LustForDecay

The Evenomed: Violent Military SciFi Action Across A Post-War Expanse

This seems Cool And Fun. I have a freaky alien in mind for this.

@Dead Cruiser

Welcome aboard then. I will be attempting to finish the history part of the lore for a separate thread today. Join our discord too.

The Evenomed: Violent Military SciFi Action Across A Post-War Expanse

I need more people with cool glowing eyes/shades in their PFP to join now that we have a possible trend starting B)

Anyways if you have any questions feel free to ask here and in the discord!

The Evenomed: Violent Military SciFi Action Across A Post-War Expanse

Overture BGM: Scythian - The Laws

IC IS UP

Lore Document

Google Drive Link

Please DM me if you want the discord.

It is 4237 and in the wake of a brutal three and a half year war across the stars, once again only empires remain standing...

Decadent and prideful atop the ruins of their enemies or crumbling and recoiling from the creeping spectre of obsolence.

A fitting summary for what is known as the Reckoning Of Empires. A vast expanse of worlds shattered, forged, and arisen from the aftermath of their brutality serves as a testament to the very cost of their existence. A cost offloaded onto their subjects and those who struggle amidst a new paradigm of interstellar power.

Gouged husks of former glory and burgeoning wealth of captured territories that span across systems define this age of ambiguity. Yet the course of empire creates the mechanisms for its destruction and the cost to be paid is steep and bloody.

From the wreckage of fallen worlds cast off of or revolted against prior masters, the Intranszjednota or simply the Intransigence has arisen as a revolutionary power uniting disparate worlds across the post-imperial spaces. A hegemon forged from the growing contradiction of imperial might, its roots lay in the years leading up to the Reckoning yet as its enemies slaughtered one another, it grew in power and now stands as a formidable entity on the inter-solar stage.

Amidst the ruination of fallen worlds and shattered dreams, you have been summoned to serve as their hidden knife against unsuspecting throats. Among your number insurgents, guerillas, rogue militants, pirates, mercenaries, even the defectors of empires - an unsightly morass of the dishonorable, scattered to the wind by the tides of upheaval and war. Now collected in the hand of the Intransigence, they form a network of hit-squads and deniable operation forces, answering through a fragmented network of communicators to the hidden powers of revolutionary leadership.

As the technocratic Black City Conglomerate, the corporate-expansionist Unified Celestial League, and the aging Yrrkradian Empire heat up their power games, the Intransigence is caught amidst their scheming powers. Yet they are not aware of the envenomed blade grasped in its hands, of which you are now the spearhead and now plunging head first into their hearts.

In a line of work fraught with conspiracy, subterfuge, betrayal, and shifting tides of allegiance,
you are the living embodiment of a hidden war.

---

Rules and Expectations

Expand

The Envenomed is a military sci-fi roleplay focusing on a select team of "inconvenient" people who "don't actually exist" (on paper) sent in to do the dirty work of a revolutionary alliance. Your enemies - the Black City Conglomerate, Unified Celestial League, and the Yrrkradian Empire - may not be on the same side but they definitely are not on yours. You will not necessarily directly combat them as much as mostly you will engage their various proxies whether against aligned-yet-indpeendent planet-states, state-supplied terrorist groups, contracted mercenary groups, and covert operation units of their own.

Yes, there is a "magical" element in a sense, similar to Warhammer 40000 and Mass Effect though it is understood frequently through a more scientific or even occult lens.

More importantly, this RP will feature quite a bit of graphic death and injury on top of grotesque mutations, intrusive biotechnology, flesh-meets-metal cybernetics, and so on. Dismemberment, gory splatter, armor-piercing amputation and so on is the norm. This is your only warning on the subject.

Unsurprisingly this is a very combat heavy roleplay and the first mission will toss you into the fire fairly quickly. There will be moments of (optional) stealth, interaction with other Envenomed teams, and potentially more low-key sections but whether or not we may have them will depend on your input.

I am aiming for characters who have had either in the Reckening Of Empires or the various civil wars, insurgencies, or proxy conflicts that emerged since. Experience in both is also fine. The war lasted from 4229 to 4233, with various smaller conflicts happening in the four years since.

It is not required your characters necessarily have a military background but I will ask that your character have a number of "secrets" or unpleasant, illicit, atrocious, or otherwise very "inconvenient" parts of their history that could be considered compromising material. Maybe they want to redeem themselves, maybe they're in it for hatred of the enemy, maybe they're genuine believers in the cause, or maybe they don't have a choice.

After the first mission, you will be given a private vessel with its own crew and have the liberty of choosing your own missions. There is a central over-arching plotline and you will be able to wildly change the course of both the story and in-setting history based on your actions.

This roleplay will demand fairly literate, complex writing both from myself and from you. There will be a good deal of detail and I advise anyone joining to be both very careful around said details whether to be wary of or to exploit in-character.

I am aiming for one to two posts per week though I can make exceptions and allow for turn-skips, even joint posts, if circumstances demand it.

After enough people join, I will put up a thread for the lore to which anyone who is interested can contribute. If there's anything that potentially clashes with lore let me know and we can work something out.

The setting will be fairly far future with a semi-grounded aesthetic, not full on total pulpiness but not "realist" either. However I am fairly open to a variety of sci-fi aesthetics - ideas and inspiraitons from settings as diverse as Halo, Titanfall/Apex Legends, Gears of War, Warhammer 40000, Starship Troopers (the animated iterations), Half Life, Tribes, and so on are allowed.

Character Sheet Outline

Name: (Include nicknames as well. Your character may have a new identity to stay low; include their "new name" and their original one if so.)

Age: (Those recruited for this covert action group are at least 20)

Species: (Other than human, there are a variety of alien species, of which you can create your own. Robotic, biosynthetic, and other "artificial" forms of life are also allowed).

Appearance: (Describe how they look and/or use reference images to do so).

Background: (How did your character end up working for a deniable black ops group? What lead them to this point in life? How were they involved the Reckoning Of Empires and its aftermath, even the events that lead up to that if possible?)

Character Evaluation: (How does your character typically act, behave, and otherwise go around their daily lives? What do they believe in and what do they feel towards this line of work they find themselve sin?)

Skills: (What is your character good at doing? Engineering, reconnaissance, infiltration, leadership, piloting - things that it makes sense for one to have given their Background but don't be afraid to throw in few curveballs to spice things up.)

Etherealism: (OPTIONAL part of your character sheet. Is your character capable of manipulating the unearthly currents of the Abyssal Chasm? How does this typically manifest? What are its limitations?)

Loadout: (What armor, weaponry, equipment, and so on is your character carrying? You do not need to list *every* single piece of equipment as things like spare ammo, medkits, flashlights, personal communication devices, and so on are fairly ubiquitous. The "signature" items you are equipped with however should be fleshed out especially if they will see prominent or notable use throughout their deployments.)

Actions Of Interest: (What are some controversial things your character has done in the past that stain their history? Do note that after you finish your sheet, I will ask that you directly message me at least ONE particular unpleasant thing your character has done in the past that they do not want becoming public knowledge. Perhaps you committed an atrocity, deserted your allies, fought alongside some sketchy people, were associated with *another* black ops unit, and so on - something you keep close to your heart and don't talk about unless you absolutely have to.)

