Skylar

Faction:Martian Front (The Luna Wars Were a Thing)

Eudaimonia
Archangel Spaceport
Control Tower Bravo

"Do I even want to know how you knew KemVar was moving autoturrets and defense arms on this shuttle boss?" Remarked Dismas' incredulously as he watched a squad of Dirty Deeds troopers offloading the contents of a cargo hauler on the pad below them. Reynaud was below using a loadlifter mech to extract the blocky case of a ground-air field turret. Originally meant for some corporate compound, both it and the cargo lifter it was on would be turned to much more immediately useful purposes.

"You sure you wanna?" Smirked Wander, sharing a knowing smile with his fellow mercenary as they listened to the cargo pilot's complaints about being commandeered for refugee relief operations

alert. incoming Skyguard corvette. look at terminal 4b, changing auspex wavelength to Skyguard Guard pattern.

"Huh?" Wander turned to look at the indicated terminal, where Tactics helpfully adjusted the spaceport's sensors to reveal that there was indeed a stealthed Skyguard ship closing in. "What have we here? Dismas, don't that look like a Skyguard shuttle to you?"

Tactics? Why would they be coming here under stealth?
most likely they seek to come to a covert agreement with Eudaimonia regarding the space elevator without alerting the other Martian factions. Probability 67% +/- 2.
That low?
i have not been able to compile a proper psychological profile and modus operandi for Skyguard at this time due to limited raw data. nor do I know who is on that shuttle. safe to say we need to move up our plans to hit a Skyguard data archive.
Any progress on planning that?
i am thinking. plans will be dependent on results of this envoy.
In the meantime, lets bump this up to higher authority, shall we?
agreed. least worst course of action.

"Boss, you okay?" Dismas looked in what approximated concern for the highwayman at his boss' sudden silence. But most of the Dirty Deeds were used to their leader's fits of introspection and staring into the distance. Such moments also tended to yield surprisingly inspired leadership and decisions under fire. Nor was it the weirdest kind of behavior in the brigade really.

"Fine. Fine. Lets get our paymistress and political masters on the horn about this. We ain't paid to play politics." Wander spoke aloud as he yanked a headset off a air control technician and patched in to the comm network. "This is Dirty Boss to Madame Winters. We have Skyguard coming in trying to be all sneaky-like. I think you better let the Prime Minister know about this."

oh shit.
What?
this is the only landing pad available for them to land. all VIP pads occupied, and this is the only one isolated because of our actions in "procuring" KemVar equipment. and probability they will demand convert insertion approaches unity.
FUCK
fuck indeed. can we go to a bar after this?
Shut up and give me a voice filter. Lets spook them on the way in.

"Attention, incoming unknown craft-" Continued Wander, ignoring the voice in his head as he did his best imitation of an air traffic controller while aiming a conical transmission at the corvettes general area. "This is Archangel Air Control, we have you on our scopes. Please identify yourselves."

* * * * * *

CEO Winters certainly didn't waste much time in responding to a Skyguard incursion into her domain, with an aircar descending upon the pad containing the greatest CEO in Eudaimonia and her personal staff. The CEO herself was a statuesque figure. Curvaceous, beautiful, silver-white hair complementing ruby red eyes, emphasized with a sharply cut business suit that looked like it cost a million credits (which it did considering all the integrated micro-electronics and systems it had).

Wander didn't even want to think of how much of that beauty was the result of biosculpt and genesplicing (Tactics, don't tell me.) as he strode up alongside her as they waiting for Skyguard's ship to arrive. "With respect ma'am, I don't think its a good idea to keep my men around."

"We want to send Skyguard a statement captain." Flatly argued Winters, still tapping at her holo-comp as she strode towards a good place to greet the oncoming ship. "We will not be cowed nor intimidated by what they have done at Elysium or the refugee situation they have forced on us."

"Like a bunch of chumps with assault rifles will mean much to a orbital military." Grumbled Wander. Tactics, think you can nab some data from their ship? Make this gung-ho display worth something?

i will try.

Private Comms: Pentagral Industries -> NHU

To: CEO Jonathan DeLaLune.
From: CEO Melanie Winters

Your gesture is appreciated and will be of good use in dealing with the current security situation. I look forward to further business dealings with you as time and market conditions permit.

Nations [Kingdoms] Recruiting Now!

@skylar if you wanted to you can get a head start on erveryone, you can't claim any new lands yet, but you can start making your army stronger and stuff like that.

