Heavy Weapons – World building

Heavy Weapons

The mighty roar of a tank mounted rotary cannon unleashing lead hell onto an approaching cultist force, orbital sniper cannons assassinating key targets, yet they keep rising, brought back to life by powerful psyonic runes, rising from blood drenched trenches to take up arms once again. An Azuri super soldier breaks the sound barrier on foot and slams into a squad of power-armoured corp marines, breaking metal and bone under-foot and ripping them apart with her bare hands as they desperately try to buy time. Cruisers engage in sub-orbital ship to ship slug fests, ripping lumps out of each-others hulls with huge batteries of reactor-fuelled plasma cannons. Elusive infiltration agents penetrate security defences and slip into top secret facilities to steal resources worth more than the entirety of Earth's economy.... in the next solar system, a young couple celebrates the birth of the first child, their tragic lives have left them nearly penniless but their endless love for one-another keeps them going. High above them, a luxury party cruiser houses filthy rich celebrities who engage in love-less fuck fests for the sake of it, spilling drinks an drugs over beautifully carved floors and letting their sins venture free...

In development since I was a younger teenager, the vastness of this universe is difficult for me to put into words and its certainly had its changes, but I wanted to make something that had room for vast conflicts and tender moments, something that both encapsulated the fantastical and had the vastness of science fiction to draw from. From giant super-powered, female super soldiers, to power armour clad assassins, horrifying monstrosities, hate powered machines and reality ending threats, Heavy Weapons isn't a story about a single character, rather its the story of the universe itself and all the crazy things that happen within it. There is so much to tell and I can't wait to share it with you.

Most of the living population within the Heavy Weapons universe will live within one of the several different factions that control space/territory within it. Lets explore the main factions.

There are four main categories of “Factions” that most groups will fall under in the Heavy Weapons universe. Terra-corps, Empires, Factions and Splinter-Factions

Terra-Corps

“Money = Power”

A lot of the universes normal (I.E. just normal everyday people like you and me) population his held within the "Terra-corps" which are corporations that have grown far beyond governments and countries. Terra-corps own millions of planets, solar systems and stars, they have a near unlimited number of people in their hands and are tasked to take care of them all, as well as fight wars, develop new tech, keep everyone happy and much more. Think if apple or Microsoft suddenly had the ability to change laws and had control of everything, its a little like that, only with a little less focus on making profits due to the fact that they have no real competitors aside from the other Terra-corps. They don't answer to banks or governments, they are the authority. Due to this, their populations are a real mix pot of species and people as they try to cater towards everyone, they can't hold bias for any single species or group, otherwise it would come to bite them back in the future. Generally, these aren't bad places to live and are similar to the capitalist societies of today, with much more advance technology.

The Terra corps are:

Orion Industries

Hard working – Determined – Traditional

Orion Industries are perhaps the most similar Terra-corp to current day Earth with how they manage things, apart from how much advanced their tech can be, a lot of their population lives similarly to us today.

Orion is the direct competitor of Enigma, they focus on using their current technology as best as possible, modifying and upgrading, rather than replacing. Their technology tends to be modular and they prefer to repair and reuse, as a result, Orion has a lot of older tech that is well built but clearly outdated. Orion are big fans of artillery and power armour suits as well as ballistic weaponry, employing them heavily in combat. A usually well meaning Terra-corp that does try to look after its people but has an effective cost of life, meaning they won't sacrifice a whole cruiser of soldiers for a single lost civilian. They are adapters and survivors, hard wearing people with high tolerance to just about everything. Orion civilians are known to complain the least of all the terra corps.

Orion people are hard working, industrious and loyal, they don't really care how smart or effective you are (To an extent), as long as you're giving something your best, that's all they care about. Once trust has been broken however, it can be difficult to regain.

In conflicts, Orion try to reason once before utilising force, however, their preferred battle tactics involve their massive artillery tanks, mechs and formidable front line assault tanks & power armours, they rain death down from the sky whilst slowly advancing up and wiping out anything that might have survived their death rain, they excel at breaking fortifications down AND making them too. Orion are notoriously good at besieging and defending, being extremely difficult to dislodge from systems and area's they have taken, this, combined with their heavy armour frequently equipped makes them extremely good at attrition wars.. Often, other factions will simply just fight around Orion controlled areas, as they can often lack manoeuvrability and the amount of effort it takes to remove them is simply not worth the resources it costs to do so. This does mean that Orion is slow however and can often be outpaced or ignored entirely by faster opponents. All that said, Orion does have access to advanced technology and will unleash their more modern equipment when required.

Enigma Inc.

