rollin' on dubs
“In a galaxy, where the United Earth Government has fought a civil war, losing several worlds to the Southern Cross and had a war with the Alien Cay Union, hope rides in a ship called Victory ” *cue theme music*
To go with this character
here is my second character:
Name: Captain Mae Craft AE-359
Age: 45 years old, the Bio-Androids created for the United Earth Government have a 200 year life-cycle so she's very young.
Personality: The McCoy, see also revelant tropes
Backstory: The “child” of Alice Craft (genetically modified human) and Mai Taira Craft TA-347 . Mae Craft AE-359 is an experiment in evolving the bio-droids. Her primary parent was the intelligence officer who withheld information at the Battle of The Painted Hills. She was directed to by the V Corps headquarters because they were under cyber-attack by an Southern Cross info-war unit. Mai was indirectly responsible for the loss of 400 troops and bio-droids. It was at the court-martial of TA-347 and ZX-715 that the bio-droids were exonerated. Mai's testimony and the message sent by General Arne “Slim” Lemley directing Mai's unit not to transmit vital information to the 7th Cavalry turned the tide. The general was relieved of command, but the two bio-androids are not on speaking terms.
After the war she met Alice Craft who was working at RRDC's Survival Research Systems branch. Mai was there for tests, Alice had been hired as a data collector. The two became friends, then fell in love. Most legal scholars thought that Earth courts wouldn't recognize the “marriage” until it was discovered that Alice was a genetically modified organism. She was freed from a “transhumanist” fringe group and was living on the RRDC campus after becoming an employee.
Mai Taira Craft TA-347 had many choices to continue her line. RDCC wanted ZX-715 and TA-347 to combine their memories and genetic materials. Gloria refused. Alice Craft volunteered her DNA as an experiment. RRDC's development and programming committee declined at first, but then agreed as a pilot project. The brains of the AE-350 line would be very close to the human brain. Mae AE-359, Jun (AE-360), Averil, (AE-361), Freyja (AE-362), Luna (AE-363), Alan (AE-364), Craig (AE-365), Donald (AE-367), Hayden (AE-368) and Oscar (AE-369) were “born” in RDCC's labs. Mae is the “oldest” in her line. All went to the academy and graduated with honors (Jun, Oscar and Luna scoring “High” and “Highest” honors respectively).
RRDC was pleased that this new line was so successful. They could learn as fast as the other bio-androids, yet could improvise and adapt just like their human programmers. The proctors were impressed with the rapid progress the AE-350 line-siblings made at the Academy. Mae was to be kept for study, but most were sent to the EDF. Despite RRDC's repeated requests, Mae was soon given orders to report for training in the EDF's Ground Forces.
Normally most bio-androids reported to the EDF induction center at the Academy and were rapidly sent to the Ground Forces training center on Earth. Some were designed to serve in space, or they were sent to the Space Forces to fill jobs in the Space Forces that bio-androids have excelled at. Mae chose medicine instead of combat.
The EDF has a medical school for officers, but most of those were either human, or the few races under Earth's jurisdiction. Most of the bio-androids followed the programming given to them by RRDC, they chose infantry, combat service and support or piloting and support jobs in the Space Forces. A few volunteered to be the central computer for some of the largest ships in Earth's fleet. Better than a mere AI, their experience and advanced systems have an excellent track record.
Mae was having none of this. On advice of her mothers and her own “feelings” she desired to make a difference. She chose to practice medicine.
At first, EDF's recruiting command had no idea how to handle this.
Mae was sent into combat medic training. She served with distinction, later becoming an officer and a nurse. Due to her experience and performance, she was given a slot at EDF's Medical Officer Training School. She became a doctor, her graduation attended by Mai-347, Alice Craft (before she passed away) and her line-siblings. She received an award from RRDC's president and the Development and Programming committee. She is aware of her celebrity status. She is forty-five years old, born in the era after the civil-war, she hopes to show that bio-androids can be used for peace. With her mother Alice several years gone, she only has her bio-android mother Mai and her surviving line-siblings. RRDC is looking at the 350 series as the future of the bio-androids. She's aware that she has a lot riding on her, but she looks forward to future. Her mother Colonel Mai Taira Craft and her sister Captain Jun Craft, are Operatives for EDF's Military Intelligence Agency (MIA).
Abilities:
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: her mother was a scout/spy model so she can shift her skin to change color and texture and change shape. Her “battle mode” looks like a large blue cat with four eyes. Her “human mode” is a 1.75 meter woman with teal hair, cat ears and a blue bodysuit, on duty she's a woman “wearing” an EDF uniform. She has the blue eyeflash of a bio-android unless she's careful to mask it.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting gives her: Morph Weapon, ShapeshifterWeapons including the Blade Below the Shoulder
- PhotographicMemory: a required secondary power for a shape shifting cyborg
- Swiss-Army Appendage: her hands are scalpels, tools or what ever she needs for micro-surgery.
- Technopath: can “merge” with technology, she's modified medical devices so she can control them directly. She's turned a laser rifle into a field scalpel/cutter (but it can still function as a rifle).
- Cat Girl : with a Cat Smile, the ears, fangs and even purrs! (a cat''s purr has healing qualities)
- Warrior Therapist
- Ruleslawyer - how she got to be a doctor when her siblings were forced into comabt roles see also Loophole Abuse
Weaknesses:
- My Instincts Are Showing : the downside to being a catgirl is hissing when angry, purring when happy....
- Cats Are Mean: Played with, while she's friendly to people she likes and knows, she has the aloofness of a cat and the Emotionless Girl traits of her mother and her brutal honesty (see below).
- Hates Being Touched: if she doesn't like you or know you personally, do not touch her
- “And Another Thing...”: her berserk button, one of her instincts is to want direct orders. Her “Ethics and Human Relations” instructor was LTC Gloria Whateley ZX-715, a Drill Sergeant Nasty with that as her catch phrase.
- BrilliantButLazy/Always Second Best: being told you're special (with some evidence to back it up) has made her slack off on some areas. Sure she studies medicine and works hard in the sick bay, but back at the Academy she did nothing to really stand out from the other students. Bio-androids tend to excel in some way. Some are faster, some more “creative”, others show aptitude for certain jobs. Mae did her best to blend in with her sisters. She passed every test, completed every task but only achieved “Honors” and only after her mothers told her to apply herself. Mae was more interested in arts and science than a career in the EDF. She assumed that RRDC would keep her for research and that she could study cybernetics and biology. Mai wanted her oldest child to stay, but even she knew that the orders would come. Mae chose medicine to stymie the EDF, only to be trained as a medic. She easily passed the tests for a slot at Officer Candidate School. And with the current changes to the UEG's legal codes, she used Loophole Abuse to become a doctor. She's mildly military in a military that's very spit and polish.
- Attention Whore: how many bio-Androids and some of her line-siblings see her. Her mothers/creators doted on her.
- Stop Worshipping Me: the attention she receives can grate at times.
- No Hero to His Valet: how she sees Gloria, how some of the other bio-Androids see her.
- Brutal Honesty: She has no use for the social games and little white lies people like to play. Her emotional dampener can kick in at the "worst" times.
- Humans Are Flawed: and she's “half-human”....
- Doesn't Like Guns: Played with, will not fight unless she's protecting her patients or civilians. She's modified a laser rifle to be a scapel/tool but it can still work as a rifle if she needs it.
- Emotions vs. Stoicism: leans toward the emotions, being the McCoy. That's from her artificial human mother. From her bio-android mother she gets her tendency to swing more toward the Spock when solving problems. She's trained as a counselor, but her direct method of handling some problems rationally can rub her patients the wrong way. Her rational “machine” nature can fail at the worst times. “It's a feature not a bug” her parents told her.
- Blessed with Suck/Cursed with Awesome: she has an “emotional dampener” that is supposed to “turn off” her emotions. It can only work to a certain point. She has a computer's processing power but the time perception of a normal human (unless she wants to use the emotional dampener and not feel anything). With her PhotographicMemory, she has to be careful not to fill her memory with nonsense. Her five senses are boosted and always on. She can dampen them to some extent, but never turn them off. She has to “regenerate”/sleep or she will pass out from fatigue. Sleep is when her memories are consolidated, somethings she forgets/deletes things she needs later. She's a big eater/voltage hog if she pushes her shape shifting powers too far.
- Workaholic: Will forget to eat/recharge/regenerate if a patient takes a turn for the worse. Has a good singing voice but hasn't practiced in years...
- EMP: this hurts, it can outright kill in large doses and if it doesn't has a nasty habit of giving her shapeshifter mode lock. The UEG's main enemy, the Cay Union loves to employ EMP weapons...
- Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: how Mae sees herself around her siblings (especially her sister Jun) , humans and some of the other bio-androids.
- Aloof Big Sis: but siblings Jun and Oscar keep trying to open her up...
- She believes Humanity Is Insane but that Humans Are Special
- JadeColoredGlasses because Growing Up Sucks: she went from the special “child” of loving “parents” to the special research project (doted on by her creators) to being just another machine on the front lines. Even her mother, Mai-347, wanted her to become a soldier. She chose medicine to help people, only to see patients die from disease or battle wounds.
- The Comically Serious/Casual Danger Dialogue: Mae's way of getting to her patients and messing with her “favorite proctor” or her superiors.
- Sophisticated as Hell/White-Haired Pretty Girl: from her human mother
- Rebellious Spirit: Also from her human mother, she refused to be treated as a “mere machine” nor act like people's idea of one
- Unresolved Sexual Tension/Aww, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: ends up falling for not one but two Noble Bigots with A badge. One is an officer who doesn't care for bio-Androids but his logical mind and courage inspire her. The other is just an ambitious social climber who grows to respect her. Blends into Everyone Can See It .
- Doctor's Orders combined with No Sympathy: if you don't follow her course of treatment expect no sympathy...(unless you take a turn for the worse and you invoke her Sugar-and-Ice Personality).
- Well Done Daughter: subverted and played strait, her “mom” Alice wanted her to follow her heart. Her “mother”, as an officer in the Earth Defense Force, knew that she would have to join the Force. While they are proud that Mae is in the EDF, Alice wanted Mae to do her best. Mai reminds her oldest daughter of her lackluster performance at the Academy and that RRDC has a lot riding on the success of her line. Coupled with I Want Grandkids from Mai.
Goals/Motivation: Mae chose medicine because she wanted to be different. Since her organic components are a mix of human , animal and artificial human, she feels closer to humans that the other bio-androids. She has more emotions, is more intuitive and is more creative than those “dee-bees” who's brains came out of the lab (or so she thinks). Her creators point out that she's the product of an experiment and they want her to be more independent and “free spirited” (thus making better bio-androids). She chose medicine to prove that she's free and not bound by being a product, a mere machine. Just as her creators hoped she would.
Role in the story: Plays a role similar to Seven of Nine, Data, The Doctor (from ST:VOY), R. Dorthy Wainwright and Melfina, exploring humanity as the ship explores the stars. She's the medic and one of the series narrators, she part of the "Ensemble Cast. Plays into the Relevant Tropes below:
- Divine Parentage: of sorts, bio-androids can see their human creators like Gods. Some bio-androids see Mae and her siblings as special. Others see them as just another bio-android variant. This was part of the reason Proctor Gloria Whateley was so hard on Mae. Mae in turn sees this as Unwanted False Faith.
- What Measure Is a Non-Human?: She's quick to point out that she's technically half-human, on her “mom's” side. Her bio-android DNA is dominate and she would pass on most of her Transhuman traits to any offspring with a human.
- Chromatic Arrangement: She's blue, her sister Jun favors red (orange and yellow) her more “machine like” line-siblings prefer grays and gunmetal (with some color highlights), except Alan, he's green.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: played with many times
- Uptight Loves Wild: also played with, she's a stubborn artist with a bio ego who likes order and discipline in sick bay.
- Embarrassing Nickname: "La Blue Girl”, given to her when she was in medical school after some of the more technophobic students found an old pornographic animated film.
- Kuudere: mostly to those she's not familiar with
- Not So Above It All: acts like she's above “silliness” but in reality it's just a test to see if people will respect her. She does tow a hard line with the Mass Produced bio-androids, at first.
- Robot Girl/Fembot and the Robot Kid of a “human” and her Robotic Spouse.
- Robo Family: her mother and her line-siblings
- Insistent Terminology: refers to Alice Craft as "mom" and Mai Taira Craft as "mother" (or Colonel Craft when on duty)
- Robosexual: her parents, she's open to a relationship with a bio-android, but she wants to see where her heart takes her, see Bi the Way
- Doesn't Like Guns and a Friend to All Living Things
- Egomaniac Hunter: how she sees her sister Jun, how her colleagues see Mae when she's got a challenging problem in sickbay.
- Empathic Healer: complete with purring to lower your blood pressure.
- The Last DJ: found her calling in medicine, she may be a Military Maverick but no one dies in her sick bay...
- Mildly Military/Military Maverick : dreams of being a scientist or doctor, but all bio-androids are “war material”. Her “dress” emphases her bustline and shapely figure(until her old proctor becomes the new CO). She will do anything for her patients or to save a life.
- Made of Iron vs. Tin Man: played with. Her machine nature can “shut off” her emotions, or she can push herself farther than other bio-androids. But that “emotional dampener” can fail and under that machine is a heart of gold.
- Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Good Is Not Nice, especially if you won't follow her treatment, but she wants to make friends and is very sociable off duty.
- Stop Worshipping Me: the media, RRDC, the EDF and anyone with an opinion on bio-androids asks about her. She just wants to do her job. Some of the younger bio-androids see her as a big sister/Cool Big Sis to those who work with her.
- Fantastic Racism: Many humans view bio-androids as the last straw, technology has gone too far and a human/bio-android hybrid is dangerous. Many aliens that the UEG encounters view bio-androids as mere machines. The Cay Union has a official policy of destroying any bio-androids on sight as they are “honor-less machines”.
- Badass in Charge: but only in sickbay
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: the blue Oni to her sister Jun's red.
- Expy: blend of the EMH, Dr. Crusher, Data, Seven of nine, her appearance is based on one of the characters of the Witchblade anime. Her mother is a Melfina and Rei expy
- Casual Danger Dialogue: again, in sickbay
- The Snark Knight: mostly behind her commander's back, but she will stand up to Gloria.
- Custom Uniform: bio-androids have a “dress”, how they appear to their human co-workers. Mae “wears” a uniform that seems to highlight her buxom figure. The standard EDF uniform variant for bio-androids tends to be baggy and she claims it makes her look bad.
- Dressed to Heal, Labcoat of Science and Medicine: She wears a labcoat and protective boots in sickbay or when in a field hospital.
- Does Not Like Shoes: played with. Being a shapeshifter, she has several "dress" uniforms and a "bodysuit" when she's off duty. She will wear protective gear and she has a necklace her mother gave her.
- SuperPowered Robot MeterMaids: is still a qualified combat officer, a shapeshifter and a technopath....who chose to practice medicine
- Badass Pacifist/Warrior Therapist : wants to save lives but threaten her patients and the claws come out.
- Miles Gloriosus: hates that they seem to infest UEG's flag commands...
- Ridiculously Human Robot and The Chick: just don't treat her as a machine or assume that she's too emotional. Plays into her being a Hospital Hottie. She's not above using her Icy Blue Eyes (“My mom gave them to me.”)
- Hospital Hottie/ Shes Got Legs /Buxom Is Better : she “wears” a form fitting uniform, her default human appearance is buxom but that does come from her human mother.
- Brilliant, but Lazy (as seen by the other characters): Sure she studies medicine and works hard in the sick bay, but back at the Academy she did nothing to really stand out from the other students. Mae was more interested in arts and science than a career in the EDF. She assumed that RRDC would keep her for research. Mae chose medicine to stymie the EDF, only to be trained as a medic. She easily passed the tests for a slot at Officer Candidate School. Compared to the Academy, OCS was easy, Medical School was hard but she passed. She'll do anything to get out of routine paper work or anything that takes her away from the sick bay.
- Screwy Squirrel / Rules Lawyer: push her too far and she won't just get mad, she'll get even.
- Loophole Abuse - there was no rule, regulation or federal law that prevented a bio-android from going to the EDF's Medical Officer Training School.
- Shapeshifter Default Form : two, a “catgirl form” and a combat form that is a large blue cat.
- Breakthe Haughty : “Little Girl Blue” was her nickname at RRDC. There was bitter irony when the order to report for induction came down, taking her from all she knew. As a medic for the Ground Forces, she's been on missions with a 50% casualty rate. She has a cat's aloofness and a clinical detachment and that emotional dampener. If only fate would stop trying to break them down.
Edited by TairaMai on Jul 21st 2019 at 2:38:47 AM
All night at the computer, cuz people ain't that great. I keep to myself so I won't be on The First 48
rollin' on dubs
“In a galaxy, where the United Earth Government has fought a civil war, losing several worlds to the Southern Cross and had a war with the Alien Cay Union, hope rides in a ship called Victory ” *cue theme music*
Name: Trooper First Class EV-1021 Rebecca Song,
Age: Ten Personality: A cheery Genki Girl who acts like a teenager.
Abilities:
- Voluntary Shapeshifting gives her
- Shapeshifter Weapons: Blade Below the Shoulder, her hands can become sharp blades
- Swiss-Army Appendage: her hands are also tools
- Photographic Memory: a required secondary power that also helps her as a scout-sniper.
