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"From Knights to Witches to Scavengers and Mercenaries. a barbaric technology now pilotted by equelly uncivilised people. something best left to rust in the past with the other horrors of the Calamity war."
- Matriarch Nyess Coniis on post Calamity war Gundam Class Mobile weapons.
"They were useful once but we are not helpless against the universe's horrors anymore. Autobots are simply too dangerous to let roam where ever they may. not to mention how biologically speaking, there is almost no differance between them and the Decepticons."
- attributed to Sir Lan Kujan of Gjallarhorn shortly before the Cybertronian Exile.
water splashed as Shepard walked. that was interesting, considering they were on a sealed colony on an airless dust ball. presumably someone spilled something or a climate control system fritzed out. either way it was a good sign for Shepard.
it meant that chances were, the people in the warehouse she was planning on entering were a bit sloppy, a bit careless, not the highly professional killing machines that rumour suggested.
of course, she still had plenty of evidence that they were still perfectly capable of pointing a gun and shooting. specifically, she had plenty of evidence of them pointing and shooting an entire archeological team in the head and looting their camp.
she paused as she slipped into a nice hidden alleyway and activated her Omni-tool. a quick scan showed her where the warehouse's cameras were and their fields of view. they were rather shit. she knew that these people were moving quickly and her intel suggested this was more of a stop off and resupply post than a real base but still... couldn't be bothered to check the lines of sight or send up some drones to cover the blind spots?
Still, it was good news for Shepard. it gave her a ten minute window before the guards came around to this part of the facility again.
then she would just have to fight or sneak her way through a warehouse full of guards and somehow escape with a pretty heavy piece of tech. all without causing an explosions big enough to damage the city's enviromental systems.
still, could be worse. at least she still had the element of surprise.
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Shepard walked away from the warehouse and towards a small parking lot. there were a few dozen vehicles there, pretty much all of them looked like they were tough enough for what Shepard preferred to call "clever use of local assets" and her commanders called "a cause of excessive collatoral damage".
most however looked like working vehicles, trucks, vans and other transports. presumibly belonging to the locals. Shepard preferred to avoid wreaking anything belonging to people who wouldn't be able to afford replace it.
the red and orange sports car with flame decals however, definetly belonged to someone who could afford it. only someone with more money than brains would park a car that expensive and that flashy in a place like this.
Shepard took a look around, not spotting any warehouse guards or local police, she walked towards the car and began working on the lock. it was one of those old fashioned purely mechanical ones. her Omni-tool made quick work of it and with a click, the door was unlocked.
and seconds later locked itself again.
"Okay..." said Shepard, unlocking it again only to have it once again lock itself.
"Gods... help me. you really want to do this the hard way? because I'm already planning on ramming you into a warehouse, ripping this door off is pretty minor compared to that." muttered Shepard as she unlocked it again and this time, it actually stayed unlocked.
Shepard climbed inside and took a moment, just to appreciate the engineering that went into it before she hijacked it's autopilot and turned it into a battering ram. the seats automatically adjusted to fit her frame, the controls were a little old fashioned but they still looked pretty damn good.
or at least they did look good right up until Shepard noticed the symbol on the car's wheel. it was a face made of rectangular shapes made from red metal on a silver background. by itself, it was not an intimidating shape but in context, Shepard's next comments were quite understandable.
"Well... shit." said Shepard.
"Yeah, shit." said the Autobot as they drove off, Shepard still inside.
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the Autobot drove a short distance away and into an empty warehouse before throwing Shepard out.
"Alright, who do you work for? local police don't try and turn random cars into missiles, this is too low stakes for the Alliance to be involved and you have a bit too much metal in you to be Gjallarhorn." said the Autobot as they finished transforming into robot mode.
despite herself, Shepard took a step back. Cybertronians were rare, not so rare that they were never seen but still uncommon enough that meeting them was an often a once in a lifetime experience. despite only being half the height of the Mobile Suits she was used to, they had something about them that made them seem more. something to do with them being a living being compared to a big war machine.
"You first. the fact I'm not a red stain on the floor tells me your not a Decepticon using false colours but... Autobots aren't meant to visit organic planets without telling the locals and i doubt someone with as many guns as you would have made it through customs." said Shepard looking at the triple barreled cannons that adorned the Autobot's wrists. a single hit from even one of their shots could probably turn Shepard into atoms. "So... what are you?"
the two stared at each other, blue optics and green eyes locked.
