datadogie

New Here

@kurukulla, welcome to the Guild!

Mass Effect: Kingslayer

Yes, yes, yes! I've been itching for a Mass Effect RP. I've been wanting to play a Quarian for a bit, so I'm definitely interested.

Hoseforn’s Academy for Gifted Adventurers

Valencia Coquerdale

Valencia was glad that a couple of others were getting their own shots in at Patrick; Both because he deserved it, and because she didn't want to be the only one, particularly if she alone would get in trouble for it. It seemed to be that quite a few people were switching positions in the running column; Some were pushing forward, some were falling back. Valencia herself kept her pace and kept in the middle. She didn't want to fall behind too much, and felt that if she were to suddenly sprint forward she would falter and slow down quite quickly. It seemed that getting hit by arrows was an extra reason for people slowing down.

Keeping most of her attention on Dex paid off, because an arrow was fired at her - presumably, it was revenge for what she had done against Patrick, for she certainly wasn't at the back of the crowd. She shifted her arm a little, and it struck; as intended, her arm slammed against her side, taking most of the brunt of the hit. She let out a little breath, though continued to run, staying on her feet and clunking along. It'll take more than that, she thought to herself, her eyes fixing on Finn as he ran past. Her cheeks turned a little pink as he gave her a wink, but she was too exhausted to do anything back.

Another lap. Another lap. Another lap. Finally, when the last lap ended, Valencia dropped to her hands and knees, sucking in what air she could. Her knees were trembling a little, but after a few moments she picked herself up off of the ground to line up with the rest of the students, breathing heavy and sweating. She wondered if there was a way for, in future classes, to determine whether or not she needed to wear armour. Perhaps she could take the time to enchant her armour with runes that allowed her to simply step in and out of it, however she feared damaging the integrity of the armour if she failed.

Valencia quietly, with the exception of her breathing as she fought to get it under control, watched the drow woman (which the mannequin revealed was named Maya Jhalavar) get ready to duel. The pale woman couldn't help but admire Maya's form briefly, before quickly blinking and refocusing on the fight that was about to happen and not on Maya specifically. First Dex, now Maya. All the teachers seemed to be alluring in their own ways to Valencia.

The fight was spectacular. Valencia was confident in her own fighting capabilities, however Maya was definitely a lot more skilled in the affair - obviously she had a lot more experience. Slowly, Valencia's lips curled into a smile, one of glee, of awe, as Maya expertly fought the mannequins. One day, she was going to be like that, but not in a school. Out in the field, she was going to be making a name for herself, she was going to work on changing the Coquerdale name to something of excellence, of pride, of good. She was going to show her father that she didn't need him to make herself powerful, and that she was going to grow into a powerful, strong person without him trying to guide her every step. Her eyes tracked the final mannequin's head as it flew in their direction, instinctively ducking a little before Vermont caught it.

Me, I'm ready to start, Valencia mentally replies. She made her way over a dummy that was armed with a sword, standing before it and giving it a respectful bow. She mentally repeated what Vermont had said, that the better she was, the better it would fight. She had fought opponents before that had underestimated her, guards that at first had thought she was a rich stuck-up, and that the training that she had done was akin to that of fantasy fights rather than real ones. They had went easy on her, and she had taken advantage of that. Soon, they had learned that she was only pretending to be a novice, most through getting their butts handed to them, and others through word of mouth. From there on, she hadn't been able to make them underestimate her, but that didn't mean she wasn't a good fighter against opponents who knew her skill level. Drawing Lazarus from it's sheath, Valencia believed a similar approach would work on the mannequin. If it adapted to her level of skill, she could constantly one-up it until she reached her peak.

She held Lazarus with one hand, and the mannequin readied itself to fight. Surprisingly, it struck first. She gave a weak defence, tilting her sword to guard against the mannequin's blow. It pulled back, and struck again, for which it received another weak block from Valencia. On the third strike, Valencia struck hard against the mannequin's sword, parried, and thrust forward. The mannequin adapted a lot quicker than she thought, for it cut at her own sword, pushing it down before it could connect with it's chest. Valencia's reaction was to bring her sword around, letting the end of her blade drift near her opponent's fingers. A connection was almost made, but the mannequin twisted away, creating a step of distance, before pushing straight back in.

