The Art of Zor (56k DIE)

[Zor]

A couple of Interstellar Protectorate governing corps cadets, the future leaders of the Protectorate.

Save for the few local elections, those who want to persue a political career are required to go through several processes. The first step in which is to receive at least one three year university degree in either...

History
Moral Philosophy
Economics
Sociology
Psychology
Political sciences

Then they can sign up to attend a governing corps academy. There they become full time students, studying various aspects of the art of statecraft for the next four years and are examined every 6 T-Months. Those who do not have a passing mark are made to retake the entire thing again. Generally only 15-25% of the recruits from those which start at one years time manage to graduate, after which they are given the Rank of Apprentice Administrative Clerk.



The American M-37C5 Wolverine Power Armor system is among the most advanced and respected suits of power armor in the galaxy. It is also among the heaviest, weighing in at 650 kilograms per unit and the most expensive. It is possible to equip seven to ten conventional infantrymen (depending on their load out) for the price of one Wolverine Power suit. As such, the wolverine is usually limited to one unit per normal infantry squad and specialized heavy infantry units (Generally in the Marine Corps).

First Put into production in 2194, the Wolverine Power-suit was designed in part as a response to the increase in Soviet and Japanese mecha (both numbers and general types). The US military had deemed that mecha technology were not worth pursuing, but improvements to power armor was a good course for development. Typically the Wolverine is outfitted with a variety of upscale weapons, including heavy machine guns, multi-barrel rocket launchers and belt fed grenade launchers. To get the most out of the suit, the hands and feet of the operator are actually inside the arms and legs of the suit. For mobility and to allow for landings, a set of countergravity pannels are typically located on its back. This can be used to give the suit a "Grav Dash", in which it will hover about half a meter to a meter above the ground and then move at speeds of up to 100 km/h for up to 45 seconds before needing to be disengaged. In low key conflicts with less developed powers and a couple of minor classes with the Amazonian Federation, it has proven its worth in battle.

[Zor]

A Self Propelled Artillery vehicle based off my 1930s Tank's chassis. Its main armament is a 125mm howitzer. Its does its job, but it's open top does make it vulnerable.

[Zor]

Native to the southern rain forest forests of Lada, Treesnaps are a category of long thinly built ambush predators. Treesnaps are about a meter to a meter and a half in length and have long slender upper torsos that they can quickly move in a sudden rapid movement. This attribute is used to kill smaller creatures, usually avians using both claws and their jagged toothed jaws to catch them. Treesnaps are distant reletives of Swampstrikers. They also eat eggs, aquatic creatures and smaller arboreal creature. They generally have camouflaged coats to blend in with the background to hide from predators. In the 1900s, there was a vogue for wearing genetically engineered passive Treesnaps over the shoulder, though this has died away.

[Zor]

An agent of the Imperial Security Intelligence Service with an Novan Imperial Army soldier at his side gives the clear to begin a counter-terrorism action. Many of the newer worlds of the Novan Empire have considerable movements bent on regaining independence, ferreting out cells of that live among the loyal (or at least passive) subjects of the Empire is a constant task, requiring vast numbers of experts, agents, vast and complex Surveillance networks and underground connections. Brute force often ends making things worse, for this reason occupation forces often rely on ISIS agents to advise them on their actions.

[Zor]

A Novan TRX-45n3 Conqueror Armored Personnel carrier, one of the most common military vehicles used by the Novan Military and one of the oldest, serving on the front lines for over 163 years with some modifications. Capable of delivering a force of 12 soldiers behind enemy lines and providing support, both against enemy infantry with its 15mm autogun and anti-vehicle using a side mounted 120mm rocket launcher. It is fully amphibious, a capacity improved in 2263 with the installation of limited counter gravity systems making it easier to float and allowing it to handle rough terrain slightly better. From first wave drop operations to keeping the peace in newly annexed, the Conqueror is there. Each wheel contains an independant electric motor, thus allowing for considerable manuverability and redundancy.

