Keyguyperson

RPGN 12.19.14 (Special Announcement)

Teknonick said

I know for a fact I've seen you, but I haven't the slightest idea where. All I know is that we were both on MCF.

Is it okay or is it wrong

Yeah, just credit them for the idea, and close it down if they come back and ask you to.

From Stardust, To Stardust

WilsonTurner said
Did anyone else spend their entire time while the Guild was down refreshing the Guild? I refreshed practically every ten minutes the entire time.

It was terrifying, but hey, haven't had a crash today, so whatever dark magic Mahz used, it seems to be working.

*Cue guild being down for a week*

From Stardust, to Stardust: Tales of Andromeda, a Sci-Fi Fantasy RP

EDIT: App now with actual religious and technological explanation! Because it hurt me when I saw the half-paragraph I had for those!

Abh

Name of Nation: Eight World's Empire

Species: Abh


Abh breath an oxygen atmosphere, though their tolerance for lower concentrations is much higher than that of a human's. They also have much fewer toxic gases. Interestingly, a Abh can drink and eat everything humans do, although they have a cultural preference towards water and wine when drinking. Their food is very much reminiscent of what we would consider Asian today. This is a species-wide phenomenon, implying a very early point of "unification". Their language is known as "Sānshingenō".

One of the major oddities of the Abh is their natural ability to interface with computer systems, an ability that has been used since the very first digital computers. They were found to be capable of interfacing with the computers found in ancient ruins as well, which have the same basic structure as Abh computer systems. Attempts have been made at interfacing with the computers of the hostile alien race, but no success has been found, with the subject's brain rejecting the computers. This ability to interface with ancient computers is completely unexplained, but is widely believed to be a simple fluke of nature. There are those who believe that it was intentional modification, but there is no experimental proof of this, with no markers in Abh DNA showing any sign of genetic tampering.

Homeworld: Shōrino'ba, sixth planet of the Tsutā System.

Description of Government: Feudal Empire, headed by an Emperor.

Description of Military: The Abh Military is split up into four branches: The Imperial Spaceborne Navy (ISN), the Imperial Airborne Defense Forces (IADF), the Imperial Oceangoing Defense Navy (IODN), and the Imperial Planetbound Defense Army (IPDA).

Imperial Spaceborn Navy Craft:

-Doraic-Class, a vessel built to transport ground and air forces, this class is also equipped with extensive scanning and electronic warfare equipment. It was named for Doraic Ssynec Ymer Spainaic, the lead scientist in the first Sūkaiisutshō Expedition. It is equipped mainly with plasma launcher weapons for defense, which makes it excellent for point defense. There are multiple variations, one of which (the Doraic-B) carries Semurr-Class spaceborne fighter-bombers.


-Kaguya-Class Bombardment Vessel, a starship class designed for long-range bombardment of enemy forces and planets. Though it's primary use is bombardment, it is often seen taking point in a close-range battle due to it's extensive missile capabilities. The four large prongs are railguns, which can fire either dumb tungsten slugs, dumb bombs, or guided missiles. It is named for a myth believed to be more ancient than the Abh themselves.


-Ryouta-Class Battleship, one of the more common vessels on the battlefield. As one might expect, this class is built for the sole purpose of causing as much damage to the enemy as possible. It has two railguns, which are fully capable of providing bombardment support, but it truly shines in the middle of battle. Hidden within it's hull are multiple antiproton streamers (weapons which fire streams of antiprotons), which are extremely effective at close to middle ranges, though they are most certainly non-trivial even at long ranges. They are especially good at shredding though enemy armor. This class is also named for a prehistoric myth.


-Guyoka-Class Destroyer, a ship class deployed in large numbers and used to swarm the enemy. They are armed with four plasma launchers as point defense (though they are effective as ship-to-ship weapons as well). Their main armament is their spinal antiproton weapon, which fires pulses of antiprotons straight forward. This weapon, combined with their maneuverability, makes them extremely formidable against larger ships in groups (especially if said larger ship has little point defense). They are named for a somewhat large insect found on Shōrino'ba, which have been known to kill adult Abh in swarms when provoked.


-Teikkupuraim-Class Battlecruiser, a ship class built for all possible space combat situations. This class carries a small complement of Īguru-Class spaceborne fighter-bombers, but that is far from it's only defense. It also carries extensive missile systems, which are utilized alongside antiproton streamers and plasma launchers. When combined with the extensive electronic warfare and communications suites, this ship is by far the most formidable in space combat. For planetary sieges, it has a single, dual-mode spinal weapon that can act as a railgun or antiproton streamer. As it is the largest class in the entire navy, it is usually seen operating as a command vessel, often personalized by it's commander. It's name, when roughly translated, means "Honor of the Empire".

Imperial Airborne Defense Forces Craft:

-Kyōrkaizei-Class Aerial Battleship, utilizing antigravity technology, this design is utilized in the atmosphere of planets to combat aerial carriers and other battleships. The circular engine pod holds turboprop engines, but they can be replaced with rocket and plasma engines for spaceborne operation (as is seen here). These ships can also be called in to provide air support, and can even be modified for orbital patrols as mentioned above. However, all are operated by the Imperial Airborne Defense Force. Name means "Great Wind" in Sānshingenō.


-Kujiryū-Class Aerial Carrier, named for a mythical dragon-like creature, this class of ship is a traditional design taken from the seagoing carriers. It utilizes a turboprop engine for increased endurance, as it is in the air for extreme periods of time. It carries multiple Haisana-Class Aerial fighter/bombers (seen in the top left), which use turbofan engines as they are stationed on the carrier and thus do not require the extra endurance.

