Aaron Fox
That Crazy/Not-Crazy Guy
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So, someone went and discussed how crap the Gundam SEED borders were and pretty much didn't justify them at all. That started me working on an idea modifying Gundam SEED to make more sense. Well, more sense than the usual Gundam flare (although in Gundam Iron Blooded Orphans, the geopolitics are the way they are thanks to rampant AI killing any significant population center and turning them into cinders and Gjallarhorn 'balancing' the factions a little to ensure that they're easier to manipulate in a divide and conquer strategy) anyway.
Now, after setting up a handful of basic faction bits in SB and SV, I've started to make a document as an intro for this more justifiable Gundam SEED. Now I'll probably need some constructive criticism to minimize the crazy... and that will be surely be welcomed.
Some Prototypes:
1 Prelude: The Basics
The saddest thing about the Cosmic Era is that it held such great promise for humanity, and yet it became one of the worst bloodlettings in the history of mankind and would lead to one of the worst wars that mankind has ever fought in. To properly set the stage, one must go back into time to when it all started during the mid-21st century, where everything went wrong…
One of the key things that one must understand is the fact that gene-tech has been outright outlawed in the Cosmic
To understand the Cosmic Era, one must talk about the infamous Resource and Reconstruction Wars. These are a series of immense and horrible conflicts that devastated much of the world and left billions destitute in one way or another. The Resource Wars happened first as it started around March of 2045 when resources in easy to reach deposits that all of civilization depended on for existence became depleted.
These wars would cause devastation on a planetary scale. With the unintentional proliferation of DEW-based ABM systems, conventional warfare became incredibly common. This would have dire consequences later, particularly in the change of mentality when it pertains to nuclear weaponry as all nuclear armed sides had used tactical nukes in the later battles with some instances of strategic level nuclear ordinance being thrown around on states without DEW-ABM technology.
This fundamental change in thought around nuclear weaponry is how much of the Middle East became a literal post-nuclear apocalypse wasteland, thanks to Israel deciding to throw nukes at the invading Syrian, Saudi, Iraqi, and Egyptian armies… and a portion of the Samson Option being implemented as Tel Aviv and Jerusalem became Stalingrad 2.0: Rattenkrieg Harder as Jewish, Israeli-friendly Arabs, and Christians made taking every inch requiring the invaders to have a mountain of their own bodies as the cost. This was also all the while the invading Arabs tried to genocide Jews in Israel.
It is the Resource Wars that left much of the planet vulnerable to nations like Russia, the United States, and China. Allowing them to be able to do what they've done in the Reconstruction Wars.
The Reconstruction Wars was essentially further proof of the idea that 'Might makes Right' is the only idea that matters. It was during this time the first humanoid war machines were developed. These machines, called Mobile Weapons or MWs for short, were a Japanese project that started during the Resource Wars to improve effectiveness of infantry units in the jungle and mountain terrain. By being able to haul weapons that became unavailable for infantry -particularly the latest generation of Explosive Formed Penetrator warheads on ATGMs and other missiles- they multiplied the effectiveness of the infantry units their attached to by several orders of magnitude, particularly in urban or other 'rough' terrain.
(A view of a 'finishing bay' of a Mobile Weapon production line, a lot of the basics of Mobile Weapon production would be integrated to the initial production lines of Mobile Suits.)
It wasn't long before the technology fell into the hands of China -later rebranding itself as 'the Republic of East Asia' after the Reconstruction Wars- when Japan fell in the late 2070s. This technology would also find itself in the various African conflicts during the last days of the Anno Domini era and the beginning decades of the Cosmic Era.
It is the flexibility of environs a mobile weapon can tackle that made it standard equipment amongst the various nations afterward. This would lay the groundwork for the now-famous Mobile Suits that the PLANTs would produce well into the 5th decade of the Cosmic Era.
As the three and a half decade conflict came to a close, it became clear that Earth can no longer sustain humanity… and thus the beginnings of a new age of space exploration and colonization began.
The Beginning of the Cosmic era became five and a half decades of intense international rivalries as the new 'Space Race' began. Thanks to many technologies that were developed in the ending decades of Anno Domini, vastly cheaper methods of spacelift were developed. While most nations would opt for the use of electromagnetic Mass Drivers as their primary means of surface-to-orbit travel, two nations -the ORB Union and the South Asian Union- would opt for utilizing orbital elevators.
(the ORB Union's orbital elevator Heaven's Pillar, responsible for 7/10ths of ORB's surface-to-orbit traffic alongside a third of its power supply via the end station's complex solar array)
As soon as the 'Age of Space Colonization' -also known as the 'Second Space Race'- started, the rivalries between the various power blocks intensified. While none of these rivalries would become world wars in their own right, there have been major conflicts that flared up during this era, especially CE 0025 onwards when space mining became more and more vital in ensuring the resources needed to maintain the civilization that humanity found itself in.