"I'm Hot Rod of Nyon and I am an Autobot just... one on a mission that required i move faster than than the speed of paperwork. you?" said the Autobot.
"Jane Shepard, also currently on a mission. one i suspect with the same targets as you?" said Shepard.
"Depends. you hunting a group armed a bunch of white and orange custom GMs which they used them to cross the border, raid a mining outpost, kill three Autobots and steal their corpses?" asked Hot Rod.
"Well, no but i am hunting a group that used four white and orange custom GMs to massacre dozens of stations and outposts across the Orion arm, most recently an acheological dig where they ran off with a bunch of Calamity war era tech... not sure i want to see what someone could create with both that and a bunch of dead Autobots." said Shepard.
"Me neither... you got a team to support you?" contacts with the local cops?" asked Hot Rod.
"I'm working alone on this one. chances are the local authorities wouldn't be any help anyway. this is a corporate colony, if they aren't being bribed they are probably incompetant. any chance you've got a couple dozen more Autobots hidden nearby?" asked Shepard.
"Well... not really. sneaking just me in was hard enough. although technically speaking, neither of us are working alone anymore." said Hot Rod.
"Well... us two against at least four mobile suits and likely even more guards. risky but still better odds than it was before..." said Shepard.
"Alright then, let's figure out a plan... prefarably one that doesn't involve me being used as a battering ram." said Hot Rod.
"I think... i have one. I have a list of what they stole and one piece of tech is... pretty interesting." said Shepard activating her Omni-tool and displaying a holographic image.
it almost looked Cybertronian albeit a rather battered one that seemingly lacked any vehicle parts and had what was clearly an access hatch in it's torso.
the head having two eyes and a face plate with a V shaped antenna above it told Hot Rod exactly what it was.
"It's risky. I've seen those things in action but I've been to the funerals of the pilots they killed plenty of times as well." said Hot Rod casually talking about events that happened at least three centuries ago.
"I can handle it... probably. you distract them, i sneak aboard it and together we put a permanent stop to this operation." said Shepard.
"Well... an Autobot and a Gundam. i can think of only a handful of things that can stop us and none of them are here." said Hot Rod grinning.
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"I trust these subjects are to your liking?" asked Silas as he showed his contact with Cerberus's main research cell, the Cybertronians he had acquired.
"They are... acceptable. it would have been better if you had left them intact but the parts will still be usable." said Doctor Meridian rubbing his face as he worked out the basics of what he wanted to do with these samples.
"They were Cybertronian. it takes a lot of disable them. particularly when all we have to work with are GMs and kinetic weapons." said Silas.
"Yes, yes... your new Mobile Suit is already ready for you. we even threw in a few beam rifles for your GMs." said Meridian as he walked over to the other items that Silas and his forces had recovered.
"Such fantastic technology. a shame that so many in power fear it." said Meridian looking across at the three hundred years old mobile suit laying on a nearby transport.
it was horrible outdated in terms of weaponry, kinetic barriers and reactor output but with the Alaya-Vijana system, a good pilot was more than capable of ignoring those disadvantages.
"What do you expect? Gundams put to much power into men like us. people willing to change the world, through violence if necessary." said Silas.
"I am not like you." said Meridian "I want to protect humanity from the monsters that lurk outside our borders... and to defeat monsters, we need monsters of our own."
before Silas could reply, an explosion rocked the facility and the lights turned red.
"You said this facility was secure!" yelled Meridian.
"It is." said Silas activating his Omni-tool and look at the security footage. it was a single Autobot, non-combat ground based Alt-mode, triple barrled wrist blasters. all in all not particularly impressive for an Autobot... but that still meant they had a machine that was as fast as a Gundam, had some of the strongest armour in the galaxy and had the firepower of six beam rifles strapped to it.
"Pilots! it looks like the good doctor will be getting a fourth piece of scrap tonight. go to your machines!" called out Silas before turning back to Meridian "Doctor... is my new machine ready for deployment?"
"Yes... it's in the storeroom over there. one brand new mobile suit, straight from our benefactors in the Titans." said Meridian.
"Well, it seems we have been given a wonderful opportunity to put that to the test." said Silas smiling as he heading towards his new Mobile Suit.
