Aces of the Void follows a starfighter squadron named 'Onyx Squadron', stationed aboard the escort frigate Wandering Star, the first and only ship of her class in the fleet, assigned as an attachment to main fleet duties and often tasked with unorthodox missions, and something of a home for the more... 'eclectic' members of the Resistance ranks.
Players in the RP will be taking on the role of pilot(s) in the Onyx Squadron, in the current in-game year of CE 2083 (Commonwealth Era 2083) piloting their own starfighters in missions against Imperial targets. During the course of their missions and the RP, they will begin to uncover a plot that will lead them from obscurity into the heart of the war itself, and to its' very climax, shaping the fate of the galaxy as it goes onward.

The game and its' world are inspired by science fiction featuring space fighters and fleet battles. Star Wars, Mass Effect, the Dominion War arc of Deep Space Nine, Macross, Stargate, Wing Commander and more besides.
This is a setting where high adventure, spectacle and excitement are the key. Some sense and semblance of realism has its' place, but not being weighed down or constrained by the adherence to realism and hard science. At the same time, this is not a 'space fantasy', with quasi-mystical powers and abilities, or bizarrely fantastical space-scapes or places that defy realism.

Player Characters are pilots in Onyx Squadron, a starfighter squadron of the Resistance, fighting to restore the freedom, peace and harmony of the Commonwealth against the evil of the Empire. As such, characters should be people who care about actually fighting the Empire, and have some dedication to the cause. They don't have to be ultra-nice, lacking in any kinds of flaws or negative qualities, but some kind of positive and upstanding quality would be likely, if they were to be accepted into the ranks in the first place, and more so if they are believably given a role and responsibility in operating a space fighter craft.

While technical accuracy is not needed, some acknowledgement and at least passing understanding or acknowledgement of how a military squadron or unit operates would be appreciated. Pilots - as the name suggests - fly their craft, and follow a chain of command. They do not repair and arm their own craft, and even in the case of a resistance unit - in this setting at least - they have some kind of flight experience and training as well, regardless of their original background.

While the game is 'casual' being able to write at least a decent paragraph with good spelling and grammar, and being able to actually be descriptive and get into the mind of your character and roleplay personal and character moments and situations is essential, as it won't all be constantly blowing up spaceships and shooting lasers, as that would get boring and very meaningless quite quickly.

While the Hegaran Empire has dominated Commonwealth space, the races and species that lived there still remain, many of them as free populations outside of their homeworld and territories.
The Empire is comprised solely of humans, and has a human supremacist attitude, believing in the inherent racial and biological superiority of humankind, and the purity of human genetics. However, humans exist outside of the Empire as well, and inhabit and occupy numerous other systems, along with many 'human adjacent' or 'human-related' species that have been created through centuries of genetic engineering, adaptation, and interbreeding.
The original homeworld and origin of the human species is lost to legend, and no-one knows where they came from any longer, nor which world they call 'home' as such, with populations of humans wide spread across known space as a whole.

Other important species are the Antherians, a collective, umbrella term for a wide array of animal-like, mammalian species that share a significant proportion of DNA with human species, as well as a general anatomical layout and physiological and psychological similarities. They also inhabit the same range of terrains and environments, and many of the same base animals are found in the same environments as humans, pointing to a shared history at some point in the distant past. However, the Antherians and the numerous sub-species thereof, have long since formed their own political and national entities and identities and are found across virtually every world in known space in all manner of roles and walks of life.

Hundreds of other species exist as well. The towering, physically powerful and warrior-like draconic Dranfel, amphibious Cetanui, and many, many more races. Some are - or were - part of the Commonwealth, and their worlds have been enslaved by the Empire. Others exist in the Free Systems Alliance, with their members joining the Resistance to fight against the injustice of the Empire.

As mentioned previously, the game and setting are heavily inspired by a lot of different sources. In terms of imagining what the setting is like to live in, it is a broad and varied place. The more heavily inhabited worlds at the core of Commonwealth - now Imperial - space, or those that are the 'capital' worlds of their regions of space and nations are heavily industrialised and urbanised, with massive cities full of towering buildings. Some are more utopian and beautiful, some more bustling and choked with people and buildings than others. Other worlds may be more frontier-like, or any combination of in-between.
The average person has access to a good level of education and information, and computers are an everyday part of life, with extensive network connections. People still work every kind of imaginable profession, and there are still things like crime, entertainment, chores, school, religion and all manner of other aspects of life that we would relate to. People still use money, in this case the universal 'credit', to pay for things.
Most people have their own personal mobile electronic devices, usually worn or carried on their person, with holographic displays being common, and these serve as many of the same functions as our everyday mobile devices, but with more capability and computing power in a smaller size.