The first space colony -an Island 3 O'Neil type called New Texas- was finished by the Atlantic Federation in CE 0020 in Lagrange 1, setting up a pipeline of another 49 Island 3 types that would be completed in CE 0027. New Texas was followed shortly thereafter with Eurasia's Island 3 called Leningrad that is positioned in L4. The ORB Union would quickly follow suit with Heliopolis 1 in L3.
In addition to the construction of space colonies, the various blocks would start colonizing the moon. While the UN would create the first successful lunar colony -Copernicus- in CE 0025, the other power blocks would carve the moon for themselves. This would lead to actual combat on the moon between the power blocks, leading to the wars known as the 'Lunar Wars'. These 'wars' were more like skirmishes than actual wars, where adhoc escorts and armed mining equipment came to a sector of Luna and simply shot at each other until either a) the opposing side dies (which was rare) or b) the other side has enough and leaves. The Lunar Wars would end rather quickly, within half a decade this conflict would end as Zero Gravity mining became more and more plausible.
By 0045, the foundations for the L5 colonies was laid down, eventually creating what would be known as the PLANTs.
Now, my 'plan of attack' with this is to extend the timeline a bit to make it less... head-scratching on the world building front...
Now, after setting up a handful of basic faction bits in SB and SV, I've started to make a document as an intro for this more justifiable Gundam SEED. Now I'll probably need some constructive criticism to minimize the crazy... and that will be surely be welcomed.
Some Prototypes:
Republic of East Asia Prototype said:
(like before, a fanon flag for the Republic of East Asia because there isn't a 'canon' one in the Wiki)
To simply state that the Republic of East Asia is built upon mountains of skulls would be an understatement to outdo all understatements. The Republic of East Asia controls all of China including Taiwan, Japan, the Koreas, and many Indochinese islands out to the Philippines. Despite calling itself a 'republic', in reality it's simply the People's Republic of China that expanded outside of it's borders. In addition, China returned to ethnically and culturally cleansing any nation it had under it's control to ensure that any risk for splintering be negated. Out of all the nations on Earth, the Republic of East Asia is the most populous with 1.875 billion calling the nation their home. The master of arcology and vertical farm construction, the Republic can sustain such a population, but Beijing sees that in order to ensure China's continuation, then it must prepare to expand into traditionally Chinese client states to secure resources and land. This has caused constant low and high intensity conflict between the Republic of East Asia and it's southern neighbors, which has the unsettling consequence of forcing those neighbors to keep -to them- an unusually high military budget when more and more of that budget should be towards civilian matters.
While the Republic of East Asia would be considered a rogue state in the pre-Reconstruction era, in the modern era that distinction is defunct, especially since the UN was unable to do anything thanks the veto powers that China -now the Republic of East Asia- holds. This -in combination to various other problems- has caused a massive decline in trust with the UN. The Copernicus Conference would be the make-or-break for the UN, and sadly for everyone involved the terrorist attack broke the UN completely... thus ensuring that there would be more and more wars in the future.
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The Republic of East Asia's military is the third largest military on the planet thanks to a combination of the native population and it's geopolitical needs. This is also the greatest weakness of the Republic of East Asia, as no one branch is superior to the other. In addition, this is a massive drain on the limited resources that the Republic of East Asia can procure. This is why the Republic of East Asia is incredibly protective of the New Shanxi cluster, as it is their only access point -outside of the PLANTS- to the resource asteroids that are brought into the Earth Sphere. Outside of a few dozen sea-floor colonies, the cluster is the only thing that is able to feed the immense resource appetite of the Republic.
Now the Republic of East Asia's army is... something of an odd duck in the Earth Alliance. The requirements of the numerous environs that the Republic of East Asia has to fight in requires distinct systems for said environs. For example the Type 50 MBT is similar to the Atlantic Federation's M36 series of linear rifle equipped tanks, but the Republic also has the Type 44 which is more akin to the ORB MBT in design. The use of two designs is due to doctrine as the Republic of East Asia not only fights in the plains and steppes but also heavily mountainous or broken terrain. This is also very obvious in it's other weapon systems including IFVs, APCs, and other vehicles. This gives it far more flexibility than other nations and it also makes logistics a massive migraine to deal with. As such the Republic of East Asia has one of the best logistic chains in the Cosmic Era.
(One of the many fights between South East Asian Union and Republic MWs during the Hong Kong Crisis in CE 0042)
Republic MWs are generally designed for mountainous and/or jungle terrain, much like ORB's MW arsenal. While effective machines, Republic MWs are somewhere between the MWs of the Eurasian Federation and the Atlantic Federation in terms of general capabilities. However, they tend to be lighter due to the terrain they are forced to endure. This also means that they tend to have less armor than their counterparts... making them easier to take out. Despite this, they have a somewhat disproportional punch for their attributes. Most of the MW arsenal of the Republic is focused on the Himalayas and the border between Southeast Asia and the Republic.
