Divisions of Aegis Foreign Service
Though every Aegis citizen would agree that Luna is the pinnacle of human civilization, there are always a few brave or misguided souls who long for exploration and adventure.
Aegis Space Force
The ASF operates primarily in the L5 Region. Their primary stated mission is to defend the Lunar trade fleet from pirates and hostile nations. Their secondary stated mission is to build goodwill with the people of L5 through closer cultural and defense ties.
Most members of the Space Force are true believers in the Aegis cause. They signed up to protect their fellow space colonists and to spread the gospel of peace through unity. To qualify for the Space Force you must be diligent, highly skilled, and ideologically pure. Very few candidates meet these criteria.
Of course, diplomacy and defense are hardly the only missions Aegis Overlord has for the Space Force. By aligning them with the Rishiri Dominion, Aegis has leverage to affect politics in L5. In the event of a war with Earth it will be very useful to have allies and a large navy already stationed in deep orbit. Plus, there are the mineral resources of the Dusty Ring, which Luna needs to continue its expansion.
As foreign service goes, membership in the Space Force is pretty sweet. The spinner colonies are relatively safe and have most of the same amenities as Lunar domes. In many parts of L5, Lunars are regarded positively or at least not negatively. The same can’t be said for the…
Aegis Expeditionary Force
The AEF is the Aegis mission to Earth. Most of its members fall into one of two categories: travel-hungry adventurers who didn’t qualify for the Space Force, and unstable military officers too useful to dispose of but too dangerous to keep on Luna.
The Expeditionary Force has many different missions: reconnaisance, harassing the Federation Defense Force, searching for lost technology, keeping the base commander entertained… and they have to do all of this under conditions more severe than anything the Space Force ever has to deal with. To most Lunars, modern day Earth is a hellish place. The gravity is stronger than they’re used to. The living facilities are primitive and uncomfortable. There are insects and even worse sorts of wildlife. Even in those areas which maintain diplomatic ties to Aegis, Lunars are viewed with distrust.
One of the worst duties of the Expeditionary Force is collecting gene samples for Luna’s bioweapon program. To do this soldiers have to confront some of Earth’s most dangerous creatures. Even worse, they are sometimes ordered to bring in their targets alive.
Unlike the Space Force, which gets most of their equipment from back home, the Expeditionary Force relies heavily upon locally constructed mecha. Common trooper models include the Buru Buru, Ice Wind, and Vadel. These are generally obtained from allies or the black market, but certain undersupplied units aren’t above including battlefield salvage in their rank and file. Native Lunar mecha such as the Chameleon and Luna-II are reserved for commanders and elites.
Membership in the Expeditionary Force isn’t without its perks. Pay is nearly the higest of any Aegis division, even though the troops rarely get a chance to spend it while on Earth. Being so far from Luna means that commanders can operate without political interference. Unfortunately for the troops, it also means that commanders can operate without any oversight whatsoever. The greatest perk a member of the Expeditionary Force can earn is to be transferred back to the Lunar Defense Force. This is generally the reward offered for taking part in a suicide mission, and there’s never a shortage of volunteers.
May 17th, 2010 at 11:44 am
This is cool.
Would it be possible to add things like this to the game? I’m thinking of Vegastrike, which won’t run for me but which displays things like this, or supposed in-game recruiting or propaganda posters, while loading. GH2′s loading screens are more generic, and I’m not totally sure the loading screen is the place for this; maybe recruiting posters on walls you could read? (Though you’d want to hide clues in some of them.) Or something like this displayed when you take ship from one city to another?
However accomplished, this sort of thing adds flavour to the game, and it’d be nice to see it in-game.
May 18th, 2010 at 7:58 am
I’m working on it. All of the basic adventure stuff is up and running now so it’s time to get cracking on the atmosphere and setting. Posters and advertisements would be a good idea. I’ll see what I can do about propaganda.
The next big thing is going to be a change to the way factions interact with the core story. This should give the individual governments/corporations/etc distinct “personalities”. There’s a thread about it at the forum, if anyone’s interested:
http://www.gearheadrpg.com/forum/index.php/topic,1247.0.html
May 18th, 2010 at 10:36 am
The loudspeaker spoke up and said “Communism is good! Christianity is stupid!” Seventeen hours a day…
I’m not sure where propaganda posters would fit… there’s “News”, which could be the local government’s idea of what one should know, but I don’t often read that. I guess people in some polities could have particular ways of speaking – addressing everyone as “comrade”, for example – but that seems hard to implement. I suppose the really totalitarian polities could have “morale officers” or “happiness police” or whatever. Posters make sense, story-wise, but why would anyone read them? (Flavour, I guess, and maybe the occasional hint.) Maybe posterboards might have mission postings, mecha for sale, lost pets… What about subversive grafitti? Buildings or spinners could also have PA systems that play announcements, advertisements, or music. (Mecha could have dashboard radios!) I also like the idea of exapnding the “welcome to X spinner” messages available now – in addition to or instead of the first-time “this is what this spinner is about”, you could show the face the polity shows to visitors.
I know the ASCII backend shouldn’t be a second-class citizen, but I think allowing images (The Rishiri Dominion wants you!) to be displayed as part of the scene-setting would be a nice touch.
May 23rd, 2010 at 7:34 pm
I have always loved the GearHead universe, sometime soon i will materialize the project we used to talk about!