IC
Theme - "Space Oddity" by Lady Heroine
"That's very interesting, but silly." - Man-at-Arms, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (1983-1985)
Ahh, the Silver Age of cartoons, stretching from the late 1970s until it was cut off by Ted Turner's demand for a reduction of 'violence' in children's television in the mid '90s. Hanna-Barberra's dominance over the previous two decades on television in the United States was eroded away from all sides - by DiC and Nelvana from Canada, from Japanese newcomers to US television like Sunrise, Toei, and from Harmony Gold, from France and England, and perhaps most damagingly from Disney's entry to TV animation in the mid-80s and from the explosion of shows made to move toys by companies such as Hasbro in the latter half of the era. And American children reaped the benefit in some of the best action cartoons they would see until at least the new millennium.
This roleplay is largely inspired by that era, with a little bit of everything you'd expect to find back then - giant robots, petting zoo people, talking animals, aliens, monsters, demons, grand battles, evil villains of the baddie-of-the-week, recurring, and overall Main Antagonist variety all, magic (AND science fiction), and of course, those themes that tended to either go over kid's heads or give them concussions from how hard they were drilled in. Maybe not that last part, but you get the idea. Sure, many of the shows of the area stank with the reek of capitalism and the need to move product, but it wasn't quite as noticeable then buried under the action and plot. Or maybe kids just didn't know any better. Regardless.
Like many of them, the very basics of the plot are simple: you're a squadron of mech pilots flying across the galaxy to solve dimensional and temporal incidents, and to halt the war machine of an ancient alien race of walking, talking cyborg dinosaurs. Kick ass, take names, that sort of thing. Typical 80s action fare.
So sit back, grab a can of Jolt (or Crystal Pepsi if you're more inclined towards the later end of the era, or Hi-C Ecto Cooler if your parents didn't let you have soda), pull the toy from your Happy Meal, then burn through a pack of Keebler Magic Middles, and enjoy the show. Or, er, roleplay.
And you know me, now it's time for the show, and that means it's time to get detailed.
An early human-built spaceship. The large engines and light armament indicate
this is either a scout or a private vessel. The sharp angles are distinctly
of an antebellum (pre-WWIII) American design.
The fall of Communist China in 1989 led to a land grab in Asia with the USSR and, oddly, Mongolia as the big winners, the collapse of both Cuba and North Korea - the former of which was annexed into the United States, possibly with CIA help. Sub-Saharan Africa shattered like glass when cash stopped flowing in from the Far East, and for the first time in half a century, capitalism and communism set aside their differences to put out the fire of war that had covered a continent, as the remnants of the Chinese Army along with the states that still backed them in Africa, plus a few South American countries disgruntled with being dominated by one world power or the other, took a violent stand against the northern hemisphere. Technology that had been advancing at speed before the war reached lightspeed during it - nanotechnology, fully enclosed mechanized robots (most of which could transform), interstellar warp technology, cybernetics, all became real during the Third World War.
The end of the Third World War and the Cold War both came at once at the signing of the Treaty of Berlin on Christmas Day in 1995. Borders had to be redrawn, and some of them expanded out of the Solar System for the first time - a few months after the war, the Soviet 2nd Guards Venusian Fleet made world news for dueling a squadron of Communist Chinese destroyers to a stalemate beyond the orbit of Pluto, a few months before the end, a combined American-freshly-united-German-British fleet dealt the killing blow to the last of Communist China's interstellar fleet in orbit around Sirius, with assistance from the local Sirian regional fleet. After the war, as with the two World Wars before it, civilian life reaped the benefit of wartime development - nanotechnology eliminated cancer, AIDS, and other horrid diseases in a one-two punch, the mechanized swords of war beaten into plowshares (or at least, adopted into police work since there were simply so many unarmed models with great strength on the civilian market), and thanks in part to the proliferation of mecha in the civilian market, the war-torn continents of the world and the equally war-torn platforms and stations in the stars were rebuilt beyond their past glory. Humans lived far longer, and far better, than they ever had before, and by the next year the WHO calculated the average world live expectancy was one hundred fifty. Trade commenced in earnest with the other inhabitants of the galaxy, and in late 1996, the first human made it all the way around the galaxy after a seven-month voyage. Humans became common in both the economic and military-oriented sectors of the galaxy, famed for their capabilities at both war and commerce.
