WilsonTurner

Per Aspera Ad Astra - Sci-Fi Fantasy NRP

@Willy Vereb
We weren't talking about your NS, so you didn't miss anything directly relevant to you.

@Ozerath
In my mind, the Commonwealth = Psuedo-Covenant.

Per Aspera Ad Astra - Sci-Fi Fantasy NRP

System Tryliktoji Išpirkimo, Fourth Planet in the System, one week ago
The System was well into Kasus's territory- one of the many planets in one of the many systems that Kasus claimed to have no sentient species living on it. Kasus didn't, after all, want anyone to see their great big empire, and realize that half the systems within that had significant resources were virtually untouched, not because of a lack of ambition, but because Kasus had seen the power of other major nations, and decided to bluff their way into more power. When one looks at a nation with a great spread of territory, one assumes that they are powerful indeed.

Tryliktoji Išpirkimo- "Thirteenth Redemption"- was a system that had no significant Storm presence. Only a couple listening posts were sitting on the edges of the system, and nothing else. However, the fourth planet was set to be colonized- because it was already a life-bearing world. The race that resided on the planet seemed to be halfway into a new era of steel and gunpowder. They were developing, quite steadily, and among many of the other spacefaring powers, were considered a sovereign people that is off-limits to removal or intervention.

Storms were not like the other spacefaring powers. These sentient people were on a planet they wanted, and they didn't have anything to bargain with. Which meant that, after picking out several culturally-rich groups of countries- some of the more powerful ones, for later study and eradication- they had a green light to cleanse the planet of its natives.

Vadas (Commander) Levnitska was tasked with preparing the planet for colonization. He had under him a carrier military fleet- one torpedo destroyer, three regular destroyers, three regular cruisers, one missile cruiser, one heavy cruiser, two escort carriers, and one carrier.

The carriers had just launched their first wave of ground-attack Shrikes. A dozen Shrikes from the two escort carriers, two dozen Shrikes from the one supercarrier. They were all armed with fuel-air cluster bombs. He watched as they flew over population centers, dropping a dozen small fuel-air bombs, which popped open halfway down their high-altitude drop to the ground, releasing a massive load of explosive gasses, tailored to the oxygen-rich atmosphere. They were set to remote detonate, so that they clouds could settle lower to the ground in a grey-green suffocating fog that would slowly connect to the other hundreds of similar clouds like it. A moment later, three cities and their surrounding farms and forests lit up in a brilliant flash of light, reducing the area to be a charred wasteland, albeit fertile in the future.

He was to be doing this for a week. Three freighters, escorted by a reinforcing missile cruiser, would be arriving in half as much time, to refill his fuel-air clusterbomb munitions.

Nearly a billion souls were eradicated on the heavily populated but slowly developing world. A few in the fleet thought ill of the eradication; most were impassive, or saw it as a necessary evil. Eventually, those who thought ill would either become familiar enough with people who were impassive about it to start to think like them, or they'd seek others who thought ill of it, and start to border on rebellious. And that, of course, meant execution for them.

---

Kasus-Eternal Union Central Border, Present Cycle

Vadas Levnitska was again on the move. Having just arrived in the officially neutral system between the Eternal Union and Kasus, they were challenged and cleared by the small Kasus border garrison. Likewise, as they approached the similar Eternal Union border station, they were challenged, and a message was relayed.

Some weeks ago, Kasus had requested a meeting with the Eternal Union.

Some weeks ago, the Eternal Union had replied, and granted it.

A Queen of Kasus was to meet with the Eternal Union leadership- a rare honor in the Kasus's opinion, since no foreign eye had ever laid eyes on a Queen.

Thus, Vadas Levnitska had his fleet flagship upgraded to a bėda-class Battleship, another two escort carriers added to the fleet, and another four missile cruisers attached, besides the original one and its reinforcement. Six more destroyers were attached as well, one of them being a torpedo destroyer.

The fleet of two torpedo destroyers, seven regular destroyers, three cruisers, six missile cruisers, a heavy cruiser, a battleship, four escort carriers and one full carrier was going to be traveling through Eternal Union space to meet with their leaders.

All the while, the destroyers, acting as advance forward, side, and rear guards would be launching spy drones all the while. Designed to self-destruct the moment active sensors- targeting sensors for example, anything that's used to actively find other prey- find them, and to record radio transmissions, and passively record ship movements, and report it back to Central Command via ansible/FTLcommunications. It was the same mission that was being planned for all the other nations- they wanted their fleet to show up on the border farthest away from where Kasus expected the foreigners' homeworld to be, and gain intelligence on everything they possibly could. They would launch spy drones on ballistic paths to go into orbit around planets or moons. They were built to be invisible and nonexistent- they were the most advanced tools in the fleet, at the moment.

So the fleet approached the border station of the Union's, and requested that they be authorized for their trip to meet the Eternal Union's leadership.

Slayers

>idly twiddles thumbs

The Elder Scrolls: Corruption

@DJAtomika
Perhaps, if I ever get my character done, my character has a bounty on his head, and is hiding out in Skyrim?

Per Aspera Ad Astra - Sci-Fi Fantasy NRP

Collective Storm Carapace Government System

App Format:

Name of nation: (KASVS) Kolektyvinis Audra Šarvas Vyriausybė Sistema
(Collective Storm Carapace Government System)
Commonly referred to as "Kasus."

Species: Storm Carapace

The Storm Carapaces- commonly known as just a “Storm” or “Storms”- are a race with four different sub-species, in something that’s similar to a hivemind, but not quite. Every single member of the species- ranging from the smallest at 5’ 5 to 7’ at the tallest- has a complex hormone system that releases and receives hormones from other members of the race- when a Storm is angry, others essentially smell it on them.

In addition, there is a faint telepathic ability that links them all- known as the transcribed word of “the Connection,” that they believe is given from their religious entity, which is a genderless being known as the Tenderer of the Garden, or the Dalyvis iš sodo.

The more familiar two or more Storms are, the more their telepathic Connection increases- to the point that some can even communicate through it, over significant distances. During their modern age, they discovered that was because a section of the mind, normally known to be dormant and useless, besides hosting the weak Connection, began becoming [quantum] entangled with their familiar’s- leading to an increasing understanding between the two.

As seen above, there are four basic types of this formic species- a Taur subspecies, which are generally heavier, stronger, and good for lifting things, with a mind for construction and the like.

Next is a humanoid subspecies that are generally faster, clever, and good for footsoldiers or crewmembers, with an average intelligence, skilled at nothing in particular.

The third subspecies is more insect-like than the norm, with translucent wings and a more hollowed-out body structure to allow flight. While being lighter, these are also stunningly smart, to the point that they are almost always leaders of some kind, or scientists, researchers, etc.

