[center]
[img]https://i.ibb.co/VcNgr3f2/graveyard-orbit.png[/img]
[hider=Theme Music][youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDkjDC21hz0[/youtube][/hider]
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[b]The year is 2085.  You are a former prisoner.  You have been dumped on the planet of Caldera-3, a dusty, rugged, lawless frontier world that has been largely left to its own devices while galactic war rages around it.  You have nothing to your name save for the clothes on your back.  You'll need to find some way to make a living to survive and maybe even get off the planet...[/b]
[hr]
[h2]WELCOME![/h2]
Hello and welcome to Graveyard Orbit, an RP where you will play as a prisoner who has been dumped on the world of Caldera-3 when the crew of the prison transport moving you decided to abandon their posts in the midst of a brutal galactic civil war.  You might be a human mercenary, an alien rebel or maybe just someone in the wrong place at the wrong time who got swept up in a police raid.  Either way you're on Caldera-3 now with no way off the rock for the time being.

[b]This RP is open to latecomers.[/b]  There will be plenty of ways to walk into the thread just, perhaps, not as one of the prisoners from the original cast.
[hr]
[h2]SETTING[/h2]
The year is 2085.

At the start of the 21st century humanity thought it was alone in the Universe.  However, once humanity had tentatively put a toe outside of the Sol system it quickly became apparent how wrong that idea was.  The Milky Way, it turned out, was teeming with life, much of which was potentially hostile.  Earth had, for millennia, been under the protection of the ‘Federation of Civilised Worlds’, allowing humanity to develop at its own pace, untroubled by other peoples.

All of this changed, however, when an Earth vessel exploring the Sol system accidentally discovered a wormhole to the Andromeda Galaxy. 

On the far side of the Wormhole were other races and space faring nations including a massive military dictatorship known as ‘Kiellar Command’; their close neighbours the egalitarian, but autocratic, ‘Gollar Confederacy’ and; the terrifying, predatory ‘Ragon Empire’ which threatened to consume all of the Andromeda Galaxy and, potentially, use the Wormhole, and Sol System, as a gateway to fresh conquests in the Milky Way.

While Earth remained neutral in the war that followed, unable to do much more than observe from the sidelines, the Federation used the Sol Wormhole to support the Kiellar/Gollar alliance in destroying the Ragon Empire and ending the threat they posed to the peoples of both galaxies.  It was a bloody war and in the aftermath Kiellar Command began to gradually collapse under the weight of internal dissent, dissolving into an ever-shifting patchwork of successor states, mostly ruled over by warlords.  

Meanwhile, Earth’s position at the ‘Gateway to Andromeda’ has made the planet quite wealthy, as it is the sole gateway for trade between the galaxies.  It has, however, also meant that is has begun to be flooded by Andromedan refugees.  Travelling the other way, human mercenaries have often taken part in the fighting in former Kiellar space, supported by Earth Governments interested in gaining some real experience in galactic warfare.

The chaos in former Kiellar space routes means that merchants tend to travel through these systems in convoy with an armed escort. Earth’s wealth is largely driven by these intergalactic trade and Earth has begun to take part in convoy duties and has also seized control of the uninhabitable system on the Andromedan end of the wormhole, taking over the old Kiellar Battlestation/customs post that guarded their side of the route.

[h3]The Mazdhul Republic: Where you come in...[/h3]
The Andromeda galaxy is a mess.

One of the larger stable States in the Former Kiellar Republic, for the last decade at least, has been the ‘Mazdhul Republic’, ruled over by Marshall Urnas, controlling around two dozen worlds.  However, two years ago, Urnas was assassinated by an anarchist group and that stability abruptly ended.  Initial infighting between his top Advisors gave the perception of weakness to the neighbouring 'Republic of Sedathnas' who promptly invaded.  While, as it stands, the Mazdhul forces are now (mostly) unified under Admiral Tindrurr, they are still dealing with other threats.  The planet of Arisatia (which has a majority population of the human-like 'dhasath'... as opposed to most other planets that are majority kiellar) has revolted and driven most Lazdhul forces off the planet, while anarchists still partially control several worlds.