Artificial Intelligences are common, though 'full sapience' AI with a full range of reasoning and emotion is extremely rare, and is outlawed within the Empire. Robots are common, though again; outside of those species that are part of the Commonwealth or known space that are synthetic life forms, there are no sapient robots.

Wheeled and tracked ground vehicles are the most common form of ground transportation, with rail being used frequently for mass transit or heavy cargo. Rotary wing (i.e. helicopters and ducted fan) vehicles are widely used in atmosphere for short-range transport, with powered spaceplanes being use for longer range. Boats of all kinds are still common for all manner of uses as well. And, of course, spacecraft of all sizes.

Medical technology includes 'fast-healing' medicines and medical devices that can rapidly heal most minor wounds or complaints in a matter of days or even hours, up to some simple broken bones. More serious wounds and injuries may require the use of specialist medications such as nanotechnological braces and casts that bond with the affected tissue and rebuild it over the course of longer term treatment. Cloned organs can be implanted in the case of serious wounding, and artificial cybernetic or bionic replacements can be used as well, though this is seen as comparatively crude, and those who utilise implants and cybernetics to replace their original bodies and enhance their abilities are seen as fringe or extreme, though it is often pursued by groups of mercenaries, bounty hunters, or those living in alternative, fringe lifestyles, such as criminal gangs or organizations, cults, religious sects, or other such groups.

Weapons technology is widely varied. Projectile weapons are still the most common personal scale weapons, though use caseless, hypervelocity smart rounds that react differently to different types of targets, fired from weapons that use complex computerised sighting systems, often tied in with the wearers' own electronic devices and equipment in a heads-up display. Personal explosives, such as grenades also use smart technologies for programmable effects as well, with anti-armour/vehicle weapons such as rockets utilising the technology even more so.
At vehicle scales, energy weapons start to become more practical due to increased power supplies and more stable mountings and housings, with laser and particle beam weapons primarily in use, along with some use of microwave weaponry for specialised roles in disabling electronics.
Explosive warheads and payloads often utilise plasma, but conventional explosives are also used, and thermobaric warheads are often utilised in atmosphere.
Melee weapons are still in use, though primarily as a backup to firearms. High vibration blades - often termed 'vibro blades' - are used both in combat and for utility purposes, and virtually every and any person on the frontlines will carry some kind of knife or blade.
Other exotic weapons are not unheard of, but are comparatively rare compared to the utility and convenience of conventional weaponry.
Weapons of Mass Destruction tend to come in the form of anti-matter weaponry, which has tremendous destructive power. However, the production of anti-matter takes a massive amount of energy and infrastructure, and as such is quite hard to do without being noticed, as is it's storage. As such, it is heavily regulated, and such weapons are rarely used. Planetary bombardment from orbiting forces is often carried out via the use of 'Kinetic Harpoons', non-explosive rods of Tungsten with a basic guidance package and a disposable engine that are launched in bundles of four from a Vertical Launch System missile tube and use nothing other than kinetic energy to cause area effect damage. With a VLS battery fully loaded with Kinetic Harpoons, a single warship can devastate an entire city. Larger ships or entire fleets can lay waste to continents with little in the way of fallout or lasting environmental damage.

Travel between star systems for a civilian or any everyday person is the equivalent of taking a luxury cruise in terms of price and time, and the facilities aboard the average interstellar passenger vessel. Passage can also be charted aboard other ships, such as freighters or other vessels, with the cost changing accordingly.
In Imperial space, travel is much more restricted, requiring extensive papers and subject to intensive questioning and limitations, and even more so if someone is anything other than human. Similarly, anyone who is non-human in the Empire is greatly restricted in their civil liberties and rights in everything from owning property, education, legal rights, freedom to vote, and access to services like healthcare, legal advice, housing, and other such things thought of as common and guaranteed parts of life.

Ship Name: Resistance Space Vessel (RSV) Wandering Star



Hull Number: LF-X01

Class: High Speed Light Frigate

Crew Complement:

• 120 Enlisted
• 80 Marines
• 80 Air Wing

Armament:

• 4 fixed forward heavy particle Lance
• 6 short-range defensive rotary autocannon
• 4 VLS missile battery with combination of anti-ship, anti-small craft, heavy attack, and kinetic planetary bombardment munitions and reconnaissance probes
• 5 anti-personnel machine-gun for defense while landed or docked

Defensive Systems:

• Carbon/Carbon aligned matrix Ablative hull armour
• Missile decoy launchers

Small Craft Complement:

• 6 Sparrowhawk Personnel/utility shuttles
• 4 Raptor Marine assault gunship
• 2 Condor Marine heavy landing ship
• 1 Stormcrow Medium utility shuttle
• Up to 8 tactical aerospace fighter craft

Notable Features:
The Wandering Star was originally intended to be the first in a new class of light, high-speed frigates designed for patrols of the frontier regions with neighbouring powers, or as a high-speed response to crises within Commonwealth borders. Lightly armed, but with powerful weapons and carrying a squadron of tactical fighters and her own small marine response force, the ships were designed to be 'first responders' for small incidents, and as a 'force multiplier' for traditional task forces.
The rise of the Empire and the subsequent capture of major fleet shipyards halted further development, with the Wandering Star the only completed ship of the class, and even it being in the middle of a shakedown cruise after its' first fitting out. The untested vessel quickly escaped occupied space, and has since been something of an anomaly among the resistance fleet, the only ship of its' class with no clear role.

Despite this, the ship is loved by her crew, and has a fond reputation by all who have served aboard her. Though small, she has comfortable crew accomodations with dual cabins for all crew other than officers (who have their own cabins), good crew rest facilities and messes, and modern interior fittings and fixtures.

The Wandering Star is, like most Commonwealth capital ships, capable of atmospheric entry and flight, and is also capable of landing on a planets' surface, or on a body of water and returning to space.

Please pick a fighter from one of the following for your character(s).
Hardpoints and/or missile racks can be loaded with a variety of ordnance, as listed separately below.
Combined Cycle engines are engines that function as jets in an atmosphere, ramjets at high altitude, and rocket engines - using fusion propulsion - in space. No, don't ask me how they work. Craft are assumed to carry 'enough' fuel for their sorties, unless dramatically appropriate to run out.
All craft are assumed to have appropriate seating and space to accomodate pilots of various different species, since the setting is one with multiple species to begin with.
All craft are capable of atmospheric flight and landing, as well as space flight, and of vertical takeoff and landing.
Sensor and targeting systems are assumed to be a combination of radar and other appropriate sensor systems appropriate to the setting and it's technological level. Targeting is also built in to pilots' helmets.

Weaponry and other Systems that can be loaded on hardpoints or in missile bays.
A missile rack may carry one missile per 'shot' on a rack. Types may be mixed in a rack.
Weapons or equipment marked 'H' can only be loaded on a hardpoint.
Weapons can be changed for missions, but not during a mission.

• Wasp Missile - a short-range missile used against other small spacecraft, three can be carried on a single hardpoint
• Hornet Medium Range missile - a medium-range missile used against other small spacecraft, two can be carried on a hardpoint
• 'Beehive' Multi-warhead missile - a long-range missile that ejects three smaller, very short-range smaller missiles that can then attack three individual targets for a smaller amount of damage or home in on a single large target to overwhelm its' defences. Usually used to break up formations or fired in barrages against multiple targets.
• Yellowjacket Anti-Radar missile - a missile that homes in on the emissions from radars, seeking out and destroying them to blind enemy sensors, used primarily against large ships, installations and structures, ineffective against small craft due to their lower powered radar.
• Vespid Long-Range missile - a long-range anti-spacecraft missile, used primarily against shuttles, gunships, bombers and other 'heavy' small craft
• Mantis Strike Missile - a medium-range missile with a plasma warhead designed for use against ground targets, structures, capital or surface ships or installations. They are too slow and lack maneuvrability to be used against fighters or small craft in flight.
• Scorpion Strike Missile - a medium-range ground-attack missile with a thermobaric warhead for use against ground targets, structures or installations in atmosphere, using the overpressure effects of a thermobaric warhead for massive damage.
• Tarantula Light Strike Missile - a short-range ground-attack missile that uses a blast-fragmentation warhead to cause area damage to soft targets, such as light vehicles and structures or personnel. It is not especially accurate, but is useful for close air-support, especially for less flexible fighters with missile racks instead of hardpoints.
• Anti-Ship missile (H) - A heavy anti-capital ship missile that uses a powerful plasma warhead, only one can be carried per hardpoint
• Cruise Missile (H) - A long-range missile that is primarily used in atmosphere against fixed structures, landed ships, or surface ships. Capable of mounting a plasma or thermbaric warhead as needed.
• Bombs (H) - bombs are unpowered weapons, utilising high explosives, plasma or thermbaric warheads. They can be guided - such as with lasers, either by the craft dropping them or friendly forces - or unguided, and their blast area can damage multiple targets. As they are unpowered, they rely on gravity, and are only usable in planetary gravity wells. Bombs can be carried up to three on a hardpoint.
• Cluster Bombs (H) - a variation on the above weapon that uses multiple smaller warheads that spread during the bombs' descent to cover a wider area, but cause much lower damage individually
• Heavy Bombs (H) - large bombs that are the same functionally as those above, but cause more raw destruction, often used for higher value single targets, and only carried one per hardpoint.
• ECM (Electronic Countermeasures) Jamming Pod (H) - a system of powerful trasmitting and receiving equipment specifically intended to jam and distort communications, data transmissions and other types of signals. The effects can be focused to a single target for intense effect, or a more broad-based and 'passive' form of disruption, which is somewhat easier to counter. The downside being that the jammer itself becomes a target, due to the easily tracked signals.
• ECM Blinder Pod (H) - Similar to the Jamming pod, but specifically designed with the intention of disrupting targeting, navigation, and other types of sensor systems through the use of a variety of means. Able to be used 'offensively' and target a single source, or 'defensively' over an area with a reduced effect. Similarly, it can highlight the jammer themselves as a target.
• ECCM Pod (H) - a Counter-Countermeasures pod that comprises several specifically developed and constructed powerful transmitters, receivers, and associated equipment to 'burn through' and neutralise hostile jamming, purely a defensive system.
• Reconnaissance Pod (H) - a streamlined pod containing high-resolution, high-speed camera equipment in both visual and infra-red spectrums, along with ultra high-resolution LIDAR, used to gather information about targets, areas, and otherwise gather precise information.
• Recon Probe - a self-contained probe approximately the size of a missile, but with a payload of short-range, high-resolution cameras, IR cameras and sensors and electronic listening/recording equipment and powerful transmitters. Designed to be fired into hostile space to gather information on a specific target or area, and then transmit that information to friendly forces before it is destroyed or self-destructs.
• 'Noisemaker' missile - a disposable jammer, fired from a conventional tube or rack; it replaces a warhead with a series of broad-based jammers, designed to cause generalised disruption to sensor and communications systems, either to cause general breakdown of communications or mask friendly forces or missiles incoming.