Intelligent – Result focused – Superiority complex

Enigma are the direct competitors of Orion, they focus more on advancing their technology through science, rather than clinging onto whats already been made, they frequently replace outdated tech with newer models and have a sleek and sophisticated style to their equipment. They prefer the use of energy weapons and often employ stealthier tactics with highly trained tech squads to out perform the heavier and slower Orion power armour suits they often fight. Other than that, Enigma and Orion are extremely similar. They are a very clean and well trimmed faction, with no excess "fat" on their structures, both infra and physical.

Enigma people are intelligent, logical and goal driven, they'd prefer you find a way to make a task easy, than work super hard it at all the time. As a result, sometimes Enigma can come across as lazy or superficial, but this isn't really the case, they just prefer efficiency over needless effort.

Enigma focus themselves on the aspects that Orion can sometimes struggle at. Speed, manoeuvrability and stealth. Although Orion do have units to focus on these, Enigma's armours often outperform Orion's slower power armours in these aspects. As a result, Enigma attempt to engage as swiftly and powerfully as possible, before Orion can get their titanic tanks and artillery into play. Enigma can fight on a large scale effectively but are just can't keep up with Orions tough and devastating armour units. Where Enigma shines through though is in their intelligence and spy divisions, often equipped with the very latest armours and tools, they can make precision strikes into Orion's sub sectors perfectly and pull off operation's with highly skilled agents with very high success rates, allowing them to get the intelligence they need to avoid Orion's bombardment fleets and keep out of their guns range on a galactic scale.

Just because Enigma will lose a prolonged fight with Orion however, doesn't make them weak in general, a lot of factions will lose vs Orion in prolonged combat. Enigma are more than able to hold their own an their advanced, network based shields and reactors are extremely valuable.

The Oneye Co-operation

Creative – Caring – Dangerous

The Oneye are the most peaceful and friendly of the Terra corps and are often seen as the opposites to the BDA, they hold the life of their civilians as absolutely priceless and will fight to the bitter end to ensure the safety of their populations. The Oneye corp spend a similar amount on R&D as Enigma but with far less focus on armaments and fighting, meaning that Oneye have better medical facilities and overall average tech than Engima and certainly Orion. Whilst their military might is far from weak, they do have the weakest of all the Terra-corp forces, they often employ energy shield systems and kinetic dampening armour to save their soldiers, they use energy weapons for the bulk of their forces but have been seen to use the elusive kinetic-ion based weapons for their elite teams. Due to how its people are treated, Oneye civilians may be kind, but do appear to be somewhat spoilt and will complain over the slightest of things, although they are usually grateful for the treatment they get.

Oneye is also known for its massive artistic flare and development, they hugely encourage and prize creativity, its actually possible to make a significant living for even average quality artists and they often hold massive competitions, exhibits and show-cases to show off their substantial creative potential. As a result, their people tend to be more creative, softer in attitude and more caring than other factions, if a little elitist at times.

However, Oneye is not what they seem at first glance, the Oneye inner circle are a horrendous group of insane assassins and leaders who actually run the Corp. Their group consists of people who could be considered utterly psychotic by normal standards, often practising in death rituals, cannibalism, violent sex acts, blood rituals and horrific torture of prisoners of war, the inner circle (Or IC as they shall now be referred as) is the only reason why the Oneye corp still exists. Oneye corp are rather peaceful and one would think that they'd be easy prey for other factions to attack. But the IC has kept other factions at bay for quite some time now.

It would appear the Oneye's facade of friendliness and peacefulness is merely a cover operation for its inner workings...

The Blood Diamond Alliance

Violent – Brutal – Non-judgmental

The BDA is a massive mercenary corporation that grew out of hand, so much so that its considered a Terra-corp. They have no value of life and will send millions of recruits to their deaths just to secure some resources. Only the strong, resourceful and smart will ever survive within the BDA for any length of time. Those who do find themselves holding great power. The BDA do make some weapons, mainly melee weapons (of good quality) and laser weapons (which are shit), both of which are provided free of charge to new recruits, but all good BDA soldiers have scavenged their own weapons. Recruits are also provided with a "multisuit" which is a tight fitting thin armour than it a perfect base for welding other armours on to. Good BDA soldiers will scavenge around for anything they can use for armour and weapons. The BDA doesn't hold any "normal" population, but has a HUGE amount of criminals and convicts within their ranks, thus boosting their numbers massively. The BDA is out for itself and doesn't care what it has to do to get money and power, they will utterly annihilate eco-systems and planets to take the resources they want, without a second thought for the damage left behind.