It was then that Valencia upped the ante once more, adding proper footwork into the mix. She sprang forward with speed, lunging at the mannequin. It had to step back. It then moved forward, sword raised for and overhead strike. She brought her sword up to bear, but kicked for it's midsection. The first hit had been landed. Now that it knew that she was able to fight properly, the mannequin didn't seem to want to hold back; it went for a sideways cut, which was parried, and then without missing a beat, Valencia went on the counterattack. She went for her own horizontal slash, then vertical, pushing the mannequin onto the defence. It tried to bring it's sword to bear, but she cut from beneath, and it was forced to bring it's sword on the defensive again.

Valencia picked out the change in skill of the mannequin as it happened. It released it's sword with one hand, making a sudden grab for her arm. She stepped back, out of it's range, and brought her sword to bear on it's arm. It pulled it's arm back, and brought it's sword down on the back of her own sword. She pushed back as it pulled back, bringing her sword back into position swiftly, and used that same momentum to twist her sword and go for another strike.

Then, the trick to finish the mannequin, Valencia performed another quick slash of her sword from below. It was parried, of course, but ass their sword connected, she sidestepped into her opponent's space, on it's sword-arm's side. She brought her hands to the mannequin's hands, locking their swords, and swung her leg around, swiftly kicking at the back of the mannequin's knees before it was able to unlock their blades, knocking it's stance out and letting it fall. She slid her blade down and out from the lock, spinning in a flourish to allow the mannequin to drop to the ground, and connecting her blade with it's back at the other side of the spin. With that, she stepped back.

The mannequin rose to it's feet, albeit now with the wood on it's back scarred from her blade. Valencia had won that fight. "Let's go again," she says. She stepped forward to strike, and the second fight began.

Through the Gateways: Humanity [Closed] [Soon to be Concluded]

Zelrio Corporation

^{Mentions: @Tortoise @GreyGoblin}

"Captain, a reply has come in," the communications officer says, waving a hand at Olivia, who gave him a single nod of affirmation. Upon playing the message, Olivia found herself curious. This Oligarch Tanaka hadn't addressed himself of an envoy or ambassador of any kind, more-so just one of his teacher's students and an explorer. She wondered if he was just wording it curiously, or if they already had a gateway up for some time, and were now just sending explorers out to ones that opened one by one rather than a diplomatic party. She gave a thumbs up to the communications officer, wishing for another reply to be sent.

"Oligarch Tanaka, I too cannot express how glad I am to see a friendly face come out from the gateway that has remained closed for so long," She says. "As pleasant as it is speaking like this, our diplomatic personnel would much prefer to meet you in person - and are most likely biting their nails that I'm speaking with you for this long. I invite you for a meeting on board one of our stations, and should you accept, will provide escort and navigational data to reach it." She nods to the communication officer, who sends off the message to Tanaka. Immediately, she was signalled by the sensor officer.

"New contact," The sensor officer reported. This time, he seemed a touch more alarmed than he had with the little shuttle. "A large ship just flew in. It looks like a piece of shit with engines, but it's bigger than the shuttle."

"If it isn't shooting at us, then we won't shoot at it," Olivia replies, though she was a little more worried than that. "We'll send the same message was we did before. Open arms and shit." She waved to the communications officer.

"New vessel, this is Captain Olivia Lillith of the Zelrio Corporation, the colony of the planet Oria. We welcome you with open arms to our system. Please respond."

Through the Gateways: Humanity [Closed] [Soon to be Concluded]

Zelrio Corporation

^{Mentions: @Tortoise}

It was business as usual for the Zelrio Corporation. On the surface of Oria, despite their monumental size, refineries were nearing capacity yet again and pumping out materials like it was nobody's business. Materials were sent to the Tristam Space Elevator, where they processed further, and sent wherever they were needed. On the edges of the ground colony, gunfire could be heard as defenders held off another wave of Vacuarians which tried to scramble up the walls. They wouldn't get through, however that tended to be a different story for the mines that were further away from the main colony. With less defences than the colony itself, every attack ended in deaths on both sides. Thankfully, few of those deaths were actually human in the case of the defenders - with it being so dangerous outside of the colony walls, infantry drones were the brunt of the defenders out in the sticks. Apart from Combat Controller teams, of course.

