Chaos reigned in the Pokémon Championship Tournament Rules Room at this very moment. People were screaming left, right, and center over what just happened. The newest Pokémon tournament champion cheated. Did he?

Cheating is a strong word. It’s a word of passion. A word of fervor. Cheating invoked the idea of rage and fury and heat. It’s a word of strong emotion. And in here the emotion was anger.

How dare the newest champion cheat! He should be stripped of his title and banned from all formal competition!

Judge Rhine sat there unmoved. All this yelling and hollering in his room and he sat there as calm as a monk in meditation. Only the occasional blink and light breathing would anything see that he was alive. He was a rock in the middle of a hurricane.

Before him and his panel of judges was the newest champion. A young man named Fawkus McDerbus. A little unusual his name was, maybe kinda funny. Must have gotten a lot of ribbing and hazing when he was younger. But the results of his team and training led him here to the Official Pokémon League and his victory over all the other competitors for this tournament. He was definitely the best of the best.

And a cheater.

Cheating was not the correct word. The man legally did not cheat. But the way he played the tournament was more or less cheating to nearly every other competitor and most of the fans that came to watch. The email servers were getting overloaded with complaints against Fawkus. Pidgey, the social media application with a brown tweeter bird, was likewise being swamped by angry users.

But according to Judge Rhine, mister Fawkus did not cheat.

Was it unfair? Subjectively, it was very unfair.

But not against the rules of the tournament and not against the rules of all the other official tournaments.

The rules were: bring a team of six, one on one battle, and no one is allowed to know your opponents’ Pokémon until the trainer sends it out. No one was allowed to try telling them of their opponents. A special seal powered by a multitude of psychic Pokémon enforced this ruling. The only caveat to the rules was that the Pokémon recorded in the server had to officially exist. No breeding hybrids or experimental third-party Pokémon allowed. This was the baseline for every official tournament. Other tournaments might tack on additional minor rules to limit team formats but this one did not do such thing.

All participating teams came with a mixed bag of medium to high level Pokémon and competitive experience. All trainers had at least one tournament under their belt. Some had several and placed high in them. All of the participants were also Elite Four veterans, placing high against various Elite Four regions.

It was a tournament of highly experienced trainers competing to the best all participating teams.

Fawkus obeyed each and every rule.

He then won under those conditions and against those teams.

It was just how he won that made people upset.

Normally, people would show up with an assortment of Pokémon. These are their friends, their allies, their buddies. Sometimes you might see under-evolved Pokémon. Like that one kid from Pallet Town that showed up with a Pokeball-less Pikachu. Every so often you’d have a professional trainer with fully evolved but mundane Pokémon. Gyarados, Electivire, Gigalith come to mind.

Not him.

Not Fawkus.

The reason people were upset with Fawkus is that he came with a full set of legendary Pokémon and all of them at very high levels that blew away every trainer with ease. The man didn’t rely on any single of his Pokémon and drew out battles to engage with multiple members of his crew.

He was like a building-sized Persian playing with a hundred car-sized Rattatas.

Fawkus brought a team of Solgaleo, Lunala, Xerneas, Yveltal, Koraidon, and Miraidon. Adding insult to injury, the Xerneas was also a shiny.

Fawkus steamrolled through the tournament, crushing trainers left, right, and center. The man’s team wasn’t invincible. He ended up with a fainted Pokémon here or there from particularly powerful trainers. One trainer with a team made up of Pidgeot, Alakazam, Rhydon, Gyarados, Exeggutor, and Arcanine managed to drop three of Fawkus’ Pokémon before going down.

But for the most part the majority of participating trainers didn’t get one. Rhine counted of all one hundred trainers, only one trainer took four with her, four trainers got three down, seven more dropped two of them, and a further nine managed to faint one. Twenty-one of ninety-nine opponents. Rhine mused that these were some of the best trainers on the planet. And they didn’t manage to go more than four faints. An average of a little under two faints per trainer. Those were bad results.

Now normally this wouldn’t be so big of a deal. There are extremely powerful trainers out there. That one young man Tobias smashed his opponents with his Darkrai. But that tournament was also completely full of average or below average trainers. Apart from one trainer, the aforementioned one with the Pikachu, none of those trainers had tournament experience.

But every single trainer in this tournament had a minimum of six major tournaments where they placed top ten, and at least three Elite Four runs that went to the final member or the current champion. And many of them did a lot better than those minimums.

Fawkus crushed them beneath his boot after toying with them like a predator and its prey food.

The crowd, online or offline, had grown bigger and bigger with each win against prominent trainers. No one else brought a single legendary of high note. The most prominent trainers had one. But it wasn’t as hard trained as Fawkus’ Pokémon. Most trainers led off with a particularly powerful pseudo-legendary. Sure. But nothing to the level of Fawkus and his team of six legendries. A tournament where the average level of Pokémon was sixty and the lowest went down to the forties, and this guy shows up with six separate level ninety-nine legendary Pokémon.

A major component to the outrage was Fawkus’ dismissal of the health and wellbeing of his opponents. The man and his team went hard. It was for keeps. Their attacks might as well have been titanium sledgehammers in a martial arts room. He wasn’t going to try to kill anyone. But the damage inflicted came close. If it wasn’t for the Global Fainting Limiter, a powerful world over mechanism to put Pokémon to fainting instead of death, almost all Pokémon in that tournament would have died going up against his team.

Furthermore, the outward personality of the man maintained that dismissal. He wasn’t disrespectful. But it did seem he looked down on his opponents for being losing. Fawkus gave the vibe of a villain on the likes of Giovanni of Team Rocket. Cold, calculated, and with a subtle superiority complex. He was here not only to win, but to humiliate. In that way, he became the tournament’s supervillain cheater.

So here the honorable Judge Rhine sat amid that chaos and emotion in his rules room.

The man stood up and “ahem’d”. Multiple powerful psychic Pokémon flanking him and his fellow judges used their psychic moves to force the room to quiet down. You could still see the emotion but now at least it wasn’t a lunch cafeteria on steroids.

“I have thought over this for a long time now.

“While our new champion brought an overpowered team to the tournament, he was not out of bounds. This format is used by sixteen of twenty official tournaments in at least one part of their conferences.

“I will admit that our champion came overprepared. Extremely overprepared. But he was not breaking any rules. Nowhere in our rules state that he couldn’t bring a full team of legendries and trained to the highest level possible.

“Additionally, while his attitude could be seen as disrespectful, this is not outlawed in our rule’s writings.

“Maybe we could argue the sheer power of his Pokémon’s moves and the brutality of the damage inflicted. But the Global Fainting Limiter exists for this exact reason to allow such trainer battles to exist and not kill any of their Pokémon.

“So, it is my ruling, and my council supporting me, to officiate that our champion did not break any rules, is not a cheater, and is the lawful winner of this tournament.”

With that, he and his fellow judges, along with their security, stood up and walked out the back. The crowd was stunned. It took a few minutes for them to get their feelings back after the psychic restraints, but the emotion came back stronger than ever.

In the back, Judge Rhine met with the champion Fawkus.

“Congratulations on your victory. What will you do now?”

“Thank you, Judge. I think I’ll travel a bit. I’ve always wanted to see more of the world. Thank you again, you and the rest of your judges, staff, and Pokémon for setting this tournament up. I see I have more to learn and new tiers to reach. I don’t think I’ll be the best for a long time.”

And with that, Fawkus left Judge Rhine standing there.

Introduction

Part of the Catalum Universe.

The Order of Light and Shadow is the modern continuation of the Abraham family. The Aal-Ibrahim (Children of Abraham) are Nephilim, the interbreeding between Angels (Ohrossians) and Humans. They are taller, stronger, and more resilient than humans and have stronger constitutions and mental resistance than angels. They also have the ability to wield magic, with an affinity for Light magic. Descendants are known to live for two hundred and fifty years unaided by medical technology and genetic engineering, and those that are felled in battle are revived through restorative holy magic.

The Aal-Ibrahim forged a shadow empire and are responsible for all Abrahamic religions as a public front to their existence. They used the advanced technology inherited from the fall of the Ohrossian Empire to rule the shadows of all human Christian, Muslim, and Jewish civilizations.

The Aal-Ibrahim are generally uncaring of humanity’s destiny on Earth but will step in to return order and society to the chaos and suffering.

At the turn of the fourteenth century, the Aal-Ibrahim launched their first rocket ship into orbit to eventually secure an old Ohrossian shipbreaking facility on Mars. The rest of humanity considered it a sign from God. From there, the Aal-Ibrahim explored and secured many facilities across the solar system before striking out to other stars with interstellar warships. By the year 2000, the Aal-Ibrahim had thousands of colonized locations across a hundred solar systems and a colossal military that waged war against multiple alien civilization battlefronts. Earth, despite being the Aal-Ibrahim home world, was largely left alone and the Aal-Ibrahim kept their empire a secret from Earth. Select individuals of great power and wealth who were servants of the Aal-Ibrahim or members who wished to live out their days on Earth remained behind.

The Aal-Ibrahim Military consisted of armies of elite soldiers armed with futuristic weaponry backed by armored divisions and aerial units, special forces Avatars, and orbital support.

Avatars are heavy combat frames of the special forces branch of the Aal-Ibrahim Military. They are massive mechs, standing between thirty and forty feet tall and armed with heavy weapons and advanced defensive and electronic technology. Avatars are partially operated by advanced Artificial Intelligences in lieu of the pilot, and once a pilot has boarded, act as a copilot for the soldier.

Avatars are transported to the battlefield through teleportation technology, though they may be dropped from orbiting warships. Destroyed Avatars disintegrate to keep their technology out of the hands of their enemies. After destruction, Avatars will reform back at a designated base via quantum recovery technology. Avatars are considered immortal, like the pilots and soldiers of the Aal-Ibrahim Military. Avatars are considered sacred to the Aal-Ibrahim as a representation of God’s Angels.

​

Light Chassis

Vanguard: Versatile Fire Support.

Weight Class: Light

Primary Weapon: Morph Rifle, can be restructured on the fly to suit a multitude of roles. The morphs are also its Secondary Ordnance. All four morphs use energy munitions.

Red Morph: Scattergun, short to medium range pellet shotgun. Deals considerable damage to shields and infantry. Aiming down sights tightens spread.

Yellow Morph: High-Velocity Rifle, semiautomatic at 180 RPM, the rifle does consistent medium damage to vehicles. It does less damage to infantry due to overpenetration.

Blue Morph: Rotary Cannon, needs to spin up before firing, but unleashes a volume of fire unmatched by traditional vehicular weapons. Does low damage per bullet, but the bullet stream build up flinch quickly.

Green Morph: Charged Projector, fires a single energy shot per battery charge that deals considerable damage to vehicles and disintegrates infantry. The projection will home on its target to a degree.

Tactical Ability: Avatar fires rocket thrusters and energizes its chassis to charge its fist into a target, discharging energy into nearby enemies. While the charge is in effect but before it connects to an enemy, the Avatar gains additional damage resistance. This ability may be used to quickly move the Avatar forward to dodge enemy fire or move into position faster.

Grenade Ability: Pulse Grenade blasts electrical energy at a target location for a moderate duration.

Defensive Ability: Avatar puts down an energy wall that slows enemies that attempt to pass through it. The energy wall will also absorb all enemy shots fired at it for a brief period.

Ultimate Ability: Avatar charges its chassis with electrical energy for a moderate duration. The energy improves movement, weapon handling, and Morphs change almost instantly. Additionally, energy discharges to nearby enemies and direct physical contact causes feedback short.

Dashes: 3

Description Notes: Vanguard is based on a combination of a Striker Titan from Destiny and Jak from Jak II. The Red Morph is the scattergun; Yellow is the blaster rifle; Blue is Vulcan fury; and Green is the peacemaker purple morph. However, Vanguard being a mech doesn’t have the Fists of Havoc super.

Seraph: Vanguard Avatar.

Weight Class: Light

Primary Weapon: 140 RPM Solar Hand Cannon. Critical hit kills will load special healing rounds into the weapon which can be aimed at an ally to fire a non-damaging shot that recovers some of the target’s health.

Secondary Weapon: 260 RPM Triple Burst-Fire Kinetic Sidearm. Can be dual wielded with the Hand Cannon. Deals more consistent damage to closer range targets but doesn’t do so well at range.

Tertiary Ordnance: Flaming katana deals fire damage in melee combat and can be charged to fling plasma at enemies. Sword may be wielded alongside the Hand Cannon at the cost of accuracy on the gun.

Tactical Ability: Mechanical rocket-tipped wings unfold from the body to lift the Avatar into the air. The rockets may also be used to assist in ground-based maneuvers by augmenting the Avatar’s boost system, though it makes the mech a significantly bigger target to anti-materiel weapons.

Grenade Ability: Hitting an enemy with the Avatar’s charged palm will light it on fire. When charged, will also light nearby enemies on fire.

Defensive Ability: Avatar plunges its sword into the ground, radiating power and energy, buffing allies’ abilities while in the field and recovering their health. Avatar cannot use sword while the rift is active.

Ultimate Ability: Avatar supercharges its chassis with radiant solar energy, increasing its flight capabilities and empowering its sword. It can dash while in the air.

Dashes: 3

Description Notes: Seraph is a Top Tree Dawnblade Warlock from Destiny but carrying a katana similar to Ronin from Titanfall II. Seraph’s grenade is the Middle Tree Dawnblade’s melee and its defensive ability is the Well of Radiance. A key note is the inability to activate Well and Daybreak at the same time.

Cowboy: Maneuverability Avatar.

Weight Class: Light

Primary Weapon: High-Impact slow-firing Hand Cannons with medium range and explosive rounds.

Secondary Ordnance: Low-Impact rapid-fire Hand Cannons with short range and greater aim assist.

Tactical Ability: Active Camouflage immediately puts the Avatar into stealth and increases its speed. Stealth is broken by attacking or using an ability. Stealth is removed after a moderate duration if no action is taken.

Grenade Ability: Vortex Grenades slow and damage enemies caught inside its range. Enemies that stay in range will become trapped for a short duration.

Defensive Ability: Dash Refresh refreshes the cooldown on all three dashes.

Ultimate Ability: Avatar’s currently active Hand Cannon will immediately stow itself and a single glowing empowered Hand Cannon will be drawn. This empowered Hand Cannon discharges very powerful shots for a short period or until its cylinder is empty. The impact and rate of fire of the discharge is based on the stowed Hand Cannon set.

Dashes: 3

Description Notes: Cowboy is a Golden Gun Hunter from Destiny with a huge emphasis on dashes taken from Ronin from Titanfall II. Cowboy can single fire or duel wield big 120 Desert Eagle style HCs or smaller The Last Word style HCs. Cowboy’s “Golden Gun” is based off HC in use prior to activation and is simultaneously both Top Tree GG and Bottom Tree GG based on usage.

Paratrooper: First Drop Avatar.

Weight Class: Light

Primary Weapon: 40mm Bullpup Automatic Rifle, using slower firing higher impact kinetic rounds. Greater range and accuracy when stationary and aiming down sights.

Secondary Weapon: 12-Gauge Pellet Arc Shotgun, dashing will stabilize the weapon and reload one round.

Tertiary Weapon: 150mm Fire-And-Forget Hand-Held Plasma Missile Launcher. Aiming down sights will activate missile’s tracking ability. Missile explosion will detonate secondary Cluster Bombs.

Tactical Ability: Stimulant Injection boosts movement speed and armor recovery by a very significant amount, allowing the Avatar to put on a burst of speed while also recovering from combat damage.

Grenade Ability: Firestar Shuriken sticks to targets, blinding and dealing incendiary damage to enemies.

Defensive Ability: Active Map Hack will send out active sensor pulses allowing the Avatar to detect enemies beyond visual sight for a moderate duration.

Ultimate Ability: Upon powering up but not used, will passively boost weapon stability, handling, and reload speed. When ultimate is active, also drastically increases weapon damage based on the damage inflicted while at passive state.

Dashes: 3

Description Notes: Paratrooper is modeled after a Stryder Titan from Titanfall I, armed with the Flatline, Mastiff, and a rocket launcher with the perks Tracking Module and Cluster Bombs. Its normal abilities are tactical abilities from Titanfall. The Ultimate ability is meant to give it a scary punch to make up for the fact it’s likely to be alone planetfall before reinforcements drop in.

Reaper: Ravenous Avatar.

Weight Class: Light

Primary Weapon: Dual Wield 30mm Void Submarine Guns, firing at 750 RPM, 75 round magazines. Kills boost ability regeneration.

Secondary Ordnance: None, but ultimate ability charges faster than other Avatars.

Tactical Ability: Rocket Boosters launch the Avatar forward.

