Board Thread:Random RP/@comment-26084195-20160125092257

"It's official. We've hit rock bottom. You ever hit rock bottom before? Well, now you have. 'Cause this is it."

-Unnamed Terran commander to a soldier

This is war unlike anything that ever came before. This is war on a galactic scale. This is war that the first leaders of the Terran Alliance never dreamt of.

But that's something for the five star generals to worry about. Not you. As far as you're concerned, the one planet in the universe is the one you slam your boots onto. The only men in the world are the ones by your side or the ones trying to kill you. And it always seems like there are more of the latter.

You are a commander. You were sent to this world to drive enemy forces off of it. It was a joint assault between three allies: the Terran Alliance, the Aquan Union, and the Sorylian Collective. Your goal? To wipe the planet clean of the Directorate.

The planet: Proteus Prime. A world much like Terra once was, this planet was once home to a species long since died out. It was colonized by the Aquan Union with the hopes of studying ancient ruins there. Until the insidious Directorate waltzed in and decided that they wanted the world, and took it for themselves.

The Zenian League

The Aquan Union: This group was colonizing the stars while man was still trying to figure out if the Earth was round. It is not a set species, but rather a union of aquatic or amphibious lifeforms. They are a peaceful group, but vicious when angered. And they certainly have reason to be angry. Nobody has brutalized the Aquans more than the Directorate. Those corporate overlords treat the Aquans as lower than animals, and victimize them more than anyone else. The Aquan method of combat is simple: speed and grace. They employ hover technology on everything, and are the fastest around. Their laser weaponry is powerful and accurate, and they also employ quite a few missile systems. Their shields are strong, though their armour is weak. They posses the ability to call in a sky-drop which contains a crystal through which they can lance their laser beams around corners. Possibly the most unusual thing about the Aquans is that their vehicles are bio-mechanical. Lasers are fired through focusing irises, and the missiles launched often contain corrosive gunk produced by the vehicle itself.

The Sorylian Collective: An ancient species, though not quite as old as the Aquans. These lizard-men are deadly battlefield tacticians, patient and calculating. Their skill at math and logic is unmatched, and they are some of the foremost innovators of new technology in the Zenian League. It is the Sorylians who invented the energy shield, and that invention is now used by everyone. The way they fight is the way they go about doing anything: math. They are punishingly accurate, with some of the longest ranged weapons around. There is nothing subtle about how Sorylians go about doing things. They will simply propel a slug straight through you at incredible speed from incredible distance. But they get even less subtle than that. For example, they may forego shooting you from afar and send some of the particularly large breed of Sorylians at you with grenade launchers, or walkers with shotgun cannons. Oddly enough for such an advanced species, they only use physical projectile throwing weapons, nothing energy-based. They prefer to use walkers rather than tanks.

The Terran Alliance: An empire fallen from glory. Once the Alliance was the jewel of this sector of the Galaxy, prosperous and powerful. Then one day, most of the most powerful corporations in the Alliance bought their own little slice of the Galaxy and declared independence, promising the Terrans military and financial support. Then, later on, the outer rim planets began a rebellion, and to make matters worse those corporations sided with the rebels, or the Dindrenzi Federation. The Terrans won that particular battle when they nuked the **** out of the Federation's capital. The Federation still declared independence, however, and now Galactic war has sprung up again. The Terrans fight with weapons and vehicles which, to most others, seem old fashioned, even outdated. But don't be fooled, they may be old but they're reliable and powerful. Though the Sorylians invented shields, it's the Terrans who put them to the best use. Terran shields are the most powerful, and a lot of their technology is devoted to enhancing the effectiveness of their shields. Their tanks may be slow and their weapons short ranged, but once they have you within that range you are in for a world of hurt. Their cannons are so powerful that even infantry hiding in buildings aren't safe. The Terran's own infantry is mediocre when compared to that of the others, but there certainly is more of them. They mostly use tanks, very practical and down to earth in appearance.

Now you know about the Zenian League. Let's talk about the enemy...