[Zor]

This is a Meatbag, a semi successful hideous product of science. It's native habitat is the Sino-American Union cruiser John Glenn. In examining a strange set of gravitic readings, it suddenly finds itself catapulted tens of thousands of light years away several thousand years in the past as a floating wreak. Most of the crew died as large sections of the ship were depressurized, leaving only a small number of survivors stranded in a handful of habitable areas and the ship's computer, Jade, has her hands full simply trying to keep the ship from exploding. Among the survivors were a few people who had access to the ship's genetics lab, which was working but most of it's gene samples had been irradiated. Cut off from food supplies, with only a small supply of emergency rations they did what they could to survive until Jade began re pressurizing the rest of the ship. Covering an area of cargo space into a makeshift farm by dumping thousands of liters of raw sewage and kitchen waste and lint from the ship's laundry and using some plants salvaged from a thoroughly trashed hydroponics bay they set up a place for plants to grow to provide oxygen in case of life support failure and create. To make sure they have food, they work to put together what bits of genetics they have to create a kind of livestock to graze on it. This was their most successful product, a loose skinned skinned lumbering hermaphroditic bastard of seventeen different creatures. The only problem being that shortly after the third meat bag was removed from its tube and left in it's artificial pasture, one of the survivors went crazy and proceeded to beat every one of his fellow survivors to death with a lamp in the shape of a woman's leg before dying himself due to injuries sustained by his last victim who defended herself with a blender.

As the doors were left open, the Meatbags were allowed to wander the ship's corridors, feeding and breeding and expanding the area in which plants could grow by leaving natural fertilizer where they went. Eventually Jade restored life support to more and more of the ship and thousands of Meatbags made it their home. Eventually they came into contact with cats, which had survived due to being nearby a meat vat which gave them food and began to live off newborn and recently dead meatbags. They created a new ecosystem on board the John Glenn, which annoyed Jade to no end as due to protocols and the fact that she was ordered by an officer not to kill them or there offspring, she could not break out the combat drones to get rid of them. Then she finally begins waking up the stasis pods on deck 143, and the rest is history.

[Zor]

Jade is the computer mainframe aboard the the John Glenn, self aware but loyal she is a nessisary element for the operation of the ship, though she still needs the crew about to keep things operating at peek efficiency. At her command are countless robots, from devices as small as a mouse to manuvering craft the size of a house. It also includes over three hundred armed security drones. This force has expanded since the event struck, killing most of the crew and doing massive damage. For interation with humans, she projects the hologram depicted above. Jade is loyal to her nation, but is never the less fully self aware and capable of a suprising array of emotional activity, including boredom.

Using her fabrication system she had re-pressurized much of the spacecraft. Despite this she is constantly annoyed to all hell that she was ordered not to kill the Meatbags and other creatures that have made their way around the ship and turned much of it into grassland. She also has to put up with the ship's population of feral cats, although natural selection eventually took care of their wire nibbling at least. She also has to contend with the Degens that inhabit the irradiated dark decks and have as such thwarted her attempts to deal with them. After six thousand years she finally managed to repair the hyperdrives, albiet only able to get about 350c out of them. Also she began work on various projects to amuse herself...

*creating large amounts of artwork in cargo bay-5 out of scrap metal
*Creating over 250,000 Warhammer 40,000 miniatures and playing year long matches against a specialily programed computer.
*Comming up with names and personalities for every single one of said miniatures.
*Having landing drones build 1/1 scale recreations of historic landmarks on various moons while she collected deuterium and did overhauls.
*Capturing stray cats and selectively breeding them using a complicated series of test tracts for intelligence, dexterity, socialibility and bipedal locomotion
*Using clothing fabricators to make vast amounts of sock-puppets for the purpose of putting on sock-puppet theater productions of various peices of literature, including moby dick, the entire discworld series, Lord of the rings and so forth.
*Adapting Disney musicals to fit various historical time-periods and animating them (her personal favorite of these is the WWII soviet version of "I'll make a man out of you")
*Building numerous model sailing ships out of wood and bamboo and sailing them around the flooded decks.

When a power surge forced her to awaken the stored survivors from stasis after 21,000 years they were quite suprised to find out what she had been doing in that time.

(yes i did borrow a few ideas from red dwarf, credit where credit is due has been given. Grant/Naylor is awesome)

[Zor]

A capable and intelligent if somewhat spindly Humanoid labor robot that does its job well. This robot does not look for a fight, but don't try starting one or it will give you what for!

