I figure a decent comparison would just be like a Gundam vs a grunt mobile suit. In a straight matchup the AUG armor outfights the MA 90% of the time, skill probably comes into account, and some rarer jumbo MA might be trouble, but generally they must rely on numbers or tactics to overcome an AUG team.

Something like CATAPHRACT would probably have to be sort of a special attachment you can bring rather then something your AUG is constantly equipped with and would need some serious drawbacks to keep it from being too overwhelming to work with as a GM.

EDIT: Finished

Silas "Script" Citner [+]

Name:

Silas Citner

Callsign:

Script

Age:

17

Gender:

Male

Appearance:

Silas is scrawny and slightly tall, standing at around 5' 11" and weighing around 130 lbs. His build is somewhat lithe, and he tends to slouch his shoulders from a lifetime of bad posture and cramming himself into the small habitation module of his AUG to hide away and code.

Personality:

Silas has practically grown up in EINHERJAR, and it definitely shows in his personality. Being on the younger end and relatively new to mercenary business, Silas is used to interacting with mercenaries much older than himself constantly. He knows how to push the buttons of his "elders" without taking it too far, often falling into playful banter with those capable of taking a joke. With those less interested in wisecracking, Silas probes for stories and tips on a mercenary's lifestyle. Anyone stuck with Silas for more than a few minutes can see the immature arrogance of a child who has never truly had his life on the line. He is a little brash and headstrong, perceiving himself as a genius and invincible in a way teenagers only can. Despite his young age and reckless demeanor, Silas has a strong aversion to sex, drugs, and liquor: most likely a desire to remain fully aware and in control as much as he can. Silas hates surprises.

That isn't to say Silas is dumb by any stretch of the imagination. He is, in some ways, every bit of a genius as he believes himself to be. He's capable of making split second calculations in his head faster than anyone else could type them in a calculator. In his simulations, he's found that he prefers to fill in more of a support role for a squad. He works best when he can see the full picture of what's going on. He knows the limits of his AUG from a technical standpoint like the back of his hand, given he has practically lived in the shadow of it his entire life. However, he doesn't quite know what to do with his skills and genius. Given he's spent most of his life at EINHERJAR HQ, he hasn't really thought of doing anything other than fight alongside the people he's grown up around. However, it's unclear how Silas will react to the actual dangers of live combat.

Silas is somewhat politically agnostic... or, more accurately, doesn't understand or care for the political climate revolving around the LTS and the UEC. As far as he's concerned, both were responsible for the death of his father. The only trust he has he places in those around him, and who have his back if shit goes down. EINHERJAR is as close to a family as Silas has left, as far as he's concerned.

Skills:

• Software Technician Prodigy: One of the resident AUG OS technicians within EINHERJAR, Silas grew up helping his mother code and reprogram various AUGs over the years. Silas knows how these systems work better than he knows his own body. He spends a lot of time building in new security patches and small optimizations for his AUG and his fellow teammates, trying to remove any latency or responsiveness issues that result from software bugs. He has a more limited understanding of electrical engineering by association, and can aid with rewiring and fixing electrical issues when AUGs get damaged.
• Martial Arts training: Having spent most of his life in some way attached to EINHERJAR following the end of the war, Silas took a particular interest in CQB training that emphasizes quick movements and using an opponent's weight and movement against them.
• Sidearm Training: Another byproduct of a life spent loosely associated with a mercenary company, Silas is often dragged to a firing range several times a week in the past couple years to train with a standard issue kinetic sidearm. He isn't a particularly great shot, but he is passable.
• Electronic Musician: The only passion and joy Silas has outside of his newfound responsibility as a mercenary in EINHERJAR, Silas enjoys developing electronic music and beats on the side for his own enjoyment. He has installed some music equipment into his AUG to pass the time on longer deployments, and to flood enemy comms with "beautiful music" before they meet a timely end.

