A Precis

It is the year 2222.

Humans have taken to the stars. And they are not alone.

Mankind is still divided. But it grows, making friends and enemies on the way.

Against this backdrop of galactic intrigue, a small subset of humans have been made different. Genetically Different. They work for a shadowy organisation called the Agency. The Agency uses these individuals and their superhuman powers as hired guns, available to the highest bidder.

It has done so for over a hundred years. But the Agency has a hidden agenda. Ancient alien artefacts have vanished from their collections. Experts have disappeared. And it’s up to a small band of ex-Agency assets to work out what their old employer has planned. Before it’s too late.

Hitomi Rey

The Hitomi Rey is a piece of mobile armour built and maintained by a Hitachi subsidiary; Safire Dynamics. The ‘Rey is a modern piece of kit, requiring one pilot with positronic computer assistance for some tasks. It is marketed towards high end private security contractors as well as the Asian Coalition armed forces for whom it was originally designed.

Four armoured legs support the gimballed turret and hull; the legs are the most robust part of the design and provide stability and protection for the machine operation.

The ‘Rey is armed with two particle cannons with a wide range of fire. Targets can range from low flying capital ships to armoured infantry. Fire is slow but deadly; the cannons need several seconds between firing but an efficient cycling of energy can support efficient and periods of fire.

The ‘Rey hasn’t been rigorously battle tested as much as older models of tank, like the Noisebringer, and as such there is some nerves around deploying it in hazardous or unpredictable environments (snow, extreme heat, etc.) by the Coalition military; it is unknown how the computer-assistance modules or the other hi-tech aspects would hold up under such varied pressure. Several have been sold to the Vizo resistance movement for use against their government, whilst the ‘Rey remains popular with prestigious mercenary groups like the Tailored Saints for armoured protection and asset protection duties.

Colwyn-class Corvette

The Colwyn-class Corvette is a Royal Navy capital ship with a history of punching above its weight. It boasts an array of weapons designed to excel ship-to-ship combat as well as a sturdy build ensuring it can stay in whatever fight it finds itself in.

The first threat posed by the Colwyn comes from the Volkmann cannons; long range, high penetration particle weapons able to accurately target enemy ships at extreme distance. If the opposing ship closes to medium distance the Colwyn is able to use the Moynihan forward-facing autocannon to continue the assault.

The offensive loadout is rounded out by the generalist ‘Coracle’ pulse cannon on heavy turret mount; it serves as an adequate ship-to-ship weapon and anti-fightercraft weapon whilst excelling in neither role.

Several groups of Colwyns operate out the Chromedent nebula, including HMS Granada. This ship was made somewhat famous by a skirmish in orbit of St. Viluex in which it fought off three Wun’Tux Clanships singlehandedly.

Saluki-class Destroyer

The Saluki is a modern design of destroyer created and manufactured by Fukuro Industries. It’s the biggest and arguably most ambitious project by the company in its relatively brief history.

Destroyer-class vessels are a significant investment and therefore potential client-base is limited. The big multi-system governments and military forces tend to design and make their own capital ships; Fukuro set their sights on the bigger corporations and mercenary groups looking for a modern capital ship capable of various roles.

The first three built served with the corporation itself, protecting their home system and surrounding trade routes from pirates and other threats. Although perhaps unintentional, a widely reported on skirmish between the ISS Hamerkop and a Wun’Tux raiding party did more for the reputation of the design than any marketing campaign might have and secured the first few orders from private buyers. The Saluki project was given a further shot in the arm by a further purchase by the Royal Navy who wanted to experiment with the modular nature of the ship in Task Force Second Sabre.

The stock version is a well balanced mixture of offense and defence, with cleverly constructed bulkhead design providing stability under fire and a selection of weapons giving the ship capability against both small and large craft. The ‘Etna’ autocannons, a proprietary Fukuro creation, are particularly effective against heavy armour and as such a boon against any Wun’Tux target.