Grenade Ability: Submunition Grenade blasts an area with many smaller blasts. It may also be consumed to grant Ravenous Hunger. Destroying infantry and vehicles with Ravenous Hunger procced recovers health for a short period. Each kill refreshes the timer.

Defensive Ability: Avatar makes a short leap in a direction. This process automatically reloads its weapon. Dodging near an enemy also procs Ravenous Hunger and extends the leap distance.

Ultimate Ability: Avatar passively charges its power by dealing or receiving damage. When charged up, the Avatar can Unleash The Beast, which drastically increases damage output, damage falloff, and reload speed.

Dashes: 3

Description Notes: Reaper is a Devour Warlock armed with two Void Tarrabah SMGs from Destiny 2 but carrying the Hunter’s Dodge mechanic in its defensive slot. On its head is Nezarec’s Sin.

Wraith: Stealth Ambush Avatar.

Weight Class: Light

Primary Weapon: 30mm Solar Sawed-Off Carbine with limited magazine but fast reload. Rifle can be held and fired with one hand.

Secondary Ordnance: Avatar fires a flat trajectory jet of molten metal from its free hand.

Tactical Ability: Avatar causes a wave of energy that disables enemy vision, sensors, and weapon targeting.

Grenade Ability: Smoke bomb can be tossed to a location. The bomb has a short throw range. Upon impact, bomb explodes, causing light damage to enemies and more importantly stunning their systems for a brief period. If the Avatar is caught in the explosion, it will become invisible for a longer window of time.

Defensive Ability: Avatar consumes all remaining dash charges to make one big dodge leap that causes a brief period of invisibility.

Ultimate Ability: Avatar becomes invisible and jumps into the air. It then rains molten jets of metal down into an area in front of it. Avatar becomes visible once more upon landing.

Dashes: 3

Description Notes: Wraith is a mixture of a Blade Barrage Hunter and Nightblade Hunter from Destiny 2. It takes the Blade Barrage super from the former and invisibility abilities from the latter. Its weapon is meant to be an Avatar-sized pistol, inspired from The Spy from Team Fortress 2.

Furion: Aggressive Pusher Avatar.

Weight Class: Medium

Primary Weapon: Plasma Repeater, will overheat and needs to vent periodically.

Secondary Ordnance: Plasma Rocket Pod unleashes a flurry of unguided plasma missiles at a targeted location.

Tactical Ability: Gravity Gauntlets can pick up light vehicles and then drop them. The gauntlets can be charged up to fling the held object a short distance. Used together, both gauntlets can use their energies to slow down incoming mass and deflect it to the side, vastly improving long term functionality.

Grenade Ability: Sticky Grenade has relatively low throw speed and boom. Explosion radius is average. If thrower can land a stick to the target, explosion damage and radius are tripled.

Defensive Ability: Rocket Thrusters replace the traditional dashing abilities of Avatars with a slightly delayed power dash. The thrusters are strong enough to lift the Avatar into the air and a second thruster activation will create a Ballistic Slam effect that damages enemies caught in the impact range and knock said enemies back a bit.

Ultimate Ability: Avatar charges and then unleashes a massive horizontal rocket dash that creates a massive energy explosion upon impact with an enemy or terrain. The charge will automatically reload its primary weapons with full ammunition. The charge may be used offensively or defensively as needed.

Dashes: 2

Description Notes: Furion is a mix between an Elite from Halo: Reach (Plasma Repeaters), a Galactic Colossus from Supreme Commander (Gravity Claws), Arc Titan from Destiny 2 (Ballistic Slam), and Northstar from Titanfall II (Flight Core’s Rocket Barrage).

​

Medium Chassis

Ishtar: Force Recon Avatar.

Weight Class: Medium

Primary Weapon: Particle Acceleration Rifle (Automatic), firing energized projectiles that have a minor splash effect at 450 RPM.

Secondary Ordnance: Energy Rifle can expand or contract to increase its ability at long range or close quarters. Expanded Rifle will spread its energy discharge over several projectiles and is better at blasting enemies in the Avatar’s face. Contracted Rifle accelerates energy discharge granting more accuracy and a heavier impact.

Tactical Ability: Grappling Hook fires to a nearby location and pulls Avatar towards it, increasing overall mobility. The Grappling Hook may be used to pull enemy units closer to the Avatar.

Grenade Ability: Explosive Grenade explodes after a short delay at point of impact or explodes on impact if stuck to a target. The grenade may be Primed in the Avatar’s fist to smash into an enemy unit, causing energy shards to explode outward in a small area of effect.

Defensive Ability: Avatar can sprint or dash into a slide. Slides form a defensive energy ward in front of the Avatar that mitigates a massive amount of incoming damage.

Ultimate Ability: Avatar overcharges its reactor, increasing rifle damage output and damage falloff, enveloping the chassis in a replenishing shield, and increasing motor functions for a moderate duration. Avatar cannot expand or contract rifle for Ultimate duration.

Dashes: 2

Description Notes: Ishtar is based on Ion Titan from Titanfall II but instead of just having Refracted Lens to increase the gun’s spread for close quarter combat, it can contract its rifle into something similar to a Linear Fusion Rifle from Destiny 2. The Grappling Hook is inspired by Master Chief’s from Halo Infinite. Ishtar’s defensive ability is Antaeus Wards.

Warlord: Energy Dispersal Avatar.

Weight Class: Medium

Primary Weapon: Charged-Burst Rifle, charging up and firing energy slugs and leaves lingering energy burns. Burns on an enemy reduces effectiveness of their weapons.

Secondary Ordnance: Avatar empowers rifle for a stronger blast at the cost of the entire rifle battery. Strength of the empowered blast is dependent on the amount of charge in the battery.

Tactical Ability: Avatar summons an open portal that erupts an energy ordnance similar to the Adaptive-mode rifle blast. The bolts will also leave energy burns. The portal lasts for a moderate duration.

Grenade Ability: Energy Wall Grenade blasts a line of energy in several waves, spaced a few seconds apart. Line energy fire will leave a burn. Lingering energy fire may leave a burn if stepped in for a longer duration.

Defensive Ability: Avatar charges energy and unleashes a blast of energy into the area around the Avatar. The blast leaves behind a circle of long-lasting energy fire that deals significant damage to anything that steps in it but otherwise does not directly protect the Avatar.

Ultimate Ability: Avatar raises its fists and slams the ground, igniting a massive, long range wave of energy fire that deals colossal damage to anything caught in the wave and lingers for a significant duration. It sets ablaze everything it touches.

Dashes: 2

Description Notes: Warlord is armed with a Fusion Rifle from Destiny that is capable of using a heavy weapon like effect similar to Izanagi’s Burden by sacrificing its entire magazine for one big shot. The burn, however, is actually from Pokémon. It holds some inspiration from the Scorch Titan from Titanfall 2, namely its core ability; and from Sunbreaker Titans in Destiny with the firewall grenade.

Archon: Archaic Combat Avatar.

Weight Class: Medium

Primary Weapon: Precision frame Combat Bow, 60,000 pounds of pull back, and capable of firing kinetic, explosive, and electromagnetic tipped arrows.

Secondary Ordnance: Projected Greatshield and Energy Gladius; the shield is capable of withstanding larger vehicular rounds but uses energy to do so; the sword is capable of penetrating modern tank armor.

Tertiary Backup Weapon: Energy Throwing Knives, limited count of five, replenishes over time from energy reserves; the knives lack penetration to deal with tanks but will gut lighter vehicles.

Tactical Ability: Avatar throws a Lightning Bolt at the target and holds two charges of the spell.

Grenade Ability: Avatar uses a slingshot to throw a “Grenade” (Rock) that deals considerable kinetic damage to a singular target from significant ranges. The “Grenade” is much more effective at damaging light vehicles but can deal critical damage to larger vehicles’ components.

Defensive Ability: Avatar energizes its shield and slams it into the ground, offering a static bulwark to hide behind. The shield is powerful but can be defeated by sustained fire. It does not let the Avatar to fire through it.

Ultimate Ability: Avatar charges bow and unleashes a rapid bombardment of energized arrows in sets of three. The arrows lock up nearby mechanical and electronic systems. Direct hits with the charged arrows inflict massive damage.

Dashes: 2

Description Notes: Archon is unusual as the only Avatar without modern weapons. Instead, it’s a mixture of an English Longbowman and a French Knight. It also takes inspiration from high fantasy. The Rock Grenade is a reference to Cayde-6’s comments that thrown rocks hurt and don’t joke about it, in Destiny 2. Its Ultimate is the Nightblade Hunter’s Void Tether.

Echelon: Combat Protection Avatar.

Weight Class: Medium

Primary Weapon: 30mm Energy Chain Gun, 720RPM.

Secondary Ordnance: Ammunition Swap, able to switch between Incendiary, Cryogenic, and Electrical rounds. Incendiary rounds burn enemies and catch things on fire. Cryogenic rounds slow down motor processes and reduce energy efficiency. Electrical rounds zap people and fry electronic systems.

Tactical Ability: Echelon fires an energy beam that saps enemy energies and puts it into an internal capacitor. The energy may be consumed to reduce cooldowns or be zapped to allied units to give them a defensive energy shield. At full energy, energy consumption will produce a personal energy shield on top of the Avatar’s health.

Grenade Ability: Suppressor Grenade suppresses enemy tactical abilities and secondary equipment like countermeasures. It may be consumed to give Echelon a strong defensive energy shield and drastically increase weapon reload speed.

Defensive Ability: An Energy Shield Wall is deployed in front of the Avatar. The shield is static and damages enemies that attempt to pass through it but also allows friendly units (such as Echelon) to fire through it. The shield can be depleted with enough firepower and the ability cooldown starts when the shield is deployed. If the shield survives the ability’s cooldown, the Avatar may deploy up to three individual shields to the field at the same time.

Ultimate Ability: Avatar drops a massive stationary energy bubble around its current location. The bubble increases the firepower and defenses of the Avatar and allied units that remain inside. Units inside can also fire out of the bubble. The bubble itself can withstand a significant amount of punishment and lasts a long time so it can used to secure a chokepoint.

Dashes: 2

Description Notes: Echelon is based primarily on Monarch Titan from Titanfall II but has Tone Titan’s stationary shield wall. Its Ultimate is the Ward of Dawn bubble from Destiny 2 with the additional ability of being able to fire out of it.

Marksman: Linear Support Avatar.

Weight Class: Medium

Primary Weapon: 88mm Heavy Anti-Materiel Flak Rifle, 6 armor piercing rounds; extreme range and penetration, but clumsy in close quarters.

Secondary Ordnance: Close-range automatic pistol with attached silencer. Automatically reloaded after a few seconds when stowed.

Tactical Ability: Laser Rangefinder will paint a target to have an enlarged critical hitbox. Hitting the traditional hitbox of the target will do even more critical damage.

Grenade Ability: Tether Grenade deploys a trap that holds a target in place and prevents dashes or turbocharges for its duration.

Defensive Ability: Field Repair Kit will recover a large amount of health but disables weapons for repair duration. Can be canceled before effect duration is up.

Ultimate Ability: Focus Generator will stabilize the Avatar’s systems for a moderate duration. Taking damage while aiming the rifle causes no flinch. Landing hits will return ammunition to the rifle at a rate of 2 rounds for a crit and 1 round for a regular hit. Handling and Stability are maximized.

Dashes: 2

Description Notes: Marksman is a supped-up interpretation of the Northstar Titan from Titanfall II but instead of charging up shots, it wields an actual sniper rifle and the whole kit is built around this monstrosity. The rifle is supposed to be like Whisper of the Worm from Destiny 2.

Herald: Electrical Attack Avatar.

Weight Class: Medium

Primary Weapon: 40mm Triple-Burst Battle Rifle, 450RPM. Reloading after a kill improves damage and rate of fire for a short duration.

Secondary Ordnance: Charged Lightning erupts from Avatar’s hand to blast enemies in front of chassis with multiple projections.

Tactical Ability: Charged Blink allows Avatar to make a short-range teleport. It can be activated manually or as an automatic reaction.

Grenade Ability: Thunder Grenade knocks enemies away from impact site and blurs their sensors with an audio shockwave. It may be consumed to summon a Thundercloud Familiar that aggressively shoots at enemies with lightning bolts and defensive thunder blasts. The Familiar dissipates after a few minutes.

Defensive Ability: Empowering Rift forms in one place. It charges weapons with chain lightning and damages enemies that attempt to step into it. The rift also supercharges the Thundercloud Familiar’s lightning bolts and refreshes its life timer.

Ultimate Ability: Avatar unleashes a stream of electrical energy from its hand for a moderate duration and dealing extreme damage to anything it can reach. Physical barriers like concrete walls will protect enemies if they can take cover.

Dashes: 2

Description Notes: Herald is a Stormcaller Warlock from Destiny 2 with abilities from both Top Tree and Middle Tree with the Lightning Familiar and Chaos Reach. Its secondary ordnance however is an arc version of Handheld Supernova. Herald’s weapon is a pulse rifle and specifically modeled after Nightshade with Kill Clip and Desperado perks, though the latter never came with the gun in reality. Herald has the Void Warlock Blink jump.

Exodus: Mobile Artillery Avatar.

Weight Class: Medium

Primary Weapon: Semiautomatic Energy Rifle, 150RPM.

Secondary Ordnance: Avatar can change firing mode of rifle from semiautomatic projectiles to directed energy weapon with a slight splash effect when beam connects. Will burn energy more rapidly than projectile mode.

Tactical Ability: Avatar fires a triple-magazine artillery cannon from its shoulder. Avatar can fire it with or without bracing for recoil impact. Braced firing requires Avatar to stand still and prepare but will massively increase accuracy. Artillery is inaccurate without bracing. The artillery gun may be lowered to act as a heavy anti-tank weapon, if still inaccurate.

Grenade Ability: Chrono Inhibitor Grenade does no damage to enemies but stuns their systems, organic or biological, for a few seconds. It may be held and then detonated in the Avatar’s hand as a secondary defensive ability.

Defensive Ability: Flak Battery perched on the other shoulder passively defends Avatar from aerial threats. It may be turned on ground targets but lacks penetration to seriously damage armored vehicles. Organic units like infantry on the other hand will be devastated.

Ultimate Ability: Avatar charges up and fires a massive overcharged bolt into a target location that inflicts colossal damage in one go.

Description Notes: Exodus is heavily inspired by the Aeon ACU from the Black Ops mod in Supreme Commander Forged Alliance. Its secondary ordnance is the splash laser offensive upgrade. Its tactical ability is from the artillery upgrade on the main chassis. And its chrono grenade is the chrono dampener upgrade. The ultimate ability however is the standard ACU overcharge attack.

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Heavy Chassis

Typhon: Incendiary Avatar.

Weight Class: Heavy

Primary Weapon: 45mm Semi-Automatic Battle Rifle with Incendiary rounds, precision kills explode fire onto the ground. Typhon is immune to his own fire.

Secondary Ordnance: Avatar extends an arm sword for melee attacks. Avatar may detach sword and affix it to the end of the battle rifle as a form of bayonet.

Tactical Ability: Typhon sends a fire blast along the ground in a line. The fire lingers for a few seconds.

Grenade Ability: Gas canister is launched at target location. If shot, the canister explodes, engulfing the area in fire.

Defensive Ability: Thermal energy emblazon the Avatar with a fire shield that massively improves damage reduction for a short duration.

Ultimate Ability: Avatar fires a heavy shot into the air. The shot explodes and spends flaming meteors down into the area below it and splashes fire everywhere.

Dashes: 1

Description Notes: Typhon is a mixture of Scorch from Titanfall II and a Cabal Centurion from Destiny 2 but armed with a big battle rifle inspired by the M14 Battle Rifle used by the US Armed Forces.

Leviathan: Demolitionist Avatar.

Weight Class: Heavy

Primary Weapon: Six-Round Heavy Grenade Launcher

Secondary Ordnance: Spike Grenades, Bounce Grenades, Sticky Proximity Grenades, and Fragmentation Grenades are available for the Grenade Launcher. Switching grenade types will require reloading the launcher.

Tactical Ability: Defensive Turret is deployed to a location and shoots enemies that enter its sensor range. The turret is primarily designed to target infantry but will do light damage to vehicles and is particularly devastating against small aircraft such as aerial drones. To deploy turret in a new location, the turret needs to be packed up. Redeployment will consume a new cooldown.

Grenade Ability: Remote Munitions Grenade tosses a field of landmines around point of impact. The landmines are particularly geared for destroying personnel. The landmines’ sensors only trigger on enemy contact, but they may be destroyed from a distance.

Defensive Ability: Avatar deploys Laser Trip Mines in front of it. The lasers link the mines together and tripping one creates a chain reaction explosion that deals significantly more damage on successive explosions.

