Background/Terms

Union

• Hegemonic administration ruled from Cradle (Earth)
• Controls almost all of human occupied space
• Fairly hands-off, allowing individual planets and sectors to rule themselves
• In the Capital worlds at the core of union space, humanity has achieved a post-scarcity utopia
• Several hundred of these
• Have easy access to blink stations
• But in the further flung colonies life is not so easy
• Interstellar travel is at near-light speeds, journeys can take months to years
• These colonies, whilst technically a part of Union, often have little to no interaction with the hegemon

The Aunic Ascendency

• The Aun are humans, descended from the crew of a generation ship that left Cradle approximately 10,000 years ago to escape the Fall, an apocalyptic collapse of earth’s ecosystem that nearly wiped out humanity
• They arrived at their destination, the planet now called Aun’Ist, 7,000 years later to find it already colonised by Union colonists who had discovered near-light travel and beaten them to it
• The Aun, outnumbering the colony, invaded and established a theocracy
• They are an extremely religious culture who see themselves as the successors of ‘old humanity’ and Union as usurpers
• Contact between the two cultures has been fraught

Blink Stations

• Provide passage through blinkspace, allowing for near instantaneous travel between stations
• This is the only method of faster than light travel that Union possesses
• All other travel is sub-light, up to a maximum of 0.995c

Omni-net

• Network that allows near instantaneous communication across Union space via blinkspace
• Only works in areas covered by omni-nodes but every computer system is connected to it

Campaign Setting

• The year is 5000 U (Years since the founding of Union)
• Boundary Garden, the furthest point of Union Space and a no-man’s land between the Union and the Aun
• 50 light years from the nearest Union sector, access to Boundary Garden is via a blink gate situated at Fansipan Space Station
• This sector has five Union colony worlds of which only one, Cornucopia, is classified as a core world
• Three others: Calvary, Borea, and Dodona are old, minor colonies with populations numbering only in the tens of thousands
• They have only limited access to the omni-net
• The last, Dawn Throne was taken by the Aun 300 years ago and now acts as a point of contact between the Ascendency and the Union

Player Characters

• The characters are Lancers belonging to the Union Naval forces operating in Boundary Garden
• They form the newly created 2^nd Squad, Whisky Company and have just arrived in Boundary Garden onboard the UNS Thermopylae for a 5-year tour of duty
• Even with the blink gate, travel to Boundary Garden took 3 months
• They have been tasked with combating pirate activity operating between Cornucopia and the other three colonies

Character Building

• Before the game (either before or during the weekend) you’ll need to each build a level 0 pilot
• This is easiest via the digital character builder Comp/Con which will walk you through the creation process
• Once the pilots are made, access their sheet to add some weapons and gear
• Then you’ll each need to outfit a Mech (Click on the blue box with the character’s name in the top right corner to access the mech hanger)
• The only mech available for you at this level is the GMS Everest
• Add one and then go to the mech sheet to add weapons and other gear
• Your first mission will mostly involve close range combat onboard ships so plan accordingly and you will all need a GMS EVA module to enable flight in space

Don’t worry about building your characters before the weekend if you don’t have time, it should be easy enough to do them before the game. If you do, make sure you export the character file from Comp/Con and send it to me. I would ask that you have a think about your background:

• Where are you from?
• What did you do before you joined the military
• Why did you join up? Volunteer or conscripted by your planet?
• Have a think about appearance and personality

I’d also like someone to be the squad Corporal so ideally decide that beforehand between you.