Hypothetically 9-10. G'day. I had just about shelved the concept I and the usual partner in crime The Captain were banging around past the cut-off, but I thought I'd just throw in to see if I could squeak in last-minute, pending greywolf's decision on whether to refurbish from corp into national status. Presently, there's a rough sheet with multi-paragraph origin and description of the species and a weapon technology outline, but not a lot else typed. Going to rough that out a bit more before posting and with any necessary changes to the following outline. I will be brazen in simply laying out the entire conceptual plan, technically and vaguely thematically.
In short, my part lay in radioactive heavy death worlder (standard minor sub-earth size, but dense as hell and megafauna laden) cheesy 1980s cartoon reptilians of an Alexandrian-Japanese slant with a bit of Mesoamerica made a slight bit more serious, a triple-species caste system under combination of absolute monarchy roughly equivalent to Deinonychus, Utahraptor and Carnotaur under a combination of absolute monarchy and military dictatorship, with the following pertinent technologies.
-Cartridge-fired breechloader combination nuclear shaped charge/bomb pumped gamma ray/photon laser+plasma shell launchers ala Project Orion, repurposed for throwing atomic rays and huge tungsten-plasma balls at the target rather than controlling the release for propulsion, multi-laser tube Xasers, small arms weaponized neutron guns, and piles of supercorrosive aerosols & nerve agents,'biological'/NBC gamewise. About as hard/scientifically sound as a moderately dry sponge with most the damp on the scratchy side, minus the exotic elements and turbolaser-style inertial dampeners needed to contain gun-firing the things rather than using self-destructing devices, which leaves the proverbial sponge pretty bloated, and considering our relatively effective modern shielding against these radiations, may fire smaller or exotic and nonexistent particles, soaking it through. Not sure at present. Superior.
-Dense particle catcher shields, environmental gamewise; nonsense functioning, essentially opaque to matter outside temporary boreholes opened for weapons fire which allows it to diffuse or halt slow high or mid-mass, low-kinetic but high-energy projectiles (plasma, BC torpedoes) and low-mass, high-kinetic and high-energy projectiles (in-space atom bomb blasts at appropriate distance, likely predetonated by xaser fire) but 'cracks' under either form of mostly-pure kinetic fire available as tech choices (advanced combustion, coil & railgun) and amasses piles of moderate-energy particles in localized areas under laser fire, 'blisters' of heated particles that eventually escape containment to burst across the relatively resistant hull. Due to some technobabble contrivance, while functioning fine against exotic particle releases and the EMP effects that accompany atomic detonations and plasma arcs, it fails miserably against pure ion weaponry and depends on the hull for diffusion. As hard as a sponge left to mold at the bottom of a filled mopbucket. Standard.
-Multi-layer conventional hull design consisting of rolled or cast armor, not necessarily steel, but is definitely whatever or equivalent to whatever the cheap supermundane material of choice is. Extensive superstructure latticing with lots and lots of redundant spall liners, meant in-fluff to pick up the slack of the particle catcher against non-superenergized projectiles and 'pure' thermal lasers, or when an atomic weapon detonates too close for the thermal/mass limits by way of sandwiched neutron moderating elements, although gamewise-functionally the environmental shields do all of the lifting in the latter case. As hard as a dry sponge in a steel coffin. Substandard.
-Bonus tech of applied biocybernetics, or in other words, the art of integrating mechanical whatsits to direct neural interface through the nervous system. Hydraulic claw arm-lasers for everyone!
-In addition to technical game-concerning technologies, a bevy of other junk. Sublight propulsion is nuclear pulse driven, some kind of hybrid between the Daedalus nuclear confinement fusion design and the Orion H-bomb riding proper design, with the relative compactness of the former and the kick and blast of the latter, with a variable pusher plate & inertial dampers both to ensure crew survival & allow the thing to brake without firing another bomb to the fore or deploying a particularly resistant solar sail parachute. Computer technology is a mess of micromechanical and vacuum tube-based fair, not so much for hackneyed atompunk purposes- this is mere side effect- as being slightly more plausible to not fry (minus a few components like selenium rectifiers) due to being large scale and not so fine compared to solid-state computing, which has been vulnerable to varying degrees to relatively small surges in small areas throwing entire chipsets and therefore computers out of whack. Primitive, chunky aesthetic, radar and other simulative visualizers consist of blips and bloops, which is serviceable but not ideal for observation. Enter piles and piles of exterior visual probes studding the hull and turrets feeding back to CRT (or space equivalent) sets on the bridge, as well as sub-substandard mundane tech thermal lasers as visualizers for invisible xasers and the like. These are, predictably, an eye-glaring atomic green.