Orion Asunder (Space Opera NRP)

It is January 8th, 3860 of the Earth calendar and the Periphery trembles.

From a cluster of systems in its furthest eastern reaches, split by a great expanse, fleets of living mass and angular metal emerge from their resting spots on the boundaries of an emergent alliance. Some are like collections of pointed blades sharpened and pointed towards whatever doubts and ambiguities lay beyond the boundaries of their space, others predatory in appearance with flattened and long bodies overlapping with multiple rows of biometallic carapace armor, resembling the arthropod horrors of some prehistorical era. A massive mobilization is being undertaken, one for which the rumblings have been heard across the surrounding systems for the last two decades.

OSRF Deployment

Arrows indicate fleet movements.

Normally this might not be particularly concerning. The Orion Sphere Revolutionary Front is not static and technically has had relaitons with many of its surrounding systems even before it was a fully solidfied political entity. Forged from the flames of conquest and resistance to such, its violent past belies its present stability.

This is in contrast to many of the worlds along the strip of Periphery systems past the great gap on which its eastern flank rests. In the epochs since the civil war and barbarian conquest, the peace other factions have enjoyed has not graced these worlds. Years of manipulation by post-Federation and barbarian remnant forces and the structures of power left in their wake have stroked years of violent tensions on and between worlds.

Worlds that in many cases, have seen what happened when that violence is not only unleashed but unified, organized, collectively applied. More importantly, aimed at the necks of those seated in positions of power. The Federation and its barbarian foe may be gone, but to many of these systems both were two different boots on a whole multitude of their own necks. When the Front retaliated with thousands of spears from a myriad of species, many of them started to get similar ideas.

Across the northern and southern flanks of the periphery, massive fleets of military vessels accompanied by large civilian vessels sweep into systems ridden with wars of decolonization, independence, and other forms of internal strife. As the outer edges of ex-Federation space are inflamed with violent conflict, one of its dominant regional powers moves in. Sympathetic militant-guerilla movements and governments notice - some with caution, others with elation.

The Front is cautious not to move too far northwards - it has not yet standardized any relations with The Kingdom of the Periphery. Neither faction has spoken with one another much, yet it is not uncommon for many of the war-ridden worlds between them to sometimes have a notable element of OSRF support. Whether from militant cells and separatist armies bearing the revolutionary ideologies and symbolism of the Front, to reports of "unmarked militants" of notable discipline and skill fighting among their numbers, it is an open secret that the Revolution of their namesake is not one that sits within their own borders.

Just as notable is the large fleet moving westwards, passing between not just the Kingdom but also the Aeronian Hegemony. The worlds between both are being explored, contacted, and the presence of trade flotillas suggests a more stable form of interaction. Yet most unusual is the fleet that moves through the rift splitting the Periphery from the rest of the region.

In this void where strange and unearthly things dwell, OSRF vessels are spotted traveling alongside what seem initially like dead husks of destroyed vessels.

Dead husks that twitch and move, warping to the sight and bristling with living carapace and bioluminescent scales beneath their blasted iron exteriors. Where they are exactly heading and for what purpose is difficult to distinguish. All that can be determined is that they are moving on a curving southward path, one that may stop them at the borders of the Ascendancy (if that is even their goal).

Orion Asunder (Space Opera NRP)

Orion Sphere Revolutionary Front

Nation Name/Flag:

The OSRF's flag resembles a circular human eye surrounded by the sharp ridges of a crown, impaled from multiple sides by angular claws and hands - some human, others arthropod like, and many clawed, for some even skeletal in their robotic nature. These stabbing limbs dig through the borders of a six-sided diamond. On each of its sides, six rigid insectoid limbs ending in scything claws emerge. The "head" of this insect can be placed on top or bottom of this long formation, resembling that of a carnivorous carabid or staphylinid beetle.

Map Location:

See the red circle with question marks within its borders.

Government Type:

The OSRF features three large blocs of powerful aliens who each have their own general governmental structures. As they are more of a pact than a singular government, much of the higher level decision

The arthropod czlozekostra ("Complex External Skeleton") are run by a combination of lower level directly elected officials at local and sometimes national levels and higher up features advanced AI's and councils of mentally-linked cybernetic individuals. The third is joined together as a gestalt consciousness and at that point working directly under the supervision of an arcane super-computer cloud-like entity formed of psionic, biomechanical, and cybernetic components simply known as the Egregor. While the entity has a prominent position in the primary czlozekostra leadership, it is primarily in an advisory role - the AI's and gestalt-councils are obligated to consider its words more heavily but their collective power holds more sway.

Ordinary czlozekostra enact higher up decision making directly through petitioning, demonstrating, and collectively communicating to local leaders and can even vote out gestalt-council members, replacing them with their own candidates. They can vote to even modify parts of the AI-councils, changing the parameters of their decision making and introducing new components to them. While it is difficult to replace individual AI's due to the highly advanced nature of their construction, they can be molded to change the parameters of their decision making to better suit collective czlozekostra needs. The interconnected cyberbiological intelligence of both AI councils and the egregor allow for rapid decision making and information analysis, allowing them to absorb information provided by entire planets of voters to tailor craft policy.

The rotting fungal Salibughri ("Spore's Scions", "Sally-boor-E") have a similarly joint-consciousness oriented leadership, with their highest sapient leaders connected to gigantic neuromycelial networks, allonwing for rapid information transfer and discourse. Rather than "depersonalizing" their leaders, they are able to operate independently and with individual Egregors for differing sections of their territory rather than a single large one like the slozvnesikostra. While both allow for a high degree of direct democratic involvement, the salibughri emphasizes a great deal of aggressive populist action. While they also lack individual political parties, they do posssess societal interest groups, known as Citizen or Specialist Assemblies. These represent groups such as artists, cargo haulers, industrial workers, void-tech scientists and so on and as they are note voted into power, tend to collaborate rather than compete.

Depending on the situation, these Assemblies are often temporarily mind-linked to the neuromycelial networks. This results in direct involvement of specialized (often civilian) knowledgement for larger scale government initiatives. As salibughri leaders use essentially a high tech biodigital information network to communicate, the assembly of such a governmental body is treated as a single "entity" as opposed to individual. It too is a gestalt with a higher range of "individual" autonomy, and like with their athropod allies, they can frequently "swap out" individual members albeit even more quickly allowing for faster decision making. The massive data stores generaitons of politicians have left in the neuromycelial network allows them a massive wealth of information as well as the creation of biogintelligences that can serve in advisory roles, similar to AI's though made primarily from living sources.

The tall and eel like tiarncnoic ("Lord of the Hills") in spite of their advanced antigravitational and energy-manipulation technology have the most primitive system of governance. They are still often nomadic tribespeople who deliberately maintained a series of elder councils though it is a mistake to assume they have remained static politically. The word "elder" has come to mean as much senior leaders as it has wisened youth who have stepped up to the task. Much of their decision making since their liberation from the Federation and barbarian incusions is focused on these councils though the individuals who comprise it in many cases are linked to long family lineages associated with rulership. Voting however is based on "family units" and collectives of individuals, whether friends, craftspeople, or even religious practitioners, much of it taking place at a very local level however.

