Solar Alliance/PACT Conflict World

This World follows the journey of Captain Kayto Shields as he leads his crew of colorful Ryder pilots from across the galaxy on a one-ship mission of revenge to liberate his home planet of Cera from the clutches of the sinister People's Alliance for Common Treatment, unraveling an even deeper mystery as he goes...

Setting

In 495, the New Empire formally collapsed. The figure known today only as Veniczar S. Arcadius emerged from the shadows and declared the formation of the new PACT order. As the leader of every formerly enslaved citizen of the New Empire, Arcadius soon turned to the Neutral Rim in search of more riches. Exhibiting a cult-like zeal for their leader, the citizens of PACT rallied around Arcadius. With each conquest, the people’s exuberance grew. For Arcadius, total control was easy, for a people who have never known freedom for generations could only be dominated by a new charismatic dictator who offered the former slaves wealth, power, and respect.

The year today is 503. PACT has aggressively encroached into the Neutral Rim in violation of the Treaty of Vespa. War between the Alliance and PACT appears almost inevitable. Instead of taking decisive action to stop the PACT threat, the Alliance has instead split into two parties. The Progress Party, which currently controls the Solar Congress, seeks the peace route and believes that allowing the Veniczar to control half of the Neutral Rim would safeguard Alliance interests and prevent bloodshed. The United Univeralists believe war is the only option and favor militarization. Neither party has managed to accomplish anything in the Solar Congress and the President has been powerless as to form a consensus. While the Alliance debates, the power of PACT grows by the day…

History

Very few – perhaps no one – knows how humanity began. Various theories are abound. The Solar Alliance claims humanity must have sprang from aquatic life on the surface of prehistoric Solaris. The Ryuvian Dynasty claims all life originated from the hand of God on the peak of Mount Destiny on Ryuvia Prime. Whatever the case may be, the origins of humans, and how humans came to rule the galaxy, are unknown. For as long as recorded history can tell, humans have been the dominant life form in the galaxy, and their only real enemy have been themselves. All other life forms in the galaxy have either been exterminated, domesticated, or adopted into the human diet. Some ancient fossils suggest a human-alien war may have taken place millions of years ago. Whatever the details may be, it is clear who won the war.

Likewise, nobody knows when or how faster than light travel came to be. The general consensus seems to be that the Ryuvians were the first to master instantaneous quantum jumps. They spread through the galaxy, exponentially growing in power as they exploited planet after planet of its natural resources, and wiped out any life form which stood in the way of development. For thousands of years, the galaxy was united under the singular Ryuvian banner. However, not even the mighty Ryuvian fleets could tame human ambition. Men and women across the galaxy sought to leave their marks on history and revolted against Ryuvia Prime. The Holy Ryuvian Empire fractured, collapsed, then rose again too many times that even historians lost count.

At its apex, it is said the Holy Ryuvian Empire possessed technology capable of quasi-god like powers. Obviously, the Ryuvians used this technology far too liberally to destroy its enemies, as weapons proliferation ultimately led to the destruction of most of the Holy Ryuvian Empire, and humanity in general.

Thus begins most of recorded history. Most of the history of the Holy Ryuvian Empire has been unfortunately lost, thanks to humanity’s penchant for using excessive firepower. After the downfall of the Holy Ryuvian Empire, humanity splintered into three camps: The free people of the Western quadrant of the galaxy, the New Empire of the Northern quadrant, and the remnants of the Ryuvians in the Eastern quadrant. For a time, warfare stopped, as humanity lost the power of quantum jumps, overall, the technology of the Ryuvian Empire had been destroyed or forgotten. It fell upon the humans who survived the Ryuvian Wars to rediscover the lost technology of the Holy Ryuvian Empire, and to restore mankind to its former glory.

The Alliance-Imperial War

Following the collapse of the Holy Ryuvian Empire and the near extinction of human race in the Ryuvian Wars, humanity briefly entered a Dark Age. The remnants of the Ryuvians retreated back to its core worlds and faded from power, their technology now long lost.

However, studying derelict Ryuvian ruins and artifacts allowed humanity to slowly but surely reclaim its master place in the galaxy. Ruined, but not defeated, humanity once again took to the stars to colonize undiscovered worlds. Fortune smiled upon the courageous explorers, and a class-28 paradise planet was discovered in the far reaches of the galaxy. Named New Eden by its settlers, it was said it would be the center of humankind’s revival. Overflowing with natural resources, arable land, and fresh water, news of New Eden’s discovery spread swiftly through the galaxy. The people of New Eden named themselves the New Empire, and boasted they would restore the glory of the old Holy Ryuvian Empire of the legends. Backed by the seemingly endless resources of New Eden, the New Empire quickly developed a formidable military force. Countless neighboring worlds decided voluntarily to give themselves to the Empire. Those who did not were soon after seized and made vassals. The Imperial Age had begun.

