CM-SS13 (formerly Colonial Marines) is a heavily modified Space Station 13 server inspired by the Alien franchise. Taking place in 2186, seven years after the disappearances of the USS Sulaco and Sephora, the game follows the United States Colonial Marines of the USS Almayer and their efforts to eradicate the expansive Xenomorph Hive across various colonized worlds. Depending on the round, they may also have to deal with the forces of the socialist Union of Progressive Peoples, the rebellious and aggressive Free Colonist Movement, or the Yautja hunters.
It usually doesn't end very well.
Unlike other Space Station 13 servers, where players control crew members aboard the station and deal with various problems and randomly-selected antagonists in the vein of Werewolf (1997), CM-SS13 is an Asymmetric Multiplayer game in which players control either the Marines or the Xenomorphs (or, in special circumstances, the other aforementioned factions, as well as survivors of the Xenomorph invasion of the colonies); The Marines win if they kill all of the Xenomorphs, and vice versa. To accomplish this, the Marines have a versatile armory of weaponry and equipment, while the Xenomorphs have numerous specialized evolutions to overpower the Marines.
CM-SS13 is one of the most popular Space Station 13 servers, having its own wiki
and forums. Note that BYOND must be installed to play.
Not to be confused with the other Colonial Marines game based on the Alien franchise.
CM-SS13 contains examples of the following tropes:
- Absurdly Sharp Blade: Sufficiently upgraded Runners, Lurkers, and especially Ravagers are capable of slicing limbs and heads clean off with their claws. The Ravager in particular revolves around this, to the point where it has massive knives for hands.◊
- Action Bomb: The Boiler, when killed, explodes into a cloud of acidic gas. Predators can also activate their self-destruct mechanism on command, resulting in an extremely powerful explosion. There's also nothing stopping a cornered marine from pulling the pin on a grenade.
- Action Girl: Female Marines are just as capable as their male compatriots. The Xenomorphs themselves also qualify, being an all female species.
- Action Survivor: Decently robust and well-armed survivors are more than capable of taking down some of the Xenomorphs that come for them.
- Air-Vent Passageway: The Xenomorphs, of course, can use these to move around quicker, save for the Hivelord, Carrier, and any Tier 3 caste, which are too big to fit. However, the Marines can weld the vents shut and cut pipes to block them off.
- All Webbed Up: The Xenomorphs use resin nests to secure captured Marines this way
- All Your Powers Combined/Master of All: The Queen has almost all of the abilities of the other Xenomorphs, and does most of them better: It has stronger pheromones than any of the Drone-castes or the Praetorian, neurotoxin and acid spit like the Spitter, the Ravager's immunity to fire and the Crusher's explosive resistance, as well as its strong head crest and (in previous versions) ability to charge. On top of all of that, it also has its screech, which stuns all marines within range.
- Asymmetric Multiplayer: The Marines and Xenomorphs play very differently, with the Marines excelling at range and in the open and the Xenomorphs taking the advantage in close quarters and tight spaces. Marines also have a major numbers advantage, but individual Xenomorphs are stronger than individual Marines to compensate.
- Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Marines and Aliens who score multiple kills in a round or otherwise make great strides in accomplishing their factions goals are often respected and followed by others even against the authority of the side's leader(s).
- Authority Equals Asskicking: Played straight and subverted. The Queen is considered the ultimate lifeform able to soak damage from multiple marines at once while using her abilities to incapacitate or kill them in short order. The Marine Officers on the other hand, despite being the overall authority and directed the Marines into battle not unlike the Queen, are generally worse equipped than a Rifleman in their platoon and if a lone Warrior sneaks his way into the bridge he can often kill the entire command staff without much trouble. However, Squad Leaders and Specialists, the battlefield leaders of Marines, do have better gear and weapons than most of their squads and are extremely capable of putting the hurt on Aliens while their squad mops up.
- Barrier-Busting Blow: The Crusher can, with enough momentum, charge straight through sufficiently damaged walls, doors and barricades.
- Bayonet Ya: Many of the marines weapons can have bayonets attached to them, greatly increasing their effectiveness as melee weapons at the cost of a slight decrease in accuracy.
- Break Out the Museum Piece: The Command Armoury has three Mk1 Pulse Rifles, which have more than twice the ammunition capacity as the standard issue Mk2, but are less accurate and accept fewer attachments. Some admin events can see mercenaries or response teams equipped with M16s, MP5s, SVD Dragunovs, and PPSh-17 submachine guns, which date back to the Second World War.