IODN Craft:

-Iruka-Class Carrier, this class of ship has the exact same purpose as the Kujiryū-Class Aerial Carrier, and carries the same Haisana-Class Aerial fighter/bombers as it does. The design has been in use for well over a century, every time a new breakthrough it made, it is simply incorporated into the design. As one might suspect, it inspired the design of the Kujiryū-Class Aerial Carrier. It's design is ingrained in Abh culture, with a common joke about the lack of a dedicated spaceborne carrier blames the prevalence of this design, as it would be ineffective in space. The name references a mythical sea Goddess that is said to have sacrificed themselves to save the Abh, and the reverence shown to them in Abh religion is likely the cause for the continued use of this design.


-Teikokunken-Class Dreadnought, this class is extremely rare, with only a handful in use. They are built to be the ultimate in sea combat, armed with multiple railgun turrets, anti-air defenses, and missile tubes, these ships can take on a small enemy fleet without any backup. They also carry a light complement of Haisana-Class Aerial fighter/bombers, launched from electromagnetic catapults at the aft. Unlike most ships (which are powered by a fusion reactor), Teikokunken-Class Dreadnoughts are powered by the same antimatter reactors used on starships.


-Chikyū-Class Battleship, named for a mythical land, this class has also been used for over a century (likely for the same reason as the Iruka-Class Carrier, as Chikyū is the homeland of multiple mythical deities revered in Abh religion). It is designed purely for ship-to-ship combat, with railgun turrets and missile tubes comprising it's entire armament. However, it does carry two mini-submarines that are used to deliver up to four torpedoes each, an extremely effective strategy.

Imperial Planetbound Defense Army

-Heavy Hovertank, used mainly in vehicular combat, this tank is exceptional at destroying enemy vehicles. It is also useful in attacking enemy infantry, though the previously used tactic of running over the enemy (causing absolutely disgusting scenes that any human would end up with PTSD over) is no longer useful as that ability was sacrificed for increased maneuverability with the advent of antigravity technology. It is armed with two heavy railguns, a complement of ground-to-ground missiles, and a gatling coilgun.


-Light Hovertank, used in a support role, this hovertank is used againt infantry exclusively. It's main barrel, instead of being a railgun like one would expect, is actually a plasma launcher. Since Abh plasma weapons are nigh impossible to focus in-atmosphere, this tank's main barrel acts almost like a flamethrower (albeit a long range, effective against armor one). It also carries a complement to ground-to-ground missiles, as well as a light coilgun.


-Semarri Type 1 Combat Exoskeleton, a light combat exoskeleton deployed in offensive and special operations missions, this exoskeleton offers increased mobility, but has less armor than the Type 2. Both utilize the same helmets, which relay battlefield information and protect them from attacks to the head better than standard army helmets (as well as make it harder for the enemy to steal their ears as a trophy, something disturbingly common in internal conflicts).


-Semarri Type 2 Combat Exoskeleton, a light combat exoskeleton deployed mainly in the trenches for defense operations, this exoskeleton offers almost tank-like armor, but at the cost of reduced mobility compared to the Type 1. Both utilize the same helmets, which relay battlefield information and protect them from attacks to the head better than standard army helmets (as well as make it harder for the enemy to steal their ears as a trophy, something disturbingly common in internal conflicts).


-Infantry Body Armor, the standard armor for Abh Infantry, soldiers wearing this garment are deployed in all types of combat situations. The helmet's horizontal accents are actually hammerhead-like protrusions, which make way for the ears. This image is obviously not showing Abh, that's because this bit righ there isn't in character. yeah, not even trying to come up with an excuse for this one.

Technological Overview: Abh technology is quite advanced, with antigravity being a staple of everyday life. Military technology includes railguns, coilguns, lasers (rarely used), antimatter weapons, and plasma weapons. However, most of this technology is scavenged from ancient ruins, and the only thing truly Abh about their space force is the designs. The ground forces, meanwhile, are made up much more of Abh technology, mainly due to how plasma and antimatter weapons are either useless or catastrophically effective.

Their space travel technology is limited to the highly advanced Dimensional Jump Drive and the significantly less advanced antimatter/matter annihilation drive. The latter is used by most civilian starships, with them utilizing the Hashichi (Krasnikov Tubes) to travel at FTL speeds. Their warships use shields that grow stronger as they are attacked, with the generators projecting an energy field that converts all incoming fire to energy to power the shield. However, the shortcomings of this system are obvious: too much fire, and the shield system is overloaded, causing damage to other systems as well as making the shield worthless until repairs can be carried out. Thus, the amount of fire a ship can take is directly proportional to how much excess energy the ship can store or dispose of.

As mentioned, antigravity is an integral part of the Abh economy. With it, planetary mining is just as lucrative as asteroid mining, and the transport of cargo and passengers from a planet's surface to orbit and vice-versa is completely free. Landing troops on an enemy world is effortless, with transports requiring no fuel aside from the negative energy reserves they were filled with when built (The negative energy is not disposed of, instead being kept inside of a space-time bubble that keeps it from causing any effect until activated). All ships are equipped with an antigravity system, which allows them to neglect orbital insertion, which is a tactic used to gain the upper hand in maneuverability in battles, as they would not have to worry about their orbit when executing burns. However, such a usage of the device causes any Abh debris to impact the planet below, which is not always a bad thing when you consider that the tactic is mainly used in offensive operations.