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The Republic of East Asia's navy is the second smallest of the Earth Alliance-aligned nations, next to the South African Union. This is mostly due to the fact that the Republic of East Asia needs far more resources than it can procure. Given that -relatively- the Navy is more resource intensive, the Republic of East Asia worked on quality over quantity. Out of all the navies of the world, the Republic's navy is perhaps the most modern. This is simply a consequence of the Republic's position, and has the rest of the Earth Alliance a bit unsettled. This also left the Republic Navy with a series of vulnerabilities, particularly to attrition. As such, most of the Republic Navy's doctrine is based around maximizing damage to the enemy while minimizing risk. The Republic's navy is also noted for it's excellent ASW systems, mainly due to the fact that the Republic relies heavily on underwater mining to sustain it's appetite for non-biological resources, and these underwater mining (and some farming) operations are extremely vulnerable to submarine attack.
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The Republic Air Force is an interesting affair, as it is also a fairly modern force with similarities to ORB. While not as STOL/VTOL happy as ORB, it has a large fleet of STOL/VTOL aircraft, particularly in the Republic's Frontal Aviation divisions. This allows a degree of flexibility for the army and marines, as they got on-call support on a constant basis, at least compared to the Atlantic and Eurasian Federations who keep any fixed-wing air support assets away from the ground forces due to their inherited air forces mostly being of that sort of doctrine. Many of these designs are actually designed for makeshift dirt airfields instead of any sort of concrete. This allows a wider range of landing zones... but at the cost of armament as dirt airfields are not the most suitable for heavy combat loads.
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The Republic's Space Forces is only second to the Atlantic Federation's space forces in shear size and sophistication. This is due to the Republic needing astro-mining to help out in their resource crunch. The main axis of the Republic's space assets is their L2 colonies known as the New Shanxi Cluster which is mostly made up of Island 3 type colonies with the prototype of the PLANTs on it's outer edge. Interestingly enough, New Shanxi is better defended than the PLANTs themselves thanks to an expansive network of semi-autonomous weapon platforms and their controller stations. Every attempt that ZAFT has made to move into New Shanxi so far has only been met with incredibly stiff resistance and immense losses despite the use of Mobile Suits. Semi-autonomous platforms armed with 'DU Linear Guns' -effectively a linear gun firing DU projectiles at velocities that cause solid state explosions with a rate of fire of 30 rounds a minute and a very deep and easily replaceable magazine- and new rapid-fire -if somewhat weak compared to the usual fare- laser CWIS are not something to laugh at, as ZAFT's MS corps would find out the hard way. Due to their success, these systems have been mounted on the newer Republic spaceships who can handle the load necessary to operate them.
Compared to the more 'flashy' designs of the Eurasian and Atlantic Federations, Republic spaceships tend to be brick-like affairs with minimal aesthetics... and this is due to the fact that the Republic Space Forces were planning to extend it's reach through the Solar System with these ships to ensure that the Republic has a fleet to secure resources further from the Earth-Sphere.
Atlantic Fedreation Prototype said:
(some fanon flag of the Atlantic Federation since I can't find the canon one in the Wiki)
The Atlantic Federation controls the entirety of North America, Britain, and Ireland and is well known to be the geopolitical rival of the equally as vast Eurasian Federation. Born in the Reconstruction Wars, the Atlantic Federation is quite similar to it's forefather the United States, with some caveats including multi-round voting ala the French and strict rules of establishing political parties. The House of Windsor had been kicked out of Britain in the years leading up to the Reconstruction Wars through the smoothest political coup in the history of mankind... and at the same time dooming much of Britain's economy to a life of servitude in the process.
The Reconstruction and Resource Wars era world is often outright brutal to small nations, and trying to ensure that you stay relevant in such an environment is expensive. The Atlantic Federation would own most of the debts that Britain procured during the Reconstruction Wars, and would use these debts to take control. In exchange of putting it's debts into chunks and set up a series of payment plans to pay off each chunk, Britain would become a full member of the Atlantic Federation. Problem is, as time went on, it was becoming harder and harder to pay off these debts but while British determination persevered, the usual happy, jolly, and generally morally upstanding British became more and more ruthless and pragmatic. Due to the debts -which would be paid off in CE 0054 in full- and the payment plans, many parts of Britain became dependent on morally grey or -in some cases- black enterprises. This includes 'back alley' biotech and mercenary work.
The Atlantic Federation is the most powerful nation on the planet in terms of economics, military strength, and industrial capacity despite the lack of trade across the world due to the collapse of Globalism. With a population of 990 million, it is the third most populous country on the planet next to the South Asian Union and the Republic of East Asia.
