ASTA

Galaxian Alliances - Sci-Fi Civilizations, Diplomacy and War

TehChron said
Eh, sure, I'm down.

ASTA's Nation/Character Forge

Species: Vul’kruun

Overview and Historical Information

Membership in an empire is not an option.

When intergalactic imperialism came to Vaera, the vul’kruun had already established a sizeable civilization. Though not exclusively placid and open to newcomers, the natives of Vru nonetheless tolerated their new galactic neighbors, merely eyeing them with heavy suspicion and immense distrust. The exploration fleet of this fledgling empire made the first authentic effort at formal contact—but the vul’kruun people were unable to understand the strange words that were directed at them.

Species Information

Average height: 9'5

Average weight: 6,430 lb

Their mantis-like forms are supported by a protective endoskeleton, while the sturdy, cornified skin of the neck, head, trunk, and most of the lower body is encompassed by a natural armor matrix comprised of scutes and boney plates; the rest of a vul’kruun’s mass is covered in a spiked, chitin-like textile, with the entire defensive package capable of affording vul’kruun faint bodily resistance to low-velocity pistol cartridges. They possess six functional limbs: four powerful arthropodic legs for swift and nimble locomotion over most terrain types and a pair of arms and two clawed hands optimized for the precise manipulation of objects.

The upper torso and lower insect-like trunk displays notable evidence of robustness; the vul’kruun’s hostile indigenous surroundings and their unvarying, antagonistic confrontations with the destructive predators of their atrocious world drove them to progressively develop denser and elevated amounts of muscular tissue and greater muscle cross-sectional area along their rigid bulks, gifting them with an enormous quantity of upper and lower body strength. Vru, being a hefty planet with a high gravitational pull, makes vul’kruun bodily motions on worlds with lower gravity disabling, outstandingly uncoordinated and, quite frankly, hilarious to observe. Their monumental vigor, however, is heavily-augmented in environments such as these—but it is debatable whether or not this boost in material potency is any match for an enemy species that is well-conditioned for a planet of this type.

The vul’kruun are simultaneous hermaphrodites, but are capable of self-induced fertilization if appropriate mates are presently unavailable. During copulation, both members may agree to impregnate one another for a greater combined egg yield. Vul’kruun instinctively indulge in numerous cycles of reproductive sex throughout their lives--an evolutionary side-effect of their planet’s uncongenial ecology--with one parent capable of fabricating (or fathering) approximately fifteen to twenty eggs. The gestation period is two months. The parent (or the seeder) does not actively stay with the young, but instead forcibly discharges them from its presence so that they may fend for themselves. The survivors fully mature at age five, with vul’kruun typically dying from natural causes by age forty.

Vul’kruun do not consume plant matter. They are hypercarnivorous ‘bulk eaters’ with intense opportunistic feeding habits, dining on any meat or dead animal biomass that they come across without a second though, and their high metabolic rates making them out as frantic consumers of most organic and synthetic dietary material. For this reason, vul’kruun do not leave behind corpses that they have claimed, and naturally become overly-aggressive towards non-vul’kruun if they draw too close to them during food consumption.

Optical vision is decent, but is underdeveloped when compared to human vision, and lacks the ability to register certain color types. Vul'kruun do not have visible ears, but vibrations instead pass through two holes positioned on the opposite sides of the head and make contact with the inner ear. Smell is offered by powerful scent glands positioned atop the skull.

Designed mostly for ripping and pulling, the mandibles of a vul'kruun are unable to chew food. Vul'kruun instead swallow their food whole down a long, fleshy dark canal that leads to their throat, while the lack of a tongue is remedied by the presence of weak taste receptors stationed along the surface of the inner mandibles.

Technology

Weaponry, which generally consists of the Hound, the Roarer, and the Hunger.

Hound: An ambiguous phrase or term primarily attributed to vul’kruun high-performance self-guiding anti-ship missile technology. Advancements in relevant sensory, propulsion and warhead technical fields have resulted in vul’kruun 'MIRVs' to be driven by a crude, inexpensive and utilitarian type of mass-produced digital intelligence that utilizes standard gravitational, electromagnetic, thermal, and radar sensor suites to seek out predetermined targets.