Brief History:

Silas was born into a war he never really got to see or understand. One that his parents, the founders of Endo-Citner Industries, chose to fight in a factory rather than on the front lines. Yerezan IV was roughly along the border of UEC and LTS space, but was relatively shielded from anything more than the briefest of incursions. Silas doesn't remember much of his time in those days, often nestled in a cradle in between racks of servers as his mother was busy building a new operating system from scratch. As Silas grew older, and production truly began on the few AUGs Endo-Citner produced, Silas spent his days being chased around hunks of decommissioned Mobile Armors by whatever foreman was working that day. Silas doesn't remember much of his father, the late and great Thomas Citner. He vaguely remembers his big mustache that he used to twirl the end of nervously when he was busy designing. The last memory he had of his father was when a rescue team was scraping what was left of his shredded corpse from an AUG near the end of the war, after the UEC had finally set its sights on Yerezan IV in one last desperate push into LTS space.

In the final month of the war, Yerezan IV was a pretty easy target. The planet was mostly agrarian, other than the single small Endo-Citner factory that employed a couple dozen engineers. It's no surprise, then, that the UEC didn't even bother to deploy any AUGs when they came for the factory. Worried for his family's safety, Thomas Citner hopped into one of the only two AUGs ready for deployment, the E-404-N2 HAMMER. A slightly faster and more melee-oriented cousin of the E-404-N1 JAMMER, the HAMMER was perhaps the less suitable of the two... unfortunately, the HAMMER was the only one fueled and scheduled for a test flight that day. Thomas Citner went toe to toe with a small battalion of Mobile Armors, doing his best to fend off the enemy until LTS reinforcements could arrive. For a civilian, Thomas Citner fought bravely and valiantly. Unfortunately, shell after shell from the mobile armors inevitably wore him down and tore the man to shreds. He had bought his family, and their factory, time. Time that the LTS used to quickly swoop in and push back the UEC.

In the aftermath, Silas and his mother were somewhat adrift. With the war over, Yuri Endo had lost everything chasing the dreams of freedom and independence with her late husband. The business officially went under once the war ended, the last remaining AUG being the E-404-N1 "Jammer" that was never picked up or paid off by the LTS. The factory began to fall into disrepair as Yuri let all the staff go, and the two remained rather isolated in these days. Within a year of the end of the war, Yuri and Silas had made contact with EINHERJAR, where Yuri offered the mercenary company her services as a software technician and electrical engineer. The two disembarked with the only AUG they had left, and made for Bifrost.

Silas has since grown up in EINHERJAR, exclusively sticking to the base. Yuri was somewhat well known in the company, having developed security patches and improvements to the OS software of various AUGs in the company. Silas often stuck to his mother's side, proving himself to be similarly adept as an apprentice software technician as he grew older. He loved hearing the stories of the various mercenaries he saw pass through, and was always glad when one of them took the time to take him out shooting, exercising, or repairing their AUGs. During his down time, Silas scrounged up some old sound-boards and mixers that he hooked up to the JAMMER to make his own little electronic music recording booth. As Silas grew older, he began working on a project of his own: an AUG simulation program. Given his mother's protestations of him ever piloting the JAMMER until he was at least 18, Silas developed his own custom simulation program he could install in the JAMMER when he was 15 so he could start getting training in. He would tune his simulation to match some of the stories he heard from his fellow mercenaries, trying to live out some of their history as if he was there fighting alongside them or in their place.

Yuri Endo passed away within the last few months due to medical complications. Silas Citner, now age 17, has chosen to make his own way forward as the pilot of the JAMMER.

EC-404-N1 "JAMMER" [+]

AUG Name:

EC-404-N1 "JAMMER"

AUG Appearance:

JAMMER's outward appearance betrays the sheer complexity and poor design philosophy of Endo-Citner Industries' E-404 line of AUGs. It is large and bulky, standing around 23 meters with it's back-mounted sensor array package. While any insignias or markings correlating the AUG to its initial service deployment with the LTS, JAMMER's militaristic and forest-camo color pattern are indicative that it was meant for military service... though its mostly pristine condition indicates it has rarely seen combat.