For larger scale geopolitics, the tiarncnoic organize their individual tribes into alliances. A ruling council of tribal chiefs is set up along with their varius assistants. Yet its power is balanced out by AI collectives made by the "heads" of various individual collectives and family units, representing the interests outside of the ruling leadership. While they tend to not really have a class system, even the vague semblance of one in leadership necessitates such an anachronistic usage of technology. In some cases, the "ancestral intelligence" (ANCINT's) even have more political power than the still flesh-and-blood council members. However the people themselves organize as efficiently as anyone else to keep either in check and most council members see themselves as of their specific tribe first and foremost.

Demographics:

The OSRF has three primary species that inhabit it listed below, in order of rising populace. Humans comprise the second largest aspect of its populace due to Federation economic policy having relocated many to the area for economic growth. Though once they were the dominant power in what is now OSRF territory, they have since receded in that field to let aliens take a more promiennt role. Their political, economic, and military power has a large part been absorbed into the front though exclusively human settlements have long since been banned. They have otherwise demonstrated themselves not just as victims of the same imperial oppressors yet also beholden to the same revolutionary fervor as any of those they once saw themselves as the betters of.

A variety of miscellaneous minor species also inhabit the region, sometimes in great numbers yet never to the extent of becoming major power blocs in and of themselves. The majority of them are also quite unususal: demonic rocky-skinned creatures, living cyborg coral colonies, bony membrane-covered creatures of skeletal frame and x-shaped shovel heads, as well as certain wraith-like beings inhabting the "gulf" between systems. The dwellers of said gulf, simply known as voidhangers, are quite cryptic and the Front technically does not count them as members if only due to the fact they have not collectively agreed to membership. Some of them resemble the czlozekostra albeit with transparent, plankton like bodies and a semblance to eerie deep sea amphipods and isopods, freshwater remipedes, and phronima. Not much is known about them only that diplomacy between them and the Front has been going on even before they had fully manifested as a galactic power.

Czlozekostra

Their name translates to english as "complex external skeleton" and to many they are the public face of the OSRF. The "zekts" as some call them are a arthropod-like species originating from the periphery world of Zelenzarostle ("Zelen-zarost-leh", Verdantly Overgrown in English) but have since spread throughout the region. Even beyond it they are well known for their mysterious fleets of roaming habitat-ships and patchwork nomad vessels. In spite of their fearsome reputation and political power in the Front, their population level is below those of the humans and of the region. It is however growing as more and more independent czlozekostra fleets and worlds begin to join their cause, expected to reach population parity in as fast as two years.

Resembling staphylinid and carabid beetles with some mantis shrimp characteristics, these unusual aliens are enormous with an average height beteween 7''11 to 11''5, with some capable of growing to 25''. Their broad and segmented bodies feature multiple abdominal and thorax components, making them deceptively flexible in spite of their lumbering and dense forms. A complex shell of interlocking carapace plates, underlying malleable connective biomesh, and film-like shock-absorbant dermal layering keeps their bodies well protected. Their bodies can extend quite notably but they tend to hunch over to obscure their true size.

A czlozekostra has at least 16 limbs they use for movement and manipulation, typically having at least two for either task. Their complex brains and neural-clusters, distributed in both cranium and torso, allow them to not only use all in tandem but also focus on and interact with multiple things at once. These limbs can often be specialized for many tasks whether building, cutting, digging, crushing, and so on. In some cases, they may have long elongated abdominal sections similar to tails, wings, or even stingers. All of this is draped in often dark, murky colours frequently likened to the rotting undergrowth of forests and jungles. They appear camouflaged by default though for an environment very different from the civilized world.

The visages meanwhile are best described as helmeted, mask-like, and difficult to read. With no real soft flesh immediately visible, a zekt's face often slopes forwards with a semi-flattened appearance, shield or shovel in a manner similar to rove beetles or longer and distinctly hungry looking as in ground beetles, both ending in complex overlapping mouthparts. The most notable are their four to eight larger mandibles, frequently serrated and curving, surrounded by smaller maxxilia, palps, and labium along with other frequently claw-tipped appendages. All of this can retract behind oral plating that further masks them. Some species have lengthy retractable antennae frquently emerging from behind or above domes containing many smaller eye-like organs beneath faux-opaque exteriors.

Living between 130 to 200 years, longer with biological modifications, they nonetheless begin life as mere larvae. Young czlozekostra are born as large armored grub-like creatures, resembling carabid and staphylinid larvae with longer limbss and ridged, almost bladed carapaces. While they retain animalistic survival instincts and even knowledge such as social interaction and language, their brains are still developing. They cannot necessarily make use of all of this as still highly feral animals omnivorous yet vicious all the same. They stay in this stage between seven to ten years, pupating into a juvenile state of pale carapace and lethargic motion. They do not mature as fast as actual insects but as it takes at most four years to reach adulthood from the juvenile state, this is still impressively fast.

Combined with genetically inherited bestial instincts, zekts can come off as feral and difficult to read. This belies their impressive intelligence, being masters of augmentation. So prolific is their usage of biological, cybernetic, and even psionic/supernatural methods of augmentation many populaces feature a complete absence of unmodified czlozekostra. A single zekt can possess multiple layers of additional enhancements. These can range from grafted carapace plating, additional limbs, and energy-absorption and storage carapace-pods to whole internal habitats of symbiotic parasites that can serve as redundant organs, eldritch engram-sorceries woven into their underlying subdermal biomass and organs, even artificial automata-drone and hive creature spawning manufacturing plants.

Czlozekostra technology is defined by this unity of conflicting metallic and organic components with psionic or ethereal elements becoming very commonplace. While their biotech is considered their primary specialty, their ability to fuse all three or four is increasingly seen as their defining feature. This results in highly adaptable systems that can interface with a wide array of technology on top of being practically made for modifications. Aggressive research into ethereal "voidtech" has helped provide an alternative to conventional "hard science" FTL, utilizing the scientific study of the occult beliefs popular among large numbers of the populace. Zekt ships and those who have integrated their tech can often travel through a sort of eldritch "sub-dimension" layered under reality like the meat and blood beneath flesh, difficult to navigatee due to its mysterious void-life but discrete and fairly cost effective.

The culture of these arthropoids can come off as very cold and distant. Zekts do not have child-rearing instincts, something left to the nursery-acadmies, but they do have an extremely strong social security net and strongly emphasize involvement in the public life. While individually they can come off as uncaring and solitary, they view individuality as an extension of collectivity. Every zekt is simply the echoes of their predecessors and environment. They may lack the idea of biological family yet the power of unity and mutual cooperation is unrivalled, with interest groups for arts, sciencies, ideology, and faith forming very quickly.

They are known to be highly critical of those outside of themselves, being near disdainful of conventional democracies and especially corporate interests, sometimes leading to an understated arrogance in their manners. They are however, very blunt and to the point, extending this not just from ideology but to interpersonal relationships. If they count you among their own, even if you are a different species they believe you have an objective right to the same benefits and liberties as the rest of the collective hive.