After these are the queens, which are more akin to snakes due to their lower body being a long serpentine body, with a protective exoskeleton. They produce eggs for the rest of the colony, and are not independently intelligent- rather, they draw on the mental capacity of the Storms around them. Larger colonies mean a much, much smarter Queen. There may be up to three Queens in a single colony.

Bipedal Storms make up about 60% of the population.
Taur Storms make up about 34% of the population.
Winged Storms make up about 25% of the population.
Queen Storms make up about 1% of the population.

Their multitude of eyes give them a powerful eyesight, with an excellent ability to judge distances and make out details. However, due to their hormonal system, they do not have a very good sense of smell, and they lack a real sense of taste. However, part of their mind is also dedicated to echolocation- when they speak, and the sound waves bounce off of objects, they can receive those returning waves and create a mental map. Thus, even in the dark, they can ‘see’ remarkably well, simply by breathing or clicking.

However, the antennae on the Winged and the Queen Storms give them the ability to smell and a better echolocation sense, as well as increased hearing.

Description of government:Sectional Constitutional Parliament

Sectional Constitutional Parliament.
In this, there is a somewhat small all-encompassing council of intelligent and influential individuals that make all the decisions relating to the entire species- each member of the council is the head, president, chair, or leader of a the council of the planet that they come from.

Every territory has their own council, with the most influential members being part of it, and each continent has their own council with one representative from each of the territorial councils, and each planet has a council from all the continental councils.

Thus, individual needs and requirements of the territories can be looked into, while more important decisions are passed up the line until they reach the level of priority required.

The military operates separately, taking orders from the entire species Parliament and planetary councils, first and second, respectively.

Description of military: Too much for their own good

Extensive and large.
Due to the cultural and biological limits and advantages, Storms are often serving in large units and ships- usually with a Queen in charge of each ship above a certain size, that keeps track of all the underlings within to keep them moving and to keep aware of the entire ship’s unity and affairs.

Ground Power

On the ground, they are best at more brutal tactics- swarming, hard charges, formations, and the like. Soldiers are usually armed with advanced armor made out of ceramic plates surrounded by a thickly layered material far stronger than Kevlar, using carbon nanotubes and a variety of other superstrong fibers. Long story short, this armor makes melee combat ineffectual, even with monomolecular blades, and most normal rounds under .30 caliber would be unable to penetrate- and even .30 caliber rounds wouldn’t do much damage. However, many Storms refuse to wear helmets, or armor in the center of their upper exoskeleton- making them vulnerable to marksmen from the front, and shooters from above. These soldiers are often armed with a single primary, secondary, tertiary, and a special weapon. Often, this means that they’re be using some kind of assault rifle or carbine, with a SMG at one of their hips and a handgun at the other. A special weapon might include a flamethrower, recoilless rifle, fire-and-forget missile launcher, a grenade launcher, RPG, or simply more ammunition and supplies.

In terms of armor, Storms come with a variety of vehicles for a variety of tasks, most of them modular to be refitted to do any number of other tasks. All Storm vehicles are mine-resistant- a little bit more costly and forces wheeled vehicles to be raised a bit higher, but nevertheless an advantage in their world. Tanks consist of a few main battle tanks, designed with thick armor and angled for even more effectiveness. Only a couple are armed with 140mm guns- the others are usually armed with smaller autocannons, or with missiles. The Area Denial System is a MBT that equips thick armor, large treads, and two missiles in fourteen small silos in two 7-silo blocks on either side of the central ‘tower’ of the main turret. The payload of 28 easily reloadable missiles allows it to fire two missiles almost simultaneously, in a way similar to Bulletstorm weapons, so that they can destroy tanks, aircraft, infantry, or buildings.

Other vehicles include a few different light hovertanks, used primarily for recon, infantry support, or heavy armor harassment. Light Mobile Missile Launch System, or MMLS, are floating light tanks armed with long-range missiles, meant for bombardment. These use antigravity panels to keep them afloat.

Wet-Navy Power

On the seas, warships play an important part in the defense of Storm worlds. All warships are armed with CWIS, point defense, and electronic countermeasures, and shield generators. Fusion reactors are also used on all warships.

Carriers are rather rare, being the largest ship in the Storm fleets and carrying upwards of a hundred aircraft- from supersonic suborbital bombers, to multirole fighters, to transport helicopters and antigravity paneled gunships. They’re packing the most powerful electronic countermeasures suit, and has been designed to resemble a heavy cruiser in all but sight, even though the Storms don’t have a heavy cruiser, nor would their heavy cruisers (if they had one) be twice as large as a missile cruiser.

Missile cruisers are armed with a very small amount of ICBMs and surface-to-orbit missiles for planetary defense, or long-range strikes. They’re also armed with two forward railguns.

Destroyers are usually armed with a notable number of high-velocity antiship missiles, and a smaller railgun. They’re equipped with a much more advanced stealths suit, so that they’re much more difficult to be detected and even seen. A number of ballistic missiles are also equipped.

A plethora of smaller ships exist, generally classified a specialized frigate. These include minesweepers, shore defense, and other types of ships.

Defending a planet

Planetary defense is mainly taken by the navies of Storm worlds, but there are also one other major center for planetary defense. Planetary Defense Bunkers are fortresses built into a mountain or hill of some kind, with heavy anti-air, anti-armor, anti-infantry, and anti-bombardment weapons. In addition, they also have a few railgun turrets, and their own howitzers- attempts to call in artillery on a PDB usually ends with shields being used to block the rounds, or with Active Protection Systems- “Smart” guided munitions will be led astray by the powerful electronic warfare and countermeasures suite, and more linear, simpler weapons will be eliminated by a series of point defense weapons, including CWIS.

Air power

In the air, the Storms have constructed a series of different aircraft to perform tasks with as much speed as possible. None of their aircraft are small- due to their upper exoskeleton, they can’t really fit into narrow spaces. As a result, they went with designs that are generally beefy and powerful.

Bombers include large, four-engine beasts capable of dropping thousands of pounds worth of bombs, and smaller supersonic suborbital bombers that are designed to drop a small number of munitions very very quickly. Supersonic bombers also can be armed with missiles or mines, for quick mine-laying and anti-tank or anti-emplacement support. The most common supersonic bomber is a atmospheric/space-capable Shrike bomber, capable of launching missiles, mines, bombs, clustermunitions, fuel-air bombs, and nuclear warheads. All bombers are armed with point defense and APS (Active Protection System).