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The Atlantic Federation military is the most effective -per capita- on the planet and has the largest navy, is tied for the largest airforce with the ORB Union, and has the largest orbital force of any nation. This comes at immense costs however, as 20% of the GDP is tied to the military. Much of this is to simply ensure that this war machine can function in war time. Little things that most countries don't simply get like logistics, medical, training, maintenance, among others.
The pride and joy of the Atlantic Federation's army is the M36A2 Schwarzkopf Linear Tank. This 85 ton tank is a successor to the M1 series of tanks that were utilized throughout the Reconstruction and Resource Wars. Utilizing latest generation composite armor, the armor aspects -without various armor packages- is 900mm RHA equivalent in the front and 300mm RHA equivalent in the sides, rear, and top. This armor allowed only EEFP warheads of 203mm or larger to be effective... which ended the days where infantry could knock out or disable a tank as effective man-portable EEFP warheads (the launcher for which is at the very limits of what is considered 'man-portable').
In addition to this, motive system is tracks mounted on modular pods and fitted with the successor to the hydropneumatic suspension system. This allows for use on a wide variety of terrain, as long as the terrain can allow for the M36's large size and 85 ton weight. The M36 series can obtain a top speed of 65km/h with it's hydrogen cell engine/hybrid electric drive system. The main armament consists of the Springfield Mk 2 105mm L60 Linear Cannon, which primarily throws a high-density energy-retention armor piercing fin stabilized discarding sabot (HDER-APFSDS) that measures 2.25 meters long and weighs in at 20kg at 3km/s, making the target feel an impact of 60 Megajoules at 4km or 80 Megajoules at ranges less than 1km. This penetrates over 1500mm of RHA equivalent at 2km, making defending against this weapon all but impossible. The M36A2's secondary armament mainly consists of a 40mm coaxial autocannon with provisions of a gunner and commander's copula weapon mounts with 'semi-RWS' capability. These 'semi-RWS' mounts tend to be either 12.7mm HMGs, 40mm AGLs, or a mix of both if the crew so chooses.
Various aspects of the design is used for other weapon systems like the M40 series of laser-equipped SPAAGs, M38 series linear howitzers, and the M39 FALCON SAM system.
In addition to having the most powerful tank on the planet, the Atlantic Federation prides itself in using only APCs and IFVs for troop transport, allowing the trucks to be the entire backbone of the in/famous -depending on who you ask- American Logistics Network. The IFVs, APCs, and trucks are far lighter than the M36 series, but are generally weak against anything that has any serious armor. This led to the creation of the Atlantic Federation's Mobile Weapon Corps.
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(Atlantic Federation Mobile Weapons in the Panama-Colombian Border Zone at one of the checkpoints, low-intensity border skirmishes between the USAS and AF forces continue to the modern day)
It shouldn't come to such surprise that the Atlantic Federation copied ORB's Mobile Weapon designs and created their own during the later stages of the Reconstruction Wars. In environs where M36s couldn't maneuver or be deployed, the MWs that were developed -the first of which is the Frost series, and later the Calm, Gust, Zypher, Eldos, Rascon, Numsekar, and Grapple- enhanced mechanized infantry several fold thanks to their anti-tank capabilities. One key difference between Atlantic Federation and other mobile weapons is that they can equip linear rifles in addition to more traditional cannon. This gives Atlantic Federation 'Sniper' MWs the ability to punch far above their weight. The major problem is, the linear cannon systems for MWs have a slower rate of fire compared to the Springfield Mk 2 and doesn't have the massive heat management systems that are required for high rate of fire of linear weaponry. This also makes Atlantic Federation 'Sniper' MWs extremely vulnerable in close quarters, as the linear rifle rarely allows anything more due to power and weight constraints. This has led to the doctrine of paring a linear rifle using 'Sniper' MW with a 'Gunner' MW.
The most unique thing about Atlantic Federation MWs is the fact that almost every series has options to take on integrated weapon systems. Most of these weapons tend to be some sort of autocannon but various 'Combi' weapon systems do exist which allow a mid-range and long-range weapon to be fitted on the same arm... which boosts their firepower potential immensely at the cost of flexibility.
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The Atlantic Federation Air Force is tied for the title of largest airforce on the planet. This mainly stems from being the successor to the United States Air Force... and the United States Airforce has changed a lot over the decades since the Reconstruction and Resource Wars. With the defeat of stealth, the Atlantic Federation Airforce had to literally revamp it's inventory from the bottom up as missile capacity replaced using stealth to gain the upper hand. This caused a massive shift from stealthy designs to shear combat load... a change that the Techno-Mafia hated... and would later get them purged in the Resource Wars when they wouldn't accept reality.