Abh propulsion on the battlefield can take two forms: chemical rockets and antimatter/matter annihilation engines. Both are the only sublight engines that are capable of providing enough thrust to be effective, though each has it's merits and shortcomings. Chemical rockets are considered safer, and have easier thrust control, but their fuel supply is extremely limited (if a vessel used only chemical rockets during battle, it would run out of fuel by the end). Antimatter/matter annihilation engines have a higher thrust, and a single tanker filled with anti-substance fuel can keep a fleet supplied with fuel for months. However, if the fuel tanks of a warship are ruptured, the entire vessel will detonate, throwing shrapnel out at speeds that could potentially cause millions of deaths if the ship is in orbit of an inhabited planet. Furthermore, if the tanker were to crash, it would likely cause the destruction of whatever it crashed into, especially a planet with an atmosphere. Luckily for anyone on the field of battle, all ships are equipped with venting systems that eject the anti-substance fuel at a steady and safe rate, forming a cloud that could be passed through with shields up. The use of a tanker as a weapon is, however, not unheard of. Multiple plans for an attack on the alien capital involved crashing a tanker into it, obliterating any possible resistance. However, even the Abh find this too horrific, and it is kept as a last resort only.

Cultural Overview: The Abh operate on a loose Feudal system where families can move up and down in status depending on their actions. Racism ans sexism are unheard of, as all Abh are believed to be the children of the Goddess Abh (Homosexuality was considered a sin up until around the expedition to the seventh planet, as having a child was considered an incredibly important duty for both the man and the woman). Interestingly, nobles are not guaranteed a high military rank, they have to climb the ranks just like anyone else. Due to this, the Emperor could be a mere captain under the command of an Admiral born into a family of planetary miners. However, strict social rules make it shameful for a noble to refuse military service, as it is seen as a responsibility. Not abiding by this rules has resulted in many a family being removed from the spot of emperor.

Abh religion is polytheistic, with there being multiple deities forming a pantheon. There are eight deities, with multiple demigods and mortal servants also factoring in:
-Ethana, Goddess of war
-Iruka, Goddess of the sea and sacrifice (Revered for her sacrifice to save the Abh)
-Boskō, God of knowledge
-Depha, Goddess of luck and community
-Abh, Patron Goddess of the Abh (Believed to have created the Abh with her own body, who then took up her name out of respect)
-Urani, Goddess of Curiosity (Also believed to be the conduit between the Gods and the Mortals, all prayers are directed towards her. She is sometimes called "Zaicdaruta", which translates to "The One Who Watches", as it is believed that she will never interfere with Mortal affairs)
-Ningen, God of perseverance and hope
-Draka, Goddess of Evil, seen as the enemy of all other gods but Urani

Ningen is believed to be the leader of the gods, and is often called the "Kamigamgen", or "God of Gods" when loosely translated. He is believed to be fair and kind to all things, punishing everyone (including himself) equally. However, it is said that in the past he tried to kill Boskō and Ethana, Boskō dozens of times, but Ethana only once. During his fights with Boskō, he is believed to have almost killed Iruka, his sister. He never forgave himself for this, and it is said that even now he will bow in humility and ask for forgiveness when meeting another being, even if that being is a mortal. This legend gave rise to the Abh custom of "Shin-yasai", or "True Kindness". To follow his example, Abh bow to all that they meet in respect of Ningen.

Iruka is revered as much as Ningen, as she is believed to have sacrificed herself to save the Abh. It is said that after her sacrifice, Ningen desperately tried to save her, putting her essence into an iron body that could not rust. Many Abh sailors will swear that they have seen her while at sea, her mechanical body playfully leaping out of the water as if to say hello.

In the legends, Boskō is said to be the older brother of Ningen and Ethana, looking out for them until one day Ningen became fearful of Boskō's far superior intellect and tried to kill him. Boskō took Ethana and fled Chikyū, refusing to harm his beloved brother, but left behind a small part of his essence, hoping it could one day save Ningen. While Boskō hid from his brother in another world, Ningen tried to destroy the essence he left behind in a battle that lasted thousands of years. However, the essence that was left behind was hope, and even as Ningen tried to destroy it, another part of him still fed it. Whenever the essence of his brother was almost gone, Ningen would find that it would suddenly grow larger than ever before. Finally, he tried to destroy it using a device of his own creation (the effects of which bear amazing similarities to atomic weapons, causing them to never be implemented by the Abh). He utterly failed at this, as moments after he tried to destroy it, it grew to it's largest, and something changed in Ningen. He became regretful of his attempts to kill his brother, and accepted the essence into himself, becoming the God of Hope. He found Boskō and Ethana, but at first did not recognize his brother. When he discovered Boskō and Ethana's true identity, a joyful reunion took place as the three became not just siblings, but the best of friends. After his reunion with his siblings, Ningen focused all the energy that was once focused on killing Boskō on battling the evil Goddess, Draka. In his attempts to defeat her, he joined up with Depha, created Abh as a warrior, and elevated Iruka (Formerly a mortal fish) to godhood. Despite being hopelessly weak when compared to Draka, they managed to win the fight against her through Ningen's power of will, which kept them from losing a single battle with Draka.

After this great battle, Abh began to grow in character, becoming more than a mere warrior for Ningen. Ningen, however, refused to give her the right to call herself a Goddess, believing that she was too bloodthirsty to be trusted with such a title. Afraid that she would try to kill him, Ningen gathered the other gods together in an attempt to oppose her. However, the day at which she tried to kill him never came, and she instead continued her protests. Pleased that she refrained from violence, Ningen elevated her to godhood, an action which gained him her completely loyalty. For a time, all was good.

However, this idyllic period of time was not to last. Draka's evil essence lived on, and did what she never could. As essences are far more powerful than the gods that hold them, this evil essence spread over Chikyū trillions of times over, engulfing all in darkness. Abh, hoping to keep the good essences of the gods alive, tore herself apart piece by piece. The pain was horrifying, but she kept doing it, hoping to save her essence. She shaped each and every piece of herself into an Abh, who, out of reverence of her, adopter her name. By the end, the Goddess Abh was gone, but her essence lived on in the Abh species. She sent them to Shōrino'ba, a place that would be safe from all evils. Therefore, all Abh have a tiny part of them that is the Goddess' essence, and every new Abh born strengthens good.