Fighters include interceptors, fighters, supporters, and multirole. Interceptors are the smallest, designed for recon, speed, and armed with small missiles and a single 12.7mm chaingun. Fighters are a bit heavier and larger, and can be armed with small bombs, small, medium, or large missiles, and external fuel pods. They don’t have the same speed, but they’re more agile and much more unstable, to allow for better in-flight maneuvers. They are generally armed with a 20mm autocannon and four 8mm machineguns in the wings, plus APS. Supporters are larger, heavier craft that serve as mobile radar platforms, command and control, submarine detection, and other roles. They are generally high-flying and somewhat slow, ranging anywhere from a two-seater to being able to have a full 10-man compliment of electronic warfare officers.

Flying Fortresses are carrier-sized aerial warships. They are similar to spaceships, but are strictly high-atmosphere. Armed with a powerful MAC on top, and a half dozen railguns on the bottom, plus a half dozen fusion reactors and powerful antigravity and electromagnetic drives, shielded with the latest shield drives possible, the Flying Fortress is just that- capable of knocking out ships in orbit, while still being fast enough to dodge longer-ranged kinetic weapons. It has the point defense to defend itself against ICBMs and missiles, unless in force or with powerful APS, and the shields to withstand a number of hits. They serve as mobile command centers, and are often linked directly to the PDB. A compliment of ICBMs and atmo-to-orbit missiles give it the great strike range on a planet.

Vacuum-Navy Power

In the skies and in the void, fly great mighty spaceships.

Project ships are unique vehicles designed to carry out specialized tasks while on steroids and British tea- for strength and power, and for classiness. At the moment, there are two project ships, both more or less completed:

Project Fyre: A massive ship that resembles a lobster, complete with great big pincers, and a giant tail. The front of the 'head' of the Fyre is absolutely covered in railguns, plasma cannons, and a couple MACs. Dwarfing the largest battleship, these are designed to scare the living hell out of enemies. Due to the size of the ship, and problems with its antimatter reactor and the limits of its backup fusion reactors, it's stuck in orbit around the homeworld, unable to summon the power to do anything more than maneuver.

Project Tenderer: A ship that is technically twice the size of the biggest battleship- but that's because it's a battlecruiser-sized freighter, with two long arms to the left and right of its bridge, and two 'drydocks' attached the the rear-facing side of the arms. Smaller ships are able to dock with the front section of the arm, and any ship can dock into the two drydocks, while larger ships can dock at the end of the arms. The ship is also designed to dock with freighters to the top and bottom. The ship itself is designed to be a mobile resupply and repair ship, capable of patching up all but the most serious damages in warships to get them back home to a real dock, or hold on just long enough. Takes far too long to get anywhere, but it could save hours, days, even weeks by being closer to the battle than the home system.

Fleet carriers are the second most expensive and the second largest ships. They launch anywhere from three dozen fighters, with freighters-turned-escort-carriers, or up to two or three hundred in the largest fleet carriers. They're generally lightly armored, lightly shielded, and lightly armed, opting for speed, though still slower than the slowest destroyer, and firepower in the form of bombers and fighters. Generally run on antimatter and backup fusion reactors.

Droneships are similar to fleet carriers, but much simpler. Generally, it's a moderately armored oversized destroyed, with the front half replaced with four doubly long pods designed to release two rows of forty drones each. Drones are straightforward enough, armed with a plasma cannon, enough armor to bounce a tiny meteorite or space dust, enough shielding to keep random debris from killing it, and a plasma cannon itself. Excels at being an interceptor or taking out communications or point defense blisters on hostile ships. Drones are notoriously fragile, so just about anything will kill them. Droneships are a bit harder to kill, and can only launch their flight of drones twice before they have to RTB and refuel the fuel tanks for drones, provided they all survive. They are very expensive, though they could become easily mass producable, if the Storms were so inclined.

Battleships are the most expensive and the largest. They're massive behemoths that utilize equally large MACs and plasma cannons. Plasma cannons melt and burn through armor- and also are technically 'faster' than MACs. They fire a constant stream which is capable of quite literally melting a ship in half. The less effective MACs are better for closer ranges, and won't explode if they get hit by an EMP, due to a plasma cannon's containment field. Generally, battleships will be lightly or moderately damaged, while its escort fleet would have been wiped out. They run massive amounts of energy, and are entirely hard-wire- remote hacking is extremely difficult. Generally run on antimatter and backup fusion reactors.

Cruisers are the most common ship. Heavy cruisers, battlecruisers, missile cruisers, and light cruisers are the different flavors, from the biggest/best to the less best and the smallest. Armed to the teeth and moderately armored, these ships are designed to dish out the punishment, while remaining agile and nimble enough to handle smaller ships, and dodge kinetic weapons at longer ranges. Runs on fusion.

Destroyers are the same as their wet-navy counterparts- reconnaissance, light support. They're also armed with rather useful torpedoes, which are more straightforward, but smarter, missiles. Usually much, much larger, torpedoes are designed to be ship-killers, with massive amounts of ECM and APS to keep them alive. Fired using experimental sublight drives, they're meant to cross great distances very quickly to impact unprepared units- not unlike a sniper. Torpedo Destroyers are rather rare, due to the expense of sublight drives that fit inside the torpedos, which are comparable to the largest ICBMs. Besides this, Destroyers usually have a multitude of larger railguns, a single MAC that the entire ship is built around, and a mass of APS and plasma turret point defense.

Frigates, again, are specialized for any role. Recon, prowler, etc.

Technological Overview: I don't even know.

Definitely advanced. Quantum computing and quantum entanglement gives Storms powerful computing abilities, and instantaneous, unjammable wireless and waveless communication.

Entangled Communications work by interpreting the states of a multitude of one half of entangled particles- by changing a group of particles in a certain order, the opposite side will interpret it as a series of numbers, used to send and receive orders. Drawbacks are that all planetside entangled communications connect directly to the PDB, and are sent to their destination from there, and all warships are connected directly to Central Fleet Command. It makes it rather useless for counterintelligence, besides receiving encrypted orders.

Railguns and MACs are fairly obvious and straightforward.

APS- Active Protection Systems. There are two types of APS- Hardkill and Softkill. Softkill are electronic countermeasures- trying to fool the missile into hitting something else. Hardkill are physical countermeasures, such as point defense, CWIS, flares, etc. Pretty much everything uses APS.

Carbon nanotube & varied fiberarmor. Again, fairly straightforward. By using carbon nanotubes, mass produced, to align the fibers in a fabric, it can be layered and strengthened exponentially. At a relatively low cost, a suit can be purchased that will stop a knife or a low-velocity bullet. Likewise, at a relatively low cost, soldiers can be outfitted with uniforms that will provide equal or more protection. With full body armor, with ceramic and thicker layers, infantry proved to become more effective, as recent weaponry had rendered most body-armors ineffectual. What would pierce an inch of steel couldn’t pierce a half-inch of carbon-mixed fiberarmor.