The main multi-role fighter for the Atlantic Federation Air Force is the F-7D Spearhead. While it has two Vulcan II 20mm rotary cannons, it's massive capacity of 18,000kg of munitions in various bays and hardpoints makes it incredibly lethal in combat thanks to it's incredibly versatile and powerful sensor suite which can 'hack' enemy sensors if needed (although this leaves it vulnerable if the 'hack' is detected). It has a combat range of 400 miles with a full combat load.
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The Atlantic Federation Navy is the largest navy on the planet with 12 fleet carriers, 8 standard carriers, and 16 minor carriers with the navy having a grand total of 600 ships. This massive armada has the best sensor and networking systems on the planet. This makes it incredibly hard for enemies to get into an advantageous position for an ambush. Like the ORB Union, the entire fleet utilizes hydrogen cell power plants. This -in addition to various advances in hull and propulsion design- makes ships of the AFN incredibly maneuverable for their size and tonnage... but not as maneuverable as some ORB naval vessels. Such as the case of the Fletcher class destroyers, which have similar speeds to their ORB counterparts but have to have an additional 50 meters to make a turn at top or combat speed.
ORB Prototype said:
(I feel that the OCU flag fits with ORB more than the canon one)
The ORB Union is made up of many Indochinese islands, their inhabitants, and those who fled the ethnic cleansing and outright genocides perpetrated by the People's Republic of China -now the 'Republic of East Asia'- during the Reconstruction Wars. Known to the world as "the Cosmic Era's Israel", the ORB Union is an oddity compared to other nations in the post Resource Wars world. The Head of State is from the union of various -remaining- royal families in the area and Japan in a constitutional elective monarchy of sorts elected by the various nobles -be of long-time lineage or elevated by the Head of State/'Acts of Extreme Valor'... but mostly 'Acts of Extreme Valor' due to several purges of the nobility due to foreign interests- after the current head of state passes away or abdicates. The Head of State -the 'Chief Representative'- has powers similar to the former House of Windsor in Britain when it pertains to the elected government. The Chief Representative can dissolve the current elected government and call for new elections, and can initiate the process to strip nobles -or their entire families- of their rank. The majority of the Chief Representative's hard powers mostly pertains to foreign polity -including military- with most of the internal policy based powers pertaining to ensuring that the government moves smoothly, but over the decades the Chief Representative has gained many soft powers pertaining to internal policy, this is most prevalent in the push for the 'Augmented Civil Rights Amendment' which was introduced by Uzumi Nara Athha's father Taishō in CE 0022.
The elected portion of the government is made up of two houses similar to the United States. The 'upper' house is structured similar to the Senate in the US's first century or so of life. Each state has three representatives within the upper house and these representatives are elected by the state legislatures themselves. The 'lower' house is almost a carbon copy of the United States's House of Representatives, where each state has three representatives minimum with more awarded by population using the 'Huffman Divisor' -originally named for the Huffman island chain first settled by ORB in the latter stages of the Resource Wars, basically its' the Wisconsin Rule where the state with the smallest population equals 1 representative or three in this case- whom are then elected by popular vote of the citizens of their state. The head of the elective government is the Prime Minister who is the leader of the party or coalition with the most seats.
Then there is the Judicial branch of ORB, led by the Supreme Court. For the most part, this branch is made up of life-term appointees instead of elected officials, something of a lesson learned from the United States before it became the Atlantic Federation during the Reconstruction Wars. With most of the judicial branch made up of life-term appointees confirmed by their respective legislatures or picked by the current Chief Representative, many of the problems that plagued the United States -the so called 'War on Crime', the 'War on Drugs', incredibly partisan rulings, the politicization of the judicial system, etc.- are avoided... for the most part.
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Militarily, ORB is something of a mixed bag. The vast majority of the states within ORB have terrain that preclude the use of 'traditional' -read modern- AFVs. One would notice that most ORB AFVs are smaller, have shorter 'legs', have less ammo capacity, and are undergunned and under armored compared to their foreign counterparts. It's navy and airforce however are top notch and are incredibly powerful compared to other navies, then again this is due to the fact that the two primary geopolitical opponents for ORB is the Atlantic Federation and the Republic of East Asia and their only avenue of invasion is via the sea and air.
The most common tank of ORB's arsenal is the Type 50, which is based upon the ancient Japanese Type 10 but far more modular to minimize logistical strain, leading to a plethora of variants ranging from SPAAGs and SAMs to tube and rocket artillery systems. The tank variant -for example- uses a 120mm autoloading hyper-velocity cannon using CTA ammunition as it's main weapon. This pales in comparison to the Atlantic Federation's 105mm or the Eurasian Federation's 100mm linear cannon in terms of pure power, but is considered more flexible thanks to the lack of electromagnetism that fries more sensitive electronics or fuses within the shell. The secondaries consist of a 12.7mm coaxial and a 20mm autocannon -on occasionally in twin mount- based upon the Oerlikon Contraves 20mm L70 autocannon in anti-air mount. Armor is modular but most units utilize the minimalist of 300mm RHA equiv enhanced composite for the frontal aspect with 100mm RHA equiv for the sides, rear, and top. For comparison, the M36A2 -the mainstay of the Atlantic Federation- has triple in all aspects... but at the cost of weight (the Type 50 weighs in at most 50 tons and is usually 35-40 tons depending on armor package, the M36A2 on the other hand weighs in at 85 tons on average). This is pretty common across the board... until you hit ORB's Mobile Weapons.