Armaments:

• Variable-Munition "AUG-Buster" Rifle: Yet another "brilliant" design choice by the team at the short-lived Endo-Citner Industries, the Aug-Buster Rifle was designed to fire two different calibers of standard ballistic ammunition: a bottom loaded 100mm armor-piercing shell for close-range engagements, and a magazine-fed 50mm incendiary-round that can be optimally fired semi-automatic or burst fire in medium to medium-long range engagements.
• 30mm autocannon: A shoulder-Mounted anti-personnel automatic machine gun, can be manually operated by pilot or an additional passenger in emergency situations. When JAMMER is fully operational, it can be simultaneously fired along with other weapon systems to provide additional medium-close range firing support.
• Electro-Magnetic Smoke and Standard Flares: Perhaps one of the only truly positive innovations of Endo-Citner Industries was a proprietary "smart-smoke" technology designed as both a defensive counter-measure and an offensive tool in close-combat situations. The electro-magnetic smoke disrupts nearby AUG or Mobile Armor sensor suites and targeting systems (including, to a lesser extent, JAMMER's), while also obscuring anything caught in the cloud from typical thermal or magnetic imaging. In addition to these systems, JAMMER also hosts traditional flares to disrupt targeted missile systems.
• Electro-Magnetic Pulse AA: Staying in theme with JAMMER's emphasis on electronic interference, JAMMER boasts the ability to fire long to mid-range Anti-Air EMP rounds from small shoulder-mounted missile arrays. These EMP rounds are designed with a large radius, allowing for skilled deployment of this more traditionally anti-air weapon to disrupt the systems of ground-based Mobile Armors or AUGs. The downside to these munitions is the indiscriminate nature, rendering them useless at anything other than long-range deployment without careful planning.

Other Systems:

• Endo-Citner Advanced Communications Array: A strange addition to what one might consider a standard "tanky" AUG, the ECACA is a strong sensor suite (Long-Range Thermal and Magnetic Imaging) with complex RADAR and long-range radio and electronic communication technology. The ECACA is capable of quickly detecting and, with pilot help, decrypting enemy radio transmissions to a shocking extent. While less helpful near more populated urban environments due to "ambient electronic noise," a surprising amount of JAMMER's energy and Script's attention goes to keeping the ECACA operational and finely tuned. After all, patching into enemy communications poses a significant tactical advantage... as would "flooding" enemy airwaves with Script's latest tracks.
• Emergency Habitation Module: A strange addition to JAMMER, the Emergency Habitation Module is a versatile bulky unit that forms the "backpack" of JAMMER. The emergency Habitation Module is multi-purpose: It helps store externally extra fuel, food, scrap, and munitions. The bottom portion of the Emergency Habitation Module stores additional fuel cells which help power systems like the ECACA. The middle and top of the Emergency Habitation module are connected through a pressurized door and a ladder to the cockpit. In the event of an emergency or complete system failure, it allows for an alternate means by which to exit the AUG. However, it serves some additional purposes. It has built in jump-seats to carry up to three passengers comfortably. It stores some personal items, spare equipment, Script's personal weapons, a space suit, and a hammock. The Emergency Habitation Module is also capable of serving as an emergency airlock.
• Thrusters: Not particularly powerful or special, but JAMMER does boast the placement of arm and leg mounted thrusters to aid in zero/low gravity maneuverability. These can be used in small bursts in traditional gravity environments to assist in small bursts of speed, though these are severely limited by the incredible bulk of the EC-404-N1. They are not mounted in such a way (and are not nearly strong enough) to provide any semblance of flight, though can help provide a "boosted jump" to aid in the traversal of uneven terrain.

Specifications:

The EC-404-N1 "JAMMER" was one of the final nails in the coffin of Endo-Citner Industries. The husband and wife "super-team" of Yuri Endo and Thomas Citner, who were noted developers of AUG OS software and multi-purpose Mobile Armor units respectively, were believed to be geniuses capable of bringing a swift end to the War by developing powerful and versatile new AUGs to LTS. Of course, what they actually made were the EC-404 line. JAMMER is perhaps the best indication of a confused design philosophy: It boasted the impressive sensor and communication suite of a scouter-AUG or mobile armor, the long-range AA of an artillery AUG or mobile armor, the anti-personnel cannon of a mobile armor, thrusters meant for a much smaller AUG to maneuver with great speed... to put it simply, JAMMER feels like a kitchen-sink AUG that lacks the ability to function on its own effectively. It is bulky, heavily armored, slow, and full of weirdly specific armaments and systems that guaranteed it never saw actual deployment in the war.

the bifrost natives

Tallow identifies their alignment as chaotic chaotic

Hey, going to have to delay this a bit, I've not been feeling very well and I just don't feel up to posting an adequate OP tonight. Sorry! It'll probably go up in the next two days.