Anti-Munitions Active Protection System (AM-APS): A concept that was expanded upon to become reality. The idea is a small turret capable of firing a burst of particles at extremely high speeds to use as APS. In a way, it’s like a shotgun- the particles are fired at such a high velocity that it appears more as a laser, lancing out to shred a missile or round heading towards it. Later, it was upgraded to fire ball bearings in quick succession, again, at extremely high speeds, allowing it to intercept missiles or even slower kinetic rounds.

Fusion reactors- the main source of energy in the Storms nation. By utilizing Helium-3, which could be found abundantly in their home system, both on a multitude of moons, asteroids, and the system’s gas giant, they were able to produce extreme amounts of energy, with little to no waste.

Antimatter reactors- These power PDBs, and the largest of warships. By combining an amount of regular matter and antimatter in a controlled environment designed to channel all energy into a series of batteries, one can produce insane amounts of energy, at the cost of having to keep the system very, very, very secure. Dwarfing even fusion/he-3 energy production, a single antimatter reactor is enough to keep a warship or PDB running for years, provided there is enough antimatter. Unfortunately, self-destructs or a system failure can lead to the antimatter containment fields to fail, and will cause an explosion powerful, that it makes a nuclear bomb look like a grenade. At least, in space- on the ground, the antimatter explosion would only destroy the PDB and the surrounding area by only a hundred miles or so, in every direction. The base is designed to channel the blast directly upward, though, so in the event of an unexpected failure, the explosion will destroy the upper portion of the mountain the PDB is embedded into, and likely anything above it. The shockwave alone would kill most everyone inside and around the PDB for some area.

Mind you, this is fairly realistic. The Tsar bomb, a 50-megaton bomb, had a blast radius of 35 miles, and knocked out windows 500 miles away. Because 20 pounds of antimatter is about 390 megatons worth of explosive force, I’m gonna go with antimatter reactors having anywhere from 5-10 pounds of antimatter in storage.

edwardmuller.com/index.php?Page=calcul..

Cultural Overview: What to cheer about

Religiously, the majority of the populace believes in the Tenderer of the Garden, or the Dalyvis iš sodo. The “Garden” is all the universes, all the dimensions, as detailed in the Many Worlds Theory- that the Tenderer takes care of an infinite number of alternate versions of the universe, where there are different choices taken, different scenarios, different environments, even different physics and natural laws. It is believed that if one follows zealously, they’ll be taken to the Tenderer’s own home universe, to live infinitely with it in peace and prosperity, with battles aplenty (that do not end one’s life).

Besides that, there are also a variety of smaller religions- monotheistic religions, polytheistic religions, etc.

In terms of culture, they are decidedly alien, for obvious reasons. Certain foods are served at certain times throughout the year, in groups of six. A certain set of food is consumed in one sixth of the year, another set of food the next sixth, etc. At the beginning of each one-sixth year section.

Queens are revered, due to their rarity and the fact that they are the only way for the species to reproduce- no Queens, no reproduction. Ingrained in every Storm is the instinct to protect the Queen, almost like a primary command code in a computer. Thus, celebrations are often held in honor of the birth of a Queen, a Queen doing something particularly notable, or a Queen entering into another reproduction cycle. They’re revered physically, mentally, emotionally, religiously. The worst thing someone could do is point a gun at a Queen.

The Awakening is a yearly-held celebration, regarding the time that the Storms became self-aware and intelligent the first time.

History: The Storms

Long ago, a hivemind slowly broke apart. For reasons that no one knew, including the Storms, the hivemind of formic creatures broke apart, and the individual creatures became intelligent, just as the Queen of the nest simply used a small portion of every one of its individuals’ minds to form her own.

Three very different tribes dominated the three primary biomes of their homeworld- the taurs, the humanoids, and the wasps, all growing up in a different environment. The Queens of their respective tribes only spit out eggs of that particularly species. That is, until, they became intelligent, and started exploring.

When the first two Queens met, they formed a telepathic connection- different from the one they share with their underlings. From then on, they started reproducing their own tribes’ type of subspecies, and the other Queens’ type. Connections like this formed everywhere, and once a connected two Queens met another Queen that was connected to another Queen, all four simultaneously linked. Thus, every Queen on the planet was connected shortly after the Individuals’ Awakening, and producing every kind of subspecies.

At first, tribes tried to cling to the old ways- tribes of taurs were only taurs, and tribes of wasps were only wasps. Eventually, they gave it up, from the sheer amount of eggs being born, and how many of them matched their own subspecies. Thus, the short period of knowing segregation ended, and they started to mix freely.

Shortly thereafter, iron was discovered, and the Storms found that the planet had a wealth of resources that could be exploited. Thus started the Industrialization. Very quickly, nations began forming, dozens of tribes coming together to form towns and cities, suddenly discovering that farming was possible.

However, they wanted to expand to encompass the globe entirely. Storms were native to only one continent of three- there were a couple small tribes elsewhere, but for the most part, Storms were isolated on one third of the total landmass.

Three thousand years later, Storms constructed the first interplanetary spaceship. Three thousand and four hundred years after this, FTL was discovered- and the Storms went from a race that had SOMETHING on almost every moon, planet, gas giant, and major asteroid in the system, to spreading like a virus or weed to the closest systems, where they started conducting research, mining vast asteroid belts and setting up cloudscoops on gas giants, constructing colonies on the similar and habitable worlds, or digging deep underground to create bases in planets or moons that were too hostile.

Long story short, the Storms have expanded to their neighboring systems, and now want to explore the rest of the galaxy. Small survey ships are dispatched, jumping from system to system, using entangled communications to the great Storms Systems Allocations and Records Department to track and update all records on systems, as they were named and mapped.

Other:

@WilsonTurner

Per Aspera Ad Astra - Sci-Fi Fantasy NRP

@duck55223
Can you review my application, please?

Per Aspera Ad Astra - Sci-Fi Fantasy NRP

Collective Storm Carapace Government System

App Format:

Name of nation: (KASVS) Kolektyvinis Audra Šarvas Vyriausybė Sistema
(Collective Storm Carapace Government System)
Commonly referred to as "Kasus."

Species: Storm Carapace

The Storm Carapaces- commonly known as just a “Storm” or “Storms”- are a race with four different sub-species, in something that’s similar to a hivemind, but not quite. Every single member of the species- ranging from the smallest at 5’ 5 to 7’ at the tallest- has a complex hormone system that releases and receives hormones from other members of the race- when a Storm is angry, others essentially smell it on them.

