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“Earth is for Grineer!” shouted the soldier, his voice almost guttural. His armor was big and bulbous, like any lancer’s, but plasma burn marks and bullet holes that leaked reddish fluid decorated it. He smashed the butt of his gun against the woman without any care or regard, knocking her down to the floor in and causing a tooth to bust out.
The woman groaned and tried to pick herself up, wiping the blood that spilled out of her mouth against her synthread encrusted sleeve. “We’re just pilgrims! Leave us be!” she shouted, pleading.
The soldier’s face mask undid itself, showing a face that was far too old and deformed for someone so big and tall. He lowered himself towards the women’s level and raised her head with a motion of mechanical limbs and spat in her face. With an angered motion, he raised her by the neck above the ground. “The Earth belongs to us! You will not have it!”
The woman would have screamed if she could breathe, but instead all she could do was look around and take in all that had transpired thus far. She saw her men, somewhere over a few dozen of them had their faces to the ground as heavily armored cyborgs pressed the butts of their crude ballistics, gleefully awaiting the order to terminate her team.
They wanted to go to Earth to set foot upon the ancestral homeworld for all of humankind, now it seemed like they were going to be buried here amongst unnatural trees the size of arcologies.
The woman landed on her rear as the grineer sargent’s hands let go of her. She thought it was the end. She could only shield her gaze from the harsh sunlight the spilled into her eyes, but she could hear all the same.
The sergeant barked something in his native tongue, unintelligible to most non Grineer, grabbed his rifle and started pointing it in the direction of the trees. He resealed his face mask, but it was clear he was on high alert.
The rest of the soldiers did the same, abandoning their watchful gaze over the unarmed pilgrims and turning to other matters. There was a bunch of chatter coming out from each mouth, communication, the woman believed. As degraded as Grineer minds were, they still had to know basic coordination.
The woman couldn’t make most of what they said, but the phrase one of the soldiers barked: “Teero Skoom!” made her think that maybe her luck was about to change after all. The Tenno were one of the few things that could give the Grineer pause, warriors from the Old Empire brought into a new age, yet they were also demons of the Void. Still, better to deal with a faceless mute than a degenerate clone.
The woman held her breath, waiting a few painful and uncertain moments.
The grineer stepped further away from her and her team, moving closer to the brush, poking their guns against a bush.
And then from out of nowhere everything happened all at once.
One of the grineer had spontaneously combusted before her very eyes, leaving nothing but a burning skeleton of bone and cybernetics. Another seemingly was split in half by an invisible force.
The marines all opened fire wildly, as if catching a glimpse of an unseen foe. They retaliated and threw grenades, a marine with a flamer attempted to set the whole forest on fire. But then things started to go wrong. One of the marines charged a compatriot and began bludgeoning him to death with his own skull as if driven mad and wanting to die. Another shot his own teammates, eyes bleeding before detonating a grenade in his own face.
The woman was horrified. At once glad that the brutes were getting slaughtered so easily, but at the same time worried for her own sake.
But the last straw came when beast like creature then arose from the burning brush, a muzzle that was long and a gaze that was red with malice. It was tall, bigger than any grineer and with a form that seemed to radiate a frightening physical… and spiritual power. From behind the creature was several other shapes, all smaller, all distinctly more human, but the woman couldn’t care about any of them.
The grineer sergeant yelled something in his own native tongue and tried to blast the beast with his ballistics weapon. The beast only seemed slightly bothered by the pitiful attack, wounds opening for a split second before closing yet again.
It lunged in with a rapid speed and knocked the sargent flat onto the ground like he was nothing. It then bent down as if to have a closer look at his face before killing him.
The sergeant responded to the insult by ramming a mechanical fist into the creature’s gut, but that seemed to do justas much good as his gun did. The creature lifted a clawed hand over to the offending arm and in a single move tore the limb from its socket.
The sergeant screamed as claws dug into his chest, peeling away his armor and flesh alike and ripping the clone to shreds. The beast let out a ghastly howl, satisfied with its kill.
The woman screamed, terrified out of her mind by the sight. She could only muster enough courage to get her to leave this place before she ended up on the menu too.
These were not Tenno, but they were still demons…
=======
The Earth That Was
The Origin System, named so for it was at the very center and the origin of the original human race. Heavily colonized such that entire moons and planets have been terraformed to sustain life, even as far distant as Pluto, the Orokin Empire a civilization that laid claim to the stars called this place their seat of power.