The peace was not to last long, though for once it would not be humanity's fault that they were at war. Hindustan Aeronautics was testing a new hyperdrive system in the city of Svarga Loka on Makemake in 2018 when it failed hard enough to blow away half the city. If that had been all, then it would have been on the news for a few weeks, then remembered like every other great disaster - but considered no more than a setback in the long run.
No, what caused the Svarga Loka incident to change the fate of humanity and the galaxy at large is what it did to spacetime - completely destabilize it for thousands of lightyears around. Just for a few minutes, but the damage was done. The Milky Way's dimensional stability would never be the same - both dimensional and temporal rifts would become commonplace, especially in the vicinity of the Sol system among other instability hot spots throughout the galaxy. In some of these areas, the rifts have become so frequent, intense, and violent, that it's simply not possible to pass through them at beyond light speed.
The Gorgorex are not above using subspecies of their own race as sub-sentient war machines.
Time shifted back and forth, though mostly back - in some places as far back as the Hadean Era, in others no more than a few seconds. Wars again spread out on Earth as ancient empires rose from the past to do battle with each other and whatever was in their path - this was mostly limited to Europe and Africa, which were most directly facing Makemake at the time of the Incident, but the whole globe was affected. No war came close to the intensity of World War Three, or even World War One, but borders again needed redrawing, alliances needed reforming, and wars needed to be fought - meanwhile those humans in the 'true time' needed to figure out what to do with all these figures from the past - and sometimes there were more than one of the same person, most notably in Germany when they had to deal with two Bismarcks!
But above all else, the greatest threat was the ancient evil that was unleashed by this dimensional instability. Sealed away for ten thousand years by ancient technosorcerors, an entire empire bid its time in the Black Dimension, waiting for the opportunity - any opportunity - to escape and wreak havoc upon the galaxy and beyond. The foul Gorgorex, an empire of hundreds of races of upright saurians, had not been defeated as the legends claimed, merely tossed into another dimension and metaphorically hidden under a rug to be forgotten about. But the Gorgorex had not forgotten their defeat, and they came back filled with a greater thirst for revenge than ever. Masters of genetic warfare, they used it combined with laser and missile weaponry to terrorize the galaxy long ago, and their new ships could handle all but the worst dimensional and temporal storms. In fact, they often utilized dimensional weaponry to throw targets thousands of miles from their previous location, or thousands of years from their previous time, though timeshifting weapons were and are very rare even for them. They enhanced their brethren with cybernetic weapons, sometimes even reducing them to near-automatons meant purely for killing more foes of their glorious overlord. They even went the other way - grafting bioengineered organisms to their war machines.
As thanks for releasing them, the Gorgorex decided to give humanity the honor of being the first race to be subjugated by the Gorgorex, and even offered the 'uncharacteristically generous, we assure you' offer from the emperor himself of allowing some of humanity to be merely servants instead of mindless slaves when they arrived in 2020. Needless to say, the nations of Earth found this offer less than acceptable and politely declined. It was the third war in half a century, and while it was far from the bloodiest thanks to extrasolar help to drive off the Gorgorex (and only lasting six months), it by far had the largest impact on Earth. The Gorgorex's liberal use of genetic weaponry resulted in the genesis of the Ferals, the Abominations, and the Awakened.
Abominations are often as violent as they are ugly.
Far less lucky were the humans affected by the Gorgorex's genetic weaponry. The purpose of the virus the Gorgorex unleashed on mankind was to release the beast within, both figuratively and literally. The lucky ones got to keep their human minds and a roughly humanoid form. The less lucky, well... it turned out silver bullets weren't any more effective than regular lead at least. And the worst lost even their bipedality, becoming little more than animals, or worse - kept their minds, but lost all traces of physical humanity and were rendered unable to prove themselves human. They gained beastly abilities based on whatever species' appearance the virus happened to bestow upon them, but their humanity was lost - and the virus was thorough enough that even their descendants would carry the metaphorical scars of the disease. Further complicating things was that all their memories of their past selves were erased by the virus - skills and knowledge remained, but these often did little to help when the Gorgorex strategy for these weapons was to deliver a one-two punch with a gene bomb and a teleportation weapon sending them halfway across the planet. Worse still, without the use of silver compound pills, they too would become just as feral as the mindless beasts every full moon.