In space, shuttles buzzed between stations like traffic on a highway. People going about their business, freighters delivering goods to the numerous stations that dotted space above Oria's atmosphere. Giant stations, far larger than any that had been over Earth in the past, held hundreds of thousands of citizens each, their homes and their businesses. Other stations had a variety of uses, such as hydroponics, storage depots, and military stations. Fully built stations weren't the only ones around, for other stations were in various states of construction in an ever-expanding network.

Jonathan Lawrence stood at his office's window, picking out individual stations by eye. The window wasn't real, of course; That was dangerous for anyone who decided to lop off the head of state. His office was buried so deep into Callihan Station that there was no possibility of a real window. Instead, it was a screen embedded into the wall, a pretend view to space and the planet below. Still, even if it wasn't a real view, it was still one that Jonathan could appreciate. He only had the time to stand and gaze because of his position; He had been told by his predecessor that the position of National Director was a difficult one. Whilst Jonathan had previously believed it would be difficult due to the volume of what he had to accomplish, it was a different story; It was the political side that he was not used to. As the National Director, he had to make a lot more public appearances than he was used to, and had to slog through a list of projects to approve or deny. Thankfully, the other directors beneath him had their own duties, and took most of that job away, but every so often something troublesome would pop up.

For example, the gateway that had stood closed for several centuries suddenly sparking to life.

Minutes passed where Jonathan could do nothing but stare out into space, from where he had seen the spark and the light. He couldn't believe that, in his time as National Director, the gateway was going to reopen. It suddenly put a lot more responsibility on his shoulders. Privately, he had hoped that he was going to be long gone before the gateway opened, just so that he didn't have to deal with it. But here it was, and now, he needed to exploit it. To try and get back to Earth, to locate the remaining colonies. Thankfully, some preparations were already in place; Policy written long ago stated that should the gateway reopen, the Public Relations department would be renamed to the Department of Public Diplomacy and assume new, diplomatic duties alongside their old ones. Jonathan privately wondered if Amelia was actually upkeeping that part of the policy - he hadn't exactly cared for training diplomats, as there was no reason for them. Vacuarians didn't talk.

The National Director allowed his attention to drift to his terminal, which was blinking with many, many unread messages. On the other side of a glass wall was his secretary, his only companion within the office, shooting off as many replies as she could. Aiko was young and new to her role, however she was growing into it well after her father had retired. The Solaria family, from which Aiko hailed, had served the Zelrio Corporation since the beginning. They were loyal, and were known to be hard workers. Aiko was likely proud to be selected as the next Secretary of the National Director.

"Aiko, please open communications with..." Jonathan paused. Shutting his eyes for a few moments, he took in a deep breath, before deciding who he wanted to speak with. "With all of them. Put them all on mute, though."

In most meetings, the people usually trickled in slowly, some even tried to dodge out of the meeting for as long as they could. Not this time. Every Director poured into the meeting, filling Jonathan's screen with faces. Everyone was speaking, gesturing, waving their arms in a silent bid to find Jonathan's attention first, only to grow quiet as they realised that they were, in fact, not being heard. Jonathan looked between all of their faces, making sure that he had their attention, before finally speaking.

"As you all know, the Gateway has opened. I'm certain Director Everett wishes to flood us all with information from Wendegarr Station, and tell us how exciting this is, however I will save you all from that. Director Everett, we can speak about that privately, and distribute documents as needed. Then, if the other directors will hear you out, you can spiel to them all you want." That earned smiles from the others. They knew that they, and their valuable time, had been saved. Even Director Everett was smiling sheepishly.

"For now, nothing changes for the vast majority of you. Operations continue as intended, and everything will continue normally. We'll be attempting communications and outreach to any other colonies, as well as Earth. With hope, we can establish friendly relations, and open up trade. I look forward to making interstellar progress. With that being said, I announce to you all that the Public Relations department will be taking on a new name, and additional roles to go with it; the Department of Public Diplomacy. That being said, Amelia Cellica will now assume the position of director of the new department, and her previous position as manager of Public Relations will be occupied by one of her previous employees, alongside diplomatic positions."

"Finally, before I let you go, I will be designating space around the Gateway as a restricted zone. Only ships that have purpose there should be there. That's military, research vessels, and diplomatic ships. If you have a reason why you should be allowed through, send it, and I'll make the determination. Though, there is a possibility I may have that duty delegated to Director Cellica in the future. With that being said, you're all free to leave, bar Director Cellica and Admiral Sutherland. I'll need to talk to both of you." With that, they all began to disconnect. Jonathan knew that he would receive quite a few more emails soon, but he could bear with it. Soon enough, the only three people were himself and the two that he had beckoned to stay.