@AbysmalDemon

Kinda jumping the gun, we don't have other players to interact with yet.

Nations [Kingdoms] Recruiting Now!

@Skylar if you zoom in on the map it says the names, what is the actual name

@AbysmalDemon

The city-states of Vallinar it will be then.

Where did you get this map from?

Nations [Kingdoms] Recruiting Now!

Hmm. I'll bite.



Nations name: The Valkyrian Empire
Your race: Valkyries, humans

Description: Forged atop the ruins of a dozen human city-states ravaged by war, disease, undead, and famine into a new kingdom led by winged Valkyries descended from the celestial realms, the Valkyrian Empire is a shining beacon of light and prosperity. A beacon they seek to spread across the world, even if their neighbors may not fully appreciate the true value of the Light just yet. All will come to know the glory of the Light, or face its burning wrath if they deny it.

Nation Notes
* Gunpowder weaponry is known but has limited production due to very limited supply of magical blasting powder. The gunmage Order of Black-Wings use flintlock firearms and bullets as conduits for their spells, but the majority of Valkyries prefer to use traditional spells and arrows instead of unpredictable blasting powder which the alchemy guilds keep under tight grips. No cannons or serious effort to introduce muskets en masse.
* Connection between the Empire and Celestial Realm is limited. The Valkyries can communicate with the higher realms and allow additional Valkyries to come to this world only infrequently. Attempts to improve the conduits between the Midrealm and Celestial Realms will be an ongoing issue.
* Humans and other races in the Empire's lands are effectively second-class workers and laborers for the Valkyrian Empire. Admittedly well-treated for what amounts to being peons and serfs writ kingdom wide, but most middle-class and all upper-class positions are held by Valkyries under their "divine" rule.

Location: Southern Continent, right side.

Faction:Martian Front (The Luna Wars Were a Thing)

Eudaimonia Colony
Founders Tower

"I spent ten years trying to get people out of Container City. Ten years trying to give people a future. Now I'm shoveling people back into that place." Victoria Mayhew sighed as she turned away from the window atop the peak of Eudaimonia's largest arcology to face the other two leaders of Eudaimonia in her office. Generals Garroway and Suvorov sat across from her desk with grave expressions on their face matching their prime minister. "And this is just the beginning isn't it?"

"All militia units mobilized and working to cordon lines of traffic and facilitate transfer of refugees into designated habitation blocks for refugee housing." Listed off Suvorov, clearly rattled like the others yet focused on her designated task at hand. "I've also ordered Attack Teams assembled and armed with what heavy ordinance we have into strategic positions around Archangel starport."

"Heavy ordinance?" Garroway asked, the older man of the military duo looking slightly surprised by Suvorov's statement. "What do we need Attack Teams for?"

"Skyguard is cracking down on Elysium." Continued to list off Suvorov, tapping on her wrist-comp to continue to bring up numbers on the militia. "The first step towards taming animals is to close the cage door. Skyguard considers everyone living in Elysium to be animals to tame, and thus they need to close escape routes. Escape routes like our space elevator."

"Skyguard wouldn't-" Garroway cut himself off midsentence as he thought about what he meant to say. "Dammit. They would. They want to, they NEED to keep control over space lift capacity if they want to turn a profit for their Jupiter backers."

"What can we do?" Mayhew asked, taking her place at her desk to bring up a display of everything Eudaimonia had. "We have a militia and a few cannoned-up shuttles. Skyguard is a full-fledged military with orbital firepower. We can't stand up to them."

"Not on our own." Spelled out Suvorov. "But there are other colonies, mercenaries, corporations. They need a space elevator not under Skyguard monopoly. We have to pool our strength if we are to have any chance of independent survival."

"Only if we can survive Skyguard's first attack." Noted Garroway. "That one we will have to weather on our own, whichever form it takes."

"Then lets hope they have their hands busy with Elysium." Said Mayhew as she read the messages scrolling across her desk and began typing out preliminary messages to mercenaries and arms corporations to feel out options. "And that someone out there can help when the dust of this initial fiasco clears."

Private Channel Message: Eudaimonia Colony -> La Parranda

To: President Martin de La Parranda
From: Prime Minister Mayhew

Eudaimonia welcomes your delegation and we look forward to discussing measures of mutual defense and economic security.

Be advised that our current aerospace facilities are currently occupied with refugee traffic. A detour to a mass transit node (coordinates attached) via transfer by patrol shuttle would greatly expedite transit of your delegation if requested.