You are a prisoner on a Mazdhul prison ship.  You may be a human mercenary, you may be a member of the ‘Arisatian Legion’, an anarchist (note that anyone who advocates for any form of representative democracy is regarded as an anarchist), a Sedathian soldier or you may be a civilian caught in a raid, at the wrong place at the wrong time.

However, fortune has smiled on you!

Rather than going to a Mazdhul labour camp, the crew of your prison ship have decided to desert their navy and have dropped you off on the sparsely populated planet of Caldera-3 (rather than shooting you and dumping your body in space - quite kind of them).  You have nothing but the clothes on your back and the other prisoners from the ship to rely on, but you’re still alive.

[h3]Caldera-3[/h3]
Caldera-3 is a relatively arid planet (only 48% of the surface is covered in water) with a few scattered settlements in the mid latitudes where it isn't too hot.  The planet is suitable for growing plants that aren't too water dependent and raising animals which is what most of the population (of less than half a million across the whole planet) do.  There are some rare minerals to mine though these are mostly found in the unpleasant equatorial regions.  Mining settlements are climate controlled and supplied by train lines running to the single spaceport at the town of Dustline Station.

That being said, the ground is open enough in many parts of the planet that a smaller ship can put down without too much difficulty.

As most of the population of Caldera-3 are quite poor and the planet is isolated, fuel for vehicles is fairly rare outside of Dustline Station and people will ride a variety of animals, mostly horses and camels imported from earth by early dhasath settlers.  Electricity is usually available from solar and wind generators. Television and radio stations exist but tend to be low-tech and only broadcast in their immediate area.

Settlements are generally self-governing and don't typically try to project power more than a few miles.  Sheriffs and ad-hoc posses tend to be the main form of law enforcement outside of Dustline Station.  Roads are dangerous, some populations have taken to raiding and most people are armed.

As for where you are... you have been put down about 400 miles West of Dustline Station near the small town of Cinder Ridge (population 1,270).  There is no television, radio station or Sheriff in Cinder Ridge but there is a distillery and two saloons.  The people have their priorities.

[hr]
[h2]LORE[/h2]
[h3]Technology[/h3]
As this is sci-fi, there are a number of pieces of technology that will be mentioned in the RP. Here is some info on them:

[b]Skrim Drive: [/b]The Skrim Drive is the basic FTL drive used by all species in the galaxy, allowing them to phase across to hyperspace where an object can travel faster than light. Opening a hyperspace window requires a lot of energy and several minutes to 'spin the drive up'. Skrim Drives are prone to overheating and longer hyperspace journeys will need to be made in hops. That, along with the speed limitation means that most journeys between stars will take days or weeks and movement between galaxies is believed to be impossible.

Most ships can detect a hyperspace window opening or closing a few minutes before the ship utilising their Skrim drive moves through it.

[b]Translator Nanites:[/b] Translator nanites, injected into children at birth and which inhabit an individual's brain, allow people to understand most, though not all, alien languages. Translator nanites self replicate, which is useful since nobody knows how to make new ones or, really, how they work.

[b]Energy weapons (Blasters):[/b] Most weapons used in warfare are energy weapons. Units that are not connected to a generator (such as handheld weapons) will require a battery pack that usually allows for around 100 shots to be fired before needing to be swapped over. A person struck by an energy weapon can expect serious, deep burns with a high chance of death if the discharge travels through a major organ.  There are several variants of these:
[list][*][b]Sidearms:[/b] Basically a pistol.  There are numerous variants of these, they are less accurate and tend to have smaller battery packs so either trade for less shots (High Energy Blaster-Pistols) or less stopping power (Low Energy Blaster-Pistols).
[*][b]Standard Blasters:[/b] Function much like an assault rifle.
[*][b]Ragon Guns:[/b] Designed jointly by the Gollar and Federation during the War for Andromeda, to kill the notoriously durable ragons, these weapons are designed to expend all the power from a (smaller) battery pack in a single shot, dealing massive damage to a target.  This is overkill against most species and, since the war, the civilian market has been flooded with these weapons as galactic militaries return to traditional blasters.  Typically these are either bolt or lever action. Caldera-3 has a lot of these.
[*][b]Heavy Blasters:[/b] Very large blasters with extended battery packs (sometimes housed in a separate box carried as a backpack) and better heat sinks.  Typically only used by militaries.[/list]
[b]Shields:[/b] Large ships are always fitted with energy shields to prevent damage from space debris as well as weapons from other ships. Shields on surface vehicles etc. have been experimented with but are too heavy to be practical.