The BDA are massively aggressive in combat, using numbers of cannon fodder to assault enemy lines whilst skilled veterans make their way through and take out key targets. Due to these tactics, they can often rush and take out unprotected and unsuspecting areas with ease and can even hold their own in all out war. But their tactics fail against factions who hold massive amounts of firepower who can eat through their numbers and gun down their veterans, like Orion, Cathronex, the Chosen/Azuri's or the DA. The BDA's biggest strength can be their powerful warbeasts and stolen equipment, presenting a varied and unpredictable force of units, generals can never predict what exactly the BDA are bringing to each fight which can cause significant issues for them.

Although they're mostly based around mass resource acquisition and production, they do have colonies and cities set up for their general population. Low rank BDA soldiers are very jumpy and on-edge, but the higher the ranks you rise, the more stable and loyal the people become, to the point where even at the mid-ranks, where the unstable chaff have been thinned out, there is a 澱brotherhood like quality that overcomes the mercenary like nature of the BDA, as a result, they tend to be a lot closer knit that one would expect. High ranking BDA figures tend to be looked upon with awe and fear, as it takes someone truly special to make it anywhere in this dreaded Terra-corp.

EMPIRES

“Great minds think alike.”

Empires are very similar to Terra corps in the way they work, but aren't corporations. They were governments that grew out of control and took over everything. As a result, Empires will have far more opinionated and subjective populations, rather than the mix pot that the Terra corps have. They function identically to the Terra-corps in pretty much every other aspect though, making their own weapons, food, housing, entertainment, everything.

The Draconic Alliance

Imperialistic – Xenophobic – Fragile

The DA is the largest Empire in the universe, disregarding the more special cases like the Chosen but including the Terra corps. They have some of the most powerful tech and the largest population making them one fearsome force. Having mastered anti grav tech, Plasma weapons, Vulcan weapons and much much more, they don't really need much new tech, at least to fight off most opponents. The DA are feared by all the Terra corps due to their huge military prowess and strength. They have an elite royal family who decide everything within the empire. Their populations are coaxed into loving the royal family and there's a hell of a lot of propaganda within the DA, although their populations are happy, blissfully unaware of the subtle and powerful brainwashing that as cemented them into the DA forever. Those within the DA see a perfect system, those outside of it can see the racism and lies. The DA is extremely racist and will NOT allow population that isn't considered reptile or draconic to live amongst them. Non draconic citizens are considered lower than full draconic ones are are treated accordingly. The DA are constantly hunting for the Chosen but rarely actually win a fight when they do find one.

Despite the DA's massive power, they are in a very fragile state within the universe, as they have so many enemies now willing to go to full scale war that the slightest drop in their formidable defences will spell disaster for them.

In combat, the DA use their highly advanced weapons and armour to bring hell to their foes. Factions that rely on heavy armour (like Orion) despise the DA as Vulcan weapons render these armours almost useless. They also field plenty of highly advanced mech suits known as “Dragoons” that are similar to Gundams, these come in a variety of shapes and sizes but always present a very significant threat due to their “Macro-needle Vulcan weapons” which are terrifying powerful. The best way to fight the DA is to stay extremely mobile, which unfortunately, they are also equipped for. Vulcan weapons can be used to shredding mass infantry or bringing in extreme damage to single targets and the same applies to plasma weapons, only plasma weapons are extremely effective against shields, making them perfect for fighting foes who rely on those, such as Enigma. The DA can fight on all terms and usually better factions at their own games, making them a terrifying foe to fight against.

The Followers of Cyrune

Faith above all – Hand-powered industry – Psyonic based warfare

The largest of all religions, the FoC is based upon a living deity (Who does exist) named Cyrune. He shares his power with his followers and grants them incredible power, this power then spreads down the web of followers, lowering in strength as you reach the lower ranks of their forces. Their numbers are countless, their will unwavering. Fighting the FoC is a daunting task as the limitless numbers of Cultists charge forward, knifes and pistols ready, supported by the priests and warlocks who can raise their fallen back from the dead and the huge armoured Crusaders who charge through the thickest of gunfire in their ceremonial armour and slice up the ranks of those who'd dare to oppose them. They swarm and charge through anything, only listening to what their warlocks tell them. No gun will silence their words. Their populations are completely brain washed and happy with their lives, once you join the ranks of the FoC, you never leave. The FoC is a mix pot of species and has no unique species.

For a lot of their general population however, they rarely see any form of fighting at all. Although they do have tech specialists, labour and production in the FoC is done entirely by hand and psyonics, meaning they have masses of farmers and labour workers to keep their food stocks full, this means its entirely possible to live a peaceful life as a simple farmer within the FoC and reap all the benefits of their protection and web-psyonics.

