PACT Conflict World Mecha

War machines used in the PACT Conflict World.

PACT Space Force

Since Arcadius became their leader, first Compact and later PACT have pursued an expansionist policy through heavy use of military power. After finally destroying the New Empire, the newly proclaimed PACT absorbed the remaining imperial forces (including deserters at the last moment, like Cullen) into his own, and started using the famed resources of New Eden and the former planets of the Empire to rearm and strengthen even more their military power. The result is a fleet that can be only matched by that of the Solar Alliance in all the galaxy.

The PACT fleet is a strange mix of new technologies and cost-cutting measures. PACT ship designs are very different from the ones used by other factions such as the Solar Alliance or Cera, tending to have a knife or speartop-shaped, asymmetric prow that can be characterized as 'a collection of odd angles and flaring modules, giving the entire ship the geometry of a particularly unusual crystal shard.' On one side, every ship bigger than a frigate is equipped with the latest Shielding technology, with the one in carriers and battleships being especially formidable. It's missile and rocket capacities are also top-notch, with Bombers able to carry standard rockets and Battleships a nuclear warhead, besides storage space for two powerful missile salvos, and its frigates sacrificing the capability to launch rockets for a extremely large supply of missiles which works as a perfect support, and makes coordinated salvos especially deadly. However, all of it's ships are generally heavy and slow, and, despite it, not as sturdy as their Alliance counterparts. While equal in laser, they also show some deficiencies in their Kinetics cannon.

In general, however, the biggest problem is their logistics. While nominally a massive force in it;s own right, a big part of PACT's fleets are units either absorbed from surrounding worlds or that have fought for several decades. Being only 10 years since the end of the New Empire, their formers planets have had barely any time to recover, and the planets absorbed from the Neutral Rim have either been devastated by a PACT's invasion (like Cera) or had all their whole political, economic and legal system changed to that of PACT in a hurry, naturally destroying most of their economy (which relied on a liberal or auto sufficient models ). Due to this, PACT's production rate is very much inferior to that of the Alliance in every aspect, which limits any possibility of victory against the Alliance to evading a war of attrition and managing to defeat the enemy quickly and decisively in the field.

Nonetheless, PACT's still has one edge over the Alliance in particular: being a totalitarian state, the nation it's able to pool most of it's resources towards its military without sparing sacrifices. The Alliance, being a democracy, it's a lot less keen on long wars and maintaining absolute militarization. Due to this, even if a swift attack failed, PACT still would be able to simply turtle on their fortress worlds and use hit-and-run tactics, while awaiting for the Alliance population to either tire of the war or force their military to launch a reckless attack (the decisive action on the field which PACT's seeks). However, this in turn assumes the Alliance leadership fragments easily, whereas if they have a strong and steady united front and lasting rallying points they could likely then force their way through PACT's defensive lines without giving PACT the opportunity they seek. Additionally, this plan depends on the unity of PACT itself, which, while assuredly stronger then that of the Alliance's leaders, is thus more of a dependent factor for PACT - and if broken will consequentially splinter PACT far more severely and instantaneously then the Alliance, costing them any victory. In short, victory for PACT against the Alliance relies upon either striking swiftly and decisively and upon remaining wholly unified against their enemy - if either of these things fail, PACT will be on the defensive.

The backbone of the PACT fleet are its cruisers, which form most of the combat potential of the Invasion fleets (which tend to have at least 30 cruisers) and quick reaction forces. They are assisted by the cheaper missile frigates, which fill the line and provide invaluable support fire and the possibility of surprise and flanking attacks. However, when the objective is more important, PACT deploys its Battleships and Carriers, which, while a lot more expensive and scarce, provide a lot more projection of force and offensive power. Both are thought to fight at either long range (with missiles and Ryders) or very short range (both the flak cannons of the carrier and the forward guns of the battleship are notably inaccurate), so they can be vulnerable against enemy cruisers. For this reason, even when capital ships are deployed, cruisers are normally also used as an important support element to aide them. Bad collocation however, can result in total disaster when the elements of the fleet can't support the others such as the Battle of Far Port.

Despite its inadequacies, the PACT space force has seen decades of fighting, and so it's a lot more aware than the Alliance of the shift in military doctrine. However, with the core of the commanding officers being formed by old Imperial officers, and PACT's general policy of pushing ships as symbols of power (such as the Legion) instead of prioritizing efficiency, no push towards smaller and more agile ships has been made outside of the special Research & Development sections. Veniczar B. Fontana, the youngest commander of the fleet, has been given permission as Arcadius right hand to develop more advanced and novel designs, but this barely represents a significant part of PACT's overall fleet. It's more correct to think of Fontana's fleets as PACT's elite forces rather than mass produced designs that will replace its current ones.