Vul’kruun Hounds are equipped with incorporated single-use wormhole-based FTL drives, primitive fission-fragment sublight engines and RCS points that shape them into a workable analog of the customary vacuum-based 'space superiority fighter' or 'strategic bomber'. Hounds lack integrated weaponry, but instead make use of potent electronic countermeasures, evasive maneuvers (like spinning to resist laser fire) and adequate amounts of ablative covering to evade and endure enemy interception and detection attempts. Relatively inexpensive compared to more technically sophisticated missile buses, Hounds are transported and deployed by vul’kruun star crawler weapons platforms, and are normally launched in the thousands by vul'kruun squadrons without much concern for their inherent manufacturing costs, and are especially deadly against larger, slower-moving vessels.

Depending on its size, one Hound can play host to hundreds of self-guiding anti-ship missiles, with each missile capped with a high-yield thermonuclear bomb. Other Hound types may have a sub-munition bundle consisting of missiles that are equipped with nuclear-pumped x-ray lasers or explosively-formed nuclear penetrators.

Hunger: Other than the odd bomb-pumped laser weapon or two, the vul’kruun have not invested a significant degree of their species' time, resources and technical expertise into the development, fabrication and refinement of energy weapons. Projectile weapons, specifically Hunger weaponry (so named for its supposed insatiable lust for the flesh of the innocent) are widely considered by the vul’kruun to be superior alternatives to standard electromagnetic and laser weapon models. Whether or not this assertion is true remains uncertain.

Hunger weapons are standard ballistic weapons, and take the form of unwieldy, box-shaped heavy machineguns of sorts. They discard traditional mechanical ignition in favor of an electronic ignition mechanism, which increases cyclic rate and provides diminished recoil; a muzzle break and hydraulic-based recoil compensation system increases shooter accuracy and reduces pain incurred from firing the rifle.

Mainstay ammunition, called Teeth (singular: Tooth), consists of a cheap, large caliber ‘smart’ round. The slug, after having left the barrel of the rifle under the power of a caseless propellant and primer permutation, is boosted to hyper-velocity speeds via a small rocket motor fueled by a volatile solid monopropellant mixture, impacting a target with remarkable force and instantly killing them through pure caviation and kinetic energy transfer alone.

Set to fully-automatic fire (and assuming a perpetual ammunition feed), Hunger weapons can unleash several thousand projectiles per minute, and feature a rail-mounted electronic sight with a laser range finder that feeds targeting data to each Tooth, giving a generous boost to shooter accuracy and even allowing projectiles to pursue foes hiding behind soft cover, hard cover or around corners. Hunger weapons are also keyed to the wearer’s genetic code, and will not function in the hands of an alien species unless modified beforehand. Large capacity box or saddle-drum magazines are characteristically operated, but Hunger weapons (especially the larger variants) can also make use of ammunition belts and backpack feeder systems. Attachments are also available, like 'stacked' pump-action smart grenade launchers or suppressors.

Roarer: An evolution of fundamental cannon technology, Roarer is a moniker jointly shared between vul'krunn-made combustion light-gas and electrothermal-chemical automatic and select-fire artillery pieces. They are similar in power to electromagnetic weapons, but are still [hazily] similar to modern solid-propellant guns in that chemical reactions (and not powerful electromagnets) are used to propel a projectile. Roarer weapons are universally employed by vul’kruun assault guns, starcraft and self-propelled artillery platforms, which use them alongside simple automatic loading mechanisms to fling punishing, hyper-velocity low yield nuclear shells at unfortunate xeno enemies.

Transportation, which generally consists of the infamous Star Crawler.

Star crawlers are vul’kruun starcraft. They come in an ample assortment of classes, sizes and roles. They are fairly uniform in appearance; most star crawlers are nothing more than enormous cylinders haphazardly machined together using rudimentary ship-building procedures and archaic power tools, diminutive amounts of preliminary construction planning, and substandard building materials scavenged from past kills and other vul’kruun starcraft.