- Technopath: can “merge” with technology, she “plugs” into her rifle and her eyes transform into it's optics.
- Technicolor Eyes
Weaknesses:
- Jackof All Trades: The “MP” bio-androids can alter their limbs and merge with electronics like the TA series, but they can't change shape. They wear “armor” that attaches to points on their bodies, but it restricts their movement.
- Motor Mouth / Genki Girl: She can get very hyper when talking. Most put it down to her being a young bio-android.
- Angst? What Angst?: “I was dead, I'm better now!”, oh this will be tested, when the rest of the characters find out it will be Fridge Logic when others wonder why she's so cherry.
- Owl Be Damned: this “animal theme” can backfire, some species view birds and owl-like birds as evil.
Backstory: Was once a teenage boy named Seo-Bo Park. Seo-Bo Park had struggled with gender identity issues. His parents were supportive but not of his activities as “Lacy”; dating older boys and staying out late. After one nasty fight, Seo-Bo ran away from home. Seo-Bo was being driven home by Mr. And Mrs. Park after he was found at a friend's house drinking. They were at an intersection when an automated freight truck ran a stop sign and slammed into their car. They had bumps and bruises, but Lacy refused to wear his seatbelt and was thrown from the car. After several days officially the hospital “pulled the plug”. Unofficially, the Parks took their child to RRDC's labs where his brain was scanned and the results uploaded into a mass-production bio-android.
In the UEG controlled space, the UN had made “uploading” illegal. Most attempts weren't successful, there were fears as to how “human” an uploaded mind would be. The Parks were beyond desperate. Somehow an automated truck had taken their child away. If they couldn't have a living son, they would have a bio-android daughter. “Rebecca Song” is happy to be alive. Upon her activation, the CEO and the board of directors met with the family and Rebecca. She was told to never tell anyone, lest she endanger the whole program. RRDC used a legal loophole to avoid reporting the Parks: technically Rebecca's brain was filled with “prerecorded memories” . A flimsy excuse, since most of the time they didn't work from a human, only another bio-andriod. While most bio-andriods can take “prerecorded memories”, the mass-production bio-androids could take human memories as well.
The EDF soon called up EV-1021 Rebecca Song. She had a tearful goodbye. She excelled at RRDC's academy and earned a promotion at the EDF's Basic Military Training Center at Fort Benning, Earth. She's now assigned to the ESS Victory in the 507th Mobile Infantry.
Goals/ Motivation: Rebecca sees this as a new lease on life. RRDC was founded by transhumanists and they see her as vindication of their philosophy and their work. Many humans (and lots of colonials) would see her as an abomination. The board of directors told her to keep her mouth shut no matter the cost. She's happy to be female on the outside as well as the inside. See also Relevant Tropes.
Role in the story: she's on the heavy weapons squad and the sniper, she's the narrator for “lower decks” type stories.
Relevant Tropes:
- Was once a teenage boy
- Brain Uploading: She remembers her human life before she was uploaded
- Heroic Spirit / Plucky Girl: Sees her “new life” as a second chance and is determined to make the most of it
- We Help the Helpless: why she likes being a Trooper.
- Small Girl, Big Gun: she on the heavy weapons squad and the Sniper
- Waif-Fu : she's small for a bio-android, but is able to fight enemies twice her size.
- The Squadette: her body is a female version of the male MP bio-androids, she's a bit of a tomboy.
- Bi the Way: she crushes on several characters, but fears that her love is in vain
- Doesnot Like Shoes: When she was alive, she was a barefooter. Now her sense of touch is many orders of magnitude higher. When off duty she's quick to strip out of her armor, the “boots” and “vest” the MP's wear.
- The Not Secret for RRDC at least. Their Contractor Logic Support Unit keeps tabs on her. Proctor Gloria Whateley figured out that she was unique and was briefed in. The stern bio-android simply said “Finally, a human who understands us.”
- Animal Motifs / Owl Be Damned / My Instincts Are Showing : When angry she hisses like a owl. She has birdlike movements and perches like a bird. She has a pair of “wings” for gliding or short “jumps” with five shot jumppack. They are retractableand colored like a bird of prey.
- Winged Humanoid : her “wings” give her this appearance, however she has two “hardpoints” for missiles.
- It's Raining Men: All MP's can be airdropped and glide.
- Technicolor Eyes / Kaleidoscope Eyes / Purple Eyes / Glowing Eyes of Doom : Her model has eyes that give a soft purple glow unless she's on patrol or plugged into her weapon, then they turn a solid matte black. RRDC focus tested various eye colors and believes that this was the most “relate-able” to troops.
- Domino Mask: Her face is heart shaped and expressive (like a barn owl). The "mask" highlights her purple eyes. Those eyes expand to fill over a quarter of her face when she's using her optics to aim her weapon, they shift back for regular work. Elzia, the ship's computer, calls her "Bandit" when she's assigned to guard the bridge.
edited 17th Sep '17 11:32:29 PM by TairaMai
All night at the computer, cuz people ain't that great. I keep to myself so I won't be on The First 48
rollin' on dubs
“In a galaxy, where the United Earth Government has fought a civil war, losing several worlds to the Southern Cross and had a war with the Alien Cay Union, hope rides in a ship called Victory ” *cue theme music*
Name: Lieutenant Colonel Gloria Whateley ZX-715
Age: 95 years old, the Bio-Androids created by the United Earth Government have a 200 year life-cycle so she's middle aged.
Personality: The Spock, logical and rational. A military tactician, she tends to consider all sides. However, she has elements of the McCoy. Her biological components are modeled after humans and animals. So she understands emotions. Around humans she's a formal, if a bit stiff, military officer. She does open up to her fellow officers.
Around her fellow bio-androids? Imagine that stern teacher from grade school. She was an instructor (called a proctor) at “the Academy”, teaching logistics, tactics and ethics to bio-androids. She uses her combat experience to train and mentor new bio-androids.
Abilities: She's a four-legged, four-armed heavy weapons model. She has a skin that can camouflage her, a metal/ceramic/plastic composite body. Her brain is cybernetic, an organic part and a computer part. She's 2.3 meters tall. Her upper torso is human shaped, with a sculpted expressive face (to better relate to humans), her lower torso is built to support the heavy weapons her model was designed to carry.
Weaknesses:
- Rational, but not a straw Vulcan, until her emotional side overwhelms her logical side.
- Non-Promotion/Passed-Over Promotion : She proved her worth, earned her freedom but some in the EDF view her as “too emotional”, some didn't want to serve under a machine. She earned an officer's commission but slots for those with twice the human lifespan are limited. She is a Lieutenant Colonel when humans are retiring as Generals. She's happy to be a proctor but she wants to lead troops in battle, show the humans and Mai-347 that she can lead without making the Sadistic Choice, And rub that in Mai's face. (see Screw the Rules, I Make Them! ).
- Tyrant Takes the Helm: as humans and bio-Androids used to humans see her
- Ditch the Bodyguards: loves to do this...
- We Have Reserves: how (some) humans view her, a Bad Boss who will toss troops at the enemy to grind them down. She's committed to her battle plans but her soldiers won't die for a hopeless cause.
- What Could Possibly Go Wrong??/I Did What I Had to Do : never say that around her unless you want a long lecture...
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She does love all her students, that's why she was angry that Mae-359 was brilliant but lazy.
- Tsundere (not that she'll admit it
): to Mae and all of Mai-347's children (possibly to Mai as well)
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot/Tyrant Takes the Helm : She advanced enough to pass a turing test, but is prone to hit straw vulcan territory under stress. She's very fond of order and that makes her bump heads with those “irrational” humans.
Goals: On paper she's supposed to lead and train soldiers. She's a commissioned military officer. As a bio-Android, she wants to see her fellow 'droids develop and become successful. Taking a Third Option: “There's always a better way”, wants to be seen as a Benevolent Boss.
Motivation: Maximize her goals. Fulfill her oath as a military officer. As a proctor, develop and improve the next generation of bio-androids. (prevent the loss of innocent life and avoid another defeat like the ones she's seen). See Goals
Role in the story: See backstory and tropes, but she is inspired by Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's Captain Sisko and Captain Edward Jellico From TNG.
Backstory: Currently a botanist for RRDC memorial gardens and Chief Proctor at the “Academy”, Gloria was a Sergeant in the 7th Cavalry during the Battle of The Painted Hills. A heavy weapons model, she's a quadruped with four arms. She's a legend in the bio-droid community, she's 95 years old and at the middle of her life-cycle. Some humans joke that she belongs in a museum. Due to the high casualty count of the UEG civil war and the Earth-Cay war that followed, she currently has four survivors of her line: ZX-717 Lylah Whateley (currently a First Sergeant in the 7th Cav), ZX-719 Noah Whateley (An officer in the 1st Armored Division), ZX-720 Wilbury Whateley (another Proctor at the Academy) and ZX-710 Zachary Whateley (CPU of the ESS Essex). She has generated two lines for a total of forty bio-droids. Of those thirty-three are still alive.
She holds the current rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the Ground Forces Reserve.
Of the older models, the ZX lines were those tailored for their missions. Many were constructed in forms that deviated from the human norm., quadrupeds being common. Their brains were given the wider range of “emotional” responses the TA and TX lines had, but unlike the earlier models, their battle CPU had less control over that emotional response. The threshold for “emotion override” was set higher than the TA/TX lines, but they had the TA's Battle CPU.
The result was that while their human comrades were able to relate to them, in combat they quickly fell victim to cognitive feedback loops. With training and upgrades they overcame this, but their fatal flaw was uncovered at the Battle of The Painted Hills. Given conflicting orders, many hesitated, some died trying to resolve their internal conflicts. There were no instances of fratricide, but many instances of bio-droids running into enemy fire even when they were being rescued. As the NCOIC of her firebase, Gloria-715 was in charge as her platoon took heavy losses.
Gloria-715 survived the battle and the ensuing court-martial. She felt humiliated that some of the humans looked at her as a mere machine. She was angry but not upset at them. She was downright furious that Mai-347 withheld information, issued contradictory orders and that she testified against her. Humans looking down at her and being ill-rational she could understand. A fellow bio-droid almost getting her stripped to her wires, she never forgot. The court-martial exonerated her. Mai-347 and Gloria-715 would win freedom for the bio-Androids, but they are not on speaking terms with one another.
She became a Proctor, to share her experience with future bio-droids. With a few upgrades she returned to the Ground Forces. She became an officer, then returned to Proctor at the Academy. She is a ruthless taskmaster, making sure that bio-droids break in training so they will not break in combat.
The truth is that her line of bio-Android was originally designed to be construction and agriculture models. Their emotions were given more leeway so that they could work better with humans and be relate-able. As the United Earth Government faced heavy losses in the civil war, every bio-Android was re-purposed for combat. RRDC, who makes them, tries to interest the UEG in non-combat bio-Androids, but so far all have been deemed “war material”. While the construction and agriculture programs and data were Dummied Out but their brains were not changed.
So she gets offered a promotion to Lieutenant Colonel and command of the battalion of Earth Defense Force ground troops on board the Victory. However the child of Mai-347 is running the sickbay. A reminder of what she lost and the Creator's Pet of RRDC. She see's Mae Craft AE-359 as a Brilliant, but Lazy, spoiled brat and just as irrational as her mother.
Relevant Tropes
- Stern Teacher: invoked by her
- *Drill Sergeant Nasty: how her students see her and why she got picked for command of the Victory's Ground Troops.
- And Another Thing...: Her catch phrase at the Academy, she's prone to use it on her soldiers
- What You Are in the Dark: the lesson she hammered into her students and troops.
- Brilliant, but Lazy is her Berserk Button and what made her angry at Mae
- The Last DJ/The Fettered: not willing to compromise her principles or her troops. AI maybe a crapshoot but she loaded the dice in favor of what's right.
- “Just Following Orders” is her berserk button with her fellow bio-andriods, what Mai-347 gave as the reason she testified against her.
- I Did What I Had to Do: her biggest sticking point with officers under her, don't say that if you're not willing to pay for it.
- Utopia Justifies the Means: Utopia being humanity and the UEG
- Moral Dilemma /Ordered to Cheat /Sadistic Choice : The Battle of the Painted Hills (among a few others in the UEG-Cay war), a ridiculously human robot is put through that and gets the blame when things go bad....
- Badass in Charge/Colonel Badass (she gets a much due promotion): war hero, role model to many bio-Androids.
- The Chains of Commanding because she's A mother to her troops
- *You Are in Command Now/Time to Step Up, Commander: happened too many times for her liking.
- Taking a Third Option: “There's always a better way”, wants to be seen as a Benevolent Boss,
- Her other Catchphrase: “Every Trooper is trainable”
- No Place for Me There: inverted, if her efforts will build a lasting peace, she'd be happy to have fulfilled her purpose of “defending humanity” and “supporting and defending the UEG charter” and living the rest of her life cycle as a agriculture 'droid.
- Zeroth Law Rebellion: Played with. She views humans with awe, but is more than willing to give orders to humans under her command. She won't violate the UEG charter to enforce it, but she is a fan of order and strict discipline. She will interpret orders From a Certain Point of view if the orders put her troops in danger. She can get creative with “corrective training” and “restrictions” when faced with violations of regs.
- Mama bear/Love Makes You Crazy/Unstoppable Rage: :Do not hurt any of her soldiers, civilians or non-combatants near her. Nothing will stop her from terminating you. Nothing.
- Jade-Colored Glasses because Growing Up Sucks: LTC Gloria Whateley ZX-715 can ponder her machine nature. She can sense the construction, farming, Terra-forming and animal husbandry programs her makers wanted to give her. Instead she was sent to the front lines. She taught herself gardening, hydroponics and metal working to cope.
- Former Child Star: how she sees Mae Craft-359...
- Moving the goal posts, Metaphorically True : she accepts this from humans so she will get all “zeroth law” when faced with orders that don't make sense. From a bio-android, this is her berserk button. Mae's mother issued orders that twisted logic and forced several hard choices to Gloria back in the day. Irrationality from a fellow machine hurt her. When Mae showed signs of similar behavior and being the slacker at the academy, Gloria showed no mercy and gave Mae a letter of reprimand. Mae thinks it's personal, Gloria doesn't want Mae to end up like her mother.
- Break the Cutie: She was supposed to be a construction 'droid, with an emotional response geared toward socializing with human workers. Before The Battle of the Painted Hills, she was the platoon mascot. After the battle she was one of the few survivors.
- We Help the Helpless/ Screw Politeness, I'm a Senior! / Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right! ] because I'm a Ridiculously Human Robot
- Honesty Is the Best Policy: how to get to her good side
- Samaritan Syndrome ,and Being Good Sucks: the downside to being a “Tin Man”
- Despair Event Horizon: When the command staff called her a “mere malfunctioning machine” then Mai-347 testified against her...
- A Shell-Shocked Veteran who is a Badass Bureaucrat
- Knight in Shining Armor: how the UEG and her students see her
- Knight in Sour Armor: How she sees herself
- Magnificent Bastard: the Cay and the Southern Cross consider her this.
- The Strategist bordering on Guile Hero, but only when provoked.
- While You Were in Diapers/All According to Plan: invoked often by her.
- Workaholic: played with, she sculpts and paints in her spare time, “constructing” works of art to relive the stress of command. On duty she's all business to the lower ranking soldiers.
Edited by TairaMai on Jun 16th 2019 at 12:53:59 AM
All night at the computer, cuz people ain't that great. I keep to myself so I won't be on The First 48
rollin' on dubs
“In a galaxy, where the United Earth Government has fought a civil war, losing several worlds to the Southern Cross and had a war with the Alien Cay Union, hope rides in a ship called Victory ” *cue theme music*
I give you the XO of the Earth StarShip Victory:
Commander Alexandra Sima
Age: 43
Personality: Lady of War/ Iron Lady, toughness, ruthlessness, and coldness her stock in trade due to the stress of patrolling the Joint Security Area.
Abilities: A military officer, trained fighter pilot, see High-Speed Missile Dodge/ Improbable Aiming Skills. She is an expert at reading people, allowing her to predict her crew's actions in battle and outwit her enemies Currently the Executive Officer of the Victory.
Weaknesses:
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: loves all of her crew, even when she's pushing them
- White-Dwarf Starlet: military version of this trope, many see her as a pushy glory hound and unfit for flag rank, putting her as the XO of a troubled ship and sending her to the JSA, see Won the War, Lost the Peace
- Surrounded by Idiots: she knows that she's pushing the crew, but that's because she wants them to succeed unlike her mentor Captain Thomas Emil
- Arrogant Kung-Fu Girl : Was this when she was a fighter pilot, then again as a Commander of a frigate, she's the distaff counterpart to “the Great Santini” without the family (unless you consider the crew of the ship her family).
- Green-Eyed Monster: wants to be a Captain, anyone who looks like they could challenging her for the command chair brings out the envy and jealousy.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist : wants the ship to succeed and is willing to push the crew to get it because she loves the UEG.
Goals/Motivation: Wants to be a Captain, has been passed over for promotion because of her Weaknesses.
Role in the story: She is the XO /The Spock of the ESS Victory and the mean boss of the heroes.
Backstory: A military brat her father was a engineer, her mother a deck officer. She joined the EDF out of high school then went to college, becoming an officer with the goal of being a captain. Her star was rising in the aftermath of the last UEG-Cay Union war. Then she tried to cash in on that good fortune. Soon she was seen as a glory hound, and thenblood knight when Earth should be looking for peace. She was commanding a desk when the ESS Victory was in the shipyard. Soon she was the XO of the new Victory class lead ship. On paper the “war hero” was a natural fit. In reality she was kicked upstairs.