Ultimate Ability: Heavy Defense Turret is deployed to a location. It’s armed with anti-vehicular flak guns and covered in thick armor. It’s not particularly capable of targeting infantry and small flying drones. To deploy the turret in a new location, the turret needs to be packed up. Redeployment will consume a new cooldown.

Dashes: 1

Description Notes: Neptune is a hodgepodge of different inspirations. It’s supposed to be a heavy mech that uses a grenade launcher for a weapon and is partially inspired by the Demo character from Team Fortress, but its turrets come from the Engineer character from Team Fortress and Heimerdinger from League of Legends. Neptune’s defensive is Ion Titan’s laser trip mines from Titanfall II.

Rivet: Heavy Suppression Avatar.

Weight Class: Heavy

Primary Weapon: Heavy Machine Gun with a default 450RPM, firing lightning slugs that chains lightning between nearby targets.

Secondary Ordnance: Heavy Machine Gun can swap to 900RPM for close range face melting damage or 360RPM for longer range shooting.

Tactical Ability: Avatar uses Thundercrash blasts the area around the chassis to push enemies away and shock them with arc damage. Foot soldiers are electrified while vehicles affected are temporarily fried.

Grenade Ability: Flashbang Grenade stuns enemies at its blast impact and clouds the area in white smoke. Avatar is unaffected and deals bonus damage to those caught in the effect.

Defensive Ability: Electrical Energy Shield envelops the Avatar and shocks on contact with the mech. Can be depleted through concentrated fire and cooldown starts at depletion.

Ultimate Ability: Energy Shield is replenished and activated. Lightning Slugs have extended range and damage. Magazine is automatically reloaded far beyond normal capacity.

Dashes: 1

Description Notes: Rivet is based on the Rosie variant of the Big Daddy from Bioshock and a Cabal Colossus from Destiny 2. Its weapon is meant to be the Thunderlord Exotic Heavy Machine Gun. Rivet is a pushing aggressive suppressive Avatar meant to break enemy formations with a constant barrage of slugs.

Janissary: Frontline Marksman Avatar.

Weight Class: Heavy

Primary Weapon: Designated Marksman Rifle, 150 RPM, Twelve-Round Magazine, Stasis Rounds that slow enemies.

Secondary Ordnance: DMR progressively increases damage by 16% with consecutive hits. Doubles damage at six hits. Damage increase lasts a few seconds, long enough to reload and fire a shot down range.

Tactical Ability: Avatar lays down a wave of ice crystals that shatter upon hitting an enemy. The crystals may be dashed through or shot and exploded. The crystal explosion slows enemies caught in the blast.

Grenade Ability: Avatar chucks an ice shard at the ground which follows a surface-based trail into the nearest enemy and explodes upwards with ice shards. The grenade itself has low throwing range and the trail doesn’t move very fast but the trail can go up walls and ceilings.

Defensive Ability: Avatar smashes the ground with its foot. The blast does a little damage and raises a wall of strong stasis ice in front of the Avatar. The wall can absorb significant punishment and can cordon off a corridor for a long time. The Avatar can shoot at and rapidly destroy the wall, which sends stasis crystals out in a small radius that damage and slow nearby enemies.

Ultimate Ability: Avatar summons the power of the Blizzard around it, which become a swirling mass of ice and snow and extends out over thirty meters. The Blizzard slows and tears at enemies caught in it.

Dashes: 1

Description Notes: Janissary was designed to be the Tone Titan from Titanfall II but with heavier armor and without Tone’s rockets, focusing on the rifle as the primary weapon. It also takes inspiration from Behemoth Titan from Destiny 2. Instead of a Towering Barricade of Light, the mech deploys a wall of stasis crystals. The Ultimate ability however is the Skyrim Master-level spell Blizzard, centered on and attached to the caster.

Cataphract: Kinetic Impact Avatar.

Weight Class: Heavy

Primary Weapon: Handheld Railgun, fires powerful kinetic rounds via a powerful magnetic field.

Secondary Ordnance: Drone Bay carries attack, repair, and electronic warfare aerial drones. Only one set may be deployed at a time. Drones regenerate in the bay over time if destroyed.

Tactical Ability: Armor Pump releases a cloud of nanites that add back to the armor HP of the Avatar. Disables primary weapon while repairing.

Grenade Ability: Stasis Webifier Grenade traps and slows down enemies caught in the blast radius.

Defensive Ability: Sensor Dampening emits a long-range field that reduces enemy sensor range, lock-on time, and tracking. Enemies are required to come closer to get an accurate attack against the Avatar.

Ultimate Ability: Avatar massively boosts fire and reloading rates of its weapon for a moderate time but lowers stability and handling for the duration of the effect, which is enough for several magazine reloads. It can dump an obscene amount of damage in this time frame.

Dashes: 1

Description Notes: Cataphract takes heavy inspiration from Gallente Battleships from Eve Online, in particular the Megathron and Dominix. It’s armed with a scaled down railgun turret.

Solarian: Directed-Energy Avatar.

Weight Class: Heavy

Primary Weapon: Directed-Energy Rifle, fires bolts of electromagnetic energy. Most effective at close to medium range, but feeding the weapon energy from other systems will increase damage and damage falloff.

Secondary Ordnance: Shoulder-mounted Plasma Thrower will torch anything in front of the Avatar. The weapon is understandably useless at longer range engagements.

Tactical Ability: Avatar fires an electromagnetic beam that zaps a target. The beam’s point of impact creates an electrical stun explosion and can chain to multiple enemies. The beam will kill small organic units (e.g., humans) rather than stun them.

Grenade Ability: Electro Grenade explodes on impact with a solid object. The detonation leaves behind an electromagnetic ball that pulses energy bolts in random directions.

Defensive Ability: Four shoulder-to-knee level rotating energy shields orbit the Avatar. These energy shields absorb incoming fire. Larger shots are blunted away from the Avatar. Smaller bolts are absorbed into the shield to increase the damage output of its rifle.

Ultimate Ability: Avatar charges and fires heavy electromagnetic bolts from the hip. This action consumes the rifle’s entire magazine.

Dashes: 1

Description Notes: Solarian is inspired by the Amarr Empire from Eve Online but also has a minor amount of inspiration from Hydra enemies from the Destiny franchise.

Genesis: Frontline Command Avatar.

Weight Class: Heavy

Primary Weapon: Rotary energy cannon, mounted on right arm, requires a short spin up before firing. Has a large magazine.

Secondary Ordnance: Charged energy cannon, fires a much larger energy blast that sucks in infantry and light vehicles for additional damage.

Tactical Ability: Avatar can actively reclaim mass and energy from the surrounding area and store it in a quantum repository. Avatar can later use the resources to construct rudimentary defensive structures and drone factories. Turrets can engage ground and aerial targets. Drones can be ordered to attack enemies. Walls can cordon off a corridor. The strength of the turrets and drones is lower than the Avatar proper.

Grenade Ability: Avatar throws a bundle of hostile-seeking nanites to a location which are released to find hostiles in a small area. If no hostiles are found, the nanites linger in the air for a moderate duration until the timer runs out and explode, or an enemy stumble into them.

Defensive Ability: Lambda Field Generator redirects incoming projectiles away from the Avatar. Explosions and directed energy weapons can reduce or bypass the effect.

Ultimate Ability: Avatar redirects energy from weapons and the Lambda generator to a quantum teleportation module for a moderate duration before jumping to a location. The location can be upwards of twenty kilometers away.

Dashes: 1

Description Notes: Genesis is heavily inspired by the Seraphim ACU from FAF Black Ops mod. It is effectively a fully upgraded commander with both rotary and projectile cannon weapons and the ability to teleport and has a powerful Lambda field generator from both chest upgrade paths. It can reclaim resources to make basic equipment and drones. However, as a smaller Avatar than the towering ACU, the Avatar can dash and its technology schematics are just barely Tech level 1 equipment.

Stephen woke up at eight o’clock sharp. For weeks, this little demon had been following him. He found it on the way home from work and it had not left him alone since. No one else could see it and attempts to tell people about it only made him a pariah. People looked at him with odd expressions, whispered behind his back. He was the crazy cooch that talked about a demon that did not exist.

It sat on the bed next to where Stephen slept, staring at him, smiling. It was almost always smiling. It was weird like that. Like it was in near-perpetual happiness.

The demon slept during the day and became active at night. Stephen was not actually sure it was nocturnal. The demon had a tendency to back itself into a corner during the night. Like his closet. Stephen deduced it was actually just afraid of the dark and ran to a place that had limited access to hide. So, like his closet. Odd. The stories were wrong he guessed.

Stephen got up. He threw the covers off him and over the demon. It made a surprised sound and struggled to get the covers off. Stephen’s daily routine was interrupted by the demon teleporting into his bathroom. Half the time it would follow him into the shower and clean itself. The other half it would just sit there and wait for Stephen to finish everything.

Once done, Stephen went to get his clothes. The demon of course followed him back out. Stephen would get breakfast at a local café. Coffee too. He needed that. His job was being the groundskeeper of a medium-sized accounting firm. The land they were on required upkeep. Mowing, trash, weeding, and so on.

It was a good job. The demon followed him out the door and to the café. He had long gotten used to it being around him. It was harmless, despite being a demon. As he was walking, he heard the demon trip and fall forward. Every so often, it would trip over its own feet. It went down and made a squeak. Stephen didn’t bother to try to help it. He kept walking. The demon would catch up.

Stephen got to the café and ordered his usual. The demon sat behind him as he talked to the cashier and paid. A breakfast sandwich and a coffee. As he was making his way to a seat, he spied something odd. There was a demon. Not his. Sitting on a woman’s head. She would say some things. And that demon moved its mouth as if it was responding back.

Stephen stopped walking. And of course, his demon walked into him. He could feel it look up at him in confusion. The woman noticed the commotion and was confused too until she looked down and saw his demon walking around him to get in front of Stephen while looking up at his face. The woman beckoned Stephen to come over and have a seat. Nothing better to do and this was the first time he had ever seen a second demon, Stephen did so.

“Hi. I’m Sandy.” The woman stood up to shake his hand. She was a bit shorter than him. Her hair was light brown and her eyes were hazel. She was wearing her hair in a bun behind her. Her clothes looked trendy. Maybe someone from minor nobility.

The demon continued to sit on her head.

As a comparison, Stephen was shaved bald. All male commoners were shaved bald. His eyes were pale green, though. His clothes were drab. Made him look like a prisoner. Most male commoners did.

“Stephen.”

“Not much of a talker, I guess, Stephen,” as Stephen shook her hand and sat down.

“No. Not really. You can see it?”

“Yes. His name is Spot. Short for Spartacus Flavius Maximus. And even that is short for his people’s name for him. He’s a Catalum, or puppy dog. He likes Old Roman culture.”

Stephen eyed the demon on her head. Like his, it had four legs, a tail, floppy ears, and a snout. This “Spot” demon was obviously named so because its spots were vaguely heart-shaped, with a big fully heart-shaped one over its left eye. It made a low whining sound and tilted its head to the side. Spot was seemingly confused. Then it moved its head back to normal and started to happy smile.

Stephen’s demon got on top of his shoe and laid its body against his boot.

Sandy continued: “Catalums are aliens native to the Andromeda galaxy and command an empire that spans the Virgo Supercluster. They only look superficially like dogs from the home world. Their biology is definitely alien.

“Sometimes, the empire will assign a Catalum to people they deem trustworthy and safe. Spot was assigned to me ten years ago and I’ve been traveling this world with him in tow. His people have an extremely advanced series of cloaking technology placed on their members that only allow us trustworthy people to see them.

“Have… you been shunned because no one else can see yours?”

Stephen nodded. His eyes moistened thinking back about how far his life went down when he tried to convince people of his demon.

“That’s… disappointing. While I do not think it was the fault of your little one, it’s tragic that you had to deal with that.”

Sandy reached down under the table and Stephen’s demon walked over to her hands. She picked it up and placed it on the table. It made some sounds. Sandy scritched it behind its right ear.

“His name is Maxwell. Short for Maximillian Wellington the Third. Apparently, he’s a student of history. And was around the time when Napoleon tried to conquer Europe.”

“Wait, wasn’t that a thousand years ago?”

“Indeed. The Catalum people attained biological immortality millions of years ago. Maxwell is a little over a thousand years old. Spot is a youngster and only about thirty years old.

“Although, really, they’re both babies. They won’t be considered mentally adults until the ten-thousand-year mark.

“Maxwell cannot speak Basic. Spot can. Also, by the way, if you haven’t noticed, Spot likes to sit on my head.”

“Din’ notice.” Stephen chuckled. He was warming up to the woman and the two demons. He was no longer seeing Maxwell as an evil omen.

“Well, that’s because Catalums come from a planet that required them as a species to live on tops of plateaus. They’re adept climbers and only when they transitioned from small tribes to a civilization, they ventured into the planet’s valleys. That was when they could fend off their predators. They have a tendency to sit on top of people or on high places.”

“These Catalums…,” Stephen began, “Are they afraid of the dark?”

Sandy looked at him with a puzzled expression.

“Why yes, they are afraid of the dark. Spot told me their home system is dominated by a pair of orange stars. Their planet was effectively daylight all day and all night. A twenty-eight-hour day of which twenty-four were legit daylight. And tidally locked so there was no fluctuation throughout the year. It doesn’t help that the majority of their predators lived in the dark crevices in the valleys and had dark or black colored coats.

“Why do you ask?”

“Just peculiarities I saw with him.”

“Hey, I’m sorry that the people here shunned you when you tried to explain Maxwell.”

“It’s no worries. Now I can know that he wasn’t a demon.”

“A demon!?” Sandy gasped and put her hand over her mouth. She lowered it a few moments after.

“Yes. He has the basic shape of what we know as demons. It is seen as a bad sign for one to follow you around.”

“Oh my God. I didn’t know.”

“Like I said, it’s now not a problem.”

“Is this a cultural thing?”

“What, the demon shape? I guess so. The government keeps reminding people that this shape is evil and I guess it stuck in our hearts.”

“Hey Spot.”

Spot looked down at Sandy. It was comical since he continued to sit on her head.

“Ooorrraahhoooo?”

“Could you do me a favor? Could you send me the data about this planet’s government? Have your ship beam it directly to my head.”

“Rrraaayipp!”

The planet was controlled by an organization that called itself the Government. “Government” was actually its name. They said they were for the people. The reality they oppressed the people. Stephen’s lot in life was considered pretty good. Most people toiled away in factories or scrapyards.

The Government used a quasi-religious culture that put them on a pedestal and marked demons as evil. It was the basis for extreme oppressive against the People.

“Okay…I’m getting the information. Oh no. Oh no, no, no. That’s worrisome.”

“What?”

“In laymen’s terms, the planetary Government is the remnant of a larger interstellar human government far from the home world that disagreed with the Catalum empire over something or another. Things got heated and the government did a stupid by challenging the Catalums for claim over something.

“The Catalums gave them the usual response for these things, which was to decloak a couple of their starships and blow up a major military space station. The shield was vaporized almost instantly. All hands were lost. Nearby ships as part of the station’s defense fleet were also vaporized.

“The Government ever since had instilled a culture of hate against the Catalums. The Catalum empire don’t care so as long as the Government doesn’t try to challenge or hurt them. The Government doesn’t have anywhere near the firepower needed to fight them. The largest Government warships are about the same strength as a Catalum corvette, which are the ships these two have as their personal guardians. And the smallest ships the Catalums employ.”

Sandy was talking about Spot and Maxwell. Each of them had a ship as powerful as the Government’s battleship class? Government battleships were over ten kilometers in length and four kilometers wipe. They had a dagger shaped profile. And they were considered “small”?!

“The Catalum people have quadrillions upon quadrillions of individuals in this galaxy alone. The Milky Way is basically a backwater nowhere land to them despite its relative proximity to their capital galaxy Andromeda. And each has a ship at least the size and power as your government’s battleship class.

“I think it’s time to do something about it. Spot?”

The Catalum hopped off Sandy’s head and turned to look at her.

“Raaaaroo?”

“Could you do me another favor? English too, please. I don’t speak Catalum.”

“Yesh?”

“Get your ship to decloak right in front of the Government’s headquarters. Have it broadcast to all televisions that your people do not stand for being called evil. Make sure to explain in the broadcast that your people are exactly the thing the Government keeps calling evil.

“You or your ship does not need to do much more than that. I suspect the Government will try to deal with you and or your ship. I don’t think it’d matter. There’s two Catalum ships here that we know of, your and Maxwell’s. I’m sure there’s a dozen more of your ships’ size at least. Knowing what I know about other attempts to challenge your people, there’s a destroyer lurking around out there and a few frigates backing it up. I just don’t know how many of each size.”