However, with power came inevitable oppression. The rulers of the New Empire became drunk with power, and soon fancied themselves reincarnations of the Holy Ryuvian Lords. They ruled their people with an iron fist. New Eden became the home of the rich and powerful, where the Imperial elites would live in lavish luxury. The rest of Imperial society lived in abject poverty, their minds brainwashed by propaganda and their livelihoods taken for the benefit of the rich.

Circa 397, the New Empire appeared destined to rule all of humanity. The decaying remnants of the Ryuvian Empire was written off as doomed, and the remaining humans of the galaxy grimly waited until they inevitably became slaves of the New Empire.

However, the free people of Solaris refused to become slaves. Under the leadership of legendary Admiral Madeline Grey, the remaining free worlds of the galaxy united under the banner of the Solar Alliance. Declaring the universal truths of freedom and democracy, Admiral Grey scrambled together a massive armada from fleets across the galaxy, and met the Imperial onslaught at the now mythical Battle of Solaris.

The combined mettle of free people across the galaxy brought forth a miracle, and the Imperial fleet was routed. The setback at Solaris reverberated throughout the New Empire, and shook the Imperial Court. Frictions between the Boy Emperor, who had ascended the Imperial throne at the age of 14, the Imperial Consort (his mother), and the Counsel of Advisers, broke into an outright power struggle. Further rattling the Empire was the resurgence of the Ryuvian Empire, whom everyone had previously written off as the sick man of the galaxy. Emboldened by the Solar Alliance’s victory, the Ryuvians finally chose to reclaim the heritage of their ancestors and join the Alliance in its war against the Empire. Worst of all, the first signs of an internal revolutionary movement began to take form inside the Empire. Calling themselves the Compact, the citizen-slaves of the Empire began to openly question their rulers after their catastrophic defeat at Solaris.

Faced with a war on two fronts, a power struggle within the Imperial Court, and internal revolution, the Empire had no choice but to pursue peace. The Treaty of Vespa formally ended the Alliance-Imperial War and restored an uneasy peace to the galaxy.

The Alliance emerged as the uncontested winner of the war. Solaris, which was nothing more than a merchant world a mere decade prior, won territory which stretched from the hub world of Far Port to the Eastern quadrant. Far Port was a former Ryuvian world which was liberated from its Imperial occupiers by the Alliance. While the Ryuvian fleet had admittedly abandoned the world to its fate in the face of an imminent Imperial invasion during the war, most had expected the Alliance to return Far Port to the Ryuvians at the conclusion of the war. However, Far Port proved to be far too strategic a world for the Alliance to give up, as it served as the gateway into the Alliance core worlds. After having assisted the Alliance in the war, Ryuvians would never forgive the Alliance for essentially stealing Far Port. After the Far Port scandal, the Alliance-Ryuvia alliance quickly disintegrated. With the loss of Far Port, Ryuvia’s brief resurgence ended, and the old Ryuvian nation – now no longer even an empire – continued its slip into oblivion.

Over the course of the next century, the Alliance developed into a military, economic, and cultural powerhouse, and the New Empire declined further into internal power struggles and unrest. The revolutionary group Compact, now funded by Alliance covert operatives, spread the fires of unrest throughout the New Empire. The assassination of the Emperor in 494 sounded the death knell of the New Empire. After ruling most of the galaxy with an iron fist for nearly 500 years, the New Empire formally collapsed in 495.

The PACT Revolution

Some commentators have called the galaxy the battleground of human ambition. Throughout history, men and women have longed to amass power and leave their marks on history. Fleets have been assembled, and billions of souls have clashed in battle, all for the sake of leaders intent on preserving their legacy. All of this suggest that humans came to dominate the galaxy because no other species could exhibit such an unbridled desire for power and yet not destroy themselves before discovering FTL travel.

Whether this is true or not, the people of the New Empire longed to rid themselves of the oppressive hands of their Imperial overlords and forge their own course in history. No matter how tightly the Emperor clenched his iron fist, dissent formulated in the dark shadows of the Empire. The Compact was an underground liberation movement which had a vast network of conspirators throughout the subjugated Imperial colonies. While considered nothing more than a petty criminal ring by Imperial authorities during the height of Imperial power, the Compact became a legitimate independence movement with the formation of the Solar Alliance. Led by an idealistic Venassar during the time of The Alliance-Imperial War, the Compact received substantial financial and military support from Alliance operatives who sought to disintegrate the Empire from within.