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"Not exactly subtle but... certainly effective." muttered Shepard as smoke rose up from the other side of the facility.
with two silenced shots, Shepard removed two guards and acquired a keycard. fortunetly that was all the door into the warehouse needed. Shepard was pretty sure there were children's toys that were more secure than this place.
another explosion rocked the warehouse as Shepard snuck inside. her Omni-tool also alerted her to an increase in Minovansky particles in the atmosphere. it seemed that at least one GM had managed to get online. they looked like older, early production types. which made sense, Anaheim had made a lot of them and when they rolled out the newer models, it was pretty common for Benerit Group corporations to sell off outdated stock to groups of dubious morality.
Shepard's journey through the facility was fairly uneventful. most of the guards were running so quickly that they didn't notice a new face in engineers overalls.
eventually she found what she was looking for. lying on a truck, was what she had been looking for.
it was a Gundam. calamity war era... likely one of the ones built by the founders of Anaheim electronics. it had their signature twin chest radiators at least and there were a fair few features that hinted at the fact it was arguable the ancestor of the GMs and GunCannons that Shepard had worked with. quite a few pieces of armour were missing and what remained was in pretty bad shape, the paint long since gone and the outer layers heavily scraped and corroded.
Shepard gave a brief look around before climbing aboard the truck, opening the Gundam's cockpit and climbing inside.
lights activated as soon as she sat down, the door closing at the same time. the fact the Gundam was lying on it's back made the next part a little awkward but Shepard grew up aboard a starship. she was used to doing things at annoying angles.
she stripped off the top half of her overall and pulled off the vest underneath, exposing the cybernetics that jutted out of her spine.
"Okay... never done this on an actual Gundam before... Still, can't be that much differant." said Shepard settling into her seat and placing her Alaya-Vijana system into the Gundam's connector.
the intial connection stung but Shepard knew that this was nothing compared to what was going to come next.
she knew from experience that connection to Mobile Workers and other machines was painful enough. connecting to a Gundam however, was an entirely differant story.
blue light surronded her and Shepard was pulled deep into the Gundam.
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Shepard looked around. she was on a battlefield. dead lay scattered for miles in every direction, even the sky was filled with burning ships.
the Gundam stood before her. it looked differant that it did in reality. fully armoured and coated in black and gold paint like a hero from ancient mythology. only it's eyes were dim. rather than the glow Shepard had expected, they were as dead and dim as an empty bottle.
"So... this is actually pretty differant than a Man Rodi..." said Shepard to the Gundam. it didn't react which wasn't surprising considering it was a giant hunk of metal but... Shepard expected something.
she sighed. "Listen, I don't know if there is a password or some sort of test i have to pass to get us to work together but there are a lot of real bad people out there and I need your help."
the Gundam remained passive.
"your meant to save people right? I'm meant for the same thing. these people slaughtered entire stations full of innocents before looting them, looting you in order to create Gods know what." said Shepard.
she sighed. "I've had enough of people who kill and butcher and create monsters. more importantly, i have a friend out there who is going to be their next victim if we don't head out there."
the Gundam's eyes ignited in a brilliant emerald colour. it's arm extended and hand unfurled at it offered a single finger towards Shepard.
"Thank you." said Shepard taking the Gundam's offer, their armour changing from black and gold to gunmetal grey and red as she did. "This is going to be one hell of a partnership."
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Meridian turned as the sounds of moving machinery filled the room. the Gundam was rising. it was slightly clumsy, like someone just waking up but... it's movements were becoming more and more smooth even as it stood up, it's antennas scraping the roof of the warehouse.
Meridian stared at it and for one brief horrifing moment, the Gundam stared back. it's green optics filled with far more violence than any machine should have.
then, one of the guards opened fire. it was just a single burst from their rifle but it was enough to make the Gundam start moving and start killing.
the first to die was the guard who opened fire and those standing near him, torn apart by the Gundam's inbuilt weapons.
Meridian didn't see what happened next. one moment he was running, the next something hard and sharp hit him and everything went black.
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Hot Rod was fast. even by the standards of Cybertronians with his alt-mode, he was considered to be quite a fast racer and an even faster fighter.
the GM on the other hands wasn't. it was by no means a bad Mobile Suit but it was designed to be competant in several areas rather than focussed on speed while also being designed to be cheap and easy to run and maintain.
while this made it very good for filling the ranks of the Alliance and other militaries but made it rather bad at handling a fast moving Autobot at close ranges.