[Zor]

This is a Canadian Robot, one of a vast army of robots built specifically to combat the threat posed by modern society by Wizards. It is armed with two wrist mounted lasers but can use other weapons. Various spells that wizards use to hide themselves from humans do not work on robots. Though wizards can often beat these robots in a one on one fight, automated Robot factories can make vast numbers of Robots. They are also effective against Vampires and each individual robot is expected to take on hundreds of Zombies and win.



While the first few years of the Invasion of the West resulted in swift victories and the conquest of millions of people and square Li to the Empire, expansion in the west has slowed down considerably. Partially this has to do with an increase in effectiveness on the part of the Western Barbarians in terms of their ability to wage war, but mostly it has to do with the demands of occupation, Defending held territory from raids, the construction of infrastructure, rough terrain and logistics. Still expansion continues. One of the biggest fronts the Zhong fight on is that of the Mountain Principalities, which the Imperial Army is conquering valley by valley and village by village. The main opposition is from the Principalities, Local Dwarves, Porgorians, Dark Elf Raiders and Orcs, but not all resistance to the coming of civilization comes marching under a banner.

Many of these newly conquered barbarians do not give up when Imperial soldiers march through. Sometimes they will raid army camps at night or raid in the woods, other times mobs may attack Imperial soldiers and officials. Either way, the Empire does not tolerate such actions. Emperor Zhao has likened himself to the First Emperor and has said that he did have some admirable qualities. Despite this, he says that his policy towards rebellious villages (lock every resident in their houses, set the entire village on fire and then hand up the charred remains on spikes) is too extreme. Instead villages that rise ups against Zhong Authority are depopulated. The locals are given a few hours to gather up their things and are then relocated. Usually to a Laogai re-education facility, with children being taken to Imperial Orphanages. New settlements are then built on the remains, settled by loyal citizens of the Empire.

[Zor]

Alongside Meatbags there were other meat beasts made in a survival attempt, the flopper was one of them. Floppers were an earlier prototype and were successful save for a few minor shortcommings in terms of digestive efficiency and there incredible stupidity. They have a very low brain to body mass, most of which stems from catfish and it is often malformed. Many floppers would die due to eating large amounts of soil, getting sick from eating excrement, eat fellow members of their species or their own feet and similar. Meatbags at the very least had somewhat more sense and were also seen as being a source of leather. Despite their stupidity, the Floppers survived due to a very fast reproduction rate, being Parthenogeneic and able to swich genders as well as laying dozens of small eggs every few months which hatch into fry, although many of these are often eaten by other floppers. They were also frequently killed by meatbags, not out of any predatory or even aggressive intent on part of the Meatbags but simply by being crushed under foot by accident by the meatbags and would latter absent mindedly eat the gore.

When they left the confines of their pasture, the Floppers faced new foes in the form of felines. After a couple of months meatbags have nothing to fear from the felines, while the foot long floppers could easily be brought down. Only their quick reproduction saved them from extinction at the hands of the felines and eventually some more brain managed to get into their heads due to natural selection. Morlocks also fed on those that wander onto the Dark Decks. They also have to put up with the fact that Jade hates them immensely as floppers end up getting into machinery and dying there due to their immense stupidity. Indeed, she wrote a poem with some 689 stanzas in sixteen languages about how she would gladly never complain about the meatbags again if every flopper died.

[Zor]

Colored version of Peter.

Zor

[Zor]

Uruks are named after the creatures of classical literature created by a Dark Wizard as a superior race of warriors. Like their literary namesake, they were artificially created by a team of scientists and engineered. The product of genetic and cybernetic engineering. Each one a composition of vat grown organism and cybernetic implants created in tandem. They could thrive in a wide variety of climates, from tundra to sun scorched desert, they could breathe comfortably in a number of atmospheres which could kill an unprotected human. They could eat basically any carbon based life and survive. They had strength matching a power-suited soldier. Even unarmored they were quite durable. They were also remarkable for their repairability. Their tissue was specifically set up so that if a limb was lost, another could be easily attached in its place (although they could regrow lost limbs). Millions of these creatures were made and sent into battle by this warlord before he was defeated. After that only a handful of Uruks escaped destruction.

