Strike Legion

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Strike Legion is a batshit insane sci-fi RPG that references nearly every sci-fi work of note, and some fantasy works, and puts everything together, turns everything up 11, creating a combination that is utterly Awesome.

The game's basic plot is pretty cliched, but that is part of the fun. The evil Imperium is threatening the peaceful Star Republic and its allies. The Imperium is heavily outgunned and its troops poorly trained (by the standards of the setting, just to keep in mind), but as it controls three million solar systems and the Republic only has six thousand planets (not counting what its allies control), well, you can see the results. As a last resort, the Republic has created an elite group of super soldiers called the Strike Legion (the game's player characters), giving the best of everything available (weapons, armor, ships, training, genetic enhancements) to them to go on otherwise suicidal missions to turn the tide against the Imperium.

Gameplay

Strike Legion's combat is largely done with rolls on D10s. It has standard things of tabletop RPG with attribute and skill tests, though measurement of length is made pretty simplistic by having everything determined by a set of range bands, which is what everything moves across, and the number of bands a range weapon fires across is the term for its range. In addition to the usual RPG stats, everything in the game has an action stat that determines how many actions it can take per turn, such as spending an action to move or to attack.

A notable aspect is the combat covers more than just fighting on foot, it also includes vehicles, which starships fall under. Yes, you can actually take part in ship battles, along with using giant robots called Frames (the name is a reference to the video game Zone of Enders), pretty clearly inspired by the Gundam franchise, in ship and ground combat. The GM is encouraged to be creative with missions, which is needed because all vehicles have a rule called an X-Factor. In addition to the base stats on a vehicle, the stats on its weapons have their stats, their X-Factor amplifies their stats by a certain amount. The result is that the same weapon can do different amounts of damage depending on the ship it's fired from, with bigger vehicles typically having higher X-Factors. As a result vehicles are not only going to be faster than somebody on foot, they are FAR more durable and inflict significantly more damage. Vehicles include power armor, which has an X-Factor of 10. Frames usually have an X-Factor of 100. Ships usually have an X-Factor 1000. Nearly every vehicle has shields that act as extra armor, and for Frames and ships, the shields regenerate at the end of a turn making them far tankier than someone on foot.

The firepower in this setting's Fluff is insane, there are hand grenades capable of destroying small planets, and many of the larger ships can tank hits from these things with their shields alone, and they, can, of course, destroy planets.

Guess Planets just aren't trying hard enough.

Mastery

This setting's equivalent of psychic powers and The Force, and, it's basically lifted from Mage: The Awakening. Like in Mage, the powers the user (referred to as a Master) gets are separated into different areas, which represent an aspect of reality a Master truly grasps, but the sheer knowledge of reality's true workings have the consequence that too much drives the Master insane. Exactly what can be done with the Acts of Mastery is heavily up to what the player and the GM agree on, but, most of the restrictions on what a player can do in Mage aren't present here, aside from the whole insanity thing. Put simply, the player doesn't need to fear enforcers of reality or breaking the universe, they are the enforcers and their job is to keep the universe from breaking.

Background

In a nutshell, humans mutated and became super strong and super intelligent. Humanity started exploring the galaxy, and the chaos that ensued led to the rise of the Empress, who brought humanity under her iron fist and demanded she is worshiped as a god. Massive amounts of science that could do anything, creation of various genetically modified humans called gens for various things, with some humans forming the Star Republic that was independent of the Empress.

Eventually, numerous alien threats started to emerge and gens were enhanced to be able to think and fight in wars to repel them. While the gens repelled the aliens, they got sick of how badly the Empress treated them and decided to rebel. The Empress's response when she was losing? Get a bunch of Masters together and mess with reality so any ship that attempted FLT travel through Nullspace (the main form of FTL) would be destroyed instantly in an event called the Eternal Night, cutting every planet in the galaxy off from each other, and then go into hibernation and take over the galaxy again when she reawakened.

Cutting planets off from each other meant much of the technology gained was lost, and of course, it wiped out her old domain which was then referred to as the Old Empire. When the Eternal Night eventually ended, humans and gens began to spread and explore again, with the inhabitants of the Star Republic meeting with the gens and the various species forming an alliance and prospering from their various technologies and ideas. The Empress, however, began to rebuild her empire and seeing the Republic and its gen population, she was determined to wipe it from the galaxy.