"Come on! can't hit a moving target?!" yelled Hot Rod as he dodged another barrage of weapons fire from the GMs and charged towards one of them.
the GM's pilot was smart enough at least throw away their rifle and try to ready their shield and beam sabre.
in terms of weight, size and raw strength, the GM had a basic bot like Hot Rod beat. which was why rather than letting it have a fair fight, Hot Rod blasted it in the main camera with a flame blast and ducked under it's swing, unfolding a blade from his arm and slashing through the Mobile Suit's torso.
Hot Rod would have liked it to make a big explosion as he turned and dodged another barrage but the Mobile Suit simply fell to it's knees before falling to the ground. probably for the best considering they were inside a domed city with a sealed enviroment.
the other three GMs all lined up to open fire on him, taking up positions to cover possible escape routes and to hit Hot Rod from multiple angles in a rather sudden display of competance.
"Autobot. disable your weapons and surrender." ordered one of the GMs knowing just as well as Hot Rod that they had him surronded.
"Well... i could do that but really i think you have bigger problems. like the Ahab signature about to burst through that wall." said Hot Rod smiling and pointing to a spot slightly to the right of the GMs.
unsurprisingly, all of them turned towards it, leaving them completely off guard when Shepard burst through the wall to the left of them with a mechanical scream of electronic counter measures.
she didn't have any weapons other than her Mobile Suit's vulcans and anti-infantry equitment but powerful thrusters and nanolaminate armoured claws more than made up for it.
the first GM she reached went down quickly, it's head crushed and it's pilot knocked out by the impact.
the other two stepped back and raised their shields while opening fire at Shepard. their aim was worsened by Shepard's speed and the suddenness of the attack but it hitting a Mobile Suit at point blank range wasn't exactly a task that needed great aim.
the shells made dents and scratches in the Gundam's armour but failed to penetrate the nanolaminate plating before Shepard turned towards the one on the right and Hot Rod charged at the one on the left.
the end of the fight was quick, brutal and ended very poorly for the GMs.
"Hey Shepard? you alright?" said Hot Rod as his opponent fell to the ground, molten slag where it's cockpit used to be. the one Shepard took down meanwhile was a torn apart pile of scrap, spread across the room. Gundams were not designed to be subtle weapons and Shepard... clearly hadn't quite got it under full control yet.
"Yes just... this is rather a lot." said Shepard as she lowered the Gundam's permet score back down to one. significantly less painful and enough for her to move it but not fast enough to be useful in MS combat. still, unless the enemy had a fifth Mobile Suit in the area, the fighting seemed to be over.
"yeah... they always complained about that back in the day too. is it the connection or the sensory overload that's getting to you?" asked Hot Rod as Shepard leaned down and picked up one of the GMs rifle and shield.
"Bit of both..." said Shepard staring around the room. the Gundam had all sorts of sensors intergated into them, Shepard hadn't even begun to try most of them. just the ones that came on by default were screwing with her. "We're you always glowing?"
"No, not ususally... probably just seeing my EM field or something." said Hot Rod staring at his arm just to make sure he wasn't actually glowing.
"Right... well, aside from that and the weird floating things everywhere, i think I'm handling it." replied Shepard, the old speakers in her Mobile Suit making her voice metallic and occasionally filled with static. it almost made her sound Cybertronian.
"Well, let's search the rest of the warehouse. assumning you fit." said Hot Rod looking up at the Gundam. that was one of the things he didn't like about Mobile Suits, they were always so much taller than him.
it was bad enough being looked down on by other Cybertronians but having an unliving machine do it just poked at Hot Rod's ego in a weird way. although it an even weirder way, he didn't mind when Gundams did it. something about them just felt differant to regular MS.
"Yeah... funny, usually warehouses are the one place i don't have to worry about banging my head." said Shepard before pulling her vision back, out of the Gundam's eyes and back into the cockpit and finding some buttons to press.
"I think... this thing has a good enough sensor package that i can see through the walls and cut through all the Minovansky and Ahab interference in here." said Shepard staring at the flickering and washed out text on one of the Gundam's screens. spending the last three centuries buried underground on some forgotten wasteland hadn't been kind to the machine.
with a thought, the Gundam's senses expanded and with a significantly more panicked thought, they returned to normal.
"Okay, that was more than i was expecting" said Shepard clutching her head, an action copied by her Mobile Suit "Let's just look around manually. i think i saw a power signature that way"
Hot Rod walked over to the wall Shepard had gestured towards and tapped it, checking whether it led into vacumn or not. "Want to do another... let's call it a dynamic entry?"