Those few that survived went to the fringes of known space on a handful of ships to rebuild and eventually to seek out a destiny for themselves. Uruks were genderless creatures that reproduced solely by artificial means. The latter generations had parents in those which preformed the best on the field of battle. They proceeded to gather what equipment they could, collecting capital by acting as mercenaries and hitmen and collecting resources through plunder to acquire gear as well as doing what they could to make their own machinery. Their earliest attempts produces had a high failure rate and what sucesses they did have were crude constructs of minimal intelligence but after various instances of trial and error they eventually managed to recreate their own forms.

Today, the Uruk State has emerged as a minor power on the periphery dedicated to its survival. It controls a handful of worlds which are dominated by vast industrial cities which are home to vast numbers of Uruks, including a number of civilian Uruk classes (engineers, laborers, technicians, medicals and so forth) have been created. Their society is highly martial and is based around the fundamental goal of survival of the Uruk Species, although surprisingly their is a fair amount of art casually made about it. Uruks by in large try to stay on the good side of the major human powers and has sent forces to assist in a fair number of bushfire wars on their frontiers on their behalf. Uruks are known for being excessively calm, pragmatic and methodical creatures, if not emotionless.

[Zor]

Gorgons are dangerous, this is well known and controlling them is a difficult job. Despite the fact that gorgons are by in large solitary and are small in number, biting a small number of humans to turn them into additional gorgons on very rare occasions, even a Single Gorgon can pose a significant threat. Dealing with these creatures takes some effort, which makes regulating their affairs to minimize the risk they pose to the general populace difficult. Fortunately, a new tool has fallen into the hands of the Supernatural Control and Research Initiative to deal with these.

A Rouge Wizard of considerable power once tried to go to the distant future in hopes about sixty million years forward of gaining some insight to give him more power, this backfired as what he found was a world abandoned by mankind, having used up all his magic to open the temporal gateway he was quickly killed on arrival by the native fauna, and a couple of examples. Among these was a evolutionary descendant of the Little Brown Bat which had developed into an aggressive social land dwelling predator. This creature was killed, but was cloned and a female was dirived from its blood. These creatures could be socialized and lacked any vision whatsoever, instead using highly developed echolocation as well as having a highly developed sense of smell. A few dozen of these beasts are retained for purposes of Gorgon Control, the powerful petrifying spells that they employ are useless against a creature which has no eyes to see with. Using Radio collars to give orders to the beasts, as well as giving instructions via speaker, they are also useful for requisitioning assistance from Gorgons to restore victims of Recent Gorgonic petrification when possible.

(Done because i think the idea of a land dwelling predatory bat is awesome)

[Zor]

(Some Backstory from SDNworlds and the Commonwealth) A Barbarian Conscript. Barbarians were an a force which once threatend civilization, a mess of pirates, mercenaries, criminals and other renegades united by the Warlord Joel Forester who managed to take over a planet and turn its industry to feed his war machine and then set about invading other worlds. To bolster their ranks, they dragooned hundreds of millions of men and women to serve in their armies, most as conscripts such as this poor bastard. Conscripts were given little training and armed with equipment which could be churned out as cheaply as possible. Their were allot of variation as each warlord had some freedom as to what his conscripts were equipped with. Conscripts were also encouraged to loot fallen soldiers for additional gear, this one has a pauldron taken off a fallen enemy. Conscripts were hardly the most reliable soldiers and were often given addictive drugs, had their families threatened, were fed plenty of false information and were given the prospect of gaining status in Barbarian society and loot to ensure loyalty. Conscript forces gradually became more effective as time went on, but eventually the Babarians were pushed back by Nova Atlantean forces and the conscripts were gathered up and gradually re-introduced into society.

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Her Imperial Majesty, Empress Susan-X: Paramount Leader, Guardian and Custodian of the Novan Empire (skip twenty four pages of long winding titles that the Imperial Throne has accumulated over the centuries that make up the full style) of the Imperial House of Nishibori. Though the Imperial Diet and the Supreme Shogunate creates and passes most laws, the Empress has a right of Veto and at the same time, her opinion on matters generally has powerful sway. Ascending to the Thrown of Worlds in 2298 AT, she has so far proven an effective Monarch. Numerous statues dedicated to her can be seen across the Empire. She is currently wearing an Novan Imperial Navy uniform holding the Rank of Imperator, which is reserved exclusively for the reigning Emperor and eating a expertly prepared Carsongrad style meat bun

[Zor]

Here are two men of two different nations. They only ever met once on the battlefield and never knew each other’s name.