- Chest Burster: Required to spawn more larvae, duh. Larva can simply crawl out of the hive floor, but this process takes much longer. Unlike in the movies, there is a chance to actually survive them: the medics and doctors can detect the presence of the larva if they scan a marine whose been facehugged, and a doctor can perform surgery to remove it. However, every so often there is more than one larvae in a marine, so you better hope the doctor is thorough and gets them both.
- Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: Each of the four Marine Squadrons have their own color: Alpha is red, Bravo is yellow, Charlie is purple and Delta is blue.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: As in the films, the Corporate Liaison can be this, potentially interfering with the efforts of the Marines for the good of the Company. He can even be given special antagonist objectives based on the admins' discretion and the circumstances of the round.
- Deadly Gas: The Boiler fires globs of acid that burst into clouds of this. There are two types: The standard acid gas cause massive amounts of burn and toxin damage to Marines, capable of killing them in seconds while corroding barricades and weapons, while its neurotoxin spreads farther and causes blindness, deafness and slower movement.
- Death from Above: The Marines' dropships can have weapons attached and be used to provide close air support in combat. The Almayer itself can also supply an Orbital Bombardment with three shells, Explosive, Incendiary or Cluster. On the flipside, Xenomorph Queens, by dint of not being natural pilots, will always ram a hijacked dropship into the Almayer - and if the Marines don't clear in time, well, free pancakes for everyone.
- It is also possible for the Marines to requisition mortars to provide fire support in situations where the dropships are busy or not equipped for CAS, but the Almayer's guns are too powerful, not manned, or not ready to fire.
- Drop-In-Drop-Out Multiplayer: Marines have cryo cells where later joining people arrive from. People that have to leave can cryo themselves. Aliens can get replaced by already dead players or observers.
- Enemy-Detecting Radar: The Motion Detector returns, carried by Squad Leaders. Notably, it ignores the movements of the Marines themselves.
- Energy Weapon: Laser cannons are one of the weapons that can be mounted on the dropships. They hit their targets instantly, are quite powerful, light whatever they hit on fire, and have good ammunition capacity, but they must be requisitioned, are very inaccurate, and are extremely expensive.
- Face Full of Alien Wing-Wong: Naturally. The Carrier weaponizes it. Some of the more advanced helmets available to specialists provide protection against it.
- Fire-Breathing Weapon: The Marines have the M240 Incinerator Unit and its variations:
- Pyrotechnician Specialists have access to the M240-T Incinerator, which has larger fuel tanks and can use the experimental B and X fuel variants: B-variant flames are green and weak, but cover a larger area and last longer, while X-variant flames are blue and much stronger, while having a longer range.
- Squad Leaders have personal access to the M240A1, which is far more powerful with its extra-thick napthal fuel.
- Foe-Tossing Charge: The Crusher will smash aside any Marine or Xenomorph standing in the way of its charge, doing heavy damage to the former (though the latter are unharmed). Prone Marines in the path of a charge will simply get run over to similar effect.
- Fragile Speedster: Runner Xenomorphs embody this trope, easily being the fastest caste — but also the least durable, capable of being knocked into critical condition or even killed instantly with a shotgun. It grows out of this somewhat as it evolves; while the Ravager is still fragile for a Tier 3 caste, it can take a fair amount of punishment.
- Carriers are also this to an extent, being fairly weak but one of fastest castes outside of the Runner evolution tree. Their fellow Drone evolution, Hivelords, also become this on weeds due to their Resin Walker ability.
- Gatling Good: A 30mm GAU-21 cannon is another mountable weapon for the dropships, and are quite common due to the abundance of ammunition, good damage, excellent AOE, and being useable both for CAS runs and in transport mode.
- Grenade Launcher: An underslung one is available as a default attachment for the M41A Pulse Rifles and the Mk221 Tactical Shotgun; it cannot be removed from the latter.
- Heavy Grenadier Specialists have access to the M92 Grenade Launcher, which can hold and rapidly fire up to five grenades at a time. The Military Police, meanwhile, have the M81 Riot Grenade Launcher, which exclusively uses tear gas grenades for ammunition.