The Star Republic had a huge technological advantage, but only controlling 6000 planets to the Imperium's three million star systems, the Imperium started to take the upper hand through a war of attrition. As a last resort, the Republic created the Strike Legion to take on various otherwise suicidal missions to wear down the Imperium enough to allow victory.

Factions

Star Republic

Standard democratic future idealist society, composed of humans and Gens. Not all the Gen civilizations are especially pleasant, but contact with the Republic starts to get them to defrost. It would probably be an ideal place to live if not for the Imperium fighting exterminate due to all the Gens, and the presence of all the other menaces in the galaxy. It has a huge technological edge over the Imperium due to how it allows and encourages the spread of ideas from all its member species but lacks the Imperium's sheer manpower. Their technology is actually advancing at such a rate after a tour of five years they dismantle a ship for resources for use in the construction new and better one.

Fleet

Yes, that's seriously what the Republic calls its military. The overall design is pretty clearly modeled after Starfleet, not exactly a good thing since it means they don't have a separate ground army like the Imperium does, even if they do have actual soldiers beyond their ships' security teams. The Fleet personnel are much better trained and equipped than their counterparts in the Imperium, though they aren't as powerful as some of the Imperium's elite troops, though for that Fleet has its allies. Their ships are better armed than their Imperial counterparts but carry far fewer frames, probably due to the space in their interior devoted to carrying missiles. Their frames are, however, vastly superior to their mass-produced counterparts in the Imperium. They also have options they can stick on their frames to serve various purposes, though these do usually slow them down so they can be ejected after being used, and are recovered after a battle.

Also, members of the fleet pursue academic careers of their choice in addition to their military pursuits, making Fleet apparently the only military organization that gives PHDs and military decorations.

Masters Guild

The Republic's organization of individuals that wield Mastery. It's almost a carbon copy of the Jedi Order (right down to the stated number of members the order had during the prequels, though the Star Republic's smaller size means the Guild is proportionately much bigger), but with the names of the ranks changed, and the addition of power armor wielding members that hunt down threats to the Republic. As you might expect from what is based on, membership is heavily based ability to use Mastery without going insane, so the higher ranking members are stronger in addition to having higher Mastery ratings. However, the equipment for most of them is less than impressive outside of wielding a lightsaber type weapon (easily the best melee weapon outside of Legion exclusive gear).

Strike Legion

What you play as. Super soldiers that undergo augmentation that means leaves a few survivors but benefit from a much greater performance, and given the best weapons available. But don't think of them as Space Marine knockoffs, since A; that trope has been used plenty of times outside of this game (rather famously in Halo), and B; the Space Marines are ants compared to them. Seriously, the game's stats list just having one point in the gun skill as being a better shot than anybody alive today, a point in fighting as being a better fighter than Bruce Lee, and a point in technology or science making someone a genius. And the Legion archtypes listed as samples for what a Legionnaire can do have the highest stats and skill of any soldiers in the game with even a dedicated scientist being fully capable of kicking that shit out of even the best soldiers in the Republic's allies. This is without getting their equipment, which is exclusive to them.

They have better weapons than everyone else (hand-carried weapons that can take down power armor easily), their Frames (which have enough power to take down smaller warships), and power armor (which are strong enough to take onlower-endd Frames) smoke most of the others in stats, and the few that do come close to matching them are still smoke thanks to their unique weapons and special rules. Like Fleet, they also have options they can stick on their frames, but for some reason, they can only include one per frame. Unlike Fleet, they also have options they can stick on their power armor. Their Strike Cruiser ship, oh boy, this thing has insane speed, and it's well armed enough to destroy most ships in a single turn. While they have firepower, most of the suggested missions don't always allow it to be used and suggest the GM to be creative with ideas and not limit them to missions where the Strike Legion can shoot everything, since it requires a huge numbers game for most the enemies to pose a threat.

Aryans

Make Hitler jokes at your own peril. Huge grey-skinned gens were created to use their super strength for mining work. Their society was divided with females as the rulers and men composing the bulk of their army. They were highly isolationist before meeting the Republic, after which their fringe worlds started to become more open. Notable for having different stats if the player picks a male or female. Males have the highest starting strength bonus of any playable race (aside from an aged Fermorin), but trade-off by losing an action per round. Females have a bonus in strength, speed, and actions per round. Both of them can re-roll strength-related rolls and can see in the dark.

