair of rapid fire missile racks. The Fortress is expensive as it requires a fusion plant, but it is also heavily armoured and reasonably fast. Best used as a defensive unit, the Cradle Empire have several factories producing Fortresses and favours them for rolling attacks that follow up the assaults of their Cores, or for blistering defences that throw out vast volleys of firepower. Core pilots respect the Fortress, especially when fielded en-masse.

The ZRL do not use treads offensively, preferring a light home grown variant known as the Coyote. This light tank mounts a rapid firing railgun, has a fuel cell engine and has decent armour and a machinegun anti missile system. The Coyote is used purely as a garrison unit as it is cheap and easy to maintain. An AA variant, the Pitbull, does see front-line use, and is armed with 2 rapid firing railguns in a modified turret. This design is the bane of fast movers and Air Cavalry.

Aresian City states use designs equivalent to both the Coyote and Fortress, as well as the unique Viper. Very low slung, with a telescoping armature turret, the Viper is armed with a single high velocity rail-gun and is a deadly ambush predator. Viper hulls can be found burnt out and destroyed around all the city domes, and many crews take to camouflaging their tread as already destroyed to give them a few extra seconds to draw a bead on a target.

Lev Cavalry use mass-phobic systems that allow them to, essentially, maintain very low orbit of the body they are on. Built using specially machined materials fabricated using Unity facilities, Levs can carry as much armour and firepower as a tread, but operate in a wider selection of theatres, and are generally much, much faster than treads, and are able to 'boost' over obstacles. These benefits are offset by their fearsome cost and maintenance needs.

The ZRL uses the P-88 Shockwave, a heavy Lev mounting a rapid fire particle beamer and heavy armour. With excellent speed and defences, the Shockwave hunts in packs when fighting Cores, and can easily destroy an unwary Crow. This is the main battle tank of the ZRL and is to be feared.

The CEAF has a limited number of Levs, of a variety of makes from the factories of Selene and Hermes. The most common is the Zephyr, a blisteringly fast lev used for scouting. Packing a dozen missile tubes in a turret, the Zephyr can unleash a hail of fire then quickly retreat, perfect as a scout and harasser.

Aresian City states make extensive use of Levs, including the Nightstar, a heavily armoured Lev equipped with a centre line plasma fusil, and the medium weight Lancer, which is equipped with a rapid auto cannon and excellent Anti Missile systems.

Walkers are favoured where ever terrain is particularly difficult. Modelled on the motive systems of Cores, Walkers are effectively two mechanised legs with a turret on top. Despite their advantages in terrain crossing, Walkers are not favoured as they tend to be prohibitively expensive to build and maintain, and their leg systems are much more easily disabled then those on a core, and their higher profile means they cannot benefit from cover like a tread or Lev. Inexperienced officers and civilians will often mistake a walker for a core, and that can be good (If that officer retreats from your walker force) or bad (if that junior officer sends your unit to do a job that only a Core can do)

The CEAF mainly uses the Tower, a Digitigrade design equipped with a powerful rotary autocannon, decent all round armour and a selection of launchers for grenades. The Tower is a Hermes design, and well optimised for that hellish world. Another, more rarely seen walker is the Crab. Equipped with two 'arms' equipped with industrial chainsaws mounted in a claw like design backed by powerful hydraulics, a massive flame-thrower and two heavy machine guns, the Crab has very heavy armour and is surprisingly agile despite its slow top speed. Perfected on Aphrodite, its pilots are often reckless to the point of insanity, and the Crabs ability to bull through buildings and flush out infantry makes it feared.

The ZRN uses the more general purpose Hoplite. Equipped with a powerful chemical laser, chaff launchers and an AMS, as well as a machine gun for keeping infantry at bay, it is lightly armoured but nimble and decently fast. Hoplites are easily modified for a variety of conditions, and are often sent in to support Cores as snipers and flankers.

Aresian forces use a bewildering array of Walkers, as Ares is an environment that actually favours them. Each city state have their own preferred variant, often specialised for the local environment.

Finally, Air Cavalry, also known as gunships, mount little armour but often pack truly intimidating levels of firepower. Kept aloft by rotors or turbines, these are often used as rapid reaction units, and as such Crows should be aware of their capabilities.

The CEAF uses the Wasp, a heavily armed gunship with a rotary auto cannon and dozens of missiles. The Wasp is also decently armoured for the class, but trades away some speed for the privilege. Often used alongside Cores, Wasps are frequently repurposed into transport gunships, deploying elite infantry for the Aberrant King.

The ZRL makes use of the Unity designed Sparrowhawk. Light, fast and nimble even for a gunship, it mounts a single weapon – the god hammer anti tank rail gun. Deployed as a tank hunter, the Sparrowhawk can fight and kill armour from extreme range and at extreme speed, making countering it difficult. It is, however, notoriously fragile.