"My ships are already moving into position. I had predicted that it was going to turn into a no-fly zone. We've doubled patrols in that area. I have a feeling that if our gate has opened, others have, too. The dockyards have started to change some of their production over to military ships, now that there's going to be an actual need for them," Admiral Sutherland says, once he and Director Cellica's mutes were revoked. "I've doubled the amount of marines that we have stationed at Wendegarr Station, too. We're prepared, just in case. One of my frigates have reported that the gateway is receptive to us, so likely if other colonies are getting theirs back up, they'll be able to come to us."

"I've already started picking out diplomatic personnel from my existing personnel. I've started drafting up person specifications for Human Resources, too, and digging out the old training materials. We're going to have to start recruiting more personnel," Director Cellica explains. "So, my current plans..."

Three hours later, the trio were still discussing all sorts of scenarios. At the top of their list was First Contact, and how they were going to present themselves, as they were unsure how other the other colonies would take seeing that a corporation was running an entire colony, government and all. The conversation stopped when Admiral Sutherland suddenly held up his hand. "Directors, we've just had a ship come through the gateway. A shuttle, all by itself. Captain Lillith will be talking to them, as there are no diplomatic personnel there, yet. She'll be attempting to take them to Featherfall Station," the Admiral states. Both of the directors were alarmed; They hadn't expected anyone to arrive so soon!

"Director Cellica, I want yourself and... Two Combat Controllers to meet the shuttle at Featherfall station, should they wish to land. The Combat Controllers are to serve as escorts for the shuttle's occupants whilst they are within our space. In fact, that'll be rule of thumb. Two Combat Controllers per diplomatic party. I want to avoid any incidents," Jonathan says. He was going to have to look into Captain Lillith's career later, she had good intuition to pick Featherfall station, rather than any of the corporate stations, or even coming straight to Callihan Station to see him like he knew some ship captains would have tried to offer. Featherfall was one of the most beautiful stations they had; it was several kilometers of land within a metal dome, like a gigantic, enclosed park. Stark contrast to the hell that was the land on Oria, which had random fires showing their face every so often amongst muddy and often charred land.

^----====----

"Captain to the bridge, Captain to the bridge."

Olivia Lillith was on the bridge and in the captain's chair as fast as she could get there. Her eyes skimmed over reports that were flooding in. No shot, she thought to herself. A vessel had already arrived through the gateway. There went her hope to be the first one in three hundred years to travel through one, but she still had a shot at being the first one of the Zelrio Corporation to fly through. "Kilo, give me an analysis of the ship," she asks.

The ship's artificial intelligence, Kilo, responded quickly to her query. "Barely a ship. The vessel meets the specifications of a shuttle, but for all we know, that could be another colony's version of a battleship." Olivia couldn't help but chuckle at the AI's explanation. "In any case, it's a small ship. Probably an envoy, or some sort of explorer or scout, clearly not a threat to us."

"Comm, send a message to Admirality, high priority, that we're going to be making contact with the shuttle. We'll try and get it to Featherfall Station," Olivia says. "And open a communications link to the shuttle. It's time to make first contact." Olivia waited until her communications officer gave her a thumbs-up, and then sent the first message.

"Unknown Vessel, this is Captain Olivia Lillith of the Zelrio Corporation, the colony of the planet Oria. We welcome you with open arms to our system."

Through the Gateways: Humanity [Closed] [Soon to be Concluded]

@datadogie Because I'm on a roll and am shit at doing actually important things, here's one for you.

@ClocktowerEchos

Oh my god, that's fantastic! You're absolutely amazing <3

Through the Gateways: Humanity [Closed] [Soon to be Concluded]

Yeah, they're pretty awesome!

Hoseforn’s Academy for Gifted Adventurers

Valencia Coquerdale

Valencia had, thankfully, managed to sleep well the previous night. It had taken a little time, as she was not used to the bed (it not being the same one that she had slept in for so long), but she found it to be at least decently accommodating once she had allowed herself to settle into it's comfort. Though she doubted it, she wondered if she would have been able to send off for her own mattress, or perhaps a new one made to it's same specifications. Even if the school didn't allow it, she refused to do so anyhow after some thought, due to the embarrassment or awkwardness she may have felt if a carriage arrived with a new bed and mattress just for her.