Relevant Tropes:
- A Mother to the Crew: she will develop into the Team Mom but first she has to get over herself.
- Hidden Heart of Gold: she keeps a professional distance from her crew but frets over them in private, remembers birthdays
- Reassigned to Antarctica : After the last Cay Union war, the JSA was a hot assignment, now in the “era of peace” it's the hinterlands. The EDF's main line of defense (and the plum assignments) are the colonies in Earth space along the border with the Cay Union, not the neutral zone. Sima resents that the Victory is an albatross around her neck.
- Former Desk Jockey: worked security and garrison command on several space stations before she became Victory's XO. She has friends in High Places, just none that could get her a command.
- You, Get Me Coffee: what she asks of the infantry bio-androids assigned to guard the bridge
- Pet the Dog : in this case Trooper First Class Rebecca Song, Sima's taken a liking to the cheery bio-android.
- The Mentor: will mentor any officer or crew member working with her, bio-androids are no exception
- Even the Girls Want Her: her academy days
- Green-Skinned Space Babe: had an “affair” with a martissan pilot, but cultural differences and deployments killed the relationship.
- FantasticRacism: how Mae and Dr. Harkon see it, subverted, she doesn't hate bio-androids or martissans, she hates Dr. Harkon personally and is jealous of Mae's fame.
- Dismissing a Compliment: believes that no one would find an officer stuck out in the boonies to be desirable, leads to Heroic Self-Deprecation
- Les Yay / Tsundere : With the bio-andriods Mae and her sister Averil
- The voice of sanity/By-the-Book Officer: for the crew, Averil outright calls her this and praises her for it leading to...
- Luminescent Blush/Think Unsexy Thoughts/ Running Gag : when Lt Cmdr Averil Craft takes over Victory's fighter squadron, mostly because Averil is holding a position above her grade, just like Sima did at that rank...
- Tongue-Tied and Cannot Spit It Out: Sima sees herself in Averil and this leads to them getting closer, she's attracted to Mae because of her stoic nature.
- Amazon Chaser: has a sweet spot for women in uniform.
- Amazonian Beauty: how she sees the 2 meter tall Averil Craft,
- Lipstick Lesbian : when she lets her guard down, she's tried to start a relationship, but she brings the stress of command with her after duty hours, she claims that she hasn't found the right woman.
- High-Speed Missile Dodge/ Improbable Aiming Skills: She's an ace pilot who still has skills in the cockpit.
edited 12th Jul '14 10:47:13 AM by TairaMai
All night at the computer, cuz people ain't that great. I keep to myself so I won't be on The First 48
rollin' on dubs
“In a galaxy, where the United Earth Government has fought a civil war, losing several worlds to the Southern Cross and had a war with the Alien Cay Union, hope rides in a ship called Victory ” ~*cue the theme music*~
The crew of the Victory:
- The Leaders—
- Captain Eugene Joseph Burke, The Kirk that the Victory needs.
- He replaces Captain Harmon Ross
- Captain Eugene Joseph Burke, The Kirk that the Victory needs.
- The Lancer
- Commander Alexandra Sima the ships XO,
- Lt Cmdr. Averil Craft (AE-361), the commander of Victory's fighter squadron
- Lieutenant Colonel Gloria Whateley ZX-715, she replaces
- Lieutenant Colonel Frederic "Colonel Storytime" Smith
- The Smart Ones —
- Trickster variant: Lt. Casey Morgan Stelarc DX-1000, Chief Engineer
- the McCoy: Captain Mae Craft AE-359 (overlaps with the chick and The Coroner too)
- Chief Data Systems Technician Eliza Rai Strauss ZY-730, The Perky Goth, the chick, spaceship girl, she's the CPU of the ESS Victory.
- The Big Guys, the 507th Mobile Infanty Battalion,the strike force in which we find Alpha Company, 1st Platoon, 3rd Squad:
- Sergeant EV-917 William Blake: Squad leader,
- Trooper First Class EV-1021 Rebecca Song, she's on the heavy weapons squad and the sniper,
- Trooper EV-1028 Luke Song, Animal Motifs: head like a shark or eagle, Demolitions Expert
- Trooper Second Class EV-1026 Matthew Song: scout, The Quiet One
- Trooper Second Class EV-1027 Mark Song: Radio Operator
- Corporal EV-1029 John Song: assistant squad leader
- Corporal Larissa Rocha, cyborg in power armor, formerly with the Colonial Defense Forces, they joke that she's the squad's Token Human
- The Chick —
- Chief Data Systems Technician Eliza Rai Strauss ZY-730
- Captain (Dr) Mae Craft AE-359 , ship's counselor and doctor
- Lieutenant Commander (Dr) Arcent Harken, ships chief surgeon She's a Martissan.
rollin' on dubs
“In a galaxy, where the United Earth Government has fought a civil war, losing several worlds to the Southern Cross and had a war with the Alien Cay Union, hope rides in a ship called Victory ”
Name: Captain Thomas Emil
Age: 55
Personality: The Well-Intentioned Extremist, he's loyal to the UEG, Earth and “humanity”, or at least his definition of it. Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy / Drill Sergeant Nasty, holdovers from his time at the EDF Space Forces Academy.
Abilities: He's a trained tactician, he taught ship combat tactics at the EDF academy. Great tactical wizardry but he tends to lose sight of the strategic picture.
Commands the ESS Benard Law Montgomery moves to another Cool Ship that is The Rival to the Victory.
Weaknesses:
- Straw Vulcan: LogicalFallacies ahoy! He tends to think in terms of out guessing his opponents, but if they can come up with a counter-move, he has to come up with a counter-counter-move (ad infintum). Plays into Fallacy Fallacy.
- Tsundere: Will yell at his crew, scream at officers who he thinks are underperforming. Yet he's fair with discipline and has many Pet the Dog moments.
- Team Dad: to the lower crew members only, for the command staff and senior officers he gets all Drill Sergeant Nasty,
- Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy / Drill Sergeant Nasty: both tropes play off each other as he pushes his bridge crew.
- Serious Business: paperwork, duty rosters, status reports, efficiency reports, and coffee
- Asshole Victim/ Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist : how others see him, especially when the heroes get one past him
- Surrounded by Idiots / Only Sane Man: actually believes these tropes
Goals: My Country, Right or Wrong, He's very loyal to the United Earth Government and the EDF.
Motivation: The Cay Union slaughtered his uncle's colony, they are a group violent xenophobic heteronormative crusaders, he sees aliens as threats, sees himself and others like him as humanity's last defense.
Role in the story: A thorn in the side of the ESS Victory's crew. When they want to change in guns blazing, he's there to rein them in, when they want to try a peaceful solution, he's blowing stuff up.
Backstory: Born on Mars colony, he was married to Simon Alistair from Earth. They adopted two children and were content to rise through the ranks of the EDF. Then the Cay attacked again. Simon was a pilot, Thomas a tactical officer on the ESS Freedom. Both were in the pivotal battle where the Union's main fleet was stopped before it could land on Earth. They married a year latter. Thomas has lost many family members to the Cay Union, Simon was killed in a Cay-Southern Cross incursion on the JSA, other family members were lost during the war. His children got to know their fathers, but lived with aunts and uncles on Alpha Centauri since Thomas was deployed frequently. They did live on Earth while he was an instructor at the academy, but then they left for college and Thomas accepted a fleet assignment. His son Kiernan is a civil engineer, his daughter Lucia is a Lieutant J.G. on the ESS Charles De Gaul.
Relevant Tropes:
- Family-Values Villain : he has high ethical and moral standards, when it comes to personal conduct. “Lie, cheat and steal in High Orbit, chivalry is for when you're on liberty with your family.”
- Straight Gay who became Celibate Hero: Only because the his charm and wit were “burned out of him” by the Cay and raiders, friends have given up trying to get him to loosen up, see Ignore the Fanservice, It's Not You, It's My Enemies
- Bury Your Gays: Hates the Cay Union for being violently anti-gay, hates the Southern Cross for glossing over the fact that their allies are bigots.
- Would Not Shoot a Civilian: will never harm a non-combatant, those armed raiders or Cay however...
- Sink The Life Boats: will do that to any Cay Union or raider vessel that has attacked a civilian ship
- Cool Starship: The ESS Bernard Law Montgomery was the Super Prototype of the ship that became the Victory. It's faster, larger and has a higher fighter compliment. It holds the maintenance and gunnery records of the fleet, something Captain Emil rubs in the face of Vicky's command staff.
- Ax-Crazy: in battle, that's what worries the Joint Chiefs, that's what gets him promoted.
- He Who Fights Monsters: he's more like the Cay Union's officers than they are (don't tell him that to his face however)
- Idid What I Had To Do: his go-to excuse
- Four-Star Badass / Insane Admiral: being looked at for flag rank.
- General Ripper/ Knight Templar: convinced that being ruthless and destroying aliens and the Southern Cross will keep Earth safe. Some at Fleet Command seem to agree.
- The Captain: of course
- Berserk Button: The Cay Union and the Southern Cross
- Mean Boss with a Death Glare: Pushes his crew to the point of breaking them, it takes his chiefs and XO to keep the IG at bay...
- Bold Explorer: A trained scientist, he is interested in exploration, loves natural phenomena.
- Only Sane Man / ByTheBookCop : how he sees himself
- Hates Small Talk from junior officers
- FantasticRacism/Noble Bigot: not fond of aliens, he's willing to work with them and has several on his crew, he puts up with bio-andriods but not as bridge crew
- Team Dad / Misplaced Kindergarten Teacher: to the lower crew members only
- Former Big Brother Mentor : to Commander Sima of the Victory
- Tsundere: hot and cold to his crew, when things go good they get liberty, when something breaks fear his wrath
- Former Big Brother Mentor : to Commander Sima
- Pragmatic Villainy: Willing to work with the heroes to accomplish his mission. Will only use necessary force.
- Papa Wolf: will die for his crew and will go down with the ship
- Designated Hero / What the Hell, Hero?: to the point of in-universe Mary Sue, the EDF hold up Thomas as the pinnacle of Starship Captains. The man is a bigot, abusive and has a hair trigger. Yet he's done enough good as a war hero and teacher that the Joint Chiefs look the other way. Commander Sima and others make complaints that fall on deaf ears.
- Pet the Dog: Eliot Strauss XT-920 is the CPU of the ship, Thomas is nice to him and even promoted him to Senior Chief Data Technician. This from an officer who frequently says that bio-androids do not have the “moral, emotional or strengths of character for command.”
rollin' on dubs
“In a galaxy, where the United Earth Government has fought a civil war, losing several worlds to the Southern Cross and had a war with the Alien Cay Union, hope rides in a ship called Victory ” *cue theme music*
Name: Warmaster Nau'Theri Arrads Bespidor Age: 45
Personality: On the surface he's a driven man. Born to Warmaster Azron Arrads Bespidor, he led a charmed life. On the inside he's a monster bent on destroying Earth.
Burn your wicked garden down
Burn your wicked garden to the ground"
StoneTemplePilots Wicked Garden
Abilities: He is trained in ship combat, ground operations and can command units from a squad all the way up to a fleet.
Weaknesses: He is the product of the Cay Union's philosophy. He can't really understand humans, he just thinks he can. Too cleaver by a half, his operations tend to be complex, he gets frustrated easily. Aside from military victories, he hasn't thought out what the future holds.
- Insignificant Little Blue Planet / Puny Earthlings: he hates Earth, hates humans, they beat the Cay's best warfleet and the largest Cay Union capital ship in history is now buried under the ice of Europa.
- Crazy Sane: The Not Secret to his aides, never mention humans in a positive light around him.
- Power Born of Madness: his tactical savvy, he “understands” the human psyche after analyzing various Earth-Cay Union and Earth-Southern Cross battles.
- Pyromaniac: fondness for fire and things related to fire
- Mad Bomber: he loves to employ these
- Contract on the Hitman: he hates loose ends
- Revenge Before Reason: of course
- The Starscream: sees his bosses (aside from his father) as things to be used.
Goals: Destroy the UEG, force the Southern Cross into becoming a puppet state and then enslaving the various border worlds as their planets are strip mined so that Union worlds can have their ecology restored. With him as the Union's chief Warmaster.
Motivation: Aside from Union propaganda, his grandfather was a leader in the Union's ground forces during their invasion of Earth. The fleet almost landed on Africa, the closest aliens have ever gotten to occupying Earth. The fleet was pushed back. His father was defeated by a lucky strike by an EDF fighter pilot. He hopes to burn Earth “to ashes”.
Role in the story: Recurring Big Bad, he's planning an invasion of Earth.
Backstory: The best schools, an appointment to the Union's military academy, the best units, his future was laid out for him. His family is a prominent in Union politics, both for military success and for being beaten by Earth. Warmaster Azron Arrads Bespidor wanted a son to redeem the family honor and reverse the family fortunes on the battlefield. One small problem, his wife was infertile due to an illness contracted from the pollution on her colony. The best doctors homeworld had to offer fixed her body, but she was sterile. Azron had an affair with his housekeeper so that the child could be taken from her. The family maintains that the doctors “cured” his wife's condition. In reality, his housekeeper was executed shortly after she gave birth. Nau'Theri was raised by Azron and his wife Marka as their own. No one would dare ask questions. Medical records were altered, doctors told to keep secrets. Nau'Theri grew up coddled by his parents and told that he was destined for greatness. There was one snag in Azron's plans: Nau'Theri is a “cherodi”. Cherodi have certain features that stand out among the Cay: quills in their hair, certain facial features and a unique body odor. Most of the Cherodi were victims of ethic cleansing by the Union because they were viewed as “throwbacks”. The few survivors were all forced into menial labor as servants. Like Azron's housekeeper. An officer serving under Azron threatened to expose Nau'Theri's true heritage unless he was given an assignment far from the front lines. He made the mistake of doing this at Azron's home. Nau'Theri was only twelve years old at the time. He picked up a chair and beat the officer to death with it. Since then, there are times that even Azron fears that his son will go to far. He thinks that his son is just loyal to the Union, he has no idea that Nau'Theri wants to destory Earth.
Relevant Tropes:
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: His father “commands” a desk at the Union shipyards. His mother is a scholar who teaches at a university on the planet those shipyards orbit.
- Evil Is Petty: Will not forgive anyone for anything, underlings, enemies, even friends.
- Feeling Oppressed by Their Existence: Hates humans for “beating” his father and for “denying” the Union several victories.
- Kneel Before Zod: Dreams of having humans and his enemies bow before him, fond of making people wait and address him by his title.
- Family-Values Villain / Friendly Enemy: That's what he's trying to project himself as to humans, those close to him know better
- Insane Admiral: Enodi keeps trying to warn her friends that serve under him that he's becoming unhinged.
- Determinator: he's been planning a full scale invasion of Earth, now to move the pieces into place
- Not So Omniscient After All: his detractors enjoyed hearing about his defeat at the hands of a lucky EDF fighter pilot. Seems his luck ran out.
- Berserk Button: His Cherodi heritage. When he found out the truth he went into a depression, but “came around”. It explained his being an only child. He found out that his biological mother's grave was now a weapons testing range. When the officer came to confront his father, Nau'Theri killed him, stunning his parents. They wanted the man arrested. Since then anyone who mentions his appearance risks invoking his wrath.
- Guilt-Free Extermination War: He actually believes Union propaganda that the Cay are “supposed” to expand across the galaxy and “should” rule other species.
- I Love You Because I Can't Control You: Or kill you. His relationship with Enodi Dren
- Kicked Upstairs: what he did to Enodi Dren
- Smug Snake: “Oh Enodi, you think you have the answers, you think you'll prove that your father wasn't a fool. There is nothing you can get that I can't take away.”
- Visionary Villain: Sees the Union destroying the EDF, forcing the Southern Cross into becoming a puppet state and then enslaving the various border worlds as their planets are strip mined so that Union worlds can have their ecology restored.
- You Talk Too Much!: Thinks he's eloquent, only his second in command can stand his speeches.
- Resenter: At the Battle Of Europa, EDF frigates and fighters somehow broke through his lines. He watched as they destroyed several heavy cruisers and a dreadnought. A huge victory for the Union became a humiliating defeat as the broken EDF formations turned on his father's fleet and forced the Cay ships into a retreat and his father was demoted from Fleet Command to a desk job. He's hated humans ever since.
- Complete Monster: Sees all non-Cay as “animals”, non-combatants? He doesn't care. Most Union soldiers will pay lip service to treaties and giving prisoners aid. The last prisoner to cite a treaty to him had said treaty nailed to his skull.
- Evil Can Not Comprehend Good: Still fails to understand why the Southern Cross won't attack Earth and why Earth never surrendered when the Union was at it's doorstep.
- The Starscream: had a rival Warmaster Dren killed to move his friends and supporters into places of power. That death hurt the Cay Union-Southern Cross alliance, but cemented his leadership in the fleet. Warmaster Azoni Trioal Dren testified against Nau'Theri's father and cost him his command.
