Story Summary Centuries in the future mankind has managed to colonize their own solar system. Along with planetary habitations there are several space stations throughout the solar system. With the resources of other planets available mankind has made leaps and bounds in technology through previously untangle resources only capable of being created in different environments than that of Earth. Thankfully humanity managed to preserve the Earth by exploiting resources on other worlds than their native one and Earth has been recovering steadily, if slowly. Having fully exploited their own solar system humanity has looked out across the vastness of space toward neighboring stars; however technology for faster than light travel has yet to be discovered so at the moment all that can be done is to send out expedition ships to search for famed, but still hypothetical, wormholes, and to mine any asteroids that come in from out of the solar system for exotic minerals or other alien things. Of course even if humanity has progressed so far its warlike nature still rears its ugly head and weaponry has advanced along with science. Gunships, orbital cannons, space cruisers, and perhaps most importantly of all in 'compact' warfare, the MECHA. These versatile combat units can be used for a multitude of purposes, from mining, to armed combat, MECHA have become a staple of both space and planet life. From these advances all the different colonies have produced their own military forces and expeditionary forces, each seeking to advance their own causes as nationalistic tendencies that used to be between nations on Earth has now infected the different colonies on planets and in space. Even some space pirates have formed their own groups. While humanity squabbles with itself over the solar system and who will be the first to reach another part of their galaxy an unknown menace from across space has been steadily making its way toward our solar system. It will not be long before humanity has more to fear than itself... The RolePlay So as you can see the idea is fairly simple. Mecha combat in a Solar System based humanity as alien forces invade from afar, of course humanity is greedy and certain factions will try to push things to their advantage when they find out. I was thinking the way to go would be that the role players start on an expedition force sent to mine an asteroid from out of the solar system. Of course the force has a few Mecha for defense against pirates but what they get more than they bargained for and have to try and escape to warn the rest of the solar system before it is too late. Technology Level I was kind of thinking of a balance between say the more 'realistic' style of Robotech where things are a lot more balanced and the diversity of MECHA like in Gundam. Expect lasers, plasma rifles, shields of various kinds, etc though I certainly do not want any reality altering effects like some Gundams I could mention. You won't be getting the real good stuff right from the get go obviously but even when we do we will not have a real clear advantage over the enemy, makes things more exciting when the pressure is on. In general just think Sci-Fi but don't go too far. The Expedition The story starts on the expeditionary ship, the XEON III, a craft designed for the express purpose of exploration and mining operations. The large craft contains crew quarters, a hangar filled with equipment, a mining shuttle, and a few Mecha for defensive purposes. The ship also has a decent medical bay and research lab since they never know what they will find on a mission. Most of the crew are either ship engineers or lab workers but they have a small group of MECHA pilots as well who were hired for defense against pirates. The vessel is equipped lightly, the bulk of its equipment made for surveys of comets and plantoids, and therefor has few weapons. The vessel is fairly quick however and has a dense hull in case of any environmental hazards out in space and some shielding to help aid in escape. The XEON III relies heavily on its hired muscle for any pirate action so at least their Mecha repair department is top notch. Currently the XEON III is on a course for what appears to be a passing by comet dubbed Fish Tail because of its unique particle trail. The mission will prove to be much more than anyone bargained for... The Solar System Earth: Home of the human race and the 'center' of human civilization. Earth feels it has the divine right to tell all the human colonies what to do considering all humans originated from this planet. For obvious reasons Earth is the most developed of the planets and has the most variety in animal and planet life. Earth has the largest military force however most of their best equipment is actually imported from off-planet. Earthers tend to be proud of their heritage and can sometimes hold themselves as better than those raised off-planet. Lunar Colony: Mankind's first step toward space colonization on planets, the Lunar Colony is considered the 'giant leap for mankind' after Armstrong's 'small step' or the first lunar landing. The moon was certainly not an easy undertaking for colonization since the moon is not capable of holding an atmosphere. In order to create permanent habitats on the moon, large biomes were constructed in order to cultivate planet and animal life to help facilitate an indoors biosphere. Advances in technology would later let humans essentially create their own oxygen but the lunar colonies helped set the precedent for future colonies, also creating biomes similar to Earth tended to be theraputic for those living in space and became the norm. The Lunar Colony has very close ties to Earth being its closest space colony neighbor. Most Lunars consider themselves the same as earthers and generally their policies completely coincide with Earth's. The Lunar Colony has a lot of mining operations, after excavating meteor impact sites it was discovered that both the meteors and the moon had a plethora of rich minerals and metals that could be mined and put to constructive use. While not as important as its humble beginnings, the Lunar Colonies still are large areas of ship and more recently, Mecha construction. Space Colonies: Humanity has many space colonies but you will find them always next to somewhere of note, such as an asteroid belt, plantoids unsuitable for habitation, gas clouds, and so on. The only real exceptions to these rules are 'halfway' colonies that keep in sync with certain planet orbits as stopping points for convoys and to provide protection. 