The Directorate: In this huge galactic war, it's been hard for philosophers to determine who is the good guy. Everyone certainly has reasonable motive. However, nobody has to think very hard about who the evil one is. The Directorate is without doubt the most horrible faction present in the Galaxy. Remember those corporations who split from the Terran Alliance and supported the Dindrenzi? Yeah, that's the Directorate. This enormous cluster of a war is actually totally their fault. What everybody assumes was the first shots fired of the war, when the Terran Alliance attacked a Dindrenzi asteroid mining facility, was actually orchestrated entirely by the Directorate. Why? Because war means profit. And now the Directorate are free to do whatever they please. This usually means appropriating planets for use as resources, forcibly removing liabilities, and acquiring citizens of other species for use as either "indentured servants" or maybe test subjects. They are the most advanced force in the war, actively fielding powerful plasma weaponry and deadly cyberwarfare arrays capable of screwing with you in so many ways. Cloaking? Check. Long range artillery strikes? Check. Basically anything you can think of to totally screw with the enemy, the Directorate does. But possibly the most annoying thing about the Directorate is the infantry. In other factions, the soldiers are actual people. People with lives, with friends or family, with interesting uniqueness about them. The Directorate's Patriot infantry are vat-grown, cybernetically enhanced killing squads. Efficient and totally expendable. Their heavy infantry? Drones. In short, nobody trolls the enemy like the Directorate trolls the enemy.

How it all works: In this RP you will be taking the role of a commander in one of the three factions of the Zenian League, trying to expel the insidious Directorate from Proteus Prime and free the oppressed Aquan populace. Unfortunately, due to the fact that an intense space battle went on and the planet is now blockaded, you are trapped and can only hope for occasional support from your faction. The better you do on the planet, the more likely you'll be sent a ship with reinforcements. You will constantly be faced with choices, and those choices effect how the battle goes and how the overall war for the planet goes. I won't always tell you that you're making a choice, and there may occasionally be hidden options, so think about your situation like a real battlefield tactician. Remember that each force operates differently, so play to your faction's strengths. Now, here's the character template:

Name:

Faction: (NOTICE: You may play as a Directorate commander, but only if you give me a good enough pitch as to why you should be one.)

Species:

Rank:

Personality:

Army Composition:

Let me explain army composition. I am using a helix system. A helix is a bit like a battlegroup, squadrons with synergy working together to accomplish a generally similar goal to one another. Each helix will accomplish the same general task on the battlefield as the same helix of another faction, but the units included in each helix are slightly different from those of the same helix in another faction, so once you've chosen your helixes I'll give you the exact units you possess. Everyone starts with a Core Helix, and have four points to spend on additional helixes. Here is a list of helixes:

Core Helix: Your bread and butter. This contains everything necessary to fight, and it is the building block from which you will construct your army. Light vehicles, main battle vehicles, a heavy, and even a few specialty units are what you can expect from this helix. You can spend one helix point here to buff out the core further.

Heavy Armour Helix: Your tank hunters. These guys are big, rough n' tough, and pack a mean punch, usually one delivered from longer range.

Leviathan Helix: The mother of all engines of death. A Leviathan is the hulking monster of a war machine that will end whatever it gets pointed at (well, usually). Now, I imagine you're thinking "why wouldn't I take this?" Well, because the only thing this helix contains is the leviathan itself and a couple squads of light recon vehicles for support. Furthermore, while powerful, it isn't invincible...

Recon Helix: Don't let the name fool you, these guys can fight. This helix usually contains a lot of faster, lighter vehicles and some APCs and plenty of infantry, perfect for securing a building or battlefield objective to gain the upper hand.

Aerial Helix: Comes in two flavours, interceptor and ground attack. Each version is comprised of one small squad of heavy interceptors/gunships, and a larger squad of smaller interceptors/gunships. The interceptors fulfil the role of taking down enemy fliers, and the gunships are for attacking targets on the ground.

Command Helix: This helix contains the best option for a mobile command center, as well as several units to support it. The command center is usually equipped with plenty of target designators to provide greater accuracy for your own army and the potential to call in artillery strikes, as well as other armaments.

Assault Helix: You remember those big combat mechs we always see in sci-fi stuff? Here they are. Big, come in pairs, and devastating at close range, the giants in this helix are often supported by a group of specialty tanks or smaller mechs.

A further note on helixes: you may never have more than two of any kind. Furthermore, if you take two of one kind of helix, you will not be able to choose any of it's opposite. Here are the opposing helixes:

Recon-aerial

Heavy Armour-Leviathan

Command-Assault

In an endeavour to make this a bit easier to understand, I will give an example.

The Directorate commander first decides that he wants a command helix, which costs one point. He then decides he wants two Aerial ground attack helixes, this costs him two points. He wants to get a recon helix now, but unfortunately the Aerial helix opposes the Recon helix, and since he took two Aerial Helixes he can't take any Recon Helixes, and so he decides to put that remaining helix point into buffing out his core helix. This means that he has: A buffed out core helix, two aerial ground attack helixes, and a command helix.

The RP will start sometime tomorrow. 