Hey, going to have to delay this a bit, I've not been feeling very well and I just don't feel up to posting an adequate OP tonight. Sorry! It'll probably go up in the next two days.

EDIT: Finished

Silas "Script" Citner [+]

Name:

Silas Citner

Callsign:

Script

Age:

17

Gender:

Male

Appearance:

Silas is scrawny and slightly tall, standing at around 5' 11" and weighing around 130 lbs. His build is somewhat lithe, and he tends to slouch his shoulders from a lifetime of bad posture and cramming himself into the small habitation module of his AUG to hide away and code.

Personality:

Silas has practically grown up in EINHERJAR, and it definitely shows in his personality. Being on the younger end and relatively new to mercenary business, Silas is used to interacting with mercenaries much older than himself constantly. He knows how to push the buttons of his "elders" without taking it too far, often falling into playful banter with those capable of taking a joke. With those less interested in wisecracking, Silas probes for stories and tips on a mercenary's lifestyle. Anyone stuck with Silas for more than a few minutes can see the immature arrogance of a child who has never truly had his life on the line. He is a little brash and headstrong, perceiving himself as a genius and invincible in a way teenagers only can. Despite his young age and reckless demeanor, Silas has a strong aversion to sex, drugs, and liquor: most likely a desire to remain fully aware and in control as much as he can. Silas hates surprises.

That isn't to say Silas is dumb by any stretch of the imagination. He is, in some ways, every bit of a genius as he believes himself to be. He's capable of making split second calculations in his head faster than anyone else could type them in a calculator. In his simulations, he's found that he prefers to fill in more of a support role for a squad. He works best when he can see the full picture of what's going on. He knows the limits of his AUG from a technical standpoint like the back of his hand, given he has practically lived in the shadow of it his entire life. However, he doesn't quite know what to do with his skills and genius. Given he's spent most of his life at EINHERJAR HQ, he hasn't really thought of doing anything other than fight alongside the people he's grown up around. However, it's unclear how Silas will react to the actual dangers of live combat.

Silas is somewhat politically agnostic... or, more accurately, doesn't understand or care for the political climate revolving around the LTS and the UEC. As far as he's concerned, both were responsible for the death of his father. The only trust he has he places in those around him, and who have his back if shit goes down. EINHERJAR is as close to a family as Silas has left, as far as he's concerned.

Skills:

• Software Technician Prodigy: One of the resident AUG OS technicians within EINHERJAR, Silas grew up helping his mother code and reprogram various AUGs over the years. Silas knows how these systems work better than he knows his own body. He spends a lot of time building in new security patches and small optimizations for his AUG and his fellow teammates, trying to remove any latency or responsiveness issues that result from software bugs. He has a more limited understanding of electrical engineering by association, and can aid with rewiring and fixing electrical issues when AUGs get damaged.
• Martial Arts training: Having spent most of his life in some way attached to EINHERJAR following the end of the war, Silas took a particular interest in CQB training that emphasizes quick movements and using an opponent's weight and movement against them.
• Sidearm Training: Another byproduct of a life spent loosely associated with a mercenary company, Silas is often dragged to a firing range several times a week in the past couple years to train with a standard issue kinetic sidearm. He isn't a particularly great shot, but he is passable.
• Electronic Musician: The only passion and joy Silas has outside of his newfound responsibility as a mercenary in EINHERJAR, Silas enjoys developing electronic music and beats on the side for his own enjoyment. He has installed some music equipment into his AUG to pass the time on longer deployments, and to flood enemy comms with "beautiful music" before they meet a timely end.