Other things are bouncing around, but that's the gist. Cap'n, meanwhile, will be described much more briefly, as his concept is his own. He will be playing a primarily-human corp of extranational ARG basing, formed up by (one of) a/ny UN esque interventionary organizations, current/working name PETRA. Zaibatsu-like conglomerate organization, technically private but federally contracted by the AGR for periphery development, terraforming (I believe miracle generation-fast terraforming was one of the potential bonus technologies and the presently intended one, although mass automation for combat and noncombat robotics was also brought up as a strong possibility) handling first contact and following developmental aid & uplifting, coalition consensus focused military action ala containment of 'problem species,' peace treaty and ceasefire enforcement. In short, bluehelmet megacorp/East India Company/Weyland-Yutani. Not so much insurrectionist in the common sense of independence-minded movements as movers minded towards a shift towards decentralization through catastrophic balkanizing collapse. This, of course, entails a great deal of profit for PETRA's subsidiary arms companies. Substandard environmental weapons are a given in the form of Covenant-style bolt flingers, not sure what he's going with in regards to shields & hull. Said weapons may be fully the subject and result of PETRA's own research, or they might be derived from spacelizard understanding of atomic & plasma weapons, scaled and implemented in such a fashion that it isn't so rampantly spitting long-term human standard deadly radiation to fire high-energy atomically radioactive particles, which are infeasible outside spacelizard hands without some level of additional development, as well as preexisting stocks of heavy duty chemical agents ala anti-alien grade tear gas, which are also not as deadly as the hideous spacelizard concoctions, but certainly serviceable. Which brings us to another point; the relation between the two.
It was our conception that, in the case of a highly belligerent, caricature-corporate society, Darwinistically inclined and essentially enforced into this system by deathworld evolutionary imperative in the same fashion as the 'communism is for anthills' concept, would probably be inclined to use a freely-given FTL drive for less than noble purposes in a moment of miscalculation. Long story short, the present output of the experiment is an attempted suckerpunch of the majors proper by a moderate-scale power with very different moral standards and weaponized technology line while seeking to subjugate sub-minors as utility saw fit. They get kicked back into their system, their Orion drive derived colonies depopulated, and confined to their home planet. PETRA, which oversaw this shitshow and handled it relatively well in getting word back to prevent the attempted decapitation strikes from being even worse, is posted onto confinement duty and oversight of the species. Practical impossibility at the time prevents a long full occupation, moral precedent prevents extermination, and PETRA liberality with their guidelines and soft-handedness allows reattainment of minor power status and fleet capability, ostensibly for home defense. This is very much intentional, with PETRA intending to use this species as at least one of the catalysts for collapse of the ARG. Likewise, the spacelizards aren't particularly interested in the 'decentralized universe without large states and doomsday weapons' model PETRA proposes and are far more interested in carving out a large space for themselves against all dangers, as is their imperative for living.
There are a few issues I've already conceived and am self-aware of, like the infringement of the extensive nuclear arms and power on Keyguy's Casaba howitzers (presumably being sub-substandard Biological/NBC technology that has been very well applied en masse, hence their mundane nature as opposed to Substandard supermundane, Standard high technology, and Superior outright technomagic, as I understand the system) and rampant use of fission & fusion power (although it's likely the lizards are far less civically efficient about their use and ubiquity, not offering the same quality of life impact) or the very easy fit into the 'large militarized state with all the support and infrastructure it needs' archetype that is all too common and previously commented on, though hopefully an interesting spin in that it was not arbitrary past sociology that delivered them static into this system nor any kind of compartmentalized hive mind, but is an inherent quirk of their neurology and the environs in which they have evolved for millions of years that has been made manifest into the exterior culture & spacecapable civilization that cannot be easily come away from.
tl;dr Cobra Command and the Decepticons form a tenuous alliance through space and time to fuck up space NATO's shit and simultaneously doublecross the hell out of each other. Whether they will succeed, fail, or REALLY fail depends on if the drunkard writers are on a weekly 20-minute episode or an hour long special.