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(ORB Mobile Weapons in a 'Hunt' war game, utilizing modified Zeniths as OPFOR-ATLFED (Opposing Force - Atlantic Federation) Frost series MWs, location classified)
The Mobile Weapon was first developed during the years before the Reconstruction Wars by Japan as a weapon system to eliminate many of the risks of having AFVs in dense or rugged environs like cities or mountains. This research -alongside as much of Japan that the evacuation could bring- would be vital in the conflicts that would come. The first Mobile Weapon -the Zenith from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries's Defense division- was deployed in the mid-stages of the Reconstruction Wars around the year 2050 in the now-famous Huffman Theater against Chinese aggressors. Their ability to be supplements to a combined arms force and their natural maneuverability caught other nations' attention, and got them to develop their own Mobile Weapons. The Zenith would later be accompanied by the Wildgoat, Giza, Bes, and Walrus as the Reconstruction Wars continued. These would become more prominent during the African-specific conflicts during the Resource Wars where it is found that constant movement wears out the leg actuators far too quickly, creating the precursor of the scale system to minimize leg wear. All mobile weapons are equipped with some variant of this system.
Mobile weapons are usually armed with mission weapon(s) and backup weapon(s) based upon the mobile weapon's role profile. For example, the Zenith series is considered one of the handful of truly multi-role mobile weapons available but is usually used in the 'gunner' -i.e. focuses primarily in mid-range combat- or 'brawler' -i.e. focuses on short/close combat range combat- roles. For example: in the 'gunner' role, a modern Zenith is armed with the I.G.U.C.H.I Type 35 50mm autocannon rifle that has a cyclic rate of 200 rounds per minute in full auto and 420 rounds per minute in it's 5-round burst mode with an effective range of up to 550 meters against lightly-armored targets and can penetrate MBTs of most nations with HVAPFSDS (High-Velocity Armor-Piercing Fin Stabilized Discarding Sabot) rounds at ranges up to 300 meters. Most Zeniths tend to forgo much in items of secondary armament other than their free hand manipulator as a fist to be able to load up with more ammo to minimize overloading the motive systems, but if there has to be a secondary weapon then most pilots would pic the Morgenroete Inc. Mk V 240mm F&F long-range missile system in 2-, 4-, 6-, or 8-tube launchers with limited self-loading capability, which is designed to 'soften up' targets at ranges within 2 kilometers. The Mk V uses Enhanced Explosively Formed Penetrator -or EEFP for short- warheads for their penetration power. This setup allows the Zenith pilot to have flexibility in combat at ranges he is most likely to be fighting at. This is further helped by various 'launchers' providing support fire up to 6 kilometers away with guided missile artillery or up to 16 kilometers with rocket artillery.
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The ORB Airforce is known to be a force to be reckoned with despite it's many shortcomings. Due to the vast improvements to sensor technology over the course of the Reconstruction and Resource Wars, stealth's usefulness has declined massively. While elements of VLO design are still in use -mostly by naval vessels- they are a distant design consideration compared to those of yesteryear. This is true for all nations in the Cosmic Era. Instead of VLO design as the primary focus, now it's armament load that is the focus of modern aircraft and the ORB Airforce is no different. The main problem with defending the ORB Union via aircraft is the fact that the number of locations capable of having standard airfields is very limited compared to other nations, thus the focus on VTOL and STOL designs over more conventional designs. These designs make it possible to spread the air fleet as much as possible to create overlapping fields of flight range, a vital component of ORB defense planning... at the cost of pure combat load. However, this isn't as problematic as first thought as the designs in question are comparatively easy to manufacture compared to their foreign counterparts thus easy to produce in large numbers.
Some designs require more standard airstrips to utilize, and these consist of various heavy bombers designed to be aerial AShM missile boats ala the ancient 'Blackfires' during the Cold War. Despite modern CWIS being driven with 'adaptive tracking' fire control, the shear amount of these AShMs and ASMs will simply swamp anything smaller than a 21-warship taskforce. This, in conjunction of EWR-100 (Electronic Warfare Rigid-100) rigid airships and EW-80 AWACS electronics aircraft, makes it incredibly hard to implement a sneak attack and not get slapped silly for your trouble.