But unlike most species, vul’kruun lovingly look upon their ugly and technically inferior spaceships as literal places of worship and dynamic reverence, each one committed solely to the honoring of Kul, and each vessel telling its own distinctive narrative of lifelong bloodshed and wholesome slaughter by way of runic inscriptions, hieroglyphs and profane warpaints attributed to its spike-ridden and intimidating outer hull. In accordance with Kul’s teachings, august vuk'krunn ‘captains’ garb their vessels in the hides, bones and tarnished blood of those that they have slain, filling their ship's arcane spirit with bliss and resolve.

Regardless of tonnage and purpose, all star crawlers are propelled using simple and effective (though rather inefficient) nuclear blast engines, which brutally drives the craft forward by casually detonating high-yield ‘shaped’ atomic bombs against a heavy pusher plate suspended by a series of shock absorbers and well-built bracings. Because of the forces this propulsion method enacts on a star crawler, the vul’kruun have been forced to design their vessels to be exceptionally robust, wrapping them in meters upon meters of hardened and treated composite armor plating, and turning them into an unembellished space version of a conventional, heavily-armored 'battleship' of sorts.

Because their creators incorporated high levels of battlefield endurance, efficiency, flexibility, and inhuman brutality in their original designs, military-grade star crawlers are usually created with a high degree of redundancy in mind, and are accordingly separated into independent armored and armed automated modules called Fangs.

Each Fang possess its own digital intelligence construct, emergency power generation systems (usually in the form of several pre-charged power cells, which can be activated in the event that spare power cannot be siphoned from other fighting compartment), target acquisition systems, and armament and automatic loading systems and machinery, affording individual vul’kruun starcraft the capacity to prolong combat engagements even after having suffered severe external and internal damage.

For defensive systems, star crawlers are equipped with outdated examples of electronic countermeasure pods, polarized plate armor, ablative shielding, plasma barriers, and kinetic/missile point defense systems. Offensive equipment consists of Hound cells and Roarer turret emplacements. Gravity control is sustained by spinning a star crawler’s habitat module, which generates artificial gravity through centrifugal force. RCS points positioned along the ship's hull provide thrust for course-correctional maneuvers and orbit-to-orbit travel. The command information center, fission reactor, crew compartments, and the ship’s FTL drive are nestled deeply within the innards of the vessel, and are further sheltered by additional metal shielding and the sheer bulk of the Fangs that engulf them.

Military

When the opportunity to sadistically butcher and devour a squatting alien species has surfaced, one star crawler—functioning as a homing beacon for all nearby vul’kruun starcraft—will broadcast a long-reaching summons throughout vul’kruun-controlled void. By no means does this call go unanswered, and with enough time permitted to elapse, a massive communal of armored and armed starcraft manifests with due swiftness, their obscured gantries and warrens of origins funneling ammunition and supplies to the gathering masses by way of space haulers, the crew and command personnel of these ragtag spaceships and void fortresses euphoric for the genocide that is soon to come.

These raids of revolution, repossession and seething hatred are known as ‘Quests of Reclamation’, and are bone-chilling wars of utter extermination waged against any and all xeno civilizations that the vul’kruun species comes across within their small pocket of formally-owned space. Vul’kruun normally shy away from decisive battles and large scale void engagements during these attacks, but instead launch lightning strikes against lightly-defended enemy population centers (frontier colony planets, artificial space habitats, colonized moons, or asteroid habitats) and logistical assets (asteroid and planetary mining stations, planetary manufacturing installations, zero-G production sites and starship construction yards).

Assaulting the holdings of an adversary inevitably draws the attention of an armed response force, but when this does occur, vul’kruun marshals plunge their vessels into FTL, scattering to random locations—but only to regroup into a new squadron for a fresh crusade aimed at a fresh and unsuspecting target. Deception, diversion and division are the vul’kruun’s bread and butter; they have a sinister, though very much well-earned, reputation for being belligerent and resourceful terrorists. Starving the enemy, weakening him, is the vul’kruun way, while striking terror into the hearts and minds of the meek city masses ensures that widespread hysteria and panic can spread like a virus throughout a nation’s ill-begotten society.