They're ground troops consist mostly of males in slow but powerful suits of armor designed to fight in close quarters, led by females who use armor built for speed and provide longer-range support. Their only ship is a huge battleship class vessel that in addition to its armament and shields, has a higher action stat than most other ships its size. They're also probably the only faction without a central theme in naming their stuff.

Chedan

Short blue humanoid gens that get a small bonus to strength, agility, resolve, and immunity to cold. They prefer cold environments so they mostly live on icy planets. Their whole society is based around a bunch of loosely connected city-size environmental domes that all recognize each other's sovereignty. They have no ground troops of note, but their ships stand out for having much stronger shields than other ships of their size (fitting that their classes are named after fortresses), apart from the Battle Heralds (even though the Fluff doesn't acknowledge it), though as a trade-off they carry fewer weapons. Nonetheless, their stronger shields make them enough of a problem that the Imperium's standard strategy to deal with is to just ram them.

Draken

Dragon like creatures that live in a very militarize society. They're basically your standard warrior culture, except they actually determine leaders by how well they fight and the ability to lead, as opposed to fighting each other. They can't breathe fire, though they do have wings so they can fly and have greater strength, a bonus action, and agility, plus their teeth and claws mean all their hand attacks do lethal damage.

Their military focuses mostly on combat with frames, in fact, their ships (all of which have dragon-themed names) are designed mostly to bring frames to the battle and support them rather than do damage on their own. Their frames consist of one quick one, and another quick one, which is also one of few frames with 1000 x-factor, meaning it can easily rip through warships, and it's just as fast as the smaller frame. Since they rely mostly on frames, their soldiers are good pilots, but also double as decent fighters on the ground.

Elden

Small super intelligent mice that rapidly reproduce to they developed a hive mentality, wait... But yeah, they're super intelligent and start with a higher intelligence stat, but being puny mice, they have a max to how high their strength can get. Backstory, they were created super intelligent to use on planets where radiation would wreck computers (they're supposed to be resistant to radiation, but that isn't represented in the game). They managed to solve their population growth by building massive cities big enough to contain their population and nanomachines that break down and recycle anything they don't need.

Being mice and not men, they don't fight themselves. They send out AI-controlled frames that are fast, strong, and can fix themselves. Also contains an x-factor 1000 frame as they don't rely on warships, and don't even have transport for them listed.

Federation of Terra

A human faction within the republic that was formed by the descendants of the Old Empire. Humans in this game start with no bonuses to stats in exchange for the extra points to spend on skills, but players picking humans can also choose Meta humans that all have bonuses in different areas instead. Before the Eternal Night, the Federation's pursuit of pure science, specifically genetic engineering, gave its populace virtual immortality but lost it after the Eternal Night. Their descendants spread over so many planets that they set rules on breeding to keep them from overpopulating. Anybody who doesn't like that can leave.

While they lost a lot of their old science, they still have enough mastery of biotechnology that they can create living warships. They only have one class, which has a fairly standard armament for its size. What stands out is that an ability that negates most everything fired at it and it can heal itself.

Fermorin

Super intelligent pacifist orks that pursue art and science. Yeah, you read that right. They were created as weapons that the Old Empire drop on enemy planets, where their ability to rapidly reproduce wherever there were enough nutrients would allow them to overwhelm the world's defenders. After rebelling, they figured out how to reprogram their genes to make themselves do things besides fight, but some of them still give in to their violent instincts and pursue war. They start with bonuses to strength and agility, as well as extra points to spend on skills (though not as many humans). Players using them also have the option of adding an extra point of strength to them for every hundred of years of life on them (like Orks, they grow bigger as they get older), but doing that loses them a point of agility for every point they gain in strength.

The Fermorins' main ground troops are violent berserkers called Dark Warriors, which are among the most dangerous soldiers in the game, excelling at combat in all forms, melee, shooting, using armor, and piloting frames. All their vehicles for some reason have a snake theme to their names, not very orky, even though their armor and frames are in terms of function, getting up close to Rip And Tear, but also have long-range guns to kill the enemy before they get close enough to. Both of them are pretty solid (though unimaginatively their frame is just an X-factor 1000 version of their armor), but their only ship is a lightly armed carrier, and it's crewed by normal Fermorins that are sadly among the least skilled crews in the game.