The Orokin Empire was founded on advanced science and understanding, the empowerment of common humanity was a key part to the beliefs at the core. Deviants who were touched by forces beyond understanding and reason were looked down upon, even considered as monsters, devils, and worse. In a very real sense, they were right.
The creatures and forces the lurked in the night ever since humanity was weak and short lived. The Empire detested such creatures and often required such creatures be removed from their prestine society. It did not matter the why and the how, for even if one appeared human, it could not be trusted.
When the empire fell in the Old War over a thousand years ago, the survivors picked up the pieces and rebuilt, scavenging a living off of their long dead masters. But with the Orokin gone, the monsters slowly show themselves once more, into a Solar System transformed.
====
Setting
DarkFrame is a combination of the Setting Warframe and Chronicles of Darkness.
It is set in a heavily populated and colonized Solar system in the distant future where 21th century mankind is a distant memory in the same way we think of the Ancient Egyptians.
Humans here are long lived due to advanced medicine and very likely genetics, where it’s expected you’d live past your first century. But life is cheap. The two major powers in the Origin System do not care anything for casualties and will willingly throw millions of soldiers at a problem if it means more power is to be had.
Other dangers exist such as a rampaging bio weapon or a race of rebellious machines that slowly return.
And to add to the chaos, the creatures that hid in the shadow since time immemorial make their return.
=====
Notes:
The inspiration for this idea came from my memories of Leliel’s Darkness of Endless Space project, although with a primarily TPS game rather than a 4X.
I’ve got a check list below detailing some of the ideas I have worked out but have yet to put onto paper, but there’s a couple of things I am looking forward to doing.
Making a playable instances of the various origin system factions. Corpus and most other humans will likely follow the default rules.
Grineer will require their own “race rules” given their nature as heavily degraded cyborgs, nothing too gamebreaking. Not all Grineer are given powered armor, though all do possess mechanical limbs. I’m thinking a merit to represent body types with “unarmored civilian” as the playable default but ramping it up to higher combat oriented body types for a dot cost.
The Tenno I feel are likely going to be treated as a minisplat in of themselves, especially since while some of their themes match up with the sample of Deviant we have, Deviant doesn’t currently have a printed concrete data yet for mechanics.
I will of course address the viability of having supernaturals that originate from each human faction, except for the Tenno. Everyone is fundamentally human, if altered on some level. It’s not unreasonable to assume they can still be Embraced, Awaken, or go over the First Change, should the right conditions arrise.
The woman groaned and tried to pick herself up, wiping the blood that spilled out of her mouth against her synthread encrusted sleeve. “We’re just pilgrims! Leave us be!” she shouted, pleading.
The soldier’s face mask undid itself, showing a face that was far too old and deformed for someone so big and tall. He lowered himself towards the women’s level and raised her head with a motion of mechanical limbs and spat in her face. With an angered motion, he raised her by the neck above the ground. “The Earth belongs to us! You will not have it!”
The woman would have screamed if she could breathe, but instead all she could do was look around and take in all that had transpired thus far. She saw her men, somewhere over a few dozen of them had their faces to the ground as heavily armored cyborgs pressed the butts of their crude ballistics, gleefully awaiting the order to terminate her team.
They wanted to go to Earth to set foot upon the ancestral homeworld for all of humankind, now it seemed like they were going to be buried here amongst unnatural trees the size of arcologies.
The woman landed on her rear as the grineer sargent’s hands let go of her. She thought it was the end. She could only shield her gaze from the harsh sunlight the spilled into her eyes, but she could hear all the same.
The sergeant barked something in his native tongue, unintelligible to most non Grineer, grabbed his rifle and started pointing it in the direction of the trees. He resealed his face mask, but it was clear he was on high alert.
The rest of the soldiers did the same, abandoning their watchful gaze over the unarmed pilgrims and turning to other matters. There was a bunch of chatter coming out from each mouth, communication, the woman believed. As degraded as Grineer minds were, they still had to know basic coordination.
The woman couldn’t make most of what they said, but the phrase one of the soldiers barked: “Teero Skoom!” made her think that maybe her luck was about to change after all. The Tenno were one of the few things that could give the Grineer pause, warriors from the Old Empire brought into a new age, yet they were also demons of the Void. Still, better to deal with a faceless mute than a degenerate clone.
The woman held her breath, waiting a few painful and uncertain moments.
The grineer stepped further away from her and her team, moving closer to the brush, poking their guns against a bush.
And then from out of nowhere everything happened all at once.
