Sylphon RnD (Faction)

Sylphon Research and Development is the eponymous faction of the Sylphon RnD mod. They're a small corporate polity run both by AIs and humans, who live in relative seclusion in a pair of systems in the outer northern regions of the Persean Sector. Unlike most of the Sector's factions, who at best they're wary of Artificial Intelligences above the Gamma level, and at worst they hunt them down and destroy them, the Sylphon treat AI as equals, and both live together in harmony and peace.

## Gameplay

The Sylphon exclusively use their own set of ships, like the Celika drone frigate, the Ascordia Hunter-Killer, the Sylvetra missile cruiser, and the Equilibrium dreadnought-battleship. Sylphon ships are highly advanced, and unlike most High Tech ships, which are either long-ranged snipers or fast, hit-and-run ships with low armor, Sylphon ships are designed for prolonged engagements and close-range combat, with enough armor to tank damage that would otherwise destroy most ships. Sylphon ships bear a distinctive bluish grey and purple color scheme, with a flowing, organic appearance.

Many Sylphon ships are not human-piloted, but are instead completely automated. These "Sylph Cores" are in-fact Beta and Alpha-level AIs that were voluntarily integrated into the mainframes of their respective ships. Those ships no longer have a need for crew, and are capable of linking their targeting arrays with each other with a few modifications, greatly enhancing their accuracy and lethality.

Sylphon ships are also unique in that they can tap into the pocket dimension known as Nullspace, an empty realm where the only thing that exists on it is an intense force that repels anything that tries to pierce its barriers, and will destroy any ship that's unprepared to endure the strain those counter-forces can apply to it. All Sylphon ships have Nullspace conduits that allow them to "skim" Nullspace's surface by absorbing the counter-forces, increasing their speed while traveling in a straight line. The conduits also allow the ships' generators to partially operate in Nullspace, allowing their energy weapon to produce less flux when they fire. The more advanced Sylphon ships are able to channel the energies of Nullspace for both defensive and offensive purposes.

This also comes at a cost: if a Sylphon ship is overloaded with flux, its conduits will discharge, which will potentially damage any ship that's near the overloaded ship.

Some of the heavier, frontline-focused Sylphon ships come with Nanolaminate Armor, which when it takes serious damage, it allows the ship to instantly deploy its shields, while also unleashing a damaging discharge of nullspace energy.

## Description

*Once the Sylphon Institute for AI research, this small corporation has become a major technology contractor in the Sector. From fleet maintenance services to state-funded military development projects, Sylphon RnD have various long-running contracts with the Persean League, the Sindrian Diktat, Tri-Tachyon and many independent covernments. While politically insignificant, the Sylphon have attracted the ire of the Hegemony and the Luddites across the sector due to a seemingly liberal use of AI technology.*

*Secretive in nature, the Sylphon are based on the outer edge of the Sector, avoiding involvement in sector politics and restricting themselves to a limited number of facilities that allow them independent operation without attracting too much attention. Especially in recent years the corporation has been focusing on developing a new set of exotic technologies never before seen in the Sector. Some speculate that this "Nulltech" has prompted a worrying military buildup of the faction given an ever-expanding roster of new and exotic ship designs spotted around Sylphon facilities and planets, but such claims have been dismissed by most factions given the small corporation's lack of manpower, making it highly unlikely to ever pose a true military threat.*

## Advantages of the Faction

### Advantages

* Heavily armored.
* Very mobile thanks to their Nulltech.
* Powerful weapons and missiles.
* Amazing fighters/drones.
* Awesome ship designs.
* Low crew requirements, some ships don't even need crew.

### Disadvantages

* Hefty maintenance costs, especially with the more exotic ships.
* Flux overloads are dangerous to both the overloaded ship and non-Sylphon ships in fleets.
* Some of the stronger weapons have high OP costs.