Aresian City states deploy a truly bewildering array of gunships, including the particle cannon equipped Lightning, the heavy missile using Tempest, and the Invader transport Helo.

Spoiler: Fast Movers 

Fast Movers
Aerospace assets are a key part of any operation, able to bridge the gap between a space ship, which often acts as a command centre and mobile base for a planet bound force, and the boots on the ground. Very fast (hence the name) and able to operate in void or atmosphere, Aerospace fighters will probably never be outmoded by Cores unlike cavalry, simply because they can do things Cores cannot.

Most planetary governments will design a home-grown fighter for purely atmospheric duties, as these garrison units will be cheaper than true Aerospace fighters.

Both the ZRL and CEAF prefer to use the Unity designed Hammerhead, a heavy weight aerospace fighter built for interception work, but capable of being pressed into multiple roles. Fusion powered and with modular weapon hard-points, Hammerheads are produced across the system for both states and see frequent use by the Exiles as well.

On Ares, the EAS-99 Headhunter is a locally produced design first pioneered by the city state of Elysium, A ground attack fighter that can carry a considerable bomb payload, this airframe is optimised for the Aresian atmosphere and can often be found embroiled in dogfights with other locally produced designs such as the Bandit and the AT-102 Black Knight, as well as itself, as all the city states make use of Headhunter production runs when they are sold on the open market.

Spoiler: Cores 

Cores

A core carries more firepower and armour than a tread or Lev, and can move faster than air cavalry. A seasoned crow can use a Core to engage and destroy a force of dozens of vehicles, then move on without taking a hit, such is the blistering speed and firepower these platforms carry. Easily modified, each Core is a unique platform that can fight in any environment, and be deployed from orbit into the toughest combat missions and succeed. Military doctrine holds that the only match for a Core is massed firepower from entrenched ambushers, or another Core. Core design is discussed in character generation.

Spoiler: Warships 

Warships

Very few warships remain in the inner system, and frankly, this is probably for the best. A warship is much like a civilian ship, but the difference lies in its ability to control gravity to counteract the worst effects of inertia, sudden acceleration and deceleration. This allows a true warship to fight and manoeuvrer faster and harder than any armed civilian scow. Generally, the larger the ship, the harder its contra-grav drive will have to work to counter the effects of acceleration on the crew. Therefore, they cannot safely accelerate too quickly. This unique drive, plus ancient unity reactors of unparalleled efficiency and complexity, allow a true warship to mount heavy armour and massive firepower, and get to where such a formidable arsenal can be best employed at speed. Able to rain fire and death from orbit, warships are rare assets, and each is unique, an example of various classes, doctrines and designs from many years of Unity history and the sporadic ship building of the Selenites and the outer system. The main bottleneck to producing more warships is a lack of contra-grav engines, which can only be produced now at a glacial pace in a few, highly guarded locations. Wars have been fought for access to stockpiles of warship spare parts, as both the Zeussian Republic and Cradle Empire have a reserve fleet of vessels that cannot be used in heavy combat due to pre-existing damage. It is rumoured that the Exiles have the ability to build new ships on Eris, and at a fearsome rate if they so desired. Warships exist at the peak of any military, a mobile command centre and launch platform for fast movers and cores, and carrying fearsome firepower of their own. At the same time they absorb huge quantities of resources to maintain, let alone manufacture, and if they are destroyed can end a campaign before its begun.

[dakkagor]

Dramatis Personae

Finished Character Sheets will be copied here and linked to the original post

“All the worlds are a stage, and all the 'kind merely players. They have their exits and entrances, and one man in his time plays many parts.”
Unknown – Inscribed above entranceway to the Zeusian Senate.

Spoiler: The Cripple 

The Cripple.
“Life, although it may only be an accumulation of anguish, is dear to me, and I will defend it.”
Born to the Zammussian familia on Argo Station, the man known in politics as 'the cripple' was born with the name Gralka Julion Zammussian. Named for his famous uncle who led the breaking of the Antiphony Void-Clan, the babe was sickly at birth, a rare occurrence among even the poorest of the 'kind, and unheard of amongst the rich of Argo Station. Diagnosed with a variety of long thought dead degenerative issues, his skin would easily blister, his lungs and throat seize, and his eyesight was poor enough to inflict splitting headaches from strain. However, a fearsome will and intelligence lurked behind his unassuming facade. During his first tour of service, he was captured and tortured by the Kirrilian Void-Clan, and mocked his tormentors lack of ambition in their ransom demands to his family. Inured to pain and suffering from his conditions, he resisted the torturers and degradation of the Kirrilian, and when recovered by a patrol, had been keen-minded enough to have made copious mental notes of their activities that gave the ZRL the ability to break the Kirrilian raids. His bravery and cool-headed actions saw him richly rewarded, and he would one day be the Colonel that would set the Kirrilians asteroid base afire.