- I Just Shot Marvin in the Face: The death of many a marine will not come from Xenomorphs or even map hazards, but friendly fire. Only a few weapons avert this note - other than those, CAS, OB, and even the specialist's weapons can and will hit marines. There's also the tank's main gun, which can knockdown and injure marines who stand too close to it when it fires.
- Interservice Rivalry:
- The four squads love making fun of and messing with each other, to the point that there is almost always a fist-fight between two members of different squads before the briefing, and it's not uncommon to see people unbuckling members of other squads while the dropship is deployingnote . Usually, they will drop this once they reach the surface, outside of some insults and name calling.
- The marines in the combat squads almost always dislike the Military Police, for similar reasons to why people tend to dislike Security in normal Space Station 13.
- It Can Think: The Xenomorphs can cut the power just as they did in their codifying example. The Queen is also capable of operating the Marines' dropships and the elevators on Ice Colony.
- Visible Invisibility: Both sides have this: Xenomorph Lurkers can cloak themselves naturally to blend into the environment while Marine Scout Specialists have access to the M68 Thermal Cloak that renders them nearly invisible for a period of time. Predators have access to their standard cloaking device as well.
- It's the Only Way to Be Sure: Used to be Averted. Now, if they manage to reach DEFCON 1, they're allowed to buy a nuke that will wipe out the map the marines are playing on. The only drawbacks are having to wait 3 minutes for the bomb to go off, and the Queen being notified immediately of the orbital strike about to occur to them.
- Joke Character: The Almayer can call an ERT (Emergency Response Team) if they're being overwhelmed by the Xenomorph menance. A possible ERT team is just one poor pizza boy/girl or a pod full of Xenomorphs.
- Most admin-only distress teams are mostly this, such as Gladiators with outdated armor and machetes. They usually end up dying from bullet wounds.
- Kill It with Fire: The Marines have a number of incendiary weapons available to them, including the Specialists' flamethrowers, mini-flamethrowers that can be mounted on pulse rifles, incendiary grenades, napalm shells for mortars, and missiles with napalm warheads for the dropships.
- Lightning Bruiser: The tank becomes this with the Overdrive Enhancer installed, greatly increasing its movement speed while preserving its immense firepower and durability.
- On the Xenomorphs' side, Ravagers have the strongest slashes and are the fastest Tier 3s outside of a charging Crusher, while still being able to take many more hits than the Runners they started as. Crushers themselves also qualify, being incredibly durable and having deceptive speed and damage output between their charge, stomp and slashes.
- Limit Break: By recovering Marine or Xeno bodies, intel such as documents and disks, and specific items on the map, the Marines can lower DEFCON and unlock more weaponry and supplies. Rewards include supply points, reinforcements, new tank weaponry, and eventually a nuke.
- Machete Mayhem: Marines can choose to take a machete instead of a combat knife. It is excellent for clearing out brush or jungles, but it cannot be stored in combat boots, unlike the combat knife or throwing knife, and isn't available to standard marines by default.
- Mêlée à Trois: Some rounds feature third parties that are hostile towards both sides, including Predators, hostile mercenaries, the Union of Progressive Peoples, Corporate Death Squads, and several others.
- Railroading: To prevent the Marines from simply retreating to the Almayer and calling it a day, should they abandon the surface, then the autopilot on one of their dropships will suffer a convenient malfunction resulting in it leaving the ship and landing on the surface, guaranteeing that the Xenomorphs will have a way to reach the Almayer.
- Scenery Gorn: Space Station 13 already itself allows to build and destroy every single in-game tile, add that the Marine's heavy armaments like explosives, and the aliens covering everything with their resin, and the maps can be completely destroyed. CAS runs tend to completely level off buildings.
- Steel Eardrums: Zig-Zagged. While most guns won't cause any problems for Marines or Xenomorphs, being too close to an explosion will temporarily render people deaf, as will being too close to the tank gun when it fires.
- Swallowed Whole: Xenomorphs have a devour ability to quickly transport captured hosts.
- Tank Goodness: The Marines have access to a tank, which is quite powerful and tough. However, it needs to be repaired before it can be used (the backstory says that the crew hasn't been doing proper maintenance), can't enter most buildings unless people start destroying walls(making it difficult to pursue the Xenomorphs if they are taking cover in large complexes), and will deafen, knockdown, and injure allied Marines if they're too close to the front of the tank when the main gun is fired.