In addition, there is a faint telepathic ability that links them all- known as the transcribed word of “the Connection,” that they believe is given from their religious entity, which is a genderless being known as the Tenderer of the Garden, or the Dalyvis iš sodo.

The more familiar two or more Storms are, the more their telepathic Connection increases- to the point that some can even communicate through it, over significant distances. During their modern age, they discovered that was because a section of the mind, normally known to be dormant and useless, besides hosting the weak Connection, began becoming [quantum] entangled with their familiar’s- leading to an increasing understanding between the two.

As seen above, there are four basic types of this formic species- a Taur subspecies, which are generally heavier, stronger, and good for lifting things, with a mind for construction and the like.

Next is a humanoid subspecies that are generally faster, clever, and good for footsoldiers or crewmembers, with an average intelligence, skilled at nothing in particular.

The third subspecies is more insect-like than the norm, with translucent wings and a more hollowed-out body structure to allow flight. While being lighter, these are also stunningly smart, to the point that they are almost always leaders of some kind, or scientists, researchers, etc.

After these are the queens, which are more akin to snakes due to their lower body being a long serpentine body, with a protective exoskeleton. They produce eggs for the rest of the colony, and are not independently intelligent- rather, they draw on the mental capacity of the Storms around them. Larger colonies mean a much, much smarter Queen. There may be up to three Queens in a single colony.

Bipedal Storms make up about 60% of the population.
Taur Storms make up about 34% of the population.
Winged Storms make up about 25% of the population.
Queen Storms make up about 1% of the population.

Their multitude of eyes give them a powerful eyesight, with an excellent ability to judge distances and make out details. However, due to their hormonal system, they do not have a very good sense of smell, and they lack a real sense of taste. However, part of their mind is also dedicated to echolocation- when they speak, and the sound waves bounce off of objects, they can receive those returning waves and create a mental map. Thus, even in the dark, they can ‘see’ remarkably well, simply by breathing or clicking.

However, the antennae on the Winged and the Queen Storms give them the ability to smell and a better echolocation sense, as well as increased hearing.

Description of government:Sectional Constitutional Parliament

Sectional Constitutional Parliament.
In this, there is a somewhat small all-encompassing council of intelligent and influential individuals that make all the decisions relating to the entire species- each member of the council is the head, president, chair, or leader of a the council of the planet that they come from.

Every territory has their own council, with the most influential members being part of it, and each continent has their own council with one representative from each of the territorial councils, and each planet has a council from all the continental councils.

Thus, individual needs and requirements of the territories can be looked into, while more important decisions are passed up the line until they reach the level of priority required.

The military operates separately, taking orders from the entire species Parliament and planetary councils, first and second, respectively.

Description of military: Too much for their own good

Extensive and large.
Due to the cultural and biological limits and advantages, Storms are often serving in large units and ships- usually with a Queen in charge of each ship above a certain size, that keeps track of all the underlings within to keep them moving and to keep aware of the entire ship’s unity and affairs.

Ground Power

On the ground, they are best at more brutal tactics- swarming, hard charges, formations, and the like. Soldiers are usually armed with advanced armor made out of ceramic plates surrounded by a thickly layered material far stronger than Kevlar, using carbon nanotubes and a variety of other superstrong fibers. Long story short, this armor makes melee combat ineffectual, even with monomolecular blades, and most normal rounds under .30 caliber would be unable to penetrate- and even .30 caliber rounds wouldn’t do much damage. However, many Storms refuse to wear helmets, or armor in the center of their upper exoskeleton- making them vulnerable to marksmen from the front, and shooters from above. These soldiers are often armed with a single primary, secondary, tertiary, and a special weapon. Often, this means that they’re be using some kind of assault rifle or carbine, with a SMG at one of their hips and a handgun at the other. A special weapon might include a flamethrower, recoilless rifle, fire-and-forget missile launcher, a grenade launcher, RPG, or simply more ammunition and supplies.

In terms of armor, Storms come with a variety of vehicles for a variety of tasks, most of them modular to be refitted to do any number of other tasks. All Storm vehicles are mine-resistant- a little bit more costly and forces wheeled vehicles to be raised a bit higher, but nevertheless an advantage in their world. Tanks consist of a few main battle tanks, designed with thick armor and angled for even more effectiveness. Only a couple are armed with 140mm guns- the others are usually armed with smaller autocannons, or with missiles. The Area Denial System is a MBT that equips thick armor, large treads, and two missiles in fourteen small silos in two 7-silo blocks on either side of the central ‘tower’ of the main turret. The payload of 28 easily reloadable missiles allows it to fire two missiles almost simultaneously, in a way similar to Bulletstorm weapons, so that they can destroy tanks, aircraft, infantry, or buildings.

Other vehicles include a few different light hovertanks, used primarily for recon, infantry support, or heavy armor harassment. Light Mobile Missile Launch System, or MMLS, are floating light tanks armed with long-range missiles, meant for bombardment. These use antigravity panels to keep them afloat.

Wet-Navy Power

On the seas, warships play an important part in the defense of Storm worlds. All warships are armed with CWIS, point defense, and electronic countermeasures, and shield generators. Fusion reactors are also used on all warships.

Carriers are rather rare, being the largest ship in the Storm fleets and carrying upwards of a hundred aircraft- from supersonic suborbital bombers, to multirole fighters, to transport helicopters and antigravity paneled gunships. They’re packing the most powerful electronic countermeasures suit, and has been designed to resemble a heavy cruiser in all but sight, even though the Storms don’t have a heavy cruiser, nor would their heavy cruisers (if they had one) be twice as large as a missile cruiser.

Missile cruisers are armed with a very small amount of ICBMs and surface-to-orbit missiles for planetary defense, or long-range strikes. They’re also armed with two forward railguns.

Destroyers are usually armed with a notable number of high-velocity antiship missiles, and a smaller railgun. They’re equipped with a much more advanced stealths suit, so that they’re much more difficult to be detected and even seen. A number of ballistic missiles are also equipped.

A plethora of smaller ships exist, generally classified a specialized frigate. These include minesweepers, shore defense, and other types of ships.

Defending a planet

Planetary defense is mainly taken by the navies of Storm worlds, but there are also one other major center for planetary defense. Planetary Defense Bunkers are fortresses built into a mountain or hill of some kind, with heavy anti-air, anti-armor, anti-infantry, and anti-bombardment weapons. In addition, they also have a few railgun turrets, and their own howitzers- attempts to call in artillery on a PDB usually ends with shields being used to block the rounds, or with Active Protection Systems- “Smart” guided munitions will be led astray by the powerful electronic warfare and countermeasures suite, and more linear, simpler weapons will be eliminated by a series of point defense weapons, including CWIS.