The conclusion of the Imperial-Alliance War left the New Empire in a substantially weakened state. The Treaty of Vespa led to substantial loss of the Empire’s former territories and left the Alliance to dominate the southern half of the galaxy. Worse, when the Imperial Court should have been focusing on reconstruction efforts after the war, it instead fell into infighting. The former mighty rulers of the Empire betrayed themselves in a last effort to cling onto what little remained of the Empire’s bounty. Civil War became inevitable.

The New Empire was still a mighty and vast power, and its demise was gradual. However, by 490, the New Empire was on its death bed. A new Venassar emerged, and proclaimed that the Compact would liberate the enslaved people of the Empire and restore equality to all. Long had the citizen slaves of the Empire been deprived of their share of the Empire’s riches. The Venassar marched throughout the Empire, liberating world after world, and spilling open the coffers of the Empire’s elite into the hands of the masses.

The Alliance initially greeted the Venassar with welcome, and offered the Venassar a shared vision of a galaxy based on freedom. However, it soon became clear the Venassar had his own plans. The Compact finally marched on New Eden in 494 and looted the ancient Imperial capital. The elite were torn of their clothes, beat in the streets, and summarily executed, then displayed for all to see. The Emperor narrowly escaped the chaos, only to be assassinated by Compact agents shortly after fleeing the capital. The sacking of New Eden shocked Alliance space. The Venassar’s previous oath of promoting justice appeared forgotten, and the Venassar himself vanished from public view without a trace.

In 495, the New Empire formally collapsed. The figure known today only as Veniczar S. Arcadius emerged from the shadows and declared the formation of the new PACT order. As the leader of every formerly enslaved citizen of the New Empire, Arcadius soon turned to the Neutral Rim in search of more riches. Exhibiting a cult-like zeal for their leader, the citizens of PACT rallied around Arcadius. With each conquest, the people’s exuberance grew. For Arcadius, total control was easy, for a people who have never known freedom for generations could only be dominated by a new charismatic dictator who offered the former slaves wealth, power, and respect.

The year today is 503. PACT has aggressively encroached into the Neutral Rim in violation of the Treaty of Vespa. War between the Alliance and PACT appears almost inevitable. Instead of taking decisive action to stop the PACT threat, the Alliance has instead split into two parties. The Progress Party, which currently controls the Solar Congress, seeks the peace route and believes that allowing the Veniczar to control half of the Neutral Rim would safeguard Alliance interests and prevent bloodshed. The United Univeralists believe war is the only option and favor militarization. Neither party has managed to accomplish anything in the Solar Congress and the President has been powerless as to form a consensus. While the Alliance debates, the power of PACT grows by the day…

Factions

PACT

PACT is a revolutionary front that has toppled the once mighty New Empire during the PACT Revolution and is spreading throughout the galaxy. Led by the mysterious Veniczar S. Arcadius and his cult of personality, PACT appears intent on dominating every human being in the galaxy.

Recieving it's acronym from "People's Alliance for Common Treatment", PACT originated from Compact, a resistance movement from within the New Empire that started at New Eden. Originally lead by an idealistic Venassar, Compact was at the beginning nothing more than some guerrilla fighters and rebels that protested against the New Empire ambushing Imperial Nobles, and in general stealing from them and similar low-key acts. However, at the end of The Alliance-Imperial War Compact managed to swell it's ranks with thousands of discontents thanks to the defeats at the war and the financial support of the newly formed Solar Alliance. Due to this and the perennial infighting of the Imperial Court, the Compact started becoming a dangerous threat to the Empire's survival. At 490, Arcadius emerged as Venassar of the Compact, promising to finally end the Empire. After almost 100 years of infighting and constant losses, the empire couldn't do anything while Arcadius liberated world after world. The end of the Empire came the year 494, when the betrayal of the now Veniczar B. Cullen let the Compact Fleet successfully launch a surprise attack on the remnants of the Imperial Fleet, destroying them and leading to the Sack of New Eden (ironically, despite being the origin of the resistance movement, New Eden was the last planet to be liberated due to strong Imperial defences on it's capital). Until that moment the Compact had been an intergalactic association with the only purpose of ending the Empire, but after this victory Arcadius decided to formally unite the territories under Compact as a nation with a new goal. After finally reforming Compact as PACT in 495, Arcadius set the capital at New Eden, and proclaimed PACT's aim: to successfully unite all the galaxy and build a new order where every person is treated equally. Using national pride, the idea that the Alliance was corrupt to the core, that it was dominated by the lobbies that only aimed to enrich themselves, and that the Neutral Rim was a group of planets either puppets of the Alliance or oppressed by dictatorships and corrupt governments, Arcadius managed to unite all the former Compact behind himself. Aiming to fulfill that objective, PACT launched an invasion on the Neutral Rim, violating the treaty of Vespa, conquering half of it by 503. At that year, PACT finally made a full scale attack on one of the remaining main powers on the Neutral Rim, Cera. Achieving a complete victory at the Invasion of Cera, PACT used it's momentum to complete the Neutral Rim conquest 2 months later. Days later it occupied Ryuvia, after betraying a diplomatic treaty they had with them, and using Ryuvia Prime as a starting point they tried to launch a full scale invasion of the Alliance. The latter however, was completely defeated at the Battle of Far Port.

