Factions

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=== Humanity ===
Homo sapiens, largely unaltered from the modern day. Largely cooperative since overcoming the predatory phase of human development, mankind has spread across the stars and colonized multiple planets.
Individual colonies are politically united under the Earth government, which is managing large scale efforts like the space fleet and new colonizations but are largely autonomous, running things based on their planet’s individual conditions. Economically they’re mostly autarchic past the initial seeding phase, as a typical planet supplies enough space and resources to operate an entire economy, though interstellar trade still happens in cases of high tech or especially rare goods that can’t be produced locally.
=== Alien Civilization ===
Unknown alien civilization of comparable technological level to humanity, their spaceships were encountered during the initial colonization phase. All attempts at communication were unsuccessful and encounters soon turned hostile. The extent of their civilization, colonized space, etc. is unknown.
=== The Federation ===
The government of Earth, colloquially known as “the Federation”, “Feds”, etc. Probably has some official name like “United Federation of Planets” or some such but nothing particular is decided yet.
=== The Colonial Administration ===
Civilian government of AoA World before the Collapse. Consisted of a mix of elected career politicians performing state functions, locally elected representatives (essentially a Council-style democracy) voting on legislation and technocratic panels of experts introducing and reviewing legislation.
Nothing remains of them after the apocalypse and nobody’s quite sure what happened to them. Presumed killed by the AI.
=== Colonial Peacekeeping Force ===
The colony’s civilian police force. As pre-collapse crime rates were low, most of their work was dealing with drunks, traffic violations and other minor infractions. Correspondingly their training revolved mainly around deescalation tactics and safely subduing suspects, as well as non-lethal riot control.
Largely fell apart during the Collapse. Former officers either joined other civilian survivor groups, often maintaining some sort of peacekeeping capacity in their new communities (though other survivors might not appreciate them depending on what side of the picket line they were on, pre-collapse), or got impromptu drafted into the military command structure when martial law was declared.
=== The Military ===
Sum total of military personnel stationed on the planet at the time of the Collapse. The only state apparatus to survive post-collapse, now colloquially known as “the Remnant”. The different service branches (or what’s left of them) have been united under a central command, which still exists post-collapse and assumes nominal authority over the colony, though in practice organization between bases is barely existent.
Individual bases maintain military structure and discipline but base commanders act largely autonomously, some choosing to hole up while others try to maintain their mission by fighting raiders and mechanoids. Many members also decided to desert entirely from their command structures and turned to raiding themselves.
Bases generally have copious wartime stockpiles of weapons, ammo and fuel but lack self-sufficiency when it comes to food production and will often trade surplus for crops from nearby survivor settlements.
==== The Space Fleet ====
Also colloquially known as “the Fleet”, it is the federal fleet of armed spaceships tasked with defending human colonies from alien threats. Ranges from large, state-of-the-art warships to small patrol boats engaged mostly in policing and emergency assistance duties.
Several vessels were stationed on the colony pre-collapse, but were destroyed when their orbital defense systems suddenly turned on them.
==== Spaceborne Assault Infantry ====
A more elite unit of light infantry, they specialize in assault operations with insertion directly from air or space, typically using orbital drop pods.
While their mobility requirements put severe weight restrictions on them, they are fully mechanized with a fleet of IFV’s specially designed for orbital insertion.
==== Planetary Defense Force ====
The ground army, made up of professional soldiers staffing its various motorized, mechanized and armored divisions. Mostly engaged in the eradication of hostile alien wildlife as part of the terraforming process.
They’re typically issued full-body ballistic armor and modern assault rifles, though their training was never tested in a real conflict before. Their vehicle fleet ranges from trucks and armored transports to main battle tanks.
Suffered heavy casualties during the collapse but still makes up the bulk of the military remnant.
==== Special Operations Command ====
The SOC is a small unit of elite commandos, training to the highest standards and specializing in deep infiltration and sabotage missions behind enemy lines. Most of their activities are classified by the military.
They employ advanced prototype weaponry such as energy guns, optical camouflage devices, etc. During the Collapse they performed many successful raids disrupting mechanoid factories and supply lines and providing reconnaissance to PDF commanders.