This collective way of thinking even extends to how they approach work and labour. In most reasonably large settlements, everyone is guaranteed group habitation and vital supplies such as nourishment and entertainment-stimulation. Many czlozekostra regardless participate in labour as with just particular exceptions, labour has is collectively owned by participants and thus collectively benefited from in terms of profits. Conventional "leadership" such as CEO's and company heads is occasional and often done with scaled down egregors. Rather than working for a living, most labour is meant to acquire additional credits for luxuries and just as frequently, out of genuine interest in the work. While much production is solely for sustaining their needs, they have geared more towards commercial production to stay competitive with the rest of known space as of late.

Tiarncnoic

Their name means "Lord of the Hills", a reflection of not just their hilly homeworld of Tiorgreilig ("Solar Tyrant's Graveyard") but their imposing stature. They are longtime inhabitants of the eastern stretch of the periphery, known for their anachronistic technopaganism and roaming, nomadic lifestyles. Their population is higher than that of the humans by a moderate margin, making them the second most populous species in the region. A large part of their populace has ventured outwards past periphery space, joining the czlozekostra in large independent fleets, but recent political developments has seen many returning. In turn, it is possible their numbers may almost near those of the salighburi.

Evolved from Tiorgreilig's large eels, the people of Tiorgreilig are almost slender if not for the dense-looking bone and tightly packed muscle visible on their tall bodies. Vestigial tails in some population groups hint at their distant ancestry with more searfaring ones retaining the anguilid characteristic. Digitigrade legs beginning their bend mid-thigh end in talon-like feet compliment tri jointed arms of jutting bone and the long, curling digits of their six figured hands. Their often bluish-white and very slightly purplish, faded skin colours were likely evolved to mimic the fog of their homeworld. They average between 6''11 to 9''9 in height, with a few instances of ten foot tall older "noikz" as they are sometimes colloquially called.

Their torsos feature broad shoulders but they taper out past their midsection, with prominent thigh bones that help emphasize their long fin-evolved legs and arms. Some species have smaller fin-like growths between their waist and arms, others small skeletal arms capable of grasping and fine manipulation. Complimenting this feral appearance are their heads, elongated and eel like though with partially wider foreheads. Below is a maw of sharp teeth with a complex lower "double-jaw", one overlapping the other and combining with an upper jaw to form a second row of teeth. These can be shifted forwards to better grasp prey and mulch meals, almost like the detaching jaw of a dragonfly nymph yet from within their mouth. They also have a "third eye" - an organ emerging from the front of their brain that they use to detect sources of energy such as heat, electricity, or even psionic and ethereal power. In spite of their evolved nature, it is still heavily used for a variety of everyday tasks.

Even just standing normally, due to a slight hunch and the bend of their limbs, they often look ready to chase down prey, with impressive running speed and leaping capability owing to their strength. While they are not as powerful as the zekts, their mobility and reactivity gives them unparalleled default agility within the OSRF. Their technology is also seen as the most advanced with antigravitational or "hover" technology and energy manipulation being their hallmarks. The ability to create and maintain barriers of shimmering teal-purple energy and have even massive city-sized land-vehicles hovering above the ground are common testaments to their crafting skill.

They have also crafted a number of high tech robots frequently outfitted with both forms of technology, most famously for military purposes but frequently used for exploration, construction, repair, and even research in vacuum-type gravity-free environments. The study of robotics is tied to their growing field of cybernetic and ethereal augmentation, with many robotic components form the basis for bodily modification. Meanwhile, said robotics help regulate the sorcerous powers they can imbue into their forms, fulfilling a similar role through scientifically applied occultism. Biological augmentation still is fairly rudimentary but with the assistance of their allies this is changing.

On average they possesss the most psionics or "etherealists" as the OSRF calls them, with their "third eye" believed to be an evolutionary response to this. Their etherealism however takes on a very spiritual air to it as generations upon generations of near-unbroken polytheism inevitably would. In spite of their level of advancement, they worship or revere and centre the colossal eel-like creatures that inhabit the areas around their homeworld and surrounding planets. While the czlozekostra have a more cryptic, even esoteric form of supernatural belief (in the instances they even do believe), their piscine counterparts are fairly explicit. While their faith is hardly structured and is a continuation of the paganism of their origins, it is united in the solar predators that it centres around.

They believe themselves to have been born from the bones, shedded scales, or sometimes even the remains of their mighty carnivore deities. In the whirling cycles of battle, hunting, and sorcerous power these mysterious god-beings engaged in, the cosmos is shaped on a spiritual and metaphysical level. Their own tumultuous history of inter-tribal conflict and survival in a harsh and mysterious land is but a reflection of the cyclic, divine existences of those that swarm and battle above their atmosphere. Their belief is quite fluid and doctrine varies wildly, sometimes within a tribe, but they are one of the most religious groups within the OSRF. This does not manifest in them being socially outdated and entrenched in their ways; they simply see the divine as an ever-present part even of purely scientific endeavours.

The tiarncnoic are viewed as a free spirited people culturally, with a tendency for wanderlust and adventurousness as much as communal activity and reverence for ages old custom. In spite of the prominence of their native traditions, they are hardly adverse to change, welcoming new art and scientific knowledge, culture even. They can be skeptical to judgemental of "civilized" people and dense bureaucracy, finding the fetishizaiton of enlightened knowledge and constant techno-economic progress to be reflective of a hole in people's spiritual and communal lives. They are not very dogmatic, caring little about the "sanctity" of their polytheistic belief, but they hold their ageless ways in high regard a large part due to a brutal history of colonization they had to endure. This informs their support for national and indigenous liberation and decolonizaiton movements, sometimes threatening even intervention on the side of those they perceive as living under the boot of exploitative leaders.

Salibughri

The most populous species in the OSRF and surrounding systems, these highly religious creatures are known for their literally rotten appearance and overgrown cities. Their world of origin is unknown but as multiple populations "evolved" across a variety of worlds, it is believed they were spread by some external force. Their faith believes it to be a mythic "Gnosis Vault" - a massive living spore believed to be inspired by the giant solar fungal masses endemic to the region. Many of them have begun to move outwards towards the galactic core in the wake of the recent civil wars and the formation of the OSRF. A massive number still remain within the Front's boundaries and they are arguably its most established species.

Of the three main species of this alliance, they are the smallest and the most humanoid. Their general structure is two arms, two legs, and a head. It is everything else where they wildly differ. "Boori" flesh looks like rotten, dark pinkish-brown meat that might turn into a sludgy slop any minute. Visible veins and subdermal parasites thicken and pulsing beneath, sometimes causing their biomass to darken with grey and mottled green colours. Their seven fingered hands (three on one side, two on another, two "thumbs" at the top and bottom) are skeletal and covered in a layer of retractable rubbery muscle-membrane while their legs end in root-like protrusions that grip like claws. Their mouths are cavernous, craggy caves in their lower faces filled with pointed, triangular rock-like teeth hidden behind membranous flesh with adjustable translucency. They average around 5''10 to 8''10, with the tallest being around 10''5.

