FlightofIcarus

[SCI-FI] The Stars Above

oh please don't tell me this is dead. 16 days since last post o.o

[SCI-FI] The Stars Above

Realistically, just using regular vehicles is better in most situations. Mechs may be better in rough terrain though. And they might be able to operate in a wider range of environments. That's how Gundam and Battletech justify their mechs. Armored vehicles like tanks are just as viable in those settings and can defeat mechs in combat.

[SCI-FI] The Stars Above

i wanna get something interesting rolling... but waiting for people to post is a pain. I mean, you guys have good reasons to put off posting but it's still annoying lol.

Also, I recently developed a mech addiction. Tempted to have my own mechs. But more like the ones in battletech, not like gundam or robotech. That doesn't violate anything I stated in my technology, I don't think.

[SCI-FI] The Stars Above

Daria absentmindedly read some news article on her tablet device. She could hear the soft murmurs of casual conversation and the steady hum of the shuttle's engines. It was a modest sub-orbital jumper craft used to take people from the transition stations in low orbit to the larger stations higher up. She was on her way Gundersieg station, named after Admiral Gundersieg, a Mesenthian admiral from the age of sail. It was the space force headquarters currently. Daria had been summoned there by Admiral Videric 'Vic' Morowitz.

She wondered why an Admiral would be summoning her of all people. She was just a junior officer who commanded a corvette. Oh well, an Admiral was an Admiral, she had to come. Regardless... her leave was over, even if Morowitz didn't want to see her, she still had to report in. Still, it was fun to visit the family estate for awhile.

The intercom crackled to life, "This is your pilot speaking, we are coming in to dock with Gundersieg. All passengers make sure you're buckled in."

Daria felt the shuttle lurch as it oriented itself with the dock.She heard the thrusters thumping as they used short bursts to make minute ajustments. Then there was a metallic clang as the shuttle made contact with the station.

The intercom came back, "Your pilot again, we've sucessfully docked. Passengers are free to move about the cabin."

There was a series of clicks and rustling of clothing as people unfastened their belts. Daria did the same and pushed off from her seat. She floated up to the luggage loft above, grabbing one of the hand holds for stability. She grabbed her bag and her meagre belongings she had brought. There was a strict weight limit so she had to be careful what she brought. She got in line with everyone at the lock. They went in by fours and had to wait for the airlock to cycle for each group. There were only three groups so it didn't take that long. Some of the people were military like her, but others seemed to be civilian contractors.

[SCI-FI] The Stars Above

@MissingAxis

I plan to continue participating.

[SCI-FI] The Stars Above

Add me to map, maybe?

Also, @Sigma, your claims are overlapping mine. My claims; 0915, 0815, 0715, 0716, 0916, 0816. But, I do approve of the migrant idea. You can have Vorskel people. My nations have not made contact with aliens at this moment, but they do have reason to believe aliens are close. But some generational colony ships were sent out in the STL era. Perhaps one got lost and ended up in your territory?

Warhammer 40,000: Age of Grimderp [40k Parody RP}

Fuck. Yes.

Count me in.

[SCI-FI] The Stars Above

He eyed the rows of books, tracing the edges of the book case with deft fingers. The man then stopped, and backed up two books back. "Hm, this one is new isn't it?" he asked in his usual deep baritone. He pulled out the thick tome, quickly flipping through pages. "'The Eraehni War, by Halek Dryfuss', I heard this one was good," he commented. "Please don't go through my things, Vic, you always do this," another man says from behind the desk. "And you sound like a broken record, friend," the first man says with a chuckle. He shut the book and slid it back into place where he found it. "Mm, Admiral Trnka, First Lord of the Admirality, never would've thought I'd see the day."