Occasionally, the FoC will produce Gifted ones who are demi-god like figures, blessed with incredible charisma, strength and intelligence, who are leagues ahead of your average person. They are sent off to opposing factions to become cult like leaders and undermine the leadership of that area, preparing it for FoC invasion and indoctrination. Ever seen stories or met someone who just had a massive following for seemingly no reason? You may have just met a Gifted One without realising it.

The FoC fight in a similar way to the BDA do, only with even more numbers that never stop coming. The only way to stop a FoC assault is to kill the warlocks supporting the invasion, otherwise they'll keep bringing the fallen back to life with powerful psyonics and blood rituals. They do not have much ranged firepower however nor do they have the element of surprise that the BDA can have. But their overwhelming and terrifying invasions bring Zealots by the billions to assaults. If any FoC scouts are spotted in a system, the response is quick and vast from the defenders, as its likely an FoC invasion is coming, and stopping an invasion is no easy task. Against entrenched or difficult opponents, the FoC are access to horrifying flesh monstrosities and psyonic beasts, such as Pyre's or Mass abominations which are basically terror weapons, designed to inflict as much damage (both physically and psychologically) to their enemies as possible. It takes a very hardened soldier to not lose their shit at a Pyre lumbering towards them.

The Dominion of Chass

Biotech focused – Vengeful - Survivors

The DoC started as a ship of refugees trying to land after been kicked out of the DA, after it had its massive civil war and evicted all the non-draconic species it had slowly accepted over the years. The DoC built themselves up again and started mining and building vast underground cities. Since then, they've quietly and slowly expanded out, developing their amazing bio-technology to great levels and furthering their expectations to better themselves. They are hard working, determined and usually good people, although they a relatively young empire and can lack experience. They utterly hate the DA and are constantly researching ways to better them, with plasma resistance armours and bio weapons that can almost equal the vicious Vulcan Ballistic weapons. The DoC is mainly comprised of Bats, amphibian/fish and some lizard sub species, including the very rare and illusive Coralith Komodo.

The DoC fight in a similar fashion to the Enigma, their front line tech is somewhat weak but their supporting agents are strong. However, the lack of frontline strength comes from their lack of decent assault units and not from weaker infantry. DoC power armour and infantry are of a very high standard and are extremely combat capable, but they lack heavy armour and tanks to really push through enemy fortifications.

Generally, the DoC are not well known and its not surprising to hear that a lot of people have never heard of them, but their technology and determination make them a very dangerous enemy, they have very advanced cloning technology and medical facilities, if you have some sort of incurable condition, there's a very good chance the DoC can fix that for you, providing you're not from the DA...

The Cold One Legion

Capable fighters – Intimidating – Empathetic

A recently upgraded faction due to their massive numbers that is comprised off humanoid warrior insects, the Cold One Legion (COL) are an extremely complex society of sentient insects that are just as capable as their squishy bodied cousins. They got off to a bad start vs the Terra-corps due to some communication issues and have been at war with them for a significant amount of time, but the COL is not the brutal, blood thirsty empire that the Terra-corps would make them out to be...

They have a vast amount of different species integrated into their network and have a semi-hive-mind running through-out their empire, which greatly benefits their population. Life is certainly different within the COL but good none-the-less. They have made accommodations for more traditional species within their worlds and if one can adjust to the giant insects walking around, then live within the COL is actually rather good, well provided for, with excellent individual rights and little to no crime, but their alien appearance and nature causes a lot of people to jump to conclusions and engage them instead of talking to them.

The COL have been engaged in a bitter war with the FoC for a substantial amount of time now and its unlikely the two Empire's will ever see eye to eye.

Carthonex

Dynamic – Hate Fuelled – Absolute

Carthonex consists of sentient machinery and the extremely rare demonic beings that rule the once great empire. They once were made entirely of 'demons' but due to their history, the vast majority chose to forfeit their bodies and transfer themselves into robotic ones instead. But a few of the original species remain. Carthonex are extremely hostile to all that come close to them and are extremely territorial, attacking anyone and anything that comes even remotely close to their controlled space.

Their troops are caught somewhere between being Transformers and Geth. Their ground infantry are tightly controlled groups of assault bots, similar in purpose to the other factions infantry, being bi-pedal with a head and arms for holding weapons. They use highly advanced hybrid weapons that fire volleys of highly damaging ballistic rounds. What sets the Carthonex army apart from the others is how their larger and more elite units literally transform. The gunship bot, which can fly with enough speed to rival a jet, can transform mid air and land on the ground as a giant minigun wielding assault mech, to support the ground offence properly. Their elite infantry units have been seen flying into orbit as a jet, landing underwater as some sort of skiing unit, taking off out of the water with a jetpack and then landing down and fighting as infantry would. Their large, tough, robotic bodies are excellent at taking damage and are difficult to bring down, lower tier weapons seem to do nothing to them and it requires at least tier 3 weapons to have any sort of effect on their silver metallic chassis's.