[b]Body Armour: [/b]Body armour exists though isn't widely used.  It can minimise injury from handheld weapons rather than completely absorbing the energy from a shot.

[h3]The Main Species of Caldera-3[/h3]
[hider=Humans][u][b]Humans[/b][/u]
As I'm assuming you are a human so I'm not going to write too much here.

A sizeable human population is present on Caldera-3 - pioneers who set forth looking for a new life or criminals fleeing from the law[/hider]
[hider=Dhasath][u][b]Dhasath[/b][/u]
[b]Singular:[/b] dhasath
[b]Plural:[/b] dhasath
[b]Adjective:[/b] dhasath
Naming: [url=https://www.fantasynamegenerators.com/etruscan-names.php]Click here for a generator that will spit out some thematic names.[/url]

[b]Biology: [/b]The dhasath look like humans though they trace their ancestry to the Andromeda galaxy and are regarded as an old-medium aged race (having taken to FTL travel some 450 years before humanity).

Dhasath have less phenotypic divergence than humans and mostly look like Eastern Mediterranean/Middle-Easterner/Iranic people. So while all dhasath look like humans, not all humans look like dhasath.  While humans and dhasath are indistinguishable to look at, species with a strong sense of smell can tell them apart, usually finding dhasath to be sweet smelling.

Dhasath have the same lifespan as a human, though they are fully mature by age 14. A dhasath pregnancy is shorter than a human one (six months) and they produce ‘litters’ of, on average, 2.5 children. All of this means that, given good conditions, dhasath populations can explode.

In addition to this, dhasath require very little water to survive (coincidentally they very rarely sweat) and can survive extremes of both heat and cold that would kill a human. In periods of stress, dhasath females will stop ovulating.

As a byproduct of their evolution for harsh climates, dhasath produce chemicals in their blood and saliva which can induce euphoria in other species if consumed. This had led to myth of dhasath being able to mind controlling victims with a kiss, though this is just a myth.

Unusually, humans and dhasath can produce viable hybrids. Genetic tests indicate that dhasath and humans might have diverged from one another around 1 million years ago, though nobody has a particularly good explanation as to how this happened. The current working theory is that this might have been the work of some long dead precursor civilisation though if it was, all traces of their existence is now gone.

[b]History and Culture: [/b]The ‘Dhasath League’ was a power in the Andromeda Galaxy in the 1600s that was destroyed by the fledgling Ragon Empire, though some legends suggest the dhasath are even older than that, a ‘phoenix species’ who rose from the ashes of another Empire now lost in to the sands of time.

After the destruction of the dhasath homeland, the survivors mostly fled into kiellar space, settling on a variety of worlds though their population remained in decline until the War for Andromeda when the Ragon Empire were defeated and the dhasath were able to reclaim their ancient home-world of Doona'tay (which is now the heart of the 'New Doona'tay Republic').

Dhasath tend towards religiosity and almost universally follow a religion known as 'Makerism' (A monotheism that believes in a 'Maker', who is good, and 'the Enemy' who constantly tries to pervert and undermine the Maker's work).  Makerism is unusual in that it constantly adds new scripture to cannon, interpreting the experiences of the dhasath people through a religious lens and with the assumption that the dhasath are the chosen people of the 'Maker'.  In the times of the Dhasath League, Makerism was centralised, though since the destruction of the League it has evolved separately on each planet.  Makerists on Doona'tay, for instance, hail Marshall Vilia (the dhasath commander who reconquered the planet during the War for Andromeda) as a Messiah, while most others do not.