The silver haired woman was pleasantly surprised that the first class was hosted in the Hall of Combat, especially since combat was what she had primarily been preparing for. The primary exception to that was that Valencia knew that she was catching glances. The pretty woman from last night was now in her full equipment; Black steel armour covering her from head to toe, expertly made with it's intricate patterns and freedom of movement despite it's heavy strength, her sword, Lazarus, resting in it's place in her belt, masterfully crafted to be a top-of-the-line sword, and fully enchanted with runes to be a weapon of great utility, should she call upon it's tricks. It was a stark contrast to how she looked in her uniform.

That pleasantness slipped down a shallow slope once it was revealed that the instructor, Sir Vermont, was going to be making sure they were physically ready for adventuring, which just sounded like the equivalent of physical exercise lessons. She allowed herself to believe it just for a moment, before Sir Vermont began to 'jog'. Valencia took a moment to process what was going on before she began to pursue, partially because that was what she believed she had to do, and partially because she was following the example of the others. Though she was decked out in the heavy armour, she was managing to keep up just like everyone else, clunking forward at around the same speed, though perhaps breathing a little heavier. She was determined to keep up.

Valencia was fine for the first lap, she was still doing well on the second lap, and it was on the third lap of continual running that she was just starting to feel the workout get to her. Don't stop. Keep up. Show everyone else that you're the best, because you're the one clunking around like an anvil with legs, whilst they step like horses in a plain, she thought to herself. Keeping up with the unarmoured folks was what drove her to push on.

Her confidence withered a little upon observation of the other instructor, the awesome looking one who had not came with them on the run. She was smart enough to know what was happening once he pulled out his bow. Without the use of her runes - Sir Vermont had said that no magic was allowed - she was going to have to rely on purely her armour to push her through this. Though she was able to see Dex, and roughly tell if he was aiming at her or not, she would have trouble dodging anything that came her way after running so much. So, she hoped, and was rewarded when a different student was struck by the first arrow. Sucks to be him.

However, her eyes fixed on someone she recognised from last night helping the victim of the arrow to their feet. It was a kind gesture, but whilst kindness should be paid with kindness, in this situation it was not. Valencia's eyes narrowed as Toma was pushed by the jerk, which she now recognised from the altercation at dinner the previous day. Well, it was time to get some payback. Hopefully the asshole would challenge her to a fight afterwards, and she could kick his ass without having to be sneaky about it.

The asshole, who Valencia heard was called Patrick from students he was overtaken (yelling at him in frustration), began to catch up to her, clearly planning to just overtake her from the right. She allowed him to move just a bit closer, almost in line with her... And then jutted out her right arm, stopping in her tracks. Whilst a few more students were able to overtake her, she still wasn't in last, and the result was what she hoped for; He ran straight into her arm, caught on it, and was clotheslined, falling onto his back with a yell. "See you next year!" Valencia called to him, as she started running once more to get back into the middle of the pack. There was a satisfied smirk on her face.

She wasn't out of it yet, however. Valencia separated her arms from her sides a little, to provide a buffer between them and her body should she get hit by the mysterious yet wondrous Dex's arrows, to take some of the impact. Combined with her armour, she figured she wouldn't get knocked down from a hit itself, though would have to watch her footing to make sure she didn't trip over herself from it. What she didn't do was follow the example of Rodrick, who appeared to have started running faster. All that would do is sap at her strength and make her all the more likely to fall over if she was hit. Ducking her head down a little, she continued to pound the ground with her feet, clunking away as she continued to run.

After all, if others fell over and she didn't, she wouldn't come last.

Through the Gateways: Humanity [Closed] [Soon to be Concluded]

40 million is a really small number. Most of us have upwards of a billion people.

@ClocktowerEchos

*Whistles in barely over a quarter of a billion* XD

Through the Gateways: Humanity [Closed] [Soon to be Concluded]

Zelrio Corporation

Nation Name: Zelrio Corporation

Government Form: Corporate Monarchy

Demographics: 99.96% Space-living, 0.04% Oria-living. A demographic that doesn't matter much, however within the Zelrio Corporation, it is known that anyone working on the planet that moves to space is destined to become at least a middle-class member of society if they put sufficient time in, due to the high pay awarded as a result of the high danger of working and living on the planet.