Of Steam and Ambition - A Steampunk Nation Roleplay - Interested Check

Tatsua Aiisen said
Good to see you're hard at work~!

Tatsua Aiisen said
Good to see that you came clean about your reliability~!

lel

Question to all Chinese/British/Americans/French/Russians/Israelis/Indians/Pakistanis

Nuclear war is stupid.

Mostly because if it's initiated by any major nuclear power on the planet, everyone pretty much loses.

The Prophecy

Name: Ajanok'Tez, but refers to himself as 'Claw' when addressing others.

Age: 120

Sex: Male

Appearance: Bipedal with a robust build, and stands nearly twice the height of a tall human man, though prefers to run on all fours when giving chase or when rapid movement is demanded. A sizable portion of Ajanok's mane is braided, with each knot, twist and accompanying ornament representing the customary del-korm pattern of hair 'saga' pattern; Claw's life story, deeds, accomplishments, likes, dislikes, enemies, and friends are described by his intricate mane weavings. With an onyx-colored pelt, Ajanok blends in well with night-time enviroments, while his left and right eyes are yellow and blue respectively.

Talents and Skills

Tracker: With an enhanced sense of smell and hearing—and with an accompanying level of insight in hunting and trapping techniques—Ajanok possesses useful path-finding and tracking capabilities and an augmented level of situational awareness, affording him excellent perception and, consequently, making it exceptionally difficult to surprise him or hide from him.

The Darkness is a Shield: Despite their fearsome appearance, the del-korm people rely on their inherent aptitude for ambush-orientated hunting; silently stalking their prey from well-hidden positions under the cover of darkness has made them a very successful apex predator in their homeland. Naturally, Ajanok is no exception, his years spent in Malkor’Kurz having gifted him with a particularly-notable grace in the art of concealment and ensnarement, his movements and actions sowing discord and fear into the hearts and minds of those that he opts to prey upon.

Echoer’s Gift: Echoers, also known as Users of the Rawr, are unique del-korm children that were born with the unusual capacity to control sound. As these children advance towards maturity, their unearthly power grows with them, eventually becoming refined and strong enough to be used both as a useful tool and as a destructive weapon.

Ajanok’s frequent bouts with his mother and twin-sister, Aeon and Weadoo, have given him a respectable degree of experience with the Echo’s more malicious and violent applications, enabling him to direct painful, high-frequency sound waves at enemies or inanimate objects. But in a strange twist of irony, Claw is most proficient with his power’s more ‘utilitarian’ functions, such as silencing his own footsteps, generating distracting noises within the ears of the unwary and perfectly mimicking any sound that he wishes to utilize, such as voices or the noises of various beasts.

Claw's Echoer talents are improved through practice, but they are also fueled by consuming the life forces of other living creatures. Of course, this kills the victim in the process, but Claw has little regard for the lives of those that he dislikes anyway. To prevent the more 'intolerant' members of the land's population from lashing out at him, Claw conducts this dastardly deed in secret.

Tooth and Claw: In Malkor’Kurz, fighting is a way of life—a way to live. But Ajanok has grown relatively tired of the ‘ultra violence’ in his homeland, and therefore has taken it upon himself to be of cooler temperament, though he still has not let his proficiency in the art of bloodshed slip away from him. In melee combat, Ajanok can be exceedingly lethal.

Belongings and Equipment

Weadoo’s Boon: Ajanok has few friends and even fewer family, but his biological twin sister, Weadoo’Uranek (Grin of Teeth) is one of the few del-korm in Malkor’Kurz that he can honestly name as a friend.

Weadoo absolutely adored laughter and joy—but she also had an insatiable hunger for seemingly-unnecessary violence. When both were young, Weadoo’s murderous, happy-go-lucky demeanor often annoyed Ajanok to no end, leading to periodic episodes of brutal hostilities being exchanged between the two.