PACT's hierarchy is strict and lineal, with all power centralized in the hands of their sumpreme leader, Veniczar S. Arcadius. This power is executed through the Veniczar office, which can probably be described as the most similar thing PACT has to a government's body. Overall, PACT can be easily compared to a totalitarian state, with restricted space voyage, no separation of powers, and other numerous similarities. Most high ranking officers (civilian or military, though PACT mixes both branches) have the title of Veniczar, with the letter next to the tittle signifying their ranking. So, Arcadius is Veniczar S. Arcadius, while his right hand man is Veniczar B. Fontana. Arcadius chose the name Veniczar as a spiritual successor the name of Venassar used by the leader of Compact.

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.

The Alliance

The Solar Alliance is the current dominant power house of the Galaxy, only rivaled by the rise of PACT.

A military, economic and research alliance between several worlds, centered around Solaris and it's surroundings (called the Core Worlds), it was the victor of the The Alliance-Imperial War, which was what propulsed the once tiny Solaris as the dominant superpower. It is unknown if it's a single or bi parliamentary system, but its main concentration of power is in the Solar Congress, on Solaris. The two main parties that form the Solar Congress are the Progress Party and the United Universalists Party, with current President Alythe pertaining to the first. Despite it's democratic nature, it's not without shades, such as the famous occupation of Far Port, where, after recovering the planet from the New Empire, the Alliance never actually returned it to the Holy Ryuvian Empire. This not only ensured the control of a critical strategic planet (Far Port guards the access to the Core Worlds), but also cemented the decline of the Holy Ryuvian Empire, after it's brief resurgence during the War. Not only that, having both a democratic system and massive size means that is in continuous political deadlock, with cases in which a single politician has to represent a billion of citizens. With the increasing power of the Alliance, the diverse lobbies that either laid at it's core or welcomed the new superpower also gained a lot more influence. Due to this and also because of the earlier misrepresentation problem of the people, the Solar Congress has become a place where any kind of direct governance has become nigh-impossible, and where the corruption and influence of the lobbies doesn't stop growing. Due to this, the planets in the Neutral Rim maintained their distances.

More than using the resources of a single miraculous planet (like PACT and the New Empire did with New Eden), the Alliance obtains it's enormous economic, military and technologic capabilities from joint development between around 100 planets of class 10 or more. While this requires an incredibly high amount of bureaucracy, this results on individual planets having superior infrastructure and technology than even planets of equal class and population like Cera

It's current head of state is President Alythe, and it's most respected military officer is Admiral Harold Grey, the commander of the Emerald Fleet. 1st Lieutenant Kryska Stares is a soldier from the Alliance, and Icari Isidolde and Claude Triello were born there.

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.

Ryuvia

The Holy Ryuvian Empire was the dominant Superpower of the Galaxy since immemorial ages (it is known that it existed 10,000 years ago) until the establishment of the new Calendar (Year 0). After that it also survived as an independent country until it was finally absorbed by PACT circa 503. Not much is known about the ancient times of the Holy Ryuvian Empire, only that its power reached everywhere known by man and surpassed even today's imagination. After a great disaster that marked the beginning of the new Calendar, the Empire collapsed and retained only a tiny part of it's former territory, comprising the zone between Ryuvia Prime and Far Port. For the sake of clarity, the Ancient Empire will be called Holy Ryuvian Empire, and it's successor only Ryuvia. Take into account, however, that despite the great differences of power and territory both are the same formal entity, and ruled by the same dynasty.