Population: 276 Million

---

---

Planet Name and Description: Oria

It was a name picked by the astronomer that found the planet, a combination of his daughter's name, Aria, and the word Ore, of which the planet had plentiful. The planet was joked by some astronomers to be a giant ball of gold just floating in space, however the truth was that it was incredibly rich in ores and minerals of varying kinds, and a fortune for whoever landed upon it and took up the responsibility of mining it out. Today, those materials are mined out in plentiful numbers by the colonists (though, primarily by automated equipment).

Oria, however, was not uninhabited before the arrival of Humans. A species known as the Vacuarians were it's previous ruling inhabitants. Governed by hive minds, the Vacuarians are akin to man-sized insects, almost like ants. Brutally hostile to Humanity arriving on their planet, they wildly attack anyone that they take notice of, and are the primary threat that Humanity faces on Oria. However, they are not the only threat. The atmosphere is toxic to be breathed by itself, requiring a filtering process to be made breathable. The Vacuarians, and other native fauna, are capable of living within Oria's atmosphere.

History: Upon arriving at Oria, a test of the atmosphere confirmed that it was not breathable. Whilst people originally began to panic, soon they had a small colony started on the planet, however still mostly lived out of the colony ship. Research was put into filtering out the bad bits of the atmosphere and making it breathable, and in the meanwhile, life support from the ship was pumped into the colony's buildings. It was a haphazard setup, but it worked, and the most that they had to worry about was the local fauna getting riled up, to which security cut down quickly. A local species was identified as the Vacuarians, and was labelled as not friendly to Humans, and not friendly to eat. The first settlement was named Hellgorth, a fitting name for the hell that many believed that they had landed themselves in.

Four years down the line, there had been problem after problem. The planet was becoming unbearable to live on, and with the Gateway closed, the colonists could not retreat and call the landing a failure. The newly formed Zelrio Corporation was using what shuttles the company owned to build itself a small facility in space in order to cut down on costs planetside, and to get itself a head-start for the space stage of the colony. However, the space stage, rather than coming when the planet had multiple settlements in place, came a lot earlier than expected. With all the problems occurring, none could compare to the colony coming under unexpected attack.

On the fifth year of the colony, the Vacuarians revealed themselves to be more than just mindless fauna. The first attack was small, albeit unexpected, however soon enough more attacks came, sometimes days apart, sometimes weeks apart. Large, insect-like creatures were storming into Hellgorth and attacking whoever they saw until being repelled, and then doing it again when the next attack came. This was the last straw for the colonists, and they began looking for other planets on the system to move their colony to. However, with so many supplies already on Oria, the effort to pick up and leave would likely lose a lot of those supplies, and the people to go with them. A full year was spent searching for solutions, only to come up with nothing. So, instead, the people of Oria looked to the Zelrio Corporation, who had began further expanding their operations into space after the attacks on Hellgorth. Soon, the population began to transition into life in space.

Many years later, Hellgorth remains the primary settlement of Oria, with a population of 120,000. In place of homes, it has gigantic smeltery plants, which processes everything that is mined on the planet before it is sent up the Tristam Space Elevator for further processing and usage in space. The Zelrio Corporation no longer is overseen by the government, as it is the government after widespread praise for it's work in pulling everyone off of Hellgorth. Space around Oria is peppered with many stations of varying kinds, from habitat stations to gigantic spacedocks and assembly areas.

Culture and Society: With the majority of the population living in space, there is often the worry of food. Most grown food comes from gigantic hydroponics farms, however the vast majority of meat is synthetic. Real meat is a luxury that is often only affordable to the upper class, as there is little space to host large amounts of livestock. On the other hand, water comes from ice asteroids within the system as well as being sent up from the surface (the latter of which often needs to be filtered to make safe to drink), and is recycled constantly, enabling a supply good enough to keep the population going.

The population often has to undergo training in order to survive in emergency situations. As well as having spacecraft licences and firearms licences, they also have emergency procedure trainings that have to periodically renew, with risk of arrest for those who do not renew their training, therefore putting habitats at risk. Due to the entire colony being run by the Zelrio Corporation, they often use punishments that benefit them, such as indentured servitude.