Dhasath are the majority species on Caldera-3, making up about 55% of the population.[/hider]
[hider=Kiellar][u][b]Kiellar[/b][/u]
[b]Plural:[/b] kiellar
[b]Adjective:[/b] kiellar
[b]Naming:[/b] Kiellar are usually referred to by their first name, but on official documents will be known as <Name> of <Father's name>.  [url=https://www.fantasynamegenerators.com/the-witcher-elf-names.php]Click here for a generator that will spit out some thematic names.[/url]

[b]Appearance:[/b]
[img]https://i.pinimg.com/236x/00/b4/2e/00b42e35b5a877b52725522293ad7739--shadowrun-returns-male-elf.jpg[/img]
Kiellar are a moderately tall race, with males averaging about and females about 5’8’’ and males about 6’2’’ with generally slim builds.  Their skin tones are similar to those of humans, as are the colours of their (almond shaped) eyes.  Kiellar hair is similar in shade to human hair, though it is noticeable finer and body hair is sparse.

[b][i]NB: If you want to make a kiellar character and want to use a picture, Shadowrun Elves make good models.[/i][/b]

[b]Biology:[/b] Kiellar have an average lifespan of about 200 years. While an individual Kiel will reproduce slowly (gestation period is one year), kiellar remain fertile for most of their lives and that, coupled with their natural resistance to disease, means that the kiellar population as a whole can multiply quite rapidly – it is not unusual for a kiellar couple to produce over 20 offspring in a lifetime, with over a century between the youngest and the eldest.

Kiellar, additionally, have strong night vision.

[b]History and Culture:[/b] The kiellar began exploring their home system in the 1100s.  Initially a group of waring Nation States, the kiellar became eager terraformers, turning inhospitable moons into habitable planets before over the course of the next century.

Strife, however, quickly broke out between the colonies, with some seeking independence from their home nations, which in turn ignited a wave of brutal wars across Relenar. Out of the ashes of this rose the ‘All Kiellar Republic’ which which sought to unite the waring Kiellar nations into one system-wide Republic. At first it seemed like a fantasy, however, the Republic continued to win until, by the time the kiellar discovered hyperdrive technology in the 1300s, the whole system was united.

The discovery of alien life came as a shock to the kiellar who, to that point, had assumed they were the only intelligent life-form in the universe. The Kiellar Republic began to trade with some of their interstellar neighbours, however, the kiellar culture was expansionistic and, bit-by-bit, the kiellar began to absorb their neighbours.

The first major setback occurred when the kiellar encountered the Dhasath League who destroyed the Kiellar Fleet, forcing the Republic to pay war reparations. This, in turn, paved the way for the military to seize control of the Republic, claiming the defeat was the result of corrupt politicians. The Kiellar fleet was rebuilt and the Second Dhasath war was a minor (and very unexpected) Kiellar victory, with the League handing over several mining stations and border outposts, but retaining all their inhabited worlds.

Following on from the Second Dhasath War, and the subsequent destruction of the League at the hands of the emergent Ragon Empire, Kiellar Command rapidly became the dominant power in Andromeda, conquering and enslaving innumerable other races, though as they did, increasingly large proportions of their military were required to keep their subjects in line. The Ragon Empire attempted to exploit this weakness during the War for Andromeda and Kiellar Command would have collapsed were it not for the intervention of the Gollar and Federation.

Their victory in the War for Andromeda, however, did not reverse any of the internal divisions in Command and, following on from the war, Kiellar Command has disintegrated into a morass of waring states controlled by rebels or military cliques.  