The Abominations had it the worst of all - they resembled humans in only the vaguest sense of 'upright, four limbs, and a head', and if they weren't reduced to mindlessness, went mad with the pain of their existence. They didn't even resemble animals fully, like ferals at least did. They were just huge, ugly, monstrous beings in every sense of the word, mutated beyond recognition as anything but something that had walked out of an old horror movie, or worse. A last ditch attempt by the Gorgorex to destroy or enslave humanity, the ships carrying the prospective virus were destroyed before they could do any widespread damage - only a few million were inflicted with the Abomination Virus, compared to almost three billion Feralized throughout human space.
The damage was great, and the Gorgorex menace soon spread throughout the galaxy, but the Galactic Council was more than forgiving. After all, it was all started due to an accident, and Earthlings had been more than willing to help fend off the Gorgorex once they appeared - and had helped maintain galactic stability even before that, even if it had only been for a few years. But self-flagellation is a very human (or rather, Earthian) emotion, and many nations of Earth weren't willing to just take the Gorgorex assault lying down. Forgiveness had to be earned, but revenge also had to be won in the name of the dead. For this purpose, an entire corps of UN Spacefleet was created - the 57 Corps, a corps composed entirely of mecha units dedicated to a threefold purpose - to prevent dimensional and temporal events from causing chaos, to help the victims of whatever these events cause, and to end the Gorgorex threat to the galaxy. They are the Gaian Hetairoi, or as some species call them, the Dimensional Knights Hetairoi - or just Hetairoi for short. Since 2020, they have been the tip of the spear in the war against the Gorgorex and galactic instability, and they have and continue to serve in defense of life, liberty - and the pursuit of those who threaten it.
You, Hetairoi, are the greatest threat to the Gorgorex, and the galaxy's greatest ally from Earth. Stationed aboard the USS Constellation, make sure they both remember that.
M E T A L _ M A C H I N E S
"I don't think you'd realize how terrified I'd get every time you fly off on a combat mission. It's almost as if you pilots think that it's some kind of wonderful game when you're off on those Veritechs."
- Claudia Grant, Robotech (1985)
- Claudia Grant, Robotech (1985)
Typically Brazilian box-type walkers. These are meant for police use.
The first confirmed used of mechs in war was by the Soviets in Afghanistan near the end of 1987. While these simple units were not much more dangerous than the tanks that the Soviets were using to cover what was by then their retreat, they were still new, large, and intimidating enough that fear factor alone turned the tide of the war to a standstill, which was a major factor which led to its ultimate partitioning during the Svarga Loka Incidental wars.
World War Three would see the first flying mechs fielded early in the war by a Japan (who else) greatly concerned about being overrun by PRC forces looking for another location from which to wage war on the RoC forces. Little more than walkers equipped with jetpacks, the JSDF with the help of the US Air Force soon ironed out the kinks and had something more dangerous by far than regular fighter jets - by the end of the war they could handle the depths of the ocean and the heights of space, and had largely replaced the humble fixed-wing aircraft, as well as most ground-based mechs. Not long after the end of the war, hyperdrives became compact enough that they could be mounted as external 'booster packs' onto mechs, enabling them to reach beyond the limits of the solar system and provide a real escort to starships, fighting alongside and eventually replacing the kamikaze-like drones they had relied on beforehand.
The Boeing Varangian is the primary mech used by the Hetairoi, though the unit
uses dozens of models.
Besides forcing the need to modify mech cockpits to work for more than just human body shapes, the initial Gorgorex War did not have that great an impact on mecha development - at least, not structurally. Weapons technology was another matter. Contact with the Gorgorex introduced to humanity laser weaponry, tachyon beam weaponry, faster-than-light missiles, perfected Gauss and rail guns, and weapon compacting technology - enabling one fighter mech to carry as many missiles as what would have taken a hundred. Hyperdrives became smaller still, the 'booster packs' shrinking to about the size of a large car; with the shrinking of the nuclear lightbulb engine to about the size of an incandescent lightbulb, they could be dropped in space, returned to the ship for safety during combat, then launched back out to re-dock with the mech.