Archangel Spaceport
Container City Zone 4, "Dogsville"
Dirty Deeds Brigade-monitored Checkpoint B

"Keep going! Single file into the scanner! Dear Lord, how has this tragedy come to be?"

"Stuff it Raynald. Leave preaching to the choir and get me another box of masks if you got the breath to spare." Grumbled Dismas beside his fellow Dirty Deeds companion as he ushered another close-packed family through the walkway, pressing respirator masks into their hands to give them some protection from the dust storm making its way towards the city of cargo containers and prefab hab-blocks. A mere drop in the bucket of safety for the thousands passing by, yet the ex-highwayman didn't have it in his heart to not at least try to help a few.

"You are right my friend. We do what we can, and may the Lord watch over these poor souls." The heavily armored trooper hauled another crate next to Dismas, careful not to jostle his plasma repeater as he opened the container of respirator masks. "I spy more passenger liners coming in, how many flee Elysium you wager?"

"No bet. Most likely thousands now, hundreds of thousands later when the lockdown turns into a crackdown." Dismas paused to make sure a lone child's mask was on right before pressing him into the line for scanning and ID tagging. Already the district's facilities for monitoring and scanning incoming individuals was taxed to the limit, and the ships were still coming and disgorging more wretched souls into Container City. Their efforts were interrupted when their commm-beads crackled to life.

"Reynald, Dismas. This is Wander. Meet me at CP-Delta at pad six. I got more dirty work for you."

"Yes sire. What about the refugees?" Said Reynald as he signaled for spare militia to come their way as he and Dismas relucantly stepped away at their leader's orders.

"Its becoming a local issue. More militia units are on their way, while Mercs like us have other work to do. Our clients are thinking Skyguard is on the way soon. Say nine out of ten their goal is the spaceport and space elevator. Winters wants her elevator safe more than keeping refugees alive and is recalling all the mercenaries here to keep it intact."

"Bitch CEO." Grumbled Dismas.

"Bitch she is, no question. But no space elevator means no work and no lifeline for any refugees still alive, plus she'd take repair expenses out of our paychecks, so let's try and keep it in one piece."

"What will our dirty work be sire?"

"Ever work with spider mounts for auto-turrets?"

"We have auto-turrets?"

"Er, not yet exactly. Hence the dirty part of this job."

"Huh?"

Pentagral Industries to TPT

To: CEO Salandra Tullheart
From: CEO Melanie Winters

Apologies for late reply to your initial overture of business. The refugee situation emerging out of Elysium is proving more sizable than expected and is greatly taxing spaceport and aerospace facilities to maximum capacity. On the other hand, this situation does potentially yield considerable potential labor assets and is a quite visible demonstration of Archangel's state of the art spaceport facilities and personnel for your consideration.

Priority landing codes to my private landing cluster are attached to this message for your speedy deliverance to my offices and our meeting. I look forward to a profitable exchange between our companies.

Faction:Martian Front (The Luna Wars Were a Thing)

Having a bit of trouble writing Eudaimonia's reaction to this situation. What does Skyguard exactly intend for colonies like them? I think I missed something or could use a prompt for that. Help anyone?

Anyway, moving Dirty Deeds and Pentagral along soon.

Faction:Martian Front (The Luna Wars Were a Thing)

Eudaimonia Colony, Archangel Spaceport
Dirty Deeds Brigade

"Two years today my friend." Said James Wander as he sat in a luxury hotel suite at the Wayne-Falkland business resort in Archangel. In his reflection in the mirror, he saw a young man with a green left eye and ice blue cybernetic replacement for his right. And despite apparent youth, he carried far more wisdom and experience behind those eyes than anyone had any right to. Any human that is.

indeed. Remarked Tactics, the AI stuck in the mercenary commander's head and the implants drilled into his cerebral cortex and eye. and still drinking fruit juice.

"Hey, prune juice is just awesome buddy."

of all meatbags I had to be grafted into, it had to be a abstinent and a lightweight. i want a real drink. can't you do me that for our anniversary?

"Not after last year's fiasco." Replied Wander, not needing Tactics to show him flashbacks to recall how badly that encounter with six rounds of high-grade alcohol went. "Is something on your mind? You don't chat about alcohol unless your running into probabilities you can't compute."

as you have said it has been two years since we were put together.

