[center][b][h1]Muv Luv Alternative: Legacy of Palaiologos[/h1][/b] [img]https://i.imgur.com/ZAvK6Lr.jpg[/img][/center] [i]You'd think that when the planet was in the middle of a nuclear standoff, things couldn't get any worse short of mutually assured destruction. Going out in a fireball would probably be better than what happened to most of Central Asia and the Middle East. The Canadians were lucky then. When the BETA landed at Kashgar back in '73, the Chinese gave the rest of the world the finger, and said they had the situation 'under control'. Of course, nineteen days later they managed to lose air superiority and had their ground forces completely overwhelmed. So what did they do? They turned the Tarim Basin into a nuclear wasteland and forced the BETA west into Central Asia. Now at this point, the US of A sure as hell wasn't taking any chances. When the BETA landed in Saskatoon the next year, Uncle Sam decided to skip the 'get our army overwhelmed' bit and go straight to launching half their nuclear arsenal at the BETA LZ. Sure, we may have scorched half of Canada, but we saved hundreds of millions of lives in the process! Back in Eurasia, things weren't looking too good. By 1975, the BETA have overwhelmed most of the Middle East and Central Asia, and at the rate of things were pushing across the Volga right into Eastern Europe. The US and most of Europe twiddled its thumbs whilst the Ruskies bled for every inch of land. It took three years before we finally got our shit together and began our first real counterattack. Now, a lot of rumours get spread around about what happened during Operation Palaiologos, that it was a slaughter, that we lost half a million men contesting the Ukraine and the Volga, that we had infantrymen try to infiltrate the underground chambers of the Dnipro Hive, only for them to get ripped apart and their remains uncovered weeks later. I'm not going to confirm or deny any of them but I'll tell you this: If Operation Palaiologos had gone south, all of Europe would be gone. The BETA would have pushed west into Poland, Hungary and Germany and by then, it would've been far too late to stop them. Luckily for us, we won, by the skin of our teeth, and pushed those alien bastards back across the Volga. That was all we could do, though. The costs were just too damned high, too many men were dead fighting over ground in Eastern Europe, and we were spent. No morale, no political will to push forward and most deadly of all, no unity. The alliance between East and West broke down months after the end of the operation. The West said that it was a 'resounding victory that broke the enemy advance'. The Russians retorted that 'the West didn't have the nerve to push forward’. Now, it's trench warfare all over again, with us sitting in our trenches and mountain holdouts whilst these aliens throw wave after wave against our defenses, and everyone else back at each other's throats, playing the same political game they've always had. Not much has really changed, other than that we all might end up getting wiped out by alien invaders if we play our cards wrong.[/i] -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hello all and welcome to my first attempt at running an NRP. If you're still reading after that opening blurb, congratulations, because whilst this setting may seem a bit complicated if you aren't familiar with the Muv Luv setting, I assure you, it's not, and I'll be doing my best to give you the rundown on the 'history' of this alternate Earth, as well as an explanation of the key concepts and plot elements that are gonna be in play. First of all, to rehash the history as succinctly as possible: In 1973, an alien race known as the BETA ([b]B[/b]eings of [b]E[/b]xtra-[b]T[/b]errestrial Origin which are [b]A[/b]dversarial to the Human Race) landed in Kashgar. The existence of the BETA was not unknown to humanity. A probe sent to Mars transmitted pictures of strange lifeforms to NASA, and a few years before the first landings, the BETA attacked a US moon base and kicked off the Lunar War which ended with a US withdrawal just before the Kashgar Landings. Once they landed, it was hard to stop them short of launching nukes, which ended up just forcing the BETA west into Central Asia and the Middle East which they overran within a few years. NATO and the Warsaw Pact basically got together for the first and only time in the largest military operation in human history in early 1978, successfully infiltrating a BETA Hive under construction in Dnipro, Ukraine, and then destroying it, as well as pushing the BETA out of European Russia. From there, they lost momentum and pretty much stopped after setting up a new defense line in the Caucasus and northern Kazakhstan where the BETA have been bashing their heads against a brick wall for the past decade. The year is now 1988, and with the alien threat mostly contained to these regions, the Cold War which was on pause for a few years is now back in full swing. [center][img]https://i.imgur.com/d4WJC6N.png[/img][/center] [center]Extent