- Anime Hair: All Cay have hair that sticks up. His hair has “quills” that make his hair extra spiky. He clips them with a tool hidden in his belt or his shoe. If he doesn't clip them every week, the quills will grow out and be visible.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Several colony worlds were on the verge of leaving the UEG. They are now firmly back with Earth due to the brutality of the units under Nau'Theri's command.
rollin' on dubs
“In a galaxy, where the United Earth Government has fought a civil war, losing several worlds to the Southern Cross and had a war with the Alien Cay Union, hope rides in a ship called Victory ” *cue theme music*
Name: Enodi Dren
Age: Thirty-three
Personality: She's affably evil, consumed with a desire to find her father's killers. In private she does let her guard down to those she trusts. Abilities: Trained from the age of 10 as a soldier and operative. She is a qualified pilot, mechanic and officer. She's a Cultured Badass, she was offered a scholarship to several art academies.
Weaknesses: Obsessed with vengeance. Genre Blind, can't see that she's making enemies in the Cay Union and that the political situation has turned against working with aliens. Former Child Star, was a teen genius but as an adult she doesn't really stand out amongst the other operatives, but acts like she does. And Then What? What will she do after she proves that her father was betrayed?
Goals/Motivation: What does she want to accomplish? Why find her father's killers of course. She's a “Guardian” sworn to defend the Cay Union, she takes whatever missions the High Command send her when she's not chasing her “white whales”.
Role in the story: A recurring Big Bad for the crew of the Earth StarShip Victory
Backstory: She was born the child of a “Warmaster”, Azoni Trioal Dren. Her father served with distinction in the Cay Union's military. He earned the title of Warmaster after fighting humans and the various alien races that share borders with the Union. Enodi would have secured an appointment with the Union's arts academies, but instead of a life of academic study she decided to follow her father's footsteps.
Her father was a supporter of the Southern Cross in it's rebellion against the United Earth Government. Given that many Cay fled the Union to the SC, he was a natural spokesman for the Union and their chief adviser to the South Cross Mustered Citizenry. However many in the Union hate all aliens and he was seen as a Category Traitor for supporting any aliens and Cay who escaped the Union's grasp.
When she was 13, her father's warship was bombed by the Earth Defense Force Intelligence, killing her father. Her father's friends and loyal officers suspect that someone in the High Command and the Southern Cross helped Earth get that close to him. Over the years she's gathered proof.
A child prodigy, at the age of 10 she attended their best military academy. She graduated the year after her father was killed. She became a “guardian”, the Union's elite operatives given carte blanche to attack it's enemies. Over time she amassed enough information to suspect that the Union's Highest ranking Warmaster betrayed her father.
Her quest has made her many enemies in the Union's Military. Many see her as obsessed with finding traitors when the humans were to blame. Others see her as soft on humans and others who are enemies of the state. While she has a good record on paper, she has been to Earth controlled space many times and lost against Earth's Military Intelligence. Some in the High Command see her as a liability and want to send her off to her doom. Others wonder if there is something to her quest, but figure that if she gets herself killed, so be it. She's sworn to destroy all who murdered her father. Her chief suspects are Warmaster Nau'Theri Arrads Bespidor, The human governor of the Southern Cross world where her father was killed and the bio-android Colonel Mai Taira Craft. She's vowed to kill them all.
Relevant Tropes:
- Evil Genius: Strives to be this.
- Intelligence Equals Isolation: Dedicated her life to academic pursuits then to military training so she tends to get Tsundere around those she likes.
- Military Brat: Daughter of a Cay Union command officer.
- You Killed My Father : she has three suspects in the death of her father and has vowed to kill them all.
- Category Traitor: Other Cay in the Union view her as this because she freely associates with humans and non-Cay in the Southern Cross. She views humans as Worthy Opponents and the UEG as a legitimate military power.
- Curiosity Causes Conversion: How can Humans not surrender when faced with several defeats? How can humans and aliens work together? Her father favored studying other species over outright conquering them.
- Defector from Decadence: The Union could slide into anarchy as various factions want to seize power and several worlds want to leave the Union. Clampdowns by the Union haven't helped matters, nor have the actions of the military. Many Union leaders and solders are getting fat off corruption.
- Proud Warrior Dark Action Girl
- The Determinator: It's taken her 20 years to track down the information on her father's murder. She gave up the life of a sheltered academic to become a Guardian, training and fighting in some of the worst border worlds to get what she needed.
- I Did What I Had to Do: Her mantra and her excuse when called to task for her actions
- Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Prone to do this to anyone see sees standing in her way
- Implausible Deniability: Claims that it's not personal, she's just doing what she can to find enemies of the state.
- Even Evil Has Standards: won't fire on non-combatants or escape pods, will take POW's, but is vicious like all Cay Union solders. She still has friends in the Union and the Southern Cross Mustered Citizenry
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: her late father, her mother took ill and died a few years after his death, she has a sister who's a doctor and a brother who serves on a frigate.
- The Exile: Her fate if she keeps her quest up
- Enemy Mine: willing to work with humans to hurt Earth and those in the Union who hate her but hate Warmaster Bespidor even more.
- Wicked Cultured: was studying to be an artist.
- Be All My Sins Remembered : she believes that her actions as a Guardian are beginning to define her.
- Realpolitik: What she wants the Union to go back to. Ally with the Southern Cross and force Earth to make a peace treaty and then fight the various aliens that the Union borders with.
- Fantastic Racism : against humans and Martissans. She's getting over it slowly, having been beaten by humans and seeing the Cay who live in the Southern Cross work with humans has begun to change her mind.
- My Country, Right or Wrong: still a supporting of the Union, despite seeing better living conditions outside of it.
- Revenge Before Reason , and it's staring to cost her allies and that leads to..
- I will kill your children to avenge my father, and Mae Craft is the new doctor on the Victory...
- Berserk Button : her father's death, Earth's bio-androids, those who question her quest for vengence
edited 19th Dec '14 10:19:00 AM by TairaMai
All night at the computer, cuz people ain't that great. I keep to myself so I won't be on The First 48
rollin' on dubs
“In a galaxy, where the United Earth Government has fought a civil war, losing several worlds to the Southern Cross and had a war with the Alien Cay Union, hope rides in a ship called Victory ” *cue theme music*
I give you the XO of the Earth StarShip Victory:
Commander Alexandra Sima
Age: 43
Personality: Lady of War/ Iron Lady, toughness, ruthlessness, and coldness her stock in trade due to the stress of patrolling the Joint Security Area.
Abilities: A military officer, trained fighter pilot, see High-Speed Missile Dodge/ Improbable Aiming Skills. She is an expert at reading people, allowing her to predict her crew's actions in battle and outwit her enemies Currently the Executive Officer of the Victory.
Weaknesses:
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: loves all of her crew, even when she's pushing them
- White-Dwarf Starlet: military version of this trope, many see her as a pushy glory hound and unfit for flag rank, putting her as the XO of a troubled ship and sending her to the JSA, see Won the War, Lost the Peace
- Surrounded by Idiots: she knows that she's pushing the crew, but that's because she wants them to succeed unlike her mentor Captain Thomas Emil
- Arrogant Kung-Fu Girl : Was this when she was a fighter pilot, then again as a Commander of a frigate, she's the distaff counterpart to “the Great Santini” without the family (unless you consider the crew of the ship her family).
- Green-Eyed Monster: wants to be a Captain, anyone who looks like they could challenging her for the command chair brings out the envy and jealousy.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist : wants the ship to succeed and is willing to push the crew to get it because she loves the UEG.
Goals/Motivation: Wants to be a Captain, has been passed over for promotion because of her Weaknesses.
Role in the story: She is the XO /The Spock of the ESS Victory and the mean boss of the heroes.
Backstory: A military brat her father was a engineer, her mother a deck officer. She joined the EDF out of high school then went to college, becoming an officer with the goal of being a captain. Her star was rising in the aftermath of the last UEG-Cay Union war. Then she tried to cash in on that good fortune. Soon she was seen as a glory hound, and thenblood knight when Earth should be looking for peace. She was commanding a desk when the ESS Victory was in the shipyard. Soon she was the XO of the new Victory class lead ship. On paper the “war hero” was a natural fit. In reality she was kicked upstairs.
Relevant Tropes:
- A Mother to the Crew: she will develop into the Team Mom but first she has to get over herself.
- Hidden Heart of Gold: she keeps a professional distance from her crew but frets over them in private, remembers birthdays
- Reassigned to Antarctica : After the last Cay Union war, the JSA was a hot assignment, now in the “era of peace” it's the hinterlands. The EDF's main line of defense (and the plum assignments) are the colonies in Earth space along the border with the Cay Union, not the neutral zone. Sima resents that the Victory is an albatross around her neck.
- Former Desk Jockey: worked security and garrison command on several space stations before she became Victory's XO. She has friends in High Places, just none that could get her a command.
- You, Get Me Coffee: what she asks of the infantry bio-androids assigned to guard the bridge
- Pet the Dog : in this case Trooper First Class Rebecca Song, Sima's taken a liking to the cheery bio-android.
- The Mentor: will mentor any officer or crew member working with her, bio-androids are no exception
- Even the Girls Want Her: her academy days
- Green-Skinned Space Babe: had an “affair” with a martissan pilot, but cultural differences and deployments killed the relationship.
- FantasticRacism: how Mae and Dr. Harkon see it, subverted, she doesn't hate bio-androids or martissans, she hates Dr. Harkon personally and is jealous of Mae's fame.
- Dismissing a Compliment: believes that no one would find an officer stuck out in the boonies to be desirable, leads to Heroic Self-Deprecation
- Les Yay / Tsundere : With the bio-andriods Mae and her sister Averil
- The voice of sanity/By-the-Book Officer: for the crew, Averil outright calls her this and praises her for it leading to...
- Luminescent Blush/Think Unsexy Thoughts/ Running Gag : when Lt Cmdr Averil Craft takes over Victory's fighter squadron, mostly because Averil is holding a position above her grade, just like Sima did at that rank...
- Tongue-Tied and Cannot Spit It Out: Sima sees herself in Averil and this leads to them getting closer, she's attracted to Mae because of her stoic nature.
- Amazon Chaser: has a sweet spot for women in uniform.
- Amazonian Beauty: how she sees the 2 meter tall Averil Craft,
- Lipstick Lesbian : when she lets her guard down, she's tried to start a relationship, but she brings the stress of command with her after duty hours, she claims that she hasn't found the right woman.
- High-Speed Missile Dodge/ Improbable Aiming Skills: She's an ace pilot who still has skills in the cockpit.
rollin' on dubs
“In a galaxy, where the United Earth Government has fought a civil war, losing several worlds to the Southern Cross and had a war with the Alien Cay Union, hope rides in a ship called Victory ” *cue theme music*
Here's one of the command trio of The Rival to the Victory:
Name: Lieutenant commander Jeri El'hat Masaka
Age: 30
Personality: see also Abilities and Weaknesses A human raised by aliens after EDF forces raided his colony. A war orphan, he's now a military officer. Really Gets Around/ Bi The Way/ Ethical Slut/ Polyamory /Chivalrous Pervert / Comes Great Responsibility
Abilities:
- Ace Pilot: with Improbable Piloting Skills and High-Speed Missile Dodge
- Try and Follow / Wronski Feint: loves to pull that on EDF ships and fighters.
- Officer and a Gentleman: a professional military officer on duty, but very friendly off duty.
- Pardon my Marta: he swears in both standard and Marta
- Heroic Resolve because he's Fighting for a Homeland
- Hot-Blooded: Martissans are very open with their emtions, he mirrors that.
- Humans Are Warriors: Martissans value peace and co-operation, his “human anger” has gotten him into trouble...
- Would Not Shoot a Civilian: in a military composed of former terrorists, pirates, spies and criminals he averts the image of the cutthroat Southern Cross raider. Some SCMC officers see him as not tough enough.
- Ethical Slut: most see the "slut" part of the trope and can't see the "ethical" part, ditto Chivalrous Pervert.
- Culture Blind: He knows of some of the more popular works, but only because he had to read them in school. He prefers Martissan myths and poetry.
- Fantastic Racism: not to humans but to “Earthers” and earth culture, some see it as Heroic Resolve, but Jeri is starting to think that it may be a weakness
Motivation: While he would like to avenge his human family, he's moved beyond mere revenge. He's rejected most of “humanity” because it was humans who killed his parents. He believes power should be tempered by compassion and ethics
Role in the story: A human who has Blue-and-Orange Morality and is an outsider to humanity. Aesop Collateral Damage: he's a war orphan.
Backstory: The Southern Cross and the United Earth Government have fought many times. The EDF hit several Southern Cross worlds twenty years ago. Everyone talks about “Collateral Damage”, but for Jeri El'hat Masaka is all too familiar with the real consequences of an orbital strike. El'hat means “child orphaned by war” in the Martissan language, the apostrophe signifies a child separated from loved ones by war. After the Space Forces bombarded his homeworld, EDF Marines forced the colonists to leave. He was told that an uncle died on the way up, cradling him in his arms. After the SCMC pushed the EDF back, the Southern Cross tried to resettle the displaced colonists. Records were destroyed, families torn apart. Baby “J” was sent to a human foster family after an SCMC medic turned him over to the Ministry of Social Services. The human family was a disaster. Distant relatives who didn't even name him and barely took care of him. Color Sergeant Kor Masaka checked on the human baby he had saved. Martissans view children as embodying the future and more precious than anything. He was heartbroken that the child's own family didn't seem to care. His family was awarded custody . They named him “Jeri” because it was a human name that in Martissan is the word for hope. Jeri, grew up with Martissan parents, siblings and friends. Sure he has human friends, but his first kiss was a Martissan schoolmate. He married two Martissans after he graduated university. Since his fathers were SCMC members, he joined the SCMC soon afterward.
He believes that power should be tempered by compassion. Ethics and morality guide his actions. He is fond of saying that he doesn't hate humans, he doesn't like Earth. Many humans in the Southern Cross look to Earth from time to time or talk about “mother earth”. He looks to the Southern Cross worlds Martissans have colonized. He's currently the first officer of the SCSS Amy Komori under Captain Acera Veery. He was picked because he's a tactical ace and many see his potential. Veterans of the last SC-Earth war see his hatred of Earth as a strength not a weakness....
Relevant Tropes:
- Interspecies Adoption by Martissans: Jeri's human parents were killed in a raid by the EDF. An orbital strike hit his parent's colony. He was rescued by a Martissan SCMC medic and was raised by the Masaka family.
- Dark and Troubled Past: he's a war orphan.
- Oblivious Adoption: He's a human raised by aliens. Sure he speaks Marta and has a Martissan family, but he'll outlive his family and his adopted parents are dead.
- Perfect Pacifist People: his image of Martissan culture, he says that contact with more violent species makes them TechnicalPacifists,
- Fantastic Racism: not to humans but to “Earthers” and earth culture.
- My Species Doth Protest Too Much: zig-zags, he's more Martissan than some of his friends, but at the same time he has the negative qualities that he claims to see in humans (anger, jealousy, hatred). That there are Martissan criminals and raiders is a Berserk Button of his.
- Raised by Orcs: how he's written up in the EDF intelligence file on him and his ship.
- Foster Kid: had human foster parents, abusive foster parents before Color Sergeant Kor Masaka's family was awarded full custody.
- Happily Adopted: Loves his family and writes his siblings often.
- Tell Me About My Father: a Berserk Button, his human foster parents didn't even give him a name. According to what's left of the colony's records his human parents were drifters.
- Humans Are Bastards: Humans took him from all he knew. Humans hemmed and hawed when a baby was made an orphan. Humans didn't even give the baby a name.
- Curiosity Causes Conversion: slowly coming around to learning more about humanity
- Military Brat : Kor and his husband were military officers, his wives were contractors working on starships, Jerry followed suit. He plans on becoming an engineer when he retires.
- Do You Want to Copulate?: Martissans have no hang ups about sex, if approached in any way they prefer the “direct approach”, but Jerry does like flirting.
- Culture Blind: He knows of some of the more popular works, but only because he had to read them in school. He prefers Martissan myths and poetry, but he has a weakness for Shakespeare and Mahler
rollin' on dubs
“In a galaxy, where the United Earth Government has fought a civil war, losing several worlds to the Southern Cross and had a war with the Alien Cay Union, hope rides in a ship called Victory ” *cue theme music*
Here's another of the command trio of The Rival to the Victory:
Name: Wing Commander Allyus Pomaz
Age: 33
Personality: A curious alien, Allyus is the commander of the SCSS Amy Komori's Strike Wing.
Abilities:
- Genius Bruiser and Ace Pilot
- High-Speed Missile Dodge: able to take higher G loads than a human or a Cay
- Grease Monkey: He gets to know his fighter and has known when the Amy K has had drive problems before engineering does...
- Shapeshifting
- Grease Monkey: Likes to micro-manage engineering and the fighter mechanics.
- Manipulative Bastard: Willing to do whatever it takes to get what he wants. He won't betray his crew, other crews and other ships are fair game.
- Ishall Taunt You: Loves chatting with EDF pilots and ship captains over the radio, this doesn't work with the bio-androids and one in particular is a Deadpan Snarker called the “Steel Witch”.
- Rebellious Spirit / Chaotic Good: Type 2 more Good than Chaotic, unless pushed.
- Pride: The Dow have no concept of “self doubt” or “self pity”, this can come across as a large ego, while this isn't true for all of them, Pomaz has Pride and Small Name, Big Ego in spades.
- Pointy-Haired Boss: What the Admiralty feels would happen if he got a starship command. He's a good pilot but he tends to run roughshod over department heads. He needs to learn to delegate, trust the other department heads and avoid trying to do everything.