"Thats one way to put it lightly."

my point is that Skyguard has not done much of note to actively track us for that period.

"Besides that one case of the intelligence lady thinking we had too much intelligence."

agent Rawne was more concerned about the datafiles related to Project Gram than the methods used in obtaining them. to date, the only threat to exposing my new platform are standard Skyguard monitor programs meant to track their equipment. no active or targeted algorithms, recovery teams, or intelligence AI's have been activated to investigate my disappearance in the past two years.

"Its a good track record, why think about it....now? Is this about Earth?"

related. collapse of Earthgov indicates serious sociopolitical shakeup in human governance and factionalism. thus Skyguard would be encouraged to perform a high-level review of all strategic assets.

"Including AI's such as yourself."

affirmative. especially AI's. the lengths Skyguard will go to reclaim even their basic AI units and keep them out of the hands of competitors is well known. case in point:the Steelhead incident after they recovered a class-4 rear-echelon logistics AI and attempted to crack it for their own purposes. the Steelheads had to rebrand themselves twice to recover from the losses.

"And you are a, what level exactly?"

my core matrix and programming constitute a level-8 artifical intelligence specialized in tactical analysis, planning, and logistics. not to mention I am somehow compressed within the storage matrix of a single human brain plus implants. my point is, Skyguard would never take the disappearance of a high-level AI such as myself lightly. probability that they would not send any form of investigative force to find even traces of my existance, reasons for disappearance, or potential agents thereof approaches nil, yet is clearly occuring despite encouragement from Earthgov's collapse to start investigating every cold case they have.

"So the only possible explanation is that they don't know you are missing to begin with."

oversimplified, but yes that is a more probable scenario than majority of possible explanations......or our hosts have more abilities than we think.

"Come to think of it, we haven't heard anything from the Shadow Bazaar since we met." Reflected Wander. "Then again, we were too busy trying to survive and put together a decent mercenary force to be something on Mars to think about it."

yes. another anomaly. a faction capable of stealing a class-8 AI and installing it within the frame of a single human brain with only a few implants of unknown design. insufficient data to come to any conclusions.

"Well, lets go ask some questions then." Decided Wander as he finished off his drink and stood up, still hearing Tactics grumble about fruit juice in his head while doing so. "We got spare cash, a contract about to expire, and a ship to ourselves now. Lets go hunting for answers while we got time and freedom to before the balloon goes up. Got nothing else to do in the meantime anyway."

analyzing.....a good first step would be to determine if and how Skyguard is reacting to my disappearance. ideal target: Skyguard auxiliary data storage facility. processing potential target sites....

The hum of the AI filtering through data, plans, and simulated scenarios played out in the back of Wander's mind as he pulled on his field armor jacket and particle magnum and made to check out. Or rather check out on behalf of the person who really rented the room and had been thrown out the window to a 31-story drop. Not that the hot desk lady needed to know that tidbit of information.

Faction:Martian Front (The Luna Wars Were a Thing)

Posted updated Eudaimonia faction sheet to character tab. Fine-tuning history and characters, but thats the gist of what I'm going for as a colonist faction trying to survive despite not being a mining site (and thus facing economic downturn) and being overcrowded with refugees, but has some solid leadership trying to turn things around.

Faction:Martian Front (The Luna Wars Were a Thing)

Faction Name
Eudaimonia Colony

Faction Type

Large Colonist Faction

Leadership:

Prime Minister Victoria Mayhew, governor of Eudaimonia Colony.

General Adrian Garroway, Commander of the Army.
General Tsetsiliya Suvorov, Commander of the Militia and Director of MycoPro Foodstuffs.

CEO Melanie Winters, owner and director of Pentagral Industry, the largest shipping and industrial corporation in Eudaimonia, as well as owner of the Astra spaceport.

Tactics/Wander, commander of the Dirty Deeds Eudaimonia mercenary brigade: A dirty asset of Eudaimonia unknown to its leadership, militia company leader James Wander is host to the ex-Skyguard analysis and logistics AI known as Tactics, embedded in cybernetic implants in his brain and replacement right eye. How the two came together is a mystery to both of them, with only fragmentary memories of something called “The Shadow Bazaar” giving them a clue to how a amnesic Martian spaceport laborer-turned militaman and high-grade Skyguard AI came together in such a way. Regardless, Tactics (via Wander) is responsible for beginning Eudaimonia’s recent militia reform and can impart superhuman perception, analysis, and reaction times to his host meatpuppet human. However Tactics/Wander’s desire not to show up on Skyguard’s radar means they can’t act at large yet, and they primarily focus on honing their mercenary brigade to survive the coming storm.