---

Governance and Politics: At a normal citizen's level, things are almost equivalent to a democracy. Citizens elect officials to help make decisions about the sectors that they live in, and where the funding that they are given is delegated. Habitat Councilmen, the head of each habitat (and the one who decides what sector each sector receives in finances) is also elected by the citizens of that habitat. Above that, decisions are handed directly to the Zelrio Corporation's directors, who are promoted from various places, such as of long-standing councilmen to employees hired directly by the corporation. Many director positions exist; The Habitat Director is the individual responsible for the management of all habitats, for example, just as the Financial Director controls finances all throughout Zelrio territory. At the top of the chain is the Zelrio National Director, who serves as the nation's top executive. When the National Direction passes away, or steps down, the position is then taken by their chosen Deputy National Director.

Technology Overview: The Zelrio Corporation has made significant strides in automated technology. Due to a lack of manpower at the beginning, robotics were introduced to fill in gaps, and that soon moved onto drone technology, using automated drones to search for the best deposits to mine from, and in many cases, to do the mining itself. Over time, growing trust in their advancements, the technology was moved to the military, and soon, drone carriers and other drone-related technologies were born and utilised, as well as the introduction of Artificial Intelligences. Command and Control technologies also advanced as a result of this, in order to be able to properly manage and control automations.

In addition to automated technology, cyber-defence and in turn cyber-offence became a large point of research, primarily for defending all of the technological advances that had been created. Whilst cyber-defence research was spread all throughout Zelrio territory, all cyber-offense technologies are given to Zerlio's military divisions and banned for anyone else to have or make use of; Those who manage to break cyberdefence test servers are rewarded for showing and reporting the exploit, providing incentive for others to help create an impenetrable system.

To defend their orbital habitats, the Zelrio Corporation has also put significant research into defence technologies, primarily in point defence in order to defend against asteroids and microasteroids, but additionally into shield technologies and other methods of defending themselves.

Due to mostly having to live in space, significant research has been put into Zero-G construction. As a result, construction of space structures and spacecraft has advanced to high levels, with new methods in place to both improve construction, and increase it's speed. New technologies and large orbital construction yards help to facilitate these advances.

Finally, and perhaps the most criminal of their technological advances, Space-To-Ground ordinance has also received a some research. Safe ways of bombing planets from orbit have been developed in order to counter outbreaks of Vacuarians on Oria with both precision and efficiency, without damaging the planet itself.

Military Overview: The Zelrio Corporation's military efforts are primarily focused on space domination. Despite living as a lonely colony for many years after the Gateways closed, the Corporation still holds a small navy due to the need to protect their stations from any threat that occurs. Most of these ships are small ships, along the lines of corvettes and frigates, however the proudest ships of the fleet would be the Drone Carriers. Because drones don't require air to breathe nor rations to feed, the carriers do not have internal hangars. Drone Fighters are stored on external racks, squeezed together with just enough room for the rearmament equipment to slip between every drone. A full compliment of drones costs about half as much as the carrier itself, however the ability to field that much ordinance with numerous fighters ensures it's an efficient payoff, and allows them to patrol their areas of space diligently, arresting (or eliminating) criminal ships.

Every ship and station holds a compliment of Zelrio marines, who take up the role of the police on board every ship, as well as the boarding force for any ship or station in space that requires boarding action. The marines are supported by infantry drones on larger operations in order to bulk up their numbers. The marines are rarely deployed groundside. Instead, that role is taken up by the Combat Controllers, which are Zelrio's Special Forces. These highly trained troops are deployed in very small numbers with their primary objective being to find and eradicate Vacuarian nests. They can often be in the field for weeks or even months, locating nests and calling in strikes from orbit. More often than not, they are supported by infantry drones, though many Combat Controllers opt to deploy on their own or with a few buddies to avoid detection. In addition to ground operations on Orea, Combat Controllers often deploy on other celestial bodies both for training, and to root out anyone that may be living on them, such as criminal gangs. Combat Controllers are among the most respected people in all of Zelrio, and it's commonly joked that one could take over a government with just a satellite communications kit.

Apart from the Combat Controllers, the other groundside element is the Zelrio Security Force. These troops aren't large in number, and aren't as experienced as even the Zelrio marines. The security forces are used to defend the groundside facilities of Oria and primarily the space elevator. They are additionally used to escort any ground convoys that require human support, though a lot of their role is facilitated by automated technology such as defence drones.

---

Additional Info:

List of important characters for future memory

None right now, but soon will be a list of names to remember.