Ten years ago earth's first colony in another star system was attacked. The message was cut short before we could learn who, or what, was attacking our colony. All we know is that whatever happened it was bad enough that they had tried to evacuate the colony for one of their advanced scouting camps. We don't know if they succeeded but your mission is to find out and potentially evacuate the colony if need be. You will be put into cryosleep for the duration of the ship and woken up when it arrives in orbit around the planet, LP-301a, in ten years.

[url=http://www.roleplayerguild.com/topics/31554/posts/ooc?page=1#post-922164]Accepted Characters[/url]

[hider=Brief History]
[b]2034[/b] 
Humans discover faster than light travel and begin scanning the stars using a dozen orbital long-range telescopes looking for a planet that would be suitable for human life.

[b]2061[/b]
Humans discover a suitable planet, named LP-301a, a desert planet with an earth-like atmosphere and liquid water. The nations of the world begin collaborating on the construction of a colony ship named SEED.

[b]2065[/b]
Construction of SEED is complete and the world's governments begin recruiting nearly one billion people to travel on board SEED in cryogenic chambers and become the first colonists of LP-301a.

[b]2068[/b]
Recruitment and training is complete, SEED is fully operational and is sent on its way to LP-301a.

[b]2078[/b]
SEED arrives at LP-301a and touches down, the colonists are awoken from their chambers and the very first human colony in another solar system is established without a hitch.

[b]2079-2129[/b]
SEED is operating as expected, the colonists have formed a functioning government on LP-301a and are checking in with earth semi-annually as directed. They have explored most of the planet during this 50 year period they have established several cities and towns all across the planet and begun mining operations to supply their own metals.

[b]2135[/b]
Earth receives an emergency transmission from LP-301a that they are under attack, by what is unknown because the transmission was cut short. Earth's governments have decided to pool their resources and send a team to investigate the planet. The nations of earth build a long range vessel named the Lacrosse that will be sent to LP-301a with a small crew to investigate the source of the attack.

[b]2145[/b]
The Lacrosse arrives in orbit around LP-301a.
[/hider]

[hider=LP-301a]
LP-301a is an arid planet orbiting a class G star (the same class as our sun). This star has only two other bodies orbiting it, both are uninhabitable gas giants. LP-301a's surface is primarily sand dunes. There is a salt water ocean on LP-301a, though it is smaller than anything seen on earth. This ocean covers approximately 9% of the planets surface. 
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[b]Landscape Example[/b]
[img=http://fc03.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2013/019/a/2/desert_landscape_by_rambled-d5s0cib.jpg]
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[b]Environment Variability[/b]
LP-301a has six notable environments that the crew should be prepared for. These environments, and the portion of the planet they cover, are as follows:
Sand Dunes: 74%
Mountains: 10% (not all mountains reach high altitude)
Ocean: 9%
Salt Flats: 5%
Jungle: 6% (only exists surrounding fresh water oases)
Tundra: 1% (only exists at high altitude)
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[b]Average Temperatures[/b]
[b]Average Daytime Temps[/b]
Desert: 200°F
Jungle: 130°F
High Altitude: -40°F

[b]Average Night-time Temps[/b]
Desert: 0°F
Jungle: 45°F
High Altitude: -70°F
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[b]Notable Fauna[/b]

Name: Lizard-dog
Description: a large quadrupedal reptile that lives in both desert and jungle environments. They have brown or dark green scaly hides and stand about 3-4 feet tall and are 5-6 feet long (not including a 4 foot tail). They have long legs with three flexible, clawed fingers on the ends (but no opposable thumbs) that are used to fight or climb trees.
Defence: Claws, Teeth, Powerful tails that have been known to break human bones on impact.
Behaviour: Lizard-dogs are not aggressive unless provoked. They will warn you when they are about to attack by howling, screeching and slamming their tail into the ground. They travel in loose packs that gain and lose members frequently as they travel. They can be, and have been, domesticated in some cases as a food source or a method for keeping stinging ants away. They apparently make good pets as they are highly affectionate.
Diet: Stinging ants and Cutpurse apes
Other: They are immune to stinging ant venom.

Name: Burrow Beetle
Description: A large beetle-like creature with a dark shell that stands 1 foot tall, 3 feet long and 3 feet wide. They have six legs which are very flexible so that they can bury themselves in the sand or dirt and wait for their prey.
Defence: A thick chitin shell and razor sharp mandibles
Behaviour: These beetles, though somewhat smaller than other species prey on just about anything that moves and are extremely aggressive.
Diet: Lizard-dogs, cutpurse apes, strong-arm apes
Other: Their shell is so strong that it can stop most bullets. The only truly effective way to kill one is to cut off its head, step on it with a platform or blow it up with explosives.