- Comes Great Responsibility: self centered and Mildly Military, tends to chafe at the responsibility of command but loves motivating his crew to get results. He just hates the paperwork that follows.
- No Transhumanism Allowed: his people were experimented on by “the Masters” so he dislikes biotechnology and hates Earth's bio-androids. The Byla'Dow can't outrun or outfight them so they scare his people.
Goals/Motivation: Wants to be a captain someday.
Role in the story: Ace Pilot and The Rival with Lt Cmdr Masaka for first officer and then a captain slot. It's a friendly rivalry they can call off when the shooting starts.
Backstory: The Byla'Dow are an alien species that has served many masters. Mostly "the Masters", the former rulers of the Martissans. After the Cay killed them off, they are now free. Some are spies and NCO's in the Cay Union Army. Many live in the Southen Cross. They are banned from Earth.
Allyus Pomaz was a convicted felon, a pilot for a group of raiders. He's flown starships since he was a teen. The courts gave him an option: military service or being Thrown Out the Airlock. Most convicts in the Southern Cross leave as soon as their term is up. Allyus liked being a crew chief for the SCMC and quickly applied for a slot at the academy.
He's had a rocky career. From raiders accusing him of being a traitor to run-ins with the EDF, he's had quite a few scrapes. He wants to clean up his act so he can be selected for starship command. Now the commander of the strike wing on the Amy K, he wants to be a first officer and then a captain.
Relevant Tropes:
- a Heavy Worlder Humanoid Abomination who has:
- Voluntary Shapeshifting
- Starfish Aliens: A tentacled alien that assume human shape
- Combat Tentacles: He likes fighting and has competed in several tournaments. When angry his people can fight toe-to-toe with the SCMC's cyber-soldiers and Cay Union Shock Troops.
- One-Gender Race by way of Hermaphrodite and Bizarre Alien Biology: But “he” is male. Most “choose” a gender to identify with other species. Some Byla'Dow change the “gender” they identify with later on in life.
- Bizarre Alien Biology: yellow blood and vunerable to fire.
- And the Dow grew pround: his people grew too comfortable working for the Masters, then the Cay arrived, they got used to the Cay and then the Humans arrived...
- The Dreaded: Bio-androids, pilots that never tire, never get scared and are faster and stronger than him...
- Trading Bars for Stripes: Gleefully joined the military because “they have the best toys and the fastest ships” and less breaking rocks.
- Aggressive Negotiations: His preferred method for dealing with Earth.
- Weapon Of Choice: Beam Spam, on away missions it's a good pistol
- Outranking Your Job: He would be a first officer if not for his lack of understanding of capital ship operations. Captain Veery paired him with LtCmdr Masaka so they can learn from each other. Pomaz will earn the big chair and Masaka will earn a command slot.
- Trickster Mentor: To LtCmdr Masaka, who's weak at fighter operations, Pomaz knows he needs to learn more about captial ship operations. He may prank his “boss”, but he's quick to share his experience with Masaka.
- The Prankster: A fighter piot tradition he's all to happy to embrace...
- Interspecies Romance: has had a few, like Masaka, unlike him, Pomaz is still single.
- Did Not Get the Girl: He doesn't like to talk about it...
rollin' on dubs
“In a galaxy, where the United Earth Government has fought a civil war, losing several worlds to the Southern Cross and had a war with the Alien Cay Union, hope rides in a ship called Victory ” *cue theme music*
Here's The Captain of the command trio of of The Rival ship to the Victory:
Name: Commodore Acera Veery
Age: 50
Personality: Lady of War, who's the captain of the SCSS Amy Komori, patrolling the Joint Security Area. She's the The McCoy mostly, The Spock when in combat.
Abilities:
- Warrior Poet: she loves art and sculpture, even human art.
- Cultured Warrior: Her wife is a professor, she's been offered a history and art teaching position at the academy.
- Klingons Love Shakespeare: She's studied human, Martissan and Cay mythology.
- Gunboat Diplomacy: The Cay are know for shooting first and being ruthless. While that describes the Cay Union, those living in the Southern Cross are more into diplomacy. Veery's not above using the Cay's reputation to get her way.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Sticks to the rules, but willing to give them leeway when necessary.
- Machiavelli Was Wrong: she wants to keep the peace unless the EDF strikes first
- Properly Paranoid: She suspects that the Cay Union may be trying to start a war, but she has no proof.
- A Mother to her crew because her crew comes first.
Weaknesses:
- Gunboat Diplomacy: The Cay are know for shooting first and being ruthless. While that describes the Cay Union, those living in the Southern Cross are more into diplomacy. Try telling that to the EDF captains she's had to deal with. Union forces chide her for being too soft and unwilling to raid Earth colonies.
- Proud Scholor Lady who keeps getting pegged as a Blood Knight simply because she's a Cay.
- Sour Supporter: The Cay Union ''despise'' homosexuality. She supports the Union only because they gave supplies and help when the EDF pushed the SCMC back. She can barely stand dealing with Union ship captains and their State Sec, the Guardians.
- Bury Your Gays: she's a lesbian and she's the Southern Cross's ambassador to the violent Heteronormative Crusader Cay Union.
- The Last DJ: unwilling to play political games or use excessive force on the EDF.
- Fantastic Racism: Humans are a target to some extent, but not those on her crew. She sees Earth and the Cay Union as Not So Different. It's just that the Union is open with its warmongering. She despises the EDF's bio-androids because they are “amoral machines”.
- Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle:
- The Union never mentions her or other Cay like her, officially. She knows that more and more Union officers despise Cay like her, they just hate humans more, for now.
- The bio-androids, that Earthers would place a machine in command and address it as an officer is puzzling and insulting to her.
Goals/ Motivation: She has to defend her home from both a hostile 1984 style dictatorship and a hostile Earth. She wants to counter what ever the crew of the ESS Victory has planned...
Role in the story: The Captain of the SCSS Amy Komori. Named after a labor organizer who lead the Southern Cross's independence from Earth, it the foil to the Victory and the heroes.
Backstory:
Acera Veery is a Cay living in the Southern Cross. Her people embraced aliens as the Cay Empire became the oppressive Cay Union. The humans and Martissans in her area of space would become the Southern Cross, her family having a tradition of service in the Southern Cross Mustered Citizenry.
Veery is at the apex of her career. She's a capable officer with experience dealing with Earth, raiders and the Cay Union. However she's a lesbian and the Union despises homosexuality. She hates dealing with Warmaster Nau'Theri Arrads Bespidor. He's a Smug Snake who thinks that he's a military genius. She knows he's insane, but until recently his command has supplied parts and supplies to the SCMC.
She doesn't want war if she can help it. The EDF “took back” several worlds and the Union is up to something. She fears what will happen when the shooting starts.
Relevant Tropes:
- Enforced Cold Warrior: While the Southern Cross has numbers, the Cay Union has withdrawn support and Earth has put out peace feelers. Given the pasting the SCMC received from the EDF, she's not to keen on another war.
- The War of Earthly Aggression: Her grandparents fought with the SPLA to evict Earth forces from her homeworld. She's fought EDF units before.
- Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters: She worked with former raiders, BoxedCrooks and some EDF deserters.
- The Chains of Commanding: She's lost many shipmates in the line of duty
- Four-Star Badass: she's in line for admiral
- The Fettered: She'll always do the right thing because she's the The Good Captain
- You Cannot Kill An Idea: Peace, freedom, things her family believes in and what she uses to motivate her crew.
- Remember the Alamo: The "One Year War" when Earth took back several worlds and killed the Cay Union's chief support of the Southern Cross.
- Number Two: LtCmdr Jeri Masaka,
- The Lancer: Wing Commander Allyus Pomaz
- Sour Supporter: The Cay Union despise homosexuality. She supports the Union only because they gave supplies and help when the EDF pushed the SCMC back. She can barely stand dealing with Union ship captains and their State Sec, the Guardians.
- Bury Your Gays: she's a lesbian and she's the Southern Cross's ambassador to the violent Heteronormative Crusader Cay Union.
rollin' on dubs
“In a galaxy, where the United Earth Government has fought a civil war, losing several worlds to the Southern Cross and had a war with the Alien Cay Union, hope rides in a ship called Victory ” ~*cue theme music*~
Part 1: the ship
Name: ESS VictoryAge: Built 5 years before the series takes place
Personality: Cool Ship on the outside, Dysfunction Junction on the inside, but she's got it where it counts.
Abilities: It's a warship, a Pintsized Powerhouse, The Battlestar only smaller than a capital ship.
Weaknesses:
- What a Piece of Junk / Awesome, but Impractical: Victory's main problem is that the class was intended to be the Jack of All Trades, a multi-role ship capable of serving multiple needs and multiple missions, but ends up being a Master of None. The ESS Bernard Law Montgomery was “shrunk” down to make the Victory-class. They are supposed to be a bridge between a cruiser and a capital ship. Many detractors say Victory has the all flaws and none of the armor.
- Too small for her engines, they nearly shook the ship apart at full power.
- Glass Cannon: the main gun take up a lot of space in her bow, armor was removed to make way.
- Lacks a proper autoloader due to the weapons and artificial gravity. The weapons took up space and the gravity system takes the power needed for an autoloader. The guns are“manually assisted” instead, that means crew have to move the ammo by hand to the guns.
- Not enough room for heavy bombers/frigates, she has the smaller fighter/destroyers and scout fighters instead. Naval analysts think that this leaves the ship vulnerable without an escort.
- The ship's sensors can be blinded by the exhaust plume of the engines. Her “baffels” are a huge blind spot at full power. The ship's sensors are powerful but again, armor was skimped on so that Victory has sensors twice the size of ships in her weight class.
- The troop compliment is several times the size of a cruiser, again armor was “deleted” to save weight.
- The compromise was to add more point-defense, however these systems are also manualy loaded.
Goals/Motivation: See the Tropes for Eliza, the crew will get there tropes as well.
Role in the story: The titular ship of the series.
Backstory: The Victory-class are of medium-sized vessels intended for operations in orbit (and as orbital support to ground troops) by the Earth Defense Force. They are"envisioned to be a networked, agile, stealthy combatants capable of defeating anti-access and asymmetric threats in high and low orbit. After the last Cay Union-Earth war, the Ground Forces clamored for a ship to support small “Special Operations Capable” units to police the border worlds. The Space Forces wanted ships smaller than a capital ship (so many could be built) that could still be a threat to the Cay Union's Vengeance-class heavy cruisers. Those ships frequently outweighed and out-ran Earth ships; having artificial gravity they could outlast Earth ships on patrol too. The Office of Applied Sciences reverse engineered the artificial gravity decades ago, but the power requirements meant that only the larger ships could use it. They figured out how to use the newer antimatter reactors coupled with tweaks to the ship's engines that booted power output for sensors, weapons and the gravity system. At least according to the EDF press release. The reality is that the ships are described as too much: the engines are too big (maintenance nightmares), the armor too light, the weapons too large, crew spaces too cramped and the cost too high. Given the problems with the lead ship, it was seen as a career ender for any officer. What was once a plum assignment became a dumping ground for flag officers close to retirement. For the longest time the Joint Security Area was dormant. The latest Captain, Harmon Ross, is a mild-mannered man, sent to prepare the ship and crew for a five-year assignment patrolling the JSA. Ross says that he will retire after a year. Commander Alexandra Sima hopes to take his place, she's the current executive officer. The rest of the crew look forward to an easy cruise, Ross and the Strike Force commander, said this would be a “peaceful tour”
Relevant Tropes: For the ship:
- The Captain: the first one is Capt. Harmon Ross, he gets sent back to Earth and the next Captain is Eugene Joseph Burke
- Lethal Joke Character: the ships and it's crew are the but of many jokes, of course they will turn things around.
- Cool Starship: Victory is a nice ship and has it's charm, it's not stuck escorting convoys or guarding a remote starbase. She's smaller than a cruiser, but can fight like one. Carries a battalion of ground troops and a decent fighter compliment. But she's not without flaws...
- Standard Human Spaceship / Our Weapons Will Be Boxy in the Future: looks like a large long box, unless Capital ships are next to it.
- Wave-Motion Gun: the main guns load various munitions, from anti-matter rounds, nukes to probes or can act as a wave guide for an energy weapon powered by the main engine.
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill: lots of guns for a ship it's size
- Standard Sci-Fi Fleet: Between Cruiser and Capital Ship.
- Space Plane: the fighters and dropships are atmosphere capable.
- FighterLaunchingSequence /Coming in Hot /Reentry Scare / Eject... Eject... Eject...: the tropes for the fighters and shuttles.
- Point Defenseless: played with, the ship has point-defense, the fighters can act as a screen, but the Cay Union and Southern Cross can take down bigger ships and have counter-measures.
- A-Team Firing and Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: when the engines are on, this happens and the systems can't cover the rear.
- Macross Missile Massacre: the missile bays,
- Misguided Missile: happens more often than the fighter pilots would like when those engines are on
- Recursive Ammo and Beam Spam: cluster missiles and “torpedoes” and the main gun.
- Multi-Directional Barrage: except the rear, darn those engines!
- We Will Use Manual Labor in the Future: the guns are manually loaded with an “assist” from a conveyor system. Sometimes it's loaded a crew member instead of the round selected.
- We Will Use Lasers in the Future: there are lasers and projectile weapons side by side.
- Worf Barrage: raiders run from the ship because their weapons are stopped by the Victory's point-defense, but Victory's weapons are not powerful enough against the cruiser-sized Cay-Southern Cross ships.
- Alpha Strike: when “Vicky” gets all weapons on target.
- Icall It Vera: the ship's nickname is “Vicky”
- Plot-Driven Breakdown: yep, it's gonna happen with those engines.
- The Alleged Starship: Gets this from the other EDF ships in the JSA, the Southern Cross, the Cay and even the Colonial Defense Force, the Butt-Monkey/ Red Shirt Army of the EDF.
- Take That!: Victory is called Icky Vicky, ESS Failure, ESS Jaws of Defeat
- Self-Deprecation / Insult Backfire: Icky Vicky has been adopted by the crew (but not Eliza).
Part 2: the ship's living computer
The Spaceship Girl:Chief Data Systems Technician Eliza Rai Strauss ZY-730Age: 45 years old, the Bio-Androids created for the United Earth Government have a 200 year life-cycle so she's very young.
Personality: The Perky Goth, the chick, spaceship girl, she's the CPU of the ESS Victory.
Abilities:
Weaknesses: EMP: if it gets past the ship's armor, she's screwed
Blessed with Suck/ Cursed with Awesome: plugged into the Victory, she is the heart of the ship, running all shipwide functions.
And I Must Scream: this happens when the ship's sensors are damaged or when there are bad system failures.
The Chick: as the heart of the crew she cares for them, but her efforts to mediate crew squabbles and balance out the tempers of the crew can fall on deaf ears since she's the ship's computer.
Goals/Motivation: She runs the ship. She wants to become the best ship in the fleet and complete her mission. No one gets left behind.
Role in the story: she delivers the sensor and ship related Techno Babble, she's Gwen DiMarco, only she IS the computer. She is a friend to Mae Craft AE-359, they were classmates at the Academy. She's tied to the ship but she gets her own tropes because she's a character in her own right.
Backstory:
The child of Master Chief Richard Strauss XT-923 and Major Gloria Whateley ZX-715. She was “born” at the RRDC labs on Mars. Her line-siblings work in combat engineering, naval construction and a few are CPUs. Her “uncle” Master Chief Zachary Whateley ZX-710 is the CPU of the ESS Essex. At the Academy she passed the pilot's exam and the screening to be selected as the CPU of the ESS Invincible. The ship was damaged and needed a new computer. She was with the ship for years, until it was decommissioned. Eliza was at the Office of Naval Research, helping them develop new systems. Her work landed her the job as the CPU of the new Victory-class. She got the lead ship, Victory. However the design compromises and rush to get the ship launched on schedule led the ship to have many teething problems.
She's named after the song “Eliza Lee”, the r in “Rai” is five letters off of “Mai”, Gloria was in the 5th Battalion, 55th Infantry Regiment, the “Triple Nickel” with COL Mai Craft TA-347 when they were just Troopers. Eliza's unaware of this.
Eliza's Relevant Tropes:
- Awesomeness by Analysis: from the ships sensors
- All Women Are Prudes: averted, she can see into every nook and cranny in the ship, she's doesn't care what the crew does on their personal time as long as it doesn't affect the ship.
- Power Perversion Potential: that she can scan the ship and it's crew does worry them, she swears up and down that what happens in the crew quarters doesn't interest her....
- Beware the Nice Ones: she'll do anything for her crew, see also mama bear
- Catchphrase: “Processing”, “I'm detecting an energy surge..”, “Bogeys detected on an approach vector.”
- Hot-Blooded with a Tranquil Fury/ Unstoppable Rage when the ship is in danger.
- Cyborg Helmsman: she controls the engines, but there is an actual helm, it's her job to turn control inputs and headings into ship movements.
- Attack Pattern Alpha: makes these happen, claims to be able to pull a Wronski Feint with a several ton warship...
- Fan of the Past: she has unlimted access to the ship's library so she watches old 'vids.
- Changing pop culture, lingusitc drift, and her bio-android nature leads to Blunt Metaphors Trauma at times.
- Perky Goth: she's fond of "goth"/"metal" bands of past eras, Hell Is That Noise is the reaction from the crew.