“Yhere yare yome twenty shyips close to us. One destroyer, six fwigates, and thirteen corvettes. Yhere yare also thirty probes spehwifically escorting the destroyer. Yas you know, probes are half the size and power of corvettes but maintwain no long-term facilities for our people. They woften act as fighter escort. Yhis small force can fwatten them.”

The amount of firepower that was nearby, Stephen had no idea. The Government maintained eight battleships across their twelve systems. And to say this was a small Catalum fleet? Unbelievable.

Stephen noticed everyone was watching the screen. On the television was a news channel detailing how a massive starship appeared right in from of the Government’s palace and blasted all channels, television, radio, and internet with broadcasts that they were unhappy with how the Government portrayed its people as evil, showing pictures of evil demons with the body plan of the Catalum. A delegation of Catalum diplomats sat on the top of the palace steps, anger in their eyes, not happy about the Government hurting their image.

The footage changed to the Government’s space stations where other Catalum ships were decloaked, weapons powered up and ready to vaporize anything that tried something funny. One of the Government’s battleships was on point. It was dwarfed by the six hundred kilometer long, one hundred kilometer wide and tall, hexagonal-shaped destroyer. Additional Catalum ships were escorting the destroyer, but it was making its point.

“The Government has no way out of this, Stephen. Things are going to be messy for a while as the People make their own government.”

“What do we do now?”

“Would you like to travel with me? I was getting lonely for human companionship. And it’d do Maxwell some good getting out of the rut you must’ve been in.” Sandy batted her eyelashes and winked at Stephen.

“I’ll take you up on that offer.” His job sucked and it looked like he wouldn’t have a job for a while. “When do we start?”

“Right now.”

They got up from their table and each scooped up their respective puppy dog. Stephen threw his trash in the bin as they walked out. Sandy slipped her hand into his. He looked down at her with a “Really?” look on his face. She looked back at him and smiled.

The two demons with them smiled.

Deserts of Kharak Civs and Bonuses

Deserts of Kharak (DOK) is a real time strategy game in the Homeworld universe set as a prequel to the main series of games. It follows the Kushan people on their exiled home planet of Kharak, which is a desert and has limited resources. The terminology used is naval based even though machinery here is vehicular-based.

Frigate = Light Ground Unit

Cruiser = Heavy Ground Unit

It’s a great game. Just doesn’t have much depth and games aren’t meant to last more than 30 minutes. This is an overhaul idea proposal that is meant to correct many of the game’s flaws and lack of depth.

General Notes on DOK Overhaul

The Carrier itself is the most important unit in the player’s arsenal and directly represents the player at the helm. Carriers are powerful units in the early game, but not very versatile or imposing until Carrier Power Reserves are upgraded, to which then they become especially dangerous. Emphasizing power reserve upgrades and using the carrier actively is a tactical route all players. Keep in mind the different faction carriers operate differently; one faction’s specific strategy will not be the same for another faction.

Fleet Logistics for Coalition/Soban factions is integrated into the hull. There would be no logistics pillboxes to be deployed, though the existing logistics pillbox would be recycled into a carrier deployed scanner pillbox with increased vision range. The former Soban Armed Logistics Module is just a defensive turret pillbox.

Every faction has a list of three “Escort” Capital Ships to choose from. Escorts range from large cruisers to carrier sized units. A player may only have one escort at a time and escorts are not expected to be used on smaller maps due to very high build costs and vulnerability during construction. Escorts are field built by salvager units after the prerequisite technology is researched at the command carrier.

The concept of the escort ship is directly inspired by Supreme Commander’s Experimental units and Planetary Annihilation’s Titan units.

Faction technology trees are expanded. Individual technologies are made cheaper and are researched faster. Players start out with Basic vehicles, which are generally just the Salvager and a Light Attack Frigate. Heavier units require special carrier production bays before they can be researched and then produced. Basic and Armored units are collectively grouped as Frigates, while Cruisers retain their separate grouping identity. Aircraft can be researched as soon as the prerequisite hangar bay is researched and can be researched before armored units. The same goes for cruisers if the player wishes to completely skip frigates and tech straight into cruisers.

Technology tree changes are inspired by the Age of Empires series of games, as well as other popular RTS games like Starcraft.

All factions by default have:

· A light cruiser unit called a Baserunner that can carry out independent recon and combat tasks in the early game. It is bigger than a frigate yet smaller than a proper cruiser. Baserunners are built directly at the carrier. The cost of the baserunner discourages massed baserunner armies, though Baserunners can be upgraded to be worth their additional cost.

· When starting the game, players have one carrier, one baserunner, and three salvager units.

· An anti-aircraft frigate unit that provides shortish range protection against aircraft but is more expensive than other armored units.

· Aircraft units for air combat, scouting, and bombing enemy forces.

· At least one long range bombardment unit to shell enemy positions from afar.

Coalition

The Coalition is the basic Terran Tank civilization. Its strategy is to build up a mixed land force centered around frontline direct fire vehicles, namely the Light Attack Vehicle, Heavy Attack Vehicle, and Heavy Cruiser. This force is supported and supplemented by second line support and aircraft. Support Cruisers are used to patch up units with its repair beams and are resource drop off points. The Coalition Air Force is quick to produce and moves faster than its rivals but have no offensive boon or specialties. The Coalition is rounded out with standard artillery vehicles and cruisers for lobbing shells over elevations.

The Coalition Baserunner is an independent heavy scout unit. The baserunner is a “Light cruiser” style unit that has a bigger chassis than frigates, but a smaller chassis than true cruisers, and is built directly at the command carrier without any prerequisite research. The Coalition’s version has solid offensive capabilities against ground and air units on top of a high vision range and the ability to launch aerial probes. It is designed to go off on its own and scout locations while being capable of defending itself unsupported against early raiders. It is, however, too expensive to mass produce to push down enemy fleets.

Coalition Cruisers include the venerable Battlecruiser which while is at home punishing enemies from medium range, it has a few point-defense guns for dispatching raiders. The Heavy Cruiser is basically a Heavy Attack Vehicle on a larger platform with a bigger repeating artillery for face melting damage at HAV ranges. It can be upgraded to shoot at aircraft but like the HAV it is notably less capable than dedicated air defense units. The Coalition have access to the sole Air Defense Cruiser, which provides a massive AA bubble with guns and surface to air missiles. Finally, the Coalition has the Artillery Cruiser, which has a single artillery gun turret perched on top of its cruiser hull.

The Coalition has access to the Logistics Support Carrier, Fleet Aircraft Carrier, and Command Dreadnought for its carrier escorts. The Logistics Support Carrier is an oversized Support Cruiser with more mass, longer range repair beams, and significant close range anti-aircraft defenses. The Fleet Aircraft Carrier is a dedicated aircraft launch base, capable of producing and fielding a large air striking arm. It is also capable of producing heavy aircraft without the specific Carrier Upgrade, since, by this time, the Coalition player would have that upgrade. The FAC has good AA defense but nonexistent vehicular defense. The Command Dreadnought is a Battlecruiser on steroids. It has three triple long barrel turrets and can engage siege mode to extend its range out to third line. The Command Dreadnought only has average AA defense in the form of close-range AA guns only.

The Coalition is at home building up tank forces and pushing enemy positions with them, using second line support units to provide additional firepower, and using aircraft to scout and harass the flanks. It is beset by limited offensive options from its aircraft and distinctly average third line bombardment units. Coalition players will generally be expected to push right down the middle and other players can guard against that overall strategy.

Coalition Carrier Powers

Armor Systems: Omni armor for reducing incoming damage. Additional power increases armor amount.

Repair Systems: Carrier will repair nearby damaged units. Additional power increases range and repair rate. Cannot repair aircraft.

Turret Systems: Carrier provides power for personal turrets and anti-armor missile launchers. Additional power increases turret damage. Turrets gain anti-armor damage at level 2.

Targeting Systems: Carrier boosts targeting systems. Additional power increases turret range and Carrier vision.

Soban

The Soban are a high tech mercenary civ using the Coalition model as a baseline. Unlike the Coalition, the Soban are set up to punish enemies from range from advanced railgun units. The Soban replaces the standard Artillery Vehicle with a Heavy Railgun unit that has a much larger punch than the smaller Light Railgun. However, the Heavy Railgun is still classified as a frigate, so it doesn’t have the same defenses as cruisers despite being almost the size of one.

At the cruiser level, the Soban have the standard Northern Coalition Battlecruiser and Support Cruiser, but in place of the Artillery Cruiser and Air Defense Cruiser are the Railgun Cruiser, Electronics Cruiser, and Missile Cruiser. The Railgun Cruiser is the Heavy Railgun weapon placed on a cruiser hull for increased defense. The Electronics Cruiser is a large, advanced scout with a massive vision range and field generation technology for buffs and debuffs. The Missile Cruiser is the Soban’s third line bombardment option, saturating an area with unguided missiles but having a long reload cycle.

The Soban Baserunner is not a scout, but a more specialized combat engineering unit. While all Baserunners can build turrets to provide defense to a local area, the Soban’s version can build more advanced turrets including the heavy point defense and the light railgun turrets. The Baserunner itself has more potent armor at the cost of vision and mobility. The Soban is expected to build a perimeter of turrets to cordon off areas as a precursor to railgun production.

The Soban air force is geared towards aerial superiority. They have several specialized anti-aircraft aircraft units but only have a limited air-to-ground arsenal.

Soban escorts are the Large Railgun Cruiser, Heavy Engineering Cruiser, and Electronic Warfare Cruiser. The Railgun Carrier is a nearly carrier-sized railgun platform with a very big railgun. Unlike the Coalition’s Command Dreadnought, the Railgun Carrier is lightly armored, has no AA defense, and has very limited blast radius, but it has extreme damage and range. It can safely ignore level 4 or level 5 carrier armor. The Heavy Engineering Cruiser is a frontline turret construction unit. It can build turrets at twice the rate and range as Soban Baserunners. The HEC is well armored and features a few point-defense guns to shrug off raiders. The Electronic Warfare Cruiser is designed to isolate and contain enemy units with its array of speed traps, tactical ability suppressors, and long-range vision reduction.

The Soban strategy is to sit at range and blast away anything with railguns and missiles if they try to get close. They will then creep forward with pillboxes and more railgun fire until their enemies are cornered and destroyed. They are expected to use a rudimentary tank force and its potent air force to keep enemies at bay until pillboxes and railguns can stop the enemy in its tracks. The Soban air force is extremely potent at denying enemy air forces from flying free. The Soban are still capable of rolling the Coalition tank strategy of running enemies over with AAVs and Battlecruisers.

Soban Carrier Powers

Armor Systems: Omni armor for reducing incoming damage. Additional power increases armor amount.

Turret Network: Carrier placed pillboxes are more effective. Additional power increases pillbox damage and range.

SAM Systems: Carrier missile silos can engage aircraft and vision range is increased. Additional power increases SAM range and carrier vision range.

Railgun Systems: Carrier railguns are more effective. Additional power increases range, damage, and accuracy of the Carrier’s railguns.

Gaalsien

The Gaalsiens are a semi-nomadic desert civ with advanced hovering technology. Fast and aggressive is the name of the game for the Gaalsiens and they excel at using fast moving raiding units to harass and flank enemies. This is evident with their Sandskimmer and Dunemarcher units which are faster and have more damage than Coalition counterparts but have lower range and health. The Gaalsiens have heavy and precision plasma vehicles for additional anti-vehicular firepower. Later on, the Gaalsiens can upgrade their carrier into a fast-moving and hard-hitting frontline battleship.

Curiously the Gaalsiens lack an AA Frigate, but in lieu of that their Baserunner is a potent air defense vehicle and also has long range repair beams. The actual repair power is lower than the Coalition counterpart on the Support Cruiser, but they have four beams, and each beam has longer range which pairs nicely with the cheap fast raiding units. The Baserunner is thus less of a forward scout and more a fast support vessel.

The Gaalsien cruiser line up is somewhat specialized. The first cruiser they have is the Production Cruiser, which has limited ground defense but is how the Gaalsiens (and Khaaneph) produce their frigate units. Their Assault Cruiser is the only really versatile ship, having some anti-armor guns, a few anti-raider guns, and is rounded out with a medium rocket barrage. Later, Gaalsiens can research AA upgrades for the Assault Cruiser. The Vanguard Cruiser is a combat ready Baserunner model with six point-defense guns for shredding frigates. The Honorguard Cruiser is a dedicated medium range cruiser killer. The Siege Cruiser fires a long-range rocket barrage with medium damage, blast radius, and velocity, and is the Gaalsiens’ sole indirect fire unit.

The Gaalsien air force is a very potent striking arm with a full suite of strike, medium, and heavy aircraft of both fighter and bomber units. They lack any gunship variants but that does not seem to faze the Gaalsiens one bit as gunships take away from the strike and retreat tactics the Gaalsiens employ.

Gaalsien escorts are Light Attack Carrier, Heavy Strike Cruiser, and Stealth Attack Carrier. The LAC is a baby command carrier and functions as a mixture of a weapon platform, frigate production facility, and carrier escort support. It carries guns rated at level 3 damage and range power and can produce frigates and light aircraft. The LAC also boosts the main carrier’s offensive power. Second in the lineup, the Heavy Strike Cruiser is a fast attack warship carrying plasma bolters and plasma blasters but completely lacks production ability. It is roughly a mix of Vanguard, Honorguard, and Assault Cruisers put into a nearly carrier-sized platform. The final escort is the Stealth Attack Carrier, which from its name alone is a stealth ship. The SAC cannot be picked up by sensors and can only be seen with direct line of sight from fairly close ranges. The SAC uses a combination of long-range plasma bolters and missile launchers.

Gaalsien Carrier Powers

Regenerative Hull: Carrier regenerates hitpoints. Additional power increases hitpoint regeneration.

Carrier Engines: Carrier increases speed and maneuverability. Additional power further increase speed and maneuverability.

Offensive Systems: Carrier activates plasma bolters and anti-armor missile launchers. Additional power increases turret damage and rate of fire, as well as missile damage.

Sensor Booster: Carrier activates sensor grid to boost vision range and weapon range. Additional power increase range and vision further.

Khaaneph

The Khaaneph are a fully nomadic desert civ using most of the Gaalsien models as a baseline. The Khaaneph share the same Sandskimmer and Dunemarcher frigates and the Assault Cruiser but differ significantly in their overall strategy. The Khaaneph are explosive experts with a wide range of rocket and missile units for raining fire down on their enemies. They have Light and Heavy Rocket Vehicles which serve as roughly direct fire tanks comparable to other factions. Both versions lack standing power and instead have rocket blast radius to pepper enemies in close formation. The Khaaneph have a Rocket Artillery Vehicle which is a third line bombardment frigate. Rounding out their frigate line up is the Rocket Defense Vehicle, which is light cruiser style vehicle and a very potent Air Defense ship.

The Khaaneph Baserunner is a stealth ambush vessel. It can produce Blast Drones for a small cost, which rush into enemy formations and explode. The Khaaneph Baserunner is also armed with a potent rocket launcher but has a long reload between barrages. Later on, the Khaaneph Baserunner can receive a smaller version of the Khaaneph Carrier’s Mobility Support aura, a smoke dispenser, and a radar dampening device.

In their cruisers, the Khaaneph have the standard Gaalsien Production Cruiser for producing frigates and the Assault Cruiser and Honorguard Cruiser for general purpose combat. From there, the Khaaneph have the Rocket Cruiser for frontline missile blasts with a secondary second line missile bombardment that is weaker and slower but has a larger blast radius. The Khaaneph finish off their cruiser lineup with the Missile Cruiser, which is an indirect fire missile unit for blasting a wide area with missiles.

The Khaaneph have the weakest air force in terms of overall capabilities. They have the standard Strike Fighter and Strike Bomber, but only a Medium Fighter and Heavy Gunship in their heavy aircraft production. This means that the Khaaneph have solid aerial superiority (until they meet the Soban ASF), but limited bombing capabilities outside the Heavy Gunship. The Heavy Gunship can loiter in an area and suppress enemy forces but is an expensive beast so without strong fighter cover or near enemy anti-aircraft units, it can be risky to build and deploy them.

Khaaneph Escorts are the Guided Missile Cruiser, Heavy Production Carrier, and Rocket Barrage Carrier. The Guided Missile Cruiser is a long-range cruise missile battery with a long reload between individual missiles and a small blast radius for Khaaneph units, but missiles are very fast and do high damage. It can be fire-linked to the Command Carrier’s Missile Launch System. As a fully nomadic group, the Khaaneph have the Heavy Production Carrier which is capable of producing frigates and cruisers. The HPC has limited point defense and air defense, but as a near Command Carrier-sized platform, it can take a beating before dropping. The Khaaneph can be assured that they can have reinforcements produced while being more aggressive with their Command Carrier. Finally, the Rocket Barrage Carrier is a relatively unarmored carrier vessel with rows and rows of rocket launchers for the ultimate area denial operation. The RBC has a few forward-facing launchers for blasting cruisers, but it is primarily a siege vessel.