Brief History:

Silas was born into a war he never really got to see or understand. One that his parents, the founders of Endo-Citner Industries, chose to fight in a factory rather than on the front lines. Yerezan IV was roughly along the border of UEC and LTS space, but was relatively shielded from anything more than the briefest of incursions. Silas doesn't remember much of his time in those days, often nestled in a cradle in between racks of servers as his mother was busy building a new operating system from scratch. As Silas grew older, and production truly began on the few AUGs Endo-Citner produced, Silas spent his days being chased around hunks of decommissioned Mobile Armors by whatever foreman was working that day. Silas doesn't remember much of his father, the late and great Thomas Citner. He vaguely remembers his big mustache that he used to twirl the end of nervously when he was busy designing. The last memory he had of his father was when a rescue team was scraping what was left of his shredded corpse from an AUG near the end of the war, after the UEC had finally set its sights on Yerezan IV in one last desperate push into LTS space.

In the final month of the war, Yerezan IV was a pretty easy target. The planet was mostly agrarian, other than the single small Endo-Citner factory that employed a couple dozen engineers. It's no surprise, then, that the UEC didn't even bother to deploy any AUGs when they came for the factory. Worried for his family's safety, Thomas Citner hopped into one of the only two AUGs ready for deployment, the E-404-N2 HAMMER. A slightly faster and more melee-oriented cousin of the E-404-N1 JAMMER, the HAMMER was perhaps the less suitable of the two... unfortunately, the HAMMER was the only one fueled and scheduled for a test flight that day. Thomas Citner went toe to toe with a small battalion of Mobile Armors, doing his best to fend off the enemy until LTS reinforcements could arrive. For a civilian, Thomas Citner fought bravely and valiantly. Unfortunately, shell after shell from the mobile armors inevitably wore him down and tore the man to shreds. He had bought his family, and their factory, time. Time that the LTS used to quickly swoop in and push back the UEC.

In the aftermath, Silas and his mother were somewhat adrift. With the war over, Yuri Endo had lost everything chasing the dreams of freedom and independence with her late husband. The business officially went under once the war ended, the last remaining AUG being the E-404-N1 "Jammer" that was never picked up or paid off by the LTS. The factory began to fall into disrepair as Yuri let all the staff go, and the two remained rather isolated in these days. Within a year of the end of the war, Yuri and Silas had made contact with EINHERJAR, where Yuri offered the mercenary company her services as a software technician and electrical engineer. The two disembarked with the only AUG they had left, and made for Bifrost.

Silas has since grown up in EINHERJAR, exclusively sticking to the base. Yuri was somewhat well known in the company, having developed security patches and improvements to the OS software of various AUGs in the company. Silas often stuck to his mother's side, proving himself to be similarly adept as an apprentice software technician as he grew older. He loved hearing the stories of the various mercenaries he saw pass through, and was always glad when one of them took the time to take him out shooting, exercising, or repairing their AUGs. During his down time, Silas scrounged up some old sound-boards and mixers that he hooked up to the JAMMER to make his own little electronic music recording booth. As Silas grew older, he began working on a project of his own: an AUG simulation program. Given his mother's protestations of him ever piloting the JAMMER until he was at least 18, Silas developed his own custom simulation program he could install in the JAMMER when he was 15 so he could start getting training in. He would tune his simulation to match some of the stories he heard from his fellow mercenaries, trying to live out some of their history as if he was there fighting alongside them or in their place.

Yuri Endo passed away within the last few months due to medical complications. Silas Citner, now age 17, has chosen to make his own way forward as the pilot of the JAMMER.

EC-404-N1 "JAMMER" [+]

AUG Name:

EC-404-N1 "JAMMER"

AUG Appearance:

JAMMER's outward appearance betrays the sheer complexity and poor design philosophy of Endo-Citner Industries' E-404 line of AUGs. It is large and bulky, standing around 23 meters with it's back-mounted sensor array package. While any insignias or markings correlating the AUG to its initial service deployment with the LTS, JAMMER's militaristic and forest-camo color pattern are indicative that it was meant for military service... though its mostly pristine condition indicates it has rarely seen combat.