His Senatorial Service was less marked by distinction. While he had an enviable military career and powerful familia backing, he was viewed as too direct and un-subtle in matters political, and made several gaffes that saw him ostracised from the circles of power. Disgusted with politics, he returned to the ZRL, and worked his way up to Admiral. As a non-political animal and a master tactician, he was an obvious choice to head up the ZRL taskforce under Consul Sergia Tatian.

Gralka is short for a Zeussian, with thinning black hair and dark brown eyes. His exposed pale skin is often covered in sores and scabs, especially around his joints, and his face is often pinched from exertion. He carries a cane which, if rumour is believed, has a powerful lostech field projector mounted in the gilded eagle head at its top, and one shot laser weapon in its tip. He is always accompanied by his household servant, Jennis, who is his personal medicae and, it is rumoured, a deadly fighter in his own right.

Spoiler: The Consul 

The Consul.
“We still think of a powerful man as a born leader and a powerful woman as an anomaly.”
Sergia Tatian was born to a family of middling standing in Olympus, and was of good if unremarkable heritage. However, from a young age it was thought she would go far. Fearsomely intelligent and wilful, she drove herself relentlessly to excel and was awarded a scholarship with the Olympian Academia, the most prestigious university in the Zeus sub-system. She served a double tour with the ZRL marine corp, rising to the rank of Gunnery Sergeant, but this was merely a stepping stone to a career in the senate. She won the hotly contested senatorial race for the port district, as much on raw force of personality as on a sound understanding of the issues at hand. She weaned a son while on the Senate floor, battled the Culcis Faction, and shattered the long standing Merician Coalition which had dominated the Senate for over a decade, humbling the ancient senator Amrose Mericer. While she had made enemies, she also had made many powerful friends, and was voted into the position of Consul alongside Danton Culcis, her long running rival. Danton was a war hawk, and Sergia was envisioned as a peacemaker, but pivoted after election to also being for military action against the Aberrant King. While some claim that Danton finally found leverage over her, the truth is much more sanguine: she changed her mind, and now believes that the Aberrant King is a deadly threat to her beloved republic. As a shrewd negotiator and political animal of the highest calibre, she was the natural choice to lead the expedition to Ares. While she had a sound head for infantry tactics and a fine grasp on a soldiers morale and fighting spirit, she lacked experience in space combat and theatre war, making her pairing with Gralka a natural fit.

Sergia is in many ways the ideal Zeussian both physically and mentally, tall, handsome with the dark skin so favoured in the halls of Olympus, she keeps her mane of wild black hair tied tight in a braid, while her piercing blue eyes are said be either as warm as the oceans of the Cradle or as cold as Tethys ice, depending on her mood. She always wears the robes of a consul, combined with the distinctive orbital steel falcata blade of a marine sergeant alongside a blaster pistol of exquisite manufacture, a peace offering from Danton Culcis on their joint ascension. As a Consul, she is always accompanied by at least two members of the Consular Guard. Rumours state she has eidetic recall, never forgets a face and can easily recall meetings and instances from decades ago. Certainly, she has often surprised a would-be adversary by remembering, in sharp detail, their first meeting, using such surprise to disarm and charm where appropriate, and otherwise as just another weapon in her political quiver.

Spoiler: The King 

The Aberrant King
“There is nothing good or evil. Only thought makes it so.”
The Aberrant King, originally known as Uther Drake, stands as the sole ruler of Cradle, Selene, Aphrodite and Hermes. His achievements are linked to the powerful core nicknamed Caliburnus, which gave him the military might to achieve his new ambitions, but that is to underestimate the man. Uther is a canny diplomat, shrewd leader and a ruthless war leader. Only someone with incredible willpower, and overwhelming skill, could have united the Cradle and forged it into one cohesive empire again. Uther Drake is that man.
Uther was born the son of a scavenger-prince, a type of merchant who roams the system gambling their fortune on lostech finds, often serving various client states. He saw much of the system before his fathers death left him in a mountain of debt, as his father had not been as successful a scavenger as his ancestors. He had become obsessed with finding a lost military cache codenamed Scabbard, and had wittered away his families fortune on finding it. It was his son, Uther, who found the cache and claimed its contents, including several experimental technologies long thought lost. Finding the cache changed Uther, awakening in him, late in his life, the Crow bloodline that had lain dormant for many years, allowing him to claim Caliburnus as his own. The change in his personality was almost immediate, and he returned to his nominal home arcology of Albion and conquered it with ease. His dream was to reunite the system, rebuild the Unity, and
the reason he is named the Aberrant King is because no Crow before or since has ever been driven by the desire to conquer or rule. To fight, to serve, certainly, but not to create an empire. His aberrant desires are mocked by his enemies, while those same enemies quake in fear at what he might unleash.