Their bodies are sometimes infested with a variety of complex symbiotic organisms though unlike the zlozekostra, much of it is more fungoid or plant than it is living beyond the aforementioned worms. They too are heavily augmented though most of it is for general purpose civilian use. These include specialized feeder-branches for higher levels of nutrient extraction, neuromycelial roots for chemical-communicaiton data absorption, and salibughri-adapted worms bred to clean their bodies and fight off diseases. Some of it can converge on similar territory as their insectoid counterparts though they do not have as strong of a cultural background of this practice. They are still every bit as adaptable however, with their technically fungi-derived forms in some ways even more adaptable than that of a conventional animal.

They are on average highly religious though recent reforms and civil liberties have seen these numbers diminish. A growing number practice other faiths or simply abstain from spiritual belief yet they remain a minority. Their system of belief is canonized and with its own scriptural and supportive texts, closer to an actual religion than occultism and animist polytheism like their comrades. It is diverse enough to have taken various forms as well have been a part of various territorial, ethnic, and ideological conflicts throughout their history. Much of this was manipulated by both the barbarians and Federation in recent history, setting them against one another for their own goals and control over the area.

As previously stated, the Gnosis Vault is the prime figure of their belief, to whom they desire a transcendence towards. How exactly can vary wildly; through asceticism and self purification, the totality of collective unity, the uplifting of the misery of those surrounding them - their central text the Antediluvian Utterance demonstrates through myth and parable the many ways to demonstrate this. Yet its ambiguity surrounding the nature of the Vault's divinity has resulted in many differing denominations of faith, the most prominent of which known as the Worm Sect worship not the moon but its inhabitants. While many salibughri voluntarily let worms settle into their bodies, these controversial practitioners take it to a further extreme. So wormridden can they become that their consciousnesses reside in the squirming creatures than their own bodies.

After all, if the Gnosis Vault itself is the land from which the worms originate and it is a "dead moon", is it not its flesh and viscera that truly live or the life that gestates, reproduces, and ravages amidst its oceans of churning flesh? While they were a heavily persecuted group in the past, the recent decades have seen them begin to be accepted among the wider whole. The stigma surrounding them and their beliefs once viewed near-universally as heresy is not absent. Yet it no longer stops them from positions of leadership and religious wisdom. This is important as their grotesque practices have been vital in making them some of the best technicains in the entirety of not just salibughri but Front space.

The Salibughri are master architects and communications experts, with the the worm sect having helped further propel both of these fields. The neuro-mycelial networks they use are their invention, relying heavily on fungi colonies cultured by the usage of specialized worms who can manipulate the growt of certain fungoid species. The usage of enormous bioengineered worm creatures in construction is another masterpiece of theirs. These creatures' shed skin can be molded into various materials, laced with complex metals and biocomponents. Their ability to process materials in their semi-robotic innards to combine, breakdown, fuse, or even forge materials, before vomiting or excreting it as perfeclty forged components is considered highly advanced. They are specialized primarily in biotech but have implemented conventional "hard" and psionic/ethereal knowledge quite readily.

As a heavily religious society, their culture can come off as insular and ignorant at first but reveals itself to be highly communal and generous. Salibughri are ambvialent to many of the shifting tides of culture across the stars but they welcome variety into their lives regardless. The best way to express this is often with a variety of celebrations, many of which relate to major historical and religious events. Yet many of them are increasingly secular or otherwise take on a less devotional air; they celebrate with dance, cuisine, neuro-mycelial communion, and ritual. This is to the extent a particularly noteworthy party can become memorialized as a day of celebration simply because everyone enjoyed it that much.

It is not a mistake to assume they can be somewhat skeptical of a galaxy that for the most part does not follow a similar way of thinking. They believe that one can find underlying similarities and thematic currents of belief that unite beyond pure dogmatism and doctrine. They are subsequently also associated with theorists and philosophy, with much of their beliefs informed not just by the Antediluvian Utterance but an explosion of philosophical and political literature and other media. This is knowledge they like to share and debate amongst themselves with, especially with hyperspeed neuro-mycelial networks. This emphasis on knowledge can make them feel somewhat pretentious especially for outsiders.

Truthfully they might believe the same about those outside of their core systems yet they are known for their generosity as well. While the tiarncnoic may be more obviously outgoing, the salibughri are more generous as a whole. There is a spirit of community that is present even among strangers, augmented by pseudo-telepathic communication and various social cues. For outsiders this layer of subtlety is hard to detect but it is only imporant insofar if one is an actual calibughri or truly adapted to their ways. They believe that if you are a part of their settlements and organizations, then your biological differences mean little, with their Gnosis Vault seeing them not as "beings" but simply reflections of greater metaphysical ideas. In its churning tides of mystery, our differences simply melt into nothingness.

Military:

(The fun part! What’s defending your nation in these uncertain times? You can provide as much or as little detail as you like. Can’t also forget, showing tons of pictures of what their soldiers, vehicles and ships look like :P)

The OSRF as a whole is a military focused on tough, resilient infantry capable of rapid movement and mechanized coordination rapidly shuttling them into engagement range with enemies. While they tend to lack as much heavy armor (primarily tanks and land cruisers) as others, their baseline infantry on average are armed, armored, and augmented to a much higher degree. They are further reinforced by powerful psionic/ethereal units primarily focused on improving their performance. These "etherealists" can protect via psionically distorting the space around comrades to obscure their profile, create barriers of solidified psionic energy, or even momentarily distort any heat or electricity readings around them. They are capable of more destructive feets, manifesting disruptions in space itself to blast reinforced positions, creating exit-fields around weapon barrels to augment their rounds, and even warping in extradimensional creatures to fight alongside them.

The majority of their ground armor is focused on rapid deployment and long distance engagement, with high velocity cannons and multiple missile launch systems being their iconic weaponry. They have a variety of mecha that while not meant for the same role of tanks can often be their conventional mainline heavy armor. Most of these may not have a tank's devastating long-range main cannon but they do have various auxiliary energy, missile, cannon, and sometimes even psionic weapons. Typically they do not try to out brute force enemy armor as much as to out-manoeuvre them, manipulating them into crossfires and killzones. Infantry play a vital role in this with a variety of advanced anti-armor weapon systems used to harass heavier vehicular threats into repositioning; sometimes by chasing soft targets and other times by forcing them from their positions. Advanced target-painting systems and weapons designed to stun or disrupt the systems of enemy heavy armor further makes them vulnerable to their own vehicles.

Their tanks reflect this mindset of speed, range, and aggression. They feature prominent high velocity cannons (with both solid synthetic/biological and energy-type output available) but a number of additional weapon systems, primarily aimed at targeting infantry but also light long range artillery. Missile systems are typically reserved for lighter IFV's and other AFV's but frequently find their way to their tanks in recent years along with light mortars/heavier grenade launchers. High velocity machine guns, energy or solid round based, to even light autocannons are also prominent. Yet tanks are also capable of highly encrypted direct communication and coordination with friendly forces, with the ability to transmit and examine data for positioning, targeting, and coordination. Combined with features such as anti-gravitational movement, adjustable tracks, or even arthropod limbs, their ability to move over tough terrain at rapid speeds lets them take up advantageous positions normally impossible for most vehicles to acquire.