"We're too close to the city's dome, i don't want to risk a air leak and i think, i saw a enterence in the other room." said Shepard.
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"All troops, fall back to the transport. be here within the next two minutes or be left behind" ordered Silas as he stared at his screen as the fourth and final Minovansky signature flickered into nothingness. a handful of minutes ago he had a full lance of Mobile suits to support him. now he only had his own and he was not stupid enough to take two opponents on at once while in a Mobile Suit he hadn't pilotted before.
"Sir? we still have your Mobile Suit, not to mention our transport's weapons." said one of his men as two others dragged the half dead body of Meridian aboard. his arm had been torn to shreds by whatever hit him and the rest of his body was barely any better.
"And they have a Gundam and an Autobot." said Silas turning to look at their cargo. they had only managed to load one dead Autobot and a handful of artifacts. still... it should be enough for their employer and it was better than losing it all to a Witch and a machine.
"Today was a loss." said Silas to his troops as the transport's doors shut and it's engines charged up. "But trust me... this is simply another step and another regrettable but necessary towards ensuring that humanity, not the abominations we fought today will rule the galaxy."
the Autobot and the Gundam entered the hangar bay just as Silas's transport took off. he got one brief look at them, just enough to get a decent idea of what they looked like.
taking down that many Mobile Suits that quickly was impressive and chances were, these two were going to be a problem in the future. one Silas would make sure would not survive their next encounter.
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"Scrap..." muttered Hot Rod as the transport flew out into the vacumn outside. Shepard took a few pot shots at it which the ship's hull before the hangard door slammed shut.
"Cutting and running..." said Shepard wondering if it was worth trying to track them. probably not. Garuda transports had FTL drives and those were borderline impossible to trace once they got up to speed.
not to mention this place was probably going to be crawling with very angry locals soon enough and there were a few things they needed to do first.
"So... thanks for the help. for a moment, things looked like they might get messy if it wasn't for your help." said Hot Rod.
"Speaking of messy... might be a good time to for you to transform and roll out." said Shepard who would not have given up the opportunity to say that for all the money in the galaxy.
"Heh... good idea." said Hot Rod before tossing something toward's Shepard. her Gundam's systems automatically identifying it as something worth catching and moving their arm to intercept it.
"Uhh... thanks." said Shepard looking down at the metal Autobot symbol that, for lack of a better word folded down to a size that Shepard could comfortably carry herself "What is it?"
"just a beacon so you can call for help if things get rough. one good turn deserves another and all that. Now, I'm going to go and put the two bodies these Scraplets stole beyond use" said Hot Rod.
"Thanks. I'm going to... head outside and surrender to whoever shows up to investigate this... mess." said Shepard slipping the device into one of her Gundam's storage bays.
"Well then, i hope we meet again. I'll buy you a... whatever humans use to refuel." said Hot Rod as he walked towards the other section of the warehouse.
Shepard chuckled as she walked her Gundam out of the building. she was definetly going to arrested for this but... she felt that she could probably worm her way out of any jail time. her contract covered any legal fees in any case.
half a dozen Demi-Garrisons were waiting for her outside. they were pretty outclassed compared to modern military grade machines like GMs or the AC units the Asari used but they were still carrying enough firepower to blast Shepard right out of the colony if she tried anything.
"My name is Jane Shepard. i was investigating this site in connection to the massacre of the Gatwa archeological team as a legally employed mercenary of the Teiwaz group. i surrender myself into your custody." announced Shepard, getting her Gundam on one knee and lowering her weapons before disconnecting her Alaya-Vijana system and exiting, taking care not to give them anything that could be dragged into an excuse to open fire.
in Shepard's view, this day ending with being pushed into a transport and driven off to a cell was not the worst way this could have ended.
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Shepard sat in the interrogation room. it was pretty bare bones. metal walls, a camera on one wall that connected to some observation room somewhere, the usual. Shepard had seen them plenty of times before.
really the only interesting thing about the room was the large Burion industries logo on the side of the wall. as far as Mega corporations went, they weren't half bad. their products were cheap but reliable and they generally didn't threaten to cut off air and food supplies to their workers if they failed to meet their quota. although they were part of the Benerit Group and they weren't too fond of Witches like Shepard.
after a couple of hours of waiting, someone came in. they were tall and thin, almost certainly the product of a childhood in low gravity. unfortunetly they were wearing a Titans uniform which was something of a problem. the Titans didn't like anyone who wasn't unchanged from the original earth based design so, those who were but still somehow ended up in the organisation had a tendency to be even nastier than standard in order to try and fit in or prove themselves or whatever they told themselves to justify it.