The Saluki has been an unexpected success for Fukuro, but not a wildly profitable venture as the vessels are expensive to make and profit margins small. Designers are working on a more affordable but smaller ship cut from the same cloth with a hope of being able to attract a wider target market.

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Nebraska-class Destroyer

The USN-DD103, otherwise known as the Nebraska-class, is a capital ship which has been fielded over many decades by the American Navy and Expeditionary Force; the current version (103) is well suited to the varied role required of the workhorse of the force but this way not always so.

The DD101 was designed to escort ships to and from the newly established American colonies and it initially excelled in this role; the pirates and raiders were no match for its large-bore laser cannons. The arrival of the Wun’Tux changed everything.

Wun’Tux capital ships, particularly the Clanship ubiquitous in their raiding parties and war bands, featured durillium armour broadly resistant to human energy weapons and the Nebraska-class ships were big and slow enough to be good targets for photonic shells favoured by the Wun’Tux.

In these early stages of the conflict, the ‘Cornhusker’ was more of a curse than a blessing and many admirals and commanders were reticent to even include them in their task forces.

A large proportion of the 101 models were either destroyed, marked as missing in action or so badly damaged they were scrapped; a better armed version was designed and put into manufacture but this DD102 was still plagued with significant weaknesses of its predecessor. It entered patchy service with the USN but not much with the USEF through the early stages of the Third Age.

The 103 model took advantage of recently perfected meson-weapons; an energy weapon with an intense diffusion on impact that did not struggle against Durillium armour plate. These new meson cannons replaced all previous energy weaponary on the Cornhusker, making them much more of a threat to Wun’Tux raiders and war parties. Any remaining DD101s were retrofitted and new models were built to this specification.

From this point on, the Nebraska moved from outcast to cornerstone of most USEF task forces, often moving at the tip of any assault or moving to counter any flanking moves. The first few encounters between DD103 and Wun’Tux were a deadly surprise for the reptiles who considered the destroyers easy prey; since then they have started to treat the vessels with much more respect. Or fear.

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Tartaruga-class

The Tataruga is a modern shuttle specialising in drone deployment, hence the initialism DDS. The vessel has two drone ports, starboard and port, and necessitates a crew of pilot and drone monkey to operate and full capacity.

It has no weapons of its own but can be fitted out for combat depending on which drones are deployed; the default ‘Defender’ package is equipped with a pair of Nightstrike drones and popular with well funded militia and corporate groups as a counter against pirates and raiders using older classes of fighter craft.

C-110

The C-110 ‘Cerberus’ (named for it’s triple canopy) is the prime USEF VTOL infantry transport. It is as iconic as the X-33 Scimitar in promo-holos and recruitment posters; immediately recognisable by enemies of the Americans as a harbinger of pain.

The C-110 is unarmed, although features several forms of countermeasures to missile attack. Armour is smartly fitted and effective at deflecting small arms fire and some larger calibre weapons, but the C-110 needs escort to survive in live fire environments. The standard procedure is usually for USEF fighters to sweep through an area and destroy AA and flak weapons before the C-110s are deployed. They are extremely vulnerable if deployed without due care.

The ‘shoulder’ mounted thrusters are tricky to master but experienced pilots can manoeuvre the dropship with startling agility, unloading and loading from unlikely landing zones.

The Crowntail

The Crowntail is a small, agile capital ship built to counter Wun’Tux raiding parties. It features a devastatingly effective weapons suite, with a spine-mounted plasma ‘revolver’ and fragmentation-cannons mounted on turrets twinned with a nimbleness to rival the ubiquitous Wun’Tux clanship. It was a collaborative work between the Fukuro Corporation and the V’kara people, neatly mixing the unique aspects of the two.

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The ship was, in fact, designed to counter Wun’Tux incursions by being quicker, smarter and deadlier. The majority of human warships are less specialised; the priority is for them to be able to face a variety of threats both human and alien. Fukuro, working alongside the rebellious aspects of the V people, acted against the grain.