Most unusual is their usage of various bioconstructs and robots. The first of these can include domesticated organisms modified for combat or essentially biomecha. This is a somewhat misleading title as they tend to a;sp feature prominent cybernetics in their construction, but they tend to prominently feature as support units for their infantry alongside "drone" type automata. Both will often provide support for squads with additional fire capacity but also the ability to create energy shields, scan and track targets, dig into the ground to rapidly create cover or hiding spots, or even forwards reconaissance and heavy weapons ounting. This is useful for smaller squads of more powerful infantry, augmenting their capabilities with cost effective, comparatively expandable units.

Larger versions of both can frequently take the part of armored vehicles, often controlled via telepathic, cybernetic, and neuromycelial means and specialized "communicator parasites" between handler and host. The majority of these fulfill roles between those of support drones and IFV's to medium AFV's, having high movement capability and often a variety of light to medium type heavy weapons, letting them put out impressive volumes of firepower typically for harassment and suppression purposes. Some have limited flight or gliding capabilities, others can burrow below fortifications, and some can leap massive distances, gaining on targets in ambushes before they can blink. Some are large enough to function as tanks though they tend to have shorter ranged weaponry while retaining high mobility and versatility. Their speed combined with ability to mount lighter artillery such as rocket/mortar options makes them excellent for providing rapid though not dedicated long range support and harassment opportunity, even if they will not be as powerful as dedicated bombardment options.

Their space fleet focuses on long range energy weapons with select gravitationally accelerated cannons being retrofitted onto newer ships. While the latter are more common on newer ground vehicles, they have seen prominent adaptation after roughshod retrofits during the independence war demonstrated their might. Complex missile systems let them focus down multiple targets as well as giving CIWS and anti-missile systems a struggle. Not merely by volume of missiles launched but their ability to "blink" in and out of realspace, jammer arrays, and their stealth capabilities of "dead" launches and low-emission gas propulsion (before using rapid bursts to close in) make them very tricky to fight. Even worse, many of their primary cannon type weapons can have additional effects on their targets, creating "reactive fields" from pent up volatile energies that amplify the effect of additional beam/plasma/pulse type wepaons for example. Other time sthey may diminish scanning/targeting capabilities or even cause psionic anomalies.

This comes at the cost of their heavy hitting damage options being somewhat limited, focusing on disrupting and debilitating fleets very heavily. The idea is to soften or overwhelm them with all kinds of interfering effects, making them easier to then pick off. While this is not necessarily very efficient when it comes to pure kill ratios, it can frequently force fleets to retreat or make force them to awkwardly split up their forces as major enemy vessels quickly struggle to bring their full power to bear. However, for genuine raw killing power, the enormous void-creatures (and the retrofitted husks of such) found in the "gulf" within OSRF space possess that in great number. These enormous predators (and their reanimated cadaveres), sometimes greater in size than capital ships, possess various parasites, anatomy, and mutations serving as weapons and munitions. Mythic starfaring serpent-eels, horrific mantis-centipede leviathans, pustulent spore-masses of bristling filth, all frequently augmented with conventioanl weaponry - to face these incrasingly common monstrosities is the stuff of many horror stories emerging from Front space.

History:

The eastern periphery systems of what was once the Federation have historically been rife with conflict, dissatisfaction, greed, and exploitation. Resource rich yet marginalizedin galactic politics, it was at once a jewel in the empire's crown and an unwilling servant beneath its boots. Its absorption into the the Federation, accomplished via the manipulation of pre-existing ethnic, ideological, and territorial tensions and "justified" humanitarian intervention, has only recently served as a frequent topic of discourse when discussing the great decline of empires.

The Orion Sphere Revolutionary Front had many names in its infancy, battling against as much reactionary terror cells and militant groups as it did the Federation and its crony-states. Many times had it been crushed yet just as many had the desire for liberation both ideological and territorial ignite again and again. As the overburdened mechanisms of rulership began to buckle under their own weight, a distant threat of alien invasion began to become increasingly tangible. It is from the ensuring war that the veterans of many insurrectionary actions and the few independent planet states in the area began to prepare for a shift in the geopolitical paradigm.

The brutal liberation war was a chaotic one responsible for some of the most hellish fighting on the eastern front of the sphere. Conventional wisdom sees it as a maddening war of all against all yet in reality, the barbarians and the Federation frequently employed the same strategies. As Federation control over eastern sphere worlds weakened, the barbarians swept in to fill the power vacuum. Both would manipulate the individual worlds against one another to protect their own holdings and engage in proxy wars, saving their main forces for gaps in one another's defences. Yet the OSRF was aware of this and the growing discontent among the civilian populace. The foreign "liberators" quickly proved to be as cruel of masters as the enlightened cruelty of those they had replaced.

From the cry of frustration and subjugation of the imprisoned masses came an uproar of anger and defiance. As once civilian masses began to organize en masse, protesting then rioting against the slavish exploitation of their labour, the destructive resource extraction of their homelands, and the fattening of the all-too-willing collaborators of the ruling classes, both superpowers saw a common problem. Temporary truces between warlords and generals to "sort out" civil unrest however, turned out to be the powder keg lighting the OSRF had hoped for to galvanize mass resistance. When the war was revealed as a glorified sham to the masses with these two great enemies working under the table with one another, the blowback was colossal.

It was enough to kickstart the fires of revolution that had smouldered in the background, devouring isolated and ruined worlds, now angrily spreading to the more prosperous and internally divided of worlds. Insurgencies and guerilla campaigns, once isolated to individual systems, began to spread as the populace of the worlds became hostile. Outer worlds were the first to fall, ignored as the Federation-Barbarian war heated up again, forcing one another's hand and trying to capitalize on one another's instability. Like a storm of pickaxes, batons, knives, and IED's, a once captive populace immediately seized the opportunity. Combined with the gradual transformation of full blown rebellions into interplanetary military groups, the once great powers found themselves stretched out, wasting personnel and supplies on one another, and now the prey to the vengeful people they once thought of as resources.

Devoured and decimated by a once maligned populace, the great powers were forced out of the eastern territories. From the ruins, a grand unification emerged. The revolutionary fire had not merely scourged the mark of the hated colonialist and and imperialist, it had reduced the boundaries that once divided the various inhabitants of these systems to a withered husk. With massive spoils of war left from the driven enemy, a collaborationist ruling class now forced into chains, and a fervour to never again bow to corporation or empeor, the OSRF had truly been materialized.

With the Federation's fall and the reduction of the barbarians to at best scattered warbands and holdouts, the Front has considerably expanded. Its current actions see this now solidified alliance expanding its ideology to surrounding systems as those who once fleed from the war encouraged to now return. A great influx of foreign capital and resources has begun. It fuels the growth of increasingly pro OSRF sentiment in surrounding regions, spreading even into the galactic core as its ideological expansion outstrips its physical one. Many potential candidates are wracked by tumultuous politics, reeling from the aftermath of a brual inter-imperial war, yet the promise of a new possibility away from the realm of empire remains tantalizing. Even those absorbed into its fold still struggle but an expansion of its geopolitical power in a calculated ppush is bearing fruit in stabilizing its fresh, still somewhat tenuous allies.