Armaments:

• Variable-Munition "AUG-Buster" Rifle: Yet another "brilliant" design choice by the team at the short-lived Endo-Citner Industries, the Aug-Buster Rifle was designed to fire two different calibers of standard ballistic ammunition: a bottom loaded 100mm armor-piercing shell for close-range engagements, and a magazine-fed 50mm incendiary-round that can be optimally fired semi-automatic or burst fire in medium to medium-long range engagements.
• 30mm autocannon: A shoulder-Mounted anti-personnel automatic machine gun, can be manually operated by pilot or an additional passenger in emergency situations. When JAMMER is fully operational, it can be simultaneously fired along with other weapon systems to provide additional medium-close range firing support.
• Electro-Magnetic Smoke and Standard Flares: Perhaps one of the only truly positive innovations of Endo-Citner Industries was a proprietary "smart-smoke" technology designed as both a defensive counter-measure and an offensive tool in close-combat situations. The electro-magnetic smoke disrupts nearby AUG or Mobile Armor sensor suites and targeting systems (including, to a lesser extent, JAMMER's), while also obscuring anything caught in the cloud from typical thermal or magnetic imaging. In addition to these systems, JAMMER also hosts traditional flares to disrupt targeted missile systems.
• Electro-Magnetic Pulse AA: Staying in theme with JAMMER's emphasis on electronic interference, JAMMER boasts the ability to fire long to mid-range Anti-Air EMP rounds from small shoulder-mounted missile arrays. These EMP rounds are designed with a large radius, allowing for skilled deployment of this more traditionally anti-air weapon to disrupt the systems of ground-based Mobile Armors or AUGs. The downside to these munitions is the indiscriminate nature, rendering them useless at anything other than long-range deployment without careful planning.

Other Systems:

• Endo-Citner Advanced Communications Array: A strange addition to what one might consider a standard "tanky" AUG, the ECACA is a strong sensor suite (Long-Range Thermal and Magnetic Imaging) with complex RADAR and long-range radio and electronic communication technology. The ECACA is capable of quickly detecting and, with pilot help, decrypting enemy radio transmissions to a shocking extent. While less helpful near more populated urban environments due to "ambient electronic noise," a surprising amount of JAMMER's energy and Script's attention goes to keeping the ECACA operational and finely tuned. After all, patching into enemy communications poses a significant tactical advantage... as would "flooding" enemy airwaves with Script's latest tracks.
• Emergency Habitation Module: A strange addition to JAMMER, the Emergency Habitation Module is a versatile bulky unit that forms the "backpack" of JAMMER. The emergency Habitation Module is multi-purpose: It helps store externally extra fuel, food, scrap, and munitions. The bottom portion of the Emergency Habitation Module stores additional fuel cells which help power systems like the ECACA. The middle and top of the Emergency Habitation module are connected through a pressurized door and a ladder to the cockpit. In the event of an emergency or complete system failure, it allows for an alternate means by which to exit the AUG. However, it serves some additional purposes. It has built in jump-seats to carry up to three passengers comfortably. It stores some personal items, spare equipment, Script's personal weapons, a space suit, and a hammock. The Emergency Habitation Module is also capable of serving as an emergency airlock.
• Thrusters: Not particularly powerful or special, but JAMMER does boast the placement of arm and leg mounted thrusters to aid in zero/low gravity maneuverability. These can be used in small bursts in traditional gravity environments to assist in small bursts of speed, though these are severely limited by the incredible bulk of the EC-404-N1. They are not mounted in such a way (and are not nearly strong enough) to provide any semblance of flight, though can help provide a "boosted jump" to aid in the traversal of uneven terrain.

Specifications:

The EC-404-N1 "JAMMER" was one of the final nails in the coffin of Endo-Citner Industries. The husband and wife "super-team" of Yuri Endo and Thomas Citner, who were noted developers of AUG OS software and multi-purpose Mobile Armor units respectively, were believed to be geniuses capable of bringing a swift end to the War by developing powerful and versatile new AUGs to LTS. Of course, what they actually made were the EC-404 line. JAMMER is perhaps the best indication of a confused design philosophy: It boasted the impressive sensor and communication suite of a scouter-AUG or mobile armor, the long-range AA of an artillery AUG or mobile armor, the anti-personnel cannon of a mobile armor, thrusters meant for a much smaller AUG to manuever with great speed... to put it simply, JAMMER feels like a kitchen-sink AUG that lacks the ability to function on its own effectively. It is bulky, heavily armored, slow, and full of weirdly specific armaments and systems that guaranteed it never saw actual deployment in the war.

Talk about fast moving, mecha and posts it would seem