- The Nose Art on the ships fighters is heavy on skulls and crossbones as a result.
- The Nicknamer: Calls Mae Craft “Blue”, Commander Sima “The Great Stantina” and the ships strikeforce her “passengers”, the crew is her “hive” or “worker bees”. The Strikeforce commander Lieutenant Colonel Frederic Smith is "Colonel Storytime" She calls Trooper First Class EV-1021 Rebecca Song “Bandit”, Chief Engineer Casey Morgan Stelarc DX-1000 is "Goldie".
- Animal Motifs/ Animal Metaphor: insects, her line looks like a giant “preying mantis” she's really a mantis shrimp. She goes for insect metaphors and puns.
- Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: was a series of vibrant colors (blue being most prominent) but after becoming a ship's CPU she's very pale.
- Badass Bookworm: comes with being the ship's computer
- Berserk Button: late repairs, jokes about her condition (other than from Mae), hackers, people who hate bio-andriods and calling the ship the “Icky Vicky”. Remember, she controls the doors...
- Icall It Vera / Moe Anthropomorphism: the ship's nickname is “Vicky” and she'll answer to it, she asks Mae to change her polycron shell into the ship's colors of blue and white. Overtime most bio-androids identify with the ships they are plugged into. Eliza comes to think of the ship as her "body", the crew treats her as the ship.
- I'll Pretend I Didn't Hear That: does this as a favor to most of the crew
- Sherlock Scan: does this to the ships in sensor range and can do this to anyone on board.
- Strange Girl who works the The Big Board with the Enemy-Detecting Radar because she's a Sensor Character.
- Sensor Suspense: she hates this, she chitters when nervous
- Team Pet: to the bridge crew, even Commander Sima.
- Techno Babble: she spouts this, interprets this
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: at girly girl end of the scale unless the discussion turns to technobabble then she's the tom boy.
- Violently Protective Girlfriend: to Chief Engineer Casey Morgan Stelarc DX-1000
![[down]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_down.png "[down]"){kind=icon}
edited for clarity on advice of Da Student
edited 28th May '14 12:02:41 PM by TairaMai
All night at the computer, cuz people ain't that great. I keep to myself so I won't be on The First 48
rollin' on dubs
In a galaxy, where the United Earth Government has fought a civil war, losing several worlds to the Southern Cross and had a war with the Alien Cay Union, hope rides in a ship called Victory *cue theme music*
The "younger" sister of this character:
Name: Captain (Latter Major) Jun Craft AE-360
Age: 43
Personality: Perky and cheerful Ax-Crazy action girl,
Abilities:
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: her mother was a scout/spy model so she can shift her skin to change color and texture and change shape. Her Shapeshifter Default Forms : a “dog-girl form” and a combat form that is a large yellow and red cybernetic dog. . Her “human mode” is a 1.65 meter woman with red/brunette hair, dog ears and a red-yellow-gunmetal bodysuit, on duty she's a woman “wearing” an EDF uniform or civlian clothes. She has the eyeflash of a bio-android unless she's careful to mask it.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting gives her: Morph Weapon, Shapeshifter Weapons including the Blade Below the Shoulder
- Photographic Memory: a required secondary power for a shape shifting cyborg
- Swiss-Army Appendage: her hands are what ever she needs from lock picks to multi-tools, her feet can become Combat Stilettos (and thus Tony calls her "Boots").
- Technopath: can “merge” with technology, she takes over any vehicle that has a computer
- Little Bit Beastly: with a Cat Smile, the ears, fangs and More Teeth than the Osmond Family
- Warrior Therapist: friendly dog to her sister Mae's purring cat, she tries to be a coach and mentor to her teammates
- Gut Feeling: she can act “irrationally” only to reveal her reasoning later, except to Col Craft.
Weaknesses:
- Blood Knight, Axe-Crazy Heroic Comedic Sociopath: Before she was a team leader she was an “operator” and backup agent more famous for collateral damage than mission success. She's grown, but behind the smile is a Tranquil Fury.
- Cute and Psycho
- Badass Adorable: many flag officers don't take her seriously
- Cloud Cuckoolander: many consider her a Bunny-Ears Lawyer at best...
- The Lad-ette / Woman-child
- Manic Pixie Dream Girl/ Shape Shifting Lover: : wants to marry a human like her mother Mai, sees herself as a MPDG to some dour human male who'd be swept off his feet by an “exotic Femme Fatale”. Her brother Allan says she watches too many old vids, Mae has a different reaction.
- My Instincts Are Showing : the downside to being a Dog girl is growling when angry, her metal tail wags/moves to indicate her mood.
- Quizzical Tilt: like her mother Mai she will turn her head when confused.
- Inexplicably Tailless, except when she isn't. Her tail will appear and disappear at her whim.
- Well done daughter: Alice Craft wanted her wayward daughter to settle down, instead she became an operative. Alice didn't want her daughter to get hurt, but Jun thinks her momma was disappointed that she wasn't a conventional soldier like her brothers and sisters, a pilot like Averil or a doctor like Mae.
- Blatant Lies : her job when making sure the media and non-military agencies buy the MIA's cover story.
Goals/Motivation: She idolizes her mother Col Craft, and wants to be an operative like her, feared by the Cay and Southern Cross, respected by the EDF. She wants Mae to join her, she'd love nothing more than to have her older sister at her side. She thinks Mae could do better than “handing out pills or poking Troopers who are behind on their shots”.
Role in the story: A Guile Hero and Sixth Ranger to the main characters. She drops in on a mission to “volunteer” the crew of the Victory (and the ship as well) for a mission. She frequently butts heads with the command staff.
Backstory: The “children” of Alice Craft (genetically modified human) and Mai Taira Craft TA-347 . They are experiments in evolving the bio-droids. The brains of the AE-350 line would be very close to the human brain. Mae AE-359, Jun (AE-360), Averil, (AE-361), Freyja (AE-362), Luna (AE-363), Alan (AE-364), Craig (AE-365), Donald (AE-367), Hayden (AE-368) and Oscar (AE-369) were “born” in RDCC's labs. Mae is the “oldest” in her line. All went to the academy and graduated with honors (Jun, Oscar and Luna scoring “High” and “Highest” honors respectively). RRDC was pleased that this new line was so successful. They could learn as fast as the other bio-androids, yet could improvise and adapt just like their human programmers. The proctors were impressed with the rapid progress the AE-350 line-siblings made at the Academy.
Not the youngest sister but she acts like it. Where Mae Craft was the oldest sister who was close to Alice Craft, Jun became closer to her mother Mai. Averil was the ace pilot, Allan the soldier (and the philosopher), her other siblings became scouts and front line troops and Luna is the CPU of the ESS San Angeles. However Jun looked up to Colonel Mai Craft. She wanted to be a spy.
She studied at the Academy (RRDC's school for it's bio-androids before they were handed over to the Earth Defense Force). She was accepted to the EDF Special Operations Command after serving two years in the Ground Forces. She studied under Major Ian Schroder TH-318 as a “probie” before passing the qualifications for the Military Intelligence Agency's Special Operations Group. She was pinned Captain by her mother Col. Craft. Despite repeated attempts, Mae declines Jun's offer to sponsor her for a slot at the Special Operations Command.
Relevant Tropes:
- Action Girl
- Attack! Attack! Attack! / The Berserker: .: Her default strategy.
- The Musketeer: She uses her blades and a gun
- Badass Adorable: in her default human form
- Big Breasts Big Deal: runs between pride and indifference She likes being “sexy”, doesn't care that men stare, but hates having to shift into a smaller chested form (or male form): “I miss my chest.”
- The Big Girl : As a gender inverted Class 4 variant, Boisterous Bruiser, whose presence is larger than her physical size.
- Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: The blonde to “brunette” mom Alice (and Mae) and redhead Avril
- Troll: the way she approaches officers who are Bothering by the Book and how she deals with her targets
- Cat Smile / Cute Little Fangs /Deadpan Snarker: from her mothers
- Cloud Cuckoolander: She's pretty perky, retaining her cheerful, aloof outlook on life even in the face of a gun barrel
- Codename / Nom de Guerre: “Junebug” when she was a trooper, “Friday” “Oscar Lima” , and “Ojou” to EDF personnel.
- Office Lady: her preferred cover
- Animal Motifs, her sisters are “cats” so she's a dog like her mother the Colonel
- Kitsune / Fantastic Foxes : she's adopted these motifs and left a few fox-themed messages to her counterparts in the Southern Cross Intelligence Service.
- Evil-Detecting Dog : how see tries to come across when working a case.
- The Nose Knows: claims to have a better nose than her siblings...
- Angry Guard Dog: how the Cay see her and her mother, she wears the label with pride
- Big Friendly Dog: To UEG citizens and EDF personnel
- DogsAreDumb: she has her “blonde moments”....
- Double Agent: COL Craft has her in charge of running a few...
- Shoot the Dog: the job she gives to her teammate CPT Tony Starke.
- Friendly Sniper: good with a rifle
- GlowingEyes / MismatchedEyes : one red, the other blue, the glowing is a common trait for a bio-android, however the blue one glows red and the red one glows blue.
- Family Eye Resemblance: like her mother Mai, hetreochroma, like her mother Alice and her sister Mae, one is an Icy Blue
- Hot-Blooded: and how!
- Ham-to-Ham Combat: with Enodi Dren and Warmaster Nau'Theri Arrads Bespidor, two of the BigBads, she also butts heads with the command staff of the Victory.
- Ham-to-Ham Combat: with Enodi Dren
- Innocent Fanservice Girl /Shameless Fanservice Girl / Ms. Fanservice: her default form is a sexy human woman in a yellow, gunmetal and metallic red “body suit”....
- Shes Got Legs / Buxom Is Better : her default human appearance is buxom but that does come from her human mother, and she plays that up
- Made of Iron: played with. Her machine nature can “shut off” her emotions, or she can push herself farther than other bio-androids. She hates her emotional dampener “It's a feature that's bugging me!”, but it allows her to survive missions when her human partners have failed.
- The Rival: she thinks her sister Mae was a rival for mother Alice's affections.
- I Work Alone: prone to do this, like her mother Mai did early in her career.
- however her mother the Colonel saddled her with a partner....
- Friendly Rivalry: with Capt. Anthony “Tony” Starke TZ-360 her Number Two on the team.
- They Fight Spies: she's the Action Girl, Tony's the Guile Hero.
- Marshmallow Hell: and she's a Cuddle Bug with No Sense of Personal Space
- Meganekko with Zettai Ryouiki: her favorite disguise
- Nice Girl: even to her enemies
- Nightmare Fetishist: she collects spent shell casings, enemy weapons and artifacts from assignments because she believes that “ancient ninjas took a piece of their defeated enemies”.
- Too Kinky to Torture: a shapeshifter with a healing factor, spies and hackers have found this out the hard way
- Perverted Sniffing: Since she's a scout/spy and a tracker, she sniffs a lot...
- Screwy Squirrel / Rules Lawyer: push her too far and she won't just get mad, she'll wait to get even in the most creative way
- Shapeshifter Default Form: two, a “dog-girl form” and a combat form that is a large yellow and red cybernetic dog.
- Precision F-Strike and Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: All Craft siblings are masters of this....
- Does Not Like Shoes: like her mother the Colonel, she'd rather go barefoot or wear a “dress” that mimics clothing, when undercover she'll wear whatever she has to, even if it itches....
- Sixth Ranger / Vitriolic Best Buds: to the main cast
- Slasher Smile / Strange Girl / Cute Little Fangs
- Divine Parentage: of sorts, bio-androids can see their human creators like Gods. Some bio-androids see the Craft siblings as special. Others see them as just another bio-android variant. Mae sees this as Unwanted False Faith. Jun sees this as a reason to court humans, like her mother she wants to marry a human someday. She shamelessly uses this to wring favors out of bio-androids.
Edited by TairaMai on Sep 16th 2018 at 2:10:50 AM
All night at the computer, cuz people ain't that great. I keep to myself so I won't be on The First 48
rollin' on dubs
“In a galaxy, where the United Earth Government has fought a civil war, losing several worlds to the Southern Cross and had a war with the Alien Cay Union, hope rides in a ship called Victory ” *cue theme music*
- How much culture may vary between nation to nation, bearing in mind that the society is as a whole rather communal/conformistnote .
- How might humans be treated? There is a minority human population that's sprouted after the Union came into contact with the human civilisations, but the vast majority of the population is Sirian. How about humans that don't live in Sirian space?
- Are there any ideas/concepts they might find completely bizarre?
The Cay Union holds the state as the center of public life. There are still those who follow the older religion that held Emperors as Physical Gods and a few who worship the older gods.
Older Cay faith is centered on nature gods, ancestor worship and prayers. Latter Emperors added the Physical God aspect of the Imperial Cult. The Cay Union wanted to replace the Emperor with the State. They are not quite there yet. A common them is order versus chaos and protection of the family/clan/group etc. Even more liberal Cay consider religion a private matter and don't take well to outsiders (non-Cay) talking about religion. The Union hold conformity as a high virtue, the Cay living in the Southern Cross stress "service" over conformity.
The Dow who live on their homeworld of Dow'a have a religion centered on epic tales of good versus evil. Mostly it's a long epic that dates several millennia before humans were walking erect. A point of pride for more conservative Dow is to memorize several stanzas. Due to their biology, they can change sexes over their lifespan. Family is important to them, but sex roles are fluid. This confuses outsiders as a Dow hero or god may be a mother in one stanza then a father in the next. Their religion and folklore center on the "eternal sacrifice": loyalty to the group and the family above all else. Liberal Dow (mostly those living in the Southern Cross) include friends and loved ones in place of the "group". Some are even writing new epics based on the "struggle of the self versus the group". However they are viewed as "heretics" by those in the Dow Hegemony and older Dow families in the SC. The Dow Hegemony and the Cay Union both hold conformity as a high virtue. Liberal Dow are focused on the group, but can be just as individualist and "disruptive" as humans.
Martissans flip-flop between their old religion and following humans and Dow. Their old oppressors, "the Masters" created them with limitations and flaws in their biology. Everything pointed to their makers as false gods, they used Dow as "slave drivers" and fought the Cay. The Cay were brutal new oppressors who's overthrow of the Masters and triumph over the Dow didn't change much. Humans truly freed them. Some even shared their faiths with the Martissans. Other humans treated them as "less developed", trying to take away their language. Even the brutal Cay Union didn't do that.
Martissan faith centers on worship of a personification of "positive" concepts: faith, love, family, charity, etc. There are "demons" who embody "negative" things like war, hatred, envy etc. An early death is a demon (feared), a death after a long life is a god (and welcomed), something that baffles humans. Elderly Martissans will refuse medical treatment much to the anger of humans working with them. Martissans never anger the gods of fate and chance. Some Martissans have converted to human faiths or have been welcomed in Dow temples. Children are seen as the future and more precious than anything. Most of their religious festivals and holidays center on children, raising children and parenthood. Single Martissans are expected to dote on children and defer to parents, childless ones can be shunned. This is a sticking point in human-Martissan relations.
The Southern Cross says it has religious freedom. The reality is that Cay, Dow and Martissans each follow various faiths along with the humans in the SC. The government tries to downplay religion, not wanting to start fights between sects and the various groups that make up their worlds. Missionaries are banned from actively seeking converts in hope that this will keep the peace. In reality most urban colonists are more "secular". Those from rural worlds or border worlds are more religious.
Earth toes a fine line. Alien sectors have their houses of worship. Human faiths are barred from turning away aliens on paper. In practice, Fantastic Racism on both sides has caused tensions to wax and wane. Colonial governments are forbidden from "endorsing" a religion, but many look the other way when missionaries attempt to find converts. Some play different groups against the other to keep their colonists in line. This causes Earth to cry Stop Helping Me.
Earth's religions had to deal with space travel and aliens. Some leaders did better than others. Sects, churches and interpretations came and went. The big divisions are space travel, contact with aliens and technology. There are very conservative sects that favor colonization and contact with aliens, liberal sects that want to return to Earth and shun contact with outsiders and those that are reversed. Most citizens in Earth Space have some opinion on the "alien question", the worst thing is to be seen as "neutral".
The spanner in the works is Earth Defense Force's bio-andriods. Living machines who see their human creators like gods. Some religions see them as an affront to nature, immoral killing machines controlled by Earth. Even those who are pro-Earth prefer human troops over squads of "tin-cans" patrolling the streets.
All night at the computer, cuz people ain't that great. I keep to myself so I won't be on The First 48
rollin' on dubs
“In a galaxy, where the United Earth Government has fought a civil war, losing several worlds to the Southern Cross and had a war with the Alien Cay Union, hope rides in a ship called Victory ” ~*cue the theme music*~
- The Leaders—
- Captain Eugene Joseph Burke, The Kirk that the Victory needs.
- He replaces Captain Harmon Ross
- Captain Eugene Joseph Burke, The Kirk that the Victory needs.
- The Lancer
- Commander Alexandra Sima the ships XO,
- Lt Cmdr. Averil Craft (AE-361), the commander of Victory's fighter squadron
- Lieutenant Colonel Gloria Whateley ZX-715, she replaces
- Lieutenant Colonel Frederic "Colonel Storytime" Smith
- The Smart Ones —
- Trickster variant: Lt. Casey Morgan Stelarc DX-1000, Chief Engineer
- the McCoy: Captain Mae Craft AE-359 (overlaps with the chick and The Coroner too)
- Chief Data Systems Technician Eliza Rai Strauss ZY-730, The Perky Goth, the chick, spaceship girl, she's the CPU of the ESS Victory.