Free Trade Alliance

A heavily capitalist human society mostly focuses on profit, and, get this, is not an over-the-top caricature of capitalism and their trade actions are presented as having a positive effect. Also, since they like money, they don't care about race, just how can do their job best.

Their ships seem mostly designed for fighting off pirates, so their armaments, along with their frames, are unimpressive. They are mostly sent out to spot dangers and alert the ship. Plus they're all AI controlled so destroying the ship disables them.

Grank

Dwarfs, you know the drill with them. They get bonuses in strength, and durability, but are slower. They were designed for mining, and since gaining their freedom they built most of their cities underground and are completely self-sufficient. They were engineered so their personalities would make them hate change, so bring about change, they have been forced to see other worlds to keep their society from becoming too stagnant.

Grank armor and frames are actually re-purposed mining machines. As they're not designed for combat, so they're slow but are very deadly up close with their drills. Their ships, sadly, contain no Gurren Laggan references, instead, they focus on moving in quickly and firing off all their weapons at close range where they can do the most damage. Fitting this, they're faster than most other ships of similar sizes and are more durable.

Guardian

Cat-like creatures that were created as pets were designed to be cute, but somewhere along the line, somebody decided to use them in experiments with Mastery (giving house pets the power bend reality, and people say the Adeptus Mechanicus is insane). One of them in their ranks named Ordin taught them how to use their powers and led them in rebellion against the Old Empire. Currently, they don't use much technology as their power with Mastery gives them most anything they want. They are mostly peaceful inside their pocket dimensions where they hide their planets, but some of them will venture out to destroy evil, especially insane Masters since Ordin eventually lost it and nearly wiped them out. Since their planets are located in universes where the laws of physics are essentially their playthings, the Imperium decided to avoid them because any fleets they send in don't come out.

The Guardian soldiers in the game don't carry any weapons and instead rely on Mastery, and they have a high level in it. Playing as them gives the player a bonus to their Mastery stat. They're also notable for having the shortest life span of the usable races, maxing at about 60, which is shorter than modern-day humans in most first-world countries.

Hetochi

Humanoid mantises that have by far the longest average lifespan of the species at around 3000 years. They start with a bonus to an attribute of their choice, along with a bonus to armor and they are psychic. Their toughness and long lifespans stem from them being engineered to survive on hostile planets and terraform them over long periods. Their society is a hive-like (even though mantises are solitary insects) caste system with every Hetochi being born into a specific role based on what physical traits they are born with (what traits they have depended on the environment the egg is in). They're so used to telepathic communication that they are only recently learning to speak verbally.

Their psychic powers have some interesting effects on their ships. They can share actions, and enemies can only attack them if they're within three range bands. Their weaponry leaves a lot to be desired, however, even their ships can take a lot more actions than others.

Ination

Fish people with bonus agility. They live on water worlds which has them moving in 3-dimensional environments 24/7 they aren't prone to the two-dimensional thinking that did Khan in. So they're experts at piloting ships, with any ship an Inatiion character pilots getting an extra action. Their piloting skills show with their fleets (their ships for some reason all have names themed around the end of the world), all their ships roll five dice for tests in combat and can re-roll failed navigation rolls, and have a large number of actions.

Their ships also can detect any ships that rely on deception tricks. Despite what you might guess from their names, their ships focus on speed while giving up firepower, though their shields are just as strong as other ships of their size. They also have their interiors filled with water to aid against boarding actions, but the game doesn't have any rules regarding boarding actions so that doesn't come into play.

Kafrin

Cat people who were specifically modeled after tigers who were designed to be able to mine in low gravity environments with extra strength and agility. As you might expect, this gives them bonuses to speed and strength, as well as dealing lethal damage with hand attacks. They're another warrior-based society, who, unlike the Drakens, follow the tradition in fiction where they advance by fighting, which means their leaders have to be badass and/or crafty if they want to survive for more than five seconds. They don't have central leadership, instead are organized into separate clans with their own fleets. They were among the Imperium's first victims in the Republic so they have several homeless fleets that launch raids into the Imperium seeking payback, destroying many planets.