Ranks aren't as important, considering it's a Resistance operation, but will be handed out once we have a few characters and things get started. Characters must be pilots in Onyx Squadron. Non-pilot characters are not within the scope of this game.
Your character will have a standard pilot suit, a sidearm, and three magazines, and a survival kit which has a rifle, with four magazines, a survival knife, an emergency medical kit, a portable shelter (i.e. a small, one-person fully-enclosing cover that's essentially a sleeping back with a bit of storage space) an emergency communicator, spare power cells, signal flares, water purification kit and 1 week of survival rations. This is stored in the escape module of the ship, which itself has several days-worth of life-supprt, a rescue beacon, and is capable of surviving re-entry and landing via a parachute. On their person, they will probably have the survival knife, sidearm, ammo, a couple of flares, and other sundry items.
When not piloting, the Resistance isn't overly picky about uniforms, but the go-to is 'practical and useful', and everyone will find somewhere on their uniform for the Resistance emblem.

If you wish to invent a species/race for your character, feel free, and to give them a background. Just make sure it's not a) hugely edgy; no demon/angel/vampire rubbish, and no super-powered omni-god nonsense, or b) something completely out there and weird; try and keep them at least relatably understandable in terms of their culture or society and biology; no starfish aliens or Nth-dimensional entities. And likewise, don't make their society hugely over-advanced or sophisticated, as it seems unlikely they'd feel threatened by the Empire otherwise, or care about the Commonwealth.

• Name: The name of your character
• Nickname: Also known as a 'callsign' a name they have earned or been given during their career as a pilot.
• Age: How old they are. Note, they must be conceivably old enough to have learned and had experience in life and piloting, to pilot and be trusted with a starfighter, and to be an adult; i.e. not a teenager. Also no gross 'they're 100 but look like they're 12' lolis.
• Sex/Gender: Male/Female/Other, whatever you choose or is appropriate to their race.
• Species: See notes above
• Appearance: Either an image you have found you'd like to use, or a verbal description, or a combination of both. Anime/cartoon-style, video game, or concept art is preferred over photo references. If you wish to use an NSFW reference pic - possibly because you can't find something else that suits - then please include a warning and link the image off-site.
• Height: How tall they are; can vary wildly dependent on their race and species, but bear in mind they must still be able to realistically fit in a starfighter cockpit and operate/interact with the world around them.
• Personal Qualities: A brief description of the characters' personality and demeanour; how they relate to others and see the world. Only a paragraph or two.
• Biography: A brief overview of their history or career until now; just a short mention of any major incidents or events in their life until now. Does not need to be extensive.
• Fighter: Which fighter you have chosen for your character to pilot from those listed.
• Fighter Customisations: Any personal customisations of the colour scheme or appearance of your characters' craft.