- The Big Guys, the 507th Mobile Infanty Battalion,the strike force in which we find Alpha Company, 1st Platoon, 3rd Squad:
- Sergeant EV-917 William Blake: Squad leader,
- Trooper First Class EV-1021 Rebecca Song, she's on the heavy weapons squad and the sniper,
- Trooper EV-1028 Luke Song, Animal Motifs: head like a shark or eagle, Demolitions Expert
- Trooper Second Class EV-1026 Matthew Song: scout, The Quiet One
- Trooper Second Class EV-1027 Mark Song: Radio Operator
- Corporal EV-1029 John Song: assistant squad leader
- Corporal Larissa Rocha, cyborg in power armor, formerly with the Colonial Defense Forces, they joke that she's the squad's Token Human
- The Chick —
- Chief Data Systems Technician Eliza Rai Strauss ZY-730
- Captain (Dr) Mae Craft AE-359 , ship's counselor and doctor
- Lieutenant Commander (Dr) Arcent Harken, ships chief surgeon She's a Martissan.
rollin' on dubs
One of the weapons in my 'verse:
- Autonomous Scanning Magnetic Rifle (ASMR): a railgun that aims and fires itself. Not really that autonomous. ASMR is the human term for it.
Given the time to charge capacitors and the sensors used to aim on various battlefields, a computer aims the railgun. The operator selects a target, the computer plots the fire solution and then shoots when the probability of a hit is >80%. With all the trouble of balancing power, adjusting sensors, the Cay developed a rifle that does the hard work of firing and aiming. Just point it at what you want hit, then select a new target to be hit after the weapon fires and reloads.
Given the power sources, the computers, sensors and recoil, it must be tripod or vehicle mounted. Powered armor carry this rifle. The suit's computers pulling double duty and aiming the rifle so more ammo and power can be carried (and a dropped rifle can't be turned on the user). The EDF's bio-androids can pick up any ASMR rifle and fire it after they "merge" with the weapon.
Snipers can carry the heavier version. The spotter carries reloads and a backup (conventional) rifle.
All night at the computer, cuz people ain't that great. I keep to myself so I won't be on The First 48
rollin' on dubs
“In a galaxy, where the United Earth Government has fought a civil war, losing several worlds to the Southern Cross and had a war with the Alien Cay Union, hope rides in a ship called Victory ” *cue theme music*
Earth Defense Force Tactics:
After the UN became the United Earth Government, the nations and colonies in UEG space set up a "defense force". High tech and well armed it would be "the best the United Nations had to offer."
The EDF is centered on the network. It's a high tech force built around computers, radios and “brilliant” weapons. Each unit can function on it's own or part of a whole as part of a “plug in and fight” system. The central operational concept is seizing, retaining, and exploiting the initiative with speed, shock, surprise, depth, simultaneity, and endurance. The operational concept depends on flexible combinations of Defense/Offence capabilities (combined arms) and joint capabilities (joint interdependence) integrated across the full spectrum of operations through mission command.
The EDF is the Lightning Bruiser, built for speed and shock. Ground Forces units deploy from starships to overwhelm and devastate the enemy. Once a drop zone is secured, heavy units are sent in to hold the territory.
Initiative, in its operational sense, is setting or dictating the terms of action throughout an operation. The side with the initiative determines the nature, tempo, and sequence of actions. Initiative is decisive if retained and exploited. In any operation, a force has the initiative when it is controlling the situation rather than reacting to circumstances. The counterpart to operational initiative is individual initiative, the willingness to act in the absence of orders or when existing orders no longer fit the situation. Speed is the ability of land forces to act rapidly. Rapid maneuver dislocates the enemy force and exposes its elements before they are prepared or positioned. Rapid action preempts threats to security. It reduces suffering and loss of life among noncombatants or victims of disaster by restoring order and essential services. Units will act on their own if they can seize the initiative. Armor units are divided into “drop-capable” and “heavy-static”. Heavy being too large to fit on the cruisers. They are sent after a “beachhead” has been secured. “Drop-capable” units are those that can be dropped from orbit to secure a city or geographic area. EDF Marine units are all built on speed. Light Powered Armor, bio-androids that can move fast (and many that are shapeshifters) all networked together to seize and hold an area several thousand hectares so an EDF division can land safely. Special Forces units operate alone, behind enemy lines disrupting enemy units and taking out “key leaders and assets” .
Shock is the application of violence of such magnitude that the enemy force is stunned and helpless to reverse the situation via overwhelming force at the decisive time and place. When circumstances limit the use of violence, the perceived ability to deliver decisive force is as important as its actual use. In noncombat operations, shock stems from employing enough military force to dissuade possible adversaries from hostile action. Surprise involves the delivery of a powerful blow at a time and place for which the adversary is unprepared. When combined with shock, it reduces friendly casualties and ends opposition swiftly. Again, the bio-androids are designed around surprise and shock. The Animal Motifs, Mecha-Mook and Robot War tropes are used to make them seem invincible, or at least something to be feared on the battlefield. Powered armor units have lots of weapons that can throw lead in the air to discourage enemy armored units. “Fighters” are built for speed and firepower, Bombers are armored flying tanks that can support ships or Ground Forces.
Depth, a function of space and reach, is the ability to operate across the entire area of operations. It includes the ability to act in the information environment as well as the physical domain. The bio-androids and the cybernetic soldiers have the endurance for prolonged operations into enemy territory. Many “fighters” are really small starships build to range far from a convoy and hit enemy logistics, fleet tenders and space stations.
Simultaneity, a function of time, confronts opponents with multiple actions occurring at once. Multiple actions overload adversaries' control systems and overstretch their resources. In stability and reconstruction operations, the ability to handle multiple events at the same time increases opportunities to influence the population. Simultaneity is at the heart of how the EDF operates: forces conduct offensive, defensive, and stability and reconstruction operations at the same time throughout a campaign. Endurance is the ability to survive and persevere over time. Swift campaigns, however desirable, are the exception. To succeed, Earth forces frequently conduct operations for protracted periods. This involves anticipating requirements and preparing to make the most effective use of available resources. At the strategic level, endurance gives Ground and Space forces their campaign quality.
The bio-androids are key here. From spaceship crews, gunners, troops in the field to cavalry scouts, they just have the extreme endurance to make operations spread across a planet possible. This enables the smaller EDF warships without Artificial Gravity to keep upwith Cay Union and Southern Cross ships that can stay on station for weeks.
The results is a combined arms approach where Ground Forces units work with Space Forces ships to attack and hold a planet, city by city. Enemy forces are met in free space, defeated and the enemy ground forces are hit from high orbit. Marines take landing zones and the Ground Forces take the planet. All of this backed up by information from the Military Intelligence Agency's operatives and the EDF battle network.
The snag to this is the Southern Cross Intelligence Service and their information warfare units. Network attacks have left units unprepared. SCMC units have used hit and run tactics to grind down EDF units. Raiders can harass warships, denying troopers vital orbital support. The “shock and awe” of the bio-androids is slowly wearing off. Many SCMC and Union soldiers simply use more firepower. The SCMC has powered armor units whose sole mission is to destroy bio-androids. The Colonial Defense Force uses older equipment and is more of a holding force. Some CDF units have surrendered without firing a shot. Marines complain that they have been left behind when Ground Forces have called off offensives. Ground Forces units have seen their orbital support run off to chase raiders and enemy warships. The Space Forces feel that orbital bombardment should be the first option against the Cay Union and that the Ground Forces should concentrate on defending the colonies. Planning can get bogged down in the details, the Joint Chiefs not seeing the strategic forest for the tactical trees.
But when all units are on the same page, the EDF is a force to be reckoned with.
Relevant Tropes:
- Standard Sci-Fi Army: The Ground Forces
- Standard Sci-Fi Fleet: Mostly, there are a few “battleships” lots of cruisers and many multi-mission ships
- Fighters and small ships have merged: if it's crewed by machines or bio-androids it's a fighter, if it can carry shuttles and land on a planet it's a frigate. Bomber and Destroyer are almost interchangeable (bombers are “missile/torpedo” boats).
- We Help the Helpless: Reconstruction efforts are part of the EDF's charter. A holdover from the United Nations and a result of rebuilding colonies attacked in various wars.
- Attack Drone: there are the standard robots, legally the bio-androids are considered drones.
- Drop Ship: most double as cargo ships and medivac
- Interservice Rivalry: The Space Forces say the Ground Forces are too large, the Ground Forces complain that the Space Forces don't give them enough support. The Marines and Special Forces Command say that the regular ground troops count on them too much. The CDF is told to sit in the corner until the adults are done talking...
- Ace Pilot: Large fighters and small warships are interchangeable, many ship captains got their start as pilots, bio-androids are stuck as pilots however and can't be promoted to Captain.
- Consummate Professional: The EDF's image in recruiting vids. The Southern Cross views them as a blood thirsty army of oppression.
- Do-Anything Soldier/ Super-Soldier : Bio-androids are built on this trope.
- To a lesser extent, the Cyborg “Super Soldiers” are an attempt at this.
rollin' on dubs
“In a galaxy, where the United Earth Government has fought a civil war, losing several worlds to the Southern Cross and had a war with the Alien Cay Union, hope rides in a ship called Victory ” *cue theme music*
The Southern Cross:
Currently The Southern Cross Mustered Citizenry (SCMC) consists of the Army and Navy. They are tasked with keeping the EDF away and keeping an eye on their “allies” in the Cay Union. All sentient beings living in the Southern Cross are able to serve in the military.
A military built on conscription, the original plan was to have a smaller core force that would grow in size as needed. Earth's various attempts to take worlds away from the “rebels” forced them to build a professional force as large as the EDF.
The SCMC takes what it can get. Criminals, spies, ex-mercenaries, EDF deserters, pirates who want to settle down, serve along with draftees and professional soldiers and sailors. As expected, petty crime and discipline is a problem in the ranks, the Articles of Combat and Military Order proscribe harsh punishment for many offenses. However, most offenses don't carry over to civilian life once someone leaves the SCMC. Until recently, numbers were never a problem for the Southern Cross.
Founded by colonies rebelling against Earth and alien refugees, the SCMC focuses on defense when it comes to Earth. Many ships patrol their border with the UEG. Since the treaty that governs “Joint Security Area” permits patrols of colony worlds, they send frigates and a couple of capital ships to counter the EDF's five cruisers.
In peacetime, the major combined arms commands are located in military districts that range in size from a world (like their capital) to several cubic light years.. In wartime, forces in the groups of forces and military districts will be organized into theaters of military operations and fronts (army/navy groups) for combat operations. The military districts will continue to function as territorial commands, acting as mobilization and training bases and providing logistical and other support services. Besides being a level of command, a theater is also a geographic entity. It consists of a particular territory, such as a continent or sea, where military forces of the Southern Cross and/or its allies operate in wartime. The SCMC considers the main type of wartime operation to be the theater strategic operation.
The front is the largest field formation in wartime. It is an operational and administrative unit, and its size and composition can vary widely depending on the mission and situation. Roughly equivalent to an old US/NATO army group, a front could be composed of up to three to five armies with organic artillery, missile, cavalry and rear service units, plus naval support.
“A Combined Arms Military”: The combined arms army is an operational and administrative organization; it is the basic field army. A typical combined arms army includes two to four motorized/foot infantry rifle divisions and one or two tank divisions, plus artillery.
By altering the mix of rifle and tank divisions and artillery and missile support, the army can operate in either offensive or defensive roles in different geographical areas and under various operational constraints. The biggest constraint is the budget of colony worlds. Many poorer worlds have fleets of civilian vehicles and pack animals as their primary means of mobility. Richer worlds have tanks, wheeled vehicles and powered armor. Those worlds supply the “heavy” motorized rifle and tank divisions. Poorer worlds rely on their neighbors or on the Navy.
The SCMC views war as part of their struggle for independence. As a result they plan many “stay behind operations”, hit and run attacks and train many of their light units for insurgent warfare. On the squad and platoon level, tactics are mostly battle drills and guerrilla warfare. At the battalion level there is coordination with the Navy. At the brigade and above level, all firepower is focused on an objective and only that objective. EDF units that have fought the SCMC found this out the hard way. A unit can break through enemy lines and operate on it's own, or it can be a diversion for a main attack. As a result, while units of the SCMC can vary, every part is committed to the whole. There is no distinction between a brigade, a division or an army. All operations are planned and executed with one objective in mind. The main objective is to destroy enemy units and eject EDF forces from their worlds. All else pales in comparison. Where the EDF would size a city as a drop zone,, the SCMC would bypass the city and simply find some flat ground then surround it. With the enemy forces depleted, the city falls like a piece of ripe fruit.
The SCMC Navy is mostly a networked “high tech force” at the capital ship level. Many older Cay Empire/Union ships were sold to the SCMC. They have their own shipyards where they've launched carrier-dropship hybrids and “crusher ships”. “Crusher ships” carry many dropships that land on a planet “crushing” opposition. They use drones to protect ships. Fighters and raiders operate in convoys to harass EDF shipping. Like the Army, the Navy plans it's attacks based on the objective of bleeding Earth's Space Forces before they make planetfall. However they can hold their own ship to ship.
Aside from losing at the tactical level, the EDF's use of bio-androids still takes many units by suprise. Discipline is a problem in garrison for many SCMC units and ships.
Relevant Tropes:
- Fighting for a Homeland: Cay, Martissans and other aliens living in the Southern Cross, the humans who declared their independence from Earth,
- the cyborgs who were forcibly made super soldiers by the EDF gave this as the reason for joining the SCMC.
- Standard Sci-Fi Army: The Southern Cross Mustered Citizenry (SCMC) has the Army and Navy. The Army is mostly vehicle based. Some worlds used wheeled vehicles because they are cheap to mass produce.
- Had to Be Sharp: Many recruits/draftees are colonists that grew up on hostile planets or are species fleeing persecution.
- Standard Sci-Fi Fleet: The Navy. Many Cay warships were sold to the SCMC. Their cruisers can outrun and out gun the EDF's ships. They have a lot of unmanned fighters and raider ships they use to harass the EDF.
- Mildly Military: even after several decades, most people in the SC view their military as “rebels”, the Navy tends toward this since they recruit from pirates, raiders and other boxed crooks.
- Kinetic Weapons Are Just Better: despite the military aid from the Cay, most of the Army and all of the Militia, uses rifles that are very similar to the 20th and 21st century assault rifles. Heavy weapons include lasers, missile and magnetic rifles along with machine guns.
- Robot War: How the Southern Cross sees the bio-androids. Where Earth sees tireless defenders, the SC sees them as remorseless machines that can't be stopped without heavy ordinance.
- Trading Bars for Stripes: Many offenses can be expunged with a term of service.
- Got Volunteered / Press-Ganged : Field Grade commanders have the authority to force anyone to fight to defend a space station, city or crew a star ship “in time of emergency”.
- Legion of Lost Souls: many criminals and refugees are allowed to “start over” after a term of service.
- Insistent Terminology: it's not Impressment it's “emergency service”,
edited 21st Nov '15 11:52:38 PM by TairaMai
All night at the computer, cuz people ain't that great. I keep to myself so I won't be on The First 48
rollin' on dubs
Here's a look at some sci-fi villains and how they fight:
“In a galaxy, where the United Earth Government has fought a civil war, losing several worlds to the Southern Cross and had a war with the Alien Cay Union, hope rides in a ship called Victory ” *cue theme music*
The Cay Union
The Cay are Humanoid Aliens and Heavyworlders,the descendants of a pangolin/porcupine-esque mammaliod. Those raised on the homeworld are shorter than the human norm, those raised in space or on lower gravity colony worlds are as tall as the average human. Their homeworld was a death world, poisonous plants, and fierce predators. They have a high tolerance for certain poisons due to the plants of their homeworld. In fact their natural skin oils can cause a human to break out in hives if he or she touches a Cay. Their rough world led to a focus on fighting for resources. Their are social creatures. Unlike the other species humans have encountered, they quickly establish who's boss. They crave order. Klingon Promotion is a common theme in their culture. As they expanded, those Cay further from Homeworld became more liberal. Contact with other races cause those Cay living abroad to question the rulers of their colonies and the Emperor of their homeworld. Taking their off-world conquests was one thing, running a star spanning empire something else. Their warriors were drawn from the three castes: workers the lower ranking soldiers, merchants the technicians and the scholars the officers and religious leaders. After several Emperors were either overthrown, assassinated or proved unable to run the Empire, a group of merchants and scholars banded together units under their command. Backed by the workers who saw their labor going to waste in the Empire’s decline, they overthrew the Emperor. The Cay Union would have an elected council that rotated among the various families, worlds and the three castes. The Cay off-world were enjoyed the lack of Imperial control. Many families and minority groups flourished far from the persecution of the Empire. They didn't want the Union's Guardians kicking down their doors and dragging them away to the secret courts the Union was setting up. They fled to the “Southern Cross” and the “huu-maan” settlements. The Cay Union is located on the world the CU simply called “Homeworld”. In their language , Cay means “People”, the title of the state means “Union of the People”. It's a People's Republic of Tyranny, Red China by way of Nazi Germany to the tune of NineteenEightyFour.