They hollow out planets into massive fortresses, used to produce more of themselves. Carthonex have spent a lot of time to develop a very powerful and rather morbid technique to power themselves. They can pull souls directly from the ether plane and into their bots to give them power, draining energy from the souls ever replenishing supply to act as their bots power supplies, eliminating the need for a potentially explosive battery or capacitor to power them. However, the machines that do this are massive in scale, difficult and time consuming to build and very costly. Meaning that Cathonex will only build them in secure and extremely well defended locations. Their planetary fortress house massive amounts of spare bots, weapons and construction facilities for their larger bots, such as overlords.

In combat, Carthonex are one of the scarier factions to fight. Hyper aggressive, dynamic, powerful, swift and merciless, Carthonex have proved themselves to be extremely capable warriors. Their physical weapons fire something closer to shurikens and razor sharp disks rather than bullets. Fearsome jet pack equipped command bots surge through the skies and pummel enemies with their axes as gunships and ultra fast assault bots surge through enemy ranks. Carthonex are one of the greatest enemies to fight in combat and any victory against them in celebrated. They are greatly feared by most and for good reason.

Factions

“A real mix-bag”

Factions are smaller than empires or terra-corps, but are still self sufficient, meaning they still produce their own weapons, food, supplies ect. Their smaller size is only in reference to the amount of population they hold, not their military strength or territory. They are also more subjective than Empires or Terra-corps, sometimes being only made of 1 species. Note that some Factions may call themselves empires, but aren't classified as them.

The Rayei Guardia

Peaceful – Friendly – Dangerous when provoked

Rayei are a unique and certainly interesting alien species, they are made of light yellow coloured jelly and use powerful psyonic powers to hover themselves off the ground, they have vaguely human like body shapes with a fine yellow liquid in their cores which act as their internal organs. They are able to absorb many forms of energy to survive and are capable of photo synthesis. They live in giant sky cities that hover within and above the cloud layers of the beautiful planets they seem to guard. They are a mainly peaceful species but know how to fight effectively, using their tremendously powerful and long range "Solar" energy weapons, as well as various different lighting weapons and psyonic assaults. They never fly alone and are always seen in groups, floating seamlessly through the beautiful environments in a peaceful and calming manner. Rayei are perhaps the nicest of the random alien species that inhabit the universe and are one the most successful, but their powerful technology and fighting style also make them one of the most difficult to attack.

In standard engagements (which is always defence, as they never really attack anyone), large groups of Rayei will float miles away from the battle field in the sky and rain down pure energy death with their weapons upon those who attack them. Their psyonic specialists can use their abilities to power massive metal warmachines, providing them with extremely imposing heavy units. Their most famous mech unit is a two legged metal mech that has asymmetrical design to it, featuring a much larger claw like right arm that actually houses a massive energy cannon as its only weapon, this massive cannon is capable of tearing huge holes through the battlefield and annihilate masses of just about anything. Its warmachines like these, plus their extremely long range and high firepower, with their unconventional tactics and formidable shielding that make the Rayei an absolutely nightmare to attack.

The Rayei have also formed a partnership with the illusive Marax Khan- these are living golem like creatures that form when a soul crystallises in the physical world. Marax Khan are living stone creatures that take a variety of shapes and sizes and communicate psyonically with others. They start off with stone and clay like bodies which eventually harden into an obsidian-like stone called Ether-glass which is incredibly strong and rather heavy. They live somewhat peaceful lives with the Rayei who use their powerful psyonics to transport them quickly but can make incredibly powerful shock-troops when required. The Rayei will clad them is super thick, rune etched plating and provide them with weapons, as if the Rayei weren't bad enough to fight already, these multi-ton armoured beasts made of Ether-glass are tough as they come and can take an immense beating before finally going down, they're completely immune to a lot of disruptive tactics and weapons as well, providing the Rayei with one of the best front-line compositions there is. If you think an Orion shock marine is difficult to take out, a Marax Khan golem covered in solar plating in much worse.