"What is it? I'm a very busy man now days; and I don't think you came here for small talk," Trnka replies. The man turns his attention to Trnka fully. "Yes, you're right. You've seen the reports from Daran right? The one about the unusual thermal readings a few parsecs out?" he asks. Trnka nods, "Yes, I have. And you want to check them out?" Videric, or 'Vic' nods, "Uh-huh. You understand as well as I do the implications of this. We can't be caught on the backfoot here." Trnka looked skeptical, "True, but I don't want to show our hand so soon. We need to shore up our defenses."

"Against what? We don't even know what's out there. And besides, you know the council won't act on anything less than concrete evidence," Vic scoffs. Trnka nodded, "I thought of that, the chance that whatever threats that may be are so unexpected that our defenses are unsuited to fight it." Vic interjected, "And that's why we need to gather intel." Trnka looked up from his terminal, "Okay, you've made your case. I didn't factor in the council in my initial assessment. I was thinking purely military. But who do we send?"

Vic grinned, "I'm glad you asked. He produced a folder from his uniform jacket and placed it on the desk. You've been following Daria Varskaan, yes?" Trnka opened the folder, "Branko's girl? Yes, she made Lieutenant Commander right." He looked at her personell record in the folder, "High marks, adaptable, shows ability to act defensively and offensively depending on the situation..." Vic nodded, "Yes. I propose promoting her and sending her out in courier ship with a light escort." Trnka closed the folder, "Alright do it."

[SCI-FI] The Stars Above

Vorskel Confederacy, crazy space bats

Faction Name:
Vorskel Confederacy (including any applicable initialisms).

Faction Type:
The Vorskel Confederacy is an alliance of nations created to avert a catastrophic nuclear war. Since then the Confederacy has taken center stage in administrating colonization and interstellar trade. It also still acts as an intermediary in international disputes. The Confederacy has quite a lot of influence but the nations are still sovereign and maintain their own militaries and government types. All three superpowers, Ghorak, Mesenthia, and Sonique are members as well as many other minor nations. Since its creation wars have been a rare occurence. The Confed's mission to maintain world peace and foster international cooperation has been largely successful. Whether this will last, or if this is simply temporary remains to be seen.

The Vorskel Confederacy is a non governmental organization or NGO that exists to facilitate the peaceful resolution of conflicts between nations and negotiations between said nations. It also offers financial assistance to developing nations as well as medical care and foodstuffs to particularly impoverished areas of Kesh. It is composed of several branches including the General Assembly, Security Council, International Court, and the Tripartite. The General Assembly is where all members meet to decide on budget, accepting or denying new applications, and elects bureaucrats in other branches. The security council is responsible for the maintenance of international peace and security. It has representatives from the four permanent members, the superpowers of Ghorak, Spetses, Sonique, and Mesenthia. The court is where disputes are resolved and international laws are drafted. The Tripartite is the defacto leader of the Confederacy. The General Secretary, Lord Marshal, and Merchant General along with their cabinets reside here. They are responsible for social, military, and economic matters respectfully.

Species:
The Vorskel are a humanoid race with digitigrade legs. The males have an average height of "5'6-"6'2 and females have a height of "4'10-"5'8. Their legs end in four toed feet with two large toes in the middle with two smaller toes on either side. Their hands have four fingers tipped with short blunt claws. They have thin furred tails that reach down to their ankles. A small pair of wings protrude from their backs. Their whole body is covered in fur. The fur is black, grey, brown, or white. It can be a solid color, spotted, or striped. Atop their heads are a pair of perky triangular ears. They can have either short slight snouts or long fox like snouts. Their eyes can be blue, yellow, green, or violet. They have human like secondary sexual characteristics, i.e. prominent breasts on females.

Scale & Territory:
The Confederation lays claim to six star systems. Rakesh, Rorsch, Trir, Nasgarth, Daran, and Talyala. Rakesh is the home system. Rorsch is home to a developed core world. Rorsch is the international system in which everyone has territorial claims. Trir is solely owned by Sonique. Talyala belongs to Ghorak. Daran belongs to Mesenthia. Nasgarth belongs to Spetses. The most striking feature of Rakesh are five O'Neil Cylinder space colonies at the lagrange points. These are gargantuan 30km stations home to hundreds of thousands of people. They were constructed from material found in the belt, and materials launched into space with mass drivers. Hundreds of other smaller stations orbit the homeworld of Kesh too. Dozens of asteroid mining colonies dot the asteroid belt.