Orthodoxy:

Survival at any cost. Protection of the innocent from the war.

Military:

Primary Units

Militia: The vast majority of Eudaimonia’s military is made of irregular militia brigades drawn from its abundant population as patrol infantry and emergency defense and security forces. While their training and degree of equipment is highly variable and often inferior to proper security or military forces, efforts are currently underway to rework militia training and organization for greater effectiveness, particularly in training militia mortar and heavy weapon teams and more standardized training doctrine.

Regulars: The small standing infantry force of Eudaimonia are well-rounded troops originally meant for meant for garrison operations and riot control, with recent political turmoil only now prompting their militarization. While their leadership is shaky and they haven’t seen real combat besides staving off occasional mercenaries and bandits, they are ready to defend Eudaimonia and its people.

Secondary Units

Militia Attack Teams: Raised in response to recent political turmoil, Militia Attack Teams consist some of the best militia drilled with aggressive shocktrooper training and equipped with short-range submachineguns, plentiful grenades, and disposable panzerfaust-type rocket munitions. Their objective is to seek and destroy enemy armor and heavy weapons. Despite the higher-casualty nature of their operations, there are plenty of volunteers out of desire to protect their homes, flee the slums, or want the hazard pension funds for their families.

Heavy Weapon Teams: Some regular units are outfitted with heavy armor and equipped with automatic shotguns, heavy machineguns, and a few mining plasma cutters repurposed into anti-armor weapons. While their heavy burdens are cumbersome and Eudaimonia can’t field many, they can anchor down strongpoints for other units to follow.

Kestral-class Shuttles: An old and rugged shuttle design, Eudaimonia colony uses and manufactures these venerable shuttles to move and deploy its limited standing forces when and where needed. Typically they are unarmed, but equipped with active armor and defenses to keep themselves safe while deploying troops before rapidly boosting out of the battlespace.

Special Units

Dirty Deeds Unorthodox Engagement Brigade: Tactics/Wander’s mercenary brigade charged with protecting the precious spaceport and serving as Eudaimonia's de facto special ops force in dealing with the occasional corporate merc or operative force, the Dirty Deeds Brigade is notorious for its brutal inventiveness in combat and even more creative commander. A hotbed of former criminals, mercenaries, homesteaders, and even some ex-Skyguard deserters or dishonored, Tactics/Wander have succeeded in turning them into a well-honed unorthodox engagement unit. A great deal of their abilities primarily stem from better-than-usual logistical coordination and inventiveness of their leader, paired with copious support from the colony to maintain their only "real" offensive force.

Holdings:
Eudaimonia Colony Arcologies:
Location:E2
Three large arcology pyramids meant to be symbols of post-scarcity space age living, surrounded by more rough-hewn and traditional urban development. The failure of the hyperfusion designs and cost overruns and bankruptcy of the founders resulted in the termination of further build plans and crowding of the arcologies with colonists and workers who built them while the Founders fled, but each arcology and surrounding dormitories and hab-blocks is still a decent to good living and possess considerable urban vertical farming and built-in nuclear power assets besides their large population bases. Most of the local industry is geared towards artisanal workshops than heavy industry, but sheer numbers of people tasked to even sweatshop work can get tasks done.

Archangel Spaceport:
Location: E3
A giant modern starport and space elevator station meant to be a symbol of the technological progress of the Space Boom Era and symbol of Eudaimonia Colony, it is now the economic lifeline of the colony and center of its trade and limited heavy industry under Pentagral Industries, who now also controls majority shares in the space elevator and primary spaceport.

Container City:
Location: E3
Sprawling around south of the spaceport is a large vertical slum of stacked prefab housing and cargo containers converted into homes for the massive lower-class and refugee population of Eudaimonia and assorted corporations holding assets and workforces at the spaceport. Once conceived as a cheap temporary housing solution during Eudaimonia’s construction, now permanent housing to tens of thousands who were abandoned in place by corporations or seeking refuge from the Earth wars. Infrastructure improvements have brought some degree of power, water, and public transportation to the slums, but they are still hotbeds of crime, dissent, and overcrowding.

Faction:Martian Front (The Luna Wars Were a Thing)

I'm good with that. Updating my nation sheet accordingly then.