The forces of good are still engaged in an eternal battle with Draka and her forces of evil, and it is believed that all Abh must assist the forces of good in this battle by doing "Good Works" (Helping others, fighting evil mortals, and having children). Because of this belief, those who choose not to have at least one child are frowned upon, though adoption has become increasingly recognized as a replacement for having a child due to it involving raising the child and helping them, thus being viewed as half of the last good work and all of the first. Many believe that the aliens current being fought are not just evil mortals, and that they are the puppets of Draka herself, and even those who don't consider the current war a religious one.

History: The Abh have always been warriors, almost fine-tuned to fighting. For their entire recorded history, they have been united under the banner of the Eight World's Empire (the name has changed, obviously). However, internal wars between houses are common, and ships usually display their house crest instead of the Imperial Banner. The internal wars became incredibly bloody after the invention of space travel, with orbital bombardment being called down on entire cities just to get at a few enemy leaders. However, over time, space battleships were built. Launched from the ground, they had paper-thin armor and usually only a single spinal weapon. Obviously, these early battles were short and devastating, with entire fleets shredding each other apart entirely in a matter of minutes. With the advent of space industry, battleships could be built bulkier than ever before. Suddenly, Shōrino'ba was peaceful. All the battles took place among the stars, with fleets engaging not over the ground below, but over the right to claim a new dwarf planet. Among all the fighting, private colony ships were launched towards the moons of Zenjyu, the closent planet to Shōrino'ba and a gas giant. Since the transport of a suitable amount of troops from one planet to another was simply impossible, these colonies were left alone by the military (although stray rounds could destroy an entire city).

These colonies grew quickly, with everyone realizing just how valuable the surface of other worlds were. Completely untapped resources, with no risk of invasion. It seemed as though a new ship was being launched every day, sent to bring colonists to the other seven planets of the system. Then came a revolutionary invention: negative mass. Above the seventh planet of Orenjiro, an ancient ruin was found by the Na'brel House, floating among the clouds of the gas giant. An expedition was sent, and they returned carrying a small, red cylinder that fell up. The scientists sent explained that the ancient ruin had a device to create such an object within it, and that the entire building floated using such objects. They carried with them a map of the gas giant, showing the locations of billions of other such buildings, which they had dubbed "Sūkaiisutshō" (referencing ancient religious texts).

With the ability to defy gravity, launching ships became effortless, as did the construction of things such as an industrial space elevator. Space industry boomed, with hundreds of space elevators popping up on every colonized body. Expanding towards the outer planets, they kept going and going, until they finally left their home system using sublight antimatter engines, colonizing nearby systems in the opposite direction as the other sentients in their home system. These sublight vessels laid down "Hashichi", which we could call Krasnikov Tubes, allowing them to continue bringing cargo to and from the system at FTL speeds. By the time the era of expansion stopped, they controlled fifteen fully developed star systems. Then, something changed in their mindset. It was long-held fact that there was another sentient species in their home system, but they instinctively avoided them as they avoided the Abh. Once the fifteenth system had been developed, the Abh suddenly became interested in meeting others.

The Abh formed a combined Na'brel and Kyūsei House fleet with one diplomatic vessel and a small escort. Just after they left, it was discovered that the aliens had launched a fleet of their own. Assuming it was diplomatic, the Abh fleet diverted course to meet it. However, when the two fleets met, the Abh transmissions were met with streams of antiprotons and plasma. They returned fire with their railguns, but were defeated within minutes. Immediately, the Empire focused all efforts on researching new weapons technology. In the skies of Orenjiro an ancient starship was found, floating among the Sūkaiisutshō. Contained within the vessel was a glowing core, which was found to generate an alternate space-time within a small area around the vessel. This border between this bubble and the rest of the universe appeared as a rainbow-colored bubble. Oddly, the border did not stop anything from moving through it, this oddity was found to be the result of something termed "space-time fusion", which allowed two space-times to fuse when they had the same properties.

At first, this odd device was thought to be a stealth device, as it greatly reduce the radar profile of the vessel when activated. Believing that there was no need for a stealth device, the Abh ignored it and instead reverse-engineered the weapons systems of the ship, which were surprisingly similar to the alien ones. Through this research, they too began to utilize antiproton and plasma weapons. However, Imperial outposts outside of the fifteen colonies began to go dark, the third one to do so managed to send out images of their attackers: alien vessels that seemed to just suddenly appeared at the station, coming in at FTL speeds without the use of a Hashichi. With the revelation that their enemies could travel FTL at will, the Abh began rushing to replicate the effect.

Despite their best efforts, nobody could create any kind of at-will FTL drive. Negative mass was the first theory, but no scientist could manage to lower the fuel requirements below the mass of an entire planet, thus ruling out a negative mass FTL. Dozens of theories were proposed, but none of them worked. In desperation, they turned to the space-time bubble generator found on the recovered starship, hoping that it might be able to save them. To their surprise and joy, it was just what they needed. When enough power was put into it, the device could "elevate" a vessel to the 5th dimension. The crew would survive by virtue of the habitable space-time generated, but the bubble itself could move in the fourth physical dimension, which was viewed as up/down from within the bubble. For a time, this type of movement was avoided, the consequences when returning to normal space being feared. Instead, the ships traveled in two dimensions. Interestingly. this caused a slight vertical drift, but it was so small that it didn't present any practical problem.

Though their new FTL allowed them to defend themselves better (Being "smaller", distances in the 5th dimension were exponentially shorter compared to those in "real space"), it was found that it was much slower than the alien drives. Still desperate to be able to counter the alien attacks, they finally moved in the fourth dimension, hoping that it would somehow let them reach their destinations faster. Miraculously, it did. Further studies showed that this was because the first dimension of time was manifested as the fourth physical dimension in the 5th dimension. Obviously, this presented both a major boon and a major problem to the Abh. While they could essentially travel to anywhere in the universe instantly, a slight miscalculation could result in a paradox. Thus, is was made law that all vessels were banned from moving "up" or "down" in the fifth dimension without doing the necessary calculations first. Even so, Abh travel times were cut down to mere minutes (and sometimes less), giving them a major advantage over the aliens.