But, ironically enough, their shared, close relationship—one solidified through constant bickering and frequent skirmishes—gradually saw them enter into a brief yet fruitful Companionship. Throughout the land, brother and sister became legendary for their fighting prowess; they were especially deadly when together. Unfortunately, Ajanok’s infamy eventually forced him to notify his sibling that he was departing Malkor’Kurz for his own personal reasons.

Rather than mock him, Weadoo embraced her brother tightly, wishing him well and, taking his rightmost ear close to her mouth, she whispered: I will hold mother at bay until your return, so that you may claim her life as your own.

She then presented him with a heavy hand-made brassard and gauntlet combination wrought from meteoric iron and a strange, contradictory matrix of hate and love, with sections of its outermost form decorated and armored with the bones of their slain foes, while ancient runes of glory and power were engraved within its outer shell.

Ajanok would later learn that the symbols vividly told the story of war and conquest he and his sister wove mutually.

Agents Of Stardust

The armory wasn’t anything particularly special. The customary shoulder-mounted AT missile launchers, automatic grenade launchers, recoil-less rifles, and mines all spanned the rightmost rack, while an assortment of assault rifles, battle rifles, designated marksmen rifles, service pistols, sniper rifles, and mixed array of infantry-portable machine guns took up residence upon the leftmost rack.

A few direct-energy weapons of numerous models and dimensions had been attentively stacked against areas of free space. Spare power modules and batteries accompanied them.

Personally, Turner didn’t mess with those too much; from his own experience, they weren’t reliable or particularly effective when wielded in his twin hands.

No, I came aboard the station about thirty minutes ago. I missed the briefing and opening meet-and-greet; elements of the station’s security detachment gave me a hard time with how much ordinance and hardware I was strolling about with. I’ll get the gist of what’s going on and where we’re headed once I settle in and speak to whoever’s in charge around here.

What section of the ship are you in?

Armory, Maxwell hefted the massive military-issued storage case off from his armored shoulder. It landed on the metal surface of the moderately-sized room with an audible thud. The faint sounds of the contents shifting about within echoed slightly. I need to drop off my gear—or at least some of it. I’m not carrying this locker around any longer than I have to. The last thing I need is someone else throwing complaints and false-accusations at me. I don’t get paid nearly enough to deal with that shit. Talk to you soon.

Maxwell and his sister, Caria, had always been close, but despite the trust both siblings had for one another, he had declined to speak to her of his past troubles with the ESC military court system—the Raqh War and his heinous deeds and less-than-stellar actions during it. As far as he knew, she was completely ignorant of the entire ordeal—unless Aeon had notified her of what happened and what he had planned to do about it.

He was going to miss her terribly.

The soldier cut the radio link, removed his helmet and then set it upon the olive-colored container, the hydraulics and servomechanisms of his powered exoskeleton hissing and whirring with the subtle body motion. He retrieved a bundle of white-colored wiring from one of his chest pouches, manipulated a small electronic device fixed to his right wrist and, without warning, his left ear was suddenly subjected to a series of overwhelming bass lines and pronounced drum patterns, the voracious noise edging out into the open air. The right ear bud dangled uselessly in front of his frontal ballistic plate.

Maxwell turned and, out of the corner of his now unrestricted vision, he noticed what appeared to be—

“A massive snake,” Turner said aloud. The potentially-offensive words slipped out unannounced. He had seen a member of the Kaarme-ihmisen species milling about earlier when he was making his way towards the Durendal, though he had never seen one of them this up close before until now. This one had taken it upon itself to frantically arrange anything and everything within the armory into flawless order.

No wonder everything was so neat.

"...And who might you be?" Maxwell inquired, addressing the reptilian creature with a stern yet nonthreatening voice.

Agents Of Stardust

Character name: Lance Corporeal Maxwell Turner
Position: Security Team Member/Ground Operations
Species: Human
Gender: Male

Age: 32

Appearance: 175 cm in height, and weighs 85 kilograms (becomes 330 kg when armor and exoskeleton are equipped). Former American citizen of mixed Native African/Chinese ethnicity. Unsubstantial in physical attractiveness because of wounds suffered while on military duty. Rarely seen outside of his armor, and is not likely to show his face in public view.