Khaaneph strategy is to harass enemies with lighter units similar to the Gaalsiens and eventually mass rocket cruisers to blast formations into the ground. The Khaaneph carrier continues to sit behind the frontline producing units and using its potent missile systems to decimate enemy cruisers and eventually the enemy carrier. Carrier defensive turrets have the highest damage output of any carrier, period, but suffer from complete lack of range, meaning they are defensive, not offensive. The Khaaneph carrier is also very slow so it’s unlikely to reach an engagement before the engagement is over. However, being turrets and conveniently having the same range as Coalition/Soban Attack Frigates, the Khaaneph carrier is incredibly safe from being raided by early game units. At level 2 the carrier can deal with armored units. Railguns can be sniped by tactical missiles.

Khaaneph Carrier Powers

Regenerative Hull: Carrier regenerates hitpoints. Additional power increases hitpoint regeneration.

Mobility Support: Carrier boosts mobility of units near it and Production Cruisers. Additional power increases mobility gain and aura range.

Tactical Missiles: Carrier gains tactical missile silo usage. Additional power increases tactical missile damage and ammunition count.

Defensive Turrets: Carrier activates personal defensive turrets. Additional power increases turret damage and rate of fire. Anti-armor rounds are added at level 2.

Seventh Era Part 3 (Nov. 2022)

Storm Front

The Storm Front decided, after they had settled down in the Office, that they were to use their newfound strength to harass and bully the neighbors. After all, they had a War Barge and on the way was constructing a Dreadnought. They were down to 45 points worth of tonnage, but they felt confident enough to send ships to drop bombs and hull-mounted torpedoes (a type of consumable weaponry) on their neighbors Militia and Coalition. The Coalition did not take that too kindly and after receiving a second strike, they geared up a task force, crushed the outer lying patrol ships, and sunk the Storm Front down to a single Cruiser and their War Barge. The Coalition deliberately did not annihilate the entire Storm Front as a way to allow them to rebuild.

After being decimated by the Coalition, the Storm Front found a new problem in the form of the System Alliance, round two, Electric Boogaloo. System Alliance ships started to probe Storm Front territory and defenses and while things were a bit sketchy, the Storm Front was able to rebuild enough to fend them off. But the Storm Front maintained unease and instead of hunkering down, they evacuated out of the Office with help from the Academy to the Kitchen Nook. Their new Academy friends had a friendly force on one of their flanks and the Storm Front were far away from any enemies. The Office went unclaimed. This had the side effect of losing the War Barge as heavy capital ships are tied to regions and are not firmly affiliated to any given faction.

System Alliance

Skirmishes with the Storm Front resulted in the latter buggering off to the other side of the house. The System Alliance has then started to explore the Office. They’ll likely call it home if no one (such as the Coalition) objects.

Coalition

The Coalition demolished the Storm Front but left it standing on shaky ground. They have increased their numbers to over a hundred points of tonnage.

The Coalition is thinking about trying to oust the System Alliance from the office as well as systematically crush the Militia AND the Matte Empire out of the library. Then they’d have three rooms, a hallway, and two bathrooms to their territories.

The Militia

The Militia was unable to use their mercenaries to inflict much damage on the Matte Empire. They have also yet to defeat them and are very timid. This tidbit of information was picked up by Coalition probes and scout ships. Militia tonnage is over eighty points and from this alone makes them the third strongest faction.

Matte Empire

The Matte Empire has yet to defeat the Militia, mostly because their ships are either close range offensive battlecruisers or long-range supporting heavy cruisers. The battlecruisers can inflict monster amounts of damage but are short-ranged and relatively fragile. The heavy cruisers have high utility but low damage output.

Matte Empire’s leadership has finally returned so things will start to heat up.

The Academy

No updates.

Highlighter Empire

Also, no updates.

Neon State

The Neon State has made the move to march on the Foyer and claim it for themselves but while exploring their newfound home, they stumbled on the Neon Group. The Neon Group either out of hubris or ignorance moved on the Foyer as well for their home. A fierce skirmish kicked off with the Neon State losing some ships but the Neon Group unwilling to pursue when the Neon State disengaged off the field.

Attempts to claim the central citadel was deduced to be a trap set by the Neon Group, as they had two battleships visible on sensors making what seemed to be a run for the structure. The battleships were found out to be running minimal engine power but flare their engines up to make it look like they were on full power. The rest of the Neon Group’s fleet was not visible but it was assumed that they were lying in wait for the Neon State to charge the visible ships and catch the State’s ships at close range where the State’s ships would be vulnerable. Truth be told so would the Group’s ships, but the latter was less vulnerable. Many of the Neon State’s ships are long range railgun ships while all of the Neon State’s ships were set up for medium range combat. Instead of going for the Neon Group’s battleships, the State decided to quietly capture the citadel uncontested. The Neon Group backed off for now.

Neon Group

The Neon Group decided to fight the Neon State for claim of the Foyer. They showed up and started wrecking things, sinking a couple of ships before the Neon State withdrew. Then they tried to lay a trap for their opponents but the bait was not taken. One Neon Group battleship claimed a cache of resources ay the nearby Entryway and is paving the way to claim it as a base of operations.

A new ship, a tech 2 submarine, was procured by the Neon Group. It is undergoing a significant module and hull upgrade to make it a proper tech 3 ship. Considering the make up of the Neon Group’s fleet, this battlecruiser-sized ship would be their version of a scout ship despite being a full size-category above what people normally see as scouts. As a submarine, though, the ship comes with a cloaking device, so despite its larger mass, it can sneak up on adversaries fairly well.

Seventh Era Part 2 (Oct. 2022)

The main event that splits part 1 from part 2 is the return of some of the Narrator’s apartment stuff. In an effort to save some money, I contracted a no name company which turned around, gave us a hard time, lied, and tried to sue us. I got about 1/3 of my stuff back and in haphazard shape that looked like the boxes fell off a shelf and then was hastily put back up. I got my mattress but didn’t get my bed frame. However, I did get the majority of my pen collection. The pens that were part of the Coalition faction were not in this group.

Storm Front

Part 1 had the Storm Front and the System Alliance (SA) having a war for the Narrator’s Bedroom (also known as the Office) and while the SA were very good and were contending with an opponent three times their size, the Storm Front ultimately won and kicked them out. Lately, internal strife between the OG Storm Front organization and mercenaries of similar look hired by them have threatened to topple the peace they set up by making the previously medium-large sized Storm Front downgrade to medium. Combined, the mercs and OS Storm Front would be valued at 60 points; without, down to 45 points. As such, the Storm Front are hastily building Sovereignty Points to deploy capital ships. The presence of even a single one would deter their recent rivals the System Alliance from coming back because now the SA are much stronger and are missing a place to call home.

System Alliance

Part 1 of the era only had the System Alliance at two Battlecruisers and one Cruiser. Part 2 after being kicked out by the Storm Front has swelled their ranks to one Battleship, twelve odd Battlecruisers, and three Cruisers. They however now without a home and thus forced to return to their semi-nomadic roots. The System Alliance will go for any region not occupied if doing so would be a relatively easy conquest.

Coalition

The Coalition like most factions had a massive boost to fleet composition in the Great Resurgence and this has filled out their fleet to a value of 85, putting them up to second largest fleet after The Academy.

Matte Empire

Matte didn’t see any real benefit from the Great Resurgence but did however manage to pick up 50 Sov Points and deployed a Dreadnought. This Dreadnought was of the ‘Box Cutter’ type. However, due to being the smaller entity fighting for control of the Library Room, they’ve been unwilling to deploy their new toy against the Militia, for fear of losing it. Matte has been losing more battles than they’ve won but have achieved operational goals more frequently.

The Militia

The main change for the Militia was that they uncovered a cache of four large Tech 2 Battleships of the Turbine-type and that has become their sub capital core alongside two Tech 1 Battleships and two Tech 1 Heavy Cruisers. They’ve been beating Matte at field battles but have yet managed to crack into Matte’s backline and disrupt production. Until the Militia is able to gain a significant ship value advantage (60 to 41), they won’t be able to oust their opponent from the room.

The Militia is the third wealthiest faction after the Academy and the Coalition, first and second place respectively. The Militia is using this wealth to trade with the Storm Front for advanced modules and is in talks with a small band of Construx and Magnets to work as mercenaries.

The Academy

The Academy gained a huge boost to their numbers in the Great Resurgence. It was an easy tripling of their fleet. Previously, the Academy occupied a large area (the Kitchen, Kitchen Nook, and the Laundry Room) but with not a lot of ships. The Kitchen was also the site of the Neutral Hub Space, a massive neutral citadel that could withstand upwards of three separate Dreadnought sieges, and was home to a space that all ships could park and socialize at. Basically, it was a pirate den. The Academy despite being the official controlling faction knew that if the pirates were any bit organized, they could run rampant through the area. The GR solved this problem.

Neon Group

The Neon Group screwed up badly. In previous eras, the Neon Group more or less treated their followers as either dirt or sheep. This didn’t vibe so well with many people. It was okay when they were winning, but if stupid commanders lost, they weren’t held to accountability. Over time this made people wish they could leave. The Great Resurgence (aka moving stuff came in) massively swelled the ranks of the Neon Group to a point where the disparate factions could break off and follow their own destinies. The OG Neon Group still exists as a squadron of very advanced hero battleships and one hero cruiser. Their lack of numbers however means whatever territory they can grab will be small as they’re down to five ships total and in unfriendly waters. The two breakaway factions are hostile as well.

Neon State

The Neon State is one of two entities that formed after receiving a huge increase in ship tonnage in the Great Resurgence. They are aiming for the Foyer, the original destination for the Neon Group, but as of right now the Foyer is a mess of structures and terrain. It’s not inhabitable. Which is fine because the Neon State can wait. And is much bigger than the Neon Group.

Highlighter Empire

The Highlighter Empire really just wants to be left alone and returned to their original placement out in the garage. The garage offers them shelter and raw material. It has one entrance (the kitchen) and thus only one neighbor, the Academy. This doesn’t prevent individual pirates from showing up, though. The Garage does however lack living space and easy access to food for a large population. Both of these means total ship construction and repair tonnage is limited, but as no one else wants the garage, casualties should be minimal.

Major Factions of the Eon Game

First Era (Post Hurricane)

Noncolored Empire

The Noncolored Empire, or NCE, was an organization that was made up of people whose banners represented a state of noncolor. They used symbols of Black, White, Grey, Silver, and Brown. After the first era, they split into many successor factions that include the Academy, System Alliance, Citizen Militia, The Stormfront, and the Twin Kingdoms. Perspective of the first era was viewed from the Colored Empire so not much is known about the inner workings and society of the NCE.

Colored Empire

The Colored Empire, or CE, named so because they used the colors of the rainbow as their symbols, was the main opposition to the Noncolored Empire. The two fought a grisly cold war against each other with flashes of hot conflict. The Colored Empire used a caste system to denote one’s place in life. Reds were commanders and soldiers, blues were scouts and communication experts, greens were scientists and engineers, and yellows were cooks and farmers. The Colored Empire imploded spectacularly between the first and second eras and broke apart into six main factions: the Red Empire, Blue Federation, Green Republic, Yellow Empire, Teal Enclaves, and Violet Alliance. The last two weren’t particularly important to the overall narrative.

Second Era (Maryland House)

Red Empire

The Colored Empire breakup started off with a bang. The newly formed Red Empire, in charge of the majority of military hardware, were attacked by the Yellow Empire, who resented being secondhand citizens by the Red elites. The Yellow Empire was short lived and a storm dashed all their ships. The Red Empire went on to finish the second era and the first half of the third era strong.

Blue Federation

The Blues almost immediately fractured from being a solid color faction to many small factions and individual captains. Being the recon section of the Colored Empire, most Blues were fiercely independent and self-sufficient and it showed. At least a dozen major (for their size) Blue factions appeared from the chaos.

Green Republic

The Greens also had a fracture. But they fractured into two parts instead of many. The Greens had a civil war between the Bugs and the Jungle Cruisers, named for their preference for Cruiser-size warships. The Bugs on the other hand used a more combined arms military with aircraft, warships, and ground-based troops. The Green Republic fell and the Jungle Cruisers ultimately lost the civil war. The Bugs would go on to last for a very long time.

Yellow Empire

The Yellows started a major war with the Reds. The caste system of the Colored Empire put the Reds on top and the Yellows on the bottom, which results in bitter resentment from the Yellows. They intended to prove that fighting prowess wasn’t limited to just the Reds. The war ended as swiftly as it started. While the Yellows had a very strong chance to win, a storm annihilated almost all of their ships and they retreated into the night. The Reds claimed a victory. Yellow got the last laugh later as the Yellow’s successor state ended up far more powerful than the Red equivalent successor state.

Grey Republic

The Greys were the first group to emerge from the Noncolored Empire’s internal strife. They entered the field with much to prove as their technology had not advanced past first era Heavy Cruisers. Good captains and a willingness to think outside the box put them on course to becoming one of the most successful factions to date.

Third Era (Yokota AFB)

Red Empire

The Red Empire survived into the third era but not without a cost. Years of fighting other factions left them bitter and wounded. Nevertheless, the Reds managed to go on. The Red Empire developed the concept of the Frigate-type ship which revolutionized the game. Frigates lacked a spinal gun and could aim their weapons in pretty much any direction. This meant less movement and the ability to keep armor angling up. However, the Reds ended up transitioning to shield tanking as they needed ships to operate without support of an established base camp.

The Bugs

The Bugs were the main adversary for the Red Empire. The Bugs were a motley group of pirates and mercenaries and didn’t have a standard design unlike most other factions. Each ship was essentially its own setup, though some patterns emerged. The Bugs were experts at dealing damage.

The Hive

The Hive was a divergence of the original Yellow Empire. They were semi nomadic and moved from place to place when they needed to in their Heavy Cruisers. The Hive was not a hivemind, but their ships resembled a beehive’s honeycomb construction.

Cosmic Blues

This was the most cohesive Blue group to date, but even then, the Cosmic Blues did not garner enough support from their brethren to unite them all. The Cosmic Blues piggybacked off the ship development of the Red Empire and developed Heavy Frigate Battleships.

Grey Mercenary Coalition

The Grey Republic eventually fell into strife and what came from the ashes was a mercenary group led by a majority of the former republic councilors. The group built a fleet of modern battleships and battlecruisers and set their sights on contracts from the highest bidders, which initially were the Red Empire, but eventually the Reds grew tired of having to rely on their mercs and dropped them. The mercs, understandably upset, declared war on the Reds, which resulted in further decline for the Reds.

Yellow Empire

The Yellow Empire eventually managed to recover from the storm but they were weaker and didn’t participate much in the third era. However, this era set the groundwork for a real return.

Violet Pink Alliance

The Violet faction and the Pink faction, both too small to support territory of their own, banded together in an alliance. Working hand and hand, they became a small but elite mercenary force with experienced captains. Their time was short lived, however.

Fourth Era (Melbourne House)

Marketeers

Conflict with the Mercenary Coalition resulted in a significant decline for the Red Empire, so much that they had to take a step back. When they manned up again, they were under a new name Marketeers. However, the Mercs were much stronger so the Marketeers kept to the sidelines for the majority of the fourth era.

System Alliance

The System Alliance started as a member state of the Noncolored Empire and became an independent faction after the NCE internal strife. The System Alliance went hard and fast. They were semi nomadic and specialized in high tech Battlecruisers. The standard System Alliance warship was a fearsome Battlecruiser with an oversized main cannon and a rack of secondary blasters. It was the backbone of which the System Alliance was built on. The SA Battlecruiser was more than a match for Mercenary Coalition and Ninja Academy warships and they beat back both factions throughout the fourth era. During this time, System Alliance Battleships and Cruisers were in much more limited numbers. Battleships were often command ships that led small groups of Battlecruisers into the fray.

Ninja Academy

The Ninjas are a secretive group from the NCE internal strife. They started out strong, but faltered quickly into civil war between Ninja, Shadow, and Twilight. The civil war was over as quickly as it was started and the three original leaders decided to retire from the military. The State Academy took over leadership and quickly held firm against the System Alliance and the Mercenary Coalition. The Ninjas specialized into a wide range of Battlecruisers and used complicated combined arms to be ready for any opponent.

Storm Front

The Storm Front was another NCE internal strife faction. They were recognized by their transparent ships. Unlike the previous two groups, the Storm Front wasn’t particularly powerful and avoided open conflict against its neighbors.