Despite bearing the same name, after year 0 the Holy Ryuvian Empire was barely a tiny piece of a shell of it's former self. Having lost the secrets of its famed technology, Ryuvia was basically a minor power without any possibility of expanding. While it is not known how much of their army or technology actually remained, it was still not enough to fight against the New Empire and even less to try to recover some of it's former territories (even when they remained independent and not affiliated with any kind of power). It participated in the The Alliance-Imperial War as an ally of the Solar Alliance. Despite initial heavy losses against the Empire, the Imperial defeat at the battle of Solaris marked a resurgence of Ryuvia, and in successive counterattacks it successfully recovered some of its territory. The Alliance however, stabbed the back of it's ally when it refused to return Far Port after having freed it from the Empire. Far Port was a very populous and economically powerful planet in the ancient Holy Ryuvian Empire. Now, while desolate and mostly underpopulated (less than 1000 habitants), it was a very important strategic location and symbol for Ryuvia. It's loss marked the final decay of Ryuvia. Without not even managing to recover all of it's pre-war but After 0 territory from the Empire, and losing some to the Alliance, the final nail in the coffin was the treaty of Vespa, which ended the war, but at the cost of making a buffer zone of neutral territories between the Alliance and the New Empire, the Neutral Rim. Having most of it's leftover possessions in this zone, Ryuvia was finally reduced to only Ryuvia Prime and it's surroundings, and with a level of military and economic power not superior to that of neutral worlds like Cera. With internal turmoil and court intrigues still not ceasing, the emperor focused on maintaining some sort of stability and Ryuvia became a nation isolated from the rest of the galaxy, an obscure blackwater planet with barely military power.

Mining Union

A galactic wide conglomerate, the Mining Union was born of the collaboration between different companies and firms in the mining of low class (not habitable), yet rich with ore, planets, like Tydaria. As such, it controls every stage since the extraction of the ore to its refining into starship grade steel. Since it's origins, The Mining Union has grown to the point it's the steel provider of 50% of the ships constructed in the galaxy. As such, it is a powerhouse comparable to the Alliance lobbies. Despite it, the Union has not excessively preoccupied itself with the relations with the powers, merely maintaining a balance between all of its clients, and so doesn't have as much influence on the Alliance as it could have despite its democratic and capitalistic nature (due to this, it's influence in the Alliance politics it's less than its internal lobbies, despite severely outsizing them). However, this has gained the Union a niche with freelancers and mercenaries, being their main provider of supplies and the only way to legally purchase weapons (and it's licenses). The Union has encouraged this by offering protection and patrolling jobs (with the objective of gaining further independence of any nation), and in general being receptive to proposals whenever they can gain some benefits. A good example of this is their good reception of Asaga Oakrun and Chigara Ashada, offering the first a place among the mercenaries patrolling the mining areas despite her inexperience (recognizing her skills), and lending the second a facility in which to conduct starship reparations (and bake pastes) in exchange of her also repairing the ships of the Union (recognizing again her top skills despite being very young).

The Union in general has a policy which gives priority to money before all (though they seem to respect the law), so they don't take sides in any war. Because of that they are the ones which profit the most, as it doesn't matter which sides wins or loses, both will need more warships, either to recoup the losses or to maintain the advantage. It also maintains the biggest private army on the galaxy which they use to escort their merchant vessels and work as mercenaries when they don't have such duties. Despite its size, their fleet is mostly composed of lighter, cheap ships useful as escorts and support vessels, but not powerful enough to give the Mining Union any strength comparable to the bigger powers.

With Captain Shields essentially becoming a freelancer, the Union becomes his main provider of supplies, including rockets and repair drones. The union can also offer unique upgrades as the captain proves trustworthy and, most importantly, rich enough: shields for the Sunrider, improved repair kits and even escort ships. His contact with the Union is Sophita Brooks, the Vice-secretary of Operations. Despite being formally a Union, the structure seems to be centralized, hinting at either a long story or a member company absolutely dominating over the others.

During the Alliance-PACT War, the Mining Union initially traded with both sides, but relations between PACT and the Mining Union became increasingly strained. After PACT attacked a Mining Union freighter carrying a high-value cargo (fortunately, the Sunrider escorted the ship to safety), the Union arranged for an Alliance task force led by the Sunrider to join Union units in destroying a PACT fleet docked at Tydaria, severing its ties with the People's Alliance.

Pirates

Pirates is a broad term referring to space pirates. These pirates can commit crimes from stealing goods and trafficking slavers. The only notable pirate in the game is Cosette Cosmos. Although Pirates arent united under one leader they have been shown to work together when necessary. Such a case is when Cosette Cosmos gathered ships from over 15 different crime rings to make the biggest pirate fleet seen during the 2nd battle Ongess. The pirates working under Cosette Cosmos are strongly aligned with Pact.

Pirate Space Force

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.