"Miss Shepard. Sorry to keep you waiting. I'm Specialist Scirocco." said the Titans officer. Specialist was a funny rank. it could mean anything from the person who answered communications to the person who pulled out finger nails.
"A Titan... I didn't think i caused that much damage." said Shepard.
"You tore apart two buildings and turned four GMs into scrap metal. that more than justifies my prescence. however, personnally I'm here for another reason." said Scirocco.
"If you want me to tell you where the Autobot went, your going to be disappointed." said Shepard.
"Such loyalty to a machine... I would expect nothing less from the Hero of Elysium." said Scirocco smiling and raising his hands in a gesture of surrender. "I simply wanted to offer a former war hero an offer of employment."
"Yeah... no chance of that happening. I'm not going to join a bunch of fascists just for a paycheck." said Shepard.
"We aren't fascists." said Scirocco leaning back in his chair.
"Your a group of black and red armoured soldiers with barely any oversight and permission to do basically whatever you want. yeah, totally not evil fascists." said Shepard rolling her eyes.
"Harsh times require harsh measures." said Scirocco with a slightly confused look in his rather strange eyes. Shepard assumned he wasn't used to not quite having control over the conversation.
"Not sure how a bunch of asshats in edgy uniforms is going to solve things like economic inequality and tensions between the Inner and Outer Colonies. you know, the things that actually cause harsh times." said Shepard who had heard that excuse before. it didn't really work when you actually looked at authoritarian regime's track record of solving "harsh times"
"Leaving that aside." said Scirocco to Shepard's mild disappointment. she'd been interested to see how far she could push him. "Your an intelligent woman, gifted both mentally, technologically and physically. you could be a fine member of the Titans. perhaps even the organisation's leader someday."
"Since your doing a recruiting speech, i trust that I'm not going to be dragged off to some labour camp on a tiny moon somewhere?" asked Shepard.
"No. Burion contacted your employers who offered to pay to repair the damage to the colony which along with an explanation of just who you were battling managed to smooth things over." said Scirocco "You really do mix with... interesting company".
"Then I'm going." said Shepard ignoring Scirocco's attempt at further conversation and pushing her chair back before standing up.
"My offer is still open. gifted people like us do well in the Titans, regardless of origins." said Scirocco. Shepard wondered if he really believed that but only briefly. she had quite literally bigger things on her mind.
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a few hours later Shepard was at a small warehouse that her employeers had arranged for her newly acquired Gundam to be stored at. they had been quick to claim salvage rights to it which was pretty lucky and had been happy enough with Shepard's work to let her keep it.
Shepard had a bone deep feeling that a machine like this needed to be out there, fighting rather than whatever fate the Benerit Group would have for it.
"Alright... let's give you a name." said Shepard as she sat inside the battered machine and plugged in and begun to run diagnostics.. traditionally Gundams were named after devils and demons... but Shepard's education had been pretty light on religion.
so instead she looked to history, specifically the wars at the beginning of mankind's first steps into the wider galaxy. she'd always enjoyed her parent's stories of James Holden, Naomi Nagata and Camina Drummer. once she started thinking about ships from that period, a good name soon presented itself.
"Gundam... Tynan. how do you feel about that?" said Shepard not entirely sure why she was asking a machine's opinion.
a green circuit pattern briefly flashed across the Gundam's screens and Shepard felt an odd feeling at the back of her head.
Shepard smiled "Alright then. Let's go with Gundam Tynan."
today had been a good day. she'd fulfilled her contract, acquired a pretty nice piece of salvage and made a potential friend in a giant robot. all in all, not a bad day's work.
not to mention, with a Gundam on her side, she was pretty sure she would be able to do bigger and better things.
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Codex Database.