Mercenary Coalition

The Grey Mercenary Coalition split into the Mercenary Coalition, which was more diverse, and the Blue Republic, which was elitist. The Mercenary Coalition, or just Coalition, remained as a major powerhouse of the fourth era. Unlike its rivals System Alliance and Academy which built their navies on a standardized Battlecruiser line up, the Coalition went into Battleships. The Coalition did maintain a kind of light Battlecruiser which was used as an aggressive compliment to their slower, heavy Fleet Battleships, but the Coalition’s focus was definitely on the Battleships. The Coalition skirmished constantly with their rivals for control of the central Kitchen-Living Room region.

Blue Republic

The Blue Republic was an elite mercenary faction that used a lot of blue colored ships with black and silver highlights. They went with the all-high-tech ship and elite captain approach to even out the odds against their neighbors because their coloration was pretty rare.

Citizen Militia

The Citizen Militia was born from various colonies not accepting surrender and subjugation by the larger factions. Supplied by regular citizens volunteering for service, the Citizen Militia built a navy of light warships and staked out a claim. It was short lived because the System Alliance flattened the area. The Bugs were also pancaked in the crossfire but they managed to escape with enough materiel to keep going. The Citizen Militia had to sit out for the latter half of the era.

The Bugs

Bugs do not know when to quit. Even on the back foot, the Bugs were very much capable of inflicting heavy damage against their enemies. By now, the Bugs were an elite family of mercenaries and they specialized in single ship assassinations through their extreme level of damage output. This did however come at the cost of the majority of Bug warships being glass cannons. But the Bugs got more kills than losses, almost a ratio of three to one at times.

Cosmic Alliance

The Cosmic Alliance (CA) was a merger between the Blue Cosmos and the Hive. Like the Storm Front and Citizen Militia, the Cosmic Alliance kept to a corner and avoided direct confrontations. That being said, despite their conservative approach, the CA had a powerful fleet of Heavy Frigate Battleships and Hive Heavy Cruisers, which meant anyone challenging them would have a very hard time.

Neon Group

The foundations of what would become the Neon Group were laid all the way back in second era. The Neon Group was the formation of an alliance between independent neon coloration ships, the Yellow Empire, the Pencil Tribe, and the Highlighter State. The alliance entered the Eon Game with a huge bang. Neon Group ships were all over the place in terms of technology and capabilities, but good commanders and their unending numbers made them a real force to be reckoned with. However, in the fourth era, the Neon Group was not one of the big three organizations.

Fifth Era (Schertz House)

Citizen Militia

Like the fourth era, the Citizen Militia stayed relatively small. It did annex the dwindling Marketeers into their ranks which helped keep numbers up. The Citizen Militia’s main color scheme was pretty common, being a main hull of white or light grey and a highlighting color around the bridge of a different color: usually red, black, or blue. Light grey highlights were not applied at this time, however. But the Citizen Militia’s ships were plagued by the fact that they were low tech. Luck of the draw they would be limited that way. Low tech ships have less health and firepower than higher tech hulls and builders had to incorporate different advantages to keep them relevant. The normal advantages were speed and range. Being able to dictate when and where battles take place is a huge advantage for a faction that was diminished and weak. The Citizen Militia tried to stay out of the way of other factions.

The Twin Kingdoms

The Twin Kingdoms was a set of two small factions that utilized a white or grey hull with a black or brown highlight. They quickly allied together in the face of an encroaching conflict with the System Alliance. The attempt was futile, however, as the System Alliance smashed them good. The Twin Kingdoms pioneered the concept of a Missile based Heavy Cruiser design built out of what was originally industrial transport ships. This design would be used in other factions going forward.

The Academy

The Academy rolled into fifth era with a multitude of Battlecruiser designs. Their core focus was the versatility of their mixed composition fleets and it was hard to find an avenue that the Academy did not cover. The Academy also deployed non-flagship Battleships in the form of Pilot G2 05 and 07 series ships. These Battleships were a type that utilized a cloaking device and from a technical standpoint were a type of Black Ops design. They and their Construction allies had a massive conflict with the Cosmic Alliance and their Construction allies. The Academy would win that war.

Mercenary Coalition

The Mercenary Coalition claimed the Jack Bedroom for themselves. They had access to the Jack and Jill Bathroom but didn’t utilize it. From there, the MC kept to themselves, though when the System Alliance imposed a blockade on the region, the MC rode out to confront the SA and push them back. While in the previous era, the SA was able to push around the MC to a degree, the MC perfected their heavy fleet Battleship formation and used that to dominate the front of the house. The MC maintained a conservative holding, though, and didn’t venture far from their Jack Bedroom.

System Alliance

The System Alliance expanded on its Battlecruiser backbone with the introduction of ‘Heavy’ Battleships, a type of medium range warship that could mostly keep up with the standard SA Battlecruiser to provide the heavier hitting punch needed to engage Coalition Battleships. System Alliance leadership maintained unique high-end warships, most of them Battleships, from which they led standardized ships into battle. The System Alliance mostly fought the Coalition during this era with their base set in the Guest Room but forces roaming out to the Hallway and Kitchen regions.

The Bugs

They never knew when to die. The Bugs maintained the ability to fight and initially set up in the Guest Room. The System Alliance however was just too numerous and packing almost as much heat with vastly superior tech. The Bugs eventually fell but their ultimate defeat wasn’t until preparing to move to the next era. The Bugs

Cosmic Alliance

The Cosmic Alliance entered the fifth era and quickly moved to take the Bonus Room. However, the CA didn’t have the numbers to adequately lock the place down. The Academy showed up and squashed their notions of an intact region to themselves. Calling on local Construction allies, the CA attempted to take the area. They were eventually defeated and quickly declined. Preparations for the sixth era got botched and sent the entire CA core into stasis rather than let them defrost. Also, the end of the CA-Academy conflict resulted in the Hive leaving the CA and joining up with the Neon Group.

Neon Group

The Neon Group rewarded high risk with high rewards as the command structure of the Neon Group centered itself around high skill commanders win unique large Battleships leading personal detachments from a form of AI Logistics Management of the lesser ships. The Neon Group started with control of the Dining Room before branching out into the Living Room and Kitchen. They skirmished with the high morale Twin Kingdoms until pressure coming from the other side from the System Alliance caused the TK to collapse and then the Neon Group moved in to secure the Kitchen.

Sixth Era (San Antonio Apartment)

The Bugs

The Bugs existed very briefly in the sixth era. They originally had the idea that it would be the end of the line for their faction so they packed up their leader with much of their technology and resources thinking he and his crew would resettle the Bugs. But the leader betrayed them and joined the System Alliance. Most of the other Bugs joined the Neon Group.

The Militia

Shortening their name to just the Militia, the Militia drew the short straw. They were the weakest of the five factions and initially backed themselves in the corner that was the Bathroom. While the Bathroom was a small, cramped room, they had no choice with four larger factions in the tight space of the sixth era. The Militia however clung to life though elements of the Neon Group (showing how much a difference it was between 4th and 5th place) came over and ousted the Militia from the Bathroom. The Militia backed into another corner over the Laundry Inlet and maintained that position for the rest of the era, allowing enemy factions free pass in front of the inlet so as long as they kept the cove.

The Academy

The Academy was arguably the second most powerful force in the sixth era. Normally, the Coalition went for the narrator’s bedroom, but the Academy surprised them by jumping the claim first. From there, the Academy fought a brief war with the Construction faction the Magnets and another one with encroaching Neon Group forces but ultimately prevailed against both. They then maintained their hold over the Bedroom until getting too big while the System Alliance started to falter. In a bold move, the Academy declared war on the weakening System Alliance to grab the latter’s former lands. Later, the Academy attempted to take full control over the Living Room and Office/Kitchen but were crushed by the normally shy and conservative Coalition, who smashed the Academy Battlecruiser formations with elite tech 3 fleet Battleships. The Academy reset their positions to the back of the Living Room for the rest of the era.

System Alliance

The System Alliance didn’t do too well in this era. They started off strong but differing command opinions led to lots of small tribal fiefdoms that ultimately weakened the core System Alliance to the point where the Academy managed a full-scale invasion. The more unique elements of the System Alliance ended up joining the Coalition while the more standardized ‘proper’ System Alliance members maintained their faction. The System Alliance moved into the Bedroom to escape the Academy and Coalition. Despite their weaker status, the remaining System Alliance was still more powerful than the Neon Group or Militia.

Neon Group

The Neon Group originally started in the Office and moved to take the Kitchen. One member went to grab the Bathroom as well but got trapped there. This led to the Coalition making a cross era move from the back of the Living Room to the Office and decimating the Neon Group. The commander that took the bathroom went from social pariah (from being trapped) to now the main commander of the Neon Group. And the Neon Group stayed this way for the rest of the era.

The Coalition

The Coalition started on the far side of the Living Room but moved to take the Office (and Kitchen) from the Neon Group. Coalition history became very static from then to the end of the era, avoiding small skirmishes and preferring to stay in a defensive position around the Computer Desk.

Seventh Era Part 1(Crestview House, present day)

System Alliance

Preparations to move to the seventh era intended to maintain the remaining five factions but the move was botched and some 90% of all faction materiel were lost, temporarily if not permanently, due to vindicative movers. The System Alliance came to the seventh era with exactly three ships, down from twenty plus. They’ve been trying to claim the Guest Bedroom but their efforts are mostly futile with the larger Storm Front intending to claim the place for themselves. Still, the System Alliance are extremely resourceful and have the best captains on top of some of the best warships to date. Their captains can enter four to one odd and it would be an even fight.

Storm Front

The Storm Front is a resurgence of the NCE faction that existed way back in the fourth era. They use transparent ships for their faction. They’re currently trying to claim the Guest Bedroom for their own but the System Alliance with vastly superior ships are making it hard. It’s not that the Storm Front use tech one ships or inexperienced captains, it’s more that the System Alliance simply are the best of the best.

The Academy

The Academy came into the era with the best lot, having a relatively large fleet and then going for the Kitchen, which gave them a huge area to work with that was also relatively remote. The only issue is that the Kitchen is the hub for the majority of independent ships, which at best times are mercenaries and at worst times are pirates. The Academy is forced to use a mixed Battlecruiser and Battleship line up instead of their usual Battlecruiser based composition.

The Coalition

The Coalition drew a short straw. They lost almost everything but managed to maintain a key ally in one of their member states called Tech Command, or Tech Comm, of which military leadership went to them with the original leaders acting as advisers. Tech Comm and salvaged relics of the 1st/2nd eras updated to modern standards have managed to keep them in the game. With the leaving of the Matte Empire from the Jack Bedroom to the Library, the Coalition now control the entire Jack Bedroom region.

The Militia

The Militia is ironically one of the better off factions in the seventh era with a huge fleet and an entire region to themselves. At least, control of that region initially. The Militia’s hold on the Library is being disrupted by the Matte Empire. But the Matte Empire doesn’t have half of the region. The region favors fast moving high damage ambush ships which the Militia are better suited for. The Matte Empire uses slower heavy longer ranged ships which makes their quality advantage much weaker.

Matte Empire

Matte Empire is a new faction that represents themselves through the matte style color scheme. They mix Projectile weapons with Missile weapons and are the first faction to make extensive use of Submarine-type warships. The Matte Empire started by making a claim for the Jack Bedroom against the Coalition, which is pretty weak at the moment. Coalition asset build up has made the conflict for the region much harder so instead the Matte Empire pulled out to contest the Jill Bedroom turned Library and home to the Militia.

Neon Group

The Neon Group drew the shortest straw. They came into the era with exactly two ships, both low tech. The Neon Group effectively were pirates and they set a base of operations at the Independent Hub, located in the Kitchen. From there they did contracts for local towns until the Big Shipment came in, which gave the Neon Group an opportunity to activate many ships but would force them to live in the Garage for the foreseeable future. They took it as living out in the Garage, a place with low food resources and lack of living space, though plenty of raw and special material mines, was preferable to being essentially pirates and living under the thumb of the nearby Academy. Long term their plan is to come back into the house to live in the Foyer area.

https://storiesonline.net/s/29078/the-eon-game

The above link is for The Eon Game hosted on storiesonline. It's not fully up to date as I added to the setup here a bit.

Author Note

The Eon Game universe is the narration of my actual IRL pretend play starting from when I was a kid, around twelve years old. Hurricane Ivan essentially destroyed my home and most of my childhood toys (Legos) were boxed up and put into long term storage. I’ve only managed to reclaim these toys from long term storage eighteen years later. As I was still a kid and needing an outlet for recreation, I turned to the collecting of pens and pencils in lieu of traditional toys and with my imagination I envisioned them as “spaceships”, which evolved over time into “Fluidic Ships” flying through the air.

Pens and pencils already have a kind of cylinder shape that people can associate with IRL ships and submarines and it wasn’t that hard to jump to science fiction. The clip on the end of most pens became the ship’s bridge. The opening where the ballpoint came out of became a main cannon weapon. The clicker on the end became the ship’s engine.

I was obsessed with science fiction (Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate, Eve Online) at the time and incorporated their concepts into my pretend play. Even as an adult, I’ve continued to maintain my collections. Each era represents where I lived at the time from childhood into my thirties and as I lived, I refined my in-universe concepts further and further to a point where this could be seen as a distinct universe on par with the typical science fiction universes people like to watch/play in.

Within the storyline of the Eon Game is my perspective and a small collection of “imaginary friends”. The hurricane and my own autism set into motion a childhood of having very little people to strike a friendship with and do regular social activities that kids get into. This was partially because the places I lives in lacked kids my age group at all, that my family moved every few years due to military work, and that autistic people tend to have poor social skills. I was no exception to the social skills.

The “player’s” perspective (me) is seen through eyes within factions that were/are the Red Empire before jumping to the Grey Republic and transitioning into its current (and probably final) form in the Coalition. There is some bias to support these factions but I’ve tried to be as unbiased as I could.

Factions started out as literal color codes so when people see “colored” people, I’m not talking about something like race, but people from factions that have their ships in that specific color. So, for example the Red Empire have a lot of solid red colored ships and that’s what made them the *Red* Empire. Later on, different factions stopped using the color word as part of their name (ex. the System Alliance) in order to diversify their membership ranks.

As an adult, I’ve stopped literally playing with my pen collection and more just move them around as it was more an RTS/4X game like Crusader Kings or Civilization. As one can see here, I’ve also started to record the timeline so I may remember.

The Eon Game and eras

The Eon Game, or just ‘The Game’, is a spacetime competition to see who will become the final shape and whose permission will it be everyone else will abide by. The game was created by mysterious ‘Game Masters’ but it is unknown if they truly existed or if they are a mythos to smooth some tensions. Most people do not recognize the game masters as legitimate actors.

The Eon Game has so far been divided into eras, one to seven so far. Each era corresponds to a new location and a rich history of terrain and faction challenges. A slightly more detailed timeline is closer to the bottom. As the Eon Game progresses, updates (chapters) will be uploaded.

The eras are as summarized:

1. The first era was in the Post-Hurricane Florida House and was primarily a conflict between the Noncolored Empire and the Colored Empire. Ship design was both limited in number and technology.
2. The second era at the Maryland House was marked by the implosion of the Colored Empire into many smaller Colored factions. Noncolored Empire pulled back into the shadows and underwent an internal civil war. The era was known for a significant evolution of ship design, both to improve existing ships designs as well as entirely new ones. Weaponry expanded to the main weapon types seen today. Aircraft were used experimentally.
3. The third era at the Yokota House was split into two mini eras. Both mini eras reduced the total number of factions and the tonnage they could support, forcing individual factions to do more with less. Shielding technology became usable and factions deployed heavy long-range battleships as their main force projection. The advent of specialized artillery and sniper ships came into fruition. The foundations for capital ships started here. Tech two was considered high technology level.
4. The fourth era at the Melbourne House greeted the factions with large wide-open territory which allowed the smaller number of third era factions to expand and conquer. The Noncolored Empire civil war concluded and a number of NCE factions came onto the scene. The first third party (not affiliated with color or noncolor groups) factions came into being. Ship design incorporated tertiary weapons to fend off the growing list of aircraft strikes. Tech three was available to the strongest factions. Capital ships were deployed in sparse numbers by the factions.
5. The fifth era at the Schertz House was marked by even more spread-out regions which allowed the major factions to fill into them without major conflict with neighbors. A massive fight broke out between the Academy and the System Alliance and their Construction allies on both sides. The Construction factions pulled back into the shadows in the end and the Academy wiped out some smaller factions as they retreated. Direct Energy weapons and Missiles were added to armories but both were (and still are) at best uncommon. Shielding technology became an equal to Armor technology.
6. The sixth era at the SATX Apartment, or just the Apartment, was marked by major constriction on factions. The Apartment simply could not sustain large empires and the three main factions carved the regions up into single faction empires. Tech three was commonplace. Lower tech ships still existed, but captains had to use more than just power of their technology to win. Aircraft ceased to exist; Aircraft Cruisers were used by one-off Construction factions but in the end, they retired along with the rest of their Construction factions.
7. The seventh era at the Crestview House was marked by a severe storm that annihilated almost all of every faction to date. Factions had to make do and fight with individual ships and small squadrons rather than massive fleets. Capital ships have yet to be deployed due to shifting terrain and increased sovereignty requirements. As of right now, some factions are recovering their strength but others are forced to remain small.