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The ORB Navy is the second largest navy on the planet next to the Atlantic Federation. While modern sensors have negated much of the benefits of VLO design, the ORB Navy still utilizes modified versions of VLO ships due to the nature of ship construction. While older vessels are equipped mostly with missiles with a handful of guns -usually 76mm or larger with smaller caliber guns for CWIS- for their armament, newer less VLO focused vessels are becoming gun-missile ships instead simply focusing on missiles. The ORB Navy is also the first to deploy ships with linear cannons on their vessels, replacing the old 76mm or 127mm cannon as the main offensive gun mount, with the vast majority of their ships capable of utilizing a linear cannon effectively getting at least one. The one thing that the ORB Navy doesn't have many of is carriers... and carriers are vital in both offensive and defensive power projection. This effectively makes ORB carriers something that the ORB Navy can't really loose.
The current main naval destroyer of the ORB Navy is the Kuraomikami class, which is 200 meters long, has a 28 meter beam, and a draft of 9 meters with a tonnage of 16,000 tons standard. The class was originally armed with a 250mm 65cal AGS cannon, two VLSM banks with 120 cells each (with anti-air, anti-surface, and ASROC missiles), two triple-tube 533mm torpedo launchers mounted in the sides of the vessel, and eight 35mm L100 3-barreled rotary CWIS systems alongside three naval attack helicopters and an impressive AEGIS suite. The current Flight III versions have replaced the 250mm 65cal AGS cannon with a 200mm linear cannon and modernized the electronics. All of this is powered by a powerful hydrogen cell powerplant more than capable of powering the armament and equipment while pushing the vessel to 50 knots at combat speed with a cruise speed of 20 knots thanks to ORB's unique water jet propulsion system. This propulsion system also puts the ship its mounted on maneuverability to the physical limit.
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ORB's Orbital Forces is probably the weakest of all the nations that have a presence in space... and ORB barely has a presence in space to begin with. All it really has is an orbital elevator with the Ame-no-Mihashira station being the terminus (the space elevator was in a 'skeletal functional' state -with a functioning ground terminal just off the coast of Huffman with enough defenses to make JOSH-A blush- by the time of the Earth Sphere War, and with the war it delayed final construction until 0075 at the minimum) and three space colonies consisting of the resource satellite Heliopolis 1, the experimental agricultural satellite Heliopolis 2, and the research and development satellite Heliopolis 3. Between the lack of facilities and a lack of resources, the Orbital Forces only numbers three Kaga class 'strike carriers' (armed with four twin 225mm high-energy laser cannons, two 96-cell heavy VLSM banks, over 40 75mm L75 3-barreled CWIS turrets, and twelve Minstrel Combat Pods), an Izumo class Battleship (with four Minstrel Combat Pods in addition to its armament), and twelve Tsushima class destroyers (armed with two 150mm high-energy laser cannons, 6 missile tubes, and 6 75mm L75 3-barreled CWIS turrets) to ensure the safety of ORB space traffic. Against the other nations with space forces... this is vastly inadequate.
The Geopolitics and Nations of a slightly-alternate Cosmic Era
By Aaron Fox
By Aaron Fox
1 Prelude: The Basics
The saddest thing about the Cosmic Era is that it held such great promise for humanity, and yet it became one of the worst bloodlettings in the history of mankind and would lead to one of the worst wars that mankind has ever fought in. To properly set the stage, one must go back into time to when it all started during the mid-21st century, where everything went wrong…
One of the key things that one must understand is the fact that gene-tech has been outright outlawed in the Cosmic
1.1 The Resource Wars ~2045-2065 AD
(a battle between US -later Atlantic Federation- soldiers and the European Union -which would be absorbed into the Eurasian Federation during the Reconstruction Wars- fighting in the outskirts of the London Metropolitan Area)
(a battle between US -later Atlantic Federation- soldiers and the European Union -which would be absorbed into the Eurasian Federation during the Reconstruction Wars- fighting in the outskirts of the London Metropolitan Area)
To understand the Cosmic Era, one must talk about the infamous Resource and Reconstruction Wars. These are a series of immense and horrible conflicts that devastated much of the world and left billions destitute in one way or another. The Resource Wars happened first as it started around March of 2045 when resources in easy to reach deposits that all of civilization depended on for existence became depleted.
These wars would cause devastation on a planetary scale. With the unintentional proliferation of DEW-based ABM systems, conventional warfare became incredibly common. This would have dire consequences later, particularly in the change of mentality when it pertains to nuclear weaponry as all nuclear armed sides had used tactical nukes in the later battles with some instances of strategic level nuclear ordinance being thrown around on states without DEW-ABM technology.
This fundamental change in thought around nuclear weaponry is how much of the Middle East became a literal post-nuclear apocalypse wasteland, thanks to Israel deciding to throw nukes at the invading Syrian, Saudi, Iraqi, and Egyptian armies… and a portion of the Samson Option being implemented as Tel Aviv and Jerusalem became Stalingrad 2.0: Rattenkrieg Harder as Jewish, Israeli-friendly Arabs, and Christians made taking every inch requiring the invaders to have a mountain of their own bodies as the cost. This was also all the while the invading Arabs tried to genocide Jews in Israel.