The Akulan Empire

Young – Disruptive - Fierce

An Empire that consists exclusively of the Akulan, a race of highly evolved, land dwelling Shark People.
Though the relatively young when compared to the DA, they can develop advanced technology that most others would find difficult or impossible to mass produce.
Worlds within the Empire are known for having clean, orderly, densely packed cities of white and blue on steel and glass skyscrapers, superstructures and many other incredible feats of engineering, even building cities floating on water to domed cities underwater. often draped with banners of the Empire and telescreens of propaganda and product advertisements from the many industrial corporations that exists within its borders.
Contrasted with the dark gray and rust of the heavy and imposing industrial districts, producing materials, parts, power, machines of war and interstellar cruisers.
However, the Akulan are dependent on infrastructure and cannot adapt as well as other species to hotter, dryer environments and planets without cities.
The Empire's Military force: The Combined Guard Marines, is a mostly volunteer, professional force who are equipped with highly advanced suits of power armour and Mass drivers. Mass Drivers are typically electromagnetic Coilguns and Railguns, and while this technology is rather old, the highly advanced materials used in their construction allows these weapons to stay powerful enough to rival that of the other, older empires. they are very accurate, durable and dependable.
Marine power armour comes in many varieties, however the key features include synthetic muscle fibres for flexibility, jump-packs for mobility and smart barriers for protection.
Operating all operations from the Planetary Assault Carriers from the Naval fleet, sending dropships and transports to the ground to deploy their fleet of Vehicles, Mechs, and Soldiers.
Because they are a single species empire, they have a numerical disadvantage when compared to empires with species diversity. this is mitigated through the use of combat bots.

The Azuri

Unstoppable – Impossible - Feared

The Azuri are a small faction of supremely powerful females who live in the far reaches of the universe. The Azuri's have permanent bases and cities on no more than 60-70 planets, they numbers are countable and few but yet they pose of the best and most effective forces in the universe. Which each Azuri being worth more than a 1000 of any other factions finest. No one knows where they came from or why they are here and they don't interact with the other factions much at all and whenever they do, its usually quite violent and short lived. The Azuri's outright dominant biological advantage and unique command structure gives them the adaptability to overcome any attack launched of them and so far but also condemns then to live alone (I.E. with other Azuri's) as their massive sizes and shapes makes living within the other empires and faction impossible, fewer than 10 Azuri deaths have been recorded over the period of 2000 years. The only limiting factor to their dominance is their inability to reproduce naturally, they are grown in tanks in batches or usually about 25 or so. They are heavy users to physical weaponry and melee weapons, but also use Chosen armaments and their own unique weapons known as Kykrill weaponry. A lot of Orion citizens don't believe the Azuri's are real and think they were a made up story to try and reduce the amount of rape committed. The Azuri's hate the Battle Sisters bitterly and will fight them to the death if they encounter each-other anywhere, usually winning too.

Azuri's are generally very uninterested in other factions aside from maiming them and due to this, most factions regard them as an absolute pain in the ass, but rarely try to stop them going about their business as its not worth the clean-up afterwards. Starting a fight with an Azuri never ends well, either she wins, or she calls back-up and much more powerful ones turn up.

Due to the way they're built, there is no upper limit on their strength or toughness, meaning their high commanders are practically immortal and invulnerable. Thankfully, they don't seem hugely bothered about the other factions and mostly leave them get on with their own business.

The Chosen

Mysterious – Deadly - Honourable

Allies to the Azuri's, the Chosen are mostly unknown to other factions and operate on their own terms. Their ranks comprised of seemingly sentient machines and drones, clad in their formidable and unknown black armour and armed with their Demiicore Ballistic weaponry with Plasmite weapons as back up. The Chosen are the most technologically advanced faction in the whole Heavy Weapons universe, the other empires and factions are aware of this but they aren't aware of how much more advanced the Chosen are. Their war machines are the most powerful in the universe, from Fast moving and armed Assault Panthers to hulking and unstoppable Punisher Spider mechs, to face a Chosen war machine is to stare perfected death. Their purpose/goal however is completely unknown. Their numbers are unknown, their bases can't be found and their goals are seemingly random. They simply show up in random places and complete seemingly random goals, although they are observed to attack the DA from time to time. They fear nothing, are capable of killing anything and can be everywhere, showing up completely undetected. Surprisingly though, they do not shoot those who don't attack them, unless its their goal to destroy that person. They are honourable to an extent and their drones with melee duel with enemy soldiers if provoked to. Little is known about the Chosen, and what is known, is terrifying.

Weirdly enough however, the Chosen are known (Although its mostly considered a myth) to help random people and even grant wishes. There are two main methods of gaining the Chosen's favour, the first is to help them out when they need it. They have a lot of solo operating machines, intelligence gathering drones and roaming droids that occasionally need assistance, helping the Chosen out is always rewarded in kind. The second is by finding a Black Star which is a small pod with a communicator in it. Upon finding it, the lucky person can request almost anything from the Chosen and they will oblige if possible, to absurd degrees sometimes if the person who finds it knows what they want. Sometimes its a child who just wants their sick parent to feel better, sometimes its a power hungry criminal who wants his own empire, the Chosen will ensure both happen, should have happen upon a Black Star. Make a wish, it might just come true.