Uther is a giant of a man, possibly due to genetic tinkering by his scavenger prince father, possessed of surprising charm for all the rumours of blood thirst and rage that surround him. He wears his grey steel hair and beard long, often kept in place by silver beads carved with intricate runes. Stronger than most men, and with hard granite eyes, he is as much given to laughter as roaring anger, his tempers often followed by deep brooding silences as his fearsome mind works. He favours hard wearing clothes of a dark tone, often wearing simple breaches and a shirt with hard wearing boots. To mark his rank, he often wears a purple cloak trimmed in white fur, and carries a sword and laspistol on his belt.

He has already fathered several children by various wives, securing a web of inheritance and obligation that stretches across the inner system. Many of these children now serve in his empire as subordinates, earning their sires respect so that one day, they might claim the throne themselves.

Spoiler: Noted Cores and Ships 

Caliburnus
“You can't say civilization don't advance... in every war they kill you in a new way.”
This blood red Core is a mystery of the Unity. It follows its owner everywhere, and can apparently move on its own without a pilot, following complex directions from the Aberrant King. Spies in the Kings court report that Uther treates Caliburnus as an advisor, and will not proceed on a course of action until he has allowed Caliburnus to weigh up the decision, suggesting that the Core has a mind of its own, and perhaps, its own objectives. Some even claim to have heard Caliburnus speak, describing a soothing feminine tone that can calm the worst rages in Uther, or inspire them. The Zeus Republic wonders if Caliburnus is in fact the mastermind behind the Aberrant Kings sudden rise to power, and many strange powers and abilities have been ascribed to Caliburnus that are not typical to a Core. Certainly, its weapons and defences are stronger than any other Core seen.

Carnwennan, Dyrnwyn, Claiomh Solais
“We know more about war that we know about peace, more about killing than we know about living”
These Cores were revealed later in the Aberrants Kings campaign, gifted to his scions which have shown the Crows gift. Apparently from the same cache as Caliburnus, they are reputed to be similarly powerful and possessed of unique and strange capabilities. Piloted by his three eldest children, these deadly Cores will most likely be deployed to Ares and will pose a critical threat to the Zeussian Republics expeditionary force.

Pridwen
“War is the Science of Destruction”
A Unity era capital ship salvaged by the Aberrant king from a debris field in the inner system, this monster of the void was refitted by the Selenites as a tribute to their new ruler. This vessel has served as the Cradle Empires Flagship, and will most likely be deployed to Ares to help support their allies there.

Many mercenaries have answered the Zeussian Republics call to arms. They are detailed below:

Spoiler: The Traveler 

Kal-Helar; Callsign “Traveler”
29 standard years of age
Male
Originally born in the Aresian League

Background:
Kal-Helar cannot remember much of his years before bonding with Dainsleif. He knows he was born somewhere in the Aresian League territories and that his need for wanderlust and adventure grew the moment he could make sense of the strange dreams in his teens. The dreams set him on a path and that path led him to Dainsleif, a Core supposedly cursed to eventually kill anyone who bonded with it while they were still young.

‘It’s a Core that drags its Crow from battlefield to battlefield almost like it’s sating an eternal thirst for blood,’ they would say. Bonding with it meant he would likely never call anywhere home again. Despite the warnings, Kal bonded with the Core and the Traveler was born. It was almost like his early memories were blocked out so all he had to look at was the future.

Job to job, battle to battle. That was how Kal and Dainslief traveled. Meeting Windor and later Kasen were great strokes of luck that kept Kal grounded and perhaps kept the supposed curse at bay. That is until his first encounter with Roland and his monstrous core belching fire and death.

Fights between them were scattered across the years and always seemed to building to something. Perhaps the coming storm between Cradle and Zeus was that something...

Skills
Swordplay
Research
Analysis

Flaws
Aloof
Stubborn/Bull-headed

Links
Callas Windor; Crow piloting the medium Core known as “Balmung.” Kal and Callas have a friendly rivalry and often partnership. Callas, a follower of the Raven’s Code, often tries to get Kal-Helar to begin following it as well thinking it will give him some greater grounding and direction

Roland Windgrace; pilot of the heavy Core known as “Surtr.” A fiery rivalry exists between Roland and Kal as the two often end up on opposing sides. There are no bonds of camaraderie as Roland has sworn to see Kal-Helar broken and helpless before him. But as of yet, Surter has yet to best Dainsleif.