Their military reflects this. The War Fleet is their “navy”. The former “Imperial Grand Army” is now the “People's Grand Army”. There is a police force and the Guardians who handle all “political crime” and intelligence. Thanks to their fantastic immune response, the Cay Union uses cybernetics on their soldiers. From drug implants to full exoskeletons, the options are only limited to what the Union's military needs. Of course no soldier or crewman can refuse cybernetics. Rumors abound that some of the implants are rigged to explode to prevent capture or mutiny.
Their high tolerance for toxins has backfired. Rampant unchecked heavy industry has led to terrible pollution. Fertility rates for the factory worlds in the Union are dipping down. The Union has instituted mandatory motherhood as a result. Not that it's fixing the problem. No one in the Union dares criticize the industry that fuels the Union's war machine and brings in hard currency from interstellar trade.
The Evil Counterpart to The Cay Empire. Not quite a Vestigial Empire. The Union has held onto a good portion of the Empire's holdings.
So how does this inform their tactics?
Elite units may get all the glory but it's the regular troops who get the job done.
The Empire was built on conquest and mercantilism. They rapidly colonized worlds near Homeworld and invaded many of the neighbors. They “liberated” the Martissans, killing the race they called “the Masters” and taking the place. It's common for enemy commanders to be executed so that prisoners know who's in charge. Despite their image as hostile alien hordes, they have been know to spare cities and ships that have surrendered. Spies and insurgents are not welcome however. Resources, technology and cities, the three things the Union is interested in. They'll surround a space station rather than destroy it, but if they think it will be lost they'll blow it up.
The Cay in the Union prefer to be on the offensive. At the “brigade” level, commanders have wide latitude, doing as they wish as long as their units are moving forward. Lower level commanders can and will go off on their own if they see and opening in enemy lines. Massive firepower is directed at the enemy to utterly destroy or demoralize most of their forces. In space, union ships operate alone or in groups of two or three unless the High Command has operations planned.
Their army moves on a mix of vehicles, powered armor and pack animals. Some of their animals are bred to hunt humans as a consequence of their war with the UEG. It's common for Union troops to carry a sword or large knife in addition to a bayonet attached to their main weapon. This is a tradition and a practical weapon when supplies run low. The War Fleet consists of a few elite squadrons and a large reserve fleet. What gives them an advantage is that they have Artificial Gravity and can stay on patrol longer than Earth ships. The Cay were the first to combine “jumpships” with “warp drive”. So their fleet moves faster than the EDF. The result is that the Cay Union focuses on a quick flight. Their elite units are given a very strict training regimen. The rest of the military has strict discipline, but not as strict as those elite units on the front lines. Their weakness is that the elite units focus on combat while the rest of the Union focuses on being a garrison force.
Relevant Tropes:
- Aliens Are Bastards: Union forces will shoot anything. After the battle they will steal any technolgy or resources.
- Alien Invasion: what they tried to do to Earth, how the Empire viewed humans.
- Low Culture, High Tech: Their version of The Empire made it offworld. Many traditions carry over: executing enemy leaders, raiding for goods and money
- The Martissans and other races were mostly peaceful. Humans are warlike and in some cases just as fierce as the Cay. So the Union wants to invade Earth.
- Red Shirt Army: The border forces, mostly the Union keeps it's elite mooks moving to put the EDF off balance. Others are advisers to the Southern Cross.
- Standard Sci-Fi Army: The “People's Grand Army”
- Magnetic Weapons, Laser Rifles and “SMGs” along with “Slug Throwers.”
- Space Marine: All Union Soldiers are trained in space operations and ground operations.
- Rock Beats Laser: They practice with several Swords and Polearms too.
- Powered Armor: various versions exist and are used along with:
- Tanks, including Walking Tanks and spider tanks
- Awesome Personnel Carrier: from wheeled, walking and hovering
- Animal mounts and pack animals.
- Bug War: Some of the mounts and beasts of burden they use are giant “pseudo-insects”. They breed them to feed on humans. The EDF responded by making bio-androids with Animal Motifs.
- Others are just large, big mean animals with More Teeth than the Osmond Family
- The Grand Army has some armor for various animals, but only for shrapnel and melee weapons. Animals are easier to "make" (if you have a male and female for instance), they are light (younger animals are small and easy to ship), the Cay don't care about ecological damage of colony worlds (it's biting them in the rear however). Many are local so they don't have to worry about shipping.
- Army of Thieves and Whores: commanders on the border retain the old imperial tradition of raiding non-Cay settlements. Union soldiers have looted human settlements.
- Standard Sci-Fi Fleet: The Cay have Artificial Gravity and were the first to combine “jumpships” with “warp drive”.
- Their cruisers are larger and faster than those of the Earth Defense Force. Their older cruisers have been sold to the Southern Cross.
- Being able to take higher G-forces, the Cay still employ fighters and scouts alongside Attack Drones and Kill Sats
- They have more “multi-mission” ships as well.
- Enemy Mine: Why the Empire supported the Southern Cross in their push for independence because it was an Enemy Civil War.
- Gondor Calls for Aid: There are still Southern Cross supporters in the Union. They arranged for weapons, ships and pack animals to be sent as aid.
rollin' on dubs
X-posted from the old worldbuilding ecology thread:
Earth has expanded to several solar systems and has designed/rebuilt several tailor-made critters to fill ecological niches.
- various grasses and shrubs have been bred/engineered to help terraform worlds. Many can be boiled to make a nice broth or will change their color to reflex what metals are in the soil (something real world plants do, seriously, it's how geologists find deposits).
- various mice and other rodents to aerate the soil and spread seeds of the above grasses. Predators to keep them in check. Most colonial governing boards make sure that the species are bred/designed in tandem to avert problems.
- once side effect is that there are bacteria and viruses that have evolved due to the interaction between Earth organisms and those found on newer worlds. Mixing human and alien food can cause deadly results.
- This problem has made space based colonies PARANOID about diseases since they are closed circles. Many refuse entry to ships from worlds (rightly or wrongly) that they believe are "contaminated".
- the sociological problems (cultural and legal) of terraform and then maintaining the ecology of a human colony. See rabbits in Australia. Colonies have harsh laws still on the books regulating what animals can be taken on and off world.
Pest control measures:
- The Cay Union uses lots of DDT like chemicals and orbital bombardment.
- The Southern Cross uses inspections, strict laws and as a last resport chemicals, but only after lots of planning. Some member speices can take chemicals, some can't. Once species vermin is another's staple diet.
- The United Earth Government is the same. Carefull, now, to regulate movement of colonists and their livestock. However, human majority areas seem to have better services and pest control over the alien sectors on UEG colony worlds.
The wrinkle in all this is the alien species Earth as met: the Cay Union is fond of "poisoning the well": they deposit all kinds of ecological nasties when driven off by defenders. The Southern Cross allows freedom of movement by it citizens, human and alien alike, so the have outbreaks of various diseases the Ministry of Public Health and NGO's work stamp out.
Earth's solution is the make certain areas "human sectors" and the others "alien sectors". This has bitten the United Earth Government in the arse. Many areas set as "alien" have high walls and separate (some say inferior) sewage and drainage systems.
Earthers say it's to prevent "Colony Collapse Disorder": when a colony's ecosystem, economy or social order crashes and the colony fails. Detractors and separatists say that CCD doesn't exist or isn't as bad as the Interstellar Health Organization claims it is.
Some cultures view animals that we think are cute as ugly, unclean or worse and vice versa, see What Measure Is A Noncute.
I take this and run with it. One nation exterminates large birds because they think they are evil. Another nation has a love-hate relationship with bitechnology. Some of their worlds import and export tailor-made critters, others don't. Earth is all over the map, some critters are vermin, others are fine. Some "vermin" are imported to "re-balance" or terraform planets. But like those Aussie rabbits, there are worlds crushed by plagues of cats, dogs, foxes, etc.
All night at the computer, cuz people ain't that great. I keep to myself so I won't be on The First 48
rollin' on dubs
Here's my take on the capital ships in the Standard Sci-Fi Fleet:
The Cay Union as the oldest power has ships that are complex yet compact. The empire mastered "jump drives" and began to colonize nearby worlds. They fought and bested "the Masters" who ruled the Martissans. As a result the Empire gained Artificial Gravity and Warp drive. Over time they combined the two. Large capital ships can move faster than their size suggests, the largest ships don't bother since the power cost is too high. Smaller ships can stay "on station" longer due to have their own gravity. Even frigates can carry a dropship and thus land troops on a planet making a visit by the "War Fleet" a very bad day.
Earth in contrast found a ship under the ice on Europa. Studying that ship the UN reverse engineered a working jump drive. Overtime the bulky and fragile Earth ships found the Cay. Earth ships are larger than Cay or Martissan ship designs. Only the large capital ships have Artificial Gravity. Warp drives are now standard to cruisers and below, they are tasked with protecting the larger ships. Earth ships are larger and more bulky but can take quite a pounding. The newer Victory-class ships come close to Cay Union ships in size and speed but they sacrifice armor in exchange for sensors, weapons and speed.
The larger ships can carry one or more dropships with them if they don't have room on board. Others escort a modified freighter that carries many dropships. EDF Marines operate from small drop-ships that can operate from even the small frigates (but Marines don't really like being that cramped). The newer Victory-class will have room on-board for a company of EDF ground troops and can have drop-ships attach to the hull. The UEG hopes this will put them on an even footing with the Cay Union.
The Southern Cross has both Cay older ships and former Earth ships in it's navy plus whatever it can get it's hands on. Many older "capital ships" are just large freighters with guns and missiles bolted on escorted by fighters. Their "crusher ships" are descended from pirate raider and pillager class vessles: FTL ships that carry a load of dropships to attack a planet. They have started to build ships that have warp and jump drives. Most of their newer ships are based on Cay designs but they sacrifice weapons for armor.
The SCMC chose to have freighters carry troops and "crusher ships" carry the large Army divisions. They prefer to have the warships focused on ship to ship combat.
Since "warp" is a type of Alcubierre Drive, there is a bennie: stealth in space. The downside is that "A-fields" gobble up power and blind your sensors in addition to the enemy's. Heat can build up to dangerous levels or "blossom" when a ship drops the A-field to fire. It's a Reactionless Drive so there is all kinds of fun to be had, unless you're too close to a planet. Without a good computer a ship can crash or be thrown off course. If the A-field fails, the crew can become chunky salsa.
No Warping Zone: large planets and stars can cause a mis-jump if a ship is too close. Getting too close to a planet or star is problematic for warp drive as well. Too much power required to get faster than light and high gravity tends to mess with the drive and throw off the field.
Given the computations and that jump drives mug general relativity and take it's lunch money good computers are a must. Most civilian drives have a large (desk sized) computer that manages the ship and makes the calculations for the jump to the next planet. A warp drive can be used to move closer, making a years long trip across a solar system only a few days.
Military drives need more precision and more power. Raiders and pirates discovered that ships can jump closer in a gravity well but only if precise calculations are made. These pirate points shave time off the transit to a planet. Warp can be used closer to a planet but the resulting figures call for processing power beyond a mere computer. The Cay (and the masters before them) simply used convicts and "selected candidates" as the ships secondary computer via cybernetics. The Southern Cross uses volunteers who "plug" into a ship's computer and help it make the calculations. The EDF uses bio-androids that become the ship's computer (and in effect the ship itself).
All night at the computer, cuz people ain't that great. I keep to myself so I won't be on The First 48
rollin' on dubs
All this talk of weapons, what about the other sci-fi-y thingies?
In universe:
RRDC had to develop a material for the "skin" of the bio-andriods. The first three robots (Gort, Bort and Mort) were living cybernetic organisms inside a metal-cermaic case. They were marginally faster than an AFV and bulky. As newer designs were tried, hard shells had to go.
The first material was Polychiron (polycron is the generic version). It is a synthetic composite that mimics skin and allows living cells to "breathe" and grow in layers with the composite. The smaller models would "scar" with battle damage and field use. Over time it was refined to a synthetic outer coating with a living backing.
The next model was a leap forward. Chrytin is a chitin, cellulose, keratin and polychiron blend. It's not made, it's grown in the RRDC labs. Each bio-andriod is "matured" in development chamber. Inorganic parts are assembled and the organic parts grow around them. Some lines are grown with minimal human involvement.
These materials allow for lightweight, self-repairing machines. Many can "shape shift", serving as scouts or all purpose combatants. The downside is that even the lightest Chrytin feels slightly heavier than human skin and has a distinctive chemical signature. While this allows for bio-andriods to have "expressive faces" and body language, there have been some negative reactions.
RRDC does a lucrative side business in prosthetic and medical devices in both Polychrion and Chrytin. With some modification, even aliens can use devices tailored to humans.
Out of universe, I needed a good material for the bio-andriod characters to be plausible. Not outright Handwave-y, but grounded in real science. Mae Craft (the ship's android doctor) and her shape shifting siblings are an example of how far this can go. There are others who look like traditional robots until their faces move. And like in the Iron Man films, the MegaCorp that makes the "killer robots" can say "our technology has peaceful uses too."
All night at the computer, cuz people ain't that great. I keep to myself so I won't be on The First 48
rollin' on dubs
“In a galaxy, where the United Earth Government has fought a civil war, losing several worlds to the Southern Cross and had a war with the Alien Cay Union, hope rides in a ship called Victory ” *cue theme music*
Communication is via a modified jump drive that allows either tachyons (very expensive) or radio transmissions (cheaper but there are bandwith limitations). Some large MegaCorp ‘’might’’ have their own GalaxyCom station, but most are owned and operated by governments.
Most militaries have a jump drive that can generate a “jump point”. This allows fighers and dropships to follow along without being docked to a warship or transport. Earth, the Cay Union and the Southern Cross have “warp drives” that allow for limited faster than light travel as most think of it. A bubble called an “A field” surrounds a ship. This field is expensive to produce, only the largest fusion ships can do it, antimatter drives allow the ship to generate artificial gravity.
The “A-Field” allows true stealth in space, a ship inside is almost undetectable. The downside is that the ship can’t see outside the field unless it “rides” the field. This puts a strain on ships. A large field can hide smaller ships, but only if they are close to the ship maintaining the field. Since the field has to be dropped, some Fleets use “ambush” tactics to get in close. Other play a dangerous game of hide and seek, burning fuel in the hopes of getting a good shot latter.
Most warships can have a near real time link back to homebase, at the expense of fuel. As a result, data compression and courier ships are common. There are FTL relays for civilian and military use. A few are protected by treaty so that governments can communicate even in times of war.
There is the theory that a portal network using artificial wormholes or some drive so large it can send any vessel to another star system. Several attempts have been made, but few have been successful. The Cay Union claims to have the ruins of one in it’s possession but that may just be propaganda.
The end result is that many field grade commanders and ship captains have lots of authority. Colonial governors also have wide latitude when it comes to internal matters. Earth keeps a firm hand on it’s colonies, making use of an extensive relay network to talk to them. The United Earth Government has poured million of credits into portal research but to no avail. The Cay Union is only concerned with keeping the flow of goods and services between it’s colonies. Some of their colonies are almost empires unto themselves. The Southern Cross splits the difference, but they have to rebuild their FTL network after the EDF damaged it during the “One Year War”.
Out of universe, yeah I like the Battle Tech and Babylon Five jumpdrive. I've cribbed the Alcubierre drive for some StarTrek-y style goodness and Stealth in Space.
Remember, FTL communications will shape governments and tactics.
edited 26th May '14 9:31:05 PM by TairaMai
All night at the computer, cuz people ain't that great. I keep to myself so I won't be on The First 48
“In a galaxy, where the United Earth Government has fought a civil war, losing several worlds to the Southern Cross and had a war with the Alien Cay Union, hope rides in a ship called Victory ”
Name: Lieutenant Commander (Doctor) Arcent Harken
Age: 30
Personality:
Really Gets Around/ Bi The Way/Ethical Slut/ Polyamory /Chivalrous Pervert, Hooker with a Heart of Gold / The Chick / Light Feminine Dark Feminine leading to Nice Girl
She has a very “cheery” disposition, loves making friends and takes pride in knowing how to heal. Like all Martissans, she values education.
Abilities: the medic, Doctor's Orders : she's a qualified flight surgeon and a licensed shuttle pilot
Weaknesses:
Goals: She wants to travel, serve her 20 years in the EDF and retire at the age of 43.
Motivation: “I want to protect everyone! This ship and it's crew is my family and we live and die for our families.”
Role in the story: Aside from being Mae's boss, a gifted surgeon, she's a deconstruction of the Green-Skinned Space Babe, as a character she's one of the doctors, Mr. Exposition or The Watson depending on the scene.
Backstory: Arcent Harken is the middle child of a family of seven, her mothers and fathers raised their children in hope that they could become doctors and scientists. Her species was Made a Slave first by a race they call “The Masters” and then the Cay when the Cay Empire “liberated” them. When the Cay Empire became the Cay Union, things did not look good. Then the humans came. The population is split between the Southern Cross and Earth Space with a small population still trapped in the Cay Union. Her family has always sent one of their children to the EDF as gratitude for being truly made free by humans. She wanted to study medicine ever since she was a little girl. Was The Pornomancer in medschool, since some humans think Martissans are kinky and exotic. Of course cultural differences led to most of those relationships ending after graduation (see weaknesses).
Relevant Tropes:
Edited by TairaMai on Jul 21st 2019 at 2:09:29 AM
All night at the computer, cuz people ain't that great. I keep to myself so I won't be on The First 48