of the BETA Advance in 1988[/center] ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Now you might be shouting: "Hold on a sec, Predawnia, Lunar War in the early 70s? Probe to Mars before that? Did you fail middle school history or is there an alternate history timeline you forgot to tell us about?" To that question, it's none of the former and a bit of the latter, with a lot of ambiguity and 'undefined' events to allow for sufficient freedom to design your own nation, so you can play your alternate history communist Nepal or whatever tickles your fancy. The only really concrete and 'happened without a shadow of a doubt events' are as follows: 19th century: The Shogunate wins the Boshin War and as a result, the Emperor remains a figurehead. Rest of history proceeds as normal up until World War 1 1919-1944: World War 2 ends in 1944 with the United States nuking Rostock and Wurzburg in Germany instead of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Shogunate issues a surrender and signs a peace treaty with the United States, with the Shogun becoming a figurehead much like the Emperor did OTL. 1950s: United States, Western Europe and the Soviets set up their own space agencies, using Orion Drives, and the United States sends a probe to Mars which transmits back pictures of the first BETA. 1960+: Refer to the previous section where I summarized the history. [hider=Plot Elements and Important Concepts] [b]The BETA[/b]: The secondary, or primary antagonist of the RP (depending if your nation happens to be on the frontlines or not) and possibly the greatest threat to the human race aside from the threat of mutually assured destruction. The BETA harvest humans and most other resources on land, lack air or naval assets, and their strength in combat lies in their use of numbers to overwhelm any opposition The conflict with the BETA is an ongoing event in the background regardless of the politicking in the rest of the world, and the frontlines with the BETA are pretty much facing combat 24/7 somewhere. Lots of room for plot to happen here. BETA actions will be controlled by the GMs and they’ll move at the speed of plot. More info on BETA as a species can be found in the picture below. [hider=BETA Strains] [img]https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/muvluv/images/8/82/Know_Your_Enemy.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/1000?cb=20110904165201[/img] [/hider] [b]Operation Palaiologos[/b]: In the original Muv Luv series, Operation Palaiologos was an attempt by NATO and the Warsaw Pact to capture the under-construction Minsk Hive in Belarus and repulse the BETA advance into Europe. The failure of the Operation in the original timeline leads to the withdrawal from the Soviet Union from European Russia and the separation of the Warsaw Pact from their sponsor nation, and eventually, the fall of continental Europe. In the Legacy of Palaiologos timeline, the Operation was a pyrrhic victory for the combined NATO-Pact forces in capturing the Dnipro Hive, allowing them to establish a new defense line in Kazakhstan and the Caucasus and thus averting the fall of Europe. [b]Alternative Projects[/b]: A series of projects beginning from the Lunar War and extending to the present day. Alternative I attempted to contact the BETA, and failed. Alternative II attempted to dissect and study the BETA as well as a Hive, which was accomplished in Operation Palaiologos. Alternative III is an ongoing attempt to develop individuals with extrasensory perception (Espers) to communicate telepathically with the BETA. [b]The United Nations[/b]: Unlike OTL, the United Nations has a much larger military contributed mostly by governments-in-exile of nations overran by the BETA, as well as other forces from around the globe. In the context of this RP, the United Nations can be considered an 'NPC' faction that more or less has its hands full dealing with the BETA, though the Security Council may influence their actions and direct Anti-BETA operations. [b]UN Resolution 404[/b]: A resolution adopted by the UN Security Council in 1978 during the events of Operation Palaiologos. It's basically an agreement between the two major blocs to remove their nuclear weapons from missile locations that are either in Turkey or nowhere near the frontlines with the BETA. Staves off the threat of MAD to an extent. [b]Tactical Surface Fighters[/b]: Mechas that are the primary combat system used to fight the BETA. The reason for their usage is that the BETA employ an extremely powerful anti-air system through the use of the Laser-class that can shoot down conventional aircraft with pinpoint accuracy from 30 kilometres away. TSFs were thus developed as all-purpose assault units, able to fight in urban regions, uneven terrain, and most importantly of all, fly low enough that they would not be targeted by BETA anti-air. Of course, that doesn't mean the jet fighter has gone extinct. Their role in war may have been diminished and they're slowly getting phased out over time, but most nations still field conventional jet aircraft, with TSFs only taking over in recent years. [b]Do we get Spaceships?