The academy serves as the primary training area for pilots.

Rather than an application system, megacorps sponsor pilots to be trained. Thus, trainees are also political tools used by megacorps. Rather than training to reclaim the Earth or collect resources to sustain the colonies, trainees are closer to test pilots for megacorps to acquire military contracts for their experimental designs.

Usually, pilots are trained from 16 to 20. It's common for a trainee to be deployed in actual combat missions. Depending on one's performance, one is either shipped back home to never touch a Knight again, pilot one of the mass developed frames on constant missions to Earth or Mars, or, if they prove themselves, pilot a one-of-a-kind Knight and gain a powerful position in society.

Pilots are ranked from A to D based on their general prowess and their connections. While classes are shared, accommodations relate to current rankings. Ranking is changed based on duels between pilots and, if they participate, combat missions.

The academy uses naval uniforms as their standard dress. While requirements are lax outside of ceremonies and notable events, it is still expected that trainees wear their uniform without formal adornments like capes, epaulettes, badges, and overcoats. While many designs remain in spec for trainees, they are generally white with black accents. Fig 1. Fig 2. Most staff uniforms are which specific group they belong to, thus there is no uniform standard for instructors and support staff.

The colonies have been led by the military since man escaped to the stars. Known as the United Front, the government,

Society is highly stratified, exacerbated by the reliance of energy. Those residing in the moon bases are the rich and powerful: children of megacorp directors, scientists, and the military to name a few. Those who were born on the moon bases tend to regard the other colonies poorly. Life in the moon bases is fairly opulent.

Those of Mars are the average citizen. While there has been many independence movements, the threat of swift and disproportionate violence permeating the air cools any protest. While civil unrest is low due to tolerable conditions, life on Mars is not easy. Constant labour is expected. Life in the colonies is fairly typical. Infrastructure, while not as advanced as the moon bases, allows for the average colonist to have a life similar to before the shards fell.

Those of the outer colonies have a rough life. Food is limited, mining conditions are dangerous, and help is 3 months away. For a citizen of the outer colonies, every action is a process thanks to their low-gravity conditions.

Earth
Once home to humanity, the planet has since fallen. Cities have been levelled by falling crystals and what remained crumbled from fights between Autonomous Knights. While rumours of survivors appear every so often, no proof of their existence has been found.

Moon Base Axial
Axial is the primary residence of humanity. While originally a science station, the moon base quickly became saturated with refugees from Earth. Thus, it developed into a residential base. As populations grew and habitat became scarce, the population was quickly shipped off to the developing mars colony. While on paper, the best and brightest would remain on the moon for science, it became apparent that those with power and connections remained.

Axial is designed as a series of interconnected domes. Pristine white buildings. Artificial plants line the streets and roadways to give splashes of colour to the otherwise minimalist designs.

Moon Base Binary
Binary is the military base responsible for all operations revolving around Earth and, in the event of uprising, against humanity's own colonies. It serves joint purpose as a military and research base.

Moon Base Comet
Comet is comprised of all of the moon's production facilities. Automated factories develop and maintain any technology that the moon bases require. This includes the creation and maintenance of Knights. Hydroponic labs grow food. While it lacks habitable space, it has enough room for the engineering staff to work and live inside of the base.

Moon Base Doppler
Doppler is the academy responsible for training pilots. Doppler is the smallest of the three moon bases. Unlike Axial, Doppler is comprised of various interconnected facilities. While faux plazas of fake grass and skies exist, they are large single rooms rather than habitat domes. The majority of the facility is purpose-built structures with halls connecting them.

Mars
The Mars colony is the largest colony under humanity. Rather than the specialization of the moon bases, the Mars colony is a metropolis home to two billion. While mostly self-reliant, the massive demand for energy can only be met by salvaged KR-engines that they can only acquire from the moon bases.

The Mars colony is only similar to Axial in that they use the same underlying dome to form a habitat. The dusty skies cast a pallid glow on the highly industrial colonies of mars. Buildings are large and dense with concrete as far as the eye can see.

Outer Colonies
The outer colonies are space stations between Mars and Jupiter. Their primary purpose is the collection of resources from asteroids. Life in the outer colonies is the hardest as there are barely any resources to sustain life. Thus, they are reliant on both Mars and the moon bases. The outer colonies consist of asteroid bases, space stations, and mining ships in transit.

It being the far future, technology has advanced to a decent degree.

Body augmentation and robotic prosthesis exist, but they tend to be be necessities rather than electives. An arm can be replaced, but it tends to not perform as well as a normal arm. Most of the research revolving around prosthesis has gone directly to pilots rather than other matters.

Space flight, while advanced, is not enough to escape the solar system. It takes half a month to fly from the Moon to Mars and 3 months to fly from Mars to the outer colonies. While colonization exists, terraforming does not. Nearly instantaneous travel is possible via KR-device, but it's highly limited. Think a shuttle specifically designed to use it, it having a range of sea-level to orbit, and only usable once per few days.

Traditional technology is defined by its nature of being understood. Magnets accelerating a projectile. Energy forming a laser.

In terms of weaponry, ballistics, missiles, and lasers tend to be the weapons of choice for pilots. Even in the future, sending mass at high enough speeds can shred through an Autonomous Knight. Enough explosive force can, while imprecise, tear off armour and limb. Generating high enough heat with a laser is enough to cut through a Knight.