As time went on, the aliens' upper hand faded away as the Abh pushed them out of their frontier territories, bringing the war to a stalemate. Despite this, the Abh still had no idea what the aliens called themselves, a fact that many thought of as a source of shame.

Other: The Abh, despite their warrior culture, almost instinctively greet other species in a friendly manner. Depending on the individual, the ship may approach cautiously, or sit there without any defenses online.

Yes. That's the Yamato, and yes, those aircraft carriers are clearly based on WWII Japanese designs, and yes, the names sound Japanese because I google translated things and then intentionally misspelled them, and the picture is anime (The scourge of all reference pictures), but that's mostly a reference to the source material, a wonderful franchise called Crest of the Stars. Everything that isn't there as a reference is there because plot.

So you can rest in peace, hypothetical reader, because I'm not one of those people that goes out of their way to use anime in everything, and I'm not someone who hates it either. I am, however, someone who spends way too much time telling other people about how they aren't something.

From Stardust, To Stardust

Prison 53-2, Char
The Terran with the gun at his head was obviously afraid, but a sad glance from one of the others quickly reminded him of what was at stake. His muscles tensed, and his eyes lit up with hatred. His face was wrinkled, but he was not a frail old man. No, nobody at his age was frail, not after WWIII. They remembered everything, and he in particular remembered the worst of it. Medina, Washington, Guantanamo-he'd seen all of them. All the pain, all the death, and all the torture. As long as he could hold on to those memories, he wouldn't be broken.

Looking the Sentinel in the eye, a smile on his face and a defiant glint in his eyes, he spoke in an oddly confident tone.

"I'll need a specific request, without one, all I can say about our military is that it's a damn sight better than yours. I bet one of your pathetic excuses for a soldier would cave to such a sad excuse for torture as this!"

Colonial Report, Civilian Colonies (Can be Intercepted)
"This is Governor Bradford of Noveau Paris. I have been elected to speak for the five colonies due to by achievements here. All colonies have reached the one million population milestone, and all have constructed their orbital tethers. My colony has already constructed a second city on the planet's moon, with an additional ten thousand living there. We've also found that there are large, bamboo-like trees on our planet, which we have used for extra housing so we can gestate more of our colonists. The El Dorado colony has begun mining the vast gas resources of the gas giant they orbit, which has an unusual amount of oxygen. New Ottawa has found dolphin-like creatures near their underwater colony, in the place of fins, these creatures have surprisingly humanoid hands and arms. Their explorers have seen shelters constructed by these creatures, which are most likely built to keep them warm during the harsh nights. New Edinburgh has also discovered unexpected creatures in the form of giant gasbags. These gasbag creatures are almost like whales, earning them many nicknames. They too, appear to be sentient. They seem to have a language of their own, though due to the Venus-like climate of New Edinburgh, they cannot go beneath the clouds. We request a small defense flee to be stationed here at Noveau Paris, as we have the largest population. As long as one of these colonies survives, humanity will endure."

Colonial Report, Epsilon Indi (Cannot be Intercepted)
=Decoding=
=Decoding Complete, Initiating Jugsaw Program=
=Jigsaw Complete, Displaying=
"Short message, Iscandarians may be close to breaking code. Kaa'ri joined UTF, delegates on way to Terra. Unexpected finds, being delivered by delegates. Population remains at 20 billion, system fully developed according to Colonial guidelines. Warships being built to supplement main fleet, following Dreadnought construction code. Declassification to the public is recommended, nothing to lose. Recommend construction of an alliance to oppose the Iscandarians, strike at all systems at once when adequate strength is reached. Epsilon Indi out."

From Stardust, To Stardust

TehAlphaGamer said
It's been a while so is there any way to get Sazkarjhia involved again?I know there's the action in Nouvelle but nothing's happened there recently so.

Hey, hey buddy, wanna' join a war?

Or you could start one, doesn't matter, just get some people shooting at each other in space. That'd be great.

From Stardust, to Stardust: Tales of Andromeda, a Sci-Fi Fantasy RP

I call space elves.

Second World War RP?

I would love to see this! Personally, I'd like something on the Eastern Front, but I love everything here.