On its Ryders, PACT is very much the same, relying on the classic duality of light anti-Ryder and heavy anti-ship units that have dominated War since its introduction in The Alliance-Imperial War. The first is a unit that can perform as a scout or as a support unit, where its numbers can shift the tide of battle. The second is a more armored siege unit, equipped with both missiles and a rocket-launcher system. Both are equipped with lasers, with the belief that with their main function accomplished they can still offer support fire. While their performance hasn't been bad, their anti-Ryder capabilities have been deemed as too low to fight properly against elite units so, as with ships, Fontana is also developing other units more specialized, such as a dedicated combat Ryder for anti-ship and anti-Ryder fire, and a counterintelligence unit to cripple enemy communications and systems for pre-emptive attacks.

Legion	PACT Battleship	PACT Cruiser
Pilot: PACT Captain	Pilot: PACT Captain	Pilot: PACT Captain

PACT Missile Frigate	PACT Carrier
Pilot: PACT Captain	Pilot: PACT Captain

PACT Ryders

PACT Elite	PACT Mook	PACT Bomber	PACT Support
Pilot: PACT Pilot	Pilot: PACT Pilot	Pilot: PACT Pilot	Pilot: PACT Pilot

Arcturius
Pilot: Veniczar S. Arcadius

Ceran Space Force

Despite being one of the most powerful Fleets in the Neutral Rim, the Cera Space Force is still only average when compared to the resources and population of the nation. Being a democracy with a strong isolationist sentiment and a distrust for the government has resulted in the voters resisting attempts to expand the military. Despite it, the Cera fleet can be proud of the possession of at least 5 Battleships (including the Sunrider, that technically is an Assault Carrier), an unparalleled force within the neighbouring planets. The vanguard of the fleet is composed by the Ceran Battleship, a vessel with 729 meters of length and equipped with the powerful precursor of the Vanguard cannon. While its size is relatively small compared to other Battleships so its capabilities are more similar to a Battlecruiser, it is still unmatchable by any of the competitors she was designed to fight (Pirate Raids and other Neutral Rim militaries). The problem started when due to PACT expansionism the duties of the Space Force shifted from protecting shipping and trade routes from pirates and guarding Cera from other Neutral Rim nations to avoid a complete and total adhesion of Cera by the PACT. While still powerful, the fleet was completely outmatched by both the technology of their superweapons (like the Legion) and the numbers of their regular fleet. Due to this, despite some resistance from the population, the military started an important rearmament with the central point being the creation of the first Assault Carrier, the Sunrider class. This ship was to use the latest technologies, with both offensive capabilities of a Battleship and Ryder capacity like a Carrier. Despite, or maybe because, its small size, the Ceran command realized how the introduction of shielding had fundamentally changed the way wars were fought, thus requiring a corresponding change on the Military Doctrine. The Assault Carrier was the answer to that, thought for extreme tactical flexibility and increased short range capabilities to fight together with its Ryders, with the Sunrider class being a relatively small and cheap, yet still more advanced that anything else, model that the Ceran military could afford. Enhancing it's capacities were top of the line reactors, warp drive and an easily upgradeable design. There were also plans to install shielding technology, but the Invasion of Cera put an end to them. While the first one of its class was finished by the Invasion of Cera, the reluctance of the nation to strengthen its military and to form alliances with other nations still left the Ceran Space Force woefully outmatched by the PACT Invasion fleet, which resulted in the destruction of Cera City and the fall of the Ceran nation. The Cera Space Force was formally disbanded and the remaining ships were absorbed into the PACT Fleet. The only exception is the Sunrider, which refused to surrender and still fights against PACT, with hopes of one day liberating the planet.

Sunrider	Bianca	Black Jack	Havoc
Captain: Kayto Shields First Officer: Ava Crescentia	Pilot: Claude Triello	Pilot: Asaga Oakrun	Pilot: Cosette Cosmos

Liberty	Paladin	Phoenix	Seraphim
Pilot: Chigara Ashada Lynn	Pilot: Kryska Stares	Pilot: Icari Isidolde	Pilot: Sola di Ryuvia

Pirate Forces

The units that the pirates deploy are weak and generaly have low hp but can be dangerous in bigger numbers. The Pirate Grunt is basically a weaker version of pact's standard ryder. The Pirate Bomber is very similar to the PACT Bomber but it has slightly less hp and armor and has an assault rifle instead of a laser. Its rocket can do good damage to any rider and is decent against the hull of even capital ships. The Pirate Destroyer is the heaviest ship in their arsenal but even that doesn't say much as still have only 500 hp. Like its name might suggest this ship is designed to either attack enemy capital ships from a distance with its lasers or preferably get in close with its kinectics. But by fare the most dangerous ship the Pirates have are there Pirate Ironhog. You can see this as a upgraded version of the Pirate Bomber in almost every single way besides evasion and surprisingly armour. They have very powerful flak that protects them against opposing missiles. However there real danger comes with its main weapon: 4 rockets which are more accurate and as powerful as the Alliance Battleship main canon. To makes matters even worse these rockets are particular flak resistant and the Ironhog can fire three volleys of these dangerous rockets. Fortunately for the player, like all the other Pirate units it lacks shielding of its own.