One of the grineer had spontaneously combusted before her very eyes, leaving nothing but a burning skeleton of bone and cybernetics. Another seemingly was split in half by an invisible force.
The marines all opened fire wildly, as if catching a glimpse of an unseen foe. They retaliated and threw grenades, a marine with a flamer attempted to set the whole forest on fire. But then things started to go wrong. One of the marines charged a compatriot and began bludgeoning him to death with his own skull as if driven mad and wanting to die. Another shot his own teammates, eyes bleeding before detonating a grenade in his own face.
The woman was horrified. At once glad that the brutes were getting slaughtered so easily, but at the same time worried for her own sake.
But the last straw came when beast like creature then arose from the burning brush, a muzzle that was long and a gaze that was red with malice. It was tall, bigger than any grineer and with a form that seemed to radiate a frightening physical… and spiritual power. From behind the creature was several other shapes, all smaller, all distinctly more human, but the woman couldn’t care about any of them.
The grineer sergeant yelled something in his own native tongue and tried to blast the beast with his ballistics weapon. The beast only seemed slightly bothered by the pitiful attack, wounds opening for a split second before closing yet again.
It lunged in with a rapid speed and knocked the sargent flat onto the ground like he was nothing. It then bent down as if to have a closer look at his face before killing him.
The sergeant responded to the insult by ramming a mechanical fist into the creature’s gut, but that seemed to do justas much good as his gun did. The creature lifted a clawed hand over to the offending arm and in a single move tore the limb from its socket.
The sergeant screamed as claws dug into his chest, peeling away his armor and flesh alike and ripping the clone to shreds. The beast let out a ghastly howl, satisfied with its kill.
The woman screamed, terrified out of her mind by the sight. She could only muster enough courage to get her to leave this place before she ended up on the menu too.
These were not Tenno, but they were still demons…
=======
The Earth That Was
The Origin System, named so for it was at the very center and the origin of the original human race. Heavily colonized such that entire moons and planets have been terraformed to sustain life, even as far distant as Pluto, the Orokin Empire a civilization that laid claim to the stars called this place their seat of power.
The Orokin Empire was founded on advanced science and understanding, the empowerment of common humanity was a key part to the beliefs at the core. Deviants who were touched by forces beyond understanding and reason were looked down upon, even considered as monsters, devils, and worse. In a very real sense, they were right.
The creatures and forces the lurked in the night ever since humanity was weak and short lived. The Empire detested such creatures and often required such creatures be removed from their prestine society. It did not matter the why and the how, for even if one appeared human, it could not be trusted.
When the empire fell in the Old War over a thousand years ago, the survivors picked up the pieces and rebuilt, scavenging a living off of their long dead masters. But with the Orokin gone, the monsters slowly show themselves once more, into a Solar System transformed.
====
Setting
DarkFrame is a combination of the Setting Warframe and Chronicles of Darkness.
It is set in a heavily populated and colonized Solar system in the distant future where 21th century mankind is a distant memory in the same way we think of the Ancient Egyptians.
Humans here are long lived due to advanced medicine and very likely genetics, where it’s expected you’d live past your first century. But life is cheap. The two major powers in the Origin System do not care anything for casualties and will willingly throw millions of soldiers at a problem if it means more power is to be had.
Other dangers exist such as a rampaging bio weapon or a race of rebellious machines that slowly return.
And to add to the chaos, the creatures that hid in the shadow since time immemorial make their return.
=====
Notes:
The inspiration for this idea came from my memories of Leliel’s Darkness of Endless Space project, although with a primarily TPS game rather than a 4X.
I’ve got a check list below detailing some of the ideas I have worked out but have yet to put onto paper, but there’s a couple of things I am looking forward to doing.
Making a playable instances of the various origin system factions. Corpus and most other humans will likely follow the default rules.
Grineer will require their own “race rules” given their nature as heavily degraded cyborgs, nothing too gamebreaking. Not all Grineer are given powered armor, though all do possess mechanical limbs. I’m thinking a merit to represent body types with “unarmored civilian” as the playable default but ramping it up to higher combat oriented body types for a dot cost.
The Tenno I feel are likely going to be treated as a minisplat in of themselves, especially since while some of their themes match up with the sample of Deviant we have, Deviant doesn’t currently have a printed concrete data yet for mechanics.
I will of course address the viability of having supernaturals that originate from each human faction, except for the Tenno. Everyone is fundamentally human, if altered on some level. It’s not unreasonable to assume they can still be Embraced, Awaken, or go over the First Change, should the right conditions arrise.
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