Air power

In the air, the Storms have constructed a series of different aircraft to perform tasks with as much speed as possible. None of their aircraft are small- due to their upper exoskeleton, they can’t really fit into narrow spaces. As a result, they went with designs that are generally beefy and powerful.

Bombers include large, four-engine beasts capable of dropping thousands of pounds worth of bombs, and smaller supersonic suborbital bombers that are designed to drop a small number of munitions very very quickly. Supersonic bombers also can be armed with missiles or mines, for quick mine-laying and anti-tank or anti-emplacement support. The most common supersonic bomber is a atmospheric/space-capable Shrike bomber, capable of launching missiles, mines, bombs, clustermunitions, fuel-air bombs, and nuclear warheads. All bombers are armed with point defense and APS (Active Protection System).

Fighters include interceptors, fighters, supporters, and multirole. Interceptors are the smallest, designed for recon, speed, and armed with small missiles and a single 12.7mm chaingun. Fighters are a bit heavier and larger, and can be armed with small bombs, small, medium, or large missiles, and external fuel pods. They don’t have the same speed, but they’re more agile and much more unstable, to allow for better in-flight maneuvers. They are generally armed with a 20mm autocannon and four 8mm machineguns in the wings, plus APS. Supporters are larger, heavier craft that serve as mobile radar platforms, command and control, submarine detection, and other roles. They are generally high-flying and somewhat slow, ranging anywhere from a two-seater to being able to have a full 10-man compliment of electronic warfare officers.

Flying Fortresses are carrier-sized aerial warships. They are similar to spaceships, but are strictly high-atmosphere. Armed with a powerful MAC on top, and a half dozen railguns on the bottom, plus a half dozen fusion reactors and powerful antigravity and electromagnetic drives, shielded with the latest shield drives possible, the Flying Fortress is just that- capable of knocking out ships in orbit, while still being fast enough to dodge longer-ranged kinetic weapons. It has the point defense to defend itself against ICBMs and missiles, unless in force or with powerful APS, and the shields to withstand a number of hits. They serve as mobile command centers, and are often linked directly to the PDB. A compliment of ICBMs and atmo-to-orbit missiles give it the great strike range on a planet.

Vacuum-Navy Power

In the skies and in the void, fly great mighty spaceships.

Project ships are unique vehicles designed to carry out specialized tasks while on steroids and British tea- for strength and power, and for classiness. At the moment, there are two project ships, both more or less completed:

Project Fyre: A massive ship that resembles a lobster, complete with great big pincers, and a giant tail. The front of the 'head' of the Fyre is absolutely covered in railguns, plasma cannons, and a couple MACs. Dwarfing the largest battleship, these are designed to scare the living hell out of enemies. Due to the size of the ship, and problems with its antimatter reactor and the limits of its backup fusion reactors, it's stuck in orbit around the homeworld, unable to summon the power to do anything more than maneuver.

Project Tenderer: A ship that is technically twice the size of the biggest battleship- but that's because it's a battlecruiser-sized freighter, with two long arms to the left and right of its bridge, and two 'drydocks' attached the the rear-facing side of the arms. Smaller ships are able to dock with the front section of the arm, and any ship can dock into the two drydocks, while larger ships can dock at the end of the arms. The ship is also designed to dock with freighters to the top and bottom. The ship itself is designed to be a mobile resupply and repair ship, capable of patching up all but the most serious damages in warships to get them back home to a real dock, or hold on just long enough. Takes far too long to get anywhere, but it could save hours, days, even weeks by being closer to the battle than the home system.

Fleet carriers are the second most expensive and the second largest ships. They launch anywhere from three dozen fighters, with freighters-turned-escort-carriers, or up to two or three hundred in the largest fleet carriers. They're generally lightly armored, lightly shielded, and lightly armed, opting for speed, though still slower than the slowest destroyer, and firepower in the form of bombers and fighters. Generally run on antimatter and backup fusion reactors.

Droneships are similar to fleet carriers, but much simpler. Generally, it's a moderately armored oversized destroyed, with the front half replaced with four doubly long pods designed to release two rows of forty drones each. Drones are straightforward enough, armed with a plasma cannon, enough armor to bounce a tiny meteorite or space dust, enough shielding to keep random debris from killing it, and a plasma cannon itself. Excels at being an interceptor or taking out communications or point defense blisters on hostile ships. Drones are notoriously fragile, so just about anything will kill them. Droneships are a bit harder to kill, and can only launch their flight of drones twice before they have to RTB and refuel the fuel tanks for drones, provided they all survive. They are very expensive, though they could become easily mass producable, if the Storms were so inclined.

Battleships are the most expensive and the largest. They're massive behemoths that utilize equally large MACs and plasma cannons. Plasma cannons melt and burn through armor- and also are technically 'faster' than MACs. They fire a constant stream which is capable of quite literally melting a ship in half. The less effective MACs are better for closer ranges, and won't explode if they get hit by an EMP, due to a plasma cannon's containment field. Generally, battleships will be lightly or moderately damaged, while its escort fleet would have been wiped out. They run massive amounts of energy, and are entirely hard-wire- remote hacking is extremely difficult. Generally run on antimatter and backup fusion reactors.

Cruisers are the most common ship. Heavy cruisers, battlecruisers, missile cruisers, and light cruisers are the different flavors, from the biggest/best to the less best and the smallest. Armed to the teeth and moderately armored, these ships are designed to dish out the punishment, while remaining agile and nimble enough to handle smaller ships, and dodge kinetic weapons at longer ranges. Runs on fusion.

Destroyers are the same as their wet-navy counterparts- reconnaissance, light support. They're also armed with rather useful torpedoes, which are more straightforward, but smarter, missiles. Usually much, much larger, torpedoes are designed to be ship-killers, with massive amounts of ECM and APS to keep them alive. Fired using experimental sublight drives, they're meant to cross great distances very quickly to impact unprepared units- not unlike a sniper. Torpedo Destroyers are rather rare, due to the expense of sublight drives that fit inside the torpedos, which are comparable to the largest ICBMs. Besides this, Destroyers usually have a multitude of larger railguns, a single MAC that the entire ship is built around, and a mass of APS and plasma turret point defense.

Frigates, again, are specialized for any role. Recon, prowler, etc.

Technological Overview: I don't even know.

Definitely advanced. Quantum computing and quantum entanglement gives Storms powerful computing abilities, and instantaneous, unjammable wireless and waveless communication.