At the same time, mysterious research into the fields of the arcane, the psionic, the occult, and the eldritch have begun to make waves past its boundaries. Manifestations of unearthly power and the presence of mythic void-borne creatues, some not believed to be of this reality, drape it in an air of danger an dmystery. Research into the unity of the unearthly knowledge with cutting edge science has resulted in a boon of experimental technologies and Front leadership hopes to be the torchbearer for a new paradigm of technopolitical development. While its alliances with many nomadic groups, independent systems or planets, and NGO's does not result in direct control, it is growing its strength in a tangible fashion. It can no longer be written off as at best a resource rich backwater; it is a rising force and its message is beginning to resonate with increasing volume across the stars.

Hard Sci-fi Crime/Military

How hard are we talking?

Orion Asunder (Space Opera NRP)

Is there still room to join? When is this RP going to start? I might want to see how it rolls in action before committing but I am getting interested.

Into Perdition's Jaws

Rho-Hux had taken the lead as he swung into the treetops, swallowed by the cluttered bramble above and the thick shadows cast into the undergrowth the rest of the team crept and trundled. The day was not a bright one and the sunlight that did peek through had a faint, almost silvery colour to it as it peeked through the dense leaves. The ground below was its own maze but the treetops could not be said to be any better. Branches overlapped branches, bushy clusters of fuzzball like flowers competed for the thin beams of light, and dense moss and creeping vegetation colonizes where any rot on wood crept. Progress might be faster through such a path but the treacherous nature of the Sprawls spared through from its obfuscating grasp.

Traveling through the trees, a particular sensation began to creep and tug at the geatirocht’s senses. Like a faint electrical current that was woven through the air, the residual ether from the howitzer swamped the region around the heavy weapon’s firing pit, densest on the ground as Silver, Paris, and Zsresrinn moved through. Mere tendrils as opposed to the enveloping heat-wave like miasma occupied the upper levels of the wood, whispering the un-logic driven nonsense of the Abzu into quiet, unsuspecting corners of the mind. Below, the afterwash effect was fading but the three-person team, quiet as they were, would not be able to shake the feeling of the seeping, skin-crawling otherworldly power washing over them.

It was thick enough that Silver’s cloaking system was starting to gather it across his body. Invisible to sight but he would be able to feel it clinging to his armour – patches of piercing cold that dug into the skin and seemed to hum to his head. His armour naturally shielded him, even as the ether in the air slowly waned, but his cloaking system might not shroud him as much as he thought.

To anyone with sufficiently advanced scanning modules for their visors, it would appear that clumps of supernatural waste byproduct were gradually concentrating around an unseen, indefinite shape. That is not what the enormous creature on the ground noticed first however.

From his perch up high, Rho-Hux would be able to see the enormous predator – low to the ground like a crocodile slithering slowly, its gnarled arms thickening with bony outgrowths and muscle past the elbow as a squirming leech-like creature feebly thrashed against the leaves and the dirt. Gaseous hissing exited its tendril-lined maw, slithering head and serrated paddle tail writhing angrily against rows of interlocking triangular teeth slowly soaking in the blue-green of its blood. It was a large beast, not as dense as Zsresrinn but its body long and streamlined with powerful, brutish muscle and clustered of bony armour-like growth, like some enormous semi-reptilian creature.

Plough Head

Leafslither

The gealtirocht remained unseen to the creature as its attention turned towards the largest member of the party - Zsresrinn. For a split second, its jaws froze and its long tail with its four gore-drenched tips would rise over it almost snakelike, flickers of flashing red membrane around its four tooth-like prongs flashing at the approaching vrexul. Slowly it began to drag itself backwards, audibly scraping across the leaves and roots as the mechanical clunking of Paris neared.

Subtly, movement could be seen in the bushes. A scent unlike the raw and dry earthiness of the plough-head, wet and slimy like the creature trapped in its jaws. If she or the others could scan the foliage opposite to the plough-head, it was clear that its captive had not been abandoned. Clusters of quiet and creeping leafslithers lay hiding and still, their sickle like claws scraping against the ground as eyeless faces watched the grim spectacle play out before them. The dense ether in the air had marked them out, painting their skin in hues of light blue and yellow that those touched by the Abzu could easily see even through the miasmatic fog.

Were they frightened or were they enraged? They were not leaving one way or the other.

To the plough head, the Sect team wasn’t a random encounter – these were predators every bit as savage in tooth and claw as any dweller of the forest deep. The meat in its mouth, small as it was, remained its brutal livelihood; the iron-giant that stomped behind the enormous arthropod made it clear these two were in league with one another. It could feel a third, its void-receptive sensory glands detecting a shrouded presence causing its frill-plates around its head and neck to rise.

A deep, sonorous growl began to emerge from its throat, drowning the cries of its victim. Like a faulty heating unit it groaned, morphing ominously into a phlegmy, dragging growl. Too deep to merely be emerging from its mouth but radiating from its heavy body as its tail’s pincer grips grated across tree bark and its mid-limbs gripped into the dirt. It might be stepping back but with its hind legs coiled and tensed, there was no telling how it might react.

This prompted rustling in the leaves above, subtle but unheard amidst the plough head’s defensive response. Rho-Hux would hear the movements then see the leaves shift a few feet ahead of him. More leafslithers – slender bodies snaking through the clutter of branches and leaves, positioning themselves above and around the far larger predator below. One of them rose its head and froze. It did not need eyes for the gealtirocht to tell that it was looking his way, frozen still as if by command as its compatriots paused, hesitating at the sight of an unexpected presence up in the tree tops with them.

As this was ongoing, the surviving drone, re-entering the control range of Zsresrinn, had slowly hovered over the nearby hill. Image quality from the somatic link was erratic but not beyond salvation, even as it neared where the concentration was at its deepest. Sight of the insurgent howitzer pit was achieved – a deep wide depression in the earth, dug into the top of the hill and flattened out with wooden panels and morphic fungal planks. It was quite wide and large, connected to what appeared to be a small shack of some sort, quickly made with rapidly grown and maintain tarrhaidim biomass padding and infested plasteel, sporting a series of small antennae emerging from its slanted rooftop. A few trenches could be spotted around the sides that stretched off across the elevated ground to defensive positions, collapsed tents as well further to the heart of the emplacement.

The centrepiece however was the void-howitzer itself. The pit was deep enough to support this enormous, semi-cylindrical monstrosity. Its barrel had square-like protrusions apart of a normally cylindrical frame, lined with specialized ether-filtering grates that stopped an inch or so short of its wide mouth. Pointed prong-like appendages stretched out from a few inches behind, stopping over its top and lightly glowing in the dim aftermath of its recent burst. Energy modulation and projectile shaper attachments – high end equipment innocuous at first but capable of turning mere high explosive globs fired from a single charge to a hellish rain of smaller, rapidly launched shells. High tech equipment – a fairly recent invention but not the sort that typically ends up in insurgent hands.

