Long day at work, so... I had an idea to sketch out a full faction that was essentially punk, without stepping too hard on the Spacers' and Assembly's aesthetic turf. Less "aesthetically punk", more focused on "punk ideals"; a very DIY, anti-authoritarian bunch, grubby but surprisingly idealistic under the dirt and the cussing.
Short version: Tartarians. Quartzite-infused space orcs, anarchistic descendants of convicts and political prisoners. Laser and arc weapons, close range debuffers who use enhanced versions of less-lethal weapons and Quartzite abilities at higher tiers.
Among the worlds left stranded when the Star Union fell was the prison colony of Tartarus, used to memory hole political dissidents and actual criminals alike. Though nominally a labor camp, any reasonably intelligent person would note that the actual productivity of Tartarus was abysmal; manual labor is not an efficient form of production for a sprawling FTL empire. In truth, the prison was a ground for all sorts of horrendously unethical experiments. Every secret tech was represented by at least one lab on the prison world, and in addition, there were unique experiments to integrate Quartzite into the human body.
And then the lights went off. The guards didn't last long. Brutality ruled for a time, but the political dissidents held on to the light of their ideas, preserving them to be rediscovered when a new civilization inevitably formed.
The Tartarians look nothing short of evil; their skins are cast in unnatural shades, and crystalline growths sprout from their skulls in horns, crests, and crowns. (Some units may have more divergent manifestations of the Quartzite.) Heroes are pierced and tattooed more often than not, while their vehicles and cities are dark, ramshackle, bedecked with sharpened crystals in various malevolent shades, and decorated with graffiti. But the dissidents' efforts weren't in vain; while it varies from hero to hero, the Tartarians typically take care of their own, in a rough, clannish way. This compassion may or may not be extended to others, but on the whole, you're better off trusting a Tartarian than, say, the Syndicate or Assembly.
The Tartarians specialize in arc weapons, which work well with both their altered biologies and the tools of discipline and torture once meant to keep them under control. (Tartarian psynumbra units might take advantage of the latter as well.) These weapons aren't particular powerful or long range, but they deliver debuffs in addition to damage, and Tartarian soldiers frequently have toys like electrified nets to further control their foes. In addition, they've learned how to produce laser weapons. Though typically used as most use laser weapons, to sear holes in things, some of the laser weapons reverse-engineered from prison guard models have a "submission" setting that widens the arc with a less penetrating wave of heat, searing the flesh of biological and cybernetic units as a further way of debuffing enemies, particularly clustered ones.
Short version: Tartarians. Quartzite-infused space orcs, anarchistic descendants of convicts and political prisoners. Laser and arc weapons, close range debuffers who use enhanced versions of less-lethal weapons and Quartzite abilities at higher tiers.
Among the worlds left stranded when the Star Union fell was the prison colony of Tartarus, used to memory hole political dissidents and actual criminals alike. Though nominally a labor camp, any reasonably intelligent person would note that the actual productivity of Tartarus was abysmal; manual labor is not an efficient form of production for a sprawling FTL empire. In truth, the prison was a ground for all sorts of horrendously unethical experiments. Every secret tech was represented by at least one lab on the prison world, and in addition, there were unique experiments to integrate Quartzite into the human body.
And then the lights went off. The guards didn't last long. Brutality ruled for a time, but the political dissidents held on to the light of their ideas, preserving them to be rediscovered when a new civilization inevitably formed.
The Tartarians look nothing short of evil; their skins are cast in unnatural shades, and crystalline growths sprout from their skulls in horns, crests, and crowns. (Some units may have more divergent manifestations of the Quartzite.) Heroes are pierced and tattooed more often than not, while their vehicles and cities are dark, ramshackle, bedecked with sharpened crystals in various malevolent shades, and decorated with graffiti. But the dissidents' efforts weren't in vain; while it varies from hero to hero, the Tartarians typically take care of their own, in a rough, clannish way. This compassion may or may not be extended to others, but on the whole, you're better off trusting a Tartarian than, say, the Syndicate or Assembly.
The Tartarians specialize in arc weapons, which work well with both their altered biologies and the tools of discipline and torture once meant to keep them under control. (Tartarian psynumbra units might take advantage of the latter as well.) These weapons aren't particular powerful or long range, but they deliver debuffs in addition to damage, and Tartarian soldiers frequently have toys like electrified nets to further control their foes. In addition, they've learned how to produce laser weapons. Though typically used as most use laser weapons, to sear holes in things, some of the laser weapons reverse-engineered from prison guard models have a "submission" setting that widens the arc with a less penetrating wave of heat, searing the flesh of biological and cybernetic units as a further way of debuffing enemies, particularly clustered ones.
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