The Chosen are the only things that Carthonex are afraid of.

The Warlocks of Detromus

Friendly – Hunted - Righteous

The Warlocks of Detromus used to belong to the FoC, but broke free in a planned uprising to start their own faction. They were sick of the constrictions imposed on them and wanted to further their psyonic development unhindered. Now they function well by themselves, but stay hidden from the FoC who are looking to execute them for their betrayal. They are a heavily psyonic based faction who are pretty friendly really, they take in people with psyonic capabilities and train them to use them properly without forcing them into any sort of contract or agreement. Or brainwashing subjugation. They are rapidly growing and use their melee combat prowess taught to them by the FoC in conjunction with their psyonic assaults to form a powerful fighting force, although they always avoid fighting whenever possible, preferring to keep the peace. The Faction was named after the warlords who broke free and formed the group.

The WoD are the best place to learn psyonics, anyone with psyonic potential can literally just turn up at their door and ask for help. They mostly operate as a neutral force and have a lot of allies as a result, they also do great work with repelling FoC advances and undoing indoctrination attempts.

Truly dedicated WoD soldiers often forge themselves Soul-bound armour that they were into battle, in the event the soldier is killed, his soul remains and animates his armour, burning his body away in brilliant coloured flames and becoming a Wisp, these animated soul-powered armours remember their now deceased lives and will fight to the bitter end with massively increased psyonic powers. Most will exhaust their own lives and burn out, but some will stabilise and becoming greater wisps. Serving the WoD for as long as they can.

The Organisation

Evil – Structured - Stealthy

Known simply as The ORG, this is the largest criminal syndicate in the Heavy Weapon's universe, operating directly within most of the other factions territory, when it comes to anything illegal, illicit or dangerous, the ORG can be found close by. Although there are limitless numbers of small gangs across the universe, the ORG simply outclasses them all, it operates ruthlessly and efficiently, able to quickly severe sections of its own operations in case they become compromised and always lives to fight another day.

They tend not to pick fights with anyone who can fight back but will relentlessly pick on those smaller than itself, subjugating independent smaller factions and assimilating gangs into its own when possible.

Its entirely possible to make a good living even as a small thug within the ORG, as long as you have a limited moral compass, as they deal in practically anything and everything, from slaves and sex trade, to drugs, anomalous materials, trafficking, high value intelligence, if someone wants it, the ORG likely has it.

Against the bigger players, the ORG operates with stealth and bribery, forgoing military might in favour of underground operations and subtly. Against the smaller factions however, the ORG has a massive army of enforcers it uses to keep everything going smoothly. Compared to Terra-corp marines, these guys aren't that strong, but compared to your average space pirate or thug, ORG Enforcers are horrible to deal with, usually 7ft tall, highly muscular, well equipped and brutal, these lot form the back-bone of the ORG's physical operations and are more than willing to beat down someone who doesn't want to play by their rules.

The Nomads

Independent – Isolated - Free

Unlike the other factions, Nomads are general term of any population that do not fall under the control of any particular faction. There are many pockets of Nomads across the universe and they can range from independent fuel stations owned by a single family, to massive sprawling multi-cities, to be a Nomad is just to be independent of other major factions.

Nomad life can vary massively, some with live their entire lives only interacting with a few other people, never seeing much of the universe, others will live similarly to ourselves, some will live similarly to Terra-corp or Empire citizens, its quite hard to sum them up due to how sprawling the classification is, but some things are pretty consistent, first, Nomads tend to band together for safety in numbers. Without the massive military structures and strength of Terra-corps or Empires to keep them safe, they find other ways to stay alive and well, Nomad's tend to make juicy targets for factions such as the ORG, Rewritten and FoC, looking to sub-due the population for their own purposes. Second, Nomad life in general is pretty tough, these are generally self-sufficient people with little room for weakness, so they tend to be quite resilient and a little dis-trusting because of it. Isolated Nomad colonies/territories must defend themselves frequently, so most Nomad's carry weapons at all times, unfortunately, these weapons tend to be low or middling quality, which is plenty fine for most fights, but can let them down when tougher opponents show up. For example, trying to down a FoC Crusader with a modern day or even semi-future assault rifle would be impossible.

But generally, Nomad's are tough, robust and independent people who are often the target of more villainous factions.

Demon Clans

Other-worldly – Psyonic based - Unstable

Outside of the “known” universe, there are pockets of reality that exist within their own bubbles, they are nearly infinite and many are simply empty, some contain other-worldly horrors, some are nightmarish hellscapes, some have pleasant and functioning societies. “Demons” are creatures that exist in these pockets, they don't tend to follow typical rules of biology as their bodies are formed of Soul energy.