The Hetairoi are rather unusual among UN corps in that the mecha used by the pilots are left up to the discretion of the pilots, not the division CO as in most other mecha sqaudrons. While the Boeing Varangian is by far the most common choice being both American and from the first American company to start making flying war mechs, there is certainly no lack of other options for the Hetairoi pilot, and they're so customizable one could argue that no two are quite alike. Weapon systems, color schemes, whether or not to include an AI - and the computer system display - it's layout, colors, and whether to have color at all - all can be designed and changed by the whims of the pilot to suit the mission's needs, or their own desires. And with the fat stack of cash Hetairoi pilots receive, they can do it with little impact on the mass of their wallets, too.
T O O T H _ A N D _ TA I L
Harold: "Listen son. You're going to be able to do a lot of things the other guys aren't."
Scott: "Oh yeah, like chase cars, and bite the mailman?"
- Teen Wolf, 1985
Scott: "Oh yeah, like chase cars, and bite the mailman?"
- Teen Wolf, 1985
When the Gorgorex unleashed their genetic weapons upon the Earth, it created more societal chaos than any event before it. Though the brunt of attacks could be generalized to a few regions of the planet, there were so many (and the victims dispersed so much by the teleportation weapons that came with it, often into the ocean), that no one cultural region can be considered to have been more or less affected overall. And it's a good thing too - those that kept their sanity have more than enough to deal with.
Regions most heavily impacted by temporal disruptions, such as East Asia, were
most devastated by the genetic weapons of the Gorgorex. Many scientists believe
there is a connection.
The effects of feralization are immediate, with rapid, painful shifting in musculoskeletal structure, exponential hair growth, brain restructuring, and memory loss all taking place over the course of anywhere from one to six hours. If the mind stays sane, some low-intensity instincts are rewired to match whatever animal the virus decides to merge the victim's appearance with - these are usually mild annoyances at worst; the pain of transformation and the memory loss are considered far more severe to the victims, as is the 'werewolf phase' they pass into under the light of the full moon, when the instincts and animal brain take over completely and turn the victim into a wild, violent beast. Counterproductively, the majority of victims that became ferals and not Abominations survived with their intelligence intact - roughly three in five. More counterproductively, they gained abilities based on whatever species the virus inflicted on them - enhanced strength was the most common, but enhanced reflexes, sight (both in and out of the dark), balance, endurance, weather resistance, and other enhanced senses were common as well. Strangely enough, most inflicted with avian DNA did not gain the ability of flight - only those the virus merged with particularly strong-flying species of bird gained that ability.
Arguably far more dangerous, especially combined with the memory loss, is the teleportation. The teleportation bombs target anything within the blast radius that matches a certain genetic code to a certain percentage (and anything holding or being held by it, thus transporting microbial life as well) to a random location on the surface of whatever astronomical object the bomb is detonated on. As most of the Earth's surface is inhospitable to human or feral life, about eighty percent of all victims of the teleportation bomb attacks (which made up eighty percent of all genetic weapon attacks) were teleported somewhere inhospitable, and thus about seventy-six percent of all teleportation weapon victims died either of drowning or exposure.
While the Gorgorex are believed to have exhausted the bulk of their genetic weaponry in the brief war against the humans, it is known that they have more, and almost certainly have the means to produce more.
R U L E S
- I am OP, CEO of the Animation Studio, all who defy my will shall be, shall we say, 'taken off the air'.
- My Co-OPs, should I choose to nominate any, shall be the Directors. They can accept apps and their Power is to be Respected.
- PG-13 is the hard limit. Be thankful, I am a merciful god and not holding you to the standards mandated for real in the 80s.
- Bad and naughty behavior in the OOC will be punished as I see fit.
- Try to stay active in the OOC as well as the IC, and TG me if you won't be able to post for a while. While you are certainly replaceable as characters, I'd like to avoid killing off PCs as much as I can.
- You're free to make requests and ask for more info on the setting. I will answer to the best of my ability. Worldbuilding contributions are always welcome. Keep in mind though, this is 80's, so feel free to pull stuff out of your arse.