Like the Drakens, their fleets are designed around their frames. Compared with the Drakens, rather than a fast well-armed frame and a big heavily armed one, they have a fast well armed frame and a faster tougher version of it. Their other notable trick is that their frames have a special rule that means they can only be attacked if something gets in the same range band as them.

Lamerian

Eldar, minus the insufferable pomposity (humans creating them might help with that), though as opposed to making stuff out of the warp they use more organic tech. They were designed as servants, 'companions', and entertainers. So they have bonuses on rolls related to physical appearance. They have a society similar to craftworld Eldar, but a lot less focus on the war and more on everything else, but when they prepare for war, boy hell do they have some Awesome shit. They pack power armor that aside from what the Strike Legion uses (which they helped design) is probably the best in the game. But the real good stuff comes with their frames, which are for all intents and purposes, Evangelion units with enough power to pose a danger to warships. They don't have any ships of their own besides their worldships, so it's anybody's guess how they get to a battlefield.

Morden

Gorilla men with bonuses to strength and agility. As you might expect, they were designed as soldiers for battle on jungle worlds. Their society is largely composed of separate villages that form think tanks to decide on ideas. They don't have any fleets, instead relying upon an array of defense systems (which sadly don't have stats represented in the game) to hold out until allied fleets appear.

Meta Dominion

Another human faction in the Republic, focused on genetic engineering to best human possible. This science contributed to the creation of Legionaries. Due to their genetic engineering, their ships (which have theme names around birds of prey, huh) roll three dice for all tests. Design-wise, their ships are unique in that rather than primarily using energy weapons, they rely on missiles, which gives them firepower over long-range on a short-term basis, but they're in trouble if they run out and the enemy is still there.

Qutaren

Rhino men, so as you might expect, they have added strength and agility, plus abilities giving them added armor and power in melee. They were designed to take part in gladiatorial battles where they would mutilate criminals people didn't like. Despite what you'd expect from their backstory and abilities, their society devotes itself to science. For war, they rely on fast remote-controlled frames which are controlled by an, unfortunately, lightly armored, hub ship. For larger ships, they rely on research stations with guns attached to them. They can't move outside of FTL travel, but they are pretty durable.

Serran

Angel-like creatures are designed as navigators. Fitting their design, they have bonuses to agility, can fly, and make better pilots. Their society is based around a large number of worldships that can self-manufacture anything the inhabitants need. This includes constructing ship smaller ships that eventually "grow" into full-size world ships. They like to explore and find new ideas, so if they come across Republic worlds, they are welcomed so they'll share their ideas.

Serran ships (which have angel-themed names, one of which is called a Halo) roll four dice for all their skill tests. Their regular warships ships can move to adjacent range bands after attacking without spending an action (and they can perform a lot of actions) are well shielded, and heavily armed. More unique are the worldships that haven't built themselves to full size yet. They're not as well armed as their warships, but they possess an ability that when they take damage, they roll a die, reduce on an even roll, and ignore it on an odd roll.

Thean

Humanoid rabbits. They have a minor bonus to agility, but the real reason to play as them is they have higher starting perception and they can see the future, giving them a bonus on all dice rolls and a bonus to defense. They were designed as, of course, weapons to take advantage of their power to see the future, not pick stocks. Using their future sight, they have managed to stave the Republic's defeat so far.

Okay, the fleets for these guys are the most insane idea when you say the whole description of the species and what they use. Ready? They use giant Macross inspired frames the size of warships, with stealth and FTL capabilities. Yes, psychic rabbits with invisible giant robots. This game is Awesome.

Veraxin

Xenomorph-type creatures with a highly collectivist society. Possibly unintentionally, this makes them the most faithful depiction of the aliens from Starship troopers since they are an advanced race as opposed to being little more than animals. Playing as them makes a deadly character, with bonuses to strength, ability, action, initiative, and armor, and starts with lethal damage with hand attacks. Despite how good characters they make, their society relies on overwhelming manpower. The Republic doesn't trust them because well, they have a society very much like the Imperium and just as brutal to non-conformists. Contact with the Republic starts to force some change, along with their faith in their leadership with the threat of the Imperium. Till then, they're the token evil society.

The Veraxins have very strong power armor, but their frames are weaker than most others and instead rely on stealth. Their ships, with knight themed names, lack much in the way of firepower and durability, instead relying on numbers.