Pirate Base	Pirate Destroyer	Pirate Ironhog
Captain: Space Pirates	Captain: Space Pirates	Captain: Space Pirates

Pirate Bomber	Pirate Grunt
Pilot: Space Pirates	Pilot: Space Pirates

Solar Alliance Space Force

Being the current superpower, the Alliance also had the most powerful space fleet in the galaxy since the decline of the New Empire. Despite the militaristic and expansionist policy followed by it's rival, PACT, the Alliance force continues to be at least on par with Pact's Fleet, and is remarkably superior in it's production capacity. The main weakness of the Space Force is that, due to the federal nature of the Alliance and it's weak central government, is spreaded out in all the Alliance's territory. This limits specially it's First Strike capabilities and amplifies it's weakness to surprise attacks in a Blitzkrieg manner. It has at least 5 active fleets (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 6th Fleet), and it's main force is the 1st Fleet, a force of 200 ships comprised mainly by cruisers and led by Admiral Grey. When at war, it can deploy an astounding amount of ships (aside from an increased production rate) if given the time. Due to this, is very usual to see the Alliance concentrate and designate its main force as the Combined Fleet instead of using fleets as independent forces. This also allows the Space Forces to unify its Chain of Command, killing two birds with one stone.

The ship that forms the main line of the Alliance Fleet is its cruiser. An old design, it was designated as a battlecruiser, now is recognized as Cruiser by PACT and Neutral Rim space forces. An excellent design, it is a proof of its success that it still a good match to any enemy. Having the firepower equal to top of the line battleships and the agility of a cruiser, is still sturdier than a normal cruiser and has moderate flak and armour. Its only flaw is its lack of shielding due to being an old design. Despite it, precisely because of its reliability, its produced in big quantities by the Alliance with excellent efficiency (which further enhances the production capacity advantage of the Alliance) and its easy to reactivate after prolonged time in storage as a reserve.

Having been almost 100 years since its last important conflict, the Alliance Space Forces are completely unaware of the shift of military doctrine. While its love for kinetic firepower mitigates this flaw, it still remains that most of the Alliance higher military commanders are old men without much direct experience. Another problem of the military is it's absolute submission to the civilian government. With both the military budget and operations tightly supervised by the Solar Congress, and having to take into account moral and political consequences over military ones, the Space Forces feel that they fight at disadvantage against the totalitarian PACT. This has started a wave of discontent through it towards the Solar Congress, and especially the Progress Party.

The Space Force has a Spec Ops (Special Operations) Unit, and follows a standard rank system and classification of units in squads. Crew are gender-segregated between different ships.

Alliance Battleship	Alliance Cruiser
Captain: Alliance Captain	Captain: Alliance Captain

Holy Ryuvian Empire

The Ryuvians also extensively used automated ships and Ryders for patrolling and escorting duties. While they were also used in war, the huge ritual importance given to combat in the Holy Ryuvian Empire meant that they were used merely as support or "cannon fodder" units. They also have automated maintenance, and such a thing has actually allowed some of these units to remain in perfect state even after thousands of years. The fact that in 503 these automated units already outclass almost anything the galaxy has shows how superior their military capabilities truly were.

One of the few things known was that Ryuvians encouraged females to become Ryder pilots, something that still remains in former Ryuvian controlled worlds. The best pilot in the Empire was known as Sharr, and it was usual for them to marry with princes and enter into the Royal family. This way, their genes were used to enhance the royal lineage, combining both engineered enhanced traits with their natural ability. There was no prerequisite to become Sharr other than exceptional piloting skills, so it was a common dream for peasant girls on Ryuvia to achieve that position and charm a prince of the Empire.

Whenever pieces of the Ryuvian Legacy are found, they are called Lost Technology, and mark an incredible advance of the current level of technology whenever they can be properly analyzed. Even in cases that the technology cannot be properly replicated, they can serve as incredibly powerful weapons and tools.

Ryuvian Cruiser	Seraphim	Nightmare Ascendant	Nightmare
Captain: Holy Ryuvian Captain	Pilot: Sola di Ryuvia	Pilot: Ryuvian Pilot	Pilot: Ryuvian Pilot