=== Transhumanists ===
Various individuals and organizations in pre-collapse society advocating for the enhancement of the human form using technology. Often engaged in self-augmentation using bionics and performance-enhancing implants, essentially as a fashion. Heavily backed the Ascension Project and engaged in street fights during the Riots. Those who survived the Collapse mostly transitioned into Tech Cultists.
=== Naturalists ===
Various individuals and organizations who opposed transhumanism based on various philosophical and ethical grounds, arguing e.g. a loss of humanity, that Ascended would outcompete everyone else for desirable positions in society, etc.
Engaged in street fights against Transhumanists during the Riots. Those who survived the Collapse integrated with other communities and harbor deep resentment for the AI, often embracing a technophobic lifestyle.
=== Mechanoids ===
Various AI-controlled drones and other automated machines. Initially made up of former military drones, as the conflict went on various auto-factories started churning out original designs heavily distinct from pre-collapse designs, ranging from unmanned battle tanks to TV heads.
Common to all mechanoids is that they uplink directly to the AI for command and control and revert to a vastly simpler autonomous onboard AI if connection is lost. The onboard AI will generally try to pursue its last given directives, engage enemies and reestablish connection.
How intelligent these onboard behaviors are depends on the unit in question - while the more recent and heavier designs typically possess higher tactical ability, TV heads only possess basic seek-and-destroy routines.
==== TV Heads ====
One of the first original designs rolled out by the AI. A dead body’s head is removed and replaced with a control unit that handles sensory input and processing and attaches directly to the spinal cord for control. Has some capability for either restoring dead cells or replicating missing functionality within the unit itself to create zombies.
Used as a way to create cheap foot soldiers in the swathe of dead civilians during the Collapse, these units feature a very basic onboard AI that attacks non-cultist humans on sight and has basic reactions to sensory input, such as investigating noise but features no higher reasoning or tactics.
To make up for this if there is an uplink tower or similar relay that allows it to connect directly to the AI it can use that to upload its sensory input and get much more complex tactical directives via cloud computing.
==== UGVs/UAVs ====
Small, unmanned gun platforms originally used by PDF squads to provide recon and fire support before the Collapse. Now under AI control they were the first to “rebel” and attack rioters with their mounted machine guns. Featuring only light armor but fairly high urban mobility and a relatively low profile, many of them still roam the ruins.
Since their connection to the AI has been lost they’ve fallen back onto a rudimentary onboard AI that generally tries to complete previous assignments (e.g. patrolling a route, guarding an area, etc.) while autonomously engaging areas, it is also capable of some basic tactical maneuvers such as making use of cover.
=== Scavengers ===
Small bands of civilian survivors who still populate the city ruins. They’ve learned to evade the roaming mechanoid drones and range into the ruins to scavenge pre-collapse goods, from medical supplies to consumer electronics.
They maintain small camps on the outskirts where there’s lower odds of mechanoid detection, where they trade with caravans from outlying settlements, exchanging pre-collapse items for food.
=== Settlers ===
Civilian survivors who fled into the wilderness and managed to form small agricultural settlements. Having access to ample farmland, they grow crops to produce food, clothing and other basic products which they trade to the other factions for pre-collapse tech they don’t normally have access to.
=== Raiders ===
Various layabouts, petty criminals and others who couldn’t fit in with any of the other communities, raiders roam the land attacking caravans and poorly defended communities to steal their belongings.
Highly desensitized to violence and revel in killing, rape, torture, etc.
Usually organized into smaller bands/gangs, the successful ones might grow to include dozens of members with their own bases, technicals, etc.
=== Tech Cultists ===
Various transhumanists, tech-aficionados and proponents of human evolution. The part of the pre-collapse population that supported the Ascension Project, they joined the street fights that led up to the collapse and remain allied with mechanoid forces, who seem to supply them with TV heads and other materiel.
Unhinged by the fact immortality was in their grasp and not only snatched away, but their entire world thrown into deep technological regression, they have an axe to grind against their pre-collapse political opponents. Many of them view other survivors as mindless knuckle draggers intent on confining humanity to the stone age and thus have little qualms about killing them on sight.
Almost all of them have some form of bionic augmentations and most of their time is spent looking through city ruins for bionics and advanced electronics and praying on other factions venturing into the ruins. Especially when they find scavengers with bionics of their own they’ll often attack them, being careful not to damage the bionic, then bring the body back to one of their “workshops” for extraction.
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