Uptake has been small in basic numbers, but feedback and customer loyalty is high. There are reports of Crowntails working as both colony defenders and escort ships fighting off odds of even 3-to-1, with Wun’Tux Clanships choosing to disengage when the tide of battle was clearly not in their favour.

Talisman-class Fighter

The Talisman-class was developed as a cutting edge interceptor; a rapid, nimble one-pilot craft built for dogfighting.

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The Strike Fighter programs of the human military forces had delivered advanced, expensive and complex vessels capable of FTL travel, battling capital ships, striking ground targets and a wide variety of other duties. But they were cost-prohibitive when it came to the more basic duties of starfighters; interdiction, dogfighting, point defence of capital ships. The Royal Navy’s Keepsake-class was becoming long in the tooth at the advent of the Fourth Age and there was clamor in the front line forces for something more effective, especially when compared to the Twinfang human pilots often had to face at numerical disadvantage.

The ‘easiest’ decision might’ve been a invest in American ships; the Scimitar-class was an effective carrier-based fighter, proven in years of battle. The issue, however, was similar to that faced by the Keepsake; an older design, only getting older still.

The main small craft designers for the Royal Navy were de Havilland and as such were given the design task; they did something rather extraordinary, though, and reached out to the Fukuro design teams at Aldgate Basin. A year prior to this, Fukuro had released their first small craft (the Libatrix) armed with their propriety beta-wave pulse cannons. The weapons packed a punch and the Libatrix became a hit on the private market but was far too large and complicated for the interceptor role. The question de Havilland had for Fukuro was simple; could the new modification of pulse cannon be fit to a smaller ship with power remaining for other systems?

Fukoro were keen to expand beyond the niche private market and took the task with gusto; often bumping heads with the mainstream designers from de Havilland. The ship, after all, would need to be produced en masse as opposed to a single model here and there and as such some of the more intricate and novel techniques employed to construct Fukuro ships resulted in necessary compromise.

The resulting design wasn’t cheap or easy to make, but in simulations featured a fine balance of speed, agility and the signature beta-wave pulse cannons. The company rushed the ship to field test alongside their corporate asset protection forces, patrolling star systems near their HQ and interdicting pirates and smugglers. The Talisman performed well against the often ramshackle vessels employed by pirates and technicians and the field trials gave technicians ample opportunity to optimise the power fluctuations between each cannon. Firing both non-stop had led to short-circuits and failures early in the trials, but two months in the tweaks to power management had all but eliminated these events.

Four Second Sabre pilots were on secondment to the Fukuro test group when they received a distress signal from a nearby civilian convoy; they were under attack by a Wun’Tux raiding party. The Fukuro patrol were the only ones in range to help.

By the time they arrived, the convoy was overrun with Twinfangs and boarding shuttles, with three Clanships cutting off their escape. Twelve Talismen were able to slip past these lumbering capital ships and get to the targets.

The thickly armoured Wun’Tux shuttles would usually be too tough for light fighters to do much damage to; the beta-wave pulse cannon fire came as quite a surprise and three were heavily damaged within minutes. The twenty Twinfangs didn’t fare much better, too slow to react to the new threat. With their fighters and shuttles routed, the three Clanships cut their losses and beat a hasty retreat.

The four Second Sabre pilots judged the Talisman-class an early success and four squadron’s worth were ordered immediately. Opal, Cygnet, Topaz and August squadrons were pressed into immediate service out of the Chromedent Nebula.

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The Black Beauty

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The MDT 33v (nicknamed ‘Black Beauty’) is the primary armoured vehicle of the British Army and the ground forces attached to Task Force Second Sabre in particular. It eschews the modern advancements of repulsor technology for a reliable and adaptable triad of treads and as such has been successful in rugged terrain where more modern, hover armour might have struggled.