Apparel

On Mission:



Off Mission:

Personal Equipment

Weapons

Storm Rifle: Storm rifles are similar to run-of-the-mill firearms, but they differ from their older counterparts in that they are melded with electrothermal-chemical technology and electronic firing methods to cut down on weapon weight and mechanical complexity, accuracy, firing rate, and stopping power. They are comparable in performance to a handheld railgun, though without the railgun’s more noteworthy shortcomings (such as power consumption, recoil and rail erosion).

Fed from a top-mounted box magazine that holds 99+1 rounds of ammunition, Maxwell’s weapon has a firing rate of 1,200 rounds per minute. An electronic smart sight is mounted on the rail system of the rifle, which distributes targeting information to each round.

>Cartridge<

-Standard full-powered armor piercing storm rifle cartridge that forgoes solid-propellant filling in favor of a liquid monopropellant alternative. The .30 Rocketeer features a second-stage microjet-boosted ‘sub-munition’ that engages when projectile velocity has dropped below a certain level, retaining (and in often cases increasing) kinetic energy as a result. A small integrated flight computer (after having received targeting coordinates from the user’s rifle) gives the .30 Rocketeer self-guiding capability, drastically improving accuracy and minimizing collateral damage or civilian causalities.

Upon penetrating the target, the round detonates.

Despite being of low caliber, the .30 Rocketeer typically strikes with the force of a traditional HMG round, though cartridges of much lower performance can be selected if the threat of hull breaches is sufficient.

Storm Pistol: Fires similar, but lower caliber, ammunition to Maxwell's storm rifle. Uses an electronic smart sight for improved accuracy. Fires 300 rounds per minute.

Combat Knife: Basic combat knife shaped from treated superior alloys. Relatively plain in appearance, but can pierce soft body armor if enough force is applied.

Equipment



AMH/HV (Amplified Movement Harness/Heavy Variant): Comprised of dense, carbon fiber-impregnated superalloys and a protective assortment of sophisticated shaped composite armor paneling, the AMH/HV is a third generation assault-grade motorized exoskeleton that employs potent electro-hydraulic linear and rotary actuators to generate power-assistance for the wearer, dramatically increasing the user's speed, endurance and physical strength.

An on-board microcomputer, which is slaved to the user's neurological implant, monitors the soldier's movements, preventing false (and thus potentially unsafe) motions while simultaneously syncing the suit's locomotive executions with those of the wearer's on a pristine 1:1 ratio. Flexible joints and smart hydraulic fluids grant the wearer full control over his or her bodily movements, allowing them to roll, crawl, jump, sprint, go prone, and perform other highly-dexterous feats of athletic prowess. With a strength augmentative factor of 25 and a maximum running speed of 40 kilometers-per-hour, wearers of AMH/HV machines are able to don significantly heavier combat armor packages, retain a greater ammunition reserve, excel at construction-based combat engineering duties, and handle crew-served infantry support weapons without suffering deliberating fatigue or agility penalties in the process.

Fed by a non-rechargeable atomic primary cell, the AMH/HV can operate contentiously for five standard years before requiring a fresh cell unit. AMH/HV can be removed easily by undoing a series of metallic clamps and straps, and can be adjusted to accommodate different body dimensions.

Assault Combat Armor (ACA): Only wearable in conjunction with an AMH due to its immense weight, ACA is a full-body semi-powered armor system that employs an NBC protection suite and an electronic liquid nitrogen-based cooling module, safeguarding the wearer from a wide variety of environmental hazards while maintaining a comfortable ambient temperature for the user; the cooling system also provides meager IR stealth benefits. Using an amalgamated conjoining of ablative shielding, graphene armor sheets, carbon fiber-impregnated ceramic panels, and shear-thickening fluid treatments, ACA is heavily resistant to high caliber ballistic weaponry, high temperatures, laser and plasma fire, high velocity shrapnel impacts, and blast over-pressure. Despite having been chiefly designed for assault work, ACA has been treated with a radar-absorbing abrasive coating.