Name: Stinging Ants
Description: small ant-like insects that only measure about 8 inches long. They have black, red or brown carapaces (the colour seems to denote a different colony) and have long antennae on their heads and have six legs which are used to dig.
Defence: Razor sharp mandibles, venom
Behaviour: Stinging ants are separated into multiple colonies based on colour, these colonies will dig complex tunnel systems in the dirt that they use as a hive. These hives are not permanent and are abandoned mere months after they are finished. When different colonies wander across another's hive they will invade it and try to kill the current residents. Researchers seem to think that the ants have evolved to dig hives in order to defend themselves against other colonies while simultaneously using them as a breeding ground to hatch their young and bolster their numbers, hence the extremely complex tunnels that often end in dead ends or loop around endlessly.
Diet: Burrow beetles, cutpurse apes, strong-arm apes
Other: Their venom is potent enough to kill a man with a single bit, the fact that they travel together makes them even more dangerous. The only effective way to survive an ant colony crossing your path is to entrench with flamethrowers or use lizard-dogs to chase them away.

Name: Cutpurse Apes
Description: A small simian species that walk on all fours but can stand on their hind legs and use their small hands to manipulate objects. When standing on their hind legs they are about 1 foot tall and have an extremely flexible 1 foot long tail. They have white or grey fur with slightly darker stripes.
Defence: None
Behaviour: Cutpurse apes are a communal species that live together, they tend to stick near the families of strong-arm apes in their local area and when a family of strong-arm apes dissolves and heads out into the jungle to find new homes cutpurse apes will often ride along on a chosen strong-arm ape and steal any food that ape doesn't eat.
Diet: Jungle fruit and meat (only during migration)
Other: They get the name cutpurse apes because they are incredibly curious and are not afraid of humans so they will often approach humans and take anything that isn't strapped down. Some people like to keep them as pets.

Name: Strong-arm Apes
Description: Large, fat looking apes with black fur and thick arms. They walk on all fours and their large upper bodies prevent them from standing on their hind legs.
Defence: Powerful arms that have been reported to be able to crush burrow beetle shells with repeated blows.
Behaviour: Strong-arm apes are communal creatures who live together in the jungles. Once the elders of the family die the family group dissolves and the children wander off into the desert looking for a new jungle to live in where they will join a new family group and begin mating with a chosen female. Strong-arm apes cannot climb trees so, when hungry, they will group together under a fruit bearing tree and begin striking it and throwing sticks and rocks into its branches until fruit falls from it. They are usually passive and will only attack when an intruder gets too close to their young. They will try to scare away intruders before attacking by throwing rocks and large sticks at them and howling.
Diet: Fruit and meat (only when migrating)
Other: 
[/hider]

[hider=Platforms]
Platforms are mechanical vehicles that are used for a variety of purposes. Most are used by civilian contractors for construction work or other manual labour. The military has developed several platform designs of their own that are used for combat. Most platforms are bipedal and stand about two or three times the height of a human being and very few are fully enclosed. The only platforms that are permitted to be fully enclosed are military platforms, even then most are still open. The platforms being sent to LP-301a on board the Lacrosse are civilian construction platforms that have had their arms removed to make room for guns (see platform one), standard issue military platforms (see platform two) that have cockpits that rotate separately from the legs allowing them to strafe while firing without sacrificing speed and a Mobile Command Unit that has been modified to be automated and used as a mobile storage unit to carry food, water and any spare parts or weapons that the team finds (see MCU).
[url=http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20090713041848/lostplanet/images/1/1c/GTT-01.jpg]Platform One[/url]
[url=http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20090713034814/lostplanet/images/1/1d/GTB-22.jpg]Platform Two[/url]
[url=http://www.armyrecognition.com/images/stories/north_america/united_states/light_armoured/bradley_bcp/Bradley_BCP_Command_Post_tracked_armoured_vehicle_United_States_American_defence_Industry_Military_technology_640_001.jpg]MCU[/url]
[/hider]
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[b]Rules[/b]
[list=1]
[*]No godmodding, pretty simple, your character can't be totally indestructible or infallible.[/*]
[*]No metagaming or any of that omnipotence nonsense. Your character doesn't know everything you do[/*]
[*]No controlling another person's character without permission (duh)[/*]
[*]Keep romance pg-13 anything higher can be done in PMs[/*]
[*]Limit of one character per person (subject to change based on interest)[/*]
[*]Posts should be a minimum of one paragraph per character[/*]
[*]There is a posting order to make sure nobody gets left out but if the person that is supposed to post before you hasn't posted within 3 hours you can break the posting order[/*]
[/list]
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[b]Character Sheet[/b]
Name: 
Age: (before being in cryosleep for 10 years. minimum of 20)
Gender: 
Country of Origin: 
Appearance: (Picture or description)
Personality: 
Training: (Engineering degree, platform pilot, assault rifle training, etc.)
Equipment: (Primary weapon, secondary weapon and any other notable equipment that they will have with them.)
History: 

[b]Platform Sheet[/b]
(Only fill this out if you want a platform)
Platform Type: (Type one or two shown above but don't worry as the story progresses you can upgrade your platform or build/find a new better one)
Primary Weapon: (Machine guns are the only weapons available early on but later you can get long range rifles, rocket launchers, etc.)
Secondary Weapon: (Same types as primary can be picked)

[b]Please do not post your character sheet in the OOC, PM them to me and when I accept them post them in the accepted characters thread [url=http://www.roleplayerguild.com/topics/31554/posts/ooc?page=1#post-922164]here[/url].[/b]