Ingrid Kasen; A merchant sailor and close contact of Kal’s who often keeps him abreast of profitable work and often ferries him from location to location.
Story Beats:
A terrible fight with Surtr that leaves Dainsleif broken and defeated and Kal nearly dead.

CORE

“Dainsleif”

Dainsleif is a medium-class Core standing on plantigrade legs. Overall, the Core’s armored form appears rather bulky and angular in design and somewhat patchwork in appearance that many attribute as the result of so many battles having scarred the Core over its lifetime. Dainsleif’s right hand carries a medium-class energy rifle that pairs well with the devastating energy sword carried in the left hand, a weapon that has never failed to either fell or seriously injure an enemy each time it is “drawn” on the field. Fielded on the shoulders of Dainsleif are a heavy projectile rifle that is essentially a shoulder mounted sniper rifle while the other is a medium recoiless rocket system. Its support systems consist of an adaptive sensor array styled as “horns” on the head along with an ablative armor system.

Spoiler: The Guardian 

CROW

Name: Arjen Zaraki (callsign: Guardian)
Age: Just under 1 Cronite year (28 Cradle years)
Gender: Cis male
Nation of Birth: Titan, Cronus sub-system

Background:
Born on Titan, Arjen was a restless youth like most Crows. Still, he tried to do his expected duty, and trained as an electrician in order to complete a tour of the Xanadu solar farms. He couldn’t stand the monotony of the job and, on an impulse, travelled to the starport to book passage offworld. The one pilot who didn’t reject his request was Ishana Varsi, who unbeknownst to him was a Crow recruiter who knew what he was before he himself did. During the months-long journey to Titan, which involved several stops and one unfortunate encounter with Exile pirates, he began to fit in with the others, especially two fellow Cronites: Darian and Gavrail - they have stuck together ever since and become almost as close now as brothers. Arjen has often meant to contact his real family, but the shame of abandoning them and failing to complete the Cronite rite of passage always stops him at the last minute.

Beginning again on Titan, he fully embraced his Crow training under Varsi’s instruction. Unlike his brothers, he also fully embraced the fast-paced Zuessian culture, leading to a lot of hangovers. Through training, a pattern began to emerge between Arjen and his two “brothers” - Darian was the aggressive hunter of the group, Gavrail the watchful lookout, while Arjen, older than the other two by a year, often took on a protective role. They were assigned accordingly, to a trio of sister Cores geared towards attack, surveillance and defence respectively. Although Crow contracts often separate them, the three brothers always manage to meet up at least once per solar year at the rookery on Ganymede.

Arjen has a Cronite’s respect for family, a word which he now extends to anyone under his Core’s aegis, and this naturally drew him towards the Ravens. Despite this protective instinct, he is not exactly cool and calculating (that was always more Gavrail’s thing); the two most important things Varsi ever taught him were the Raven’s honour code, and that while the savage thrill of destroying an enemy is unavoidable, one should be careful not to become ruled by it.

Skills:
Intercept - competent in using jet bursts to interpose between allies and hostile fire
Shield Offence - while Medusa’s energy shield is primarily defensive, can also use it effectively for shoving and edge-bashing
Insightful - good at reading people and his instincts about strangers are usually (though not always) accurate

Flaws:
Fights Fair - can artificially handicap himself in fights, for example using Medusa’s jammer to thwart enemy attacks, but never to blind their defence
Addictive Personality - a bit of an adrenaline junkie, and if there’s food, alcohol or narcotics available, he’s probably going to consume too much of them

Links:
Darian Merino, Crow - pilots the core Stheno. One of Arjen’s two “brothers” from Titan, his approach to warfare is that of a big game hunter, with an enthusiasm that can sometimes border on the sadistic. This may yet lead to arguments between them. Tall and wiry with a graceful, economical way of moving.

Gavrail Kell, Crow - pilots the core Eurayle. Arjen’s other “brother”, he is a spiritual man (some might say eccentric) who elects to spend more time than necessary bonded to his Core, often even sleeping inside it. He is, however, almost impossible to surprise, and has preternatural instincts about the ebb and flow of a battle. Small, curly haired and slightly built.

Arakeen Toth, engineer - ‘Lift cephalopod, one of the few people Arjen trusts to work on his Core. Has a tendency to jump between thoughts or conversational beats quicker than most people can easily follow. Darkly coloured with distinctive blue rings that flush when excited.

Ishana Varsi, mentor - invalided early in their career thanks to an unfortunate accident, they now act as a recruiter and mentor for fledgeling crows. Arjen still considers them an almost parental figure. An androgynously pretty human with wispy hair.