One was a Warrior of the state of Tarrack. He was quite proud of this fact and saw himself as being a superior class of Human being. He was told that the Warrior Class of Tarrack were the greatest fighters in the world, bred for war and to dominate. At the age of six his training began, being taken from his mother and sent to join a cadre of other young warriors. There he was taught to live off little, for young warriors were given little food save for those who did the best at the constant sparing matches. He would also go on long marches and was taught to hate weakness, respect tradition and how to act like a man. Latter in his training he and his comrades would be pitted against maddened dogs and criminals from Tarrack’s vassals to give them a taste of real battle. When he was finally let into the military, something that three out of four of his peers died trying to become, he was part of a warrior elite feared throughout the world, a deadly halberdier without fear or pity, and having taken three wives did what he could to make sure that the future would contain more of what he was.

The other was a much more humble figure, a journeyman shoemaker from Vyrona. His father’s only son, he did whatever he could to make sure that his young lad stayed save as a child. Fortunately for his dad, he was a quiet young man who took a very keen interest in the shop and his father’s trade. His father was quite impressed at his handiwork, which was quite inventive and inspired, even if it was unpolished and his skills needed honing in a few areas. He eventually began to court a butcher’s daughter. He never held a weapon until war broke out between Tarrack and Vyrona and he was conscripted to defend his city state. His father did what he could and the shoemakers’ guild gave him a helmet, an old cutlass, a newer weapon and a rusty breastplate as well as a few weeks of training by some of the old veterans. He was also given a lily by his love when he finally marched out, which he put on his helmet.

The two nations eventually brought their armies together. The Vyronan forces looked on the men of Tarrack with dread while the Men of Tarrack looked on the Vyronans as a poor mess of merchants, peasants and artisans that hardly deserved to die by the lances of Tarrack Heavy Cavalry and the swords and halberds of Tarrack Infantry and dismissed their ways of fighting as cowardly and womanish. As battle horns blared, the forces began the assault. But this was not a battle as they knew it, as it soon became filled with smoke, the stink of sulphur, the thunder of cannon and the crack and arquebus. The Vyronan cavalry kept away from the heavy horses of Tarrack while letting pistols and composite bows take down their number while the formations of charging halberdiers that tried to get to Vyronan lines found themselves subjected to a lethal hailstorm of lead. Some got to the lines and managed to inflict some forces in casualties, but the Vyronans had some seasoned veteran heavy infantry and pikemen which allowed them to fend off the attackers.

After the Battle, the Shoemaker wandered over the battlefield out of dread curiosity having fired off three shots in the battle but thankfully being spared from having to get into close combat. He was told by the general that this was truly a great day because they struck down a fifth of Tarrack’s warrior class that and with that, soon they would be able to free its vassals to bring an end to Tarrack’s empire. As he walked by, he saw a body lying up against a rock. Its weapons lying behind him. It moves slightly causing him to flinch, but this was only the part of that soldier’s last few threads of life snapping. The age of warriors had passed, the age of soldiers had begun

[Zor]

A soldier from the early Tsung Dynasty (800 years before the present) of the Divine Engine Divisions. These were the first soldiers to make use of firearms. This early model of Gun was the mainstay for a century before more modern designs began to take its place. It was a simple matchlock gun firing a burst of lead pellets to disrupt enemy formations at close range, either to disrupt cavalry charges when on the defensive or to break formations of infantry when on the offensive.