Imperium

The main enemy. Basically, the Imperium of Man except they're the main villain, though the Empress is, from what is revealed about her, FAR worse than the Emperor considering she seems more motivated about herself than anything else. Life is Grimdark with worlds being greatly overpopulated, free thought discouraged (by ANYBODY), its tiny populace of nobles picked by the Empress eats up a fourth of its resources (which is pretty insane given the Imperium's size) while another half goes to its military, which it decides to spend on fighting the Republic because the Empress doesn't like gens. Any hint of rebellion is typically answered by killing everyone on the planet and then replacing the people with a populace from other worlds. Not as Grimdark as the Imperium, everyone does have guaranteed food and shelter, but that more so seems to stem from not having the threat of Chaos and being better organized.

Imperial Armada

The Empress's main way of enforcing her will. Lore makes them out to be glorified trash heaps who only win through sheer numbers. In gameplay they aren't that weak though they are typically not as well armed as their enemies, they tend actually as durable as Fleet's ships. They have by far the greatest Frame carrying capacity of any ships in the game, but as a tradeoff, their mass-produced Frames are, outside of the Free Trade Alliance's, probably the worst in the game. Since killing junk Frames would be boring, they do possess some elite-designed Frames, some of which are among the best in the game. As they're separate from the ground army, their personnel are pretty easy to kill since none of them pack any decent weapons or armor.

Imperial Defense Corps

Ground troops, basically the Imperial Guard, though their weapons and armor seem closer in capability to the Space Marines. Follows the tradition of higher-ranking officers being better fighters.

Imperial Marines

The Empress's version of the Space Marines, whose appearances make them sound like they dress more like Chaos Space Marines considering they put spikes on their armor. When they are sent to put down a rebellion, they go and bombard the planet from orbit before picking off the survivors. While better equipped than the Defense Corps, a lot of their stuff is junk compared to factions in the Republic (outside of their equivalent of bolter weapons), though their melee and shooting skills are better than their counterparts in Fleet. Note that while their power armor is among the worst in the game, it still has personal regenerating energy shields, built-in weapons, and flight capabilities.

Also, Marine leaders are tactical genii.

Imperial Intelligence

Spies and secret agents don't get mentioned as much as other groups. They're spies and not assassins, so they're not very impressive in combat.

Imperial Justice

Judge Dredd inspired cops like the Adeptus Arbites, which still managed to get in a Warhammer reference with its highest ranking officers being called Inquisitors. Higher-ranking officers have impressive stats, but none of them are especially well-equipped.

Imperial Trade Agency

The Imperium's traders, who also collect taxes and are supposed to defend themselves from pirates, but a lot of the criminals in the game are better armed than them so they probably suck at that job.

Imperial Surveyors

Explorers meant to find new worlds for the Imperium. They are a bit harder to kill than the tax collectors since they have some veteran troops in their ranks.

Assassins Guild

The Empress's assassins who kill anybody perceived as a deviant, which can include anybody from a commoner to a high-ranking military officer. She also sicks them on lovers that have bored or angered her. Seriously. Some of them act as Commissars during battle, and wear power armor that's a lot better than what the Imperial Marines get.

Imperial Foundation Prime

The Empress's version of the Adeptus Mechanicus, though they don't appear to be as insane because she has her other mad scientists for that. They focus on finding new technology and believe in one day turning the Imperium civilians into machines. Despite being scientists, they have some powerful soldiers in their ranks in the form of cyborgs they create to fight the Strike Legion, who are programmed with fighting skills so they aren't just nerds with big guns.

Imperial Weavers

Scientists that specialize in genetic engineering and hope to create genetic engineering that surpasses technology. They work on creating their own super soldiers to counter the Strike Legion, some of which the Empress hopes to use the genes of to spread and bring about a greater species of humans throughout the Imperium. Their creations include monsters inspired by Prototype that consume biomass to grow stronger, and others with powers inspired by the X-Men, meaning teams of mutants with each packing a different power.

Imperial Psi-Core

The Empress's answer to the Master's Guild. Since the use of Mastery can drive somebody insane, and the Empress already had to put down her own version of the Horus Heresy (given the state of her Imperium she had more success putting it down than the Emperor did), she has them divided into four schools to weaken its power. Some of them have their frames and power armor. The frame seen is nothing to brag about, but the armor is impressive.