Entangled Communications work by interpreting the states of a multitude of one half of entangled particles- by changing a group of particles in a certain order, the opposite side will interpret it as a series of numbers, used to send and receive orders. Drawbacks are that all planetside entangled communications connect directly to the PDB, and are sent to their destination from there, and all warships are connected directly to Central Fleet Command. It makes it rather useless for counterintelligence, besides receiving encrypted orders.

Railguns and MACs are fairly obvious and straightforward.

APS- Active Protection Systems. There are two types of APS- Hardkill and Softkill. Softkill are electronic countermeasures- trying to fool the missile into hitting something else. Hardkill are physical countermeasures, such as point defense, CWIS, flares, etc. Pretty much everything uses APS.

Carbon nanotube & varied fiberarmor. Again, fairly straightforward. By using carbon nanotubes, mass produced, to align the fibers in a fabric, it can be layered and strengthened exponentially. At a relatively low cost, a suit can be purchased that will stop a knife or a low-velocity bullet. Likewise, at a relatively low cost, soldiers can be outfitted with uniforms that will provide equal or more protection. With full body armor, with ceramic and thicker layers, infantry proved to become more effective, as recent weaponry had rendered most body-armors ineffectual. What would pierce an inch of steel couldn’t pierce a half-inch of carbon-mixed fiberarmor.

Anti-Munitions Active Protection System (AM-APS): A concept that was expanded upon to become reality. The idea is a small turret capable of firing a burst of particles at extremely high speeds to use as APS. In a way, it’s like a shotgun- the particles are fired at such a high velocity that it appears more as a laser, lancing out to shred a missile or round heading towards it. Later, it was upgraded to fire ball bearings in quick succession, again, at extremely high speeds, allowing it to intercept missiles or even slower kinetic rounds.

Fusion reactors- the main source of energy in the Storms nation. By utilizing Helium-3, which could be found abundantly in their home system, both on a multitude of moons, asteroids, and the system’s gas giant, they were able to produce extreme amounts of energy, with little to no waste.

Antimatter reactors- These power PDBs, and the largest of warships. By combining an amount of regular matter and antimatter in a controlled environment designed to channel all energy into a series of batteries, one can produce insane amounts of energy, at the cost of having to keep the system very, very, very secure. Dwarfing even fusion/he-3 energy production, a single antimatter reactor is enough to keep a warship or PDB running for years, provided there is enough antimatter. Unfortunately, self-destructs or a system failure can lead to the antimatter containment fields to fail, and will cause an explosion powerful, that it makes a nuclear bomb look like a grenade. At least, in space- on the ground, the antimatter explosion would only destroy the PDB and the surrounding area by only a hundred miles or so, in every direction. The base is designed to channel the blast directly upward, though, so in the event of an unexpected failure, the explosion will destroy the upper portion of the mountain the PDB is embedded into, and likely anything above it. The shockwave alone would kill most everyone inside and around the PDB for some area.

Mind you, this is fairly realistic. The Tsar bomb, a 50-megaton bomb, had a blast radius of 35 miles, and knocked out windows 500 miles away. Because 20 pounds of antimatter is about 390 megatons worth of explosive force, I’m gonna go with antimatter reactors having anywhere from 5-10 pounds of antimatter in storage.

edwardmuller.com/index.php?Page=calcul..

Cultural Overview: What to cheer about

Religiously, the majority of the populace believes in the Tenderer of the Garden, or the Dalyvis iš sodo. The “Garden” is all the universes, all the dimensions, as detailed in the Many Worlds Theory- that the Tenderer takes care of an infinite number of alternate versions of the universe, where there are different choices taken, different scenarios, different environments, even different physics and natural laws. It is believed that if one follows zealously, they’ll be taken to the Tenderer’s own home universe, to live infinitely with it in peace and prosperity, with battles aplenty (that do not end one’s life).

Besides that, there are also a variety of smaller religions- monotheistic religions, polytheistic religions, etc.

In terms of culture, they are decidedly alien, for obvious reasons. Certain foods are served at certain times throughout the year, in groups of six. A certain set of food is consumed in one sixth of the year, another set of food the next sixth, etc. At the beginning of each one-sixth year section.

Queens are revered, due to their rarity and the fact that they are the only way for the species to reproduce- no Queens, no reproduction. Ingrained in every Storm is the instinct to protect the Queen, almost like a primary command code in a computer. Thus, celebrations are often held in honor of the birth of a Queen, a Queen doing something particularly notable, or a Queen entering into another reproduction cycle. They’re revered physically, mentally, emotionally, religiously. The worst thing someone could do is point a gun at a Queen.

The Awakening is a yearly-held celebration, regarding the time that the Storms became self-aware and intelligent the first time.

History: The Storms

Long ago, a hivemind slowly broke apart. For reasons that no one knew, including the Storms, the hivemind of formic creatures broke apart, and the individual creatures became intelligent, just as the Queen of the nest simply used a small portion of every one of its individuals’ minds to form her own.

Three very different tribes dominated the three primary biomes of their homeworld- the taurs, the humanoids, and the wasps, all growing up in a different environment. The Queens of their respective tribes only spit out eggs of that particularly species. That is, until, they became intelligent, and started exploring.

When the first two Queens met, they formed a telepathic connection- different from the one they share with their underlings. From then on, they started reproducing their own tribes’ type of subspecies, and the other Queens’ type. Connections like this formed everywhere, and once a connected two Queens met another Queen that was connected to another Queen, all four simultaneously linked. Thus, every Queen on the planet was connected shortly after the Individuals’ Awakening, and producing every kind of subspecies.

At first, tribes tried to cling to the old ways- tribes of taurs were only taurs, and tribes of wasps were only wasps. Eventually, they gave it up, from the sheer amount of eggs being born, and how many of them matched their own subspecies. Thus, the short period of knowing segregation ended, and they started to mix freely.

Shortly thereafter, iron was discovered, and the Storms found that the planet had a wealth of resources that could be exploited. Thus started the Industrialization. Very quickly, nations began forming, dozens of tribes coming together to form towns and cities, suddenly discovering that farming was possible.

However, they wanted to expand to encompass the globe entirely. Storms were native to only one continent of three- there were a couple small tribes elsewhere, but for the most part, Storms were isolated on one third of the total landmass.

Three thousand years later, Storms constructed the first interplanetary spaceship. Three thousand and four hundred years after this, FTL was discovered- and the Storms went from a race that had SOMETHING on almost every moon, planet, gas giant, and major asteroid in the system, to spreading like a virus or weed to the closest systems, where they started conducting research, mining vast asteroid belts and setting up cloudscoops on gas giants, constructing colonies on the similar and habitable worlds, or digging deep underground to create bases in planets or moons that were too hostile.