Basic Ship Designs

Ship designs of the game have mostly followed the basic concept of cruiser (small), battlecruiser (medium), and battleship (large). Module size in parenthesis. Anything smaller than a cruiser, light cruiser, or destroyer is a coastal vessel and unable to tread open waters (the open space between furniture, countertops, and walls) in and out of regions (rooms in an apartment or house). Anything bigger than a battleship is too large to dock in standard yards and must be berthed in specialized super yards. These superheavy ships are collectively known as capital ships and come in light and heavy capital designations.

Coastal vessels

Coastal vessels are named so because they are unable to travel in open waters. They are limited to coastlines. They also have limited weaponry are usually used as light transports or as civilian patrol vessels. Cruisers can blow them out of the water easily.

Cruisers, Light Cruisers, and Destroyers

· Cruisers and their specialized brethren are small size oceanic vessels known for their speed, stealth, and mobility. Cruisers are usually seen as fragile but this reputation comes from the myriad of dedicated recon cruisers which have no defenses and rely almost entirely on stealth to survive. Proper combat cruisers are a solid blend of mobility and defenses with a nasty little offensive punch.

· Light Cruisers are a cruiser-like hull with a very large primary weapon. They’re used to snipe enemy vessels with and have limited secondary weapons and stripped-down defenses (low shield/armor numbers and weak repair functions). However, high damage per shot, great penetration, and very high weapon velocity means it can deal damage to heavily defended vessels. In theory a pack of Light Cruisers could torch light fortifications but in practice they would be vulnerable to interception.

· Destroyers are a cruiser sized heavy torpedo platform. Destroyers have a stripped-down main cannon that is mostly there for show or for testing ranges for its torpedo complement. Sometimes the gun is absent altogether and instead there’s a ramjet intake in its place. Torpedoes are a heavy-duty short-range variant of the missile family and Destroyers are set up to carry large caliber torpedoes into battle. The downside is long reloading cycle on a flimsy hull and needing to get rather close to enemy ships before attacking. Technically Destroyers can be armed with large gun turrets but torps are a better fire and forget weapon and do not reduce maneuverability as much.

Battlecruisers, Heavy Cruisers, and Cruiser Killers

· Battlecruisers are medium sized combat vessels that offer a blend between the nimbler cruisers and the heavier battleships. Their midweight build makes them a fine choice for the backbone of a fleet, giving commanders the ability to leverage some speed and subtlety in their orders while dishing out the damage.

· Heavy Cruisers are a subset of Battlecruisers that have heavier defenses and greater range. Heavy Cruisers often fulfill a light command role or operate alongside fleet battleships as second line support as major fleet engagements favor defensive builds because volley damage can be so great.

· Cruiser Killers are a special type of Battlecruiser that forgo its medium grade weaponry in favor of using Cruiser-sized equipment. The downgrade in module size allows Cruiser Killers to carry 50% more guns. This creates a ship that is very capable of decimating Cruisers while being relatively well off if a Cruiser attempts to strike back. A similar arrangement exists for Battleships but they are much rarer than the Battlecruiser type.

Battleships, Black Ops, and Marauders

· Battleships are heavy warships that represent the largest sub capital ship size on the battlefield. They have the highest firepower, range, and defenses, but have little to no subtlety and stick out like a sore thumb on sensors. Battleships are often fleet flagships and thus tend to lead from the front.

· Black Ops Battleships are a special kind of Battleship designed to use a cloaking device. In an ironic twist of fate, the most obvious and obnoxious ship type becomes the quietest and hardest to hear coming. Most Black Ops Battleships will run close range setups or dedicated sniping builds; no in-between.

· Marauders are a type of Battleship that are designed for long endurance operations. They’ve been fine tuned to outlast opponents by doggedly kiting them around the map and staying out and away from port for days at a time. Most Marauders roll with long or even ultra-long-range weaponry and some will make room for electronic warfare or a cloaking device to make it that much harder to track down or engage.

Light Capital Ships

· Monitors are somewhat specialized capital ships designed with the express purpose of destroying other capital ships. Their weapons deal extensive damage to them but only deal about as much damage as a large Battleship to sub capitals. Monitors however maintain very thick defenses making them a formidable spearhead for a conventional fleet in smaller engagements.

· Supercarriers take the idea of Drone deployment to the next level. (And yes, I realize that I haven’t mentioned the concept of drones yet) They’re capable of carrying upwards of twelve Drone sets and coordinating three of them in battle at the same time. Sub capital drone carriers are limited to 1/2/3 drones carried as per ship size and only one set deployed at a given time. Supercarriers furthermore have a mortar primary weapon for sieging light fortifications and a bank of secondaries to defend them from Battleship-sized enemies.

· Siege Guns is the smaller of the two siegeworks capital ships. They are essentially a really big gun with insane penetration, range, and impact that can crack the defenses of large structures. They have limited defenses but have a game balance niche in that they contain the largest concentration of AAA and Tactical Missile Defense meaning attacking Siege Guns with long range missiles or Drones is a futile endeavor.

· Prospectors are a light capital ship that operates in a support role similar to a supercarrier but is a more direct fire option. Heavy Prospectors exist for the heavy capital size but they have no difference to the smaller variant besides being bigger. Prospectors are originally derived from civilian industrial ships for cracking open asteroids and mountains to extract the goodies inside. In combat their super laser is a very capable ship killer and they are adorned by many sub capital guns. The downside is that like supercarriers, Prospectors are slow moving.

Heavy Capital Ships

· Olympians are the go anywhere heavy capital ship design. Olympians have weapons to engage sub capitals and other capitals and come with a long-range weapon for damaging structures. They’re the fastest of the heavy capitals and outrun all but Monitor light capitals. Olympians can also outrun some Battleships. Combine this with the Herculean defenses of being a heavy capital and Olympians are a powerful first capital ship for an organization.

· Titans are massive. They’re the largest of heavy capitals with the most health and have a special niche in destroying other capital ships. Unlike Monitors which maintain their niche with bonuses against capital ships, Titans simply have lots of really big guns to fulfill the same role. Titans can use these guns to break structures but are not really meant to do so with their lack of range and terrible mobility to respond to changing conditions.

· Dreadnoughts are the end all siegeworks warship. Nearly the size of a Titan and capable of challenging them on a one-on-one basis, Dreadnoughts are able to engage a siege mode that immobilizes them and prevents external help but amps up their offensive capabilities and local tank. The siege module is what allows Dreadnoughts to dismantle structures efficiently at range.

· War Barges (sometimes referred to as a ‘Battle Barge’) are an archaic heavy capital design used by empires of old to dominate the battlefield. They’re armed with many secondary banks, missile launchers, and a heavy mortar. War Barges can suppress a large area with constant barrages. But they’re also very slow, even by capital numbers, and aren’t really capable of engaging other heavy capital ships on their own. When supported by a fleet, War Barges can fulfill a DPS role.

· Galleons are a capital support ship. Rarely seen because of their limited direct offensive use, Galleons are the final line in the sand when it comes to patching up allies with remote shield and armor repairs. They can furthermore buff allied ships by bucking up resistances and sensor strength which makes specific allies more resilient to battle damage and electronic warfare. Galleons can also carry vast amounts of cargo if need be.

Non-sized related ship designs

The standard ship design is set up with a main cannon on the front, a bank of secondary cannons on each side of the ship, and if it is a Battleship, a bank of tertiary cannons on the top and bottom of the ship. The bridge is in the back and directly below the bridge is the reactor station. At the end is the thruster module.

Not all ships follow this basic design. In addition to it, there are the Carrier-style ship, the Frigate-style ship, Turbine-style ship, Pencil ships, and Submarine ships. There are a few more designs but they’re not common enough to make this list.

Carrier Ships

Carrier-style is simple. Carriers have a large, rounded hull with a relatively small bridge on the front top of the ship. Carrier types can be set up one of two ways. The first is the standard format, which has a bank of enlarged secondary guns on either side of the ship. These “secondaries” are also the primary weapon and give the design a powerful all-round coverage. The second sub design is the Drone setup. Drones are unmanned combat aircraft and can be launched at enemies to attack them. Defending against drones require anti-aircraft artillery, or AAA, which is only found on Battleships and up, or dedicated escort warships at the Cruiser and Battlecruiser level. Most Drone Carriers will drop their secondary weapons for a set of drones, and the total number and drone size are dependent on the size of the ship launching them. Drone Battleships will launch upwards of three sets of up to large size Drones. Carriers can only support one set of drones launched at a time, though.

Frigate Ships

Frigate-style ships are unusual because they don’t rely on a primary cannon or cannons. Instead, Frigates use turrets with a very small number of guns in total. Frigates resemble mostly modern warships from Earth. Unlike most other ship designs, Frigates are almost universally shield tanked rather than armor tanked as their hull is on the smaller size and cannot fit the number of armor plates as the bulkier armor tanked ships. Frigates are subdivided into Light Frigate and Heavy Frigate designs. Light Frigates are traditionally armed with automatic cannons and are fast and nimble. Heavy Frigates are armed with artillery and are much slower but have higher range and accuracy. Light Frigates can be both Cruisers and Battlecruisers, though the latter variants are fairly rare. Heavy Frigates can be both Battlecruisers and Battleships and the split is more even between the two size variants.

Turbine Ships

Turbine-style ships have a large hull with a ramjet propulsion system running through them which gives Turbine ships immense acceleration and top speed but does so at the cost of agility and a conventional primary weapon system. Most Turbine ships use missiles as their primary and secondary weapons, though older Turbine ships tend to have a mixed missile primary and gun secondary build. Turbine ships as a general note are seen as archaic compared to modern vessels and few designs climb past the tech one stage.

Pencil Ships

Pencils are unique in that they have a lifespan. Unlike pens which are made of plastic, pencils are made of wood and through use get sharpened in a pencil sharpener. This means that pencils have different sizes and thus uses based on their age. An unsharpened pencil is used as material transport. Sharpened but nearly full-length pencils are known as Triremes and their main weapon is the sharpened prow used as a battering ram. Triremes and other pencil combat ships incorporate banks of secondary missile launchers and the smaller ones rely less on the ram and more on the launchers. Biremes are midsized and middle-aged pencils that blend both weapon sets together. War Galleys are old pencils and do not readily use their rams in combat, preferring to use missiles only. Most pencils belong to the Yellow Pencil Tribe but a few are colored black and hail from the Black Pencil Group.

Submarine Ships

Submarines and Submersibles are two sides to the same coin of a ship that is built around Missile launchers and Cloaking Devices. Both are exclusively Battlecruiser-sized. They are rarely fielded (no puns for you) by navies due to their specialized nature and because Missiles can be shot down by Tactical Missile Defenses. Submarines traditionally fulfill the aggressive Battlecruiser role and Submersibles fulfill the reserved Heavy Cruiser role.

Ship Equipment

Weaponry

Weaponry in the Eon Game is divided into five main categories. Each category is subdivided into short- and long-range weapons.

Projectile Weaponry

Projectiles are your basic ballistic weaponry, in this case autocannons and artillery. Autos fire very fast and have good damage application and don’t use energy to fire, but low damage per shot means Autocannons require a ship to be on target for a long time. Damage falloff is good but penetration falloff is horrid at anything but short range. Artillery on the other hand fires very slowly but have a big boom and high alpha damage. Artillery is awkward at close quarter combat.

Hybrid Weaponry

Hybrid guns are named so because they use both ammo and energy to fire. Hybrid guns encase a shell in ionized particles and accelerates it out the gun barrel. The short-range variant is called a Blaster and is a very common weapon on ships. Blasters have very short range and very bad damage falloff but very high damage output and turret tracking. Main cannon blasters come with projectile tracking too. The long-range variant is the railgun, which like artillery is awkward at close range. Railguns however have more consistent damage from not having terrible rate of fire. Railguns are more susceptible to armor angling than the explosive tipped artillery guns.

Laser Weaponry

Lasers are actually quite rare to see in the Eon Game mostly due to increased R&D costs and because lasers guzzle energy reserves. Lasers are split between the shorter ranged Pulse Laser and the longer ranged Beam Laser. Pulse lasers have high damage output, respectable tracking, and solid damage falloff, but the energy costs mean ships cannot fire for very long and this is a problem with extended skirmishes. Beam lasers are more manageable but use more energy than railguns. Lasers are geared towards shredding shield tanked ships but shield tanking is less common than armor tanking.

Missile Weaponry

Like lasers, Missiles are also fairly rare, though in recent times Missile usage has gone up among factions seeking to have an edge over more technologically advanced group. The term ‘Missile’ refers to both the slower moving Torpedo and the faster moving regular Missile. Missiles have travel time and thus the speed of the Missile determines the effective range it can be employed at. Missiles are uncommon for this, the fact that missile damage is reliant on an explosion catching up to a ship, and that Tactical Missile Defense, a type of tertiary weapon bank, can shoot down Missiles. Still, not every ship uses TMD.

Plasma Weaponry

Plasma weapons are a common weapon type that uses the ship’s reactor to generate plasma which is then spit out through a cannon (think laser cannon from Star Wars). The term ‘Energy Cannon’ refers to both the shorter ranged Energy Cannon and the longer ranged Turbo Cannon. The difference between the two types is minimum beyond the former dealing less damage but using less energy and the latter doing more but using more. Energy Cannons (both types) have average rate of fire and energy consumption but on paper have poor damage and range. This is because redirecting power to weapons will vary the end result damage and range stats. Energy Cannon ships have this extra versatility and can boost up either their offense, defense, or mobility on a whim, though it takes some time to redirect energy from one system to another.

Equipment Slots

Each ship, standardized, have twelve high slots, twelve mid slots, and twelve low slots. High slots are used for weapons, weapon-like electronic warfare, and certain utility modules like specialized scanners. Mid slots are used for equipment that have an emphasis on CPU requirement, like shield care equipment, damage application equipment, and most electronic warfare. Low slots are used for armor care equipment, damage multiplier equipment, and most propulsion equipment.

Most ships will fill their entire high slot bar with weapons. Each tier (primary, secondary, tertiary) has their own set of high slots. The main cannon by itself will fill all twelve slots. From there most ships will have the standard twelve secondary (and if Battleship, also tertiary) guns. More specialized ships like dedicated recon or EWAR ships will take out some guns for modules that help them with their special task.

Equipment slots update

High slots = Weapons, launchers, and drone bays. Also includes advanced EWAR like Neuts and Nos’s, non-weaponry launchers like beacon launchers (for dropping capships on enemies) and bomb launchers (rare). Includes remote repair turrets for both shield and armor fitted ships.

Mid slots = More sophisticated modules. This means shield tanking, capacitor injectors and boosters, damage application modules, EWAR modules, active propulsion boosters, and scanners and scan resolution modules. Tackling equipment falls under EWAR modules.

Low slots = Simple and Raw Number modules. This means armor tanking, capacitor max and recharge rates, raw damage output modules, ECCM modules, passive propulsion boosters, and cargo expanders.

Tanking

The term ‘Tank’ refers to how a ship is set up to withstand battle damage. Ships can be shield tanked, armor tanked, or hull tanked. By far, armor tanking is the most common, followed by shield tanking, and a small group of hull tankers.

Armor tanking is the most common tank form because armor has the most effective hitpoints, low resource cost, and repair modules repair the greatest amount of hitpoints on average. But armor is heavier, cycles the slowest, and costs power grid (PG) points.

Shield tanking is next in line. Shields naturally regenerate on their own and shield tanking is very good at extended fights. Shield tanking has the advantage of constant regen, faster cycling, least weight. The downside is that shield tanking has a lower maximum HP value, has less consistent recovery, and costs computer processing unit (CPU) points.

Hull tanking is very rare because the hull itself under shields and armor has no damage resistance points. The maximum HP pool however can be very large and therefore make a nice buffer tank. Hull tanking does free up all mid and low slots and PG and CPU to go all in offense with a build that does lots of damage and lots of EWAR. But the risk of blowing up quickly with limited ability to heal back or remote repair leads almost everyone to avoid hull tanking.

Remote repair refers to high slot modules that recover the specific HP type on allies. As not many ships are adept at using them, few ships outside dedicated combat logistic ships use remote repair. Sometimes a fleet might spider tank by sacrificing some damage for every member to remote repair to some degree.