Before the drone slipped away, it could tell that the small artillery position was on alert. A tall, powerful celaderaka encased in metal-laced carapace growled something out and a few tarrhaidim troopers got off of the artillery platform, leaving its computer systems and targeting attachments in exchange for picking up their bioelectric auto-rifles. Two more celaderaka were seen – unlike their leader hefting along what seemed to be an autocannon-derived battle rifle, these two had large and sickle-like blades attached over their left shoulders and dark green camo-patterned armour. Heavy duty shotguns were slung over their shoulders as they cackled and spoke – one of them had a bandolier of heavy duty slugs on his chest, the sort that you didn’t use for hunting, not game animals anyways.

A group of humans, roughly 12 or so, could be seen, lightly armoured by comparison (reconnaissance or security type armour, little augmentation capability) and with smaller calibre older generation rifles. Most were sitting in a circle around the artillery piece at the bottom of the pit and draped in sweat. A few were popping qillatu-diminisher pills or running checks on the still hot, smoking supernatural howitzer. Around where they were mostly concentrated were a few crates with a peculiar symbol on them – a U-shaped magnet with red and blue tips with a bullet piercing through its lowest end. A few of them were eating some sort of nutrient paste-gruel and one with a notably advanced looking visor, League tech by the looks of it, was moving over to the shed.

The growl from the plough-head had caught their attention and just before Zsresrinn’s drone vanished, the four tarrhaidim troopers had crept up over the top, rifles raised as they began to slowly advance down the hilltop. The heavy Kevlar like armour they wore and the exoskeletal servos across their arms and legs made it clear they could move quickly and hit hard if they wanted. Yet sharp as they were, the foliage was still thick enough they hadn’t caught sight of the standoff happening down below.

Given by the size of their rifles and the quiet, professional way they moved from cover to cover, always having one keep an eye out as the other three moved, it was clear it might not be long before they approach. The plough head seemed to notice but it had stopped, frozen in place, huffing coming from behind its jaws as it began to realize what was happening.

The window of opportunity was starting to diminish for the Sect team. Would they take the initiative, fall back, conceal themselves?

Tales From Landrunia: Ten Thousand Suns

It took a few seconds for the humungous arthropod to detect two other presences. Soon he chipped into the com channel to get Frost on the line.

He hadn't seen the skala at first; not with his own senses. With his drones, his sensory perception wasn't relegated to his own body but distributed across multiple smaller ones, linked to the central nexus of his own conscious perception. He smelled, heard, and saw what they saw like a thousand eyes inside of his own linked to a brain already used to controlling multiple limbs, bodily organs, augmentative parasites and other such components with a precision at once naturalistic and borderline mechanistic.

"Vazyrin here. Skala group detected. Around 12 of them, no firearms. A click or so away from our position. I cannot tell if they are here to scavenge or if they are a territorial patrol. That's not all."

His drones had picked up another signature; something like a faint tingle on their waving, whispy antennae. This wasn't a scent but a strange tingling that was almost electric. Elecromagnetic in particular.

"There's something else - the pilot has gone to investigate it. I can't detect it properly from here with the atmospheric conditions however. Some sort of electronics. Someone ask them whatever it is they've made contact with."

Normally, he would have gone and told the skala to stay clear. He'd been among their kind before and this planet was not unfamiliar to him. It was a good place to hide away from Federation patrols and the locals understood that.

The problem was that getting up meant giving his positions away and with an unidentified, potentially hostile presence in the clear, that meant making himself a target in an area with poor cover and visibility.

"I can try to contact the skala through my drones. Maybe I can stall them or we can work out an agreement. What's your call?"

Into Perdition's Jaws

As Rho-Hux confronted the Sect group, the offensive through the woods raged on. Off in the distance a section of the woods burned an angry, weltering orange as vehicular weaponry and shrieking mortar shells devoured foliage and infantry forces alike. The dialogue between purple, yellow, and white weapon flashes against the blue, green and orange had momentary stalled as a partially scourged open stretch of the woods became the site of another massive firefight. Gourlan’s advance had stalled but the woods weren’t any less alive with activity than they were before.

Through the shaded paths winding deeper into the heart of the Sprawls, the parasitic drones sent Zsresrinn found a foreboding, maze-like path where the mist hung heavy and the light barely reached. Bumpy and uneven terrain forced them to travel up and down an irregular topography defined by dense roots that crept over the path and sudden ditches in the earth. Footsteps and the scents associated with them could be detected; primarily troops from what could be discerned but a closer look revealed those of indigenous life forms – clearly making usage of a pathway that was increasingly revealing itself as a connecting pathway to other hideouts in the Sprawl.

Advancing further would cause the shared sensory link with the parasites to blur; a static not electric but somatic, causing the link between creator and drone to weaken as they neared the edges of control range. It couldn’t be said that was entirely the reason as to why however. A piercing, synthetic shriek roared through the thick foliage and the vision and hearing of the creatures momentarily blanked from a bright blue-white flash of light, silhouetting trees and leaves in a bright flash. Chitters, roars, and crumpling leaves could be heard in their wake as wiry, serpent-like shapes scattered through the woods, running towards and over the parasites in a wild, frenetic stampede. The sound of the unseen weapon firing was audible and visible from the distance; an angry burst of light that crept out of the depths of the Sprawl’s darker pathways yet did not truly leave it.

The creatures however, were unheard and unseen amidst the radiance. Most of the parasites sent out by Zsresrinn had been crushed in their frenetic stampede yet it is one that was impossible to hear over the monstrous, roar. It wasn’t what most would pay attention to.

Breaking from the tree cover, an enormous globule of radiant angry blue-white soared overhead. It seemed almost liquid like, a gigantic raindrop-like mass of coalescing, fleshy, warping energy not of this world. A distant chill crept across skin and carapace alike as distant waves of ethereal radiation washed over them; not enough to be dangerous but it seemed to caress them with a tender, hungry lustfulness as the globule descended towards the armoured column.

An explosion just a little less radiant than the burst that had sent it forward erupted in the woods, flattening trees and swallowing the flashing lights of weaponfire in a horrific bluish-white. Drifting clouds of an algae-like foggy blue hung as sporadic, intermittent weapons fire from the insurgents kicked up.

Their coms began to buzz, static washing through but not overwhelming the voice calling.

<How quaint; the very void-howitzers the League sold to us are now being turned on us.> A cruel laugh broke out from Gourlan, followed by a shrieking series of weapon discharge. <I hate to demand this of our guests, but would you mind dealing with this hopefully trivial matter?>

As the wash of spectrometric strangeness began to die down, the remaining two parasite-drones would have their psycho-somatic link re-established and repaired to Zsresrinn. As the stampede had ended, sight though not scent of the strange, unidentified creatures had been lost as they scattered into the woods. Yet they weren’t the only ones moving; air pressure sensors and their other longer-distance detection measures would notice other shapes moving in the wood. Yet they only needed their eyes to see something larger and multi-limbed shambling across the hill over which the void-howitzer had fired. It was too dark to make out its particular shape, too well hidden even in this frenzied moment, but a particular fresh, wet smell reeked from its body.

More importantly, the drones had established at least the rough general location of where the howitzer likely was and as they were still active, could keep an eye on the area for beast or soldier within the area. They hadn’t been detected, at least, not the living ones.