Name: Astrid Weiss

Callsign: Cataract

Age: 29

Gender: Female

Species: Human


Born: 13/01/CE 2054 - 29, Norden, Midgard

Personality: A cocky fighter pilot embittered by Midgard’s defeat in the eponymous war and the subsequent loss of her nation’s independence, Astrid nevertheless remains a stout - and loud - patriot. Shaped by the fighter pilot culture, she sees her fellow pilots as a caste above others in the spirit of the usual interservice rivalry, something that usually shines through when she runs out of patience with someone. That being said, she is aware that ground forces are and always will be the be-all end-all of armed conflict, though she’d rather chew off her other arm than admit this within a grunt’s earshot.

As with many of the ex Midgard Aerospace Corps pilots who joined the Resistance, she is more motivated by hitting the Empire rather than fighting for the Resistance itself, seeing it as a convenient means to their liberation. With some experience as a wing leader fighting an enemy that outnumbers her, she’d grown used to the necessity to fight smart and conserve resources, leading to her being protective of inexperienced pilots.

Bio: Born to an Aerospace Corps officer and a historian, there was little doubt of where Astrid’s path would lead. Names of superheroes and fairy tale characters meant nothing to her. Her childhood heroes were the likes of Yi Sun-sin and Franz Stigler. It was a parable based on the latter’s tale (and her father’s stylish uniform) that first paved the way to museums and airshows since 4, a nearby general aviation field for ultralight pilot’s license at 15, a private pilot’s license at 17 and finally enlisting and making the cut to the Aerospace Corps Academy at 18.

By any metric, she was an average student in the classroom, but she led the class whenever she was in the flight seat. The number of times she’s been shouted up for running her mouth and other small transgressions was likewise impressive. Her scores were enough to keep that from being a significant problem, and in CE 2073, she graduated into active service. But peacetime was boring to the newly-minted Leutnant, so she took every extra course she could. Fighter Weapons School? Why not? Transorbital flight? Of course. Advanced weapons qualification? Hell yes! And then the big chance came. With the appearance of not-quite aliens making laughable demands and being serious about them, the Aerospace Corps increased the production of their newest multirole fighter and thus opened up more positions for pilots. Rather than putting new pilots into these cutting-edge fighters, experienced pilots could apply for a transfer. Astrid was an experienced pilot, and most definitely interested. Not only did she upgrade to a better fighter, but with her recent promotion to Hauptmann, she was assigned to the position of a flight leader. A month after the ‘Second Contact’, her transition was complete with a few months of peace time left to gain experience on this particular type and synergize with her new wingmates.

And that experience would come in handy, as in CE 2082, her wing was chosen to be among those taking part in the initial strike against Imperial targets in the Yggdrasil system. The target of Astrid’s flight was Alan Shepard, a carrier serving as the flagship of Imperial forces in the system. Flying Gungnir-class multirole fighters, the pride of Midgard fighter corps, Astrid was among the pilots responsible for the fighter doctrine used in what would become known as the Midgard War - approach fast and fight at close range where the Empire’s superior sensors and long-range weapons were of little use. Due to her less-than-stellar aim, she took this to the extreme, earning the callsign “Katarakt” as well as several early returns due to damage from debris falling off of her prey.

But all good things must come to an end, and in early CE 2083 she, too, found herself on the receiving end of no small amount of explosive ordnance. It wasn’t even a hostile fighter that brought her down, much to her chagrin. Instead, she got her wings clipped by some trench monkey with a tube on his shoulder. The gall. Injured by shrapnel, down one engine and losing systems left and right, Astrid realized she wouldn’t make it back to base. In its death throes, her fighter stayed aloft long enough to reach a city big enough to have a decent hospital and get her down safely. The landing was rough, more of a controlled crash, and earned Astrid some extra scars on both flesh and pride. Coming down on a beach next to a city proved prudent, as it got her medical care quickly, but that same city fell to Imperial troops mere hours later. The war outlasted her involvement by only four days.

Following the war’s end, the Midgard military had been disbanded and its former members forbidden from serving in the Empire’s armed forces. Discharged and thoroughly mad, she sought out ways to keep her in a flight seat, turning to the Resistance along with many others.

Fighter: Mithria Arsenal AS-96 Wildcat

Fighter Customization:

• Her name, callsign and a cloudy green eye painted on the left side of the canopy.
• Emblems of the Midgard Aerospace Corps 11th Fighter Squadron next to Resistance roundels.
• Matte black low-vis paint.
• Often writes insults on her missiles.