KR-technology is defined by how little it is understood. Fundamentally, the technology is similar to a basic power system. A KR-reactor creates KR-particles which power KR-devices. However, humanity does not have the technology to develop or reverse-engineer most KR-technology. As a result, KR-devices have to be scavenged from Autonomous Knights. They can break natural laws, but can also mimic traditional technology like lasers and AI-powered drones.

As a note for technology, I'm generally not going to exactly specify every bit of it. Most technology is probably fine as long as it's not extremely out there, but if you would like a more concrete answer, ask me about specific technologies. If it's not permissible as traditional technology, then it'll likely fall under KR-technology which is based on narrative and reasonability. Though, I will place some broad answered questions below this paragraph.

Drones (ala Gundam bits) are fine. However, large amounts of a Knight's internal systems would have to be dedicated to the control and movement of drones. In addition, KR-devices are needed to sustain complex drone control. Simpler drones, such as "move to location > fire laser in this direction" require considerably less investment.

Full aerial Knights are very rare. In a meta sense, a large part of it is that I don't want to warp every encounter around flying. Low flying units (think within 150 meters) are uncommon, but do exist. The most common are hovering within 1 meter of the ground and using boosters for more agility.

Knights are the behemoths of steel that humans pilot to fight back against the invaders.

Knights are powered by a KR-engine. While a near unlimited source of energy, KR-engines are limited by one thing: output capacity and efficiency. As it produces KR-particles instead of a traditional form of energy, a highly inefficient conversion process must take place to power non-KR type devices.

Knights tend to be from 7 to 12 meters tall. While some other forms exist, Knights are primarily humanoid in form.

Knights can be classified into two types: shell and system.

Shell-type Knights are made via removing a Knight's nervous system and replacing it with human technology. Cameras are linked to screen of the cockpit or a headset. Throttles control movement. Because AI protocols mimic complex movement, pilots are able to display a decent amount of agility. The important thing about Shell-type is that they're of little risk to the pilot. An arm that is shot off is just a minor setback; a shell-type mech is solely limited by its critical systems like its reactor and cockpit.

System-type Knights are made via tempering a Knight. Rather than controlling the Knight via a system of physical controls, the pilot directly connects to the Knight's nervous system to become one entity. The Knight's cameras become the pilot's eyes. The pilot can control the Knight as though it was their own body. The issue, however, comes from this control. Pain, while it can be lessened by lowering the rate of synchronization, is shared. The process of synchronization isn't perfect. Long-term usage corrupts the mind and body. Higher synchronization rates exacerbate this issue.

System-type pilots require body augmentation to facilitate the link. Thankfully, the current generation of augments is, while still invasive, only comprises of connection points along the spine. Older type connections often replaced large sections of the torso and would even replace limb.

Autonomous Knights, or AKs, are the behemoths of steel that roam the Earth. Rather than intelligent machines, they act closer to beasts. All known attempts at communication have failed. They tend to use more internal weaponry and melee weapons than external weapons like guns.

Autonomous Knights can be classified into different threat levels.

Ruler-type AKs are the absolute strongest. They tend to remain in a small radius. They often have extremely powerful KR-devices. While it depends primarily on the specific AK, they tend to be fairly non-aggressive unless entering their territory.

Rook-type AKs are only weaker than Rulers. They usually have specialized KR-devices and strengthened armaments.

Bishop-type AKs are stronger than pawns but weaker than rooks. They tend to roam the most out of all AKs. They can have KR-devices, but still primarily use ballistics and lasers. Though, their ballistics and lasers tend to be powered by KR-particles at a higher efficiency than pawns.

Pawn-type AKs are the most common. They tend to be weaker than all other types of AKs, but can still be considered a threat to a pilot. Their greatest strength is their plentiful numbers. They tend to use ballistics and lasers powered by low-efficiency KR-particles.

This is where all of my miscellaneous world bits go.

Typically, combat missions are conducted in three phases to deal with the strict size and weight restrictions of exfiltration. The three phases are scouting, elimination, and collection. Scouting and elimination revolve around orbital dropping a small group of Knights to complete their objective. As collection missions need larger cargo shuttles that are unable to warp to orbit, the area must be secured from entry until exfil. In safer zones, scouting and elimination can be combined into one phase. Missions are not limited to these three phases and one end objective, but the vast majority of incursions are resource collection.

Pilots typically wear protective suits. These suits are generally ultra-lightweight and slim to allow for maximum mobility within a cockpit. Heavier suits also exist, but they are typically used for special missions where a pilot may need to leave their Knight. At minimum, they can temporarily become a sealed environment in the event of cockpit breach. Pilot suits are generally developed by the same manufacturer of the pilot's Knight. As a result, there is no standard for pilot suits.

Appearance: Fill in the blanks of your image.
Personality: How your character appears to others. Secret stuff should be DM'd to me.
History: What the faculty of the academy would know about your character. Same as above.
Capability: What is your character explicitly good at, as compared to their cohorts.


Appearance: Fill in the blanks of your image.
Manufacturer: Manufacturer name and a write up about them.
Design: What is the purpose of the mech? A quick write up about what it aims to do and how.
Specification: The technical details. Does your mech have a larger than average engine? Does it have KR-device that does something weird? Is it more/less armoured? What armour does it have? Etc. If they have mission critical equipment they bring like a sword, include it here. Otherwise, equipment is mission-fit.