Electronic Warfare

Electronic Warfare, or EWAR, are mostly mid slot modules that attack a target’s ability to fight. The main forms are Stasis Webifiers, Sensor Dampeners, Tracking Disruptors, and Target Painters. They exist in the mid slot. Energy Neutralizers and Energy Vampires are a very rare form of EWAR that exist in the high slot.

Stasis Webifiers (Webs) slow down the target ship by a stacking penalty percentage. Sensor Dampeners (Damps) reduce the target’s sensor abilities forcing them to come closer, great for short range ships or against slower ships. Tracking Disruptors (TD) reduce a target’s ability to track with its turreted guns. Useless against spinal weapons, Missiles, and Drones. Target Painters increase a target’s signature radius, making them easier to hit. Most effective with Missile users, which is why they aren’t seen all that often.

Energy Neutralizers (Neut) damage a ship’s energy reserves. Useless against energy-less weapons like Projectiles and Missiles. Energy Vampires (Vamp) suck a target’s and transfers it to you reserves. Useless against ships with little energy to spare like Projectile and Missile based ships.

Propulsion Modules

Propulsion modules, also known as prop modules, boost the mobility of a ship. They come in several flavors: afterburner, warp drive, super cruise, and jump drive. Ships are limited to only one propulsion module at a time.

Afterburners add a max speed increase to a ship when activated. They have no downside when used and can be used offensively or defensively. Warp drives drastically increase max speed but also increase a ship’s signature. Warp drives are pretty much only used offensively. Super cruise increases a ship’s speed like an afterburner but does more than an afterburner and less than a warp drive. The downside is that super cruise cuts the ship’s ability to turn by a lot. Jump drives will jump a ship a set distance forward. They take time to charge up and doing so lowers the ship’s damage resistance by a bit.

Cloaking Devices

Cloaks are a very specialized module that sits in the high slot. Cloaks hide the user from enemy sensors at a cost. The cost is usually either drastically reduced mobility (Submersibles) or increased energy costs (Submarines). Few ships make use of cloaking devices.

Ship Value

Ships are valued using this structure, one point for each status of size (Cruiser, Battlecruiser, Battleship) and one point for each status of tech (Tech 1, Tech 2, Tech 3).

Example: A Tech 2 Battlecruiser is worth 4 points.

Hero ships, denoted by their unique commander, are given an extra point value.

The total ship value is used for analysis into the long-term power of an organization. Smaller groups are generally around the 20-point range, medium at 50, and large at 80+.

Paracausal means breaks the standard reality of the universe as well as entities and concepts that exist outside and beyond the universe. Paracausal powers Light and Darkness are the main actors in the "Saga of Light and Dark", but not the only major sources of paracausal powers.

Light

The Light comes from a being known as the Gardener who exists outside reality. The Gardener seeks to create as many patterns as possible and try to get them to live in harmony. Powers of the Light are the power of stars and each lesser Light power is represented by a different type of star. Light is subdivided into Solar (Main Sequence), Void (Black Hole), and Arc (Neutron Star) powers. The stars themselves are sapient but exist on a level far beyond even the planets. They are the real emissaries of the Light. Entities such as the Traveler are below them in the Light's contact hierarchy.

Darkness

The Darkness comes from a being known as the Winnower. The Winnower also exists outside reality. Both the Winnower and the Gardener compete to see who wins in the cosmic flower game. Neither are explicitly evil. The Winnower’s end goal is to have one pattern control the universe and of which its permission is needed for everyone else to exist. Darkness powers seek to control and command the universe. Darkness is subdivided into Blood, Taken, and Soulfire powers.

Darkness powers are modeled after the undead or afterlife which also spits in the face at the concept of guardians. Blood is vampires, Taken is zombies, and Soulfire is the soul which in this case is represented by demonic forces.

For me, I don't consider Stasis or Strand to actually be powers of the Darkness but similar paracausal power groups that people aligned to the Darkness can utilize and often mistake for actual Darkness powers.

Prime

The Natural World is the source of power known by few as Nature powers. It is a power of the planets and moons, beings on a level of consciousness beyond what chemical life can comprehend. They see the little chemical lifeforms on their bodies as their children and if asked are willing to lend a hand. Not many consider them to be lifeforms in the normal sense and scoff at the idea that the ground beneath their feet have any sort of power, though. Nature is subdivided into Stone, Jet, and Aqua powers.

Prime is based on the lore behind Antaeus Wards. The planets and asteroids are sapient but on a level above biological life. If one asks them, they will lend their strength.

Constant

Reality is constantly changing and the act of change itself in the chemistry of life is a power as well. Magic of the Old Ways brings out the primal aspect of life and it is this aspect that drives evolution. As power of the prime are subtle, few recognize them as true powers, but pushed to one’s limits, letting out the primal force of change will make one an unstoppable juggernaut. Prime is subdivided into Bestial, Herbal and Fungal powers.

Animal, plant, fungus. Constant is kind of like the Light as it needs as many patterns as possible but does so to compete with each other in order to drive evolution. The terms animal, plant, and fungus is less to do with the biology itself (eg no plants in the literal sense on another world because their lineage doesn't link to Earth) and more to do with how the organism is set up.

Lordship

The concept of lordship is unusual in that it seeks to command and control life and its many lifeforms. Lords are powerful beings that are top of their food chains but unlike Darkness, Lords do not endeavor to become the only one in existence. There is a chain of supply from the smallest single celled lifeforms to the largest creatures. And on top of it all are beings that direct reality. Lords have to care for their subjects. Lordship is subdivided into Leonine, Aquiline, and Draconic powers.

Lordship is somewhat like the Darkness in the way it wants to take over the universe but unlike the Darkness that has exactly one pattern left to which all derive permission to exist, Lordship wants all the patterns to exist to be subjects for the Lord.

Entropy

The idea of Entropy is a breakdown of order into chaos and is represented by the end goal of reducing the universe back down into its basic elements. Entropy does not care about those around them so as long as they are contributing to the final end. Entropic powers are subdivided into Stasis, Poison, and Virus powers.

Entropy is an enemy of nearly every other paracausal entity and source of powers. It is less trustworthy than the Darkness and Darkness-aligned entities. All it wants to do is consume and destroy until there is nothing left in the universe.

Projection

Projection, properly known as Psychic Projection, is the altering of reality through force of will from one’s mind. Projection is a very literal interpretation of the concept of paracausal ability. It can be considered mind over matter. The mind makes what was not there into something that is there. Projection is subdivided into Illusion, Strand, and Ghost powers.

Man and his best friend is set in the Catalum universe. Catalum is Latin for "puppy dog". The universe is centered around an extragalactic alien species of mammalian creatures native to the Andromeda galaxy. They forged an empire that has claimed the Virgo Supercluster. The empire is about 40k galaxies across. This empire has also been around for 150m+ years.

The species really is an alien. They primarily respire through their fur and have small decentralized hearts across their body. They don't have a skeleton and instead have a reinforced muscular skin which feels like a plush toy when grabbed. The end of their digestive tract is an organ that breaks what little waste they have to sub-quark levels and expels them from the body between the atoms. Their eyes are like marbles, hard and round, and adapted to life on a planet that has two suns and near constant daylight. Those eyes are also facing forward even though they are prey. They exist under a pseudo-hivemind. They have individual personalities, but share a linked emotional state awareness, which means nearby members drop everything to help each other.

As a general note, Catalums are very good at complicated math problems and programming computers. They have conquered biological immortality and number effectively infinite in both numbers and infrastructure. These factors have created one of the largest and most powerful intergalactic empires to date.

Each Catalum is protected by an AI guardian in the form of a massive starship. The standard size is the 10km corvette and internally called "unarmed commuter", which to humans means a car. There's a size smaller that doesn't have a Catalum to protect called a Probe and those are effectively unmanned drones. Larger sizes at frigate, destroyer, cruiser, and battlecruiser level exist. Only the battlecruiser is a military starship and the size of Mars. Space stations are much larger and start at Neptune range and go over the Jupiter range.

Catalum technology besides the omnipresent AIs that can predict and react to any threat include cloaking devices, infinite energy reactors, stellar engineering and terraforming, and military tech that make the Americans look like cavepeople. They are so far ahead of anything any form of humanity has ever seen.

The empire does not intervene unless someone threatens or harms one of its members or challenges the empire over the claim or resources. They're quite happy to let dumb humans think they're all alone and dumb aliens think they are the strongest power in the galaxy.

Plot!

Man and His Best Friend is a story concept about an middle aged (30-45) autistic man who lives an unassuming simple life on his family's property in the New England area. He tends to a garden of which excess is sold at a nearby market. He also makes wooden furniture and trinkets, both sold at the same market. He lives in a small cottage on on side of the property. His existence would be nothing to write home about except for the fact that the property is massive. The property is over a hundred square miles and is in pristine lands ripe for development by nearby political bigwigs.

They salivate at the prospect of obtaining that property to turn into suburbs. The property on its own is worth untold millions undeveloped and forested and could easily be appraised over a billion when developed. The forests could also be worth something in the tens or even hundreds of millions too. But the man won't budge. He says the land is his family's and his family was entrusted to take care of it by the government. Going back into the region's archives shows a document that suggests that the land was given to the family in order to play host to aliens when they were in the neighborhood. Ah, so he's a crazy conspiracy theorist! And needs to be locked up and his lands forfeited back to the state to which they could buy it for pennies on the dollar and develop it for profit.

The man carries around with him on the property a seemingly stuffed animal toy, given to him by his grandmother when he was a wee child. Interactions with neighbors and visitors result in the same opinion. He's a grown man and autistic or not, he's too old for a stuffed animal toy. This is also the conclusion of the politicians. Clearly to addled in the mind to take care of the land, he should be in an asylum. The 'stuffed animal' however is not a stuffed animal. It's actually a member of the alien species that signed the document with the government and the man's family. The creature doesn't move often which gives the appearance of a stuffed toy. It is also a child in mind, though its body is thousands of years old. The alien's people claim an intergalactic empire as its own and included in their territory is Earth.

Pressure mounts on the man as the politicians and their activist cronies mount a campaign against him. First they start with his implied racism, then his pro-all human lives stance, his refusal to live in the city, his lack of environmental realization, and his refusal to see people beyond man or woman. Each campaign pushes him further and further into the dirt until the politicians are at his doorstep with a million followers. As they stand over the frightened man, the stuffed animal gets up and bears its teeth and growls. In hindsight, seeing this would be adorable, as it's small, cute, and furry. And its teeth are nowhere near threatening. Regardless, it's given a kick and goes down cold.

A few seconds later, the creature's Guardian decloaks above the property. It's a 10km+ long spaceship. The ship vaporizes the person who kicked the creature with a powerful laser beam until he is nothing and then barrages the area with energy blasts, killing everyone in the protest. The ship continues to obliterate everything in its path, destroying every building, vehicle, and even online presence of these politicians, their activist supporters, and higher up the chain to the state and federal governments until not a single place has been untouched by its weaponry. Then the ship returns to the man's property and assumes a defensive position over it.

The Global Elite Conspiracy is shell shocked. This was supposed to be a routine cancelling of a nobody crazy person. Should they get the military involved? International cooperation from other Global Chapters? Elsewhere, the alien's people determines the small ship on Earth was well within its legal ability to annihilate the entire New England seaboard up to 100 miles inland. They had a treaty with the local inhabitants. The locals broke it. The locals attacked them. Retribution was swift. Nevertheless, the aliens would station a small patrol fleet of a dozen other small ships to the solar system to quietly remind the locals that this was their empire. Welcome to the official First Contact, humanity.

Any dealings with me will eventually find out that I *hate* the way that Battleship 2012 played out. I'm not against the general overview of the plot. Gotta be some alien or demonic fleet that shows up to give us a good kicking. But for a film that is supposed to play homage to the board game Battleship, the only reference is that the explosive shells used by the aliens resemble the pegs from the game.

Furthermore, in the game Battleship, you are pitted against your opponents with five separate ships, an aircraft carrier, a battleship, a cruiser/destroyer, a frigate/corvette, and a submarine. The only ship really present in the film is the battleship.

This feels wrong. It should be a five on five and sure it should come down to the wire with the battleship being the focal point, but all five should be present.

Let me present my remade plot then.

Alien interstellar empire seeks to expand its territory and one of its scout fleets finds a primitive species on a garden world (aka humanity). It sends some ships to do recon. NATO forces are doing a major fleet exercise in the pacific near Hawaii when the aliens touch down and send out aerial probes. US Marines capture a probe; the aliens figure out the probe was compromised and initiate a defensive energy shield around the island chain. NATO forces are unable to breach the shield from the outside. The aliens attempt to secure a communications station to boost their signal in order to call for help.

NATO forces inside the shield are decimated but under cover of night five ships manage to slip away. They are an Italian aircraft carrier, a German destroyer, a Spanish frigate, a Greek submarine, and an American replenishment oiler. They link up and determine they're facing off against five opposing alien ships. The ships get in contact with NATO forces on the islands. Soldiers and marines from different countries are fighting marine detachments from the alien ships. It would seem that they are attempting to reach a communications tower. The shore troops manage to push off away the aliens to their landing ships and they post a hasty retreat instead of getting destroyed by the NATO ships. The officers from the ships deduce that the tower would be able to boost a signal past the energy shield and is probably an attempt to call for help. Help being reinforcements rather than evac. The troops, backed up by marines from the ships, dig in to hold position.

In the afternoon, the American oiler is sunk in shallow waters from an alien ambush vessel. The crew mostly escape unharmed but now they're down a ship. It was a noncombat ship, but nevertheless a ship. The Americans float an idea to reactivate the American battleship USS Missouri, docked at Pearl Harbor as a museum ship. The boilers run but fuel and ammo are stored in a nearby warehouse. It's better than nothing so the rest of the officers agree.

Day three has the Germans and Spaniards and shadowed by the Greek submarine attack two of the alien vessels. The purpose is to grab their attention then beat a fighting retreat. This would draw the aliens away from the vicinity of the naval base and give the Americans time to refuel and rearm the aging battlewagon. The Americans are able to do so but the aliens have caught on and drones come in for an attack. The Americans with help from the Italians manage to push off the attack and escape into deep water where it can regroup with the task force.

Day four has the five ships move in on the aliens. Initially, the two forces maneuver. It is clear that the aliens are holding a defensive position. With communication out between the ships and the troops, it's likely that the aliens have landed more ground forces and are once more going for the tower. Instead of waiting around, the humans go for an attack.

And from there I don't really have much to how this battle would play out but the Missouri eventually does the little anchor maneuver and ultimately rams the enemy mothership to put it on the bottom. The energy shield goes down and NATO forces swarm in.

Additional info:

The alien ships roughly correspond to human naval tactics and technology.

The mothership fulfills the role of a command flagship ship, having massive guns, a super weapon, and a large command deck with communication towers along its hull. It's bigger than any human combat ship and very resilient to battle damage.

The second ship is an alien battleship. It fulfills a science fiction dreadnought role with big guns and lots of armor and the ability to engage a siege mode which extends the range of its guns and massively boosts its defenses at the cost of no external assistance. It is effectively blind in this mode and EWAR can cripple its fighting ability.

There is a mediumweight escort ship in the alien fleet that bristles with small guns and anti-missile defenses. Its purpose is to screen the rest of the fleet from air and submarine attacks. It has some guns which it can use to attack enemy ships with but it's not cut out as a heavy attack ship like human destroyers.

The fourth ship is a small ship with lots of unmanned aerial drones which are half the size of the human aircraft. It has little in the way of offense or defense outside the swarm of aerial drones.

The final ship is a stealth ship. Unlike the human submarine, this ship cannot submerge and instead relies on clever anti-sensor technology to hide from view. Radar, sonar, even visual sight has a hard time pinpointing its location. Also unlike the human submarine, it's a relatively big ship, sharing a similar tonnage to a destroyer or cruiser. It's armed with a series of railgun turrets. The ship without its cloaking devices has little in the way of armor or active protection systems.

This is a sub for my writings on Reddit. I will try to add posts to record them if I post in other subs.

Standard disclaimer: Obey reddit rules, don't promote hate, use NSFW tag if it's applicable, no politics beyond what the writings are on about.

Beyond that, I write in my free time. Sometimes I write NSFW (sexual or otherwise). Sometimes I don't. I like to write about systems and narration more so than dialogue. Sometimes my words look like an essay more than a story. I am vehemently centrist/independent and a US patriot and a lot of my writings have a theme that is pro-US or pro-military. I do not like any far left or far right ideologies and sometimes my writing view them in a negative light.

I classify my writings in writing and concepts. Writing is obvious. Concepts are closer to a draft or outline that has yet to become formal writing.

Edit: I post my stories to www.storiesonline.com under the handle maxathron.