Our story follows the crew and passengers of the OSN Galahad's Glare, dispatched to a world on the edge of charted space. Colonists there stumbled upon an ancient device, and unknown lifeforms that died defending it.

A sudden and abrupt attack above the planet of Outremer preceded a swift and brutal invasion by an alien species previously unknown to humanity. Larger, stronger and wielding technological advancements far beyond our own. The ferocity of these invaders overwhelmed Outremer's defences in space, and has descended into planet-wide conflict with the ground forces.

Officially, Galahad's Glare was sent as part of a reinforcing fleet. Tasked with engaging the alien fleet in space, and delivering ground reinforcements. Unofficially, the primary objective is to secure the mysterious device, moving it to safety, and studying its true purpose.

This will not be easy. The vastly superior alien forces will stop at nothing to recover the device. What follows is a dramatic pursuit through the galaxy, leaving countless dead in its wake. What the team discover at sites across Human-controlled space will rewrite history going back hundreds of millennia, and change Humanity forever.

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Hi, @Ozymandias and I welcome you to The Fall of Outremer; a Sci-Fi story of epic proportions.

The year is 2612. After a breakthrough in FTL engine design in the mid 22nd century, the previously Sol-system bound colonisation program exploded out into the stars. Driven by mass over-population on Earth, an estimated 5.1 billion people flocked to colonise dozens of sites across Tau Ceti, Sirius A, Epsilon Eridani, the Centauri cluster and more in the first century. Another 3 billion in the century after that. At the time of this roleplay, Human-controlled space amounts to approximately 800 sites, spanning planets, moons, asteroids and other objects.

Outremer, where this story begins, is on the edge of human-controlled space. It was colonised forty years previously in 2582, before the colonist program changed direction, leaving it at the frontier. It's fairly well built up, with over a million inhabitants in its primary city. It isn't quite as advanced as the city in the picture above (that comes later ), but it has a thriving spaceport and mineral refinery which are generating a lot of wealth for the colony. Terraforming is well underway, and new forests have begun emerging across the world.

At least they were. Outremer knew it needed to prepare when a mining crew were forced to overpower a new species of alien protecting a strange device. On initial examination, the device appeared to contain ominous maps highlighted human colonies and fleet movements. The authorities alerted the Naval Intelligence Division, called on sister colonies to send help and began rallying the militia. But nothing could have prepared them for the shock and awe tactics of the hostile fleet that arrived. The diplomatic first contact protocol was swept aside and the aliens destroyed their fledgling space fleet in a matter of hours.

Now, landing parties are locked in bitter fighting with colonists as they struggle to protect evacuation zones. The alien device is being protected by military police at the downtown station which is dangerously close to being overrun. They can’t move it now, and the device has been classified a priority 1 asset by the Naval Intelligence Division.

That’s where we come in. Our primary objective is to secure the device and bring it aboard the Galahad. We must get it out of system for study, to figure out what’s is going on. You can play one of the crew or soldiers currently aboard the Galahad’s Glare, which is about to exit an FTL jump along with the rest of the reinforcing fleet. Or, you can play a civilian or one of the militia already on the ground. We all have our part to play.

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The Galahad’s Glare is a Fourth generation Mercia class destroyer in the Outer Systems Navy. It’s 480 metres long and has a crew of 250 sailors, a complement of 50 marines and a squad of Salients - elite augmented soldiers.

As with all Mercia class vessels, the Galahad’s Glare boasts a good mix of speed and offensive capabilities. This comes at a cost of reduced armour, which Mercians compensate for by operating in large ‘Wolfpack’ teams.

It’s primary duty is to escort larger ships, but it does carry two troop transports and a small number of ground vehicles in its single hangar bay.

With most of the ship taken up by armaments and auxiliary engines, crew space is tight. There are only basic kitchen and mess facilities, with two rec rooms and a gym shared by the whole crew.