- Godmodding will not be tolerated. Funny, right? The setting isn't serious, but it is definitely possible to godmod here.
- This RP operates on a three-strike system. Third strike and you're kicked.
- There's no hard limit on post length, but try to avoid one-liners if at all possible.
- Have fun. And as always, stay frosty.
A P P L I C A T I O N S
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[floatright][size=200][background=black][color=#FFBF00](SURNAME, INITIALS)[/color][/background][/size][/floatright]
[floatleft][box](Image go here, optional, you can also use Appearance below instead if you want, recommend a pic less than 500 pixels wide or tall)[/box][/floatleft][blocktext][b]+++Name:[/b] (Include nicknames and titles)
[b]+++Age:[/b]
[b]+++Sex/Gender:[/b] (Biological and psychological, respectively)
[b]+++Sexual Orientation:[/b] (You know good and well the UN doesn't care, they just need it for census data)
[b]+++Physical appearance:[/b] (Mostly optional if you have a picture, but put in height and weight regardless)
[b]+++Identifying Marks:[/b] (Mostly optional if you have a picture, but describe anything hidden in the image, like cybernetics or tattoos)
[b]+++Species:[/b] (Ascended and feralized humans count as separate species, indicate via 'ascended X' or 'feralized X' - for example, a talking chipmunk would be 'ascended chimpunk', a human feralized to a cat would be 'feralized cat' etc)
[b]+++Rank (O-1, O-2, or O-3):[/b] (Use the NATO rank structure, O-3 on a first-come first-serve basis for the most part, co-OPs have priority)
[b]+++Callsign:[/b] (Feel free to be corny)
[b]+++Mech:[/b] (Pick from the list in the spoiler below, more will be added as time goes on)
[b]+++Mech Appearance:[/b] (Optional, default 'Hetairoi' color scheme is white below, red above with a gold fuselage and black sidestripe)
[b]+++Mech Modifications:[/b] (Be creative! But don't be excessive.)
[b]+++Emblem:[/b] (Optional, defaults to UN Spacy logo)
[b]+++Nationality:[/b] (Include planet, not all humans/Earthlings are from Earth after all!)
[b]+++Birthplace:[/b] (Where you were born, duh, same thing as to Nationality applies here. For ferals, put where they were found.)
[b]+++Permanent Residence:[/b] (Optional, for the most part, you could just be living on the ship after all)
[b]+++Criminal History:[/b] (Optional, if any, the Hetairoi don't care too much.)
[b]+++Skills:[/b] (Feral abilities go here as well, don't go overboard)
[b]+++Psychological analysis:[/b] (Personality)
[b]+++Weaknesses:[/b] (Mary Sues to be blam'd on sight)
[b]+++Likes/dislikes:[/b]
[b]+++Interests:[/b](Optional)
[b]+++Fears:[/b]
[b]+++Equipment:[/b]
[b]+++Biography:[/b]
[b]+++RP Sample:[/b]
[b]+++Theme Song:[/b] (optional)
[color=#FF0000][b]Transform and roll out![/b][/color] (DO NOT REMOVE)[/blocktext]
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[align=center](Image go here, optional but highly recommended, does not have to be all genders[/align]
[b]+++Species Name:[/b]
[b]+++Scientific Name:[/b] (Latin or Greek, it's all good)
[b]+++Homeworld:[/b]
[b]+++Natural lifespan:[/b]
[b]+++Physical description:[/b] (Well, physical and mental)
[b]+++Culture and History:[/b] (Optional but recommended)
[color=#00FFFF][b]CONSIDERED A DELICACY[/b][/color] (DO NOT REMOVE)
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[b][u]Act Title:[/u][/b]
[b]+++What allies would be involved, if any?:[/b]
[b]+++What villains are involved, if any?:[/b]
[b]+++Location(s):[/b]
[b]+++What is the objective, if any?:[/b]
[b]+++What is the villains’ objective, if any?:[/b]
[b]+++Quick Summary(paragraph please):[/b]
[color=#00BF00]MEGATRON ANSWERS TO NO ONE[/color] (DO NOT REMOVE)