From Stardust, To Stardust Nation Dump

Name of nation: The Hives

Species: L'Er (Eng: One of Us. Note that this is their name for themselves, not one that is used universally by species they encounter. As the nature of such encounters tend to be with feral hives developing on one of their worlds, species often believe the L'Er to be a non-sentient disease at first glance.)
There is no way to accurately describe the entire race, as many, many different forms are constructed. The most common is the small "Spore form". These are arguably the most dangerous form as they possess the ability to bite their way into their host, their organic forms have no skeleton and thus can contort to squeeze through small openings in their host that they cause with their abnormally strong teeth, which are strong enough to bite their way through armour if given a few seconds. Once inside their host, they couple with the hosts central nervous system, making removal almost invariably fatal. It is sometimes argued that they kill the host outright, though there has been no reliable study to confirm this, so it is entirely possible the host is alive and maybe conscious. The host does not have to be alive for this process, a corpse will do. Whatever the case, the Parasite has full control and begins mutating the host. The hive will use the host for a variety of purposes, including but not limited to construction, reproduction and combat.
This host will now become one of two forms. The first is known as the "Battle" form, this involves the usage of the hosts natural abilities for combat, in addition to mutations to make them stronger, such abnormal muscle growth. This is often done at the expense of the hosts brain and specific organs. Little attempt is made for long term maintenance, as the host will likely be recycled after its purpose is served. The second form is known as the "Transport" form. The is essentially a walking reproductive center for the Parasites, growing new spore forms inside massive bulbous sacks, often mutating the host past what is recognisable. This form shoots the Spore forms out of its many sacks when it sights and approaches an enemy, and has two no way to defend its self except through these spores, although it has been known to fall onto beings which have gotten too close to prevent then from running. Both these forms are called "Impure" forms. There is a third form, though its existence is debated, known as the "Thinker" form. The theory is that certain hosts have their brains kept intact and, in some theories, boosted. These forms supposedly serve as tactical planners in pre-Mind infestations, as well as scientists of sorts or advisors to the mind. Since some intelligent behavior is exhibited in all combat forms, its argued that these are just abnormally intelligent combat forms rather than a new form, though no one is entirely sure.
The next forms are the "Pure forms" These are not mutated hosts but entirely new creatures made out of collected biomass from the planets, including recycled hosts and the bodies of their dead. There are countless different forms which vary from hive to hive. The most important pure form in any hive is the Mind. Without the mind, the parasite has little coordination, and their priority is to begin the construction of a mind. This is not to say they are stupid, they possess the intelligence of their hosts, and though it often degrades over time (with the exception of thinker forms), they are smart enough to coordinate basic tactics (Supposedly thinkers coordinate pre-mind stages) There are three stages (Four if one believes the Thinker Theory)
One: Feral. In this stage, they are uncoordinated and possess limited intelligence. They are still dangerous, but less so compared to later stages. Minor displays of intelligence, such as basic ambushes are known to appear but generally their intelligence is considered to be similar to that of animals at this level. They maintain knowledge their previous hosts had, so the use of vehicles isn't out of the question. They have a weak psychic link which is starting to develop to form the beginnings of a hive
Sapient stage (Thinker theory): According to the Thinker theory, this is the stage where Thinkers begin to show up. They apparently become smart enough to employ advanced tactics, and the weak psychic field between them apparently becomes strengthened to the point it can be used for communication and these thinkers become officers for the fledgling hive. Supposedly these thinkers can be capable of communication with other races, though intelligent communication is often attributed to a later stage, and at this stage it is believed to be simple taunting
Coordination stage: A partially functional Mind has been created. The psychic linked between the organisms has now strengthened to the point that they know each others status at any given time, and they are intelligent enough to communicate with other sentient species in a proper manner, although their previous stages have often resulted in such violence that further conflict is inevitable
Hive stage: The hive has produced a fully functional mind and joined with the other hives of the galaxy. In this stage the Mind has a psychic link with the hive that is so strong that it allows him to speak with others outside the hive across vast distances. The Hive is fully coordinated and can now operate as a proper nation.

Description of government: The government consists of a hierarchy with the Tribunal, a council of three made from the Minds of the most powerful hives, who use their psychic link to communicate with each other and lead the Union of Hives. The major hives come just under them. It has been proposed that there may be some form of "Overmind" by some scholars, but nothing is proven

Description of military: The most common of this species is a small, ball like creatures with small tentacles protruding from it. It uses these tentacles to move, able to climb on surfaces thanks to their suction like design, and to couple with its hosts nervous system and seize control. Their colour varies depending on the hive, and this can be used to quickly identify which hive the Spore forms are from. They have a "beak" of exceptionally strong teeth underneath their tentacles, allowing them to bite they way in, and their lack of a skeleton, small size and relative "squishiness) allows them to fit through small openings they make in their host. They prefer to make such a hole close to the hosts nervous system in order to avoid excessive damage, but forcing their way up appendages is not unheard of. They will then mutate the host or take them to be used. A host can also be mutated if he inhales enough of a gas produced by specially made biomass, however this is a slower process than the spore forms and is less effective. This allows a very flexible army that is able to shrug off most loses in an invasion as they can usually be reabsorbed into the hive or replaced relatively easily

Technological Overview: There is no uniform technology within the hive as they tend to use the technology of their hosts. As such, their weapons range from ballistics to anti-matter. There are a few examples of Hives creating their own technology if the need arises, but given their parasitic nature it is rare. It is known that, once they reach a coordinated stage, they will use any industry they capture to arm themselves. Their space craft range from organic creatures grown around a handful of systems, to entire functional ships that have been merged with and infested by an organic substance which is hostile to intruders, often attacking them where possible.
As a result of the assimilation dynamic, as well as the ease with which they reproduce, even a small scale infection can quickly become extremely dangerous and large.