Culture:
Vorskel culture varies greatly depending on where one goes within their territory. But for the most part can be seen as highly militaristic and nationalistic. In the West they are collectivist and do not value individual rights and are very secular. Polygamy is not seen as a sin in the west, and marriage is a custom absent from several of their societies. They are xenophobic and not that welcoming of outside influences. In the East however, the people are known to be more spiritual and individualist. They're also open and welcoming to outsiders. There are multiple religions but the majority of the religious follow monotheist religions.

History:
Much like the League of Nations and United Nations on Earth, the Confederation was formed after a destructive world war. The inception of nuclear weapons motivated the nations of Kesh to begin working together. While the nations did oppose each other, nobody wanted to become a radioactive crater. Some didn't take the Confederation seriously at first however. The Imperium of Sonique, which had lost a lot of territory in the previous war suffered a revolution. The People's Republic of Sonique took over under the Industrialist Party. They spread outwards and started reconquering the lands they had lost. The other superpowers intervened eventually but this new war was indecisive and a ceasefire was signed. An uneasy peace began and the nations set their sights to space.

Technology:
Vorskel technology is anachronistic perhaps, but cheap and reliable. The pinnacle of their power production is still nuclear. They use fusion reactors, which lack many of the drawbacks of the older fission reactors. For artificial gravity they use a centrifuge or simply spin the entire construct. They still largely rely on ballistic weaponry but have the means to make weaponized lasers, and particle beams. They can generate anti matter but still lack the means to store vast quantities of the stuff. They also have the means to carry out cloning, genetic engineering, and have cybernetics. They lack faster-than-light communication and must rely on couriers to spread information. Though, rumor has it that the new scientific field in subspace is close to changing that.

Military Forces:
The Confederacy doesn't have a standing military technically. The closest thing is the Peacekeeper Corps which is composed of military units provided temporarily from member states to deal with a dispute that has failed to resolve itself peacefully. There is also the council chamber guard, but they're considered more law enforcement than military. But the guard aren't pushovers, they have the skill of professional soldiers. The Peacekeepers can be composed of ground and space units and are deployed off world when the need arises. But generally the nations are responsible for guarding their holdings.

The forces on Kesh are designed for large conventional conflicts and as a whole number in the millions (~40 mil personnel). They are split between atmospheric air forces, ground forces, and 'wet' naval forces. They also have a fair number of ballistic missiles and surface to orbit batteries. The threat of mutually assured destruction keeps the peace. Though proxy wars do happen from time to time. Due to the Confederacy most wars are small in scope and limited. These conventional armies can be used off world but require heavy transports and orbital and aerial superiority at the target zone.

There are also small elite forces specialized for fighting on other worlds. The Mesenthian Storm Troopers, Ghorakian Janserii, Soniquien Guard, and Spetsen Marines make up this force. They focus on surgical strikes rather than large battles. They can also board enemy spacecraft and fight within a vacuum if needed. They are all professional career soldiers. They operate a wide range of equipment including autocannons, high velocity missiles, lasers, good old fashioned guns, and in some cases railguns.

Then most importantly there are the Space Forces. Most nations use a cheap series of standardized space frames affectionately nicknamed the "Alphabet Soup Crew". However, the superpowers operate their own native designs. They're the only ones that have the resources to design their own ships. The space forces are very frugal to an extent and don't throw away much. It's not uncommon to see decades old warships or older in active duty. Many old ships are also kept around in a mothballed state.

Claims
0915, 0815, 0715, 0716, 0916, 0816

[SCI-FI] The Stars Above

Just dropped my nation app.

Also do I need to do ten paragraph posts like you're all doing? I'm a filthy casual.