Systems Alliance : the story of humanity's expansion into the stars is a particularly... harsh one. unlike the vast majority of sentient races, humanity evolved in a region exceptionally sparse in Prothean relics and Element Zero.
it is believed that this is because in the old times, it was the domain of another, far stranger alien race. even less is known of this specise than is known of the Protheans but what is known speaks of a incredibly strange and even more intelligent specise. capable of manipulating physics and biology as easily as we would rewrite a sentence.
it was when humanity had colonised their own home system that a piece of this ancient races technology was discovered and almost immedietly ended humanity's story then when a incredibly advanced nanotech virus attempted to reach earth and seize control of it's biomass in order to construct one of the vast ring gates that now connect the oldest and richest of humanity's colonies.
it was only through the efforts of a unique crew of a single ship that this and the following bloodshed ended in something over than extinction. instead, the asteroid carrying the nanotech virus (dubbed the Protomolecule by those who discovered it and purposefully released it on a Spacer colony Eros.) was redirected into Venus where it managed to complete it's mission and connect and reactivate the remains of the vast Ring Gate that connected the Protomolecule Builders empire. See individual pages for further detail.
the ensuing decades were particularly eventful. the Ilus colony incident, Marco Inaros's Spacer supermacist movement and it's genocidal asteroid attacks on Earth and the formation of a Transport Union.
initially formed simply to manage transit through the interdimensional space that connects the Ring Gates, the Transport Union eventually became a meeting ground for the rising colonial movements and the old nations.
almost a century after the Ring Gates opened, the Transport Union was reorganised into the original Systems Alliance, a federal republic which granted it's member states a high degree of autonomy and provided protection in exchange for taxes that went to defence, scientific research and exploration.
this brief golden age where technologies such as Element Zero based gravity manipulation, Permet based computer systems and even the first viable space combat capable Mobile Weapons were discovered ended when mankind encounted the Turians and as so often happened when the wrong people were in the wrong positions at the worst possible time, war began.
the first contact war was brief but bloody but ended in a truce which blossomed into friendship. one that continued for the three and a half decades before the horrors of the Calamity War engulfed the galaxy. see individual page for details.
emerging from the war battered and with half it's population slaughtered, the Alliance never the lest survived and has thrived for the last three centuries under Gjallarhorn's noble protection.
in the last century, underlying systematic issues have began to escalate within the Alliance. the tension between Spacers and the normal population, between natural born and genetically engineered, between inner and outer colonies and the ever present class divide have all began to show themselves more and more. in particular, the emergence of the Principality of Zeon, the first Alliance state with a Spacer (or Spacenoid as they prefer) leadership has caused a large amount of tension as has the creation of the Special policing unit, the Titans.
this was further exacerbated by a brief but bloody conflict with the Batarian Hegemony.
despite this, the System's Alliance is a diverse and thriving nation, forming stronger bonds with it's neighbours and being a centre of culture and industry, particularly in Mobile Weapon development.
Autobots : by a considerable margin, the oldest spacefaring civilisation to still exist, the Autobot Republics are a coalition of colonies and ruled by the Government in exile of the planet Cybertron.
originally beginning as just one political faction among many on their homeworld, the beginnings of Megatron's genocial war thrust their leader Orion Pax (later chosen to become Optimus Prime) into the spotlight and once the old functionalist Government fell, into the role of leaders of the Cybertronians who would not bow to Megatron's tyranny.
as the war spread off world and into Cybertron's colonies as the homeworld was lost, the Autobots shifted goals from defeating the Decepticons to protecting the galaxy from their monsterous kin. a mission that often resulted in them battling on organic worlds, etching themselves into the mythology and history of the galaxy.
it's current leadership is an unusual hybrid of constitutional monarchy and theocracy. technically it's leadership is the religious leader Optimus Prime but for the last three centuries, since the end of the Calamity war and the disappearence of Megatron, he has largely retired to a ceremonial and diplomatic role, leaving a democratically elected council to rule in his stead.
while their long and storied history has left them being viewed with awe and wonder by much of the galaxy, who often view their forces as heroes from childhood stories, the opinion among the ruling classes are more varied.
while some, admire and support their missions to spread democratic and egalitarian ideals throughout the galaxy, many more view them as dangerous, stubborn war machines, willing to trample anything that gets in the way of what they think it right regardless of the consequences.
after the end of the Calamity war and at the height of Post-War Anti-Mechanical sentiment, the Autobots and the moderate factions of Decepticons agreed to remain within their own territory as defined by Gjallarhorn.
this system has maintained peace for three centuries despite the actions of rogue Cybertronian ships and baseless rumours of Autobot supported teams conduction operations outside their territory.