[Zor]

The most basic force of in the armies of most kingdoms are levied peasant infantry. For the right to farm the Noble's land, peasants are required to give up a percentage of their harvest in payment. In times of war, the Nobles will switch some of their peasants over to an alternative means of payment, serve in their armies as warriors. Peasant levies are given some basic training by local veterans and their fathers. Although a few noblemen invest in training levies with some level of standardization (pikemen, swordsmen, halberdiers, crossbowmen and such) most are armed with some old hand-me-down weapon, whatever is in the local lord's armory, things stolen off the battlefield and hand tools. Armor is usually limited to helmets and shields, which are supplemented with a miss match of whatever they can get, usually home made or produced by the local blacksmith. Quilted cloth, leather, bundles of reeds, shirts with metal plates inexpertly sewn on are among but a few things which have been contrived by peasants to protect them in the heat of battle. The luckiest may manage to get an old chainmail shirt or some scraps of plate armor. In battle, they rely on numbers to win the day and are at their most effective in forests, where heavy cavalry can not charge, arrows have limited range and formations of heavier infantry can not form shield walls.

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An Novan Imperial Navy Captain advances, drawing her sword. This is among the last thing that a Pirate Commodore will see, the absolute last will be his view of said admiral after a quick motion, an image which turns over and fades to black

[Zor]

For SDN World. A Nova Atlantean soldiers, one human and one posthuman in a cougar combat form.

Zor

[Zor]

(From the Steam and Magery thread) An officer in the Heer of the Eisenstadtische Reich, waiting to begin an attack against a force of Sylvan Elves for the glory of the Kaiser. He is known to his men for keeping his cool under the most grueling of tasks, never letting anger get the best of him. He looks at his watch and waits for the time when his forces will make their advance.

[Zor]

For Stas



Anton Starkov: Famed Academician and Engineer, member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Hero of the Soviet Union, Hero of Socialist Labour, Order of Lenin and so forth. Well known for bringing the previously anemic field of soviet computer science up to date and who's expertise in the field of robotics was responsible for the successes of the tenth and eleventh five year plans in being able to make up for gaps in the areas of consumer goods and improved foreign trade, as well as his fondness for strong drink, loose women and sarcasm. In 1985 while overseeing some field tests in Afghanistan, he was captured by a force of Mujahedin who attempted to make him to assemble captured equipment to provide weapons for their fundamentalist cause. However, with some assistance he was able to assemble using various components of scout drones and missiles a powered exoskeleton and fight his way out.

He then returned to the USSR and was deeply effected by what he saw and how he was treated, as well as sights of abuse, which got only worse as it made him read into various things about armed conflicts elsewhere in the world. While he still by in large remained his extroverted self, secretly in his personal lab he worked on improving the design. A few months afterwards, the Central Intelligence Authority and the Strategic Hazard Intervention Espionage Logistics Directorate found itself facing reports of a bulletproof humanoid monster descending from the sky and tossing around the insurgents they sent into there like ragdolls and then an increasing number of photographs of this entity in soviet Red and Gold. As other meta-humans figures, good and bad began to emerge around the world, eventually the world got a good vision of this figure as he cashed with them, this Iron Man.

(I thought i would apply the Red Son concept to Iron Man)

[Zor]

A Typical Novan Schoolgirl in her uniform. The basic Novan school uniform has been in existence in its present form for about 700 years. Uniforms are generally required for public schools, although it is possible for citizen communities to elect to make uniforms non mandatory, although most keep them this way. Some variations are allowed in concession, but not too much and one policy which is very strict in imperial laws is that there are no skirts in school uniforms. Shorts are available for warmer climates

Done to practice drawing kids and colouring and because i wanted to do something cute.

[Zor]

A personal attendant robot done with an art deco aesthetic. It is not the most practically designed machine but its designed to look impressive and it gets its job done. Somewhat inspired by Dresden Codak



A Pulp Sci-Fi Robot, the Atom Wing. Powered by an Atomic Core, the Atom Wing one of several robots used by the Atomic legion, a force that designed to be the vanguard against various forces which threaten humanity, such as radioactive mutants, Nazi scientists who got away and create monsters, dark wizards seeking an end to the age of technology and other such menaces. It is armed with dual gamma ray blasters (which make the sound that the Martian War Machine main guns did in the 1950s war of the worlds film) in its arms, one its head and can fly using a jet engine. That said, it is a poor in combat in the air. It is VTOL Capable and has shock absorbers.