Story beats:
As mentioned above, losing an unnecessary honour duel and being pressured by events to decide how much a code of ethics actually matters during wartime.
A recurring enemy who could be either an amoral contrast or a sympathetic character who just happens to fight for the other side.

CORE

Name: Medusa
Weight class: Medium
Motive system: Plantigrade
Left arm weapon: Energy shield
Right arm weapon: Smoothbore cannon (heavy projectile), with shot selector for thermobaric explosive, kinetic penetrator, and nanite smoke cloud
Left shoulder weapon: Laser CIWS (medium energy) for close defence and anti-missile
Right shoulder system: EW pod (directional jammer), can eject shriekers in the event of a home-on-jam attack
Head system: Standard active / passive sensor suite

Spoiler: The Iceheart 

Name: James Arguellyn Pac Callsign: Fridge
Age:25
Gender: Male
Nation of Birth: Claritas in the Aresian League

Background: Born into the industrial wasteland of Clarites, James quickly learned his way in and out of trouble. Rather than work in the factories or sorting piles of scrap; he helped himself to neglected equipment and materials that wouldn’t be missed and hung around in the filthy bars that factory workers frequented to drown their sorrows to hustle cards, throwing knives or any other scheme he could employ to fill his belly.
His parents never asked where the meager rations or shiny baubles came from but they never scolded him, though the look his mother gave him with each prize told him she was worried.
More than a few times he returned to their small hab badly bloody and beaten from not quite being quick enough by tongue or foot but it did little to dampen his spirits.
For a time whenever a machine broke down, something went missing, or a coating of fluorescent paint had been applied in the night, James’ name was cursed by all affected. Everyone knew he was the culprit, however they could seldom prove it.

The haul of scrap was a big one the day he found his Core. A massive repulsor barge had returned from trawling the expanses of shifting sand loaded with rusted refuse from some forgotten battle who knows how long ago. They must have discovered an abandoned stronghold, because many of the vehicles seemed mostly intact. James couldn’t pass up the chance sneaking onto the barge after it had been left in a salvage yard while the scrappers retired to celebrate.
He didn’t know what it was when he found it sealed in the cargo compartment of a rusted out transport, but the long metallic box called to him. The message hastily spray painted on its dusty surface had faded but was still legible.
‘I quit, take care of Artemis’
Somewhere in a primal part of his brain, he knew he had finally found something worth doing even before he cracked the crate’s seals.

A small wiry frame at 5’6” and 75 kilos, James’ only feature of note is his boyishly charming olive toned face often plastered with a wry smile. His brown hair is often unkempt, though kept short and warm brown eyes dart around, taking in every detail, often betraying when his mind is wandering or hatching a scheme.

Skills:
Scrapper: He is adept at making and repairing rudimentary systems from what most would call garbage.

Frosty: Years of having guns pressed against his head and threats of death have taught him keeping calm in the face of hopeless odds can win the day. He can maintain a clear head when most others have given into panic or despair.

Slight of hand: Skilled with darts, cards, knives or simply light fingered; he has a knack for moving things around unnoticed.

Survival: Years of growing up next door to a wasteland and helping people injured in factory accidents has given him a passing knowledge of emergency first aid and keeping himself alive with nothing but the clothes on his back.

Flaws:
Untrusting: Everyone in the League wants something, Nothing, not even friendship is free. As long as you remember that you won’t be surprised. It was a tough lesson to learn that James won’t soon forget.

The value of currency: James never had a chance to learn the value of currency. Paltry sums seem like kingly ransoms, yet he squanders them and is always somehow short on funds.

Links:
His family (Mother, Father and two younger siblings) back on Claritas in the Aresian League
Though he doubts he will ever go back home, he often sends any resources or funds back to his family to help them get by and maybe provide them some comfort.
.
Mentor: Cadell Hoskin
After a few weeks of James fumbling with his new found Core, an old crow that drifted through their region of the League took James under his wing to show him the ropes, explain the basics of the code, and dub him ‘Fridge’. James never did get an answer why, though he had a few theories. Artemis’ boxy hull faintly resembled a cooling unit, it was much slower and awkward to maneuver, and the service hatches were often covered in frost from the nearly constant nitrogen cooling leaks that never seemed to stay fixed.
Cadell only lingered long enough for James to get his ‘feet under him’ before departing once more with the grim sentiment, ‘See you around kid, hopefully it won’t be from opposite sides of the field.’
That first meeting set James on his path. He hopes to meet Cadell and his Medium Core Iron Cat again one day, to show him what he can really do.