Cultural Overview: N/A

History:
The L'Er date back to evolution on a backwater colony of an interstellar nation. This "Super Parasite" was able to construct a Mind from the biomass of the rampant wild life where it was born. This Mind observed the colonists and their star ships and was able to deduce, after the assimilation of multiple individuals into the hive, that it could sneak aboard Spore forms and infect all the worlds of the species.
The Mind was able to infiltrate the ships with a small number of spore forms, each of which spread out to the species worlds. At the time, the Mind had little power as it hadn't been further developed, as a result its psychic power was weak enough that the spores that were sent off developed different hives. This separated them into three hives, the original S'Buk, and the successor S'Orp and S'Lif. Out of the three, the original was the most unlucky. The other two worlds of the species were much more developed and larger, and so S'Orp and S'Lif were able to become more powerful than S'Buk as they absorbed more biomass from the worlds and inherited more of the hosts technology, industry and infrastructure.
The Three Hives were able to slowly build up strength and eventually over run the three worlds, absorbing the necessary biomass and leading to the desire to use the host species space travel to find new worlds.
Over millennia, there were several more hives developed across the quadrant and the Union of the Hives was formed in order to advance the L'Er as a whole through inter-hive cooperation. Most of the mentioned new hives are only major to this day with the exception of one, the now Tribunal hive S'Rin. The S'Rin remained the weakest of the hives for many centuries, as they had achieved semi-peaceful relations with the sentients they had encountered and essentially sold themselves as weapons to them. The two species developed under one nation that was budding, and over time the S'Rin were able to gain more and more power, eventually changing from being a living weapon to being an equal partner in the nation. Their hive was weak compared to the others due to their lack of biomass due to having brokered a deal, one which ensured their hives survival but established a blocker to their success however the S'Rin had a plan. They developed a new type of pure form, still used by hives today, called the Worm form. This small form was microscopic and as such it was able to enter the sentients undetected and nestle inside their brain. From their it would secret its toxins to make the individual more susceptible to hive control and eventually place them under the hives control, assimilating them completely. The S'Rin used this on members of the armed forces, slowly bringing control of the military into the hands if the S'Rin. After the S'Rin had secretly gained control of the militaries minds, the organisation that had stopped the S'Rin from assimilating the species before was now on their side. Almost over night the S'Rin seized control using the military and began to assimilated the population into their hive, growing rapidly from a minor power and usurping the place of the S'Buk on the Tribunal now that they had become more powerful than their forefathers. Today, the S'Buk is only a major hive and the S'Rin still hold their place on the Tribunal.
Other hives have been produced since them, and many have come into violent contact with outsiders... And consumed them almost invariably.
Other:
The colour of the biomass varies from hive to hive based on a variety of factors

Below is a government report of known hives, excluding the minor hives which have merely been labelled as "countless" by the writer

Tribunal hives
S'Orp
S'Lif
S'Rin

Major hives:
S'Buk
S'Kif
S'Urp
S'Ein
S'Ark
S'Nif

Minor hives: Countless

From Stardust, To Stardust Nation Dump

I'm finished with my faction. I think. I'll explore the history and culture in the IC.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>.

Faction Designation: Conjoining of Retribution​

Number of planets: 11

Technology:
Weaponry, which generally consists of the Hound, the Roarer, Gun Runner's Mail, the Mauler, and the Hunger.

Hound: An ambiguous phrase or term primarily attributed to the pinnacle of 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 an inexpensive and utilitarian type of mass-produced digital intelligence that utilizes standard gravitational, electromagnetic, thermal, and radar sensor apparatuses to seek out predetermined targets. Vul’kruun hounds are furnished with single-use superposition-based FTL drives, nuclear salt-water rocket engines and RCS points that shape them into a workable analog of the customary vacuum-based fighter craft used by other factions. Hounds lack integrated weaponry, but alternatively make do with electronic countermeasure pods, evasive maneuvers, plasma windows, and passable amounts of ablative shielding to evade and weather enemy interception attempts. Hounds are transported and distributed by a diverse range of vul’kruun star crawler types, and are ordinarily launched in the thousands by vul'kruun assault squadrons. 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 dial-able thermonuclear warhead. Other hound types may have a sub-munition bundle consisting of missiles that are tipped with nuclear-pumped x-ray lasers or explosively-formed nuclear penetrators.

Hunger: Hunger guns are vul'kruun smoothbore firearms that are chambered for a guided gyrojet munition; the rocket-propelled bullet is shrouded by a jacket of superformance monopropellant and primer. Using caseless ammunition and an electronic ignition system, hunger guns have a cyclic rate of several thousand rounds per minute, and can accept box magazines, twin-drum magazines or ammunition belts. Hypervelocity bullet impacts usually kills enemies through cavitation and kinetic energy alone.

Mauler: Mauler guns, also known as 'mass accelerator weapons' or 'storm drums', are vul'kruun ballistic weapons that do not employ solid propellants or miniature rocket engines to propel projectiles, but instead harness centripetal force generated by a miniature cyclotron positioned near the rear of the weapon to launch charged particles at a distant enemy. Unlike most directed energy weapons, mauler guns use disposable box-shaped cartridges that bear a single firing charge, with each charge consisting of an explosively-pumped flux compression generator, capacitor and charged particle package. Compared to hunger weapons, mauler armaments suffer from increased spread, pronounced acoustic and flash profiles, and a heightened thermal signature, but are otherwise relatively reliable, incredibly powerful, fairly useful in medium-range combat, reasonably accurate, and impact targets instantaneously. Typically when the particles strike armored or unarmored soldiers (or vehicles), explosively-violent results are displayed.

Roarer: An evolution of fundamental gun technology, roarer is a moniker jointly shared between vul'krunn-made combustion light-gas and electrothermal-chemical automatic and select-fire cannon and recoil-less gun pieces. They are similar in power to electromagnetic weapons such as railguns or coil guns, 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 Rage mobile gun platforms, starcraft and self-propelled artillery platforms, which use them alongside simple automatic loading mechanisms to fling nuclear or inert shells at unfortunate xeno enemies.

Gun Runner's Mail: A full-body powered exoskeleton harness donned by vul'kruun soldiers. Fed from a lithium-air cell, the suit's hydraulic rotary and linear actuators gift the wearer with super-vul'kruun physical strength and endurance. Wears can hoist and take heavier loads, wield heftier weapons and engage in strenuous physical activity without incurring increased levels of bodily fatigue and physical stress. The right and left forearms of gun runner's mail offer dedicated hard-points for infantry arms (such as hunger or mauler weaponry) to be fixed to, while the rear chassis features four semi-autonomous mechanical 'gun limbs' (or servo arms) that each play host to an individual supplementary weapon system that is designed to provide support to the war fighter during combat operations. Several gun limb weapon systems can be attributed to each servo arm, like a single hypervelocity recoil-less gun chambered for a rocket-assisted shell of intermediate caliber, a rotary grenade launcher, mauler or hunger weapon systems, or a missile cell array designed to house and fire powerful superposed-loaded ordinance. With back and thorax ammunition feed hoppers and heavier suits of soft and hard composite body armor, vul'kruun infantry equipped with gun runner's mail do not become tanks in a literal or figurative sense, but rather morph into less-armored analogs to the modern tankettes or infantry fighting vehicles of our own world.