ACA's tactical helmet features low-light, UV and thermal optics, while an in-built HUD system keeps tabs on the soldier's vitals and the current condition of their powered exoskeleton device. Acoustic sensors mounted on the outsides of the helmet pick up surrounding sounds, and a small (detachable) tactical flashlight mounted to the rightmost region of the headgear provides supplementary illumination when necessary.

In the event that power assistance is lost, ACA can be removed like any conventional body armor. For this reason, ACA is not a standard encased powered armor unit, and thus is not pressurized.

Skills

Moderately skilled in general infantry combat operations, but was trained in basic assault work and hand-to-hand combat. Especially effective versus heavily-armored powered and non-powered infantry in close-quarters environments.

Powered Exoskeleton/Power Armor Training: Skilled in operating power armor, but is especially well-versed in driving powered exoskeletons. Maxwell is qualified to train other persons in the safe function of PA and XOS systems.

Powered Exoskeleton/Power Armor Light Technical Experience: Can conduct light repairs on PA/XOS units, but more extreme maintenance must be conducted by qualified PA/XOS technicians.

Personality: Well develop and in displaying using IC interactions. However, it should be noted that Maxwell has a strong soldier's demeanor, and takes well to those of dutiful personality and serious background. Foolishness and idiocy will not be tolerated.

Biography - Participated in the closing years of the Human-Raqh war, but found himself on the wrong end of military law. Due to a highly controversial incidents regarding thirty Raqh civilians, Maxwell was demoted twice and subjected to two martial court hearings, but was suddenly relieved of all charges and assigned to the Durendal for undisclosed reasons. Turner speculates that his cousin, Aeon Turner, a high-ranking commander in the ESC armed forces, may have had something to do with the sudden shift in circumstances, but all of his attempts to receive information from his kin have since failed.

ASTA's Nation/Character Forge

Character name: Lance Corporeal Maxwell Turner
Position: Security Team Member/Ground Operations
Species: Human
Gender: Male

Age: 32

Appearance: 175 cm in height, and weighs 85 kilograms (becomes 330 kg when armor and exoskeleton are equipped). Former American citizen of mixed Native African/Chinese ethnicity. Unsubstantial in physical attractiveness because of wounds suffered while on military duty. Rarely seen outside of his armor, and is not likely to show his face in public view.

Apparel

On Mission:



Off Mission:

Personal Equipment

Weapons

Storm Rifle: Storm rifles are similar to run-of-the-mill firearms, but they differ from their older counterparts in that they are melded with electrothermal-chemical technology and electronic firing methods to cut down on weapon weight and mechanical complexity, accuracy, firing rate, and stopping power. They are comparable in performance to a handheld railgun, though without the railgun’s more noteworthy shortcomings (such as power consumption, recoil and rail erosion).

Fed from a top-mounted box magazine that holds 99+1 rounds of ammunition, Maxwell’s weapon has a firing rate of 1,200 rounds per minute. An electronic smart sight is mounted on the rail system of the rifle, which distributes targeting information to each round.

>Cartridge<

-Standard full-powered armor piercing storm rifle cartridge that forgoes solid-propellant filling in favor of a liquid monopropellant alternative. The .30 Rocketeer features a second-stage microjet-boosted ‘sub-munition’ that engages when projectile velocity has dropped below a certain level, retaining (and in often cases increasing) kinetic energy as a result. A small integrated flight computer (after having received targeting coordinates from the user’s rifle) gives the .30 Rocketeer self-guiding capability, drastically improving accuracy and minimizing collateral damage or civilian causalities.

Upon penetrating the target, the round detonates.

Despite being of low caliber, the .30 Rocketeer typically strikes with the force of a traditional HMG round, though cartridges of much lower performance can be selected if the threat of hull breaches is sufficient.

Storm Pistol: Fires similar, but lower caliber, ammunition to Maxwell's storm rifle. Uses an electronic smart sight for improved accuracy. Fires 300 rounds per minute.

Combat Knife: Basic combat knife shaped from treated superior alloys. Relatively plain in appearance, but can pierce soft body armor if enough force is applied.