A colored version of Starkov's Iron Man suit



Here we have a man and a woman from Strugatski (annexed into the Novan Empire in 2187 AT). The original colonists arrived in 1347 AT and were not particularly unusual in ideology and were international in. However, between the 15th and the 18th centuries, a series of factors (including cold, damage done by earthquakes, toxic native plant-life that reproduced via spores, the arise of a series of airborne contagions, several unusual poets and writers and shifting social norms) a rather usual cultural habit emerged. Nudity taboos were extended to include all visible skin and in particular outside of immediate families, medical care, loved ones and similar it became highly rude not to wear a mask, although some subcultures did latter emerge that were against mask wearing. Woman were allowed to show their hair.

When a five thousand ship strong conquest fleet was dispatched to add Strugatski into the Empire and an ultimatum was given, the people of Strugatski surrendered unconditionally. As it was seen to be counter-productive to ban such activities, the Novan Empire has tolerated this practice, though some laws in regards to local conceptions of decency have been amended. Even today, it is still the norm on Strugatski to wear a mask among most locals, as well as some emigrants and subcultures on other worlds. Strugatskian masks typically have communications equipment and heads up display computers built in.



A TDH-6 Whaleshark Heavy Lander is the main heavy dropship used by the Novan Imperial Navy. It is over a hundred meters long and can carry more than 350 tonnes of cargo up from an earthlike's planet and 600 tonnes down from orbit. Whalesharks can be outfitted with a defensive armament. Whalesharks are designed to make water landings. The underside of whalesharks is composed of a series of layered ceramics designed to resist heat from re-entry. Tens of thousands of these craft are in use by the Novan Military, and many more are used by civilian organizations and exported.



A Suit of Type-262 Power Armor employed by the Union of Free Socialist Worlds. Type-262 power armor is quite maneuverable, has long range and is lighter weight than most other suits of general power armor while still having comparable strength, though this comes at the cost of defense. For this reason, applique kits are available for the frontal torso and the sides of the arms to increase durability. Underneath the transparent frontal section is mostly armor with vision ports for the eyes along with a couple of cameras and sensors.

(Yes i know the legs are two short)



A Novan SR50 Assault Rifle. The Main weapon of the Novan Imperial Military, having remained so for some 150 years. A Gauss based weapon, the SR50 fires 4mm explosive AP rounds at 2520 meters per second, feeding from a 96 round helical magazine. Its power cell is good for 500 shots. It has three modes of fire, single shot, three round burst and full automatic with a rate of fire of 750 rounds per minute. For targeting it has a built in laser rangefinder and HUD linkup scope. While each individual round is less powerful than that of the 4.62mm QBZ-258, it has a greater ammunition capacity and is more controllable by non power armored soldiers. It can be outfitted with the following systems (among others). For security purposes, these weapons are keyed to only be used by authorized forces (Imperial Military Personnel, Police, etc).

A: A 20mm shotgun/airburst grenade launcher
B: A 40mm Grenade launcher
C: A detachable secondary hand grip.



A rough idea that i had, an member of an advanced race of artificial life forms gets sucked into a alternate dimension, this is populated by Humans, scavengers of a post apocalyptic world at a steampunk level of development in a barren desert. Cut off from aid or mechanical assistance, this creature uses its limited on board fabrication systems to build equipment which allows it to salvage various "components" that are available to build a new body. These include some old bones and a few bits of old scrap metal and usable relics, but most of its new body was composed of a miss match of organs, muscle tissue and so forth from various animals that it caught. Starting with a vulture, gradually their bodies were re-shaped and combined to create a usable roughly humanoid form, flesh with tubes and nano machines holding it together, with an computer brain at the core. To preserve moisture and to offer protection it built a suit out of leather. Now it lives out of a shelter with a few machines making a living, while using a couple of cyborgs to help it out. Occasionally it comes into conflict with hostile humans, and for that reason it carries a shotgun, but the established desert tribes for the most part have come to ignore it as there is no real reason to fight it. Here it has escaped a scuffle and is going home after its suit has been damaged.

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n improvised security robot set up to work in a lawless district defending it from holigans, gangs, theives, squatters and other such intruders. Originally a simple general purpose labor robot, this long legged machine was reprogrammed and given some modifications (including installing some ammunition pouches, a sheathe for its bowie knife and a mask for intimidation purposes. Its usual tactics are simple, either fire at the enemy from cover while shouting threats to scare them off or running at them with its knife while shooting at them with its machine pistol and stabbing them if they get too close.