It is the Resource Wars that left much of the planet vulnerable to nations like Russia, the United States, and China. Allowing them to be able to do what they've done in the Reconstruction Wars.
1.2 The Reconstruction Wars 2065-2100
(Russian -later Eurasian- T-90AMV2s fighting Israeli troops in the Lebanon Unrecognized Zone)
The Reconstruction Wars is a series of conflicts that happened soon after the Resource Wars and were generally horrific affairs to begin with. In the grand scheme of things, these conflicts had the goals of removing any and all possible threats to nations like China, Russia, and the United States. Problem is, it didn't succeed as much as it was hoped by the various leaders.
(Russian -later Eurasian- T-90AMV2s fighting Israeli troops in the Lebanon Unrecognized Zone)
The Reconstruction Wars was essentially further proof of the idea that 'Might makes Right' is the only idea that matters. It was during this time the first humanoid war machines were developed. These machines, called Mobile Weapons or MWs for short, were a Japanese project that started during the Resource Wars to improve effectiveness of infantry units in the jungle and mountain terrain. By being able to haul weapons that became unavailable for infantry -particularly the latest generation of Explosive Formed Penetrator warheads on ATGMs and other missiles- they multiplied the effectiveness of the infantry units their attached to by several orders of magnitude, particularly in urban or other 'rough' terrain.
(A view of a 'finishing bay' of a Mobile Weapon production line, a lot of the basics of Mobile Weapon production would be integrated to the initial production lines of Mobile Suits.)
It wasn't long before the technology fell into the hands of China -later rebranding itself as 'the Republic of East Asia' after the Reconstruction Wars- when Japan fell in the late 2070s. This technology would also find itself in the various African conflicts during the last days of the Anno Domini era and the beginning decades of the Cosmic Era.
It is the flexibility of environs a mobile weapon can tackle that made it standard equipment amongst the various nations afterward. This would lay the groundwork for the now-famous Mobile Suits that the PLANTs would produce well into the 5th decade of the Cosmic Era.
As the three and a half decade conflict came to a close, it became clear that Earth can no longer sustain humanity… and thus the beginnings of a new age of space exploration and colonization began.
1.3 The Second Space Race (0000 Cosmic Era- 0045 Cosmic Era)
The Beginning of the Cosmic era became five and a half decades of intense international rivalries as the new 'Space Race' began. Thanks to many technologies that were developed in the ending decades of Anno Domini, vastly cheaper methods of spacelift were developed. While most nations would opt for the use of electromagnetic Mass Drivers as their primary means of surface-to-orbit travel, two nations -the ORB Union and the South Asian Union- would opt for utilizing orbital elevators.
(the ORB Union's orbital elevator Heaven's Pillar, responsible for 7/10ths of ORB's surface-to-orbit traffic alongside a third of its power supply via the end station's complex solar array)
As soon as the 'Age of Space Colonization' -also known as the 'Second Space Race'- started, the rivalries between the various power blocks intensified. While none of these rivalries would become world wars in their own right, there have been major conflicts that flared up during this era, especially CE 0025 onwards when space mining became more and more vital in ensuring the resources needed to maintain the civilization that humanity found itself in.
The first space colony -an Island 3 O'Neil type called New Texas- was finished by the Atlantic Federation in CE 0020 in Lagrange 1, setting up a pipeline of another 49 Island 3 types that would be completed in CE 0027. New Texas was followed shortly thereafter with Eurasia's Island 3 called Leningrad that is positioned in L4. The ORB Union would quickly follow suit with Heliopolis 1 in L3.
In addition to the construction of space colonies, the various blocks would start colonizing the moon. While the UN would create the first successful lunar colony -Copernicus- in CE 0025, the other power blocks would carve the moon for themselves. This would lead to actual combat on the moon between the power blocks, leading to the wars known as the 'Lunar Wars'. These 'wars' were more like skirmishes than actual wars, where adhoc escorts and armed mining equipment came to a sector of Luna and simply shot at each other until either a) the opposing side dies (which was rare) or b) the other side has enough and leaves. The Lunar Wars would end rather quickly, within half a decade this conflict would end as Zero Gravity mining became more and more plausible.
By 0045, the foundations for the L5 colonies was laid down, eventually creating what would be known as the PLANTs.
Now, my 'plan of attack' with this is to extend the timeline a bit to make it less... head-scratching on the world building front...
The main antagonists of the game Evolved share traits of pilots with poor S-Device compatibility ratings, the EDGE system is likely partially based on the S-Device, and the AI at the end of the game is probably based off of the General's time in an S-Device equipped Wanzer and someone used the stored personality to create an AI.