Long story short, the Storms have expanded to their neighboring systems, and now want to explore the rest of the galaxy. Small survey ships are dispatched, jumping from system to system, using entangled communications to the great Storms Systems Allocations and Records Department to track and update all records on systems, as they were named and mapped.

Other:

Slayers

Valentine let out his breath, slowly, at measure. As smooth as stillwater, he released the bowstring.

Thwap!

The arrow shot through the air, only a slight whistle and a moment's flight marking its freedom from gravity, the ground, the bow, the quiver. Only for a moment, could he see it- and then it slammed into the deer's chest, smacking through the buck's side and into its heart, just above its foreleg. It took a step, nearly leaping out of danger, stumbling, as the arrow sprouted from its side. Another shaky step, and then its back legs wobbled and collapsed, the rest of it following just afterwards.

Valentine grinned, and rose from his crouch. He had been wandering the forest, silently, waiting to come across game. Two rabbits were already slung over his shoulder; the deer would top it off nicely. Running over, still in a half-crouch, he placed his hand against the slightly bloody entry wound, feeling the arrow rub against the skin between his index finger and thumb. His other hand curled around the arrow, and... slid it free, straight and clean.

He inspected it, critically, finding it to be bloody, but undamaged. Better yet, not one of his thirteen arrows had been damaged, lost, or bent thus far. Some people eyed his thirteen arrows with distrust, with superstition- but it brought him nothing but luck, it seemed.

He inspected the size of deer, just as critical as he had been with his arrow. A decent-sized mule deer, still young, and with maybe... seven points? A decent catch indeed. Grabbing it, one hand at the top of the forelegs' hooves, one hand at the top of the hind legs' hooves, he hefted it, slinging it over his shoulders, the length of its body resting against the width of his middle back.

And with that, he straightened, and trudged off, heading home.

~ ~ ~

Maybe a couple hours later, he arrived at the outskirts of town. Town is general, of course- the city of somenameortheother was quite a bit larger than most of the largest cities in the nation, absolutely none of which he knew the names of. As far as he was concerned, he didn't need to know the names of anything- he just needed to know how to hunt.

His house- one he shared with his sister, and one that he would've shared with his parents, if he knew them- was near, just inside the city walls, in one of the poorer districts. Thankfully, the not-so-upstanding-and-honorable guards accepted the bribe of thirteen copper coin, to let him in through a small, secret 'gate' in one of the less cared for sections of the wall, where someone had dug their way out, and it had become a tunnel guarded by soldiers, who accepted bribes to not throw the trespassers in jail.

A couple of the more predatory younger guys in the area eyed him, judging whether or not the risk versus gain- go against Valentine, and come out with a deer, or come out cut up. Based on how nonthreatening the guy was, Valentine figured that the predator had figured him to be too big a fish to eat and come out ahead.

Three minutes later, he was on the doorstep of The Boarshead Inn. Instead of going inside, however, he went around back, where he passed on the deer to his father, who had noticed him through the windows and was waiting outside for him. He took care of the deer; he had paid his time for the evening.

Time for some fun... and prove that old drunk that Valentine wasn't afraid to try and be in the Choosing.

~ ~ ~

He drew his arm along his face, wiping the blood from his nose. He eyed the trainer in front of him murderously- the man, in return, grinned cheekily, and asked, "Whatcha gonna do, boi? Stand der all dey and waste me time?" His accent was thick, but oddly lilting and singsong, foreign but not entirely unpleasant.

"Naw, ye old drunk. I'ma just bash yer face in wityer own sword."

Reply launched, Valentine darted forward, feinting, before throwing himself to the side and rolling. The man had stabbed, just as he expected him to- the man stabbed, slashed, and then kicked. So, Valentine kicked out as he was rolling, connecting with the man's knee and forcing him back, snapping the joint back painfully so. He cursed, and here came that slash.

He brought up his knife, swinging at the wooden sword, connecting. But he didn't just try to block the slash and hold- no, he continued moving his knife, relying on its hilt to throw the sword over his head, missing entirely. Here came that kick- but again, he moved too late. It smashed into his face, knocking him to the side and snapping his head away from him. Feebly, he threw the knife in his other hand at the trained- it didn't land so well, the crossguard hitting first, and then the 'blade,' but it was enough to surprise the trainer.

He didn't move fast enough, though. He felt the sword's wooden point graze his back as he rolled to the side again. Dashing to his feet as he came out of the roll, he turned back to the trainer, his left eye swollen and hindering his eyesight. Naturally, the swordsman trainer took advantage of it, going on the offensive. He jumped forward, again stabbing at his left side. He spun, the stab again just barely grazing his side as he moved, before he had closed the distance, 'spinning' around his blade and using his new close quarters to bring up his knife.

His knife grazed the man's chest, as he stumbled back to regain the sword's reach advantage, and he surprised Valentine with a knee. It struck his crotch rather forcefully, sending the air out of his lungs as he suddenly struggled with the unbearable pain in his manhood. Dropping to his knees, he gasped, unable to get a breath around the pain pulsing from his lower torso.

He vaguely noted the trainer getting some distance, stepping away and wiping at the sweat at his brow. He dropped his sword, and stepped forward, waiting for maybe half a minute as Valentine regained himself. He reached down with a hand, and Valentine took it, swaying as he tried to steady himself and not fall over.

"Ye fought well, mate. I think ye passed, thuh ye'd prolly bled out buh now. Kudos to ye, hunter. Head up yonder."

The man switched out with someone else, and Valentine held his stomach, suddenly overcome with the urge to gag. After maybe two minutes, and the new trainer's hand on his shoulder and him babbling about how good the fight was and how he could've done this or that better, he straightened, pain dulling.

He straightened his shoulders, and maybe a dozen or two people whooped and hollered as they saw him recover, giving him a cheer for his good work.

Satisfied with his handiwork, though certainly looking forward to kicking that trainer's manhood himself, he turned, laying a hand on both of the two large knives, which were more akin to shortswords, that hung on both his hips. He mounted the stage, up to the other three or four others successful candidates, and stood proudly up there.

Then he realized that he had been considered good enough. He's got a chance at being Chosen.

Which means that he'd be leaving. For quite some time, really. Why was he here? Did he really want to be Chosen? But he couldn't possibly have any magic in him. The thought left him both disappointed and relieved, for some reason.

Post Your Pikcha

@Johann
No such image, methinks.

@Mag Lev
I recommends bowties :b

@Liriia
'Dorables.
I recommends bowties for you toos.

Per Aspera Ad Astra - Sci-Fi Fantasy NRP

@WrongEndoftheRainbow
I'm using Lithuanian in my species, simply because it's relatively unknown, uses English letters in Google Translate, and because it sounds foreign enough. :|