Rival:Jedrick Dannecker
The scrapper whos haul had a Core removed from it wasn’t too happy when she found out. A hard woman like most in Claritas, she wanted what was hers. When the guilds didn’t bother to enforce her claim, she tried to pressure James into paying for taking the Core. Of course he had nothing to offer, not that he wanted to; and the scrapper had no need of a Crow. James’ unapologetic nature did little to smooth things over.
He finally left Claritas to avoid Jedrick’s increasing pressure and hostility, though he was sure she would track him down one day to extract her payment, plus interest.

Story Beats:
A run in with a pretty face; that may or may not be for the best.

(Any of the links seem like they would be interesting to have come up IMO)

Artemis is a heavily armored tracked Core. Its tracked base is salvaged from a heavy industrial crawler and covered in a patina of rust and dust. Looking like a vertical pillar the boxy torso has it’s corners to the front, rear, and each side. The slanted amour reduces the likelihood of being penetrated by projectiles and can cause energy impacts to glance.
To the layman, Artemis looks more like a pile of scrap than a war machine, but any Crow could tell the painstaking detail invested to keep the behemoth operational.

The right arm carries the salvaged guts of a starship’s heavy point defense COIL laser.

The left arm deploys a large energy shield.

The Left shoulder is armed with a massive, short barreled, 152mm autoloading Howitzer. Limited to three rounds in combat without rearming, due to the size of the H.E.S.H. rounds it carries.

The right shoulder hosts a wide beam directed EM scrambler liberated from the remains of the Claritas space port. While not powerful enough to effect the hardened systems of a Core it is able to kill smart/guided missiles, soft systems, and prevent the targeted Cores (single target unless two are adjacent) from transmitting or receiving comms.

The Head is equipped with only minimal sensors, and a hardened multi directional comm relay that hosts battle information from friendly forces to supplement it’s own. This allows Artemis to engage targets without a clear line of sight.

Many enemies and rivals stand in way of victory on the plains of Tarsis. Some of these are detailed below:

Spoiler: The Monster 

Roland Windgrace, callsign 'Giant'

Pilot of the huge Core 'Surtr', Roland is a mercenary through and through, a hard man with a murky past left behind him somewhere on Hermes. Rumours peg him as the disgraced son of a factotum, an escaped leader of a gladiator revolt, or even an agent of the Aberrant King. He has never answered these rumours with anything other than studied indifference. What is known is his fierce rivallry with Kal-Helar. Kal has repeatedly fouled Rolands operations and contracts, costing him money and components. These dice rolls of fate have bloomed into a full rivalry, with Roland taking contracts that put him opposite Kal-Helar in the hope of finally exacting his revenge.



Surtr, Heavy Assault Core

Surtr is a track based Core, massively uparmoured and upgunned into a rolling fortress. Each of its primary arms carries a cluster of 4 light autocannon slaved to an advanced targetting system, allowing the Core to track and kill two different targets at once. Once its ammo is expended, the weapons can be ejected, allowing Surtr to deploy a powerful energy blade that crackles with red flames. Thanks to its massive weight and powerful jump jets, a favoured final finishing move is the 'Giants Foot'. Launching into the air, roland cuts the Cores jets and allows his machine to plunge down on its opponents, crushing them flat.

Spoiler: The Mentor 

Cadell Hoskin, callsign 'Teacher'

Pilot of the medium weight core 'Iron Cat', Cadell is a native of the Claritas region and a Crow traditionalist. Respected not just as a mercenary but as one of the most accomplished duelists of the Crow subculture, he is a fierce adherent of the Raven Code, and has fought to keep those traditions alive by passing on what he knows to fledging crows who fall under his wing. While raised in a merchantile clan family, he has shown little interest in money, only keeping enough coin to keep his Core upgraded and himself in relative comfort. Much else of what he earns goes to charitable causes that catch his eye.

It was somewhat of a surprise when this staunch traditionalist willing caged himself by pledging his services to the Aberrant King as a teacher to his heirs with the Crow inheritance. To Cadell, this is a natural extension of his role as a mentor. If he can train the heirs of the Aberrant king and mould them into honourable rulers, he believes he will secure a glorious legacy for the future of the 'kind, one of peace rather than tyranny.



Medium Core 'Ironcat'

Ironcat is a perfectly balanced duelists machine, designed to fullfill any battlefield role well. It can outmanouvre anything it can't outfight, and outfight anything that tries to run. Equipped with a plasma projector cannon as its main gun, this weapon is hugely powerful but limited in shots, but as each shot is a kill, it rarely matters. Its right shoulder mounts a six-tube 'harpoon' missile pack for dealing with light vehicles, infantry and harassing enemy Cores, while its right shoulder mounts a Helios-Guijon Rifle, firing rifled 150mm slugs of armour piercing tungsten. Cadell is skilled enough to fire this quick firing cannon on the move with frightening accuracy. For defences, a pair of laser AMS protect against incoming missiles and larger ballistics. The core mounts only moderate armour, but has a massively augmented thruster array, which makes it very manouverable for its weight. Finally, its energy blade is a fairly standard pattern, projecting a hot blue blade, often used for a deadly finishing move against a crippled opponent.