[/b]: Sort of, but they suck. Spaceships in this alternate world are glorified cargo freighters running off electric propulsion only marginally more advanced than what modern satellites and rockets use. Whilst humanity has the technology to get things flying into space, they haven't really developed laser weaponry or railguns or much of the other stuff that are the staple of sci-fi. TSFs don't really work in space either, and most space-related R&D is devoted to figuring out how to drop TSFs from orbital dive pods to the surface without killing the pilot from G forces, heat or equipment failure. Most other technology, TSFs aside and aforementioned spaceships are more or less identical to what we had in the 80s OTL. [b]The Cold War[/b]: The Cold War is still ongoing, with the communist and capitalist blocs still yet to put aside their differences entirely. Suspicion between the east and west remains high despite the success of Operation Palaiologos. Media remains highly controlled and non-military personnel do not even know what the BETA look like. The KGB, Stasi, CIA, [i]insert other national intelligence agency[/i] are still very much active and with real presence. [b]The Passage of Time [/b]: The RP will run at a speed of 1 page per month. This may be extended in future as more people join in. [/hider] Tl;dr rules and guidelines for the lazy among us 1. There are alien invaders on Earth known as the BETA, and they've took out most of the Middle East and Central Asia. 2. There's also a cold war going on in an alternate history Earth. 3. Mutually assured destruction through nukes is a big no no, and if nukes are going to fly, it's going to be flying towards the BETA instead of towards another nation. 4. Everyone has troops in some form or another on the frontlines against the BETA. It might be an entire army if your nation is on the frontlines, or it could just be a few TSFs if you're some Himalayan country with a population lower than the state of Wyoming. You don't always have to use them as in write a battle post or whatnot every time you make an IC, but you should have guys there. The idea here is that we have a persistent conflict going on regardless of the politics and diplomacy going on in the rest of the world. Lots of room for plot developments. 5. Everyone has TSFs. TSFs are more or less set to completely overtaken conventional jet fighters yet and form a large portion of a nation's air force. TSFs follow 1st/2nd/3rd gen configurations similar to OTL jet aircraft development. TSFs are currently in the 2nd generation phase, with 3rd generation TSFs currently in R&D and not slated for deployment for a few more years. 6. Play nice and sort out any disputes/differences politely among yourselves. I'll only intervene if its really necessary and probably deliver some objective judgement. Be reasonable with each other and have respect towards them and the premise of the RP. If anyone tries anything crazy, I'll come down on them. 7. This is a writing-focused NRP, not a stats one, so no dice. Don't pull shit out of your ass, thanks. 8. More rules and will be added as GMs see fit, I'll make sure to both inform everyone involved and update this list accordingly. [b]Is there a discord?[/b]: Yes, here: https://discord.gg/JNPJAXs . Feel free to hop in and get to know everyone else participating. ------------------------------------------------------------- Template Nation Sheet below, I'm more focused on the quality of IC posts rather than the number of words in your nation sheet so I've left it relatively sparse. [hider=Nation Name] [h1]Nation Name[/h1] Put a flag above or below the name I guess [h3][b]Overview[/b][/h3] A general summary of your nation. A paragraph or two with the important details [h3][b]History[/b][/h3] Mostly optional, but at a minimum should include your nation's modern history from at least the 1970s [b]Notably, this should include their response to the Lunar War, the BETA landings and their participation or lack thereof in Operation Palaiologos, as well as what they did in the 10 years since the operation.[/b] [h3][b]Government and Alignment[/b][/h3] You'll be RPing a nation so this is pretty crucial. How does your government work, who runs the show, who they support in the Cold War if any. [h3][b]Military Overview[/b][/h3] Describe general doctrine, history, army reforms after you got hammered by the BETA, whatever. Would recommend some research into military tactics used in the Muv Luv world before writing this part. [h3][b]Tactical Surface Fighters[/b][/h3] Describe what TSFs are currently in use by your armed forces, whether they be domestic models/variants or bought from American or Soviet surplus. Descriptive paragraph optional, since we'll all just be trying to find different ways to say 'the sky is blue' when five nations all use the same TSF model though if your model has modifications made to it to suit the local battlefield, it is worth mentioning those. [/hider]