Kiellar are the second most populous species on Caldera-3, making up about 35% of the population.[/hider]
Other Species: We are in space and you can app for another species, but I won't accept new species if they're more than 1/3 of the accepted cast.  We can discuss species concepts if you want to do this.
[hr]
[h2]THE RULES[/h2]
In summary, 'don't be a dick'.  But here they are if that comment is confusing:
[hider=RULES!]
[list][*][b]Decisions[/b]
My word and the word of all Co-OPs is binding. If you don’t like a decision, you can, of course, ask for us to reconsider it.  Once.   If we made a decision you don’t like, complaining for pages and pages is not going to endear you to anyone.  Not me, not the Co-OPs and not your fellow writers.
On that note, I intend to run this thread as an anarcho-communist cooperative.  This is an unnecessarily complicated way of saying that my word [b][u]DOES NOT[/u][/b] overrule theirs.  So don’t ask me to overrule one of the others.  I won’t.
[*][b]Post Quality[/b]
I don’t have a problem with short posts but please use proper spelling (I don’t care what regional variant), grammar etc.
Ideally also try to include a 'hook' when you write a post, which is to say something that gives other people something to respond to.  If your post is something along the lines of 'Bilbo Baggins stayed in his room and read a book while the world was ending', don't be surprised if nobody responds to you.
[*][b]Posting Commitment[/b]
Nothing is worse than making an RP only for it to die. Please try to check in to see if there is room for a post every 24 hours or so. If you find yourself unable to post for extended periods of time, please let us know on the Discord or in the OOC thread.  If it looks like you've abandoned a character in the middle of a fight scene I might decide to kill them off, if I'm feeling particularly malicious.
[*][b]Posting Speed[/b] 
On the flip side, blitz posting can also be infuriating. So, especially during the important scenes, I recommend giving your fellow players a reasonable time to make a reply. We all have real lives. That being said, if someone leaves everyone waiting for over 48 hours, feel free to carry on the scene without them.
[*][b]OOC thread Manners[/b]
Nothing annoys me more than bad manners on an OOC thread and in the Discord channel. Swearing, passive-aggressive sniping or any other rude behaviour are not welcome on the OOC.  You will be warned once.  If you can’t control yourself I will ask you to remove yourself from the thread.
[*][b]IC thread Manners[/b]
Remember, we are writing a story together, [u]not trying to win[/u].
[*][b]Character Death[/b]
Player death is possible in this RP, though will be quite rare and easily avoidable.  Please don’t write that you have killed another character unless you have OOC permission from the character's owner to do it.  Beat them into a pulp or take them prisoner, but don’t kill them.  Having said that, if someone does something really stupid (such as [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snTaSJk0n_Y]this[/url]), I reserve the right to announce your character has got themselves killed.  Likewise, if someone goes inactive without explanation and cannot be raised, I may decide to kill their character off.
[*][b]Keep it tasteful[/b]
Yes, this is an 18+ RP but please try to keep things tasteful.  Generally speaking if there isn't a narrative reason for writing stuff other people will find offensive, don't write it.  We'll ask you to correct, warn and/or ban depending upon how far outside the realms of common decency you are and whether we think you're taking the piss or not. 
[*][b]Banning Players[/b]
I really don’t want to be doing that but reserve the right to do so if you cannot follow the (hopefully, rather simple) rules above.[/list][/hider]
[hr]
[h2]APPLICATION FORMS[/h2]
The moment you have been waiting for!

Feel free to write up more than one character.

When filling in an application form, please delete everything in parentheses.

[hider=Character App]
[h3]Character Description[/h3]
[list]Name:
Species:
Sex:
Age:
Reason for being on the ship: (feel free to be creative!  NB: Sedathian soldiers are probably going to be kiellar)
Appearance:(Feel free to describe with text or put pictures in here)
[/list]
[h3]Strengths and Weaknesses[/h3]
[list]
Skills: (Is there anything you are significantly better at than most other people?  If you include something, make sure it is backed up in the background)
Weaknesses: (Is there anything your character is really rubbish at?  Not essential you put anything in, but can be fun)  
[/list]

[h3]Background:[/h3]
[list]Backstory:(How did you come to be here?)
[/list][/hider]