The vast majority of Demon Clans will never interact with the Heavy Weapons universe, they'll just drift within the vast emptiness of infinite and will only know what is within their realm, but with that said, because of how many of them there are, there do exist networks of Demon Clan's, bubble's that link together. Some of them just fight it out, others learn to co-exist and of those ones, some make greater plans. Of these, there are two that stand out.

Clan Psypher
A sophisticated of mostly humanoid Demon's who occasionally make contact with the universe for whatever they please, they are charismatic, intelligent and scheming.

Clan Apocalyse
A brutish clan of war obsessed demon's who want to destroy everything that isn't them. Have made numerous attempts to do so, intelligent and unrelenting. Their numbers appear to be practically infinite and their weapons, although crude, are highly damaging. Appear as various humanoid and bestial creatures.

Both Clan's have made contact with the known universe to varying degrees of success. Clan Psypher have contacts within the ORG, FoC and Oneye, but steer clear away from most other factions, but are especially scared of the Azuri and Chosen. Clan Apocalyse are made numerous invasion attempts, all of which can be destroyed by the Chosen/Azuri.

There are also Demon's already living within the known universe, most peacefully, whether they be immigrants from Clan Psypher or lucky individuals from their own bubbles.

Splinter Factions

“Smaller but still important”

These are factions that require a resource that they cannot attain themselves due to lack of manpower or facilities (So they cannot produce all their own food and weapons and stuff, they need assistance), splinter factions can include single species that are living within empires or terra corps.

The Battle Sisters

Survivors – Duty Bound - Illusive

The Battle sisters are a group of super powered females that fit in much better to normal life than the Azuri's due to their normalised sizes and natural birthing capabilities. They lost a massive war against the Azuri's years ago and have been on the backfoot ever since, they now live within other factions and stay hidden and passive. Although they are allies with the Oneye, there is no official documentation as the Oneye fear that doing so and declaring it will provoke the Azuri's and Chosen to attack, so the alliance is unofficial and sketchy at best. They do still have three sanctuaries that work as a base of operations and safety for the Sisters at hidden locations. The Sisters are always on alert as a single Chosen spider drone could sniff their outposts out and spell disaster for them. The Sisters also make one of the only weapons capable of damaging Azuri's within their sanctuaries, Zenith blades. Any child birthed by a Sister will be a Sister regardless of the father.

The Gemini

Trapped – Outgunned - Servants

The Gemini were a (somewhat failed) experiment by Enigma to create super soldiers from the genetics of a battle sister (Which are identifiable and obtainable unlike that of the Azuri). The result was an all male race of men that were stronger, faster and smarter than your average joe by about 40-50%, unfortunately, they weren't engineer properly in the head and worshipped the Battle Sisters as goddesses, swearing to protect them at all costs, regardless of what Enigma officers tried to tell them to do. Enigma scrapped the project and the resulting Gemini managed to find the Sisters and offered themselves to them. They are bodyguards, soldiers, breeders and friends to the Battle Sisters and a much needed helping hand to them as well. They fight well and effectively, using what Enigma armaments they managed to steal and what the Sisters can equip them with. Aside from that, they function identically to normal people, just with their advantages.

The Rewritten

Desperate – Selfish - Desirable

Caught between being a zombie infestation and severe nymphomaniacs, the Rewritten are a self spreading corruptive race that came about through genetic engineering and tinkering of the Czarites natural structure with that on the powerful pheromones of an Azuri Dexon Dragoness. They spread their corruption through rape and sex and are completely self serving, they can hit unprepared and heavily populated areas extremely quickly and hard too, converting thousands and millions of people to their cause in days. Their ranks are comprised of Controllers, who are corrupted Czarites. Nodes, who are corrupted people who's more adaptable bodies have allowed to change somewhat and Slaves, who are corrupted people who couldn't transform into Nodes. The Rewritten are a fast growing faction who are keeping low and attacking isolated areas to increase their numbers. The Controllers often keep people who are immune to the corruption as their own personal sex slaves and these people are called Marks. The Corruption of the rewritten is so powerful that it is considered permanent and can override any other convictions the victim has, including the FoC's indoctrination.

The Rewritten have spread rapidly since their conception and have formed a stable alliance with the ORG, enhancing both their strengths. The Rewritten's bio engineers are also working on new forms of their corruption to infiltrate into the other factions without being quite so obvious.

The Rewritten have a semi-hive-mind which keeps them all in sync, its not quite as powerful as some species but it does allow Controller's to see through the eyes of their slaves and allows the permeability of emotions through the Rewritten's ranks, however, the vast majority of the time, the only emotion that runs through them is their unceasing hunger to corrupt others.