'Halfway' colonies of course are rarely ever 'halfway' between two planets and so they receive more or less space traffic depending on where planets are in their orbits. Space colonies usually have significant research and mining operations, though of course this depends on location. Mars Colony: Humanity's first real terraforming project was Mars. It took a while to accomplish but Mars was humanity's first success at terraforming a planet to be able to support human life. Of course the environment is very different from Earth but thanks to advanced terraforming techniques and technology, Mars is a planet that humans can live on and even enjoy a limited variety of plant and animal life. The Mars colony is proud to be the pioneers of space colonization and planet terraforming. Martians tend to have maybe a little too much pioneer spirit, according to other colonies. Because of this pioneer spirit Martians tend to be quite independent thinking and tend to get angry when others tell them what to do, they especially clash with earthers who like to tell others what they should do. Mars has an extensive expedition fleet, an extension of their frontiersman spirit, which roams the solar system to discover new plantoids, meteors, anything of interest basically. Explorers to the core, Mars has a steady outflux of people leaving for the depths of space. Many enterprises and corporations operate from Mars, making the planet quite a space hub for commerce. Martians are known for taking risks, traveling abroad, and ignoring demands from others. Venus Colony: Venus may be a sister planet to Earth but as the hottest planet has been extremely resilient to terraforming projects. Manmade biospheres were needed in order to settle the desert world; however, thanks to the extremely high rates of carbon dioxide Venus has been crafted into a 'greenhouse' world. Venusians are likely to be born with 'green thumbs' as much of the population has a close relationship with plant life which is essential to the Venus colony. Plants grow huge, fruits and vegetables are highly nutritious, which has created a huge market for their products which are shipped throughout the solar system. Once humanity seriously started colonies in outer space and other planets food became a major issue as it is rather difficult to start farms off of Earth. Once humanity figured how to more efficiently 'farm' water they were able to start farming projects off of Earth with varying degrees of success. Once the Venus farms rocketed off it really helped to alleviate the burden off of Earth to provide all the foodstuff needs for other colonies that had yet to get to a level where they could feed themselves. Being the largest supplier of foodstuffs after Earth, Venus is constantly sending out supply ships loaded with foods around the Solar System. Because Venus sends so much food off world a market for caravan 'guards' sprang up rather quickly in order to protect all the shipments. Many private security firms were created to provide services for the vast amount of ships streaming from Venus's surface. Venus is an agricultural marvel and is very business and nature oriented. Venusians tend not to be bothered too much by politics and instead worry more about trade and profits. Mercury Colony: Mercury is a very unique colony for several reason: The planet is the closest to the sun and has hardly any night/day patterns. Also the planet has extreme temperature differentials meaning the colony had to be special to survive. The one planet colony is moveable, in order to live in the 'twilight zone' on the planet to prevent huge changes in temperature. Needless to say a moveable permanent colony makes living on Mercury quite unique. Mercury is a place where many experiments take place for a few reasons: It is easy to choose a night or day environment depending on the situation, you can shoot whatever you don't need into the sun, and generally not too many people live on Mercury. Mercury has become rather a testing ground for experimentation. Also the surface has been bombarded my asteroids in the past and therefore has a large mining operation as well. Mercurians tend to be survialistic and sometimes isolationist. Every so often a scientific breakthrough comes from the Mercury Colony. Jupiter Colony: As Jupiter is a Gas Giant it is impossible to have an inhabitable colony on the 'surface' so instead the colony is basically a network of space stations in orbit. Jupiter's gases and extreme mass have been used extensively in the creation of advanced weaponry. The extreme environment has helped give rise to several techniques usable by metalworkers and others to craft some of the most powerful ships and weapons seen in the solar system. Special mechs and other devices made by Jupiter industries are highly prized. Character Skeleton Name: Age: Gender: Appearance: (No real photos please) Place of Birth: (Earth, Colonies, or even a Ship) Bio: Talents/Skills: Anything else of interest: Mecha Sheet Mecha Name: Appearance: Armaments: Special Equipment: Mecha Specs: (On a scale of A[strong]-D[weak]. Eventually there will be S-class Mecha specs but not at the start. Go for a balance or else choose which specs to focus on.) Long Range Combat Medium Range Combat Close Range Combat Armor Speed Agility Strength Shielding (Can be N/A, also does not have to be traditional 'energy' shielding. Few Mecha at the start will have shielding to begin with.) Mecha Quirks: (Things of interest, maybe a personal touch or two, things like that) Accepted Character List Reb Manning Rodrigo "Rock" Zedler Marsha Wells James "Paladin" Rockefeller "Count" Ceres Cordrinal Daniel "Noize" Bhane

I'm really sorry to do this after posting my interest, but I don't think I'll be able to play in this. I've got exams coming up and my parents are kinda forcing me into uber-study mode. They've pretty heavily limited when I can access the internet, and I don't think I'll be able to keep up with games. Again, I'm sorry; I was looking forward to this.

Sorry to hear but I completely understand. I have decided to make the first IC post at this time so the roleplay is now officially open!

Posted, lets get cracking.

Apollo I would have preferred you posted in the OOC before going right for the Character Sheet thread; however you did put effort into the sheet so I'll let it slide. Welcome.

Sorry about that, I'll post soon.

Ah, this looks really interesting. Mind if I crank out a CS later?

Ooooh! A Mecha Anime! I have a few plans ready! Mind if I hop in?

If you want to join I'll be happy to looks over your character sheets. Just because you make one doesn't necessary mean I'll let you in but I'm still open at the moment.

Giving some time for the "new blood" to make introductions :D I thoroughly enjoy us picking some pace.

I am certainly interested. Drafting a CS now!