Imperial Protectorate

The Empress's version of the Ecclesiarchy and Sisters of Battle rolled into one, which also serves as another organization to kill anybody who doesn't feel like worshiping her. Its highest-ranking members only take orders from the Empress. Their other purpose is to manipulate bloodlines on Imperial worlds to produce the results the Empress desires.

The Protectorate has a few different types of soldiers in it. These include assassins. frame pilots and a number of its members are trained in Mastery.

Imperial Authority

Having one church devoted to her wasn't enough for the Empress, so she got paranoid and created an all-male one. Compared with their female counterparts, they mostly have similar soldiers, but they trade in assassins for gun experts in power armor.

Imperial Evolution Sector

A research organization that's devoted to developing Imperial answers to the Strike Legion. This one produces three types of super soldiers, gun experts, hand-to-hand experts, and elite power armor troops that use a special, and very deadly, type of armor.

Imperial Covenant

Another attempt at creating a reliable next-generation soldier. This one, however, takes its victims from the Protectorate and Authority. Even the scientists working in it have to undergo enhancement before they do their work. The trademark for their super soldiers is that they have parts of their brains replaced with cybernetics. Their products consist of super strong, but poorly armored, soldiers, designed as new ground troops, and new expert pilots. Both are intended for the Empress's new Vengeance fleet she's preparing.

Imperial Asylum

No, it's not a prison for the insane. It sends the insane people to the battlefield. This place takes subjects that didn't make it through other experiments and does its own work on them by fiddling with certain sections of the brain. The stuff they churn would probably be the most powerful of the Imperium's ground troops if not for their lacking durability due to their crap armor. Everything they make is insane and has a clown theme to it, and yes, there is a homage to the Joker, and it wields lightsabers.

Imperial Paranormal Division

Sounds like something meant to protect against supernatural threats, but no, it's actually meant to bind them into hosts and throw them at the enemy. The stuff they send out has a knack for getting around armor.

Death Factory

Yeah, seriously, that's what these are called. They grab unwilling Imperial citizens and mutate them into monsters. These range from stuff that rips into tanks, to things modeled on Godzilla that rip into frames, and some that are even bigger and can rip into warships.

Imperial Pyramid

The Empress's secret organization that manipulates her worlds. Unlike the Protectorate, that's its sole purpose. They do things like insert conspiracy theories and various other insane stuff that means people in the Imperium can barely tell fact from fiction because they don't know who to trust, besides nobody (seriously, look at the work at manipulating everything that goes on). Since they're not soldiers, they're not much for combat.

Doom Legion

The Empress's elite army that represents her best soldiers, and that's about all we know about them because they aren't represented in the game.

Other Threats

While the Imperium is the main villain, the lore and the settings mention other threats, which often menace the Republic and the Imperium.

Ancient Ones

Cthulhu Mythos in space! Sorta. These things have no described origin and nobody knows what they're trying to do, they just wreak havoc wherever they go. They don't actually have a physical presence, if one appears, it controls a trio of unique frames as the closest thing to one. They fight using high-level acts of Mastery, and in turn, can only be damaged by Mastery.

Battle Heralds

Mechanical planet-eating machines that destroy planets and use their resources to build more ships. They equip shields that make anything on the Republic and the Imperium's biggest ships look like paper. Their bigger ships also can construct their smaller ones during a battle. Their biggest ship also is second only to the Imperium's largest fortresses in terms of durability and has more guns than anything else in the game. The sample mission for fighting them gives them a pretty good-sized fleet, so the player is given two additional Strike Cruisers and five large detachments from the Fleet to stop them. You'll likely need it against their fleet.

The Hive

A collective race of biomechanical horrors that exists only to consume the living and reproduce. These monsters are driven to destroy by their Overmind, which is believed to be an incorporeal consciousness that wants these creatures to spread throughout the universe replacing all other forms of life.

Dark Masters

The threat that gets the most attention besides the Imperium. They're Masters who attempt an act they can't control and go insane from perceiving too much of reality. When they do they seek to try and do whatever insane things they can learn everything, even if puts innocent lives in danger, which can amount to planets, and entire solar systems, some ideas being dropped even include a group that threatens to destroy the current reality. In addition to their own capabilities, they will also use their powers to bring Daemons into our universe to do their bidding.

External Links

• DriveThruRPG page