The Heirs

The Abberant king has sent three of his oldest children to Ares to secure his alliance with Claritas. Each pilots their own core, and jockey for position and favour from their distant father.

Spoiler: The Statesman 

Gawain Drake

Gawain is the oldest of the Kings sons, at 32 Cradle years. Considered a politican first, and not a warrior, he has been increasingly sidelined by his half-brothers and sisters as more aggressive, warlike siblings take centre stage. However, he is determined to be his fathers heir, and views the Aresian campaign as the perfect theatre to show he can back up his words with strength of arms.

Spoiler: The Conquerer 

Remfrey Drake

Remfrey is almost the same age as Gawain, 31 years old. A ruthless military commander and a skilled general, he is also a skilled Crow and is not afraid to crush anyone who gets in his way. However, he is arrogant and cruel, determined to take what he views as his right by conquest. Ares will be his first major campaign out of his fathers shadow, and his chance to show he should be his fathers heir.

Spoiler: The Child 

Alexia Drake

Alexia is the youngest of Abberant kings children who has shown the Crow inheritance, and has been doted on by her father. Her Aphroditian mother was a witch-queen of one of the most powerful crawler clans, and Alexia is a fey child, and rumour has it, has formed an unusually powerful bond with her core. She loves her big brothers, and they treat her well, after all, as the youngest and a woman, she is no threat to their inheritance. . .

[Enigma]

I'll see what I can come up with for this. Oh, if it will help, usually someone else will give you your call sign - it might be a play on their name, it could be some exaggerated personality trait, or it could be something in their past - and it's usually a joke or tease.

Sorta like on the Big Bang Theory - Howard wants to get the call sign "rocketman" and winds up instead with "Fruit Loops."

[Azazeal849]

It could potentially be amusing for the GM / the player below the posted sheet to pick callsigns...

[Atrum Daemon]

Color me very interested. I'll evaluate my current schedule and see what I can do...

[Azazeal849]

I think Reckoning is already covering the theme of how war is corrosive to morals on both an individual and societal scale, so for this I might go for something a bit more hopeful, like why those morals matter and why it’s important to keep them. To that end I’m thinking of a very honourable character (probably both a Raven and a Chronite, so he cares about the little guys) who gets his ass kicked and his Core asset-stripped early in the story and starts questioning whether his honour code is actually worth keeping. Depending on which way you want to push the character and how cynical the setting is, the enemy doing the ass-kicking could be a stone-cold pragmatist or an equally honourable Crow who just happens to be fighting for the other side (maybe they even become friends after the war, who knows?).

GM questions: do all Cores have names or just the King’s special stash? If so what are the naming conventions? Also what is the aesthetic of the ‘Kind, are they a world of sleek bionics or are their enhancements mainly genetic / biological? What is the look / feel of the universe in general?

[dakkagor]

All Cores have names, most will have been named by their pilots at some point, Pacific Rims habit of mashing two words together would be a good inspiration for name types. (One of the opening pieces of fiction has two Cores, 'Gravedigger' and 'Ironflower')

The 'kinds enhancements are genetic, a legacy of massive genetic healthcare programs from the old Unity, which made a concerted effort to weed out degenerative genetic diseases and improve the human bodies survivability and longevity, so they look like us. (Though inadvertantly, we would see the 'kind as 'sexier' because the genetic tinkering has made them more survival fit). Though now its been a millenia since the Unity fell, you've got the beginning of adaption creeping in (the Selenites being spindly due to the moons low gravity) and old problems resurfacing (General Gralka's medical problems).

For aesthetic in general, 'classical futurism' is kind of what I'm aiming for. The Zeussians and Chronites definetly lean into classical greco-roman aesthetic, while the other cultures lean in different directions so people hopefully feel they have a lot of choice.

I've actually built a pintrest folder full of mech and character ideas for the game, you can find it here:

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/dakkagords/vacuum-crows/

I am planning on having there be a lot of tension between 'what is necessary' versus 'what is right', and amongst the NPC's that is going to be led by the Consul and the General. Our Consul is an honourable woman, and the General wants to win by any means necessary. Both love their country and don't want to cause harm to the civilians of Ares, but both have very different philosophies about how that is best achieved, so characters that play into that will work really well.

[Atrum Daemon]

My WIP while I break for my morning shift.

[dakkagor]

Top work @Atrum Daemon! I'm looking forward to seing Kal finished!