A detachment from the Welsh Guards found notoriety from their role saving civilians from Cimava III during the Wun’Tux invasion, evading heavy bombardment and holding off larger numbers of Planewalkers until rescue ships could arrive.

The main weapon is a no-nonsense photonic shell cannon, capable of both direct and (limited) indirect fire. The black paintjobs that give the tank its nickname contain a proprietary compound which helps reduce their sensor profile, ideal when they are moving at speed.

The Hansel and Gretels

The Hansel and Gretel group posed a new and unique threat to the human colonies and border worlds; they were the first organised group to target both military and civilian targets indiscriminately. Their most significant act (deemed a war crime by the UN Supreme Court) involved collaboration with the Wun’Tux.

This seemed at odds with their beliefs; part of the reason for their rebellion was the ways in which their fledgling colonies had been attacked and raided by Wun’Tux so collaboration with the slavers seemed contradictory if not unthinkable. The stated belief of the few captured members of the group to speak with interrogators was simple; “You fed us to the wolves, now let’s see how you like it,”

The group were unpredictable and difficult to track; sometimes they would be very obvious and strike lone civilian transports, passenger liners and the like. They would board, take control and deliver a ship full of potential slaves to their contacts within friendly BroodClans in exchange for cash or material payment. Other plans were more insidious.

In the late Third Age, a string of flophouses and rehabilitation centres sprung up across Kosmaro VII, a colony world in the Fulcher Cluster. This planet sat in a particular point in space; close to the more legitimate human worlds of the border region. As such was easily accessible by cheap, short range FTL travel. Cost of living was low and a lack of mechanisation meant plenty of unskilled jobs. It attracted the desperate of humankind; those with criminal records and/or nowhere else to go. The string of flophouses, rehab and work placement centres looked legitimate from the outside, offering a short term place to stay and get back on one’s feet. Little did these people know the services were a front. They would be ambushed on entry, drugged and kept in cold storage for eventual transport to Wun’Tux space for sale at slave market.

The mastermind of this part of the plot was codenamed Hansel A; his ability to evade detection and the highly organised strategy deployed suggested he was an experienced intelligence officer of one of the major human governments but his identity remained a mystery in the early stages.

Indeed, at first the concept of humans selling other humans to the lizards was deemed ludicrous. At worst, a scare story spread by the legitimate governments of the Core Worlds to keep their citizens in line. Soon, however, enough individuals with loving families vanished to create an unavoidable clamor for action. MI7, supported by clandestine elements of Task Force Second Sabre, took point.

The Ryzadone City episode, in which the USM and USEF were embarrassed by a low-tech, cleverly planned ambush, had given MI7 food for thought. Instead of wading in armed for bear, they deployed a much more subtle network of whisper-gatherers and spies. For some time, the British had been using Ephii assets within the border worlds; the idea being that the gregarious aliens would be more likely to hear rumours compared to a well mannered human asking difficult questions. It was one of their Ephii spies which dug up the first lead.

A series of burst-transmission-tracker devices were planted on several suspected Hansel and Gretel transport ships registered to the Collective. Analysts flagged activity from one heavy shuttle as of note and the regular stops were further analysed. One of these, an unremarkable spot in the vast plains of the planet, was deemed most suspicious and a low-key surveillance team was put together. The advantage of this, especially in light of the Ryzadone City ambush, was two fold. Firstly, it didn’t risk a diplomatic incident. Secondly, any potential nominals would not be tipped off to the presence of a attack force in orbit.

The point of interest was monitored and found to be a major meeting point for the usually secretive insurgents; then and only then was a small snatch team of both human and Ephii agents put together and dispatched on mission. Using the cover a sand storm, the team took the lightly guarded facility by complete surprise, capturing a handful of individuals including the suspected mastermind.

Unfortunately, at this point the issue became political and the Second Sabre and MI7 team were ordered to hand this person to the USEF for transport back to Earth and trial for War Crimes.