Military Technologies Not Invented

Main battle tanks, troop carriers or infantry fighting vehicles: Vru's thick jungles and forests coupled with the vul'kruun's lack of trench warfare prevented armored fighting vehicles from rising to prominence on Vru. Experiments with AFVs resulted in the accumulation of numerous technical issues concerning vehicle weight and mechanical unreliability. In the AFV's stead, the Rage mobile gun platform was conceived, which is an armored, open-top tracked propulsion vehicle that a single vul'kruun soldier can crew and direct. Rage can offer substantial levels of direct fire support in the form of automatic cannons, multiple repeating recoil-less guns, grenade launchers, mortars, or stacked missile cells. Self-propelled guns, on the other hand, were created.

Aircraft carriers and fighter craft: Never even thought of, as vul'kruun siege gunships have operational ranges measured in the thousands of miles due to their high-capacity fuel tanks and later on-board fission reactors. Early vul'kruun air craft drew closer to the 'flying fortress' or 'air battleship' concepts talked about in speculative military technologies, and therefore completely skipped the era of the atmospheric fighter altogether. Vul'kruun siege gunships and strategic bombers are known for their heavy composite armor, weaponry and overlapping point defense systems.

Space fighters: Rendered obsolete with the creation of Hound weapons and siege gunships.

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. Regardless of tonnage and purpose, all star crawlers are propelled using simple, effective and extremely efficient fission pulse drives, which brutally propels the craft forward through space by casually detonating high-yield ‘shaped’ thermonuclear bombs against a heavy uranium pusher plate suspended by a series of shock absorbers. 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. Though bearing heavy armor, star crawlers have excellent acceleration.

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 lot 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 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 simulates artificial gravity through centrifugal force. RCS points positioned along the ship's hull provide thrust for spin, while bulkier, retractable nuclear thermal rockets handle planetary orbital maneuvers and course-correctional adjustments during intergalactic transit or combat. 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 alloy shielding and the sheer bulk of the Fangs that engulf them.

Species Information:
Average height: Varies

Average weight: Varies

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.

Government, Economy and Foreign Relations:
Predominately tribalistic, with the creation of the nation state having never come to position. Vul'kruun live in tight-knit groups of several dozen persons, with a single leader (which is normally the largest and oldest vul'kruun specimen of the crop ) acting as the formal director of the tribe. Ingrained psychological limitations that pertain to their 'groupthink' primal behaviors and thought processes withhold vul'kruun tribes from exceeding (or falling below) a precise number of members, with the maximum number of vul'kruun in a tribe ensuring that collective intelligence can be kept at a maximum level of efficiency (which prevents the tribe from being afflicted with impairing pangs of simplemindedness). Because of the Treaty of the Conjoining, tribes are fully-autonomous sovereign entities and are rightfully permitted to lay claim to the area where they are first established; this can be a space station, a moon, a ship, or a defined section of land on a planet.

While human tribal societies are historically associated with frequent bouts of small-scale warfare and raiding, vul'kruun instinctively indulge in this type of aggressive behavior exclusively against administrative bodies or states comprised of a different intelligent species, and persistently avoid confronting other members of their own biological ilk with violence, coups, one-sided ultimatums, or any other action that would negatively impact the longevity or continued advancement of the vul'kruun species. Ergo, this has resulted in a shockingly minimum measure of crime within their society and an evident sense of 'species-wide' self-preservation to course through the teeming vul'kruun masses, and makes full-scale intergalactic skirmishes with other sapient organisms have almost nothing to do with political, spiritual, or economical agendas or woes, but more about the vul'kruun naturally registering nearby foreign powers as competing xeno tribes that must be kept at gunpoint and disposed of if the threat of territorial encroachment or invasion is sufficiently daunting.

Currency was never coined, but bartering and gift-giving were mainstream up until interstellar mining operations became viable and widespread enough to usher in an era of post-scarcity economics, where vul'kruun tribes that control refineries, mining rigs and manufacturing plants circulate and funnel raw materials and finished goods into and throughout vul'kruun populated space. Planets and evolved asteroids rich in uranium deposits are strongly sought after for the creation of nuclear weapons, fission pulse drive propellant and fission reactors.

Critical to the sustainment of the Conjoining is a type of exotic matter called Mes, which when refined, fused with existing elements and then synthesized yields Nor, a type of fuel used to power vul'kruun FTL drives. Mes is profoundly rare in the universe and takes truly gargantuan amounts of power and far too much time to produce, which discourages vul'kruun tech-savvy community groups from morphing it into a usable weapon of massive interstellar destruction. Mes fuel stations, which also carry fission pulse drive propellant, repair gantries for starcraft, provisions, and other commodities essential to life amongst the stars are sprinkled in strategic positions throughout vul'kruun-inhabited space.

Military:
Vul'kruun space warfare doctrine focuses on shock-and-awe strategies with an additional focus being applied to hit-and-run maneuvers. Vul'kruun avoid decisive battles and massive engagements with enemy starships—even going as far as to flee in all directions at the slightest sight of an enemy response group or reconnaissance force--and instead direct their rage and hatred and extreme prejudice at the common people whenever they are found, which eventually urges the leaders of hostile nations to make an ethical and strategic choice: protect the people, or bolster the defenses of the factories and shipyards? Doing both is indeed possible, but now division and discord has been plunged deep into the space forces of the foe, with weakened worlds being slated for further molestation and aggression.

The land forces, which are very small, usually choose to hammer everything into oblivion with artillery fire, nuclear weapons or a combination of the two. Land forces are not usually deployed however.