Equipment



AMH/HV (Amplified Movement Harness/Heavy Variant): Comprised of dense, carbon fiber-impregnated superalloys and a protective assortment of sophisticated shaped composite armor paneling, the AMH/HV is a third generation assault-grade motorized exoskeleton that employs potent electro-hydraulic linear and rotary actuators to generate power-assistance for the wearer, dramatically increasing the user's speed, endurance and physical strength.

An on-board microcomputer, which is slaved to the user's neurological implant, monitors the soldier's movements, preventing false (and thus potentially unsafe) motions while simultaneously syncing the suit's locomotive executions with those of the wearer's on a pristine 1:1 ratio. Flexible joints and smart hydraulic fluids grant the wearer full control over his or her bodily movements, allowing them to roll, crawl, jump, sprint, go prone, and perform other highly-dexterous feats of athletic prowess. With a strength augmentative factor of 25 and a maximum running speed of 40 kilometers-per-hour, wearers of AMH/HV machines are able to don significantly heavier combat armor packages, retain a greater ammunition reserve, excel at construction-based combat engineering duties, and handle crew-served infantry support weapons without suffering deliberating fatigue or agility penalties in the process.

Fed by a non-rechargeable atomic primary cell, the AMH/HV can operate contentiously for five standard years before requiring a fresh cell unit. AMH/HV can be removed easily by undoing a series of metallic clamps and straps, and can be adjusted to accommodate different body dimensions.

Assault Combat Armor (ACA): Only wearable in conjunction with an AMH due to its immense weight, ACA is a full-body semi-powered armor system that employs an NBC protection suite and an electronic liquid nitrogen-based cooling module, safeguarding the wearer from a wide variety of environmental hazards while maintaining a comfortable ambient temperature for the user; the cooling system also provides meager IR stealth benefits. Using an amalgamated conjoining of ablative shielding, graphene armor sheets, carbon fiber-impregnated ceramic panels, and shear-thickening fluid treatments, ACA is heavily resistant to high caliber ballistic weaponry, high temperatures, laser and plasma fire, high velocity shrapnel impacts, and blast over-pressure. Despite having been chiefly designed for assault work, ACA has been treated with a radar-absorbing abrasive coating.

ACA's tactical helmet features low-light, UV and thermal optics, while an in-built HUD system keeps tabs on the soldier's vitals and the current condition of their powered exoskeleton device. Acoustic sensors mounted on the outsides of the helmet pick up surrounding sounds, and a small (detachable) tactical flashlight mounted to the rightmost region of the headgear provides supplementary illumination when necessary.

In the event that power assistance is lost, ACA can be removed like any conventional body armor. For this reason, ACA is not a standard encased powered armor unit, and thus is not pressurized.

Skills

Moderately skilled in general infantry combat operations, but was trained in basic assault work and hand-to-hand combat. Especially effective versus heavily-armored powered and non-powered infantry in close-quarters environments.

Powered Exoskeleton/Power Armor Training: Skilled in operating power armor, but is especially well-versed in driving powered exoskeletons. Maxwell is qualified to train other persons in the safe function of PA and XOS systems.

Powered Exoskeleton/Power Armor Light Technical Experience: Can conduct light repairs on PA/XOS units, but more extreme maintenance must be conducted by qualified PA/XOS technicians.

Personality: Well develop and in displaying using IC interactions. However, it should be noted that Maxwell has a strong soldier's demeanor, and takes well to those of dutiful personality and serious background. Foolishness and idiocy will not be tolerated.

Biography - Participated in the closing years of the Human-Raqh war, but found himself on the wrong end of military law. Due to a highly controversial incidents regarding thirty Raqh civilians, Maxwell was demoted twice and subjected to two martial court hearings, but was suddenly relieved of all charges and assigned to the Durendal for undisclosed reasons. Turner speculates that his cousin, Aeon Turner, a high-ranking commander in the ESC armed forces, may have had something to do with the sudden shift in circumstances, but all of his attempts to receive information from his kin have since failed.

A Sci-fi Merc RP, anyone?

Is this still accepting?

Darkstar (Fantasy/Sci-Fi)

Is this still accepting?